Slice of Life
a Tomoya/? fanwork

Inspired in part by Warden Dango-er, Av Yukai

Chapter One: Coughing Fits

The cooler air of Furukawa Bakery was a welcome relief from the heat that the latter part of spring had started to deliver. "Hello?" I called to what turned out to be an otherwise empty bakery. "Is anyone there?"

"Okazaki-san?" replied a familiar timid voice, and Furukawa-er, Nagisa appeared in the doorway leading to the living area; apparently she hadn't been home from school for very long herself, since she was still in her uniform. "Oh! I'm sorry! I forgot to lock the door!"

"Lock?" I glanced back at the door and saw that the 'closed' sign was up; I guess I'd missed it due to being on autopilot. "Oh, sorry about that," I grunted as I turned back to leave. "My fault; I didn't see the sign."

"It's…okay," she replied, and something about the pause in her words caused me to pause as well. "You…can stay if you'd like."

"I'm not gonna butt in on your family time," I told her with a shake of my head and a twinge in my chest as I started toward the door again. "I'll see you at school tomorrow."

"Is that you, brat?" another familiar voice called, this one with an unfamiliar wheeze, causing me to pause yet again.

"Okazaki-san just stopped by to visit, Dad," Nagisa explained as Pops appeared behind her, cigarette in its usual place, resting on his lower lip. "But he's leaving because he didn't know that we're closed because I forgot to lock the door. I'm sorry."

"S'okay," he replied before stepping around her to approach me. "You're just in time, brat; I need to teach you how to make bread."

"Huh?"

He removed his cigarette – unlit, I noticed – presumably to be able to talk more clearly. "You gonna be free after school for the next week or so?"

"Free?" What in the world was he talking about? "Hold on a minute; why do I need to learn how to make bread?"

He opened his mouth, only to close it again with a look of mild frustration.

"Dad…" I heard Nagisa murmur, and I looked past her old man to find her with her hands clasped and a worried look. I thought I saw tears, too.

"Look, I'm not going to explain it right now," he grunted, then quickly brought his hand to his mouth to cover a cough, a pretty rough-sounding one at that. "I'll just say this," he continued, his voice more hoarse. "I'm gonna need to you help Sanae out for a while, cause…"

Something about his tone had me feeling uncharacteristically agreeable. "Okay, Pops. I don't need to be home until…well, until I feel like it, so I can start today if you want."

"Great," he coughed, and the sound of it made me cringe; it sounded like he had water in his lungs or something. "Drop your stuff and we'll get started," he said, thumbing over his shoulder to the entrance to the living area.

I nodded, and as I approached Nagisa to enter their home I gave her a smile, if for no other reason than to see how she'd respond; my smile – as well as my heart – fell along with her expression, and it didn't take a genius to figure out that something was wrong with Pops and she was worried about him. As I dropped my bag and school jacket I promised myself that I would get some answers before going home that night.

"I'm supposed to go to the hospital in the next town for some x-rays," Pops explained as he watched me wrestle a spoon inside a bowl of very sticky dough. "I'm sure you've heard my rattle, and my doc's worried that my smoking may be doing me in."

"I think I could *grunt* understand that," I managed to reply, showing a better effort with my words than with my stirring. "So you and Sanae-san have to do this every day?"

"Yup!" He flexed his arm, displaying a rather impressive bicep. "How do you think I'm able to play baseball so well?"

His explanation made sense, except… "I don't mean to be rude," I gasped, finally stopping to take a break, "but how does she do it?"

The corner of his mouth twitched before he broke into loud laughter, ending in a coughing fit that made me cringe. "She uses the mixer!" he wheezed, gesturing to a large machine nearby that was clearly intended for that purpose; in hindsight, I felt kinda stupid. "Let's move the dough to that."

I couldn't think of any polite responses, so I kept my mouth shut as I scooped and pushed the gooey mess into the mixer's bowl.

"You've actually done a really good job," he remarked approvingly, followed by a small cough. "You're stronger than you look. And I didn't mean that as a backhanded compliment, either." He gave me a cocky grin. "Surprised?"

"Yeah," I admitted with a chuckle. "Thanks."

"How did you get so strong, anyway?" he asked as we watched the mixer do its job.

"Basketball," I replied. "I played all through middle school and got into Hikarizaka on a scholarship."

He gave me a puzzled look. "So why aren't you on their team?"

"Shoulder injury before my first year," I explained, hoping he wouldn't ask for any kind of clarification.

"That sucks," he replied, though I could sense him studying my profile. "At least with Sanae and me, it was our own choice."

What an odd statement. "What do you mean?"

"Never mind," he quickly replied with a shake of his head and another light cough. "I shouldn't have said anything."

"Um, okay."

The mixer finished its work, and Pops taught me about prepping the oven, the temperature and the right level for the rack, and we set about baking my first loaf of bread.

"How does your wife add all those, um…'fillings'…to the middle of her bread?" I asked as the bread baked.

He sighed, shaking his head before burying his face in his hands. "I have no idea," he admitted. "If you ever find out, let me know, huh?"

"Sure," I chuckled.

"Thank you for joining us for dinner, Okazaki-san!" Sanae chirped as she placed our bowls on the table; behind her, Nagisa was carrying a couple of bowls as well. "And thank you for letting us have the bread you made."

"Hey, I helped with it," Pops protested before coughing lightly, and I found myself wondering why I hadn't noticed his cough before today. I hadn't known the family for very long, but it seemed like I should have noticed what appeared to be a persistent cough.

"And I'm sure you did a wonderful job helping him," Sanae cooed as she patted her husband on the arm, drawing me from my musings. "Thank you so much."

He started to say something, but a fit of coughing interrupted him, and I noticed that both of the women cringed. I think I did as well.

"Shall… Shall we start dinner?" Nagisa suggested, and all of us put our hands together and gave thanks for the food.

"So, what are your plans for after graduation?" Sanae asked as she took her husband's plate and started it fill it.

I felt the blood drain from my face at the question; I'd just told Pops that my future in basketball was a bust, but… "I… I don't know," I admitted. "Before my injury I figured I'd play for one of Japan's basketball teams, but now…" I gave a single-shoulder shrug along with a resigned smile.

"Injury?" I looked over to find Nagisa studying me with wide eyes. "You mean you're hurt? But you look fine! What happened?"

"I-…" I realized that I'd backed myself into the proverbial corner and had no idea how to reply.

"Let's leave him alone about that," Pops said, much to my relief. "Some things are just too…personal for us guys to talk about."

"Do you know something about this?" Sanae asked her husband.

"He mentioned it to me, but it looked like he didn't want to talk about it so I didn't ask," Pops said matter-of-factly before taking a bite of his meal.

"I'm so sorry," Nagisa said with a slight bow. "I didn't mean to ask you about something so painful."

"It's-" I was about to tell her that it was more embarrassing than painful but decided against it; it was painful, after all. "Thank you."

The rest of dinner was pretty quiet; I got to hear the Furukawas talk about their day – occasionally interrupted by Pops' coughing – and I felt a bit of loneliness when I realized that, deep down, I wished that my mother had lived so she and Dad and I could have times like what I saw playing out before me.

"Anyone up for some ice cream?" Sanae offered as we collected the dinnerware and headed toward the kitchen.

We all answered that yes, we would like some, thank you very much, so we all grabbed bowls and waited as Sanae spooned up our warm-weather relief.

"Brat here'll be helping out in the bakery," Pops announced out-of-the-blue as we settled back at the kotatsu. "I know we just finished eating what he made, but I just wanted to make it official."

"Really?" Nagisa gasped, clapping her hands before grabbing onto my arm with stars in her eyes. "Oh, wow! Thank you so much, Okazaki-san!"

"Y-You're welcome?" I stuttered, surprised by the attention. "I just figured that it'd be tough trying to do this all alone." Sanae's expression immediately fell, and I realized how my words might have sounded. "I-I'm sorry! I didn't mean anything bad by that!"

"S'okay, brat," Pops said, though he sounded subdued. "We'll just…" His lips pursed briefly before he spoke again. "We'll just hope that we won't need your help for too long."

"A-All right," I replied, still feeling horrible for my choice of words. "I…I look forward to working with you, Sanae-san," I offered, hoping to lift her mood even a little.

"Th-Thank you," she croaked with a slight bow, though she wouldn't – or couldn't – look at me. "I look forward to working with you as well."

"It-It'll be fun in a way, won't it?" Nagisa suggested, obviously trying to lift everyone's spirits.

"Would you all stop it?" Pops complained with another light cough. "I'm gonna go to the doc's, they're gonna tell me to stop smoking, I'll stop – I mean, I've stopped already – and then everything will be fine."

"See?" I said, angling my head in an effort to see Sanae's downturned face. "You won't have to put up with me for very long; Pops'll get better, and you can go back to your normal life again."

She took a deep breath, and even I could see that she was having a hard time convincing herself. "You're right; I'm worrying about nothing right now." She raised her head and gave us one of her bright smiles. "I'm sorry; I didn't mean to be a wet blanket."

"It wasn't just you, Mom!" Nagisa protested. "I need to stop worrying, too! Dad will be just fine, and then we'll all feel silly for worrying like this!"

I smiled at the family even as I shoved down some concerns of my own.

"Thank you for staying for dinner," Nagisa said as we strolled slowly away from Furukawa Bakery. "And…thank you for being willing to help out; I think Dad will feel a lot better knowing that Mom will have help."

"Don't thank me yet," I grunted as I kicked at a pebble in the road, sending it ahead of us to kick again. "I don't know how much of a help I'll be."

"Well, I appreciate it," she humphed.

I chuckled at her words as I kicked at the pebble again, this time sending it off into some nearby bushes. "Thanks. I'm more worried about your parents' customers; if your mom's the only one making bread…" I tried off with an awkward grin at the memories of many of Sanae's 'experiments'.

"You're terrible, Okazaki-san!" she giggled as she lightly pushed at me; she was so weak, however, that all she managed to do was push my arm into my side a little. "But…you're probably right."

I chuckled again as we came to a stop, and I rested a hand on her head; I liked how soft her hair felt. "Like I said before; don't worry about Pops. The doctors will take care of him and he'll be back, making bread and calling me 'brat' again before you know it."

As I listened to her expressions of gratitude and saw her hopeful smile, I couldn't help but be concerned; maybe it was my perpetual pessimism – not to mention that I was no doctor – but I couldn't help but think that Pops wouldn't be with his family much longer.

I really hoped I was wrong.