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Tadashi wasn’t really sure who had made the appointment with the aquarium. It hadn’t been on Mr. Ainosuke’s schedule until last week, and Tadashi was sure he hadn’t called anyone or been called either. Mr. Ainosuke sometimes added things last minute, if someone important called him personally, but he usually left everything to Tadashi to deal with. Maybe it was his aunts? But why would they send him to the aquarium? So yeah, Tadashi didn’t know who had scheduled this appointment. He could ask Mr. Ainosuke, but…
The younger man had his hands shoved in the pockets of his jeans, dressed casually for once, wine red turtleneck sweater bunching around his wrists. He was staring at the sharks swimming lazily behind the glass, eyes bright, like he had never seen anything quite like it before. And maybe he hadn’t. The Shindos weren’t really allowed to be children, after all.
So he couldn’t find it in himself to interrupt that. Tadashi stood slightly behind Ainosuke, watching him more than the sharks. Why were they here? What was Mr. Ainosuke hoping to accomplish today? Were they donating to the research fund or checking out some educational program for the schools?
“Tadashi, I can hear you overthinking from here,” Ainosuke said quietly, turning to face him. “What is it? What’s wrong? Do you not like sharks? We can move onto the coral reef fish, if you’d prefer.”
He glanced towards the sharks, constantly moving forward, tails slicing through the water. They would die if they stopped moving, right? He thought he had heard that somewhere. “What are we doing here, Mr. Ainosuke?” he asked, voice low.
“Doing?” The politician blinked. “Tadashi, you...really don’t know?” Ainosuke took a step closer to him, tilting his head. “Tadashi, what’s today’s date?”
He frowned. What did that have to do with anything? “November 22nd, Mr. Ainosuke.” Oh. He had been so wrapped up in his work lately it had completely slipped his mind that his birthday was coming up. Today, in fact. “Sir, did you…”
“Tadashi you can drop the ‘sir’s’ and the ‘Mr’s’ while we’re on our date. Okay?” Ainosuke was staring at the sharks again, cheeks lightly flushed red as he reached out and took Tadashi’s hand in his own.
He ducked his head, feeling his own blush. “...’kay…” he let himself smile just a bit. “Thank you for the date, Ai.”
“Happy birthday, Tadashi.”