Story:

They shared the tatami table around a large pot of beef sukiyaki, bubbling sweet-savory in the center, with steamed fish and fresh mountain vegetables laid out around it.

And Ai and Mai finally showed their smiles—real ones, the same naive, shining smiles they'd worn as children eating their aunt's cooking, cheeks stuffed, eyes closing in happiness.

Both Shiro and Murasame saw past those smiles too—the complicated emotion behind them: two girls who had nearly forgotten they were allowed to be happy, tasting a home they'd thought they'd lost forever.

"Egg dip?" Shiro offered, and both twins' hands shot out at once.

"Mm! The egg dip! It's still the egg dip!"

"Obasama, this sukiyaki... you got better. How do you get better from best?"

"Practice. And stubbornness. Same as everything else in this family."

"Then have more, have more—Mai-chan, leave some beef for me—"

"You had three pieces! I counted!"

"Because you inhaled yours like a rabbit on festival night!"

Murasame, calmly lifting the entire last slice of beef with her chopsticks: "A ninja eats quickly and never leaves witnesses."

"MURASAME-NESAN!"

Laughter—the first real, full laughter in that room in months.