blackmail; shuji hanma

thirteen. washing machine heart

This time around, (Y/N) decided to stay in the future for a little bit longer, taking extra care to avoid getting hit by flying projectiles and slipping on slippery suds. Her heart and mind had agreed on the decision to return to the past and stay there, as she desperately wanted to experience for herself how she ended up in something as wonderful as this, but first, she would spend time here. She would say it was because she wanted to mentally prepare herself for reliving eleven years of her live, but she knew, deep down inside, she wanted to exist in a world where someone loved her like this for just a moment more. 

Currently, she was laying on the couch, watching Hanma work on his laptop in the chair adjacent to her, mentally noting the similarities between his past and self. He seemed to have changed a lot from his sixteen-year-old self, but she thought it was funny he was still wearing that dangly earring on his left ear. It made her want to reach out and bat at it like a cat, but she was too lazy to reach out and bother him.

"Am I that attractive?" Hanma asked, amused and without looking up from his work. "You haven't stopped looking at me in a good while."

"I zoned out," (Y/N) lied with a huff.

She turned away from him on the couch and after counting to ten in her mind, turned back to look at him again. This time, he was the one staring at her like he knew she wouldn't be able to keep her eyes off him, so she childishly stuck her tongue out at him and buried her face in one of the throw pillows. Hanma laughed, happier than she had ever heard him, then she heard the sound of him shutting his laptop and placing it on a side table. 

"Let's do something together while you're here," he said and she could hear the grin in his voice. "What do you like more, pie or cake? Choose wisely, because we only have the ingredients for one of them and not the other."

"Cupcakes," she said out of spite because she knew he was teasing her. It was practically habit at this point to banter with him, and by the way his face lit up, she knew this dynamic of theirs hadn't changed, even in marriage. 

Hanma stood and stretched his arms with a satisfying pop, before he shot her a terribly annoying grin. "Yeah, we don't have the ingredients for either, so let's go shopping together. It'll be so 'married life' of us that you'll die from embarrassment."

"Why do I get the feeling you're the worst person to shop with?" (Y/N) asked suspiciously. 

Her suspicions were confirmed the second they stepped into the store, as though the car ride over and Hanma's driving skills weren't already bad enough. She had a feeling most of what he was doing was to mess with her, considering that stupid grin was on him the whole time, and she couldn't exactly blame him - (Y/N) had been thrown into this strange future for the second time and she was so clueless about most things that she could see why Hanma's sadistic personality would want to make it even worse. 

He slung an arm around her shoulder, directing her down the first aisle they came across in the store without even grabbing a basket or a shopping cart. Figuring Hanma had some idea of what they would be buying, (Y/N) said to him, "Where to first?"

"I don't know," Hanma shrugged, "I didn't bring the list."

"You are the absolute worst, you know that?" she said with a huff, despite the light tone of endearment in her voice. "Let's split up and while you get the things you need, I'll go buy the groceries I expect we need."

And so the couple split off to different sides of the store, each diligently doing their part. Eventually, (Y/N) successfully had a basket filled with various foods and ingredients, and all that was left to do was meet back up with Hanma to check out. Only, no matter how many times she circled the stores and peered down the individual isles, she couldn't find him, making her wonder if her luck was really that bad and she kept missing him. She soon found that wasn't the case, as the loudspeaker in the supermarket turned on with a crackle and a clearing of an associate's throat.

 "Would (Y/N) Hanma come to the front of the store? Your husband is lost." 

There was the initial embarrassment that went alongside being called out specifically in a place full of people, then came the sense of defeat that came with knowing that this was what her husband had planned. Of course he would pull something like this, being one who lived for adrenaline and amusement, even if it was as simple as pretending to be lost in the store. She knew the second she saw him he had thought of this beforehand, because there was that dumb grin on his face again.

"There she is," Hanma said with obvious mirth to the cashier that had called for her. 

The cashier looked dead inside, but nodded and gave him a thumbs up, nonetheless.

Once she made her way over to him, (Y/N) whispered grimly, "Why would you do that?"

"I wanted you to have one lasting memory of me for when you go back," Hanma said with a shrug, taking the basket from her and throwing his free arm around her shoulders, pulling her close, "If you think about it, I won't see you ever again. You're going to make a whole new timeline and I don't suppose this version of me will exist."

"How'd you know I was going to stay in the past?" (Y/N) asked. Her voice was weaker than she thought it would be, hating that she kept having to say goodbye. 

"You're curious by nature, there's no way you'd pass up an opportunity like this. So, have fun reliving middle school and high school," he encouraged, "And, if you ever doubt me, know I'm a lot more in love with you that you think."

In love, huh? She now knew a thing or two about that.