After another unsuccessful day of job-hunting, Rei walked back home to their apartment in complete glumness. He had gone from shop to shop, building to building and yet found no one would was willing to take him in under a number of ridiculous reasons. One of them had the nerve of saying they didn't want "queer characters" in their phone company. Rei flat out told them they could shove it up their mouths and left, storming a fuming fury all around him.
It was nearly five in the afternoon one his way back home, but he might make it on time for dinner with Nagisa and their son. But when he to their studio apartment, Rei first sight was Nagisa staring intently on a piece of paper, his shoulders hunched like he had taken a beating and Rei became worried.
"I'm home," Rei called out, catching Nagisa off guard who stood up quickly.
Nagisa walked over to Rei and hugged him tightly. Rei hugged him back, comforting Nagisa for whatever had upset him so terribly.
"Where is Sora?"
"He's downstairs with the neighbor's children," Nagisa said, cheerless. "I need to talk to you, about Sora."
"What happened?"
Nagisa took him over to the couch where they sat and Nagisa showed him what had made him distressed. The poster, Rei examined, was from the school about 'Career Day' for parents to come over and show off themselves for their children. However, judging by the wrinkles and bits of torn corners, Sora had attempted to rip and throw it away. Now that they have it, the hollowing misery they shared because of their jobless lives crawled wretchedly behind them.
"So Sora was hiding this?"
"Yeah, for a while until he threw it away. I wasn't going to pick it up but when I was taking out the trash, the bag wasn't secured tightly and paper fell off. I took it and kept reading it over and over, feeling guilty..."
After an unsettling pause Nagisa asked, "Do you think Sora's ashamed of us?"
"No!" Rei exclaimed, shocked. "Sora must have had his own reasons for not telling us."
"But after reading this, I keeping thinking we did wrong not getting him gifts or buy him new clothes because we didn't have the money...and now he might go to school without us, feeling awkward because we don't have jobs like normal parents." Nagisa continued wiping his eyes with his fingers, but it was fruitless because he was drowning in tears.
"C'mon, Nagi..." Rei pulled Nagisa closer to him, hugging and kissing his head softly. "There, there..."
Nagisa's choking sobs almost lasted five minutes, but once Nagisa began breathing softly, he asked in a cough, "What should we do?"
Rei closed his eyes, his chin covered by Nagisa's golden locks, and went into deep, silent thought.
But like lightning striking him, he jolted up and shocked each other because of his brilliant idea.
"You thought of something?"
"Yes...but you have to wear some tights..."
XxXxXxX
"Okay everyone, please take your seats!" Sora's teacher announced excitedly.
Soon enough everyone in the tiny room shuffled into their seats and Sora, slightly nervous and guilty, sat at the very back of the room and kept silent. Hopefully he might sneak out undetected and avoid all the humiliation of his parent's absence. Now that he thought of it he should have told them this meeting, but they didn't have jobs like the other parents and Sora, out of love, wanted them not to feel worse than they did.
They might have not noticed, but Sora saw their struggles and felt terrible not being able to help out as much. He thought it was better not putting them through so much drama like this so they could focus better. But thinking about explaining to his teachers of his mysterious absence was dreadfully annoying, yet he had to since his parents weren't here.
After a few parents got up, spoke their piece and went back, Sora heard his name called from upfront. Now it was his time to sneak away, though he should have had done so before.
But before he could sneak off, the front door from the classroom was knocked and opened slightly. Sora's teacher looked over and her jaw dropped, shocked at what she saw.
"Excuse me," said a familiar voice, "is this Room Four?"
Sora's head jerked up, looking over to the source of that voice. He excused himself and pushed his small body between two adults who shuffled uncomfortably apart for Sora to get a better sight of the man's voice. The voice sounded like Papa, but it couldn't be...
"Er, yes...and you two are?" Sora's teacher questioned, her tone bewildered.
"We are..."
Out of nowhere, Sora saw Rei, his Daddy, sprinting forward past the teacher and triumphed-ly stood before the crowd before him, hands on his hips and chest puffed out, exposing his symbol of an 'R' that was stitched almost professionally-Sora gaped at his Daddy's costume, confused and surprised at the same time.
"Sora's amazing superhero parents!" Rei declared proudly for everyone to hear. "I am Lighting Bolt, superhero of Japan, and with me is Orange Cloud!"
On cue, Nagisa raced forward, wearing a full on tight suit like Rei's but orange and posed in a dab position. All the kids laughed and clapped in excitement, some of the adults found this hilarious and joined in with their laughter. Sora just stared, wide-eyed of the whole scene.
"Sorry we're late," Nagisa spoke up, standing beside Rei in identical position. "We had a lot of superhero missions today, but we didn't want to miss our son's special event!"
Sora squeezed through the parents and raced forward, his arms wide open and raced toward Nagisa who knelt down, smiling upon Sora's appearance and took him up into a hug.
"What are you guys doing here?" Sora asked, quiet enough for Nagisa and him to hear.
"We're here to join the job convention," Nagisa whispered in Sora's ear. "I know you didn't want us here, but we thought we'd come to surprise you."
Sora's eyes must have stung because he swore he was becoming tearful of this show they were pulling off. Daddy and Papa were here not to embarrass him or anything, but to give support by being there instead of hiding behind the shadows. Sora wiped his eyes with his wrist, not wanting the others to see his tears coming out.
"Do any of you kids have questions?" Rei asked the crowd, and soon enough all the little kids' hands rose and squeaked 'pick me' over and over.
"What kind of powers do you have?"
"Are you gonna save all of Japan?"
"Do you have a car like the Batmobile?"
"Does Sora get to go on adventures with you?"
Once Sora's teacher managed control over the little one's excitement, Rei began answering questions.
XxXxXxX
When the afternoon came by, the skies were light orange and the wind blew calmly around the park as the family finally left school. All the students were saddened when Sora's parents had to go, but Sora promised he will tell them everything they do whenever he had the chance. When they were heading out, they got ice cream and Rei carried Sora over his shoulders.
As the day quietly began its descending end, the atmosphere was cool and pleasant. Rei and Nagisa had accomplished a great deal for their son, and Sora deep down was content for their act of bravery. He knew no one who could pull of an insane stunt like that, making it all the greater to laugh in joy every so often in remembrance.
"That worked out pretty well, if you asked me," Rei declared proudly, his posture straightened up, keeping Sora in balance.
"I'm so glad you guys came!"
"We thought we'd surprise you, but if I hadn't found that poster-"
"Oh, guys, I didn't mean to hide it," Sora explained, "I just didn't want you guys to feel guilty for not having jobs. I would've loved having you guys in there no matter what, because you are my parents. And I have the best parents I can ever have! So there's no problem believing in that, right?"
Despite the silent pause, Sora heard Nagisa whimpering a little but was holding back. Rei, however, allowed his tears free and soaked the material, making it look rather strange. Nonetheless, their tears were the sign of happiness.
"Ah, Sora!" Nagisa hiccupped. He sniffed and wiped a teardrop on his cheek.
"We really need to get this kid a sidekick costume for the next annual Parent's Job day thing..."
"He would look great in aquamarine!"
"Our precious son, we love him so much he'll be every kid's role model! We couldn't ask for a better son!"
"Uh-huh...I love you guys, too."
And so the trio went back home, laughing and enjoying themselves...like a real family.