2 – All You Need Is Love
"One word frees us of all the weight and pain of life: that word is love." – Sophocles
"You're getting married."
Chisaki didn't look up from his book.
"You're getting married," Kurono repeated slowly, trying to let the words digest.
In truth, he shouldn't have been too surprised. It had been a year since Chisaki finished med school, and at age 28, it was normal to get married. He had also noticed that his friend had started calling Fukukado "Emi".
Both Chisaki and Kurono had been born and raised in Japan until their parents decided it was a very good idea to move to the States and make them learn a new language - Kurono still found himself slurring the "r"s at times. They had also both decided to drop honorifics since attracting weird stares like they were talking gibberish didn't appeal to either of them. Chisaki, though, still called others by their last names, since he would not call anyone by their first names unless they were close. Kurono followed him because he never really got used to calling everybody around him as if they were best buddies.
But apparently, Chisaki had decided that Fukukado was close enough - closer than Kurono, who had he had been in the same grade since middle school - to call her by her first name. Not to worry, Kurono wasn't jealous - Kurono Hari didn't get jealous. No, was just a bit ticked off that Chisaki had started calling her "Emi" than he had called him "Hari" (He started calling him Hari half-way through med school).
So if he put two and two together, it was a bit obvious that they would get married eventually. He just never realized "eventually" would ever come. Chisaki, after all, didn't really look like a... family man, to say the least.
"You're getting married," Kurono said again.
This time, Chisaki sighed and put his book down, looking across the coffee table, his gold eyes meeting his friend's grey ones.
"Yes, Hari, and if you ask me again, you're going to be my test subject for a new medicine I'm trying out."
Kurono rubbed the bridge of his nose, exasperated. Chisaki's new hobby was testing out new "medicine" and using it as blackmail. Of course, he wasn't allowed to use it on patients, and Fukukado was the only who dared try it - she was lucky enough to not have been food poisoned - but that did nothing to discourage the new fully-fledged doctor.
"Kai, are you serious? Marriage is a very... serious matter." Kurono asked, bringing the topic back on track. He didn't really relish the idea of trying out his friend's new "medicine".
"100 percent," Chisaki responded absent-mindedly. "Why did I go through the trouble of responding to her texts if I didn't plan on marrying her?"
The white-haired man smirked slightly as he let his mind translate it. It went something along the lines of "I love Emi".
"Anyway, so how's work been going?"
Kurono was a bit taken back until he remembered that Chisaki actually made small talk now. Before, any form of conversation he had tried to start with his friend had been shut down with a simple "Yes", "No", "I don't know", or "Be quiet, Kurono". And yet, after he had become friends - and a little more - with Fukukado, one day, he had said something similar to what he had asked now. The first time, Kurono had been too surprised to respond, and Chisaki had raised his eyebrows in concern and left, thinking he needed space. The second time he had approached Kurono with the same question, the latter managed to regain his composure and asked why Chisaki would ask a question like that. His answer?
"You're my friend, Hari. I want to know how you're doing."
Kurono had once again become speechless after that. Nowadays, the two friends could be found chatting over the most meaningless things, from the weather, to coffee, to the new anime released a week ago. If Kurono had to pick, he was truly glad his friend met Fukukado.
"Are you jealous I'm going to get married before you?" Chisaki suddenly asked. And although he was wearing a mask, Kurono was sure he was smirking.
No longer surprised, he pulled himself together and squinted his eyes. "Of course not. You know I don't ever plan on doing something as... restricting as marrying."
He was answered with a scoff. "Pfft, then why were you going out with that girl you were dating for, what, two years?
Kurono glared at him. "You mean Lynda? We're not dating. We're eating dinner together because we're good friends."
"Oh yeah, her. See? You're on a first-name basis with her."
"She says it's weird when I call her by her family name. And we're just friends," Kurono put in, a tad more forcefully than needed.
"Keep telling yourself that."
"Well, why don't we have a bet?"
Chisaki eyes glinted in mockery. "Whatever you want. I bet you'll get engaged... say... two months after our wedding. After that, planning will take about a year so after that first year, you'll get married."
"A year?" Kurono scrunched up his face and stared at his friend. "That's a long time."
He regretted his words the moment he spoke them. "Really, Hari? Can't wait that long to get married to this Lynda girl?"
Kurono sighed and shook his head. "Kai, you're becoming more and more like Fukukado every second of the day. Leave the teasing to her, please. Anyway-" he added hastily. "I'm guess you want me to help you plan? When's the big day? I'm your best man, right?"
Chisaki frowned slightly before removing his mask and taking a sip of his coffee. "Aren't I supposed to be the one to ask you that?"
The other man shrugged. "I'm not sure; you just don't seem like the type of guy that'd... ask."
"Who do you think popped the question with Emi?"
Kurono was dumbfounded. He had always assumed it had been Fukukado who had proposed the idea - definitely not Chisaki who had taken the initiative. But now, he was claiming that he was the one who had asked?
The white-haired man leaned back into the chair and sighed - although nobody could mistake the smile playing at the corners of his lips. "You're so different, it's creepy."
"Is it? Would you like me to change back?"
This time, Chisaki was responded with a quiet chuckle. "Nah. You're actually... nice this way. It's fun talking to you, Kai."
"I told you."
Kurono, cheeks flushed with red, averted his eyes quickly. "Please stop rubbing salt."
They were sitting in the same booth, at the same café from nearly two years ago, talking about the same thing - a wedding. The only difference was that Chisaki was now a married man and the wedding they were talking about was Kurono's.
"But why Lynda of people?" Chisaki complained good-naturedly. "The day she met me, she was like 'My name is Lynda Althan, but my enemies call me Uwabami'. She's one bratty kid, Hari."
"'Kid'?" he chuckled, shaking his head. "She's the same age as you, Kai."
"Anyway - so. I'm your best man, right?"
Kurono smirked. "What was that about 'Aren't I supposed to be the one to ask you that?' But I mean-" He looked straight at his friend. "Of course."
"Just so you know, Emi's pregnant, so you might want to take that into consideration."
Silence.
At least, there was silence until Kurono started choking on his coffee. He put his hand up, signaling that he was okay to a slightly alarmed Chisaki. "I'm... okay..." he wheezed, even though he was definitely not okay. "Just... give... me a... second."
It was a few minutes over the promised second before Kurono recovered. He tried regaining his dignity by looking serious, but it didn't work.
"That was quite a reaction, Hari," Chisaki pointed out, eyes full of mockery.
"Kai, you can't just go proclaiming things like that and think it's normal," Kurono sighed, exasperated.
"I don't see why you're so surprised."
"Well..." He gave his friend a look of pure confusion. "Didn't you say you were never going to have children?"
At his reminder, Chisaki started rubbing his eyes - which still had the same bags as ten years ago. Apparently marrying Fukukado Emi won't do you any good with your sleep schedule.
"Please don't remind me."
Crossing his arms, Kurono smirked, relishing the predicament his friend was in. It was time to get pay-back for all the times he had teased him about Lynda. "'Kids are brats', right? Wasn't that you said?"
"Be quiet, Hari."
"Eh? That's weird," he continued, evil smirk growing bigger and bigger with each passing second. "I remember you didn't like kids. Were you lying?"
"Hari, another word and I'll-"
"So maybe you actually secretly love kids? Maybe you actually have a huge soft spot for them."
"Oh, be quiet, Hari," Chisaki groaned while closing his eyes. "I really need my sleep."
His leer faded as he nodded in understanding. "I feel you. Though I do recall telling you that when we were still students. This is what you get for not listening to me. Anyway - so when did you find out?"
"Two weeks ago. Her doctor says it'll probably be around the end of the year."
Kurono took a moment to figure out the dates. "That's about the same time we plan on getting married. So... should we plan the wedding after or before?"
"You're asking me?"
He shrugged while taking a sip of his coffee. "I mean, I don't really care as long it happens before January. Hate the weather then."
Chisaki raised his eyebrows, slightly "How about your beloved?"
After a moment of silence and staring, Kurono decided that their almost twenty years of friendship would cover for his remark and didn't instantly murder his friend on the spot. Instead, he brought out a rolled-up sheet of poster paper and spread it out on the coffee table.
"She doesn't really care as long as it's-" He nodded solemnly when Chisaki's eyes grew wider at the sight of the wedding plans Kurono had planned out beforehand with Lynda. "-extravagant to a point of I'm going to be broke."
The other doctor was slow to respond. "I can... see that."
"Really, Lynda doesn't care as long as she can look good," Kurono sighed, breathing into his hands quietly. The two men sat across from each other, the silence dark, brooding, and pained. The way they were treating the wedding plans would make an onlooker think they had just received secret codes that were schemes to explode the world.
"She can look good without using this much money," Chisaki choked out, his mind still reeling from the overkill. Kurono had calculated the cost of the woman's unnecessarily fancy ideas and it was hard to look at the number without wincing from the mental pain.
45,000,000.
Chisaki shook his head, probably from disappointment in his friend's taste in women. "Who does she think you two are? Charles and Diana?"
"Lucky for me, we're not, so there's no extra 3,00,00 in there," Kurono joked dryly.
"Okay, well. We have a lot of work to do. Change that terrifying 45,000,000 at the bottom into a 28,000." He looked up at his friend, whose head was still buried under his arms. "Sound good, Hari?"
A muffled sure and thanks could vaguely be heard.
"It's squishy."
Fukuado laughed out loud and playfully pinched the side of Kurono's shoulder. "Of course it's squishy, Hari! It's a cheek."
Lynda beamed at the wrapped-up baby in her friend's arms. "Aren't you cute?" she cooed.
As soon as she said it, the baby started bawling.
The model's hands flew to her mouth, worry making her brows furrowed. "Oh my, did I say something?"
Fukuado's lips curved up into a bright smile as she quickly rocked the baby. "Lynda, dear, you're hilarious. I don't think Eri likes you that much."
While Lynda started pouting and trying to make friends with the girl, Kurono and Chisaki stood in the corner of the room, almost as if they were afraid of the baby. In a sense, they probably were, because babies, children, and crying was all in an unknown world they didn't plan on associating with any time soon.
"So..." Kurono started, eyes trained on the chaotic scene before them, "her name's Eri? How did you come up with the name?"
The other man was also wincing at the sharp cries from his newborn daughter. It also didn't help that Lynda didn't seem to know when to quit. "Emi's best friend in Japan was apparently Eri."
"You don't care what her name is?"
Without looking away from what was happening in front of them - he had to admit, watching Lynda fail miserably with his daughter was amusing - Chisaki raised his eyebrows. "Do I look like I would care about something as trivial as names?"
Kurono shook his head, forgetting how exasperated he always felt around his friend. "Only you think naming your firstborn child is trivial, Kai. By the way, I've been meaning to ask you this for a while, but what changed you to actually have a daughter? I'm guessing... it has something to do with your sleep?"
As if recalling a horrible, traumatic memory, Chisaki immediately closed his eyes and sighed. "You couldn't be more correct. Emi wouldn't stop bugging me at three a.m. in the morning. It was a simple logical decision, really. She agreed that between my work and sleep-deprived-ness, I would be too busy to take care of a newborn baby, so most everything has already been planned ahead of time by Emi. I probably won't have to do much."
The white-haired man nodded, slowly taking in the information before coming to a conclusion. "Logical decisions were always your forte. Except... children constantly bend what you call 'logic'. Believe me when I say children are the epitome of illogical."
Chisaki opened his eyes and looked at him. "Really now?"
"I wouldn't have said anything if I don't know from personal experiences. I lived with my aunt and uncle when I moved to the States for education, and I had a few cousins who were much younger than me. Don't be surprised if you end up getting less sleep than before."
Before Chisaki could let the information sink in and grow alarmed, Lynda suddenly jumped in front of them, carrying little Eri in her arms.
"See?" she exclaimed excitedly. "We're best friends now!"
Right before Kurono went to join his fiancée and congratulate her, he laid a gentle hand on his friend's shoulder and said solemnly, "I wish you luck, Kai, because you're going to need it."
In the near future, Chisaki would find out that Kurono had been frightenedly correct, but for now, he walked over to Fukuado, who was still in the hospital bed. For now, he could sigh in relief that Emi wasn't in any danger, his daughter was healthy, and he was a father - although that last part was still debatable. Whether or not being a father was a good thing... he would have to wait and find out.