Luck be a Lady

33: Progress

( Going back to Third Person POV! )

"Nee-Chan~~~~" 

Just as she had finished her shower and heading back down the stairs, Sophie could hear her little sister–Izuki–calling out to her. 

'Did Izuki just get home?' she thought as she headed down the stairs to see both Izuki and her middle little brother–Katsuma–taking off their shoes and putting on their house shoes. 

"Welcome home guys–" 

"Nee-chan," 

"Hm?" 

"We just saw dad with that woman again." Katsuma started, but Sophie wasn't all that shocked. 

"Oh yeah, dad and Camie went to the market earlier." 

"Eh? You know already?" 

"Yeah, but we can't be rude since that mean's Camie is having dinner with us tonight." 

"Seriously? Ugh– Do we really have to have dinner with her?" Izuki whined. 

"Don't act that way when she's here, so we'll all have to act as fake as we can towards her and then it'll all be over after dinner." Sophie told them, forcing them to nod in annoyance as they didn't like accepting this kind of news.

"We're back~!!!" Camie squealed the second the front door opened and she and Katsuki were seen carrying groceries. 

As much as she didn't want to show any respect, Sophie had to remind herself she's the eldest and asked Camie; "Would you like me to take those off your hands?" 

"Aw~ Of course you can, little Soso~" Camie chirped as she didn't seem phased to practically drop all the bags into the blonde's arms and then wander off. 

Sophie had to react in a hurry from the unexpecting drop of bags into her arms, but she bit her tongue as hard as she could not to make an angry face. 

'Calm down, Sophie, now is not the time to say anything bad about her, I can only think about it. Arg– But no one calls me 'little Soso', that just doesn't sound right.' Sophie thought as she carried the groceries to the kitchen and ended up alone with her dad... again.

But before she was about to start unbagging everything, Sophie noticed how her father was just standing there and looking around the kitchen. 

'Hm? What's up with dad?' 

"Did something happen, dad?" she asked, making him flinch and turn his head to look at her. 

"Ah– Nothing, it's just... you really cleaned this place." 

"Mn. I promised I would get it done." 

"But... this smell..." he noted, and that's when Sophie knew he was probably going to ask. 

"What's this smell coming from?" 

"Hm? The smell? Oh yeah, after I finished cleaning, I found some brand new candles under the sink and knew they'd be able to mask the smell of all the bleach I used to clean this place." 

"Huh? Candles?" 

"Mn. Like that one." Sophie added as she pointed to one that she placed just by the sink and he saw a candle holder with purple wax inside with a small flame flickering.

The second he recognized the color of the candle, Katsuki batted his eyes and felt his chest start to hurt. 

"T-That..." 

"Hm? Something wrong with the candle, dad?" Sophie asked, as she could see how wide his eyes were. 

Even though it was just a simple candle to his daughter, Katsuki could only remember all the times he used to go to a certain greenette's place back when he was in his 20s and how her place smelled of fragrant Lavender or other sweet flowers. After his wife passed away, he never lit candles around the house because it only reminded him of her, but to catch a subtle whiff of that very familiar smell only made his heart hurt more just because of how much he really misses her.