She closes her eyes and sees his laugh. She opens her eyes and sees only a world without him. Why then, would she ever choose to be awake?
Honey Lemon's eyes open to soft sunlight and the sound of moving cars outside her window. Blinking, she wills herself not to fall back to sleep. She groans and rolls to her side. It's 7:30. Slowly, she sits up and swings her legs out of bed. Her feet touch the cold floor. Taking a deep breath, she stands and gets dressed. Knowing she had to be at the café soon, she hurried into the kitchen to make coffee but pauses when she sees the photograph resting on the counter.
"Why do you wear that hat all the time?" Honey Lemon asked.
Tadashi adjusted his baseball cap."I don't know, why do you wear those pink glasses all the time?" he replied with a smirk.
They walked away from the school in the late afternoon, done working in their labs for the day. It was hot, and Honey Lemon was admittedly a bit jealous of his minimal shade.
"I wear them because I need to see! They're a necessity! But I've almost never seen you without that hat," she noted, trying to think of a time when he wasn't wearing it.
Tadashi looked at her for a moment and laughed, but didn't give her an answer. Instead, he stopped suddenly and took off his hat. Honey Lemon was momentarily baffled when he put it on her head.
"There, looks good," he said.
Brushing off her puzzlement, Honey Lemon smiled and took off her glasses.
"Here," she said as she gently put her glasses on his face.
Not wanting to miss the opportunity, she quickly pulled out her phone and snapped a picture of the two of them. They smiled into the camera, a happy moment frozen in time.
Honey Lemon smiled softly at the picture, but it quickly turned into a frown.
'He's not here anymore,' she thought.
She glanced at the photo next to the one of her and Tadashi.
"Everybody say, Hiro!" Honey Lemon exclaimed, wanting to capture the moment.
"Hiro!" everyone said.
Hiro was up next, and everyone wished him luck. He was clearly nervous, but she knew he would be fine. She looked at Tadashi and saw how proud he was of Hiro.
She wished so much that she could go back to that moment, where everyone was happy. Honey Lemon knew that Tadashi's death took a toll on all of them, and they haven't had many times like that since the accident. She wanted nothing more than to bring those smiles back. So she always gave one of her own, even though she was dying on the inside. She wanted him back, so badly.
Honey Lemon sighed and went back to making her coffee. Later, when she was about to leave, she looked at the pictures one more time. Tadashi and the others smiled at her.
"For them," she says to herself. "I'll stay awake for them."
She leaves her tiny apartment with a smile on her face. The picture frames shake with the closing of the door.