It was 4am when they finally saw each other, Sowon hobbling down the street as fast as she could and the three nukos running as fast as their little legs could carry them.

“Unnie!”

“UMJI SINB YERIN!”

They jumped into Sowon’s arms as she fell on her knees to grab them, scrapping them slightly. But she didn’t care, her kids were safe and in her arms. She cried, once more for their safety and cried some more for them.

“You don’t know how upset I was when I didn’t see you guys in the room!”

Eunha wiggled out of Sowon’s hood and hopped into the hug as well.

“I missed you guys a whole lot too.”

Her own tears threatening to fall. She tearfully held onto SinB’s arm. The younger nuko stared back at Eunha. What was this warm feeling? Was this something a regular family felt on a regular basis? This feeling of being genuinely needed.

SinB hugged Eunha tightly and let her own tears fall, finally showing some weakness, her little hands fisted in Eunha’s shirt.

“Yah!”

Sowon’s sister finally arrived with Yuju in her hands.

“You crazy kid! You’re injured, and you ran this far!”

“Unnie I found them, waaaaaahhhhh!”

She sighed and knelt next to her younger sister, pulling her into a side hug.

“I’m glad.”

Gently rubbing at Eunha’s wet cheeks, her sister rubbed a soot smudge off SinB’s cheek.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sowon still cried whilst washing the each of them. Sniffling as she rubbed the grime out of Yerin’s hair, unable to register anything else except the fact that her nukos were there.

SinB stared at Yerin’s scars on her back, but she didn’t say anything. Umji knew and respectfully looked away.

“Waaahhhhh!!”

Yerin flinched as she heard Sowon crying again, this meant that her shower would take longer again.

“Unnie I love you. I may never come to love humans, but I do love you.”

Sowon nodded, still unable to make coherent words through her sobs.

Fluffing Yerin’s hair dry, she let her dress herself before moving to wash Umji. Taking care to massage at their bruised feet.

SinB was not used to letting anyone clean her but let Sowon rub the soap into her hair, letting a slow purr as Sowon rubbed at her ears.

“Will they come back unnie?”

“I’m not sure. They’ve been arrested but they seem to be filing a lawsuit against me.”

“A lawsuit? What for?”

“They claim I kidnapped you and they were righteously taking back what was theirs.”

“But I am not theirs, I ran away.”

“Mm, but remember on legal papers, you aren’t actually part of my household. I’ve filled out Yerin’s form, but I haven’t been able to do yours since I was in the hospital.”

SinB stared, this was stupid. She didn’t like the way they treated her at the factory, so she ran away. She found a better place to stay and, yet she couldn’t stay. Why were the heavens messing around with her life so much?

“Do you remember if they ever wrote your name under their custody?”

“I-I don’t know.”

Sowon finally smiled a little.

“I’ll take care of it, don’t worry.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sowon walked boldly into court. The last few days building up her courage and spending every second of her day holding at least one of her nukos.

They proceeded with the case.

“You, Kim Sojung, are being sued for kidnapping but you say otherwise.”

“Yes, your honor.”

“Let’s hear your side first.”

Sowon proceeded to tell the judge about how they had met and how they ended up where they were, to the jury, it was very touching.

“But they say that you must be a crazy nuko collector, they say you have five nukos in the house at once. We know you only have two registered. How are you going to dispute this evidence?”

Sowon took a deep breath, she knew that what she was going to say next would hurt Eunha and Yuju deeply, but for the moment, it would be the only thing that could save SinB.

“The other two are not my nukos. They belong to my sister. I was just taking care of them while she was away.”

The judge sent someone to go check the records for her sister’s name.

Eunha turned away from the court, holding onto Yuju, betrayed.

“She doesn’t actually care for us.”

Sowon bit her lip mentally bashing herself for not thinking of this attack. If she had thought that they would target her like this, she could have properly talked with Eunha and Yuju about it. She looked at where they were seated and nearly started crying, seeing them unable to look at her.

“This checks out. We will leave for discussion. Our verdict after lunch.”

(I know that court cases usually last longer, but it’s been a while since I’ve learned about law.)

Sowon wanted to hold Eunha and Yuju but they refused to even let her close. Yerin looking at Sowon with a certain fear in her eyes.

“Unnie did you mean that?”

Holding Yerin to her chest, she sobbed lightly, not letting Eunha and Yuju see.

“No, I love them as much as I love you. I didn’t expect I would have to categorize them like this. They must feel so betrayed.”

Yerin gently kneaded at Sowon’s collar, trying to make her feel better.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Once the case was over, they returned home in Sowon’s sister’s car. The final verdict due next week due to several discrepancies they wanted to check.

Sowon held Umji against her, still terrified of losing site of them.

Eunha initially wanted to ask Sowon something but then she stopped, holding her tail in her hands, she scooted back to Yuju’s side.

===================

Meh, my drama skills are still terrible, let's move on real quick so I can go back to fluff, don't mind me, terrible writer here haha... maybe a triple update today? I don't know I'm actually in class the moment I am uploading this but I can't focus leading to me writing these two chapters, oh well, who needs physics anyways :)