She found herself watching the one outside, a girl that was so reminiscent of her mother.
Izumo sighed as she considered the grave that they walked to regularly and considered the man that would be coming home as the Paladin and wondered if their dinner would taste like how Rin usually cooked it or if it would somehow resemble that of Shiemi's cooking.
It was far too bitter and harsh to subject oneself to pain constantly and yet she missed the strong woman, who was as resilient as a weed.
She was their little weed in a sense though not an out of place one; she was theirs in the sense of one that truly felt like she belonged.
The blond girl looked up and for a moment, Izumo was blinded by the eyes of Rin.
She smiled slightly and headed out to check on the girl's garden that she nurtured just like her mother did before her.
"Mama, what's the matter?" It was a soft question spoken without the memories of the woman who had given birth to her and taught her when she was still two years old how to grow a garden.
"I just was remembering your Mommy. She loved this garden." It was soft, but she didn't believe in lying to others even this child that was hers by all but blood.
"She's so pretty in the pictures." She murmured as she stared up at her 'Mama' which was much different than her 'Mommy' as they were two different people.
"You look like her." Izumo muttered softly.
"I look like Daddy too, but I don't look like Mama." She muttered to the woman who was still here and by her side even though she couldn't remember the woman that both her Mama and her Daddy loved too other than each other.
"It's fine that you don't." Izumo smiled slightly and wished that it wasn't so hard sometimes to be there when she had to be and hoped that Rin could get his paperwork done soon, so that they could be together, a perfectly normal looking family of three that sadly still missed the fourth member.
"Okay." She murmured back to her Mama.
"We love you." It was spoken in a way that signified that even the one that couldn't physically be here loved her too.
"I do too. I love my parents." She flung herself into her mother's arms, and it nearly seemed like a way to forget yet also a way of holding on and almost feeling the arms that she couldn't quite feel as she listened to the steady beating of her Mama's heart and let it wash over her in soothing waves.
She breathed as steadily as she could as she burrowed in her arms and hoped that one day somehow she'll see her Mommy again and that they'd all be a happy family together again.