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system-to-the-madness · 5 months

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Chances - Inui Magoroku x Reader

Pairing: Inui Magoroku x Reader (can be read as any gender, no pronouns used) Word Count: 3 051 Summary: After a fight with your boyfriend Magoroku, you return to K to help Kai and Gaku one last time A/N: I know this will literally get no notes, but I’m gonna post it anyway.

“You’ve changed, Kai.”

Leaning against the doorframe, just outside of view, you sighed quietly. Your uniform felt so familiar around your body, comfortingly tight in just the right places but still leaving enough space to move freely and elegantly. You had gotten so used to this uniform, so used to standing right outside of this door, listening for the orders to be called, that it was hard to believe this might never happen again. It was even harder to believe Magoroku wasn’t standing in the kitchen.

The sound of footsteps made you perk up, and you pushed away from the doorframe as you saw Hotei, Pena, Mingjen and Jorudan cross through the room, heading straight for the kitchen.

“Are they in there,” Hotei asked, and you nodded curtly, before the four men brushed past you. Magoroku was not with them. Of course he was not. He probably was half-way back to Kyoto by now. Your heart sank in your chest, as you turned and followed the chefs into the kitchen, a kitchen that felt painfully devoid of life without Magoroku.

“Kai! Are you okay?” Hotei stopped a respectful distance away from the former head chef.

He looked pale now, you noted, weak, as he was leaning against the table. His eyes scanned over everyone for a moment before he averted them.

“Yeah,” he breathed.

“I’ve been worried about you,” Hotei admitted, as your own eyes began wandering through the room, stopping at the stove Magoroku had always used the most often.

It felt wrong standing here without him now. Maybe it had been a cruel thought, that you and he would not have lasted forever no matter what would have happened. After all, you were still young; you had begun dating when you had only been twenty. To think you would stay together forever had always been an illusion, these thoughts that you could see yourself marrying him had been nothing but hormone induced trickery of your brain, right?

Still, you hadn’t expected it to end the way it had. Had it even ended? Wasn’t it normal for couples to fight? The two of you never had fought before, you didn’t know.

Sure, you understood his perspective, why he hadn’t wanted to come back to K, but why hadn’t he paid you the same respect of at least trying to understand why you wanted to come back to K and serve one last time under Kai and Gaku? Instead, his insistence on you deserving more had made you so upset, that you had ended up leaving the café you had sat in together.

He hadn’t come home that night, and since his plans were to head back to Kyoto, you weren’t sure he ever was going to come back either. Why hadn’t he been able to understand that the reward of helping your friends out one last time was more important than the risk of getting your trust broken again?

Wasn’t this what you had been doing for him too, again and again? Fought through both of your stress induced annoyances, giving each other chances, even when you were exhausted and hurt from words spoken thoughtlessly? Why hadn’t he been able to understand, that you wanted to do the same for Kai and Gaku, too?

Having spaced out, you only snapped back into the moment, when your (former?) boyfriend's name got mentioned.

“You should thank Magoroku,” Hotei told Gaku.

“Huh?” The young man’s eyes flickered over the staff as if looking for his friend, before coming back to Hotei.

“We’re only here,” explained Renna, “because Magoroku persuaded us.”

Confused you looked over to her. Magoroku had persuaded them to come back? After all he had said to you last night? After all the things he had said that he had seemed so convinced off when you had talked to him last? When had he gone to see them? After you had left him in anger and disappointment?

“Magoroku,” Gaku asked perplexed.

But if Magoroku had convinced the others to come back, then why-

“Despite that, why isn’t he here,” Mingjen asked, phrasing the question that had popped in your own head.

“Maybe- Kyoto,” Pena suggested, making your heart sink.

“Too bad,” Jorudan sighed.

“Ne, (y/n), where is he,” Hotei asked.

You shook your head. “I- I don’t know. We had a fight, yesterday. Because I wanted to come back, at least for this last night, but he wouldn’t understand why. I left and- he must have come to search for you all afterwards. He didn’t come home…”

“Sorry, I’m late!”

The familiar voice of your boyfriend (ex-boyfriend?) along with his fast-approaching steps sent a dagger through your heart. So he had come after all? You watched with bated breath as he came running into the kitchen, still tying the apron behind his neck.

“What about Kyoto,” Renna asked, as Magoroku’s eyes met anyone’s but yours.

“The bullet train was so crowded…”

You stared at him with his cheap excuse, the way his soft-brown dyed hair framed his face so gently. Looking at him hurt. Not because of the way it hurt how he had treated you, but because you knew how hard it must have been for him to come back here after all that had happened.

And he still had done it.

Any other day you would have walked over to him and squeezed his hand quickly, the way you had done so often over the past months while Gaku had begun losing sight of the team. Some nights it felt like this quick gesture was the only thing that held him together. But now you couldn’t do that. He might not want you to do it.

“Kai,” Magoroku turned to the former chef. “Long time no see.”

“A long time,” Kai nodded, and you couldn’t help but feel relief at the way they were looking at one another, both simply being glad that they got to be here together. Couldn’t this be enough for tonight? Just being here, with everyone, the way it used to be, even if Magoroku and you weren’t what you used to be?

Suddenly Gaku shot forward, engulfing Magoroku in a tight embrace.

“Thank you, Magoroku,” the younger man grinned.

“That hurts, Gaku,” Magoroku complained, but you heard the smile in his voice as he patted the other man’s back.

“Kai-san!” Suddenly the other waiters stepped through the door.

So, you were all together again, really all of you. The way it used to be, the way you had wished it would be again. For one last time you would all work together to create an unforgettable culinary experience. You would try to make every second of it count.

“This is fun,” Kai smiled.

When had been the last time he had called working with everyone ‘fun’? You couldn’t remember. Had he ever?

“Okay then,” Hotei decided. “Let’s get started.”

Kai sighed, rubbing his face, and got up from where he had sat on his chair in front of everyone, but Gaku stopped him with a hand to his shoulder.

“Kai-san. Please stay here,” he insisted, and gently guided him to sit back down. “I’ll do the finishing.”

A tingling at the side of your head alarmed you to someone watching you. Looking up, you found Magoroku quickly turning his head away.

It had always been like that before you had started seeing each other two years ago, even back in Kyoto, when you had still worked for his father, before Kai had recruited you into his team. He had always stared at you, as if he couldn’t get enough of seeing you.

You had gotten used to it, over the course of your relationship with him, his eyes finding you and following you in every room you stepped into together, unless he was cooking. His attention always seemed to be so focused on you, and you liked that it gave you an excuse to watch him too, the way he always moved so elegantly while unaware that he was being watched, and turning clumsy and bashful as soon as he noticed your eyes on him. Even two years of dating, one and a half years of living together, had not changed that.

Now his eyes were averted from yours, focusing on Gaku instead, who stepped away from Kai’s side and joined the team of chefs, but you didn’t miss the way his eyes flickered over to you again.

“But,” Kai continued, “from there, please give us instructions. Like back then.”

At Kai’s exhale, you focused back on him, fully aware that Magoroku’s eyes snapped back to you the moment yours left him. Kai smiled and took a deep breath before looking up.

“We have one guest today,” he spoke, his voice loud and clear, powerful, the same way you had always known it to be. His little speeches before starting the work were what settled you into work-mode, and even though it had been a year since his voice had last sounded through the kitchen this clearly, it felt like it had only been yesterday, and habitually you straightened your posture and stood up straighter. “We will serve him an appetizer in five minutes. Soup in ten.” The whole team straightened up with you, expectantly shifting their weight from one leg to the other. “Fish in 17.” Kai slapped the surface of the table before standing up. “Meat in 24. Let’s give him perfect and efficient service.”

“Oui!”

The single word spoken from everyone in unison made your heart soar. This was what you had missed. Sure, it was sad that things here would come to an end, but at least you got the chance to say goodbye to your life at K properly this time.

Everyone moved to work immediately, and you, too, took your position behind the counter, ready to receive the first plate to serve.

Just a few minutes later, as expected of the perfectly coordinated team at K, Gaku pushed the plate with the appetizer over to you.

“Gaku,” Kai spoke up.

“Yeah?”

“I’ll go.”

“Are you sure,” Gaku asked, making you hesitate to pick up the plate.

“Yes,” Kai answered with determination, and you stepped back from the counter, giving him better access to the plate.

He also continued serving the other dishes, while you stood at the doorway between the guest hall and the kitchen, half of your attention in either room; ready to cater to any demand Shibuya-san had but also keeping an eye on Magoroku.

He still had not met your eyes directly, heightening your anxiety by the minute. Of course, you knew he was working right now, and didn’t have time to think about anything other than the food in front of him, and you weren’t asking him to do anything different. But you still felt the since last night increasing urge to just walk up to him, grab his face and kiss him, tell him, show him, that you still wanted to be with him. The fact that you couldn’t was not as terrorizing as the idea that he might reject that confession. How had you gone from convinced you would marry him eventually to scared of asking for a kiss in less than a day?

And before you knew it, it was time to serve the main course.

“It’s almost time, isn't it,” Renna sighed, as the chefs gathered around the counter, watching Gaku finish the last plate.

“But he hasn’t said a single word…” Magoroku added, still not meeting your eyes. You felt sick at the thought that maybe it really was over.

Gaku stood back up straight, his entire focus on Kai as he announced: “It’s done” and pushed the plate over to him.

With one last look at Gaku, Kai grabbed the plate and left the kitchen, the other chefs following him. You were about to join them outside, when suddenly a hand closed around your wrist, holding you back.

Surprised you looked over your shoulder, staring straight into the familiar deep brown eyes of Magoroku.

“Wait,” he asked, his voice heavy and pleading.

Turning around to him fully, you couldn’t help the way your heart suddenly started hammering in your chest. What was he about to say? Was he going to tell you what you had suspected he might do the whole time since you had left yesterday, tell you it was over?

Inquisitively you tilted your head at him, trying to read his thoughts through those eyes you knew so well. A crease had formed on his forehead, and he looked pained. Slowly his hand slipped away from your wrist, the lack of his warmth leaving a cold shadow on your skin.

“Can we talk,” he asked, his voice low.

“We should join the others-”

“I’ll make it quick?”

The way he looked at you, it was easy to tell how much courage it had taken him to approach you. If you walked away now, there was a chance he would never talk to you again, and you would forever be left in the knowledge that you hadn’t been strong enough to face the pain of losing the first person you had ever truly loved.

When you didn’t turn away, Magoroku took in a deep breath.

“I’m sorry, for what I said yesterday,” he confessed. “I was so worried about you getting hurt again by Gaku and Kai that I didn’t realise that I was hurting you, too. I thought a lot about what you said, that to you it was more important to help your friends one last time than to be disappointed. And I realised the same was true for me, too. I should have had more trust in you knowing what you need to do for yourself. Please forgive me.”

You bit your lip.

“Why did you come here? Just to please me?”

“No,” Magoroku answered, “I came because my friends needed my help. I was scared of meeting you here, because I wasn’t sure if you’d be angry at me, but I decided helping Kai and Gaku was more important.”

“I understand,” you sighed, and took a step forward. “And I forgive you. I was upset that you didn’t seem to try to understand my point of view, but I never wanted to lose you.”

“You haven’t lost me,” Magoroku shook his head, taking your hands in his. They were bigger than yours, warm, a little rough from his hard work every day, and still a little wet from when he had washed his hands not even minutes prior.

At his gentle touch and his reassuring words, you felt your throat close up, a telltale sign that you were about to cry. In the middle of a Michelin-star kitchen of all places.

“I was so worried when you didn’t come home,” you admitted, and quickly Magoroku pulled you into a hug.

“I’m sorry,” he whispered, pressing a kiss to the shell of your ear as your arms wrapped around his familiar body. “I didn’t want to worry you.”

For a few moments you stood like that, just holding each other, ignoring the rest of the world around you.

“Are you still coming back to Kyoto with me,” Magoroku asked eventually, pulling away enough to be able to look at your face.

Quickly you nodded. “I want to, yes. Does this mean that we’re good? I don’t want to lose you.”

Magoroku smiled a sad smile before he nodded. “I told you, you’re not gonna lose me. Not this easily anyway.” He shifted around for a moment, his usual sign that he was nervous about something before he repeated. “You’re not gonna lose me. You’re the best thing that has happened in my life in a very long time and I want to spend the rest of my life with you.”

Confused you watched him, as he pulled one of his hands away from your waist where it had rested and reached into one of his pockets.

“I wanted to ask you this a long time ago, but it never seemed to be the right moment. It took me a while to realise the best moment is always the present, so I’m telling you again: I want to spend the rest of my life with you. And if you feel the same…” He trailed off, instead raising a delicate ring between the two of you, which he had pulled from his pocket. But you couldn’t even be bothered to look at the ring, instead staring into his black eyes. They were darker than space and you knew if you kept eye contact with him too long, you’d get lost in them, forgetting everything that had been going on. So instead you cupped his face and pulled him into a soft kiss, into which he melted immediately, his lips warm against yours as he kissed back without urgency.

“I also want to spend the rest of my life with you,” you whispered into the kiss, feeling more than seeing the smile that spread over his face before he leant in and kissed you again, while taking your hand and slipping the ring over your finger. It was only after a few minutes of soft and gently exchanged kisses, that he eventually pulled away.

“Let’s go look for the others,” he suggested, taking your hand in his and together you walked out of the kitchen to see what Shibuya-san had to say about the main course the team had created for him.

As you left the kitchen for the last time, you quickly glanced back over your shoulder. When you first had stepped in there, you had thought your path was clear before you: work for Kai and eventually get over your crush on Magoroku. It was incredible, how much had changed since then. Now your path seemed rather hazy, going back to Kyoto, working in Magoroku’s father’s restaurant together with him. But beyond that? What would come after? Would there be an after? It didn’t matter, not really. Whatever came next, you would face it the same way you had faced every other change and challenge so far. And from now on you wouldn’t have to do it alone anymore, the warm hand engulfing yours reminded you; you and Magoroku would face any challenge together.

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