[Kazuma ]
The moment the door opened Aqua excused herself and took the bags from my dad's hands and she immediately went to the kitchen, she didn't bother asking my mom or either of my grandmas for help.
She just started looking through the bags and when she found what she was looking for she reached opened a drawer and took out a knife.
I wanted to go help her and try to take mom's eyes off her, but both my grandpas and dad signaled to me that if I valued my life to stay out of it.
I honestly don't know who has it worse right now Aqua or me, I mean it would be worse if I had another girl's family judging me but...the way everyone is looking at me...its as if they want to break every bone in my body.
"So Kazuma...whose Megumin?" mom asked me, but her eyes promised pain if I answered wrong.
"She's an old friend of mine"
"Good, so you didn't take a bath with her and an American girl named Lalatina, who you told it was normal for people to do in Japan"
I turned to look at Aqua who just hummed to herself.
I can't help but swallow, even if there's nothing in my mouth.
"Mom, I can explain, you see"
I stop talking the moment the sound of the meat touching the hot oil reaches my ears, I can't help but take a deep breath and feel my heartbeat slow down.
"Mom, I met them when Aqua and I weren't even together"
"Ow," Aqua says the moment those words leave my mouth, and I can see my mom's left eye begin to twitch.
I watch all three older women exhail and look at me in a way they never have before.
"It's our turn, Kazuma lets g smoke in the hall" Grandpa says to me, dad and his dad follow us, but I'm surprised to see dad giving me a cigar.
"You have a good woman son, don't go looking for other women when you have that beauty here" Grandpa says to me, as he lights his cigar and handing the lighter to my other grandpa.
"Son, shes said nothing but good things about you, everything from when you learned carpentry to fix the drawer she brock, to youth first time you helped her make a fashion show, just for fun"
"Do you know how rare that is?" grandpa 2, says to me as he hands the lighter to dad.
I watch dad light his cigar take a puff and hand me the lighter, I don't know why but I feel as if something more than a lighter has just been given to me.
"Your mom likes her...you know how rare that is...if she says she's a good one, Kazuma... you're never going to find another one like her, so son take good care of her" Dad says to me before taking the lighter from my hand and lighting my cigar.
The three of us just stand there in the hallway smoking, none of us bother saying anything, we just stand there watching as the people in the building start their day.
{Kazuma's mom ]
"The fish is a little too fried, not to the point where its burned but it's getting there." I think to myself as I begin my job of being the mother inlaw.
Both mom and my mother-in-law are busy helping with the side dishes, I never thought, I would have someone here with me, with us.
Still, there isn't much I can teach her, she knows her way around the kitchen that's for sure, she controls the knife perfectly and somehow manages to get the slices of tomato to come out perfectly.
"So Aqua did your mom teach you how to cook?" I hear my inlaw ask my new daughter and for a moment the girls' smile fades.
"No, she didn't like to cook, she had other people make the food for her. I just started cooking when I met Kazuma"
The girls, no, her words seem sad, like if she doesn't want to think about something, I look at my elders and they both look at me.
I already know what they are saying "So she's not as perfect as she seems"
"So what's she like? I would love to meet her" I say to her hoping to get just a little bit more information.
"She likes expensive things, and if somethings not perfect...then it might as well be trash" she answers me, but her words are hollow, like if she's remembering something really painful.
"Adrestia, that's my mom's name" she answers me before her face reverts to having the bright smile she's had since I first met her.
"Looks like the sausages are done and everything ready, I'll go tell Kazuma that the foods ready" she says with a voice so cheerful that it completely changes the mood that had set in.
"Her mom was a perfectionist" I hear my mother say.
"Whatever Kazuma did, must have been a lot because the way that girl react to his name, its as if he was her beacon of light" my inlaw says as she looks at the plates the girl had set up.
I can't help but let out a small gasp, she placed the salad in such a way that both the fish and the sausages look like they were always meant to be there.
"Yep, a perfectionist parent, that s the worst kind, it's up there with the neglectful one," Mom says as she reaches into the grocery bag and takes out a carton of juice.
"Let's eat for now" I say to them
Everyone has their issues, everyone has their family problems, this isn't anything I can't handle, for now on its going to be family reunions and holiday get-togethers.
"So, I was thinking wee can move Kazumas old things here that way you two won't have to buy so many things" I hear my husband say and those few words hurt more than I ever imagined.
I knew we would have to do just that but still, in this small amount of time Kazuma, the boy I raised, he's going to be completely gone, everything that belongs to him will be gone from my house and it's going to be here.
I cant cry, not now, 'll do that latter.
I help pass the plates, each one of us hands one to their husband and we begin to eat.
