Chapter 4

After a while, we had both begun to think straight. It was dark and I needed to go back home. Her hand clenching the hem of my shirt was the only thing stopping me. She was afraid of being alone and to be honest, I wasn't looking forward to the quiet house waiting for me. We talked a bit in her room, still without the lights on, but I managed to persuade her to open the curtains, so a dim light from the street shone upon us. I didn't know if she was aware of her hand holding onto my shirt, but for some reason that hand was the source of my comfort.

"Say," she looked up to me as we sat on her bed and I turned my attention from looking around the room back to her eyes.

"What will we do about the funeral?"

I ran my fingers through my hair. I didn't even think about it till now to be honest. I knew I didn't have enough money and I sure wouldn't be able to keep the house bills running now that I thought about it. One idea did occur to me, but I had to talk about it with Cana and Gildarts. I gave her a faint smile and patted her head.

"Don't worry. I'll handle it."

She gave me a small nod and leaned onto me. My heart raced at that point, not really knowing what to do. I was blushing for sure, so I turned my head away pretending the ceiling was the most interesting thing I've ever seen.

"I have to go home to deal with some things," I said keeping my eyes on the ceiling still. "I'll be back soon. Will you be OK for a few hours?"

When I looked back at her, I saw the panic in her eyes as she looked up to me, her head rapidly shaking no.

"I'll come with you!" her voice was desperate, her hand clenching my shirt even stronger than before and I saw tears in the corners of her eyes. I wrapped a hand around her hurriedly, hating those tears so much as I pulled her to my arms. My nose was hit with a lovely strawberry scent of her freshly washed hair as I stroked her back holding her against me.

"It's fine. We'll go together."

After a while we were both in my car. She was dressed in a black tank top and black and red miniskirt with my jacket over her shoulders. Her hair was in a high ponytail with a few naughty locks that didn't fit in and were now slightly curling on both sides of her face. I'll tell you this. I've had hell of a time concentrating on the road with her like that. She had both hands tightly clenched on her bare knees looking out of the window as we passed the houses in our neighborhood. As I parked in our driveway, she looked onto me. I hurriedly stepped outside the car and rushed to open the door for her helping her out of the car. Her gaze was fixated on our house and for some reason it made me blush.

"I know it's not much compared to yours but..."

"It's beautiful," she cut my speech as I saw her eyes taking in our house (still couldn't think of it as just my house). I was still blushing as I led her inside. I locked the door behind us when we got in and in that moment I saw Ur poke her angry head out of the living room and started to lecture me about calling when I'll be late when her eyes found Lucy besides me and her eyes sparkled.

"A girlfriend?" she asked with a curious tone.

With clenched teeth I watched my imaginary Ur vanish and the house was still as empty and cold as I left it. Damn it brain! Lucy took a hold of my hand looking at me worriedly.

"Let's make this quick," was the only thing I said before I rushed to my room leaving Lucy behind me.

I took a few favorite things from my closet, packed my school stuff and the money I was saving for university. I had quite a lot now, so it should help with the funeral. The thought of money made me think totally practical now. When I zipped my travel bag full of things I actually needed, I came back down. I saw Lucy in the living room. She was standing by the wall looking at the photos that were hung there. I dropped the bag near the front door and joined her back in the living room.

"Is that her?" Lucy pointed at one of the pictures where all 4 of us were at a park a long time ago. I was chasing Ultear with an angry look after she dropped a pile of leaves on my head, some were still stuck in my hair as I went after her and Ur was on the ground laughing her ass off while Lyon was holding the camera taking a selfie with all that in the background. I smiled fondly at the photo.

"Yeah, that's Ur."

"You were pretty cute as a little kid," she commented looking at all the other photos of us doing some crazy stuff. There were Ultear's and Lyon's graduation photos, mine and Lyons basketball moments and team photos, some family Christmas photos that went terribly wrong every year and pictures of all the presents we gave to Ur. I let Lucy's comment slide with just a blush. But just this time. I wasn't cute at all!

"Why do you call her Ur and not mom?" she asked as she went through the photos with a slight smile on her face.

"Because I'm adopted. Same with Lyon," I pointed at the blond guy tearing the Christmas presents like a madman. Lucy looked straight at me.

"What about your parents?"

"I never knew them," I shrugged. "Ur was everything I needed so I never asked about them."

My voice broke softly at her name and I felt Lucy's hand on mine again. She bit her lower lip.

"You had a really nice childhood."

I just nodded, but her reaction made me curious.

"What about you?"

She sighed and turned to sit on the couch.

"Me, not so much."

I sat beside her. "Want to tell me about it?"

"Only if you tell me about yours." She replied.

And that's how we spent our night, on the couch telling stories of our childhood.