A.N: This chapter takes place in Nami's early childhood, so there aren't really any spoilers.

Hatch 2: Chocolate

"Snow!" six year old Nami cheered as she ran out of her home's front door.

"Wait for me!" her sister called after her, catching up quickly. They threw themselves on the pure white snow, both of them making snow angels "I love snow!"

"I don't" Bellemere said as she came out of the house with a shovel "If it wasn't for winter we could have oranges around the year, which would mean more money!"

The sisters watched as Bellemere started to shovel a way through the snow, her cigarette hanging from her mouth.

"Speaking of money: who took the coins that I put on the kitchen counter yesterday?" she asked, turning to look at her daughters "Well?"

The girls looked at each other with wide eyes before both of them pointed at each other with innocent smiles. A tick mark appeared on Bellemere's forehead as she looked at the girls. Sighing, she said: "All right, whatever. If the money's not on the kitchen counter by the time I go back inside and I mean all of it, neither of you are getting any presents this Christmas, no matter which of you took it."

The girls didn't say anything, just looked at each other with horrified faces. They had taken the money and split it evenly, but now both knew it had been a bad move. They should return it, no matter how much they had wanted go buy chocolate.

"Will she notice if we only return part of it?" Nami whispered when Bellemere had moved a little further away. Nojiko shook her head, saying: "We can't do that; she'll notice. There's a reason why she said all of it; she knows exactly how much she had."

"Are you sure?" Nami asked her sister. Maybe, if they thought hard enough, they'd find a way to keep part of the money.

"...no, but I don't want to take the risk of losing the presents" her older sister said with crossed arms "Do you?"

Nami bit her lip. She really wanted those chocolates, but getting them could mean that she and Nojiko wouldn't get any presents this year. That was not okay.

"No" she said finally "We need to return that money."

"Yep" Nojiko said "And without Bellemere-san seeing us."

"Right"

Bellemere, who was listening them from behind the corner, chuckled. Her daughters were such little thieves, but she had no right to judge. According to Gen she had been even worse as a child. She glanced around the corner, snorting as she watched her daughters' disappointed faces. She knew she shouldn't spoil them, especially after they stole her money, but she supposed she could make an exception this time.

XXXXX

"C'mon girls, keep it up!" Bellemere called to her daughters who were distracted with playing in the snow as they walked towards the village to buy groceries.

"Can't we just stay here and play?" Nojiko asked.

"Please!" Nami added, making a puppy face.

"Nope; I need your help with the groceries" Bellemere said with a snort "And Nami, I taught that to you girls. You really think it'd work on me?"

Nami pouted, dropping the puppy face. It didn't work on Gen either. The girls followed their mother to the store as she went to pick vegetables. There Bellemere knew she could let her guard down; the girls wouldn't try to steal anything. It was the same when she went to get some meat; the only time she'd need to keep her eyes open was when she'd go to buy cigarettes. They sold all kind of stuff in that place, including candy and small toys. She'd already gotten yelled at by the store owner many times.

"You girls can stay outside and watch after the groceries" Bellemere said with a grin to her pouting daughters, giving the bag of vegetables to Nami and the bag of meat to Nojiko "I won't be long."

"It's so unfair that she dragged us along and makes us carry the groceries but we can't go to the best shop with her" Nami complained "It's the only place that has something worth looking at."

"That's the point, Dummy" Nojiko said "She thinks we'd steal something."

"No we wouldn't" Nami denied. They stared at each other for a moment before both of them burst out laughing "Yes we would!"

"You would what?" Bellemere asked with a lazy smirk as she came out of the shop. The girls yelped, saying at the same time: "Nothing!"

The woman chuckled, saying: "Alright, hand me those bags."

As the girls did so Bellemere put her new cigarettes in the other bag and emptied the rest of the third bag for the girls.

"You two take these instead" she said, handing something to the girls. The sisters took what was handed to them, their faces splitting in to wide grins "Chocolate!"

The whole family of three smiled widely as they walked back home, the children eating chocolate on the way.

A.N: And tomorrow we'll take a look in to the life of the ASL trio.