Unable to take the day off, Maki rubbed his face tiredly as he sat behind his desk. He’d been scolded severely for his camping trip with Tatsumi, and buried in job transfer contracts and contract terminations. The sheer amount of numbers made him feel like he was back trapped at Rage Fire taking a never ending advanced physics test. In addition to the paperwork he’d been driving back between mines to facilitate staff transfers and gather the reports from the supervisors. Today was the last day of testing for Tatsumi’s students, meaning it was the end of the peak 5 days of stress for now. Next came the grading and they did that on planet rather than being linked to the central database like Rage Fire. Each teacher graded another teachers students to keep marking fair, yet Tatsumi had cursed his coworkers and doubted that the results would actually be fair.

Checking comms again as he waited for news, the alpha was talking to Li as he waited. He couldn’t take a proper day off with how under the pump they all were, yet the camping trip had reminded him all over again of the love and support Tatsumi gave him and he wished he’d blown off work to go see his husband and congratulate him on getting through the week.

“You still need to schedule a meeting with old Shu, when should we set it up?”

“I’ll go see him now. I could use the distraction”

“You can’t. Not today. Your afternoon’s already booked out. Your next meeting is in half an hour. Should I book him for tomorrow”

Maki didn’t remember having a meeting scheduled that afternoon but if Li said he did then he did 

“Tomorrow’s Saturday… Make it tomorrow afternoon at 2”

“Alright”

“What’s today’s meeting about?”

“New intakes”

Ah. Of course it was. They’d be getting new soldier’s transferring in in December. Hopefully that meant that todays meeting would involve getting the personnel files

“Okay. Schedule a trip to Gong 3 for Sunday. They’ve finished most of the decommissioning but I want to see what they could use further help with. You’re coming with me. If we have time we’ll drop by Fang 1 on the way back”

“I’ll book it now. Do you want coffee? I want coffee?”

“It’s better than sitting here. Why do these forms never end?”

“I don’t know and I don’t like it”

“Ask Molly”

Maki looked to Li, happy to see his best friend blush. It seemed that Li bringing Molly home had turned into a mini-date and Maki could not be any happier about it. All he could really say when Li swore him to secrecy was “fucking finally”. Recovering from his blush, Li mumbled

“I can’t do that, she does so much as it is”

“You have it so bad. Let’s go to the canteen. I need the five minutes of distraction”

“Tatsumi hasn’t messaged?”

“He can’t while he’s on teacher duty”

“I’m sure you’ll hear from him soon. It’s been a while since I’ve seen him so stressed”

“You should have seen him talking to Eve. Eve wound him up so much that he talk. He kind of squeaked and hung up”

Li quickly reminded him

“On Monday he was looking for his shoes… the shoes he was wearing”

Maki couldn’t help but smile. His husband had been reaching for him the moment he got home, most of the time already in bed by the time he and Li got back to the apartment. Still, the second he’d go to kiss his “sleeping” husband’s forehead he’d be pulled into his hold 

“And he forgot to put coffee in his coffee. He cares about his class so much”

“Yeah. It’s nice. It reminds me of our own exams”

“I don’t want to relive those. This is more than enough”

Both of them jumped when Francis came barging in. The fellow alpha looked alarmed

“Tatsumi’s here!”

Seeing Francis looked so alarmed and Tatsumi was supposed to be at school, Maki immediately panicked as he rushed to his feet

“Is he okay? What’s happening?”

Taking his time to stand up and stretch, Li shook his head

“He’s early. He said 1”

Since when was Tatsumi coming at 1? And how did Li know about this?! Francis quickly shook his head, answering Li instead of him 

“He’s here. You’d better come quickly. The reception is in chaos”

Heading to the reception, Maki could see why Francis described the situation as chaos. Tatsumi was there with his class of 30 teens. The receptionist looked more than a little flustered, and so did his husband for that matter. Seeing him and Li, Tatsumi smiled and clapped his hands to get the attention of his class

“Guys, these are our tour guides today. Sorry we’re a little early, Molly picked us up early”

Li waved it off

“I’m glad you all got here. I’m Li, and this is the infamous husband Maki. We’ll be showing you through the base today. I know it’s a pain to leave everything in the transport truck, but we have some top secret stuff here. Feel free to ask anything along the way… Let’s get started with a trip to our science division. Tatsumi, is everyone signed in?”

“Yep. I’ve handed over my class list”

“Excellent. Off we go!”

The teens didn’t seem to sure about Li, but no one spoke up. Maki could see they found it humorous by their expressions. No one really wanted to go first until one kid was shoved by his friends and things started moving. Li loved people, easily starting to explain things as everyone walked past Maki and Francis. Before Tatsumi could join the group, Maki grabbed him by the wrist and held him back. They were supposed to be organising this class trip together yet he’d been left out

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

Not knowing he’d hurt his feelings, Tatsumi shrugged

“I wanted to surprise you”

“By leaving me out? I thought we were going to do this together?”

The alpha could hear the hurt in his tone and Tatsumi quickly lost his smile

“I’m sorry. I was talking to Li and with how busy you’ve been he volunteered to help organise it”

“But we were going to do this together. I haven’t prepared anything. I don’t know what I’m supposed to say”

“It’s fine”

“It’s not fine. They’re your class. I need to look and act in a manner befitting your husband and you didn’t tell me at all”

Tatsumi sighed

“Maki, I love you. I don’t care if they like or even love you and frankly I’d rather they didn’t because then I’d have to hurt my students for lusting over my husband”

“That doesn’t make me feel better. I know I’m busy but I was looking forward to planning this when we had the time”

“I’m sorry. We stopped talking about it and then Li brought it up again. I didn’t think you’d be this upset. We only planned a general tour, with a trip to the blaster range and seeing Li’s mech up close”

“That’s not much of a tour”

“They’re more excited about making fun of you than being here. Molly picked us up and instantly had half a dozen admirers. I’m not ashamed of you and it doesn’t matter what you say to these kids. But I get how you’re all thrown off. I’m sorry I thought that it might be a fun idea and didn’t think it through further”

“I wanted to plan this together”

“I knew you did. I’m sorry. I did promise that we’d do some driving next time and I know you love driving… I fucked up”

Maki sighed

“It’s done now. I just wish I had time to be prepared”

“You’re fine. You will be fine. I can answer almost all their general questions and I get to show off my hot husband”

“I’m not that hot”

“You are. I’m the “prince” and you’re the “mysterious hot husband”. Molly and Li organised all the permissions, so that you can have a little fun too”

“More like they’re having fun at my expense”

“Not at all. Once we’re done Molly will drop everyone back into the city then bring me back so we can have dinner together as a group”

Still feeling hurt, the alpha’s reply was snarky 

“You really thought that through”

“I did. Your husband is an idiot who didn’t think things through when he should have put more thought into how you would feel”

“You’re not an idiot but the rest is right”

“I accept that. I won’t do it again”

“You’d better not”

“I promise. Let’s join the tour?”

“Yeah. Sure”

Taking a place at the back of the group, Maki found he wanted to be where Li was. 30 teens made for the headache the number suggested, yet he still felt like he wanted to be the one doing all the explaining and showing them around. He was Tatsumi’s husband, and more than that, he was the one who was supposed to be learning how to be a leader. Still, Li and had Tatsumi had left him out. He had no idea where the tour was going or what was going to be shown and what withheld. Li made it seem kind of fun, almost as fun when Maki had been able to show Tatsumi and Samara some of the base, only back then it was all new and shiny to three of them. He wanted one of the students to step up and call him out, to give him an in on it all.

“Um, hi Maki”

Making the mistake of coming back from lunch, Private Moon stood at the back of the group crammed into the experiment room of the science block. The woman seemed to be trying to make herself hidden now she’d entered the chaos

“Hey. You’re brave coming in here”

“I don’t know what they’re all doing in here. Since when do we take in teenagers?”

She didn’t know?

“They’re on a tour”

“They’re disrupting my work. Shu wanted a meeting with you. He’s upset you’re avoiding him and now this. Whose idea was it? Where did they even come from? Can’t you kick them out?”

Private Moon had never spoken to him so bluntly. Tatsumi said that permission had already been secured so she should know all about the tour

“They’re Tatsumi’s class. Li’s showing them around”

“We’re not a daycare. They might be with your husband but I expected better”

Geez. Someone must have peed in her breakfast or something

“What’s that meant to mean?”

“He can’t just be bringing his class in. You could have given us a heads up”

“I didn’t know… Li…”

“He didn’t tell you? Then what are they doing here?”

“We started planning this weeks ago, but with my schedule Li took over. The necessary permissions were secured ahead of their arrival”

Thanks Tatsumi Maki already knew that Moon seemed to have a problem with him, yet she was making it far too obvious that she thought little of his husband. Private Moon huffing

“It’s rude is what it is”

“Why? I mean, yes your work has been interrupted but these kids are making decisions about their future”

“He didn’t tell you and he still brought them here”

“He’s had a lot on his plate”

“That’s no excuse. This place isn’t somewhere for people to walk around casually”

Maki knew how annoying it was to have work flow interrupted, and while he was annoyed that he’d been left out, this was about the kids and not him

“Private Moon, I understand your upset, but that’s no way to talk. There are three people supervising them and the necessary permission was obtained. Just because my husband has been busy and didn’t tell me doesn’t warrant this level of attitude”

“You can’t be happy playing babysitter”

“Why not? These kids want to learn”

“They have a classroom for that”

“Is it the kids or my husband you find so disagreeable?”

“I simply don’t understand how you can possibly forgive making a spectacle of the base and interrupting our work”

“Private Moon, you’re going too far. These kids are here with permission and the tour won’t be here for much longer. I’m disappointed you won’t give them a shot at seeing what their future could be should they enlist. I thought you were much more of a futuristic thinking than as to be running down a bunch of kids who were born here. If you’re that uncomfortable I suggest you come back in about 10 minutes when we won’t be here”

“This isn’t personal”

“You make it sound that way”

“I’m simply…”

“I heard what you said. Your concerns were noted. Now, my husband has been working hard with these kids and they finished their exams today. I may not have known what was happening, but I fully support educating these kids and I fully support my husband’s attempts to show them a future where they can make something of themselves. Unless you have a problem with the poor, in which case you have a problem with me and my background”

The woman flushed red. That was right. No one insulted his husband or his husband’s hard work with these kids. Leaving the conversation there, Maki forced himself forward against his anxiety and up to where Tatsumi and Li stood. Old Shu seemed plenty happy to have a captive audience with no traces of anger at having his work interrupted. From now on Maki was going to be very careful with how he talked to the young Private. Being trapped in a cycle that seemed bent on forever holding them down wasn’t fair on these kids, and he wasn’t about to help the process along. He’d suck it up and channel his husband.