7Absence
"Hey, Sora-chan." He whispered to the baby sleeping in the crib. "It's your Dad… I'm going to be away for a while." The man continued. "I took a job in Kyoto. I had to… when you grow up…"
What was he going to say? That she would understand when she was older? But he did not understand it himself. He already had a good position in the University of Tokyo, the city where his wife taught Ikebana, a place where he had lived for so long and where he had made happy memories.
But all those happy memories had been tainted blue. A dark blue that dragged the world down and suffocated everything. If he stayed in that place, if he stayed in that University, all remaining life would be sucked from him.
He let a tear escape as he understood how everything would never be the same. Tokyo would no longer be the place where he fell in love or the place where he became a father.
It was now the place where she died. Everywhere he glanced, he would not notice anything but her absence. He could not bear to look at anything that reminded him of her. Every memory of her smile was a stab in his heart.
"Your father is a coward, Sora-chan." He confessed.
"Don't say that." His wife's gentle voice said behind him. As he felt Toshiko's hand squeezing his right shoulder in a comforting way, the man could feel guilt piercing his insides.
"I'm abandoning you two, Toshiko-san." His voice was so low that he wondered if his wife could hear him.
"Don't be silly, Haruhiko-san." Toshiko reprehended in a calm voice. "We're not the first couple to live apart because of each other's jobs. You're going to visit us and we will visit you."
"You know why I'm running away." Haruhiko cut her off. "Please, don't act as if it's anything more than cowardice."
"It's not cowardice to run to save yourself." Toshiko told him.
"I'm abandoning my own blood… I'm abandoning you…" He searched for her hand on his shoulder and squeezed it. Toshiko was so warm. Or was he the one who was cold?
"Don't underestimate mothers, Haruhiko-san." She told him. "It takes more than your absence to break one's spirit."
The man felt her hand tremble. Why did she always have to be the strong one?
"Take care of yourself, my love." Toshiko added. "We're going to be fine."
That night, when he left, Haruhiko kissed his wife and made her promise to call him whenever she needed. The man should know that she would not do it. He insisted in going to the train station alone, carrying a suitcase. The rest of his belongings would go to his new apartment later.
He looked up at the night sky. There was no sign of clouds.
No rain to comfort him.
This story is for the drabblechap competition of the Forum Digimon Fanfiction challenges.
