Chapter 4 – Growth

After a couple of weeks living in my new home I was fairly well settled in, it was still really frustrating that I need both hands free to be able to move myself forwards, it's not something that you think about normally, but how exactly do you "carry" things when you're in a wheelchair? The most effective way to push the wheels round, is to lean forwards, the further forward the better, but in general, you make a compromise between power, and practicality, leaning forward just enough that your shoulder is in front of the axel of the wheel. But how do you do that when you have to transport something on your lap, mostly this means that you sit upright, unfortunately this is a really inefficient position to push from.

The other thing that really irritates me, is people behaving differently around me. At the extreme end of the spectrum was a shopkeeper that insisted on only addressing Ryou, even when asking what I would like. But even Ryou would occasionally do something, for instance, one afternoon she asked if I would like to go for a walk, a bit of a faux pas, but I didn't really care, Ryou however freaked out a bit, apologising over and over, frankly the excessive apologising was far, far more annoying that asking about going for a walk.

Aside from the occasional bump in the road, literal and metaphorical, things were going pretty well. I was doing well in my studies with Fujibayashi-sensei, math turned out to be a surprise strong point, grammar and spelling… not so much. I was adapting well to being in the chair (mostly). But I couldn't shake the thought that I should talk to Kyou. This was further compounded when Ryou's parents pointed out that Ryou was spending every possible minute in the apartment with me, so they saw her even less than they did while I was in hospital, the suggested compromise was that we would eat dinner in the main house a couple of times a week, of course Kyou was still living there, and would probably be present at these meals, so far she had gone to great lengths to avoid both of us, if either one of us was in a room she entered, she would instantly turn back around and leave. And if we entered a room that she was in she would slip away when we weren't looking.

"Ryou, there's something I think we need to discuss."

"It's about Onee-chan isn't it." I hadn't heard her call Kyou Onee-chan since before my fall, so it seemed like a good sign.

"Yeah, it is, I keep thinking that I was too hash…" Ryou interrupted me.

"We were too harsh." I was going to try and dispute the we, but the look in her eye changed my mind.

"Negisa-chan and Kotomi-chan, both say she's still not talking to anyone at school, and I can't help thinking that the effect on her life has been worse than mine."

"How can you say that!" Ryou was prone to thinking of my situation as worse than I do.

"She has no friends, she doesn't feel like she can even stay in the room of her own home that she wants to, and I have a home for the first time in my life, my studies are getting better and better and I have you. I feel like I have taken so much away from her, including her own twin sister." Ryou was quiet for a while as she thought about what I had said.

"Maybe you are right."

"The question is, what do we do about it? Do we go to her or do we invite her to come here?"

"It might be best if we invite her here, that way if she wants to leave, it's easier for her."

"Yeah, good thinking, how do we get her to come here, do you think your mom would help us?"

"She definitely will."

"Alright, we tell your Mom what we have in mind and ask her it invite Kyou to come at a time that Kyou chooses. How does that sound?"

"It's worth a try." She didn't look too optimistic to be honest, but given Kyou's apparent mental state, it was probably justified.

In the end Kyou did decline our first, second and third invitation. In the end, her Dad insisted, all this made me less than optimistic that the meeting would go well.

"Onee-chan, would you like to sit down." Ryou was trying her best to sound relaxed and friendly, Kyou on the other hand, looked like a scared animal, looking for a way to escape.

"O-okay, w-what did you want to see me for?" Kyou sat at the end of the sofa furthest from Ryou, hugging her arms across her body. She had lost weight, so she looked fairly skinny and she was also quite pale.

"I guess it makes more sense if I go first," Kyou looked really quite frightened as I spoke to her. "Well, I umm…" I had rehearsed this moment in advance, but Kyou's appearance had thrown me off. I took a deep breath. "I'm sorry." I didn't have chance to finish what I was going to say.

"What!? W-what a-are y-you sorry for?" It goes largely without saying that she was surprised.

"I, sorry. We were too hard on you, when you came to the hospital, I was angry and depressed and scared… it may have been understandable, but that doesn't make it right." Kyou sat with her mouth open, completely stunned.

"Onee-chan, I need to apologise as well," Kyou's head rotated to face her sister, but her expression remained unchanged. "I was hurting, exhausted and scared, but I shouldn't have been so horrible to you. Can you ever forgive me?" Tears rolled down Ryou's cheeks.

Kyou looked at me then back at Ryou, before she started to cry as well. Ryou reached for Kyou to hug her, but Kyou pulled away holding up a finger, asking Ryou to wait a moment, her lip was trembling a lot, and she looked like she was barely holding it together.

"I… *sniffle* I… am… *sniffle* so sorry… if… *sob* I could… do anything to… *sniff* take it… back, I'm so sorry." Kyou finally broke down and fell in to Ryou's arms. It was at least twenty minutes before they released each other and another ten minutes after that before anyone spoke.

"Why?" Kyou still wasn't quite making eye contact with me, she'd look up but then look away again. It'll take time to repair the damage to our relationships, if I'm honest, I don't really think it'll ever go back to how it was before, but I can hope.

"Why did we apologise to you?" Kyou nodded. "We've been hearing from Kotomi-chan and Negisa-chan that you haven't been talking to anyone at all in school, and you always leave when we enter a room even in your own home, things like that. It got me thinking that your life had been more negatively affected than mine."

"How can you say that? You… you… you're…"

"In a wheelchair? Yes, that's true, and don't get me wrong, being in a wheelchair is a huge and life changing thing, but since my fall, I'm free from my dad, I have a fabulous apartment all to myself, more or less anyway." I looked over at Ryou, who smiled bashfully, and blushed. "I'm getting the chance to retake the exams from the first two years of school, and I can spend as much time as I want with Ryou. Almost all of that would never have happened if I had never ended up this way."

"But…"

"I guess what I'm driving at is, I forgive you. But can you forgive me?" Kyou stared at me for what felt like an eternity, before she nodded and broke down in to floods of tears, Ryou wrapped her arms around her sister and let Kyou cry on to her shoulder, Ryou had tears running down her face as well.

I'm not so idealistic or naive to believe that it was all better and we could go back to the way the way things were, but it was a start.

A month passed, Ryou and Kyou were getting on well and they had been out shopping a couple of times, Kyou had come to my apartment for coffee, it felt like a breakthrough of sorts for her interactions with me, for her to have come to me, without having to be invited first, her excuse at the time was that Ryou bought better coffee for me than her parents did for themselves. It was a bit stiff to begin with, but it improved as we got a little more comfortable.

Kotomi reported that Kyou had returned to the old club room, technically there wasn't a theatre club anymore, but nobody objected to their continued use of the room, again, Kyou had apparently been very shy with Kotomi and Negisa as well, I guess a few months of avoiding the rest of the world will do that to you. Unfortunately, it wasn't long after Kyou's return to the club room that Negisa fell ill again, but at least it meant Kotomi wouldn't be alone while Negisa was off.

Only one other thing of note happened in that time, towards the end of the month, my dad's trial began. The first thing I knew about this was when Ryou was a little later than usual arriving for our tutoring session.

"Tomoya-kun, there's something important I need to tell you." She looked really nervous.

"Okay." She sat down next to me and placed her hand on my knee, it was intended to be a supportive gesture, but given I couldn't actually feel it, it was a little absurd, to the point where I nearly laughed. She noticed my amusement and raised an eyebrow for a moment before she realised what I thought was funny and took hold of my hand instead.

"It's about your Dad."

"Okay, what about him?"

"They've set a date for his trial to start."

"Trial? I thought he'd just plead guilty and get it all over without fuss."

"He is pleading guilty to the charge of child abuse, but he is disputing the criminal neglect charge."

"How the hell is going to try and defend the fact his son was in a coma for over a week, and he didn't even notice!" I hadn't so much as thought about him since I got here, but for some reason, the fact he was denying he did anything wrong really pissed me off. "Sorry Ryou, I didn't mean to shout, it's just… What the hell, seriously, is he nuts as well as a drunkard?"

"It's okay Tomoya-kun, I'd be more worried if it didn't make you angry. But because it's going to trail, it means that…"

"It means what?"

"You may be called to testify in court."

"I don't know how much testimony I could give; I was in a coma for most of the time he's being charged for."

"I know, but Dad said that the prosecutor wanted you to be aware that it was possible."

"I guess that's good of him to give me a little warning. I just can't believe he's pleading not guilty, seriously, what the hell is wrong with him?"

"I don't know, I was hoping that it would all just blow over and you wouldn't have to be bothered by it." Ryou look quite downcast.

"Don't worry about it, we'll get through it, and then we can go back to normal, or what passes for normal around here anyway."

Later that week, Hatsuo-san came to talk to me.

"Tomoya, I need to talk to you about the court case."

"Okay."

"I'd tell you to sit down but it looks like you've beaten me to it," Hatsuo-san had a habit of making jokes when he was worried about something. "Your dad has offered to plead guilty to both charges, on one condition."

"Suddenly I have a sinking feeling, alright, what's his condition?"

"He wants you to go and see him."

"After all this time and all he's done, he actually wants me to visit him… in prison. Real father of the year material there."

"I completely understand if you don't want to go and see him, but the chances are you'll end up having to see him anyway, if it goes to trial. And this way, you can just leave it he says something you don't like. Just give it some thought and let me know, what you want to do. I'll support your decision either way. But personally, I'd say the visit is the lesser of two evils. I'll leave you in peace, at least until Ryou turns up anyway." He placed his hand on my shoulder as he stood up. "You know where we are if you want to talk it out."

"Yeah I know, thanks, I appreciate it." The promised peace lasted for about half an hour, before Ryou returned from a shopping trip with Kyou.

"Tomoya-kun, look what I bought you," Ryou was excitedly pulling things out of her shopping bags. "What's wrong?" Ryou had become very, very good at reading my mood.

"My dad wants to see me."

"He wants what!" Her reaction was much the same as mine, maybe not quite as restrained.

"He's offered to plead guilty to both charges, if I go and see him."

"What did Daddy think about it."

"His take on it was that I'll end up having to see him at the trial anyway, so it would be better to go and see him, because I can leave if he says something I don't like, having said that I think 'hello' would be included in that category at the moment."

"Have you told him what you want to do yet?"

"No, he told me to think about it first, and I wanted to talk it out with you first." Ryou flopped down next to me and laid her head on my shoulder.

"Hmm, what Daddy said does make sense, but… would you have to talk to him in court?"

"I don't think so, but a trial would take a while, so I'd probably see him a lot more, even if I don't have to talk to him at all."

"Maybe it would be better to get it over with then."

"Yeah, I was thinking the same thing. But there was one thing I wanted to ask you."

"Of course, I'll go with you."

"I was hoping you'd say that, thanks." Ryou just smiled and returned to her shopping bags.

I told Hatsuo-san that I'd agree to go and visit my dad, he had expecting me to avoid it, so he was pleasantly surprised, he said he'd let the prosecutor know and get back to me as soon as a date was set.

They didn't waste any time in getting it set up, it was just three days later that I was on my way to the prison. I don't know if dreading is quite the right word for it, but I was definitely not looking forward to it.

Ryou and I had to wait in the meeting room for him to be brought to us. He arrived, flanked by two guards and wearing shackles on his ankles and wrists. We had been put in a meeting room because the normal visitation rooms weren't wheelchair accessible.

"Sorry Sir but we'll have to stay in the room for safety reasons." The guard's apologetic words were definitely not matched by his tone or expression, he sounded bored more than apologetic.

"Doesn't bother me."

"Tomoya-kun, I am glad you chose to come and see me." Smiled at me and spoke as though we had just met at a café or something.

"It wasn't much of a choice. What do you want?" He continued undeterred.

"And who is this lovely young lady?" Ryou's hostile glare, did make him pause for a moment. "You look like you are in good health."

"Apart from the wheelchair you mean. What do you want?" His shoulders sagged a little as the fact he wasn't going to get a conversation out of us.

"There is something I wanted to say to you."

"And."

"I am sorry, I failed as a farther and…"

"Are you kidding me!? All the crap you put me through, after everything you've done to me, and you're 'Sorry'!" My outburst managed to make the guards jump. My dad recoiled at my tirade. "You broke my shoulder, robbing me of a real chance at a career in pro basketball, and if that wasn't enough, I end up in a coma and you don't even notice FOR TEN DAYS!" Ryou placed a hand on my shoulder to try to calm me down. "What did you hope to get out of this meeting? Did you expect me to just forgive you?" He just lowered his head.

"I hope you can be happy… without me holding you back." His response was feeble, if it hadn't been so quiet in the meeting room, I probably wouldn't have heard him. Head still bowed he rose to his feet, one of the guards took hold of his arm while the other opened the door, with that they left.

"Come on Ryou, let's go home."

"Are you okay?"

"Honestly… I don't know. Either way, let's go." We headed back to the car park, where Hatsuo-san was waiting in the car.

"Well that was quick. So, how'd it go?" one look at our faces and he had his answer. "That good huh?"

"Worse, he actually said he's sorry."

"He what?"

"He said he was sorry and had failed as a farther."

"I think it was painfully obvious to anyone half a brain that he'd failed as a father, but 'Sorry'? The nerve of the man."

"Yeah, I was a little more colourful in my response, but I think you got the gist of it."

"I'm sure it was, well if you need to talk about it, we're always there for you, but I suspect Ryou beat me to it on that one."

"Yeah, but thanks."

"Well at least you never have to see the him again, unless you want to go to the sentencing."

"Do you know when it is?"

"Next Monday."

"Well it would put a full stop on the whole affair wouldn't it. Alright I'll go."

"Good for you."

Ultimately the sentencing hearing was fairly short, what wasn't short was the sentence. For the charge of child abuse causing physical injury, he was given 9 years in prison, and a further 7 years for criminal neglect, a total of 16 years.

The prosecutor said it was unusually harsh, but it was probably because of the life altering injuries in both cases, so that was it, unless I chose to, I wouldn't see him again until I was in my thirties. What really surprised me was the level of relief I felt at that prospect, I had convinced myself that I didn't care either way, but maybe it was causing me more stress than expected.

It was only a couple of weeks after the sentencing that my exams were due, it was going to be a really, really busy period for me, especially as I was doing two years' worth of exams, but the most stressful thing for me, was going back to school for the first time since my fall.

I couldn't shake to idea that I was going to have 700 people, all staring at me. Despite not actually needing to be there for any exams, Ryou had insisted on being there with me.

In a turn of events that felt remarkably nostalgic I found myself at the foot of the hill, pausing to settle my nerves, it struck me that this must have been how Negisa had felt at the start of the year.

The school had been remarkably accommodating, I wasn't required to attend home room in the morning so I was at least spared the crowds of students that would have been around if we had to be on time, I'd have to deal with it eventually but I was more than happy to put it off a little longer. And for obvious reasons I was being allowed to use the service elevator to get between floors.

"Tomoya-kun? Is everything okay?"

"Yeah, near enough anyway, just needed a moment, it's been a while since I was here, and the last time I was here… well you know." Ryou smiled sympathetically.

"I know, but we need to get going soon."

"A hard task master to the last. Okay let's go sensei." Ryou giggled as we set off.

"I really don't remember… this hill… being so long."

"Would you like a push?"

"I think you know the answer to that already."

"I know, you don't like being pushed, but I didn't want you to be too exhausted for your exams."

"I appreciate the thought, but we're nearly there anyway."

As I had expected, while I was waiting outside the exam room, I was very much the centre of attention. A few of my former classmates came over to talk, which was a welcome distraction from being stared at.

In the end I did end up, having words with one of the more persistent gawkers, it seems a large part of the reason I was being stared at was somewhere along the line a rumour had started that I had not survived my injuries. In all fairness I think I would have stared a bit myself if I saw a dead man show up for school.

The staring did die down quite a bit after the first couple of days, although not entirely, but the reduction in numbers did make it easier to "correct" the guilty parties.

The exams themselves weren't as bad as I expected them to be, so I was fairly confident that I would do okay, I didn't expect to break records, but as long as it let me get a decent job, I'm happy. It was no small relief when I finally finished my last exam, as I exited the room, I found Ryou waiting for me.

"Congratulations Tomoya-kun, all done at last. How do you think it went?"

"Thank you gorgeous, I think it went pretty well, math is my strongest subject anyway so I'm not worried. We just need to wait until February for the results now."

"Would you like to go out for lunch?"

"That's a great idea, let's get going before too many students beat us to it."

At the top of the hill an idea popped into my head.

"Hey Ryou, hop on." I patted my lap.

"What?"

"Come on it'll be fun, and quicker too." Ryou looked sceptical

"But everyone will be watching."

"They'll probably be watching anyway." Ryou was a little reluctant, but did give in, and took her place. "Alright hold on tight." She was roughly sitting sideways, with her arms around my shoulders.

As predicted, we did draw a lot attention, even more so when Ryou started to squeal when we got going a little too fast. The friction of using my hands on the wheels push bars proved too much before very long, so there was a point where I had to let go of the wheels all together so I could use the break levers, it was that point where we picked up a lot of speed. It was probably not a good idea, but it was fun, and we were both laughing pretty hard by the time we made it to the bottom.

"That was a lot of fun, but we probably shouldn't do it ever again."

"You're probably right, it felt like my hands were going to catch fire, maybe I should get thicker push gloves."

"Tomoya-kun, do you have any plans for Christmas?" Ryou sounded unusually shy for some unknown reason, she still blushes quite easily, but she has largely got over her shyness, when she's talking to me at least.

"I hadn't really given it much thought, why?"

"Don't you usually do anything for Christmas?" I got the feeling she was trying to hint at something.

"I usually just ignore it, I mean I'm not a Christian so there's no religious meaning to me, I hated to be anywhere near my dad, so no family events or anything and I've always been single so…" The penny finally dropped. "I'm really sorry, it didn't even cross my mind that it's kind of a couples thing. Like I said I've always been single in the past, so the romantic element was a bit lost on me. Was there anything you'd like to do?" Ryou giggled at my sudden realization.

"I don't really know, but it'd be nice to do something, this is our first Christmas together, so I wanted to do something a little more romantic than a family dinner."

"I know, how about I cook you some nice food, and we can have a nice romantic candle lit dinner." Ryou's eye lit up.

"That would be wonderful, thank you Tomoya-kun, but could we cook it together?"

"I don't see why not, but I want to do dessert myself, I'd like to be able to do something to surprise you with." Much to my surprise, and the dozen or so students near us, Ryou took my face in her hands and planted to kiss on me. When she released me, she noticed my surprised expression and her expression clearly said 'What?' Until she realised, we were being watched, at which point she turned a bright cherry red.

"I'm sorry, I got excited and didn't think."

"Hey, it doesn't bother me, it was just a surprise, that's all. You're not usually one for public displays of affection."

"I know, but I'm really looking forward to Christmas now."

"I never would have guessed. We should probably get going, before someone decides to report us for breaking the PDA rules." Ryou's eye's widened as she suddenly remembered that 'technically' as we were still in uniform, we could still be reprimanded for public displays of affection, it almost never actually happened, but it was probably best to be cautious.

"I had forgotten about that, we haven't been in uniform much for quite a while, so it just slipped my mind."

"Come on, let's go and see what yummy things we can come up with." Ryou's cooking had improved quite a lot since we started to learn together, she still had a habit of putting too much salt in, but she was improving. We had been forced to come up with some creative solutions, to make it easier for me to work in the kitchen, the counter tops were low enough for me to use, but cutting things up when your chopping board is at chest height is far from easy, so we'd come up with a cutting board that I could put on my lap, and it would sit level enough for me to work on. It worked well for moving hot dishes or oven trays around as well.

The problem in my case was that I could put something on my lap that was dangerously hot, and not feel my legs being burned, so I could end up doing a lot of damage and not know about it until the damage was done and I was at risk of a nasty infection. It's one of the less obvious problems that come with being paraplegic, honestly the first time it really sank in for me was when a knife got knocked off the counter top and cut my calf pretty deeply, I didn't notice a thing, it was only when Ryou turned round and saw I was bleeding that I was aware of it. So, if I do anything in the kitchen now, I wear thick jeans and leather shoes, just in case.

We spent nearly three hours going over all of the cookbooks we had and a few we borrowed off Kyou. Kyou had offered to cook the meal for us, but cooking had become one of our favourite things to do together, surprising given Ryou's cooking once left Botan catatonic for the better part of a day, and my experience cooking prior to my fall, consisted of instant noodles, so we politely declined.

We settled on chargrilled sea bass with chilli and lime, buttered leaks, roasted beetroot and fondant potatoes, far from healthy but oh so yummy. What I had in mind for dessert was a highly technical and risky choice, but I wanted to show her how much she meant to me.

I did my best to make it special, I laid the table as smartly as possible with a few tasteful Christmas themed decorations, two candles and some folded napkins. I'd found some instructions online, on how fancy restaurants do it and figured 'how hard can it be?' As it turns out, a lot harder than you'd think. It was all worth the effort in the end, Ryou was very impressed, and she was getting a little teary eyed, but that was because of the onions obviously, I didn't think it would have gone down too well if I had pointed out that we hadn't chopped any onions.

We had fun cooking the main course, and Ryou chatted away excitedly, it was the first time either of us had actually had a romantic partner at all, never mind having one at Christmas, so a few butterflies were to be expected. But it soon came time for my piece de resistance. I gave Ryou strict instructions to stay out of the kitchen, and not to peek.

"Good news, it actually worked." I rolled myself toward the table with my dessert still covered up, on the tray on my lap. Ryou was getting excited.

"Oooh, it smells fantastic, what is it? Let me see, let me seeee."

"Alright, alright calm down… Ta dah," I lifted the cover off the desserts. "I present you with, dark chocolate souffle with morello cherry sauce." They had puffed up perfectly, and looked perfect, even if I do say myself.

"Woooow, that looks amazing, but where's the sauce?"

"It's in the middle. Dig in you'll see." I had squirted a glob of the sauce into the middle of the mixture before I cooked it, leaving a pocket of warm cherry sauce in the centre of the souffle.

Ryou didn't need telling twice, and got stuck in, enjoying it far too much to stop long enough to actually talk. It didn't take long for her to polish it off.

"Mmmmm, that was really, really yummy. Thank you very much, I know souffles are supposed to be really tricky."

"It was a bit risky, but… you're worth it." I can't believe I actually managed to say something so corny and embarrassing. Ryou didn't seem to mind it being so corny, and she was getting a little teary eyed again. She got up from her seat across from me, came around to me, and planted a truly mind-blowing kiss on me, then hugged me.

"Thank you Tomoya-kun, I love you so much."

"You're very welcome, and I love you too." We moved to the sofa and cuddled up in front of a movie. We had been watching the film for about an hour, Ryou had been unusually quiet.

"Tomoya, can I ask you something?"

"Of course, since when do you need to ask?"

"Well, it's kind of a… big question."

"A big question huh, go ahead, ask away."

"Where do you expect to be in five years' time?"

"Honestly I haven't really got much of a clue, I mean until I know how I did in my exams, I don't really know what my options are going to be."

"I know, but what I really mean is… where do you think we are going to be in five years."

"I see what you're asking, where is our relationship going? Is that it?" Ryou nodded. I had given that particular subject a lot of thought, the way things were going, I kind of assumed that we'd get married before too long. But do I just come right out and say that? What if that's not what she's thinking? There's only one thing I can do really, try and be honest with her, deep breath and man up. "Well, I umm… It may be a bit presumptuous, but I don't know that I can imagine life without you, not that I'd actually want to, imagine that I mean."

'Tomoya, you're waffling, knock it off and get on with it.'

"Well what I mean to say is…" Here goes nothing. "I kind of figured that by then we'd be married, and maybe with a baby on the way. I mean, I don't mean to put any pressure on you, or, or make assumptions but…" Ryou interrupted my nervous prattle by kissing me more passionately than I can ever remember her kissing me before.

Once she pulled away, I was left feeling quite dazed. When you think about it, what I essentially just did, was tell her I wanted to marry her, and that I wanted kids. And her response to this was pretty clearly a yes.

Ryou was looking up at me with rosy cheeks, glistening eyes and a huge grin. Then a stray thought crossed my mind, 'did I just propose?' followed shortly after by 'Screw it, in for a penny, in for a pound.' Deep breath and.

"Fujibayashi Ryou, will you marry me?" miraculously I actually managed to get the words out. Ryou's eye's widened for a moment, in that moment the thought 'Oh crap, she doesn't want to.' Just about had time to form, but then it was equally quickly forgotten, when she lunged at me, kissing me even more passionately, she released me and wrapped her arms around me. "Yes! Yes please."

'I seriously can't believe that just happened'

Once we both calmed down a bit, Ryou resumed her previous position snuggled up next to me on the sofa, well, maybe a bit closer than before. The movie was more or less irrelevant at this point, neither one of us was paying much attention to it, I was still trying to get my head around the fact the I just got engaged, while Ryou, would occasionally look up at me, giggle and then look away again.

"I guess we should probably tell your parents."

"shall we go and do it now?" Ryou had an excited gleam in her eyes.

"If that's what you want to do, then I'm happy to do it now."

"Great, come on hurry up, let's go." Ryou was practically bouncing already.

"Alright, alright, cool your jets I'm coming."

As we entered the main house, Hatsuo-san greeted us with a somewhat surprised expression on his face.

"Oh, hello you two, I didn't think I'd be seeing either of you tonight."

"Is mom around? There's something we want to tell you both." Ryou was still really excited, so it was probably pretty obvious what it was about.

"Really, wheat ever could it be?" Hatsuo-san replied in a flat and extremely sarcastic tone. "Come on, the other two are in the dining room."

Both Kyou and Kaori-san both looked pretty surprised to see us, that is until they noticed how excited Ryou was. Kaori-san was clearly trying her best not to laugh, while Kyou just gave me a wry smile.

"Tomoya-kun just proposed, we're getting married!" Ryou, couldn't contain her excitement any longer. Ryou's parents both looked at each other.

"Well, what do you think, shell we let them get married?" Hatsuo-san was clearly quite amused and couldn't resist the opportunity for a joke. He did have point though, technically we would both need their permission. Kaori-san batted him playfully on the arm.

"Oh, don't tease, they're obviously made for each other."

"True, I did figure it was going to happen sooner or later, it does seem a bit sudden though, you're not pregnant are you Ryou?" Both our faces instantly turned bright red. "I'll take that as a no, I'm just kidding, don't worry, I know Tomoya wouldn't do such a thing, Ryou on the other hand…" He received a napkin to the face for his trouble.

"Ignore him, congratulations you two." Kaori-san to the rescue. "Although it is true, we were pretty much expecting it to happen eventually."

"Yeah, congratulations guys, now aren't you glad I managed to persuade her to confess to you?"

"Yes, I am, thank you."

"Congratulations, had you got as far as thinking about a date yet?"

"No, we hadn't got that far yet, I just got so excited when Tomoya-kun asked me, I couldn't wait to tell someone."

"I do have some suggestions, you can do what suits you best, but I'd be a pretty bad father if I didn't butt in at least a little bit."

"Go right ahead and butt in, and you'd have to work pretty hard to be a worse father than mine, so I don't think you have anything to worry about."

"True, the low standard does make it easy to look like an awesome parent; So I was thinking that realistically there are two times that would be least disruptive to your studies, we should have time to get it organised for the July to August holidays, we'd be seriously pushing it to organise much before that, I guess you could get something simple ready before that but, I think you'd have to make big compromises to do it. Or you can wait until after graduation, any of the other holidays would either be too short for you to get any time off together before you go back to school and face the extra attention you'll get, or you'll be pretty busy studying. Like I said, it's advice, not an order, so take it or leave it."

"Thanks, it does make a lot of sense, we'll discuss it and let you know."

"Alright Tomoya, out with it, what made you decide to propose? You obviously hadn't planned it, or you'd have a ring already."

"Well, Ryou asked me where I thought we'd be in five years' time, and I had already been thinking that we'd get married eventually, and maybe start a family, by the time I'd said that much, it occurred to me that it was as good as saying I wanted to marry her anyway, so why wait."

"There's no rush to start a family you know, you're pretty young to be getting married for one thing, and more importantly, I am far too young to be a grandfather."

"Oh, don't worry I'm not in too big of a rush to start a family, and we're still in school anyway, so you don't need to worry just yet."

'Is it just me or did it sound a lot like she'd already decided we wouldn't be waiting until after we graduate?'

Ryou was apparently oblivious to her slip up, Kyou however was not, and she was looking at me while quivering with barely contained mirth.

"And there's university to consider too, so it could be a few years yet anyway." Kyou couldn't hold it in anymore, and burst out laughing, shortly followed by her Dad, Ryou's confusion just added fuel to the fire, and it was five or more minutes before they calmed down enough to speak. Kyou was holding her sides trying to compose herself, while Hatsuo-san managed to calm himself enough to speak first.

"It's very nice that you've given it so much thought sweetheart, but don't you think it's something that you might want to discuss with your fiancé first?" The shocked expression on Ryou's face set Kyou off again.

"Tomoya-kun, I, I didn't mean to…" I managed to stop her before she got herself upset.

"Ryou, it's fine, I was thinking the same thing anyway." Kaori-san sighed and smiled at us.

"Would you look at that, only just engaged and they're already thinking alike." The whole thing was a bit more chaotic than I had thought it would be, having said that, between Hatsuo-san and Kyou I should have expected no less, when it comes to Kyou and Hatsuo-san, the apple didn't fall too far from the tree.

"Well then, I think we should celebrate, I think I've got a bottle of champagne stashed somewhere." A moment later Hatsuo-san returned with the bottle of champagne and a bucket of ice-water.

"Should we really be drinking, I mean three of us are under twenty?"

"One glass won't do any harm, and you only get engaged once, or at least I certainly hope so."

"Are you sure' it's okay?" I had expected Ryou to protest, but she was more into the idea than I was.

"Come on Tomoya, you're not seriously trying to tell me you've never had alcohol?" Kyou had smelled blood and was going in for the kill.

"I've made mistakes in the past, but that was then, and this is now."

"I didn't actually expect an honest answer to that one."

"Tomoya-kun is a good man, he's done a lot to put his past mistakes behind him." Ryou practically glowed with pride.

"Yeah, you're lucky you got to him first."

'What?'

"I mean, there's plenty of other girls that were interested in him." Kyou was trying her best to back pedal and hide her slip up.

"Of course, there was, he's so handsome, kind, and gentle." Ryou had either missed Kyou's implication or had chosen to do so.

"It's very nice of you to say, but it's a bit on the embarrassing side too, so shall move on to something else. Like a bottle of champagne, for example." Hatsuo-san chuckled and reached for the bottle.

"I guess it's only fair that I embarrass you a little too, you are taking one of my little girls away after all. When Ryou came to us to ask us to help you, I didn't really know you that well, but Ryou spoke very highly of you, and I've tried to raise my daughters to be good judges of character, I had no reason to doubt her judgement, but you were dating one of my precious daughters, so I kept a close eye on you, for a while anyway, I soon saw the kind of man you are, despite everything you were going through, you still tried to put Ryou's needs first, when she'd let you that is. It was immediately obvious to even a blind man how much you care about Ryou.

You have always been, kind, respectful, remarkably resilient and most importantly forgiving. The mere fact that you were willing to forgive Kyou, after what happened, that blew away any trace of doubt I ever had." Kyou, hung her head and fidgeted with the napkin in her lap.

"Kyou, look at me." Kyou looked up but wouldn't make eye contact. "Kyou, it's all in the past so chin up, we're supposed to be celebrating."

"To get back to what I was saying…"

"You really don't have to you know."

"As I was saying, forgiving Kyou was amazing enough, but the fact you apologised to her, well that really blew my mind. So, I have no doubt you'll make a fine husband for Ryou."

"Okay, okay, you said your bit, can we move on now, seriously it's embarrassing."

"Don't I get a turn?" Kaori-san chipped in. Kyou and Hatsuo-san burst out laughing as soon as they saw the pained expression on my face.

"Alright, I guess we've embarrassed him enough, for now anyway." Hatsuo-san popped the cork and poured us all a glass of champagne. "To the happy couple."