Endless Skies, Chapter 01
Sequel to "Unequivocal." Yamato thought the hardest part of raising his son as a single teen dad was the first year. But he's quickly finding out how wrong he was as he juggles his first year of college, the band, dating, and the terrible twos. Taito. AU for Tri.
[Digimon] M+, family/drama, 7065 words, published 11-05-16
Okay, so here it is, the sequel to Unequivocal! As I mentioned before, this is my NaNoWriMo project (if you're unfamiliar with it, you write a 50K word story during the month of November). So, unlike Unequivocal, this story is not yet finished, and I will be posting as I go. I'll do my best to edit the chapters before I post, but you may wind up with some rough drafts. I also don't know that I'll be able to stick to the post every Saturday schedule, but I'll try my best! If I get ahead enough, I may start posting Saturdays and Wednesdays, but we'll have to see.
As I mentioned in the notes of Unequivocal, this story takes place during Yamato's first year of college. It covers the whole year, and I had a hell of a time trying to balance between all the things going on (school, band, kid, Taichi, friends, family), so hopefully it's not too much. Even though the fic isn't complete, I do have the entire thing outlined-the outline is roughly 15.7K words, and tentatively divided into twenty-two chapters so far. So yes, it's a lot, and this fic may end up being more than 50K words, I'm not sure. I only hope that you guys enjoy it. I also have plans to do later one-shots from when Naoki is a bit older.
And, like last time, I still use a weird mix of British and American spellings, and I still tried to keep this mostly accurate to Japanese culture with a bit of Western attitudes sneaking in. Though I had a hard time figuring out how Japanese universities worked, and finally just made them sort of like American ones, but still in trimester terms. If I'm completely wrong, sorry, and let me know how they work, I want to know!
Also, the places that are mentioned by name are all real. Because I'm a loser that looks up everything. I googled live houses that catered to indie pop/rock bands that were in Tokyo but not too close to each other. Even though I could have made something up and probably no one would care. Why do I do this to myself?
Oh, and once again all chapter titles are L'Arc~en~Ciel song titles for no real reason. The story title is the name of a VNV Nation song, which is the band I saw in Chicago, and love very much. The song is gorgeous, give it a listen if you want.
Okay, seriously, enjoy.
Endless Skies
butterflie Chapter One
I'm So Happy
Yamato waves at the movers as they shut the door behind them, and then looks around his new apartment with a silly grin on his face, feeling excitement at finally having his own place. Not that he minds living with his dad, but with Naoki getting bigger, his room had begun feeling too cramped-and he really wants some privacy again. And he doesn't feel it's fair to keep inflicting a child on his dad, who has already raised two of his own and deserves some peace and quiet now that he's getting older. "Well, this is it, Naoki," he says, looking down at his son who is clinging to his leg and staring around the room, looking at all the boxes and new furniture with curiosity. "This our new home."
"Home?" Naoki asks, looking up at him, his blue eyes wide with wonder.
"That's right. Our home." He pulls his cell out of his pocket and checks the time, noting that the others should be arriving in a little bit to help him unpack. In the meantime, Yamato decides to go ahead and get started, not wanting to waste any time. After a moment's indecision, he chooses to start in Naoki's room, thinking that if he gets the toddler's toys unpacked first, Naoki will have something to distract him while the rest of them work on unpacking the apartment.
He heads down the short hallway to Naoki's new room with Naoki hot on his heels, and plops cross-legged down on the floor when he gets there, pulling a box labelled "toys" over to him. He opens it up and starts pulling things out. Naoki watches for a minute, and then cries, "I help!" as he reaches a hand in and plucks out a handful of plushies.
Yamato smiles at him. Naoki hasn't yet started speaking in longer sentences yet, mostly sticking to one or two words, but he's been talkative ever since his first word, and Yamato does whatever he can to encourage that. "Thank you, Naoki," he says, climbing to his feet. He opens Naoki's toy chest and begins arranging things neatly inside while Naoki continues to empty the box for him.
Half an hour later, when the doorbell rings, they've made a decent dent into Naoki's belongings, and Yamato hopes it'll be enough to keep the small boy occupied. At twenty-one months, his son has turned out to be a very energetic child, always running and jumping around and wanting to be involved in everything Yamato does. Most of the time, Yamato doesn't mind, but today he's just wanting to get the unpacking done as fast as possible-moving, it turns out, is a huge pain.
"Hey guys, thanks for helping me," he says, as he lets everyone in. Takeru looks around the apartment curiously, while Koushiro says, "It's no trouble at all." Taichi just grins at him meaningfully, raising his eyebrows, and Yamato rolls his eyes. He knows what Taichi's hoping for later. Well, he might give it to him. If Taichi helps him enough.
"Where are we starting?" Takeru asks his brother, still looking around. He can't help but feeling a bit jealous of Yamato. He knows he's obviously not old enough to live on his own yet, but he can't wait for when he is. Mom's great, but she's always there when he is, and he never truly gets any time to himself.
Yamato shrugs at him. "I was in Naoki's room, but really we can start anywhere. I'm hoping with four of us, we'll get most of it done today."
"And what are we doing with Naoki?"
He looks at Taichi, seemingly unconcerned. "I'm hoping he'll stay in his room and play with his toys I just unpacked..."
Taichi actually laughs at that. Naoki hasn't sat still since he first learned to walk. "You actually think he will?"
"He might," Yamato says, a touch defensively. Even though, really, he knows better. Naoki hates being left out of things. But he can hope, right?
Taichi and Takeru both just look at him pointedly. Even Koushiro gives him a disbelieving look. He glares at them, though there's no real heat behind it. After a moment, he rolls his eyes. "There's no harm in trying. And he can always help us if he won't."
"You're the boss," Taichi says flippantly, and Yamato gives him another half-hearted glare.
They decide to finish up Naoki's room, and while they're in there, he's mostly content to sit in a corner and play with some of his toy cars, zooming them back in forth in straight lines. However, once they finish up and move into the kitchen, Naoki gets up and runs after them excitedly, his high pitched voice calling, "I help!" to them.
Yamato sighs as Taichi looks at him with a smug 'I told you so' expression on his face. "Well, he sat for a little while," Yamato points out.
"Wasn't that just because we were in there, though?" Takeru asks, sounding way too innocent. He's got a puzzled look on his face, but his brother doesn't buy it for a second. Taichi bursts out laughing, and Yamato glares fiercely at them both, irritated. He knows he's being a bit moody today, but he's tired from packing all his stuff and having to move it here, and then direct all the furniture for the movers, and he just wants everything to be over with.
"Maybe you can give him small tasks," Koushiro suggests peaceably, before the situation can really devolve. "Toddlers like to feel they're helping." He looks as if he's about to go into lecture mode, and that's the last thing Yamato wants today.
He cuts him off quickly, before the redhead can really get started. "Great idea, Koushiro. Thanks." He looks around the room, thinking for a minute, wondering what he can give Naoki to do that will be easy for him to handle and won't let his stuff be destroyed in the process. Another moment's thought, and he remembers a box, which after some digging he manages to pull out and put in front of his son. He slices it open with his box cutter, and then bends down to Naoki's level, looking him in the eye. "Naoki, will you help Daddy by pulling these out and handing them to Uncle Takeru?" he asks, demonstrating with one as he does so.
Takeru takes the kitchen towel handed to him with a bewildered look, wondering what he's supposed to do with it. He looks to Taichi and Koushiro for help, but they just shrug at them.
"Yes!" Naoki cries excitedly, and snatches up a towel with a chubby little fist, thrusting it at Takeru, who takes it as helplessly as he did the first.
"Thank you, Naoki," Yamato says, and then gives his brother an amused look. "Stick them in a lower drawer somewhere, I don't care where. I can rearrange later if I need to."
"Did Dad buy you all this stuff?" Takeru asks as he does just that, trying to keep up with the flurry of towels Naoki's handing him. "Woah, Naoki, baby, slow down a bit."
"Some of it. For 'housewarming,' he said. But I bought a lot of it myself," Yamato admits.
"The band's making that much money?" Taichi asks, eyebrows raised in surprise. "With what? I mean, you guys are still just an indie band, right?"
Yamato colours a bit. It still feels weird to him, to actually be making money off the band and use it for things other than just equipment-to use it to live off of. He remembers his dad calling it his 'job' before Naoki was born, and he had agreed, but still-it's hard to think of it that way sometimes. He knows it's work, but a lot of times it just doesn't feel like it. "We get a lot of money off merch sells," he mumbles.
"Damn. Maybe I should start my own band. We could be rivals. Hey, Koushiro," Taichi calls across the room to the boy who's been unpacking and ignoring them this whole time. "Wanna join my band? We could call ourselves 'The Soccer Genius and Computer Geek,' or the SGCG for short!"
Koushiro splutters unintelligibly for a few moments, ignoring the plates he'd been unwrapping, and then manages to get out, "What kind of name is that?!"
"What's wrong with it?" Taichi asks, sounding hurt. He adopts a sad look on his face, but no one is fooled.
"It's horrible!"
"I am wounded, Koushiro. Fine, you don't get to join my band. Hey, Takeru," he starts with a grin, turning to the younger blond.
"Don't think so," Takeru tells him, laughter lacing his tone even as he continues to put away things. "Yamato would never forgive me."
"Damn straight, little brother," Yamato says, and then glances at Naoki with a guilty look. Thankfully, the little boy is ignoring him, still pulling soft things out of the box-he's finished the towels, and has moved on to washcloths and sponges.
"You guys suck," Taichi declares, trying to pout-but there's a wide smile on his face that ruins the effect.
Yamato rolls his eyes. Why had he thought this would go fast? Taichi is as bad as Naoki sometimes, easily distracted and often getting off-task-it had driven Yamato crazy when they were eleven and stuck in the Digital World together. Now he's used to it, but that doesn't always mean he'll tolerate it. "Can we finish unpacking before the day ends, please?"
"Yes sir, Mr. Grumpy," Taichi teases him, sticking out his tongue. Yamato just sighs, but he's not really mad, and Taichi knows it.
They work quickly after that, still laughing and joking around with each other from time to time. Naoki is constantly moving, running around after them when they move to new rooms, wanting to help Daddy, and sometimes going to his room to drag out new toys to play with when he gets bored or Yamato can't find anything for him to do. He realises that Naoki has missed his nap, and hopes he won't have a cranky toddler on his hands before bedtime. He really does not want to have to deal with that. Unfortunately, after a couple more hours, Naoki does indeed start getting fussy, and he prepares himself to pull away from packing and deal with his son, when Takeru swoops in and saves the day.
He grabs some of the empty boxes they'd tossed aside, then heads into the living room and calls out to the toddler. "Naoki, come help your Uncle Takeru!"
Yamato's not sure what Takeru's got planned, but he nods at the boy when he looks at him uncertainly, seeking his dad's permission. "Go on, Naoki."
Naoki toddles down the hall and into the living room as fast as his little legs will carry him, eager now to see what his uncle has planned for him. Yamato resolves to buy Takeru a thank-you gift of some sort later when he hears the shrieks of laughter not long after. He goes back to unpacking, pulling his clothes from bags and handing them to Koushiro to hang in his closet, since he doesn't trust Taichi to hang them nicely.
When they finish the room half an hour later and head back to the living room, they're all surprised to see the rather intricate box fort Takeru and Naoki have managed to build. Takeru has managed to find scissors and tape somewhere apparently, and has cut the tops to look like a castle and taped all the boxes together. Naoki's in the center of them with a crudely-made cardboard shield, giggling and peeking through a cut out window at Takeru, who's pretending to invade the makeshift castle with an equally as crude cardboard sword. Yamato mentally ups the amount of money for Takeru's thank-you gift.
"Impressive," Yamato remarks, and Takeru glances up at him, blushing a bit.
"We had a box fort once when we were little, remember?" he says. "Dad helped us build it."
Yamato shakes his head, trying to recall it, but having no memory of it. He assumes it must have been before their parents divorced though, because by the time they were able to really see each other again for any length of time, Yamato had been too old to care about box forts. "Not really," he says. "I'm surprised you do, you couldn't have been very old."
"It was one of the last times Dad was able to just play with both of us together," Takeru says dismissively, and Yamato grimaces. They're older now, old enough to understand why their parents couldn't stay together, and move past all the hurt the divorce brought, but bits of it still linger in them both.
Naoki charges suddenly, rushing at Takeru with his shield in front of him, yelling, and Takeru pretends to go down. "Oh no! You've killed me!" he cries, throwing a hand over his heart dramatically. "The castle is yours now!"
Naoki burbles with laughter, stealing Takeru's sword and holding it up gleefully. He glances at his dad, eyes shining, and Yamato smiles at his son, his heart swelling to see his son so happy. "Good job, Naoki," he praises him warmly, and Naoki drops the sword and shield and runs over to him, hugging his legs tightly. Yamato bends down, picking him up in a real hug.
Takeru climbs to his feet, no longer dead, and picks up the hat that had fallen off his head when he'd dropped. "I should probably be going. I told Mom I wouldn't stay out too late."
"Yes, me too," Koushiro chimes in with an apologetic look.
Yamato waves them away. "Don't worry about it. We got a lot done today. Thank you guys. I owe you."
They finish saying their goodbyes and he watches them leave from the doorway, only shutting the door when they're both out of sight. Once they're gone, he turns to Taichi, who's looking at him hopefully. "Help me get Naoki fed and to bed and we can have some alone time," he says exasperatedly, and Taichi whoops and rushes to the kitchen, Naoki running after him.
He watches them for a moment with a small grin. He has to admit he's looking forward to it as well. There's been little chances for them since they started dating. With Taichi's mom not working, she's almost always home, and when she's not, Hikari often is. They don't share a room like when they were kids, but, well, it's still awkward. And as for his own apartment, well, his Dad may be at work during the day, but when they're not in school he's always got Naoki to take care of.
"Yamato! Get in here and make us dinner! We're starving and helpless!" Taichi yells, and Yamato laughs and goes to do just that.
That evening, after they've finally gotten an overly tired and very fussy Naoki to bed in his new room, they wind up doing a bit of celebrating for the new apartment on Yamato's new grey flannel sofa. Yamato buries his face into the decorative pillow when he comes, muffling his cries so as not to wake Naoki. He trembles through the aftershocks as Taichi continues to thrust, reaching his own orgasm a few minutes later, burying his face into the hollow of Yamato's shoulder, doing his best not to make noise.
"We definitely need to do this more often," Taichi mumbles a few minutes later as he slides out of Yamato and stands on shaking legs.
"Mmm." Yamato feels boneless, and satiated, and thinks about just lying there until he falls asleep, but he still needs to see Taichi off, and unpack a few more things before he goes to bed himself. He sits up with a groan, wiping sweaty strands of hair out of his face. "I've got an apartment now," he says around a yawn. "Shouldn't be too hard."
He follows Taichi down the hall to the bathroom, where they both quickly clean up, and then dart back into the living room to get dressed. Taichi gives him a quick kiss before he leaves, and then Yamato's alone. He shuts the door and goes inside to keep unpacking.
* * *
Yamato's head feels like it's going to split open. He really, really does not have time for this. Naoki's wailing at the top of his lungs, the sound drilling into Yamato's skull. It's been a week since he's moved into his new apartment, and it's the first day of classes for his first year at university, and he has to get Naoki all the way over to Taichi's-since Koushiro's mom had gone back to work with a new job, Mrs. Yagami had offered to babysit instead-and then get himself back over here to the university.
"Bunny!" Naoki screams, and Yamato takes a deep breath and tries not to scream himself.
"Naoki, I don't have time to find your bunny," he says desperately. Somehow his son has managed to lose his favourite stuffed animal in between yesterday evening and this morning. And of course, he's decided that today he absolutely can't leave the house without it. Yamato's patience is wearing thin, and he doesn't know what to do. He's already tried looking for the stupid thing, but of course it's nowhere to be found.
"Bunny! Bunny!" Naoki sobs, and for a brief hysterical moment he wonders how Naoki would react if he just started crying along with him. It must be so easy, to be a toddler and be able to cry whenever you want and have people just brush it aside.
"Naoki, I promise I will look for your bunny this afternoon, but right now Daddy has to be somewhere very important soon, and I need to take you to Yuuko's so I'm not late."
Naoki just looks at him, his lower lip trembling, eyes big and full of tears, and Yamato groans and begins to sweep the house again, this time lifting up cushions and mattresses and opening cabinets, praying to whatever gods might exist that he finds the damn bunny. Ten minutes later, he actually does-wedged tightly behind one of the bookcases in the living room. He doesn't even question it, just carefully extracts the thing and shoves it at his crying son, who quiets down immediately. He hurries to grab his school stuff and Naoki's diaper bag and then rushes out, trying to reach the subway quickly. Luckily he doesn't live too far from the station that will take him to Odaiba, but it's still a long enough commute.
When he finally drops Naoki off at the Yagami apartment, Taichi is already gone. He's annoyed, as they had made plans to ride the subway to the university together, since they have all but one class together this term. But then he glances at his watch and curses, realising he's going to be late. On his very first day of class. It's not a good start. He takes off running, and reaches the platform at the station just as the train's pulling away. He groans, and waits impatiently for the next one, cursing that stupid toy bunny in his head.
He finally walks into class nearly an hour later. He's ten minutes late. The professor's at the front of the room when he steps in, presumably going over the syllabus, but he stops as Yamato creeps to an open seat next to Taichi, his face red as everyone in the class turns to watch him.
"Name?" the professor asks once he's seated, looking annoyed.
"Ishida Yamato," he answers coolly, though inside he still feels terribly embarrassed.
"You're late," the professor remarks as he picks up a sheet of paper from his podium and scans it, eventually ticking off what Yamato assumes is his name.
"Yes sir, I know. I'm sorry. It won't happen again." He feels like an idiot as the professor stares at him silently for long moments, before he finally hands a girl in the front row a syllabus to pass back to him.
"See that it doesn't," he finally says. "I don't tolerate tardiness."
He nods and ducks his head, looking at the syllabus he's been given, willing the colour in his cheeks to fade as the professor resumes speaking, saying something about attendance. Yamato wants to listen, but he feels too humiliated still. He doesn't regret keeping Naoki, not for a second, but sometimes he can't help but wonder how different his life might be without him. Then, like always, he feels guilty for the thought, and resolves not to contemplate it.
After a few minutes, Taichi decides it's safe enough to talk, and hisses at Yamato. "What happened?"
"I'll explain later," he tries to whisper back, but the rush of blood in his head from running to class hasn't quite abated, and the words come out louder than he means them to. Their professor-Dr. Kanada, according to the top of the syllabus-stops talking once more, and glares darkly at him. It's intimidating. The man's unusually tall, and thin, and combined with his chin-length black hair and dark brown eyes, he looks menacing as he lurks by the table Yamato's seated at. Students turn to look again, and he wishes more than anything that he could slink under that table and hide until class is over.
"Mr. Ishida," the man hisses at him. "If I have one more interruption from you, you will be leaving this classroom and will be very lucky to ever come back in it. Is that understood?"
"Yes, sir," he mumbles, and he can't help but sink down in his seat, just a little. The man gives him one last glare, and then turns away again to continue going over the syllabus. Taichi gives him an apologetic glance, but wisely doesn't say anything else. As soon as class is over, he's grabbing up his bag and practically running out of the room as fast as possible, ignoring Taichi's startled cries of "Wait up!" until he's out of the building.
On the way to their next class, he tells Taichi what happened, still fuming at the annoyance of it all-and he's still got a headache from Naoki's cries. Luckily his last two classes go well. He meets up with Taichi after the last one, and they ride the subway back to Odaiba, each chatting about how their last class-the one they don't have together-went. He picks up Naoki from Taichi's, and then all three of them head down to the park, where they're meeting up with all of the other Chosen.
"Yamato! Taichi!" Sora calls when she spots them. She waves her arms at them, and they head over to the tree the others are under.
"Wow, Naoki's gotten big!" Daisuke exclaims as Yamato sets his son down. Naoki looks at him curiously, gnawing on one of the raggedy brown ears of the bunny he'd thrown such a fit over. Yamato winces, wishing he'd break that habit, but nothing he's tried has worked. His dad says he'll grow out of it eventually, but Yamato's skeptical.
"Hi Naoki," Daisuke says, waving at the little boy. "Do you remember me? I'm Daisuke."
"Daisuke, he hasn't seen you in four months."
"So? I remember him."
"You're not one and a half years old, either," Yamato points out exasperatedly.
"Well he'll remember me soon enough," Daisuke says cheerfully, completely unconcerned, and Yamato just rolls his eyes.
Jou runs up to them then, bending over, hands resting on his knees as he pants for breath. "Sorry I'm late!" he gasps. "My class ran longer than it was supposed to-"
"There wasn't a set time, Jou," Sora tells him, fond amusement in her voice. It's nice to see that even as they're all growing up, some things still never change. "Sit down before you fall over."
Jou does so sheepishly, catching sight of Naoki as he stretches his legs out, leaning against the large tree trunk. "He's gotten so big!" he says as soon as he's got his breath back.
"He won't remember you," Yamato says promptly, and Jou gives him a strange look.
"Of course not," Jou says, his tone saying 'isn't that obvious?' "He's only one and a half, and it's been a few months."
Daisuke turns red as Takeru, Miyako, and Taichi all start snickering at him. Hikari pats his arm consolingly, but even she looks like she wants to laugh.
Yamato pulls a few toys out of the diaper bag to occupy Naoki while they all talk and catch up.
"How is Naoki doing, with the move and all?" Takeru asks him. "Mom keeps asking me when you're going to bring 'her cute little grandson' back over for a visit." He makes a face, remembering the baby voice his mom always uses when talking about Naoki. It's definitely enough to put him off having children for many years to come. He doesn't know how Yamato can stand it sometimes.
"She just saw him two weeks ago!" Yamato says incredulously, but Takeru shrugs.
"You know Mom," he says.
Yamato sighs; he does know. "Tell her he's fine," he says. "Although he did have an incredibly annoying meltdown this morning." There's aggravation in his voice just mentioning it. It's certainly not the first fit Naoki's thrown, but it's been the worst so far. He's heard talk of the 'terrible twos' before, but had always assumed people were exaggerating. He's starting to rethink that position.
Sora gives him a sympathetic look. "Oh no, what happened?"
Yamato sighs. "He couldn't find his bunny, and refused to leave without it. I had to search the apartment two separate times-for a good ten minutes both times-before I found it. I was late to my first class and the professor was livid. He almost threw me out of the classroom."
"Yikes," Miyako said with a shudder. "Remind me not to go to university."
"What class was it?" Jou asked curiously, shoving his glasses up on his nose absently.
"Literature 101."
"Dr. Kanada?"
"You've had him?"
"Yeah, your best bet is to just keep your head down and do all of your work."
Yamato groans. "Great."
They spend a couple hours after that continuing to catch up with each other, exchanging funny or annoyed stories of how their first days went, until eventually Naoki wanders back up to Yamato, bored and fussy. Yamato packs up his stuff, waving goodbye to everybody before grabbing his son's small hand.
"I'll see you in the morning?" he asks Taichi, and Taichi nods, standing and giving him a quick kiss, which makes some of the younger Chosen whistle at them.
"Oh stop it, you guys," Sora tells them. Yamato just grins and begins heading towards the station.
* * *
Tuesday night, Yamato's woken somewhere around one am by Naoki's crying. Groggy, he nonetheless feels alarmed and rushes into the boy's room, flipping on the light and looking around, picking up Naoki and checking him over, trying to figure out what's wrong. "What is it, Naoki? What's wrong, baby?"
Naoki just keeps crying, holding his arms out for his daddy to pick him up, to which Yamato obliges, hugging him tight and doing his best to soothe him. Eventually he decides Naoki's likely had a bad dream, since nothing else seems wrong with him. "It's okay, baby," he says. "I know it was scary, but it's just a bad dream." He doubts his son will really understand yet, but that doesn't stop him from explaining.
After awhile Naoki's cries taper off into a few soft sobs, and Yamato sets him back down in his crib, tucking him in and looking around for his bunny. He finds it down at the end and grabs it, nestling it into the crook of the little boy's arm. He makes a show of checking the closet and under the crib for anything scary, saying, "See? Everything's safe. Daddy won't let anything get you." Then he checks the nightlight and realises the bulb's blown, so he gets the one from the bathroom for now, making a note to buy new bulbs later.
He tries to leave then, but Naoki's cries start to intensify again, so he sighs and grabs a book at random off the small shelf above the toy chest, opening it up and beginning to read.
When he finally makes it back to his room, it's almost three in the morning. He has to be up at six to have time to get Naoki ready and over to the Yagami apartment and then get back over to the university for his first class at nine. He reminds himself he wanted this, and then crawls back in bed for a few more hours of sleep.
When he gets back up with his alarm, he's exhausted-he almost thinks he's more tired now than if he had just stayed up through the rest of the night. He drags around the apartment, trying to will himself to wake up more, but his limbs feel heavy and his eyes keep wanting to close. He wonders if he offered to pay enough, would his dad take Naoki for a week?
He starts a pot of coffee and then goes to get Naoki from his crib. "Eat!" Naoki says with a happy grin, raising his arms up as Yamato walks in.
"Well at least one of us is awake," he mutters, picking the child up. He gets him dressed and then lets Naoki follow him to the kitchen, where he feeds him some breakfast while he drowns himself in coffee. It helps, but not enough. When he rings the doorbell for the Yagami apartment a bit later, Taichi takes one look at him and raises an eyebrow.
"Did you even sleep?" he asks.
"Maybe five or six hours, but it was interrupted in the middle," Yamato says, covering his mouth as a yawn unexpectedly escapes. "This one-" jerking his head towards the toddler beside him "-had a bad dream and made me stay with him for two hours until he calmed down and went back to sleep."
"Is it too late to give him back?" Taichi asks, teasing.
Yamato simply groans as he heads inside and sets the diaper bag down, relieved to have the weight off his shoulder. "Don't tempt me." He hands Naoki off to Yuuko's care, accepting the cup of coffee she presses on him gratefully. He downs it quickly, handing the empty cup back to her with a thanks.
"You boys have a good day at school!" she calls as they leave, running to make it to the station.
"He's going to kill me if I'm late to his class for the second time," Yamato complains as they board. "Especially since this is only the second class!"
"We'll make it," Taichi says, looking at his watch. "Barely."
Yamato's not sure, but they do, with two minutes to spare. Dr. Kanada ignores Taichi in favour of glaring at Yamato, who's sliding into his seat as unobtrusively as possible.
"Late night?" he asks, the snark in his tone making even some of the other students look up in surprise. "Stay up half the night partying?"
Yamato's angry, and thinks about telling him just what has him so tired, but he remembers what Jou told him, and he definitely doesn't want to make a scene, so he keeps his head bowed demurely as he answers. "No, sir."
Thankfully, Dr. Kanada doesn't say anything else, and Yamato's able to pull out his books as the professor begins calling roll. He says nothing as the class goes on, just takes as many notes as possible and gives his best impression of paying complete attention. An hour and a half later, they're finally leaving. When they're far enough away that it seems safe to talk, Taichi looks at him. "Why didn't you say anything to him?" he asks. "Tell him why you were almost late?"
Yamato's surprised that Taichi seems annoyed on his behalf. He doesn't think it's that big of a deal to get worked up over. He simply shrugs. "He's already made up his mind about me, Taichi. It's not worth it."
Taichi's still annoyed-Yamato can get passionate about plenty of things, not all of them necessary sometimes, but occasionally he'll remain passive about something he should be worked up over-this seems to be one of those times. He lets it go, though, not wanting to get in an argument with his boyfriend when it's still relatively early in the day. So he changes the subject. "Are we still on for our date Saturday?" he asks, though Yamato's never cancelled on him before.
"Of course," Yamato says, flashing him a smile, and they go into their next class.
* * *
Late Friday afternoon, the band meets up for practice, having to wait until Yamato and Ratsuii were done with classes. Both Nyusumi and Kenji had decided against university, wanting to focus solely on their music. They meet at Ny's house, since he has the biggest place of all of them, and because Kenji keeps his drums there, not wanting to always lug them around. Yuuko has agreed to keep Naoki for a couple extra hours, with the understanding that she can run him over to Hiroaki if Yamato runs late.
Nyusumi's twin sister, Emiko, lets Yamato in. She doesn't talk much, but Yamato greets her with a smile anyway. "Hey Emi," he says easily. "Ny upstairs?" She blinks, and then nods at him, twirling a finger in her bright pink hair. "Okay, thanks!" he calls, already heading that way. Ny had told him once that she'd been through some sort of trauma when she was younger, and no longer trusts most people, which is why she doesn't talk much. He'd never said what that trauma was. Yamato doesn't mind. He doesn't see the need to pry. He knows most people find Emi strange, but he likes her, in spite of her silence. He's heard her talk to Ny enough to know that she's smart, and snarky, and clearly loves her twin brother.
"Hey guys," he says, letting himself into Ny's room with a quick knock. He's the last one to arrive. He sets his guitar case and his backpack down as Kenji runs over and jumps on him, giving him a hug and yelling his name happily. Yamato pushes at him. "Get off, you nut," he says with a grin, and Kenji grins back.
"But it's been so long!" Kenji says.
"Yeah, because last Friday was such a lifetime ago."
"It really is! I'm glad you understand, Yamato. Where's our mascot?"
Yamato sighs, the conversation old and familiar. "He's at Taichi's, and he's not our mascot."
Kenji does his best to give him a dubious look, slightly belied by the amusement sparkling in his hazel eyes. "If you say so."
Yamato ignores him in favour of pulling his song journal out of his school bag. "We're still wanting to release the new album this summer, right?" he asks, directing his question towards Ny, who nods. "Okay, well I've got a couple new songs I thought we could try out, maybe use for the album if we like them. I'm still working on some more, but maybe we could also use one of them as a single, if we all like a particular one enough."
"Sure, let's see them," Ny says, and Yamato hands the copies of the songs he'd made over, joining the other three as they crowd around Ny to look. He could have just handed his journal over, but he absolutely refuses to. It's too private, too intimate, full of lyrics that are too personal to share with anyone, not even the band. He never lets anyone else touch his song journal, not even Taichi.
"These look good," Ny finally says seriously, looking up at him in approval.
"I think you mean 'amazing,'" Ratsuii says, and Yamato blushes. "Do you have any melodies in mind or are they just lyrics?"
"Uh, I've got some music in mind for a couple of them. I can sing them."
All three of them nod at him, so he grabs his actual journal and opens it up to the songs, looking briefly at the music notes he'd scribbled down, then takes a deep breath and begins singing the first one. The music's rough, and he stumbles over the lyrics a few times, not having memorised them yet, but there's still a momentary hush when he finishes, before Kenji grins and begins clapping, the other two quickly joining. "Can I have your autograph?" Kenji asks, snatching a pen off Ny's desk and thrusting it at him.
Yamato rolls his eyes. "Please, you flatter me so," he says, deadpan, and Kenji snickers.
"Really, that was amazing." Ratsuii repeats his words of earlier. "I could definitely see us using that for a single."
"Thanks," Yamato says, the tips of his ears flushing a bit. He's pleased with the praise. He'd worked hard on those songs. He flips to the next song in his journal and begins to sing that one for them. Once he's finished them all, they pick the one they like best and begin fleshing out the music, alternating between scribbling down notes and actually picking up their instruments to try out various pieces. A couple hours of hard work later, they've got the makings of the first song for their single.
"Good job, guys," Ny says as Ratsuii and Yamato start packing their guitars away. "I'll run by this Daichi soon, see what he thinks of it."
"Great," Yamato says wearily, slinging his guitar case over one shoulder and his school bag over the other. "See you guys soon." He lets himself out and starts trekking in the direction of the Yagami apartment to get Naoki.
* * *
The next morning he's sipping at a cup of coffee, eyes half-focused while he still tries to wake up, when suddenly Naoki begins crying loudly, jolting him out of his leftover dreams. He looks over to see Naoki's sippy cup on its side and orange dribbles all down the front of his shirt. He sighs and sets down his mug, wetting a few paper towels to clean the toddler up. "Naoki baby, don't cry," he says, voice still fogged with sleep. "It's okay, I know it was just an accident. We can clean it, we can get you a new shirt, it's not worth tears."
Of course Naoki doesn't listen to him. He just continues to sob, big crocodile tears sliding down his chubby cheeks and splashing onto the tray of his high chair. Yamato inwardly groans, not awake enough to want to deal with this, but having no choice. He does his best to clean up the little boy, then picks him up out of his chair and carries him into his bedroom, quickly changing him into a new shirt. "See? Daddy made it all better."
Naoki looks down at himself, not seeing a mess anymore, and then tentatively gives Yamato a smile. Yamato carries him back into the kitchen and scrubs at his face, wiping away the tears and then getting him a new cup. Naoki takes it happily. "Drink," he says.
"Yes, that's your drink."
Naoki sips at it, and Yamato goes back to his now cold coffee in peace.
* * *
The movie turns out to be lame. The lunch is great. Yamato's favourite part of the date, though, and he's pretty sure it's Taichi's too, is when they go back to his apartment for a couple hours of alone time. He comes at least twice-he loses track a little bit, because everything feels fantastic and his refractory period is being really generous today. Eventually though, he knows he has to go get Naoki back from his dad's, since he promised not to leave him all day. They get dressed reluctantly and hop the subway. Taichi goes with him, since his own building is only right next door.
His dad greets them with a tired smile. "Hi, guys. Did you have a nice time?"
Taichi grins-he's had more than a nice time. The things Yamato can do with his tongue... "Definitely," he tells Mr. Ishida.
"Taichi!" Yamato hisses in embarrassment, elbowing him. He rolls his eyes at his dad. "Don't mind him."
Mr. Ishida just smiles knowingly at them, choosing not remark on anything as he lets them in. Yamato feels his face turning red and quickly changes the subject. "Naoki ready to go?"
"Daddy!" comes the sudden enthusiastic cry, answering that question pretty clearly.
"Hi baby," he says, leaning down to swoop his son up in a big hug. "Did you have a good time with grandpa? Did you behave for him?"
Naoki giggles. "I'll take that as a yes," Yamato tells him.
"He was fine. No tantrums."
"Lucky you," Yamato mutters. "Thanks for watching him, Dad."
"It's no problem. I like spending time with my favourite grandson."
"You better say only, or before you know it Takeru might start giving you some."
His dad clutches a hand over his heart, looking terrified. "He better not. He's too young."
"Same age I was when I made this one," Yamato points out, hefting Naoki's weight to his other arm.
Mr. Ishida shudders, scary thoughts of more grandchildren passing through his mind. No, one is definitely enough for now. "I better give Takeru an extra special talk."
Yamato smirks, and Taichi bursts out laughing. "On that note, I better go home," he says. "Mom will start wondering what happened to me."
"We need to go too, before Naoki starts getting cranky," Yamato says, shouldering the diaper bag his dad passes to him. "Thanks again, Dad."
His dad waves him away. "Come back soon. Both of you, or all three of you even."
When they're outside Taichi's apartment, they pause and look at each other. "See you Monday?" Taichi asks.
Yamato nods. "Yep." He leans over for a quick goodbye kiss.
"Kiss!" Naoki cries when they pull apart, making little grabby motions with his hands towards Yamato's face. "Kiss!"
Taichi chuckles at the little boy's antics, and Yamato gives his son a quick kiss on the cheek before heading home.
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