Love is Not Extinct
Chapter 09: Enchanted Corn Maze
Tsukishima leaned back in his chair at the beanbag toss booth, watching the throngs of children and parents making their way through the multiple games and activities set up at the Karasuno Sports Center. This was an annual event that the sports center had been running since it had opened nearly thirty years ago so it was very popular and always packed. And since the sports center was so kind to let their volleyball club use the facility free of charge, every year the members would help out with the festival.
Tsukishima found it very annoying.
He watched the booth across from him as Yamaguchi led another round of the pumpkin walk, which the coach had been placed in charge of. Sitting on a stool dressed in an orange sweater with the face of a jack o'lantern on it and a pumpkin painted on one cheek, his friend smiled as he watched the group of people walk around in a circle stepping on paper pumpkins on the floor to the beat of the halloween song 'Monster Mash' that was playing from a phone attached to a small portable speaker.
When he stopped the music, Yamaguchi dunked his hand into a small plastic cauldron that was sitting on his lap, making a big show of moving his hand around to find just the right item before pulling out a small orange ping pong ball and reading the number aloud. This round a little girl dressed as a princess had her number chosen. She squealed in delight running over as Yamaguchi showed her the prizes she could pick from.
"Papa, I want to try this one!"
Tsukishima looked over to see a young girl who looked to be about his son's age holding the hand of a tall man with bright red hair that he wore spiked straight up. She wore a pink dress with a frilly skirt and a pair of wings on her back. She was pointing at Tsukishima's booth and with a nod her father let the girl pull him over.
"I would like to play this game please." She repeated the request to Tsukishima in a surprisingly respectful manner.
"That will be one ticket," Tsukishima said as he stood up, going over to them. The girl looked up at her father who smiled and pulled out a ticket from his pocket, handing it to her, and she in turn handed it to Tsukishima.
He smiled softly at the girl as he took the ticket, putting it in the bin under the table. "Which color do you want?" he asked, motioning to the bowls that had different colored bean bags in them.
"Pink please," she said, pointing to the bowl on the far right. Her father looked down at her with a knowing smile as Tsukishima grabbed the bowl with pink bean bags in it and dumped it on the table in front of her.
"You get six tries to get one of the bags into the top hole in Frankenstein's head. If you get at least one in you will get a prize."
"What if I get all six in?"
Tsuksihima raised a brow. She had asked the question so innocently but she looked completely serious and determined. A bit overconfident in herself, he thought as he looked from her to her father before shrugging. "If you can get all six in the head I'll let you get two prizes."
The girl beamed, looking up at her dad who nodded with a grin before she looked back, focusing on her target as Tsukishima sat back down in his chair to watch.
She didn't miss a single toss.
Impressed, he pulled out the little bucket for her to pick out one of the bouncy balls he and Haruhisa had bought for those who participated, then allowed her to pick two prizes from the larger prize box that the sports center had provided for him to give out to winners. She debated for a long moment before pulling out two woven bracelets. One was a pink color with a gold star on it, the other was a dark blue bracelet with a silver moon.
"I'll take these two!" She looked up at her father. "Papa, can you help," she stopped mid-sentence as she was holding out the pink bracelet for her father to put on her as her eyes lit up. "Otousan!"
A man dressed in black slacks, and white button up shirt, and steel blue tie walked over to join the pair. A faint smile crossed his lips as he knelt on one knee to kiss the top of the girl's head before standing back up again, placing his hand on the small of the redhead's back and kissing his cheek.
"Sorry it took me so long to get here, there is still just so much to do to be ready for trial next week."
"That's okay." The read head grinned. "We are just glad you made time to come out at all, with all you've got going on. Otousan is always so busy, busy, busy." He swayed, sing-songing the last sentence.
The girl then began to tell him all about how she had won, getting all six bean bags in the hole, but Tsukishima's attention was drawn away as Kiyoko, dressed in a purple witch costume, came over to him.
"I'm here to take over for you so you can take a break for a bit." She smiled softly.
"Thanks." Tsukishima pulled out the pink bean bags and put them back on the table. "Do you know where Haru is?"
"Last time I saw him he was waiting in line at the face-painting station." Tsukishima nodded his thanks before leaving the booth as Kiyoko turned to help the next child who was wanting to play.
Haruhisa sat patiently in the chair as he waited for his face painting to be finished. Across from him Sawai stood behind the artist, watching her work. Sawai had a black design of a dragon painted on his face, the tail starting at his jaw right below his left ear and twisting up onto his cheek, over his eyes, and back around until the head was under his right eye.
"Mama, it looks so cool!" he praised, resting his chin on his mother's shoulder.
Sawai Masako smiled warmly without taking her eyes off what she was working on. "Toshi-chan, please don't put your head on me like that while I'm trying to work."
"Sorry," he mumbled, pulling back as his mother put the final touches on the design on Harushia's cheek. She had painted three marks that ran down, across the boy's face, to look like he had been slashed by claws.
Just as she finished Tsukishima walked up behind the Sawais. Looking down at the result, he chuckled under his breath. "Get attacked by a raptor?"
"Yeah! Does it look cool?" Harushia beamed up at his dad.
"Super cool." He gave him two thumbs up.
"What about me Tsukishima-san?" Toshiaki asked, looking up at the adult as he pointed with both hands to his face, staring up at his friend's father expectantly. "Mine is super cool too, right?"
"Nope. Your's is super lame," he deadpanned as he watched the boys' face shift into disappointment. His mother smiled, rubbing her son's back gently.
"He's just teasing," Harushia assured him as he stood up from the chair, thanking Masako for her work. "He thinks it's funny to be mean."
"That's because it is funny," Tsukishima responded as he reached out, ruffling his son's hair before the boy put his hat back on.
"Are you on a break now?"
Tsukishima nodded, watching as both of the boys stood in front of him hopefully. He raised a brow and put one hand on his hip. "Yeah. Why?"
"Will you go with us into the enchanted corn maze?" Haruhisa asked.
"Please, Tsukishima-san?" Toshiaki joined in the begging "They won't let children under ten go in without an adult."
"I don't know…" Tsukishima folded his arms and tilted his head back to look up at the ceiling as if he was pondering this deeply. "This is my only break...I'm kind of tired…"
"Please!" Both boys begged in unison. Haruhisa reached forward, grasping onto the fabric of his dad's shirt. His big, pleading brown eyes made him want to melt inside. Not that he would show that. He hadn't intended to say no in the first place but it was no fun if he just agreed to it right off. "I might consider it, on one condition."
Both boys looked up with bated breath, waiting to hear his terms. Tsukishima couldn't help but marvel at the innocence of youth. It was hard to remember a time where something so trivial, like going through a little corn maze, seemed like the biggest thing. Nowadays it was hard to get even half that excited about anything. But the look in these young eyes was full of excitement and wonder. He hoped that his son wouldn't lose that too soon.
"I will go with you to the enchanted maze if you two promise to help me at the bean bag toss when we get back."
"Deal!" They both cheered, turning to each other and high-fiving before running off towards the maze. Tsukishima smirked as he watched the pair weaving through the crowd in a rush to get there but being careful not to bump into anyone.
"You are very kind Tsukishima-san." Tsukishima looked over at Masako who was cleaning her brush to get ready for the next child in line for a face painting.
"It's not a big deal." He shrugged, sticking his hands in his pockets. "Haruhisa has been talking about the enchanted corn maze all week. I knew he wanted to go so I had already planned on making time for it." He then walked off towards the maze, using the advantage of his long legs to easily catch up with them before they got to the ticket booth.
It took the boys nearly thirty minutes to figure out how to get out of the maze. Not that Tsukishima minded. It was nice to move around and not be stuck behind the booth, even if there were loud and screaming kids all around him. Plus, Haruhisa and his friend looked like they were having the time of their lives making a game out of it.
"Doctor, I think we have gotten ourselves lost," Toshiaki said, putting his hands on his hips and looking around with a grave expression.
Haruhisa folded his arms, putting one hand on his chin as he looked back and forth between the three ways they could take. "This won't do. Master Toshi, if we don't find a way out of this forest soon we will definitely be attacked by the dinosaurs." Dropping his hands to his side, he looked back and forth again. "We have no time to waste. Let's take the left path. We must hurry!"
"Right!" Toshiaki agreed and they turned left and ran until they came to another crossroads. "Do you hear that?" Toshiaki's voice dropped to a whisper.
"Mmm," Haruhisa nodded in agreement. "Rustling." His tone was soft like his friends and from where he was standing Tsukishima could barely hear them. But as long as they were in sight it didn't matter. He would let them have their fun and run out all their energy while they were at it. "The dinosaurs must be close; we have to be very careful to not let them sense us or we will never make it out alive."
"What about your assistant?" Toshiaki asked and Haruhisa looked at him a bit confused so his friend clarified. "Your assistant, the girl. How will we find her?"
Tsukishima watched curiously as his son looked flustered then frantic as he shook his head at his friend who just smiled. "What are you talking about Toshi? No girls!"
"I told you, I know I saw… Ow!" he whined as Haruhisa pinched his arm to get him to shut up.
"No girls!" he whisper-yelled, glancing back at his father for a split second, clearly worried that his father had overheard. Tsukishima, of course, acted as if he hadn't even been paying attention. Once satisfied, his son went back to playing his role as if nothing had happened. "Come on Master Toshi, we have to hurry. I can feel the ground shaking. Something big is coming this way!" Both boys yelled and ran down another path.
Tsukishima followed, continuing to watch them play out their scenario as he pondered the scene from earlier. Haruhisa was worried about a girl? This was something that he hadn't heard before. He knew it was bound to happen eventually, that his son would start taking interest in someone, but he hadn't really thought much about it.
What was a parent supposed to do when their child had their first crush? Did you talk to them about it? Wait until they came and talked to you? Did he need to have that talk with him? Tsukishima shook his head. Heavens no, Haruhisa was only seven he didn't need to know about all that, right?
He was not prepared for anything like that.
Thankfully, it seemed the subject didn't come up again among the two boys as the ninja and paleontologist made their way through the rugged train of the Karasuno Sports Center enchanted corn maze, running and hiding from dinosaurs and other various bad guys. For now, it seemed Haruhisa had too many other, more important things to worry about than whatever growing crush was developing, and Tsukishima was grateful.
When Tsukishima got out of the shower he pulled on a pair of comfortable pajama pants and dried his hair with a towel before letting the towel fall around his shoulders to catch any excess water that he might have missed and prevent it from falling into his bare shoulders. Slipping on his glasses, he padded down the hall and into the front room.
Laying on the floor, still in his costume with the hat fallen to the side, Harushia lay there curled up happily sleeping, surrounded by the candy and prizes that he had received from both the museum trick-or-treating and the sports center festival. He looked so comfortable and content that Tsukishima didn't want to move him but he didn't want the boy catching a cold.
Carefully, he picked him up, doing his best not to wake him as he carried him to his room. He gently removed his costume and got him into his pajamas before tucking him in. Leaning over, he kissed the top of his forehead and whispered softly, "good night little paleontologist." Harushia stirred slightly before rolling to his side and curling up to get more comfortable.
He turned the light off and shut the door quietly before heading back into the front room to clean up the mess. Sitting on the floor, he began to gather the candy and little toys, putting them into Harushia's bucket as he thought back on the last few days. It had been chaotic and busy and he was thrilled it was over. Tsukishima was looking forward to things going back to the normal daily routine for a while.
But he had to admit, despite the hectic schedule and the rushing from one event to another, there were some special memories that had been made and he was grateful for those moments. It was times like these, in the quiet hours of the night, that he would reflect on the day and see the little things that reminded him why he was so blessed to have his son in his life. The way that his son looked up to him, like he could do no wrong, the way that the boy smiled and laughed, finding joy in the small, simple things of life, and of course the way his son had managed to fill a hole in his life that he hadn't even known was there to begin with.
Tsukishima had never wanted to be a father, and he didn't want any more children. It still seemed like that was too much of a bother. But he was happy that he was Haruhisa's father and he hoped that as the boy grew older he would still be proud to be his father's son.