Title: I Remember
Summary: Mizuki Ashiya remembers the events that led to her relationship with young Izumi Sano, and even those sultry ones that directly led to the child in her womb. Sano, on the other-hand, due to a bit of time-space-tom-foolery, does not. Having been plunged into an alternate universe in which the couple hasn't, in the strictest sense, ever met, Mizuki inwardly (and spastically) battles her desire to both connect with Izumi and shield him from an unpleasant reality.
Author's Notes: Hello, there! You're probably thinking, "well, this is random! 'The heck have you been!" And I'd agree. I also wouldn't exactly have an answer...in a manner of speaking. At least nothing more elaborate than the obvious cop-out: "Life. I've been in...life." That happens.
This "ficlet" is actually a bit insular… Because it isn't really a ficlet at all. Not precisely. A "post" might be less misleading... It originated as a post of mine in a very long-running roleplay, and it's been edited lightly to be a little more…inclusive. The fact remains, though, that it can't exist wholly on its own without context (unless I'd be willing to exert hours and pages of new set-up and explanation... And I'm not just now.) I apologize.
I only very recently decided that I might try delving into the world of interwebz-writing again. But the problem became that I rarely have the time or motivation to write anything outside my characters within this roleplay… So I chose a bit that involved two well-known characters, some amusing dialogue, and some palpable, relatable heartache.
((Refer to the bottom for some "context"))
Disclaimer: I own nothing... but several regions of my brain, the empty pop can by my hands, my hands, and some rather unsavory plot arcs. Such is the life of the college student with no ambition.
A deafening crack and an agitated roar rippled through the bustling streets of the London Troll Market. Mizuki Ashiya, shuffling quickly, felt her right hand steal away into her companion's left. She didn't think about this, really; she was otherwise preoccupied. Far less trivial concerns, it seemed, deserved her consideration, like: what sort of creature could have made such a noise? Where was it exactly? And (most importantly), did it or did it not enjoy the taste of small Japanese girls?… She considered the clientele uneasily and, with a succinct nod to herself, decided the last bit possible. Probable, even. She was just in the process of deciding how she was going to break it to the thing that she was, in fact, actually an American citizen (and that she was very sorry for the confusion), when a throaty, awkward sound finally broke her concentration. Her eyes darted upward.
"…Erm.." The boy to whom she was shamelessly clinging cleared his throat for a second time and his fingers slackened in her iron-tight grip. For a moment, she was too stunned to move-her brain hadn't made the transition. How had she even gotten there? All this traveling with the supernatural and bizarre hadn't given her the power to teleport… Had it? With an embarrassed yelp she yanked her hand away and jammed it into her pocket.
"… Sorry. I…er…Japanese…and….food." She muttered sheepishly, not aware how incomprehensible she sounded-nor did she care. She focused hard on a broken tile in the road to her left and resolved not to look up again until she was sure the blazing heat behind her cheeks had subsided.
She heard a familiar chuckle and, suddenly, her increasingly-shaggy brown hair was being tousled. It fell into her eyes and she looked up in spite of herself, startled. Their gazes met. A sudden feeling not unlike being doused in ice-water trickled into her chest then, pooling heavily like a frozen boulder at the very pit of her stomach. She shifted uncomfortably.
He, Izumi Sano, seemed fairly unaffected; blissfully unaware-perhaps only a little curious as to why her previous awkward displays of restlessness had failed to even remotely rival the way she was acting now. His near-black eyes were practically dancing, crinkled into the warmest, most sincerely amused smile she'd seen him wear in months. Far before the incident that had assured they'd never met.
"You know, until now, you could have called me a skeptic. I didn't think it was possible to be jumpier than my baby sister." He announced, retracting his hand from her head and then laughing a little again at the odd way the frazzled strands settled. When Mizuki's eyebrows had finally retreated so far into her fringe that they were lost from view, he gestured toward a kiosk nearly thirty feet behind them now. On top of a battered, feeble-looking table stood a giant pot. And with a beastly grin, the thin, horned-creature behind it opened its lid invitingly for an approaching customer. The lid's hinge squealed stridently, the table groaned; and combined, that startling, roar-like sound enveloped the lively, unconcerned market again. Mizuki continued to stare, astonished… Though she had actually almost forgotten this incident all together.
"You have a baby sister!" She blurted out, her voice finally returning in a volatile wave of incredulity. She flattened her hair, tucking away the familiar sensation of his fingers upon her skin as she wrestled the unruly wisps behind her ears.
"Uh, yeah." Responded Sano awkwardly, a little taken aback by her explosive interest. "Her name's Ayumi. She's four."
"Ayumi… four-years-old…a baby sister!" She echoed in awe. She actually felt her eyes begin to grow warm and moist…But there was nothing she could do about it without drawing more attention to the fact and, consequently, seeming even stranger. So, instead, she continued to grin as dumbly as she pleased, giant brown eyes twinkling with little, inexplicable wet diamonds.
"And… do you have any other siblings?" She prodded eagerly when she was sure the uneasy silence between them had gone on long enough. What she really wanted to ask was: "What about Shin! Does he still exist! Please tell me he does!"-but in a rare moment of wisdom, she decided that the creepiness would raise far more questions than she intended on answering. So, she remained only vaguely creepy.
"A younger brother. Shin." He yielded, one edge of his smile slightly more upturned and inquiring. His eyes were boring into her now and she couldn't help it: she wiped at hers. And almost as if the complete denial had been all that was allowing her to act so shamelessly bizarre, a powerful shockwave of regret crashed into her; her racing thoughts reeled. Studying the peculiar reaction this bit of news had elicited, he added pleasantly, "… Do you?"
"I-I uh… Yeah. Uh. Shizuki. Name theme. Older brother… Kinda weird…Very protective. Doesn't like… high-jumping." She fumbled clumsily, both hands wedged so tightly in the pockets of her jeans now that thin, irritated red lines were beginning to form along her wrists. 'The part that involves you doing it and…existing, specifically,' a voice in the back of her head added dryly.
"Is that another family theme? The being weird part, I mean… I'm just going to assume there's no way you could hate high-jumping…" He laughed. The gentle expression on his face as he continued to study her reactions was almost too much to bear in her already nerve-wracked state. She was losing it, and fast. Things weren't how they were, and they couldn't be how they were, and any resemblance to how they were was a lie. She repeated this to herself silently in the back of her mind three times before she responded. In retrospect, affording so much concentration on her mantra rather than what she would say next hadn't been the best of plans.
"I like high-jumpers!" She assured loudly… and then immediately lunged into an exhausting back-pedal, "… Some of them, I mean… And. Er, I also meant jumping. Like…The sport. I don't have, like, a high-jumper fetish or anything… And, oh, God. I'm not coming on to you or something, if that's what you're thinking! Because I just meant… I have to go. Away."
"… Yes, then?" Muttered Sano blankly as the peculiar brunette scurried roughly three feet ahead, matching pace with several other distracted members of their party. He could no longer see her face, but he continued to stare at the back of her head, lost again in whatever mellow sort of thoughts the quiet teenage boy usually entertained. A tiny, bemused smirk tugged at the corners of his lips suddenly and he looked away, tracing the dull light from the street-side lanterns all the way down the enchanted alley.
Author's Notes: Please feel free to review! It would be nice to know that someone actually reads this rubbish, even if they know it's rubbish. All's fair in love and fanfiction. Let it out. All that.
"Context"
Events that are far more complicated and convoluted than I care to explain have inadvertently changed the future so that the events leading up to the crash that killed Izumi Sano's mother never happened. Consequently, he and his father never fell out, he never shipped himself away to boarding school to avoid his father, and he thus never met Mizuki Ashiya. However, though this Sano has experienced a life completely different than the one in canon universe, Mizuki is still completely aware of how things had once happened. She remembers because she (and several other characters) was involved in the mess that cocked everything up.
Guilted by his happiness in this scenario, however, she is trapped by her own martyrdom- unable to admit the romantic relationship they once shared or the child in her womb (lol) due to the terrible circumstances of the universe they accidentally altered (and the fact that all of this may have to change.) There are also some lingering questions of alterations existing independently once created and whether or not it's fair to "this Sano."
There's also lots of other crazy stuff which, involved, is why this universe makes for bad times (like the rise of Voldemort…LOL) and some really, really, dramatic soap opera-esque relations and revelations that I'm not even getting into. Suffice it to say, it's pretty ridiculous. And so are we.