Katherine smiled warmly as she lounged on the couch, watching as Alice hunched over on the floor while coloring in a book she had bought from the store the other day for the kid. In her hands was a warm cup of coffee that Adriel had made for her while the nurse himself sat in the chair. Thomas was out doing his job and so the two teachers were here watching his soon-to-be-daughter.
She didn't have to be there that day, Adriel was already scheduled to be the babysitter for the day, but she hadn't had anything else to do. All her students papers were graded, her lesson plan was finished, all her work to prepare for tomorrow was done. So what better way than to just crash at her neighbors house and spend the time with such a wonderful child.
If she could get away with it without any repercussions, Kat would have stolen Alice and adopted her herself if she could.
But, alas, child abduction was illegal and she didn't want to be the one who got on Thomas' shit list for stealing his child, so the pro hero Dream Eater would settle with just being the honorary aunt.
Plus, it was always a bonus to spend time with Adriel. She didn't get much time at the academy to just talk with him, and he rarely joined the drinking sessions she and some of her other coworkers invited him to.
"How have the students in the tech course been?" Adriel asked as he took a sip of his coffee, his gaze fixed on the book he was reading. "I don't have them coming for medical treatment nearly as often as the hero course, save for cuts and burns received while working."
Katherine placed a hand on her cheek and gave a dramatic sigh, "Well they always make me feel old, like I'm losing that charm of mine that had guys falling to their knees to do what I asked." There had been a time when whenever she walked into a room the men, and even the young students, would just stare at her. But ever since she got assigned homeroom to this years tech class, she rarely got any sort of rise from the students. In fact, they enjoyed giving her a hard time. "It's like they enjoy getting under my skin."
"That's students for you," Adriel nodded, "they live to make our lives that much harder."
"That's for sure," Katherine agreed and smiled as she watched Alice's shadows drag over a few crayons that had rolled away from her. It was so nice to see her gaining control, bit by bit, over her quirk. "Save for Alice, of course. She is such a good student, I can't wait to be her teacher at Garricks."
Adriel gave a snort from where he seated and Alice glanced up at them, not showing any sign that she knew what they were talking about, before shrugging and going back to her drawing. "That's assuming she even wants to attend Garricks. They're not the only hero academy in the country, and she might not even want to be a hero," the man pointed out.
The woman pouted as she held her mug of coffee, "What kid doesn't want to be a hero?"
"Most kids do, but they grow out of it as they grow up," Adriel stated. "Especially those who live surrounded by heroes, she'll see past the glamor of the job and see it for what it really is; dangerous and deadly. No one can blame anyone for not wanting that responsibility."
He had a point. Hero work was one of the most dangerous kinds of jobs out there. Heroes were constantly putting their lives on the line, and the effort and work to become a hero was insane. She really couldn't hold it against Alice, or anyone for that matter, if they didn't want to become a hero. It'd be nice if she could see Alice become a hero, because she was certain the girl could become one of the best; she had an amazing and strong quirk and such a kind heart, but if Alice decided that being a hero wasn't for her, then Katherine would accept that.
There wasn't much she could do to oppose it, it wasn't like she was the girl's mother or anything, she knew that.
But, Katherine thought of Alice as her own child. She wanted to be there for the girl, help care for her, raise her and protect her like a mother would. Wanted to help protect the soft smiles and kind heart.
"You're making a gross face," Adriel said, cutting into her thoughts, glancing over his book to look at her, "you're thinking of something weird again, aren't you?"
Huffing, Katherine turned so she wasn't facing him, "Rude! You can't just say that to a woman," she snapped, crossing her arms over her chest, "Really, with that attitude, it's no wonder you haven't been able to get a date or a girlfriend."
"Assuming I even want to be involved in any of that drama."
They bantered back and forth like that for a few minutes and it must have caught Alice's attention because she stopped coloring to just watch them, a curious if not confused expression on her face, but not saying anything to interrupt them.
Man, she and Adriel must have looked like an old couple to her with their little quarrels. Hopefully Alice didn't get any funny ideas about the two of them. "Kind of feels like we're a second set of parents to her," Katherine said, stretching her arms high above. "I'm the mommy, you're the spare daddy."
Adriel snorted, "The spare?"
"Well, yeah, Thomas is clearly the primary daddy," she said and then gave a wry smirk, "in more ways than one, or so says the internet."
Adriel grimaced, shaking his head, "That whole 'daddy' fetishization is just so weird if you ask me," he muttered, and Katherine laughed a little at his expression of clear discontent. "If a girl I'm with starts calling me 'daddy' while we're sleeping together, I'm out of there. I'm not going to be an outlet for some girls daddy issues."
"Oh come on, you're assuming that every girl has to have daddy issues for that."
"I'm saying every girl has daddy issues if they're doing that."
Katherine laughed as the doctor grumbled a little more, they got a few more weird glances from Alice who probably didn't understand what they were talking about. It was for the best that she didn't know.
"Speaking of America's 'favorite daddy'," Katherine grinned as Adriel made a gagging expression, "how'd that favor you wanted from him go?"
Adriel shrugged, picking back up his book and flipping a page.
"It went well, he seemed pretty okay with mentoring one of the first years," he said, eyes roving over the page of his story. He had asked Thomas the other day if he would be willing to do someone on one mentoring for one of the freshmen at the academy. The student kept breaking bones and tearing muscles every because of a strength augmenting quirk. Since Thomas was the hero when it came to strength quirks in America, Adriel thought he might be able to offer some pointers.
So long as Adriel wasn't having to repair bones and muscles every day on the same student, he'd be happy.
"That's good. I'm thinking of making a… not so much a favor, but a suggestion to him myself," Katherine said glancing up at the ceiling, "I want to maybe enroll Alice into the Junior Heroes Program. Thought it might be good for her, and fun, too."
Adriel perked up at that, "I can see it being helpful in learning appropriate quirk usage," not to mention how to be a decent citizen, which this country needed more of if you asked him. "I can't see Thomas saying no, so I'd say go for it."
Katherine hummed with a smile, the JHP was a good program for kids. Not only would they learn how to appropriately use their quirks in public, but that they didn't need to use their quirks to solve a problem. It encouraged cooperation, bonding, and responsibility among kids. It was the kind of program that she honestly wished was around when she was a kid.
Because Heavens knew there were so many adults in her generation that could have benefited from the positive lessons and messages of the program.
It'd also give Alice a place to be, a relatively safe place to be during the day in case she, Adriel or Thomas were unavailable because of hero work or school work. It wasn't going to be long until some of the academy's popular events or activities started up. She wouldn't have as much time to watch over Alice right after class anymore and neither would Adriel. She'd hate to not know if the little girl was somewhere safe.
"Oh, right, that reminds me," Katherine said, more to herself than to the others, and gestured for Alice to come over to her. "Alice, darling, I've got something for you, almost forgot all about it," would have too if she hadn't started thinking of the JHP.
The little girl pushed herself up from the floor and scampered over to where Katherine sat, "You didn't have to get me anything," she said slowly, a bit shyly as she held her hand behind her back and looking down at her feet. Her shadows were wrapped around her ankles, slithering about in what Kat could only assume was anticipation.
And the hero just smiled at the girl, reaching out to her purse and rummaging through it, "Nonsense, it's an honorary aunts job to spoiler the kid," she laughed before pulling out the gift and holding it out to the girl.
On the surface it looked like a cupcake styled keychain, something she could easily hook to her backpack, purse or anything. But there was a button on the bottom of it and little speakers, easy to miss but there all the same. Alice held it in her hand, staring in confusion and wonder as she turned it about. When she reached for the button, Kat had to stop her.
"It's a safety alarm," Katherine explained, answering Alice's unspoken question with a soft smile. "If you ever feel in danger while outside, just press the button at the bottom and it'll make a really loud noise. It'll scare the bad person and good people will come to your aid."
"A safety alarm?" Alice looked at the alarm in her hand, and even Adriel had looked up from his book to stare at the little device.
Katherine nodded towards her, "Yep. But you can't press it just for fun, only use it when you feel in danger. Like a stranger is trying to make you go with them or take something from you, or if you see some bad people doing bad things," Katherine explained, looking Alice in the eyes. "This is so you and others can stay safe, okay?"
Alice stared at the device in her hands and then looked up at Katherine with a wide smile. "Thank you! I promise I'll take care of it and only use it when I have to."
"That's my girl," Kat grinned and ruffled her hair, "Now, get out of her scamp, go play."
Alice giggled, slipping the safety alarm into her pocket and running to another room, leaving the adults to their own business as she went to find some toys to play with until Thomas came back home.
Safety alarm, huh? She'd never thought she was in that much danger before. The most danger she had been in in a long while had been the incident with Kazama when she met Thomas. Nothing bad had ever happened since then. But, maybe the town wasn't as safe as she was thinking. Bad people could be around any corner, she supposed.
She made it to her room, closing the door behind her and opening the window.
As soon as it was open, a black bird flew in and landed on the floor. A single crow this time, the others must have been busy. Oh well.
Alice smiled as she took a seat on the floor and pulled the alarm out of her pocket again to show the bird. "Look what I just got," she said smiling as the crow tilted its head poked its beak against the device. "It's a safety alarm, if I use it, its supposed to make a sound to help me out," she explained.
The crow looked at her and he looked back, "I guess I already got lots of safety with you and the others watching me," there was no way Mr. Crow… no way Chihiro would let something bad happen to her if he was watching. Between him and the heroes she was with, she couldn't imagine something happening.
The crow squawked and jumped to land on one of the shadows, she always found it adorable how the birds would use her shadows as perches.
Pushing the alarm off to the side, Alice grabbed a few of her toys and started playing. A simple adventure of a vigilante doing what was right and being bombarded by attacks by both heroes and villains. The crow and the shadows watched her as she played.
Under the eyes of the crow, it was familiar. It made her feel like she was back home with Mr. Crow, with the yakuza. They always watched over her, their master always watched over her. It made her feel safer than any safety alarm could.
It made her remember her time back with the yakuza.
It'd been a few months since she'd been taken in by the group she was with, but even though she'd been there for so long, she barely knew anyone's names. Most of them didn't bother talking to her, giving her weird looks. But there were some who she knew the names of, some who chatted with her regularly enough for her to have some idea as to who they were.
There was Kazama, he was pretty nice, and Alice thought his red hair was pretty. He sometimes used his quirk on the floor and slid around while saying silly things to get her to laugh. Hayashi wasn't as friendly, she rarely saw him smile and he always seemed to be distant. Sometimes he'd come by and say hi, but it wasn't often, the most she interacted with him was when he would watch her from across the room. It always felt like he was looking for something, she didn't like it. She didn't know what his quirk was.
There were others, but her interactions with them were small and rare and she only knew their names because they got said so often.
The one thing she didn't like about this place was that it was hard to understand what anyone was saying. Alice had a feeling that most of them didn't speak English, or at least they chose not to if they didn't have to, and while she felt like she was starting to understand some word, it was hard to know what was going on. It made her feel lonely.
Kazama would talk to her in English, but it wasn't that great, his words broken and they sounded weird. But he tried, and she was okay with that. Hayashi spoke her language as good as a native speaker, but he didn't talk much if he didn't have too.
But, she wasn't going to complain. If the language barrier was the only problem she had, then that would be okay. She could learn, the man who brought her in said that she'd adapt eventually. He even took time every day to sit down with her and teach her, not just his language, but other things too. He'd read with her, sometimes he'd help her with math, and he was always willing to answer whatever questions she had.
She owed him so much. He had taken her in when he hadn't had any obligation to, was spending his free time teaching her, as well as housing her and caring for her. He cared for her when no one else did. She had never known what it felt to be important to someone, to be wanted and cared for until he came.
Even though she was broken, even though she didn't deserve the love and attention, was useless and unwanted, he took her in without asking for anything.
She couldn't remember the details building up to her being found by him. She had blocked them out. Trauma, she had been told. She didn't like that word. But Alice could remember being found in an abandoned building, couldn't remember what she was doing there. Her arm had been hurt. Hurt really badly. Mangled and infected. It hurt so much.
Alice could remember him wrapping his coat around her and carrying her out of the building. Could remember the sharp sterile smell of a hospital, except it wasn't a hospital. She remembered she had been close to dying; cold, sick, starving, dying.
She remembered her arm was beyond saving.
But for some reason he hadn't discarded her. He could have left her in that shady clinic, but instead he had stayed in the room with her. Occasionally some other men would come in and talk to him in their own language, she learned later that they were from the yakuza he ran. He could have left her at any time. He only ever took off his mask when it was just her and him in the room or when Hayashi was in there. He said he took it off around people he trusted.
He trusted her, even though he barely knew her.
Instead he just asked her questions here and there. Where she was from, what she wanted to do, how she felt. Then, one day he had asked her the most important question. "If you have nowhere to return to, can I take you with me?"
Even seeing her quirk, something she knew people hated, even though she was useless and worthless and incomplete, he wanted her. He was the first person to want her. She couldn't say no, she was crying when she said yes.
He had taken her back with her to Japan. He had given her a name. There was a wordless, and unspoken promise that she would always be with him. Forever.
Heh, yeah, right. He'll throw you aside too.
Do you really think you're worth that much? He'll get tired and toss you out.
Alice flinched as the shadows wormed their voices into her head. Their shrill laughter echoing in her mind, and as futile as it may have been, she curled up, eyes closed, and put her hand head as though to block out their sound. It didn't work, it never worked.
It had been almost a year since she got her quirk, and she wished that she never got it. It was a terrible quirk to have. Everyone else had cool ones that helped them or helped others, all hers did was torment her, and others if it had the chance. There was nothing good about the shadows that only wanted to see people suffer.
Why did she get cursed with such a horrible quirk? Did she do something awful in her past life and this was her punishment, to be tormented and ridiculed every second of the day by her own quirk? She hated it, she hated the shadows.
It was their fault that she was alone, their fault for everything bad that had happened to her.
You're just as much to blame. We're a part of you, after all.
Oh, if only you could control your own quirk, you wouldn't be such a bother!
The laughter continued and Alice curled up tighter on the bed she had been kneeling on, her one hand digging her fingers into her scalp. Slowly the shadows slithered along the bed, wrapping around her, trapping her in their dark webbing. She hated when they got like this, put those thoughts in her head. Deep down in her heart, she knew they were right.
If she could control her quirk, she'd be useful, but how could she control a monster like these shadows? People hated her quirk, and that meant they hated her, too. Eventually he was going to get tired of dealing with her, dealing with these shadows, too. Hoping for an eternity with him was too selfish.
Their hands were gripping at her, so tight that it hurt, she felt them wrapped around her neck and it was hard to breathe.
The shadows kept laughing, flooding her head until all she could hear was their sinister laughter. She wanted to silence them, to shut them up. She wanted the days where she didn't have her quirk, didn't have the shadows back.
"Alice."
The shadows fell silent, slithering back to the corners of her mind and the room, their touches leaving and voices gone.
She hadn't even noticed the door to the room opening or closing earlier, unable to take in anything but the shadows that had filled all her senses. But, she wasn't alone in the room anymore, she wasn't alone and her light had returned to drive off the shadows.
He was standing before the bed, looking down at her. He was still dressed up for work, and with his mask obscuring his face she couldn't get a read of his expression. He always wore that mask in front of others, save for a very few. Only around those he trusted. He didn't like people seeing his face.
Even though the mask had scared her for a while, she grew to like it. It was a part of him. There was nothing about him she could hate or fear.
Still, Alice pushed herself up to her knees when she saw who was here, "Chihiro!" she greeted, smiling wide, feeling herself at ease, feeling happiness invade her again. Chihiro was back! "Welcome home!"
The man just gave a nod, stepping away from his bed—because it was his room that she had been in, waiting for him in, his room was safe, his room was comforting—and turned his back to her for a moment. His hands messed with his head and then his mask came to rest on his desk by the wall. He was a quiet individual, sometimes a strange one. Sometimes he made strange requests (Like never using his real name outside of their group. So she took to calling him Mr. Crow when around those he didn't want knowing. She thought it was a cute nickname.), but, he was smart. He noticed things, if something was even the tiniest bit wrong with her, he noticed.
"You were writhing, looked like you were in pain. Is your quirk causing you any trouble again?" Chihiro asked as he undid his tie and draped it over the back of the chair, his black jacket followed.
She lowered her head, "I'm sorry," Alice answered, and she heard the shadows laughing at her.
Soft footsteps, a hand was placed on her head, "You're not even six yet, you've had your quirk for barely a year; it's completely normal to have problems. No one expects you to have complete control yet," Chihiro said, his voice, always calm and low, had this magical ability to sooth and relax her, to chase away her worries. She allowed herself to look up at him, meeting his blue and green eyes. They weren't warm, but they were understanding, accepting. The black wings protruding from his back twitched, a feather falling to the floor.
"I know, I just wish I could do more," Alice admitted, balling her hand into a fist on her lap, "I hate how my quirk, it—it makes everything more difficult, and I know everyone looks at it like it's evil."
Chihiro sighed and seated himself onto the bed beside her. "Alice, there's no such thing as an inherently 'evil' quirk. Quirks aren't good or bad, it's humans and their inability to accept things that confuse or frighten them that are the problems, not the quirk." He looked over to the open window, a couple of crows landed on the windowsill, watching them. There were always lots of crows around the place. Chihiro said a group of them was called a murder, he had an amused smile when he said that. Alice didn't get it.
"Your quirk may be difficult to manage, but it's not evil," Chihiro explained looking back down at her and bringing a hand to wrap around her shoulder. "In fact, I'd argue that it's difficulty is because of how powerful it is, that what you have is one of the better quirks."
From under the window, the shadow cast by the furniture bubbled, tendrils crawling up the wall. The crows cawed at it in annoyance, like there was some kind of rivalry between the two.
Alice looked up as Chihiro hummed, reaching out to smooth out one of his feathers. "If you'd excuse the very old reference, I'd say that your quirk is in the top percentage of quirks." She didn't get the reference, but that was fine. "People don't understand what your quirk is, often misunderstand it and because of that, they're scared. They're scared of what they don't know, and by not knowing, they give you more power."
"More power?" Alice asked curiously.
He nodded. "People don't immediately fear me because what they know of my quirk isn't inherently dangerous. All they see is that I have crow wings, what they know is that I can fly. So they don't fear me, what they don't know," he held his hand out to the window, one of the crows flew over and landed on his arm. "is that my quirk is more than wings, but a connection with crows. I can use them to spy, to attack, and so on." Then his arm transformed, the skin turning black and rough and overall morphing into a humanoid bird like hand complete with long black talons.
"That isn't to say I can't fight. What they do know about my quirk lets them lower their guard, what they don't know about it gets them killed," Chihiro said and a second later his hand turned back human. Then he turned his attention back to Alice. "They know absolutely nothing about your quirk. What they think is that it's a type of shadow manifestation at best," he nodded to the shadows.
Alice looked down, "But it's not," she pointed out. "I mean, I don't think so."
He nodded, "Exactly." The shadows curled up from the ground as though to look at them, the crow flew from Chihiro's arm and landed on the shadowlike a perch, joined by the other crow. "What they don't know is that you're not just creating shadows, but rather, your quirk is giving the shadows around you a life of their own and amplifying their capabilities, their consciousness and soul following beside you wherever you go. If you let them continue to think your quirk is one thing, it gives you an advantage. That's how it gives you more power."
He's pretty smart.
Unlike a certain somebody.
Closer than most.
The shadows laughed in her head, but it didn't bother her too much this time. Instead, Alice looked at her hand, "I don't think I really get it." She didn't like the awful feeling inside of her when she thought of how Chihiro understood her quirk better than she did.
"Not surprising, you might be a bit too young to really understand this sort of stuff," Chihiro said like it wasn't a problem. He was always like that, always understanding. If Alice didn't understand what he was talking about, he treated it as though it wasn't a big deal, said it was fine that she didn't understand. She was too young, she'd get what he was saying when she was older or had more experience.
It was nice not being yelled at for not understanding why.
Chihiro was nice like that. It was part of the reason she liked being here with him so much. He didn't look nice, and sometimes he didn't act it, her certainly didn't have a warm personality, and his natural expression often intimidated people, but he was nice deep down. He treated her nicely, he didn't yell at her, or get mad at her, never raised his voice at her.
When it was storming really bad one night, she got really scared and accidentally ran to his room instead of her own by mistake, she was still new to his home and getting her bearings. She got lost a few times. He had looked surprised to see her barging in while he was at his desk going over papers and documents. He didn't get mad at her for coming in without permission and disturbing his work. Asked if she was scared of lightning, didn't mock her for being scared like the shadows did.
He told her she could stay in his room for the night, allowed her to sleep in the same bed as him even though she was willing to take the couch. His wings had been soft, he felt safe, and she'd been able to sleep soundly through the entire storm. Chihiro allowed her to sleep in his bed with him whenever she got scared at night, his room was a safe haven.
Even whenever they moved, and they moved from apartments and houses quite often because of his line of work, he always allowed her to come to his room when she got scared.
Whenever they went into town, he'd take her hand in his so she wouldn't get lost, knowing how scared she was of the big crowds, everything sounding foreign, looking foreign. His hands were warm. If he had the people from his work, a 'Yakuza' he called it, he'd reprimand them if they did something to scare her.
He was always calm, he never raised his voice, he never broke down. He was patient with her, he was understanding, he was… he was a parent.
With him, it was easy to forget her unhappy life before. To push those memories away to give room to this happier life she had with him.
Eventually Alice found herself on the couch in his room, sitting on Chihiro's lap. One arms was around her waist and his wings wrapped around her like a shield to protect her from the scary world outside. She liked how his feathers tickled her skin.
She was humming softly to herself as Chihiro talked on a cellphone. His voice was calm, but there was an edge to it, too. Even though she didn't know everything he was saying, it wasn't English and she was still learning Japanese, she felt like she could understand the general gist of it from the words she caught and the tone he would use. Something about him wanting the person on the other end to keep a low profile, he didn't want any heroes to get involved. She was sure she heard him say Endeavor, too. But it sounded like he really wanted whatever deal he was having his men do to go without any hitch.
What he did wasn't legal. She knew that. By all accounts he was a criminal, the bad guy. Alice didn't know the details of what sort of things he did, but he had told her straight up that it was illegal. She was okay with it, he wasn't as bad of a person as others might think. He saved her, after all.
His hand came up and started playing with her hair, as he talked, nodding and giving a few words of confirmation. Sounded like his phone call was going good, too. A few more words that she didn't understand, but she did catch him saying bye to Goro before hanging up. So he was talking to Hayashi.
She let him slip his phone back into his pocket and wrap his arm back around her, the other still running through her hair, before speaking up. He liked to cuddle her like this, Alice had a feeling it helped him relax, his work was stressful after all, and she liked the affection it provided.
"I don't think Hayashi likes me that much," Alice admitted after a few seconds of silence.
Chihiro hummed. "It's Hayashi-san. Remember, it's disrespectful not to use the proper suffix when addressing people. Some might not be too bothered by it, but others will, and Goro is one of them."
"You don't use any with him or me."
"Astute observation," Chihiro's wings shifted and Alice giggled as they brushed against her skin. "Though you failed to notice that I do refer to him as 'Hayashi-san' when there are others besides you present, and he always refers to me with respect. I don't use any with you simply because I don't want to and you wouldn't care."
He tilted his head back to look at the ceiling before adding, "But if I were to use one with you, I suppose I'd call you Alice-chan."
Alice-chan… she made a face at that. It sounded weird.
"Still, Hayashi-san," she put emphasis on the suffix, "did I do something wrong? If I did something to upset him and that's why he doesn't like me, I'd like to know so I can apologize."
But the man shook his head, "It's not that Goro doesn't like you, he certainly doesn't dislike you. It's rather, he doesn't open up often. At the moment, he sees no reason why he needs to get close to you or be your friend. It's his personality, so don't take offense at it. He doesn't mean to scare you or upset you."
"Is there anything I can do to make him warm up to me?" Alice asked.
"Give him time."
Alice hummed in response and then Chihiro was resting his chin on the top of her head. "He'll warm up to you eventually, Alice. You're a part of this family, after all, same as him. Once your older and have been a part of us for longer, the others will be more friendly to you." His voice was warm as he spoke, "Remember, you're still fresh blood, not only are you a child, but you're an outsider, there's a cultural and language barrier between you and the rest of the family. Most of the men here don't know more than a few phrases at best of English, and you only know enough Japanese to order food and ask for help. But once we overcome that, there's nothing stopping you and the others from being friends like you want."
Family.
That's right, she was a part of this family that Chihiro had made. Sure, it wasn't the kind of family made by blood ties and marriages, but it was a family. One Chihiro had adopted her into. Family had never felt so warm before him.
Almost as if reading her mind, "Yes, we're a family," Chihiro repeated. "This is your family, where you belong. Never forget that."
And as Alice sat on the stairs, two years later, staring at the gift Katherine had given her, she realized that she had almost forgotten that memory. The warmth. The family that Chihiro had given to her. Of course she would never forget the Yamazaki family. But she had almost forgotten that they were a family. Hers.
She closed her eyes, listening to Adriel and Kat talk in the living room below. Chihiro was her family. But, so was Hercules, Adriel and Katherines. Was it normal to have two families?
Did it even matter?
Yeah, it did. There was a day when she was going to have to choose which family to stay with, and there was no doubt she was going to hurt one side or the other. But… she already knew that if and when that time comes, which one she wanted to choose.
Authors Note
Well here's chapter seven. Was really looking forward to writing that flashback scene. Anyways, as always, feedback is appreciated, so lemme know what you think of this mess.
