Charles & Midori

Author's Note: Thank you again for your support, even during my hiatus. I'll tell you now that this one is long and relatively SFW, but I think I tied up all the loose ends. Happy reading, and see you on the interwebs.

Midori sighed as she stared at the ceiling. She had been enjoying a dream about having a penis and swordfighting with Charles, but he had to remind her in the dream about the trip they would be taking that day, which woke her up so she could ensure they had not overslept (they still had a few hours). They would be spending a week in Toronto with her parents, and her sister would be there as well. Midori did want to see her nephew, but that meant seeing her sister (airheaded) and her brother-in-law (obnoxious). She looked over at Charles and the tent he had pitched. She thought about doing something, but he was not nearly as good as she was at sleeping on planes, so instead she reached for her phone, as social media helped her at times like these (sometimes).

"What's wrong?" Charles asked when he heard Midori groan.

"Nothing..." Midori put her phone down and looked over at Charles. "Okay, it's really stupid..."

"Just tell me. Or can it wait?"

"It can wait, but..."

"Talk to me."

"Jaaved got married in October."

"Jaaved your first boyfriend?"

"Second. First real one, but technically my second." Midori showed Charles the pictures of a Pakistani man and a Vietnamese woman. She put her phone down and looked back at the ceiling with an unblinking stare. "It was senior year. We had met a few years prior, since we were the only ones who made a point of not supporting the school's football team."

"Your football or my football?"

"I'm about to spill my guts, Charles."

"Sorry."

"Shortly before senior year began, we met for our Footballer Boycott club to make a plan for the season. The joke had kinda died by then, so it was really just the two of us doing something silly to get a few more pictures of ourselves on the school website. I'd kinda liked him for about a year and a half prior after I'd gotten to know him, but he was dating another girl for most of high school. I'd heard they'd split over the break, and I kinda wanted to slip into his life, but I also didn't want to rush him. I still asked him out when we met that day, and we left school and went to a movie. By the start of the year, we were official, or official enough, and I say he was my first real boyfriend mainly because he was my first kiss. Jaaved brought me into the relationship world, letting us go at my pace since it was my first real relationship."

"Real quick, why did the first one not count?" Charles asked.

"In addition to never kissing, Morris and I were in middle school, so he doesn't count as a real boyfriend because we were starting puberty. It's not a real relationship until at least late puberty, and there has to be an actual kiss."

"Interesting criteria."

"I'll give you the full list sometime. Anyway, Jaaved and I were our class's power couple. Kinda like Erik and Ben in your class, but not gay, obviously. We were rarely apart, I did both school plays because of him, and I dragged him out to more than one local comic con. Then prom night happened."

"You broke up?"

"I dumped him." Midori sighed. "It was for good reason. He and I had different ideas about where we wanted to go after school, we planned on heading to very different countries for very different reasons, and...I was a kid, and he was a kid, and we were dumb, and..."

"You cheated on each other."

"Charles, that was then..."

"Molly and I also cheated on each other towards the end. I'll tell you about it later."

"We really are a blasian Scott and Ramona, aren't we?"

"In more of the bad ways than we initially thought. So you cheated, he cheated, and you dumped him. Then you started chasing your Amy."

"It's like your last name is really Xavier..."

"We have strangely similar stories."

"We do." Midori took a breath, stopping herself from crying, though the tears still fell from her eyes. "When I first got here, I went to the beach, hoping to make him jealous with a bikini pic. He sent me a picture in response, with his new girl, and yes, she's now his wife. I broke, Charles. I spiraled downwards, and the fact that I didn't like beer at the time, plus being too young in the States was the only reason I didn't become an alcoholic. They were so happy together, and I was...I was lonely. I dated between him and you. Some just had yellow fever. Some I dated because I would probably get a free meal, or at least a free drink. There was more than one pity date from either side. But one day, we ripped off the bandaid and talked to each other in person. We apologised, we hashed it out, and we made up as best as we could. Until he asked the question."

"Which was?"

"Jaaved asked me if I was seeing anyone, and when he asked me why I wasn't, I punched him in the mouth."

"To be fair, that was insensitive."

"That doesn't change the fact that I overreacted. It would have escalated if not for the fact that he insisted his girlfriend didn't retaliate on me. We...had another talk a few weeks later, ultimately deciding that following each other's social media was fine, but we should not talk to each other."

"And I'm guessing you just found out about the wedding, then?"

"If I'd known before, you would have known."

Charles rolled over and put an arm across Midori. She held it there, gently tapping on his fingers as she considered the next part.

"We are still on the same page about marriage, right?" she asked.

"If you still don't want to."

"Do you want to get married, Charles?"

"Do you want me to go through it again?"

"Give me the short version."

"If marriage did not exist, no one in their right mind would turn to their partner and say that the two of them deserve tax breaks and social praise because they decided to spend the rest of their lives shitting in the same toilet. If weddings did not exist, only an absolute asshole would invite their family and friends to a cookout, then tell the guests that they are not allowed to have any food while effectively forcing them to watch the hosts eat. Those opinions are pretty firm in my mind."

"As long as we're still on the same page." Midori reached down and touched Charles's penis. "I'm sorry, but I'm not going back to sleep. This isn't going to leave my brain anytime soon."

"You need to talk to a therapist, Midori."

"So do you."

"At least we don't need couple's therapy."

"I guess we don't." She began stroking as she felt Charles gently touch her pussy. "Are you going back to sleep?"

"Probably not. You've...awakened some memories of my past."

"Before that." Midori rolled so that she was on top of Charles. She rubbed her covered pussy over his covered penis. "Do you mind if I just do this a little?"

"If you must."

Charles lay where he was, watching his partner stare absently ahead while she got her rocks off a bit. He thought about the end of his relationship with Molly. He had cast that first stone with Olivia, then she one upped him with Paul. He went to Christina (by the gods, he should not have done that for so many reasons), then she topped that with Sammy and Jamie (at the same time, no less). He was about to recount this series of...'exchanges' to Midori, but she had fallen asleep. Charles closed his eyes, somehow joining her in dreamland.

"You cheated on Molly," Midori typed. She and Charles were on the plane, working on their computers, but also chatting with each other, given the nature of the topic.

"I'm not proud of that," Charles spoke before typing out the sequence of events, including the stupid advice from a former friend that had led to him cheating on her in the first place. He looked over, seeing Midori's face and hoping that he had not torpedoed this relationship.

"Why did she forgive you?" Midori typed after a few minutes.

"She never told me. We also talked about it after we grew up, and while no one got punched or anything, we decided that we should separate to cool off. Then we ran into each other at a supermarket and we started talking naturally, and our friendship gradually returned from there. Kinda like you and Jahvid"

"Jaaved."

"Jaaved. Kinda like you two, things were a bit different because we'd grown up and learned about ourselves and reality." Charles looked over at Midori, who had tears in her eyes. "Are you okay?"

"I'm okay enough," she spoke, kissing Charles on the forehead. "Tell me the rest when we get there."

The plane landed a bit later. Midori's parents had rented a car for them, and since Midori was more familiar with driving in Toronto (and had caught a few z's on the flight), she took the wheel and waited for Charles to tell her the next thing.

"I know I told you about the gap," he said. "The gap wasn't completely a gap."

"Go on."

"It started way before that, actually." Charles looked up, pantomiming lighting a cigarette and taking the first drag (something he did before dropping major bombshells; Midori had only seen him do this twice since she had known him). "I'd known this girl since third or fourth grade. Bobbi. She used to call herself Double Indian, since her dad is Blackfeet and her mom is Punjabi. We hung out at recess from time to time, but we didn't really get to know each other until sophomore year, when she came to my school. She hung out with our nerd herd, even though she wasn't into games or anime or anything like that, probably because most of us liked classic rock like she did, and we weren't as douchey as the main rockers. Anyway, we got to know each other more during that time, and around Halloween of junior year, I had planned to ask her to the school dance. That night was when I learned she and Patrick were official."

"Patrick and SpongeBobbi."

"Needless to say, they leaned the hell into that." Charles looked out at a road sign, sighing. "During the summer, I couldn't take it anymore, so I sent them a group message saying that I was definitely in love with her, and I felt like I was in love with him. Now, I don't know why, but at the time Bobbi was the sort who would kiss her good friends on the cheek, or hug them real close or things like that. Apparently, I was one of those friends at the time, and it made me uneasy. It felt like candy times, but it also felt wrong, because Patrick or no, she was seeing someone else."

"Do you have to reference that video?"

"If I'm not using the voice, I mean candy times in the purest possible sense, actual confectionaries notwithstanding."

"So how did they take it?"

"They were both understanding, and after talking with each of them individually, they made it clear that they knew where I was coming from and they still wanted to be my friends."

"So why haven't I met Bobbi?"

"That's the next part of this story." Charles took another drag of his imaginary cigarette. "Molly was my first girlfriend, but Bobbi was the first person I had ever loved. Like, I once wrote a story where she and I were on a trip similar to this one."

"Did she pee on you, too?"

"The only major difference between that story and ours is that she and I never actually had sex, which really should have tipped me off sooner that I'm ace. Anyway, she and Patrick split a bit after we graduated, and she and I spoke off and on afterwards. She once came to my community college during a dodgeball tournament because she was dating our dodgeball club's president, which was how I learned she was a secret lesbian."

"And Patrick?"

"I talked to him about it, and he knew the whole time. He was her beard because her parents aren't very...consistent about that sort of thing."

"They don't care if her girlfriend is a lesbian, but some god forbid their daughter is."

"Exactly. I had started seeing Molly by this time, so...there was no mental wrestling; not that I recall, anyway. A few months after Molly and I split, I was...in a bad place. Similar to you after Jaaved, but without any pity dates. Without any dates at all, actually. I tried websites and apps, and I'm never getting that money back. I tried speed dating twice, and on my second outing, I was actually matched with someone who legitimately captured my interest. I sent Jessica a message basically as soon as I learned we were matched, and I tried to arrange a date, but she canceled the night before. No big deal, I thought; life happens. I tried again a few weeks later, but she canceled that one, too. I called her the next day hoping to align our schedules, and that's when she told me she was seeing someone else and had a date with that person that night. I thought she might have been lying to me, since this was the first I was hearing about it, but whether she was or not, she did not know whether or not I'm the sort of fucked up monster who would track her down and kill her for not going on a date with me, and that's a way to deter that behavior. I get it. But if she just did not want to go out with me, she could have said so."

"You would have cried into your beer while listening to 90s songs."

"You know that and I know that, but she didn't, and why would she. I did go out and drink that night, and I stupidly decided to Google a few names from the old nerd herd, mostly just to make sure people were still on this side of the dirt. That was how I found out Bobbi still lived in the area and had gotten married that day, and for whatever reason, the location of the reception was also on the wedding website."

"You didn't." Midori parked by her parents' driveway.

"Her brother was the first to see me, so he let me in," Charles recounted. "There was an open bar, so I had another beer. I'd been just good enough to drive, and after the next one, I was noticeably intoxicated, but still more or less present. I recall I was present enough, which I know doesn't mean much. I found Bobbi on the dancefloor and I let her have it. 'You were my first love,' I said. 'If you needed a beard at the time, what the hell did Patrick have that I didn't.' Shit like that. I was almost forcibly ejected, but I probably did the 'fuck you, I was already leaving' bit. I was going back to my car to wait, when she followed me. We had a...slightly more rational conversation in the parking lot, until it escalated to yelling, and when she said she never wanted to see me again, I told her to sit on a cactus. Needless to say, we haven't spoken since. Last I'd heard, she now lives in Omaha of all places, and as far as I know, she's still married."

"How'd you avoid lockup that night?"

"I'm guessing because all I did was yell at her and a few other people. If there is one thing in my life for which I'd thank a deity, it's that night."

A tap on the window caused the two to jump a mile (sorry, a kilometre). They looked over to see Mrs. D at the window smiling at them. They got out of the car and Midori halfheartedly hugged her mother.

"I know we're Japanese, but you can give a better hug than that," Mrs. D playfully admonished.

"I'm glad to see you, too," Midori said. "I'm just...processing what Charles told me."

"We've had an interesting morning," Charles said. "It's nice to finally meet you."

"Oh, did he finally propose?"

"No!" Midori took a breath. "No, we had to talk about our pasts after I learned something about someone. Charles and I have agreed not to get married, and I don't want to hear about it again."

Charles took their bags and followed Midori and her mother to the house. He was about to take off his shoes, but he noticed Midori walk right in (when she had told him to 'be natural,' he would not have guessed quite like this).

"Is it bad for me to assume they'd be more traditional?" he whispered.

"I don't think so, but just assume they're people," Midori responded, surprising the hell out of him. "When I'm at home, I become a kunoichi."

"I f...reaking hate you."

"Like that girl hates Wes Scantlin." She kissed him and took her bag. "Follow me. We're sleeping in my room."

"Yeah..." Charles followed Midori up the stairs, feeling reminded of his parents' first house. Indeed, Midori's room was in the same place in this house as his had been in that one. Unsure of what to expect, Charles found the room surprisingly plain, the only accoutrement being a concert poster on the wall (she had won it in the band's auction to pay their legal fees [a story he knew she had sworn not to tell him]) and a floor lamp that would scare a child in the dark. The bed was large enough to fit them both, but Charles still felt a bit weird about it, mainly because he knew that her parents would be weird about it. "You never lived here?"

"I came to the States for uni and I never left. They moved across the pond...maybe two years after I did, and I came up and visited a bit more frequently, until they went across to Whitehorse for fuck if I know why."

"Across?"

"Whitehorse is in the Yukon. They lived there for four years, and by the time they came back, I was settled where I was, and I came up once after five years, and this is my first time back after that trip."

"Why is that?"

"I think you know." Midori returned Charles's smile. "I met some guy, we started (she looked out to make sure her nephew was not nearby) shagging, and now I'm introducing him to my parents."

"We're leaving as soon as we're allowed, aren't we?"

"There are many reasons I don't talk to or about them, and you're going to learn at least a few. Remember what I told you?"

"If your mom asks about marriage, tell her that you're my mistress, and if your dad asks about kids, I tell him we're not goats."

"And if he asks about children, you show him your stuff and tell him to take control." Midori slapped Charles on the ass and went down the stairs. "Make yourself at home, but keep your pants on. Trousers; I've become so American."

Mr. D came home about an hour later with Midori's sister and her family in tow. Charles and Midori had gone down to the basement to watch a movie when her mother called them upstairs.

"Remember, Marty is seven," Midori said. "Seven."

"I'm not as bad with children as you seem to think," Charles responded. They came up next to the dining room as Marty ran and jumped into Midori's arms.

"You're Charles?" Miki asked.

"I am. I guess you're Miki."

"Yeah." The two stared at each other awkwardly. "Weird."

"What's weird?"

"Midori brought you up here."

"I'm...not following..."

"She's never introduced any of her other boyfriends to our parents, so it's weird that she'd do that with you."

"Charles is my second boyfriend, and you've all met Jaaved." Midori put her nephew down and turned to her father. "Da, Charles. Charles, Mr. D."

"Or Akashi, if you prefer," Mr. D said, shaking Charles's hand. "I appreciate that you've kept my daughter out of trouble."

"Can't guarantee that I've done that, but it's made for some fun stories."

"That's fair. Can't live too boring a life, right? Anyway, who's hungry?"

Dinner quickly became an interesting affair. They were sitting on the deck out back eating pho and Miki and George were going on about some work thing they were doing (Charles knew he heard them say what they did, but he could not remember, and they had started talking about ten minutes prior) while Midori ate in silence, hoping no one would bring it up. Her sister brought it up.

"So, will we all be together at the next wedding?" Miki asked.

"Depends on whose it is and how they go about it," Midori answered.

"I know it's not the best time to say it," Miki continued, "But I can't believe you didn't come to my wedding."

"Why, oh, why did I not fly to bloody Australia as a foreign student in the States?" Midori sarcastically pretended to think. "Not to mention the type of wedding you had."

"Super traditional?" Charles asked, hoping for clarity.