Title: Thousand Generations
Author: Flower of Paper
Pairing: Osaka/Chiyo
Community: 1sentence
Theme set: Delta
Disclaimer - Azumanga Daioh belongs to Azuma Kiyohiko.
Author's Notes - Not much to say here. Excepting minor touch-ups, these were written spontaneously within the space of an hour.
These could be read as fifty jumbled memories, or fifty disconnected ficlets. Whichever you prefer.
Some themes recur, and that's okay. They lend a touch of coherence, methinks.
(bows) That said, please enjoy the story.
1. Osaka wasn't really going to attempt to fly from the roof of the school, for what point was there in flying through the air, free as birds, if Chiyo-chan didn't fly with her?
2. Ten years after graduation, Osaka found that even though she never did develop cantaloupes, Chiyo-chan didn't mind apples.
3. After losing the race to Chiyo-chan in the beginning of her high school career, Osaka thought, "Those pigtails... I will catch up to those pigtails someday..."
4. Listening to Chiyo-chan explain why "bugs" in the software didn't have anything to do with real-life bugs, didn't necessarily make sense to Osaka (despite Chiyo-chan's best efforts), but Osaka feigned ignorance anyway, just so Chiyo-chan would continue talking.
5. According to Chiyo-chan, caffeine, found in such foods as coffee and chocolate, produces in the brain the same sensation as lovesickness - not that that really mattered to Osaka, who probably would've blurted "I love ya, Chiyo-chan!" even without four cups of iced-coffee-with-lotsa-cream-and-extra-chocolate.
6. Nyamo really had been a good teacher, that drunken night - and in the comforting privacy of the dark, Osaka decided that Chiyo-chan really did need to complete her education.
7. "But Chiyo-chan, how am I gonna survive without ya, if you're in America?" Osaka moaned in despair, contemplating a daily existence that didn't involve Chiyo-chan.
8. "You know, Osaka-san, you're the first person I know who's ever gotten caught in an automatic door," Chiyo-chan muttered, but Osaka didn't care, focusing instead on Chiyo-chan's roving hands checking for bumps or bruises.
9. The ice cream float had long since melted, and the two ended up drinking it, giggling at the sight of melted ice cream on each other's faces.
10. Completing her education Chiyo-chan regarded as an admirable duty - one that she would accomplish as quickly as possible, just to return to Osaka's loving arms.
11. No earth was immovable, and if one could dig a hole to China, Osaka reasoned, one could dig a hole to Chiyo-chan's university.
12. In the end, Osaka didn't care that she was 22 and Chiyo-chan was only 17 - she'd been away for four years, and in Osaka's mind, that was four years too long.
13. Osaka knew, though she'd never say it out loud, that sometimes, in her loneliness, she thought about "falling" from the window of her twelfth-floor apartment, but she didn't go through with it, because she didn't want to upset Chiyo-chan.
14. The best feeling in the world, Osaka decided, was cuddling in front of a fire with Chiyo-chan and forgetting everything else.
15. "You could turn out students with very flexible ways of thinking," Chiyo-chan had told her once, many years ago, and now (while grading an essay in which a student had sincerely suggested colonising Sedna instead of Mars) Osaka had to wonder if Chiyo-chan had been right.
16. Osaka was afraid of flying, but not when Chiyo-chan was holding her hand.
17. Chiyo-chan would never cease to be amazed at just how much food Osaka could put away in her petite body.
18. "Put one foot in front of the other... one foot... the other foot... one foot... the other foot... c'mon self, get it together!" Osaka muttered, not noticing Chiyo-chan staring at her.
19. "Chiyo-suke's five years younger. You're digging your own grave there, Osaka," Tomo reminded her, but that didn't matter - Osaka could wait.
20. Osaka giggled inexplicably when Chiyo-chan told her that Americans say "green" when they really mean "inexperienced".
21. Her head functioned a bit differently than others', but Osaka didn't care, because Chiyo-chan liked it, and that was enough.
22. Chiyo-chan hollowed out a place for herself in America, whereas Osaka became hollow on the inside without Chiyo-chan by her side.
23. If, according to Osaka's parents, a lesbian marriage would bring dishonour upon both her and Chiyo-chan's families, then honour be damned.
24. Ironically, hearing about Chiyo-chan getting a girlfriend in America gave Osaka hope, because it meant that Chiyo-chan liked girls.
25. Osaka had no idea what "The Incredible Lightness of Being" was about, but it sounded so cute rolling off Chiyo-chan's tongue like that.
26. "I miss ya, I miss ya, Chiyo-chan," Osaka wailed, "I miss ya, I miss ya, I miss ya, I miss ya more than I've ever missed anythin' before, an' I'm just so damn lost without ya!" she yelled as her voice rose steadily in volume and she tightened her grip on the railing near her apartment and her voice collapsed and she ran out of breath and her knees gave way and she sobbed her eyes out and she finally admitted the truth to herself.
27. "People are like metals, I think, 'cause some are harder than others, but they can all change," Osaka said, and Chiyo-chan nodded her agreement, inwardly wondering what that was supposed to mean.
28. "When the world was new, everything was simple, but the world isn't simple anymore," Osaka wrote in her diary, wishing that Chiyo-chan would come back and make everything simple again.
29. Her name might mean "Thousand Generations," but even if she could live that long, Chiyo-chan would never grow old in Osaka's book.
30. Peace, Osaka decided, was a day in the park with her best friend.
31. Chiyo-chan's simple and unassuming love was the antidote for any suicidal thoughts poisoning Osaka's lonely mind.
32. Part of the reason why Osaka never considered herself pretty, despite Chiyo-chan's repeated protests to the contrary, was that things change, and one day, Osaka wouldn't be pretty anymore.
33. Chiyo-chan cautioned Osaka against going out in the rain, thus playing the mother to Osaka's inner child.
34. Of all the things Osaka regretted, the biggest was that she never told Chiyo-chan how she really felt.
35. Osaka was going to buy Chiyo-chan a dozen roses to welcome her back to Japan, but she couldn't find a flower shop that carried pigtail-coloured roses.
36. Secretly, Chiyo-chan was as afraid of letting Osaka down as Osaka was afraid of Chiyo-chan getting hurt while in America.
37. Osaka suddenly wanted to visit Ireland, after Chiyo-chan reassured her that there were no snakes there.
38. It wasn't an accident that Osaka's and Chiyo-chan's snow angels looked like they were holding hands.
39. There was absolutely no solid evidence of their love -no just-because gifts between Osaka and Chiyo-chan, no flowers exchanged on each other's birthdays, no hand-written poems- but the way they turned to each other, in that moment, confirmed it without a doubt.
40. Never, never again would Osaka attempt to surprise Chiyo-chan by springing out from under the kotatsu.
41. Love wasn't stable, Osaka reasoned, because it was ever changing, never frozen - so why was the image of Chiyo-chan's 13-year-old self frozen in Osaka's mind?
42. Of all the strange things Chiyo-chan had experienced in America, Osaka was very sure that there was nothing stranger than a cow pie.
43. Summer was the height of heat, the height of passion, the height of everything - all the higher to fall from.
44. If love between a 17-year-old and a 12-year-old was taboo, then what about Tomo's kinky adventures with Yomi?
45. Osaka really thought pigtails on anybody else were ugly, but somehow, not on Chiyo-chan.
46. Neither Chiyo-chan nor Osaka cared much about the Six-Party Talks until the threat of war made each fear for the other's safety.
47. Water was the great purifier, and as the six girls lounged in an onsen together, Chiyo-chan couldn't help but be fascinated by the water sheeting from Osaka's body.
48. "Welcome back," was all Osaka could say to Chiyo-chan, "welcome back."
49. Chiyo-chan tried to explain to Osaka that even though things die in winter, they are eventually reborn... but she suspected that Osaka wasn't convinced.
50. Of all the possessions she took with her to America, Chiyo-chan treasured the small wooden statue of O-jizô-sama -a gift from Osaka- the most.