Author's Note: Bon Dia is by Els Pets, a Catalan band. Bon Dia translates from Catalan as Good Day. My kind and wondrous sister translated the lyrics for me, they are under the link on my profile. It's also on my LiveJournal account which is under the name bar_ohki. And it seemed like an excellent song for someone who just metaphorically woke up.

Song: Bon Dia is by Els Pets, I do not own it.

Songs for Daddy

Chapter 13: Bon Dia (Good Day)

A black shirt and a good pair of jeans, snappy black leather shoes and a comfortable, warm jacket; Hiruma Youichi was up and dressed. He ran a comb through his bushy black hair and examined his clean-shaven reflection in the mirror. He noted his little, subtitle earrings he currently had in with a frown. Quickly he took them out and, after a decent bit of searching in his jewelry box, pulled out the four silver hoops he used to wear. After a quick cleaning he put them in, comforted by the familiar weight on his earlobes. Hiruma put a cocky grin on his face and nodded, content with his appearance.

Soon Hiruma was in the kitchen, on a chair, and reaching up into his gun safe. It was almost out of his physical reach and most defiantly out of Emiko's reach (and that included climbing on counters and shelves). After several firm hits of the number pad, the safe door swung open. He grabbed a simple handgun and tucked it into his inside jacket pocket. He grabbed a more aggressive-looking machine gun and tucked it somewhere else on his person. When the gun safe was snapped shut and locked again, Chizue decided to whine with a leash in her mouth.

"Fine." Hiruma glared at the dog as he got off the chair and put it back at the table. He snatched the leash from the dog and walked over to the entrance of the apartment. Chizue sat down and patiently waited for Hiruma to hook the leash on. And with a jingle of keys, the two were out the door and on their way.

Once upon the street Hiruma looked around faintly wondering where he should go. Reaching into his pocket he discovered there was no gum inside. With a blink he realized that he hadn't bought any gum in over six years (Chizue had had a particularly violent fit when pregnant and banded gum from the apartment). Now that he had a destination in mind, Hiruma started walking over to the convenience store. It'd been a long time since he walked around in public without fear.

Chizue would yip and bark, playing adorably with the little bugs that buzzed by. A few of the passers by gave Hiruma looks that portrayed being slightly uncomfortable. Yes, he wasn't dressed oddly, yes he had a cute dog, but the earrings and the pointy ears along with that somewhat evil grin? Hiruma continued to smile, finding something satisfying about being himself and about having people react like they were supposed to around him. There was a spring in his step that hadn't been there in a long while, he actually enjoyed watching people be a little uncomfortable around him.

"Good day." Some cross eyed homeless bum commented from his seat on the sidewalk. Chizue sniffed him and shot Hiruma a look. Reaching into his pocket Hiruma tossed the bum some money.

"Yeah, it's a good day." Hiruma agreed and walked on his way, still smiling.

-With Emiko, at Saburo's house-

Emiko had made a discovery and it was a wonderful one. She discovered if she didn't make any noise, Grandma forgot she was there. And if Grandma didn't remember she was there, Grandma wouldn't remember to spank her. Emiko also realized she could go to that place in her mind and not get in trouble like she sometimes did with Papa.

Whenever Emiko got lonely, she'd play pretend and go into her imaginary world. It was a happy place, with flowers, swings, friends and everything Emiko ever wanted. Papa told it her he didn't mind that she went to visit this world sometimes, but Emiko wasn't supposed to do it all of the time. But Emiko really liked going there, it was a happy place after all. And with Grandma not remembering her, Emiko was welcome to come and go as she pleased.

So Emiko went and visited with her friends inside her happy world. For Emiko, today was a good day.

-With Anezaki and Kobayakawa-

"You still haven't told me how things went with Hiruma yesterday." Anezaki commented as she walked down the path at the park with her old friend, Kobayakawa.

"Ah, sorry about that." Kobayakawa apologized. "…I woke up the old Hiruma-san."

"Woke up?" Anezaki blinked, not too sure what Kobayakawa had meant.

"The Hiruma-san we remember fell asleep six years ago, now he's awake again." Kobayakawa clarified. "And it's not as though he hasn't changed, but I think he will listen to reason again."

"Ah." Anezaki nodded.

"I'm going back home tomorrow." Kobayakawa told her.

"You haven't been here very long." Anezaki observed with a frown.

"Hiruma-san will be okay now," Kobayakawa assured her, "now that's he's awake again."

Two little squealing children ran by the two old friends.

"And besides," Kobayakawa added, "today is a good day too."

"Yeah," Anezaki agreed, "today is a good day too."

-With Juumonji-

Juumonji Kazuki, the head of security at Takekura Construction Company, was going to the convenience store during a break at work to restock some of the necessities in the brake room (like caffeinated beverages). Juumonji had a head of buzzed blond hair, an x-shaped scar on his right cheek. Currently he wore the typical security guard get up, tan slacks, matching tan button up shirt with badges and a gun holster and a large, dark brown jacket. The get up also included a hat Juumonji had chosen not to wear that day.

On his way to the convenience store he found himself walking behind a man with spiky black hair. The guy seemed normal enough from the back, except the on-coming pedestrians were giving the guy weary looks. It made Juumonji wonder who it was, the guy had a perfectly nice puppy on a pink leash. Of course because of said puppy the guy was forced to walk at the puppy's pace, which was slower than Juumonji wanted. When the opportunity presented itself, Juumonji shot around the guy to pass him.

Well that had been Juumonji's plan but little Chizue had other ideas. She suddenly cut right and managed to tangle her leash around Hiruma and Juumonji's legs. With another 'innocent' dash to the left, she sent the two men crashing into one another. Thankfully Juumonji's skills as a lineman allowed him to keep the two of them upright, despite the fact he wasn't balanced very well. Hiruma was currently not happy with being held upright against the chest of some dude in a tan shirt while his leg had been bound to the other man's leg by Chizue.

"Fucking dog!" Hiruma hissed shooting Chizue a glare. Chizue had sat down and cocked her head at him.

Juumonji on the other hand had recognized the body in his arms before the person spoke. Hiruma was a scrawny, wirey muscle kind of guy, with poky joints and a boney back. Having spent all of high school, college, and a decently long stint with the Takekura Construction Company's Devil Bats playing under Hiruma, Juumonji had become familiar with the man's body. This was a body he had practiced trying to sack for years, this was a body that practiced trying to dodge his charge for years, this was the body of a man that had been missing these last six years. And on top of that this body had a voice he also remembered yelling at him many a time, followed by a spray of rubber bullets.

"Hiruma!?" Juumonji gasped, not having expected to have run into the man quite so literally.

"Hmm?" Hiruma glanced up at Juumonji and got a look at his face. Brief recollection crossed Hiruma's features and he went back to glaring at his dog.

"Hold me steady and I'll get the fucking leash off." Hiruma told Juumonji as he slowly reached down to the leash with his free hand. Juumonji obediently shifted his grip and weight to make Hiruma's job easier. It did not take long for the dexterous Hiruma to get their legs free of the leash. Once free, Hiruma pulled the puppy into a firm heel on and shortened the length on the leash dramatically. Juumonji took a step back and gave Hiruma some space to stand.

"It's been a while," Juumonji began awkwardly, "how have you been?"

Hiruma didn't answer immediately; instead his eyebrows were furrowed in deep concentration. Much to his annoyance, the illogical fear was still very much there and it was telling him to run away. With a grunt he forced himself to calm down and act rationally by answering Juumonji rather than running away like the fool he had been.

"…Shit happened." Hiruma answered after a moment. "…Today's not too bad."

"I'm guessing it was a lot of shit." Juumonji observed, finding Hiruma's nervousness strange and unsettling.

"…You still work for the fucking old man." Hiruma noted, eyeing the uniform Juumonji had been wearing since before he left the company.

"Pay's good, boss is nice, and I get to play football." Juumonji chuckled. "Why would I quit?" There hung a heavy, unspoken question between them: why did you quit?

"Next time you see the old man, tell him to fucking call me." Hiruma told Juumonji, making his unease with the topic clear.

"He has your number?" Juumonji sounded surprised. Hiruma knew why, Anezaki hadn't gotten around to telling the others about him yet.

"He knows where to find it if he doesn't have it." Hiruma assured Juumonji.

"...You aren't going planning to disappear again are you?" Juumonji couldn't help but to ask before the conversation ended.

"No." Hiruma looked up at the sun and smiled slightly. "I'm here to fucking stay."

"Good." Juumonji breathed a sigh of relief. "I'll be seeing you at practice sometime then?"

"Y-yeah." Hiruma assured Juumonji and watched the man walk ahead, leaving Hiruma to his own devices on the sidewalk.

Part of Hiruma was thankful that Juumonji had the tact not to pry and not to complain when Hiruma made a point to not offer Juumonji his phone number. Hiruma was also grateful that it was Juumonji, as opposed to one of the idiots. The idiots would have made things unnecessarily complicated by being idiots; Juumonji didn't do any of that.

The other part of Hiruma was excited. Excited because he might finally get the chance to play football, something Hiruma had not considered ever getting to do again. With a smile Hiruma continued on his way, to get gum, to get back himself, and to think about ways to get Emiko back.

_=_=_=_=_

I had to rewrite the Juumonji scene twice, it just didn't want to behave. Thankfully I won despite that.