Seducing the Guideverse With My System — Raising an Anomaly [BL]

Hale-Ferguson Residence

"DADDY!"

The first thing Ambrose felt when he stepped into his living room was a little body slamming right into him. He stumbled back a step, eyes wide with surprise.

Then came the warm smile as he looked down on his little sunshine.

"My baby." He crouched, picking up the little boy like he weighed nothing. "Daddy missed you so much. Gosh, did you gain weight while I was gone?"

Gabriel, Valentine and Loki followed behind him while Devon and Viktor stood waiting in front of him. The space god had teleported them here... a move that made him a little drowsy.

Despite Ambrose’s successful guiding, he still needed at least a few more hours to fully recover. Slipping so close to going berserk while redirecting an anomalous tear in space-time millions of miles away can do that to you.

"I had Uncle Viktor’s Beef Extravaganza this afternoon!" Orion said with a cheesy grin. "Then papa’s parfait this evening."

Viktor snorted. "Wow. So now he can pronounce parfait correctly but not Stroganoff?"

Everyone laughed heartily at that.

Ambrose’s chest had never felt lighter. He was back. Not only that, but surrounded by the people he loved the most in the world.

It’s been so long since life felt so... gold.

"Rose," Devon crossed the room first, arms stretching out to hold him. For a few seconds he couldn’t say anything, simply staring at his boyfriend like he was afraid he’d disappear again. Then, "When Loki texted, I thought it was one of his usual tricks."

Loki gasped. "Hey! I resent that. Name one time I’ve tricked any of you."

"You did pretend to be an Esper in Rose’s new Guild. Didn’t you?"

"That was for a world-saving mission. And look how it turned out." They stepped forward, patting Rose on the shoulder. "Our ’little Guide’ somehow ended up defeating two Extinction-level threats."

Devon twisted his lips judgementally. "Those two things have zero correlation—wait." His mind finally caught up with what Loki said, gaze moving to Ambrose. "You did what now?"

Ambrose huffed. "Yeah, I guess this is the part where I tell you all what I went through while I was gone."

Valentine immediately shook his head. "It’s already past dinner time. You don’t have to—"

"But I want to." Ambrose adjusted Orion in his arms, bobbing his head towards the couches. "Come on."

Viktor chirped. "I’ll get drinks!"

Orion raised a hand excitedly. "Can I get some more parfait?"

"It’s finished, little one."

"Aw. What about ice cream?"

The Ice Prince could only grumble about how he wished Orion had stayed asleep as he left for the fridge—the others tailing Ambrose to the couches.

★★★★★

"Well... damn." Loki sucked in an exasperated breath by the time Ambrose had finished explaining everything that happened during his disappearance. "And all this—the monsters, getting chased by the Void Entity, the elves—happened in a day?"

Ambrose nodded, taking a sip from the vodka soda Viktor handed him. "Crazy but yep."

Valentine arched a brow from the couch opposite his. "And you’re... you’re now an S-Rank Guide?"

"Aether hybrid," Ambrose corrected. "I said this before. I’m technically both an Esper and a Guide. Which is what the system calls an ’aether Hybrid’."

[Whoop, whoop! I feel like I’m part of this conversation even though I’m in your head.]

"So Kali’s vision was accurate after all." Loki blew raspberries. "Ugh. I owe her an apology for doubting her."

"To be fair, I had my doubts at first too." Gabriel sighed, sitting to Ambrose’s right. "Those poor elves though. It’s gonna take decades to rebuild what they’ve lost."

"Meh." Ambrose shrugged with a wry smile. "They’ve got long life spans to pull through with that." He brushed his fingers through Orion’s hair as the kid clung peacefully to his chest. "Anyway, enough about me. Anything new happened while I was gone?"

Devon—who sat to his left with an arm resting on the headrest—coughed awkwardly. "Not... exactly."

Viktor, who sat beside Devon, threw his face to the side, pretending like he was too busy drinking his vodka soda. "Nothing interesting at all."

Ambrose frowned, searching through all their faces. "Uhm..." a pause. "Why are y’all acting weird?"

"Because we broke apart after you left," Valentine murmured loud enough for him to hear. "Basically. To us it was a week. And I... thought something had happened to you."

"Valentine disappeared too." Loki crossed one leg over the other.

"I did not disappear."

"You were away from Aurelia until recently."

"Bouncing between cities isn’t disappearing. I needed the change of scenery... to clear my head." Valentine’s voice became sulky.

Ambrose’s stomach coiled with guilt.

He swallowed, lowering his head. "I regret not having a way to reach out to you guys while I was jumping between dimensions."

Viktor was the first to shake his head.

"No." His voice was gentle but firm enough to cut through the solemnness settling over the room. "Don’t do that to yourself, Rory."

Ambrose glanced up.

"You disappearing wasn’t your fault."

"It really wasn’t," Devon agreed quietly. "If anything, you were the one fighting for your life."

Ambrose let out a slow breath, his fingers unconsciously tightening around Orion’s tiny hand.

"I’m... not blaming myself."

The confession came softer than he’d intended.

"I just..." He looked between every familiar face surrounding him before giving a small, defeated smile. "I wish I hadn’t been gone for so long."

Silence settled over the living room.

After several seconds, Ambrose chuckled to himself.

"You know..." He rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. "If there’s one thing spending a day trapped between dimensions taught me..." Everyone looked at him. "It’s that I’ve changed."

His gaze drifted toward the sleeping boy resting against his chest before moving to Devon, Viktor, Gabriel, Valentine and finally Loki.

"There was a time when I thought I could survive losing anyone as long as I kept moving." He laughed under his breath. "Turns out... I can’t."

His smile trembled just enough to betray how honest he was being.

"Losing you guys is actually scary for me now."

Gabriel didn’t hesitate.

He reached across the space between them, intertwining their fingers before giving Ambrose’s hand a reassuring squeeze.

"You won’t."

Ambrose blinked.

"You’ll never lose us," Gabriel said, his iridescent eyes unwavering. "And we’ll never lose you either."

Devon smiled warmly.

"We’re all stuck together now."

"Forever," Viktor added with a grin.

Valentine folded his arms, pretending to sound inconvenienced. "I’ve already invested too much emotional energy into you to start over with another Guide."

Loki snorted. "Aww." Then, with absolutely zero shame, they pointed dramatically at Valentine. "Baba yaga here admitted to having emotions!"

Valentine rolled his eyes so hard everyone laughed.

The warmth filling the room lingered long after the laughter faded.

Right on cue, the little boy nestled against Ambrose suddenly wriggled in his sleep.

"Mmm." Orion rubbed one eye before mumbling drowsily, "I had... the weirdest dream."

Everyone turned toward him.

"I was... stuck... in a desert..." He yawned. "...made of ice cream."

A beat of silence passed.

Then the entire room burst into laughter again.

"Okay," Viktor said, wiping tears from the corners of his eyes. "That’s enough excitement for one day."

Devon stood, stretching. "Bedtime."

Ambrose smiled, following everyone upstairs.

He didn’t notice Aura’s newest notification quietly appearing before fading away.

[Main Mission Updated.]

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