Sometimes people shouldn't be parents. All people, in theory, are capable of being parents. This does not mean everyone should be a parent.

Sometimes a parent can't be the best parent.

Children leave their parents, sometimes children are taken from their parents.

Parents might leave their children.

It's hard to think that bad parents can make a good decision. Or that good parents make bad decisions from time to time. But that's how Ai saw it. Her mother had made the terrible decision of staying with her father even after she first hired the private investigator when Ai was four. Maybe meeting her father as a whole was her mother's single worst decision, though that would mean Ai would have never been born.

Parents make mistakes.

With their partners, with their choices, with their lives, with their children's lives. Some people just aren't meant to have a child.

As for her father, Ai saw him leaving her and her mother as his only good decision. He was a selfish, inconsiderate man. He cared more about having a son than the child he already had. To Ai, that was unforgivable. What kind of sexist asshole was her father?

Ai laid there in bed with Kuroo. It was dark and she took comfort in hearing his breathing, the sound of his heartbeat while she laid her ear upon his chest, and the gentle rise and fall as his lungs expanded and deflated. He smelled nice, cologne and soap. A serious upgrade from how Kuroo would smell after practice, like sweat and rubber.

She traced her fingers over his, as his arm was wrapped protectively over her shoulder and his hand rested on her side. She slid her fingers into the valley of his digits and curled her fingers up. He squeezed back. Half asleep, he murmured. "It's late, go to bed." His voice was low and so close that it rumbled inside his chest. She ran a thumb over the top of his hand.

"I can't sleep." She whispered. Her voice sounded like glass about to break. Ai was a very strong girl, but Kuroo would have been concerned if the whole ordeal from the day before didn't affect her. "I want to hate him," she said quietly, "I really wanted to hate the boy my father chose over me. I thought I did hate him too." Kuroo shifted onto his side so that he could hold her in both of his arms. "How could I hate him?" Ai asked herself bitterly, burying her face in Kuroo's shirt. "What is he guilty of?"

Kuroo soothed Ai by running a hand over her shoulders in a massaging pattern. He didn't speak though, sometimes it's best to let people get everything out. "He's not the one I should resent." She sighed deeply, snuggling closer to Kuroo. She felt safe in his arms. She knew confiding in him was the right decision.

Kuroo spoke, "That's a good reason to not hate him." Kuroo pressed a chaste kiss into her hair. "Though you and him have a lot in common."

"Kuroo." Ai growled.

"Don't take it the wrong way," he ran his fingers through her long hair. "It's just that you and him both look out for your mothers, you both care about the happiness of your mother over the retention of the nuclear family unit."

"Wow, leave it to you to bring in some nerdy social studies terminology while you're trying to cheer someone up." Ai laughed a bit emptily. She didn't hate that side of him. "Though I thought you were more of a Chemistry guy."

"I'll have you know I am proficient in all areas of expertise." He said it with a joking air of superiority.

"You dork." She muttered, tracing his jawline before kissing him. "You're my dork." She felt softer and light. Kuroo always seemed to make her feel better.

Ai woke up to Kuroo singing in her ear. It would have been romantic, really. Except he was purposely singing off key. His morning breath fanned over her face. "Kuroo, shut up, your breath is rank!" She turned her head and buried her face in the pillow.

"You know you love me though," Kuroo teased, pulling her out of bed. "Look alive Sunshine!" He sang. Ai groaned. She should have known Kuroo was the type to wake up at the asscrack of dawn.

"Oh fuck you!" Ai whined. Kuroo grabbed her waist and held her up in a bridal-style carry.

He wiggled his eyebrows. "Only if you're ask nicely!"

She put her hands over his face. "Put me down, you overgrown housecat." He spun around a few times before throwing Ai onto the bed. She screeched as she bounced on the mattress.

"What the hell?" She laughed.

"You're awake now, right?" He asked, leaning over her.

She huffed, "You absolute ass." She poked him in the ribs.

"I'm going to go get dressed okay?" He kissed her on the forehead.

"Make sure you brush your teeth!" She called after him, sticking her tongue out.

He exited her room, "Yeah, you too, stinky girl."

Ai sighed when he left the apartment. She brushed her teeth and combed the knots out of her beadhead. "You and your boyfriend are very lively in the mornings." Her mother said from behind her, causing Ai to jump while she was tending to a particularly gnarly knot.

"Jeeze Mother, you want me to have a heart attack?" Ai moved away from the sink so her mother could brush her teeth.

Ai's mother was still in her robe and her hair was pulled back into a messy bun. She started brushing her teeth. "I'll make breakfast, do you want pancakes?" Her mother asked when she was brushing her teeth, spitting a bit of toothpaste foam on the mirror. Ai wrinkled her nose in disgust.

"Kuroo likes fish," Ai said. "I will make breakfast, how about we eat pancakes for dinner?" Ai suggested, wiping the mirror off with a cleaning cloth.

Ai's mother eyed her slyly. "You sure are smitten there, aren't you?" She spit out the toothpaste and rinsed out her mouth into the sink. Ai put the comb away in the drawer.

"Whatever you say, Mother." Ai wove her hair into a braid as she walked into the kitchen.

Her mother followed her and began setting up the rice cooker while Ai got out some salmon from the fridge. Ai and her mother worked in tandem. Ai's mother took care of the rice and sliced up some veggies while Ai brewed tea and made miso soup with blocks of tofu. Her mother poked fun at how close her daughter had grown to Kuroo in only a few months of being in Tokyo.

Kuroo entered the apartment without knocking. It didn't bother Ai's mother one bit. She greeted the young man without a care in the world. "Welcome back." She smiled at him as she served the rice into bowls and got out the carton of eggs. "Would you like egg on your rice?" She asked.

"Sure." Kuroo poured tea into everyone's cups. Ai doled out the miso soup. Kuroo took in a deep breath. "Ah, salmon, a rich source of B-12 and Omega-3 fatty acids!" He hummed.

Ai handed him the bowls. "Yes, yes, set the table, you fish nerd."

"Yes ma'am." He set the table and soon all of the dishes were out and the three of them were eating breakfast like some sort of weird pseudo family.

Ai ate her veggies first. The cucumber was crunchy and fresh, she could have melted. " Are you sure your family is fine with you coming over for breakfast with us?' Ai's mother asked as she stirred the egg onto her rice.

"Hmm?" Kuroo finished chewing and swallowing before replying. "My father is still asleep. So it's fine."

"Does he know where you've been all night?' Ai glared at her mother, but her mouth was full.

Kuroo shrugged as if having this conversation with Ai's mother brought him no discomfort whatsoever. "He never really asks, he trusts me."

"Maybe he shouldn't," Ai muttered, drinking her tea.

"What does that mean?" Kuroo pointed his chopsticks at her.

"Nothing, nothing," Ai waved her hand dismissively and continued eating.

"Kuroo-san, you should come over for dinner, we are making pancakes. Oh, you should bring Kozume-san too!" Ai's mother invited, she looked undisturbed and cheery. Ai felt unsettled considering everything that had happened yesterday.

Her mother was smiling and energetically carrying on a conversation with Kuroo, but all Ai could think about was how her mother was so calm and understanding when Akihito had shown up the day before. Another woman's child, fathered by her own husband.

Akihito had the audacity to track down Ai and her mother and ask for help. It made Ai upset at first, against what she knew was right. Why should they help him? His family ruined hers, it served him right that Akihito and his homewrecker mother went through the same thing. Still, she knew her mother was more compassionate and understanding. Her level of commiseration surpassed that of Ai.

Ai looked at her mother. Her messy black bun had streaks of silver in it, as if it was adorned here and there with tinsel that was unnoticeable until it caught the light. Her face wasn't worn out, though she was starting to accumulate wrinkles along her mouth due to her never-ending smiles. Her eyes were sharp and full of life. A beautiful woman like Ai's mother deserved to be happy.

Ai snapped out of it when her mother collected her breakfast dishes. She placed a kiss on her daughter's forehead. "I'll see you two at dinner."

Ai nodded her head. "I'll do the dishes." Kuroo offered. Ai's mother smiled at him gratefully before walking off to her bedroom. Ai collected the rest of the dishes on the table and set them in the sink. The bowl Kuroo had been using was from the deep recesses of the cabinets. Ai didn't recognize the bowl until it was in her palms. It was probably from a box that hadn't been unpacked for years, she didn't realize they still had it. It belonged to her father. She turned it over in her hands as she dried it.

"We should get you your own bowl." She suggested, "You eat over here often enough to warrant it."

Kuroo was diligently washing the dishes and setting them in the drying rack. "There's really no need, I can just use this one." Kuroo said without giving it a second thought.

"I can't stand looking at it." She frowned at the white bowl with blue glazed designs. She picked at a chipped edge. "Besides, it's broken."

Kuroo wiped his hands on the dishrag and looked at her curiously. "This bowl never did anything wrong, you know." Kuroo placed a flat palm on the top of her head and looked her in the eyes with his honey irises. He had a strange way of understanding what she was thinking when it came to issues with her father. "You can't take out how you feel about your father on people and objects you associate with him, it's not fair." He said solemnly. "It's not healthy." He pried the bowl out of her fingers and set it up on the drying rack.

He held both of her hands and gave her a little smile. "Now go get dressed, we're going to go to Kenma's."