Expanded Edition of yesterday's WIP, feat. Emotional Sappy Takirona
The airplane's engines are a dull roar, even to her ghoul hearing, as they leave Chinggis Khaan International Airport behind them, Narita bound. In the aisle seat, Seidou's usual pallor has lost its shine and gone chalky - his common nerves about flying. She rubs a hand up and down his arm - trying to comfort him in her usual way, reassurance with reason and facts, won't do anything for the nervous tension of being shut in a flying tube for hours. In the window seat, Azami squirms and twists, to press a palm to the thick window.
"Bye-bye, UB," she whispers, the soft rasp of her voice a bit wet.
So, Seidou's not the only one worried about flying.
"What is it, Wonderful?" she asks, looking down to meet her daughter's eyes as Azami squirms against the seatbelt.
"I'm... I don't know. I'm excited, but I'm scared. I know I'll miss people here, too, but... mostly I'm scared."
She offers Azami a hand, and her daughter nuzzles into the offered touch, letting Kurona's fingers comb through her hair.
"What are you scared of? Flying? Leaving? Living somewhere new?"
"That one, but more," Azami says, "it's where you're from. You and Dad are going home. I've never been there, what if..." Azami's eyes fill with tears, and by this point Seidou has noticed and reached across her body to hold one of Azami's hands.
She watches Azami hold onto that hand like it's the only thing keeping her on a speeding motorbike. Airplane seats are cramped enough for Azami to push against the seatbelt, smush herself against the armrest, and wriggle an arm between Kurona's back and the seat, in an attempt to hug her.
"What if I go to your home and I don't like it there?" Azami almost whispers.
"I don't think that will happen, Joy Octopus," Seidou says.
He sounds like he's trying to reassure himself as much as Azami, but the silly nickname about Azami's kagune gets a snort out of her and a watery almost-giggle out of Azami.
"Besides, she cuts in," and despite the interference of both seatbelt and armrest, she's managed to half-hug Azami, "if it turns out you really don't like it, which I don't think will happen either, well. Mama's gonna tell you a secret that it took her a long time to learn. For our family, home isn't a place. It's each other, and the ground we put our feet on. We could live somewhere else."
"Really?"
"Yes, really, Wonderful."
She feels Azami tuck her face into Kurona's side, and Azami's breathing becomes more even.
She turns to look at Seidou, because for a second it sounds like he's forgotten to breathe. He suddenly sucks in air, still staring at her with his eyebags scrunched in shock. His eyes aren't quite Azami's level of wet and teary, but there's a certain glossy abundance of water in his gaze. He pitches his voice softly, for ghoul hearing.
"I didn't know you felt... like that about our family. I know you chose me, and then you chose Azami, but... you called us "home." You, who set out planning on cruising the world alone, called us your people above anyone else. And I feel the same way, but I... I just, that feels like a moment the whole world should recognize..." he trails off, paper-white cheeks now blushing splotchy pink.
She puts an arm around Seidou's shoulders and pulls him into the awkward, uncomfy airplane-seat family hug.
"I love both of you, no matter where we live," she says.
That's enough being sappy and vulnerable for today, she muses. She rummages in the backpack across her knees for things to occupy them on the long flight to Tokyo, while Seidou and Azami grin at her, and then each other.
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