Day 5, Gravitation, Nittle Grasper, (G)

[ciircee]

This Tarnished King

Ryuichi rocked the baby, staring down into the tiny face and wide-open eyes. "Lavender's blue, Piko Piko, lavender's green," he sang quietly, fascinated with the way the baby's eyes tracked him. "When I am King, you can be Queen."

"Ah, here he is," Tohma said from the doorway.

"How'd you do it, Tohma?" Ryuichi asked without looking up from the baby in his arms. "A penny for your thoughts, Piko Piko," he hummed, "an i.o.u. for love..."

Tohma blinked. "Ryuichi, I thought Noriko explained about the birds and the bees."

"Wear a condom, you idiot," Ryuichi said promptly, in a dead-on impersonation of Noriko's voice, "the last thing this band needs is a pregnancy scandal! And child support!"

"I have to talk to her," Tohma sighed.

Ryuichi looked up with a small frown. "I know the birds and the bees, Tohma. I meant, how'd you get your baby with Mika to look like a tiny little version of Piko Piko Noriko-chan?" He patted the baby's back absently as he looked back to her face. "Who told you so, Piko Piko? Oh, who told you so? Was it your heart, Piko Piko, or doesn't it know?"

Tohma came to his side and Ryuichi ignored him as he crouched down beside the rocking chair, smoothing the wispy hair back from his child's face. "'Twas my own heart, dilly dilly," he sang quietly, "'twas my own heart said so." He laughed as his child fussed. "You think every baby looks like Noriko," he said. Then his hand came up and Ryuichi felt his own hair brushed back. "What's wrong with Ryuichi-san?" Tohma asked kindly.

"How do you write her name again?" he asked.

"Ami?" Tohma blinked at him again. "Like this," he said, sketching the characters slowly with his finger, outlining them in the ruffled pile of the carpet he was kneeling on. "Ame, for rain and then hi, like sunshine."

"Like a rainbow," Ryuichi said, looking at Tohma's daughter. "Shiny like a rainbow." The baby chuffed out a little sigh, as though in agreement. "I heard the children singing, Piko Piko, it sounded like a song for you. I heard them singing in the rainbows, Piko Piko, it was a song I didn't write," he sang. Then, "she looks at me like I'm shiny," he said quietly.

"You are shiny," Tohma said, sounding confused. "You're Sakuma Ryuichi."

"No."

"Want to find Tatsuha and ask him?"

"I don't like Tatsu-kun," Ryuichi said sadly. "He looks at me like little Piko Piko does." He lifted the baby, kissing her forehead. "Lavender's pale and lavender's dark," he sang in a whisper. "Don't fall in love with me, Piko Piko, I'll break your heart."

"Ryu…" Ryuichi slid a sideways glance at Tohma. Tohma was frowning at him, the sort of eye-crinkling frown he usually reserved for Mika's brother.

He looked away, feeling bad. "I don't like making movies in America. Everybody there smiles your bad smiles all the time. Even Reiji. And Ark won't shoot them."

"K would be happy to go back with you," Tohma said in a tone that meant K would be happy to go with him whether it made K happy or not. "He and Judy would both like that, I'm sure."

"No," Ryuichi said, patting the baby in time to the swish of the rocking chair. "I don't want to make movies in America anymore."

Tohma nodded in his peripheral vision. "N-G has been looking to expand."

"I don't want to stay in Japan," Ryuichi said. "Everybody wants me to sing and I don't want to study writing anymore."

"Ah…" Tohma scratched his head, obviously thinking.

"Then what do you want to do?" Noriko asked from the door. "You can't keep confusing Tohma otherwise he'll give Sakano a heart attack just to calm his nerves." She sauntered in and chucked the baby under the chin. Then she kissed Ryuichi on top of the head, the way he'd seen her do to her daughter when she was upset.

He bowed his head under it and shifted the baby up to lie against his chest. "Maybe I'll be a monk like Tatsu-kun," he said. "That's nice, right? And I could be the older brother since Eiri isn't going to be a monk anymore, right?"

Noriko sighed. "I don't think there's a big call for Buddhist monks in America, Ryu-chan."

He looked at Tohma.

Tohma shook his head.

"Oh." In his arms, the baby squirmed. "Lavender's blue and lavender's green," he sang and then stopped. "I could have a little rainbow," he said. He laid Tohma's daughter across his lap and studied her. "If that was my bliss, then it'd be okay if she looked at me like little Piko Piko does. I'd be shiny for my own Piko Piko-chan."

"Huh?" Noriko looked at him.

Tohma looked at Noriko and shrugged. "He thinks Ami looks like you."

Noriko put her head in her hands. "He said the same thing about Saki and Saki was a copy of Tetsuya right down to the wrinkles."

"You'd be a great father, Ryuichi," Tohma said stoutly.

"Are you even dating?" Noriko asked.

No, thought Ryuichi, watching the wide-eyed baby. But half of bliss was finding it. "Lavender's in pillows tucked under the covers, you'll find happiness, Piko Piko, with me for your father and Tatsuha for mother," he sang, just to see what would happen.

Tohma's eye twitched. "Your poor baby," he said.

"You're both boys, dummy," Noriko said, cuffing him on the back of the head.

He laughed. "Lavender's blue and lavender's green," he sang, not so much to the baby anymore.

"Dilly dilly," Noriko and Tohma cut in forcefully. He joined them, blending in to them. "When I am King, you will be Queen. We'll be shiny, we'll be bright, and then, dilly dilly, we'll be all right."