It's Not For Me To Say

Disclaimer: I do NOT own Harukanaru Toki no Naka de or its characters. They are property of Tooko Mizuno. If they were mine, I'd have Yasuaki and Eisen fall in love with each other.

This is the sequel to What Does It Mean To Love Someone? but it can be read as a stand alone.

So far, everyone else had noticed the way Eisen and Yasuaki behaved around each other. However, only Tenma knew exactly why, he'd spoken about it with Eisen when the slightly younger male asked for his advice.

"Really, I saw Yasuaki laughing at what Eisen told him!" Inori spoke up. "The only other person he'd smiled for was Akane a while back, he still does, but because of Eisen, he's more…I dunno, open I guess."

Shimon nodded. "I too have noticed strange behaviour. Even Eisen-san has been behaving differently when around Yasuaki-san. He seems a lot happier, I had never seen him smile like that, even around Akane-chan he seemed more nervous, but now he's at peace, he's more relaxed." He turned to the general. "Wouldn't you agree, Tomomasa-san?"

The general nodded in concurrence. "Not even I had seen Eisen-sama so happy in all his life."

"Not to mention they have been spending a lot of time with each other," Akane pondered. "It seems these days that wherever one of them is, the other is with them."

Elsewhere, Yasuaki and Eisen were having sneezing fits. "I don't understand why I am sneezing so much," Yasuaki stated before sneezing again.

"Maybe we both have allergies to this pollen," Eisen pondered, three more sneezes coming out of him.

"What do you think happened?" Shimon asked.

Akane had noticed something else. "Tenma-kun, don't you find any of this strange?"

The redhead shook his head. "Not in the least."

"How come? You used to be the one asking yourself what's with that guy? all the time about how Yasuaki behaved," Inori pointed out.

"Why does it have to be strange for those two to be so happy? I'm happy, Akane's happy, Shimon's happy, and that's not strange!"

"But this is Yasuaki and Eisen we're talking about!"

Tomomasa turned to the teenager. "Tenma, you know something, don't you?"

"Wh-what? What would I know?" Tenma asked nervously. He remembered after the Hachiyo no Genbu had confessed their feelings, they confronted Tenma about it and asked him not to tell anyone else, they would say when they were ready. "Please, Tenma-dono, you cannot tell anyone else. We wish to wait until the right moment, for we do not know how they will handle the information. We will let Aniue and Seimei-sama know first since they are our family members, then we shall let everyone else know, so please don't tell anyone," Eisen's words rang through Tenma's mind. He could understand where the monk was coming from. Even in the modern time people did not always openly accept the fact that two people of the same gender could be in love. Tenma though was more open-minded. He knew Akane and Shimon were as well, but no matter how many times he'd tried to convince Eisen and Yasuaki, they both asked him not to breathe a word.

"Tenma, what are you hiding from us?" Inori interrogated.

"I'm not hiding anything."

Takamichi fixed his spectacles. "Anybody who makes that statement is certainly hiding something."

Yorihisa spoke up. "Even I know you are hiding something, Tenma, I am your Hachiyo partner so I should know."

Tenma sighed. "I can't say."

"How come?" Inori asked.

"Are they in danger?" Tomomasa asked urgently.

"No, they're not in danger," Tenma replied.

"So, you do know what's going on, Tenma-senpai?" Shimon asked.

Tenma sighed again. Busted! "I promised Eisen and Yasuaki I wouldn't tell anybody."

"Wouldn't tell anybody what?" Akane and Fujihime both asked.

"That they're in love." Tenma covered his mouth with a hand. "Shit!"

"That would explain it, those are the looks of first true love," Tomomasa commented.

"And they truly are happy," Fujihime added. "Why did they wish for you not to tell us? Don't they trust us?"

"They may never trust me anymore since I told everyone…but no, that's not it. They wanted to tell you when they were ready. First they will tell the emperor and Seimei, then you would find out. I think soon I will find out what Eisen's like when he's angry…"

"Well, we pretty much forced you into telling us, so we are all at fault, not you," Inori sighed. "Do you know why exactly they wanted to wait?"

Akane nodded solemnly. "I can figure out why, and I can't believe it. It seems that in all times, it's hard for some people to accept the concept of two men loving each other, the same with two women. Some people are open-minded and accept it. There have been people who were abandoned by their friends and disowned by their families because of who they fell in love with. I believe Eisen-san and Yasuaki-san are worried that we might do the same thing. But, we're their friends, we're also like family to them. I support them all the way. After all, it is love."

Everyone else voiced their support as well.

It was at that moment, they heard a startled gasp from a very familiar voice. "Tenma-dono, you told them?!"

After a few minutes of silence, a fuming pair of Hachiyo not saying a word to Tenma nor listening to him, Akane spoke up. "Tenma-kun is not at fault for this. The rest of us are. We pretty much pressured Tenma-kun into telling us what he knew. Why didn't you want us to know until later?"

Eisen sighed. "There have been many around Kyou who have been giving us disapproving glances, they have been saying harsh words around us in voices loud enough for us to hear them. Today I was forced to leave the monastery, they no longer welcomed me. However, even though all of those people thought it wasn't right, we know it's right. Aniue and Seimei-dono were also pleased to hear that we have finally found our true love."

"We're like your family too, Eisen-sama, we'd never think about your love in a disapproving way, you heard us all voicing our opinions on this matter and we all know that you can't help who you fall in love with, that it's the person you fall in love with, not because of their gender but because of who they are. We can see this has made you both much happier than you have ever been. You belong together, you compliment each other," Tomomasa commented. "You should know you can trust us all to tell us anything you need to."

Yasuaki turned to Tenma and sighed. "We had no reason to make you hide our secret, we should have made things easier and told everyone else right away instead of causing worry and confusion. For that, I apologise."

"I apologise as well, Tenma-dono," Eisen added.

"Now that we've settled this issue, let's celebrate! Two people in love, it's definitely worth celebrating," Akane stated happily. She heard numerous sounds of concurrence. "Eisen-san, Yasuaki-san, congratulations to both of you!"

Both Hachiyo no Genbu heard their friends and family expressing their congratulations and both felt grateful to know such understanding people.

"By the way, Miko," Yasuaki stated.

"Yes?"

"How long had you all been talking about Eisen and myself?"

"Um…pretty much all morning. Why?"

"That would explain our sneezing fits."

The End