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June is a hard month for the entirety of Rozae Island, but Hanaka Satin and Sakura Higanbana had mixed feelings.
For one, at least it’s Pride Month. The two women can be openly lesbians; Sakura suggested going to a pride event set at a gay nightclub. Hanaka’s not the partying type; she’s calm and modest. Sakura is the exact opposite; rowdy and energetic for a sixty-six-year-old.
Hanaka herself is sixty-three… which makes her depressed. For two, most people that were over the age of fifty (at the time) were killed in the Massacre of 2000. Hanaka and Sakura are rarities. Hanaka lived in Japan at the time and only heard about the Massacre from a letter from her eldest sister… which is the only trace of her she has left. There’s no evidence that she’s alive, but no evidence that she’s dead either. No evidence of her being kidnapped or enslaved. She just vanished without a trace. The Army said that they’d keep searching for her, but Hanaka is convinced that the case has gone cold. Either that, or it will be soon.
Sakura is the only survivor of her family. They both grew up on Rozae Island - the difference is that Sakura was born in Japan. Her family moved to the island when she was a teenager, then she moved back to Japan. They were both in Japan when the Massacre happened, then moved back to Rozae Island together when the government was reformed.
They’ve been together for about seven years now, but neither of them are comfortable with marriage. Both have been married - and then divorced - prior to seeing each other and had children. Hanaka had three children, none of which talked to her. Well, biological children. After her only biological daughter, Tara, was thrown in jail for attempting to murder her child, Hanaka disowned her. She’d since taken in three of her four grandchildren, Maya, Alira, and Kaeto. The fourth, Akira, was adopted into another family. Hanaka was originally disappointed; she believed that she could give Akira a better life than their birthgiver did, but at the same time, she knew they were wary of her. Luckily, Maya got them to accept her a bit. Unluckily, Alira took after her mother in the worst ways to the point where Hanaka and Maya demanded her to move out, and she took Kaeto with her. The three women haven’t seen either of them since, and don’t give a damn about it.
Sakura had one child… who died on his twentieth birthday. He was raped and stabbed to death by his ex-girlfriend. When the police refused to defend her son, Sakura took matters into her own hands. Literally. When her husband found out, they divorced. Oddly, she was the one that instigated the divorce. She also managed to cheat her way out of jail and bailed herself out in more than one meaning.
Today, Sakura noticed that Hanaka was sitting under their peach tree, which wasn’t really sheltering her from the heck of a storm raging outside. The sky was gray and angry, two very contradicting things, yet they matched the somber and angry mood of the country; an aggressive calmness. It was almost as if the sky knew about the sullen sadness caused by scars that still sting across the island and acted accordingly.
Hanaka has wind powers, so she is somewhat immune to being moved around by the wind, but they’re also under a tornado warning. Wind Rozi aren’t immune to debris from tornadoes, although a few of them can cause them. Therefore Hanaka being outside during the thunderstorm of the summer was... less than ideal for Sakura, to say the least.
She grabbed a light green umbrella from their closet and went to her girlfriend. Hanaka was surprised when the rain stopped hitting her.
“Hey.” Sakura muttered.
“Why did things end up this way?”
“Okay, what specifically?
“I’m trying not to think about it too much, but I can’t help it. I wonder how different my family’s lives would be if you and I were together from the beginning.”
Sakura frowned. “You’re not blaming yourself for what happened to Akira and Maya, are you?”
“...A bit. Even though it’s not my fault. But I can’t help but wonder where I went wrong with raising Tara for her to beat and verbally abuse Kaeto and Akira like she did.”
“Well, you remember what Akira’s adoptive mother said, right?”
Hanaka turned towards her, her expression sullen.
“Ryoko was abused too, you know? She said that she eventually realized that she can have a good life in spite of her abuser, or a bad life because of her abuser. She told Akira and Maya the same thing about Tara. Over that video chat, remember?”
Hanaka hesitated for a moment, then said, “...Ryoko is a wise young woman, but I do not know her very well.”
“Her advice is still good advice, my dear,” Sakura sat down on the muddy ground, sticking the umbrella between the tree branches to shelter them both.
“I know... but I can’t help but worry.”
The sky started to turn a very muted shade of green at this point. Sakura slightly smiled a bit, since that color resembles Hanaka’s eyes, but then quickly remembered what it meant.
“Hey, um... I know you can handle the winds of a tornado, but I cannot. Can we go inside? Like, NOW?”
“It’s not coming over here. It’s moving-” She pauses and takes a whiff of the air, “-southwest.”
“So it’s still moving towards us but slightly to the- wait, since when do tornadoes go southwest?”
Hanaka shrugged, but then her face got slapped with realization. “Oh, apologies! I meant that it’s to our southwest.”
“So it’s moving northeast, then?” Hanaka nodded. “So it’s gonna hit us?”
Hanaka shook her head. “Not unless it goes north. Or even north-northeast.”
“Sooo... can we go back inside? To, um, track the storm?” Sakura has a phobia of tornadoes, which is ironic given that her girlfriend has the ability to create or control one. Heck, her grandchild did that very thing when they lived in the United States. Sakura was a bit scared to approach Akira after learning that information, but now she knows they aren’t a threat unless provoked.
Hanaka chuckled slightly. “Okay. I don’t see why not!”
The two women went back inside, Hanaka immediately starting the a fire under the stove to heat up water for tea. She won’t admit it, but she’s had one heck of a craving for black tea lately. She drank it a lot when she lived with her ex-husband in the United States. Matcha, bancha, gyokuro, and jasmine are all good teas, definitely Hanaka’s favorite, but man, some English Breakfast black tea sounds good right now. Unfortunately, it’s easier to obtain in the West rather than the East, and Rozae Island doesn’t internationally trade yet (so any black tea that is sold will cost your left ankle and a liter of your blood), hence why green tea was most popular here. Instead, she takes out an oolong tea bag, puts it in the kettle, and walks over to the couch. Sakura quickly throws a gray towel onto her as Hanaka sits down.