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The sky looked like someone had stuck bunches of grey wool across the wide expanse when Kazuki stepped out of Rakuen.
The ex-pilot stared at the sky contemplatively for a while, then checked to make sure he had an umbrella with him, just in case the weather turned bad.
Honestly, though, it wasn’t as if they had experienced any bad weather on Tatsumiyajima—at most it was just a heavy downpour or snowfall whenever appropriate for the season. Still, there was no harm in bringing one along. And if the weather turned out to be really bad—well, he could always stay over at Soushi’s place until the weather abated slightly?
“Kazuki-kun, come on! We’ll be late for the party if we don’t hurry!”
Maya’s voice broke him out of his thoughts. He looked up, spotting his two co-workers standing slightly ahead of him in the streets.
The brunet looked slightly annoyed that Maya had turned her attention away from him, but he waited patiently for her to finish speaking to Kazuki. He might respect Kazuki as a chef and senpai, but when it came to his love interest, he wasn’t going to back down.
Not that Kazuki had any interest of that sort in Maya.
He was pretty sure that Akira was aware of that, just that the other boy probably didn’t know how to react to that. After all, it had only been, what, three months since he and Soushi had decided to make their relationship official?
And it had been partly due to Maya’s encouragement that had aided them to make that decision.
As for the orange-haired woman, she was staring at him with slight concern. She hadn’t forgotten about the fact that he had suffered from a series of severe relapses from the assimilation phenomenon a few months back. Even though it had been some time since he’s suffered a relapse, she would worry incessantly about his health.
In a way, it was like she had taken upon the role of his mother, Kazuki thought in amusement.
“Ah, sure!” He called back as he pocketed the key to Rakuen and started down the path to where Maya and Akira were waiting for him.
“Did you bring the present that we prepared for Soushi?” she asked as he approached them.
Kazuki nodded, gesturing to Akira with one hand. “Akira-kun took it before we left.”
“Oh.” Maya blinked. Then, she smiled at their kouhai. “Thanks, Akira-kun.”
The younger boy coloured a little under her warm gaze, scowling when he caught sight of the other male’s amused smile.
“Ah, where’s Mizoguchi-san?” he asked loudly, attempting to redirect the attention away from him.
It was a good attempt, but it didn’t go unnoticed by any of his senpais, because the older man had mentioned that he was going to go over to Alvis earlier to help out with the decorations and had asked Kazuki to manage Rakuen for the afternoon. Furthermore, he had announced that a week ago and had even reminded them yesterday, so it was quite obvious that their junior was embarrassed by the limelight.
“He’ll be meeting us there.” Maya decided to humour him. “Do you think Minashiro-kun would like the present that we chose for him?” She turned to Kazuki for his opinion.
There was a few beats of silence before the black-haired male realised that she was waiting for his input.
“Eh? Um, I think it’s a good present. Soushi will definitely like it, I think?” He regretted it the instant the half-hearted response slipped out of his mouth.
Chocolate-brown eyes glared at him reprovingly, then relented. “Maybe.”
“Don’t worry, Toomi-senpai! I’m sure Soushi-senpai will like our gift! After all, I remember that he said he liked this colour!”
Maya cast a dubious look at the intricate amber-coloured bag that he was holding. Kazuki could certainly second the unspoken thought in her mind: did Soushi really like that pattern? He’d never heard the brunet mention it to him in their past conversations, but perhaps it was precisely because they were speaking to different people that they would mention different things to others.
“He did!” Akira seemed to have caught onto the sceptic air surrounding his seniors. “He talked about it the other day with Hiroto, I swear!”
“Uh-huh…”
“Senpai!”
Kazuki laughed softly at the protest from the younger boy. He tilted his head back, smiling up at the grey bleak sky.
Sure, the weather wasn’t looking good at all, but he thought that this was the best he’d felt for a long time. He was going to celebrate his boyfriend’s birthday. His health was getting better—even Toomi-sensei had been relieved to tell him that his condition was remaining at a status quo and was showing some signs of improving.
What could possibly go wrong?
“Kazuki, come and help me in the back! Ojou-san, I’m going to borrow him for the evening!”
“Eh?”
Kazuki was hardly given a chance to say anything to the other two before he was dragged off by the older man to the other room.
“Mizoguchi-san…? What happened?”
Hadn’t they prepared most of the food the day before? Kazuki wondered. Why did he need him in the preparation room so urgently?
“Sorry, I know you just came from Rakuen, but can you help out with the drinks? Reo accidentally added too much sugar, so we have to start from scratch.” The older man told him apologetically.
“Oh.” Kazuki took in the sight of the preparation room. Most of the other staff helping out were busy dealing with the main courses, which was probably why Mizoguchi-san had come to find him for help.
“It’d be a great help if you and Reo could work on it.” Mizoguchi ran a hand through his hair.
“Hey, Reo!”
He called to the curly-haired boy who was frantically working to clean up several pieces of cutlery. There was another huge bowl of amber liquid beside him, which Kazuki assumed was the drink he had been working on initially.
“Kazuki-senpai!” Reo exclaimed, looking extremely relieved at the sight of his senpai.
“Is this what you were working on?” the older boy asked as he picked up a spoon and tried a bit of the drink. Then he made a face. “It’s too sweet…”
“Yeah, I accidentally dropped half a jar of sugar in.” Reo mumbled, looking down at the floor. “I’ll have to remake the whole thing.”
“What were you making?” Kazuki picked up a glass of water and drank half of it. “We don’t have the time to make a new drink. We probably can work on salvaging what you have now.”
“Oh… You’re right.” Reo acknowledged with a glance at the clock. “I was thinking of making lemon tea.”
“Alright.” Kazuki nodded to himself, thinking through the ingredients and recipe for lemon tea. “Here’s what we’re going to do…”
Reo listened carefully, taking down notes on a note pad. He clarified a few questions with Kazuki before he started on his own tasks—namely to prepare more tea so that they could dilute the overly-sweet drink.
Kazuki turned to the boxes of spare ingredients stacked in the corner of the space, pulling out a box of lemons that they needed.
Then, it happened.
For a few short seconds, there was a tingling in his fingertips that intensified gradually. He flexed his fingers, thinking that it was just a momentary thing. That perhaps it was because he had hit his arm against something just now and the nerve was just a little irritated.
But it didn’t get better.
It got even worse—so much so that Kazuki had to quickly set down the box as his whole right hand had gone numb.
A slight frown appeared on his face as he tried to move his hand, but to no avail. He was wondering if he could make a quick visit to Toomi-sensei’s office when he saw it.
The image of small green crystalline structures emerging from his fingertips was one that he had never expected to see.
Kazuki froze.
Why? Why was this happening now?
His mind finally managed to process the situation. He swiftly withdrew his hand away from the box.
Then, almost as if he had imagined it, the crystals shattered and dissipated into dust particles.
“Kazuki-senpai? Are you alright?”
Reo’s voice snapped him out of his daze. He shook his head, lowering his hands and forcing a smile at his underclassman.
“Yeah. Let’s continue.”
He hoped that Reo would not pick out the tremor in his voice as he spoke. That no one would notice his shaking hands as he leaned down to take the box of lemons again.
As he started chopping slices of lemons for the drink preparation, he wondered, how was he going to tell Soushi about this?
“Kazuki?”
The soft hiss of the door opening alerted him to the newcomer before the person even spoke.
“Soushi.”
He looked up at the star of the evening, raising his glass of lemon tea to the brunet. “Happy birthday,” he told the other, then downed the remaining liquid in the glass.
“Thank you.”
Soushi walked over to take a seat beside him on the step before he took a small sip from his own cup. Kazuki’s gaze drifted to the tablet that the other was holding in his hand. Typical of Soushi, he chuckled quietly to himself. He could never quite leave his work at home.
“What are you doing out here?” Soushi finally asked, setting aside his tablet and glass in favour of studying Kazuki.
What is bothering you?
Kazuki’s hand tightened briefly, knuckles turning white under the illumination from behind them. Nothing could escape him, could it? He thought to himself bitterly. Soushi always seemed to know when he was bothered by something.
If Soushi had asked this a few days ago, he would have been sure to share his troubles with him. But this—only this matter—Kazuki didn’t want him to know of it.
He didn’t want Soushi to worry.
He didn’t want Soushi to feel a single ounce of the despair that was coursing through his heart.
Kazuki gently placed his glass beside him, turning to return Soushi’s gaze evenly. “It was getting a little rowdy in there,” he replied, his heart pounding hard from the fear that Soushi would see through his lie.
The brunet raised an eyebrow, but he didn’t push the issue. “Maya’s looking for you,” he chose to say, “she wanted to take a group photo.”
Kazuki didn’t reply. Instead, he leaned back on his elbows and gazed up at the night starry sky. Soushi watched him, contemplating, then followed suit.
The silence stretched.
Kazuki had to admit that part of the reason he had come out here was because he didn’t think he could keep up this façade among his cheerful friends. He had thought that he had come to terms with the news of his impending end long ago.
The stars in the sky seemed to blur and blend with the dark blue of the night sky. He blinked, willing the tears back.
He couldn’t cry here.
Not now.
He thought back to the last Tanabata festival, where he had wished that he could continue living. His condition had seemed to take a turn for the better with less exacerbations of his condition. But it seemed that all good things had to end.
A flash across the sky caught his eyes.
“It’s a shooting star!” Kazuki pointed to the place where he had seen the streak of light.
He recalled how Shouko had told him to make a wish when he saw a shooting star. It was a custom from a culture of a place long laid waste to by the Festums.
He doubted that it could help him in his current state.
“Technically, it’s not a star,” Soushi started to say, but Kazuki interrupted him. “They say that if you make a wish on a shooting star, it’ll come true.” He looked at the other man, smiling in amusement at Soushi. “What did you wish for?”
Soushi gave him a considering— and almost exasperated—look, then he turned back to face the sky.
“Peace for our island,” he stated calmly. It was the same thing he had told Kazuki a few years ago. He seemed to hesitate, then added, “And hope for the future.”
Hope for a cure.
Kazuki knew what he meant.
He reached out to grasp Soushi’s hand. It was warm.
Soushi startled at the sensation of his fingers, looking almost startled by the coldness of his hands. Then he quickly entangled his fingers with Kazuki’s fingers. Then, he reached over to pull Kazuki’s other hand into his own, sharing the warmth from his hands.
Kazuki smiled gently, scooting closer to his boyfriend. He leaned into the warmth of his body, murmuring, “Me too. I want you to live a long life, Soushi. Without any of the war affecting your life. I want you to have a long, peaceful life.”
Soushi glanced at his face, then returned his attention to warming his hands. “If you’re with me, I can do that.”
His admission was a whisper of breath between the two of them.
Kazuki laughed, pulling a hand away to cup Soushi’s cheek fondly, then pressed his lips against Soushi’s lips.
“Come on.” He tugged at Soushi’s hands as he rose to his feet. “Let’s go back in and take that photo with Maya.”
As he turned toward the door to the function room, Kazuki swore that he would do anything to protect that smile on Soushi’s face.
Even if it meant hiding the truth from him.