longingfreesia | [STORY] Kotori's Resolve

Screams. Chaos. Panic.
Kotori tried her best to fight through the panicking crowd that were running away in terror, but all Kotori wanted was to find her family and her friends. They had to be here in this crowd somewhere, right? She tried calling our for them, but her voice was drowned out in the noise of the explosions happening around her.
Buildings were on fire, some were toppling to the ground around her. But still, she carried on.
Suddenly, the people began to change. No longer were they screaming and panicking, but they were laughing and jeering at her. Kotori quickly found herself surrounded by them, the people who were attacking her home town.
Quickly, huge silhouettes of mechanical giants appeared behind the invaders as they continued laughing. Kotori eyes darted around, frantically looking to get away, but she couldn't, she had nowhere to run. The monsters began powering up attacks as she fell to her knees, looking up at them with tears in her eyes.
As the attacks fired, Kotori closed her eyes and gave out a last scream for help.

"YUMAAA!!"

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Screaming, Kotori bolted upright in her bed. Breathing heavily, she looked frantically around the room she was in. It took her a while before she remembered where she was.
Feeling frustrated, she pulled her knees to her chest, holding them there and lowering her head onto them. She let out a few sobs, not knowing what else to do.
This hadn't been the first time she'd had a nightmare like that since Heartland was attacked. She hadn't really had a full nights sleep since then between the nightmares and how difficult she'd found it to fall asleep, when every little noise outside was making her jump.
Suddenly, she heard shuffling outside her bedroom door, before there was a light knock, which made her jump slightly. But she felt calmer when she heard Yuma's voice follow it.

"Hey Kotori...? Is everything okay? I heard you shout my name."

He sounded worried.

Across the hall, in the room opposite, Akari had made her way to the door of the bedroom she shared with Haru, ready to open it and see what was wrong, but as she reached out and placed her hand on the door handle, Haru placed her hand on top of her grand-daughter's to stop her.

"Right now, she might find all of us fussing over her overwhelming" Haru told her.

"But-!"

Haru shook her head with a calm smile. "I think we can trust Yuma to handle this."

Akari paused to give thought to what her grandmother had said, before letting go of the handle with a sigh. She'd been worried over how quiet Kotori had been and how little she had talked to them about what had happened, but it was true that all of them being there, worrying over her, might be too much for her right now.

"Kotori. I'm going to come in okay?" Yuma told her. "If you don't want me too, just say so and I won't."
Yuma waited for a moment. There was no objection from the other side, so slowly, he turned the door handle and opened the door.
In what little light there was, he could see Kotori huddled in the centre of her bed. Yuma quietly closed the door behind him, then walked over to the lamp by her bedside, switching it on to light the room. He then sat beside Kotori on the edge of the bed. It was silent for a moment, before Yuma spoke up.

"Did you have a bad dream...?"

Kotori gave him a slight nod, before lifting her head up to look at him. "I'm sorry if I woke you up, I just..."

"A-ah, no, it's okay!" Yuma replied, not wanting her to feel guilty. "I was actually getting some water from the kitchen, so you didn't wake me or anything!"

Kotori looked a little relieved, but the troubled look on her face remained. She looked away from Yuma for a moment, just listening to the silence in the room. This allowed all the thoughts and worries that had been frustrating her for the last week to come back to her. The nightmares, not being able to contact her family or friends to know if they were safe or not, and missing the familiarity of Heartland, of her home.
This wasn't her home, this didn't feel like her home. She just wanted to be back in Heartland, with her family, living their lives as they normally would.
As these thoughts just piled onto her, tears formed and fell from her eyes. She tried hard to fight them back, but it was no good, before long she was sobbing into her hands.

"H-hey...! Kotori! It's okay...! It was just a dream-" Yuma panicked when he saw how upset she was getting, but a small shake from Kotori's head told him that it wasn't just the dream that was bothering her.

"I want to go home....! I want to see my family again...! I just want to go back home to Heartland...!"

Yuma's heart sank.
She was homesick and missing her family. Of course she was. She was ripped from her home and those she loved so suddenly and nobody knew what had happened to anyone. Yuma knew what it was like, having family members going missing, not knowing what happened to them, how lonely that felt... Kotori must be feeling exactly like that right now, only her family disappeared under much more violent circumstances. Slowly, he reached out to her and wrapped his arms around her. Kotori accepted the embrace and leaned into Yuma, burying her face into his chest as she continued sobbing.

"I haven't been able to get in contact with anyone back home! I've tried everyday since it happened and everyday there's no reply! Not from my family, or Sachi or Sei or Testuo...! And at night, all I do is replay everything in my head and wonder what they might of gone through...! Then I get these dreams where I'm back there, like I'm being given the chance to look for them, to help them! But they always end the same way!
What happened to them, Yuma. What happened...!"

Yuma held her closer, wrapping his arms more protectively around her as he allowed her to continue crying into him. As he did, his own eyes began tearing up. He hated seeing Kotori like this and not being able to do anything for her, not being able to give her the answers she wanted. He couldn't even tell her that everything would be alright, because things weren't alright and probably wouldn't be for a long time.
After a while, Kotori's sobs lessened. She began to feel so emotionally drained, she could no longer manage to cry as much as she had. Still, Yuma continued holding her until she decided to break the embrace and sit up slightly, rubbing her eyes a little of the tears that still remained in them. As she did, Yuma reached out to her and placed his hands gently onto either side of Kotori's face, making her look up at him.

"You know that if I could, I'd do anything to bring your family back to you, to answer the questions you have but... I can't...!" He broke off and grimaced slightly at that, before looking back at her. "But you still have a family, Kotori. You've always been a part of my family and that's no different now!"
"Kotori. Last year, I remember you saying something to me. That how, no matter what happened, no matter how much trouble I got myself into or how bad it was, that you'd still be by my side to help me pick up any pieces that were left over, right? So let me do that for you now! Together we can pick up all the broken pieces until we can make something whole again, or close to it!"

Slowly, Yuma leaned towards her and rested his forehead against hers. "I love you and I'm gonna make sure you and sis and granny are all gonna be okay."

Kotori could feel herself tearing up again as he heard his words. It's true that Yuma's family has always been like a second family to her and even if her own family had vanished... she still had them. Yuma and his family.
They stayed like that for a moment together, before Kotori moved to pull him back into a hug, once again leaning against him. "Thank you, Yuma."
Yuma responded by placing his arms back around her, holding her once again.
They stayed like that for a while, just silently enjoying the warm embrace with each other. Eventually, Kotori could feel her eyes growing heavier and heavier, Yuma looked down at her, noticing that she was fighting to stay awake.

"Do you want me to leave so you can get some sleep?"

Kotori nuzzled her face further into Yuma's shirt in response. She really didn't want him to leave her right now.

"Can you stay...?" she asked him. "Even if it's just until I fall asleep."

Yuma gave her a small smile and a nod. "Yeah."

Moving under the blankets of the bed, Kotori instantly cuddled up next to him. As she did, Yuma slowly began brushing his hand over her hair in a gentle and soothing motion which seemed to help her relax.
As he watched her fall asleep beside him, Yuma's mind wandered a little. A year ago, he and Kotori were simply best friends, but so much had changed between them in just the last year as they had slowly moved their relationship from a close friendship to being a couple. It was true that they hadn't really had much chance to spend time together as a couple and now their lives were completely upside down, but no matter what the future held for the both of them, he knew that he would do his best to make sure that she felt content and safe and that was especially important now.

Once he was sure that Kotori had fallen fully asleep, he gradually stopped brushing his hand over her hair and simply placed his arm over her waist, resting his head close to hers, closing his eyes.

There was no way he was going to leave her side for the rest of the night.

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"I'm gonna miss you guys! But if you need anything, just call me! I'll be right back and--"

Holding his sister and grandmother in a bear hug outside the door to their apartment, you would think Yuma was going away for a long time. After a moment, Akari struggled out of Yuma's grasp, pushing him back slightly.

"Yuma. You'll be back in a week's time! I think we're more than capable of handling things here." she then poked him in the chest with her finger. "All YOU need to concentrate on is not failing your school-work this week!"

"Yeah, yeah. I knoooooow!!" Yuma replied with an exasperated look. "I'm not going to fail anything! You'll see! I'll kattobing and do my best this week!"

Akari just smirked at her brother in response, knowing that he would stick to his word.

With that, Yuma turned towards Kotori in order to say goodbye to her. The two exchanged glances and smiles between each other, both not really wanting to part at all. Noticing this, Haru grinned, before turning towards the door.

"Akari~ We should let the little love birds say goodbye in peace, hm?"

An amused look appeared on Akari's face as she rolled her eyes a little, before following her grandmother through the door. Yuma and Kotori watched them leave and close the door behind them, leaving them on their own, before turning to each other again.

"Thank you again, Yuma. For staying with me last night when I really needed it." Kotori told him, before reaching out to hold his hand a little. "But you definitely don't have to worry about me, okay? I promise I'll be fine. I think I'll have a lot to do this week. I've got to make a start at picking up those pieces afterall, right?"

Yuma nodded in response. "But if you feel like you really need to talk to me or anything this week, just call and we'll talk as long as you need to! No matter when or where!!" Then a look of realization hit him as he remembered something. "Oh, hey. Yuya's Christmas party is on Friday! Do you want to go to that, at all?"

Kotori responded with a soft smile. "Hm! I'd really like to."

"Guess I'll see you on Friday then!"

"I guess you will."

Smiling, Kotori slowly reached a hand up towards the scarf Yuma was wearing, using it to pull him towards her and into a kiss, which Yuma was happy to accept. Once it broke, the two stood there for a moment, giggling a little and feeling a little giddy, before Yuma bent down to pick up the backpack he had by his feet, throwing it over his shoulder.

"Do your best this week, Yuma and I'll make sure to do my best too!"

Yuma gave her a nod, before walking down the steps. As he ran towards the exit out of the boundary that surrounded Sakana, he looked back and gave Kotori a large grin, waving at her as he did. She waved back, until...

"Wait! Yuma! Watch out for that--!"

*BANG*

Yuma ran straight into a tree.
Stepping back in a daze, he rubbed his face, then looked up at Kotori again with the same goofy grin.

"I'M OKAY!"

Kotori just breathed a sigh of relief, then gave out a light laugh.

"Yuma. You big doofus."

He laughed in response, before waving at her again and running out of the exit.
Kotori stayed and watched Yuma run down the street, until he was out of her sight.

Yuma always tried his best with everything. Always faced everything with a smile and determination, the very things she loved the most about him. It reminded her that no matter what, no matter how bad things were right now, she needed to face everything the same way the best she could.
Although she still felt a lot of sadness and fear in her heart, Yuma had helped her to find a new resolve. To not give up and to keep moving forward.
After all, this would be what her mother and the rest of her family would want her to do.
Reaching up to take hold of the locket around her neck that her mother had given her, she looked up towards the moon in the sky above her.

"No matter where you are, I promise I'll continue to be someone you can be proud of, mom."

After taking a deep breath and letting it out slowly, Kotori turned to back into the warmth of the apartment where Akari and Haru were waiting for her.