[Memory] What: Memory Will characters be viewing the memory or experiencing it?: Experiencing Warning, this memory contains: yearning, goofiness, feelings of not belonging
The cherry blossom festivals are some of your favorite times of year. Admittedly, you’re really only familiar with the one your family normally attends but you’ve heard about plenty across your country. They start in January in Okinawa and don’t really make it to you in Kyoto until around April. You're thankful you don’t have any allergies as you smile while watching the petals from the trees drifting and dancing down around you from a gentle breeze that’s swept through. It’s not entirely warm yet but it’s not cool either and you find your eyes wandering the crowd, taking in all the families and friends settled under the cherry blossom trees eating and talking, as hands shove into the pockets of your leather jacket. You considered greasing your hair back but your sister always makes comment about it and you know she’s right when she says it looks dirty and unkempt. It does your family name no honor and you abide by her concerns because she’s your sister and you love her but… Maybe someday you’ll feel unburdened enough to dress fully as you please. The American greaser style caught your attention years ago and it’s become a mild obsession. It’s hard to reproduce the fashion here and it’s looked poorly upon anyway but sometimes you sneak out to places where no one knows your name or your face...
You don’t want to dishonor your family or upset your sister but you’ve never fit in here.
Eyes continue to cooly search amongst the idle groups. You’re looking for hints of danger, for signs of distress while you wait and while you don’t expect to find any issues you’ve been trained your entire life to look for them and to dispatch them with force. Your sister should be here soon. It’s getting late. It’s unfortunate that she had to run an errand to the shrine before you both could return home. It’s been a beautiful day out and the few pictures you’ve taken of the two of you out together today will be treasured and saved on your phone. You’ll look at them when your chest is heavy and your worries too much and they will give you relief. Your sister is your rock even if she doesn’t realize it. You always appear calm and cool and collected, silent and removed, reserved and above reacting to what’s going on around you and she’s practically your complete opposite. Certainly, you have things in common with her but that fact is you love her because she is so different from you, you treasure her because of how unlike you she is. You love every difference in her twice as much because it proves how much it intrinsically belongs to her. Even if you have bitterness at how your parents have treated you differently than her while growing.
You dig a pack of cigarettes and a lighter out of your pocket, knocking out the filter with a finger before your eyes raise to roam the crowd again and- Your eyes catch on a young woman that appears to be having an evening picnic with her friends. They’ve decided to theme their outing in yukata’s and she’s delicately serving each person a slice of spongy matcha cake and-
She’s beautiful and you yearn for her, that’s the feeling in your chest, but you don’t recognize it that way. You don’t recognize this emotion within yourself because you’ve never stopped to try to address it before, never tried to identify it. You’re already different enough and have too much to do, you don’t have the time to address this as well. You don’t have the time or the energy to think about how soft her lips look or how the curve of her body underneath the yukata entices and something inside of you warms as you wonder what her voice would sound like whispering against the shell of your-
“There you are!” Your sister bounces into your line of sight with a bright smile and her shoes clack against the road below her feet and you startle, snapping back to the present and not the slowed down haze you felt before, and nearly drop your still unlit cigarette. You can understand her perfectly, it’s like this is the normal way to speak, but you distinctly know this is not English you’re speaking as well.
“Yes.” Your voice is low and warm and you feel embarrassed by how it sounds which causes you to turn your head and fake a cough.
“Are you okay?” Your sister’s bright cheer has fallen and you instantly feel guilty, she should never look distressed, it’s your job as her big sister to make sure she’s taken care of.
“Fine.” You answer back after clearing your throat. “How was shrine?”
“Fine.” She makes a face before bouncing up beside you and wrapping her arms around one of yours, pressing into you to try to get you to move. While the two of you are about the same size you know how to hold your stance and you don’t move. She groans. “Leeeetttt’s goooo!” A bright grin bounces back across her face as she tugs on your arm and you feel your insides lighten. She’s avoiding talking about the shrine but you’ll let that side, you can’t bring yourself to dampen her joy.
“Why such a hurry?” You can’t help a slightly sly, small half-smile. You know why she’s excited and she swats at your arm, you chuckle and pat her hand that’s still wrapped around your arm.
“Don’t you dare tell me you’ve forgotten! You promised me!” Her tone is a little serious but it’s a game you both play. You smirk, she rolls her eyes and huffs but then smiles as well.
“Did I promise though?”
“You promised! I have proof!”
“Do you?” You’re still sounding a bit cool but have started to move in the direction she’s tugging and that makes her nearly half a million times more excited.
“Yes! You signed a contract! Don’t you remember?”
You blink, starting to slow your walk and sincerely searching your memory for any legitimate proof she might actually have. Did you put this in writing somewhere? “Did I?” You hum thoughtfully and finally move to tuck the cigarette away as your sister has been stealing dirty looks at it the whole time. She seems pleased by your choice even though she’s clearly been trying to make you put it away the whole time.
“You did! When we were younger you signed a contract at my tea party that someday you’d be the one to host!” She’s dead serious. You laugh.
“Okay, okay.” A hand waves appeasingly at her. “The one where your Tamagotchi was the witness to our signatures?” You remember that day surprisingly clearly after the very slight prompt. Some days you wonder if that’s how your sister is special but…
She’s tugging on your arm again.
“Yes! Now come on slowpoke!” She urges and tugs and you finally smile. A real smile. Seeing her so excited you just can’t help yourself.
“Okay, okay.” You repeat again but this time with a smile and your steps quicken. How excited she is to teach you the tea ceremony is somewhat amazing and undoubtedly endearing. Your sister giggles and keeps trying to move you faster and you acquiesce each request to increase your speeds until your both running and pointing things out and she’s creating fake obstacles for you to jump over and roll under and swing around and the two of you are out of breath and nearly collapsing from giggles by the time you both bust through the door to your sister’s small flat.
You dramatically fall onto the padding on the floor on your back huffing and wheezing with sheer joy and she looks down at you, laughing at her imagination and your willingness to play along with her yelling about how you had to jump over the lava pit and swing through the vines before she plops down next to you.
“Lava’s gonna kill me.” You offer somewhat serious sounding and she bursts into a series of nearly uncontrolled giggles. You smile. Her happiness makes you happy even when you wish you could punch your father in the teeth and tell your mother to--- No. Those aren’t honorable thoughts, they do not serve you or your family. The smile you hold is small now but with the joy in your sister’s eyes you manage to hold on to a tiny bit of that smile even if you feel it disappearing inside of you but you love your sister, you love your sister so much that even just a little bit of her joy is enough to help you hang on. She’s your rock. Even if she doesn’t know it.
“In keeping my word to Mr. Tamagotchi,” You start, your voice is serious. “I will learn the tea ceremony to honor my written promise to you.” You nod distinctly as if a decision that shall impact the lives of all the generations of your bloodline forever has been made and you begin to peel yourself off the floor to stand once again. Your sister waits a moment before reaching out a hand for you to help her up. You do help her to her feet because you’ve never even thought about not helping her. Saying no to your sister has almost never occurred to you because you love her so.
“For Mr. Tamagotchi.” She nods and grasps your forearm in a shake like you both had seen in some Viking movie from another country some years ago and you can’t help a short abrupt laugh.
“For Mr. Tamagotchi.” You agree and your sister moves to fetch up the materials she’ll need to teach you how to do the tea ceremony. This wasn’t a part of your education like it was hers and while you wouldn’t admit it to almost anyone out loud that had always made you sad. The Tea ceremony holds so much grace, so much history, so much power in its myths and tales and practice that you’ve felt robbed by not being able to learn it. Thankfully, your sister saw your sadness and without question moved to act.
Now you move up next to her, watching as she begins to fetch items and set them up.
“First,” She starts with the voice of a teacher speaking to a class. “We cleanse our tools.” And she moves so that you can step up next to her and settle in for the long night of learning you’ll be doing as she starts to show you the very beginnings of how to perform the tea ceremony.