While Alex was making life-changing decisions and plans, Kyle was busy teaching his baby girl a few things about boys.
"Rie, you are a wonderful girl, but you must always be careful about people you make friends with," Kyle was telling her.
"Why Daddy?" Ariel asked, tilting her head and looking at her father with her wide, innocent eyes.
It only made Kyle even more resolute in ensuring Ariel is never left alone again. Well, she had been with her sister, Fleur, and Ziad but what can eight-year-olds do? They don't have the maturity either to truly know who or what would be suspicious.
Then again, wasn't this part of the reason why he sent them to Retsu instead of a fully private school? Not to say that there wouldn't be intrigues there either but at least, it would be less as these kids wouldn't dare to try and make connections with the Smiths in order to get to him.
Didn't dare because they basically didn't think they were worthy.
The truly rich, though, had no such thoughts. They'd most likely brainwash their innocent kids to make such connections, and a pure, innocent friendship can become something completely different as they grew up.
Kyle wanted them to at least have a semblance of a normal childhood with some people who would really be their friends. There would be people who would have other thoughts, of course, but not as much as in a fully private school.
Now, though, Kyle was faced with another problem
Those who had no such thoughts to 'make use' of his kids but instead, have thoughts for his kids.
Nuh-huh.
They were still so young, more so Ariel who seemed to just want to be friends with everybody.
Stinky snot-faced boys still smelling of their mother's milk wanting to have a claim on his precious little daughter?!
"Because not all people are as nice as they seem," Kyle said solemnly.
"But Daddy, they didn't bully me," Ariel said, "You said boys like to bully you if they like you."
"But they not only like me, but they also didn't bully me. So it means they are really, really nice."
Kyle regretted saying that now for it only paved the way for the four flies to come buzzing around his little princess.
"So you like those four boys?" Kyle asked.
Ariel nodded vigorously, "Yes, yes! They are nice."
She looked at her palm and started counting, "Brother Rob said I was pretty. Brother Jake smiles a lot. Brother...Brother…"
Ariel scrunched her face, trying to remember the name, "Ah! Brother Chris help me build blocks. Brother R..R..something liked holding my hand, cuz he said it's soft."
Hearing this, the dark clouds above Kyle's head got thicker.
Ariel clapped her hands and then rummaged through the pockets of her pants and took out a small chocolate bar, "Look, and Brother Tom even gave me candy."
Kyle's eyes narrowed, seeing the slightly squished chocolate bar in her hand.
Such a young boy and already doing things like giving gifts?
Giving compliments? HOLDING HANDS?!
He turned to Sam, his face extremely unhappy, and Sam nodded.
"By this afternoon," Kyle stated and Sam didn't even blink at the short notice.
Kyle was notorious for such things and it wasn't such a big deal to dig out information on the four boys earlier. He already had a basic list of all students in the school anyway, so it was just a matter of extracting those names and doing a more extensive dig on them.
Which MIB would have done by now.
Being Kyle's right-hand man meant being one step ahead of things and always be prepared. Sam, having known Kyle since he was 12 and working for him since he was 13, meant that not only did he know Kyle's habits, but he also knew of the main secrets.
Such as MIB.
In fact, he was trained by Kyle's Diamond Team as well. He even had a specially modified gun that had a bunny engraved on its handle, hidden under his clothes. Unlike Kyle's wife, however, his wife had no idea about his so-called 'double life'.
She just thought he was a simple blue-collar worker.
Which was fine, and how he liked it.
Ariel, seemingly oblivious to her father's growing displeasure, chattered on, "I told them all about Mummy, and Max, and Kitty, and and…oh ya! Brother Ivan said Mummy must be very pretty because I am very pretty."
Kyle clenched his jaw, and just said, "Really?"
"Yes, really Daddy," Ariel replied with a smile and put the candy in Kyle's front pocket, "This is for you, Daddy."
Kyle looked at her, puzzled.
She brought up her small hands and smoothened his eyebrows, saying, "Daddy looks like you have a head pain.."
"Headache," Kyle corrected automatically.
"Oh. Ya. Headache," Ariel replied, "Your face is like this."
She then made a frowning face, with her eyebrows furrowed together and her eyes narrowed. She then looked at Kyle with a worried face and patted his cheek, saying, "So candy will make you feel better. Candy always makes me feel better."
"Oh," Kyle replied, nodding, "But this is chocolate, not candy. Candy is basically made from sugar, like sweets and lollipops. Chocolate is made from cocoa beans, and would normally be softer."
"Oh," Ariel said, nodding and blinking as if she was interested, "Okay."
"And no calling them Brother Tom and whatnot," Kyle said firmly, "Just call them by their names."
"Why Daddy?" Ariel asked innocently, "Aren't they my brothers?"
Kyle nearly hissed out loud but managed to say in a relatively normal voice but through gritted teeth, "No, Rie. They are strangers that just want to be your friend. Only Alex, Ziad, Jared, Quill, and Trevor are your brothers for now."
"For now?" Ariel continued to ask.
"Well, Auntie Betty should be having one more baby this year and you never know. Mummy and I could also have more kids, as well as Auntie Kay," Kyle answered.
Ariel put her hands on her head, "Wow, so many more."
"Yes, so you don't need any more brothers," Kyle said, "Your brothers are only those from Mummy, Auntie Betty and Auntie Kay."
Ariel nodded, "Okay."
Ali was watching all of this while walking behind them and shaking his head.
"Is there a problem, Ali?" Kyle asked, without turning around.
Ali grinned, not surprised by the fact that Kyle seemed to know his action despite him being behind him.
"No, not at all. Nothing, nothing is wrong," Ali said, "Nothing at all."
Kyle gave a little snort and said, "If there was no Ziad next to Fleur all the time, you'd be worried about her as well. Heck, she also has my kids by her side."
"I know," Ali replied with a twinkle in his eye, "My life is easy."
He regarded Fleur like his daughter, since she was a milk sibling with his son. Though he would worry for her as a father would, he never did assert himself as her father. She had her biological father for that.
One could say that he was akin to a foster father - or, to use more accurate terminology, a godfather. However, Ali never regarded himself as the godfather due to the terminology itself as it was against his belief.
In Islam, 'God' only meant the Almighty. Even if the terminology did not mean 'God' literally, and it didn't even refer to the original meaning anymore (of being the one responsible for christening and religious upbringing ie Christianity), Ali was still uncomfortable with it.
Hence, foster father was what he referred to himself as.
The terminology wasn't important anyway. The heart was.
"Wait," Ariel suddenly said, gasping.
"What, Rie?" Kyle asked.
"What about Uncle Ali? No more brothers?" Ariel asked.
Kyle hesitated and looked at Ali, who had a soft smile.
"No, Rie," Ali answered for Kyle, "Auntie Sofiya and I are not destined to have more children. We are already grateful for having Ziad."
Ariel pursed her lips, "Oh."
She looked at her father, "What is des...des...what was the word, Uncle Ali?"
Ali smiled, "Destined. It means, not meant to be."
"Oh," Ariel nodded, then blinked, and after a pause, "Why?"
"Sometimes, that is just the way it is," Ali replied simply.
Ariel tilted her head, her hair falling to one side as she looked at Ali intently, but did not say anything else.
By now, they had all reached the carpark and would be heading towards their respective vehicles. Kyle patted Ali on the shoulder apologetically, "I'm sorry if that made things a bit uncomfortable. Thank you for explaining to her."
Ali smiled and just waved Kyle's concerns away, "There's nothing to apologize for, Kyle. This is God's Will and the path that God has given me. I redha. I truly am fortunate to already have Ziad, and Sam gives me more children than I can handle anyway. I am truly content."
Kyle saw that Ali truly was not bothered by it and he nodded. Waving goodbye to his friends (though he'd be seeing Sam later), Kyle then headed towards his car.
Ariel, of course, couldn't contain her excitement just thinking about going to be with her father the whole day.
Even if she wasn't in her princess dress.