Outside the house, Bia saw Kai in his modern form, crocodile and Alek petting him with a huge grin that seemed like it was going to reach her ears.
"Bia." When Alek saw her sister approaching her, she breathed her name. "I'm petting a crocodile aka my brother! Oh my God!!" She whisper-screamed and put her hands on her cheeks.
Bia laughed at her sister's reaction and looked at her brother, who was on Alek's legs resting. Kai had complete control over himself and, Bia needn't have to worry about him going wild. So she sat down opposite Alek and petted their brother.
"What happened to his clothes? I didn't see his clothes being shredded into pieces when he shifted." Alek asked Bia as Kai couldn't answer her question. Kai also eyed Bia.
"We can shift with our clothes on but, when the shift is not voluntarily, the clothes would not be in intact with our bodies so it will be shredded." Bia answered the question without looking into her eyes.
"That's dope." Alek was so overwhelmed hearing that. "Why don't you shift? I want to see." Alek asked Bia with her eyes full of hope and excitement and, Bia couldn't say not to those eyes.
"I will shift but not fully." Bia told her sister as she prepared.
"You can do that?! Then that would be more than enough." Alek said before her sister would have the idea of not shifting.
"Yes, we can do that. Fully, partially, depending on how you want it." Bia answered before closing her eyes in concentration.
Soon after, her skin showed shadows of scales as it became green. When she opened her eyes, the iris were dark olive green. It was so different from her natural eye colour that is dark brown. Also, her nails had grown long and, it was pure black. It was vivid in contrast to her skin colour, which was now light green.
Alek dropped her mouth unconsciously and closed when Bia poked out her white tongue, which separated in the middle. It was fascinating to see someone actually doing what she thought was only in her imagination. And seeing her little sister do this was beyond magnificent.
"Are you gonna say anything?" Bia asked after Alek kept staring at her for a long time.
"How are you doing that?" Alek had stopped petting Kai looked and the little brother seemed a little sad about that.
"Like this?" She shrugged her shoulders and peeked the dangerous fangs off her mouth. "Don't you want to touch me?"
"You know the answer." Alek said in a duh tone. "Of course I do!"
Bia gave her hands to her sister and Alek started touching it like it was made out of glass, careful with each touch. Alek kept her hands on her sister's but never tried to move it. She kept Bia's hands in place and moved her head to see the other side of the hand.
Bia saw the reaction and flipped her hands upwards so that Alek could see her palm. Her palms also had scales but the colour was more of yellow.
"Woah..." Alek was amazed. She traced the scales with the tip of her fingers gently and slowly placed her hand in her sister's hand. It was warm. She then brought her eyes up to meet Bia's gaze. Alek brought her other hand up to her sister's face and touched it softly without breaking the eye contact. It was scaly as it looked.
Bia lowered her eyes to break the eye contact and concentrated on her hand that was in Alek's. She felt butterflies in her stomach and, it was an uncomfortable feeling. She felt nervous. A small part of her was scared of Alek rejecting her but, she knew her sister wouldn't do that. But even though she knew that deep down, it didn't make the uncomfortable feeling in her stomach go away. She still wanted to hear it. Hear it to calm her mind.
"Beautiful..." Alek said the words from the bottom of her heart. The colour of her magnificent scales, the way those scales reflected the sunlight, the eyes... God, she loved everything about her sister.
Bia raised her gaze back to Alek with surprise, but Alek wasn't looking at her eyes anymore. Instead, she was exploring every inch of her face with admiration with both her eyes and hand, like she was trying to memorise the pattern. Bia then got embarrassed at her previous thought about what Alek would think and was glad that she had shifted in her snake form, or else her blushes would have been visible.
Bia had lowered her gaze again just to meet Kai's gaze. He was still in his crocodile form, but those eyes looked human even though it was split in the middle. 'I saw that.' is what Bia heard from the eyes and, she is probably right. Kai opened his mouth slightly, what seemed to be a smirk and shifted back into his human form.
Alek was too concentrated on her sister that she had forgotten about her brother. She didn't even see Kai shifting and standing behind her.
"Alek?" Kai spoke next to his sister's ears which made Alek jump and stop touching Bia.
"Don't do that!" Alek complained while touching her ear. "I don't like it."
"Sorry." Kai apologized with a laugh in his voice. He shifted his hand again, only to poke the other ear that she was not covering.
"Mah!!" Alek shouted weirdly and covered the other ear, letting go of Bia's hand. "Kai!"
Kai smiled mischievously and showed her his hand which was now a crocodile's leg. Alek stopped looking at her brother with displeasure and stared at his hands in as it was sucking her in. She removed her hands off her ears and touched his hand, now foot. It was almost the size of her palm and this surprised her. It looked too big for her brother.
Alek giggled and held his hand. It was so unreal and unbelievable just how he was doing it. Bia had shifted back into her human form with leaving one hand snake-ish and moved to stand next to her brother to give her hand out to her sister as him. Now, Alek had two incredible hands in her hands. She held each in her hands and grasped tightly remembering what Aether had told her in her dream. They all had small smiles on their faces.
'I'm the oldest. Take care of them for him. Protect them for him. Find them for him.' Alek spoke inside her head as she held their hands in hers and looked at them in their eyes. 'I'm always your side. I would protect you no matter what. I wouldn't let anything take you away from me. I would find you whenever you get lost.' She didn't voice it out because she knew she would ruin the atmosphere with her sad tone. Instead, she grinned to make her thoughts away and stood up, pulling them down in return.
Both of them did not expect this and fell down while Alek stood up. Alek chuckled and ran before those two siblings would get up and have a chance to revenge on her. They both stood up in a flash and chased their older sibling, who acted as the last born and successfully tackled her to the soft grass.
Alek was still laughing and, she was even having a hard time breathing as they pushed her down on the ground. They weren't all serious about being angry with her as this was Alek. This was her nature. She may be the oldest now but, her nature as a younger sister didn't leave her still now. But she would sometimes act like her age, which looked weird. It didn't fit her as they were not used to it. Alek treats Bia as if she is her age mate, which is normal by now as she had done that ever since they were small.
In the end, they lay next to Alek on the grass comfortably and looked at the sky. Thankfully, the sun had been covered by the cloud and they were able to stare at the sky without any difficulty.
Panacea and Robin had talked and cleaned the table and came out of the house. As they were coming out of the room, they heard Alek's laugh and, they saw their first daughter being held on the ground by her siblings, and soon they let go of her and lay next to her instead. They watched how their children had worked out the matter and, it was a happy moment to see.
Panacea had teary eyes as she was looking at her children and, Robin quickly pulled his wife close to him. Robin was also happy to see this and, he also had teary eyes but, he didn't let anyone see it. It wasn't time for him to cry. After he held in the tears he looked at his wife and gave her a mischievous smile. And Panacea knew what he was planning to do and she let him anyways.
They slowly approached her kids, completely camouflaged in the scenery and stood facing their kids. They didn't have shadows as they were transparent and their kids couldn't see them until Robin brought back colours in an instant and scaring Alek mostly. Kai only flinched and said really but Bia sat up in a second without saying anything.
Alek screamed but laughed after screaming. Just how many times did she needed to be surprised today?