And here's the second half! It's about a thousand words longer than the last one-which is about twice the usual length of my Elemental Wizardess (Heart) story! Enjoy! Read and Review! And thank you to TheFirstFandom, the first favorite and follower of this one-shot series!
Return to Home-Part 2
The next morning at the break of dawn, four young girls burst into their brothers' room, far too awake for this unearthly hour. The older three froze when they saw two young adult snuggled together in the middle of two pallets. Rosa grinned and cooed, "Aww! Just wike a mwarrired coople!" She was mimicking what her mother had said about the two the previous night.
Sabrina shifted at the noise, and the girls gasped and ran out. Their mother had told them not to wake the two up. Oops…
Sabrina didn't want to open her eyes. She was really comfortable and didn't really want to get up yet. But where was she? This wasn't her bed at the academy, nor her bed at home. It wasn't as soft or fluffy as either of them, but she was still more comfortable. Why?
She cracked open her eyes and saw she was snuggled into someone's chest, and then was suddenly all-too-aware of the arms wrapped around her, the face buried in her hair. She flushed saw the raven's-wing hair and realized it was Yukiya. They must have snuggled together in their sleep. How embarrassing...she probably looked a mess with her sleep-tangled hair and rumpled clothes.
Wait...what would his mother think if she saw them like this?! She panicked and tried to push him away-only, he moaned and pulled her tighter.
"Yukiya!" She desperately whisper-hissed.
"What?" he mumbled.
"Get up!"
"No. 'M tired."
"Then at least let go!"
"No. You're warm." He shifted even closer-there wasn't really any space between them at this point-and she could feel his warm breath tickle her ear.
He was still half asleep. What could she do…? Nothing. Yukiya was a clingy sleeper, from what she had gathered the few times they had fallen asleep together. She waited until he had fallen completely asleep again before carefully and ever-so-slowly wiggled out of his grasp. She went over to her bag and got a change of clothes out. Yesterday (and now) she wore a comfortable dress for the traveling. Now she pulled out her favorite dress (MC's casual dress in the game). With clothes and other morning supplies in a bundle in her hand, she left the room, went down the little stairs, and carefully closed the door behind her. It wasn't until she was halfway to the kitchen, where there was noise, that she realized she had forgotten her shoes by the sleeping pallet. Hopefully it didn't matter all that much-most of the people she saw yesterday were walking around barefoot.
In the kitchen she found all four of Yukiya's sisters and his mother. The girls were sitting in a circle giggling while their mother worked on making breakfast.
"Good morning." She said.
"Mornin'" The girls chorused.
"Good mornin' darlin'. How'd you sleep?" Kathleen winks.
Sabrina flushes as she answers, "Quite well, thank you."
"Aww...lookit you, speakin' so fancy! 'Kiya always tried to speak that way when he wa' lil'. All beca' of that one trader that came inta town every year checkin' for magic talent. He said that if younguns weren't taught how ta control their magic, it'd be dangerous ev'ry time they got mad or somat. He alsa told wondaful tales, and 'Kiya loved stories. The man loved having such an avid listener."
Sabrina smiled, "He still does. Loves stories, I mean. He has me tell him stories all the time."
"You mus' be good at tellin' them. That, or he jus' likes the soun' of your voice." She winked, and Sabrina's cheeks color again. "Tha' prolly playsa par'."
"Well...umm...is there somewhere I can change?"
"Why dontcha go to the womans bathhouse wi' the girls? Angelina takes 'em there on Monday's. She'lla be here soon."
Rosa got up and wrapped her arms around Sabrina's waist. "Pwease?" With Rosa giving her a pleading look, she agreed.
"It sounds wonderful!"
"Yay!" the six-year-old cheered.
-Later, at the bathhouse-
Sabrina was a bit hesitant to get in. She'd have to take off her towel. She wasn't used to being completely barren amongst other people. And she never really have to-she'd lived alone for several years, and usually by the time she took a shower, the dorm's bathrooms were empty, and they were separate stalls. But here, none of the woman or girls cared a wit, and were all in the hot water together. There weren't many people here at this time in the morning, according to Angelin...sorry, Ange (as she had Sabrina call her, because apparently they were the best of friends now and Angelina's friends called her Ange), which is why she always brought the girls so early.
Eventually Ange convinced Sabrina to ditch her towel and join the rest of them in the large, steaming, rectangle-shaped bath. Sabrina had to admit that it felt wonderful, especially after so much traveling. When the two older girls got out, dried off, and got dressed, Ange asked to brush Sabrina's hair, and she said, "Sure."
"You've got such pretty, thick hair. It's such a lovely color too-like chocolate." She gently worked a tangle free with the comb.
"I think yours is better. It's beautiful, so curly and cute."
"And a pain in the rear to take care of. I can't really brush it when it's dry or it'll get so poofy it'll look like a bush!" They both laughed at the image. "I'm serious too."
"The same will happen to my roommate Amelia. She did it once to prove it to me. It was funny, only her's is a lot longer than yours, and amber-colored, and not as tightly curled. I think she's started using magic to detangle it in the morning!"
"Well, at least I don't have to resort to that-most of the time, if I run my fingers through it when it's wet, it'll dry and no one's the wiser to it not having been brushed."
"Smart."
Ange went through a lock of Sabrina's hair. "There. All done. Do you always have it up in the pigtails like you did yesterday?"
Sabrina rotated a little bit on the shorts stool, and smiled at the four little sisters splashing water at each other and laughing, "Yeah, usually. It's easy and cute."
"True, but you should leave it down more, or braid it or something. Could I?" Ange gestured to Sabrina's hair.
"Go ahead." Sabrina rotated back to her original position.
"Hmm...I think I'm going to do waterfall."
"What?"
"A waterfall braid. I learned it recently from someone's cousin who came to visit. It's really pretty." With gentle hands, Ange began to braid. "So, you and Yuki, huh? You seem like a really sweet girl, so it's not hard to believe he likes you. But from what I've seen in his eyes, he doesn't like you so much as he utterly loves you. There must have been some pretty astounding things that happened for your relationship to have grown that much."
Sabrina flushed scarlet, "Yeah…"
Ange laughed lightly, "It's pretty cute, actually. I've never seen him like that before. You can tell how much he loves his family, but with you, it's on an entirely different level. I'd be jealous if I didn't have my own love like that."
"Oh yeah, Mrs. Reizen mentioned that you were married. And you can't be more than seventeen…"
"In a few months, yes. Do they not get married so young where you're from?"
"Not usually. Most people wait until at least eighteen, nineteen."
"I guess in some ways that's smart-gives most the boys a bit more time to mature."
Sabrina giggled, thinking of Luca, who was nearly eighteen and the most immature one in the class (all of whom were in the 14s-16s), "Some never really do."
Ange laughed-she had such a light, beautiful laugh. "True, but that's not always a bad thing. Speaking of marriage…are you and Yuki going to get married?"
"I...uh..don't really know. I hope so." Sabrina bit her lip, "But at this point, I don't think my heart could handle it…" She took a deep breath.
"You do seem to be quite innocent, so I guess that's normal. Honestly, I felt about the same way when I was about to marry my Bradey." She tied one of the ribbons that usually held one of Sabrina's pigtails. "But look at me now, two months with child and happy as can be."
Sabrina jolted, her eyes nearly popping out of her head, and whirled around, "Wait...what?!"
Ange giggled, "Yup. We learned it about a week ago, when I went to the village healer woman because I hadn't had a monthly in about two months. She used some magic and learned I was with child. Of course, I haven't told Bradey yet. I was planning on telling him last night, but then you guys came into town. I'm going to tell him today."
Sabrina's eyes were still wide, but now she was smiling. "Congratulations! That's wonderful."
"Thank you. I now know for sure that my mother was telling me the truth before I got married-before that, I had always believed it was because of fairy magic!"
Sabrina's smile faltered, "Are you saying it...isn't?"
Ange snickered, "At least I wasn't alone in thinking that."
"Wait, so what is the reason if it isn't fairies?" Sabrina was aghast with this new revelation.
"You'll find out on your wedding night, just like I did. Your mother will explain everything to you."
Sabrina looked at the floor, biting her lip with a sad look in her eyes. "My mother and father passed away due to an epidemic that struck our village when I was ten."
Ange gasped and immediately pulled Sabrina into hug, "Oh, you poor dear! Don't worry, when the two of you get married, I know for a fact Mrs. Reizen will be pleased as punch to help you!" She let her go, hands on Sabrina's shoulders, "We should probably get the girls out of the bath before they turn into prunes, shouldn't we?"
…. …. ….
When Yukiya woke up, he was confused. This wasn't the academy, but he knew that. What confused him was that Sabrina was gone. He knew for sure she was here earlier. He figured she got hungry and went to the kitchen. She can't have been gone for that long…
He yawned and stretched before making up the bed pallets and putting them in the corner they had been in previously. He dug through his bag and changed into a fresh set of clothes before heading downstairs. He found his mother in the kitchen, working on a big breakfast for the house. Without a word, he went beside her and started helping. It was a comfortable silence-he used to help his mother make breakfast like this every morning, before anyone else was up. This was a little later than normal, though, and would end up as more of a brunch.
"I figur'd sin' e'eryone wa' so tucker'd ou' las' nigh', a late meal wouldn' be so bad. Nico didn't even argue 'bout sleeping in out room las' nigh', he was dead on his feet, tha' boy. Didn' e'en ask why."
Yukiya hummed in response.
"At leas', tha's wha' I though' it'd be like. Yer sista's were up wi' the sun, for once." She looked at Yukiya out of the corner of her eyes, "They all missed ya, ya know. E'en lil' Rosa, bless her, an' Nico mos' of all."
Yukiya froze and looked away, feeling guilty. Nico had practically been his shadow before he left. The stubborn, hotheaded little boy loved his quiet, thoughtful older brother, idolized him. And when Yukiya had left, he had told a half-awake Nico that'd he be back the moment he could. Yukiya had lied. The cure to his "curse" had been in his life for nearly six months now. Six months. That totaled to two and a half years since he'd been home. At this point, Nico would be a young man, no longer needing of his older brother-that's what ran through Yukiya's head.
Yukiya bit his lip, took a breath, and changed the subject, "The girls have been up that long? Where are they?"
"Angelina took them ta the ba'house. Sabrina wen' too."
"Oh."
They heard chattering voices and the pounding feet of little girls as three of them ran in the kitchen door. Red-faced from heat and braided wet hair still dripping, the three of them swarmed Yukiya, who was forced to stop helping with breakfast, and dragged him aside, asking rapid-fire questions. Sabrina walked in, a giggling Rosa on her hip, and laughed at the scene.
"Girls, girls, don't overload the poor boy this early in the morning. I don't think he's even awake yet!"
The girls then ran back to her. "You've got some amazing magical talent, to get them to behave so perfectly. It's normally an impossible task!" Ange snorted as she came in.
"I think it's because I'm new. From what I've seen, and experienced, kids like the newest oddity-and even I'll admit that I'm quite the oddball." She handed Rosa over to Ange-who promptly lead the girls into another room-and went over to Yukiya, "Good morning, sleepyhead. How long have you been up." He shrugged and she giggled. He gave her a confused look before she reached up and stroked one side of his head, "You've got one heck of a cow lick, silly." He smiled and leaned into her warm hand. His mother watched with interest, a content smile on her face at the sight of her son. 'He really has found someone special, hasn't he? My oldest baby grew up.'
They heard a door shut and the voice of an older boy groan, "Man, Anga, why're you here so early? You guys are so loud…"
"Mornin' Nico!" They heard the younger girls chorus. "Guess what guess what! We're plannin' a weddin'!"
"Another one…?" Sighed the voice.
"Nice to see you in the land of the livin'. Hey Nico, there's a surprise for you in the kitchen. And it's not breakfast." Ange sounded thrilled to say this.
"What could be better than breakfast?" The three in the kitchen heard footsteps near the kitchen. Sabrina moved next to Yukiya excitedly-but Yukiya himself was frozen like the icelands. A yawning boy with black hair and brown eyes-and looking almost like an exact copy of a slightly younger Yukiya-walked in. He said hello to his mother, and she gestured for him to turn around. He did so and froze, as still as the long-lost older brother he once adored.
"Yu..kiya?" he sounded shocked and unsure of what he was seeing. Then his face twisted in anger as he stomped over and slugged Yukiya in the face, hitting his cheek, hard.
"Nico!" His mother gasped in horror, even as Sabrina gasped "Yukiya" in panic.
His mother came up and grabbed Nico by the arm, pulling the angry boy away, "Tha's your brother, young man! What in hec' are you doin'!" His mother exclaimed.
Nico yelled, "He's not my brother! Yukiya would have never of left us! Especially after what happened!" He wrenched free from his mother's grasp and ran out the kitchen door. Sabrina, after making sure Yukiya was okay-a nasty bruise, but nothing broken or bleeding-ran off after Nico without a second thought.
Yukiya collapsed to the floor as soon she left, even as his mother ran over to him. She knelt down and saw that her son was crying silently, not meeting her eyes. She knew it wasn't from any sort of physical pain, and pulled him into a hug.
…. …. ….
Nico ran as fast as he could without paying attention to where he was going. When he stopped, panting slightly, he realized he had ran straight to the place where he and Yukiya used to have picnics when they were little. He punched a tree, scraping already bruised knuckles. He growled in pain and sat down, nursing his abused fist.
"Are you...okay…?" a voice panted, sounding worried. He turned to see that girl who had been next to his brother, the one who was nearly three inches shorter than he was, meaning a head shorter than his brother. Her hair was mussed and her face flushed from running, and her hands were on her knees as she tried to catch her breath, "My goodness, you're fast…" She plopped down on the grass next to him. "Oh, you're hurt…" she pulled a wand out of a hidden pocket (that she had sewn into this dress for that purpose alone) and looked at him, tilting her head, "Would you like me to heal it? I may not be the best wizardess, but I'm pretty decent with healing spells. I'm Sabrina, by the way."
"Wait, you're magic?"
She nodded, "Yup. My specialty's animal magic. I want to be a tamer one day who rivals the legend Serge Durandal. It's a kind of distant dream, but it's mine."
His eyes popped, "Wait, so you can heal animals then?" His anger had dissipated-something else came to the front of his mind. She nodded and he said "Wait here!" before dashing off and returning a few minutes later with a small animal in his hands. It was a young fox pup with a broken leg. She gasped as he gently handed it to her.
"Little one, can you understand me?"
'Yes...It hurts…' it-he-whimpered. 'mother said she wasn't coming back...mother said I was going to die…I don't wanna die…'
"You won't die. I promise. I can heal you."
'Really…?'
"Yes. Now hold still. I'm going to make you sleep first, is that okay?"
'Mmhmm…'
So she put a sleeping spell on it and then went to work on healing it's leg-it wasn't actually broken, just fractured, and a clean one at that. Once healed, the sleep became natural and the pup curled into a ball on her lap. Nico was kneeling beside her, in awe. "It's fixed! You can talk to animals?"
"It's my one natural talent. Now it's your turn." She grabbed his hand and he recoiled, not expecting it. "Don't worry, since it's not too difficult a healing nothing out-of-the-ordinary should happen." So he let her heal it, amazed as the scrapes shrank then disappeared and the bruises, which had already started to appear, faded.
"Woah…"
She giggled a bit and let his hand go, moving the foxlet to his lap. "It's taken a lot of work for me to be able to even heal a scratch like that. Once, when I tried to heal the little cut on his finger-he had cut himself on a knife while cooking-I somehow made him grow dog ears...Yukiya thought it was funny, but I ended up having to get our friend Elias to come help us fix it…"
Nico had stiffened at the mention of his brother.
"Speaking of Yukiya, what was that back there? Everyone thought you'd be happy to see him again, like everyone else was."
"Why should I be?!" He shouted, his anger returning. She put her finger to her lips and pointed at the sleeping cub on his lap. He went silent. Then he spoke, his voice normal volume again, "He said he'd be coming back soon-as soon as he could-and he lied! He's been gone for over two years! He left us! He...he left me…" With this last line, he looked down to hide the tears that were forming in his eyes.
"He didn't want to. But, he felt that he had too. I can understand why he felt like that. He was scared. Scared for his family-for you-and he was scared to come back until Ange found us coming into town last night. I think he's still scared-scared that you'll hate him, because I can tell that he feels that he deserves it."
"Wait...he thinks I hate him?"
"At this point, I think it's his biggest fear other than losing all of you again."
"But...I can't hate him. I could never. Sure, I'm as mad as heck-but I can't hate him." He almost seemed to be speaking to himself.
"Can I trust you with a secret? A really, really big secret?"
He looked up at her, "Uh...I guess so…"
"Do you remember when the raiders attacked your village, shortly before Yukiya left?"
He blinked in surprise, "Of course I do."
"Do you what happened? When they made it into your house? You were hiding upstairs with your mother and little sisters? Your father being out working?"
"H-how do you know all this…?"
"Yukiya told me everything. When they made it into your house, Yukiya managed to kill the small group that made it inside with one of the kitchen knives, right?"
"Uh, yeah, that's what happened."
"Well, it's more like what he told you happened. Something different really happened. Yes, he killed those men. But it wasn't with a kitchen knife."
"What?" his eyes widened.
"He killed them with magic. Magic he gained from a contract with a magical creature."
"He contracted magic?! Isn't that evil?!"
"Hold your horses. Magic is a tool. It itself isn't evil-if it's used for evil purposes, that's the fault of the user, now isn't it? You wouldn't say an axe is evil, would you? It chops the firewood for the winter, but it can also be used in killing. It's not the axe's fault it was used to kill, it was just the tool. Does this make sense?"
"I guess so…"
"Yukiya at that point was desperate. If he didn't do something extremely soon, he'd be killed. And once he was dead, what was to stop them coming up and killing you? Kidnapping or killing your sisters and your mother? If Wolfy hadn't shown up…"
"Wolfy?"
"The magic wolf he contracted with. He never told Yukiya his name, and I can't get him to tell me, so I've taken to just calling him Wolfy. He disappeared before we got here-he's not the biggest fan of traveling, and isn't the biggest fan of towns-he can barely stand the academy most of the time."
"The academy?"
"I'll explain that part later. We're getting off topic. Promise. Moving on…" she took a breath and smiled faintly, "as I was saying, if Wolfy hadn't shown up, and offered the contract, you'd all probably be...well, for lack of a better term, dead. There's always a downside to a magical contract though, and the one for this particular contract was dangerous." Sabrina held up her hand when Nico opened his mouth, "Let me finish. The downside to this contract was that as it neared the full moon, Yukiya falls violently ill, with a high fever and weakness. And if the eye with the eyepatch-you saw that, right?-sees the light of the full moon, he transforms. He transforms into a large beast that almost looks like something halfway between a lion and a wolf...only it's jet-black. WIth fangs as long as my hand, and large purple horns. And until recently, he had no control over it if it got loose. That's why he left, so the magic he bought to save you wouldn't turn and kill you.
"He went to the Gedonelune Royal Magic Academy, because some of the greatest wizards and wizardess teach or attend there. He had hoped one of them would know how to reverse the contract. Problem is, no one did. So he became a student to try and learn how to control this new magic, and just suffered through the fevers in the detention center every month. He was there for nearly a year and a half before I came.
"I was a provisionally accepted student there for a 13-day trial period to see if I could pass the trial and become a student-it was a part of my dream, to go there-and on my first day, I found my buddy." She explained the buddy system to Nico, who nodded. "I was buddied with this quiet boy who was surrounded by rumors that he was cursed-he himself believed he was cursed. He said to me himself that it was 'a bad idea to be around' him. I didn't believe the rumors though...someone that kind couldn't be that bad." She proceeded to tell him of how she first met Yukiya, and it made Nico snigger.
"Why would you think he was gonna kill himself? That's just dumb."
"Well! I'm sor-ry if I was worried!" Sabrina huffed, "If anything, at least we didn't have a cliche first meeting! Moving on...again…" She went on to tell him how she found out about she found out about Yukiya's problem. And of the strange "woman" who managed to make a way for Yukiya to gain control and change back. She left out the part of it being the headmaster's night form, though. That was a secret…
"So you're the only one who can change him back?"
"Yes. And I've been doing it for nearly six months."
"How come Yukiya didn't come back sooner then?!" He demanded.
"He was scared." She bit her lip, "Scared that you guys, especially you, would reject him after everything that had happened to him. It took me most of the week before summer break to convince him come back-I had to resort to threatening to break up with him if he wouldn't go back home and see his family. I hated to have to do that, but it seemed to do the trick and he gave in."
"You must mean a lot to him." Nico sounded a bit longing, like he wanted to be that important too.
"And you do, too, Nico. He loves you and the rest of his family so, so much. You are all so dear to him-he talk about you all the time. Now, are you ready to go back and say sorry? We've been gone nearly an hour!" She looked up at the sky, which told her it was nearly noon, "I don't know about you, but I'm nearly starving!"
Nico laughed and stood up, the foxlet in one hand. He held his free one out and helped Sabrina up. The walked back to the house, well, Nico took Sabrina back to the house, as she had absolutely no clue where they were. Nico spotted a silver wolf watching them from the woods, but it quickly disappeared after a quick nod. He kept this to himself.
Once the two, smiling, got back inside, the first thing that happened was that they were bombarded by four little girls and a toddling 18-month-old, blond, blue-eyed little boy. Paxton attaches himself to Nico, and Nico picks him up without thinking, this being normal.
The four (Yukiya's father had woken up. When he had first seen Yukiya, he gave him a smile and a pat on the back-like Yukiya himself, his father was a man of fewer words and a quiet disposition) older ones in the house came in.
Yukiya hung back a bit and wrung his hands, not meeting Nico's eyes. Sabrina nudged Nico and he took a breath, handed Paxton to Sabrina-who was already holding the foxlet-before running up and suddenly embracing his brother, crying and saying he was so, so sorry. It was the sweetest thing Sabrina had ever seen.
…. …. ….
Later, Yukiya was taking Sabrina on a walk, showing her around the town before taking her to his favorite childhood places in the woods by his home.
"I told him."
"Told who what?" Yukiya said, looking at her, a bit confused.
"Told Nico everything." She bit her lip, nervous because Yukiya had frozen just ahead of her, and continued, "Why you left. Why you took so long coming back. How much he and your family mean to you. He knows it's a secret and I know he understands why he needs to keep it. I just wanted to make sure that the two of you made up. I don't think I could bear it if you two never were able to make up prop…" she was cut off by a sudden embrace from Yukiya.
"Thank you." He held her tightly, like he would never let her go.
…. …. ….
They came back to secrets and whispers. The girls were planning something. And Rosa was apparently the leader. They couldn't get anyone to tell them more than "Wait until tomorrow!" It made them think that something that wasn't so good was coming…
And after a wonderful, fun, and very loud dinner (Sabrina wasn't used to eating with so many people...it was usually just her and Yukiya and Chubbs (her special wing-rabbit familiar who had opted to stay at the academy)), Ange left to go back home, promising she'd bring Fletcher over tomorrow so Yukiya and Sabrina could meet him. Nico named his foxlet (it was pretty attached to him at this point) Stevey (because Stevey is a great name for a fox, okay?), and Stevey stayed on his shoulder the entire time.
Paxton, on the other hand, had become really attached to Sabrina. And Sabrina loved it, and gladly toted him around in her arms. When she sat next to Yukiya with Paxton in her lap, his mother said-with a wink-that they looked like a young married couple. This made all of his sisters giggle in a smug manner, making the two young lovers really confused.
The girls went to bed one by one, and Nico went to go spend the night at his friend's house (to both sleep in a less crowded room and to show off his new pet) sometime around dusk, and Mr. Reizen retired early with the reason that he was going to go check traps again in the morning. Mrs. Reizen went to go start with breakfast prep. This left Yukiya and Sabrina-with a sleeping Paxton in her arms-on the loveseat in the corner of the room. She rocked Paxton gently, a look of wonder on her face, "He's so adorable…" she whispered.
Yukiya scooted closer and whispered, "You're the most adorable one here, Sabrina. Could I hold him?"
She nodded, blushing, and handed the sleeping child over. "You know, you look like this when you're asleep-all peaceful and content."
He smiled, "You look like that too. Think, in a few years, it could be our own sleeping child that we're holding."
Sabrina smiled gently, "Maybe. What would we name him?"
"I think it'd be a her."
"Well, what if we got twins, a boy and a girl?"
"We've got some time, so we don't need to worry quite yet." Paxton fussed a little bit in his sleep and Yukiya rocked him gently, "But whenever I picture out kid, I see a miniature you, Sabrina." He closed his eyes, like he was seeing it in his head. "An adorable little girl, a bit clumsy in a cute way, playing in a meadow of wildflowers. Pigtails, of course, eyes and hair a soft chocolate brown color...sweet and innocent and naively endearing. As perfect as you are."
"Yukiya…" she had tears in her eyes, but she was smiling her wide, somewhat goofy grin. "Oh...Yukiya…" She pecked him on the cheek and gave him a careful hug, as not to disturb Paxton.
His mother, who had heard him from the kitchen, was smiling, happy. Her son was happier than she had ever seen him-more complete. And that filled her heart to the brim. She cleaned her hands and went to go get Paxton and put him to bed.
That night, when they went to bed, Sabrina and Yukiya fell asleep cuddled together, holding hands tightly.