Ritz's Notes: This fic came about when I was trying (and failing miserably) to
write the second part of the fic, "Snaring Shindo." It's just a wee little
ficlet in celebration of everyone's favourite majime na go-player, and I hope
everyone likes it. The only way I can describe this fic is to say that it's
very...fluffy. *sweats* So, uh, if that's not your thing, please feel free to
press that back button on your browser right now. ^^;

Spoilers for manga 15+ (that's anime episode 52-53) and up, though I am setting
this fic about a half a year ahead of the current timeline (chapter 173, as of
Dec. 14, 2002) with Akira turning 16 in this fic. Again, usual disclaimers apply.
Hikaru no Go and its characters belong to Hotta Yumi-sensei, Obata Takeshi-sensei,
Shueisha, and Studio Pierrot. I'm not making any profit off of this fic and a
merely borrowing these characters for the satisfaction of my own hyperactive
imagination. *grin*

The Greatest Gift

"Happy birthday, Akira-kun!" Ichikawa-san exclaimed cheerfully. She set a fork
and a plate containing a slice of a wonderfully frosted, strawberry topped
concoction next to the goban Akira was playing on. "Here, a birthday cake for
you!"

Akira blinked, completely caught off-guard by Ichikawa's sudden gift. "Oh."
Then realizing that he perhaps sounded a little rude, he quickly added, "Thank
you very much, Ichikawa-san. I really appreciate this."

Ichikawa giggled, a finger touched to her lips in a sweetly coy gesture. "Oh,
not at all, Akira-kun. Anything for you."

"..." At first, Akira wasn't too sure how to reply to Ichikawa's somewhat
suggestive-sounding comment before he finally decided that it would be best to
just smile as always, and then quickly change the subject. "The cake looks
delicious, Ichikawa-san. Did you make it yourself?"

Ichikawa giggled again. "Yes, I did. I hope you like it."

"I'm sure I will," Akira said sincerely as he picked the fork up. However, just
when he was about to commence eating, Ichikawa suddenly cried, "Oh, wait a minute,
Akira-kun! I forgot to bring you some coffee to go with the cake. I'll be right
back, okay?" And not waiting for Akira to reply, she dashed off.

Akira found himself blinking again at the suddenness of her departure before
setting his fork down on the table in wait for her return. He had just turned his
attention back to the kifu he had recreated on his goban when Kitajima called out
to him in his usual loud manner, "It's the young teacher's birthday today?"

"Aa," Akira replied, directing his attention from the goban to the older man,
"it is."

"Well, why didn't you tell us then?" Kitajima demanded, looking somewhat offended.
"We could have gotten a present prepared for you if you had let us known earlier."

"..." Akira merely gave Kitajima a somewhat strained smile in reply, a small
drop of sweat threatening to roll down his temple. Just how, Akira wondered, does
one go about telling others of his birthday without appearing conceited? He didn't
even like revealing himself to the Go world that much -a reason why so little people
had actually known what he had looked like before he became a pro- let alone
revealing personal information about himself to the "real" world. Perhaps it was
because of his father's overwhelming fame or perhaps it was a personal character
flaw, but Akira just didn't enjoy being in the spotlight.

Luckily Ichikawa, who had returned with Akira's cup of coffee, saved Akira from
having to actually say anything by stating to Kitajima with a bit of a scowl on her
face, "Kitajima-san, don't put the blame on Akira-kun. It's not /his/ job to tell
you when his birthday is. Instead, shouldn't it be /your/ job, as Akira-kun's fan,
to know what day his birthday is on?"

Akira gave a nervous chuckle at Ichikawa's comment, her words only serving to make
him feel even more uncomfortable than before. "Ichikawa-san," he protested.

Fortunately, or maybe unfortunately for Akira, neither Ichikawa or Kitajima seemed
to hear his protest as Kitajima replied to Ichikawa with a somewhat sulky tone to
his voice, "Well, I still think he should have told us first."

"Akira-kun wouldn't do that," Ichikawa said firmly, "he's too modest of a person
to talk about himself."

"He doesn't need to be modest!" Kitajima protested. "I say the boy has every right
to talk about himself and be proud of himself. He simply /deserves/ to."

"Well, that may be true, but it's just not within Akira-kun's nature to do so!"

"Well, I still say..."

Akira ducked his head as the two continued their banter, wanting to sink into the
floor in embarrassment and just wishing they would stop. Perhaps noticing Akira's
obvious discomfort, Hirose quickly cut into Ichikawa and Kitajima's argument by
asking Akira, "Well, how old is the young teacher this year anyway? Sixteen?
Seventeen?"

Akira smiled at Hirose, grateful for the distraction. "Sixteen," he replied.
"I'm the same age as Shindo."

"Speaking of Shindo-kun, where is he?" Ichikawa wondered out-loud. "It's already
five now and he still hasn't come in yet."

"He won't be coming," Akira said simply. "He told me that he's got some other
things he's got to do today."

"What, he did?!?" Kitajima howled, obviously outraged. "But it's your birthday
today!"

"Kitajima-san!" Ichikawa chided.

"Well, it's true!" Kitajima declared. "I remember the young teacher making a big
deal out of that Shindo's birthday--"

"Kitajima-san, you're over-exaggerating..." Akira tried to interject, but to no avail
as Kitajima continued,

"--and now he doesn't even have the decency to show up for the young teacher's
birthday. What an ungrateful little brat!"

"Perhaps he had a very valid reason for not being able to come, Kitajima-san,"
Hirose said in an attempt to placate the raging Kitajima.

"As well," Ichikawa added, "Akira-kun didn't make as big a deal out of
Shindo-kun's birthday as you make it sound. All he did was give Shindo-kun a
present and some birthday congratulations."

"That's still no excuse," Kitajima declared with a highly self-righteous tone.

"Well, maybe Shindou-kun will give Akira-kun some birthday wishes afterwards,"
Ichikawa said, obviously unwilling to think badly of Shindo. She turned to look
at Akira. "Ne, Akira-kun, what do you think? Shindo-kun will probably wish you
happy birthday later, won't he?"

I highly doubt it, Akira thought to himself. He knew Shindo well enough to know
that the other boy probably completely forgot about his birthday being today. Yet,
Akira didn't find himself feeling upset or offended by this thought. He knew that
he was just a more sentimental person than Shindo was. He, for example, knew that
it had been exactly four years (save for a couple of days) since him and Shindo
had first met; whereas to Shindo, it had simply been "a long time" since they had
first met. What it boiled down to was that their personalities were different
and that they tended to put different emphases on different things. Touya therefore
accepted the boy's forgetfulness of his birthday as such, understanding that it
was simply Hikaru's way.

Yet, Akira knew that he couldn't tell Kitajima this acceptance of his, knowing that
the older man wouldn't understand and would probably think that Akira was just
making excuses for Shindo again. Therefore, Akira merely smiled and said in reply
to Ichikawa's question, "Aa. Probably." And luckily, Akira didn't have to say
anything more as Ashiwara and Ogata had the fortunate timing of showing up at the
Go salon then to wish him a happy birthday.

The Touya home was still brightly lit when Akira's birthday wishers, primarily
Akira's friends from the Touya Meijin study group, took their leave at around
eleven 'o clock. His father had retired for the evening, and Akira was
helping his mother tidy up the drinking glasses left by their guests when the
chime to their outside gate rang.

"Ara," Akiko said in surprise as she stared in the direction of the chime. "I
wonder who would be coming by at such a late hour?"

"It's probably for me, mother," Akira said. "Don't worry about it. I'll go get
it." So saying that, he excused himself and began heading for the door.

"Make sure you wear a coat," Akiko called after him. "It's cold outside."

Akira made a non-committal sound of agreement as he quickly pulled on a coat and
a pair of shoes before heading outside. It was chilly though no snow had fallen
yet, and as Akira walked the path to the outside gate, he decided that he
rather liked the night on a whole. It was cold, true, but there was a crispness
to the air that was refreshing to his senses and Akira breathed deeply,
letting the clean air fill his lungs. Reaching the gate, he carefully unlocked it,
asking as he opened it, "Yes, may I ask who's--" Then he stopped short as he
exclaimed in surprise, "Shindo!"

"Yo Touya," the other boy said in reply, "sure took you long enough. I felt
like I was waiting out here forever." However, the words were said with a small
smile and Akira, knowing that there was no anger or malice in them, said nothing in
reply at first. Not that Akira would really have been able to respond anyway,
as his mind hadn't quite seemed to completely wrap around the idea of
Shindo being at his house just yet. After a long pause where he stuggled to
suppress his shock, Akira finally managed to ask out-loud,

"Shindo, what are you doing here?"

"What does it look like I'm doing, Touya?" Hikaru replied. "I'm here to wish you
a happy birthday, of course!"

"What? A happy birthday? But I was so sure you--" Akira quickly caught himself
before he said the word 'forgot', not knowing if Hikaru would get offended if he
knew what Akira had originally assumed. Landing on another issue, Akira protested,
"But you didn't need to come all the way here for that! You could have just called!"

"But how was I supposed to give you your present if I called, Stupid?" Hikaru
retorted.

"Don't call me 'Stupid'," Akira said automatically before he glanced Hikaru over
quickly, noting that the other boy wasn't holding any packages of any sort. "And
what present are you talking about? I don't see anything." Akira knew his last
comment was rather rude and with anyone else, he wouldn't have dared utter such words.
However, with Hikaru, Akira just felt comfortable enough to be blunt and speak his
mind. Besides, it was not like Hikaru minded as he often dished the same treatment
out on Akira himself.

It was just a certain understanding the two had between each other.

"I do have a present for you!" Hikaru protested. "It's--well... It's--ano..."

"It's--?" Akira prompted, noticing that Hikaru suddenly seemed to have problems
articulating himself.

"It's," and here Hikaru blushed as he finally said a little quietly, "me."

"EHHHHH?!?!" Akira exclaimed in surprise.

"No, no, I didn't mean it that way!" Hikaru quickly protested when he saw
Akira's mouth drop open and a deep red flush stain the paleness of his
cheeks. "I mean, ano, what I mean is that I'm giving you 'me' - the, you
know, the...other 'me'."

Akira immediately knew what Hikaru was talking about. Hikaru was talking about
the other "him" that Akira knew existed within Hikaru, but could not touch.
Hikaru was finally offering to give him the truth, to offer him the key to the
whole mystery behind him. And yet... "You...really?" Akira found himself asked
hesitantly. "But, didn't you tell me that you wouldn't tell me for a very long
time? Sometime," and here he used the exact same phrasing that Hikaru had used
that day, "far in the future?" Akira's voice tapered off at the last word, his
heart pounding as he waited for Hikaru's reply. It wasn't that he didn't want to
know Hikaru's secret - in fact, Akira was eager -had always been eager- to find
out the truth about Hikaru. Yet, he wanted to make sure that Hikaru was telling
him the truth for the right reasons - because he trusted him, and not out of
any misguided sense of obligation or anything.

Thankfully, Akira's fears were assuaged as Hikaru nodded his head in an adamant
affirmative. "Yes, really. I know I said I wouldn't tell you until far in the
future, but you know, I've been thinking about this for a couple of days now,
and well, telling you on your birthday is as good a time as any, and I--" Hikaru
stopped abruptly, feeling like he was losing his train of thought and obviously
feeling too awkward to be able to properly express himself any longer. After a few
seconds of an uncomfortable silence, Hikaru finally said impatiently,
"Well, anyway, if I say I'm ready to tell you, then that means I'm ready to tell
you! So do you want to hear this story or not, Stupid?!"

Despite the rudeness of Hikaru's last sentence, Akira could hear the embarrassed
undertone in the boy's voice and decided to just let the subject drop for now.
Starting off with his familiar, "Don't call me 'Stupid', Shindo," Akira then
gestured toward his house. "Shall we go inside to talk then?"

Akira was glad to note that he had made the right choice in letting the subject
drop as Hikaru visibly relaxed and nodded in agreement. "Aa," Hikaru agreed, flashing
Akira a brilliant smile.

Returning Hikaru's smile with a radiant one of his own, Akira then led the two of
them back to his house, secretly thanking Hikaru in his heart for the greatest
birthday gift he could ever receive.

The gift of Hikaru's trust.

~THE END~

Ritz's Notes: Oh my...I don't think I wrote this very well. Sorry everyone (and
sorry, Akira-kun!), I'll do my best to write a better birthday fic next year. ^^;