Winter left and spring was soon around the corner, the twins not minding the wait outside the house. In a way, they'd even grown used to it and found it the new normal. Especially when school was back and they didn't have to occupy the hours of wait in the diner or store.

As Nanami spent more of his time over school to help out in the cafeteria, Sakiko found her walks home the most looked forward to part of her day.

On her walks home every other day- those were the days she saw Daryl leaving the tobacco store. Those were the days she got to interrogate him until he answered her questions or cracked the idea of a smile on his lips.

"Don't you ever have homework?" he grunts as he moves to sit beside her on the sidewalk- she'd beat him today and was already waiting.

"Sometimes. My teacher gives us time to work on it before we go, so I just do mine then," Sakiko shrugs, "I think I'm gonna fail this next assignment, though."

"You said that last time. You still passed, right?" Daryl remembers.

"This one is different," Sakiko kicks a rock with a frown, "We're supposed to write about our best friend. I don't have any friends."

"You got your brother," Daryl offers.

"Yeah. 'Brother'," she sighs, "It's different."

Daryl hums, flicking his lighter to watch the sparks momentarily, "I's the same. One bad grade won't hurt you. It's when it's all of 'em bad that you fail."

"I'm already failing," Sakiko admits, "Failing history and reading."

"Thought you passed that one?"

"That was science, Daryl," she whines, "And here I was about to write my best friend report about you. You're not a friend, after all."

Daryl scoffs, a few sly words of them not being friends laying on his tongue until he sees the glum look on her face.

"Why don't you find a tutor? Sure you got some of those."

"Now you sound like the guidance counselor," she complains, "That's what she says, too. But, none of the kids in my class want to help me."

Daryl knew that Sakiko had been seeing the counselor for a couple years now, though he agreed it wasn't working. By Sakiko's words, the woman only asked her if her dad had ever hit her or 'touched' her. Both were easy 'no's and the counselor sent the girl on her way.

"The teacher?" Daryl offers a new route.

"Same," Sakiko mutters, picking up the rock she'd been kicking around.

"Why's your school full of assholes, then?"

"Well, how should I know?" Sakiko exasperates.

Daryl exhales, shaking his head and flicking his lighter again.

"Merle hasn't been by the house in awhile," Sakiko notes after a few seconds, "Did he and dad stop working together?"

Daryl sighs, unsure how to explain Merle's current predicament. How do you tell a thirteen year old that the guy that 'works' with her father was in jail for a DUI?

"Don't think so. Think Merle's just taking a vacation," he finally decides.

Sakiko hums in acknowledgement, returning to picking at her rock, "Can I tell you something? It's.. It's something serious."

Daryl glances to her, unsure if he was prepared to take on the baggage the thirteen year old had. She wasn't the average kid no matter how much her dad tried to hide of his work, God only knows what she overheard or saw this time. She'd told him about the time on Christmas Eve after awhile and he understood now why she was different in the diner. What could she possibly have witnessed this time?

Daryl makes a soft noise of what he thought sounded like approval.

"My mom's sister.. She lives up north and has a big job. She wants Nanami and I to move in with her."

"What kinda 'big job'?" Daryl questions.

"She's a lawyer. Her girlfriend works at an animal hospital, so they make good enough money."

Daryl's eyes close, wondering how the hell Shinsuke had made it this far without being caught, "Do you want to go?"

Sakiko is quiet for a few seconds, her rock her main escape before she shakes her head, "No."

"You should," Daryl's words slip before he means for them to.

"What?" she asks, looking to him with betrayal.

"Mean.. Just give you something different. You said it yourself, you ain't got no friends here. Might as well try somewhere else."

Sakiko could only stare at the side of his face until he finally looks to her and sighs.

"Kid-"

Daryl's words are cut off as Sakiko stands up abruptly, throwing her backpack on her shoulder and tossing the rock on the ground.

"Look-" Daryl tries again only for Sakiko to break into a run away from him to her house.

Daryl sighs, running his hand over his face, arms falling to rest on either of his legs as he looks around. How did he manage to screw up being the one place the kid could open up? Why did it feel so bad that he did.

Daryl glances down to the rock the girl had left behind before the direction she'd run off to, only seeing her back disappear in the distance.

Seriously, how did he screw this up?

--

Sakiko ran until she made it in front of her house, resting her arm on the mailbox as she pants to catch her breath.

She takes note of the unfamiliar truck in the driveway, but her sadness of Daryl's words were too heavy on her mind to care as she walks into the house. She hears people talking, a few laughing as she takes her backpack off her arm.

She gasps when a man walks in front of her, bumping into her as he walks to the living room. She glares at his back, really not in the mood for people after she and Daryl's talk. That's when she finally sees her dad on the couch, a lazy smile on his face as his head bobs up and down in a tired attempt to stay up.

"Bro, I'm so.. So, fucked up," another man laughs to the man that had bumped into Sakiko.

"Think you both are," the man chuckles, looking to Shinsuke.

"Fuck off.. It's.. It's my first," Shinsuke slurs.

Sakiko looks around the room taking note of the cigarette butts, beer bottles, and large vase like object that sat on the table between the men.

It was an item she'd only seen on the TV at the store, but it left her breathless and fear stricken as she stumbles back out the door, nearly falling as she runs back to the mailbox with no direction to go.

The secrets, the money that came out of seemingly nowhere, the beaten mess he'd been left in, now this? Sakiko could hardly wrap her head around the reality that had taken her years to catch up on.

Her father was a drug dealer. And by his words of 'first time' and current state- he was now partaking in them.