i didn’t need to see you. i’d know that voice anywhere. / SHUT UO. SHUT UP TIMESKIP TOOKAI *DIES*
the heat of kyoto’s summer greets him like an old friend, enveloping tooru the moment he steps out of the airport, familiar in the way argentina’s heat hadn’t been for so long. tooru takes a deep breath : it smells like home again, being back in japan. the air is crisp and dry and it’s hot, the material of tooru’s jeans sticking to his thighs the moment he’d left the immediate vicinity of kix’s air conditioning. he’d never felt happier to be home.
from there, it’s a train ride back to miyagi, and a few bus stops to his childhood home. tooru had left all news of his return out of recent conversations by design, having wanted it to be a surprise, but if there was anyone he had no choice but to loop in on his schedule, it was his parents. so they knew that he was coming home, of course, had mentioned preparing a meal to celebrate his safe return —
“ i’m home~ ” tooru calls out at the doorway as he slips his shoes off, only to pause at the sight of — his parents had not mentioned that kaien would be there, conversing casually with his mother at the table. but the lack of surprise on kaien’s face when he turned to look at him — rather, the confident smirk curving his lips — clued him in on the fact that his parents had perhaps not, in fact, kept his return a secret. he shoots a betrayed look at them, one kaien must catch, because his reply comes so smoothly that tooru feels the irrational, childish urge to pinch his cheeks in retaliation.
“ i didn’t need to see you. i’d know that voice anywhere. ”
tooru takes the few steps forward to close the distance and pinches kaien’s cheeks anyway, disregarding how childish it made him feel. “ oh~? and you just happened to be here today? ” he says with lingering suspicion, lips tugged into a pout, “ that’s unfair, kai-chan, i’m the one who was supposed to surprise you! ”
