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“Ah Soma, there you are” Jouichirou grinned mischievously, making his son curious as to what tricks his old man could be up to now. Could he be asking for another cooking match? “Let me reintroduce you to someone, this is Nakiri Azami”
Soma swung his gaze to the right as the older man stepped forward, looking uncharacteristically confused even if it was just slightly. Soma had a bad feeling in his gut for what tricks his Dad was planning that involved the ex-director.
“He’s your sire”
“…What?"
Silence reigned for several minutes as both Nakiri Azami and Yukihira Soma gawked in shock at a now widely grinning Yukihira Jouichirou. If Soma wasn’t seconds away from having a mental breakdown, he would have been laughing at how flustered Nakiri Azami looked. Said man had always looked so perfectly well put and composed that it was hilarious now how wide both his black eyes and mouth got. Although he looked like he was a few seconds away from a mental breakdown with how pale he looked and the older man had already looked quite pale.
“That’s not funny old man, there is no way Nakiri Azami is my dad” Soma frowned, the first to recover as he had years to get immune to his father’s usual nonsense. And that’s what it had to be right? Complete nonsense? He didn’t even look, walk or talk like the evil ex-director. It was almost laughable to think that Nakiri Azami was his sire. His father must have been drinking some freaking sake recently in celebration for his son’s victory against said evil ex-director. “You’re my Dad and he’s Erina’s Dad”
“No, he’s your Dad” Jouichirou grinned happily, basically batting away his son’s protests easily and acting oblivious to his son’s growing rage. He took a peek at Azami but the man was still in shock and looking quite pale, but not pale enough to be seeing the afterlife so Jouichirou didn’t worry about it much.
“No, you’re my Dad” Soma gritted out, clenching his fists.
“Nope, I’m actually your Mom” Jouichirou grinned widened even more. “So you can call me Mama from now on, okay?”
“You absolute…”
“How?”
Both Yukihiras stopped before they could go in the usual back and forth they were known for back home and turned to stare at the ex-director, who was still looking a bit paler than he usually was but seemed to be getting back to looking like his usual unflappable self. Jouichirou’s smile softened and he walked off to go lean towards the wall, obviously putting some distance between them to better avoid any attacks. His son looked unimpressed cause he always pulled the same thing whenever he had to tell his Mom (she was his Mom damnit and he wasn’t gonna think otherwise!) any bad news as a result of his recklessness but the ex-director just looked slightly sad at the move before composing himself.
“Well, like I said before or all the knuckleheads…” “Oi!” “…that refuse to believe otherwise, you are Soma’s sire and it was from a late night stand”
Soma blanched at the knowledge that his Dad (he refused to believe the man was his Mom!) was having sex, even if it was years ago, while Nakiri Azami just looked confused and slightly disturbed. That was interesting because he always thought the ex-director had been carrying some torch for his Dad thanks how obsessed the ex-director seemed, even when his Dad was relaying his backstory to him. But his reaction was also not helping his Dad’s case of trying to convince them that the ex-director was his sire because the ex-director himself didn’t seem to recall anything about having a late night stand with his father.
“I was in France and that night I felt nostalgic so I went off to a Japanese inspired bar to drink some sake. I saw you drinking alone in a corner while trying to hide behind some freaking huge glasses like some kind of nerd” Jouichirou laughed, ignoring Azami’s glare and his son’s unimpressed look again. “I went over to you and we started drinking. One thing led to another and we ended up in your hotel room. I had to leave because I had to catch a plane to the next destination and I forgot to leave my number so we could catch up again”
Soma’s eyes widened as he saw his Dad looked sad but only for a second before shifting back to his usual grin that didn’t quite match his eyes this time. He could recall only a handful of times his Dad was sad and it was always shocking every time. His Dad was a big lovable and excitable idiot that was either grinning cause he had done something reckless again or grinning cause was about to make you taste one of his horrible cooking creations again. Even when his Mom was beating his Dad over the head with a slipper, he was grinning and laughing like a madman instead of looking even remotely upset or contrite like he was supposed to.
“Months passed and I felt sick so I got a hold of a witch doctor….” “Wait what? Where the hell were you that time?!” “And I discovered that I was pregnant. I wanted pictures though of the brat I was now carrying” “Oi!” “…so I travelled to New York and did an ultrasound”
Soma watched as his Dad took his wallet out of his pocket and threw it in Nakiri Azami’s direction, trying hard not to laugh as the older man failed to catch it in time and it smacked him in the face. Thanks to that, the tension that was building up had lessened but then a gasp made it snap right back. He looked over to see the ex-director looked like he was on the verge of tears and looking at what Soma assumed was his Dad’s ultrasound pictures. Thinking of his Dad getting an ultrasound was weird on its own but having Erina’s Dad look at his pictures and almost cry at the sight of them was almost too much to handle. He was about to go over and rip the wallet out of the other man’s hands when his Dad started up his story again.
“It took a while to hit me that I was pregnant but as soon as I could I tracked you down and was ready to tell you everything but…” his Dad trailed off, looking to the side and looking so unbelievably sad that Soma felt his heart clench. What the hell happened to make his Dad look so sad? He glanced to his right when he heard the ex-director make a step forward as if he wanted to hug and comfort his Dad, also looking devastated at how forlorn his Dad looked. He still looked confused though and Soma was idly wondering how drunk the ex-director was when he fell into bed with his Dad (Ew! Bad mental images!).
“I couldn’t because you had a family” Jouichirou smiled sadly, still looking away with his eyes looking suspiciously wet. “You had a daughter and I couldn’t mess with that so I left you alone. I couldn’t handle it on my own though so I tracked down one of my best friends, a woman I strongly respect and love, to help out and the rest you know is history”
Silence reigned for a few minutes again but it seemed more sombre than before, both Soma and Azami thinking hard about what they just heard. Soma wasn’t fully convinced that Azami was his Dad but there was no faking that kind of sadness though from his father. Soma was honestly wondering why his Dad decided to reveal it all now. It wasn’t like the ex-director was divorced as far as he could tell even if he had been cast out. He still had his daughter and possibly his wife so what was the point of telling him now? What was the point of hiding it for so long from Soma also? Luckily it looked like the ex-director was also curious about it because he asked, looking equally angry and devastated. Soma didn’t blame him at all. Imagine hearing after so many years that you slept and had a kid with the senpai you admired for years, the very same kid that you tried hard to separate from your daughter and destroy him and his friends. He would have been more than furious and upset.
“I honestly didn’t expect the two of you to meet so that’s why I thought of bringing it up now” Jouichirou shrugged which just pissed off Azami more. How could he be so nonchalant after basically turning his life upside down with just a few words? “Also, seeing how affected you became after I left, I thought that I wanted to prevent that from happening again by making a better effort to be in your life and if I follow then Soma would have to follow as well so…”
Jouichirou threw his hands up as if to say “that’s that” and looked off into the distance again. Azami would have thought that such a move meant his senpai was feeling ashamed but his body looked utterly relaxed. How could he look so nonchalant? Azami still couldn’t understand why he kept that secret. Hiding his child, their child, away from him because he had a family? Did the man not know that he would have dropped said family in a heartbeat and been with him and his son? Did he not know how much he loved him and missed him every day? Was the man that oblivious to his feelings, even after their night together? Azami tasted blood when his mind went back to the late night stand, a night he would have treasured if he hadn’t been too drunk to remember it. He never hated Japanese sake or alcohol as he did now. It bought Jouichirou-senpai to him but it also made him forget what was probably the greatest night of his life. It made him knock out so cold the next day that he couldn’t even stop Jouichirou from leaving or atleast leaving his contact information behind. Azami despaired that his revolution was over because Japanese sake would have been the first to be destroyed but then he remembered the dishes he tasted and his son and thought it was best that the revolution was over and done with.
He had a new focus now and that was to know his and Jouichirou’s love child (the thought gave him pleasure and made him smile) and repair the already bad impression he gave. He could fight with Jouichirou later but for now he needed to take the next step forward so that they could finally become a family. Taking a few steps into Soma’s direction and feeling saddened at his son’s wariness towards him, he struck out a hand for the other to shake. The feeling increased as he was stared at in suspicion but it just made him more determined. They would probably not have as a close a relationship as if he had raised Soma himself but he wasn’t going to let time pass them by any longer where they were separated because of it.
“Let me reintroduce myself, my name is Nakiri Azami and I am your sire. It’s nice to meet you my son and I hope to get to know you better”