Mai

you never let him live it down.

"look. isagi, a baby."

"stop."

"you should go say hi."

"i hate you."

"you don't mean that."

"yeah, i don't."

he always said it while trying and failing not to smile.

the teasing continued for weeks until one evening when the two of you were walking home together after dinner. the streets were quieter than usual, the sky painted in shades of orange and pink as the sun disappeared beyond the buildings.

you were talking about something completely random when a little boy ran past the two of you wearing an oversized soccer jersey.

isagi’s eyes followed him instantly.

the little boy kicked a loose bottle cap across the sidewalk and celebrated like he'd just scored a winning goal in a world cup final. you glanced at your boyfriend. his expression softened immediately. and there it was again, that look, the one he'd been wearing for weeks.

you nudged his shoulder. "you're thinking about it again."

he groaned. "please stop saying that."

"thinking about what?"

he shot you a look. you laughed.

for a moment neither of you spoke. the teasing smile remained on your face, but yoichi's expression slowly changed. he looked down at the pavement beneath his feet before quietly slipping his hand into yours.

his fingers squeezed yours gently. "can i ask you something?"

the sudden seriousness in his voice made you blink. "of course."

he was quiet for several seconds. long enough that you almost thought he'd changed his mind. then he finally spoke. "do you ever think about the future?"

you looked at him, but he wasn't joking anymore. there was a nervousness in his expression that you rarely saw.

isagi was confident on the field. confident in his goals. confident in his dreams. but right now he looked uncertain, more like vulnerable.

"what do you mean?" you asked softly. he rubbed the back of his neck. "i don't know."

a small laugh escaped him. "like... years from now." his eyes found yours. "a home." another pause. "maybe a family."

your heart skipped. suddenly all the teasing from the past few weeks didn't seem so funny anymore.

because now you understood.

he wasn't asking for a baby, he wasn't trying to rush anything, he was asking whether he existed in the future you imagined for yourself. whether all the years ahead of you included him too. for someone usually so straightforward, it was surprisingly difficult for him to ask.

you stopped walking.

he immediately looked nervous. and that only made your chest ache more. reaching up, you cupped his face between your hands.

"yeah," you said.

his eyes widened.

"yeah?"

you smiled.

"of course."

the relief that washed over him was immediate. it was almost funny how quickly his shoulders relaxed. a laugh escaped him, soft and breathless, as if he'd been carrying around that question for much longer than he'd admitted.

before you could say anything else, his arms wrapped around your waist and pulled you against him.

you felt his forehead rest against yours. his smile was impossible to hide.

his cheeks were pink now. "because whenever i think about the future..." he looked at you for a moment before smiling even wider.

"you're always there."

and for the first time in weeks, you couldn't think of a single joke to make.

𝐁𝐀𝐂𝐇𝐈𝐑𝐀 𝐌𝐄𝐆𝐔𝐑𝐔

bachira was never subtle about anything, which was exactly why it caught you completely off guard when he started acting strange.

not distant strange or upset strange, but thoughtful in a way that didn't quite fit him. he'd still grin at you like he always did, still cling to your side whenever he got the chance, still fill every silence with whatever thought happened to cross his mind, but every now and then you'd catch him staring.

not at his phone, not at a soccer ball, not at the sky while he got lost in another one of his daydreams.

at you. just you. and whenever you noticed and asked what he was thinking about, he'd simply smile and say "nothing," before changing the subject entirely, which only made you more suspicious because bachira never said "nothing" unless he was hiding something.

the answer came a few weeks later while the two of you were spending the afternoon together at a park.

it had been one of those lazy days where neither of you had any real plans, so you ended up wandering around aimlessly, talking about whatever came to mind. bachira was in the middle of some ridiculous story when a little girl ran past the two of you chasing a soccer ball nearly half her size.

she couldn't have been older than five, and her tiny legs struggled to keep up as she sprinted after it.

before either of you could react, bachira had already jogged over, stopped the ball with his foot, and crouched down to hand it back to her. the girl thanked him with a shy smile before running back toward her parents, and when bachira returned to your side, he wasn't talking anymore.

he watched the family disappear into the distance with an expression you'd never seen before, one that looked strangely soft and almost wistful, as though he'd gotten lost somewhere far away.

you nudged his shoulder and laughed, asking what was going on in that head of his this time, expecting some random answer about monsters or soccer or aliens. instead, he glanced at you, looked away, and rubbed the back of his neck.

for a moment, he seemed oddly nervous, which was alarming enough on its own. then he laughed quietly to himself before admitting that lately he'd been thinking about the future a lot.

the future. the word sounded almost foreign coming from him. bachira usually lived entirely in the present, chasing whatever made him happy in that exact moment.

hearing him talk about years from now made you stare at him in surprise. he noticed immediately and laughed again, telling you not to look so shocked before explaining that maybe, just maybe, he liked imagining what things would be like later on. where he'd live.

what he'd be doing. who he'd be with. and every single time he imagined it, somehow you always ended up there too.

the warmth that spread through your chest made it difficult to speak.

bachira looked down at the grass beneath his feet for a moment before smiling to himself. he told you he'd imagined a lot of things recently. lazy mornings. movie nights. random trips with no destination. a home that was always noisy because neither of you knew how to sit still.

then, after another pause, he admitted he'd started imagining something else too. something smaller. someone with your smile and his eyes. someone he'd teach soccer to in the backyard while you watched from the porch pretending not to laugh at them.

by the time he finished speaking, his face had turned pink, though he was still smiling. "i'm not asking for one right now," he quickly added, laughing as soon as he saw your expression. "i'm just saying... if it was with you, i think it'd be nice."

for once, there wasn't a single joke on his face. no teasing grin. no playful comment. just honesty. simple, genuine honesty.

bachira reached for your hand and intertwined his fingers with yours, his thumb brushing gently against your skin as he looked at you with a softness that made your heart ache. "i think about a lot of things when i think about the future," he admitted quietly.

"but my favorite part is always you." and somehow, despite all the ridiculous things he'd ever said, that ended up being the one that left you speechless.

𝐍𝐀𝐆𝐈 𝐒𝐄𝐈𝐒𝐇𝐈𝐑𝐎

nagi never seemed like the kind of person who spent much time thinking about the future.

so whenever people brought it up, he'd usually shrug, say it sounded like too much work, and move on with his day. he liked things simple, liked focusing on whatever was right in front of him, which was why you didn't think much of it when he started acting a little different.

at first it was small things, like how he'd linger whenever he saw parents with their children or how his attention would drift toward babies whenever the two of you were out together. he never said anything about it, but you noticed the way his gaze followed them for a few extra seconds before he looked away.

the stranger part was how clingy he'd become.

nagi was already affectionate in his own lazy way, but lately he seemed determined to spend every possible second attached to you. if you were sitting down, he was resting his head on your lap.

if you were standing, he was leaning against your shoulder. if you were in bed, he was practically wrapped around you like he thought you might disappear if he let go.

you didn't think much of it until one evening when the two of you were curled up together on the couch after a long day.

the tv was playing some random show neither of you were actually paying attention to, and nagi was half asleep against your side while you absentmindedly played with his hair.

everything felt quiet and comfortable until he suddenly spoke, his voice lazy and drowsy as though he were talking more to himself than to you. he mentioned, completely out of nowhere, that you would probably be a good mom someday.

the words caught you so off guard that you nearly dropped the remote. when you asked where that came from, he only shrugged and buried his face further into your shoulder, acting as though he'd said something completely normal.

after enough questioning, however, he finally admitted that he'd been thinking lately.

not about anything specific, just the future in general. he confessed that whenever he imagined what his life would look like years from now, there were certain things that always appeared no matter how many times he pictured it.

there was always a home. there was always you. and lately there had been someone else too.

for the first time since starting the conversation, nagi seemed almost embarrassed. his arms tightened around your waist as he avoided your eyes and quietly explained that he'd started imagining things he never really cared about before.

lazy weekend mornings where the house was too loud to sleep in, tiny socks scattered across the floor, someone stealing snacks from the kitchen before dinner, someone climbing all over him while he complained about how troublesome it was despite secretly loving every second of it.

he laughed softly as he described it, shaking his head as though he couldn't believe he was saying any of this out loud. then his expression softened and he finally looked at you.

there wasn't any teasing in his eyes, no laziness, no attempt to play it off as a joke. there was only honesty.

he admitted that every version of the future he could picture somehow led back to you, and that the thought of building a life together didn't sound troublesome at all. if anything, it sounded nice. really nice.

nagi rested his forehead against yours and smiled faintly before mumbling that he wasn't talking about right now, and he definitely wasn't proposing anything, but someday, maybe, if it was with you, he'd like that future very much.

somehow those simple words felt more meaningful than any grand confession ever could.

𝐒𝐇𝐈𝐃𝐎𝐔 𝐑𝐘𝐔𝐒𝐄𝐈

it wasn't something shidou planned to tell you.

in fact, if things had gone according to plan, he probably would've taken the thought to his grave. unfortunately for him, shidou had never been very good at keeping things to himself.

the entire situation started when the two of you were lying on the couch late at night, half watching a movie neither of you were actually paying attention to.

you were comfortably tucked against his side while he scrolled aimlessly through his phone, occasionally showing you something stupid enough to make you laugh.

everything was normal until he suddenly snorted to himself at something on the screen. naturally, you leaned over to see what was so funny. what you expected was a meme. what you found instead was one of those filters that showed what someone's future child might look like.

specifically, a photo of you and him uploaded into the app.

the second he realized you'd seen it, he nearly threw his phone across the room. that alone was enough to make you suspicious because shidou was the last person on earth to get embarrassed over anything.

meanwhile, you were staring at him in complete disbelief while he aggressively pretended to be interested in the movie. the problem was that his ears were red. bright red. and now you knew exactly why.

after several minutes of relentless questioning, he finally cracked. with the world's most dramatic groan, he buried his face into a pillow and admitted that he'd been thinking about it lately. not because anyone brought it up.

not because he was trying to hint at something. the thought had simply appeared one day and refused to leave.

he'd caught himself wondering what a kid with your smile would look like, whether they'd inherit his personality or yours, whether they'd be loud or quiet, whether they'd drive the two of you insane.

according to him, it was annoying because every time he told himself to stop thinking about it, his brain immediately came up with another question.

the strangest part wasn't the confession itself. it was how serious he suddenly became afterward. shidou wasn't usually someone who sat around imagining the future.

he preferred living in the moment, doing whatever felt right and worrying about consequences later. but when he looked at you that night, there was something unusually soft in his expression.

he admitted that every time he imagined himself years from now, you were somehow always there. not because he forced the image into his head, but because he genuinely couldn't picture a version of his life where you weren't.

eventually those thoughts had started growing into bigger ones. a home. a family. a future that felt stable instead of craziness.

he laughed afterward and immediately complained about how disgustingly sentimental it sounded, but his arms tightened around you anyway.

then he pressed his forehead against yours and muttered that he wasn't asking for anything right now. he was just saying that if life ever took him there someday, he couldn't imagine wanting it with anyone else.

𝐂𝐇𝐈𝐆𝐈𝐑𝐈 𝐇𝐘𝐎𝐌𝐀

it happened during one of those nights when neither of you could sleep.

the apartment was quiet. you were curled up beside chigiri in bed, absentmindedly scrolling on your phone while he rested against the headboard beside you.

the two of you had been talking about absolutely nothing for nearly an hour, jumping from one random topic to another whenever the conversation started dying.

eventually, you ended up talking about your childhoods. old memories. embarrassing stories. things your families used to do.

at some point, chigiri mentioned something his mother used to tell him when he was younger, and before long he found himself smiling at the memory. it wasn't a huge smile. just a small one. soft enough that it caught your attention immediately.

you asked what he was thinking about, expecting some nostalgic story. instead, he looked out the window for a moment before quietly admitting that lately he'd been wondering what he'd be like as a parent. the statement came so unexpectedly that you almost dropped your phone.

he immediately regretted saying it. you could tell from the way he looked away. from the way his ears turned pink. from the way he suddenly became very interested in the blanket draped across his lap.

after enough questioning, he finally gave up and admitted that the thought had been stuck in his head for weeks.

it wasn't because he'd seen a baby somewhere or because someone had brought it up. the thought had simply appeared one day while he was imagining the future and refused to leave afterward.

every now and then he'd catch himself wondering what kind of parent he'd be. whether he'd be too protective. whether he'd worry too much. whether he'd know what he was doing at all. every answer only seemed to create more questions, which annoyed him because he hated overthinking things.

the longer he talked, however, the more you realized this wasn't really about children.

it was about you.

because every single scenario he described somehow involved you too.

whether he was talking about a future home, family vacations, lazy weekends, or random moments years from now, you were always there beside him. eventually, he noticed the look on your face and sighed.

because now you understood.

chigiri rubbed a hand over his face before laughing quietly at himself. then he turned toward you and finally said what he'd clearly been avoiding the entire conversation.

"i think that's why it keeps happening."

you blinked. "what does?"

"the thoughts.” his expression softened.

"because whenever i picture my future, you're already in it."

for a moment, neither of you spoke. the room felt strangely quiet. chigiri reached over and brushed a loose strand of hair away from your face before smiling "i'm not asking for anything right now."

his thumb lingered against your cheek. "i just realized that every time i imagine being happy years from now..." his smile grew warmer. "...you're always there first."

and somehow that confession felt far more intimate than anything else he could have said.