56

Everything For You

Mr. Furuichi did leave the high school and went off to teach in the rural side of Japan for another four years. Mr. Furuichi never heard from his former delinquent student in any of those four years, which led the teacher to believe that his theory was correct. Oga Tatsumi had no intention of pursuing a serious relationship, and yet, when the silvernette walked into his classroom every morning the tiniest hope would be that the delinquent would be there waiting for his old teacher. That Oga would profess his love, and swear that the brunet had been searching high and low for his first love, Furuichi, and that that was why it took him four years to finally show up at Furuichi's door. Of course, Mr. Furuichi walked into the classroom, to find himself disappointed. Today was no different.

Mr. Furuichi had had many of the staff members, male and female, ask him out for after school drinks, but most of these invitations were politely declined unless they were all celebrating someone's birthday. Mr. Furuichi did not open up his heart to other suitors because he couldn't. Oga's lingering memory clung to the silvernette's heart. The memories were so vicious, that Furuichi had to be careful not to think about them during work so he wouldn't start crying in class. He still cried over the bastard, even four years later.

Mr. Furuichi had barely noticed that the day had ended and it was time to go home. Changing into his comfortable shoes, Furuichi walked back home. The teacher was able to find a small apartment tucked away in the forests surrounding the school. It wasn't far, but the streets were very narrow and a person could be clipped by a careless driver if they weren't always on alert. The leaves had begun to lighten as autumn was fast approaching. The cool air smelled of fresh dirt and the birds sang their happy tunes as the sun waned over the treetops. Things were different here than from the city. Time moved slower, easier in the countryside. Oga would be bored out here, the teacher thought, he'd probably climb all of the trees just to see if there was a movie theater or arcade nearby.

Furuichi chuckled, then berated himself for getting carried away again. Four years is a long time. When are you going to let him go?

Furuichi's footsteps dragged upwards each step until he finally reached his apartment. The lights were off, and the apartment was empty, Furuichi knew, but he still hoped that that son of a bastard broke inside and was waiting for him. Shaking hands unlocked the door.

It was still empty.

By the time Furuichi looked up from his graded papers, it was winter. A brutal one in fact. With the school closed because the snow was so high and thick that the custodians couldn't dig fast enough and the next flurry of snow on the way, Furuichi enjoyed staying home in his little apartment sitting by the radiator with a hot cup of tea to warm him up. Mr. Furuichi wasn't worried about his classes anyway. His students were further ahead than those betting against them. Furuichi still worked with "delinquents", mainly students with learning disabilities that required extra attention, and Furuichi loved working with them now more than he ever could teaching in the city. Of course, there were other staff members who felt that these "throw away students" didn't deserve the time given to them, but Furuichi shut the critics up right quick when results of progress began to show in other places outside of the silvernette's class.

Furuichi's mind went delightfully as blank as the snow gathered at his window. Taking mundane sips, Furuichi's mind began to wonder how difficult it was going to be to get more groceries. He expected the local shop to be closed, but he had enough to last a few more weeks. There was still salted pork-

Knock, knock, knock.

Furuichi's head whirled around to the front door of his apartment. He wasn't sure that anyone had actually knocked until they knocked again. Rushing to the door, Furuichi fully expected the little old landlord telling Furuichi the water boiler was broken not the nearly frozen over icicle of a man named Oga Tatsumi. "What the-! Get your ass in here, you idiot! Jeez, you're lucky your lungs aren't frozen over."

Furuichi fretted and fussed like mother hen. Oga couldn't say a word since he was waiting for his tongue to become unglued from the roof of his mouth. Furuichi rushed Oga over to his seat by the radiator, and made quick work of the brunet's cold, wet clothes and wrapped him up in blankets and towels. When the brunet had stopped shivering enough to hold a cup of tea, Furuichi gave Oga a cup as well. It wasn't until Oga took his first sip that Furuichi's mind understood that this was not an illusion, that the original delinquent that captured his heart was in the apartment. Or was the silvernette hallucinating? Flick! "I would say ow, but my forehead is still numb."

Furuichi jolted back when his finger collided with hard flesh. The teacher marveled at how the mark on Oga's forehead turned a bright red the longer he stared. "Sorry...I just...didn't know if you were real."

"Out of all of the things I've heard you say, teach, that's got to be the most stupid."

Furuichi hadn't quite heard Oga then. The questions that buzzed behind pink lips, stayed there, trapped out of courteousness. Oga looked worse for wear, but Furuichi couldn't stop himself from brushing the hair picking at dark eyes to ask, "Why are you here?"

Oga locked eyes with Furuichi's, but said nothing. His face gave away nothing. Furuichi gave a weak smile, and went to gather another comfortable seat by the radiator. "Right. Warm up and rest first, then we'll talk."

"I'm hungry."

"Oh! I'll get to making soup then."

Oga merely nodded. The brunet was hungry, sure, but now seeing his old teacher again, he needed space. Oga was glad to see that the teacher hadn't changed. Or that the teacher hadn't fallen out of love with the brunet. Oga could see that Furuichi hadn't because no one else was in the apartment, and it didn't look like Furuichi was expecting company, or that someone else lived in the apartment. Shivering again, Oga hadn't meant to come up like this. His car had broken down and he wasn't willinging to die in his car when the teacher he came to see was only a few miles away.

When the soup was finally ready, they ate, and too exhausted to do much else, they slept. Neither complaining to share body heat in the same bed.

"Jeez! You scared me!"

Furuichi had been up for nearly an hour longer than Oga. The teacher hadn't moved from his position of staring at Oga's sleeping face to ask the same question. "Why are you here?"

Oga rubbed the hard crusties out of his eyes. "Well," the brunet sighed, " 'cause I came to ask you something."

By the quick furrow of his silver brows, this was not what Furuichi was expecting. "Ask me what?"

"After you left, I forced myself to finish high school. I forced myself to apply for vocational schools, let's be honest, I wasn't made for college and I didn't want to go anyway. But that's not the point. I forced myself to graduate. I forced myself to get a good paying job as a mechanic. Then, I forced myself over here."

"I'm glad to see that you've made something of yourself, even forcefully," Furuichi said with a light laugh. Oga couldn't help but grin with the teacher.

"I forced myself to take each and every freezing step over here when my car broke down about two miles back. I forced myself to do everything to get to this moment. I came here to ask you if you'd marry me. But the ring is in my pants pocket and my knees are still too frozen to get down on one."

Furuichi's eyes widened into saucers before narrowing in slits, "Are you still forcing yourself?"

"Yes, but being forceful is a good thing, isn't it, teach?"

The stupid waggle of smooth dark eyebrows prompted an onslaught of embarrassingly pleasureable memories which made the silvernette laugh again.

"I guess I'll have to force myself to say yes too."