a/n: yeah. no. written to satisfy my tadahoney feels. may be subject to revision.


what comes after (grief)

Tadashi x Honey Lemon

« by arsenous elation »

One morning in September, Honey Lemon wakes from what feels like a very, very long sleep.

Automatically, she reaches for her glasses and puts them on. That's when she realizes that something has changed.

For one, she can breathe again – not like she hasn't breathed before, but it is like a weight has been taken off her lungs. The ache in her bones has been replaced with calmness, the kind that one usually finds in the slowness of Sunday mornings. For the first time in months, her eyes are wide open (again).

She looks around her room now, taking everything in, rediscovering the place that has been the suitcase of her grief. Everything bathes in sunlight. Honey Lemon surveys the discord of her things: the pile of discarded clothes on the floor, the empty walls, the photographs hastily shoved in between the books on her shelf, her unmade bed. Each object in this room has been a witness to her mourning, memory settling on them like fine dust.

But today, it has started to lift itself off each corner, each shadow. Even the silence is almost weightless now.

Honey Lemon turns to the open door and, unsurprised (like she has been waiting for this – for him – all along), she finds Tadashi Hamada's memory there.

He leans against the doorframe, wearing the yellow cardigan she gave him for his last birthday. His face is as bright and handsome as she remembers.

"Hey." His voice is soft, familiar.

"Hey," she finds herself saying, "Is it time?"

Tadashi nods, his half-smile almost apologetic. He walks over to her, sits on the edge of the bed. Honey finds smiling is easier again. She gives him the best one she can manage, even as her heart constricts from the closeness. Even as her eyes water, a lump finding its way to her throat. Her hand reaches out to him, just to confirm the ghost of remembrance.

Tadashi's own hand meets hers halfway. He holds her gently, his warmth something she has dearly missed. Honey Lemon looks at Tadashi carefully now, does her best to memorize all of him, imprinting each feature on her memory, knowing that this is it.

"Will you be okay?" he asks.

Honey Lemon closes her eyes. Takes a deep breath. "Yeah. I'll be okay."