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The moon hung heavy in the sky when Adenah made her way to Thea and Rydan's home. She'd been gone for an extended mission - two months, at that - and had come home with an exhaustion that clenched her soul. The things she'd seen...the things she did...Adenah was tired of it all, but she couldn't stop. Not if she ever wanted a hope of being together with her family.

The first thing she did upon coming back to the city was to take a bath and wash off the blood. As much as she wanted to see them she couldn't let them see her like this. Dovian would come after, but right now Adenah needed to make sure her babies were okay.

They weren't little anymore; far from it, actually. She'd missed so much in their younger years that Siofra's mistake only seemed natural. Adenah had never hated her daughter for calling Thea mom. The woman was raising her after all and it just...slipped.

Despite her size Adenah's presence was soft on the roof. A practiced ease kept her footsteps light, but she was purposefully a little louder over what she knew to be Thea's room. She tapped a certain spot three times just to let them know it was her and not an intruder before going over to where her children slept. After taking a deep breath to steel her nerves Adenah knocked on the roof in the same way.

Adenah settled herself on the roof and waited for her daughter to wake. The city at night was still as lively as it ever was, but there was a certain tranquility about it. If one could ignore the seedy underbelly, that is~

When she heard the window unlatch Adenah waited, but when Siofra didn't make herself known she took some steps of her own. The hybrid laid on her belly, grasped the edge and leaned over the edge.

Gods, had Siofra always been that big? It seemed like yesterday she'd been to her knees and now...

"Hey, sunshine~"

Adenah winced and murmured a quiet, "Sorry." She turned her head, a wave of red draping down underneath her head. A part of her worried that if she were spotted right now she'd be an incredibly easy target, but Adenah was ready to take the risk.

Reading sign upside down, though...was far harder than she would have liked. The hybrid turned her head again, mouthing the signs until the meaning hit her and she made an 'o' with her mouth. "No, no, it's okay. Let him sleep. I'll come back tomorrow."

Thinking on it, she asked, "Do you want to come up here? Or will your Aunt be mad if you're on the roof?" It was Thea's house, after all, and whatever rules she set in place Adenah would follow.

It was a combination of Adenah's angle and the reading of sign language in general that made her a little slower to catch on. Still, she practiced frequently enough that the hybrid was able to pick up and she nodded before adjusting to pull herself back up onto the roof.

Adenah took a careful look around, making sure she couldn't hear anything unsavory before backing up and giving her daughter plenty of room to join her. The first thing she did - once Siofra was safely on the roof, of course - was give her baby girl a big hug. "I missed you so much, starshine."

"Oh! Oh!" Adenah leaned back just enough to look at Siofra with a big smile before going back to hugging her. She didn't want to make too big of a deal about it, especially since she knew how infrequently her daughter spoke. It was just such a great moment that she couldn't keep it contained.

Standing there, just the two of them, it was easy to forget what kept them separated. It didn't matter how big Siofra got she would always fit against Adenah like the precious little sunflower she'd always been and Adenah would cherish every moment they got.

"Have you been good for your Aunt and Uncle? Getting along with your cousins?"

Seeing that nod gave Adenah's heart a softer sort of smile. As nice as it was to hear it was bittersweet. She wished so badly that she didn't have to hear all of this after the fact, but better to hear it now than never.

"Then you're a better girl than I was. When I was your age I started sneaking out and getting into trouble." Of course, the consequences for getting caught varied. If Tes had found her his scolding's were minor and he'd mostly ask about what she did. If Dris ever found her....Well, she'd always hoped her father would distract her.

"Animals, huh? Any cute ones?" She'd never been one for animals herself, but who could say no to the little fuzzy ones? "Oh, he can't be that bad."

"Woah, woah, back up." Adenah lifted her hand and made rotating motions with her palm like she was rolling back time. "You got into a fight?" Evidently Thea must not have known about it or she would have said something. At least, Adenah hoped she would have. She put one hand on Sio's shoulder and looked her over, though she didn't see any stab wounds or major breaks...

Had Grunt's men figured out who the kids were? Were they already being targeted? "What happened? Were you alone or was someone with you?"

If she hadn't been looking for bigger wounds Adenah might have noticed something was off about her daughter, but the distraction worked. She turned her crimson eyes back to the girl and looked at her hands, her disapproval still as evident as ever. The only time Adenah was able to really hide her emotions was during a job and even then it was hard.

"Why wouldn't they like you?" She huffed, waiting for her to explain and when she did...

"Are you kidding me?!" Adenah's mouth dropped a little in outright disgust before the older hybrid huffed and tossed her hands into the air. "How stupid can they be? Thea would never cheat on Rydan and that should have been enough." But it never would be, would it? Adults might have quietly passed it by, but kids were brutal in their honesty. "I hate this so much. Your Uncle's half shifter, same as me, so they should have left it at that."

Adenah rubbed her temples with her hands and clenched her teeth. "You just wait until this mess blows over. The day it does I'm finding every single one of those kids, shaving them bald and painting a giant moon on the tops of their fat heads."