The bags of groceries Toru were holding rustled under his hold as he took off his shoes. He murmured a small 'thanks for having me' as he followed the girl named Shiharu inside the orphanage-slash-daycare called 'Sunflower House'. As the girl turned a corner and he heard the opening of a door, Toru heard loud chattering of what sounded like small children.

Toru felt a pang in his heart.

"Ishikawa-san, please wait here for a moment. I'll call the head mistress," Shiharu bowed and took the groceries from him. "Oh, please sit anywhere you like. If you want, you can play with the children too," she smiled as little toddlers of ages three to five hid behind her with their curious gazes fixated on him.

"Thanks," he managed to say before he sat himself on a small chair near the bookshelf.

A little girl stood in front of him and looked at him with a huge grin on her face. "What is your name, Mister?" She chimed.

The girl's smile melted Toru's heart. I wonder how my baby –

"Mister?" The little girl was looking at him with her head tilted on the side. "What is your name?" She repeated.

Toru smiled. "I am Ishikawa Toru," he offered her his hand and she took it with both of hers – she laughed.

"My name is Matsunaga Akane," she shook their hands together excitedly. After she let go of Toru's hand, the little girl proceeded into introducing all of her friends who were either busy playing with each other or too cautious of Toru to greet him back. A little boy who looked just like Akane, Toru remembered his name to be 'Aoi', grabbed her sister's hand and told her to stop telling a stranger their names.

"But… Shiharu-tan is friends with him?" Akane pointed at Toru. "So, he is not a stranger, right?" She pouted at her twin.

The little boy seemed to be considering what his sister said with the way his brows furrowed while looking at Toru. He sighed in the end, "You're right. But don't get too close, okay?" Aoi whispered the last part to Akane but Toru still heard it.

Toru smiled and thought, how cute.

"Don't worry, Aoi. I am not a bad guy," Toru smiled warmly at Aoi as he also offered his hand to the little boy for a handshake.

Aoi took it and shook it. "I know… because you look like Ruki," he murmured as he went back into playing Lego with the other kids.

Ruki?

"Ishikawa-san?"

Toru stood from where he was sitting when he saw an old lady approached him. "Yes, that is me," Toru bowed politely and offered his hand to the lady whom he guessed to be the head mistress of the house. "Nice to meet you, Ma'am!"

The lady smiled at him and shook his hand. "I am the head mistress of Sunflower House. You can just call me Fujioka."

"Fujioka-san," he nodded.

"Let us talk in my office, shall we?" She offered as she guided the way.

This house felt warm and comfortable, Toru thought as he let his eyes roamed around. He could still hear the laughter of little children as even though they already left the play room.

He also heard voices of teenage guys and when he listened intently they seemed to be bickering. "You have older kids here, Fujioka-san?"

"Yes, we do. You see, we're not just a daycare but also an orphanage. This facility takes in kids who don't have family members anymore and we raise them until they reach the legal age," she turned to Toru and smiled.

A smile like that of a mother.

Would Yuki be smiling like that?

When they were about to reach the end of the hall and to what seemed to be the office of Fujioka-san, Toru caught a glimpse of the kitchen. The door was slightly opened and it revealed the face of (probably) one of the workers.

Her face…

He walked inside the office of the head mistress and was about to close the door when he heard the person, who was in the kitchen, laughed.

Yuki?

Yuki took the bag of groceries from Shiharu and offered her some cold tea. "You must be tired, Shiharu-chan. You just got out of school but you needed to go back to town to do the grocery shopping," she smiled as she pulled a carton of eggs from the bag and put it on top of the fridge.

She heard Shiharu laughed and the clanking of the glass as the girl put her tea down on the sink. "Not at all, Yuki-san. I'm used to it, and in fact I enjoy doing things for the orphanage!"

"You really are optimistic," Yuki giggled as she finished putting in their places the groceries. "You're so cute, Shiharu-chan!"

"No, no! You are cute, Yuki-san!" Shiharu blushed from the compliment.

Yuki did not expect to be complimented – she did not expect to be called cute! "No! You are!"

"You are!"

"I'm too old to be called cute, Shiharu-chan. So please!"

"Eh? How old are you again, Yuki-san?" Shiharu teased Yuki.

"Yah! Do not ask a woman's age!"

Shiharu laughed at Yuki's outburst. Yuki laughed too, how silly of her to be arguing with an eighteen years old girl!

I loved this place. I did not feel alone even a bit since I came here.

"O right! I should offer the visitor some juice!" Shiharu stopped laughing and clumsily took a glass from the drawer, she almost dropped it on the process. "That was close!"

"Calm down, Shiharu-chan," Yuki offered to pour orange juice in the glass Shiharu was holding. "We have a visitor?"

"Yeah," Shiharu took the glass of orange juice from Yuki's hand and placed it on a tray. "I was on my way home when he tapped me and asked if I know where the house was. I offered to guide him since I was headed here myself." She lifted the tray that contained a glass of orange juice and a basket of cookies.

Shiharu was on her way out and towards the head mistress' office when she remembered, "Oh! If you're worried if he's bad, he looks kind to me. To be honest, he looks like Ruki, your baby."

Yuki's heart thumped.

"What was his name again?"

The beating was getting faster and louder.

"Oh, right! Ishikawa Toru!"

HELLO~ This is psychoticauthor ~ SO this is the second chapter, I'm so sorry it's too short! I just lost all my files so I need to rewrite from scratch every fanfics I was writing huhuhuhu T^T Please bear with the slow progression... I really really am into slow romance you see? Please do not forget to give me some comments and opinions, k? Love lots HORIMIYA FANDOM!

Disclaimer: really I do not own anything here aside from my imagination going haywire