im going to need everyone to be very patient with me as i repeatedly promote my fic over the next........... very long time. i worked very hard on it and i want people to read it -w-
"And Eichi is, unfortunately, far too familiar with him and his habits. Familiar enough that he feels fully entitled to stroll in and slip behind Keito’s desk, shaking his head as he ‘tsk-tsk’ s over Keito like a chiding mother. “Working overtime again… they say old habits are hard to break, but at a certain point a habit becomes more of a character flaw, you know?” he teases. There’s a sparkle in his eye as he teases Keito, something delighted and fond and matched by the soft curve of his smile.
This is how it’s always been between them. Genuine sentiment wrapped up in thorny barbs, as if the slightly prickling pain will protect what’s beneath. The years have softened them some, and with the years a handful of critical moments, brush fires that cleared the thickets of brambles enough to see the precious, vulnerable things hidden underneath. But their little dance will never truly change. Eichi will needle Keito, Keito will scold Eichi, and the two of them will still find themselves back in a bed in a dark room telling secrets they’ve both lived through since they were children."
(If you'd like to continue reading this fic, you can do so here!)
okay but to be honest. in my head the wataei/watakeichi endgame is:
eichi inherits a significant portion of his familys stuff and reorganizes it to be in line with his design and values. then he writes a will where a significant portion of his stuff will be allocated to the people he cares about. this includes people who arent even expecting to get anything from him, like tsumugi and leo.
then, he and wataru fake eichis death.
a select few people are in direct awareness of the plan (keito, tori and yuzuru, etc) and i think a fair bit of people beyond that (pretty much everyone in ES) surmise that he didnt actually die. but for all intents and purposes, his death is legally honored, as are the contents of his will.
meanwhile wataru and eichi escape to a small countryside in europe where they live new identities in a cute mansion next to a small town where they make friends with all the locals who just adore the couple living up on the hill and eichi uses the money he allocated for himself in their scheme in order to build a local theater which wataru then happily runs, directs in, stars in, teaches children theater in, so on and so forth
theyre still in frequent communication with their friends back in japan (secretly) who will also occasionally come visit. this includes keito who eichi will just randomly call like "hi ^_^ the private jet is ready for you" "eichi im in a meeting." "i know, wataru is coming around with the helicopter to take you to the airport" "xe flew all the way here just to ride to the office building in a helicopter?" "oh no no, xes flying the helicopter!"
when the objectively bad person has traumatic and honestly reasonable reasons for why theyre like that but it doesnt excuse their actions and only serves to make them more tragic as a character