everything the ice bites
TWO
It's just dinner.
Just a nice, normal dinner with the in-laws.
There's no reason to be nervous.
And yet.
And yet…
No matter how often Karin repeats these thoughts in her head, practically a mantra at this point, she can't bring herself to believe them.
"— rin?"
His voice snaps her out of her thoughts, bringing Karin back to reality. It's evening now, Yukio is driving, Karin is in the front passenger seat, and Hina is in the back.
She blinks and looks at him.
"Yes?"
"You know," Yukio says, voice soft and careful. "It's not too late to cancel."
He can't be serious.
"We could say that something came up last minute," he continues, strands of white hair falling over his teal eyes. "That we wanted to celebrate just the three of us. Go to a different restaurant."
"What? No! No way!" Karin bristles, indignation piercing through her shock and letting her properly react.
So what if she was nervous? She could power through it like she always did, hoping that the next time, things would be easier.
"Don't you dare," Karin folds her arms and glares at him. "We're doing this!"
Yukio shrugs, letting the matter drop, but out of the corner of her eye, Karin swears that the corner of his lip twitches into something like a smirk.
Unbelievable, Karin thinks, annoyed, before realizing he'd probably said that to distract her and calm her down.
Again.
Karin exhales and takes a minute to organize her thoughts.
"Honestly, we should probably meet them more than we actually do," Karin sighs, feeling some regret as she muses over Yukio's parents. They're family, after all, not strangers. They didn't act like it, but surely, if Karin persisted, that could change, and they'd be won over by their adorable granddaughter. Hina is still so young, Karin reasons; trying for optimism instead of pessimism, so there was a chance she might forget that her grandparents were once so distant. Maybe it was something Karin could discuss with them over dinner. With that thought in mind, Karin turns to face Hina, and say, brightly. "After all, they're our Hina-chan's Baba and Jiji!"
"I'm scared of Baasan," Hina says, flatly.
Karin forces her smile not to waver.
"Why… why is she scary?" Karin asks, sounding confused, and exchanges a look with Yukio, before turning back to look at their daughter. "She's your grandmother."
Sure, she's not the friendliest person, but still… scary is a bit…
They're family, Karin decides, regardless of how she personally feels about her in-laws, that's all there is to it.
Karin never knew her own grandparents. Hina is lucky to know three.
At least with Goat Face, her old man adores his grandchild.
"You're scared of her too, Kaa-chan," Hina-chan mutters, refusing to be swayed.
"Am not," Karin retorts, instantly, and then tries to signal to Yukio to back her up. "I am not!"
Yukio says nothing, perhaps wisely choosing to stay out of it, but later, when he looks at her during the next red light, he mouths the words are too.
Karin is extremely tempted to whack his shoulder, and grumble that a father-daughter duo as cute as them absolutely should not team up against her, instead she settles for scowling.
But when Yukio silently offers her his hand to hold, Karin takes it without hesitation, and doesn't let go for the rest of the drive.