Disclaimer: Pot doesn't belong to me

Disclaimer: Pot doesn't belong to me. Too sad, isn't it?

Rating: T

Summary: Sakuno is now 37 and her husband 39. Genichirou Jr is 20. He talks a bit about his past and family's life.

A/N: English is not my first language; feel free to point out the mistakes I made.

Please read & review.

Goodbye my lover :

Twenty years later

My name is Yukimura Genichirou. I am 20 years old and I live in a lovely little house in the suburbs of Tokyo. I am studying law at Todai. I have a nice family. My father's name is Yukimura Seiichi. He used to be a tennis player but he retired because he couldn't stand being away from our family. He is now working at Hyotei, coaching the tennis team and teaching PE. Mother is named Sakuno. She is a social worker and helps girls who are pregnant and had been rejected by their family. I have a sister Tomoe. She is 10 and goes to Hyotei. So does my brother Eikichi, 5.

We used to live in Kanagawa in my grand parents' house. We were a pretty close family. Unfortunately we had to move to Tokyo when I was six because a man and a woman kept harassing my mother. I didn't know who they were and why they seemed to hate my mother and not my father. They used to say that he was a victim and that he mustn't have known who my mother really was before marrying her. I didn't understand why they were so nasty and when I asked my mother she told me that it was some adults' problems and I didn't need to pay attention to them. She just asked me to be polite and nice with them. I only understood why later.

They used to phone us in the middle of the night to insult my mother and their son even harassed her when she was walking in the street.

I used to spy on my parents and grandparents. I may have only been six but I understood that they were hiding something important from me. I used to hide in the stairs when I was supposed to be asleep. Yes we lived with my grandparents because Dad was a famous tennis player and thus was often away. They used to talk about these people, telling Mother who was often in tears that it wasn't her fault, that she wasn't responsible for their younger son's death. Even aunt Saeko would say that she wasn't to be blamed.

Dad wasn't aware of all that harassment. Mum refused to let him know saying it would prevent him from focusing on his tennis. He saw that Mum was sad but nobody told him the truth. My little heart was suffering to see my mother being sad and ill-treated by people we even didn't know. I was so sad that I was the one to tell Dad about it. He was in Australia and I phoned him one evening while my grandparents, Mum and aunt Saeko were doing some shopping. I said I wanted to stay at home because I had homework to do. Oh it wasn't really a lie. I just had a song to learn and I already knew it by heart thanks to uncle Renji who would often come to help me to memorize the little things a kindergarten child was supposed to learn. So I phoned my father and explained him that a man and a woman kept bothering Mum. He wasn't happy at all. At first I thought he was angry because I phoned him to tell him about Mum's problem. I began to cry and hearing me sob he told me that he wasn't angry because of me but because of these people.

Three days later he was home and told Mum that he gave up playing tennis professionally. Mum was a bit puzzled but he told us that he couldn't stand being away from his wife and son any longer. He then started working in his former school : Rikkaidai. I was also studying there but in the kindergarten section. Having my father teaching PE was a great advantage if you didn't take into account the jealousy of my classmates, the various attempt of blackmail to get better grades or the fact that some jealous kids said my father only got the job because he was a former pro tennis player.

I was only six at that time and it was really difficult for me to cope with all these events. I could deal with my mother's problems as Dad was here but it was more difficult with my problems at school. I really wanted to go and cry on my parent's lap but I would have been laughed at and even beaten up by some boys from the Junior High Section. Moreover the last time I had cried because of stupid little things Mum told me that boys named Genichirou were strong and fearless. So I kept everything for me. Burdening her with more troubles wasn't good. With Dad being in Japan things seemed to have cooled down. No more phone calls in the middle of the night, nobody harassed her in the street. She started to smile again and went out more often with me.

Unfortunately even good things had to end. Their son decided to wait for my mother in front of her office every evening. She never talked about it. Hadn't aunt Saeko picked her up because it had been raining cats and dogs Dad would have never known about it. As soon as he was aware of this problem he rushed out of the house. I remember that day well as it was one of the last moments I spent in Kanagawa. Mum was in tears, aunt Saeko was trying to comfort her, Granny and Grampa were in the kitchen talking in a low voice. And I was witnessing everything without being able to help.

Two weeks later we moved and I was transferred to Hyotei. Dad had connections. He knew the chief executive officer of the Atobe Corporation so it was easy to change school. As for Mum she got a new social worker job in one of Atobe-san's hospitals. He owned several companies and some hospitals. Dad decided to finish the school year in Rikkaidai before joining Hyotei. Oh we didn't leave Kanagawa for good. We came back every weekend to spend some time with my grandparents and with my father's friends.

I really liked them. They all said I could call them uncle. I was really happy because I used to be one of the children who didn't have a big family. Mum has no sister or brother. She doesn't have her parents. I know she was sad because I couldn't have the big family she wanted to give me. I may have cared when I was a child but now it doesn't matter anymore. I used to brag out my uncles being all great tennis players even though some of them didn't play anymore.

It hadn't been something to do at Hyotei. The other kids seemed to know that I transferred because my parents knew Atobe-san. They didn't like me because of that. You don't know how many nights I spent crying in my room because no one talked to me or when they did it was to order me to do their homework. I know I could have gone to my parents and they would have solved the problem. I didn't because Mum was happy again. She was smiling all day long.

It took me the remaining of the school year to be accepted. Things were better when I entered the elementary school section because Dad was working in my school and because the children were a little less spoilt. Moreover they understood that I was intelligent enough to study with them. I would never have been allowed to study there if I hadn't passed the entry tests.

We still went to Kanagawa but less frequently. My grandparents came to see us because we moved in a big house that Dad bought with the money he earned as a pro player. We had a big garden and a dog. Every thing was great. The people who used to harass my mother tried to find us but Granny never told them where to find our family.

I heard my parents talking about that one evening just before the beginning of the summer holidays. They were saying that those persons wanted to sue my mother because she took me away from them. She was crying and Dad was swearing that he would be the one to sue them because of their constant harassment.

As I was child, a stupid child, I talked about it to my friend who told his brother who told his friends; and soon it reached my father's ears. I got a real telling-off. Firstly because I spied on them and secondly because I talked about things I didn't understand. I was stubborn and said I wanted to know why they were mean with my mother. The only thing Dad said was that I had to wait and that they would explain me everything in due time.

To tell you the truth I really didn't want to wait but I knew that Dad, even though he seemed to be a really nice man, could be really scary when angry or when his students didn't obey. I witnessed it several times when I waited for him to end the tennis club's practice.

My elementary school years went by without any other major crisis. Well I can't say that the people who kept bothering our family stopped. They just decided to ruin our life when we spent time in Kanagawa. I also realized that we spent an afternoon in the churchyard every year. I never paid attention to that until the day I managed to read properly what was written on the tombstone. The man buried there was also called Genichirou. I was really puzzled by this discovery and I asked my parents about it. Mum told me that he used be Dad's best friend as well as a good friend of her.

I should have been happy with these explanations but I wanted to know more. For me you died only when you were old and not when you were as old as my parents. I asked them why he was dead but they didn't answer. I felt deep in my heart that they were hiding something from me, something linked to their friend, something that was concerning me. I said nothing and I made them believe that I had forgotten about it.

Well the only major event apart from the cemetery one was the birth of my sister: Tomoe. I was ten when she was born. She was one of the loveliest babies I've ever seen. She had Dad's lavender hair and Mum's big brown eyes. She was nothing like me. My hair was black and so were my eyes. Some of my classmates even said that she wasn't my true sister and told everybody that I was an adopted child. I believed them. It took my parents several weeks to make me understand that it was a lie, that they were my real parents.

Junior High was really easy. I was part of the kendo team. I knew that Dad was a bit disappointed that I didn't choose to join the tennis team. I wanted to but I saw an exhibition match in the school's dojo. I fell in love with kendo and I felt that, deep in my heart, something linked me to this sport. Well it wasn't the only reason behind my choice. Every body expected me to join the tennis team because my father was coaching it. It would have been the easiest way to become a regular. But then the other students would have thought that I was unable to do something without being helped by my father. I may not have been the greatest kendoka but I liked it and I became a regular because of my improvements.

We won the nationals three years in a row and our coach was really proud of us. It was the first time our club was that successful. Thanks to our victories it earned the same status as the tennis club. More money, better equipments.

One of my teachers used to say that she was sick and tired of children who did sports and didn't work enough at school. I could understand her as my father used to kick out of the team the players who weren't able to have good marks. It was the same thing for the kendo team and for every team in Hyotei. How do I know about it? I wasn't a good student. I aced elementary school thanks to uncle Yanagi but Junior High was different. My uncle wasn't here to help me. He couldn't come to Tokyo whenever he wanted. He had his job and his family : his husband uncle Inui and their adopted daughter Kykyo.

When my parents got a letter from the headmaster telling them about my little self being on the verge of having to give up kendo they were really angry. Even Mum who was someone who never got angry was frowning. From that day on I spent all my weekend with uncle Yanagi and uncle Inui to study. It worked in the lapse of a few weeks I aced math, chemistry, physics and biology. Mum asked me the reason why I was suddenly so gifted. I had to explain her that uncle Inui was really creepy and that he liked making strange juices that I was forced to drink when I made a mistake. She laughed and then explained me that my uncle had always been like that. She met him when she was studying in Seigaku.

Thanks to my uncles I became the best student of Junior High and I ended up become the captain of the kendo team. I was proud of this achievement and I thought that my parents were proud of me too. It didn't seem to be the case for my mother. She never went to my competitions. When I talked about them she exited the room.

I was 14 when I learnt that my mother was pregnant again. Tomoe was four and was in kindergarten. She was a nuisance. She was glued to our mother and was spoilt by our father. He tried to make her play tennis but she cried the first time Dad gave her racket. When he realized that his dear daughter, even though she was really young, wasn't fascinated by sports, he decided to go shopping with her to see if he could find an activity she would like to try. She fell in love with the piano. My parents talked about it and a few days later they bought a grand piano and hired a music teacher for her.

Oh yes I was jealous all the more so since Tomoe happened to be a piano genius. It took me all my strength not to complain and to make a fuss about that. But it hurt to see my parents looking at my four years old sister playing "twinkle twinkle little star" with tears in their eyes. I knew Dad was proud of my kendo skills but I had hoped that Mum would have been proud too.

Oh I really wanted to complain about it but life decided that it couldn't happen. Mum had been pregnant for seven months when she had to be rushed to the hospital. I went to school like every other morning with Dad and Tomoe. Morning lessons were boring as usual. It was biology, chemistry and math. We were studying mathematical function when Dad opened the door, bowed and asked me to follow him. Before letting me go my teacher talked a bit with Dad. He asked me to run as fast as I could.

One hour later we were in the waiting room of Tokyo Memorial Hospital. I'd never seen my father being that worried. When I asked him what was wrong with Tomoe he looked at me before telling me that it was Mum who was here. My sister was at home with our grandparents. I asked him what happened. He shrugged and told me that she had an accident. She was crossing the road when a car sped and knocked her down. I began to cry.

We waited and waited. Dad kept phoning my grandparents and his friends. Soon some of his former teammates arrived. I saw uncle Yanagi and uncle Yagyuu who was working here. My other uncles were waiting outside. Dad asked me to go out with them. I had to eat and then to go home. I didn't want to leave. Uncle Niou had to come and drag me out. The last thing I remember just before leaving the ER unit was my father yelling at one of my uncles.

Dad didn't go home that night. It lasted a whole week during which I went to school, then to the hospital and then at home. Dad always refused to come with me. Mum was badly injured and the baby was in danger. Internal bleeding. I didn't understand what it had to do with my future brother or sister. I looked it up on the internet. It seemed that the baby didn't receive enough nutriments and Mum was losing too much blood. They had to remove the baby to heal her. And by doing so the poor thing was sure to die as it was too soon.

A few days after my 15th birthday, Dad told us that they were going to sacrifice the baby as Mum's health was really really bad. He knew Mum would have given her life for the baby but he wasn't ready to give her up. Fortunately the baby could be saved but he had to be put in an incubator. And Mum ended up going in a coma. This awful situation lasted a whole month. I lost some friends because they didn't want to understand that I needed to spend time with my mother and to help my father with my sister and my new little brother.

Eikichi was a nice baby. But just like Tomoe he looked like my parents. Brown hair and blue eyes. It was really difficult for me especially when my friends got to see him. For some of them I was an adopted child just like when Tomoe was born. I couldn't take it anymore but I couldn't talk to my father about it. He was so worried about Mum who, even though she was saved, was really weak.

Two months later Mum was home. Seeing her take care of us you couldn't have imagined that she nearly died. I was really happy but at the same time I couldn't help thinking about the differences between my brother, my sister and me. I wanted to know why we were so different and I knew that my parents and grandparents wouldn't explain the reasons hidden behind our differences.

I decided to visit uncle Yanagi. He didn't know I was coming. To tell you the truth he didn't really like people coming unannounced. I rang, he opened the door and let me him. He was frowning but I told him I had an important question to ask him and that I didn't want my parents to know about my presence in his apartment. He went to the kitchen and came back with pineapple juice. He sat next to me and asked me what was wrong. I handed him a picture I found in my father's night table. He opened his eyes.

"Does your father know that you took this photo?"

"No. I want to know who this man is. We have several photos of your former team but it's the only one on which I saw this man."

"He was your father's best friend. He died a few months before your birth."

"Why doesn't he talk about him?"

"It's still painful for him."

"Ok uncle Yanagi but explain me why I look like him a lot and why Mum and him are holding hands on this picture!"

I showed him the picture I found in my mother's night table. It was picture of Mum holding this man's hand in a park during the Sakura festival. She seemed happy and to be in love with this man. Uncle Yanagi seemed confused. Seemed was the key word as nothing had ever confused him.

"They were really close. He was the one who supported her when your great grandmother died. I won't lie to you. They used to date but they split up because his family didn't like her."

"And why do I look like him?"

"Genetics. Nobody knows how your mother's parents look like. You may look like them."

These explanations didn't convince me but I thanked him and left. After that I was more determined than ever to find the truth. I stared at the photos while sitting in the bus. It came to a stop near the sport shop in which I used to buy my kendo gear. My best friend who also was the vice captain of the kendo team came in. He saw me and decided to sit next to me. Unfortunately or fortunately I should say he saw the picture I was holding.

"Genichirou you mother was really hot when she was young! Who is this man? You look a lot like him."

It startled me. I didn't want to answer but I knew that he would keep insisting. I sighed.

"He was my mother's lover before she knew my father."

"So he dumped her when he found out she was pregnant."

"Impossible he is my father's best friend. They split up because his family didn't like Mum. Then she dated Dad."

"So you have met him? It would be great as I'm sure he is your father."

"I never met him. He died a few months before my birth."

"Well if I were you I would question my parents. You know when we told you you were an adopted child it was just a way of joking with you. But now that I have seen this picture I'm sure your parents are hiding something from you."

I nodded. I knew he wanted to question me more but he couldn't as we reached my stop. I climbed down and ran home. My parents were waiting for me. They scolded me. I listened to them but I didn't hear a single word of what they said. When they finished I ran to my room. I didn't go down to eat.

I avoided them as much as possible during a whole month. I needed to understand and to take in all the information I learnt. Then I began to spend more time with them which surprised everybody as I really liked to be alone. I even begged them to come and see my kendo match. It was the finale. Not of the intra school competition but of the national competition. It had been difficult to convince Mum to come but she agreed. So Mum, Dad and Tomoe came to watch me fight. They asked my grandparents to come and look after Eikichi.

I won all my matches. To celebrate my victory Dad invited the whole family to the restaurant. We had a good time. I couldn't remember when we went out together for the last time. Grandma and Grandpa came too. Mum wanted to go to a karaoke. Everybody came with us. We had a room just for us. I enjoyed myself a lot and nearly forgot about all my problems. It was really late when we left the karaoke. We were walking towards the parking lot when a man called my father.

It was a former tennis player but I had never met him. He kissed Mum and shook hands with my grandparents before kissing Tomoe and Eikichi. Then he looked at me. Staring would have been more accurate. He wanted to know my name so I gave it to him. He seemed surprised and then told my father that he didn't know that Sanada-san, the man whose grave we visited every year, had a son. As soon as she had heard that Mum paled. My grand mother took her by the shoulder and they went to the parking lot with my sister and my brother to wait for us next to the cars.

I was alone with my father, grandpa and this man. Then Dad took that man aside and they talked. From time to time he would look at me and nod before he decided it was time for him to leave. Dad came back and we left. During the drive home my parents kept looking at me through the driving mirror. Mum seemed to be anxious. She was biting her lips. That drive home had seemed to last an eternity. When we reached home Dad told me they had to talk to me but not now in the morning.

Needless to say I didn't sleep at all that night.

I learnt the truth about my family on a Sunday morning. Mum and Dad were in the living-room. Grandpa and Grandma were out with Tomoe and Eikichi was still sleeping. I was standing in front of my parents, a frown on my face. Dad was the first one to talk.

"Genichirou we are really sorry for hiding some important facts from you. You have to understand that we did it to protect you. Your mother didn't want you to suffer."

"You mean that knowing who I really am would have made me suffer! That's stupid."

"Well listen to what your mother has to say."

Mum looked at me for the first time that morning. Her eyes were red and puffy.

"I am your real mother but Seiichi isn't your father. Your biological father died before your birth."

"His name?!"

"Sanada Genichirou, your father's best friend."

"So he dumped you when he learnt you were pregnant!"

My parents were shocked by what I said. Dad had some dark aura surrounding him.

"He didn't dump your mother. When he died he didn't even know she was expecting you. Moreover he would have never dumped her. She was 17 and he was 19. They had planned to get married as soon as they had a job."

"So you lied to me because Mum was a teenager and pregnant? That's stupid."

"That's not the reason why we decided to hide the truth from you. Your grandparents, Genichirou's parents didn't like me at all. At first they did but they found out that my mother had been raped and that I was the result of that rape. They tried to separate us but they failed. We kept dating. Then my grandmother died and I had to live alone in Tokyo. It was too difficult and Seiichi's parents decided to take me in."

"In fact my grandfather knew your mother's grandmother so it was easy to convince my parents. She went on dating Sanada until the day he was shot in the street. They were shopping in Tokyo when it happened."

"But why didn't you tell me about the truth? I would have understood."

"I don't think so. Remember when we still lived in Kanagawa. How many times did your mother cry because of some people living in our street? It was because of them. They believed she was dating me as well as your father. After his death they found out about her pregnancy and to protect her I said that I was the father of the unborn child. Had they known the truth they would have tried to take you away. They never forgave your mother. For them she was responsible of my best friend's death."

"Ok. Maybe that I wouldn't have understood why I couldn't see my biological grandparents, but I deserved to know the truth. While we are at it, have you ever intended to tell me the truth?"

Dad looked at Mum.

"No. It was difficult enough for your mother to lose her first love so we decided to keep it secret. But my parents said it was unfair and that you needed to know. We changed our mind until we saw that the nastiness of those persons made you sad. We thought it wouldn't be fair for you to see that your real grandparents hated your mother."

"Everything we did was done to protect you."

I didn't know what to answer. I ran away from home. I never got to know what happened while I was away. I was angry. I've hated my parents for a long time after that. I behaved normally but even though I knew they had wanted to protect me I couldn't forgive them for hiding the truth from me. In spite of that Dad never scolded me. He let me do whatever I wanted, never questioning my choices. He knew that saying anything could have been the end of our family.

You would have thought that I ran to the Sanada to tell them that I was their dead son's son. I never did it. I remembered what my mother had had to suffer because of them. On the contrary I spent a lot of time with Dad's parents and with my uncles. They knew the truth and they introduced me to some of my mother's friends. I wasn't angry with them because they obeyed to my parents.

I learnt many things about their pasts, things that I never suspected like my father having suffered from Guillain Barré or my mother being bad mouthed by her former best friend. To tell you the truth I didn't believe it until I had seen some photos and talked to Echizen Tomoka. My parents weren't aware of my meetings with their friends and I wanted them not to know about them.

With the help of time and of course of my family's friends I managed to forgive to my parents. Unfortunately our relationship had no longer been the same. I still had a lot of respect for my father but our special link was gone. They understood. But I knew my mother was hurt by this situation. So I did my best to create a new link with my father.

Our relation went back to the normal when I was 17. I woke up one morning and realized that I had been stupid to put some distance between my father and me. We spent a lot of time together and I decided to learn to play tennis. He knew that it was just for fun because kendo was my first love and the only sport for which I wanted to compete. Strangely enough I began to appreciate tennis and I even accepted to play for his team when they needed an extra player. Tennis was fun but kendo was serious. I mean it was my first love and it would remain that way forever. It was the only thing I shared with my dead father.

If I forgave my father quite easily it had been different for my mother. I loved her a lot but it had been difficult to forget her lies. I knew she lied to protect her family but at the same time she deprived me from a part of my past.

For my 20th birthday, my parents organized a huge party. All my uncles and aunts were to come. I know I should be happy but knowing that my real grandparents were to come I was bit anxious. I never wanted them to come but Mum decided it was high time to tell the truth. They talked about it with a lawyer. They didn't want to be sued.

The party went well. We had fun. My real grandparents didn't make a fuss. They were surprised to be with us. They said nothing when we told them the truth. My grandmother cried and hugged me. My grandfather glared at my mother but Atobe Keigo being here with his lawyers he didn't do anything. My new uncle swore and left. He would never be part of my life.

Time went by. We had a DNA test done to prove I was Sanada Genichirou's son. The Sanadas are still angry but they won't sue my parents. Father explained them everything. He even gave them a letter. A letter my real father wrote a few days before his death. A letter explaining why he love Mum and why he wasn't going to dump her. Then he showed them a letter he wrote for Dad in which he asked him to take care of my mother if something was to happen to him, to protect her from his parents.

They understood that my father's love for Mum was so great that he was ready to trust her to his best friend if something was to happen. They understood that he was aware that something was going to happen to him. How we will never know…

From that day on we all acted like the family we should have been… What is going to happen now in my life? Well that's another story.

A/N : Finally it's done. Took some time but I've to say that I wrote it several time before being satisfied. About the lack of dialog: There are only a few of them because it was the conversations that mattered. Don't forget that he is remembering things so I couldn't write every dialogs he had… I never thought that writing part 3 would have been that difficult