Work Text:
The sound of the knife hitting the the cutting board filled the air as you chopped up the vegetables for dinner, the rhythmic noise pulling you into deep thought,
"Mama.."
A tugging at your jeans pulling you out of those dark thoughts. Looking down you saw your son, Sōta, hugging his plush bird to his chest, "You're doing it again.", turning back, you saw that the knife was very close to cutting your knuckles.
You smiled nervously, "Ah...Sorry, baby bird.", crouching down, you ran your hands through his hair then squished his cheeks causing him to make a happy chirp noise.
"Did you know my birthday is in a week?"
You playfully hummed, "Oooh really?" He nodded, "Well, what kind of cake do you want this year, sweetie?"
"Mmm.. Melon cake!"
You laughed, "But you had that last year!"
"I know, I like it!"
"Alright, melon cake it is.", pressing a kiss to his forehead, you stood end up, "Go on and wash your hands dinner is almost ready.", he ran off, giggling.
You signed, watching him go then going back to to chopping the carrots for the beef stew, "Six years already, huh?", you thought back to how you had escaped, it was planned so very carefully and you had been able to get in contacted with family here in countryside which help even more, letting you stay at their home but you didn't tell them the name of the man you were running from and they respected that.
Moving from such a big, busy city to the calm, quiet countryside was definitely a shock; yeah, you have family here but you hadn't visited them in a long time. It was okay for a while, they didn't have a lot of space so you shared a room with your female cousin, who was the same age and was visiting from college. They all were a big help when you found out you were pregnant. You didn't take it well at first, crying and freaking out but your amazing cousin had dragged you to a doctor. Finding out you were two or so months along was shocking, where was the morning sicken? The mood swings?
The doctor you had seen was a wonderful woman and understood that you didn't want to go into detail about everything. She sat you down, talking to you about how you had options and if you wanted to you could terminate it but would give you a few days to think it over. At home, you sat at the computer, looking up random things, just to get your mind off of everything but soon found yourself looking at baby things. You've always wanted kids but you thought you would be married with a good job by then but you guess life likes to kick you in the butt. Your family said whatever you did they would support you, in the end you decided to keep the baby and didn't regret it.
When you had first held Sōta after he was born, you had cried happily. He was a screaming, red little potato but he was your little potato, with wings stubs! Soon you found out, as he grew older, he's eyes turned from those soft brown to gold and he developed the same markings around his eyes.
Hell , the only thing you shared with your son was your hair color!
Then Sōta feathers grew out, and surprisingly, they weren't red, they were brown and white, more close to an actual hawk. And then he tried to fly , by jumping from the refrigerator causing everyone to have a heart attack! You also bruised your elbow when falling to catch your giggling, chaotic baby hawk. Sometimes you thought, and still do, that he was more bird than human, especially when you would find your jewelry in his little nest/bed.
Two years of living with your family, you moved into an old small house, the nice old couple let you buy it for less than what it was, since you were already working for them. It had a nice kitchen, an old style bath, and an overgrown garden; a nice and cozy feeling to it but it needed some work and a lot of dusting. So with the help of your aunt, uncle, and cousins, you fixed some of the broken tatami mats/edge sides, sticking sliding doors and even replaced some of the tiles in the bathroom. Aunt and the sweet old lady even taught you how to take care of a vegetable garden. Everyone worked until it was pretty much clean and new looking, sure you had to get used to a wood stove and heating up your own bath but chopping the wood helped build some muscle.
Sōta and you had spent time gardening, exploring more of the tiny town and forest. You got along with many people here, including a lot of mothers, so your son had some friends to grow up with. One of the mothers' lived a little ways down from you, with her 3 sons and her husband, she's such a kind woman and you bonded over a lot of things, your love of gardening was one.
"Goodnight, Baby Bird.", you laid your son down in his nest/bed after getting him ready for bed then tucked him in, nice and tight.
"Night, Mama.", he snuggled in his pillows and plushies, yawning. Placing a kiss on his forehead, you walked to his bedroom door then turned back towards him, smiling softly.
"I love you, Sōta."
"Love you, too.", he muttered, dozing off. You cut off the lights then shut the door, till only a sliver of light from the hallway shined through. Walking into the kitchen, you poured yourself a cup of tea then made your way into the living room, where the space heater was running and the tv was playing one of your favorite shows. You sat down on a pillow and placed your cup on the table as you picked back up your crocheting.
As you got into a meditative rhythm, you couldn't help but look up, sharing through the glass shoji, and into the beautiful autumn land outside. You still really couldn't believe it, free from you tormentor for six years. Losing yourself in the beautiful outside, you were only pulled out of it whe you heard a very, quiet crack noise. When you looked down, you couldn't help but flinch, dread running down your spine when you saw a large crack in your tea cup. As you were staring at it, the door bell rang, you snapped your head in the direction of the entrance, panic settling into your body as you realized no one would be by your house at this time of night.
You wanted to throw up as soon as you heard a voice you hadn't heard in six years...
" Hey, Dove, I miss you. Mind opening the door?”