Chapter 2

Waking to bright sunshine that flooded his bedroom, Sendoh immediately thought of Akio and what he might be up to. It was way too late on a Saturday for Akio not to have gotten into ten different kinds of mischief. Sendoh got out of bed with a grumble, knowing he would need to deal with something.

It was like that for him every morning since Akio learned to walk. Before that, it was his crying that would wake Sendoh. Sendoh would go over his crib, and as soon as Akio saw him he would stop crying and start babbling at him. Little faker. Later on, it was an incessant "Dadadadadadada" that would have Sendoh going over to his crib at the crack of dawn. Holding on to the crib railing, Akio would grin at him and bounce there in his footie pajamas until Sendoh picked him up.

These days Akio let him sleep later but not without consequences. When Sendoh first started at the restaurant, Akio's attempts at cooking would have to be cleaned up. Not being allowed to go near the stove or the microwave or use knives, Akio just mixed random things.

"Do you want to try it?" he would ask, an eager look on his face.

Thank God he was mostly over the obsession.

After a quick visit to the bathroom, Sendoh went in search of Akio.

"What is this?" Sendoh asked seeing his old CD's arranged into a tower in the middle of the living room. It was a dangerously crooked structure. All over the carpet, action figures were perched around it in different poses.

"Just Akio around," Akio said proudly. His great-grandfather had taught him that phrase. Now Akio used it every chance he got.

"Are you going to put them all back?" Sendoh said of the CD's.

"Not yet. I need them," Akio said. That's when the CD tower crashed.

"And I need coffee," Sendoh said leaving Akio to deal with the disaster.

Akio was telling his action figures, "Watch out, guys. Oh, no. You got crushed. Don't worry. I'll save you."

Sendoh expected Akio would eventually put away the CD's, putting the ones that had fallen out into the wrong cases, of course. Good thing the days of CD's were over. Sendoh only held on to them for sentimental reasons. It was a collection he and his brother, Akida, had put together and fought over when they were kids.

With Akida living in New Zealand, married with kids of his own, Sendoh hardly ever saw him. The last time Akida visited the Japan, he had seen that Sendoh still had the CD collection and he had laughed. It was also the first time he had met Akio. Akio had taken him right away because Akida was loud and funny.

Seeing Akio, Akida said, "He's a the Sendoh, all right."

Akio might not be a the Sendoh's by blood, but he was in his heart. He had that indomitable the Sendoh spirit that drove Akida all over the world until a New Zealand girl finally made him settle down. The same spirit only drove Sendoh up the corporate ladder until Akio came along. That's when he found out what it meant to be a the Sendoh's, specifically Akira Sendoh.

Sendoh had felt something inside him awaken at the fateful moment when he asked Sanarra to have the baby she was carrying. She didn't want a child, and Sendoh realized that he did. He asked her to have the baby so he could adopt him. It had been a leap as great as flying to the ends of the world, and the reward was the best thing he could imagine- a beautiful little son, who got into everything, made a big mess, and filled his heart with joy.

This morning, while Sendoh's back was turned, Akio decided to spruce up his cereal with chocolate ball.

"Chocolate ball don't go in cereal," Sendoh said, taking the bag away from him after a few of them made it in and sank to the bottom of the cereal bowl. "See? They can't swim."

"Don't worry. I'll save you guys," Akio said as he fished them out from the bottom and ate them.

"You call that saving them?"

Akio nodded and grinned.

"No more sneaking chocolate ball into your cereal," Sendoh told him.

Saturdays and Sundays, Sendoh went in to work later. He and Akio usually put in only a few hours. Wednesday was Sendoh's only full day off for now. Though it cut into their weekend, Akio liked going to the bistro so it wasn't a major sacrifice.

As Sendoh drove to the bistro with Akio, he wondered if there was any chance that Rukawa would be there again today. He tried hard not to look forward to Rukawa coming to the bistro to look over his shoulder. Rukawa was definitely a mixed blessing.

"The big boss is here," Fujima said when he saw Sendoh coming in. He pointed a thumb toward Sendoh's office. He and Maki were busy unpacking some crates by the delivery entrance.

"You mean me," Sendoh said. He was still Fujima's boss as far as he knew.

"No. I mean the big boss," Fujima said, keeping a straight face. Maki grinned though.

Sendoh went into the office while Akio lingered to watch them opening up the crates, wanting to see what was inside. Fujima had a good eye so Sendoh had put him in charge of checking over the deliveries so they wouldn't get shorted or otherwise screwed over by the suppliers like they used to.

"Sure you can use my desk," Sendoh said when he saw Rukawa sitting there already, though not in his chair, on the opposite side.

"I needed somewhere to work," Rukawa said pointing to the other desk.

Akio's desk was clearly unavailable. It was covered with stuff that was supposed to keep Akio busy and out of Sendoh's hair while he worked. Papers and crayons were buried under toys, and Akio's drawings were tacked up above the desk.

"You were here when I left yesterday. Don't tell me you were here all night," Sendoh said as he cleared Akio's crayons and toys from the smaller desk.

"I'm not that much of a workaholic. But I did come in early," Rukawa said.

"You didn't find something wrong with our books, did you?" Sendoh asked, seeing what he was looking at on his laptop.

"No. Just going over everything. I'm mostly evaluating your procedures. I want to change a few things and update some of the software," Rukawa said.

"Not updates. I hate updates. Something always gets screwed up," Sendoh grumbled while Rukawa moved his laptop to the desk Sendoh had cleared for him.

Rukawa looked up at his whining. "I'll walk you through it, and it will make things easier in the end." Rukawa said. "You big baby" was implied.

Akio came in just then. "It was artichokes," he said of the crates he had seen them unpacking. "Uncle Fujima gave them a thumbs up." Akio demonstrated the slow thumbs up that was Fujima's trademark.

"Hello," Rukawa said, surprised to see him.

"Hello!" Akio told him as he dropped his book bag on the floor. The noise it made revealed that it held more toys than books today.

"You're here again," Rukawa said.

"Uncle was here again too. Saturday is a workday for me and Dad," Akio said.

"We're glad to see you too," Sendoh told Rukawa, who didn't look a hundred percent pleased to see Akio.

"That's the homework desk. Are you doing homework?" Akio asked seeing that Rukawa was sitting at his usual place.

"No. Just work," Rukawa told him.

"Kio, you can sit over here," Sendoh told him pointing out the other side of his desk, where Rukawa had been sitting before.

"Dad, you said I couldn't sit there because I was too distracting," Akio reminded him.

"Uncle Rukawa is distracting too," Sendoh said though he meant it in a completely different way.

"Does uncle make faces at you, Dad?" Akio asked.

"Kind of."

Rukawa gave them a look over his shoulder but said nothing.

After a little while, Akio handed Sendoh some of his homework and he looked it over.

"Dad, you should check over what uncle's doing too," Akio said pointing at Rukawa.

"Actually, uncle is checking over what I'm doing," Sendoh told him. "Ready for a snack?" he asked Akio.

"Yes. Uncle should have one too," Akio said, pointing at Rukawa again.

"You know, uncle Rukawa is not your playmate. He's kind of my boss," Sendoh reminded him.

"Kind of?" Rukawa said, finally speaking up.

Sendoh smiled at him. "Want a snack?"

Akio nodded at Rukawa to encourage him to say yes.

"No, thank you," Rukawa said and turned back to his work.

When Rukawa was getting ready to leave, Sendoh decided to walk him out. He wanted to settle the issue of Akio coming to work with him.

"I can see your disapprove of every day being bring your son to work day. I hope you're not going to make trouble for me," Sendoh said as they stepped into the parking lot in the back.

"I just don't think it's ideal to have him here so often," Rukawa said.

"Ideal? What does ideal have to do with raising a kid?" Sendoh said.

"I wouldn't know," Rukawa said in a tight voice and started to walk away.

Sendoh got a weird vibe from him at that moment, but he didn't feel like he could ask him about it. Rukawa definitely had issues with kids. Too bad, Sendoh thought as he watched him walk to his rental. That didn't mean Rukawa was a total loss. A body like that couldn't be allowed to go to waste. They could still fool around if Sendoh ever managed to break through his hard shell.

TBC.

SHE: TQ for the first review! I appreciate it. I was a bit slowly for this story, cause I'm focusing on my first story. But, no worries. I'm still continuing this for sure, but will take a bit time for giving an update. Hehe

PauPau: Aw, my cutie PauPau was here!! Muahh! TQ so much cutey Pau! For liking my second story as well. I was exciting, too! when I saw your name appear. hehe