Jamal was already up, despite it still being dark outside with the stars shining through the sky. Concentrating, he focused on his body igniting, as the conflagration instantly formed around him as he was preparing his training from behind the house. Eyeing ahead, he launched multiple fireballs in the air, and pretending to punch and kick a fake target ahead of him. But the process sucked, as there wasn't much he could really do, unless he wanted to master that blue fire. But even then, he needed so many factors for it to occur, and that itself was difficult. Unless there was something stronger, he began to ponder until he felt something push him, as he fell face-first into the ground.
Turning around, he could see Ula smiling at him, as he could barely make out the darkness retracting towards her arm. Did she just hit him?
"Ula, what are you doing out here?" he asked, as she began to make her way towards him.
"I could ask you the same." she replied back, standing right to his face and crossing her arms, although Jamal towered her by several inches.
"I'm just training. Just can't sit around here and do nothing." Jamal sighed, until he felt pain in his stomach, "What's that for?! That hurts too!"
"The first thing you do, instead of being with your family, is to start training? Really? Your son just finally gets to see your face every day again, and then you leave, come back, and barely do anything with him? I thought you promised to do more!" Ula began to get more furious.
"I am. I'm helping us save money by joining these forces." Jamal quickly noted. "That's been holding us off longer until we can move back into Saputa."
"Just stop talking about Saputa! Jamal, you told us years ago it was over, and you were right! I thought you wanted to just settle down, I didn't expect you to do all of this." Ula clenched her fists in frustration, "Why would you lie to me? To your family?"
"Baby, I would never do that. I'm just trying to give us an opportunity to return back. I've already promised Lero yesterday that the Alice girl can probably help him fix the machine, and we can return and get it all back and to where we belong. I know what I'm doing is hard to understand, but I'm doing it for the better of us and the world."
Ula just stared at him in silence, as nothing but an occasional bird chirping from the nearby forests. There's no way she couldn't believe what he just told her, Jamal stared back at her, not breaking eye contact. After what felt like an eternity, Ula sighed and looked back at the ground.
"Fine, I just wished you were just still with us more." she muttered in shame, as Jamal grabbed her hand.
"Hey, everything's going to work out." he promised, before kissing her.
"Ok, well good night then." she just said, once they parted as Jamal watched her about to go back inside, before she stopped in front of the door leading to the back, "I just hope you're right."
Before Jamal could answer, she already went back inside and closed the door. He just looked in the direction for a few moments, before he turned around and continued his practice again, intensifying with each second.
...
"Well, look who's out today." Jamal heard a voice, jolting him up.
Turning around, he could see the sun blasting it's light into his face, with Leon standing behind him. Great. Jamal shuttered, as he slowly balanced himself up.
"Seems Ula was pretty upset last night." Leon noted, as Jamal began to make his way to the house, which was several feet further then where he assumed he was.
"What do you mean?" Jamal turned back to look at him, once he reached the steps leading to the door.
"You guys sure had an argument last night. I could barely make out what y'all were talking about, and Alice would not stop begging for it to end."
"Look man, it was nothing, okay? I got to get Alice to start working with Lero soon anyway." Jamal noted, grabbing the door handle.
"Oh, well Ula and Alice left to get food, that's what she told me." Leon casually noted, while flexing, "However, the room y'all have us in could be better. Almost looking like the place we fought at."
"Laken." Jamal rushed inside and hurried towards their bedroom.
Instantly opening the door, he stared inside to see the crib empty and began to look around the house in worry. No way they just left him....
"He's with your girl or whatever. Look, me and Alice in desperate need of some better rooming. Years living in Fuishem made me feel really ungrateful, to be honest." Leon had added as he approached his room.
"I'm overreacting." Jamal mostly ignored him, as he walked out in a more calm manner.
"So, can we get better rooming now?" Leon asked again.
Jamal slightly turned around to look at him, before continuing towards the kitchen. He had better things to do right now.
"Guess not." Leon was disappointed with the lack of a response, as he watched Jamal take something out of the fridge. "Are you sure?"
"Can you honestly just shut up! Damn!" Jamal finally snapped, getting up from the seat he barely sat down on. "We don't fucking care!"
It was at that moment that the front door opened, with Ula, Alice, and Laken coming inside, probably hearing everything. Welp, he wasn't prepared for that.
"So, that's how you're going to speak to me, huh?" Leon growled back, a light aura began to glow around.
"Bring it, bitch!" Jamal roared back at him, both his arms instantly igniting.
"What are you two doing!" Ula cried out to both of them, getting between both of them. "What's wrong with you two!"
"I'm about to kill him right now! He's been a begging piece of shit this entire time, and I've had it with it. I'm not going to deal with this any longer!" Jamal moved past her, raising his fists to prepare to punch him.
Before Leon could prepare to defend himself, a loud noise roared over them, shaking the house temporarily, before it slowly stopped. Everyone stopped moving, as Jamal and Leon continued to stare down each other, both flexing their insane energy against each other.
"Still going to kill me?" Leon muttered to the smaller person below him.
Jamal continued to stare deep into the man's eyes, but kept silent. He knew he couldn't fight here, and not now. So he just kept his composure, but began to wane back his flames.
"That's what I thought. You should know your damn place." Leon said aloud, not caring who was inside with them. "I'm going to find somewhere better to stay at, then I'm probably going to leave since I'm clearly being disrespected."
With that, everyone left in the room just watched as Leon went through the hallway and back to the messed-up room to get his stuff. Jamal didn't even notice that Laken was starting to cry from the noise, until he watched Ula rush towards him to comfort him, as she took him from Alice's hand.
"Well, looks like shi-, excuse me, um, stuff was going down. I'll just, uh, wait outside while you guys, uh, calm the situation down?" Alice stuttered in shock, before quickly leaving out the front door.
Once it was silent again, Jamal just stared back at the ground, not even making a sound. He actually messed up for real, and put everyone in jeopardy.
"Why Jamal? What happened between you two?" he could hear Ula ask him, Laken continue to cry alongside her. "Look at me, and answer me!"
He tilted his head up, to see tears coming out of Ula's face as she continued to wipe Laken's.
"I'm sorry. He was just, bothering me." Jamal began to say, before slowly approaching her.
"Don't move towards us! You know what, I had it with you! You're constantly lying and doing this and that! I mean, look at your damn family!" Ula began to break down, as Jamal watched in horror. He never heard her speak to him like that.
"Babe, I didn't mean for this to happen." Jamal was nearing here some more before Ula's fists instantly were surrounded by darkness.
"Don't fucking move near us, Jamal! We are done with you! Forget this marriage, or whatever you damn wanted with me." Jamal just stared in shock, as he saw Ula rip off the expensive ring he got her and threw it off the ground. "Get your stuff and leave!"
Jamal just opened his mouth, before slowly walking back to the room in defeat. This is how it ends, he knew, as he shoved the door closed behind him once he got back into the room.
.....
Jamal opened the door not even ten minutes later with all his stuff in a small bag, since he was rarely in the house. Opening the door, he quickly walked through the hallway to see Ula standing there waiting for him to leave. Before he could even say one more thing, she simply pointed at the door. He looked down to see Laken behind his mother's leg, watching in awe, before Jamal himself closed his eyes and walked out.
As his feet moved across the porch and down the wooden steps, he didn't even realize he was crying until he wiped his face from the tears, before continuing to move down the street, to who knows where.