"Osamu, we don't have to invite them," Eugene placed his hand on the small of his fiance's back in an effort to be comforting. "Yes, they're your parents but it's okay if you're not comfortable with it."
"Ugh!" Yasuhara buried his face in his hands. "I'm just so tired of them acting this way! Ever since I told them we were getting married they have been pretending like they're okay with everything but they still won't talk to me!"
Eugene sat next to his fiance on the couch and pulled him closer.
"I know," he said softly, "We don't have to make a decision right now. It's okay."
Yasuhara melted into Eugene's arms.
Ever since he and Eugene had begun dating back when they were still at the gym, he had been struggling with the anxiety of being in his first serious relationship. When he had finally worked up the courage to begin talking to his parents again, he was surprised at how easily they seemed to welcome him back. At the time it had seemed too good to be true. Now, he knew that it definitely was too good to be true.
"Hey, remember when you graduated from college?" Eugene asked, pressing his chin into Yasuhara's hair.
Yasuhara gave a light chuckle.
"Of course I remember when I graduated college, Eugene."
"Do you remember who came to see your graduation ceremony? How my mother and father and brother all came to use the tickets you got for your family?"
Yasuhara nodded, nuzzling further into his fiance's chest.
"So, no matter what your parents do or do not say to you, you already have a family."
"Why do you have to be so perfect?"
Eugene laughed and kissed the top of Yasuhara's head. The two sat there, cuddled up on the couch until the peaceful silence was broken by the ringing of Yasuhara's phone.
Yasuhara moved to dig the phone out of his pocket and Eugene stopped him.
"Let it ring, it can't be that important."
"It might be Mai calling about the cake! That's important!"
Eugene heaved a dramatic sigh as Yasuhara moved to answer the phone.
Instead of answering immediately, Yasuhara stared dumbfounded at the caller ID.
"What's wrong?" Eugene asked, sitting up straight to see the screen.
"I think it's my father," Yasuhara wasn't even trying to mask his disbelief. He was sure that he wouldn't hear from his parents again, they had seemed intent on ignoring his engagement so far…
"You don't have to answer it if you aren't ready," Eugene said, placing a comforting hand on Yasuhara's thigh.
Yasuhara shook his head indignantly and answered his phone.
"Hello?"
He stood up and began pacing the room, his face looking ashen as he listened to his father's voice on the phone.
"Are you serious?"
Eugene looked concerned at his fiance on the phone. Yasuhara had yet to hang up the phone angrily so maybe the call was going alright.
"I mean, I guess that would be okay. I'd like to talk to Eugene first."
Yasuhara offered Eugene a meager grin in response to his obviously confused expression.
"Okay. Bye."
Eugene looked at Yasuhara expectantly.
"My…" Yasuhara ran his hands through his hair, trying to comprehend the conversation he just had. "My parents want us to come stay with them for the weekend."
Eugene failed to hide his shock.
"Why in the world would they want that?"
Yasuhara shrugged as he sat back down on the couch.
" My father said that they just want to get to know you," Yasuhara was still trying to comprehend his father's words. "It sounds as though he actually wants to try to start over."
Eugene hummed, leaning back into the couch.
"Do you think he's sincere?"
"He sounded like he was."
Yasuhara cuddled back into his fiance's chest.
"What are you thinking?" Eugene asked, pulling Yasuhara close to him once again.
"What if they're lying?" Yasuhara grimaced. "They're politicians, known for saying one thing just to please the crowd and thinking something completely different."
"We don't have to go if you don't want to." Eugene pressed another quick kiss to his fiance's brow as he said this. "I don't want to see you hurt again."
"Let's sleep on it, yeah?"
X~X~X
"Why are we doing this again, Mai?"
"Why not?"
Oliver frowned. "That's not always an answer, dear."
"Because your brother needed help with his wedding and we're their closest friends!"
"But do we have to pick their cake? That seems like a romantic couple activity." Oliver crossed his arms as they stopped in front of the bakery door. "They should at least choose their own cake."
Mai turned to face her boyfriend, her hands finding her hips.
"Yasuhara is busy with his job! He's in the middle of researching for a case! His client sounds really hard to deal with. This is the least we can do to help speed along the wedding planning."
"Couldn't Gene have at least come with us?"
"Gene's busy too! Doing… Science… Stuff?"
Oliver smirked.
"You still have no idea what my brother's job is, do you?"
Mai shook her head, "Nope! And I don't really want to know because it sounds incredibly boring!"
Oliver chuckled at his girlfriend's silliness and reached to open the door to the bakery.
When they walked in they were immediately greeted by an employee.
"Hello! How are you?"
Mai smiled brightly.
"Fine! I'm Mai Taniyama, I believe we have an appointment under the name 'Davis'."
"Yes, come right this way. My name is Amanda, I'm going to be helping you during the appointment. Are you getting excited for the big day?"
Mai blushed.
"Oh, erm, I am but we're not — He's not… I mean we are but—"
"The cake is for my twin brother's wedding. Mai and I are dating but we aren't the ones getting married," he paused. "This time, anyway."
This only served to deepen Mai's blush as Amanda gave Mai a meaningful look.
"Alright, well, my apologies." She smiled at Oliver and Mai in turn. "Is there a reason the couple couldn't make it today?"
Oliver nodded.
"They were busy with work and other aspects of wedding planning so we offered to help so that they wouldn't have to cancel the appointment. They gave us a list of flavor preferences to reference."
"I see!" Amanda led them to a small sitting area. "I reckon your taste buds are identical to your twin's as well?"
Oliver smirked at the absurd assumption.
"Not in the slightest, but I've lived with him long enough to know his tastes."
"Right. And Gene's groom has been a good friend of mine for a long time so I feel confident in my ability to speak for his tastes," Mai explained.
Amanda smiled.
"Oh, that's sweet! Did the couple introduce you?"
Mai and Oliver shared a quick glance.
"No," Oliver explained. "We actually all worked together at the old gym."
"Oh really?" The woman suddenly seemed interested. "The one that closed down?"
Mai nodded.
"I've heard rumors about that place! Some say that it might be haunted."
"Oh, gosh, I can't believe that…" Mai laughed. "Sure it was an old building but a ghost?"
"It's more likely than you think." Oliver leaned forward in his chair. "There was a paranormal group there a few days ago with SPR."
Mai looked skeptical. "SPR?"
"The Society for Psychical Research." Oliver explained.
"Why have you been keeping up with the ghost news?" Mai knitted her eyebrows as she awaited an explanation.
Oliver shrugged.
"That's strange, too, that the ghost people are called the same initials as the gym."
Oliver gave her a confused look.
"The ghost people?"
"SPR, the psychic research or whatever. The gym was called SPR Gym and Recreational Center!"
"Oh, that's funny, I didn't even realize." He shook his head. "Anyway! Shouldn't we be getting to the cake tasting?"
X~X~X
Yasuhara and Eugene had spent the rest of the afternoon determined not to talk about the call from Yasuhara's father. However, when the phone rang again later that evening, Yasuhara jumped at the tone and was momentarily afraid to see who it was.
He heaved a great sigh of relief when he saw Mai GIRL on the caller ID.
"Hey, Mai!" he answered, loud enough so that Eugene could hear and know who it was.
Mai told him that she and Oliver had just finished their appointment at the bakery and that the shop had let them take a few of their favorite samples to-go so that Yasuhara and Eugene could make the final cake decision.
"Oh, Mai! You know I suck at making decisions!" Yasuhara groaned.
"Yeah, but I thought you'd be glad about free cake!"
Yasuhara paused for a moment, considering.
"You're absolutely right, come on over."
Mai laughed, "See you in a few!"
Yasuhara set his phone back on the table and called to his fiance in the other room.
"Eugene, Mai and your brother are coming over!"
Eugene appeared, pouting. He had been taking a nap in the other room, having finalized an outline of their remaining wedding funds and was now stood in the doorway without a shirt.
"Aw, why? We just saw them yesterday…"
"They're bringing cake samples," Yasuhara said, attempting to persuade Eugene in the way Mai had persuaded him only moments ago.
"Okay, you got me. I can put on a shirt for free cake."
"That's my guy."
Eugene disappeared again to the bedroom to get dressed and returned moments later, taking a seat next to Yasuhara on the couch.
"Talking of cake, have you found any more cake design ideas?" he asked, scooting closer to peek at Yasuhara's laptop screen.
"Yeah, I was looking at this one earlier…" Yasuhara moved to an open tab to show Eugene a picture he had kept open.
The picture was of a beautiful, simplistic cake. It was three tiered white cake with grey piping around the bases of all three levels. The second tier was covered in small grey dots.
"I was thinking we could do something like this that is really simple and then maybe have flowers like this on it." Yasuhara opened another tab to show a second picture of a cake with tiny yellow flowers placed delicately about the different layers.
"I like it!" Eugene declared, swooping in to peck Yasuhara on the cheek for emphasis. "I think it's super cute and classy."
There was a gentle knock on the door and both men stood up to go greet Mai and Oliver.
"Hey!" Mai beamed at them. "How is everything?"
Yasuhara smiled, taking the box of cake samples from Mai so that she could remove her jacket.
"Fine," he said. "We were just looking at my ideas for the cake design!"
"Oh, have you settled on anything, yet?"
Yasuhara nodded. "Yeah, I think we've finally found something we like. Wanna see?"
Yasuhara led Mai and Oliver back to the living room where his laptop was sitting on the coffee table. He set the cake samples down and picked up his laptop, holding it up and turning so that Oliver and Mai could see the screen.
"See, I think we're going to use this cake design and then decorate it with flowers like this so it matches the color scheme better."
Oliver nodded in silent approval.
"Cute!" Mai smiled. "So I think we've found some good options for cake, we had the lady pack up all the ones we liked the best."
She opened the box and pointed to indicate each flavor in turn as she introduced them.
"These two are plain vanilla, one is sweeter and one is more dense. And then we chose a few with different filling flavors to try just in case you want something more unique." She indicated a few smaller pieces of cake. "That one is a white cake with orange filling, the lady said that this was a popular flavor for spring. This is a white cake with raspberry filling, and this one," she nodded her head towards Oliver, "Was Naru's pick. It's white cake with matcha green tea flavored filling."
Eugene excused himself to the kitchen and returned a few moments later with two forks.
"You said the tea flavor was your favorite, Noll?" Eugene laughed. "No surprises there."
Oliver frowned.
"I thought you might like it because you're both of Japanese heritage," he explained. "It's meaningful, 'cute' even, and it's tea flavored."
Yasuhara chuckled at Oliver's use of the word 'cute' as he used his fork to cut the matcha cake sample in half.
"Cheers!" Eugene laughed as he picked his half of the small sample up with the fork.
Oliver smirked at Yasuhara and Eugene's reaction to the cake he had chosen. Judging from their expressions, they seemed to like it very much.
"So are you all going to quit doubting my taste now?"
hello! I don't really know what to say about this other than I hope you enjoy it! if you haven't figured it out by now, this will be a sort of sequel to SPR Gym and Recreational Center, but it will read as a stand-alone too! just don't be confused by the fact that the characters reference working in a Gym... thank you to Hannah and Katie for beta-ing this story! please rate and review if you don't mind!
love, Bee