She gave the banana to Aki and helped herself with some milk before answering him, "hmm... they are? You haven't seen any till now?"
Aki was chomping on the banana, his cheeks now looked like a hamster's.
Aki had never felt this kind of warmth till now, though no one treated him badly.. still, it was like they were perfunctory in their work, he was already 4 years old now, though he may not understand much nor remember much, it wasn't hard to see that he wasn't welcomed.
He still remembers the first time he saw a beautiful lady, she looked like a fairy, for unknown reasons he felt warm and nostalgia just by watching her, but reality didn't change, even that fairy didn't care, she had a look of aversion and disgust whenever she saw him so, he stopped appearing in front of her, but he would always hide behind the pot and peek at her when she came down to eat or have a walk, though he can't remember, it seems the lady really didn't like him, he hasn't seen him for days now, he wondered what went wrong? Why did everyone hate him, he always wondered?
He acted very sensible for his age, he could talk very well, he could also eat everything that was given, even without being taught, he could recite poems and he could even sleep alone.
Then why?
He didn't ask for much, right?
He just wanted to see that fairy again... was that not allowed?
Today too, he was waiting for her to come down.. He had seen some unknown people walk in and out of the house, he was a bit scared and went to the place he felt safe in, it was behind that pot. He knew that the fairy probably won't come down today, but he still waited...
Maybe everyone was busy but he wasn't given breakfast on time today, he had no concept of snacks so, he was waiting for lunch.
He had never been hungry so, when his stomach had made those sounds, he didn't know that it was coming from him...
But just then, he heard someone speak, he finally noticed that the weird sound came from him, he felt so embarrassed that he didn't even dare to look up, he had wanted to thank them for caring, but he was too scared to speak, he didn't want anyone to hate him, he wondered if the person also didn't like him because of the weird sounds he was making; when he didn't reply, the person left... They probably felt that he was ignoring them...
Maybe this was the reason...
Maybe he was a bad kid, that is why people always left him?
But just then, that person has come back, when was surprised and his heart felt so happy that he had wanted to cry, when he looked up he was so shocked that the tears he had been holding for a while now came out... The person looked like a fairy too!
She was a small fairy though.
She had a small chubby face with a little nose and pale pink lips, her eyes were similar to his own but were a pure black, the same as her hair, it was like someone had inlaid some stars in them, they were sparkling.
She would definitely look even better with a smile, ah!
She had a small frown? She was probably shocked by his tears and so, after giving him his share, she had run away.
Aki didn't know where he had found his guts, but he had followed her... Years later when he thinks about it, he would say that he was a genius to have chosen to do that... In the end, that became the key.... Thank god, there was his Onee-chan with him, he didn't even want to dream how else his life would have been without her... She was his only family!!
........
The probing eyes of her brought him out of his reverie, they had spent less than two hours with each other but even as a child, he could see that his Onee-chan always asked him to give him his opinions on things, he was scared to voice them out till date, but with her, he didn't want to hide anything...
Call it his intuition, but she probably liked smart kids who could say what they want... Well, it was somewhat true, after all, Yuki didn't like to beat around the bush and thought that it was a hassle to think about something when you can just ask and speak.
Aki replied with his cute voice, "hmm.. I've only seen them on TV and books, but I thought that they were bigger than this"...
Yuki liked it when he spoke freely, she didn't want to become a nanny nor was she sure that, she could give her familial love, well, she herself didn't know what that was and even though she knew it from reading some books, thinking about it now, she would never try to fake her feelings and go according to a book, she may be apathetic but she would never play with someone's feelings, that way, she won't be any different from those people who treated their lives as jokes.
"There are some big fish out there too, but they come in many sizes... the ones here are small but we have some Koi fish in the garden, they are larger than these... when we come back, I'll show them to you.... for now, you can eat your fill... Today might be a bit exhausting", she said as she bit on her chocolate.
Aki has been curious about it for a while now and now that he knew his Onee-chan didn't mind his question and would take her time to answer him, she totally forgot about those fishes, it was much more fun to be with Onee-chan!!
He fiddled around with the glass of milk only to hear her, "You've to drink that, it's good for your health. Then you can eat the fruits on the plate, okay? "
Her voice sounded a bit cold, she was definitely not used to this, but Aki thought that her voice was beautiful, it was similar to the trickling sound of a spring stream that he had heard in a nature show on TV.
He just didn't notice that he was probably filtering and beautifying everything about her, well, even if he knew.. Wasn't it the truth?
He finally felt the chain that was binding his heart, break.
He was still a child who hadn't experienced any love or warmth so, even this much was enough to make him happy...
When he grew up, he had always thanked god a lot... He was thankful that it was his Onee-chan who saved him from his loneliness, in case it was someone else who had just done it show their superficial concern and in the long run, he had lost that care, he would be devastated, he would have broken if the warmth he felt from them was just fake..... He was glad that he was his Onee-chan's brother...
This time he was not scared, even the formal speech he had been using became a bit lax and his voice held the childish nature, perfect for his age, he had a higher pitch because of his excitement too, "Onee-chan, where are we going? Who was the person back then? "