From the Beginning
They're in the Dean's office, Hitsugi's office that is. Hitsugi, as beautiful and strong as Achilles of legend. Even just leaning against her desk, she's more radiant than the sun, just as untouchable too. She's on a tangent, one of her outlandish ideas taking shape in the twilight. A send off for the third years, if Shizuku could be bothered to pay attention. A send off for Hitsugi herself this time. Her diploma rests on the desk behind her. Amachi Hitsugi, summa cum laude. Proof that nothing was beyond her grasp, so long as she chose to reach for it.
Proof too that their little slice of paradise was at an end. The one thing Hitsugi couldn't bulldoze her way through, the one thing sheer force of will couldn't change: Shizuku was younger. That one year that fate had saw fit to keep between them was now the cause of their greatest sadness. Or Shizuku's greatest sadness, at the very least. More than a decade, and only once had Shizuku failed to stand at Hitsugi's side. Now they would only see each other when their paths crossed at home. No more daily school rides, no more student council meetings, no more trying to stop Hitsugi's latest schemes.
Their swords rested neatly across Shizuku's own desk, having been removed for the graduation ceremony that morning. Unbeknownst to Hitsugi, they would be getting one final use, though not in the way she thought. Even now, the other members of the student council were preparing a sendoff of their own. One befitting their great general, and one ending in the finest gift Shizuku could give her partner: a one on one exhibition match between the top two sword bearers.
And then, Shizuku would be alone. Or at least more alone than she had been in a decade. No Hitsugi, no hoshitori, no student council.
Everything over from the beginning. That's what she said, way back then. Nothing in the world could surpass the feeling of looking at Hitsugi in that bed, the fear, the sadness, and the shameful relief that at least she was alive. She had looked smaller than Shizuku had thought possible, like the child she truly was. Her leg was gone, her mother as well. And for that whole day she had lay there hurting and alone. She had needed Shizuku, and Shizuku had failed her. And still, Hitsugi only asked one thing from her. Everything over from the beginning.
Every setback. Every prosthetic fitting. Every physical therapy appointment that left her screaming in agony. Every Mother's Day spent at a cold grave. Everything over from the beginning.
It wasn't all bad though, their new beginnings, not all the time. The first time she made it out of her hospital bed by herself. The first time she walked with her crutches. The first time she walked without her crutches. The first time Shizuku received a text telling her to stop where she was, that Hitsugi had a surprise for her. Both hitting the ground as Shizuku tackled Hitsugi after she trotted up to Shizuku and her mother. Far closer to a run than they ever dared hope for, and far, far more progress than Hitsugi had shown Shizuku in her therapy. Both Miyamoto's crying in joy even as Shizuku's mother chided her daughter, all the while a bewildered Hitsugi remained pinned beneath her friend. A soft smile, warm hands patting Shizuku's back as she soaked Hitsugi's shirt, then, "Everything over from the beginning, right? Stay by my side Shizuku, and there's nothing we can't do."
"Everything over from the beginning eh, Shizuku?"
"Yes! I entrust the rest to you!"
Such a disappointing defeat. Her second failure. (And oh, how Hitsugi chided her when she called it that. Few things got her hackles up like someone disrespecting Shizuku, even if it was Shizuku herself. Especially then.) But even then, even before Inori dropped out, there was never a doubt that Hitsugi would prevail. Not to Shizuku anyway. Because no matter how far they fell, no matter what obstacles they faced, if they were together, even just in spirit, they would win.
But how do you win when time itself is your enemy. How do you hold on when it feels like your whole universe is shifting beneath you? Huh, of course. God, she's right, I really am an airhead.
"Everything over from the beginning, right Hitsugi?" Hard to say whether it was the seemingly random comment, or the lack of honorific, but one of the two managed to stun the newest Tenchi Academy graduate into silence. Shizuku would have marked the day, but she was a little busy trying not to faint.
"…Well yes, though I'm not sure what your poi-" Silenced twice in as many minutes. Not that she was complaining, not with her hands finding their way around Shizuku's waist and her knees threatening to give beneath her, and god, why had they not been doing this before? Then the kiss was ending, and they were staring into one another's eyes. In that quiet moment, Shizuku came to her senses, terror flooding her even as her hands stayed pressed against her partner's jaw. Then she felt it, the fingers at her waist soothing her with absent minded circles even as their owner began to smile. And as that smile grew to a grin, Hitsugi leaned closer, her lips just brushing Shizuku's in the second of a million more kisses to come, "From the beginning huh? I can work with that."
End