Why do I have a feeling this might be the first Yuruyuri fanfic without actual Yuri in it? *sigh*
It was an average warm summer day and none other than Kyoko Toshino was forced by her mother to do some intensive room cleaning. So of course, the blonde, ever so outrageous girl chose to invite over her two favorite friends (plus Akari) to help her clean.
"Alright! Let's get started!" Kyoko shouted with her blue eyes needlessly shimmering.
"You're getting hyped over nothing." Yui and Chinatsu said skeptically in unison.
"Kyoko, how does your room get so messy?" Akari asked in her typical naive tone.
"Well, what do you expect with my glamorous secret life as Ramuko the doujinshi artist?" Kyoko gloated.
"Don't get carried away," Yui sweatdropped.
But Akari had a good point, Kyoko room was practically a hazardous wreck with clothes lying haplessly on her unmade bed and on the ground along with stacks of paper thrown down scattering on the floor. Not to mention her Manga drawing tools were jumbled in a large pile that obscured her writing and her closet was just another story.
"Kyoko, you can't expect us to just willingly do your work for you." Yui attempted to reason. But after years of experience, she knew her logical reasons wouldn't get her far.
"Then I'll just have to hypnotize you..". Kyoko said darkly as she ripped a necklace out from her nearby jewelery box to hypnotize Yui.
"Nice try." Yui said flatly.
"Where's your cleaning supplies?" Chinatsu asked.
Kyoko was at first awestruck then dazed into Chinatsu fantasies with the twin-tailed girl's attentive question, but then Kyoko blanked.
"Cleaning..supplies?" Kyoko asked.
"What else are we supposed to clean with? Yui asked.
Kyoko then promptly searched around her kitchen, along with the help of Akari and Yui. Chinatsu however sat in front of Kyoko's AC uninterestedly.
After ten minutes of nonstop searching, the three gave up.
"No good!" Kyoko panted as the heat was getting to her.
"So now how are we going to clean the room?" Akari asked between gasps for air.
"Guess I'll have to get some more cleaning stuff from the corner store down the road!" Kyoko cried. And with that, she zoomed out from her house and onto the road.
"Honestly.." Yui sighed.
"She'll be gone for awhile.." Chinatsu said.
"She probably won't even get to the corner store.." Yui thought aloud.
The two girls began to think abstractively of Kyoko
Yui began,"She'll see an Ice-cream truck.."
"Make a run for it.." Chinatsu continued.
"Lose sight of the truck.."
"..And wind up on the other side of town."
The two groaned.
"Well, since we're alone.." Chinatsu said in a strange, attempt at seductive tone.
Suddenly, Yui's eye was caught by something. Resting carelessly behind a paper towel roll was the cleaning supplies. Yui went to get it, leaving Chinatsu and her slightly puckered lips air-balled.
"That Kyoko.." Yui said restlessly.
The girls then began to clean minor parts of Kyoko's room, deciding they'd leave the big things for her as she left them.
As Chinatsu frustratingly ran a dust rag back and forth over Kyoko's desk, a picture frame appeared from what seemed to be nowhere. Somewhat surprised, Chinatsu picked up the frame to view the picture.
The picture was of a boy with seemingly soft blond hair and light blue eyes. He bared quite the resemblance to Kyoko and his smile was quite the enticing one.
The picture either a little old or taken in a dimly lit place, such as under a tree.
"Is this Kyoko?" Chinatsu thought. No, that wasn't her. Kyoko had long hair ever since she was a little girl and she was much more shy back then.
"Yui?" Chinatsu called out.
"What is it?" Yui asked while she folded a shirt of Kyoko's.
"Who's this?" She asked as she pointed to the picture.
Yui's face tensed up as she instantly recognized this boy as she met the gaze of the photo.
"Oh, that's Kyoko's brother.." Yui said stiffly.
"China, whatcha got there?" Akari asked cheerfully which seemed inappropriate for the newly made atmosphere. Akari then felt awkward and uneasy as she saw the picture.
"It's Ryota.." Akari said in a nostalgic tone.
"Ryota?" Chinatsu repeated.
"He's not here anymore.." Yui said as she took the picture from Chinatsu. She sat onto Kyoko's bed with Akari at her side.
"He has angel wings now.." Akari said while keeping her gaze on the photo.
"Oh brother, yet another stupid walk through Kyoko's memory lane." Chinatsu thought impatiently," Isn't this supposed to be a Yuri fic?"
"Oh Yui, I'm so faint~" Chinatsu said while falling onto Kyoko's bed as a last minute attempt to set the mood she wanted.
"I'll get some water!" Akari piped up as she arose," Yui, how about you tell her about Ryota?"
"Absolutely." Yui beamed.
Chinatsu pretended to have some interest in Yui's debatably true tale while mentally regretting asking of identity of the boy in the photo.
"Kyoko and Ryota were three years apart. They were just like any other pairs of siblings; they fought be it video games or not, laughed together, and occasionally argued. Kyoko claimed her first memory of her brother was that she was the first to touch his nose.."
"That sounds like her.." Chinatsu commented.
Yui chuckled," I remember the first time we met him.."
"Kyoko, you said we're going to your house today!" A four year old Akari cried. Her, Yui and Kyoko were standing under the shade of a tree near their favourite park, their meeting place.
"I did huh?" Kyoko chuckled shyly.
"I've never been to your house Kyoko." Yui stated.
"Neither have I!" Akari added.
"Alright," Kyoko began awkwardly," Well my house is that a way!"
As they began to walk, Kyoko felt herself grow anxious. It's not that she didn't want them to see her house, she was just scared they wouldn't accept how she was inside her house. Within the comfort of her own home, Kyoko was a completely different person. She was loud, and crazy, and carefree and recently she was having chasing wars with her brother. Maybe, she could just lead them the wrong way, then they'd would never get to her house. Oh, but that was no good, what if they lost? Kyoko sighed gently as they neared her house. Soon, they were at the front of Kyoko's house.
"Kyoko, this is your house?" Akari gawked in awe. It was just an ordinary house, no exotic colours, no sun room, maybe Akari was just easily excited.
"I've seen this home before," Yui said," Me and my mom drive past it a lot."
"Here goes.." Kyoko said under her breath as they reached the doorstep. She cautiously knocked on the door and her mom promptly opened it.
"Kyoko, welcome back!" Her mother beamed. She appeared to be the average housewife with hair shorter and darker than her daughters, along with hazel eyes.
"Hi mommy," Kyoko chirped as she walked into the house. Kyoko's mother was surprised with her daughter and her lack of excessive affection.
"As long as he doesn't show up, I'll be fine."
Kyoko and the two girls sat in the living room, accompanied with glasses of fruit juice on the coffee table.
After a few moments, the girls had their thoughts unified.
"Awkward."
"Kyoko, do you want to play house?" Yui suggested. Akari lit up and Kyoko pondered. House was their favourite game, but it never felt right playing house inside a park, so ideally, now would be the perfect opportunity. And as long as they kept themselves at a moderate volume, it'd be safe to play.
"Sure!"
"Can I be Kokoro the sister again?" Akari asked.
"Then I'll be your sister and Yui's best friend, Ramuko!" Kyoko exclaimed.
"But I don't want my name to be Yui," Yui frowned.
"Then we'll call you Kuroko!" Kyoko cheered.
Akari began to giggle before Yui caught on.
"Hey, did you just name me after my hair?" Yui questioned. The three girls began to laugh and suddenly, Kyoko heard small footsteps.
"Yoko, did you bring your friends over?" A voice belonging to what sounded like a three year old asked.
"Yoko?" Akari repeated.
"Who was that?" Yui asked.
Coming into the room was a little boy who looked a little bit like Kyoko but was probably only two feet. He stared at Akari and Yui until Kyoko reluctantly introduced the two.
"Guys, this is my brother Ryota. Ryota, this are my friends." Kyoko introduced.
Excitedly, Ryota walked up to Akari.
"Hi! My name's Akari." Akari, who seemed to be as excited as Ryota, said.
"Akawi!" Ryota shouted.
"Huh? No, Akari." Akari corrected Ryota but he seemed to be no longer listening.
"My name's Yui." Yui said as she tried to sound gentle, but friendly.
"Yui!" Ryota repeated.
Yui giggled at Ryota and Kyoko tapped her foot impatiently while Akari sobbed quietly.
"Yoko, mommy bought me a video game!" Ryota said excitedly," Wanna see it?"
"Of course I want to see it!" Kyoko said with more enthusiasm than she usually depicted herself with friends. After realizing she just exhibited her wild side for a moment, she crawled back into her bubble of insecurity.
"Ryota, can we see it too?" Yui asked nonchalantly.
Ryota and Kyoko beamed at Yui and they began to watch Ryota play his first video game.
"Ryota and Kyoko also had nicknames for each other, but Kyoko's nickname caught on a bit more because Ryota was to young to pronounce Kyoko's name right." Present day Yui added.
"Yoko!" A two year old Ryota pointed to Kyoko.
"I'm not Yoko!" Kyoko growled impatiently," My name's Kyoko."
Ryota's eyes began to look glossy as he gazed up at Kyoko but after a minute he spoke in his typical cheerful tone again.
"Yoko!"
Kyoko slapped her forehead in disgrace. She took a deep breath.
"Well, fine." Kyoko declared," If I'm Yoko, then you're Yota!"
Ryota pouted," Yoko!"
"Yota!"
"Yoko!"
"Yota!"
The nickname argument went on for twenty more minutes.
"Ryota himself wasn't anything out of the ordinary, and they weren't the dream pair of siblings. But I always envied Kyoko and her brother because she could never get lonely. She also became really good at video games because he forced her to play, and like his sister, Ryota turned into an otaku but to a lesser extent. And, even though Kyoko's pretty smart, she hated helping Ryota with his homework."
"Kyoko, you seem out of it today," Akari noted.
Kyoko, with nearly black bags under her eyes slowly turned her head to Akari's direction: What are ya talking about?
"Did somebody have to help Ryota with his homework?" Yui giggled.
"Uh, he's just so stupid sometimes! He can't solve long division questions and he can barely count syllables!" Kyoko moaned," But that's not why I have these bags."
"Did you get to watch the series premiere of the new anime Mirakurun last night then?" Akari asked while chuckling.
"Yup!" Kyoko said enthusiastically," I loved it so much, I watched it on my computer over again twelve times!"
Yui flinched while Akari gazed at Kyoko in surprise.
"If it wasn't for that day when we met Ryota, Kyoko wouldn't have become the person she is today." Yui said.
"Boy, that might've just been a blessing." Chinatsu thought.
"But then, Ryota got very sick." Yui said in a new grim tone.
"Kyoko, can I borrow your math textbook for a minute?" Yui asked the blonde while they were on their lunch break.
They were in fifth grade now and still elementary students.
"Go for it. But you have to take it out." Kyoko said while winking.
Yui rolled her eyes as she searched through Kyoko's bag. She soon found the book, but she also found something peculiar. It was one of those germ masks that dentists would wear as they ripped your teeth out from your gums.
"Kyoko, what's this here for?" Yui asked.
"Oh, my brother has a fever so I bought a pack of these yesterday and I wore it almost all night." Kyoko grinned.
"Fevers aren't usually contagious." Yui deadpanned.
"Ah well, you can have it. Mom said his fever was probably a twenty-four hour thing." Kyoko said.
That day, Kyoko went home without a worry in the world.
"I'm home!" Kyoko shouted only to be shushed by her mother.
Confused, Kyoko walked upstairs where she found her mother at her ill sibling's bedside.
"Didn't he go to school today?" Kyoko asked.
"It seems like, he got worse." Kyoko's mother said in an almost devastated tone.
Ryota was asleep and Kyoko seemed to be unaffected by her sick brother.
"Don't worry, he'll be back up on his feet soon enough!" Kyoko cheered.
"But, he didn't bounce back up like Kyoko expected." Yui said," During the last ten days before he left Kyoko and her family, he complained about severe stomach pains and it seemed he had food poisoning. He was taken to the hospital about three days into his sickness and the doctors didn't have enough time to cure him. Kyoko sometimes wondered if he died from shock that the doctors said he wasn't going to live. She thought maybe it was a misreading and it was the doctors' fault that they.."
"But, Kyoko doesn't seem to ever grieve." Chinatsu pointed out in an almost skeptical tone.
"Yeah, I've noticed. I've always guessed she have time to worry about the losses life has." Yui thought aloud.
"Like hell I'm believing this." Chinatsu thought.
Kyoko sat at her brother's bedside with a depressed look on her face. There were so many things her brother was going to miss out on. His first day of high school, his first date, girlfriend, his first job, her wedding, her death. It wasn't fair, why was he getting taken from her? Did she not deserve a younger brother? Sure, she called him a stupid kid a lot and he screwed up a bunch of times, but..that didn't mean she wanted him gone. Who was going to play video games with her? Who was going to watch all of her favourite videos that were pointless to watch on her own? Who was going to understand all her parent problems better than him, who was going to be there?
"Kyoko, you still have a good life ahead of you." Ryota said weakly.
Kyoko looked up to him with tears in her eyes.
"You still have mom, and dad, and all of your friends. I know this sounds like a burden but now you have to keep mom happy, otherwise.." Ryota trailed off.
"But who's going to keep me happy?" Kyoko sniffled.
"You'll find something." Ryota smirked.
Kyoko bursted into tears in front of her brother.
"You can't grieve forever." Ryota warned," Life goes on, you'll want to go on. I know you can't stand anything out of your adventurous daily routine and you won't let yourself desert that. I wouldn't want you to desert that. I want you to stay the way you are because you're fun like and there's no one just like you. Please don't deprive the world of such of a person that you really are."
"But.." Kyoko sniffed,"..Is it ok to miss you at times, or, get reminded of you when I see a boy playing video games or those action figures, or when someone's eating your favourite cereal or when their getting embarrassed by their dad or when.."
"It's only natural." Ryota shrugged.
"Ryota!" Kyoko bawled.
She cried for the rest of the night and for the next day, and after his funeral, she pulled herself together as best as she could, knowing her brother wouldn't want it any other way.
"I'm back!" Kyoko shouted from downstairs. The girls dashed down seeing Kyoko with a box of pizza in one hand with three sodas in a clear bag around her wrist and an ice-cream cone in the other.
"She didn't even get the cleaning supplies." Yui and Chinatsu observed.
"Huh? Ah, well. When I went out, I remembered where my mom left the cleaning supplies and I was already too far away to just walk back so I thought I'd buy us something to eat." Kyoko said sheepishly.
The girls ate and then after that, they went back to cleaning.
"Woah, my room's sparkling!" Kyoko marveled.
"You still have your closet to clean." Yui reminded.
Kyoko's jaw dropped and then she fell to her knees.
"Yui please! Don't make me clean the closet by myself! It's take all day! I might get eaten alive!" Kyoko whined.
"Alright, alright! We'll only take stuff out." Yui declared.
"Thank you Yui!" Kyoko gasped in relief.
They all began to take things out from Kyoko's closet and goodness, was it ever packed. It took them an hour to take everything out but thankfully, nothing seemed too heavy, except for one item wrapped in a shirt that clearly didn't rightfully belong to Kyoko. As Chinatsu lugged out the item, she cautiously checked to see what was inside. Inside the wrapped up shirt was a Nintendo 64, along with a copy of Pokemon Snap.
"Kyoko, why do you have this?" Chinatsu asked.
"Chinatsu, don't touch that!" Kyoko snapped while startling everyone in the room.
"Sorry, sorry!" Kyoko apologized,"..It's just.."
"..this belonged to someone very important."