Work Text:
In general, telling his parents that he had a boyfriend had gone a lot better than Akira would have expected it to. They were both incredibly happy for him, first of all, and they’d even taken a liking to Yusuke fairly quickly. Akira had mentally prepared himself for constant comments on how strange and bizarre he was, but surprisingly enough that never happened. Not even once could he recall a time that his fathers had voiced disapproval over their relationship, and it tended to be the opposite more than anything. His papa absolutely loved talking to Yusuke, and they’d had so many conversations about stars and the like that it was hard to keep track of them all. One of Akira’s favorite pastimes as of late was listening to Yusuke excitedly relay all of the information he’d learned from them whilst holding him in a gentle embrace on his bed. He really had to get around to thanking Papa for knowing so much about astrology and stars— it was rare to see Yusuke as excited as he was after a long discussion about them.
And, although on a significantly smaller scale, Yusuke got along with his dad too. Akira was relieved that at least one of his friends didn’t prefer to avoid him, as every other Phantom Thief had done just that. Especially Futaba, who’d apparently ran away in fear after bumping into him for the first time.
..Dad couldn’t be that scary, could he?
Although, that was besides the point. The point was that they got along well enough, and his dad had mentioned taking a liking to him.
Overall, Akira couldn’t have asked for a better outcome to this whole situation.
..However, even despite all of that, there were still times when Akira regretted ever bringing the topic up.
One of the most prominent of these times, he thought, as he stared at the unsightly abominations in front of him, was today.
Today was Valentine’s Day, which also turned out to be the day of his parents’ monthly visit. That in and of itself wasn’t a major issue— he and Yusuke weren’t planning to go anywhere to begin with. Sometimes the most amazing dates were the ones spent in LeBlanc, they had decided. So it’s not as if the visit had interrupted any previous plans.
“Do you like them?” Asked his dad, as Yusuke stared at the items of clothing he was holding with pure disgust.
… That was the problem.
His dad had tried doing something nice for them by buying gifts, which was definitely a welcome surprise. However, the gifts in question were... interesting, to say the very least.
They were two sweaters, made from a material that already made Akira itch from the mere sight of. They were colored an aggressively bright magenta as well, which Yusuke most certainly would have criticized if not for the person giving it to him. If he’d picked up anything from Yusuke’s art talk it would definitely be the importance of color choice, and it seemed as though the designers had done the worst possible job implementing it.
If all of that wasn’t bad enough, in a somehow even brighter cyan color, (Akira was surprised that Yusuke hadn’t had a panic induced stroke at this point) displayed the text, ‘I love you meowy much,’ with some thankfully normally colored cats to accompany it.
Now that he thought about it, to say that Yusuke was disgusted would be an understatement. He looked as though he was going to spontaneously combust any second now from the sheer pain looking at this sweater was giving him.
“Ah, yes. They’re.. uh.. wonderful. T-thank you so much, Mr. Kurosu…” Yusuke sounded practically dead, and Akira didn’t exactly blame him. These things were horrifying for him to look at, and he hadn’t spent years of his life studying color theory.
“You’re welcome. Thank you for taking care of my son, Yusuke.” His dad handed the two sweaters over to them with a smile that almost made Akira feel bad. His poor dad had just tried doing something nice for them, and had absolutely no idea just how painful this was for the very person he was trying to thank.
At the very least the sweaters seemed to be the right size for the both of them, although it didn’t matter all that much. They were definitely going in the back of his closet the millisecond he could get away from this conversation, after all.
“Thanks, dad. We should really get going, though..” Akira crossed his fingers in the hope that he could squeeze away from this conversation as quickly as possible, but his prayers went unheard.
“Aren’t you going to try them on?”
Akira was pretty sure the sigh of disappointment he made could have been heard all the way back in Sumaru.
“Oh, right. How could I forget?” Akira quickly shot his boyfriend an apologetic look, and Yusuke gave him one full of sorrow in return. He could only hope that he could somehow make up for this sometime later today.
He slipped the unsightly sweater on over his school uniform, and- Yup, definitely right about it being itchy. It wasn’t quite as painful to wear as it was to look at, but it was still an uncomfortable feeling. Yusuke reluctantly put his on as well, and they shared a mutual glance of discomfort. They didn’t speak for a bit, neither one of them wanting to be the one to force out a lie about how amazing it felt to wear, and thankfully neither of them had to. All of their thoughts were interrupted by the door to the cafè being pushed open, revealing someone he really didn’t want seeing him like this.
“Sorry I’m so late, I made a stop at the Underground Mall to—Oh.” his papa cut himself off as he presumably noticed the horrors they were dressed in. He was very clearly holding back laughter, and Akira had never wanted to run away from a situation more.
“Tatsuya, did you-” his attempt at hiding his true feelings only grew worse as he spoke. That wasn’t very surprising; Papa had never been any good at suppressing his laughter.
“Yeah, I bought them. Is something wrong?” He asked, turning to face the very visibly laughing man in the doorway. Akira considered making a run for it right then and there, but he didn’t want to take his chances.
“No, no. It’s just.. surprising, is all.” He shared a brief sympathetic glance with Akira and Yusuke, which he was thankful for, before speaking up once again. “I got you some flowers, by the way. Happy Valentine’s Day, Tacchi.” He pulled a bouquet of flowers out of the plastic bag in his hands, a mix of tulips and roses from what he could see, and handed them over to Dad. They then leaned in for a kiss, and Akira saw an opportunity.
“Happy Valentine’s Day, Yusuke,” he said, leaning in for a kiss just as his fathers had done. Unfortunately, he was met with a look of disgust and a swerve out of the way.
“Please do not touch me until you’ve taken that horrid thing off of your body.”
“What was that, Yusuke?” Asked Akira's Dad, raising an eyebrow.
“Oh, it’s nothing, Mr. Kurosu...”
Yusuke shot him yet another look, this one’s meaning clear as day: ‘You owe me for this.’