“I was not expecting that,” Hardwood said, baffled by the revelation.

Figuring his parents should know about what had happened, Thorn decided to explain his afternoon to Hardwood.

“Yep,” Thorn replied to his father’s bewilderment, “heavy stuff, huh?”

“Yeah… so now what? Is her mother staying with her now?”

Thorn shrugged.

“If you ask me… it doesn’t look like that way…”

“Oh. Are you two in good terms, at least?”

“I wouldn’t say so... just before she left, I asked if she had taken my staff again... and then she hurled it at me.”

“Oh, geez! Are you alright!?”

“Yeah, I was able to catch it. Obviously.”

Hardwood sighed in relief.

Similar to last time, an uncomfortable silence filled the room. The only noise that could be heard was Whistle’s, who was trying to get Hardwood’s attention.

Still feeling a tad hurt about Cozy’s words from the previous day—regarding his relationship with his parents—Thorn decided he didn’t feel like keeping his emotions to himself right now.

So after a heavy sigh, Thorn looked at Hardwood straight in the eye.

Hardwood noticed it and figured Thorn was upset about babysitting, as was noticeable since the first day.

“Hey, Thorn, listen... uhm... if you don’t want to keep doing this, I can te-”

Hardwood was promptly interrupted by Thorn, who hugged him tightly.

“This is... not something you’d do often, are you feeling alright?”

“N-no…”

Hardwood noticed Thorn’s despondent state and quickly placed his hands around Thorn’s shoulders and pushed him slightly backwards so to look at him in the eye.

“Hey, hey, what’s wrong, Thorn?”

“I-it’s just… Cozy mentioned something yesterday, and…”

“Don’t listen to what she said, she was just confused and directed her frustration towards you, but I promise you that tomorrow she’ll get the talking of-“

“Let me finish!”

Hardwood pursed his lips and gave his full attention to Thorn.

“It’s just… you… uhm… you remember the incident, right?”

“The incide-? Oh! That incident… yes, I remember…”

“Cozy brought it up… and I was thinking… are you… are we… close?”

“Well, yeah. Of course we’re close, you’re my son.”

Thorn looked away.

“Well you heard how the dynamic’s with Cozy… and it scared me…”

“Thorn, you have nothing to be scared of.”

“Don’t I? You guys leave almost for the entire day, and I’ve spent months without seeing mom face to face even once…”

Crestfallen, Thorn said softly, “Did we ever really patch up?”

Hardwood’s eyes darted away in a soft manner.

“You’re right, maybe we haven’t entirely… so, what do you think we start now? We can take a day to do something together, if we discuss it with enough time, maybe we could even visit your mom at her outpost.

“What do you think?”

“Yeah… I’d like that.”

Hardwood surrounded Thorn as he embraced him, to which he smiled warmly and returned the hug.

“By the way, since we’re letting everything out, don’t ever try to fix my social life again, dad.”

Hardwood chuckled.

“Can’t promise you tha-“

Hardwood suddenly fell to the nearby couch, as Thorn made him lose his balance and trip over, while he glared mockingly at him.

“Alright, alright. I promise. Geez, can’t you take a joke?”

———————————————————————————————————————

As far as Thorn was concerned, his life was looking bright.

He had successfully stopped Cozy Glow’s schemes… to an extent.

He had also improved his relationship with his parents. Well, he‘s going to… starting this Saturday… if things went according to planned…

But thanks to Microchips, he was doing better in his classes and was up to date with the topics.

Was.

They’re now seeing a new topic that he was not understanding in the slightest.

And he also had friends now. Well, there was a friend-ly kid who complained about his ex-girlfriend, a friend-ly other kid who complained about her ex-babysittee, and another friend-ly kid who Thorn complained with about math class…

Yes, things were definitely better than ever for Thorn Thistle. From this point onward, he was going to live happily ever afte-

“There he is! He’s the one who told your boyfriend to break up with you!”

Thorn swiftly looked around to find Snips and Snails pointing towards him as Sunset stared at him with a look that conveyed hatred, betrayal, and a desire to murder someone.

Thorn gulped and tried to grab his staff, solely for intimidation purposes, but instead found a crudely drawn image of Cozy Glow sticking out her tongue.

“When I see that child again, I swear…”

Author's Note

What’s that thing they say at the end of marvel movies…? Oh yeah!

*ejem*

Thorn Thistle will return.