{ONESHOT} You're my rhinoceros [PART 3]
It was Monday morning.
And apparently, Yoshiko had forgotten to tell Ryo something important.
“It’s time for school, it’s time for school!” Yuki practically shrieked, jumping up and down in the doorway. “Come on, Nishikido-san, we’re gonna be late!”
Ryo grumbled, shrugging into his jacket and grabbing his keys, making sure to remember the crumpled piece of paper which he had scrawled the name of the preschool onto. “I don’t even know where this is,” he whined as Yuki pulled on his shirt, practically dragging him out the door.
He had already called Yoshiko, to both yell at her for neglecting to tell him that she needed to go to school, and to get the name of the place. “I’m gonna be so late…”
“Me too!” Yuki said, already bundled into the backseat of his car and swinging her legs impatiently. She still had her backpack on. “Hurry up, Nishikido-san!”
“I’m coming!” he snapped, running a hand through his hair before climbing into the front. “Which direction is it?”
“I’m six,” Yuki said exasperatedly, “I don’t even know right from left yet!”
And so Ryo resorted to ringing Yoshiko back, clutching the phone to his ear as she spoke slowly, telling him which streets to turn down; go left at those traffic lights; it’s right behind that blue building-not the first one, the one with the fence.
Yuki was out of the car in a flash, bouncing up and down on her feet impatiently as Ryo clambered out, too. “Goodbye, Nishikido-san!” she shouted, before rushing into the building without him.
“Oh,” Ryo murmured. “…Okay. Bye.”
>>><<<
Ryo didn’t know what to do.
“Do you think she’s alright?” he asked Hina, who just grumbled sleepily at him. “Yasu, do you think she’s alright?”
“I don’t know, Ryo,” Yasu snapped, “We still don’t know, since the last time you asked.”
Ryo knew he was in trouble when Yasu ran out of patience. The others did too, and Ryo decided that he should probably leave the room, especially when they were glaring at him like that. Except Maru, but that was probably because he was incapable of making any kind of serious face.
Ryo found himself on the rooftop, a cigarette between his lips and wondering what Yuki was doing. Was she alright? Was she happy? What if some little boy had pulled on her hair, or maybe she didn’t even make it to the classroom - maybe someone had kidnapped her inside where Ryo couldn’t see and-
“You’re gonna break the railing if you keep gripping it so hard.”
“Shut it, Ueda,” Ryo said, sighing, not even looking at the other.
Ueda was leaning against the wall behind him, bundled up against the cold. “Whatever,” he sighed, and walked up next to Ryo, resting his arms on the railing. “What’s up?”
“Nothing.”
“Hmm. There’s something wrong.”
“How do you know?”
“Cause your jacket is inside out,” Ueda answered, smirking a little as Ryo checked his jacket, then swore. “So, I heard you’ve got a kid.”
“Mm,” Ryo muttered, as he shrugged out of his jacket and righted it, “Wait, who told you?”
“Akanishi, of course,” Ueda chuckled. “You know that bitch can’t keep a secret.”
“Forgot,” Ryo grunted, taking a long drag of his cigarette and watching the smoke drift away. “She’s six.”
Ueda’s eyes went wide, but he still didn’t turn to him. “Wow. Nishikido Ryo with an illegitimate child?” he said dramatically. “That’s some scandal…”
“What goes on in Johnny’s, stays in Johnny’s,” Ryo muttered, but smiled when Ueda laughed.
“So, how did this kid get into your possession?” Ueda asked.
Ryo laughed. “She kinda just appeared,” he said, and Ueda nodded, like these things happened to him often. “And today she had to go to school and I had no idea…”
“She didn’t tell you?” Ueda asked, leaning over to casually take Ryo’s cigarette out of his fingers and up to his own mouth. He took a deep drag, and they both followed the smoke as it disappeared into the sky.
“I think she thought I was meant to know,” Ryo answered, watching Ueda’s fingers as he brought the cigarette up to his lips again.
“Mm. Nishikido?” Ueda asked, eyes twinkling as he turned to him and placed the cigarette back between Ryo’s lips.
“Yeah?” he said, feeling like Ueda was too close; his body was tingling pleasantly; Ueda was leaning in-
“Did you remember her lunch?”
And then the moment was gone, Ueda backing away and laughing at Ryo’s expression. “Oh shit.”
“It’s around lunchtime now; you’d better hurry,” he called to Ryo’s retreating figure. “Good luck!”
>>><<<
“Yes, yes, yes, I have a kid; her name is Yuki; she’s six; I only just found out about her; please take care of her ‘cause I don’t want Yoko to draw penises in her books,” Ryo said rapidly, dragging his daughter into KAT-TUN’s dressing room and swiping Ueda’s books off the coffee table so Yuki could set up.
“Hey!” Ueda cried, throwing his hands up. “That’s my new song, you bastard!”
“Yeah, I know,” Ryo muttered, helping Yuki take out her colouring books. “Just… I need someone to mind her, at least for a few hours. Try not to get into some sort of fight, or swear, or throw things.”
“Why are you looking at me?” Ueda asked, indignant. “…Nevermind.”
“You can leave her here,” Kamenashi said, smiling as he knelt down to Yuki’s level. “It’ll be fun.”
“Okay… thanks for this. I’ll be sure to punch Jin the next time I see him, as payment,” Ryo called over his shoulder as he left the room.
“Thankyou!” Kamenashi shouted back.
Three photoshoots and two interview (and a very hurried coffee break) later, Ryo was rushing back down the hallway, still struggling into his jacket.
“Nishikido-san!” Yuki chirped happily as Ryo barged into the room, “Look what Koki-san has been teaching me!” She held up a yellow paper crane, pride written all over her face.
“Oh?” Ryo asked, picking it up and turning it about. “It’s pretty good, Yuki.”
“You can take these home; teach your papa how to do it, too,” Koki said, smiling down at her from the couch. Yuki nodded, and gathered up the spare pieces of paper to throw into her bag.
“Where is everyone else?” Ryo asked, noticing belatedly that the others weren’t in the room - except Nakamaru, but he was sleeping on another couch, head falling off the cushion and mouth open.
“No idea,” Koki shrugged. “Kame and Ueda have drama stuff I think, and Taguchi has important idiotic things to do,” he explained.
“Right, well. Say goodbye to Koki, Yuki,” Ryo said distractedly, wondering why Yuki had plaits in her hair when he didn’t remember it that way this morning.
“Bye, Koki-san!” Yuki waved, shouldering her little backpack and picking up her unicorn.
“Thanks for looking after her,” Ryo added, throwing in a little bow, just in case. Koki just smiled.
“It’s all good. It was fun. She taught me how to make a frog,” he laughed, and showed off his pathetically folded paper frog.
“It looks like shit, man.”
“Shut up, I’m just learning!”
>>><<<
For the next week, after school, Ryo would leave Yuki in Koki’s care. The other welcomed her happily, and Yuki seemed to really love him, what with the way she would run into Koki’s arms as soon as Ryo opened the door for her.
Ryo felt a pang of something in his heart, but wasn’t sure what to make of it. He just shook it off.
“I’ll be back as soon as I can,” he would say, and Koki would always wave him off, grabbing Yuki’s hand and waving it, too.
As soon as the filming for some show or another - all the names seemed to run together after a while - finished, Ryo rushed as quickly as he could back to the building, wrenching KAT-TUN’s door open. “Sorry I’m a little late,” he panted, “But Hina couldn’t get his bloody lines right.”
“Hello, Nishikido-san,” Yuki smiled, and Ryo missed the way she stood up, holding out a card to him, as he chose that moment to collapse onto the couch next to Koki. Her face fell.
“Hey, Yuki. Koki, d’you think you could look after Yuki tonight? I’ve got late-night filming, and won’t be home till like midnight or so,” Ryo said tiredly, throwing an arm over his eyes. He felt Koki shift next to him.
“What do you think, Yuki?” Koki asked, “Do you think you’d like to stay over at my place tonight?”
“Stay with Koki-san?” Yuki asked, pausing as she zipped her bag back up, “Okay!”
“Yay!” Koki sat up and high-fived the six-year-old. Ryo slowly opened his eyes.
“You’re okay about it?”
“Yeah, it’s fine,” Koki said, turning to him. “We’ll have fun, right?” Yuki nodded, pigtails bouncing - when did those become braids, again? - and finished packing up, shouldering her backpack with a smile.
“Can we go now, Koki-san?”
Koki laughed. “Alright, alright.”
“Thanks, Koki. I’ll pick her up at n-“
But Koki was shaking his head. “I’ll drop her off at preschool for you, before coming to work,” he offered. “I don’t have anything else to do.”
Ryo slumped back into the couch with a sigh. “Thankyou so much, Koki.”
“No problem.”
PART 4