Yuu and Ryuunosuke were like two peas in a pod, or 'two nuts from the same acorn' as Saeko liked to call them. If one wanted to go somewhere, the other would follow. Even if that meant Yuu wandering down the street while Ryuunosuke followed without hesitation. As usual, Saeko sprinted as fast as she could to scoop the two boys away from the jaws of death. If one wanted to eat something, the other would put on a straight face and eat it. Saeko had some decent memories of her brother throwing up after eating mushrooms while Yuu ate them like the mini-champ he was. If Ryuunosuke wanted to go to play on the monkey bars, Yuu would tag along and play too. To say the least, the boys weren't allowed to play on the monkey bars anymore when Yuu fell and chipped his buck teeth.
When Yuu and Ryuunosuke were kids with big dreams, only a small world was open up to them. They were kids so it was understandable, but their world was just too small to bear. Visiting the playground was boring, and it wasn't fun to play tic-tac-toe on Yuu's notebook anymore. Staying inside all the time wasn't the best place for fun, and each boy remedied his antsy behavior in his own way.
Ryuunosuke would beg Saeko for piggy back rides whenever he could, and she had to turn him down because he was eight-years-old and getting too big to carry. Then, Yuu would hop up and tug on Saeko's shirt and ask if they could play make-believe. He even had the stuff animals ready for battle, and his face was already marked with paint to give him a warrior's image. Saeko raised her eyebrow and gave Yuu a long hard look. She shook her head. Pouting and stomping their little feet, both boys would keep bothering her until Saeko finally had to slam her work onto the fragile coffee table in the living room of the Tanaka household.
Slouching into the sofa, Saeko jabbed at the spot next to her. The boys immediately sat down, hands at their laps and silent. Well, they were always silent so they stayed as still as could be. So many words and expressions wanted to spill out of Saeko's mouth, but there were only so many things she could say before Ryuunosuke would get confused.
If Ryuunosuke was confused, he would ask Yuu. However, Yuu wasn't that much better than Saeko when it came to words. Not to mention, Ryuunosuke preferred looking at his sister and friend than looking down at crumbled sheets with hasty written notes and messages. The boy was picky, but Saeko had already dealt with the ups and downs ever since Ryuunosuke was born and couldn't hear her or their mother's voice. Biting her lip, she finally had something to work with. She tried to picture the signs she needed to do in her head before actually starting a conversation.
Saeko waved her hand to get Ryuunosuke's attention, and his eyes locked onto her. As she spoke slowly, her hands signed the message she needed to convey. "I can't play with you guys. I have work to do from school. You two can entertain yourselves without me. I can't join." Yuu nodded while Ryuunosuke raised an eyebrow. Oh jeez… Saeko wanted to slap her forehead and call it quits. Ryuunosuke was trying to read her lips again. Saeko repeated what she said and signed. Ryuunosuke's eyes kept glancing from her hands, to her lips, and back to her hands again. In the end, he still didn't understand. Ryuunosuke raised his index finger and moved it clockwise.
Saeko did the same sign. "Again?" Twiddling his thumbs, Ryuunosuke nodded. Saeko sunk deeper into the sofa and wondered if it would absorb her. Sitting up straight, she made sure Ryuunosuke's full attention was on her hands. She signed the same message for the third time, but she didn't speak so that Ryuunosuke wouldn't get distracted. Yuu watched as the two siblings stayed in eye-contact as they slowly worked out the gray area of information between them. Around the fifth time signing, Ryuunosuke finally got the message. He grinned at Saeko and raised his thumbs at her.
Wiping the trickling sweat off her neck, she pulled Ryuunosuke onto her lap and messed with his cheeks. Ryuunosuke didn't dare fight back. It was an unspoken agreement between them both. As Saeko got her daily dose of squishing her brother's cheeks, her eyes narrowed when she looked down at Yuu. Feeling her piercing gaze, the small boy moved his head slowly to meet her eyes.
Resting her chin on Ryuunosuke's head, Saeko sighed. "Yuu, you've to start signing to Ryu too. Ryu isn't going to learn how to sign unless you try." She then pointed at Yuu's notebook. "You've got to understand that writing can't be the only way to communicate." Yuu nodded because his head told him to do so, but his heart had other plans. He gripped the edge of his notebook until his knuckles turned white, and Ryuunosuke had to tug the notebook out of his hands with a frown.
You will hurt yourself.
Saeko looked at Yuu carefully. Ryuunosuke had managed to sign him a message. It was clumsy at best and funky looking, but it was the longest message he knew how to sign. Saeko and Yuu both knew that. How will you respond? The nod was always Yuu's go-to sign, but Saeko wanted to see something more. She knew that Yuu knew some signs. After all, she taught him how to sign a few years ago when he and Ryuunosuke first became friends. She knew that he still remembered a few of them because she caught him practicing the signs in the bathroom the other day when Ryuunosuke was having his afternoon snack. Yuu didn't notice her, and she could tell how hard he was working to make signing become like second-nature to him.
Yuu's hand jerked and for a moment, Saeko's lips curved into a half-smile. Instead of signing to Ryuunosuke, Yuu tugged his notebook back onto his lap and wrote Ryuunosuke an apology. At least his handwriting was improving. At the time when Yuu and Ryuunosuke were still kids, Saeko thought about throwing Yuu's notebook away when he wasn't looking. Or, she wanted to hide it while he and Ryuunosuke went to the backyard to collect bugs or whatever. She came close to fulfilling her wish a couple of times, but she never did the deed. Yuu was her brother's closest and only friend at the time, and a stupid notebook wasn't that important compared to a long-lasting friendship.
Saeko still remembered the day when a five-year-old Ryuunosuke ran up to her and started signing like crazy on their long walk home from school. Technically, he was doing charades and she had to work with context clues to figure out the story, but it was still signing. Nonetheless, it was the Tanaka way of signing. With the rough story she sketched in her head, Saeko learned that the two boys had bumped into each other during lunch rush. Ryuunosuke didn't know how to sign an apology, and he just stood there while Yuu dug through his pockets for something. Ryuunosuke thought Yuu was going to throw something at him, but the boy pulled out a piece of paper and pencil and wrote down an apology instead.
And ever since that encounter, the two stuck by each other's side like glue. Or, that's the story Ryuunosuke reenacted during the walk home all those years ago. Saeko looked out the window and watched as the two boys ran under the backyard peach tree and threw grass and leaves at each other. One would do charades to explain something while the other watched carefully. Sometimes the raised clockwise finger would pop up, and the message was explained again. Ryuunosuke always did understand Yuu better.
Yuu wasn't using signs half of the time. It was just a game of charades, and Yuu acted out what he needed to explain in an efficient way for both parties. He's going to be a great actor when he grows up, Saeko thought as she returned to her school work. She caught a glimpse of Yuu's notebook lying on the coffee table, forgotten. Her mouth twitched as she turned around and looked out the window again. It wasn't clear what Yuu doing by the peach tree, but his hand movements looked so rehearsed and fluid that Saeko couldn't stop the grin that was growing on her face. Ryuunosuke tackled Yuu to the ground and hugged him as hard as he could.
You are my friend.
Fast forward almost twenty years later, nothing had changed one bit in Saeko's opinion. Ryuunosuke and Yuu were determined to do everything together, even pursue the same profession together as partners. Maybe all those hours of charades weren't so bad because it sure helped a lot in stage production and acting. Though the two couldn't speak a word for their lines, they could still move their mouths. The two worked endlessly with the two kind folk who filled in as their voices during the practice and play. Sometimes Saeko would sit in the audience area and watch as her little bro and his friend worked with what they had and with the skills they honed.
Ryuunosuke was comfortable with seeing someone sign and talk to him at the same time. Sometimes there were mixed messages and Saeko gripped the shoulders of her seat as the speaker got flustered and didn't know where to start or whether to start all over again. Ryuunosuke would help calm them down and simply ask them to restate what they wanted to say. He was patient, an inherited trait since his sister was so patient with him as a little kid. He would slowly sign the part of the message that he understood, and the speaker would grow confident and fill in the last empty blanks. At that, Saeko loosened up and continued watching the behind-the-scenes stage play.
Yuu still wrote words. Yes, he still carried a pencil and little notepad with him for quick messages and notes when things got too hectic to sign. However, he still signed. He signed as much as Ryuunosuke, and he often didn't need to carry his notepad and pencil with him. The stubborn little boy who refused to sign was now signing so much that sometimes Saeko or Ryuunosuke would ask him to write down what he wanted to say instead because his signs were often too fast to catch. Yuu didn't mind, and he did slow down if his hands moved faster than what was being understood.
After a stage play or practice, Saeko would pick Yuu and Ryuunosuke up and take them out for dinner. It was the least she could do after all their hard work. It was moments like this where Saeko had to step back because life was moving too fast for her to comprehend. Her brother could finally read lips if he wanted to. Yuu could sign like the devil if he had to. As those two thoughts sunk into her head, Ryuunosuke and Yuu were busy doing charades to each other as they worked out a rough story for another play production that they could do. Saeko ate her food peacefully and watched them both from the corners of her eyes.
Sometimes, she would hear a word or two slip out of her brother's mouth when he had too many things to say. Sometimes, some sort of noise would creep out of Yuu's mouth when he got too excited. Those are their voices. Saeko leaned back in her seat. They really do have beautiful voices. The little boys next to her were men now, and there was still so much for them to explore and discover. The limited world from childhood had been big since the beginning, but now they could carry themselves and each other on their own.