"Ms. Seiran?" A tentative voice from the hallway just outside her classroom door, "I mean, Mrs. Rouen. That's how you say it right?"
"Yes, it is." Kiki turns to face the teenage boy looking up at her; it's been just over a year since she last taught him. He's now older, still a little awkward, but she hopes he'll grow into his confidence.
"I heard from a friend of mine that you're pregnant?" He asks, probably offtopic from whatever he came here to say, and besides, it isn't a secret really. She's very noticeably pregnant by now.
"Yes, we're expecting." Kiki's calm; this has always been her space, since the day she first stood in front of this room and taught her students on that first day, a little new and a little unsure of herself back then, but not so much anymore.
"Congratulations." He swallows nervously, as if half-unsure of himself still, "Well, someone's here to visit you?"
"Someone's here?" Kiki asks just for the clarification and to make sure that she heard him right.
"Yeah. With flowers." He smiled, though he clearly didn't know who it was. "Someone told me to tell you."
"You can tell whoever it is to just let him through." Kiki smiles over at him, and the boy nods his head quickly and runs off to tell whoever it was. Clearly, though her students are trying to look out for her or are let into something.
"I heard that the best teacher in the school had a moment of free time?" A familiar voice asks, and when he enters the space, Mitsuhide almost seems to take it up. And he's smiling that goofy, dorky smile that she loves too much, and holding a beautiful bouquet of red roses.
"She does." She answered, and she came closer to her husband to accept the thoughtful gift from him.
"I'm glad." He tells her and hands the roses to her, all smiles.
"Did you rope in some of my students?" She's smiling despite herself; her husband's a dork, but a very endearing one at that.
"A bit?" He offers, looking a little embarrassed then, "But I wasn't sure I remembered how to find your classroom."
"It's the same one, it always is. They haven't moved me yet." Kiki offered and practically nestled against her husband's side; it feels like ages since this morning, and she left home to head to the school, and he got ready for work.
"Are they planning on moving you?" He looks around her room, which is carefully decorated and yet mildly decorated as well. On the walls are a few photographs of historical moments and some copies of old documents. They make for great teaching materials, and bring history to life in a way that Kiki feels it truly benefits from.
You get to see real people and real events and it no longer just feels like a blip in time, but a real moment, with real people with very real struggles. It's a lesson in empathy, but also a lesson pulled straight out of the past.
It's practical.
"Not that I've been told." Kiki replied, "I can't believe how long it's been since I started teaching."
"Not too many years." Mitsuhide tells her, not to preserve some idea of youth in her, but it really hasn't been that long if she compared herself to the older teachers who had been here longer or even at other schools too, "Just five years ago or so, maybe longer, you came to my gym for the first time."
"You don't own the place." She teased him, just to make his eyes go wide like a deer in the headlights.
"I know." Mitsuhide told her; he's been a personal trainer longer than Kiki's been a teacher, much longer. She remembers being a little nervous about her first teaching job and remembers her old coping mechanisms that distract her mind and body from nerves.
And Mitsuhide, a personal trainer, happened to be at the gym when she went, and they got to talking and before long ended up in a boxing match. And before she knew it, they were getting coffee together quite a few times during the week and memorizing each other's favorite foods.
And all of a sudden, they are dating. It had felt natural. Like friendship just turned to romance, and now, they are married, have been for a little over a year now or so. Just long enough for her students to be new to calling her "Mrs. Rouen" instead of "Ms. Seiran."
Some still call her by her maiden name, because they've had her in class for a while now and sometimes only before she got married, like with the student that had let her know that she had a 'visitor.'
"Thank you for coming in." Kiki finally tells him; it's sweet and sort of romantic that he'd just drop in on her at work while she doesn't have a class going on and bring her flowers. I've been thinking of you was the hidden message of such a gift.
"No problem." And his smile is so wide and so earnest, "I can't believe how fast time has went by."
"Me either." Kiki tells him, "Aren't you just my boyfriend yet?"
"We're married!" Mitsuhide tells her, properly scandalized, and Kiki laughs. She knew just how to poke his buttons, and yet he never was angry with her, but always surprised when she did.
"I know." She parrots back at him, and he gives her a dry look.
"Anyway, Kiki..." He's quick to change the topic, catching on now that she clearly knew they were married.
"I love you." She cuts off his train of thought; he clearly doesn't have an idea of a new topic, but it's fine, because she does.
"I love you too, Kiki." And when he leans in, she kisses him back. It's so nice and gentle to just be here with him.
"That's your husband?" A student of hers just coming back to class before the rest from lunch do catch them.
"Yes?" She answers, and Mitsuhide laughs.
"We've been caught, Kiki!" It's half a joke, and she almost swats at him.
"This is my husband, Mr. Rouen." Kiki smiles, carefully not saying his first name, "He's a personal trainer."
"Oh." The student mumbles back, half-hidden behind her blonde hair, a moment of shyness, "You look very happy together."
"Thank you." Mitsuhide tells her with a grin, and then goes to leave, waving at Kiki, "Don't want to interrupt your class at all, Mrs. Rouen."
"Thank you." She rolls her eyes at her husband, "I'll see you at home."
"See you there." And he's grinning that goofy, little grin of his. It's like they are teenagers just falling in love all over again, rather than the adults they were when they met or even the adults they are now.
But Kiki does have to get back to work, and Mitsuhide probably does too. Just, it's a welcome and rather nice surprise in an otherwise ordinary day.