Time Setting: Hazuki Nagisa/Ryuugazaki Rei, ages 16~26

It was the autumn of their second year in high school when Nagisa and Rei first confessed their feelings to each other. After they agreed to become boyfriends that one fateful autumn evening, they had spent the following Saturday on their first date, which took place at the central aquarium in Iwatobi (the one that Nagisa had once dreamed of visiting with his 'girlfriend' in high school). Although the place had been jam-packed with people because it was the weekend, they had mostly been able to enjoy themselves and each other's company. The way that Nagisa's wide burgundy eyes sparkled as he admired the penguins from outside the glass and even imitated their shuffling way of walking at one point had made Rei smile fondly at the blonde and want to take a picture of him with his phone (which he secretly did a few times). The brunette did have a little trouble keeping track of Nagisa, as the blonde ran off several times to look at all the exhibits that caught his eye—that had certainly not been part of his plan for a perfect first date. After Rei complained about the blonde's behavior and said that he would get lost, Nagisa decided out loud that holding the younger boy's hand for the remainder of their date was the only solution to their problem—to which a flushing Rei vehemently protested because 'they were out in public and someone could see them any minute', but the blonde chose to wholeheartedly disregard that possibility. Even when they were outside the aquarium, the older boy did not let Rei's hand go, and despite the strange looks they were getting from the occasional passerby, the brunette felt his heart warm as he walked with the blonde's smaller hand tucked into his own, their fingers intertwined.

When it was time for them to be having dinner, Nagisa surprised Rei by saying he had made reservations for them at a nice sushi restaurant that was just twenty minutes away from the aquarium. Although Rei himself had made secretly made a reservation at the pizza restaurant that Nagisa loved, he was touched that the blonde had also planned ahead of time for their date and decided to himself that they could go there on their next date. Everything from the quiet and elegant atmosphere of the place to the taste of the sushi had pleased the brunette, and even though the blonde's chatter had stood out in the quiet atmosphere, Rei had not been bothered by it at all. On the contrary, it was Nagisa's cheerful voice and bubbly laughter that had made the dinner one of the best in his life, and although he had been aghast at first when Nagisa had snatched the tab first and paid for the whole meal ("Of course I should get this, Rei-chan, I booked this place and you already paid for the aquarium tickets!"), he had also been touched by the gesture.

But perhaps, the best part of their date had been their walk home, as the sky grew a dusky blue-black, the streetlights began to turn on one by one, and a gentle night breeze began blowing through the town of Iwatobi. On their way home, the two of them had stopped at the park, where they had first come together to treat each others' wounds a year ago on a summer night. They had sat at the same bench as that night, talked with each other under the soft glow of the same street light, and at one point had leaned into each other, holding hands and quietly feeling each other's warmth, both of their hearts beating a little quicker than normal. Rei had then turned to Nagisa and, gently taking the blonde's left cheek in one hand, kissed the spot where he had been grazed slightly with a knife a year ago. Nagisa had giggled softly and returned the favor, kissing Rei once on the nose, then on the corner of his mouth (which somehow made Rei blush harder than a direct one might have). It was only when they were back at the space before their houses before Nagisa pulled Rei down by the collar of his shirt and kissed him right on the mouth, at first lightly, then a little more passionately. Rei would have rather died than admitted that he had been a little disappointed when the blonde pulled away. But the older boy's flushed smile had reminded the brunette that there would be several more kisses to come, and the thought had sent a warmth surging through his heart.

Before the winter of that year, they continued to see each other at school, went over to each other's houses, and went on more dates with each other, whether after school or on the weekend. And every time that Rei looked at Nagisa, the blonde seemed more beautiful than the previous time. Every time that they touched, whether it was their arms or hands brushing together or whether they were holding each other in a tight embrace, the brunette felt as if his skin was on fire—he truly marveled at how he had managed to avoid combusting this whole time. Little did he realize that the blonde experienced the same intensity of feelings and sensations when he was looking at or touching Rei. Their desires to see and touch each other grew steadily into a pinnacle, until the dam holding them back burst on the night before Rei's sixteenth birthday, when a red-faced Nagisa showed up at the door of the lavender house that he knew Rei was alone in, and had told Rei in a small, trembling voice that he wanted to give himself to Rei, and would do so if Rei wanted him as well.

The words had nearly made the brunette faint—it would be a lie if he said he had never given this new step in intimacy a thought, and he had planned to read up on everything beforehand and set up the perfect moment for it to happen. But seeing the blonde so small and scared of rejection before him had given Rei the nudge that he needed, and in a trembling, breathless voice, he had told the blonde honestly that, of course, he wanted him as well. And it had been awkward, embarrassing, and a little scary, but none of those factors made the experience any less tender or loving. After fumbling a little the first time that night, they had tried a second time, and then things had gone better. The sight of Nagisa sleeping next to him in his bed the next morning, with only the top of Rei's butterfly pajamas covering his newly-paled skin, his golden blonde locks and eyelashes catching the faint winter sunshine that filtered through the gap in the curtains, had been one of the most beautiful things that Rei had ever seen in his life. Even though the brunette had panicked when he heard the click of the front door opening downstairs, even though he had to hastily shake Nagisa awake and both of them had to rush to get dressed and look inconspicuous before either of his parents (who had spent the previous night away on an onsen trip) could come up to his room and say happy birthday, even though he had to lie about Nagisa coming over for a sleepover to celebrate his birthday a bit early-on, Rei would hold the memory of the first dear in his heart for the rest of his life, just as he did with the memories of all other firsts with the blonde.

They celebrated Rei's birthday with his parents at lunch, went out to dinner with Makoto, Haru, and Rin, who had made time in-between studying for college exams, and before they returned to each of their respective houses, Nagisa had surprised Rei with a package wrapped in a butterfly-patterned wrapping paper with a purple ribbon. If there had been a little awkwardness between the two of them after what had taken place the night before, then it vanished (at least for Nagisa) when Rei turned bright red and stuttered out that he thought what they did the night before had been the birthday present. Despite his boyfriend's mortified protests, the blonde keeled over his knees with hysterical laughter—he laughed so hard that he choked on his breath and Rei had had to smack him in the back a couple of times so he would stop coughing. He couldn't help it, the words sounded like Rei had taken it straight out of a shoujo manga, and it was then that Nagisa realized just how adorable the brunette could be all over again.

With the beginning of their third year, both Nagisa and Rei became co-captains for Iwatobi High School's swim club. Along with the tearful thanks and goodbyes that they had given Haru and Makoto at their graduation ceremony (and later, Rin, at Samezuka Academy's graduation), they had promised the two older boys that they would take care of the swim club and see it through until it became time for them to also retire from club activities. And it may have somehow been due to Nagisa's enthusiastic recruitment activities, which included somehow convincing Rei to do the pole vault out on track with nothing but a speedo on—the 'somehow' meaning that he had told Rei he could showcase his beautiful legs with both the speedo and the motion of the pole vault, which had kind of backfired because it had the girls squealing and had just made the blonde extremely jealous although the sight had delighted him probably ten times as much. Or it could have been due to Gou's cheery manager persona, which had earned her some admirers in addition to new recruits—thankfully, they had not been scared away when they later discovered her sparkly-eye fetish for muscles. Either way, by the end of the recruiting period, they had managed to bring enough first and second years into the club to ensure its continuance even after all three third-years graduated. Having their records of making it to regionals had also helped, and with hard work and training, Iwatobi High School's swim team made it all the way to prefecturals that summer. And although their team did not move on to nationals, both Rei and Nagisa were perfectly happy that they had gotten to swim a relay with their underclassmen, and again, with each other.

The two had also been delighted when Makoto, Haru, and Rin, who had each gotten off college for break and had come to watch their younger friends swim, came down from the bleachers to congratulate them. The photo that they took after the relay included the three older boys, as well as the underclassmen of the swim club, and of course, Rei and Nagisa, and even Gou. Rei had been happy to add yet another photo of his teammates to the bulletin board in his room, right next to the photo that he and his friends had taken a year before at regionals. And even when they retired from the swim club in the fall of their third year, Rei and Nagisa would still drop by the club now and then to see how their underclassmen were doing and give them advice.

As college exam season approached, Nagisa had grown more and more uncertain about what he wanted to do with his future. After watching Rei meticulously taking and reviewing his notes in class and studying after school hours, the blonde had thought that the brunette had his route after high school planned out to the tee. However, he found that he was wrong—when he had not been looking, he found out later, Rei had been researching a wide variety of colleges but still had no idea which ones he wanted to go to, and exactly which field he wanted to make his coming four years of study at. Upon discovering this one afternoon in Rei's bedroom, where he had accompanied Rei to do their homework together and unearthed a whole box full of college pamphlets and frantic pages of notes full of long-winded bullet points and question marks, they had forgotten about homework for the moment and sat down to have a long talk.

After they had each done the same with their family, and after days of thinking, they thankfully both arrived at some conclusions. Rei decided that he would narrow down his list of colleges to ones that had strong departments in the maths and sciences, and later, he applied for the engineering departments at some colleges in Tokyo and Osaka, and one in Iwatobi. And although he had considered just getting a job after graduation, Nagisa decided that he would also go to college as an open major to open up his prospects for his future and that he would spend more time in his freshman year thinking about what he wanted to do with his life. They both delved into studying for college exams that winter, and after they had taken their exams, they honored the other decision they had made with each other that day in the fall and told their families and close friends about their relationship. All the while, they held each other's hand, finding support not only from their loved ones but from each other's warmth.

When results came out later that winter, Rei found that he had been accepted at all of the colleges he applied to, and Nagisa was also notified of his acceptance at a local college in Iwatobi. Only one of them needed to choose between options, and as Rei stared at the acceptance letter from one of his colleges with glowing violet eyes, the blonde knew—pushing all his own selfish thoughts aside, he had taken Rei's hand and, giving it a squeeze, told him to go to Tokyo, to go out there and pursue his goals. And at the city train station the following spring, before they parted from each other for the first meaningful time in a long while, Rei swept Nagisa into a tight hug, burying his face in the crook of the blonde's neck between his head and shoulders, taking in his strawberry scent, saying a muffled 'I love you' into his soft skin and sweater. And it had taken all the willpower he had in his body and more for Nagisa to not burst into tears at that moment. Telling himself that he wasn't a woman sending her husband off to war, he hugged Rei back as tightly as he could and murmured those same three words back at the blue-haired boy—and the slight quiver in his voice was just more proof that he meant them.

During their first year in college, they bore each other's absence considerably well, comforting themselves by counting down the days until summer and winter vacation, telling themselves that they would do their best to reach their goals, that they would become better people, not just for themselves but for each other. Each vacation that they were able to reunite with each other was like a rare oasis in the middle of a long-stretching desert, and the memories from those times were their happiest of the year. And during the longer periods of time that they were away from each other, they sent texts and photos and phone calls and packages back and forth, and although these could never be a replacement for each other's company, they were also precious like rare drops of rain in the middle of a desert, and made their separation more bearable.

Their troubles began in their second year of college, when the events that occurred made it seem like their world was falling apart. The summer of that year was when Rei had gotten an internship offer that was a huge opportunity for him, as well as a way for him to earn several credits for his degree in engineering. He hadn't mentioned it to Nagisa because he didn't want to worry the blonde, but since last year he had been overloading himself with college credits each semester, because he wanted to apply for an early graduation so he could return faster to Iwatobi—to his family, to his friends, to Nagisa. The first year he had spent in Tokyo had been enough time for him to realize that, although the city had its own upsides and richness, there was no place he would rather be than his hometown, near the people he loved. Because it was so, and because he wanted to keep his plans a secret, he swallowed the pang of loneliness and longing that surged through his chest and dialed a contact on his cell phone. When Nagisa had heard from Rei that he would stay in Tokyo for summer vacation because of the internship, the blonde had just barely kept himself from screaming at him, begging for the brunette to abandon that opportunity and come home, come be with him instead. In a voice that Rei knew was falsely cheery, Nagisa had forced a smile and told Rei that he was happy for him, that he should take this opportunity, and not to worry about making him feel lonely, that he would be all right. And even though Rei could sense that it was a brave front the blonde was putting on, he didn't feel as if he had the right to try and break it down—not when his boyfriend was trying his best to show his support. Like in all their calls, they told each other that they loved and missed each other—and yet, the sound of the line disconnecting sounded hollow to both of them.

It was only a few days afterwards that Nagisa decided he would take a full-time summer job for about a month, until he had enough money saved up to go to Tokyo and surprise Rei with a visit. It was yet another decision that was kept secret by one of the two of them, and when Rei found that the responses to his texts started coming later than usual or sometimes did not come at all, that most of his calls were going to voice message only for the blonde to call him back at late hours with a tired-sounding voice (he did not know that it was the outcome of the older boy working as a server at a café fourteen hours a day, every day), and that the photos stopped coming entirely, he did not know what to think. It was one thing if Nagisa was angry at him, but what if…what if the blonde was growing tired of him…? Such thoughts made Rei's heart ache with pain and desolation, but at the same time, he could not bring himself to ask such a selfish question of his boyfriend, not when it was of his own accord that they could not see each other that summer. And as the days continued and Rei's hesitation, as well as his workload from the internship, grew by the hour, Nagisa also stopped hearing as frequently from Rei as he had used to. And every time he checked his phone and no new messages showed up on screen, the blonde felt as if his heart was slowly breaking bit by bit. Although he knew that Rei would be busy with his internship, he found himself on the verge of selfish thoughts now and then—that Rei had chosen the internship over seeing him for the summer, that the brunette couldn't be missing him as much as Nagisa was missing Rei, thoughts like that which made him feel miserable and guilty at the same time.

And when it had only been a month that had passed, it had been enough to put a noticeable strain on their relationship—one that both of them wished they could lift with all their heart. But when Nagisa was begged by the manager of the café, who he had become on friendly terms with, to stay on the staff for another month because all of his other experienced workers were quitting—and while they each had their own reasons, the café was just five minutes away from the bustling Iwatobi Central Aquarium and working fourteen hours a day, every day during the summer vacation period had probably worn out at least some of them into calling it quits—the blonde thought about it. He had planned to surprise Rei by going to Tokyo—but wouldn't the brunette just be busy with all the work at his internship? He wasn't even sure if Rei would have any sort of time for him—they were barely keeping in touch through their phone line as it was. To be honest—Nagisa wasn't even sure if Rei would be happy to see him waiting in front of his dorm room at the late hour that he would return from his internship. Rei's voice had sounded tired and a little hollow from what few phone calls that they had exchanged over the month—maybe the blonde would just be a bother. And as he stood, pondering over these depressing thoughts, the manager was still in front of him with those pleading eyes, holding his breath and waiting for an answer. And as it turned out, Nagisa ended up working yet another month that summer—his plan for a surprise visit to Tokyo vanishing into thin air and replaced by greater pangs of longing and loneliness.

Perhaps both of them had known that a huge fight was coming. There came one weekend in the fall when Nagisa could no longer stand it anymore—not caring that there were only two days and that he had tons of homework from all of his classes that weekend, he quickly packed his bags and caught the first train to Tokyo that Saturday. After getting off the train and reaching Rei's university, he spent a large portion of the afternoon getting lost on campus before finally finding the dormitory that his boyfriend was staying at. At the front desk, he filled out some papers and got a visitor's name card, and he headed up to the fifth floor, where Rei's room was located. When he rang the bell and found that the room was empty, Nagisa stood next to the door, doing his best to ignore the curious glances that other students living in the dormitory cast him as they passed through the hall. It turned out that Rei's roommate, a nice guy that reminded Nagisa a bit of Makoto and a bit of Rin in his good mood, returned first. Even before Nagisa had revealed that he was there to see Rei, the roommate had recognized the blonde from a few photos that Rei had shown him earlier. The guy had let Nagisa inside the dorm room, and once the blonde found out that Rei's roommate played the same horror games as him, they had been chatting animatedly about the newest game that had come out in stores when the door had clicked open.

When Nagisa first heard Rei's voice from the doorway, he had instantly felt a jolt of excitement and happiness run through him. But it had faded the next moment when he heard Rei call a girl's name and asking her to wait at the door while he gathered his notes for her to borrow. When the blonde had fully turned around, he had seen an attractive, mature-looking woman who he thought probably shared Rei's high intelligence and even looked like a nice person, from the pleasant smile she had on her face. And seeing her had made the smile drop from Nagisa's face in an instant. He didn't know why it made him so shocked, of course Rei could have female friends at his university, the blonde also had some back at his own college in Iwatobi. He almost didn't notice Rei turning around in the genkan and dropping the textbooks that he held in his arms out of shock. But when he did, he definitely noticed the darkening of his violet eyes as well as the furrow of his brow—what Rei had seen was that Nagisa was sitting on his roommate's bed with the guy, as well as the opened snacks that were at the foot of the bed. Not saying a single word, the brunette had taken one look at the scene and had stormed out of the room, leaving behind his puzzled roommate and friend—and a hurt, panicked Nagisa who immediately leapt up and followed Rei out the door.

The blonde had barely stopped Rei by the wrist in the hall when the brunette whirled around and started shouting at him—asking why in the world he was here, and why he had been in the dorm room alone with a guy he barely even knew, sitting on his bed with him and eating snacks like they were best buddies. Hearing this wore Nagisa's patience thin, and it was not long before the blonde was also shouting as well—asking who that female college student had been, why he had brought her all the way to his dorm room when this was a floor for male students, why Rei hadn't been texting and calling as often even after the internship ended. It was the worst place that they could have their fight as well as the worst time for it to happen, and once Nagisa lashed out at Rei in the heat of the moment and accused him of putting his 'stupid Tokyo life' over their relationship, the brunette truly snapped. Seeing how the look in Rei's violet eyes turned stony had made Nagisa freeze, had produced a guilt inside him that made his blood run cold, and had broken his heart the moment he saw it. Not saying a word, the brunette had silently brushed past the blonde, not even looking at him, not paying any attention to the whispers of the audience that they had attracted in the hall. And only when he heard the door of the stairwell slam shut had Nagisa fallen to his knees on the floor, and when he realized that the wetness on his cheeks were tears, he had burst into a sob right there in the hall.

And for hours afterwards, Rei had spent the rest of his day walking aimlessly around Tokyo, without his cell phone or even his wallet on him. Just when he thought that his legs were about to give out under him, the brunette had turned his head towards the line of stores on his right—and he saw it. The row of daisies, white and yellow and orange and pink, planted in small ceramic pots and laid out in front of the flower shop. It was then that Rei recalled how, on a certain spring day of the year he turned seventeen, a certain person had handed him a single white daisy, a person with one of the most beautiful smiles in the world, a person who had told Rei that he was his miracle, a person who had accepted Rei despite all his shortcomings and weaknesses, had reached out and taken his hand over and over again with that gentle glow in those beautiful burgundy eyes. A person who, despite all the odds, had fallen for Rei, and had made Rei fall for him, had changed Rei's world. And, Rei realized with a sudden strong pang of regret, he had left behind that precious person after hurting his feelings, in a place where he knew no one but Rei, when he had come all the way to this city from home to see no one but Rei. When Rei had not even told that person about anything important at all. Upon this realization, Rei's heart seemed to sink to the bottom of his feet. Turning on his heel, he ran as fast, faster than he possibly could, rushing through the streets of Tokyo, then through his university campus, back to the dormitory, back to the hall on the fifth floor. But when he arrived, the blonde was already gone.

The calls began coming on Saturday night, then all through Sunday, when Nagisa was back at home in Iwatobi. He didn't pick up. He simply sat curled up into a ball in his bed, refusing to go outside his room for his meals, refusing to see or talk to anyone, not even Haru or Makoto or even Rin, who had heard from Makoto that he wasn't feeling well and had also called Nagisa on his phone. At first, it was because he felt angry—but the more he thought about it, the anger started to be replaced with guilt and despair. He realized that he had never told Rei how he had felt that summer—had never told him about the part-time job, had not gone to see Rei during break, had sprung the whole extent of his loneliness and pain and anger on the unknowing blue-haired boy. What had he said that Saturday afternoon—that Rei had put his life in Tokyo before their relationship? Nagisa couldn't believe it—how he could have said such a hurtful, selfish thing to the person that he loved, when he himself had encouraged Rei to go out there and follow his interests in the first place. And when he realized just how stupid and insensitive his words had been, Nagisa began feeling scared—he didn't know why Rei was calling, and if he was calling to—to end things for good—the blonde thought that his whole world would break in two that very moment.

On Sunday night, Nagisa realized that he had a fever—his body temperature was high, his throat sore and hurting every time he spoke or swallowed something. His mother, who was worried for her son's physical and emotional well-being, told him to stay home from college on Monday. And, up until an early hour on Monday morning, Nagisa had taken up his mother's suggestion and had been sleeping in his room. It was only 5 AM when he heard the sound of something tapping against glass loudly, over the sound of the early-morning rain that had started to fall outside. When he opened his sleepy burgundy eyes a crack and looked towards the window in his bedroom, they had immediately flown wide open. Not thinking twice, he had leapt out of bed and, letting the wet towel fall from his forehead, rushed over and thrown the window shutters open.

And there he was—the tall, blue-haired nineteen-year-old with nervous but determined violet eyes, one hand firmly grasping a branch on the maple tree in the Hazukis' yard, the other holding the biggest bouquet of daisies that Nagisa had ever seen in his life. His clothes and hair and skin were completely drenched by now, even with the leaves of the maple tree partly shielding him. As the rain began turning into a squall, Rei opened his mouth to say something—but no sound came out. And there he hung, getting more drenched by the second, the raindrops gathering on the petals of the multi-colored daisies—and once the blonde had snapped out of his initial shock, he had shouted at Rei to 'hurry up and get inside here, he was going to catch a cold!'

Once Rei had clambered into Nagisa's room and the blonde shut the window, it seemed as if the brunette had been unpaused. He pulled the blonde into a fierce hug from behind, burying his face in the crook of the blonde's shoulder and neck, saying over and over that he was sorry, that he had been acting selfishly, that he never should have left Nagisa behind in the hall that day, that he loved Nagisa even if he didn't deserve him and didn't want to let him go. And after the powerful gust of relief and warmth and happiness that Rei was finally truly back next to him, that he hadn't chased off the brunette for good, that none of the important things had changed after all, Nagisa turned around and threw his arms around Rei's torso, knocking him over onto the floor, sobbing out apologies and 'I missed you's and 'I love you's and practically squeezing the air out of Rei's lungs. And for the first in months, Rei stopped feeling lonely, started feeling completely whole and happy once more. His tears of relief and gladness and homesickness poured out all at once, and the two nineteen-year-olds spent a good amount of time on the bedroom floor crying their eyes out until they calmed themselves down.

Despite Nagisa's protests that he should return to Tokyo for his classes, Rei ended up staying until Friday, first to make sure that the blonde recovered from his fever and then to recover from a fever of his own that he caught from holding the blonde into the night (the morning after, Nagisa had woken up completely recovered, and he had happily told Rei in an authoritative voice that he was going to tend to Rei's health no matter what). When Naomi later told Rei in a light-hearted voice that she had called the office and 'excused his absences ahead of time for him', Rei had to wonder just what sort of an excuse she had come up with, but he was grateful to the Hazuki sister all the same.

They spent the days resting, laughing, enjoying each other's company, and talking. Rei told Nagisa about his plans to graduate early, that he had taken the summer internship as a part of those plans, that he had missed the blonde too much all these months, that he had no reason to worry about the female classmate from that time because she had only come to borrow his math notes and already had a boyfriend (and even if she hadn't, Rei added, the only one that he would ever look at was Nagisa), that their dormitory floor was actually co-ed (Nagisa had only seen the side of the floor reserved for male students), and that he had been irrationally jealous of his roommate (who, Rei had grudgingly admitted, was very popular with the other students at the university for his good looks and his more-than-decent personality). In return, Nagisa told him that he had been working a full-time job that summer so he could go and make a surprise visit to Tokyo to see Rei, that that had been the reason he could not text as often or answer Rei's calls, that his fears and uncertainty about their relationship had kept him from actually going through with the visit then, that he had made the trip on Saturday because he didn't think he could go longer without seeing Rei, that no roommate or any other person, however popular or attractive or dashing, could live up to Rei in his eyes, which would look at Rei and Rei only. They made up with hugs, kisses, touches, and words from the heart, and as they snuggled together under the covers one evening they promised that they would confide in each other more about the important things that came up in their lives.

The next time Nagisa made a visit to Rei's dormitory, he called before coming and made sure he stayed on Rei's side of the room. Rei decided that there was no need to tell the blonde how he had kindly asked his roommate to go kill a few hours somewhere else—there was no telling how badly Nagisa would tease him if he knew, and Rei decided that that was something he could keep a secret. And when they happened to run into the female college student Rei was acquainted with, Nagisa didn't think it could do any harm to stick to Rei like glue and even kiss him on the cheek once. She was the only person to see it happen and from the amused twinkle in her eyes, she didn't seem to mind too much, despite Rei's own deep mortification and beet-red face as he stuttered out excuses to try and cover up the situation. But it seemed that half the floor already knew Rei was dating a guy—they had argued in front of several pairs of eyes in the hallway that day, after all. As it turned out, it was a college with a pretty liberal atmosphere, and Nagisa felt relieved that Rei had not been confronted or bothered in any way about his sexual orientation. The blonde privately decided that even though it was far away from home, the school might not be so bad after all.

Both of them missed each other just as much their third year of college, but now that they weren't keeping the big things from each other, it made the year a little easier to bear. Nagisa let Rei panic about his workload at college and his graduation thesis over phone calls, and Rei let Nagisa soothe him by telling him stories about his life at college and about Haru and Makoto, who had also decided to pursue further studies in Iwatobi, and by telling Rei that he was brilliant and beautiful and totally capable and everything would turn out all right. Although the stress nearly did kill Rei, he successfully graduated at the top of his class with flying colors the following spring and returned home to Iwatobi in all his glory, to the celebration held in his honor by his family and friends and the person he loved.

Because of his accreditations and earnest efforts, it didn't take Rei long to find a job as an engineer, for a company that was not big but had a great working atmosphere and truly valued its workers, one that Rei honestly preferred over all the job offers he had gotten from much bigger companies in Tokyo. And as it turned out, the company was able to successfully expand over the years and make its name in Japan. (Much later in his life, to Nagisa's complete envy and delight, Rei even got the chance to work as an Imagineer for a few years—and the years that the two of them spent together in California would forever be a precious memory in their lives. But in the end, despite all the sunshine and Mexican food and their beloved frequent trips to Disneyland, both of them wholeheartedly agreed that Iwatobi was their one and only home, and there was no place like home to return to.)

In the spring of the year he turned twenty-two, Nagisa also graduated from the history department at his college in Iwatobi. Over the years he had decided that he wanted to become a history teacher, and after he and his family and friends and Rei celebrated his graduation, he immediately began to search for a job opening at middle and high schools in Iwatobi. However, because of the downturn in the economy and the resulting lack of jobs, he met with little success for about half a year. Seeing the blonde looking so depressed and not his usual cheerful self had pained Rei, and although he did still talk about his days at his own job at Nagisa's firm insistence, the brunette wondered if there was something else, anything, that he could do for the blonde.

And seeing Nagisa alone in the yellow house next door, after his mother had left to live with his father abroad, after his sister Naomi had left for Tokyo as a result of job transfers, after Nadeko had moved into an apartment that was closer to the law firm she worked for, Rei thought he might have something that he could do after all. He was very careful about suggesting it to Nagisa, partly because he was sure the suggestion also came out of his own selfish desires, partly because it wasn't his own house, and partly because it would no doubt open a new door in their relationship. But when Rei asked Nagisa if he could move into the yellow house next door, the blonde had tackled him to the floor of his bedroom, shouting out a very enthusiastic 'yes' and squeezing the breath out of the blue-haired man.

After talking it over with their respective parents and getting permission, Rei moved into the Hazukis' house that late spring, into the room that had used to belong to Natsuki. And although they lived right next door to each other for years, the experience was new, was very different, with both its upsides and downsides. The upsides were that they could now come home to each other, spend more time with each other in private quarters (which entailed them to many private moments to come in the future) and grow closer in the warmth of each other's company. The downsides were that they had to grow accustomed to each other's living habits—for Rei it was the messy lifestyle that Nagisa led, and for Nagisa it was Rei's constant nagging and insistences that they keep the place perfectly clean and organized (and even besides that both of them would discover many other idiosyncrasies about each other). They had small fights now and then, with a few bigger fights in-between, but eventually, they found a middle ground and settled into a rhythm that soon became their every day, with Nagisa making an effort to clean up around the house more and Rei making an effort to come to terms that the house was still livable even if it wasn't perfectly clean most of the time. And once they had been living together for three months, Nagisa solemnly declared one evening that he would no longer be able to live without Rei's cooking, and although he did want to slap himself for it Rei thought he might understand the happiness a housewife must feel when her cooking was complimented by her husband. Maybe, the blue-haired man thought one morning when he woke up once again to Nagisa softly snoring next to him, he was way more head-over-heels in love with the blonde than he had thought.

The autumn that followed was one of the happiest times that the two shared. When Rei was relaxing on one of his days off from the company, Nagisa had burst into his room with an envelope in his hand and one of the brightest smiles Rei had seen on the blonde during these past months. It turned out that he had gotten accepted into the position of history teacher at Sanada Middle School(!) after one of the teachers suddenly quit there. Although Rei remembered what sort of a time the blonde had had during his junior high days at the school, he saw how happy his boyfriend was about the job—considering he had been out of work for half a year, it was completely understandable and even relieving to Rei, since it seemed as if what had happened at Sanada in the past did not seem to have as big of a hold over the blonde now.

And although the flashbacks still came now and then when he roamed the halls of his old middle school, Nagisa found that he was very much enjoying his job as a history teacher—he hit it off with his students from Day 1, charming them with his bubbly personality and cheerful jokes and entertaining anecdotes about history (and sometimes even about his own life, but he made sure to keep those short, he was a professional after all). And by the end of that semester, he was well-loved by most of his students and even had a substantial number of fangirls among them. The blonde was also pleasantly surprised when, about two years later, he walked into the teachers' office one morning and found a familiar man with brown hair and hazel eyes behind smart under-rim glasses, occupying the cubicle that had formerly belonged to a math teacher who had quit last year. It was his former friend and classmate Komura, who had graduated in the spring after completing his master's degree in mathematics. Rei was also surprised when he heard the story from Nagisa after they both returned home, and as the years passed Rei would hear more stories about how the pair of them would have fun teaching the same students and looking back on their past with each other during lunch breaks.

The year Nagisa turned twenty-six, two major events happened.

One of them came in two parts and occurred in the same afternoon, when the blonde history teacher was sitting in his classroom after school and waiting for one of his third-year students from his homeroom to come in with their parent for pre-high school consultations. As the door slid open and his burgundy eyes looked up towards the entrance, Nagisa dropped the pen he had been twirling absent-mindedly in shock. His eyes widened and his mouth dropped open when he saw the young woman standing behind his student. It had been years since they last saw each other, but even then Nagisa could recognize who she was—she was the girl that he had known in junior high, the one who had gotten pregnant and miscarried, the one who had nearly died of abuse from her boyfriend.

Well, now she was a grown-up, and Nagisa could tell that she looked just as surprised to see him in the classroom. When Nagisa's student referred to her as his stepmother, the blonde's eyes had grown even wider, nearly the size of goose eggs. They tried not to stare awkwardly at each other as they went through the consultation—and the thoughts in Nagisa's mind began racing rapidly through his head during their interaction. When the woman had been about to leave the classroom after her stepson, he had stopped her by the arm and told her with an earnest voice that he was glad she seemed fine, that he hoped she was happy now. And although the woman had been surprised, she eventually smiled back sincerely and thanked him, said that she hoped he was happy now as well. And although they had not discussed the incident, had never been close enough to discuss such a thing openly with each other, Nagisa felt a certain kind of relief and gladness filling his heart after years of lingering shock and guilt. Returning to his seat in the classroom, he had been whistling cheerfully while turning his pen with his fingers, only to drop it a second time when the door opened and his next student walked in with his elder sister, a raven-haired woman that Nagisa recognized as Honjou Misaki, who he had last seen at his elementary school reunion eleven years ago.

Gulping, the blonde knew then that he was in for yet another awkward consultation period—and when it all ended well with he and his former classmate exchanging apologies, he marveled at how not one, but two people from his less-than-pleasant past had turned up like that in a row. But when he told Rei about both awkward reunions at dinnertime in the yellow house, his boyfriend had taken his hand with a gentle smile and had told Nagisa he was proud of him. And just that one gesture and that one phrase was all it took to fill the blonde's heart with warmth, and he had felt embarrassed at the tears of relief that had welled up in his eyes only after he had come home from the nerve-wrecking events of the day to the violet-eyed man. Wondering if he could have handled things the same way had he not met or reunited with Rei that fateful spring, Nagisa strongly felt—not for the first time—that he was beyond lucky to have Rei, to still have his best friend and boyfriend in his life.

The second thing that happened in the twenty-sixth year of Nagisa's life affected not only him, but him and Rei, and many, many more couples living in the country of Japan. It had been the result of years and years of protesting and lobbying and fighting, which both Nagisa and Rei had only known through the news all that time. In the winter of that year, the prime minister appeared on television and proudly announced that marriage between two persons of the same sex had been successfully voted on and legalized in their nation.

When they heard the news on television, Nagisa had spat out the stew in his mouth as he was finishing his meal at the table, and Rei dropped one of the dishes he had been washing in the kitchen. When it fell to the tiled floor and broke into several pieces with a loud shattering sound, Rei snapped out of his shock and immediately knelt down to pick up the larger pieces, panicking in his flustered state, apologizing to Nagisa over and over for breaking one of the Hazukis' platters. Thinking Rei would hurt himself at this rate, Nagisa also snapped out of his daze and hurried over to the kitchen, firmly lifting Rei's hands away from the ceramic shards, saying that he would get the broom from their storage room and that Rei shouldn't be picking up sharp objects with his bare hands. Leaving a blushing Rei in the kitchen, the blonde had headed over to the storage room, his own heart pounding like a taiko drum in his ribcage.

All of a sudden, it seemed, they might have new things to think about—things that they had never expected to be thinking about. And, as it turned out, the younger of the two of them was the first to reach a conclusion the following spring.

End Notes

And again, this was a (long) descriptive drabble. I tried my best to summarize what I thought were important points in Rei and Nagisa's relationship or in either of their respective lives (I felt that summarizing was the closest I can get to showing everything I wanted to show about their life together before I REALLY start being weighed down with all the schoolwork, and I'm sorry if it feels like I am rushing with my writing). I tried to elaborate more on the events that I thought needed more detail, and if this drabble still left some questions unanswered, the events beyond the ending point of this chapter will be dealt with in the next two chapters, and I'm pretty sure the twelfth drabble will be the last one. If it's about the events that came out within the time period in this chapter, then feel free to ask any questions you guys might have (though I will probably deal with some events and details from the past in those two chapters as well).

As always, thank you for reading this chapter! ^^