Happy Birthday, Flood! I thought at first this was going to become a character study, and then it is sort of that, but mostly it is a collection of memories from Ryuu about his childhood, his parents, coming to Wistal, and more. And it just became a warm friendship piece, and I hope that it makes you smile. I hope you're having a great birthday today! It's such a milestone age, though everyone always considers the year before it and the year after it milestones; I think this is a milestone too. So, hopefully, everyone's celebrating today, and that you have an amazing day! And I hope your week turns out great too! I hope I wrote Ryuu in a way that makes him relatable to you, like he is in canon, and that this story offers an extra layer of joy for you.

There is silence as Ryuu works, nearly perfect silence as if breaking it would be a crime. He's grateful for the silence; Shirayuki's out, Garack's in her office, and Ryuu is the only one in the room. Sure, he enjoys the chatter sometimes or the ways that Shirayuki makes him feel welcome, even though he came to work here before she ever did.

It's nice right now though. There are no unruly customers assuming that Ryuu would think of poisoning them, and it's only in upset that the thought does cross his mind. He doesn't act on it, but anger sometimes makes him wish that he'd concoct a poison rather than a cure. Self-control is as familiar to him as old lullabies are to children, and he's comfortable right now.

It's as if he can freely think, however controlled he lets his thoughts be, but also as he grinds herbs, mixes new remedies, and works quietly, he feels at peace. It reminds him of the years before he was kept uncharacteristically busy at the palace.

He remembers being three and grabbing some herbs, ones that he'd read about, but never seen. He remembers, squinting to follow the recipe on the page. He remembers his parents' familiar surprise, not surprise that he's doing so, but just the fact that his own tendencies to work on stuff like this were a surprise. Most three year olds were doing other things, things that Ryuu could barely imagine.

They were climbing trees, laughing loudly, running as if their legs would carry them halfway across the world if they only tried. Ryuu wasn't like that. Running made him tired, made him want to take a nap or lay down, and it made him unnecessarily breathless.

Gathering herbs for hour after hour on the other hand, for some reason never made him that tired. And besides trees are big and tall, taller than even his parents, and they'd likely be scary to climb. He'd hate to be up in them, looking down, feeling fear and anxiety shoot up through his heart like an unruly weed, and with no way to get down, unless he'd jump, which would break his bones and then he couldn't work on medicine.

It's the plants that are least expected that are the most thrilling, like a mystery. And it's the toxins within so many of them that catch his eyes. It's mind boggling that anybody could want to be out doing other things, when there are books to be read and medicines to make and herbs to hunt for.

He's three, and his parents are often busy, but he loves to read and he loves the exploration found in every new discovery. And that's thrilling in a way that a racing heart and sweaty palms has never been to him.

And then, he grows up, but not tall. And his parents take him to Wistal, and he takes an exam with people so much older than him, and he passes. He's still the odd, little boy who applied, but it's nice to have some recognition; it's nice to finally feel at home.

Garack is kind to him, and helps to teach him little things that the books he read for so many years don't cover. And he reads in the library after work each day, because there are more books and more unique ones in a castle than anywhere else.

And his life is a series of reading and study and working to understand plant toxins that interest him and making medicines, and knowing that if he made a poison, it could get into wrong hands, and he'd never want Garack to get in trouble for his own choices.

And besides she's a little more there than his parents had been, but she's not always there. She's busy at work, hard at work, and she drinks. And Ryuu wonders sometimes why she seems sad at moments, but it's hard to articulate, because he doesn't understand if she's really sad. He's not good at emotions, at feeling them when they often weigh him down, like solid lead set over his lungs or when they make no sense. He can't study them in the way he studies plants, so he casts them aside.

And now he's older, and he's teaching someone who knows so much. And right now, the pharmacy is quiet. There are no customers, and Shirayuki's out delivering medicine, and Garack's quietly working, though she could be drinking too.

Ryuu doesn't really understand much about Shirayuki who came in like a whirlwind and sort of uprooted his life in a new way. She's kind and attentive and lets Ryuu be involved as if he could be her age too. She doesn't think of him as weird or odd, doesn't view him as a disturbing case of a kid, but lets him be himself. She doesn't treat him in any condescending way, and she also doesn't treat him as if he has to somehow be more than he is.

It's nice.

And Obi's there, who climbs trees like the neighborhood kids Ryuu never talked to, and sometimes lifts Ryuu up so high, that he wonders if he could almost count all the details in the clouds above their heads. And he's scared of it, but not so scared anymore.

There's something about people, Ryuu decides. Finally, putting away the medicine that he's finished with now. People are hard to understand, but they can be interesting and almost warm? Like sunshine on a spring day, a hint of warmth cast to the air.

And Ryuu gets up to retrieve different herbs, ones not required for any medicine of the day, but he's here working and it's quiet. He doesn't feel tired, so he doesn't sleep. He grabs down what he wants to use to make an old recipe, one he remembers by heart. A recipe that he learned before coming here, that feels as warm and familiar as an old memory.

And he's still working on that, when Shirayuki finally comes back in and catches sight of him. She smiles and asks him what he's making, so he shows her. And maybe the old is finally becoming new in a way that Ryuu doesn't quite expect.