Disclaimer: Hiyori and Yokozawa and Sekai-ichi belong to Kadokawa and Nakamura-sensei.

Author's note: Many thanks for favorites, follows and reviews, they really make me happy.

This time I would also like to thank nyan-chan for beta-reading and telling me her opinion. It's much appreciated. *bows*

As you might already have noticed, I like to jump between timelines. This one is set in the future (about 4 years after the novels).

Crossing paths

This was not a situation he was prepared for. Frankly, even if somebody had told him years in advance that he would find himself facing this problem now - and to be even more frank, he should have known that one day it would happen - he still wouldn't have been able to prepare.

Maybe it was because he had been telling himself that Kirishima would be the one to bump into this situation, but that lucky bastard had dodged the bullet by working overtime today.

And now Yokozawa Takafumi was sitting on the sofa, a shivering bundle, consisting of blankets and a fourteen year-old girl, lying next to him and sobbing madly. He was completely helpless. What was he supposed to do in such a situation without making things even worse? What did they do in manga or novels? And would same things work in reality?

He doubted it.

"Hiyori-chan, shall I make you some hot cocoa?", he asked, putting a hand to where he assumed her shoulder to be.

The answer was another sob and a silent 'No'.

With a small sigh he closed his eyes and wondered why fate did this to him. Why did he, of all people, have to be the one to witness this adorable girl's first heartbreak? Really, if he found out who the guy that had dumped her was, he would drive to his house and teach him a lesson.

On second thought, he understood that Hiyori wouldn't approve of that, so he probably was not going to turn this idea into action. But he knew just as well that he would have to deal with Kirishima later, who was never satisfied with just imagining things. And this was about his daughter, which made it only worse.

All he could do to prevent his partner from committing a crime was to help Hiyori cheer up a little. Somehow.

Yokozawa was fully aware that he was not the best choice for that job, considering that he had a history of his own, one of being refused, drowning his worries in expensive alcohol and waking up in a hotel bed completely naked with a man taking a shower in the bathroom. Not a good example.

He tried another, more direct approach. "Do you want to talk about it?"

"No."

"Hiyori-chan", he mumbled and started to peel off the blanket to get a look at her face. It took him some time, but fortunately she wasn't refusing him.

Her cheeks were flushed, eyes red and swollen and her hair was a little messy. Still, he thought that she was better off without a boy who didn't understand that she was the most beautiful thing in the whole world. Any boy, who was lucky enough to have a girl like her fall in love with him, should understand that without a doubt.

"I know I'm anything but suitable to talk about these kinds of things, but maybe by sharing your worries the weight will become a little less."

She sat up and rubbed the sleeve of her sweater across her face to dry it as best as possible. "I don't want to bother you, Oniichan..."

"It bothers me most when you keep everything to yourself", he said in a low voice and wiped away a tear from the corner of her eye with his right thumb. "Now you still have the chance to tell me before your father comes home and starts interrogating you."

His heart began to warm up as she chuckled lightly.

"Yes, his reaction would be terrible."

"Sure that you don't want cocoa now?"

"Will you have some, too?"

He smiled at her and rose from the sofa to go to the open kitchen and put milk on the stove. As he turned around he noticed her leaning against the counter, the blanket draped over her shoulders.

"Hiyo-chan, you can wait on the sofa. It will only take a few minutes and you aren't wearing socks", he said, but she shook her head.

"Sulking all day won't change a thing."

"In such situations people have to sulk, you know? As long as you don't ask me to buy you booze or cigarettes, I will be your sulking-buddy."

Hiyori trudged over to the cupboard and reached for the cocoa powder. Recently she had grown quite a few centimetres, and it made him all too aware of how fast she was becoming an adult.

She mixed the powder into the milk, and together they waited for it to heat up.

"Why does it hurt so much to be rejected?"

The suddenness of her question shot through his chest like an arrow, taking his breath. At first he wasn't sure if he could reply anything at all, but a look into her hazel eyes was enough to know. She was searching for advice. This cute girl, that he loved like his own daughter, was suffering and she turned to him for comfort and answers. It would be too cruel to deny that to her.

"I believe the more you love a person the more you can get hurt. It's unfair, but an equal trade in some sense."

Again a sob escaped her lips, but she fought back the tears. "There were so many signs that it wouldn't work out. But I just didn't want to see them and closed my eyes. This is stupid, isn't it?"

"Not at all", he whispered and instinctively wrapped his arms around her. "You were hoping, and having hope is anything but stupid."

"I wish I was as smart as you, Oniichan", she murmured against his chest.

"What are you saying?" He lifted a hand and combed his fingers through her soft hair. "I am just as pathetic as anybody else. I also was chasing after a love that wasn't meant to be for a long time, you know?"

Slowly she lifted her head to look at his face. "Really?"

It was hard to tell her about this part of himself, to shatter her idea of him being flawless. He closed his eyes, because it was impossible to look into her pure eyes without feeling that sting deep within him. "It was obvious that that love would end in pain, but I just wouldn't listen to reason. I kept trying and waiting for something that was destined to fail right from the beginning. And in the end I got hurt, just like you got hurt today."

She pushed her slender body deeper into his embrace, trembling the slightest bit. "How did you survive this?"

"To be honest, I didn't know myself how to survive it." Yokozawa rubbed her back in small circles and tried to make her relax. If she wanted to cry more he wouldn't stop her. As long as it made her feel better, it would be alright with him. "But there is one thing that you must never forget, Hiyo-chan. Life goes on. The pain will fade away eventually, but the experiences you have will form the person you are going to be. It's a gain."

"How can a person gain something by experiencing... this?"

Her trembling grew stronger again, so he kept on holding her. The cocoa on the stove was forgotten.

"It will make you the person who chooses a path that will cross with the path of the person you are meant to be with. The one person in this world who will treat you just the way you deserve to be treated. You will be cherished, cared for, loved deeply, and suddenly you will think 'I'm happy that things turned out the way they did'. I cannot tell you when you will find this person, but never lose hope. Because he's out there, making his own painful experiences right now."

"And eventually we will find each other..."

"Exactly."

Slowly she withdrew from his arms and took hold of his left hand. "I love you, Oniichan."

His lips curled into a soft smile and he bowed down to give her a kiss to the forehead. "I love you too, Hiyo-chan."

"I feel so sorry for you getting your heart broken back then. But you know..." She squeezed his hand. "I'm also thankful. Without that you might not have crossed paths with Papa."

"Ah... t-that...", he stuttered and felt that he was blushing like a tomato.

But all Hiyori did was to give him a heart-warming smile. "You told me a secret of yours, so I told you a secret of mine."

"How did you..."

"Oniichan!", she scolded him softly. "I'm almost fifteen. I noticed a long time ago."

"I-is that so?"

"Yup." Remembering the cocoa, she turned off the stove and put the pot into the sink. "I guess this is spoiled. Too bad."

Absolutely lost in the unexpected situation, Yokozawa only managed to scratch the back of his neck and look at the mess. "Shall we prepare new milk?"

"I'd love that", she agreed and bumped her body into his side. "But don't tell Papa, promise?"

"You should tell him yourself. He will be thrilled to know that he can do even more embarrassing things in front of you now."

"Nah, maybe later. It's just too much fun watching him trying to be subtle."

He looked at her cheerful expression out of the corners of his eyes, shoulders sinking. "You two are truly of the same breed, you realize that?"

"That's why you love us both."

"I guess you nailed it, my lady."

Next time: Suffering assistants, exhausted editors and an angry printing department