A/N: Throws another one of my million WIPs into the posted WIPs pile and runs awayyyy. Again big thanks to the Pegoryu Discord Server which is filled with awful, awful enablers and a extra special to lod who proofread all of this, please go shower her with love and affection
"Called to the office?" Akira asked in surprise. "What do you mean you got called to the office?"
Morgana bristled at that, eyes narrowing into slits. His hair almost seemed to fluff out when he did that and it never failed to impress Akira. "It means," Morgana told him with an air of great patience, "that I got called to the office. About discipline issues. And now you have to attend a meeting with them."
"Yeah, I got that much," he replied dryly. "I just mean, it's not really like you, is it Mona? Skipping class?"
And it really wasn't. When they'd been younger and living in LeBlanc's attic, Sojiro used to affectionately call Morgana 'feisty' and that really was the politest way of describing his driven attitude. He would devour his homework, browbeat Akira into bed, and pick fights with Futaba when she pinched his cheeks. But Morgana was a good kid. Maybe a little snooty sometimes and definitely adorably precocious but a good kid nonetheless. Akira couldn't imagine him skipping class without a good reason to. More than that, Morgana was talkative at heart; he couldn't fathom why his little brother was being reticent about this.
"Well, whatever," Morgana mumbled. "It just…happened, alright? Now are you coming tomorrow or not?"
"Well, of course I am." Akira raised his eyebrows when Morgana blinked in surprise. "What, you think I'd miss something like this? I'll have to take a half day off of work but I'll make it. In fact, I think we should celebrate!" Akira stood up as inspiration struck. "Two weeks into school and this is like, your first big moment of teenage rebellion! It's like a rite of passage!"
"Oooo yes!" There was the sound of a laptop snapping shut. Everyone had their own superpowers; Futaba's was managing to be completely engrossed in her work and still pick up on the parts of a conversation that would most embarrass its participants. "Baby's first felony! I like it!" Futaba crooned with a wicked grin on her face.
"No! We are not celebrating something like that!"
"We'll order in sushi!"
"…I want fatty tuna."
By the time the sushi got there, it wasn't quite closing time for the cafe yet. Despite that, Sojiro, with much grumbling and griping, flipped the sign over anyway. Sojiro's lifeblood were his regulars, so there was little chance of anyone coming into their cozy hole-in-the-wall cafe half an hour before closing time.
Morgana tried his best to hide it, of course, but he was practically vibrating with excitement as Sojiro unpacked the takeout boxes. They didn't splurge often— on Morgana's orders in fact — so every treat was special. Besides, it'd been ages since they'd been able to chill at Leblanc like this. Between Akira settling into his job and Morgana studying for his high school entrance exams, their schedules had been packed.
When the portions had been set out, Morgana pounced on his like the cat that got the cream. Akira had to hide his smile behind his mug.
"So," he tried again, once the food had almost been finished. "What is it about gym class anyway?"
Stuffed and sleepy, Morgana groaned out loud. "The gym teacher is a moron!" he whined. "He's just…not serious at all. He's loud and obnoxious. And the way he talks! Teachers should have better decorum than that!"
"Decorum." Futaba rolled her eyes. Morgana poked her in the side with a chopstick in retaliation.
"Is that it?" he asked, surprised. "The gym teacher? Not the other kids?"
"What about the other kids?" Morgana frowned.
"Nothing!" Akira amended hastily. "Nothing at all!"
So it wasn't the fact that Morgana was a year younger than the rest of the kids there. That was a relief. At least with a crappy teacher, the class could be united over your mutual hatred.
"Hey," Akira told him gently. "An un-serious teacher is not the worst thing in the world. I mean, some of the teachers in my school were downright awful. Most of them barely even cared, and some even picked on the students. This one's not like that, is he?"
"...Not really," Morgana grudgingly admitted.
"So then he's not really worth tarnishing your good name for?"
"...I guess not."
Akira grinned and reached out to ruffle his hair. There we go, that hadn't been so hard at all if he said so himself. And Sojiro always complained that raising teenagers was the worst!
"Besides," he shrugged. "It's gym! Trust me, absolutely no one likes gym. No one likes exercise, period."
"You tap dance in your spare time!" Futaba accused. "You do yoga!"
"By necessity, not choice!" Necessity being Makoto and Haru needing partners for their respective obscure hobbies. "Besides, that's nothing compared to high school gym. High school gym involves," he shuddered and lowered his voice, "team sports."
There was a groan of commiseration from all three of them at that.
"Alright you all, time to clear out," Sojiro called out, taking charge for the first time in that evening. "Futaba, walk Mona home would you? And you, sushi guy, help me clean up."
With their duties divided up by the Boss himself, they parted ways. When Morgana was passing through the door, Akira took the opportunity to lean down and kiss his hair— cackling loudly at his little brother's indignant yowling while Futaba herded him out.
For a while it was quiet, Sojiro taking inventory while Akira wiped down the table they had used with a rag. Finally, Sojiro spoke up. "Don't think I didn't notice what you did."
At Akira's blank look he raised an unimpressed eyebrow. "Plying him with food? That's being a pushover parent."
"Well, you know, I did learn from the best," he replied with a cheeky grin.
If it was possible, Sojiro's eyebrow seemed to grow even more unimpressed with him. "I worry about you two, you know," he grumbled. "Ever since you moved out. Mona especially. Acting out is not his style. High school might be difficult for him. Teenagers, they're always—"
"The hardest to raise," Akira finished for him.
"Teenagers are the worst," Sojiro ploughed on anyway with narrowed eyes. "You never know what they're thinking or doing, they don't wanna tell you until it's too late and then somehow in the blink of an eye, they're all grown up."
Akira paused in his work, looked up at the expression on Sojiro's face. How long had it been anyway, since he and Mona would spend their whole days at the cafe? He didn't regret moving out; the two of them had desperately needed the space and they couldn't have imposed on Sojiro forever— but now that he was finally stable in his job and Morgana was in a good high school, things could go back to normal.
"Sojiro…" he smiled softly. "Mona's a smart kid, Sojiro, I'm sure he'll be fine. If he isn't, well, he's got me. And I have you."
There was a suspiciously wet glimmer in Sojiro's eyes that Akira chose not to comment on.
"Yeah," Sojiro cleared his throat gruffly. "And don't you forget it."
Kosei was a prestigious school. The kind of prep school Akira would never have been able to afford if Mona hadn't been able to secure a partial scholarship. And he'd only gotten that because Sojiro and Toranosuke had pitched in to help him attend cram school the previous year.
It was the kind of school that had peacocks in their courtyard. Peacocks. He wasn't even kidding.
For Akira, who had grown up in a cozy little rural town before moving to Tokyo with Sojiro, this kind of excess would have been mind boggling once. Ever since he'd started working for Toranosuke, however, he'd become intimately familiar with this kind of overindulgence. Political parties were practically a competition in extravagance.
The woman they met at the Kosei office was Morgana's homeroom teacher, Ms. Yamamoto (it was a good sign, maybe? That it wasn't the principal's office?). She looked severe, with a pair of thin spectacles and hair tied into a tight bun. Beside him, Morgana had gone still, eyes trained on the ground. Discreetly, Akira placed a hand between his shoulders to reassure him as they walked.
"You can wait here for Mr. Sakamoto," she said, leading him to a meeting room near the staff room. A tea room, maybe, he thought, noting the electric kettle in one corner. "He shouldn't be too long now."
Akira heard Morgana give a light disgruntled huff and he immediately squeezed his shoulder in warning. Akira wasn't particularly worried about this meeting. A first infraction was no cause for concern, and he doubted that even a school like Kosei would bother too much about it, but it never hurt to be extra polite when you were already in hot water. Luckily, Ms. Yamamoto didn't seem to have heard, and she left them alone in the room.
To be honest, even this meeting was a surprise. At Akira's old school, you called the parents about truancy and let them deal with it however they would. Akira was confident that he could handle it, though. He dealt with difficult people in his office all the time. A high school gym teacher would be no problem. He definitely could—
The door behind him creaked open. "Sorry for bein' late, " a voice called out. Akira turned in his chair to look at the new arrival.
And stared.
The very first thought that crossed Akira's mind on seeing Morgana's gym teacher was 'Good God, that is one indecently tight shirt.'
Thankfully, a lifetime of practicing his silver tongue made sure that that wasn't what came out of his mouth. No, what came out of his mouth was instead this:
"Grrk...hi?"
Which, granted, was not exactly smooth, but it was still leagues better than Option 1.
Without any input from him, Akira's eyes started to rake over him. He was around Akira's height, with blonde hair (bleached, if he wasn't wrong), wearing a T-shirt (a very tight one, his mind supplied again unhelpfully) and gym track pants. And he was well-built. As in, very finely-built. As in, Akira sorely, sorely wanted to touch his biceps to figure out if they were as solid as they looked.
Ahem. Right. Akira coughed to clear his throat.
"Uhh hey," the man in question said as he walked forward and offered his hand. Akira stared at it for half-a second, side-tracked again with a ludicrous thought along the lines of 'damn, his hands are big too,' before jerking into motion. He shook his hand and did not think about how strong his grip was. He did not.
"Sakamoto Ryuji," the man continued, thankfully, blissfully unaware of the sudden betrayal of Akira's brain functions. "You must be Morgana's guardian, yeah?"
"Kurusu Akira," he confirmed.
"Right, so uh, your kid's pretty much been skippin' all my classes since the school year started," he said. "Got any idea what that's about?"
Eyeing Mr. Sakamoto up and down...he could sort of understand where Morgana was coming from. Not the obnoxiousness or anything, but he seemed...to clash with the formality of Kosei. His casual conduct, slouching posture, bleached hair, sinfully tight shirt— they were all a sharp contrast to the straight-backed Ms. Yamamoto. He clearly had a bit of an accent too.
Akira mentally shook himself. Focus, he scolded. He glanced sideways at Morgana, who'd gotten ten times surlier since Sakamoto's appearance. His little brother was glaring at the floor, frowning hard.
What could Akira say? Uhhh yeah, I asked and turns out he thinks you're a loudmouth. Despite that stellar first impression, would you be willing to let me climb you like a tree?
"He did tell me about the problem..." Akira hedged. Morgana scuffed his shoes against the floor, a childish habit he'd never really broken out of. Sakamoto looked at him, brown eyes expectant. The rest of him looked pretty neutral. A little out-of-sorts maybe, as if he didn't do this sort of thing very often.
Akira straightened up, strategy decided. "It's been a little bit...difficult for him," he said slowly. "We used to live in a different part of town, and Kosei...isn't exactly what we're used to. Adjusting in a new school, new friends. He's a year younger than most other kids here too..." He let Sakamoto decide the implications for himself.
Sakamoto's eyes had flitted across Akira's form when he'd mentioned Kosei, no doubt taking in his suit and coat ensemble. But the gym teacher's face seemed to soften at the end of his words, glancing back to Morgana. Akira didn't think he was much older than himself.
"Look," he said, voice gruff in just the right way. "I don' really wanna press this issue too much. Kids, they'll definitely do some dumb stuff. It's not like I never skipped class. But I just wanna know that it's not gonna keep happenin'. I know Morgana's a scholarship student an' all."
Akira suppressed a flinch at the reminder. Yes, he knew. He'd been confident that this wouldn't mean anything— Morgana's record was impeccable after all, but well...it could have. It sounded like the only reason it hadn't was because Sakamoto had talked the issue down. Fuck, Akira was a crappy brother. How could he have forgotten how strict Kosei was?
Akira swallowed the discomfort down his throat. "Mona," he said softly. "Would you mind waiting outside for a bit? I just need to talk to Mr. Sakamoto about something."
Morgana looked scandalized. "But—"
"Please," Akira said firmly. "Just a minute."
Morgana stared at him incredulously for one more moment before walking off. He didn't storm, which was a pretty big blessing in Akira's opinion. He turned back to Sakamoto, whose head was tilted curiously — but his eyes were wary.
"Well?"
"Can I have your number?" Akira blurted out and then immediately wanted to sink into the ground and die.
"What?"
"No that's not—I just meant," Akira floundered for a moment, before rallying. "Morgana's a good kid but he can be...difficult sometimes. I can't promise you this will be the last time this happens. I wish I could, but sometimes he's impulsive," he grimaced. "But I know a permanent mark on his record would devastate him."
"I know this is asking a lot," Akira continued helplessly. "And maybe it's a little unprofessional, but if this happens again...I'd really appreciate it if you could contact me directly instead of going to the administration…"
Sometimes Akira wore his heart on his sleeve. It was one of the qualities Toranosuke claimed to love best about him. Right now, it was probably going to make or break him, but he had to try his best to mitigate this. For Mona's sake.
Sakamoto's mouth turned down, contemplative. Then he sighed and shrugged. "Sure, man," he said. "I guess I could help out. But I really do gotta stress it, I ain't gonna be covering for your kid's bad behaviour. If I tell you about it and he's not improving…" Sakamoto pursed his lips. He looked uncomfortable and Akira regretted putting the man in this position but Morgana was more important.
"Of course not," Akira agreed immediately. "I wouldn't ask you to." He rattled off his number and watched Sakamoto input it. "Thank you once more, Mr. Sakamoto," he bowed lightly. "I really appreciate it."
"Hey dude, no need to be so formal," he laughed awkwardly, rubbing the back of his neck. He had a nice laugh. Akira didn't let his eyes linger. "Mr. Sakamoto just makes me sound old. And don't mention it. Seriously, don't. Let's just hope I ain't gotta use it."
"Right," he agreed, then moved to open the door and let his little brother in. "Morgana," he said. "I think there's something you should be telling Mr. Sakamoto…"
Later, as they were making their way back in Sojiro's car, Morgana piped up, voice sullen and distant. "You didn't have to do that, you know."
"Huh?"
Morgana faced the window, tapping restlessly against the sill. He'd apologized to his gym teacher more or less acceptably afterwards and Sakamoto had smiled and accepted it easily. Successful day indeed. "Lie to him," he said. "About why I was skipping."
Akira snorted. "Well, I couldn't exactly tell him the truth now could I? I'm pretty sure telling him you thought he was insufferable wouldn't go over very well."
There was a moment of silence. "I don't have problems with the other kids…"
"I know," Akira said patiently. "Hey, you know, your teacher's not so bad."
This time it was Morgana's turn to snort.
"I mean it," Akira insisted. "He seemed pretty reasonable to me. Cute, too," he added slyly.
One of Morgana's more entertaining qualities was his ability to yowl like a cat. "You have got to be kidding me."
"You don't think so?" he laughed. "I think so. I even got his number out of this whole deal. Not that I'll call him or anything." The last part came out a little more wistfully than he'd intended. He really wouldn't mind, getting to know Sakamoto Ryuji better...
Morgana surveyed Akira with his clear blue eyes. "Gross," he declared disdainfully, then turned back to the window. Akira smiled to himself.
A/N: I stg I love Morgana so much but he is also such a brat. My brat cat. My now-human brat cat. Don't be too harsh on Akira btw, he really did just stress tf when he realized how the stakes could potentially be. Also Ryuji didn't have much to do in this chapter but dw he'll get his POV chapter soon!
Also, also what's this? Could it be that Akira and Morgana have some...*gasp*...communication issues? Stay tuned to find out!
The title is a reference to The Parent Trap except Mona does NOT want them to get together so I guess it's nothing like The Parent Trap oh dear... :|
Please leave a kudos/comment if you liked it and hmu oneshotprincess on tumblr if you want ^_^.
