"Hello, sweetheart, how have you been?" The gentle motherly voice awoke her from her shallow slumber.
Hikari, who had living like this for the past 5 months and had already gotten over the shame of being a newborn, opened her eyes and beamed at her mother. She was rewarded with a melodic giggle that made her feel warm inside and being picked up to be softly set on her mothers' chest.
Her mother, Yoshino, lowered herself to sit on the rocking chair and lifted her blouse to feed her.
She should feel ashamed, she really should, and she tried, okay? However, Hikari was a baby and no matter what she did, she needed to be breast-fed and changed regularly or else she would die and she couldn't have that yet, no sir. Hikari had things to do after all.
(And no, it wasn't because her mother looked depressed when Hikari didn't respond brightly, it wasn't because her father stared at her coldly whenever he saw her and never tried to hold her, it wasn't because her 3-year-old brother smiled at her with tiny baby teeth whenever she made any sort of sound and she had never seen him smile otherwise.
She still couldn't get over how happy her mother looked when she saw her children smiling. Like a thirsty traveler who suddenly saw a pool. Her mother didn't deserve this, didn't deserve her.)
To throw her mind off of the traumatic situation she was currently in, she began thinking of her new family. Her father hadn't done anything Vernon-like so she hadn't really been able to get an opinion on him yet.
He had only fed her once, if it could even be considered feeding, when he just left the bottle in her hands and went back to bed. She knew he was only coming because her mother was sleeping but she didn't expect anyone to come, really. It was 2 am, and her body decided she needed to scream and she tried to stop it but her stomach eating at her didn't help at all.
Her parents had a bad relationship. Hikari counted her blessing when she felt herself becoming sad, she had an abusive family as Harry, this was more than enough for her.
Not to mention, she had an amazing older brother. He was always really gentle with her, he had even showed her to his friends, they still came around to play sometimes. Hikari liked watching them play from underneath the tree while her mother cooked something delicious in the kitchen.
Overall, Hikari was happy.
"All done, love." Her mother cooed, and lifted her to burp her before going to settle her down in the crib once again.
She bent down to lay her on her back and tickled her tummy. "Look at the chubby baby."
Hikari giggled, with no regard to her previous life.
Her mother smiled and pecked both of her cheeks. "I love you, Hikari. My little sun."
She wished she could reply to her. But she hadn't really –
Wait. Wasn't she at that age where babies started talking? Maybe she could try?
"Ah Lub 'o to, ma-ma"
That.. wasn't a very successful first try.
But it did have the desired effect.
She added the memory of her mother celebrating her first words to her growing reserve of happiest memories.
Yes, Hikari was content.
It was a cold night in the summer. The window was open and Hikari was freezing after her mother forgot to add a heavier blanket for her.
It was when her limbs began trembling with shivers that she decided she needed to do something about this before she got hypothermia.
Hikari closed her eyes and focused on the small embers inside her. She followed it into every blood vessel and wished deeply that she would become warmer, repeating the incantation for the warmth charm in her mind.
The warmth wasn't immediate, it was slow but controlled. She sighed in relief and felt it lull her to a sleepy daze.
She almost succumbed to dream land before her door was opened.
Hikari was suddenly wide awake.
A dark figure slowly made its way towards her crib, grumbling with every step nearer.
Hikari almost cried with relief when she saw her father. A cold father was better than an assassin. She almost entertained the idea that he could kill her as well, but something inside her told her that he wouldn't cause her direct harm, Harry relied on those instincts to survive so she wasn't about to throw that into the trash just yet.
Her father – what was his name? – had a blanket in his hand that he casually, yet gently threw on her and fixed it so that her face wasn't covered.
Hikari was transfixed with his dark eyes, that never met hers. Maybe she was wrong? Is he actually not that bad? Should she try to get his attention? Would it get worse? Should she just stay silent?
Once again, relying on instinct, she raised her hands into the air and gurgled, "Da-da"
The man froze.
His hands slowly reached for her and lifted her, though. Hikari counted that as a win.
In the man's hold, Hikari yawned, there was a nice smell on him, like the morning dew in a forest with a hint of a masculine smell that normally would have scared her but calmed her instead, is this the magic of fathers?
She rested her head on his hard shoulder and yawned once more, her hands clutching his clothes. She was fighting the urge to sleep so that she could analyze his reaction to her, alas she was a baby and couldn't control much in her life.
(If she had been awake, she would have felt his hands patting her, she would have seen his eyes narrow at her in interest, she would have heard him mutter, "How odd. Troublesome."
But that was neither here nor there.)
She woke up in her crib.
Her brother came to visit her a few days after the whole debacle with her father.
She beamed at him and clutched his finger when he gave her his hand. He smiled back at her.
How cute. Her brother was adorable.
His smile slowly faded, but he didn't pull his hand away from her. "I wonder why Dad doesn't like you."
Hikari stopped breathing.
She turned her head towards her brother fully and stared directly at his narrowed gaze. He narrowed his eyes further and hummed.
"You actually understand me, don't you? I know you do."
Hikari stayed silent. Had she been caught by a 3-year-old that soon? She thought she had been doing so well being a normal child. She hadn't even used her magic, she planned to show a few tricks to her brother when he was young while she could. She didn't think she wanted to do that now.
"Why are you acting? But even if you're acting, Dad shouldn't act like that. He shouldn't hate you that much when you haven't done anything and Mom is happy now. So, what did you do?" He asked, but didn't look like he was waiting for her answer.
Her brother's eyes roamed her small body. Hikari couldn't even babble anything now, she couldn't, not when he caressed her cheeks with warmgentlewarm hands yet looked at her with eyes so cold that her heart froze and refused to beat properly.
After what seemed like hours to her, he pulled his hand away from her and frowned. "It doesn't matter, I guess. He will have to treat you well soon to make Mom happy, or else she won't forgive him."
Her eyes sharpened at the insinuation that her sweet mother was the one in charge of this house. That wasn't what it seemed like at the beginning. If it was like this, then why was her mother so sad all of the time? Why wasn't she angry instead? People in power didn't wallow in self pity, they used that power to do something about it.
Shikamaru smiled at her, not the usual gentle smile of his, something much less emotional, a smile barely reaching his cheeks let alone his eyes, "It's about time; I thought your head was empty."
Hikari flinched. She'd unknowingly proven him right while showing him too much. She couldn't control her expression at all in this state.
Her brother patted her tummy. "It's okay, you need to be smart to survive."
She almost frowned but caught herself.
"ah, jus' ah bai-bee, Shiccaaa." She cooed, knowing he probably understood nothing but the last word which was her nickname for him. She was just a baby, why would she need to fight? As far as she knew, no mass murderer was after her head in this place.
His eyes crinkled, like he saw something adorable. The words that came out of his mouth had been so practiced that you would think he had been repeating them his whole life. "No, you are not, Ri-chan. You are a Nara."
She had assumed wrong.
Hours later, she would lay in her crib and vow that she would master occlumency this time around. Her brother's words had been a hint that woke her up and she wouldn't make the same mistake again.
She would be prepared this time.
