Chapter 1057: Across the Pond

The guard looked between them and the gate. Before he could find his next question, Kaiden asked him to keep their arrival quiet and thanked him for the watch.

Beyond the corridor, they climbed toward the main floor. The headquarters was hushed, most of its rooms dark; through the glass overlooking the compound, night still lay over the lot.

Yunohana stopped at the window.

"We were waiting for the sun to set."

Kaiden stood beside her, looking out over the familiar grounds beneath an American night sky.

"It hasn’t come up here yet."

She laughed under her breath and leaned against his arm. Beyond the glass, an enormous dark shape turned its head toward them.

Pebble stood beside the headquarters entrance, his stone-plated body blocking any direct approach from the lot. Four amber eyes continued following the grounds while the other two fixed on Kaiden through the window.

"Oh, buddy..."

Kaiden was already heading for the door, bringing Yunohana with him. The guardian’s ears lifted as he stepped outside, but Pebble held his position until Kaiden reached him and put a hand against his lowered muzzle.

A deep, happy rumble vibrated through the stone beneath his palm.

"Been looking after everything for me?"

Pebble pressed into his hand hard enough to make him brace a foot behind himself. Smiling, Kaiden rubbed the broad muzzle with both hands, enjoying the rumble that grew louder as he worked his fingers along the edges of its armor.

"Good boy. Thank you."

Yunohana watched the building-sized guardian lean down for affection, his huge tail sweeping once across the gravel. At a distant sound from the checkpoint, two of his eyes turned toward it while his head remained beneath Kaiden’s hands.

Even now, Pebble was keeping watch.

Kaiden rested his forehead against the cool stone for a moment before stepping back to Yunohana.

"I’ll come see you again before we go. Could you keep an eye on things a little longer?"

The guardian straightened, planting himself beside the entrance as Kaiden led her back inside. Through the closing door, she saw all six eyes resume their sweep of the compound.

"Your home is in very good hands," she murmured.

"Yeah." Kaiden glanced back at him with a fond smile. "It really is."

"Kaiden?"

Doug stood at the entrance to the operations floor with a mug in his hand.

He looked tired enough that Kaiden felt bad for what was about to happen to him. The poor man’s attention moved from his guild leader to Yunohana, then back to his guild leader with considerably less certainty.

"What the fuck?"

Kaiden grinned and raised a finger to his lips for Doug.

"Long story. Could we keep this between us for a little while? I’d like to surprise Mom."

Doug looked down into his coffee.

"I was coming in for the morning handover."

"How responsible. Your boss is lucky."

"You’re my boss. And you were in Japan."

"As I said, it’s a bit of a long story. Where is she?"

Yunohana lowered her face, losing a battle with the giggle she was trying to keep to herself.

Doug looked at her again. Recognition made him stand straighter, which only seemed to increase his difficulty understanding what he was seeing.

"Lady Tsukikage."

"Good morning. I apologize for arriving unannounced."

"Right. Good morning."

He looked toward the window, apparently checking that part as well.

Kaiden squeezed Yunohana’s hand before returning his attention to Doug.

"Mother?"

"Upstairs. She’s using one of the private rooms while you’re away, so she’s close if the watch needs her. End of the hall."

"Thank you. We’ll explain afterward."

Doug stepped aside to let them pass. At the foot of the stairs, Kaiden glanced back and found him still watching them over his untouched coffee.

He gave Doug another cheerful smile.

"...I’m going to need a fresh pot," the man muttered.

...

Outside the room Doug had indicated, Kaiden paused with his hand raised to knock. There was no light under the door.

"Perhaps she’s sleeping," Yunohana whispered.

"Perhaps."

Yunohana looked down at her hand tucked into his, then released it and took a careful step away from the door.

"On further consideration, I really shouldn’t be here."

"What? Why?"

"You are her son. You may wake her for a hug. I am a foreign guest arriving outside her bedroom at an appalling hour, dressed for an evening out with you."

Kaiden glanced at the pale blue dress.

"You look lovely."

"That is part of the problem."

His smile was doing very little to help. The longer she stood outside that door, the more vividly Yunohana could imagine it opening, and every possible greeting sounded worse than the last.

"Perhaps we could arrange a proper visit after breakfast. I could bring something. Flowers, or..."

"She’ll be happy to see you."

"I’m delighted that one of us believes that. Please, have your moment with her. I shall wait down the hall."

Before he could reassure her again, she withdrew around the corner by the stairs. Yunohana drew her mana close beneath her skin, suppressing the aura that would otherwise announce her presence through the wall.

He looked at the door, unable to stop smiling. After all the impossible things his dungeon had just done, this was the part he most wanted to see.

Kaiden knocked softly.

For a moment, nothing happened. Then he heard movement inside, and the door opened to reveal Vespera pulling a dark robe closed over her nightclothes.

Her black hair lay loose over one shoulder. Sleep still softened her face as she looked up at him, irritation at the interruption vanishing before she could give it words.

"...Kaiden?"

"Hi, Mom."

He put his arms around her.

Vespera remained motionless for the first instant, with one hand caught against his shirt. Then she gripped the fabric at his back and pulled him into her room, holding him so tightly that he laughed into her hair.

"You should have called. What if someone attacked you along the way? I didn’t even prepare an escort unit."

"I didn’t come home through conventional means."

Vespera drew back far enough to look up at him.

"What does that mean?"

"I walked."

"From Japan."

"Mhm."

His mother’s lips parted, but the question failed to follow. Kaiden treasured the sight. The woman who could tell him what he had eaten before he finished digesting it was standing in her nightclothes, staring at him with absolutely no idea how he had reached her bedroom.

"I wish you could see your face right now, Mom."

"Kaiden."

He laughed and gathered her close again. For a moment, she held herself stiffly against his teasing; then her arms tightened around him until his smile softened against her hair.

"Stop messing with your mother," she muttered into his shirt.

"Sorry."

He sounded far too happy to be sorry. Vespera kept hold of him anyway, her cheek pressed to his chest as though she could make up for every call that had ended with him still across the ocean.

Kaiden let her keep him. He had wanted this from the moment he understood where the new path led, and the warmth of his mother in his arms made him absurdly happy.

He could come home to her.

Even while the others stayed in Japan, even with work left to do there, he could walk through his dungeon and see her. He wouldn’t have to keep asking whether she was eating properly through a phone screen.

"God, I’m truly a mommy’s little boy... How hopeless," he chuckled under his breath, then hugged Vespera even tighter. "I missed you, Mom."

"Then you might have warned me before appearing at my door."

Despite the complaint, she tucked her face closer to his shoulder.

Vespera had been happy to see him enjoying himself in Japan. She had wanted him to stay as long as he pleased, to let her deal with the people making such an effort to spoil his life at home.

Yet here he was, solid and warm beneath her hands, and she couldn’t bring herself to let go just to ask how.

"Are you all right?" she murmured.

"Yeah. We’re all fine. The others are still in Japan."

That made her draw back enough to inspect him. Kaiden kept his hands at her shoulders while she looked over his shirt, then met his eyes again.

"You came alone?"

"...Not quite."