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Greatest blessing.
“Lucky~” Sengoku drawled, though his heart wasn’t into it. His thumb covered the portion of the omikuji that indicated that he could expect this incredible fortune to come to him in the form of becoming engaged. He couldn’t imagine that was going to happen in the next year - certainly not given the current situation he found himself in with his family.
“Let’s see!” His older sister swiped the paper out of his hand, not perturbed by her brother’s ongoing streak of twenty-three straight years of getting the best possible fortune. Even when he was a baby - a baby who was only five weeks old - he had been getting the “greatest blessing” fortune. “A marriage proposal, huh?” She elbowed him playfully.
Sengoku swayed a little, a small, distant smile coming to his face. “Seems more likely to happen to you, Nee-san.” He took the fortune back, dutifully tying it up before making his way back through the crowd that was centered around the fortunes. Was there such a thing as luck so good it was bad again?
“Kiyosumi!” His sister caught up to him, wrapping her arm through his. “You’re being strange. Again.” She said this because it had been a pattern all through the holiday with their family.
“When are you going to bring home a fiancee?” His mother asked absently, not looking away from her phone as she asked. She had been working all day despite the fact that everything was closed and everyone, everyone in all of Japan, was on break. She was always like this. Kiyosumi had relied on his sister to play the part of a mom when he was a kid and she loved it.
“He’ll do it at his own pace, Mama,” his sister assured her, putting her hand to her fiance’s arm. It was easy for her to say - she had brought home a man. And it wasn’t that Kiyosumi wasn’t in a serious relationship, one that could end in marriage, maybe…
“What ever happened to that girl you were seeing back in high school?” His mom asked. Kiyosumi didn’t know which one he was referring to, for one, and for another, he had been out of high school for several years and didn’t really stay in contact with anyone other than his close circle of friends. “She was really cute. Wasn’t her father… what was it?”
“A surgeon,” Sengoku’s father supplied helpfully. It did narrow down the girl, at least. It had been a messy break-up… she hadn’t handled the rejection well and for Sengoku, who hadn’t been looking for something very serious at the time, it had taken a while for him to date casually or more seriously after that happened.
“Yeah, her. She was great.” His mom finally looked up from her phone and at Kiyosumi. “All the girls were. You used to be such a ladies man.”
Just. That. That was the problem. He was paying for the sins of his past. Or, his behaviors of the past. He had never been exactly walking the straight and narrow, but when it came to his dating habits as a younger man he definitely had only dated girls. There had been… instances with other guys, but that’s all they were. Instances.
“A handsome guy like my son should be beating the girls off with a stick.” His dad laughed as he spoke, though his mother looked less impressed by the proclamation.
“Dad.” Sengoku held up a hand. “Don’t worry, I’m gonna find someone.”
“You know, kids your age aren’t getting married and having children.” His mother was back to her work as she spoke. “I’m not sure that you are going to be getting married working as a writer. Don’t women want to marry into money? Maybe if you were to get a more important job.”
“I’m getting married,” his sister reminded their mother before Sengoku boiled to death from the shame that was heating his cheeks. “I’ll take care of having the grandchildren, too.” She looked to her fiance who laughed nervously and agreed with her.
“I’ll be right back - toilet.” Sengoku got up abruptly, making his way up the stairs to the bathroom near his old bedroom. He didn’t live in the house anymore and the room that had once been his was foreign and sterile. Guests of the home slept here. He felt just as othered as the guests.
He splashed water on his face to re-center his thoughts. He could just come out about all of it. He could just tell them the truth about his relationship that began in University with a fellow Waseda student. He’s going to be a history teacher, he could tell them. That was a steady position that would help Sengoku keep following his writing career. And he was already signed with a literary agent so it was just a matter of getting a publisher, now…
“Kiyosumi,” his sister said from the door to the bathroom. “Is everything okay? You’re acting so strangely, today.”
“Kiyosumi.” His sister waved her hand in front of his face. “Where did you go?”
Her words brought him back to reality. The shrine, the fortune, the cold January air, the promise of a marriage proposal.
“Sorry, sorry.” He waved a hand in front of his face as if to dismiss his thoughts. “But… Nee-san, I think I need to tell you something.” He knew he couldn’t tell his parents, he knew that it would just be more of the “but what about that one time you were near a vagina?” line of questioning. He would need to tell them eventually, of course. But that was a problem for future Kiyosumi.
“Yeah, of course.” His sister pulled him a bit closer to her side by the arm, their shoulders touching together. He wondered, just briefly, if she knew what was coming.
“I do have someone I wanted to bring home for the holiday,” he admitted, not looking at his sister’s face. “I just didn’t think our parents would understand if I brought home… this person.” If they were going for someone cute, someone successful, someone who made their son happy, he would be exactly the person they wanted. But…
“Is it Saeki-kun?” Kiyosumi couldn’t hide the surprise on his face when his sister spoke. “I’ve been wondering… he’s in a lot of your posts on Insta.”
That… was true. It wasn’t Kiyosumi’s fault that he was so uselessly photogenic, though. “I didn’t realize we were being that obvious.” But then again, he was also speaking to his sister who had a habit of seeing through him in ways that others couldn’t. Most people saw him as a happy go lucky idiot whose only good qualities were his sense of humor, work ethic, and his unusual luck. “How long have you known?”
“A while,” his sister admitted. “Don’t worry, if you aren’t ready, I won’t be the one who tells them. But I will also support you when you are.” She bumped his shoulder again, nearly tripping them both as they descended the stairs of the temple. “Kiyosumi is Kiyosumi, no matter what.”
Finally letting go of a bit of the tension that had been building in him like a pressure cooker since he came home for the holiday, Sengoku gave him one of his trademark bright grins. “Thank you - I guess we’ll see what happens. I mean, my fortune says it’s supposed to be another lucky year for love!”
When he got home to his apartment, the smell of something cooking in the instapot filled the whole apartment. It had been a birthday gift from Sengoku to Saeki back in October and he had enjoyed delicious soups and curries made in the instapot at least a couple of times a week since then. Sengoku wasn’t a hopeless chef by any means, but if he left the cooking to Saeki, it prevented him from using cooking as an excuse to procrastinate on his manuscript.
“Whatever it is, it smells amazing!” He called out as he toed off his shoes and hung up his coat. “Uh, I mean, I’m home!”
Saeki turned his head from where he sat on the couch, a book in his lap. It looked like it was a textbook - probably something he was reading for his Masters degree program. “Welcome home.” They shared a brief kiss and Sengoku plopped down on the couch beside him. “It’s chicken tikka masala.”
“I don’t know what that is, but it sounds Indian.”
“It is Indian.” Saeki laughed, closing the book over a slip of paper that looked suspiciously like an omikuji. Sengoku could see the character for “great” sticking out of the book - it was either a very good fortune for the new year or a very bad one. It was strange that he brought it home rather than hanging it up with the other fortunes. “Are you hungry?”
“Oh, definitely.” Sengoku grinned as he flopped back into the plush back of the couch. “I mean, I’ve been filling up on mom’s cooking, but there is definitely something special about Kojirou’s cooking that I’ve missed terribly.”
“Alright, I’m just going to warm up the naan and we can eat.” Saeki got up, leaving the book behind as he went to the kitchen.
When Saeki’s back was turned, Sengoku opened the book to look at the fortune that was acting as a bookmark.
Greatest blessing for an engagement.
“Look at that,” Sengoku murmured to himself. And, with much more feeling behind it this time, “Lucky~”