บท 44: Happiness... Queens Couldn’t Have, No?

* Happy New Month of October!

[SAKURA]

Happiness was a foreign concept for Sakura Watanabe.

It was showing with each moment that she had been beside Kiyomi since her confessions and her decision to take a leap of faith into the bond that she had grown to love already had her walking on eggshells, a lot.

Kiyomi had told Saki to be herself and not have to worry about anything, she had told her to be who she was because that wasn't supposed to change at any point.

Kiki never wanted Sakura to change because of her.

If Sakura wanted to change, then she could just do it, but only because she wanted to, but damn, all those seemed to be hungover Sakura's head, given she was stiffer and more timid than she had ever been in her entire life.

And she had had a relay on childhood and upbringing.

"There you are… I've been looking for you all around," Kiki said excitedly when she saw Sakura outside the apartment.

She was next to the pool, probably contemplating what the fuck she needed to do. It was obvious from her face that she was stressed out a lot and boy was it something that was giving her countless headaches.

"What happened, beautiful. Why do you look so down?" Kiyomi asked earnestly.

"Oh great, finally you're here. Can you please tell this psycho to go back to being the big bad Lycan queen, because this version of her is stressing me out more than her normal self? It's crazier than all the mad things she has done!" Elif said frustratedly.

She looked like she was trying at her wit's end with Sakura and was about to throw the mad queen into the pool before her. Perhaps there was more to this, right?

"What happened?" Kiyomi asked and Sakura lifted her head to look at her.

'She didn't ask what I did?' Sakura asked herself.

She was always used to being blamed for anything and everything. She was always the black sheep, the defective Lycan, the unloved, and the one who was never wanted.

Everything terrible that always happened around her was always blamed on her for some reason and anything good she tried to do always managed to fuck up a lot of people's lives.

The truth was a long and hard one and finally, it was frustrating, but right now, she wasn't sure she had hard Kiyomi well.

What happened to blaming Sakura?

What happened to her being blamed for whatever had fumbled Elif? What happened to Kiki pushing her away and recoiling? Oh, but Saura had been waiting for the time ticking bomb to go off for three days now, and everything was smooth.

A little too smooth for her.

"She's too kind. Too helpful. Too nice. She looks like a normal person. She has been helping a little too much, so I forced her to take a break and she didn't want to because she wanted to be useful.

"I don't know if she's been a slave all her life, but this is too much even for me. Please tell her to snap, or be mad at us, or do something the whacko we have known for the past few months could do.

"This girl, she makes me like her and that is not cool at all," Elif ranted and Kiyomi stared at the two most important women in her life.

She wasn't sure if this was food then or if she was risking everything by keeping them together, but the fact that Sakura was trying a little too hard was room enough to tell Kiyomi that Saki had grown up in hard times.

"Isn't that a good thing" Kiyomi asked and Elif stared at her and then at Sakura.

"Well… I guess it is, but you know she's supposed to be—"

"Give her time, Elif. She's just trying to be normal. It won't be easy for her, but we can make that easy for her. She's not a threat to you or me, I swear it. If she were one, I wouldn't have let her in, you know that too, right?" Kiyomi said and Elif sighed.

This was a new Sakura and she was scarier than the rowdy mad woman she had known; but perhaps this was the one time that they would have to see the broken girl for who she truly was, right?

It shouldn't have been so hard for them to adapt to what life was like for them despite all that they were risking at the moment.

"You defend me?" Sakura voiced softly and Elif stared at the queen intently. This time, she didn't have any prejudice and she didn't want to think like she had been. For the first time she looked at the queen and she saw an equally broken girl.

Their lives had been fucked up one too many times and they had been forced to become things that they never wanted to, but right here and now, perhaps there was hope for a better future for the lot of them, right?

"Of course. I love you, Saki. You're the love of my life. I live for you, I breathe for you, and that's also how I know that you're trying to be normal. It's hard enough for you to not be defensive all the time, which is all-new too," Kiki said and Sakura stared softly.

The woman had been nothing but nice to her, and even Elif had changed for her.

It was creepy in some way because Sakura was always used to war, to being needed elsewhere, to being the one who did everything because she didn't trust anyone, and yet as she sat there by the pool with the two women, she was almost hopeful that her life was better.

She was hopeful because even she knew that she had a past that demanded her death a thousand and one times without fail. It was the one thing that scared the living daylights out of most people and she had enemies who would come after these two because of her.

"You people are going to make me sick," Elif said as she grabbed the water hose and began spraying the Lycan queen and her erasthai like this was the only thing she could think of. Then again, she couldn't be blamed.

She had been there the entire time.

She had watched them go from wanting to murder each other to worrying for each other to whatever this was. Of course, it was obvious they wanted the happiness that was given to many and it was comforting to an extent to know that even then they were reaching out.

"Don't make me do something that we both will regret," Sakura said as she looked at Elif. Even though her eyes were gentle, there was a warning benign for them, a warning that wasn't even for Sakura herself but the warning that was for Kiyomi.

Sakura could take on anything as long as her erasthai wasn't hurt. She wouldn't stand by and watch Kiyomi be hurt by anyone, not even her best friend. If Elif tried that, she would be gone faster than she could blink.

"Dammit," Kiyomi cursed, as her stomach growled, making the two women who were staring at each other turn to her. They both knew that Kiyomi had distracted them from the tension, but they were both thankful for it.

"Let's put some food in you, petal," Sakura said with a smile and Elif relaxed.