CHAPTER 349: WRONG ASSUMPTION

"Has anyone seen Lala?" Coco asked, raising her gaze from the skill scroll in front of her.

Quizen, who was sitting on the desk that Coco moved beside her bed, looked up from the stack of papers he was buried into and blinked, his mind recalling the instances of where he bumped into the garden fairy.

"No, unfortunately not." The musician mumbled, eyebrows furrowing.

Heiren, who was sitting on the bed with the purring white fluffy feline on top of him, shifted his gaze away from the recipe book he was reading and turned to Coco.

"I saw her by the cookie jar this morning." The mediator said, shifting in his spot beside her which made Konoha let out a soft mewl that sounded like a hiss. "I was cooking breakfast and she just flew inside the kitchen to ask for some cookies."

"How did you know that she was asking for cookies?" Alhai inquired, raising an eyebrow.

He was sitting beside the door, right on the black cushion that complimented Coco’s room’s aesthetic— beside him was Zaque, sharing the long couch with him.

"She made her regular adorable noise and pointed at the cookie jar." Heiren answered Alhai’s question with a shrug, his eyes flickering towards the silver haired mediator accompanied with a twitching smile, "Prove me wrong if that doesn’t mean that she doesn’t want cookies."

Alhai merely rolled his eyes at the last sentence before he forced his attention back to the book on his lap.

Zaque chuckled. "Is that why the cookie jar was open?"

Zaque looked up from his own book, eyebrows raising to his hairline as he unburied his nose from the slightly brown pages.

"Yeah." Heiren confirmed and dragged his gaze back down to his book, "I figured that she was too shy to ask for the second time so I just left it open, and well.. She came back for more so it kind of worked out."

Zaque hummed, nodding his head. "That makes sense.. I thought Quizen just forgot to put the lid back on."

"I won’t do that to those delicious cookies." Quizen chimed in, a look of disbelief and disdain crossing his features as he shot Zaque a pointed stare, "I can’t believe you would think so low of me. I would never do that to the pastries and treats you bake."

"I was just saying." Zaque flashed the fourth husband a playful smile, a teasing glint in his pair of red eyes.

The corner of Coco’s lips curled up into a soft smile, the soft banter between the husbands made a warm feeling bloom in her chest.

A week ago, she felt an overwhelming sense of dread creep in her spine, which soon circled and gathered heavily in her chest, making her tears well up and allowing the buried memories to resurface from the back of her mind.

She knew that Zaque and Quizen didn’t mean it, but the way Zaque wrapped his arms around Coco reminded her of her sisters.

Her big sister and little sister are more physically affectionate than her, but she never refused nor rejected those affections because those physical touches made her feel loved and wanted.

The only physical touch that she had received so far was Lala’s hugs so Zaque’s embrace made her feel something heavy that she couldn’t put to words.

All she knows is that she craves and yearns for her family’s warm embraces, but she knows that she can’t have them.

Hugging Konoha that night helped.. Coco thought to herself, her emerald irises shifting away from the mediators to the book in her lap.

I fell asleep right after crying while hugging her.

. Coco’s face softened with the corner of her lips twitching into a soft smile.

I dreamed about mama and my sisters that night, too. Coco’s grip on the book tightened, but it wasn’t too tight, just enough for the edge of the page to crinkle slightly.

But even if I dreamt about them, it took me a while before I felt completely fine, and it took me taking down two monsters before I felt the heaviness leave my chest. Coco wondered why, but no answer popped up in her mind.

Then, Mama Coison’s face flashed in Coco’s mind which was soon followed by her big sister’s face that she would show whenever Coco and the youngest Coison did something mischievous.

The nagging, the laughs, the smiles, the warmth— everything flashed right before Coco’s eyes, and just like that, she could feel her breath getting caught in her throat.

I don’t want to think about them anymore. Coco thought to herself, her heart squeezing painfully inside her chest once again.

She invited Zaque and the other mediators inside her bedroom today because she figured that if she surrounded herself with people, she wouldn’t think of her family back on Earth, but she was wrong.

Seeing Zaque and the others bantering, joking with each other, laughing, smiling with one another.. It just reminded her of her little family.

She felt like the walls were closing on her the longer she stayed in the same room as them so she cleared her throat, immediately catching the attention of the four mediators and making them halt their cheerful conversation.

Her lips turned into a straight line when she noticed that she had interrupted them, but what can she do?

She thought wrong and assumed that they would be able to distract her from the heavy feeling that looms over her like a cloud— and she hoped, she wished so hard that they would be able to do so.

However, things never go the way she wants them to.

"I’ll go look for Lala." Coco announced, letting the words flow out of her mouth as she scooted over to the edge of the bed, "I’m sure she’s somewhere nearby."

"Want me to help?" Heiren offered, putting his book down.

"No." Coco refused as politely as she could and walked over to the door, "Enjoy your book, okay? I’ll be quick."