A/N: Okay, guys! Here's chapter two! Thank you to those who reviewed the last chapter. It was much appreciated! : )

Disclaimer: I have no exclusive rights to Prince of Tennis or anything associated with it, though I do own the full series… I also own Aiko and Naoki, as well as any other random fill-in characters who may be lurking about…

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"Oi~! Kaidoh!"

"Kikumaru-sempai, I thought you and Oishi-sempai were opening today?"

The redhead shook his head back and forth, curls bouncing. "Nope, practice opens Monday. I just came to get the last of the stuff from my locker and Oishi's office. You're still more than welcome to come work for us, you know…" He looked at his dark-haired kouhai as he spun the lock on his locker.

"I know." Kaidoh pulled the paw-print covered bandana off of his head.

"Hey, Kaidoh, did you clock out yet?"

Kaidoh turned around to see another nurse at the door. "Yeah, did you need me for something?"

"Well, not exactly. Seisha-san just wanted to know if you were friends with that guy who came in from that car accident with the baby last week. He hasn't called back here or at his doctor's for a follow up, and she was worried… She thought maybe you would know how to get a hold of him?"

"Who?" Eiji tilted his head curiously.

"I-Inui-sempai."

"Inui came in and you didn't tell me?" Eiji shouted, latching onto Kaidoh's arm. "Kaidoh must hate me to not tell me something so important~!"

Kaidoh flushed awkwardly and looked at the male nurse waiting for an answer at the door. "T-tell her I'll try to get a hold of him."

"Will do." He nodded, looked at Eiji on Kaidoh's arm, and gave the pediatric nurse a sympathetic look, mouthing 'Good luck' as he left.

"Kikumaru-sempai, we haven't been scheduled at the same time at all since it happened…"

Eiji pouted up at him, but let go. "So what happened?"

"He was in a car crash—he was okay." He stopped the oncoming question in favor of his own. "Did you know Inui-sempai was married and had a son?"

Eiji looked upset by this news. He hadn't known.

"She died in the crash… Inui and Naoki were fine, bumped up a bit, but fine."

"Naoki's his son?"

Kaidoh nodded.

"Was he okay, I mean…" He pointed at his head.

"He just said 'Oh…' and asked to be discharged. I think he was in shock…"

"Someone needs to check on him…"

"I know…"

"I can't believe he never told us… How old was the kid?"

"Almost a year."

"Come help me get the stuff from Oishi's office… I think his address book is still up there, and I bet Inui's in it."

Kaidoh followed his sempai up to Oishi's office, where they found the little book easily enough and located Inui's address and phone number, which was now on the sticky note Kaidoh was staring at. He picked up his cell phone.

"I'm sorry, the number you are trying to reach is not available at this time. Please try again later."

"Shit…" Kaidoh hung up the phone and looked at the clock next to his bed. It was only nine… If he remembered correctly from their junior high days, Inui tended to stay up late more than get up early… He'd still be awake, right?

It was only a short bus ride to Inui's house, twenty minutes maybe… He wondered what the inside of the apartment looked like as he knocked on the door.

He heard scuffling on the other side and knocked again. "Inui-sempai?"

The door cracked open. "Kaidoh…"

They stared at each other for a moment before Inui muttered, "Come in," and opened the door wider.

Kaidoh toed off his shoes and handed Inui his coat when the doctor gestured for it. Glancing to his right, he saw two desks with a small table between them, which, from the looks of it, served as the household catch-all spot. Pictures littered the make-shift office's wall space, and notebooks and manila folders stuffed with papers blanketed the floor.

"So," Inui said evenly as he led Kaidoh past a closed door into an open kitchen and living room space, "to what do I owe this pleasure?" He motioned for Kaidoh to sit on the couch and immediately went to the kitchen, retrieving a tea kettle from the cupboard.

Kaidoh glanced around the kitchen as he answered. The sink was full of unwashed bottles and bowls caked in infant cereal. The formula mix was sitting at the ready on the counter. He didn't see any plates or take-out boxes suggesting Inui's eating habits. "Seisha-san, the nurse who was on duty when you came in, saw that you still hadn't come in for a follow-up today and asked if I could check in on you… We were worried too, of course, but—"

Inui, who had been filling the kettle with water from the faucet, twisted the water off and placed the silver vessel on the stove to boil. "We?"

"Kikumaru and I."

"Ah, well, please tell Seisha-san that even though I do not practice in a hospital every day, I am a licensed medical doctor and am perfectly capable of taking care of a mild concussion." Inui took a cup from one cabinet and fished through another. "You still like black tea, right?" He paused, hand in the process of fishing a tea bag from its container.

"Yeah…" Kaidoh looked away, eyes flicking over the bookshelf and the small television set perched in its entertainment center. His eyes came to rest finally on Naoki. Inui had spread out a baby blanket and lined the sides with pillows. The baby was sprawled out on his back in his pajamas. Puppies, Kaidoh thought the print might have been, though he couldn't quite tell.

"So, you and Kikumaru work together?" Inui set the tea cup in front of Kaidoh on the coffee table. Tucking his legs underneath himself, he sat on the floor opposite Kaidoh, effectively placing himself between the nurse and his son.

Kaidoh lifted the tea cup and sipped before answering. "Kikumaru is—was one of the head nurses in out pediatrics ward. He and Oishi just recently left. Their new private practice opens on Monday. Kikumaru just came in to get the last of their things today." He stopped, feeling like he was rambling.

"I see…"

"Inui-sempai, how are you doing?" The nurse put his cup on the table, looking at Inui. His hair was dull, dark circles were starting to appear just under the rims of his characteristic black-framed glasses, his blue flannel pajamas were rumpled from what could only have been several days of wear… combined with the fact that Kaidoh hadn't seen and signs of the older man eating properly, he was worried.

"I don't know what you mean, Kaidoh."

"Inui sempai, I can tell you're not taking care of yourself."

"Naoki is fine, and I'm—"

Kaidoh met him with a knowing look and a hiss of disapproval.

Inui swallowed thickly. "I'm handling things just fine, Kaidoh." He pushed up his glasses. "Thank you for your concern."

"Inui-sempai… Aiko-san wouldn't want this. If she cared about you, she would want you to be taking care of yourself…" Kaidoh said slowly, unsure of the reaction he would garner.

When Inui didn't respond he continued, "Have you slept at all? Eaten? Showered?" Inui had turned his head to look at Naoki sleeping peacefully in his pillow fortress. "I know you're taking good care of Naoki, but if you keep this up… He will notice, Inui-sempai."

"I know…" Inui said quietly, forcing the shaky words from his mouth.

He knew this was going down a very dangerous path. He'd seen many families grieving at the hospital—mothers coming in every day to see their child for weeks after they'd passed in hopes they'd be asleep in their hospital beds, fathers lashing out at the doctors or nurses who delivered the news to them, and spouses… He'd never really seen, since he worked almost exclusively in pediatrics, but there were stories.

Inui-sempai used to be his friend, was still his friend even if they had drifted apart. There had to be some reason they'd been brought together again…

Kaidoh hadn't realized he'd gotten up until he was dropping himself to the floor next to Inui. "You need to grieve, but this isn't the way to do it."

It was subtle, but the doctor's shoulders began to tremble. He bowed his head, and his hands came up, one removing his glasses, the other covering his face. The soft shaking grew to a jarring tremor as Inui sobbed.

Kaidoh let his hand rest over the hand Inui was attempting to crush his glasses with, rubbing his thumb against the edge of his palm soothingly. Eventually, the tears stopped and Inui took a few shaky breaths, scrubbing at his eyes. "Thank you, Kaidoh…"

"You should go shower and change. I'll watch Naoki for you." Kaidoh removed his hand as Inui returned his glasses to their rightful place, turning away as to not look at Inui's eyes, unsure if that particular quirk of the former tennis player's had followed him into adulthood.

"I couldn't ask you to do that." Inui shook his head.

"Inui-sempai, you took care of me all through junior high. Let me do this for you."

They stood together, Inui nodding. "Thank you, again…"

Kaidoh shrugged. "You'd do the same for me. Go shower."

Inui disappeared down the hall to the bathroom, leaving Kaidoh alone in the living room. He looked down at the sleeping baby and then to the kitchen. "Might as well do something productive."

He started with dishes, checking the dishwasher to find it void of everything, save two coffee cups in the top rack. Kaidoh looked disdainfully at the bowls half-full of crusted infant cereal, all that remained in the sink after the bottles had been cleaned. He hadn't seen dishes this caked with food since he and Momoshiro had shared an apartment in college. He filled them with water to soak before moving on to the rest of the kitchen.

Kaidoh spent several minutes trying to figure out where Naoki's food was supposed to be kept, deciding finally to just put it aside in case the child woke up. Cereal and formula powder were wiped up and the kettle refilled and put on low. Kaidoh looked through the cabinet Inui had pulled the teabag from earlier, finding a box of chamomile tea. He set that and a cup out for when Inui was finished with his shower.

The nurse thought for a moment about calling for takeout, but quickly decided that wouldn't be a good idea if Inui really hadn't eaten anything in the week since he'd left the hospital. He looked in the fridge and found it to be mostly health food. "Some things don't change." He decided on Miso soup, since it would be easy for Inui to eat without upsetting his stomach and didn't take long to make. As he finished whisking the dark paste into a pot of water, he heard a noise from the living room.

Naoki was wiggling in discomfort amongst the pillows and blankets surrounding him. Kaidoh picked him up carefully, immediately realizing what the problem was as he did. He shushed the fussy baby and looked around the room. "Now where do your mommy and daddy keep your diapers," he whispered to the little boy.

Kaidoh bypassed the bathroom, hearing the shower going from outside the door, and opened the door to his left, glad to find it was Naoki's. The nurse made quick work of changing the baby's soiled diaper, glad now more than ever he frequently worked with babies. Naoki kicked his legs when Kaidoh tried to snap his pajamas back on, laughing.

Kaidoh smiled and pinned the kicking appendages down, much to the boy's chagrin. "You," Kaidoh said, "are just like your dad. He used to love making things harder than they had to be for the team. I bet you make yucky juice when you get older too." He picked Naoki up, balancing him on his hip when he spied a basket full of dirty clothes and blankets. He looked over at the crib.

"I'm going to go put these in the washer, you stay right here." He set the baby down in his crib and picked up the basket. When the laundry was safely in the washer, he looked back at the little boy again from across the hall. "I guess I should check to see if your daddy has any laundry too, huh?" Kaidoh listened, checking that the shower was still on before heading towards the room he'd passed on his way in. Feeling extremely intrusive he opened the door slowly and flicked on the lights. He wasn't expecting to see what he did.

Photographs, at least a hundred, littered the bed. Kaidoh shook his head, looking away from the smiling young woman eternalized in each of the glossy pieces of paper to search for a laundry basket. He first found the clothes Inui had been wearing when he'd been checked into the hospital and scooped those up. The laundry basket, he found a moment later, only had a set of red flannel pajamas in it, ones that matched the blue ones Inui was currently wearing. He left it alone, knowing they were Aiko's.

He went to Inui's dresser—there was men's jewelry and a wallet on it—and pulled a fresh pair of night clothes from the second drawer.

He heard Naoki babbled in his crib as he walked back towards the laundry room. Kaidoh recognized "Dada" and "sad" in the mix, and felt a pang of worry in his chest. Naoki already knew, maybe not what exactly was wrong, but that something was, and that it was upsetting Inui. Kaidoh made a soft hiss and stopped at the bathroom door.

He quietly opened the door and set the clothes on the counter, picking up the blue flannel pajamas and leaving just as silently. The shower shut off when Kaidoh was measuring out detergent to add to the wash. He poured the cap-full of liquid in and turned the machine on, turning on his heel to retrieve Naoki from his crib.

When Inui came out of the bathroom, he found Kaidoh in the kitchen stirring a pot on the stove. Naoki pointed at him, saying "Dada." Kaidoh turned, seeing Inui. "Yep, that's your daddy." He assured the boy.

"I'll take him…" Inui reached out, smiling softly when Naoki extended his arms in return. "Thanks for doing all this. You didn't have to."

Kaidoh looked over his shoulder as he poured water into the glass he'd set out earlier. "No, but I didn't mind doing it." He handed Inui the cup and turned to get a bowl out of another cupboard.

"Kaidoh, I'm really not hungry right now…"

"You have to eat, Inui-sempai." Kaidoh gave him a stubborn look, knowing if he insisted Inui wouldn't put up a fight.

"Just… Let me make him a bottle and put him to bed, I'll eat afterwards."

Kaidoh's hand reached behind him to grab something Inui hadn't noticed before and brought it in front of his face. A bottle. Naoki reached for it and, once it was safely in his possession, laid his head on Inui's chest and sucked at it lazily. He looked between the two adults curiously.

"I'll… be back." Inui left the kitchen, walking down the hallway. Kaidoh heard the soft tonal lull of a one-sided conversation and the static noise of a baby monitor before the door shut.

Inui waved him into the living room over the counter, frowning when he saw the tea and soup bowl in Kaidoh's hands. There wasn't much to do in the way of protesting, though. His former kouhai was nothing if not tenacious.

"Do you want to talk about it?"