"Ah~ That was a nice dinner.""Thank you, Felicia."
"Yeah, thank you."
"Y-you"re welcome."
It was the evening after meeting the
〈S. T. E. L. L. A〉trio and the family just finished their dinner.
Felicia still felt a bit curious in what Cole had talked about with them earlier, but she thought that they were good people so she wasn"t that worried about the contents.
But...
"I want to know!! What exactly did they talk about downstairs?! Ah, f*ck, I"m so curious!!"
She looked at the man who was busy with washing the dishes and the little bunny helping by drying them.
Felicia knew she was still a child, and even if she was smart for her age, she still would show signs of nervousness and fear.
Seeing her normal face made Felicia"s curiosity grow smaller and made her rethink about investigaing it.
And although she did ask Cole and what exactly they talked about earlier after she teleported them away, he only said...
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"Nothing important. We only talked about old memories and each other"s goals.
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.
"*sigh* Is that really all they talked about...?"
Well, he wasn"t lying at least. Felicia slumped down on the table and thought as hard as he could.
*Tap Tap*
She would"ve thought harder until her head burst if it wasn"t for the sudden tap on the shoulder she felt.
She turned her head and saw Cole carrying a sleepy and yawning Eva.
"What is it?"
"You can go to sleep now, I"m going to bring Eva upstairs and give her a bedtime story."
"O-okay."
Getting the okay from her, Cole went upstairs cradling the sleepy bunny.
The normal, smiling expression she now grew accustomed to seeing everyone the past two months, eased Felicia"s mind, even 8f just a little bit.
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*CREAK*
The white door to Eva"s room made a freaking sound as Cole opened it. The sound woke Eva up a bit, but after looking around and noticing that she was in her room, she went back to her half-asleep state.
After looking around Eva"s room for a few seconds, for anything that could be used as a weapon that is, Cole turned on the desk lamp on the desk near her bed placed Eva on her light blue bed.
He tucked her in and was about to leave when a small hand grabbed his wrist before he could do so.
"Hmm? What is it, Eva?"
"Story."
"?"
"You said you were going to tell me a story.
"Ah... That"s right."
Seeing that his little slip of the tongue had entered the little one"s ears, Cole grabbed a nearby chair and sat on it.
"What kind of story do you want to hear about them?"
"Umm..."
Eva hesitated a bit before she opened her little mouth to answer.
"… I want to hear about your previous life."
"…"
Cole became silent at Eva"s request and his expression was unreadable for a good while.
"I-If you can"t, then it"s fine. I"ll just go sleep--"
"Fine."
Eva was going to hide under her covers and cry to sleep for being so stupid to ask such a thing until she heard the reply from her father.
"R-Really? You"ll really tell me?"
"Yeah. But do you really want to hear about it? Just knowing the fact is enough, right?"
"I want to know! After all, you"re going to be with me for a long time to come, right?"
Eva seemed to be pretty insistent and stubborn in wanting to know.
"And... I"d rather have you as my father than the my previous "Papa"..."
"…"
Cole was planning to just tell her then, but when she continued talking, Cole decided to stay silent and listen to what she had to say.
"… You talk back to me, you laugh at me, you sometimes mock me..."
As Eva continued, she dug her head into the sheets, seemingly not liking the fact that she had such moments in her short life.
"But..."
*DRIP DRIP*
"You... *sniff*... always give... *sniff*... me a smile at the end of the day."
Eva lifted her small head up again and showed Cole a face full of tears. But, despite those tears, she was showing the brightest smile Cole had ever seen on her face.
"*sigh*... Kids ate such a handful..."
Cole hugged Eva as she continued to sniffle and sob in his arms.
"It"s okay... I won"t treat you that way..."
"*sniff*... I know... *sniff*"
Eva had calmed down and started rubbing her still, runny nose
"Well then, I guess I"ll tell you everything... Starting from square one..."