A/N: Hello again!
Yes I'm not dead, just vanished off the earth for some months. A lot of my writing time has gone into this and not other projects I should have been working on XD
I wish they had a 'life' genre tag. Because this. It's just life and family.
Warnings: life happens, lots of flowy sentences and elaborations on eyes, all backstory made up, lots of emphasis on Nana's family who are OCs, every sort of style I could come up with to signal speaking except quotation marks, so much fluff, so much angst, made-up names galore, and all~ the timeskips.
Without further ado, here's the AU where nothing changes but Nana's life and Tsuna's outlook on family. Nothing changes in canon except feels and bonds. Aka, the story about Nana's life that nobody asked for.
(ps if y'all would live comment or put down your thoughts /as/ you read, I would die for you. Kill for you. Whatever you want. just it would be vv appreciated. esp on the two other parts we haven't gotten to yet.)
-.-.-.-
Family, Love (and sometimes letting go)
-.-.-.-
(Once upon a time, in a far-off parallel world, Nana grew up with a cold, neglectful uncle her only company. He never taught her anything about family. The only thing she learned was to never ever let go when she decided someone was hers, because they could be ripped away from her without any notice. She learned to be oblivious, because the most painful kind of betrayal is when someone you love decides you are not needed anymore once you notice something.)
-.-.-.-
"Her life wasn't all sunshine and rainbows, but she chased after bubbles when they came and smiled so big and wide nobody could feel sad in her presence, and that's all she ever really wanted."
-.-.-.-
Nana has a family.
She has the best family in the whole wide world, the best that anyone could ask for!
She is only five but she is already full of smiles and wonder and happiness, so much that she just has to share with others! Sometimes she trips but she always gets back up and smiles, tugs on her dress and runs back to her parents with a pealing laugh bursting with the joy of life.
She is a very eager, vivacious child. Her parents couldn't be prouder.
-.-.-.-
At three, Nana laughs and runs after the bubbles floating away from her. Come back, come back! she pleads with them, though it's garbled through her laughter and big heaving breaths. Her older sister Rentoka doesn't run as fast as Nana, certainly not as enthused with this bubble thing, but she does look amused and at least decides to go along with it for her little sister's sake. So Rentoka tags along after Nana, strolling unhurried compared to Nana's frantic scramble, with their kaa-san watching with twinkling love and delight-filled eyes and blowing more bubbles.
Nana never gets tired of witnessing the bubbles form and float away, but her energy for running does tire out eventually. She toddles over to her kaa-san, babbling happily, Rentoka approaching behind her, coolly popping one of the last bubbles that drifted in her direction.
Love kaa-san! Nana tries to exclaim. She doesn't think she quite gets it right, but that's okay, because kaa-san's face lights up in jubilation anyway. They beam at each other, and Rentoka crawls in her mother's lap. Tugging on her shirt, Rentoka asks about dinner.
Oh! kaa-san realizes. It is time to make dinner, otou-san will be home soon! Thank you for the reminder, Ren-chan! Let's see what we have in the pantry. Can you help me by playing with Nana-chan? Thank you, I'm so glad to have such beautiful, obedient daughters!
Nana learns the meaning of love at a very young age. She grows up surrounded by love and care and is all the better for it.
-.-.-.-
Nana has parents! She almost lost them, her father in a car crash and her mother to breast cancer, they tell her, but her father survived and had back surgery and her mother survived the cancer and chemotherapy. Even when her father is in a wheelchair and can't work, that's fine! Nemure Noriko is more than willing and capable to provide for her family of five, including her husband Nemure Harin.
Nana's kaa-san is a whiz with numbers. She is a very successful accountant. She is also a yamato nadeshiko, having given birth to two kids and having been a stay-at-home mom for years. Some of her hobbies are numbers, gardening, cooking, taking care of her hair, and playing with her kids. She is a lot like Nana, similar in personality and grace and love for the world around them, despite the girl having inherited her hair and eyes from Harin. Her face is all Noriko.
Nana's tou-san is a jovial man that chuckles a lot and has this perpetual ghost-of-a-smile on his face that isn't quite a full grin but counts as one. His words are slow like honey and warm you up from the inside the same way. It's when his voice pitches down and he Looks at you like he knows everything about you that things get serious. He used to do construction work. He loves to work with his hands. He is a hard-working person that used to go to work every morning and return every night exhausted but happy to do his duty for his family. It kills him that he can't go out and do hard work like that anymore, but he sets to learning to do other things with a determination that's helped him through many long hours of tedious, stressful, and backbreaking work before. After kaa-san and tou-san go into their bedroom and talk, tou-san comes out with puffy eyes and a wobbly smile and kaa-san emerges with an uplifting, life giving laugh. Kaa-san shows tou-san how to sew, and tou-san also learns how to whittle. A lot of the time in the beginning after the construction accident that took her father's legs' mobility he simply uses to adjust to their new lifestyle. That year, when she is eight, is characterized by dubious shifts and uncertainty. Then it settles down and he takes to reading, sewing, whittling, and playing with his children in his free time.
He takes the place that kaa-san used to fill, though he doesn't cook or garden and it's very hard for him to clean. He looks after them just as well as kaa-san did, if a bit differently.
Kaa-san is still kaa-san, though. It helps that her hours aren't nearly as long as tou-san's were, and they don't have to be because he sells most of what he whittles and a bit of the sewing. No one could replace kaa-san and the ways she laughs, cooks, and surprise-launches math problems at her children, trying to trip them up. Nana's hopeless with them, so she gets tripped up every time. She's not good at math, and she can't stop giggling whenever it happens. Kaa-san just looks so mischievous and happy! Nana shares the happiness!
(Nana is happy to have parents. One of the reasons is so she doesn't have to live with cold Uncle Yuuto. He hates children.)
-.-.-.-
The accident hasn't happened yet, and Nana is six and a half when kaa-san decides they are ready to go to their first family gathering.
Every month and a half, kaa-san's family drives in from all over Japan to a little shrine out in the middle of nowhere to hold a picnic and have a day of being family. The spot is open to the sky, large, and very pretty.
Kaa-san and tou-san have continued going to them even with little children for the most part, leaving Nana and Rentoka in the care of Uncle Yuuto. Rentoka is nine now and not very happy about not being able to go before this.
All four of them arrive at the shrine, the children silently excited and nervous. Rentoka and Nana stick together, slightly afraid, while kaa-san and tou-san go to talk with the other parents.
They see the other children, about fifteen of them, playing and running around. They nudge themselves closer to them inch by dreaded inch, eyes darting around and a strong temporary bond of nervous fear springing up between the siblings.
Then the others spot them and the jig is up; there's no going back now. All too soon the other children are right in front of them, surveying them with the haughtiness of children. One of them looks up at Nana's face and asks her, You guys are from the Kyorike family, right?
Yes, Nana says, puffing her chest out.
Our parents are Noriko and Harin, Rentoka adds, defensive.
Then all the others look up as if on cue and turn to each other. In a moment of understanding, they then face the siblings again and open their arms.
Then you're obviously alright, the same child who asked them the first question announces. She has light brown hair a little lighter than Nana's tied up in pigtails and a blinding smile. Let's play duck-duck-goose while we introduce ourselves! I'm Kyorike Jikase.
The children all bunch up into a circle, and with each "duck", a name is called. It's a lot of fun and a lot of names and Nana and Rentoka lose themselves to the joy of playing. Why were they so scared again? These kids are family, just like Rentoka is to Nana, and they've been accepted with open arms simply for that fact.
Family means acceptance, she realizes.
-.-.-.-
Nana is eight, almost nine, and the new lifestyle in the aftermath of the accident has barely settled down when kaa-san and tou-san act on their suspicions about what the new neighbors are doing to their foster child and Sukune is brought home with them.
This is your new brother, they tell Rentoka and Nana. Treat him well, for he is now family.
They are young, but Nana already understands much of what family means, acceptance and understanding and support. So when she sees the bruises dotting Sukune's skin, she smiles at him, hums a little, and runs to get the first-aid kit. When he flinches at loud noises and shies away from touches and curls up when someone raises a hand in front of him, when he whimpers and doesn't ever speak, Nana runs a calming hand down his back and gathers him up into her arms and sings softly in his ear until the bad things he sees go away, imitating kaa-san. She doesn't question, just smiles softly and understands and holds her kind, precious brother to her even during crying and screaming fits, longing to block every bad thing in the world from ever looking at her family.
Even when Rentoka doesn't quite get it the way Nana does and yells at her and him, DON'T YOU SEE HE'S NOT YOUR BROTHER, HE'S TAKING ALL THE ATTENTION, HE'S BROKEN AND HE CAN'T BE FIXED, IT'S BEEN YEARS, IT WILL NEVER GO AWAY AND HE'LL BE USELESS FOREVER, HE DOESN'T SHARE OUR BLOOD, AREN'T YOU DONE WITH TAKING CARE OF ALL OF HIS PROBLEMS YET, Nana doesn't give. It's been coming for a while, this big blow-up, and Rentoka needs to understand. So she explains it doesn't matter, he's family, we always support family, no matter what happens. Can't you feel the way that he needs us, that he needs the acceptance and love that only family can give?
And once Rentoka understands, she calms. She looks after Sukune more vigorously than Nana. Nana takes care of his emotional state and supports him, and Rentoka deals with bullies and tutoring and blunt truths.
-.-.-.-
Still, even she has doubts. Isn't blood family the strongest, the most important kind? What does that make Sukune? He is just as important to her as Rentoka.
Nana corners her parents and asks them for a solution.
It is her tou-san that answers first, surprisingly, with stillness and an ache in his eyes.
I had a family too, he responds, even though it's your mother's family that we go see on a bi-monthly basis. They were rich and did nothing with their time except spend money drinking and tricking others and wasting away. They were politicians and word masters and I was plain and had no head for political games. I was the first born son and they wanted me to fit in with them perfectly. Except I didn't and they did not like that at all. They spent much time and effort and money trying to convince me to be the perfect heir, and when I would not be convinced, they tried to force me. But I have a hardworking, free spirit that they could not chain or tame. So I ran away to do work with my hands that I could be proud of and create things that amazed me, all on my own merit. I did, and was exceedingly happy. When I married Noriko, an invitation was sent to them. They returned it with naught but three words of scorn. Who is this? was written on it... Noriko was a great comfort during that time. Tou-san's usually soft, loving, content eyes are reminiscing and hurt. Nana can't help throwing a hug around him and holding him tight. Kaa-san joins.
We sent a notification to them when we knew for sure I wouldn't be fully mobile anymore, tou-san continues, but they never replied. They never came searching for me.
Nana nods, starting to cry from the emotions in her tou-san. She feels like he has cried more tears over this issue than she ever could, but this issue has been worked past and gotten over and is no longer worth crying about to tou-san, so she cries this once and promises herself that she will never cry again for this reason.
Kaa-san bends down, still holding tou-san's hand and offering silent support, no less robust for that, and looks deeply into Nana's eyes.
Blood matters, but you can overcome it, kaa-san imparts to her, searching Nana intently for understanding. What matters in a family is love. Love and acceptance and support and so many other things. You can accept anyone as family. You get to choose who that is for you.
Blood matters most in the beginning, when you cannot change who you live with and you have to love them. But as you grow older and gain understanding and experience, blood matters less and who you choose matters more. Be careful of cutting blood ties, for once cut, they can never be reforged to their previous potency. But you do have the choice, and for your tou-san, that was the right choice.
These words reassure Nana, and she repeats them giddily, without the story, to her siblings. Though it will be a long time before any of them discover the full scope of meaning of them and actually consider using them, that night Nana and Sukune crawl into bed together and giggle late into the night, even allowing Rentoka to join them for a bit of cuddling.
-.-.-.-
Nana has always been intuitive. Emotions and picking out how other people feel are easy for her. Some people don't appreciate it, but they don't have to. She has her family, and she's fine.
She puts it to good use, helping people that look down, especially her family, and the talent grows the more she relies upon it. Her testimony of family and love grow every day with the examples set by her parents. She grows, smarter and lovelier and more intuitive by the day.
-.-.-.-
Nana has siblings, two of them, and they are wonderful, if sometimes annoying. Nana is the middle child. The oldest is Rentoka. The youngest is Sukune, a brother.
Rentoka has tou-san's eyes and kaa-san's hair and tou-san's mother's face, all except the eyes. She is thirteen. She doesn't see the world quite the way kaa-san and Nana do, filled with wonder and delight and new things every day, or even like tou-san, filled with things to do and be fixed. Rentoka sees the world as simply there, and a lot of times unfair. She's lazy if at all possible, and spends the majority of her time reading magazines, taking photos, taking care of her waist-length hair, or with her siblings. She's sarcastic and blunt and very fond of sleeping. Her grades aren't the best, but Rentoka already knows she's going to be a hair stylist, so she gets the grades needed to graduate respected and dismisses the rest as unimportant. Rentoka inherited kaa-san's knack for numbers, though, so she'll probably be fine when she opens up her hairstyling business. Kaa-san and Rentoka spend a lot of their bonding time doing each other's and Nana's hair. Despite having the easiest time of all of them managing her hair, Nana doesn't do much with it. They see that as a waste. Rentoka can really get things done fast though. She's quick and efficient so that she can go back to being lazy faster. Rentoka acts like she has a deathly fear of all things involving physical exercise, too. She's slightly chubby, but still astonishingly beautiful, and can't run faster than tou-san can roll in his wheelchair. Tou-san has won the majority of their races, actually. To make up for it, Rentoka absolutely adores motorcycles. She'll get one when she saves enough money. Even though she's not normally confrontational or strong, in defense of her family she packs a mean punch and kick.
Nana is eleven and hasn't quite entered puberty or the stage of life where she questions who she is and gains new depth to her personality. That will come later, she knows, but she is content for now. With tou-san's straight light brown hair and lively brown eyes, she looks harmless and lovely, the perfect yamato nadeshiko. She doesn't do much to dissuade this line of thought, picking up cooking and gardening and cleaning and humming from her mother. Reading is one of her hobbies too and she's quite proud of her vocabulary. She takes life as it comes and loves all sides it has to offer, with the wonder and relish that she's always had and will never fade. Her favorite animals are butterflies, for they remind her of herself a lot, and she gains a habit of dropping everything and running after them if one appears. She smiles often and brightly, with laughter to match, and her goal to spread joy and her view of the world goes accomplished more often than not. Joy just works that way, multiplying in leaps and bounds, and Nana can't keep it all inside! She has to share it, she has to see the smiles and happiness on other people's faces! That said, if someone threatens her family, a glint of something sharp can be seen lurking just under her smiling face, and she can practically tear out hearts when her talent with words and stories is put to good use. Not to mention the pranks she comes up with afterwards.
Sukune is seven. He's adopted but not any less family for that, though it takes a while to convince him. He has short wavy black hair and dark green eyes and a very obviously Chinese face. He gets bullied for that a lot and Rentoka slugs them across the face and Nana's smile gains an edge that gives the observant ones shivers. He is a little shy at first but bursts with as much energy as Nana when he gets going, if he feels comfortable with you. He shies away from physical contact from everyone but his immediate family, a consequence of abuse that will probably never fade. And he goes completely red when someone compliments him, so the family does it often. Sculpting is his artistic hobby, besides knowing how to do the minimum of at least three hairstyles and practicing regularly. (No one can escape those moments. Tou-san braids kaa-san's hair and the goes back to whittling in a corner. Sukune usually tries to escape to the corner with him, and usually they let him go, but sometimes they don't and teach him to do hair, even kicking and screaming.) He's only beginning at sculpting now, but Nana has faith that it will grow into something beautiful. He's picked up tou-san's love of working with his hands and working hard, combined with kaa-san's passion for nursing plants and earth and his own favor for artistic flair and colors. Nana would put half her spice collection on Sukune becoming a landscaper. He's not very manly, but that doesn't matter. He has the examples of tou-san and cousins and other men in the family to go to when he needs advice, and the whole family has faith that Sukune will be a blessing and a good provider for his future family. His voice is soft and rich and baritone, and he and a select few cousins like Mekura and Futese are the only ones that have talent in singing in the family.
They are family, above all, and they love and support each other and do all that family is supposed to do for one another, even occasionally needlessly antagonise each other. They are human, with gaping faults that are only too obvious, that they wish didn't have to be dealt with, but they accept each other wholeheartedly and with open minds, and that never fades.
-.-.-.-
Twelve-year-old Nana doesn't have a best friend in the traditional sense of the word. Instead, she has her family, siblings and parents and cousins, aunts and grandparents and tiny nephews. Her siblings are closest, of course, by virtue of spending the most time together when kaa-san is at work and tou-san is whittling and reading. Her parents are only a little less precious to her, because they find plenty of time to share with each other, with their whole family, despite being horribly busy. They dedicate themselves to it.
The other tweens at school don't get it. They groan about their siblings and profess their undying hate, wear it like a badge, but all Nana can think is, that's so sad. They can't stand the people they live with? Do they feel loved and accepted at home? … How do they live? Some of them actually do appreciate and love their families, but Nana can't stop pitying those who don't. She makes sure to give them extra-bright smiles in the hallway and hug her family more in front of them.
Some of them get it, but they don't seem to have the easy camaraderie that the Nemure siblings do, the well-known-like-your-comfiest-shoes inside jokes and familiar, half-meant punches on the arm where you know every seam and worn edge. Nana's best friends are her siblings, and she doesn't need anyone else. She's friends with everyone and no one at school.
(And when they mock her sometimes for it, or joke that she's closer to her siblings than anyone else, it slides right off her. She doesn't care if they don't approve, doesn't really care for their opinions at all.)
Sukune and Rentoka are hers, her lifeblood, the people that will always be there for her. They grew up around each other, in a way that someone not being there is unthinkable and unimaginable. With the removal of one person, they might be completely different people. Their bonds are deep and seemingly impenetrable, invulnerable.
-.-.-.-
What with spending a weekend every two months together, it's not surprising that the family and cousins grow close together.
It goes unsaid but definitely acknowledged that Rentoka, Nana, and Sukune are siblings and thus have a tighter bond with each other than with the other cousins. It's like that with all the siblings there.
However, there are a few only children there. They usually band together, acting like their own sibling 'clique'. Rentoka is not a bashful person, and when she finds something interesting to potentially prod at she will only be dissuaded with a maiming or death, despite her laziness. So of course she finds this clique interesting, and decides to drag her siblings into it too. Apparently she decided the best way to deal with this would be information gathering and chose to start right off the bat when they arrived. Everybody had gotten there but it was early enough that the grown-ups were still talking and hadn't gotten anything started yet.
Hmm, this might be fun! twelve-year-old Nana muses, eyes bright, being dragged along by the wrist. Just be careful not to overdo it, Ren!
Ren grunts. Nana giggles a little and doubts she has any plans of softening her personality at all.
I don't see what I have to do with this, Sukune says, having gained some confidence since the abuse (Nana is so proud! His confidence might still be a bit lacking now, three years after adoption, but it's definitely preferable to the trembling fits and flinches she had to deal with. She suspects Sukune is also rather glad to be over that stage. He has yet to make sarcastic comments to anyone else other than immediate family and people he implicitly trusts, but this gathering might change that. He's been very courageous these last few weeks), and currently firmly entrenched in the sisters-have-cooties-and-do-things-I-don't-want-to stage (Nana kind of regrets that he was never young enough while with them to be in the I-love-you-big-sister-forever-and-always stage, however muh he loves them. Supposedly he would have gone along with their antics better then), even though he's not nearly as manly as he would like to think, and doesn't need to be. Nana needs to get that into his head. Nobody but bullies care whether a boy is masculine or not, and his interests should matter more than other people's opinions. Then again, she's probably underestimating the obvious verbal abuse. I'd rather be with the other boys.
Shh! Rentoka patronizes, not listening to anything not to do with her mission. Don't scare them off.
Sukune rolls his eyes but doesn't say anything else. Nana secretly theorizes that he's not as deeply into the I-don't-do-things-with-my-sisters mentality as previously thought, and is glad to be going with them. Just a bit.
They finally arrive, and Rentoka drops their wrists abruptly in front of Kyorike Yukine, Kyorike Tomino, and Sarime Kanheko. Neither Nana nor Sukune manages to remain upright. Nana accepts it with a little laugh, while Sukune pouts. Most likely, he thinks it's a fierce manly scowl. It's adorable.
Hello! Rentoka says, like they haven't known each other for over five years. You know our names, and we know your names, and we've played together a lot and we're good friends and cousins and stuff but we wanted to hang out with you and get to know you better! 'Cause it'd be cool! Rentoka beams at this idea, Nana also adopts the expression, and the people they approached look hesitant but sort of amused because they do know Rentoka and her personality, they're just not used to dealing with her so directly. And Sukune pouts more and mumbles don't lump me in with you.
(Okay, it's cute to a point, but it's getting old fast. This Sukune feels wrong, like he's forcing his personality to change for other people. Which is probably what it is. There have been little hints dropped about this personality change in the past few weeks, like refusing to braid hair, gardening less but still glancing longingly outside at the plants, and even not being as enthusiastic about whittling. She needs to assure him that he's perfectly acceptable and fine as soon as possible. It might not be to a certain amount of other people, but Nana couldn't care less. Sukune is her little brother, and she has more of a claim to him than some gender stereotyping strangers. Family supports and accepts each other, she knows this, she just has to get Sukune to acknowledge it too.)
Kanheko gives a nervous little grin and her okay. Yukine and Tomino glance at each other. Tomino nods coolly and Yukine fist-pumps the air, giving an enthusiastic, I don't see why not! Let's do it! (Nana privately thinks it has something to do with the way they were awkwardly standing around before that. Well, Yukine was on a GameBoy, but he wasn't interacting, and if it was possible to play a GameBoy awkwardly, then he was.)
They sit down together and start talking. Favorite colors, hobbies, anime, school. They get into memories eventually, and share ones from former gatherings and individual families and school situations. When the time comes to play volleyball, they decline to join the game and decide to just watch while finishing their conversation. As they grew older, the gatherings became more relaxed in that you gradually didn't have to participate in what the other kids your age were doing. Or at least there was less resistance. Since they're almost teenagers, their group is a substantial amount of people, and they clearly want to continue this "getting to know each other better" thing, the other preteens leave them to it with minimal fuss. Sukune untangles from them at one point to rejoin the younger children, but the important thing is that he participated at all and will be more comfortable with the only children when they inevitably intrude on the Nemure family life a lot more than formerly. There's much time yet to get to know them, anyway.
All the kids from the same age group have sat down and done things like this before, not to mention the family circles they have before departing each gathering, but this is on a smaller scale, more private, and therefore more personal and make-friends-not-just-be-cousins-y.
They break up after lunch when they filter back to the other preteens or their parents or the other people they choose to interact with at this time, but it becomes a Thing. They spare each other at least a few hours every family gathering to talk about stuff that goes on. Once they get comfortable enough with each other, they debate on things like the meaning of life, religion, and sexual identity. They eventually become a Group that meets outside of gatherings and goes to do stuff together. They become best friends. And that's how it happened.
-.-.-.-
About a day later after that fateful family gathering, Nana has nothing to do. It's a quiet moment, and Sukune has just arrived home from school. She allows him enough time to put his stuff away and then departs to see him.
I know you think you have to be a man, she starts earnestly, leaning forward on the bed close to Sukune's wide green eyes below her. They stare intently up at her, even as his face is set in a defiant mask, ready to drink up her every word and rejoice or begin the process of putting himself back together again after a big verbal breakdown of his perceived weaknesses. She internally winces. but that's not exactly true. If you want to, that's fine, there's nothing wrong with that.
I want to! He speaks loudly, tossing his head, in desperate denial. I don't see why you have to have this conversation with me! Don't reject me, please, I thought I could trust you - ! is what Nana picks up underneath. She catches his arms and waits until he calms down enough to focus again before continuing.
There's nothing wrong with that, she states again in a firm tone, Sukune calming even more and his eyes widening and uncovering more emotion the longer she talks to him. But if you don't feel like all the machoness is for you, and prefer to be a little softer and not roughhouse all the time, that's completely okay. It's fine. We will still love you the same, we're your family! That's what we're here for. None of us will dislike you if you want to garden and whittle and sing! Those are perfectly acceptable things for a boy to do! I will get Rentoka to beat up anyone who says otherwise, Nana proclaims imperiously, nose in the air, and Sukune gives a watery little chuckle. Those limits of what only girls can do and what only boys can do don't apply in our family. We do what makes us happy, and because it makes you happy, whatever you like to do is accepted. It makes us happy to see you happy.
Really? Sukune asks with large awe-filled, wondering eyes. He looks down, and speaks in a soft, vulnerable voice, before trying to cover it up and failing miserably. I mean, not that I would ever need anything like that. That emotional stuff is for girls, he says. (Nana finds the urge to sic Rentoka on the person who forced him to conform to these standards increasing, and she decides not to fight it. Now she just needs a name.) Sukune looks up at her again with those adorable eyes, and she melts. His voice regains the vulnerable quality, and he fidgets with the edge of his blanket. But if I did, you promise that's true?
Promise, Nana confirms, and kisses Sukune's tears away discreetly, hugging him thoroughly before leaving the door ajar when she departs. Sukune had held onto her tight and full of relief. It might take a few days, but it will sink in. Nana smiles.
-.-.-.-
She is thirteen when she finally takes her mother aside and asks, in the early morning over a cup of tea when no one else is awake, why she is so cheerful and seemingly uncaring about tou-san's condition. Isn't it a lot of work and hassle? she asks, wondering. Why would you put up with all that for so long?
Nana has seen how sometimes tou-san needs help to do things like go to the bathroom or shower or change clothes. Every day, kaa-san deals with it, uncomplaining and at complete ease. She did things like that in the early stages for Sukune, too. It's been years and years and Sukune is much better and doesn't need nearly as much maintenance as he used to. Nana is glad for that, as it was very tiring and draining. Tou-san's condition will never go away, not even a little bit. How is she not worn down by now?
Kaa-san looks back at her with the resilient eyes of a woman who has borne much and knows secrets of life and children and growing up, and smiles a brilliant smile. Nana is taken aback. She wonders again how her mother could bear all this with such a happy, dedicated smile, this burden that Nana would have broken down under.
Kaa-san leans into her daughter, enough that their foreheads touch, and her hands come up to cup her daughter's face. The smile softens and kaa-san's eyes brighten and soften and hold endless wisdom. In that moment, Nana has her answer; she doesn't need to hear anything from her mother.
Flashes of actions replay themselves, laughter and tears and years of being pushed on swings and hugged. She remembers caring for Sukune in the beginning, endless patience, picked up from following kaa-san's example, and explaining to Rentoka why she took care of him when he shivered and was vulnerable. Family, she thinks. Love. Oh. She still looks at her mother, gazing in wonder and silence and feeling the love and protectiveness of a mother.
Kaa-san releases a breath onto Nana's mouth and breathes in deeply again. Her eyes twinkle and shine and tell her daughter they see that she realizes. Still, she answers, in a soft feminine whisper that does not need to stay feminine but there's a special kind of relationship for women in a family, so it does.
Family, she whispers, love. Because love makes you capable of doing almost anything, even when you could not have done it with all the strength in the world before. Because family means supporting each other forever, even in ways that you never dreamed you would have to do or that you never wish you would have to.
What is my husband's physical condition compared to the love we share, compared to our Will and Resolve to live on and be there for our family?
And Nana nods, overwhelmed by the answer that has more to it than she ever expected and more emotion than she was prepared to process. She ends up ignoring the rest of her tea and going around the table to sit in kaa-san's lap and cuddle until all her tears are spent and she finishes absorbing the perfect, beautiful answer that she knows is right.
-.-.-.-
After lunch one time when she is fourteen and just starting to really question the mechanics of family and love, she sits by the elders and just listens to them talk. They're all swapping stories of when they were young, or what their kids were like, or how they raised their children. In each story, Nana can find a lesson on love and family, and so she sits there, silently, intently absorbing everything they have to share.
The next time she approaches them to quietly take an unobtrusive seat in their circle to simply listen, the elders turn to her with wise eyes spiraling with wisdom and brimming with lessons, and talk. What's a young thing like you doing, wasting away in the corner and listening to ancient ones talk, while you could be running around with others? they query, and Nana says, I am here to learn about family and love.
Their ancient eyes light with understanding and gentleness, and they tell her many tales about family, all of which she draws good lessons from. Some give her precepts directly.
Love and family go hand in hand.
You can withstand anything if you have family to stand alongside you.
You do the best you can for your family, even if it's not enough.
Sometimes to support them you have to go against them and what they think they want.
And sometimes letting go, one whispers to her before releasing her for the day when it is time to go home. Their eyes glint and shine and there are mystical little smiles on their faces. She can tell they have dearly enjoyed teaching and sharing with her.
Thank you, she bids them before returning to her tiniest, most closely knit family. She spends quite a while of the next week pondering over their words and striving to apply them in real life, and she discovers more and more that most of the lessons have already been in place in her life and family for some time. Some of them, however, she does not understand, not yet, though she will. She will discover them later and look back on her ancestor's whispers, and laugh at their wisdom in wonder.
Every once in a while, she still spends the afternoon of the family gathering day settling down on the fringes of the elders and absorbing what they have to teach her. She does not speak much, though many opportunities are given to her. She is there to learn.
Eventually Rentoka grows curious, and comes once to listen with her and play with their hair. After that, she comes with Nana every time to be guided and stuffed with stories of mishaps and hardships, silent strength and overcoming. A few other cousins pick up this habit, but not many. Most find it boring and cannot find or taste the love and family in the stories.
But Nana can. She is an emotionally attuned young woman, and her life is devoted to love and family. Rentoka is not as good, but she still picks many up, and when she doesn't, Nana leans over their clasped hands and shares in her ear the little phrases that make up the heart of the anecdotes. Many of them repeat, the same lesson story after story, and somehow Nana never grows tired of them. Somehow Nana always manages to listen with rapt, never-slipping attention, wondering and pondering and thanking every god she knows that she feels love and family every day.
-.-.-.-
When she is fifteen, something unthinkable happens. Tomino calls with the news that his father has died. His voice is oddly subdued, even for Tomino, who tries not to speak as much as he can get away with and has a rather flat tone when he does.
The news hits all of them hard. That was their uncle, and part of their family. He was kinda formal and laconic, but he had the best deadpan sense of humor that added to family-wide discussions. They all knew him relatively well. Though the adults have gone through many family deaths and that will continue to be the case, this is the first that has impacted Nana, the first time it was really someone she knew. As shocked as Nana is, she holds more pity for her best friend and cousin, who is the only son and despite only being a year older than her has to plan the wake and funeral and everything else. His mother died when he was a baby and all he had left was his father. He was a man that had worked tirelessly, much like tou-san, to support his family, and Tomino loved (loves) him deeply. It's a good thing that Tomino is already eighteen and was going to move out anyway.
The wake and funeral are dreary and everyone wears black. It ends up raining. Everyone who still goes to the family gatherings comes anyway, even old Grandpa Riwe who's paralyzed from the waist down and Uncle Genusu who sits in the corner and glares at the others in family gatherings, but doesn't do much to dissuade the children that come up to him and pester him for cool war stories. Other than the family, nobody comes, because Tomino's father was a very private person and did not interact with many other people than his family.
Their little group of only children and the Nemure siblings stay with Tomino through it all, and when it's all over and Tomino carries the urn full of ashes back to his house, they collapse in the living room together, laughing and crying and just being there for Tomino as he grieves harder than any of them.
Nana is solemn for once, pondering heavily and just supporting her friend in his suffocating silence. She contemplates all the advice the family elders have imparted to her, and the fragility of life. She broods over feelings and desolation and how quickly your whole manner of living can change, one tragedy and your life ruined until you find the courage and motivation to get back up again. She has never been so grateful for her parents and their realistic, purposeful, relentless focus on their family and never letting their children suffer for their accidents or mistakes. They take life and do the best they can with it, no matter what happens, and they have thrived. Nana wants to be like that.
Tomino clings to Nana and Yukine as he cries himself to sleep. Nana holds him and sings to him, comforting just like she used to Sukune, except tailored to fit circumstance. He needs no words to communicate how he is feeling to them; he cannot find the words. All he has is emotion, and that comes in the form of tears and holding close what he has, and they understand a little and long to understand a lot. Nana whispers in his ear the one piece of advice from the elders that confused her the most, that she never comprehended, until now. And even though she realizes objectively now, she knows that it will tear her apart when she learns the practical lesson.
Sometimes letting go, she imparts to Tomino, brushing his ear with her breath and heavy-weighted sorrow. And when he asks her deliriously over the phone a week later to come over and drink with him and Yukine, she is there to hide the rest of the sake. She is there to embrace them when they cry and when they shroud the rest of their souls' tears, anguish, and lostness in brittle, almost-broken laughter, and remind them that it's okay to grieve, let all your emotions out. I love you, we love you, we are never going to stop.
The next morning they wake up with pounding headaches, all except Nana, and it distracts from the throbbinggapingstillbleeding wound, but doesn't compare in the slightest. They still complain and groan about their consequences of last night, Tomino in his nonverbal but exceedingly clear nonetheless way, and Nana rolls her eyes and scolds them in the absence of Kanheko to do it for them. Before she departs for home and cooking and school once again, she takes them in her arms (they don't even squirm)(they need this so bad, she hurts for the death but more for her best friend and his misery) and says, low and serious and slowly but surely discovering how cruel life can be, i get it, it's painful and we're all suffering, but you need to let go of the anguish and hurt. Don't let go of him or the memories, but he needs to move on. He needs your blessing to move on. She never looks away from Tomino's eyes, trying to understand but heavy and dark with loss, so so hurt and almost mutilated (so similar to Sukune's, and in that moment he's not two years her senior, age doesn't matter, he's lost and needs somewhere to look and something to do), and she attempts to convey comfort and sincerity through her own eyes.
He is unresponsive, his eyes shutter and turn to ice, as she kisses the two boys on the cheek, trades glances with Yukine, and gives them one last squeeze as she ducks out.
But three days later Yukine calls to inform her that Tomino is well enough that he's moving out and will only be checking up with the stoic young adult once a day. She hears the subtext and breathes a sigh of relief.
-.-.-.-
When she is sixteen, two things happen. Neither of them are positive. (Where did those carefree days go, when she had nothing to do but run after bubbles and butterflies and try to catch Rentoka's hair dangling in front of her, to gaze at the beautiful strands and twist them the way that facinated her?)
First, obaa-san Raweto passes away, just six months after the last family death. The funeral is much like Tomino's father's, but even more dreary and desolate, despite the sky being open and unclouded. Every time someone cries, it's entwined with desperate laughter. She was that kind of a person; kind and loud, always laughing and twisting everything into an optimistic light. It just feel doesn't right to have a funeral this sad for her, yet there's nothing else they can do. The atmosphere reflects what they all feel, the world having been deprived of another bright spot, and their own personal worlds having been scrambled up again with the snuffing of a guiding, formerly-constant light.
Nana doesn't remember much, other than crying her eyes out. In the times where she'd sit with the elders, replete and rich with stories and laughter, Raweto-san had guffawed from her belly and enjoyed the world to the fullest. It was bound to happen to someone, but she'd wanted to delay it as long as possible, denying reality after realizing what Tomino's loss meant: we're not invincible, not built to last, we all crumble to dust someday…
One thing she does recall is making her way, somehow, to a group of solemn elders who are nevertheless swapping comments and softly snarking about the decorations and people's clothes. Tears obscure her vision as she falls to her knees in front of them, and though she wants to demand WHY ARE YOU STILL TALKING DON'T YOU SEE THAT WON'T HELP PAY HER RESPECT PROPERLY, she also wants them to embrace her and soothe all her worries. She can't scream around the lump in her throat and the tears, anyway; she can barely breathe.
One of them drags her up and into her lap, and hushes her, singing into her ears and letting her cry. A few huddle around and just support her from there, one brushes her hair, and the rest stay a respectful distance back and let her cope, knowing she will get over this eventually. It is only one death out of the many she is likely to experience, after all, perhaps special because it is the most eye-opening. Still, they advise her: let it all out, that's right, you feel loss, don't you? that's right, you won't see her again, but it's okay, we will never forget her, will we? that's all that matters. you have to know when to let go, let it out now, the tidal wave will sweep over you, and you have to let it out. now is the right time to grieve, just think about that, and soon you will have to let go of all the grief. but for now don't fight it. we'll be there when you need us to tell you to let go.
Her parents arrive and pry her away from them, picking her up like they used to and guiding her to the car. By this time, she's mostly stopped crying and her mind is just numb and sniffling.
-.-.-.-
And they're right, by the time of the next family gathering two months later it's mostly swept over but she's trying to bury the sadness and resentment deep down where it won't surface, though her eyes glint with bitterness and an awareness that she didn't have before.
Before she can even be swept into her friend group, her elders gently pull her over and tell her she needs to let go. She learns what it really is, then, keeping the memories and personality of a person with you but never being able to see or interact with them again, and making peace with it. Letting the bitterness go and accepting it, not necessarily being happy with it, yet not forgetting Raweto and her distinctive, warming laugh.
The implications terrify her. One day, she will have to do this all over again, with her parents or siblings, people even more precious, and she cannot imagine losing them, cannot imagine their absence in her daily life. But she breathes deeply, draws on the words and advice of her elders and parents, and takes it inhale by exhale. She can smile and deal with it when it comes, with the support of those always with her.
-.-.-.-
Fifteen to sixteen is the era of death. Nana grows up so much these years, sees so much of what she wishes she never would have. But then again, that's life, as she's discovering, family, love, and sometimes letting go. She's growing up, and gaining experiences, and it's just as painful for her as it is for others.
-.-.-.-
The second thing that happens when she is sixteen is that Rentoka starts her emo phase and starts biking in earnest. So much so, in fact, that she's told by the gang that has control of the area she frequents that she has to join them or stop biking. Of course she chooses to join. Something changes, and somehow the house isn't quite as comfortable as it used to be. This leads to Rentoka being out for increasing periods of time and her slacking in college. She comes home covered in cuts, wearing things she never would have worn before, and covered in the pungent odor of cigarette smoke. It leads to stressed parents staying up and waiting for her, and kaa-san taking time off work to manage the situation and fill in the gaps, complete the chores that Rentoka had never complained about before now. The house is filled with wisps and whispers of where she used to lounge, and echoes of her laugh and sarcastic remarks, bickering back and forth lazily with Sukune. The areas she used to haunt can't be avoided, because their house isn't that big by any stretch of the imagination, but whenever they pass by an area, they drag their fingers along the wall and breath out in the elastic, penetrating silence, before hurrying past.
Nana can't stand it. Kaa-san's smile is more brittle now and tou-san rarely speaks anymore, and she can't stand it.
The last straw is when the skirting not-quite-confrontations between kaa-san and Rentoka became screaming matches that ended up with Rentoka seething and kaa-san crying.
Nana remembers sometimes to support them you have to go against them and what they think they want, and steels her resolve. She will go and slap some sense into Rentoka, and then maybe this will seem less surreal and at the same time painfully vivid.
She hovers at the threshold while Rentoka sits defiantly on the bed, glaring at her, already anticipating what she's here for. Eventually, Nana breaks the tense standstill.
What are you doing? she asks, voice barely a murmur, a small, timid, vulnerable thing, so unlike her. You're hurting kaa-san. You're hurting all of us. You see it, I know you do, and I know you don't want to. Why do you keep doing this?
Rentoka stares at her stoically, her body language completely uninterested and relaxed. Her eyes are half-mast, and something flows over the vulnerability in Nana, hardening and hiding it. She thinks of how worried and constantly on edge her family is, and it's all her sister's fault. Someone she never would have thought, something that never should have happened...
Stop it! she says, voice the same volume as before but with no hint of weakness, just cold steely rage. You're hurting us, and I don't know you anymore, and we can't handle this! Wake up from your little bubble and realize that you're not the only one going through problems, and you're not the center of our universe! Wake up! Stop being stupid! All of us need to be on board to make this work, and it's crumbling apart without you.
But I guess you don't care, she finishes, still enveloped by fury and not at all moved by the flaring pain she can see in the eyes of her sister, where the rest of her face is still impassive and perfectly unreadable.
Nana spins on her heel and barely restrains herself from storming to the kitchen, where she cooks out her aggression.
-.-.-.-
If Nana's words have made a dent in Rentoka's reckless attitude, it is nothing compared to what happens when tou-san gets to Rentoka, only a little after Nana.
It is something Nana will never forget, the first of two times she will ever see him so outraged.
Nana is doing dishes, and tou-san pulls Rentoka into the family room, in full view of the kitchen. Tou-san sits in his wheelchair and Rentoka stands rigidly, fists curled at her sides as if ready to defend herself at a moment's notice. It makes a part of Nana unbearably sad. What has it come to, that my sister feels so unwelcome in her own home, as if we would attack her?
There is silence for a while, as tou-san studies Rentoka quietly and unnervingly. Nana knows because she's gotten that look too, and she hates it. Rentoka's body tenses further, if that's even possible, and then it spills over and she starts fidgeting.
You made my wife cry, tou-san finally begins, voice low and unhurried and weighting the words against each other. She never cries. You are my child, my beloved, but I need an apology from you. Not just in words, but in actions. You need to stop and face the music. Your behavior is incredibly selfish, destructive, and childish. You are single-handedly tearing down everything I have painstakingly worked for these past eight years, everything your mother and I have slaved over to give you a happier life. You are ripping apart your family.
You will cease these indescribably, unbelievably self-centered, conceited actions, or you will no longer be welcome in this house.
He holds her shocked gaze for minutes and then wheels away out of the room to resume comforting his wife.
In a speech half the size of what Nana had said earlier, tou-san had managed to force Rentoka awake.
Needless to say, Rentoka presents a formal apology the next day and is welcomed back into the fold as if she'd never left. Well, not quite, as she is grounded from her bike for quite a bit and there is awkwardness between the siblings now to work around, but they get past that quickly enough and resolve to talk out problems from then on.
-.-.-.-
Her siblings have changed, like Nana, filling slowly into themselves more and more as time passes.
Rentoka, now, doesn't get so hot headed. She's learned the fine art of wrangling her opponent into complete submission and humiliation with words only, something Nana thinks tou-san taught her. (Even if he had no talent compared to the rest of his family, he still had some, just in his own way. And it was his family's fault that they couldn't see that.) Her favorite color is still green, and she still loves motorcycles, but she's definitely more cautious and has learned to stand up for herself just as much as she continues to stand up to the people who think that hurting her family, physically or emotionally, is feasible.
Her base personality doesn't change. She's still lazy, efficient, and has the same worldview. She's better at physical activity, but not by much, and still chubby. Even her hobbies are the same, but she has less time for them now that she's out of high school and finally starting up her hair salon.
The biggest change is in the experience she's gained from her life so far and how that tempers who she is and increases her self-control. Her acidic tongue lashes out less often and as much as possible on people who can handle it. She focuses less on herself and does her chores with a happier attitude and much more thoroughness. She can actually force herself to put aside her hair or a magazine and pick up finances and work. Kaa-san and tou-san look on this approvingly and help her with what she needs.
Sukune is much more social at family gatherings and sculpture club, much more willing to talk to people and show them his true self. He stops using Rentoka's habit of blunt sarcasm to defend himself, and grows a bigger immunity to verbal insults every day. His habit of flinching when someone raises a hand up right in front of him never goes away, and neither does the increased stuttering when someone becomes angry at him. But no one blames him for these ingrained habits, least of all Nana.
He's a fine young man, truly handsome, even with (especially because of) his atypical Chinese face and shoulder-blade length hair. He is fabulously elegant and artistic, surprisingly dramatic when he wants to be, and still has the manners of a finely cultivated young woman. Nana thinks he's perfect, and she's perfectly willing to knock the snot (verbally and emotionally) out of anyone who says otherwise, Rentoka right behind her. He's sort of soft-spoken, still, but it's one of the things they love most about him. Most of the sharp prickly edges that poked people around him have softened, and so he has a big friend group at school comprised of protective females as willing to stand up for him as his siblings that love his ideas and hair and patience, not to mention his art, though there are still bullies. That quickly learn the error of their ways. He hasn't quite adopted the habit of courage against the face of bullies, yet, but Nana has hope. And even if he doesn't, he has them, his family and friends.
Nana could not wish for better siblings.
-.-.-.-
Nana is nineteen now, and as unbelievable as it seems, she is ready to leave the home that now houses only her parents and Sukune. She is ready to step into the adult world and do her best to support herself, learning by trial and error what will work and what won't. She doesn't go to college, as she is planning on marrying and being a homemaker like her mother, nurturing her family and giving them all she has to offer. The fond, bright memories she has of when her mother stayed at home all day and had nothing but time and love to smother her children in are some of her favorites. She really, really wants to be there for her children like that.
But she has a backup plan in case things go out like they did when the accident happened, like any well-prepared young woman would. She can cook like nobody's business and manage her own accounts well enough that she can open a restaurant, if needed. Even that is only if she can't get a job as a chef or waitress, though. Owning a business is a lot of work and extra tax money. Extra money in general, to pay for utilities and rent space and employees and advertising… yeah, she's picked up a lot from her mother's and sister's work.
Leaving the house doesn't mean she's cutting herself off from family, as kaa-san reassures her many times. She'll come home every other weekend, like Rentoka does, and cook and exude happiness and be there. She'll come to the family gatherings and nothing about her familial relationships will change except not being at home.
Well, the most important things won't. As hard as it is for Nana to let go of the house she's lived in all her life and the shelter and protection it provides, it's harder for her parents. They have to let go of her, of being able to be there for her right away always and protecting her implicitly, as a minor still depending on them for livelihood and protection and shelter.
Those nineteen years have passed in a blur, for us, tou-san sighs one day, sorrow and resignation surfacing in his eyes. Even if you had spent all your life with us, it would never have been enough time. Oh well. You know how painful it is to have someone else do this to you. Nana nods, thinking about how painful Rentoka's departure from home had been.
It is painful for us, because we love you beyond the sun and stars, beyond galaxies, and we want to do everything for you and protect you from the cruel world outside our walls. he says, his resolve shining in his eyes. Then tou-san's eyes harden a bit and gaze up at her, full of love and trust. But it is your time, just as it was mine once-upon-a-time. I know what it feels like, to be ready to leave and face life and do things for yourself. At the same time, it pains you to leave your family, and it's also kind of scary, not to have anyone to fall back on or take care of problems for you. But you are ready, and that is the nature of all animals, to grow and learn and experience and, when the time is right, let go.
This statement, this advice, sums up Nana's mixed feelings and concerns very well. She sniffles and tries not to drown in her self-pity. (She doesn't want to let go, she doesn't want to leave and miss Sukune's absentminded singing in the morning and cooking breakfast with kaa-san before anybody else is awake-)
The inevitability of the fast-approaching moment envelops them all, and Nana runs into the open arms of her amazing, thoughtful, steady, wise parents. Love falls over them like a blanket, and no more words are (need to be) exchanged.
-.-.-.-
The embrace that Nana and Rentoka shared when Rentoka finally left the house after getting her own apartment and gradually winding up her own business was the fiercest they had ever shared, and now it is the same with Sukune.
She comprehends, now, what it is like to be the giver of that embrace, and it is different, not in a tangible way, but in a small way that tugs at her heartstrings and makes all the difference.
I will not let you down, I will blossom and make this separation worth it, she has to promise through her hug, and he accepts it in that vulnerable way that is distinctly Sukune. And when they slip out of it, she feels the bit she is letting go, feels the slack she's introducing into their bond acutely.
It is the same way with the rest of them, only as different as each of their relationships demand.
-.-.-.-
Nana finds a job as a part-time waitress, part-time cook easily enough. It's a little harder to find an apartment, but she calls up Sukune and Rentoka and they go to a nice little cafe and catch up while looking at what's available.
She gradually steps more and more into the responsibility of an adult, paying taxes and bills and rent, managing her accounts and getting herself to the family gatherings. It's exhilarating! She never knew she was this capable!
Still… she hasn't let go of her family as much as she should have. She comes over every weekend and talks once to her kaa-san and once to her tou-san every week besides that, and the siblings try to meet up as often as possible. But Rentoka gets /really/ busy managing her business and Sukune spends more and more time sculpting and landscaping. She finds herself drifting away from them incrementally, not like breaking apart their relationship, just becoming less dependent on them and their constant presence in her life. She makes tentative friends out of her coworkers. She… is okay. It's a bit painful, and she still has bouts of homesickness, but they no longer reduce her to tears and/or depression where she can't do anything for hours.
She doesn't let go, simply loosens her tight grip. (She is selfish, and that will have to be enough for now.)
-.-.-.-
"This life wasn't even close to perfect, but it didn't have to be. It was hers, and the laughter and dazzling smiles were mixed into her glass of lemonade along with tears and crushing depression. With a bias towards sunshine and winks, of course."
-.-.-.-
Long A/N:
Heavens above, I spent so much time on this that should have been spent elsewhere XD I hope you enjoyed it! Honestly it's a big mess of feels and life problems, like I warned you. It was written in little snippets at greatly varying times, so if it seems fragmented, that's because it was. It was mainly a bunch of ideas strung together.
So welcome to another fic of mine! It will be three parts (it was going to be two, but that chapter got too long) and updated once every month. Hopefully it will be the first one I finish!
Nana is wiser than anyone her age has right to be XD this is a combination of her being an "old soul" & very intuitive and empathetic.
Sorry if the long descriptions of the siblings were boring :| I just thought that'd be the best way to introduce them and the sibling's relationship, bc I'm sure as heck telling a lot more than showing here XD
I think Rentoka is a Lightning and Sukune is a Mist.
Yeah, so... ocs and stuff. I was gonna kill off the mother but I'd already written the nineteen drabble by that point so I switched it to the grandmother Raweto. You're welcome. The scene where Rentoka went wrong was also supposed to kill her, then the cousin she was giving a ride, then a meaningless OC, and instead she ended up jolting out of it because she made her mother cry. Honestly, that's just where it went.
The tongue lashing Rentoka got from Harin wasn't planned either but I loved it so it happened. BAMF disabled ppl.
*Okay actual important stuff, please read*
Scream and emote at me. Tell me your favorite segment. Drop me some comments about the OCs. If that's too much effort, drop an encouraging one liner, although I really want to hear about your favorite things! Reviews feed my soul and muse :) It just makes me write faster to know that you enjoyed it!
See me next month for the next part! It will have a lot more action and guess who'll be featured?
~OperaEagle IcelynLacelett