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Takumi isn’t sure how it began. One moment, he was challenging Yukihira to shokugekis and causing Isami grief and the next he was lookingatherlookingatherlookingather.
He didn’t know why they’d started spending so much time together. Though it probably had a lot to do with that idiot of a redhead and a dormitory resounding with a raucous, unpredictable ruckus.
Tadokoro Megumi wasn’t normally the kind of girl you’d notice - but once you did it was hard to stop.
Though they spent a lot of time together, Takumi was always careful to keep his distance in spite of his whateverthesefeelingsare. He was no stranger to romance. Italy had no such taboo or “age minimum” to issue in the matters of courting. Italy lived and breathed the language of love and even though he and Isami were always busy with the trattoria - romance was practically part and parcel of life. He’d had his fair share, of course. He’d flirted with a few, kissed a couple hands, paid for several dates - in a way, the practice ran in his blood. Romance wasn’t something special or sanctified. It just was.
But Tadokoro Megumi made his heart thump like never before. In the beginning, he thought he might’ve been going into cardiac arrest. He almost became too scared to catch a glimpse of her golden irises. Though he was playing with fire when he gazedgazedgazed at her.
He wasn’t sure how he’d got here. They had very little in common. He was confident and assertive and she was nervous and passive. She grew up in the mountains and he on the coast. He was closely tied to his Italian roots while she lived and breathed Japan.
But despite his foreign status and the way he tripped over Japanese slang, Megumi never failed to smile reassuringly and tell him, “it’s okay, Aldini-kun, I understand.” She never stopped surprising him. She was like heaven wrapped in a plain, brown package. Unexpected. Untouched. Unbeatable. Her cooking was a mere reflection of the biggest heart he’d ever known. And maybe once, he’d thought she was a bit of a coward but she’d proven time and time again that Tadokoro Megumi had one hell of a backbone.
But one girl shouldn’t have steered him so badly off track.
You see, Takumi Aldini had always gone his own way. Paved his own path.
But Megumi with her sunflower eyes and softly curling lips always gave him pause. And he wonderedwonderedwondered if she had room for him on her own path.
Yet, Takumi resisted seeking her out. Making his feelings known. Because he eventually comes to the understanding that she has more important things to worry about. Things like cooking and her mother’s restaurant and Elite Ten duties and her future. She has enough on her plate and she doesn’t need a mess of blonde hair and blue eyes swooping in to ruin that.
He is steadfastly her friend. He believes in her and supports her and it very adamantly stops there. He is so used to this that when graduation comes around and their friends are saying goodbye to each other - there’s a moment the universe gifts him with (or rather, rudely throws in his face without warning) - it is a second alone with her. It’s quiet enough that he can speak normally and no one would overhear them, even amidst the crowd. Takumi is so used to not saying it that he doesn’t know what to say.
His awkward pause is hastily mended by Megumi - always kind and always giving - who says “thank you, Takumi-kun.” And she smiles a warm “good luck and take care” and he thinks for a moment that her smile wobbles.
Looking back in the months to come, he still has no idea what he said in response. He only remembers it as a garbled rush of polite words before she waves and walks away.
After they’ve truly gone their separate ways, Takumi finds himself with his head in his hands and moaning in frustration.
“What now?” Isami asks patiently as he steadily chops up some carrots for a sofritto.
They’re in the kitchen of the trattoria doing meal prep on a Saturday morning.
Takumi gripes with a lethargic “nothing.” He can’t get her out of his head. His dreams swim in blue and gold.
Isami raises a brow and pauses.
“Oh, this is a Tadokoro-san thing.”
Takumis head shoots up so fast he thinks he’s lost some blood.
“What?” He asks, low and dangerous.
Isami shrugs and returns to chopping.
“I figured you’d do something at graduation. But then you didn’t so I thought you were over her.”
Apparently not.
Takumi is gaping.
“You knew?”
Isami rolls his eyes.
Because duh.
Takumi let’s this information sink in for a moment and Isami goes back to the carrots. Then his little brother pipes up and asks, “So what are you gonna do about it?”
Takumi frowns.
“What?”
Isami glowers and sets down the knife with an air of finality.
“Don’t what me. You’re miserable. Do something about it.”
Takumi is incredulous.
“Like what? I’m halfway across the world!”
Isami shrugs, hands on his hips. “Give her a call. Plan a grand romantic gesture. Send her roses. Do a little dance.” He wiggles his eyebrows at the last bit.
Then he laughs a little.
“Show up at her doorstep and declare your undying love for her.”
The next day, Isami spends hours trying to convince himself and his parents that it isn’t his fault when Takumi is nowhere to be found and has left nothing but a note that he’s going to Japan for an indefinite amount of time.
Twelve hours and thirty minutes later, Takumi finds himself on a traditional Japanese doorstep with a suitcase in hand and too many words in his mouth. He braces himself as the doors slide open and he’s about to launch into a poorly-written speech when he realises that the person at the door is definitely not Megumi.
Instead he comes face-to-face, toe-to-toe, with a pair of beady black eyes and snarling sun-worn skin. Takumi tries very hard not to swallow.
“Who are you? What do you want?” The man asks in a gruff voice and for a moment, Takumi forgets how to speak Japanese. And then, he catches a glimpse of blue and gold and he starts.
“Megumi?”
He’s berating himself a split second later when he realises he called out her first name that he had been so careful not to utter. In all their years as classmates and friends, she was only ever “Tadoroko-san.” Megumi - Megumi was for his dreams. Megumi was only thought in the quiet and in the silence when no one but himself could overhear or misunderstand.
In response to his slip-up, Megumi flinches a little and Takumi almost misses the way she turns petal pink. He doesn’t have time to dwell on it and she doesn’t have time to respond when the man - who by the looks of it, is certainly not Megumi’s father - demands that he states his business with “Megu-chan.”
The childish endearment causes Takumi to freeze momentarily and Megumi to go beet red from the roots of her hair to the tips of her toes.
“Garp-ojii!” Megumi gasps and tugs at the kimono of the large man. Takumi stifles a chortle at the sight of her small fist grappling for leverage.
“This is Takumi-kun. He’s a friend from Totsuki!”
At the mention of her alma mater the man seems to relax a little but then his eyes narrow and he sharpens his gaze like Takumi sharpens his mezzaluna.
“Oh?” The man’s voice turns almost mocking.
Takumi congratulates himself when he doesn’t flinch.
“And he’s come all this way because?”
Takumi feels a flush creep up his neck because how is he supposed to explain his undying - not undying not - love for Megumi to a middle-aged man with her standing. Right. There.
He hadn’t even come up with a proper speech on the way. He'd spent most of the trip wondering, in a daze, what she might be doing when he arrived. The fantasy would go as far as her surprised face and, “Takumi-kun?” Before he dissolved into a mess of half-wrought daydreams.
What would he catch her doing? Cooking? Gathering flowers for her mother? Serving customers? Sitting peacefully by the harbour with a cup of steaming tea?
He is less than pleased that this is the scenario he finds himself in. But it is what it is and Takumi is nothing if not tenacious.
He’ll get what he wants.
“I’ve come to ask Megumi something,” he says.
Because to hell with it, if everything goes well he’ll be calling her that for the rest of his days.
Megumi herself doesn’t bother to hide her surprise. She opens her mouth to say something and moves ahead as if to touch his arm but a large, rock-solid body moves ahead to block them both and Takumi can’t help the scowl that twists his features.
“Later.” The man says and Takumi raises an eyebrow. “I need to have a chat with you, gaki.”
Takumi hears Megumi’s protests but is oddly convinced by the calm look in the man’s eyes and Takumi nods at her. Megumi’s worry lines don’t straighten out but she nods reluctantly and offers to take his bag.
And that’s how Takumi finds himself drifting in silence upon the Tohoku harbour. He sits back-to-back with a man whose posture is ramrod stiff and has yet to say anything since they pushed off from the port.
But Takumi is not exactly a patient man and he clears his throat loudly.
The water ripples.
The man huffs.
“I don’t know who you are or where you’ve come from.”
Takumi opens his mouth to reply.
“And I don’t care.”
Takumi scowls. His jaw snaps shut.
“But I care about what you want with our Megumi. So tell it to me straight - you like her don’t you?”
Takumi clamps his lips together and nods.
The man snorts.
“Of course you do. She’s the pearl of our town! A princess.”
Takumi guessed as much.
“But she doesn’t belong here.”
Takumi jerks a little in surprise.
“Excuse me?” He asks.
“This town is too small for a girl like her. There’s more out there for her than this. So promise me - no, promise this town - that when you take her away - which you will, don’t think I don’t know it - you'll make sure she achieves every dream she could possibly dream of. Ya hear me?”
Takumi finds that his fists are clenched because Megumi is loved and cared for and suddenly he feels like he’s scheming to steal the crown jewel from this small, backwater town.
So he does what he can to fix it.
“I promise we’ll take care of her mother. And the restaurant. And - “
The man puts up his hand to silence him.
“I know. Megumi wouldn’t fall in love with a chump.”
Takumi freezes mid-nod.
“She what - “
“We’re back.” The man cuts him off abruptly.
It takes Takumi a moment to reorient himself. They’re back at the port.
And waiting for them on the bridge in a plum-coloured kimono, is none other than Tadokoro Megumi and suddenly the very large man develops skills like a cat and disappears into thin air. Takumi is too enthralled to care because now he can see the golden specks in her irises and the lustrous shine of her ocean tresses and then he’s breathless.
Megumi is resisting her nervous tendencies - he can tell - and her thumbs are twitching to twiddle. Takumi feels a sudden sense of fondness and affection well up in his chest.
He feels his mouth stretch into a laughing smile and time seems to slow because now they’re alone and the world around them blurs.
Megumi is looking down at her socked feet but then she seems to remember herself and she doesn’t ask what he’s doing here, even though Takumi thinks it’s a fair question. Instead, she blurts, “Takumi-kun! I have something to say - or - or I’ve been m-meaning to say.”
Her courage wavers at the last second but Takumi is floored because a seedling of hope sprouts in him. Takumi Aldini, a man not known for his patience, finds himself laying down eternity to hear Megumi finish what she’s started.
She has no idea that she holds the heart of the man before her in the palm of her hands. Be it to drop it and shatter or set it in bloom like the flowering of a garden in spring.
Megumi summons her courage and Takumi watches in bated breath. Adoring and anticipatory all at once.
“I - I’ve been wanting to tell you that I’ve - I’ve had feelings for you.”
The moment the words leave her mouth, she turns bright red and hides her face in her hands and Takumi can’t help it when he lets out a laugh - merry and ringing like a church bell on a Sunday morning. He is suddenly reminded that you shouldn’t laugh when a woman confesses her feelings to you and in a moment of impulse - because again, he’s Takumi Aldini - he clasps her hands with his own and immediately he feels their blood move in tandem. He can’t tell whose hands are hot and whose are cold but it’s a flush, blossoming, youthful sort of rushing feeling like the wind whipping in your hair and he can’t believe he hasn’t done this before.
“Tadokoro-san,” he says with such reverence because this is the last time he’s saying it - he swears to himself.
He urges her to look at him and he braces himself for her gaze like sun rays on blue afternoons. He manages not to stutter when her face comes into view. Her expression is hopeful and hesitant all at once.
Takumi can’t believe it’s taken him this long.
“Can I take you on a date?” He says.
And Megumi’s eyes grow wide and her jaw is slack and she’s speechless.
Her evident lack of response sends a wave of nerves through Takumi and uncharacteristically, he fumbles in the silence that follows.
“I mean - not - not just a date - “
Because what if she thinks that he thinks this is a casual thing?!
“I would like to see you everyday - I mean - for the rest of our lives - “
And then Takumi is horrified because what the hell he basically just proposed.
“I - I mean I want to take you away - no, not away away. I mean, yes, away, but so that we can do what we love and cook and - and - “
And then he remembers what the man in the boat said and Takumi freezes.
“I mean - of course we’ll visit your mother and take care of her and take her with us if we need to but - what I mean is - “
And then it’s Megumi who is laughing and Takumi, embarrassed as he is (he’s Italian for goodness sake. They SPEAK THE LANGUAGE OF LOVE.), finds himself melting and falling in love all over again.
“I - “ he tries to finish his thought - fix his fumble.
But then Megumi is standing on her tiptoes and curling her slender fingers in the blonde strands at the nape of his neck and she’s kissingkissingkissing him. And Takumi is denfenseless against her sweet onslaught and like it’s already a habit, he cups her cheek in his hand. His thumb, calloused and rough, draws affectionate circles over the apple of her cheek. His other hand reaches for her waist because even though he’s kissing her, she’s still too far away. He slips his hand to the small of her back and crushes her against him.
She squeaks a little and he swallows the sound as he tenderly caresses her bottom lip with his mouth.
He’s always wanted to do this.
And so they stand like that for what feels like an eternity. And just in case you’re wondering - yes, that was indeed the very last time he called her Tadokoro-san.