Note: Sorry about the title—I couldn't help it lol

I'm labeling this as drama because I've got nothing better and Yato is as overdramatic as always. If I had three slots, I would unironically tag this as family/humor/hurt/comfort. But since I don't, drama it is lol

...Also, I'm sure you can figure out what's going on long before Yato does, poor dear. He tries lol

Part 1

Something was wrong with Yukine. It wasn't that he seemed to be dying (probably) or had lost his mind and started up schizophrenic ramblings or anything like that. If anything, he was being…nice. Too nice.

It started when he let Yato sleep in instead of shaking him awake to get started killing a ridiculous number of ayakashi to fill a guidepost-appointed quota. Yato stayed curled up in bed with one eye open for another half hour, but Yukine never came to bother him and eventually he gave up and started getting ready. When he went downstairs, Yukine didn't call him lazy or whack him.

Instead, the kid handed him breakfast and sat down across from him at the table to watch him with an unusual amount of interest. It was rather uncomfortable, since Yato didn't know why he'd be particularly interesting this morning and was already on edge from his kid's unusually nonaggressive behavior.

Maybe Yukine was just trying to poison him. Yato wasn't sure what the lumpy concoction was supposed to be, but it sure looked like it could be poisonous. He poked at it dubiously with his fork before gathering his nerve and taking a bite. It tasted worse than it looked, like old socks and salt. But he didn't keel over frothing at the mouth, which was a win even if Yukine was still watching him too closely. He supposed it could be a slow-acting poison.

"Daikoku's losing his touch," he muttered, poking at the 'food' some more.

Yukine scowled. "Daikoku didn't make it."

"Did Kofuku get her hands on it? That would explain it."

"…I made it."

Yato blinked at him. He was about to ask when Yukine had learned to cook, but thought better of it when he looked back down at the yellowish mass on his plate. The answer to that was clearly 'no'.

"Tough break, kid," he said sympathetically. "Don't quit your day job."

Yukine opened his mouth and then pressed it shut in a tight line. Yato found this even more disturbing than the sudden interest in cooking. No 'bakagami'? No 'at least one of us has a job'? Since when did Yukine have such restraint?

What if he had gotten possessed or something? Or sustained a traumatic brain injury overnight and forgotten how to sass Yato?

"If you don't like it, toss it," Yukine grumbled instead, crossing his arms over his chest and glaring down at the table. "I'm sure you can find something in the fridge."

Yato stared at him some more, but decided it was probably better not to make the kid feel bad. Especially if he was behaving weirdly because he was out to get Yato. No need to rile him up more.

"It's not so bad," Yato lied. He scooped another bite into his mouth for emphasis and had to fight not to screw his face into a grimace. "My taste buds don't wake up this early anyway."

He was pretty sure there was an opening in there somewhere for a snarky comment, but Yukine let it pass him by. What had started off as disconcerting was starting to get downright frightening.

"It's fine," Yukine said with a sigh. "You can throw it out."

"It's–" Yato broke off to cough discretely as he came across a pocket of salt buried in the mush. His eyes watered, and judging from Yukine's expression, he was a little less than discrete and sounded more like a dying whale. "It's okay," he finished with a wheeze. Yukine winced and frowned down at the table and… Was he pouting? Cute. "So… Since we're getting a late start, does that mean we have a less insane quota of ayakashi to kill today?"

Yukine looked back up, and a weird sort of determination replaced the disappointment on his face. "We aren't hunting ayakashi today."

The fork stopped halfway to Yato's mouth and hovered forgotten in the air, and the god stared at his shinki like he'd grown a second head. Yukine had taken the whole ayakashi hunting thing very seriously since Yato had decided to become a god of fortune, and liked to be a bother about it if he wasn't working in the shop or they didn't get other jobs.

"We aren't?" Yato asked. He leaned forward with a frown and squinted at the kid. "Are you sick?"

Yukine's features twisted in confusion. "What? Of course not."

"If you aren't feeling well, you can just say so. I won't make you work if you're sick, you know."

"I'm not sick!"

"I'm just saying…"

"I'm not!" Yukine's voice dropped to a quiet mumble as his gaze wandered away. "I just…thought we could do something else today."

Yato tried and failed to come up with a reason for the kid's sudden shyness. "Okay…"

"A-anyway, I'm just going to get ready to go out."

Yukine stood up abruptly and hurried for the stairs. Yato stared after him, face scrunched up in confusion. Well, nothing weird about that…

Shaking his head, Yato choked down the last of the suspicious food and tossed his plate in the sink before guzzling half a gallon of water in an attempt to get rid of the aftertaste. Humans were weird, and human children even more so. Every time he thought he was starting to figure them out, they'd do something extra strange just to prove him wrong.

"Good morning, Yato-chan!" Kofuku chirped as she traipsed into the kitchen covered in mud and swinging a watering can back and forth in a wide arc.

Yato barely spared a glance for her head-to-toe mud makeover. "Hey, Kofuku, what's wrong with my kid?"

"Huh?" Kofuku stopped swinging the watering can and blinked at him with wide eyes. "Did something happen to Yukki?"

"I don't know, that's why I'm asking you. He's been really weird all morning. He let me sleep in without waking me up and calling me lazy, he doesn't want to kill ayakashi, he hasn't insulted me once, and he even made breakfast! Something's up with him."

Kofuku's face lit up in a bright smile. "Oh, speaking of breakfast, how was it?"

"Horrible, why?" Yato did a double take and gaped at her. "Don't tell me you liked it?"

She laughed. "Don't be silly, Yato-chan. Daikoku made breakfast for the rest of us earlier. Yukki only made breakfast for you."

He stared at her in horror. "I knew he was trying to poison me! Quick, am I turning weird colors? I think I might be getting dizzy. Maybe we should call an ambulance."

"I don't think Yukki wants to poison you," said Kofuku, her eyes glimmering with amusement.

Yato crossed his arms over his chest with a huff. "Then what is up with him? Do you think the aliens got him?"

"…Aliens?"

"Hear me out! Look, there are tons and tons of planets in the universe, right? The chances that some of them are in the hospitable range for life and have developed some kind of lifeform are pretty much one hundred percent. Out of all those options, at least a few of them must have developed some kind of advanced, intelligent lifeforms, right?

"I've always been pretty skeptical of all the humans saying they saw UFOs or got abducted or are sure aliens are responsible for everything cool on Earth, but what if some kind of advanced alien lifeform did make it here? And targeted Yukine? Maybe they kidnapped him and replaced him with an alien spy! Or are brainwashing him as we speak! We have to rescue him! Do you have any tinfoil lying around? We need to protect his brain!"

Kofuku blinked at him for a few more seconds and then smiled. "Yato-chan has a very active imagination."

Yato scowled. "Then what do you think is going on with him?"

"Hmmm…" Kofuku tilted her head and tapped her finger against her lips thoughtfully, her forehead creasing in thought. Then she shrugged and smiled brightly. "I have no idea!"

"…You are absolutely no help at all."

She pouted. "Don't be mean, Yato-chan."

Yato angled his head towards the doorway as he heard footsteps thump down the stairs. Yukine stuck his head in the room a moment later.

"Are you ready to go?" he asked.

"Go where?" Yato asked suspiciously. "I don't want to visit your mothership."

Yukine stared at him, amber eyes clouded with confusion. "…What?"

Kofuku giggled. "Don't mind Yato-chan. He's having a crisis."

Yukine opened his mouth, closed it again. "I don't want to know," he decided with a shake of his head. "I thought we'd go visit the new capyper store."

"The…what?" Yato forgot the strangeness of the whole situation in the excitement that the word 'capyper' inevitably evoked.

"Huh, and here I thought you must've known about it. You always seem to know everything about them. A store selling exclusive capyper merchandise just opened up across town a couple weeks ago."

"Really? Amazing! The capypers are expanding their influence! They're well on their way to world domination!"

"Seems more like a tacky outlet for greed if you ask me," Yukine muttered under his breath, rolling his eyes. "Milking the franchise for all it's worth."

"Ooh, let me just call Hiyori! This will be awesome!"

"Hiyori isn't coming. She's busy today."

Yato pouted. That put a slight damper on his excitement. "That's lame."

"Sorry. It's just you and me today."

"Ooh, I'll come with you!" Kofuku chirped.

"No!" Yato and Yukine said together.

"You can't bring your aura into the capypers' sacred ground!" Yato said, horrified. "What if you ruin their store? Don't think I've forgotten how you wrecked Capyper Land last time!" Then he paused and turned to Yukine with a frown. "Wait, why don't you want her to come?"

Yukine opened his mouth, hesitated, turned a strange shade of red, and looked down at his feet. "Same reason," he mumbled.

Yato eyed him suspiciously. Something was up with that kid.

"Everyone's so mean to meee!" Kofuku pouted and tromped back out to the garden, leaving a trail of muddy footprints in her wake.

Yato stared Yukine down and crossed his arms. "But you don't even like capypers."

"No, but you do," Yukine muttered. He turned on his heel and headed for the door, eyes still fixed on the ground. "Let's go."

Yato hesitated, wondering if this was some kind of elaborate trap, but his eagerness to see the newest addition to his precious capypers' empire won out and he trailed after Yukine.

"Are you sure you're feeling alright?" he asked casually as they wove through the crowds of oblivious humans clogging the street.

"Huh? Of course. Why do you keep asking that?"

"No reason. So you haven't been having any weird dreams of, like, getting abducted by aliens or anything?"

Yukine finally dragged his gaze from the ground to stare at the god, his face all scrunched up. "What?"

"Just asking," Yato muttered. Maybe not aliens, then.

Yukine shook his head and mumbled something under his breath, but made no further comment. Which was suspicious in and of itself. Normally he would have taken at least half a dozen jabs by this point in the day, and Yato had given him plenty of perfect opportunities. And he had resisted them all.

Yato wasn't even sensing anything too weird from him. Just a little bit of nerves and uncertainty. If he was planning to lure Yato out for some kind of punishment to get him back for all his obnoxiousness, he was doing an awfully good job of keeping his emotions in check to hide it.

Yato tried a few more casual probing questions along the way, but nothing got a rise out of Yukine or shed any light on the mystery. He was still at a total loss when they found themselves standing in front of a huge store sprawled across half the shopping district. A sign blaring bright yellow and red trumpeted the presence of capypers, and Yato was wriggling with excitement even before they set foot inside the store and were plunged into a capyper wonderland.

Shelves stretched as far as the eye could see, filled to bursting with all different kinds of capypers. There were capyper mugs, capyper pens, capyper toys and dolls, capyper books, capyper keychains, about eight hundred different capyper t-shirts, and a wide variety of other merchandise with capypers plastered across them.

Yato's mouth dropped open. "Amazing!"

"Yeah, yeah. Here."

Yukine shoved a wad of bills at Yato, whose entire face wrinkled in confusion.

"What's this?"

"Money," Yukine said dryly. He shoved his hands into his pockets and toed at the ground. "Just buy your capyper stuff so we can go."

Someone had cut a circuit somewhere in Yato's brain, and now his thoughts were running in a loop, unable to bridge the gap. Yukine was far more likely to complain about Yato swiping his hard-earned money than hand it over to the god voluntarily.

"But why?" Yato asked helplessly. Then all the broken thoughts in his head crystallized into one conclusion blinding in its clarity. "Are you trying to bribe me?"

"What? Of course not!"

"Then why are you giving me money to spend on capypers?"

Yukine hunched his shoulders and went back to scrubbing at the tile with the sole of his shoe. "You're going to get all upset if you can't buy anything, right?"

Yato considered that, his brows scrunching together in thought. "You're bribing me to be less annoying and not complain?"

"…Something like that."

Yato supposed that made a sort of counterintuitive sense. Usually Yukine would just let Yato whine and then whine about his whining, but if he wasn't in the mood to deal with it, he might look for a way to forestall it. Although in that case, the smarter thing to do would have been to not suggest coming here in the first place.

The whole thing was starting to make Yato's head hurt. In the interest of avoiding a migraine, he metaphorically threw his hands up and decided to ignore the problem. Yukine would snap out of his funk sooner or later, and Yato could bask in the glory of capypers to his heart's content in the meantime.

He explored every inch of the store and touched everything he could get his hands on. He dragged Yukine up and down the aisles, bombarding him with cheerful chatter the whole time as they ducked around crowds of rambunctious children crying to their parents to buy them toys.

Yukine did not call Yato a child for his excitement. He did not complain that Yato was embarrassing him by touching everything. He did not tell Yato to shut up or call him an idiot. He did not wander off in a huff or slink away to wait outside. He did not whine about Yato's laziness when the god handed him armfuls of things to carry for him. He did not complain about how long Yato was taking. He did not get annoyed when Yato said he'd buy him a matching capyper shirt. He did not make fun of Yato's math skills or moan when the god deliberately pushed their total a few yen above his spending limit, only forked over the extra cash without comment.

It was very distracting. How was Yato supposed to really enjoy himself when something was clearly wrong with his kid? Where were the snippy remarks and complaints and sass? No matter how Yato poked and prodded and tried to bait Yukine, the shinki didn't crack. If this was a game, Yukine was winning.

In desperation, Yato dug the extra shirt out of the bags as soon as they left the store and handed it to Yukine, insisting in a loud voice that he put it on. The kid stared at it like it had just crawled out of a sewer, and for a blessed moment Yato thought they were finally getting somewhere. Yukine would never agree to wear something with a giant capyper plastered on the front. All would be right with the world again.

But Yukine did not say, 'I'd rather be dead than caught wearing that trash.'

Instead he said, "Fine."

Yato gaped, goggle-eyed, as Yukine pulled the t-shirt on over his shirt without another word. Only the tight set of his lips betrayed his displeasure. Another piece of Yato's brain melted into mush.

What.

What?

What?

Aliens! Possession! Changeling! Brain damage!

Something was all kinds of wrong with the kid.

"Let's go," Yukine grumbled, picking up the bag he'd set down and starting off down the street.

Yato trailed after him forlornly, his mind racing from one possibility to the next. He wanted his kid back. Okay, maybe he sometimes thought it would be cool if Yukine was a little nicer to him, but not like this! Oh no, what if he had somehow messed the kid up by wishing something like that? They always warned you to be careful what you wished for.

"I'm going to tell you a secret," Yato blurted out.

Yukine looked over with a frown and tilted his head. "What?"

Yato made a show of looking around, stepping away from a cluster of people passing them going in the opposite direction and leaning in as he lowered his voice. "Capypers aren't real."

Yukine stopped right in the middle of the sidewalk, his eyes widening to twice their normal size. "What?"

"Surprise?"

"I know they aren't real," Yukine said impatiently. "But since when do you?"

"Oh, I figured it out years ago," Yato said cheerfully.

"But–but–but– Why do you act like you think they are, then?"

Yato beamed. "Because you look at me funny and Hiyori keeps making you shut up to protect my pure, innocent belief."

"You…" If possible, Yukine's eyes widened even further. "Why did you just spend all my money on capyper junk if you know they aren't real?"

"Because capypers are amazing! Duh!"

Yukine's mouth hung halfway open for a long moment, but then a strange little half-smile twisted his lips as he turned away and started walking again. "You're really something else."

"Thanks? I think?"

And that was it. Yato silently despaired. He had been so sure that at least that would get a 'bakagami'. He trailed after Yukine miserably, wondering what he could possibly do to get his kid back to normal when all his trump cards had failed.

They were ambling down the next street over when they happened past a street artist and Yato did a double take and backtracked a couple steps to get a closer look at the sketch pad.

"Heeey! He's doing caricatures!"

He cackled loudly as the artist put the finishing touches on the bobble-headed representation of the lady posing a few steps away. Yukine drifted back to see what had caught the god's interest and raised an eyebrow.

"Seems…fun."

Yato eyed him with interest. "Reaaally?"

He was pretty sure that was not an entirely genuine sentiment, but he could work with it. Anyway, he was a master of pretending not to notice tones like that so that he could take silly things seriously.

As if fate was smiling down on him, the artist handed the lady her goofy portrait and announced that he was taking a break to grab lunch. Yato slid onto his abandoned stool almost the second he slid off and wandered away.

"Stand over there!"

"Why?" Yukine shook his head. "Yato, maybe you shouldn't…"

"Oh, it's fine!"

Yukine hesitated but then sighed and backed away a few steps in acquiescence instead of continuing to complain like he normally would. It took Yato all of thirty seconds to snatch up the discarded pencil and sketch Yukine on the notepad in a whirlwind of dramatic flourishes.

"Ta-da!"

"I have no idea how you always draw so fast," Yukine muttered as he slunk back and peered over Yato's shoulder. His eye twitched.

"Horrible, isn't it?" Yato asked in delight.

Bobble-headed Yukine was dressed as a capyper and had Kazuma's training scribbles doodled all over his face. It was everything Yukine found embarrassing.

"It's…nice," the kid said with an awkward cough.

"Oh…" Yato frowned at the picture in disappointment. "Really?"

Yukine eyed him sidelong in some strange mix of curiosity and bewilderment. "To be honest, your normal drawings are way better, though."

That still wasn't an insult, but at least it was a little bit of an improvement. Yato ripped the page out and crumpled it into a ball. He knew Yukine by heart, every proportion and expression and mood. It took only a few steady lines to ink him on paper with the bright smile Yato liked best. For good measure, he added Hiyori beside him with her laughing eyes and gentle smile.

"You should add yourself too," Yukine said.

"Oh? You think so?"

"Yeah."

"Hm…" Yato considered the drawing for a few seconds and then added himself behind Yukine and Hiyori, his arms draped over their shoulders.

"Yeah… That looks about right." Yukine's lips curved upwards just a little bit, and Yato eyed him curiously. "Can I…? Can I keep it?"

"Sure? If you want."

Yato tore the page out and handed it to Yukine, who stared down at it with a funny expression. What business did he have being all shy and weirdly nostalgic?

"You draw really well," Yukine said. Normally Yato wouldn't consider such a blatantly obvious fact a compliment, but it meant something coming from Yukine since he didn't normally bother. It only weirded Yato out more. "How do you even do that? You make it look so easy."

"Uh… I dunno. I have centuries of experience. You pick things up." Yato shifted uncomfortably on the stool. He didn't understand what Yukine was getting at. "I mean, I could show you the basics."

"Really?" Yukine looked up and met Yato's eyes. His own eyes were large, like those cute baby animals in the photos, and much softer than usual with some strange sort of…shy hope, maybe.

"Yes?" Yato had never thought Yukine was all that interested in drawing before, but he was willing to try anything to snap the kid out of his weird mood. He slid to the very edge of the stool so that he was really barely on it at all and had to prop himself up with his foot braced against the ground. "Come here."

Yukine hesitated but sat down, warm and solid against the god's side. Yato started off awkward and stilted, both because his kid was still weirding him out and because he wasn't used to teaching anything artsy, but eventually he hit his stride. He actually enjoyed art more than his cavalier attitude might suggest, and he could feel his excitement building in the air like electricity as he waved his hands around and rambled about references and media and proportions and technique.

Yukine watched with rapt attention as Yato drew examples and handed the pencil over for practice and then suggested improvements. Yato wasn't used to having this kind of undivided attention, not even from his kid. Yukine wasn't always interested in getting lessons from Yato, and would even ignore the god's math advice in favor of waiting to ask Hiyori. Despite the fact that Yato knew way more math than Hiyori! Did these kids think he'd lived under a rock for a millennium? Honestly.

It was sort of…nice. Not even the attention, exactly, because he could get attention lots of ways, mostly by making a nuisance of himself. Just… It felt nice that Yukine was taking an interest in something Yato cared about and was looking up to him as some kind of teacher or role model or…something. Yato didn't mind that Yukine talked down to him half the time and would rather sass than anything, but this was a nice kind of different for a change of pace.

"Hey!" someone said from behind them. "What the…?"

Yato jerked around so fast that he almost lost his already precarious balance and face-planted into the ground. The artist whose supplies they were borrowing had just returned from lunch and was staring open-mouthed. Yato didn't stick around to find out what he was seeing. He snatched up the bag of capyper goodies from the ground, grabbed Yukine's wrist, and dragged his kid off down the street. He was laughing so hard he could barely breathe, and Yukine was laughing breathlessly beside him as they ducked around the corner. They stumbled to a stop, looked at each other, and started laughing harder.

Yato beamed. Yukine was still being weird, but now it felt like they were sharing something and having a good time together instead of…whatever that had been earlier.

"Poor guy!" Yukine chortled.

"He was asking for it! Who just leaves their stuff sitting around on the street while they go eat?" Yato's grin faded to something smaller but no less fond. "You know… If you ever want to know something or learn something or whatever…you can just ask."

Yukine turned pink and ducked his head and toed at the ground. "Okay," he mumbled. He darted a glance up from beneath his lashes. "You…really like drawing, don't you? Your whole face lights up."

Yato scratched the back of his head and laughed awkwardly. "Yeah, I guess so."

Yukine smiled a little and started walking again. "You should do it more."

Yato puffed his cheeks out and followed. What was he supposed to do with this kid?

Things quickly took a turn again when Yukine insisted they stop to eat lunch and paid for it without comment and still didn't throw out even the tiniest insult. It was back to that too-nice thing again.

Yato wondered if he could turn in for the night a few hours early. Maybe things would be back to normal when he woke up again.

It was already late afternoon by the time they headed back home, and Yukine still hadn't slipped up. Yato never thought he'd miss insults so much.

"Welcome home!" Hiyori said brightly, sticking her head out of the kitchen when they walked inside.

"Hiyori?" Yukine asked. "I thought you were hanging out with your dad?"

"I was," she agreed. "But there was an emergency call and he had to go in to the hospital. I thought I'd hang out here for a little while. I was going to work on my homework, but I've been cleaning the kitchen instead. Kofuku's out in the garden and she keeps tracking in mud. I have no idea how she does it, but it even got all the way up on the cabinets and the ceiling!"

"That sucks," Yukine said.

"It's alright. He'll be back for dinner later."

"Leave it to me!" Yato said with a grin, rolling up his sleeves. "I'm a cleaning expert!"

Yukine scowled over at him. "Not today."

Yato peered at him uncertainly. "Why not?"

"Just…leave it alone."

"I already cleaned it all up," Hiyori said. She smiled fondly at Yukine, who huffed and looked away.

Yato looked between the two of them, wondering if maybe there was some kind of conspiracy afoot, but then shrugged it off. It was hardly the weirdest thing to have happened today.

"We went to this really cool new capyper store!" he told Hiyori. "I wanted to invite you, but Yukine said you were busy."

She turned her smile on him. "Sounds like fun. What did you get?"

"Let's go upstairs and I'll show you!"

Yukine started for the stairs before the words had even left Yato's mouth. Maybe the bag he'd been stuck carrying around had finally worn him out.

"Okay," Hiyori said as she followed them.

Yato cast a look at Yukine's retreating back and slowed his steps a little as he climbed the stairs. "Hey, I need your help. Do you know what's wrong with Yukine?" he asked in a quieter voice.

Hiyori frowned. "Wrong?"

"Yeah. He's been weird all day. He let me sleep in and made breakfast and wanted to go to the capyper store instead of killing ayakashi and paid for everything without complaining and hasn't insulted me all day! He hasn't called me 'bakagami' once!"

She laughed. "He's just being nice, Yato."

"Nice? Yukine? No way!"

Yukine turned back as the stragglers trudged into the room and glared at Yato. "I can be nice."

"Not to me!"

"Of course I can!"

"Not for more than five seconds!"

Yukine frowned as he mulled that over. "…You really think so?"

Yato appealed to Hiyori, pleading with her with his eyes. "Come on, do you know? It's been driving me crazy all day! What if he's possessed? Or hit his head and forgot how to sass me? Is he mad at me? Or…" His eyes widened. "What if it's like when someone's really nice to you before breaking really bad news? What doesn't he want to tell me? What if he wants to leave or something?"

That last one hit him hard as it left his mouth, and his stomach clenched up in knots. He could fight aliens (probably) or try to cheer his kid up if something was wrong, but what if–?

"Whoa, whoa, calm down!" Hiyori said quickly. "You're way overthinking things. Do you know what today is?"

Yato stared at her. "Sunday?"

"No."

"It's…not?"

"Well, it is," Hiyori conceded, "but do you know what else it is?"

"…No?"

She shook her head but smiled at him. "It's Father's Day, Yato," she said gently.

The knots in his stomach that had just begun to ease twisted up again all at once until he thought he might throw up.

"Shhh, Hiyori!" Yukine hissed. "I was counting on him being too dense to figure it out!"

Hiyori laughed. "It's cute! With all he treats you as his kid, it's cute how every once in a while you treat him like a father."

Yato barely registered how Yukine's face had turned as red as a tomato. The bag slipped from his nerveless fingers and hit the floor with a loud thump.

Hiyori looked over, and her smile disappeared as she noticed his stricken expression. "Yato? What's wrong?"

The world tilted strangely, and Yato looked down at his hands to see that they were shaking.

"Fa…ther?" he repeated, his tongue thick in his mouth. The word rasped along his throat like sandpaper and tasted like ashes on his tongue. "I know I mess things up sometimes… I know that I can be annoying and not always a great person, but…

"But I don't punish you or hurt your friends or make you kill anyone or sic ayakashi on you or force you to follow orders or say you can't have friends or threaten you, so…why…?" His voice wavered and his hands blurred as unshed tears filmed his eyes. "Am I really that bad?"

He had tried so hard—so hard—so how had he screwed it up that badly?

"What?" Yukine's voice took on a panicked edge. "No, no, it's not–"

Yato didn't realize he was moving until his foot caught on the edge of a step and he went tumbling down the stairs, banging what felt like every inch of his body into the hard wood on the way down. The hard edge of a step dug into his back as he slid to a rocky stop just above the ground floor, limbs splayed awkwardly. A sharp ache radiated from the back of his head, and he blinked owlishly at Kofuku and Daikoku as they leaned over him. They seemed to waver strangely, but then so did the rest of the world.

"Are you okay?" Daikoku asked. It sounded a little like he was talking underwater. "Be careful!"

"What's wrong, Yato-chan?" asked Kofuku, her eyes big.

Yato blinked at them some more.

"Yato, wait!" Yukine called. Yato dropped his head back to thunk against the step above him. An upside-down Yukine was at the top of the stairs. Wood creaked as he drew closer. "I didn't mean–!"

It was too much. Everyone was converging on him at once, pressing too close until he felt like he was suffocating, and the whole world felt strange and his insides were all twisted into painful knots and he just needed to get out of there now.

He grasped for somewhere, anywhere, preferably somewhere his friends didn't know. He snatched at the first place that came to mind and threw himself through time and space, blinking out of existence and materializing just as quickly in a heap on the hard concrete cities away.

Note: Aw lol Yay for misunderstandings! Yato is quick to call Yukine his kid, but sometimes I headcanon that it's hard for him to conceptualize himself as a father or anything like it because of, well, his own father. And I just wanted a fic where Yukine finally sucked it up and acknowledged it and things did not go as expected because Yato totally freaked out XD

It's okay, they'll figure things out lol

This was actually a one-shot until an hour ago, when I arbitrarily decided to split it into two parts. Sorry X)

(Also, these two are way too adorable. And Kofuku will never not crack me up. I'm also half-convinced that Yato is hardcore trolling everyone with the capypers XD)