Chapter Text
"Leave me alone!" Daigo's annoyed scream sounded from the other side of the door as soon as Kazuma's knuckles connected with its wood, the noise of his knocking dying down as fast as it appeared.
"Daigo, please…" he pleaded, but no more responses came from the other side of the locked door to his son's room.
✦
With an exhausted sigh, Kazuma let himself drop onto the sofa, hanging his head in defeat. A snicker came from the open kitchen, only separated from the living room by the kitchen island at which his husband stood and dried the dishes, his lone eye observing his partner with amusement.
"Boy ain't lettin' ya in?" he asked and Kazuma shook his head in response.
"He won't even listen to me, Goro." he explained further, another sigh leaving his lips. "It's like he doesn't want me in his life anymore. Can't you try talking to him again? Please?"
Goro returned his pleading look with a sympathetic smile. "It ain't that deep, trust me." He wiped over a plate before stacking it onto its peers inside the wall cabinet behind him. "He just turned fourteen, thinks he owns the world now. Us ignorant old men just don't understand his lifestyle."
As if prompted, loud punk rock music blasted from their son's room upstairs, the muffled bass shaking the walls and floors of their cozy little Okinawan home. Kazuma's head sank lower and yet another loud sigh escaped him.
"But I want to understand him. He just doesn't let me."
His eyes caught sight of the open letter laying on the living room table in front of him; the reason Kazuma had tried talking to their son in the first place.
Unexcused absences from class—25 hours .
The bold text stared right back at him, unmoving and judging. Kazuma swore he just barely escaped a heart attack when he'd first read through the letter addressed to him that very morning. His son had missed almost five days worth of education, and neither Kazuma nor Goro had noticed.
Sunday breakfast was ruined the second this information came out.
While Kazuma was too baffled by the news to even comprehend the situation, Goro had been much more direct and vocal about his disdain for his son's behavior. After a short but intense argument between the two, Daigo stormed off and locked himself in his room where he'd been stubbornly staying for the last couple of hours, refusing to talk to any of his family members.
"He's always been such a sweet boy. Now this." Kazuma's gaze shifted to one of the many framed pictures displayed in their living room—on it, Kazuma and Goro holding a three-year old Daigo in their arms, the boy beaming with an innocent and happy smile.
The fear of parenthood had gnawed at Kazuma the second they had fully committed to the wish of adopting a child of their own. Even after their request had finally been accepted after five whole years of trying, the underlying anxiety of failing as a parent continued to haunt the man.
Now his fears seemingly became reality. His son was unhappy, refused to listen to him and had even started to shamelessly skip school. He wondered what kind of other activities he was participating in behind their backs, anything was possible now that Kiryu knew his son wasn't as innocent as he always thought he was.
"Daigo's never been an angel, Kaz." Goro snorted as he wiped the kitchen counter. "He's spoiled rotten. Both of 'em are." he grinned and gestured towards the window front leading to the garden in which Kazuma could spot his six-year old daughter Haruka lounging under a sun umbrella, feet dangling in a small kid's pool, sunglasses propped up on her nose, and a tray of various fruits sitting beside her as her tiny hands casually tapped on the tablet in her lap.
Maybe Goro was right. Perhaps Kazuma had been too focused on being the perfect parent to his children that he'd completely forgotten about disciplining them correctly. Was it too late to correct his mistakes? Was he even capable of anything but his kind-hearted nature?
Seemingly reading Kazuma's inner struggle off his deeply furrowed brows, Goro wandered over to his spot on the couch and sat down on the arm rest beside him, slinging an arm over his husband's shoulders and pulling him closer.
"Yer thinkin' too much." he softly chuckled and kissed the top of his head. "Yer doin' amazing with the kids, if that's what ya musin' bout."
Kazuma grumbled, unconvinced by his partner's words. "If that were true, Daigo wouldn't lie to us, and especially not decide to skip school just like that."
A sigh sounded, this time coming from Goro. "Yeah, that shit needs to stop, no doubt." he agreed. "But we haven't failed as parents, Kazzy. Boy just got an attitude. I got one too, y'know, and I didn't turn out that bad, eh?"
Kazuma glanced up at him and couldn't help but smirk at the way his husband wiggled his eyebrows, demanding confirmation for his statement.
"Yeah, he definitely got the attitude from you." he chuckled, earning himself a soft slap to the back of his head.
"Yeah, yeah, I'll take that as a compliment. Daigo-chan's a smart boy. I'll try talkin' to him again later if that eases yer worries, okay?"
Kazuma nodded, still looking rather droopy about the whole situation, but at the same time relieved to have Goro agree to talk to their problem child once more. He'd always considered his partner to be much better at understanding and analyzing emotions. "Thank you, Goro." Kazuma spoke softly and placed a hand over the one resting on his shoulder.
Goro smiled at him. "He just needs to calm down fer now n' I'm sure he'll spill whatever's gotten into him." he reassured him further. "Besides, I think I've got an idea what's cloudin' the kid's mind." A cheeky grin spread across his face, bringing confusion to the other man.
"What is it? Did something happen?" Kazuma asked, another wave of worry starting to spread. Goro shook his head before his mind could run wild with possible, horrible scenarios.
"Haven't ya noticed? Pretty sure Daigo got his first real crush!" the one-eyed man beamed at him, and Kazuma felt his breath hitch.
"Are you sure? Who is it?"
"Ya really have no clue? Damn, what would ya do without me." Goro giggled but quickly realized how Kazuma's intense stare demanded an answer, fast . "Oh well, he's been spendin' a lot of time with that one friend of his lately, don't ya think…?"
"Goda-san's son?!" Kazuma intercepted, jumping up from his seat on the sofa and almost knocking Goro off his position on the armrest in the process.
"Shi—what?! No!" Goro whined, struggling to regain his balance after the supporting body suddenly vanished. "Not that one! The boy with the shaved head, lives in that orphanage down south. Uh…Yoshi-chan?"
Kazuma's expression softened as he recognized who he was talking about. "Oh, Yoshitaka? I see…" he hummed and sank back into his seat, Goro instinctively wrapping his arms around his shoulders again. Kazuma knew the orphanage and the boy in question; a reserved but polite kid, three months younger than Daigo, who'd started attending the same school as him merely a year prior. It had been heartwarming to see Daigo take him in, giving the boy who seemed to have no one but himself someone to confide in and hang out with. But if they'd developed more than just this—a friendship—did Kazuma really miss all of the signs?
"Yeah." Goro's voice pulled the man out of his mind, seemingly answering his thoughts. "Can't hundred percent confirm it but damn, I've worked in the hostess business long enough to recognize lovey-dovey glances when I see 'em."
They had spent a lot of time together recently, maybe the possibility of them falling for each other wasn't as farfetched as it might have seemed to Kazuma. Daigo had never expressed interest in any of the popular girls in his grade, maybe the reason truly was that his focus was directed towards his male companions instead.
The sudden storm of happiness tickling in Kazuma's chest was quickly shushed away as the door to the backyard slid open and Haruka stepped inside.
"Daigo's sneaking out." she nonchalantly snitched before loudly sucking the last of her orange juice through a brightly colored straw.
✦
"Care to explain what all of this is about?" Kazuma's arms were crossed over his chest as he stood imposingly in front of his son. Daigo sat on his bed striking an equally defensive pose.
Once they'd heard the news from their young daughter, Kazuma and Goro hurried outside to find their son in the process of climbing out of his window, groaning and struggling as they dragged him back inside and into his room once more.
And again, Daigo refused to talk. That was until Goro, sitting on the edge of his bed, decided to go a more direct route.
"Where ya tryin' to sneak off to see Yoshi-chan?"
Daigo's expression spoke more than a thousand words. His eyes grew wide, a mortified look on his face as he stared at his father in realization that his efforts of hiding his intentions weren't as successful as he'd thought.
Quickly, he forced his face back into an annoyed frown and averted his eyes, starting a staring contest with the bed sheets underneath him.
Kazuma sighed. "So it's true?" he spoke, the tone of his voice much softer than before. He moved to sit down in front of his son who continued to refuse to meet any of their eyes.
"Is that where you've been going instead of school?" he continued trying to sound as sympathetic as possible, but Daigo's frown just deepened until he finally snapped.
"So what?!" he spat, looking up at him and revealing the faint glister of tears starting to fill his eyes. "It's none of your business! I'm just trying to make him happy!" He snapped his mouth shut, realizing that he'd said too much.
Goro made a questioning sound.
For a moment, it seemed as if Daigo was going to lock up again, his inner struggle visible in the way his eyebrows twitched.
"He'd never been to the city, you know?" his voice was strained, a tear breaching and running down his cheek as his eyes shot between his two fathers. "He'd never eaten a burger before! He'd never been to the arcade!" More tears started to flow, his angry expression turning sorrowful before his head sank lower. "He's—he doesn't have a family to experience all of that with. The orphanage doesn't give a shit about him. He didn't even have a phone until I got him one." His rant was interrupted by his own sniffling and he quickly rubbed the back of his hand over his face to wipe his tears away. "I just…he deserves more than what he's getting." he mumbled, drawing his knees closer to his body, curling in on himself.
Kazuma was dumbfounded, and judging from the expression on Goro's face, he wasn't the only one.
"You've been taking him to the city instead of going to school?" Kazuma asked slowly, still trying to wrap his head around the whole situation. Daigo nodded, his forehead resting on his knees.
Kazuma suddenly felt incredibly guilty for ever doubting his son's intentions. Here he was, thinking Daigo was skipping school because he simply couldn't be bothered to go, maybe using the time to smoke a cigarette in the park or to vandalize the walls of buildings with so-called graffiti. All of those scenarios had played inside of his mind, but not once did he stop to consider his kid might have had a benevolent reason for his actions. Maybe he wasn't the good-hearted father he always thought he was after all.
"Wait, ya bought him a phone? How did ya pay for that?" Goro asked and to Kazuma's delight, Daigo seemed to be much calmer and open to talk after his sudden emotional outburst.
"I've been saving the lunch money you give me for a few months. I also sold some of my old stuff to people from school." he confessed, bringing an even more surprised expression onto Kazuma's face.
"You didn't buy yourself lunch for months ?" Daigo shook his head in shame. "Daigo…why didn't you say something? We could have figured something out together."
"I didn't want to risk it." the boy spoke earnestly, another frown appearing on his face. "I was scared you might not approve and stop giving me money if you find out what I was doing."
Kazuma sighed. How could he have ever doubted his own son? Daigo might have chosen the wrong path, might have made the wrong decisions, but his heart was always in the right place. He should have never questioned that.
"Ya think of us as some kinda monsters?" Goro teased their son and wrapped an arm around his shoulders, bringing him closer. Daigo tried to struggle out of his grip unsuccessfully. "Yoshi-chan can join us on trips whenever he wants."
Daigo's fidgeting ceased as he looked up at his father in surprise. "Really?" The uncertainty in this voice made Kazuma's heart ache.
"Of course!" Goro assured him and pulled him into a proper hug. Daigo half-heartedly fought against him until complying with a laugh and let himself be held.
Kazuma's vision started to blur, it was time to end the conversation before he lost control of his own emotions. "Well, I'll start preparing dinner now. You can invite Yoshitaka over if you want to." He rose from his position on the bed and gave Daigo a soft smile as the boy pulled out of the hug to look at him.
Goro patted the boys back before getting to his feet as well, joining his partner in leaving the kid's room.
Their son's voice stopped them before they could close the door.
"Thank you…" he mumbled, a broad smile on his face.
Maybe he wasn't that bad of a father after all, Kazuma thought to himself.