horrible exorcists + 35 ???
this contains some iffy translation convention, but i’m too tired to avoid it. and like my previous ficlet, some weird tense-switching happenings that made sense to me at the time.
(You can’t start a fire without a spark.)
His mother was the one who taught him the value of writing a proper letter. She set him to work scratching out crude practice invitations and inquiries as soon as he could string together hiragana.
There are principles to a good letter: it must be concise, it must be personal, and it must be clear. The letter he sent to the Natsume boy was not a particularly good one — it rambled, it betrayed uncertainty. But then, he never really expected it to be read.
Typically, if he isn’t satisfied with what he’s written, he won’t send it at all. One letter lies discarded in the back of a desk drawer, where it has lain for years. It begins, Dear Shuuichi-san, and ends, I wish you would, because he never thought of a proper resolution.
Tonight, it is too late, the shadows in his room a bit too sharp and dark, so he has made several errors already, let ink smear and characters tilt off-center. He doesn’t mind, because this letter isn’t going to be read, either. It begins, Dear Natori-san, and ends, I know how you, because he is giving up on writing any more.
His mother always chid him for leaving things unfinished, though, so he adds the word interfered so at least the sentence is complete.
I wish you would — he remembers the letter, but not how he had meant to conclude it. It had to have been something too selfish for him to entertain now.
