Fic: The simplest solution. (G, shin/kumi, post-series)

Hi everyone ! I'm new to the community; I've been watching jdoramas for a few years now, but only recently watched Gokusen... of course, I fell in love with these two. I come with fic... please forgive any errors in manga/anime canon, as I've only seen the drama so far.


Title: The simplest solution.
Rating: G
Fandom: Gokusen (drama)
Pairing: Shin/Kumi
Summary: A moment, post-series, when everything starts to make sense.
Disclaimer: So, so not mine.


They were caught in the sudden shower and he’d given her his jacket, and she’d dragged him home for tea and dumplings. Probably just to thank him. She’s dense like that.





To begin with, it was raining.

They’d been walking, just walking; passing the people on the street at a different pace, like they always did, always walking too fast or too slow, always walking together. She’d been talking about something, a student in her new class, some kid with an attitude, he doesn’t remember; he’d been drifting in her voice, smelling the rain before it fell, wondering if today was the day. Or tomorrow. Or ever. Three years out of school and he’s still marking the changes in the weather by the first day she wears her hair up.

“Sawada,” she’d said. “Are you listening ?”

“Just hit him over the head,” he’d answered, “the simplest solution is usually the best one.” Yankumi had favored him with a laugh, a real one, and then a mock-frown.

“Nah.” She’d kicked a pebble out of her path, slipped her hands into her pockets. “They’re too good a class. I haven’t kicked a single one into the river. I think maybe,” she’d brightened, skipping a little in her step, “that I’m becoming a better teacher. Maybe they can just sense it.” He’d looked at her, this bright woman with hair falling in her face, the first shadows of clouds passing over them both; and he’d wondered, better ?

As she is, she’s wonderful.

And then, the rain.




Now he’s sitting at her table, watching her grade papers with a deadly expression; his socks are spread out on the heater and it feels funny to be barefoot before her, exposed like this, even though they’re only toes. They were caught in the sudden shower and he’d given her his jacket, and she’d dragged him home for tea and dumplings. Probably just to thank him. She’s dense like that.

“Yankumi,” he says absently, head leaning on one hand, “do you do everything so seriously ?”

“What ?” She looks up and he grins at her, lazy and warm and pleased to be so near her, letting himself slip a little. “Oh, you’re teasing me.”

“You grade like people wage wars,” he smirks. “Fight-oh !” Yankumi fixes him with a slightly murderous glare; then thinks better of it, and smiles at him so sweetly that he sees stars.

“You’re so cute, Sawada,” she says, “until you open your mouth.”

It feels like winning.






It's still raining.

She doesn't make him go home; instead, he stays while people shuffle in and out. They look him up and down and sigh, they get out of Yankumi's way when she breaks a pencil point, they pat him on the shoulder and ask him how university is going.

"Another year," he says, "and I'll be graduating."

When they're alone again he looks up, at her; she's got the tip of a pen in her mouth and she's staring at him, really considering him, her eyes dark as firelight. It's all he can do not to reach for her face, to smooth the perfect skin there, to sweep the stray hairs out of her eyes and say everything that's on his mind. He's not the brave one, though.

That's her.

"What will you do, then ?" she murmurs. "Where will you go ?"

He wonders, suddenly, if she finally gets it- the long looks, the respectful distance, the solid shoulder and the hand always extended, the nights when he's got nothing better to do than watch her, watching television. She's chewing on the pen.

"Go ?" he asks.

And Yankumi smiles.