It had been years since any of them had celebrated the seasonal festivals, but this year Kazuki demanded everyone come along to one of the city shrines for Setsubun. If they were a proper House together, they should act like it, and for all of them propriety included tradition and the festivals.
He’d had to threaten Juubei with a celebration at home, with Juubei playing the Oni, before he agreed, but once they were in the middle of the laughing, shoving, shrieking crowd Juubei lost his stiffness and shoved back with a will. Kazuki laughed as much at that as at the scramble for thrown candies.
They all fetched up, panting and disheveled, at the edge of the crowd, for once focused on nothing more momentous than comparing who had caught what, and brokering trades of favorite sweets. Sakura leaned in Saizou’s arms, laughing as Kazuki stole sweets out of Juubei and Toshiki’s piles while they dickered.
"There," Kazuki declared, as they found a bench to sit on and eat, in the chilly falling evening. "Wasn’t I right about coming out to this?"
"I still don’t know why you insisted," Juubei half-grumbled.
"To regain our future," Saizou supplied, catching Juubei’s hand to lick off the sticky ends of his fingers. Juubei and Sakura both blushed at that, Kazuki observed with some amusement.
"Regain our future?" Toshiki asked.
"The past is gone," Saizou said softly, leaning back under the shadows of the trees. "It can’t be returned. But the future… that we can create or relinquish by our own actions. Once you’ve let it go, you need to work to get it back again."
Kazuki slid an arm around him and pressed close. "We’re touching it again now," he whispered.
Saizou smiled and held him as the other three gathered in around them, close and warm. "Yes. We are. And I’m more grateful to you than there are words to say, for that."
Kazuki touched Toshiki’s shoulder, laced his fingers with Juubei’s, looked up to meet Sakura’s smile. "I couldn’t touch it without all of you."
"Then walk forward to it," Sakura said, soft and clear, "and we will be with you."
Kazuki nodded. It was the beginning of spring, and a new year, and he finally felt there was a way forward there to be found.
"Together."
End
And this is the end I guess. A pity. A real pity. I was actually going to ask if you were planing to write for either Juubei or Toshiki with Saizou too, or how it works with the four of them.
I am truly admiring the speed at which you wrote those stories though 😉 I mean I discovered them over the community of getbackers on livejournal and you had a new story out there every day!
It was amazing, and I really hope you will write for them again!
sincerly Suzanne
*grins* Well, there are another 20k words or so coming–the second half. That focuses on Yohan and Saizou and Kazuki, though, so if you haven’t read the later volumes (http://getbackersrespsect.wikispaces.com/ or http://branchandroot.dreamwidth.org/1094275.html if you’re just after the Fuuga parts) you may want to wait. I just had to give them a happy ending, though! I had to!
*wry* I didn’t write it quite as fast as I posted it; I wanted to make sure I got it done and revised for consistency before I started posting. But I did get through the whole arc in a little over three weeks. These were some fierce plot-bunnies!
*squeaks with the sweetness of them*
Aren’t they the most unspeakably adorable things ever? I mean seriously, I nearly got cavities.
They’re so adorable! Is there going to be more of Ivory Bridges?
Are you kidding, there’s another 20k words! *grins* This was just the first half.
More fluff coming!
Yay!
Aww, I liked Saizou’s response about the future. Very nice. 🙂
Thank you! I figured they’d all been through enough angst, they deserved an extended happy ending.