[Alex's POV]
Alex hurried out of the bathroom, which was awkward and clumsy because of his large wings, and quickly closed the door behind him.
Yahya was already standing there, looking at him with big, disbelieving eyes. Alex shot him a warning glare, but Yahya doubled over laughing anyway.
"They were true!" he gasped between laughs. "All this time, I thought uncle had been exaggerating, but it was all true!"
"Well, at least you're laughing," Alex mumbled sadly. He didn't think this situation was funny at all.
Otto rarely got angry, but when she did, he hated it. It felt like the breath was being squeezed right out of him by a giant boa constrictor.
He wanted to run back inside and hug her tightly until they'd both forgotten that they'd been separated for the past few days, but she'd made it very clear she didn't want him near right now. He felt like crying.
Yahya had picked up on his mood too and had stopped laughing, but didn't offer any consoling words. Clearly not because he didn't want to, but simply because he didn't know how to. Alex knew Yahya'd unconsciously started seeing Alex as his dad, and the relationship between Yahya and Amon always had been broken.
"You look like you need a hug," a small voice said. When Alex looked in the direction of the voice, he spotted a little girl with blond hair and blue eyes peeking from around the corner at the end of the corridor.
She was wearing a frilly light-blue dress, of which the skirt fell well past her knee, and her hair was pulled up in a half-ponytail, of which the loose parts were styled in long pipe curls.
All in all, she looked like a doll to Alex.
"Was mommy angry with you?" she asked when he hadn't said anything after a while.
"Yeah," Alex mumbled reluctantly.
"Why?" the little girl asked as she stepped around the corner. Alex thought for an instant. What could he say that this little girl would understand?
"Because I've done some bad things," he said. The girl tiptoed over and stopped right in front of him.
"Was it on purpose?" she asked, big eyes looking at him curiously.
"Not all of them," Alex said as he glanced at Yahya, who looked back at him just as curiously as the little girl.
"Then, are you sorry you did them?" the little girl asked, one and all innocence.
"Of course I am," Alex choked as he sunk into a crouch to come to the girls eye-level. It annoyed him to notice that his wings slid down the wall behind him, even though the hallway was by no means small. "If I could take it all back, I would. So many things happened and I hurt a lot of people, but it's all in the past now and there is nothing I can do about it."
The little girl looked at him thoughtfully, then frowned and said: "There is something stuck in your hair. Here let me take it out."
Alex dutifully kept still as the little girl went ahead to pluck all kinds of grime from his face, hair and clothes.
Yahya snorted.
"You're unexpectedly good with kids," he said.
"That's not how I see it," Alex said and heaved a heavy sigh. "Look, I don't know what you thought I was gonna say before you ran away, but I want you to know that the man you knew as your father is dead. You don't have to wait for him anymore and you sure as hell don't have to prove yourself to him either."
This seemed to take Yahya by surprise, as he didn't say anything, so Alex continued.
"You were right. Amon has been a terrible father. If he hadn't been so blinded by his grief, a lot of things would've ended very differently. I know it doesn't make everything right, but I want you to know that I'm sorry for everything that I've done to you and that I'm grateful for everything you've done for me."
"That's quite alright," Yahya said after a long pause. "I think I understand why you were that heartbroken. That's her, isn't she? Your soulmate. My mother."
Alex nodded.
"I must apologise too," Yahya said. "I knew who she was the very moment I realised she wasn't dead. I knew who she was, and I knew you'd be following. So I kept her close. Maybe I hoped you'd take me back with you to the land of the living... I don't know. But her kindness had taken me completely off guard. She seemed to have realised just how hard it has been to be the only living creature here, just by listening to my story. And then you came, and I found myself enjoying our bickering. I guess I panicked at the idea of being alone again. And I'm sorry, I shouldn't have."
"Yeah," Alex said slowly. "That makes me feel even worse. I'm definitely not leaving you stranded here this time. That's a promise."
"There! All done!" the little girl chose that very moment to chime in. Alex was pretty certain that he still looked like crap, but he decided to humour her.
"How do I look?" he asked Yahya who was looking at him with mischievous lights twinkling in his eyes.
"I'd like to say 'awful', but I'm afraid we look too similar for that," he joked and started walking down the corridor.
"Where are you going?" Alex called after him, still squatting besides the little girl.
"I'm going home to take a bath," Yahya said with an amused grin. "The Shabti dolls must have the bath ready any moment now. Tell mom I say thank you, for getting angry in my stead."
"She's just as much your mother as I am your dad, Yahya! Remember that!" Alex called after him.
"Always so stingy!" Yahya laughed and left.
Alex stared in the direction to which Yahya had left and then at the bathroom door. He wondered for a moment how long it would take Otto to finish her bath and if it would be worth waiting for.
Then his gaze fell on the girl in front of him, who for some reason still hadn't skittered off, even though she obviously had a short attention span.
"So, ... what do you need to do to take a bath around here?" he asked her and her face lit up with a smile.