Winds of Destiny: Rising ~ {Hawks x OC}

Chapter Twelve: Going Home

Misaki stared out the window from the backseat of the cab she was riding in, watching the familiar buildings pass by with a softly nostalgic smile. It had been so long since she'd been home. The mini vacation that had been sprung on her had seemed like a good opportunity for her to get back to her roots for a couple of days. She hadn't been back to her hometown since she and Hawks had broken up; mostly because she'd been too busy, and partly because she hadn't wanted to risk running into him on the job.

When the President had told her to take a few days off, the first thing that had come to her mind was to visit Eri. On the heels of that thought came the realization that Eraser had just gone through a pretty rough experience, and she didn't want to bother him. She still felt a little bit responsible for being the one to figure out that Kurogiri had once been his good friend, Shirakumo Oboro, after all. She'd decided to wait a day or before she reached out to talk to him about a possible visit. After she'd made that decision was when she'd considered taking a trip down to Fukuoka for the weekend. She'd booked a hotel and made travel arrangements to fly down early on Friday and return Sunday morning, hopefully giving her some time to go visit Eri when she got back.

The first thing she'd done after she'd caught a cab at the airport was to go visit her old house. She'd gotten to know the family who'd purchased it from her, and she still kept in touch with them over email sometimes. When she'd informed them that she was coming into town, they'd insisted that she stop by to visit. She'd had lunch with them, and they'd talked for a while about some of the renovations they'd made and how everything was going in the neighborhood. After she'd said goodbye to the family, she'd decided to walk down to the park and see her parents.

They had grown a bit; less in stature and more in maturity. They were really starting to resemble her parents as she remembered them from her childhood, and she'd gotten a little choked up when she'd seen them. She'd been happy to find that they were still together, walking hand in hand through the park on their way home from school. All she'd ever wanted, even before she'd accidentally turned them into babies, was for them to be happy. Seeing them smiling and looking at each other with open affection, the loneliness she thought she'd feel at the sight of them was washed away by a sense of gratitude that her horrible mistake had ended up giving her parents another chance to be happy and in love again.

When she'd gotten back to the hotel that evening, she had called up another old acquaintance whom she'd been thinking about for a while but hadn't attempted to reach out to. When the woman had picked up the call, she'd greeted her like no time had passed at all and they'd agreed to meet up for lunch the next day. The cab she was currently riding in was on its way to drop her off at their dining destination.

As it pulled up to the curb in front of the diner they'd chosen to meet at, the driver stepped out and opened the door for her and she smiled at him in gratitude as she got out. She moved out of the way for him to close the car door and returned his short bow before he slipped back into the driver's seat and drove away. Turning toward the restaurant, she leisurely made her way over to the door and wrapped her hand around the handle, pushing it open and welcoming the rush of warm air that assaulted her as she stepped inside before letting the door fall shut behind her. As she shrugged out of her long, dark green coat, a familiar voice suddenly called out to her from her right.

"Misaki! Hey! Over here!"

She turned her head to look over and smiled at the sight of the recognizable light-brown curls and sparkling green eyes of the teller she had worked with at the bank. As Misaki walked over to the table she was sitting at, the woman stood, waving her hand enthusiastically with a huge smile on her expressive face and Misaki's eyes were immediately drawn to her rounded belly.