Kisaragi sighed as he got up from the chair. Brushing past the crowd of campers, he leaned over the pond and splashed some water on his face. Still feeling the sun scorching the back of his neck, Kisaragi moved under the shade of the trees. Silently, he watched his father coach the others.

"So you want to just focus," Takumi said, gesturing with his hands. "If you don't focus on the target, you're never going to be a good archer." He sighed as Eponine missed another shot. "Okay, maybe you need a good example." He thought for a moment, before turning towards his son. "Kisaragi!" he called. "Why don't you come over here and show everyone how you shoot an arrow?"

Pushing himself to his feet, Kisaragi jogged over to where his father stood. "Sure, Father!" he shouted enthusiastically. Bending over to pick up one of the camp bows, Kisaragi notched an arrow and stood upright. Waiting for the campers to back away, he lined the bow in his line of sight. Taking aim at the target, he sighed. Suddenly, out of nowhere, he could hear his mother's voice.

"You're such a good archer, Kisaragi. Just like your father."

For a moment, he could almost feel the enamouring scent of her perfume surrounding him. Enveloping him. Freezing completely, Kisaragi forgot about trying to hit the target. Mother, I… I… He gritted his teeth. I…! Releasing the arrow, it flew in a spiraling arc. However, unlike the countless other times Kisaragi had ever fired an arrow, it missed the target entirely. The campers and Takumi gasped.

"Did you see that?!" Soleil whispered.

"He missed the target," Deere said, more to himself than anyone else.

Kisaragi glared and snatched another arrow. Quickly loading it into the bow, he fired and missed the target once more. Repeating until there were no arrows left, Kisaragi stood panting as he looked at the clearing. Every patch of grass around the target was littered with arrows, but not a single one had made its way onto the target. For a second, he was about to snap the bow out of anger, however Takumi saw what was about to transpire. Flashing out his hand, he grabbed Kisaragi and spun him around. His son was quick, but not quick enough to completely wipe the violent look off his face before Takumi saw it.

Kisaragi yanked his hand away, putting a smile on his face. "I'm sorry, Father," he said.

Takumi looked at his son with an incredulous look. For several moments, the two just stared at each other like they were about to attack. Then, Takumi realized that all the campers were watching them. He turned around, pretending to scout the trees. "Okay, Kisaragi, why don't you go up the the pavilion and get the medical staff to check that out?"

"Huh?" He looked down to discover that amidst his thinly-concealed rage, he had somehow managed to cut his hand on an arrow. Shielding his hand from the other campers his age, Kisaragi began to walk away towards the pavilion. "Oh, I should probably get this checked out," he called out. "Thanks for telling me, Father."

Takumi remained silent, his gaze grimly fixed on the figure of his son receding in the distance. With a quiet sigh, he turned back to the group. "Okay, it's time to go pick up the arrows. Now, who knows the safety procedures when retrieving them?"

Kisaragi swallowed as he looked over the gash on his hand. How did I do that? he thought as the blood dripped onto the grass. Feeling afraid, he jogged a bit faster until he came to the pavilion. After the medical staff checked it out, he was relieved to hear that it was a lot less severe than he had thought. They merely cleaned the blood off and bandaged it. After bidding them goodbye, Kisaragi hadn't walked more than a dozen steps before running into his father.

"Kisaragi!" Takumi exclaimed. "I ran up here as soon as I finished with the group I had." He frowned. "How's your hand?"

Kisaragi smiled. "It's fine, Father. The medical staff said it was nothing that couldn't be fixed with some cleaning and bandaging."

Takumi smiled affectionately at his son. "That's reassuring to hear." He suddenly frowned. "But why were you missing the target?"

Kisaragi remained silent for a moment, contemplating whether to tell his father or not. Struggling whether to tell him about wanting to see his mother. But after a second or two, he decided that it was best to just keep quiet. "I dunno. I guess I just lost my focus."

Takumi raised an eyebrow, but said nothing more. Stretching his arms out, he grabbed his son by the arm and the two headed down to the pool. Watching campers and counselors alike swimming, Takumi decided it would be best to make his son be with his friends. "Why don't you go get changed?" he asked Kisaragi.

"But what about my bandages?" Kisaragi asked.

Takumi chuckled. "It'll be fine. Besides, if it stings, then you don't have to go swimming. Besides," he smiled, "I'm making you anyway."

Kisaragi pouted but obeyed his father. Watching his son jog away to get his swim clothes, Takumi decided to relax by the shaded area where all the other counselors were lounging. Approaching them, he could see that they had heard of what happened.

Orochi didn't even wait to casually approach the subject. "Hey, Takumi, what happened with your son?" she asked.

Everyone else rolled their eyes. Sometimes, her bluntness was very hard to deal with. Takumi sighed and looked upward. "I'm not really sure. I think it's just because he might be dealing with some family matters." He sat down on the grass with a sigh of relief. "Ah, it feels so good to finally sit down after teaching kids all day," he remarked, trying to change the subject.

At that point, everyone had gotten a fair amount of interest with Takumi's issue. "What's he dealing with?" Mozume asked shyly. "I mean, I don't want to be a bother or anything if you don't want to answer…"

Takumi brushed a lock of his hair behind his ear. "Some things are happening at home and I think he's just having a hard time dealing with it. After all, he's the oldest…" He grimaced. "You see, my wife, Kamui, had a stroke a week ago. It's been hard on the family, and I think a lot of it's on Kisaragi. After all, he's the older brother and he has to protect Kanna."

A chorus of condolences erupted at his words. Oboro moved a little closer and nudged his shoulder. "It'll be all right. She's doing well, right?"

Takumi bit his lip and looked down. "The doctors said she'd eventually be able to regain most if not all of her bodily functions. And she'd eventually relearn how to speak… But they can't figure out a time when that would happen. They said it could be a few months or it could be a few years."

More sympathetic noises. Hinata put his hand on Takumi's shoulder. "It's okay, man. When Kazahana died, Hisame was pretty torn up about it. But he never really let me see how he felt." He sighed. "Just make sure to always be willing to listen to what your son says. If I had listened more to Hisame instead of focusing on my own grief, we wouldn't have our issues like we do now."

Takumi swallowed, feeling even more unnerved by his friend's words. "Are you saying Kisaragi and I might drift apart?"

Hinata jumped back. "No, no! Of course not!" He looked away in embarrassment. "I'm just saying…that…now is just a good time to pay attention to him," he finished lamely.

Takumi sighed and stood up. "You're right. I should get him. We need to spend some time together."

"You should probably wait until after," Hinata said. "See, look." He pointed towards the pool. Takumi could see his son in the water with Foleo and Kanna.

"Marco!" Kisaragi called.

"Polo!" Kanna replied just as enthusiastically. Foleo didn't move from where he was sitting on the edge of the pool. Kisaragi dived at where he thought Kanna was, only to splash Foleo.

"Eek!" Foleo shouted.

Kisaragi opened his eyes to see his best friend quivering, his body soaked. "Sorry, Foleo," he said sheepishly.

"Oh, it's fine," Foleo said quietly.

"No, it's not," Kisaragi said, climbing out of the pool to sit next to Foleo. He took a lock of Foleo's hair in his hand. "Sheesh, it's soaked through. I'm so sorry, Foleo."

"No, no, it's fine," Foleo said quickly. He smiled shyly and looked down at the water. "Besides…" He flashed out his hand and splashed Kisaragi. "We're even," he chuckled. The two laughed together while Kanna swam around below.

Takumi sat back down with a smile. He looked at Leo. "Our sons get along so well."

Leo fixed him with a cocky smile. "Maybe it's because my son is nice enough to deal with yours."

Takumi scoffed and turned his head, feeling the sun against his face. "Whatever you want to say. All I'm going to say is that after today, I'm going to spend more time with my son." He smiled to himself, feeling as if a slight weight had been lifted from his shoulders. Some day… Some day they would find each other and their family would be whole.


Ugh, my muse just spun me around and made me start working on the Kamui/Joker fic as soon as I published this one. I'm so mad. But at least school's getting easier. Fencing's starting next Tuesday so I'm really hyped for that. And I'm finally dying my hair that metallic silver color I've always wanted. Hopefully, it'll look like Undertaker's from Kuroshitsuji, but shorter.

I'm also annoyed by the lack of good Joker fanart. I've searched and searched, but I've only stumbled upon two or three good pieces. I mean, Takumi and Leo have a ton of really sexy fanart, but Joker's sadly left out. Thankfully, I remedied that by finding a really good Kamui/Joker doujinshi on… er… an adult site. I'm not going to go into detail about the doujin I read, but I'm happy to say that out of the few If doujinshi, Kamui/Joker and Kamui/Takumi seems to be the most common. And Camilla has her own thing going on. She's got, like, three or four different doujinshi dedicated just to her. I didn't read them, so I don't know the pairing. But I'm willing to be it was just random people or Kamui. Camilla's just her own force to reckon with. Anyway, hope y'all enjoyed~