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“Go on a roadtrip with Tecchou,” they said. “It’ll be fun,” they said.
Spoiler alert: it was not fun.
But it was Tachihara’s fault no matter how he put it, because while he wanted some time alone with his boyfriend he had forgotten that his boyfriend was, well, his boyfriend. Tecchou was not… like most people. In some ways it was charming, like how he would give Tachihara foods that matched his hair color, how he would ramble on about ants for hours, and his admirably strong sense of justice. In some ways it was… almost unbearable. He was dense, stoic, and extremely eccentric. But his negative qualities didn’t take away from his positive ones and Tachihara looked forward to taking a week off just to spend it with Tecchou.
It might have been fine if he didn’t let the man drive.
Let me explain:
It all started after Tecchou had moved their bags into the car. “You should let me drive, Tachihara-San. You don’t normally get up this early,” Tecchou had suggested already getting into the driver's seat. It was true though, they had wanted to get an early start on their trip so they decided to wake up early (early for Tachihara anyways) to avoid possible traffic on their way out of Yokohama. Because Tecchou usually woke up at this time anyways, it seemed logical to let him drive.
...It was not.
Tachihara rested his head against the window, ready to fall asleep for the first half of the trip. For some reason… The car only moved for what seemed like millimeters at a time. Irritated, he opened his eyes and saw Tecchou concentrating on the mirror intensely, somehow looking conflicted as he did so. It seemed like he was facing a genuine turmoil and it concerned Tachihara greatly, so like any sensible human being he asked why, “Are you okay Tecchou-San? You seem troubled…”
“I don’t want to run over any ants,” Tecchou answered, looking to be on the verge of tears.
“Tecchou-San… we have to get going… I don’t think that there are many ants on the driveway,” He replied, exasperated.
“I don’t want to hurt them though,” Tecchou replied without missing a beat.
“I don’t think that killing a few ants will be a problem Tecchou-San,” Tachihara said in an attempt to comfort him. This, apparently, had the opposite effect and Tecchou appeared more destressed than before. “How can you say that Tachihara-San?” Tecchou said in a dismayed tone. He ended up getting so worried, in fact, that he felt he had to walk around the car and check for ants or any other type of insect. When he felt satisfied he got back into the driver's seat and started to slowly inch down the driveway, albeit a little faster then before. Tachihara relaxed into his pillow that he had propped up against the window. He was almost asleep when suddenly the car came to an abrupt stop before pulling over. Tachihara hated that he knew his boyfriend well enough to understand what was going on.
Solemnly Teccou got out of the car and headed behind it as Tachihara followed suit. On the side of the road, behind their now parked car, was dead Tankui lying in a puddle of blood on the ground. Tachihara watched, annoyed, as Tecchou knelt beside the animal corpse in what Tachihara assumed to be mourning. After what seemed like 20 hours but was really just five minutes, Tecchou said, “We have to bury him.”
“T-Tecchou-San! We have to go, we will miss everything that we had planned together!”
“He still deserves a proper burial, if you were him you’d feel the same way,” Tecchou replied leaving no room for debate.
“Yes but…” Tachihara started before giving up on saying anything. He just nodded his head and followed Tecchou a few feet off the side of the road and helped him begin digging. It honestly hurt him a little, the fact that Tecchou was willing to miss all the things they had planned together just for some stupid animal that didn’t know how to stay out of the way of oncoming traffic. But he obliged anyways.
After the two had dug a deep enough hole, Tecchou lifted the dead animal up and placed him inside. After pushing the dirt over and thoroughly patting it down Tecchou bowed his head and closed his eyes again. Tachihara, however, just stared down at his dirt covered hands and his boyfriends clothes that had a few blood stains on them. It was going to be a pain to wash those out…
Tachihara was thankful that he had enough foresight to pack hand sanitizer for the road trip (even if it was just because of Tecchous disgusting food habits) although it didn’t get rid of all the dirt on his hands. It wasn’t like he hadn’t had worse before, anyways. Tachihara grabbed his pillow and relaxed into it, despite having been on the road for maybe an hour it was still earlier than he was used to being up at.
After another two roadkill free hours they two started to get hungry, and because they had wasted so much time worrying about ants and dead animals, they were going to be late to their lunch reservation. Also to Tachihara’s dismay, instead of stopping at a restaurant or fast food place like any normal human being, Tecchou parked in front of a large grocery store. Tachihara groaned, this was going to take forever. They were never going to make lunch now. After wandering the aisles for what seemed like forever, Tecchou finally stopped in front of an item. An innocent mac-and-cheese cup. Which wasn’t alarming until Tecchou had also pulled apple juice and yellow sprinkles off the shelf as well. Even thinking about the soon-to-be concoction made him want to hurl.
After they had checked out (and been given a questioning look by the cashier) Tecchou started to mix everything together, which had taken a lot longer than expected. When it was all said and done, Tachihara did his best not to stare as Tecchou ate the disgusting concoction without blinking. The fact that they were unable to heat it up in anyways seemed to make it 100 times worse in Tachihara’s opinion. Everytime he heard the crunch of the noodles he wanted to scream because of the missed lunch reservation. Why they decided to reserve a seat at lunch and not dinner, was unknown to Tachihara.
Soon enough they were back on the road and everything Tachihara tried to sleep he would imagine going off on Tecchou. In this imaginary world Tecchou’s face was filled with regret and guilt as Tachihara listed all the reasons why he was mad. Why he felt like he couldn’t be open with Tecchou. Why he felt inferior in their relationship. After three hours and two animal funerals Tachihara was fuming. He had been looking forward to their vacation for so long and the first day was ruined, he rarely got to spend time with the man and despite doing so now he was looking forward to going on actual dates with him. He had finished sleeping and glared out the window while still imagining his imaginary argument. “Good morning Tachihara-San. How was your rest?” Tecchou greeted him.
“Morning,” Tachihara replied gruffly.
Sensing something was wrong, Tecchou replied, “Are you okay Tachihara-San?”
That was the breaking point for Tachihara.
“No, we’re going to miss our lunch reservation, and all the other activities we planned at this rate,” He said sharply.
“Oh,” Tecchou replied dumbly.
Fueled with the anger and convinced he could win any argument he started to rant, “Is that all you have to say about this? You’re the reason we’re late. We held funerals for roadkill! You could barely pull out of the driveway because you were afraid you were going to hurt a tiny ant- we’ve done worse for christ’s sake! This trip was supposed to be about us, it was supposed to be a way for us to relax and go on fun dates for once… but the first day is already ruined…” After that rant Tachihara didn’t feel like he had before. He felt sad and guilty, because all though it was Tecchou’s fault he shouldn’t have ranted and should have cooled himself down before addressing any issue. And he also knew that this wasn’t just about the trip. “I’m sorry Tachihara-San…” Tecchou said as he pulled the car over to the side of the road.
Desperately, Tachiara tried to save himself, “I-I shouldn’t have said anything, it's fine it probably doesn’t matter to you-”
“Why wouldn’t it matter to me?”
Oh no. This was a can of worms Tachihara never wanted to open. “I- Its just that… well you’re the strongest hunting dog! How could I ever compare to you?” He asked just letting it out because Tecchou obviously hated him now and what was the point of lying if their relationship was unsaveable.
“You compare to me in a lot of ways, Tachihara-San. You do better than me in a lot of ways as well… Tachihara-San, why didn’t you come to me to talk about this?” Tecchou asked with a genuine sorrowful expression.
“That's the thing- you’re just so strong and everyone looks up to you! You’re obviously better than me in every way so why should I bother you with my problems…”
“Oh Tachihara-San…” Tecchou started with a shocked expression. He put the car in park and leaned over to hug Tachihara, “You’re not inferior to me, I want you to talk to me about these things. I care about you, why else would I be dating you.”
“I’m sorry,” Tachihara replied, his voice cracking.
“...I’m sorry too. I should have been more considerate of you, and you shouldn’t think that you’re inferior because of that,” Tecchou said thoughtfully before getting out of the car. Tachihara was confused until Tecchou made his way around the car and got Tachihara out. He led him into the back seat and positioned them in a way so that Tachihara’s head was against Tecchou’s chest.
“Let’s stay like this for awhile.”
This was better than anything he could have planned.