over 16,000 views and continued increase in reviews from some of oyu devoted readers. I'm so glad ya'll like this story so much. Some interesting developments in this chapter. Hope you enjoy!
Yuzu lay on her half of the bed having just gotten out of the bath ready for bed going through a website on her phone when suddenly she gets another message from Harumi. She sighed annoyed as she clearly wasn't going to get away from Harumi's texts no matter how much she wanted to ignore her after Harumi laughed at her at lunch for expressing a potential crush.
"Yyyyyuuuuuzzzzzuuuuuuccccchhhhhhiiiiiii" Harumis text read... along with roughly 15 others similar to it
"Damnit can't you let me be mad for a day?!" Yuzus text responded followed by a grumpy cat emoji
"Mama Harumin is here... vent if you need to. I'm sorry for laughing at you at lunch." Harumi texted followed by a little chastised cat emoji. Yuzu gave a sigh before responding.
"What's so weird about the idea that I might have a crush on someone?" She texted
"Nothing at all its just not expected." Harumi responded. "But if you really feel the way you said at lunch than theirs no denying you're in love." Yuzu stared at those words for a few minutes.
'I'm in love with Mei?' She thought.
"So who are you crushing on?" Harumi responded with an intrigued cat emoji. Yuzu sent an embarrassed cat emoji
"Is it me?" Harumi asked with a surprised cat emoji
"No!" Yuzu responded quickly
"Is it Aime?" Harumi asked with a shocked cat emoji
"It's a secret..." yuzu responded
"I'm your best friend we tell each other everything." Harumi responded with a devilishly curious cat emoji.
"Even best friends have close secrets they don't tell one another. It's not like you're an open book that's told me everything about you!" Yuzu replied
"Ok ok if it bothers you that much keep your secret." Harumi replied with a chuckling cat emoji followed by more "at least I can go to bed now knowing you're not mad a me anymore." Followed by a sleepy cat emoji
"Who said I wasn't?" Yuzu replied with a pouting cat emoji
"Aww don't be like that Yuzuchi." Harumin replied to which yuzu giggled a little
"Good night Harumin." Yuzu texted
"Night Yuzuchi." Harumi replied as Yuzu put her cellphone on the charger. Mei walked in drying her hair and Yuzu absent mindedly stared at her, her heart beating harder and her throat going dry as she watched the raven haired girl walk over to her desk to sort some papers and then toss her towel into the laundry bin. When Mei turned around and noticed Yuzu, the blonde looked away quickly pretending to be looking outside at the stars. Meis heart thumped as she gazed over Yuzu and she too diverted her gaze.
"Going to bed then? Yuzu asked
"Of course." Mei responded walking over to the light switch shutting it off.
"R-right." Yuzu said moving under her half of the covers "Goodnight Mei."
"Goodnight Yuzu." Mei said sliding under the covers on her half of the bed and rolling away from Yuzu onto her side. It wasn't long before Yuzu was asleep. It seemed the girls lack of energy lately made it easy for her to do so. Mei however was wide awake still. She tossed and turned for a few hours before getting up and getting a glass of water. She then returned to the bedroom and walked over to the balcony door looking out at the stars for a few minutes before turning and seeing the seemingly serene grace that was Yuzu sleeping. Her heart skipped a beat and thumped hard in her chest.
'What is this feeling?' Mei wondered looking upon Yuzus sleeping form. She walked over slowly and crouched down before Yuzu gazing upon her sleeping face then leaning in and gently placing a kiss on her cheek 'these feelings are not fair. We're sisters... there's no way she would reciprocate and even if she did society would never accept it.' A tear streaked down her face and she backed up raising a hand to her eye to wipe away the tears only to find she wasn't crying. She looked down at Yuzu and noticed for the first time the blonde was shaking in her sleep tears rolling down her face.
"W-why him... why papa?" Yuzu sleep whispered. Mei's heart sunk. She promised to protect Yuzu but she couldn't do that in her dreams.
"I wish your demons would go away. They are so selfish keeping you from me... especially in your dreams." She whispered quietly as she moved around Yuzu back into bed and wrapped her arms around the shaking blonde pulling her into a tight embrace holding on until she herself fell asleep.
-Yuzu's nightmare-
10 year old yuzu fell to her knees breathing heavily her vision locked in fear, shock, and anguish as she saw the pictures "n...no... not papa.." she said as tears began rolling down her face the room around her fading into black oblivion. "No... No... NO... NO! NO! NO! NOT PAPA!" she screamed grabbing the pictures and throwing them into the endless void only to have them flutter around her and multiply filling her vision and every sight line around her. She looked down to try and avoid seeing it only to find herself slowly sinking into an endless pit of the pictures, the images cutting into her skin as much as their contents cut into her soul. W-WHY HIM... WHY PAPA?" she screamed holding her head and clenching her eyes shut as tightly as she could.
"I can't change the past... but i can save your future." A soft voice called from beyond the pictures as a brilliant bright light in the shape of a slender hand and arm reached in for Yuzu, the pictures cascading around and away from the female figure who was made of pure light save for her long glistening black hair and piercing violet eyes that where focused entirely on Yuzu. Yuzu looked up to her and reached out for her hand.
"Please help me! I can't keep above the surface!" Yuzu cried out trying to grab ahold of the figures hand. The figure reached forward to try and grab onto Yuzu's hand, their fingertips just gliding past each other as Yuzu slipped below the surface of the ocean of photographs depicting the crash scene where her father died as the figure of light stared after her in horror.
-real world- Yuzu shot up from her sleeping position with a scream holding her head tightly scaring awake Mei who was laying fairly close to her and sat up immediately at Yuzu's scream.
"What's wrong?" Mei asked concerned
"Yuzu?!" Ume called from out in the living room, followed by pounding footsteps as Ume sprinted from the kitchen to the girls bedroom throwing open the door in a panic and moving as quickly as she could to Yuzu kneeling in front of her. "Are you alright?" Ume said concern etched on her face
"I-it's... nothing... just a bad dream." Yuzu said quietly between heavy labored breaths slowly trying to catch her breath. Ume gave a heavy relieved sigh and would pull Yuzu into a hug gently rubbing the blondes back to comfort her
"It's alright... it's over now." Ume said softly before standing up. "Go get ready. I've made breakfast." Yuzu nodded getting up with Ume's help and would stumble a bit which ume caught and stabilized her while reaching her hand up to feel Yuzu's forehead "are you getting sick again?" Ume asked. "No fever at the very least." She said lowering her hand from Yuzus forehead to her shoulder gently squeezing it.
"I'm fine mama... just... groggy from the sudden wake up is all." Yuzu said quietly
"Alright..." Ume sighed before leaving the room. Yuzu stood still looking downwards towards the floor as Mei continued to watch concerned. Mei got up out of bed and walked over to Yuzu gently laying a hand on Yuzu's arm. When Yuzu didn't respond Mei walked in front of Yuzu.
"Yuzuko." She said softly getting the blonde to look up... only then did she notice the tears streaming down Yuzus face. The look of grief on the blonde's face was like a boot in the chest and Mei reacted by pulling Yuzu into a tight embrace as if the tighter she squeezed the more pain would disappear from Yuzu. Yuzu drooped her head into Mei's shoulder as her silent tears grew to full sobs and she cried into Meis shoulder. Mei held her tight for several minutes until she stopped crying and several more as the blonde made no attempt to move. Finally, Mei coaxed Yuzu to stand up straighter and look her in the eyes.
"Do you want to talk about it?" Mei asked to which Yuzu shook her head. Mei gave a nod and released Yuzu who turned and headed off to the bathroom to get ready for the day.
After getting ready, the two came out into the living room and sat down to breakfast at the dining table with Ume. "So, was it a repeat or a new one?" Ume asked Yuzu who was eating slowly and quietly.
"The same one as the past 6 years around this time." Yuzu said solemnly. Mei looked up from her food and looked first to Yuzu who was just staring down at her omurice more than anything else then she looked to Ume who shook her head
'not now... wait till right before leaving for school.' Ume mouthed to Mei. Mei nodded and looked back to yuzu before returning her focus to eating
"So how's the studying going for the upcoming midterms?" Ume asked
"I'll probably fail and have to retake them. I've been in the hospital and sick at home to much." Yuzu said bluntly
"I could help you study and pass the first time, so you don't have to retake the test." Mei offered
"I don't think I'll learn enough in time." Yuzu said quietly
"Still you should at least give it a shot." Ume said, "Who knows, maybe you'll learn better with Mei's help than you do in class from the teacher." To which Yuzu simply shrugged.
"It can't hurt I guess..." Yuzu said quietly as she continued to play with her food rather than eating. Ume sighed with a deep frown simply watching Yuzu. Mei looked back and forth between the two trying to read what was going on before she simply sighed and returned to eating her own breakfast finishing up. Ume took yuzu's hardly touched plate as Yuzu got up to leave for school and would wrap it and place it in the fridge with a note on it. Yuzu headed out the door and Mei went to follow but remembered Ume's words from earlier and stopped turning to her.
"What did Yuzu mean when she said she gets the same nightmare around this time?" Mei asked Ume.
"Next week on Monday... it's the anniversary of her father's death." Ume said. Her words felt like a slap to the chest to Mei.
"Oh... I see... " Mei said looking down.
"Yuzu hasn't gone to her father's grave since he was buried there. I try to coax her to go every year but... she still doesn't want to say goodbye." Ume said solemnly.
"Can you blame her?" Mei asked
"Of course not. Losing my best friend that I loved 2nd only to my daughter was the 2nd hardest thing I've ever had to do in my life." Ume said
"And the first..." Mei said having an idea.
"Telling my 10-year-old daughter that her best friend, her idol, and her father where never going to come back. Yuzu's father was nearly her whole world... I've never hurt more than when I had to crush her with the weight of reality." Ume said tears beginning to form in her eyes that she rubbed away and put on a smile. "But she's doing better now that your here with us Mei. I don't know what you've done but you've helped her immensely."
"I don't really think I've done that much." Mei said 'I've probably harmed her as much as I've helped her come to think of it...' Mei thought
"Mei... Those nightmares usually cripple her so thoroughly she can't even get up to go to school. So, thank you... you mean a lot to our family." Ume explained
"I see..." Mei said. "Well I better get going so I'm not late for my student council work." Mei said turning to leave.
"Right... you two have a good day at school." Ume said before walking up and giving Mei a quick hug before returning to cleaning dishes.
By the time they arrived at school Yuzu's spirits seemed to have lifted slightly, while certainly still dampened compared to what Mei had come to expect from the usually high energy blonde, she wasn't the same void that she was when they left the house which gave Mei at least some hope that she was doing well enough to be left to her psychiatrist and friends while Mei went to take care of her student council duties.
Mei entered the student council room and sifted through paperwork sorting it as Himeko entered. "Morning MeiMei." Himeko said as cheerful as ever.
"Good morning himeko." Mei said still reading through papers on the main desk. "I'll need you to do morning rounds by yourself today. I have too much paperwork I've been neglecting." Mei said
"Well if you didn't spend so much time looking after that blonde-haired delinquent-" Himeko began before being cut off abruptly
"I do believe I asked you not to refer to my sister with such language." Mei said still not looking up at Himeko
"Why do you even care? Just because she's your sister doesn't mean she's your family." Himeko said "You two are nothing alike!"
"The fact that she is my sister is precisely what makes her family." Mei said looking up finally from her paperwork to fix a hard gaze on the confused Hemiko. "Since when did you become so judgmental of who I spend my time with?"
"I'm just worried that she's monopolizing your time Mei. You spend so much time with her even here at school... you've even fallen behind on your paperwork; you've never fallen behind on anything in all the time I've known you until she came along." Himeko protested "What is it about her that makes it so important you spend so much time focusing on her rather than me- I mean the Student Council!"
"Are any of you a psychologically traumatized and damaged girl that society treats like a delinquent because they don't understand the hell you've been through or the constant pain you live your life in?" Mei snapped "I have fallen behind on my paperwork but I am more than capable of catching up on my own work in a timely manner before the deadlines and I don't need you micromanaging me!"
"Meimei I'm not trying to be a nuisance I just-" Himeko tried to say
"Then return to the duties you have been assigned so I may return to mine!" Mei said. Himeko gave a sigh and an upset look before turning and leaving the room to do her morning rounds.
Hope ya'll enjoyed this chapter. As always, feel free to leave a review with comments, suggestions, and critiques. Ciao for now!