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Usagi hates a lot of things, even though as a samurai he, technically, isn’t supposed to. And if there is one thing he hates more than anything else, it’s Valentine’s Day.
There isn’t one specific reason for it, and he’s not sure if there is one at all, but there is just something about this day that makes him incredibly uncomfortable. Maybe it’s just the general obsession with it that people around him always had. Maybe it’s the attention one’s love life suddenly receives around a month before the damn day itself. Maybe it’s the fact that in Japan – his home country he lived in until a couple of years ago – it is only the women who give presents to men, and he has never been brave enough to ruin this tradition in order to express his own affections.
Or maybe it’s because his boyfriend always gets in trouble on this day, trying to make some kind of surprise for him.
“I’m coming, coming!” comes Nardo’s voice from the bedroom and he runs out from it and into the bathroom, holding his phone with his magical prosthetic hand. “Yes, kid, I’m sorry, I know that I promised… Hey, don’t talk to me like that! Yes, Casey is allowed to, because I changed his diapers! That’s a traumatic experience that requires some kind of remorse from me!”
The door shuts behind him and remains as such until he emerges from it at the same lazily fast speed, dressed in his usual battle gear, with his sword at his side. His atrocious blue sweater is gone, probably thrown casually somewhere next to the sink.
Usagi smiles at him.
It was challenging to get to that point of comfort and casualty, because in order for it to happen their souls had to stand in front of each other naked, bathing in the world around them, without a towel to cover either of them, but they succeeded.
Looking back, Usagi thinks that he fell in love with Nardo the day they met.
He didn't realize it back then. He thought he wanted to be friends and that was all. And it broke his heart in retrospect, knowing how rough it actually was for him to accept his feelings. How he fought them and thought he'd rather take Nardo as a friend than not at all... He tried to protect himself from the pain of the emotions. Tried to make some effort to get over him… And then, just when he thought he made progress on that, The Incident happened.
It happened on the exact day he was going to make a bigger effort to move on. So, that was that. That's when he realized that it was bigger than him. That considering both their pasts and backgrounds, it was safe to assume that the universe itself wanted this to happen that way.
He wanted it to.
And every day since then it felt like Nardo did too.
So, all of it really was only a matter of time and patience, Usagi supposes. It all makes sense now.
With Nardo, he is both completely free and caged, although it is a cage he wants to be in because he feels safe there. His imagination is free, and his creativity and intellect have no boundaries - happily peering into the endless possibilities for ideas and learning - but his romantic love is what keeps him in. He voluntarily came in, closed the door behind himself, built a home in it, and hid the key outside the bars, under the rug.
That is that.
He's done.
He's his.
“I tried to wake you!” Yuichi calls out to him from the kitchen, smirking. “But you said you needed five more minutes at least seven times.”
His nose is buried in his cup of coffee until Nardo comes up and snatches it away, devouring the whole thing in one swing.
“Ew,” he grimaces. “I forgot about your coffee-making skills. Or lack thereof.”
He puts the cup down on the counter and starts to run around the apartment again.
“And yet here you are, drinking it every time you’re late,” Usagi smiles. “Which is every day.”
“I don’t have a choice now, do I?” Nardo mumbles, putting on his blue mask.
Usagi snorts. “How about waking up earlier?”
“Not worth it,” Nardo declares.
“Well, if you did, you’d see me longer. Is that not worth it either?”
Nardo comes up to him again and quickly kisses him on the cheek. “You are worthy of my heart and soul but waking up before nine in the morning is too much of a sacrifice. I won't have enough time to dream about you that way!”
With these words, he disappears again.
“Dork!” Usagi calls out to him.
“Said the dork-lover!”
“Don’t forget your keys!”
“Aye-aye, captain,” Nardo says, racing to the front door, and jingles his keychain, strapped to his sword with a plastic spring. “Gotta go! Love you!”
Usagi leans on the kitchen counter, almost laying on it. “Tell Leo that I need you alive this evening to move the bed to the other side of the room!”
“Not happening, Bunnycup!” is the last thing Nardo says before closing the door.
A bright light comes from underneath the door signaling that Nardo has opened a portal and used it to get to the Lair faster.
It would be a lot easier if he could do it from the apartment, but after The Incident with Big Mama, which occurred a couple of months after their moving in together, they decided to not risk it all again and asked Mikey to draw some anti-portal symbols on the walls to make it safer.
Usagi yawns.
His shift at the Run of The Mill Pizza starts in about an hour, but he isn’t worried about being late. He never is, but especially not today. Because today is the one day, he would absolutely kill a person to miss. Why did he decide that customer service was his calling, again? Hm. Maybe he should become an assassin after all. It’s not too late – Donnie would definitely still be down for that. Especially after all these years.
Suddenly, his phone rings.
Usagi picks it up immediately and seeing Gon’s name, gets ready to say something like «Hey», or «What’s up», but gets interrupted by a loud crash and a bunch of screaming voices.
Well, here it is.
His 50 bucks for the Annual Valentine's Day Apocalypse bet.
“Usagi!” Gon’s voice screeches from the speaker. “I bet on you! Please, come and save us!”
“I don’t know, man,” Usagi stands up, puts his phone to his ear, and holds it in place with his shoulder while he puts on his jacket. “I have another hour until…”
“I’ll double your prize money!”
“Oh, well look at that- I’m already out the door!”
And he really is.
A second later he closes it behind him, throwing the key into his front pocket, and, after checking that the hallway is clear and no one is watching, races down the stairs like a child, jumping over two, or sometimes even three, steps at a time.
At the exit of the building, he is met with a bouquet, laying on the ground, as if someone threw it out of a window.
Well, seems like there is one person who hates Valentine’s Day more than him. And honestly, he completely gets them because the whole thing is so dumb it almost melts his mind.
Who in their right mind thought oh yes! Let's have a holiday to misteach young people what love is and entice them to be greedy, inculcating extremely deep insecurity into literal generations regarding this holiday. Really, it's a great idea! We'll also sell more crap they never needed, like all those cards, chocolates, and sweat-shop lingerie items in chemical-dyed tissue.
Because think of the economy!
It’s ridiculous.
But now that he's really thinking about it, it might actually be right up there with Halloween. Screw showing respect to the dead. Let's sell insanely overhyped plastic costumes that are damaging to the environment and more than one community and are also made in sweatshops, and get the kids more addicted to candy.
Because it’s just.
Makes.
Sense.
Usagi's heart can't be won with candy or trinkets. Maybe because he'd always tried to hide his deepest emotions, withdrawing when his love was intense. Because he'd been so afraid to let it out, to trust another with his heart.
Maybe that’s why he doesn’t get this holiday.
Because what is a red, heart-shaped, manufactured box of chocolates compared to the universe's introductions, given out for lovers that are destined to do great things together, to make life better for others rather than simply for themselves? These introductions can take time and can be staggered over weeks, months, or years... But this time acts as a focusing lens, to give each one time to see the purity of their love. To give them time to become one unit of two souls, free but united by their own choice.
Usagi believes that this was the way love is. But for many others, it is different. It is as if they walk the easy road - the one that leads to mediocrity, and stability - but not the pleasant type. Rather the quietly miserable one. The one full of potential, unused and unseen. One that could have walked the path of the greatest lovers in history but remains seated.
Usagi hates a lot of things, even though as a samurai he, technically, isn’t supposed to. And if there is one thing he hates more than Valentine’s Day, it’s the word «could».
Because he is scared of it.
Because he could be a lot of things and because he is none of them. Because there are infinite possibilities, and the future is not set in stone. Because sentient life has free will. Because Usagi prefers living in the moment, making the finest moral choices he can in the situation he finds himself in, instead of seeking the counsel of fortune tellers or mystics.
Yes, even his boyfriend and his boyfriend’s favored son, both of whom refuse to eat twinkies for some mysterious future-y reason.
“No!” Casey called out one morning about four years ago, jumping from the couch in their apartment only to fall back on the floor, after seeing Usagi stuff a whole twinkie in his mouth. “Sensei!”
“What?!” Nardo called out, running out of the bedroom, and flashing everyone with one of his horrible t-shirts.
This one said: «I’m Not the Dad Who Stepped Up», and if Usagi was completely honest with himself, he would admit that it’s not the worst thing in the man’s closet. But he decided, why bother? And just cringed at the sight.
“Case?” Leonardo asked, walking closer to the guy to help him get back up.
“T-word!” is all Casey said in response, pointing at Yuichi with a terrified look.
And despite not expecting a single thing at that moment, seeing Nardo jump and hide behind the couch surprised Usagi more than he thought possible; to the point of him choking on the damn overly sweet snack.
“Sagi, get the damn thing out!” is all the support he got while coughing violently.
“What is wrong with you?!” he asked after finally calming down.
Casey still looked a bit wary of him.
“How do you feel?”
“I don’t know, how am I supposed to feel?”
“Are you… Dizzy?”
Usagi frowned. “No?”
“Nausea?”
“From Nardo’s horrible fashion taste.”
“That’s life’s given, it doesn’t count.”
“Hey!” Leonardo perked up.
“No, nothing’s wrong,” Usagi replied. “Why should it be?”
“Twinkies are prohibited,” Casey said, as if that explained anything.
Nardo cleared his throat. “Well, you see, my dear, somewhere after twenty thirty two-”
“No!” Usagi takes the ends of his ears and wraps them around the sides of his face. “Not listening! Nope!”
“But-”
Usagi shakes his head. “No spoilers!”
Nardo sits up. “Yu, that’s serious-”
“I want to watch that episode of breaking news myself when it comes out!”
And that was that. He still has no idea what is it that’s about to happen to twinkies after 2032. And he might never know thanks to the changed timeline. Or because he doesn’t eat twinkies anymore. Anyway, he still has a bunch of years to wait for that and he doesn’t need to know anything about them to enjoy them.
Not even the lottery numbers.
Mhm.
Definitely doesn’t need them.
At all.
“Usagi!” Gon calls out to him the moment Yuichi enters the restaurant through the back. “Thank God. Please, save me!”
“Lead the way, big guy.”
When Nardo went out the door on the morning of February 14th, he had two things planned: first, a ring. Second, a cake.
And what does he get instead?
A lecture about being late from his own past self, a tired look from his son as a response for his trying to turn the conversation into a joke, an extremely high price tag on in the bakery, and a Foot-Clan situation right in the middle of it.
“Really?!” he is all he can scream, as he slashes the air in front of him to create a portal. “On my day off?!”
Leo emerges from the portal and jumps right at the Foot Brute in an attempt to lead him away from the counter. “I told you to prepare all of this sooner!”
“You think I didn’t try?!” Nardo groans, picking the Foot Lieutenant up and sending him straight into a wall. “I got interrupted every time I did!”
“Why did you think Valentine’s would be different?” Casey asks, following Leo and hitting the Brute with his modified hockey-stick-like weapon.
“Because Warren and Hypno are on a vacation,” Nardo says, spinning around and chopping off paper ninjas like they’re nothing. “The Sando bros are disappointing women over in Mama’s hotel, and Meat Sweats is hell knows where. I thought these two would also have plans!”
“We did!” the Foot Lieutenant exclaims, standing back on his feet. “But do you have any idea how difficult it is to put up with customers this time of year?! Everyone wants a dozen heart-shaped cupcakes with someone’s name on it… We have to take out the steam once in a while!”
He charges at him, attempting to kick him in the plastron, but Nardo easily deflects his blow.
“Well, I was about to be one of these customers,” Nardo says. “But not anymore!”
“I told you they don’t offer discounts to enemies!” Leo laughs from behind him.
“A bummer considering how many there are,” Casey mumbles.
Nardo is about to say something when suddenly Brute appears right next to him, hitting him over the shoulder and sending him to the floor.
“Why would you need cupcakes anyway?” he asks.
“Not your business,” Nardo spits out, lifting himself up by his elbows and hitting the villain in his Achilles’ hill.
“He wanted to propose!” Leo says, fighting off the paper ninja attacking him with one hand and scrolling through his phone with the other. “Hold on, I gotta show you how he looked when he planned it. It was like that one meme with the guy who tried to explain something, and there’s like a board filled with things and red threads behind him…”
“Leo,” Casey calls out to him. “I don’t think it’s the time!”
Leo looks up from his phone. “Why not?”
“Mom always said it was bad luck discussing proposals before they happened!”
“That’s because her boyfriend turned out to be an ass and ran away after she as much as mentioned it,” Nardo replies.
He isn’t sure if that was the right time to reveal the truth about Casey’s biological shit show of a father – in the middle of a fight, and on Valentine’s Day, non the least – but he feels like the kid had to find out either way and considering that he was the one who brought this topic up…
Nah, he’ll be fine.
Who won’t be fine though, is Leo, if he won’t shut up and stop spilling the tea about Nardo’s love life.
“Yeah, I wondered where the rabbit went all of a sudden,” the Lieutenant mumbles, stumbling back, right into Casey’s reach, and almost gets hit over the head. “I liked fighting him – he has better jokes than you lot.”
“He has the same jokes as I do!” Nardo replies defensively.
“No, don’t lie to yourself,” Leo shakes his head. “Sagi is definitely better.
Nardo groans. “You bring a man home one time, and the kids already love him more than you.”
“Hey, I still love you more!” Casey says, turning to him with a grin.
“Liar.”
“No, I’m not!”
“You are all the same,” Nardo starts on his usual old-man rant. “Back in my day…”
“You are back in your days.”
“Well then, forward in my days-”
“Have you ever thought you’d hear someone say that?” Leo turns to Casey with a smirk.
“Should have,” Casey shrugs.
Nardo rolls his eyes, kicking and ducking one of the ninja’s blows. “Why did I come back to these horrible times again…?”
Leo snorts. “To stop whining about being single.”
“Ah yes,” Nardo nods. “Something you still do even after all these years.”
“That was low.”
Nardo frowns. “Have you met Liam already?”
“Who?” Leo asks, taking a step back to kick Brute in the stomach.
Casey throws his weapon and waits for it to come back like a boomerang with his hand up. “The one from the bank?”
“How come he knows about all of them, but I don’t?!” Leo whines.
“Because you get to experience all of that first-hand!”
“I think I would have preferred the apocalypse.”
Nardo laughs.
He’s sure that just five years ago he wouldn’t have been able to laugh at this joke as easily as he does now, just as Leo wouldn’t be able to tell it with such ease in his voice, and just as Casey wouldn’t have it in himself to chuckle at it, without letting it get into his head.
They all have gone through so much and grown so much that looking at it now, Nardo can’t really believe it’s still them. That they are still here. That he is still here – roaming this earth, walking on it freely, and, sometimes, at moments like these, even without a drop of guilt for it. It always comes back, of course – he can’t leave it behind as he did to his timeline, can’t abandon it like he did his world, and can’t forget it, just like he can’t forget his brothers – but it’s not choking him anymore.
No, this new guilt is different.
It lets him breathe. Lets him enjoy life. Lets him learn and remember it so he’ll know what his brothers are missing.
And it doesn’t scream at him anymore.
It is quiet these days. And sometimes he thinks that it might just be grief, disguised as the only feeling he deemed acceptable for himself to experience.
“Gentlemen,” comes Donnie’s voice, and the glove on Nardo’s left hand lights up with the Turtle emblem. “We have the precious.”
“Hold your horses, Gollum,” Leo mumbles, waving his swords around in an attempt to distract as many paper ninjas as possible. “Are you absolutely sure it’s the right one?”
“It’s one of a kind, of course I’m sure!”
“Are you absolutely sure though? Cuz-”
Raph’s voice interrupts him: “Leo, you’re worryin’ more than Nardo.”
“Yeah, and it’s a problem!” Leo says, sending Nardo a bitter look. “If it weren’t for me, the dude would procrastinate this one too!”
“You procrastinated proposals?” Casey frowns, turning to him.
“N-no!” Nardo lies.
“You totally did, didn’t you,” Casey shakes his head. “That’s why I said Sagi would propose first.”
“Yu is not proposal material,” Mikey argued, letting Dr. Fallings occupy the line. “You know, fear of rejection, all of that.”
“Hey!” Nardo called out in the most dad-like voice he could manage. “That’s my boyfriend y’all are talking about!”
“We know,” Leo huffed. “No need to brag.”
Nardo can’t explain it, but every time the kids mention Usagi, there is this warm feeling that spreads through him… It’s not the same as when he is with him. No, this one was different.
It's very similar to pride.
It first appeared there when Nardo finally decided that to hell with it, he is going to bring Usagi over, not caring to execute a very (overly) complicated plan, whose purpose was to make sure that dad and Draxum would be absent from the lair for at least an hour before they got there, and remained there since, coming back every time Usagi was as much as mentioned. As if once Nardo stopped seeking for him to belong, he finally accepted that Usagi belonged in a way that is secure and deep but also unique to him.
“I hope you all dealt with the cake,” Donnie says. “We have a very tight schedule today!”
“Well, you can say so,” Casey breathes out as the last of the paper ninjas fall to the ground. “We dealt with it but there is no cake.”
“No cake-?!”
“We’ll figure it out,” Raph says. “Just hurry up!”
They are lucky enough not to meet any other villains on their way to Nardo and Usagi’s apartment, which is a pretty significant win. One that definitely lifts Nardo’s spirit before getting another lecture – this time, from Donnie – about the importance of a glucose filled beverage being consumed around five minutes before the proposal, because that way it will boost the dopamine level and make the brain paint the moments of it’s consuming the occasion for it in brighter colors.
Nardo never saw a person so passionate about cake, ever, so it’s a little hard to concentrate on his words, rather than that.
“So,” Casey says when Donnie finally takes a break from talking. “What if we just… Bake a cake?”
“What if we-?!” Donnie pauses. “No, you know, actually, a good question.”
“A cake baked with love for the love holiday?! O-o-oh, baby!” Mikey starts jumping around the living room. “I love it!”
“That’s a nice idea,” Raph nods. “Raph’s in.”
“Ye-ah,” Leo stretches out. “How about those of us who have no cooking abilities? I’m talking about grandpops, obviously.”
“Hey!” Nardo argues.
“Is he wrong though?” Donnie asks.
“Well-”
“No, he’s not,” Casey shakes his head.
“You, young man, is going to be in trouble one day, and I won’t be there to help you,” Nardo says in an offended voice.
“Oh no, he does the When I’m Dead talk,” Leo throws his hands in the air. “Grandpa is officially old!”
“Shut the shell up, will you?”
“Did you just…?”
“I did.”
“How dare you.”
“I’m an adult, that’s my job. To dare.”
“Let me remind you, granny, that I’ve been of legal age for at least three years.”
“And yet you are the same height as the first time I saw you.”
“Ha!”
“Donnie, if you don’t cut it out-”
After another hour of arguing and messing up Donnie’s schedule, a new plan emerges. Nardo isn’t in favor of it, but no one really asks him. The kids just giggle and shove him out the door, telling him to go, and hang out with his boyfriend. Which is a bit suspicious, considering he isn’t told any other details about this so-called plan, but he is not going to object to getting some peace and quiet.
Especially if Yuichi is involved.
“So,” he says, as Mikey stands at the door, waving him goodbye. “I’ll go then… Hoping no one will burn my apartment down…”
“Good luck!” Mikey smiles and shuts the door behind him.
“That’s not what you were supposed to say!”
The is no response, so all Nardo really can do is turn around and head to the stairs and down the hall. He could use his portals to move quicker and stay warm, instead of exiting to the cold street, but something stops him. Or rather, blocks this thought from being noticed, as he slowly starts walking in the general direction of the ally, in which the entrance to the Run of the Mill Pizza is located.
The air is cold, which is to be expected in the middle of February, but there is no wind, so being outside is actually bearable, for the first time since December.
It may even be nice.
Which is quite lovely for a day like this.
“Three cups, not spoons!” Donnie yells out.
Leo puts his free hand on his hip. “A spoon is also a cup?”
Donnie waves his hands. “In what way?!”
“It’s… It’s a…” Leo pauses. “You can put stuff in it!”
Casey frowns. “Guys?”
“Well then guess what’s your head? A toilet.” Donnie says. “Cuz it’s full of shit.”
“Donnie. Leo,” Raph grunts. “I swear on dad’s new bathrobe-”
“Raph, don’t you dare put that image in my head,” Leo covers his eyes.
“Guys,” Casey calls out again.
“Hey...”
“Don’t you dare put only a spoon of flour into the bowl!” Mikey yells.
Leo gasps, offended. “Hey, you’re supposed to be on my side!”
“I’m on the kitchen’s side, and you seem to disrespect it a fair amount,” Mikey turned away from him.
“Listen-”
“See, Leo? I told you to stay out of it.”
“Blah-blah-blah…”
“Don’t you blah-blah-blah me!”
“Guys!”
BOOM.
Hueso knows a lot of things. He really does! And one of them is that rabano is not supposed to be at the Run of The Mill Pizza on Valentine's Day. Because as much as he is delighted with the guy’s abilities and the way he got the hang of the job in just a couple of hours, he also is also aware of one little circumstance which had brought him into his life.
Precisely, pepino senior.
Hueso had been there for both the dramatic gestures and the quiet conversations between the two. He had seen Nardo stay sitting at the bar for literal hours, waiting for Usagi’s shift to end, seen him fall asleep while doing so, and seen Usagi spending his breaks near him, playing with his ninja mask’s ends. He had been there when Nardo broke in, despite being officially suspended from the restaurant for the upcoming week, panicked, panting, searching for the rabbit guy, looking like he was ready to kill someone. So if there is anything Hueso knows is that Usagi should be spending Valentine’s Day at home.
But he also knows him well enough to know that the Annual Valentine's Day Apocalypse bet is a tradition he has never once violated.
“Gon!” Usagi calls out, poking his head into the kitchen. The rhino guy immediately appears next to him with a tray in his hands, allowing rabano to put the drinks in his hands on it. “Tables eleven and nine.”
“Got it,” nodded, taking off.
“Thanks!”
Hueso puts the towel in his hands on the kitchen counter and looks at Usagi, who seems to pause by the door, looking at the watch above it with anticipation.
“He didn’t show up yet?”
“No,” Usagi answers, quietly.
Hueso instantly recognizes this tone. Or rather, the worry behind it.
How dumb is pepino to go on a mission on this day every year?!
That Hueso doesn’t not know.
Maybe because it is hard for him, to understand Nardo. Especially after years of talking to Leo. Because they are similar, almost identical, but their minds are somewhat different. Maybe even completely different. Leo was afraid of being alone for years, all while Nardo was running away from everyone for so long, it was almost hard to imagine him finally settling. Because, apparently, living through an apocalypse and preventing it comes with two different coping mechanisms.
Not that Hueso thinks about it too much. Or at all.
He totally doesn’t.
“He’ll be ok,” Hueso says as casually as he could. “Don’t tell him I said that, but he is smart enough to get out of trouble in time.”
“But dumb enough to get into trouble in the first place,” Usagi hums.
“Well, I’d say that’s genetic. Which is why Future Boy is the only person with a brain around here.”
Usagi grimaces. “Oh, if only you knew…”
Hueso laughs. “I have a kid myself; you don’t have to tell me more.”
Usagi is about to say something when suddenly a crashing sound is heard behind him. He turns around immediately and runs out with Hueso right behind him. What waits for them in the restaurant’s hall is Gon, getting up from the floor, holding an empty tray in his hands, and Nardo standing beside him, apologizing.
“Look what the cat dragged in,” Usagi smirks, and Hueso can see the relief wash over his face when he looks at Nardo and realizes that he is unharmed.
Pepino looks up with the same exact smirk. Hueso feels something tug in his chest as he sees this. Something familiar, yet foreign.
“If by cat you mean my undying love for you, then yes, it certainly did, querido,” Leonardo waves his hand and in a single motion appears next to rabano.
Hueso shakes his head.
“You’re on this ice, pepino,” he says. “Remember the policy: no coquetear con mis empleados.”
Nardo’s smirk turns into a smile. “Hey, I wasn’t flirting with your employee!” he elbows Usagi. “I was flirting with my f- boyfriend!”
Usagi squints. “What did you just say?”
“Huh?” Nardo blinks.
Usagi moves his hand. “That, just now.”
“Boyfriend?”
“No, no,” Usagi turns to Nardo. “You said «f» before that. Were you about to call me your friend?”
Nardo puts his hand on his chest, dramatically. “I would never!”
“Yeah, sure,” Usagi nods. “Sure.”
“Sagi,” Nardo takes Usagi’s hand in his own, and shakes it with every word. “We live. Together. How could I…?”
Usagi raises his eyebrows. “We lived together before the «f» turned into the «bf».”
Nardo opens and closes his mouth a couple of times before saying: “Yeah, well, it wasn’t like that before-”
“Literally nothing has changed since,” Usagi shrugs. “Nothing.”
“Well, um…’ Nardo moves a bit closer to Usagi and squeezes his hand. “You got better at coffee making?”
“You won’t flatter your way out of this one,” Usagi deadpans.
Nardo curses and moves back, still not letting go of his head. “Was worth a try. And anyway, how can you say that nothing has changed if-”
“Because nothing did.” Usagi continues. “We even slept in the same room.”
“There is only one room,” Nardo mumbles.
“Which is something you never told me about when we talked about the moving-in thing,” Usagi notes.
Nardo huffs. “Oh, now I’m the one to blame?”
“No, I’m just saying that if it was anyone else, that would not slide.”
“Oh, so what you’re saying is that you would move in with someone who wasn’t me?” Nardo crosses his arms over his chest, still holding Usagi’s hand.
“In the hypothetical grand scheme of things, in a parallel universe where I have never met you?” This time Usagi is the one to move closer to Nardo. “Yes.”
“Wow,” Nardo says, unimpressed, as Usagi’s face stops about five inches before his. “Next thing you’ll say is that you wouldn’t love me if I was a worm.”
“Don’t bring Warren into this,” Usagi grimaces.
Nardo smiles. “Oh, I will bring him into this! He had a huge say in this relationship!”
“Don’t remind me,” Usagi breathes out.
“It was a turning point, one that basically ensured this,” Nardo points at himself and Usagi, “Happening, and you don’t want to remember that?”
“It wasn’t a particularly fun turning point, was it?”
Nardo opens his mouth, about to say something, but closes it after a couple of seconds. “True.”
And that’s where it ends.
Hueso is so not used to there being any peace in his relationships that looking at the two guys, both of them sitting next to each other, all the previous words forgotten and cast aside… It makes him ache for something that wasn’t ever there. Because when you have felt the difference between a real loving bond and a parasitic clasp, you will always remember and thus be better protected.
A real love, a real lover, a true loving bond, will bring you new strength and inner peace.
Real love is a protector, a defender, a ride-or-die connection that stays with you always and in all ways. It is raw and it will roar for you if required. It will stay with you in quietness and be your comfort. Real love will celebrate with you, and raise you up. Real love will be okay with your sadness and kiss the scars you hide from others. It is rare. And people should treasure it. Keep it as long as they live. For real love is the greatest blessing the world can give.
“You’re a dumbass,” Usagi says, looking at Nardo, who holds out a flower, made out of a clean napkin. “A real one.”
“And you love me for it.”
“Never said I didn’t.”
The rest of the evening is, surprisingly, peaceful. As it possibly can be in a restaurant filled with all sorts of yokai creatures.
Hueso is helping guests out, leading them to tables, taking their orders, and once in a while he throws a glance or two in the general direction of the couple: Nardo in his seat – turns out that after five years of sitting in the same spot, it can become apparent to everyone else to leave it empty – and Usagi coming to stand by him every time he gets a little break or the chain of customers ends.
There isn’t any reason for him to do this. He’s just happy they’re done with the insufferable pining.
Or so he thinks until pepino starts rumbling all over again, like that same night Hueso kicked him out for the first time.
Usagi can’t accurately describe what he feels when he looks at Nardo, but the closest word would be: loved.
He was loved before – by his auntie, by his friends… This is different though. He wouldn’t say it is better or that he wouldn’t be able to live without this love, no. It is just… a different type of love. And he likes it. Not more or less than any other. Because what is love if not a salad?
Probably inspiration.
Because it takes strength to love the way Nardo does in a world such as this. Holding onto the best part of the self, keeping that real, yet pushing onward as he does, that's admirable. So many think they have done what he does, or are how he is, yet they delude themselves. Love became their mask and coldness became their real self, perhaps they never noticed the shift happen.
Nardo, however, doesn't use these masks at all.
He has different ones, sure, everyone does, but as much as he is strong and dependable, he is capable of real self-evolution and being in control of it himself.
Usagi believes he is the same, different as they are. So, between them, all is real because they are real. Honest. They can thus make a bond in a way others cannot, for first they'd have to figure out the mask from the real self, to have the courage to look in the magic mirror.
Usagi realizes what it takes to do what Nardo has done because he did it too.
And that is what inspires him about love.
“Yeah, I don’t know,” Nardo says, shaking his head. “The whole thing is a little weird, maybe-”
His phone beeps.
It isn’t the usual buzz of a text or the vibration of a call – because Nardo’s phone is always on silent, just like Usagi’s, so as to not startle him with loud noises – it is a loud beep, coming from the practically unused speaker.
Yuichi frowns.
Nardo does the same, but unlike Usagi, he knows what it means, and immediately jumps up from his seat.
“Uh… When does your shift end?” he asks, a bit nervously, staring at the phone.
“Two hours,” Usagi answers, without even looking at the clock. “Why…?”
“Emergency,” Nardo says and finally looks up from his screen.
Usagi feels his fur stand on his back.
It is in a matter of seconds that he takes out his sword from under the counter and Nardo jumps over it, to reach the door leading to the back. Hueso, standing a couple of meters away, doesn’t stop him, and when Usagi tries to say something, he just waves him off.
Usagi isn’t sure where are they going, or where has the emergency happened, but he trusts Nardo blindly, and clings to him, as they go through the portal and appear on their own doorstep.
“What…?” he looks around. “Did you just trick me into coming off work early?”
“Maybe,” Nardo laughs, somewhat nervously. “Or maybe not…”
He struggles with his keys, and it makes Usagi nervous, the silence in the hall pressing on him from all directions. And while he tries to stand tall with its weight on his shoulders, Nardo crumbles to the ground under the pressure.
“What’s happening, Leon?”
“N-nothing?”
“You said that it’s an emergency.”
“Yes.”
“Then something happened!”
“Something doesn’t have to be a bad thing!”
“Emergencies aren’t good!”
“Well, they might be!”
“How exactly?!
“I don’t know, I just-” Nardo breathes out. “Just don’t judge me too harshly.”
Usagi frowns. “What do you mean?”
“I wanted to surprise you, and… Well,” Nardo opens the apartment door.
At first, nothing happens. Nothing seems to be weird. Nothing makes sense. At least, until Usagi takes a single step inside, and a head pokes from the kitchen.
And another one.
And another one.
And another one.
And another one.
All of them covered in flour, just like the floor and the counter and the living room, and… what is this smell?
Usagi turns to Nardo, who stands by the door awkwardly, pursing his lips.
“Again?” he breathes out, with nothing but amusement in his voice.
“I thought it’ll work out this time,” Nardo shrugged. “You know, I mess up every year, so I thought that maybe, if I wasn’t the one doing things, then it would all work out…”
Usagi stares at him, then at the turtles and Casey, all of them standing very still as if they thought it would save them, and the noise that bursts forth from him is like a cross between a snort and a drunken laugh, caused by him never knowing when to breathe between the giggles.
“I won,” he says, finally succeeding in regaining his breath.
“What?” Mikey – the first of the kids to open his mouth – asks, confused.
“No,” Nardo shakes his head. “Please tell me it’s not this goddamn bet again…”
“I won!” Usagi says clearly and loudly, and not being able to contain himself from hopping to Nardo’s side, kissed him on the cheek before smirking smugly and making his way to the kitchen, walking around the turtles and Casey. “I won! Another year, I’m still in gear! This aging thing has got nothing on me!”
“Uh,” Casey raises his hand. “What’s going on?”
“You promised me you’d stop!” Nardo says, following Usagi.
He continues to laugh. “You did too!”
“I never did! I said I’ll consider it!”
“Same thing!”
“No, no it’s not!”
“What are you talking about?!” Raph asks loudly, breaking the chain of bickering between the couple.
“The Annual Valentine's Day Apocalypse bet, Raph,” Leo breathes out, clapping his brother on the shell. “Horrible thing, really. I’m losing twenty bucks each year!”
“Wha-”
“I don’t understand how you still have hope,” Donnie says, and points at Nardo. “I mean, come on.”
Leo smiles. “Hey, I believe in myself!”
“Not for long,” Nardo says in a menacing tone, as Leo hands Donnie 10 dollars.
“Pleasure to do business with you,” Donnie says, nodding to his twin.
“Shut up,” Leo mumbles.
“I hate this,” Nardo mumbles, flopping on the chair beside the kitchen counter. “I hate you.”
“Nah you don’t,” Usagi smiles, still overjoyed with his win, and walks up behind Nardo.
He doesn’t notice it when his hands wrap around the turtle guy’s shoulders and his chin ends up resting on the top of Nardo’s head. It happens a lot – always did, for some reason. He always ended up touching him, leaning onto him, even when they weren’t… like this. And maybe that should have been a sign. But he didn’t see it at the time.
“I will,” Nardo looks up at him. “If they don’t clean all of that up.”
Casey takes a step forward. “But we-”
Raph blinks. “Why would-”
“Oh, I just remembered!” Donnie calls out, suddenly, turning to his brothers. “I have been thinking about giving Sheldon a little sibling, and-”
“Nope!” Leo says as a nervous smile appears on his lips. “We’ll do it by ourselves, right, Case?”
“Of course!” he immediately nods.
“Hey, not fair!”
“No need for robots!”
“Not at all!”
They continue bickering, slowly but steadily cleaning the kitchen up, all while Usagi and Nardo, as the two responsible adults, do nothing, and just stand there, smiling and talking quietly to each other.
And Usagi loves it.
Loves Nardo.
Because love isn't the cream yet the water within it, the unassuming carrier of such comfort, only ever paid attention to by its absence. And though others may overlook that kind of humility, the kind that goes hand in hand with the boldest and strongest on Earth, Usagi sees it. Some stand out from ego, others from a sense of inner strength and inborn bravery... Nardo is the latter every bit of the way. So, he loves him. Not despite, yet because of his sense of flair, not despite, yet because of the eccentric quirks of his character.
He loves him.
For water is truth and the right kind of power.
Then, as Raph – the last one to stay awake and actually clean – collapses on the couch, finishing the turtle pile, Nardo smirks, looking at Usagi, who at this point is sat on his lap, his hands still wrapped around him.
“What do you say when a website asks you if you agree to the terms of use?” he asks, snuggling closer.
Usagi frowns, fiddling with the ends of Nardo’s mask. “Yes.”
Nardo nods. “And what do you think about pizza for breakfast?”
“Yes,” Usagi’s voice sounds a little more focused, as it always does when the conversation goes to the topic of food.
Nardo tugs on his tail.
Usagi smacks him on the shoulder.
Nardo whines and buries his face in the crook of Yuichi’s neck.
Then, he shifts a bit, and asks again: “What would you say if Hueso offered you a vacation for a week or two?”
Usagi tilts his head a little, to look at him. “Paid vacation?”
“Mhm,” Nardo hums.
“Then yes.”
“Okay,” he slides one of his hands into his pockets as if trying to find something, while his other hand rests his on Usagi’s knee and Yuichi feels his hand trembling slightly. “And w-what would you say if I asked you to marry me?”