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i.
From the very first day that Mikage Reo meets Nagi Seishiro, he adores him.
He adores him like the ocean adores the moon, ready to ebb and flow around his stationary gravity. He adores him instantly and without fail, like the sun rises and sets every day, and he adores him openly, blindingly, and this, too, is like how the sun rises and sets.
One day, when Ba-ya arrives to pick Reo up from kindergarten, bringing the limousine to a smooth stop, she sees her small charge already hauling over another boy, presumably to meet her. As fast as his legs can carry him without stumbling, Reo closes the gap between them, and presents his newfound treasure in the way he might’ve presented a trophy.
“Ba-ya!” Reo announces excitedly. He's breathless, proud. “This is Nagi Seishiro!”
Nagi Seishiro peeks out at Ba-ya with big, dark eyes from underneath a mop of messy white hair. In his free hand, the one that isn’t in Reo’s, he’s clutching a stuffed rabbit. He stares at Ba-ya, unsure, and clings a little tighter to Reo. If Ba-ya were anyone else, assumptions may have filled her head, but all Ba-ya needs to know is this: this boy is special to Reo, and so, he will be special to her as well.
“It is lovely to meet you, Young Master Seishiro,” Ba-ya says, bowing down. “You may call me Ba-ya.”
Nagi whispers something in Reo’s ear — which Ba-ya deciphers as hey, Reo, she looks like a witch — and Reo giggles, whispering back loudly. "That's because she is! If you don't keep playing with me, she'll put a spell on you!"
"Eh, but I'd play with you anyway," Nagi says honestly, brow furrowing. "We promised, right?"
"Pinky promised," Reo says seriously, and the two of them lock their pinkies again, transported off into their own little world. Ba-ya doesn't bother to hide her smile (nor her laugh, when Reo solemnly confesses that she isn't actually a witch, and won't curse Nagi).
Young Master Reo is having fun, Ba-ya thinks with a wave of relief.
Reo, to the surprise of his family, had admitted to finding kindergarten boring. He played well with others and was fairly popular, but had yet to invite any of his classmates over. By the end of the day, Reo was quiet and subdued, and usually slept in the limousine on the way home before putting a smile on for his parents. Now, he seems wide awake, overflowing with energy.
“Can Nagi come with us today?” Reo asks. “And then… tomorrow too? Every tomorrow?”
Nagi nods, and his fingers have seemed to loosen on his stuffed rabbit. Now, he still appears a little shy, but a little curious, too, looking at Ba-ya a little more closely. When she looks at him, he doesn't look away.
“Did your parents say yes?” Ba-ya asks gently.
“Mhm.” Nagi procures a phone from his pocket and shows off an approving text message from his parents.
And so it begins: Nagi, at Reo’s side; Reo, in Nagi's orbit — today, and every tomorrow after.
ii.
Summer does little to separate Nagi and Reo; Ba-ya continues to shuttle them to and from soccer camp, each other’s houses, and wherever else they want to go. They go to the arcade, to festivals, to the park, to the beach; Ba-ya hadn’t realized just how much distance that Reo kept around him until Nagi came to fill it, and now, no space around them is left untouched by laughter.
It’s not a surprise, then, that one day, when she picks them up from soccer camp, they have a proposal to share with her. In the way that they do whenever they want something, Nagi and Reo take one of her hands, and look up at her with their most winsome, pleading expressions. The pause before they speak is full of promise, and Ba-ya sighs, helplessly endeared. “Yes, young masters?”
“I wanna marry Reo,” Nagi tells Ba-ya. With his free hand, he takes Reo’s, linking their fingers.
“And I want to marry Nagi!” Reo immediately pipes up, swinging both of the hands in his grip. “Can we? Please please please please?”
“Not yet, Young Master Reo." It's Ba-ya's enduring professionalism that keeps her from dissolving into laugher. No, she is made of tougher stuff than that, even if Reo's ensuing embarrassed tantrum would be quite the sight to see.
“But we said please!” We, not I. Reo’s long since begun speaking for the both of them, little prince that he is, but neither his confidence, nor Nagi’s unwavering loyalty, is misplaced.
“Do you know what it means to get married?” Amused, Ba-ya tries to turn them towards the car, where blankets, stuffed animals, and chilled sparkling juice await, but they dig their small heels into the ground, unwilling to be swayed until they get their answer.
“It means you’re together forever and ever and ever,” Reo exclaims. “That’s what I want for my birthday!”
Nagi tugs at Reo’s sleeve, somewhat urgent. “And a sleepover, Reo, don’t forget. At my house.”
“And a sleepover!” Reo says. “Pleeeeaseee? Please please please?” He nudges Nagi, incredibly obviously, and Nagi adds his own quiet “Please?” to the chorus.
“Well, since you asked so nicely,” Ba-ya says, unable to smother her slight laugh. “We can ask Young Master Seishiro’s parents about a sleepover.” The rest, she’ll leave for later, though she’s certain that they’ve already enacted some sort of ceremony at camp, if the wildflowers tucked in their hair and taped clumsily around their ring fingers mean anything.
“Yay!!!” Reo cheers, and Nagi echoes the sentiment softly, squeezing Ba-ya’s hand in thanks. Looking at his small, earnest face, Ba-ya cannot resist requesting, "Take care of Young Master Reo for me."
"I will," Nagi says seriously. "Cause Reo's gonna be my wife."
"I already am," Reo pouts, confirming the existence of their impromptu, soccer field wedding, and Reo's tendency to act first, and ask for forgiveness later. Ba-ya is truly helpless against her young master's will, and, evidently, so is Nagi.
For a boy who always gets what he wants, Ba-ya thinks that she’s never seen Reo be this excited about his birthday. It’s not Reo’s first time going to Nagi’s house, but it is his first time sleeping over. Early mornings and late evenings are the few hours that his parents have left over from running the illustrious Mikage Corporation, and they’re quite dedicated to spending that time with Reo.
When Reo’s birthday rolls around and it’s time to go to Nagi’s house, Ba-ya waits patiently as Reo’s parents bid him goodbye. Reo’s father has already reminded him about etiquette and impressions, and fussed over the singular wrinkle in his new outfit, and Reo had laughed and, likewise, straightened his father’s crumpled tie, a remnant of a long night pulled to spend more of the morning with Reo on his birthday.
“Young Master Reo is all grown up now,” Ba-ya gently teases, and Reo’s mother nods, smoothing over Reo’s hair for about the fifth time.
“My baby’s leaving me for the first time,” She croons, purple eyes shining. “Reo, don’t forget to call us or Ba-ya if you need anything, okay? Bring back lots of pictures to show us!”
“Okay,” Reo says easily, scooped up into her arms so his parents can kiss each of his cheeks. “Mama and Papa are going to make me late!”
“So responsible!” Reo’s mother cries into her husband’s shoulder, and it’s his turn to run a hand over her hair and Reo's with a proud that’s our son, drowned out by Reo complaining that they’re embarrassing him.
“He’ll be back before you know it,” Ba-ya assures them, and with that, she and Reo are on the familiar path to Nagi’s house.
Reo’s tumbling out the limousine door as soon as she opens it, with how he had been pressed excitedly against the window; upon seeing Nagi, already waiting outside, Reo brightens even more, taking off with a hasty goodbye to Ba-ya, much to her amusement. She waits to watch Nagi’s parents usher Nagi and Reo inside, and then she’s left alone with the quiet, and her own thoughts.
She can only hope that Reo will continue to be this happy, with Nagi right by his side. For her young charge, that's her only wish.
The next afternoon, Ba-ya returns to retrieve Reo.
Nagi’s parents invite her in — the boys have yet to fully wake up — and Ba-ya, undoubtedly curious at what she may witness, accepts.
The two children are slumped together on the couch, bundled up in soft blankets, peaceful amongst a disaster of their own creation: video games, toys, candy wrappers, empty pizza boxes, movies, and a misshapen blanket fort occupy the living room alongside them. On the table, there’s the remnants of a devoured cake, and Ba-ya can’t help but smile. It’s almost a shame to wake him, but Reo’s parents have missed him terribly, and Ba-ya’s sure that Nagi’s parents will need a reprieve, as well. While Nagi on his own is a rather placid child, he'll undoubtably go along with Reo's ideas — and when it comes to video games, it's Nagi who can play them endlessly, while Reo watches, transfixed.
She lightly shakes Reo’s shoulder, silently apologetic. After a few blinks and murmurs, Reo wakes up, peering out from the blankets. Nagi cracks an eye open too, sensing the motion, and then, with some effort, opens the other.
“Don’t go,” Nagi mumbles, clinging to Reo’s shirt, and she hears stifled awws from his parents.
“We’ll be seeing you tomorrow morning,” Ba-ya reminds him gently.
“Yeah, you can keep sleeping, Nagi!” Reo says, squeezing Nagi's hand and beaming. “Then the day will go faster!”
“They hardly slept,” Nagi’s father says, amused. “So that won’t be hard for him.”
“Nooo,” Nagi says as his mother detangles him from Reo, but he’s already falling back asleep in her arms.
After exchanging thanks and goodbyes, Ba-ya carries Reo out to the car. He’s nodding off against her shoulder too, too tired to protest about being carried like a ‘little kid,’ which he started saying as soon as he was six.
And now he’s seven, Ba-ya reflects fondly. Oh, how the time passes.
“Young Master Reo, how was your sleepover?” She asks, and Reo burrows against her neck, smiling.
“Best birthday ever,” Reo says sleepily. “I can’t wait for next year.”
That’s her Reo, already thinking ahead, dreaming of bigger and better things. Ba-ya hopes, as she tucks him into the backseat, that this part of him will never change.
iii.
Over the years, Nagi’s parents get busier and busier as their business moves to international markets, aided by Mikage Corporation, and so Nagi becomes even more of a fixture in Reo’s life, and in the Mikage home. Less so in the limosine's backseat — Reo has started to bike them to and from school, and the two of them return on the heels of sunset, windswept and breathless.
But this year, when midnight rings in Reo’s fifteenth birthday, Nagi isn't there, and Reo hadn’t bothered to stay up past dinner with his parents. The night, for once, is silent, as is the ensuing morning.
Their first genuine fight had happened a week before; each day, Reo locks himself in his room. Ba-ya, for all of her steadfast confidence, cannot help but feel slightly worried. Despite waking up late, and presumably hungry, Reo has declined breakfast, despite the extravagant spread that had been prepared for his birthday, and it’s what she’s brought for him now, along with something else.
Ba-ya waits outside Reo’s door for a moment, before knocking carefully. The sound of crying pauses.
“Ba-ya?”
“It is I, Ba-ya,” she confirms. “I have something for you.”
"I don't want it right now, Ba-ya."
"You'll want this one, Young Master Reo. I promise."
Silence, and then Reo cracks open the door. Red-rimmed eyes blink up at her. “Oh… what is it?”
She doesn’t say who it’s from yet; she has a feeling Reo will know. When she holds up the breakfast tray, along with a small cake box, present, and card, Reo’s mouth starts to wobble. He lowers his head, purple hair falling forward to hide his face, but opens the door wider. “Is it from Nagi?”
She nods.
“He remembered?” His hands tremble, as if he doesn't dare to touch what's before him, take it into his grasp despite it being rightfully his, and so Ba-ya neatly presses the tray into his hands. Reo's fingers waver, and then clasp the edges.
“How could he forget?” Ba-ya says gently. “Isn’t the moon always in the sky, even when it’s hidden by daylight?”
“Ba-ya,” Reo says with a watery laugh. “You always love your riddles, huh?”
Ba-ya doesn’t bother to hide her amused smile. She does love her riddles; he knows her as well as she can allow him to. “It’s far more literal this time.”
“Is he here?” Reo asks in a small voice, so unlike the adult that he now pretends to be, so much like the child that Ba-ya has raised since the day he was born. In his hands, the tray trembles, and he frowns, looking down at it, before he turns back to her, as silently asking if he truly afford to hope, to want, right now. “Really?”
“Waiting downstairs,” Ba-ya says, and Reo puts his breakfast and gifts down as carefully as he can before rushing to the spiral staircase that winds through the Mikage manor, slippered feet skidding on the floor.
“Nagi!” she hears him call, bright and hopeful, and it feels as if the world has righted itself, back onto its axis, once more. The Earth has revolved around the Sun; Reo has returned to Nagi, and Nagi has returned to Reo.
(She does not peer over the staircase, but if she had, she would see this: Nagi, catching Reo as he leaps off the last set of stairs, spinning him around and around until they're too dizzy and breathless to go on. Nagi says Reo and I'm sorry and happy birthday, boss; Reo says, Nagi, you made my wish come true and you have so much to make up to me and thank you, my treasure.)
iv.
“How the hell does Reo do this?” Nagi asks, slumping onto the table. “I’m going cross-eyed.”
“This is why I assured you that I have this handled, Young Master Seishiro,” Ba-ya replies, amused. The stack of invitations and additional paperwork before her and other staff are piled high; Nagi had wandered in and requested to join them, and she had silently wondered how long he would last. “It’s alright if you organize a smaller, more personal gathering. Of course, you will have my assistance if needed, but there is no need to worry about company affairs, even if it is a celebration for Young Master Reo."
“Shouldn’t I be a part of this as his boyfriend?” Nagi sighs. “He organizes all my birthdays…”
“He enjoys it,” Ba-ya says. “And Young Master Seishiro is fairly simple to plan for; every year, it’s known that you’ll sneak off to the nearest arcade, so proximity to one is really the only priority.”
“That explains a lot.” Nagi ponders the marble of the table in silence. “But still…”
Ba-ya waits, knowing that there’s something that Nagi’s trying to figure out how to say. To know someone for nearly their entire life is to grow with them, and to keep growing. At eighteen, Nagi and Reo have come a long way from the struggles of their early adolescence, but there are still ways to go to reach beyond their dreams. At the very least, coming to terms with their feelings had settled the majority of their tension — and then, for a while, they had been pathetically obvious with their sneaking around. Ba-ya isn't convinced that Reo truly thought he could get away with leaving a ladder outside of his window.
“Hey, Ba-ya,” Seishiro finally says. “I’m going to marry Reo.”
“I know,” Ba-ya says. “I’ve known for a long time, Young Master Seishiro.”
(She remembers a boy of six, looking at her with the same dark, intent eyes as the boy before her does now, twelve years later.
Twelve years, and there are some things that, at their core, do not change.)
“Yeah,” Nagi says, smiling faintly. “Me too.”