When Yosuke woke up the next morning, he spent a long time watching his son sleeping in his arms. He couldn't believe Kichirou hadn't cried at all. He suspected the tears would come later, when it became fully apparent Michiko had left them.

He absently stroked the boy's back, which ended up waking him up.

Kichirou blinked up at him. "Dad...?"

"Sorry..." he whispered. "Go back to sleep."

The boy shifted in his arms, rousing into full wakefulness. "Dad..."

Yosuke tugged the boy's collar affectionately. "Look, we forgot to put pajamas on. We forgot to take a bath, too..."

"Dad... Why doesn't Mom love us?"

Yosuke froze, his fingers still clasped around the fabric of his son's collar. To be hit with a question like that so early in the morning...! "Ki-kun... Mom loves you." He fumbled for a way to explain it to an eight-year-old and came up short. "She just... needs to be away for a bit. Sometimes being away from someone lets you know how much you really love them."

Kichirou pondered his words. "Like Uncle Seta? He's been away for a while."

"Yeah, actually. Exactly like Uncle Seta! But Uncle Seta just lives far away. It's not like he's testing the limits of his love or anything..." Yosuke rambled on a little more, and the boy seemed soothed by his voice. "Let's get you changed, okay?"

With a sigh too heavy for a boy his age, Kichirou moved off the couch, and they went to his room. It was a Sunday, so he didn't have to wear a uniform. As it turned out, Kichirou's small collection of non-school clothes were organized in the same way the school uniforms were, just in a different drawer. Soon he was wearing a red collared shirt with the Featherman logo on the breast and navy shorts.

Yosuke needed to put on some fresh clothes himself, so he headed to the master bedroom, ignoring as best he could the unmade bed that seemed to be mocking him.

He was in the process of taking down a pair of pants from the closet when he noticed out of the corner of his eye that Kichirou was standing in the doorway and watching him. The boy backed away as soon as he realized he'd been spotted. "Oh, s-sorry, Dad!"

"What?" Yosuke called after him, but his son was already out of sight. He set the pair of pants down on the end of the unmade bed, then left the room. He found the boy standing just outside the door, looking embarrassed. "What?" he repeated.

"I just..." the boy began in a very quiet voice while staring down at his feet. "Just w-wanted to know where you were going, Dad."

"I gotta get changed, too," Yosuke told him. He tousled the boy's hair. "That's all. I'll be right out."

He was halfway done pulling on one pant leg when it dawned on him what his son had really meant. Kichirou, understandably, was afraid of letting Yosuke out of his sight.

He put that knowledge to the back of his mind, because thinking too hard about it right now would only bring him to tears, and finished getting changed. After that, he went into the kitchen and made a simple breakfast for the two of them.

"Hey, Ki-kun?" he asked when they were done eating. "Do you wanna go shopping with me? Umm, I'm just going to get some groceries because we don't have much left to eat. That was the last of our rice and our eggs, so... but I could drop you off at Hiroshi-kun's, if you'd like."

Kichirou only thought about it for a second. "I'll go with you, Dad."

Yeah, he probably shouldn't have expected any other answer.

They didn't go to Junes—Yosuke never wanted to be recognized on his day off and then get bothered. They usually went to a small grocery store just a couple of blocks down the street. When they got there, Yosuke realized he didn't really know what to buy. He never paid too much attention to what Michiko bought to feed the family with. It just wasn't his concern. Damn, maybe he really was a bad husband...

He stared at the variety of soy sauces available and tried to remember which brand they always got. The one with the hexagon logo was the cheap stuff, too salty... The coconut one sounded good... Well, he wasn't a chef. It was time once again to phone a friend.

"Yosuke? Everything okay?" Souji asked upon picking up.

"Sort of," Yosuke replied. "Have you got time? If you don't, it's not that important." He could probably just ask the old lady who ran the store for advice if he really needed to. He didn't think she would try to con him or anything. They'd been shopping here for years. In fact, she was probably going to ask where Michiko was when they got to the checkout counter.

"Yeah, I'm free. What's going on?"

"Got a new problem today. Well, I'm going to have to learn how to cook. That's not the problem. The problem is I need to learn how to shop, first. Like, what should a newbie chef who's just starting out get at the store?"

"Hmm... That's not going to be easy to answer," Souji said. "You're serious about this? Really going to learn how to cook?"

"Well, I'm going to have to become Mr. Mom, now." Yosuke emitted an awkward laugh to hide the pain. "Can't expect Ki-kun to learn how to cook!"

The boy looked up from his inspection of a bottle of yakisoba sauce at the sound of his name.

"Mm? Is Kicchan there?" Souji asked.

"Yeah, we're going shopping together."

"Tell him I said 'hi.'"

"Your uncle says 'hi,' Ki-kun."

Kichirou grinned. Then he moved closer, and Yosuke lowered the phone to his level so that he could say 'hi' back. Yosuke patted him on the head. He was a good kid, and Souji was a great friend to remember him like that.

"Anyway," Yosuke said, putting the phone back to his ear. "Could you build me up a shopping list? Well, you don't have to do it today. I realize it might take a while."

"Well, I can give you some simple things for now, and I'll email you a list later, how's that?"

"Perfect, partner."

Souji rattled off a list of ingredients needed to make a basic udon soup that they could have for dinner tonight. With that, their little shopping adventure wasn't a complete bust. "Now, Yosuke..." The man lowered his voice so that Yosuke had to listen very closely to hear him. "Are you really going to be okay? You can distract yourself pretty easily with this cooking idea, but..."

"U-umm... well... I'm more worried about my son than me right now. His summer break is soon. He'll be alone while I'm at work, you know..." He tried to speak quietly so that Kichirou wouldn't overhear, but he was never good at whispering. He walked down the aisle just a little bit away from the boy, leaving him with the currently-empty cart but still in his immediate sight.

"Mm, that's right." Souji sounded contemplative.

"My mom might be able to help out sometimes," Yosuke went on. "But it couldn't be too often, short of sending him over to their place for the whole break." The Hanamuras were still in Inaba, just a train ride away, so Kichirou wouldn't be too far if he had to leave the boy with his parents, but...

"I don't think you should do that," Souji told him. "It's bad for Kicchan to be alone, but also bad for you to be alone."

"Y-yeah..." Yosuke hadn't really thought about it, but Souji was right. Being completely alone in the house would be maddening. "I can probably afford to send him to a cram school, maybe."

"Well, you still have a few weeks," his friend pointed out. "It's not August yet. There's time to think about your options. I mean, it was just yesterday."

"Yeah..." he trailed off, having nothing else he really wanted to say in the middle of a grocery store. "Well, umm, I'm gonna let you go now. Thanks again, partner, you're the best."

"Take care of yourself!" his friend said before he hung up.

Yosuke smiled to himself for a moment. Souji was worried about him. He was glad for that. He had other friends, but Souji was the only one he'd trust to say more than 'I'm sorry' and not change the subject after. The only one he trusted to want the details to help, not to use them for gossip.

He returned to Kichirou and took him through the store, buying the bare essentials that Souji had suggested. At the register, the grocery lady did end up asking him about Michiko. He didn't really know what to say, but Kichirou spoke up. "Mom's gone."

"Gone?" The lady squinted at Yosuke for an explanation, but he pretended not to see while he moved items from the cart to the checkout counter.

"Gone," Kichirou confirmed with a nod. "But I still have Dad." He hugged Yosuke's leg, and Yosuke's heart almost broke again. He barely deserved such a wonderful kid... He kept his budding tears in check and paid for the groceries.


Cooking sucked. Last night's udon had gone over well, but today...

Yosuke tried. He really did! But even with Souji's emailed instructions—for he'd sent some of his 'anyone can make this!' recipes along with the ingredients list—Yosuke still managed to burn the pork. Kakuni's easy! Just fry it until it's golden-brown. But the pork was already orange-brown already... And Souji had suggested sardines as garnish, how gross was that? But without them the meal was missing something, that was for sure. He could tell already. Flavorless—or just an odd flavor. He hadn't bought the right soy sauce. He'd wanted to try that coconut soy sauce and it obviously didn't go that well with this cut of pork. Or maybe he didn't like coconut as much as he thought he did.

Shouldn't experiment until you've got the basics down, he thought with a sigh.

And he was tired from a long day of work and just wanted to eat. He didn't have the time to fail and try again, not when he had a hungry boy to feed, too!

Besides all that, he felt like a stranger in his own kitchen. This was Michiko's domain. He mostly only knew where the cups, utensils, and the snacks were kept, so he was learning all that, too. He'd spent over ten minutes searching the cabinets for the small cooking pots, only to find out they were in a drawer built into the stove. He'd had no idea that the stove even had a drawer.

"Hey, Dad, I was—umm..."

Yosuke blinked at Kichirou in the doorway. The boy was staring at something? He followed his gaze to his hand. Oh, he'd crushed the aluminum can of Cielo Mist he'd been holding and the lime soda was dripping through his fingers.

"It's all right," Yosuke declared, throwing the can in the trash and washing his hands. "I didn't cut myself or anything. Don't worry."

"Um, okay, Dad..." The boy's eyes were large with concern.

Yosuke dried his hand on a towel and maybe he'd lied because his index finger was stinging a little. Man, he needed to be careful in the future. This absent-mindedness wasn't good for him. What if he'd started a fire from leaving the stove on or something?

Oh crap!

He frantically checked the stove and it was definitely off already, though the oil in the wok was still bubbling. He sighed in relief and realized his son was still watching him. "Uh, dinner's almost ready, Ki-kun. Hey, what were you trying to tell me, anyway?"

"I'm done with my math homework. Can you check it?"

Yosuke told him he would after dinner, and then found the plates and served the meal, for what it was worth. He asked Kichirou how it was and the boy told him it wasn't very good. Oh well, at least he was honest. Yosuke agreed, anyway, so they had a nice laugh about it. "I'll get better, or we'll both lose our taste-buds! Or maybe you'll go over to Hiroshi-kun's more often, huh?"

"His mom makes the best curry!" Kichirou declared.

The conversation died there because it reminded them both that Hiroshi-kun still had a mom.


[AN: Yosuke made his own brand of Mystery Food X. Again.

Thanks XrosaryX and random anonymous Guest for leaving reviews!]