The Things You Left Behind | Kiribaku Omegaverse |

How Can Curry Make Me Cry?

Outside the apartment window, through the gape in the curtains, I watched the day turn pink and orange with the sunset then blacken as the grip of the night crept across the sky. Office windows lit up with bright lights, scattered across the shadowy building wall and street lights flickered on in time for the evening bustle.

I couldn't tell whether time had move fast or slow as I lay in silence in the folds of my blankets and sheets. My cheek rested on the soft surface of the pillow, my hair falling over my face and the warm, white bedding under it. If I was able to, I would have closed my tear-stained, stinging eyes hours ago but I couldn't sleep, left only to stare blurrily and blankly towards that slit between the draping fabric that covered the glass of my bedroom window.

From behind my back, through the closed door, I could hear the muffled sounds of foot-steps and voices, one deep and masculine, the other giggling and high. For the last few hours those voices and been echoing through the house, laughing and talking, and I had been listening since the two had returned.

Sometimes the door between us opened, slicing through the darkness of the room with bright warm light as the red-haired alpha's voice softly asked me questions. Whether I was awake, what I wanted for dinner, whether I wanted anything or what I wanted him to do. I never moved to answer him, keeping my back turned to the door as I grunted or mumbled a 'no' in reply.

I didn't know how to look him in the eye anymore.

After about half an hour, the door opened again flooding my room with light, but this time I heard a small voice call my name.

"Dad!"

As I heard the clink of cutlery, I pulled myself over and sat up my fuzzy gaze finding my daughter marching across the room in front the red-haired alpha, a tray with a bowl held in her tiny hands and supported properly by Kirishima's stronger grasp. I could only watch in surprise as Kirishima helped her put it in my lap, the warmth of the food-filled dish soaking through the blanket and heating my legs.

Out of the corner of my eye, I glanced at the redheaded alpha as he took a step back from the bed. He kept his head low and didn't look at me as I watch him, his gaze following our daughter instead, a gentle, but somehow sad smile on his face. It made my heart feel like shit.

Akane jumped up onto the end of the bed and scrambled up to sit beside me as I leaned against the end of the bed, the blankets shifting as she settled in to the bed. Her small frame pressed up against my feverish body.

"It's curry!" Even her eyes seemed to smile as she grinned at me. "That's your favourite, right?"

"Yeah." My voice was soft and gravelly from lack of speaking. Gave her a small smile as I lifted the lid. "Thanks, baby-girl."

The aroma of the curry flooded my senses and reminded me that I hadn't eaten since breakfast that morning. I scooped a huge spoonful of it and shoved into my mouth hungrily, letting the spicy flavour soak through my taste buds. The spice-packed curry wasn't the best, but in the back of my mind it struck something. A vague memory stirred with the familiar flavour as my chewing slowed.

Kirishima had made this curry when we were teenagers. I couldn't remember what we were wearing, I couldn't remember what he had said that day or what we had been doing beforehand. But I knew without a doubt, that he had made it for me.

"Ah!" My daughter's cry snapped me back into reality. "Dad, you're crying!"

"Huh?" Quickly, I realised my vision was blurring and warmth was dripping down my face. Surprised, I rubbed hands over my eyes, banishing the tears from my damp face. "Uh-crap-I'm sorry!"