Disclaimer: I don't own PoT… sad day…
Please just ignore Fuji and his MAJOR OOC-ness. The epilogue really doesn't work without it.
Christmas with the Kikumarus
Epilogue
"Hey Fuji? What are you doing here so early?" asked Shiro as he walked into the studio.
"I have a personal project I wanted to work on and needed to use some of Matsumoto-sensei's materials." Answered Fuji with a smile.
"How was your holiday?" asked Shiro as he came to sit at a workstation across from Fuji.
"It was a nice break, and I got to see my little brother. I haven't seen him since he joined a competitive tennis circuit last year… How was yours?"
"… Interesting," responded Shiro after a moment. "I got to meet my fiancé's family."
"Really, How'd that go?" asked Fuji looking up from his project.
"They're nice folks… a little on the crazy side, and they're very loud, but I think they accept me," said Shiro with a smile. "I wasn't so sure I was going to survive at first. Her brothers didn't warm up to me that fast and her youngest brother was a pain in my side, I think he was purposely trying to annoy me," sighed Shiro. Fuji nodded.
"Yes, I remember when my big sister brought home her first boyfriend, Yuuta and I and teased him mercilessly, I think it's in the sibling rulebook, and you being an only child wouldn't have received a copy," smiled Fuji as he returned to his work. There were a few minutes of silence and then Shiro spoke up again.
"What are you working on?" he asked curiously.
"Oh, it's a kind of a photo collage. I have these two friends that are perfect for each other, and they've been dating for a while now, but didn't really tell anyone about it. Of course I figured it out very early on in their relationship… We're having a reunion of sorts next week and they said they had an announcement to make, and I'm almost positive they're going to actually come out of the closet and finally tell us all that they're dating. I wanted to be able to give them this as sort of present for finally telling us, all the guys have known for a while that they were together, but this is just my way of proving to them that I've known from the beginning," smiled Fuji as he held up the beginnings of the collage, so far there were only about ten photos on it. Shiro gasped and pointed to the pictures.
"I know them!" he said. Fuji cocked his head to the side and looked at Shiro.
"Are you sure you know them?" asked Fuji, other than art, and being Matsumoto's grad students, he and Shiro didn't have a single thing in common, and for him to know either Eiji or Oishi was highly unlikely.
"Positive! That's the bratty brother!" said Shiro pointing to a picture of Eiji.
"The bratty brother?" asked Fuji raising an eyebrow. Now that was a new one to him… oh! "What did you say your fiancé's name was?" asked Fuji.
"Hikari. Kikumaru Hikari… and that's the brother that was picking on me the most," said Shiro once more pointing to Eiji. Okay, so that explained how he met Eiji, it must have been over Christmas when he was meeting the rest of the family, but it still didn't explain Oishi.
"How do you know Oishi then?" asked Fuji. Shiro opened his mouth to say something and then closed it as he seemingly remembered something important.
"Wait… you said you were meeting them at some sort of reunion and that they had an announcement to make," Fuji nodded slowly, what was Shiro trying to get at? "I'd hold off on giving them that present for now."
"They're not breaking up are they? They wouldn't make that an announcement … unless they were planning to stop being a doubles pair, that would certainly merit assembling everyone," Fuji began muttering to himself trying to make sense of what could have gone wrong. Shiro chuckled and held up a hand to stop Fuji.
"No, nothing like that… you should just wait a few more weeks, Hikari told me that the date February 18th was significant to them-"
"Yeah, that's would be their anniversary of when they were officially declared a doubles pair," nodded Fuji.
"Yeah, wait to give it to them till then,"
"Why?"
"It'd make a great wedding present, well I suppose it's not a real wedding, but a commitment ceremony or something like that, but I'm sure that's the announcement they're actually going to make," mused Shiro.
"WEDDING!" shouted Fuji, clearly shocked. Shiro nodded.
"Yeah, they got engaged Christmas morning… if you ask me it seems like their rushing the whole thing, me and Hikari probably won't get married till at least next fall-"
"Engaged!" said Fuji falling back into his chair, he needed to sit down, badly. Then slowly all the realizations were starting to hit home, his best friend was finally getting married to his longtime boyfriend. Fuji started to smile; it was just too good to be true. "Who proposed?" asked Fuji with a real smile. "You have to tell me all about it."
"It's a long story really, Oishi showed up about 6 pm on Christmas Eve and was literally dragged into the house… then I'm not really sure how it all started but suddenly Hikari and her siblings were talking about how they would make good parents, and debating about when they had actually started dating, and her brothers had a hard time believing that their little brother was gay, they kept saying that gay wasn't the right word. Then her mother made sure that no one had a problem with them being together, which obviously no did, and then said that no one could say anything to them, that they had to be the ones to make the decision to tell the family… which worked until the next morning when the middle brother, Jun, started yelling that he couldn't take it anymore and then all her siblings and her mother got into a giant, vague, argument and ended up spilling the beans after about five minutes of yelling at each other." Shiro paused to calm his laughter as he remembered the whole incident. "I've never seen anyone as pale as those two were, I thought that they were going to pass out for sure, but they didn't… then when they finally believed that no one minded them being together Oishi just kind of dropped down on one knee and proposed… it was a little concerning because both Hikari and her sister said that if Eiji didn't say yes, they were going too, but he eventually did say yes," finished Shiro.
"So… they're engaged," said Fuji with a smile as he shook his head. "I thought that they would just stay boyfriends forever… I never thought that either one of them would have the guts to actually come out and propose."
"Well, Oishi did say that it was intended to be a promise ring, and Eiji was apparently bothered by mine and Hikari's engagement, so instead of a promise ring they turned it into an engagement ring," added Shiro.
"Thank you Kazuma… It wouldn't be good if I were to be surprised by something like that," smiled Fuji.
"… But you were," said Shiro confused.
"Yes, but I have the reputation of being a tensai, of knowing everything, and if I didn't know about something this big I'd be in a lot of trouble," smiled Fuji as he got back to work on his project, very pleased to know he'd just gotten a month and a half extension on it.
---
"Hello everyone," smiled Fuji as he entered Kawamura sushi and was greeted by the majority of his old tennis club friends. Taka was behind the counter busily making sushi. Momo and Echizen were eating a platter at one of the tables, and Kaidoh, Inui and Tezuka were sitting at the counter.
"Hello Fuji-sempai!" called Momo, Echizen just gave a small wave as they watched Fuji go to the counter and sit down next to Tezuka.
"Fuji is 58.7 more excited about this reunion," stated Inui. Fuji smiled.
"Are you sure it's only 58.7… I feel like it should be 120." Responded Fuji. Tezuka looked over at him.
"What's going on?" Fuji knew something, something that the rest of them didn't know.
"Oh! Fuji… do you know what Oishi and Eiji plan on telling us?" asked Taka as he handed Fuji a glass of his favorite green tea. If anything Fuji's grin got wider.
"Saa… who knows?" he said with a shrug.
"Fuji knows. I'm 100 correct." Said Inui, in his own unique way he was asking for Fuji to spill the beans.
"It's not just Fuji-sempai who knows," said Momo coming to join them. Fuji scrutinized Momo; he supposed it was possible that, with his animal instincts, Momo had figured it out.
"You do?" asked Fuji. Momo nodded.
"Of course, they're finally going to tell us that they're together," Fuji smiled, Momo's skills had failed him.
"Probability of that being the case, 43.9" said Inui frowning.
"What else could it be sempai?" asked Kaidoh.
"Lets look at this logically… how long have they been together?" he got three responses in unison
"Five years" from Momo.
"Three years" from Kaidoh.
"Four and a half years" from Tezuka.
"THREE YEARS! ARE YOU BLIND MAMUSHI!"
"FIVE YEARS! THERE'S NO WAY THEY'VE BEEN TOGETHER THAT LONG." Inui let them continue their argument as he flipped through his notebook.
"Four and a half years?" Fuji asked looking at Tezuka. "You don't give them enough credit for being able to figure out their own feelings."
"My data suggest nine years, 10 months and 29 days," said Inui interrupting all the arguments.
"EH! No way! Your data's got to be way off!" said Momo.
"No. That's right," answered Fuji.
"You've really known about them for that long Fuji?" asked Taka.
"I've known about them before either of them actually confessed… who do you think set them up," said Fuji with a smirk.
"Well," said Inui dragging them back to his original statement. "They've been together for almost 10 years… without ever telling us that they were together. They have also been together far longer than most of us had known, and kept it secret. The chances that they are finally announcing it… rather slim, thus 43.9," announced Inui.
"Mada mada dane," said Echizen coming to join them.
"What's that supposed to mean!" said Momo with a glare.
"It means… that it's almost 50-50. It's still likely that they are announcing some sort of relationship." Answered Echizen, "The only ones who know for sure is them… and Fuji-sempai," said Echizen fixing him with a stern look.
"Tell us Fuji-sempai!" pleaded Momo. Fuji just shook his head.
"You can wait to hear it from them"
"But they're already 10 minutes late! It's not like Oishi-sempai to be late! Not at all!" said Momo.
"My lips are sealed," smiled Fuji as he went back to his tea. Leaving Momo to stomp back to his sushi and wait impatiently for another five minutes until the Golden Pair showed up.
----
There was a loud clatter as the door was thrown open and Eiji ran in.
"SAFE!" he yelled, and a few seconds later Oishi came running in.
"Ha! Beat you!" Eiji smiled sticking his tongue out at a panting Oishi.
"Yeah… you … did," said Oishi as he slowly regained his breath and stood up straighter.
"YOU'RE LATE!" yelled Momo. Eiji blinked and pointed at Oishi.
"It's all Oishi's fault," Oishi looked over at him in shock.
"It is not!" Eiji just grinned in response.
"Well, get on with it then," said Echizen. Eiji and Oishi looked down at him puzzled.
"Get on with what?" asked Oishi. Echizen frowned but Momo interrupted.
"JUST COME OUT AND TELL US ALREADY!" snapped Momo. Eiji took a step back.
"Oishi-"
"Yeah I know… déjà vu." Said Oishi looking just as flabbergasted.
"Well… Okay… we're been together for almost ten years now," said Eiji.
"Nine years, 10 months and 29 days," amended Inui.
"See Fuji-sempai! I was right!" said Momo with a smirk.
"Oh… So you guys knew…" said Oishi. Then he turned to Eiji, "we're awful actors," and Eiji nodded in agreement. Apparently having been through this once already, made it easier to deal with whatever reactions they received.
"Only Inui-sempai and Fuji-sempai knew you two went back that far," said Echizen. "Everyone else only assumed it had been a few years."
"Well, congratulations you two," smiled Taka.
"Thanks Taka!" smiled Eiji. "But…" he began turning to look at Oishi. "We're not quite done yet." Oishi came to stand beside Eiji with a smile of his own.
"Fssh… what were you saying?" asked Kaidoh turning to smirk at Momo.
"Shut-up!" glowered Momo.
"This may come as kind of a shock-" began Oishi.
"Nothing you guys can say can shock us anymore," said Momo recovering from his spat with Kaidoh. Fuji gave a chuckle at that.
"Anyways," began Oishi again. "Keep February the 18th open okay."
"Why? What's going on?" asked Taka. Eiji finally couldn't contain it anymore; a wide grin crossed his face and the words literally exploded from his mouth.
"WE'RE GETTING MARRIED!" Judging from the looks on the majority of the regulars' faces they were quite surprised, but then there was Fuji. He smiled and walked over to them.
"Well it's about time," he said as he hugged them.
"You knew!" accused Eiji disappointed to see that he hadn't managed to surprise the tensai. Fuji smiled.
"… I have my sources."
"Congratulations you two," said Tezuka, and then suddenly, just like had happened at Eiji's house everyone was suddenly shouting out the congratulations and hugging them or patting them on the back. Taka even declared that today had to be celebrated and that all the sushi was on him.
"How'd you find out?" Eiji asked Fuji once everyone had calmed down a bit.
"I believe you know a Kazuma Shiro," grinned Eiji.
"SHIRO! SHIRO TOLD YOU!" screeched Eiji. Fuji nodded.
"He's the only other grad student working under Matsumoto… we were talking about vacation and you guys just kind of came up," shrugged Fuji. Eiji pouted and then turned to face Oishi.
"Ya think Shiro will tell your parents for us?" Oishi smiled and shook his head.
"Doubtful," but telling his parents was going to be a whole other story.
…Literally.
A/N: Thank you everyone. I just cannot say thank you enough! Thank you for all your reviews and support. I just have one final favor to ask of you all.
…For the epilogue, is it better the way it is now, or would it better for Fuji to just mysteriously know at first, and then have the whole talk with Shiro come in as some sort of a flashback? I'm not sure which way I like it better. The way it is now Fuji is WAY OOC, but it lets the audience be in on Fuji's secret and lets them feel like they're hiding it from the rest of the regulars too. However, I don't like making characters OOC if I feel like I can fix it, and it would be neat to just have Fuji be all "I have my sources" then KAPOW! Flashback mode! Well I really can't decide so I honestly just flipped a coin to figure out which order I should put the segments in, so please tell me which way you think is better.
Don't get your hopes up about that last word. I'm not planning on a sequel. To turn it into another story, Oishi's family would have to have a way diffrent reaction, and I really don't like making Oishi's family all homophobic, because really I don't understand how any family can do that to their kids, how families can be so ashamed or apauled at their children's choice to be happy reguardless of what society tells them. But that's just me. So to make a long story short. There's only a .1 chance that I would actually make a sequel.