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Sakura dug through a tub of her mother’s photos. It seemed endless at times, the amount of photographs scattered in several boxes her father stored in the house. It was pile after pile of memories - ones that did not belong to Sakura, although she still enjoyed experiencing them secondhand. Her father and Touya often told stories, refusing to let the memories of Nadeshiko fall through the cracks of time.
Each and every facsimile of her mother stared up at Sakura with a kind expression. Gentle green eyes stared at the camera, and Sakura wished that her mother could be here, staring at her instead. Sakura’s mother was beautiful - but that was a silly thought. Of course Nadeshiko had been pretty - she was a professional model!
As she sorted through the photos, Sakura eventually managed to find one. It had been buried beneath all the others: a tired but smiling Nadeshiko in a white dress, surrounded by blossoming cherry trees, and holding a green-eyed baby. Sakura felt a warm glow in her heart as she looked at it. There were very few pictures of her and her mother together, and she hadn’t seen this one before.
Sakura held the photo close to her heart and whispered, “I love you, Okaa-san.”
Tears started forming in her eyes as she looked upwards, thinking about how her mother must be in that beautiful place in the sky. She quickly wiped the tears from her eyes - Touya and her father had always said her mother would have wanted her to be happy. She was only digging through these images to find one to frame for the day, she wasn’t supposed to cry.
She took a deep breath and with a new sense of determination, she bounded down the stairs, photo in hand.
“Good morning, everyone!” She called, cheerfully.
Her aproned father stood in the kitchen, flipping pancakes. Touya was relaxed at the dining table. It was a rare morning where nobody in the family had to urgently leave.
“Good morning, monster,” Touya teased, “It’s a good thing I was already up, or that stomping would have woken me up.”
“Hey!” Sakura yelled, “I don’t stomp! But one day I’ll step on you! You’ll see!”
“Yeah, yeah, sure you will,” Touya said, waving her away.
Sakura clenched her fists and glared at him as she took a seat at the table.
“Good morning, Otou-san!” She called, pointedly ignoring Touya and his mean comments.
“Ah, good morning, Sakura-san, have you found a photo for today?” Fujitaka asked.
“Yes!” Sakura said cheerfully, her annoyance at Touya already dissipating. “I hadn’t seen it before.”
“That’s great,” Fujitaka smiled, “We can change it after we eat. I’m almost done making breakfast for everyone. I’m sure you picked a great one.”
“It’s not that hard,” Touya ribbed, “They’re all nice photos.”
Before Sakura could fully protest, her father placed a stack of pancakes on the table between them.
Sakura’s eyes grew wide with excitement.
“These look amazing!” She said, “And I’m sure they’ll taste amazing, too! Otou-san is a great cook!”
“I’m glad you think so, Sakura-san,” said Fujitaka. He took off his apron and hung it up, before sitting down with his children at the table. All three of them gave a hearty “Itadakimasu!” and began to eat.
Sakura bit into a huge mouthful, enjoying the sweet meal. She would have to make sure to save some for Kero - he would be awfully cranky if she forgot his share.
“I was right,” She said gleefully, “It is good!”
“Yeah,” Touya agreed, “Thanks.”
“I’m glad to hear that,” Fujitaka said, beaming at his children.
The family finished up the meal, except for Sakura, who left half a pancake in front of her. Touya gave her a quizzical look.
“Are you going to eat that?” He asked. He started to aim his fork towards it, “If you don’t, I will.”
“Um, yeah! I- I just wanted to save it for later, since it was so good!” She said, a bit frantically. She hoped it was enough to keep Touya from stealing Kero’s future snack. It seemed to be enough, as he stared intently at Sakura but slowly retracted the fork.
“I’ll put it away for now,” Fujitaka chimed in, “So that we can clean up.”
He did, and collected the rest of the plates to put in the sink. He glanced at the family’s whiteboard.
“Touya-kun,” He said, “It looks like it’s your day to do the dishes.”
“Yeah,” Touya replied, slowly getting up from his chair and stretching his arms. “I’ll get on that.”
“Thank you,” Fujitaka said.
He walked over to where Sakura was, leaning down to meet her height in the chair.
“Alright, Sakura-san,” He said kindly, “Let’s see the photograph you picked out of your Okaa-san for today.”
“Right!” Sakura said, showing him the photograph.
Fujitaka’s eyes widened in surprise.
“Wow,” He said, “I don’t think I’ve seen this one in a while. I’d almost forgotten about it!”
“Is it okay?” Sakura asked, a bit worried. “Should I have picked a different one?”
Fujitaka softly placed a hand atop her head and said, “This one is perfect. This one was taken not long after you were born. She was so excited to have you.”
Sakura smiled, but it quickly turned into a frown.
“I wish I could have known her longer.”
“Me too,” said Fujitiaka, “But she still lives in our hearts. Do you want me to make some tea and tell you a story about her?”
She nodded enthusiastically.
“Yes! I would like that a lot!”
“Alright, you can put this in the frame, then wait in the living room and I’ll join you. Touya-kun can join us too, if he wants.”
“I have some time before I’m meeting up with Yuki later,” Touya called from the kitchen. “So I’ll join.”
“Thank you, everyone,” Sakura said, hopping up from the chair. She walked over to the table where they kept the daily photo of Nadeshiko and swapped out the photographs. As she placed the frame back down, she stared at the picture once more. How lucky it was that she was at least able to see her mother every day in this way.
Sakura gave the picture one last glance and headed to the living room, flopping down onto the couch. She waited patiently for a few minutes, heart once again filled with warmth at the thought of her mother. Sometimes it almost felt like Nadeshiko’s ghost was in the room, but Sakura knew that couldn’t be true. Touya had always told her that their mother had moved on. But that was a good thing, so Sakura wouldn’t be sad about it.
She didn’t have much time to think about it, as Touya had entered the living room. He sat down and kicked his feet up comfortably.
Following behind him, Fujitaka entered holding the family tea set. He carefully set it down on the coffee table and began pouring tea for himself and his children.
“Did I ever tell you that your Okaa-san picked out this tea set?” He asked.
“No,” Sakura shook her head.
“We had just moved in here,” He said, passing a cup of tea to Sakura. He continued, “We had a different tea set then. She was unpacking it, but she tripped and dropped it. She was alright, but every single dish in the set broke. I was finding shards of the teapot for days afterwards. She could be really clumsy.”
“I think you got that from her,” Touya joked.
“Hey!” Sakura protested, sticking her tongue out at him.
“She was also really kind,” Fujitaka continued. He passed a cup of tea to Touya and carried on, “just like you, Sakura-san. She usually packed extra food when she worked, so she could feed any animals she met on the way. Stray cats took a liking to her for that. We used to have a lot that would visit the house because she liked feeding them so much.”
“Aww!” Sakura crooned. She took a sip of her tea and added, “I’m glad Okaa-san was such a nice person to animals.”
“Me too,” said Fujitaka, “I was very lucky to have known her.”
Comfortable silence joined the family for a few moments as they sipped their tea. Touya downed his the fastest.
“She would have liked you,” Touya said suddenly, breaking the silence.
“Really?” Sakura asked, stars forming in her eyes, “You really think so, Onii-chan?”
“Yep. You might be a monster, but you two would have gotten along well.”
Before Sakura could respond, Fujitaka added, “She would have been very proud of you, like I am.”
Sakura felt tears brimming her eyes. She set down her teacup to wipe them away.
“Thank you, Otou-san,” She said, getting up to give him a hug. She squeezed him as tightly as she could. She looked over at Touya, “You too, Onii-chan.”
“It’s nothing,” Touya said, who had already left his chair and was beginning to leave the room. “Well, I gotta get ready to meet with Yuki. See ya.”
“Eh?” She let go of her father for a second to wave at Touya. “Please tell Yukito-san I said hi!”
“Have fun!” Fujitaka waved with a smile.
“Yeah,” Touya said, giving them both a small wave. He disappeared from view and Sakura looked up at her father with pleading eyes.
“Will you tell me more stories about Okaa-san another time?” She asked.
“Of course.”
“Thank you!” She said, giving him one more quick hug, “And thank you for the tea. It was really good!”
“You’re welcome,” Fujitaka said. He patted her on the head, “Will you help me clean up?” “Yep!” Sakura agreed.
She started to gather the empty teacups, putting them on the tray, and carried them back to the kitchen. After setting them down, she used the opportunity to grab the leftovers from breakfast - now was as good a time as any to bring it upstairs to Kero. Hopefully, he wouldn’t mind that it was now cold.
En route to her room, she stopped to look at the photograph one more time. She sighed dreamily. Even though she could not remember her mother on her own, Sakura was glad to have a family that would remember for her. As long as the memories lived on, so would her love for her mother.
And that, she knew, was a special feeling that could never fade.