"And I'm sure I have no idea what it's like to have siblings."

"They drive you up the wall but it's so worth it."

Giggle.

"And Mom died a little more than ten years ago."

"I'm sorry," he murmurs.

Snuggly hug. "Sissy was four. I was nine. Alemar was eight. The two of us remember her. Sissy--mostly doesn't."

So much hug.

(he could fix that - but that's not an offer he can make in her family's living room; not many people even know that he can do resurrection, and it's certainly not within the reach of any lesser power.)

"So what's your family like, besides no siblings?" Alemar asks after a moment.

"My mother died when I was a kid, young enough I never knew her to miss her. Caught the wrong side of somebody's ambition. My father when I was a teenager, same cause. We didn't get along well when he was alive, but - I wish I'd had the time to understand him better."

"I'm sorry to hear that," the father says sympathetically. "My father and I were similar--well, he died in an accident on the docks, but in the sense that we never saw eye-to-eye when he was alive." He sighs. "And now it's too late."

"Yeah."

She hugs him harder, closing her eyes and turning her face into him so Alemar won't see the look on her face.

After all, she's the only person in the room besides "Sekar" who knows whose ambition his father caught the wrong side of.

Hugs.

Elcisse comes back in. "...Uh, what'd I miss?"

"Talking about everyone's dead relatives," Alemar supplies. "Oh, and he," he jerks his head at the relevant individual, "apparently has a name: It's Sekar."

"What dead relatives does he have?" she asks.

"Both parents, apparently."

"...That sucks. I'm sorry."

"Thanks."

"I wish I could remember Mom better," she sighs, flopping down on the couch on the opposite side of him from her sister.

He nods. He squeezes Lyrame.

(He's going to offer as soon as they're not right in front of her family.)

She squeezes back.

"Anyway, dinner's not ready yet but it won't be long. Sekar, you're a guest, Dad, you're not well, and Liri--anyway. Alle, I cooked, you set the table," Elcisse declares.

Aww. Lyrame's family is cute.

"My anyway doesn't mean I'm not allowed to cook, if I visit early enough in the day, right?"

"No, of course not, do you think I have the strength of will to deny myself your cooking?" Elcisse asks, and then she half-flops across Sekar's lap to hug her sister.

Sekar giggles, and tries to get out of her way as much as possible given the absence of any escape routes whatsoever.

Alemar laughs and ruffles Elcisse's hair as he passes by to go set the table.

"You know, Sekar hasn't heard you play yet," Lyrame muses.

"That is true," Elcisse says, looking up speculatively at him from her somewhat sprawled hugging position.

"Lyrame mentioned you're musical but I don't think I know what you play."

"I play the flute," she says.

"Oh, pretty."