VIOLET SKY, takigawa chris yuu

━ chapter forty

act iii

life will go on;
together?
no.

chapter forty

❛as long as you're happy❜

━━━━━━

Chris wakes with little resistance, a dazed look on his face as he tries to get his bearings.

"What time is it?" He mumbles, rubbing his eye tiredly.

The display is painfully endearing. She smiles.

"Eleven-thirty." Her smile fades a bit. "Luna's here."

He blinks, sitting up straighter. "Oh." It seems like he wants to ask something, lips parting, before he presses them together and glances down at Ricky in his sleep. "Guess it's time for him to wake up, anyway."

Waking Ricky up is a bit like defusing a bomb. Only possible using the utmost care and caution.

When he wakes up a little bit more, she drops the news on him, and at the prospect of seeing his favorite — though he'd never admit it — tía, he brightens up, incoming moodiness disappearing in favor for uncontainable excitement. He scrambles off of Chris' lap. Amara steadies him when he stumbles, his mind clearly awake, but the rest of his body still waiting on the memo.

"She's in the living room," she tells him, smoothing his black hair. He takes off. "Hey, be careful, don't run!"

"Okay!" He says loudly, doing the exact thing she told him not to do. Clearly the aspirin and nap did its job in getting rid of the pain. She only hopes that he'll be able to sleep tonight. She definitely won't be able to.

Rolling her eyes, she turns back to Chris. "The nerve."

He smiles, sitting up and pulling his shoes back on. Voices swell at the front of the house, Luna's familiar soprano the loudest of all.

"It's my favorite nephew!"

Ricky's voice is the next loudest. "Tía, I'm your only nephew!"

Luna's response is lost on her as Chris stands and stretches with a low groan that sends heat flurrying through her stomach. She crosses her arms and tries not to let her eyes linger on the strip of pale tan skin from where his shirt raises.

He rubs his neck with a grimace. "I'm not sleeping tonight."

She laughs. "Me, neither. Come on," she tilts her head to the door. "Ready to see Luna again?"

He follows her out, murmuring, "It's been so long. Seven and a half years?"

"Something like that."

The living room is warm and bright, rainbow fairy lights wrapped around the tree and strung about the room, joining with the light fixture overhead. Everyone's in here. Luisa and Mylène sitting on the chairs they must've dragged from the dining room, Yona and Julian on the loveseat, Lucas, Belen, and Lily on the couch, watching on with polite smiles. Then there's Luna, dressed comfortably in a black hoodie with the San Antonio Spurs emblem in the center, jeans, and sneakers. Her long black hair pulled in a tight braid, baby hairs frizzing. Ricky is encased in her arms, grinning so widely the chub on his cheeks turns his eyes into half-moon crescents.

"Luna," Amara says.

She turns, tension now visible in her shoulders. "Mara. 'S good to see you. And —" her dark eyes dart to Chris, tension leaving her face just for a moment in exchange for confusion. "Who is this?"