safe harbor
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Summary
Mari, fifteen years old. Standing in front of the checkered blue backdrop with the prefecture's crest stamped over and over behind her like wallpaper. She had a gold medal looped around her neck and a trophy in one hand, its little red gem catching the light funny. Her hair was flat with old sweat, and she stared wide-eyed into the camera with an expression that wasn't quite a smile—more like she hadn't figured out yet how to arrange her face around something this big. And beside her, red hair a wild halo under the fluorescent lights—
—Lara.
Also fifteen. Holding up Mari’s certificate with both hands like it was hers instead of Mari's, looking so unreasonably delighted that you'd think she'd been the one to win.
Mari remembers that Lara hadn't even been able to read half the kanji on it. Had asked, loudly in the middle of the ceremony, what it said.
Almost three years now.
It doesn’t feel like it was that long ago. It feels like last week, and also like something that had happened to somebody else.
Mari looks at the photo for a long time.
or: seventeen-year-old mari wouldn't admit she's burned out and impulsively takes a train to see lara in kobe
Series
- Part 1 of safe harbor