[multi-chap] Life (Re)Starts Here Ch.8/9
Title: Life (Re)Starts Here for vicco_vicky
Author: Saana
Pairing: Sakuraiba
Rating: PG-13
Genre: AU, slice of life, family life, fluff, angst
Disc.: this is a fanfiction, which means I’m a fan and this is fiction
Summary: Sho’s life falling apart in an instant and as he finds himself a single father with a five-year old boy, he decides to move back to the small town on the Chiba coast where he spent his childhood, trying to pick up the pieces of his life and raise his son…
Previous chapters:
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
“Who are you?”
He was probably rude with his way of asking but the last thing he expected to see when he opened the door was a smartly dressed, pretty women. Sho didn’t mention that someone might come visiting and the woman didn’t look like a door-to-door sales person.
The woman raised an elegant eyebrow in response to Masaki’s question, most likely offended by his way of asking. She invited herself in, brushing past Masaki who could only look dumbfounded.
“I’m here to see my husband and son,” she said as she handed her coat to Masaki.
Too shocked by her statement, Masaki took and hanged her coat on autopilot before following her to the living room where she settled on the couch as if she was at home.
“I guess Sho’s at work,” she said as she looked around the room, her expectant look then settled on Masaki who was still standing around mutely, the shocked expression clear on his face.
“Mom?” The surprised, awed voice of Shin came from the doorway before he rushed in to hug her.
“Hi, sweetheart!” she smiled at the boy before looked back at Masaki again. “Are you the house keeper? Baby sitter?” she asked, then before Masaki could answer, she went on. “Anyway, your services won’t be needed anymore. You can leave,” she said with a dismissing wave of her hand…
Masaki never felt so humiliated in his entire life, which meant something because according to Nino, he did several stupid and humiliating things before breakfast on most days.
But this… this was over the top. He just stood there, gaping stupidly while Sho’s wife sent him off like he was a servant! What was she even doing there? Didn’t they…? Didn’t Sho said she left him? Then what was it now? Or… Masaki shook his head quickly. He didn’t want to think about the probability that Sho deliberately lied to him. That what he told him was nothing more than a sob story to make Masaki feel sorry for him.
“Hey, what are you doing here?” Nino asked looking away from his video game for a moment when Masaki arrived back to their dorm. “Didn’t you have a date with daddy or something?”
Masaki froze at Nino’s choice of word. Neither of them used the word ‘date’ but Sho’s invitation did felt like he was asking him out. But now Masaki was more inclined to think that it was only him who made the assumption based on his own wishful thinking. Or maybe he misunderstood something.
“Change of plans. Obviously,” he said curtly. “And it wasn’t a date anyway,” he added before closing his bedroom door on Nino without any further comment.
Sho stood frozen, rooted in his spot, unable to stop Masaki from leaving.
‘What is Maki doing here? Now of all times? How does she even know where we live?’ Sho thought desperately.
‘Fine. Why don’t I go visit you sometime then? Just give me your address!’ His mother’s words from their last lunch came back to him suddenly.
“Goddamn, mother!” Sho cursed through his teeth. He should’ve known! She was always up to something and she looked all too pleased when Sho gave her his new address.
Sho stomped up the stairs, yanked the door open rather frustrated. Shin was in the entrance before Sho could even kick off his shoes.
“Daddy! Daddy! Guess what? Mom’s back!” The boy said bouncing excitedly, grabbing Sho’s hand to drag him to the living room.
“Welcome back, Sho. I see you’re still the workaholic,” she greeted him, sitting comfortable on his couch. Like she belonged there.
Sho couldn’t help it but his first thought was how much he wished for a different greeting upon his arrival back home.
“I’m home,” Sho said a bit stiffly, and mostly because he wanted to demonstrate proper manners to Shin. He had a bunch of questions he wanted to ask Maki but as he watched Shin climbing on the couch to snuggle with his mom, he swallowed back the words. “I guess you’re staying for dinner,” he said instead, and again he thought how much he wished for a different dinner guest for tonight.
“Nice of you to invite me,” she answered with a pleased smile then looked at Shin. “Now tell me more of these friends of yours!”
Without another words, Sho headed to kitchen, thinking how the actual events of the evening turned out so different than how he imagined them just a few hours ago. He tried to look at the positive side of the event. Even if the timing was as bad as it could get, maybe he and Maki could finally have that long overdue conversation once Shin was asleep…
“I had no idea you cooked,” Maki said honestly surprised.
After dinner Shin wanted to delay bedtime as long as he could but when he didn’t succeed with that, he asked that his mom put him in bed. It didn’t surprise Sho at all and it also gave him a chance to prepare himself for their conversation while he cleaned up the kitchen.
Now they were sitting in the living room and Sho couldn’t help but remember another later night conversation that happened here not even that long ago.
“Yeah, I picked up a bit recently. Had to, actually. Along with a bunch of other things,” he said, and he wasn’t able to leave out all the malice from his voice.
“You’re angry with me,” Masaki commented on such a neutral tone that reminded Sho all too much of the way his parents used to talk to him. “I guess it’s understandable. But now you finally understand how difficult it is to raise a child without help.”
Was she testing him?! Sho pressed his lips together before he burst out and said something he didn’t mean completely.
“I’m not angry. Not anymore. Even when I was, it was more because of Shin. It was really difficult for him when his mother suddenly disappeared from his life and I didn’t know what to tell him. How to explain it to him!” Sho tried to not sound as accusatory as the situation warranted. He didn’t want to fight with Maki now. The timing might’ve not been ideal but they had to talk. If they start accusing and yell at each other, they won’t solve a thing this time either.
“I understand but we can put it all behind us when you move back,” Maki said matter-of-factly.
“Move back?” Sho asked dumbfounded. “What are you talking about?”
“Obviously I can’t live here and now that you’ve learned your lesson, you’ll come back to Tokyo with Shin and we’ll move on with our life,” Maki said and looked at Sho like he was stupid for not getting it without her having to explain it.
Sho took a deep breath, reminding himself not to get angry over the way she talked to him.
“In case you didn’t notice, we moved on already. That’s why we’re living here. Why would we want to go back there?” Sho honestly had no idea where did she come from with this.
Maki just laughed at him.
“Of course you want to come back. We’re still married, after all,” she patted Sho’s knee, looking at him with a condescending smile. “It’s okay. As I said, you learned your lesson so I forgive you. Now, just pack up this place or just call the movers. I’m fine with either. My parents expecting us for dinner next Friday. It’d be more convenient if you’d be done with the moving by then.”
“No!” Sho jumped from his seat, moving away a few steps from her. “No, no, no! I honestly don’t get you anymore! What happened to you?” Sho burst out frustrated. He understood that they drifted apart even from the friendship they formed when they agreed to marry as their parents wanted them to. But the woman who was sitting in front of him, saying these things about moving back to Tokyo and going on with their life as if nothing happened… She was someone Sho didn’t know at all! “I’m sorry but I have no intention of moving back there. We talked about this back then, how neither of us wanted to live as our parents dictated. Moving back would mean just that. I don’t think I can do that anymore and more importantly, I don’t want Shin to live the life I had to while growing up. We’re happy here. Shin is finally happy again! Do you have any idea how hard it was for him? I’m sorry if not filing for a divorce until now gave you the wrong idea but providing Shin with a proper place to live, to make a steady life for us was my priority in the past year. But trust me, I’ll fix that first thing in the morning!”
“What?” Maki asked back shocked. “You can’t do that to me!” she protested, tears filling her eyes.
Sho sighed at this sight. He didn’t mean to make her cry but they obviously were not going to seeing eye-to-eye unless he said out these things bluntly.
“I’m not doing this to you. I’m doing this for you just as much as I’m doing this for myself and Shin,” Sho said kneeling down in front of her. “Maki, we both knew this marriage was destined to sink. It was the matter of time only. I don’t love you and you don’t love me either. We have the greatest kid in the world and for his sake I wish we could stay friends. But this marriage… this has to end. You know it…”
“But… what should I do now?... What should I say to my parents? To your parents?...” she asked. The confident aura she had ever since she arrived, faded away by now.
Sho smiled at her encouragingly.
“Don’t be bothered by my parents. I’ll talk to them. As for everything else… You are the brightest, strongest woman I know, I’m sure you’ll be alright. You can do anything you want. After all, you endured being married to me until now, didn’t you?” Sho asked joking, trying to cheer her up a bit. “Also, me and Shin will always cheer for you!”
Wiping away her tears, Maki nodded. Sho smiled back relieved that they finally reached an understanding.
“You know… it’s so weird. I didn’t even want kids to begin with…” she said after a long silence. “It’s not that I don’t love Shin! I do. But… Staying at home, being a full-time mom… To be honest, the idea honestly gives me the creeps. I just couldn’t see myself like that. But then… our parents decided us to get married, then they started to talk about kids and heirs and all that stuff… Even my friends couldn’t talk about anything else but their kids and their perfect family life! I thought maybe something was wrong with me to think differently, so I tried to change. I forced myself to do what was the norm as they told, as it was expected of someone with my family’s standing but after all, I just made myself bitter and angry and… I think that day I just snapped and took it out on you… I’m sorry for that, Sho, I really am,” she said earnestly. “Thank you for being honest with me. We should’ve had this conversation sooner. Maybe then all of us would’ve hurt less,” she said as she got up to leave. “Good bye, Sho!”
A/N: hey there! I guess not much happened in this chap, sorry? 😅😆 anyway, let me know what you think! one more chapter to go!! ❤💚
Author: Saana
Pairing: Sakuraiba
Rating: PG-13
Genre: AU, slice of life, family life, fluff, angst
Disc.: this is a fanfiction, which means I’m a fan and this is fiction
Summary: Sho’s life falling apart in an instant and as he finds himself a single father with a five-year old boy, he decides to move back to the small town on the Chiba coast where he spent his childhood, trying to pick up the pieces of his life and raise his son…
Previous chapters:
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
“Who are you?”
He was probably rude with his way of asking but the last thing he expected to see when he opened the door was a smartly dressed, pretty women. Sho didn’t mention that someone might come visiting and the woman didn’t look like a door-to-door sales person.
The woman raised an elegant eyebrow in response to Masaki’s question, most likely offended by his way of asking. She invited herself in, brushing past Masaki who could only look dumbfounded.
“I’m here to see my husband and son,” she said as she handed her coat to Masaki.
Too shocked by her statement, Masaki took and hanged her coat on autopilot before following her to the living room where she settled on the couch as if she was at home.
“I guess Sho’s at work,” she said as she looked around the room, her expectant look then settled on Masaki who was still standing around mutely, the shocked expression clear on his face.
“Mom?” The surprised, awed voice of Shin came from the doorway before he rushed in to hug her.
“Hi, sweetheart!” she smiled at the boy before looked back at Masaki again. “Are you the house keeper? Baby sitter?” she asked, then before Masaki could answer, she went on. “Anyway, your services won’t be needed anymore. You can leave,” she said with a dismissing wave of her hand…
Masaki never felt so humiliated in his entire life, which meant something because according to Nino, he did several stupid and humiliating things before breakfast on most days.
But this… this was over the top. He just stood there, gaping stupidly while Sho’s wife sent him off like he was a servant! What was she even doing there? Didn’t they…? Didn’t Sho said she left him? Then what was it now? Or… Masaki shook his head quickly. He didn’t want to think about the probability that Sho deliberately lied to him. That what he told him was nothing more than a sob story to make Masaki feel sorry for him.
“Hey, what are you doing here?” Nino asked looking away from his video game for a moment when Masaki arrived back to their dorm. “Didn’t you have a date with daddy or something?”
Masaki froze at Nino’s choice of word. Neither of them used the word ‘date’ but Sho’s invitation did felt like he was asking him out. But now Masaki was more inclined to think that it was only him who made the assumption based on his own wishful thinking. Or maybe he misunderstood something.
“Change of plans. Obviously,” he said curtly. “And it wasn’t a date anyway,” he added before closing his bedroom door on Nino without any further comment.
Sho stood frozen, rooted in his spot, unable to stop Masaki from leaving.
‘What is Maki doing here? Now of all times? How does she even know where we live?’ Sho thought desperately.
‘Fine. Why don’t I go visit you sometime then? Just give me your address!’ His mother’s words from their last lunch came back to him suddenly.
“Goddamn, mother!” Sho cursed through his teeth. He should’ve known! She was always up to something and she looked all too pleased when Sho gave her his new address.
Sho stomped up the stairs, yanked the door open rather frustrated. Shin was in the entrance before Sho could even kick off his shoes.
“Daddy! Daddy! Guess what? Mom’s back!” The boy said bouncing excitedly, grabbing Sho’s hand to drag him to the living room.
“Welcome back, Sho. I see you’re still the workaholic,” she greeted him, sitting comfortable on his couch. Like she belonged there.
Sho couldn’t help it but his first thought was how much he wished for a different greeting upon his arrival back home.
“I’m home,” Sho said a bit stiffly, and mostly because he wanted to demonstrate proper manners to Shin. He had a bunch of questions he wanted to ask Maki but as he watched Shin climbing on the couch to snuggle with his mom, he swallowed back the words. “I guess you’re staying for dinner,” he said instead, and again he thought how much he wished for a different dinner guest for tonight.
“Nice of you to invite me,” she answered with a pleased smile then looked at Shin. “Now tell me more of these friends of yours!”
Without another words, Sho headed to kitchen, thinking how the actual events of the evening turned out so different than how he imagined them just a few hours ago. He tried to look at the positive side of the event. Even if the timing was as bad as it could get, maybe he and Maki could finally have that long overdue conversation once Shin was asleep…
“I had no idea you cooked,” Maki said honestly surprised.
After dinner Shin wanted to delay bedtime as long as he could but when he didn’t succeed with that, he asked that his mom put him in bed. It didn’t surprise Sho at all and it also gave him a chance to prepare himself for their conversation while he cleaned up the kitchen.
Now they were sitting in the living room and Sho couldn’t help but remember another later night conversation that happened here not even that long ago.
“Yeah, I picked up a bit recently. Had to, actually. Along with a bunch of other things,” he said, and he wasn’t able to leave out all the malice from his voice.
“You’re angry with me,” Masaki commented on such a neutral tone that reminded Sho all too much of the way his parents used to talk to him. “I guess it’s understandable. But now you finally understand how difficult it is to raise a child without help.”
Was she testing him?! Sho pressed his lips together before he burst out and said something he didn’t mean completely.
“I’m not angry. Not anymore. Even when I was, it was more because of Shin. It was really difficult for him when his mother suddenly disappeared from his life and I didn’t know what to tell him. How to explain it to him!” Sho tried to not sound as accusatory as the situation warranted. He didn’t want to fight with Maki now. The timing might’ve not been ideal but they had to talk. If they start accusing and yell at each other, they won’t solve a thing this time either.
“I understand but we can put it all behind us when you move back,” Maki said matter-of-factly.
“Move back?” Sho asked dumbfounded. “What are you talking about?”
“Obviously I can’t live here and now that you’ve learned your lesson, you’ll come back to Tokyo with Shin and we’ll move on with our life,” Maki said and looked at Sho like he was stupid for not getting it without her having to explain it.
Sho took a deep breath, reminding himself not to get angry over the way she talked to him.
“In case you didn’t notice, we moved on already. That’s why we’re living here. Why would we want to go back there?” Sho honestly had no idea where did she come from with this.
Maki just laughed at him.
“Of course you want to come back. We’re still married, after all,” she patted Sho’s knee, looking at him with a condescending smile. “It’s okay. As I said, you learned your lesson so I forgive you. Now, just pack up this place or just call the movers. I’m fine with either. My parents expecting us for dinner next Friday. It’d be more convenient if you’d be done with the moving by then.”
“No!” Sho jumped from his seat, moving away a few steps from her. “No, no, no! I honestly don’t get you anymore! What happened to you?” Sho burst out frustrated. He understood that they drifted apart even from the friendship they formed when they agreed to marry as their parents wanted them to. But the woman who was sitting in front of him, saying these things about moving back to Tokyo and going on with their life as if nothing happened… She was someone Sho didn’t know at all! “I’m sorry but I have no intention of moving back there. We talked about this back then, how neither of us wanted to live as our parents dictated. Moving back would mean just that. I don’t think I can do that anymore and more importantly, I don’t want Shin to live the life I had to while growing up. We’re happy here. Shin is finally happy again! Do you have any idea how hard it was for him? I’m sorry if not filing for a divorce until now gave you the wrong idea but providing Shin with a proper place to live, to make a steady life for us was my priority in the past year. But trust me, I’ll fix that first thing in the morning!”
“What?” Maki asked back shocked. “You can’t do that to me!” she protested, tears filling her eyes.
Sho sighed at this sight. He didn’t mean to make her cry but they obviously were not going to seeing eye-to-eye unless he said out these things bluntly.
“I’m not doing this to you. I’m doing this for you just as much as I’m doing this for myself and Shin,” Sho said kneeling down in front of her. “Maki, we both knew this marriage was destined to sink. It was the matter of time only. I don’t love you and you don’t love me either. We have the greatest kid in the world and for his sake I wish we could stay friends. But this marriage… this has to end. You know it…”
“But… what should I do now?... What should I say to my parents? To your parents?...” she asked. The confident aura she had ever since she arrived, faded away by now.
Sho smiled at her encouragingly.
“Don’t be bothered by my parents. I’ll talk to them. As for everything else… You are the brightest, strongest woman I know, I’m sure you’ll be alright. You can do anything you want. After all, you endured being married to me until now, didn’t you?” Sho asked joking, trying to cheer her up a bit. “Also, me and Shin will always cheer for you!”
Wiping away her tears, Maki nodded. Sho smiled back relieved that they finally reached an understanding.
“You know… it’s so weird. I didn’t even want kids to begin with…” she said after a long silence. “It’s not that I don’t love Shin! I do. But… Staying at home, being a full-time mom… To be honest, the idea honestly gives me the creeps. I just couldn’t see myself like that. But then… our parents decided us to get married, then they started to talk about kids and heirs and all that stuff… Even my friends couldn’t talk about anything else but their kids and their perfect family life! I thought maybe something was wrong with me to think differently, so I tried to change. I forced myself to do what was the norm as they told, as it was expected of someone with my family’s standing but after all, I just made myself bitter and angry and… I think that day I just snapped and took it out on you… I’m sorry for that, Sho, I really am,” she said earnestly. “Thank you for being honest with me. We should’ve had this conversation sooner. Maybe then all of us would’ve hurt less,” she said as she got up to leave. “Good bye, Sho!”
A/N: hey there! I guess not much happened in this chap, sorry? 😅😆 anyway, let me know what you think! one more chapter to go!! ❤💚