Work Text:
Days spent at his dedushka ’s house have become increasingly common in recent months. He has mixed feelings about it. On the one hand, it’s time away from the overbearing presence of his grandfather, and by extension, the Suou family. Time away from her .
On the other hand, Yuki’s constitution prevents her from following him here. She barely has the energy to walk around the Suou mansion, and neither he nor the rest of his family want to take any chances.
Which is a shame, he thinks, letting his eyes drift skyward. It’s about an hour before his grandmother has set his bedtime, and the sky’s blue has given way to streaks of orange, occasional patches of clouds dyed in warm hues.
The shrill sounds of cicada’s fill his ears as he lets his eyes adjust to the evening sun. There, sitting on a dome in the playground, is Maa-chan. Her blonde hair looks radiantly gold in the sunlight, even turned facing towards it as she is.
If she hears his approach, she doesn’t show it, never turning away from the blinding radiance in front of her. Even as he clambers up to perch next to her, she doesn’t so much as glance in his direction.
They sit in silence for a while, admiring the sun as it dips below the skyline, suburban houses covering it more and more. Eventually, he turns to her.
Maa-chan’s smile isn’t one of childlike wonder like he expects. Instead, there’s a hint of sadness to it. The silence stretches for another few seconds, until: “I’m moving away.”
The words hit him like a kick to the throat. Masachika’s breath hitches in his throat. “What?”
“My Papa is moving back to Russia for his job. And we’re going with him.”
“Oh.”
This isn’t something he can solve, he knows. The way Maa-chan is talking about it, she’s already made peace with the decision. Even if she hadn’t, neither are in a position to do anything about it. “When are you leaving?”
“Three days from now. But we’re busy packing, so this is the last time I’ll be able to come to this park.”
A complicated mix of emotions swirl inside Masachika’s chest. For his first love to end like this, especially at this time…
His throat tightens as he tries to contain his sobs. Only his desire not to be weak in front of Maa-chan gives him the strength he needs in this moment. He can’t have their final memories together be tainted by him being pathetic like this, after all.
She still notices, however. And when she does, Maa-chan checks her pockets for something, eventually pulling out a piece of paper.
On it is a mix of western and cyrillic letters and numbers, obviously not written by Maa-chan herself. The handwriting is far too neat for that, the blocky letters lacking the unsteady hand of a child.
“This is where I’m going to live from now on, Saa-kun!” She cheers, handing him the address. “Please send lots of letters!”
He wonders how much of his pocket money will go to stamps in the next few years.
-----[======]-----
Dear Maa-chan,
I won’t be writing a lot of letters for a few weeks. Me and my father are moving out of the Suou household, and while my dedushka is offering help, it’s still a lot of work to do. Me and my Dad are both really busy!
We just arrived in our new home. It’s much smaller than the Suou mansion, an apartment with only one floor, and it still feels empty. I hope it will start to feel like home soon.
I hope you’re enjoying Vladivostok! Is your house nice and warm? I don’t know if Russia gets hot summers, is it cold this time of year? And, have you found some new friends to hang out with?
Anyway, Dad needs help unpacking some of the boxes. I’ll send you some more letters after we’ve settled in some more (and maybe even a few photos!)
Your friend, Saa-kun.
-----[======]-----
Dear Saa-kun,
I can’t believe it’s New Year’s already! If I had to choose a single thing to miss from Japan (besides you, of course!), it would be the winter festivals. While the Christmas celebrations in Vladivostok are fun too, the festivals in Japan are way better! Especially the candied apples, they’re very tasty!
How cold is it in Tokyo, Saa-kun? Here, it’s getting really cold! It already started snowing last month, and even the seawater is freezing! The upside is that we can all bundle up in front of the heater in the living room. It’s very cozy, especially when Alya-chan falls asleep against me.
While I’m writing this, the countdown is about to begin. What’s your wish for next year? Mine is that I see you again, but Papa is still very busy with work.
Oh, I wasn’t supposed to tell you my wish! I guess it’s fine if it’s in writing, so don’t you dare say it aloud, okay? I really hope it’s going to come true!
- Maa-chan.
-----[======]-----
Maa-chan,
Sorry if this letter is shorter than my usual ones. As I mentioned previously, I’ve agreed to help my sister in her bid to become the president of the student council, and the campaign is in full swing.
You might think I’m putting too much effort into something as childish as the position of student council president, but if you ever come to Seirei, you’ll see that this isn’t outside the norm. Competition is fierce, with events, debates and politicking around every corner.
I hope you’ll forgive a useless friend such as me for keeping it brief. I do hope to see you again sometime soon.
Please, come back soon,
Saa-kun
-----[======]-----
Dearest Saa-kun,
You weren’t kidding about Seirei Academy being one of the best in Japan! Some of those math questions were really tough, and I wish you’d have told me a little more about Japanese literature in your letters, I was stumped!
Oh yeah, I forgot to mention: I’m transferring to Seirei in the summer. I hope you’ll be there to give me a warm welcome, just like you promised!
Just kidding, of course. I know you’re very busy, with your club and all that. Maybe when I get to Seirei, you can give me that demonstration you promised?
I do hope Alya settles in well. She’s the same age as you, so please take care of her if she ends up in your class. She can be a bit headstrong, but she’s a good girl at heart, just give her a chance.
Oh, and try not to seduce my cute little sister with your charms, Saa-kun! If you do, I won’t ever speak to you again! ( •̀ ᴖ •́ )
Yours, Maa-chan.
-----[======]-----
That final letter arrives on a Tuesday afternoon. Mail takes some time to arrive, he knows, but so do people, and he’s anxious all through the week. Yuki notices, of course, doing her best to relieve him of his worries that she won’t arrive.
(“You’ve waited 10 years for this, Onii-chan. What’s another week?”)
The rumor mill picks up on the fact they’d have a pair of transfer students extremely quickly. Within days of the first whispers, there was already a betting pool going on a variety of things, from nationality to gender to class.
Yuki, never one to miss out on the opportunity to get an extra figurine, had put down a modest sum on “Russian, female, 3rd year of middle school and 1st year of high school.”
As the days got ever longer and Spring was coming to an end, an announcement at the start of class one day had him thinking back to a letter.
-----[======]-----
…I can’t believe I never mentioned that I had a sister! She looks a lot like me, but her hair is even lighter! It’s white, like snow! Everyone always calls her Alya, but her full name is-
-----[======]-----
“-Alisa Mikhailovna Kujou. It’s a pleasure to make your acquaintance.” The silver-haired girl in front of the class bows, letting her hair fall off her shoulders.
“Thank you, Kujo-san. Please take the seat at the back, next to the window. If you have any questions, be sure to ask your neighbor, Kuze-san.”
He sits there, half in shock, as the Alya-chan he’s heard so much about makes her way through the rows of tables in front of them.
She somewhat resembles the girl Maa-chan described in her letters, the parts he could piece together at least. White hair reaches halfway down her back, and piercing blue eyes, the color of an ice-cold river. The rest of her face looks like it could make a model green with envy, and that’s not even talking about the rest of her body.
He mentally slaps himself for thinking about a girl like that, and forces his eyes onto the whiteboard. Kyoutaro-sensei waits a little for Alisa-san to unpack her bag, and then quickly launches into a lecture on the forming of different types of volcanoes and the rocks that are characteristic of each.
The implication of Alisa-san’s arrival in his class is not lost to him, and he curses the fact that the middle school department is so far from its high school equivalent.
‘Patience.’ He reminds himself. ‘Patience.’
-----[======]-----
It takes 11.2 seconds (not that he’s counting) for him to be out of the classroom when the final bell rings. His pencil case is hastily filled and his books haphazardly thrown into his bag as he races out the door. A classmate, one who is often seen practicing for the track team, looks on in slight jealousy.
He manages to dodge through the crowds on his way across campus, and spies a small mob of students slowly making their way towards the exit, and quickly deduces something from the mostly-male composition of the group: that’s where he needs to be.
Pushing his way into the group is fairly easy: he stands slightly tall for his age, and probably has enough muscle to lift one of the few girls in the group clean off the ground. A few, such as Andou-senpai, give him dirty looks, but he presses further in until he reaches a small ring of empty space being maintained courtesy of Sarashina-senpai.
The threat of having their head punched off is enough to keep most at bay, and when he finally makes his way into the inner ring of the group, she shoots him a menacing glare that has a chill running up his spine. The girl next to her stares as well, but for a completely different reason.
“Hey, what do you think-?”
Sarashina-senpai is interrupted from reprimanding when a brown haired girl immediately attaches herself to Masachika’s side, arms wound around him in a grip so tight he’s surprised he can’t hear his ribs cracking.
“Woah!” Barely keeping balance, he steadies himself, moving a foot back to catch himself. “Are you…”
“Mou! Saa-kun is so mean, pretending he doesn’t remember me!” For the first time in ten years, the girl from his childhood looks up at him.
On the outside, she’s far different. Blonde hair and blue eyes have been replaced with a dusty brown for both, and her small body from childhood has…filled out considerably, as he can tell from the two planets, trapping his arm in their gravitational pull. But what she just said confirms it: on the inside she hasn’t changed at all.
He can feel emotions he’s long since forgotten beginning to rise up in his chest. “It really is you…”
-----[======]-----
…Also, in your last letter, you started calling me “Maria-san”. Since when is my Saa-kun so formal? We’re supposed to be getting closer with these letters! From now on, I won’t accept anything other than…
-----[======]-----
“Maa-chan.” He says, nostalgia lacing his voice.
“Saa-kun really hasn’t changed at all, has he?” She comments. It’s true. Unlike her, who somehow managed to change both hair and eye color, he’s relatively the same. Aside from the recent acquisition of the dark circles under his eyes (he takes no blame for that, it’s all Yuki’s fault), even the way he styles his hair is similar. Except,
“But really! How come you’ve grown so much taller than me?!” While she’s a year older than him, Maa-chan barely reaches his shoulders now. It makes his attempts at hugging her back somewhat awkward, so he settles for wrapping one arm around her left side.
The crowd around them has only grown, and his phone buzzes. Reading the quick “Where r u” from his sister, he (reluctantly) pries himself from Maa-chan’s grip, and slowly makes his way towards the exit of the school. Maa-chan hangs off his arm, happily humming what he presumes to be a Russian song, entirely ignorant of the dirty looks her Saa-kun is getting from the school’s male population.
Looking down his right arm, the delightfully happy expression on Maa-chan’s face, he decides it’s worth it.
Noticing his glances, she shoots him a smile, one that makes the sun look dim by comparison.
This is worth everything in the world, he decides.
-----[======]-----
Dearest Saa-kun,
How have you been doing? It should be a holiday for you now, any plans, like more piano practice? I always loved hearing you talk about playing! When I’m back in Japan, I really want to hear you play it!
-----[======]-----
It’s the height of summer. It’s only a week until the end of his first semester in high school, and the August heat is inescapable, despite his best efforts. The best he can do is keep the large windows open. The slowly-setting sun streams into the room, beams of light illuminating the otherwise empty room.
The piano club's members have already left for the day, drawn away by the heat and the promise of a beautiful day.
Masachika being here is a more recent development. While he hasn’t been completely away from piano, he’ll easily admit to having other priorities, enough to know that he wouldn’t fit in with the club if he were to fully join.
Still, he was here, even as the clock on the wall neared 6 PM.
As a soft breeze blows the curtains into the room, their flickering and distorting of the light on the grand piano in front of him do little to distract him from the melody he’s playing. The soft melodies of Rachmaninoff’s Vocalize sounded from the piano as his fingers danced across the keys.
A soft, melancholic melody filtered out of the room, greeting the empty grounds of the school, not that he minded. Masachika was lost in his own world as he continued his playing, eyes locked squarely on the keys before him.
So much so that he misses the quiet sound of the room’s door sliding open, and the soft footsteps of a girl making her way inside.
As the piece tapers off, he lets his thoughts consume him. How long has it been since he truly enjoyed this? His mother’s emotionless face fills his mind, and his fist balls. Masachika resists the urge to slam it down on the keys in front of him.
Then, he feels a body press against his back, arms wrapping around his torso. Maa-chan’s head rests on his shoulder, and her hair tickles his ear.
“That was beautiful, Saa-kun,” she says. One of her hands comes up to rub his head, “You must have worked really hard to play so well. I’m proud of you.”
Emotions he hasn’t felt in years worm their way up from where his mother froze them so long ago.
‘I had almost forgotten. So this is what…’
This time, he doesn’t hold himself back. He lets his tears fall onto the piano in front of him, uncaring for the pathetic face he’s showing to Maa-chan. Sobs fill the quiet that the piano left behind, and she lets him cry himself out. Even when he turns himself around in his seat, she buries his face in her chest, his tears staining her shirt damp, and she holds him tight, muttering assurances into his ear all the while.
“Go on, Saa-kun. Don’t hold yourself back.” She tells him, and he doesn’t.
“I’m proud of you.” She tells him, and she is.
“You did a good job.” She tells him, and he feels .
-----[======]-----
While the physical distance between him and Maa-chan has never been shorter, he can’t say the same for the emotional one. Even after her arrival, he refuses to get too close. That’s mostly for two reasons.
First is the death glares he receives from the rest of the student body for daring to come close to the “Academy’s Madonna”. For once, everyone in the school seems united in the opinion that she is ‘too cute to be monopolized’, and have actively started threatening anyone who even thinks of confessing to Maa-chan.
Second, though, there is a reason only he knows.
-----[======]-----
I’ve started growing again…I know you probably don’t want to hear about my girl troubles, but it’s started to get really annoying. All the boys in class won’t stop looking at me and whispering things when they think I can’t hear them.
All those boys’ looks, I want them to stop!
I wish Saa-kun was here to help me!
-----[======]-----
Today, she’s dragged him out to a mall, under the excuse of shopping for clothes for him. So far, they’ve spent at least two-thirds of their time in the girls section, because of a perpetual cycle of Maa-chan deciding they should focus, before promptly deciding that that dress over there would look really cute on Alya-chan and oh, that one too!
He’s so far managed to keep what he thinks is a respectable distance, even if the employees and the occasional shopper comment on the ‘cute couple over there!’
When they finally make it to the men’s section, and he’s forced to pick out a few shirts, the unspoken tension in the air finally snaps.
He’s in a changing room, sorting through two of the plain, mono color T-shirts he’s picked out. Just as he pulls his own over his head, Masachika hears the dragging of metal on metal, and the curtain behind him swings open.
With an exclamation of “Huh!?”, he turns to greet the intruder, only to find his partner for this outing pouting up at him.
“Maa-chan?! What are you doing here?!”
“Saa-kun is so mean…” He can tell she’s as embarrassed as he is, with a deep blush all over her face. Masachika hastily covers his chest with his shirt, but the damage is already done.
“Even though I’ve been here for months, Saa-kun has refused to make a move…” Wha-?
“Does Saa-kun not like me? Is he more attracted to girls like- Ah!”
After the half second it takes for his brain to process her words, his muscular arms pull her into an embrace, forcing a startled squeak from her.
“Of course not, Maa-chan. But I thought…you didn’t like getting attention from guys?”
“You big dummy…I don’t want stares from any boy except Saa-kun!” She exclaims, “I only want Saa-kun to look at me! I want to go out on dates with Saa-kun! I want to hold hands with Saa-kun! I want to do lovey-dovey stuff with Saa-kun! I want to f-”
He silences her with a kiss.
-----[======]-----
It’s the winter break in his third year. Maa-chan (she still refuses to let him call her anything else, petulantly ignoring him when he does) has started university already, studying veterinary care.
“I want to help all those cute little animals!” She told him in one of their many letters, and she’s intent on following through on it.
Snow falls slowly around them, melting as soon as it nears the myriad lanterns hanging all around them. It’s nearing midnight now, and they’ve made their way out of the crowded main streets. Maa-chan is holding as many sweet treats as she can carry, from candied apples to dango.
She promises that it’s mostly for her sweets-loving sister, but the way her stash keeps getting suspiciously smaller makes him doubt that theory.
But he doesn’t comment on it, pulling her further up the small road leading to a hilltop overlooking the festival. It’s a secret normally reserved for locals, but he isn’t letting something like that keep him from such a perfect spot to-
He glances back at his girlfriend, her brown Yukata doing its best to cover her body and give it a feeling of modesty. The cherry blossom design on it wraps around her whole body, the fabric beautifully patterned as if it’s in bloom.
“Saa-kun! Slow down a little!” She calls from a few steps behind him, “I can barely keep up while holding all of this!”
“You don’t want to miss the fireworks, do you?” He calls, and continues his trek up the hill.
In truth, he’s the one who desperately wants to make it up in time, the reason for that burning in his pocket.
They finally make it to the top at 2 minutes to midnight. Masha has shoved all of her sweets into a plastic bag, courtesy of a friendly old couple making their way down the mountain. A small clearing in the trees lining it gives the grass where they come to stand a perfect view of the festival, the bustling people below looking like ants, milling around between the various stalls and the shrine on the far side.
They barely have time to catch their breath before the first fireworks are shot into the air, popping open. Loud crackles follow their secondary explosions and sparkles, colors lighting up the moonless night. He watches as his girlfriend's face gains an expression of wonder, and fiddles with the small box in his pocket.
After a few minutes, the fireworks have calmed down, the occasional firecracker leaping into the air. Still facing the festival, Maa-chan turns to her side, only to find him absent.
“Saa-kun, where are-?”
“Turn around, Maa-chan.”
When she does, she finds him down on a single knee.
-----[======]-----
Honored guest,
You are cordially invited to the wedding of Masachika Kuze and Maria Mikhailovna Kujou.
END
Omake:
It’s a fairly normal evening, all things considered. Yuki’s lounging around on his bed, having taken it for herself earlier in the evening, and is reading whatever trashy manga she found this time.
Unprompted, she cuts through the silence: “Hey big brother, let me borrow your girlfriend.”
“Huh?”
“Your girlfriend, Masha-senpai.” He glances back at her. “Lemme borrow her.”
“What the hell are you talking about?”
“We’re siblings! Aren’t we supposed to share everything?!”
“I don’t think that’s how-”
“And yet!” She points a finger at him accusingly: “You go and get a girlfriend with big boobs! And not just just big boobs! An all-around bangin’ body!”
By now, Yuki has started to unconsciously make groping motions with her hands, imagining Masha’s big…Masha’s in them.
“Hey! What are you thinking about doing to my girlfriend, you damn lecher!”
“Just because you’re a spineless coward who won’t go all the way with her, doesn’t mean nobody should be able to!”
He gives her an absolutely disgusted look. “You’re a damn degenerate.”
She returns it with twice the smug: “I prefer the term ‘Woman of culture’.”
“Well, I’d prefer it if you got out of my room and went to sleep, but we can’t all get what we want, can we?”
Yuki glances at the clock. “1 AM? That is quite late…tell you what, if you let me grab Masha-onee-chan’s boobs for 10 seconds, I’ll-”
“Get out of here, you damn pervert!” He shouts, wrapping her up in his blanket and slinging her over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes. At her exclamations of “You’re gonna get me pregnant!”, he adds: “And stop recycling jokes!”