Thousand Lives

Disclaimer: I own nothing!

When I was young, there was a boy in my kindergarten who loved books as much as I did. We always seemed to go for the same books during story time. But we would never fight because he would always smile and say, "Let's read together, Haru-chan," and just like that, we would end-up sharing the book we both wanted to read and love.

He left our seaside town just before start to elementary school and I never saw him again. I don't even remember his full name. I don't even remember if he ever told me his full name or I told him mine. All I remember is that I used to call him Makoto That, and I remember his smiles and how he used to love the same books I did…

That was years ago. Now I am a college student living by myself in Tokyo. I don't have a lot of friends but that's okay, I have a place that's always full of friends just waiting to be discovered and enjoyed: the library.

Whenever I can, I go to the library and stay until hunger, classes or closing time forces me out. I happiest when I just get to sit and read but of course, being in college I have to spend a lot of my time in the library studying and working on assignments. I do not pay much mind to my surrounding but every now and again something penetrates my natural indifference and arrests my attention. Like a really incredibly hot guy with brown hair wearing the same shirt as me, only in a different colour.

My shirt is nothing special. It's just a mass produced t-shirt that I picked-up in a local store frequented by the college students. I shouldn't have been surprised if a lot of people on campus had this same shirt, different colours or not. So why was I noticing him? Ah! Who am I kidding! It's obvious why I am noticing him. He looks gorgeous! Absolutely, drop dead gorgeous! The same shirt that's marking me out to be a peasant is making him look like a prince. Whoever said cloths made the man have never met this guy. Clothes don't make him! He makes the cloths! Ah, I am spouting rubbish. I should just read my book and leave this unknown man to his.

Woe be the day he leave my side for my life would be bereft of joy

For what joy can there be without he who holds my heart

The one who smiles only for me

I love all that he is, all that he was and all he could possibly be

I want to stay with him until the end of days

Until I shred my mortal coil…

My eyes left the page and I found myself stealing glances from the handsome stranger. It wasn't that I found the poetry uninteresting or not worth paying attention to. It was quite the opposite. I felt as the poem was talking about the stranger. I could see someone write something like that about him. Yet the whole thing was so swallow!

What did I know about him except that he was handsome and like the same shirt as me? Maybe he was a total jerk who would get violently homophobic with me if he knew I swung that way and found him attractive. But, when I look at him, I can't imagine him being anything but nice. I am not sure why I thought that. Perhaps it was because his resting face seemed so peaceful and happy. Perhaps because despite being so big, he seemed gentle.

At least he seemed to be treating the book he was reading with care, turning the pages in a manner that made me think that he was caressing the book. He loves books, maybe as much as me… that's what I thought. Ah! No good, this was no good! I have to keep reading. Maybe a different poem will help me clear my thoughts.

We were children together in that town by the sea

Children caressed by the sea breeze that was our friendship

We were happy together spending our days by the sea

Iwatobi was a sea town. Makoto and I often played by the sea. I thought I would get to play with him forever but life had other plans. I found myself sighing as I remembered my childhood friend. Thoughts of Makoto easily displaced my inexplicable infatuation with the handsome stranger with the same fashion sense as me. It also made me give-up on this book of poetry. I don't think I am in the mood for it. Maybe I'll find a nice novel. Something a little action packed or maybe a fluffy romance where the biggest cause of angst is a delightful misunderstanding.

As I searched for someone new to read, I noticed that handsome stranger get-up to leave. He put one of the books he had on the return trolley while taking the others to the check-out counter. From where I was, I saw clearly where on the trolley he put the book he was returning. I couldn't resist or rather, before I knew it I found myself at the trolley picking-up the book. It turned out to be a fantasy novel titled "Orca".

I ended-up reading "Orca". I don't know why but after reading the book, I felt I was a little bit closer to the handsome stranger. Why did I even want to be close to him? I am not particularly lonely. I have a close friend in my roommate Matsuoka Rin. Rin has a girlfriend, Yazaki Aki, she and I were classmates together in Iwatobi and we are still good friends. I also have another friend from back home in Nagisa. He's a year younger then me and is currently working full time while trying to break into show business. Between the three of them, I always have company when I want it but truth be told, I don't really want much company.

Still, it is true that I have never forgotten Makoto. I am not sure why Makoto always lingered in my mind. Back then he was an important friend but that was back then. Here and now, Rin, Nagisa, Aki are my important friends. But I guess they aren't like Makoto. Makoto used to make me feel as if I was the centre of his universe. The most important person who ever existed. It's really silly because obviously Makoto had other important people in his world. His parents, for example and maybe I am overexpressing his adoring looks and warm smiles that even now make me feel as if I am being wrapped in a warm blanket against the frosty chill of winter. I never really had a best friend since Makoto. I never even wanted a best friend since Makoto.

As for boyfriends, I had a couple but eventually the relationships became too troublesome and I ended them because I was not willing to put in the effort necessary to maintain them and didn't see the point of letting things linger till they decided to call it quits. Of my two ex-boyfriends, I am still friends with Rei. Even though I treated him terribly, Rei refused to be cut completely out of my life and convinced me to remain friends even if I no longer had any interest in being his lover. You know its probably a good thing that I probably won't know anything more about the stranger beyond that he once read a book called "Orca". Even if we got together, I would eventually reach a point where the amount of effort necessary to maintain the relationship would seem too troublesome to me and I would end-up breaking his heart. I am a terrible person like that.

I saw the strange in that library again today and again today I was too distracted to read while he was in the library. I kept stealing glances and no matter how many times I changed books or how hard I tried to concentrate on what I was reading, I couldn't keep my eyes off him. Eventually, I gave-up and checked the books I was trying to read out and headed to a nearby park. Damn this stupid infatuation. It's driving me away from my true home, my beloved library.

I returned a few hours later and by that time the stranger had gone. Yet the first thing I did was go in search of the novel "Whale Song". Why? Because he had been reading it and in my desire to be closer to him without actually speaking to him, I wanted to read the same book he had been reading. But alas, he had checked out the book and all I could do was put an alert on it so I would be notified when he returned it. As I left the library that night, I wondered if I was the world's first book-stalker and indeed, if book-stalking was even a thing. Well if it wasn't a thing before, I have certainly made it a thing. Nanase Haruka, the worlds first stalker who stalks you using books! Well, at least they can't put me in a jail for it.

My third encounter with the stranger sneaked-up on me. I was reaching for a book on the top most shelf but just couldn't reach it. I was just about to give-up and go look for a stool to stand on when someone reached over me and got the book down.

"Here you go," came a warm rich voice from behind me a large hand offered me the book I had been trying to get. Accepting the book, I turned around and was immediately dazzled by the sunny smile of my brown haired infatuation.

"Thank you," I replied, by some miracle managing not to stammer.

"I am Tachibana Makoto," he introduced himself, "I see you around here a lot," he said, "Are you a literature student or do you just love books?"

"Both," I replied, "I am Nanase Haruka," I managed to get out even as my brain kept screaming, Makoto, he's called Makoto! I reminded the overexcited part of my brain that Makoto was a common name among both boy and girls. It meant nothing. Even if that beautiful smile of this Makoto was warm and comforting as that of the Makoto that only existed in my memories.

"Haruka," Makoto… no, Tachibana-san for he was a stranger and not my Makoto, repeated my name slowly, as if savouring the taste of it in his mouth, "I had a friend called Haruka. Well I always called him Haru-chan and really, I wouldn't even remember that Haru was short for Haruka in his case if it wasn't for a book I have. We used to read together you see," he explained, his smile becoming fond as his mind ventured down a lane of cherished memory, "So when I was leaving our hometown, he gave me a book that we were to read together when we met again. So he said that the book wasn't really mine but ours and on the inside cover, Haru-chan wrote…"

"Property of Makoto and Haruka," I found myself saying, "Let's read together forever the adventures of Iwatobi-chan."

I saw Makoto's eyes widen in surprise and understanding, "Haru… chan?"

"Makoto," I whispered back.

Suddenly I found myself in a full bodied hug, the book I was holding painfully lodged between us, "I found you! I finally found you!"

I think it was in that stupidly depressing series of books by GRR Martin that I read "A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies. The man who never reads lives only one." As I feel Makoto's warmth permeated my being, I know Makoto and I will live a thousand lives together in this place as we read together everything from Moby Dick to The Girl Who Leapt Through Time. We'll also rediscover each other. How we have changed and grown from what we were back then and how we have also remained the same. One book at a time, we'll rekindle our friendship. Well I am already two books up and I already know that because it is Makoto, I will never think our relationship, platonic, romantic or whatever is too much effort. For I am now, truly, completely home...

Author's Note: So this is based on a pic by lordzuuko tumblr. Pic can be seen here: lordzuuko dot tumblr dot com slash post slash 87387520393. No, I have no idea why I decided to do this as first person narrative by Haru. End result is that Haru is terribly OOC. So sorry about that. Also the story is probably too cheesy and stupid but it was the best I could do! *sobs uncontrollably*