Chapter Text
Phoebe's POV
I was woken up by my brother shaking my arm. I lifted my head up from his shoulder and looked around. I was dazed from my nap but then my brother spoke to me softly.
“Hey were almost there make sure you have everything” Ren spoke while patting the pockets of his school uniform
“Oh, yeah ok” I responded as I sat up straight and patted my pockets. Phone, check, headphones, check, I say in my head as I go down the list of items that I brang with me that aren't already at the home where we would be staying for the upcoming year.
After that I take a moment to look at the city before me. I haven't been in Japan for long and most of it was the countryside aside from the occasional school trip out to the city. I looked out of the window and saw all the buildings about to start setting sun over the citys’ skyline. For a moment I'm hit with a great pang of a mix of homesickness and overwhelming sadness. All the tall buildings and the glittering lights of the cars reminded me of when I was home.
Then the train went underground and I lost sight of the skyline, i grabbed all my stuff made sure it was in my pocket then grabbed my cane in my hand and waited for the train to stop, i looked at Ren who had already gotten up and was waiting also for the train to stop to move towards the doors. When the train had stopped Ren reached a hand down to help me up and we managed to make our way out of the train without much trouble.
We walked through the train station and my brother ‘asked around’ to find out what train we would have to take next then we made it to the second train and it was a shorter ride. After that, we made it to Yongen-Jaya and walked to Sojiro Sakura's home. He was the man that was granted temporary guardianship of me and my brother while he was forced to move out here by the courts. We walked up to the house and rang the doorbell and with no response I suggested that we try and hop the gate and Ren responded with “What? Are you crazy they are definitely gonna arrest me then.” he says with a small laugh and I smile in return at his reply.
After our little exchange a delivery man speaks up and says “Looks like no one's home… Oh, yeah Sakura-san’s usually at his café around this time. Well Leblanc’s in the back alley, so I should make my other deliveries first…” then he trailed off talking to himself about his next delivery. I looked at Ren and said “Well let's head to ‘Leblanc’ then” I am unfamiliar with the word.
We walked back towards the small supermarket and kept walking till we saw a street we didn't go down. The process of elimination gave us the idea that the café might be this way, since we didn't see a café on the way to his house. We walked down the street till we seen the small café Leblanc and stepped in.
The strong scent of coffee and curry gave me a migraine. I rubbed my temples as we walked in and looked for ‘Sojiro Sakura’. The TV was on and talking about how a bus had drove down the wrong side of the street and how it could’ve hurt someone, an elderly man and an elderly women who I guess were a customers started talking about how it was scary and how something similar happened the other day, I'm not too sure what they exactly said because my head hurt from the scent. There was a man sitting at the bar with a pink shirt and an apron on looking at what looked to be a crossword puzzle mumbling about what the word was. Then as me and Ren stood there awkwardly he looked up from the crossword in his lap and said “Oh, right. They did say that was today” he said as he stood up and put the paper behind him on the bar counter and the elderly customers got up to leave. The elderly and the man in the pink shirt made small talk, it seemed like he was the manager .
I move out of the way of the door and give the elderly a small smile and a bow to show respect. After they leave the man with the pink shirt said in an annoyed tone “Four hours for just a single cup of joe.” he said shaking his head then started back up saying “So, your Ren and I'm guessing you're Phoebe” I nodded my head while my brother said “Is Sakura-san here?” I look at him like an idiot because obviously he's right there.
Sakura-san said “Yeah… I'm Sojiro Sakura. You two will be in my custody over the next year. I was wondering what kind of unruly kid would show up, but you're the one, huh? Also I was never given a reason as to why you were being placed in my care?” he asked and I answered the question for him and took out an envelope “i was also placed in your custody because my parents said that they don't want to deal with me without my brother, here you go” I say as I hand him the envelope he opens it and takes out the bills counting them before putting them back and saying “That's some great parenting but who am I to judge, also I didn't need more compensation but I'll take it. Now have you been told? A customer of mine and your parents know each other and- well not that that matters… follow me.” we walk towards the back of the café and then Sakura-san says “Hey, you ok with stairs?” I nod my head and follow them up the small set of stairs
When we get to the attic Sakura-san tells us “This is both of your rooms. I'll at least give you sheets for your beds, not too sure how I feel about you two sharing a room but not my problem, doesn't matter who gets what bed alright?” he looks at my brother and responds “You look like you wanna say something.” My brother says that it's big and Sakura-san tells us “ it's up to you to clean up the rest. I'll be leaving after I lock up each day. You both will be alone at night, but don't do anything stupid. I'll throw you out if you cause any trouble, I'm mostly talking to you” he says pointing at Ren he starts back up again “ Well then i got the gist of your situation…” he started talking to Ren about his case, I lost interest and started to look around the dusty and cluttered room thinking of how to clean it all up and looking at the two cardboard boxes with all of our things inside.
I start to listen back to the conversation when Sakura-san brings up ‘Shujin’. My brother asks what Shujin is and Sakura-san says “Shujin Academy- the school you both will be attending. We'll introduce ourselves to the staff there. There's rarely a place that accepts someone like you, you know.” directed at Ren “What a waste of my Sunday… Your “luggage” arrived a little while ago. I brought it up here for you both.” he says as he starts to walk away I say a small thank you as he leaves.
We look around the room and I go downstairs to the bathroom to change out of my school uniform and into some pajamas because I have no motive to leave afterwards or even go downstairs. I slowly walk back up the stairs taking my time so I don't fall. I also didn't bring my cane. It seemed redundant to me. When I walked back up the stairs I noticed that Ren had also changed, he had also started cleaning the room, dusting stuff and sweeping and mopping the floors. While he was dusting i took the boxes and put them on the shelf by the stairs and started to organize and put away the things on the tarp by my bed i threw away some bags and boxes with Sojiros permission and organized the rest of the things there as Ren swept and mopped.
After we finished we were both tired Sojiro came up the stairs and was shocked that we actually clean the room, I wasn’t really paying attention I was laying down about to sleep I turned towards the railing and started to fall asleep I was thinking of how school would be, well I guess ill see tomorrow.
