Home again

[Alex's POV]

Alex sighed heavily as he closed the front door behind him and leaned against it, just to be startled back up when the phone in the back-pocket of his jeans chimed.

"Alex, can you contact me please? My phone is ringing nonstop from all the people who want an appointment with you," a text from Lindsey said.

"And the only thing I can say them is that I don't know your schedule," a second one followed up quickly. Alex stared at the crying emoticon at the end of the message and sighed again. He was so tired already but he just couldn't catch a break. And the worst part was that he knew most of his days would be like this from now on.

He quickly channeled his energy into his phone, setting up a calendar with moments in which Lindsey was allowed to plan appointments, and shared it with her.

"Thank you!!" he received a reply from Lindsey almost instantly and couldn't help the chuckle that escaped him. But when he glanced up from his phone, he startled to see Mar staring into the living room as if he'd seen a ghost.

"Hey, what's wrong?" Alex asked him as he walked up to Mar to glance over his shoulder but couldn't spot anything out of place. Mar glanced at him over his shoulder and gave him a small smile.

"Nothing is wrong," he said as he bumped his head against Alex's lightly. "It's just that I left home in a rush two weeks ago, with your readings so high I thought the measuring equipment was faulty. Seeing my tablet laying abandoned on the living room table next to my unfinished coffee, made me think for a second that I'd imagined that you were all better again."

"O, dad!" Alex said as he hugged him around his shoulders. "No need to worry. You managed to save me in the end."

"Ha!" Mar barked a laugh. "Alex, my boy, if there is one thing parents will always do, it is worry over their kids."

"Amen," Aurora's voice sounded from Alex's phone. Alex felt his dad stiffen in his embrace. It looked like the both of them would need a while to get used to having Aurora around again.

"Aurora, my sweetheart, please don't take this the wrong way," Mar said, sounding cautious. "But you can't call being absent for the kid's entire life as being worried."

"I was not absent!" she shrieked, clearly offended. "I was always around! Do you have any idea how hard it was to hide my presence near the end?"

Alex watched his dad frown.

"But why did you hide your presence?" Mar asked. "I think that I speak for the both of us when I say that we rather would have had you around."

Aurora didn't answer for a few seconds.

"That's because the last time Alex noticed me, the whole situation spiralled out of control so fast that I concluded that it was better to hide myself," she finally said.

"What?" Mar asked, pure confusion clear in his voice, at the same time Alex asked: "Wait, are you saying we've met before?"

Aurora chuckled.

"Yes, we've met before. It must have been when you were three, or maybe four years old," she said recalling the moment. Alex couldn't remember at all.

"When that accident happened with the measuring equipment, I got sucked into the electrical system. We Archaggelos are beings of energy, which is very compatible with electricity here on Earth. So when I got sucked into the electrical system, my energy automatically scattered all over it, like electricity tends to do," Aurora started to explain. "It took me five years to gather enough of my energy to remember who I was, and when I finally did remember, I came to look for Mar instantly, but I found Alex instead."

She paused for a moment and an uncomfortable silence filled the room. Alex didn't know what to say, and neither did Mar. Life hadn't been easy on her either.

"You were playing in your room, and it took me a while to realise who you were," she said. "I was marvelling at the sight of you, when you suddenly looked up and came towards me. Who are you, you asked me ever so innocently, and I answered; I am Princess Aurora of the Archaggelos."

She chuckled.

"You replied with; Have you come to play with me? And I then realised that I was talking to a child. I told you that I couldn't, because I was stuck in the wires and you asked me how I got trapped in there in the first place."

She'd been talking with a happy note to her voice, but then it suddenly turned serious.

"I explained to you that I wasn't human, and that you weren't completely human either. I explained that we were Archaggelos, magnificent humanoid creatures with wings. It was a mistake. I shouldn't have, because my words had triggered a natural instinct of our kind. The coming of age ritual. You see, Archaggelos are born with wings that aren't able to fly. They are weak and small, and they stay that way until their body is fully grown. Before the Archaggelos becomes able to fly, they need to take a leap of faith from a high point. But you were much too young to take that leap."

Mar gasped.

"The time that Alex jumped from the window… that was you?!"

"It was," she said, as the lights flickered around them, nearly causing a blackout. "I saw what Alex was doing, and I called out to him not to do it, but I was powerless to stop him."

The light flickered heavily around them again and Aurora's voice sounded static on the phone.

"When Archaggelos fail their coming of age ceremony, usually the crash to the ground kills them. But when it doesn't, they loose their will to live. And when that happens, even their soulmates won't be able to save them anymore. That's why the coming of age ceremony is never forced upon an individual, and some never do it until the end of their days."

"So that's what happened!" Mar uttered completely astounded. "So that's why he'd lost his will to live! It had been SO hard to keep him alive back them!"

"Praise yourself lucky that he is only half-Archaggelos," Aurora said seriously.

Alex couldn't remember any of that. When had he ever lost his "will to live"? He could only remember feeling too weak to leave his room or even his bed. But then again, that was probably normal when a three year old child fell from a high place.

"I think there's been a misunderstanding," Alex said as he unfolded his wings for his mom to see. "My coming of age ceremony didn't fail. I did receive my wings that day, but it was because I was only an half-Archaggelos that I couldn't spread them."

The lights flickered again.

"You… got your wings?" she asked in confusion. Then the lights flickered heavily, finally taking the fuse with it.

"Mom?!" Alex asked in the darkness. "Mom! Are you ok?"

In response, Alex received a text message from Aurora saying: "I wish I could tell you how proud I am without blowing the fuse of the house."

Alex chuckled and showed the message to his dad, who chuckled too and ruffled Alex's hair with a proud grin on his face.

They might still need to get used to each other, but it sure felt like family.