I have so many other things to be doing, and I promised to update the story 'Perfect End'. It's also about to get in finales and other shit, but I needed to take a second away. The song 'Walk a little straighter' by Billy Currington was playing on my computer, I guess I put it on one of my playlists, and I just thought about writing this. I thought it fit well for Jounouchi Katsuya/Joey Wheeler.
"See you tomorrow!" Katsuya told his co-worker before rushing out the door. He knew he could not afford to be late, after all Mai would kill him if he was. Today was one of Mai's doctor appointments for their coming baby. Mai was now six months along and while she was thrilled, Katsuya was afraid. A soft laughing caught his ear and he looked over to see a man walking down the sidewalk with two children following close behind. The children were laughing at their ingenious idea of jumping from one footprint to the next in the fresh fallen snow. A small smile came on the male's face. He remembered when he and his sister used to do the same thing long ago. However while this man's steps were smooth and steady, their fathers was all over the place.
Katsuya didn't know when the alcohol was first brought into their home. He figured it was probably long before he had even been born. He certainly always remembered it being around. When he was younger, he remembered hearing his parents fight about the drinking all the time. His mother just wanted it to stop, but his father did not intend to do so. Even though Katsuya knew his mother greatly disapproved of his father's behavior the child couldn't help but look up to him and want to follow him. He remembered how many nights he would wait up late for his father to return from work, wanting to talk to him and hear all about his day. However when he got home the man just passed him by to go to his chair where he would promptly pass out. His mother would always give him a small smile at that point, telling him maybe next time things would be better before taking him up to bed.
Katsuya was surprised when he first learned they were getting a divorce, but now he was older and understood why. Some people just weren't meant to be together and if they had tried to force it it would have made not only them miserable but would put so much stress on Katsuya and Shizuka. He didn't blame either of them for going their separate ways and he knew neither could afford both children with a single income. Not with Shizuka's medical bills. That is why he didn't hold a grudge for him and his sister being separated. Maybe a less mature child would, or maybe even blame it on his sister's eye problems. He'd never do that himself though. It wasn't anyone's fault that things went the way they did.
He just wished his father saw it the same way. The man wanted someone to blame, be it his ex-wife, Katsuya, and sometimes even himself. The drinking got worse after the divorce, to the point where he couldn't even hold down a job. He just stayed at home to drink all day before going out to gamble in the evening with friends. Katsuya had to be the responsible one to earn the money to keep them alive.
Sometimes he really just wanted to scream at the man. He wanted to remind him that he was the adult and Katsuya was the child. He was supposed to be showing Katsuya what to do, how to be a responsible adult and be able to survive in this changing world. Yet Katsuya would never even be able to follow the man if he wanted to. Just like when he was a child trying to follow the footprints in the snow, they made him dizzy and nauseous just to look at, let alone do himself. All the boy wanted was to ask his father to just walk a little straighter and remember that he was leading his son.
Life didn't work that way through. His father was supposed to be the one he went to when he was afraid, unsure, or needed advice. Yet his actual father rarely ever filled that role. For the longest time, he tried to just figure things out for himself. Eventually he met Hiroto and could go talk to his father when he really needed to. Yet he still hadn't found a male role model to look up to until he met Yugi's grandfather. The man was defiantly a second father to him and the one who he took to running to. He couldn't even let his friends see his father.
The others didn't know much about the old man. They had only seen him twice. The first was when they went to Katsuya's house to find him. The second was on graduation day. After Yugi finished his graduation speech, a small ruckus was heard in the back of the gym as a drunk man had stumbled in. Katsuya had never been so embarrassed when he recognized it to be his father. He could hear whispers from the students around him, complaining about the idiot man who stumbled into the ceremony. Katsuya hadn't been surprised in the least that he choose not to stay. He had probably gone to the bar down the street.
Katsuya looked away from the happy family to look back at the snow in front of him. Even today things hadn't changed. The old man was just the same as he had always been. Even the fact that Katsuya still loved him very much was the same. He just wished the man would have realized that he was supposed to be a real father.
If it hadn't been for Mai though, Katsuya wouldn't have ever realized that he learned anything from his father. She had pointed out that he had been so focused on walking his own path different from him that he didn't notice that he used some of the same steps. For a while Katsuya was highly offended by the remark, but now he might finally understand what she meant. He had learned from his father, he learned what he shouldn't do. It wasn't the ideal situation, but he knew he also got a lot of his pride and attitude from the man.
Katsuya started to focus on walking again, determined that this time he'll do things right. He would be the dad that remembers that he is leading his children, and he was determined that his children would never have to ask him to walk a little straighter.