⚘ supermarket

@⚘ : enzhe l 。 the sight of his tears crushed erina, her heart feeling itself break into the pieces that she'd forced herself to glue back together two years ago. the sound of his voice? it caused her to tense up, the familiar feeling of that most painful heartbreak forced it's way further into her heart, the walls she'd built up crumbling into nothing but ashes. a stray tear rolled down her cheek followed by another and another, and before she knew it, she was a tearful mess with her son in her arms. she opened , wanting to say something, anything but she paused, a thought reminding her of her reality.

two years ago, she reminded herself.

he was the one who'd betrayed her, she hadn't abandoned him. she needed to stop feeling sorry, she couldn't. she left with the knowledge that he'd replaced her within just a few days of her disappearance. he hadn't even come looking for her, he'd abandoned her with their son and she had to go through the entire process herself. everyone else had their beloved by their side when they brought the child to the world but not her, she'd gone through the pain all by herself. she'd raised her child with fear in her mind for the future, their future the entire time. she'd resorted to killing people for money, breaking the laws that she, herself had vowed to uphold as a lieutenant but all that she loved were gone. gone, because he couldn't stay loyal for another damned second and gone, just like the darkness that filled the void of the sorry excuse she calls memories.

"mama" she'd only snapped out of her thoughts when enzo started whining and kicking his legs in a squirm, obviously bored by the fact that the two adults were merely staring at each other and obviously oblivious to the fact that there was an evident tension between the two.

"I should be apologising.. my son clung onto you out of nowhere." she muttered, silently observing and trying to see if he'd recognise the boy as his own blood but he seemed far too distraught to make sense of anything at that moment and for that, she thanked galene silently. she didn't and wouldn't ever let the two be reunited. call her selfish, call her an but she was enzo's mother, she had every right to stop the two from reuniting if that's what she wanted. "baby, apologise to him for bumping into him like that." she'd told the child but he didn't utter a single word, far too preoccupied with the fact that the man shared a striking resemblance to him, kicking his legs harder so that she could let him down and when she did, he'd ran over to enzhe once more before hugging his knee, his benthic blue orbs looking up at the older male, a grin quickly forming on his lips.

"dada!" he'd called before burying his face into the man's leg and god was erina horrified. how could she have forgotten that she had a genius of a child who was perfectly capable of making his own conclusions at the mere age of two. "I missed you" he's continue chirping, conveniently oblivious to his now mess of a mother who'd almost immediately wrapped her arms around him, yanking him away from enzhe's legs and proceeding to utter a quick apology before turning on her heels, walking as fast as her feet could take her but by then, the small child in her arms had begun to throw a tantrum, crying because she was 'taking him from his dada that he'd just found' and creating a scene around them as other customers of the supermarket started staring.

[post deleted by owner]

@♆ : erina b 。 "i'll go get from the store. you get us something to eat before we go back to handing out flyers."

the command was quick and one he hoped his sister would actually carry out this time. more often than not, her attention span was wishy washy due to their dog gyoza running off and having to chase the pup around, so he doesn't really blame her, but today was especially hot. handing out flyers in the heat, with no prior sleep, and on an empty stomach was definitely not something he wanted to deal with. and with that in mind, he parted from his sister to head into the air conditioned market and grab a few things like water and maybe a few secret snacks for the house. they wouldn't be out too much longer, so they wouldn't need much.

the first place he goes is his favorite, the candy aisle. chocolate bars, hard candies, sour gummies, fruit flavored snacks... so many things he wanted to grab and munch on right then and there, and if not for a mother reminding her child that he can only have one thing, he probably would have been trying to sneak five different types of candies into his basket as well. his attention momentarily wanders to the mother and child, unknowingly because her voice sounded a little familiar, but also because when he actually sets his gaze on her that familiar feeling starts to bring a tiny twinge of pain in his chest. he thinks it weird, lets a hint of worry settle in, and furrows his brows a moment to wonder about it, but it ultimately slips his mind because another kid is reaching into his basket to take his candy. "hands off, ya little !"

...the rest of his time spent in the store actually shopping is otherwise business as usual. from time to time he breezes by the same woman and her son, but he doesn't actually see them again until this child emerges from the cereal aisle and runs around, looking for something or someone to hide behind he presumes. enzhe happened to be the lucky one this child latched onto, and as an initial response he laughed, hands rising with the basket in his left one while the child tucks his face away.

"it's not nice to run from your mom, kiddo."

he only knows that's the case because he saw that tiny little body of the boy's frantically fidgeting from foot to foot for a quick hiding place. something he used to do himself when he was younger, and something a lot of children end up resorting to. enzhe shifts the basket form his left to his right hand to lean down and ruffle the child's hair some, gentle grin on his face and opening to allow him to speak until the boy actually looks up at him and a mix of panic and confusion washes over him.

'why does he look like me?'

once again his eyebrows furrow but this time they stay that way. this time he blinks a few times too many to make sure he wasn't too tired and hallucinating, the child before him laughing and obliviously assuming enzhe was trying to make funny faces, but not really noticing that enzhe's eyes were starting to gloss over and cloud up. the small boy's giggles earn an uncertain laugh from the man, one laced with anxiousness and fear and one he uses to try and snap himself out of it because there is no way this is real. this has to be because he's tired and a little delirious. it's the heat too. it has to be... but a wave of tingles makes goosebumps cover his skin from head to toe, an uneasy feeling in his gut makes his mind know better, and a moment of silent observation begins.

the boy seems to turn his attention away to spot his mother, and by the time erina had come around to gather her baby in her arms, his eyes had only seen a blurred image of her feet. his ears only hear muffles of her son's words, the rest of him too absorbed in shock to really process anything else at that moment. something in his gut travels to his chest and tugs at his heartstrings sharply, and once more does he blame the heat for the sudden pain and confusion. but his eyes... even though they're scared to do so, when they lift to meet hers, when his ears catch the words she utters as clear as day, he presses his lips together as tight as he can to stop them from shaking nervously. two hot tears rush down his face with a sniffle, and he tries to clear back the heavy emotion clogging his throat to no avail, fingers of each of his hands clenching into fists and those trembling lips attempting to give her the best smile he's able to muster given the situation.

"no, i..." he says, voice thick with a suppressed sob and sniffles trying clear away physical, emotional, and mental congestion. "i'm... i'm sorry... for bumping into you like this."

@⚘ : enzhe l 。 "mama, I want dis."

enzo pointed at one of the boxes of cereal that was situated a little higher up on the shelf, the design on the packaging clearly made to attract young children such as himself and the content? pure sweet sugary badness that was honestly not the greatest thing in the world, especially for a hyper kid and he was indeed one of the most energetic ones out there even since he was still growing in the womb which resulted in many many sleepless nights for erina. it wasn't that easy to fall asleep when there was a growing baby inside of you kicking away at your insides like your internal organs were footballs and he was a footballer in training. enzo tugged on his mother's hand once more when she remained silent before turning to look at her, initiating operation puppy eyes which usually worked on her but perhaps, not this time.

"baby, no, you know we came here just to look around. we have plenty of food back at home."

at his mother's reply, his lips had almost instantly formed a pout as his eyes grew watery, tugging on her hand harder with a soft whine. his reaction was a warning that he'd start to cry if he didn't get what he wanted and when erina sighed, he'd thought she was giving in but he was wrong. this time, erina was determined not to let him win.

"enzo." she bent down to his height, a stern look on her face as she shook her head. "we're not going to get you that cereal. it's bad for you." she reached forward to brush his strands of hair away from his face, pausing as she looked at him. as he grew older, his resemblance to /him/ grew and it still hurt her every single time she looked at him. why couldn't he look like her instead? why did he have to look so much like his father? it didn't change the fact that she loved her son very much but it still stung everytime.

at her silence, her son let out a huff and pushed her hands away from him before storming off in a dash, almost as though he was determined not to let her catch him. galene knows where he got his speed especially with those tiny feet for him but it was barely a blink before he was barely a dot in her vision. this got adrenaline rushing through her, thoughts running across her mind as she ran after him. what if he bumped into his father here? or his father's family? or worse, that homewrecker?

"enzo! enzo, come back here!" she called out, pushing herself to run as fast as she could on land. that was when she saw it. her son had ran straight into a man, almost hugging the man's knee as if telling him to take him away from his 'cruel mother who wouldn't buy him cereal'. she was about to lunge for him when she'd noticed the facial features of the man. almost immediately, she stopped breathing.

two years and seven months.

it'd been that long since she last saw him and the last time she'd seen him, it didn't end well. she'd caught him with another woman barely days after she'd left for battle and gotten knocked out in an explosion. she'd gone looking for him, wanting to tell him that she was back and that.. she was expecting their son. the sight of him triggered the bad memories she'd made, and the sight of enzo still hugging his knee whilst looking up at the man, blinking and probably wondering why he looked like him made her want to just grab him and jump into a hole never to be seen again but she couldn't.

as calmly as she could, erina walked over to enzo before prying him off the man's leg, instantly hauling him up into her arms to carry him as she tried to blink away the tears that were already beginning to form at the corners of her eyes. "mama! he loos liie me! (he looks like me)" he'd claimed, not tearing his eyes away from the man but erina hushed him.

"sorry about that sir.." she'd quickly apologised, keeping her gaze on the ground as though their shoes were suddenly much more interesting.