Second to None

17. new life

Tezuka took the next week off of work to help Mayu settle in. When the fog of jetlag finally lifted, they went shopping for supplies and groceries to fill up their new apartment. Once Mayu's luggage was delivered, they rearranged the closet and dressers to make sure there was enough room for two. They bought a stereo for music and more Japanese books to add to their collection.

The following week, Tezuka returned to work. Mayu had quit her job as a communications advisor at the European Parliament to come back to Tokyo and continued her extended vacation. When Fuji called and asked to have lunch at the café near his parents' house, she happily accepted. 

Letting her memories be the guide, Mayu followed the tree-lined street outside the station and located the coffee shop of her youthful days with ease. A wall of flowers had been newly installed, yet the familiarity of the black signboard listing daily specials and the warm-toned walls inside hadn't been altered by the years gone by.

Fuji waved at her from the first window seat when she entered.

"Look at you," he remarked as she approached and took the chair across from him. "You're glowing. Must've been a marvelous first week back with Tezuka, huh?"

"Of course teasing would be the first thing you do after this many years," retorted Mayu with a friendly eye roll.

"How many years has it been... eight?"

"Sounds a lot longer than it feels, doesn't it?"

"Or maybe it's because we're meeting at a place where time seems to have stopped," he said. "Where did we see each other last anyway? Baden-Baden?"

"See?" She made a face, "You hardly looked my way!"

"Sorry about that. I was overwhelmed with winning the championship and seeing Tezuka again."

"I know. I was only kidding."

"When I did notice you standing there, to be honest, I wasn't too shocked."

"Why not?"

"Because Tezuka isn't the type to be emotionally attached to anybody, but once he makes up his mind, nothing in this world can turn it around."

Resting her chin in her hand, Mayu's eyes drifted to the table behind Fuji—the one where she and Tezuka used to occupy for their study sessions. In the crossover of the past and the present, she said, "That, you're right about. Never in my wildest dream would I have foreseen myself sitting in this café eight years later. Back in Baden-Baden, I thought whatever Tezuka and I had would come and go with the summer."

"He wouldn't have allowed that to happen."

"He didn't." Before Tezuka left for Japan that summer, he said he'd come back to study in a German university close to the French border. Treating this as a quick and bloodless ending, Mayu nodded to everything he said without believing a single word. 

Shaking her head, she said to Fuji, "I couldn't believe my eyes when he showed up on the Strasbourg university campus in September. He showed up without warning like he did at the Parliament."

Chuckling, Fuji lamented, "I wish I was there to see your reactions."

"I was glad you weren't there. You'd just tease me."

"Probably. I've yet to see your romantic side, or Tezuka's, for that matter. He was known among the team as the mobile iceberg."

Mayu laughed. "What a shame I wasn't around to learn that! He wouldn't have heard the end of it!"

While their conversation lulled, the waiter came to take orders. Mayu asked for a slice of cheesecake with tea and Fuji ordered a coffee. They watched pedestrians ambling by and cars careening down the street for a minute. 

Eyes on the trickle of traffic, Fuji said, "You know, while I'm not so surprised that you two ended up together, I didn't expect to see you both in Japan again. Tezuka has done so well in the professional tennis scene. Every time I check, his ranking is reaching a new height. Coming back to work for the Japan Tennis Association hardly seems like an appealing option."

Mayu thought about the voicemail left on their apartment phone last fall. At the time, Tezuka had been away to compete in the U.S. Open, so she waited until the evening to tell him about the call: the Japan Tennis Association noticed his outstanding performance and wanted to invite him to join the executive team as the director of the High Performance department. From the way Tezuka asked questions, Mayu could tell that he was interested in the offer. As soon as he got home, he told Mayu that he planned to take the position. After extensive discussions with the association and a few days of deliberation, he decided to move back to Tokyo and asked Mayu to join him.

In this pause, their orders arrived. Watching Fuji add cream and sugar to his coffee, Mayu said, "Tezuka wanted to serve his country. In the High Performance department, he would oversee the training of the national team, help select top talents and shape the future of tennis in Japan. Title, victory and fame weren't as important to him as being of service. Plus, at that point, he'd also spent nearly a decade overseas and thought it was about time to come home."

"What about you?" asked Fuji. "Were you certain you wanted to leave yours?"

"Not at all." She took a sip of her tea and said, "I worked long hours and did menial tasks to finally be promoted as an advisor. I enjoyed my position because I had a role in designing and changing public policies. I met senior officials and attended conferences across Europe. It wasn't easy to give all of that up."

"What changed your mind, then?"

"I started seriously considering a different life after Tezuka proposed the next day."

Fuji lowered his coffee cup, his eyes wide. "One knee on the ground with roses and a ring box in the park?"

"Yes, it's everything you're imagining."

Fuji laughed. "Tezuka Kunimitsu, proposing in public. He's never let on details of your engagement and now I see why: he didn't want anyone to know that he's secretly a romantic." Leaning forward, he pressed, "Did you shed happy tears?"

She glowered at him. "Well, I said yes, but I was too weighed down by thoughts to cry. At the time, my section was undergoing a staff cut and this whirlwind of events threw me off completely... In any case, I thought that perhaps Tezuka's job offer and his proposal were fated. Maybe we were meant to take the next step. So I decided to move back with him. I figured my skills would apply to any country I live in and I can easily pick things up where I left them."

"I don't doubt that," said Fuji with a wide smile. "I knew you were a bright one the moment you stepped into our home. That's why I brought you to meet Tezuka."

"Aha!" she said with her nose scrunched, "You were trying to set me up with him after all!"

"Something made me do it," he said with a hint of mischief. "Maybe it's fate, like you said."

"Who would've thought that you were a matchmaker in disguise?"

"And who would've thought that you'd come full circle?" He raised his coffee and they clinked cups. "Glad to have you back," he said. 

***

a/n: a quick recap of what happened in the past 8 years before we are off to the races...  (shout out to Fuji too! If you read my other fanfic, you know how much bias I have for him!)

Thank you to all readers! If you like the story so far, please leave a vote/comment~I'd love to hear from you!