We put up the walls at the start. We built them as soon as we laid eyes on each other. In the time it took for one single pink petal of cherry blossom to float free and drift to the ground, one of us had run away, and the other stayed where she was.

The closer we got, the higher the walls.

While others pushed us together we pushed away from each other. Again, one of us stayed where she was, and the other ran. It didn't matter it was the other way round this time. We couldn't have been any other way. We were both wilful, even if was different kinds of will: one of us was always do what she was going to do, and the other was always going to resist doing what she should. One to stay, and the other one to run from her.

Maybe it wasn't such a surprise when we ran full circle, and found each other.

Under that cherry tree, we became soeurs.

Under that cherry tree, we built a wall between us that would last forever.

We didn't believe in soeurs. We didn't want to need anyone. We didn't want to need each other. We didn't want to want each other. But there was always that danger, that if we couldn't find a way to keep each other firmly were we were, that if we couldn't find a way to say to each other, you stay there, and I'll stay here, and we'll stay like this, things would change. And slowly, agonisingly, we would inch closer. Closer, and closer, and finally too close to go back, too close to escape the need for each other, the want, the passion tying us together, binding us, strangling us.

One of us had felt that before, and swore to never again.

Soeurs. Sisters. An accident of birth. A bond that never needed to be acknowledged, because it went without saying. You stay there, and I'll stay here. Simple, everlasting, and utterly chaste.

And with that between us, anything that might have been died as quickly as a single pink petal of cherry blossom, crushed under our unforgiving feet.

(I loved her, I needed her, I wanted her.)

(I needed her, I wanted her, I loved her.)

We stayed where we were.

--------------------------

Author's note: A short look into the relationship between Sei and Shimako. Credit for Maria-sama Ga Miteru goes to the copyright holders.