This Time
Hino Takashi stared wordlessly at the bundle cradled in his arms. It was uncanny how much the newborn girl looked like her mother, he thought, taking in her long eyelashes and dark hair. Gently, he touched one of her tiny fists and fought to conceal his delight when she responded by grasping hold of one of his fingers. He couldn't seem to stop looking at her—she was just so beautiful.
Takashi scowled when a quiet chuckle sounded nearby, and turned to narrow his eyes at the culprit, feeling his cheeks redden with embarrassment.
"You shouldn't laugh at your father, Rei. It's disrespectful," he grumbled, to more laughter.
Rei, who was reclining in her bed, smirked and rolled her tired eyes before addressing the woman next to her in a mock-stern voice. "Minako, you heard the Senator. Amusement will not be tolerated in his presence."
Takashi scowled further at the remark as Rei's wife, pop-singer Aino Minako hastily turned her giggles into a cough and bowed her head. "Please accept my humblest apologies for setting such an example for your granddaughter, sir."
The singer coughed again, making Takashi suspect she still was fighting to keep her mirth under control, but he smiled inwardly at Minako's use of the word 'granddaughter,' and marvelled at the fact that he was fortunate enough to be where he was. He returned his attention to the sleeping infant.
His own father had never provided much by way of an example in anything, especially parenting, as he had spent most of Takashi's childhood away on business. By the time the man had retired, Takashi's own career had taken off and the rift between father and son had grown too wide to traverse easily, if at all.
Takashi had sworn to himself after marrying Risa that he would be a far better husband and father than his own had been, but when she had died so unexpectedly, the young politician was completely lost.
He spent a great deal of time blaming various people after his wife's passing—her doctors for failing to save her, himself for not being with her when she needed him, and even Risa, for her unwavering certainty that everything was going to be fine, for making Takashi believe it and then leaving him behind. Had he realized just how serious his wife's condition had been, he would have dropped everything to be by her side. Then, perhaps things might have been different.
But there was no point in regretting his actions anymore. The past could not be altered. Takashi knew he'd been incredibly selfish, leaving his daughter to be raised by Shinto priests, but at the same time he felt sure that a rift would have formed between Rei and himself anyway. Had Takashi chosen to keep her at home, he still would not have had any time to spend with her, as giving up his work simply wasn't an option. It was necessary to provide for his only child and see to it that she was properly taken care of. But how could he have possibly made a six-year-old understand that? It didn't help matters any that the sight of his daughter, who already looked and behaved so much like her mother, threatened to undo him. Rei's presence should have been a comfort to Takashi, but it was just the opposite.
He'd been surprised after the burial by the presence of the elderly Shinto priest paying his respects at Risa's gravesite. Takashi felt rather foolish at his forgetfulness when the priest introduced himself. After all, the first time Takashi had laid eyes on Risa she was working as an apprentice at Hikawa Shrine. The beautiful young woman had been sweeping one of the stone pathways when Takashi spotted her, and he had been so entranced that he inadvertently stumbled right into a nearby koi pond.
The priest had been Risa's mentor during her time at the shrine and said she showed great potential for becoming a fully-fledged priestess, but it seemed she had found another more important calling. At that, the older man glanced towards Rei, who was sitting forlornly under a nearby tree, ignoring everything around her.
"If I may be of any help to either of you, Senator Hino, please do not hesitate to ask." The priest's eyes had been very sad as he quickly bowed and left the churchyard.
Takashi had taken the man at his word, and Rei was delivered to Hikawa Shrine only days later. He could almost see the rift forming and expanding in the air between them as her things were unloaded onto the rain-covered sidewalk. He'd had to tear his gaze away from her face as he watched her through the tinted windows of his car. The hatred he saw in her eyes was frightening. For the first time, it wasn't Risa he could see looking back at him—it was himself.
His visits quickly became few and far between as it was very apparent that his daughter, who looked even more like Risa every time Takashi saw her, wanted absolutely nothing to do with him. Yet, at the same time, the more he stayed away, the angrier she became with him.
Fetching Rei from Hikawa for these visits began to border on kidnapping when she got older, since she had taken to putting up physical resistance whenever the time would come around. One of his bodyguards had actually received a bloodied nose when he'd grasped Rei by the arm and tried to coerce her into the senator's car. Takashi would have been impressed with her right hook if he hadn't been so infuriated that one of the men responsible for his safety had just been beaten by an eleven-year-old girl. He was eventually forced to arrive without warning since Rei would conveniently manage to disappear for hours if she knew he was on his way. His calls were ignored, his letters were returned unopened, and the only money she ever spent was her own.
Takashi was nearly ready to give up when one day, all of a sudden, he received a surprising phone call.
The senator had been completely shocked to hear from Rei, and further still to learn that she actually wanted to see him.
The meeting with his estranged daughter at his late wife's tombstone had been... difficult, to say the least, and not simply because it had been so long since he'd had the courage to visit Risa's graveside. At almost sixteen, Rei had become the spitting image of her mother, but for the fact that she wasn't smiling. There was still a great deal of anger coming from her, but it was no longer so intense as it had been—like fading embers rather than a raging inferno.
In all the years since Risa had died, Rei had never said as much to her father as she did during that conversation. Much of what Takashi learned surprised and saddened him.
For all that time, the senator had laboured under the assumption that his daughter hated him for leaving her in the shrine's care, but in fact she was upset because she felt he hadn't loved her mother properly. If he had, he would have been there with them at the hospital, he would have cried at her funeral, he would have—Rei's voice had broken as she tried to stave off her tears and asked him why he had failed to do those things.
She hadn't looked terribly satisfied by his answers, but it seemed, nearly ten years later, that she understood his actions. It didn't mean that she was hurt any less by them, but she understood.
Things would never be perfect between them, Takashi knew, as he watched Rei depart—she was wearing a hint of her mother's smile as she left. Still, he hoped that someday, Rei might be able to forgive him for his mistakes.
It seemed that perhaps, finally, she had.
His new granddaughter stirred slightly in his arms, returning Takashi to the present. She whimpered softly and released her hold on his hand.
"I guess she's gotten tired of me," Takashi murmured, passing his granddaughter carefully into Minako's eager arms, already missing her.
"I bet you're not tired of her though," Rei replied, wearing an all-too-familiar smile.
Takashi quickly averted his eyes, which began to sting at Rei's words. Risa had said the exact same thing to him after the first time he'd held his newborn daughter.
This time, he would keep his promise. His granddaughter would know her grandfather, and hopefully she would come to love him as much as he already loved her. He bit his lip and breathed in slowly, not wanting his emotions to get the best of him.
Hurriedly, he sought to change the subject.
"Have—have you decided on a, um—a name for her yet?"
The two women exchanged a glance and Takashi felt a lump forming in his throat as Rei's eyes told him the answer before hearing it.
"Her name is Risa," Minako said softly.
For the first time in her life, Rei saw her father cry.
O~O~O
Author's note: Yes, I know. A month since I've updated and I don't even have the decency to post a Rei-Minako-centric story. ...But if you enjoyed this even a little, could you maybe possibly leave me a review anyway? I do love them so.
Also, I gotta give a shout out to Youte for her story Origins because my muse had been strangely quiet until I read that one. Many thanks for the inspiration!