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Stupid, stupid Yuushi. What was he even upset about?
It had been years since Yuushi wore his glasses, which honestly was for the better since he spent so many of his years in medical school having a meltdown about something or another. Then when the long shifts in the emergency room came, even with four days off each week, the meltdowns would happen at odd hours when he was getting home exhausted and craving food from a restaurant that wouldn’t be open for at least another three or four hours and nothing Gakuto could cook would come close to satisfying the craving.
There were multiple meltdowns over their first daughter: when the surrogate found out she was pregnant, when they saw the first sonogram of their little girl (that looked like a white blob on a black background to Gakuto but Yuushi assured him every one of her features was clearly visible), the first time they held her, and the first time she put on her little yellow hat for kindergarten. Despite all the stress and emotion she, and their other children, had caused Yuushi, the only wrinkles on his face were smile lines around his lips and laugh lines creasing his eyes.
He had cried at Kenya’s wedding. His own wedding. Even Atobe’s wedding, though he refused to admit to that one. His heartfelt best man speech at Kenya’s wedding brought him to tears before any of the guests at the reception. Gakuto remembered having to demand that Yuushi have a drink, get out on the dance floor and have fun instead of just sitting around with a dopey smile on his face because Kenya was just so happy.
The grey hairs that had started to streak through his hair might be due to his stressful hours as a doctor, or the hours he would eventually put into teaching as a professor of internal medicine. But to Gakuto, it seemed like every time Yuushi kissed one of his children, saved a life, laughed with Kenya, or had a quiet romantic dinner with Gakuto, another grey appeared. All the dumb things he felt and freaked out about weren’t giving him greys, rather it was the gentle passage of time and experiences leaving a mark on his dark hair.
There were darker times. Family members passed, friends drifted apart, finances were sometimes tight. There were also beautiful, perfect moments. They had many sweet moments of intimacy, shared many hours of uproarious laughter, and just in the past year had sent their first daughter to college.
So what was it now? If none of those things had taken their toll on Yuushi in any sort of way, why was he having a meltdown standing in the middle of a convenience store in Tokyo around the corner from their old high school?
Yuushi wiped his eyes with one hand. Though he had just been tearing up, there was a faint smile on his face.
“What?” Gakuto demanded, looking between Yuushi and the package of pre-prepared karaage in his hand. The one they were supposedly buying for “old time’s sake.”
“This,” Yuushi explained. “This is the first gift I bought for you in this very place thirty years ago.”
“Oh my god.” Gakuto wasn’t sure whether to be impressed by Yuushi’s memory of something that happened in middle school, grumpy that he had just made a scene in the convenience store, or a little touched that something like stupid chicken meant that much to Yuushi.
He decided to go with grumpy just so he didn’t have to think about the other two.