Ominous music and fog. How welcoming. And you still want us to go in there?

Timeline/World: Until Tomorrow – New York City
Current Date: September 26, 2023

Character: Neji Akiyama
Race: Human
Age: 35
Current residence: New York City Ruins, New York
 

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Books have slowly made a comeback and I can’t complain. I’ve never actually been an avid reader, not of anything that might have been considered fiction in any case, but when the world ends, and with it, it takes away just about everything you’d always known, you change your habits a little. There is plenty on the daily to keep me busy; there might not be thousands upon thousands of us but there still are enough people that there tends to be a semi-rotation of people coming and going from the medical clinic area.

We’re never swarmed; I’ve never seen more than one or two waiting to be seen at once and we do try to keep enough people on hand to help. That being said, it means I don’t have to work every single day and that does lead to the fact that I have free time. Most of is spent with Shai, but every so often, it’ll just be quiet out and about and I’ll pick up the latest book I’ll have borrowed from what is now our growing library and read a little.

I could still read medical books; it wouldn’t do me any harm, but just the same, it wouldn’t really do me all that much good since most of the few medical books that have been found and brought back are about specializations that we can’t really offer anymore. One of them is about brain surgery; the other that I know I’ve seen recently is from a once world-renowned doctor who focused on particular means of helping patients in ways that were considered well ahead of their time and not widely accepted. Most of what’s in that book requires things we don’t have access to anymore.

Instead, I’ve turned to fiction, and I’ve tried not to be picky about things since our collection is limited, and it makes sense, in a way. The first book I picked up, at random mind you, was about a pirate romance and I found myself dropping that book right back off after I’d read a few pages. Now, I don’t mind a heroine in the book; I don’t mind reading about women in books and I know that it’s inevitable that I’ll probably find more books with male and female characters in it than an all-male cast. I know this to be a fact of life and I would be surprised to honestly find books with an all-male cast at all. I guess this is one of the reasons why I didn’t really read fiction before.

That first book, however, was filled with scenes that I’m sure most would consider steamy—and they were graphic, too, from the glance I took at them. If I had no issues with women whatsoever and even found myself remotely interested in them, I might have read that book but as I do have issues that are still very deeply seated and I have little care for women and their private body parts anywhere near me, the book found its way back to the library and that was that.

My most recent discovery seems to be a bit of a paranormal romance; again, the main pair is heterosexual and that’s fine; from the skimming I’ve done, there seems to be no sex scenes anywhere in the book and that is possibly one of the main reasons why I’ve stuck with it.

I’m at a point in the book where the pair is standing in front of an old house that was supposed to be abandoned, but by the time they make it there, there is ominous music playing, and fog so thick it is akin to pea soup. The characters are wondering whether or not they really should step in as they had first planned to or not.

It hasn’t been a bad read so far. There is good chemistry between the characters; they’re well-developed; I have yet to stumble onto any typos or anything that may make me pause and scratch my head. I might very well finish that one. It’s been long enough since I’ve managed to read a whole book through; maybe I am picky despite the fact that I try not to be when I do select a book. Maybe that’s the issue. Just randomly selecting a book that I might have no interest in, reading a few pages, and then returning it.

Maybe, if I’m a little pickier, I will try out fewer books, but that means that the books I might bring home to read will hold my interest more than the however-many others there have been that I’ve only managed a few pages, to a few chapters of.

Or maybe I’m just not meant for fiction books.

Final Word Count: 792

Last I saw you, it was in a dream—nay, a nightmare.

Timeline/World: Through the Looking Glass – Atheria 2nd Generation
Current Date: February 26, 2058

Character: Neji Akiyama
Race: Human
Age: 83, physically about 29
Current residence: Atheria City, Eresiel
 

---

She hasn’t been in my thoughts for years upon years—decades upon decades at this point. I don’t know why she so suddenly surfaced. Nothing has changed in our routine. Nothing I’ve read recently or watched, or even listened to had anything in them that could have been a trigger of any sort.

If I’m being honest, I didn’t even know she could be drawn back to the surface. I was so young when she entered my life and, thankfully, left it not very long after that I thought I had left all traces of her behind.

This woman, the main reason why I still find discomfort in being around women despite years of therapy, was a monster for the brief time she was in my life. She left scars that were physical, emotional and mental. All of these scars ran deep and despite my best efforts, I suppose she wasn’t buried as deeply as she could have been.

I’m sure that some would say that if I still have some discomfort with being around women, even now, so many decades later, she clearly was never very far from my mind. I’d like to disagree with that point. I can counter that argument by pointing out that some people who were attacked by, say, a dog while they were very young might still very well be wary of dogs later in life and while they might remember the attack, they may not specifically remember that one dog in question. They might, just as they might not.

In my case, she left such lasting marks on me that women in general just became something I couldn’t be near without discomfort. Her actions, more than her presence, left that scar. It is fairly hard to put into words, but it is what it is.

The short version of this is that I hadn’t thought of this particular woman for more than two-thirds of my life so far. Yes, the scars remained but they were things that were closer to being innate reactions than reactions I focused on. Again, words are hard for situations like these.

So to wake up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat, heart hammering at my ribcage, trying to tell me that it would like to break through and fly away never to return, it wasn’t pleasant. Trying to calm my breathing down to more manageable levels was also difficult and I know that I cried. I cried so hard that I think, by the end, there really weren’t a whole lot of tears left for me to cry. I must have fallen back asleep because I woke back up some hours later with a raging headache and an absolute lack of energy, as though I just hadn’t slept at all.

I didn’t stay in bed, though, I couldn’t. In a way, I think that I faintly remembered that there had been something terrible that had woken me up in the dead of the night that I was, at that very moment, too exhausted to remember properly—if only it had stayed fuzzy—and that staying in bed was not something I wanted.

So, I dragged myself out of bed, I found a weighted blanket, I settled on the couch and I mummified myself as much as I could with the weighty blanket and that sort of settled my nerves a little. I’ll be honest, I don’t remember much from the rest of the day other than the source of the nightmare itself. I remember drifting in and out of an uneasy sleep and it took a lot of tea and very light foods for me to have calmed down enough for something that resembled proper rest.

It wasn’t a good rest, I was still exhausted by the time the following evening came along but I managed to settle to sleep with my ear very firmly on his chest and his heartbeat against my skin. That, more specialized tea from Simon, and the hopeful promise of a dreamless sleep—thank you for that—and I allowed myself to fall into the arms of the night.

It took me a couple of days to find my way back into our sort of more regular routine; it was stupidly hard in ways I hadn’t remembered that being the case ever before. I wish the mere image of her in my mind didn’t do this to me, but it is what it is and there’s only so much I can honestly and actually do about things like these. It hadn’t happened before, and I can only hope that it won’t happen again. All I can do is go back to our usual routine and just do what I’ve always done.

With a little side dish of hoping for the best while I’m at it.

Final Word Count: 806

I’m not going to pretend that I’m not terrified, but… I’ve got to do this. Are you with me?

Timeline/World: Until Tomorrow – Foreign Songs
Current Date: August 13, 2022

Character: Neji Akiyama
Race: Human
Age: 35
Current residence: London, England
 

---

I know where my discomfort with women stems from but, when I look back at the situation, all I can do is wonder if there’s something I should be doing to get over it. It isn’t that it keeps me from living my life comfortably though I tend to side-step women when they are nearby, and it possibly is one more of the reasons why I appreciate living here, now.

I try not to think back to the horror that led to my discomfort with women. It used to be so much more than just discomfort. I remember how I used to be terrified of being anywhere near women and it made things more than a little complicated. Milliardo was stretched thin trying to keep me safe both physically and mentally. The latter was a huge strain on him, and I can never thank him enough.

I do remember when I had decided that I’d had enough. It wasn’t an instant decision, it took weeks of planning and weeks of trying to figure out the best options. I lost sleep over trying to fix myself because I hated seeing how tired my friend and bodyguard looked. I know that a lot of people I have come across often commented that I must have lived a pretty cozy life, not having to even think about anything out there since I had him with me. A lot of people seemed to assume that I sat back comfortably on my laurels and let him do everything else that might need doing.

It wasn’t because they saw me with my bodyguard at my side that I was not busy with work. These were the people whose paths I used to cross during the after-hours or the rare weekend I allowed myself to have. Brief time off in the middle of studying, or in the middle of residency. Those days were the hardest and it was at that time that I decided that I’d had enough.

I remember looking at him and how steady his gaze was as he looked right back at me.

I remember breathing in deep, even though that breath was shaky. I plastered on a smile that felt so fake he could tell and rolled his eyes at me. I told him that I wasn’t going to pretend that I wasn’t terrified, but it was time I did the thing in question. I had to. I couldn’t keep on living the way I did, it was burning that candle by both ends very rapidly for both of us.

I recall how I hesitated before asking him if he was with me on this big, drastic change that I was about to implement in my life and yes, he still rolled his eyes at me and reminded me that he was going to be at my side through thick and thin.

Milliardo isn’t just my bodyguard, that was what he used to be when we were younger but over the years he became so much more, the man is my oldest friend and I cherish this friendship we have. I cherish the fact that our lives have a lot less stress attached to them despite the fact that we work under someone whose name is so well known that he needs bodyguards of his own wherever he goes.

I have found peace in this house and, on the way to that house, I have found love. I never imagined that I would be able to feel love or to have it for myself. My parents were always so very focused on the fact that I had to focus on my studies, I had to be this workaholic who would make them proud, and I rarely had ever spared a thought to what I might ever do with my personal life, should I ever have one.

I have one now and I wouldn’t change a thing about it for the world.

Yes, there are days when you can feel how much testosterone there is going around the house when you consider that there is not a single woman around. It seems to be worse the rare times they bring in new staff for the security detail, the men are trying to find their place, they try to fit in, they discover a little more about the others who surround them and at times that new knowledge doesn’t sit well with them and they try to prove their manliness by being idiots.

I’ve seen it often enough in the years I’ve been here, but it hasn’t been all that common. They tried to find new men to add to the team when the twins were old enough to need it but otherwise, it’s been a comfortable journey and I’m glad I was here for it.

Final Word Count: 802

Sometimes I wish I knew what was going on in this town. Why is everything so cursed?

 
Timeline/World: Until Tomorrow – New York City
Characters: Neji Akiyama
Race: Human
Age: 34
Current residence: New York City Ruins, New York
Final Word Count: 767 words
 

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Even now, years later, people will complain about things. I think that, as more time passes on by and we settle further and further into living and even possibly so thriving, people will find excuses to complain about things.

It was easy to complain before the snow. Any little thing could have been at the source of an issue that deserved a complaint, or so some people seemed to think, in any case. I never really understood that. This isn’t unlike those people that used to complain about workers who possibly weren’t doing their jobs fast enough for someone or something. Those people made very little sense to me; they acted so entitled when they weren’t even remotely entitled at all.

I know that people complained while we were in the bunker, too. Once the shock of the snow passed; some seemed to settle into old habits. Oh, the food is not diverse enough. Oh, the rooms are bland; where’s the music at; I’m so bored. I’ve heard plenty of it. Several of the rooms around where we had been settled were filled with people that screamed entitlement to me. I tried not to focus on them too much but there were times when their voices just overtook everything else.

When we first got out of the bunkers and our world as we knew it was slowly being rebuilt, I think people just had too much to focus on to really complain. That, or being that we were stretched out over an open area, and I didn’t really have to think too much about what I might or not overhear, I just didn’t hear the complainers. That was fine by me.

As of the last few years, though, either I’m just realizing now that they were there all around and I hadn’t been paying attention—that is very possible—or people have just become comfortable enough with everything that’s going on that they’ve started to find excuses to complain about the smallest of things.

Just yesterday, I was helping with a bit of a medical issue and the patient in question—he was a patient, even if he was a complainer—kept on going off on tangents about how he couldn’t understand what was going on with the hub, he was dead certain that everything was cursed and it just made me shake my head because why is that even a thing? How can anything be cursed?

I mean, there are possibly plenty of different ways where one might be able to use the word ‘cursed’. He didn’t elaborate, I didn’t ask for him to elaborate and I certainly didn’t want to know but what I did know is that, yes, this had been his third or fourth visit to the little building that has been turned into a bit of a walk-in clinic for those in need, in about as many weeks. So, he’s been in once a week for a small issue for the past month or so.

Never the same issue; usually it’s a very mild sprain, the other time, from his files since we try to keep files, it was a pulled muscle in his shoulders. The first time, I believe he had himself a bruise the size of a grapefruit on his thigh and he never did tell us where it had come from. So, yes, sure, I can understand that he might somehow think this place is strange, but to call it cursed because he seems to be a rather clumsy one seems like one would be going a little far.

I’d like to think that I’ve gotten better over the years. When I was younger, I struggled with helping women, even in a medical sense, because of my bad history with one particularly crazy one. Now, when one crops up for help, I only have to steel myself a little and I can handle the visit with little fuss. Most of the time, when I can manage, I let someone else deal with them as need be but that’s not always a possibility, so I do what I have to.

You won’t hear me complain about it. What good would it do me? They know that I have some trouble with these things and whenever possible, they do make sure that most of my patients are male. It’s just one of those things and I’m grateful for them. Even if I end up having to treat a woman or two during the day, I am a doctor first and foremost and that’s all there is to that, in the end.

There’s very little that scares me, but losing you, tops the list.

 
Timeline/World: Through the Looking Glass – Atheria 2nd Generation
Characters: Neji Akiyama
Race: Human
Age: 81, physically about 29
Current residence: Atheria City, Eresiel
Final Word Count: 765 words
 

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It would be lies to claim that nothing scares me. Just as it would be stupid to claim that I know no harm will ever come to me. Living in this place, I am as safe as I will ever be. There is little for me to worry about, in terms of general things. If I get sick, I can go to the clinic, if I somehow miraculously get lost, I know they will find me. This life here, it is as safe as it might ever be to live a life just about anywhere.

That hardly means that I have no worries whatsoever. I always worry. I worry about our kids, I worry about the wonderful other half of my heart and soul, I worry about little, mindless things that require no worrying about whatsoever. It is in my blood to worry, I believe.

One thing I can claim without feeling as though I am lying is that despite it all, there only are a few things that really do scare me. Plenty worries me, but things that scare me? There isn’t a lot to it. I think that my analytical mind takes the ‘fun’ out of things that would scare other people. An unknown bug? I might be more tempted to try and figure out what it is than be afraid of it. A short somewhere and sparks in sight? Not so surprisingly, that might make my heart spike, but I’d still be more focused on making sure it was taken care of.

There is one thing that terrifies me, though. Losing Shai. That, right there, is at the absolute top of the list and yet, in a way, I know that it likely might never even happen. As I’ve mentioned, if we get hurt or sick? We can go to the clinic. If something happens, there’s usually a countermeasure in place to make sure that we’re fine, one way or another.

Death isn’t really in the cards, though I know that it might still come and that, there, is likely why it terrifies me, the idea of losing him. That fear is at the very top of the short list. Losing him, the kids, Miri, anyone on his side of the family. I don’t know that I would manage to hold myself together in any way if it were to happen.

It isn’t a recent discovery, that. I’ve known almost from the moment we met that there was something about him. As we grew closer, that something became a little clearer every day. The moment we were bonded, I knew without the shadow of a doubt that if it ever came to pass—that I would lose him—I would lose myself. It is the most terrifying thing that ever will be, as far as I’m concerned.

Losing our kids would come close second but I think I would at least mostly manage to keep to my feet; if I have Shai, I can manage anything. It will not be easy—nothing like that can ever be easy—but I would manage. It would take time, but we have all of the time in the world, do we not?

I used to have nightmares about losing him. I don’t even really know what triggered them. They just started at one point and slowly, over time, they faded. If I think back, long and hard, I figure I might be able to pinpoint them to a few months after people had trickled their way back into this place. A few months after we were reunited and the desperate need to make sure that it was all real had begun to fade. Those first few months were the hardest, every morning, I would wonder if things were real.

The reunion itself wasn’t a happy one, not really. Both Shai and Ed were in a bad place and I’m just grateful that the apartment I had been set to share with Miri was technically split in two, it gave these two time to settle and I think that I needed that time too. I took that time to drive into my mind that yes, they were back, yes, it was real, yes, they were staying.

We hadn’t exactly parted on a harsh note, that I recall. We just had parted. I don’t fully recall our reasons, other than they were gone on a tour and we mostly stayed near here. It’s so long ago now, things have changed, and I would wish for nothing more than our lives to keep going the way they are.

There are things I’m good at and then there’s this. That’s the best you’re getting out of me.

 
Timeline/World: Until Tomorrow – Foreign Songs
Characters: Neji Akiyama
Race: Human
Age: 34
Current residence: London, England
Final Word Count: 752 words
 

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It’s somewhat rare that I actually do leave the big house for long periods of time. It isn’t that I’m not allowed vacation time and I do appreciate being able to just sit back and not worry about anything. As a live-in doctor, there just are things that are expected of me, and I don’t know that I want to be out of the city if something were to happen and they would need me there.

I know that this isn’t really the best way to look at the situation and yes, once a year, I do take quiet residence in one of the two guest houses on the grounds. In that way, I am effectively still safe from what could harm me, and I am within reach if they have need, but it is technically time away and it suits me just fine.

As I was preparing for my upcoming week off—with company, thank you quite much—we had to head into the city proper to pick up a few food items. The guest house is usually kept stocked with non-perishables, but fresh items are always best and there are only so many meals of canned food that you can eat before you’re absolutely fed up with it all. Not that this really was a thing as I was growing up, I’m just saying, at this point.

There is a little market that I like to visit at any chance I get. It is an open-air thing and there just are so many different people from so many different places. I hadn’t expected to find this sort of thing out here under this somewhat cloudy skied world.

When we last stopped there, we paused at one particular stand where they were selling a few Asian food items that I hadn’t seen in quite some time and while I found myself engrossed in trying to figure out our menu, I also found myself overhearing an argument a few stalls off. I don’t know that anyone could have ignored that argument, they were being stupidly loud about it.

Even if I had wanted to ignore them, I don’t know that it would have done us any good. I don’t know if it was a woman arguing with her father, her husband, or even just a friend but her voice was the shrill one of the two, I could barely hear his replies.

Mind you, that has nothing to do with my issues with women. I’m sure I still would have found the whole thing out of place if it had been two men arguing, two women or a man doing the shouting instead of a woman. It was disruptive and I know we left the marketplace with less than we’d first planned.

No one cares to know that you’re good at things and less so at other things. So long as you give it your best, I don’t think it should matter. I know that I shouldn’t have let their arguing get to me, but it was frustrating, and I couldn’t even really focus on what I was looking at, once my mind focused on them instead of the stall.

As we left, I did notice that pretty much every stall keeper in the general area of this argument going on was looking uncomfortable. I can’t help but wonder if this isn’t the norm for whoever these two are. If it is, it will make coming back to the market later on very frustrating. Maybe I can figure out a time when they won’t be around. That would probably be my best option, at this point.

I try to avoid things like these as much as I can, even when I’m not the one involved in them. I don’t care for fighting like this and confrontation isn’t something I’m good at. Don’t get in my way if it concerns your health as this is something else entirely and I will hold my side of that not-argument until the end. I am not to be argued with when it comes to these matters.

It’s simple, really. I can keep myself fine and I always have a capped scalpel in my things. I can and will hold my own when it comes to matters of health but arguments like the ones that happened in the market and feel moot? I will get as far away from them as I can and that, as fast as possible. They leave a terrible taste in my mouth.

By the way you’re avoiding my eyes, one would think you’re lying to me.

 
Timeline/World: Through the Looking Glass – Atheria 2nd Generation
Characters: Neji Akiyama
Race: Human
Age: 81, physically about 29
Final Word Count: 713 words
 

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Life isn’t always fair. It isn’t always right. It isn’t always going to be about what’s right and what wrong. There is no black and white. There is so much grey all around that, at times, you think one thing might be this particular shade of grey but it ends up being another.

Growing up, my life wasn’t like that. Had it been like that, I think I might have had an easier time of things in general. Maybe my issues with women wouldn’t have been half as bad as they turned out to be and, in turn, it is very likely that I would have been able to be closer to Yuuki as he grew up.

Things are better now, of course, but they weren’t always this way and no amount of longing to fix the past will get it fixed up. At the very least, as far as I can think back on it, I never had to sit down either one of my sons, have them look me in the eye and tell me the truth about one thing or another they might have been hiding from me.

I’ve been through things like these with my own parents and it was never pleasant. I never had anything to lie about but being in the presence of my mother felt like an overwhelming thing and I never actually could look her in the eye. In turn, she took this avoidance as a sign that I was lying to her. I remember her fingers digging into my shoulders while she got in my face about how, by avoiding her eyes, I was clearly lying to her. This happened so often, it might very well be at the original source of my issues with women in general though I’ve never had very good luck with what some call the ‘fairer’ sex.

I might have blamed myself often, as Yuuki went through his teens. I thought that maybe, by keeping him from dressing however he wanted, I had fundamentally changed him and, well my head was a mess and it took plenty of time with the head doc to get me back into a place where I was actually and rightfully so comfortable with my life.

I tried so hard. At times, I think I might have tried too hard but then, on other days, it was like I hadn’t tried nearly hard enough. There was no easy way to balance things. There was no clear right or wrong. It was just us. Parents doing the best job they could, even if it didn’t feel as if it was quite enough, at times.

I can’t even look back and laugh at my behaviour, not really. I know that it is possible to look back and laugh, realizing that you had clearly been acting like a complete idiot but while I have made a lot of progress about everything so far, I don’t know that I’ll ever be able to chuckle at my own expense, not really.

Does that mean that I’m a broken man still? I don’t know. In a way, I truly don’t believe myself to be broken, not in a way I used to be. I will never be perfect; I don’t think perfection is even something that can be achieved, no matter what some might think. What I do believe is that I am now trying to be the best I can. I rely on Shai to remind me that I am only human. That I have done what I could and while it wasn’t always the best of choices, I am allowed to make mistakes, so long as I am willing to accept those mistakes and better them.

I will not repeat my past. I will not ask to turn back time so I can be someone my youngest can look up to. It wouldn’t change. I still would be as I am and there’s no helping that. If I am loved as I am, faults and all, I should be able to love myself quite the same and that is my final goal, in the end. I want to be able to look at my reflection and tell myself that I am just fine as I am.

I’m getting there.

Aren’t you supposed to be convincing me not to do this? Well, hey, if you’re not going to stop me, you might as well join.

 
Timeline/World: Until Tomorrow – Foreign Songs
Characters: Neji Akiyama
Race: Human
Age: 34
Final Word Count: 745 words
 

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There was a pit stop, between my leaving the family home and making it to the Matsuya house. There actually were several pit stops. Most of them, I’m quite certain, Milliardo would have preferred to not have to deal with. I don’t blame him. Most of those very pit stops were in unsavoury places but they were no worse than the area we’d left. The only difference was that we had left the ‘safety’ of my father’s area and had entered territory that was, in no way, affiliated with him.

All in all, it wasn’t terrible but the pit stops weren’t great either. I had to offer my services a few times during those stops and I think that it was at these times that Miri felt I was the most vulnerable but I’d like to believe otherwise. If I have to defend myself and I have a scalpel on hand, I am not to be trifled with. I may look and act as though I am completely harmless but those who have to know the truth do.

One particular stop, just before we were well on our way to London, was in a slightly cleaner area though it wasn’t a good place, nonetheless. I remember helping one of my father’s men who had been very far from his own territory. He kept on giving me quiet looks as I stitched him up and, eventually, he asked me why I wasn’t trying to convince him to not keep on doing what he was. I only quirked a brow in askance and he just shrugged. I assumed that he must have thought that since I was from the Akiyama household, that it somehow was my duty to keep him in line. It wasn’t.

When I didn’t add to the conversation, only finished the securing on my stitches, he seemed to brighten up, telling me that if I wasn’t going to stop him, I was better off actually joining him. It was Miri’s quiet snort that made the idiot fall quiet. He hunched his shoulders, mumbled an apology and nearly tried to move away before I was fully done with him. It only took a quick look from yours truly to make sure he stayed seated until I was done.

I never learned his name, not that I was interested to. He was just one face among so many others that I’ve crossed during my life back in Japan.

It was strange to get on that plane, to leave the place where I’d grown up, to find my way into a much gloomier life than I’d ever known. Not that it was a bad thing, not really. I like London. It doesn’t get all the sun Japan does, nor does it get the same weather, but I’ve been here so long, now, that I don’t know that I’d want to go back to Japan. This is home.

Of course, home comes with the fact that I do have to take care of these folks, the rare times they need it. I think I’ve seen the boys more often than I’ve seen anyone else since I’ve come to live here. They grow up so fast, these two. It’s hard to believe they’re already nine. It still feels like yesterday that they were tiny little things, dozing in their fathers’ arms.

Where does time go?

As I see it, however, is that unless I am released from my duties, this is my place until the end of my years. I am at home here. It may not be the safest of professions but I believe there would be a lot more stress to my life if I had kept to my job back in Japan and around my father. There would have been many more visitors to my office and yet, the stores would have always been the same.

I made my choice by coming here. That this choice has given me all it has so far is something I cherish. Had I not made the choices I did, I never would have met Jonothan, nor would Milliardo have met Eduardo. They’re my family, these three. I’ve learned to be myself in a way that I don’t think I could ever have been, if I had stayed back as my father would have liked. I would have likely been made to find a wife and father a few children.

The thought makes me queasy, I’d rather not.

This is home.

You’re the only one who can make a lecture fun. Were you even trying?

 
Timeline/World: Until Tomorrow – New York City
Characters: Neji Akiyama
Race: Human
Age: 32
Final Word Count: 709 words
 

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With all the snow that had piled up when we were first picked up from the place that we’d called safe during the storm, I suppose it’s not all that surprising that knowing exactly where we were was one of those things that wasn’t really all that important.

Sure, there were landmarks, there were familiar buildings but, as someone who didn’t wander the city all that much, I was familiar with my area, the area around the school and the area around work. So being told that this or that building was around X or Y street meant little to me.

Once the snow melted and more buildings started to be visible, as somehow the bunker had been in an area that didn’t have many overly tall buildings, I still couldn’t tell where we were exactly and it didn’t bother me. Nothing from my past life had survived this snow but the three other men I knew I needed in my life, so why fuss about where we potentially were?

A few weeks ago, one of the scavenging teams came back with a load of books, however. They weren’t the usual library book fare, by the looks of them, they were closer to school books, with questions and answers at the back and the rest; when asked they said they’d found a series of buildings that just barely peeked above the floor of vines and tangled lianas. The place had looked more dorms than anything else though there had been common areas and that’s where the books had come from. I can’t remember that there might have been schools with a minimal number of floors around the city but the place was so huge that it was possible. That or, well, the buildings had collapsed with the snow as well.

Those books, though, they brought back memories of my time at school. Not all of that time was bad time; I’m not going to lie and refuse to admit that there were a few times when I did enjoy my time out there. There used to be one lecture where the professor was quite liked by all students, he made it easy for everyone to understand what was being taught and everyone always seemed like they were in a hurry to get to his class for something interesting to enjoy.

One of the last classes I remember having with him, though, it wasn’t all fun and games, not on that day. He also never came back and it broke my heart that we all parted from that class on a bit of a sour note. It was clear that he wasn’t feeling very good, his lecturing suffered some but it still wasn’t terrible. By the end of the class, a slightly older student who seemed to have been on quite friendly terms with the professor approached him and told him that only he could make lectures fun but this one had been lacking. The words had all been said in jest but the professor, oh he just broke down and cried. It came to be such an awkward moment for everyone still left in the classroom.

He eventually calmed down enough to state that there had been a death in his family, someone he had been close to but he hadn’t been able to find anyone to replace him to teach his classes as it had been last minutes and so he’d come. The student apologized profusely, of course, and it was left at that. The few others of us that still had been left offered him our condolences as we filed out and it was a really sombre affair.

It was near the end of my schooling at that point, though I still had a couple of months left; he never did come back
and I always wondered a little bit about what might have happened to him. I hold no illusions that he survived the snow, though that came a fair bit later but still. I think I would have seen him at this point, had this been the case.

I did have a quick look at the schooling books they brought back, but nothing in there truly held my attention, so I let others have a chance at them.

I’ll be honest. I haven’t listened to a word you’ve said.

 
Timeline/World: New York City – Surviving Earth
Characters: Neji Akiyama
Race: Human
Age: 31
Final Word Count: 638 words
 

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There are days when he wishes he could slap sense into people. This life, this end-of-days and renewal, this change to everything he’d ever known, he’s done all he could to adapt to it but clearly, some have adapted even better or, in the case of the man who came to him just a day ago, they changed so much that they’ve gone back to the way they were before the snow even started.

He still was young when that snow started, or well, young enough. He’d already seen his share of ugly things and the scars he hid from most but a select few spoke of some of the horror stories he’d lived through. Women still made him uncomfortable but he could handle their presence from a distance. Miri still was never overly far from his side and he was grateful for the other man’s presence.

It was and still is Shai’s presence that soothes him best and it was indeed his partner that he sought out after having had to deal with the man who had come to him after being directed his way. The man had started complaining of a recurring headache even before he’d stepped into the little room but the moment he did and had set his gaze on his doctor for that day, he’s clammed up.

Neji had offered him a seat on the little chair and had asked him for more details but still the main refused to talk, even going so far as to stare into a corner of the little room. Going off of what he’d heard from the man before he’d even stepped into the room, Neji tried to explain the possible reasons behind the headache, but without having any extra information, he didn’t feel as though there was much he could do or say about it all.

After a few moments of talking, clearly to thin air, the man finally got back up, muttered something about not having listened to a single word spoken and left without uttering another word more.

Staring after the departing man, he quietly wondered as to the reason but chalked it up to a care of possible racism or even just idiocy. The man certainly wasn’t the first who would have issues with someone of colour dealing with anything relating to his health and he wouldn’t be the last. The world had ended and taken with it the vast majority of the population but bigots remained.

After that particular not-quite appointment, Neji had turned his little sign away, stating that in case of emergencies, he could be reached at his building, but otherwise, he’d be back the following day as necessary. At that point, all he needed was some quiet time with his companion, his life and love. Spending time with Shai always helped loosen the knot of anxiety that settled in him when faced with things like these.

That anxiety was mild, not enough to keep him from working but letting it grow and get worse would eventually render him unable to even do the simplest of tasks so dealing with it on a daily basis seemed the best of options.

The likely reasons for the man clamming up are many and once Neji had stepped back into the little place he shared with Shai and called home, he made himself let it all go. It didn’t matter if it was because of his skin colour or the fact that he wore his hair long. It didn’t matter if it was because he might have had ‘gay’ stamped somewhere on his forehead and somehow that triggered the man.

None of it mattered. He was home and a cup of tea and some settling close and personal to his one most important person were the only things that mattered.