Gift Box

Dec. 24th, 2019 04:42 pm
lisatelramor: a pink water lily (Default)
AN: Happy Holidays! Here's a fic set in NLTSA universe, written back in August.
*** 

Kaito twisted pieces of a puzzle box around in his hands as Takumi did assigned reading on the living room couch. It was Takumi’s favorite spot since Kaito and Saguru moved in together, a much plusher replacement for Kaito’s old one that had been slowly falling to disrepair for years. The steady tick of the bookshelf clock and the occasional flip of pages were the only sounds at the moment, and while normally Kaito would be soothed by the peacefulness, he couldn’t reach that calm today.

He slipped a segment of wood free, testing panels for which one would budge next, mostly on automatic. Kaito’s real attention was on Takumi and the way Kaito’s heart beat a bit too quickly for sitting calmly in their living room. “I was thinking,” Kaito said.

“Mm?” Takumi turned a page. “About what?”

“About life.” Kaito twisted a carving. “How we’ve settled here. The future.” A careful glide of fingers along a seam and one of the three hidden compartments in this box slid open. Empty of course because he hadn’t put anything in it yet. “Whether Saguru’d say yes if I asked him to marry me,” Kaito said as nonchalant as possible, heart beating too fast as he waited for Takumi’s response.

Read more... )
lisatelramor: a pink water lily (Default)
This took a lot longer than I thought it was going to take to write--I kept wanting to do a proper casefic in the middle and getting stuck, but it wasn't to be. My brain does not like writing mystery no matter how much I try to force it. :/ BUT! This is finally done and hopefully is a satisfactory conclusion to the series. It's set a year from the start of Not Left To Stand Alone, so in March right before the new school year begins :) Appropriate that this story finishes here as well as surprisingly appropriate for me to end it the same time of year in real life. Here's to moving forward and new years and endings as beginnings of new things. Thank you everyone who's read along and all comments in the last year. It was one of the brighter things from last year. Hope to see you again with future writing projects ^_^

To London, To London

The walk up to the London flat was one Saguru could do in his sleep. He’d lived six years of his adult life in that flat, walking to a store down the road or driving to work down the crowded streets because the public transit was further than he wanted to walk with a bum leg. There was the coffee shop a block away that had a weekly music night he and Mel occasionally went to. There was the Indian restaurant that Saguru got takeaway at when neither of them felt like cooking. There was the neighbor who had a cat that liked sunning itself on Saguru’s balcony. The downstairs neighbor had plants on her balcony again this year, and window boxes just starting to have bits of green poking up.

The front door still had the ‘Welcome Holmes’ welcome mat in front that Mel got him as a joke. It was covered in a few months’ worth of dirt and debris, the person Mum had taking care of the apartment clearly not extending that to the outside very often. As he approached what had been his home, Saguru had to stop and take a moment to breathe past all the bittersweet memories around him.

A hand touched his elbow, and Saguru looked back at Kaito. Kaito who was out of place here, but also paradoxically fit in seamlessly. The touch helped, grounding him in the here and now instead of the past. “Nice welcome mat,” Kaito said lightly.

Saguru could kiss him. He didn’t since he didn’t feel inclined to public displays of affection at the moment. “It was a birthday gift. From Mel.”

“Impeccable taste,” Kaito said.

Saguru smiled. He wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for Kaito. He might have left this go indefinitely, paying for a flat he never used and storage for things he no longer needed but didn’t want to let go. Starting things anew with Kaito... that made him want to resolve everything. It still took more than a few seconds to muster the will to unlock the door and let them in. Saguru ushered Kaito in before him.

He didn’t know what Kaito saw in the apartment. Saguru stepped in and he saw the walls with faded squares where photos once hung, the missing clutter and covered up furniture. He saw the scruffs on the baseboard from years of hasty vacuuming, the faint difference in the wall where it had been plastered over after being dented moving a new couch in. He saw the lack of shoes by the door and the dust trapped in the corners. He smelled the stale air of a room shut up too long and the slightly off smell old wood got when it wasn’t aired out enough. There was the flecks of paint on the light switch cover from when Mel repainted the entryway. Divots in the wood floor where they dropped a heavy jar of tomato sauce that had exploded all over the floor and walls. The lack of soft music playing in the background. The blinds closed and the rooms dim. A box with all of Mel’s recent playbooks next to the empty bookshelf because Saguru had decided not to take them to Japan in his hasty flight from London. Left with the distant thought that maybe Mel’s parents would want them even though they’d only asked to have some photos and the set of dishes Mel’s grandmother gave them at their wedding.

Saguru didn’t move from the doorway for long enough that Kaito had to tug him forward and close the door behind them.

The bedroom door was shut to their right, the office and guest room open across from it, followed by the bathroom and the kitchen/living area at the end of the hall. Kaito glanced at the open office and walked past it toward the living area where the empty bookshelf and some stacked boxes were visible. Saguru swallowed hard, forcing the messy tangle of emotions rising in him down. It had been a bit over a year since he was here; he could handle walking in his old home.

Read more... )
lisatelramor: a pink water lily (Default)
 Here have an extra for NLTSA universe: Christmas at Aoko's

I'd cut it out of the epilogue, but it worked to go back to as an extra. (The whole 'Aoko gives clocks, Kaito gives flowers' kept pestering me and wanted a resolution where that was subverted showing their progress away from fighting. So ficlet).

Happy Christmas if you celebrate it, if not, happy holiday season, and almost happy new year ^_^ 

lisatelramor: a pink water lily (Default)

Not Left To Stand Alone Master Post (copypaste from tumblr since I want to have this somewhere...)

Since the extras vs main story can get confusing, I figured I’d make a master post to keep things chronological for anyone wanting to read in order if they haven’t been reading as it updates. Eventually I hope to go back and make it clear where extras go in the main story itself too. I’m going to update this as extras get added. (and remaining chapters/extras get posted) Links are for AO3 as that is where my edits are most consistent >_>

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4 (First Literature Club Omake)

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8 (Second Literature Club Omake)

Chapter 9

Extra: In Which Takumi Doesn’t know What to Do with Hakuba Saguru(covers ch 1-9)

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12 (Third Literature Club Omake)

Chapter 13

Extra: Dinner with the Kurobas

Extra: A Question of Sexuality and Surrounding Topics

Chapter 14

Extra: Hiroto Has a Crush

Extra: A Peek at Saguru’s Phone

Chapter 15

Extra: Shiemi’s Wild Idea (includes parts happening before and during ch 15)

Extra: Kaito’s Birthday

Extra: Kaito and Shiemi Gossip

Extra: Aoko is Concerned

Chapter 16

Extra: Shiemi’s List

Chapter 17

Extra: Phantom Lady with Vermouth

Chapter 18

Chapter 19 

Extra: Cleaning Up the Crash Site (in chapter 19)

Extra: Hanae on a Mission

Chapter 20 

Chapter 21 

Chapter 22 

Extra: Kaito Hates Losing Dignity (during chapter 22)

Chapter 23 

Chapter 24 

Extra: Chikage’s Care

Extra: A Suspicious Recovery Rate

Chapter 25 

Extra: Takumi Pieces Things Together (for drama, read after chapter 26 even tho it’s set before)

Chapter 26 

Chapter 27

Chapter 28

Extra: Takumi Inherited Poor Life Choices (right before last scene ch 28)

Chapter 29

Extra: Aoko Needs a Break

Extra: So Much for Lacrosse

Chapter 30

Chapter 31

Chapter 32

Extra: A Talk

Chapter 33 (Fourth Literature Club Omake)

Extra: Back to Work

Extra: Kid’s Retirement Event

Epilogue

Extra: Christmas at Aoko's

Extra: Kaito’s the Romantic

Extra: Get a Knee Replacement Saguru

Extra: Babysitting with Takumi

Extra: To London, To London

Pre-story Saguru’s side

Extra: A Morning with Mel

Extra: Mel Meets Takumi

Prequel fic Kaito’s Side 

Lay in the Atmosphere

     Chapter 1 - Smoke and Mirrors
     Chapter 2 - Burn Out Quick Pace
     Chapter 3 - The Fall
     Extra: AU where Kaito stayed with the Kudos

Art

Shiemi, Hiroto, Kaito with a sparkler from ch 17

Saguru in his apartment

Hiroto’s photos

Apartment layouts (not art so much as computer model room setup, but…)  

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