White Peach Summer Ch. 01

This is a completed, 25-chapter story about a teenage boy from the city who spends a summer at his aunt's rural home, along with his two cousins.

It contains non-consensual sex.

All characters are 18 or older.

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Afternoon sunlight filtered through the treetops, casting a warm glow across Takeru's eyelids. Between the hum of the old truck and the rustle of leaves through the window, he had slept for most of the trip. Gradually, he stirred, blinking into the blinding light of the ocean as it came into view, just beyond the treeline ahead.

Yoshio was rattling on the same as he had been before, indifferent to whether or not his passenger was awake. "It was my father's eldest... Well... No, not my father, my uncle's father..."

The man cleared his throat and pushed on. "He was the one who gave my brother the dory. I'd never rowed a boat like that before, of course. None of us had. We were too poor in those days. My eldest brother, it was, after he met his wife, it... Hmm..."

Takeru's eyes fluttered, his mouth fell open. Weariness from the ten-hour trip sank over him like a warm, heavy blanket. And there was so much further left to go.

The train lines didn't go all the way out to Mikanagi, where his aunt and uncle lived. The town was too remote even for the bus lines.

Takeru's uncle no longer drove, so it was the Village Head himself that had come to pick him up from the station. Yoshio, at ninety years old, was hunched over to half his height, his bony gripping the wheel with a white-knuckled grip. A decade hadn't change him any. He was just as Takeru remembered him.

"The dory was old then. New to us, of course, so we didn't complain. We never complained much then. The dory was old itself, I suppose, when uh... Enh..." Yoshio's voice trailed off, lost in thought, as the truck puttered onward. The sound of it slowly faded away. Takeru fell into a heavy sleep once more.

His parents said the trip was a lucky break for all of them. Their work was sending them out of the country for a month, maybe two, and he needed somewhere to go. His aunt and uncle were their only family left, and they lived in a town that sometimes had working phone lines, on a good day.

It was a chance for Takeru to escape all the distractions of city life, they said. To properly dedicate himself to studying for his entrance exams. No friends to bother him, no internet, no after school clubs. Just a rare opportunity to devote himself entirely to studying. Who knows how far he could go in two months? It was the best thing any of them could ever hope for.

Yet, suspiciously, they hadn't stopped apologizing for weeks about the whole thing.

"There are younger people on the team now. People without families! People without seniority," his father grumbled. "But they're making everyone go this time. They want a show of force," he sighed. "Not that the client cares."

His mother reached for his arm, "At least we have family here to watch him. Others in the office will have it worse..."

The truck came to a halt, and Takeru jolted awake as it gave off a rusty screech. In front of him, he saw the familiar sight. There, perched halfway up the highest hill in Mikanagi, overlooking all the rest of the town, was his grandfather's old house. It looked smaller now, and a bit more worn than he remembered, but otherwise the same.

Takeru climbed from the truck and stretched. In the doorway of the home, his aunt Yumiko appeared, a towel in her hands, a placid smile on her face.

The Village Head clambered down from the truck and waved a hand in the air. "Here he is, young lady. Safe and sound! Enh... Go tell her hello," he said, pushing the boy forward.

A blush rose in Takeru's cheeks, but he stepped forward and bowed low all the same. "Hello, Aunt Yumiko."

His family in Mikanagi had always been very traditional in their manners. His grandfather had made sure of it.

Yumiko returned the bow.

He had heard that, when his aunt and mother were younger, they were practically identical. He could never see it, and he still didn't now. Yumiko's hair was kept long, and tied in a thick braid down her back. His mother's was always more short and practical. His aunt had a fuller figure, too. And while his mother has eyes that always shone, eager to dive into the next big project, his aunt's seemed simply tired.

"I'll get my bags," Takeru murmured, breaking away.

He reached into the trunk, pulling out a suitcase and a very large book bag, stuffed to the brim. His parents had said he wouldn't need much else. They had been arranging things for weeks: New appliances. A new mattress. Their uncle couldn't do the work himself, but after a great deal of goading and with some extra money exchanging hands, it had gotten done.

"There won't be AC. Your uncle sold the one I shipped over," his father said, gritting his teeth, his throat already flushing red. "'It's not healthy,' he said. Can you believe that? They're living in another century down there."

His mother was in tears as she called his aunt. "It's summer! He can't study if it's too hot inside!"

They nearly sent him to a hotel instead. He spent a week convincing them he could, in fact, survive a brief bit of coastal summer weather. He wasn't some fragile city kid. He didn't need his cousins thinking he was any more spoiled than they did.

"I'll take your things," Yoshio barked out, barreling into Takeru and snatching the bags from his hands. The old man hobbled off toward the house, back held straight.

His aunt gazed over Takeru, showing no sign of what she might be thinking.

"I... hope I'm not inconveniencing anyone. Are you sure it's alright for me to stay?"

She nodded carefully, her eyes drifting aside. "It will not be any trouble. Your cousins are eager for company."

Takeru opened his mouth to respond, but she bowed and stepped toward the house before he could, leaving him alone.

With nothing else to do, he wandered past the side of the house and gazed down the hill. Neat rows of rice paddies ran below him. Beyond that, the hills sloped into sandy beaches, and then to ocean, the sun still hovering well above the horizon.

Without thinking, Takeru kicked off his shoes and stepped onto the grass. It was cool and lush beneath his feet. He sank into it, lost in the view and the soft breeze.

So much had changed since he had woken up that morning. Life in Tokyo was an endless chase from one test or chore to the next. A world of concrete, and glass, and fluorescent lights. A constant churn of bodies pushing onward. So much stress over what was left to do, and what he was missing, what he had done wrong.

And now...?

His toes curled into the ground. A warm breeze carried the smell of the ocean over him. And a high-pitched squeal broke the silence.

Peering down the hill, he spotted two small figures in the distance. One of them darted off the road, charging directly toward him.

"Big brother!"

A whirlwind of limbs collided with him and spun around his hip.

It was his youngest cousin, Miu, giggling madly.

"Hey, kid. How've you been?" Takeru grinned, ruffling her hair. "Hey, Hana," he added, nodding to his older cousin. She was walking along the road in a more dignified gait.

"I'm not a kid!" Miu shrieked. Takeru nodded without looking at her. She was only a few months younger than him, but she never acted like it.

Hana had cut her hair short since he'd seen her last, and dyed it a bright shade of red. She had filled out quite a bit, too, though he was still taller. They had been children the last time he'd seen her, as wild and restless as Miu was now.

Hana bit down on the stub of a cigarette, her gaze lingering on him. "Cousin," she said formally, inclining her head. "You got bigger."

"So did you." Takeru's replied, his cheeks flushing as he spoke.

He glanced over her, inadvertently noticing the way her frayed shirt stretched over her chest. The skirt she wore was something Grandpa would never have approved.

"Causing trouble?" Takeru asked.

She twirled the cigarette between her lips, her eyes growing wide. "Everywhere I go."

"I grew too," Miu cut in, pulling Takeru by the hand.

He looked down and grinned. She was five feet tall and well under a hundred pounds. She didn't seem any bigger than she'd been ten years ago.

"Well, you're certainly less shy," he told her. "You were always too scared to talk to me before."

"No, I wasn't!" she shouted. "You guys just always left me behind! You didn't let me talk."

"I don't remember that," Takeru murmured, turning to Hana. She was still eyeing him over, pulling on her cigarette.

"How tall are you?" she asked.

He frowned, digging his foot into the grass. Even in the city, it was a constant, and increasingly dull, topic of conversation.

"Oh, I don't know..."

"How much do you weigh? Why are you trying to be all bulky now?" Hana's eyes narrowed as she looked at him. "Are you some kind of weight lifter?" She mimicked a few bench presses, grunting loudly with each rep.

"Just sports," he shrugged, his blush growing warmer.

Miu grabbed his bicep. "It's too big to pinch!" she gasped, her eyes growing wide.

Hana circled him, scowling, finally nodding with apparent approval. "At least you're not a shrimp anymore." She blew a stream of smoke away. "Good to have you back, cousin. I hope you're ready to be bored."

Takeru nodded back, trying to hide his smile. Miu wrapped her arms around his waist again, and spun around him, squealing.

The small town of Mikanagi disappeared below the hills as they stepped up the hill toward the house, leaving only the ocean below. A breeze ran across the valley, ruffling the grass at his feet, sending the cicadas' buzzing in their trees around him.

"It's good to be back." Takeru said, inhaling deeply. "Really good."

Hana clapped him on the shoulder and Miu squeezed around him tighter.

"Come on," Hana said. "Let's eat."