The waning moon hung high in the sky, the sounds of people clearing out the rubble having faded for the evening, but for a handful of places.

No matter how much you might want to help with the clean-up and restoration after the earthquake, if you were a vampire, you would have to wait for the sun to set.

 

The sun had set about an hour ago and Shutaro, Suwa and Takeuchi had been clearing out things since, trying to salvage anything that was left underneath the fallen building where Shutaro had lived ever since he became a vampire.

They’d already found Takeuchi’s lab almost right after the earthquake, having salvaged the wings he’d built from it so Shutaro could save Aoi, so they only needed to dig out everything else to see what hadn’t been crushed.

 

Shutaro lifted a large piece of what had once been a floor off the ground, setting it to the side in a pile of similar pieces. Beneath it was Takeuchi’s desk, the top of it cracked in the middle where another large piece of rubble had landed.

Most of the drawers on the left were completely flattened, but the bottom drawer was only partially crushed, and he could pull the front off to reach inside of it. His fingers came in contact with something that felt like a book. Pulling it out, he realised it was a photo album. When he lifted it up, shards of glass fell to the ground.

“Takeuchi-san, I found your desk,” he called out. “Almost everything is broken, though.” He stood up, walking over to where Takeuchi was rummaging through everything he’d had on the floor in the next room over. Or what remained of said room.

“This is the only thing that’s mostly okay,” he said, handing the album over to Takeuchi.

Takeuchi flipped it open, and though the photos were covered in dust from the fallen building, they were mostly intact.

As another shard of glass fell out, Takeuchi flipped to the last page of the album. Between the last page and the back cover was a sheet of silver-plated copper that had been encased in glass until now. It was an old photo, so old it predated the use of paper photographs. In it was a man and a woman, dressed in formal wear as the woman sat on a chair, the man in the photo resting his hand on her shoulder. There was something uncomfortable about the image that Shutaro couldn’t put his finger on.

Takeuchi noticed his curiosity, turning it over so he could see it from the right side up.

“It’s my wedding photo.”

 

Shutaro’s head snapped up, and he stared at Takeuchi with wide eyes. “You were married?” He turned his eyes back to the photo, taking in the details of it. The man really didn’t look anything like Takeuchi, at all.

“A long time ago, yes. Technically, I suppose I still am, depending on if he’s still alive.”

It took him a few seconds for his brain to register just what Takeuchi had said. “He?”

He stared at Takeuchi, surprise evident on his face. “But- what?”

Takeuchi leaned closer, a gloved finger pointing to the woman in the photo. “That’s me.”

Shutaro’s eyes moved back and forth between Takeuchi and the photograph rapidly. If it hadn’t been pointed out to him, he never would have guessed. He looked completely different.

“You were… a woman?”

“Used to be, yes. Though I never felt like one, I just never knew why until I got older.”

Shutaro considered his words, taking them in as he looked back down at the photo. Really, the only thing that looked the same was the curly hair.

He heard Suwa’s footsteps behind him, and then he was leaning against Takeuchi, standing on top of a pile of rubble so he could rest an arm on top of Takeuchi’s head.

“Oh, you’re looking at that.”

Takeuchi ran his finger across a crack in the glass. He was going to have to replace it. “I was a terrible wife,” he said with a laugh. “I kept going out to a laboratory in the next town over instead of doing housework. Left for Edo without even giving him any children.”

His words made Shutaro feel that unease again. “That can’t have been the only thing wanted of you, could it?” It had been a long time ago, decades before he’d even been born, and he had never really asked his grandparents what life had been like when they were young.

“Oh no, he was a decent man, even if our marriage was arranged. My parents however were always disappointed in me.” He flipped through a few empty pages before reaching the latest photo that had been added to the album. A photo of Shutaro and Yamagami during one of their many games of chess, taken just a few weeks ago.

It made Shutaro’s chest ache.

“You, um, did your family ever come looking for you?” he asked, looking at the photographs as Takeuchi flipped through it. There was the photo that had been taken right after he and Yamagami had joined Zero, and he stared at the discomfort in his own face. He’d only been a vampire for a week or so, and had still struggled with the adjustment. Still was, but not to the same degree.

“They did, but by then I had changed my name and cut my hair off and dyed it, so they didn’t really recognise me when we passed each other.” Takeuchi looked up at him, amusement in his eye. “You never noticed? You’ve seen me naked in the baths plenty of times, haven’t you?”

He could feel his face burn. “I um, try not to look too closely at other people when they’re bathing.”

Suwa scoffed. “Can’t believe a soldier would be so precious about nudity.”

Shutaro hid his face in his hands. “Can we please not talk about that?” he begged. He’d been teased about it enough when he’d still been a regular soldier.

Takeuchi let out a chuckle. “Of course.” He flipped through a few pages until he reached the one he was looking for. “Want to see Suwa-san attempt to ride a bicycle?”

Suwa quickly snatched the album out of Takeuchi’s hands, before Shutaro could catch a glimpse of it. He shut the album and put it in the bag where he’d been collecting things that weren’t beyond repair.

Takeuchi stifled a laugh, leaning in closer to Shutaro, even though Suwa’s sharp ears would hear him regardless. “I’ll show it to you later,” he promised with a whisper, completely ignoring Suwa’s ‘no you won’t’.

Suwa would have to return the album eventually.

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