Beyond the Sound | Yuzuru Hanyu

80.

They planned the return to Japan very carefully.

Somehow, Chiara had convinced Giulia to go to Japan for 2 weeks with the excuse of having some news about Maya that could only be delivered in person.

If there was something that always worked was mentioning Maya's name.

Sure enough, as they prepared everything for the move, the little girl was very confused.

"Mommy, are we going somewhere?" she asked when Maya started taking the bags from the closet.

"Remember that I always said we would go to Japan someday?"

"Yes..."

"That's where we're going."

"Really?!"

Kaiya was more excited than Maya anticipated but then again, this was something that they had been talking about for a really long time.

"Yes, dear. "

Kaiya looked confused about something and Maya had a feeling she could anticipate the conversation that they would have next.

"Mom.. will I meet my dad?"

Gulping, Maya figured that it was probably best to deal with it now rather than later.

"What if I told you that you already did?"

Maybe it wasn't the best way to tell a 5-year-old girl, but she knew how smart her kid was.

"I did?"

"Yes."

"But you didn't tell me."

"I wanted to make sure we could go back. I didn't want you to be sad if we couldn't."

Just at the right time, it was almost as if he was listening to their conversation because Yuzu chose that moment to enter the door.

"Yuzu!!"

"Princess... how are you?"

Realization seemed to settle in Kaiya's brain as she looked back and forth between Maya and Yuzuru.

"Mommy? Is Yuzu my dad?"

Maya could have sworn his eyes doubled in size as he realized what the girl had just asked. They hadn't exactly had the time to think of how they would tell the news to the small girl after dodging the topic for a few days.

Nodding, she didn't anticipate her daughter to come to her and hug her with a strength that seemed almost inhuman for such a small girl.

Yuzuru ended up getting the same treatment a few seconds later and his smile was worth every sacrifice they had made before.

"Baby... you will forgive me for not telling you right away?"

"I'm happy, mom! We can be a family now."

Yuzuru surprised Maya by picking up their daughter from the ground and lifting her in the air before hugging her again.

"You have no idea how happy I am to have you, princess."

This man... he was the epitome of unbelievable with every exchange. Maya knew she had made a good choice before but seeing him with their daughter only proved that further.

She had been right when Kaiya was born, he would be an incredible father, no matter what.

Yuzuru seemed to notice her thoughts as he smiled at her. Placing Kaiya on the ground, Yuzu whispered something in her ear.

"I'm going to kiss Mommy now, ok?"

The little girl just giggled and he didn't waste much time before doing as he said, making Maya's cheeks flush as she realized that Kaiya was watching them.

"Yuzu..." she warned.

"Kai-chan, do you mind if I kiss your mom in front of you?"

"No" she answered right away, making him grin and repeat the gesture.

These two would probably be impossible to handle together and Maya knew she was about to figure out how much.

"Alright... now how about we start packing?"

🎚️

Just two days later, the anticipated trip to Japan came.

Yuzuru barely warned anyone he was going back a couple of days before anticipated. He wanted to be sure that no one knew he wasn't coming back alone.

Not even his mother.

To be quite fair, that was the hardest part.

Yuzu was used to hiding things from people, but he wasn't used to lying to his mother.

And there were no doubts that she barely believed him when they called on the previous day. Yuzu remembered the sentence "You're hiding something from me" very clearly but still chose against replying.

It wasn't a lie if he didn't say anything, was it?

The long trip felt almost foreign to Maya, even if she had done it before.

Kaiya, however, was flying for the first time.

Yuzuru was impressed from the get-go at how well-behaved she was. They flew through ANA, even if his contract with them had long expired, he still chose to support them like they did to him in the past.

It meant that the quality was also good and he wanted to make sure he could give his family everything that he couldn't in the past years, even if it meant splurging some money along the way.

Kaiya seemed to be enjoying everything, especially when they brought food and Maya allowed her to have dessert.

Yuzuru was surprised to see that she had been strict with what their daughter ate. He was usually the one who had the ridiculously controlled meal plan and watched very carefully what he put in his body.

Whether Maya did it on purpose or not, he had a feeling that this was also an attempt to follow what she assumed to be his wishes, even if he wasn't there.

All the small things he started discovering about Kaiya and how life went for them in the past years made him realize that she thought of him more often than he ever expected.

Now, looking at the small girl that he could now call her daughter, Yuzuru was a proud father and there were no doubts that he wanted to be a part of every single part of her life from now on. Whether that was coaching her on the ice or helping her with homework.

There were a lot of small things that he never got to experience, but there were still plenty of memories to make.