“Ya like the new digs, girls?”
>Your voice barely masks the sound of the chaingun belt’s worth of bullets you’re sweating as your three nieces peruse the layout of your suddenly somewhat cramped kitchen, silently glancing across the countertops you pulled an arm muscle making sure were immaculate clean this morning.
 
>“It’s alright, I guess,” Aria drolls at you, one hand propping her head up as her disinterested gaze seemed to pierce through you.
“It is pretty clean, I’ll admit,” Adagio mutters under her breath, eyes wandering across the cabinet doors’ new luster.
>You silently thank Hyun for getting you that carpenter’s number as you step out of the way of Sonata, whose attention is fully occupied drinking in her new surroundings, picking up and fiddling with various kitchen gadgets as she went, eyes wide in a sense of wonder.
>You hold back a giggle as Aria standsup from her chair and silently saunters over to her suitcase.
>You can’t help but frown.
>It wasn’t unreasonable that they would just want to unpack and go to bed after the long drive.
>They’d all remained silent as stone for the whole two hours, despite your best attempts at prying.
>Suppressing a sigh as Adagio brushes past you, all three of you turn your head back towards the kitchen at Sonata’s sharp gasp.
>“Look girls!” she squeals, one finger excitedly pointing towards the contents of your opened cupboard.
>You catch the brief moment of what you could only describe as terror as Adagio rushes towards her.
>“Sonata, you idiot! You know we’re not supposed to-“
>Adagio’s voice dies in her throat as she takes in the view of your pantry stuffed to bursting.
>You force the giggle down again as Aria slowly steps over and is overcome with the same stark shock as the others.
>Your grin evaporates as you see the outline of Adagio and Aria’s ribs as they reach up and take hold of soup cans and cereals, reading brands they’d never seen before.
>Your hand instinctively flies to cover your grimace.
>“You girls think he’ll let us eat more than once today?” Sonata blurts out before slapping her own hand over her mouth.
>The other sisters snap out of their reverie with a hushed panic, quickly shoving the boxes in their hands back on the shelves, throwing matching glares tinged with fear towards her.
>You feel bile rise in the back of your throat.
“What’s wrong, girls?” you manage to squeak out.
>N-Nothing!” they all say in near-perfect sync, Sonata’s hands dipping down behind her back.
>Your eyes narrow unconsciously in worry, and all three of them flinch, betraying their façade of contentment.
>“We just haven’t eaten in a while,” Sonata meekly says, her face cast downwards at her boots.
>The bile intensifies as her sisters’ glares break into full fear, Aria’s eyes closing tightly.
>If you ever see your doped-up excuse for a sister ever again, you’re going to strangle her.
>CPS had told you that she was crude to her girls, but you didn’t expect three trauma victims on your hands when you volunteered. >Something in your chest throbs in pain at the sight of Adagio’s sickly thin arms crossing over her chest in a pitiful self-embrace, her head hunched over.
“Tell you what, girls. Go ahead and unpack, and I’ll get started on lunch, okay?” you say, plastering your best and brightest fake smile across your face.
>The three nod, silently dashing past you and upstairs, Sonata looking at you one last time with trepidation as she moves.
>Slumping back against the wall, you bury your face in your hands and sigh, your eyes hot and wet.
>You are Anonymous, and you have your work cut out for you.
>The moment your new charges head upstairs to their room, you spin on one foot towards your cabinets, flinging open the doors and pulling out pan after pan, one hand flicking the burners of your stove on as you go.
>You’d already planned out a fresh meal to welcome the girls home, but the throbbing in your chest fills you with a unique drive as you lay out ingredients from the fridge on the countertops.
>You were going to give these girls the best meal of their lives.
---
>“Sonata, what the hell is wrong with you?” Adagio quietly barks at her sister, dabbing sweat away from her forehead with her shirt sleeve as the three girls gradually filled up their dressers.
>The room their new guardian had given them was quite spacious, with Adagio suspecting he’d had a wall knocked down to accommodate the setup.
>Aria looked over at Sonata with one brow ever so slightly cocked, the sister in question rising to meet her siblings from putting away her socks.
>“I-I’m sorry, okay? I didn’t think he’d have the same attitude as Mom did-“
>“Don’t assume anything about this guy!” Adagio spat back. “He and Mom are probably cut from the same cloth, and he’s just trying to get on our good side at first.”
>“Aren’t you assuming things about him right now?” Aria piped up.
>Adagio turned to her other sister with a raised finger, her taut gaze loosening at her sister’s tired eyes. “Maybe he won’t be like Mom.”
>“…I guess you might have a point, sis,” she replied, gasping slightly at her sisters as they dashed over and embraced her.
>“Whatever happens, we’ve still got each other to lean on, right?” Sonata said, her bubbly smile putting a small one on Adagio’s face. “I’ll go down and apologize for the cupboard incident. Maybe he won’t care.”
>The other two raised a hand to stop her a second too late before she bounded out the bedroom door and downstairs.
>“Oh no oh no oh no…” Aria muttered to herself. Adagio put a hand to her sister’s shoulder, rubbing it softly as she recognized her sister’s near-trademark stressed-out mantra.
>“Come on sis, we’ll back her up. Maybe she’s right.”
---
>Your ears pick up the rumble of three sets of shoes descending your oh-so-creaky staircase as you finish plating the last serving of lunch.
>With all the seasoned professionalism of a guy who imitates what he sees on the Food Network, you slide the last piece of silverware into place at the table just as your nieces walk in, Sonata the only one with her eyes forward.
>“Um, Anon?” she speaks up, “I wanted to, uh, just say sorry for the…”
>You cock one brow quizzically as Sonata’s voice trails off into muted gibberish, her mouth hanging slack as you can see and hear her nose doing a double-take, pawing at the fragrances of your cooking.
>“What is that scent?” Adagio mumbles, as you look over to see the other two mimicking Sonata’s movements, Aria closing her eyes and inhaling deeply.
>“Lunch! How’s bulgogi sound?” you reply with a clap of your hand s that seems to rouse the three from their trance.
>You gesture to the four seats prepared at the table, a steaming plate of thin-sliced beef stir-fry atop each one.
>The girls slowly walk over to their chairs, and you catch the wary glare of each of them, a hesitance in their gait that pains you to see.
>What the hell did your sister do?
>Will they ever tell you?
>”What do you girls want to drink?” you say as you force your mind back to the situation at hand.
>You pull open the fridge and gesture to the variety of drinks you bought yesterday, not knowing what their preferences may be, although you now have a dreadful feeling that they’re used to just water.
>”Do you have any juice?” Sonata asks first.
>You smile and pull out some orange juice from the door, walking over and pouring it into her glass nonchalantly.
>Aria’s uptight glare fades as she follows you, fleeing fully when you turn to her.
>”Just, uh, some cola or whatever,” she chokes out, refusing to meet your gaze.
>You pull out a bottle of the liquid in question and hold it out to her, a soft smile on your face as she finally looks you in the eye and grabs it quickly, as though afraid you would yank it back any second.
>The bile washes up again in your chest at her paranoia as you see Adagio simply get up and fill her cup out of the tap.
>”You sure you want just water, Adagio?” you ask, your voice almost pleading for the girl to show you SOME form of emotion.
>She doesn’t answer you and instead sits down, her head cast down towards her plate.
>”I’m fine,” she finally says after a moment.
>The bile threatens to spill out of your mouth.
>”Mmmmmmm!?”
>The whole table’s gaze whips over from Adagio’s pained display of pride at Aria’s voice as she slowly chews her first bite of the secret weapon dish that scored you your first girlfriend back in college.
>You can’t help but smile as she immediately shovels another forkful in after she swallows.
>The other girls let out similar expressions at the taste of their own lunches as you dig in too, the next 10 minutes a silent procession of gulps and chewing.
>Nobody ever talked when they had this dish, and you were damn proud of it.
>As you polish off the last few bites of Korean-style heaven, you hear a sharp cough to your left.
>Aria looks tentatively at you as she holds out her plate.
>”I-I’d like some more, please.”
>You turn your head to see the other two with similar expressions, Sonata smiling softly while Adagio keeps a tinge of her coldness in her eyes, although lunch seems to have evaporated most of it.
>Your smile widens into a grin as you take each of their plates back to the oversized pan on the stove, dolling out a bigger portion than last time.
>You can her them muttering behind you.
>”I TOLD you he wouldn’t mind!” Sonata barely whispered giddily as she licked the last of the stir-fry sauce off her fork. “And he can cook to top it off!”
>”…It was pretty good…” Adagio admitted.
>”We’re probably pushing our luck,” Aria muttered, fiddling with one of her pigtails.
>Your heart sinks at her comment. What kind of person punishes asking for seconds?
>You grip the spoon till your knuckles turn white at the thought of your sister starving her daughters like that.
>Probably to save money for her heroin dealer. You’d like to throttle him, too.
>You set down the spoon and lay out a fresh plate in front of each of them, Sonata gasping at the heap of food in front of her.
It’s been a while since I got to cook like this,” you say as they dig in, looking at you with stuffed cheeks. “It might be fun getting to do this more often with you girls around.”
You see Aria and Sonata’s eyes light up at the promise of more full meals like this.
>Adagio looks up at you with the first genuine look of happiness you’ve seen today.
>Thank the lord for Asian grandma neighbors.
>All of you tuck into your second helping, Adagio now tearing through hers like a freshly oiled buzzsaw.
>You glance at her arms again and pray her appetite keeps up.
>All of them are very far on the thin side, really. Sonata’s the only one who looks halfway healthy, but she still looks hollow.
>You excuse yourself from the table as your cellphone rings, pushing in your seat and smiling back at Sonata as you go.
>Speaking of neighbors…
>”Anon! Are the girls there yet?”
“Yeah, they’re here Hyun,” you reply.
>”Oh, goody! I can’t wait to meet them and show them around the neighborhood! We can get the bloc party together, have a cookout-“
“I’d hold off on calling anyone up for the moment, Hyun,” you interrupt, your eyes glancing back to the lack of dining noises in the kitchen.
“I think I might’ve bit off more than I can chew.”
>Hyun was the one who got you custody in the first place on account of a glowing recommendation from within the local CPS.
>Absolutely amazing what networking can do sometimes.
>”Are they rude, or violent?” Hyun bluntly asked. You sputtered for a moment.
“No. If anything, they seem scared of me. Sonata opened up the pantry and the other two freaked out like I was going to hit them.”
>”…Oh dear, it’s one of those situations,” you hear her reply. “Anon, this might be much worse than I thought.”
“You think?” you snap, chiding yourself for raising your voice less than 10 meters away from the girls. “Sorry, I’m just kinda up a creek here.”
>“Tell me something – is one of them more friendly than the others?”
>You immediately flick your head around at the sound of Aria’s footsteps behind you.
>”Um, Mr. Anonymous, can we go back upstairs and finish unpacking?” she meeps, hands tightly behind her slender back, with the most artificial smile you’ve ever seen in your life on her face.
>She’s hiding something, and while you don’t want to scare her, you don’t tolerate thievery in your home.
“Hold on, Hyun,” you speak into the receiver as you set your phone down.
“Aria, I get that you might feel like a stranger here, but there’s no secrets in this house. What are you hiding?”
>The girl’s smile shatters into a look of utter panic as she drops the bag of leftover lunch from behind her and bolts up the stairs before you can react. You dash into the kitchen too late as the other two run behind her.
“Wait!”
>Your plea falls on deaf ears as the door slams shut behind them once you get halfway up the staircase.
>Fuck, this is bad.
>You trot back down the stairs and pick up your phone, Hyun’s yelling blaring from the speaker.
“Hyun, I have a problem,” you begin.
>You hear Hyun exhale on the other side, the kind of breath one only takes when absorbing information they’d rather not know.
>”Okay Anon, I need you to listen carefully. These girls are going to be tough to get to open up to you,” she says.
>”You need to make sure they know they can ask for anything they need, and that you’re not going to get mad at them for it. These girls sound like they’ve been conditioned to fear confronting authority figures for a while now.”
“They didn’t seem afraid to ask for a second helping of your bulgogi recipe,” you reply.
>“That really has served you well, hasn’t it?” she laughs. You let a small smile come to your face.
>She never missed an opportunity to rub in the fact that she taught you to cook.
>You didn’t care – a life free of frozen pizza dinners is worth any amount of heckling.
>”I’m gonna go talk to the girls and see what I can learn,” you say.
>“Call me afterwards,” she replies, a click following.
>You sigh as you look up the staircase.
>Biting off more than you can chew might’ve been an understatement.
---
>“Oh no oh no oh no oh no…”
>Adagio grimaced as she held her sister’s arm, rubbing her shoulder in an attempt to break her out of her panic attack.
>Sonata sat on the edge of thhe bed, her face wet with tears as she bit her nails.
>”We screwed up bad, didn’t we?” Adagio said.
>”We?”
>Adagio looked over to see Sonata’s face twisted in anger.
>”You’re the one who told Aria to try and sneak food upstairs!” she yelled. “Everything was going fine until you went and ruined it!”
>”Oh god, he’s gonna be so mad. There’s no way he’s being nice to us from now on,” she trailed off as she fell over on the bed, one leg stuck out over the side as she buried her face in the mattress.
>Adagio cast her eyes downwards as she felt her sister shake against her.
>Sonata was completely right. She showed him that they were no better than their mother.
>”We can get through this, girls,” she spoke up. “We just have to stick together, even with my stupid mistake in the way. Let’s just go back downstairs and get the yelling over with.”
>The girl stood from the floor, fluffing up her hair as Aria finally calmed down enough to follow.
---
>Standing outside the door to the girls’ room, you attempt to pull your thoughts together.
>Hyun, blunt and crass as she tended to be, was completely right – until they stop being afraid of you, this arrangement isn’t going to work out.
>Pulling yourself together, you raise a fist and try to know on the door-
>Only to stop as it opens and your hand comes about 2 inches shy of hitting Adagio square in the nose.
>Real smooth, Uncle. Real smooth.
>The bile bubbles in your chest as you hear her gasp in anticipation of a punch to the face, her sisters shuffling up beside her as if ready to catch her.
”Girls, we need to talk.”
>The words feel like freshly cracked gravel on your tongue.
>Adagio opened her eyes to see your hands open and at your sides.
“May I come in?” you ask, hoping to talk to them in the place they’d feel most comfortable.
>The girls all eye each other before Sonata ever so slightly nods.
>”Sure,” both her and Adagio mumble.
>The four of you move back inside and seat yourselves on the edges of the bed.
>None of them want to look you in the eyes, the anxiety filling the air like smog.
>You decide that the direct approach is best.
“Girls, I’m not going to claim I know what life was like with my sister, or what habits you might’ve had with her, but I want to lay out how things work around here.”
>You immediately regret your choice of words as the color drains from each of their faces.
>Positives, Anon. Positives.
“This is your home,” you continue. “If there’s anything you need or want, if you’re hungry or tired or need new socks or something, just come talk to me. You can call me Uncle, or just Anon if you prefer.”
>Aria looks at you with a burning sense of anticipation. You sigh as you know what’s eating at her.
“Aria, I’m sorry if you feel like you have to squirrel away food. My pantry is always open to you girls. You don’t have to feel bad about looking through and seeing what we have.”
>You glance at Sonata as you finish your sentence, who, surprisingly, smiles at you.
“You girls start school here in two weeks, so take your time to get acclimated here. However, I do have some rules.”
“No stealing, fighting, bringing people over when I’m not here, and no breaking things on purpose.”
>You punctuate yourself with a raised finger each time.
“None of that happens, and we should all be happy.”
>Aria’s face loosens from its’ contortion of stress just enough for you to smile.
“I know it must be hard for you girls to adjust during this, so please, come talk to me if there’s something weighing on your mind,” you finish.
>Sonata’s voice is the first to pierce the miasma of tension.
>”We’re sorry, Uncle Anon.”
>Something about being called Uncle makes a warmth bloom in your chest.
>Pride? Or maybe worry?
>”We were always expected to feed ourselves back with Mom,” she continued. “We’ve got a few habits we’ll need to kick.”
>She’s not telling you the whole story, but you appreciate it nonetheless.
“We’ve got the rest of the day, wanna watch something?” you offer in an attempt to lighten the mood.
>All three of them swivel their heads back towards you like you were speaking in tongues.
“I’ve got a decent collection of dramas, so we might find something you girls like,” you continue. “Come on, we’ll pick through.”
>You bounce up from the bed with a hop and gesture for the girls to follow as you trot back downstairs.
>”Well, that went better than expected,” Aria muttered as she got up.
“>Wait, you aren’t seriously thinking he’s not mad, right?” Adagio sputtered. “Do you girls not remember Mom’s boyfriends and the EXACT same attitude they had, and what they ended up doing?”
>”You know damn well I can’t forget them or what they did,” Aria hissed at her sister. “But I also can’t just sit here being scared, and neither can you.”
>”Aria’s right, sis,” Sonata piped up. “We can’t just be afraid of Uncle-“
>”Stop calling him that!” Adagio yelled back.
“Girls?”
>Thudding echoes down the hallway as the three of them scurry down the stairs into your vision, Sonata whispering something you can’t quite make out.
>You’d already gone through and collated some of your personal favorites from your living room shelf.
>Making a mental note to try and find some more films that weren’t cop dramas, you clear your throat.
“I’m afraid I don’t have much that girls your age would enjoy, but go ahead and look through.”
>You fiddle with the remote as you flick on the television and switch inputs to the DVD box.
>”This looks interesting,” Aria mused as she turned a particular box in her hands.
“This is one of my favorites,” you reply as you delicately take the box from her hands.
>Your caution doesn’t stop her from screwing her eyes shut at the slightest skin contact.
>You really needed to call Hyun back after this.
>The other two seat themselves silently as you pop the disc in, shrugging when you offer another chance to pick.
>Adagio whispers something in Sonata’s ears, and you see the pale girl’s eyes narrow as she turns to her sister with a cross look.
>”I’ll prove it.”
>Your stomach tightens as she gets up and plops herself down on the loveseat you’d put your water next to.
>”Uncle Anon, do we have any spare blankets? It’s chilly in here.”
>You ignore that bloom in your chest again and nod, quicky jogging down the hallway as the movie loads and grabbing a comforter from the closet.
>You sit back down as the opening credits begin to roll, handing the comforter to Sonata just as the lead actor stepped into focus.
>Ah, Fahrenheit. A timeless classic.
>Sonata balls herself up and lets her legs unwind over the armrest of the loveseat as she pulls the comforter over her body, and you catch a glimpse of mischief in her eye.
>You follow her gaze to see Adagio visibly sweating with unease as Sonata leans herself into you and drapes the other half of the comforter over your lap.
>You barely manage to move your arm to avoid being pinned, holding it above her frame.
>”You don’t mind, do you?” she whispers with a smile fit for an imp.
>Adagio bites her lip at the two of you, an alarm klaxon in her head screaming at her sister getting cozy.
>You see a similar expression from Aria, whose eyes are darting everywhere except your face as she twiddles her thumbs.
>You’ve seen that look of worry before, in the eyes of people whose family is gravely ill.
>You stifle a sigh and remind yourself of what Hyun said about opening up.
>You turn down and see Sonata mouthing “Told ya,” at Adagio, a cocky grin on her face.
>You let the sigh go through your nose and attempt to put your arm down on the back, only for Sonata to sneak one hand up and pull it down by your shirt sleeve over her, your hand square against her navel.
>She giggles to herself and settles in with her head against your chest, her body heat a surprisingly welcome presence.
>How long has it been since you cuddled with someone?
>This weight, this warmth…
>A small sense of shame comes over you as you gently squeeze Sonata with your tucked arm, greedily drinking in this comfort.
>You can hear Adagio bristling as Sonata wraps one arm around yours and presses back, the elder sister’s pupils shrunk to dots in trepidation.
>Minutes pass, and everyone’s attention slowly turns back to the film, your gaze flicking back over to the sisters not pressed against you as they calm down.
>Sonata does little to help this as she periodically causes at least one of them to flare back up, rubbing your arm or asking a brief question about dialogue she didn’t understand.
>You’re happy to explain, of course, and at a few moments have to stop yourself form gushing about the camera work, but nothing you say can alleviate the other two’s uncomfortable side glances.
>When the film finally ends, the last bit of sunlight for the day is long gone from the treeline, and the girls all suppress yawns.
>You figure that the travel would’ve done them in a bit earlier, so you slowly pry Sonata from your side, the girl whimpering at the sudden chill.
“You girls ready for bed?” you ask.
>All three of them nod, Aria still refusing to look you in the eye.
>You head upstairs to throw on your nightclothes, the three quietly following and filing into their room, slowly closing the door behind them.
---
>”What the hell are you doing?” Adagio snapped the moment the door shut behind her.
>Sonata glared at her sister from her spot on the bed, arms defiantly folded across her chest.
>”I told you he was family, so I went and treated him like family,” she replied.
>”Sonata, you know better than to just trust people like this!” Adagio shot back, her hands gripping her hair. “Why are you so insistent on just letting Anon do what he likes with us?”
>”Excuse me?” Sonata quipped. “The only things he’s done ‘as he likes’ are treat us better than Mom ever did! When was the last time you ate lunch at home before today?”
>”One meal doesn’t mean he’s family, Sonata!” Adagio yelled. “We all know what people do when they want something out of you, we all know what games they like to play, and we all know that they NEVER mean what they say! You expect me to believe that some home cooking and a movie makes him family?”
>Aria pressed herself against the wall at their screaming, her eyes clamped shut.
>”I expect you to give him a real chance to be family!” Sonata shot back. “Why do you think we’re even here if not for the fact that he cares? He didn’t owe it to us to take over now that Mom’s locked up, and yet he did it anyways!”
>”Just letting us stay here doesn’t make him someone worth trusting! It never makes someone worth trusting! Why can’t you get it!” Adagio spat.
>”Because I’m the only one here who likes not having to feel AFRAID every time I feel HAPPY!”
Adagio’s lips were stopped short of a retort by the sight of her sister’s shaking, her wet eyes clearly visible.
>”…We’re family…” Sonata choked out, “…and I can’t stand to see you hurt yourself like this, because you’re too scared to let someone help…”
>The tension in the room evaporated as the eldest sister pulled the teary-eyed girl into an embrace, squabbling lost in muffled whimpers and rubbing fingers.
>Aria opened her eyes from her spot against the wall and breathed slowly as she let her heart calm down.
>”Sorry, Aria,” Adagio whispered. “I should know better than to upset you like that.”
“…Let’s just get to bed,” the middle child muttered.
>The three girls quickly changed into their pajamas and huddled into bed, pulling the poofy black blanket Anon had dressed it with over them.
>Adagio fell asleep almost immediately, the plush linens a new and welcome feeling against her form.
>”Aria, what’s wrong?” Sonata asked, noticing her sister’s tightly wound posture.
>”You’re too close,” Aria whispered, curled up and shying away from contact.
>Sonata sighed as she wordlessly slipped out of the bed and let her sister fan out.
>”Sorry, sis,” Aria said. “We’ll swap for the floor tomorrow, okay?”
>Sonata nodded as she laid down on the floor, one arm tucked under her pillow.
>”I guess not everything can change,” she muttered as she drifted off. “At least there’s carpet now.”
>Less than an hour passed before Sonata gasped, her eyes flying open as she shot up, wiping the sweat from her brow as she looked around and brought her breathing under control.
>“…Just a dream, just a dream, always just a dream, you’re fine, she’s not here…” she muttered.
>Maybe water will help.
>She discreetly slipped out of the room, holding the knob till it shut so as not to disturb her sisters.
>Down the hall, one door lay open, the sounds of snoring echoing softly.
>Sonata gazed down at the room, lip bit as one question rang in her head.
>’Would he mind?’
>Her instinct told her that it was a terrible and dangerous idea.
>But her instinct had already been wrong more than once today.
---
>Your wandering subconscious is thrust to the back of your head by a persistent poking in your side.
>You crack your eyes open to see Sonata standing by your bed, the comforter from earlier slung over one shoulder as she fiddled with one end of the cloth.
>”Umm, Uncle Anon…?”
>You sit up fully.
>”I, um, well, the bed in our room isn’t quite big enough for all of us,” she began, “so I was wondering if I could sleep in here with you?”
>”Yeah, sure,” you drawl out, trying not to move too much and wake yourself fully.
>A few moment of rustling later, and she’s beside you, slipping down alongside you as she promptly scoots over and turns her back to you.
>You’re overtaken briefly by that same intoxicating sense of closeness, made all the worse when she squirms around and touches her back to yours.
>You sling one arm over without thinking and pull her close, a small gasp escaping her.
“S-Sorry,” you stammer out as you pull yourself off of her.
>It’s your turn to let out a gasp as she promptly snatches you by the wrist and throws you back over her shoulder.
“Uh, Sonata?”
>“Waaaarm,” is her only sleepy reply.
>You stifle a laugh as you both begin falling back into slumber.
“…Sonata?” you quietly ask.
>"Hmm?”
“Do your sisters not like me?”
>Hell of a time to ask that, Uncle.
>Sonata rolls over to face you.
>”None of us really knew what to make of you,” she whispered back. “And we…”
>You hear her gulp.
>”Remember what I said about us having habits?”
“Yeah.”
>”It’s part of that. But I think you just need some time to show them that you’re family,” she finished with a soft smile.
>You smile back as you close your eyes.
“Goodnight, Sonata.”
>”Goodnight, Uncle Anon.”
>You gently squeeze her as you drift off, deciding that the bloom in your chest was a good thing after all.