Warning: Rated for subject matter.
The main characters of this story are based on characters from the cartoon 'Code Lyoko.' I do not own, nor do I claim, any copyright to these characters.
He sat there and looked at the two packets laying before him. He could clearly make out the edge of the disks contained within, and the kanji ideographs on the packaging identified the contents for those who didn't have a clue.
Condoms.
Takeo Ishiyama looked at the objects that changed his life and sighed.
My baby has grown up and is leaving me for another man, he thought to himself.
All fathers know that this day eventually comes, when their daughters leave home with the man they love. All fathers know the pain of the separation, separation they themselves caused another man. But it still hurt when the day came, even with the foreknowledge. And Takeo Ishiyama felt his parting with Yumi, his daughter, was particularly painful.
He found out the hard way. One day, he was throwing away the wrapper of a liquor bottle he had just opened up when he saw it, a foil packet that had been torn open and was empty. He reached down and picked it out of the trash and looked at it. The printing told him what it was, a condom wrapper. Now, there was only one person in the Ishiyama household that would even have condoms, and it wasn't Takeo's.
He was half drunk that day, the pressures and pains of his life and the decisions he made were pressing down particularly hard on him. And to top it off, he finds this in his trash.
He stormed into the family room where everyone else had gathered.
"Does anyone know what this is?" he hollered.
His son Hiroki just looked at the object with a puzzled look on his face, then shrugged. Miko's face just went blank, like she knew what it was but wasn't going to let on that she did. Then he looked at Yumi's face, his daughter. His Angel.
Her face was a mask of shock and embarrassment, almost beet red.
"Yumi?" he asked menacingly.
"It's mine," she simply said.
His mind raced quickly past anger, past rage. He walked over to her, raising his hand to strike her down, traitor that she was. His wife quickly got between them.
"Takeo, no!" she hollered, "you will not lay a hand on her!"
"Who is it!" he bellowed, "it's that boy, Stern, isn't it! Well, I'll see to it he never touches you again, daughter! And after that, I'll send you back to Japan and never let you leave!"
He then tried getting around his wife to Yumi, to smite down her for her disobedience. His wife pushed him away, then stood between him and his daughter.
"If you so much as lay a hand on her, I'll kill you!" she said, "you're drunk and in no shape to deal with this now! We are leaving until you get some sense back in you!"
She then took Yumi, who was now crying, and Hiroki, who was surprised at what just happened, and left, taking his rage and anger with them.
He stumbled his way back to the living room, sat in his chair and stared at the only friends he had left at the moment, the bottles of liquor sitting on the coffee table.
He was about to start drinking again when there was a knock at the door. When he answered it, who should be standing there but the one person in the world who was the author of his pain, Yumi's boyfriend, Ulrich Stern.
As the boy stood there, Takeo's mind raced with the possibilities, all of them painful and fatal for the boy. But the only thing he could do was to grunt an invitation in. He turned and went back to the living room, the boy close behind.
When he got there, he did the last thing in the world he wanted to do. He got a second glass, handed it to the boy and offered him a drink. He responded politely, refusing the first and second offers, finally accepting the third one. And they drank.
The rest of the evening was a blur, but he remembered one thing, the boy matched him drink for drink, and when the morning came, he took his punishment like a man.
Takeo could respect that.
Men and boys do stupid things in their lives, then have to face the consequences. A man will stand up and take what's coming and live with it; a boy doesn't. There was no doubt in his mind that Ulrich proved himself a man that day, and that got Takeo to thinking. He saw that Ulrich truly cared for his daughter, and she cared for him. They were both so young, but that really didn't matter; Takeo himself lost his virginity at the same age as Ulrich, and truth be told, Ulrich was much more mature than he was at his age. Miko seemed pleased with her daughter's choice too, so, in the end, what could he do? He could only watch as she began her journey away from his side to her husband's side.
He looked down at the harbingers of this change in his life, sitting so innocently on the bed before him. Then he smiled as another memory entered his mind, the memory of a few days ago, when Miko reminded him of her lover, and how wonderful it was when she was with him. It had been so long; he had been buried in the struggle of making ends meet that he had almost forgotten the joy of her touch, her warmth. He had almost forgotten how much fun it was making love to her, to give her pleasure, to erase her cares.
Something whispered in his soul, and he listened. The children were gone, and she was downstairs working in the kitchen. She must still feel a little playful herself, for she was only wearing one of his shirts when she left a little bit ago.
He got up and undressed, then opened one of the packets and put the contents on. He then put on a robe and went downstairs, quietly. When he got to the kitchen, he saw her there, standing at the sink in all her glory, washing something or another, dressed in his shirt and nothing more. He crept up behind her, then snaked his arms around her waist and drew her close, burying his face her neck and kissing her, as he let her feel another part of him that longed for her embrace.
"Takeo, you goat!' she laughed, leaning her head back, enjoying his attention, "what's got you going so early in the day?"
"You," was all he replied as he turned her around and kissed her deeply, taking her and making love to her. She giggled like a schoolgirl when she opened his robe and saw the green sheath he was wearing.
As they came together, he thought, why should the children have all of the fun?
