Where Airy Voices Lead - Day 7
@iwaoiweek2017
MAY 1st: Immortality/College
MAY 2nd: Unrequited/Firsts
MAY 3rd: Charm/Song-Inspired
MAY 4th: Holidays/Paranoia
MAY 5th: Freeday/Miscommunication
MAY 6th: Fairy Tale/Anomaly
MAY 7th: Goodbyes/Hellos
The hardest part about their situation isnât really the having to move, or doing the same things over and over again. Itâs not the having a secret, having many secrets, always being on guard and ready for anything. The hardest part is knowing that everyone they meet is going to leave them behind. Theyâd had to leave their families first, even with them knowing the truth it was too difficult to keep that kind of secret. Theyâd had to leave, and listen to messages left by their parents, and their siblings, and eventually their nieces and nephews, as people move on with their lives, grow and die.
Eventually thereâs no one left to make the calls, it being too hard to explain who they are, too confusing and risky to continue keeping in touch with their bloodlines. Tooru had known when he made the deal to sell his soul that the cost of staying with Iwaizumi was watching the world change around them, moving on and growing around them, watching all the people heâd ever know leave one by one. Heâs always thought it was worth it, always will, but sometimes it gets hard.
It had been terrible when his parents had passed, when theyâd had to sneak into the memorial services, Â trying desperately not to be recognized as the long lost mysteriously disappeared eldest son. Everybody except for themselves were grown, even little Takeru an adult with a tiny brand new child of his own. Tooru had wanted so badly to be able to say hello, to coo over the new baby and tell Takeru how well heâd grown, how much he looked like Tooruâs mother when she were younger, if sheâd been a boy. Itâs mostly thanks to Iwaizumi that he manages to hold himself back.
Unfortunately itâs not long after that Tooru does the same in return for Iwaizumi, keeping him hidden as far away as possible at his own parentsâ service. Iwaizumi cries, much like Tooru had done, silent and shaking under a dark hood. Tooru wants nothing more than to let Iwaizumi go comfort his baby sister, but itâs too risky with so many people around, so instead Iwaizumi hides his face in Tooruâs shoulder. Later that day they get a phone call, a message left about how Iwaizumiâs parents had left their house to their missing eldest son, where he would always be welcome should he ever return.
After a while itâs not as hard to see the house, to live there for whatever period of time they can manage, and it gets easier each time they return to say hello as they enter, though they know the only thing waiting is silence and the pictures of dearly departed family members. Even through the sadness of losing people is the happiness at meeting and knowing people, of being allowed to join othersâ lives even if itâs only for a short time.
And after all, Tooru always has Iwaizumi, always had and always will, and thereâs nothing better in the entire world than the hello he gets every morning he wakes up to the love of his never ending life. Theyâll be there for each other until the end of time, and Tooru wouldnât have it any other way.
