Summer at Dawn // DnA

Beginnings

Kataoka Tesshin never meant to become a father. He was young; in his first few years of college, completely focused on playing baseball as he had for years. But then, he had met your mother.

She had a class or two with him, and eventually, they were put in a group project together. Even after the project was done and over, they had become closer. They started talking outside of school and had gone on a few dates, though they weren't in a necessarily "exclusive" relationship. She was a pretty foreign girl, and he thought it would be an easy, carefree relationship, and he would hopefully be able to relieve a little stress from time to time.

But, of course, nothing is ever that easy, is it?

It had come as a complete surprise - they had been so, so careful so that this wouldn't be able to happen. But perhaps they had forgotten that one time, but there was no reason to dwell on that now.

She was pregnant, with you.

Your father couldn't believe it. It's not like he was mad or anything, he knew she was no more responsible than he was. He was just so shocked, and to be honest, extremely terrified. He was barely twenty, and he wasn't sure he would be able to handle the responsibility of a child while he was trying to play baseball.

When he brought this up to her, she was surprisingly understanding and forgiving when he stated that he didn't think he would be able to handle this. Her only condition was that she still wanted to be in touch with him, just in case, but he wouldn't necessarily have to actually act as a father.

And so, seven and a half months later, you were born.

Tesshin, at the request of your mother, had been there after she had given birth, and he met you for the first time. Like most (or to be honest, all) newborn babies, you were pretty ugly. Because he didn't want to be a parent, he didn't feel any sort of connection to you, really. You seemed like every other baby he had seen in his life. It was then that your mother spoke.

"I like the name (y/n). What do you think?" she asked. He paused for a moment before answering with a nod. It was a nice name, and it wasn't as if he really had any right to say whether or not you could be named this or that. Though he wasn't present for your actual birth, he still signed the birth certificate and acknowledged his paternity. Just in case, your mother had said once again.

He hadn't held you at all, and felt no desire to do so. He went back to his dorm at Meidai, and you were promptly placed into the back of his mind.

Years passed, and he saw you from time to time, and to his knowledge, you had never been informed as to who this seemingly random man that visited you from time to time was. Your mother had also never married in the seven years she had had you, and her family was back in her home country, so it was just you and her, going through life together.

------

You were young, probably six or seven when she died.

It was something that nobody had seen coming. She seemed perfectly fine to you and everyone she knew, but you would find out years later that when you were put into daycare every once in a while, she had probably been going to see a doctor. But you were young, and obviously didn't think anything of it.

Then the problem of where you were going to be placed came up. You could go back to your mother's home country and live with her family, but you had never met them, and moving somewhere so different when you were young was seen as something that would have been unnecessarily stressful, and so you were ultimately put into your fathers care.

You recognized him, of course, and then it was finally revealed that he was your father, and you connected the dots in your head and, oh, that's why he was around sometimes.