Whoo, new chapter!


Chapter 4: Press and Pressure


It took Len exactly 4 days, 16 hours and 13 minutes to buy everything a 4 year old needs, not counting the little excursion they took with the three idiots to that department store. God, that was horrible.

Women. Imagine, him in a gay relationship. With Tsuchiura.

He sat on a wide four-poster, folding tiny dresses and skirts, placing them neatly in a cherry wood drawer while Kaho recited her ABCs on a table next to him.

"Gee…Achu…Eye….Jay….Kay…El…Em…En…Oh… Oh… … Queue…"

"O, P, Q."

"O…Pee…Len-niichan."

"Mmm?"

"Kaho doesn't understand. Why does Kaho have to learn these funny things?"

Len sighed. "Those "funny things" are the alphabet, Kahoko. You need it to learn English."

"But why does Kaho need to learn 'Engrish'?"

"Because I said so."

"Ehhh, Len-ni-chan, that's not fair." She pouted.

"Life's not fair, chibi." He held up a pair of tiny cotton panties. "For instance." He placed them in the drawer and drew out a tiny pink bathing suit. "What the hell was Hihara thinking? We're in New York, not the Caribbean."

Kaho huffed before continuing with her booklet. "Queue…" She drew out a shaky Q with her pencil, and continued down the line while Len finished folding up her clothing.

Light blue paint covered walls that were recently stripped of tasteful brown wallpaper, and the heavy mahogany furniture was replaced by lacquered warm toned wood similar to those in the living room. The four-poster Len sat on had sheer white draping instead of the heavy red cloth that came with it, and on it were various tones of yellows and whites, from the bedcovers to the pillows. Wide windows were draped in more white, weak sunlight pouring through the thin material.

Len shut the drawer with a snap, and moved over to the small square table. Books and papers were spread out in his attempt to get his young charge caught up with reading and writing English.

A visiting Tsuchiura had snorted out a remark that Kaho would be able to do script by next week at the rate she's going. Len kicked him out in irritation. "You're a disturbance."

Azuma had been no help either.

"Well Len…" he stroked his chin and frowned at the squiggly lines Kaho had drawn an effigy of D, E, and F. "Wouldn't she learn this stuff in school anyways?"

He had gone out the way Tsuchiura came in, closely followed by a chortling Hihara. Shimizu, who came afterwards, was wise enough to keep his mouth shut. That, or he was too drowsy to make any objections to Kaho's education.

"So, you're Kahoko-san huh?" Shimizu blinked sleepy blue eyes, blonde hair curling all over his head. He sat and held out a hand. "I'm Shimizu Keiichi. Nice to meet you."

"Konnichiwa, Shimizu-san."

They then had proceeded to take a break, so that Kaho could ask about the big case this onii-chan bought with him. They spent a happy hour together, little hands managing to lift the long cello bow and drawing a long deep note. "Sugoi!" she cried, making her companion smile.

Before Shimizu left, he clapped the younger man on the shoulder absentmindedly. "Kanazawa-san's getting anxious for us to perform again." he murmured. "We asked for a bit more time, but the most we'll have is a couple months after Fuyumi- I mean, Hihara-san- delivers her babies. You should take care of everything before then." He buttoned up his coat, bowed slightly to a waving Kaho, and was gone.

Len sat down next to Kaho, who was copying out her third row of alphabets. He watched as the little face scrunched up between G and H, big eyes narrowed in concentration. His hand reached out of its own accord, and stroked over her hair. She responded by nuzzling her face on his narrow palm.

"Just like a kitten." he chuckled. She meowed obligingly, eyes twinkling with mischief.

As she worked, he did something totally uncharacteristic for Tsukimori Len, and flopped down on the carpet on his back. In all his nineteen years of living, he wouldn't say that there was anything missing in his life, or that he was lonely. But how else could he describe this feeling of contentment? He scowled momentarily. Contentment is for dogs and old men. But it's the only word he could think of at the moment.

Never in his life would he have lain down on the carpet as he did then, nor would he have had a reason to sit on the floor like some commoner in a 6 mat tatami room. But it wasn't as bad as he thought it'd be.

In fact, it was very nearly therapeutic, just resting with nothing to do while Kaho sat by his side, working diligently on her alphabet. She's a bright child, Len mused. As befitting of a Tsukimori.

It wasn't for that reason that made his heart swell with pride though.

He laid down for a couple minutes more, the two of them happy and warm in their cozy sanctuary, while hard droplets of rain pelted New York pedestrians, the dreary weather a direct contrast to the happy tableau inside.

A few weeks later, Kaho sat in the living room, playing a flash card game with Len. "Bat. Sat. Kitty."

"Cat."

"Kitty-cat." Kaho looked up at him from her perch on his lap. "Len-niichan, could we get a kitty-cat?"

"Uh…" Before Len could think up of an excuse to say no, the intercom buzzed. "Mr. Tsukimori."

"Geoffrey." Len breathed out a sigh of relief, and glanced up at the clock. It was 2 in the afternoon. "What is the matter?"

"I'm sorry to disturb you sir, but there is a Hihara here for you."

Hihara? Len sighed. Kaho, however, brightened. "Len-niichan, it's Kazu-kun!" she cried, and clapped her hands.

He scowled and muttered. "I know who it is. Send him in."

"Yes sir."

The door flipped open, and Hihara bounded in. "Yo Len!"

"Dammit, can't a person get any peace around here?"

Kaho smiled and held her hands out for their customary high five, but Hihara merely patted her head absentmindedly before turning to Len. "You're not gonna like this."

"I already don't like this." But Len had spotted The Daily News rolled under his arm. Hihara shook it open to reveal a grainy color photo, headlines screaming in sharp bold print. "'Music genius or pedophile?'"

"Who the hell wrote this crap?"

Hihara only shook his head and pointed a finger underneath the outrageous headline. Len's eyes tracked down, and he hissed. "M. Rosella…"

"She was the one that broke your parent's death on the 10 o'clock news, that goddamned old b-"

"Hihara."

"Oops." Hihara blushed. "Sorry. Forgot about the small ears."

Len ignored him, and started to read. As the passage grew longer, the accusations got uglier and uglier. "Seems she can't make up her mind whether or not it's a sex scandal with a minor or a human trafficking story."

"She's not the only one." Hihara said darkly. "Other newspapers were building on her article. I wouldn't be surprised if the New York Time's music section had a piece on you two."

Len's eyes rolled away from the pictures of him and Kahoko entering his apartment together as he contemplated the ceiling. There was a moment's pause. "What did Kanazawa say?"

"Kanayan? You know him, he's totally fine with it. Says bad publicity is still publicity and all that." Hihara tried to grin. "Wanted me to tell you to drag Kaho-chan with you the next time we hold a concert."

"Not likely." Len said coolly. Kaho, unused to being ignored by Len and Hihara, poked her head up between them. "Len-niichan, Kazu-kun! What's wrong?"

Len folded up the paper hastily. "It's nothing." He looked at Hihara, who only shrugged helplessly.

"You know reporters. Give them a few days and they'll go gnaw on some other bone." Hihara said bracingly. "It'll be over in a couple days."

"Right." But just then, the phone rang. All three looked at each other before Len got up and reached for the hand phone. "Hello?"

"This Len Tsukimori?"

Len's brows wrinkled. "That's right. Who is this?"

"You sick bastard."

"Pardon?"

"You heard me." The voice on the other side grew heavy with exertion. "You goddamned celebrities think ya'll can do whatever you want to kids? Well, lemme tell you something buddy. Here in the good ol'U.S. of fucking A-"

He hung up, shaking his head in disgust. "Harassers."

Hihara didn't bother telling Len that the caller was loud enough to be heard all the way across the room. He removed his hands from Kaho's ears. "You should have one of those screening machines for your phone, man."

"Or I can just unplug it." He bent down and yanked the phone cord off. "My cell phone is adequate to see to my day to day needs."

"Maybe. Thank god you're smart enough to graduate a few years early. No school schedule. Your niichan is a smarty pants, Kaho-chan." he said, and started to tickle her. She squirmed and shrieked in laughter.

Len sat on the sofa, his eyes tracked onto the newspaper photograph. There was a big spread on the second and third page, where a giggling Kahoko slid down a bright blue slide with him standing by the side, a hand hooked onto the side rung and smiling. A smaller one had him carrying her in his arms, her own around his neck. He recognized the hospital in the background. It was the same one they had met at.

Somebody had been stalking them since they met.

A gush of anger spilled through him, but he reined it in. A cool head was necessary right now. He looked over at Hihara and Kahoko, their heads bent together as he told her nonsensical fairytales.

"She danced and danced until she fell to the floor…"

She gasped, wide eyes fixed onto Hihara's face. "And then? And then? What happened to Giselle-san?"

"Well…"

Len shook his head, and hoped that he alone would be enough to shield her from the ugly newsprint and gossip that will surround them for the next few days.

Because hiding from it wasn't an option for them.


Len pushed the flimsy drape apart, and settled Kahoko on the soft yellow sheets. The contrast it made against her hair was startling.

Her eyes drooped, and he watched her try to blink herself awake. "Kaho doesn't want to sleep yet, Len-niichan."

"Well, that's too bad for you, chibi." He pulled up matching sheets and tucked it around her. "I'm afraid, as King of Sunshine Land," he patted the bedspread. "I can command you to do anything I want. And what I want is for you to sleep."

She giggled. Len-niichan was a lot more looser with his language than he used to be, something that not even Len had noticed about himself during the last few weeks with Kahoko. "Then then, if Len-niichan is King, what does that make Kaho?"

"My very loyal subject."

"Ehhh." She pouted. "Kaho wants to be an ohime-sama! A pri…pri…"

"Princess."

"Yes! Kaho wants to be a 'princess'!"

He smiled, and tugged on a stray lock of hair. "Well then, you'll have to listen to the King, won't you? Ohime-sama."

She grinned at him, and snuggled deep into the covers. "Hai!" She tugged on his hand. "But first, Kaho wants to listen to a story."

"A story?" He looked up, looked down. Sighed. "Very well. What story would you like, hime-sama?"

"Ummm…" Her face pinched up before her expression cleared. "The one about Giselle-san! Kazu-kun left before he could tell me what happened after Giselle-san became a 'ghost'."

Len sighed again. Leave it to Hihara to mess it up. "Giselle didn't become a ghost, Kahoko. They were called Wilis, and…"


His cell phone rang.

Kahoko, used to waking up early, was staring at the few boats sliding up and down the East River when she heard a quartet of violins, playing a particularily passionate part of Vivaldi's "Summer". She saw the phone vibrate crazily on the coffee table, and picked it up.

Knowing Len won't wake up for another hour or so, she opened it carefully as she'd seen him do when other people called, and put it next to her ear. "…Mochi mochi? Hello?"

A blast of German spilled out.

"Umm, umm! Gomen ne, Kaho doesn't understand!" she said in rapid Japanese. The caller paused. "Len?"

"Len-niichan is sleeping!"

She heard him mutter something before someone else came on. "Hello? Len?"

"Iie. Len-niichan is sleeping right now!"

"Niichan?" Confusion crept into his voice, before it cleared. "Oh! So you're Kaho-chan. Domo."

"Hai! Who is this? Do you want Kaho to wake niichan?"

"No, no, it's fine. Knowing him, he'd sleep through a nitrogen bomb. No, just tell him to call Osaki when he wakes, will you? Ja, Kaho-chan. I hope we'll be meeting you soon."

The phone clicked off.

She stared at it in bewilderment, before shrugging and going back to the wide window to look at her boats.

Hours later when Len woke, he went through two cups of black coffee and a shower before making his designated phone call to Japan.

"Kanazawa. You wanted something?"

"Yo Len. Pretty early for you to be up and about huh?"

Len scowled. His inability to wake up early and lucid was a joke among the small orchestra group he was part of. "Shut up. It's your fault for making Osaki call so early."

"Ah, well, you know that guy's out of it half the time."

"A fact that's been made apparent since this morning."

"He told me that a cute sounding ojou-chan picked up."

"And? Hihara told me that you didn't seem to mind yesterday."

Kanazawa laughed. "Don't be so defensive. But yeah, that's one of the things I want to talk to you about."

"About Kaho?" He glanced across the table, where she was playing with her alphabet soup, pursed lips forming out letters and sounds. "I don't care to have to repeat myself, but in any case, you're too late. She's already mine."

"Jesus, listen before you fly on the handle, k? Having a kid sure doesn't lighten you up."

He said nothing, only waited.

"Ok ok. Well, you know how Shoko's having her kid huh? In a couple of weeks?"

"Really?"

"Yeah, Kazuki went home yesterday after he visited your place. Told me how you were living with that little girl over at that side of the pond. He forgot to ask you about coming over for a few days. Visit your homeland and all that."

There was a very awkward pause.

"You want me to fly over six thousand miles with Kahoko. Just to visit."

"Well, yeah! All those Americans, they've gotta drive you nuts. Take a break, be Japanese. Get a nice girlfriend while you're at it. Might soften you up a little." he chuckled.

"…I'm hanging up."

"Wait up, Len, I was only joking-"

Len thumbed the call off button.

Back in Japan, Kanazawa hung up the phone. "I told you it wouldn't work."

"Only because your jokes need a bit of work, Kanayan." Hihara rubbed a hand over his head, then looked at Shoko sheepishly. "Sorry. I tried."

Hihara Shoko, née Fuyumi, sat up and rubbed a hand over her back. Strands of cerulean blue clung to her forehead and neck. "Kazuki, maybe if we asked Azuma-san to run interference for us-"

"Ain't gonna work." Kanazawa shook his head. "Len's not stupid. He prolly knows why I called."

"Ahh dammit!" Hihara rumpled his hair in frustration. "That stupid, stubborn, son of a b-"

"Hush, remember the child." Shoko touched a finger to her lips as her other hand rubbed her swollen stomach. "As a daddy, you'll have to set a good example for them."

"Oh. Sorry, Shoko-sama." he winked roguishly at her before settling down by her chair and catching a hand between his own. "I promise to behave now."

She only smiled serenely as Kanazawa rolled his eyes heavenwards.

Sure enough, Len had guessed what they were trying to do. People like Hihara and Kanazawa were so obvious.

He looked at the Daily News article in disgust. It's them hiring people like M. Rosella that made him a devout New York Times reader. He picked it up with the intention of throwing it away, then stopped.

Jesus Christ. What was he doing?

He stared blankly at the roll of newspaper still clutched in his hand. He was protecting her. He was protecting them.

Oh damn. He was protecting his own pride.

His head turned up to where she was, trying to draw a picture with her pencil and a blank page from her practice books, eyes tracking several boats up and down the river. Every time a horn sounded, she would press her nose more firmly against the glass, eyes stretched as wide as possible. On the page were already some misshapen ovals resting on top of each other, squiggly lines denoting waves while wide curves arched up over it all, a four year old's effigy of the Queensborough bridge.

He was going to expose her to the media, hoping that she'll forget it soon enough. Just to thumb his nose at them.

"...I...I'm such an idiot."

He looked down at the roll again. Japan…

"Kahoko."

The small, rosy face twisted to look at him, nose flat from the cold window.

"Would you like to visit Japan with me?"


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