Characters: Soken, Uryuu
Summary: It shouldn't have to be his concern.
Pairings: None
Warnings/Spoilers: No spoilers
Timeline: Pre-manga
Author's Note: As with all my shorter oneshots, the brevity is perfectly intentional. Don't list that as a complaint. And this will not be updated. Ever.
Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach.
The shy child clings to him the way a man in the sea cleaves to the only piece of driftwood for miles. He doesn't ask for much, but what he does ask with silent eyes is enormous. Soken is naturally fond of him, loves him, but doesn't know if he can answer.
Ryuuken should be able to do this but can't, for whatever reason that Soken can't fathom. His crippled, inhibited son has long since ceased to care about being a father. He still cares for Uryuu on some level but has given up on being a father. Too much to ask for, too little room left in his heart that's frozen over.
And it's fallen to Soken, again.
Of course, it's only the child who really suffers from this in the end. Ryuuken has all but thrust Uryuu into his grandfather's arms but somehow manages to resent Soken for the bond an old man and a small child have forged, realizing belatedly that he's written himself out of his child's life and blaming his father for it. They both know it's not Soken's fault, but the contention lives on.
Soken is really very tired. No grandparent ever expects this. It was hard enough to be a parent once, even harder now when he's old and arthritic and Uryuu, for all that he's a quiet, well-behaved and utterly inhibited child, withdrawn and subdued, far outstrips him in energy.
He was always a horribly lax disciplinarian. His wife, though much younger was always quite self-possessed and ended up being the one who doled out punishment when needed, rolling her eyes at her husband's softness. Thankfully, Uryuu doesn't push it like Ryuuken tried not to push it.
Soken sees in Uryuu a child who is like Ryuuken, but doesn't have to be like him, be like what he's become.
And when Uryuu shows an interest in learning from him, blue eyes alight with curiosity—so paradoxical, that he can be so withdrawn and yet so inquisitive—Soken sees that there might be some good to be found, in being a father twice over.