It wasn't hard to tell Alannah's answer was placed to keep things calm, it made him feel guilty. There was a pit in his stomach, one of the most hollow feelings he'd ever felt. It yelled and beckoned for him to act, to hug Alannah and tell her everything. It almost felt like denying instincts, taking the turn away was nearly physically painful. He knew he'd likely have to see physical conflict someday, but emotional conflict was more difficult than he'd have ever imagined. With his eye clammed shut, he turned away and took the first steps up the stairs. The toughest part was over.<br/><br/><span style="color: #008080">"Gentle breaths."</span>Dimitri said, he might have chuckled, were the situation not so dire. His attention averted to the cowboy hat before he spoke again; nobody in their house ever looked good in a cowboy hat. The only person who would even wear one was Jillian, and it seemed like she'd only do it for an entertainment kick. Dimitri frowned to himself, this hat was special, and he hadn't held it for years. Just the fact that he let it go to storage had a whole other pit of guilt open within him. He gripped it with both of his hands and stared at it for a moment. Without a word, he slid the hat outside of the storage door. He'd move it to his room afterwards.<br/><br/><span style="color: #008080">"Plenty."</span>Dimitri replied, despite the massive delay.<span style="color: #008080">"Be right back."</span>Dimitri said, squeezing through the narrow openings in the walls of boxes and large antiques. His destination was towards the more early placed boxes, one of them was full of keys, he'd always wondered why they'd had so many. He quickly shuffled through them, as discreetly as he could manage, until he found the one he was hopeful, yet terrified, to find. On a somewhat faded and discolored key, he could still read; WD13.<br/><br/>He worked the key off the key ring, but his hands were anything but steady. As quickly as he could work, the key was in his pocket, no doubt Alannah heard the metal jingling. He grabbed a different box, and again went through the narrow opening. It was much more difficult while holding a box. In an attempt to get a sincere smile from Alannah, he knew what he wanted to show her. He sat next to her and opened the box, removing a photo album.<span style="color: #008080">"I wanted to show you this place when I was just born."</span>Dimitri said, opening up the book. All the photos were in black and white, all clearly film developed.<span style="color: #008080">"For a while, I didn't know baby pictures were a normal practice. When I was young, I didn't really think about what other people did. It was almost blissful."</span>He said, flipping open the book.