Ichimaro was loving this day.
The boss was out of town, up to the mountains with his family, which meant that Ichimaro got to leave work at a reasonable hour to spend time with his family. One day, when he was the big boss, he was going to let his people go home at five every single day. It was just the best time to head home. Traffic wasn't too bad, for one thing, and Ritsu would be up for a few more hours too. Summer meant party time for a lot of bosses…but not him. Not when he became the big boss. He was a boss, he had people who worked under him, but one day everyone would work under him and then there'd be some changes. More family time, for one thing, and fewer late nights…and also more office parties…and better leave when you had a kid…or really any leave.
Not that he was going to be having any other kids.
He and Hana could, physically, have another kid if they felt like it...but they just didn't feel like it. They might get another…they might get another kid that they couldn't care for. They had gotten incredibly lucky when it came to Ritsu. Not because he was a genius, and incredibly polite, and had never been in trouble a day in his life aside from the normal childhood stuff, but because he was…normal. Normal in the sense that he couldn't move things without touching them…and whatever else Shige…whatever else….
Ritsu was just like everyone else…and he was damn lucky to be just like everyone else…
Ichimaro didn't want to think about this. It was supposed to be get easier, the adoption counselor had said, as the years went on. She had said, back about ten years ago…had it really been that long? Well she had said that eventually Shigeko would be nothing more than a memory to them. She was only their daughter after all, they had a son, and they could easily have more children. If anyone asked Ichimaro's opinion he would have said that counselling was a crock of shit. Of course he had never forgotten Shigek...Shigeko…and of course he and Hana had never had any other children aside from Ritsu and…and of course they hadn't forgotten her…
They still had Ritsu.
"Honey I'm home….oh." said Ichimaro as he opened the door. The house was quiet. Hana was usually home by now. Her days started early and ended early, her choice, since Ritsu was getting older and someone had to be home when he got off of school. It wasn't fair to leave him with Reigen every single day…especially after the thing with the woods. Reigen had gone above and beyond. He had tried to bring Ritsu back and when they'd gotten lost he'd made sure that Ritsu stayed alive. Ichimaro would always be in his debt for that. Saving his son's life...Ritsu had gotten lost…Ichimaro had almost lost his son….
He didn't want to think about that.
"Hey Shigeko, dad's home. Have you seen your mom? She's usually home by now." Said Ichimaro as he slid his shoes off in the genkan. He put them next to Ritsu's shoes and…and his other shoes? There was another pair of shoes there. Bright blue. Blue with pink…accents? Piping? Hana knew more about clothes. She must have gotten Ritsu another pair of shoes…with English characters on them…and in about a size too big….huh. Well then. He didn't understand Hana and clothes so he wasn't going to comment. He got his clothes and shoes from Costco, what did he know? Well besides Costco had just about everything and at rock bottom prices too.
"Your mom at Costco? Maybe. It doesn't smell like she's got dinner ready….oh! I hope she's getting that teriyaki chicken dinner kit. I love that thing. Ritsu likes the crispy pork, and its good, but chicken is chicken. Remember how the chicken goes? Remember?" asked Ichimaro as he walked over to his daughter's shrine. He wasn't crazy. He knew that she wasn't dead. Shigeko was alive, she had been adopted by a nice rich couple almost immediately, and she had a good life…he assumed.
There was a lot of assuming when it came to Shigeko.
Hana didn't want to open up the adoption even though the couple who adopted Shigeko signed the forms to consent to the whole…opening….thing. He…well he was curious. What was she like? Was she like Ritsu? When he thought of her he either thought of her as she had been when he'd last seen her, two years old and…and learning her animal sounds…and….and she used to love milk…and she had been working on learning how to drink from a big girl cup….but she wasn't two anymore. She was twelve…and when he tried to picture her as a twelve year old he could only come up with a long haired version of Ritsu…
It would have been nice to at least have had a picture.
"Of course you remember, you're twelve now. You're almost all grown up…God. Ten fucking years…don't tell mom I said that! And don't go repeating that where Ritsu can hear, either, he soaks things up like a sponge. That kid…well it was nice seeing you again and…hang on. Your shrine is getting all dusty." Said Ichimaro. He knew that Hana had a specific cleaning thing for this but his sleeve worked just fine….well now the sleeve was turning grey…but it was worth it. Shigeko's shrine was all dusty…but at least it wasn't neglected. There was a cookie there, still soft, Ritsu's doing. He was a good brother like that…even though they didn't leave offerings to the living….
But Ritsu didn't know that Shigeko was still living.
Ritsu…he couldn't know and…and Ichimaro knew. He knew that Shigeko was still alive. She was alive and out there living a normal life. She was twelve now, a year away from middle school, and probably very excited. He had been practically counting down the days, back in sixth grade, until he could leave elementary school behind. Did Shigeko…was she….excited? Did she like school? Did she get good grades? Did she have a lot of friends? Was she kind of a loner, like Ritsu, or was she popular like Tsubomi. Did she have a best friend? A boyfriend? A…a girlfriend? These things were genetic…and his brother had been worrying about his boy for years…and Ritsu was….well he was what he was…and there was that second pair of shoes over in the genkan….
"Shigeko, you haven't been sneaking boys into this house while your mother's away? Because now I have to go out, find the yakuza, buy a gun, and then head over to Costco and buy a shovel…and some more of those mint cookies they have too while I'm there, and then I have to offer your boyfriend tea and cookies while I clean my gun and warn him that if he hurts a hair on your head he's going in the hole I dug in the backyard…then your mom would kill me, of course, since I ruined the yard…ok, ok, I'll stop." Said Ichimaro. Shigeko was looking down at him, well she always was, but also she wasn't since that was just a picture. They had managed to get her to sit still long enough to take a nice picture of her in her Christmas dress…in January…..and she had smiled for the camera….he wondered if she was like Ritsu when it came to pictures. Even when he had been little it had been almost impossible to get a good picture with him in it…he just refused to smile…Shigeko had been the same way. She hadn't really done a lot of smiling…but that was because of where she lived….who she lived with. The people who adopted her…he had never met them but he had been told that they were like her…which meant that there were others. Maybe she was a changeling. Maybe it had come time to send her back to where she came from…not funny. She was…she was his daughter and….and she was alive…
She was alive, she just wasn't there.
But Ritsu was. He could hear movement upstairs. He was home early. Six, maybe six thirty, but he knew not to get home any later than that. He was upstairs in his room safe and sound. Good. Ichimaro knew how he liked it his space, and how he liked to study, but…well they hadn't hung out together in a while. In a couple years Ritsu wouldn't want to be seen with his father let alone spend time with him. He could help Ritsu with his homework, well he could be in the room while Ritsu did it since he hadn't needed help with his homework in years, or they could watch a movie or they could play videogames or they could get dinner going to surprise Hana…yeah….this could be a good day.
It had been a good day.
Any day where he could come home early to his family was a good one. The time he had with them was so precious. Ritsu was eleven now, next year he'd be twelve, and then the year after that he'd be a teenager and everything that came with it. The door slamming, the shouting, the constant fighting...it was really for the best that he and Hana had decided not to have any more kids. He didn't know what he would have done with two boys. He and his brother had fought like cats and dogs back in middle and high school….and elementary school hadn't been much better…and supposedly when he'd been a baby his brother had tried to bury him in the garden…yeah. Two boys…they would have killed each other…or he and Hana would have had to build some kind of bunker to wait it out until they grew up and came to their senses.
One boy was enough.
They'd had one of each before. One boy and one girl. They had decided to stop after Ritsu. He had been their happy accident. Once Hana had been ready for…all of that…again….well they hadn't exactly been careful….and it had been a while…and then nine months later Ritsu had been born. They had been more worried back then, actually, that he would end up a girl more than they had been worried that he would end up like Shigeko. Two girls….two boys would have killed each other….two girls…well then he and Hana would have had to kill themselves…not literally, of course, but two girls would have been a lot. They had gotten one of each and…and things had been good….for a time.
For a short time.
Then Shigeko got older and her abilities got bigger and…and the rest was history. Ichimaro sighed as he made his way up the stairs. There had been, before, scribbles down where the stairs met the wall. Shigeko had gotten a hold of a permanent marker and went to town…and Hana had insisted that he paint it over that same day. He had, of course, and now they had this lovely set of dark blue walls…but maybe he should have just left it alone. Just to have had some…some memory of her…some memory of Shigeko that wasn't in that shrine….that shrine for a living person. He didn't even have a shrine up for his grandparents but he had one for his living daughter….
Well it wasn't like he was ever going to take it down so…yeah.
He reached the top of the stairs. Shigeko's old room, long since sealed, stared at him. What was he doing going on about doodles on the staircase? And the shrine downstairs? They had a whole tomb for her. A tomb for the living, a shrine for the living, so much just…wrong. Backwards. He was glad his mother still lived out in the country and didn't travel well. She would have had a heart attack if she knew what he was doing…shrines to the living. Who knew what kind of spirits he was inviting into his home. He had, at some point, become a bad Shinto…and mom would have had a fit.
Well she would have had a fit if she knew…well…a lot of things.
If she knew that Shigeko wasn't dead. If she knew that he had given away his own flesh and blood. If she knew that he and Hana were making a conscious choice not to have any more children and were, in fact, not having problems in that department….and no, he did not think that mom was a busybody for asking…but he could see where Hana was coming from. Mom just wanted more grandkids, and she wanted to live long enough to meet her great grandkids too, and…well if she knew about Ritsu then she would have dropped dead on the spot…
And he didn't want to have to build another shrine.
He walked down the hall towards Ritsu's room. He was right across from Shigeko…well he had been when Shigeko had lived there. When she had been around. Now it was just him. He and Hana had kicked an idea around for a while, a bad one, about turning that into a playroom for Ritsu. He was glad that they hadn't. Neither of them had been able to spend more than a few minutes at a time in Shigeko's room. Her dolls…her clothes…her clothes that were as small as doll's clothes now…her little bed…her drawings…all of it. They couldn't just...get rid of her. They couldn't just pretend like she had never existed. That was what the councilors had said that it would be best for everyone if they just carried on like they'd never had another daughter, but of course he and Hana weren't so heartless. Shigeko…she was alive and...and they couldn't just pretend that she had never existed, it was easier to pretend that she was dead than if she had never existed. They had two children…well they had one now…and they loved Ritsu. They loved Ritsu enough for two kids.
Even if he had been giving hem no shortage of grief lately.
Not that he was ashamed of his son. He loved his son. His son was gay but he still loved him. He loved his gay son! He loved his son more than anyone else had ever loved their son before…even if he was…going through some things right now. He still loved Ritsu…and that was the least of the grief that he'd been giving them. Running away…he had been so afraid of how his own parents would react that he'd run away….he'd planned on living in the woods. Thank God for Reigen. That could have been bad…Ritsu could have died…he didn't care if Ritsu was gay, he just wanted him home and alive and safe and sound…and he was…so everything was ok.
He loved his son and would continue to love him no matter what.
"Hey Ritsu! Do you know where…your….mom….went…." said Ichimaro. There had been a sign on the door that clearly said 'keep out' and…and maybe he should have kept out. Maybe he should have heeded the sign and….and…yeah. Privacy was a thing. He had always hated it when his parents had just let themselves into his room….and….and Ritsu…well he probably felt the same way since Ichimaro had just interrupted….whatever the hell he was looking at….
"Yeah dad? What's up?" asked Ritsu. He was sitting on the ground in front of his bed with…a boy. Ichimaro looked him up and down. That was most certainly a boy. Blonde, foreign looking, about Ritsu's age…the owner of those shoes downstairs. That was…a boy…in his son's room…sitting way too close to him…and there had been a sign on the door telling him to keep out….
Alright then. He could handle this.
"I still love you!" said Ichimaro. He…may not have handled that with all the grace that he should have…but in his defense what was he supposed to do? There was a boy in his son's ROOM! A boy in his gay son's room….at least everyone was dressed….but Ritsu wasn't at that age yet…well he was getting close to it and…and it wasn't like Ritsu could get that boy pregnant….but he didn't want Ritsu doing anything….any of the things that Ichimaro had gotten up to when he had been eleven…well the things that he wished that he'd been getting up to. Girls hadn't really given him so much as the time of day back when….well it was different when it came to boys…or maybe Ritsu was just luckier than….or maybe…
He still loved his son! That was what mattered!
"I love you too, dad." Said Ritsu. He was as impassive as ever. He was still sitting there next to his…friend…who was a boy…a very well dressed boy. A very well dressed, well groom, and…and confused looking boy….well of course he was confused. He was foreign and…and maybe Ritsu was just...practicing his English…with his door closed….and with a 'keep out' sign on his door…maybe. He didn't know. He'd seen stranger things.
"So…um….who's your friend? He helping you with your English homework?" asked Ichimaro. He crossed his fingers behind his back. He prayed to God that Ritsu was just getting help with his homework and not…tings that he was not ready for his don to be doing it was one thing for Ritsu to just stand in the middle of the living room and proclaim that he was…the way he was. It was another to have living proof…and he wasn't ready for living proof. He wasn't ready for…for…he could barely even think that word…but he had to…since Ritsu showed no signs of changing his mind…but Ichimaro he just…he wasn't ready for his son to have a…a…
….a boyfriend.
"No, we're just…doing something else. Dad this is Teru and Teru this is my dad." Said Ritsu. Teru..so he had a name. The…the kid….this kid…Ritsu's….new friend….had a given name. Teru…a given name…that was…something. His son….had a friend…who he was on a given name basis with…just Teru…not Teru-kun….so that meant…ok. He could deal with this. He just…had to…he had to act normal.
"Hello, nice to be meeting you." Said Ichimaro as he dusted off some seldom used English. Right. Blonde boy with the bluest eyes that Ichimaro had ever seen…foreign. He was foreign and obviously he didn't speak…well his name was Teru…so he might have been mixed…but it was best to err on the side of caution when it came to foreign looking people….and…and this was…ok. Yeah. He was handling this and…and he was…he was handling this and he was not…not going to freak out….
"I speak Japanese." Said Teru…in perfect Japanese. Crap...well he was a dad and dads were supposed to be embarrassing. That was his God given duty as a father, to embarrassed his son in front of whatever girl he brought home…or boy, in this case…and that was a boy. He wasn't a girl dressed like a boy, he was a boy and...and he could handle this. Ichimaro…he could handle this.
"He speaks Japanese." Said Ritsu in that same, calm, impassive way that he said everything else…well it had been worse since he came back. Maybe he was just growing up…or maybe it was the shock of almost dying in the woods…he didn't know. He'd ask his son later…he'd ask his son a lot of questions later. Questions that he knew that neither of them wanted to answer.
"Right! Sorry! It's just…the hair threw me off. Anyway it's great to meet one of Ritsu's…friends." Said Ichimaro. Friends…that was good…and then if something was happening Ritsu could just correct him and then…well and then everything would be out in the open…where it needed to be…even though that was the last thing that he wanted.
No. He'd much rather pretend.
Pretending was easy. He and Ritsu used to play pretend all the time together…when Ritsu had been little. Back when life had been simple and Ritsu hadn't caused them nearly so much grief. Sure the drawing on the walls, fighting with the other kids, bed wetting, nightmares, and tantrums had been a lot but…well at least those had been manageable problems. Not like this…not that this was a problem. He was happy that his son was comfortable enough that he…well that he was happy and…and…and he had a boyfriend now and…and maybe if Ichimaro pretended that this boy was just a friend of Ritsu's then….then maybe this would be easier.
Because nothing about this was easy.
"Hello, I'm Hanazawa Teruki. It's very nice to meet you, Kageyama-sama." Said Teru in perfect Japanese…Hanazawa….the people who owned that building downtown? The one they knocked down the old bank for? That…well that was probably not the same family…though if Ritsu had found himself a rich boyfriend then…well that was something he wanted for Shigeko, that she found someone who could take care of her and give her a good life, which was something that every father wanted for his daughter…what was he supposed to want for his son in his situation? Besides the obvious. If Ritsu had brought a girl home then he would have wanted Ritsu to have found someone who could be a partner to him. Someone who could support him in all that he did and take care of him…and he would take care of her…like a partnership…so he wanted the same if Ritsu had a boyfriend…right? He just…he didn't know.
There had to have been a website or a book or…something…that could help him try to understand all of this.
"Nice to meet you as well…"said Ichimaro. He had just been going off of instant, basic manners and now…well now he had no idea where to go from here. There was way too much silence in this room. Ritsu had this thing about ambient noise. He didn't even like soft music in the background. No, he preferred a nice silence…a nice thick silence. A nice, thick, unbreakable silence. The air conditioner didn't do much to break the silence…and neither did Ritsu's….friend…and Ichimaro…he had no idea what he was supposed to do. If this had been Tsubomi, or any other girl really, he would have just told Ritsu that he had to keep this door opened…and he wanted to now…but it wasn't like any of the usual consequences could come of this…but also….just…Ritsu was way too young to have a boyfriend! He was only eleven and…and if this had been a girl in his room it would have been different….well no…but also yes and…and….
He honestly had no idea.
"What's up, dad?" asked Ritsu. Teru sat back down next to him…Ichimaro wanted to tell them to leave some space between them…but would that have been weird? What if this wasn't Ritsu's boyfriend at all but just his friend. Well then that would have been weird…but Ritsu had never brought a boy home before…and also they were sitting very close…and also that other kid was way too well dressed and clean to have been….well Ritsu wasn't but….Ichimaro had no idea. He had no idea and he wasn't about to ask.
"Um…have you seen your mother? She's usually home by now." Said Ichimaro quickly. Ritsu was making way too much eye contact…like he knew what his father was thinking…which was…well nobody wanted their dad to think about them like tis but…well nobody wanted to think about their son like this either. It seemed like just yesterday he'd been afraid to close his door because he'd be trapped in his room with the ghosts…and now he was all but demanding privacy with his…boyfriend? Regular friend who was a boy? Male…person…in his room.
"Mom's coming home later because she had a house to show." Said Ritsu
"Oh…alright. Did she say what we were doing for dinner?" asked Ichimaro
"She said that she was going to pick up something." Said Ritsu
"Oh…alright." Said Ichimaro. The silence was back. Ritsu's…friend…was looking at him and Ritsu was looking at him and he knew that they expected him to say more but…well he just…he was out of things to say. Things that were alright to say. He had questions…oh God did he have questions…but he couldn't. it would have been weird and asking…also asking would have been acknowledging and…and he loved his son no matter what…but he wasn't ready to just sit and discuss…but he was Ritsu's dad and this was what dad's did…but Ritsu liked boys and liking boys was really more Hana's department…but Ritsu also was a boy and…
And there had to have been a book or…or something…about all of this.
"Anything else?" asked Ritsu
"Nothing…just…keep your door opened. Alright? So…so you can hear when your mom comes home." Said Ichimaro
"Sure…so I can hear if mom comes home. Whatever. Call me when mom comes home…and Teru's staying for dinner too. Just so you know." Said Ritsu
"Well I couldn't imp-" said Teru
"You're not imposing. You're staying for dinner. I'm telling you to." Said Ritsu. When had he gotten so bossy? Well he had been bossy when he'd been little….well it seemed like that had never really gone away. That was no way to keep a…friend….and maybe he should have said something…but also…also he didn't want to and…and he had to say something…but he mostly just wanted to run away. There he stood, thirty eight years old, ready to run screaming from his son's room just because he was doing what boys his age usually did…well with girls but…well just…Ritsu was who he was and Ichimaro would always love his son.
He was just going to love him from the living room.
"Right. Well you boys have fun…enjoy yourselves…you boys just…be good." Said Ichimaro before shuffled out of Ritsu's room. He nearly ran to the staircase and only stopped when he heard Ritsu's door closing. That was…the direct opposite of what he had told Ritsu to do…but what was he supposed to do? Open the door and tell him that if he closed it again the door way going off of it's hinges and onto the front lawn? No, he had hated it when his parents did that to him…and it wasn't like Ritsu was going to end up getting his…boyfriend…pregnant or something. No, before puberty the worst that he could do was a hickey. Well he was getting to that age…but he wasn't at the worst of it yet…and even if it had been later in Ritsu's life…well he had no idea what he was supposed to do. There was the kneejerk reaction, of course, to tell Ritsu that if he wanted to have a boy over then he was going to have to stay in the living room where he could be watched…
But that…well he didn't know if that was alright.
He didn't want to just assume that every boy Ritsu brought home was his boyfriend…but he didn't want Ritsu to get into any trouble…but he was too young for any real trouble…but he wasn't going to eleven years old forever. He wasn't Peter Pan, he was going to grow up, and he was in fact going ot grow up no matter what Ichimaro was ready for.
And he wanted Ritsu to grow up.
He already had one kid who was never going to grow up….well Shigeko was growing up. She was twelve. She was probably gibing her new parents…her adoptive parents…the same sort of grief over boys that Ritsu was giving him. She was probably running circles around that new family of hers…that adoptive family….Ichimaro wished that he was the one that she was running circles around. Even if she was bringing home boys for him to threaten and chase off. Kids…they tended to grow up….and at least he could help one of his kids through this.
Even though he had no idea what he was supposed to do to help Ritsu through this.
If Ritsu had brought a girl home then Ichimaro would have talked to him about how one thing could lead to another, keeping safe, and not bringing home any grandchildren for his parents to raise. There wasn't any danger of…well there were other things that could go wrong. He could get his heart broken he could get sick, he could…well a lot of things could happen…but Ichimaro...he needed to do research. In fact he should have bene doing research, he had his phone in his pocket and he should have been looking up what to do when your gay son brought his first boyfriend home and stayed in his room with the door closed and a 'keep out' sign right there plain as day. He should have been trying to figure out what to do….
But instead he just put the TV on.
He put the TV on. That was all. He just hit the on button and let the noise fill the atmosphere. His dad used to do this, when Ichimaro had been a hell of a lot older than Ritsu was now, when he'd had his girlfriend over. Not Hana, no, they'd met in university….nothing was forever…maybe instead of telling Ritsu that he as home and he'd better not do anything that he wasn't allowed to do, that was why he didn't turn the TV down, he should have sat Ritsu down and warned him about how much it hurt when the person you loved…well when you couldn't be with her…that person and how life had so many twists and turns that you sometimes got dizzy just trying to see where you had been…and what was going to happen next…maybe….
Maybe Ritsu was too young for that conversation.
He was eleven. He wasn't about to go off and start his life. He was eleven and he was about to go off to middle school and…and a minute ago Ichimaro had been hoping beyond hope that Ritsu and this other boy were just fiends…but now he was hoping that Ritsu didn't get his heart crushed…and…this was complicated. This was way too complicated…so he just…watched TV….whatever was on the TV he watched it…well he looked at the screen while things happened and words were said. If he focused as hard as he could then maybe, just maybe, he could ignore how quickly kids grew up when you weren't looking.
Even when you had all the time in the world with them.
He'd had all the time in the world with Ritsu….and he should have been there more for him. He should have done more to enjoy the time he had with his son when he'd been young and things had been easy. Back when their biggest problem had been tantrums, the monster under the bed, and whether or not people could live solely on pork miso soup. Those had been the days…he sighed. Things had been so much simpler back then….even if they had been more complicated.
"You'd better not be giving your family this kind of grief." Said Ichimaro with a sigh. He knew that Shigeko wasn't dead, her spirit wasn't going to answer him, so he had no choice but to practically jump right out of his skin when someone actually responded.
"You don't want to know what I've been putting my parents through." Said Hana from the genkan. He jumped up in his seat. Hana! Once the horrific terror had passed he was beyond happy to see his wife. He got up quickly and ran over to her. She had two pizzas balanced in her arms as she tried to slip her shoes off.
He liked pizza….but he loved his wife! His kind, intelligent, perfect wife!
"Ichi, can you take this to the kitchen and tell Ritsu dinner's here?" asked Hana as she handed him both pizzas.
"Ritsu's boyfriend is staying for dinner! I mean Ritsu has a boyfriend now and…and he speaks Japanese!" said Ichimaro. Hana stared at him, her shoe fell off her raised foot. He stared right back at her. If she didn't know what to do…and he didn't know what to do…then what in the hell were they going to do?!
"What did you just say?" asked Hana. She was still staring at him…and he stared right back…and the pizza boxes in his arms were way too hot and he wanted to put them down…but then they would have to have dinner with Ritsu's boyfriend and…and this was all happening way too fast! He wasn't ready for Ritsu to have a boyfriend! He wasn't ready for Ritsu to be…to be who he was….and…and he just….too soon! This was all happening way too fast!
"Ritsu…he has a boy….in his room and…and he…he closed the door….and I don't know that to do." Said Ichimaro. Hana was looking at him like he had told her a flying saucer had landed on the roof and he needed to know what kind of tea to put on for the aliens.
"Well then make him open it!" said Hana. She said that like it was so easy….well it wasn't! He had tried already and it hadn't took…and he had no idea what he was even supposed to do…to make it stick. To make Ritsu listen…Ritsu had always been such a good listener…but he was older now and he was getting to that age…and Ichimaro…he was not prepared and he didn't know if he ever would be.
"I tried he just closed it again." said Ichimaro
"So open it again. I don't want to be a grandmother…I don't…Ritsu is too young for all of this." said Hana
"He's not at that age yet. We still have a few more years before we have to worry about all of that." said Ichimaro. Part of him, a part of himself that he didn't much care for, wished that Ritsu was out there breaking the hearts of every single girl in this neighborhood. At least then he would have known that to do in this situation. He could have sat Ritsu down and told him that he didn't need to get ahead of himself…well he could tell Ritsu this now but…well now it was just different. This whole thing was just…different than anything he had ever expected. This was more than just wearing a rainbow shirt around the house and assuring Ritsu that no matter what his parents loved him. This was…actually dealing with….Ritsu and the way he couldn't help but….be.
"I don't care what age he is! God! This is…this is a hell of a thing to come home to, Ichi, a hell of a thing. You could have called…I don't have enough to feed…this boy better not have come here hungry…and just…what boy? Who…who would even…and Ritsu is so…you know what? I have been showing houses all day, my feet are sore, and my head is killing me. You get the table set and I will deal ith this…and from now on make sure he keeps his door opened!" said Hana
"Whatever you say, Hana, whatever you say." Said Ichimaro. He felt like a massive weight had been taken off of his shoulders. He knew that he was the man and he was supposed to be guiding Ritsu through all of this…but Hana had a good head on her shoulder and she knew more about…some things...than he did. He'd make it up to her. The minute Ritsu had some kind of question or problem that he could solve then he would be all over that…but right now the best he could do for Ritsu was set the table.
With four places.
A guest for dinner….that was easier to…to understand. They had a guest for dinner…a special guest….tat Rites brought home...because of…reasons. Ritsu was…well….Ichimaro was happy that his son had met someone and….and this was…this was alright. This was good. Yeah, he was going to be happy for his son. He'd found someone and…and this was good. This was a good thing….and…and he just…he had pizza. He had his wife, his son, pizza and…and it had been a good day.
And it was going to continue to be a good day.