Work Text:
"Hey mom! do you mind if I borrow this?" Forrest asked from the kitchen door, he was holding a red cardigan.
"What do you need it for?" Sakura asked from the counter, her eyes were fixed on a cookie tray.
"Cookies?!" Forrest sounded like a child, "Aw I have perfect timing."
Sakura giggled, "I still have to put them in the oven!"
"Yeah but if you're making them today I'll just stick around and take a few.. you totally won't notice right?" He looked at her with suspicious eyes.
"At least leave one for your father," she slid the tray into the oven and handed Forrest the oven mitts. "What do you need it for again?"
"Oh yeah, I'm cosplaying the shrine maiden and she wears a red thing like this," he demonstrated.
Sakura nodded, "sure."
"Do you want to see it when it's done?" Forrest asked her before leaving the kitchen.
"Sure," she smiled warmly.
*After ten minutes, Forrest ran down the stairs and made his way to a recliner next to a sliding glass door where his mother sat with a cup of tea.* The clock announced the change of the hour with its bells as he walked into her line of sight, she looked at him and nodded in approval.
"You look beautiful," she smiled.
"Thanks mom, it really helps that I have your hair color, cause then I can look exactly like her," Forrest said with excitement.
The room went silent for a moment while Sakura made some adjustments on the front, her hands froze when she heard the sound of keys from just outside the front door.
"What happened?" Forrest held her hands.
"Your dad's home.... early." Sakura told him, "go change, we'll fix it later."
Leo walked through the door with bags under his eyes and a stiff neck. All he wanted to do was sit on a recliner and be left alone.
"Forrest!' he called out to the boy when he saw how he was dressed. "What in the world are you wearing?"
"It's my cosplay for Friday's con. Do you like it?" Forrest asked unaware of how upset his father was.
"There is no way you're going out in public like that!" Leo screamed despite his exhaustion.
"Forrest go change, i'll help you fix it it later," Sakura told him as she walked to the door, despite the situation she had a smile on her face.
"Hel-"
"YOU'LL DO NO SUCH THING!" he yelled and pointed at her before she could greet him. Sakura froze in place and watched Forrest go up the stairs.
"Hello Leo," the smile was gone from Sakura's face. She turned around and made her way to the kitchen, "I didn't know you were coming home early," she said without looking at him.
"What difference does twenty minutes make?" he threw his keys on the kitchen table and leaned against he counter. "What are those clothes even? isn't the red thing yours?"
"I'm surprised you noticed that," Sakura told him, "it's called a cosplay. We've done those before."
"I know what a cosplay is!" he said, "but why does he have to go around dressed like a girl?"
"It looks cute, why does it-" Sakura tried to defend the idea but was interrupted again.
"Cute?" he sighed, "Sure, my son dressed like a drag queen is cute,"
"OUR son does NOT look like that!" She pointed at him with a wooden spoon, "Please refrain from making any more comments about this before we eat dinner." Leo cold see the spoon shaking. She wasn't the kind of person to ell or point at people with objects like that, so he could see she was unsure of doing this.
"He's not wearing that anywhere," Leo said as he walked towards the recliner in the next room.
"Yes he is." Sakura said without looking at him.
"Sakura listen to me," he came back into the kitchen and stood next to her. "Forrest is a boy, not a girl, You're not gonna just okay him dressing up like a woman so he can look like the daughter you never had. If you didn't do that when he was little and you could dress him up yourself, there is no reason for you to do it now." He left the room before she could answer him.
Sakura had nothing to say anyway. She put down the wooden spoon and looked at the dinner she had made. She had gone out of her way to make everyone's favorite food in one day and had planned to spend a family night since there was a storm coming. She simply left it unserved on top of the stove and grabbed her car keys, guess family night was going to have to wait another week. She walked out the door without saying goodbye to anyone. While in the car, she texted Forrest and told him he could have all of the cookies if he took them out of the oven in twenty minutes. Almost immediately came a reply from him, he was asking her where she was, but she simply ignored the text and drove away with no set destination in mind.
Sakura sat by a bench overlooking a large lake. Normally there would be swans going about their day, but there were none today. She knew why o course, it wasn't like she couldn't hear the rough rustling of leaves, see the gray skies or smell the rain coming. She placed her large unopened coffee on the wooden bench and brought he elbows to her knees. "the daughter i never had." she sniffled for the millionth time covered her face, she could only see water through the openings between her fingers. "You promised you'd never bring that up..." she said as if Leo was there to listen to her. "You said that it was ok because the three of us were perfect..." she began began to cry again for the fifth time as large droplets of water fell hard on her head.
Forrest sat a the table in silence as the rain picked up outside.
"Where's mom?" Forrest asked as a flash of lightning made the overhead chandelier flicker.
"She didn't say where she was going," Leo shook his head, "she'll be back soon though, she hates driving in this weather."
Leo's mind jumped back to their college days when she had called him from the freeway. She'd been on her way home for spring break but the weather did not cooperate, flooding and high wind advisories were in effect and she had not been able to go home soon enough because of a final exam.
"Please stay with me on the phone until I get home," she was sobbing.
"Sakura you're gonna be ok, you know how to drive," he chuckled. "Tell me what do you see?"
"Nothing, there's so much rain my wipes can't keep up." she said, he could hear the clicking sound of stationary lights in the background.
"Are you driving or are you on the side of the road?" he asked her.
"Driving, but everyone on the road has their stationary lights on, it's the only way we can see each other... oh my god the bridge!" she took a deep breath. "I'm ok."
"Yes you're ok."
Forrest looked outside the window and checked his phone, "Mom answer me!"
"She'll come soon trust me," Leo said and took a cookie from the tray in the middle of the table.
"How can you be so sure? Do you even care about her? she hates driving in the rain!" Forrest raised his voice.
"I just told you that, that's exactly why I'm sure she will," Leo went over to the kitchen to get more coffee.
"You told her something else after I went upstairs didn't you?" Forrest asked from the dining room.
"No."
"Yeah you did," Forrest went to load the dish washer like he usually did.
"I said no and that's that." Leo snapped.
Forrest decided to stay up until his mother came home. He picked up one of his favorite childhood books and began reading it for the fifth time under his desk light. He was about a quarter of the way done with it when the light went out followed by the loudest thunder he'd ever heard. He dialed her phone for the tenth time and it went straight to voice mail, as expected. He checked the driveway and saw that her car was still missing, he went to check his parents' bedroom and found his father still awake.
"Need something?" Leo asked him.
"Are you using your reading light?" Forrest asked the first thing that came to mind. His real intention was to see if his mother was in there, but now that his father was awake, and possibly still upset, he could't afford to be awkward.
Leo reached into the drawer next to him and took out the small book light, "I want it back though."
"Thanks," Forrest took it and left the room closing the door behind him.
"He did something," Forrest whispered angrily to himself and squeezed the small flashlight in his hand as if to break it.
He'd seen his mother smiling and humming songs all day. She'd put on an outfit Forrest knew his father liked and made his favorite food. Forrest was unsure of what the occasion was, but he loved it when his mother did things like that. He'd hear his friends talk about how their parents were dull and boring, or how some of them had already divorced, but after twenty one years or so, his were still happy to see each other every day and planned little surprises for each other. He knew his mother could get mad from time to time, but it never lasted more than a few hours. He also knew that his father could be terrifying when he was angry, but he couldn't tel when the last time he'd been angry at his mother was. It just never happened he guessed. "Was it me?" he sighed and sat by the foot of his bed listening to the rain.
Sakura's hands were trembling on the steering wheel. "you're ok, you can do this," she repeated as she drove through the large puddles on the street.
She finally pulled into her driveway and parked the car so it was touching the garage door. "Guess the power's out if this thing didn't open..." she pushed the driver's seat all the way back and took a deep breath. "BUT I DID NOT CALL YOU AT LEAST ONCE DID I?" She yelled just before opening the car door and stepping into the freezing rain.
Forrest was half asleep when he heard the door to his room open slowly.
"Mom?" he sprang up to his feet.
"Shh... it's ok, i'm ok," she whispered and stepped on her tiptoes to kiss his forehead.
"You're soaked!" Forrest gestured to her hair.
"i'm gonna shower and go to sleep, " she kissed his forehead again and walked towards the room, "I'll be in the guest room if you need anything."
Forrest thought he was going to punch his father the next time he saw him. He was lucky it was late and he felt bad waking him up just for that. He couldn't think of a time when Leo had made him so angry. He respected, almost idolized his father, how could anyone be better than him? but not when he acted like a jerk to not just his son, but his wife, who just wanted him to come home and spend time with her. It occurred to Forrest that this was the very first time that he actually understood what it was like when parents argued. The guest room in his house was never used by anyone who lived it, not that he could remember, but he always heard his friends walkabout parents sleeping in separate rooms. Had his parents ever argued like this before or was this the first time ever? And if t was, was it because of him?
The next morning nobody said anything and each person ate their own breakfast. Sakura was all ready to go, coffee mug in hand when Forrest went downstairs.
"Good morning," she smiled at him and went to kiss his cheek, "Sorry honey I have to go," she looked at her watch, "I'm actually running late."
Sakura grabbed her keys and ran out saying nothing to Leo.
"I don't know what you did to her, but you owe her an apology," Forrest said, now that he was sitting in front of his father, punching him didn't seem like the best idea.
Leo nodded and said nothing else.
Leo's words were still going through Sakura's mind as she drove to work. "he's not the daughter YOU couldn't have."
After Forrest was born, it became impossible for Sakura to have another child. He couldn't know how hard it had been for her, and by the sound of it, he didn't really care either. They'd tried for years to have another child so Forrest wouldn't grow up on his own. He'd comforted her and tell her that it didn't matter because the three of them were perfect. But if it didn't, why was he using it against her now?
"Good morning Doctor!" a nurse walked up to her and handed her a file. " He's already here,"
"Perfect, I'll be there at eight." she gave a fake smile and continued walking down the hallway with patient file in hand.
The operating room was freezing, perfect for the kind of procedure they were about to perform. Three doctors, four nurses and one student. As agreed, it was Sakura's job to do most of the talking, she was 'the nicest' and had 'the warmer' voice. She explained the procedure to the patient for the third time and asked if he was ok with having a student observe the operation. When everything was in place, Sakura forced herself to focus on what was happening inside the OR, and leaving everything else outside the heavy beige doors.
Leo sat on his desk and stared blankly at his computer screen, his mind was clearly elsewhere. He had a reminder on his phone about sending a good luck text to Sakura at exactly seven fifty five, of course, he had failed to do this. She had told him about how nervous she was multiple times and maybe cried one of those times because of the insanely high risk of death.
"I've never had a patient die on me and I don't know if I can handle this," she had told him at the beginning of the week.
"You're gonna be in the room, he won't die," he had told her before kissing her forehead.
"You're so supportive, I don't know where I would be without you."
He began to think of how his life would be without her and saw nothing. His son was definitely right about owing Sakura an apology, but where to begin? He knew she would forgive him if he said the right words, but the thing about the daughter they'd never had still lingered in his mind. How was he supposed to apologize for THAT?
Sakura had been on his mind the whole day. He'd picked up an edible arrangement for her after work and hoped that it would at least make up for not sending the text, they were her favorite.
He walked into the house and found that it was cold and unwelcoming.
"Hello!" he called but no one answered.
"Don't come rushing all at once," he said as he threw his car keys somewhere on the couch. He headed for his bedroom, the only room in the house where there was light. He found Sakura curled up in a ball under the covers in the middle of their bed.
"You're gonna have to order food," she said without looking at him.
He said nothing and went to sit next to her, "I'm sorry Sakura," he could only see her pink hair.
Sakura said nothing.
"I brought you something," he patted her head.
She reached from under the covers and placed her hand on his, "I'm sorry too."
"What are you sorry for?" he looked at her small hand.
"For not being able to give you another child," she began sobbing.
"Sakura, I'm sorry I told you that, I shouldn't have," he uncovered her face and lied down next to her.
"I must have made you so unhappy all this time," she said.
"You did no such thing," he kissed her hair. "It was my fault, I'll do everything around here for a month, a year if you want, but please, stop telling yourself those things."
Sakura gave a weak chuckle, "It's not like you to beg and play maid."
"I'll do it for you," he told her. "But come on I brought you something," he poked her side to make her move. Even though he was trying to be playful he kew a serious conversation was due at some point.
"I don't want to go," she rolled over and hid under the covers.
"I'll take you down there if you don't get up." he threatened her with a playful tone still.
"You can't." she said, her voice was muffled under the comforter, she sounded like she had been crying for a while.
Leo pulled the edge of the comforter near him and uncovered her, "Come on, you'll like it,"
"if it's food i'm not hungry," she said and tried to take the comforter but Leo caught her hand first.
"Please no! put me down!" Sakura protested but Leo paid little attention to this.
"It's good" she unwrapped the bouquet and started taking pieces of fruit from it,
"Where's Forrest?" Leo asked
"He went out with Nina and Ophelia," Sakura informed her, "he might not be back tonight."
"That's convenient," Leo muttered under his teeth.
"I heard that!" she threw a piece of fruit at him. "You're sleeping in the guest room."
"Why?" Leo protested.
Sakura gave him a serious look, "Did you think that just talking nice to me and buying me an edible arrangement would fix everything?" She bit into a piece of chocolate.
"Of course not..." he took a strawberry from the bouquet, "but I hope it at least made up for the text?""
"That's two nights in the guest room,"
"Sakura!"
"Then close your mouth." she fed him another strawberry and went to lock the main front door.
Forrest opened the door to his house and food Sakura standing by the alarm.
"Mom!" he ran inside and hugged her like he did when he was a child.
"You ok?" she asked him.
"You're... " he looked at her, "not crying anymore"
Sakura pointed at the table, "please close the door I'm doing the alarm." she still sounded like she had a cold.
"What happened to you not coming back tonight?" Leo asked his son as he came into the kitchen.
"Who said that?" Forrest gave hm a confused look.
They could both hear Sakura laughing in the next room.
Forrest looked at both of them and noticed that the atmosphere was not tense anymore. "So you two aren't at war anymore?"
"We never were," Leo said.
"I won." Sakura corrected him.
Leo found Forrest in his study the day after the convention.
"I'm sorry dad is it ok for me to be here?" the boy looked nervous.
"Why wouldn't it be?" Leo asked casually.
"Well... I don't know," Forrest picked up a piece of paper and offered to his father, "I'm working on my college essay, can yo uh... help me with it... please?"
Leo took the paper from his hand and glanced over it, "Yes, but if you're looking for ways to make it prettier I suggest talking to your mother."
"Prettier?" Forrest was confused, why would his father suggest making something prettier as opposed to more concise or logical?
"Like, make it sound nice and readable to people who aren't me."
They both laughed.
"Forrest I owe you an apology," Leo said after a pause.
"What for?" the boy asked.
"They way I talked to you the other day."
"Apology accepted dad." Forrest said and went back to his laptop screen.
"No, I mean it," Leo pulled up a chair and sat in front of his son. "Forrest when I see you dressing up like that I honestly... worry about you."
"Worry? why?" Forrest's eyes were on Leo.
"Because I don't want anyone to get the wrong idea about you..." Leo paused. "What you see yourself as or who you like is not a problem, but there are people out there who'll want to take advantage of you and-"
"I know," Forrest interrupted him, "I know you only reacted like that because you worry about me and you're afraid for what might happen, but, I'm not a kid anymore. I mean I'm growing up, Soon I'll be going to school, hopefully the same school you and mom went to, and I'll be away so.... you gotta let me go."
"Forrest I don't think you-" Leo tried to explain himself but Forrest seemed to know what he was going to say once again.
"If I go out dressed like a girl i'll be seen like a girl and run the same risks as a girl," Forrest chuckled, "You're the best father!"
"Am I really?" Leo asked.
Forrest simply nodded and waved at someone standing by the door to the studio. Leo turned around and saw Sakura walking into the room. "About time you two talked about that," she sat down next to Leo.
"About time..." Leo said.
"Now what was this about a college essay?" Sakura asked.
"Did you hear the whole thing?" Leo asked her.
"You left the door open!" she teased his hair.
Forrest chuckled and handed her a copy of his essay. "So I'm applying to you program mom. I want to be a doctor like you."
"That's wonderful," she took the paper and began reading over it.
While both of his parents were reading his college essay, Forrest went over to the kitchen to grab them tea, as much as he loved them, it made him really nervous to sit in the same room as them while they read his writing.