Work Text:
“You sure this is a good idea?” Nenji Ogata nervously rubbed the back of his neck, and looked around as though someone might notice he was out of place. Tomi Kisaragi put her hand on his back, and gave him a gentle, familiar rub.
“You knew you were gonna have to meet the parents someday, big guy.”
“Yeah,” he conceded, putting an arm around her shoulder absentmindedly, “but this ain’t exactly what I had in mind.”
This being, that the pair of them looked exactly like they had at the beginning of the deimos attack. They were fifteen again, dressed in school uniforms that had become a distant memory in the passing years. To onlookers, they appeared to just be a couple of touchy-feely high-school sweethearts waiting for the elevator together. The reality was that their contact wasn’t born out of teenage passion, but familiar and total comfort.
In the real world, Nenji and Tomi were lying in the pods that they had first left about five years ago. In the real world, they were married in every sense except legal--and only because the 15 survivors of humanity hadn’t yet found it necessary to record laws for such things. In the real world, they had two children of their own, a toddler and a newborn, who were being watched over by friends. The world their senses were currently inhabiting was just a facsimile of one that had existed long ago. And yet, there were some very real things they had left behind here, unresolved.
Those years ago, Tomi had been forced to leave her family behind. At one point, she thought they were truly gone, but with the reset of the simulated world being placed before the deimos attack, and removing the harmful code, it meant that her home in faux-2025 was never destroyed, and never would be. When Tomi realized that, she knew she wanted to see her parents again, and she had insisted that Nenji come with her.
The elevator gave a soft electronic ding , and the doors opened smoothly to let the couple onboard. Tomi went to hit a button on the elevator, and froze up for a moment, worried that she chouldn’t remember what floor she had lived on. But her hand remembered, even if she didn’t. She hit a button marked with the number 16, and the doors wooshed closed gently. For a moment, they rode together in silence, but Nenji spoke up again.
“It’s just... they have no idea who I am, Usami.”
“That’s no problem,” she answered, “you’re a friend from school.”
“Just a friend, huh?” Nenji made a face of mock dejection. “And here I thought we had something good goin’.” Tomi laughed, and jabbed his back with her fingers.
“Fine,” she said playfully. “You wanna tell them you’re my husband? Here to take their little girl away?”
“Nope, I choose life,” replied Nenji with a smile, but then a quizical look overtook his face. “Hey, do they realize you haven’t been coming home? Aren’t they gonna think that’s weird?”
Tomi shook her head.
“Apparently, Universal Control covers up inconsistencies like that. To them, I was here yesterday, and they won’t stop to think otherwise unless we bring it up.”
“Gotcha... so, just have to meet the in-laws, pretend they aren’t the in-laws, and make sure not to tell them that the world ended. No pressure...”
“Hey,” Tomi said, taking one of Nenji’s large hands in both of hers. “I know this isn’t going to be easy. It’s going to be weird, and messy.” She squeezed. “But that’s why I need you, okay? I need you here.”
Nenji didn’t say anything. He didn’t have to. He simply smiled, squeezed her hands gently in return, and leaned in to kiss her forehead.
The elevator dinged to indicate arrival at their destination. The doors opened, and they stepped out.
“Hey, uh,” Nenji said as they walked out, “if I’m just supposed to be a friend, we should probably...” he indicated where their hands were joined, though he didn’t really want to let go.
“Right,” she agreed, just as reluctantly, but pulled her hands back to her sides. “Hands off.” She wasn’t sure if she was saying it to herself or to him.
“I’m still right here, Usami.”
She knew. And that knowing was a source of strength for her, as they walked down the hall of the apartment building, to the door she’d passed through countless times as a child. The door that had been singed and blown off of its hinges last time she’d seen it, but was now just as it had always been before. Just as it should be.
Carefully, Tomi took the door handle into her hand, and turned it. The door was unlocked, which meant that her mother was home. Tomi stood in the doorway for a second, but a gentle nudge from Nenji rooted her back in the moment.
“Mom?” She called out. “I’m--I’m home. Are you there?”
“In here, honey,” called back a warm, feminine voice. Nenji was surprised by how much it sounded like the Usami he was more familiar with now. Tomi recognized it as the same voice she’d heard all her life here. She began to run into the house, but Nenji caught her arm.
“Shoes,” he whispered.
“Shit,” she exclaimed, and hastily peeled her loafers off of her feet, dumping them unceremoniously and running off into her old living room. There, sitting on the sofa, with knitting needles in her hands, was Tomi’s mother. She had a basket full of different colored balls of yarn next to her, and some movie was playing on the TV.
Tomi had never thought about it before, but her mother was beautiful. Petite and slender like her daughter, but with dark hair. Her face had some wrinkles and creases, but they did not detract from the glow of her face. If anything, the shapes they made when she smiled only amplified how warm and welcoming her expression was.
“Hi honey,” her mom said, smiling and looking up from her project. “How was your day?”
Tomi ran to her mother and practically tackled her with a hug.
“Mom! Oh, I missed you so much,” Tomi cried.
“Oh!” her mother exclaimed, but immediately melted into her daughter’s embrace. “That is so sweet of you, Tomi! Do I have the best daughter or what?”
Nenji had followed Tomi into the apartment after taking off his own shoes, and stacking his and hers into a row. He stopped at the threshold of the living room, however, giving mother and daughter space for as long as they needed it. When Mrs. Kisaragi looked up and saw the young man, he smiled and nodded a polite greeting to her.
“Oh!” she said. “Sweetheart, you didn’t tell me you had a guest! Who is this?”
“That’s... uh, mom, this is N--Ogata-kun. He’s a friend from school. I was hoping he could stay for dinner?”
“Nice to meet you, ma’am. Uh, hope it’s no trouble.”
“Oh, of course not!” Mrs. Kisaragi rose from her seat, breaking away from Tomi’s grasp. “Any friend of Tomi’s is welcome in our home. Hope you weren’t expecting a home-cooked meal, though,” she said, turning to Tomi. “Dad called just before you got home, he’s bringing fried chicken.”
“I like chicken,” Nenji said, smiling back at her.
“Anything is fine, mom!” Tomi was smiling, too, but her eyes were beginning to leak tears. “I’m just so happy...” her sentence was interrupted by the sound of the front door, and a male voice calling out.
“Aimi, Tomi!” he said. “Hope you’re hungry!”
“Daddy!” Tomi shouted, and ran to meet her father at the door. As she went, Mrs. Kisaragi watched her with a little concern.
“Was Tomi... crying?” she said with a frown.
“A-actually, ma’am,” said Nenji.
“Ah, please, call me Aimi.”
“Uh, right. Well, about U--about Tomi. Kisaragi-chan, I mean. She, uh...” Aimi Kisaragi was still frowning, but she waited patiently for Nenji to get his words out. “What I mean to say, is, she actually had kind of... a rough day. At school.” He fabricated his white lie carefully, not wanting to make Tomi’s mother too worried. “I don’t think she wants to talk about it right now, but I think she could really use a nice night with her folks. I hope I’m not intruding on that.” He paused, and let slip a little more truth than he’d intended: “I’m not really sure why she brought me along.”
Aimi just smiled at the boy, fondly.
“I think I can see why. I insist you stay, young man. If Tomi needs a nice night with her family to feel better, then that’s exactly what we’ll give her.”
Nenji felt a warmth swell in his chest: the instincts of a husband and a high school boyfriend combining to overcome any self-consciousness he had about the admittedly bizarre situation.
“Yeah. Uh, yes ma’am. Thanks.”
“Oh, please stop calling me ma’am!” Mrs. Kisaragi laughed. “It’s Aimi. For tonight, you’re part of the family. Now, let’s go check on Tomi and her father. If we wait too long, they’ll eat everything before we even sit down!”
The evening continued on with that atmosphere of warmth. Nenji met the patriarch, Kei Kisaragi, who was a short wide man with a firm handshake and a hearty laugh. His face was kind of like a cherub’s with rosy cheeks and squinting eyes constantly pulled into a teasing smile. At first, he gave Nenji a bit of a good-natured grilling about his exact relationship with Tomi:
“A friend from school, eh? Funny, I didn’t think there was an Ogata in Tomi-chan’s class...”
“Uh, well, actually I’m from a different class.”
“Oh? How did you happen to meet each other, I wonder?”
But soon, a gentle touch from Aimi seemed to signal that he should ease up, and Kei did so without grousing. Their home didn’t have a dedicated dining room, so the four of them sat around a table in the kitchen area, eating, talking, and laughing. The whole time, Tomi was so happy that Nenji could have sworn she was emitting her own light.
Eventually, it grew late, and Nenji realized that, for many reasons, he needed to excuse himself.
“Well, this has been amazing,” he said, “But I need to get home. My... family will be worried if I ain’t.” He gave a knowing look to Tomi, who returned it; for the first time in hours that evening, her childlike demeanor faded, and the wife and mother returned.
“I’ll see you out,” she said to him. To her mother and father: “Be right back!”
“It was lovely meeting you, Nenji-kun,” said Aimi.
“Don’t be a stranger, son!” grinned Kei.
“Thank you,” Nenji said, as Tomi pushed him towards the door. “I’m sure I’ll be back before long!”
They walked over to the entryway, and Nenji sat down to put his shoes back on. Tomi began to as well, but he objected.
“Woah, woah, you’re not leaving too?”
“I told you,” Tomi said quietly. “They won’t realize I’m not where I’m supposed to be as long as we don’t call attention to it. UC smoothes that stuff over.”
“That’s not what I mean,” Nenji said, smiling softly. “You missed them a lot, huh?”
“More than I’d realized,” she admitted, and wiped a stray tear out of her eye.
“Stay the night here. You can come back out when you go to ‘school’ tomorrow.”
“Are... are you sure? That feels silly.”
“It’s not,” Nenji said. “They’re your family, too. I’ll be okay with the kids for one night.”
He finished putting on his shoes, and stood. Tomi wrapped her arms around him, and he did the same in return.
“Thank you, Nenji. I hope someday we can have the whole family together.”
“Me too. I think Aimi would do flips if she could meet her grandkids. I love you, Usami.”
“Love you too, you big lug,” she said, and they shared a tender kiss.
Nenji left through the front door, and Tomi turned around to go back to her parents, but was shocked to see her mother peeking around the corner, smiling wide.
“He seems like a very good friend,” she laughed.
“M-mom!” Tomi stuttered, worried for a moment that her cover was blown. “How long have you been standing there?”
“Oh, not very long, honey. But tell me, how long have you known Ogata-kun? I wasn’t exactly expecting you to have a boyfriend so suddenly!”
Tomi sighed in a combination of exasperation and relief.
“Not long,” she said, which wasn’t true. “We met at school just a few weeks ago.” Technically, that was true. In the simulation, not much time had passed at all. Tomi allowed herself to slip back into the role of a teenage daughter. “Do... do you think we’re moving too fast?”
“Hm. That depends,” her mother mused. “Do you really mean it when you say ‘I love you?’ and does he really mean it back?”
“Yes,” said Tomi without hesitation. “Yes we do.”
“Then I think it’s all right,” Aimi said, cradling her daughter’s face in her hands. “Just so long as you two can let yourselves be kids a little while longer. I don’t want my little girl to grow up too fast.”
Tomi nearly broke down in tears, and pulled her mother into a tight hug. Letting herself be a kid again was surprisingly easy. She hadn’t realized it in the five years past, but there was a piece of her heart that hadn’t grown up yet. Even with two children of her own that she loved dearly, Tomi was still happy to be her parents’ little girl.
“I love you, mom.”
“My baby,” Aimi cooed, and hugged her daughter so tight.
And for a while, they just stood like that.