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“Ugh,” Adam says sleepily, rustling around in the bed to escape the sudden burst light from Takashi opening the door. He cocoons himself in the duvet and peeks out of a tiny crack in his makeshift nest. “Oh,” He says in realisation, “You’re back.”
Takashi blinks in surprise and stands in the corridor for a couple of seconds. “Yeah, I am.”
Adam rolls his eyes and turns over, making room for Takashi as he takes his uniform off in favour of his a set of lion print pyjamas that Lance had given him as part of a matching set with the other Paladins. Takashi does this amused, little thing of a huff and a hum whenever he puts them on. Adam wants to catch each and every one of those laughs whenever he does it, like how Takashi insists on making wishes whenever he sees a shooting star.
It’s sickeningly endearing and Adam snorts.
“Hey, I’m gonna propose to you again,” Takashi says with finality, slowly placing himself next to Adam under the sheets.
“No,” Adam replies.
“I’m serious,” Takashi says gravely. “I’ll make it a public display because you thrive off attention-“
“Don’t you fucking dare,” Adam threatens.
“I’ll even get them to write our names in the sky, Adam!”
“I will murder you, Takashi, and I won’t regret a thing,” Adam declares, his voice muffled from the duvet, and therefore less threatening, but Takashi laughs all the same. “I won’t regret any of it.”
“Okay, okay, okay,” Takashi reassures through shoulder shaking chuckles, the sound making Adam’s chest clench almost painfully. “But I want to propose to you again.”
Adam pushes him off the bed and Takashi lands with an oof.
“So,” Takashi begins, winded by the fall. “Is that a yes?”
“Go away,” Adam groans, throwing a pillow in Takashi’s general direction. “Ask me when I’m not busy trying to sleep!” But he sighs contently when Takashi comes back to bed.
Adam wakes up to an empty bed. He sighs then hops immediately into the shower, and uses Takashi’s subpar shampoo because he ran out of his own last week. He suspects Takashi is using Adam’s good shampoo because his hair has been smelling like coconuts for a while now.
He hums to himself under his breath as he shaves and washes his face.
“Hm,” Adam wonders aloud, “Takashi should be back from his run by now- He probably got distracted by Iverson, typical.”
He opens the door to let the steam out of the bathroom and loudly yells, “Fuck!”
There on his knee, wearing a ridiculously formal tuxedo, is Takashi and he’s wearing the biggest grin on his face. Adam has never wanted to simultaneously punch and kiss him so badly before, but there is a first for everything.
“Hi,” Takashi says innocently.
“No,” Adam says, shutting the bathroom door on his face. “This is not what I meant by ask me again-“
“Adam,” Takashi says with a sing song lilt, and Adam slightly opens the door wide enough to throw Takashi’s subpar shampoo bottle at him. “Is that a yes?”
“What part of that meant yes to you?!”
“The part where you open the door... and give me a kiss?”
“Takashi,” Adam frustratedly groans, but he opens the door and kisses Takashi all the same. “If space didn’t kill you, then I definitely will.”
“But I love you,” Takashi says. “I want to do this right, but also I want to do it as soon as possible.”
Adam pinches the bridge of his nose. “Not when I’ve just woken up and showered! Takashi, I have no clothes on, could you at least be patient enough to let me get dressed?!”
“I’m sorry, I’ll make you some coffee,” Takashi apologises with no real apology at all, smiles and saunters off, suit and all. He adds, his voice light, “Though I don’t mind the fact that you’re not wearing anything.”
“You disgusting, disgusting man,” Adam yells, “Oh, and Colleen sent me a bunch from Iverson’s stash- It’s under the bread!”
“Okay, love,” Takashi calls back from the kitchen.
“Jesus fucking christ,” Adam whispers under his breath, flustered.
“Anyway,” Adam begins, changing the slide, “You need to make sure you double check where you move the decimal place otherwise-“
A loud, obnoxious knock comes from the door and the students break into a quiet gossip. Adam drags himself to the door and sighs, “Commander Iverson, I did not take your coffee-“
“Hi,” Takashi says, rocking on the balls of his feet.
“Go away,” Adam says, and he lets the door shut on Takashi’s foot, which sticks out at the very last moment.
“I have something very important to ask you-“
“I literally finished having breakfast with you 2 hours ago,” Adam calmly replies.
“That is far too long, in my opinion,” Takashi replies with a sigh, and he goes on his knee again, and the class begin to scuttle from their seats to crowd Adam and Takashi.
“Takashi, I’m busy.”
“I just have one question, one quick, quick question!”
“Aw,” the students coo, giggling from behind Adam.
“No,” Adam firmly says, glaring at the teenagers. “Absolutely not, Takashi, only students get to step into this classroom and ask me questions.”
“I haven’t even said anything yet.”
Adam snaps, “I’m teaching.”
“I’m proposing,” Takashi replies.
“You’re interrupting my class,” Adam huffs.
“But if you didn’t interrupt, I would’ve been done by now and you could’ve said yes and we would be very, very happy!”
“Ask me when I’m not busy teaching!”
Takashi snickers, and Adam flicks his forehead. He cheerfully says, “I love you!”
“I love you too, you idiot!” Adam shouts before making a point to slam the door afterwards.
“Aw,” the students mournfully sigh.
Adam allows himself to smile a little bit because he is currently teaching in the classroom he first met Takashi in, and his gaze drifts to the back of the room, where an empty desk holds Adam’s and Takashi’s initials in a corner.
Adam scours around the aisles, pushing the trolley with a gentle glide. He stops in front of a shelf and narrows his eyes in concentration. “We need more garlic powder, and some turmeric- Maybe some paprika because Lance wants to come over to make some Patatas Bravas for tomorrow-“
“Hi,” Takashi says, and he’s on his knee again as Adam turns around from picking up a tin of tomatoes.
“You can walk home,” Adam replies nonchalantly.
Takashi cheekily gasps, “I’m a disabled war veteran, you can’t do that!”
He looks like he’s stolen a star or two while he was away, because Adam feels like he’s being blinded by how bright Takashi’s grin is. He doesn’t remember it being like this.
“So am I,” Adam says with a shrug, turning away to inhale and exhale deeply before he tells the biggest lie he's ever told, “You’re not special.”
It’s dark on the balcony, and Adam lets the gentle breeze cool his body down because he gets really flushed when he drinks. He watches the commotion from the living room and drifts away to the muffled sounds of Lance, Katie and Hunk drunkenly singing Bohemian Rhapsody, surprisingly in key, as Keith clumsily plays an air guitar, and Coran and Allura aimlessly cheer every few seconds. Takashi sits with Coran and laughs whenever Allura changes colours to match the LED lights.
Adam stands there, his chest is about to explode, and he wants to tell someone, anyone, everyone. Takashi’s face is glowing, maybe from the alcohol, maybe from the sweat, but he’s everything Adam’s ever wanted and it’s as if he never left.
It all clicks because Adam wants the forever Takashi talked about almost a decade ago, when they were young, and muscular dystrophy and being missing in space was never in the cards.
“Huh,” he finally says, exhaling slowly, because there is nothing stopping this concept of forever anymore.
Takashi isn’t sick anymore, he isn’t going into space without Adam anymore, and he isn’t missing anymore either. Takashi now goes to bed and makes dinner with Adam, goes shopping with him on Friday afternoons, and sometimes he walks around with glasses perched on top of his now white hair asking if Adam’s seen them anywhere. Takashi’s made spare keys for the Paladins and Alteans, and sometimes he even waters the plants Adam keeps buying because the garden centre is on the way to their house.
The song moves on, and Lance and Hunk whoop and sing as Keith and Katie badly slow dance. Coran and Allura sway contently on the sofas, laughing whenever Katie steps on Keith’s feet, and Adam feels a bit bittersweet at the fact they all met the way they did.
“ Love of my life, you’ve hurt me ,” Hunk all but howls.
” You’ve broken my heart, and now you leave me ,” Lance sings back, before emptying his drink into his mouth.
“Lance!” Katie yelps, as Lance throws his cup into the air.
Lance replies, grabbing Katie’s hands and swinging them around, “Love of my life, can’t you see?”
Takashi makes his way out onto the balcony, and waves at Adam. “Do you want anything?”
“Nah,” Adam says, as if he never had his earth-shattering revelation. “I’m fine.”
“Okay,” Takashi says sweetly, and it’s like he’s been dipped in gold because Adam’s never seen or heard anything more precious.
“Actually, Takashi?”
“Hm?”
“I, uh, want to ask you something,” Adam continues, as if he hands aren’t shaking and his legs aren’t about to fold into themselves.
Takashi’s eyes widen, and he exhales sharply. “Yes?”
Adam takes the ring off his necklace and he clasps it tightly in his hand, squeezing his eyes shut momentarily to clear his mind.
“You gave this to me years ago.” Adam asks with a self-deprecating laugh. “It became a physical reminder that even if you’ve gone somewhere I can’t reach, I’ll always know that you loved me. You were gone for longer than we had been engaged.”
“It was never supposed to be like that,” Takashi quietly replies.
“I know, Takashi,” Adam says with a small smile as his vision starts to blur with tears. “You thought there was nothing else left for you back then, but you were so wrong. Sam told me you left me a bunch of recordings before you went missing and I listened to each and every one of them every morning you were gone to the point where I could memorise them all.”
“I never wanted to leave you alone,” Takashi grabs Adams hands. “I’m sorry.”
“I know,” Adam wetly laughs, “But you’re here now and I’ve learned that.”
“I am here now,” Takashi says, smiling. “That seems to be the plan.”
“Forever?” Adam asks, and grabs Takashi’s hand to put the ring on. He sniffs.
“Yeah,” Takashi replies, leaning in to whisper, “Forever sounds great.”
“That’s good, now you can stop randomly proposing to me in random places,” Adam sighs happily as Takashi kisses him.
“I meant every one of those proposals, my emotions are very overwhelming at times,” Takashi says with a smile.
“You are so ridiculous,” Adam says into Takashi’s shoulder, sniffling.
Takashi hums and grumbles, “You literally just proposed to me in tears, you are in no position to make fun of me.”
“Yet here we are,” Adam snickers, holding onto Takashi, and he’s okay.
“Here we are,” Takashi agrees.