I know I said I was moving on, but I didn't feel right leaving Akihiko and Hiroki as they were at the end of The Untold Tale of Takahashi Takahiro.
I thought I'd post a short piece on about these two that takes place about three years after the infamous blindfold scene in the manga—can be read by itself, or as an omake-ish addition to UTTT.
So, here's my happy ending for them.
Forgiveness
Hiroki was sitting in his bed reading when his phone rang. He frowned at the clock—nearly 1:00 am? That could only mean one of two people, and he his caller ID informed him it wasn't his boyfriend.
"What?" he snapped by way of greeting.
There was an empty silence on the other end of the line, though Hiroki felt the presence nevertheless. Just to be sure, he lifted the phone away from his ear and checked the screen to confirm had actually accepted the call.
"Errr...Akihiko? Can you hear me?" he asked.
"Hiroki?" the voice said.
Something about the other man's voice seemed off, so Hiroki held his tongue and waited curiously for his friend to continue speaking.
"I'm sorry," Akihiko said, after a very long while.
Hiroki was simply shocked speechless.
Akihiko had neverapologized for anything in his life, to the best of Hiroki's knowledge.
"I'm sorry...for everything," Akihiko said again.
Hiroki was tempted to do any number of things—hang up, make a joke about a Junai novel, let forth a barrage of angry words he had shelved a long time ago, pretend he had no idea what Akihiko was talking about—
The truth was, Akihiko's voice held the weight of a million unspoken things that Hiroki understood implicitly.
Hiroki wasn't sure what context had inspired the call—how did he find out? had he always known? – but in that moment, it was obvious that Akihiko was aware of all those unacknowledged and painful bits of ancient history between them, and he was finally accepting responsibility for his part.
Akihiko's words, though brief, were the genuine, raw apology that Hiroki had never expected.
Though Hiroki had come to terms with his unrequited love years ago, he was surprised how sharply he felt this blow to his pride, for the apology was inadvertent acknowledgement of the fact that Hiroki had allowed himself to be vulnerable, and Akihiko had hurt him. It was acknowledgement that, at one point, Akihiko had held the power to deny him something.
It took every ounce of self-control to bite back the sharp, sarcastic, defensive remarks that were on the tip of his tongue, the impulse to deny, shut down, run away.
However, an even stronger instinct told Hiroki not to screw this up. He knew intuitively that an apology like this would never happen again.
"It's ok," Hiroki finally answered. "It's all in the past now."
Though his answer was simple, Akihiko understood that it contained forgiveness, and, most of all, love. That, at the end of the day, the friendship between them had been worth it.
Both rested in the silence for a little while, unwilling to break the tentative and unprecedented communication that was occurring in the absence of words.
"Well...goodnight," Hiroki offered at length.
"Goodnight, my friend." Akihiko said. "I love you, you know."
"I...I love you too, you idiot," Hiroki answered gruffly. "Go to bed. It's one o'clock in the goddamn morning."
Both men hung up, but neither would attain sleep anytime soon, minds occupied with things they hadn't thought about in a long while.
Finally, though simply, acknowledging the previously unmentioned aspect of their relationship marked the end of a long and windy road. Now, they could be at peace with their former, mutual angst, and relax into a quiet but fierce faith in their friendship.
That night, they not only forgave each other, but themselves as well.
xxx
Up next, some crossover/future action:D