Love is Love 1 Cherry Pie for Sixteen
A/N: Welcome back to the new and improved story of My Blood Sister! As a reminder, this story used to be My Blood Sister, but is now called, Love is Love to differentiate the two. I'm actually really excited by this story because I put a lot of effort and detail into everything. This time, I'll make sure I won't need to re-write a chapter, so I won't have to remind you to re-read something because I wouldn't want to do that either as a reader honestly. D:
If you have read or might read the old version, it will still be kept up because in some of the author's comments I wrote, there is a lot of history in them and I want to keep it, and maybe to look back on my sucky writing. XD
Once again, another beautiful and sunny day had dawned upon the Sunrise Residence without a single cloud in the sky. Shining from above, the sun glared out its bright beams, while birds sang their light and floaty chirps, and honey bees whizzed speedily through the air by the flower bushels surrounding the complex. The chilly morning breeze rustled the branches and leaves nearby the Sunrise Residence. In particular, the wind had snuck its way into the room of Louis Asahina, who was simply sitting on a brown chair in his room, by the window with Juli sleeping in his lap. Louis drank his hot, steaming mug of jasmine tea. He sipped the warm liquid, raising the white, glass mug to his lips, being careful to blow on the jasmine concoction before drinking it.
"She's supposed to be coming home tonight," Louis muttered to himself as he turned his head toward the window and saw the massive tree in the middle of the complex. All he wanted to do was enjoy himself by throwing himself in nature. He stroked Juli's sleeping head in a gentle manner, petting him with his left hand as he continued to drink his tea in his right. On the windowsill, Louis's phone had chimed with a beep. Louis had not bothered to check the message. He could already guess the exact words the message entailed. He took a whiff of the fresh air seeping into his room that caused his light blue and almost-translucent curtains to fly. He took another sip of his tea, and then, he stroked Juli's head once more.
The phone chimed for the second time, signaling the owner of the phone to check the message just recently sent. It read:
I just got on the plane, so I'll see you in a bit!
"Alright, and send!" Said a girl twiddling the ends of her long, golden hair that reached her waist for the hundredth time. She pressed the up arrow, which sent her message. She was so jittery due to her aching nerves, but it was not her fault. She had not lived in Japan for at least three to four years, and on top of that, her flight was a one-way trip straight from California and she was definitely aware of how long the flight would take. In fact, the flight would take about more than eleven hours, give or take since it depended on how well the flight managed. She had to consider the con factors of taking a one-way flight. First of all, the delays. Second, the weather conditions, and third, her patience because it seemed like she always had a rough time trying to sleep on flights. The nerves and excitement had obviously gotten to her rather bad.
Just earlier, she had arrived at the San Francisco airport fresh from her workplace with her tiny 'ole self and two large lilac suitcases that she reminded herself to bring to work, thus she could leave for the airport promptly after finishing her assignments while not having to make a pit stop home.
Sitting in the aisle chair in an economy seat near the front of the plane, she remembered her standing inside the airport after entering through the automatic spinning doors. The airport was white, crisp, and clean, or at least that was what it appeared as without the stench of the bathrooms. She was standing there in front of the entrance in a baby pink, worn-out hoodie, a fit of washed-out jeans, her white socks, and black slides, and her favorite pair of red, heart sunglasses that covered her mauve eyes. She wanted to be comfortable on the flight since it was going to be rather endless. She dragged her lilac suitcases in each hand, with a caramel, and a faux-leather tote purse slung around her right shoulder, as she found a spot to check-in her suitcases. After she had checked her suitcases in, she went through the usual procedures, security check, waited for the flight, ate some food from her tote-purse, sat at a chair after she found her flight, got in line for the flight, got her ticket checked for the flight, and here she was on the plane still nervous. By now, she had put her sunglasses back into the depths of her tote-purse, went to the bathroom, ate her packing peanuts, and plugged in her phone to charge. She did not forget anything because she made sure to check all of her items thrice the night before.
"Anything you'd like?" the Japanese flight lady attendant asked in English.
"A water, please," the girl answered back in Japanese, in which the flight attendant smiled, "You are very good at Japanese."
"My parents are Japanese."
"They must have taught you well," the flight attendant complimented, "One water?"
"Mm-hm. Thank you." The flight attendant lady poured her a plastic cup filled with ice and water, handed it to the girl, and then proceeded to ask the two people sitting next to the girl and moved onto the next aisles waiting behind leaving the girl to drown in her stomach butterflies.
Luckily for her, she had a solution, a sleeping pill, which she had packed into her tote-purse for the sole purpose of getting her to sleep, so she could feel fresh once she arrived in Japan since the flight was scheduled to get there in the morning. She had to shift her sleeping pattern in order to adjust to the time difference.
She grabbed the package of pills from a plastic bag from her bag and popped the pill into her mouth chasing it down with the water she had asked for from the flight attendant.
A ring came from the cabin and it was followed by a few introductory words from the flight attendants to show the safety rules and then the plane was set for Japan and before the girl knew it, an hour into the flight, she was already fast asleep.
A few hours later into the flight, the girl had woken up. She yawned as she saw the two strangers sitting next to her asleep with blankets wrapped around them. The girl's blanket had fallen to her lap after she woke up. The cabin was nice and dark since the flight attendants turned the plane's lights off for people to sleep. The girl went to the bathroom and waited in a line behind one other person in the yellow light that shined above the bathroom area. After the girl used the bathroom, she was lucky enough that it was time to serve meals on the flight. She ordered the first item from the three and told the lady when the flight attendant came back to take food orders. Then she watched a movie from the provided services as she ate her food and since the movie she picked was boring, the girl fell back asleep.
The next time the girl woke up, she immediately grabbed her phone from her hoodie pocket and looked at the time, and her heart filled with jitters again seeing that the flight was almost to Japan, and the butterflies were eating her stomach. The flight was on the next meal order, so the girl went through the same process again. Picked the first food item on the menu, and ate while she watched a movie, but this time, she could not sleep and spent the rest of the flight watching movies until the plane arrived in Japan.
Beeping, a signal came through the plane and the girl was met with the voice of the captain announcing that they were landing soon. The person in the window seat had slid the shade up and the girl could see the pavement of the plane runway getting closer and here came her favorite part, the landing!
Though it was loud, the girl enjoyed the speeding rush of the plane's landing because it reminded her of the first time she traveled on a plane and it was when she and her twin brother were going to Japan to meet their new family. It was a good and precious memory and very much similar to back when she was meeting with her family for the first time, she was coming back home to see her family after three-four years.
After the girl had left the plane, she found a bathroom close by, so she could fix herself up because she wanted to make a good impression on her family she had not seen in a long time. She emptied out the contents of her bag and out came a plastic bag of liquids and her makeup bag. She stuffed the other things back into place. She motioned her hand on the sink's motion sensor and washed her face with a cleanser, sprayed toner, and smothered herself in lotion. Then she put on a pink eyeshadow, brown mascara, a tiny bit of pink blush, and pink-nude lipstick. She sealed off her look with a few spritzes of setting spray and returned the rest of her things back in her bag.
Later on, the girl had waited at the conveyor belt to get her luggage and she thought it was a stroke of luck when she had found her lilac suitcases almost instantly.
Similar to earlier that day, the girl was dragging around her suitcases with her tote-purse slung around her shoulder and her red, heart sunglasses returned to covering her mauve eyes.
In the crowd of other passengers from the flight, they flooded the pick-up area, pushing the girl out into the open. Surrounded by the other passengers, the girl looked around to catch a sign of some sort that said her name or at least some familiar faces. Then all of a sudden through the crowd of thousands, the girl spotted Louis. On Louis's right was a younger boy with brown hair wearing a school uniform. He had a small yellow suitcase and carried a smirk on his face. On Louis's left was another man with long, deep red-orange hair in a gray business suit, and on the left of the other man was an older-looking boy with black hair in a basketball uniform, carrying a sports duffle-bag.
Louis made eye contact with the girl and his eyes widened clearing showing the distinct mauve eyes he shared with her. He nudged the man in the business suit beside him, said a few words as he pointed in the girl's general direction, and waved his hand in the air to make sure the girl would not lose them. Louis beamed in excitement.
"Luna! Over here!"
Earlier that morning at the dining table, Louis was in the midst of washing the dishes for it was his turn. He was nearly finished, except he was waiting on Hikaru to finish his bowl of rice and fish. Clearly, Hikaru was trying to make him suffer. Everyone else had woke up quick, freshened up, ate, and finished breakfast made by Ukyo, and then left for either work or school. Since Hikaru worked on his own, private schedule, he controlled the time frames in which he used to write his novels. Usually, he chose nighttime since he had been a night owl for as long as he could remember, and because of that, he used the morning as his time to settle down. Usually, that was his routine, but to Louis that it seemed like Hikaru took his time longer this morning to annoy him especially.
"Hikaru, you're killing me, you know," Louis's brows furrowed as he pouted.
"Whatever do you mean," Hikaru slyly answered.
"You know I want to get to work and finish all my appointments early, so I can go pick up Luna today."
"You're correct, dear brother, but I'm doing my thing, all the same, though it looks like you're all excited to sit down." Hikaru stood up from the table and pushed in his chair. He grabbed his finished empty bowl and chopsticks and handed them off to Louis for cleaning.
"Sorry, I just haven't seen her face to face physically in a long time," Louis apologized.
"I want to see her too, maybe not as much compared to you, but we all love her just the same, and I'm supposed to meet you there at the airport since she isn't the only one we're picking up. We have to get Subaru who finished his game, and Fuuto who just finished filming from the airport as well." He teased.
"Yeah, I suppose I should tone it down," Louis spoke softly, though Hikaru shook his head in disagreement, "No, be excited, she probably is too. I'll see you there after my meeting for my next book." Hikaru patted Louis on the back, and then, he went to go get ready for his meeting.
At work, Louis could not keep his happiness from bursting out. He was on a role. At his hair-styling salon, he had six of his normal clients, and he performed his job without fail. Each client could feel the rush coming out of Louis as he styled, or cut hair their hair. They all simply had to ask about it, and every time they asked, Louis would tell them the same thing, "My sister is coming home from America."
"Wow, that's cool," the clients usually answered, and the compliments had reinforced an even brighter excitement inside of him. While the customer rush finished, Louis and his fellow beauticians sat in their resting chair and looked at magazines. Regularly, Louis would be apart of the conversation, but he was not able to focus since all of his attention was on seeing Luna.
"Since you seem so eager to see your sister-," the salon manager calmly started, snapping Louis out of his trance, "-and the client rush is over now, I can confidently say that you're free to go," the lady said.
"Really?!"
"You deserve it for working so hard today," said one of the other female hairstylist, while Louis was already putting his supplies away.
"Well, Louis always works hard," another said.
"Right, so you're free to go," the salon manager gestured to the door.
"Thank you so much! I'll see you guys soon!" Louis lifted his clear storage box full of his tools and left for the airport. From there on, he met with Hikaru at home, left his supplies in his room and the two hopped into a car together, Hikaru driving because Hikaru did not trust Louis could drive safely being in the shaky state he was in.
At the airport, standing behind the roped-off sections, Louis waited eagerly with Hikaru, and Subaru and Futo, to see Luna's face and he spotted her almost instantaneously. He could see she shared an expression mirroring his own, so Hikaru's words were right. He waved his arm into the air calling out to her.
"Luna! Over here!"
Luna walked around the rope section, and over to the quartet. Louis gave her a warm hug the second she was in his vicinity. The man in the business suit laughed, "Louis, calm down. You're smothering her."
"Hikaru?" Luna recognized the man as soon as she heard his voice. She had said so over Louis's shoulder when he hugged her but gave Hikaru a hug as well once Louis let go after much persistence.
Luna saw the other boys awkwardly standing by. The one in the sports gear scratched his head and attempted to match Louis and Hikaru's emotion, but failed miserably.
"And these are?"
"Subaru and Fuuto," Hikaru said.
"Wow, you both have changed so much!" Luna gave them each a light hug. "You're both so much taller than me, especially you Fuuto. As for Subaru, well, you've always been taller than me back then, but now you're really towering over me. I guess it's the basketball, right?"
Subaru silently nodded his head flustered, yet he managed a few words, "It's nice to see you too, Luna. You look well."
"Thank you."
"You should see me now, Luna!" It was Fuuto's turn to speak. "Just like I said, I became an idol."
"I thought when you were a baby, you said you wanted to act?" Luna smiled.
Fuuto averted his eyes, "I-I'm getting there, alright. I'm practically almost there. I just got back from filming right now too."
"Alright." Luna decided to not question the boy any further to give him a break.
"We should be getting home now, they're preparing dinner right now, and if we leave now, we'll probably be back by dinner," Hikaru suggested and the rest of the crew followed his lead.
Louis had taken one of Luna's suitcases for her when the groups started to find the car in the parking garage, and she thanked him.
With the help of Subaru's strength, he loaded Luna's heavy suitcases and Fuuto's small one in the trunk, and then joined everyone else in the car and sat in the backseat with him sitting on the right side, Fuuto in the middle because he was the smallest and Louis on the left. While Hikaru sat in the front, driving, Luna sat beside him in the passenger seat.
During the drive home, the butterflies did nothing, but leave. Seriously, Luna could not make them disappear. All they did was jump and fly around in her stomach, and all Luna could do was watch the scenery and the sun setting over Japan on the way home. Futo and Subaru talked animatedly about their game and filming during their recent travels, and Luna shared some of her stories too, though, further down the road, she had blocked everyone's voices and watched the last sun rays through the buildings that flew by the car window.
By the time, the car drove inside the Sunrise Residence, Luna sense a familiar feeling entering her body. She had not felt it in forever. It was the feeling of home.
"Welcome home, Luna," Hikaru, Louis, Subaru, and Futo said together on Hikaru's count and instruction.
Hikaru parked the car, and Subaru helped take out the suitcases with his "strong muscles", Hikaru liked to describe and Futo fake gagged.
Louis opened Luna's door, "Welcome home, again."
Luna stepped out of the car and breathed a sigh of relief, "It's good to be home."
"Let's go first," Louis said, giving Luna a small push towards the house entrance before telling the other boys to bring in Luna's suitcase too.
Twenty-two steps. It took twenty-two steps. Luna counted exactly. It took twenty-two steps to reach the doorway. How funny, she thought, I'm twenty-two.
Louis let Luna stand in front of him at the doorway and pressed the doorbell once, and then twice. A surge of jumbled voices raised in the air from inside the house. It seemed like the voices were excited, yet Luna could not make out what they were saying since they were too far away and muffled. While Luna got closer to the door, the crowd of voices got louder and louder. One voice stood out from the other, "I'll get it! I want to welcome Futo and Subaru first!" The voice was tiny and squeaky.
As the front door opened, Luna swallowed down her nerves and breathed in a shaky breath. She saw a boy. A boy with light-salmon bob and in a colorful yellow sweater with one hand holding a blue bunny, and the other on the door handle. At first, the boy cried out, "Louis, you're home!" Then the boy looked up at Luna, speechless, and obviously surprised since he was expecting Subaru and Futo.
"Uhh...B-Big brother?" Called Wataru.
Then another man came to the door. He was wearing an off-white and striped, buttoned-down shirt, army green pants with a belt, and a doctor's coat. Wataru held the hem of Masaomi's coat and gripped his bunny closer as to hide his face.
"Wataru, is anything wrong?" The doctor's coat was a massive hint. This man was the eldest Asahina, Masaomi.
Luna crouched onto one knee to reach Wataru's eye level and to appear less intimidating, and gave her cheesiest grin, "I don't think you remember me, Wataru, but it's me, Luna! Remember me? I used to live here when you were only about seven or eight if I recall."
Wataru's eyes grew as large as saucers, "R-Really?"
"Uh-huh, I came back for mom's wedding."
"R-Really?"
"Uh-huh," Luna said enthusiastically.
Wataru had come out from behind Masaomi and launched himself into Luna, wrapping his miniature arms around her, "Luna! I missed you so much! Whenever I asked Masaomi when you would be coming home, he always said maybe not, but I knew you would come back. I even wished for it on my last birthday when I blew out the candles! And it came true!"
"Luna?" Masaomi said. Luna currently with a small Wataru around her could only lookup.
"Is it true, you came back for the wedding?"
"Yes," Luna said, lifting Wataru up so she could hold him, "Up we go! Whew, you're so heavy now, Wataru."
"Oh, you don't have to do that," Masaomi said, "Wataru don't you wanna come down?"
"No! I want my sister to carry me!" Wataru held his arms around Luna's neck and stuck out his tongue playfully to his older brother.
"It's fine, I'm strong," Luna joked.
"When did you come back?" Masaomi, more used to the situation, placed his hands in his pockets, relaxed. He used his gentle voice, the one he would use on everyone, especially his siblings.
"I wanted it to be a surprise," Louis interrupted.
"Yeah, we had to keep it a secret," Hikaru added in, Subaru and Futo with the suitcases behind him.
"Hey, what's taking you guys so long?!" A voice shouted with a sassy attitude.
The door opened fully and beyond Masaomi was the family, the voice coming from Tsubaki, who was wearing an annoyed look on his face, "Who's this?"
"Hey, everybody, it's Luna!" Wataru announced.
Luna bowed, "It's nice to see you all again. Please, take care of me!"
Louis inserted the key into its lock, turned it clockwise, and then opened the door, "Here you are. The room of Luna Asahina," Louis said.
"Wow," Luna stuck her head into the room, "It's like it never changed."
Grabbing one of her suitcases, Louis rolled Luna's suitcase into the room and Luna rolled in the last one that had her tote-purse sitting on top.
"We didn't have the heart to change it after you left, so all we really did was remove the sheets and would clean the room periodically throughout the year. Although I did deep clean the room in the past week for your arrival," Louis admitted.
"Oh," Luna was at loss for words.
"But it's okay now, since, you're here!" Louis said trying to make Luna feel better.
"Yep, you're right." Luna collapsed onto the bed. The bed had a new, fresh white sheet and pillows, and a pale-green duvet blanket with small white polka-dots.
"I'll leave you alone to settle in." Louis proposed, closing the door on the way out, and as soon as he left, Luna laid down on the bed.
"What a surprise it must have been for them," Luna judged based on the family's reaction. She thought they were going to be surprised, but not this surprised because it took the whole family a total of ten minutes for her arrival to sink in. Luna would joke about how long it took them to realize, but it was true. Maybe it was the fact that Luna would be returning home was the last thing on their mind, after all, Luna was gone for a very long time. In all honesty, Luna thought her family would forget about her for sure, though seeing their welcoming arms as soon as the shock sunk in was a sight for sore eyes.
Masaomi had given her, his warmest hug, Ukyo gave her a handshake, and Kaname a teasing kiss on her forehead then ruffled her hair. From Tsubaki and Azusa, Luna received a twin hug, one of the highest honors for the family. Iori and Yusuke greeted their sister happily and Luna returned them a big bear hug for the both of them. This time around the only thing different was Ema and Natsume missing. Luna was glad Natsume was gone because she did not know if she could handle seeing him right away, although as for Ema, they both exchanged a, "Hello," and a couple of words of, "I'm in your care," and whatnot. The girl, Ema, seemed nice. This was the wildness that Luna missed back in America for she could never replace her family, and all she could say was that it was a lot.
Collapsed on the bed, Luna felt the butterflies again, except instead of nervous ones, they were a giddy feeling. A sense of sunshine surged into her.
She looked around the room. As she said before and confirmed by Louis, nothing changed. The same posters of her favorite band and dessert advertisements, along with several pictures of the whole family. The same window was protected by a sheer white curtain with small, yellow flower designs. The same white desk with brown with a silver wastebasket at the legs, and a four-legged chair, which was bought with Louis', so they were matching. The same white bookcase shelf beside the desk, filled with books, photo albums of the family and school, and her diaries and journals in a box on the bottom shelf. Luna pulled the box from the shelf and set it next to the bed and grabbed the first one she touched, and laid back down underneath the covers, resting her head on the pillow. She flipped to the first page, "You will never guess what had just happened."