Chapter 2: Assimilation
Her eyes flit over to the clock hanging right behind me. I count it to be the tenth time in the last ten minutes. To think she's nervous about such a small thing makes me smile into a teacup hanging over my lips.
"So, Hotaru picks her up from school huh?" she asks once more, making me chuckle.
Emeralds dart to me again, my amusement on her behalf making her glare at me a bit.
"Yes," I answer with a smirk as I sit my cup down on the coffee table. She sits across from me with the same discomforted look. "As I said before, Hotaru usually picks her up. It gives them a time to bond. It's become a bit of a tradition the last couple of years."
She nods, orbs darting once more to the clock, issuing a laugh from me. She huffs.
"Haruka, what's the matter with you?"
"Nothing," she answers gruffly, and sips the tea too quickly and burning her tongue in the process. She slurs out some curse words, earning my disapproving look. "Sorry...I'm just..." she trails off, looking away.
"There's nothing to be nervous about."
"I'm not nervous!" she yells, giving me an incredulous look that I did not buy.
I chuckle once more.
"I'm not!" Maybe she's thinking that if she repeats it, I'll believe her, but she knows I don't. "Just...I don't know. What if...she doesn't like me...or something."
"What's there not to like?"
She looks away again at my question, cheeks blushing just a bit and making me swoon inwardly in satisfaction. Before further teases could issue from me though, a car pulls up the driveway and we're both suddenly up from our seats.
"Sit," I command with a smile to which Haruka complies. I brush her hair as I pass her seat. "It'll be fine."
I hear her gulp just as a car door slam and shoes squeak up the doorway. Keys jingle loudly, locks turn, and sooner than later, the door pushes open, my cute daughter looking up at me with a swift smile.
"Kaa-san!" she calls cutely, and rushes at me, arms wide open.
I kneel to her level, loving how she crushes me into a tight hug, and I can smell the day's activities through her school uniform. I brush my hands through short aqua locks making her grin at me toothily.
"Where's Hotaru?"
"Nee-chan says she had to go to the museum for something important," she answers, shrugging her bag out of her shoulders and depositing it on the floor haphazardly.
I give her a look she knows too well.
Sapphires that look positively like mine roll and she picks it back up with a sigh.
"Good girl," I say with a smile, and lean into her. "Kiss."
She grabs my cheeks and kisses me full on, a grin attached to her small lips. My hold remains on her after though, which she knows is just a tad unusual for our afternoon routine. She searches through my eyes and immediately know that something's different.
