A/N: Hey folks! This is just a little one-shot I wrote one evening after revisiting Takumi's support conversations with his son. Their relationship touches my heart like none other, and I hope I did both of them the justice they deserve. Please feel free to leave feedback if you feel so inclined!
Disclaimer: I do not own Fire Emblem Fates.
"Dad! Daaaad! Didja see that?!"
"Hmm? What are you talking about, Kisaragi? There's nothing around—"
"No, I mean the fox over there! I got it in one shot! Can you believe it?!"
"The fox…?" Narrowing his eyes, Takumi stopped along the dirt path and traced his gaze from his son, who pointed off to the side, to a mass of mossy trees about fifty paces away. Just as the boy mentioned, a clump of mottled orange fur lay motionless under a thick bush, and a single arrow punctured its neck.
Oh…that fox. A bead of sweat slid down Takumi's neck, eliciting a shiver that shielded his back from the heat dripping through the forest canopy. Geez, he got it in only one shot? I wouldn't have been able to take it down even if I shot a hundred arrows at it! He crossed his arms and pressed his lips together. Well… At least not from this distance. His sniping skills are going to eclipse mine if I don't watch myself!
"You, um… You've made me proud, Kisaragi." Takumi returned his focus to his son and squeezed the boy's shoulder, struggling to swallow the sour seed rooted in his throat. As much as he wanted to look into his son's bright amber eyes and gush over his success (like any proud father would), he couldn't bring himself to do it. Even his older brother Ryouma, perfection incarnate, heir to the throne, and most renowned samurai in all of Hoshido, lavished praises on his son Shinonome when he faced defeat during their rumored spars. He never heard the end of it from his sisters, anyway.
Takumi, on the other hand?
His tongue was quipped with unwarranted criticism instead of genuine approval, so he resorted to staring at his feet and letting his bangs hide his eyes from the sun.
Gods, what kind of father am I? Harboring feelings of envy toward my own son… I'm petty, pathetic, selfish—
Yeah… That's right.
I'm just a weak, anxious fool who's worried about what others will think if his son becomes a better archer than him.
I'm so sorry I've failed you, Kisaragi. You deserve a father far better, far greater…than…
After a few long seconds, Takumi sighed and shook his head to excuse himself from the tempest of thoughts brewing in his mind. His eyes softened, and he gave the younger archer's shoulder another squeeze. "I'm lucky to have you as my son. You know that…right?"
"Aww, Dad; I'm the lucky one!" Impervious to his father's attitude, Kisaragi pulled away and leapt into his father's arms, knocking him off his feet with a little "Oomph—!"
"R-Really?" With a raise of his brow, Takumi looked down at the boy in his lap, whose face radiated with a smile. A slight rosiness prickled in the older archer's cheeks, and a tiny smile of his own tugged at the corners of his lips. "Why's that?"
"'Cause I get to go hunting with you and see you be all amazing with Fuujin Yumi every day!" Kisaragi pressed his head against his father's chest, the smile on his face evolving into a grin. "You're the best dad in the whole world! I love you so much!"
"But I'm n—" Takumi stopped himself from finishing that thought with "—not the amazing man you think I am" when his son tightened his grip around his waist. To Takumi, Kisaragi was like the sun. He was the sun that lit up the horizon whenever Takumi found himself trapped in the blackest of chasms without a way to escape. He was the sun that exposed Takumi's deepest insecurities yet melted his heart whenever it felt cold and heavy within his chest. And he was the sun that reached out and grabbed Takumi's hands whenever he felt himself falling from a fortified wall into suffocating darkness.
Sending a rain cloud of truth over the sun, Takumi decided, would be unforgivable, no matter how necessary it seemed.
I didn't do anything to deserve a son as wonderful as you, Kisaragi.
He wasn't the "best dad in the whole world," nor would he ever be the "best dad in the whole world." However, today he would compromise and step into the impossible shoes his son laid out for him. He could be the "best dad in the whole world" if doing so preserved the sunshine in his son's eyes.
"Er, I-I mean…thank you. You're the best son that I could ever ask for. And I truly mean that." Feeling a tear slip out the corner of his eye, Takumi kissed the crown of his son's head and ran his fingers through his son's hair—not for his son's sake but for his own.
"I love you too, Kisaragi."
He held the sun in his lap, and he never wanted to let go.