Title: Fireflies
Author: Elf Asato
Rating: G
Written: April 8, 2004
Disclaimer: Yami no Matsuei belongs to the wonderful Matsushita-sensei. I'm merely using her characters.
Notes: I tried to portray a different side of Oriya, Muraki, and their friendship, but seeing as this is the first time I've ever tried to write Oriya seriously, I'm not sure if it came out well. I like it anyway, though.
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Fireflies
By Elf Asato
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Oriya sat still in the dark, watching the fireflies call out to each other in a silent, but beautiful way. They made no noise, aside from the soft buzzing sound he heard when one flew past his ear, but saw them talking, talking in their secret language and lighting up the night.
Upstairs through the open window – it was a beautiful fall night – he could hear the sounds of drawers opening and closing along with perhaps the occasional obscenity or two emitted when a belonging could not be found, or when too many were found and a suitcase would not close. He could hear the muted sounds of dutiful workers downstairs conversing with one another as they cleaned up in the restaurant after a busy and fruitful day.
Painfully, he could hear a nervous man upstairs, urging another to hurry along with packing, saying that they would be late for their flight to Tokyo if he didn't make haste. And while the other's responses were never directly heard, the infrequent cursing and slamming of drawers would increase and reverberate throughout creation, it seemed.
Oh, how wonderfully simplistic life would be as an insect, Oriya thought longingly. As they used light and movement to communicate in a silent ballet, a firefly never had to worry or think about such sounds and what they meant.
A firefly never had to listen to a beloved friend leave.
He could have helped his friend along in packing, perhaps prolonging the increasingly short time spent together and bringing a little closure to the growing storm inside him – he could have. Instead, though, he sat alone in the backyard of the restaurant, listening to the sounds of the world and wondering just why he couldn't do that.
Oriya hated endings; that was why he wouldn't go upstairs and say 'goodbye'. No matter how much it hurt, he wouldn't allow himself to even act for one moment as if it would be the last parting. The finality of the word frightened him.
The soft, gentle glow from the open upstairs window went out at last and the world became that much quieter as he heard the very last sound of the door shutting. They hadn't thought to close the window, he noticed casually as a certain sadness laced his thoughts. The number fireflies had decreased by a little since he had first started to watch, and their lights blinked at a slower frequency than before, but despite this fact, the rest of the fireflies plodded on with their show, glowing in a slow requiem.
As he heard the sound of the backdoor sliding open, a soft flood of indirect light from the restaurant interior flowed into the backyard in accompaniment to the increased noise of genial banter from within. Just as soon as all this came, though, it fell back to what it normally had been with the sound of the door being shut again and a few soft footsteps.
"Oriya?"
The voice of his friend, normally tinged with a ghost of dominance and condescension, was a slow drawl tonight, sounding even awkward or apologetic to anyone who might have chanced to hear such words spoken mellifluously. "Oriya, Sakaki and I are leaving now. …I know we had planned to spend this week catching up on things together, but…as I told you earlier, a colleague of mine is deathly ill and…"
Words were met with silence as Oriya kept still, watching the fireflies dance across the sky, accentuating what few stars that could be seen despite of light pollution from the city. He knew he should have told his friend that it was quite all right that their plans had taken a detour due to unexpected business, that no, he wasn't upset in the slightest that it had to end so quickly, especially since it had been over a year since they last saw each other…but to do so would have been a lie. Instead, to cover up his hurt and irrational resentment, he muttered rather brusquely, "You don't need my permission to leave, Muraki."
Since high school, Muraki had always been perceptive to his friend's words and subtle nuances, so he easily saw through the false asperity. "I am a doctor, Oriya; you know my personal life takes a backseat to work," he spoke softly, with a faint, but noticeable sigh, as if to not frighten the delicate stillness of the night. "I'm sorry, and…when I get back to my office, I'll try and schedule off for another time."
Oriya understood the demands of his friend's job – he always had – but he also knew how engaged they both tended to become. "With such a hectic life you lead, are you sure that you'll remember, that we both won't become so busy that we'll forget?"
Silence was the only answer Muraki found appropriate as they both lapsed into a stillness – watching the fireflies paint a picture of life for the world – broken only when Sakaki called from within the restaurant, panicking out of fear that their flight to Tokyo would be missed.
"I'll call you when I know more about my work schedule," Muraki muttered – with Oriya responding with a quiet affirmation – as he slid the door back open and then shut. With that action, it was back to the monotony of a precarious lifestyle, back to the seemingly normal work of existing.
Only a few more minutes were spent outside in the dark, watching the glowing lights, before Oriya realized that it was growing rather chilly and that he should probably make his way inside. If he wasn't too late, perhaps he could still catch Muraki and his assistant and help load things into the taxi; he could even say goodbye.
Slowly, he rose up with a sigh and went inside.
And the fireflies went on, oblivious to all the troubles of the human world, oblivious to the disappointment felt when something beloved is lost. They went on, gently and rhythmically flickering against the dark night sky in silence without a concern for anything but the basic means of survival.
End
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4.8.04