"Mom!" Hikaru called, slinging his backpack onto his shoulders as he went down the stairs, "I can't find my hairbrush!"
Hikaru turned the corner into the kitchen, opening his mouth to yell again when he found his hairbrush shoved into his hand, and his backpack tugged from his shoulders. His mother smiled at him with closed eyes as she ushered him to the table.
"Eat, Hikaru," she urged, pushing a plate in front of him.
"Mom I don't have time to—"
"I know, that's why I set your clock early. This way you have plenty of tie to eat."
Somewhat baffled at his mother and her mysterious ways, he allowed her to pull the hairbrush out of his loose hand and replace it with a fork.
"Let me do that, honey," she said gently, and began brushing his hair.
"Mom!" he whined, as if she had just been showing baby pictures of him to his crush. "You don't have to…"
"I know," she said with a soft, motherly love in her voice. "But I want to. We haven't gotten much of a chance to talk lately, and I miss it. We used to talk all the time, remember that? So. Tell me, where you were rushing off to so early in the morning?"
Swallowing a forkful of eggs he responded, easing into the familiar motion of his mother brushing his hair. "I was going to go play Touya, so it's a good thing you stopped me. I'm always customarily tardy for every game we play."
Hikaru's mother halted suddenly in her rhythmic brush strokes, eyes flying open in shock. "Touya? Is he…by any chance related to Touya Kouyo?"
"Yeah, how'd you know?"
"Touya Kouyo, the professional Go player Touya Kouyo?"
"No," She almost sighed in relief. "He retired a little while ago." Hikaru paused. "How do you know all this?"
Almost roboticly, she shook her head. "It's nothing," she said, trying to dismiss the topic. Her hands shook as she tried to run the brush through her son's hair, only to have it fall and clatter to the ground.
"Mom?" Hikaru asked in alarm, turning around in his chair and looking up at his mother. Hikaru's olive oil green eyes widened as he looked into his mothers own. One eye was a brilliant turquoise blue that, until today, had been green, but now matched that of his rival. Her left eye, he would later recall, the one she had claimed to be bothering her for a while now. Her right was a mirror of his own, matching almost perfectly in color.
"…Mom…?" he asked quietly, allowing his fork to join the brush on the ground.
"I'm sorry, Hikaru," she whispered, "I didn't want you to find out like this…"
I would hearby like to appologize for the shortness.