On a rainy summer day, the sort that would clog up the air with a worse humidity, there was a venture to the convenience store for food and other needs. Fenneko said something about the time and skittered off to where the cold drinks were.

Retsuko piled up her shopping basket with her needs – a pack of erasers, emergency tights, one campus notebook, and topped it off with an energy drink – and Haida kept going over his list, scribbled on a Post-it note.

It wasn't until they were in the general vicinity of the snack section that Retsuko said she would take up his offer on going on a date.

Haida had to keep his heart and lungs from bursting and bought an extra spicy bag of chips to eat in case this was all a dream.

It took six months for a fight to break out between them and Haida was getting no sympathy from Fenneko. She spent most of her time to find the most pathetic Internet pictures and compare them to him, and it was pretty demoralizing.

Of course she was the first to say that this too would pass, but then added sardonically that it wouldn't end well for him and all of Haida's renewed good will toward her vanished.

In the end it was Kabae that dispensed the best advice, with an addendum question if he wanted to see an especially adorable photo of her nephew. It was pretty cute.

When they had time to talk, with the anger considerably cooled, they worked it out together. There were no tears and they capped off the reconciliation with getting something sweet to eat.

The next time Fenneko saw Haida she still showed him pathetic Internet pictures but had the heart to not compare them to him.

His electric guitar needed some tuning when he first played for Retsuko but she clapped at the end all the same.

Haida's first thought when she showed off her death metal screech, amplified by a microphone, was amazement that somebody with presumably tiny lungs could pull off the screech of a professional.

And then that it left a deep ringing in his ears, so his own clapping was very loud.

It was said to be the happiest day of their lives, so the first time Retsuko cried happy tears it left Haida in an overly helpful state, which meant asking a lot of questions of what was wrong, until she finally got through that she was happy.

He made it known to her that he was happy, too, with his vision slightly blurred. It took some tissues to clean off their faces of tears.

Retsuko put in some more levity; that she was glad that she took Fenneko's advice to wear waterproof make-up, and there were chuckles and the general, awestruck realization that this wedding happened.

There was still a reception and it was all a whirlwind of shared stories, congratulations, and dancing until Retsuko said that her feet were pinched by her shoes.

When it ended the quiet felt alien to Haida's ears, but it was good to be with Retsuko on the way home.

He thought, then, that this could be called the picture of happiness.

Retsuko carried the moving boxes with ease, claiming that she had a lot of practice going up and down stairs with them, and Haida found that she had new ways of impressing him.

When it was all done, and this place looked like a home again, he felt that they could take on anything in the world together.

A/N: Originally posted on AO3 on June 27 2019