Devotional
Theme #5 - Champagne and Daffodils
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"Morning, Seimei."
Ritsuka smiled warmly as he placed fresh, white chrysanthemums on his brother's altar. The seven a.m. sunlight filtered lazily through the livingroom curtains, sparkling on the silver-framed photograph of Seimei smiling in an immaculate black suit.
"I'm sorry if it's too early. I...I couldn't wait to come see you. And, I didn't want to come with mom." Ritsuka's ears drooped a little at that, but he pushed thoughts of their mother from his mind. This was his time with Seimei. Something just for them. "But it's okay, right? You miss me, too, don't you? So we have to see each other when we can."
Little white hands fastidiously swept dust from the corners of the altar shelf. Seimei didn't like dirty things.
"I brought you something. Look."
He placed a small raku cup of champagne next to the flower vase.
"You don't like rice wine because it's too heady, so I brought you champagne. It's from that restaurant. Um...it's the same vintage as before, that one you liked so much. Remember? From that restaurant you took me to for my last birthday."
Ritsuka pulled a small, yellow-white flower from his satchel.
"And this...I guess this was sort of silly, but do you remember that time a few years ago when I wanted to put daffodils on grandma's shrine?"
The boy waited patiently, still smiling at the photograph on the altar, as though allowing time for Seimei to answer his question, like a voice might speak out of the thin morning air.
"Well, you said that it was supposed to be chrysanthemums, but daffodils were better anyway, so I brought this one for you. If I stick it in back of the chrysanthemums, no one will see it except you. Do you like it?"
A smile warmed Ritsuka's face, and he stroked two fingers over Seimei-in-the-photograph's cheek lovingly. He pressed his lips to a downscaled image of black-and-white ones.
"Be seeing you, Seimei."