Respect
Hokuto had always loved flowers, so when Subaru visited her each month, he always took care to bring something new. Never anything white or boring like that. Hokuto loved colors, so he brought the brightest flowers he could find. This month it was gladiolas: bright purple and pink ones bound by blue string.
He laid the flowers down on the grave and knelt in front of it for a few moments. It took a few moments for him to gather his composure and light some incense. In ten years, it had never gotten any easier.
He was somehow not surprised when a bundle of cheerful sunflowers was placed next to his bouquet of gladiolas. He didn’t bother to look up at the man who had placed them there, speaking to Hokuto’s grave in front of him. “Must you do this every month?” he asked.
“It’s lovely to see you again, Subaru-kun,” Seishirou said, as if they hadn’t had the same discussion every month for the last year, since they had met again in Tokyo. “How have you been?”
Subaru studying the grave marker in front of him. “Excuse me,” he said, “I’m trying to pray, if you don’t mind.”
“Ah, but I do mind,” Seishirou said. “After all, this is the only time I get to see you. If you aren’t paying attention to me, where’s the fun in that?”
Subaru lit another stick of incense.
“Trying to set the mood?” Seishirou asked, lighting a cigarette.
“There is no incense for the mood you put me in, Seishirou-san.” Subaru continued to sit with his hands neatly folded in front of himself, refusing to give Seishirou the satisfaction of looking up at him.
“And what mood would that be?” Seishirou asked. “Despondent? Homicidal? Burning with unresolved sexual tension?”
“You know,” Subaru said, “there’s a reason why nobody likes you.”
Seishirou chuckled. “Only one?”
“One primary. Listing the rest would take more time than I want to spend in your dubious company.” Subaru stood up and lit a cigarette of his own. Despite how many times they had had the discussion, he decided to give it another try. “I know you aren’t here to pay your respects. You don’t have respect for anyone or anything. I also know that you can and do approach me whenever and wherever you please. So why is it that you can’t leave me this one time and place to myself?”
“Don’t be so cold, Subaru-kun,” Seishirou said. “I respect you.”
“You don’t even know what the word means.”
Seishirou smiled at him and adjusted his sunglasses. “Subaru-kun, as you’ve stated already, I can find you whenever I like. And perhaps I don’t have to come see your sister at the same time as you; perhaps that is just for the amusement value on my own part. But you’re forgetting something very important.”
“Which is what?” Subaru asked.
Seishirou’s hand rested gently on the sunflowers he had brought. “Hokuto-chan loved flowers. Why would I bring them if she hadn’t?”
Subaru blinked at him. Then at the flowers. Then at him. “Heartless bastard,” he said.
“Indeed. Shall I take you out to dinner? You can tell me all about why nobody likes me.”
“I can’t imagine a more worthwhile pastime.”