Telomeres - Megumi Fushiguro

Chapter 1

Authors note: Hi friends, I haven't written much of anything for over a decade. After getting left on cliff hangers reading unfinished works, I impulsively decided to just write my own damn story.  What better way for me to tip my toes back in than with a Megumi Fushiguro fic.. am I right? I will try to post updates regularly but please be patient with me. As always, thank you for checking out my work, and don't forget to like/comment/share with your fellow Fushiguro luvrs <3 

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"Last stop, Wisteria Ave. Have a good weekend Azumi-chan!" The bus driver smiles and opens the doors. "Thanks! You too Iwao-san, see you on Monday." I give a small wave to the kind older man as he pulls the bus away from the curb. I walk along the sidewalk hiking my backpack further up my shoulders. It's extra heavy due to the collection of books I checked out from the school library. Thankfully my house is only two minutes down the road from the bus stop. I trudge on, taking time to admire a blue butterfly fluttering between blooming sakura blossoms from the tree in Yoshida-san's garden. Well it was Yoshida-san's garden, but the gentle older woman moved away a few weeks ago. Her house, which is right next to mine, has been sitting empty since. I guess someone new is moving in soon though. I heard Papa saying something about it while on the phone a few days ago. I hope it's a nice family with kids that I can play with. I don't have any friends at school. I hope it's a girl who'll play princesses with me. I cross my fingers skipping the rest of the way to my front door. I open it, inspecting the hall. Papa's boots are gone, so he must not be home. I breathe a sigh of relief and quietly nudge the door closed behind me. Papa is almost never home. He's always working late. Most nights he doesn't even come home, and the nights that he does he's always in a bad mood. He's always been this way for as long as I can remember. I don't think I've ever seen him smile in person. The only proof that he may have been a happy man once upon a time is captured in the framed photo that sits on his bed side table. In the photo he's smiling down at the petite woman to his left. She has long black hair pulled into a neat bun at the base of her neck. She has kind grey eyes similar to my own. She has her fingers entwined with Papa's showing off a beautiful golden ring. Her mouth upturned into a wide smile, mouth slightly agape as if she's laughing. Papa had told me it was the best day of his life, getting married to Mama. He doesn't bring her up, no matter how many times I ask. He usually gives a short answer to my question, if he answers at all, then walks away. Ignoring me for the rest of the night.  I don't know what happened, I don't even remember my Mama. I was a baby when she died. I'm sure he just misses her. I just wish he was nicer to me sometimes. He never plays with me or helps with homework. He just goes to work and acts like I don't exist for the most part. It's lonely. I step out of my loafers and leave them on the mat next to the door. I shrug my backpack and uniform jacket from my shoulders, carefully hanging my jacket on the bamboo rack in the corner. I grab my backpack and trudge down the hallway to my room. Once inside I close the door and sink onto my plain twin sized bed, digging all my library books out of my bag. I couldn't decide on what books to choose, so I checked out three different ones. The biggest one is about a group of four mermaids who are best friends. They go swimming through the ocean meeting and making friends with all the sea creatures they come across. The next one is book four in the series I'm reading about a girl named Junie B Jones. The books are short, but they're really funny and keep me entertained. The last book is a new one that was just put on the shelf. The school librarian suggested it to me. According to her, it's the first book in a popular series about a clan of wild cats. I'm excited to start that one. I grab it from the small pile and get comfortable in bed curling up into a ball, wrapped in my blanket like a butterfly in a cocoon. I get about three chapters in before my tummy starts grumbling. I look over to the small hello kitty digital alarm clock on my bedside table and realize its dinner time. I dogear the page, and gently shut the book before sitting up and breaking out of my blanket nest. Papa still isn't home, and I don't expect to see him this weekend. He usually takes extra shifts at work during the weekend to make more money. I walk to the small kitchen down the hall and decide to make myself a cup of instant ramen for dinner. I grab the noodles from the cupboard and grab the tea kettle. I fill it with water and place it on the burner to heat. As I'm waiting, I decide to turn on the small radio in the kitchen and dance along with the music. After a few minutes the kettle whistles. I take it off the burner, careful not to burn myself accidentally. I carefully pour the scalding water to the waterline on the noodle cup and put the lid back on loosely just like Papa showed me. I dump the remaining water from the kettle and rinse it in the sink before putting it back in the cupboard. I turn the radio off, picking up the noodle cup and chopsticks and head to sit at the coffee table in the living room. I grab the TV remote and scroll through the channels until I find an episode of Pokemon. I pull the lid back on the noodles and gently blow on them before digging in. I wait until Pokemon is over before cleaning up. Afterwards I go back to my room and get ready for bed. I put on a pair of plain pink pajamas, brush out my tangled sapphire blue hair, and brush my teeth before snuggling back into bed. I grab the book I was reading before dinner and pick up where I left off. I get through another two chapters before my eyelids get heavy and I fall asleep, the book still in hand.