Slowly peering into the kitchen, Kagami nervously gulped as she watched her father grab several ingredients from the fridge and place them on a clean counter. Closing her eyes, she slowly breathed in before letting out a long exhale.
"You don't have to help if you don't want to." Aza spoke up. His voice was quiet and calm. He didn't even need to look back to know he was being watched.
"N-No, I um, I want to help." She bit her lip before walking up. "I do. What... What do you need help with?" She stumbled a bit on her words.
"Dice this." He slid an onion across the counter and infront of her. Reaching out with his left hand, he grabbed a chef's knife that was hanging on the wall. "Here. Be careful. Don't cut yourself." He handed it to her while averting his eyes.
"I think I can manage." She quietly chuckled while flipping the knife around. "I fight with a sword anyway."
"Right. Of course." He adjusted the sleeves of his jacket before grabbing a knife for himself.
Watching him quickly get to work, Kagami starred as he fluidly sliced through everything like it was butter and he had a hot knife. Taking a deep breath, she cut the onion in half. "It's okay if you don't know how to say it, but..." She trailed off as she began to dice the onion. "I missed you too." She finally managed out. "Even if we didn't have the best relationship when I left. I still thought about you just as much as I did mom."
Pausing what he was doing, he glanced at her for a moment before quickly looking away and tossing the carrots and potatoes he cut into a bowl of water. Reaching over, he grabbed a chunk of red meat that he began to cut into identical bite size pieces effortlessly. As he finished, he set his knife aside and went to wash his hands. "I used to worry that when you came back you'd hate me." He finally spoke up as he dried off his hands. "I know I wasn't the best."
Breathing out, Aza grabbed a large pot from a cabinet and placed it on the stove. With one hand he turned the heat on and with the other he poured oil into the pot. "And I'm sorry." He half mumbled. Still not fully looking at her, he stepped over to grab the cubed meat and a wooden spoon. Pushing a small amount into the pot, he set the rest aside and quickly began to seer off the sides of each piece.
"Apology accepted." She softly smiled at him. As she finished dicing the onion, she set the knife aside. "Um, so um..." She trailed off.
Taking a deep breath as he finished seering off the meat in batches, he grabbed the onion she had cut and tossed it in the pot with the meat juices that were left behind. "You should go get to know your sister." He quickly mixed the diced onion around while scraping the bottom of the pot. "I'm sure Kuro knows a game all of you could play."
"Are you sure?" Her shoulders lowered a little.
"Yeah." He nodded. "I call for you when I need help again. Okay?" There was a moment of silence between the two of them. Hearing footsteps leaving, he took a deep breath. "Kagami." He very quietly spoke the name. Finally looking over, his blue eyes met his daughter's. "I... I missed you." He softly nodded before looking away.
Smiling, she stared at him as he went back to cooking. After a moment, she very gently shook her head and walked off back to the living room.
"There's this." Reaching into a large plastic bin filled with an assortment of tabletop games, Kuro pulled out what looked like a deck of cards. "This is one of my favorites."
"They're all his favorites." Midori whispered to Eleanor with a small chuckle.
"It's called Beowolf." The dark haired boy continued. "There's twenty-four villager cards, ten Beowolves, two Alpha Beowolves, two baby Beowolves, two Huntsmen, two seers, two doctors, two witches, two village drunks and two moderators." He slid the deck of cards out of the box and quickly counted five cards. "Villagers. Well, they don't do anything." He set the cards aside and grabbed two more. "Everynight the Beowolves will choose one person each to kill." He set them along with the others he separated before searching and grabbing two more. "The Huntsmen, if they're killed they kill the Beowolf too and the seer can point at someone and be given a yes or no answer on if they are a Beowolf." He then grabbed one more card. "Then there's the moderator who runs the whole thing. So we're making me that by default."
"Honey." His mother crossed her arms. Eyeing him, she raised an eyebrow. "Maybe explain how the game works before what each card does." She pointed towards MACE and Baren. "They're lost."
"So..." Aero hiccuped. "Am I..." She shifted around very slowly.
Chuckling at the bluette, Kuro smiled. "I was going to add a town drunk out of irony but that sounded like too much. I wanted to keep things simple for the first game."
"Yeah, I still don't know what the hell we're doing." Kris leaned back while sitting on the floor.
"Right!" He slid the extra cards back inside the box. Picking up the cards he set aside, he pulled out the moderator card and slid it into his pocket. "So first, we're all going to choose a card." He began to shuffle them. "You can't tell anybody what card you got. There's basically two teams. The village gang and the Beowolves. The villagers are wanting to try and figure out who the Beowolves are and the Beowolves are wanting to kill everyone without getting caught. Simple enough, yeah?"
"Uh..." Elise scratched at the back of her head. "So... what were the special villagers? And what do they do?"
"I just put the Huntsman and seer in this one." He smiled. "If the Huntsman is killed, they take the Beowolf with them. And the seer can point to someone and I'll tell them if who they pointed at is a Beowolf or not. Got it?"
"Sure. I guess." She scratched at her head more.
"Okay, okay. Everyone, just take a card." He held the shuffled cards out towards his mother and her friends. "I'll show you as we play." He let his youngest sister take a card before stepping in front of Baren.
Half glaring up at him, the old warrior slowly exhaled. Glancing at Gurin who was excitedly bouncing, she gave in and grabbed a card. "Fine."
Handing the rest of the cards out, he smiled and pulled his moderator card back out. Flipping it between his fingers, he began to walk around. "Alright. Everyone, close your eyes and put your heads down."
"This... seems dumb." Kagami quietly mumbled under her breath.
"Just play along." Kris narrowed her eyes before closing them. "It may be dumb, but I still want to win." She let out a competitive chuckle.
"What... am I doing...?" Aero blinked a few times before slowly lowering her head.
"Maybe you'll get lucky and be killed off first." Eleanor patted her back.
"Okay! First night!" Kuro smiled brightly as he placed his hands together. "Beowolves, wake up. That means lift up your heads." There was a pause. "Who would you like to kill?"
Sitting quietly, Cheyenne waited patiently with her head down. Even though there weren't many of them, she couldn't help but wonder who exactly were the Beowolves among them.
After another moment of silence, Kuro spoke up again. "Beowolves, go to sleep. Seer, wake up." Everyone grew quiet again. "Okay. Seer, go to sleep. Huntsman, wake up. Huntsman, go to sleep." He took a deep breath. "Alright. Town, wake up." He let out an amused chuckle.
"I don't wanna wake up..." Aero softly whined as she lifted her head.
"Just hope the Beowolves decided to kill you first." Eleanor patted her back.
"Huh...?" With a confused look, her head tilted. "There's... a Grimm...?" She glanced around while her glasses began to fall from her face.
"Oh please tell me she was eliminated, Kuro." Baren reached over to push the woman's glasses back up. "She needs something warm to eat and rest."
"Alas, she was spared from the terrible fate." With a dramatic voice, the dark haired boy held his fist close to his chest. "Last night in this quiet little town of..." He gestured towards his youngest sister.
Grinning, Gurin crossed her arms. "Pumpernickel."
"The town of Pumpernickel!" He quickly raised a finger. "In this quiet little town of Pumpernickel, a terrible, terrible accident has occurred. My mother, my dear old sweet mother, was walking the streets after a midnight run to the store when she stumbled upon a horrific scene."
With a quiet and disappointed groan, Midori reached up and rubbed her face with both hands.
"In a dim and dark alley, my mother caught sight of a Beowolf devouring the flesh of a poor Faunus girl." He eyed Cheyenne who slouched with a small pout. "My former Huntress mother did as anyone would." He continued. "He went to avenge the fallen soul. But the years of retirement were not easy on her. She didn't even notice the second Beowolf lurking up behind her until it pouced."
Blinking several times, Kris stared up at him before facepalming.
"Okay... so now what?" Elise glanced around.
"Well now, you as a town can decide to vote someone off. Any nominations?" Kuro looked at everyone.
"It might be best to hold off voting until the second day." Eleanor suggested. "We'd have a higher chance of voting out a Beowolf if we did."
"All agree?" The dark haired boy looked around. Seeing everyone nod, he smiled. "Okay. Town, go to sleep." He waved his hands.