October 21, 2009

Evening

Akihiko found himself looking forward to getting home from school and caring for the baby. It was weird, but it felt nice being needed by someone. When Shinji died, he was so fixated on "getting stronger" that he'd voluntarily lost himself in his job as SEES' fist. It was the only thing he couldn't screw up. Opening that fist and doing something good with his hands was something he hadn't considered.

The other members of the boxing team didn't appreciate Introspective Akihiko and his open hands. They saw their captain stop training incessantly until he dropped, and failing to dodge a punch which cost them a win. Damn, he'd forgotten to be a fist here. Luckily, one of the other third years assumed he was still upset about Shinji, and Akihiko let him think he was right. He ended up treating them all to beef bowls to make it up to them, but spent the entire time feeling guilty for sticking Mitsuru with the baby.

It was fairly late by the time Akihiko returned to the dorm. Everyone was in the living room, doing their usual things to kill time before the Dark Hour. Junpei was telling another one of his ghost stories that only managed to scare Yukari. Fuuka seemed to like them, while Ken more than likely had "no time for childish things like that" (also, Featherman was coming on.). But Akihiko's attention was immediately drawn to the center of the room and its new changing table.

The baby was talking a blue streak to Mitsuru as she was putting one of those whimsical outfits on him. "Babldabbabababagaga."

"Oh? Is that so?"

"Dadadapblayayablblblb!

"Well! I had no idea!"

"Nonono?"

"Exactly."

"Not talking about me, I hope?" Akihiko could no longer resist chiming in, even if his presence caused the baby to kick so much that Mitsuru had to struggle with the suit's snaps.

"Haaaaa! Agplablaabbb!"

"Someone," Mitsuru's accusatory tone was undercut by the smirk on her face, "discovered how to take his bottle apart today."

"Yabadababa!"

"It most certainly was you!"

From across the room, Junpei chimed in. "But it wasn't on ME this time! Ha ha!"

"Aigis wouldn't tell us what she heard Mitsuru-san saying." said Ken.

"I hope she doesn't tell my father, either." said Mitsuru, and Akihiko couldn't hold his laughter in anymore.

"Shame on you, Senpai," Junpei didn't miss the opportunity to tease Mitsuru, "swearing in front of the baby."

"I'm almost certain he doesn't understand a word of French!" Mitsuru protested.

"If he hangs out with you long enough, he might." said Akihiko. "It certainly worked for me. Hell, after a while, even Shinji was starting to speak it!"

Everyone froze. No one had dared mention Shinjiro since he died, not even when they were sure Akihiko wasn't around. Ken immediately shrunk into the couch, the hand clutching the remote control shaking slightly. The only person not reacting with apprehension was the baby, who had no clue why everyone was suddenly quiet.

Akihiko didn't realize what he'd said at first, and then the cold reality hit him square in the face. When was the last time he'd spoken that word out loud, and when did something so natural as his best friend's name become so awkward and forbidding?

Mitsuru's eyes were misty again as she struggled to say something – everyone's mother whether she liked it or not. "Akihiko..."

"Ak...ko!"

"Was that – did you hear that?" The baby just spoke! Akihiko almost immediately forgot his previous mood and practically skipped over to the baby's changing table. "He just said my name! Did you hear him?" The melancholy mood broke, and everyone began cooing at the baby.

"Could it be that there's someone in this dorm who actually listens to me?" Mitsuru scooped up the baby and tickled him. "What a clever little boy! Are you trying to cheer up Akihiko? Where is Akihiko?" She held him out in Akihiko's general direction.

"Akko!" The baby went happily to his favorite person.

"That is so cute, I can't stand it!" Yukari squealed.

"He's just mimicking what Mitsuru-san said." said Ken's inner 11-yr-old.

Makoto decided to reward them all with another sentence. "Well, at least he's not mimicking Junpei."

"Harsh, dude." Junpei replied, but no one took any notice.

Akihiko was teasing the baby by tipping him towards Mitsuru, and then moving him away at the last minute, resulting in one giggly baby and one hair-guarding Mitsuru. "Get Mitsuru! Get her!"

"I don't think we even need to be here right now." observed Makoto. He might have been right; anyone peering through the dorm's windows would have though they were observing a young family playing before bed.

Akihiko stopped mid-swing. "Well, maybe if you'd watch him every once in a while, he'd know your name, too." The baby was practically swimming in his arms. "Whoa! Where do you think you're going?"

He wasn't done playing yet. "Soowoo!" Now everyone was laughing...

...well, except for Soowoo Mitsuru. "Really?"

Tartarus had been fairly quiet that night. The field team found several missing people, but nothing of note happened and everyone agreed to call it a night after a few floors. When they returned to the dorm, they were surprised to find a gleaming coffin waiting for them in the living room.

"Uhh, that wasn't here when we left, was it?" Junpei voiced what everyone was thinking.

The clock struck midnight, and the lights came up to reveal a startled Kurosawa, pen and paper in hand.

Mitsuru quickly put her rapier with the suspicious gunk on it down. "Officer Kurosawa!"

"Wh-you kids are-when did you get here?" To say he was confused was putting it lightly. "There was no one here a minute ago...I was leaving you a note...do I want to know?"

"Let's assume you don't for now." Mitsuru reassured him.

"Is this about the baby?" asked Akihiko. As if on cue, the baby chose to cry at that exact moment, and Akihiko went to get him.

Kurosawa watched with a wistful look on his face. "You kids sure took to this babysitting thing. Anyway, yeah, we finally managed to identify the adults he was found with."

"You mean his parents?" Aigis asked.

"That's the strange part." Kurosawa decided to wait for Akihiko to return before continuing.

Akihiko was going to happily declare that the baby had learned how to wave, until he saw Mitsuru's face and immediately started worrying.

The baby decided to show off his new skill, anyway. "Haaa..." This new stranger wasn't smiling, and he made his friend Akko stiffen up.

"We've been going about this the wrong way the whole time." Kurosawa began. "Instead of trying to match the adults, it turns out we should have been trying to identify the baby."

The baby in question was getting very uncomfortable with a tense Akihiko and started fussing. He promptly decided he needed a change in location. "Ehh...Soowoo..."

"This little guy here," continued Kurosawa, giving Mitsuru a strange look but ultimately deciding not to comment on it, "is the latest addition to the Ishikawa family, from just outside Osaka."

"Ah, no wonder he sounds funny." muttered Junpei.

"And the two people he was found with?" prompted Mitsuru. She didn't seem to notice that the baby had one finger precariously placed on her hair. Akihiko held his breath.

"The woman was apparently his nurse. From what we could gather, there were complications during the birth, and so the baby needed full-time care. He's got a very rare blood type, which makes transfusions difficult...but in this case, it turned out to be just the detail we needed."

"Why'd they take him?" Yukari asked, and Akihiko was incredibly curious about the answer. A sick baby, with no food or supplies, all the way from Osaka?

"Can't say for sure. Maybe some dispute about payment? I'll be heading out there to talk to the parents tomorrow – actually, make that later today." Kurosawa looked at his now-working watch. "What I need from you is a current picture of the kid so we can prove he's all right."

"Well, how about that, buddy?" Akihiko went over and removed the baby's hand from Mitsuru's hair under the guise of patting him on the back. "You've got a family after all."

They should have been happy. This was a happy resolution, wasn't it? So why did Mitsuru immediately pass the baby to him and mutter something about not wanting to be identified in photos before running upstairs?

"Uh...you mind taking him?" Akihiko could only pass the baby off to Kurosawa. He had a feeling Mitsuru needed him more. "Go ahead and take that picture. He, uh...he'll smile if you rub his face." And he was off.

Both Kurosawa and the baby watched him leave uneasily. "What a strange place for you to end up in, huh?" The baby just gurgled and, failing to find hair, grabbed the next best thing. "That's my hat, son."