Title: Consanguinity
Genre: Romance, Fluff
Fandom: Prince of Tennis
Character/Pairing: Tezuka/Fuji
Rating: T
Summary: Defining love, marriage, and family in the quiet TeFu style.
Warnings:Future fic. Old-ish Tezuka and Fuji. Written in the midst of HORRENDOUS writer's block.
Disclaimers: I play with the boys in my free time and make them do stuff they prolly normally wouldn't do, but at the end of the day, I give 'em back to Konomi-sensei who owns them. I am teh sadness...
Author's Notes: Written at the behest of my two Fuji's, vierblith and a1y_puff for Valentine's day. For the purposes of this fic, I found out that Viggo Mortensen, Alec Baldwin, Sharon Stone, Marg Helgenberger, and Hugh Laurie are all in the 49-50 yr. old bracket. Proof that you can be 50 and still be sexy hot~!

Consanguinity

A strong sea breeze came rushing past the balcony and blew honey-hued locks into artful disarray. Bright blue eyes closed as a deep, appreciative breath of the salt-tinged air was taken in, held for a moment, and then released. Closed eyes didn't even open in surprise when the owner of aforementioned exceptional blue eyes felt a pair of arms enclose him from behind.

"Good morning, Syuusuke," the blue-eyed man felt, more than heard, the deep and slightly gravelly greeting rumbling from the chest behind him.

A contented sigh escaped Syuusuke's lips as he burrowed deeper into the warmth of that bare chest, his own arms hugging the arms that were encircling him. "How rare for you to wake up this late in the morning, husband," the blue-eyed man teased, an irreverent grin tugging at the corner of his lips.

Tezuka Kunimitsu grunted an unintelligible reply at the beautiful man he had in his arms.

At Kunimitsu's less-than-witty comeback, Syuusuke lost the battle against repressing his laughter. He turned around in his husband's arms and leaned back to look into his husband's bleary hazel eyes, hands resting on the chest he was previously nestled against. "Oh? What is this? 10:30 in the morning and Tezuka Kunimitsu-sensei is still not functioning at one hundred percent? For shame!"

"Well somebody insisted we go for round three early this morning, if I remember correctly," was the droll reply.

"We used to go for six rounds without any problems," Syuusuked quipped back. "You're getting old," a quick peck on the lips softened the insult.

Kunimitsu raised an eyebrow at his husband, "You'll be the same age as me in two weeks."

Syuusuke gave a tired little sigh as he rested his forehead against his husband's chest. "Half a century old! Can you believe it?"

The hazel-eyed man's arms tightened around Syuusuke. The years have been kind to both of them. At fifty years old, Kunimitsu's dark chestnut brown hair have grown a sprinkling of silver, especially at his temples, but that only added to his respectable good looks. And as a college professor, those streaks of silver only seemed to further his credibility among the students and his fellow educators. On the other hand, Syuusuke's hair that used to be purely the color of dark honey was now liberally streaked with various shades of lighter brown and blond. Both of them, still very much enamored with tennis as they are with each other, go out on tennis dates regularly. They aren't quite as fast as they used to be in the prime of their youth, and there are a lot of their specialty moves that they simply cannot pull off anymore for fear of breaking something, but tennis keeps them in very good shape – both of them often mistaken for being years younger than they actually are. One of Syuusuke's gripes, though, was the fact that he had always remained rather lithe and willowy while Tezuka had gone on to develop sleek, lean muscles and had even grown several more inches, finally ending up towering over Fuji a good head and half or so. Syuusuke's only consolation now was the fact that he's still as slim as he ever was, while Kunimitsu was starting to get just a little heftier along the middle – the price of too many drinking parties in celebration of a successful public lecture or another.

Syuusuke raised his head to look up at his husband again and adjusted his arms to loosely loop around Kunimitsu's neck. "Oh, by the way, your mother called for you yesterday."

At that announcement, the hazel-eyed man's brow furrowed.

"What?"

"I know what she wants to talk about," Kunimitsu answered resignedly.

"Oh?"

A few seconds of silence passed. When Kunimitsu didn't seem inclined to provide details and appease his partner's curiosity, Syuusuke twirled a lock of hair that was by Kunimitsu's nape around his finger and tugged, none too gently. "You were saying?" the former tennis prodigy prompted with a venomously sweet smile.

Kunimitsu leaned down to press a kiss on Syuusuke's forehead to make up for the unintended slight before answering, "Lately, my mother has been bearing down on me and forcing the issue of children with the same ferocity and tenacity she once reserved for those detestable omiai[1] that she used to keep forcing on me. And she told me that if I don't seriously consider it and talk it over with you, my father instructed her to go straight to you to plead her case."

Syuusuke chuckled. He must admit, it felt danged good to know that Tezuka Kuniharu recognized Syuusuke as his son's partner in every way; the one person they could count on to sway Kunimitsu. It hasn't always been like that, of course.

Syuusuke and Kunimitsu have known each other since they were twelve years old. They danced around the issue of liking each other for years, until some time after getting into High School, Syuusuke cornered Kunimitsu in the tennis club locker room after clean-up duties, pressed the latter against the wall, and then proceeded to kiss the living daylights out of the former tennis club team captain. And thus, at sixteen years old, Tezuka Kunimitsu and Fuji Syuusuke started dating each other. They started living together after getting into college, and then, after five years of living together, eleven solid years of being in a relationship together, they decided to get married.

Syuusuke's family took the news rather well. Yumiko had known of their relationship for years and had always been supportive of her brother's happiness. Yuuta had always suspected, of course, and the announcement that Syuusuke and Kunimitsu wanted to get married had been nothing more than a confirmation for him. There was nothing but stunned silence from Syuusuke's parents after the he declared their intentions, but Syuusuke's mother, Fuji Yoshiko, shook herself out of her stupor shortly thereafter and managed to draw on her innate composure to smile and congratulate her son and his partner. She had always really liked Tezuka Kunimitsu, anyway. And as long as her son was happy, so was she. Syuusuke's father followed suit, but not before throwing a meaningful look at Yuuta that demanded the younger Fuji carry on the Fuji line… or else.

Kunimitsu's family had been another matter. All those years, they never even suspected that Fuji Syuusuke could be anything more than a very, very good friend to Kunimitsu. They've always liked the smart, polite tennis prodigy with his light-hearted smiles – but learning that he was actually Kunimitsu's lover and not just a very close friend, as they had initially believed, turned the Tezuka household upside-down. Kunimitsu's father and grandfather had been vehemently opposed to the relationship and refused to give their blessings when Kunimitsu and Syuusuke asked for it. As was usual in cases like these, it was Tezuka Ayana, Kunimitsu's mother, who brought heart and sensibility together and came up with a compromise.

Ayana had wanted her son to settle down with a nice young woman somewhere, have lots of children, enjoy his job as an associate professor… maybe even work his way up to being a full professor—the quintessential definition of a normal life. She had even pressed her son to attend several omiai's that she had set-up. But it was obvious that this was not what her son wanted for himself. And while Kunimitsu had always been the model of a perfect son, doing everything in his power to satisfy his family, it was obvious that this was one thing he was ready to fight his family for. This was something he was willing to leave his family behind for. Ayana had always only wanted what was best for her son; wanted what would make her son happy. And if Fuji Syuusuke was what it took to make him happy, then so be it.

Rather than losing a son, Ayana proposed, why not just accept another one? And so, the two major conditions for their marriage were set down: (1) Fuji Syuusuke would be entering the Tezuka family registry, not the other way around. (2) They were required to visit the Tezuka main house at least once every two months. And so, on June 11 of that year, Fuji Syuusuke became Tezuka Syuusuke.

The honey-haired man turned around in his husband's arms once again and resumed his original position of leaning against Kunimitsu's chest, arms going over the ones that were still encircling him. "So have you considered it? When were we going to talk about this?"

"I was planning on telling you about it last night, but I got distracted," the hip that ground boldly into Syuusuke's ass was a testament to the influence the blue-eyed man has had on his husband over the years.

"Oh is that so?" came the question in a silky voice as Syuusuke turned back around to face his partner.

"Indeed," the answer given in a voice made husky by awakening desire. Kunimitsu was lowering his lips to claim the soft, pliant lips just waiting for his, when a soft clearing of throat made the couple draw apart.

"Hiro?" Syuusuke asked, looking around Kunimitsu's shoulder.

The red-faced eleven-year old boy looked at how the couple were practically wrapped around each other and how Kunimitsu was wearing only the bottom half of the pajama set, while Syuusuke was wearing only the button-down upper half, and turned around, mumbling, "The door was open so I let myself in." He squared his young, narrow shoulders, threw his back ramrod straight in a posture so reminiscent of a young Tezuka Kunimitsu, and threw the words over his shoulder, "I'll get started on cleaning the kitchen. Go get some proper clothes on."

Tsukishiro Hiro was an orphan staying over at the church-slash-orphanage two blocks down from the Tezukas' beach-front property. He came over during the weekends to clean the house for the couple to earn some extra money; he'd been doing so for the past two years, since Kunimitsu and Syuusuke first moved in.

Syuusuke snickered at the false bravado in the boy's voice. "Bossy bit of goods, isn't he?" he asked in a stage whisper that guaranteed Hiro heard the question, before leaving the comfort of his husband's arms and going into the house, heading for the bedroom in search of the proper clothes that Hiro demanded of them.

Kunimitsu slid the glass doors leading to the balcony closed behind him, passed by the kitchen to ruffle Hiro's soft golden brown hair fondly, before heading off to the bedroom after his mate. Hiro just made a face at getting his hair mussed and carried on doing the dishes that were soaking in the sink.

A few minutes later, Syuusuke came out of the bedroom, properly dressed in a shirt and soft jeans this time, followed shortly by Kunimitsu who was similarly attired. Syuusuke joined Hiro in the kitchen to get started on brunch, while Kunimitsu headed straight for the dining table, carrying with him a stack of papers he needed to look over before Monday came around again.

"You know, you guys could be a bit messier," Hiro opened the conversation. "You pay me ¥1,700 for everytime I come here, but you don't give me much to do."

Tinkling laughter came from Syuusuke, "Well, you do the dishes and wipe down the counter. And you also have to do some general dusting."

The air around the boy seemed to have stilled as he paused in his chore and very quietly asked, "Are you making fun of me?"

The way the boy prickled so quietly, so dangerously at having his perceived dignity picked on, reminded Syuusuke of how he, himself, usually reacted to vexing situations in a similar manner, that he had quite a time of it keeping his voice even and serious. "No, not all," the blue-eyed man reassured. "But I have to tell you, 'Mitsu really dislikes having things messy or out of order, so he tends to clean up after himself… and me."

Having gone through this routine several times, Hiro didn't even look as he handed Syuusuke a plate, just as the latter was starting to scoop the huge omelet he was cooking out of the pan. "Then why do you need me to come over here for?"

The former tennis prodigy threw a sweet smile towards the boy, "Isn't it obvious? Because we like having you around! Now go set the table while I take care of the fried rice. And tell 'Mitsu I don't want to see any papers on the table when I go out with the food."

Hiro, pink-eared with pleasure at the unexpected declaration, did as he was told. As soon as the table was set and cleared of any paperwork, both the boy and Kunimitsu were left with nothing to do but to wait for the food as they sat opposite each other.

"Is that a bruise on your face?"

Hiro turned to the side to try to hide the damning evidence of a fight he was involved in just the other day.

Kunimitsu reached out a firm hand, turned the boy's face and upon closer scrutiny, he realized that the left corner of the boy's lower lip was split open and a light colored bruise just beside it was starting to darken. "What was the fight about this time?" the former team captain asked with a disapproving sigh.

The golden brown haired boy stuck out his chin defensively in a pose reminiscent of Syuusuke when the latter wanted to be stubborn, and vaguely answered, "I just gave them what they were asking for." And then, in an attempt to divert the older man's attention, he brought up something that Syuusuke mentioned to him in passing once before, "Ne, Syuu-san once told me that you had a fairly private wedding party with only your close friends and your family. He said I should ask you about it one of these days."

Kunimitsu smiled wryly at the memory.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Somehow, the former Seigaku tennis club members managed to get Kunimitsu thoroughly drunk during the wedding party. Syuusuke did not appreciate spending his wedding night with an incapacitated groom, and he made his displeasure felt among his former teammates in little ways throughout the remainder of that year – from "accidental" Inui juice ingestion (yes, their resident eccentric former teammate still experimented on those gastric atrocities) to embarrassing pictures randomly making their way to tabloid front page (it was amusing how Kaidoh's PR officer tried to explain that no, the pro tennis player did not have a drinking problem, and that no, that was not liquor in the glass he drank from, and that no, that face he was making was not because he was drunk; Syuusuke also thought the angry tirade he got from Echizen over the phone was worth it when he heard that Momoshiro was refusing to sleep with the little Prince of Tennis because of the Echizen-draped-in-women picture that was in the morning's tabloid front page).

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

"It was very memorable," was all Kunimitsu told the boy, "and I think it's the only wedding party that had repercussions until long after everyone's hangovers had already cleared."

Hiro's brow furrowed and he seemed like he wanted to ask something else but Syuusuke came in with the food. The boy took some of the serving plates from Syuusuke and helped serve the food. Hiro learned early on that whenever he came over, Syuusuke enjoyed having serving plates and having everyone share food like that, rather than serve the food in the traditional Japanese manner where everyone's serving was already fixed.

As they sat down to eat, Hiro surreptitiously watched the two men interact with each other. He enjoyed watching them talk to each other, watched how they each carefully listened to the other, smiled as they bantered, and answered every once in a while when they asked him something. Being with the two made Hiro feel comfortable. The relationship that they shared seemed so right, so complete – and they wore their relationship about them like a comfortable old blanket they've wrapped themselves in on a cold night.

"Do you guys ever fight at all?" Hiro blurted out all of a sudden.

"Fight?" Syuusuke asked blankly, rather taken aback by the sudden question.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

The early years of their marriage had been periodically punctuated with their share of spats and disagreements. Somehow, living together as college students had been more like playing house than anything. It was simple, light-hearted, and if things went wrong, you go sleep over at a classmate's house, work on a report or two, and then come back home to find everything back to normal again. The actual living together as two adults, with the full responsibilities that came with it, was another matter altogether. And the fact that expectations of each other tend to change once you're living under the "married" tag seemed to throw things off-kilter.

As a college teacher, Kunimitsu enjoyed the regular 7am to 3pm hours. Syuusuke, who was, at that time, a newbie photographer at one of the more popular advertising agencies in Japan, worked at all insane hours of the day (or night). Kunimitsu tolerated it for the first three months or so, having to go through only mild skirmishes and petty arguments. The first big blow-up came to head soon after that.

"What, exactly, is the problem, Kunimitsu?" Syuusuke asked in a dangerously even voice.

"The problems are: I rarely ever see you anymore. I come home and there's nobody here to welcome me home. There's no food on the table. The house is a mess," Kunimitsu waved a hand around the unkempt apartment. "The laundry has piled up. The gro—" the hazel-eyed man cut himself off when Syuusuke abruptly turned his back to his partner and stalked to the bedroom in obvious quiet rage.

Kunimitsu followed his husband to the bedroom, closed the door behind him, but neither of them broke the tense silence.

"I'm sorry about my work schedule," Syuusuke said after a while. "It's been crazy, I know, and I apologize that I haven't been spending much time with you. I'm new to the agency and I can't afford to be picky about my assignments just yet. Just give me a few more months and things will get better. I'll make it up to you, I swear. But as for the rest…" the repressed wrath Syuusuke was trying to keep in check made him unable to continue, the emotion so powerful, his body was shaking with it.

"Syuusuke—" Kunimitsu began as he tried to reach for his partner, but the blue-eyed man kept the other where he was by holding up a hand.

"Look at me, 'Mitsu," Syuusuke said in a quietly demanding voice. "See me."

A few seconds of heavy, charged silence passed.

"You married a man, Kunimitsu. You got yourself a husband." Syuusuke quietly asserted, chin jutting out stubbornly. "I have no problems with cooking for you or keeping house or doing the laundry, but I have no intention of becoming the poster model of a 1950's wife. I came into this marriage fully expecting to share everything with you: the joys, the pains, and yes, even the chores. In case it has escaped your attention, Tezuka Kunimitsu, there are TWO MEN in this relationship. Don't expect me to turn into your ideal of what a wife should be."

Kunimitsu looked shell-shocked as realization hit him. Indeed, in the back of his mind, he somehow expected Syuusuke to play the dutiful housewife. The hazel-eyed man took the two steps that separated him from his husband, engulfed him in a tight embrace, and murmured a heartfelt, "I'm sorry," into the honey-hued hair.

Things got better after that. Not quite perfect, as they still argued and fought over a lot of things, but it got a whole lot better.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

"Yes, we fight," Syuusuke answered the curious boy, "but we work them out somehow." And just then, he noticed the bruise by Hiro's mouth. "How about you? What made you get into a fight?"

"It's nothing," Hiro evaded once again, as he shoveled food into his mouth and then jumped up to clear his plate from the table as soon as he finished his food. But Syuusuke held the boy back when he said, "Hiro…" warningly.

Hiro sat back down on his chair, straightened his back and crossed his arms across his chest, in pretty much the same way Kunimitsu would before lecturing some of his students about taking his course seriously.

"What happened?" Syuusuke asked gently.

The boy looked from Syuusuke to Kunimitsu and then back again, before lowering his eyes and hunching a bit, "It was nothing really. Some kids in school were just being stupid."

"Oh? Being stupid about what?" the blue-eyed man prodded. Kunimitsu always enjoyed watching Syuusuke at work during times like these. It never failed to amaze him how his partner could always get Hiro to crack whenever the latter was being difficult.

Hiro mumbled something unintelligible in reply. "I'm sorry, I didn't catch that. What was that?"

"They were saying stupid things about you and Kunimitsu-san," Hiro answered belligerently, eyeing Syuusuke resentfully.

"Oh, is that so?" the honey-haired man returned mildly, blue eyes glinting dangerously.

"Yeah, they asked me if I still come over here, and I said yes. And they started saying nasty stuff about you and Kunimitsu-san. Those idiots don't know anything! I told them you and Kunimitsu-san are nicer than anyone else I know! And that you act better than any of the other married couple in here that I know! And that you take care of me whenever I come here!" Hiro was turning red in anger at the remembered incident. "Then they started making fun of me, telling me that I'm probably desperate enough for parents to want to be adopted by a gay couple. I started throwing punches at them and I told them that they were idiots! Of course if I could choose, I don't think there would be parents any better than Syuu-san and Kunimitsu-san!" and as though realizing what he'd just said, Hiro turned eight different shades of red before jumping up once again and rushing to the kitchen with his plate.

The couple was left looking at each other in surprised silence.

/Oh yeah! How is it possible that we never, ever thought of that before?/

Hiro came barreling out of the kitchen and was heading towards the front door. "I'll just come back next weekend," he mumbled without looking at either Kunimitsu, who had begun clearing out the rest of the plates from the table, or Syuusuke who was walking towards him with his pay.

"Hiro," Kunimitsu stopped the boy before he opened the door, "I'll be paying a visit to Father Maxwell at the orphanage tomorrow."

Again, the boy looked from Kunimitsu to Syuusuke and then back again. Solemnly, he nodded.

Syuusuke held out Hiro's part-time pay to him. "It's okay," the boy declined the money, shaking his head. "I'm not gonna need it pretty soon, I guess."

The blue-eyed man smiled warmly at the boy. "Are you sure…?" you're okay with us?

The boy looked at Syuusuke as though the latter's IQ had suddenly dropped to the floor.

"There might be more of this, you know," the former tennis prodigy said as he gently touched the darkening bruise by the boy's mouth.

"Che," he scoffed. "It's nothing I can't handle." And with that, the boy turned around and left the house.

Syuusuke stayed by the door and watched as the boy's figure disappeared in the distance. Kunimitsu joined him a short while later and once again, enclosed the smaller man in an embrace from behind.

"Is this really alright with you, Syuusuke?"

"Of course. But to start a family at fifty…"

"Well, it's not like we're starting with a baby. Hiro's going to be in his first year of middle school by next year."

"That's true. I feel like we're cheating."

Kunimitsu chuckled. "Maybe I should call mother and tell her she doesn't have to plead her case to you anymore."

"Tezuka Kunikazu. Tezuka Kuniharu. Tezuka Kunimitsu. Tezuka Hiro," Syuusuke tried rolling the name off his tongue. "Do you think we should change Hiro's name to Kunihiro for consistency?"

~Owari~
La Fuego
02/14/2009

Footnotes:

Omiai = a Japanese custom whereby unattached individuals are introduced to each other to consider the possibility of marriage.

According to one site, the starting part-time pay in Japan is about ¥850 per hour. I just doubled it to indicate that Hiro usually stayed to clean up for about two hours.