Thread by @cathienated

moving in together 🏡 #iwaoi
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33 feels a little late for a couple’s first apartment together, especially for a couple who had been together since birth, been pining since middle school, been yearning since high school, and been in love possibly before the universe was formed.

But Tooru and Hajime’s dreams outpaced their relationship. Their ambitions diverged in a yellow wood from one another. Their future included one another but were never /with/ one another until now.

Until Tooru had climbed atop the world stage and claimed his rightful crown.

Now his throne has been secured and his title is etched in stone; now he is retired and ready to settle down in his very own castle, with his ever-trusty knight Hajime by his side.

Hajime had found a job at a New England school, Birtwistle University, a few years ago. Tooru was all too happy to follow once he retired—to make a home in a third country in his third decade of life. Hajime was all too happy to leave the campus housing for young staff members.

Tooru is in-demand; he would easily be able to find a job nearby.

(Hajime doesn’t tell him this explicitly; his ego is already too big after the lavish retirement party his team threw him. And, he can’t help but be a little selfish, wanting Tooru all to himself, all the time.)

They find a cream-colored townhouse near campus. The white trim gives it a Victorian-era look and the large bay window floods the living room with light. It’s unlike the quaint modernity of Japan, the colorful bustle of Argentina, or the youthful heat of Irvine.

Maybe it’s the fact that Hajime and Tooru toured the place in September, right as the trees were changing color and the leaves underfoot were red and green and orange and yellow, making the house look a paradigm of New England aesthetic.

Maybe it’s the fact that it /is/ so different from anywhere either of them have lived before, that it feels like a place that they can carve and mold into their own.

Not Hajime’s.

Not Tooru’s.

But both of theirs.

Maybe that’s why they ignore the scuffs on the dark hardwood floors and the ill-fitting window screens that let in the occasion bug and the washing machine that can /maybe/ fit one week’s worth of clothes at a time.

Instead, they focus on the built in shelving in the dining room framed by intricate molding. They focus on the dainty pedant lighting that hangs over the remodeled kitchen counter. They focus on the way the south-facing window in the bedroom throws sunlight all across the room.

They focus on the idea that this house is /theirs/. Their first home together. They first place where they will be able to luxuriate in each other’s company for days on end, not needing to think about the next flight or the next video call or the next tearful goodbye.

After they move in, they will sit on the scuffed hardwood floor and eat pizza (they’re waiting on a sofa and dining furniture and a bed frame and so much more to arrive, but they have a mattress and each other and that’s enough.)

Tooru will over-exaggerate about the pain of the bruises on his shins from moving just so Hajime will kiss each of them better (Hajime knows Tooru is lying; he indulges him anyway). Hajime will pester Tooru about properly unpacking for weeks to come.

But Hajime doesn’t actually scold. He understands that it’s weird for Tooru to fully unpack, to think that he doesn’t need to live out of his suitcase anymore when he sees Hajime anymore.

It takes a few weeks to not only physically unpack but to mentally settle in—to accept the fact that this is their home; to accept it as fact and reality and not as a wondrous dream come to life.

It happens one night: when there are finally no more cardboard boxes in sight and Hajime and Tooru can curl up on /their/ couch and scroll aimlessly on /their/ TV in /their/ beautifully airy living room.

Hajime turns to Tooru, runs a hand through his hair, and says,

“Welcome home.”

// end

(can you tell that I just finished moving into a new place and I just wanted to iwaoify it hehe 💛)