Portraits of our dreams (Hashirama x Madara)

13. Support network (Hashirama)

Something happened with Madara from that day.

I noticed there was a spark in his eye that hadn't been there before as well as a spring in his step. He would come hug me from behind when I was editing. He would greet me with a cup of hot tea and noodle soup when I came home late from work. Like, a good noodle soup, with egg halves and vegetables and stuff. He would come lay down on me on the sofa where I lay on my back reading a book. I loved to see him like this.

One day when I sat editing the cherry blossom photos of him, I noticed he was unusually quiet.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

"How did you know something is wrong?"

I took his hand from where he stood behind me to watch me edit and kissed it.

"You should have told me how amazing I am, like, seven times by now. Yet you have only told me once."

"Oy!" Madara said, but he kissed my head to show me he wasn't really offended.

Then, he took a deep breath, and when I realised he was going to say something serious, I turned around so I faced him.

"You can tell me", I said mildly.

He didn't really dare to look at me.

"You know, I really liked that job in my old company. As a landscape architect. What if I..." He bit his lip, and my heart blew for him. He thinks I'll say no. He thinks I'll say no to him having a job. "What if I wanted it back?"

I took both of his hand and tried to catch his eye.

"That would have been fantastic! Please, tell me if there's anything I can do to help. Read through your CV or anything, I'll do it!"

Madara looked as if he didn't believe me.

"Are you serious?"

"Of course! Madara, I want you be happy! And I want you to manage on your own! I want you to be with me because you want to. Not because you need to."

Madara smiled.

But when he made the phone call to his old office, he came back to me completely deflated.

"They told me my spot is taken by someone else now. Of course it is. What was I thinking? I quit my job there ages ago!"

I comforted him, tried to encourage him, but didn't quite succeed.

The day after, however, I was meeting up with the architect of a skyscraper that was going to be built that had gotten a lot of attention due to its size. This one would be rounded, made entirely of glass, and it would contain an indoor landscape that the architect hadn't quite figured out yet. I came back to Madara that night, sitting on our bed and looking for jobs on his phone, now connected to my Wi-Fi password, and told him about it.

"It was amazing! He wants me to photograph the entire building process, and then also the finished result. It's the closest I've come to none-freelance work. I love being freelance, but I will also love the stability this job will provide for a while."

But Madara was frowning.

"What did you say the architect was called?"

I told him, and he Googled him immediately. Before I understood what was going on, he had phoned a number.

I heard the entire conversation. He had called the architect and told him that he had heard he wanted to create an indoor landscape, and that he was up for the job. I gaped at his bravery. Never in a million years would I have thought that this timid man would have it in him.