*Chapter 15: So Face Your Mistakes*
"You think a green crib is better or an orange one?" Yosuke said, looking through some crib building kits. They were in Okina City, in the Baby World store. They were planning to go to Junes but Yosuke said he needed to get out more often and didn't want to be spotted by some snooty assistant manager. Yu was looking over at Yosuke, searching through the cribs to find one that could be good for him.
"Hm, well Chie does like green. But it looks a bit too tall, y'know?" Yu said, nervous that a tall crib could be bad for some reason. "Hm, maybe we should ask Yasuhiro." Yosuke chuckled, looking over at his son in their triple stroller. Yasuhiro was staring at the brightly colored beds and cribs, cooing in awe at the vibrancy of the aisle.
"Yeah, Yasuhiro, point at one." Yu said, kneeling down looking at Yosuke's son, who lifted his hand and waved it around near the area of the purple crib. "Hm, one vote for the purple crib. Nari, how about you?" Yosuke said, kneeling over at her daughter's side who stopped sucking on her thumb and lifted both of her arms over at the green crib. "Wow, two votes for green!" "Hey, hey that doesn't count." "Oh what, you're gonna say that my daughter's wrong?" Yosuke chuckled while Yu sighed looking at Jin. "Ok tiebreaker, Jin, bring us home." Yosuke said, Jin looked around the area for a bit and yawned, sleeping instantly. His yawn caused his siblings to also fall asleep and start snoring.
"Well guess that vote is lost." Yosuke sighed, going into his bag and putting three binkies in his children's mouths as he looked over at the green crib's box, lifting it up and grunting. "Hey, let me help you out man." "No no, gotta…get the exercise." Yosuke said, carefully placing the giant box in their cart. "Anyways, let's look for some diapers. Me and Yukiko can tell you right now, you're gonna need TONS of those." Yosuke laughed, pushing the stroller around.
Yu pushed the cart looking around to see if they needed anything, looking at the occasional baby shaker or rocking horse toy here and there. "Hey Yosuke, is baby powder good?" Yu said, reaching over to take a box full of powder. "I dunno man, read the name back to me." "Baby..powder." Yu realized what he said and tossed a box into his cart. As they walked out the store with Yu's cart full of bags and boxes, he noticed two people walking towards him, one excited and one looking away from him.
"Oh honey, there you are!" Yu was surprised to see his mother was in Okina City and hugged him tightly. "Hey mom, wh-what are you guys doing here?" "Oh well, we were going to go visit you and Chie! We wanted to see how the baby was doing and the progress. By the way, how is she?" "Oh, she's with my wife Yukiko at the inn." "Oh hello there Yosuke! Oh, and these must be your adorable little babies!" Yu's mom kneeled down, looking in awe at Yosuke's three children who just woke up and looked in confusion at her.
"Yeah, that's Yasuhiro, that's Nari, and this is Jin." "Oh, they look so precious! I remember when Yu was around their age, he was always sleeping and always cried when he went outside." Yu's mom chuckled, lifting herself up. "I'm so happy for you and Yukiko, children are the greatest gift you can ever have in life." "Yep. Every day, I always wake up to them and they brighten my day." Yosuke smiled as he looked down at his children who were babbling and looking around. "Dear, come over! Did you see Yosuke's babies?" Yu's mother yelled over at her husband with excitement, who noticed that Yu's dad immediately went into a nearby bar, ignoring her request.
"They're just kids, what's the big deal?" Yu's dad shrugged, closing the door. Yu's mother shook her head and looked disappointed. "Eh, that's ok, Mrs. Narukami. I'm sure he's just tired from the trip." "I suppose so." She sighed. Yu couldn't believe his father was acting so immature. He thought that maybe his father took what he said a few months ago at heart, but what he said was something he held in for years. He knew that he had to confront his father and make peace with him.
"Give me a few minutes, I need to talk with him." "Dear, please don't, he's not really in the mood to-" Yu ignored his mother's request and headed into the bar, seeing his father slumped over smoking a cigarette and waiting for his drink. He noticed his son but quickly looked away, staring at a wall lined up with bottles.
"This seat taken?" Yu asked, pointing to a stool next to his dad. He grunted and took another puff, Yu taking it as a no and sat down. "Anything for you, sir?" "Uh, just a lemonade please, Aika." "Coming right up." Aika said, helping another customer next to them. "You know that girl?" "Oh, Aika? Yeah, she works at…a lot of places in this town. I'm not sure if she's even human." "Well, that's impressive in all honesty. Woman of her age working at places like this." Yu's father chuckled, blowing some cigarette smoke into the air.
"You want a cig?" Yu's dad pulled out a cigarette box, holding out one for his son. "Didn't you say that if you ever saw me smoking, you'd smack my butt to the moon and back?" "Well that was when you were younger, smokin' at a young age ain't good for you." "Yeah, you were just looking out for me." Yu sighed, staring down at his hands on the table.
"Hey, sorry for what I said in July. I was just…stressed out." Yu said before being interrupted by his father sighing loudly. "No no, I should be the one apologizing. What I said back there, I was just…caught off guard. I just didn't expect you to have kids so early. Thought you were too young." "Young? Dad, I'm about to be 24 next month. I mean, you and mom had me when you were the same age, remember?" Yu said before noticing Aika bring them their drinks. "Thanks, Aika." Yu said, Aika nodding and going over to help with someone else.
"Yeah and I was…terrified. I didn't know how to be a father, I was working a business job from dawn to dusk, your mother was barely capable of having you. We just did what we could and that's why we…sent you off a lot." Yu's dad said, chugging his glass of beer down and staring at his empty glass. Yu looked down, taking small sips of his drink. He was still deeply angry at his father for what he did. But he knew he couldn't keep holding onto his anger and had to forgive his dad. He patted his back and his father looked up at him.
"Hey, you did your best. I'm sure me and Chie will raise our baby well. But I don't want my child to grow up without seeing his or her grandfather." Yu's dad put his cigarette out and asked for the bill, paying for his and Yu's drinks and walking out. "Me and your mom will be around your place during your birthday if that's all right." "Yeah, that's all right." Yu said before his dad stopped and walked back to him, looking him in the eyes with a serious look.
"Listen just…take care of that baby. Give it all the love you can give it and don't be like me." "I will." Yu's dad nodded and headed outside, Yu following behind him. Yu's mother was talking to Yosuke about his children and how he and Yukiko were when she noticed her husband arriving and walked up to him.
"There you two are, what were you doing?" "Yeah man, never took you for the drinking kind." Yosuke said, being confused as to why Yu would go into a bar. "Oh no, I didn't drink anything. I was just talking to my dad for a bit. We dealt with some stuff." Yu said, looking at his father nodding. "Yeah, I realized that I've been acting kinda off to you guys and…I'm sorry." Yu's father said, sulking and looking down onto the ground.
"Dear, it's all right. You should rest, we'll talk about this when we get back to our room." Yu's mom said, going over to her husband and putting her arm around his shoulder. Yu's mom said goodbye to him and Yosuke and went off, grabbing a taxi to head back to their hotel room. "Well that was…something." Yu sighed, before going back to his cart to get his stuff. "Yeah…you alright man? You need a minute?" "Nah, I'm good." Yu said, looking down at Yosuke's children already asleep. "We should head back, get this crib up and all." "Yeah and I bet you that I can do this entire thing even without the instruction book!" Yosuke said smugly, pushing his kid's stroller and the both of them getting to the parking lot. "Yeah, don't put your luck dude." Yu sighed, the both of them going back to Yu's car, helping Yosuke put his triplets in their baby seats. "Geez, there's like a billion belts on this thing." Yu said, struggling to get Yasuhiro into place with him squirming and fussing.
"No, Yosuke, that screw goes on this side, not the other one." "But there's an empty hole right here dude!" Yu and Yosuke were back at him and Chie's house, building the crib for his baby, having Yosuke's kids in a play area in their living room.
"That's for later on, to insert the poles." Yu said, showing the connections made for the pole. "Could've sworn that it was supposed to-Skip get back here, that's not a bone!" Yosuke ran after Yu's dog who was carrying one of Yosuke's wrenches from his toolbox. Yu whistled with his fingers and Skip immediately stopped, causing Yosuke to trip and hit his head onto a trash can, causing his children to laugh and clap their hands. Yu ran over to Yosuke, helping him up and grabbing an ice pack.
"Heh, I guess old habits die hard, eh?" Yu laughed, passing the pack to Yosuke. "...yeah guess so." Yosuke grunted, applying pressure to his head with the ice. "Y'know maybe I should've kept the instructions on me." "Yeah I have no idea why you threw them away, you don't have to prove you're cool to me." Yu said, getting back to his room trying to assemble the crib. "I thought I could have done it alright! No need to get mad at me." Yosuke sulked. Yu sighed before grabbing his phone and searching up the model of their crib.
"Yosuke, could you check the box and tell me what serial number it is?" "Yeah yeah sure." Yosuke hobbled his way over to the box before hearing crying coming from the living room. "Ah geez." Yosuke headed over immediately to see Jin accidentally hit Yasuhiro on the head with a plastic hammer. "Hey hey, no hitting your brother's head, Jin!" Yosuke bent over to grab the hammer from his son's hand which resulted in Jin crying as well. Yosuke tried calming down his sons before Nari woke up from her brother's sounds, joining in on them bawling.
"Hey hey, it's ok! No need to cry!" Yosuke looked stressed and tried to find a solution before Yu went up to them, kneeling and pulling out his finger to demonstrate a magic trick like he always did with Nanako. The three babies stopped crying for a few seconds looking at Yu as he wrapped his other fingers around his thumb. Then with a swift motion, moved his hand as if his thumb just disappeared. "Ta-da!" Yu said as Jin started giggling and fidgeting, his siblings joining in. Yu looked over to Yosuke who joined in, doing the same magic trick, being rewarded with more laughter.
Just then, they heard a car pull up and Yukiko walking in with Chie, who looked dead tired. "Whew, that was inte-" Chie stopped as she looked over at Yu and Yosuke, hiding their faces and popping them out again with surprise behind the couch at the kids, who were clapping their hands and laughing. Yu noticed the ladies and tapped Yosuke on his arm who stopped and stood up to greet them.
"Hey, how was your day?" "Well it was…certainly interesting. Me and Chie went to a moms and expecting mothers yoga session." Yukiko said before stretching her arms out. "Man, standing up on one leg with all of this weight took me out. I need to sit." Chie sighed, slumping down on the couch while Yosuke grabbed the kids. "Well we had a pretty eventful day, me and Yu went out and we got some stuff. We even got a crib that's like…half built." Yosuke pointed to their bedroom where Chie immediately got up, waddling her way towards the entrance of their bedroom.
"Woah, and it's even green! This looks great!" Chie said excited. "Honey, that's the box. This is the actual crib" Yu gestured her to the corner of the room, showing off a mangled and messy pile, some of it completed but still looking very unfinished. "Geez, what happened here? What, did you guys blindfold each other?" Chie snickered as Yosuke and Yukiko entered their room.
"Well it's uh…it can be fixed! We just need the instructions!" Yukiko said nervously, looking around the corner of the room and in the box. "Well, Yosuke tossed them because he was confident he could build the entire thing by memory." "I thought all the cribs were the same! Just insert some stuff and blam, there ya go!" "Yosuke, you dunce, this one's got a mobile! What, do you know how to connect wiring and stuff?" Chie asked, Yosuke trying to deflect her anger. "Well, I remembered some stuff about it while working at Junes!" "That was a lightbulb, dear." Yukiko sighed.
As everyone was arguing, Yu whistled with his fingers and got everyone's attention. "All right now I know it looks bad, but I managed to get the instructions online so we can fix this. So, Chie, you and Yukiko need rest and we'll finish the crib. There's no need for arguing all right?" "That sounds good, Narukami. I'll take care of Chie for you." Yukiko helped Chie sit down on their couch while Yu and Yosuke headed over to fix the crib, taking a few minutes due to finally having the proper means. After a while, the crib was completed and Chie came in with a bag of chips.
"Wow, it looks great! Check it out, Yuki!" "Oh my, it looks so much better than our cribs!" "Yeah, because Junes usually has the lower end models and I kinda needed to save some cash." Yosuke chuckled before Yukiko looked at him with a deadpan stare. "Still though, I think this calls for a celebration eh?" Chie said, making her way to their fridge. Yu grabbed some glasses and Chie poured some sparkling apple cider into them and passed them to her friends. "A toast to me and my partner finishing his first crib!" Yosuke lifted his glass up, everyone else joining. "…what do you mean first?" Yu asked before everyone laughed, the babies even joining in. "No seriously, what do you mean first?"