Fan Fiction ❯ A Wish On A Star ❯ Chapter 1

Satsuki sat on the bridge, watching stars with her sister.

“Onee-chan, look! A shooting star!” Izumi smiled at her little sister. Her little sister was in truth ten years old, but she acted like she was six years old.

“Well now you're going to have to make a wish!” she replied, tickling Satsuki's ribcage. Satsuki giggled.

“Onee-chan, stop it!”

“Only `till you make a wish!”

“I would if you would stop!” Izumi complied and watched, her eyes laughing, as Satsuki put her hands together while wrinkling her nose in a way that let you know she was thinking. After a minute she looked up.

“Onee-chan? Is it okay to make two wishes?”

“Whatever for?”

“I have one wish for myself and my other wish is that it won't rain tomorrow, so Shokujo and Kengyu can see each other this year!” Izumi playfully tapped her little sister on the nose.

“Well since your second wish is so generous, I guess…” she watched her little sister's face slightly drop, “YES!” Satsuki jumped up and hugged her sister.

“Arigato, Onee-chan, Arigato!!”

 

 

Izumi was sleeping in her bed dreaming of butterflies, flowers and fairies. Until…

“ONEE-CHAN WAKE UP!!!”

“OOMPH!” Satsuki just had to leap on top of her sleeping sister.

“COME ON ONEE-CHAN!! WE NEED TO MAKE SURE THE MAGPIES DON'T FORGET AND DECORATE THE BAMBOO AND PUT IT UP ON THE POLE AND…Onee-chan? Are you okay?” For her beloved Onee-chan had groaned and put the pillow over her head. “Onee-chan? Today's Hoshi-Matsuri! We have to observe it so you can get better at sewing and weaving and I can learn quicker! Come on! Come on!” While she was talking, she had gotten off her sister and now was standing at her side.

“Onigai Onee-chan?” she said tearfully, smiling at the groan she got as a response from her sister's prone body.

“Okay, okay, I'm up!” Izumi sat up.

“Yay!” Satsuki cheered as she raced out of the room, “I'll go make breakfast!” As soon as Satsuki was gone, Izumi slumped right back to sleep again. A minute later, Satsuki popped her head in the doorway.

“Onee-chan do you want…ONEE-CHAN WAKE UP!!”

`Where does she get the lungs, this early in the morning?' Izumi wondered, before realizing that her little sister was tapping her toe and waiting.

“I'm up, I'm up!” she groaned as she sat up, got out of bed and went to get her clothes. Satsuki watched the whole time. “You can leave now,” Izumi said, hoping that Satsuki would take a hint. She didn't. “I promise I won't go back to bed.” And with that, Satsuki left the room.

Izumi quickly dressed and went to where Satsuki was attempting to cook. It was chaos. Somehow Satsuki had managed to burn the water she was boiling and make an egg flambé. An observer would notice that the eggs were up in flames, the pot was too hot to touch and Satsuki was running in circles flailing her arms. After the fire had been doused, (causing the sisters to run out of their house because of all the steam) Satsuki and Izumi went out looking for the perfect bamboo branch.

Izumi reminisced back to the last year where, while looking for the perfect bamboo branch, Satsuki met a boy named Kohaku. Needless to say, the pair stuck together the rest of the day, causing Izumi to hang out with Kohaku's older brother, Hideki. They had visited each other over and over again and became very good friends. Then they had started dating for the last two months, but due to Kohaku becoming very sick, she had not seen him for the last month, since the hospital was over 200 miles away. She had heard that today they were coming back. Suddenly she was jolted out of her thoughts by Satsuki tugging on her traditional kimono that she, Satsuki, had insisted she wear.

“Onee-chan! I found the perfect branch!”

 

 

Satsuki cheered as the final decoration was put on the branch. She then grabbed the colored pieces of paper, ink and a calligraphy brush.

“Time to write our wishes!” Izumi chose a bright blue piece and Satsuki chose a yellow and red piece. Carefully Izumi took her brush and dipped it in the ink. Then she started composing the kanji for her wish. Satsuki, also taking time, did the same. After the ink had dried, they tied the strips of paper on the branch and tied the branch on a pole.

Satsuki bounced around Izumi as she took the pole out and planted it in front of their house. As they turned to go back into the house, a gentle breeze ruffled through the bamboo branch, and carrying the wishes to the gods.

`I wish it won't rain tonight,

so Shokujo and Kengyu can see each other in the moonlight!'

 

`I wish I could get my first real kiss,

soon so I won't be an old miss'

 

`I wish what I wished on the falling star,

I hope it will not be too long or too far'

 

 

Evening soon came and with it the festival. Izumi, being the dutiful older sister let her little sister drag her through the busy market square, ooh-ing and ahh-ing with her at all the brightly colored goods and delicious smelling food. Satsuki stopped by an onigiri stand.

“Onee-chan, may I have an onigiri?” she asked, the picture of cuteness.

“Of course, which flavor?”

“Plum please.” Getting a plum onigiri for her little sister and herself, Izumi turned to give it to her, only to find that Satsuki had somehow disappeared.

She quickly located her by the nearly ear-piercing shriek of “KOHAKU-CHAAAAAN!!!” When she arrived at the scene she found an exuberant Satsuki hugging a near breathless Kohaku. She looked up and saw her onigiri-laden sister and released him at once.

“Onigiri!” She grabbed her treat and started to munch it right away, then grabbed Kohaku and dragged him off. Izumi laughed softly and turned right into the big brown eyes of Hideki.

“Hideki-kun,” she whispered.

“Did you miss me?” he answered just as softly. She nodded, too happy to speak. He pulled her off to the side. “Come with me.” It was all she could do to just follow.

 

 

Hideki led Izumi to the old bridge, where she had been gazing at stars with Satsuki the night before. It might have been just her imagination, but she thought the stars looked extra bright tonight. They failed to notice the giggling bush five feet away from them. They walked out to the middle of the bridge and Hideki raised Izumi's chin and kissed her. She stood shell-shocked for a couple of seconds before she kissed back. They still didn't notice the bush, which was making sounds that could be translated into `ewwwww'and someone retching. When they finally stopped to get air, Izumi blushed. Hideki got down on one knee.

“Izumi-chan, will you marry me?” The bush and Izumi were silent, until Izumi flung herself on Hideki.

“Yes! Oh yes!!” The bush made a sound that could be interpreted as `awwwwww' before becoming silent as they started to kiss again. Slowly and stealthily Satsuki and Kohaku crept out of the bush and crept onto the bridge behind the kissing couple.

Slowly Satsuki mouthed, `Ichi, nee, san' and together they gave a great push, throwing the kissing couple off the bridge and into the water. They broke apart instantly and when they looked up at the bridge, Kohaku and Satsuki ducked out of sight. Then Izumi got a playful glint in her eye. Hideki turned to ask her a question and got a face full of water.

“It's war!” he cried as he sent a bigger wave at her. She submerged herself and grabbed his leg and pulled him under. He broke the surface gasping as she sent another wave at him. This continued for five minutes until Hideki began to tire out. He held up his hands as she sent a huge wave at him.

The wave hit him. When he finally came back up, he was laughing. Izumi started laughing too.

“I give! I give!” he said, eyes twinkling. Together they made it towards the shore and kissed again. Satsuki and Kohaku watched their silhouettes kiss in the moonlight and had to cover their gasps as right above them, on a bridge of magpies, two more figures kissed. The princess and the cowherd, together at last for one night. Satsuki grinned as she recalled her two wishes on the shooting star.

“I wish that it won't rain tomorrow, so Shokujo and Kengyu can see each other this year!”

and

“I wish that my sister would find true love on the night of Hoshi-Matsuri”

 

Owari

 

 

Thank you to my betas:

 

NatureMom

 

Critic

 

Cream'n'Milk

 

Rokhaya