Silent Acceptance

On His 21st Birthday...

Katou grunted as he rose from moving yet another box. His back groaned in response.

“Why didn't I go with Yukihito-kun to pick up the car instead of Iwaki-san?” he asked Sawa.

The silver-haired okama laughed at his friend's complaint. “Because you can't resist a damsel in distress? I couldn't very well ask Yukihito to help me out right now. He'd miss out on getting his present.”

Today was Yukihito's 21st birthday, and the plan to celebrate was quite simple. The four of them were going to dinner and then attending the premiere of Sawa's newest film project. He was quite proud of the film, given than his dearest love had a major part in it, collaborating with him behind the camera. He was shaping up to be well known photographer in his own right.

But before any celebrating could begin, Yukihito had to get his gift. Sawa recruited Katou and Iwaki to help him with a clever ruse. He'd driven his car to their home and claimed to Yukihito that it had to go to the shop. The car that Iwaki and Yukihito were on their way to pick up was a brand new one, just for the quiet young man. Sawa declined coming along, claiming that he needed more time to get ready for dinner, and volunteered Katou to stay behind to keep him company.

For some ungodly reason, “keep Sawa company” involved moving a few boxes from the upstairs living room to the basement. Those boxes were full of what Sawa called “old memories that needed to go in order to make room for new ones”, and they each weighed a ton. Katou took the first two in stride, purposely ignoring the various leather and chain S&M implements that took up most of the basement space. There are just some details of people's sex lives one just didn't need to know. It was the fourth box that prompted his back to protest.

“And besides,” Sawa continued, leaning on a padded bench. “Yukihito-kun and Iwaki-kun get along so well. I can just imagine them in the car together, identical intense looks like this.” He attempted an intense look, his brows furrowing together and rose red lips straightening into a line. It looked utterly ridiculous.

Katou snickered at the expression. “No, no, Iwaki-san doesn't look like that at all. He looks more like this.” His attempt managed to look less ridiculous, but not by much since he couldn't stop laughing

Catching his breath a little, Katou noticed that the box he just put down had popped open. Inside, right on top of a lot of junk was a small photo album with a clear cover. Slipped under cover was a picture of a young man, about Yukihito's age, in a police uniform. Sharp gray eyes stared directly at the camera as he saluted unsmiling. Katou had to squint a bit in order to read the name embossed on the name tag; “Sawa”.

“Ah,” His friend murmured behind his shoulder. “Uniforms always make the wearer look quite handsome, don't you think? It had been ages since I've seen that picture.”

Katou stammered a bit, embarrassed at being caught being so nosy. “This is you, right?”

“Why, yes. I've told you two that I was on the force for a few years, didn't I? This was from my graduation from the academy. My parents were so proud,” Sawa's smile wavered a bit before brightening again. “Oh! Since I'm sharing this memory with you, take a look at the next picture here.” He opened the book to the first page. In it, Sawa looked much less composed on account of a shorter female with the same unique shade of hair tackling him. The young woman was kissing him on the cheek and reaching for his hat at the same time, making the picture look all the more comical with so much action going on at once.

“That's Yukie, Yukihito's mother. Isn't she beautiful? We were so close, though sometimes it was as if I had two mothers; we were 15 years apart. Then until she moved away with her husband long before Yukihito was born, but she insisted on being there that day to keep me on my toes. Speaking of our birthday boy, here he is...”

The very next picture was of Sawa with an arm around a 10 year old Yukihito's shoulder. The boy was grinning with the same police hat on his head. Katou tried his best to assimilate that photo with the reserved Yukihito that he knew now. It was about as hard as trying to assimilate the older man in the photo with the grinning crossdresser behind him.

“You want to see something unbearably adorable?” Sawa took that album away and found another in the open box, flipping the pages and showing Katou a photo of a much younger version of himself awkwardly holding a toddler aged Yukihito. “I became an uncle when I was only 10 and for the longest time I was scared to touch him when he was a baby. I thought I'd break him. So this is my first time holding him, almost a year after here was born.”

“That's so cute,” Katou replied. “Some people like looking at their lover's baby pictures, but not a whole lot can say that they were there.”

They went on to the next picture, and the ones after that, with Sawa giving commentary as he and Yukihito got older in each shot. They were looking at a photo of the pair dressed for a festival two years ago when they heard the front door open above them.

“Nagisa-san!” Yukihito called out from upstairs. “Where are you?” His voice belied a hint of excitement.

Katou closed the album and gave it back to Sawa. “Well, looks like they're back. Let's go see how he likes his new car,” he said as he sprinted up the stairs.

Sawa took one more peek at the album. The very last page had his favorite shot.

Yukihito, aged 16, sitting folded in a chair pouring over a novel. At the angle that the picture was taken, the cover was easily seen.

“Gojou”, or “The Five Desires”, by Sawa Nagisa. His first novel being read by this first and favorite fan. Two of his greatest projects together, and it took him long enough to achieve them both.

“Sawa-san, come on! He's smiling just like in that first picture!”

“Katou,” Iwaki chided him, “you're embarrassing him...”

Placing the album on the top of the box, he followed the laughing voices upstairs. He would have to remember to take that picture back upstairs once he returned home.

Some memories deserved to be kept close.

Author's Notes:

Welcome all, to my take of the story of how Nagisa and Yukihito Sawa get together. I've always been very fascinated by their dynamic, and saddened that we only get glimpses of their relationship in the main story (the “Mother's Rouge” side story never fails to choke me up a little and “Swissland” never fails to give me the giggles). So I got curious as to what I could cook up about their past. I'm basically trying to fill in the gap between them moving out and Sawa starting on writing the novel Haru wo Daite Ita. I'm going to assume that he didn't make the jump to his eccentric crossdressing writer self any faster than the two of them could make the jump from uncle/nephew to lovers. It will take some time.

Warning: I make a lot of assumptions based on what information we know from reading the manga in this story (example: what Yukihito is doing now that he's of legal age). I hope that I can make them make sense to the reader.

And here's my first assumption: exactly where did our duo move to when they left home in Mother's Rouge?

“You want to see something unbearably adorable?”