The days Mother visits are the best days. Sometimes Father comes with her, but lately he’s only been visited by Mother. She always seems so rushed, so worried. But she does her best to smile at him, to hide whatever’s troubling her behind a mask of comfort and love. Some days it works. Other days he can barely look at that smile without being reminded just how painful parting really is.

It’s not as though they’re like the other families in the village. Shigure doesn’t get to see his mother every day. He doesn’t get to train with his father. The only way he can feel close to either of them is by taking in some of their traits and making them his own.

So he rides a pegasus. So he sings.

And sometimes he can convince himself that they love him just as much as the other mothers and fathers in the village love their children.

(But sometimes he can’t, and those are the times when he feels the worst.)