Chapter Text
Tanuma blinks, looking taken aback. Takashi is only brave enough to hold his eyes for a few seconds before he goes back to staring at his hands.
“That can happen?” Tanuma finally asks, breaking the weighted silence with his soft, careful voice. “You can — lose your sight?”
“I guess so,” Takashi hedges. There’s a sick pit in his stomach at the thought, and he tries to ignore it, but he’s been trying for days now and he can’t. “I know it should be a relief — to think that one day I might be normal — “
But it’s not.
He would still have Nyanko-sensei in his lucky cat form, maybe, if he chose to stay— but all of Takashi’s friends in Yatsuhara would disappear to him.
The lonely spirits he meets, the lost bodies looking for home or rest or peace, the wavering, wandering, wistful souls that scared him as a child and make sad sense to him now —
They would all be gone.
And sometimes — sometimes — Takashi wouldn’t have anything if he didn’t have them.
Maybe this family won’t keep him, maybe this class won’t like him, but there will always be someone to talk to. He’s never truly been alone in the world, not truly, not when ghosts have been his constant companions for as long as he can remember.
Tanuma’s hand covers his own, startling Takashi into looking up at him. His dark eyes are warm, unfailingly gentle, and he looks at Takashi like he’s seeing right through him.
Heart in his throat, Takashi clutches at Tanuma’s hand. He’s blinking back tears, staring out at the fishpond in the yard. It’s usually soothing, but now he has to wonder what he would look at if it was gone.
“Even if you lost the sight, it’s not like you’d never see them again,” Tanuma points out, his voice much lighter than his expression. “Taki would be happy to draw circles for you whenever you asked. I’m learning how to draw them, too.”
It’s Takashi’s turn to be taken aback. Tanuma smiles.
“I know it’s not the same, but it wouldn’t be so bad, would it? It would be like going for a visit. Like how Shibata comes to see you every now and then. He can’t be here all the time, because you live too far apart, but he’s still your friend. Even when you can’t see him, he isn’t gone.”
He’s never thought of it like that. The icy fingers around his lungs loosen a little, enough that it’s a bit easier to breathe.
“No matter what happens, you won’t be alone,” Tanuma presses on, stubborn despite his softness. “You’ll never be alone. I know it’s hard to believe, but maybe someday I’ll convince you.”
Takashi is saved answering by the fat little body that comes waddling through the bushes toward them. Nyanko-sensei heaves himself up onto the porch with a grunt.
“What are you brats over here muttering about?” he demands. Takashi can’t help but smile at him, petting him with his free hand.
“I thought you went drinking with the chuukyuu, Ponta,” Tanuma says, accepting the interruption without another word.
“Next time,” the lucky cat says, and that’s all he says, settling in for a nap in the late afternoon sun.
He’s a warm weight against Takashi’s knee, and his rumbling purr is familiar, and sandwiched between him and Tanuma, Takashi can’t hold onto fear.