{"id":7612,"date":"2013-07-06T19:41:00","date_gmt":"2013-07-06T19:41:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/archive.gabapple.com\/tumblr\/whiteknighthakuba\/index.php\/2013\/07\/06\/hate-date-in-osaka-6\/"},"modified":"2013-07-06T19:41:00","modified_gmt":"2013-07-06T19:41:00","slug":"hate-date-in-osaka-6","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/archive.gabapple.com\/tumblr\/whiteknighthakuba\/index.php\/2013\/07\/06\/hate-date-in-osaka-6\/","title":{"rendered":"Hate Date in Osaka"},"content":{"rendered":"

meitanteiosaka<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

\"image\"<\/p>\n

The apology really went further to raising Heiji\u2019s spirits, as well as noticing Hakuba enjoying his meal. \u201cSee? I told you the okonomiyaki here was the best!“<\/p>\n

He took a few more bites himself, listening to Hakuba\u2019s complaints, and he couldn\u2019t help but chuckle. \u201cYeah, Oton used to scold me so much for being \u2018troublesome,\u2019” he replied, unable to keep from slipping the Osakan title in. \u201c\u2018Oni Heizo and his rambunctious son,\u2019 they said. I think some of them still do, actually.“ He tapped his fingers against his chin before shrugging, resuming the meal and conversation. \u201cHe kept saying my actions reflected poorly on him, and I tried so hard to make him proud by acting how I was expected<\/em> to. \u2018The Superintendent Supervisor\u2019s son is such a respectable man,\u2019” he recited with a bit more bitterness than he intended. \u201c\u2018Look at how quiet<\/em> and polite<\/em> he is.\u2019 It got tiring. Quickly. They all saw me as his son<\/em>, and didn\u2019t see me for me<\/em>. No one respected me, and so many tried to use me. And Oton thought that was fine.“ Or he hadn\u2019t noticed, but Heiji still felt bitter about the whole ordeal and wanted to blame someone. He stabbed at his next bite with a bit more force than necessary. Why did he feel the need to tell Hakuba all this? Even Kudo didn\u2019t know this about him. But then, Kudo had pretty much already escaped from his father\u2019s shadow and didn\u2019t need this lesson.<\/p>\n

"I can\u2019t pretend to be someone I\u2019m not, and the stress of it kept,” he paused for a moment to search for the right word, \u201caccumulating. I blew up in his face, in public, and left to take my temper out on some\u2026thing else. Wound up in the hospital because of it.“ He turned to face Hakuba, smirking slightly, though it was directed inward. \u201cHe thought I was asleep, but I heard him. He\u2019s proud of me because I\u2019m his son<\/em>, not because of how I act. People still talk, you think I don\u2019t know that? But that doesn\u2019t matter. If they don\u2019t respect either of us, they don\u2019t deserve any respect in return. And even though Oton still tries to control me, I know he\u2019s doing it to protect me, not because he cares about what others think. Though it\u2019s really<\/em> annoyin\u2019 an\u2019 I wish he\u2019d jus\u2019 stop<\/em>,” he grumbled, slipping back into Osaka-ben. \u201cI\u2019m a grown man, dammit, I don\u2019 need him ta protect me.“ Heiji shook his head, switching back to English. \u201cThe point is, he\u2019s your dad, isn\u2019t he? Then he shouldn\u2019t care how you act as long as you\u2019re<\/em> happy. If he does, then he doesn\u2019t deserve any of the respect he has. And I don\u2019t think a Superintendent General got to where he is without deserving <\/em>respect.” Unless there were bribes involved, but he didn\u2019t want to mention that; it\u2019d anger Hakuba and everything he\u2019d just said would be for naught. Plus, Heiji\u2019d met the man, and he didn\u2019t think there was a corrupt bone in his body.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\"image\"<\/p>\n

Hakuba ate while listening to Heiji, taking mental notes on the things he said, how he said them, potential motivations for such, and so on. It was invaluable information, especially as Hattori seemed reasonably passionate and happy to be discussing this particular topic. This would help him understand the Osakan, and potentially in a much more positive light, even that, yes, he was being indulged with the English. And it was appreciated.\u00a0<\/p>\n

From what he gathered, it was clear that Hattori and himself had a lot of the same problems, but went about trying to solve the matters in entirely different ways. While Heiji and his father fought, Hakuba and his father got along reasonably well (except for the occasional awkward ignoring of elephants). Conversely, Hattori seemed to have a lot of freedom of expression and the approval\/friendship of many, while Hakuba had fans and colleagues, but none who knew who he was. Not really. Just a puppet, a mask that looked good and honored the Hakuba name –\u00a0despite<\/em> the mixed heritage.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But which was the better choice? Hakuba settled on ‘neither’ with a side of ‘best to err on the side of caution,’ as always. Hattori’s outlook, while understandable, was immature and spoke blatantly about his age. But, that said, Heiji was a teenage boy – the son of a man in power, held to high standards and high pressure. It made sense. But it was still immature.<\/p>\n

Hakuba sighed. “My father cares deeply about my happiness, and I’m relatively certain that he believes that I am. It’s not his fault that I don’t tell him a great deal about my life. He’s a very busy man, and I’d hate to burden him so. But the responsibility of my happiness rests on my shoulders, not on anyone else’s, and I can’t bring myself to ‘act out’ to feel better at the expense of others.”<\/p>\n

They were going around in circles. The half-brit pursed his lips, thoughtfully. “Not that I don’t appreciate your advice, Hattori-san, and I’d be lying if I said that I wasn’t at least a little bit envious of your freedom.” He took another bite, chewed, swallowed. “…And yes, to answer your question, this is wonderful. Thank you for the suggestion.”<\/p>\n

He briefly wondered if speaking English so blatantly in the restaurant was a good idea, but at least it had stopped them from fighting. For the moment.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

meitanteiosaka: The apology really went further to raising Heiji\u2019s spirits, as well as noticing Hakuba enjoying his meal. \u201cSee? I told you the okonomiyaki here was the best!“ He took a few more bites himself, listening to Hakuba\u2019s complaints, and he couldn\u2019t help but chuckle. \u201cYeah, Oton used to scold me so much for being […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[6421,76,556,75],"class_list":["post-7612","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-hate-date-in-osaka","tag-ic","tag-meitanteiosaka","tag-rp"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/archive.gabapple.com\/tumblr\/whiteknighthakuba\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7612","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/archive.gabapple.com\/tumblr\/whiteknighthakuba\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/archive.gabapple.com\/tumblr\/whiteknighthakuba\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/archive.gabapple.com\/tumblr\/whiteknighthakuba\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/archive.gabapple.com\/tumblr\/whiteknighthakuba\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7612"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/archive.gabapple.com\/tumblr\/whiteknighthakuba\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7612\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/archive.gabapple.com\/tumblr\/whiteknighthakuba\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7612"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/archive.gabapple.com\/tumblr\/whiteknighthakuba\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7612"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/archive.gabapple.com\/tumblr\/whiteknighthakuba\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7612"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}