One-sided Sumire/Tachibana with some implied Tachibana/Hiiragi. I'm biased, I admit it. Written for a temps mort challenge over on lj; it helps if you've read "The Letter" at the end of volume 5.
Lost Letters
Akane has never been an easy person to talk to, not about serious things. He will take things seriously for precisely as long as he wants to and not a moment more, and once he decides he's had enough, he'll laugh the whole thing off, or retreat into himself like a turtle into its shell, cutting off all communication.
It can be frustrating, trying to talk to someone who wants nothing more to do with the conversation; Sumire knows this better than anyone. That's precisely why she wrote him that letter, that one time. Because there were things that she needed to tell him, needed him to know, and she wanted to do it without him snorting or sulking at her. So she wrote down what she wanted to say, and left it there for him to read. He'd still have shrugged it all off, she's sure, because his embarrassment isn't just a public display, but she thinks - hopes - that maybe he heard her words better, when she didn't speak them aloud.
There are other letters that Sumire could write, if she wanted to; there are a lot of things she wants to say to Akane - desperately wants to tell him, at times. But she'll never tell him, and she'll never write it down for him to see, because she's afraid: afraid of rejection, afraid of pity, and most of all afraid of losing this friendship she holds so precious. Sumire wouldn't gamble that, not for any stakes.
She knows, anyway, that there'd be no point in those letters. She could write Akane a hundred letters, a thousand, a letter for every day they've known each other, and it wouldn't make an ounce of difference. He's the pragmatic sort, you see, and when he does decide to take something seriously, he takes it all the way. If there was something he wanted Sumire to know - something important - he'd say it to her, straight out. Then he'd probably glower at her a bit and claim that it didn't really matter anyway, but he would say it. He'd be too stubborn not to.
Has he said anything to Hiiragi yet? If not, Sumire knows, it's only a matter of time.
Sumire is not blind and she's not stupid; she can see what's right in front of her. At the best of times Akane has never had the most cheerful or sanguine of dispositions, has never been the life of the party. But Sumire has known him a long time, and to her it's glaringly obvious just how happy he's been since this rivalry/friendship/whatever started between him and Hiiragi. How happy he's been since Hiiragi became part of his life. And she knows she can't compete with that, because it isn't a competition. It's just the way things are.
Sometimes, Sumire wishes that she could take those ethereal letters, all those insubstantial words, and crush them to dust in her hands. That she could let them sift between her fingers and scatter to the winds, taking those thoughts and feelings with them. But she doesn't know how to do that, not yet, though she knows that she'll have to learn someday.
But for the time being, she'll keep her unwritten letters close to her heart.
