A/N: Hihi, I'm back! Finished the rest of this fic for the WIP big bang held on livejournal/dreamwidth and discovered via another big bang I'm a part of. I wish I'd had the time to enter more fics, but at least I got one of my babies all grown up. :) There's 18 chapters in total so seven more to go after this, so I'll be posting every few days till August 24 to get it all out by then. Enjoy!

Ooh, almost forgot. Prompt for this chapter is interfere.

Dripping Water
Chapter 11 - outside hours (Miyuki)

Her husband was often travelling for work, but that didn't mean he was any less of a parent to Taiki than she, who was always physically there. Because when their children started crawling and working, they also start getting more and more distant.

She was biased though, as children could never be physically closer to their mother than in the womb.

Still, there was something other than the natural process of growing up that was keeping Taiki, she thought. Or perhaps this was one of those trials, those bumps, along the way. She didn't know. She didn't ask for the longest time either, but now…

He wasn't getting enough sleep. And she didn't think he was eating right either. He certainly wasn't remembering to take his bentos for lunch and Akari had complained more than once that he wasn't eating most of hers either – and it wasn't like either of them were bad cooks. Rather, if it hadn't been through sheer overexcitedness and forgetfulness causing Taiki to leave without his bento far too many times in his elementary school days, Miyuki would have been quite insulted. After all, Taiki ate more lunches prepared in the Hinomoto household than his own.

He was just lucky Akari was there. And sometimes, she wondered what made Akari stick around, with four younger brothers of her own at home. Sometimes, she wondered what Akari got out of their friendship – but that was when she was tired and frustrated and not at all thinking about the list of her son's good qualities – which most other times she could rattle off by heart and not be anywhere near the end before she'd lost her audience. And she knew her Taiki had a way of drawing people in. He had a good heart and thick skin and an unrivalled determination and she knew he'd go far once he found things worth sacrificing for.

That was just it, she knew. He was afraid of sacrificing things for his goal.

And it wasn't like she couldn't understand that. She and her husband had travelled all over Japan until she'd fallen pregnant. But she never regretted having a child, having Taiki, even if it meant their family spent more time apart than together. But it was all a part of their livelihood and their lives, so they managed.

And sometimes she'd keep Taiki home sick and they wouldn't.

But Taiki didn't skip school of his own accord unless he was trying to help someone else. He had, on occasion. Like the time he'd helped one of his classmates run away to her grandparents' place because her home environment was unsafe. And it was things like that that made her wonder why Taiki couldn't leave such matters to the adults… but it wasn't a matter of trusting or not trusting, he said. He simply couldn't turn away from someone hurting right in front of him.

…except when he couldn't see people hurting in front of him.

She sighed and looked outside. The sky was unwelcoming: dark with streaks of white and looking as though it would let loose at any moment. And Taiki wasn't at school, or home. And he hadn't taken an umbrella. He'd either expected to be home or he hadn't been paying attention to the weather forecast.

Though, with Taiki, she couldn't expect him to still have his umbrella anyway.

Still, that wasn't the worrying part. If Akari had been with him, or he'd been at school or at home, then at least she'd know he wasn't about to get soaked somewhere. At least she'd know where he was, and someone was keeping an eye on him…

Though maybe that was their problem, too, that they tried to keep too close an eye on him.

She didn't hold him back. She tried very hard not to, to the point where many parents thought she granted too many liberties to her son. He had to learn responsibility, they'd say. He had to be reprimanded for his misdeeds – and he was, when he misbehaved but how could she begrudge him when he tried to help the world? That wasn't the sort of thing she wanted to teach her son, that helping others was not okay. Inconveniencing more people in the process wasn't, and they'd gotten that point across when he'd tried to row across Tokyo bay alone.

Akari had never stayed out of one of his plans again. Maybe she'd been afraid he'd disappear for days – or worse – again.

Now though… Now it was Taiki who'd left Akari out of his plans. She'd dropped by after school to see if Taiki had stayed home sick and when Miyuki said he he'd left for school, she fretted to herself.

Of course, Miyuki asked why she thought so. Shouldn't they have seen each other at school?

'No,' Akari had replied. 'He didn't come to school. Last I heard from him was three in the morning when he'd phoned.'

And that was another thing Miyuki hadn't been aware of, that Taiki had been staying up past midnight when he said he'd go to bed "soon".

Of course, she should also know better, when something was bothering Taiki…

She'd had an inkling, but even now she had no idea, no clue, as to what it was.

'Tatsuya-kun,' Akari said – and there, finally, was the clue. 'He was thinking about Tatsuya-kun. About Cute – ' She cut herself off, and the tidbit she'd given made no sense out of context anyway, and so Miyuki dismissed it for the larger picture. 'About a dream he'd had about a miracle cure. I guess he was just looking for reassurance, but well…' She sounded almost guilty.

'Dreams are dreams,' Miyuki said quietly. 'There are the kind we aspire towards, and the kind which are simply impossible. But the thing about dreams is that neither sort are reality in the present.'

'No, they're not.' Akari sighed. 'I doubt he went to see Tatsuya-kun. He didn't want to before and it's probably less likely now. I told him he should, but… He should, right Kudou-san?'

She stared so earnestly at her. She was looking for reassurance, much like Miyuki was. 'That depends,' she mused. 'It'll be a change, of course, but what sort of change will depend on the interaction between them. But yes, they should.'

'Tatsuya-kun doesn't blame Taiki. He never did.'

No. She knew that because Taiki had pleaded to them to make sure Tatsuya was well cared for, and her husband had the contacts to get the best sports doctors and physiotherapists in Japan involved. But that didn't alleviate the guilt Taiki carried. That didn't mean Tatsuya saying he didn't blame Taiki would change that.

'I think… there's something else Tatsuya-kun needs to say.' But she also knew he could, if only given the chance and the thought. But why now? 'Did they run into each other recently? What's brought this to a front suddenly?'

'Well, kind of…' She was hedging, again, avoiding the question. What secret was she hiding, Miyuki wondered. What adventure had those two gone on that she didn't want to tell.

'Um… well…' Miyuki laughed. She'd asked that aloud, had she?

'It's fine,' she said. 'I don't need to know everything you two get up to, so long as you stay out of trouble.'

'We try,' Akari replied seriously, which meant of course they weren't staying out of trouble… but that was all part of a parent watching their children grow up too, wasn't it?

As long as their children weren't dealing with things by themselves. So this she could let go for now, because Akari was there. Tatsuya, on the other hand…

'Also, I may have added a bit of fuel to the fire.'

'Oh?' Miyuki was intrigued. Because a bit of fuel might help things along… or make things worse. But the angry clouds were bad enough. The guilt eating away was bad enough. A bit of fuel wouldn't lead to an irreparable friendship if the two boys never actually spoke to each other again.

'Yeah, Kiriha was being rather stubborn and I may have –'

She jumped, and Miyuki jumped a little too. Thunder rattled the windows, and the rain followed like an echo.

And Taiki was still not home, and presumably still didn't have an umbrella.

'Stay,' she said to Akari, as the girl stood. 'You're not going home in this weather.'

'But –' she protested, but fell silent when Miyuki picked up her purse and keys. 'I'll come with.'

'Stay,' Miyuki repeated. 'Someone needs to be here in case he comes home soaking wet.'

Because she could only leave Taiki to his own devices for so long, and a storm was crossing the line.

Maybe, it didn't even take the storm to cross the line, but it was a firm line, in any case. That was the bit that only got harder with growing kids: too many things tended to happen outside the window.

But that still didn't mean a little boy wouldn't let anyone or their mother in.

After all, company was an important survival tool.