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Viatrix wound herself on Ignacio's shoulder, exchanging a glance with the wisp that floated nearby before glancing to his husband, the cast-bound, unevenly walking Richard Bell. The drive back to the house after Richard had finally been released had been understandably quiet beyond the two of them belting out a song in unison--albeit Richard's version of unison was a bit unharmonious and tone deaf--and she couldn't help a feeling of unease that it was simply holding back an inevitable tide before it exploded through the dam.

Nothing she could do, though; this was something the two of them needed to discuss on their own accord, and it certainly wasn't going to happen as Ignacio was opening the door to their house.

"You realize your parents are going to be right there?" it was a warning from Ignacio moreso than a question as he fished the bluetooth fob that unlocked the door out of his pocket. He didn't quite wait for an answer, though he did take a moment to look over the husband that he had almost lost forever a few days ago.

Forever.

Not in the sense that Richard would die and Ignacio wouldn't see him again in this lifetime. That was a possibility that still would have torn Ignacio to shreds, but what they were speaking of -- a starseed being stolen, a starseed being taken -- it was different. There was no cycle of rebirth. There was no meeting Richard again when the Cauldron decided to give them both another shot, whether it be on Earth or hopefully on their restored planets--

He shook his head out of it, pressed the fob to the door, and let the group of them in.

The wisp swirled around Ignacio's head as he pushed the door open, floating off toward the stairs to go relax in the room that Richard wished he could go to. It was a place Viatrix was tempted to join, but she admittedly didn't quite feel comfortable leaving until some more of this tension dispersed. Everything was alright, right? Richard was alive after maybe learning his lesson about jumping into fights with generals, Ignacio had perhaps learned his lesson about monologuing--

She doubted either of those in sincerity, though she had noticed over the past few days, Ignacio wasn't necessarily chattering as much.

A tiny mewl of concern was all she gave as Ignacio walked toward the living room space, taking them right near Luke's office. He wasn't quite paying attention if it was occupied or not. "Might be a good idea to sit down," he warned, again, perhaps in part expecting what was to come. It had been a few days. Perhaps it had been mentioned to him.

Luz was laying on the couch, sleeping unaware.

Viatrix grumbled jealousy under her breath.

Not that bad? The dismissiveness of the statement earned Richard a look of confusion from Ignacio, one that only didn't turn into more because Viatrix quickly shushed him, papping him gently on the shoulder. He turned that look to her, then, thought about remarking that he didn't need her to tell him what to do, but instead decided that perhaps it was better to respond to Luke.

"Thanks, Dad," maybe he could minimize the awkwardness and get this to a point where Richard could just go upstairs and take a nap. "How was work today?"

He was still in his home office. He was probably still working. Why was he asking that question? Usually he was a little smoother than that--

The distraction of asking Luke what was up didn't exactly work, and it was only in part because he only loosely understood the difference between compound and simple interest himself. Couldn't run interference even if he wanted to, and to be honest, there was a part of him that wasn't sure he wanted to.

His eyes went from Luke's frown to Richard's frown, back to Luke's frown, and then to Safira's skeptic quirked brow.

That was what Viatrix was paying the most attention to. Safira was something of the house den mother. From what she had understood, Safira had always been like that, but if something was bothering her, it would soon be bothering everyone. She looked between her and Richard and then up to Ignacio, feeling as he shifted and bounced underneath her. It jostled her a bit, and she groused quietly, sticking claws in his shoulder.

Ignacio ignored it, wincing for a moment, but crossing his arms under his chest as Richard insisted he had something about a concussion.

Viatrix did not like the way he looked from Richard to Luke and Safira, again.

"He was having heart palpitations."

Ignacio caught that glare out of the corner of his eye and felt a chill down his spine, but met it with a flat mouth and a mildly quirked brow.

Viatrix did not like this.

She felt the seams of the dam bending, and she might have dug her claws a bit harder into Ignacio's shoulder in hopes of avoiding it. Despite the sting, his attention seemed to be entirely somewhere else.

Perhaps it was the galling excuse he used. Perhaps it was the fact that even without context, Luke and Safira didn't believe him. Perhaps it was because he had been trying to hold the urge to scream and yell and cry and mourn back for days--

"Anxiety?" Ignacio's voice hit a higher register that Viatrix recognized from their singing in the car. "You call all of that anxiety!"

Ignacio caught it, and it plucked at a chord inside his heart that he didn't particularly like. The look he shot Richard wasn't exactly warm and fond, but it was only for a moment before that was torn away by Luke advising him to stop. Richard disagreed. Safira agreed.

All Viatrix agreed was that Luz had the right idea by continuing to sleep. The tension was rising as much in the air as it was in Richard's voice as it was in the way Ignacio's shifting grew a bit faster, the bouncing on the heels of his feet an unstoppable motion that left her giving up and hopping off his shoulder before he threw her off by accident.

She thought about maybe advising everyone in the room to calm down before anyone said something they regretted, and she saw a flash in Ignacio's eyes of sympathy and worry when Richard reminded that he didn't sleep well that gave her hope--

But then he said nothing.

"Oh, by the stars that was nothing." Ignacio's tone wavered between a crying gasp he held back and frustration that had been boiling under the surface. "If it wasn't for Viatrix you would have died, because there was no ******** way I would have known you were in trouble."

Viatrix's pupils widened just a bit. Oh, they were not gonna bring her into this--

Viatrix's eyes got wider.

Oh no.

Both Richard and Ignacio would have earned a glare from her if she wasn't so actively intimidated by the six-foot-five man and especially his five-foot-nine wife next to him that was standing a considerable amount over her and was clearly looking for answers. She'd chew both of their ears out later for this, though perhaps it didn't matter as she watched Richard's body curl into a fetal stone and Ignacio stare at him and rake his hand through his hair like he didn't want to have hair anymore--

"Uh, right, you guys know the lowdown of how all people have starseeds, right? And that's like, your permanent soul. It goes back to the Cauldron and stuff. Uh. Richard insisted on patrolling alone and," she swallowed hard and wished, at that moment, that she was not known as the family resident talking cat. Could she go back to pretending to be as oblivious as Luz? Though maybe not oblivious, it seemed like the dog was shifting to rest against Richard-- "saw a general with a civ and tried to challenge him and the general yanked his starseed with the intention of not giving it back. I, uh, had been following his signal and."

She fidgeted.

"I got Encke over to get the starseed and I also beamed the fire general when he threatened to just crush Basi's--Arra's--neck anyway--"

Ignacio couldn't help the murmur of, "Would've been dead without that civilian, too."

"No, you're not," Ignacio probably should have also realized that enough was enough, but it didn't stop the stress in his voice and the tear that ran down his face because of it, "because of a set of lucky circumstances I couldn't have choreographed better in a movie. Richard, if one piece of that went wrong, one piece, you would be dead. Forever."

Viatrix couldn't help the sigh of relief that the attention seemed to be off her for the moment, her body quickly shrinking down in an awkward crouch as she looked between her bonded, his husband, and his husband's parents. Maybe that was enough to ease the tension.

It didn't feel like it.

"And as people with the knowledge of starseeds we understand death differently --" Ignacio's words were bubbling out before he could stop them, in front of his parents or not. "Arra, that would have been it! And for what! To power them?!"