Epilogue

Ritsu set down the heavy box of books in his arms on one of the many boxes already scattered in their new large and spacious living room and stood back for a moment, taking a deep breath and smiling pleasantly as he looked around their new home. The moving process had turned out to be much longer than either of them had expected, since there always turned out to be something from any option either of them chose to show the other that one of them didn't like. They had ended up spending over three months bickering back and forth, sometimes not even discreetly at work, before finally coming to a decision.

"Why do you have so many books?" Takano-san walked into the room carrying a separate box, which he quickly hauled up on a different stack of boxes before he walked over to his lover. "We'll never finish before Monday."

"Why do you have so many books?" Ritsu snapped back quickly, then he yelped when Takano-san came up behind him and swept him up by the waist, turning him around and kissing him. Ritsu was left dizzy and foggy minded at this and he had to take a deep and shaky breath as he pulled back and regained composure and pretended to be annoyed and pouted. "Don't do that to me, work me up so early in the day."

"I unpacked everything in the bedroom, I deserve a reward," the other man insisted with a playful smile that had become more and more frequent. "You know we are meant to be visiting your parents next week, Ritsu."

Ritsu put his hands on Takano's chest and looked away almost annoyed. "I know that!"

"Is that why you're delaying this? We are going whether or not we finish here," Takano taunted him, pressing a small kiss on Ritsu's forehead.

"You and I both know you are not leaving this apartment until everything is where it belongs," Ritsu challenged him, but he reached up and kissed him on the lips, smiling almost shyly.

Takano held the other's gaze steadily but he couldn't deny that Ritsu would always be impossibly cute from that angle. "The only place I want to be right now is the bedroom."

"Then we really will never finish unpacking," Ritsu pointed out, but he looked like he was considering the idea just to get out of going to see his parents and he turned around and walked over to one of the boxes nonchalantly. "Do we really have to go see them, really? It's not like you have to ask for my hand or anything, we are adults!" his pout was definitely obvious now.

Takano smiled at this sudden show of cuteness and he walked over and put his arms tightly around Ritsu, nuzzling his face and turning him around, taking both of them down on their brand new sofa with a laugh. "Come on."

"Hey! Ah! Takano-san! Stop that!" Ritsu yelped and grabbed on to Takano, laughing as let himself be pressed down on the soft sofa cushions.

"You're just so cute I can't help it," the other kissed Ritsu again, leaning into him and holding him tightly.

Ritsu kissed back with an increased panicked feeling of never wanting to let go building inside of his stomach. Ever since the strange events he had experienced three months ago, a small part of him woke up every day wondering if he would somehow end up stuck in that nightmare again. Seeing Saga Masamune after all the time that had passed had been a shock and Ritsu felt the remaining alarm of the post traumatic stress every morning when he woke up and looked over on the bed to make sure that Takano-san was still there sleeping next to him.

"Takano-san, let go of me please," Ritsu tried to brush off the panic by laughing nervously against Takano's lips, then he squirmed to free his arms when Takano held him just too tightly and looked down at him thoughtfully. "You look worried, what's wrong?"

Shaking his head, Takano kissed Ritsu again, this time it was a short and quick kiss. "No, I'm just thinking that you seem different from before. Not that I mind it, but you are more... open. I enjoy it, that you can be cute and sweet with me now after all this time. It can't be this easy to be with the person you love."

"Wow, sappy," Ritsu smiled sweetly and tried not to laugh but his face did . "It is just this easy, after everything we went through to be together, we deserve this. Did you forget about all the stuff we went through to get here? We earned this, to be like this together ...and stuff."

"You think so?" Takano raised his eyebrows.

Ritsu put his arms around Takano's neck and nodded. "We earned our happiness. Sometimes I worry, too, because it does feel so easy to be with you now than it did before, but it doesn't have to always be hard. We can have days where being together is as easy as breathing."

"We did fight pretty hard to be together, didn't we?" Takano smiled with more ease and put his chin on Ritsu's chest, getting comfortable on the sofa. "Do you remember how hard it was for me to get you to move in with me? Then out of nowhere you made the decision for us and look here we are."

Ritsu rolled his eyes and ran his hands through Takano's soft hair, letting his head fall back and looking up at the ceiling. "You know why I was reluctant."

"You don't still doubt that I love you, do you?" the other asked him quietly.

"Of course not," the smaller man shook his head and laughed and then he pulled Takano up to kiss him. His chest still felt funny when they did so much as that, and he felt a great joy that time had not worn the feeling of new love inside him. "Don't be an idiot."

"You're the idiot," Takano came back with, but he was smiling. "You still don't call me by my first name though, but I suppose that is a different mile stone."

Ritsu felt a strange tugging inside of his heart and a memory that shouldn't have existed surfaced in his head, of a beach and still waters and dark skies looming down over them. He shook it away because he knew that Takano-san wouldn't know what he was talking about. "Um, would you like me to?"

"I didn't think I'd have to ask you to do it, but yes," the older man replied.

Ritsu closed his eyes and sighed. "M-Masamune.. ―ow!"

Takano had reached up and he was pinching Ritsu's cheek, staring at him intently. "Your face is red. This is all I wanted to see."

"Idiot!" Ritsu pushed Takano away and got up. "We need to finish unpacking so get off me."

Takano stood up and followed Ritsu down the hall. "I thought you didn't want to go see your parents."

"Those two things have nothing to do with each other."

"I'm sure they don't but I know they do."

"Takano-san!"

"That's Masamune to you."

"Now you are just picking on me!"

"It's not my fault you make the cutest expressions."

"Idiot!"

Hey, everyone! So I wrote this epilogue just because cute fluff and kissing yes? and also because I would like to see if anyone would be interested in a sequel? I have a rough idea of a university version of a similar situation but this time with Takano and tons of new funny and sad scenarios and shenanigans and random cute English antagonists from Ritsu's uni days yes hehehehe. Drop me a review and let me know what you think! And thank you all so much for reading!