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The house that the Shinju-dan had allowed Nobori to use was modest, but as someone completely unknown to them (as well as himself), it was far more than he could have ever hoped to ask for. Since he had no belongings upon his arrival except the clothes he wore, the house was positively ample in terms of storage space. Sometimes, for fun, he would change the location he stored his coat and hat while he was home, and made elaborate decorations with the pokéballs of the pokémon he was planning to travel with the next day. He could tell the pokémon enjoyed it, and so he made sure to always pick fun designs.
He also didn’t really spend much time there, either patrolling through even the harshest conditions, or being posted at the Training Grounds of Kotobuki. He sometimes ate meals there, when he wasn’t invited out by his clan, and slept there. It was lit by lantern but he usually wasn’t awake much past the dark unless he was returning from a late night patrol.
However, now, he had a guest! The Man in White from his dreams, who he now remembered as Kudari, had appeared before him. Of course there was no doubt that he would bring Kudari into his home – he could not burden the Shinju-dan further with a request for yet another house and Kudari needed a fine place to stay. He would have thought as much even if Kudari was only his brother, but feelings he’d long struggled to understand now had their recipient again. To be blunt, Kudari made his heart flutter in the most pleasant of ways, and he couldn’t begin to imagine living separately from him again. Kudari immediately reciprocated, even telling Nobori that it had been that way for over a decade! Nobori was glad he’d been so lucky in his former life, to have a close and dedicated love that had found him once more.
Kudari always smiled and allowed Nobori to give him a short (very short) tour of the home that Nobori had been staying in. Nobori could feel his face flush in joy when Kudari corrected him to ‘our home,’ and all he could manage in the moment was to agree gently. Kudari sat his coat and hat next to wherever Nobori placed his, and Nobori had to admit it looked much better than his outer wear sitting there alone. Though, at the time, he also thought that maybe Kudari deserved a place for his things that didn’t require waiting on Nobori to place his own.
Kudari’s positivity remained no matter what they were doing. He seemed deeply unfamiliar with the methods of cooking that Nobori used, but he sat close to the fire and offered assistance whenever Nobori made them dinner. Kudari often expressed his desire to help more, but he could stir and chop and go outside to gather herbs as compliments to their dishes. After having been by himself for so long, this was easily halving the amount of effort Nobori had previously had to employ. Plus, he enjoyed simply having companionship while he ate in their home. Eating with others before was usually the result of going somewhere else – no one came to Nobori’s home for a meal before. In fact, Nobori enjoyed it so much, that they began taking a break during their patrols to return home for lunch.
One night, Kudari wasn’t feeling well and went to bed a little earlier than Nobori; after Nobori remembered the exact nature of their relationship, they had started to head to bed at the same time, though not always for sleep. Nobori’s bedding was not the most impressive, but he’d managed to requisition a futon for Kudari and they placed them close together. Kudari, of course, wanted to learn exactly how to set up and put away his futon; he picked it up so quickly and smiled so brightly when Nobori complimented his skill.
Nobori wasn’t yet tired, and after he’d finished some potato mochi, he decided to check in on Kudari. When he knelt by his sweet twin, he was troubled with the sight he found. Kudari was shivering in his sleep, curled up on his side with eyebrows furrowed. Wasting no time, Nobori stood up and retrieved the blanket for Kudari’s futon. Without disturbing him, Nobori gently spread the soft blanket over Kudari, sighing in relief when Kudari’s features smoothed out. Sitting back into seiza, Nobori took a moment to assess their home. If he thought about it, it was a bit cold.
Actually, the more he considered it, the more he realized it was more than just a bit cold. It was rather early in the year to be this temperature, wasn’t it? Standing, Nobori went to stoke the fire, considering if it had always been like this in the house or if they were simply experiencing a cold snap. Now that it was at the forefront of his thoughts, had he simply been tolerating it this whole time?
He had, hadn’t he? Before Kudari’s arrival, some small part of him had always felt as though his amnesia was a punishment of some sort. His complete and total lack of context for his life before coming to Hisui left him with little to piece together. He could assume he was a good man even back then, but wouldn’t everyone want to believe that about themselves? If he was truly brought here by a deity level pokémon without being given a purpose like Shou, then didn’t that lend itself to the idea that he was being punished? In that case, then of course he should struggle through uncomfortable circumstances in penance.
Kudari, though… No matter what Nobori thought of himself, there was no way that Kudari had ever done something worthy of requiring penance. He was kind and gentle, capable and friendly. Kudari was also more charitable than Nobori; while Nobori had lost his patience with Tsubaki (going so far as to tell someone he thought the warden was causing trouble for others), Kudari merely laughed and joked around with the trouble-making young man.
They had already begun making changes to the way Nobori had let himself live. Simply taking the time for a lunch instead of only eating dinner or when others brought him along was an example. Nobori didn’t go to bed as early anymore either, since he had Kudari’s companionship even after the darkness fell. Instead of always scrounging for the right herbs, they had started a small garden outside; located close enough that even when his back hurt, Nobori could go out and find what he needed. Kudari had insisted on putting medicinal herbs in the garden too, so even Nobori’s back pain wasn’t as frequent anymore. Nobori, simply put, felt better overall.
But that was for Nobori’s sake. Nobori had been here a long time now, and the chances to get used to the hardships had been plentiful. He’d grown to tolerate quite a bit, with the scars to prove it, but Kudari didn’t have to deal with that the way he did. Kudari had scars of his own, but they didn’t match the roughly healed scars that were all across Nobori’s body. For the briefest moment, Nobori felt ashamed for how differently his scars marked up his skin compared to the well healed ones on Kudari’s body. But Kudari had simply embraced him, and all worries that Kudari found it off-putting had ceased.
For him, Nobori would do anything. Starting small with improving their home was the easiest. But, Nobori wondered if maybe it was time to return to finding a way home. When he’d first arrived in Hisui, he’d desperately wanted to leave once he was healed up enough to get out of his hospital bed. The very day he was able to, he began exploring to find a way home. He couldn’t get very far at first, but expanded his searchable area little by little. Luckily, he proved himself quite capable at working with pokémon, and that allowed him to travel outwards even farther.
Over time, however, the hope that it was possible to find his way home began to dwindle and diminish in his heart. The wish to return to where he’d come from never disappeared, but the belief that it was something he could be capable of? It hardly felt like an attainable goal. He didn’t seem to be from this region at all, so it wasn’t so simple as finding a proper route. No, it seemed his fall from the sky was quite literal, and not a matter of being pulled up into a storm.
Kudari’s arrival showed there was still a link to where he’d come from, which had bolstered his resolve quite substantially. Living with Kudari here in Hisui was hardly a bad thing, especially if they could improve their home, but wouldn’t it be nice if they could go back to their original home? If Kudari’s stories were anything to go by, the differences in their home compared to here was like an entirely different era! It astounded Nobori to believe that he could come from a place as technologically advanced as Kudari claimed, but he was eager to return and see if he remembered anything more.
Checking on Kudari once again, it was a relief to find him no longer shivering. With how peacefully he was sleeping now, Nobori couldn’t help but reach out and pet his hair. With a soft murmur, Kudari turned towards his touch. Nobori’s heart squeezed at how cute he was, and decided maybe it was time for bed after all. Changing into his sleepwear, Nobori climbed into their makeshift large futon next to Kudari. Without waking up, Kudari scooted closer to him, and Nobori wrapped him in an embrace. Whispering a little apology to Kudari for bringing the cold into the futon, he kissed his twin’s forehead, chuckling softly as Kudari muttered incomprehensibly back.
If Kudari was better in the morning, they could discuss what they would do from here together. If Kudari was getting sick, Nobori would tend to him as he told his younger twin about his plans, and then go into town to get him a treat. Either way, he would do his best to improve Kudari’s life the way Kudari had improved his.