#or at least outta your mum and aunts and grandma.

[thelikesoffinn]

Okay I know Stranger Things is super not popular rn, but I just had this thought - Instagram is at fault, I swear - so imagine hiring Eddie Munson as your "professional boyfriend" for the holidays because your family sucks and you want to piss them off.

And Eddie fucking delivers, 10/10. It's utter chaos everywhere. Your mum is crying, your nan is telling you how improper this is, and your dad is fuming. Your niece is sobbing because she's a brat, and Eddie told her as much, and the one cousin no one likes is laughing so hard that the soup your brother in law brought shoots up through his nose.

I don't even need a proper romance. They can shake hands and go their separate ways. It's enough that he annoys the fam. Pure catharsis, man.

It's so much fun, I love it.

[earlgreymon]

leap

@taioraweek 2021 // [day 1] connection this is something i planned for last year's taiora week, but here i am. inspired after watching time traveler's wife and about time. if you want to know more about tsuyoshi and tsubasa, click here.

“Whatever, I’m outta here!”

Taichi stormed out of the room, making sure he slammed the door hard enough to express his anger. He paced down the stairs and walked away from the apartment building before stopping in the nearby park. Without anyone in sight, he had the freedom to curse loudly, letting all the frustration caused by the person he left at home.

This wasn’t anything new. Even before they turned their friendship into something more romantic, Taichi and Sora often argued with each other thanks to their dominant personality. When they decided to move in together, he thought it would somehow help to die down the little heat between them. Yet after almost half a year of living under the same roof, the fights were getting more and more frequent to the point where shouting became a bit too normal.

And now, it felt like Taichi had reached another milestone where he started to think over about their relationship. Maybe they made a wrong choice by living together. Perhaps they were no longer had the compatibility that used to make everyone green with envy.

He sat down on the edge of a tree seat, holding his head that kept getting heavier. Taichi closed his eyes, pushing an effort to simmer himself down; a few sighs here and there. When his heavy lids cracked back open, the first thing he noticed was a pair of kid-sized feet on the ground, wrapped in white-and-blue sneakers. Slowly as he lifted his head, his eyes met similar-looking brown orbs, but that wasn’t the only thing that felt familiar—the nose, the shape of the face, and… the notoriously big hair.

Seeing a ten years old-version of himself, the only thing Taichi oddly could say was, “…are you lost, little kid?”

“Save the pleasantries. I know you are surprised right now, Dad.”

Wait, what did he just call—

“Who are you?”

“Don’t I look obvious? I’m your son.”

It was an understatement to say he was surprised. Taichi was horrified.

“Oh, geez. Mum was right: you are dense.” The boy folded his arms, watching the face of the grown man in front of him turning pale. “I didn’t even cut my hair on purpose so you could recognise me easily. By the way, how on earth could you stand this hairstyle for a very long time? It’s heavy, itchy, and not proper at all.”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa! Time out, kiddo!” Taichi could hear his own voice getting higher in panic as if this boy was a death threat. His little sister was somewhat a psychic, but Taichi himself had never experienced such a weird situation. “I—what—I mean—how—well—can you explain in a way that is more—I don’t know—human?!”

“I am a human.” The boy raised one of his eyebrows, looking offended. “Fine. Sorry for startling you.” He pulled a sigh before continuing, “The name’s Yagami Tsuyoshi. I come from the future, and I’m your son.”

Taichi blinked.

“No, you’re not a human. You’re Doraemon.”

“Just because I’m wearing a blue jumper doesn’t mean I’m a racoon-looking robot,” Tsuyoshi said, irritated. “Try to ask me a personal question, then.”

“Okay. Give me the name of my family members.”

“Grandpa Susumu, Grandma Yuuko, and Aunt Hikari,” answered Tsuyoshi casually. “But that’s something everyone can look up on Facebook. What you can’t look up, at least not in this year, is that Aunt Hikari is married to Uncle Takeru, and for your information, she got married before you did.”

“She what?!”

“Come on, be more personal. I’m your son, so of course we take a bath together pretty often. I know you have a mole under your right, hairy armpit.” Taichi had to resist the urge to strangle the boy for saying that out loud publicly. “And don’t you want to know about my Mum? Your wife?”

He was actually dying to know, but he was also afraid if the answer was far from his expectation.

As if he could read his mind, Tsuyoshi answered without waiting for Taichi’s response. “Today, you’re having a fight, contemplating whether you’re in the right relationship or not. Less than two years from this day, you’re going to have a wedding and find out that you’re indeed in the right relationship.”

Taichi’s eyes dilated. “Wait. Sora and I—we’re married?”

“Sadly, yes. I would prefer to have Uncle Yamato as my father, though. Maybe I’ll look more handsome then.”

“Oi, shut your mouth.”

“But Mum is the reason I can come here,” Tsuyoshi ignored Taichi’s foul mouth. “The first male-born of a Takenouchi is gifted with the ability to travel through time.”

“The first son?” Taichi repeated in a simpler term, concluding that Sora didn’t have the same ability since she was the family’s only daughter. “Why not the woman?”

“Grandpa Haruhiko said that women feel too much pain already—giving birth, et cetera. Time travel is not as easy as snapping fingers.”

“So you feel pain?”

Tsuyoshi did not answer the question for a moment, only gazing Taichi right in the eyes with so much enigma. He then took a seat beside Taichi. “Even if I do feel pain, I always go head-first anyway. I think it’s your gene.”

Taichi decided to take it as a compliment. Having felt that the subject was rather sensitive, he momentarily harboured the conversation, letting the silence sink in.

“Hey, Dad.” Tsuyoshi then called after some seconds. “Grandpa Haruhiko always told me that I have to use my ability wisely. One wrong move and I can alter the history. That’s why I’m kind of jeopardising my own existence by meeting you now.”

“How so?”

“Well, you’re currently fighting with Mum. As per her story, she is packing her stuff right now, ready to go back to her parents’ house. I don’t know the exact time she’s leaving, but maybe by the time you’re going back, she’s already gone and you two are going to face an ugly breakup. And if that happens, I will be consumed along the way back to my time and… poof,” he blew his mouth like a deflating pufferfish, “disappear.”

Taichi felt like it was his responsibility to keep Tsuyoshi alive now.

“If you don’t want to disappear, then why don’t you encourage me to hurry back home right now?” Taichi couldn’t help but ask. Truth to be told, even without meeting Tsuyoshi and keeping him in company, Taichi wasn’t sure whether returning to the apartment was the right decision. His ego and pride still refused to make peace.

Tsuyoshi slowly turned his head to face Taichi. There was a slight smile on his lips—a smile that somehow reminded him of Sora.

“You’re right. I should be nagging at you, maybe even drag you to the apartment myself,” he said, but without showing any intention to get up. “The future isn’t something that is sure, but I’m here because I’m sure with both of you.”

Taichi was taken aback. Tsuyoshi started to swing his hanging legs.

“I haven’t been travelling that much, but I learned that despite the efforts we made to change the past, something that is meant to happen will happen. I once went to the past to rescue Aunt Hikari’s cat from getting hit by a motorbike. I did it, and he was saved. However, a few days later, he still died of diarrhea. That’s where I learned that you cannot alter something if it was meant to be—just like you and Mum. You both have an undeniable connection that won’t be shaken easily despite the fights and flights, and believe me when I say you guys still bicker a lot after you get married. But hey, I’m still here travelling so casually. That’s a good sign, right?”

A lecture from a grade-schooler who claimed as his prodigal son wasn’t something he expected this afternoon, but it was all he needed to purge the doubts inside. Maybe Tsuyoshi was right. Maybe he and Sora were meant to be.

Yes, maybe. At the end of the day, the future is uncertain, like his son said just now.

But still, he had the ability to navigate himself into the future he wanted, right?

It was Taichi’s turn to smile, giving a ruffle to Tsuyoshi’s hair. “You’re wise. I think that’s another thing you got from your Mum,” Taichi said as he got up from the seat. “Let’s just hope she will still be your Mum.”

“She has too much stuff to pack. I bet she’s still at home.”

“Agree. I still have to be quick, though. Thank you, Tsuyoshi.”

“No worries, Dad. I’m going to wait for you on the other side. With Tsubasa too.”

“Tsubasa? Who’s—”

Tsuyoshi just winked, and even though it was Taichi who stood up first, Tsuyoshi was the one who ran towards the opposite direction of the apartment. He made a turn outside the park’s fence before going missing—hopefully, not for good.

Taichi, too, had to run as fast as he could. He had a future to secure, after all.