Come Home!

Episode 1: A Miracle is Coming Home

Summary: Matsuyo receives wonderful news!

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With the warm air and sunlight surrounding the quiet neighborhood of the Akatsuka ward, one of the Matsuno children embraces the moment of his rare lonesome. Skipping along the grooves of concrete, he prances around with nothing on his mind until his little feet collide with an unassuming stray rock. Planting his face to the harsh ground, he felt that both his brain and his peaceful world exploded. The boy immediately cried.

Poor little Osomatsu was so shocked about this small inconvenience that his cries echoed around the once peaceful neighborhood. Small steps immediately ran to his side, "Oso? Why are you crying?"

Warmth soon embraces him as he feels his body being propped up, quickly turning his snot-covered face into their clothes, "I'm hurt! I'm hurt! My knees hurt, nee-chan!" The boy sniffled as their sister chuckled at his cuteness. Carefully, she grabbed his chin to face her, "Don't worry, otouto, your nee-chan is here to save your knees!" Her free hand patting his head as she slowly stands up, bringing her little brother along. The boy immediately hugs her torso when he feels his injuries stretch for a bit, making his sister uneasy.

An idea comes to her mind as she kneeled down with her back on his front, "Come on, we'll get home to let kaa-san fix your wound and I'll buy you ice cream!" Hearing the promise of a sweet treat, the boy quickly puts his arms around her neck and tries to make himself comfortable on her back. Securing his body while minding his injury, she began to walk home as the boy tightly hugged her. His sniffles were heard throughout the area so the sister began to sing a theme from their favorite cartoon series.

Moments like these reside deeply in Osomatsu's memories which he cherished deeply. Since he and his five younger brothers were born, they've been deeply attached and reliant to their older sister.

Matsuyo Matsuno, the matriarch of their big family, views their attachment to their sister as cute as she always sees her boys always following her around like curious baby ducks. Whatever their eldest does, the boys will try to mimic it. A faint memory of her eldest doing chores and the boys also try to help her as best as they can. How times and miracles fly so fast.

In the same neighborhood but more modern than before with the Matsuno house still standing proud lives the same family with one less member. The patriarch, Matsuzo Matsuno, just left for his job and his dear wife began to cook a hefty breakfast for her precious NEETs. While the house remained rambunctious with six grown men, the aging mother still misses her only daughter. And she's sure that deeply, her sons miss her too.

Chuckling at the thought of unknowingly joining in a lottery where she conceived one mature daughter in exchange of having six lazy and immature sons to balance it off. 'Cruel fate', she thought as she kept on placing all the dishes on their tables. Even as she sometimes hates their debauchery, she can't bear to not coddle all of them despite it all. Deep in her poor heart, she is doing this because she is scared that the rest of her children might leave her too.

Their house phone rang loudly, echoing around the quiet house and she faintly heard an irritated groan from her sextuplet's bedroom. Leisurely, she approached the busy phone, "Matsuno household, how may I-"

"Kaa-san?"

From that simple, wistful tone, Matsuyo suddenly bursts into tears. She held the phone tightly as she tried to gain her bearings. She can see the smile of the person at the other line as the older woman tries to stop her tears. Hearing those familiar giggles on the other side further strikes her heart.

"Oh sweetheart, how I missed your voice..." After choking in the last tears, the mother grips the handle hard as her voice becomes lighter, "How are you, my sweetheart? Everything's all good? Oh it has been weeks since I last heard from you!"

Her eldest chuckled at her mother's excitement, "I'm fine kaa-san, always fine as long as you and the family are. Sorry if I disturb breakfast, I know that around this time you always prepare us food," you whispered as you eyed your empty coffee can and half-empty bento bought from the nearest convenience store. Your stomach grumbling at the thought of your mother's home-cooked meals and presence.

Your mother shushes you gently, you can almost feel her smile as she replies, "No, no, don't worry about bothering me. You are never a bother to me." Hearing that made you almost cry, hugging your torso to lessen the loneliness that seems to be clouding you. Exhaling, you giggled, "I miss you so much, kaa-san."

"And I miss you too! Everyday I keep on wondering how my little pharmacist is doing!" That seems to slap you awake, biting your lips as you keep on looking at the discarded documents on your study table. Trembling, you turned your head away from that stress and focused on your mother, "I'm doing fine, kaa-san, still kicking those nasty thesis papers!"

Giggling, Matsuyo keeps on twirling the phone wire, "I'm proud! You keep on fighting for those papers and you'll be graduating with your doctorate!" Lost in conversation, the older woman hasn't heard one of her sons coming down from their bedroom, still groggy but hungry for appetite. Seeing his mother busy on the phone, he helped himself with the food at the table that now went cold. Choromatsu didn't mind as he tried to enjoy the rare quietness he had this morning.

As he went for this morning's newspaper, reading all the articles while keeping vigilant on job adverts, he got extremely frightened at the loudest screech he heard from the front door. His heart rattled inside his torso as he saw his mother begin to prance around like a mad woman with the biggest smile he ever saw on her face.

Intrigued, he quietly munched on his rice and fish as the older woman now said goodbye, noticing her giving the most audible kiss in the air to the receiver, and happily skipped to the kitchen with the brightest smile. Matsuyo began to hum a lullaby she used to sing at her children and began opening a cabinet full of cleaning supplies. Her confused son slowly questioned the rare cheerful woman, "What got you so happy, kaa-san?"

Still humming, she came back to the living room where her son nervously sits with his froggish smile as he played with his signature green hoodie. The older woman kept on smiling, and much to his surprise, softly patted her son's head, "After you finish eating, go wake up your lazy brothers and clean yourselves. Your sister is coming home and I need to clean up her old room!" She proceeds to skip her way up to the second room with the biggest smile on her face. Choromatsu swears that he can see flowers blooming around his mother and asks, "Oh okay..."

Embarrassingly, it took him minutes to understand, "HUH? Nee-san is coming home?"

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Notes: I am so sorry if there are several changes of POV, I hope it's not that confusing. Looking back and editing this story, I realized how many grammatical errors there were and how I've grown since last year?

And I keep on the use of 'nee-chan', 'kaa-san' and similar honor prefixes when you're directly calling your family to be 'authentic'? It feels natural for me to do this as similarly in my culture it is a show of respect and to easily flow in the dialogue to see who is talking to who.

Just to note, this story features an Elder Sister!Reader as one of our main characters and entirely platonic with her family. Also expect some drama but I'll try to be funny like in the series.