Castle in the Corn

Prompts: Regret and Lost
Rating: T
Length: 2,200 words
Description: Modern AU set ~10 years after An Unearned Gift. Okita and Chizuru are taking their daughters on an excursion to a corn maze, but their plans go awry when one of the girls decides to run off.

Author's Note: Yay! OkiChi Week/Okitober Fest is finally hereI Check out kurokiorya on Tumblr for the amazing illustration she drew for this fic.

"But Mom, I want to find the castle!"

Souji couldn't help a small chuckle at the way their six year-old daughter managed to mirror Chizuru's own stubborn posture. Everyone insisted that their youngest, Natsumi, had gotten his stubborn personality along with his green eyes, but he'd faced off against his wife's own particular brand of stubbornness often enough to know that wasn't entirely true.

The family of four stood in the middle of a giant, kid-friendly, halloween themed corn maze. Currently their older daughter was attempting to lead them to the giant pumpkin and was doing a fairly good job of it. Despite getting much of Chizuru's calmer personality - an immense benefit with a younger sister like Natsumi - Sachiko thankfully hadn't inherited her mother's distinct lack of direction. The cards were still up in the air for Natsumi, but she was young… Or at least that's what Souji hoped. Keeping track of Chizuru in busy places was hard enough, but at least she didn't have a habit of running off when she didn't get her way like Natsumi did.

Chizuru gave him a slightly aggravated look for the ill-timed laugh before turning to Natsumi. "I've told you, it's Sachi's turn. Once she leads us to the pumpkin, then you can take us to Dracula's castle."

Mother and daughter faced off against each other, neither apparently willing to back down. The stalemate was broken when Sachiko hesitantly offered, "It's okay mom. If Tsumi really wants to, we can go see the castle first."

Chizuru shook her head as she turned to look at her other daughter. "That's very mature of you, but it's not the point. It's your turn right now and Tsumi will just have to patient."

Souji could practically see the wheels turning inside Natsumi's head, so it came as no surprise to him when she used Chizuru's distraction to bolt down the path.

Instantly Chizuru's head whipped back around, her voice rising in panic as she called, "Okita Natsumi! Come back here!"

He put a hand on Chizuru's shoulder, stopping her as she tried to follow after their daughter and gave her a reassuring kiss on the forehead as he said, "I'll get her, don't worry." Chizuru meant well, but she'd be more likely to end up lost herself.

He felt Chizuru relax slightly, but that didn't stop her from biting anxiously at her lip as she looked down the path where Natsumi had run. Turning to an equally worried Sachiko, he knelt down until he was level with her short eight year-old height and rested a hand on her head.

"You and Mom go see the pumpkin and Tsumi and I will meet you at the castle, all right?" When his reassurance didn't seem to entirely ease his daughter's fear for her sister, he said seriously, "While I'm gone, I need you to take care of Mom for me. Can I trust you to get her there safely?"

An all too familiar determined light entered Sachiko's brown eyes as she nodded and took her mother's hand. "You can trust me."

"Good girl."

Souji ruffled her hair before turning to jog down the path after Natsumi. His daughter was now well out of sight, but thus far the path hadn't split. She'd be ahead of him unless she'd tried to get through the wall of corn. With his longer legs, he shouldn't have too much trouble catching up with her.

When the first fork came in sight and he still hadn't seen Natsumi, Souji started to worry. He stopped and looked down both directions, but couldn't see her or any sign of which direction she'd taken. It was like she'd vanished into thin air.

Thankfully his worry didn't last long. Now that his own feet were silent, he could hear the faint sound of running footsteps to his right. Determined to catch up with her before they ended up who-knew-where, he sprinted down the path, taking the turns as quickly as he dared.

It was with more than a little surprise that Souji slid to a stop at yet another divide and again he had yet to catch up to his daughter. How had he not found her yet? She was six years old for goodness sake. Worse yet, he couldn't even hear over his own winded breathing. He'd known sprinting that distance was probably pushing it but he'd been so sure that he would catch up…

He rested his hands on his knees as he tried to slow down his breathing to the point where he could hear. "Shit…"

A high pitched gasp from behind him made him freeze and he straightened as he slowly turned around. Low and behold there was the very person he had been looking for. She must have heard him coming and managed to tuck herself into a gap in the corn before he'd come into sight. Her plan had almost worked, since he had very nearly run right past her.

Natsumi froze, her eyes widening as she realized that she had given herself away, but the look didn't last long. It quickly transformed into her usual defiant expression that tended to give her Uncle Hijikata fits. Head up and shoulders stiff, she gamely marched out of her hiding spot to face him.

She pointed a finger at him as she said, "That's a bad word! I'm going to tell Mom what you said!"

The sight of his six year-old daughter attempting to blackmail him was amusing enough that he had to seriously fight to keep a smile off his face. Instead he raised an eyebrow as he folded his arms. "Oh, you are, are you?"

"Y-Yes!" she said, though there was now a hint of uncertainty in her voice. Clearly that wasn't the response she had been expecting.

Souji let a smirk start to pull at his lips. "Hmm~, I thought you knew what happened to tattletales…"

He and Chizuru had made sure that both of their daughters knew the difference between tattling because it was the right thing to do, and doing it purely to get someone in trouble. Blackmail certainly did not fall into that former category.

Natsumi's eyes widened as she tried to bolt again, but Souji was faster and within only a few steps, he had scooped her up. She let out a half giggle, half scream as he dangled her over his shoulder by her knees. He had to dodge as one of her flailing legs came close to hitting his head and her fists beat uselessly on his back.

"Dad! Put me down!"

"Nope."

After a few more moments of struggling, she finally gave up and sagged against him as she muttered, "Fine, I won't tell."

"What was that? I couldn't hear you."

"I won't tell Mom!"

Carefully, he pulled her back over and settled her on his hip. She glanced up at him briefly before hiding her face in his neck, her fingers tightly curled into his shirt. "I'm sorry…"

He had a good idea of what she was actually apologizing for, but decided to ask anyway. "For what?"

"…For running away," she hesitated a moment before she asked with a quaver in her voice, "I-Is Mom mad at me?"

Souji sighed as he rested his cheek on top of her head and gently rubbed her back. "No, she's not mad. You just scared her."

"Oh…" After a moment Natsumi pulled back to look up at him, biting her lip in a way that she could have only learned from her mother. "Can we go find her?"

"Well I'd like to, but I came after you, so I don't know where she is. Why don't we go wait for her at the castle?"

Natsumi's expression brightened at the offer, but it was quickly touched by a trace of confusion. "How do we get there?"

He grinned down at her. "Like this."

Repositioning his hold, he lifted her until she sat on his shoulders and could see above the cornstalks.

"Do you see the castle?"

Keeping one hand on his head as she twisted around, she scanned the area for a moment before excitedly pointing in a direction to their left.

"There!"

He started walking down the left path as he said, "All right then, let's go find that castle."

Considering it was a maze, their method of navigation worked fairly well. Every time they reached an intersection, Natsumi would point them in the direction of the castle. Even with the occasional backtrack, they soon found themselves walking into the castle's clearing.

Calling it a castle was a bit of an overstatement in Souji's opinion. They'd done a decent job of setting up the surrounding graveyard, complete with witty sayings on each of the stones, but "Dracula's Castle" was more of a tower with a painted stone motif and a spiral staircase wrapping around to the observation deck on top. Of course, he knew nothing could be permanent if they were going to be able to replant next year, but still.

He set Natsumi down, and she instantly ran to the nearest of the grave stones, tracing her finger along the carved words as she tried to sound them out.

"M… T… Tom-Tomb?" She glanced up at him and he nodded approvingly, keeping back his grin at the pun that had flown right over her head. Excitedly she ran to the next, "I… L… Beback"

Natsumi had started toward a third, when she hesitated, her face becoming slightly sad, "I wish Sachi was here…"

Souji walked over, picking her up and settling her on his shoulders again as he started toward the tower. "Yeah, I know, but that's what happens when you run off. We all do things we regret or wish we hadn't done. What's important is that you learn from it." He felt her wrap her arms around his neck and rest her chin on his head. "What do you say we go watch for Mom and Sachi from the top of the castle?"

She didn't say anything, but Souji felt her nod as he started walking toward the staircase.

Despite being slightly lacking as a castle, the tower did have an excellent view. From the top they could see all the paths and clearings spread out before them, and even to the edges of the field itself. The very top of the giant pumpkin was just visible above the tips of the corn and presumably, Chizuru and Sachiko would be coming from that direction.

"Dad?" Natsumi asked hesitantly, breaking the silence as he moved them to better see the opening he guessed the other half of their family would appear from.

"Yeah?"

"Have you done things you regret?"

Souji let out a slow sigh as he closed his eyes, a familiar wave of guilt rolling through him. True, his own list of regrets wasn't long, but that only made those few moments stand out in sharper, more painful relief. Like he'd told Natsumi, he had gotten better at holding on to the lessons rather than the guilt of the memories themselves. The passage of time had helped as well, but there was still one memory he refused to let go of. He'd made more mistakes than he cared to admit when it came to Chizuru, but he would rather walk through hell than repeat that particular one.

Before he could figure out how to answer her question, Natsumi excitedly pointed down into the corn. "There they are!"

Souji pushed back the unwelcome memories as he opened his eyes and smiled down at his wife and oldest daughter. Chizuru had never held his mistakes against him or thrown his inadequacies back in his face. She was far more than he deserved, but of course she would just argue that wasn't the point.

It didn't take the pair long to cross the clearing and climb the tower. When they had just crested the stairs, he set down a squirming Natsumi, who ran straight to her mother.

"Please don't ever do that again Natsumi," Chizuru said as she knelt down and enfolded her in a hug so tight it almost looked painful. Natsumi didn't seem to care one bit, her smile stretching from ear to ear as Chizuru picked her up and settled her on her hip.

While Chizuru saw to Natsumi, Souji walked over to Sachiko and ruffled her hair before putting an arm around her shoulders.

"I'm proud of you kid. You did a good job getting Mom here."

Sachiko looked up at him, her eyes bright with the praise as she gave an impressively convincing melodramatic sigh. "I don't know how you do it. She almost got us lost three times."

"Hmm, sounds like you deserve some ice cream for all that hard work."

They both turned to look excitedly at Chizuru, whose resigned sigh was tempered by the smile pulling at her lips.

"I think we can manage that."