A few minutes later, the two of them were sitting in Alice's room. Here, Alice looked aggrieved as she sat on her bed, hugged her knees, and glared at Erik with resentnt.
anwhile, Erik stood in the middle of the room and smirked at her. "Don't look at your teacher like that. you know we need to have this conversation!"
Alice groaned and rolled her eyes, "Why?! Can we not just continue as we have been?! Why do we need to talk about this?!"
But Erik shook his head and looked at her sternly, "Because, Alice, so things need to be said for them to have real aning. Especially things like this, even if it's awkward or scary. So things are only true when you acknowledge them as such."
"Bullshit…" Alice grumbled in frustration while turning her eyes away from him. "Even if I don't acknowledge my hand as a hand, it's still a hand."
Yet, despite her objectively reasonable argunt, the words lacked any real conviction, for a reason that Erik was quick to point out.
Erik chuckled, and took a step closer to the bed, where he began to crouch down and search for eye contact, "Fair enough, my smart little student. But if you're smart enough for that argunt, you're also smart enough to know that's not what I ant."
Alice pouted and was unable to offer any counter argunts. Instead, she simply continued to silently avoid his gaze.
Erik's lips curled into a smile full of care, and even with a hint of love.
Then, he sighed and spoke up. "Listen, Alice… You've been with us for almost a year now, and I've co to care a great deal about you. You're a very special girl, whose determined, smart, talented, and has an unbreakable spirit."
Alice began to squirm in her place due to his words. Getting complinted made her uncomfortable, simply because it felt awkward to her; she didn't know how to take a complint. Yet, at the sa ti, she also felt happy, which kind of annoyed her in and off itself.
anwhile, Erik continued, "You've suffered a great deal in your life, Alice. Far more than any young girl should. And I've been happy giving you a safe ho, but… I don't just want to be your teacher, or your caretaker."
At this point, Alice started trembling, and she'd shut her eyes.
But Erik was on a roll now and wouldn't be stopped so easily. His voice was filled with a surprising amount of emotion compared to his usual tone. "I want you to be a part of my family, Alice. I don't want to replace either of the two family's you've already had, nor do any of the others. We just want to join their ranks, by becoming your third, and hopefully final, family."
Alice, anwhile, was trembling harder, but still continued to silently purse her lips with extre force, even as small tears appeared on the corners of her eyes.
Seeing her continued silence, Erik got ever so slightly nervous, but his gaze remained stern yet caring. At the sa ti, he continued with a shake of his head, "You don't need to accept as an adopted father. I realize that's probably a little hard to accept after I had a hand in Björn's death, but I—"
"Stop, stop!" a tearful Alice finally reacted by waving her hands frantically, finally unable to remain quiet. "I'll do it, alright?!" she sobbed slightly. "I— I'll join your family, I'll be y— your daughter and call you daddy, just stop t— torturing with this touchy-feely crap!"
Erik's reactions to Alice's acceptance were varied. When she first stopped him, he was worried, then when she accepted to join his family his lips curled into a wide grin, but when she called him daddy, that grin instantly dissolved into a scowl.
Naturally, Alice noticed and quickly beca a little insecure. "W— What?!" she stamred furiously. "You suddenly don't want anymore?!"
"N— No!" a bug-eyed Erik quickly denied, but then noticed Alice's expression only got darker. "I an, yes! I an, ugh, that's not what I ant. I'm very happy, Alice, just please… never call that again."
Alice quickly cald down, but now looked at him strangely. "What do you an? Never call you what again? Dad—"
"Yes!" Erik quickly interrupted her, while shaking his head and waving his hands. "That! Don't call that! Call father, or just Erik. Just not… that word."
Naturally, Alice only got more confused and narrowed her eyes at him. "Why not…?" she asked, full of suspicion.
"Just… please?" Erik pleaded, desperately hoping he wouldn't have to explain what he and Emily got up to in the bedroom. "Promise you'll never ntion it again, and I'll spend the entire day training with you tomorrow."
That got her attention, as her eyes instantly shone a mischievous light, and her lips curled into a mischievous grin. "Oh?" she wled deviously. "So maybe I won't call you the D-word until tomorrow, and after that we'll, see?"
While she still had no idea why Erik was so insistent on this, she was quickly realizing the advantage she had here.
Erik groaned, because he knew he'd now be at Alice's rcy for the rest of their lives. Yet, for so reason, he could only grin happily. "You picked up that devious mind from Elora, didn't you?"
"I don't know what you're talking about, Father. I like to think I take more after Emma," Alice blinked innocently and smiled brightly, naturally causing Erik to roll his eyes at her, but also chuckle.
But, at the ntioning of Emma, he also quickly stood up, and beckoned Emma to the door with a warm smile, "Speaking of Emma, I believe it's ti we introduce you to the others again. This ti, as a mber of the family."
Alice groaned slightly as she realized she'd have more touchy-feely crap to sit through, but she still got up from the bed, dried her tears, and shuffled unwillingly to the door.
Unfortunately, when the door opened, it only got worse for her.
In the living room where Elora, Emma, Emily, and Astrid, all waiting for her with big grins, and Alice nearly broke down crying from the horror.
* * * Experience tales at empire
anwhile, just outside the dinsion, Seraphina suddenly appeared, now standing in the destruction Erik had left behind when he landed here the day before.
In her hand, she held a tal orb, which Erik had now bound his dinsion to. "Can't believe he's making run around with this thing…" she grumbled to herself, before turning to certain direction that Elora had pointed out.
"Well, whatever," she sighed softly. "I suppose he did promise a surprise if I run for 24 hours straight." Then she narrowed her eyes, "But it better be a good surprise."
Of course, there was no one there to answer her, so instead, she simply activated her gravity affinity, lowered the weight of both her body and the orb to almost nothing, then took off at an imnse speed.
Slaloming around the large rainforest trees, she quickly disappeared in the distance.
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