A/N: Finally, here it is: the long awaited COMPLETE version of Unity. I hope you all enjoy the finished product, and please leave any comments in a review, or else email me at dreithebunny@hotmail.com I love getting emails! ^__^
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"Unity"
There was a box, in a pile of other boxes, in a basement, in a large beach house, just outside of Odaiba, in Japan, on this big planet we call Earth. This large beach house belonged to an old woman. Because she was old, she was thinking of selling the house. Selling the house seemed like a good idea to the old woman's daughter, Nancy Takeshi. It probably was too, seeing as Nancy's mother was in no way getting any younger and in many ways getting more difficult. She had recently fired all of her hired help that ran the large house for her, and she refused to hire any new helpers, saying that they would just cause her more trouble in the long run. So, Nancy figured that she was doing her mother, Hitomi, a great favor by continually attempting to persuade her to sell the house. She knew that it would bring in a lot of money for her mother, and her mother had always been the type to like investing, so this really began to seem like a good idea to Hitomi, because of Nancy' constant persuasion. Unfortunately, Hitomi also refused o hire a moving service to come and pack up all her belongings to take them to storage or to the townhouse in Obaida that she was moving into. This entire she told to Nancy over the phone. Nancy was quite averse to the idea, in spite of her mother's insistence.
"Mom, be reasonable." Nancy said to her mother as she sat talking to her over the phone and typing an article for the newspaper on her computer. "You KNOW that you can't do the moving by yourself."
"Dear, don't worry about me. I still have what it takes to pack and move. Besides, I haven't sold the truck. I can use that."
"The truck? You've NEVER been able to drive that, your whole life you've been to short to reach the pedals!"
"Well then what would you suggest I do?" Hitomi Takeshi asked her daughter, clearly annoyed that Nancy would not listen to her.
"Just call one of the moving companies. I remember when TK and I moved to this apartment building, we used the Kinomoto Brother's moving company. They were really good, they didn't damage anything and--" Nancy was unable to finish her thought, her mother cut her off.
"Matty! He can help me. Won't he, hon? He's not too busy, is he?"
"Well, Mom, I don't really know what Matt's doing these days, I haven't seen him in a little while."
"Oh, yes, that's right. He lives with that horrible ex of yours, doesn't he? I for one believe that the children should be raised by their mother, it wasn't right for Matty to be dragged off like that while he was so--" Now it was HER turn to be cut off.
"David is a wonderful father, Mom! Whether or not he was good husband, he has done a very good job of raising Matt. I don't know what you think, but whatever it is, it's probably completely inaccurate." Nancy, even though she was no longer married to David Ishida, still thought of him as a good dad to Matt. She felt that her mother's constant berating of him for taking Matt when he was younger was a terrible mistake. Hitomi Takeshi had some sort of misplaced notion that children, weather male or female, who were raised by anyone other than there biological mothers ended up as some sort of devil worshiping pornography stars. And frankly, it aggravated Nancy to no end that her mother was constantly calling her up to tell her that one day Matt would disappear and turn up again on the centerfold of Playgirl.
"Nancy, you are just as delusional as always. There is absolutely no good that can possibly come of Matt being raised by someone other than you. But, that aside, can he come and help me move? I won't have to pay him, and it will reduce the risk of strain to my back."
On the other end of the line, Nancy rolled her eyes heavenwards. This was just like her mother. "Well, Mom, you can try calling Matt yourself. You know I don't like to ask favors for other people. It makes me feel strange." She brushed a piece of stray hair from her forehead and frowned at the computer screen, deleted what she had just typed and started the paragraph over again.
"All right, dear. I'll call Matt on my own. Don't worry about it. Oh, and Nancy?"
"Yes, Mother?"
"Don't forget to check up on who young TK is friends with these days. You never know what kind of kitten-sacrificing, weed-smoking freaks a child will encounter. And they start at it younger and younger these days too!"
"I'll check that out, Mom. See you later."
"Goodbye, dear." Hitomi hung up and Nancy sighed a long, deep sigh. As if TK would ever sacrifice a kitten and Matt would ever be a porn star. As if. She went back to work, typing furiously.
**Later, at the Ishida Residence**
"Matt! Will you get the phone?! Mr. David Ishida called from his desk in the study where he too was typing furiously on a computer.
"Sure, getting it!" His son, Matt, yelled from the living room. Matt sat up on the couch, vaulted over the back, and slipped into the kitchen on socked feet, grabbing the madly ringing phone just as he nearly slid past it on the slippery linoleum floor.
"Heeeeelo, Ishida residence, Matt speaking. How may I help you?" Even though no one but no one ever says "how may I help you?" when answering the phone, he was accustomed to answering the phone in this odd way because of the many hours he had spent as a small child in his dad's office building. In David Ishida's wing of the Sprint Tokyo building, all of the secretaries answered the phone just like that, it was firmly imprinted in the head of Yamato Ishida, much to his slight embarrassment when his friend's called.
"Hello, Matty! Its Gran Takeshi, how are you, dear?"
"Just fine." A lot better before YOU called. Matt thought to himself. His Gran calling always meant some sort of trouble. He was almost always afraid that she would ask him if he had engaged in any illegal activities lately. "How are you?" He asked, to be polite.
"Wonderful, Matty! Just wonderful. Just one thing troubles me though."
"And what's that, Gran?" Oh great...here it comes... he thought.
"Well, are you doing anything on Saturday afternoon?"
"Saturday?" Well, this certainly wasn't expected of her. Now she sounded like June Motomiya...what a novel idea...
"Yes, I was wondering if you could help me move to my townhouse in Odaiba. I need someone to pack boxes and then drive them in the truck to my new house."
"Ummmm...." Matt said, feeling slightly stupid. He began wracking his brains looking for a way out of this. She had probably talked to his mom, his mom had probably told her that he would be free on Saturday...what to do? "I thought you knew I didn't have a driver's license yet." Whew...
"Well your mother told me you had your permit already, isn't that true?"
"Well, yeah, but I...can't be out on weekends with the permit I got." He crossed his fingers, silently praying that his mom hadn't told his grandmother what kind of permit he DID have.
"No...I recall that your permit allowed you to be out any day of the week, so long as you weren't out after ten o'clock at night. I'm positive that's what your mother told me."
Darn! The patented 'Memory of Steel' appeared to be in play now..."Oh! Yeah, you're right. Stupid me. Well, what time do you want me there then?" Matt figured he would agree and then fake sick on Saturday...It was worth a shot.
"How's eleven? And don't you ask me a stupid question about weather I mean eleven at night or eleven in the morning!"
"Ok, sure, see you then. And hey, I'd love to chat, but my dad told me to b quick. He needs me for something." Matt crossed his fingers again, hoping he could get away.
"All right, hon. You just make sure you're over here at PRECISELY eleven, ok?"
"Yeah, sure. See you, bye."
"Bye, honey!" She hung up.
"Damn it!" Matt said to no one in particular. "Why'd she have to move at the exact date and time I told Kit I'd take her out to lunch?! Unfair, completely unfair." He picked up the phone again to call his girlfriend and tell her that the date was off. He dialed, the phone rang.
"Moshi moshi!" Came the sound of Kit's voice from the other end of the line. "May I ask who's callin'?"
"Hey, Kit!" He knew she would recognize his voice without him saying who he was, she always did.
"Oh! Hi, Matt! What's up?"
"Well, something's down, actually. It's so far down it's completely off."
"Really? What's down then?"
"Our lunch date for tomorrow...another woman has come between us." He said jokingly. Kit laughed.
"Who? Your mom or your grandma? Or is it that pink bunny that's lying under your bed with those other baby toys of yours?" She laughed again. Matt felt himself going slightly red, even though no one but him had heard her say that. It was true though, he DID have an old bunny under his bed, but still.
"My Gran. And hey, don't you mention that rabbit. I happen to like it, thank you very much."
"Yeah, I know. That's ok. I have a teddy bear or two on my bed. So what does your grandma want?"
"I have to go and help her move out of that huge house of hers down by the beach."
"What's she wanna move out of that thing for? It's fab!"
"Yeah, I know that, but she still wants to. No clue why though."
"Gee whiz, Matt. You're gonna help her do something that ridiculous?"
"I haveta, she already talked to my mom. I know it's lame, there's nothing I can do about it though."
"Well...hey!"
"What?"
"I bet you'll find some pretty awesome stuff while you're cleaning out that house, some real conversation pieces. She might even let you keep some cool old junk."
"Hmm, I guess you're right. It could be fun. Still, I'd rather be going out with you. Are you sure you don't mind this?"
"Hey, do I SOUND like I'm bothered? Just go and help the poor deranged old woman. You'll be doing the world a favor. You can prove to her that you're not a druggy."
Nah," Matt laughed. "TK's the druggy. I'm the porn star."
"Whatever! She needs a life." Kit laughed too, nearly choking on her soda. "Hey, I gotta go though. Bring me back something from her heaps of junk, if she'll let you take some stuff."
"Ok, cool! I'll see ya later then?"
"You bet! See ya! BTW, I love you."
"Love you too, Kit. I'll see ya 'round."
"Bye-bye." Then they hung up, Matt still laughing slightly at his grandmother's crackbrained ideas.
"It ain't TK, SHE'S the druggy..." Matt muttered as he headed back out to the TV. Man, this was going to be an interesting Saturday.
**Saturday, at Hitomi Takeshi's Beach House**
Matt stared blankly at the piles of junk laid out in front of him. His grandmother had left him alone with it about an hour ago. However, he still hadn't done much of anything about it. The basement was so full of stuff that he couldn't imagine that he would ever get through all of it, let alone wrestle it into a bunch of Vodka boxes.
His grandmother had insisted that he pick up the boxes to pack things in on his own, rather than go get them herself beforehand. As if that wasn't enough, he had to get a specific type of box. Vodka boxes. From a specific liquor store too. Hinorabi's Liquors Vodka boxes. Logically, Mr. Hinorabi thought Yamato was more than a little insane for coming into his store at shortly after ten in the morning and asking for all the empty Vodka boxes he had in the back storage room. Mr. Hinorabi had apparently taken the fact that Matt had come in when he had barely been open ten minutes and ask for something that didn't require that he pay in such an ornery manner that he actually HAD made Matt pay! Yamato couldn't believe it! Paying for empty boxes, of all things! He had been charged for each box, and that wasn't very nice. Especially when he also insisted on selling Yama every single box he had in the storeroom, which turned out to be over three hundred.
"What am I gonna do with three hundred boxes?!" Yamato yelled.
"Whatever the hell you want, kid. I didn't ASK for you to come into my store before I've had my morning coffee and start ordering me around looking for Vodka boxes. You get what you ask for." Mr. Hinorabi shrugged.
"What do you mean, 'ordering you around'? I never did any such thing! All I did was ask for some goddamn boxes!"
"Yup, and I gave you what you wanted."
"Since when did the customer become less important than your coffee?!" Matt shouted.
"Since now! Besides, you aren't a customer, you didn't even buy anything!" Mr. Hinorabi shouted back.
"I did so! You made me pay fifty freakin' bucks for your stupid boxes! And how'm I supposed to carry all three hundred of them outta here?" He asked, gesturing towards the old Toyota pick-up outside the store.
"How should I know, buddy? You wanted every Vodka box I had, and I just happened to have three hundred. Deal with it." Mr. Hinorabi turned and left, grinding a cigarette butt into the floor as he walked away. "By the way," He said over his shoulder to Yama. "I'm charging you a three dollar holding fee for every day that it takes you to collect all these boxes." Then he left. Matt stood there for a long time afterwards, seething, before he finally took as many boxes as would fit in the truck (fifty) and left for his grandmother's house again.
And that was where he was now. Standing in her basement, looking at all those empty boxes and all those full boxes that he had to sort through. This was going to be an interesting afternoon. He picked up the first full box and started to sort through it. First, (actually, for the first twenty full boxes or so) he only found relatively boring and mundane things to sort through. Not for too long though. When the basement was finally beginning to look like he was making some headway, and it was starting to get darkish out of doors, Matt came across something very interesting in one of the boxes.
Buried beneath a lot of kitchen towels and washcloths, was a small music box. It was in the shape of a prince and princess dancing together and the base was very ornately carved of dark wood. The base was a mass of dark curly-qs and little swirls. There was a hinge and the top part with the prince and princess swung back to reveal an area where jewelry should have been kept. Inside was a small note. Overcome with curiosity, Matt unfolded the piece of weathered paper and read it to himself:
"To the Sunshine of my life:
I hope that you like this box. It plays "our song". I'll see you tomorrow evening, have a lovely day until you see me next. A day as lovely as you are. Until then, love."
The handwriting looked familiar, but Matt couldn't quite place it. It looked as though it had been written by someone he knew that was disguising their handwriting so that someone else wouldn't know whom it was from. "Hmm..." Matt said. He looked at the box one more time, then turned the small gold key on the side, the key that wound the box. From inside it floated strains of music, lovely music, even though it was only coming from a small box. It seemed to carry Matt away, fly him to somewhere warm and dark and private. Somewhere loving, somewhere where he was himself and unafraid to just...be.
Suddenly, his trance was broken by Gran's voice from upstairs. "Are you about to a stopping point, Matty?" She called. Matt could see her house-shoe clad feet at the top of the stairs, saw them shift when he didn't answer immediately.
"Umm, yeah. I'm about to a point, yeah. Why?" he asked nervously.
"Your FATHER wants you to come home soon. He sounded agitated. I suggest you hurry. I know I wouldn't want to get in trouble with him...No telling weather he'd wring my neck or not, you know, Matty? He might think I'd stolen his son away from him." She was coming down the stairs now. Slowly, as if afraid that she would fall. And, for some reason he couldn't explain, Matt felt the sudden and impulsive urge to HIDE the music box. No matter what, she wasn't to see it, even though he wasn't sure why not.
Yamato quietly shoved the music box under one of the heaps of dishtowels. Gran was almost to the foot of the stairs now, almost in the room with him. He imagined he could hear her breathing, and it sounded frightening to him. Like some sort of animal that was dying a slow and agonizing death. When he thought about it later, he figured that it was only the furnace that he had heard, not really Gran's breathing at all. But, at the time, in his fear of the music box being seen, he thought she was gasping for air in a singularly creepy way. "I fancy that lunatic, workaholic father of yours would assume I was kidnapping you. Spiriting you off to some place where I could finish raising you as I saw fit. You know he'd hate that. Don't you, Matty? He wants to raise you just so, but mark my words, no good will come of it. No good at all. In fact, if he really thought I was taking his precious son away from him, he really would KILL me. Murder an old lady in cold blood, that's what he'd do." She stopped, staring at Matt, who sat on the floor of the basement, white as a sheet and sweating bucket-loads of sweat. "Yamato dear? Are you all right?" Matt knew that she knew that something was wrong with this picture. She never called him "Yamato" unless something was very important or very wrong. Come to think of it, she never really called him "Matt" either. Gran only liked to call him "Matty". That was all she had EVER called him, and so it always had struck him odd when she didn't.
"Yeah, I'm ok, Gran. It's just kinda stuffy in here, that's all."
"Stuffy in here?! Good Lord in Heaven, Yamato! It's FREEZING down in this basement!" She leaned over and felt his forehead. "You don't feel hot...but you MUST be getting sock to think it's stuffy down here...Why don't you get yourself on home now, dear?"
"But I still have so much to do for you, though." Matt stood to his shaky legs, suddenly feeling that it actually WAS rather stuffy.
"Don't worry about it, honey. You OBVIOUSLY have an allergy to this basement. I'll call those people your mother mentioned. Who were they again... Kino-something Brothers..."
"Kinomoto."
"Yes! That's it, the Kinomoto Brothers. I'll just have them do it. Why don't you tape up the last box that you started to pack, and they can do the rest?"
Matt nodded and Gran started back up the stairs, house-shoes flopping as she went. Matt heaved a sigh of relief that she hadn't seen the music box. He dug it back out from under the towels. He would take it to Kit. Maybe she could help him figure out who it was for. Heck, if worse came to worse, at least he had something to give her like he had promised. He shoved the music box into his backpack and taped up the Vodka box he had been filling. Then, he hoisted his backpack onto his shoulders, walked up the stairs, said goodnight to Gran, got into the Toyota, and drove back to his Dad's apartment.
**The Next Day, at Kit's House**
"Wow! That's really cool, Yamato. Who do you think it was for? This is just like some weird mystery novel I read when I was a little kid!" Yamato had just told Kit all about the weird music box, and she was rather more excited than he had figured she would be. It seemed a bit odd to him, especially since she then went on to insist that she NOT keep it.
"But why not? You asked me to bring you something, and I did. So keep it," Matt said to her.
"Naw, I couldn't do THAT! It's FOR somebody. Since it was in the basement, I dunno, I sort of think it was never given to the girl it was for."
"Well, why not? She might have just out it away or something."
"And forget about it? Get real. I don't know many girls who would. If she really liked the guy, and he still liked her, she would have kept it with her practically forever. And, if the if the two of them broke apart, she would have gotten rid of it, not just shoved it away in her basement."
"Hmm…I guess you're right. Whadda ya want me to do with it?"
"You aren't going to do anything with it, Yama. You're going to find out who it belongs to, that's what."
"How'm I gonna do that?" Matt asked, incredulous. "My grandmother must know a zillion people that have lived in that house. In fact, she bought it off my dad before he married Mom."
"Well, then ask your grandma or somebody, I don't know. All I know is that I really have to eat something or I'm going to starve to death!" Kit's stomach growled in a telltale way. Matt looked at her.
"You want to go out somewhere? I never did take you out to lunch, 'cause of Saturday." Without warning, his stomach began to complain too. He grinned sheepishly.
"Super! Let's go before we both starve." And, taking his arm and leading him out the door, Kit and Matt left to get lunch, not bothering to think about the music box for the moment.
**That Evening, at the Ishida Residence**
Matt took the music box out of his backpack and set it on his desk. He just sat there for a while, looking at it. He wasn't sure whether or not he wanted to wind it up again, it felt sort of wrong after what Kit had said. If it really was meant for someone, and that person had never received it, then they should be the only one to hear it play. Briefly, it occurred to him that the box might have been his father's, since he had been the owner of the house before Gran moved in. He brushed the thought away though, thinking it was silly. He could hear the furious clack of his father typing on the typewriter. Hmm…Computer must be broken again. Matt thought. I'd better call the repairman tomorrow. He sighed, then decided once and for all not to listen to the box again, at least not until he knew who it was for.
The phone rang. He groaned and flopped onto his bed, not wanting to answer the darned thing. He could hear his dad stop typing, swear loudly, scoot the chair out from under the desk, and pick up the phone. Silence. Well, sort of. His dad wasn't talking very loudly. Matt could hear his voice, but he couldn't make out any words, so it was about as useless as silence. Absently, he wondered if this was the way it was for babies that couldn't really discern specific words yet. Then his father knocked on the door.
"Yeah?" Matt called.
"Phone." His dad said from the other side of the door. Yamato rolled off the bed and went over to the door, opened it, and mouthed the word 'Who?" "Grandma," his father mouthed back. Yamato rolled his eyes and took the phone from his father.
"Hello?"
"Matty, I was just calling to make sure you got yourself home all right."
Matt rolled his eyes again. It was as if his grandmother thought he was still a little kid. "Yeah, I'm all right. Nice of you to ask though."
"There is one more thing…" Mrs. Takaishi's voice trailed off.
Oh no. Matt thought. She knows about the music box… "What's the matter?" He asked.
"Well, the last box you opened in the basement, those weren't my things. Those were old things of your FATHER'S. Well, I have to go to Bridge Club, Matty dearest. Have yourself a nice evening!" Then she hung up, not even waiting for Matt to say goodbye (not that he cared that much about that).
My DAD'S stuff? That music box was his? This was certainly food for thought. He carried the telephone back in to his father's office. He hung it back on the hook, setting it down with a click that caused Mr. Ishida to look up from what he was doing.
"Matt," he began.
"Don't worry 'bout it, Dad. I'll call the repair people tomorrow morning," Matt replied hastily.
"I don't want to talk to you about the computer."
"Oh?" What would his dad want to talk to him about? They NEVER had father-son conversations, so what could this be? Matt was sure his father hadn't seen the music box on his desk…Or had he?
"I just want to ask you a question." Matt didn't reply. He imagined he felt the same way that one would feel if they were being confronted about sleeping with their girlfriend or doing drugs. Why, he didn't know. This was just a stupid music box, for Pete's sake!
"It's about the music box in your room. Where did you get it?" His father was looking at him with the intense stare of one questioning a convicted murderer. Matt swallowed hard. He knew he ought to tell the truth, but he couldn't. Not at first anyway.
"Jeez, Dad. It's just some old thing I found in a pawnshop! I thought it was cute, Kit might like it." For a minute, David Ishida looked almost convinced, or near to being convinced at least. Then reasoning seemed to flicker through his mind.
"No you didn't. That wasn't in any pawnshop! You found it in the beach house basement, didn't you?"
"Yeeeah…" Matt looked off to the side, avoiding his father's gaze. Why'd he have to go and lie? Now he LOOKED guilty on top of FEELING guilty. Then it hit him. The thought that had occurred to him in his room came back at full force. "Was it yours?"
His father sighed. "Yes. Yes it was." He started to turn back to the typewriter, then changed his mind. "I think you're old enough for me to go ahead and tell you why I give a damn."
"Ok…" Matt said, sitting down on one of the folding chairs in the room.
"I bought that for your mother shortly before we got married. I was going to give it to her the day before the wedding; however, we had our first fight ever that day. It had something to do with our wedding vows. You know how people sometimes write their own, right?" Matt nodded. "Well, we were writing our own, going over them one more time that day at lunch. Somehow we managed to get into a fight about them. I suppose it was incredibly stupid of us, really. Nancy wanted them to come in order of what we felt was most important in a marriage. I felt that order didn't matter. If you really are in love with someone, it seems to me like it shouldn't matter what order you said your vows in. For one thing, when couples take the traditional vows, they don't change the order. They just take it as it is, and everything is fine if they love each other. Your mother was adamant though, so I agreed. I never imagined we would argue over what was most important though.
"I thought it was most important for us to promise to trust each other and always be honest with each other. After that, I thought that promising to always be true to each other was the most important. Nancy didn't agree though. She thought that honoring each other's differences and allowing each of us to be our own person was the most important. She said that mine were too traditional. Then she said that, if they were going to be so traditional, that there had been no point in writing our own in the first place. We argued over this for a long time, and I finally gave in. I let her finish writing the vows on her own, just so she'd be happy. I loved her enough to do that for her. Unfortunately, I think that most of our marital problems were caused by the vows. If not for that argument, you wouldn't be stuck here living with me. We'd all be together. You and me and Nancy and Takeru."
"Wow…" was all that Matt could say. He really was nearly speechless. His mom's silly vows were the main reason his parents had split up? That was insane! But all the same, he wasn't angry. He had a feeling that if it had been him and Kit, he would have argued too. Then again, Kit would never want to write her own vows in the first place.
"As you can imagine," his father continued. "I was too angry by the time I left the restaurant to give your mother the music box. I never even told her I was sorry…Maybe if I had…Oh well. What does it matter? We're both happy now." But Matt could tell, even as his father said it, that he wasn't happy. In fact, he looked close to tears.
"Dad? Why don't you give it to her now? Tell her you're sorry."
David laughed. "You think she'd remember that? Come one, Matt! She's got a new life now. I doubt she even think s about it."
"Well, Dad, I'm not really so sure. Have you ever noticed how she looks sad sometimes? She really misses having a big, normal family, I think. If YOU haven't forgotten, I doubt that she has. Besides, what does it hurt to try?"
Matt's father sighed. "The trouble is, I AM sorry. I just don't know how to say it. I don't know what she'd think. I'm afraid she wouldn't care."
Matt looked at his father, unable to think of anything to say. Then, since David looked again like he might cry, Matt patted him on the back, and then left the room, quietly shutting the door behind him.
As soon as Matt left his father's office, he hurried back to his bedroom. Once he was inside, he shut the door and leaned heavily against it. His father obviously wanted to tell his mother that he was sorry; he just couldn't bring himself to do it. Nancy also seemed to want to be able to talk to David. He couldn't count the numerous times he and his parents had been together and his mother had seemed so hesitant, as if, if she said the wrong thing, it would all come spilling out of her. Matt wanted to help them, but he wasn't sure what to do. If his dad wouldn't apologize…Then, suddenly, he knew what to do. It was obvious. Too obvious. Oh well, what did it matter? He had a plan, and it was a plan to make his parents happy.
He stepped away from the bedroom door and picked up the music box on the desk. He unzipped his backpack and carefully placed the music box inside the largest pocket of the bag. Then he slid the backpack across the desk, next to his alarm clock so that he wouldn't forget it in the morning. If everything went well, then his mother would be home, and he'd be able to do what needed to be done. Matt yawned. He was incredibly tired. Quickly, he changed clothes and climbed into bed. He hoped that sleep would find him fast. It was quite possible that tomorrow would be a tiring day. That was his last conscious thought, as he was asleep not five minutes after his golden haired head hit the pillow.
**The Next Morning, at the Takeshi Apartment**
*Ding Dong* The doorbell at Nancy Takeshi's apartment chimed, breaking through her concentration on the article she was typing.
"You don't have to stop typing, Mom! I'll get it!" Her son, Takeru called to her.
"Thanks, kiddo!" She called back to him. As Takeru headed for the front door, it seemed to him that all his mom ever did was type on the blasted computer. Well, such is life with a columnist for a mother. He didn't REALLY mind, he supposed. It just seemed sometimes like she had no time for anything else.
He reached the front door and looked through the peephole in the wood. Standing in the open-air hallway of the apartment building was his brother, Yamato Ishida, wearing his backpack. Takeru opened the door and stood back to let Yamato come in. He was surprised though, Matt just stood there in the hall.
"Hey, Matt! What's up?" He asked brightly.
"I need to talk to Mom, TK. Can you go get her for me?"
"Umm…she's writing right now. Can you just come in and wait?"
"No, I have some stuff to do. Just go get her."
"I CAN'T! She's working!" Sometimes TK thought that people didn't think of writing as a real profession. It certainly must be, as far as he was concerned, as it kept his mother busy all of the time.
Matt was beginning to get annoyed that his brother wouldn't follow such seemingly simple instructions. "I know that. This is really important though. I need you to go and get her, Teek. Tell her that I said it's important."
TK sighed, Matt was obviously not going to come in, and he looked like he meant business. "Wait a sec, kay?"
"Sure thing."
TK went back down the hall. "Mom?" He called.
"Yeah, honey?"
"Matt's at the door, and he wants to talk to you. Says it's really important."
Nancy pushed a stray wisp of hair from her forehead and exhaled loudly. "Why doesn't he just come in? Did you invite him in, TK?"
"Yeah, I did. He doesn't want to though. He just says he really needs to talk to you."
Nancy rose from her chair and stepped past her son, towards the living room, and out to the front door. "I'll just go talk to him, TK." She said as she stepped out to where her oldest son was waiting in the hallway of the building.
"Hi, Mom." Matt said, feeling kind of nervous.
"Hi, Matt honey!" His mother leaned forwards and hugged him, her head resting on his shoulder for a moment. "It's so nice to see you once in awhile. You know that, don't you?"
Matt returned the hug. "I know, and I'm sorry I don't come by more." He let her go. "And I'm sorry that I can't stay long. I just came to give you something. Two things, actually." He reached into his backpack. His mother could only stare at him as he pulled out the music box and handed it to her.
"What in the world…?" his mother breather, barely above a whisper, her instincts telling her that this was somehow something almost sacred.
"Open it," Matt told her.
Nancy opened the box cautiously, She took out the note inside and read it, her heart beginning to beat frantically. "What is this?" She whispered.
"I think you know," Matt told her. "If not exactly, you have some idea." He took her hand in his, moved her fingers so they turned the key on the side of the music box, causing the faint strains of music to tumble out again.
"From your father…Why…?"
"It was from Dad, years ago. Do you remember the day before your wedding? That silly fight? He was going to give this to you. He was going to say he was sorry."
Nancy looked up from the box, straight into Matt's ice blue eyes. She was crying tears of hot fury now. "If he was so sorry, why didn't he say anything to ME?" She forced through clenched teeth.
"He was too mad at the time and he thought you wouldn't accept the apology after so many years."
"Well…I would," Nancy said, looking at the ground, tears falling freely now. She clutched the music box to her chest. "If he still felt sorry." She looked up again. Laughed, weakly. "That's too much to hope though. Even if I'm sorry I argued that day, what does it matter?"
Matt couldn't bear to see his mother like this. It hurt him deeply, in a way that he couldn't name or put a finger on. "Mom, there's still one more thing I wanted to give you." Nancy looked up at him with her bleary, tear-stained eyes, pleadingly. "He IS still sorry. That's what I came here to tell you."
Then, without another word, Yamato turned and walked away, leaving his mother standing on her doorstep, clinging to the music box, clinging for dear life.
**That Evening, The Ishida Residence**
Matt was in his room when he heard the phone ring again. He didn't think anything of it, assuming it was just a boring business call for his dad. Though he didn't realize it, Matt was very wrong about the nature of the call.
About half an hour later, he left his room to get a drink from the kitchen. As he was heading back to his room, glass in hand, he noticed his father sitting on the couch in the darkened living room.
"Dad? Are you ok?" He clicked on the light in the room, and his father looked up at him, his eyes strained looking from crying. "Dad?"
"That was your mother on the phone. She told me what you said to her."
Matt gulped. "She did?" His father rose from the couch and walked over to him, looking him straight in the eye before enveloping him in a hug.
"I'm proud of you, Yamato. Today, you were a better man then I've been for years." He held his son at arms' length. "She accepted my apology, even though I thought she never would. She said she was sorry for arguing over such a trivial point, and that she wasn't angry that I didn't come to her myself. She said she wouldn't have been able to either, in my position. Thank you."
"Wow, Dad. I never thought she would do that. Apologize, I mean. That's great." He hugged his dad back again.
When they let each other go, Matt headed back towards his room, but his father stopped him.
"One more thing. I won't be here in the morning, if you need me for anything."
Yamato turned. "Why not?"
"I'm going to lunch with your mother. We're going to discuss those wedding vows again, like civilized adults this time." David smiled. Matt smiled back, then went back to his room, only to fall asleep almost as soon as he got there. In the morning, he felt he had never slept better in his life.
**Epilogue**
Nancy Takeshi and David Ishida were remarried on the 15th of June, the very next year. Their two sons were included in the wedding party. Takeru got the thrill of being an usher, and he was classified with the adults, much to his delight. Yamato, however, served one of the highest honors of the wedding. He was the Best Man. David felt he deserved it, after all, Matt was the one who had brought them back together, wasn't he?
The wedding went beautifully. No hitches, no difficulties. Kit was a bridesmaid, and, at the reception, somehow managed to dance with every man at the wedding. By Nancy's order, Kit and Matt were even given the spotlight for one dance.
The reception was held at the Marriot (Tokyo line) in Odaiba. Everything was fully catered and there were professional DJs for the dancing. When it was cake time, there were laughs; David accidentally dropped the piece of cake he was supposed to be feeding to his wife, down the front of her dress!
After the reception, the happy couple left for their (second) honeymoon, to Niagra Falls, in Canada. When the bride threw her bouquet, who should catch it but her own son's girlfriend, Kit Lee! And that was, of course, nothing but perfect, seeing as the Groom's Man who caught the garter was none other than Yamato Ishida.
~*Finis*~