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Another boring morning is what a person would typically assume today, but as for the petite genius, Futaba Sakura, that is not the case at all. The alarm on her phone would continue to echo throughout the entire bedroom repeatedly until she finally decided to lean over and slide the red X on her phone to the right.
"Yup, it's morning alright," the girl thought in her head. All the while, her tall and frizzy-haired husband, Ren Amamiya, held her rather close while sleeping.
Something that Futaba found out about Ren when they moved in together was that Ren was quite a snuggler while sleeping. He didn't have anyone to snuggle back in their golden days of being phantom thieves. There was their feline companion Morgana, but he didn't want to accidentally crush him while he was sleeping since Morgana was significantly smaller than him. After they moved in together and started sleeping in the same bed, he started instinctively snuggling Futaba to get comfortable. If anything, Futaba sees this as her being lucky as back in their golden days, her need for cuddling carried over to her adulthood, so she reciprocated his snuggling every time. It also helps that after rough days at their jobs, it boosts their mood tremendously.
The girl leaned over again to grab her phone in order to check her notifications through her various apps. She had multiple birthday notifications in a few of her mobile games that required a birthday, but the most notifications she has received were located in the group chat of the other ex-thieves. She didn't have anything to do since she didn't want to wake Ren up yet, so she went ahead and opened the group chat to reply to everyone.
F: Thx for the birthday wishes guys!! ≧◡≦
R: No prob!
H: It’s our pleasure!
R: Hey, where’s Ren? Kinda expected him to be one of the first to tell ya happy birthday.
A: Ryuji, come on! Ren is literally with her every day. He doesn’t need to tell her in the chat!
R: Oh yeah, guess ya got a point…
This proceeded to make the orange-haired girl giggle at the sight of her friend being clueless, but then something hit her. This situation gives her a great, yet cheeky idea. For the entire time that Futaba was replying to all the birthday wishes she got this morning, Ren was still on the snooze cruise while he was busy snuggling Futaba, so she took advantage of this. She went ahead and swapped to her phone camera, put the phone in front of them, closed her eyes, and…
*SNAP*
She then proceeded to swap back to the IM app and opened the group chat once again.
F: I mean if you’re so curious on what he’s doing…
Futaba types and sends the new picture she just took, and the moment she did that, she noticed that everyone that was present at the time was typing.
M: Oh my..
H: You two look so cute together!!
A: Definitely!!
R: Okay yeah, I got nothing. That’s some cute shit.
F: Mweheh, I saw an opportunity, and I seized it (°∀°)
Y: Such…tenderness and beauty…if you don’t mind, I aim to capture the utter adoration of you two in my next piece. Ren is a rather lucky man.
F: Cut it out, Inari!
As if on cue, Ren groans and opens his eyes to see his dork of a wife on her phone while remaining in his arms. He was still a tad groggy from last night, but it didn’t stop him from smiling at his loving wife after waking up.
“Morning, sleepin’ beauty,” Futaba says playfully. “I was just considering on waking you up.”
“I should be the one saying that to you,” says Ren.
“Well, looks like you were too slow today! Gotta step it up if you wanna catch me next time.”
“I’ll keep that in mind then. With that out of the way…”
The frizzy haired man brought his arm around Futaba’s waist to help his petite wife sit up in their bed. As he did, he turned her around, moved her bangs out of the way, and kissed her on the forehead. “Happy birthday, my precious dork,” says Ren lovingly.
Futaba looked up at him and just stared. She felt so at peace but also lost while gazing into her husband’s eyes, especially after his display of affection not too long ago. “T-Thanks, hubby,” she says with a tint of red on her face.
Ren could sense that he already made her a tad flustered as his affection, so why not take it up a notch? He opened his arms wide enough to ask her to come closer, and Futaba couldn’t resist giving into the temptation of nuzzling into his chest. She scooted slowly toward Ren and leaned her head against his chest. The loving man then closed his arms around her gently, giving her full permission to nuzzle to her heart’s content, and she did just that. She kept on nuzzling against her Key Item’s chest until that same Key Item piped up. “You got any ideas on what you wanna do today?” Ren asked while gently rubbing her back.
“H-huh?” she stuttered. She got a little too carried away with nuzzling him. “Well, honestly, I freed up today to just spend time with you, so I’m playing follow the leader today!” Ren chuckles at her comment. “In that case, I was thinking we can go to Ikebukuro today if that’s okay with you, but we should get some breakfast first.”
“Ikebukuro? What for?” she asked.
“There’s a planetarium there, and I’ve already been considering on taking you there for a while bu-"
The petite woman’s eyes immediately lit up with a fiery spark of passion. He immediately caught her attention before he even finished his sentence, and all she could think about getting a move on.
“You’re kidding! Of course! Let’s go ahead and get ready then! Come on, slowpok-“
Before she could finish, her foot got caught under the covers and she fell face-first onto the floor. Thank goodness the floor’s texture was soft carpet and not wood like the attic they used to live in. Otherwise, it would most likely hurt way more than it did.
“I-I’m okay,” she stated in pain. All Ren could do was sigh at her wife’s accident before getting out of bed to help her get up to start both of their days.
The train ride to Ikekuburo was rather calm all the way there. There weren’t too many people on the train, so the couple managed to grab some seats instead of needing to stand up for the entire ride. They mostly sat in silence while Ren read some books that he brought with him. Futaba was still a tad sleepy, so she leaned on Ren’s shoulder and eventually fell asleep until they got to their destination. Their feline friend Morgana decided to leave the two to do their own thing today while he rested until they came back, so not having him along for the ride made the train ride even more peaceful. Not that they minded his company, but more so they wanted to have more time to themselves for quite a while, and this is the perfect day to have just that.
After around an hour or so, they finally arrived at the planetarium. Thankfully, there wasn’t a long line, so they managed to get in rather quickly. When they stepped into the main theater, Futaba was rather blown away.
“W-Whoa,” she stuttered. “This place is…a lot bigger than I remembered.”
Futaba’s been here before? Ren was sure that he never took her here before, so this rightfully puzzles him. “What do you mean?” he asked.
“Well,” she begins. “Mom used to take me here a few times after she was done with her research on some days. We would sometimes even make wishes on the shooting stars that pop up. Most of our wishes were kinda cheesy, but…what mattered to me the most is that I got to spend time with her then.”
“Yeah, of course,” Ren smiles.
Suddenly, the lights have started to dim down in the dome. This usually meant that the projections are getting ready to be displayed in the dome. “Oh oh! I think it’s starting! Come on, let’s find a seat!”
The girl then pulls on Ren’s hand and runs on over to a nearby pair of seats with Ren in tow. Naturally, they sit next to each other and wait patiently for the main event to start. As if on cue, the projection opens up with the entire cosmos and the many different planets and moons rotating around the starry sea of space. Futaba couldn’t help but feel entranced by the presentation.
“God, this is amazing…” she expressed in adoration of the cosmos.
“Even though it’s been a while for me, this is about as incredible as I remembered it,” Ren expressed.
“Alright, now it’s your turn to explain what you mean by that,” she stated with a rather smug smile planted on her face. She had to open up on why she remembered going here before, so it’s only fair for Ren to explain his side of the coin.
“Well,” he began, “this was before you reached out to us, but Makoto and I came here to investigate some strange guy talking to himself about the beauty of the universe in here. “…That sounds way too much like Inari.”
Ren scratched the side of his face gently, as if she was right on the nose. “Well, we ran into Mishima, and when we told him what we were doing, we ran into Yusuke, and he….pretty much confirmed that it was him without even realizing it was him.”
Futaba just felt second-hand embarrassment from Ren’s story, and all she could do was just facepalm. “Jesus, that clueless Inari,” she stated in a despondent tone.
“Yup. I honestly felt bad that he didn’t even realize it, but we all just let it be.”
“I felt bad for him from just LISTENING to that.”
“Yeah, but that’s just typical Yusuke for ya.
“Can’t argue there.”
At that moment, a shooting star dashes through the cosmos in the dome. The theater was filled with “Oooh’s” and “Aaah’s” as the star blitz throughout the starry sea, and it even caught the couple’s attention as well.
“Oh! A shooting star!” Futaba exclaimed.
“You wanna make a wish?” Ren ask while smiling. He did remember that Futaba said that her and Wakaba and used to wish on the stars in this dome years ago, so he thought that he could reignite something within her to do so again. Futaba has no hesitation to reject his proposal either.
“Duh! Now go and make your wish, ya dork!”
Following Futaba’s orders, they both closed their eyes and took a moment of silence to make their wishes. After ten seconds have passed, both opened their eyes at the same time, and Futaba immediately sprung up.
“Weeeeell? What was yours?” the curious woman asked.
“To be a great husband for you,” the man honestly expresses.
Futaba got emotionally shot right in the heart after that wish. Not only did it come from a place of sincerity, he had the same wish as she did! “Now you’re stealing my wish!? Hacks, I tell you! HACKS!” she exclaims. Ren chuckles at her feeling flustered, but the tone in his voice started to shift.
“That’s honestly how I truly feel. While I’m sure that I would want no other woman in my life except you, I’m just…a bit nervous being a husband like this. Is this…normal?”
Futaba looks at Ren’s face, and his face told her all that she needed to know. Ren was going through the same phase that Futaba went through years ago of wanting to be a good girlfriend. He was clearly worried about making her happy within their marriage, and it absolutely bothered her seeing her Key Item like this. She clenched her fist, held her tears back, and looked him in the eye.
“It’s gotta be because that’s pretty much how I feel about you!” she begun. “I was already stressing over being a good girlfriend for you back when we were still thieves, but now I got a job change from a girlfriend to a wife? It’s a lot of pressure, but I’m letting you know this now. You were an amazing and selfless boyfriend, Ren. You gave me my life back and have done so much more for me. You’ll be a great husband. I….I just know it.”
Ren was completely taken aback by his wife’s sincerity. There were way too many emotions that flooded into him that felt like they were taping his mouth shut, but the most powerful and sensational emotion that he is feeling right now is his endearing love and care for Futaba. He looked at her and gave one of the widest smiles that he has ever given her. “Thank you, Futaba,” Ren said as thanks.
As Ren gave Futaba one of the biggest smiles she’s ever received from him, she gives him one right back smile as her response.
“This is kinda ironic. It’s usually me comforting you and rarely the other way around,” Ren chuckled.
“Hey, I sensed my hubby needed some support, and he was going to get some support whether he likes it or not!”
"Guess you never quit your job from back then, huh?"
"Once a navigator, always a navigator!" she exclaimed with a peace sign.
"Mhm, and I got the best one there is," Ren said confidently.
"C-Cut it out, ya dork," she hid her flustered face.
"Hey, I mean it. You talk about me being selfless, but look at yourself. You always kept trying to get better at socializing and putting yourself out there not just for yourself, but also that you could be a great girlfriend. If you ask me, I’d say that you exceeded that and are already on your way on becoming an amazing wife."
The same rush of spiraling emotions that flooded Ren has seeped their way into Futaba, and as someone who was already holding back her tears in trying to support her husband, she could do as she can to hold it back, but it was no use. Tears were flowing down her face, but they weren't tears of sadness or anger. They were tears of pure love and joy for Ren. All she could do was hide her face for a while, and after some time, she finally spoke again.
"T-Thank you….so much, Ren. For everything," she said while doing her absolute best on holding back her tears"
"No, thank you, Futaba. For being you."
As awkward as it was to do so considering how their seats were designed, Ren leaned forward to hug Futaba, and she reciprocated the affection by hugging back a little tighter. They stayed like that for some time, but as they finished having a heart-to-heart and broke the hug, the lights brightened within the entire dome again, showing that the presentation is now over. “I guess we were talking so much that we didn’t even realize how much time moved so fast,” Futaba snickered.
“Yeah, even I kinda lost track of time while talking,” Ren stated before getting out of his seat. “You wanna go try and find somewhere to eat? I think there’s a nearby diner that we can get a table at, and it’s not that busy from what I remember before walking in here.”
Futaba furiously nodded her head in agreement. “Of course!” the girl exclaimed joyfully. Ren stuck out his hand to let her hold it, and she energetically does so.
“Feathermen, roll out!” she exclaims excitedly.
Even though she still had quite a lot of her birthday left to go for the day, she already considered it as one of the best birthdays that she ever had, and it’s all thanks to her Key Item taking her out today. They walk on out of the planetarium, and make their way over to the diner. In Ren’s eyes, her birthday had only just begun.
Happy Birthday, Futaba Sakura.