stuck in 1991, getting jobs, meeting girls, and saving the timeline

loving a clutz and meeting a sano

Again.

Takemichi went back to the future to find another terrible fate for his comrades – more so Mikey at this point. If only he could go back to when it all began. If only he had the power to stop this never-ending cycle.

As if the gods heard his plea, Takemichi was yet again thrown into another unknown time leap.

-----------------------------------------

It's been two years.

Two years since he time leaped to 1991 and couldn't go back to 2017. At first, he was confused – he didn't remember leaping but it definitely wasn't 2017. Takemichi took this as an opportunity and tried to stabilize his life, though it was hard to get a job when he had no documents of himself in this timeline. Fortunately, as he was looking for a job, he was scouted by some new modeling agency. He never thought of himself as good looking but they apparently thought otherwise. 'A diamond in the rough' was how they put it. The agency eventually grew and he now has a steady income of money he doesn't know what to do with. Takemichi was a simplistic man. He only needed what worked and nothing too fancy. The one plus to modeling is his new clothing style. Unlike before, Takemichi has a sense of fashion.

Now, Takemichi was out to get groceries. He wanted to keep that little bit of normality throughout the years. So here he was with one of those store baskets while grabbing whatever he needed. The basket was rather full and he got what he needed so he was about to walk back to the register but, before he could know it, something rammed into him causing all the food in his basket to fall out.

"Oh my god!" Are you okay? I'm so sorry!" Takemichi opened his eyes to see a girl scurrying to pick up all his items from the floor. "Gah! I'm such a clutz!"

Takemichi reached for some of his items to help out, "I'm fine. It's no big deal."

The girl watched as the male cleaned up the mess she made. Based on how he looked, he had a well-paying job and was probably one of the most good-looking men she has ever seen. His black hair contrasted with his bright blue eyes. He must have noticed her staring because he started speaking.

"You good? You hit me pretty hard." Takemichi laughed as the woman grew red out of embarrassment.

"I-I'm sorry about that!" She bowed as the male looked rather amused. Takemichi's personality slightly shifted due to his job and his long-term goal of saving everyone he has ever cared about.

"Ahhh... Is there anything else you need help with?" The girl reminded Takemichi of Hina. There were obvious differences, but what stood out with both females was their genuine kindness towards anyone – even strangers. He hasn't seen anything like this since he's leaped.

"Coffee."

"Huh?" She looked confused.

"Do you want to go for coffee instead?" The woman stood there stunned before nodding her head. Takemichi pulled out a business card and handed it to her, "I'm Hanagaki Takemichi."

She takes the card, looking down at it in slight shock, "Well, I'll see when I'm free!" She starts walking away, "Oh, the name's Baji Tooru." She soon walked away.

Huh?

Baji Tooru...

Baji?

Oh, shit.

A week later, Tooru reached out and they went to coffee. They talked about their lives and whatnot. They were both oddly comfortable with each other. These coffee dates happened more often until they hung out more commonly – Tooru bringing a mini Baji when they started meeting more often. Throughout the next year after meeting, they got together and shared an apartment. Takemichi didn't get anything too fancy and Tooru didn't feel comfortable with that type of stuff as well. Though, Takemichi did tend to spoil them a bit too much.

Now, three years later, Takemichi was sitting in the Sano Dojo since he had to take Keisuke to his lesson. Tooru had to work overtime and couldn't take him like usual. His schedule had today as an off but he probably would have asked if he could come late — his schedule being more flexible than Tooru's.

Keisuke, seeing this as an opportunity to show off, tried to get Takemichi's attention during the lesson.

"Tou-San! Tou-San!" Takemichi looked over just in time to see Keisuke do a nasty right hook — well as nasty as a five-year-old could muster. Takemichi clapped before praising the boy who in turn grinned and continued while talking to his friend — a smaller Mikey which is very weird for Takemichi to look at. He was honestly just going to drop Keisuke off but he was weak with children and gave in to the boy's request for him to stay. The black-haired man let out a deep sigh and closed his eyes. Because of this, he didn't notice the young boy walking up to him.

"Hello! Are you Baji-San?" Takemichi jumped and stared at the boy with wide eyes. He seemed to notice the man's stress and immediately apologized, "Ah, sorry for scaring you. I'm Sano Shinichiro."

"Hanagaki Takemichi, Sano-san, a pleasure to meet you," Takemichi shook his hand and Shinishiro's eyes widened.

"Gah, sorry! It's just that he called you 'tou-san' and I assumed-" he muttered to himself, "Stupid Shin... So much for a good first impression, fuuuuck."

Takemichi laughed at his misfortune — deciding to ignore his language — and waved his hand in a dismissive way, "It's quite fine, I would have thought the same." He can see how Mikey compared him to his older brother now that he has met the boy. "I'm only just dating his mother, you see, I plan on proposing on our anniversary. I can't wait to– gah! I'm oversharing again, aren't I...?" Takemichi looked a bit sheepish and Shinichiro sweatdropped.

"Nah, it's cool," Shinichiro wished he had a significant other he could talk about as fondly as this man.

"Ah, that's good..." They both sat in awkward silence until Shinichiro spoke again.

"Manjiro wanted to have Baji-kun over someday." He paused and sighed, "How about we invite you to dinner tonight?"

Takemichi froze for a second before fiddling with his sleeves, "I'd have to ask Tooru first, but we would love to meet the family of whoever's child has to deal with Keisuke!"

It seemed that the two boys in question were listening in to their conversation because Keisuke let out a loud 'HEY!' and Mikey was on the floor in a fit of laughter. The two adults laughed before exchanging numbers. Takemichi really couldn't believe he was meeting Mikey's older brother. Whenever Shinichiro was mentioned, they made him sound like something out of fiction but talking to him now, Takemichi noticed how human he actually seemed. He sighed with a slight smile on his face. This timeline looked to be more eventful than any of the others...