Aaron had seen his own share of sadness within his short lifespan.

At the age of three, his mother passed away from giving birth to his little sister, Camila.

Even during the hardship that was losing the mother of your two children, Aaron’s father steadfastly ensured to provide a good environment for his offspring to develop in.

They lived in a two-story house which had four total bedrooms, to which each respective resident had their own room, the last bedroom being used as his father’s office.

Camelia, who was now eight, always clung to her older brother, perhaps due to the lack of motherly affection that Aaron somewhat provided in the form of the abundance of attention he allocated to her.

Hearing the door open, the little brown-haired girl burst out of her room and popped her head from the banister of the second floor to greet her brother who had come home from school.

Camelia’s school was closer than Aaron’s was to their house, ensuring that she’d always come home before her older counterpart.

To her surprise, it wasn’t only her older brother that she saw at the entrance to their abode like usual, but a girl that was just a bit taller than herself resided beside him.

Heavy clothes clung to the orange haired girl’s body, covering all the skin that would usually be visible around the neck, arms, and legs. Only her face was not covered by layers of cloth.

Furthermore, the girl didn’t look to be in the best physical condition, strained breathing and furrowed eyebrows alerting Camelia to the fact that perhaps this new acquaintance of her brother’s was not physically fit, unwell or had sustained an injury of some sorts.

Aaron looked towards Chloe, telling her to leave her shoes by the door and then proceeding to shout something upstairs.

“Dad! Chloe’s come round for dinner!” he shouted, hoping that his voice would reach his father’s ears behind his closed door.

A few seconds passed before a figure appeared behind a door, one that looked like an older clone of Aaron, long black hair hiding a pair of green eyes which looked towards the small girl with worry.

“Chloe! Look at how you’ve grown all up! Mikhael would be so proud!” he exclaimed, a toothy grin exploding onto his face.

Just then, a series of cackles erupted from behind the small girl, reminding her that she had forgotten about the figure’s existence for the better part of the last thirty minutes before it appeared once again.

“Proud of a criminal~! A murderer!" it groaned out, the cackles growing louder until it had become a full-on scream of laughter, it’s voice cracking everyone in a while.

Whilst the two were conversing, Aaron had been looking towards Chloe’s small figure and the abundance of clothes she had been wearing.

“You know, you can take those off now that we are inside.” He proposed, pointing towards a few wall hooks that she could place her clothes.

Chloe looked towards the hooks, and then back towards Aaron before tightly clutching the clothes she was wearing, clearly showing that she heavily disliked the idea.

The older man slowly descended from the second floor and ruffled Chloe’s long orange hair, a small smile present upon his worn features.

“Aaron, make sure to get along well with Chloe! I hope you find his company enjoyable.” Aaron’s father stated before retreating into his office to continue his work.

“Camelia, come down and greet out guest.” Sighed out Aaron as he glanced towards the crouched girl that was attempting to hide atop of the staircase.

The small brunette shuffled a bit before squeaking out a small, “hello”, small hazel eyes piercing towards Chloe, orbs widening when she’d realised that her staring had lasted longer than she’d originally planned.

“Sorry about her, she’s a bit shy when it comes to new people.” Lamented Aaron, who put his hand on his head and let out a sigh.

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Scaling the staircase, Chloe following behind, Aaron led her into his own room, a neon green door smoothly rotating open to reveal his living quarters.

The room clearly had a green colour scheme to it, one particular object located in the corner of the room drawing Chloe’s attention.

An isolated black piano, which looked like it had been well taken care of, defied the usual green colours which were splayed across his room.

Seeing Chloe’s eyes looking towards the majestic musical instrument, he let out a small sigh as if he were remembering a sad memory before he spoke, a melancholic tone laced within his words.

“It was my mother’s last wish for me to play the piano. Although I don’t play that much nowadays anyway, just enough for me to maintain my skills.” He explained, quickly shifting his attention to the pair of bean bags that were placed in the middle of the room.

Throwing his bag onto his bed, he slumped onto one of the green beanies on the floor and grabbed two controllers, turning on the console in the process.

“Sit down, let’s play some games!” he exclaimed, an infectious smirk spanning his visage.

Copying his movements, Chloe lowered her bag to the floor and sat down on the comfortable seat.

A medium sized tv turned on, a flurry of colours exploding onto the screen, “Smash Bros” appearing in the middle of the screen as a glorious soundtrack started to filter into the air.

Looking down towards the controller she now had within her hands, she peered at the different buttons and sticks with a confused face.

“I’ve never played. How do I use this thing?” she queried, waving around the controller that she had in her left hand in the air, before wincing and grabbing her left shoulder.

Leaning forward, Aaron opened one of the compartments of the wooden furniture that the TV was sitting on top of, rummaging around in the messy container before pulling out a movement manual and passing it over to Chloe.

“Choose a character that you like the look of and then read about their moves and the buttons that correspond to that action. For reference, I play the dude with the two short swords.” He explained, handing over a thick booklet which contained all the types of characters, moves, counters and more.

Looking through the character list, none of them interested the small girl who instead decided to pick out a random character, proceeding towards the actions page before absorbing the information that was laid out there.

By the time Aaron has set up the configuration of the game and loaded into a match, Chloe confidently picked up the controller, believing to have a decent understanding of the game.

However, it only took Aaron less than two minutes to absolutely crush Chloe, without her even being able to take a single life off him.

The whole time Chloe, who thought she’d learnt how to do the combos that were listed upon the booklet, was looking down towards her controller, slowly tapping the buttons resulting in the inability to execute anything resembling a combo.

Chloe grimly looked down towards the controller and inwardly thought that this turned out to be harder than she initially had thought. Her small fingers found it hard to navigate the controller, each button press much slower than what Aaron could do.

Nevertheless, Chloe took the initiative to load the next match and continue onwards.

Aaron was happy to find someone who seemed to like played his favourite game as much as himself, Chloe not complaining even after being wiped out several times in a row.

Slowly, she was getting the hand of using the controller, but it became even more clear that Aaron had invested a substantial amount of time into perfecting his movement and abilities.

Before long, a loud voice sounded out from the first floor, announcing that their food was ready. Chloe looked out of the window, surprised to see that it had already became dark out.

Descending the stairs, she was surprised to see that the two other residents had already taken their seats at the table, waiting for the other two to arrive before starting their meal.

Unlike the half-cooked food that the older woman would sometimes cook, the meal that before her tasted unimaginably good, especially to the fragile girl who was constantly suffering from malnutrition.

The cheerful environment of the three family members talking about how there day was a far cry from the life Chloe had lived up to now.

Why was her life so much different from theirs?

“You already know the answer to that.” the figure solemnly spoke.

The cold air nipped at Chloe’s face as she solemnly walked home, partly in shock after what she had just experienced.

She didn’t want to have to go back to that apartment.

Aaron’s father had offered to drive her back, but Chloe declined, saying that her house wasn’t too far by foot.

How long would her life be like this? Would it ever become something like what Aaron had? That warmth?

Probably not.

“Not for a murderer like you~!”the figure smiled, giggling behind the girl.

Opening the door to the apartment, Chloe saw the older woman sitting on a chair next to a table, her hands knitted, a slightly worried expression evident upon her visage.

Seeing the small child enter the apartment, she crudely shouted at Chloe.

“Where have you been?”

Chloe looked down towards the floor of the apartment before quietly mumbling, “Mr Smith’s house. His son invited me over.“.

This small bit of information seemed to greatly enrage the older woman; a frown quickly being displayed upon her countenance.

“Oh? So, while I was working in order to deal with the position you put me in, you’re off playing with a boy, enjoying yourself?” she questioned, standing up from her seat and walking over to the girl.

A crisp sound erupted as the older woman slapped Chloe across the face, and then once again with the back of her hand this time.

“You disgusting, ungrateful fucking bitch!” she screeched, staring into Chloe’s eyes for a few seconds before entering her room.

Only one thought passed through Chloe’s thoughts, ‘At least it was only a few slaps.’.