Ugh, I feel like writing this because I've been feeling shit about my speech impediment for the past...four years of my life and I want to put this out there for anyone who feels like they don't belong in this world. I made this book solely because I want people to see that others love them, even if they don't know it (and also because I love these baes eyo!) but seriously, I think you're beautiful so hang in there.
~*~
To Yaku, you were strong.
To Yaku, you were like a perfectly painted picture, a masterpiece even.
To Yaku, you were a being of extreme intelligence and beauty; someone that should never be taken lightly or ridiculed, but in this cruel journey called life, that wasn't how it was.
~*~
Staring at the ceiling, Yaku sighed.
He couldn't sleep and it was really frustrating.
He wondered how you were doing after that conversation after school.
If he wasn't ok, then he could only just imagine how you felt...
The two were walking home from school, hand in hand, like you did everyday. Nothing was different; you were happy, Yaku was happy, and nothing could ruin the moment.
Nothing expect from a few jerks that you two encountered nearly everyday.
~*~
You had a speech impediment, and a pretty bad one at that.
You'd had it for as long as you remembered, ever since you said your first word.
Your parents said you stuttered that out aswell, which they believed made you the cutest baby ever.
Others said it made you a freak, a weirdo, different - but with a loving and caring family that were the only people you ever believed, other people's words didn't really faze you.
However, as time went on and you successfully survived middle school and junior high, people's insults got more brutal, and one that you heard the most frequently was:
"She can't even speak her own language."
Of course, they damaged your heart, but not as much as the words from your loved ones healed it.
Every insult was met with a beautiful compliment, whether it be from Yaku or your parents. When you first met Hinata at a practice match at Nekoma, even he said your stutter was "so awesome", which made you smile brightly in response.
Despite having such a horrible condition, you were always smiling and talkative and happy and when you did stutter, you didn't stop talking, or go all nervous, or try to change your words.
You just carried on with your sentence, kept stuttering until you finally got it right, even if it took you ages and you ran out of breath. Yeah, it was frustrating as heck, but you never let that frustration show, and Yaku was so proud of you that sometimes it even made him cry.
If he were in your shoes, he would probably be antisocial as heck: avoid conversations, stay quiet in class, do anything to get out of talking to others - even his parents!
So to see you, his girlfriend - someone that he could call his own and be so darn proud of it - ignoring the haters and just getting on with your life, made him so fucking proud it was beyond words.
He wondered how you were always so happy and cheerful, and how you managed to cheer others up when their problems were nowhere near as serious as yours, and how you ended up being his.
He was so protective of you and whenever someone asked him why he liked you - before stating that your stutter was weird - he would stand tall and tell them he loved your stutter, because he did.
Yaku loved everything about you and just because you had something that nobody else did, he believed it was another reason to love you, another reason why you were such a beautiful human being.
And he hated it when people would pick on you and make fun of you, and he'd told the rest of the volleyball team to be patient with you whenever he saw you were coming over because he was worried that one day, they would even turn against you.
He just loved you so much, and he didn't want something like this to destroy your beautiful personality.
~*~
"Hey, Y/N!"
You and Yaku stopped walking and turned around to see three familiar jerks smirking at you.
Yaku frowned at the three whereas you smiled sweetly and waved.
"Hello!" You chirped, and Yaku's frown only grew at the respect you gave them.
Ever since joining Nekoma, those jerks had always poked fun at your speech impediment and Yaku believed they didn't even have the right to call you by your first name.
"Wow, she didn't stutter! The freak's finally learning to speak her own language!" One of them sneered in fake astonishment, and Yaku's grip on your hand tightened.
He looked over to you out of the corner of his eye to see you still smiling brightly. Your eyes were closed and he thought it was to outline your beautiful smile, but it was so he couldn't see the pain in your eyes.
"I know! I'm actually g-getting better!" You replied happily, your slip-up not bothering you as much as it bothered Yaku, because he knew the jerks would pick up on it.
And holy hell, did they pick up on it.
All of them suddenly burst into fits of rambunctious laughter, all three of them having to clutch onto their stomachs as they doubled over.
Yaku growled quietly and took a step forward, only to be jerked back by you, and he turned his head round to see you still smiling.
"Let's just go, 'kay?" You suggested sweetly, and Yaku looked back at the jerks before looking back at you and nodding.
"Yeah, bye, freak!" One of them called out as you and Yaku walked down the street, hand in hand.
Despite the fact you were still smiling, the frown never Yaku's face - even after you both arrived at your house.
Your parents weren't here as they were both working late that night, so you invited Yaku round for a few hours until they returned, which would most likely be early in the morning so a sleepover was out for the taking.
"Wow, I'm exhausted!" You sighed, toeing off your shoes and flopping back onto the couch.
Yaku stood next to the couch with a small look of worry on his face. He wondered what was going on inside your head after that encounter and he was seriously petrified that keeping everything inside of you would damage your mental health.
He wanted to talk about this because there were so many things that he wanted to say to you, but couldn't because you were already cheerful enough. As rude as it sounded, he wanted you to be upset about this because he was your boyfriend, and it was his job to cheer you up and make you feel special.
"Are you ok, Y/N?" He suddenly asked, and you opened your eyes to look at Yaku confusedly.
"I'm fine," you smiled. "Why'd you ask?"
Yaku looked down at the ground and his socked feet nervously. "Those guys..."
Your gaze turned into one of faint worry as you saw how concerned Yaku looked. But you didn't want to talk about it now, it would seem too awkward for you.
"Let's t-talk about this l-later, 'kay?" You suggested, giving Yaku a small close-eyed smile before heading upstairs to get dressed, leaving Yaku burning with guilt and helplessness.
~*~
Later that day, reality hit you like a brick.
You were in the kitchen, humming a happy tune, when, suddenly, the thought of the rest of your life came to mind.
How were you going to go for college interviews if you had this stupid speech impediment?
How were you going to do important presentations in university if you had this stupid speech impediment? To the invigilators, it would just seem that you hadn't prepared very well for the presentation.
How were you going to say your wedding vows to your truly beloved if you had this stupid speech impediment?
You never really thought about things like this, your life, your future, your condition, but something those jerks said struck a chord in you.
'The freak's finally learning to speak her own language!'
Finally...
You were eighteen years old and you were only just getting over your stutter. It's taken you eighteen years to accomplish saying one sentence without screwing it up.
How many more years will it take to say a paragraph? A page? A whole damn speech?
How long until this thing was gone? Would you have to live your whole life with this thing dragging you down like quicksand? It scared you how quickly things could turn from good to bad, from bad to worse, from worse to nothing...
When would you finally stop fighting and give in to this disease corrupting your mind and way of life?
What were the chances...?
Your eyes opening as wide as saucers, you suddenly dropped the plate you were holding onto the floor, the sound of ceramic startling Yaku from the living room.
"Y/N?" He called out and you pressed a hand to your mouth, your body shaking as waterfalls of tears fell from your eyes.
You couldn't remember the last time you cried over your condition. In fact, you couldn't remember the last time you cried full stop.
When Yaku entered the kitchen, he didn't even pay any mind to the shattered plate on the floor. He strode over to you and placed his hands on your forearms, looking at your shaking figure and the tears falling from your eyes.
"Y/N, are you ok? Talk to me," he urged softly, worry plastered all over the third-year's face.
You hesitantly looked up into Yaku's eyes and what he saw terrified him.
Fear.
"God, what happened?" He asked himself as he pulled you into his arms, the unfamiliar feeling of tears soaking through his pyjama shirt making him want to cry himself.
"Come on," he cooed, shuffling into the living room before sitting the two of you on the couch, making sure he sat you on his lap nice and comfortably.
He let you cry for a few minutes, running his hand through your hair as the other hand rubbed your back in circles.
Your head was rested on his shoulder as your legs were brought up to where Yaku's hung off the couch, and his embrace was warm and comforting, something you'd craved for a long time.
"Talk to me, baby," he whispered softly, kissing your temple. "What's going on in that beautiful head of yours?"
You took a few more minutes to calm down, your cries turning into sobs and your sobs turning into sniffles.
"What am I g-going t-to d-d-do in the future, Morisuke?" You asked, Yaku having no clue what you meant but nonetheless listening. "What am I g-going to do when I have interv...iews and presentations and important th...ings in my life that require talking? I can't even s-peak properly to begin with."
Yaku didn't even need to think before speaking.
"You just do what you always do, Y/N, you power through," he replied.
"But w...what happens w...when p-powering th-through doesn't w-work anymore?" What happens if I g-give up and- and-"
"Don't say that, Y/N," Yaku interrupted, feeling tears sting his own eyes.
He didn't want you to give up. God, that was the last thing he wanted you to do. But he didn't know what it felt like to be born with such poor social skills. He didn't know how hard it was for you to try saying something as simple as "hello" and sometimes not even being able to get out the first letter. He tried to understand, but he just didn't know what it was like.
"You won't give up because I won't let you," he stated, his voice breaking slightly. "I'm going to keep pushing and pushing you until you accept that you're just like me. You're smart, beautiful, you have such an amazing personality and I'm not going to let all that beauty go to waste."
And thus began Yaku's long-awaited speech.
"You've got so much ahead of you and I'm going to be here every step of the way. I'll come to your interviews and hold your hand under the table. I'll come to your presentations with big banners and personalised t-shirts.
"I'll do anything to make you see that you're needed in this world, Y/N, because you are. You may not see it, but you are a beautiful person. Your image, your personality, even your handwriting is beautiful! You're a person that shines the light on everyone else but never leaves any for themselves. You pour your heart out to other people, but you never leave any to fill yourself back up.
"Y/N, you mean so much to me and if you ever stop trying it would mean that I've lost my only ray of sunshine in my life. I love your stutter - it's a part of you and you're amazing.
"And I know this may sound horrible but I've been waiting for you to break, because it lets me know what you've been hiding from me and actually gives me a chance to be a good boyfriend, because God knows I don't feel like one.
"But you're strong and giving up isn't in your nature so I refuse to let you. I'm proud of you - so, so proud - and you're honestly an inspiration to me. The way you're always happy and replying to insults with a huge smile on your face makes me look up to you - even though you're shorter than me-"
"Oi!" You giggled, your tears gone and bright smile returning to your face at Yaku's words.
Yaku chuckled before returning to his long ass speech.
"But, yeah. If you ever feel like giving up or anything like that, please tell me. I love you and I want to help. But I can't do that if you won't tell me. I won't complain, or nag, or say I'm too busy becasue I'll always make time for you," he reassured before tipping your chin up to kiss you on the lips. "I'll never leave your side."
"Thank you, Morisuke," you whispered before nuzzling your head into his chest.
"I swear, one day I'm going to marry the hell out of you and when I do, this is going to be my speech," he smiled, proud at himself.
And one day he did. And it was.
~*~
I was so into this one-shot that I didn't notice I made Yaku's speech bigger than my future, wHOOPS.