Chapter Text
Kimi hadn't expected there to be so many trees.
The idea of her getting cell service was seeming less and less likely with every mile marker, and she pocketed her Blackberry with a barely-disguised sigh. Her father glanced at her briefly just before turning the car onto a road that seemed to have been hidden on purpose.
"I promise you'll like it here," he said, answering the question she hadn't asked. "You know I wouldn't send you off somewhere if I didn't fully trust that it would be right for you."
"It's not that," she said quickly, her eyes still fixed on the trees whizzing past. Though she didn't elaborate, she knew he understood by the way he reached out to gently rub her shoulder.
"You'll make new friends here. I sure did."
"But I thought you met Charles as an adult, Dad," she joked, and he laughed too, both thinking of the straight-laced man who worked with her father.
It was another ten minutes before they finally turned in to the parking lot. Kimi was decent at keeping her composure, but she had no guards against the somersaults her stomach started doing upon seeing the sign for Sayet Academy. The school was beautiful, of course—she had seen the brochures, as well as a number of dated-looking photographs of a much younger Schiller when he had attended the school. For the first time, it really sunk in that this would be Kimi's home for the next four years.
The freshly-paved parking lot had a number of families milling about already, and Kimi eyed them critically. Why would anybody voluntarily stand around outside in the middle of August? Her father chose a parking space where nobody could possibly ding his expensive new Audi, and though she dreaded lugging her suitcases inside in the heat, once he turned the air-conditioning in the car off it would be a race against time.
Cool air surprised her as she stepped out of the passenger's side. Of course, they had driven all the way into the mountains. Kimi could tolerate the cold much better than the heat, though it did make her curious about what it would be like once winter hit.
She'd always been a heavy packer, and preparing for her first year of boarding school was certainly no exception. Even though Sayet Academy was a highly selective private school, it was one of the few in the country that barely had a dress code beyond the bare minimum. This meant nearly three-quarters of Kimi's wardrobe had made the trip with her, and she regretted absolutely nothing, even as she went around to the trunk to lug one of her overstuffed black-and-white checkered suitcases out. Her father only picked up a duffel bag, his focus elsewhere. "I have a few friends I'd like to say hi to before we go in," he said, and she followed his line of sight to see a tall, bespectacled brown-haired boy and someone that looked like it could be his father standing a few parking spaces away.
Her father clapped the other man on the back, greeting him warmly, and introduced him to Kimi as one of his old schoolmates, from back when they had attended in the 1970s. "And this is Orlando. He'll be a couple of years above you, so maybe he can show you around?" His tone rose expectantly as he glanced between the two teenagers.
Orlando smiled winningly and extended his arm. "Pleasure to meet you, Kimi. I can definitely help you get acclimated to the school, if you'd like."
She stared at him for a second too long, her brain shorting out, before smiling back and taking his hand. "That'd be fantastic."
Her father beamed, and Kimi knew that he was relieved he wouldn't have to leave her entirely alone. After a couple more minutes of catch-up while Kimi and Orlando stood around awkwardly, they finally got a move on and picked up Kimi's things again.
"See," he said once they were out of earshot, "now you have someone here you know."
"Right." She pulled her suitcase behind her across the smooth asphalt. Something was still nagging at her mind, and she couldn't get the glint of Orlando's rectangular glasses out of her head. "But didn't I already know him?"
"What?" Her father looked at her curiously, adjusting the strap of the duffle bag on his shoulder. "I don't think so, darling. I haven't seen the du Lacs in years. They live in Arizona."
A weird feeling settled into the pit of Kimi's stomach. "Oh," she said, picking up her pace so she could stay near her father. "I thought I recognized him. Maybe a playdate, or a visit..."
"If you remember it, I must have been the one who forgot!" Schiller laughed. "I'm sorry to break it to you, but your dad's getting old..."
She rolled her eyes. "Anyways. Thanks for introducing us. It's not like I would have remembered him otherwise, and he seems nice."
The conversation had to end there so that they could check in and navigate to Kimi's room. The school had a classic charm, with shiny marble floors and high ceilings, and seeing it in person was definitely much better than any brochure. Kimi enjoyed the way the sound of her heels echoed through the halls as they set off for Lilith Hall, the girls' dormitory.
The receptionist had told them that Kimi's roommate had already checked in, and the uneasy feeling in her chest only increased as they drew nearer. To say that having a roommate was the part Kimi was most nervous about was a massive understatement. She had never lived in the same room as anybody before, ever, and was sure she would mess it up somehow. She hadn't even been to sleep-away camp like nearly everybody else her age. She half-pitied the poor girl who had to be roomed with her—who knew what kinds of faux pas she would end up making?
This was why she had tried not to think about it before arriving. She had known there was no avoiding it, and now was her time to just face the music and meet whoever she would be stuck with for the year.
The thrumming in her chest and the nervous energy flowing through her reached a record high when they finally arrived at room 208. She was so anxious she could hardly move, but after an encouraging smile from her father, she fixed a calm expression on her face and reached for the handle.
A pink-haired girl was sitting on the left bed, which was entirely decked out in frilly pastel pink and purple sheets and pillows. She looked up immediately from her notebook, her eyes lighting up when she saw Kimi. "You're here!"
Nikki was a freshman too, hailed from Southern California, liked fashion just as much as Kimi, and dearly missed her cat Momo, who she'd had to leave at home. There were no less than five photographs of him up already, depicting him in various states of despair. He had even been dressed up in a frilly canary-yellow bonnet in one, and Kimi could have sworn she saw pure contempt radiating from his eyes.
"But I'm sure my sister will take good care of him," Nikki said cheerfully, shifting from where she had been kneeling on the bed to finally stand. "Anyways, tell me about yourself, Kimi! I... I'm really excited to have a roommate, to tell you the truth. There's so many people here, so it'll be nice having someone I already know... like a built-in friend! Is that weird?" She giggled as she played with a pink strand of hair, looking a little embarrassed at her statement.
Though Kimi itched to color-code the wardrobe she and her father had finally finished dragging inside a few hours ago with Nikki's help, this felt like the perfect opportunity to actually get to know her. Somehow, she hadn't expected it to be so easy, but Nikki seemed genuinely interested in being her friend and nice to boot.
"Well..." Kimi drew out the syllable rather than peppering her sentence with ums and ers, a habit she had picked up a few years ago when she decided it made her sound more mature. "My father went here too, which I'm sure you figured out from what he said. I'm from Washington originally, but we moved to California a few years ago, when I started middle school. I don't have any pets or siblings or anything like that." Why did she always sound so boring when she described herself? Then again, Nikki already knew she liked fashion and clothes—they had spoken about it a little bit between trips to the car. She racked her brain for something else to say. "My favorite subject is English."
She winced as the words escaped her mouth, but Nikki was beaming as though Kimi's favorite school subject was the most interesting thing she could think of. "Mine too! I hope our teacher is nice."
Kimi breathed a sigh of relief, finally allowing a small smile to reach her face. "I love your top. Yellow and pink is such a good color combination. So what kinds of clothes do you like?"
"Oh! Well..." Nikki gave a guilty laugh. "I sort of wear everything... it's hard to pick a favorite. But I admit I really like pink and purple, especially dresses!"
"Everything, huh?" Kimi peered into Nikki's wardrobe and raised her eyebrows. The other girl wasn't kidding—she had everything from bright high-waisted shorts to long maxi skirts. A pair of fishnets was hanging next to a lolita-style dress as if they were the best of friends. "Okay, you weren't kidding. Show me your ways, please? How do you even pick out what you're going to wear?"
Nikki followed her new roommate's eyes. "Um. I have no idea how I'm going to do it here, actually. I had to leave over half of what I owned at home, but I wanted a little bit of every style."
Kimi knew people who went to this school were well off, but Nikki either spent all her money on clothing, or she was crazy rich. Neither would surprise her, though. Nikki cracked the wardrobe's door open a little wider and started to take out various items, all of which looked nothing like Kimi had.
"I don't know what I was thinking! This shade of green is so hard to match—and this hat is only suitable for formal occasions—and these overalls..." She held up a dull striped pair of suspenders and rubbed her chin.
Kimi stared at them in horror before her common sense kicked in. Don't say anything, don't say anything... "They look quite practical!" she offered in a strained voice. Good enough.
"Yeah! Maybe if we end up doing some gardening," Nikki said, turning to Kimi and giving her a bright smile. And somehow, to Kimi's utter horror, her stomach did the slightest flip, and she—
No. She couldn't crush on her roommate. She hadn't even been there a day!
"Ah! Yes, that would be a very appropriate situation to wear... those..." Kimi stammered, and Nikki giggled. "I don't think I have much that would work in that situation..." She hesitated, the words feeling oddly familiar. "Are you okay if I unpack?"
"Of course!"
They chattered more while Kimi sorted her dresses: first by color, then by style and length. Once she was done organizing and decorating her side of the room, she had to marvel at just how different they were. While Nikki's side looked like a fairy had thrown up all over it, Kimi's looked more like she had robbed an IKEA. The sheets were new, of course, since she had a queen bed at home and only a twin in the dorms. However, a surprising amount of decor had just been taken from her house in California. Looking over it now, she wondered if her father had made it home, and if it felt empty with both her and her favorite things gone.
She would have to make an effort to call him every day. Taking some pictures to show him during fall break didn't seem like a bad idea either.
If there was anything Kimi learned during the first week attending Sayet Academy, it was that everybody—everybody—loved Nikki.
What was there to hate? She was polite and sweet to all of the teachers and students, and even went out of her way to thank the janitors when she saw them. Her comments in class, though few and far between, were insightful, even though they were still just learning the basics. Once Kimi watched her ask an upperclassman decked out in a black crop top and fishnets for directions to the library, and the other girl actually blushed. Her power was terrifying—and what was worse, she didn't even seem to realize she had it.
Kimi wasn't immune; quite the opposite, really. It felt like Nikki's enthusiasm was persistently chipping away at any chance she had at not falling for the other girl. On their first day in band together, Nikki actually grabbed Kimi's hands in excitement when she found out they both played the flute—and Nikki was good at it, too, better than anyone at Kimi's middle school other than herself. By the time they had finished class, the pink-haired girl was confidently telling Kimi that she bet they could both place at the top of the seating chart.
"Actually, I think I might try piccolo," Kimi admitted, and Nikki gasped, a full, dramatic breath of air that would have been utterly ridiculous if anyone else had done it.
"Really, Kimi? That would suit you so well!"
"I'm glad you think so. I've always wanted to give it a shot."
"We should definitely practice together." Nikki nodded, determined. Kimi couldn't stop her heart from jumping this time. Yes, she thought she was starting to love Nikki too.
There was only one problem: being in the same room with Nikki for too long could definitely start to feel unbearable.
It had nothing to do with Nikki herself. Her voice wasn't annoying, she didn't talk too much or too loudly, and she always smelled nice. No, Kimi's issue seemed to be something from an entirely different realm. She ended up with this strange thrumming in her head and a tightness in her chest after a few hours, a quiet but deep sense of unease settling within her until she left the vicinity.
Going to the school nurse wasn't really an option: Kimi was sure that this issue couldn't be solved with headache medicine, though she did try just in case. Despite taking the recommended dosage with a glass of water before bed, she still woke up the next morning feeling vaguely troubled until she stepped into their white marble bathroom and shut the door behind her. The relief that flooded through her at such a simple movement seemed to confirm her fears and suspicions: her new roommate was, for lack of a better term, out of tune with her.
She didn't let it stop her. Nikki invited her to study for their first English quiz together, and Kimi accepted without another thought. It didn't adversely affect her ability to learn like a true headache would, she discovered, which was a good thing considering they had so many classes together. Nikki's giggles and mannerisms did affect her ability to learn, and she was glad they had chosen their room to study in rather than the library. She couldn't be caught looking at the other girl like a love-struck idiot.
Nikki made first chair in band, and their director agreed to let Kimi play the piccolo. So Kimi spent more of her time trying to fix the tuning between their instruments rather than the tuning between them, and for a while, that was good enough for her. In fact, she was entirely content to ignore it until one evening in early October.
Kimi had just dropped her toothbrush back into the cup and moved to flick off the bathroom light, but she heard Nikki's voice call from inside the main room. "Ah, could you keep it on for a second? I've got to get a cup of water."
"Sure." Kimi paused at the doorway, watching Nikki set down a small bottle of pills. "Are you okay?"
Nikki shook her head, biting her lip slightly. "I've been having the weirdest headaches every night, so I thought I'd try taking something for it. I don't even know if they're really headaches... I hope I'm not coming down with a bug." She shrugged and moved to walk past Kimi, who simply stepped to the side and looked at her roommate, dumbfounded.
She hadn't even considered that Nikki might be afflicted with the same odd condition she seemed to have, but in hindsight it made sense. If she was affected by Nikki's presence, why wouldn't the reverse be the case as well? As Nikki's pink nightgown disappeared behind the doorway, Kimi's heart hammered in her throat, and she touched her forehead gently.
If she told Nikki she was only feeling that way because of her, she might not want to hang out anymore. She might even request a roommate transfer. And Kimi—well, she wasn't sure she wanted to take that risk. She couldn't risk losing her.
If it gets worse, I'll tell her.
"Ah, sorry to hear that. I hope you feel better." Kimi pressed her lips together and crawled into bed, clutching her white seagull plush and trying not to feel like the worst person on the planet.
Kimi didn't like to admit it, but she got what she wanted. She and Nikki continued to get closer as the days passed, and if Nikki noticed that the strange feeling was linked to Kimi, she didn't say anything.
"One, two, three—"
After a beat, the sound of the two girls playing in tandem filled the band room, their faces screwed up in concentration. Kimi had tied her silver hair into a thin ponytail, a look she normally didn't favor on herself but one that helped her play a bit better. Sometimes, finding a balance between fashion, music, and all of her other interests could be a struggle. She glanced at Nikki automatically; a couple strands of long pink hair had strayed across her face, but she seemed too focused to notice.
Kimi tried to keep rhythm with her as best she could, but they had been practicing the duet for nearly forty-five minutes now, and she was starting to get fatigued. Nikki seemed to sense her hesitation, and after they had finished playing the first part, she lowered her flute. "Think we should call it a day?" she said softly, her warm eyes meeting Kimi's.
"Yeah. Th-thanks." The strange feeling had overtaken her while they practiced, but given how much time they spent together, it was nothing out of the ordinary. Kimi would be lying if she said she was used to it—she didn't think she was meant to be used to it, didn't think it was possible by nature—but she had grown to expect it, at least. "Gonna send a text to my dad real quick, if that's okay."
Kimi's father had never been very tech-savvy, but he had adapted since it was the only way he could talk to her while she was at school. There were only a few pockets throughout the campus where she could get good enough signal, but they made it work. She tapped out a message about their plans for Thanksgiving break, way faster with the number pad than she had any right to be. Nikki just watched her, slightly bemused.
"I wish Momo could text me..." she sighed, picking up her flute case. "Silly thing. He does meow at me on phone calls."
"What do you think he'd say?" Kimi pressed the button to send her text and snapped the phone shut before dropping it in her tote bag.
Nikki laughed. "He's always been so conceited. He'd probably threaten to destroy my clothes if I didn't make my mom buy him pork belly or something."
"That is... oddly specific, but okay."
This just made Nikki laugh more. "Well, it's his favorite food. And he's destroyed some of my outfits before, so it's not too much of a stretch. Though..." She rubbed her chin. "I have to admit they seemed like targeted attacks. I'm starting to think he might have his own opinions about what I should be wearing."
Kimi thought of Nikki's overalls that she'd shown her on the first day and smiled. Nikki could pull off almost any look, but some of her clothes really were objectively bad.
"I do really miss home, though. We had this beautiful cherry blossom tree outside the house, and Yoyo and I would always sit there and read together, or just talk." Nikki's gaze seemed to land somewhere far in the distance, and Kimi felt a strange lurch in her stomach. "Some days I'd give just about anything to do that again."
Kimi cast her mind around, trying to come up with some way she could give Nikki what she wanted, and out of the blue she remembered something her father had shown her before she had even enrolled at Sayet Academy. "Do you want to go on a walk?"
Nikki glanced at Kimi in confusion at the sudden change in topic. "Oh. Sure! Where are we going?"
"You'll see."
They left their instruments in the lockers, only taking their bags as they set out across the school's courtyard. It was still warm enough that Kimi found herself peeling off her blazer within a minute and tucking it under her arm as she looked around. Orlando had given the two of them a tour back before classes had begun, and they both knew their way around well enough by now, but the place Kimi had in mind was a bit more off the beaten path than they had ever been.
Past the dormitories, there were rolling hills, and past the hills, Kimi saw it. Golden blossoms peeked out just enough for them to see, and she felt excitement rush through her. "Over here," she said, and grabbed Nikki's hand before she could overthink it.
At the base of the hill sat a single wisteria tree, several times taller than them, its flowers turned to bright oranges and yellows and swinging in the fall breeze. Though the rest of the hills by the school were neatly maintained, next to the tree, tall grass and wildflowers had been left to grow. Kimi took in the sight with a carefully neutral face; she had seen it often enough in photographs, but never before in person. She would have missed the gasp Nikki let out if she didn't feel her fingers tighten around her hand at the same time.
"This tree... it's beautiful. How did you know it was here?" she whispered. It felt irreverent, somehow, to speak too loudly.
"My parents met at Sayet Academy," Kimi said, her voice unsteady despite her best efforts. "They discovered it when they were here, and my father told me about it. This wisteria tree is where they got married."
"Your mother..."
"She passed away when I was six."
Kimi rarely told others about her mother. She didn't want that sentence to feel automatic or practiced. For a few minutes, every sound had disappeared: the chiming of the belltower, the voices of the other students and the sound of doors shutting. It was only Kimi, Nikki, and the wisteria tree.
"Let's sit down," she offered, and Nikki nodded. She tossed her blazer onto the tall grass, and both girls took a seat, Nikki pressing her back up flat against the tree trunk. They had let go of each others' hands to do so, but now that they were sitting alone, Kimi didn't think she had it in her to reach for it again. The moment was too fragile, and she was still scared. Instead, she said, "I hope this is close enough to help a bit with your homesickness."
Nikki turned her gaze to Kimi and smiled, more brilliantly than she thought possible. "It's perfect. Thank you, Kimi." And with the confidence and practice of someone who had done it a thousand times, Nikki leaned in and kissed her on the lips.
Love; from a moment to a lifetime.
Their first kiss, after Nikki's first photoshoot for the Apple Apparel Group. Nikki battling Nidhogg for the White Blossom. Holding Nikki tightly after she woke up from the endless dream of the deep. From the moment of the kiss sprung a lifetime of memories, all screaming to be heard as they flooded into her head at once. Kimi jerked her head away, her jaw dropping slightly, and she realized that the discomfort that had been plaguing her for months while she was around Nikki had evaporated.
Somehow, even after remembering over eighteen years of memories from another life, her fourteen-year-old brain could only supply the words, "Oh my God."
For a moment she was afraid that Nikki hadn't remembered and might have been alarmed by her reaction, especially when she looked up and saw tears running down her girlfriend's face. A split second later, though, Nikki had reached out and grasped Kimi's hand, holding it to her chest as though she expected it to dissolve into the wind.
"I'm so sorry I forgot, I just—I don't know why I did that, why I remembered then, I—you remember, too, right?" she said anxiously, and Kimi watched her palm turn white where Nikki's fingers pressed too hard.
"I remember," was all Kimi could think to say in response. "I think I've been trying to remember before, but..."
Nikki laughed through her tears, and Kimi thought it might be the most beautiful sound she'd ever heard. "I think I've been trying to remember you my whole life."
"Stop, you're going to make me sad," she said crossly, and Nikki just laughed harder, trying to wipe the tears from her face with the sleeve of her dress.
"How can you be sad! We found each other again... Though I never expected it to be on Earth, of all places."
Kimi looked around at the wisteria and the fir trees lining the rolling lawns of Sayet Academy, the sun hanging low in the sky. "It's not as bad as I expected it to be, from your description," she admitted. "I thought there would be so much more evil and violence on the Earth, and that you were just the exception. Sometimes I even thought that was why you, of all people, were brought to Miraland... I'm sorry."
"Don't be," Nikki insisted earnestly. "Miraland was all you'd ever known, and I never got the chance to really tell you what it was like here."
Even though Kimi's head didn't feel funny anymore, she was still reeling, slightly numb, at the juxtaposition of her carefree life on Earth and the tumultuous reality she'd always known in Miraland. "You have all the time you want, if you'd still like."
"And I'm going to take advantage of every moment. I promise."
The chiming of the clock echoed across the grounds, but as Kimi leaned over to kiss Nikki again, she decided that after spending so much time without each other, the world would have to deal with their absence for just a little while longer.