Chapter Text
Senkuu focuses on the sound of the dry leaves crunching under their feet as he and Lillian walk through the forest.
They usually talk on their walks, or sometimes she hums a tune she heard on the radio; he’s also learnt that if he pesters Lillian enough, she’ll sing to him one of her own songs. But when autumn comes and the leaves fall, they keep a comfortable silence only broken by the crunch-crunch-crunch under their feet.
He jumps on a particularly big clump of leaves and nearly misses the way Lillian smiles at him. She begins to step on them with purpose, no doubt trying to find The One.
She told him once, that there’s always a leaf that’s better, dryer, crunchier than the others, and it’s of great importance they find The One each time they take a walk.
It hasn’t rained in a couple of days, so they find a few good ones.
They take some extra time to arrive at their destination, but he doesn’t mind. He always has fun with her.
A big oak tree, the one he’s claimed as his own, a little hidden inside the woods. It’s where he’s almost certain his body was buried after-
After.
It’s the place the people who wanted him asleep always read the boring book at, the place Lillian said she was told The Witch lies in, but he’s never bothered to check. Not when his corpse would have still been there, and certainly not now.
In the past, he stayed near the big oak tree because he didn’t have anywhere else to go. He stayed here because he didn’t want to see anyone else. When he met Lillian, though, she offered him to live with her.
(“It’s a small place, but I live alone and there’s enough room. I’d hate for you to have to stay here in the cold, alone.”)
But now he stays because he remembers. Byakuya used to bring him here often, before things got bad, and spend some time teaching him about whatever crossed his mind, in the ridiculous way the old man liked to pass his knowledge: the tales. Senkuu loved the dumb tales, even if he never got to tell him that— which was probably for the best, he already had an overly inflated ego.
Sometimes, when they stayed until nightfall, they would stargaze while Byakuya talked about space and insisted on picking their stars. Stars that, once chosen, would be theirs and theirs only. It was stupid, stars didn’t belong to anyone. Nevertheless, his dad always made him do it, Senkuu always told him he was dumb, and then proceeded to choose the ones that were the nearest to the moon, while the old man chose a different one each night, picking them at random.
But he still remembers some of his stars.
He still remembers.
(“Thanks. I’m fine here, I think I like it.”)
Either way, Lillian refused to just let him sleep in the open. So one day when she went to visit, she arrived with nails and hammers and some other things. Her original idea was to build it on his tree, but he ended up deciding it would feel… weird. They built it on a big one nearby, with large sturdy branches. Perfect for a tree house, she said.
Senkuu didn’t see the point back then, he’s dead. He doesn’t get cold, the rain can’t get him sick, and it’s not like the wildlife could hurt him.
But he changed his mind, fast. The fort protected him from the elements, and that meant he could have belongings. Books, lamps, a clock, blankets, pillows, whatever Lillian brought him, he could keep. Besides, it was fun! Building steady structures requires science, too.
They both sit below his tree. It’s later than usual, darker.
“Why were you late today?” he asks, straight to the point. When he was alive, people used to tell him all the time that he was too blunt, that he always came off as rude, but he sees no other way of speaking. Why would he not talk about what he wants to? Why dance around subjects?
Senkuu doesn’t mean to be rude. Hell, he generally doesn’t mean to be polite or nice, either. He doesn’t mean to be anything, he just is.
Fortunately, Lillian understands. She always does.
“I did keep you waiting for a while, didn’t I?”
He nods.
“I had a doctor appointment and it took longer than expected.”
“A doctor appointment? Are you sick?” He scoots away from her, just a tad, and makes a face as if she could pass him whatever bug she has caught.
She chuckles, “No, it was just my annual medical visit. Nothing bad.”
“Good.”
They fall quiet again. This time it’s not nice like before.
Senkuu thinks of adults, hiding the bad parts. Protecting the children. Lillian’s always been honest with him, but then again Byakuya… he hid as much as he could from him, right until-
“You’d tell me if there was something wrong.” He means to say it like a question, but it comes out more as a statement. She looks at him.
It’s enough of an answer. Lillian has this thing, she can say so much with just her eyes. Senkuu never used to understand it, when he was alive, how people could communicate so easily without muttering one word to each other. It frustrated him to no end. The old man tried to help him get better at it, teaching him what each expression meant with his own gestures, but the only thing he accomplished was making Senkuu understand when he, and only he, spoke with his face.
Apparently, Lillian is fluent in Senkuu-ese since he always gets what she means.
She reassures him with a little ‘I wouldn’t lie to you’ anyway. She’s nice like that.
“I am sorry for not telling you beforehand, though.” She smiles sheepishly, “It completely slipped my mind!”
“It’s fine, I made a friend.”
“Oh, that’s right!” She ruffles his hair, or tries to, at least. He dodges her playfully, he doesn’t mind the occasional physical contact from her, but they’ve made it into a game that, if they get too caught up in it, will eventually turn into tag. She doesn’t try to touch his hair again.
“Tell me how you met- Yuzuriha was it? I can’t believe she can see you! Maybe other people can too and we just don’t know them.”
“Yeah, Yuzuriha. I was waiting outside the school, like always, but you didn’t come out so I snuck into the library-” she chuckles and rolls her eyes good-naturedly, but she’s not surprised “-for a book and stuck around longer than usual. Then she appeared and kept staring at me. I figured I had to talk to her if she could see me.”
They talk for a while.
Lillian promises him she’ll take him to the planetarium as an apology for being late. Senkuu doesn’t bother telling her he didn’t mind as much as he once would have (he has a feeling she knows) and excitedly agrees, already planning on borrowing some astronomy books from the library in anticipation.
Borrowing, he tells her, because even if the librarian doesn’t exactly know he’s taking them, he always brings them back.
Before he knows it, Lillian leaves to get some sleep. He climbs the ladder to his tree house, and decides to sleep, too. Even if Senkuu doesn’t exactly feel the need to rest anymore, he finds it nice. Ever since he met Lillian, he finds a lot more things enjoyable.
He’s happy. He is, but sometimes he can’t shake the feeling that it’s not fair he has this much fun with her, without his dad. That by having a good time with her, he’s moving further and further away from him. He doesn’t want to leave him behind.
So when he sleeps, he goes through his memories with him, hoping to dream about a hundred tales and stars.
Senkuu doesn’t dream anymore. But thinking about the old man, it makes him feel a little better.