blueridgefac:

Characters: Ichirou Sato and Sawyer Gray
Setting: Ichirou's office, Tuesday afternoon
Rating: SFW
Summary: Ichirou has a talk with Amelia's daughter

It had been one of those weeks that Ichirou had promised himself not to relive. It was too painful to see a friend go so violently from the world. There had not only been the violence of Amelia's death that left a powerful mark in her office, but there had been the backlash in the community. Parents were demanding that their children be sent home, staff was getting antsy that there weren't enough protections around the school, and there was a sinking feeling that someone had betrayed the school, that someone was an agent of whatever was behind the attacks on the school and the community. He feared for the muggles, the muggle born, and the half bloods.



All these thoughts were swirling around his head when the door creaked open without a knock. He knew straight away who it was and looked up, exhaustion coloring his face. He knew he could be most honest to one of his oldest friends. "Sawyer," he said softly.

The woman smiled at the headmaster and shut the door behind her. "It's been a long time Ichi," she said gently. "I was glad to have heard your speech yesterday, sorry I couldn't stick around to talk to you. I needed..." she looked away. "I needed to get away from it all. You know she was never into formalities like that. I had to say goodbye in my own way."

"I know," he nodded. "Have a seat."

"Don't be so official," she said plunking down in the chair across from his desk. She swung her legs over the side of the arm, already feeling right at home. Ichirou, his normal, nervous self, sat with hands folded and placed in the center of the desk.

Sawyer Gray was not the spitting image of her mother but she had that same fire in her dark eyes. A smattering of freckles across her face was the closest she got to resembling her mother's features at all aside from those eyes. She looked more like her father with her dark hair and olive-y skin. Their fathers had done business together, their mothers were good friends, and so Ichirou and Sawyer had grown up together; playing in each other's back yards and eating out of their bento lunch boxes, going so far as to trade some of their snacks.

Here they were, years later, sitting across from each other in Ichirou's office like adult versions of their same little selves. Everything had changed, yet not much had really changed. "So..." he started. "You intend to stay?"

"Who else is gonna teach the brats?" she asked, grinning widely.

"There is a stack of applications on my desk Sawyer," he said looking at the stack he had already read a thousand times over. They were all well qualified, but the thought of anyone else, anyone but Sawyer occupying that space... it made his heart sink. The only thing was... he wasn't sure if Sawyer was ready for it yet. The wounds were still fresh, her mother had been murdered just one week before, barely in the ground one day. Was she really ready to start teaching the classes that her mother had been teaching? Was she ready to be the head of house for Shenandoah?

She scoffed. "Ichi... come on. I'm not just trying to snatch up some job because I've got connections," she said, not afraid to speak what was on her mind. "You know better than anyone I wouldn't do that, 'specially cause 'a the job it is..." she looked away from her friend, unable to hold his serious gaze.

"I know that," he said quietly. "But the things is... are you ready for this?"

"Ready? Of course I'm ready," she swung her legs around to the front of the chair and leaned forward, pressing her elbows against her knees. "Listen... I love my mother and I want to do her memory some justice. Instead of just floatin' around like some damn gypsy, makin' herbal cures for whoever I ran into... I wanna help. I wanna do somethin' meaningful. I wanna... I wanna make her proud and I wanna be a part of this community she loved so damn much."

"You hated it here," Ichirou said, smiling a small smile.

"When I was in high school and I didn't get it," she said blatantly. "I hated this place cause I grew up here and I thought it was takin' my ma away from me. Figures it'd be me that really took myself away from her," she shook her head, wiping a stray tear before Ichirou saw it.

"It'll bring you closer to her," he said gently.

"I think so," she nodded.

"There's no need to rush into this thing headlong though Sawyer..."

"Ichi, I'm ready for this."

"Sawyer... we buried her yesterday..." Ichirou said gently.

"I need to move on Ichirou!" she snapped at him, immediately sorry that she did. Ichirou recoiled at the sharpness in her voice, wincing just a little. "I'm sorry Ichi, I didn't mean it," she wiped at her wet eyes. "I just..." she sniffled. "I need to heal and maybe I can help the whole community heal along with me," she wiped her eyes again.

He nodded, softening again to his old frien.d

"And besides," she said with a smirk. "You damn well know you could interview everyone else on that list and you won't find someone nearly as qualified as me."

Ichirou grinned. "I know this."

"You wouldn't have made it through first year herbology without me," she teased.

Ichirou laughed and shook his head. "I know." He looked around the office once more, as if he would receive some final reassurance. "Well then Sawyer Gray," he said looking up at her. "Welcome back to Blue Ridge."