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They continued on at their pace for another hour, as before they had unpacked about three quarters of the boxes in his room. Right as they were about to begin on another box, a knock was heard on the door. Everyone looked towards Vin, before he shrugged, paused the music, and went to open the door.
"Ah, there you four are," Griselda leaned her head into the room, gazing around, "I could hear the music from the common room. It's nice that you three thought to spend some time with your new ally. Especially you, Xenovia. I'm proud of you."
"Ah, um, I assume dinner is ready, m-ma'am…" Xenovia said. That was… weird. How does a girl as stoic as Xenovia become so meek in the face of Griselda? There had to be something that he was missing there.
"But yes, dinner is on the table everyone, come on now, before it gets cold."
"Sweet, what are we having?" Irina asked while darting up to the door.
"Nothing too complicated, I figured everyone would be alright with a Mushroom Risotto."
"Well, what are we waiting for?" Irina looked back into the room, and waved her arm, "C'mon guys, let's go!"
Dinner in a Vatican dorm house was a lot different than dinner in his old home, that was something that was painfully obvious as soon as he sat down to eat. After all, they had to say grace before eating. Vin would be honest, he just mumbled gibberish the entire time. Benefit of sitting next to Irina, she was very enthusiastic about grace, so her own prayers covered his murmuring facsimile of a prayer quite splendidly.
The food was really good. Mushroom Risotto wasn't necessarily his favorite, but to be frank, he was really hungry, and he would eat just about anything short of dirt if it was put in front of him. And credit to the chefs, this was one of the better dishes of Mushroom Risotto he'd had.
Looking around, Vin saw everyone else enjoying their dinner: Irina was digging in with the most blissfully content face he'd ever seen, Jafar was eating slower, but was obviously enjoying savoring every bite he took, Xenovia was already done her meal, obviously eating that fast because it was more 'convenient', or whatever her stupid ideology was. Ethan and Vanessa were bickering with each other about some irrelevant and ultimately pointless topic; and Griselda sat at the head of the table, eating her meal with all the grace of a queen.
That's when it finally clicked inside Vin's head: this was his family now. He'd lost one family, sure. But this could simply be the start of another. He thought back to the little party in his room, and that's when he realized in a bizarre twist, that a part of himself was… relieved about everything that happened.
He almost threw up his dinner in disgust when he realized that fact. But that would be rude, so Vin drank down the glass of water in front of him, and as the cool liquid poured down his throat, he mercilessly buried the thought into the back of his subconscious, where it would just stay still, and stay quiet.
Hours later, and everyone had turned in for the night. Vin had enough stuff out that heading straight to bed wasn't going to be a worry, yet he still felt compelled to stay up and unpack one last box. Opening the flap, there sat rows upon rows of family photos.
With shaking hands, Vin reached into the box and pulled out a random photo. Flipping it over revealed to him that it was a photo taken during his seventh grade science fair in elementary school. He'd taken home the first place prize that year with some invention that he no doubt disassembled for parts some week or two later. He looked at the photo, a little version of himself with the widest, brace-filled grin on his face, cradling a gold trophy in his arms like a newborn child. Beside him was a younger and even smaller version of Lisa, holding a thumbs up for the camera. God, she was so proud of him that day, she all but demanded that their parents get them sundaes for dessert that night. His father was behind him, a comforting hand messing with his long brown locks. Geez he had it that long even back then? His mother kneeled beside him, her arm wrapped around his younger self's side in a weird hug of some sort, a smile on her face which showed just how proud she was of her child.
Vin tried to look for the little details in the background of the photo, but he couldn't make anything out due to the frame shaking in his grasp. The feeling of heat behind his eyes crept up on him in a vengeance, too strong to contain anymore. Vin practically threw the frame back in with the others, and slammed the box underneath his wardrobe.
Throwing himself onto the bed, Vin grabbed a pillow and buried his face into it so he could scream. All the emotions he contained finally boiling over in one simulacrum of a moment: as he wept.
That night, for the first time in twelve years, Vin cried himself to sleep.
I know, I'm sorry for hitting you all with the 'sad chapter' two times in a row. But hey, there was some fun in there!
Now, like before, I want to say thank you to everyone who's been reading, following, favoriting, and especially reviewing these chapters as they've come out! The day that chapter two was released, I got over four hundred people to come and read my story, which blew my goddamn mind. You all are absolutely incredible, no doubt in my mind!
You know, every time I get a review, it puts the dumbest smile on my face. I'm always thinking, 'Wow, people are really out there enjoying and engaging in the story I've written enough that they're leaving comments talking about how much they love it.'
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want to read ahead or want to support you can join my patr-eon and u will be able to read ahead by 10 chapters
patreon.com/Mis_rose
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