Ethan Knox - January 2121
Kai and Noah come through the front door not long after.
"What's Happened?" Kai asks as he moves toward me.
I am sitting on the floor in front of the open box, its lid pushed aside like it was dropped mid-thought rather than carefully stored away.
An old paper smell rises from it, full of faint dust and something sharper underneath, like memory left too long in a sealed room.
Glancing up at him, "I found the box hidden in the cupboards, come have a look"
I kneel in front of the container, noting how the edges of the photographs and documents inside are curled slightly with age, making it look deliberate rather than like junk.
When I pass Kai a photograph, Noah immediately steps in beside him, his shoulder brushing his twin's as they both look down.
Noah narrows his eyes slightly as he reads the image "Is that Dr Edmund?"
I nod, explaining that the whole box is full of photos with him, including some of this very house. Kai's eyes flick up briefly and then back down again, scanning the image like he is trying to map the details rather than just see them.
I pick up another photograph and hand it over, showing a group of people standing by a lake in the summer who look relaxed with their drinks in hand and laughter caught mid-frame as if the camera interrupted something real.
As I lift it slightly to show them properly, my thumb brushes the back of the photo and detects the texture of ink. My stomach tightens before my brain even catches up, and I murmur that there is writing on the back before turning it over.
I slowly read the names Edmund and ... "Bella Carter" I say aloud, wondering where I have heard it before, but the words land wrong in the room, not loud, just incredibly heavy.
Both Kai and Noah flinch in a subtle reflex they clearly did not mean to show, and they do not answer me straight away.
Noah takes the photo from my hands with precise, careful fingers that suddenly feel far more intentional than before. He flips it over to read the ink, then pauses as his gaze drifts across the photograph and stops on one of the women.
Something in his expression shifts into a look of recognition forced through old static.
"Is that-" Kai starts.
"Yes," Noah says immediately. His voice is quieter than before. "I believe that was our mother before she married our father."
For a second, the room feels like it tilts, and I do not even realise I have gone still until a distinct cold settles properly in my chest.
I look down into the box again, suddenly moving more carefully with it as if it might answer back if I am too rough. Because her face appears again in different angles, different years, and different versions of the same person smiling like she belongs in a life that isn't broken yet, I start pulling the photos out one by one and passing them over without thinking.
Kai and Noah sit down beside me.
I pull out another photograph that makes me pause because she is sitting on the exact same sofa behind us, in the exact same room we are in right now. My fingers tighten slightly around the edges before I can stop myself as I watch her smile at the camera in a bright, open, and effortless way that doesn't know what comes after.
Something in my chest shifts uncomfortably.
"She looks…" The word slips out before I can filter it. I swallow. "Beautiful."
Silence follows immediately, like I've said something too honest for the room to hold.
"She was such a pretty woman," I add quietly, passing the photo over.
Kai takes it, though I do not miss how his grip tightens slightly around the edge while they both study the photos like they are trying to reconstruct a life they were never given access to.
I keep looking through the box, but my attention starts to drift as her smile lingers in my mind longer than it should. It reminds me of Kai when he laughs, not in shape, exactly, but in the feeling of something unguarded and rare.
That thought cracks a sharp, unexpected ache open in me, causing my fingers to still on the next photograph.
If she had survived and raised them instead of their dad, they could have had something softer, steadier.
I swallow hard as my mind slips, briefly, to a flash of my own mum, filled with moonlight on grass and laughter carried on the wind, creating a memory that feels too warm compared to the room I am in now.
"Hey, whats wrong?"
Kai's voice cuts through the silence gently, and I feel his hand touch my face, wiping my cheek before I even realise there are tears starting to fall.
My breath catches unevenly under the gaze of Kai's dark eyes, which are steady in a way that makes it harder to hold everything together.
For a second I try to speak, but because nothing comes out properly, I lean forward instead and pull him into a tight, instinctive hug. Kai stiffens for half a heartbeat before his arms come around me without hesitation, feeling warm, solid, and real.
As I bury my face into his neck to anchor myself back into something manageable, his hand moves slowly over my back to steady me, while Noah stays quiet beside us, present and observant without interrupting the moment.
"I just think both of our mums could have been such good friends," I say through sniffles, the words coming out unevenly as I try to steady my breathing and pretend my voice isn't shaking as much as it is.
Kai keeps his hand on my back, slow and grounding, but I feel his attention shift as he glances towards Noah before answering.
"Yeah," he says softly after a moment, like he's turning the thought over carefully rather than just reacting to it, "you're right. I may not know anything about our mother, but I bet she would have loved you."
I blink at that, still damp-eyed. "Do you think so?"
"I know so," Kai replies without hesitation, as if there's no version of the world where that isn't true.
"Yes," Noah adds from beside us, not looking up from the box as he continues sorting through the photographs and documents, his voice calm and matter of fact. "You do seem to have an attitude that tends to charm people into compliance."
A soft laugh escapes me before I can stop it, and I wipe my face with my sleeve. "I'm taking that as a compliment?"
"Take it as you wish," Noah says simply, already distracted again as he turns another page of old paperwork, the rustle of it filling the space between us.
Kai shakes his head faintly at Noah's wording, but when I glance up at him there's a small, almost reluctant smile on his face.
"Have I missed something?" Finn calls from the doorway.
We all turn to look at him as he stands there holding plates stacked with sandwiches, looking mildly confused like he's walked into a conversation that started without him in the middle of something important.
Noah looks up immediately. "Ah, Finn. Perfect timing, I was beginning to feel hungry."
Before Finn can properly respond, Noah is already on his feet, crossing the room and taking a plate with precise efficiency before gently guiding him back towards the kitchen area as if redirecting him is the most natural thing in the world.
I watch them go, the faint sound of plates and Finn's resigned confusion disappearing into the next room, and I realise that Noah didn't leave just because he was hungry but because he understood, in his own quiet way, that Kai and I needed space.
Kai's hand is still resting on my back, steady and warm, and for a moment neither of us speaks as the box of photographs sits open between us like a life that hasn't finished revealing itself yet.
Then Kai finally breaks the silence, his voice lower now, careful but direct as he asks, "Do you still think about your mother?"
I take a breath, letting it settle before I answer, my fingers lightly brushing the edge of one of the photographs as I speak. "Sometimes, but not as much as I used to. I always miss her though… and my dad."
Kai leans back slightly, then lifts a hand to my face and gently kisses my forehead before wiping away the last traces of tears with his thumb, the gesture so quiet and familiar it makes my chest ache in a softer way.
"Do you miss your mum?" I ask him.
He pauses for a moment, eyes dropping briefly as if he's searching somewhere he can't quite reach, before he answers in a voice that stays gentle but more distant.
"I never knew her, so I don't know if I can say I miss her… but I do sometimes think about her."
I nod slowly in understanding, still feeling the last traces of emotion sitting heavy behind my eyes.
"Sorry, I didn't mean to cry," I say, my voice quieter now, like I'm trying to tuck the moment away so it doesn't spill out again.
"It's fine," Kai replies immediately, as if there isn't even anything to forgive, his hand moving into my hair as he gently strokes it, steady and unhurried in a way that pulls the tension out of my shoulders without asking permission first.
I breathe out, longer this time, and only then does my body seem to catch up with everything else because my stomach gives a low, very real rumble that breaks the stillness between us.
I blink slightly, a little startled, then let out a faint, embarrassed laugh. "I didn't even realise I was hungry."
Kai's mouth lifts into a small smile, softer than usual, and he pushes himself up from the floor before offering me his hand like it's the most natural thing in the world.
"Let's see what Finn has made us," he says.
I take his hand without thinking twice, letting him pull me up, and as my fingers close around his the room seems to shift, the weight of the photographs, the names, the past still sitting in the box all fading into something distant and manageable as if it's been gently set down instead of carried.
And just like that, with Kai's hand warm in mine, it feels like I've been guided back into the present again.