Shioshishio is the way she remembers it: warm and bursting with light. Chisaki falls into her parents' arms the moment she sets foot back in their house—no matter how many times they embrace, it never feels like enough. She is determined to make up for the five years she missed.
Her mother squeezes her on the shoulder, eyes skimming over her face, resting on her loose hair. "Oh, Chisaki, how you've grown," she says, voice tinged with a mixture of pride and sadness.
"I tried so hard not to," whispers Chisaki, and then her mother is pulling her in again, rubbing circles in her back, and her father is murmuring, "It's okay." Chisaki closes her eyes and lets her tears mingle with the saltwater around her—funny how sorrow doesn't fall here, but peels away from her skin and rises as a bubble, racing to the surface of the sea.
They ask her about her time on land. Inevitably, Chisaki finds herself speaking of the first day of high school, of growing up, of Isamu and Tsumugu beside her and then Tsumugu even more when Isamu became bedridden. The stories spill from her lips unrestrained—she wants her parents to know everything, as if they've never been apart. Her mother reaches for her hand, squeezing it.
When it is all over, when Chisaki is back in her old room and in her old bed (which is smaller now, a little less roomy), her mother sits down, smoothing the covers.
"You don't have to stay here, you know," her mother says, softly. "You're a grown girl now. Your father and I will understand."
Chisaki doesn't trust herself to speak.
"No matter where you are—here or on the surface."
She swallows past the lump in her throat and smiles at her mother, brimming with gratitude and happiness.
The sea has started moving again, and so too will she.
o.O.o
Chisaki splits her time between her two homes. She makes miso with her mother, learns new recipes to cook for Isamu and Tsumugu, and continues her nurse training. When Isamu finally returns home, she keeps an eye on him, and though the old man tells her gruffly, more than once, "It's okay if you leave," she only laughs.
A different departure weighs on her: Tsumugu returns to university soon. She has not yet mustered the words to tell him: you were right, you know. About how I feel. She settles for saying "thank you," instead.
"Come to the station with me," Tsumugu requests when he finds her outside, talking to Isamu. She obliges. As he walks ahead of her, bag slung over one shoulder, she studies the way his hair curls slightly against the nape of his neck. He needs a haircut soon, she thinks.
Tsumugu pauses as they are about to cross the street and looks back at her. He reaches out and takes her hand.
This time, she doesn't pull away.
A/N: asdfghjkl; I still can't believe it's over! WE MADE IT GUYS, through the tears and the angst and everything and these next few pieces from me will probably be super fluffy. You have been warned. XD