blackmail; shuji hanma

fourteen. cosmic love

For her last journey through time, (Y/N) chose a simple method of knocking herself out. She picked a wall in the house that Hanma was wanting to tear down and ran into it at full speed, effectively risking a concussion and covering her in the darkness that came with unconsciousness. It was times like these that made her question why he had married her, but she supposed she would find out this time around.

Her eyes opened and immediately shut, a glaring white light shining from above. For a moment, she thought, oh crap did I really die this time? Then she realized, after blinking blearily a couple times, that the white light was really just an overhead lamp and she was lying back in a chair, the sterile smell of a dentists office greeting her when she took a breath. (Y/N) ran her tongue over her teeth, finding them to be clear of the metal contraptions she had grown used to every time she travelled in the past.

"You're all set, Miss. (Y/N)," an older lady said - an orthodontist, she presumed. "Your boyfriend's waiting for you at the front. It was sweet of him to come with you."

The only person outside of her family who knew about this date, the day she finally was freed from her braces, was Hanma, so seeing him waiting for her didn't surprise her as much as she thought it would. Maybe it was because the words of his future counterpart were still lingering or maybe it was because she had realized a stupid amount of things in the time they had been apart. She didn't hesitate to thank the orthodontist, before making her way over to Hanma.

(Y/N) wouldn't lie, she moved quicker than she normally would and didn't even stop to hesitate before she threw her arms around him in a hug. He smelled of cigarettes and whatever stupid cologne he had taken to wearing, but most of all, there was a distinct feeling of home the closer she was to him. It was the epiphany that her journey over the past couple of weeks was something right out of a fable, a pair of soulmates whose story was rewritten simply so they could end up together. Tragedies were too sad, the story writer had insisted, happy endings just made too much sense.

"Are you finally going to stay this time?" Hanma asked her sounding a lot more serious than someone who had been waiting for an appointment should.

"You knew?" she blurted out. (Y/N) stepped back from the hug, though she was still fairly close to him, her hands toying with the edge of his jacket.

He slung an arm around her shoulder, walking her away from the office, not yet providing her with an answer. The delinquent waited until they were a fair distance away, in a small parking lot away from people, before he looked down at her pouting face and gently tugged on her cheek. She pulled away, but really didn't mind the familiar touch.

"Of course I knew. It was funny, watching the two different versions of you run around." Hanma said with a chuckle, "but I'll always prefer this you, the one who caught my attention in the first place. You're always a mix of confident and confused, knowing things and not knowing things."

"Then why'd you marry me?" (Y/N) asked before she could stop herself.

His whole face lit up at this. "We get married?" With a clearing of his throat, Hanma composed himself, answering her question instead. "The other version of you is just as entertaining, that's why. You'll always be you, (Y/N), even with the changes you go through."

She didn't know his words effected her as much as they did, a blush rising on her cheeks as she turned away, not knowing what to say. Now that she realized her affections for him were just as real as his for her, there was a bit of hesitation to be found. Although the feeling was mutual between them, (Y/N) still wanted to keep to her earlier vow, because she still thought it was strange for her to be mentally twenty-something and him to be sixteen. Perhaps she was overthinking it, she did that sometimes, but she still voiced her thoughts.

"I still won't date you until we're eighteen." (Y/N) finally said.

There was a stupidly heartwarming grin on his face when she looked back up at him, one that made her stomach flip from how obviously in love with her he was. She wondered how she hadn't seen it until now, how she was oblivious to something this apparent. 

Hanma gave a small shrug, "I don't mind, as long as we end up married, like you said. It's cute isn't it? <3"

"You're so stupid," she said affectionally, rolling her eyes. "Now, don't we have work to do? The great info broker Blackmail can't ruin lives by herself."

.

.

bonus:

"How do you do that?" (Y/N) asked curiously.

"Do what? <3" Hanma said as he absentmindedly typed something into his phone. He didn't even seem aware of what he was doing and that was the weirdest part - it was almost like she could hear the heart being added in at the end of his sentences. If there were subtitles under him, a heart would finish his words, or if he had a dialogue box in a manga, his bubbles would always end with a heart.

(Y/N) shook her head in disbelief. "No, really, how do you do that? Are you saying 'less than three' and a heart is appearing in my mind? Am I going crazy?"

"Would you even notice if you were?" he said back, a grin tugging at the edges of his lips, "I don't think I'm doing anything out of the ordinary, I'm just talking. <3"

"This is extremely unsettling, so I am going to pretend like it is perfectly normal," she decided, giving up on trying to figure out the speech pattern. Because, after all, that's what everyone else does when they see it happen, don't they?