The aircraft turned out to be exactly as smooth as Alice had promised, and the city blurred into ocean and then into an entirely different skyline within what felt like minutes.
Vina had her face pressed against the window the whole way, breath fogging up a small circle of glass that kept disappearing and reappearing.
"Is that the ocean? It looks so small from up here!"
"Everything looks small from up here." Alice leaned over to look too, grinning. "Wait until you see where we’re eating."
The restaurant sat inside a grove of trees old enough that their trunks alone could have swallowed the apartment building Logan’s family had just left behind.
Platforms wound up through the branches at different heights, connected by rope bridges and soft-glowing lanterns. Tables tucked into hollows and clearings all through the canopy.
```
[ The Elderbough ]
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Daniel stopped walking entirely for a second, just staring up at it. "We’re eating in a tree."
"We’re eating in several trees, technically." She was already leading the way toward the lift that would carry them up. "Come on."
Their table sat in a hollow near the top of the tallest trunk, open on one side to a view that stretched clear to the water, string lights strung overhead like a second layer of stars.
Vina climbed into her seat and immediately started swinging her legs, looking over the edge of the platform with a mix of delight and healthy nervousness.
"Is it safe? What if it breaks?"
"It won’t break." Alice slid into the seat beside her instead of across, close enough to bump shoulders. "Trust me, I’ve eaten here probably a hundred times. Never once fallen out of a tree."
A menu appeared floating in front of each of them, and Vina’s eyes went wide scrolling through it.
"There’s like fifty different desserts."
"Get three." Alice didn’t even look up from her own menu. "I always get at least three."
"Alice." Helen’s voice carried a note of gentle protest.
"She’s a growing girl." Alice waved a hand, already flagging down whoever needed flagging down. "Let her grow."
Vina ended up with two desserts instead of three, a small victory Helen still looked faintly exasperated by.
The conversation drifted easily and unhurriedly through the rest of the meal. Vina wanted to know if Alice had a pet. Alice wanted to know Vina’s favorite subject in school.
Somewhere in the middle of it, Daniel actually laughed, properly, the kind of laugh that looked like it hadn’t gotten much use lately.
"Tell her about the roof." Vina bounced in her seat, grinning. "Tell her about when he tried to fix the roof himself."
Daniel groaned, but he was already smiling wider. "Kid was thirteen. Landlord wouldn’t send anyone out for a leak that’d been dripping into the hallway for two weeks straight, so Logan climbed up there himself with a tarp and half a roll of tape he bought with his own allowance he gathered by secretly working, but told us he found it from trash."
"We knew it was brand new right away." Helen wryly smiled.
"Did it work?" Alice leaned forward, genuinely curious now.
"Held for about three days." Daniel shook his head, fond despite himself. "Then it rained again and we were right back where we started. But he tried. Kid’s always tried."
"Sounds like him." Alice laughed, easy and unguarded. "Doesn’t wait around for anyone else to fix things."
"Never has." Daniel’s smile softened at the edges. "Not since he was small enough that half his ideas didn’t work. He just kept trying anyway."
...
"So." Alice set her fork down once the last of the plates had cleared. "About that house."
"I actually know the perfect spot. Villa district, about a kilometer from where I live." She said it casually, like mentioning a nice coffee shop instead of an entire neighborhood most people would never set foot in. "There’s one place in particular I’ve had my eye on for a while. Big garden, huge trees, a view that’ll make you forget you ever lived anywhere else."
The villa district looked like something out of a postcard nobody could actually afford to visit, wide streets lined with hedges trimmed into careful shapes, houses set far enough apart that neighbors probably had to schedule visits.
Alice had the aircraft settle down in front of a gate a short walk from a house Logan’s family could see clearly enough from the street, pale stone walls half-covered in climbing vines, a garden spreading out behind it thick enough with trees that the roofline barely showed through the canopy.
"This one." Alice pushed the gate open like she already owned it. "Come see the back."
The garden opened up behind the house into something closer to a small forest, old trees arching overhead in a canopy thick enough to filter the evening light into soft green patches on the grass.
Past the treeline, the ground dropped away toward the water, the same endless blue Alice’s own home looked out over. Close enough that Logan’s family could probably hear the waves on a quiet night.
Vina took off running the second her feet hit the grass, disappearing between two of the bigger trees before anyone could tell her to slow down.
"There’s a treehouse back here!" Her voice carried back through the leaves, delighted. "A real one!"
Alice laughed, watching her go. "Didn’t even know about that one. Bonus, I guess."
Helen stood very still near the treeline, one hand pressed against her own chest, looking at all of it like she was waiting for someone to tell her it wasn’t real.
"Alice." Her voice came out thinner than usual. "This is too much."
"It’s exactly enough." Alice looped an arm through Helen’s, gentle. "You’ve spent years giving everything you had to keep that family together. Let someone give something back for once."
Daniel didn’t say anything right away. He just stood there looking at the trees, the garden, the water past them, something working behind his eyes that looked like it hadn’t fully caught up to what was actually happening yet.
"I don’t know how to thank you for this."
"Don’t thank me." She was already turning to follow the sound of Vina climbing something she probably shouldn’t be climbing. "Thank your son. I’m just making sure he’s got something worth coming home to."
Somewhere above them, Vina’s laugh rang out clear through the branches, and for the first time in longer than any of them could probably remember, the whole family just stood there and let themselves enjoy something without worrying about the cost of it.
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