Chapter Text
Summer trips to Koji's parents' home in Nara are always slow in the most perfect way possible
Here, surrounded by the lush green mountains, the scent of the cedar rich in the narrow, ancient streets. The humidity of summer hangs so heavy it’s a palpable touch on the back of Ren’s neck, caressing him like the fingers of a tender lover, like Koji when he’s sleepy and clingy in the best way possible.
School is out. The kids are restless nearly all of the time, but their grandparents' house, tucked away in a grove of trees just on the edge of the endless forest, has all the space for them to chase and tumble.
The cicadas cry so loud and insistent here without the sound of traffic and sirens going off to drown them out. In the evenings, after the rain, Ren listens to the frogs calling and the trees rustling in the forest, and thinks, watching his husband read to their children with all the silly voices he can come up with, that this must be what an ideal life feels like.
And time passes still, syrupy in its ease, so thick, so viscous.
The seconds trickle by so slowly that he feels intoxicated on the simplest, smallest thing.
Each sun-bleached day is filled with the next quietly joyous thing: layabouts on the warm wood of the engawa with Takumi fast asleep on his chest, almost too big to be sprawled out against Ren’s ribs like that, the stars twinkling and evanescent in the endless night sky, and bowls and bowls of colourful shaved ice that break apart easily under the tap of his spoon.
These quaint little festivals, small but loud enough that it reminds Ren of his own hometown, the air loud with the calls of vendors to potential customers, heavy with the smell of grease, of takoyaki and okonomiyakis grilling.
It never takes long for Takumi to catch his beloved baachan’s hand and drag her to the stall with chocolate-dipped strawberries because he knows that she's his easiest target. Without fail, Koji will shield his eyes as he looks up to Rin where she sits atop Ren’s shoulders. What’s the view like from up there above the clouds? He’ll ask, squinting and pretending she's too high up to spot. It always makes her giggle so hard that Ren has to grab on to her legs to keep her from tipping over backwards.
Both of Koji’s parents love cooking, so their kitchen is huge, almost as spacious as the kitchen on the farm. In that spacious Mukai kitchen at night, Ren and Koji stand shoulder-to-shoulder, shaping tuna mayonnaise and preserved plum onigiris between practiced hands.
The plums were pickled by Koji’s father last summer, and the juice they sit in has long gone pink, much like sakura in spring, much like Koji’s lips after Ren realizes they’re all alone for the first time in three days.
Let it never be said that Koji is the only opportunist in their relationship. Ren likes to remind him that he has his moments too.
At dawn, they hike up Mt. Wakakusa while it's still cool and quiet and the kids are fast asleep in their bed. When Koji tugs Ren close and kisses him at the peak with his hometown and all its beauty, hundreds and hundreds of years of history spread out before them, it still sends a thrill shooting through Ren. Under the clear blue summer sky, he always tugs Koji close by their intertwined hands after, kissing Koji's knuckles and letting him lean his head against Ren’s shoulder, as Ren reaches around to coax his unruly hair down apologetically because he knows just how much time Koji spent on it that morning.
And even though they've gone so many times before, they always, always visit the deer in the park. Ren loves experiencing the world through their kids' eyes, every little new discovery and lesson feels life-changing; the deer, their polite bowing, the rice crackers that the children love feeding them.
Where Takumi has only recently grown out of his fear of the deer, Rin has never been afraid. Even when she was a tiny bean, she was toddling up to them to pat their noses (so fearless in her certainty, and much to all of the adults’ alarm).
She talks to them like Koji does, rambling and bold, but quieter, controlled. Even though she doesn't have any of Ren’s genes, she is uncannily like him sometimes; the little mole just above her lip, the way she scrunches her nose when she laughs, the way she’s perfectly happy flipping through her picture books on her own, telling herself stories that she can’t read yet.
Ren’s not superstitious, but he always wonders idly, at the back of his mind, if there are just some things that science cannot explain, if she was just always fated to be their daughter, waiting in the stars until it was her time to join their family. If she was, then in typical fashion, she sure took her time, but Ren is grateful every day that she got to them in the end.
Then, there are barbecues with the entire neighbourhood and firework displays in every colour of the rainbow.
If they time their trip just right, they sometimes even manage to catch the fireflies in the garden. Ren remembers the first summer they made it back; before Takumi, before Rin, back when even stepping into the Mukai house was nerve-wracking for him.
They’d snuck out after midnight. The mischief dancing in Koji’s eyes had made Ren’s heart leap in all the ways he was still getting used to.
Through the forest they’d gone, following a worn trail that opened up to a shallow river. There’d been other people there, but the two of them sat on the rocky riverbank with their toes dipping in the cool water and watched the fireflies dance for hours. The darkness had made Ren bold, and as he always did, Koji’s presence made him bolder still. So he’d threaded their fingers together, and when Koji leaned his head against Ren’s shoulder, Ren had bitten back a teasing comment about his lack of personal space. Instead, he’d just pressed his cheek to Koji’s hair and let the sounds of the night wash over them.
And now even with the addition of the kids, Koji's mother keeps them all well-fed and the kids well-entertained, so much so that Ren is sure he's going to need a lot of convincing to return to regular life when the week is up.
**
It's after a delicious dinner of pork cutlets and Mrs. Mukai's famous green curry that the children ask, and Ren, trapped against a drowsy Koji and the plush comfy couch, doesn't notice until the conversation has neared its end.
It seems hardly fair when Koji's head is on Ren's chest, exhausted from splashing around a nearby river with the children this afternoon and Ren is belly- and heart-warmed from the weight of his husband against him. Koji smells like the sun and his mother's rose shampoo, and every time he shifts sleepily, snuggling deeper into Ren’s arms, Ren catches a whiff of the sweet, sweet scent.
"Baachan, baachan," Takumi is saying from where he's sitting on the wood floor. He's got a handful of sticky mochi in his hands, hardly ball-shaped. It’s clumsy, awkward, and so very dear. He drops it into the bowl of kinako and, unperturbed by the fact that his balls are getting bigger and bigger and bigger, asks, "Then.... Then what made you like Jiichan back?"
Ah, right. Ren's heard that one before. Many times, in fact. The romantic in him adores the story of Koji's parents' whirlwind romance, and they clearly love telling it.
Rin looks up from her own ball at the question, clearly having been too engrossed in the work to have registered the story. It takes her a moment to register Takumi's words before she drops her ball in the bowl of kinako powder with a sploof!
"I wanna know too," she exclaims, holding her arms out for her grandmother to pick her up, and she obliges.
"Well, he was very handsome and strong, but above all, he was very kind to everyone around him, but don't let him hear me say that, or I'll never hear the end of it." She leans in conspiratorially, pressing her finger to her lips, and the two children mirror her movement with no small amount of obvious glee. "C'mon now, let's get you two cleaned up. Your papas are waiting to go to bed. Look, Papa Ko is already asleep. We can have the dango tomorrow, okay?"
That’s Ren’s cue. He shakes Koji’s shoulder gently.
“Koji,” he murmurs, and Koji grumbles, turning his face into Ren’s chest.
“Five more minutes,” he says, half-awake and Ren huffs a laugh, slipping his fingers into his messy hair. The humidity makes it even more sentient during the summer months. He remembers when he first ran into Koji all those years ago, what Ren thought was a fresh-faced city boy stuck in the countryside. He’d seemed so put-together and suave then, not a hair out of place.
Yet, here he is, wild-haired and pliant in Ren’s arms, his glasses askew and his voice raspy from yelling in the sun all afternoon. If Ren looks closely, he’ll find the grey hairs scattered among the ones dyed blue and brown. Not many, just a couple more with every passing year, and more than Ren remembers from their first morning together when Ren spent hours playing with Koji’s hair as they talked about what to do next.
“If we get the kids to brush their teeth and get into bed in the next hour or so, you can get ten hours if you want. Ten hours, you know?” he offers as bait, and the exaggeration actually makes Koji pull back in disbelief.
“That’s a lie, and you know it,” Koji laughs, pushing his glasses back in place with the heel of his hand.
Ren laughs, caught out and happily so. He leans down to kiss him, lingering for a moment before the kids are there tugging on their shirt sleeves, clambering over each other to tell their fathers about their grandparents’ love story.
***
“What about you and Papa Meme?” Takumi asks later, snug between his little sister and Koji. His cheeks are so round, and his eyes so curious.
Rin’s also looking up at Ren, all snuggled up in her brand new Princess Peach PJs. Her eyelids are sliding shut, but she’s putting up a good fight.
The lights are turned low. They’ve read The Very Hungry Caterpillar twice already, but Takumi is still bright-eyed, and anything her older brother does, Rin wants to do too, so Ren knows she’ll protest if they try to make her go to bed.
It’s fine. It’s the summer holidays, after all.
“Papa Meme and Papa Ko fell in love too?” She asks, wondering and sweet. She’s laying on her belly with fistfuls of Ren’s worn T-shirt in her hands, leaning heavily against Takumi. Ren watches Takumi turn his attention to her without any obvious impetus. He grins, presses their cheeks together, and kisses her face. It makes her giggle, her eyes turning into crescents just like Koji’s do, and god, Ren’s heart feels like it could burst.
Takumi pulls away, a giant mischievous grin on his face. “Of course they did! I saw them kissing this morning, like this…” he whispers to her, making kissy sounds loud enough for both Ren and Koji to catch.
Even in the low light, Ren catches the way Koji’s cheeks colour and how he ducks his head bashfully.
“Oi, Meguro-Mukai Takumi. What were you doing spying on your parents?” He wags a scolding finger at them, and it makes Takumi let out a squeal, dropping his face into the sheets with a little fwump.
“You two lil monkeys really want to know so bad?” Koji asks, raising his arm so he can pillow his head on it. He sounds so eager to tell it that Ren muffles a laugh in his elbow. “What do you say, Papa Meme? Wanna give the fans what they want?”
The bait works a treat. It always does.
The children, especially Takumi, adore Koji and love storytime most of all.
“Please, please, please, pleaaaase,” Takumi begs, clasping his hands together, and his little sister copies him, looking between Koji and Ren before settling on Ren, evidently deciding that both fathers have to be convinced.
Koji’s gaze settles on Ren steadily, an unspoken question. They’ve gotten really good at communicating without speaking out loud since the kids were born.
Ren glances at the bedside clock.
“Hm, I don’t know. We already pushed bedtime back a lot tonight…” At the sight of two truly gigantic pouts forming - Ren doesn’t know where they get it, seriously - Ren chuckles quietly. “Tomorrow, I promise. We’ll tell you two all about how we fell in looove.”
“And more! All the juicy details about the k-i-s-s-i-n-g too, hm?” Koji quirks an exaggerated eyebrow, and both kids immediately scrunch up their faces.
“Bleeergh,” Takumi sticks out his tongue for emphasis. His eyebrows are knotted together in a fantastic frown. “I don’t wanna hear about that. Ehhh, do we have to wait? But I don’t wanna go to bed.”
“I don’t wanna go to bed too.” When Rin looks up at Ren like that, her little moles scattered like constellations across her nose and cheeks, with her voice so soft and trusting, he really doesn’t have it in him to say no to anything she asks.
But it’s late, and Ren knows they’ll have two grumpy monsters on their hands if he gives in now.
“Tomorrow, I promise, Ri-rin.” He brushes his fingers through her hair, and his heart still clenches when she leans into the touch, so tender and so full of love. She rests her cheek on Ren’s chest, over the worn fabric of Ren’s Hiraidai shirt that was once Koji’s. Her mouth opens in a huge yawn despite her indignation.
“Pinky promise?” She reaches out a little pinky finger, so of course Ren takes it, curling tight.
“The pinkiest promise ever.”
*
They each tuck the kids in, Ren with Takumi in his own futon at the foot of the bed and Koji with Rin on the bed with them.
For all his protests, Takumi snuggles right up under his sheets.
“Good night, papa,” he says, looking so sweet and so very unlike the little boy who takes every opportunity to give his fathers kanchos. He wiggles his arms out from under the covers and stretches them towards Ren for a hug.
“Good night, Takkun. Love you,” Ren murmurs, leaning down to squeeze Takumi close, pressing a kiss to his forehead so he scrunches up his nose happily and closes his eyes.
Koji’s humming to Rin quietly when Ren climbs back into bed, patting her back gently to the beat of some band he and Abe have been into lately.
She’s already fast asleep, and now that the day is finally still, Ren can’t help reaching for Koji. He curls his hand warmly against the side of Koji’s neck, his thumb stroking the solid, familiar curve of his jaw, before they meet over their daughter’s head.
Koji sighs into the kiss, exhaling a warm puff of breath against Ren’s cheek. Ren catches a faint whiff of roses before he pulls away. He keeps his hand on Koji, slipping his fingers up into his hair, his palm pressed up against Koji’s cheek.
“Can you believe it?” He murmurs, lets outs a barely-there laugh, amusement and disbelief threaded through the sound.
Koji doesn’t respond right away.
He’s distracted, leaning against the headboard drowsily, staring at Ren with a small quiet smile and a look that perfectly captures all the feelings in Ren’s chest.
He blinks.
“Hm? What? Did you say something?” Ren finally lets go of him. Their hands find each other over Rin, fingers threading over their daughter’s hip.
Ren chuckles. “Just marvelling at our two kids and this life. All because I stopped my car for some city boy.”
He watches Koji reach down to card gentle fingers through Rin’s hair. “Hm, what can I say? You were drawn to my irresistible charm and good looks? This real life Prince Charming, stepped straight out of a fairy tale and all that?”
He looks so proud of himself, spreading his hand out and gesturing at himself with a flourish as if to say a 10/10 if I do say so myself.
Ren can’t help snorting at that.
“Yeah, right. A damsel in distress, more like,” and he knows it’s only because Rin is between them that Koji isn’t slapping out an indignant hand in correction.
“Oi!” Koji whispers. “I was totally suave, okay? How many city boys have you stopped your car for anyway? Just me, right? Because I was so totally good-looking you couldn’t help yourself.”
Ren pretends to think, and two seconds is two too many.
“...Right?” Even Koji is starting to look unsure.
“Right. Of course,” Ren tells him, laughing at the look on his face before he feels bad for the little prank.
Koji has always been extra sensitive with stuff like this, even though Ren knows that he knows that Ren has always and will always be his.
He leans in again, this time in apology. This time, Koji’s waiting for him, brows furrowed, lips turned down in a pout. He stares up at Ren with an air of a hurt puppy that’s willing to use any means to get more scritches, and that, Ren thinks, is Koji in a nutshell.
“Just this one, even if it meant ruining a whole cake.” Ren smiles, a hair’s breadth from Koji’s lips. He can feel Koji’s matching smile, taste the silly-sounding giggle he lets out. Idly and instinctually, his thumb finds the hard band on Koji’s ring finger, the grooves of their names etched into the silver, and he can’t help meeting Koji’s lips with his own again, making sure that he pours every ounce of his gratitude and adoration into it this time.
Koji’s grinning wide when he pulls away.
“Yeah? It was worth it, then?” Koji asks for the millionth time since Ren’s known him, since that day by the road.
Ren has heard it in desperation, in jest, and every shade in between. This time, he knows it’s a little of both, but mostly, it’s just Koji wanting to hear it again, to hear Ren say I love you in so many words.
So, Ren tells him, “Well… If I’m being honest, it changed my life, really.”
“Mm, I haven’t heard the story in a while.” Koji shifts, clearly settling in for the long haul.
“You were right there!” Ren protests softly, amused and fond. “Do you really want to hear it when you know exactly what happened?”
“Mmhm, I love hearing you tell it,” Koji’s lips quirk up with an uncharacteristically shy smile before his eyes glint in a way that Ren has come to recognise, if only for his own peace of mind. “You make it sound all romantic and everything. Plus, we have to tell it tomorrow, remember? I have to refresh my memory, and you can call it practice.”
“Fine.” Ren relents. Like he said, it’s the summer holidays, after all, and he can’t deny that he enjoys having Koji's attention on him like this when they both spend so much of their time distracted by everything else now. “Stopping for that one lonely city boy with the biggest camera I’d ever seen in my life was probably the best thing I’ve ever done…”