Chaos.  There was complete and utter chaos out there.  So Mitsui, seeking some solitude, went to the place he considered his refuge.  His sanctuary.  The place where he would be safe even while the world was going crazy outside.

He went and locked himself into the bathroom.

This place was where he did his best thinking. There were lots of memories within the sterile, white tiled walls of this room and in many others just like this one.  Years ago, he had worked up the courage to confront his beloved Kogure with his feelings for him in another bathroom, one in his childhood home.  Just before each of his games, he spent a few minutes inside a bathroom cubicle trying to psyche himself up, and a week ago, he had made the life altering decision in here that was now the cause of the chaos outside...This was where he had decided that he was going to ask Kogure to finally move in with him, and this was where he was going to stay until things calmed down enough outside.

It seemed as though that stupid red head had another idea though.  The pounding on the door was relentless and he thought that the neighbors must have no trouble hearing Hanamichi's wails. "Oi!  Missy!  Dammit!  What are you up to in there?  Get your ass out here and help us with the glass man's bunch of crap!"

" Hey!  My stuff isn't a bunch of crap!"

" From what I've seen, they are!" Hanamichi replied, throwing himself against the door in a vain attempt to knock it off it's hinges.  " Oi!  Missy!  You're leaving us all out here to do all the work!  He's your boyfriend!  Not mine-"

" Thank God for that..." Kogure muttered under his breath.  He gave Rukawa a pitying glance.  He could only guess what it must be like for the poor guy.  Sure, his Hisashi could be difficult, but he didn't think he was quite as much trouble as the red head.

" I just ignore him." Rukawa revealed.

" Get your ass out here and help us move the glass man's stuff around, dammit!  I mean, who the hell do you think you are?  I'm a big basketball star now so I can't do any work!  I'll leave my incredibly big-hearted friends to do that!  Is that what you're thinking Missy?  Cos that isn't the way things work around here!  What the hell are you doing in there anyways? You've been in there for some thirty minutes!  Are you jerking off or something?  Is that what you did before every game in High School?  Is that why-"  Hanamichi's tirade was cut short when a paper fan was brought down over his head.

" Hanamichi Sakuragi!  Don't be disgusting!"

" You need to keep your fiancé under control, Ryota."  Hanamichi growled, rubbing the top of his head gingerly.

" You need to teach your boyfriend how to shut up, Rukawa." Ayako told the silent as ever Rukawa, watching the scene from the sofa.

" I don't think anyone can do that."

" What'd you say, stupid Kitsune?"

With a soft sigh, Rukawa got up on his feet, took Hanamichi by the hand and coaxed him from his post by the bathroom door, reassuring him that he could pound Mitsui as much as he wanted to later on, once he emerged.  He seriously doubted that the guy would even remember the incident a few minutes from then.

Once they had gone, Kogure tapped gently on the bathroom door.  " You have been in there for a while, Hisashi-kun."

" I'll be out soon. I promise, Ko-chan."

" Fine.  Make sure you are.  All the guys are out here and it really is sort of unfair, you hiding out in there!"

" Yes, Ko-chan." Mitsui smiled softly as he listened to Kogure's shuffling footsteps fading away.  They had finally taken a big step.  His Ko-chan was going to be with him all the time now, a pleasant prospect.  He had made exactly the right decision, though at the time he had been incredibly nervous, wondering if they were ready for such a move.  " We've made it, Ko-chan...I really think we have..." Through everything, through laughter, tears, sadness and happiness, defeat and victory, they had made it to where they were now.  With a soft smile on his face, Mitsui recalled the events of the past that stuck out in his mind, the events that had made their love even stronger as they went through them together...
 

Looks like we made it,
Look how far we've come, my baby.
We mighta took the long way,
But we knew we'd get there someday...
 

" What are you looking at?" Mitsui demanded of the man that sat on the table across from theirs.

" You're that famous basketball player, aren't you?"

" Yes, I'm a basketball player and I guess that I must be sort of famous if a cretin like you can recognize me while I'm here having dinner with my friend..." Usually, he liked having people recognize him, it was nice to be noticed and it helped the ego a bit too.  One of it's drawbacks was that he tended to be disturbed in the middle of very important things by people, as was happening now, just when he had been about to broach the subject that had been in his mind with Kogure.

" Hisashi-kun..." Kogure demurred, giving his head a slight shake.  He was always lecturing Mitsui on how he should always be nice to fans no matter how bad his mood was.

He sighed theatrically.  " Look, I'm sorry."  He told the man, " It's just that I'm sort of in the middle of something really important here with my friend.  Do you mind?"

" Not at all, I understand."  There was a pleasant smile on the man's face as his gaze went over Kogure, taking in the soft, perfectly formed features and his slim young body, " Cute boyfriend you have!"

Mitsui's eyes narrowed at the obvious look over that the guy was giving his Kogure.  Only he had the right to look at his Ko-chan like that!  " Yes, he is cute and yes, he is mine."

Kogure snickered at this.  " I love it when you get all possessive." He commented.

" If you weren't so damn cute then maybe I wouldn't have to be..."

" I'll take that as a compliment."

" You shouldn't.  It really is a problem for me."  Mitsui told him, toying around with the food on his plate.  " Every time I go on the road with the team I worry about all the guys that would be hitting on you..."

" What you're saying is that you don't trust me on my own." Kogure watched Mitsui squirming in his seat, enjoying his discomfort and wondering how he was going to get himself out of this one, not that he was really in any trouble.  He just had a way of putting his foot in his mouth.

" I didn't mean that!  I...Well, I'm just worried that me being away so much will affect our relationship, you know?  Rukawa told me that Hanamichi's been complaining about being left alone all the time, the guy's afraid that he's going to lose his do'aho, though he doesn't show it, but he can't do anything about it because basketball is his life!  It's-"

" Hanamichi won't leave Rukawa.  We both know that.  Just like we both know that nothing in this world could ever make me leave you." Kogure told him softly, placing his hand over Mitsui's own.  " Hanamichi understands that even though sometimes, Rukawa pays more attention to the game than he does to him, he's still the Kitsune's number one priority, that at the end of the day, he'll still come back to him.  That's exactly the way things are with the two of us.  It's your dream.  I'd rather die than keep you from obtaining your dream."

" That's all that I really want in the world, you know.  To come back home to you.  Always."

" What are you getting at, Hisashi?"  Kogure demanded, his eyes narrowing slightly.  " Has your mother talked you into trying to convince me to have one of those 'wedding ceremonies' again?  Because I've told you before that I don't need that kind of thing to be reassured of your love."

" Now why would you think that?"

" Because every time your mother looks at me I get the weird feeling that she's picturing me in front of the altar in a wedding dress."

" You in a wedding dress, huh?"  Mitsui couldn't suppress the rather lewd grin that developed on his face.  " You're a pretty boy...It'll suit you, I think.  Very pretty...Maybe we can try that out later on..."

" You're sick!  You really are, you know!"  Kogure exclaimed, shaking his head disbelievingly.

" And that's what attracted you to me in the first place, wasn't it?"

" I don't believe you..." Kogure took a drink of his wine to hide his grin.  " You and your sick little fantasies!  First there was your obsession with me in my old Shohuku uniform.  Now you want me in a wedding dress!"

Mitsui shrugged.  " I'd want you in anything, to tell you the truth." He told him, " But that's besides the point!  I've been thinking a lot lately-"

" A rare occurrence for a dumb jock like you."

" Are you determined to ruin the mood here?" Mitsui demanded, a frown marring his handsome face.  "Maybe I should have just cooked something up at my apartment instead of taking you out here..."

" That would have ruined the mood even more!" Kogure told him, unable to resist getting a poke in about his culinary skills.

" Kogure!"

" I'm sorry!"

" Look, as I've said, I've been thinking..."  Mitsui glared at him, daring him to make a comment at that one more time.  " And I just woke up one morning thinking, wow, my apartment is big."

" Do you have to rub it in?"  Kogure demanded, smiling.  His own apartment came nowhere near the size of Mitsui's, though he liked it at his own home perfectly well.  He thought it was cozy.  Mitsui thought it was a hole in the wall.  Unfit for his precious Kogure, and had often offered to get him another apartment.

" And I just thought it was really far too much space for just one person, you know.  And we've been together for a really long time already.  Years and years.  So  I thought maybe this was the next step that the two of us should take, you know..." Mitsui muttered, his voice dropping so low that Kogure had to come in nearer just to hear him.  " So I was wondering if you'd like to move in with me...That way, whenever I come home, I come home to you...Just like I've always wanted..."

There was a tense moment of silence when Kogure's face was completely unreadable.  " My parents are going to have a fit over this one..."

" I don't think it can be any worse than the time that they found out about us..."

" Yeah, but it's still going to be messy."

" So...That's a yes?" Mitsui asked cautiously.

Smiling, Kogure half rose in his seat, leaned over the table and gave the very surprised Mitsui a quick kiss on the lips.  " Yeah, it's a yes."
 

They said, I bet they'll never make it
But just look at us holding on.
We're still together, still going strong...
 

" What the hell is this, Hisashi?" His father demanded, his face red with fury.  He waved the newspaper in front of his son's face.  " You better explain yourself, boy!  Explain this disgusting behavior!"

" There's nothing disgusting about it." He retorted, pushing the newspaper away.  " I love him and he loves me.  There's nothing wrong with that!"

" Nothing wrong with that? Nothing wrong with that?" His father repeated, a pained expression on his face as his gaze fell on the picture at the cover of the tabloid.   " This is unnatural!  Completely unnatural!  And for you to flaunt it like this!  For this picture to be plastered all over Japan!"

" You think I wanted that to happen?" Mitsui demanded, burying his face in his hands.  " You think I wanted a private moment of mine like that being made public?  I don't think so, father.  I'm as surprised as you are..."  He hadn't thought anyone was there the day that he had Kogure had taken a walk out by the harbor.  So on the spur of the moment, he had given him a quick kiss, right there, out in the open, under the sunset.  The two of them were usually so careful about such things but he had let his guard down at the beauty of that afternoon and they had been spotted.  Spotted and photographed.

It hadn't taken long for the pictures to be published.  The news that one of the up and coming stars of the Japanese basketball society had a gay lover was a big one.  God.  How was he and Kogure going to get through this one?  He hadn't been able to reach Kogure as hard as he had tried.  His phone had apparently been disconnected and as he was just about to head over to the guy's home, his parents had made an appearance on his doorstep yelling up a storm.  At least his father had.  His mother had kept quiet, a sad look in his eyes that hurt Mitsui even more than all of his father's yelling.

" You've done it, boy!  You've finally shamed the family!  And here I was, thinking that maybe your life was finally going smoothly..."

" It is, father."  Mitsui told him softly.  " As long as Kogure's still with me, things will be all right..."

" Have you considered the kind of damage that this is going to cause to your basketball career?"

He had, actually.  That was why he had kept it secret for so long.  He hadn't wanted to be subjected to the kind of scrutiny that Rukawa and Hanamichi had been when they had been found out.  " I don't see how my sexuality could possibly affect my career as long as I keep on playing my best.  The fact that I'm gay won't have any effect on my game whatsoever, if that's what you're thinking."

" It's not too late...You can still straighten yourself out, you know."

" I don't need any straightening out.  I love Kogure.  He's the one that I want to spend the rest of my life with, as strange as that may seem to you."

" We can't let you do this.  Your mother and I are very disappointed in you, Mitsui Hisashi.  Very-"

" I can never be disappointed in you, Hisashi..." His mother spoke up softly, as usual, sticking up for him.  He had never loved his mother more than at that moment.

" Hoshiko!" His father snapped.

" He's our son and we have to stick by him no matter what." His mother declared, coming to a stand beside him and wrapping an arm supportively around his waist.  " And if this is what he feels is right for him, if that Kogure makes him happy, then I don't see what problems we could possibly have with this!  He's already done so much to make us proud, darling!  So much.  He deserves his happiness."

" It's unnatural."

" Father, it's the most natural thing in the world to me."

" I can't accept this.  I won't!" His father declared, throwing the rolled up paper onto the floor.  " It's disgusting and nothing will ever come out of it! Nothing, do you hear me?  Because it's completely against the law of nature!  As long as you insist on carrying on like this, Hisashi, I won't look onto you as my son!"

Mitsui swallowed back the lump in his throat.  He had expected anger, yes.  But not disgust, not this much scorn.  " I'm sorry you feel that way, father."

He watched as the man that had gotten him hooked on basketball in the first place, stormed out of the room, his face set.  His mother stayed for a while, giving him a sad smile.  Before she went, she told him, "It will be all right, Hisashi.  He didn't mean it.  You were always a favorite of his and he'll come around to seeing things your way.  It was just a shock to find out the way that we did, but he'll come around.  Don't worry."

You're still the one I run to,
The one that I belong to.
You're still the one I want for life.
You're still the one that I love,
The only one I dream of.
You're still the one I kiss goodnight.
 

After that little episode with his parents, the first person that he had gone to, of course, was Kogure.  A somewhat similar scene had played out in his own apartment so he found the perfect companion to share his misery with.  Their parents had had surprisingly similar reactions and they had spent hours laughing over it, crying over it, wondering if things would ever be normal between the two of them again once the furor died down.

That night that he had spent with Kogure securely tucked within his arms, the night that they had spent talking, pondering over what the future might hold for the two of them, had made him even more certain of  the fact that Kogure was his first, his last and his only.  It made his resolve to make things between them work out even more firm.  It made him even more determined to have his Kogure by his side from that moment on.

It was then that he was certain that his heart belonged to the bespectacled young man who had gone through so much with him.  Who had been such an important part of his life since the first day that he had met him.  He hadn't believed in love at first sight before, but one look at Kogure and all of his former cynicism about love and life in general had disappeared.

Kogure was the only one for him.  He had no doubt of that now.  Not after everything.

There was a soft rapping on the bathroom door.  " Hisashi-kun!  You promised!" Came the soft, whine from outside.

His lips pulled up into a smile at the sound of his lover's voice.  With a few quick strides, he had reached the door, thrown it open and engulfed Kogure in a tight hug, as though he never wanted to let the guy go, which he didn't.  He never, never would.
 

Ain't nothing better.
We beat the odds together.
I'm glad we didn't listen.
Look at what we would be missing.
They said, I bet, they'll never make it.
But just look at us holding on.
We're still together, still going strong.
 

" What's this for?" Kogure asked, blinking in surprise.

" For everything, Ko-chan.  For everything that we ever had to go through to get to this moment."

Kogure felt tears stinging his eyes.  " I...I take it your happy with me moving in and all."

" Happier than you can ever imagine."

" Well, so am I."  Kogure whispered, giving him a gentle squeeze.  " I guess this is what we've been working towards all there years, huh?"

" Yeah.  I guess it is."

" Hey, Rukawa." Hanamichi couldn't take his eyes off the insanely happy couple a few yards away from them all.

" Hmm?"

" Don't you think it's about time we did something like this too?"

" Hug each other outside the bathroom?"

" No.  I've got plenty of space at my place.  Why don't you move in with me?"  He demanded, his tone suggesting that this was more of a command than a request.

" Your place is a pigsty."

" Then what about yours?"

" Then my place would be a pigsty."

Hanamichi scowled.  " You can just tell me if you don't like the idea, you know."

Rukawa's lips quirked up into one of his rare smiles.  " I was just teasing, do'aho." He told him, pressing his lips gently against Hanamichi's cheek.  " But let's talk about it later on, okay?  This is Kogure and Mitsui's moment."

" Welcome to your home, Kogure..." Mitsui whispered to him, before the two of them walked over to where their friends were gathered, their arms wrapped around each other's waists, identical grins on their faces.
 

I'm so glad we made it
Look how far we've come, my baby.
 

~*~ The End ~*~