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“Ryunosuke, love, are you in there? You can’t hide from us forever, you know.”
Ryunosuke’s heart simultaneously thrilled at the sound of the endearment and shattered at the reminder of what was to come. Groaning, he drew his bedcovers over his head like a child, silently hoping Kazuma would leave him alone. Unfortunately, he knew full well that Kazuma wasn’t one to leave anything alone, ever. If he ignored him long enough, Kazuma would just break down the door with one well-timed kick. “Must it be today?”
“You agreed...partner.” Kazuma’s voice was sweet and syrupy and not at all like himself. “You promised that if there were a weekend in which we were all free, you’d finally let us clean your office, starting with your desk. According to Susato-san, you have years of loose documents just sitting around for everyone to see, not to mention the fact that it’s all right next to the stove - ”
“Alright, alright, I’m getting up,” Ryunosuke huffed, reluctantly climbing out of bed and smoothing out the front of his shirt. “Just, please don’t ever use that tone of voice again. I’m twenty-five, not five.” He opened his bedroom door, only to find himself face-to-face with Kazuma’s smug grin. “This is completely unfair, you know that?”
“Yes, yes, your faithful judicial assistant and your loving partner are going to clean your office for you, how cruel,” Kazuma drawled, pinching Ryunosuke’s backside. Before Ryunosuke could complain, Kazuma pulled him close, arms wrapped loosely around his waist. “Personally, I think you’re sounding rather spoiled these days.”
“And whose fault is that? You’re the one who insists on taking me on fancy romantic outings...with the generous salary Lord van Zieks somehow agreed to give you, no less,” Ryunosuke retorted, pinching Kazuma’s hip in return. Laughing, Kazuma briefly lowered his head to press a soft kiss to Ryunosuke’s cheek before pulling back and leading him out into the office, where Susato was waiting, unimpressed. “Susato-san, why did you have to bring Kazuma into this?”
“Oh, it was Kazuma-sama’s idea in the first place,” Susato replied as she diligently poured them both tea. “He said the state of your desk made him weep, and of course, you know I had to agree.”
“Traitor,” Ryunosuke muttered, elbowing Kazuma a little harder than necessary. “So am I to just sit and watch, then?”
“Unless you’re volunteering to help, yes,” Susato said, shooting him a meaningful look. “But leave the filing and sorting to me, and we’ll have a well-organized system in no time!”
“I’ll move the furniture for you, Susato-san, and pack away the things Ryunosuke no longer needs,” Kazuma said, removing his jacket and tossing it aside; he then undid a few shirt buttons and rolled up his sleeves for good measure.
“Isn’t that for me to determine?” Ryunosuke pointed out, taking a seat on the floor so he could enjoy the view nonetheless.
Kazuma laughed again, ruffling Ryunosuke’s hair affectionately. “If it were up to you, none of this would be happening at all. But I’ll make sure not to throw out anything valuable, alright?”
“How magnanimous of you,” Ryunosuke said, swatting Kazuma’s hand away. “But I’m serious, Kazuma, be careful. I’ve collected a lot of curios during my time here.”
“Bric-a-brac, you mean,” Susato said firmly, narrowing her eyes in his direction. “I’ve been patient with you, Naruhodo-san, but now that they’re spilling over to my desk, we really must get rid of some before this office becomes its own bric-a-brac shop!”
“Well...we could always use another source of income?” Ryunosuke offered weakly. He was met with the identical glares of the two people he cherished most. Groaning, he held his hands up in defeat. “Fine, fine. Go on, then, dispose of everything that I love - ”
“Does that mean I should leave?” Kazuma teased, crouching down so he could kiss him on the forehead. “Really, I don’t think I’ve ever heard you whine this much, Ryu, even when we’re - ”
“Kazuma-sama!” Susato interrupted loudly. “Please, let’s focus on the task at hand. If we’re lucky, we should have most of Naruhodo-san’s things sorted out by dinnertime.” Chuckling, Kazuma gave Ryunosuke one last pat on the leg before straightening up and joining Susato on the other side of the room. Ryunosuke settled in with his back against the wall, taking a generous sip of his tea with a resigned sigh.
The first hour or so, in Ryunosuke’s opinion, was mind-numbingly slow, with Kazuma and Susato shuffling around in silent synchronicity while they worked. He wondered if they’d done this before, back in Japan; he couldn’t help but smile at the thought of a young, eager, determined Susato enlisting the help of her much-admired older brother to clean Professor Mikotoba’s office for him. It also reminded Ryunosuke of how much he’d wished he’d met them earlier, of how much he thought about what all of their lives would’ve been like, had he and Kazuma become friends when they were younger.
“Ryunosuke?” He looked up, slightly dazed from his reminiscing, to see Kazuma knelt in front of him, holding a small wooden chest. “I take it we can get rid of everything that’s in here?”
“What? No!” Ryunosuke practically lunged forward to snatch it out of Kazuma’s hands, startling him. “Did you even look inside?”
Kazuma frowned, confused. “Of course I did. I saw some old trinkets, books that you’ve never read…”
“Books that I’ve been keeping photographs in,” Ryunosuke corrected, opening the chest so he could take one out. Kazuma was half-right; he’d never so much as glanced at the words inside the history volume he’d just picked up, but inside its pages were dozens and dozens of photographic prints, all perfectly preserved. “Look, here’s the one Mr Holmes took for us on the day Susato-san and I returned. You can almost see our tears of joy.”
“Let me see that.” Kazuma carefully took it from Ryunosuke’s outstretched hand, letting out a soft chuckle at the sight. He went to sit beside him, head dropping to rest on Ryunosuke’s shoulder as he admired the photograph. “Ah, yes. I remember having...mixed feelings that day. Mixed feelings that I’ve since told you all about.”
Ryunosuke hummed, squeezing Kazuma’s knee in sympathy before unearthing another photograph. “And here, a month later, when Professor Mikotoba and Haori-san arrived. There’s no mistaking Haori-san’s tears, that’s for sure.”
“Please don’t make fun of her, Naruhodo-san,” Susato called from the other side of the attic, where she was currently clearing out the remaining shelves. “You know how excitable Haori gets about, er...everything.”
“So excitable that she nearly smothered you with kisses in front of everyone,” Kazuma said wryly. “Imagine how much trouble we’d be in if I’d done that with Ryunosuke.”
“I don’t see why I should imagine it when we both know it never would've happened - you hadn’t yet confessed, after all,” Susato replied with an unusually smug smile. Kazuma scowled in response. “Now, can you please get us a bucket of water and some rags, Kazuma-sama? We might as well wipe down all the shelves while they're empty.” He got to his feet, grumbling, and momentarily disappeared down the stairs. “I didn’t realize you’d kept this many photographs, Naruhodo-san. Perhaps we should find a nice way to display them in your office?”
“I never really thought about doing anything like that,” Ryunosuke admitted. “But now that you say it, I’d like that. The only problem is, I wouldn’t know where to begin.”
“We could make a timeline if we spread them out and sorted them,” Susato suggested. “And we’ll string up some ribbon or something and use clothespins to hang them up; how does that sound?”
“It’s a wonderful idea,” Ryunosuke replied, grinning. “Let’s clear out some space on the floor so we can get started.”
“Yes, let’s - wait.” Susato paused, then frowned, bracing her hands on her hips. “Naruhodo-san, you’re not suggesting we do this just to keep Kazuma-sama and I from cleaning the rest of your office, are you?”
“I’m not that sneaky, Susato-san,” Ryunosuke protested, turning at the sound of Kazuma’s footsteps coming back up the stairs. “Right, Kazuma?”
“You're about as subtle as a punch to the face,” Kazuma drawled, setting down the full bucket of water he’d been carrying with a grunt. “Now, Ryu, can you help us with the shelves, at the very least? Or are you really going to have us do everything?”
“Yes, yes, alright,” Ryunosuke said, getting to his feet. “I’m not completely opposed to helping, you know.”
“No, but you are opposed to keeping things reasonably neat and tidy,” Kazuma retorted, crouching down and tossing a rag in Ryunosuke’s direction, laughing when it struck him in the forehead. “Looks like you should be starting with your face, hm?”
“I’m not sure why you’re laughing when you're the one who has to kiss this face,” Ryunosuke replied, nudging Kazuma’s hip with his foot before reluctantly starting to wipe down the shelving unit behind his desk. He was subsequently rewarded with an exaggerated kiss on the small of his back in return. Susato made a point of clearing her throat to remind Kazuma she was still there.
After Rynosuke spent much of the next hour metaphorically and literally dragging his feet, he’d finally finished cleaning the shelves in the time that Susato had finished sorting out his paperwork and Kazuma had finished organizing all the knick-knacks and whatnot around the office. He then sprawled out across the newly-washed floor, spent.
“I’ll get us a pitcher of cold water,” Susato volunteered, disappearing down the stairs. Kazuma, meanwhile, laid down beside Ryunosuke, taking a moment to wipe the sweat from his brow. He then turned on his side to chuckle fondly at Ryunosuke’s exhausted expression.
“I distinctly remember saying something the other day about you needing to work on your stamina,” Kazuma teased, affectionately ruffling Ryunosuke’s hair.
“And I distinctly remember saying something about you needing to shut up,” Ryunosuke shot back, poking Kazuma in the cheek. Still, Kazuma shuffled even closer, eventually rolling on top of him entirely, his knees braced on either side of Ryunosuke’s hips. “Kazuma, Susato-san will be back any minute now…”
“I just wanted to get a better look at your face, that’s all,” Kazuma said innocently, lowering himself down until they were nose-to-nose. Rolling his eyes, Ryunosuke cupped the back of Kazuma’s head and pulled him in for a kiss regardless, trying not to laugh when he felt Kazuma smirking against his lips. He wrapped his arms around Kazuma’s shoulders, humming happily as Kazuma deepened the kiss. They promptly broke apart at the sound of Susato coming back up the stairs.
“Honestly, I’ve been gone for all of two minutes,” Susato said with a long-suffering sigh, moving to set down the water pitcher and glasses on her desk. “I should seriously consider doing something similar with Haori the next time she joins us for dinner, just to see how the two of you like it.”
“I suspect she’d like that, if anything,” Kazuma replied, climbing off of Ryunosuke and stretching luxuriously. “Should we take a look at those photographs now?”
Ryunosuke spent the next few minutes carefully pulling all the photographic prints he had out of their respective books, spreading them out across the floor. There had been no rhyme or reason to how he’d organized them, as Kazuma and Susato had suspected, with them haphazardly distributed between volumes at random. At best, there seemed to be an even split between how many had been taken in Japan and how many had been taken in Great Britain.
“You look so handsome in this one,” Kazuma said admiringly, picking up one photograph in particular. “I think you should wear blue more often.”
“Oh, I remember that day!” Susato exclaimed, peeking over Kazuma’s shoulder. “That was after my second turn as Ryutaro; Father insisted on taking us all out for a celebratory dinner. It was raining terribly, and Haori ended up catching a cold just two days later.”
“I remember it well, too,” Ryunosuke nodded. “She insisted she’d be fine and slept in the back of our office while we worked so you could keep an eye on her. Then you got sick not long after, to no one’s surprise.” He then slid it across the floor, placing it somewhere in the middle of the space he’d cleared. “Let’s start here and work our way around this photo, then.”
“I think it should be fairly straightforward,” Kazuma commented. “After all, most of the London photos are from after your return from Japan. From what I can tell, there are only a few from before.”
“Like the one that we had framed,” Susato said with a fond smile, gesturing at the group photo sitting diligently on Ryunosuke’s desk. “Yes, we didn’t really spend too much time taking photos until we went back home. Naruhodo-san said he wanted to preserve as many memories as possible for our eventual return to London, so we could share it with you, Mr Holmes, and Iris.”
Kazuma’s responding smile was unusually shy. “I can’t tell you how glad I am that you did.” It wasn’t long before the three of them started weaving their way in between one another as they crossed the room over and over again, arranging and rearranging the dozens of photographs Ryunosuke had accumulated over the past couple of years, pausing to reminisce about nearly each and every one.
“I wish you’d been there for Yozakura last year,” Ryunosuke said wistfully, passing Kazuma a photograph of Susato and Haori among the sakura trees, illuminated by the most beautiful paper lanterns he’d ever seen. “Professor Mikotoba had been teaching me how to make daifuku and I think I’d finally perfected it by then, so I made some for all of us to share that night. Even Haori-san was impressed!” As he turned away to look for another photo, Kazuma shot a quizzical glance in Susato’s direction. She silently shook her head in return, biting her lip in an attempt not to laugh.
“I’m sure she was, Ryu,” Kazuma said, patting Ryunosuke’s leg. “And what about this one, what’s going on here?”
“It turned out quite blurry, didn’t it? How unfortunate,” Susato said, frowning slightly. “Father and I were attending one of his colleague’s cousin’s weddings...or something to that effect. Anyway, Haori and Naruhodo-san decided to sneak in and steal me away since I’d told them earlier I would be terribly bored, not to mention sweaty from the summer humidity and my heavy furisode. Of course, I didn’t want to ruin my father’s good standing with his colleagues, but eventually, I just couldn’t take it. So I left with them, and we went swimming in a nearby lake.”
“That’s incredible - and incredibly unlike you,” Kazuma remarked, laughing. “But I still can’t tell what I'm looking at - I see nothing but blue skies, blue waters, and a little something-or-other in the middle.”
“That’s, er...that’s Haori-san carrying me on her back,” Ryunosuke mumbled, embarrassed. Susato burst into giggles, no longer able to hold them in. “I’d hurt my ankle somehow, so she had to bring me back to shore. Honestly, I didn’t think she’d be able to do it since I’d put on some muscle.”
“You certainly have,” Kazuma said, humming appreciatively. “But Haori-san is deceptively strong; I still remember she once came by the house while Professor Mikotoba and I were moving some furniture around and offered to help. She hauled an entire desk across the house on her own without blinking an eye!”
“...she and Susato-san have practiced throwing me over their shoulders more than once. Believe me, I don’t know what I was thinking when I thought she wouldn’t be able to help,” Ryunosuke said dryly. Susato patted his shoulder in sympathy, though her eyes were still shining with mirth.
More and more stories soon followed as they pieced together the approximate timeline - Ryunosuke having pollen allergies during his graduation ceremony and Susato burning her own birthday cake in the spring, Haori’s birthday trip to Arima Onsen and Professor Mikotoba teaching them how to make dango during Tsukimi in the fall; all the shrines and parks they’d visited during the summer, all the eateries and theatres they’d visited during the winter. Ryunosuke couldn’t help but sneak glances in Kazuma’s direction every now and then, his heart aching at the sight of his melancholic smile.
“We’ll be able to return together someday, I promise. Then we can do it all over again,” Ryunosuke murmured, reaching over to squeeze Kazuma’s hand. He then paused. “Well, most of it. I don’t plan on going back to school for a third time.”
“I didn't think you would,” Kazuma chuckled, kissing Ryunosuke briefly. “In the meantime, I’d like to look at the photos that I’m in - I never really realized how long my hair had gotten until now. Look, compare when you returned to Japan to when you returned from Japan. How on earth did I ever see anything with all that hair in my eyes?”
“Do you think you’ll grow it out even longer someday, Kazuma-sama?” Susato asked curiously. “Naruhodo-san has made it quite clear that he prefers your long hair, after all.”
Kazuma’s eyebrows shot up. “Has he, now?”
“Susato-san,” Ryunosuke hissed, his face flushed. “Honestly, between the two of you, it’s a wonder I have enough dignity left to lose in court.”
“Well, then I simply have to grow it out, if that’s how you like it,” Kazuma grinned, knocking his shoulder against Ryunosuke’s. “Oh, look, that’s when we went to go see that silent film with Gina, Iris, and Mr Holmes just last month. That really was something else, wasn’t it? And cinema is only going to get better from there.”
“I think I still prefer rakugo myself,” Ryunosuke replied, taking the photo from Kazuma so he could place it near the end of their line-up. He then reached for another so he could slot it neatly between a photo of Iris taking Wagahai for a literal walk in the park and a photo of Sherlock teaching Susato how to disassemble a grandfather clock. “And who can forget that terribly awkward dinner with Lord van Zieks, the world’s unfriendliest uncle? And yes, of course, I know he tried his best, but honestly? It’s like he suddenly lost his ability to make a toast, one of the few things he does on a daily basis!”
“He looks rather out of place, wearing Iris’s frilly apron, doesn’t he?” Susato giggled. “And even though Iris has grown by at least half a foot in the last year, he still towers over her!”
“He towers over us all, Susato-san,” Kazuma said dryly. “Every time I get in a carriage with him, he’s wont to nearly bumping his head against the doorframe, every time. Er, don’t tell him I told you that, or he might actually kill me.”
Chuckling, Ryunosuke reached for the very last photograph, the one taken just last week. “And, of course, here’s all of us having afternoon tea at Kew Gardens. This was from before you gave Haori-san that beautiful necklace, right?”
“Yes, you can only just make out the box inside my sleeve,” Susato pointed out, blushing at the memory. “I spent the entire morning shaking like a leaf, worrying that it would be too much. After all, we’d only ever bought each other little things like sweets and books. Father had to grab me and shake me himself, promising me that Haori would love it.”
“And I was right, of course.” The three of them startled at the sound of a new voice, turning to see Professor Mikotoba stood halfway up the stairs, smiling warmly in their direction. “Pardon the interruption, but Iris asked me to call you down for dinner. If you’re not yet ready, I’ll ask her to keep your food warm.”
“Dinner?!” Ryunosuke exclaimed, whirling back around to look outside the window, where the sun had set long ago. “I had no idea we’d been here for that long!”
“That’s alright, Father, we’ll be right down,” Susato said, getting to her feet so she could dust off the front of her kimono. He nodded, chuckling, then disappeared back downstairs. “I’ll go on ahead to help Iris set the table; do you two mind tidying up in here?”
“Not a problem,” Kazuma replied. “We’ll be down in a moment.” Susato grinned, satisfied, then briefly reached over to squeeze both of their hands before following her father down to Sherlock’s suite. Kazuma turned on his heel to look at Ryunosuke, his eyes sparkling. “See? That wasn’t so bad, was it?”
“Only because we got terribly distracted,” Ryunosuke said, taking Kazuma’s hand so he could pull him in close. “There’s still stuff everywhere that we need to put back; I’m hoping you're not thinking of dealing with all of this tonight.”
“No, no, I think we made good progress today - and we have a new decoration project on our hands as well,” Kazuma added, cupping Ryunosuke’s jaw with his free hand and kissing him sweetly. “Now all we have to do is finish cleaning everything up another day...and then make even more memories, hm?”
“Definitely,” Ryunosuke agreed, smiling into the kiss. They stood there for a moment, simply holding each other and musing over the unexpected way their day had ended up playing out. “...Kazuma?”
Kazuma continued to hum against Ryunosuke’s lips, pleased. “What is it, Ryu?”
“Seeing all those photos...it reminds me of how glad I am to be back with you,” Ryunosuke said quietly, brushing Kazuma’s hair out of his eyes. “All those memories I made in Japan, they mean the world to me. My only wish is that you’d been there to experience them, too.”
“Then, as you said, we’ll have to go back someday, won’t we?” Kazuma murmured, kissing Ryunosuke on the temples before pulling away. “But, for now, we have plenty of time to share even more stories over dinner.”
Ryunosuke grinned, content. “I like the sound of that.”