3rd pov:

A 6 year old girl was sitting in the stairs of the apartment.
She heard arguing in the living room.
It was 2 am.
She was thirsty and so she wanted to get some water.

Her one and only, loyal and trusty friend in her arms. A teddy bear. It was a little ruffled, and had a missing foot, but it surely was comforting and still alive in her young mind. Just a little disabled, but that was no problem, because she would carry him everywhere.

She heard her 10 year old brothers screaming and arguing with each other.
She didn't dare go downstairs to get the water while they were there. And so she waited until they were done.
Their rooms were in the first floor, so they wouldn't have to pass by the stairs when they were done, so she was safe there on the stairs.

The shouting was loud though. She hugged her teddy bear closer to herself as she heard someone being slapped. And then her dads voice joined the shouting. He probably slapped one of them.
But it was okay, because she was safe on the stairs.

"You're all alone! No one will love any of you!" The father yelled at them both in The living room.

It didn't matter to her what he said, because she had her teddy bear. And he would stay with her.

And then glass shattered. Someone probably threw something. But it was okay, because she was safe on the stairs.

"Are you still awake?" A voice sounded behind her, from the top of the stairs.
There, her third brother stood, looking sleepy.
The girl nodded sadly.

The boy clenched his teeth. "Why do you still have that?" He said angrily and pointed towards her teddy bear.

She now was panicking. The teddy bears was also a gift from her mother. It was supposed to be hers ever since her mother found out she was finally having her first daughter.

"You put shame into it. You're shaming her memory!" Her brother now yelled.

The girl now had tears in her eyes.

The brother angrily walked down the stairs towards her.

Now she wasn't safe on the stairs anymore.

She stood up and quickly ran down, running into the kitchen, her brother after her.
Tears ran down her eyes.

As she was in the kitchen, she saw one of her other brothers, wiping blood away from his nose.
That's when she realized the arguing had gone away.

He turned towards her, and then he saw the teddy bear as well.
"You little..." he clenched his teeth.

He grabbed it away from her arms. The girl finally spoke. "No!" She yelled, trying to get it back.

However the brother ran into the living room, with the teddy and threw it into the fire place.

The brother then simply walked away, probably feeling satisfied with what he had done. The two other brothers smiled as well, before they all walked to their rooms.

The girl was now crying her eyes out.

Because her teddy bear was no longer her loyal friend.

-

Y/n pov:

The memory flooded past my mind as I looked at the teddy bear in the stall.

Kuni was buying spices from the stall right next to this one. The teddy bear looked exactly like the one I had as a child.

There was a whole shelf of them, exactly the same. Except for the one I had my eyes on. It was just like the rest, but it had one missing foot.

"What do you see?" Kunikuzushi said as he approached me, likely it was that he had seen me staring at something.

"It's nothing.." I said and looked away.
However he had seen what I was looking at.
"Out of them all, why do you look at that one? It has a missing leg." He asked curiously.

"He wouldn't need both of his legs if he would be carried everywhere he went." I answered. It's exactly the way I thought when I was six.

He chuckled. "That's a cute way of thinking." He said with a teasing smile.

I must have looked as if I really liked or cared for the bear, because his teasing smile disappeared, and was instead replaced with a curious look.
"Is there something else?" He asked me.

I sighed, a little sadly. "I had one as a child, it was also missing a foot." I told him.
He turned back towards it. "What happened to it?" He asked.

I waited about ten seconds before answering.
"My brother burned it in the fireplace." I answered him.
He gave me a sympathetic look, which made me feel a little embarrassed.

"But that was ages ago. Let's keep looking for more ingredients." I said and walked over to the next stall, coughing a few times as I walked.

-

I mixed the ingredients together in the kitchen.
While I did so, I was waiting for Kuni to return in time for dinner.

He said he forgot something in the market place and had to go back for a quick moment.

I didn't mind making the dinner on my own. Actually, I was thankful I could. I didn't trust him in the kitchen. Not since he tried to put the bread dough in plain water for an hour.

Since that night. The night I spoke to her, I haven't slept at all. It's been 5 days since, I was too scared to sleep. Scared to get a nightmare again. Scared to do what I had to do, and so I avoided my problems.

I had never killed anyone before.

"Do you like that hamster, Y/n?"
"Yes, I really do!"
"Alright, let's buy it."

At least not on purpose...

"Dad, they drowned my hamster!!"
"You made us do it! You shouldn't care for it because then we want to drown it!"

It was never on purpose.

Then I heard Kuni come through the door.
"Y/n!" He called for me from the living room.

"Yeah?" I said back. Letting the food rest. I walked into the living room.

Before I could do anything, a pair of hands covered my eyes from behind. "Don't look." Kuni whispered in my ear. I must admit, it gave me slight tingles.

"What is it?" I asked.

He led me through the living room and sat me on the couch. However, seeing as he was behind me, I ended up sitting in front of him, while he basically hugged me from behind.

He then removed his hands and placed them around my waist while he rested his head on my shoulder.

As my eyes finally could see again, they looked straight towards the table in the middle of the room.
And then they widened.

There it was, the dark brown teddy bear, with only one leg, sitting on the table with its comforting small smile. My eyes almost watered.

My voice was shaking slightly. "Why... why did you buy that thing..." I asked, being a little too stubborn to admit that I really liked his gesture.

"Because you wanted it. So of course I had to get it for you." He said, still speaking into my ear.

I felt myself heat up in my face.

Is my heart beating faster??

He couldn't feel my heart raise, right?

Oh god why do I suddenly feel so warm?

It felt as if his touch around me suddenly sent electricity through my body.

Then I realized that he was basically cuddling me, tightly. Wasn't that a thing couples do?

Why am I thinking like this?

I'm not catching feelings for him, am I?!

"Y/n... are you okay?" He spoke again, in my ear.

Oh god, his breath in my neck felt nice.

I turned my head completely away from him, trying my best to hide my face.

Oh no. I've fallen in love with him.

"Y-yes! I'm very good. Thank you." I quickly tried to compose myself.
I hoped he couldn't feel my heartbeat, considering there was barely any space between our bodies.

I wish I could kiss him.

Shit, I'm definitely in love.