VIOLET SKY, takigawa chris yuu

━ chapter eighteen

act ii

how do we do this?
( carefully. )

chapter eighteen

❛you're nothing but trouble, i'm afraid❜

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Aya comes back from the kitchen and Amara raises her head, a question about his age in these photos on her lips.

The words die in her throat as she realizes it's not Aya.

It's his father.

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Amara doesn't know what to say.

What can she say?

She knows about his disapproval and he likely knows that she knows.

So, now what?

He's taken a seat on the plush armchair, looking out the window, thoughtful.

Amara lowers her eyes and wishes Aya would return. Or Chris.

She can't focus on the pictures anymore. Not even on Stamp, laying contentedly against her thigh.

It's a tense minute.

He sighs and she looks up instinctively, dread settling like a rock in the pit of her stomach. He's looking at her and there is a grim, but resigned look on his face.

She holds her breath.

"You know, right? Of my feelings toward your relationship with Chris?" He asks, in English. Despite the dread petrifying her insides and her instincts screaming at her to leave and find Chris, she wonders why he's not using Japanese. Strange.

But that's hardly the biggest question here.

She swallows and nods.

"Look, Amara," he begins wearily. "You're a nice girl. Honestly." He holds up his hands. "I hold nothing against you. But you need to understand . . . Chris struggled with his injury. And he's back on his feet and his future looks good. He's getting a second chance. But he doesn't need a relationship. It's a distraction." He runs a hand through his hair, lips flattening into a disapproving line.

His words hurt because they're coming from him. This is Chris' father, the man who he looks up to, the one who got him into baseball.

And they hurt because they're true. Logical.

"The timing doesn't help, either, does it? You two are in your last year of high school. You only have four months left of the term before you two graduate and you're back to Texas, while he stays here and starts college. You get it, right?" He looks imploringly at her, trying to prove a point, something that won't paint him as the villain here.

And she gets it. God, she does. It's why she was so hesitant, why she balked at the thought of diving headfirst into a relationship with him, and sometimes, part of her wishes he'd end things and save them the heartbreak.

But she fell fast and she fell hard. And she knows it's the exact same for him.

"Long distance isn't easy. You're kids. It's not like high school relationships last. I haven't supported your relationship at all, I'll admit, but Chris has heard enough from me. He's relentlessly stubborn." He smiles once, fleeting. "Like his mother. And," he stops, smile vanishing, "he's in too deep. Too serious. I didn't want him to get hurt but that's going to happen regardless. The thing I ask of you, Amara, is will you end his suffering now? Or later on, when the pain will be worse?"