114.

Title: Breadwinner
Rating: G
Pairing/Character/s: Ryuuken, Uryuu
Word Count: 600
Warning/s: Spoilers for um, I guess episode 44 of the anime and I don’t remember what chapter of the manga.
Summary: Ishida Ryuuken has a job to do.
Dedication: My Dad- he works hi ass off too, and I’m grateful for every second of it.
A/N: Okay, so I watched part of episode 44 today and OMG Ryuuken love. There’s something too heartbreakingly sweet about his motives, I think, that I couldn’t help myself in writing something for him. I don’t think it’s a good piece myself, but I think it’s very honest to how touched I felt when I watched the scene between him and young Uryuu, so I don’t want to rework it for any sort of flair or even stylistic coherency. It’s just my spontaneous overflow of emotion at having been moved by that scene, I suppose. So bear with me, okay? I tend to get stupid when I get emotional, and that sequence just made me very emotional. Also, probably the last drabble update in a while, since I'm back home in TX now and this computer doesn't have microsoft word. --;;

---

Today is Uryuu’s middle school graduation ceremony and Ryuuken wonders how his son must look, standing at the top of the class as his school’s number one student, there with his grandfather watching him as tears and laughter are exchanged, as an important part of a young person’s life is commemorated and the children look towards the next step of growing up.

Today is Uryuu’s graduation and Ryuuken wonders how it must be for his son as he sits in his dark office and studies a series of X-rays from one of this morning’s patients. His secretary asks him if he doesn’t want anything to eat as the lunch hour has come and gone, and he tells her not to bother him because the list of patients is long and the work is barely done. He tells her to please just settle the bills for the cases he has already seen to and to make sure the payments are cleared promptly.

Today is his only son’s important day, a once-in-a-lifetime passing from one age of life to another.

Ryuuken sits in his office and pores over forms and charts and numbers and has no regrets for not going.

His father is undoubtedly there with Uryuu, smiling and taking pictures and seeing to the boy’s supplementary needs, as the old man has always been best at attending to.

Ryuuken sits in his office and studies medical tests and documents the appropriate files and consults his specialized sources.

His father will care for Uryuu in his own way, will hug the boy and pat his head and tell him what a wonderful child he is. The forms of affection that Ryuuken has never been particularly good at.

Instead, Ryuuken will work through his hunger and his fatigue and when the bills are paid and there is a roof over his son’s head and food is on the table, he will feel absolutely no regrets.

Because even though he’s not as good as his father at telling Uryuu in so many words, Ryuuken has always cared for his son in his own way too. It’s the only way he knows how.

Today is Ishida Uryuu’s one and only middle school graduation ceremony.

Ishida Ryuuken sits in his office and tends to his patients. He examines charts and graphs and researches symptoms and prescriptions and the latest medical innovations. His stomach rumbles and his eyes ache and he knows he has not slept for over twenty-nine hours now.

He briefly looks at the picture sitting on the corner of his desk and clutches his pen tighter in his tired hand.

He goes back to work.

Today is Ishida Uryuu’s special middle school graduation ceremony.

Ryuuken clenches his teeth and works hard and comes home at the end of the day with a crick in his neck and a headache. He quietly goes up the stairs and peers into his son’s room, where Uryuu is sleeping securely in a warm bed after having a good meal and a hot bath. Ryuuken studies the peaceful expression on his son’s face for a moment in the doorway before he closes it quietly behind him and goes to his own room, where he turns on a light, opens his briefcase, and begins shifting through the files he will need for his many appointments tomorrow.

Today was Ishida Uryuu’s important middle school graduation, and his grandfather was the only one there to see him through it.

Ryuuken sits down at his desk and does his work and has no regrets.

Because he loves Uryuu in his own way too.

END