The Spring Troupe's love languages
Okay, so while he’s not a part of the current Spring Troupe, I couldn’t resist including Yuzo in this list. Part of it is, of course, that he’s the former Spring Troupe member that we see the most of and the other is just that I enjoy loving up this old man as much as I can. I find him adorable in a way. So, I spent a great amount of time thinking about it and I really do think that, in giving love, Yuzo’s major love language is acts of service. I’m basing this off what we see in Yuzo’s canon personality – he’s always there for Mankai, doing the things he can do to help and support them. I’m quite sure that, in some ways, it does make his life much busier and interferes with his schedule and takes up his free time but, because he still holds a lot of love for Mankai, he happily does it. I think the same is going to work in any romantic relationship that Yuzo gets in or already has in canon. He’s very much an action over words type of guy when it comes to his personal life and his relationships with other people. To him, what people do matters more than what they say; words are cheap and easy, but actions don’t lie. So, it makes sense that, when he’s showing his care for other people, his love for them, he does so with his actions. They’re often subtle actions…Yuzo is the type of lover who always shows up for his partner. He takes on half the workload in the house, even when he’s insanely busy with his own theatre troupe and with helping Mankai. He remembers to text on his way home to see if they need him to stop and pick up anything before he gets home. He makes them coffee and keeps them company on nights when they have a big project due for work or a big meeting coming up. He listens to them practice their speeches for meetings and such, gives them tips and techniques to help improve. He schedules date nights for him and his partner, remembers to water the plants or put on the coffee pot for them first thing in the morning, since he’s almost always up before his partner. It’s all small things, but those small things add up quickly in making his partner feel taken care of and loved. However, when it comes to how Yuzo prefers to have his partner express their love for him, he doesn’t really feel like he has too many solid preferences. He ends up falling in love with his partner for who they are, after all, and however his partner feels most comfortable expressing their love for him will be plenty okay for him.
When it comes to love affairs, the question of how Masumi will show his love is pretty easy to answer. It’s going to be however he needs to. It sounds like a cheap answer, a cheating answer but it’s the answer I believe in the most. Masumi isn’t well-versed in romance and because of this, and because he falls so incredibly hard so incredibly quickly, he’s really willing to keep trying any and everything he can think of to show how much he cares for the other person. He’s studying each and every one of their reactions to everything he does. Anything that draws a smile out of them, even just the tiniest one, is something Masumi will keep repeating. His love interest seems to blush or smile when he compliments them or says loving words? There won’t be a day that goes by that Masumi won’t shower them with compliments. His love interest gushes over a small gift he’s gotten them? He’s going to continue to surprise them with more gifts whenever possible. His love interest says how comforting it is to spend time with him and how much they look forward to it? Masumi is skipping school or leaving himself short on sleep or spare time to make sure he’s spending every available second he can with his love interest. His love interest expresses their appreciation of him taking care of the little things for them? Masumi is doing anything and everything, insisting his love interest just put their feet up and relax. It can actually get a little overwhelming for his love interest. When it comes to how Masumi best feels loved though, I do think it comes down to quality time and words of affirmation. Masumi thrives off genuine praise and acknowledgment and, when he loves someone, he wants to spend all his time with them and he wants to feel like they genuinely want to be around him all the time too.
For Tsuzuru, words come incredibly easy. It’s part of why I do think that words of affirmation is one of his primary love languages. He gives compliments to those he loves, genuine ones that are specific to them and make the recipient feel like Tsuzuru is paying attention and really noticing them. He tells his romantic partners that he loves them at least once a day. He leaves sweet good-morning texts and calls them every night before he goes to sleep, unless he's writing a script or doing a show, when he’ll resort to ‘sweet dream’ texts at night too. However, because of how he was raised and his role inside his family, I do think Tsuzuru also shows quite a bit of his love through acts of service. He knows how much doing the simple things for others can really make their lives better and, when it comes to those he cares about, he really does just want to ensure they’re living their lives the best they can, the happiest they can.
When it comes to Itaru, he quite clearly has a preferred love language when it comes to how others express their love for him. He’s going to feel the most loved and appreciated with a partner who shows their affection through gift-giving. They don’t have to even be expensive gifts…a partner who buys him lunch or takes him out to eat, who grabs him a cheap keychain of his favourite video game character, who picks him up even just a $20 card to use in his favourite video game? That’s going to hit so damn good for Itaru, who will be just as appreciative and ecstatic about those small gifts as he would be if his partner went out and bought him a new gaming console or a new and expensive game he’s been waiting to come out. When it comes to expressing his affection and love for those around him though, Itaru is awkward and unsure as to how to do that. He hasn’t had a lot of close relationships, especially of the romantic variety, and has some trust issues towards people that have kept him from really expressing how much others mean towards him. He’s not sure the best way to show he cares and fumbles through variations of all of the love languages, trying to figure out how best to show that he likes this person. I think that, though he doesn’t really know how to properly show it, he does show his love and care the most through quality time. Letting people close, seeking out their company, trying to form some sort of friendship or relationship with them? That’s big ways of recognizing that Itaru truly cares about someone else.
Citron expresses his love for others through a mixture of two of the main love languages, both words of affirmation and physical affection. This can, unfortunately, not translate well at times, especially when it comes to the words of affirmation. While Citron is a charmer, he functions much better in his native tongue. In his native tongue, he always knows the right thing to say. His words flow honeyed off his tongue, flattering his partner, expressing how much he loves them, wants them, worships them. But in Japanese or another foreign language? Those words of affirmation and affection don’t always come out the best. Citron will say something, meaning only the best, meaning to show his love for his partner, and will accidentally insult them because he’s remembered a word wrong or said a similar sounding word that means something completely different. Thankfully, anyone who has dated Citron for long enough to actually get into a relationship with him will quickly learn that he doesn’t mean anything bad and that he’s just not that talented in this foreign tongue yet. I do think that, as a person, Citron is someone who is quite physically affectionate. He doesn’t really have a well-developed concept of personal space, either for his own use or especially of other people’s personal space. Because he feels loved through acts of physical affection, it only makes sense in his mind that others would love having those shown to them as well. He’ll get into his partner’s personal space, will hug them often (from behind, picking them up and spinning them around in big bear hugs, pulling them into side hugs as they pass each other), will ruffle their hair playfully. He’s quite the gentleman too, so he does the grand romantic physical gestures – kisses on the hand while courting, brushing hair back from his partner’s face, cupping their face while he just looks at them because he’s just so happy and they’re just so beautiful. He’ll, after he and his partner have come back from a long date night, get down on his knees and remove his partner’s shoes for them, placing kisses on the tops of their feet or along exposed shins. He loves getting and giving massages – to him, it’s something very intimate and something shared only between people who are quite close to each other, who trust each other enough to be vulnerable with each other. Bathing together, just soaking together in the warm water, feeling the skin-to-skin contact in the bath, not wanting anything more than that, is another form of showing love and getting love when it comes to Citron.
I think that Sakuya’s love language doesn’t really fit neatly into one of the five major love languages. It’s rather a mix of them in some ways. Mainly, I do think that the way that Sakuya shows his love is through admiration, adoration, and forgiveness. I know that sounds weird but please hear me out as I try to explain. When it comes to the few romantic partners Sakuya will take over his life, he really falls hard for them. To him, his partner is the most amazing person in the world. He admires them, almost puts them up on a pedestal. It’s very hard for him to see anything but the best in them. He makes it clear, both to them and to everyone around them, that Sakuya thinks the world all but revolves around this amazing, intelligent, super-cool person he’s involved with. Don’t get me wrong – Sakuya continues to have his own life and to pursue his passion for acting while in the relationship. He doesn’t fall into full on dependency on his partner. But his adoration for them is also incredibly obvious. Even when his partner gets into arguments with Sakuya, even when they make him upset or hurt his feelings, Sakuya doesn’t really see it as his partner being ‘bad’ or failing him in any way. He’s very quick to forgive all but the most serious of his partner’s sins. Even after breaking up with a romantic partner, Sakuya will still continue to be on a really good terms with them and even years later will consider his ex to be, fundamentally and always, a good person who is an amazing addition to anyone’s lives. When it comes to feeling the most loved, Sakuya does tend to fare best with partners who show their love through lots of quality time together.
