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TRANQUIL 

JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA

'𝕀 saw something on the television today.'

No answer. The little boy sighed and continued, pushing himself on the covers and shaking his mother's shoulders lightly. He was intent on letting her know. The tired woman was fast asleep, her lips letting out a soft hum of appreciation as she felt her son's touch. 

'A superhero, mom,' said Kit, his voice bizarrely enthusiastic at such an hour. 'His name is Captain America. He has a shield.'

Luna forced herself to remain resolved when her son called her mom instead of mother. The slang from around their region had started to etch onto him and it was unsettling. Kit was to follow some edicts and the news channel was out of bounds but he had broken it. So instead of lashing out, she focused on the darkness and pressed herself back to slumber. She had a long day forward and she would deal with it when the sun came up. Later.

'Psst, mom.'

Besides, Luna knew where this was going to end. She didn't bother to chid him to get back to sleep because whatever had been in his mind through the evening was one searing bullet of confusion and it was for the better if he let it all out. So she turned a deaf ear to his babbles, lulling to a much-needed sleep.

'He is so strong,' Kit whispered again, tugging at the ends of her sprawled hair. 'He's real. And he fights for people like us.'

Her eyes snapped open in dismay. Shifting her position so she could face her wide-eyed son, she felt a wave of paranoia hit as his little hands lurched forward to seize her shoulder so that he could comfy himself over her stomach. He was so tiny and delicate, how much ever she had strived to keep him healthy she couldn't come to accept that he had a grave case of malnutrition. 

'Do you remember what you told me about father?'

Her breathing hitched at the question she had unknowingly sauntered into. A frail topic at an ungodly hour, even so, she willed herself to strap on a tight smile and ask her son back. 'What did I say?'

'Silly ma,' he murmured and she played along, pouting her lips. 'You told me that he was a hero, too. That he saved us from the blue men.'

An achingly implicative smile lit Luna's face, as she traced the features that he had reaped from his father. The arched lips with a pointy jaw which made his father look more hawkish than the rest of the Shi'arians. Her son took more of her soft features - her amber eyes, small features, and slender nose. Without the auburn hair and the roundness of his face, much of her love would be disremembered. She didn't want that and she was so grateful that there was some of his father left back for her to cherish.

The good times screened at the back of her mind: the conditions that were simpler. When she was unbothered, young and so in love. El'vira was a knight of the Imperial Guard on the warrior planet Shi'ar, he was the finest Shi'arian known in history - noble, commanding and worthy of a title. He is quite the catch, her sisters used to tease and say, you'd make beautiful children. Young Lou'nare, half-born, met this venturing and decreed soldier on her home and soon enough, they were in love. The people at on his planet admonished them - mocked them - cast away their marriage as star-crossed. And yes, most of them had turned out to be precise after the Kree struck them.

'He did,' she offered tautly after a moment, reality sinking back in. 'He loves you very much.' She used his daze as her upper hand, slinking down into a resting position and bringing him into the circle of her arms. 'He told me that when Ka'rier grows up, he's going to be stronger than him. That you are a warrior.'

The Kree-Shi'ar war lasted nights till the end, billions of fighters on ships far above the surface and risking their lives for innocents. Unwilling to be annexed by the Hala empire, they fought and fought but all in vain. Captive under Hala's rule, woman and children were abducted to the empire and El'vira knew he had a high stake.

On that long, blood-soaked twilight, he urged his family to board the starship and escape to Earth, he had kissed his wife and child and told them he could not make any promises except the one. That he would not stop loving them until his last breath. Lou'nare, scared for him, begged him to come with. Of course, the patriotic soldier had vowed to stay back and rebel for their kind and for his planet. And that was the last she had seen Eli. Her last goodbye and the sight of him pressing his hands to his lips, sending his love to the both of them as they vanished into star space.

I did not perish, Lou. Tell him I am exploring universes; searching for him.

'I have an idea,' he murmured, looking up at his mother with her own eyes. She tipped her chin, puzzled from her trance. 'We can ask Captain America to search for father. Bring him back to us.'

'I don't think that's possible, my heart.'

'Why not?' A whine laced his tone and she sighed in weariness. She could feel her lids getting heavy as the moments passed and her inquisitive son was not of any help. 

'Because he's far away,' she tried to explain, using her hands to create the motion of distance. 'He's in the stars.'

'But I can't reach that far,' he wondered out loud. 'Why did someone do such a thing?'

She laughed, sinking her cheek deeper into the covers. 'Probably someone who hates dreamers like you.'

'I hate him,' he grumbled out in a childish remark. Even without him mentioning, she knew who he was referring to. She blinked a tear away, not bothering to scold him for his irresponsible words. Kit's anger was justified, she thought. 'I hate him for leaving us.'

She choked out a few comforting words, rubbing his shoulder. 'I know. It's okay.'

Relief washed over her when he went hushed, turning on his side to press his nose into her chest and his breathing became gradual. His hands clutched the material of her shirt tightly, sniffing her scent. She let out a smile at his odd habit of taking in people's scent, resting her chin over his head and calming her senses. Outside, the sky was dark tranquility and married the stars which made them shine brighter. They never had moons in the planet back home but over here, the moon changed sizes every day. It affected the waves at sea and the temperature. It was a beautiful planet - so lush, full of life and her harbor.

She sang under her breath, oblivious to the tone or normalcy and patting her young one to sleep. Looking down at him, she thought of she could never be enough for him. Of how this boy deserved more than a strange planet and a person other than herself to connect to. 

It was what both of them needed on their homestead. 

A bond.

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