Before Tsumugu and Midori Hinamori became famous, they were two young artists. Upstarts with passion that had gotten married at the young age of 22, living together in a small apartment and burdened with a child already. A young girl by the name of Aki, with dark brown hair that almost seemed reddish and wide gold eyes that seemed to absorb the world. And her parents, as they cooed over her, locked in by the symbol of their love. She wasn't viewed as a difficulty as they tried to make a living, and crawling their way to fame with every paper published. In fact, their little girl was strangely quiet for her age. But that was no matter. All children were different, and, well, so what if their little princess was mild mannered?
The years went by quickly. Tsumugu's photography work garnered lots of attention, but Midori was still lacking the inspiration to produce successful articles. Despite writing for a housemother column, she had trouble finding material and tips when Aki was so...shy. Smart.
Yes, smart was the word. When Aki looked, it was with definitive purpose. When she acted she had a goal in mind. At the age of a year, she was already toddling around and interacting with things in a way that didn't involving throwing or chewing. The mothers at her work didn't believe her at first when she told them.
The silence sometimes scared Midori, however, when she gets lost in ideas for papers and is suddenly slapped back to reality when she realizes she hadn't heard a noise from her baby in hours, only to find her sitting in the living room carefully stacking blocks and watching the tv.
Yes, her child may be strange, but...Midori smiled as she watched the observant gaze of her toddler follow the colorful cartoons across the screen.
She loved her just the way she was.
When Aki was three years old, Midori, with a hand on her belly, announced her next pregnancy. Aki blinked in surprise.
In 9 months, Amu was born.
XxX
"We go'n see mommy now?" I stared up at my father, stumbling over a few words with a bit of a slur as we entered the sliding doors of the hospital. It was hard to talk with this mouth.
"Yes darling!" Papa smiled, his eyes getting dreamy. "And your new little sister!"
I hummed a little.
I'm just glad that Papa insisted I call him Papa and mother Mama. It was too weird to call them mom and dad, because all it did was bring up memories of my old life. I've been trying to forget the personal details, because it's a new life now and it's not like I can ever go back to my old one...can I? In me there was still a longing to finish my degree, an aching for that success and accomplishment that was ruined by my timely death. Ugh. Just thinking of my death put me in a bad mood(wouldn't it anyone?). It was a stupid mistake. Something I could've avoided if I had just taken a nap. Drank more coffee-whatever. But I suppose the past is in the past, and a new life isn't too bad either, despite the fact that it's in an entirely new country. There have been a lot of regrettable things in my previous life, but now I can completely start over, something some people would kill for. Something I died for. At least this time I can be smart about things.
As we stepped out of the elevator and maneuvered down the hallways to my mother's room, I broke out of my musings and disconnected my hand from Papa's to go over to the woman on the bed, awe on my face as I stared down at the wrinkly little thing swaddled in my Mama's arms. Her cheeks were pink, wink with brighter bubblegum tufts of the same color peeking out around her face when her hat rode up. I was struck with a temporary confusion.
Pink?
Mother had dark brown hair and father's was light brown, how did she get pink hair?
Oh well. At least I wasn't the one stuck with the bright monstrosity that looked like something right out of a candy store. It was interesting in it's own right though.
(but no seriously does she have some strange disease that hair color is really not normal. Why are Mama and Papa not freaking out. THEY SHOULD BE FREAKING OUT AM I THE ONLY ONE WHO SEES SOMETHING WRONG WITH THIS?!)
It's been nearly a year since Amu was born, and to be honest, I think I'm finally warming up to her.
I mean, she's a cute and sweet girl.
That is, when she's not trying to chew on my hair, clothes, fingers, face, or really anything I own. I realized too late exactly how grabby the pinkette was and nearly lost a handful of strands. I can safely assure you that it hurt like a bitch.
And let's just not mention the grubby hands seemingly always covered with some sort of oatmeal-food mixture. Dammit that shit sticks until I either pry it off or take a long shower.
So I learned from my mistake and hurriedly came up with a hairstyle that would keep my poor hair safe from the tyranny of the creature named Amu(because I'm not cutting my hair just cuz a little girl can't control herself). A quick bun worked in most situations, thankfully. I can't wait until she grows up. As she gets older, her attitude and habits have been improving(with the help of me of course). Maybe one day she'll actually be likeable.
Which is exactly why I'm holding in my complaints as the little brat drools all over me.
How long until I start school again?
XxX
"Alright cherry blossom, let's see you wreck that shi-i mean tower!" whups almost let that one slip. Can't curse in front of my innocent little sister after all. My coverup didn't seem to bother her, luckily, as with a scream of "YAAAYYY", one and a half year old Amu smashed the pile of pillows and kicked them violently as I watched with a grin. Screaming happily, she landed on top of them before calming down and panting softly in exhaustion, starting at me with those lovely doe eyes.
I clapped politely, trying to hold in my pride.
Then Mama walked in.
"..."
"..."
"..."
We all stared at each other before Mama crossed her arms, a disapproving look on her face.
"Aki, what did I tell you about teaching your sister to destroy?"
"Amu. Let's run for it."
"SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE"
"AKIIIIIII!"
I stared up at the large yet modest school in front of me, a mixture of excitement and nervousness building up in my chest.
Mama, Papa, and Amu were all with me, smiling proudly as they escorted me to my class. Seeing all the kids milling around, I started to feel shy before reminding myself that I had already gone through this and that there was nothing to worry about. In fact, I should be more worried about having to deal with a bunch of whiny kids that were probably worse than Amu(at least I was there to train her).
Bracing myself, I took a deep breath and looked on with determined eyes(*cough* resigned myself to my fate *cough*).
First day of elementary, here I come!
...
"Onee-chwan, why yous crying?"
"It's nothing Amu-Amu. You'll understand when you're older."
XxX
You know what? School was easy.
Actually, it was way too easy.
Writing letters? Could do that in my sleep.
Counting? Pfft, who do you think I am.
Of course, this was Japan and they had a completely different language from America. As most high schools didn't offer asian language courses, I had four years of German under my wing, but it fell flat in helping my Japanese. Well, I suppose it still worked out in my favor as I didn't want to be labeled as a child prodigy when in reality I just took over some poor kids body(ugh still makes me shiver a little every time i think about it. It's an ongoing moral dilemma), I decided that there was nothing left for me to do except to pretend to be like every other 6 year old.
And laze around, because homework only took about seven minutes to complete and tests were a breeze. Who needs cram school at this age anyway?
Maybe I should find something else to do?
…Nah.
Might as well enjoy my free time while I can. I just really hope that my laziness doesn't come back to kick me in the ass. As a broke college student struggling to pay the bills for med school in my previous life, I've had my fair share of work. It's about time I got a damn break.
Yeah.
The kiddie life is good.
XxX
Days passed, as they always do.
Amu and I became close, and she actually developed a, quote, 'cool and spicy!' personality. Part of it was because of my mother's clothing choices, but it was mainly Amu's tendency to turn tsundere in uncomfortable situations. She was really just a shy kid, and had a pretty severe defensive system when she got embarassed. One of those people that became blunt and cold when they got nervous or were at loss at what to say. Luckily she seemed fairly comfortable with me. Probably since we've been tumbling together since she was born and I'm not embarrassing like Mama and Papa.
I felt pretty bad for the kiddo. I've been there before, been a kid, been shy and unsure of myself.
So, I tried to spend more time with her and do little things togheter like go shopping for the cute frilly things she really liked on the inside and drink milkshakes at cute cafes.
Amu was adorable, but nothing made my unmoved heart beat as her being happy and comfortable. It was rare she could let loose like this, but what can I say. I'm a damn good big sister.
Amu and I became as thick as thieves.
It felt nice to have someone trust you like this.
But on the subject of personalities, I(with really no other way to say this) became the laziest person in the house.
Not in like, a slob way, but in a putting minimal effort girls-just-wanna-have-fun way. If you get it. It was way more interesting to play games on the computer than studying for the next test(bad idea if I wasn't already preloaded with knowledge). Literature, as it was my worst subject, was studied in the ad breaks between tv shows and at night before I went to sleep. Anything else was crammed in the morning on the way to class.
It isn't really my proudest times, but it worked. I can only hope it doesn't become a habit because I know that shit wouldn't work highschool and beyond. Maybe even middle school as they've already started prepping us for high school entrance exams, which was new to me. The fact that high schools are treated as sort of mini colleges.
But I wasn't too worried. I was top of my class, but what can I say? You have to be pretty smart(and even more precise) to be a surgeon.
My amusement fell a little as I remembered what I had strived for.
Sometimes...I wonder what there is left for me in life.
To go back to school? Make top end grades? Become a renowned doctor? Find a husband and settle down? I find myself at a loss of what to do, but a yearning for more. Shifting my previous life into perspective, I realized that I had been fighting in desperation. Working to the bone for that future I could see through the narrow tunnel because I had believed when I got there, I would achieve everything I needed. My own future. I had drown myself in studies in hopes of forgetting my hardships and the emptiness.
But now, I wasn't sure if I would be content with doing it all over again.
Or maybe I'm just being melancholy today...
I exhaled deeply and tore my gaze from the bright stars twinkling in the endless dark beyond my window. Looking back down at the homework that had ended up boring me to reminiscing, I saw that it was almost complete.
Humming, I swung my feet and quickly finished.
As I packed away my things for school tomorrow, I saw bright orange-yellow eyes peeking at me through a crack in the door. Mentally sighing, I put a smile on and gestured for Amu to come in.
"What do you need help with this time?" I asked, playfully exasperated once she stood in front of me, raising a piece of paper to my face. I was prepared for math homework or something or the other, but what I saw made my heart bleed.
I felt my smile became more genuine.
It was a picture of me(drawn as best as a 9 year old could) with a big heart around it. 'I love you' was scrawled around the top in what was obviously Amu's handwriting.
Help me I'm melting.
Bringing her into a hug, I nuzzled my head into her hair as her tiny arms wrapped around my waist. Closing my eyes, I whispered a reply to her.
It was picked up by the wind to brush against waiting lips and press into yearning ears. Words that reached around the world before being swirled to the gleaming moon.
"I love you too."
The picture was hung on an honorary spot next to my desk.
Alright! It's been a while but next chapter's gonna get to the plotline.
Hopefully.
Tell me if there are grammar mistakes as I didn't look this over too closely when I finished. ;D
