Chapter 18

Father and Son

The moment Kise got home, the first thing he did was get into his shower. He bathed in cold water, head to toe, washing off all the sweat that surged up from practice. He took his sweet time, enjoying the cold water against his flushed body, cooling off all the heat. Once he was done he rushed himself to put on clothes, to go down and eat the food his mother had prepared and rush back up to his room to get whatever he had to do done for the night. Kise didn't want to go to bed late if he did, he knew there was a high chance that he was going to wake up late

Kise entered his room. He went over to his bed, laid down and started to become motionless for a minute. This is how it all starts. When Kise wants to finish something important, or when has so much to do, he ends up not doing it until the last minute, he would get distracted by the littlest things and that would set him off. He hated procrastinating and he couldn't escape not doing it, it always found a way to reach him, and at the end of the day, it would be him who would end up in trouble of damaging his grades. After what felt like five minutes, Kise forced his body to sit upright. He looked around his clean room for no reason at all. He reached over the side of his bed to pull up his backpack. He slowly opened it up, fishing through all the papers he had stuffed in there over the many days of school. Once he got them out, instead of getting his pencil and doing his work, Kise went ahead and dumped all the papers he had inside his backpack out onto his bed. He looked through all the papers, separating the important and throwing the not so important ones on the floor. When Kise finished, he took the important papers and started to place each of them in their rightful place, after that he got off his bed, took handfuls of papers, throwing them away in the nearest trash bin, which was all the way down in the kitchen.

Kise rushed back to his room, slamming the door shut in the process. He threw himself on top of his bed. Found a pencil and focused on his work. Kise was finally able to complete his homework. But he had another task to do,his English assignment that he completely forgot about. He was lucky enough that one of his classmates finished reading the book a long time ago, he got more lucky when that same student was able to give Kise the book along with sending him some of his work. That made it easier for Kise to catch up in time and finish it right by the end of the week. Kise rarely ever asked anyone to give him answers to homework or classwork, he would always do them himself no matter how hard the task was or even if he didn't pay attention to the teacher.

Kise knew he owed his friend anything he asked for, it was the right thing to do. Kise didn't like taking from people and not giving them anything back in return. Even if it was the other way around, and Kise gave them something, he wouldn't want them to give him anything, he would just give and give. His mother had told him many times that giving things out willingly isn't always the best thing. It would be better to just accept what they give you, or you would put yourself in their debt every time. But of course, Kise really didn't listen.

Kise reached into his book bag once more to retrieve the book they were supposed to read. Once he got it out it was hard not to notice the book cover. The bottom half of the book was dark blue, designed to represent water while the top half was designed as the sky with a face in the middle. The book name was colored in a dark purple, "She's Come Undone" it had. Kise opened to the first chapter and began to read. He wanted to get as far ahead as he could, he didn't want to struggle to finish it.

Kise read and read and read until his eyes hurt. He got pretty far in, but not far enough. The book itself was thick and what seemed like a lot of reading to Kise was barely anything the moment he placed a piece of paper inside and closed the book. Kise took the book and shoved it back into his backpack while he simply just shoved his homework onto the floor. He stretched his arms, letting out a small yawn. Kise reached over to his phone that was placed on top of his dresser.

Once he grabbed, he turned it on, only to find that he had no messages, no notifications, no nothing and to Kise it made it seem like he was a lonely man.

It was 11;43 pm a few minutes before midnight. Placing his phone back onto the dresser, Kise got up from his bed. He opened his door, peeking his head through, listening carefully to see if his parents were downstairs. When he heard nothing, he slowly made his way down, silently cursing at the squeaking the stairs made. If his parents weren't downstairs they might have been sleeping and Kise didn't want to wake them up, it would have been hell, so halfway down the stairs, he decided to sprint all the way down. The squeaking stopped, but Kise ended up crashing into a wall, making a few picture frames fall, making more noise than the stairs did. He stood there not moving, to scared to know what was going to happen next. "Ryouta" he heard. Looking over to his side. Kise's father was standing close to him, a slice of pizza in his hand. Kise expected him to say something but instead his father just made a weird motion with his hands towards the fallen picture frames. Kise nodded, waited until he left before picking them up. Kise bent over and picked up one of the frames, taking a good look at it. It was one of his baby pictures, a picture anyone in the world hate to share with anyone. Kise was probably a few months old, he had a few strands of hair wildly sticking out anywhere. He was in a small bathtub, naked, and near the bottom of the picture was a huge smiley face, covering his private parts. Kise could feel himself grow red, then get pissed. 'Why, why,why' was all he thought. Why would his mother have this type of picture in a frame, or why would she hang up where anyone can see it. It was as if she was trying to humiliate him. Kise placed the picture back on the floor. He stood up, leaving it right where it was.

Kise made his way over to the kitchen. His father was sitting down on one of the stools they had with a huge box of pizza right in front of him. "When are you going to share," Kise said as he sat down next to him. His father swallowed the food he had in his mouth before speaking, "Never" he said, smiling after. Kise just rolled his eyes, taking a small piece for himself. "Hey! You're going to get fat if you eat at night" his father said a he reached for the piece Kise had in his hands, "What about you!" Kise respond. "I'm an adult, so shh"

"Yeah, let's see what mom has to say about that" when Kise said that his father stopped reaching for his pizza, he went and took another slice from the box. "Nicely played, but she isn't here"Kise let out a small oh. They both ate in silence, never looking at one another, they just kept their eyes forward and ate. Once all the pizza was gone, Kise's father went over to the fridge. Kise assumed he was going to get something to drink so he just sat there.

When Kise heard the refrigerator door slam shut he decided to turn his head only to see his father with a small cake in his hands. "I'm going to be nice and share this with you...don't tell your mom" he said. Kise didn't say anything, he carefully watched as his father took the small cake to the table, placing it right in between them, he watched as his father took the box of pizza and threw it over to the trash, he watched as his father went over to one of the drawers and took out two big spoons.

Kise happily took the spoon, slamming it down into the cake, taking a huge piece."Hey, be gentle to it" his father said as he mimicked the same actions Kise just did. The cake was dark chocolate with little pieces of chocolate chips in it. The frosting was also chocolate and Kise was tearing up at how good the cake tasted. "Good right, if only your mother listened to me"

"What do you mean?'

"So, last year for your birthday, we kind of forgot to buy your cake. So we were driving around town trying to find a cake store or any place that sold pastries. While we were driving I remembered that one of my co-workers had brought in some cupcakes and let me tell you, those cupcakes were soooooo good. She told us where she had bought them. So I go and tell you, mom. Hey I know this great place that makes the best cakes, they do about anything, simple to whatever there is possible. Of course, I didn't know if that was true or not, I was just trying to make it sound really great so she would say yes and she did say yes."

He took another piece of cake before continuing. "We go there and the prices were high. I mean for a small cake like this it was about 3262 yen($30). The moment your mother saw the prices she was like no, nope, no way and I was like honey, it will be worth it, I promise you, but she still said no. I even begged her, but no. So we went back to looking around town, in the next town over we find a cake shop, the prices were moderate, but the place itself wasn't good. Like the place was super dirty and I guess you mom did see it. I tried to change her mind again but she...just no, it didn't work out well. She bought the cake and umm you know the rest. But oh well, you have to listen to your wife, no way around it"

"That's tough. Love is hard"

"That's just the minimal, bud. Love is hard"

"I know" Kise's father didn't say anything for a while. "It's weird that you agree and..."

"What do you mean it's weird? Just because I'm a teenager does not mean that I don't know about the struggles of love. Even I have to go through hell"

"You HAVE to go through hell? Well, look at that. My son has a love life. And here you mother was saying that you needed to get your head out of basketball before you ended up all alone"

"My mother. The person who didn't want me to get to close to a girl just because..." Kise's father silently nodded as he spoke. Kise couldn't help but laugh at that. "So, who's um this lovely lady that's giving you a hard time? Wait does she think you're ugly, you know that hurts a mans feelings too. You need to tell her that"

"No..no..um..h...t-they haven't said that. They just say that I'm a bother, I should just die, I'm annoying and if they just had the chance they'd kill me. They also hit me, like kick me, throw hard objects at me, they give me nasty looks, says nasty things under their breath about me..."

"Ouch! Damn, What kind of girl is this." Kise forced out a smile. He looked at his father who was still in shock about what he just said"You like or love this person"

Kise nodded his head. "Son, there much nicer girls out there, but if you like her this much to...GOD. She's evil! What's her name!"

Kise started to bite his bottom lip. "Kasamatsu Y..."

"Hmmm" was all his father said. They went back to the cake in front of them, then out of the blue his father called out. "WAIT. Ka-sa-ma-tsu...I've heard that name before. It's the last name, right? Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Oh...Kise, were you possibly referring to that upperclassman of yours. The one who came over Saturday?"

Kise felt his cheeks go red. He didn't know what to say. Of course, his father would find that name familiar, his mother would tell him everything about his friends. Kise wanted to physically slap himself. Without saying anything, he gave a small nod. Kise felt that he could trust his father, he shared about anything with him, but his mother was a whole different case. Once he gave the nod, his father went quiet something that scared him. "Dad?"

"Well, who would've thought..."

"I-It's complicated"

"I see. I mean literally I see that. From what you mother said he's tiny...so much rage"

"I know...trust me. But, but we've made progress or is it that I've made progress. Let's just say there's some progress made"

"Really, like how"

"Like, kissing and other STUFF"

"Wow, my son has more game than I did when I was in high school"

"DAD!"

"It's true!"

"SO..like... you're totally okay with the fact that I want to be with a guy"

"Of course, I am. Why wouldn't I. Whatever you want to do or be in life, I'm not going to criticize it. It's your own life, there is no place for me or your mother to be saying what you can and can not do with it" he gave Kise a light pat on the back, "If you need to advise, or anything, like kidnapping him and such, call me"

Kise let out a laugh and rolled his eyes. "One more thing"

"What?"

"Don't tell mom. Please, I beg you"

"I won't. I promise"

Just as he said that the front door swung open. "Mom's home"

"Such timing!" his father said. A few seconds later, Kise's mother walked into the kitchen. She looked around, nodding her head. "Ryouta, why are you up so late . It's passed midnight"

"He was just going to sleep. Came down to get a snack". Kise's father patted his back. Kise stood up, placing the spoon he hand in his hand down on the table. "AH, Ryouta, we need to talk"

"Let him go to bed. It's late, talk to him tomorrow"

She didn't say anything afterward. Kise let out a sigh, walking away. He passed the knocked down pictures frames, slowly made his way upstairs, brushed his teeth and turned off the light. The moment he laid down on his bed, his body became restless. Kise knew he could trust his father with anything and in a way, it felt nice to tell someone about it. It took Kise a while to fall asleep, but when he did he a great nights sleep.

A/N: The book I mentioned in the story is an actual book. It really has a great plot to it, you should check it out :)