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Entry tags:
we'll all float on okay
Title: we'll all float on okay
Fandom: 1bitHeart
Character(s): Toukai, Nanashi, Misane
Pairing(s): Toukai/Nanashi
Genre: Fluff
Word Count: 2,500
Rating: PG
Warnings: None
Summary: Toukai agrees to visit Nanashi for an hour every day for a week.
Notes: This is long, for me.
“What if I offered to stay away from Misane-chan for a whole week?” asks Nanashi, stopping suddenly at the Mikoto house’s door. “Zero contact.”
Toukai, who had been relieved that he was finally leaving, tenses up again. “I’d ask you what the catch was.”
“Catch… How about, you have to come visit me for an hour every day?” Nanashi smiles wide at him. “Otherwise, I’ll be too lonely and I’ll die!”
“I doubt that.” Toukai’s brow furrows. He hates spending time with Nanashi for any reason, but on the other hand… keeping him away from Misane, even for a week, isn’t something he can exactly pass up. “What if you go behind my back and see her anyway?”
“You’ll know right away. A father recognizes when his daughter is doing something shady. And, anyway, I’m a bad liar. Don’t you agree, Misane-chan?” he asks, looking behind Toukai.
“A terrible one,” she says. “...I don’t mind following this agreement. It’s only for a week.”
The way she says ‘only’ is distressing to Toukai, but that’s another matter entirely. “Then I’ll do it.”
“Great! You have the address of my apartment, right?” asks Nanashi, bouncing on the balls of his feet. “So you can come whenever, starting tomorrow! I’ll be in.”
Nanashi needs to get out more, Toukai thinks, but doesn’t mention it. “I’ve got your address. You’re free to go.”
Nanashi’s grin is huge. “See you tomorrow, Dad!”
He’s off before Toukai can yell at him.
Toukai has been to Nanashi’s apartment before, for work reasons: the man has a tendency to get himself into trouble. He steels himself before ringing the bell.
“One second!” Nanashi calls from inside. The door opens quickly, and there’s Nanashi beaming at him. “Come in! Make yourself at home!”
Nanashi’s apartment is sparely decorated. The main signs of who the apartment belongs to are the electronics everywhere, including the floor. Toukai steps over a bundle of wires on his way to the couch.
“Aha, sorry about that, I don’t get many visitors…” Nanashi settles in a seat across from Toukai. “How was the trip?”
“Fine,” Toukai replies. “I’m starting my timer now for one hour.”
“Down to the second, huh.” Nanashi doesn’t look fazed. “Fine with me. How’s work been lately?”
Toukai frowns. “Not much is interesting that hasn’t been on the news already.”
“That’s fine! Tell me the boring stuff.” At Toukai’s confused look, Nanashi goes on: “I like hearing you talk. As long as you’re not yelling at me, that is. I could probably be happy listening to you read the phone book.”
“Well… alright.” Not entirely sure how to react to that, Toukai wracks his brain for something from work he can talk about. “One of the newer policemen had a drug bust the other day…”
Amazingly, Nanashi really listens. He nods along, interrupts with questions when they’re relevant, and seems totally enraptured by Toukai’s stories from the force.
After about half an hour he fetches Toukai water and a cold sandwich from his fridge. “I made it earlier for you,” he says. “In case you got hungry and didn’t want any of my leftovers.”
Toukai raises an eyebrow at him, but takes a bite. It’s not half bad. After the snack he goes on a little more about some older cases.
“-the perpetrator nearly got away, but- ah.” His BitPhone is beeping at him. “One hour, as promised.”
“In the middle of a story?” asks Nanashi, a whine coming into his voice. “You’re too cruel!”
Toukai sighs. “I’ll finish it tomorrow, if you remember to ask.”
The next day, Nanashi does remember to ask about the story the moment Toukai sits down. Toukai takes a second to remember how far he’d gotten, but obliges him and finishes talking about the case.
When the story’s over, Nanashi clears his throat. “I thought you might get tired of talking about yourself the whole time, so I came up with some other things we can do together!”
He tosses a video game controller at Toukai, who catches it.
“Not too surprised. I haven’t played a video game in a long time, but my reflexes shouldn’t be too bad…” Toukai still expects Nanashi to stomp him in whatever game he picks.
He does, at first. Nanashi turns on a fighting game and no amount of walking him through the controls will change that Nanashi has every combo on his character memorized. After his third total victory, Nanashi laughs nervously and asks, “Want to play something cooperative?”
“Please.” Even if he doesn’t care about video games, losing so badly is embarrassing.
They defeat the computer at a party game a few times. When Toukai isn’t sure how a minigame is played, he looks to see what Nanashi is doing. Nanashi is staring at the screen intensely even for easy minigames, and Toukai realizes he hardly ever sees Nanashi this focused on anything.
Toukai’s timer goes off near the end of a game. As he’s getting up, Nanashi says, “Please please please just one more turn?”
Slowly, Toukai sits back down. “Only because there’s only one turn left.”
Naturally, they win that game too.
Day three, Nanashi asks, “What do you want to talk about?”
“I’ve exhausted my good stories from work,” says Toukai. “Why don’t you talk about something?”
Nanashi pauses, thoughtful, before fetching a photo album from the desk.
Nanashi has many pictures of people Toukai has never met. This is natural: he wouldn’t expect to know Nanashi’s parents, or his friends from when he was a teenager. But he realizes halfway through the book, halfway through Nanashi’s stories about other people he’s met, that aside from Natsukage and Miumi he’s never seen any of these people. Certainly not hanging around Nanashi.
“Nanashi,” he says, as Nanashi’s flipping a page, “do you still talk to any of these people?”
“You and Misane-chan are in the back!” says Nanashi, smiling. “I talk to you all the time.”
“Anyone else in this book?” Toukai asks.
“Well… no, not really.” Nanashi stares at a picture of him and what looks to be Natsukage and Miumi when they were younger. “I can make friends, but we always drift apart after a while. And, you know what it was like when I ran into Natsukage and Miumi again. Natsukage doesn’t dislike me, but we’ve never been really close, and Miumi can put up with anyone... uh, but don’t tell Natsukage I said that.” He flips a few pages, quiet. “It’ll probably be like that with Misane-chan, too. She’ll move on to make friends her age and she won’t be my best friend anymore, and I’ll be happy for her. I’m glad we met even if it doesn’t last forever. You, too.”
Toukai takes a few moments too long to reply. “Me?”
“I’m really glad we met, even if you don’t like me at all. Because I like you.” Nanashi is silent for a second. “I think your hour’s almost up.”
“...So it is.”
On the fourth day Toukai is late. Work had kept him busy and exhausted, and he’d crashed at home for an hour before Misane had reminded him, “Don’t you have somewhere to be?”
It’s nine when he knocks on Nanashi’s door.
The door opens. Nanashi is beaming at him like any other time he’d shown up. “Come on in!”
“Sorry I’m late,” he says, stepping inside. “Work held me up.”
“It’s fine!” Nanashi shuts the door and heads toward his entertainment ‘center’. “I knew you’d show up eventually.”
Toukai doesn’t know where this faith in him comes from, but decides not to question it.
“Actually, since it’s late, I thought maybe we could watch a movie today.” Nanashi flips through his library of movies. “Any thoughts? Scary movies, action movies?”
“Neither. I get enough of that at work.” Sighing, Toukai has a seat on one end of the couch. “Something lighter, please.”
“Hmm… have you seen ‘Sentimental Rose’?” Nanashi asks, pulling it out.
“I haven’t.” It’s a relatively new romance film, and seemed particularly cheesy from the trailers.
Nanashi sticks it in the player, flicks off the lights, and goes to sit next to Toukai on the couch. There’s enough space between them that Toukai doesn’t feel the need to complain.
‘Sentimental Rose’ is even cheesier than anticipated. Toukai’s getting bored, and zoning out a bit when he feels Nanashi’s head hit his shoulder.
“Nanashi.” No response. He nudges him. Still no response. When Nanashi falls asleep, apparently he’s a deep sleeper.
Toukai doesn’t want to wake Nanashi up if he’s so tired as to fall asleep on his shoulder… but he has to go home soon, or Misane will worry. Carefully, he extracts himself from the couch, letting Nanashi’s head fall onto a pillow.
He’s about to leave when he looks back at Nanashi, still asleep, but looking none too comfortable.
Sigh.
Toukai goes back and fetches a blanket from Nanashi’s bedroom, then covers Nanashi with it. “Sweet dreams.”
Nanashi doesn’t bring up the sleep incident the next day. He’s unusually well-dressed when he answers the door, a clean, crisp jacket over a plain shirt and good pants, and Toukai asks, “What’s the occasion?”
“We’re going out to eat today,” says Nanashi. “My treat, of course.”
Toukai’s eyebrows shoot up. He hadn’t dressed for going out in public… no, he looks fine. What’s more amazing is that Nanashi is leaving his apartment for a reason that doesn’t involve bothering someone. “I- that’s fine, but you don’t need to.”
“But you’ve been living off my sandwiches for four days,” says Nanashi. “You must be getting bored of them by now.”
It’s true that Nanashi’s cold sandwiches aren’t the most exciting meals four days in a row, but Toukai’s been eating well at home.
Still, he hates to make Nanashi dress up for no reason. “Where did you have in mind?”
Nanashi brings Toukai to a small cafe. It’s not too busy or too loud, the food’s not too expensive and tastes pretty good for the price. Toukai offers to foot his half of the bill but is rejected.
“I don’t have anyone else to spend my ridiculous paycheck on,” Nanashi says, after already sending over the bits. “Let me spoil you a little.”
“Not even one person?” Toukai asks.
“Well, I could spend it on Misane-chan, but you’d beat me up for having an inappropriate relationship with her, right?” asks Nanashi.
“No,” he says, and is surprised to hear the words come from his own mouth. “I… don’t think you have any ill intentions toward her now.”
Nanashi looks equally startled for a moment before breaking into the biggest smile Toukai has ever seen on him.
Day six begins peacefully enough.
Nanashi welcomes him inside and puts on some tea. “You like gyokuro tea, right?”
Toukai does. “Did you read my mind for that?”
Nanashi laughs. “No, no! I’ve seen it in your house, so I ordered some.”
Oh. Toukai feels a little bit embarrassed for jumping to conclusions.
While the water is heating up, Nanashi comes to sit beside him. “Actually, I don’t read your mind very much. If there’s something I have to know, I’d rather just ask you.”
“Because you like hearing me talk.” He’d said so the first day.
“That too, but…” Nanashi drums his fingers as he thinks. “Anything I want to know, couldn’t possibly be as important as having you like me and keep talking to me. If I read your mind I think you’d be mad about it. So I don’t.”
Toukai barely tolerated Nanashi until a few days ago. ‘Liking’ him is still up in the air.
But the quiet between them is comfortable. The tea is better than his usual, and as he sips he wonders how up in the air it really is.
They talk. Toukai doesn’t really know what about: he gets distracted. He’s distracted by the way Nanashi smiles, gentler than usual, and the way Nanashi laughs, honest and carefree. He’s distracted by Nanashi’s hands, thin fingers around his cup. He’s distracted by Nanashi’s lips-
Toukai stands up. “I should go.”
“It’s only been half an hour,” says Nanashi.
“Something came up suddenly,” Toukai says, edging towards the door.
“Oh, alright!” says Nanashi, and Toukai’s sure he’s completely fallen for that lie. “Don’t worry about making up the extra minutes. I’m just glad you came.”
“...Thank you.”
Toukai makes it all the way back to the safety of his house before burying his face in his hands. This isn’t happening. He’s not thinking about Nanashi this way, absolutely not, even if when Toukai doesn’t hate him on principle he’s more tolerable and more attractive, he’s not thinking about this...
“You’re back early,” says Misane, from the couch. “Did it go poorly?”
Toukai swallows. Outright lying to his daughter is not an option. “You could say that.”
“...And you don’t want to tell me about it,” she says. He nods. “Father… I won’t pry, but spending time with him isn’t normally that bad. Wanting to visit him more than you’re obligated to shouldn’t give you an identity crisis.”
It’s not just visiting he’s thinking about. “I know that.”
“Since you’ve broken the agreement,” Misane asks, “am I allowed to see him again?”
“...Wait just one more day.” He’ll have his thoughts in order by tomorrow.
“Yes, Father.”
Toukai’s thoughts are not in order. He shows up at Nanashi’s apartment anyway.
Nanashi welcomes him in. “How’d it go yesterday?”
“How did- oh.” Toukai swallows around the lump in his throat. “I was lying. Nothing came up.”
“I figured. Would you like tea again today?” asks Nanashi.
Toukai is sure he wouldn’t be proud of the floored expression on his face. “...You knew? And didn’t say anything?”
“You visited me for six days, that’s more than I could ask for. I enjoyed having you here even if I had to bargain to get you to come.” Nanashi’s gaze drops to the floor. “I hope it’s not too much to say that… I’ll miss when you stop coming over.”
For goodness’ sake- “Don’t act like we’ll never see each other again.”
Now it’s Nanashi’s turn to look stunned. “Eh?”
Toukai folds his arms across his chest. Unfolds them. “Just because I’m not required to come see you any longer doesn’t mean I won’t ever tolerate your presence again. You can still invite me over, even. Maybe not every day, but… I haven’t exactly hated visiting.” That’s not what he meant to say.
“You… really mean that?” asks Nanashi. He’s quivering slightly.
“Of course I mean it, why else would I- you idiot, just- come here.”
Words aren’t working for him right now. Toukai tries action. When Nanashi takes a few hesitant steps towards him, Toukai grabs his shoulders and kisses him.
It lasts for several seconds before Nanashi pulls away, bright red and seeming completely dazed. Then, after a few seconds more, he smiles.
“...Would you… like to stay for more than an hour, this time?”
“I’d like that.”
Fandom: 1bitHeart
Character(s): Toukai, Nanashi, Misane
Pairing(s): Toukai/Nanashi
Genre: Fluff
Word Count: 2,500
Rating: PG
Warnings: None
Summary: Toukai agrees to visit Nanashi for an hour every day for a week.
Notes: This is long, for me.
“What if I offered to stay away from Misane-chan for a whole week?” asks Nanashi, stopping suddenly at the Mikoto house’s door. “Zero contact.”
Toukai, who had been relieved that he was finally leaving, tenses up again. “I’d ask you what the catch was.”
“Catch… How about, you have to come visit me for an hour every day?” Nanashi smiles wide at him. “Otherwise, I’ll be too lonely and I’ll die!”
“I doubt that.” Toukai’s brow furrows. He hates spending time with Nanashi for any reason, but on the other hand… keeping him away from Misane, even for a week, isn’t something he can exactly pass up. “What if you go behind my back and see her anyway?”
“You’ll know right away. A father recognizes when his daughter is doing something shady. And, anyway, I’m a bad liar. Don’t you agree, Misane-chan?” he asks, looking behind Toukai.
“A terrible one,” she says. “...I don’t mind following this agreement. It’s only for a week.”
The way she says ‘only’ is distressing to Toukai, but that’s another matter entirely. “Then I’ll do it.”
“Great! You have the address of my apartment, right?” asks Nanashi, bouncing on the balls of his feet. “So you can come whenever, starting tomorrow! I’ll be in.”
Nanashi needs to get out more, Toukai thinks, but doesn’t mention it. “I’ve got your address. You’re free to go.”
Nanashi’s grin is huge. “See you tomorrow, Dad!”
He’s off before Toukai can yell at him.
Toukai has been to Nanashi’s apartment before, for work reasons: the man has a tendency to get himself into trouble. He steels himself before ringing the bell.
“One second!” Nanashi calls from inside. The door opens quickly, and there’s Nanashi beaming at him. “Come in! Make yourself at home!”
Nanashi’s apartment is sparely decorated. The main signs of who the apartment belongs to are the electronics everywhere, including the floor. Toukai steps over a bundle of wires on his way to the couch.
“Aha, sorry about that, I don’t get many visitors…” Nanashi settles in a seat across from Toukai. “How was the trip?”
“Fine,” Toukai replies. “I’m starting my timer now for one hour.”
“Down to the second, huh.” Nanashi doesn’t look fazed. “Fine with me. How’s work been lately?”
Toukai frowns. “Not much is interesting that hasn’t been on the news already.”
“That’s fine! Tell me the boring stuff.” At Toukai’s confused look, Nanashi goes on: “I like hearing you talk. As long as you’re not yelling at me, that is. I could probably be happy listening to you read the phone book.”
“Well… alright.” Not entirely sure how to react to that, Toukai wracks his brain for something from work he can talk about. “One of the newer policemen had a drug bust the other day…”
Amazingly, Nanashi really listens. He nods along, interrupts with questions when they’re relevant, and seems totally enraptured by Toukai’s stories from the force.
After about half an hour he fetches Toukai water and a cold sandwich from his fridge. “I made it earlier for you,” he says. “In case you got hungry and didn’t want any of my leftovers.”
Toukai raises an eyebrow at him, but takes a bite. It’s not half bad. After the snack he goes on a little more about some older cases.
“-the perpetrator nearly got away, but- ah.” His BitPhone is beeping at him. “One hour, as promised.”
“In the middle of a story?” asks Nanashi, a whine coming into his voice. “You’re too cruel!”
Toukai sighs. “I’ll finish it tomorrow, if you remember to ask.”
The next day, Nanashi does remember to ask about the story the moment Toukai sits down. Toukai takes a second to remember how far he’d gotten, but obliges him and finishes talking about the case.
When the story’s over, Nanashi clears his throat. “I thought you might get tired of talking about yourself the whole time, so I came up with some other things we can do together!”
He tosses a video game controller at Toukai, who catches it.
“Not too surprised. I haven’t played a video game in a long time, but my reflexes shouldn’t be too bad…” Toukai still expects Nanashi to stomp him in whatever game he picks.
He does, at first. Nanashi turns on a fighting game and no amount of walking him through the controls will change that Nanashi has every combo on his character memorized. After his third total victory, Nanashi laughs nervously and asks, “Want to play something cooperative?”
“Please.” Even if he doesn’t care about video games, losing so badly is embarrassing.
They defeat the computer at a party game a few times. When Toukai isn’t sure how a minigame is played, he looks to see what Nanashi is doing. Nanashi is staring at the screen intensely even for easy minigames, and Toukai realizes he hardly ever sees Nanashi this focused on anything.
Toukai’s timer goes off near the end of a game. As he’s getting up, Nanashi says, “Please please please just one more turn?”
Slowly, Toukai sits back down. “Only because there’s only one turn left.”
Naturally, they win that game too.
Day three, Nanashi asks, “What do you want to talk about?”
“I’ve exhausted my good stories from work,” says Toukai. “Why don’t you talk about something?”
Nanashi pauses, thoughtful, before fetching a photo album from the desk.
Nanashi has many pictures of people Toukai has never met. This is natural: he wouldn’t expect to know Nanashi’s parents, or his friends from when he was a teenager. But he realizes halfway through the book, halfway through Nanashi’s stories about other people he’s met, that aside from Natsukage and Miumi he’s never seen any of these people. Certainly not hanging around Nanashi.
“Nanashi,” he says, as Nanashi’s flipping a page, “do you still talk to any of these people?”
“You and Misane-chan are in the back!” says Nanashi, smiling. “I talk to you all the time.”
“Anyone else in this book?” Toukai asks.
“Well… no, not really.” Nanashi stares at a picture of him and what looks to be Natsukage and Miumi when they were younger. “I can make friends, but we always drift apart after a while. And, you know what it was like when I ran into Natsukage and Miumi again. Natsukage doesn’t dislike me, but we’ve never been really close, and Miumi can put up with anyone... uh, but don’t tell Natsukage I said that.” He flips a few pages, quiet. “It’ll probably be like that with Misane-chan, too. She’ll move on to make friends her age and she won’t be my best friend anymore, and I’ll be happy for her. I’m glad we met even if it doesn’t last forever. You, too.”
Toukai takes a few moments too long to reply. “Me?”
“I’m really glad we met, even if you don’t like me at all. Because I like you.” Nanashi is silent for a second. “I think your hour’s almost up.”
“...So it is.”
On the fourth day Toukai is late. Work had kept him busy and exhausted, and he’d crashed at home for an hour before Misane had reminded him, “Don’t you have somewhere to be?”
It’s nine when he knocks on Nanashi’s door.
The door opens. Nanashi is beaming at him like any other time he’d shown up. “Come on in!”
“Sorry I’m late,” he says, stepping inside. “Work held me up.”
“It’s fine!” Nanashi shuts the door and heads toward his entertainment ‘center’. “I knew you’d show up eventually.”
Toukai doesn’t know where this faith in him comes from, but decides not to question it.
“Actually, since it’s late, I thought maybe we could watch a movie today.” Nanashi flips through his library of movies. “Any thoughts? Scary movies, action movies?”
“Neither. I get enough of that at work.” Sighing, Toukai has a seat on one end of the couch. “Something lighter, please.”
“Hmm… have you seen ‘Sentimental Rose’?” Nanashi asks, pulling it out.
“I haven’t.” It’s a relatively new romance film, and seemed particularly cheesy from the trailers.
Nanashi sticks it in the player, flicks off the lights, and goes to sit next to Toukai on the couch. There’s enough space between them that Toukai doesn’t feel the need to complain.
‘Sentimental Rose’ is even cheesier than anticipated. Toukai’s getting bored, and zoning out a bit when he feels Nanashi’s head hit his shoulder.
“Nanashi.” No response. He nudges him. Still no response. When Nanashi falls asleep, apparently he’s a deep sleeper.
Toukai doesn’t want to wake Nanashi up if he’s so tired as to fall asleep on his shoulder… but he has to go home soon, or Misane will worry. Carefully, he extracts himself from the couch, letting Nanashi’s head fall onto a pillow.
He’s about to leave when he looks back at Nanashi, still asleep, but looking none too comfortable.
Sigh.
Toukai goes back and fetches a blanket from Nanashi’s bedroom, then covers Nanashi with it. “Sweet dreams.”
Nanashi doesn’t bring up the sleep incident the next day. He’s unusually well-dressed when he answers the door, a clean, crisp jacket over a plain shirt and good pants, and Toukai asks, “What’s the occasion?”
“We’re going out to eat today,” says Nanashi. “My treat, of course.”
Toukai’s eyebrows shoot up. He hadn’t dressed for going out in public… no, he looks fine. What’s more amazing is that Nanashi is leaving his apartment for a reason that doesn’t involve bothering someone. “I- that’s fine, but you don’t need to.”
“But you’ve been living off my sandwiches for four days,” says Nanashi. “You must be getting bored of them by now.”
It’s true that Nanashi’s cold sandwiches aren’t the most exciting meals four days in a row, but Toukai’s been eating well at home.
Still, he hates to make Nanashi dress up for no reason. “Where did you have in mind?”
Nanashi brings Toukai to a small cafe. It’s not too busy or too loud, the food’s not too expensive and tastes pretty good for the price. Toukai offers to foot his half of the bill but is rejected.
“I don’t have anyone else to spend my ridiculous paycheck on,” Nanashi says, after already sending over the bits. “Let me spoil you a little.”
“Not even one person?” Toukai asks.
“Well, I could spend it on Misane-chan, but you’d beat me up for having an inappropriate relationship with her, right?” asks Nanashi.
“No,” he says, and is surprised to hear the words come from his own mouth. “I… don’t think you have any ill intentions toward her now.”
Nanashi looks equally startled for a moment before breaking into the biggest smile Toukai has ever seen on him.
Day six begins peacefully enough.
Nanashi welcomes him inside and puts on some tea. “You like gyokuro tea, right?”
Toukai does. “Did you read my mind for that?”
Nanashi laughs. “No, no! I’ve seen it in your house, so I ordered some.”
Oh. Toukai feels a little bit embarrassed for jumping to conclusions.
While the water is heating up, Nanashi comes to sit beside him. “Actually, I don’t read your mind very much. If there’s something I have to know, I’d rather just ask you.”
“Because you like hearing me talk.” He’d said so the first day.
“That too, but…” Nanashi drums his fingers as he thinks. “Anything I want to know, couldn’t possibly be as important as having you like me and keep talking to me. If I read your mind I think you’d be mad about it. So I don’t.”
Toukai barely tolerated Nanashi until a few days ago. ‘Liking’ him is still up in the air.
But the quiet between them is comfortable. The tea is better than his usual, and as he sips he wonders how up in the air it really is.
They talk. Toukai doesn’t really know what about: he gets distracted. He’s distracted by the way Nanashi smiles, gentler than usual, and the way Nanashi laughs, honest and carefree. He’s distracted by Nanashi’s hands, thin fingers around his cup. He’s distracted by Nanashi’s lips-
Toukai stands up. “I should go.”
“It’s only been half an hour,” says Nanashi.
“Something came up suddenly,” Toukai says, edging towards the door.
“Oh, alright!” says Nanashi, and Toukai’s sure he’s completely fallen for that lie. “Don’t worry about making up the extra minutes. I’m just glad you came.”
“...Thank you.”
Toukai makes it all the way back to the safety of his house before burying his face in his hands. This isn’t happening. He’s not thinking about Nanashi this way, absolutely not, even if when Toukai doesn’t hate him on principle he’s more tolerable and more attractive, he’s not thinking about this...
“You’re back early,” says Misane, from the couch. “Did it go poorly?”
Toukai swallows. Outright lying to his daughter is not an option. “You could say that.”
“...And you don’t want to tell me about it,” she says. He nods. “Father… I won’t pry, but spending time with him isn’t normally that bad. Wanting to visit him more than you’re obligated to shouldn’t give you an identity crisis.”
It’s not just visiting he’s thinking about. “I know that.”
“Since you’ve broken the agreement,” Misane asks, “am I allowed to see him again?”
“...Wait just one more day.” He’ll have his thoughts in order by tomorrow.
“Yes, Father.”
Toukai’s thoughts are not in order. He shows up at Nanashi’s apartment anyway.
Nanashi welcomes him in. “How’d it go yesterday?”
“How did- oh.” Toukai swallows around the lump in his throat. “I was lying. Nothing came up.”
“I figured. Would you like tea again today?” asks Nanashi.
Toukai is sure he wouldn’t be proud of the floored expression on his face. “...You knew? And didn’t say anything?”
“You visited me for six days, that’s more than I could ask for. I enjoyed having you here even if I had to bargain to get you to come.” Nanashi’s gaze drops to the floor. “I hope it’s not too much to say that… I’ll miss when you stop coming over.”
For goodness’ sake- “Don’t act like we’ll never see each other again.”
Now it’s Nanashi’s turn to look stunned. “Eh?”
Toukai folds his arms across his chest. Unfolds them. “Just because I’m not required to come see you any longer doesn’t mean I won’t ever tolerate your presence again. You can still invite me over, even. Maybe not every day, but… I haven’t exactly hated visiting.” That’s not what he meant to say.
“You… really mean that?” asks Nanashi. He’s quivering slightly.
“Of course I mean it, why else would I- you idiot, just- come here.”
Words aren’t working for him right now. Toukai tries action. When Nanashi takes a few hesitant steps towards him, Toukai grabs his shoulders and kisses him.
It lasts for several seconds before Nanashi pulls away, bright red and seeming completely dazed. Then, after a few seconds more, he smiles.
“...Would you… like to stay for more than an hour, this time?”
“I’d like that.”