Can we play? - part2

The sun shone illuminating the artificial lake, and slowly spread across the grounds bathing the beautiful plants and some of the bushes and trees that had been damaged last night; in time the light reached the hole in the living room and illuminated it, even the dried blood on the sofa was bathed in the sunlight that became stronger and stronger and bathed more parts of the house and grounds. On the second floor, sunlight pierced through the curtains, illuminating a woman's face. Her brown hair shone brightly, but when the sun's rays hit her eyes, her eyelids fluttered trembled, revealing her annoyance at the light, and after a few seconds she partially opened her eyes, which although brown were glowing greenish in the sunlight; Clare, who had just woken up, stared at the ceiling for several seconds, then she turned and looked at Sophie and smiled when she saw her snuggled right under her breasts using her belly as a pillow, after staring at her for a while she turned to Arthur and was a little surprised, he seemed to be asleep but his expression made it look like he was suffering, what really surprised her was his hair, the ends of Arthur's hair were reddish in color, which surprised her and worried her a little.

After considering it for a few seconds, she decided to wake him up. - Arthur... Arthur... - Clare shook him and called out to him, but even though she shook him with a certain amount of force he still didn't wake up, and just as she was ready to get up she noticed that the red tips in Arthur's hair began to fade until they returned to their dark brown hue, after the hair returned to normal Arthur's expression became calm and his breathing became tranquil; Clare was so fascinated by the abrupt change that she forgot to wake him for a few seconds and just watched him with a curious look. However, unlike Clare who decided not to wake him, the sun didn't mind the boy's rest and continued to advance and unlike his sister Sophie, who was sleeping on Clare's stomach, Arthur was at Clare's shoulder height, so it didn't take long for the sun to reach his eyes and like Clare he began to squeeze his eyelids shut until he woke up.

Arthur's eyes were only half open, but still his red irises shone in the sunlight, highlighting the striking color of his eyes. Arthur turned to look away from the sun and when he turned, he saw Clare staring at him and as soon as he looked into her eyes he heard her voice.

- "Good morning, Arthur. Did you sleep well?" Clare said as she smiled at Arthur.

- Mn. - Arthur nodded positively in response and was a little embarrassed remembering how much he had cried last night, but even ashamed he just ignored the embarrassment and looked away from Clare to the little girl sleeping soundly on Clare's belly; Just like Arthur, his sister had wavy hair, and her wavy hair was strewn all over Clare's body. Looking at the peaceful scene and his sister's peaceful, seemingly happy expression as she slept made him relax his worries, even the hellish training he had to endure last night he forgot as he watched his often-crying sister with such a relaxed expression, and it made a smile form on his face without him even realizing it.

- You look happy... - Clare's voice rang in his ears and made him turn his attention to Clare again. Seeing the gentle smile on her face, Arthur decided to answer her sincerely - after all, they were a family now.

- Yes, it's been a while since I've seen my little sister this calm. - Arthur said, shifting his gaze to his little sister again and his eyes became even more relaxed and gentle. Arthur felt like stroking his sister's head as he did every time he visited her in hospital, but he decided to ignore the urge so as not to wake her.

- you'll be able to see her like this every day from now on... - Clare moved her right hand to stroke Arthur's hair as she said this.

- Mn. - Arthur just nodded as a strange feeling came over him and a few tears trickled down his cheeks involuntarily, but unlike Clare's worried expression he had a happy smile on his face mixed with his tears; Arthur was glad that Clare had adopted them, his mother had died and he hadn't even received a message from his father in all that time, even though he was trying hard to be a good big brother he knew it wasn't enough, after all, Sophie was already suffering from a slow recovery due to the energy the demon had left in her wounds, but that was acceptable since she knew she would recover, even knowing she'd eventually recover, it was still painfully clear to him how sad she felt when other children's parents visited other child's, and only he showed up.

'A month ago? I'm not sure, but that doesn't matter, what does matter is that she asked me about our mother and that day I was embarrassed because although I was four years old when the accident happened and could superficially remember some of the jokes and our relationship, I had forgotten everything else, even her appearance had disappeared from my memory and only returned on the day of the test, strangely enough; forgetting what I didn't remember I realized that she smiled whenever I talked about our mother playing with me, especially when I mentioned that she was present at the scene, that day I realized that it was necessary for her, but it wasn't enough and that hurt...'

Many thoughts were flowing through Arthur's mind as he looked at his sister, but remembering the feeling of helplessness he felt when he realized what she wanted, no, that she really needed her mother, he turned his eyes to Clare and asked. - Why... Did you adopt us? - Arthur was happy and grateful to Clare, but he knows what his sister needs, so he wants to know why he was adopted so that he can count on her for this role.

- No particular reason, if I had to give a reason it would be to protect you... - Clare said as she looked into Arthur's eyes.

- Protect us?

- Yes

- Protect us from what? - Arthur asked with an expression that showed his obvious confusion.

- You'll understand in time, it's not a nice thing to talk about on the first day in family...

-... - Arthur's expression turned strange as he stared at Clare.

-Sigh... - Clare knows that the situation must be awkward for them, but she'd rather explain it over time than throw in a lot of information that he might not even understand, but she still wanted to alleviate at least one of his worries. - I won't talk about what I'm protecting you from for now, but I'm serious about starting a family... I'm a complete amateur at it, but I still believe I'll be good at it... In time, I think... - Clare wanted to appease Arthur who must be worried about her intentions, but unfortunately, she didn't know how to put it into words and ended up getting a little anxious wondering if she had managed to convey her thoughts to Arthur correctly.

- Pfft... Ahaha! - Clare's explanation managed to calm Arthur down, not because of what she said, but because of her expression. Arthur had lived almost half his life without a guardian, and despite being in the orphanage and Albert giving him advice from time to time, his guidance and tutelage was extremely limited, it burdened him, but it also allowed him to be considerably good at assessing a person's character, and seeing Clare's face now he knew she was being sincere, not just because he was good at reading people and their surroundings, but because she made it clear, she wanted to convey it and as he was already good at perceiving this kind of thing it was really easy for him to understand her intention; he understood that somehow she really did care about him and his sister, and even if it was only a little, he couldn't help a feeling of happiness springing up and he simply wanted to laugh at Clare's slightly anxious face.

Ever since the accident with his mother he had tried to look as mature as possible, but he never wanted to do this, after all, he's just a boy and now that he was treated like a boy without realizing it he was acting a bit more like one. Clare watched Arthur with a much more relaxed expression and smiled too, she wanted to say a few more words to calm some of Arthur's possible worries; but now wasn't the time, given that Sophie was looking at them while rubbing her eyes, probably due to Arthur's rather loud laugh.

- Good morning! - Clare says as she smiles at the little girl who stares up at her from her stomach with sleepy eyes.

Sophie rubbed her eyes and looked at Clare who was staring at her, her green eyes as beautiful as two emeralds when bathed in sunlight, and with those eyes she stared at Clare for a long time while remembering everything she had heard in the hospital, and only after several seconds had passed did, she reply. - Good morning... Mom... - Sophie said this as her ears and cheeks took on a slightly reddish hue, and as Sophie's skin was fair, this hue stood out more than usual.

Clare, who was looking at the little girl, was surprised for a moment at being called mother, but looking at Sophie's reaction and behavior she suddenly felt like squeezing her cheeks, but looking at Arthur and Sophie's sleepy expression she decided to put that aside for the moment; Clare then sat down and pulled Sophie onto her lap, looking into her surprised eyes she said with a smile. - Good morning darling, did you sleep well?" As soon as she had said this simple sentence, she hugged her while stroking her head.

"This is already the second chapter where the last paragraph has disappeared when viewed on cell phones. To avoid this, I've decided to duplicate this message at the end of each chapter, hoping it will resolve the issue. If you're reading this, I apologize if it's intrusive, but it's a better solution than leaving the chapter incomplete."