Chapter Text
Though not every day was easy, the vast majority of their days were better together. They decided it was likely best for their work lives if they kept their partnership quiet, a decision that didn’t cause any turbulence at the time. When they went back to Okinawa, Kojiro (and Fiore) moved in with Kaoru, much to Taiyou’s dismay. So she showed up unannounced nearly every other day to play with her, even when Kojiro wasn’t home. Sia La Luce truly flourished under Kojiro’s ownership, and when he remodeled, Kaoru and Kojiro made the design choices together. As they did most things.
Two years later, Giulia retired in Naha after handing ownership of her own restaurant over to Gabi and her husband. Taiyou constantly teased Kojiro that Giulia was going to steal their mom until the day she finally did. Mayumi and Giulia got married the following year, and while Kojiro and Kaoru were very happy for them, it definitely caused strife between them. He asked Kaoru to marry him. He said no. Of course, they had agreed together that their relationship would be private. Kaoru’s job in particular required a certain traditional public image. Kojiro tried to understand, but it was difficult. It really crushed him, he wasn’t exactly a traditional calligrapher, so why did it matter so much? The love never stopped, however the relationship was put under significant strain.
They’d even had talks of taking a break, but it never came to that, and it was all because of a kid duct taped to a skateboard. They'd become mentors to three young skaters and their weird babysitter before they even knew what happened. Kojiro’s heart got bigger every time they came into Sia unannounced and hungry, he was more than happy to take care of his new family in the way he knew how. Even Hiromi would show up and drink with him and Kaoru on occasion. He was just happy to fill the big brother role he was used to for them. He’d missed playing that part since Tai moved to Tokyo for college.
Reki in particular, reminded him of himself so much it almost hurt. Including the part where he was very in love with his best friend, who strangely enough, was getting in way over his head with Adam of all people. When Reki came out to him, they’d been talking about crazy rock. They were sitting out on the deck at the luxury inn that Kaoru had booked for the two of them. It was supposed to be a quiet romantic weekend after Kaoru’s work was done, but the kids and Hiromi turning up made it into a family vacation instead.
“I do want to work on getting better first.”
“Then you’ve got the drive, that’s what’s important.”
Reki pulled hard on the string of his jacket, “Joe…”
“What’s up?” He kept his voice soft, afraid to scare the kid off.
“I’m going to tell you something and you can’t tell anyone else,” He was almost in tears as he spoke, “and I don’t want you to judge me ok?”
“You can tell me anything. I mean that.” He was fairly certain he knew where this was going, but the fear in Reki’s voice was absolutely destroying him.
“I-I think I have- I think I have… romantic feelings for Langa.”
“Yeah, I know, and that’s ok.”
“Fuck, you knew?” He threw himself back on the deck dramatically, “am I that obvious?”
“No,” he lied, “I just know the look. I had a crush on my best friend at your age too. I’m still in love with him even now.”
Reki sat up as fast as he fell back, “Wait. Wait. You did? You do? Wait. What?”
“What, are you surprised?”
“I just didn’t know you were gay. You’re just always surrounded by girls.”
“Bi, but yeah. I don’t actually have eyes for anyone else.” He stood up, brushing the dust from his hands on his pants, “Women are cool, they’re interesting and fun to hang out with… but they’re no match for Cherry Blossom.”
Reki’s mouth hung open in shock, “Cherry…?”
“Yeah.”
“But you’re always fighting with him! Does he know?”
They were getting uncomfortably close to the carefully concealed truth between the two of them, “Uh, the others are probably expecting us back. We should go.”
“Wait— When did you know? That you didn’t just like girls.”
Kojiro stopped in his tracks, “It honestly surprised me as much as anyone, but I’ve known since I was 13. I pushed it way down and ignored it for a long time.”
Reki looked away from him then. He was reminded at that moment how young he was. He was nearly a decade older than him, and he just so happened to have the hyper specific experience to help him out in this particular department.
“Listen, if you like Langa, you should tell him.” He smiled to himself as he echoed Giulia’s words from so long ago, “I’d put money on him loving you.”
“I dunno, what will people think?”
Joe’s stomach turned a little bit. He’d had this conversation before, “Kid, people will think what they’re going to think. Fuck them. The people that matter aren’t going to care, and hiding from it won’t make it go away.”
“Then why haven’t you?”
God that was a loaded question. It was sort of hypocritical wasn’t it? It’s not like he’d wanted it this way, not for a long time at least.
“It’s not that I don’t want to come out. It’s never been that. I mean, I have two moms for fucks sake. They know I’m madly in love with him.”
“So, you’re worried about being rejected?”
“Not exactly. It’s complicated. He has a lot to lose.”
That seemed to make Reki drop it. Thank god. He worried that he’d done more harm than good in divulging his own secret though.
_________
He and Kaoru were the first to arrive at the hot spring. Or, Kaoru was, by technicality. He’d long surpassed win number 200. It hadn’t actually mattered when it happened. Such things were so quickly lost to the sands of time, so were the minutes that had passed since he’d hoisted Kaoru against the wall of the Onsen. His hands tangled and pulled at pink hair, carefully sucking at delicate skin, trying to leave minimal marking, failing a little bit. Kaoru tugged his hair and he broke away, though he was still grinding against him for the friction his body so desperately craved.
“No marks baby,” Kaoru complained breathlessly, “the kids will be here soon.”
Kojiro sighed, “I think we should just tell them. I think knowing would be good for them.”
“Do you really think that or do you just want to bruise me?”
He couldn’t deny that it was a little bit of both, but he did the adult thing and let Kaoru down to stand on his own feet, “I honestly think that. Reki came out to me tonight, and he was afraid. Of my reaction.”
Kaoru sighed, “I don’t know.”
“They’re practically family, I think we can trust them with this.”
“Ok,” he relented, “but we have to do it together. Still no marks tonight.”
“You got it! Just say the word and I’m ready Ru.” His smile stretched clear across his face as he swept his lover up in a spinning hug.
“Kojiro, the ground is wet this is dangerous!”
He was right. He usually was. He let Kaoru go gently.
“You’ll be paying for not finishing what you started when we get back to the room tonight.” Kaoru let his yukata slip to the ground as he stepped into the water.
Kojiro picked it up and hung it up with his, “Oh I’m counting on it princess.”
__________
They’d discussed telling them after a group dinner at Sia La Luce, but it suddenly became difficult to get them all in one place. Reki had gone from being a given attachment to Langa to not being present at all. He wished he would have recognized their final night before Reki ran off, maybe he could have fixed it. Then Adam showed up with his grandiose tournament announcement, it sent everyone spinning. Even Kaoru. Of course he entered, they both did. After everything, he’d been important to them both once, at least that was the way that Kaoru saw it. Kojiro saw a monster, one that broke windows and skaters alike, just to hurt them. If someone was going to take a hit, he figured it should be him. Blow for blow.
He’d tried to give the kids the best advice he could, even going as far as tracking down Reki at his favorite ramen place. He was trying to drive them back towards each other, but he was met with some resistance. When he lost to Langa, his hope of taking that hit for Cherry was lost. He was juggling a lot of plates, and he felt he’d dropped them all.
Cherry was pit against him and he watched in abject horror as Adam smacked the love of his life in the face with that stupid, gaudy board. Truthfully, if Kaoru had still been conscious when he got to him, he would have beaten Adam to a pulp just to prove a point. But he was more important. He couldn’t help thinking though, that if he hadn’t hit him all those years ago, in the blind rage of the moment, Kaoru wouldn’t have been hurt so badly. He sat by his bedside as long as he physically could before he had to go to work. Kaoru let himself in after closing, as he usually did, but sneaking out of the hospital to do so was ridiculous.
“At least we’ve got this, we’re not alone. Right, Kaoru?”
He was fast asleep, he must have been too anxious to fall back asleep at the hospital. That’s why he’d come. Luckily, it was easy to take him home in his Carla chair. As much as he complained about her, she was a handy piece of technology. Which is something Kojiro would never say to him out loud. He didn’t sleep much, mostly he just laid next to Kaoru and watched him sleep. Fiore curled up against his chest between them, sensing Kojiro’s emotional distress. When the morning came, he escorted him back to the hospital.
“I don’t know why you brought me back here, couldn’t you just take care of me at home?”
“Kaoru, you can’t go home until they release you.” He chuckled, “You know, you sound like Giulia right now.”
Kaoru glared back at him, he knew he was right, but he wouldn’t vocalize it.
“…Kaoru, I think we should go public. Not just to our friends, not just at crazy rock, but everywhere.” He parked the car in the drop off bay at the hospital, “Please Kaoru, I thought I was going to lose you last night. I don’t want to waste any more time pretending. I want to hold your hand and stand by your side without all the stupid pretense of a rivalry. It's not like you don’t do well, even if your business takes a blow we’ll be ok. Besides, I make enough from Sia to support us both anyway. The people who matter are going to love us no matter what.”
Kaoru looked at him for a long moment before answering, “Okay.”
“Really?” He jumped in his seat, “You mean it? No argument?”
“Really. We’ll do it after the tournament though. After I’m healed enough to skate against you again.”
“Against me? For what?”
“What do you think, dummy? We’ll race for who gets to propose.”
“No fucking way? Really? You’ll marry me?”
“We’ll see,” Kaoru looked away from him, but he could still hear his smile, “take me inside.”
_________
Amazingly enough, the boys worked things through enough to gaze at each other longingly again. He’d had to step between Reki and Adam after their race and not pummel him into the ground, but the tournament finished without any further injury. Thank god. He wasn’t sure if his heart could take any more of it. Unless of course he was injuring Adam. Which he still kind of wanted to do.
The next time everyone met up at S was a few weeks later, they’d taken a break from it after the tournament while Cherry healed. When they returned, Miya stuck close to Cherry, telling him every detail he’d missed while he was gone. He left the two of them to catch up. Miya’s parents didn’t seem to be very attentive, they couldn’t be, after all their 13 year old was sneaking off to illegal skateboard races during the week. He needed someone to listen to him. He found Reki and Langa, who were glued together again, until Joe asked if he could have a word with Reki.
“Am… Am I in trouble?”
“What? Why would you be in trouble?”
“Well I don’t know! You came up like ‘can I have a word with you’ and you look all serious and you’re kinda my skateboard dad!”
“No! You’re not in trouble, skateboard dad? Whatever, I wanted to know if you’ve told Langa yet.”
Reki sighed, “No, I haven’t. It’s hard. He’s like a celebrity now, I don’t want to tarnish his reputation here.”
“Ok, listen, if I come out, and tell everyone how I feel about Cherry, you tell Langa how you feel. I’ll ruin my reputation first. Deal?”
“Seriously? You’d do that? Why?”
“I want you, both of you, everyone, to feel safe at crazy rock. The only dangerous thing here is the skating. I’ll make sure of that.”
“…Alright. Deal.”
_________
That night, Cherry and Joe had a beef scheduled for Cherry’s return to S, it was the last of the night. Joe was pretty convinced that Cherry let him win, but he’d never admit to that. He blamed it on being out of practice.
No matter the reason, that’s how Joe ended up on one knee at S, in front of their little family, “Cherry, you’re my favorite person on this planet. You have been since we were six years old, and I want to share every part of my life with you for however long we have left on this earth. Will you marry me?”
The crowd watched in stunned silence as he said yes, before immediately erupting into thunderous applause when they kissed.
They were flocked with people congratulating them, Shadow hugged them both tightly, leaving clown makeup on Kaoru’s hiyori, a crime that was usually punishable by death. Some asked how long they’d been together, some spectators even exchanged money, but no one spoke a negative word about it. Eventually the crowd began its usual after party, and their little family made their way outside.
Reki looked at Joe with betrayal in his eyes, “You knew you were doing this tonight.”
“And? I think it went swimmingly.” he pulled his new fiancé close to his side
“Ugh! That’s not fair. You tricked me.”
“Reki, are you angry that Joe and Cherry got engaged?” Langa asked, “Shouldn’t we just… be happy for them?”
“No, I am! It’s just… Come here.” Reki took Langa’s hand and led him off.
He had a nagging suspicion they wouldn’t be seeing any more of them that night. He was right, he just hoped his actions would save him a little bit of the grief he’d endured over the years. Later that night, as Kaoru curled into his side, he received a text from Langa. It just read thank you. So it worked out, good for them.
Half of a lifetime ago, Kojiro had a dream. One where he had promised to love Kaoru forever. As it turned out, doing it for real felt better than he ever could have dreamed.