Author's Note
I know what many of my followers are thinking right now. "What the hell, Username?! I followed you to read Kiriko/Sinon and/or Kiriko/Argo, why are you posting a story of a pairing you've already made public that you don't even like?!"
But in my defense, especially towards my readers who followed me for Kiriko/Sinon… I don't really like that pairing (or Sinon in general but that's another story) either. So this isn't really a big deviation from normal, you know?
For those of you who came here specifically for the Kiriko/Suguha or aren't mentally flipping me off for pairing deviation… I present to you the warnings for this story that aren't already in the summary. Some of them are standard for me whilst others are unique to this fic.
Kirito is female. Don't like, don't read. This is in the summary but I'm saying it again because it's really important.
The main pairing (Kiriko/Suguha) is going to take a very long time to come to fruition. I mean, they're sisters, so it's incest in addition to yuri, and honestly, love between siblings really doesn't happen overnight. It's usually a much more gradual thing, and that's what I'm going for here.
Some relationship dynamics in this story are just plain terrible. I don't mean poorly written, I mean that they're literally bad relationship dynamics. As in, the kind you generally want to avoid having. I'm doing that on purpose, but it's not something I often do like this, so if it's unrealistic, I'm sorry.
I think that's it. If you don't mind all those things, then go ahead and read the story. Do temper your expectations a bit though for this chapter, it's basically just me setting up the story, which means I had to dump some info… well, I didn't absolutely have to, but it will sure make this AU more understandable for you, so don't complain too much.
Even Though We're Sisters
Chapter One: Like Mother Like Daughter
For as far back as she could remember, Suguha Kirigaya had always been practically glued to her big sister. More so than she ever clung to even her mother. It didn't help that said mom almost never came home from work while they were awake starting when the younger sibling turned four, but even if she had been around more, Suguha believed she still would have stuck to her sister more.
There were a lot of qualities to admire in the older sibling, Kimiko. She easily became amazing at almost anything she tried. She was nearly always honest and straightforward, and at least when she was dealing with Suguha, she never got mad. When she wasn't mad, she was incredibly selfless and kind, often to a self-sacrificial extent. And as she got older, she grew to be stunningly beautiful as well.
However, all of those things developed after Suguha became attached to her. While each one of them admittedly only made them connect deeper in the end, none of them were the source of that connection. Sometimes the younger sibling wondered where the connection came from – they weren't twins, and in most ways, they weren't very similar, but they weren't polar opposites, either. But no matter how much she wondered about it, the bond was still there.
But because she was normally so honest, it was easy to tell when she was lying if you knew what to look for. And because she was so straightforward, it was easy to tell when she was suffering.
And unfortunately, moments of suffering seemed to be the only time when Kimiko wouldn't let anybody in through her rare yet impenetrable walls, no matter how close they normally were.
"Watch what you say a little more, auntie."
Upon first walking in through the front door of her own house at somewhere close to midnight, this was the greeting Kirigaya Midori got. Nothing said 'Welcome home!' quite like being immediately rudely ordered around by one's fifteen-year-old niece, who was raised as one's own daughter.
The mother and aunt, tired from work, let out a great sigh as she looked to the end of the wood-floored foyer and saw the very niece who just gave her orders, Kimiko. She wouldn't be able to go further into the house without getting past her. Talk about being blocked at the point of entry – her escape routes aside from straight up leaving again had been cut off, as usual. If she wanted to go to bed any time soon, she'd have to either push past or somehow talk the girl into moving. And she hated turning to force as a parenting method, which cut down her options by one.
"What are you even talking about?" Midori knew from the moment the words left her mouth that she was going to regret asking, but she didn't take it back. She'd had a hard day at work, so blowing off some steam through an argument would be good for her.
"On the phone, during the regular four o'clock call," Kimiko began recounting whatever had her upset, nearly glowering as she spoke. "When Sugu said I'm awesome at whatever I try, you said, and I quote, 'she gets it from her mother.'"
"So what? You do."
It was the truth. Before she got killed, the glossy black-haired teen's mother – Midori's sister – had been just as perfect as the teen herself. Never bad at anything, always the best at everything she put even a little effort into. She was smart, fast, strong, beautiful – the list went on and on. She always took up all their father's attention with how utterly amazing she was.
And Kimiko was growing up to be exactly like her in every way, so much so it was infuriating. Just when she was free of the one person she was always incredibly jealous of, fate gave her a carbon copy to raise herself. Life really was anything but fair.
"That may be, but that's not what I have a problem with," the teen dismissed, eyes smoldering with barely-restrained, ferocious anger. "Don't try to take credit for someone else. It makes your soul look unfathomably ugly to the people who catch it."
"Excuse you? You may have quoted me, but you clearly don't understand what I said," Midori countered, anger of her own beginning to build – at both her niece and at the whole situation. "I just said you got it from your mother. I never claimed to be that person."
"To everyone but the two of us, it's obvious that's exactly what you were trying to imply!" Kimiko shot back twice as burning hot without missing a beat. "We are literally the only two people in the world who know and remember that you're not my mom!"
The older woman would have brought up that clearly there were other people who knew – like the people she filed for Kimiko's adoption with – but the teen's comment about remembering it took care of that counter-argument in one fell swoop. The other people who did know about it either had no interest in holding onto that knowledge or were dead and therefore couldn't say anything. Speaking of which…
"I don't know why you're so mad about it. The call was on the home phone. With your grandpa dead, the only one around to hear anything I said was Suguha," the older woman, with fairly limited options, decided to dismiss the whole thing at once.
The fifteen-year-old beauty merely crossed her arms – a sign that she showed she knew she was winning the argument. "Call me crazy, but I like it when people don't tell or imply lies to my sister."
Of all the things Kimiko had said so far, this one was perhaps the most offensive. Not because she was calling Midori a liar – that, she'd long since gotten used to – but because of what she called Suguha, despite what the younger girl called her.
"Why is it that you call me 'auntie' now, but you call Suguha your sister, even though you know that's the wrong word?" said aunt asked, voice harsh and critical to mask the pain she felt inside.
"Because unlike with you, I can actually describe the bond Sugu and I have like that."
The words were very calm and calculated, yet also severe and as sharp as a razor blade. Midori knew she literally asked for them, but… even if it was not the first time she'd heard it and certainly wouldn't be the last, it didn't make it hurt any less.
And when this particular woman was hurt, she didn't cry or go off to be alone. Those options left her too vulnerable when dealing with a child as utterly relentless and merciless as Kimiko could be when she was angered. Instead of leaving herself open to further attacks, she defended herself by lashing out in turn.
"Wow, how nice for you two," she scoffed bitterly, turning around as if to leave. "I think I may just leave you alone to fend for yourselves and nurture that sisterly bond of yours."
"Was that supposed to scare me or something?" the teen retorted, seemingly unfazed by the action. The more she spoke, the louder her voice got. "Go ahead and do it! That's fine with me! Or have you forgotten that while you've been away at work all these years, I've basically raised your kid for you?! I don't care if you leave because you were never really here to begin with!"
At that exact moment, Midori wished she really could leave. She wished she could leave her home, her job, the whole country, and just start over somewhere else, all by herself. But she was stuck – she couldn't just leave Suguha alone. To hell with Kimiko, miss perfection the second. Even if she wasn't particularly close to her daughter, she still cared for her.
"Be careful what you wish for, kid. It just might happen one day."
It was ultimately an empty threat, and she knew even as she said it that this would be obvious to the one hearing it. The teen had always been a scarily accurate lie detector even when she had almost nothing to go on.
"Yeah, keep telling yourself that," Kimiko responded exactly as her aunt had expected. "I've got school tomorrow and you've got that work of yours. It plays into your favor that neither of us like to be late for those. See ya."
She spit the word 'work' out like it was venom on her tongue, and then just as suddenly as the argument started, it stopped. Kimiko left to go back to the room she shared with her sister, and after a few moments of footsteps echoing through the hallways, all traces that she was ever there at all were gone.
Or, at the very least, all physical traces. The wounds she left on Midori's heart were still alive and almost literally kicking. Well, to be frank, it felt more like they were stabbing. But after so many nights ended on such a note, she had long since grown used to it.
The defeated woman turned around again and walked to the end of the foyer. Going to sleep with a heavy heart was something she couldn't do in the past, but by this point, it had become just as common as falling asleep without any fresh wounds.
As she walked to her bedroom, Midori's eyes, as a matter of course, were drawn to a picture frame on the wall of the living room. Inside the frame was a photo of her, her kids at ages three and four, and her ex-husband before he left her. As the passed it by, like every night she fought with Kimiko, she wished she could go back to that time, back before everything fell apart at the seams.
A minute after the last shout, Suguha heard the sound of footsteps approaching her room. She immediately closed her eyes and slowed her movements and breathing, trying to pretend to be asleep. If she could convince Kimiko that the fight didn't wake her up, that would make it so much easier on the older sibling.
The bedroom door opened as soon as she finished that thought. Initially, everything went just fine – the older teen closed the door behind her, not-so-quietly walked up to their bed, raised the covers and crawled under them. Suguha felt the mattress shift to accommodate the new weight on it, and just as she thought she was in the clear…
"I know you're awake."
Suguha opened her eyes and looked to the side, meeting her older sister's compassionate gaze with a guilty look. There went the 'pretend to be asleep' plan. Not like it ever worked in the first place – her big sis could always tell when she was faking, and today was no exception.
"How long did you know?" after being so quickly exposed, she really couldn't help but ask.
"Since my first look after opening the door. I woke you up, right? Sorry you had to hear me fighting with Mom," Kimiko said, her voice soft and gentle, completely unlike her shouting of only a minute earlier. "I know it's hard on you when I don't get along with her."
"I didn't hear anything specific." It was true – she hadn't heard anything, even at the height of the shouting. They had a really big house, old as it was. It was one of the things their grandpa left them when he died. Only people with downright ridiculous hearing would be able to make out words shouted in the foyer from any of the bedrooms.
"That's good. Normally I'd tell you anything, but you're better off not knowing the details of my fights with mom. Sorry."
From anyone else, Suguha would have heard this and naturally grown incredibly curious, quite possibly trying to listen in on the next fight she woke up to. But from her sister, the words were taken and trusted at face value – if the intelligent, brutally honest, straightforward Kimiko said she was better off not knowing, then chances are she was right.
"It's okay, don't apologize for keeping me happy," the younger sister responded, shaking her head in a resigned manner. "I know that's what you're trying to do here. If it were okay to tell me, you'd have done it already."
"Thanks, I needed that dose of sunshine. Now I can sleep easy," the older girl said, closing her eyes as she finished with a yawn.
Suguha really couldn't resist picking that particular comment to harp on. With a smile on her face, she asked, "So sunshine makes you sleep?"
"That combined with the hypnotic voices of my third and fifth period teachers, yes," came the playful response. Of course, it got followed up with something a little bit more serious. "Speaking of which, I'm going to need to go to sleep soon if I want to make lunch, let alone third period. And you have school in the morning, too. Let's call it a night here."
She knew her sister was just saying half of that for her benefit. Kimiko could operate very well with as little as four hours of sleep, but the younger sibling needed more than that. With the knowledge that she was saying it all for her benefit, she really couldn't do anything but agree.
"Okay. Good night, Sis."
"Sweet dreams, Sugu."
Before the little sibling could ask, the other teen's left arm wormed its way under her neck as her right fell onto her waist. Suguha shifted in bed so her back faced her sister, then closed her eyes, the fatigue of being awoken from her night's sleep finally catching up to her.
Somewhere in the back of her head, she recognized that sisters sleeping in the same bed at this age was not normal – that many would call it weird. But all things considered, she didn't mind that as a small price for being as close to Kimiko as she was.
Suguha's last thought before drifting off was that she'd gladly pay any price to keep things with her sister as they were.
Author's Note
Something you may want to know is that I'm going to be writing in every significant character's perspective but Kiriko's. Mainly because I want to try making a story where the Mary Sue character doesn't get any narration. It's kind of a challenge to myself.
So hey, was this any good? Most of it was written while I was tired, and I didn't proofread, so I'm sure I let a few errors slip like usual. But I honestly think this chapter was fairly decent when it wasn't info dumping. Even so, I'm not really the judge of how good it is, so… let's see some reviews, people!
Well, I'm about done. I have to go to bed soon if I want to be able to do literally anything after I awaken. I totally pushed myself into a bad position by staying up late to finish this. I have somewhere to be next weekend and I want to be awake for it. Hurrah for sleep disorders…
See you next chapter!