AkaFuri (childhood friends au)

"I've decided who I'm going to marry."

Coming from a five year old boy, this was cute, but not entirely worrisome. Akashi Ai smiled at her son, who was currently in a bean bag which almost swallowed his entire body up and reading a book that he'd chosen because it had 'very few pictures' and 'this was what adults would read'.

"Is that so, Seijūrō?"

"Kōki."

Seijūrō's father, and consequently Ai's husband, choked on his tea. "Kōki?"

Seijūrō didn't seem to notice that anything was amiss and turned the page. "Yes."

"Have you asked him?" Ai asked, reaching forwards to brush her hand through his hair where it was sticking up in a muss.

Seijūrō frowned as if this had not occurred to him. "I have to ask?" he said slowly.

"Yes."

He nodded thoughtfully and turned back to his book. "I'll tell him tomorrow."

Ai pressed her lips together to keep from laughing and refrained to tell him that 'telling' was not the same as 'asking'. He was too engrossed in the book anyway.

When she was getting ready for bed that night, having tucked Seijūrō in and kissed his forehead even though he tried to bat her away ("Adults don't get good-night kisses," he had insisted), Seicho fixed her with narrowed eyes. "You shouldn't talk to him as if his feelings for this boy are right."

Ai removed her necklace and placed it on her bedside table. "He's five. It's not as if he's really in love with Kōki-kun."

"And if he turns out to be gay?"

Ai huffed and crossed her arms. "He's still our son."

"But he won't have an heir."

"Isn't it a bit early to be worrying about whether or not he'll have an heir?"

"And seeing as you can't have any more children," he continued as if she'd said nothing, "I can't have another heir."

Ai flinched and put a hand against her stomach. "Seicho…"

"It's the truth, Ai. The business has to stay within the family; I don't want it to go to some distant cousin."

Ai looked down at the ground. "I'm going to sleep downstairs."

"Don't be ridiculous… Ai!"

Before she went to settle in the fainting couch in the sitting room, she looked in on Seijūrō again. He was curled up in a tiny ball in one corner of the bed, and like usual he'd managed to get one of the dogs to join him. Being able to give him a kiss when he was still asleep was a comfort; he didn't wake up to bat her away, even though the dog thumped his tail against the bed and whined to attract her attention.

The Furihata household was a lot more homely than the Akashi mansion. Seijūrō seemed to have forgotten the conversation yesterday and settled down next to Kōki-kun with his new book and chattered about it as Kōki-kun gazed at him in admiration, during which Ai and Furihata Nanami made some tea.

"I need to ask you something, Kōki."

Seijūrō's tone caught Ai's attention and she stopped mid-sentence and lifted her hand. "Listen," she whispered to Nanami.

"Yes, Sei-kun?" Kōki-kun answered.

"When we're old enough, will you marry me?"

Nanami pressed a hand against her chest. "Oh, that is so cute."

Kōki-kun looked at Seijūrō thoughtfully. "Kaasan doesn't let me have kasugai every day. Will you let me?"

"If you never make beni shoga or wakame."

Kōki-kun shook his head. "Of course not."

Seijūrō put his hand out. "Is it a deal?"

Kōki-kun took it and smiled at him. "We'll get married."

Ai watched her son and 'future son-in-law' with a smile. "Oh, the innocence of youth," she said with a laugh to Nanami, who had her hands clasped in front of her as she watched them.