Hello you all! This is a story that I'm writing with my sister. We watched Titanic and wanted to put our boys there. This story comes from the historical event and it's not a crossover with the movie! Our main work is currently "Don't Starve, Osomatsu-san" so we'll write this when we have extra time.
Autumn 1911, The Great Britain
It was like any other day in the 1910s. The Matsuno brothers were minor lower class citizens. They were poor and it didn't help that they usually gambled the little money they had on horse races or bought beer and so on. Their lives were rough but they had big dreams for the future.
Osomatsu, the oldest brother, stormed in the pub where his five identical younger brothers were hanging out like they did most of the days. He was visibly excited about something as he leaped to the table next to his brothers cheering to himself. He wrapped his other arm around Ichimatsu's shoulders and exclaimed enthusiastically:
"Gyus! You don't believe how lucky I was today! Like holy shit!" he almost shouted as Ichimatsu pushed his hand away. Then he took a deep breath and lowered his voice. "I won. Big time. From horse races," he said with a glee and rubbed the spot under his nose with his finger as he chuckled to himself.
Five pair of eyes gazed at the oldest brother. The gazes were curious but suspicious. Choromatsu, the third oldest, frowned as he leaned closer to Osomatsu and spoke quietly. "Are you joking? The chances to win are extremely small." He knew that his niisan wouldn't joke about money. At least he hoped so.
Osomatsu smirked at the disbelief of his brothers. "It looks like you don't believe me. Luckily I can prove my words." He carefully looked around them before he reached to his jackets inner pocket and placed a big bundle of money to the table in front of him.
Osomatsu's brothers's jaws dropped and their eyes sparkled. "You idiot! Hide it!" Todomatsu, the youngest brother, quietly hissed and looked around them with a worried expression. "If these shitty people around us notice they'll beat us to crap and take the money," he continued.
"Stupid oldest brother! If you lose it I'm going to kill you," Ichimatsu, the fourth oldest, mumbled with a hint of threat in his voice. A drop of sweat rolling down his face was the only sign of anxiousness that he showed.
"Okay okay. But you didn't believe me so I had to show you," Osomatsu said and hid the money back to his inner pocket. The others let out a relieved sighs as the threat of the money being noticed was gone. There was a short moment of silence as the brothers assimilated the situation.
Jyushimatsu, the second youngest, had a bright smile on his face that was growing wider. "Hahah! You really won Osomatsu-niisan!" At the end of his sentence he was beaming with happiness.
Karamatsu, the second oldest, smirked. "Heh! So it has finally happened. The lady luck has finally noticed you my dear brother. She has given you a smile that brightens up your future like a thousand suns. Surely you are noble enough to share the brightness with us," he spoke dramatically and gestured to Osomatsu with his hand.
Osomatsu stared at Karamatsu for a while before he understood the meaning of his words. He stared blankly ahead of him as he thought. "I won the money so I think I'll keep it myself," he finally said and scratched the back of his neck.
"What!" the five brothers yelled in disbelief. They all started to rebel in their unique ways against their oldest brother.
"That is so unfair!" Todomatsu yelled at Osomatsu.
"I also want to live like a king! " Jyushimatsu complained.
"You can't be serious Osomatsu-niisan!" Choromatsu shouted.
"How? How could you do this to us Osomatsu?! How could you be so cruel to your own brothers?!" Karamatsu whined over dramatically.
"You fucking selfish piece of garbage!" Ichimatsu roared and stood up.
They got louder and more unpredictable as they continued their tantrum. It could have gotten out off hand if it had continued for a longer time.
Everyone was glaring daggers to the oldest who held his hands in the air in calming manner to stop the shouting. "Keep it down, would you? Now, I think it's only fair that who makes the money, keeps the money," he said which caused more loud, irritated shouts.
That was until Todomatsu pointed a blaming finger towards Osomatsu. "Excuse me? Do you have any idea how much money I have lent to you? Cause I remember every coin. But apparently I'm never getting my money back so don't think I'll ever lend anything to you again. Starve in peace," Totty spoke with rising anger in his voice.
Choromatsu gritted his teeth. "Todomatsu has an excellent point! I bought you new jacket when your old one was torn too badly in that stupid fight you caught yourself in two months ago. Have you forgotten?"
"Osomatsu owns money for everyone here," Ichimatsu said as he glared the eldest. "You took more money from us than you give. Time to pay back."
Jyushimatsu looked serious as he listened the others talk and nodded in agreement eagerly. "Right, right. I just saw Osomatsu-niisan took coins from Karamatsu-niisan's pocket last week!" he told.
Karamatsu's mouth opened wide as he stared at Osomatsu. "Brother! How could you?! I wanted to buy us real meat to make stew." Then he crossed his arms and said as intimidating as he could: "Too bad, brother. What goes around, comes around. We split the money."
Osomatsu looked around at his brothers. Five against one did not look good for him. He raised his hands up in defensive manner. "Wait wait. That might sound bad when you say it but you would keep the money to yourselves if you were me. Don't try to act better than me!"
Ichimatsu let out a dry laugh. "At least we wouldn't be that stupid to brag about the winnings if we wanted to keep them."
Totty smacked Osomatsu to the back of his head angrily. "Quit the bullshit. It's more than once or twice you have ganged up on me and stole my money!"
"We use the money together or you're not coming to our dinner table ever again," Choromatsu said dead serious.
"Aaaaa," Osomatsu whined defeated. "You are all greedy jerks," he said and slammed his head on the table and sighed. Five others shared satisfied looks. "Fine. We use the money together. Let's order more drinks."
Karamatsu was the first one to spoke. "Wait a second. If it's really as much money as I think, we should use it better than drink it away," he said.
"Definitely!" "Absolutely!" Choromatsu and Todomatsu answered immediately and Jyushimatsu and Ichimatsu nodded.
Osomatsu continued whining. "Aaa, why? I want beer! I'll buy one," he said and tried to rise up but was pushed back to his chair by Ichimatsu.
"Shut up and stay there," he said threateningly.
"No escape!" Jyushimatsu exclaimed.
Choromatsu nodded. "No. We need to decide what to do with the money before Osomatsu drinks it all.
"But you didn't even let me buy the first one!"
"I think we should make one bigger investment," Totty said ignoring Osomatsu completely. Everyone turned to look at him.
"What do you mean brother?" asked Karamatsu.
"I mean we should make a bigger investment. Like buy something big to improve our lives or buy something with which we can make more money," Totty explained his thoughts.
Choromatsu was the next one to talk. "I think that's very clever and all but I don't think we can afford to use the money that way. We all would need new clothes and I just can't help worrying if some of us gets sick and we don't have any money saved," he said frowning worriedly.
Osomatsu rolled his eyes. "You are worrying way too much again Choromatsu. It's going to be fine so live in the moment."
"I actually support Choromatsu's opinion," said Karamatsu. "I want the absolute best of my dear brothers and thought of your health being in jeopardy it's like a stab to my heart."
Ichimatsu striked threateningly towards Karamatsu. "Shut up, Shittymatsu! None of us is in any kind of danger."
"But brother, I'm just thinking your best!"
"Aaaah! Let me have beer!" Osomatsu continued his whining again. "Even just one!"
"No! We will decide this now," Choromatsu said sharply.
"Could you please stop the whining Osomatsu-niisan or I'm forced to smack you again," said Todomatsu gritting his teeth.
The situation started to look like it would fall into chaos (like it usually did) but then a happy child-like voice cut through it making everyone stop the bickering immediately.
"I wanna see baseball!"
Everyone stared at Jyushimatsu confused. Jyushimatsu himself was radiating pure happiness. Then Choromatsu frowned and asked skeptically: "Baseball?"
Jyushimatsu nodded eagerly. "Un, baseball." Then he swinged his hands like he was holding a bat shouting: "One! Two! Three! Super homerun!" and he laughed.
Totty sighed. "Jyushimatsu-niisan, we can't see baseball. That would be a stupid way of using the money and I think that you can only see it in America. Obviously we can't go there."
"I'm sorry my brother but that does seem impossible," Karamatsu said and laid a hand on Jyushi's shoulder. "But I love the idea!"
"Why couldn't we go?" Osomatsu asked then sounding serious. This caught everyone by surprise since Jyushimatsu's crazy ideas should never be encouraged.
"What did you just say?" Choromatsu asked unbelievingly.
"I said, why not? Many people leave for America to find better life. It's the land of possibilities and new starts." Then Osomatsu grinned slyly. "I heard there is gold."
"But we can't just leave! We can't abandon everything we know like that!" said Choromatsu.
"It's so risky," Karamatsu mumbled in a thought.
Then Ichimatsu who had been quiet spoke up: "Yeah, why not? Here we are just surviving from day to day. We could do it elsewhere as well. Besides, we have nothing really to keep us here," he finished.
"Yeah. Why not," said Totty looking at his hands. Then he lifted his head up to face his brothers's stare. "I'm sick of this town. I'm sick of these never changing days and the people here. I'm sick of my life like this! I want something more!" he said strongly.
"Exactly!" said Osomatsu and pointed Todomatsu with a finger. "That's what I mean!"
"Yes, okay, I understand," said Choromatsu. "Life here is really hard and of course I'm also dreaming of change. But it could go badly wrong. It's- I- It's a crazy idea!"
"No, no! Hear me out," Oso continued now loving the idea. "We have our small shitty apartment that we are paying rent. I wouldn't miss it. We don't have any family, barely any friends, mostly just people who hate us. We could have a new and fresh start!" Osomatsu said with shining eyes. Then he stood up and continued: "Think of all the possibilities! We don't have much to lose but we could become something more."
Then Todomatsu stood up as well. "Yes! I know that I'm meant to experience more than this. I need a new start! We could do it."
Karamatsu was the next one to speak: "Brothers, I would lie if I would say that I'm not intrigued by the idea. But we have a life here. We have a place to live and we can survive. I could never risk my brothers's well being by pursuing for something more."
"Baseball!" Jyushimatsu shouted and everyone ignored him.
"But we don't know how badly it could end," Choromatsu tried to reason. "We might go there just to starve. We can't know if we could make a living there."
Ichimatsu 'hmph'ed. "We have no way of knowing that we will survive here. None of us have a steady job. We could be starving here as well. But why not? We honestly don't have much to lose."
"We could lose our lives," Choromatsu said seriously.
"Or we could have it all!" Osomatsu exclaimed which made Choro, Kara and Totty to hush at him.
Totty turned to Karamatsu. "Karamatsu-niisan, think what an adventure it would be. We, brothers, would face the huge, beautiful and dangerous ocean at first. Together we would across it then land to the new world where we could become cowboys, goldminers or business men - whatever we wanted! With our accent and good looks we would charm all the ladies," Todomatsu painted the picture for Karamatsu. He knew that it wouldn't be exactly like that but he knew that that kind of image could appeal to Karamatsu. He was right.
Karamatsu looked at the table biting his lip and looking like he was torn in half. Then he sighed and looked defeated. "Okay. Fine, you got me in. I want to go to that adventure with you, my brothers," he said and then shared an apologetic look with Choromatsu. "I'm sorry brother."
Choromatsu's eyes widened in disbelief. "Karamatsu! Don't let them talk you into this! It's a crazy idea!" But it was too late to reason with Karamatsu.
"Hahah! Well played Totty!" Osomatsu said and rubbed under his nose with his finger. "I'm sorry Choro, but it's five against one. We are going to America!" he shouted and his other brothers joined the cheering except for Choromatsu who still tried to reason.
"No! We are not going! That's a very bad and stupid idea!"
"AMERICA! AMERICA!
"Sit down and stop that! It's not gonna happen! We can barely survive here!"
"AMERICA! AMERICA!"
"No! Shut up! Stop doing that!"
"A-ME-RI-CA! A-ME-RI-CA!"
"Shut the fuck up!"
After they had calmed down and got new drinks to celebrate, Choromatsu was sulking while the others were talking excitedly about the plan.
"So when should we leave?" Todomatsu asked.
"As fast as we can," Osomatsu answered.
"We will see baseball!" Jyushimatsu giggled happily.
"Yes we will," Ichimatsu answered smiling to the second youngest.
Growling Choromatsu threw his hands in the air. "Fine, whatever. Let's go to another fucking continent and throw away everything. But let me say you, it's going to end badly!" he exclaimed and crossed his arms, sulking.
Osomatsu wrapped his arm around Choro's shoulders. "Now you got it! It's kind of the point of a new start to throw away everything."
Choromatsu groaned. "Anyway, if we actually want to go there, we need to earn more money. The amount Osomatsu won is good but not enough for tickets and starting a new life in America. And it will take some time. But if everyone of us works, it will be possible," he finished.
"Right you are my brother." Karamatsu said dramatically. "This is our chance to shine. So we must fight for our future."
"Eeee, I don't want to work…" Osomatsu whined. "Isn't this enough money?"
"There is six of us and we need some money to start a new life there so it's not enough," Todomatsu sighed.
"Exactly. I think we could have earned enough money in…" Choromatsu said and started calculating in his head. "Maybe February or March. If we all get works rather quick. And we must cut off all the unnecessary expenses. No money wasted in bars," he said sharply and glanced at Osomatsu meaningly.
"Whaaat?! I don't know if I like this idea anymore," Osomatsu exclaimed.
"Shut up shitty oldest," Ichimatsu grunted. "You are not backing away over that kind of reason anymore!"
Grumbling to himself Osomatsu lowered his gaze to the table sulking.
"So anyone know any ships?" Todomatsu asked.
"Nope!" Jyushimatsu said loudly.
"Me neither," Karamatsu said. "But I'm sure there are ships leaving all the time."
Choromatsu sighed tired of all this madness. "I don't know any either but there should be many. Although I read from newspaper about this great ship they are building, Titanic or what was it. Of course it should be above our level."
"Waaa! Titanic! Sounds fun!" Jyushimatsu said in his loud voice smiling widely.
"RMS Titanic!" Karamatsu shouted spreading his arms open in excitement. "The finest of the ships. It's even called the unsinkable ship!" he told the others and stroke poses.
Osomatsu's eyes lit and a wide grin spread on his face. "Yes! That's the one! If we are going, we go with the best possible style. We'll travel with the Titanic!" he declared.
A faint but determined smile crept to Ichimatsu's face. "Sounds good," he agreed.
"That would be perfect!" Totty said with shining eyes. "That would be one of the only experiences worth telling in my life! We need to go by that ship!"
Choromatsu rubbed the bridge between his eyes. "No you idiots, we need to use the cheapest ship there is. Titanic is off the list."
"We go by Titanic!" Osomatsu shouted raising his hands in the air and four other pairs joined him with excited cheers.
Choromatsu hid his face behind his palms. Why did he need to have brothers like these. "Please just be quiet. Seems like whatever I say doesn't matter. So whatever, I don't care anymore," he tiredly said.
"Yay, Titanic!" other brothers cheered on.
That's the first chapter, hope you liked it. In next chapter they will board the ship. Thank you everyone who read this!