Chapter 76: Chapter 75 - The Warmth of Home

The morning sun seeped through the curtains .For the first time in days, the house felt warm.

Not warm in the sense of loudness; not dramatic. Warm in the sense of lightness.

As if someone had finally let go of carrying their burden of grief alone. Kuro sat at the table, half-asleep while silently drinking coffee, with noticeably messy hair from just waking up.

The shadows of exhaustion still lingered under his eyes, but there was something about Kuro that felt different now.

The clouds of tension around him had lifted slightly at least enough that even Akari could notice it right away.

She squinted at him across the table while biting into a piece of toast.

"Why do you appear less emotionally dead than yesterday?"Kuro blinked.

"Good morning to you as well."

"See, even your ability to respond normally has returned,"

Akari exclaimed with exaggerated emphasis, bringing her hands together to illustrate her point.

Aoi sipped tea calmly next to her.

"Akari makes a good point."

"Traitor!"

"You say this each day."

Meanwhile, Shizuka continued preparing breakfast just off the stove discreetly attempting not to demonstrate how pleased she was by the apparent change in behaviour of Kuro.

Seeing Kuro behave even moderately more relaxed also made her feel as though something inside of her had become lighter as well.

Last night was still fresh in her mind.

Kuro rested quietly against Shizuka’s shoulder as years of heartache finally flowed out.

The isolation he had concealed behind unchanging faces for so long no longer felt alone anymore now that he was finally able to fall apart.

Somehow by the time he had finally unravelled, Kuro felt less alone.

He also saw Shizuka briefly show him a glance.

When they made eye contact just for a quick moment.

"Kuro."

"Shizuka."

Kuro was always saying the same thing at once.

But here, he had made direct eye contact.

So that small distinction between them felt monumental.

Then Shizuka offered Kuro a smile. "Kuro."

Nothing more needed to be said.

Their hearts already conveyed enough warmth to each other.

After eating breakfast together, sunlight gradually filled the living room in a peaceful manner while the rainy clouds outside passed by.

Akari had just dramatically flopped down onto the couch.

"I’m bored," she said.

"You are.

Your favourite is to be bored."

"Because life is suffering."

"Can you stop learning philosophy by reading internet comments?"

Kuro had silently helped Shizuka clean the dishes in the kitchen.

Communication was sparse, but the distance of silence between them had closed since they last shared silence together.

Suddenly Shizuka stopped what she was doing to try to open a cabinet. "Oh." 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝚠𝕖𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝕖𝚕.𝚌𝗼𝗺

Kuro turned around. "What?"

"I didn’t realise all of these were in here!"

Carefully, she removed a number of old photo albums from the top of the stack which had been placed near the back of the cabinet.

There were several dusts that covered the outside front cover of all the albums.

Akari just materialized beside them like some feral creature confounding its prey.

"What are these?"

Shizuka’s head turned toward Kuro for just a fraction of time, then back away.

"Old photo albums your dad gave me to sort through while clearing out the storage unit."

Immediate panic filled Kuro’s heart.

"Absolutely not!"

Akari had already snatched one rather dramatically.

"BABY KUUURRO!!!"

Kuro immediately sprang into motion.

"Give it back!"

"No."

"Akari."

"You can’t stop your destiny."

Meanwhile, Aoi just quietly picked out another album with a calm like nothing’s wrong.

That scared Kuro even more.

Because unlike Akari, Aoi manipulates information methodically.

Ten minutes later, everyone sat at the table in the living room while photos were spread across every available surface.

Kuro really wished he hadn’t been born.

Akari could barely breathe because she was laughing so hard.

"Oh my god, you had a bowl cut!"

"I was six."

"Yeah, but you looked like you had been fired."

"How is a six-year-old supposed to look divorced!"

Even Aoi was unable to hide her amusement as she was looking through another page.

"Look how cute this one is!"

Kuro immediately got up to try and snatch the page out of her hand.

He was not fast enough.

Aoi just calmly turned the album around.

Little Kuro is staring at the camera very unapprovingly while wearing oversized pajama pants with little elephants on them.

Akari lost emotional control.

"He looks like a little tax preparer."

"Erase that from existence."

Meanwhile, Shizuka was quietly laughing across the room as she sorted through the individual photographs.

To be honest .To tell you the truth.

Heard a laugh coming from in the house tonight was really nice.

It made me feel good inside.

It reminded me of the past.

After a short time it made the atmosphere feel warmer. The teasing lessened.More conversation than usual occurred.

And it got more and more nostalgic.

Akari held up another photo and practically yelled.

"Wait."

She slowed down with her voice as she said.

"This picture was taken before your mom died?"

The atmosphere quieted down afterwards.

Kuro turned towards Akari slowly after looking at the photograph.

He looked at the summer festival as a young child with his mom standing by him holding the sparkler in an awkward way.

Kuro had a huge smile on his face when he took the photograph.

The way Kuro felt when he first looked at that picture still exists for him today even thought he has not seen the photograph in over twenty years.

And oddly enough looking at the picture this time does not hurt him as badly.

It does not hurt because he no longer has to carry the pain of losing his mother.

He does not have to remember carrying the burden of carrying this tragic loss alone anymore.

Aoi also looked at the same photograph with Kuro and she said-

"You have a lot of pictures of you with your mom smiling".

Kuro responded by lowering his head down and saying .

"Yup".

That surprised both Akari and Aoi because normally Kuro will not talk to them about his mother.

But today Kuro did talk to them about his mother.

Shizuki was about to give Kuro another photograph.

As his mother was standing next to him laughing and holding onto the plastic shovel she used to make her way up and down the sand hill, Akari instantly laughed at her mother.

"You look so angry!"

"I was stuck there for 30 min."

After that moment, a little smile appeared on Kuro’s face , it was very small, but it was real.

"I got sunburned too," he said quietly to Shizuka as she listened to him talk.

For the first time since being included in this family, Shizuka watched Kuro remember his past without feeling crushed by it.

He wasn’t avoiding his pain, but instead, living alongside it.

The hours went by slowly.

Pictures after pictures were placed all over the table , elementary school awards, awkward birthday parties, family vacations, terrible fashion from childhood leading to pictures of them all as younger versions of themselves.

The living room had begun to fill with laughter, reminiscing, nostalgic, and the occasional moment of silence.

But more than any moment before this day, none of the emotions felt horrible this time.

At one moment, Akari froze in one moment when she was staring at a picture.

Then immediately pointing to Kuro and accused, "You carried Aoi in that picture".

Aoi looked over at Akari.

"Oh."

The picture showed Aoi sound asleep on Kuro’s back as he hiked in some mountains with a young-looking Kuro looking totally exhausted.

Akari gasped dramatically.

"Favoritism".

Kuro answered quickly and said, "She twisted her ankle."

Akari replied, "Excuses."

Kuro responded, "You made me haul your bags the entire trip."

Akari said, "Because emotional support matters."

" Character Development. "

That was the first time even Kuro had a real laugh.

No restriction. No force.

A real laugh that came out naturally without him realizing it.

For a moment, it felt like everything in the room had stopped.

Because everyone was watching.

Including him.

Kuro blinked slowly; it seemed like even the noise surprised him.

Shizuka smiled.

And for some reason, that one smile made the whole house feel warmer.

As the afternoon continued, the golden sunlight peeking through the living room windows illuminated the room while all the pictures were all over the floors.

Akari was laying on the couch with one more book.

"You know..."

"Kuro really grew up alone, didn’t he?"

After that, the silence was slow.Not uncomfortable. Just truthful.

Aoi lowered her eyes.

"Yes."

Because they now understood better all of the distance he put between people.

Self-reliance. How he can’t ask anyone for help.

It was not coldness.

Kuro learned at such a young age to deal with pain.

And, somehow, this discovery created an even stronger bond than before .

Then Akari said, "Oh my!", as she pulled out a different photo.

Kuro looked at her suspiciously.

"What’s wrong now?"

Akari dramatically flipped the picture around.

As he was crying uncontrollably dressed up in a kindergartener outfit, young Kuro was in utter chaos.

This is funny if you try not to laugh, but the entire time Aoi had her mouth covered in order to not laugh, she completely failed.

Even Shizuka almost dropped the photo album , she laughed so hard.

In the meantime Kuro had his eyes squinting up at the ceiling.

"I think it’s time for me to leave this country," Akari stated.

After stating that, Akari had tears in her eyes as she wiped them away from all of the laughter.

"We are framing this."

"I am eradicating humanity."

Regardless of whether one knows this for the first time in a long time from then on, the house actually felt like home.