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The biggest mistake Saeko Mukoda would ever make in her life was the assumption that Ichiban had run out of ways to completely surprise her.
Reeling from their mutual fuck-up, she had decided she owed the man a chance. She wasn't ready to say it yet, but she knew she already felt something serious for him, though she wasn't sure yet if she'd call it love.
The first surprise was the night after they'd started officially dating, when he showed up at Survive to see her, wearing that same fucking shirt. “I LOVE SAEKO” at the center of a giant heart adorned Ichiban's chest for the second day in a row. Dear God, he had even washed it. Notably, he also carried a pretty hefty cardboard box.
“Hi, Sachan! I wore the shirt again, and I brought you one!” Ichi said, running up to the bar counter with a giant grin highlighting his goofy face beautifully. It could almost make Saeko ignore the box he dropped in front of her, and opened, which revealed a giant stack of shirts.
“Icchan…” Saeko sighed, so deeply she could feel it reverberate not just from her chest, but very soul.
“I wasn't sure what size you'd wear, so I got one made of every size! Plus, I threw a few of the men's ones in there, cause Adachi told me that girls like to wear men's t-shirts.” Ichiban rambled, and Saeko could really feel herself trying to be annoyed, deep down inside. She didn't want to wear this shirt so badly, it was deeply tacky and absolutely not her, plus she didn't want to wear a men's T-shirt that Ichi hadn't worn. That was against the whole point, but she supposed Adachi wouldn't know that.
“You shouldn't wear the same shirt two days in a row, Icchan.” She said looking at him bluntly, but he just kept smiling back at her.
“Don't worry, I'm not! I have 5 more of these, for every day of the week!”
This was gonna take some getting used to.
~~~~~~~~~
‘It's worth it for him.’ She repeated like a mantra in her head over and over that same night as they watched TV together in Ichibans tiny apartment. She had put the shirt on, and the fact it was extremely comfortable somehow made the whole process worse! He'd let her pick the show, and then sat at the opposite end of the couch, stiff as a rod. His idea of a gentleman was strangely regal, for his upbringing.
She wanted to speak, but when she looked over, she saw he was completely enraptured with the drama on the television. He was putting in effort to learn about the shows She liked, and also clearly enjoying it himself quite a bit.
“So, this girl is in love with her doctor and a homeless guy? She's gotta pick one?” Ichiban asked her sincerely, not even hiding how susceptible he was to the strengths of daytime television.
“Yeah. She loves the hobo, but the doctor has more money to court her. The hobo is gonna make an effort to impress her though.” She explained to him patiently She thought back to the incident with the customer at the cabaret club who was trying to impress her with money, and she wondered if there was some parallel to her own life in the show she had missed before selecting it.
“So, he's gotta climb up from rock bottom to impress the princess! Got it.” Ichiban said, smiling that toothy grin, completely oblivious to anything that might say about him and Saeko.
‘Fuck, that's why I like this one!’ Saeko thought, staring at the homeless love interest. He had a sharp nose, expressive eyes, and hair a little too poofy for his own good. Damn it.
Deciding she was sick of Ichiban's attempts to be upright, Saeko stood up and walked a few steps closer to him. The always proud woman plopped herself down right next to him, leaving no room between them, and rested her head on his shoulder. She could feel him tense up even more, which really shouldn't have been possible.
She figured he'd be used to the contact by this point, she'd hugged him hundreds of times in the past, she'd kissed him to wake him up from particularly rough scraps, he'd carried her up the stairs after a few too many drinks at Survive and slept on the floor beside her at least 20 nights. When she rolled in her sleep and woke up tangled around him in the morning, his arms around her waist and her head resting on his pecs, she figured nothing could really bother him anymore.
She must have new effects on him as a girlfriend. ‘Interesting’ she thought.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Street battles weren't unusual with him around, even when on dates. He insisted on keeping the bat on him, though he was a master of hiding it on his person.
She would cheer for him to make him feel like the Hero she knew he could be, and then all the assholes interrupting her night out would be on the ground in one huge swing of the bat. Anyone left standing wouldn't be for long after usually, unless for one variable Saeko had noticed.
if the guy ambushing them was wearing a hoodie, Ichiban always let them hit him first. He always insisted on turns in combat, but the hoodie guys always got to go first for some reason.
“Why is it always the hoodie guys?” She asked him, mid battle. She was currently pummeling a guy into the ground with her purse, while Ichi swung around the cloaked foe with seemingly intentionally bad agility.
“He has a naturally high agility stat, you can tell by his cloak! That's why he's so good at dodging and goes first!” Ichi said, seconds before his bat collided with the side of the menacing man's head, and sent him flying.
“Ichi, who decides these stats?” Saeko asked him incredulously.
“...I guess me?”
“Can't you just decide he's a way lower level then you and thrash him?”
Ichiban just stared at her like she had told him the meaning of life.
“Well… I… that's… There's no fun in that!” Ichiban retorted.
“I wouldn't have to heal all your wounds as often.”
“Yeah, exactly. I like your singing voice.”
Saeko was ready to sigh, until the hooded guy on the ground was suddenly jolted by literal lightning. Like, sky lighting. From the sky. It frightened the sigh straight out of her.
“Hell yeah! I love this thing!” Ichiban said as he walked away like that hadn't just happened. Saeko began to wonder if life was fair.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“Hey, Sacchan, can we play a game?” He asked over dinner about 2 weeks into their relationship.
She had made him a meal she was especially proud of a week prior and it had absolutely melted him for the next few days. He would go to restaurants and leave dejected because it just wasn't as good as her dinner. She cooked for him again tonight because she lov- knew it would make him pretty happy and he was cute when he smiled. Yeah, that was it.
“Sure Ichi, what's your idea?” She said with an openness that surprised her. She had found herself getting more and more used to his ideas recently, for better and for worse.
“I get to ask you any one question, and you're not allowed to be upset or anything. Then you get to do me!” Ichiban proudly explained, his brilliant plan entirely obvious to Saeko in an instant.
“Well, I was hoping to do you today either way,” Saeko interjected quickly, leaving Ichiban coughing violently “but you can just ask.”
Once his composure returned, Ichiban put on a serious face (or as serious as he could muster) and looked straight at her.
“Sachan, I don't think you've ever actually told me… Exactly how old you are.” He got straight to the point, and Saeko could feel herself start to heat up. Didn't he know you never ask a woman her age? What a fool, a completely right fool she realized, because she had never actually told him.
When she looked at her age, and her profession being based heavily on looks, she was scared the world would think she was an old maid, stuck in a career with a clock nearing midnight. Ichiban was better than that though, he was kind and empathetic beyond anyone else on the planet, plus he loved her. He had told her before that she was the most beautiful woman he could even imagine, and she knew he meant it. Hell, the day they met he comforted her as she literally cried all her make-up off. He'd memorized what she bought the next time they went shopping and surprised her with more every month.
“I'm… 41 years old” She tried to say clearly, but there was an obvious choke in her voice when she said 41. To make it worse, Ichiban laughed at it.
“No seriously, Sachan.” He said through a smile, before he saw her serious face wasn't moving.
“What the hell is that supposed to mean, *Icchan*?” Saeko asked him even more of that threatening sweetness in her voice than usual.
“Sachan, You could have told me you were in your 20s and I would've believed you. I hoped and figured you were close to me in age, but you look amazing, I can't believe you're still so gorgeous at 41, especially knowing how hard you work! What's your secret?” Ichiban asked, overflowing with sincerity, and Saeko was so annoyed it worked. The sappy dork really did impress her.
“Yeah yeah, I could be 70 and you'd think I was gorgeous, I know you well enough.” Saeko said, uncharacteristically deflecting the compliment just because they always felt so different coming from Kasuga.
“Yeah, you're damn right I would.” Ichi said simply. Damn it, that week he was a host really paid off.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
It was getting late and she felt like staying, so she didn't even bother to ask. She knew him well enough to know that when she said “I'm ready to go to bed” that he would perk up and tell her alright immediately.
He smiled so brightly when she fell into his arms on that tiny bed. She was almost grateful there was so little space for both of them. When she kissed him, he smiled as he deepened and returned it.
This was going to be a good night.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“Man, that was amazing!” Ichiban said as he collapsed down next to her.
It wasn't until that exact moment she'd realized he'd been a virgin. He'd spent 20 years in the joint, and he'd never mentioned a girlfriend or anything before that. His entire idea of relationships was formed by tv and exaggerated stories from the soapland employees. That was probably why he'd thought a first date proposal was normal, shit.
She suddenly felt so bad. Here he was at 46, having lost half his life, and smiling through it all. He found her, he'd found Adachi and Nanba and Kiryu and all of them, and he'd brought them together. He was so good and she wanted nothing more than to make the world a better place, the kind of place that better deserved her Kasuga more.
Her Kasuga.
She looked into his eyes and found him still absolutely beaming at her.
“We should do that again sometime!”
She didn't mind the idea. When she looked down at his body again, Saeko figured it might in fact be the best idea Ichi had yet.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
When Saeko had heard someone had requested her specifically, she did not expect to see him waiting for her there. If anything, she wanted to be mad, but she also had barely seen him for a few days. That dumb smile made it so hard to be annoyed with him.
“Hey, Sachan! How are you doing tonight?” He asked, as she sat down next to him a lot closer than she would a normal customer.
“I'm good, what are you doing here?” Saeko asked excitedly. The other girls could handle the real earning for a while, Saeko could handle a little break with a paying customer that she knew.
“I've been so busy working days, and you're so busy nights that I figured I would just pay to see you. You're worth the money, and if it makes you uncomfortable that I'm here for you, I brought Kiryu-san so I can just go hang out with him instead. Nanba and Adachi are also coming later, but that's just because Adachi and Nanba are… well, Adachi and Nanba.” Ichiban explained, before pointing over to a booth in the corner where 2 hostesses were chatting up Kiryu at the same time.
“How the hell does he do that?” Saeko asked out loud.
“Apparently he was a host for like a month in 2006. Around the time he was dating that cop lady.” Ichiban explained to Saeko, who was now too invested in this topic to leave Ichiban for at least another hour.
“What cop lady?” Saeko asked.
“I think he said her name was Kaori or something. He said she was really strong-willed and a fighter to rival even him, she sounds really cool.”
“Hmph.”
“What?”
“You have a type.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
God knows how many laughs they'd shared at Survive over the years, but Saeko does notice that one thing changes when they become official.
For how great it felt to laugh with his arm around her shoulder, laughing straight into him while his arm was around her waist was so much better.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
And so, here they were again. The waterfront at Hamakita Park. They'd been together 2 months now, and were going steady enough they didn't mind stopping to share a few cigarettes on the water, even in a place with these memories.
“Ichiban.” Saeko said, putting out her last smoke of the night and resting her head on his shoulder. He hummed in response, still not great with talking when she was tactile. He was so used to watching her only get touchy with guys she was gonna kick the shit out of, that even the smallest touch from her still made him feel like the most special man to ever live.
“I love you.” Saeko said. She knew it, she meant it, she always knew it. She was ready to speak again, but before she could-
“I love you too, and you have nothing to be sorry about.” Ichiban said, cutting through her words before she could even say them.
“How did you know I was going to-” Saeko began to ask, before Ichiban just looked at her. He was smiling, not that big goofy gorgeous one she loved so much, but a soft and understanding smile that somehow fit him even more.
“Sachan, I know you. I know you're a little blunt, I know you're strong and you care, and no one in the world could stop you from speaking your mind if you really wanted to. I've seen you beat down men that stood 7 feet tall with a heart shaped microphone. I've seen you tell people hard truths, and I know that you're not afraid to be disliked if it helps the other person out in the end.
“I know you wouldn't have walked away from me on that day if you didn't care. I know you wanted to yell at me, I know you wanted to correct me on how to be a better date after that embarrassing marriage speech. But you didn't, you walked away and left me alone because you wanted me to grow. To realize what I'd done wrong and come back to you better. Sure, it hurt, it hurt so much. I meant everything I said that day, I've loved you since the first time I saw you drink Adachi under a table, but I know you, and I know you only acted that way because you cared about me.. I know how hard it must have been for you to do that, and I want you to know you don't have to be sorry.”
Both of them had tears in their eyes by the time Ichiban was done talking. Saeko couldn't believe how lucky she was, to have a person care for her so much, to understand her so much, and to forgive her so quickly. Her idiot was so smart.
They just held each other on that bench in silence for 20 minutes, letting the lapping of the waves hypnotize them away from anything but each other. Eventually, Saeko pulled away and beamed at Ichiban, her Ichiban.
“Wouldn't it be so funny if I proposed right now?” She asked him, with so much love.
“Not as funny as how quickly I'd say yes.” Ichiban quipped back.