"You don't need to apologize, it wasn't your fault." She told him in mild surprise, although he knew that deep down, she was just a little happy to notice that her son could be so polite and was ready to take responsibility. He felt incredibly pathetic for how relieved he was at her words, although guilt clung stubbornly to his every thought.
After a few moments of silence, he decided he had stayed and listened to her long enough to not seem indifferent to her problems while avoiding too much emotional damage and walked towards the stairs.
As he passed her by, he stopped to give her a hug, feeling her lean into his chest in an way that undeniably asked for protection. His hands awkwardly rubbed her back in long, circular strokes and his neck hurt slightly as he leaned his head down to rest his face on her shoulder.
"Could you..." He knew that she was going to ask him to actively get involved in her fight with his father now and he cringed just a little. " –maybe tell your father that you really wanted to spend the afternoon with that friend of yours? He made it sound as if I was forcing you to meet your friends. He made it sound as if I didn't want to have you here, which is total nonsense, of course."
He nodded silently and let go of her, muttering something along the lines of 'Don't worry.' or 'It's going to be okay.', since he didn't know what else to say, wishing her a good night, before climbing up the stairs.
"Hi Dad." He greeted his father who was in the bedroom, reading the newspaper, since he had to work early and had no time to do so in the morning.
"Good Evening." His father replied, looking up from the newspaper and folding it back together instinctively, since he knew that whenever Shizuo bothered to come by and greet him, he had something to say to him.
Sometimes it was hard not to side with his mother, who was always much more obviously emotionally hurt by their arguments than his father, who looked rather indifferent, as if he hadn't made his wife cry so much she looked ready to sleep for three days.
"I just..." Shizuo felt slightly intimidated as a pair of light brown eyes much like his own looked at him expectantly. "It was my idea to visit the new guy from my class. He seemed like a nice guy, he invited me over and I agreed because I wanted to get to know him better. It wasn't Mom's idea, it was mine. And I'm...sorry that this caused so much trouble."
"Your mother sent you to talk to me, I take it?" His father asked rather coldly. Unlike his mother, Shizuo's father didn't have too many qualms about blaming him for all the fights he had with his wife because of him. And sometimes he didn't even feel the need to hide the fact that he though it was his son's fault that he wasn't getting along with his wife as well as he could have if their son didn't continue to do things wrong, even if it really wasn't Shizuo's fault.
"Nah, I just wanted to make that clear." And by that, he was once again shouldering the blame only that, unlike his mother, his father rather liked being able to blame Shizuo. The blond teenager figured that his father was in some way deeply disappointed with him, that at some point, he had fucked up so badly that his father hadn't been able to forgive him completely.
Oddly enough, it was easier for Shizuo to apologize to his mother, who didn't even want or need him to apologize, instead of telling his father he was sorry, since he expected him to do so, because he thought of him as guilty.
"Well, next time you should tell us the day before." Shizuo didn't dare to interject that it wasn't exactly possible to announce such a spontaneous invite. He knew by now that the fastest and easiest way of getting out of this entirely, was to take the blame and agree with whatever conditions his father listed, conditions he tried to fulfill, faintly hoping his father would someday forgive him for whatever he had done wrong in the first place.
"Yeah, I'll do that." Shizuo promised and slowly retreated.
"It's not like I don't want you to make new friends, you know." His father said out of the blue, surprising Shizuo. "I just...don't like what kind of people you might run into at that school."
"Don't worry, I wouldn't spend time with someone I thought was dangerous." And now Shizuo was blatantly lying, although it was true that, physically speaking, Orihara Izaya didn't pose much of a threat to him, neither with, nor without his switchblade.
"That's good." His father said non-commitically, re-opening the newspaper and searching for the article he had been reading before.
"Good Night." The blond boy said, before leaving, barely paying attention to his father's response, as he finally made his way towards his room.