Kiriga breathes and opens his mouth to talk.
"When I first saw you, I thought, what a kind looking big brother," Zeno closes his eyes. His mind not being able to bear listening to Kiriga's raspy voice.
"Father had told me a long time ago, when I was just a kid, about the legend, of the dragon. And when I saw you I knew you were more than just kind and gentle."
Zeno can see how he lifts his hands and even though Kiriga can't see, he still finds Zeno's face, holding it carefully with both hands. His weak fingers hold onto Zeno's cheeks like he is made out of porcelain.
"But even a blind man like me can see that the world didn't treat you well. Didn't treat you with the kindness that you deserved." Kiriga has a coughing fit.
Zeno snaps his gaze and hands up to support the 23-year-old man.
"See, no matter how small or big a gesture, or no matter how troublesome it would be to do, you treat everything like treasure. You think that life is more precious than anything else."
Zeno lets his tears fall.
Even knowing Kiriga would live long for an Ubuyashiki, being more sturdy than Kareki, this was hard.
Zeno knew even if Kiriga would live longer, he would live the last years of his life in bed.
Just like the 93rd leader of the corps, Kiriga's grandfather Kariya, who although lived up to 30, could only spend a around 2 hours a day awake. Not moving, not speaking, deaf and blind. The man had been a paralyzed body, akin to a doll for the world to look at.
Kareki had told just how painful it was to see his father like that, no matter how well it hammered in the facts of their demise in the hands of the curse disease.
"I was captured by that kindness. I wanted to be encased in it. Surrounded in that warmth forever." Kiriga holds a low pause to cough, staring ahead with eyes that don't see.
Zeno remembers Kiriga at age 7, lavender eyes glinting with intelligence and the mischief of youth.
Yet even as they have gone blind, those cloudy eyes are still so full of life.
"I knew and understood my fathers words about you the instant when I met you. I understood the words passed along generations, words of kindness repeated again and again with such conviction." Kiriga smiles and lets himself rest against Zeno, slumping from the sitting position he held so tight before.
And that in itself was a mark of how bad it was but also a mark of how strong Kiriga is mentally.
For Zeno to see that he could sit, in such a hard yet elegant position for so long, without crumbling under the pain.
Zeno let Kiriga talk.
Talk and reminiscence about his childhood. Talk about Zeno and talk about just how much Kiriga admired Zeno. And Zeno ignored the screams in his head, denying everything Kiriga said.
He would never interrupt Kiriga.
Kiriga smiled and they both knew he would last only a few years.
Instead of falling deeper in to the tragedy of Kiriga's soon to be death, Zeno smiles and talks of the children. Says compliment of Eiko's sewing skill and about how 9 year old Kagami is progressing in his studies.
Zeno burns the image of Kiriga's smile to his memory.