Hello Hello! Have some notes at the end so please read those o
Responses to reviews:
Arrysa Clair: I'm glad you liked the camping! Was such fun to write too! And thanks so much for the compliments, makes me so happy :3 Koro-sensei taking pictures of them truly would be cute, tbh I have to take that. Honestly. He's been taking pictures of them on the island too so it checks out, haha! Koro-sensei and Gakushuu would definitely have a blast gossiping about Karma but alas, he's a top secret :( Also, I'm sorry that you don't fully agree with the reconciliation and it's fair, really. Everyone is entitled to forgiving or not forgiving someone. In this case, I combined my wish to give them closure with the canon events where Gakushuu did manage to find common ground with his father. Don't worry though, their parents got what they deserved and will from now on have to work even harder to make up for everything!
SnowyFruitcake: Well, they don't exactly collapse from exhaustion but Karma and Gakushuu do get a soft moment? No spoilers XD Thanks for the review!
Yui Rio Hotori, Luna: HI HI Ahahaha thanks so much to you both for picking it up again! Hope you like it!
Now let's get to it!
Yamaguchi is the chief of police.
He's been doing his job for a year already and Yamaguchi'd say that he is pretty good at it. Not only do his subordinates respect him, but he has always dutifully and skillfully completed all tasks. Yet the single mission of searching for two missing teenagers almost ended his career.
"Man, I thought I was gonna lose my job!" Yamaguchi groans, draping his hands around the deputy chief's - his best friend's shoulders. "Seriously! Asano-san is so scary! I was worried about the kids too of course, but I felt like if we didn't find them, he'd personally butcher us all!"
The deputy chief, Ogawa, shoots him an exasperated look.
Yamaguchi doesn't mind it. "And his ex-wife? First of all, never knew he was divorced. Second, she was downright terrifying with how unforgivingly she ordered us around! You'd think she was the chief!"
Instead of entertaining his friend's complaints, Ogawa's ears are intent on the sounds coming from the house they stood outside of. They had just brought the two boys back to their parents after all.
"I mean seriously! Camping? They went camping? People almost died here! I almost died!"
"Dude, be quiet. This is kinda-"
"No, I'm serious! Those kids better get a proper lecture!" the chief of police declares sternly. Then, from behind the entrance door of Asano's house, he hears wailing and sobbing.
"There! See? Told you! Bet their parents gave them a proper earful! Now they're gonna cry and beg for forgiveness and hopefully learn from-"
"That's the parents."
Yamaguchi's jaw drops to the ground.
"We better go," Ogawa drags his friend's mortified body out of the Asano residence.
Karma's not very familiar nor comfortable with his father's house.
To be fair, he's never stepped a foot in there. In fact, he's never even come close to the area in fear of accidentally meeting the man.
Yet now, after a series of convoluted, messy and honestly embarrassing events, he's standing buck naked in one of its rooms.
Bathroom. He was in the bathroom.
With no clean clothes.
Karma didn't think this through.
"GAKUSHUU!" He screams from the small crack as he opens the door slightly.
The steam escapes from the room and is replaced by the cold air outside. Karma shivers. He just took a shower. Camping and the group crying session left him incredibly sweaty and disgusting.
And no, that wasn't an excuse to get himself a moment alone.
"What?!" Gakushuu emerges from the corner, slightly out of breath from running. For all he knew, Karma slipped, hit his head and was now bleeding out in the bathtub.
"Get me some clothes," Karma says.
Gakushuu's face twists into disbelief. "That's all? The fuck are you hollering for! Scared me to death!"
"Please," he pouts, feeling extremely exposed. "Get me something new you haven't worn yet."
His older brother rolls his eyes: "I don't have any unworn clothes. You're getting my stuff."
The redhead's face twists in disgust: "Ew no. I don't want to wear the same boxers that touched your ass."
"Then stay naked. Father and Mother are going to return soon so good luck with that."
Gakushuu's voice, despite the bite, shakes a bit at the mention of their parents. His eyes are still a bit bloodshot and Karma knows he's just pretending to be composed.
Karma is, too.
In the end, he huffs in resignation: "I can't believe we're sharing underwear. Fine, give me something." He makes it a point to gag dramatically.
Gakushuu gives him a middle finger while murmuring that it was his fault to begin with for not taking enough clothes with him, but Karma begs to differ.
Had he gone straight home, everything would have been fine. Enough clean boxers, shirts, pants. His own towels and shampoo, not some premium Cleansing Elixirs Asano Gakuho used. Karma didn't expect to be ambushed by the police, led to his distraught parents and emotionally pushed to the limits, so forgive him for not bringing an extra pair of underwear.
It's been an hour since their family reunited. It took a while for everyone to calm down but when they did, Gakushuu and Karma both tore away from their parents and quickly put their guards up again. While they definitely mellowed down, being held by the two adults proved too unnatural. Karma's cheeks burned in shame at the open display of weakness, but at the very least, he wasn't the only one.
Gakushuu was the one who dragged him away and into his room.
"We're tired," he excused them as he went up the stairs. "We need to unpack." Gakushuu kept going, his gaze low.
Thankfully, neither Gakuho nor Iori pushed. They nodded and claimed they needed to come by the police station to wrap up things anyway. Since then, they've been gone.
Which Karma appreciates. He's not sure about how true their statement was because he can't imagine the two adults stepping out into the public while looking as miserable as they did. If Karma thought his and Gakushuu's eyes were swollen, then his father's and mother's must have been stung by bees with a real grudge. Still, he doesn't question where they go or what they do.
Once Karma walks out of the bathroom, he heads to Gakushuu's room. Not so surprisingly, it's neat and spacious, with numerous bookshelves by the walls and a few instruments sitting in the corner. His electric guitar, however, resides in Gakushuu's lap as he strums the strings. He's humming too, which surprises Karma because he doesn't believe he's ever heard his brother sing.
"I'm done," he announces, hopping on the bed.
Gakushuu doesn't look up from the guitar but grunts in acknowledgement. He too had taken a shower and his wet hair now drips on the fresh shirt and sheets. Gakushuu looks at peace like this, clutching his favourite instrument and playing soft melodies. Karma decides to preserve the tranquillity, laying down wordlessly next to his brother and curling into himself. The mattress sinks with his weight and engulfs him kindly while he wraps the blankets around himself.
It's warm. Not only because Gakushuu naturally burns like a furnace but also because all the ice Karma encased himself in had slowly melted away. It would be an understatement to say he completely forgave or felt closer to his parents, but hearing them lament their actions chipped at the anger eating him from the inside. Telling his mother the truth shed an unimaginable burden off his back. So did seeing his father genuinely remorseful and begging for his and Gakushuu's forgiveness.
At the very least, the mention of their names doesn't hurt that much anymore.
Karma doesn't know where they will go from here on. Maybe their parents will actually work to earn their trust again. Gakushuu seems open to the idea, the oldest child that he is, wishing to reconcile and mend their bonds. It's yet another proof of how kind he is at the core and it makes Karma's petty side cave in. He's not an immature, stubborn brat anymore to completely disregard it, but at the same time, his mother and father will definitely need to put in a lot of effort if they hope to ever win him over again.
Gakushuu stops playing. Karma realizes he closed his eyes at some point so he slowly blinks them open again to see what's up.
His older brother stares right back at him with unshed tears. Gakushuu's lower lip quivers ever so slightly before it lifts into a faint smile. He lets go of the guitar with one hand, instead bringing it to Karma's head. Featherlight touch turns into caresses and Karma leans in.
They stay like that in silence.
Meanwhile, Gakuho and Iori truly do go out, although not straight to the police station. They choose the least busy and frequented path to walk on and calm down.
It's been a while since they spent so much time with each other without arguing. All at once, it brings them back to the old times and Gakuho for once allows himself to speak up unprompted:
"Iori, your eyeliner is smudged," he beckons to his left cheek, demonstrating where the black line smeared.
His ex-wife hurriedly wipes it with her fingers in embarrassment. Gakuho chuckles lightly and it doesn't escape her attention.
She doesn't feel half as irked by the reaction as she just wants to fire back, so she points right in the middle of Gakuho's face: "And you have snot coming from your nose."
The man takes a tissue out of his pocket and wipes it in panic. He can't believe he walked for half an hour with boogers in public.
Suddenly, it feels much less suffocating to be in each other's presence. Iori had been contemplating the entire time they walked – about the last few days as well as years. And maybe it was a result of lack of sleep mixed with extreme exhaustion, but all her stubborn pride slowly receded until her defences dropped, pathing way to a chance of reconciliation:
"I'm sorry," she whispers, though even that small voice manages to command Gakuho's attention.
His eyes widen in shock but he waits for her to say her part.
"For how much blame I put on you. For how cruel I was the last few days. I said things that I shouldn't have and I regret it. You were right, I made many mistakes too. Our children proved that much."
Gakuho pulls his lips into a straight line in an effort to maintain the neutral mask. An apology from Iori is the last thing he could have ever dreamt of and hearing it now throws him into an unknown territory. The fact that she's aware and acknowledges her wrongdoings relieves a ten-year-long pressure from his chest. Yet at at the same time, it doesn't rid him of this new pain. That, he suspects, has little to do with her.
"I'm also sorry. I had no right criticizing you for leaving when I failed at being a father despite staying," he admits, looking her in the eyes. For a decade, he convinced himself that he hated his ex-wife, that he wished for nothing else but to forget and never see or hear of her again. Yet right now, faced with the soft glow of Iori's golden eyes, Gakuho realizes it's much worse.
He still, after all this time, loves her.
And perhaps this realisation is his heavenly punishment for the sins he's committed. Forever condemned hold on to this everlasting, futile love, for he failed to properly love his own children.
"You should visit sometime," Gakuho suggests, pouring as much lightheartedness into his voice as he can, "with your husband too."
Because the only thing he can do now is shoulder that punishment with his head high.
Iori scoffs with no malice: "Not sure about that. He doesn't like you."
Gakuho winces: "What did you tell him about me?"
"Not that much actually. But he looked you up and saw your public speeches. Said you sound arrogant and insincere."
"Then I look forward to changing his opinion of me," Gakuho laughs lightly and he means it, truly. More than anything else, he hopes to leave this dark stain behind and step into a brighter, kinder future.
Iori accepts it. It's about time she stopped running away from the past too.
"By the way," she adds a bit later, shortly before they reach the police station. "We should maybe get the children something."
"Good idea," Gakuho nods, an idea already forming.
Tap.
It's faint but Gakushuu picks it up, even from the second floor.
There's so much a sound can tell him. Over the last few years, Gakushuu has grown hypervigilant of all things around him - he knows the difference between when his father is irritated, indifferent or satisfied from the way his feet strike the ground, he recognizes it from the exhales the man lets out.
Click.
He knows that his father is home before the lock even opens. And from the footsteps, the one thing he can make out for sure is... tension.
Gakushuu carefully moves from the bed. However, no matter how gently he pushes himself off, the motion jolts Karma awake.
"What's wrong?" the redhead props himself on his elbows, confusedly searching for his brother.
"They're back," Gakushuu answers while straightening up his shirt. After making sure he looks presentable, he glances at the disoriented lump on the bed and reassures: "You can stay and sleep, I'll take care of it."
Instead of taking up the offer, Karma sits up. It's not like sleeping in and avoiding the awkward encounter with his parents doesn't appeal to him yet he can't in good conscience let Gakushuu handle this alone. The worrywart might think it his responsibility as the oldest but they're in this together.
"I'm coming too," Karma declares, standing up. His head feels like cotton candy but Karma dispells the lightness by slapping himself on the cheeks. It wrings a snort out of Gakushuu.
"Alright. Let's go then."
They slowly walk down the stairs. What greets the two leaves them flabbergasted.
"What the actual fuck?" Karma mouths to Gakushuu. Gakushuu's eyes look ready to pop out of their sockets.
"Oh, Gakushuu-kun, Karma-kun, you won't believe what we found by complete coincidence, haha," their father nonchalantly says, clutching two gigantic plush octopuses in his arms. They're each the size of a child, pompous in their stuffing and a bright violet and yellow colour.
Their mother has the nerve to play along: "We bought food and apparently there was a giveaway at the shop and we won it! By total chance! And since there are two of them-" Iori takes the purple one and gives it to Gakushuu, "this one is for you," she decides, "and this one is for you," the yellow one is pressed into Karma's hands.
The octopuses are surprisingly heavy and block the boys' view with their sheer volume. Gakushuu's eyebrows remain knitted in confusion as he stands like a statue, short-circuitting.
His father's tone may be even and mask perfect, but Gakushuu senses the same apprehension he heard a while ago oozing from the man. He's lying. Their parents definitely bought these deliberately, no matter how adamantly they claimed to have "won them by coincidence". But why? What was this supposed to be then? A murder attempt? Were Gakuho and Iori trying to give them a heart attack? Or...
Karma beats Gakushuu to the question.
"Are you trying to bribe us?" His voice is cold and mistrustful, which the adults notice immediately.
"No, we just-"
"What Karma wants to say is, if this is your attempt at making amends with us, then save it. We don't need gifts from you," Gakushuu adds, the octopus dropping low from where it rested on his chest.
If this truly is what his parents imagine can undo years of hurt and absence, then he's truly disappointed. Gakushuu doesn't know what he expected, but the two marching in with smiles, pretending nothing happened, pushing two plush toys into his and Karma's hands to placate them...
It makes his heart clench.
"No, it isn't," his mother suddenly says, the forced cheerfulness gone. "Of course not. We know making amends with you is going to be a long and difficult process, no amount of presents will make it easier. But we're ready to do everything it takes and can only hope you can one day forgive us." She gazes at them, determined. That takes the boys aback.
However, the silence doesn't stretch on for long:
"We've talked, your mother and I. There's no chance of us getting back, but we will do our best to provide for you, our children, together" Gakuho declares. "We also announced to the court that we both wish for joint custody of you two. There will be no more separation or dispute and you two can freely choose when, where and with whom you want to stay."
Their mother looks down in humility. "That's our first step to atone. Those plushes, well... those were just an idea. We just wanted to give you something small."
Karma bites back on the retort that those plushes were the furthest from 'something small'. His nerves no longer feel abraded by the sight of his parents though and relief washes over him at the knowledge that the legal conflict came to an end. In a way, this all signalizes that he and Gakushuu won. Their father didn't have full control over either of them anymore and their mother would partially become a part of their life.
"I see," he deflates, eyes landing on the octopus in his hands. Its enormous head does a good job at hiding the discord of emotions painted all over Karma's face.
Gakushuu backs down from the opposition too and nods.
"We're sorry if you don't like them. We can return them," their father suggests at the prolonged silence.
As far as Gakushuu's concerned, he actually hasn't even properly looked at the plush creature in his hands. It's soft though and very squishable, which stirs a strangely bubbly feeling in his chest. This just might be the first plushie he's ever had in his hands since he was six. Now that Gakushuu inspects the toy, it doesn't look bad either. The violet is very similar to the colour of his own eyes. And in the middle, a small frowny face is sewn in black threads.
Gakushuu glances at Karma's octopus. That one is smiling.
"Why is mine angry?" he unconsciously asks and it accidentally comes out petulant.
Karma forgets for a moment the situation he's in and almost bursts out in laughter. Out of all the things he expected, Gakushuu pouting about getting an angry octopus, was not it. It comes as no surprise that Gakushuu is clueless as to what he's holding though. Karma on the other hand has seen these before, since they are quite popular among children and girls for their softness and cute expressions. Except those octopuses were much, much smaller. Wherever these monstrosities spanned from, Karma doesn't dare ask.
But if he remembers right, they should be reversible.
He tries it out. With one hand pushing from the top and the other pulling the fabric from the inside out, Karma slowly reveals a new face. His yellow octopus turns into an orange one and the smile gets replaced by a frown similar to Gakushuu's purple octopus.
Their parent's faces light up in pleasant surprise at the fact that Karma engaged with the plush.
Gakushuu on the other hand stills in horror.
"Just turn it inside out, then it should be smiley too," Karma tells his older brother and watches as Gakushuu follows the instructions, trying to hide his excitement. In no time, there's an adorable pink octopus face beaming at him.
However, Gakushuu's confusion only grows.
"Why is mine pink?!"
Thirty minutes ago, at the biggest toy store in the city:
"Are you sure Gakushuu's going to be fine with a purple-pink one? I mean, what if he thinks it's too girly?" Iori asks, holding a plush in her arms. It's truly charming, almost as big as her, yet her mind can't stop the doubts. Unfortunately, there aren't any other colours apart from yellow.
"Nonsense. Our son isn't as narrow-minded as to be confided by societal delineations of girly and boyish colours," Gakuho advocates his point, sincerely convinced that Gakushuu would love the shade. After all, his son always liked to say that purple was the colour of kings. Might have been ten years ago but still.
"Okay, fine, you should know him better. But are we sure we want to get Karma the yellow one? It's a bit too... blithesome for him, in my opinion," she sighs.
"That's true, but," Gakuho says firmly, "trust me in this. There's a good chance and reason he'll appreciate it."
Said reason is the resemblance of the plush to a certain super-human teacher that his son idolized.
In no time, their choices are locked and Gakuho and Iori buy two giant octopuses for the humble price of 30,000 Yen, or roughly 200 US Dollars.
If you asked them, they'd say it was a bargain.
Later that night, when Karma and Gakushuu find the price tag that their parents forgot to cut off, their mouths are left agape, catching flies.
"We should resell them," Karma insists, already a vision in his mind. "I can get myself a new headset and a game and you can buy old books or whatever!"
Gakushuu almost says yes.
But in the end, they keep them.
"We should wait for their market price to go up first," is the excuse Gakushuu gives.
The market price plummets.
Alrighty! So this emotional family arc concludes with... octopuses. Huh. Who would have thought? Koro-sensei is saving lives in every form, sense and alternative universe there is.
I may or may not be losing my marbles. Why you ask?
Uni is starting. I'm in full panic mode, no joke. Unfortunately, I will have much less free time from now on. I'm going to do my best to balance out writing and having a real life but updates will definitely take longer. I'm going to strive for once every two weeks. That being said, this fic is almost over... I know it's sad (I am sad!) but dragging it on wouldn't do it justice. I thought of writing more about their family but that wouldn't fit the spirit of this fic anymore either. Might write separate stories and post them as spin-offs or sequels though. And apart from that, I have another thing planned :)
That being said, I do want to hear what you think of this chapter and of the future of this fic. Feel free to rant and as always, thank you for reading!
Next update: Hopefully October 14th
