Everchanging

Different

!!TW!! Discussions/themes of the following topics; death, cancer, panic attacks

Kaigaku was in the kitchen, dishes clanking in the quiet as both his grandfather and his mother waited for him. Sakura looked around the house, her eyes captivated by every photo hung up. There were some that she could remember, such as the few she took when her son started school or when Zenitsu was born. But there were a lot of photos that were brand new to Sakura but were also old to everyone else.

Kaigaku in his junior high uniform, holding up a certificate as his eyes stared at his shoes. Zenitsu pushing his cousin into the snowman they had both built. There were only a handful of Satsuki and all of them had been when Zenitsu was still young. Sakura didn't remember her sister being that pale nor that gaunt. Her long flowing hair was buzzed tight to her scalp and a nasal cannula pressed into her face.

"Dad..." Sakura had felt this since she had woken up in the hospital; that something had changed, and she would never be able to go back. She had missed out on so much of her own son's life. She wasn't there to support him during her hospital stay nor when his father left. Sakura's own son had changed so much. But that wasn't even the tip of the iceberg.

Zenitsu was so big now. His personality was so much different than before, more anxious. Sakura felt like it was only yesterday when Zenitsu had chased Kaigaku around the street with a garden snake on a stick. But now, the boy seemed more meek, goofier. He looked nothing like his mother.

And then there was Sakura's father, who was old and gray now. He had a perpetual hump in his spine, a cane held by his hip. His skin was thin, and his limbs were frail. He looked like a ghost more than a man.

"Where's Satsuki?" Sakura looked at the picture, a date scribbled near the bottom, and something settled like a rock in her stomach. She didn't need to see to know that her father's face pinched in pain, she could hear the sharp intake of air through his nose. She also noticed that Kaigaku's noises had paused in the kitchen; the teen listening in on the conversation. "Did something happen?"

Something felt dark in her, but she wanted to stay positive. Satsuki had always had migraines since she hit puberty, that must be why there were photos of her in the hospital. She must've finally decided to go see a doctor when the migraines became too much. Yeah, that must be it.

"Sakura...I'm so sorry." Jigoro's voice was wet and light, his knobby hands coming to hold his daughter's. Sakura hissed, she hated this. She didn't want this sob fest. She just wanted to know where her big sister was. She wanted Satsuki to come see her. "She...Satsuki died. She died."

Something felt broken. Wrong. Something felt...wrong.

Everything was different.

"What?" This couldn't be real. Sakura had to have been still asleep. This was all just a really convoluted dream and she would wake up and her sister would be right there.

"Satsuki was sick, really sick. They said she had brain cancer that traveled to her lungs and kidneys. She was so sick." Jigoro guided his daughter into his chest, holding her head against his chest but Sakura didn't cry, because this couldn't be real. "She passed in her sleep, without pain, a few years after your accident."

There the photo stood, and Sakura finally realized what it was. It was a memorial. Her big sister's memorial.

Her sister was dead, and all Sakura had been able to do was sleep.

"Why couldn't they save her?" Something was wrong. Surely, this was wrong. Because it wasn't possible. It was possible that Sakura woke up just for Satsuki to be dead. How many years had passed that Satsuki had been gone while Sakura peacefully slept? "There's treatment."