Imagine Natsume and Tanuma dating. Yeah? Yeah. Now imagine them saying goodbye to each other after a date, they're in front of Natsume's house, and they kiss. The Fujiwaras were supposed to come home a bit later, but the timing is the worst (best?) possible, and as Tanuma walks away and Natsume just looks at his back smiling and sighing as idiots in love do, Touko greets Natsume.
Natsume turns around, startled like some animal. He doesn't need to ask if they saw, because it's obvious they did, so he only looks scared instead, stammering something like an apology for having made them see something like that.
"It's okay, you know", Touko says, feeling sad that Natsume had maybe been taught that this kind of thing isn't allowed.
Natsume doesn't speak, just looks anxiously at the ground, and Shigeru breaks the silence. "It's your life, we won't judge you for doing what makes you happy."
Touko pats Natsume's shoulder lightly, smiling, "Let's go inside, now, it's a bit chilly here? We can talk over dinner, or if you want to keep it private, it's fine."
Natsume mumbles something and follows them into their home, blaming himself for not being able to be as polite as he thinks he should.
At dinner, Natsume tries to act as normal as possible but is a bit quieter than usual. Shigeru notices his small frown. "It's really fine, Takashi. We know Kaname is a kind person and you've been good friends for a long time now, so there's nothing you have to worry about."
"...Yeah. That's, that's right," Natsume says with his voice getting smaller and smaller. In the end he can't hold back his tears. "I'm sorry... It's not that I don't believe that you're okay with this, it's exactly because of that, I mean, it's not a problem of course, it's just..." He has to take a short break to breathe and he lowers his head a bit as he sobs, "I just know that if some of my previous guardians had seen that, they would've thrown me out right away, or maybe done something before that, I don't know..."
Touko gets up, walks over to Natsume, and hugs him. Now she has a hard time trying not to cry too. Natsume just mumbles, "Sorry, the food will get cold," but after hesitating a few seconds, hugs her back.
Shigeru forces away the thought of someone calling themselves this boy's "guardian" beating him up for just being himself, and says, "As we said in the beginning, you can stay with us for as long as you want. Something like this won't change it at all."
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