who'll—without a doubt—put her son in his place if he dares to act up. The young lady is a mother after all, she knows the drill, and having her watch over Keisuke gives Rika more time to get to know the small boy known as Takemichi.

    The boy's skittish; cautious even. When the two walked through the streets towards the bakery, he held onto Rika's hand with a sense of urgency a child his age shouldn't have. Guess that's what happens when you're raised in a messed up town, full of messed up people with messed up morals.

    (On the first night of the Hanagakis visit, Rika managed to coax Katsumi into telling the older lady what their old neighborhood was like. The answer Rika was given kept the short haired lady up all night; she was unable to get a wink of sleep.)

    Other than Takemichi's high-strung behavior, he was a sweet kid. His smile was always bright and soft when talking about his interests. Rika also noticed how Takemichi spoke so highly of her own son: Keisuke. His blue eyes would light up and he'd go off into deep conversation about some outrageous adventure the two of them had gone on, causing the lady to smile with a warm heart.

     It truly amazes Rika how well Keisuke and Takemichi fit together despite being so different.

    After picking up their breakfast from the bakery, Rika noticed how tired and exhausted Takemichi appeared while trying to keep up with her pace down the street. With a heavy sigh, she lifted the surprisingly light boy into one of her arms and, almost immediately, Takemichi slumped his head into the crook of the older woman's neck and went to sleep.

    ...leading them to their current location where Keisuke and Katsumi were supposed to either be:

asleep.

    Or

acting like two civilized human beings.

    And what other option miraculously made it to the list without her knowledge?

turning the entire apartment into a pillow fort.

    Upon opening the door and heaving it ajar, she was met with the sight of a humongous fort in the form of a contorted tent built out of pillows, blankets, cushions, and chairs. Rika could barely make out the area of the kitchen with all the soft and warm materials evading her vision.

    Also the sound of foreign music danced through the lady's ears like a bullet...as well as the sound of her son scampering to his feet to most likely greet the pair, but Rika was too focused on the—the fort that practically stretched from the front door to, predictably, the back of the apartment.

    What.

    In.

    The hell—

    "MAMA, MAMA!!!" Keisuke exclaims excitedly while running out of the tent, nearly running into his mother in the process. He quickly collected himself and threw his arms up in the air, gesturing to the huge ass elephant in the room. "LOOK WHAT WE MADE MAMA, LOOK!!!" Before Rika could respond to her son, the feeling of Takemichi squirming around in her grasp brought her attention back to the tired boy. Keisuke's loud squealing must have woken the curly-haired boy up.

    "W-What's happening?" Takemichi mumbles into her neck, his hot breath warming the exposed skin. Rika tries to answer Takemichi; her lips are parted, ready to deliver a well thought out and clever response the small boy will be able to understand. However, no words leave the lady's mouth.

    How could Rika answer a question even she doesn't have the answer to?

    While trying to dig deep into her mind to conjure up some explanation for the current events, Keisuke was tugging on the hem of her shirt; he was speaking at a hundred miles an hour, making it impossible for Rika to fully understand the entire situation.

    Rika's brain has never felt so scrambled before.

    "Welcome to the party~!"

    A silky voice laced with a teasing tone grabs the older lady's attention. Looking up from Keisuke, Rika catches sight of Katsumi striding towards the three with a smirk embedded on her plump lips. Katsumi was still wearing that large Queen t-shirt from before the lady left (at least the woman bothered to put leggings on for once), and the small cut that decorated her left cheekbone was no longer hidden away by a band-aid. In the younger lady's arms was a stack of old blankets Rika thought she had stocked away in the corner of her closet. Guess they're finally being put to use.

    And Katsumi—

    She looks healthy—far more healthy than she appeared six days ago. There were still a few faint traces of dull yellow bruises on her skin, accompanied by the small traces of bandages that littered her arms and legs, but the shattered look in her glassy azure irises was no longer present. In the depths of blue waves laid a certain calmness and warmth Rika failed to see when she first met the woman. Her shoulders are relaxed and loose, her smile is sincere and playful, her eyes light up at the sight of Rika instead of indifferently staring at her with a heavily guarded expression.

    Katsumi is now filled with more life than Rika had ever expected her to be.

    For a split second, Rika felt a sharp pain in her chest at the thought of Katsumi leaving her apartment and moving back into her own.

    Baji's mother enjoys Katsumi's company, probably a little too much. Rika can barely remember the last time she spoke to someone around her age that wasn't her professional coworkers. It was nice, lovely to have Katsumi around the apartment; at times, the younger woman would strike up a conversation that would last more than just a few hours, always effortlessly guiding the trail of topics and subjects together with a needle and thread. And—well—there were times where Katsumi would curl up on the couch, content with keeping quiet and not uttering a word while she gazed off into space, her mind completely elsewhere.

    (On those specific days, Rika would sit next to the smaller woman and—with Katsumi's consent—pull the curly haired lady close to where there were no gaps between the pair, carefully combing her hands through Katsumi's curly locks of hair.)

    It might be a little too soon to think of Katsumi as a younger sister, but Rika's already attached and strung to the younger lady, whether she likes it or not.

    So, despite the mess that'll no doubt take hours to clean up, Rika laughs.

    "Wish we got here sooner!"

    "Nah, don't sweat it," Katsumi teases with a cat-like smirk.

    "You're right on time."

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Extra

    Right before Keisuke drifted off to sleep for the night, after an entire day of playing in the humongous castle-like fort he and Takemichi's mom made, a fleeting thought crossed his mind.

    He never got to interrogate the woman about Takemichi....

    A defeated sigh leaves the feral kid's lips as he slipped into a world of surreal dreams, nothing but disappointment and frustration boiling at the pit of his stomach.

    He'll find out eventually. Afterall, He's got all the time in the world.

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