Chapter Text
"Well, I'm surprised to see you here, Suo-kun."
Suo turned around when he heard the soft, amused remark coming from the open doorway behind him. "Ito-san," he greeted with a barely there incline of his head, taking a step toward the elderly man with his hand shifting to reach out for him.
Ito-san smiled once their eyes met but shook his head at the offer, shuffling into the room with slow, careful steps as if he feared pressing too hard on the floorboards would destroy the room's tranquility. The floor was a mess of books stacked high enough that they bracketed Suo's waist but Ito-san meandered through them with ease. Soon enough, he joined Suo in facing the ceiling to floor-length bookcase spanning from wall to wall with a kaleidoscopical array of decorative texts. Some were bound in the traditional way, strung together by thick cords knotting yellowing pages in place, while others were bound within their cases by glue and vinyl. Suo delighted in spotting even books bound in Western print.
"It's an impressive collection, Ito-san," Suo complimented as he breathed in the heady musk permeating the air. It suffused deep within his mind, dredging up the susurrus of paper as they were flipped over and over at a dizzying rate. When he closed his eye, the one in his mind opened to lay upon the profile of an older man sitting next to him. Grass tickled his cheek as he turned his head to one side to better look at him, but despite his best efforts, he couldn't see his face under the memory's blinding glare. Yet, the sweet hint of vanilla clinging to long weathered fingers as they moved from the pages to nestle in Suo's hair, gently stroking his hair away from his sweaty skin paired with the loamy soil cradling his weary limbs were unforgettable.
"Once, I told Yui-san books could take you anywhere you wanted to go," Ito-san's voice roused Suo from his musings and as he opened his eye to glance beside him, gone were the rolling green fields and gentle touch of his teacher. Instead, the wizened face of an elderly neighborhood man greeted him with a wistful smile and dampened eyes as if he too awakened from a wistful daydream. Suo returned the gesture with a commiserating turn of the lips, nodding to ask him to continue. Talks about Yui-san were frequent, as Suo expected they ought to be considering the circumstances, but the times Ito-san shed tears out of a widower's sorrow were few and between.
It was progress, Suo deduced as he watched Ito-san lay his fingers on the spine of a string-bound book a few centimeters above their heads. "Back then, all I needed was a book and her to have a good time," Ito-san chuckled, rubbing the back of his head with his free hand. "Although, I sometimes re-read the same sentence several times because I got distracted just watching her sew…"
His shoulders went slack as the longing slipped past his lips in a deep, audible sigh. It was as though their burdens fell away with the story's telling and despite the melancholy threatening to tinge the moment in pales, the subtle smile deepened the lines surrounding Ito-san's mouth if only for a moment. He dragged his nail along the strokes spelling out "The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter", muttering absentmindedly, "She was always so beautiful when she worked."
Suo glanced away, taking in the rest of the room with a nagging curiosity. "Ito-san, by any chance, were the clothes Yui-san sewed meant for an outing?" He asked, wandering from the bookshelf to inspect a writing desk tucked beneath the sill of the room's only window. "An outing that, perhaps, you were trying to avoid by reading?"
There was no immediate reply, but the silence didn't bother Suo in the slightest as he peered out the window to where the street could be seen. It was an ideal spot to sit and watch as people went by, and the sunlight coming through the window left the desk's wooden surface feeling comfortably warm. Suo toed around the cushion tucked beneath the desk and crouched down, brushing a fingertip over the table's trimming. When he pulled it away, no dust clung to his fingertip and he rubbed it against his thumb while looking at the dimly-lit corners. While the rest of the area was in a state of disarray, the desk was neatly put together with a cracked inkstone and several calligraphy brushes laid beside a nondescript notebook at its center. The only piece out of place was a wooden frame lying face down at the desk's edge where light wouldn't reach.
Suo glanced up when the floorboards creaked, announcing Ito-san's approach. Ito-san smiled bashfully, scratching his cheek as he tucked his other arm behind his back. " Haa , you're truly sharp as a tack, Suo-kun," he said with a hoarse laugh, drawing the arm from behind his back to reach out and pluck the wooden frame up. He adjusted the stand for it and set it down neatly in the desk's dusky corner. "You saw right through me, just like her."
Suo's eyebrows raised at the sight of Yui-san's dazzling smile, glistening luridly behind the frame with a bold red lipstick similar to Tsubaki-senpai's. Her eyebrow arched, magnifying the wrinkles in her forehead but the coyness in her dark eyes was vivacious and elegant. It was if he was being issued a challenge simply by daring to meet her gaze.
A strong and elegant woman indeed.
"When you boys came here with Tsubaki-chan, I was surprised," Ito-san said, taking Suo's offer of an outstretched hand as he moved to kneel down on the cushion. When their clasped hands parted, he patted Suo square on the shoulder before settling his hands on his lap with a fond smile creasing his brow as he looked upon the immortalized confidence on his wife's face. "I'd known Yui-san all our lives but in a mere minute, you were able to tell me her greatest secret without having spoken to her for a second.." He chuckled, and despite the jealousy Suo would understand him holding, there was no bitterness in it at all. From behind his bespectacled gaze, admiration shone in Ito-san's eyes as he laid his hand on Suo's shoulder and squeezed lightly. "It's been some time since I'd met someone with her wit and grace. I'm sure if you two were to have met she would love to drink a cup of tea with you and discuss all kinds of things."
Suo sighed softly, wondering how he could have missed someone he'd never met. What presence might she have had when she was living? "I regret never having met her, Ito-san," he answered, patting the hand on his shoulder until they'd slipped away from each other again. "However, through knowing you, I believe I can understand why she adored you so deeply."
Ito-san tipped his head, eyes wide with confusion.
Suo looked down and tapped a finger against the notebook's cover, "This was written for Yui-san, wasn't it?"
When he glanced up, the shock plain on Ito'-san's face asked a volley of questions but Suo wasn't sure if it were wise to put many of them into words. The last thing he wanted was to make their dear neighbor cry. Concern must have shown on his face because Ito-san softened, then his eyes slipped shut as he shook his head.
"Out-witted again," he said with a playful admonishment edging his voice. Another tether loosened from his shoulders as he raised his head, glancing around the room with longing eyes. "It's one of several , I'm afraid. Although I've looked for the others and it seems I haven't been able to find them in this mess."
Suo patted his shoulder to catch his attention. Once he had it, he said, "Don't worry. That's why Nire-kun and I are here after all.." He pushed himself up to his feet and held out his hand, asking, "Now, why don't you leave me to it? All of this dust won't be good for your sinuses."
Ito-san's lips pressed into a tight, quivering line before curling up at the corners like the ends of a well-loved page turner. "Yes, yes," he said as he slipped his hand into Suo's and allowed him to help him to his feet. "I suppose you're right again."
Just as they'd both settled into looking at one another with gentle, understanding smiles, a voice shouted from deep in the house: "Ito-san ! The tea is ready!"
"Oh dear, I'd almost forgotten," Ito-san gasped, guided by Suo's hand until he was near to the doorway and hurrying out in a fluster. "I'm coming, Nirei-kun!"
Suo watched him go with a little shake of the head and a chuckle. But then his eye fell onto Yui-san and silence settled into the space around him, filling it with yearning for a time long past. He thought of the word — hiraeth — and found it aptly descriptive of this moment, smiling bitterly as he bowed his head to her and got to work. Before long, the floor was cleared of the lopsided, towering stacks and the shelves were fit to bursting with the numerous texts ladening the shelves. Yet, instead of appearing disorganized and distastefully bulky, the shelves seemed to tell a story themselves and as Suo stepped back to admire his handiwork, he wondered if he was bearing witness to an intimate piece of history.
"Suo-san, are you here?!"
Before Suo could say anything, a blond head popped up around the doorway. He turned in time to see big brown eyes grow impossibly wide. Those eyes sparkled brighter than the motes of dust set alight by slanting beams of middling afternoon sunlight coming through the window's drawn curtains. A smattering of freckles speckled across the sloping bridge of a button nose danced alongside their cheeky counterparts, elevated and rounded high, by a glowing boyish grin.
"Nire-kun," Suo greeted, a smile sliding onto his lips as Nirei hurried past the threshold tittering happily.
He clutched his hands at his chest, turning this and that way. "Ito-san said he had a private library, but he didn't say it was this impressive!" When Nirei rounded on Suo, pressing up on his toes and turning his face up to Suo’s nose, Suo nearly stumbled backward to avoid a head on collision. Indignation burned in Nirei's eyes, his brows knitted while his bottom lip jutted in a pout. "Why didn't you call for me earlier, Suo-san?" He asked, a slight whine underlining his voice as he waved a hand at the wall shelves. "I would have helped you organize all of this."
The corners of Suo's mouth twitched as he bellied a smile, shaking his head minutely. "I sincerely doubt that," he said. "You'd like to spend all of your time taking things off the shelves rather than putting them back."
Nirei gaped at him, drawing back with a rising hint of pink to his cheeks deepening the color of his sandy freckles. Suo chuckled as he went back to organizing the stacks of notebooks on the writing desk, half-listening to Nirei's grumbles about fairness and being given a chance to prove himself. After a short while, Suo heard straining grunts and looked over his shoulder to find Nirei reaching for a book sticking further out than its neighbors. He brushed the invisible dust off his pants before walking over, reaching over the curls atop Nirei's head to nudge the book back into place.
"Ah," he heard Nirei gasp, and glanced down to find brown eyes looking up from beneath long lashes. They scrunched up as Nirei smiled, reminding Suo of the crinkle in a page before it turned to reveal its secrets. "Thanks, Suo-san."
Suo blew out a sigh, smiling despite himself. "What did I tell you?"
Nirei's laughter rang out, mixed with pleas of innocence, and the air felt warm.