Chapter 65: Comforts from home
"Oh! You must be the Brent that I’ve heard so much about!" Gwen jumped from her Dad’s hold to the ground, doing a little flourished bow before offering her hand to Brent with a cheeky grin. Kellen narrowed his eyes, watching as Brent’s widened slightly and his ears tinged red. Fuck. The man was hooked. Brent took Gwen’s hand and gave it a shake.
"And you must be Kellen’s younger sister, Gwen. I, too, have heard quite a bit about you." Gwen shot a dirty look behind her at her older brother.
"What the hell did you tell the handsome man about me, Kellen?" Kellen, immediately falling into his older brother role, smirked.
"Only that you snore incredibly loudly, you have smelly feet and you chew with your mouth open." Gwen’s jaw dropped as Brent’s eyes lit up from within. Gwen pulled her hand from Brent’s to turn on her brother.
"How could you! None of that is even true!" She protested, and her Mom’s eyes danced.
"Well, not anymore. You used to have terrible table manners as a child. We almost considered having you stay with your Nana when she was still alive to correct it. Thankfully you grew out of it." Her Mom easily teased, and Gwen puffed her cheeks out. She looked cute, given she was a carbon copy of the man who held her. Anyone could see that they were a family, and a close one at that.
"While I appreciate the morale boost, Esper Woods does need to finish her training for the day." The Captain interrupted, a smile on his face and in his eyes. Gwen straightened up immediately, nodded, and after giving her Mom and Dad a kiss on the cheek, joined Gunther as he headed towards the group of Espers waiting nearby. It was then just the Captain, Casper, Brent, and the remaining Woods family members. "If you’ll excuse us for a moment, Casper and I have some word related business to discuss." The Captain smiled at his in-laws, before turning his gaze towards Kellen. Kellen, who noticed the Captain checking up on him, smiled, nodded, and the Captain and Casper headed outside into the hallway for a little bit of privacy. That left the four of them.
"Well, they certainly seem to be feeding you well. You’ve practically doubled in size since I last saw you. Good. It’s good to see you almost back to your old self." Kellen’s Mom said, her smile in her eyes as she groped her son’s arms. Kellen flushed at his Mom’s fussing, while his Dad was no better. He just wasn’t touching him.
"I brought you a little basket to welcome you into your new apartment. It has a bunch of the recipes I spoke about with Taylor, as well as the granola I was talking about. Share some with Brent. He seems like he could use it too." Brent, who had thought he was safe, jerked. He glanced towards Kellen with wide eyes, but he didn’t notice his look. Kellen was instead patting his Dad’s shoulder with his hand, shaking his head.