Meetings with adults for Gary hadn't exactly gone well so far, and that would include the one he had with Harry, Numba's father, originally. Although Gary was now meant to be this great figure, it was hard for him to get over the age hurdle, so when speaking to others, unless it was in an aggressive way, he tended to shy away a little.

"Wait." Gary held out his hand while placing his fingers on the top of his nose and squeezing the skin together. "Why do your parents want to meet me, what did I do? What have I done, is this a good thing or a bad thing?"

It was only natural for him to have a load of questions and Izzy somewhat expected this reaction as well.

"I'm so sorry." Izzy shyly replied. "I really didn't want to do this, and I tried to explain, but unlike Numba and Ian, my parents can just be a bit difficult at times."

Letting out a big sigh she was ready to explain.

"You see, after everything happened, Ian and I, we both decided to go ahead and talk about the official alliance between our families. Honestly, I didn't think it would take much convincing. After all, the Howlers have been in the limelight for a while. Everyone knows that they now own Notsburg.

"Us, being from a tier-3 joining up with a power that can rival a tier-2, along with my recommendation seems like a no brainer, but" Izzy paused for a second as she went to grab the wound that was on her shoulder.

"It seems that she doesn't like the fact that I was hurt helping out the Howlers. I tried to convince her on the phone, but she wasn't convinced. So she said she wants me to bring the boy that got me so obsessed with this idea."

Once again saying the last line, Izzy pulled away, her face turning a shade redder.

Hearing everything, it was clear that Izzy perhaps had told her parents some of what happened, but not everything, because there was an important detail that was said. The fact was her parents wanted to meet Gary, not the leader of the Howlers.

If they had asked to meet up with the Howlers to discuss the alliance, well Gary was just going to send Kai in his place, or ask Kai to do all the talking of the finer details like he had been doing so far.

The problem was, her parents wanted to meet him.

"Wait so why do they want to meet me?" Gary asked.

"Well, because I told them that we had made an alliance beforehand, and the reason we got involved was because we were chasing after you and trying to help Numba. I didn't tell them anything about you being the leader of the Howlers, I thought you wanted to keep that a secret.

"You really don't have to see them, they just insist a little."

Gary really didn't know what to do, what were Izzy's parents even expecting of him, what did they want to see? But when looking at Izzy herself, and hearing the tone of her voice, it felt almost as if he didn't go on this journey that she would be put in a difficult situation.

'She did end up saving Marie, and she did help when the academy wanted a blood sample, compared to that, what she was asking now was very small.'

"I'll meet with your parents." Gary smiled. "It's only right after everything you did, and you are even hurt because of me, so I should at least go see them, right?"

A large smile appeared on Izzy's face and she soon bowed down a couple of times to thank him.

"I can't promise that it won't be awkward but I'll try to make it as easy as possible." Izzy said. "And don't worry, we won't have to take many days out of the academy, maybe just one, I know we've already taken a lot of days away.

"Anyway, I'll go right to my parents and they will arrange something. I'll tell you the details as soon as I know something."

With that the two parted ways to their rooms with Gray feeling a little strange.

'I know I'm not going into battle, but why does it feel that way?' Gary thought.

Izzy's mother had just received news from her dear daughter, and almost immediately she had called for a group of people to come in and enter her office. They were all lined up in front of her.

She looked down at her notepad that was filled with notes, and then looked up at all those lined up dead straight.

"My daughter fails to realise her own feelings. I know her well, and based on her words and her tone of voice, it seems like she has fallen for this Gary Dem." Her fist slammed against the desk when mentioning the name.

"Izzy is bright and strong, and in most situations I would trust her in a lot of things, but when it comes to love life she has no experience. I mean, the girl doesn't even know she has feelings herself.

"Which is why, tomorrow, I want you to do whatever you can to find out the true nature of this Gary Dem. Find out everything about him from head to toe, and find out whether he is good enough for my daughter.

The response was quick, extremely quick. The next day Gary was putting on his normal AFA academy uniform and in the middle of doing so he had received a text, saying that the meeting would be that day.

'I have a bad feeling about this.' Gary thought.

*****

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