The Job

"Victor, have you figured out the solution to problem six?" Umbra asked, watching his son furiously scribble in his notebook.

The hectic events of the weekend had passed and Monday started a new week, which meant it was school time for Victor.

Due to Victor's social and speech problems, Umbra and Matthew had opted to homeschool him so he could learn in a minimum-stress environment. Sitting on the living room floor, Umbra personally education him on the topics that were required by the state of Michigan. Victor, for the most part, caught onto the majority of the material, but mathematics still frustrated him.

"Um..." Victor turned around, awkwardly staring at Aunora, who was causually studying him and his progress. Esper, in the form of a snake, curled in her lap and yawned contently. 

Umbra crossed his arms, huffing. "Aunora, could you perhaps go somewhere else? You're making Victor uncomfortable." Despite the polite nature of the question, Umbra's tone lacked even the smallest bit of kindness towards Aunora.

"You're making me uncomfortable." Aunora replied, mocking Umbra's sophisticated manner of speaking.

"I don't talk like that!"

"Yeah, you kinda do. You got this weird, kinda British accent thing going on. Right, Esper?" Aunora smirked, poking the green serpent on the cheek. The snake stirred, shifting back into his human form and leaping onto the floor.

"Please, Aunora, Umbra, bickering isn't going to achieve anything. If our presence is making Victor uncomfortable, then we should go somewhere else." Esper said calmly, holding up his palms.

"What else can we do? Umbra won't let us turn on the TV or go in any other room 'cept the one we sleep in. I'm bored! I'm ready for us to finally do some mercenary work." Aunora grumbled, crossing her arms.

"We've only been enlisted for a day and a half. You can't expect us to receive a job this early in our career." Umbra murmured, not looking at Aunora as he tapped a passage in the textbook Victor was holding in his lap. "Here, dear, re-read this portion. It explains in detail how to do long division." Sighing, the boy nodded and ran his finger along the lines of text to keep his place as he read.

"I'm itching to finally get out there and fight! Team Silver Moon: the invincible mercenaries!" Aunora declared, pumping her fist.

"How are we invincible?" Umbra replied skeptically, squinting.

"Well, the pip-squeak's a necromancer, so we've got an unlimited amount of resets in case one of us screws up and dies or something." Aunora said cockily, clicking her teeth at Victor.

The child blinked, a shadow of fear falling across his face. Without opening his mouth, Victor made a low groan, turning his back on everyone in the room and pouring over his textbook.

"What's with the kid? That didn't sound good." The demon horse muttered, putting her hands on her hips. "C'mon, Necromancer Whisper, get something out of him."

Umbra cupped Victor's face in his hands, pulling him close. His son hastily whispered something into his ear, and then drew back to his work.

"He says that the zombie spell is a once-only thing. Meaning, Aunora, if you die again, Victor can't revive you." Umbra closed his eyes, muttering under his breath. "Luckily."

Before Aunora could respond to Umbra's acidic side comment, the pleasant sound of violins started to play. Umbra glanced down at his side, where his phone had illuminated in alert of an incoming call. Under a smiling picture of Matthew and Victor stated the text "Incoming Call From Matthew :P"

Aunora snorted, leaning down to look at his cellphone. "You have a tongue-out emoticon next to his name? That's so dumb."

"Shut up! Matthew and Victor took my phone and messed with it, and honestly the changes were too cute for me to reset." Umbra snapped, his cheeks turning red. Dragging his finger across the 'answer' button, he brought the phone to his ear. "Hello, Matthew. What's going on?"

Victor stared blankly at Umbra as he stood up and paced around the kitchen, the muffled voice of Matthew barely within Victor's earshot.

"What? Speakerphone? Why? I don't want the rest of them hearing our conversation." Umbra grumbled, his eyebrows knitting. He paused as Mattew chattered for several seconds. "Alright, fine..." he sighed, rolling his eyes. "I'm not rolling my eyes!" Umbra said defensively, pulling the phone away from his ear. "I'm putting you on speakerphone now!"

Laying the phone on the counter, Umbra pressed the corresponding button on the screen and Matthew's voice was suddenly heard loud and clear.

"Testing, testing, one, two, three!" Matthew cheered, the audio crackling from his loud tone.

"Hi Dad!" Victor squeaked, his eyes lighting up.

"Hey, kind." He cooed back, his German accent becoming more defined.

"So, what was this big announcement you wanted to tell everyone?" Umbra murmured, leaning his arms on the counter.

"Oh, yeah, that! Okay, so like, this morning this guy came in the resturant, talking with his buddy about how they needed help with their business. I was quite interested, so as I served him his breakfast, I put in a comment about how Team Silver Moon was available for missions-"

"You told people that was our team name? I didn't agree to that! You just put it down on the papers without running it by me!" Umbra exclaimed, rubbing his forehead.

"Ah, no use crying over spilled milk, Umbry. Anyway, I chatted with the two guys for a while, and we eventually came to an agreement! I got us our first mission!"

Author's Notes- Ah, not as long chapter, lol. It seems that like every new chapter I release is a long one. This book is gonna be huge q.q So, like, 'Kind' is German for child/kid, pronounced like we would say 'kindergarten', I'm assuming. I'm no expert on the German language, but I hope to learn it soon! Anyway, please vote, comment, and tell your friends about this story!