TheCharredDragon
Tis the Hour to Reload
Summary: Akechi discovers his daughter has a crush...and decides to help her with it. Aka: Dad!Akechi playing matchmaker, because there aren't many fics of Dad!Akechi. Akechi/Fem!Akira)
"See you tomorrow," Goro said to the receptionist as he left the police station.
He had managed to finish work early today so he took out his phone and told Akira he would be picking up the children from school and handle dinner. Goro smiled when she texted back her thanks with an emoticon and made his way to his car, a Citroën of course. It wasn't long before he was at the high school. After parking his car nearby, he made his way to the gates but once he got there, he stopped in his tracks.
Not far from the school gates was his daughter, Hoshiko, and she was talking to a young man wearing the school's P.E. uniform that vaguely looked familiar.
The boy chuckled and smiled sheepishly as he rubbed the back of his head.
"Ah, thanks Akechi-chan," he said before giving a more self-deprecating laugh. "Some senpai I am. Sorry for bothering you."
Hoshiko adjusted her glasses and smiled too, but though her demeanor was calm, her hands moved in time with her words as she said, "It's fine, Senpai. No need to worry. I'm glad I helped."
"All right, if you say so. Still, thanks. Bye Akechi-chan."
"Bye Ichiro-kun!" she said, waving.
And then Hoshiko proceeded to watch him leave with a smile, even when he was long gone from her sigh, followed soon with a drawn out sigh.
Goro raised an eyebrow. But before he could inquire about what he observed, the voice of his son, Hiroaki, came up and said,
"Father?"
And his daughter turned around to see him just as his son approached. As soon as Hoshiko saw him, a huge grin broke out on her face.
"Dad!" she said before tackling him with a hug, which he happily returned with a chuckle. "You're here to pick us up?"
"No, I'm here to see the architecture of the school."
As he'd hoped, his little star laughed and said, "Okay, I deserved that."
"It's good to see you Father," Hiroaki said. "Are you also handling dinner?"
"Yes. Any requests?"
Hoshiko let go to bounce as she said, "Oh oh! Takoyaki! Takoyaki!"
"We can't have dinner just on takoyaki, Sister."
"I didn't say it'd be just takoyaki!"
The two started to banter over dinner while they were gettin in the car but they did eventually decided on a dinner together by the time they returned home so they immediately went to cook it. Before long, Akira came home, dinner was had, and he found himself contemplating what he saw earlier that day as he sat in his office.
Now that he heard the name as well as to how Hoshiko called him her senpai, he remembered he was a second year by the name of Ichiro Sato, who had transfered to Hoshiko's school that year. But not only that, Sato-kun, despite not having been on the team for long, was the captain of the track team. If Sato-kun was who Goro thought he was, then perhaps there was even more reason to look into him.
Besides the obvious fact that, if he saw and interpreted his daughter's behavior right, Hoshiko had a crush on him.
"Goro?"
He jumped, his thoughts tumbling as he looked up to see his wife at the door to his office, looking at him with both curiosity and concern.
"Is something wrong?"
"No," he said. "What made you think that?"
Akira smirked. "You can't fool me, Goro," she said but that playfulness disappeared as she made her way to his side. "Is something wrong? I'm free to lend an ear."
"It's..." nothing, Goro almost said. But after a brief consideration, he settled on, "It's something I want to try to solve myself. I'll tell you if I need any help."
With that, the tension left his curly haired wife and she pecked him on the cheek, which, to his constant annoyance, made him blush.
"Okay then," she said, smile small and soft. "Just remember I'm here for you."
Goro had a burst of affection through his heart as he said, "As I am for you."
He hoped he wouldn't need to ask for assistance in this case though, as he was mostly certain about his plan being relatively harmless and that he was up to the task.
The first step was simple if somewhat dubious.
He looked up Ichiro Sato's background on the internet while he was looking at other profiles for his most recent case. It turned out he was the Ichiro Sato he was thought he was, the rising star athlete who has won many school meets and competitions...until he was expelled from his previous school. Why? Such information wasn't on the web. So he proceeded to call his little sister, Futaba.
Once she picked up, she said, "Hey there bro! Something up?"
"Promise me you won't tell anyone until I let you."
Goto could imagine her raising an eyebrow and having a Cheshire cat smile as she said, "O-ho? Another favor?"
"Yes."
"A case?"
"Perhaps."
"Hee hee...holdin' out on me, Detective?"
"Only because you didn't promise."
"All right, all right, fine. Promise on my game consoles. Now spill!"
"I want you to see if you can see why Ichiro Sato was expelled."
"Eh? You mean the star runner?"
Goro hummed in confirmation. "The same."
"Well well... I can do that. In fact, I can do it now. Just give me a sec." And before he could answer that, she said, "Got it! Let's see...oh jeez."
"What is it?"
Her tone was decidedly somber as she said, "He got expelled for having low grades from some big shot private school for quote-unquote 'elites'."
"Did it say why his grades were low?"
"Nada. He did get transfered. Some place called...wait a sec, that's your kids' school!"
He knew what she was going to ask, so he said, "Yes. It's one of the reasons I'm looking into him."
"One of the reasons?"
"The other is something I cannot confirm yet. So thank you. Good-bye."
"Hey wait j—"
With that out of the way, the second step was to observe Sato-kun for a while.
Which was much more difficult considering not only with his job taking up time when Sato was observable, but needing to be discreet about it. But thankfully he was able to have amother day where he could leave early and with enough time to watch Hoshiko and her clubmates practice track, and thus see how Sato-kun behaved.
Yes, it was almost like stalking or being overprotective but damn it, this was his daughter he was dealing with. If she had a crush on someone, he had to be sure of their character. He didn't know why he was expelled and all his mind could think of was unsavory reasons...until he saw him and Hoshiko.
When they were all done, the rest of the team were friendly enough but Goro could tell it was only to be polite, including Sato-kun himself, who seemed stiff through it all. But once everyone but he and Hoshiko were gone...his smile turned more natural, though his posture remained the same, as his daughter said,
"You doing okay?"
"I'm fine. But thanks for asking," he said before he began to leave. "You go on ahead. I'll make sure everything's in order."
Hoshiko frowned. "You sure?"
The boy laughed and shook his head. "I'm sure. Don't worry. It's not like there's much to clean up anyway."
"Okay...if you say so."
Sato-kun chuckled. "Go on, Akechi-chan. Didn't you say you wanted to catch that special episode of Featherman?"
"Gah! I forgot! Thanks for the reminder! See ya, Ichiro!"
And she would've ran right out of the field...if she hadn't spotted him first.
"Huh? Dad?" she said, stopping somewhat as if she was in an anime.
He just smiled and said, "Shall we go? I'm assuming that since you're running that you don't want to be late for something."
"Oh right! Come on Dad!"
Then they left, but not before he saw the familar look of a fond yet wistful gaze in the eyes of Ichiro Sato.
Now, normally, he would've done more than one observation to determine his true behavior but... That look reminded way too much of his own when he fell in love with Akira, wishing he could be by her side yet not feeling worthy to walk with her. And it was on him. It made him wonder...did he keep distance from his daughter because he didn't want her to get close? Even if he wanted to?
And so, not too long after that day, while helping Hoshiko with some of her math homework, he said,
"How are you doing with the track team?"
His daughter's red eyes blinked. "Huh? Uh, fine...? Why do you ask?"
"Mostly curiosity, I will admit." Which was true but not the whole of it. "You mentioned Sato-kun was made the captain when the previous one graduated despite being a transfer student. I know you wanted to be captain."
"Oh uh, well..." she said, looking down and her hands stilling from her homework.
"Hoshiko?" he said in an encouraging tone.
Thankfully she continued, her free hand punctuating her thoughts. "Yeah, I was upset, yeah, but then...then I saw him run the track the next day." She paused as she grinned and chuckled. "He was fast all right. But here's the thing, he went and apologized to me. Said he didn't think he should've gotten captain either but he's gonna do his best and asked me if I could help him."
"Oh really?"
"Yeah, I know. I mean I was just a little grumpy about him being captain and not me."
Goro raised an eyebrow and leveled a flat stare at his daughter.
"All right, all right, I was more than a little grumpy. But he was actually a pretty nice guy instead of some snooty prick who thought he was the star or something because he was really good at running that I thought he'd be. You know, the one that'd use their star status to do whatever the hell they want.
"Language," he said, smirking.
"Oh come on, Dad! There's no other word that perfectly captures those kind of people."
"My point still stands."
His daughter laughed with that. But as it died down, her smile saddened. "Though I think the other runners don't think the same..."
"Sato-kun gets along fine with 'em but no one really hangs out with him."
There was his chance.
"Including you?"
"Uh, well..." Hoshiko said, scratching her cheek with a minute blush on her face. "I do wanna hang out eith him but... I don't know... He always looks busy after club..."
It took a surprising amount of restraint to not show his amusement at his daughter's sudden shyness.
"But you want to spend time with him, yes?"
"Yeah," she said, no hesitation.
"Then ask," he said, giving her a warm and encouraging smile. "Even if it's just to help him with his duties as captain, I'm sure he'd appreciate the company."
His daughter blinked, unbelieving. "For real?"
Now he huffed in amusement. He still couldn't believe she liked Ryuji's catch phrase. "Yes."
With that, a detetmined look shone in her eyes as she said, slamming her fist on the table, "All right then! I'll ask him to hang out!"
As he thought, it wasn't until a few days later that it happened as he got a text during lunch.
Little Star: Hey Dad, you leaving work early?
Goro double checked his work for today and, it turned out, yes he would.
Me: Yes, actually.
Little Sister: Mind if Ichiro comes with us? We're gonna binge on Featherman R.
Goro smiled.
Me: No, I don't. He's more than welcomed to come along.
Little Sister: Thanks Dad! Love you!
That made it wider. And he couldn't help but text back.
Me: I love you too.
And so he found himself preparing dinner after picking them up to the background noise of their extra guest talking animatedly to not only with his daughter, but also with his son about which series of Featherman he's seen so far, various other topics involving the franchise and comments on the episode of Featherman R they were watching at the moment.
It wasn't long before that canorous cacophony was interrupted by the voice of his wife saying,
"I'm home!"
Which was answered with Hoshiko and Hiroaki respectively saying,
"Welcome back Mom!"
"Welcome home Mother."
Soon followed by Sato-kun.
"Oh, hello Akechi-san. Pardon my intrusion."
"Hey! You're not intruding!" his daughter was quick to say.
He couldn't see his wife from his place in the kitchen, but he heard her as she said,
"As my daughter says, we're welcome to have you. Sato-kun, yes?"
"Ah. Yes."
Goro decided to tune out the conversation as he focused on the soup he was readying, making sure the ingredients and temperature were in order. It was only when he was sure of it that he let it cook and turned to see his wife leaning against the doorway once again, an inquiring look to her eyes paired with an amused smile.
He just smirked as he came close and pecked her cheek.
"Welcome home, my star," he said. "How was your day?"
"Oh, it was fine," she said. "How about yours?"
His smirk got worse. "Fine."
Akira rolled her eyes but still grinned. "You're not going to tell me why Hoshiko's crush is here?"
He raised an eyebrow. "You knew?"
"Mother's intuition," she said.
"Of course it is."
She gave a short laugh. "So? The answer to my question?"
He paused, formulating his words. But in the end, instead of answering with words, he made his way out of the kitchen, Akira close behind and holding his waist, to see his daughter, his son and the track team captain be quiet as an emotional scene of Featherman R played on the television in their living room, Morgana right beside them, watching over from his perch on the couch arms. With that, he returned his wife's hold with his own around her shoulders, leaning his head against hers and said,
"This is why."
Before him in the living room, the three were seated on the couch in front of the television. Hoshiko, despite not knowing him long, was already letting herself sit close and lean against Sato-kun. Not only that, Hiroaki was also comfortable with him, sitting right beside him instead of the usual seat near his sister but away from strangers. And with that, he saw all the tension and rigidity that was in Sato-kun fade away as he decided to take his daughter's silent offer and leaned against her as well.
No doubt he and Akira were mirroring it as she decided to do same as their daughter, using him as support as she held his hand with her free one, a warm and proud smile on her face.
"And here I thought you wouldn't want to act as matchmaker with how much you complained when we were teens," she said, just loud enough for only him to hear.
"You would, wouldn't you? But..."
The quiet of the audience of Featherman R soon disappeared, replaced with shouts and bouncing but with still equally happy expressions as the fight with that episode's villain began.
"...if it makes her smile, that's all the reason I need to do it."
. . .
Happy Father's Day! Yeah, not exactly focused on the relationship between father and child in a more conventional way but it was still about Akechi being a dad (because there seriously aren't enough of these kinds of fics) and how he handles things involving his daughter.
"See you tomorrow," Goro said to the receptionist as he left the police station.
He had managed to finish work early today so he took out his phone and told Akira he would be picking up the children from school and handle dinner. Goro smiled when she texted back her thanks with an emoticon and made his way to his car, a Citroën of course. It wasn't long before he was at the high school. After parking his car nearby, he made his way to the gates but once he got there, he stopped in his tracks.
Not far from the school gates was his daughter, Hoshiko, and she was talking to a young man wearing the school's P.E. uniform that vaguely looked familiar.
The boy chuckled and smiled sheepishly as he rubbed the back of his head.
"Ah, thanks Akechi-chan," he said before giving a more self-deprecating laugh. "Some senpai I am. Sorry for bothering you."
Hoshiko adjusted her glasses and smiled too, but though her demeanor was calm, her hands moved in time with her words as she said, "It's fine, Senpai. No need to worry. I'm glad I helped."
"All right, if you say so. Still, thanks. Bye Akechi-chan."
"Bye Ichiro-kun!" she said, waving.
And then Hoshiko proceeded to watch him leave with a smile, even when he was long gone from her sigh, followed soon with a drawn out sigh.
Goro raised an eyebrow. But before he could inquire about what he observed, the voice of his son, Hiroaki, came up and said,
"Father?"
And his daughter turned around to see him just as his son approached. As soon as Hoshiko saw him, a huge grin broke out on her face.
"Dad!" she said before tackling him with a hug, which he happily returned with a chuckle. "You're here to pick us up?"
"No, I'm here to see the architecture of the school."
As he'd hoped, his little star laughed and said, "Okay, I deserved that."
"It's good to see you Father," Hiroaki said. "Are you also handling dinner?"
"Yes. Any requests?"
Hoshiko let go to bounce as she said, "Oh oh! Takoyaki! Takoyaki!"
"We can't have dinner just on takoyaki, Sister."
"I didn't say it'd be just takoyaki!"
The two started to banter over dinner while they were gettin in the car but they did eventually decided on a dinner together by the time they returned home so they immediately went to cook it. Before long, Akira came home, dinner was had, and he found himself contemplating what he saw earlier that day as he sat in his office.
Now that he heard the name as well as to how Hoshiko called him her senpai, he remembered he was a second year by the name of Ichiro Sato, who had transfered to Hoshiko's school that year. But not only that, Sato-kun, despite not having been on the team for long, was the captain of the track team. If Sato-kun was who Goro thought he was, then perhaps there was even more reason to look into him.
Besides the obvious fact that, if he saw and interpreted his daughter's behavior right, Hoshiko had a crush on him.
"Goro?"
He jumped, his thoughts tumbling as he looked up to see his wife at the door to his office, looking at him with both curiosity and concern.
"Is something wrong?"
"No," he said. "What made you think that?"
Akira smirked. "You can't fool me, Goro," she said but that playfulness disappeared as she made her way to his side. "Is something wrong? I'm free to lend an ear."
"It's..." nothing, Goro almost said. But after a brief consideration, he settled on, "It's something I want to try to solve myself. I'll tell you if I need any help."
With that, the tension left his curly haired wife and she pecked him on the cheek, which, to his constant annoyance, made him blush.
"Okay then," she said, smile small and soft. "Just remember I'm here for you."
Goro had a burst of affection through his heart as he said, "As I am for you."
He hoped he wouldn't need to ask for assistance in this case though, as he was mostly certain about his plan being relatively harmless and that he was up to the task.
The first step was simple if somewhat dubious.
He looked up Ichiro Sato's background on the internet while he was looking at other profiles for his most recent case. It turned out he was the Ichiro Sato he was thought he was, the rising star athlete who has won many school meets and competitions...until he was expelled from his previous school. Why? Such information wasn't on the web. So he proceeded to call his little sister, Futaba.
Once she picked up, she said, "Hey there bro! Something up?"
"Promise me you won't tell anyone until I let you."
Goto could imagine her raising an eyebrow and having a Cheshire cat smile as she said, "O-ho? Another favor?"
"Yes."
"A case?"
"Perhaps."
"Hee hee...holdin' out on me, Detective?"
"Only because you didn't promise."
"All right, all right, fine. Promise on my game consoles. Now spill!"
"I want you to see if you can see why Ichiro Sato was expelled."
"Eh? You mean the star runner?"
Goro hummed in confirmation. "The same."
"Well well... I can do that. In fact, I can do it now. Just give me a sec." And before he could answer that, she said, "Got it! Let's see...oh jeez."
"What is it?"
Her tone was decidedly somber as she said, "He got expelled for having low grades from some big shot private school for quote-unquote 'elites'."
"Did it say why his grades were low?"
"Nada. He did get transfered. Some place called...wait a sec, that's your kids' school!"
He knew what she was going to ask, so he said, "Yes. It's one of the reasons I'm looking into him."
"One of the reasons?"
"The other is something I cannot confirm yet. So thank you. Good-bye."
"Hey wait j—"
With that out of the way, the second step was to observe Sato-kun for a while.
Which was much more difficult considering not only with his job taking up time when Sato was observable, but needing to be discreet about it. But thankfully he was able to have amother day where he could leave early and with enough time to watch Hoshiko and her clubmates practice track, and thus see how Sato-kun behaved.
Yes, it was almost like stalking or being overprotective but damn it, this was his daughter he was dealing with. If she had a crush on someone, he had to be sure of their character. He didn't know why he was expelled and all his mind could think of was unsavory reasons...until he saw him and Hoshiko.
When they were all done, the rest of the team were friendly enough but Goro could tell it was only to be polite, including Sato-kun himself, who seemed stiff through it all. But once everyone but he and Hoshiko were gone...his smile turned more natural, though his posture remained the same, as his daughter said,
"You doing okay?"
"I'm fine. But thanks for asking," he said before he began to leave. "You go on ahead. I'll make sure everything's in order."
Hoshiko frowned. "You sure?"
The boy laughed and shook his head. "I'm sure. Don't worry. It's not like there's much to clean up anyway."
"Okay...if you say so."
Sato-kun chuckled. "Go on, Akechi-chan. Didn't you say you wanted to catch that special episode of Featherman?"
"Gah! I forgot! Thanks for the reminder! See ya, Ichiro!"
And she would've ran right out of the field...if she hadn't spotted him first.
"Huh? Dad?" she said, stopping somewhat as if she was in an anime.
He just smiled and said, "Shall we go? I'm assuming that since you're running that you don't want to be late for something."
"Oh right! Come on Dad!"
Then they left, but not before he saw the familar look of a fond yet wistful gaze in the eyes of Ichiro Sato.
Now, normally, he would've done more than one observation to determine his true behavior but... That look reminded way too much of his own when he fell in love with Akira, wishing he could be by her side yet not feeling worthy to walk with her. And it was on him. It made him wonder...did he keep distance from his daughter because he didn't want her to get close? Even if he wanted to?
And so, not too long after that day, while helping Hoshiko with some of her math homework, he said,
"How are you doing with the track team?"
His daughter's red eyes blinked. "Huh? Uh, fine...? Why do you ask?"
"Mostly curiosity, I will admit." Which was true but not the whole of it. "You mentioned Sato-kun was made the captain when the previous one graduated despite being a transfer student. I know you wanted to be captain."
"Oh uh, well..." she said, looking down and her hands stilling from her homework.
"Hoshiko?" he said in an encouraging tone.
Thankfully she continued, her free hand punctuating her thoughts. "Yeah, I was upset, yeah, but then...then I saw him run the track the next day." She paused as she grinned and chuckled. "He was fast all right. But here's the thing, he went and apologized to me. Said he didn't think he should've gotten captain either but he's gonna do his best and asked me if I could help him."
"Oh really?"
"Yeah, I know. I mean I was just a little grumpy about him being captain and not me."
Goro raised an eyebrow and leveled a flat stare at his daughter.
"All right, all right, I was more than a little grumpy. But he was actually a pretty nice guy instead of some snooty prick who thought he was the star or something because he was really good at running that I thought he'd be. You know, the one that'd use their star status to do whatever the hell they want.
"Language," he said, smirking.
"Oh come on, Dad! There's no other word that perfectly captures those kind of people."
"My point still stands."
His daughter laughed with that. But as it died down, her smile saddened. "Though I think the other runners don't think the same..."
"Sato-kun gets along fine with 'em but no one really hangs out with him."
There was his chance.
"Including you?"
"Uh, well..." Hoshiko said, scratching her cheek with a minute blush on her face. "I do wanna hang out eith him but... I don't know... He always looks busy after club..."
It took a surprising amount of restraint to not show his amusement at his daughter's sudden shyness.
"But you want to spend time with him, yes?"
"Yeah," she said, no hesitation.
"Then ask," he said, giving her a warm and encouraging smile. "Even if it's just to help him with his duties as captain, I'm sure he'd appreciate the company."
His daughter blinked, unbelieving. "For real?"
Now he huffed in amusement. He still couldn't believe she liked Ryuji's catch phrase. "Yes."
With that, a detetmined look shone in her eyes as she said, slamming her fist on the table, "All right then! I'll ask him to hang out!"
As he thought, it wasn't until a few days later that it happened as he got a text during lunch.
Little Star: Hey Dad, you leaving work early?
Goro double checked his work for today and, it turned out, yes he would.
Me: Yes, actually.
Little Sister: Mind if Ichiro comes with us? We're gonna binge on Featherman R.
Goro smiled.
Me: No, I don't. He's more than welcomed to come along.
Little Sister: Thanks Dad! Love you!
That made it wider. And he couldn't help but text back.
Me: I love you too.
And so he found himself preparing dinner after picking them up to the background noise of their extra guest talking animatedly to not only with his daughter, but also with his son about which series of Featherman he's seen so far, various other topics involving the franchise and comments on the episode of Featherman R they were watching at the moment.
It wasn't long before that canorous cacophony was interrupted by the voice of his wife saying,
"I'm home!"
Which was answered with Hoshiko and Hiroaki respectively saying,
"Welcome back Mom!"
"Welcome home Mother."
Soon followed by Sato-kun.
"Oh, hello Akechi-san. Pardon my intrusion."
"Hey! You're not intruding!" his daughter was quick to say.
He couldn't see his wife from his place in the kitchen, but he heard her as she said,
"As my daughter says, we're welcome to have you. Sato-kun, yes?"
"Ah. Yes."
Goro decided to tune out the conversation as he focused on the soup he was readying, making sure the ingredients and temperature were in order. It was only when he was sure of it that he let it cook and turned to see his wife leaning against the doorway once again, an inquiring look to her eyes paired with an amused smile.
He just smirked as he came close and pecked her cheek.
"Welcome home, my star," he said. "How was your day?"
"Oh, it was fine," she said. "How about yours?"
His smirk got worse. "Fine."
Akira rolled her eyes but still grinned. "You're not going to tell me why Hoshiko's crush is here?"
He raised an eyebrow. "You knew?"
"Mother's intuition," she said.
"Of course it is."
She gave a short laugh. "So? The answer to my question?"
He paused, formulating his words. But in the end, instead of answering with words, he made his way out of the kitchen, Akira close behind and holding his waist, to see his daughter, his son and the track team captain be quiet as an emotional scene of Featherman R played on the television in their living room, Morgana right beside them, watching over from his perch on the couch arms. With that, he returned his wife's hold with his own around her shoulders, leaning his head against hers and said,
"This is why."
Before him in the living room, the three were seated on the couch in front of the television. Hoshiko, despite not knowing him long, was already letting herself sit close and lean against Sato-kun. Not only that, Hiroaki was also comfortable with him, sitting right beside him instead of the usual seat near his sister but away from strangers. And with that, he saw all the tension and rigidity that was in Sato-kun fade away as he decided to take his daughter's silent offer and leaned against her as well.
No doubt he and Akira were mirroring it as she decided to do same as their daughter, using him as support as she held his hand with her free one, a warm and proud smile on her face.
"And here I thought you wouldn't want to act as matchmaker with how much you complained when we were teens," she said, just loud enough for only him to hear.
"You would, wouldn't you? But..."
The quiet of the audience of Featherman R soon disappeared, replaced with shouts and bouncing but with still equally happy expressions as the fight with that episode's villain began.
"...if it makes her smile, that's all the reason I need to do it."
. . .
Happy Father's Day! Yeah, not exactly focused on the relationship between father and child in a more conventional way but it was still about Akechi being a dad (because there seriously aren't enough of these kinds of fics) and how he handles things involving his daughter.