𝘞𝘢𝘳 𝘖𝘧 𝘏𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘴 | Asami Sato

𝘝𝘐𝘐

"Here we go..." Sora said as she lifted her father and leaned his body against the cement wall. Adjusting his body, she turned to her side to pick up the small plastic bowl that contained the soup, taking a spoonful to her father's mouth.

Swallowing the soup, Hikari asked his daughter. "Have you eaten yet?"

"Yes, Dad," Sora replied with a nod, bringing another spoonful of soup to her father's mouth.

It was a lie. Ever since her dad got sick, she hasn't been able to eat properly—not that she's always been able to eat properly. Whatever food she found in containers, or stole from the counters, most of the food went to her father. Besides, her body has gotten used to not having food in her stomach for an indefinite amount of time.

Knowing the daughter he has, Hikari can recognize the lie in her answer. He knew when his daughter lied. The first thing he noticed was that she wasn't looking him in the eye; the second thing he noticed was that she was lightly nibbling on her bottom lip. Those two things were what she did when she was lying. It was a bad habit of hers. "How many times have I told you not to lie to me?"

  A sigh escaped Sora's lips. Seeing that her father would not continue to eat, Sora put the spoon inside the bowl and placed it on the floor, facing her father for a few seconds. "Don't worry about me, old man. I am fine. Besides, you need the food more than I do."Sora said as she ran a hand through her hair. Of course, her father knew.

"Not worry about you?" Hikari blustered in a tone of disbelief, his pale face twisted in annoyance. "Not worrying about you?! Sora of course I will–" A hard cough ripped from his throat, causing his body to lean forward.

"Gommu!" Sora caught the attention of the man who was near the small fire in search of warming his body in the midst of all that cold. "Hand me that bucket!" Gommu urgently picked up the small wooden bucket that was on the floor to his left and handed it to the younger girl. Sora, already with the bucket in her hands, positioned the object under her father. "Spit, Dad. Get it all out." The bucket that was empty before, was filled with a greenish mucus. Tears gathered in the corners of Hikari's eyes from the effort his body had just made.

Sora looked at her father with a sad face while she massaged her father's back and ribs in a -- failed-- attempt to ease the pain he felt at that moment.

  It pained her to see her father like this.

Picking up the canister containing the herbal medicinal water, Sora brought it to her father's trembling lips, tilting her hand so that the brownish liquid would go into his mouth. Once a generous portion of the medicinal water had been drunk, she laid her father back down on the large paper box beneath him and arranged the robes around his body.

"You shouldn't stress too much, Dad," Sora said quietly as she wiped the tears that had flowed from his father's eyes with her thumbs. "I know you care about me... but right now, your health is more important, okay? Now rest." The white-haired girl, without giving her father time to refute an answer, bent down and placed a kiss on his forehead.

"Sora..." Before Sora could walk away, Hikari caught her attention, causing her to stop.

"Dad...Please, let's not argue about this again–"

"It's not about that," Hikari said as he closed his eyes. "Mako and Bolin stopped by, saying they had something to tell you."

"Didn't they say what they wanted to tell me?"Sora knew what they wanted to tell her. She just wanted to make sure Bolin hadn't let something slip that her father shouldn't have known. Out of the three of them... Bolin had the loosest mouth.

"They didn't say anything. But they asked you to go to them." Hikari said in a slurred voice. Sleep consumes him entirely.

"Uhm..." Sora stared at her father for a while, watching how his chest rose and fell with some difficulty and how his body was still trembling slightly. Sighing heavily, she went to sit by the fire, in hopes of heating her body from the cold.

"Don't be like that, Sora..." Breaking out of her trance, Sora lured her attention away from the flames and looked at the man beside her.

"Your father is a strong man," Gommu said, as he extended his hands toward the flames. "He'll get better soon." And then he turned, offering her a sweet smile.

"I'm not so sure about that, Gommu..." Sora said in a brittle voice. "Each day that passes seems like instead of getting better, he just gets worse." Her eyes filled with tears, but she quickly used the palm of her hand to wipe away a runaway tear and grunted when her fingers touched the wound of her eyebrow. "Shit!" She grunted in pain.

"Don't think negatively, Sora," Gommu advised her as he rubbed his hands over his arms. "Your father is a strong man. You'll see that in a little while he'll be better!" And he looked at her with an amused face. "You're lucky your dad is sleeping, otherwise he would scold you for saying a bad word."

"Oh, come on! I'm old enough to be able to use a curse word, don't you think?" Sora asked indignantly, staring at the older man with furrowed brows as she crossed her arms.

"Well... have you tried telling your father that?"

"No! Are you crazy? Do you want me to die?"Sora exclaimed as she widened her eyes in despair. "My father would scold me if he heard me swear!" Gommu let out a laugh at the girl's despair. "Are you laughing at me?" Sora stared at the laughing man in front of her with an incredulous face.

"Yes, I am!" Gommu said as he tried to calm his laughter. "Weren't you the one who said you were 'grown up'?"And he laughed again.

"That's not funny," Sora said with a sulky face.

"Yes, it is."

"No, it's not funny."

"Yes, it is!"

"No, it's not!"

"No, it's not!"

"Yes, it is—damn it!" Sora let out a grunt in frustration as she realized what Gommu had done and shot him a glare.

Gommu was just trying to control his laughter so as not to wake Hikari from his sleep while sensing Sora's glare.

"You won't be so amused when I tell my dad that most of the curse words I know were taught to me by you, right?" Sora asked while arching one of her bushy eyebrows, chuckling when Gommu gasped amid his laughter when he heard what she had just said.

"It wasn't funny what you just said. Your dad will kill me if he finds out I taught you that!"Gommu looked at her with a scared face. "Besides, didn't we agree that this would be our secret?"

"Hah!" Sora snorted. "It's not funny when it's with you, right?" Sora asked, tilting her head to the side, a small smile at the corner of her lips. "Do not worry! I won't tell my father anything about the curse words you taught me, and you don't tell him that I cursed." Sora held out her hand to the older man beside her. "Okay?"

"Okay!" Gommu said as he joined his hands with the younger girls, shaking their hands.