VIOLET SKY, takigawa chris yuu

━ chapter thirty-six

act iii

life will go on;
together?
no.

chapter thirty-six

❛he has your eyes❜

━━━━━━

The park buzzes with activity. Children run amok in the playground, kicking up the rubber chips, shrieking and yelling as they chase each other. Parents stand around, mothers and fathers in front of strollers with babies too young to be released amidst the chaos, sometimes sitting on the benches, in the grass, reading a book or talking to someone on the phone. Across the park, the basketball court is full of activity; Lixin and Yufei going in on a game with the other neighborhood kids, laughing loudly and yelling light-hearted insults. Meilin currently leads Ricky through the playground, climbing the structures. Their goal, as it usually is, are the slides.

Beside her, Xinyi relaxes, stretching out her legs with a quiet groan. She's still dressed in her dark blue scrubs that she wears for her job. Amara had an easy day, though; only worked until noon, picked up Ricky early from daycare, and spent the time with him, then joined Xinyi and her kids at four to hit the park before dinner.

"So, how did breakfast go?" Xinyi eventually asks, referring to her meeting with Chris yesterday in the morning.

Amara adjusts the collar of her red long-sleeved shirt. "It was fine. Went fine. Ricky likes him."

Loves him, more like, but that's nothing surprising. Chris was very attentive to him. Amara took the precaution of bringing Ricky to the park before their breakfast to tire him out; he remained awake until he'd finished his own food, entertained by Chris, while she mostly watched, then, when they'd discussed what he'd studied in college, called for her and lifted his arms. She'd pulled him from the high chair into her lap and he'd tucked his face into her neck and drifted right off to sleep. Let her and Chris talk uninterrupted for a good hour and a half.

"Catch up on everything?"

"More or less."

In her periphery, Xinyi turns, dark brown eyes studious.

"What?" Xinyi asks.

Amara glances at her, raising an eyebrow. "What?"

"You seem . . . affected."

"Affected?" She laughs. "That's funny."

Xinyi tilts her head. "How did it really go?"

"I —" Amara laughs again, shaking her head "— it really went fine. Chris and I . . . we get along like a house on fire. That hasn't changed in the years apart."

"What else?"

Amara gives her a look.

"Oh, come on. I have known you for almost four years. I know when something is bothering you."

She doesn't have anything to say to that. Not yet. She turns forward, bringing her eyes to Ricky and Mei again. They're on the swings now, Mei pushing him gently. They're talking. What she'd give to listen to that conversation, Ricky's young three-years-old, intelligent, certainly, but not yet with all the tools for communication, with Mei's ten-years-old — almost an entirely different sphere of existence.

She licks her dry lips. She hates that about fall. The way it chaps her lips.

"It's not that I'm bothered, exactly. Everything did go fine. Chris is as kind as ever. He's grown. Just like I have."