Dearest, You Said 》BNHA

Chapter 10

The yellow light of the restaurant was calming, in a way. Like a little sun, but not nearly as hot. Bright. Comforting.

Denki sighed and leaned his head on top of Ochako's. He peered down at her menu.
"Decided yet, hun?"

Ochako, who had been looking at her menu for nearly fifteen minutes, faintly nodded.
"I think I have."

Eijiro and Mina threw their hands up in the air.
"Sweet Jesus, she's made a decision!"

"Nevermind. I can't make up my mind between two."

The two across the table put their faces in their hands as a sign of defeat.

Denki laughed, "You shouldn't have said anything. Now she's just messing with you."

Ochako turned her eyes upward at her husband, a sheepish smile at her lips.
"Perhaps."

Instead of eating at the apartment, the four decided to go out for their first dinner together.
Denki recommend a nice restaurant across town that served pasta.

Finally, after several more minutes of contemplating, they all ordered their food.

They sat there, catching up on the times with each other until their food arrived.

"He talked about you all the time", Denki said to Mina, "Could never shut up about the pretty nurse on the base."

Eijiro grinned devilishly. "I told you I would win her over once the war was over."

His wife rolled her eyes.
"You won me over the day you tripped into the infirmary yelling about how you broke something in your foot", she chuckled.

"I thought I did break something! That isn't funny!"

"What had happened?", Ochako asked curiously.

Mina leaned in towards the other woman.
"He stubbed his toe", she loudly whispered.

The florist tried to stifle a laugh but ended up choking on his lemonade.

"It isn't funny!", Eijiro retorted.

Laughter and shouts continued to fill the air, until Ochako brought up something Eijiro mentioned earlier.

"You said you brought a little box of relics to show us", she said, wiggling a finger at him.

The red-haired man snapped his fingers in remembrance. He reached under his seat.

Eijiro placed a shoe-sized wooden box on the table. It was chipped in many places, and the latch on the front was rusted, but it was in good shape overall.

Under the yellow light of the restaurant, the three others looked at the little relics Eijiro produced out of the box one by one.

He proudly boasted about the medals he received for his bravery in the sky. Ochako passed around little photos.

The photos were taken on the bases. It captured the heroic smiles of the pilots in them.
There was one with at least twenty pilots smiling at the camera in a group photo.

Denki's eyes looked at each of the pilot's bright faces.

But one wasn't smiling.

Shaking. His fingers were already shaking.

The face of Thomas stared emptily at Denki.

The florist shoved the picture back at Eijiro.

His brother raised an eyebrow at him. "Are you alright?"

"Yes", Denki lied through his teeth, keeping his hands under the table where nobody could see them shake.

Mina reached into the box.
"There's one more picture!"

Her husband quickly tried to prevent her from pulling it out. "No no, it's not really that special!-"

But it was too late, the spunky woman already had it in her hands and was looking at it.

Denki looked at Eijiro.

Why was his brother suddenly looking so pale? Under the yellow light, the former pilot looked sick.

"Awe", Mina cooed, "You have a picture of your brother! That's sweet, darling."

"Can I see?", Ochako asked and Mina handed the photo across the table.

"It's really nothing!-"

"Honey, you look really cute here", Ochako said, pointing at Denki.

Denki gazed over her shoulder at it.

His honey eyes widened in shock.

It was obviously nighttime  in the photo. The background was dark, except for the center.
Denki was standing beside a lamp post.

His face in the photo matched his face now.

Pure shock.

Turning the photo over, he saw one word written in familiar scrawl.

Dearest.

His hands started shaking harder.

"Where'd you get this photo?", he asked.

Eijiro refused to look at him.

Ochako put a hand on his shoulder.
"Are you okay, dear?"

Denki stood up and left the restaurant without a word.

Outside, in the warm air, he began to run.

Sprinting.

He ran until he collapsed in exhaustion, far away from the restaurant.

He looked up at his surroundings.

Above him was a flower box in someone's window.

The blue and gold flowers stared back at him.

Letting out a cry, Denki broke down.

Blue and gold.

The familiar pain filling the tears that fell from his eyes and landed on the photograph in his hands.

The pain he tried to forget.

The soul-crushing agony that filled his chest and forced its way out through his sobs.

The entire street heard the voice of a heartbroken man crying out his lover's name.