"Hey, Yukine." Yato called to get his attention and then nodded towards the door, "Let's go walk for a bit."
The blonde boy stared at him blankly for a moment from the other side of the table before answering, "Uhhh, sure."
Hiyori also shifted, starting to stand up as she announced, "I'll come with you."
"Actually, I kind of wanted it to just be us two." Yato answered softly, immediately defending, "No offense to you or anything, Hiyori. It's just work related and it'll probably be boring for you and—"
She waved her hands for him to stop as she sat back down, though the disappointment was clear on her face, "I understand."
"We can do something together while they're gone." Nora, recently re-named Hiroko by Kofuku, suggested from the other side of Yukine.
Hiyori smiled widely, "That sounds great, Hiiro-chan!"
Yato narrowed his eyes and looked between them, "Since when are you two all buddy buddy?"
"A lot happened while you were gone." The older girl huffed in response as she crossed her arms and he merely let out a sigh.
Yukine shook his head, adding in a mumble, "You got that right…"
"Well if you two are going to go out," Daikoku reached into his pocket and held out money to Hiroko, "Here's some spending money."
She tilted her head and stated, "I have some from working in the shop, that should be enough."
Daikoku shook his head and continued holding it out, "I insist! Right, Kofuku?"
"Yes, yes! Please take the money Hiiro-chan, we want to spoil you and Hiyorin." Kofuku cooed and latched onto Hiyori, who gave a soft laugh in response.
Hiroko shrugged and took the money, pocketing it as she answered, "Alright, I guess."
"You never offer me any spending money!" Yato quickly whined in response and Daikoku glared back.
"You never do anything around here and you're not my kid. If you weren't taking care of Yukine, your ass would be back out on the streets."
Yato ran a hand through his hair and shrugged, "Fine, fine."
"Funny how I've only lived here for about a month now and yet I'm the favorite sibling once again." Hiroko commented smugly as she looked back towards Yato.
"Shut up, Hiiro. You don't have to rub it in." He pouted at her which only made her grin grow wider. Groaning, he finally stood up and waved, "C'mon, Yukine. Let's get going."
"Okay." He nodded and followed after him, stopping to wave behind him, "See you later everyone!"
"Bye, Yukine-kun!" "Bye, Yukki!" A chorus of goodbyes rang out as he continued to make his way towards the front door to put his shoes on.
By the time he had made it outside, Yato was already waiting outside of the front gate. "Are you in a hurry or something?" He did a small jog to catch up with him, swinging open the gate.
"Not really a hurry, but what I want to talk to you about… I can't say around Daikoku. And Hiyori technically shouldn't hear about it either, even though she knows about the subject." Yato kept walking, his face turning serious and Yukine's small smile dropped.
"Oh. That." He put his hands in his pockets and bit his lip, walking after him in silence before more apologies start flooding out of him again, "Listen, Yato. I'm really sorry about everything—"
The god put his hand on Yukine's shoulder and shook his head, "This isn't about what happened with you, but it's related. This is actually something that happened to me a long, long time ago; when I was just a kid. It's something I haven't told anyone."
Yukine's lips parted in surprise as he questioned back, "Really?"
"Why do you look so surprised? It's not like this is the first secret I've trusted you with." Yato tilted his head as he looked back at him.
"Yeah, I know." Yukine shrugged, "But it still doesn't make it any less surprising when you do. You're kinda… touchy about your past, to put it lightly. Not that I don't understand why."
Yato let out a breath and admitted, "Yeah, well, what I'm about to tell you is probably a big reason of why I'm like that."
"I'm guessing it's about Fa—I mean, your dad…" The younger boy cringed and shook his head fiercely, "Sorry, I really hate that I ever called him that. And that it still somehow manages to slip out."
"I mean, join the club." He gave a small laugh in response and ruffled Yukine's hair, "It's not exactly like I've enjoyed calling him my dad, either. It's okay." He motioned towards one of the park benches, "Anyway, let's sit down."
"Okay." Yukine followed suite, sitting on the other side of the bench and angling himself towards Yato as he waited patiently for him to start.
"So I don't really have to explain my dad's goals and wants since I'm sure you're painfully aware of it yourself now," He looked away as he began, eventually drifting back to Yukine, "So from the very beginning, Dad made sure no one got in his way or gave me any sort of ideas that contradicted what he was trying to teach me. I was only allowed to speak to him and Hiiro, absolutely no one else. And what I used to do to people, I… I was taught it was a game. Something that me and Hiiro played together. And the more people I killed, the happier he was. At the time, I didn't really know or feel it was wrong, but I did it purely because I absolutely loved the praise that we got in return for it."
He looked up to see Yukine watching him, frowning, but still intently listening so he continued. "Anyway, one day I was just sort of messing around and there was a girl who came up a little bit older than Hiyori who asked if I was a god and if I could name her. Since I wasn't allowed to talk to other people, I just ignored her. But I was curious, so I asked dad that night if there were shinki with no names. I didn't know it at the time, but doing that pretty much set her up for disaster from the beginning."
"So I happened to run into her again the next day and noticed she had quite a bit of blight, so I took her to a spring. Once she realized I was trying to help, she asked for my name but I wasn't supposed to talk to her so, I wrote it in the dirt and… Believe it or not, that's how I got the name Yato. All because she misread it." He rested his elbow against the top of the bench and put his chin in his palm, laughing.
"So that's where it came from!" Yukine reacted in awe before realizing quietly, "So, this girl must be someone really important, huh?"
"She was." Yato nodded, "After a bit of begging… I named her: Sakura. So as you know now, when a god names a shinki, they see memories of their past life. For some reason, that didn't happen with Hiiro. So with Sakura, I freaked out. I ended up tossing her weapon form into that spring and I didn't come back for three days."
The younger boy jumped up and yelled in disbelief, "Three days!? Yato, you're awful!"
"I was a kid and I didn't know what the hell was happening, I'm sorry!" He immediately defended back, sighing, "The worst part is, I knew I couldn't talk to Dad about it and because Sakura was afflicting me, it got Hiiro in trouble too. So I went back as soon as I realized I needed to fix things between us. From there, Sakura taught me a few hard lessons. I had always been told I could do whatever I want, so she quickly corrected a lot of my behaviors. But it wasn't all serious; she spent a decent amount of time just playing with me too. And unfortunately… I translated that over to the other type of playing one night."
"Oh…" Yukine sank back down onto the bench.
"She was horrified and naturally stung me right away. I tried to go after her but I was in agony and not long after I passed out and woke up back at home. As soon as I could I went looking for her and found her at one of Tenjin's shrines. We made up and she started teaching me more and more about people. What they were really like, not the dark creatures Dad had always described them to be. Eventually I was starting to get conflicted feelings since I wanted to make my dad happy, but I didn't want to hurt Sakura either."
"One day, Hiiro came in full of blight so I took her to same spring where I met Sakura and they finally bumped into each other. It was pretty casual at first but Hiiro started asking questions that relate to the god's greatest secret. It started effecting Sakura pretty quickly and I knew deep down that it was bad, but no one had ever told me about it before. Hiiro pressed me to say Sakura's real name, saying father said to do it, and that was it…"
Yukine was gripping the side of the bench, horrified and angered at the same time.
"Before you go thinking any bad thoughts, Hiiro didn't know any better back then. She was just as surprised as I was at what happened." Yato waved a finger at him to get his attention.
The blonde sighed, "I figured as much…" Taking another moment, he asked quietly, "If you don't mind me asking… what was her name?"
"Tamanone." Yato answered just as quietly.
Not missing the familiar 'ne' at the end, Yukine asked, "Everything goes back to her, huh?"
A tear finally made its way down the gods cheek and he nodded, "Yeah. More than you know."
"I'm really sorry that I put you through something like that again." Yukine quickly started getting teary eyed as well and Yato motioned him forward.
Enveloping him into a tight hug which Yukine returned with a small one, Yato rested his chin on the younger boys head, "You're safe now. That's all I care about."
After a minute or two of shared sniffling, Yukine asked in a muffled voice, "I do have one question though."
Yato let go of him and slid backward, looking at him curiously, "What is it?"
"If Sakura-san already taught you all that, why were you such a pain in the ass when I first became your shinki?" He laughed through his tears and the god laughed as well.
"Old habits die hard, teenage rebellion that never ended, I don't even know. But I swear I've got it down pact now, promise." Yato grinned and leaned forward to ruffle his hair again.
"You better." Yukine smiled and wiped at his eyes, "Though I expect you'll always be somewhat of a pain in the ass."
"And the same to you." He nodded towards him, "But I wouldn't want it any other way."