72 A Nice Day

'Good morning, Lord Tiger! Congratulations on the successful integration!' A lively sounding Toph greeted Zel early in the morning as soon as he woke up.

"Morning, Toph. Yawn." He looked around to see that his bed was covered in dried up blood and sweat, smelling quite filthy. He looked at the mess and lifted up the blanket, try to see how much blood was spilled. Thankfully, it only got through one sheet and could be easily kept hidden by cleaning the blanket on top.

'I've created a summary of the process and have it ready for a report. Would you like me to give it to you now?' Toph couldn't create a manifestation of herself as she usually does. Her whole interaction with Zel was done mentally, as the two were connected through the Ring of Eternity.

"Save it for later, Toph. I have something to do first." Zel stood up to test out his body but overestimated his strength and consequently lost his balance. He had been easily doing things yesterday, and it now felt like his body was a hundred times heavier.

'Sigh. Guess it's time to work out again.' While he was on the floor, he caught a glimpse of his body on the mirror near the door.

Needless to say, he was not impressed with what he was seeing. A pretty round bodied boy with rather pale skin, his hair also looked like half a coconut. What a fashion less kid he was, Zel couldn't help but think that way. But while the kid had no taste in looking good, he did have a pretty good looking face.

"Whatever, I'm just a kid anyway." Zel didn't let the minor things worry him and fixed his bed before leaving his room.

He had no mana to operate the Ring of Eternity to its full operational capabilities, but he did have enough to take his bed sheets into his storage space. Sweat quickly built up on his skin as the stress of using mana was building up on his body.

'This is going to take me a while to get used to.' Zel quickly replaced the bed sheet with a spare one from his cabinet, hoping that he could get the one in his storage space cleaned before his mother notices. Speaking of his mother, he could already hear someone singing downstairs.

Zel walked out of his room with a head full of bed hair. He didn't care about his looks, he had long gone used to not caring about it. Right now, he was just missing his family that he had been away from for a long time.

'Is it around fifteen years now?' If he counted the duration of his foresight from before he went back in time, it would be fifteen years. But if he also counted the time he spent using foresight in the Tower, it could very well be a couple centuries. Last time he saw them, they were being taken away. Before that, they were dead. 

"Come on baby~ Come on honey~" A lovely singing voice was coming from the kitchen when Zel walked down the stairs. The song was an old one, but it was a song that his mother had always loved. He knew that she kept an album of the band that made the song, and was even considering going to one of their concerts way back when.

'You never did get to go to that concert, did you, Mom?' Zel's eyes were magnetized to the woman's back whose hands were busily washing the dishes. It was a morning routine for Mrs. Huertazuela to wash the dishes that she let sit on water overnight. It was just easier to wash them after getting those persistent stains wet.

"I reall~ Oh? Good morning, Zel! Got any plans for today?" Mel was just about to start rinsing the plates when a pair of small arms hugged her from behind. Though Zel wasn't one to usually do this, he did it enough for Mel to not notice anything different about him. In fact, she thought that the boy was going to ask her for something, and she decided to play along.

"I love you, mom." Zel didn't know what came over him as he cried, wept so loudly that Mel realized that something was wrong. She quickly let the plates down and patted her wet hands on the towel on her shoulder. Afterwards, she turned around and bent down to face her son.

"What is it, honey? Did you and your friends have a fight?" Mel quickly placed her son's head over her shoulder, gently caressing his back while trying to calm him down. But her motherly actions only made Zel cry harder, making his grip around her tighter.

If this was the Zel from yesterday, he would have crushed his mother's body without knowing what he did. But now, he was in a ten-year-old child's body, and his strength was proportional to his age. The feeling of being average was a breath of fresh air for Zel, and he put all his strength into making sure he gets to give his mother a hug for just a second longer.

"What's wrong, Zel?" Melba, Zel's older sister, was just watching TV in the living room when she heard the startling cry of Zel. She hurriedly went to check up on him when she saw the emotional scene in the kitchen. Her heart felt heavy when she saw how much pain Zel's face evoked.

"Sniff. Sniff. It's nothing, big sister. Thank you for your concern." Zel let go of his mother and went to his older sister's side. As Melba was born seven years earlier than Zel, she was already about to graduate high school while Zel was just about to start his fifth grade.

All these years, the two had not been as close due to their difference in age and gender, but there was no bad blood between them. But even if there was nothing bad between them, the situation right now was causing Melba's brain to stop working for a second.

"I love you, big sister." Melba looked down and saw the crown of Zel's head. His arms were wrapped around her hips, and she could feel his head resting on her stomach. She didn't know what to do, so she placed arms around his head after a while. She looked at her mother who was looking at them with a smile on her face.

"Yeah, love you too." Melba was strangely not bothered by the interaction, even replying without much thought. Soon after she spoke, Zel had let go and walked back. Melba watched as Zel went to the living room without a change in his expression. He was just smiling happily all the time.

"What's up with him?" Melba walked to her mother's side and picked up a glass from the counter top. She kept her eyes locked on to Zel's retreating figure as he went to their little sisters' side where they were playing with their dolls.

"Maybe he wants to get something on his birthday next week? But he's acting nicely, no need to make him feel bad about that." Mel continued washing the dishes so she could proceed to prepare for lunch. She was making beef stew so the meat should be boiled now, or lunch would take too long. She didn't see that Mel was watching her younger siblings play in the distance.

"Ohhh. Dunnn, dunn, dun. Waaaa." Zel was using his fingers as if they were people and made them pass over his younger sisters' legs. He made exaggerated sounds to catch their attention, and when the fingers reached their thighs, he proceeded to tickle their waists.

"Hahaha!" A bout of laughter came from the two little girls as they tried to move away from Zel's clutches. But from their waists, he moved on to tickling their feet while the two children quickly stomped their feet to try and get away. "Stop! Big bwother! Haha!"

"Ok, ok. Raa! Tsup. Tsup." But while they were laughing now, Zel didn't overstay his welcome and quickly stopped soon after. He gave each one a kiss on the cheeks while pinching the same cheeks afterwards.

He pulled them closer and placed a hand over his mouth as if trying to be as quiet as possible. Even making a shushing gesture before whispering. "I'll go get some candy later, what do you want?"

"Oh! Oh! I wa-" Mae, Zel's younger sister and the third oldest of the siblings had her words cut off when Zel placed a hand over her mouth. She looked at Zel's hand that made a shushing gesture and quickly understood. She felt Zel's hand move away and nodded her head to make him understand that she understood.

(I want chocolate!) Mae whispered her wishes to Zel, feeling satisfied when she saw him nod. She then looked at Marie who was still wondering what she wants. The two were two years apart but had stayed together the most out of all the siblings. Meanwhile, the distance between Zel and Mae was seven years.

(Do you want chocolate too, Marie?) Mae knew Marie the best, so she asked Marie to speed things up.

"Yeah! Yeah! Pweas-" Marie enthusiastically agreed, letting her excitement get the better of her.

"Shhh." Now it was Mae's turn to keep Marie quiet. She made a shushing gesture while trying to make Marie quiet by covering her mouth. But since she was too quick in her movements, her finger ended up getting on both Marie's mouth and nose.

"Big brother has it handled. You stay here and be good girls, alright?" But before any harm could be done, or one, if not both of them cries, Zel moved Mae's hand and pinched both of their noses before standing up and leaving. 

"Ok!" The two girls nodded happily and went back to their toys. They happily laughed as they pinched their dolls' noses.

The three bonded for a while as Melba watched over them from the couch. It was cute how they thought they were being sneaky when she was sure that even their mother could hear them. But while she was feeling happy as she watched, she did feel a little left out. It can't be helped that there was such a big distance between their ages, and it was hard to relate with each other.

"Hey, big sis. Do you want a candy, too? I'm buying!" Zel went to Melba's side and gave her a whisper. Before Zel could react though, Melba's hand quickly pinched Zel's nose playfully as she laughed.

"No, thanks Zel. I'm on a diet." While she really didn't feel like eating a candy, Melba was happy to be taken into consideration by Zel.

Sometimes, even the effort to just ask is more than enough to make people feel like they belong. Zel knew that, he had already experienced not being asked, and he wanted to be better than that. Just because he didn't get to have a happy family in his previous experience of this time, it didn't mean he couldn't try and do one better.

Now that all his sisters were pretty much set to live long lives, he could finally get on with his plans.