Marianne really put in the effort to make dinner, despite how quickly it was ready, and she was able to serve the boys a surprisingly filling meal. After which, young Mukei Mullen needed an hour to pull himself together and actually tell his parents about his travels.
The moon was well past midnight when the Mullen house finally died down and everyone was in bed. Of course, that didn't mean Mathias didn't get up when he usually did every morning and prepare breakfast for everyone. So by the time his wife, the famous tailor, got up, the food was already on the table.
"Have I told you I love it when you make me breakfast?" Marianne asked, hugging her husband from behind.
"Last time was yesterday morning, my dear." The man in the child's skin giggled. "But you know I'd make you breakfast every day of our lives, if you just asked." The blacksmith caressed his wife's face.
"You're such a gentleman, Matthias." The woman giggled as she sat down next to her husband at the table.
"How's your new collection, Annie?" Her husband asked, as he was working on something in his hand that the woman couldn't see properly.
"Oh, you have no idea how good." The tailor snapped almost immediately, but all it achieved was to make her husband look at her questioningly.
"I know that look, Annie. The truth, please." The blacksmith insisted, and the woman just sighed.
"I only filled two notebooks with plans, one better than the other..." She started to explain, but here she grimaced.
"I have a feeling there's going to be a 'but' in your sentence." Matthias pocketed the small object he had been working on until now and he held his wife's hand with both hands. "What's wrong, Annie?" He asked in a kind voice.
"Something is missing! Everyone is so close to perfect, but it's not. Every time I think this is finally going to be it, I realize it won't be good. I have no idea what to do!" The woman closes her eyes.
"Maybe you just need a little change of scenery. I have an idea, if you think." Hearing the sudden new voice, the Mullen couple immediately turn in the right direction, only to see the younger of their boys who entered the dining room of the small house at that moment.
"Not a bad idea." Marianne thought slowly. "Where did you thinking on going, Mukei?" She asked with green sparkling look.
"You could use a vacation with dad. As I heard, dad has been very busy lately because of the Barracks Cup. You both deserve to rest a little." The youngest Mullen explained.
"That's a wonderful idea!" Marianne clapped her hands happily.
"Why do I have a bad feeling about this idea of yours, son?" The blacksmith of Floating Barracks asked the serious question and even folded his arms in front of him, as if he wanted to protect himself from an attack in advance.
"I don't know what you're thinking, dad." The boy grinned broadly. "I just thought you could show mom where you grew up." Mukei also sat down by the table. However, only silence filled the room after his words.
"I didn't expect you to suggest something like this, son. You, who avoids the sea yourself." Matthias began carefully, trying not to show his anxiety about the second half of the idea. "And that part of the sea? I've said more than once that I swore I wouldn't go back." Matthias shook his head grumpily. "But you know all of this too. So the logical questions follow. Why now and why there? So tell me, son, what did you and your brother come up with?" The blacksmith finished the question, having managed to make his son start giggling.
"You know us too well, dad." The younger Mullen finally shook his head.
"What did you do?" Marianne also asked.
"We worked a lot on it. Mittar mostly, but I helped too. We changed the world of southern undersea-walkers. Now we want to show you what we've come up with." The youngest Mullen began to explain.
"What did you do?" The blacksmith of Floating Barracks gaped.
"We reformed the southern undresea-walkers." Mukei repeated his statement.
"But why, how?" The older Mullen continued to be puzzled.
"So that you could go home. We know how much home means to you. And how, Mittar will explain that." The young undersea-walker chuckled. "So, dad, are you coming on a vacation with mom of your own free will, or do I have to use force to take you with me?" The boy asked with a broad smile.
"Force?" The older undersea-walker raised his right eyebrow.
"Just because you haven't seen me fight doesn't mean I can't defend myself." The boy folded his arms in front of him and even stretched himself out as if someone had insulted him to the point of blood.
"Please, Matthias, let's go. I wonder what the children have gotten themselves into." Marianne remarked and even squeezed her husband's hand to give more emphasis to her words.
"Annie, you too?" The blacksmith of the Floating Barracks closed his eyes.
"Now you don't have to go back alone, my dear, and the children have worked hard on it. We'll just look at the place for their pleasure, if you don't like what you see, we can go somewhere else." The woman continued her argument, then leaned closer to her husband. "Please, Matthias, come on vacation with me. Let's travel together again, like we used to." The woman fluttered her eyelashes, which visibly sent a tingling sensation down the blacksmith's back.
"You know where to hit my weak points, my dear." Matthias sighed.
"So does that mean you're coming?" Mukei grinned happily.
"Yes." Matthias snapped. "Yes, it does." He repeated it in a slightly more subdued voice, then smiled. "We will going on vacation." He chuckled. "But!" He raised his right index finger, which caused the sudden enthusiasm of the other two people in the room to stop for a moment. "You need to help tidy up the workshop and write on the door that the forge's services will not be available for a while." Matthias explained very seriously. "I'm not a small blacksmith who can just disappear without a word anymore. I have regular customers. If I leave without a word, it will be bad for the business." He added, and his wife just laughed.
"Of course we're helping you, my dear." The tailor noted, then turned to the table. "But let's have breakfast now, because suddenly we have a lot of work to do today. Mukei, my treasure, did your brother say when we should arrive?" The woman glanced at her son.
"No." The youngest Mukei shook his head. 'But whenever we arrive, it will be sooner than he expects. We figured it would be harder to convince dad to come." He admitted.
"Say thanks to your mother." Matthias said casually.
"I know you love me, dear." Marianne giggled.
"I love you, Annie dear." The blacksmith gave his wife a quick kiss on the cheek before the Mullens started breakfast.