After Story: Dyed in His Color
WHILE preparing for their move to Fosdan, Yuuri occasionally returned to the shop to pack up.
After she left, Simon would take it over, but she still wanted to bring her clothes and mementos of her grandparents.
Ernest and Simon often came along to help.
“Wow, look! This brings back memories.” Simon held up a box he had found while organizing the supply closet.
“The spinning tops? Those really do bring back memories.”
It was a toy from Hinomoto. The box contained several different tops and the cords necessary to spin them.
One day, Simon had snuck away from home and come to play at his grandparents’ house. He had left his tops there that day and there they had remained.
It had only been half a year since the siblings had started to repair their relationship. Their mother’s adverse reaction to them spending time together had pushed Yuuri away from any kind of relationship with her brother and father. That icy gaze her mother gave her had forced her to seal away her happy memories with Simon, as he shared their mother’s grey-blue eyes.
Her relationship with her mother had not changed, and it never would. But her relationship with Simon was slowly but surely getting better. While the memories of her pain would never fade, she at least had stopped associating everything her mother did with Simon.
That was all thanks to Simon’s kindness and Ernest’s presence.
“Oh, that looks fun! How do you play?”
Ernest had been sitting in his usual spot, reading the paper. But now his eyes shifted to the spinning top Simon was holding with great interest. He had genuinely intended to help with the cleanup, but his curiosity kept getting the better of him and he would get easily distracted. He had questions about everything he found and ultimately, Yuuri deemed him a nuisance.
But to him, the witch’s shop was like a fantastic toy box, full of treasures from a far away land. It was of course different for Simon, who had spent a lot of time in Xingka and Hinomoto, and Yuuri, who had received so many gifts from the East over the years from him.
“We compete to see who can get them to spin the longest. Alternatively, you can have the tops fight to see whose top can knock the other’s over.”
Simon wound the thin thread around his top and let it go with gusto. The harder one pulled the string, the faster the top spun.
“That’s interesting. Here, let me try!”
Ernest grabbed a spinning top and cord out of the wooden box and copied Simon’s movements. He let the top fly. But his top barely got one good spin in before toppling over on the floor
“Just because this is a child’s toy doesn’t mean the game is easy. Here, watch me. You can’t just let it fall like that.”
His face awash with pride, Simon patiently gave Ernest a thorough explanation of how to play the game.
“You have to wind it up good like this. It’s like you’re winding up a clock. If you don’t put enough force behind it, it’s going to fall over.”
He wound his own top as he explained. When he let it go, it swept about the floor in whirlwind patterns.
Ernest listened intently to Simon’s instructions and then picked up the top again. He released it much quicker this time, letting the top fly.
“Like this?”
The second time was a success. His top slammed into Simon’s, which was still spinning even as they clashed.
The two men completely lost sight of why they were even here.
“Oh, Simon, not you too. I thought you came to help me? Or did you just come to play with toys?”
Yuuri wondered how grown men could still be so childish. But the sight of them both crouched on the floor, spinning tops, made her smile.
Her grandfather had been the same way. He had been fascinated with the very top that Simon was playing with now. Memories of her childhood came flooding back.
Not long ago, Yuuri would have tried to shake off any memories of her grandmother and grandfather. They brought nothing but sorrow and longing for a distant past. However, knowing that she had someone by her side who supported and loved her enabled her to change, slowly but surely.
She knew she had the two men who were gleefully spinning tops to thank for that.
“Sorry, but we have to finish this match first.”
That match was unlikely to end anytime soon.
From the very first time they met, the two young men in her life had been at odds. Or rather, Simon had a one-sided grudge against Ernest. But it made her happy to see that her brother was getting along so well with the man who was to become her husband.
“What is it, Yuuri?” Simon noticed her gaze and tilted his head quizzically
“I was just admiring how well you two are getting along. You really are like brothers.”
“Simon was just being protective because you had brought another man around. It wasn’t personal.”
“I still hate your flippant manner. Argh, why do I keep losing!”
Maybe they weren’t exactly as close as Yuuri hoped. Then again, brothers tended to fight. Either way, she went back to cleaning and packing.
The first floor was almost completely cleaned out, so all that remained was the second floor, where her bedroom was.
The only clothes left in her bedroom were her winter clothes. But she knew that eventually, she would need them, so it was best to grab everything and store it at the Selden manor for now.
She opened the paulownia bureau and checked inside. This bureau had been brought over from Hinomoto, so it also contained many things Simon had given her.