Author's Note: Sorry this took so long.
Ken had always wanted siblings... hell it's half the reason he'd loved being part of the Adolescent Avengers--all the benefits of having brothers and sisters, without any of the drawbacks.
And right now, Ken was really feeling the drawbacks of having two twelve year old "little brothers" for lack of a better term. Jack and Ethan as mentors had been confident, pushy, and cocksure, sure, but they'd also been patient, encouraging, and thorough with him over the last six years that he'd grown up under their eyes. Now that the shoe was on the other foot and Ken was now their mentor--or "Sensei" as both Ethan and Jack had dubbed him in a half-joking attempt to make light of the boot camp that "Sidekick School" Ken was putting them through to turn "Stealthy Scout" and "The Kickboxing Kid" from second-hand thoughts into serious sidekicks.
Today that had meant getting up before dawn, coming down the "The Gym" running a brisk two mile run for cardio, followed by a tiny bit of weights (not too much of that--Ken had heard horror stories from the older Ethan of Kid Hercules who had done nothing but trained his body too hard too young), and then a run through the obstacle course that Ken had spent the week after the funeral building to keep himself from thinking about how despite not being gone, the Ethan Keller he knew was as good as dead.
He had thought the funeral would have helped him put an end to that chapter of his life, but oddly burying the Blue Boxer and Lumberjack disguises in those coffins hadn't had the intended effect he'd wished.. In some ways, Ken still expected adult Ethan to come swaggering down stairs, half hungover from maintaining the cover of being a reckless rich playboy, only to force them both to train--or for Lumberjack to swing by and taunt them both calling them city boys who didn't know a good hard day's work as he coached Ken on how to spar with Ethan from the sidelines. Everywhere Ken turned he could imagine adult Ethan and Jack, and then to see their young selves there instead... Ken couldn't escape them. That's why he had given the kids some time off after the funeral and just built that damn obstacle course and tried to just let his mind go blank as he built the damn thing by hand.
Anansewa had stayed and helped build it too, Cyberteen as well for a few days but he had left when the course was only halfway done, while Anansewa still stuck around. And for the first time in as long as Ken had known her, she had taken off her suit and asked him to call her by her real name, Anuli. Anuli Nwadike. It was a pretty name, and matched her own lovely rich brown eyes with flecks of gold that he'd never seen hidden behind the whited out eye slits her domino mask had. She had stayed because Wonder Witch had still not returned to Earth with the Red Flame and Hippolyta the Warrior Princess. And rather than see her alone, Ken and Amelie agreed it only made sense she should stay. At least that's the excuse all three had publicly agreed upon. Ken knew the truth was she was worried about him. He wasn't blind, just in denial.
"Hey... Sensei Sweat... can we... take a break?" panted Jack.
"We've had like barely had any sleep..." whined Ethan.
"It's not my fault you two stayed up until 3 AM playing Fortnite," countered Ken, recalling how Ethan would've handled a whiny complaint from Ken years ago, he teased, "After the day you're about to have, you'll fall asleep before you hit the bed tonight."
"What? I thought we were done after this course?!" protested Ethan, mid-climb across the horizontal climbing wall portion of the Obstacle Course.
"What did he say?" asked Jack, who had also stopped mid-climb.
"What else do we have to do today, Sensei Stinky?" asked Ethan, pouting as he stared at Ken.
"Nothing that adult you wouldn't have put me through six years ago," answered Ken, honestly.
Either Ethan doubted that he would have put Ken through so much training, or he was mentally cursing his past life out. Ken wasn't sure he liked either option.
"What, didn't you ever have any time off from training to just have some fun, Sensei Serious?" asked Jack.
Ken thought for a moment back to the broken boy he'd been, the half-wild angry boy that the Blue Boxer had had to drag off the streets. God, he hadn't thought of it before, but perhaps the strict training schedule had been to keep him from running out onto the streets. In comparison, these two, while eager to be joining him as superhero sidekicks, weren't anywhere near as angry or determined as he had been before his parents' murder had been avenged. It made so much sense now that he thought about it... it's what he had needed. But was it what they needed?
"You know what, fair point, all work and no play does make Jack a dull boy," teased Ken with a smirk.
Jack at hearing that, frowned that Ken wasn't picking up their pitiful attempts to poke the bear with the childish name calling they were adding to their Sensei "joke". Ethan laughed, which earned him an elbow to his ribs from Jack, causing them both to fall into the foam pieces pit beneath the horizontal climbing wall, and throw pieces of foam at each other. Ken let the action play out for a minute or two before breaking it up.
"Finish the course and then head out, we'll have another training session today, but it won't be as intense as this," said Ken.
Ethan and Jack groused but got up and back onto the climbing wall and finished off the rest of the obstacle course.
Ken hit the showers not long thereafter. He took a long hot soaking shower to think on everything. He knew that really Ethan and Jack were fine, they were goofing off turning each other's showers' dials to cold water and whipping towels at each other in the locker room as they got dressed after that, and yet Ken couldn't help but feel that they really were dead and buried along with their adult suits. Sure, Ethan and Jack would grow up again, but they'd become men forged by him and not the men who forged him... and for the first time since that alleyway, as the hot water poured down over his head, Ken allowed himself to cry--his tears hidden by the rushing water that engulfed him.
"Hey, Ken?" asked a prepubescent voice, and Ken looked up at the sound of the child Ethan who'd replaced the man who'd cared for him.
"Everything okay? You've been in here a really long time," said Ethan from outside the shower stall that Ken was in.
Ken took a deep breath, wiped his face, even though the tears were already mixing with the water and said, "Yeah, I'll be out in a bit. Just had uh... a lot of grime to get clean."
After a quick last round with a wash cloth, Ken shut off the shower, grabbed his towel and dried the majority of his body before wrapping the towel about his waist, and leaving the shower stall--only to find himself ambushed by both Ethan and Jack who were whipping their damp towels directly at Ken.
"Seems like someone failed to do a perimeter check!" yelled Ethan with a diabolical squeal.
"What are you gonna do in an ambush, huh?" added Jack with a laugh.
Both boys meant nothing by it, but Ken was not in the emotional state to handle their goofing off. He caught the towel from Jack and with a single but decisive yank, pulled it straight out of the kid's hands. This caused Ethan and Jack to stop their laughs.
"Not now," was all Ken said quietly and somberly before dropping the towel back into Jack's hands and leaving the two boys confused and concerned as he went to change into his day clothes in the locker room.
When he was dressed he went upstairs to have some breakfast. Amelie was busy fussing over the stove making an omelet while Anan--Anuli, was enjoying a peach, seemingly waiting for the omelet's completion.
"Everything all right?" asked Anuli.
Ken reached over for the fruit bowl in the middle of the table and plucked a peach out and said, with a forced smirk, "Just peachy." he slumped into the seat across from her and closed his eyes as he took a bite out of the peach. He tried mentally counting down from ten to flush his mind of his shower thoughts.
"I'll have no brooding at my table. If you wish to brood, take it to your room," scolded Amelie.
"I'm not brooding... I'm actually trying to forget," admitted Ken as he took a bite from the peach.
"Forget what?" asked Anuli.
Ken paused. Did he want to say that every time he entered a room in this mansion that he saw his older mentor for a split second before reality reasserted itself? That he kept questioning what instructions he was giving his new sidekicks on whether he was too hard or too soft on them? That he didn't feel up to retrain two vigilantes to what they were?
But instead of admitting all of that, even to himself, Ken said, "Just trying to forget that my former mentor and his best friend ambushed me with towel whips after my shower."
Anuli laughed, and Ken thought he saw a smile
"It's good to hear that le petit chou is happier, this time around. Lord knows he had a hard enough time around the first time."
"Hmm?" asked Anuli. Ken listened, curious, but not wanting to show it.
"His parents died when he was about this age. First his mother when she walked down the wrong alley, and then his father to vengeance that led to a bloody end for him, leaving that poor boy with only me to raise him. That boy cried and cried whenever he was alone in his room, night after night. But as soon as I would enter a room with him, he'd clam up and keep quiet. He buried his emotions, and when grief is buried without being let out for too long, it hardens into a dark heavy stone that weighs us down and poisons our hearts, bit by bit until we are incapable of letting ourselves love anyone. Ethan wasn't that far, yet, but he was well on the path to there. The same path you've stepped on," said Amelie, sagely, and wisely as she served the cooked omelet to Anuli and returned the frying pan to the stove to start her next batch of over easy eggs for Ken.
Ken didn't know what to say. Perhaps he should have known or guessed that she would see right through him.
"Surprised? When you reach my age, you've seen enough of life to read the subtext," said Amelie as she cracked two eggs into the pan. She then said, "Don't take too long talking to me... I have my own grief to share."