You guys get to meet Kei and Akiteru's dad in this chapter! Just to be clear, Mr. Tsukishima is not a canon character. I made him up purely for the purposes of this story. Enjoy :)

Lunar Eclipse

Chapter Sixteen

Sugawara had never felt more anxious in his life than when he sat waiting for Amaya to return from her talk with the doctor. Despite Ukai's attempts at assuring him how unlikely it was that the worst-case scenario really had come true, he couldn't help the growing nagging feeling in the back of his mind that told him things were exactly as bad as he'd feared.

It had been about ten or fifteen minutes before the door once again opened and the group saw Amaya's return. Of course, nobody expected her to glow, but they never expected quite the level of emptiness they found staring back at them, either. She sauntered over to them without saying a word, looking more like a zombie than a living person. She stopped when she reached the area where they were sitting and sat back down in her chair, as silent as a ghost. They stayed like that, waiting in tension, for several seconds.

Being the only other semi-functional adult in the room, Ukai supposed he'd better get the party started. Stumbling over his words a bit, he got Amaya's attention.

"Uh, Amaya?" She turned to look at Ukai, her eyes showing some semblance of recognition for the first time since walking into the waiting area.

"What'd they tell you? About Akiteru?"

As soon as Akiteru's name passed Ukai's lips, Amaya began to cry. It took her several seconds of mumbling, but when she finally did speak, her words were barely audible.

"They said it was sleeping pills... Sleeping pills killed my little baby..."

"W-What are you talking about!?" Yamaguchi broke in, horrified. She turned her focus to Yamaguchi, struggling to keep her meager hold on reality.

"Tadashi... I'm so sorry, honey... Akiteru... He... he didn't make it..."

"What... M-Mrs. Tsukishima... You can't be...You can't be serious..." he whimpered. Sugawara muttered a soft "no" beside him.

"They said... they think it was an accident... he mistimed his doses... I... I never gave him any sleeping pills..." Amaya began to stare off into space again, and Ukai figured he'd better reel her back in before things got any worse.

"Hey, Amaya - "

"I'm sorry," she interrupted, standing from her chair and stalking off toward the hallway in the other direction, "I need to call my husband..." And with that Amaya once more left the group alone.

Every major hospital had a quiet room - Amaya knew enough about them to know that much. Whether it was a chapel, as was usually the case with most Christian-run hospitals, or simply a plain room with a small setup of folding chairs, every hospital had a place for people to be alone with themselves. Amaya had read stories online about doctors who hated passing by quiet rooms, because seeing someone inside always meant that someone they loved was dead or dying. She'd seen medical dramas on television with scenes that took place in quiet rooms. Some important doctor was always contemplating a mistake they'd made, a patient they'd failed to save, only to have another doctor or some other such person come in and start some deep conversation about the meaning of life. And that was supposed to make it okay that the person died. Except it wasn't okay. It was never okay.

When Amaya found the quiet room, she saw that it resembled a chapel. It was mostly dark, with a few dimmed ceiling lights hanging above, and a long table like an alter stretching across the front wall, covered by a green velvet cloth. Rows of folding chairs filled the middle of the room. There weren't any obvious religious symbols, but what looked like a small stack of books on meditation and life after death on a side table near the door. A definite air of reverence hung about the place, and Amaya could smell what reminded her of an old apple spice scented candle she got as a gift in college, only there weren't any candles lit anywhere in the room. The best thing she noticed was that the entire room was empty.

She took a seat in the back corner of the tiny room by a window, and took her cell phone out of her purse. Hands shaking, she dialed her husband's personal number.

Yoshirou Tsukishima adjusted his tie in the mirror of his apartment in New York City. He was startlingly attractive for a man quickly approaching sixty - tall, well-built, bright blond hair, a firm brow, dark eyes, and a sturdy jaw. There were wrinkles around his eyes, frown lines in his forehead, and small streaks of grey blending with his vibrant blond, but he was no less formal. Yoshirou Tsukishima looked every part the businessman. After he fixed his tie and brushed the lint from his suit for the third time, he looked over at the digital clock resting on his nightstand. It was just after 4pm, meaning it was about 5am the next morning back home in Japan. His wife Amaya would still be asleep, and so would his two sons, Kei and Akiteru.

It also meant that he had just under two hours before he had to be at Le Coucou to have dinner with his company higher-ups. He didn't know much about the place except that it was expensive, French, and provided its customers with a stunning view of Central Park. He thanked his mother's discipline that he wasn't a picky eater. It was absolutely crucial that he make an excellent impression on his bosses.

He'd spent the last hour and a half memorizing all the statistics for the company's Japanese branch for the last three months, including sales, advertisement costs, and highlights from the annual reports on all his employees. He knew all eyes were going to be on him this evening, and the people from the American headquarters were going to expect him to know every last detail about how the company was managing in Japan. The slightest misstep could get him fired. It was terrifying.

He considered calling Amaya about it anyway, just to have someone to talk to in an effort to calm his nerves, but he suppressed the urge. She was handling the boys and the house alone. She needed her sleep. He guessed he could talk to Akiteru, provided he happened to have an early shift and was therefore awake, but Yoshirou decided against that, too. His eldest son would probably be much more nervous about Yoshirou's job than he was. He'd be more of a hindrance than a help, and that wouldn't do either of them any good. No, he realized he'd just have to suck this up and deal with it. He could call Amaya and the boys after dinner, when they were awake for the day, and tell them all about how it went.

Before he could ponder it anymore, his cell phone rang. He walked over to his nightstand, took his phone from the stained wooden surface, and answered the call.

Amaya shivered as she waited for her husband to pick up the phone. She knew he'd probably be busy - he was up to his eyes in corporate suits - but after everything that had happened to her tonight, the only person she truly needed to comfort her was the man she married. After what felt like an eternity, he answered the phone.

"Amaya, I was just thinking of calling you. What are you doing awake this early?" Amaya sucked in her breath. She needed to take it slow.

"I never went to sleep."

"Was it the neighbor dog again? You really need to tell them - "

"No, Yoshirou, it wasn't the dog... You need to come back to Japan." Yoshirou almost dropped his phone in surprise.

"In two hours, I'm going to have the most important dinner of my career, I can't just hop on a flight back to Japan on a whim!" Amaya clenched her fists at her husband's comment. An irrational anger raced through her core and into her limbs, setting her entrails on fire. She knew he had no way of knowing what was happening at home. She didn't care.

"Listen! Our family is falling apart, and I can't hold it together by myself! So get your ass back here and be the husband and father you vowed you would be!"

Her words were the verbal equivalent to a slap in the face. Amaya didn't lose her temper. Amaya didn't swear. The last time his wife of thirty years let a curse word fall from her lips was sixteen years ago when her father died suddenly of a heart attack and her mother didn't tell her until after the funeral. To hear that kind of hostility in his wife's voice meant that whatever was wrong was at least on par with her father's death. It made his blood run cold.

"Amaya... What's wrong?" She took in a shaky breath. Here she was, about to ruin her husband's peace with three little words.

"... Akiteru just died."

To say that the floor had disintegrated underneath his feet would be an understatement. There was no conceivable way his wife could be lying to him, and yet it was unreal. It was like a massive bout of vertigo - everything around him was spinning out of control, yet he was standing perfectly still. He felt like he was caught in a hurricane, everything blurring into one solid mass of mind-numbing sorrow.

"Yoshirou? Are you still there?"

Amaya had started crying heavily; he could hear it over the phone. She was sniffling and hiccupping, her voice breaking when she tried to speak. She couldn't cry on command - further proof this nightmare wasn't a cruel joke. When he finally answered Amaya, he spoke evenly.

"... Yes. I'm here. What happened to Akiteru?"

"It was a sleeping pill overdose. The doctors said that usually when someone… when someone tries to…tries to…kill…themselves, they take the whole bottle, so because Akiteru didn't, they think it was an accident."

"Where did he get sleeping pills?"

"I don't know. I never gave him any. Maybe someone at work or at the college did. I found him in the waiting room and I thought he was asleep because it was 4:30 in the morning and he worked early today until I realized... I realized his chest wasn't moving. I checked to see if he was breathing and I couldn't feel anything and I thought, you know, maybe I'm imagining it because my hand's shaking so badly that it's like it has a mind of its own but I wasn't...and then... I just started screaming. There were these two other people in the waiting room with me who realized what was happening and one of them waved down a doctor and they started doing CPR right there on the floor and they took him away and the next thing I know they're telling me there was nothing they could do..."

Amaya had become less and less coherent as her story went on, as her tears almost completely overcame her ability to speak. Yoshirou interrupted her before she could ramble anymore.

"Hold on a minute, what waiting room? Why would Akiteru be in a waiting room in the first place? Why were you in a hospital?"

Amaya braced herself for the second bomb she was going to drop on her husband that night.

"Because... Because Kei's having surgery."

"Amaya," Yoshirou began, keeping a very careful eye on his heartrate, "Why is Kei having surgery? What the hell happened over there?"

Amaya took a careful breath and proceeded to tell her husband about their youngest son's late-night volleyball practice, about how he didn't come home, and about Officer Hashimoto and his devastating news.

"…When I opened the door and saw it was a police officer, all my worst fears came true. He… he told me that there was a robbery at a convenience store not too long ago, and that the situation had escalated to a shooting. Yoshirou… Kei was at that convenience store… he and his friend Sugawara stopped there to grab some sodas after practice…"

"Amaya… "

"Yoshirou… someone put a bullet in our little boy… "

"Amaya, you need to breathe, okay? Breathe."

"Oh, god!" she'd begun screaming, "We've already lost Akiteru! What if… What if Kei doesn't make it either? Yoshirou, they showed him to me! When the doctor came into the waiting room and told me they'd lost Akiteru, he took me to see him... I walked into that room and saw my son… I didn't see the grown man they had laid out on the table… I saw the infant I held in my arms the day he was born… I saw the toddler I taught how to tie his shoes… they let me hold his hand, kiss his face… he was so cold... I kept telling myself that he's just asleep… that we're back at home and he's just a little boy, and all I need to do is kiss his head and whisper that it's time for him to get up for school, and he'll open his eyes and smile at me. I… I'm never going to see him smile again… he's never going to open his eyes again… Yoshirou… I can't do that with Kei, too. They can't expect me to walk into that cold metal room one more fucking time just to see my other pride and joy lifeless on a table! They're my little boys, Yoshirou… They'll always be my little boys…"

"Amaya, we're going to get through this. I promise. I know it's difficult – it's beyond difficult – it's impossible. But I swear to you that we're going to get through this together. Amaya, I love you. I love you more than words could possibly say. And we're going to make it."

"If Kei… if Kei lives… I'm going to have to tell him his brother's dead…"

"Don't think about that now. That's a problem for another day. Just think about taking care of yourself right now. I'm going to call my bosses and catch the very next flight back to Japan I can find, okay? Hang in there. We're going to make it."

Yoshirou hung up the phone. As his energy drained into a pool at his feet, he fumbled his way onto his bed and somehow, through his increasing light-headedness and double vision, managed to dial his boss - the CEO of his company's American headquarters.

"Tsukishima, to what do I owe this pleasure? I trust you're prepared for our dinner tonight?" Yoshirou's breathing hitched.

"Yes, I am, sir, but that's actually what I'm calling about. I hate to do this last minute, but I'm afraid you'll have to cancel my reservation. I can't come to the dinner."

"What's the meaning of this, now? Tsukishima, we took you as a man of character, a strong and upstanding businessman. It certainly won't look good for you to flake on us now."

"I understand, sir, and I'm very sorry, but I just received a call from my wife back in Japan. There's been... a death in our family and she needs me back as soon as I can possibly be there."

"Tsukishima, this is your career we're talking about here - the rest of your life! Send the woman a card, and you can go back after we wrap up the paperwork next week. What do you say?" That was the last straw. Yoshirou had been trying to be kind given that the man on the other end of the line was his boss, and therefore had complete control over whether or not he got to keep his job, but insulting his wife and children was something he absolutely would not stand for. He was going to give him a piece of his mind, no matter how much his better instinct told him not to.

"With all due respect, sir," he began with a nasty tilt to his voice, "My son just died. I'm going home to be with my wife. If you don't like it, then fire me." Yoshirou hung up the phone. Tossing his phone back onto his nightstand, Yoshirou Tsukishima, every bit the businessman, did something he hadn't done in twenty years. He fell back onto his bed, put his face in his hands, and he cried.

There's chapter sixteen. What do you guys think of Tsukki's dad? Constructive criticism is always appreciated :)