Back with another GakuLuka fic~! This one is different: It's set in Luka's POV. Well, enjoy!

Luka's point of view~

Maple syrup was a wondrous thing. There was a soft, delightful taste that every eatable wished to have. When hardened it danced on the tip of one's tongue, the senses tingling at its slightly tart sweetness. When drank as it is, the smooth flow of syrup eased a sore mouth. Perhaps the most loved treat maple syrup was made into was maple taffy.

Years and years, without fail, during the winter the youngsters hurriedly trooped out with their fresh-boiled syrup and snowpans, doing it the old-fashioned way. They would dump some syrup onto the fresh snow, and as soon as it hardened, they'd eat it.

I was one of those eager young children.

Well, my old town in Japan wasn't exactly known for its maple syrup production, I can guess you're thinking. And it was not. Every winter, when my brother was still here, we would fly on a plane to Canada, or perhaps northeastern America, and mess around with it there.

It was winter now.

I peered out the window. The frost made patterns on the window glass. My breath made fog on the window glass. My cheek that was pressed against the pane was cold.

Often, I would think of him.

"Gaku-nii!" I squealed, tearing across the field, flying straight into his arms. He had a job in a daycare near the park in which I always played; he grinned and ruffled my hair. I buried my head into his chest, breathing in a scent that was strictly his. Fresh lavenders mixed with cologne. I loved it.

We weren't related by blood, exactly. We were both orphans, and over a time after getting used to him I began thinking about Gaku-nii as a brother.

He was kind and gentle, but really overprotective. Long purple-hair, piercing sapphire eyes. He had been the exact image of the brother I'd always wanted.

"Let's go back to the orphanage," he said then, smiling at me.

Gaku-nii bent over, eyes squeezed shut in pain. Sweat glistened on his forehead, arms—anywhere that was bare. Rivulets of blood ran down his back. The headmistress drew back her arm, whip still in hand. "Want me to go on?" she threatened him, muscles bulging in her forearm. For a moment, I could be sure that her eyes lingered on me. I cowered behind the boxes I was hiding, shaking.

I couldn't do anything.

I could only watch Gaku-nii get hurt.

"Gakupo," said the headmistress dangerously.

"Y-yes, ma'am?" he whispered.

Her eyes narrowed to a slit. "You…will…not…take…Luka…out…for…another…visit…outside. Understand?"

"Yes…yes, ma'am."

"Good. Now, scat, before I decide against my temporary kindness and whip you more." Hearing that, Gaku-nii quickly scurried out of the room, and the headmistress turned to me. Her look told me to go away, too, before she chose to give me even harsher treatment.

"Gaku-nii, where are you going?"

He had a backpack slung over his shoulder. Forlorn sapphire eyes, years older than his age was. Much, much older than eighteen. In his hand he clutched some money, and a crumpled letter. He turned to smile grimly at me.

Ever since that incident with the headmistress five years ago, he'd always been rather withdrawn. The wounds the whip gave him had hardened into disfiguring scars on his back. I cringed every time I saw the pink-white gash, or perhaps it was a burnt brown. Either way, they were ugly, and I didn't like setting my eyes on even one. I was scared of them. They reminded me, every time, of the cruelty the rest of us might have to face.

"I'm going to be…" He shows me the letter.

"WHAT?"

It was real.

In my blur of tears I could barely see him.

He wore the soldier's uniform, a gray duffel bag. I could only stand there, with the other children, my feet nailed to the ground. The headmistress didn't look that happy either, but she nodded at him and he turned to the train.

"Goodbye, Luka," he whispered to me one last time before I was left in the dust.

I was in Canada now.

Canadian soil was dry and iced-over in the winter, but maple trees covered the entire area on which I was standing. I could see a few children, running and laughing, eat homemade maple taffy. It hurt, with a pang in my heart, but it was nice to see so many other children having fun.

Gakupo should be twenty-three by now. I'm…I'm only eighteen.

Every year our orphanage allowed a brief vacation to somewhere, and I always used to choose Canada.

I could just quit living in the orphanage now. I'm old enough to go off working on my own. Earn some pay to support myself, perhaps marry faithlessly to that blue-haired young man I had just seen strolling around like he'd owned the place.

I kicked a gray rock as I walked along, hands deep in my pockets. I hadn't gone here ever since he'd left, which was a good five years. Back then, he would always ask for a place to stay, but I was shy. Way too shy, for my own sake. I swore up a storm under my breath so the children wouldn't hear it, but they did look at me with questioning looks on their faces. One of the children—a rather pretty blonde—grabbed her brother's hand and ran into the house.

They were scared of me.

They probably thought I was a madwoman.

I laughed humorlessly, strolling along the bank of a river. It was icy in this season, but I sat down at tapped my feet against the ice anyway.

"Dear," said a voice, and I looked up. It was a blonde lady with her hair held up in a ponytail. There were hard lines etched everywhere on her old, weather-beaten face, but there was kindness and wit in her honeybrown eyes. "You'd fall in if you're not careful. The ice might be strong, but it's thin." Behind her, the twins peeked out. "My twins told me about you; they say that you were looking lonely. Come on, to me you look like you're a visitor. You can share my home." When she smiled, it was like sunshine. "What's your name?"

"I'm Luka."

"Nice to meet you. I'm Neru Akita—I kept my maiden name after I married—and these are my children, Rin and Len Kagamine. Say hi, Rin, Len."

"Hi," said Rin.

"Hello," her brother echoed.

"Hello," I said, feeling a bit better.

"Well, why don't you come in! Rin and Len love hot chocolate, and I'm sure you do too."

A few days later, word reached us that soldiers were marching toward our area. Neru was seriously worried; she began pacing whichever room she was in whenever she had free time, mumbling to herself possible reasons. Rin and Len darted about, asking and collecting information (even though they didn't even know what it was about). And I was just hoping that Gakupo was one of the soldiers.

Of course, there was a very slim chance, but I still liked to dream about it time to time.

What should I say? What should I do? What if I got my hopes up for nothing? Should I wear anything fancy? Should I—

The questions I asked myself were overwhelming.

One night we sat down at the wooden table in the middle of the kitchen. Neru sighed and rubbed her temples. Rin and Len looked around, and I sat there awkwardly, not knowing what to do in an atmosphere like this. Finally, Neru spoke.

"Any soldier coming here is not a good sign."

I was puzzled. "Why not?"

Neru's head snapped up; she looked astonished. "Why, Luka! Soldiers are a symbol of war. If they come here, it means that they're either attacking or defending. They're soldiers from Japan, and I have mixed feelings about that country, so I can't really decide to think which way or the other." Neru rubbed her wrists, heating them up with friction. "Oh—I'm sorry, dear. You're from Japan, right?"

"Yeah…"

But what if they were attacking? Gakupo might be part of them…and they're attacking? For some reason, I couldn't bring myself to think the thought…

"Let's get maple syrup!" Rin suddenly suggested, jumping up from her chair. Len nodded and hurried after her—those two kids were adorable. Len would follow what Rin said, and Rin would announce something that would be the decision for both of them. They were charming; a pleasurable break from seeing thin orphanage children tortured and insulted over and over again by the headmistress.

"They're coming! They're coming!" Rin reported the next day, an icy morning to begin with.

"What?" Neru stopped doing the wash and I stopped putting snow into pans for all the children around the neighborhood. We both turned to stare at Rin and Len.

"The soldiers! They're coming!" Rin was breathless with excitement. "I saw men in the soldier uniform, and they looked very…very…" She scrunched up her face, as if trying to find a good enough word.

"Nice," I suggested.

"Yeah, nice! They looked very nice in their uniform. They even saluted to me! There was this pink-haired guy who was leading them. The other soldiers called him 'Cap'n Yuuma'. Anyway, there was another soldier behind them with green hair. Greenish, I think, it's green-blue. And then Cap'n Yuuma called him 'Mikuo'. And then there was a guy behind them, his hair was pure green, and his name was 'Gumiya…'" Rin rattled off on and on, until I interrupted her with a question, my heart pounding hard in my chest as I recited every word.

"Was there a purple-haired man among them?"

Rin looked surprised, and she tried to think. "Well…," she said slowly. "I didn't see any, but the soldier line was so long I couldn't see everyone…"

Neru patted me gently on the shoulder. "There is a chance that your lover may be among them, but very slight." The sad, knowing look in her eyes told me that she'd lost one in the war, and more than once. I swallowed up my tears, which were welling up.

"In any case," Neru announced, standing up, "let's go meet them with the Canadian flag."

The flag was raised in the center of town. Just as the people cheered, a line of camouflage green and tan appeared in the far distance. There were…telling by the irregular spikes, they were carrying guns. I felt sick.

"We wait," Neru whispered to me. My knees were knocking together. I couldn't speak. I simply nodded.

There was a war song. "Senbonzakura, yoru ni magite…*" I didn't think I ever heard that before. Neru's face was set grim as the apparent leader of our town walked forward to greet the soldiers. They halted their singing, and Captain Yuuma stepped forward and tipped his hat at the blue-haired man, who nodded and extended his hand to shake, which Captain Yuuma did.

"Kaito," the man said simply.

Captain Yuuma nodded. "Yuuma."

Silence.

"My commander tell us get some gunpowder from here…" Yuuma started, in broken English. This was not going well. "I was wondering if you could…"

Suddenly I saw a flash of purple.

No, must have been my imagination.

"…will pay back in…"

It was not my imagination. That purple is walking through the crowd, hurrying now, and—

"Gaku-nii?" I said loudly in disbelief, in my native tongue. Captain Yuuma stopped talking. Kaito stopped trying to tell him something. And the rest of the people just stared at me. I blushed.

A young man stepped out from the crowd. I felt my own eyes grow wide. More prominent features, sapphire eyes filled even more deeply with regrets, but…I knew it was him. He wasn't the tall, erect soldier that most would see in movies. He was a soldier, only twenty-three, beaten down by worries and sadness, unsure whether to continue being one or not.

"Gaku-nii," I breathed, repeating what I said. This time I spoke in English, and it came out sounding kind of weird.

"Luka?"

"GAKU-NII!"

Soldiers, captain, leader, and townpeople alike stared in shock as we ran forward from opposite sides. We embraced, heedless of knowing gazes. I never thought I'd smell the scent of him again. Even though it's faded considerably, I could still make out the lavender.

Maybe Neru was wrong.

Maybe soldiers didn't all mean war.

All I knew was, I wanted this moment to last forever.

It didn't last forever, but I'd gotten enough to fill me up for at least a week.

Captain Yuuma wrote a letter to his commander telling him that he couldn't get the gunpowder because of a "very unusual happening that moved us all".

I finally, finally got the nerve to quit being in the orphanage.

Gakupo and I plan to marry. Even though we call ourselves "brother and sister". But that shouldn't matter because as I said earlier, we aren't related by blood.

I told Gakupo he needed to improve his English. He laughed, ruffled my hair, and called me affectionately that I am his bitch and he is my bastard. Or badass.

We'll settle down as soon as possible. I even planned the names for our future children. Gakuko and Luki. Isn't that sweet?

First, though, I need to leave to write a letter to my orphanage friends that bids them farewell. See you later.

* - reference from the song "Senbonzakura".

...Very different and weird...

I didn't quite know what to call Kaito. Forgive me for my ignorance. -.- I pondered over the thought of simply calling him "mayor", but that's...I didn't do much research. Whoever feels offended can tell me and I'll change it immediately.

I have very little knowledge for the historical things I write about like the Holocaust and this soldier thing. Sorry 。(´Д｀。)

Phew! Very long chapter anyway. Read and review~!

~Unyielding Wish