“Hi mom,” Lito’s voice rang out over the phone, “hi dad.”

“Hey kiddo,” his father greeted, “you’re on speaker phone.”

“It’s just you and mom?” the young shifter clarified.

“Just us,” his mother nodded, “so feel free to say whatever you want to say.”

“I saw big sis,” Lito said, words rushed almost to the point that they became one word, “and we’ve talked.”

“Really?” his mother breathed, fighting to keep her smile from showing, “Is…..is she alright? Are you getting along?”

“She’s great,” Lito told them, “we’re getting along awesome.”

“That’s good.”

“Is….,” his father struggled to form the right words, “does she…….hate…..us?”

There was a long, sad silence on both ends of the phone call.

“No,” Lito finally said, “she doesn’t. She never did, not really.”

“She really should,” his father sighed, “what happened…….she should hate us with everything she has.”

“Yes,” his mother nodded sadly, fighting back the tears.

Even if she said that her oldest child should hate her, even if she meant it, it still hurt. The idea of her beautiful little girl hating her……….it was so very painful.

“But she doesn’t,” Lito was quick to say, “I mean, she doesn’t………she doesn’t love you like a mother and father, but she doesn’t hate you either.”

God, Lito could hit himself for saying that to his parents. Hearing that Sori didn’t love them probably hurt so much. And he’d gone and told them that! He was such a fool, no wonder he was failing his classes.

“I understand,” his father sighed, “of course she wouldn’t love us like a mother and father. We’ve never been that to her.”

“We’re strangers,” his mother nodded, silent tears running down her face, “it’s natural that she wouldn’t have any emotional attachment to us.”

“We can fix that though,” Lito said, “right?”

It wasn’t exactly a secret that Lito had dreams of his family being complete and happy like other families. Ever since he was five and learned about his older sister, he’d wanted nothing else. Every birthday and Christmas, he’d wished for Sori to come home and everything to be perfect.

Even now he wished for that above all else. It was just that now he knew wishes couldn’t make such a thing happen. If he wanted his family together and happy, he knew that they would all have to work for it. He was willing and he knew that Sori would try. Their parents would love nothing more than to have both their children home and happy.

They just needed to try!

“I don’t know,” his father sighed, “Sori……she has her own life. She’s made her own family, I don’t know if she would want to let us back into her life.”

“Not as parents anyway,” his mother added.

“She wants you in her life,” Lito told them, “I know she does. Yeah, maybe it won’t be as mother and father like I know you want, but……..being in her life is better than nothing, right?”

“You’re right,” his father finally said.

“How’s school?” his mother asked, deciding that it was time to move on from the sad topic they had been on.

“Yes,” his father nodded, “have your grades been improving?”

“Not until I got a tutor,” Lito told them, “well, actually I have six.”

“I’m proud of you,” his father smiled, “knowing to ask for help when you need it is a very important skill. Even many adults don’t know when they need to do that.”

“Why six, though?” his mother couldn’t help but ask.

“Well,” Lito shrugged, “originally I just wanted Ravi to tutor me, but I thought that getting his friends involved would make things easier. Like Hyuk’s best a math, so he’d be better to help me in that area then, like, Ken who’s not that great at math.”

“I see,” his mother nodded in understanding.

“You seem to know these guys,” his father noticed, “are they friends of yours?”

“They’re Sori’s friends,” Lito said, “and Ravi is her boyfriend.”

“Her boyfriend?”

“Yeah?”

“…….”

“Dear?”

“Dad?”

“……..when is the next parent’s day?”

“……….next week,” Lito said, “why?”

“I think it’s time I met this Ravi boy,” was all his father said before leaving the room.

“Oh dear,” his mother laughed, “I think you should get Ravi prepared for next week. Your father is going to want to have a nice, long talk with him.”

“Yeah,” Lito nodded, recalling all too well his father’s face when he heard about Sori’s relationship with Kris.

A/N: so, this is a little on the short side, sorry about that, but since this chapter is mostly about Sori and Lito’s family situation …..i didn’t think it was right to add anything more then what I did (too much or too little would take away from what's going on).