Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“Ah!”

“Touko-san? What happened?”

“No, no, it's fine.” She sat back, pinching her finger to stop the bleeding. She and Takashi had barely started gardening. She'd set Shiro Kuro-kun in his cage on the porch for a little fresh air, and Nyankuchi-kun was playing in the dirt around the wisteria tree. She'd been checking on the cucumbers when she noticed the wooden trellis looked a little crooked. “I must have snagged my finger on a splinter.”

He leaned over. “It’s bleeding!”

“It doesn’t hurt,” she assured him. “I think I’m just a bit absent-minded today. This morning –”

Kaa, kaa!

They looked over. Shiro Kuro-kun had been quite calm, but now he was hopping awkwardly in his cage, one brilliant eye fixed on them both. Takashi was close or she wouldn’t have noticed, but he tensed ever so slightly.

“Maybe we should go inside,” he said.

“It’s really a small cut. I’d really like to finish trimming before it starts to rain,” she said, nodding at the sky. It had been overcast all morning, and the clouds were just starting to turn that silvery gray that suggested rain. “Let me go get some disinfectant and a band aid. Then we can finish the potatoes; I haven’t gotten to them since our guest arrived.”

Takashi nodded reluctantly. She patted his arm headed inside, careful to close the door slowly behind her so it wouldn’t bang and startle Shiro Kuro. Really, she should’ve gotten gardening gloves a long time ago, she just so enjoyed the softness of the leaves in her hands. Then again, if Takashi was going to garden with her, she wanted to get a pair to protect him, and she’d be setting a poor example if she didn’t get a pair for herself.

“And some sandpaper,” she murmured, as she reached the bathroom. “I thought I’d sanded that trellis smooth, but I wouldn’t want Takashi – oh dear.” The bottle of disinfectant was empty. Well, that was alright. After Takashi scraped his hand last week, she’d gotten two extra bottles just in case. She opened the cabinet under the sink and reached for them. They were oddly light when she picked them up.

No, not just oddly light. They were empty! Had Takashi gotten hurt and simply not mentioned it? No, the seal was unbroken on each of them. But she would’ve noticed they were empty at the store, surely. She checked the cabinet shelf where they’d been stored, but there was no liquid underneath, so they couldn’t have leaked.

“I’ll have to add that to the list,” she told herself. In the meantime, some soap and water would disinfect it just the same. She washed her hands and wrapped the fresh cut in a band aid. Then she went back to the garden.

As soon as she stepped over the threshold, a sudden wave of dizziness caught her up and spun the world like a child’s top. She stumbled, caught one foot against the other and nearly fell before a strong grip caught her arm.

“Touko!”

“I’m a bit dizzy,” she said, gasping slightly. Static swarmed at the edges of her vision. She felt Takashi carefully lowering her to the porch.

“You nearly fell! Are you alright? Did you get hurt?”

Kaa! Shiro Kuro added, as if he was concerned as well.

She blinked away the static and smiled. “I’m alright. I think I’ve just been out in the sun too much the past few days.”

“Maybe you should go in and rest. I can finish the potatoes for you if you like.”

“Ah…but I was so looking forward to gardening with you.”

For a moment, Takashi looked startled. Then his face softened. His eyes suddenly looked so young that her heart ached. “At least rest on the porch,” he said gently. “Please? I’ll bring you some juice. You can tell me what you’d like me to do, and we can talk while you stay in the shade.”

She smiled warmly. “You’re such a kind person, Takashi. Yes, I’d like that very much. I suppose I’ll need to buy a hat now – for you as well – my, how the list keeps growing! Hats, gloves, disinfectant…”

“Disinfectant?”

“We’re all out, although I’m not sure how it happened. The extra bottles still had the seals on them, but somehow it must have evaporated.”

Takashi looked anxious at this, but only offered to go to the store after he’d finished gardening. Then he brought her a glass of orange juice and set about carefully trimming the blossoms from the potato plants.

For all the fuss over a little dizzy spell, the rest of the afternoon was absolutely wonderful. The clouds kept it nice and cool for Takashi as she worked, and the two of them had a lovely time talking about their favorite vegetable dishes and laughing as Nyankuchi-kun played tag with passing dragon flies. Even Shiro Kuro seemed content, his feathers fluffed, eyes half-closed as if gently dozing.

It seemed like no time at all before the potato plants were pruned, although when she checked they’d been happily chatting for over an hour. Takashi had hovered around her as she stood up, slowly so as to avoid a head rush, then helped her bring Shiro Kuro inside.

“You’re still going to the store?” she asked, surprised, when she saw him going back to the door for his shoes.

“For the disinfectant,” he said, glancing at her hands. “Just – just in case.”

“Well, make sure you take an umbrella. And a raincoat. And come back if it starts to rain!”

“I will!”

Takashi settled her at the kitchen table and Shiro Kuro next to the window, then insisted on making her some tea before he headed to the store. She waited until she heard the front door close, then let herself rub at her temples – she was getting something of a headache, but she hadn’t wanted him to worry. Besides, tea always made her feel a bit better. She took a few slow sips.

Kaa.

She smiled at Shiro. “I miss him, too. But he’ll be back soon. And we have each other for company, ne?”

The bird shuffled and fluffed its feathers.

She leaned forward on the table and rested her head on her arms. Her headache wasn't too bad, but it was quite tiring. She hadn't had one like this since she was applying to universities. Staying up too late, studying for exams... How odd that she looked back on that with a certain nostalgia. Of course, that was around the time she'd met –

“Tadaima!” Shigeru called.

She sat up. “Okaerinasai!”

He walked into the room and paused, surprised. “Touko? Are you alright?”

“Sorry, I have a bit of a headache. I – oh!” She’d been about to say that Takashi had made her tea, but she seemed to have finished the cup without noticing.

“Hmm.” Her husband set down his briefcase and brushed his fingertips through her hair. She smiled and closed her eyes. “You look a little flushed. Were you gardening? It hasn't been too hot, but you've been outside quite a bit these last few days.”

“I thought so too, but...” She opened her eyes and glanced at Shiro Kuro-kun.

“Here, let me make you some tea.” He stepped to the pantry and opened it. “Is Takashi home yet?”

“He was, he left to get me some disinfectant after I scratched myself.”

“I thought – didn’t we buy two more bottles after Takashi hurt his hand?”

“We did, and the seals were still on them. I suppose the bottles must have leaked, although the shelf underneath was perfectly dry.”

“Hmmm…”

Touko glanced up. She knew that tone of “hmmm.” Sure enough, he was frowning as he measured out the tea leaves. “And…now you have a headache?”

“What are you thinking, love?”

He set the kettle on the stove and turned on the heat. “Yesterday, before bed, I came downstairs for some of the melon we cut up the other day, and maybe for some leftover sukiyaki. The melon had dried, so I thought the lid just hadn’t been sealed properly, but the sukiyaki looked the same way. More than that – it had dried so much that it became brittle and dark, like flakes of charcoal.”

“That’s…certainly unusual. Shigeru?”

He finished steeping the tea and brought it to her, sitting down thoughtfully. “I’m thinking about a time a few months ago, when you had headaches and became dizzy just as things around the house began to break. Do you remember what happened to the room upstairs?”

“I do. But I’m not sure – the headaches stopped after that, didn’t they?”

He nodded slowly. “This feels somehow similar, although this time the only thing in common is your headache. But…”

Her fingers tightened on the cup. “Are we cursed? Should we go see a priest? I can’t imagine a neighbor would do anything of the sort, but we’ve had so much good fortune in our lives, I wouldn’t want anything to hurt Takashi –”

He took one of her hands gently in his. “We could,” he said quietly. “But, Touko, what if Takashi did what a priest would have done?”

“A – you mean, when the room was damaged, he’d been purifying the house?”

“I’m not sure.”

Touko turned this idea over very, very carefully. It was certainly possible that people had inherent spiritual power outside of a priest’s training. One of her dear friends from college had worked at a shrine, and always seemed to possess a certain peace about her. She’d certainly been a popular guest during exams, when her very presence seemed to invite peace and focus. But to think that Takashi had something similar…

“If this is true,” she said slowly, “he must have tried something he thought would protect our home. But if he thought that, it would mean that he expected it to work. As if he’d tried it before. If he encountered curses before. Or…”

Their eyes met and their jaws dropped in shock.

“Touko – when he was younger!”

“They said he told lies –”

“Strange shadows – breaking things –”

“He wasn’t lying –”

“He was telling the truth this whole time –”

“Shigeru!” she cried suddenly. “Remember that crow I told you about, the one who warned us if it rained? Takashi mentioned seeing another crow next to it, a pure white one!”

“He did?”

“Yes, but I couldn't see it! And for another white crow to visit us now, when I’ve never heard of anyone seeing one near us, for a white crow to appear twice - Shigeru, I wonder if this is the bird he saw, and it was really a spirit, too!”

Their gazes snapped to the cage. Touko didn’t remember when they’d both stood up. The crow – or, or spirit – was looking at them and holding very, very still. A few long seconds passed. Given the commotion she’d just made, Touko was certain that it would have alarmed an ordinary bird, but it may very well have been carved of stone.

She swallowed and moved to open the cage. Shigeru brushed her sleeve.

“Wait, we should be careful. It might still be a wild bird. We could ask Takashi-kun –”

“No, we can’t!” Her husband looked startled, and she lowered her voice. “Think of the way his previous homes treated him. The outburst they mentioned – how they said he scared them, how they blamed everything on him. Takashi was so lonely and mistreated. If he found out what we guessed just now, he’d be so frightened. He might think we would treat him the same way.”

“Of course we wouldn’t!”

“I know,” she said earnestly, “but hadn’t you noticed? When he first came here, he almost expected us to act the same way. He’d come home injured and silently wait to be reprimanded… And his eyes used to look so far away. Like he’d closed himself off from everything, and wherever he’d hidden himself, he was silently crying. Even after the room was destroyed, having lived with us for more than a year, he kept flinching like he’d expected us to beat him. Shigeru, it broke my heart.”

Kaa, Shiro Kuro said softly.

She took her husband’s hands in hers. “The other night, when we were playing together, it felt so wonderful to see his eyes so full of warmth and light. He wasn’t hidden away anymore. He was there in the room with us. Maybe one day he'll tell us, when he trusts us enough. Until then, I want to see that gentle, warm light.”

Shigeru closed his eyes. “I do, too.”

“Then…”

Shigeru stepped into her and folded his arms around her. She hugged him back, pressing her face into the curve of his neck.

“I want to keep him safe,” Shigeru whispered into her hair. “If we don’t talk to him about it, how can we know if there’s something dangerous we can’t even see? What could we even do?”

“I don’t think we could do anything.”

“But it’s our Takashi.”

She nodded.

They held each other for a long, long moment. She wanted there to be a better answer than pretending they didn’t know. But with so much sorrow carved into his heart, she was afraid they’d end up breaking it by mistake. And wasn’t that the hardest part? That to protect Takashi’s feeling of safety, they had to let him face curses and spirits alone?

Kaa.

She and Shigeru let go of each other, both of them wiping their eyes. The bird was shifting from foot to foot, still watching them, its tail feathers flicking uncertainly.

“We’re alright,” she assured him. “We’re just sad we can’t help our son.”

“Takashi – Takashi mentioned being friends with the priest’s son,” Shigeru said hoarsely. “I’d like to encourage that friendship. Perhaps we could invite the priest to visit now and then.”

She laughed. “You wily thing! Alright, but – but we’ll keep this to ourselves, until he feels ready to share it with us.”

“He might never feel that way.”

“Then I’ll settle for him feeling happy and loved.” She turned to the bird and bowed. She heard her husband bowing next to her. “Shiro Kuro-sama, I apologize for the accommodations. You are welcome to stay as long as you need for your wing. I promise to do the best I can to make you comfortable. And, if you would be so kind, please watch over Takashi-kun.”