Ryuuji sat down across from Taiga, after bringing them some barley tea. Inko squawked. Taiga looked over at him, annoyed.
"Hey" she said, narrowing her eyes.
"Eh?" he said, noticing her annoyance. "What is it?"
"Why are you sitting over there?"
He smiled at her. "Sorry" he said through a chuckle. "I suppose it's a force of habit." He got up and took his drink and put it next to hers, then sat down next to her.
"Better" she huffed, putting her head on his shoulder. He stiffened a little, blushing as he looked down at his hands, but then he relaxed. They stayed like that for a few minutes, just resting in each other's presence.
"Ryuuji" she whispered. "I'm kind of… scared."
"Me too" he said. He reached out and grabbed her hand, gripping onto it. He felt the wave of anxiety sweep over him again. The familiar fear, the soul-crushing feeling of her being gone. "I don't want to lose… you… Taiga." He looked into her eyes.
"Eh?! Taiga? You're crying."
"Dummy" she said gently, interlocking her fingers with his. "Take a look in the mirror before you start throwing around these accusations." He placed a hand to his eyes and sure enough, they were wet. Just like Taiga, the fear of losing each other had brought these spontaneous tears out of him once again.
"How long have you got?" he asked her.
"Two weeks. The real estate agent started demanding the months' pay from my mother. I had technically been squatting illegally for the past two weeks, so I guess I can't blame her." She sighed, her breath leaving her body in a long, laboured exhalation that seemed to stretch out across the entire apartment. "I just feel like…" she trailed off, letting the sentence fade out. He put an arm around her shoulder and pulled her into his chest, holding her tightly.
"Mmf." Now it was her turn to blush.
"You can tell me" he said. She looked up at his face, their eyes coming into contact. She sensed the sincerity behind his gaze, his earnestness.
"I feel like… it's just all so goddamn unfair! We just… I dunno… is this some sort of divine punishment or something?! Because we fumbled around like a pair of idiots for all these months? So as soon as we figure out we get ripped apart? It's so unfair Ryuuji! I don't want this! I don't want to be away from you!" Tears were flowing now from both of them. they stared into each other's eyes and watched as the tears went down each others cheeks and chin, curving around down to the neck.
"I don't… I don't want that either… Taiga…" He pulled her back into his chest, resting his face on top of her head. He cried on her, his tears wetting her hair.
"Ah!" he exclaimed. "S-sorry!" he pulled back and tried to wipe her hair with his sleeve. "I got my tears all in your hair… sorry… I'm so gross and—"
"Ryuuji" she said, blocking his arm. She put a hand up to his cheek, stroking his face. "It's ok." She smiled at him. "You're too precious, you know that?"
"Taiga…" his face and ears flushed.
"Ryuuji…" they leant in towards each other.
"Nasty! Nasty!" They jumped, startled by the cries of Inko.
"Ryuuji…" Taiga said, curling her hand up into a fist, looking back at Inko's cage. "Do you still have that poultry cookbook?"
Feathers fell out and landed at the bottom of the birdcage.
Yasuko chose that moment to enter the house. She was wearing professional clothes and looked incredibly well put together, stunning both Ryuuji and Taiga.
"Oh~" she said, noticing the awkwardness between the two of them. "I hope I'm not interrupting anything?" Both Taiga and Ryuuji immediately turned bright red.
"N-no" Ryuuji stuttered. "Not at all, we were j—"
"If you like" Yasuko interrupted lifting up a hand with her index finger pointing up, "mama can go back out for a little while, and give you two some privacy! Would an hour be enough?"
"AAHHHH!" Taiga screamed, steam coming off the top of her head. "Y-Y-Y-Yasu!" W-What are you even saying?!" her neck craned over to Ryuuji for assistance, but it was no use. He had turned to stone.
"Just kidding, you two lovebirds~" Yasuko said sweetly. A serious look came over her face. "Besides, we have more important things to deal with. She'll be here soon, you know."
Ryuuji snapped out of his stupor. "Mm" he nodded, getting up. "Taiga, let's go."
"Ah… oh yeah, that's right…" she fumbled around, still a little woozy from Yasuko's teasing.
The two of them walked off into the kitchen while Yasuko tidied up in the living room.
Forty minutes later, the doorbell rang.
Tatsuko Aisaka sat across from Taiga and Ryuuji, with Yasuko on the right. There was an air of awkwardness hanging over the situation. Tatsuko stared across at Taiga and Ryuuji, watching the two of them nervously look anywhere but her direction. Watching her daughter, especially, behave like this ticked her off.
"Well, Taiga" she said, narrowing her eyes ever so slightly, "you certainly have made yourself at home here, haven't you?"
"Urkf" Taiga muttered, turning red. She got annoyed, and then a nasty smirk came over her face. "Well, mother…" she said haughtily. She looked as if she were about to launch into a cruel tirade. She inhaled in what seemed like slow motion, preparing enough air to launch her assault. And then… silence. Her expression changed, and she said nothing.
Almost imperceptibly, the edge of Ryuuji''s elbow had jutted out ever so slightly and nudged her in the side. Keep it together, that elbow seemed to say. She glanced back at him with a complicated expression in her eyes. Fine, the look stated. I'll keep it together for you. For us.
The exchange wasn't lost on Tatsuko.
"Mrs Aisaka, you must be hungry after that drive!" Yasuko piped in, using the moment of pause to divert the focus away from the simmering woman and her daughter, who was almost at boiling point. "Please, help yourself to some food" she extended her hand across the delicious spread that was laid out on the table: Ryuuji's signature pork cutlets, some fried chicken, various side dishes and a salad.
And some rice balls that looked smaller than the ones usually prepared at the Takasu household.
"Wow" she said, taking a bite of a plum one. "Even the rice balls are terrific. I must say, Ryuuji, you really are quite an excellent cook." Taiga looked up at her mother, looking as if she were going to say something.
"Oi", Ryuuji muttered at her, nudging her with her shoulder.
"A-Actually" Taiga said, struggling to project her voice. "I made the rice balls."
"Ohhhh?" her mother said, a thin smile across her lips. "That's funny, I don't see any bandages on you."
"Tch." Taika grimaced, looking away from her mother.
Uh-oh, Ryuuji thought.
Oh dear, said the expression on Yasuko's face.
"Taiga," her mother continued in a haughty tone that brought chills down Ryuuji's spine, "make sure you be careful in the kitchen, you don't want trip over and damage their home." Taiga's face grew irritated, and she looked ready to unload on her.
"After all.. you are quite a klutz."
Ryuuji shot upright, standing over the table. He'd had enough of this.
"Yeah, that's right!" He exclaimed, pointing towards his girlfriend. "Taiga is an absolute, unbelievable klutz!"
"Hey!" Taiga replied.
"And even so…" he continued, "even though a place like the kitchen is a place of peril for her, she made those rice balls with her own two hands, and they came out delicious!" He suddenly became aware of how loud he had been speaking, and grew self-conscious. He bowed a little, scratching the back of his head.
"That's… that's the sort of person your daughter is."
He couldn't see it because he was staring at the table, but Taiga was staring up at him with a radiant joy, her eyes sparkling brightly. He stood up for me.
"Taiga…" her mother said, dumbstruck. "I… I can't remember the last time I saw you smile like that." Yasuko smiled at the two of them, and then leaned in towards Tatsuko. "In that case" she whispered, "you should come over for lunch more often, Mrs Aisaka. You might see her smiling a lot!"
Taiga ignored her mother as Ryuuji sat back down. "They were delicious, weren't they?!"
"They really were!" Ryuuji said, smiling back warmly at her.
Tatsuko seemed to look right through them as she watched the way they interacted. She turned to Yasuko. "Please, call me Tatsuko, Ms Takasu."
"In that case, call me Yasu!" she smiled at her warmly, and the smile was returned.
Ryuuji turned his head away from Taiga, sticking his nose up in the air and daintily putting a hand on his chest. He had taken to impersonating Taiga lately when he felt like messing with her.
"Ahhh…" he sighed, trying to match her tone as closely as possible as he lifted the hand up into the air dramatically. "Under the guidance of a genius, even a lowly mutt like you can achieve greatness."
"Hey!" she pointed her chopsticks at him. "Just who do you think you're impersonating, you… millipede!"
Tatsuko sighed. "Ahhh… what to do?" Taiga and Ryuuji continued their bickering, going back and forth as if they were back in the classroom with their bentos, as if their whole worlds hadn't been flipped on their heads during the past week.
"Are they always like this?" she murmured to Yasuko as they carried on, completely absorbed in each other, oblivious to the world around them.
"Oh yes!" Yasuko replied. "They're always so energetic together~"
"Energetic… hm" Tatsuko continued watching her daughter. She thought back to the past week, to the time they had spent together. She missed her daughter; she knew that much. And she thought, or at least, she hoped, that on some level her daughter had missed her as well.
But it was difficult. The relationship was incredibly strained, and it would take time to repair it. Tatsuko had made many mistakes in their relationship. Some worse than others. The shame that came with those mistakes was impossible to face head on. All she could do was glance at it from the corner of her vision. Doing so, however, meant being hit with waves of emotions that were even harder to handle, and in those moments she lashed out, making the situation worse. It wasn't that she wanted to act this way around her daughter, but—
"Ah! Watch out, you klutz!" Ryuuji exclaimed. Taiga had banged her fist on the table as a form of punctuation, only to make her glass wobble and splash her drink out onto the table. He leant over her with a napkin and started cleaning it up.
"I can clean up after myself!" she said, pushing his hand away and wiping with her own napkin. She stopped looking at where she was wiping so she could turn her head and point at him. "This is your fault anyway, you know?"
"How is it—ah nevermind! You're pushing it off the table! You'll stain your dress!"
"Ah!" she exclaimed, dodging a droplet of juice just in time.
"Ahhhhh" Ryuuji sighed, wiping the stain off the tatami. "We can't afford any more stains on those dresses. The Gods of Costly Fabrics will definitely smite us this time."
"Ryuuji" Taiga said, laughing. "Who are all these cheap-ass deities you keep inventing? You're like the managing demon of scrimping."
"Who's the one inventing deities now?" he muttered as he wiped up the juice.
Tatsuko smiled, a mixture of joy and sadness coming over her. She's so happy here, she thought. Not like when we're together. Maybe it would be better if I just—
"It's difficult, right, Tatsuko?" Yasuko said. She shifted around the corner and sat next to her. "Sometimes I look at the two of them, and I think… they're so happy together." Yasuko watched them wistfully. "It's selfish, but… as a mother, I think… I wish I could have made him that happy."
Tatsuko's expression widened. So it's not just me that feels this way. "Mm" she said. "I know what you mean."
"I look at my son and, I see how much he's grown. It's scary. If he really wanted to, he could probably just leave me, and I wouldn't even be able to stop him."
"Mm" Tatsuko nodded again. Her eyes were still fixed on Ryuuji and Taiga's interaction, while her ears took in Yasuko's words. It felt like they were far away, reverberating through time and space. A distant message. Meanwhile, Ryuuji and Taiga were trying to shove the juice-soaked napkins in each other's faces. They struggled back and forth, making exaggerated growling sounds at each other.
"Maybe… if it helps" Yasuko said, "it'd be better for us to try and think of it like they've gained a family, rather than us having lost them. I think of Taiga as part of our family as well, now. I hope, in time… you might feel as though Ryuuji is a part of yours, as well." Tatsuko turned to look at Yasuko.
"I think…" she said, a tear forming in one eye. "I think… I'd like that."
"Mama?" Taiga said, having noticed the expression on her mother's face.
"What?!" Tatsuko exclaimed. "I'm fine!" Yasuko and Ryuuji shared a look.
"I see!" Taiga said haughtily. "You were moved to tears by my delicious rice balls." She stuck her nose up in the air.
"Oi" Ryuuji said, bumping her with his shoulder. Taiga brought her face back down, trying to return to her professional façade.
"Mama…" she sighed, trying to find the words. "It's not much, but… I wanted to show you that I can at least make rice balls. I know that, well, I know that it was stupid, trying to squat in that apartment with no money. I was living in some fantasy world, hoping that everything would be ok."
"Taiga…" Tatsuko said.
"But!" Taiga cut her off. "I wanted to show you that, at least, I'm trying in my own, clumsy way. Trying to grow, trying to… I…" she didn't know what else to say.
"I get it" Tatsuko said. "Taiga… well" she chuckled to herself. "Your mother's pretty clumsy too, you know? I've been trying, in my own way as well, to put things back together. But maybe I've just been smashing things into even smaller pieces all this time."
"Mama…"
"You've grown up a lot, Taiga. It's hard not to see the same little girl I saw back when your father and I divorced. Headstrong, aggressive, always lashing out at every little thing."
A faint smile came across Taiga's lips. "Well" she said gently. "I wonder where I picked all of that up from, hmm?"
"I wonder too. A mystery, isn't it?" she smiled at Taiga, before sighing. The air went out of her, and she seemed to relax.
"Look" she continued, "I don't want to separate the two of you." Now the air came out of the other three members of the household, and the tension went out of the entire apartment. Even Inko seemed to settle down a bit. Maybe she'd keep some of her feathers in the end.
"But… you must understand. There's no way I can purchase that apartment, or continue to rent it out. I'm not going to get into the whole thing with your father, but…"
"It's ok, mama" Taiga said. "I don't really expect you to do that. It's just something I said, I don't know why." She thought about it for a moment. "Well… that's not really true, is it? I said it to get under your skin. I'm sorry."
"It's ok, Taiga" her mother said, dismissing the issue with a wave of her hand.
"So" Taiga said, a look of apprehension on her face. "What are we going to do, then?" underneath the table, Taiga had gripped Ryuuji's hand, a gesture he returned. The two of them sat there, awaiting their fate.
"I was thinking…" Tatsuko said, as the two teenagers across from her leaned forward, "what if were rented a house down here?"
"Eh?" Taiga and Ryuuji said in unison.
"Well, it is a nice area. I got here a few minutes early, so I had a drive around the neighbourhood. There's quite a few places for rent here, isn't there?"
"Eh?" They repeated, staring at her with their mouths open.
"Well, I think… maybe the best way for us to get to know each other would be for me to live where you live. To see the environment that you've been a part of, for all these years. Besides, it wouldn't be ideal for you to change schools right before the start of your final year, would it?"
"EHHHH?!" Ryuuji and Taiga exclaimed one final time. They turned and stared into each other's eyes, overjoyed.
"Mama, are you serious?!" Taiga said, banging her hands on the table and leaning across it to her mother's face. Her eyes beamed.
"Woah!" her mother said, pulling back and putting an arm out. "So bright!"
"Mrs Aisaka!" Ryuuji exclaimed. He had bolted upright and was standing as straight as a rod.
"Urf! Y-Yes?"
He bowed deeply, turning himself into a 90-degree Tetris piece. "Thank you very much for allowing Taiga to stay with me! Erp… ah… with us!" She smiled at his nervousness.
"Of course… Ryuuji." He looked up at her, as Taiga did the same. He was blushing while Taiga just sat there with a smile on her face.
"I can see that you and my daughter mean a great deal to each other. I don't want to damage her relationships in order to rebuild our own."
"However, Taiga?"
Taiga sat upright, a serious look on her face. "Y-yes?"
"You will be looking after your little brother after school. That's the first condition."
"A-and the second?"
"You will keep up your grades and get into a good university. Once you have done that, you'll be an adult, and the choice of going and sticking with university will be your choice to make."
Taiga nodded, prompting her mother to continue.
"However, you're still a kid, and I'm your mother. It's my job to ensure that you have the opportunities that you need to start your own life. What you do with them after that is your business, but I'm going to make sure that you have them. Is that clear?"
"Mm" Taiga said, nodding shyly.
"So that's the condition, kid. If you don't keep up your grades and start seriously thinking about what you might want to do with your future" She propped herself up and flung her hand across the table, pointing an immaculately manicured nail in her daughters face. "I'll take you away to a remote mountain where no one will ever find you!"
A moment of silence passed between them, her mother frozen in the pose.
"I'll bet you didn't think" she continued, "that your teacher has let me know you've been avoiding that career preference form."
"Erp!" Taiga squealed, her eyes staring down the sharp finger like it was the barrel of a gun. She turned her face away, suddenly finding the non-existent details of the Takasu household's walls fascinating.
"I'll leave it at that" Tatsuko said, withdrawing the finger and resting back down in her place. "But you had better start thinking about it seriously, kiddo."
Taiga turned back and met her mother's gaze head on. "I will!" she exclaimed. "I promise!"
Her mother leant back on her legs, sighing. "I guess that settles it, then. We'll move over soon. Until then, well… you might as well stay in the apartment. No sense moving everything twice. I had to pay this month's rent as you've been staying there anyway, so you'll be good for a couple of weeks."
Taiga and Ryuuji beamed at each other.
The rest of the lunch went pretty well. Taiga and Ryuuji carried on from time to time, getting lost in their interactions, until Tatsuko commented on it, making them blush. Ryuuji shared a recipe for a stewed vegetable medley that Taiga was particularly fond of (despite the total absence of meat). Despite her best intentions, her mother couldn't let that one go and kept asking Taiga if she snuck meat into the dish, leading to a bickering session that lasted for a full five minutes. The only thing that brought an end to it was Ryuuji falling over and rolling around on the tatami, no longer able to contain his laughter. All the formality went out of his interactions with her mother, as he commented out loud about how similar the two of them were, drawing the ire of both Aisakas simultaneously.
Eventually, the long, laughter-filled lunch came to a close. Everyone said their goodbyes, and Taiga even thanked her mother and gave her a short hug as she left. The three of them went back inside, to bask in the peaceful warmth that exists in the air after a successful social gathering.
But, looking at Ryuuji's face as they sat next to each other on the tatami, Taiga couldn't help but notice he seemed to be deep in thought.
He was thinking about his own future, and what would come next for him. For Taiga, she had agreed to get into university as a condition of living here. Still, it wasn't as if it would be difficult for her to do if she wanted to.
But what would Ryuuji do? What do I want to do? And, more importantly, what is actually possible.
But he shook those thoughts out of his head, responding to the conversation Taiga had started about how well things had gone today.
And the rest of the night went more or less in that same direction, just relaxing and hanging out. He never allowed the thoughts to pop back up for the rest of the night.
Of course, the girl who was leaning on his shoulder had noticed the flash of his troubled expression. She'd let it go for today; they both wanted to bask in their success, after all.
But she'd file it away for later. She knew him too well to do otherwise.