CHAPTER 6
For that year, Yukari was able to barely squeeze into a local university to start her college education. Every class, she brought little Hisato along, since she didn't trust a babysitter with him. For the most part, he was well-behaved, hardly ever making a ruckus. The only times she had to walk out was to feed and change him, and that was it. He slept around the clock, seeming calmed by the voices of her professors and classmates.
For a while, she had no clue what she wanted to major in. It wasn't until her second year that she decided to go for a masters in Accounting, something simple and enough to support herself in the years after. For the most part, school was the one of easiest parts for her. The hardest for her was parenting. Watching Hisato grow before her eyes was a miracle. When she got her Associates, he was two years old, nearing three. At this age, he was starting to blossom into something so familiar to her and the others.
September 25th, 2013
Noon
University Courtyard
"Is Hisato hungry?"
"Yes, Mama," the little boy nodded his head. He held out his open hands and Yukari place a small slice of bread into it. As she pulled out her own lunch, he bit off a piece and began to eat. She opened and began to eat her salad, keeping an eye on her son as he ate.
"Thank you," He said once he swallowed, the bit into the bread once more.
She chuckled, watching him eat in the most polite way she'd ever seen a three-year old eat. He turned his gaze to her, which was as wide and curious as it had been when they first opened to the world.
Lunchtime was always like this. She had always made sure to schedule her lectures so she had enough time to eat and spend time with Hisato. And each time, he would be polite in waiting for his food and say his thank yous. Then after lunch, she would watch him play with his toys he brought with her for him and then he'd run around a bit before they packed up and went to her next class.
But this day was different.
As she packed up their belongings, a fellow classmate approached them.
"Miss Takeba, is it?"
She looked up and saw a young male, around the same age and education level as she was. He had dark hair and a bit of an average joe feel about it, but he wore a blazer that was slightly too large for him.
"Uh yes, that's me," Yukari responded to the stranger, standing up, as well as Hisato. "And you might be...?"
"Yamamoto Haruto," He told her and held out his hand. "It's a pleasure to finally meet you,"
She cautiously shook his hand, taking a hold of Hisato's in her free hand. "Should I... know you?" She raised an eyebrow, searching his face for a memory, but to now avail.
"No," Haruto replied releasing her hand. "I'm Yuki's cousin. I only ever heard of you when I was in Iwatodai on vacation and ran into him. He briefly mentioned you when he was leaving,"
"Oh..." She trailed off, looking away from his gaze.
"I'd like to talk about him with you and..." He turned his own gaze to Hisato's, indirectly asking who the child was.
"This is Hisato... Makoto and I's... son," She trailed off once again, not wanting to make eye contact with this awfully weird stranger. "Say hello, Hisato,"
"Hello, sir..." He hid behind his mother's leg, feeling the same about him as she did.
"Oh?" Haruto inquired. "So where's Yuki then?"
Yukari went silent. Hisato looked up at his mother with wide eyes.
"He... um..." She didn't know where to start. Not with Hisato around. "Could we go somewhere else to talk? He..."
"No worries," Haruto cut her off. "We can head over to the lounge, if that's alright with you,"
...
"So," the fellow classmate sat down across from her in the lounge, Hisato now in a children's area with assured adult supervision. "Where is Yuki?"
Yukari fidgeted. Her and the rest of SEES didn't go over what would they say and do if Makoto's acquaintances asked of him. She certainly couldn't tell about the Dark Hour or Nyx or any of that.
"He... passed away, back in the spring of 2010..." She quietly told Haruto, looking into her lap. "He had... some health problems that grew fatal and he went in his sleep..."
The classmate gave a sympathetic gaze before looking away. "I'm... so sorry to hear that... and to reopen any wounds... " He fumbled his fingers and bit his bottom lip. "How... did Hisato come to be then?"
More things about the Fall and SEES she couldn't say. She couldn't tell him that she did it just in case they didn't survive. But she did and he didn't and she was left a child.
"We were dating up to his death and a few months before he passed, we had unprotected sex for whatever stupid reasons..." She still had a hard time meeting his eyes, especially over the topic of sex. Sex out of all of the things...
"I see..." He was silent for a moment, looking at Hisato from across the room. "Have you been able to move on?"
"Yes... and no," She softly added to the end. "Around the time he passed and I found out I was expecting, I had moved on fairly well and since then, I have. But... not enough to start another relationship. Not with a child to raise and give all my attention to..." She too looked over at Hisato, who was doing fairly well this far from his mother for one of the first few times she let him off to play on his own while she study.
"That's good," He replied, both in deep thought. "For being a single mother, you got the right mindset. Children first, then yourself... It's what every parent should be like,"
His words struck deep in her heart. She started to think about her mother back at home, then her own father, whom she lost what seemed like ages ago, but only fifteen years back. After learning about Makoto's loss of his parents of the same year she lost her father, she thought about how lucky she was compared to him and she tried to cherish her mother a bit more, but her mother refused, doing the opposite of what a mother should do in the situation they were in. Overall, she was kinda glad her mother was that way. It taught her how not to be after the loss of a lover and how not to treat your child.
"He looks strikingly like his father,"
Haruto's voice snapped her out of her daze, which brought her gaze onto her son, who had noticed they were staring and was staring back. The only time she really had noticed the similarities was when he was born, but now that is was mentioned, the blue hair that was just barely past his ears was exactly the same shade she remembered, but the rest, she had no clue what to put it against.
"I grew up with Yuki," Haruto continued, turning his gaze back to her. "Well, we visited each other now and again due to our mothers being strongly bonded sisters. So I see a lot of younger him in your son. But... after that incident back in 1999... I never really saw him again till I saw him in Iwatodai. That time... I hardly believed it was him... He changed a lot since we were kids,"
"He was different back then...?" It was now Yukari's turn to be intrigued.
"Almost completely," He continued. "He was still polite and understanding when I met him again, but the rest was... not him... He was always happy to see his friends, smiling and asking all about the time lost. That time, he just looked at me with a little shock and nothing more,"
The two of them went silent after that, looking around at anything but each other.
"I'm sure if you keep doing what you're doing, things will be different with Hisato,"
Yukari turned back over to her son, who was starting to walk on over. His face wasn't yet matured farther from when he was an infant, but she could already begin to tell where Makoto played into his looks. His thin eyebrows and his slightly round face was the most she could tell for now. In the meantime, she couldn't wait to see him grow even more.
Haruto stood up and Hisato approached. As Yukari stood, he pulled out his wallet and handed her a photo.
"I'm so glad to have ran into you today," He said, giving a small smile. "I had this with me to give you when we met. Keep it for safekeeping. I'm sure it'll help this little guy and you out," He ruffled Hisato's blue hair, who took not much mind to it, fixing his hair after the man's head left his head.
"Thank you so much, Haruto," She smiled wide, her heart a little more at peace.
As she watched him off, she looked at the picture again. In it was younger Makoto, in a elementary uniform and an unlikely smile on his face.
"Mama?" Hisato grabbed her free hand, only slightly pulling at it. "Who is 'Yuki'"?
She closed her eyes and smiled, then looked down at him. "I'll tell you when you're older, okay?"
...
Apartment Room
Late Night
She placed her photo from Haruto next to her few others of Makoto. The ones she did have was their group photo from the night after the twelfth shadow with the rest of SEES, a picture they took together in a photo booth, and his school ID that took before his funeral. Stepping back, she looked at the display of hers, atop her dresser where Hisato was too short to see yet.
She took notice his Evoker next to it all, along with his SEES band and his music player. Aigis had given his Evoker to her around the time senior year was drawing to a close, telling her that it was an early gift to Hisato for when he was older and understood where his father really was. The other two items were what nobody thought were of much importance, but to her, was all she had left of him. The music player had to be dead, since it hadn't been used in almost five years, but she treasured it for more than just use.
She turned towards Hisato. He laid, curled up and fast asleep in his crib. The thought of sleep clung onto her. But her conversation with Haruto today pulled the other way, towards the photos. She stared into the one of her and him, her smiling and him straight-faced. She always wondered if he felt the same about her as she did for him, unfortunately, she never got a true answer. She knew she was something to him, but she never heard those words that every girl dreamed of hearing leave his lips. But words were never really his thing, from what she knew and remembered of him. He only talked when asked a question and never really on his own. She guessed the reason why she never did hear those words was because she never asked. It wasn't something people usually asked, unless uncertain about the relationship. Which that meant...
"I knew... Even though you never came out and said it, I knew... " She began to softly say, not making eye contact with the photos. "I wasn't like the others to you. I was someone else, someone worth letting get intimate with... But despite knowing that, I was still uncertain whether it was true or not... But now..."
She looked back up to the photos, making specific eye contact with his ID photo.
"Now that I look at our son... How much he really is like you... and how much he loves his mother..." Tears began to form in her eyes, but she kept smiling. "I know you were telling me some other way that you did love me... I was just hoping for it to scream out at me, unlike the rest of your actions..." She wiped her tears on her sleeve and sniffled, but the tears still came.
"Now all that there's for me to do is be there for him," She continued, choking on her tears. "And I'm alright with that... Knowing that your love for me allowed you to give me a parting gift in such a beautiful form that is life... I'm more than thankful... I am honored... "
"And I hope... that one day..." The tears starting coming down. "Maybe one day... he'll be able to see his father's face in some form or another... I really hope for that... But I hope that I can be the mother that you needed after that day for him... No..."
She shook her head and let the tears come streaming down.
"I promise... I will be there for Hisato... No matter what happens..."
Through all her tears, she smiled the widest she had in awhile...