Kapitel 58: Gakushuu comes back for something he left behind

"I'm tired," Gakushuu told his cat.

Mirai yawned in his face.

Gakushuu dropped his face on his pillow.

He was sitting (read: lying) in the newly furnished building that he had just finished showing off to his investors, and there was a wonderful couch one of his fellow founders had decided to get for all of them, which was basically the best investment of his life.

The couch was heavenly. He didn't want to get up, and clearly neither did Mirai.

They were on the other side of the world from Karma and Yuki and out of the four, only Mirai seemed to be happy where he was. He was having a blast, scratching up people who bothered him, getting his peace when he sneaked away into a little "cat space" Gakushuu had made in the newly furnished building.

Karma had spent a year in Harvard, and it had been their most unproductive and yet interesting year. It wasn't to say they hadn't learnt everything they could get their hands on, but also that they had done so many different projects, experiments and innovative things that were outside the required curriculums that Karma had actually been threatened to end his year early.

But, of course, they were smart people, surrounded by even more smart people, so they were mostly just joking. They wouldn't kick someone that brilliant off. Though they could certainly do without Karma's pranks.

But it had been Gakushuu's best year. They had lots of sex, and almost as much money.

They had started a joke about Karma going back to a low paying government job after his far more successful hitch with tech. Gakushuu had laughed so hard he started crying, and then he made Karma the first investor in his company.

(Not that he needed it.)

But what he liked the most of their time together was the time they spent away from everything. Where the world went quiet and it felt like it was just them. The sunset in front and their hands in the other's.

Where Gakushuu could just be Gakushuu, Karma's lovable boyfriend.

Gakushuu didn't have to be anything else for Karma.

He had obligations to people, jobs to do, expectations to fulfill, but Karma's expectations for Gakushuu had never been about him getting a 100 or providing money for someone for something.

Karma never expected things from Gakushuu. He could choose to leave the business world entirely and as long as he was still doing what he liked, Karma wouldn't be bothered at all.

On the other hand, he would be delighted to have a full time partner to do all kinds of crazy things with. He would probably want one even if he turned 50 years old though, so Gakushuu wasn't about to let the fate of the world depend on his mischievous hands again.

He unrepentantly and completely loved the other man.

From the moment he had seen Karma in his class, from the time he forged a bond with him turning it slowly into something so strong that it wouldn't break, he had always always loved Karma.

It felt like he always had.

It felt hard to remember a time when Gakushuu didn't actually have Karma. It was over a decade ago now.

Gakushuu suddenly had the desperate urge to go back to Japan. Well, no. Nothing sudden about it.

He loved his company, no doubt. But Karma was about to enter the Department of Finance. His interview was in a couple of weeks, and Gakushuu wished he could be there with him.

"Miraiiii," Gakushuu whined to, upset. "Why can't we have nice things?"

Mirai nudged his hand and Gakushuu started scratching his head.

"No, I suppose you can. It's just me who can't." Gakushuu sighed heavily, burying his face into the couch.

"I should get some work done instead," he told himself. He liked working. He liked coding. He liked to talk to people.

It was just when he got too deep into his life without Karma, he started to miss him far too much.

He wanted to see him slick back his hair. He wanted to see his eyes glitter in the sunlight. He yearned for things he couldn't have.

They haven't managed to talk as much because Karma was busy.

They made time, as they always did, for each other. But even then. Long distance sucked.

He was definitely moving to Japan as soon as his company took off from Silicon Valley. People would probably be surprised by the fact the HQ wasn't even there, but Gakushuu still held the majority shares so his opinion mattered, unlike theirs.

Then he raised his head.

Actually, wasn't this the perfect time to leave?

He was already done with most of the promotions, and they just had the work that his employees could finish up. A little bit of debugging was left after most of the major things had already been looked over by Gakushuu himself.

He had time, the resources and the willingness.

So why was he wasting time he could have spent with Karma?

"Come on Mirai," he grinned, life sparking back into his eyes. He was tired but he had a plane ride to look ahead to. He could sleep later, when he was wrapped around the love of his life and comfortable with his decisions in life again. "Let's go see Karma and Yuki."

Mirai leapt from the couch at the names, knowing he avoided saying them unless they were actually going. Gakushuu laughed.

"I know, we missed those two, huh?" he teased.

And maybe he would make it in time for Karma's annual class E meetups. Significant others had always been welcome, and especially if it was Gakushuu, who had almost gone through half the things with them and helped them in various ways thanks to Karma.

(Though they weren't even aware that Chiho and Gakushuu were the same person because Karma wanted to see how long it would take them to realize.)

(They held the oddest misconceptions about Karma's relationships and Gakushuu was always surrounded by people that it was impossible to tell, not to mention, Chiho was clearly someone involved with the underground and rarely ever seen aside from with Karma.)

(Gakushuu found it as funny as Karma and left things as vague as he officially could. But he didn't want to anymore. Life was short, and he intended to be with Karma forever.)