The Warmth On My Shoulder
After pushing the wagon that was filled with Flora's belongings for a while, we finally arrived at our house.
「We're finally back」
「…Yeah」
Flora answered with a slightly tired voice.
I had expected about that much. We've been surrounded by villagers the whole day.
We declared our relationship in front of the villagers, then we visited her parents. After seeing the pile of Flora's private belongings on the wagon, the villagers understood that we're going to be living together now.
With that being the case, they left the feelings they had for her behind and stopped making up rumors. They stopped messing with us and congratulated us.
Especially the papirus beans crowd; they were all like "This calls for a celebration for the two newlyweds!" So now we're even.
Flora was also tired from dealing with the adorable village girls who were genuinely worried for her love life.
I envied Flora who could enjoy the company of people who were purely happy for her, since I was only surrounded by jealous men.
Well, anyone would get jealous of the person who gets to live together with a good woman like Flora.
Everyone said that they were looking forward to the harvest festival this year, but I thought that just the celebration that happened today was plenty enough to deal with already. I felt a bit scared at the thought of having to deal with any more than that.
「Well then, let's carry the luggage in. The sun's already starting to set because of the unexpected things we ran into」
「Yeah, let's get the stuff inside before it gets dark」
It was bad enough that the sun was already setting from dealing with the villagers. It would be completely dark if we took our sweet time with it.
I took the lead and pulled the wagon, while Flora pushed it from behind while adjusting the direction.
「Flora, can you go open the door for me?」
I pulled the wagon close to our entrance, then I took the key from my pocket and tossed it to her.
「Ahh!」
The key jumped three times between her hands before she completely caught it.
I instinctively smiled as I looked at the sight of Flora sighing in relief.
「It's not like the key will break if you dropped it, you know?」
「I was just a bit surprised because you tossed it at me out of nowhere」
She moved quickly to the door as she brushed off my teasing.
Her cheeks were slightly red. I already knew she didn't have good hand-eye coordination so there was no need to be embarrassed.
She put the key that she held tightly into the keyhole of the door.
It was clear that she was not familiar with this process; I could sense how tense she was from back here. I could go open it for her, but Flora hasn't had the chance to do this even once yet.
When she timidly turned the key, a clicking sound was heard.
After confirming that the door's been unlocked from that click, she pulled the key back out and opened the door.
*Kiiiii* (wood creaking)- with the sound of the door opening, our living room and kitchen became visible.
「……」
Although it was the same scene as usual, I wonder if it feels a little different for her today?
Up until now, it has only been her coming over here to capture my heart. But today, not only did we officially become a couple, we even got her parents' approval on our marriage. So I wonder if she could really feel this place as her real home from today on.
Since I wanted her to get that feeling, I passed the key to her and let her be the one to open that door.
From the look on her face when she's standing there and looking inside, it looks like it was a success. If that's true then that makes me a little happy.
I don't think I should be staring at her like that, but when I see that look of sentiment on her face, it made me want to go up and hug her.
I gently approached her and hugged her from behind.
She flinched in surprise for a second, but she gently grasped my arms that I put around her in return.
「From now on, this is our home」
「Yeah…」
I know that we didn't have much time left to move the things in, but I continued to hug her as we looked inside our house.
The sky turned madder red as if it was telling us that our sentimental time was over.
With our slightly pink cheeks, we let go of each other and started to bring our luggage from the wagon into the house.
I carried the heavier things while she carried the lighter stuff.
We could have brought over all the things we need from her parent's house, but since our home's not that far from her parents', there was no need to do that. We decided that we'll go back to get them if we needed something. That was how we managed to finish packing and moving the stuff here before sunset.
Right now, I'm finishing moving Flora's chest of drawers into her room and then we'll organize the small personal belongings and items together.
Normally we'd have dinner before dark, so we would be cooking right about now, but since we had lunch and some snacks back at her parents' home earlier today, we weren't hungry yet.
Besides, we still had some leftover stir-fry radishes and soup, so we didn't really need to cook.
Therefore, our strategy was to finish moving in first.
「Flora, for the plates and utensils that you brought over, want me to put them in the kitchen cupboard?」
「Ah, sure, but we won't be using the big plates much, so I think you can put them in the very back」
「Got it」
The tableware that she brought over was some silver plates and some big wooden plates.
Since we'll mostly be using wooden utensils in our house, the silver ones will be for our visitors.
The huge wooden plates will be for times when we have lots of people over, like if Toack, Aisha, Ergys-san and Fionsan were all over or something.
That type of thing just completely slips outta my head, so I can't help but admire Flora who was attentive enough to think of them.
「And what about the spoons and forks, just put them in the usual spot?」
「Yah, sure, Aldo-san. Just put them there. Then, I want to put the seasonings I have inside」
「Yeah, there's still a drawer left. Please teach me where you put what later on」
「Sure!」
We moved around the kitchen as we stored our tableware away, one thing after another.
All the things that she brought out were new things that I didn't have in this house.
Things that I didn't need before or think of because I was living alone, and things that I wished I had, were all quickly being added to the house.
I added the light pink colored curtain to the window of our living room and the place became extremely gorgeous.
While looking at all these new things, I muttered out,
「It's fun to have all these new things added to the house. It reminded me of the time when I first moved in here…」
「Hehehe, me too. I feel as excited as the time when I had my own room for the first time」
She laughed innocently as she placed the jars of seasoning into the kitchen cupboard.
Then, she nodded in satisfaction as she closed the cupboard after putting everything in at once.
It looked like she couldn't help but to be happy after she finished filling up our cupboard.
Every time our number of things in the house increased, the feeling of happiness from being reminded that we're going to be living here together overflowed.
The sad living room of a man who was living alone could no longer be seen after the house was filled by the things that she had brought over.
I'm sure that the big reason wasn't because of the increase in stylish living items, it was because of having a lovely girl like Flora by my side.
「What's wrong?」
Flora looked at me and tilted her head. Maybe it was because she noticed the way
I was looking at her from the side.
「I was just overjoyed from realizing again that you came here to live with me」
She smiled at me with pink cheeks after accepting my straightforward feelings.
「I am very happy to live here with you as well, Aldo-san. I get excited just by thinking about it, so much that it makes me nervous」
I instinctively went up to her and lightly hugged her with my arm around her shoulder because of how happy I was after hearing that.
Then, she leaned her head on my shoulder and rubbed my right arm with it like an animal that was fawning over me.
As I felt her warm temperature and soft touch along with the nice floral smell from her smooth hair, I was reassured of the fact that this was real life.
We did not speak to each other and only felt each other's presence.
Before us was a small flower pot on the table of the living room. In there, the flower of union was blooming in a vibrant pink color.