[multi-chap] Life (Re)Starts Here Ch.3/??
Title: Life (Re)Starts Here for vicco_vicky
Author: Saana
Pairing: Sakuraiba
Rating: PG-13 (mostly, probably… might change?... J)
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
Days turned into weeks and Sho felt proud that he got the hang of balancing work and parenthood. Even if he’s sure that Jun-kun’s still giving him the easiest clients and projects, he’s able to handle them on his own. Either way, it helped him to stress less about whether he was messing up Shin’s life or not.
“Shin-chan! It’s time to bath! Put away your toys and head to the bathroom!” Sho called for his son as he finished with the laundry.
“Ha~i!” the boy shouted back but Sho could hear clearly that he was totally ignored as Shin kept narrating whatever he was playing in his room.
“Tsk, that boy…” Sho mumbled under his breath, chuckling.
He was about to grab the boy to take him to the bathroom, the phone rang.
“Shin! Bath! Don’t make me repeat myself one more time!” Sho called again before he picked up the phone. “Hai, Sakurai residence!”
“Hey, Sho-kun! Is it a good time?”
Sho smiled at the sleepy voice on the line.
“Hello, Satoshi-kun! Sure. I bet Shin would love to have a bit more time without having to bath…” Sho said chuckling. “What’s up?”
“It’s Marine Day this weekend. With my friends, we always go to the beach. You know, have BBQ, fireworks and everything. Will you come too?”
“Yeah, sounds good. Want me to bring anything? Drinks, snacks? I’d rather not offer to prepare anything else…” he said unashamed, his limited kitchen abilities were no secret after all.
“Yeah, drink, snacks, anything Shin-chan can have. Leave the rest to us. See you this weekend, Sho-kun!”
“Sure, see you there, Satoshi-kun,” Sho hung up with a smile on his lips, feeling more excited than usual recently. “Shin-chan! If you go to the bath right now, we’ll go to the beach this weekend with uncle Satoshi!” he said loudly.
He barely finished the sentence before his son lumbered out from his room with a loud ‘Yay!’
“Hurry up, daddy! Uncle Satoshi is there already!”
Shin-chan was tugging on his father’s hand excitedly as soon as he spotted Ohno on the beach with two other people. Beach tent, charcoal grill, some picnic table and beach chairs set up already where they gathered laughing, obviously already enjoying themselves. At the sight of them, Sho suddenly realized he shouldn’t feel so surprised to see that the ‘friends’ Ohno mentioned to him on the phone, were actually his new co-workers. After all, he got the job through Ohno’s referral and it was a small town after all.
“Daddy!” Shin tugged at his father’s hand once again, more firmly thins time when Sho actually stopped instead of quickening his pace as the boy wanted him to.
“Sorry, sorry! You go ahead, I’ll be right behind you,” Sho said chuckling at the sight of his impatient son. He let go of Shin’s hand and watched as he ran up to Ohno, launching himself onto his leg.
“Hey, little buddy!”Ohno smiled down at the boy. “Hi, Sho-kun!” he added looking up at Sho as he reached them as well.
“Sho-kun, finally!” Toma greeted him with a wide grin. “And here I though Jun-kun had difficulty getting up in the mornings…”
“Oi! I’ve heard that!” Jun snapped back at him but his words lack of any bite. He greeted Sho with a quick nod before turning his attention back to preparing the meat for grilling.
“In my defense, no one of you have to pack up half the house for a six year-old,” Sho tried to defend himself pouting. Of course, he kept silent about the fact that said six year-old - who was now happily playing in the sand near them, not minding one bit what the adults talked around him - was ready to go way before his daddy even finished with his morning coffee. Yet Sho couldn’t keep off the fond smile off his face as he watched Shin digging around in the sand.
“You missed nothing, Sho-kun, don’t worry. We don’t have a set time when we start or anything,” Ohno said, handing Sho a beer can that he accepted with a grateful smile.
“You know… I was under the impression that there’ll be more people here today…” Sho said vaguely, trying not to reveal whom he was missing from this gathering but just to be sure, he avoided Ohno’s eyes, pretending to watch what Shin was doing instead.
Ohno just hummed at first, watching Sho’s profile with thoughtful eyes, the smallest smile tugging at the corner of his lips.
“Masaki will come a bit later. He usually brings a friend or two…” he said finally.
“I see…” Sho said, quickly taking a sip of his beer, convincing himself that his heart did not start to pound at the mention of Ohno’s brother.
Then a few hours later…
“We’re here!”
Sho’s head immediately shot up when he heard that cheery voice. Masaki and two other guys around his age approached them and Sho suddenly wished he was in a less embarrassing situation. As in not half-buried under sand by Sho, who of course ran off and abandoned him the moment he heard his new favorite friend’s voice. Cursing under his breath, Sho tried to dig himself out of the wet sand quickly and hopefully without everyone noticing his ridiculous scrambling.
“Need any help?”
Sho’s eyes widened and hurriedly got on his feet finally, brushing off the remaining sand of his body.
“I’m… good but thanks for offering, Masaki-kun,” Sho said, trying to look more composed than he actually felt. “So… who are your friends?” he asked, dreading that Masaki would call one of them ‘boyfriend’. ‘But why do you care at all, Sakurai? It’s none of your business!’ Sho scolded himself mentally but the question was already out of his mouth and he couldn’t take it back.
“Oh, Nino and Kaza-pon are my roommates,” Masaki said pointing first at the small, skinny guy who had a look on his face that promised no good at all, then at the other with the glasses and a wide grin. “We know each other since middle school,” Masaki shuffled closer to Sho with a secretive look on his face. “Actually… Nino would never come to the beach. He barely leaves our dorm, period. It’s too sunny for him outside… but he has the biggest crush on nii-chan, so here he is! Every year!” Masaki giggled breathily and Sho couldn’t help but laugh with him. “But you didn’t hear it from me!” Masaki added quickly, trying - and failing - to school his face into a serious expression which only made both them laugh harder.
“What are you laughing at?” Shin asked tugging at his dad’s beach shorts, looking between Sho and Masaki curiously.
“Oh… Masaki-kun just told me a joke,” Sho said picking up his son in his arms.
“Tell me too!” The boy chirped excitedly, squirming around in his father’s arms to look at Masaki with puppy eyes.
“Ah,… what was it again?... I forgot it, sorry, Shin-chan,” Masaki said patting Shin’s head when the boy started pouting hearing his answer.
“Oh, I almost forgot too! Uncle Jun said the food’s ready so you should come to eat,” Shin-chan said suddenly, remembering the original message he was tasked to pass on to his dad and Masaki.
“That’s great news, I’m starving! Let’s go eat!” Sho said happily and they all headed over where the others already started to dig in without them…
“Aww, it’s too bad, he was so excited for the fireworks!”
“Yeah, I know…” Sho smiled softly watching his son who fell asleep curled up in one of the beach chairs.
Dusk already started to settle but it was still not dark enough for the fireworks. Sho was not much surprised when he found Shin asleep, considering he was running around and playing all day, he expected him to just fell over asleep any moment for a while now. No matter how much he wanted to see the fireworks Ohno promised for him earlier in the afternoon.
“Anyway, I think this is our cue to go home. If I’m lucky he won’t wake up and I can just tuck him in as soon as we get back. Thanks for inviting us, Satoshi-kun, it was really fun,” Sho said picking up his boy in his arms while their bags dangled rather uncomfortably on his arm, thudding to his leg with every step. ‘At least it’s not a long trip…’ he thought as he headed home after saying goodbye to everyone.
“Need some help?”
“Masaki-kun! You scared me…” Sho sighed when he recognized him in the semi-darkness. “It’s okay, thanks for offering but I don’t want to trouble you. Your friends are here and all…”
“It’s okay, I see them all the time. They kind of start to get boring…” Masaki said with a bright grin that made Sho swallow back the rest of his protests and let Masaki take over the bags from him.
“Thank you…”
“Don’t do anything that I wouldn’t!” Nino yelled after them, making the others laughing.
“Did he just… said what I think he did?...” Sho asked mortified, torn between laughing or crying at the situation. In the end, he forced himself to laugh because crying in front of Masaki would be just more embarrassing that what he could endure.
Masaki on the other hand groaned loudly.
“Don’t mind him, Sho-chan. Nino’s a brat,” he said simply as if that explained everything. It probably did but Sho, as the newcomer in this group, was out of the loop to get it. It made him surprisingly sad and lonely so he didn’t reply anything and for a while they just walked side by side in silence.
“Ah! I wanted to thank you for the other day. When you looked after Shin-chan for me and…”
“You don’t have to. I did it gladly. I’ll do it again anytime if you need a night out or… you know… a date or something…” Masaki said and for the first time, he sounded a bit shy. Sho couldn’t really understand why all of a sudden.
“I don’t think that would happen but thanks,” Sho said with a small chuckle. Even if he was interested in someone, his life at the moment has no place for a new relationship. That would not be fair to the other party. He also highly doubted many would be willing to put up with a single father like him. “I actually meant to thank you for the breakfast. You really should’ve not bothered with that…”
“Oh… It was just miso soup, it didn’t even take long,” Masaki waved him off but turned his face away from Sho when he felt his cheeks heating up. “You seemed a bit… out of it when you arrived home so I thought if I can spare you the trouble of having to make breakfast in the morning… You know, with the hangover and all…” Masaki said, finding his way back to his usual teasing tone.
“As if only a hangover would hinder me in the kitchen…” Sho snorted rather unattractively.
“What do you mean?”
Sho sighed a little.
“Okay, it’s really embarrassing to admit but… I’m really bad at cooking…” he admitted without looking at his companion. Saying this to someone younger than him, furthermore to someone who obviously knew his way around in the kitchen just made it more awkward in Sho’s eyes. When Masaki didn’t respond, Sho quickly continued: “Not like… inedible-bad. No one ended up in hospital or anything but… Let’s just say it’s not pretty so I just stick to pre-packaged dinners, take-out or eating out when it comes to feeding us. It’s safer that way,” he finished, laughing but it sounded forced even to his own ears.
“That’s no good, Sho-chan!” Masaki said on a surprisingly scolding tone. “It’s not healthy for you, especially not for Shin-chan! And probably pretty pricey too… You should do better! You have to do better than that! Aren’t you a father?”
“Yeah, I know, I know!” Sho said whining. He really didn’t want to hear from Masaki. It felt so wrong he didn’t even know where to start protesting.
“You know what?” Masaki said, suddenly more excited than a moment ago. “I could teach you. Nothing fancy, I’m not as good as Matsujun but I can teach you the basics. A few easy meals that you can whip up very quickly if you don’t have much time. That way you won’t have to rely on conbini bento all the time. Okay? Okay? I’ll come over next week and we can start right away. It’ll be great! Trust me, Sho-chan! We’ll have so much fun!”
Sho opened his mouth a few times but trying to interrupt Masaki was like trying to stop a typhoon. So he gave up pretty soon, resigning himself to his fate that will obviously involve him seeing more of Masaki in the coming weeks. And no, his heard did not start to beat faster at that thought!...
A/N: hey, there! sorry for not updating last week but RL got really busy 😭 still, I hope you enjoy this new chapter, and I promise I'll try to stick to a regular update schedule 😉 let me know what you think! 😘❤💚
Author: Saana
Pairing: Sakuraiba
Rating: PG-13 (mostly, probably… might change?... J)
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
Days turned into weeks and Sho felt proud that he got the hang of balancing work and parenthood. Even if he’s sure that Jun-kun’s still giving him the easiest clients and projects, he’s able to handle them on his own. Either way, it helped him to stress less about whether he was messing up Shin’s life or not.
“Shin-chan! It’s time to bath! Put away your toys and head to the bathroom!” Sho called for his son as he finished with the laundry.
“Ha~i!” the boy shouted back but Sho could hear clearly that he was totally ignored as Shin kept narrating whatever he was playing in his room.
“Tsk, that boy…” Sho mumbled under his breath, chuckling.
He was about to grab the boy to take him to the bathroom, the phone rang.
“Shin! Bath! Don’t make me repeat myself one more time!” Sho called again before he picked up the phone. “Hai, Sakurai residence!”
“Hey, Sho-kun! Is it a good time?”
Sho smiled at the sleepy voice on the line.
“Hello, Satoshi-kun! Sure. I bet Shin would love to have a bit more time without having to bath…” Sho said chuckling. “What’s up?”
“It’s Marine Day this weekend. With my friends, we always go to the beach. You know, have BBQ, fireworks and everything. Will you come too?”
“Yeah, sounds good. Want me to bring anything? Drinks, snacks? I’d rather not offer to prepare anything else…” he said unashamed, his limited kitchen abilities were no secret after all.
“Yeah, drink, snacks, anything Shin-chan can have. Leave the rest to us. See you this weekend, Sho-kun!”
“Sure, see you there, Satoshi-kun,” Sho hung up with a smile on his lips, feeling more excited than usual recently. “Shin-chan! If you go to the bath right now, we’ll go to the beach this weekend with uncle Satoshi!” he said loudly.
He barely finished the sentence before his son lumbered out from his room with a loud ‘Yay!’
“Hurry up, daddy! Uncle Satoshi is there already!”
Shin-chan was tugging on his father’s hand excitedly as soon as he spotted Ohno on the beach with two other people. Beach tent, charcoal grill, some picnic table and beach chairs set up already where they gathered laughing, obviously already enjoying themselves. At the sight of them, Sho suddenly realized he shouldn’t feel so surprised to see that the ‘friends’ Ohno mentioned to him on the phone, were actually his new co-workers. After all, he got the job through Ohno’s referral and it was a small town after all.
“Daddy!” Shin tugged at his father’s hand once again, more firmly thins time when Sho actually stopped instead of quickening his pace as the boy wanted him to.
“Sorry, sorry! You go ahead, I’ll be right behind you,” Sho said chuckling at the sight of his impatient son. He let go of Shin’s hand and watched as he ran up to Ohno, launching himself onto his leg.
“Hey, little buddy!”Ohno smiled down at the boy. “Hi, Sho-kun!” he added looking up at Sho as he reached them as well.
“Sho-kun, finally!” Toma greeted him with a wide grin. “And here I though Jun-kun had difficulty getting up in the mornings…”
“Oi! I’ve heard that!” Jun snapped back at him but his words lack of any bite. He greeted Sho with a quick nod before turning his attention back to preparing the meat for grilling.
“In my defense, no one of you have to pack up half the house for a six year-old,” Sho tried to defend himself pouting. Of course, he kept silent about the fact that said six year-old - who was now happily playing in the sand near them, not minding one bit what the adults talked around him - was ready to go way before his daddy even finished with his morning coffee. Yet Sho couldn’t keep off the fond smile off his face as he watched Shin digging around in the sand.
“You missed nothing, Sho-kun, don’t worry. We don’t have a set time when we start or anything,” Ohno said, handing Sho a beer can that he accepted with a grateful smile.
“You know… I was under the impression that there’ll be more people here today…” Sho said vaguely, trying not to reveal whom he was missing from this gathering but just to be sure, he avoided Ohno’s eyes, pretending to watch what Shin was doing instead.
Ohno just hummed at first, watching Sho’s profile with thoughtful eyes, the smallest smile tugging at the corner of his lips.
“Masaki will come a bit later. He usually brings a friend or two…” he said finally.
“I see…” Sho said, quickly taking a sip of his beer, convincing himself that his heart did not start to pound at the mention of Ohno’s brother.
Then a few hours later…
“We’re here!”
Sho’s head immediately shot up when he heard that cheery voice. Masaki and two other guys around his age approached them and Sho suddenly wished he was in a less embarrassing situation. As in not half-buried under sand by Sho, who of course ran off and abandoned him the moment he heard his new favorite friend’s voice. Cursing under his breath, Sho tried to dig himself out of the wet sand quickly and hopefully without everyone noticing his ridiculous scrambling.
“Need any help?”
Sho’s eyes widened and hurriedly got on his feet finally, brushing off the remaining sand of his body.
“I’m… good but thanks for offering, Masaki-kun,” Sho said, trying to look more composed than he actually felt. “So… who are your friends?” he asked, dreading that Masaki would call one of them ‘boyfriend’. ‘But why do you care at all, Sakurai? It’s none of your business!’ Sho scolded himself mentally but the question was already out of his mouth and he couldn’t take it back.
“Oh, Nino and Kaza-pon are my roommates,” Masaki said pointing first at the small, skinny guy who had a look on his face that promised no good at all, then at the other with the glasses and a wide grin. “We know each other since middle school,” Masaki shuffled closer to Sho with a secretive look on his face. “Actually… Nino would never come to the beach. He barely leaves our dorm, period. It’s too sunny for him outside… but he has the biggest crush on nii-chan, so here he is! Every year!” Masaki giggled breathily and Sho couldn’t help but laugh with him. “But you didn’t hear it from me!” Masaki added quickly, trying - and failing - to school his face into a serious expression which only made both them laugh harder.
“What are you laughing at?” Shin asked tugging at his dad’s beach shorts, looking between Sho and Masaki curiously.
“Oh… Masaki-kun just told me a joke,” Sho said picking up his son in his arms.
“Tell me too!” The boy chirped excitedly, squirming around in his father’s arms to look at Masaki with puppy eyes.
“Ah,… what was it again?... I forgot it, sorry, Shin-chan,” Masaki said patting Shin’s head when the boy started pouting hearing his answer.
“Oh, I almost forgot too! Uncle Jun said the food’s ready so you should come to eat,” Shin-chan said suddenly, remembering the original message he was tasked to pass on to his dad and Masaki.
“That’s great news, I’m starving! Let’s go eat!” Sho said happily and they all headed over where the others already started to dig in without them…
“Aww, it’s too bad, he was so excited for the fireworks!”
“Yeah, I know…” Sho smiled softly watching his son who fell asleep curled up in one of the beach chairs.
Dusk already started to settle but it was still not dark enough for the fireworks. Sho was not much surprised when he found Shin asleep, considering he was running around and playing all day, he expected him to just fell over asleep any moment for a while now. No matter how much he wanted to see the fireworks Ohno promised for him earlier in the afternoon.
“Anyway, I think this is our cue to go home. If I’m lucky he won’t wake up and I can just tuck him in as soon as we get back. Thanks for inviting us, Satoshi-kun, it was really fun,” Sho said picking up his boy in his arms while their bags dangled rather uncomfortably on his arm, thudding to his leg with every step. ‘At least it’s not a long trip…’ he thought as he headed home after saying goodbye to everyone.
“Need some help?”
“Masaki-kun! You scared me…” Sho sighed when he recognized him in the semi-darkness. “It’s okay, thanks for offering but I don’t want to trouble you. Your friends are here and all…”
“It’s okay, I see them all the time. They kind of start to get boring…” Masaki said with a bright grin that made Sho swallow back the rest of his protests and let Masaki take over the bags from him.
“Thank you…”
“Don’t do anything that I wouldn’t!” Nino yelled after them, making the others laughing.
“Did he just… said what I think he did?...” Sho asked mortified, torn between laughing or crying at the situation. In the end, he forced himself to laugh because crying in front of Masaki would be just more embarrassing that what he could endure.
Masaki on the other hand groaned loudly.
“Don’t mind him, Sho-chan. Nino’s a brat,” he said simply as if that explained everything. It probably did but Sho, as the newcomer in this group, was out of the loop to get it. It made him surprisingly sad and lonely so he didn’t reply anything and for a while they just walked side by side in silence.
“Ah! I wanted to thank you for the other day. When you looked after Shin-chan for me and…”
“You don’t have to. I did it gladly. I’ll do it again anytime if you need a night out or… you know… a date or something…” Masaki said and for the first time, he sounded a bit shy. Sho couldn’t really understand why all of a sudden.
“I don’t think that would happen but thanks,” Sho said with a small chuckle. Even if he was interested in someone, his life at the moment has no place for a new relationship. That would not be fair to the other party. He also highly doubted many would be willing to put up with a single father like him. “I actually meant to thank you for the breakfast. You really should’ve not bothered with that…”
“Oh… It was just miso soup, it didn’t even take long,” Masaki waved him off but turned his face away from Sho when he felt his cheeks heating up. “You seemed a bit… out of it when you arrived home so I thought if I can spare you the trouble of having to make breakfast in the morning… You know, with the hangover and all…” Masaki said, finding his way back to his usual teasing tone.
“As if only a hangover would hinder me in the kitchen…” Sho snorted rather unattractively.
“What do you mean?”
Sho sighed a little.
“Okay, it’s really embarrassing to admit but… I’m really bad at cooking…” he admitted without looking at his companion. Saying this to someone younger than him, furthermore to someone who obviously knew his way around in the kitchen just made it more awkward in Sho’s eyes. When Masaki didn’t respond, Sho quickly continued: “Not like… inedible-bad. No one ended up in hospital or anything but… Let’s just say it’s not pretty so I just stick to pre-packaged dinners, take-out or eating out when it comes to feeding us. It’s safer that way,” he finished, laughing but it sounded forced even to his own ears.
“That’s no good, Sho-chan!” Masaki said on a surprisingly scolding tone. “It’s not healthy for you, especially not for Shin-chan! And probably pretty pricey too… You should do better! You have to do better than that! Aren’t you a father?”
“Yeah, I know, I know!” Sho said whining. He really didn’t want to hear from Masaki. It felt so wrong he didn’t even know where to start protesting.
“You know what?” Masaki said, suddenly more excited than a moment ago. “I could teach you. Nothing fancy, I’m not as good as Matsujun but I can teach you the basics. A few easy meals that you can whip up very quickly if you don’t have much time. That way you won’t have to rely on conbini bento all the time. Okay? Okay? I’ll come over next week and we can start right away. It’ll be great! Trust me, Sho-chan! We’ll have so much fun!”
Sho opened his mouth a few times but trying to interrupt Masaki was like trying to stop a typhoon. So he gave up pretty soon, resigning himself to his fate that will obviously involve him seeing more of Masaki in the coming weeks. And no, his heard did not start to beat faster at that thought!...
A/N: hey, there! sorry for not updating last week but RL got really busy 😭 still, I hope you enjoy this new chapter, and I promise I'll try to stick to a regular update schedule 😉 let me know what you think! 😘❤💚