In all seriousness, I really do think it’s entirely plausible that Kazuki and Rei can (and/or will) fall in love with each other, but I don’t necessarily see them as suddenly looking at each other with attraction and having that “why am I having these thoughts about another man?!” panic moment that seems to be a common trope in anime whenever gay romance is involved. Their relationship isn’t that simple. No, I think it will happen over time in a more subtle way. And I feel like we’ve already begun to see this unfold.
In episode 7, we learn that Kazuki struggles with his grief of losing his wife and unborn child, all while feeling overwhelmed and under-appreciated for all he does for Rei and Miri. He then tries to have a night of fun by gambling and surrounding himself with women, all things he would normally enjoy. But by the end of the night, he’s still miserable. Then he has the conversation with his sister-in-law, and we find out that he feels guilty about moving on and finding happiness for fear of forgetting his past love. But she reassures him that it’s okay to continue living his life. It’s what her sister, his wife, would want. And a small weight is lifted from his shoulders. And when he finally goes back home, and finds a sick Miri sleeping peacefully with a clearly-worried Rei sleeping at her bedside holding her hand, we see Kazuki gazing fondly at the two of them. The look on his face says “These two are my happiness.”
And I think that realization will continue over time. Now that Kazuki no longer feels as guilty about moving on, I think he’ll start to really see Rei as family. As someone he can build a life with. Someone he enjoys spending time with. Someone he truly loves and cares for. And a day will come when maybe he’s out running errands while Rei is at home with Miri, and a woman starts talking to him. Kazuki doesn’t think anything of it at first, but then he realizes she’s hitting on him… and surprisingly, he doesn’t feel any particular way about it. In fact, his mind instead wanders to “I wonder what Rei and Miri are doing. I better hurry back home.”
And Rei… he’ll start to open up more around Kazuki, and show his vulnerabilities. He’s already started doing this with Miri, but I think we’ll begin to see him telling Kazuki more about his past. Maybe not even in a dramatic reveal type of way, but more so in off-hand comments or random stories that he suddenly remembers. And without realizing that things have changed so much, he’ll find that he’s truly enjoying his life with Kazuki and Miri, that he can actually laugh about things and feel relaxed. And one night, as he’s trying to fall asleep in his bathtub, maybe he’ll struggle to get comfortable. So he instead finds himself going to Miri’s room and curling up on the floor next to her bed, and quickly falling asleep. Kazuki walks in to find him, laughs to himself, and without even thinking about it, picks Rei up and carries him to bed. Not Rei’s bed, though. No, Kazuki subconsciously realizes that Rei needed the comfort of having someone next to him while he slept, so without a second thought, he brought Rei to his own bed. And when he went to lie down next to Rei, he was careful not to get too close. He didn’t want to disturb him after all, and it’s not like he had any other intentions but to simply sleep near each other. But the next morning, Rei wakes up to find Kazuki’s arm around him. And it doesn’t even occur to him to move Kazuki’s arm. Instead, he just looks at Kazuki’s sleeping face, feels the warmth between them, and thinks “this… is nice actually.”
And eventually the both of them will realize that they would do anything to protect one another, do anything to make the other happy. And maybe one day they’ll start to see each other in a different light. Maybe Kazuki will begin to notice the way Rei’s eyes light up when he gets a new video game, or maybe he’ll see that one piece of Rei’s hair that refuses to stay in the ponytail and think “hah, that’s adorable.” And maybe Rei will start to compliment Kazuki on his cooking more because he knows it makes him happy, or maybe he’ll take Miri shopping to find the perfect birthday gift for Kazuki but ends up getting several things because this thing reminded him of Kazuki’s smile, and this thing is Kazuki’s favorite scent, and this thing reminded him of that inside joke they had, and this thing…
So instead of looking at each other one day and thinking “why am I having these thoughts and feelings about a man?!”, I think they’ll look at each other and think “this feels right. This makes sense. Of course I have these thoughts and feelings about him.” Because at that point, the love is already there.
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