Nya steps over the tangles of cords by the door, gingerly adjusting one with her foot. No one’s actively been in here in five years, no one has wanted to touch or bother it.

Honestly, she thinks it needs a thorough cleaning. Lloyd had done so a while back, but she knows a lot of his stuff was never sorted through, just in case.

She winces as she kicks another cord.

Jay was never the most organized.

He’d started not even using it as much near the end, choosing to crash in her room overnight instead. So, it had become storage.

An absolute mess of storage, but storage nonetheless.

She flips the light switch, lights flickering to life. There. She can actually see.

The room is cleaner than it ever was, when Jay was still here. The bed is actually made, and the desk is not littered with wrappers and other miscellaneous trash. Frohicky has likely dusted recently, but not too recently, as there is a very fine layer of dust over everything. She wrinkles her nose.

Nya walks over to his desk and opens one of the drawers. Empty. Another. A collection of snacks she will have to throw away sooner or later. Wonder how Lloyd missed that. One more, and bingo.

His video game collection. Kai had asked her to grab one for him, unwilling to walk in himself. She scans the titles and pulls out the one wanted.

She stands up and looks around his room. Other than the made bed and empty trash can and desk, it looks exactly the same. His shelves are still lined with what Kai would call ‘random junk’ and things he found sentimental. His walls are plastered with posters of random things, shows, movies, a lot of Starfarer.

His board is the one thing that seems to be stuck in time. Un-updated since his disappearance, like a time capsule in his room. Nya swallows. It’s littered with photos, ones that she hasn’t seen in years. Ones that unlock so many memories for her. She steps forward, glancing over the board.

Photos of her and Jay, photos of Zane and Kai and Cole and Lloyd. Photos that he probably shouldn’t have taken, some that she had no clue how they were taken.

He’d collected so many, just to have something up in his room.

“I like seeing you guys,” He’d told her, hands on his hips as he looked up at it. “Some of my greatest memories are up here too.” He would steal just about any photo that Zane would take, penciling little messages on the backs of each one.

“Oh, really?” Nya elbowed him lightly, “Then where’s the photo of us on the coaster?”

He pointed up at the board, and Nya noticed the little piece of paper, a heart glued to the corner. She pressed her hand to her mouth, attempting to hide the smile.

“I get it from Ma,” He laughed, “Except I don’t know if I could paste it all into a book. I want to see it all at once. To remember.”

Nya pulls down a photo of Jay and Zane, studying it quietly.

To remember.

She pins it back up again, grabbing the game off of Jay’s desk and leaving the room.

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