Disclaimer: I own nothing from the Hikago universe.

Author's note: I bet you thought I had vanished or something. XD Hostilecrayon provided the nudge I needed to think about Hikago again. I hope you all will continue enjoying this fic, even though there was somewhat of a hiatus between the posting of this chapter and the last one.

Chapter 14: Setting Things Straight

It was mid-afternoon when Hikaru stood outside of the Touya property, hands wringing nervously. If Touya-sensei yells at me, I swear I'll wet myself, or cry, or do something equally embarrassing, he couldn't help but think sourly, fear pounding into his system every time his heart beat. With a deep breath, he forced himself to knock on the door.

When the door opened, Touya's mother stood looking a bit shocked. "Shindou-kun?" she asked, head turned slightly so her eyes could dart towards a figure sitting in the living room behind her. "You probably shouldn't be here," she whispered to him. "If Kouyo sees you, I don't know what will happen."

"I … I know you probably think it's in bad taste for me to come, especially in the light of what happened yesterday," he began trying to be as polite as possible, in short as Akira-like as possible. "I wouldn't normally have come to stir the waters, but it's just that Akira's sick."

Upon hearing that her precious son was sick, Akiko's motherly instincts took over, and her features turned from one of apprehension to one of the greatest concern. "How? He was fine last night. Well, not fine, but healthy."

To tell the truth or not? Hikaru asked himself, mind running on blank. "I'll be truthful with you," he said, deciding to stick to the truth, since the whole conversation would be hard enough already without him having to make up lies and keep up with them. "We fought when Akira came home last night. I… oh, it's not important, but he stormed out. A friend later found him drinking in a bar."

"Akira … drinking?" the mother asked hesitantly as if the image didn't seem quite right to her brain. Now the image of Touya Akiko was that of utmost worry.

"He was really upset last night. …I … and he …" Hikaru shook his head apologetically not knowing how to articulate his thoughts. "He had a lot to drink. He's been sleeping most of today, but he's feeling pretty sick. And … when I asked him if he wanted anything, he said that you always made soup for him when he was feeling ill."

A smile spread on Akiko's face, softening her features. "Yeah."

Hikaru realized he had seen that exact expression before. It never ceased to amaze him how Akira was the spitting image of his mother. Except for his eyes - those steely, concentrated eyes were definitely a gift from his father.

"Akiko, who's at the door?" the ex-Meijin belted out with that powerful, rumbling voice of his. To his wife, the voice was sexy; to Hikaru, the voice was terrifying.

"It's … Shindou-kun," she said pausing before the name.

Touya Kouyo was at the door in no time, cold eyes staring down into Hikaru's. Hikaru could never understand how Akira's father could make him feel so small, so utterly childlike, especially now that he was an adult.

"What do you want?" he asked.

"Akira's sick," Akiko tried to explain. "And Hikaru asked if I could make some of that soup I always make when he's sick."

The ex-Meijin said nothing, but rage and hostility entered into those eyes, emotions easily read by Hikaru.

You must really hate me, he thought. I've stolen your perfect son from you, haven't I? I've done something awful to you.

"Shindou-kun?" Akiko asked, "Would you like to help me in the kitchen?"

"I'd love to," Hikaru replied shrinking under the ex-Meijin's heavy gaze. Anything to get away from your scary husband. "I don't know how much help I'll be, though. Akira's a much better cook than I am."

"He used to help me out a lot," Akira's mother said wistfully. "He was always such a good, thoughtful boy."

"He still is," Hikaru insisted stubbornly as Akiko whisked him inside pretending to not see the sour look on her husband's face.

"Shindou-kun," Kouyo finally spoke. "I think we should have a chat."

I was so afraid of that, Hikaru thought eyes widening to the point until they showed white all around, sort of like a frightened horse's. He was so frightened that he didn't even realize that he had made an uncomfortable "eep."

The sound didn't escape the Touya's though, and Akiko tried to ease the young man in front of her. "I'll start the broth and get the ingredients together for making the wontons. I'll call you after that. It shouldn't take more than about fifteen minutes."

He'll kill me by then, Hikaru thought miserably, eyes still focused on the icy, imposing figure of Touya Kouyo. Reluctantly, he followed the formal looking man into the living room, while he heard Akiko bustle around in the kitchen in the room next door.

-----------------------------

"Akira never tells me anything anymore," the ex-Meijin started out eyes boring into Hikaru's.

"I'm … sorry," Hikaru answered, voice wavering. He dropped his gaze to the floor, content to look at his feet.

"Can I ask you some questions?"

"Do I have to answer all of them?" Hikaru asked feeling highly uncomfortable at the open ended nature of the question.

"Answer the ones you do truthfully."

Hesitating momentarily, Hikaru finally said, "That's fair." With a gulp, he clamped his hands down on his knees, gripping at them tightly. So this is the terror of "meeting the parents" I've heard about. It was odd that he had already met the Touyas on several of occasions, but none like this.

"How long have you been dating?"

Hikaru hesitated for just a moment before answering with softly, with his eyes downcast. "A little more than two years."

Next to him, he heard Akira's father suck in a sharp breath of air. "That long?"

"What?" Hikaru asked, lifting his head up, confused. "You knew?"

"I had suspicions… Why?"

"Do you mean "why did this happen?" Hikaru tried to clarify meekly.

Akira's father stared down at him stonily, and Hikaru could feel himself shrink even more. He now knew what it felt like to be Alice in Wonderland, getting smaller and smaller, becoming more and more aware of the fact. "The game drew us together, and … I don't know how, but it just did."

The man observed the boy carefully, eyes narrowed.

"Are you going to tell him he can't stay with me anymore?" Hikaru asked, scared eyes focused on his the ex-Meijin.

"Akira is stubborn and independent."

It was all that Hikaru needed to be reassured that nothing was seriously going to change. As the conversation progressed, Hikaru found his curiosity growing, and so he asked the question that had been plaguing him, "Do you … not approve?"
The ex-Meijin didn't reply, but the answer was in his eyes.

Apparently, he was following the same guidelines Hikaru had set up for the question and answer session. Curiosity got the best of Hikaru, so he tried another question. "What happened last night?"

"We lost our tempers. Careless words were exchanged. And then, I asked Akira to leave, because he was rather disrespectful." This time, his eyes were focused on Hikaru as he made the observation.

You're blaming that on me, huh? Hikaru thought ruefully. I can live with that.

The daunting scowl left his face briefly as the cold ice of his eyes melted. "I love my son, though."

"I love him, too," Hikaru told the ex-Meijin softly.

That look of disapproval entered his eyes again, and Hikaru felt as if he had to defend against it.

"It's true!" he insisted, finding his stubborn streak. Like father like son, Hikaru thought shaking his head with dismay. And suddenly, he found that he was able to say what he needed to. Akira had inherited a lot of characteristics from his father, and Hikaru had never been intimidated by Akira's temper. "It may be awkward, even uncomfortable, for the Go world and for us, but it's not going away. We're not going away. It has been two years, and what we have is solid!"

The ex-Meijin favored Hikaru with a new look. It wasn't exactly surprise, because Hikaru doubted that many things were able to surprise someone that seemed as worldly as him. "Oh?" He raised an eyebrow.

Managing to suppress a yelp, Hikaru had to go on the offensive or give into the fear that the imposing ex-Meijin had. Not many people had the privilege of learning how to develop an intimidating presence, but professional Go players definitely did have that privilege. With a shaky breath, Hikaru managed to say, "I'm sorry you had to find out the way you did. Akira and I would have told you someday. But … he was always so worried about what everyone would think."

Touya Kouyo made a noise that sounded close to a snort.

"He really holds you in high regard," Hikaru offered. "You should talk to him once he's feeling better. It would be a shame to see your father son bond broken by something like this." Plus it'd kill Akira, I know it would. I can't let that happen. I won't let it happen.

"The news is rather a momentous," Akira's father said, those eyes perpetually narrowed, cold, pondering.

"It's only as big as you make it. It doesn't change who he is … how he's meant to play the game. How you've helped create that path for him. None of that changes. The relationship between the two of you doesn't have to change. Please, don't let it." With the last sentence, his voice dropped off, and his eyes gazed into Kouyo's pleadingly. You have to understand that beyond everything else, I want Akira to be happy, even if I have to beg you.

With that, he took the opportunity to excuse himself before the ex-Meijin could think of a response. Wandering into the kitchen, he very much intended on checking up on Akira's mother to learn just exactly how to made homemade wontons.

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It was nearly dinner time when Hikaru had left the Touya household.

It probably wouldn't have taken that long if Touya-san hadn't had to stop to teach me how to fold the wontons, he admitted ruefully.

He was amazed at how her fingers deftly molded the dough. Awestruck, he had watched the process over and over. When she set her finished product down, it remained plump and held its shape. Hikaru had tried following her lead, but his own dumplings came out limp, and he found out exactly how clumsy his own fingers were.

For his efforts, he had left the house with more than just the soup; Touya Akiko had made a whole meal. Surprising, he escaped from Touya home feeling better than he would have imagined.

He had point blank asked Akiko why she was being so nice.

With a gentle smile on her face, she had said, "For years, Akira-san's only been about the game. Last night he was heatedly passionate about something else. That's indication enough for me as to how important you are to him."

That accepting statement warmed Hikaru to the depths of his soul, reassuring him that everything would be okay in the end. All he and Akira would have to do would be to endure this rough time. Touya Akiko hadn't been shocked, a fact she attributed to knowing her own son very well. She had been every bit the understanding mother that he hoped his own would be.

When Hikaru opened the door to his apartment, he found Akira pacing nervously down the length of the common room, phone in hand.

"Where were you? And why didn't you have your cell phone on?" he demanded.

"What the heck!?" Hikaru shot back. "I went to do something you asked me to do, and you yell at me!?" He set the containers of food down on the counter eyes flashing angrily.

Akira's brows furrowed as a puzzled look overcame his face.

"You don't remember asking me to get yet your mother's soup that you just had to have when you were feeling sick?"

Shaking his head dumbly, Akira said, "All I remember was wanting to put myself out of my misery." Eyes growing large, he continued. "But when I woke up and you were gone … I got scared." The last part of the sentence ended in a hoarse whisper.

Hikaru wondered how Akira could do this, make his emotions do a complete 180 in a matter of seconds. Along the road of their relationship, he found it quite remarkable how much reassurance Akira needed. Akira had seemed to him like a confident dragon at first, but that was only his Go persona. The real Akira away from the goban was rather shy, quiet, thoughtful, and even pensive at times. Sometimes he would enter a mood where his diffidence would take over.

"Come here," Hikaru said to the still slightly dazed Akira. Holding out his arms, he waited for the other boy to walk into them, and he wasn't disappointed.

"Don't scare me like that again," Akira murmured resting his head against the nook between Hikaru's neck and shoulder, arms closing around his body.

Hikaru was more than happy just to hold Akira, hands rubbing against his back in soothing circles. "Don't worry; we're okay. Okay?" Against his skin, Hikaru could feel the head nodding in agreement.

"S-sooo, you saw my father?" he asked hesitantly, as if he wasn't quite sure if he wanted to know what had happened.

"Yeah."

"How was he?"

"Terrifying."

"Oh." The response was dull and flat.

"Don't worry, he'll come around. I promise."

"How do you know?"

Shaking his head, Hikaru sighed. "He has to, so he will. Plus your mother was really cool."

"Hmm," Akira murmured.

"You want to know what she told me?"

"Ummm …"

"She said that last night she heard you argue with your father, and that you sounded so heated about our relationship, which was indication enough about how important we are to each other. That's encouraging, right?"

"Un," Akira mumbled his affirmative unenthusiastically.

Hikaru knew that she wasn't the one he was worried about. "Don't worry; your dad will come around." You won't lose him like I lost Sai; I won't let you. "Now, come on, let's eat up. Your mom made a bunch of food for me to take home to you. She was really worried when she heard you were sick."

"Sick, huh?" Akira commented dryly, straitening his posture and pulling away from Hikaru. "I suppose it's some kind of sickness."

"Come on," Hikaru urged, beginning to set the table. "Eat up. Tomorrow night, you and I are having dinner at my house …"