Ordinary Day
Retsu had never really realized how much her family meant to her until she was holding the letter in her hand that illuminated just how removed from the Clan she was going to be if she didn't come home.
She knew she would stay here, though. So be it, if her fighting clan wished to disown her. She knew exactly what she wanted to do with her life; she wanted to devote herself to the healing of the sick and the injured, the broken and the crippled. Never before had she felt as accepted as she did as the trainee healer-general of the Shin'Ou Spirit Technical Academy. She knew, even, that Sensei would support her in her decision; he could see her promise in a way her father could not.
Still, knowing that she had just been disowned did give Retsu an odd, hollow feeling, as though a rug had been ripped from under her feet.
"This is your own fault, you know."
"Oh, shut up and just ask her."
Good gods. Those two needed to work on their stealth tactics.
"Medicine for your hangover, Kyouraku?" she asked, without turning around. "You're both going to be late for class."
"I don't care," Shunsui moaned, sounding ten times more pitiful than he probably actually felt. "Please?"
"I have half a mind to let you suffer. Maybe it would teach you a lesson." She turned to face the two of them, fighting to control her grin. Shunsui did look like hell, his hair matted and his eyes bloodshot; Juushirou, on the other hand, looked as healthy as ever he got. When he smiled at her, apologetically, Retsu gave up her struggle entirely and smiled back before she went to fetch her hangover cure.
It was the beginning, she knew, of yet another ordinary day here.
And perhaps, just perhaps, she thought, she could ease the pain of her family's rejection with the knowledge that other people loved and needed her.
Later, after the day had wound down and the other students were all in bed (or, in Shunsui's case, sneaking out the second floor window; he never would learn) she took that letter out to the pond glinting on the grounds and dropped it in, watching it sink, slowly.
The sound of Shunsui crying out as he—quite unexpectedly, certainly—landed in a patch of thorny briars, was somehow immensely satisfying.
Juushirou's smile, she would stitch on her heart for the years to come.