Chapter 1
'So, did y' hear the story of the Kuroba twins?
As like each other as two new pins,
Of one womb born, on the self same day,
How one was kept and one given away?
An' did you never hear of how the Kurobas dies,
Never knowing that they shared one name,
'Till they day they died, when a mother cried
My own dear son's lie slain.
An' did y' never hear of the mother, so cruel
There's a stone in place of her heart?
Then bring her on and come judge for yourselves
How she came to play this part'
Chikage Kuroba smiled to herself as she pulled a scarf around her neck looking at a photograph on the wall. It showed her and her late husband Toichi, who passed one month ago in an accident at work, with a few other young children around them.
After Toichi had died, Chikage had been struggling raising the children alone, it was 1960 Liverpool and nearly everyone was being clawed at by the depression and with her being an only parent she had little control over her children and was frequently told to keep them under control. She looked down at her stomach and rubbed it "Maybe now with a job we can get some more money coming in," She said softly to her unborn child who sat in her stomach.
She then opened the door to see the milkman stood infront of her, with a very irate expression. Her face instantly became worried as she knew what he was here for, but the man interrupted her before she could start
"Now listen, don't go giving me some sob story I've heard enough to write a book of them love!" He held out his hand expectantly "But you owe me £3.17 and if you don't pay up then I won't be giving you no more milk!"
Chikage looked at him pleadingly "Oh please no!" She begged "Not with the baby on the way! I'm starting my job today so next week I'll be able to pay you!"
The milkman sighed "If 'Next Week' ever came 'round here I'd be a millionaire," He muttered turning around "I've warned you, no money no milk."
Chikage watched the leaving figure of the milkman and placed her hand on her stomach again "Butt next weeks coming for us, now we can live better." She reached behind her and shut the door quietly "We'll live like Marilyn Monroe."
Yukiko Kudo walked into her large house's living room holding a parcel in her hands. She looked up and smiled at Chikage who was currently cleaning the large black grand piano. "Good morning Chikage" She said friendly to her "Is the job alright for you?"
Chikage looked up and smiled at Yukiko "Oh yes, it's a lovely house" She said placing a vase of flowers on top of the piano "Its so much bigger than my small little house."
Yukiko smiled sadly "Yes it is, almost too big"
"Ah, with your husband Yusaku travelling abroad? When is he due back?"
Yukiko looked thoughtful for a moment "Well, the trip lasts nine months so he'll be back in about five." She placed the parcel down on the table "But it's still too big, we bought the house for children, we thought there'd be children coming along."
Chikage frowned in confusion "There's always the chance…"
Yukiko shook her head sadly "No, we've been trying for such a long time now. I wanted to adopt but Yusaku won't hear of it, he said he wants his own child." Yukiko looked up sadly "But I feel than any child can become your own,"
Chikage chuckled slightly "We're a right pair aren't we? Here's you wanting kid but you can't, and me expecting with too many already." Yukiko began unwrapping the package "But don't worry, I wont need time off. I like working here and now we'll be able to just get by…"
Chikage looked in horror as Yukiko placed the packages contents, a pair of shiny black new shoes, on the table "Mrs Kudo, hurry get them off!"
Yukiko looked up in surprise and confusion "What's wrong?"
"The shoes, the shoes!" Yukiko just stared in further confusion "New shoes on the table, take them off!"
Yukiko picked up the shoes from the table and Chikage sighed relived. Yukiko chuckled "Chikage, are you by chance superstitious?"
Chikage looked up quickly "No no, but you should never put new shoes on the table."
Yukiko smiled kindly at her as she turned to leave the room "Then I'll go put them in the cupboard upstairs then."
Chikage watched as Yukiko left the room and then slowly walked to the table where the shoes had just sat. She placed one hand in the spot where the shoes where, and then subconsciously rubbed her stomach with her other, as if comforting her unborn child.
'There's shoes upon the table, an' a joker in the pack.
The salts been spilled and a looking glass cracked,
There's one lone magpie overhead,
"I'm not superstitious"
The mother said
"I'm not superstitious"
The mother said
This is a sort of request for AkemiXchan who asked for a fic where Shinichi and Kaito are brothers, so eventually I picked out Blood Brothers, a play by Willy Russell which is set in Liverpool around 1960-1980.
I really like this play and have seen it multiple times and studied it in literature, but if you don't like how this is going AkemiXchan just let me know and I'll do something different.
The parts in italic are quotes from the book (obviously with the name Johnston Twins changed to the Kuroba Twins.) and are placed there in correspondence to where they are in the play, so that at the top is from the opening of the play.