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Being an adult felt so mundane from time to time.
Keishin sometimes felt quite bitter about the fact that he didn't have much time for himself, nor did he have to time to hang out with his friends. No matter what he was doing, it somehow reminded him of work.
Sure, he still talked to his old friends, quite a lot, actually, but it just wasn't the same as when they were careless teens. Aging was one of the few absolute truths of life, alongside with death and taxes.
On top of all of that, he was already getting grey hairs at the ripe age of 26. How sweet.
Could be from having to real with rowdy teenage boys and getting them to concentrate, could be from dealing with customers at Sakanoshita store, could be from his parents constantly asking him when he was going to get married and start a family as if he had a girlfriend, or it could just be bad genetics.
Keishin had tried to quit smoking. Be a “good” (decent was more like he was aiming for) role model for the kids, he told himself. He hadn’t made much process feeling the itching of the packet in his pocket as soon as something irritated him. The habit persisted just like the tobacco stench on his clothes, no matter how much he tried to drown it with refreshers and wash it out.
Sometimes, the only thing that kept him going was the wonderful man named Takeda Ittetsu.
Keishin leaned against the sink, pushing strands of bleached hair from his forehead with his wrist. He had been doing dishes while Ittetsu had been grading his students' essays.
Dull chores, that's what this was. It was everyday life, something you wouldn’t even think twice about. Just two people in their shared space, nothing more, nothing less.
Keishin didn’t need to keep his eyes constantly on the plate he was scrubbing, which gave some leeway to look at something some worthy of it.
Ittetsu tapped his pen against his lower lip, brown, doe eyes focused on the papers in front of him. The sound was too quiet to hear, but the small motion of him tutting was quite adorable, even if an almost guaranteed occurrence in these situations.
His glasses were neatly on his nose, long eyelashes seeming like they could touched the lenses. His black hair was as unruly as ever - it was still a mystery how Ittetsu made it look so good.
Ittetsu’s posture was good even though he’d sat in the same position for ages now. He had barely moved at all, if you didn’t count how he wrote down comments and grades.
Ittetsu was so engrossed in his work, like he could block out everything and anything from his surroundings – it was impressive, really.
Keishin felt his lips tug into a small, soft smile as he turned his head back and took another plate to clean. Softness was certainly not something Keishin was known for, nor did he want to be, but he couldn’t deny that part of him when Ittetsu was around.
He was a grumpy old man at heart, but if Ittetsu had indirectly taught him that there was bravery in being soft, as sappy as it sounds.
Ittetsu seemed to be very in touch with his emotions, maybe even overly so. He wasn’t afraid to cry even when other people saw, whether that was because he was proud, happy, angry, sad. He wasn’t always suave, often messing up and ending up quite awkward, but that didn’t stop him. He made mistakes that made him cringe and complain about later on, but that was okay.
Ittetsu could be stern and quite scary as well, but he also reminded that not everything was about life and death. Despite Keishin already knowing it, Ittetsu really hammered in the point of “failing is okay and a crucial part of improvement.”.
Keishin had learned all of this from his partner just by seeing Ittetsu operate in every day life and that had rubbed off on him as well.
After setting the now cleaned dishes to dry, Keishin made his way to where Ittetsu was sitting, placing a hand on his shoulder and a kiss on the top of his head. He could feel how Ittetsu leaned back against him, his body relaxing.
It was routine, normal, regular, everyday mundaneness, but it felt right.
Keishin had really lost his mind, but he didn’t mind.