2: Gays Don't Actually Exist btw
AN: please excuse Sasuke, he only exhibits some of the prevailing beliefs many Japanese men (and men worldwide tbh) have towards gay men and is dealing with his own sense of internalized homophobia that he just doesn't understand yet. This story is literally just about that but he will get over himself quickly, he does learn.
Also, originally I had Hashirama and Madara as two of my ocs (not Naruto-related ocs tho I do have those) and then I decided to change that but a lot of the backstory of the characters (professions and origins) came from those two so if you're wondering about where I got it from (it is not from a different anime, which btw I've never seen the one you'll think of before so :knife:)
A week later he was at Wakkanai Airport looking for a sign with his name on it or whatever the person picking him up would use to signal him. Itachi hadn't given him a name or anything so he could look up anything about his host but there weren't many other people in the airport since it was pretty small so he started to worry maybe his pick-up hadn't arrived yet.
He turned around abruptly from a tap on his shoulder and saw a very stylish grandfather standing behind him.
"You are Uchiha Sasuke, correct?" He nodded bemusedly. The man's accent was very odd, somewhere between the Hokkaido dialect and an American one. He didn't look American at all, though, with silver, rectangular glasses, a cream turtleneck and black skinny jeans that fit him oh, so perfectly. He had a couple grey streaks in his hair but it didn't detract from his attractiveness, in fact it may have even enhanced it, his long, brown hair pulled over one shoulder and the small strands in front locked behind a thick headband. His smile was charismatic and slightly nervous but overall he seemed warm and kind, not some seedy asshole like he'd worried about when Itachi had told him to "trust me."
"You are… Itachi's friend?" The man nodded and smiled. It suddenly hit him what the man looked like. He looked like an artist. Definitely not someone his optometrist brother would be friends with.
"Senju Hashirama, pleasure to finally meet you, your brother talks of you often." He had to hide a blush as the man bowed politely, he hated when Itachi did that. "The house isn't actually far from here, we're lucky that way. This city may have quite a few people but it's very spread out so sometimes it's like a bunch of smaller towns called one." He followed as the man began to walk down the street.
"Like Tokyo?" He asked and received an chuckle from the taller man.
"Something like that. Our house right between the ocean and Koetoi river so if you want water you can walk in pretty much any direction and find it. There are barriers right out by our part of the ocean but you can walk a little and they'll be gone. I wouldn't recommend getting in the water much, though, it's pretty cold all year round." He nodded in understanding as he sat in the passenger's seat of an admittedly very nice car.
"This is the northernmost city in Japan?" he asked, looking around him as they headed out of the airport parking lot.
"Ah, yes! And there's a couple of places you can go to that are monuments to that. Technically, Cape Soya is the northernmost point in Japan but I recommend the Gate of Ice and Snow. Much better view, you can see the whole of Wakkanai harbor. It's also more romantic, my husband and I had our first Japanese date there." He said it so casually Sasuke almost couldn't help but blush.
"I see," he said cautiously. "Is there anything else to do?" He didn't think he'd ever met a gay person. He knew, technically, that they existed but he'd never really actually come face to face with one and with how casually he'd dropped it the man must have thought he knew. That meant Itachi knew. Itachi had sent him here to stay with his friend that he knew was gay. How did Itachi even have a gay friend?
"Hmm, there's a couple bars I like to go by. Not gay, don't worry, I don't think we have anything like that here, but they're very nice. One has live shows of island bands every Friday so I tend towards that one a lot. It's never very busy, just a very laid-back and relaxing place to get a drink and here a band. I think you'll find a lot of places here are like that. It's a good place to just get away from the hustle and bustle while still feeling connected to the world. Plenty of pachinko parlors too, if that's your scene."
"No to the Pachinko but definitely to the getting away part."
"I could tell" he said with a chuckle. "Today let's stay at the house, I'll show you around town tomorrow. You're free to leave, of course, but no tour til then." He didn't know why but the man gave off a very relaxed atmosphere, an easy gentleness that seemed to spread throughout the car. He knew he should be at full alert around this man, not knowing what he could do next, but for some reason he just felt calm. "How's life treating you?"
"Uh, you know, law school, little down time, no social life." The man nodded his head in solemn understanding.
"Yep, that sounds just like Itachi. Well, but you know replace the law with medicine. You're his little brother for sure." He narrowed his eyes slightly, looking pointedly out the front window.
"If you don't mind me asking, how do you know Itachi?" he asked.
"How do I know him? Oh, you'll have to ask him that. But, let's just say we helped each other out a while back." Sasuke was not satisfied at all with that answer and only narrowed his eyes further.
"So what do you do?"
"Me? Oh, I'm a psychology professor at Washira. I study childhood trauma and how it effects development mostly. I also coach figure skating and choreograph some idol bands on the side." Psychology? That wasn't what he'd expected at all. The dance made some sense, but psychology? And at such a nice school? And he was gay? How were all those things even possible.
"So you live in Tokyo?" he asked, the rest of his questions seemed too invasive so he asked the simplest one.
"Yes, this is one of our vacation homes," he noted the word 'one', "my family lives in this city so we bought it to stay close to them. I'm going back in a couple of days but he might come back at any time. He's a mangaka and this place gives him a lot of inspiration so he comes and goes fairly often."
"A mangaka?" he asked.
"Oh, yeah, you might have heard of him. Senju Madara?" Oh. It hit him like a bag of bricks. Oh. That made a lot of sense. He'd definitely heard of Senju Madara before, though he'd never read any of his manga. He'd been a figure skater back in the 70s and won Japan its first gold in the sport, becoming an idol of the nation until he came out and told the world he was living with his boyfriend in New York. It happened before it was born but it was still something he'd heard about especially in college as figure skating became more popular again and his new work came out in a big splash.
"Yeah, I've heard of him."
"Probably not from his manga, though, right?" There was an odd sense of pride to his voice that Sasuke just didn't understand. How could someone be proud of something like that? He'd ruined his whole career just to… what? Be with someone he loved? Was that kind of thing really worth it? "If you're interested, we have a large manga collection back at the house that you're free to peruse. I'm a bit of an otaku, I have to admit, but it's all my husband's fault. I didn't even read manga before he started writing it."
The man laughed lightly, tilting his head back as Sasuke watched on bemusedly. They pulled into the driveway and got out of the car. There was a steady breeze and the smell of salt on his face as he took in his new surroundings. The sky above them was grey and the ground a lush green. There wasn't much sand like he'd seen at southern beaches but instead pebbles everywhere and harsh, gravelly soil. He could see the ocean just beyond the house and the river on just the other side. It felt… peaceful.
The house itself was a rather modern 2-story and an odd grey-beige color complimented by a blue metal roof and slate grey entrance. There was a small yard beside the house with a little greenhouse in it, seemingly filled with plants and it wasn't very large but it not that small either. They had many neighbors but only one very close, giving off an isolated but surrounded feeling which suited him quite well. There were two small bowls with little cat heads on the stoop, one empty and the other filled with water. He internally smiled at the thought of them having a cat, he'd always wanted one but his apartment didn't allow them.
Despite his earlier worries, he felt somewhat relaxed by the house and the atmosphere. It felt almost normal somehow and he wondered how it was possible to live with so many contradictions. He watched quietly as the man unlocked the door and waved his hand, to invite him in. He quickly followed behind, looking in the doorway slightly and seeing a grey cat standing by the doorway. He smiled as he approached it, bending down as he got to it.
"This is Niji, he's a sweet boy. He can take care of himself if you let him out but if you want there's also bowls for him inside and he'll love you if you let him sit on your lap and scratch his head." Sasuke nodded as he did exactly that, watching the kitty's head turn in his hand with an amused huff.
"Hmm, what else is there…. Ah! You may use the car whenever you'd like when we're not here, if we are just ask. Your room is on the second floor, there is both a bath and shower upstairs and downstairs but we prefer you use the upstairs one. Niji's food is in that bag over there, he gets no more than that cup beside it twice a day. You're welcome to use the kitchen whenever you like and fill it with food or use what we have. Would you like some tea?" He nodded and the other went over to the kitchen to start. "Oh, and don't touch any of Madara's art supplies, you'll just ruin his mess."
He sat down at the dining table and looked around him. The décor was both inviting and modern with colorful jewel tones mixed seamlessly with neutrals to amplify the space while making it just nice to look at. Niji hopped up in his lap and he looked down, patting his head as he settled into his lap. As his host had talked about the kitchen he'd started to worry about where he was going to get his food. He didn't really know how to cook at all and the amount of microwave meals in this town was probably limited. Maybe his host knew how to cook and would help him learn, or maybe the neighbors. Why did going on vacation seem to force him to interact more? Maybe this was part of Itachi's pan, he thought as he internally groaned.
"The wifi name and password is on the router and service out here isn't half bad…" his host continued talking about the house and he only half-listened, looking around even more. On the walls he saw pictures of foreigners, Hashirama, a girl who seemed to grow throughout the series of photos, and a lot of cows. It all seemed relatively… normal. It felt slightly odd to think of it that way now and he felt kind of bad. He didn't really seem very gay at all.
"I don't mean to be rude but why do you call him your husband? You can't get married here, can you?" He asked as the tea was brought over to him. The man smiled lightly at him.
"No, technically we can't and if we could we might not anyway. It's just that boyfriend just sounds too childish and I always want to remind people I'm gay so partner is no good."
"Wait, why wouldn't you get married even if you could?"
"Well, we could probably get married now. I have citizenship in the U.S., could easily get a job and get married there but it's not really on my agenda."
"So you could but you… don't?"
"Young Sasuke, marriage is not the culmination of every relationship, it is not what everyone aspires to. All I want is to share his name and to be able to see him when he's in the hospital and I've got that. There's nothing more the state could give me in marriage. Sure, marriage is a dream for many other gays, but I look forward more to a world where people don't feel the need to ask me if I'm married." The man gave him a genuine smile and he felt somewhat embarrassed.
"That makes sense." It didn't, really. "I… didn't know Itachi had any friends like you," he said sheepishly.
"Oh, Itachi has many friends like me," he said with a laugh. Sasuke wasn't so sure he liked the man's slightly derisive laugh or the emphasis on 'like me'. It was like he was implying something that Sasuke really didn't want to think about right now. After that there was quiet as the two of them drank their tea, Niji still purring loudly from his lap.
He took his luggage up to his room and sat in his bed, looking out the window which had a lovely view of the ocean. He quietly watched the waves roll lazily against the shore under the cloudy sky and sighed. Even with his slightly odd host, he hoped he could find peace here.
AN: Niji means rainbow in Japanese and I thought it was cute bc haha his owners are gay (there's also more to it coming next chapter dealing with our favorite dead rich boy) also he's a Russian blue as a bit of a tease for our favorite boy boy (you know). I also wrote this story bc straight Itachi is the bane of my existence.