Chapter Text
Cover art by newdawnart on Tumblr!
It still hadn't really sunk in for Karen that they lived here now. The lease was signed, the boxes were en route, and the visas were stamped on their passports. Karen could even order fish and chips from the local shop without asking Hikari to translate for her! They were Londoners, now. They had a nice apartment - flat, Hikari called it - in zone five of the subway - the Tyoob, Hikari pronounced it. Her wallet was full of money with a queen instead of an emperor.
Karen realized pretty young that it wasn't a question of if she'd move abroad, but when. She loved Japan, loved Tokyo, and she still missed it. But she wanted Hikari to be her wife. Not girlfriend, not roommate, not some consolation symbolic certificate from the prefecture. There was progress on that front back in Japan, but it was slow, always too slow. And so, in the end, the only question had been where'd they'd go. Hikari's English was impeccable, of course. Growing up in England did that for you. And of course, they hadn't given up their dreams of the stage. That meant either London or New York. And Hikari didn't know New York.
Now they had Oyster cards, and they shopped at Sainsbury's. Were shopping, actually. Karen was actually spacing out in the middle of the produce section. Hikari was wandering around with a basket, idly poking at fruits and vegetables. She didn't look impressed.
“Hikari! We need to buy things, not just poke them.”
Hikari rolled her eyes, but she picked up a couple of apples and put them into the basket. She'd never put the broccoli and greens in there willingly, but Karen knew she'd eat them if they were prepared properly. Karen wasn't an amazing cook, but they'd managed to work out a few recipes they both enjoyed.
That reminded her, they needed potatoes for the curry tonight. She headed over to the shelves of them when all of a sudden...
No. It couldn't be. It must just be the association with Potatoes, it had her thinking of things that weren't there.
She rubbed her eyes with her hands. But there was no mistaking it. She was older, her long hair cropped closer to her neck. But she still had those little cowlicks above her ears.
“M... Mahiru?!?”
If there was any doubt before, the woman looked up in surprise from her shopping... And promptly dropped her basket.
“Hikari! Look who I found!” Karen called.
Hikari had already wandered over, probably attracted by all the commotion. She didn't look much different, but Karen could tell she was surprised too.
“Ahhh, I'm sorry Mahiru! I startled you!”
It was nice speaking Japanese again. Amongst themselves, Hikari had been making them speak English so she could practise. And she was getting better at it! But she was no native speaker.
“K... Karen! Hikari!” Mahiru replied. She looked down at her fallen basket and squeaked.
“Oh no! Let me help you,” Karen said quickly. “I didn’t mean to surprise you like that!”
“It’s okay! I shouldn’t have dropped my things, I was just… um.” Mahiru seemed to be at a loss for words.
Hikari had already bent down to start collecting Mahiru’s lost groceries. Mahiru was still looking agog at Karen.
“What are you two doing here?”
Mahiru’s Japanese had the slightest hint of a Western accent. She must’ve been here for a while for that to slip in. Her voice had always been so beautiful back at Seisho… Anyway.
“We live here,” Hikari replied from the floor.
“Ehhh?”
“We moved right before the wedding,” Karen replied and then flinched.
“Ehhhhhhh?!?”
They hadn’t told Mahiru about the wedding. The three of them had been roommates, the closest of friends, all throughout their high school days. But after school ended… well, sometimes your priorities start to shift after high school ends. The nine of them had gone their separate ways, off to different universities and eventually different countries. Last she heard, Maya and Claudine were living in Paris, and Junna and Nana were somewhere in the US. Or Maybe Canada.
Hikari stood to hand the reassembled shopping basket to Mahiru.
“It was pretty small,” she said. “Just our parents and a few friends.”
Mahiru was smiling, but they’d known each other for too long. Karen could tell it was forced.
“Congratulations. I hope I can see photos sometime!”
“Oh, yes, absolutely!” Karen moved to pull out her phone, but Mahiru waved it away.
“I have to get back soon. The babysitter is only there for another half hour and I don’t want to keep her waiting again.”
“Ah, of course,” Karen said. “Well, can I give you my phone number, at least?”
“You don’t even have to ask, Karen!” This smile, this time, was genuine for sure.
Karen grabbed the back of the receipt out of her pocket, quickly jotting down her new British phone number. She was proud of herself for remembering all the digits without having to look it up. Hikari had made her memorise both of their phone numbers as soon as they got them, “Just in case.”
“Thank you. It was lovely to see you both! Perhaps I will see you two around!”
Mahiru took her basket and headed quickly for the checkout line. Karen and Hikari watched her go, still partially in shock over what had happened.
“Did you even know she was in the city?” Karen asked.
Hikari answered in English. “I didn’t. It’s quite the coincidence, huh?”
“Yeah. Absolutely. All the grocery stores in the world and we just so happened to be in the same one. Maybe it’s fate.”
Hikari grumbled. She was not that interested in “Fate” anymore. And Karen could hardly blame her. But still, even without a giraffe, this was too big a coincidence to ignore.
The two of them looked at the retreating figure, now clear of the checkout line. Their own shopping was momentarily forgotten.
“I wonder what the babysitter was for,” Hikari commented.
Karen’s eyes went wide. Somehow she’d completely forgotten that comment. “Mahiru has a kid?!?”
🟅
Mahiru knew her shopping was only half-finished, but she didn’t care. She had to get out of there. From now on she’d go to Tesco, or maybe even Aldi. But she didn’t want to run into her old roommates again.
She’d known that the two of them were going to build a life together. They were fated to, probably. They went away to college together, hand in hand. Mahiru had let them, smiling as best she could. She missed them so, so desperately, but with time she’d moved on.
She thought she had. All those feelings came rushing back the moment she’d seen the two of them again. Maybe it could be like before. Maybe…
Wife. They were wives. The two of them had gotten married. Mahiru hadn’t been a maid of honour. She hadn’t even received an invitation. They used to be inseparable, and now she didn’t even warrant a holiday card.
Not that they’d known her address, anyway. She felt her eyes stinging. She knew she was tearing up. She knew the English would be horrified, displaying emotions like that, but she didn’t care. It felt like a dam had ruptured, and all the feelings and grief of the last eight years of her life had poured out. Leaving Seisho, going to school, meeting him… She shuddered. Now wasn’t the time for that.
Her tears were slowing. She took out her handkerchief and dabbed at her eyes. Wouldn’t do at all to return home like this.
Deep breaths, Mahiru. She turned another corner, and her shabby apartment building was right in front of her. She fished the key out of her purse as she’d done a hundred times before, inserted it into the lock that needed up to be pushed in just a little to work properly. She walked into the elevator, poked the button, and tried to collect herself.
She’d seen Karen and Hikari. Karen and Hikari were married. That was that. In some ways, it was a relief to have some closure over that chapter of her life. It was all tied up with a nice little bow. Those secret hopes and dreams could finally be put to rest.
She reached her front door. Key to the right, pull down on the handle just so. Shoes off, placed in the box by the door. Keys on the key rack. Purse on the counter.
Lilah was sitting at the kitchen table, looking over what looked like math homework. She looked up at Mahiru and made a “sssh” motion, then pointed to a baby monitor on the table. There was Will, fast asleep on his bed, curled up with a little Suzdal cat that used to be Mahiru’s when she was little. She didn’t have many mementoes of home left.
“How was he?” she whispered to the babysitter.
“No worse than usual,” she replied, setting her pencil down. “Still not excited about vegetables.”
“Even the potatoes?”
“Oh, no, he loves those.”
Mahiru smiled. “Truly his mother’s son,” she muttered in Japanese.
Lilah didn’t speak Japanese, of course, but she was used to Mahiru speaking it to Will. She hadn’t ever had the money to bring them home to Japan, but she still wanted him to speak his mother’s language.
She looked over at the baby monitor where he was sleeping again. It was calming that even with the day’s disruption, some things were still as they’d always been.
At least for the past few years.
Mahiru opened her wallet and pulled out a couple of bills, handing them over to Lilah.
“Oh, come on, this is too much!”
“I came back early. That’s no reason for you not to get paid the full amount!”
“You’re too generous!”
“I don’t know what I’d do without you!. It’s in my best interest to keep you happy.”
“How can I say no to that?”
Lilah headed for the door, and Mahiru set about cooking herself dinner. She couldn’t make what she’d planned, of course, because she’d gotten less than half of her shopping done. But if nothing else she was crafty on a budget, and she managed to get enough vegetables to make a passable curry together from the back of the refrigerator.
She sat back in her kitchen, checking her email and going over the bills that had accumulated. She was proud of the life she’d built here. It was tenuous, sometimes, and absolutely not what she’d planned. But she was making it work.