Yami No Matsuei Fan Fiction ❯ No Regrets ❯ No Regrets ( Chapter 1 )

His curry bubbling idly on the stove, Tatsumi Seiichirou perused the week's expense reports for his department, occasionally muttering to the silent papers comments capable of scalding an animate listener's ears. As it was, he merely wondered why the cup of tea across from him refused to cool. Toes still sheathed in dress socks enjoyed the cool pile of the carpet; an elbow lazed, propping him on the sofa arm; and the muscles of his shoulders began to loosen their deadly hold on his spine as the steam of perpetually overheated tea rose and dissipated in the apartment's comfortable air. He could hear, but not register, the pipes running hot and cold water behind the bathroom wall with a hiss, and the stairs across the hall creaked occasionally with the return of upper floors' residents-added to the steady rumbling of his stomach, the sounds of home would have been enough to pinpoint the hour, nearly the minute, had he been less inclined to punctuality.

In the midst of this inactivity a gentle knock reverberated in the front hallway followed by a pause, then a slightly louder, more confident one. Irritation, dread, and curiosity loudly overriding one another to render him suddenly alert, he set papers aside, standing up and heading for the door.

A resolute Kurosaki Hisoka halted his partner's pacing with a quickly outstretched hand as the front door swung open. A glance at Tsuzuki, however, revealed-not less determination, oddly, but less refinement in concealing it. Tsuzuki somehow manifested utter joy and total sheepishness in one irreproducible expression.

Ah, this. He'd been expecting this for a while.

"May we come in?" asked Hisoka.

"Certainly," Tatsumi replied, standing aside. Something about the boy's stance was brittle, as though he were protecting a dangerous secret. Contrastingly, Tsuzuki smiled beatifically, if tiredly, as he followed his younger partner into the living room-something rare from that particular person, but reaffirming to Tatsumi once more that he'd made the right decision.

The pair sat on the couch, looking up searchingly as they waited for him to take the armchair across from them. Tsuzuki and Hisoka seemed to automatically reach for each other's hands, provoking raised eyebrows.

"Can I offer you tea?" He asked, gesturing to his own cup on the table.

"No, thank you." Hisoka spoke, always politely. "We came to tell you something."

"Oh?"

There was a pause while Hisoka looked to Tsuzuki for support; in that glance they positively glowed at each other, he noticed, every shadow refreshingly driven away from both faces. A sound in the background that the couple hadn't noticed, the singing of the water pipes abruptly ceased, startling them slightly and leaving the conversationalists in complete silence but for the bubbling of the pot on the stove.

"We've decided that we belong…we're together. We're a couple." Tsuzuki seemed to draw strength from the words and couldn't resist the smile naturally suited to accompany them.

"We thought you should know first, considering your prior relationship with Tsuzuki." Hisoka added seriously.

He leaned forward slowly, setting down his tea with forced precision, watching the new lovers' gentle slide into dread before breaking into an unaccustomed grin. Not a beaming smile, not great by any means, but a gesture of friendship and genuine happiness for the pair under his command who had finally found one another.

"Congratulations."

Tsuzuki and Hisoka blinked once before sheepish smiles crossed their faces.

"Thank you. And, ah, I guess we'd better be going." Tsuzuki ended lamely, helping his partner off the couch.

"You're welcome to stay for dinner."

"We have to make a plan regarding housing arrangements tonight. And, ah, I promised to cook." Hisoka blushed, but only a hint of red now his and Tsuzuki's minds were set on one another.

"In that case, good evening to both of you." He stated cordially, holding the door.

"Good night, Tatsumi-san."

Tatsumi padded back to the living room and sunk deeply into the couch, momentarily in too good a mood to attend to the stack of forms in front of him. Resting his head on the cushioned back, he chuckled lightly, the sound fading as his bedroom door opened to reveal a handsome man in a loose yukata, freshly showered, long blonde hair dried just enough to start curling into its customary waves.

"Were you talking to someone a moment ago?"

"Tsuzuki-san and Kurosaki-kun dropped by to announce their intentions toward one another. Frankly, I'm astonished."

"Never would've guessed." his partner likewise deadpanned.

Laughing, Watari crossed the room gracefully, casually sitting down and resting his head on Tatsumi's shoulder as he surveyed the coffee table drowning in pages.

"Put. The. Paperwork. Away." he said firmly, though as Tatsumi turned he caught a warm twinkling in his lover's eyes.

"Mmm. Even the lab requisitions? Which, I might add, amount to about half of this particular stack."

"Even those." Watari stated, making himself more comfortable in the crook of his arm.

"The curry's almost done."

"A few more minutes, by my astounding, scientifically-honed sense of smell."

"You're getting my shirt wet."

"Your fault for not joining me."

"I have no regrets."

A pause.

"You always have to have the last word, don't you?"

"Not always."