Santino crawled over to Zadia and started to pull at her fingers for the fun of it. "You don't trust me?" She questioned.
Roman was quick to reply. "I don't trust anyone."
Her eyebrows knitted together. "Not even your mentor? Or Adam? Or Lynn? Or even, Eliśa?"
"No one." He responded. "Family and friends are always the first to betray you. There's no point in trusting them."
Zadia shook her head. "That's... that's true but, it's still not a reason to not trust people. Cats and dogs bite people all the time, especially their owners sometimes, but you don't see their owners not trusting them." She said, "Toussaint L'Ouverture owned slaves, yet he still gave Haiti their independence, that didn't stop people from trusting him."
"That didn't make any sense."
She shrugged. "It probably didn't, but I'm sure you know what I'm trying to say. Just because someone does something, doesn't mean you stop trusting everyone. That's stupid. That's like me not trusting anyone because my parents are assholes."
Roman chuckled, lightly. "I never thought I'd see the day where I'd be bullied for my trust issues."
Zadia smiled, slightly. It was barely noticeable. "That's not what I was doing." Her head tilted to the side, and she used her hands to cover her mouth as she yawned. "How come you don't laugh or smile? You're always so..."
"Serious?" He finished for her.
She nodded. "Yeah, you're always so serious. Kinda like a robot."
"We live in a serious world and I've got a serious job, which makes me a serious person." He explained... well at least he tried to. When he said it out loud, he sort of realized how it didn't make any sense. "You're one to talk." He said, changing the subject quickly. "You haven't been one to show emotions these past few weeks."
Zadia switched sides and laid Tino down so she could pat his tummy. He giggled sleepily, eyes looking everywhere. "Well, you know... it's a serious world we live in and I've got a serious job, which makes me a serious person." She mimicked him and the both of them burst out laughing. Tino included himself even though he didn't know what was going on, giggling as though someone let him in on the joke.
Zadia took in Roman's laugh, noticing how shy it sounded. It was like he was holding back on it, but still, his dimples showed when his lips stretched to form a smile. This made her laugh more and for a second, she wanted to say another joke to see if he'd laugh harder this time.
But she didn't.
Their laughter eventually came to cease, a small smile settling on their faces as they sobered up. The both of them sat silently, realizing how much they needed that laugh, even though it was over something so stupid. Tino rolled over on his stomach and crawled over to his uncle so he could yawn in his face. "I think he's finally ready to go back to bed," Roman said, tapping on his nephew's nose gently. Each day he realized how much Tino resembled someone in the family.
Even though his memories of his mother and father were faint, Roman could see some of their features in Tino whenever he was happy or sad. And when Tino was mad he resembled Eliśa a lot.
"I'm surprised, his crying didn't wake up Abel and Adam."
"Adam can sleep through everything."
"Abel can too sometimes."
Roman cleared his throat, lifting the two books so Tino could see. "Which one do you like best, dinosaurs or elephants?"
"He's going for the dinosaurs," Zadia said and Tino did go for the dinosaurs. Zadia laid him back on his back, in the middle of Roman and her, and began patting his belly again. Her eyes were growing tired, ready to shut.
ChApTeR - 9
Start from the beginning
