The Ocean's Radiance

She had idly daydreamed about reincarnating into her favorite books before but Hikari Kurosawa, Daughter of Apollo, was never supposed to be a character there, was she? SI!OC, Percy x OC

x

(New York, New York)

Chihiro Kurosawa absentmindedly brushed a lock of raven dark hair out of her eyes, as she scanned the gloomy Manhattan street. A scowl worked its way into her face when she once again failed to spot the canary yellow of an available taxi cab. Clutching her violin case closer to her body, the young woman's frown deepened when a few droplets of water landed on her head.

Brilliant. Now she could be cold, tired, late, and wet.

'Don't bother with an umbrella, Chihiro. There's only a 12% chance of rain, Chihiro,' the woman thought petulantly, shifting slightly on her feet to adjust the case better against her body. The leather had been treated to be waterproof but she still hated getting it wet. 'I'm going to shove an umbrella up his- a cab!'

Chihiro nearly stumbled down the slick marble stairs in her haste to get to the car. She didn't think she had ever seen such a beautiful sight in her life! Her feet were barely two steps from the door when a tanned hand that was not her own grabbed the handle.

"Hey! That one is mine!" Steel grey eyes flashed left to the man that had the audacity to steal her ride. "Go find another cab, buddy."

"Sorry but I got here first," the man replied, flashing a sunny smile at her. Had she not been so infuriated now, Chihiro would have definitely given him a second lookover. Slightly wavy blonde hair, bronzed skin, symmetrical features, and startling bright sky blue eyes made a handsome picture.

"I need the cab more than you," she insisted.

"How do you know what I need the cab for?" he countered, "You know, life will pass you by if you keep focusing on the little frustrations that pop up every day. You should smile more."

"Look, I'm running late for a rather important event," she stated, taking in a deep breath, "How about I give you a twenty to take this one…?"

She reached into her jacket to pick out her wallet and then froze. Fingers dug through the thin cloth stubbornly but could only grasp empty air. Her mind helpfully reminded her that she normally kept her wallet in her purse, which was conveniently in her bedroom somewhere. Chihiro wanted to curse.

"Having a problem, ma'am?" The man asked, an infuriatingly cheerful grin still on her face. "Forgot your wallet, perhaps?"

"I-" She gulped, "I don't suppose you have a phone I could borrow? I need to call someone."

"I could do that," the man cocked his head to the side and blue eyes fastened on her violin case, "What do you play?"

"Violin," Chihiro answered impatiently, checking her watch. "I don't mean to be rude sir, but I had to be at Carnegie Hall fifteen minutes ago and I would really appreciate being able to use your cell now."

The man's eyebrows rose. "Are you always this stressed?"

She scowled at him.

He grinned back at her. For a second, it seemed like the entire world had brightened up around her. Then she blinked once and Chihiro was back under a light drizzle by the dusky gloom of the city.

"You know, I was going to attend a concert at Carnegie right now. Would you like to ride with me?"

Chihiro hesitated. On one hand, getting into a cab with a complete and utter stranger seemed reckless. For all she knew, he could be some kind of model-worthy serial killer that would kill her, peel her skin, and eat her organs (or something). On the other, it would take at least half an hour for her father to send a car to pick her up and smiley face umbrellas were inherently unthreatening.

"Okay." The man stepped aside to let her enter the cab first, placing his umbrella over her head in an attempt to save her from more rain. It was futile, since she was already more or less dampened now, but Chihiro did appreciate the gesture. He sat down next, his left knee pressing against her right as he leaned forward to give the driver the address.

'Huh, he's really warm,' the woman observed. "Er, I would like to thank you. For the ride. I'm Chihiro."

"It's nice to meet you, Chihiro," the stranger replied, "I'm Fred."

x

(Kurosawa Residence, Greenwich, Connecticut)

"How could possibly be so reckless Chihiro?!" The older man snapped, "You had the entire world open to you and chose to destroy all of your prospects with this one extraordinarily foolish decision-"

"Father, I'm keeping the baby." However soft and wavering her voice had been, Satoru Kurosawa recoiled at the words.

"Are you thinking, daughter?" Satoru regained his composure quickly, "Your American idiot is well and truly gone and you want to keep his bastard child?"

"Mine too," Chihiro muttered quietly. Her hands shook as she attempted to avoid the furious gaze of her father. Rebellion was not a cloak oft-worn in her home.

"I'm sorry?" Satoru demanded.

"The child is mine too," the dark-haired woman cleared her throat, "Regardless of the circumstances, you're gaining a grandchild."

"No grandchild of mine will be born a bastard," her father denied, "Chihiro, please, you're only twenty! You're not ready to be a mother!"

"Is anyone ready for that?" she asked wryly, "Father, I know that you never approved of Fred…"

Satoru snorted. "I knew he would ruin you and run away from the moment I saw him. Don't say I didn't warn you of that!"

"I know," Chihiro acknowledged. 'And I ignored you because he was charming and funny and had a smile that could light up my entire day.'

"No one else knows about this," Satoru urged, "It's early enough for a non-invasive procedure and then you can complete your education."

"No." Purposefully lose her child? No, no, she could never do that.

"Then give the child up for adoption," Satoru bargained, recognizing the firmness in his daughter's grey eyes, so similar to his own. "I'll send you over to your uncle's until the baby arrives."

"Give the baby up?" Chihiro closed her eyes. Her heart squeezed painfully in her chest. This was her child- Fred's child- and he wanted her to give the baby up? How could she do that?

"No. No, no, no, no." She shook her head rapidly, feeling tears well up in her eyes. "I can't- Father- I won't give my child up."

"Chihiro-"

"No," she looked up and met the man's furious gaze, "I'm sorry, Father. I'm so, so sorry."

x

(Hospital, Greenwich, Connecticut)

Despite knowing that he had begrudgingly accepted her refusal to change her mind, Chihiro was surprised when an elderly Japanese man, with salt-and-pepper hair and a distinguished grey suit entered the maternity ward.

"Father," she greeted, offering a weak smile. Childbirth was nothing to scoff at and the pain had driven her to unconsciousness shortly after the first wail of her newborn pierced the air. The nurses had taken the child away and now she was waiting (impatiently) for them to bring her back.

Not for the first time, she wonder what her and Fred's daughter would look like. Would he have her steel grey eyes or his sky blue ones? Her pale skin or his tanned one? Her too wide nose and constantly furrowed brow or his ridiculously good-looking features? With a shamelessly prettyboy father, Chihiro had hopes for an adorable face to melt her heart.

"Chihiro," Satoru greeted back, eyes softening slightly as he saw how exhausted she was. "Where is the child?"

"I haven't seen her yet," she said, the last word drawing off when the door opened. "Nurse? Is that my daughter?"

Her heart fluttered eagerly when she saw the pale pink blanket and then beat even harder when the woman handed the bundle over to her. She awkwardly held the swaddled infant in her arms; occasionally babysitting her cousins hadn't prepared for this. A tuft of black hair at least answered whether her daughter would beat the odds and be a blonde.

"Beautiful," Chihiro breathed, tugging the blanket away. The face was round, red, and scrunched up into a dissatisfied expression. There were only a few wisps of hair present on nearly bald head and when her eyes opened, they stared at her blankly. "You have your daddy's eyes."

Indeed, her daughter's comically wide-eyed stare was the same brilliant sky blue as Fred's.

"Humph. And thankfully little else," her father commented, stepping closer, "So this is the daughter you're giving up your musical career for."

Her smile became a little more strained. "It'll only be a temporary break, Father."

As though sensing her mother's discomfort, the baby's mouth opened and a tiny wail came out.

"Oh, don't cry!" Chihiro pleaded, euphoria quickly turning into panic, "It's okay, mommy's here, you'll be fine! Are you hungry? Are you cold?"

Satoru watched silently as his only child rocked her arms back and forth in a makeshift cradle to silence the babe. He recalled a similarly frantic gesture during her own birth and tried to swallow back the frustration rising in him. Chihiro was naive to think that she was capable of raising a child of her own, especially without a college education and after being abandoned by that grinning idiot. This was not the life he wanted for his daughter…

"Give her to me," Satoru ordered, not bothering to wait for an answer when he took the child from her arms. He carefully placed the child at the crook of his elbow, while using the other hand to rub her back. 'She doesn't take after her mother. She looks just like Haruka would have had she lived…'

Chihiro couldn't help but smile when she saw her daughter calm down in her father's arms. Maybe the old man would give his granddaughter a chance, after all.

"What do you plan to name her?" Satoru asked.

"Hikari," Chihiro answered, without hesitation, "Because she's going to be as radiant as the sun, just like her dad."

Satoru ignored the comparison as he studied the child that looked very much Chihiro's stillborn elder sister. "Hikari Kurosawa. Welcome to the family."

x

(Kurosawa Residence, Greenwich, Connecticut)

'My daughter is an angel,' Chihiro sighed, relieved to the see Hikari drift off to sleep after receiving being nursed. 'In fact, I don't think babies are supposed to be this quiet and well-behaved…'

Not interested in questioning the miracle of an infant that only cried when she needed to be fed or changed, the dark-haired woman gently placed her daughter on the warm yellow bedspread of her crib. Hikari's room was done in a combination of soft cream, sunshine yellow, and ocean blue, with flying sparrows that her Cousin Akira had hand painted onto the walls. Her furniture was of robust cherry wood, her armoire practically overflowing with assorted baby clothes, and her ignored plush collection filled with stuffed animals of every stripe and continent. The one standing guard over her sleep today was a solemn-looking giraffe sent over from Cousin Noriko's trip abroad.

Hikari had received a mixed reception from her extended family. Most of her younger cousins, especially the ones that had been raised in the UK or America rather than Japan, were tentatively excited about a new addition to the family. Some had been standoffish at first but tended to soften around Hikari's sheer cuteness. The rest were torn between being offended that she had had a child out of wedlock and being offended that she had been abandoned to have a child out of wedlock. For Fred's sake, Chihiro hoped that he would never meet Cousin Ryoku in a boxing ring.

And then, of course, there was her father, who swung between the polar emotions of refusing to acknowledge his bastard granddaughter and bragging about how she was going to grow up to be a brilliant business executive/golfer/swimmer/chemist, just like him one day.

'He's already starting the indoctrination process,' Chihiro considered, smothering her giggles.

If there was one characteristic about her daughter that she would never understand, it was Hikari's penchant for waking up at daybreak. Every. Single. Day. Her Father shared the habit though, and there was more than one morning where the woman would wander down to the kitchen to find the two together. Satoru sitting dignified at the head of the table, newspaper and coffee at hand, while lecturing an owlishly blinking newborn about world affairs was a sight that easily made her smile.

"I'm going to miss that tomorrow, musume," she whispered, leaning forward to press a kiss to Hikari's forehead. Her daughter squirmed but thankfully didn't wake up as Chihiro continued to regard her. It had been almost a year since Hikari was born and her mother was finally going to continue her education. It would be part-time admittedly but the dark-haired woman would still regret missing out on a significant part of her daughter's early years.

"I wonder what Fred would think of us now," Chihiro continued, "I'd like to think that he would be proud of you. Your dad would be even more wrapped around your finger then your grandfather, don't you think?"

One finger lightly brushing her child's cheek, she looked wistfully around the nursery. They had installed near-transparent, gauzy white curtains to the windows since her daughter adored napping in the sun. It was just one of the ways to ensure that Hikari grew up with everything she needed, but there was one thing that Chihiro couldn't offer her and that was a father.

"Still I'm being silly now," the woman said to herself, "Fred is gone and I can't keep wishing for him to come back. Hikari and I have our own lives to live now."

'I'll always love him for giving me this precious little girl,' she acknowledged, 'But it's time I step away from the past and let him go. He's the one that taught me the promise of a new dawn, after all.'