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31_days2007-09-12 11:57 pm
issen4.livejournal.com) wrote in 31_days2007-09-12 11:57 pm
[12 Sept] [Hikaru no Go] And the Waves Crashed on the Goban 12/?
Title: And the Waves Crashed on the Goban 12/?
Day/Theme: 12 Sept/An ode to your innocence
Series: Hikaru no Go
Character/Pairing: Hikaru/Akira, Isumi/Le Ping
Rating: General
It was Akira who looked up first when she opened the door, his eyes calm and un-startled, as though he had been expecting her. That gave her a good look at his eyes, which were still shadowed from too little sleep and too much worry. She smiled at him and at the others gathered around the bed. It never ceased to amaze her how quickly the arrival of a few Go pros would turn the hospital room into a Go salon.
"Shindou-san," one of the Go pros greeted her, then a guilty look passed over his face. "Is it that late already?" he looked longingly at the portable goban placed between him and her son.
"I'm sorry," she said. "But visiting hours are over." She noticed that the goban was only half-filled--probably meaning that the game was in progress. Her heart softened at the woebegone expression on his face; it was so much at odds with the wild, spiky hairstyle he sported. "Hikaru needs to rest."
"Mum!" her son protested, not even looking up from his contemplation of the goban.
"It's late," Akira pointed out.
"We can continue tomorrow, you know," Hikaru's opponent said. "I'm staying another two days in Tokyo, anyway."
Her Hikaru pouted, and gave in with bad grace. "All right," he said. He sat back, letting his opponent clear the goban. "Are you staying in a hotel again, Yashirou?" he asked his opponent.
"Yeah. It's only five stations away, so I'll be here tomorrow before you know it."
"You'd better," Hikaru growled. "Using that 5-5 first hand on me again was a cheap move."
"We'll know if it was a really a cheap move after I beat you tomorrow," Yashirou said easily, as he finished clearing the goban, and putting the bowls of Go stones on the bedside table.
"In your dreams," Hikaru said.
Mitsuko wondered if the reason Go pros enjoyed Go so much was that they got to taunt one another like schoolboys.
The other two occupants in the room came up to them, after having put away their game on another portable goban (placed on a chair). "We shouldn't disturb Shindou any further, then," the girl said--her name was Nase Asumi, she remembered--giving Mitsuko a bow.
Her companion--Komiya--nodded, and said, "Yashiro, we could walk to the station together."
Yashirou-kun agreed, and after a few more comments on their Go games, the three left, leaving Mitsuko with Akira and Hikaru. Clucking anxiously, Mitsuko began tidying up. The visiting pros had been neat enough, but she was familiar with the mess that Go players left behind--or didn't regard as 'mess' at all.
Kifu (showing games in various stages), a copy of Go Weekly (last month's), quick sketches on scrap paper of what looked like strategy discussions (crisscrossed lines and circles and arrows going every which way), a game clock (how did that get here?) and even two black Go stones, in a corner of the room behind the door.
What had they been doing, throwing Go stones at one another?
Almost finished, Mitsuko turned to her son and Akira, belatedly realizing that she hadn't heard any sound from them, and Akira hadn't been helping her, either...
Both boys were asleep.
Hikaru was lying on the bed, his left arm held close to his body, a sign that he was still favouring it even after the cast had been removed. Akira was still sitting in his chair, but his head was on Hikaru's pillow.
Despite herself, Mitsuko found herself watching them. She had never subscribed to the theory that a relationship like theirs was unnatural--Hikaru was her son, and nothing he loved could be unnatural. That went for Go, and it went for Akira too. She remembered her son as the innocent child he had been, and thought that Akira must have been the same way too.
He was an adorable-looking child, too, Mitsuko thought--Touya Akiko had shown her pictures--and now he was an adult, caring for Hikaru in all the ways he knew how, and protecting him besides.
Mitsuko was the first to admit to anyone who would listen that she knew nothing of Go, and what was more, had no particular interest in learning. It seemed a vastly complicated game, weighty as a war, and as twisted as a maze. But games were games, even if one did manage to make a living at it--and the rumours that Akira had talked to her about were not games.
Someone seemed intent on hurting Hikaru by suggesting that he was this other Go player called Sai. Akira had explained that Hikaru had known a Go player named Sai, but he had died a long time ago, and just raking up the past about Sai was upsetting him.
Mitsuko suspected it was more than that. She had heard the name Sai before, when Hikaru was still young and prone to talking to himself. Then he had stopped, and a secret sorrow had entered his eyes.
She walked forward and smoothed Hikaru's hair, then Akira's. Neither of them woke. Sleep on, she thought.
Day/Theme: 12 Sept/An ode to your innocence
Series: Hikaru no Go
Character/Pairing: Hikaru/Akira, Isumi/Le Ping
Rating: General
It was Akira who looked up first when she opened the door, his eyes calm and un-startled, as though he had been expecting her. That gave her a good look at his eyes, which were still shadowed from too little sleep and too much worry. She smiled at him and at the others gathered around the bed. It never ceased to amaze her how quickly the arrival of a few Go pros would turn the hospital room into a Go salon.
"Shindou-san," one of the Go pros greeted her, then a guilty look passed over his face. "Is it that late already?" he looked longingly at the portable goban placed between him and her son.
"I'm sorry," she said. "But visiting hours are over." She noticed that the goban was only half-filled--probably meaning that the game was in progress. Her heart softened at the woebegone expression on his face; it was so much at odds with the wild, spiky hairstyle he sported. "Hikaru needs to rest."
"Mum!" her son protested, not even looking up from his contemplation of the goban.
"It's late," Akira pointed out.
"We can continue tomorrow, you know," Hikaru's opponent said. "I'm staying another two days in Tokyo, anyway."
Her Hikaru pouted, and gave in with bad grace. "All right," he said. He sat back, letting his opponent clear the goban. "Are you staying in a hotel again, Yashirou?" he asked his opponent.
"Yeah. It's only five stations away, so I'll be here tomorrow before you know it."
"You'd better," Hikaru growled. "Using that 5-5 first hand on me again was a cheap move."
"We'll know if it was a really a cheap move after I beat you tomorrow," Yashirou said easily, as he finished clearing the goban, and putting the bowls of Go stones on the bedside table.
"In your dreams," Hikaru said.
Mitsuko wondered if the reason Go pros enjoyed Go so much was that they got to taunt one another like schoolboys.
The other two occupants in the room came up to them, after having put away their game on another portable goban (placed on a chair). "We shouldn't disturb Shindou any further, then," the girl said--her name was Nase Asumi, she remembered--giving Mitsuko a bow.
Her companion--Komiya--nodded, and said, "Yashiro, we could walk to the station together."
Yashirou-kun agreed, and after a few more comments on their Go games, the three left, leaving Mitsuko with Akira and Hikaru. Clucking anxiously, Mitsuko began tidying up. The visiting pros had been neat enough, but she was familiar with the mess that Go players left behind--or didn't regard as 'mess' at all.
Kifu (showing games in various stages), a copy of Go Weekly (last month's), quick sketches on scrap paper of what looked like strategy discussions (crisscrossed lines and circles and arrows going every which way), a game clock (how did that get here?) and even two black Go stones, in a corner of the room behind the door.
What had they been doing, throwing Go stones at one another?
Almost finished, Mitsuko turned to her son and Akira, belatedly realizing that she hadn't heard any sound from them, and Akira hadn't been helping her, either...
Both boys were asleep.
Hikaru was lying on the bed, his left arm held close to his body, a sign that he was still favouring it even after the cast had been removed. Akira was still sitting in his chair, but his head was on Hikaru's pillow.
Despite herself, Mitsuko found herself watching them. She had never subscribed to the theory that a relationship like theirs was unnatural--Hikaru was her son, and nothing he loved could be unnatural. That went for Go, and it went for Akira too. She remembered her son as the innocent child he had been, and thought that Akira must have been the same way too.
He was an adorable-looking child, too, Mitsuko thought--Touya Akiko had shown her pictures--and now he was an adult, caring for Hikaru in all the ways he knew how, and protecting him besides.
Mitsuko was the first to admit to anyone who would listen that she knew nothing of Go, and what was more, had no particular interest in learning. It seemed a vastly complicated game, weighty as a war, and as twisted as a maze. But games were games, even if one did manage to make a living at it--and the rumours that Akira had talked to her about were not games.
Someone seemed intent on hurting Hikaru by suggesting that he was this other Go player called Sai. Akira had explained that Hikaru had known a Go player named Sai, but he had died a long time ago, and just raking up the past about Sai was upsetting him.
Mitsuko suspected it was more than that. She had heard the name Sai before, when Hikaru was still young and prone to talking to himself. Then he had stopped, and a secret sorrow had entered his eyes.
She walked forward and smoothed Hikaru's hair, then Akira's. Neither of them woke. Sleep on, she thought.