CHAPTER 56: ONLY YOU CAN CHEER HER UP!

Mika glanced sideways at Charlotte, both of them standing on the back of the sword, still balancing themselves carefully. With a lowered voice, he leaned in a little and whispered.

"She’s giving us the silent treatment, isn’t she?"

Charlotte exhaled slowly, eyes flicking toward her mother with a guilty glance.

"Yeah." She murmured. "Looks like it. That look on her face? Like she doesn’t want to talk to anyone. And those slightly puffed up cheeks, definitely a sign."

"...That’s the classic pout of someone giving the silent treatment and sulking hard right now."

Mika shook his head and let out a breathy laugh.

"You’ve got to be kidding me...Is she really pouting?"

He turned his attention to Yelena, her back to them, not sparing even a glance their way.

"Yelena..." He called out to her. "..don’t be like that."

She didn’t move. Didn’t even blink in their direction but he still raised a brow and pressed on.

"Seriously, are you giving us the silent treatment? Right now? I can’t believe this is happening."

Still no response.

"Come on." Mika groaned dramatically. "This is childish. You’re supposed to be the legendary Yelena. The one who once held the skies apart with one hand and punched a dragon with the other. And now you’re mad because we made a few dumb jokes?"

Charlotte leaned forward, trying to peek at her mother’s face.

"Mama..." She called softly. "Stop pouting like that. I’m sorry, okay? I didn’t mean to make fun of you. I was just teasing you. I never doubted you or your trust in Mika, I swear. It was all meant to be a joke. I love you more than anything in the world. Please don’t be mad..."

Yelena didn’t turn. Her arms were crossed and her chin was lifted ever so slightly. Her entire posture screamed, I’m ignoring all of you and you deserve it.

Mika sighed and rubbed the back of his neck.

"Alright, fine, I’ll say it too. I’m sorry, okay? I shouldn’t have said all that stuff. I shouldn’t have made those bets, or tried to mess around with you. I’ll even give up my win over you, okay? You win. You can keep it. I don’t even care anymore."

He then jabbed a thumb toward Charlotte.

"And if you’ve got to be mad at someone, be mad at her. She’s the one who started all of this. She’s the one crazy enough to jump off that wall.She’s the one who instigated all this chaos."

"...She should be the one getting scolded, not me."

Charlotte’s mouth fell open as she smacked his arm. "Hey! You traitor!"

He didn’t even blink. "Just calling it as it is."

Yelena turned her head ever so slightly, eyes darting back toward them.

Both Mika and Charlotte straightened, hopeful. But then, she looked away again with a quiet huff, her face still pointed in the opposite direction.

Charlotte deflated. "Oh wow...she’s really serious this time."

Mika nodded grimly. "When’s the last time we saw her like this?"

Charlotte blinked, then frowned in thought. "I don’t think I’ve really seen Mama get mad like this in years. At least not while I was around. But back in the old days? It happened all the time."

She tilted her head up, eyes distant as she remembered.

"Back when we were all together as a family...I used to do dumb stuff constantly. She’d scold me, and then if it got really bad, she’d just stop talking to me altogether. That was her final move. The silent treatment. She used to pout for hours."

Mika gave a soft chuckle. "Sounds about right."

Charlotte grinned, just a little. "The last time I saw her like this...must’ve been when you were still living with us. It was, um...I think the first year of middle school. Yeah. Our teacher made us write an essay on who our personal idol was, remember?"

Mika raised a brow. "Oh yeah...Remind me who you wrote about."

Charlotte cringed. "I wrote about Auntie Anya."

There was a beat of silence and then Mika burst into laughter. "Oh my god, no way."

She nodded sheepishly. "Oh yeah. Mama saw it, and she got so mad, she wouldn’t talk to me for the entire day. Not a single word."

"Even when the rest of them tried to talk to her, she just...ignored everyone. Walked around the house like she was some tragic queen who’d been betrayed."

"I remember that." Mika laughed. "I walked in and thought someone had died. The mood in the whole house was frozen. And you, ha! You looked like you were going to cry the whole time."

"I was going to cry!" Charlotte said, flustered. "I had no idea it’d upset her so much! I mean, back then I really did idolize Auntie Anya! She was so cool and composed and powerful and badass!"

Suddenly, Yelena slowly turned her head and glared over her shoulder.

Charlotte froze. "N-No, wait, that was back then! I swear, I don’t idolize her anymore! My hero is you! You’re my one and only Mama! No one else! Please don’t get mad again!"

Yelena let out a little "hmph" and looked away again.

Mika leaned toward Charlotte and whispered. "You’re really bad at this."

"I panicked, okay?!"

Charlotte then looked at him, her hands clinging to his shirt like it was the only thing keeping her from falling apart, and pleaded with a furrowed brow.

"You have to do something, Mika. You’re the only one who can save us right now."

Mika blinked at her in disbelief. "What are you talking about?"

She glanced behind her toward her mother, who was still dramatically turned away with her arms folded and her face angled toward the clouds, sulking.

"If you don’t do something, Mama’s just going to keep pouting like this. She won’t give up. She might even go for a few tears this time, I’m telling you. You don’t know how stubborn she is when she’s in this state."

Mika groaned softly, his shoulders drooping. "I know that, but what am I even supposed to do? It’s not like I’ve got some kind of special power to fix her mood."

But Charlotte only stared at him, nodding with complete seriousness. "You do. You absolutely do."

He gave her a look. "Charlotte..."

"No, listen!" She insisted, tugging on his shirt like she was trying to physically pull the words out of him. "I’m telling you, even back then, when she got like this, nothing, nothing, worked. I tried everything. The other girls also tried everything."

"Auntie Anya even baked her a cake as an apology for indirectly stealing her daughter away even with her horrible cooking...But she didn’t even flinch."

"I also literally hugged her for hours and kept whispering how much I loved her and how she was the best mom in the world and how she was my hero and all that."

"That’s sweet..."

"And you know what she did?" Charlotte huffed, her eyes wide. "She just sat there. On the sofa. Not a single twitch. Not even a blink. She just patted my head once and went back to staring at the wall."

Mika stared at her.

"I got a sore arm from all the hugging and I cried, okay? I cried! And she didn’t even flinch!"

"...Sounds like a statue."

"She was a statue!" Charlotte exclaimed. "But then you came in. And you, somehow, just said one dumb thing or did something weird and suddenly she was smiling and laughing again. Like magic!"

"...It’s always you! I don’t know what it is you do, but every time, it’s you who makes her happy again."

She clasped her hands together. "So please, Mika...you have to do something. I can’t handle the silent guilt-tripping. She’s a master at it. I already feel bad for breathing, and she hasn’t even said a word."

"That was ages ago, Charlotte." Mika raised his hands helplessly. "I don’t even remember what I did. I just said or did something random and it worked by pure chance. That’s not a repeatable strategy."

"But it is for you." Charlotte said, her voice soft and hopeful. "It is. You always know what to do."

And then she pointed directly at her mother.

Mika followed her finger, and sure enough, Yelena, still pretending to be engrossed in the clouds, was not-so-subtly glancing sideways toward them.

Her face was locked in a carefully crafted expression of dignified hurt, but her eyes...her eyes were clearly watching. Waiting. Hoping.

Charlotte whispered. "Look at her. She wants you to come cheer her up. Even now she’s waiting for you to do something. She’s just too proud to say it."

Yelena stiffened slightly the moment Charlotte pointed and turned her face away even more exaggeratedly, as if deeply offended by the accusation. But the light pink dusting her ears betrayed her.

"She’s so obvious." Charlotte murmured. "So come on, please. Help me out. Only you can fix this."

Mika looked between them, the teary, hopeful daughter and the cold-shouldered guardian with a hundred emotions bubbling beneath the surface, and let out a long, suffering sigh.

"It hasn’t even been half a day since I got dragged back into this family." He muttered, raking a hand through his hair. "And already I’m out here trying to fix everyone’s mood and save the day. I should be asleep right now. I should be hibernating."

But then he smiled softly and murmured,

"But I guess that’s family for you. No such thing as peace. And there’s nothing you can really do about it."

Charlotte’s eyes lit up as he looked at her and nodded once, "Alright. I’ll try something."

Without a moment to lose, she grinned and shoved him gently forward. "Go! Go save us!"

And Yelena, though she was still turned away, was clearly paying very close attention. Her fingers twitched at her side, and she cast another sideways glance, this one even more frequent now, watching his every step.

Even the idea that he might do something for her was already stirring something warm and ridiculous in her chest, though she would rather throw herself off this flying sword than admit that out loud.

She was still mad. He had hurt her pride, and she wasn’t going to let that go that easily.

But...she still wanted him to come to her. To try.

And Mika...stood still for a moment, thinking.

What could he do? What would work?

Then his eyes wandered, and he remembered, Oh right. They were literally traveling through the sky on a giant flying sword.’

An idea clicked.

"...I think I’ve got something." He said aloud.

Charlotte leaned in. "What is it?"

"Well, I guess going to have to enter my Lucid state once again and cook up something." He sighed dramatically, already regretting it. "...Again."

She blinked. "Wait, again? You’ve already entered like five times today."

"I know! That’s what I’m saying!" Mika groaned. "Usually I don’t even enter more than once a month. I save it for serious emergencies. But today? I’ve probably broken my yearly quota!"

He stared up at the clouds, exhausted. "The side effects are going to suck and a pain to deal with. But..."

He glanced at Yelena once more, who was definitely still pretending to be indifferent, but now biting the inside of her cheek to hide her anticipation.

"...sometimes, for family, you just gotta do certain things no matter how much you hate it."