Hitorijime My Hero

Balcony

I had transferred to a school a bit closer to Masa's campus, our new home being about a 20 minutes walk to his campus and a half hour walk to the high school I'd be working at. It was nice to finally have a place of our own, a bit weird, but still nice.

Saturday was the official move in day. By that I mean it was the day where all our belongings would be delivered and unpacked. It was then that we realized just how little we had. No dining table, couch, chairs, and very few dishes.

"I guess I didn't think that far in advance" I chuckle looking at our empty living room.

"It's alright, as least we have the necessities" he replied with a sunny smile.

"You're right." I smiled back.

It was the weekend, so we had time to go look around for furniture. IKEA was the most affordable and is where we got everything. It wasn't easy to pack into the car and get it into the home, but we did it. Sunday, we spent the whole day putting everything together. We had a couple of bickers and swear words, but the end result was wroth it. Our townhouse was really starting to look like a home. Plus, we have bigger things to plan for. Our wedding is in roughly 7 months, April 9th. It's going to be smaller than we had originally planned, since the truth of a lot of my family was released on my birthday. I know Masahiro feels bad about what happened and thinks he caused me to lose most of my family, but that couldn't be more false. If that's how they would see me, after finding out I wasn't straight, I wouldn't want to have them as family. I remember something I was told a while back "blood doesn't matter, if you see them as family, then they're family" and that how I chose to live.

I pick Masa up from school now, and he walks there in the morning.

"How'd it go today?" I asked as he climbed into the passenger seat.

"I got a 93 on my assignment"

"That's great!"

He nodded and smiled at me.

"Do your student like you?" He asked, knowing that this was my first day at the new school.

"Yup, apparently the last teacher wasn't all that great." I said before driving us home.

I open the door and walk up to a spare room which was converted into my office. We were able to take the animals with us. Admittedly, the town home is pretty nice. It's two stories not including the basement, three bedroom, and one in a half bathrooms. The basement became Masahiro's art studio and the other guest room belonged mainly to the pets. The walls are slowly being decorated, but everything is slowly coming together.

Masahiro was found in the basement, staring at a blank canvas.

"Hi" I said as I hugged him from behind.

"Hi"

"What're you working on?"

"I'm supposed to be working on something for my next art assignment, but my inspiration has run dry"

"Is there anything I can do to help?"

He shakes his head and continues to stare into the white abyss.

"What's the project on?"

"Time and progression"

"That's pretty vague, the prof must not be to keen on details"

"She always wants us to put our own spin on what she says" he replied as he twirled his paint brush.

"I'm sure as long as you don't copy Dali* you'll be fine"

"Yeah, but I can't think of anything."

"How able..." I look around the room before my eyes landed on his left hand. "Diamonds" although his ring doesn't contain any, it is often something associated with rings.

"Diamonds?"

"Yeah, and how they go from coal to diamonds"

"I could split the canvas into two parts. The left will be the coal, and the right will be the diamond."

"See, I knew you'd be fine."

"Thank you Kou" he said and hugged me.

He worked for days on the work, but got it in by the time it was due. He's doing amazing and I couldn't be more proud. I remember when we first met and how terrified he was of me, looking back it's quite entertaining. I wouldn't change it back though, never did I think for a second that I would. However, there are some not so great days. It's not that we fight, but it's a more so a matter of my own mental state. I've hidden it for a while, but it's been decreasing slightly, and I've been smoking more. I'm not proud, not in the slightest and one day I got caught.

"I thought you were trying to cut back on that" Masahiro said walking onto the small balcony we had.

"Sorry, I know you hate the smell"

"I'm not worried about the smell Kou. I'm worried about you. It isn't good for your health and you've been doing it a bit more frequently. Is something going on?" He asked stepping closer to me and placing his hand on my back.

"I..."

"Take as long as you need, I'm not going anywhere"

"What'd I do to deserve you?"

"Huh?"

"All I've done is make your life a mess. First it was the gang going after you, your mother, father, classmates, and even my own family have gone against you in so many ways. Plus I'm old, you should be with someone around your age. You mean the world to me and I want you to be happy." For the first time in a while I started to cry.

I put my cigarette out and hang my head low.

"I am happy" he said before hugging me from the side. "I knew from the start that it wasn't going to be easy; yet, I stayed. Because I love you Kousuke. I would go through all of that and more all over again if it meant that I could be part of your life. You make me happy, and that's never going to change. I love you."

I turned to face him and hug him properly "I love you too. I love you so goddamn much." I said before kissing his head.

We went to bed and I can say wholeheartedly that he is the love of my life.

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My summer class is over, so more free time. I'm honestly so exhausted though. Please leave comments if you would like, I do read all of them, and I had gone back and read past comments for laughs and the overwhelming support from all of you and I truly do appreciate all of you! <3
~🐝