The morning sun seeped through the curtains .For the first ti in days, the house felt warm.
Not warm in the sense of loudness; not dramatic. Warm in the sense of lightness.
As if soone had finally let go of carrying their burden of grief alone. Kuro sat at the table, half-asleep while silently drinking coffee, with noticeably ssy hair from just waking up.
The shadows of exhaustion still lingered under his eyes, but there was sothing about Kuro that felt different now.
The clouds of tension around him had lifted slightly at least enough that even Akari could notice it right away.
She squinted at him across the table while biting into a piece of toast.
"Why do you appear less emotionally dead than yesterday?"Kuro blinked.
"Good morning to you as well."
"See, even your ability to respond normally has returned,"
Akari exclaid with exaggerated emphasis, bringing her hands together to illustrate her point.
Aoi sipped tea calmly next to her.
"Akari makes a good point."
"Traitor!"
"You say this each day."
anwhile, Shizuka continued preparing breakfast just off the stove discreetly attempting not to demonstrate how pleased she was by the apparent change in behaviour of Kuro.
Seeing Kuro behave even moderately more relaxed also made her feel as though sothing inside of her had beco lighter as well.
Last night was still fresh in her mind.
Kuro rested quietly against Shizuka’s shoulder as years of heartache finally flowed out.
The isolation he had concealed behind unchanging faces for so long no longer felt alone anymore now that he was finally able to fall apart.
Sohow by the ti he had finally unravelled, Kuro felt less alone.
He also saw Shizuka briefly show him a glance.
When they made eye contact just for a quick mont.
"Kuro."
"Shizuka."
Kuro was always saying the sa thing at once.
But here, he had made direct eye contact.
So that small distinction between them felt monuntal.
Then Shizuka offered Kuro a smile. "Kuro."
Nothing more needed to be said.
Their hearts already conveyed enough warmth to each other.
After eating breakfast together, sunlight gradually filled the living room in a peaceful manner while the rainy clouds outside passed by.
Akari had just dramatically flopped down onto the couch.
"I’m bored," she said.
"You are.
Your favourite is to be bored."
"Because life is suffering."
"Can you stop learning philosophy by reading internet comnts?"
Kuro had silently helped Shizuka clean the dishes in the kitchen.
Communication was sparse, but the distance of silence between them had closed since they last shared silence together.
Suddenly Shizuka stopped what she was doing to try to open a cabinet. "Oh."
Kuro turned around. "What?"
"I didn’t realise all of these were in here!"
Carefully, she removed a number of old photo albums from the top of the stack which had been placed near the back of the cabinet.
There were several dusts that covered the outside front cover of all the albums.
Akari just materialized beside them like so feral creature confounding its prey.
"What are these?"
Shizuka’s head turned toward Kuro for just a fraction of ti, then back away.
"Old photo albums your dad gave to sort through while clearing out the storage unit."
Imdiate panic filled Kuro’s heart.
"Absolutely not!"
Akari had already snatched one rather dramatically.
"BABY KUUURRO!!!"
Kuro imdiately sprang into motion.
"Give it back!"
"No."
"Akari."
"You can’t stop your destiny."
anwhile, Aoi just quietly picked out another album with a calm like nothing’s wrong.
That scared Kuro even more.
Because unlike Akari, Aoi manipulates information thodically.
Ten minutes later, everyone sat at the table in the living room while photos were spread across every available surface.
Kuro really wished he hadn’t been born.
Akari could barely breathe because she was laughing so hard.
"Oh my god, you had a bowl cut!"
"I was six."
"Yeah, but you looked like you had been fired."
"How is a six-year-old supposed to look divorced!"
Even Aoi was unable to hide her amusent as she was looking through another page.
"Look how cute this one is!"
Kuro imdiately got up to try and snatch the page out of her hand.
He was not fast enough.
Aoi just calmly turned the album around.
Little Kuro is staring at the cara very unapprovingly while wearing oversized pajama pants with little elephants on them.
Akari lost emotional control.
"He looks like a little tax preparer."
"Erase that from existence."
anwhile, Shizuka was quietly laughing across the room as she sorted through the individual photographs.
To be honest .To tell you the truth.
Heard a laugh coming from in the house tonight was really nice.
It made feel good inside.
It reminded of the past.
After a short ti it made the atmosphere feel warr. The teasing lessened.More conversation than usual occurred.
And it got more and more nostalgic.
Akari held up another photo and practically yelled.
"Wait."
She slowed down with her voice as she said.
"This picture was taken before your mom died?"
The atmosphere quieted down afterwards.
Kuro turned towards Akari slowly after looking at the photograph.
He looked at the sumr festival as a young child with his mom standing by him holding the sparkler in an awkward way.
Kuro had a huge smile on his face when he took the photograph.
The way Kuro felt when he first looked at that picture still exists for him today even thought he has not seen the photograph in over twenty years.
And oddly enough looking at the picture this ti does not hurt him as badly.
It does not hurt because he no longer has to carry the pain of losing his mother.
He does not have to rember carrying the burden of carrying this tragic loss alone anymore.
Aoi also looked at the sa photograph with Kuro and she said-
"You have a lot of pictures of you with your mom smiling".
Kuro responded by lowering his head down and saying .
"Yup".
That surprised both Akari and Aoi because normally Kuro will not talk to them about his mother.
But today Kuro did talk to them about his mother.
Shizuki was about to give Kuro another photograph.
As his mother was standing next to him laughing and holding onto the plastic shovel she used to make her way up and down the sand hill, Akari instantly laughed at her mother.
"You look so angry!"
"I was stuck there for 30 min."
After that mont, a little smile appeared on Kuro’s face , it was very small, but it was real.
"I got sunburned too," he said quietly to Shizuka as she listened to him talk.
For the first ti since being included in this family, Shizuka watched Kuro rember his past without feeling crushed by it.
He wasn’t avoiding his pain, but instead, living alongside it.
The hours went by slowly.
Pictures after pictures were placed all over the table , elentary school awards, awkward birthday parties, family vacations, terrible fashion from childhood leading to pictures of them all as younger versions of themselves.
The living room had begun to fill with laughter, reminiscing, nostalgic, and the occasional mont of silence.
But more than any mont before this day, none of the emotions felt horrible this ti.
At one mont, Akari froze in one mont when she was staring at a picture.
Then imdiately pointing to Kuro and accused, "You carried Aoi in that picture".
Aoi looked over at Akari.
"Oh."
The picture showed Aoi sound asleep on Kuro’s back as he hiked in so mountains with a young-looking Kuro looking totally exhausted.
Akari gasped dramatically.
"Favoritism".
Kuro answered quickly and said, "She twisted her ankle."
Akari replied, "Excuses."
Kuro responded, "You made haul your bags the entire trip."
Akari said, "Because emotional support matters."
" Character Developnt. "
That was the first ti even Kuro had a real laugh.
No restriction. No force.
A real laugh that ca out naturally without him realizing it.
For a mont, it felt like everything in the room had stopped.
Because everyone was watching.
Including him.
Kuro blinked slowly; it seed like even the noise surprised him.
Shizuka smiled.
And for so reason, that one smile made the whole house feel warr.
As the afternoon continued, the golden sunlight peeking through the living room windows illuminated the room while all the pictures were all over the floors.
Akari was laying on the couch with one more book.
"You know..."
"Kuro really grew up alone, didn’t he?"
After that, the silence was slow.Not uncomfortable. Just truthful.
Aoi lowered her eyes.
"Yes."
Because they now understood better all of the distance he put between people.
Self-reliance. How he can’t ask anyone for help.
It was not coldness.
Kuro learned at such a young age to deal with pain.
And, sohow, this discovery created an even stronger bond than before .
Then Akari said, "Oh my!", as she pulled out a different photo.
Kuro looked at her suspiciously.
"What’s wrong now?"
Akari dramatically flipped the picture around.
As he was crying uncontrollably dressed up in a kindergartener outfit, young Kuro was in utter chaos.
This is funny if you try not to laugh, but the entire ti Aoi had her mouth covered in order to not laugh, she completely failed.
Even Shizuka almost dropped the photo album , she laughed so hard.
In the anti Kuro had his eyes squinting up at the ceiling.
"I think it’s ti for to leave this country," Akari stated.
After stating that, Akari had tears in her eyes as she wiped them away from all of the laughter.
"We are framing this."
"I am eradicating humanity."
Regardless of whether one knows this for the first ti in a long ti from then on, the house actually felt like ho.
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