It's summer vacation when they talk again.
Her mother invites him over for dinner and he can't refuse because she's invited his mother and now he's sure she isn't human. Nat-chan is quiet, but polite, to his mother. She answers questions with a fair amount of detail and is very embarrassed on all of the praise. Akihiro feels sick to his stomach and he tries not to cringe at the gentle touch of her mother's hand on his shoulder. She doesn't say anything, but she seems merely serene, rather than angered at a sleight on her daughter.
"You should cut it off now if you're going to," she tells him.
Akihiro balks. He doesn't want that. He can't!
Right?
As he goes home, he ponders the words. He thinks he feels Nat-chan's eyes watching him from the window.
As it happens, they make up slowly.
He asks to see her wings. She hesitates, but he knows they're there now, and he knows that means she's probably not human but he had proof of that a long, long time ago. He is still scared, and he knows that. That means her parents aren't human either, but she isn't really causing any harm, is she? She just protected him. She went too far, of course, but he could teach her. He could fix that, right?
She doesn't care that she's doing wrong, but they can fix that. He touches her wings and it's like he gave her a nice back massage. She relaxes so readily and his heart warms a touch.
He's okay with them making a few more mistakes like this. Friendship isn't a science. Even he knows that. But it will be good. She's his only friend, so it has to be.