Nobu POV
Today was another dreary and wet day. The rain was coming down in bucket loads almost as though whatever almighty form was up there was angry with the world if there even is one.
I was walking around a neighbouring town with my small entourage as the rain came down. I looked up to the sky and held out my hand feeling the large droplets splatter against the back of my hand and roll off my fingers.
"We will turn back, we cannot continue the inspection in this weather" I told my men and they all agreed with whatever I had to say as they always did. On our way back, we passed a small village and inside that village was a family consisting of a mother and a father and a son and daughter, all were playing out in the rain.
I could tell that they did not have much to their name but their smiles were the biggest and brightest I'd ever seen, second only to my fireball of course.
After slowly and carefully heading back to Azuchi, my men insisted I take a bath to staff off any illness that might come my way. I agreed to shut them up and sank myself in the water.
While I was resting with the water up to my neck I suddenly thought back to the family I had seen earlier that day and I couldn't get them off my mind. How could they smile so wide when they were as poor as a church mouse.
I had never been given the opportunity to play like that as a child, my days were full of politics and training from the moment I could walk. It's not that I wish I could have been as free as though children but it seems to me like people who do not have much are usually happier with their family than lords would be with their children, it must come down to that they do not have anything but each other. I could almost be envious of them.
Even though my body was warm, I could not feel it.
I got dressed and heading towards Y/n's room. When I opened the screen door, she was immersed in sewing a kimono, the concentration lines in between her eyes were proof of that.
I sat down leisurely and watched her expert hands and the expressions flittering across her face. She truly was a master at her craft.
Suddenly she noticed me with a start and put down her equipment. "Nobunaga!, I didn't see you come in, when did you get here?" clearly she was startled and it was quite adorable to see her so flustered at my sudden appearance.
"I have been here for quite some time now" I answered letting my eyes bore into hers, her reactions were so much fun.
She looked around nervously, everywhere but me. "W..what about your inspection?, wasn't that today?" she asked me and I decided to tell her the truth
"I cancelled it because of the rain and there is nothing else on my schedule today as it was supposed to last all day" I leaned towards her and placed my hand on her warming cheek "so I'm going to spend the whole day with you"
"Oh. Let me just finish this kimono and then I'll be right with you, it's imperative that I get it done by today" she admitted. Fine by me, I'm sure I can find something to keep myself occupied until she is done.
I looked around her room and my eyes settled on the bag she had brought with her from her time.
She saw me looking at it so she picked it up and plopped it down in my lap with a thump. "Here, look through this"
My eyes lit up and my curiosity was peaked, she giggled at this much to my displeasure. She picked her sewing implements back up and the concentration was clear on her face yet again.
I did not struggle with the zip this time as she had called it the first time I had looked through this bag of hers. I pawed through the contents and pulled a few items that I was already familiar with and laid them on the floor. One of those items was a rectangle made from a reflective surface that I could only describe as out of this world.
Among the other contents that were in her bag, I could see multiple of an object I had often seen her tie her hair back with, the marker as she had called it that she had marked me with at my birthday a couple years ago was also part of the collection. I fondly recalled the memories at that birthday when she had told me of her desire to live along side me for a long time.
The rest of the items were ones I had not yet looked at. There was some other rectangle made of a paper I thought, much more efficient than using scrolls. Next, I pulled out a square which opened, made from the same kind of material that we had recently started using to make our armour out of, leather as the nanban had called it. It was fascinating to think that this material was so useful that they would still be using it in her time.
I used my fingers to pry it open and a white square fell out of it and floated to the floor. Y/n stopped sewing and looked over at me as I went to pick it up.
When I turned it over in my hand I could see three people on this paper. I was taken aback by this. How did they get these people on this paper?. Y/n told me it was called a photo and that in her time and for over a century before that they could replicate people onto this paper using something called a camera.
I know her time is far ahead of my own so knowing that they can replicate people so perfectly for posterity does not even surprise me.
On this paper were three people sitting on some kind of clothed chair. On the right was a middle-aged man who reminded me oddly of my own father and on the left was a woman with slightly greying hair and who looked a lot like Y/n but older with a few obvious wrinkles. In the middle was a young girl holding the hands of the two people beside her.
I took a closer look at the photograph as she had called it and recognised someone. It was Y/n albeit a younger version of her but this girl was undoubtedly my fireball. I thrilled at the opportunity to see Y/n in her adolescence years
All her features were still there but now they were more pronounced. She still had a baby face but not as much as in this photograph.
I took a longer glance at the others on the photograph. This must be her parents. I wish I could greet them formally.
While I was eagerly peering at this photograph, Y/n was watching me silently.
I flipped over the paper and on the back was some writing scrawled in a neat hand. Our ways of writing were very different but I could make out what it said. It read '20XX Family Photo'. Yet again I was reminded how vastly different and widely apart our times are.
Y/n looked at me just then and leaned over my shoulder to get a closer look but I didn't miss her expression of sadness in the corner of my eye. Of course, she misses them: her home, the people she met there.
Y/n went on to tell me that she had an assessment to test her knowledge of history the day after this photo was taken.
"My mother was a big believer in educational trips, not that it ever sunk in though" she told me staring fondly at the photo. "I think I was about 14 at that time and my mother dragged me and my father out the house to learn through our eyes and not through books" while she was saying this she had this large nostalgic smile on her face which reminded me of the family I had seen earlier.
"Where did you visit?" I asked, entirely curious in what buildings of our time had become in the future.
"ermmm... your.... grave actually, among over historical sites" she admitted awkwardly and embarrassingly.
To hear that she had visited my grave had left me speechless.
After I processed the shock I asked her the question I was most curious and worried about. "Do you miss them?" my question seemed to shock her to silence for a slow minute.
When she finally opened her mouth to speak she said this "It's only natural but my mother would want me to live my own life and follow my dreams" she paused again and took a heavy breath "and my father.... well he passed away about 2 years after we took that photo" she looked down and it almost looked like she was going to cry but she quickly pulled herself together and looked up at me.
"Home is where you make it" she smiled as she said it and I wrapped my arms around her tightly hoping to express how much happiness and love she gave me and how glad I was that she had chosen to be with me in this chaotic time.
I felt her body shake a little as I held her and at that point I knew she was crying. I rubbed her back softly and whispered words of comfort into her ear.
That night I kept her close by my side and vowed to myself that if she was ever saddened again by not being able to be with the people she loved in her time then I would reassure her of the amount of love she has in this world and that I loved her just as much.
AUTHORS NOTE
Another college library fanfic from June, seriously I love this one so much too. I've had this idea for awhile and it was supposed to be in celebration of Nobunaga's sequel coming out but I ended up writing it a lot later. The part about the marker actually happened in Nobunaga's B-Day Fest in 2019 if you were wondering. Please enjoy reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it. Stay safe.