Disclaimer: I don't own the characters. Konomi Takeshi does. I'm merely playing with them for the moment.
A/N: I've made myself a challenge of writing a fic for every pairing I have ever read, written, or imagined for Atobe or Dan. This is one of those.
It's been ages since I last wrote these two... I'm so afraid Akutsu's OOC ;_;
Domestication
The kids, Akutsu found himself thinking, were just too damn loud. Their parents should have just kept them home if they didn't know how to be quiet in public. If it'd even been a playground, he might have understood, but this was just a park for fuck's sake. There were people other than those noisy brats walking about, people who might have appreciated not having their hearing decimated before they turned thirty.
He glared at a nearby kid, sending her crying back to her mum. Good. Maybe she'd learn to stay away from men like him in the future, or at least not scream again in the next five minutes.
Akutsu took another drag of his cigarette, slowly walking along the path. He didn't bother to try to avoid the other people walking about; they did quite a good job of avoiding him instead. If anything had changed about his appearance since middle school, then the fact he was even taller and more intimidating than before. Never mind glaring at some stupid kids, grown men stepped out of the way when he walked on.
His lips curled into a tiny smirk as he blew a cloud of smoke into the air. Sometimes, it wasn't that bad to look, well, bad. It didn't do him any favours when looking for a better paying job, sure, but at least it kept idiots out of his way.
Something bumped into his legs. Looking down, he expected to see some stupid dog or something, some creature too idiotic to stay out of his way. Instead, he found himself looking down at a pair of big brown eyes that gazed up at him without a hint of fear.
For a moment, Akutsu almost thought he was seeing things, that he'd gone back in time and Taichi was here again, Taichi and his endless idiotic trustfulness and big brown eyes looking at him as though he was something worth adoring. Then he realized that the kid in front of him was even smaller than Taichi had ever been in the time they'd known each other, with longer and less messy hair, and besides the kid was wearing a dress. Sure, Taichi's choice of clothing hadn't been the most masculine at all times, but Akutsu'd never seen him in a dress at least.
"What're you looking at?" he spat. Why the Hell wasn't this kid afraid of him like everyone else?
"You got funny eyez." The kid tilted her head to the side. Now wasn't this just precious, damn it.
"Get out of my way," he growled. He'd be damned if he had the time to amuse some stupid kids who didn't know their own best. He'd already tolerated Taichi for far too many years; he'd had his share of suicidal brats for one lifetime. Where were the kid's parents, damn it?
"Rika-chan!" Okay, apparently there. Good. "Rika-chan, how many do I have to tell you not to bother people? You should –" The man who had just hurried to the kid's side looked up. Another pair of brown eyes locked at his. Then, a look of recognition spread over the man's face. "Akutsu-senpai?"
"Taichi?" Akutsu's eyes widened. It had to be Taichi, nobody else had that voice and those eyes and called him that. Except the last time he'd seen Taichi the other had still been little more than a boy, short and scrawny and as much of a brat as ever, not grown up and... a father.
"Akutsu-senpai!" Okay, it was Taichi all right. Nobody else could actually smile upon meeting him, nobody but his mother and maybe Kawamura, anyway. The idiots. "It's been so long since I last saw you!"
"Could have been longer," Akutsu said half-heartedly. "The kid yours?" It was rather obvious what the answer would be, though. Any notions of baby-sitting were done away with rather quickly when one saw the two next to each other. The resemblance was almost blinding.
"Yep!" Taichi smiled brilliantly, picking the girl up into his arms. "This is my little Rika-chan. Rika-chan, say hi to Akutsu-san!"
"Hi." The girl waved at him, apparently completely unafraid. Poor thing obviously had the worst of Taichi's genes, lacking in survival instincts as they both seemed to be.
"Hi," Akutsu said not too enthusiastically, shifting the cigarette currently in his fingers in something akin to a wave. "Who's the lucky girl?" At least Taichi had obeyed one piece of advice from him and found someone less dangerous than him to obsess about...
Now, Taichi's smile wavered just a bit. The wrong question, huh. Now that Akutsu thought of it, there wasn't a ring in the hand holding up the kid, now was there. "Nobody~ I'm lucky enough to have her all to myself!" Trust Taichi to always recover quickly. Stupid kid. Smiling and pretending wouldn't make the problem go away.
"Really, now." Akutsu raised his eyebrows. "What's the story? Or do I want to know?" Not that he cared, obviously, but he had the feeling he was going to hear it anyway.
"Ano... it's kind of a long story," Taichi replied with another slightly wavering smile. "Actually, do you have some time? We live just nearby; I could make some dinner while we catch up."
Akutsu raised his eyebrows but then shrugged. Who was he to say no to a free meal? "Whatever you want, brat." The dinner couldn't be worse than anything he could make for himself, and besides, if he was completely honest with himself, he may have actually wanted to hear this story. If there was a bitch he needed to kill, he could just as well hear the reason. Besides, he wouldn't be getting rid of the brat any time soon, anyway, now that Taichi'd found him. The brat could be damn stubborn sometimes.
Rika-chan smiled at him, unafraid.
*
The apartment wasn't big, but then, Akutsu supposed it didn't have to be all that big to accommodate a single father and a toddler. As he stepped in, Taichi told him to watch where he walked. A glance down revealed a mine field of various toys scattered here and there on the floor. Kicking a couple of them out of the way, Akutsu gave the apartment another glance.
He didn't know a lot about decoration or other such shit, but he supposed the place looked decent enough. There weren't any clashing colours, the furniture was all in one piece, and aside from the toys everything was clean and neat. As was to be expected of Taichi, really. The kid really should have been born a woman.
"Sit down somewhere, please," Taichi told him as the girl ran off to play with some of her scattered toys. Taichi himself started fussing about in the small kitchen. There were only a couple of unwashed dishes, Akutsu noted. Much better than his kitchen.
He sat in silence for a moment, just watching. Taichi looked better than when he'd last seen the kid, and also worse. He actually looked like an adult now, but it wasn't all for the better. Sometimes, just sometimes, Akutsu saw a flash of something... worn... in his eyes. As though he'd been hurt, badly.
If he ever found the bitch who had done this to Taichi, he'd kill her.
"The kid," he finally said as it seemed Taichi wasn't about to break the silence. "Not that I know much about them, but you must've had her when you were still in the damn university."
"That would be correct." Taichi didn't look at him, instead concentrating on the dinner preparations, whatever it was he was doing. It currently seemed to involve a big knife. "I don't know if you remember, but during my first year of university, I started dating Shamiya Miho-chan."
Oh, Akutsu remembered her all right. A girl who would have been pretty if not for her attitude problem. She'd been a yankee, not of the worst kind but bad enough. Of course. It wasn't like Taichi could have suddenly just become sensible and found some nice, dependable girl for himself. "And you knocked her up?"
Taichi ducked his head as though embarrassed. "Well... long story short, yes. I was just starting my third year in university – you were already long gone by then, so you wouldn't know of it. It was an accident, but my parents promised to help us out, so... we decided to keep it." As he turned to go to the fridge, Akutsu saw him worrying his lip briefly. "We got married because her parents insisted... I continued my studies. When the baby was born, Miho-chan cared for her. I worked part-time and my parents supported us, so we got by somehow."
He could just imagine it... Taichi, the trustworthy little fool he was, working himself to exhaustion to support his accident child. He was so different from Akutsu himself. So different from Akutsu's father, certainly. University and part-time job, all that only to be able to see the baby and his little wife for what little time he had free at the end of the day... The little idiot.
"Somehow, I managed to keep up my studies. I graduated, not on top of my class but with good grades anyway. Thanks to a friend of my father, I got a job at a school nearby. We were doing better. Rika-chan had just turned two." Taichi paused for a moment. "Miho-chan just walked out one day and didn't come back. She'd even left Rika-chan behind... I don't know how long she'd been crying alone by the time I got home from work. I suppose I should be grateful she let me keep her."
Grateful. The Hell. That bitch had left Taichi alone with a two-year-old, not even offering any kind of explanation. Akutsu would kill her for sure. "...Why?"
"That's the thing. I don't know why." Taichi gave him a faint smile. "If it had been something I'd done, maybe I could have fixed it... but she never told me why. I hadn't even noticed anything amiss... One of her friends said she probably felt she was too young to get tied down by a husband and a child, and I might be inclined to believe that. In any case, I haven't seen her since our divorce was finalized and I gained full guardianship of Rika-chan."
Tied down, eh. The little bitch should have been damn well grateful she'd found someone like Taichi. Many other guys would have just abandoned her, left her alone to deal with the kid however she saw fit. Taichi'd taken responsibility, done his best to support her and the kid... and she'd decided it wasn't enough for her. She'd never again find such a great deal, damn it.
"...That's not a very long story," Akutsu finally said once he was sure his voice wouldn't betray the rage boiling inside him. He knew Taichi well enough to know the kid wouldn't appreciate him showing any killing intent towards his ex-wife.
"I could have made it longer," Taichi replied with a quiet voice. "I could have told about all the times when I wondered if it was worth it... about how hard it was to keep up with my studies with all those responsibilities. About how guilty I felt to depend so much on my parents. About one smile from Rika-chan would always wipe away all of my doubts and insecurities. How relieved Miho looked when she was freed of all responsibility towards her own daughter." He shook his head as though to clear it. This time, the smile that curled his lips was a bit stronger, though there was still a tone of sadness to it. "So now, Rika-chan's pretty much my entire world. There's a nice lady next door who takes care of her when I'm at work, and my mother helps in case of emergencies, too, but aside from that, I care for her all alone."
"You're a fool," Akutsu murmured. "You're a damn fool who's too nice for his own good."
"Perhaps so," Taichi admitted in a good-natured manner. "I don't regret one bit, though." He glanced at his daughter, who was playing in the middle of what apparently served as a combined living and dining room, and there was such warmth in his eyes that Akutsu couldn't recall ever seeing it in Taichi's eyes before. "She's everything to me."
"Small world you have," Akutsu said dryly. "And apparently your everything isn't one bit more afraid of me than you were."
Taichi gave him a genuinely puzzled glance. "Should she be?"
During the rest of the dinner preparations and the meal itself, Taichi still did most of the talking. He turned the subject to lighter matters, talking about his students at the school he was working at, about Rika-chan, about Akutsu himself and their old teammates and just what became of everyone. Somehow, Akutsu found himself listening to every word, occasionally grunting this or that, not paying any attention to most of it. Taichi asked about him as well, about his life and what had transpired since they'd last seen each other, Akutsu responding to these questions with the shortest answers he could manage to find. Though the topics of their discussion were quite different, somehow this seemed so very... familiar, all of it. As though Akutsu'd never been away.
At first he'd planned to leave right after the dinner. However, apparently whatever mysterious force had always kept him from beating Taichi back at school was still at work, as he found himself sitting around far longer than that. The kid talked all the time, even as the little girl finally climbed up into his lap and curled up to fall asleep. He talked and asked and commented, and sometimes Akutsu could have almost sworn they were still in middle school and Taichi was trying to convince him to come back to tennis after all.
"Are you worried your tongue will shrivel up and fall off if you don't use it enough?" he finally asked, itching for a cigarette and trying to consider the pros and cons of lighting up right there. He trailed behind Taichi as he carried the girl into her own little room.
"Ah, I'm sorry," Taichi said, looking a bit flustered even as he tucked his sleeping daughter into the bed. "It's just, it's been so long since I last saw you... And I guess I'm a bit worried you'll just disappear without a trace again."
"Idiot." Sure, he'd done so before, but... "I did it once and didn't work, see?"
"...I guess." Taichi smiled a bit, reaching a hand to pet Rika-chan's hair. Then he straightened himself, turning towards Akutsu. "...Promise, though? Promise it won't be however many years before I see you again?"
"As though you would let that happen," Akutsu growled. "Now that you've found me, the only way I could get away would be skipping town."
Taichi chuckled. "You exaggerate," he said. "But, I'm glad. I've missed you." He looked at Akutsu, and for a moment, Akutsu saw that little middle school brat again, all excitement and lack of fear and desu desu desu. Then the moment was over and this new Taichi was back, older and more worn but maybe just a bit stronger, and for a moment Akutsu felt the urge to reach a hand to ruffle his hair just to prove to himself Taichi wasn't all that big and grown-up after all.
He left soon after that, but he did give Taichi his current phone number before that. Just to calm the kid down and make him believe he wasn't going to disappear again. And he wasn't, really. Only because disappearing would have been too much of a hassle.
*
Akutsu supposed he shouldn't have been too surprised that his life now included a lot more of the two Dans. Taichi never demanded anything, never pressured, and if Akutsu said he had something else to do he never pushed the issue. Nevertheless, he found himself more and more often visiting that little apartment that was only a bit bigger and a lot cleaner than his own. It was only for the food, he told himself, because there was only so long one could stand to eat out or what few things he was capable of making, himself. Only for the food, and only because Taichi would have hunted him down otherwise, and besides even if listening to Taichi go on about some stupid brats he didn't even know was rather different from going out to drink with some of his less idiotic co-workers at least it saved him money.
Rika-chan really was exactly like his father, Akutsu found: small, loud, and completely unafraid of him. It didn't matter how much he scowled or glared, the brat never hesitated one bit before tugging at his hand and demanding him to play with her or read a story for her. He always refused, of course, except sometimes when Taichi was just preparing the dinner and Akutsu decided that reading a story for her would probably get the food done faster than if he'd just let Taichi care for his own brat. His stories rarely went exactly as they were written down in the books, and sometimes included words that made Taichi glance at him somewhat more sharply than usual, but Taichi never told him to stop and besides Rika-chan giggled when the wicked witch ate the idiotic kids who trespassed on her property so obviously it couldn't be quite that bad now could it.
"You're a bad influence on her," Taichi said one day over dinner, but to Akutsu's surprise he was smiling. "She doesn't accept my stories half the time anymore because I can't get the voices right and my violent bits aren't quite graphic enough."
"It's your own damn fault," Akutsu said. "You should've known better than letting me read the stupid stories in the first place."
"No, I'm not complaining," Taichi chuckled, pouring some more juice into Rika-chan's cup before returning to his own meal. "I just wonder how she'll react when you finally disappear again."
Akutsu raised his eyebrows. "I thought we'd talked about this often enough," he said. And they had. Whatever he said, Taichi always seemed convinced his not disappearing was just postponing the inevitable. "I'm not going anywhere, damn it. I've got a job and an apartment and I'd be a total idiot to just walk away from it all like I did back then."
"...I'm sorry," Taichi said softly, lowering his eyes. "I guess I just... don't want to get used to you being here, like I did before." He shook his head slowly. "First you, and then Miho... I just want to be prepared in case it happens again."
"Did you just compare me with your bitch of an ex-wife?" Akutsu huffed. "I'm nothing like that damn whore. I haven't left you alone with a kid with no warning or proper explanation."
"Aside from the kid bit, you did exactly that, though," Taichi said quietly. Even Rika-chan gave him a puzzled glance, now.
"I did that to everyone, not just you, brat. And besides, we weren't exactly married. It's not like you –" Suddenly, Akutsu paused. He remembered Taichi at the time, remembered him ever since they'd first met, remembered those wide eyes and slight flushes and the persistent following, year after year after year. He remembered the look in the brown eyes – the look he'd lately seen when Taichi spoke of memories that made him soon fall silent and rub his left hand where there'd used to be a ring. "...Don't tell me you liked me."
"Ever since we first met." Taichi's expression was a strange mix of embarrassment and honesty and guilt. "Don't worry, though. I got over it."
"But you're straight." He had to be, right? He was married and had a kid. Of course he was straight, anything else would have been just ridiculous.
"Actually, mostly I'm not," Taichi confessed. "I've only ever liked a few girls... Miho was one of them. It was easier to date her than keep following you around any more when I obviously could never tell you... and then you disappeared, and she didn't." He ducked his head, then. "Sorry. I didn't mean to..."
"...Shut up, Taichi. You're just digging yourself in deeper." Akutsu took another bite of his food and chewed on it furiously. "Is that why you've been hounding me lately?"
"As I said, I got over it." Taichi shrugged. "And I told you, didn't I? I've missed you." He tilted his head to the side, then said quietly, "...Please don't hate me."
"Don't be an idiot," Akutsu said, glaring at the younger man. "As long as you don't try to molest me or something equally idiotic, I really don't care what you get off on." He glanced at Rika-chan. "...Oi, brat. Eat your food. You don't want to grow up to be a pitiful little shrimp like your stupid dad."
He could have sworn Taichi smiled.
*
"Are you sure you're the one supposed to pick her up?" The old lady looked at him rather suspiciously.
"Look, just ask the kid if she knows me," Akutsu sighed. "Or we can just call Dan and ask." Damn old lady. Damn Taichi, too, calling him like that and asking him to pick Rika-chan up because he had some kind of parent-teacher conference or whatever. And now, even though Taichi had called his neighbour lady to tell that a friend would be picking Rika-chan up, she wouldn't let him take her. Sure, he wasn't exactly a respectable salary man, but did he really look that horrible?
"Akuchu?" Rika-chan peeked from behind the lady's legs. "Hi, Akuchu!"
"Hi, kid." Akutsu gave her a half-smirk. "Your dad's going to be late so he asked me to pick you up."
"Okay." Rika-chan smiled brightly at the lady. "I go with Akuchu?"
The lady didn't have much room to protest anymore. Still, she looked rather grudging as she gave the kid into his hands. Doubtlessly she'd keep worrying until she was personally assured by Taichi that no, Akutsu wasn't some strange cannibal kidnapper who was going to steal Rika-chan and cook her for dinner. Speaking of which...
"Oi, brat. Let's go pick some groceries," Akutsu said. "Knowing your dad he'll keep talking and then when he finally gets home it'll be really late." He'd lately developed a habit of sometimes bringing stuff when he went to eat at Taichi's place, or going to the store with Taichi and paying. Taichi always tried to protest but Akutsu ignored him, as usual. Kind as the kid was, even he would eventually start looking at him in a weird way if Akutsu never paid back in any manner for all those dinners. Or if he didn't, he certainly should have. Taichi really was too nice for his own good.
"Okay, Akuchu!" Rika-chan smiled at him brightly and trustingly. Idiotic little kid.
"It's Akutsu, you brat." Akutsu rolled his eyes. "A-ku-tsu."
"A-ku-chu," Rika-chan echoed dutifully.
"No, Akutsu – look, you know what?" Akutsu crouched down to look the little thing in the eye. "Just say Jin, okay? It'll save us both a lot of headache."
"Okay." Rika-chan giggled in a manner that somehow reminded Akutsu of her father even though Taichi never giggled like a girl. Well, not that obviously, anyway. "Jin!"
"That's right." Akutsu gave her another half-smirk. The things he did for Taichi and Taichi's food... Only because of all those dinners, though. And even that was only because it saved him money, even if he did buy groceries for the kid every now and then. That was the only reason why he was currently on his way to a grocery store with a four-year-old in tow.
Rika-chan grasped on his hand. Akutsu figured it would be easier to let her do so than keep an eye on her so she wouldn't get lost in the store.
"Jin, buy me candy!"
Akutsu was about to say no. Not that he cared much either way, obviously, but he knew Taichi wouldn't approve of her randomly eating candy. However, he happened to glance down. Damn, she'd certainly inherited her dad's eyes, all right. "...Just don't tell your dad, okay?" Because honestly, nobody nagged like Taichi and he'd rather avoid being on the receiving end of that. It really got annoying after a while.
It seemed like a good idea, really, as it kept her out of his hair while he took her home, grocery bag and kid on one hand and a cigarette in the other. Why on Earth Taichi had thought Akutsu'd be a good candidate to own a copy of his home key, Akutsu certainly didn't know, but it was of use now at least. He took the groceries into the kitchen and put some kind of kids' anime on for the brat. With his peace thus guaranteed for a short moment, he wandered around the little apartment for a moment before finally sitting down in the kitchen. Even with the sounds of the anime and Rika-chan's giggles, it seemed oddly silent now that Taichi wasn't there, talking as he usually did.
Was t this silent when he was at home, too? Akutsu honestly couldn't tell. It seemed like lately he only went home to sleep. When he wasn't at work or out, he was at Taichi's place. He couldn't even count all the times he came from work right over to Taichi's place and didn't leave until it was late enough that he went to sleep as soon as he got home. Well, damn.
By the time Taichi got home, Akutsu was trying to figure out how to prepare dinner because he was so damn hungry. Taichi smiled at him and promised to take over as soon as he checked up on his daughter. "Hi there, Rika-chan. How was your day?"
"Good!" Rika-chan smiled brightly. "Jin got me home!"
"That's great, sweetheart." Taichi turned towards Akutsu and asked, with a somewhat amused look, "'Jin?'"
"She still can't say Akutsu properly, so I figured it'd be less of a hassle to us both." Akutsu shrugged. "I don't know if you were planning on teaching her to call everyone by their family names forever and ever, but sorry, I just fucked up your little plan."
"I had no such plan."
"And yet you still call me Akutsu-senpai." Akutsu raised his eyebrows, before adding with a rather meaningful tone, "Taichi."
"...Point taken." Taichi smiled. "Jin-senpai."
"I'm not your senpai anymore." Akutsu gave Taichi a brief half-glare. Stupid kid was obviously still stuck in middle school.
Taichi just laughed and ignored him.
*
Akutsu awoke to the quiet sound of the forgotten TV. It was already dark in the room aside from the dim glow of the screen. Digging his cell phone out of his pocket, Akutsu flipped it open only to realize it was well past his usual time to go home. Shifting slightly, he turned to look to his side, finding a dark head resting on his shoulder. Taichi was fast asleep, not waking up even as Akutsu adjusted himself to reach for the remote and turn the TV off. As darkness fell, he reached for Taichi's shoulder to shake him awake. "...Oi, kid."
There was no response aside from a quiet sigh as Taichi snuggled even closer to him.
Akutsu muttered a curse under his breath as he glared around the room. The brat wasn't asleep on the floor. Great. That meant they'd actually got her to bed the night before, which his sleep-fuddled memory couldn't confirm at the moment. Her father, though, obviously wasn't in bed, which was something of a problem.
After another vain attempt at waking Taichi up, he just sighed and picked the smaller man up. He'd grown since the first time Akutsu had seen him all those years ago, of course, but he still wasn't all that big, certainly light enough for Akutsu to carry him into his bedroom without much trouble. Akutsu set him down on the neatly made bed, throwing the covers haphazardly over him.
For a moment Akutsu stood there, half considering making his way home despite the late hour. Finally, though, he abandoned that thought, instead taking over the other half of Taichi's bed. He didn't bother to try to steal any covers from the already sleeping man. It wasn't like he was going to freeze or anything.
Just before falling asleep he vaguely felt Taichi snuggling close to him again, reaching an arm over his chest. Akutsu didn't bother to push him away.
*
"Happy birthday, brat." Akutsu smirked a bit as he gave Rika-chan her gift. He'd been tempted to give her something awfully messy or noisy, but he knew Taichi would have nagged him crazy for it. So, he'd gone the traditional route and got her a doll. He'd almost changed his mind when the shop attendant had looked at him as though suspecting he was going to use it for a ritual sacrifice, but, ah well.
"Thankz, Jin!" The brat smiled brightly. "Will you be at my party?"
"I think I'll hang around, yeah." He wouldn't have wanted to be alone with half a dozen five-year-olds, so he figured he might just as well not leave Taichi alone to such a fate, either.
"Yay!" Rika-chan grinned before running off into her room to open her present. Akutsu chuckled as he looked after her. So young, and already so much like her father had been at twice her age.
"Thanks for that, Jin." Taichi came up behind him, stepping to his side and leaning a head on his shoulder. "One should think I'm used to dealing with a lot of kids, being a teacher, but five-year-olds are a lot different than middle schoolers."
"Not if the middle schoolers were like you," murmured Akutsu even as he reached an arm about Taichi's waist. "Thank gods you've calmed down since then."
"Chasing a kid takes a lot of energy out of you." Taichi chuckled before turning to press a little kiss on his cheek. "...But it's much easier when I don't have to do it alone."
"Yeah, yeah," Akutsu mumbled. "Go make that damn cake."
Taichi just laughed before heading to the kitchen.
The birthday party was just as expected, really. It was loud and colourful and noisy and everything and it made Rika-chan exhausted and happy. Akutsu didn't remember much, he was too busy trying to avoid the whirlwind of brats, but he did remember one snip of conversation he overheard from the kids' games.
"Who's that other guy in the kitchen?" asked a snotty little boy. "Is he your uncle?"
"No," replied Rika-chan brightly. "That'z Jin. It'z 'cauze I don't have a mum, I have dad and Jin."
Well. Aside from being compared to a woman, that sounded... not too bad, really. Dad and Jin.
Maybe he could live with that.