Ito

Single chapter

Kouyou inhaled deeply as he nervously walked towards his destination, sad brown eyes gazing at the cloudy, dark sky. That day was as grey as his mother's grave, buried in that cold, muddy cemetery ground since the year before. March usually was a rainy month, and that Saturday was no exception. The heavy coat he was wearing did little to shield him from the sharp wind that stirred the fallen leaves, signalling the approaching storm.

A year had already passed since his mother's death. Kouyou didn't actually like touching the memories of her final days, racked with pain in that impersonal, sterile hospital room where cancer completely drained her of hope and life. He avoided those thoughts and that was why he had spent the previous year without visiting her grave not even once. He preferred to remember her as she used to be before the illness, with a smile on her lips and a gentle warmth in her eyes, always there to comfort him when he needed her. Cemeteries were certainly not the places to keep the good memories they had shared together alive in his heart.

He let out a sigh, wistfully staring at her black and white photo, framed by vases of flowers of all kinds. Kouyou was not religious, but he'd gone along with his aunts' choice to bury his mother's body under that block of marble in that gloomy place, instead of cremating her as he actually wanted. Honestly, he always felt totally lost in cemeteries. He hated to show his grief and vulnerability to others, even though no one there could really have noticed his presence as they mourned and prayed for their own loved ones.

God, he missed her so much . More than he could ever say. And so, he didn't mind as much as he thought he would when silent, mournful tears filled his eyes, shyly running down his cold-flushed cheeks. She was his only family, and as hard as it was to admit it, he had felt completely lonely and disoriented since she was gone.

"I've never thought I would see you again." Kouyou's heart skipped a beat, eyes widening as that familiar voice reached his ears, as gentle and soft as he remembered. That deep, soothing voice he had never forgotten, that burned in his memory like a flame. That voice he had not heard in... How long, a decade ?

He turned around slowly and hesitantly, barely trusting his eyes as they landed on the image of the one who used to be his best friend, and also his first and only love. Akira's features had beautifully matured; after all, ten years had passed since they last saw each other, when they were still in their early twenties. Soft wrinkles marked his eyes, still so tender and expressive, shining that warm, lively light just as he recalled. His pretty, sculpted lips formed a slight, closed-mouth smile, and he no longer wore the band that used to hide his nose in his reckless days. He looked as handsome as he remembered, if not more .

"Akira..." It was the only word he managed to say, voice faltering and heart pounding as his eyes met the other man's.

"Kouyou." Hearing his name being said by those lips he'd tasted so many times in the past, that he'd once known like the back of his hand, made him shiver with nostalgia and unease. "I'm sorry I missed her wake last year... I only found out what happened a few days later," Akira said, still wearing a tiny smile on his lips, and hesitantly moved closer to Kouyou. Only then did Kouyou notice that, in Akira's firm, calloused hands, there was a bouquet of flowers. White lilies, his mother's favourites.

"W-why are you here?" Kouyou stuttered, not a trace of confidence in his voice. He still couldn't wrap his head around the fact that Akira was right there, standing in front of him after so many years.

"You know Naomi was like a mother to me," Akira replied, taking a few steps towards the grave and bending down to place the flowers next to her picture, dusting off his knees as he stood up.

She had indeed been like a mother to Akira as he grew older. Akira's father had left his seventeen-year-old mother when he'd found out she was pregnant. The young boy had never even gotten to know what his father's name was. She, in turn, had passed away when he was only seven, leaving him completely lost and under his grandmother's care, who happened to live next door to Kouyou's family. That was the year they met and the beginning of a friendship that would endure for years, until the day it would blossom into something more.