Solarphel slowly opened his eyes, blinking at the bright lab lights above him. His head was throbbing, and he immediately reached up to touch his forehead. The room around him looked familiar, it was Nicholas's lab.

  . He shifted slightly, trying to get a sense of where he was, but the pain in his head made it hard to focus.

  A figure stood over him, looking down with a serious expression. "He's awake," the person said, his voice flat.

  Solarphel squinted up at him, trying to see clearly what was going on. The kid had blonde hair, sharp features, and was wearing goggles on his head .

  "Solarphel?" Nicholas’s voice cut through the quiet, he rushed over, looking concerned. "How are you feeling? You passed out during your meeting with Remy and mim."

  Solarphel blinked, still trying to piece together what had happened. "Huh..?

  " He tried to sit up, but his head protested. "Why.. How am I back here?"

  "You collapsed.." Remy added, standing beside Nicholas. "Liz and Mim left, but I stayed to make sure you were okay."

  Solarphel muttered. "Collapsed? But I didn't-..” he then hesitated.

  Nicholas looked him over, trying to gauge if he was hurt. "You hit your head pretty hard when you collapsed, but you seem okay now. Do you feel anything weird?"

  Solarphel reached up and rubbed his forehead. The spot where he hit the metal bar felt tense, but there wasn’t any real pain. "I don’t feel anything..," he muttered, confused. “Just..”

  The blonde man, still standing off to the side, watched him carefully.

  Suddenly, Solarphel froze. Something about the way the kid was staring at him seemed familiar. His eyes widened. "Wait... Hey, you're that rude kid at the park!" he blurted out.

  The room went quiet for a second. Remy and Nicholas both looked between Solarphel and the blonde kid in confusion.

  The kid- Cullen, as Solarphel now recognized, looked very offended and sad, "Rude?”

  He blinked, clearly offended. "Wow… first impressions suck..”

  “ cullen? you guys know each other?!”

  Solarphel opened his mouth halfway to say something but immediately decided to stay quiet

  ‘Cullen’ crossed his arms, still mildly insulted. “ Nope, I honestly don't even know this guy, the only time i've heard about him is from Nicholas's mouth ranting about work.” he chuckled.

  Nicholas gave Cullen an annoyed look and rolled his eyes to remy exchanging confused glances. Solarphel simply waved it off. "N-Never mind. I don’t know why I said that."

  "You okay? You still seem abit dizzy.." Remy asked, looking worried.

  Solarphel shook his head. "Y-yea.. Can I have some space..?."

  “ Oh.. y-yeah sure..?” Remy said with a small smile, and Nicholas nodded along.

  They walked away from solarphel giving him space to think alone as cullen walked behind them, still disturbed, muttered under his breath. "Rude, huh..."

  Solarphel sat up slightly, his eyes focused as he stared down at his hands, absentmindedly poking his forehead. His mind was fuzzy, trying to piece together what happened earlier.

  Meanwhile, across the room, Nicholas and Remy were talking quietly, not wanting to disturb Solarphel’s moment of silence.

  Remy crossed his arms, watching Solarphel from a distance. "You think we’ll ever find out where he’s really from? Or what he is?"

  Nicholas sighed, running a hand through his hair. "I don’t know… I don’t even know what you guys are looking for anymore.." he sighed “ i usually read your mission logs whenever i'm bored, and nothing is pretty new when it comes to solar..”

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  He paused, "Okay-maybe only that strange ore over there..”

  They both turn to the left where the yellow ore was hovering on one of Nicholas's machinery.

  Remy turned back to him, his expression tired. "What if.. maybe there’s nothing to find. Maybe...he just has to live with it. Live with not knowing."

  Nicholas gave a bitter laugh, shaking his head. "Yeah maybe. I thought we could help him find answers, but im lowkey starting to look like there might be no answers to find at all."

  Remy nodded slowly, his eyes drifting back to Solarphel, who was still lost in his own thoughts. "Guess he’ll just have to live in the moment. Whatever that means."

  Nicholas didn’t say anything for a moment, just staring at Solarphel

  . "Yeah.. Maybe his truth isn't worth knowing maybe?"

  Remy shot him a confused glare.

  “ what? I'm just saying..”

  The room fell silent, the weight of uncertainty hanging in the air. Neither of them knew what the future held.

  Cullen stood off to the side, still muttering to himself about the “rude” comment Solarphel had made earlier. He crossed his arms, tapping his foot impatiently. "I can’t believe that guy called me rude... Who even does that? I’ve literally done nothing to him and this is the first time I've seen him in person!"

  Remy shot a quick glance at Nicholas, who was staring at Cullen with a tired expression. Nicholas sighed, rubbing his temples. "Cullen, are you really going on about this?"

  "Yeah!" Cullen threw his hands up in exasperation. "I’m just saying, rude people deserve to know they’re rude.. But I didn't even do anything!?”

  Remy raised an eyebrow, clearly unimpressed. "Yeah, sure.."

  Cullen crossed his arms tighter, shifting his weight dramatically like a sulky kid. “So... will any of you guys fill me in on what’s actually going on with that guy?”

  he asked, voice dry. “Because standing here like a clueless background character is starting to itch at my pride.”

  Nicholas didn’t even look at cullen. “You have pride?”

  Remy giggled. “Careful, Nico. That’s a bold thing to say to a twelve year old.”

  “I’m not twelve,” Cullen snapped instantly, glaring at both of them. “I’m two hundred and thirty-six.”

  “Right,” Remy nodded. “In children’s years?”

  “C'mon, he’s almost at the ‘teenage angst’ stage,” Nicholas added with a small grin. “We’ll throw him a birthday party next week with juice boxes and a bouncy castle.”

  Cullen looked personally offended. “I am literally older than both of you combined?! I’ve fought in wars. I’ve built complex machinery. I’ve-”

  “-Thrown tantrums about being called rude,” Remy interrupted, raising an eyebrow.

  Nicholas chuckled. “To be fair, that one did sting a little.”

  Cullen huffed and turned away from them dramatically, muttering,

  “This is emotional abuse.”

  Nicholas smirked and ruffled his hair lightly. “Go sit in your corner, old man.”

  Remy sighed and looked back at Solarphel, who was still quiet on the table, lightly poking at his forehead. His eyes were distant, like he wasn’t really with them.

  They just stood there, watching the quiet figure on the table, while behind them, Cullen mumbled under his breath again.

  “Still can’t believe he called me rude...”

  The silence stretched until Remy finally stepped forward, tapping gently on the edge of the table.

  “Hey… You good to stand?”

  Solarphel blinked, like he was pulled out of a deep pool of thought. He looked up slowly. “…Yeah.”

  Remy offered a hand, which Solarphel took without thinking. He was surprisingly steady on his feet, but he still kept rubbing the spot on his forehead like it was bothering him in some silent way.

  Nicholas gave him a nod. “Take it easy. Eat and sleep so you don't collapse again..”

  Solarphel gave a faint nod back, still quiet.

  Remy walked with him toward the door. As they stepped out into the hallway, the bright lab lights fading behind them, Remy kept his voice low.

  “You’ll be in one of the temp rooms for now,” he said. “Just for the night.”

  Solarphel looked at him. “Just the night? The same room before”

  “Yeah,” Remy sighed. “ forgot to mention the SJA’s got rules. Can’t keep guests long-term without… paperwork, approval, a background check.. y’know, all the stuff you don’t have.”

  Solarphel looked ahead again, saying nothing.

  Remy glanced over. “Don’t worry, though. We’ll figure something out.”

  “..Yeah.”

  They walked in silence for a moment more before Remy added, almost under his breath, “Eventually.”