"Hello, Mother? Huh? Elias? Why are you answering Mom's phone?"
Eastiel wanted to sound casual, like a grown man trying very hard not to sound like he was feeling anything at all. He was failing. The back seat of the car suddenly felt very small, very warm, and very exposed.
A pause. His younger brother's voice crackled through the speaker.
"Oh. Mother. Don't… leave your phone in random places in the house…"
Another pause. Arkai's hands were steady on the wheel, his eyes fixed on the road ahead indifferently. But he was clearly listening. Eastiel knew.
In the passenger seat, Oathran gazed out the window at the passing cityscape but he knew he was also absolutely listening—
Eastiel was calling home. The place he had left years ago to chase underwater welding and elemental enlightenment. He was a lion who needed to prove he could survive without his family's billions, after all.
