Dust and Memories

Two Years Later

"Basch, are you ready to go?"

The blond looked up from the newspaper he was reading, stuffing the last of his breakfast in his mouth and getting up to open the door of his family's new apartment for his boyfriend.

It had been two years since Lili's diagnosis, and she had been cancer-free for four months now. During those two years, Roderich and Basch had been dating, Basch had finished high school, Roderich's orchestra had won international fame, and both of them had gotten into the same college on good scholarships.

Basch's mother had gotten a good job managing a nice restaurant, and she had taken the money from that to get them a better apartment. They didn't have to worry about keeping food on the table now, and Roderich had kindly helped them cover some of Lili's medical bills. Life was finally sorting itself out for the Zwingli family.

"G'mme sec," he told him through the toast, and Roderich tisked, affectionately wiping a stray crumb from Basch's mouth.

"Don't talk with your mouth full."

The blond rolled his green eyes and swallowed, tossing his textbooks into his bag. "Lili, we're leaving!" he called.

The girl dashed out from her bedroom, still wearing pajama pants, and threw her arms around her big brother, who hugged her back in his own awkward way.

"See you later," the eighth grader murmured, and he nodded, gently stroking her barely chin-length hair as he pulled away. When it had started to grow back after chemotherapy, she had decided that she liked it short, and would keep it that way. Both Basch, and Emil, a boy from Lili's class, thought it looked good on her.

"I'll be home at 4 o'clock today," Basch told her. "Roderich and I are going to lunch at Nonno Rome's. Lovino's back from art school in Spain for the week, and wants to meet Roderich." The man in question squirmed uncomfortably, but Lili gave him a beaming smile.

"Don't worry, Roderich, Lovino's really nice once you get to know him," she promised, giving the brunette a quick hug and shooing both of them out the door.

"Have a good day, you two!" she called as they left, and Basch felt a small smile curve his rosy lips upwards when Roderich took his hand.

Everything had finally worked out in his life, thanks to a letter and a phone number buried in dust and memories.