If love isn't fed on a silver spoon, people will learn to lick it off knives.
That was the truth neither Maki nor Mai had words for yet.
They had grown up on scraps—measured affection, conditional praise, and warmth rationed like a luxury item meant for someone else. A nod when they obeyed. Silence when they endured. Pain when they failed expectations that were never fair to begin with. Even their parents had been distant silhouettes rather than sheltering figures. Survival came before comfort. Pride before tenderness.
And now, suddenly, there was Naoya.
Not loud about his actions instead. Defending them without hesitation, Speaking to them without contempt. Touching their heads like it was the most natural thing in the world.
Too much it is far too much.
That night, Maki lay rigid on her futon, staring at the dark ceiling as if it had personally betrayed her. She turned to one side, then the other, Then buried her face into the pillow, only for the heat on her cheeks to intensify.
Her heart refused to slow down.
Every time she closed her eyes, she felt it again—the weight of his hand, light but real, the warmth seeping through her hair straight into places she had learned to keep guarded. It made her chest feel tight, uncomfortable, almost painful.
Stupid, she thought. It was just a pat.
So why did it feel like something had been taken apart inside her?
She twisted around again, the futon rustling softly beneath her restless movements.
"…You can't sleep either, huh."
Maki stiffened.
Mai was lying on her side, facing her, eyes open and reflective in the dim light. Her voice was quiet, stripped of its usual teasing edge.
Maki clicked her tongue. "Tch. As if."
But no matter how she shifted, she couldn't escape it. The warmth on her head. The ease in his smile. The way his words hadn't been sharp or mocking—just… honest and pure
Your cute smile is enough payment.
Her chest tightened.
Mai didn't argue. She rolled onto her back, staring upward. "He's weird."
Maki huffed. "That's what I'm saying."
She pause.
"…But," Mai continued, hesitating just a fraction, "it didn't feel bad."
Maki clenched her jaw, that was the problem.
It hadn't felt bad. It hadn't felt like pity or obligation or mockery. It felt genuine. Unconditional. Like something given without expecting repayment—something neither of them had ever learned how to accept.
Affection in the Zenin household was conditional. Praise was a transaction. Kindness always came with a hook buried somewhere underneath. They had learned that early—learned to ration warmth, to expect nothing, to survive on scraps.
And then Naoya came along and gave freely.
Like water poured onto parched earth, soaking in too fast, too deep—until the ground didn't know what to do with it anymore. They also don't know what to do.
Mai turned her head slightly. "If he's lying," she whispered, "then he's crueler than everyone else here."
Maki didn't answer right away. Her fingers curled into the fabric of the futon.
"…He didn't look like he was lying," she muttered, then she continue.
"It's annoying," Maki said quietly. "He makes me feel stupid."
Mai let out a small, humorless laugh. "Yeah. Like you're starving and suddenly someone hands you a feast. You don't even know how to eat it."
Silence settled again, heavier than before.
Maki squeezed her eyes shut. Her heartbeat still hadn't slowed, each thump echoing loud in her ears. She hated how easily it had been shaken. Hated how one simple gesture had cracked walls she'd spent years building.
"…He's going to leave," Maki said suddenly. "Or he'll get tired."
Mai didn't respond right away.
"Maybe," she finally said. "But until then… is it really so bad to accept it? Nobody cares what happens to us after all."
Maki swallowed.
In a world where love wasn't handed out gently, where it had to be stolen, earned, or bled for—maybe learning to take it, even clumsily, was its own kind of strength.
"Mai, he is a good person, right?"
"I don't know Maki, but he is the best one I've seen so far."
Neither of them slept that night.
They were lonely but today it felt different from rest of the day, it felt that there is indeed someone who will miss them.
~~~
I like the idea of people who reading my novel leaving their make on my book so Give me lot of comments and Power stones. Give me inspection. Give me reviews.
POWER STONE, GIVE IT ME.
100 POWER STONE FOR BONUS CHAPTER
Posted some extra 30 chapter in patron, if you are interested check it out, link is the synopsis.