Overdue Part Two
Haru never realized how much willpower she had until she had to pretend her excitement was for the cruise, and not for the fact that her father would be on said cruise.
Haru still wasn't completely happy about her choice to wear a long yellow sundress with a light green jacket for the first day of the voyage, but she couldn't help finding it a little funny that her father was the first 'boy' she ever really tried to dress up for.
"This vacation is just what we need," Naoko gushed with a relieved smile as she and her daughter walked up the gangplank while towing their luggage. "No cell phone service, nothing but open sea water for miles and miles. What a dream, right, Haru?"
"I have to admit this will be different from my other birthdays," Haru sheepishly answered, since she had been practicing bland responses in her head to keep her mother from changing plans at the last minute. As much as she desperately wanted to search the faces of the other passengers to see if she could guess which one was her father, she forced her eyes straight ahead and reminded herself that he'd kept himself out of her mother's sight for nearly eighteen years.
There wasn't a chance that he was going to let himself slip now.
Her mother checked their tickets against the computer, which dinged happily while downloading the route to their room to the mother's phone.
"Is there anything technology can't do these days?" Naoko crooned as she grabbed her luggage again and led the way through the sea of people. "Hard to believe that this ship can operate on only fifty sailors!"
As Haru was opening her mouth to confess her own distaste, she felt a bit of paper get quickly shoved into the hand gripping her luggage handle. She turned to see which in the crowd had done it, but five people had already passed her by that side without a glance by the time she completed the turn.
"Haru, keep up! I wouldn't want to lose you in this crowd!"
"Sorry, Mom," she quickly apologized, gripping her luggage handle even more tightly to keep the paper from slipping out of her hand. 'Sure hope I'm not supposed to look at it right now!'
It took half an hour to find their room through the crowd and the congested stairs, but they were outside the door and Naoko was using her phone to activate the room's lock. "Shall we then?" she asked excitedly, making her daughter nod with another soft smile to disguise her nerves.
Haru felt bad about it, but she had to force enthusiasm for the mermaid-themed room. "Nice," she managed as her mother set her luggage in a corner and about threw herself on the bed.
"We had to get up way too early, but it was worth it!" Naoko sighed with a tired triumph that her daughter tried not to read into. "Sweetie, while I wouldn't blame you for wanting to be on the ship's edge when it sets sail, I really am tired. Can't we just take a nap to make up for lost sleep and skip the crowds?" she pleaded while kicking off her sandals.
"Sounds good," Haru agreed, since it wouldn't make sense to spring the trap while the ship was still docked. She then spoke intentionally loud to cover up the signature crinkle of paper as she parked her own luggage but kept the paper in her hand. "I'll just go to the bathroom first."
Her mother nodded with her eyes closed, already half-asleep as Haru slipped into the bathroom and locked the door.
She wasted no time unfolding the tiny paper, but there was only one word written on it. She closed her eyes and took in a long calming breath while pressing the word to her heart.
'All right. I should be able to make this work.'
ooOoo
Haru didn't manage to nap thanks to her nerves, but she made sure to have an excuse handy when her mother finally started waking up many hours later.
"W-what time is it?" she yawned noisily.
"A little after two," Haru responded, though her heart was beating fast as she kept her eyes on the page of the pamphlet that boasted all of the ship's activities. "Do you mind if I have our first activity picked?"
"Not at all, sweetie. What sounds good?" her mother asked through another yawn as she gave a long stretch before sitting up.
"I know it sounds a little lame, but I don't think I've done bingo since elementary school, and there's this big fancy prize if you get enough bingos, tonight only," Haru reported while still looking at the flashy advertisement splashed over the page. "It's starting in about half an hour, plus there's a buffet for people that are in for the long haul."
"You had me at 'buffet'," her mother giggled before stopping herself short with horror.
It was intense enough to make Haru rip her eyes off the page to stare at her. "Is something wrong, Mom?"
"N-no. It's nothing, let's go, I'm starving," Naoko denied quickly before finding her sandals and shoving them on. "We did skip breakfast to get here on time, let's just go. It's bound to be nice and quiet in the bingo hall."
ooOoo
"Why is there so much seafood?" Naoko seethed while sulking at the selection.
"It is a cruise, Mom," Haru reminded her while cheerfully loading up her plate with whatever fish dishes caught her attention for once. "Considering the fact the ship's named 'Neptune's Trident', we shouldn't have expected anything else."
Naoko was less than happy about the selection, but since the non-seafood options had been picked over and were taking too long to be replenished by robots, she was forced to take shrimp scampi, though she tried to avoid as much of the shrimp as possible. Her eyes followed her daughter's plate like she wanted to take it from her, but thanks to how many strangers were around, she forced herself to stay calm and sulk.
"I'm honestly surprised at how electronic everything is," Haru noted aloud while looking at the long tables with clear markers between each numbered seat.
The reason for the markers and numbers was that when someone sat down in a spot, a bingo board lit up in a convenient place that wouldn't interfere with food, directly in the table. Underneath the screen that was announcing the current bingo spot, there was an authentic-looking treasure chest; very likely the grand prize for 50 bingos.
"Can anyone even get fifty bingos before midnight?" Haru couldn't resist asking out loud as she and her mother started looking for an open spot. "There's a lot of people playing."
"If you have to leave your seat, you can give your bingos to someone else," said a lady balancing two full plates in one hand and a toddler determined to use her as a swing as she struggled to make a way to an open seat.
"Huh. Very communal," Haru noted with surprise, realizing that with such a rule, it would be easy to reach the prize if enough people pooled into one person. 'Is that why I got the hint to come here, or was it to buy more time for the ship to sail from shore?'
She decided not to worry about it as she and her mother picked their seats and had their own bingo cards light up.
All in all, it was nice way to spend the next few hours. There was pleasant violin music playing over the speakers, the food was excellent, and because there was a spot right in the table that would light up with the current bingo location next to the card, there was no chance for misinterpretation or cheating. It was actually convenient that her mother and herself were playing together so that one person could hold all the bingos when one of them had to go to the bathroom.
At some point, Haru felt a very tiny hand taking a big fistful of her dress and side. She swiftly turned around to see a toddler smiling up at her while rising up and down on his little legs with the same energy as jumping.
"Hello, pumpkin," she couldn't resist cooing, reaching down to rub his soft, wild black hair. "You didn't wander too far, did you?"
"No, sorry, I'm right here," the mother apologized from the next table over, where she was wiping some food off her daughter's face. "I swear he's a Houdini; I can't find a buckle he can't undo!"
"Well, aren't you just a little troublemaker?" Haru cooed, reaching down for him while giving the woman an inquiring look.
The dark-haired woman pursed her lips worriedly before nodding.
Haru eased him onto her lap since she didn't currently have more than a glass of water that was out of his reach. He started giggling while slapping on the bingo card, but thankfully it did nothing more than briefly glow red when he pressed a spot that hadn't been called.
"So you are a troublemaker," Haru laughed, easing him onto her shoulder and bouncing him a bit in her arms. "At least you're cute."
"That's my brother, Tommy," the little girl proudly announced around her mother's ministrations. "And I'm Tanya."
"Nice to meet you. I'm Haru," she introduced herself while trying to make Tommy let go of the fistful of her hair that he was tugging on. "And this is my mom, Naoko," she added while her mother returned to her seat.
"Hi," her mother greeted, looking a little green.
"Seasickness?" the mother guessed worriedly. "I've got medicine for that."
"No, sorry, thank you," Naoko said while holding her stomach. "I haven't had seafood in years, so my stomach's having trouble."
"Did you want to stop?" Haru asked worriedly while trying to hold her hair out of the baby's reach.
"No, I'm fine, sweetie. It would be a shame to stop now," her mother insisted, giving the other mother a weak smile. "Wouldn't want to ruin your birthday trip."
"Wait, birthday?!" Tanya gasped happily.
"It's someone's birthday?" another person asked while looking up with interest.
"Not today, but yes, I'll be turning eighteen before we hit shore," Haru quickly explained while still looking at her mother. "But it won't ruin the trip if you need to lie down for a while."
"Not on your life," Naoko growled with a stubborn grin. "If nothing else, I want to know what's in the chest."
"Mh, that's fair," Haru responded with a grin of her own, though she still reached over to rub her mother's shoulder.
Tommy tugged a bit more on her loose brown hair, but soon wanted back down.
"Can you make it back to Mommy? Go get her!" Haru encouraged while slipping him gently to the floor.
He squealed while running back to his mother, who had her arms wide open for him.
"Thank you for that. Two kids are a lot of work," the mother explained a bit sheepishly while gripping her son tightly.
"I didn't mind," Haru promised before her bingo card lit up unprovoked.
Without warning, an extra five bingos were added to her score.
"Huh?" Haru asked in confusion, since that wasn't from her mother.
"For the birthday girl!" the person who had overheard her exclaimed a bit loudly.
"Wait, it's someone's birthday?" someone else asked, and Haru was pointed out before she could say anything.
Despite trying to reiterate it wasn't her birthday yet, more and more people donated their bingos into her score until a golden light was pointing down on her and trumpets had replaced the violin music.
The screen switched out for Haru, who had no idea that a camera was being pointed at the tables. She blushed red at the attention and fanfare as the other players began to applaud or groan but turned to her mother.
"Don't even think about it, sweetheart. Go get your prize," Naoko encouraged with a wide smile.
"Birthday girl! Birthday girl!" a cheer from the other players slowly grew momentum.
Still blushing furiously, Haru didn't have much of a choice but to take the long walk up to the treasure chest, which was at the top of a modest staircase and resting on a Greek style pillar under the big screen.
"All right. Let's see what I won," Haru sighed, tugging gently on the lock which fell away at her touch. Still holding the lock in one hand, Haru lifted the lid.
She stared at the grand prize resting on a red cushion as the world seemed to turn silent around her. She could hear nothing, smell nothing, and even the lingering taste of her food seemed to vanish from her tongue. She kept staring at the prize; feeling her whole world shatter as she continued to look at the irrefutable proof she had been yearning for ever since she figured out that other kids had two parents.
Her hand was shaking as she lifted the frame out of the chest and held it tight to her own. As shocked as she was, there was a certain amount of appropriateness that this had been delivered to her in a treasure chest, though she had dropped the lock as soon as she saw the picture.
Realizing what had to be done, Haru wheeled around to pick her mother out of the crowd, which had indeed turned dead silent at her reaction.
Her mother looked worried, but Haru no longer cared as more fury than she could have thought possible filled her entire being. Still keeping the frame glass first against herself so that no one else could see the picture, Haru marched down the stairs and raced for where her mother had now stood up in worry.
"Haru-augh! What are you doing?!" Naoko yelped as Haru grabbed her fiercely by the wrist.
"You, me, our room, now!" the teenager snarled like an animal, dragging her mother forcefully away from her seat.
"Haru, you stop this right now!" her mother demanded, but it made no difference as her daughter kept marching like there was no resistance.
"This room's soundproof," a sailor offered with a malicious grin as he opened a thick door that looked like it belonged to a large vault for her benefit.
"My lungs don't know the meaning of the word, but thank you," Haru was able to respond pleasantly, though she wasn't sure how she had it in her to be pleasant to anyone right now.
Maybe it was because his assistance was practically an admittance that the sailor was in on the scheme Dr. Biggens had hinted at.
"Haru, what's gotten into you?!" Naoko pleaded in desperation as her daughter forced her into the heavily enclosed room, which the sailor closed and locked behind them. The mother took the opportunity to take several steps from her child, turning and sorely rubbing the wrist that had just been freed from a cruel grasp. "Just what was in that chest to make you act like this?!"
"Mother," Haru informed her in a low, dangerous growl that definitely spooked the older woman. "Do you remember all the times you bragged about how I immediately started sleeping through the whole night after I was born, and how everyone kept calling you a liar over it?"
Naoko blinked. "I wasn't lying, you never made a sound after I put you down for the night. I even had a baby monitor in case you needed me, but you never did."
"Perhaps," Haru stated flatly before slowly turning the frame to show her the photo. "Or maybe Mr. Sperm Bank was taking the night shifts and knew how to turn off the monitor on my end."
It was a very simple photo. Haru had no trouble recognizing herself as a baby, sleepily drinking a bottle that was resting against the chest of a large man because one arm was carefully cradling her and the other arm was extending out of the camera's perspective, clearly declaring that the photo had been an impromptu selfie with him and the baby. He was smiling sadly, proudly, somehow as he recorded this one bit of proof that he'd always wanted his daughter as she gripped one of his large fingers in her tiny fist.
It would have been a stunning photo, even if the man in question wasn't feline in nature.
Naoko screamed in horror and tried to lunge for the photo, but the younger woman quickly stepped out of the way.
"You break this, I break your arm!" Haru roared angrily. "This is why, isn't it?! You didn't let me have a dad because he's a-"
"Don't say it!" Naoko yelled at the top of her lungs, now reaching to cover her daughter's mouth, but she harshly slapped the hands away.
"You answer me, woman! You decided I didn't need a dad because he kept a little secret from you until I was on my way, true or false?!"
Naoko's temper made her look like a steaming teapot. "True!" she snapped at the top of her lungs. "But that's not a little-"
"If I got the gene, would you have handed me off to him?!" Haru demanded with tears in her eyes. "You've been punishing me for my heritage since before I can remember, but if I actually got the gene, would you have been happy to get rid of me too?!"
"Haru! That's too-"
"Answer me!" Haru screamed at the top of her lungs while glaring at her mother. "Why didn't you just abort me if you were that worried I was going to turn out just like him?! He'd have no reason to bug you if there wasn't a kid or you handed me over to him!"
"The doctors said it was close to impossible for me to conceive!" Naoko defended herself with tears in her eyes. "Even if I could force myself to do it, I didn't have a guarantee that I'd be able to have a kid again, and I really did want you!"
"He wanted me too!" Haru pointed out, slightly shaking the photo for proof. "I don't care that I didn't turn out just like him, and clearly he doesn't care either! I've always wanted a dad, and your pride is the only reason I didn't have him! You couldn't even force yourself to make up a better lie than 'sperm bank', was there literally anything else wrong with him, or could you just not handle his gene?!"
Naoko's mouth flapped like a fish as frustrated sounds gurgled out of her throat.
Haru couldn't resist deflating sadly. "Amazing. Even after all these years, you can't force yourself to badmouth him. He must be something amazing."
"He did lie about being human until after I found out I was pregnant!" Naoko managed to say.
Haru looked down at the photo before hugging it again. "He'd have to be careful with letting people know. I know I wouldn't tell a boyfriend about something like this unless there was a sure commitment. Too much can go wrong if…" she trailed off as a sudden fear clutched her heart. She looked up at her mom in horror. "Tell me you weren't blackmailing him to stay away. Telling everyone what he is if he didn't leave us alone?"
"What else could I have done, Haru?!" Naoko wept, trying to wrap her daughter into an embrace, but the girl was having none of it.
Haru bent over and slid out of her mother's arms with a fluidity that she suddenly realized made sense, as well as why gymnastics had been on the long list of things she wasn't allowed to do. "You idiot," she breathed, staring at the woman like she hadn't been raising her on her own since the girl was born. "Do you really think you can have a secret like this and not have a support network?"
"Ha-" Naoko tried again, but the teenager had to get this question out.
"Do you really think that there isn't a procedure for blabbermouths?! He wasn't staying away for his own hide, he was doing it for yours!"
Naoko gave an incredulous sound, but Haru kept talking.
"Do you realize how easy it would be for him or someone in authority in that group to have you killed and take me home if he really felt like it?!"
That stopped her short. She actually took a minute to think over the likelihood until the truth seemed to hit her as hard as Haru's parentage had hit her.
"I recognize him, Mom; he's been showing up to almost every public event I can remember doing! I've been playing Where's Waldo with him for years because he sticks out like a sore thumb even when he's clean shaven! He always arrives late, sits or stands where he can make a quick exit or be out of sight in a hurry, and then makes himself scarce as soon as the event is over, without fail. I figured he had some family drama, and I was even jealous of whoever his kid was, that he was going so far to see them! But it always cheered me up to see him, and now, I finally know why."
Haru couldn't resist hugging the frame a little tighter. "He loves me so much, he waited eighteen years just to make sure I had no doubts on the subject and no reasons to hate him. You never should have let him go."
Naoko finally seemed to wake up out of her stunned stupor. "Haru… it's been too long. There's no way he and I can patch things up between us."
"Especially since he's married," Haru added with a small glare. She should have been ashamed that her mother looked like she had been stabbed, but after finally finding out the truth, this was below the bare minimum deserved.
"What, that's impossible! And how would you know?!" her mother asked suspiciously.
"Because Dad got me that therapy session I wanted for Christmas. You knew what profession his best friend was either training for or starting out in back then, don't you?" Haru asked, twisting the knife a bit.
"… Toto! That snitch!" Naoko seethed, but Haru was out of patience now.
"All he told me was that my suspicions were correct and Dad would be here and eager to tell me everything. Oh, and my stepmother only needs an excuse to steal me from you as well." 'I don't care if it's petty; she deserves this!'
"Over my dead body!" Naoko roared before marching over for what Haru could only assume was a grab as fierce as the one she had been dragged in here with.
Since self-defense was one of the few other things her mother had approved of, though probably to fight off strangers, Haru was able to sidestep again, catch her arm with one hand since she wasn't letting go of the frame for anything, and had her mother bent into a backwards pretzel that was surprisingly close to how a dancer would dip his partner.
"What was the plan if I met a guy?!" Haru roared back as her mother yelped in pain. "Just because I didn't get the gene doesn't mean my kid or their kid won't! Were you going to scare him off like you did my friends?!"
"I did no-ow, Haru! You're actually hurting me!" Naoko gasped in pain.
"I don't have friends anymore because of you!" Haru screamed as tears flowed down her cheeks. "No one wants to be friends with someone that has a mother that flies off the handle at things that would be normal, even if Dad was normal! Was all this on purpose?! Did you intentionally alienate me from everyone else so that I'd never get married or have a life outside of you so that you wouldn't have to face-" she quickly readjusted her hold when her mother almost slipped into a position that could have let her escape. "-face the truth?! Face that I'm not from a stupid sperm bank?! That any part of me isn't normal?!"
"Haru, it was for your own good!" Naoko managed through gritted teeth.
"No, it was yours!" Haru corrected at once, disgusted that her mother was still holding firm. Although she didn't want to do it, she used the hand holding the frame to dry her eyes before speaking again. "I'll tell you what is for your own good. I'm going to give you a small taste of your own medicine."
"You're already screaming at me," Naoko growled in confusion, but her daughter shook her head.
"For the next eighteen days, you're going to live Dad's nightmare. I will not share your room or house, I will not spend time with you, I will not speak to you, and I'll be blocking your number from my phone. I'll go live with him."
Naoko gaped in horror. "You can't do that!"
"Oh yes, I can," Haru hissed, twisting her hold on her mother just a shade tighter. "If by the end of the eighteen days you still don't think that you owe Dad and I a genuine apology for stealing all that time from us and aren't willing to learn how to share, I'll know if I need to extend it to Dad's full sentence or longer. We both know I'll be fine with him and look at the bright side! You'll have a much easier time pretending you were never with him if I'm gone."
With that, she threw her grip on her mother away so that she fell on the floor, immediately turning to the door. "And no complaining. This is generous compared to you." For lack of an informed method, Haru did the 'shave and a haircut' knock on the metal door.
The 'two bits' knock was sounded before a loud cranking was heard.
"Oh, and don't forget that without me as a bargaining chip, Dad's 'friends' might have to go the traditional route of silencing you if you try to retaliate by telling anyone. That would break my heart if you weren't around after your minimal sentence is up," Haru decided to remind her mother to discourage her from doing anything stupid.
From behind her, Haru could hear her mother getting to her feet and start rushing for her.
"Haru, if you think for one minute I'm going to let you leave me, you-Augh!" Naoko screamed as the door opened.
The sailor that had locked them up had grown another foot. He'd also taken on the appearance of a crocodile man.
"The decision is out of your hands, madam," he informed the mother coldly while offering Haru a claw since the door didn't reach the floor.
Since Haru didn't have it in her to care, she accepted the help in stepping out of the vault with a murmured 'thank you'. Another glance at the bingo hall revealed that while there were still some humans in the crowd, they were now the minority. She couldn't name a lot of the monsters now grinning at her, but she could see that the large screens had switched to inside the vault to witness her temper tantrum.
"I guess I didn't need to be careful with my words after all," Haru muttered to herself before a huge black wing swept her away from the lizard sailor.
A large crow man was somehow grinning at her around his beak as he hugged her with both wings. "No, but it's appreciated that you were taking steps. How about we go see your father?" he asked.
Haru recognized his voice when she didn't recognize the man. "Yes, please. No wonder you refused to tell me anything before," she sighed almost in disbelief as she allowed Dr. Biggens to guide her out of the bingo hall. 'This more than explains the nest chairs.'
"At least you understand. Honestly, you took it a lot better than I was hoping for!" he gushed, hugging her with one wing as they walked down a long hallway.
Haru was still gripping the frame closely as she almost distantly noted that almost everyone was some form of monster, and the handful of humans present were clearly married to one of the monsters. "What strings did Dad have to pull for this?"
"Oh, this is an annual thing for us," the doctor informed her with another cheeky grin. "It's nice to get away for a little while and not worry about being seen in broad daylight. Muta hasn't gone since before he met your mother because he likes to be as close as possible on your birthday. But when he saw your mother looking at exotic getaways for your eighteenth, probably to keep him from approaching you, he had to do some fancy talking to be allowed to flood your mother's computer with heavily edited ads."
Haru gave a breathy laugh while shaking her head. 'He even loved me enough to turn down yearly cruises.' "That must have been some fancy talking if he talked this many people into the bingo trap."
"Well, that was Baron's idea, and he was the one that pulled the strings for it. The lord of Muta's pride," the large crow quickly explained when he saw how baffled the teenager looked. "Think the werecat equivalent to a werewolf's alpha."
"Oh!" Haru exclaimed while nodding. "All right then. Would Baron be fine with me thanking him later?"
"He'll be more than fine," he cackled, though Haru wasn't sure why the cackle was appropriate for the question.
She shook her head and decided not to worry about it. Though she was a bit amused at the idea of her mother being stuck on a ship full of monsters by herself, even as she hoped that she wouldn't do anything to prove Haru correct about what monsters might do if Naoko proved to be trouble.
For a second, she thought there was thunder in the distance. But just as she realized it was someone running up the stairwell Dr. Biggens was leading her to, the door threw open violently.
Haru wasn't sure what she was planning to say when she met her father, just as big and furry as he was in the picture. But perhaps it was a good thing she didn't have any plans, because the second she saw him looking straight at her, she burst into tears and started running for him.
He met her halfway, sweeping her right off her feet so that he could hold her tight as if she were still a baby. The frame was securely held in place between them, so she worked her arms loose enough to squeeze around his neck as they both sobbed.
It felt right. Haru wanted to tell herself that this embrace felt familiar from before she could remember, but it was everything she had imagined a father's arms to be. Soft, warm, and yet fierce, like he never wanted to let her go.
"Mine," he was finally able to choke out between his tears.
"Mine," she answered, hugging him just a little tighter since she was already squeezing as hard as she could.
"I'll just let you two handle things from here," the crow man said a bit more softly than before as he excused himself back down the hall.
"Thanks, Bird Brain," her father managed to say gratefully, turning back to the stairwell to carry his child back to his own room.
Although Haru felt a bit childish for it, she rubbed her tears on his shirt before smiling up at him. "So, are insults common in this friendship?"
"Oh, if you only knew," he grinned while nuzzling her hair, purring like it was the first time in years he'd been happy enough to do it.
She giggled and nuzzled him right back, feeling gratified that she now knew why she instinctually wanted to do this while hugging. "You were there. The whole time."
"The whole time," he affirmed stubbornly as he began taking the stairwell more carefully now that he was carrying his child. "I'm sorry, I wanted more, but-"
Haru placed one hand over his muzzled mouth. "I understand," she stated as tears kept falling. Then she took in a deep breath. "Dad."
That made him start crying all over again.