Married to the Mafia

Chapter 31

I clasped the warm cup of cocoa and glanced around the small dining room and felt a burst of love and joy in my heart. After the meeting was brought to an end I had brought my grandfather back to the small house that Akashi and I shared and we had begun talking, my grandfather wanting to know everything about my life since my mother had taken me away from the family. 

Mayuzumi sat at the table with us while Akashi had moved to the kitchen to talk to Aomine. I glanced at him now as there was a lull in the conversation as we ate some snacks and warmed ourselves up. He had stayed near the whole time but had kept a slight distance, letting the family catch up. Now he met my gaze and if sensing my need he moved into the dining room, claiming the seat beside me and slung his arm on the back of my chair running his fingers through my hair. 

"I guess its time to answer your questions now."

I glanced at my grandfather to see his eyes had become dark and his mouth was in a straight line. I swallowed a lump in my throat but nodded, there was so much I needed to know and it was time to find out the whole story.

"Why did you let my mother take me so long ago? Why did you not chase after her back then but as soon as the Akashi's took me in everyone started to look for me?"

"Ah, not the question I thought you would ask but I guess I shouldn't be surprised. If I have one weakness and it is something my subordinates have always scolded me over is that I am to lenient with my family. I loved my daughters and would never force them to do anything they didn't want to and I suppose I spoiled them rotten. You and your mother where never supposed to be the heirs I had a son and another daughter."

I swallowed the lump in my throat, I had known about my aunt, knew that with her death and Akashi's uncles' is what triggered them to take me in but I had not known there had been another Kuroko. 

"That's why after your fathers death I let your mother go. She came to me the night before she took you and begged to live a normal life with the promise she would write to me every month to let me know how the both of you were doing. It broke my heart to agree but she had lost the love of her life and didn't want to lose you too. Years later it was like a curse descended upon our family. I lost contact with your mother."

I knew, somehow that was when my mother had become bedridden with her illness. I had not known she had written to our family. If I had I could have asked for help. It was something that still haunted me to this day. Akashi reached down and held my hand and I leaned a bit closer into him.

"My son was killed in an attack but a rival group and then not a month later I lost my daughter and her husband in a car accident. In one year I had lost my entire family."

His shoulders bowed and he placed his head in his hands and I was shocked to know he was crying. The leader of the strongest mafia group was crying. I had lost my mother but he had lost everyone he loved. I got to my feet, my own cheeks wet with tears and moved over to kneel beside him, resting my hands on his thigh.

"Pawpaw."

He looked down at me and I smiled through my tears up at him.

"Sei-kun looked after me. Showed me love and I have truly been happy. Sure some bad things have happened but I am alive. I am here and we have time to catch up on all we have missed."

"Oh Tetsuya, how like your mother you are."

He reached down and pulled me up into a strong hug and I squeezed him back. I don't know how long we held each other crying but everyone had left the room to give us some privacy. When at last we had poured out all our grief I sat on a seat beside him and finished my now cold cocoa. I was glad that no one was around as I looked at him and asked the question that had been bothering me for so long.