The family of three sat on the bed. Ashton’s face was red, his eyes were swollen, and his bottom lip jutted out. His look of distress was both pitiable and amusing.

He kept his eyes down, not looking at either parent.

Finally, Kain spoke, his voice soft. "Do you want to tell me what that was about?"

Ashton sat there playing with his fingers, not saying anything.

Kain pulled him onto his lap. He ruffled his hand and let the child lean on him.

"Do you remember what I told you? We’re your parents. We’ll always be here for you. Your mom and I are right here. Are you crying because your experiment went wrong?"

Ashton stiffened. Kain felt it and thought that was the problem.

"Experiments are about trial and error. You don’t need to feel down because of that. I couldn’t do what you did, so what’s there to cry about?"

Ashton’s head was still low; he refused to speak. Kain shared a look with Amelia. He didn’t know what to say.

Was it really the experiment?

"Ashton," Amelia called softly, ruffling his hair, "is this not about the experiment? Is it something else?"

He looked up through his lashes. Amelia saw it and continued speaking.

"Since it’s not the experiment, why don’t you tell us? We aren’t going anywhere until you say. We’ll sleep right here. The three of us can talk for the night."

Kain narrowed his eyes and pursed his lips with a look that said, ’Sleep where?’

Amelia ignored him and continued consoling Ashton.

Finally, the little one lifted his head and spoke, "Will you still want me if I’m a failure?"

The question caught them off guard. So it was about the experiment?

"What do you mean, Ash?" Amelia asked. "Experiments fail all the time."

Ashton shook his head. "Not about the experiment." His lip quivered. "Doctor Ugly said, ’Subjects 398, 399, and 400 show no improvement. No empathic fluctuations. No response to situational danger. The S gene shows no sign of activation. Subjects rejected, sent to disposal. Subjects 401, 402, and 403 have already exhibited signs of awakening...’

Brother said that if you know we’re failures, you won’t want us anymore. We can’t find Doctor Red, and we don’t have anywhere else to go. I don’t want to leave. Don’t throw me away."

By the end, Ashton was crying again. Snot and tears ran down his face.

Kain couldn’t tell what he was feeling. There was a mix of complex emotions that he couldn’t name. He was berating himself earlier for not being a proper parent.

Now it seems Ashton and the others didn’t consider themselves proper children. They’re still thinking in terms of what they learned in the lab. They thought they were disposable.

He’s crying not because the experiment failed, but because they saw his failure. They saw his inability to be a normal child.

He thought back to when he was hoping they could be rowdy like other people’s children, and he couldn’t help but want to knock himself out.

Amelia’s feelings were also complicated. She hadn’t thought that her decision to make genetically superior children would turn into something like this. They are so afraid of being thrown away, they don’t dare show anything other than what they think she and Kain want to see.

She can admit that because she saw them capable of taking care of themselves, she never thought of giving any extra love and care to them. Her thoughts were mainly on Kain.

Now, it seems she was wrong.

Her eyes met Kain, and she saw the same swirling mix of emotions, and they realized they were both wrong.

"Ash, you aren’t a failure." Kain wrapped him up in his arms.

This was his child. Though unexpected, he was still his own flesh and blood.

Pulling away, he looked Ashton in the eyes. The child was hiccuping with worry.

"Do you really think your mother and I thought you three were normal children?"

His eyes widened. He looked between Kain and Amelia. Gently flicking his forehead, Kain continued.

"When we found you three, you were trying to kill someone. That’s not normal child behaviour. We gave you dead bodies to play with. We let you have the kind of freedom no parent would normally give a five-year-old. It’s because we know you aren’t normal that we don’t fuss over you.

But that’s where we went wrong, too. We should have treated you like normal children. We should have given you more boundaries or whatever it is for you to feel loved.

And I can tell you one thing. Doctor Ugly was wrong about you. Do you think crying as hard as you did means you have no empathy? You just don’t feel it the way others do. 𝐟𝕣𝕖𝐞𝐰𝕖𝚋𝐧𝗼𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝗰𝐨𝐦

Now stop crying and let’s get you cleaned up. We’re going to find your siblings. We need to have a proper talk."

As they cleaned Ashton up, they would shower him with kisses and toss him around playfully. The little one laughed more in those few minutes than they had seen him laugh in the almost two months they had known him.

When he was finally cleaned up, Kain couldn’t help throwing one last jab at him.

"Don’t worry, I won’t tell your big brother and little sister that you’re a crybaby."

Ashton’s eyes opened wide like he couldn’t believe what he just heard.

"Dad, you’re an adult. You should make fun of children."

"You’re my child. I can make fun of you. When you’re old enough, you can roast me a few times. I won’t mind."

This sentence was the beginning of the centuries-long feud between father and son. But that is many years yet to come.

Now, the two adults and one child are walking towards Avery’s room. Ashton is resting on Kain’s shoulder, looking tired, but refusing to sleep.

When coaxed, he said he needed to see whether his little sister and brother would cry, so he wouldn’t fall asleep yet.