Chapter 394: A Not So Normal Reunion

Liam woke up pretty late the next day, having intentionally let himself sleep in until nearly noon. The sun was high in the sky when he finally opened his eyes.After a long shower and getting dressed in casual clothes, he made his way downstairs for brunch. The kitchen staff had prepared something light but satisfying, and Liam ate slowly, savoring the normalcy of the moment. There would be plenty of abnormal things to deal with later.

When he finished, he wiped his mouth with a napkin and stood from the dining table. He was about to leave for the gathering with his friends, but he paused for a moment, thinking about transportation.

He wasn’t taking a car and he didn’t call for the helicopter to come pick him up either.

Thinking about the helicopter he barely used, the yacht he rarely sailed on personally, and the garage full of luxury cars he barely drove, Liam chuckled to himself. It was strange when he actually stopped to consider it. He owned hundreds of millions of dollars worth of vehicles and transportation, and yet the most convenient method of travel was something that didn’t cost him a single cent.

Teleportation.

He looked back toward the hallway where Evelyn was coordinating with the other staff members. "Evelyn, I’m heading out. I’ll be back later this evening."

She turned toward him with a professional smile. "Of course, sir. Have a wonderful day, sir."

Liam nodded and vanished.

Evelyn’s froze on the spot, her eyes going wide. Behind her, Clara and Mira both froze mid-motion, staring at the empty space where their employer had been standing just a fraction of a second earlier.

They were still getting used to the idea that their boss could teleport. They’d seen it once before, but seeing it again didn’t make it any less shocking.

***

Liam appeared on the helipad of his luxury mega yacht.

He stepped down from the helipad, his footsteps quiet on the pristine white deck as he walked toward the main entertainment area where his friends were already gathered.

"Hey everyone!" Liam called out, waving as he approached.

Eight heads turned simultaneously toward the sound of his voice.

For a moment, there was only silence as his friends processed what they were seeing. Matt’s gaze snapped from Liam, to the helicopter sitting completely still on its pad, to the marina in the distance where no new vehicle had appeared. His brain was trying to make sense of what just happened.

How did Liam get here?

The helicopter hadn’t moved. There was no sound of rotor blades. No boat had approached the yacht. No car had pulled up to the marina.

Liam had simply... appeared?

Stacy opened her mouth to say something, then closed it again without making a sound. Her expression was somewhere between shock and complete bewilderment.

Kristopher’s eyes had gone very wide behind his glasses. "Did you just—"

"Teleport?" Liam finished with a slight grin. "Yeah. Seemed like the fastest way to get here."

"Damn! Nothing about him has ever been normal," Harper muttered, in shock. He wasn’t alone, as the others were feeling the same.

Liam saw the looks on all their faces and he smiled. He knew he’d just given them the shock of a lifetime, but there was no helping it. They would eventually find out about his capabilities anyway. Better to show them now and explain everything at once, rather than having them discover things piecemeal and feel like he was hiding too much.

Since they will naturally ask questions about the physical changes he’d undergone, especially his eyes. He felt today was the best day to address everything.

As Liam got closer to his friends, he noticed it happening again.

One by one, their heads began to lower. It was that same subtle, involuntary bow that his racial aura seemed to trigger in everyone around him.

Liam sighed softly internally. He’d hoped—perhaps naively—that his friends might be immune to the effect. That their familiarity with him, might somehow override the involuntary submission. But biology didn’t care about emotional bonds.

"Hey," Liam said gently, his voice carrying warmth. "It’s good to see you all. Really good."

They smiled back, but the expressions were forced at first. Strained. Like they were fighting against something invisible just to maintain normal social interaction.

Liam gestured toward the yacht’s luxurious interior. "Come on, let’s go inside. It’s more comfortable there, and we can actually talk without the wind making it difficult."

His friends followed, their movements slightly hesitant at first but gradually becoming more natural as they walked. The initial shock of both his teleportation and his aura was beginning to wear off, replaced by the familiar comfort of being in Liam’s presence.

They settled into the yacht’s main lounge, a space decorated with cream-colored leather furniture and floor-to-ceiling windows that offered panoramic views of the ocean. The afternoon sun cast golden light across the polished wood floors.

Once everyone was seated, Liam noticed the awkward silence that had settled over the group. This wasn’t how their gatherings usually went. Normally there would be laughter, jokes, comfortable conversation flowing naturally.

Now there was just... tension.

Liam turned toward the nearby intercom and pressed the button. "Could we get some drinks and appetizers brought up, please? Whatever the kitchen has ready."

"Right away, sir," came the response.

He turned back to his friends, making a conscious effort to project casualness despite everything. "So how have your days been? I know I asked in the group chat last night, but I want to hear the details. What have I missed while I was gone?"

The question seemed to break through whatever invisible barrier had formed. Kristy spoke first, her voice gaining confidence as she talked.

"Well, graduation is in a few weeks," she said. "Our professors have been piling on the final projects like they’re trying to kill us before we escape."

"Speak for yourself," Matt cut in with a grin. "Some of us have been coasting."

"You’ve been coasting because Harper has been doing half your work," Elise said dryly.

"Hey!" Matt protested. "I resent that. Harper’s been doing like... thirty percent at most."

Harper rolled her eyes but smiled. "Thirty-five percent, and you’re welcome."

Apparently, Matt and Harper started a business together.

The tension was breaking. Laughter rippled through the group, and gradually the conversation began flowing more naturally. They told Liam about everything that happened while he was away, about small dramas and funny incidents that had happened during his absence.

Liam listened attentively, asking follow-up questions, keeping them talking. He made sure the conversation never stalled, never gave that awkward silence a chance to return. Slowly, his friends relaxed further, their postures loosening, their smiles becoming genuine rather than forced.

After several minutes of their conversation, Alex paused and looked at Liam more seriously. "You know, our days have actually been amazing and tiring at the same time. Does that make sense?"

The others nodded in agreement.

Liam smiled in understanding. "I’ve heard that you’ve all been dealing with some... unwanted attention. People trying to get close to you because of your connection to me."

The mood shifted immediately. His friends exchanged glances, suddenly uncomfortable again but for a different reason.

"It’s not that bad," Kristopher said quickly. "Just annoying sometimes."

"Really annoying," Stacy corrected. "But we can handle it."

"Guys," Liam said, his tone becoming more serious. "I know it’s been difficult. And I want you to know that I’m going to take care of it."

The moment those words left his mouth, every single one of his friends felt a shiver run down their spine.

It wasn’t the aura this time. It was something else. Something in the way Liam had said "take care of it" that carried implications they couldn’t quite define but absolutely understood on an instinctive level.

Very bad things were going to happen to those people. And none of them would ever trace back to Liam or his friends.

"You don’t need to do that," Lana said quickly. "Seriously, we’re fine. We can handle some annoying phone calls and fake friends trying to—"

"I know you can handle it," Liam interrupted gently. "But you shouldn’t have to. You’re my friends. You’ve been dealing with consequences of my actions without complaint for months now. The least I can do is remove the harassment."

He smiled, but there was steel beneath the warmth. "I’m only telling you because you deserve to know. But this isn’t really a discussion. Those flies buzzing around you are about to discover that some people should never be bothered."

His friends looked at each other uncertainly, but none of them argued further. Deep down, beneath the protests and the insistence that they were fine, there was relief. The constant pressure had been exhausting, and knowing Liam would handle it lifted a weight they hadn’t fully acknowledged carrying.

Matt cleared his throat, deliberately changing the subject. "Okay, before this gets too heavy and ruins the whole reunion vibe—Liam, tell us about your trip. Like, the real story. We saw the livestreams, but there’s got to be more to it, right?"

He leaned forward, genuine curiosity replacing the earlier discomfort. "Why did you actually leave? What made you decide to just... fly out of the solar system? You don’t do anything without a reason."

Alex jumped in immediately. "And what the hell happened to your eyes? They’re..." He gestured vaguely at Liam’s face. "They’re doing things that eyes definitely shouldn’t do. There are colors in there that I’m pretty sure shouldn’t exist."

"And you feel different," Stacy added quietly. "I don’t know how to describe it, but there’s something around you now. Like pressure, or weight, or..." She struggled to find the right words. "An aura. A really intense one."

The others nodded in agreement, all of them recognizing what Stacy was trying to articulate. The suppressive presence that made their heads want to bow, that triggered something deep and primal in their biology.

Liam chuckled softly, appreciating both their curiosity and their directness. These were his friends. They deserved honesty, even if he couldn’t tell them everything.

"The trip was for something important," he began carefully. "Something I needed to acquire that wasn’t available anywhere in our solar system. I can’t tell you exactly what it was—not yet, at least—but it’s not dangerous. Well, not too dangerous."

He smiled at their expressions. "And yes, I did meet an alien. An actual extraterrestrial intelligence. But not the kind you see in movies. No little green men or bug-eyed monsters. More like..." He paused, trying to find appropriate words. "A cosmic administrator. An entity that’s existed for millions of years and watches over certain regions of space."

"That’s insane," Kristopher breathed.

"As for the changes," Liam continued, gesturing vaguely at himself, "these are things I can’t fully explain to you. Not because I don’t want to, but because I genuinely don’t know how to put it into terms that would make sense."

At that moment, the yacht’s kitchen staff entered the lounge carrying trays laden with drinks and appetizers. They set everything down on the central table.

The staff bowed slightly to Liam, their heads lowering in that now-familiar way, before quietly retreating back toward the kitchen.

Liam looked at the bottles on the table and decided this was as good a demonstration as any.

Without moving from his seat, or making any obvious gesture, he focused on one of the bottles. One of a sparkling water.

The bottle rose smoothly into the air.

It floated across the space between the table and Liam’s seat, moving, as if carried by invisible hands, until it settled gently in Liam’s palm.

He caught it casually, as if this were the most normal thing in the world.

His friends stared.

Matt’s mouth had fallen open so wide that he looked like he might catch flies. Alex was frozen mid-reach for his own drink, his hand suspended in the air as his brain tried to process what his eyes had just witnessed. Stacy’s expression had gone completely blank, all thought temporarily ceased.

Kristopher made a sound that might have been a word but came out as more of a wheeze.

"Telekinesis," Liam said simply, setting the bottle down on the armrest of his chair. "Among other things. Like I said—there’s a lot I can’t explain yet. And honestly, I’m still figuring most of it out myself."

The silence stretched for several long seconds.