I Thot You Was a Toad's manga / #single parent(3)

A father is stressed beyond his capacity to cope while trying to raise his preschool-aged daughter while working in a Japanese restaurant. He is saved by a hopeless flirt and serially unfaithful gay customer who is attracted to him, but he is straight and very suspicious of such a flighty man. The relationship takes time to develop and is full of realistic emotional responses. The daughter is adorable and the ending is full of cheer!

Tanihara owns and runs a shabby corner smoke shop and confectionary and takes care of Chisuzu, the very cute daughter of his ex-wife. Older, careworn and hemmed in by responsibilities and circumstances, Tanihara has no hopes for the future, no dreams left, no thoughts that there may be someone out there who could love him. That is, until he meets Dr. Takafumi Saji, the physician who has taken over the local pediatric clinic, who happens to be gay and who is attracted to Tanihara's 'type'. A mature and easy-going story about real adult men. I liked it better than its prequel, Yume Musubi, Koi Musubi.

Formulaic "married couple" fic between two gay former lovers who reunite after a 10-year absence, which started after high school, only now, there's an orphaned kid tagged on to force them to grow up. These adults have such a difficult time being honest or, even, simply straightforward with each other, it's hard to imagine any agency giving them leave to raise a pet, let alone a child, but expedient plot device is expedient plot device. It starts to wear the patience a little thin after a while.