red string || sano manjiro/ mikey

prologue

"i learned something new in school today."

"isn't that what you're supposed to do in school? learn something new?"

"sometimes i wonder why we're friends, sazu."

manjiro, better known as mikey now that his foreigner half-sister came into the family picture, playfully glared at the inattentive girl sitting with her feet dangling on the edge of the engawa. her eyes were fully focused on the book she was reading, and mikey was a little annoyed that her attention was cut leaving the short end of the stick with him.

he scoots towards her using his knees, the previously clean karategi now a little stained with specks of dust that it picked up from the wooden flooring. planting his chin on the latter's shoulder, he looks at the book she was reading and found no pictures at all to entertain him. "hmph, your imagination must be really wild if you can picture stuff with just words."

"isn't that what we're supposed to do as humans? to envision the things we wish to envision?"

"do you know nothing but sarcasm, sazu?"

"what's sarcasm?"

he rolls his eyes. at this point, she was just poking fun at him. it was pretty obvious that she finds joy in his annoyance. he knows it very well because he does that to her too. and the thing is, the two don't even bother hiding it from the other.

"anyway," he takes the book from her hands and closed it, slyly slipping in a bookmark for her to pick up on later.

"hey, i was reading that!" kazua twisted her body around to face him, trying to reach for the book that the boy only pulled further away from her. "mikey!"

"pay attention to me!" he whines back.

"you're such a kid."

"isn't that what we're supposed to be like? act like kids?" he grins back at her, knowing that it irks her when he uses her own methods against her.

"i hate you."

"you love me." mikey put the book down beside him and clapped his hands together, knowing that kazua won't take the book from him now that he successfully got her attention. "anyway! i learned something new in school today!"

"you actually paid attention?" kazua leans back against the wooden pillar behind her, one leg going over the other as she now listened to her best friend intently.

"there's this thing called the red string of fate." mikey grinned, ignoring her question. "no one can actually see it, but it means that fate or destiny links soulmates. it's how they find each other and all that."

"you believe that crap, manji?" kazua couldn't help but laugh. she didn't see him as the type to believe in such superstitious things, yet here he is. babbling about the red string and soulmates is something she never expected out of sano manjiro. "it's not real."

"how would you know?" mikey huffed, folding his arms rather grumpily. "you don't even see red strings."

"exactly. we can't see them, so it could be made up for all we know."

"lies! we just don't have the power to see them, but there are those who can!" mikey was surely energetic today. "since we both can't see them, i brought these."

he pulled out two red shoestrings from his pocket, showing it proudly to the giggling girl who only laughed a little more when she saw it. "manji, what the hell is wrong with you?" she wiped a tear from the corner of her eyes. "this isn't a red string of fate, it's a shoestring."

"you're my soulmate." mikey declared shamelessly, stopping the girl from her laughing fit. she now looked at him with eyes still glossy, but surprise was evident in them.

"what?"

"you're my soulmate." he reached his hand out, dropping one of the strings beside him to tie the other around her right wrist.

"manji, the red string decides who get to be your soulmate, not us." kazua tilts her head to the side, a little confused. "did you forget that part of the story?"

"no, but i'm choosing my own destiny." mikey smiled softly up at her after securing the knot and tucking the aglets inside the wrapped string. "and i chose you, so there's no taking it back. the red string will have to adjust to that, but i doubt they need to. you're my soulmate since the beginning of time!"

"bold of you to assume that i'd agree to that. i like shinichiro-niisan."

"you really are so mean, kazu. he's years older than you! nine years!"

said girl chuckles, her gaze falling on her outstretched wrist that is now free from mikey's grasp. the string was wrapped around messily, but it was secured around her wrist. all along, mikey was gentle with tying it around her too. she smiles down at it, then looked back up at her silent friend.

"well, that only means i choose you, too, right?" she said back. kazua reached over to take the other string from the floor, her other hand taking mikey's. "so does this mean we're marrying each other in the future?"

"eighteen years from now, i will ask you to marry me." he said determinedly. "so wait for it, okay?"

"okay," kazua grins back at him, sealing a childish promise that they carelessly made. "i'll wait."

mikey jumped into her lap out of joy, wanting to stay in her hold forever.

they were at peace with each other, and they were happy. even though they were still young, they soothed each other's pain somehow. tired from their responsibilities and the expectations made out of them, they became each other's calm through the heavy storm.

"kazu-neesan! let's play!"

"hey, emma!"

"no, sazu! don't leave me!"