Rage Fire - The General Way he loves his Husband. 20.

Tatsumi felt normally he could adjust pretty well. He knew he wasn’t everyone’s cup of tea, and that newcomers always had a hard time especially coming in the middle of the year from a well off planet.

Tatsumi could only describe the feeling he arrived at the school for his induction as hostile. From the moment he’d signed his employment forms to the moment he met the rest of the staff, were the most peaceful he’d had there. Not having a formally assigned class, the office space he’d been might have once been a broom closet. There was only a small desk and an apology. Still, he told himself it was fine as his work would speak for itself and he was excited to meet his students.

His students weren’t excited to meet him. Saddled with the lowest marks in the school, they’d been mucking around when he’d been shown in to the room off the school library building that was away from main campus building. The principal explained that every afternoon when normal electives would be enjoyed the students, the students in his class didn’t have marks high enough to qualify for them. With no reason to try harder seeing they were already labelled “not good enough”, Tatsumi immediately planned to change that. Bidding farewell to the principal, he swallowed down his nerves and walked over to his chair only to find something smeared on it. That was fine. He didn’t need a chair to teach.

Placing his bag down on the desk, Tatsumi smiled. He wanted to see approachable. These kids might not have the best of everything, but every child deserved an education. Samara had left him with extra supplies, which it now seemed he’d need. Opening his mouth, a spit ball missed its target and hit his jacket. Ahhh… the days of innocent spitballs. Telling his students he was ex-military would now be a bad plan as they seemed to think him some kind of pushover. Ignoring the spit ball, he attempted to try again. This time one the students sitting at the front on their comms sighed at him

“Don’t bother. No one wants to hear what you have to say”

At least they were honest. Sitting back on the edge of his desk, Tatsumi sighed. Being nice and approachable wasn’t working in his favour. Instead he clapped his hands to draw attention

“I’m Hikaru-Sato Tatsumi from Terra. I worked in a military school there and recently gave up coaching our piloting team. I pilot mechs for fun, my husband works at the base down the road, and if you’re crafty enough to attempt this shit, you’re smart enough to get yourselves out of this class. You’re stuck with me and I’m stuck with you. Honestly if you guys are being forced to sit through this and stuck having nothing nice to do I can see why you’d give up trying”

And he was ignored. Completely ignored. Fuck it. He wasn’t above bribery 

“Who wants to shoot some blaster rifles?”

A few of the students at the back looked at him. Now he had their attention

“If you can double your test scores by the middle of the term I’ll arrange it. If you can triple your scores by the end of the term, we’ll do some driving lessons”

The same student on their comms looked at him again

“Half of us can’t read. Half of us have to work. Your bribes are pointless. What are we going to do with that? Face it, you got fucked over. Run back to husband and let him take care of you”

“You don’t need to read to shoot. I doubt you care anything about the classic curriculum. If you need to read for work then we’ll start there. No matter how old you get paperwork is there to haunt you from deliveries to ordering, to keeping your business from being taken from under you. I doubt you guys want to end up in debt and dying like dogs. Our first lesson will be writing everyone’s names. I’ll copy them on the board, then you’ll copy what I’ve put. If you can’t write your own name how are you going to know what’s being said about you? Or if you’re being ripped off?”

“You can’t talk to us like this”

Tatsumi shrugged as he stood. This wasn’t Rage Fire where everyone had to be good enough to enter in the first place and paid for their education so held certain expectations. Treating them like soldiers under his command would be a better approach now his bribery had caught their attention and in the military no one sugar coated it. The teachers didn’t seem to actually care that they’d let students get so far without the basic skills of writing and reading

“Like you’re actual humans with a brain? How dare I treat you with respect. I’m pretty pissed that you’re penalised and left like animals. Give me a chance and I’ll give you all you need to get out of here and have a real life. As for the military, my husband works there and he’s disgustingly supportive, like disgustingly. If I say I can get you a go at blasters, I can. In return we’ll simply show everyone that you’re better than them. Do you guys have paper?”

The blank stares his way said it all. Why would the school waste resources on a “wasted class”? Though there had to be some somewhere seeing he’d already received a welcome spit ball to his jacket 

“I’ll borrow some for now and bring in what we need tomorrow. I’m going to teach you practically”

***

Naturally by the start of the following day Tatsumi had been pulled into the principal’s office and reprimanded. He didn’t have the authority to take his students off grounds, much less to the military base during school hours. His start to that afternoon’s class was much the same as the first day, but his class had no idea how stubborn he could be. Being his second day teaching Maki had messaged him that morning, saying he’d be home for dinner and wanted to hear all about it.

Not only was his class a headache, but halfway into making dinner his husband called to let him know he couldn’t come home. With far too much food cooking, he decided to be neighbourly. Knocking on the door across from their apartment he got a clear “Fuck off!”. Trying the apartment next to him he got “come back only in emergency” follow by the door closed in his face. The third he got a kid answering the door who proceeded to shout about the strange man there with food and told to “leave before the police were called”. 

It was only his second week on Paradisi and Tatsumi felt isolated. After two rough days, he picked up pastries with the intention of seeing his husband. Reaching the base, the walk was nice, and with the idea of Maki waiting at the end of it, Tatsumi was relieved. Samara had been a handful, and he’d lied to him about why Maki and Li hadn’t been home. Signing in at the base, he’d asked to see his husband only to be told Maki was in a meeting. That was his fault for not checking, and his husband was working his hardest to make a place for himself there so Tatsumi left the pastries and headed home… home to his apartment where he found the kitchen tap dripping.

Somehow a month passed with only phone calls, 6 missed dates, and no new friends. Maki sounded so fed up that venting on him didn’t seem fair. After the third skipped date Tatsumi decided to do things for himself instead. He’d go hiking. He’d try a different restaurant every dinner. Sometimes he caught a bus out of the city, then the one going back just to do something. The only improvement was with his students… and even then they didn’t like him so much as had to accept they needed to learn practical things and let him start teaching them. He gave up on dates. He’d still shower and prep, yet he also knew the call or message would come. He didn’t have a place at the school and he didn’t have a place at the base… and he could never remember a time when he’d struggled so much to make friends.

But at the same time… Tatsumi knew a month was only a month. A month was short in the scheme of things. He’d known Maki would be worked hard until he proved he wasn’t a simple blow in. Making dreams on Terra didn’t mean that they’d come to pass. He’d thought he’d be more mentally prepared for how hard it was and it turned out he wasn’t. When Maki had messaged earlier and told him to wait outside, Tatsumi had nearly ignored him. Today’s fun in class was confiscating a small knife that two alphas were fighting over. They weren’t about to use it hurt someone, and the owner had bought it in because it looked cool, still, he had to be responsible and confiscate it. Before the knife it’d been old school book porn, and before that it’d been copious amounts of gum. Out of 20 days of teaching he’d never once been able to sit on his chair. Standing got very repetitive very fast.

Then along came Molly with Tatsumi. His walls were pulled down the moment he climbed into the truck cab with his husband. All the lies bubbled up in his throat and he felt like choking on them. With a mood as happy as the falling outdoor temperatures, he kept slipping up. His mouth moved and it came out. Even if his students hated him, they were the ones he saw the most. Their opinion of him mattered and he didn’t seem them as actually bad people, but people who felt bound by the lot that life gave them.

Explaining things to his husband, Maki pulled over. The expression on his face was full of sorrow

“You tried so hard to sound happy for my sake”

“I did. I wanted to protect those dreams you were making and I figured that, you know, it’s only been a month and I’m being impatient”

“You’ve not been doing well and you’re still trying to spare my feelings”

“Because I know you’re working so hard for us and that you have so much going on”

“I hated cancelling each of the dates. I’d get so excited then have to cancel. I don’t know what to do. You sound like you’ve given up on everything because of me”

That was the problem with dreams. When they started shattering into pieces and falling like glass someone was wound to be hurt by the shards

“Maybe…? It’s all in my head and I know it. I didn’t want to pull you down”

“You don’t. I’m pretty upset you kept it from me. And I’m pretty upset with myself”

“You’re doing your best”

“You say that like you’re not”

“A bad month in my world can’t compare to yours”

“Fuck off. We don’t need to be in the same space at the same time to both be feeling shitty. I want everything we dreamed about”

Maki’s words felt bittersweet

“But the timing isn’t right. You need to focus on work”

“The whole point was I supposed to live off base with you. Our neighbours are shit and the school sounds shit. I’m not impressed”

“In their defence they don’t know me… and there I am at school promising students shooting practice”

“Bribery isn’t so bad”

“I told a bunch of kids they could shoot guns”

“No, you told them they’d get a base tour and a chance to pop a few shots”

Tatsumi raised an eyebrow

“That’s not what I said”

“You’d never let someone unqualified loose with a weapon, let alone a group of them”

“I was desperate. They’re good enough kids but they have no hopes out here. Their planet is beautiful and they just see it as super backwards and that they’re destined to sink”

“It sounds to me like they’ve all been let down. I’ve let you down too. I was trying too hard to be good at work…”

“You’re still fitting in. Your husband is the loser”

“He’s not a loser. Come to base more”

“I can’t just force people to be my friends”

“No, but not even 10 minutes in and you were giving Molly advice. What’s wrong with that?”

“They’re your fellow soldiers. You’re supposed to be making friends with them”

“So? If someone doesn’t like my husband I don’t like them. I may want to punish them but that’s not how it works. I think your kids are lucky. You took a chance on me and I got out. I learned mechs were fun and that I could make it as a pilot. I should have been home at least once”

“You’re busy”

“I promised to never take you for granted and I did because you always give me so much support”

“I don’t know…”

“Who else is going to listen to me the way you do? I’m right down the fucking road, not on some goddamn other planet. I should be able to see my husband. I don’t give a shit. I’m moving off base. I’d like to see them stop me”

“It’s easier to be on base”

Maki scowled

“It’s ten fucking minutes down the road. If it can’t wait ten minutes then call someone who’s actually a superior officer. I don’t want you going off and doing things on your own. I want to be there too. I forbid it. The next time you leave the city I’m coming with you”

Tatsumi snorted, rather wetly and then realising he’d teared up. No wonder Maki had pulled the truck over

“We’re technically leaving the city now together”

“That’s not I what I meant and you know it. I don’t want to be at work and missing seeing things with you. I’m sick of working and feeling like no matter how much I do something else is pushed on me just as I get a second to breathe”

Yeah. Their phone calls had his husband sounding so annoyed… yet like him, Maki was stubborn. The more they pushed things onto him the more he did to prove himself. Now that he thought about those calls he had been giving his husband advice on military matters the whole time. Maybe he should consider attempting to make friends at the base? Or at least meet the people his husband talked about properly…

“I didn’t want to intrude on your space… I thought I could make my own friends and that if I was at the base… well, I didn’t want to make things harder. I’m supposed to be settling into teaching and letting go of the past. I was so excited about not having anyone around to bring up the past and making it on my own steam”

“I’ll fight anyone who says anything bad about my precious husband. You’re great. You know that. You listen and you get what someone needs from you… maybe you shouldn’t have offered shooting classes off the bat but… you are from a military school and you do have a disgustingly loving husband”

“We both know you can’t fight everyone, you just said that. I’ve never had this much trouble making friends… except maybe when I was a kid. I walked in and I told myself to behave because we weren’t at Rage Fire. Then I told myself to be friendly and then immediately jumped to bribery”

Maki laughed softly 

“I know what you’re like. I’ll bring you to base and we can make plans for a tour. If you come tomorrow you can hear me being yelled at”

“As tempting as that is, I’ve got marking. I had them all make lists of forms they think they’ll have to deal with. We’re still learning basic words… I think they were pretty proud being able to write and understand their own names, but they couldn’t let me know that. I… um found a name of my own I like…”

Some forms went as far to ask candidates for their pheromone scent on job intake forms. His husband sounded confused 

“You found a name?”

“A foetus name. Yingtao. It means cherry fruit… places ask for pheromone scents and I was looking it up while waiting for everyone to finish”

“Yingtao…”

“Um… if you don’t like it…”

Maki shook his head quickly, lighting up over the suggested name 

“It’s adorable. Yingtao. Yingtao. That’s cute”

“It’s just a name to keep in mind. I’m not expecting anything”

“I like it. I like you… even if I’m pissed you didn’t tell me how bad things are. Yingtao…”

Maki was in danger of getting too excited again. Tatsumi knew his heart really couldn’t take much more about dreaming about their baby when it wouldn’t happen soon

“I’m trying hard to stick it out… I know that…”

“Enough. Enough being so smart and logical. I haven’t got a new shot… and I won’t. Don’t go back on suppressants, let me fix my shit and take care of you. Yingtao please come into our life soon. Your daddies want to meet you”

“I do believe Molly just called you “mum””

“I’ll be the mum if you want me too. Mummy Maki”

“You’re fine the way you are. Daddy Maki”

“I packed a tent so I won’t be staying on base overnight, I planned to romance you then”

“Romance me or get in my pants?”

“Both… but mostly romance”

Tatsumi might have had to fake offence if Maki hasn’t smoothly covered for his desires

“Wise choice. But in return, I want you to vent to me during the drive. I’ve dumped my shit on you”

“I’m always venting”

“Then vent some more. If I can help you, I’ll always help you”

“I know… I don’t know what to say with your class other than they’re lucky to have you… and everyone else can suck a dick. I guess if you want to help maybe you can help me work out my paperwork? There’s going to be an intake in December. The CO’s decided who was assigned to which mine and took most interesting positions already. Technically Instinct One should have been my project, but I’m one the Gong team”

Patting his husband on the head, Maki had circled right back around to what many a late night conversation had been. His husband was busy banding with his friends against the push from above, and wanted to take it all his shoulders

“Yes, you are. Molly and Li are your two main team members, but don’t forget Wilbur and the other few you guys got close to in training. As a team leader you need to assign roles. Li is a people person. Let him liaise over what’s needed on site and organise your other friends to run the tasks you need run. Molly can draft and produce the papers for you to read like there’s no tomorrow. Book times and make monthly appointments to visit the mine. Draw up a board with the outgoing totals, then track and compare to isolate which ventures are more profitable. We’ve talked about this before”

“But they’re my friends”

“And as much as you want to pull them along with you, you need to work as a team with a clear leader. Give me your comms, I’ll sort your mail”

“How do you know it needs sorting?”

“I’m your husband, I know these things. I’ll send Li your to do list and reminder for Molly from your comms so there’s written record”

“It’s fucking shit you can’t just come back to the military. You’re so smart”

“I’ll be fine. We’ll get over this bump. I’ll get over my bump”

“And in a few months I’m going to see that bump”

Tatsumi took Maki’s comms as his husband pulled them off. In this case his husband would have to be happy for the both of them until it actually happened.