Mission

""Father, Father."" Two sweet voices called.

Kin looked up from his strawberry sundae and found the twins smiling at him. Their eyes were curved, half open and lips arched like a pulled back bow string. It felt...ominous. He recalled when Joan looked at him like that, he was suddenly married. When Victoria looked at him like that, he was bedridden for three days. When Albert looked at him like that, his sweet tooth was exposed. Now the twins were looking at him like that…Kin secretly braced himself for what was to come.

"We were wondering if..." Began Iris.

"You'd bring us out to play next time." Finished Atlas.

Kin exhaled out of relief. Thank god it was just that. "Sure, where do you want to go?"

""On a mission!"" The twins announced with glee. Their faces lit up in apparent excited, just the thought of it was laughter inducing.

Kin's glacial face frowned. "No." He refused.

The twins blinked in surprise. They hadn't expected such a clear cut refusal.

""Why?!~~~~~"" And so began the whining.

"Because it is dangerous."

"But we've been training!" Atlas reasoned.

"To protect yourselves, not to fight."

"That's the same thing!" Iris argued.

"No, it is not." Kin sighed. He could tell that this will go on forever and forever. "Why do you even want to go?"

""To play!"" They smiled sweetly and answered.

Kin sighed even longer. "You can play elsewhere. Somewhere safer."

"We are also practising." Iris pushed harder, seeing that Kin was far from persuaded.

"Yes, yes. We're practising for future missions, when we debut as villains!" Atlas added.

Kin furrowed his eyebrows. "…You want to become villains?" He had never seen that as a dream job before.

The twins looked each other in the eye before turning back to Kin. Confusion was written all over their little faces. ""Of course? I mean, we're already villains but like, yeah.""

"But you're not villains?"

""But we are Cruz's? We're a villain family.""

Kin seemed to have realised something. He knelt down on one knee and looked the twins in the eyes. Sternly speaking, he said, "Listen up. Your mother and I may be villains but you are not. A villain's child is not a villain."

His words may have shocked the two for they fell into pensive silence.

Kin stood up again. He looked towards his melting sundae that he had prepared as a before work snack and sighed. "Father has to go to work now. We can talk after I'm home."

The twins nodded. It was unknown whether or not they were truly listening to what he was saying.

"In the meantime, why don't you go keep Albert company? I'm sure he is feeling bored."

They nodded again, running out of the kitchen as if to escape. Later that night, when Kin returned home, he had fully expected the twins to speak to him about the matter once more. However, contrary to his expectations, they did not speak of it at all. They acted as usual, messing around cheekily. Thinking that they had just forgotten about it, Kin shrugged and didn't think much of it.

The next day…

""Father! We want to go on a mission too!"" The twins exclaimed.

Kin dropped the toast in his hand. They hadn't forgotten at all!

"You guys want to go on a mission?" Victoria repeated.

""Un!"" The twins nodded proudly.

"What can you do even if you go?" Vin chastised.

""Mmmm, we only want to go on an easy mission, to watch, ya know?""

"I already told you yesterday, you can't." Kin refused.

"Why, darling?" Joan inquired. "I see no harm to that."

"It is dangerous." Pausing, he added. "And they seem to think they are villains."

"Oh my." Joan smiled and pat the heads of the twins. "That's so cute."

"Mother, we want to be villains." Iris announced.

"That's why we want to go on a mission." Atlas continued.

""So that we will be real villains.""

"...Oh my."

Kin furrowed his brows. "Why would you even want to become villains? What is so good about that?"

"Do you really not understand, Father?" Vin inquired instead of the twins. Kin looked at Vin but remained silent. Vin clenched his fists and spoke with his head faced at the ground. "It is the only way we know how to live."

Joan pulled Vin into her embrace. "Baby, that's not the only path in life. Maybe, in the past, that was all that you could see but things are different now. You can choose what you want to be."

Vin pushed himself out of Joan's hug. He stood beside the twins, "Mother, we are villains."

"No, you are not." Kin denied. He repeated what he had said the day before. "A villain's child is NOT a villain."

The four children stood side by side, staring at Joan and Kin while Victoria simply sat by the sidelines.

""We thought about this yesterday and this is our answer."" The twins looked resolutely into their eyes. ""We are not villains because we are your children. We are villains because of ourselves.""

Vin nodded in agreement. "When I was four, I killed my birth mother. Then, when I was eight, I killed my birth father. When I was ten, we killed the orphanage director. When escaping, we killed a few more guys and stole their things."

""As for us, we were adopted into a cult. We didn't like it there so we destroyed everything and ran away when we were five. Then, we went to a few different orphanages and ran away each time we killed someone. And when we were seven, we killed the director.""

Ian opened and closed his mouth a few times. Finally, he clenched his fists and, "...I was seven when I killed my father. Eight when I killed my best friend. Then, I was eleven when we killed the director."

"I've never personally killed someone but I've seen people die in front of me multiple times." Victoria's voice rang.

Everyone's eyes were directed towards Victoria. She responded to their gazes by smiling. "What? I thought we were sharing."

Victoria chuckled and continued. "I was six the first time I saw a corpse. Instead of being scared, I was fascinated by the seemingly endless amount of blood leaking from it. I ordered for the deaths of a few people that annoyed me after that. The first time was when I was seven but when I realised that living was worst, I started making their lives a living hell instead. And, I was twelve when I indirectly caused the deaths of hundreds of people."

The children looked back at Kin.

"...Victoria believes me to be the best villain in the world but there are many villains out there far more notorious and cruel than me. I am more like a nefarious businessman that supported a villain and I was more than happy to allow Victoria to follow in my footsteps. However, after the incident, I realised that I didn't want her to. I want neither of you to. As such, I didn't allow you to go on a mission, no matter how simple it was."

The children sharply inhaled. After all that they said, he was still denying their dream.

Joan saw the hurt on their faces. "We spend each day not knowing if we'll finally get defeated by the heroes. We simply do not wish for you to have to experience this kind of life. Do you understand?"

"""Yes, and even so, we want to become villains."""

The two adults and four children stared at each other in a standstill.

"Hahaha." Victoria's giggling echoed. "Father, Mother, you shouldn't keep refusing. I mean, Ian even spoke in protest. If you keep refusing, they'll go do it themselves. That'd be worst wouldn't it?"

Kin's lips widened into a line. Struggling, he finally spoke, "...Fine."