One Heartbeat

[When are you guys coming back?]

He waited patiently until he received a reply.

[Planned on coming up for your game.]
[WHAT HAPPENED? ARE YOU OKAY?]
[Yes. Well, no. Maybe? I don’t know.]
[That covers all acceptable responses]
[Smartass]
[I live but to serve]
[WHICH ONE?]
[Pardon?]
[WHICH ONE? YES, NO, MAYBE?]
[Borderline NO. I found some things of Tetsu’s]
[WHAT THINGS?]
[A box of letters, and two journals]

Kei waited for a reply via text, but instead his phone rang.

“I take it you finally found them,” Akaashi said in a sleepy, but concerned voice.

“You knew about them?”

“Yeah. Listen, could you add Koutaro to the call?”

“Sure, hang on.” Kei quickly put Akaashi on hold and called Bokuto. When he answered, he took Akaashi off hold and continued the conversation. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Well, for starters, it was supposed to be a surprise,” Bokuto explained. “On one of his trips down here, he stayed with us. We found him one night, writing one of his letters and then writing in the journal.”

“A surprise?” he asked quietly. Almost guessing where this was going to go.

“Sounds like you figured it out,” Akaashi said.

“It was going to be a gift, wasn’t it?”

“Yeah,” Akaashi answered. “He wrote a letter each day he was away from you. He told us they weren’t really much, just little stories of what happened, his experiences, and who he saw. He wanted to give everything to you for a wedding gift.”

Kei let out a sob, but managed to keep it together.

“Did he tell you about the journals?”

“The older one he started just after he met you when you were kids,” Bokuto replied quietly. “The second one he started after you met the second time.”

No one said anything for a few minutes.

“We’ll be on the first train up in the morning, okay?”

“Yeah. Please?”

“Right. Keiji, you get the tickets and time we’ll arrive. Kei, you meet us at the station. Can you do that?”

“Sure.” Kei paused for a minute, and then, “since when do you give the orders like that? I thought that was Keiji’s job.”

“Rude, much?”

“Is it, though?”

“He has a point.”

“KEIJI!!”

“Anyway, while you were bickering, I purchased our tickets. Train leaves at 0530, and we arrive at Sendai station at 0830-0900.”

“Got it. I’ll be there.”

“See you then.”

“Yeah. Thank you.”

“You’re welcome,” they both said in unison. Kei chuckled with them and hung up the phone.

Looking at the time, it was nearly 4am. He should try to get a little sleep, but he knew it’d be impossible now. Taking the box of letters in his hands, he stood up and put it on the desk beside the laptop. He picked up the beat up journal, and then retrieved the other one from the floor. Stepping over the suitcase, he sat down on his futon and put them in his lap. Just to be on the safe side, he set his alarm for 7am, put it on the charger, and then put his wallet by the phone. He already had a train pass, so all he had to do was get to Sendai station on time.

Now that everything was taken care of, all he had to do was wait. And because he had the two journals in his hands, he at least had something to read. If he could only bring himself to open them. Yet, all he could do was stare at the covers. A little black cat. Well, obviously, that was Tetsu. Knowing he’d gone to Nekoma, and cats were associated with their school, a black cat representing Tetsu was not surprising. Although, he didn’t quite know why he’d picked it out for his first journal. The crescent moon was also obvious; it was meant to be Kei. The little trail of stars was their connection.

Ready or not, he opened the first journal. In it, he found an old picture of the two of them. Both were smiling and holding up a volleyball together. They were so young! Putting it aside, he started reading the childish scrawl, and smiled. The first entry was the day they’d met, and every entry after was always something about what the two of them had done that particular day. Each entry was more exciting than the one before; that was so typical of Tetsu when he was younger. It was no wonder that Kei had fallen in love with the dark-haired little boy who practically ran over him so long ago.

Soon, the entries came to a stop, and the rest of the journal was blank. The last entry was a few years after he’d moved to Tokyo. It mentioned his friendship with Kenma, his parents’ divorce, but not much else.

Putting that journal down, he slowly opened the next one. The first few entries went from excited to almost depressed:

‘Oh my god, I found you, Kei! I didn’t know you were at Karasuno! I found you, again!’

‘You hate me. It hurts, but I don’t blame you. I’m so, so sorry.’

A lot of what he’d written very nearly matched up with what Kei remembered, hammering home the fact that they were always meant to be together.

There were a few empty pages, labeled with dates, as if he’d meant to write something. Tetsu never went back to fill in those pages. Instead, he started back up after, but what he’d started writing had a different tone. One of loving remembrance. It was a lot like reading Tetsu’s memories. Kei’s vision blurred as he read the first line:

Do you remember the day we met, Kei? I do. Like it was yesterday.



~*~*~ Fin ~*~*~