Splitting Atoms

Life was a lot quieter after Molly and Satoshi left. And frankly it was much less stressful too, considering that little Aidan was left to hang out with his second cousins. Considering as he was technically Haruo's cousin as he was the child of Haruo's uncle, the fact that he was being raised by them was a shocker for most people looking in on this family. The next few days passed relatively without much fanfare. Haruo looked after the bees and headed off to the Apothecary to drop off gems for consignment.

Haruo kept the kitchen clean after making sure that the fridge was kept well-stocked and River kept producing paintings to sell. After all...the bills needed to be paid and well, it appeared as though River and Haruo were doing the bulk of the bringing in the income.

River did what she had to, which was spend a lot of time at the easel making sure that the calibre of paintings that she created was of high quality. When she went to sell the paintings, she sold them individually to commissioned sales. As high as the amount of money that she kept getting in for large paintings, which was in the neighbourhood of §34K per individual painting, it wasn't worth it to do another Painting The City painting opportunity. When you can pull in over §34,000 per painting, getting only about §200,000 for an opportunity like that wasn't fiscally worth it. So River sold her painitngs to the community individually on commission for a significant mark-up. And it made River rich, frankly beyond River and Haruo's wildest dreams. Between that and periodically pulling in a substantial amount for large Tiberium spires, their net worth was north of §10M.

The new house wasn't as expansive as the old house in Sunset Valley and well, it certainly made the situation seem cramped. The kitchen wasn't as big either and neither was the bedrooms. So there had been a lot of talk between the parents (River's mom and Haruo's dad between their respective spouses about letting Haruo and River have their space and finding a home for themselves. So that was what Susan Chikamori was doing that morning; looking up real estate for her and Yasunobu to move to. Fiona was doing the same.

Haruo and River were blithely unaware of the familial relationship currents. River did get herself a new hairstyle as her hair was gradually growing out. And wore it at the next meal.

Haruo and River had wonderful relationships with their children (all maxed out) and it showed in their closeness with their kids.

Haruo did spend some time playing the piano after having maxed out his skill level in it.

Alanna spent time with her grandfather at the kitchen table. After all, the children were unaware of the fact that their grandparents wanted to give River and Haruo the time to grow as a couple and as a nuclear family (defined as mother, father, children) instead of in an extended family situation. And the kids were growing and eventually they would all need their own space. The house was only five bedrooms and as such, there would soon be no space without expanding the home. And Aidan would have to bunk where Molly and Satoshi used to as he grew into his teens. Certainly there was quite a number of years before that happened, but Yasunobu and Fiona as well as their respective spouses planned ahead for that eventuality.

Yasunobu and Susan though had their own social life and they wanted to go out and see a concert for once.

Afterwards, they did decide to go out and get something to eat, in fact, it was like a little date, which was something couples needed to do to keep the romance alive.