A Change of Heart [FeathersxHimeko]

[Feathers]

The cab made it's way through the quiet neighborhoods of Jennifer's childhood with as much fanfare as it had when she had first left it. It had been a long year and a half, she reminded herself as she watched row after row of tract housing pass by her window. She needed the time away from this place for more than one reason, but as the setting sun filtered through the trees of the generic suburban lawns moving by she couldn't help but feel that a tiny part of herself had truly missed this place.

Pulling herself away from the window she slunk back into her seat as her mind reeled with the past she was coming back to. Was it right to feel this sense of dread since her father's email announced her greatest hope? Jenn had worried about her father even since her mother had walked away from the both of them so many years ago of course. He had done that typical newly divorced male thing about going on a couple seemingly awkward dates before sliding back into his own comfort zone. And while he may have been content with going to bed every night alone it wasn't the future that Jenn had wished for him even in her most self-centered times. But the joy at him finding his own path back to happiness was tempered by the knowledge of the territory that his path happened to cross through. Because it was her territory as well, or rather had been.

The lovely woman he was marrying happened to be the mother of her then best friend. Both of their sets of parents had divorced in a close time frame to one another, and as children are want to do they found comfort in each others friendship in their darkest moments. But as the years rolled on the friendship slowly outgrew itself, morphing into something else entirely as their mid teens rolled around. Where it went from there Jenn still wasn't entirely sure, even after all this time spent in exile to a strange city. Their relationship was.......complicated to say the least. Well, it had been Jenn reminded herself. That past had disappeared the moment she had turned away and walked onto that plane. But it was a ghost not easily ignored.

Button up the loose buttons at the front of her jacket she collected herself for a moment before sliding out of the cab. With a smile and a hefty tip to the driver for retrieving her suitcase she paused at the end of the walkway to her father's house. That history she had moved across the country to avoid had come back to haunt her, and one way or another a reckoning seemed to be in the works.

 

[Sesshi]

Rei woke up early that morning to help her mother out with the unpacking. They were slowly getting moved into her new house and was exciting to say the least. "Rei hunny, can you please help me out here?" Her mother called and she walked down the stairs to call out. "Coming mom!" She called back as she came down the stairs to see what her mother wanted. As she approached her mother she saw her mother smiling at her. "Can you please take these boxes upstairs? These are the last of your boxes." Her mother said as she pointed towards the boxes and Rei nodded. "Sure mom. By the way, when do you think Jennifer's gonna get here?" She asked and her mother shrugged her shoulders and replied, "I don't know dear, but soon I'm sure. You have a week off of college so you'll have plenty of time to catch up with her." Rei nodded and started taking the boxes up to her room.

It had been over a year since she last saw her best friend, but she was also nervous too. They had grown up together and they were all they had when their parents were both going through their divorces. She knew their friendship was more than it was and was worried if the time they had spent apart would have changed Jenny's feelings for her, she hoped not. "I wonder just how much she has changed..." Rei said to herself as she started unpacking her the last of her boxes as she waited for Jenny to get there. The room she was in use to be the guest room, but was her room now. It was nice and big, bigger than her old room. She had her bed already set up because that is what she had to sleep on. She had some various posters already put up on the wall, mostly anime and some of her favorite Japanese artists. She had her cloths hung up in the closet and put away in her dresser. She still had her books and whatnot to put away, but she was getting to it.

She spent a few hours working on finishing unpacking the last of the boxes and when she finished she looked around at her new room and smiled softly. "Perfect. Now to just get rid of the boxes now." She said to herself as she started gathering the boxes to take outside. As she brought out the boxes she dropped them as she stared at Jenny who was at the end of the drive way. Rushing over to greet her she almost tripped over the boxes, but managed to make it over to the girl. "Jenny! It's been too long! How have you been?" She asked excitedly as she pulled her into a big hug and then took a step back to get a good look at her. "Man you sure have changed a lot since last time I saw you!" She giggled as she called out to her mother. "Mom! Jenny's here!" She said happily as she grabbed her suitcase and started dragging her towards the house.

 

[Feathers]

Despite the weighty thoughts pressing in on her mind, Jenny couldn't fight the grin that plastered her face as Rei's arms squeezed her tightly. Leave it up to her to turn even the most somber of moments into something more livable. "Hey you." she hugged back, a touch of pink on her cheeks as she straightened up self consciously when her new step sister took a step back to look her up and down. "New York isn't exactly small town, and I've been gone away a long time. Can't exactly stay the same after all that time and distance, right?" she said, or tried to say as she let herself be dragged up the driveway.

Moving past the front door her breath caught in her throat as the place she grew up in seemed so alien. It looked like she herself wasn't the only thing that had changed over time. "Wow, you two didn't waste any time, huh?" she said, glancing around to take in the new additions. Far from the simple functional design of the bachelor that had lived there, it looks like Rei's mother had wasted little time in giving the place a woman's touch. The art work dotting the walls was definitely a nice touch she conceded. The important thing was the collection of family photos down the hallway was untouched. It was a good sign that she didn't want to try to erase the past when she moved in, and Jennifer found herself sort of looking forward to adding more family photos to the collection.

"So....Rei." Jenn began, feeling the gorilla hiding in the room between the two of them. "How have you been? Things been good since I left?" she said diplomatically. She wanted to pour out the questions on her mind, about whether Rei found a boyfriend/girlfriend, what she thinked of their new living arrangement, what she first thought when she found out that they were going to be sisters. But most of all, Jenn wanted to know if Rei still thought about her occasionally like Jenn did with her. "I missed you."