Author's Note: This was originally published on AO3 in December 2014, and was written for the Yuletide challenge.
"Hello, Doctor Iwamine!" Hiyoko said cheerfully as she walked into the infirmary, depositing her book bag by the door.
The brown partridge looked up from where he was perched on the desk filling out some paperwork. "Hello, Miss Tosaka," he said calmly.
"What will I be doing today, sir?" the girl asked with her customary brightness. "More dusting tall shelves for you?"
"Yes, that sounds acceptable. Perhaps helping if another student comes to the infirmary."
The building was still sized for humans, so the built-in cabinets and shelves were higher than most birds could reach, although most of the movable furniture was scaled closer to bird size. As the doctor, like most partridges, couldn't fly very well, he'd taken to having his newfound tall assistant clean off the high cabinets for him.
They both worked quietly for a while, with only the sound of a pen scratching over paper and Hiyoko's movements, until Hiyoko broke the silence. "Sir?"
"Yes, Miss Tosaka?"
"I found this on top of one of the shelves. Where does it go?" She held up a folder full of paper.
The partridge squinted. She was on the other side of the room and standing on one of the chairs. "Bring that down here so that I can see it," he ordered.
She jumped down off the chair and carried the folder over to him, examining it. "The label says iNageki Fujishiro/i. It might be a student's file, then. I wonder what it was doing up there," she said.
"Ah," the doctor said. "Yes, Nageki Fujishiro was a student here several years ago. I'm unsure why his file was up there. Give it to me, please."
Hiyoko passed it to him. "Maybe someone just put it up there for safekeeping and forgot about it?" she pondered aloud.
"Perhaps. Go back to work, Miss Tosaka," he said, putting the file into one of the desk drawers and firmly shutting it.
That was all Hiyoko thought of it until a few days later. She and Yuuya were eating together, as Ryouta was absent for the day. "What do you usually do at the infirmary?" Yuuya asked.
"Well, nothing much, really," Hiyoko said. "It's pretty boring most of the time, actually. I clean or work on sorting things, he does paperwork."
Yuuya slumped a bit before perking up again. "What exactly do you clean?"
"Mostly the cabinets and the shelves. They're built for humans, and he can't fly very well, so he can't dust them off himself, so I do it," Hiyoko explained.
"Do you ever find anything interesting up there?" he asked.
"Not usually," she said. "Once I found a student file on top of one of the shelves, but that was it."
Yuuya's expression showed he was thinking deeply. "Do you remember what the student's name was?" he finally asked.
"No, not exactly. Na-something, I think. Maybe Naoki?"
"Nageki?" Yuuya questioned, suddenly looking unusually alert.
"Yes! Nageki. I don't remember the last name, though." Hiyoko paused. "Did you know him?"
Yuuya nodded intently. "Yes, after a fashion. He died years ago."
"I suppose that explains why I never knew him," she mused absently. "If he died years ago, it would have been before I started coming here. But then why would there be a copy of his file hiding up on top of a shelf?"
"I do not know, imon amie/i," Yuuya said, snapping back to his normal personality suddenly. "Who can explain many things about the infirmary?"
"That's true," Hiyoko said laughingly.
The conversation sprung to her mind the next time she came to the infirmary. "Hello, Doctor Iwamine," she said brightly as she dropped her book bag on the floor.
"Good afternoon, Miss Tosaka," he replied, not looking up from his paperwork.
"More cabinets today?"
"Yes, I think so. You should almost be done with that, though," he said.
"And then what will you have me do?" she asked. He looked up at her. "I'm curious. There's not much to do in here, really."
"Probably sort student files," he said, looking back down at his paperwork. "There's several years' worth in here, and many of them aren't sorted very well at all."
"Oh! That reminds me," Hiyoko said as she walked past him to get to work. "Who was that student whose file I found last time I was here? Yuuya seemed to know him, and so did you, but Yuuya said he died years ago."
That got his attention. He turned to look directly at her. "Nageki Fujishiro was a student here several years ago," he began, "shortly after I began working here. He was very frail, and so he spent a lot of time in the infirmary. Unfortunately, he died partway through his first school year when a fire swept through the infirmary while he was inside. If Mr. Sakazaki knows him, it is not through this school, as the fire occurred before he began attending here." His words hung in the air for a long moment before he shook his head. "Now, get to work."
"Yes, Doctor Iwamine," Hiyoko said. She paused as she began to drag a chair over to stand on. "You cared about Nageki, didn't you?"
"Yes, I did," the partridge said quietly. "He lived on the school campus, because of his health problems, and so he and I spent much time together. Certainly our relationship never moved beyond its professional capacity - I would not go so far as to say that we were friends - but I did care about him as a… patient."
"I'm sorry," Hiyoko said sincerely, clambering up onto the chair.
"It was years ago, and as I said, our relationship never went beyond the purely professional. You do not need to pity me, Miss Tosaka." He turned back to his work.
"I know, sir," Hiyoko said quickly. "I wasn't meaning to pity you! It's just that, well, someone you care about dying is always sad, no matter how you care about them."
He smiled joylessly. "Yes, it is, Miss Tosaka. I hope you never have to learn that in more detail."