Chapter Text
It's like the bottom drops out, her feet slipping though her cloud nine, and Yuki is left to plummet. Mother smiles at her through the windshield, but it's tired and resigned, maybe a little hurt. Yuki pauses outside the car door, eyes on the scratches adorning Mother's face, glittering lines in the moon light. He wouldn't.
Would he?
"Mother, what happened?" Yuki demands as she slides into the car, but dread curls slow and torturous in her belly. Mother is windswept, dirty with dried mud and blood, twigs in her hair. "Where's Ame?"
Mother doesn't say anything, putting the car in reverse and backing out of the parking spot. Yuki's near sick with roiling fear and anger by the time they are half way down the road, heart thumping. Mother takes a breath, eyes shiny in the night. "He's grown up," she says, and it makes Yuki bristle, grit her teeth, because. That's not right. That's not fair. "He's gone, Yuki."
There's a beat because what?
"He can't have," she denies, and grips tight the inside of the door, fingers carefully human blunt. He can't have. "He's younger than me, I'll grow up first."
There's a soft noise, and Yuki darts a startled look at Mother.
"I'm sorry, Yuki," Mother says, still smiling, even as tears slip down her face.