On Thursdays, Kigai Yuuto ate lunch out.

Every other day of the week, he enjoyed a sedate meal of excellent food and intelligent conversation in the basement of the Municipal Government Building. Generally his companions were Kanoe and Satsuki, but occasionally Monou-kun would join them.

On Thursdays, however, he left them to themselves. He packed a lunch of leftovers from the Wednesday dinner, and he went to the park.

This park was like most others in Tokyo, excellently maintained, with fruit trees and shady paths for the teenagers to get lost on. Old men played chess and backgammon at tables.

The only really extraordinary thing about the park was the fountain.

It was built in the Italian fashion, of weighty, green-veined marble, and its centerpiece was a Western angel, undoubtedly copied from Michelangelo or Botticelli.

It was, artistically speaking, hideous, and particularly inappropriate given the classically Asian design of the rest of the park.

It had been his mother's favorite place in all of Tokyo, and she always had waited for him there, on Thursdays.

He thought that it was at least one tradition he should keep alive.

***

Kigai Reijiro's involvement in his son's life was limited to paying the tuition at CLAMP School, where Yuuto excelled at nothing in particular, preferring to perform just well enough to be overlooked by his teachers and his father alike.

His father was pleased with this arrangement; it left him with maximum time to devote to his work while still having nothing to complain about in regards to his eldest's schoolwork.

Reijiro left all other aspects of his son's development to his wife, Momoko.

Momoko was beautiful, and people often wondered how such a lovely lady had married such an unexceptional salariman. She had golden blond hair that seemed to fall wherever it wished, and crystal blue eyes and she was both tall and slim.

By contrast, her husband was dark-haired and stooped when he stood. His only noticeable feature was his eyes, a gorgeous shade of coffee that he had bequeathed to both of his children.

Reijiro and Momoko's acquaintances liked to say that she had fallen in love with his eyes before she bothered to look at the rest of him.

Despite that, they couldn't say that she ever appeared unhappy.

Every Thursday, at precisely one o' clock, she met her son for lunch. Her daughter, Yuuto's sister, joined them when she got old enough. Tomoe would bubble over with tales of her classes and the people she saw on the walk to the park, adding an effervescence to the proceedings.

In the beginning, however, it was just Yuuto and Momoko. Yuuto would arrive to see his mother staring into the pool of water at the base of the fountain, watching the cascading streams form patterns that were just a shade too beautiful and elegant to be natural.

"Okaa-san."

She would turn away from the pool automatically at the sound of her son's voice. It is the nature of water to change direction when faced with a new situation.

"Hello, Yuuto-kun. What did you pack us for lunch today?"

"Tempura." Yuuto was an excellent cook, which was a skill that his father did not particularly care for. Men were not supposed to be excellent cooks, in his opinion. They should leave those sorts of accomplishments to their wives.

Nonetheless, Yuuto continued to become ever more proficient in the kitchen, despite his father's objections. It is also the nature of water to be at turns resistant and acquiescent.

No matter what Yuuto would pack for lunch, his mother would smile and nod, and they would eat it in silence. The Thursdays in the park were an irreplaceable part of his training.

He didn't learn about the physical control of water on these Thursday lunches; instead, he learned how to use the water to control himself.

The Thursday lessons were the ones he used most.

***

"Oniichan!" The voice that interrupted his memories was familiar and impatient, and he looked up to meet Tomoe's scowling brown eyes.

"Sorry, imoutochan." Yuuto's quick smile lightened his eyes. "What were you saying?"

"Hmph." Tomoe brushed dense black hair out of her face. "I was asking if any really romantic couples came in yet today for a marriage license."

"Oh no," said Yuuto. "The romantic ones don't come until late afternoon. I think it must be in the rules somewhere."

Tomoe scowled at him again. "Stop teasing me, oniichan." She smiled playfully at him. "When I get married, I'll come in the morning."

"And then I'll have to hurt the groom. Chicken and rice ball?"

"Don't mind if I do."

The brother and sister ate in silence for a few moments, and Yuuto watched his sister's barely restrained energy as she watched all the people walk past them.

He was reminded of another part of the nature of water.

It always changes, yet somehow manages to remain the same.

~fin