Chapter Four

Kokoro looked down at the slip of paper that was for the address of the boy around Yuzuyu's age. Kokoro recognized the name from Kippei's stories of when he had been taking care of Yuzuyu in the beginning. Kokoro had always had friends but she hadn't connected with them on a deep level. She often wondered whether things would have been different if she had done so. Would it have been easier for her to release her pain before Kippei? Probably but it was when she was with Kippei that she had learned to be most happy.

She walked forward to the house and knocked on the door. They didn't know her. She was a stranger in their lives and yet it seemed that their fate had been connected that day. They wanted the same thing, right? For Yuzuyu to be happy even though that wouldn't happen for a long time. Losing one's mother wasn't something that was easy to stop the hurt of. Kokoro still felt the hurt of her own.

Going out to answer the door, Nashiya-san stood and faced Kokoro. "Hello?" she asked as she tucked a strand of her brown hair behind her ear, her face still showing her exhaustion despite it having been years since she had fought her own demons in the mistreatment of Shouta. "Can I…help you with something?" she asked and Kokoro bowed.

"I'm Katakura Kokoro," she said and the woman looked at her with a blank expression. Kokoro paused and shifted, "I'm married to Katakura Kip-"

"Ah, so you're the woman that boy married. I've seen him on the TV," she said and Kokoro shifted. Of course people knew Kippei, he wasn't someone that was easy to forget. She took a deep breath in. She needed to do this for Yuzu's sake. She had fallen in love with Kippei due to how much he loved Yuzuyu and the type of care and affection that he had given her. He still had his same amazing heart.

"Yes," Kokoro smiled. "I married him. However, I think that Yuzuyu-chan would benefit a lot from being able to talk to your son, if that's at all possible. I am sure that you've heard about the passing of -"

"Such a sad thing that happened. I can't understand why a mother would really go through with it," Nashiya-san said and Kokoro bit her tongue. She could understand how mother's didn't really think about the world around them but that wasn't her place to say. All that she could do was hope to create a happy world for Yuki to live within.

"Would it be possible for him to visit?" Kokoro asked with a tilt of her head. "I don't mind driving him home afterwards but if it cou-"

"I'll talk to Shota," Nashiya-san agreed and Kokoro smiled slightly. Maybe there was more that she could do to increase Yuzuyu's happiness but this was a start. The Katakura family was also devastated. Although they all had feelings about their aunt that they found disrespectful to vocalize, Kippei and his siblings were still her niece and nephews. Misako was still the sister that she had left behind.

All of this proved to Kokoro that the best thing that she could continue to do for Yuki was to live for her even when the world seemed impossible to navigate. She would try to help Yuzuyu but that didn't mean that she couldn't be selfish and prioritize the two who meant most to her. Despite her love for her father and the way that his new wife had accepted her and the family, Kippei and Yuki were her home and her family. She wanted happiness for Yuki and she never wanted for her to suffer the hardships that Yuzuyu was going through.

…..

…..

"You don't seem yourself, Katakura" Matsumoto – one of the writers for the show – said as he put a hand on Kippei's shoulder and the blond immediately sat up straighter in his seat. Matsumoto laughed. "Were you really just zoning out? Don't lie to me," he chuckled and Kippei looked at him sadly.

"My aunt died," he said and Matsumoto paused before sitting down.

"That's no fun. A dead relative is nothing to take lightly. Good for you on being here though, when did she pass?" he asked and Kippei sighed.

"Recently," he admitted before looking forward. "A suicide," he blurted out and Matsumoto swallowed slowly. That type of death was the hardest to handle because you could never figure out whether anything you did would have helped in that situation.

"Sorry to hear, how's your family coping?" he asked and Kippei looked at him with a sad smile and sighed. Maybe he was feeling okay, sad definitely but he would recover and his mother was devastated at the loss of her sister. However, that was nothing compared to the emptiness that Yuzuyu was feeling.

"My cousin isn't doing so great. I think this is the type of thing that traumatizes someone and it's not like she's a little kid anymore. I can't do any of the tricks that I did before when her mother left her. She's already been abandoned once. If I had known that this would…no, it's better that she spent the time with her that she did," Kippei reasoned to himself and Matsumoto nodded.

"You babysat her?" he asked and Kippei shook his head.

"I was more than that. She was my little sister in a way, my responsibility. It's how I managed to start caring for Yuki so easily but she's not a little girl anymore and I can't treat her like one. I have to really think of the best way in which to help her," Kippei mused and Matsumoto nodded.

"To me it feels that you won't know unless you ask her," Matsumoto commented and Kippei sighed and bowed his head. It felt right what he was saying but Kippei was a fan of the quick fix so that people could go back to smiling. With this problem though, it would be a miracle if Yuzu was able to get such a strong smile back in the future. He just never wanted Yuki to feel this pain and he wanted to protect Kokoro.

If Yuzuyu's father could tell them his thoughts on this would it be condemning his wife for abandoning their precious daughter or would he act the way Kippei imagined himself to act and blame himself for causing so much pain.

…..

…

When Kippei returned home, he pulled out his key but as he put it to the lock, he saw a teenage boy standing in front of the house. He appeared pretty familiar and yet Kippei couldn't work it out. He looked at the house again and then turned to the boy. "Are you at the right address?" he asked and the boy nodded. "Okay, what's your name?"

"Nashiya Shota," he replied and Kippei pointed a finger at him as he realized why the boy looked so familiar. He had definitely seen him as a child because he was Yuzu's closest friend.

"That's why you look familiar," he said and Shota looked at him. Somehow, although Kippei had changed much less than the younger male, Shota's face showed that he didn't remember who this was. Shota looked at the door again and Kippei calmed down, his face becoming more somber.

"Come on," he gestured to him as he unlocked and opened the door. "Hopefully you'll be able to help her."

End of Chapter Four

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