Be My Daddy
A/N: Yep. You got it right. This is a double-update. Yeah, I know that I'm awesome. Hope you enjoy this chapter and I thank beforehand to those who took the time to send their reviews for this story.
Enjoy!
Disclaimer: PoT doesn't belong to me. But Ryuzaki Chotarou's mine.
Warning: Rated T due to usage of crude language.
Ch3
As he descended the stairs, his eyes looked around for the energetic female Husky. The sound of light chatter drifted from the kitchen, and he saw Yukio sitting next to Chotarou, obediently waiting the boy to finish dinner and play with the dog. Sumire noticed Ryoma's presence from the corner of her eye and motioned for the man to join them.
He pulled out a chair and settled on it, only realizing that he was sitting next to Sakuno when their bare arms brushed against each other when he lifted his rice bowl. He muttered a silent apology to her, oblivious to the sudden blush colouring Sakuno's cheeks as he dug into his food. Chotarou was busy talking about the transfer student in his class when Sakuno bit her lower lip to stop from blushing and tried to focus on the boy's voice instead.
Ryoma's arm brushed against hers again when he moved slightly closer towards her when Yukio stared at him from the floor. It was just a slight touch but it sent weird tingles all over her arm and travelled up to her neck.
She tried to compose herself, and swallowing, she beamed a smile towards Chotarou.
"Um, why don't you tell me about tennis, Chotarou? Did Uncle Keigo teach you anything new?"
Ryoma stopped glaring at Yukio from his seat when he turned his head towards the brunette sitting next to him.
Uncle Keigo?
Sakuno noticed him raising a brow, and decided to elaborate.
"Chotarou's been playing tennis since he was three, and he's now training with Onii-sama."
This time both of his brows rose. "You have a brother?"
Sakuno nodded. "Atobe Keigo. He's my step-brother, my father's son."
Ryoma turned his eyes to Sumire as the old woman spoke up. "Sakuno's using her mother's maiden name, if that's what you're wondering. Her dad married twice."
"Oh." He said, and turned back to a smiling Sakuno.
It seemed like a few long seconds when she realized he was looking at her with an odd expression, before she blushed lightly and whipped her head to listen to Chotarou as the boy went on about the new training drill he went through Uncle Keigo. Ryoma dragged his eyes across the table to look at Sumire, and that old woman was smirking at him. He scowled back.
It looked like his former coach knew something that he didn't, and he didn't like it one bit.
"Oh, Uncle Ryoma. Why are you afraid of dogs?"
Ryoma looked up from his nearly-empty bowl to blink dumbly across the table at Chotarou. He put his rice bowl on the table, reached for the tea and downed it in one large gulp.
"I'm not afraid of dogs."
As if on cue, Yukio eagerly wagged its tail, and when it neared Ryoma's side, he pushed the chair back to stand up. He didn't see that Sumire and Sakuno were both biting down laughter when he swallowed.
"I'm... I'm allergic."
Chotarou frowned. "But you're not sneezing."
With his eyes still on the blinking dog, Ryoma sat back on the chair to answer Chotarou.
"No, not that type of allergy. It's just... It's complicated, okay."
Chotarou gave a mock salute and continued to talk about the coming tennis practice with his Uncle Keigo. Ryoma inwardly heaved a sigh.
That was so embarrassing.
"... And this is Okaa-chan and mama when they won their first tennis match. Isn't it cool? One day, Chota want to play a big match and bring back a shiny trophy for mama and Okaa-chan."
Ryoma was sitting comfortably on the couch facing the television, with Chotarou already making himself comfortable by leaning against Ryoma as he sat between the adult's long legs. Sumire and Sakuno were cleaning the table after they finished dinner and were probably talking about something important as they busied themselves with the dishes in the sink.
It was odd at first when Chotarou took out an old photo album and started talking to Ryoma about his Okaa-chan and his mama. From what he observed during dinner, the boy called Sakuno mama. But apparently the boy had another mother, and that he called the unknown woman 'Okaa-chan'. It was after a few flipped pages and a dozen pictures during Sakuno's sophomore years in High School did he realize that the boy's real mother was not Sakuno.
It was the loud-mouthed red-head.
When the boy started talking about his real mother, Ryoma noticed the makeshift shrine in one corner of the living room, with a picture frame of Chotarou's Okaa-chan.
Osakada Tomoka.
It seemed unreal to him that the loud-mouthed Osakada was... dead. Then he was right about Sakuno, she wasn't married. He felt a sudden rush of relief wash him, yet at the same time he felt guilty for not knowing about the death of the boy's mother.
Osakada might be annoying.
But she had been Sakuno's best friend. And he wouldn't have admitted it to anyone, but the loud woman was sort of a friend to him also.
"Ne, Uncle Ryoma..."
The boy looked up into his face, and he looked down into curious innocent hazel eyes as he answered the boy with a raised brow. The boy continued.
"Sumire-chan told me you knew mama."
Ryoma nodded. He knew her alright. She had been the stuttering granddaughter of Ryuzaki-sensei who couldn't even walk around without being lost or trip on nothing in particular. She had been one of the clumsiest people he had ever met, but surprisingly she was a good cook, and when she had made a presentation during Middle High, her speech had been flawless.
"I knew her."
Chotarou smiled goofily, and it dawned to him that the boy looked so much like his mother. Of what he remembered Osakada used to look like.
"Did you win lots of matches?"
A smirk ghosted Ryoma's lips as he nodded. "Of course."
Ryoma expected the boy to gush over him again when suddenly the boy looked back towards the photo showing Sakuno and Tomoka in their colourful dresses during their prom night. His small hand traced both Sakuno's and Tomoka's face, a forlorn look in his bright eyes.
"Chota want to win matches like you too. Chota want to make mama happy and then when mama's happy, Okaa-chan will be happy too. Don't you think so, Uncle?"
Ryoma fought the urge to trace Sakuno's picture with his fingers too, and opted to glance towards the kitchen. Sakuno was laughing cheerfully with her grandmother, talking about the previous Mega Sale that took place in a shopping complex. She had changed a bit over the years. She didn't really stutter like she used to, and she was taller. But she was still the same Sakuno who was easy to please and her smiles were as radiant as he remembered them to be.
He lifted a hand and ruffled the boy's head, messing the mop of red-hair. "Sure, you do that."
Chotarou beamed at him, and started on another album. This time, there were pictures of him as he grew up. It took about another half an hour for the boy to tell Ryoma about every picture on the album, before he fell asleep with Ryoma on the couch.
Sumire patted her shoulders and rested on a chair, watching Sakuno dry the dishes with a small towel.
"Do you really think he's allergic to dogs?"
Sakuno laughed, and shook her head. "I don't know. It's really funny though."
Sumire nodded to herself, and sipped the cup of green tea Sakuno had fixed for her before bed time. She glanced at the couch where Ryoma and Chotarou was sleeping on like logs, and spoke up from the chair.
"Looks like that brat really likes Ryoma, huh?"
Sakuno nodded, and turned around to watch Chotarou's head resting on Ryoma's chest.
"He's probably thinking that this is just a dream. He likes Ryoma-kun so much."
Sumire grinned, and Sakuno cocked her head to one side as she looked at her grandmother curiously. "You know... You should stop calling him that, Sakuno."
"Why?"
"You're making him uneasy."
Sakuno laughed again, and turned around to finish stacking the bowls on the dish rack.
"How do you know that? He looked okay to me. Besides..."
A blush coloured Sakuno's cheeks as she turned to look at the duo sleeping on the couch, her smile fond.
"...he hasn't changed a bit. Still the same Ryoma-kun that I know..."
Sumire smiled knowingly. "If I hadn't known you better, you were busy avoiding him the entire evening, Sakuno. What is it? Is it his tall body? His arms... oh, wait, what do you think about his legs? Hm? Oh, wait a minute, you like everything about him, right?"
Sakuno nearly dropped a bowl, and the blush on her face returned full force. She spun around, facing Sumire with her eyes blinking dumbly at her.
"O-Obaa-chan!" She squeaked out, mortified that her grandmother would even suggest her to check-out Ryoma.
Not that she hadn't done that yet during dinner.
Sumire threw up her arms, an incredulous look on her face.
"Hey, don't you want to like all the good stuff? Geez, Sakuno..."
"B-But... you're my grandmother for god's sake!"
Sakuno glanced worriedly at Chotarou and continued, her voice lowered down to a whisper. "Ryoma-kun can hear us, you know."
Sighing, the older Ryuzaki shrugged and stood up to stretch her back. She patted Sakuno's narrow shoulder, and smiled at her favourite granddaughter.
"Since he's here, why don't you guys pick up where you left off?"
Sakuno looked away, and suddenly she began to feel like the thirteen-year old Sakuno all over again as she began twisting her fingers together when she mumbled back.
"There was nothing to pick up in the first place, Obaa-chan."
Sumire looked at Sakuno for a long time, and embraced her granddaughter, while rubbing circles on Sakuno's back.
"And I never thought that you would like him this much. I never knew that it was never a crush, it was something stronger in the first place, right? It never hurts to try and do something about it."
"I'll try, Obaa-chan. Thank you."
Sumire pulled back, and smiled before she disappeared upstairs.
"You did it again, Ryoma-kun."
He raised the hand covering his eyes, and turned his head towards the girl sitting next to him on the roof top. He didn't realize she had been sitting there. With a raised brow, he asked her.
"Did what?"
The girl blushed suddenly, a habit Ryoma found quite adorable yet odd at the same time, and watched as she smiled prettily at him.
"Y-You won your match against Yukimura-san, and you're returning to the States after this, right? Isn't that great? E-Everyone's happy."
It took a few seconds for what she said to sink in, when he suddenly blurted out.
"What about you?"
She blinked at him. "Hm? Me?"
Ryoma looked away, and sat up from his lying position to lower the brim of his cap. He spoke up again with forced indifference.
"You don't look happy."
Sakuno blushed again, and twisted her fingers in her lap as she lowered her face to hide from Ryoma's amber eyes.
"O-Of course I-I'm happy, Ryoma-kun. Well, it's t-true that you're probably going to stay in America and n-not going back here again, and I'm a little sad be-because I won't see you again and um... I can... y-you know... still write to you... B-But I'm happy! I'm happy for you, Ryoma-kun!"
During her babble she didn't notice Ryoma's amused eyes looking at her, thinking that she was a funny person and he'll miss her stutters and the blush on her cheeks and her 'Ryoma-kun'. The corners of his mouth kicked up as he continued to lie down, using her lap as a pillow.
Sakuno gasped and with the blush returning to her face full force, she managed to squeak out, "Ryoma-kun!"
He smirked, his eyes closed as he told her to stop wiggling so much and let him take a nap. She kept silent, and fought the urge to touch his cheek. She smiled as she watched the steady rise and fall of his chest as he breathed, and whispered to him.
"I'll miss you, Ryoma-kun."
The slight turning up of his lips told her that he heard her.
Ryoma woke up to a voice calling his name, and as he cracked open his eyes, he saw a very familiar face with brown eyes and a smile he'd missed. He suddenly mumbled out the first thing that came to mind.
"You didn't write to me."
Sakuno blinked at him quizzically, and when Ryoma realized that he had voiced his thought, he cleared his throat and tried to sit up.
"W-Wait, don't sit up yet. You're going to wake him up."
Sakuno pushed her hands on his shoulders gently to prevent him from sitting up, and that was when he noticed a warm body curled up against him. He lifted a hand and put it on top of the mop of messy red hair, a tiny smile curving his lips.
"Really, he's asking for a cramped neck in the morning."
He turned to Sakuno who was smiling at him apologetically, her hands still on his shoulders.
"I'm really sorry. Um, can you please stay still for a while?"
As she said that, she removed her hands from his shoulders and instead tucked them underneath Chotarou's arms to lift the boy in her arms. She took a breath as she gathered the boy in her arms, and whispered soothing words in the boy's ears as he stirred a bit in his sleep. Ryoma watched as Chotarou reflexively circled his legs around Sakuno's petite waist and wrapped his arms around her neck to rest his head on one shoulder.
With Chotarou in her arms, Sakuno turned to him and motioned to Yukio which was sleeping with its belly up on a corner of the living room.
"I'm sorry if these two have troubled you today, Chotarou sometimes gets a little too excited. So, um, good night, Ryoma-kun."
She turned around approached the stairs, when Ryoma told her to wait. She turned to him, her eyes blinking at him as he approached her and held out his arms.
"Give him to me."
Sakuno smiled. "No, it's okay, I'm used to this already."
Ryoma looked at her pointedly as he spoke up to her, while a hand was kept on the boy's back so as to not let him sag down from Sakuno's arms.
"The boy's getting too heavy for you."
"No, it's really okay. He's not that heavy."
"Ryuzaki, he's slipping off your arms."
Sakuno sighed, and finally relented. Carefully, she whispered for the boy to loosen his arms, and sleepily the boy complied. Ryoma awkwardly gathered Chotarou in his strong arms, lifting the boy from Sakuno's as if the child weighed nothing. He turned to Sakuno and motioned towards the stairs.
"Let's go."
They silently ascended the stairs leading to the boy's bedroom, with Chotarou occasionally mumbling incoherent words in his sleep. Sakuno laughed softly as the boy suddenly talked about French fries in cola, and Ryoma raised a brow.
"Here, please."
Ryoma walked towards the bed Sakuno motioned, and lifted a hand behind his neck to unwound Chotarou's hands from him, slowly lowering the boy onto his bed. He moved back, and watched as Sakuno knelt next to the bed to adjust Chotarou's head onto the pillow and tuck the blanket at his sides. She gently ran a hand though the mop of red hair, and after she made sure the band aids on his cheek and chin were properly plastered, she stood up.
Sakuno turned around and Ryoma was already at the door frame, waiting for her. Making sure the windows were shut and the night light was turned on, she closed the blue-painted door.
"I'm sorry, Ryoma-kun. You must be tired. Um, you can sleep in tomorrow morning since you just came all the way from America"
Sakuno made a slight bow, and walked around him to reach another door next to Chotarou's bedroom. Before she twisted the door knob, she felt a hand grab her wrist, firmly but not hurting.
"Let's talk."
She looked down at the hand holding her wrist, and blushed a faint pink when she realized Ryoma's skin touching hers.
"What time is it, Ryoma-kun?"
Ryoma checked the time on his wristwatch, told her it was ten minutes to midnight, and she nodded.
"Okay then, let's talk downstairs."
Sakuno placed a cup of tea in front of Ryoma as she took her place on top of the kitchen counter. Blowing on her tea, she looked up from her tea to find Ryoma staring at the silhouette of the small temporary shrine in one corner of the living room. She took a sip of her tea and broke the silence when she spoke up.
"We just moved in a few months ago, and we're still waiting for a carpenter to finish the small shrine we bought for Tomo-chan."
Ryoma turned to her, his eyes unreadable.
"You didn't tell me she died."
Sakuno smiled sadly, and avoided his eyes. "I'm... sorry... It just happened quickly, and I had been thinking too much about raising Chotarou as my own."
It was a silent for a few minutes when Ryoma spoke up again.
"Who's the father?"
Sakuno looked at him, her eyes uncertain. She avoided his eyes again, and her voice was barely above a whisper when she spoke up.
"You...You won't believe me."
"Who's it?"
She hesitated, and finally, with a slight frown on her forehead, she told him.
"Saeki-san. Fuji-senpai's childhood friend, the one from Rokkaku."
It took a while for the words to sink in when Ryoma finally replied with a 'Hn.'
Sakuno placed her cup next to her on the counter and she started to curl her fingers into her lap.
"Chotarou's a sweet boy. In the beginning, I didn't want to tell him that he was adopted, and that his real mother had died when she delivered him, but something happened when he was three, and I had to tell him the truth."
She didn't know why she decided to tell him about Chotarou, but she decided that Tomoka was Ryoma's friend too, and he deserved to know more. So she continued, all the while he listened intently, not saying a thing when she would pause in her words to quell the tears from coming down.
"I hadn't known that she and Saeki-san had been dating for a few months when we were sixteen. Tomo-chan told me it was just temporary, but to me it seemed like Tomo-chan really liked him. She was serious about Saeki-san, and it wasn't until she told me she was five weeks pregnant with his child when we realized that Saeki-san hadn't felt the same about Tomo-chan."
Sakuno stopped for a while to take a deep breath, and looked up at Ryoma, her eyes glassy.
"Tomo-chan's dad disowned her, Ryoma-kun. He said he didn't have a cheap tart as a daughter. Her younger brothers had begged their dad to take her back, but Osakada-san had already made his mind, and Tomo-chan stayed with me instead."
"What about Saeki?"
"I had to skip school that one time and went all the way to Chiba to talk to him, and he told me he was going overseas to further his studies. I can still remember him telling me that... that Tomo-chan had been an accident, and he said he was sorry... But he didn't look sorry. If anything, it looked as if he wanted to be anywhere else but Japan."
Ryoma didn't know why, but he suddenly felt like this Saeki guy was nothing more than a loser.
"What an ass."
Sakuno smiled, and lifted a hand to wipe off a lone tear that escaped the corner of her eye.
"I had been really mad at Saeki-san... but then maybe he really did feel that way towards Tomo-chan... He had broke up with his girlfriend just weeks before Tomo-chan confessed to him, so when I look at it now, I should've been the one to warn Tomo-chan."
She stood up, and brought her empty cup to the sink.
"But actually, I should have thanked Saeki-san... When Chotarou grew up, there was never a day when I would be lonely. He reminds me so much of Tomo-chan, that there would be times when I feel as if Tomo-chan had never left me."
Sakuno turned to him, and smiled. "Did I answer your question?"
Ryoma nodded, and he decided to ask her another question that bugged him when he first saw her that day.
"Why were you avoiding me?"
Sakuno blinked at him for a while, and suddenly she broke out into a nervous laugh. Rubbing the back of her neck, she tried to inch her way out of the kitchen.
"Why would I do that, Ryoma-kun?"
Ryoma's brows lowered to a straight line, and he looked at her with eyes that promised no escape. She stood frozen at the door frame of the kitchen when he stood up from his chair, and she turned her face away, intent to focus on anything other than his face. He walked towards Sakuno, and startled her as he used his hand to turn her chin so that she faced him.
"You're doing it now."
Her blush darkened as she noticed how close she was to him.
"I-I don't...know..."
Ryoma dropped his hand. "You didn't write to me."
Sakuno raised her brows. "Hm? What do you mean?"
He stepped back a few, and held up one of her small and in his calloused one.
"You told me you would write to me when I left for America."
Memories from those times when they were teenagers flashed through her head, and suddenly the image of him lying down on the roof top, using her lap as a pillow filled the front of her mind. The words she spoke to him that day rang in her ears, and suddenly she could feel her face turning warm. Her heart was beating so loudly she was afraid he would hear it, and she swallowed the lump in her throat as she saw that small lift in the corners of his mouth.
He was smirking.
"You didn't write to me." He pointed out again.
"I'm sorry..."
He raised a brow, and poked her cheek with a finger. "I didn't hear that."
Sakuno bit her lower lip, and she looked up into his face, her cheeks burning from embarrassment.
"I said I'm sorry, for not writing to you. It's just that, things had been hectic since you left... I had been too busy with school and-"
Ryoma gave her a sceptic look, and she laughed sheepishly. "You were too busy? Even for me?"
Sakuno twisted her fingers together as she sheepishly admitted with the small nod of her head. Ryoma's face twisted into a scowl. She hurriedly flailed her arms about.
"I didn't mean that!" Realizing she had just said that a little bit too loud, she clasped a hand over her mouth, and glanced at the stairs to look for anyone who might've heard her.
When she was sure no one woke up, Sakuno turned back to Ryoma, and mumbled something. Ryoma irritably sighed.
"I can't hear you."
"I mean... that is... um... I hadn't been that busy it's just that... um... I was scared... maybe?"
Ryoma blinked at her. "Why would you be scared?"
If possible, Sakuno's cheeks turned warmer, and that realization frustrated her to no end. A mother does not blush, she told herself. And yet, when she looked at him from under her lashes, she swallowed the lump in her throat.
"I don't know... Maybe because I had been afraid that you wouldn't have read my letter... You know me, I was just that shy clumsy girl and I had been sure that even if I did have the courage to really send you a letter, you probably wouldn't have recognized me."
This time it was Ryoma's turn to clear his throat, scratch the back of his head awkwardly and looked somewhere else. The last part would've been true if he was to say so himself. He tried to search for an answer to that, and he found one.
"That last part isn't true. I... could've remembered you."
Sakuno laughed softly, and sweetly, she smiled up at him.
"No you won't. You couldn't recognize me that one time, when I met you at school. Remember? That time when you first played tennis with Momo-senpai."
That stung. Okay, maybe he had forgotten about her that one time.
Ryoma scowled at the carpet beneath him, and he mumbled out a response.
"That was because I just met you once at the train... And after that I remembered your name..."
He looked up and saw the same sweet smile plastered on her face, and he wondered just when the tables had turned around? He had been interrogating her, demanding answers from her, and suddenly he was the one being left at the short end of the stick. So not fair.
"Well, you could've sent me a letter or two anyways."
Sakuno cocked her head innocently. "But I told you, you wouldn't have remembered me."
Ryoma could feel the words itching to roll off his tongue. No, he wouldn't have forgotten about her because all those years he had been waiting, like a love-sick pathetic excuse of a moron for a damn letter from her. But he couldn't, wouldn't have just told her that because he had his pride and after what happened with Yukio, he would greatly appreciate it if he could just save his pride from a second round of bruising.
Why couldn't she understand that?
He watched her as she waited for his smart answer, and he spoke up.
"And like what I've told you, I wouldn't have forgotten about you because-"
Because you're special to me and I could never forget someone as rare as you, silly woman.
Woah. Stop there tiger.
He nearly said something that could've ruined that moment. He just knew if he blurted out his thoughts about her, she would gasp, call him a 'baka', then she would turn away from him and run upstairs to cry in her bedroom. That always happens in those novels his mother had been reading in her free time.
Brown orbs were looking expectantly at him, waiting for him to say something to cover up his slip-up.
So he looked up into her eyes, and with forced indifference he spoke up,
"Because you're my friend. I don't forget about my friends."
The brightness in Sakuno's brown eyes dimmed just a little as she heard the word 'friends' coming out of his mouth, and she beamed a smile at him.
"I guess you're right, Ryoma-kun."
They stood there looking at each other for a while, and then Sakuno made a slight bow at him to excuse herself for the night.
"I guess I should be in bed right now. Good night, Ryoma-kun."
He watched her, turning around and ascending the stairs, and he suddenly called out to her. She stopped after a few steps, and turned her profile to him, her eyes waiting for him to continue. He stuffed his hands into the pockets of his comfortable pyjama bottoms, and forced a corner of his mouth to turn up just slightly.
"Don't avoid me again, okay?"
Sakuno nodded, and made a mock salute. "I promise I won't. Not after we just cleared things up just now. We're good already!"
Ryoma nodded, and watched as she continued her way upstairs, her steps having an extra bounce in them. He yawned as he heard the door to her room open and closed a heartbeat later, before he turned off the lights and went straight to his room.