Aunt Sarah opened the door with an expression of surprise on her face, and a feeling of joy in her qi.

  “Jieun and Willow, what a pleasant surprise! Feels like I haven’t seen you two in an age!” Which wasn’t quite true with Jieun, as they had seen each other in one of the meetings the adults held every week. However it was especially true for Willow since the boy had only waved at her in passing whenever he had run around their little community.

  Jieun had a passive smile on her face. “Willow reminded me of some of the ruckus our children got up to together, and it made me realize that we haven’t chatted in a while. So I sought to rectify that.” She gestured to the child at her side. “And Willow decided to tag along since she hasn’t spent time with you recently.”

  He hung his head a bit in shame. “Sorry about that, Aunt Sarah. Didn’t realize how rude I was being…”

  The woman chuckled a bit and ruffled his hair. “It’s quite alright, girl, just remember that we’re always happy to have you visit.” She looked a bit behind her where her younger son was currently sitting at their dining table, messing around with some spools of thread.

  “I’m sure Remy is also happy to see you, come on in and say hi to him”

  From the boy’s wide eyed stare and surge of anxiety, Willow could confidently say that Remy was not, in fact, happy to see him. However the curly haired boy in a dress decided to not react to the other boy’s apparent discomfort and walked over to him with a small, but earnest, smile.

  “Heya Remy, been awhile.”

  The other boy looked between the adults in the room and the smiling child in front of him for a few moments before eventually uttering a quiet.

  “Hi Willow…”

  “Why don’t you two go play in Remy’s room while the adults talk.” Aunt Sarah chimed in, clearly eager to both have her chat with Jieun and make the two children be friends again.

  Remus nodded to his mother and begrudgingly brought the other boy to his small corner of the home.

  It was about the same size, style and shape as Willow’s own room, but the way the other boy had filled the space was markedly different. Instead of scrolls, he had a mixture of simple cloth dolls and carved wooden figures adorning his shelves, as well as a rough leather ball beside his small bed.

  The two children stood there staring at each other.

  They could both hear the muffled sounds of the adults talking and laughing in the other room.

  Willow cleared his throat, startling the other boy. Which just made him feel a bit worse about this whole situation.

  “This is painfully awkward.” Chimed in Change from the space in his brow, startling Willow, but also giving him an idea for something that would break the ice.

  You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

  “Do you wanna meet my fire spirit?” He asked the other boy hopefully. They had already stopped being friends when the bond was made, and there wasn’t ever a reason to show him before now.

  Remus thought for a moment as he sat on his bed before eventually nodding, still clearly hesitant.

  Willow brought out his fiery friend from the place by his heart, his smile growing wide.

  “This is Eos!” He said as he showcased his spirit as they floated in his palm.

  The other boy’s wide eyed stare gained a note of wonder as Eos began moving around Willow, the spirit clearly curious about their current surroundings.

  “Eos, this is Remy, I tried to be his friend before I met you.” The boy explained to his candleflame companion, and they moved closer to the quiet lad.

  Willow felt Remus’ wonder at the sight of the floating flame shift to shock, then outrage.

  “That was you trying to be my friend?!” The normally quiet boy was now quite upset. “You kept chasing me and beating me up saying I was a monster and you were the hero!”

  He winced, yeah that was an unfortunately accurate summation of his attempts to play a few years ago. He was trying to combine the play fighting he saw his brother and Rom do, with the fight scenes that Maple had read to him from their mother’s stories. He hadn’t wanted to hurt the other boy.

  Willow deeply regretted it now. Frankly, he regretted it as he developed his ability to read people's emotions from their qi and saw how scared he was making poor Remy.

  He hadn’t been a good friend to him.

  “I’m sorry.” He said, face downcast, and his hair a curtain around it. “I didn’t know that I was hurting you. Until I did. I tried playing other games with you after, but I could tell I was just making it worse.” He crouched down, clutching his knees and rocking a bit, still not looking at the other boy in the room.

  Eos floated around him, knowing that something was wrong, but unsure how they could help.

  Remy stared at him, brow furrowed. “That weird, “guess what I’m feeling” thing was supposed to be a game? I just thought it was a new way to try and mess with me…” A lot of his anger remained, but it was tempered by confusion.

  Willow shook his head, the curtain of curls shaking with the motion. “Was just trying to play. Was always just trying to play with you. Sorry it went so wrong.” Tears came to his eyes unbidden. Stupid eyes, he wasn’t supposed to cry right now.

  Remus noticed as Willow began to shake and cry, the last of his anger replaced by panic. What was he supposed to do here? By all rights he should be the upset one, yet she seemed extremely unhappy by what she had done to him. He looked around for some kind of a solution, until his eyes landed on what he hoped would be his salvation.

  Willow’s shoulders shook as he tried to hold back his sobs. He shouldn’t be crying, he should be trying to make it up to Remy for how he treated him. Yet he was just so guilty about what he did to the other boy for so long, and of course he’d hate him for it. It was completely fair.

  A rough leather ball bumped against his leg, snapping the boy out of his misery.

  He looked from the ball to the one who rolled it to him.

  Remus, for his part, looked and felt extremely awkward, but he gestured for Willow to roll the ball back to him. An offer to play a simple game.

  And so he did.

  Back and forth the ball rolled, and with each pass the two grew just a bit more comfortable with each other.

  It wasn’t yet forgiveness.

  But it was a start.

  here! Every little bit helps.