Autumn & Winter (A Villains & Monsters Novella)

Chapter 4

- Two weeks later -

Simon gently chewed the edge of his pen as he read through more papers.

According to Tony's notes, things are looking pretty good. The best it's been. We can definitely move forward with some other projects. Storage C7 can be expanded, then it can be renovated into a training gym for some of the new guys, he thought as he scribbled down some extra notes of his own.

Once he closed the binder full of papers, he sighed quietly as he rested back in his chair. He had been in his office for a few hours now.

He heard the door open, and when it shut again, he looked up and smiled at the child with pigtails that ran into the room. "What are you doing?"

"We're playing hide and seek with Austin," Sasha said, and she opened up his closet and climbed inside. "Hide me!"

He stood up and shut the closet door once she was inside. His Dad had quite a few errands to run, so he offered to watch his younger siblings since he wasn't as busy as usual. While he went over some paperwork, Austin volunteered to play with them.

"Sunshine, where's your brother hiding?" he whispered to her.

"He went down the other way."

Okay, not too far from here. Simon heard footsteps approaching, and he shushed her before sitting back down and going back to writing some careful notes on his papers. There was a knock on the door, then Luca walked in with a bright grin. "Hey."

"Hey, how is everything?"

"Good. It's-" He heard a small movement, and he turned towards the closet with a puzzled expression.

"I have the kids with me today," Simon said.

He exhaled. "Okay, that scared the shit-- I mean, shoot!"

Sasha giggled and poked her head out from the closet. "You said a bad word!"

"Did not," he said as he stuck his tongue out at her.

"Did too."

"Did not."

"Did too! Daddy says that villains say bad words all the time." She then frowned. "I said since we were villains too, then why do Silas and I have to eat green beans? And since I'm a villain, I want to drink that brown stuff that Mommy and Sisi drink."

Simon chuckled, "Sasha, you're too young to drink coffee."

The door opened again, and when Austin walked in, he saw Sasha and smiled brightly. "Found you."

"No fair!" She whined. "I was talking with them."

"It's true," Luca said, "You'll have to restart."

"How did you even fit in the closet? Simon keeps a bunch of random stuff in there," Austin said as he picked Sasha up and put her on his shoulders, and she laughed the whole way up. It was one of her favorite activities. One thing that Simon loved about his circle was how close they got to his family. It never failed to make him smile.

"Hey, Austin?" she asked.

"Yes, sunshine?"

"Can we go find Wylan now? I wanna see him and play with Riley."

"He's a little busy right now, so he'll meet us at the park later on this afternoon." Simon said, and when the timer on his phone went off, he stood up, "Sisi should be taking her break now. Why don't we go find Silas, then I'll take you two to her so you guys can get some lunch?"