branchandroot

Cross-post from my archive.

Fandom/Arc: GetBackers, Ivory Bridges
Characters/Pairings: Fuuchouin Kazuki, Kakei Juubei, Kakei Sakura, Toufuuin Saizou, Uryuu Toshiki
Summary: Fuuga celebrates Spring and the new year together.
Meta: Absolute Fluff, I-3
Wordcount: 414

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.

A Theme in Pentatonic: Coda

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

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