AUTHOR'S NOTES: A continuation of my 8086 drabbles (to keep me from jumping ship from 5986 to 8086 in the Future Revised stories).
While I love Gokudera/Haru, there really is something about Yamamoto/Haru that makes me go "awww"-I love both characters in KHR and so I've just decided to run concurrent series with both pairings (favorite ones of mine). This one is a follow-up to "Not a Love Confession" and takes place on White Day ^_^
As a note, I totally hijacked the name I settled on for Haru's father (because it annoys me to not be able to use a name) "Hiroshi" from my other KHR stories and so that will be his name in any stories I write in the KHR universe where he is mentioned. Also "Shiroame" (mentioned later in the story) is just the Japanese words for "White" and "Rain" shoved together-I think it sounds like a lovely name and if I ever have a pet that it's appropriate for I'm totally going to use it.
KHR doesn't belong to me, it belongs to Amano-sensei-I'm just playing in her world for now.
Please enjoy this fic (and review if you've time).
Thank you!
~ Yuki
White Rain
Several white boxes wrapped in pretty ribbons were put on the sales counter and the woman at the register smiled at the tall dark-haired boy. "Responding to all your chocolates from Valentine's Day, Yamamoto-kun?" she asked, the Yamamoto family had been coming to her sweets shop for years so she'd seen the baseball player grow up into the fine young man that stood before her today.
"Yeah," he said.
"No one special this year either?" she asked, noting the similarity in the gifts.
There was a flash of embarrassment across his face and he shook his head. "Not really," he said. "There's too much going on with baseball and everything for me to concentrate on getting a girlfriend. I have a lot of time left."
She chuckled; she'd expected his response to be something like that. "If you wait too long then all the good ones will be taken, Yamamoto-kun," she said unable to resist teasing him just a little bit.
Yamamoto laughed. "Maybe so. I'll just have to keep playing baseball then," he said.
She smiled and gave him the total and he paid. She put the chocolates in a bag for him and Yamamoto thanked her and left the store.
As soon as he was out of the store Yamamoto let the smile on his face die and he scrubbed his hand through his hair. He'd hedged that one a bit, he did have his eye on someone, but he didn't think she really regarded him as anything beyond a friend and so he'd bought her the same chocolates he'd bought every other girl. However, he had one more stop to make after school.
The girls at school thanked him for the chocolates, but he could see that they were disappointed that it wasn't anything special. He gave them affable smiles and went back to sit with his friends.
"You seriously got chocolate for all the girls who gave you stuff on Valentine's Day?" Gokudera demanded incredulously.
"It's only polite and I didn't get quite as many as you," Yamamoto said. "You didn't get any for anyone?"
"No and I gave all the chocolates to the stupid cow and I-Pin," Gokudera said flopping back in his seat and propping his feet on the desk since the teacher wasn't in the room to tell him otherwise.
Yamamoto shook his head at his friend's actions and turned his attention to his lunch and the conversation wandered away from White Day festivities.
After school, Yamamoto went to baseball practice and stayed at the Vongola Famiglia meeting at Tsuna's just long enough to get all the pertinent information before excusing himself. After exiting the house, he checked the email on his cell phone and then sent a text. After receiving confirmation he took off at a jog down the street, he had to get there before it closed for the day.
"Yamamoto-san?"
Yamamoto glanced up from the form he was filling out and the shelter worker came out with a white ball of fluff watching him with frightened brown eyes. He reached out and let the puppy sniff at his hand and smiled as it licked him as if tasting if he was a good person or not. He reached and scratched behind its ears. "Ready to go?" he asked the dog.
The dog cocked its head as if considering the question then barked once in response and Yamamoto smiled. "Good boy," he said. "Let me finish the last little bit."
He went back to the form and affixed his stamp to it and handed it to the receptionist. She handed him a pile of documents. "We've got all of his shots taken care of, he's microchipped, and the voucher for the neutering is in there for when he's six months old. We've also got it on record in case you misplace the voucher. You said he was a gift? Would you like a ribbon?"
Yamamoto considered it for a moment and then smiled and pointed at a yellow polka-dotted one that lay amongst the other ribbons that were displayed. "I'll take that one," he said. "Yellow is considered a friendship color, yes?"
The woman nodded and tied the ribbon around the puppy's neck loosely.
Yamamoto brought out the carrier he'd stopped by the store to buy on his way and opened it displaying the soft blanket inside and the worker holding the dog put him in. Yamamoto closed the door and the puppy whimpered. "Don't worry little guy, you're not going to be in there for long, I promise," Yamamoto said and scratched him through the grate.
He tucked the paperwork into his bag and smiled at the workers. "Thank you for letting me come in even though you'd already closed the doors. I didn't expect to be late. The line at the pet store was longer than I thought it would be."
"Seeing one of the puppies get a home is the best reason to open the doors again if for a moment besides you'd already called us in advance to warn us," the worker who'd held the puppy said and knelt down and scratched him through the door as well. "We'll miss you little buddy."
Yamamoto picked up the large bag of puppy necessities he'd picked up before arriving at the shelter and then hefted the carrier carefully. "Thank you," he said again and exited the shelter, listening as the door clicked shut behind him.
His phone rang and he picked it up. "This is Yamamoto," he said.
He listened to the person on the other end of the line and nodded. "Yes. I'm on my way right now. I'll be there soon."
Yamamoto flagged down a cab and checked with the driver to make sure it was okay for him to take the puppy with him and was given permission. He slipped the carrier in and followed it and shut the door, giving the driver directions to his destination.
He got out of the cab at Haru's house and was greeted by her father outside the gates. "Good afternoon, Yamamoto-san," he said.
"Good afternoon, Miura-sensei, thank you for entertaining my request," Yamamoto said with a bow after he set the carrier down.
"Is this the new arrival?" the college professor asked.
"Yes," Yamamoto said and the older man hunkered down in front of the carrier and offered a hand for the puppy to sniff.
As he had with Yamamoto he licked it and Haru's father smiled. "Haru-san will adore him," he said quietly. "Thank you for asking permission before giving her such a gift."
Yamamoto smiled. "Thank you for allowing me to give it."
"Come inside," Hiroshi Miura said. "Haru-san is up in her room working on the last bit of homework for the school year."
Yamamoto followed him into the house and set the crate down in the living room and waited nervously while Haru's father went upstairs to get the brunette. He left the living room after assuring the puppy he wouldn't be gone long and pulled out the box of white chocolate that looked just like every box he'd given to the girls at school, but with a note tucked into the ribbon. Haru descended the stairs with her father behind her and stopped for a moment when she realized he was there and then her eyes went to the wrapped gift.
"Oh, Yamamoto, you didn't have to come all the way here to give Haru chocolate!" Haru exclaimed.
"Well, I didn't see you today after school so I figured I was in the neighborhood and could drop by," Yamamoto said and she finished her descent and accepted the box.
"Haru is very grateful for the chocolates," she smiled and pulled the note off the box just as a yip came from the living room. "What…"
"Read the note," her father urged.
Haru opened the note and her eyes went wide as she read it and her eyes flew between the two men. "Really?" she asked.
"Go see for yourself," her father chuckled.
Haru bolted into the living room and squealed in delight and Yamamoto and Haru's father stopped in the doorway to watch Haru open the gate and immediately offer her hand to the puppy. Instead of just licking her finger as he had with Yamamoto and Hiroshi, he jumped up on Haru and licked her face reducing the girl to ecstatic giggles.
After a brief tussle on the living room floor, the puppy calmed down and Haru ran her fingers over his fur. "Thank you," she breathed. "How did…"
"Yamamoto-san found me at the university and asked my permission to give you a puppy for White Day," her father said. "I hesitated before to let you have a dog because I wasn't sure you would take good care of it, but I think perhaps you've grown up enough to do it now."
Yamamoto gave her a grin. "You said you always wanted a dog and I'd been at the shelter with a kid I was teaching to play baseball and saw the puppy and thought of you," he said. "He's going to get big based on his breed, but your father said that he was your favorite kind of dog. I brought a bag of all the necessities you'll need at the beginning to train him and some dog food to get you started, it said it was the number one veterinarian recommended brand."
"What's his name?" Haru asked.
"He doesn't have one yet," Yamamoto said. "I figured you'd like to name your own puppy."
Haru smiled and buried her face in the puppy's fur. "I'll call him Shiroame."
Also, I have a confession. The idea for this series of drabbles/short fics came from a song from an English Sailor Moon CD released in the late 90s called "Rainy Day Man"
"When I think about the first time
I thought I found someone who cared for me
But things were not as they appeared to be
Rainy day man
On your shoulder I cried
When my first brush with love
Left me shaking inside
Rainy day man
Ever since I can remember
Just like a brother you've been strong and true
Always been the one to see me through
Rainy day man
You're much more than a friend
I would give anything
Just to see you again
Rainy day man
Always been the one to see me through
Rainy day man
On your shoulder I cried
When my first brush with love
Left me shaking inside
Rainy day man
You're much more than a friend
I would give anything
Just to see you again
Rainy day man
Rainy day man
Rainy day man
Rainy day man"
The song seemed oddly appropriate to the Yamamoto/Haru theme and the title "Rainy Day Man" may just be used in a later fic ^^;