A Weird Sky
Prologue
From a young age Haru could understand a person just by feeling. Call it a sixth sense but Haru could know a person just from their essence. For the longest time this odd understanding of another was neither acknowledged nor ignored. The girl even liked to believe the fuzzy feelings were a normality that all felt around others.
Their emotions just sort of tickled her skin when she was least expecting. Like her mama always felt warm to her, like syrupy caramel on an icecream sundae. She left Haru feeling loved and cared for. Some days her mama would just smile at her and Haru would turn to mush from the warmth entering her skin. Her gentle touch on tiny wounds after a failed flip, how just her fingers felt like butterfly kisses on the little girl's knee. Haru could feel the love from her mother, the gentle yet reinvigorating warmth that had become in essence, her mother.
Haru's papa was similar in his warmth, only his was like a light rain shower. He smelt like dewy grass in the morning. His emotions were gentle and transparent, unlike her mother's warm smiles and bright laugh he was always tender and calm. Haru liked to treat him like a teddy bear after a bad night's sleep as his touch scared away all nerves.
In Harus humble opinion her mama and papa are like night and day. Where her mama would rush the day with excitement her father lagged behind in a patient thrum. The two created a sort of harmony between them, a gentle sense of understanding that Haru learned was love. The true embodiment of love in all of its harmonious contentment.
Then there was Haru, their sweet princess. Innocent as any child and full to the brim with curiosity. The two seemed to spend Haru's young days cooing at her small form as she worked on little puzzle blocks and started her first steps. To barricade the young girls every escape plan. For Haru was and always will be a trouble magnet. Not on purpose of course, the girl simply would get a weird itch at the back of her head sometimes. This odd feeling that nudged her in a direction, that helped her find things. For example, had she not followed these nudges Haru probably would have missed out in gymnastics. It was her sixth sense that she was pulled along a maze of roads right to the gymnastics building afterall.
Of course sometimes it led to trouble as well, sometimes she'd get these migraines when wondering. Pins and needles will stab her in her feet begging her to turn around. The first time this happened Haru was so struck by the pain that she froze in place and cried a storm from the pain. Her parents thankfully found her and quickly bundled her in calming waters and warm sunshine which led her to calm to just hiccups of what was. Still Haru was a smart girl and learned fast, so the next time she happened upon such pain she turned tail.
Unlike her parents Haru found most others to be dull. They held no unique scents or forms of feeling. Sure, she could sometimes come across the feeling of a small drop of water or a tingle of electricity but the feeling was never strong. Most just felt safe or not safe. Haru doesn't know how to describe the feeling as anything but a pull towards or away. Simply put sometimes she just felt a connection towards someone and sometimes she could feel a sense of dislike before one opened their mouth.
She was happy like this and felt no need to question her odd sixth sense.
Then one winter morning Haru woke to a sense of dread, she woke to a cold sweat upon her back and an odd bitter taste at the tip of her tongue. Her head was pounding in pain and she felt like a thousand hands were strangling her. The feeling left her so scared she burst into tears right up till the warmth of her mother was embracing her trembling form. A stream of calming waters searching around her, lightly thumbing her skin for assurance. Both swore she was safe. That all was fine. She chose to believe them.
Of course realistically all of this was a hint of what was to come, so it was no one's fault but her own when her mama's warmth waned and her papa's calm waters became lost at stream. Things had been sour in their house after the funeral and Haru was choking. She was choking on the cold, on her mother's last drop of warmth and her father lost self. Even at such a young age she could see it, the waning of her father's color. His will had been broken with the lost.
She wanted to help, but she also had been broken. The memories of the night left her scarred and unable to sleep. In her dreams all she saw was hands, all she felt was them holding her down. All she heard was her mother's cries. She was unsure how to move on.
Then her papa came to her with a pendant. Purple in hue and simple. He promised her things would change for the better, and gave her the small thing. Wrapped it around her neck and told her to never take it off. Haru had simply nodded numbly at that, dizzy from a strange sense of vertigo and awed by the lack of life around her.
After moving Haru decided to stop being mopey. Maybe it was the change of setting, or maybe it was the necklace that left her outside sense muddled but Haru was tired of being sad. Though she no longer felt it she wanted her papas shallow waters to once more envelope her with love. To protect her like they once did. So Haru put on a bright smile and threw the bad thoughts out of her mind. Her father was troubled, he was mourning, he needed a wall of his own to lean on. He needed a warmth where his wife no longer existed. So Haru became just that, she took over the house with her happiness and sapped all the dreary musk out of the home. She excelled in school, smiled and laughed with the other kids though never truly bonding with any. Her hobby's grew with her need to be happy, acrobatics became a way to destress, to take out all her worries into sweat and used energy.
By her first year of middle school her papa was smiling again. His gaze was no longer anxious and instead he held pride for his daughter. Haru was proud of this. Proud of their ability to grow together.
They were just tethering the broken pieces together when she entered middle school. While she had heard from others about how drama and girls grew with age Haru will be honest and say she hadn't expected what came next. Though she will never regret what she got out of it.