Of Crows and Songbirds (Part 3)

Tadaaki gave a gentle smile at the mention of his family. “Wonderful.” Then he caught himself and sobered. It was safest not to let him see how attached he was to them. For their safety.

“Um… my wife is… very bubbly. Talkative. She’s never met a stranger.” Granted they didn’t have a ton of new people in their town frequently. But still. “Very caring and gentle and compassionate.”

Gaius nodded thoughtfully. "Those are good traits to have."

“Yes sir.” Tadaaki nodded in agreement. “I was a very lucky man for her to even give me the time of day.”

"How did you meet?"

“We grew up together.” He shrugged. “It was a small town.”

"Ah." He nodded. "That'll do it."

Tadaaki nodded in agreement. “Yessir… it… allows for organic attachments to be sure… though she and I knew younger than most.”

"You had your child quite young, then?"

“Um… I mean… yeah.” He blushed a little. “We started courting when we were thirteen… had Tasia at seventeen.” Got lucky before that. But that was a detail that didn’t need to be shared.

"My brother had his first child around the same age," Gaius mused. "Hopefully the village supported you?"

“…Hopefully,” Tadaaki agreed with a hesitant nod.

His brow furrowed. "You don't know?"

Tadaaki blushed. “…She was only a week old when I was taken.”

"Oh." He frowned. "This must be very difficult for you, then."

“Yessir.” Tadaaki dipped his head. “…Though I’m sure it was much harder for both of them.” He just missed them. Sure, so much it hurt — sometimes physically it was so intense. But. He hadn’t been left with a newborn to handle on his own.