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“Alright sweetie” Her voice was recognizable from a mile away, sweet, caring, calm, She was Tsukasa’s mom after all, who wouldn’t feel comforted by their moms voice?
Even if you’re about to enter a suspicious alleyway with neon flashing lights that blind him almost completely
”Can you please close your eyes for a bit? It won’t be long I promise” And so he did, the lively city vanished from his mind while his mom dragged him trough it, Tsukasa was simply trusting her like any other kid would trust their mom
“You can open your eyes now!” He was greeted by an even more bright building with multiple floors, surrounded by neon signs
“So mommy is going to work right now, and since papa isn’t home, you have to wait for me outside okay?” He nodded his head almost instantly, stars are supposed to be obedient after all!
So her figure for further and further away as she walked in, leaving him alone to wait for he-
“Did Hina just leave a random kid outside?”
His head perked up at the mention of his moms name, he turned around to see a group of 4 men stumbling around the alleyway, slowly approaching Tsukasa
“He looks just like her, could it be her son?”
” But i thought Hina was single, isn’t she in her 20s?”
”Why leave her kid outside a bar though… he could get kidnapped”
Before the four men could discuss further, Tsukasa’s mom came out of the building running, and dragged Tsukasa down the alley by his arm
He never came back to that place, in fact, his mom never mentioned her job ever again
Wonderlands x showtime had spent most of their recess answering questions Emu found on some website, so far the questions were silly stuff like “What’s the best ice cream flavor out of chocolate, vanilla and strawberry” but one of the questions stood out
”if you could be reborn as something or someone, what would you choose to be?”
Rui’s hand reached into his chin like he usually does “It depends, am I being reborn in a different world, or is it the same?”
Nene perked up from her game at the mention of other worlds “Well being reborn as a video game character would be so bad…”
”Oh! I wanna be reborn into a koi fish! So I can blub blub in the biiig ponds!” Emu’s arms mimicked a fish fin as she rambled about how awesome it would be to become a fish “but what about you Tsukasa-kun?”
”Well, I would of course be reborn as a star! Being the sun means I can be the light for people’s lives!”
“Surprisingly your answer doesn’t sound that bad, I would have expected you to say something more deranged” Nene’s eyes were completely focused on the game despite receiving a lot of reclaims from Tsukasa
The blonde boy forgot about the question for the rest of the day, he finished the school day, rehearsed with his troupe and came back home ready to do homework
Until in the middle of it, the question popped into his mind once again
”if you could be reborn as something or someone, what would you choose to be?”
His answer was honest, the sun was a star that made everyone’s days better, is what Tsukasa wanted to be
And yet he wondered
What if he was reborn as a better version of himself?
Someone who wasn’t so obnoxious, loud, a better actor, a better brother, son, friend
But what was he thinking? He was already perfect! He was a young man filled with potential to become the brightest star of them all, and yet…
That though remained in his mind
And that memory in the alleyway came back
He never though too deep into it, it was simply a weird episode in his life that never repeated again, even when he grew, nobody mentioned it every again
”Wasn’t Hina single and in her 20s?”
He had to make the math, his mom is 32 as of right now, and he is 17, so 32-17…
15
His mom birthed him when she was 15
That couldn’t be right, he probably made a mistake, he wasn’t good at math anyway so it wouldn’t be surprising if he failed at making simple math problems, so the calculator came to rescue!
15
She wasn’t even in high school
A Feeling started to set into Tsukasa’s chest, he didn’t know what it was, but he could only guess it was guilt, even thought he never asked to be born
it was guilt
His mom had a bright future ahead of her, aspirations, dreams, everything, and Tsukasa just had to be born, interrupting every single thing she had worked hard on, making her work at some random bar just to make ends meet
Long story short: he was a mistake
Before he could even notice, he was already downstairs, staring at his mom, she held a glass of wine in her hand, refilling it every try once in a while
”mom, how old were you when I was born?”
She stopped mid sip to stare at him, those sweet eyes he has known all of his life, suddenly seemed foreign
“Ah, so you figured it out”
She was clearly wine drunk, and yet she kept refilling and refilling that glass like if it was water “I wanted to be a famous musician, that’s why I studied piano, and then you appeared in my life”
Her words were devoid of the usual sweetness in her tone, just venom remaining “I didn’t want kids, but here we are” she refilled her glass once again “ There are moms that still make their dreams come true even after having children, but you were… hard to take care of”
He just stood there, frozen, watching his own mom talk about how he basically ruined her life, he occasionally answered with an “I see” but nothing more, at the end of it, he just walked upstairs
”if you could be reborn as something or someone, what would you choose to be?”
Well, he just had to change his answer now
but he would rather have not been born at all, maybe his mom would be on a shining stage by now
Maybe saki would have gotten even more attention at the hospital, maybe she would have recovered faster
Maybe Wonderlands x Showtime would have been a world famous troupe by now without him
”if you could be reborn as something or someone, what would you choose to be?”
He wasn’t the sun
He would have been reborn as someone useful
But he didn’t believe in reincarnation anyways, so it was useless in the end
”Good morning Oni-Chan!” Saki practically bounced of the stairs after feeling the scent of food in the air
“GOOD MORNING MY DEAR LITTLE SISTER!” Saki chuckled at his exaggerated pose
”whatcha cooking?” She peeked into the pan her brother was holding in her hand, he was cooking some rice with boiled eggs and some pork, a filling meal worthy of a school lunch!
“woahh! That looks so good!”
”It’s just the least I can do for my dear sister!” He won another smile from saki after striking another pose, his eyes wandering at her slightly serious expression
“By the way, do you know what happened to mom? She hasn’t spoken to anyone in all morning”
Ah, it’s true, he had forgotten
“M-maybe she was just tired today!” He was a bad liar, he definitely was, but it was worth trying, he didn’t want saki to know at all
”Well, do you want to come to check on her with me?”
And so Tsukasa was dragged to the entrance of his moms bedroom, a trickle of sweat fell down his forehead as saki’s hand reached for the door handle
”Mom?”
She was curled in her bed, but she lifted her head slightly
Tsukasa could feel her glare, she was clearly not in the mood for this
”MY GOD, JUST LEAVE ME ALONE FOR ONCE!”
CRASH
A wine bottle went flying towards saki, and in a rush Tsukasa just… tried to protect her from it
So now her mom was locked into her room, Saki was bandaging Tsukasa’s bleeding arm and they had both kissed school
“I’m so sorry for making you come I-if I hand insisted so much…” warm tears were flowing trough saki’s face and her hands were trembling
Their mom was sweet, she had quitter drinking years ago, their mom would never throw bottles at them
It Was probably because of the talk
”if you could be reborn as something or someone, what would you choose to be?”
Someone’s life is determined by the lottery of birth, if u win you get to live in a happy family in a happy house.
But if you loose you get wine bottles thrown at you
Its unfair, but it’s just the way life works
Saki deserves better than this household
Saki deserves better that this brother
Everyone around Tsukasa deserves better
“ Maybe if we close our eyes and forget about everything we can finally be happy”
”I-I’m sorry?” Saki was clearly taken aback by this comment
”you never did anything wrong Saki”
probably