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Ryouta felt an elbow nudge his arm and he looked up from his phone to look at his father, only for the older man to gesture with his chin.
Ryouta looked forward across the room where a man stood. The man was slightly younger than his dad, the top of his head a pale shade of pink while the bottom half of it was white with age. There were wrinkles on his face but, ironically, it didn’t make him look tired or weary. Instead, they seemed to meld with the laugh lines on his face that made his face brighter with every smile. He was talking to one of the staff and obviously enjoyed it seeing as how both of them were laughing at something the man said.
“There’s two of them. Which one am I looking at?” was Ryouta’s quip even if he already know who is dad was talking about, to which he received a smack to the head. If his father was in his younger years, that smack would’ve been stronger. Still, he was his father’s son so he made sure to make his discomfort known. “Ow! What the hell, old man!”
“Don’t be such an idiot, you know who I’m talking about!” was his father’s gruff response. “That cute one with the pink hair.”
Ryouta gave his dad his best deadpan look. “You can’t be serious.”
Ryouta’s response was his father’s crimson eyes still trained on the pink-haired man at the other side of the room saying, “I should ask him out.”
Looking incredulous, Ryouta whisper-shouted, “Ew, no! You’re not doing that! You’re a 77-year-old old man! You can’t be flirting at your age!”
Sukuna, all in his 77-year-old glory, despite his mop of pink hair having turned gray, still had that mean streak and that glint in his crimson eyes that could rip any younger man to shreds. “The fuck do you think you are to stop me? Now get me something to introduce myself with! Hurry!”
Unfortunately for Sukuna, Ryouta was half of him, looked very much like he did when he was his son’s age, and inherited his mean personality. So the threat didn’t do anything to the younger. “Are you blind? That man looks like an angel! Is possibly an angel incarnate! There’s no way he’d want to date your sorry ass!”
Sukuna, because he was petty despite his age, took his walking cane and poked Ryouta’s leg none too gently despite his protests, “Get. me. something. NOW!”
“Ow! Ow! Fine, fine, dammit!” came Ryouta’s complaints before standing where he sat and grumbling under his breath about old horny men.
Yuuji was just arranging the spread of food on the table when a hand holding a pink flower appeared in his line of vision. He looked at it for a surprised moment before turning to the owner of said hand, finding himself having to look up at the older man in front of him.
The man had gray hairs, had a cane to support him on one hand, and had a bit of a hunch. Despite that, he still looked tall and imposing, his crimson eyes still held power and his entire stance still screamed respect.
Yuuji’s hand hovered near the flower. “This is…?”
“Well, if it isn't too obvious, brat, it’s a flower,” came the bite from the older man that made Yuuji’s eyes widen in, ironically, a delightful surprise.
“What the hell, dad!” came the loudly whispered admonishment as another man stepped forward. Yuuji had to look up at him too, just about the same height as his father, which meant the father was taller than this in his prime. “That’s not how you do it!”
The younger man, probably around his mid-forties, turned to Yuuji with an apologetic smile. He looked so much like his father, same eyes, same built, and probably same hair too if it wasn’t for the graying that came with age.
“I’m sorry about my dad. He’s uncouth but if you look inside really, really, really deep, he can be — ow!” the younger man snarled at his father after a walking cane found his leg again. It was obvious the younger man took most of his physical features from his dad, seeing as how both of them looked so much alike with how they bared their fangs at each other.
“I’m helping you, old man!”
“Helping me? You were destroying my moves!”
“Moves? You call that a ‘move’? No wonder you’re single in your old age!”
“I don’t wanna hear that from someone who got dumped!”
“I didn’t get dumped!”
“Then why did your wife leave you, huh?!”
Yuuji couldn’t help it anymore and burst out laughing, stopping father and son from their tirade and turning towards him. The son had a sheepish look on his face. Sukuna, however, found himself enamoured at the sight in front of him. The other man’s laugh was nostalgically melodious, his golden eyes that glistened with unshed tears looked vaguely familiar, and the glow on his face made Sukuna feel as if something important that he had forgotten was about to resurface.
It was as if…
“Oh, I’m so sorry.”
Like a sharp slice of a knife, Sukuna found himself again and shook his head to clear his thoughts.
“I hope I didn’t offend you,” the other man said. “The two of you were so cute to look at.”
“I AM NOT CUTE!” came their united exclamation that only made them look at each other with distaste that made Yuuji giggle even more.
“I take it that flower is for me?” Yuuji inquired looking at the flower that had bent while it was on the older man’s grasp. It only drooped lower when Sukuna let go of it as soon as it was in Yuuji's hand.
Sukuna winced. “I’ll get you a new one.”
But Yuuji only gave him a smile so big he had to close his eyes as he shook his head. “Mm-mm. I like this just the way it is. Perfectly pretty yet wonderfully imperfect.”
“Well,” Sukuna cleared his throat and shifted from one leg. “If you say so.”
“Oh god.” He heard Ryouta grumble beside him and he almost forgot the devil beside him.
“Why don’t you scamper along and make yourself scarce, junior?” came Sukuna’s no nonsense command.
Ryouta only gave his father the stink eye before turning a polite smile to Yuuji and saying, “If he says or does anything bad, you’re welcome to slap him. I’m warning you, he is a horny old man.”
“Ryouta!”
Yuuuji just giggled behind the flower. “I know my way around horny old men. Don’t worry.”
Ryouta nodded, gave one final warning look at his dad before leaving.
“He seems sweet,” Yuuji said.
“He’s a handful is what he is,” grumbled Sukuna.
“Perhaps he took after his dad?” Yuuji said, eyes alight with mischief, something that made Sukuna smirk.
“Is that what you think so, brat?”
“Yes, it is what I think so. And it’s not ‘brat.’” Yuuji smiled. “It’s Yuuji.”
Even if he tried to stop it, perhaps to look cool in front of the younger one in front of him, the corners of Sukuna’s lips upturned, too. “Sukuna.”
“Are you going to keep that?”
Yuuji, who was standing outside with his flower in hand, turned to see Ryouta coming towards him. Yuuji looked at the pink flower, still drooping where it was bent, smiling. “Yes, I will. It’s not always that I get something like this. And it’s not always that I’m asked out on a date despite my age.”
A look of sadness crossed Ryouta’s face. “You deserve more than that.”
Yuuji’s smile turned to understanding. “He came to ask me out, didn’t he?”
Ryouta shook his head. “He still didn’t remember you.”
Yuuji reached out a shaking hand to gently cup Ryouta’s face. “But he remembered you.”
Ryouta just stared at Yuuji. “I don’t care if he doesn’t remember me as long as he remembers you. The vows you made, the life you lived—”
“He only had his eyes on me despite everyone in that room. That has to count for something, doesn’t it? Tomorrow comes and he’ll forget me again and that’s fine. That’s our reality now. But I know deep inside he will never forget me, or you, or the grandchildren you’ve given him.”
“And yet he remembered my wife leaving me.”
Yuuji laughed. Ryouta’s wife did leave him once after rumors of Ryouta’s alleged infidelity began spreading. Only, it wasn’t because of Ryouta that she left. No. It was to find the bitch who dared to spread rumors about her husband in a bid to tear their family apart. She didn’t tell Ryouta about it because she didn’t want him to be labeled an accomplice in case she murdered someone. Ryouta’s wife was a badass.
“I don’t know how you handle this, mom,” Ryouta confessed. “I don’t know how you can live with your own husband slowly forgetting about you.”
“I’ll just have to remember for the both of us. And pray that he will remember me again tomorrow.”
“I’ll seriously smack him in the head.”
Yuuji laughed as he looped his hand around Ryouta’s arm, mother and son starting their trek towards the car parked nearby. “No, you won’t. Now, let’s go. Ryuuji doesn't like to be kept waiting in school. I promised him we’ll get ice cream today.”
Ryouta let out an exasperated sigh. “Mom, you gotta stop spoiling my children.”
“That’s what grandparents do, Ryouta. Don’t worry, you’ll be the same to your own grandchildren.”
“No, I will not.”
“I can’t wait for you to eat your own words when that happens.”
Ryouta grumbled again, making Yuuji laugh. Arm in arm, mother and son made their way back.
Yuuji would come back tomorrow with the knowledge that, despite everything, his husband never stopped loving him.