Day 30: "Alley"

Yukimura Takeshi leaned against the wall just inside the back door to his flagship ramen restaurant—and he stood there in the dark, alone, while light and voices and the clink of cutlery filtered toward him from the busy restaurant. On the other side of the panel of wood, in the alley between his restaurant and the neighbor's place, his daughter spoke to someone in a low voice. An urgent voice, if he had to put an emotion to it. And every so often, someone talked back in an even lower growl, biting and harsh and gruff. Takeshi huffed when that voice snapped a little too loudly. He'd seen his daughter try to sneak some bowls of ramen out back at the height of the dinner rush, back when she thought he was too busy to notice. But nothing happened in his shop that he wasn't aware of, and he'd carefully followed after her a few minutes later, taking up his post by the back door to listen in.

It wasn't eavesdropping, he told himself. It was just a bit of… of fatherly concern. Yeah. That sounded right. A perfectly reasonable emotion, he was sure, and a perfectly reasonable response to it on his part.

And he thought he was right to be concerned. That voice didn't sound terribly kind, even though his daughter had done them quite the favor in bringing them some free grub. But she didn't sound upset or mad or anything at the way this person talked to her. Just kind of… patient, as she talked with whoever sat in that alley with her over dinner. Like a teacher talking to a student, maybe. He wasn't quite sure.

Did Takeshi recognize the voice of the person she was talking to, come to think of it? Yes, it sounded familiar. But Keiko spent time with a lot of boys (a father's worst nightmare), but he couldn't quite place this one…

Ah, yes. It was that boy, wasn't it?

Just as he leaned in closer to the door, hoping to hear a little better, a footstep struck the pavement in the alley. He lurched back just as the door opened to admit Yukimura Keiko, who balanced a big ramen bowl in the crook of each elbow. Both were mostly empty, Takeshi noticed. And clearly Keiko noticed him noticing, because she looked up at the bowls and then back at him again, mouth curling in a panicked, shaking smile.

"Oh. Uh. Hi, Dad," she said, voice quivering the smallest bit. "I was, uh, just really hungry—"

"Don't mind me," he said, cutting in with an enormous grin. "Was just passing through."

"Oh. OK." She fidgeted for a second. "Well, then…"

Keiko beat a hasty retreat, vanishing into the kitchen just as Takeshi's wife exited through the same doorway. A clatter of pots and pans and yelling cooks followed Sawako as she padded over to her husband. She was busy drying her hands on her apron, but when she saw him, she dropped the hem of the garment and pillowed her hands on her hips.

"Keiko looks like the cat who got caught in the cream," Sawako said. "What happened?"

Takeshi grinned, eyebrows waggling up and down. "She had dinner with a friend, actually."

"Ah!" said Sawako, not surprised in the least. "Which one?"

"The one she won't introduce us to."

"Oh. That one." She sighed and walked over to her husband, who rewarded her efforts by planting a big smooch on her forehead. "Think she'll ever introduce us to him? He's been coming around for a while now."

"You know our daughter. She loves her secrets, our Keiko."

"That she does," said Sawako. "Especially if she can keep them on behalf of other people."

"Think he's another stray?" Takeshi asked.

"Of course." Sawako rolled her eyes, smiling as she did it. "What else would he be?"

But Takeshi didn't find the question very funny. "So long as it's not a boyfriend…" he grumbled, shooting the door to the alley a hard look. "That's all I'm asking for!"

"No," Sawako said at once and with a shake of her dark head. "Not our Keiko. If she can keep from dating the pretty one who keeps showing up—" (Takeshi knew exactly who she meant, even though she didn't say the boy's name) "—I imagine she can resist temptation anywhere."

Just then, Keiko exited the kitchen again. Her parents smiled their biggest, cheesiest smiles when she spotted them, each giggling when she gave an embarrassed 'eep' and scurried up the stairs, head down and faced flushing as she went.

"Ask your friend to eat inside next time!" Takeshi called after his daughter.

"We'd love to meet him, sweetie!" Sawako chimed in—and somewhere upstairs, they heard Keiko give an indignant squawk. That made the pair of them laugh, hanging on each other for support in the darkened hallway beside the door to the alleyway.

Both of them wondered, internally, when Keiko would introduce them to this mysterious friend of hers—one of the many she'd made in the past year, a gaggle of strays who had all seemed to follow her home.

The boy she hasn't introduced is Hiei, for the record. I'll let y'all guess which boy "the pretty one" is... but I don't doubt you already know his identity, ha ha.

'Bout time we heard from her parents. Basically they have an almost affectionate view of Keiko's secret-keeping. It's something they tolerate, because they see it as harmless, but they wonder when they'll be allowed into all facets of her life.