The next day, Nanami spent a surprisingly big part of his time at work worrying about Yuji. He had not expected to worry so much about the boy. But seeing how he had been so ready to go all the way to the grocery store all by himself the previous day, he wasn't quite sure what he should be expecting from him.
He was worried he would decide to go and wander alone all by himself and couldn't quite get it out of his mind. It was to the point even one of his coworkers noticed it and commented on how unusual it was for him to be stuck in his own thoughts.
On his way back home he decided that he would try to ask Yuji whether he had some relative coming to live with him at some point. Maybe the boy had just weirdly formulated it and he wasn't actually going to live there all by himself.
Maybe, for some reason, the responsible (if he could really use that word) adult in charge of him still had things to take care of at their previous place? He wasn't one to usually pry in his neighbour's lives, but this was another story.
When he finally got home, passing by the room 202 window he took a quick glance at it, seeing that the curtain happened to be parted a little bit. No lights seemed to be on inside, not even from a tv playing in the dark. This made him stop by the door, trying to see if he could hear anything.
Yet it was all quiet. This made him worry a little bit, before forcing down his growing worries. 'Maybe Yuji is taking a nap' he thought to himself before moving on, not wanting to look suspicious by lurking in front of a room inhabited by a child.
Still, once he was inside his own apartment, he couldn't actually settle down, worry eating at him.
"I want to go and see what stores we have around our house!" he remembered hearing Yuji mentioning to him the day before as they were going to the grocery store. Had the boy decided to go all by himself despite his warning that it could be dangerous for someone his age?
Nanami couldn't sit down, so he decided to go and knock at the door. Like this, even if he was sleeping, he would be sure the boy was at least safe at home.
"God, what am I doing" Nanami mumbled to himself as he waited for an answer after knocking the first time. He waited a little moment before knocking again, this time calling out to Yuji too. The silence only made him worry even more.
Yuji had gone out all by himself.
Nanami decided that he would never be able to actually ignore the missing boy. He tried rationalising that maybe he had gone out not too long ago and was simply not back yet. Or that maybe he had gotten lost and was still at one of the stores. He tried not to think about the worst that could happen.
He was ready to go look for him, already out and going down the narrow street. He did hear the voice of his downstairs neighbour but decided to ignore him for the most part as he had no time for him right now.
"Hey, don't run in the middle of the street you could trip," laughed the man as a warning, Nanami half dismissing it as a teasing remark to him. "Come on, come back here, Yuuji~" Gojo called out, followed by boyish laughter.
The name made him suddenly stop in his track, turning on his heel only to find Gojo catching up to the boy to lift him up, Yuji laughing even more. Nanami then started to make his way back to their building, ready to join them there.
Yuji's eyes ended up falling on him when his laughter calmed down, his face brightening up even more than it already was. "Nanamin you're back! Welcome home!" greeted the boy, grabbing onto Gojo's shoulder with one hand while waving excitedly with the other.
"Welcome back, Nanamin~" Gojo greeted too, gaining a glare for the nickname. One was enough and passable since he was a child, he didn't need two people calling him that. Not if it was to tease him like this.
But seeing Yuji so energic and unharmed made him relax, making him realise that he had gotten quite tense without noticing it.
"You looked quite worried there," Gojo pointed out with his usual grin, stopping in front of him when they joined back in front of their building, Yuji still in his arms and not looking uncomfortable at the action.
"I noticed Yuji was missing and got worried that he had gone out alone and was in trouble" Nanami replied honestly.
"Nanamin was worried about me?" Yuji asked with a small frown, seemingly not happy that he made the man worry about him.
"Yes, after all, I said it was not safe for children your age to go wander the streets all by themselves," Nanami said.
"But I wasn't alone! Gojo accompanied me so I had an adult looking over me, just like Nanamin asked!" the boy pouted, not seeing what he did wrong.
"You shouldn't trust strangers so easily" Nanami sighed.
"Nanami is also a stranger to little Yuji" Gojo pointed out with a grin. And to this Nanami couldn't actually argue. He was indeed just another stranger to Yuji. He had only met him the day before and for a short amount of time.
"But Nanamin is not a stranger! He's my nice neighbour who helped me with groceries and who worries about me!" Yuji quickly said, "And Gojo is the other nice neighbour who decided to accompany me so I would be safe while shopping".
At his words, Nanami's expression couldn't help but soften a little. In a way, he was glad that Yuji trusted him like this, as he was seeing himself as someone safe to be around. But he couldn't help worrying about how naive and innocent Yuji seemed to be about people.
He would lie though if he said he wasn't glad Gojo was the one to suggest his help. As much of an annoyance the man could be, last time he heard or checked, the man had never been inappropriate with children. He could be eccentric, a bit too quick to act familiar with you, be friendly with most and also annoying.
But the man had always behaved appropriately with children, even trusted by previous tenants to play babysitter despite his personality. Although unluckily for the man, a lot of older children seemed to find the man just as annoying as Nanami did.
So, as much as he wasn't quite fond of Gojo, the man was still better than some random passerby. Though he sure wishes Yuji wouldn't just follow any passerby and that his trust in Gojo was because he also lived in the same building as him.
"I guess you do have me and Gojo" he decided to say, to which Yuji smiled brightly again. "Did you like your outing with Gojo today?" he then ask instead of continuing on the previous subject.
At his question it was like the boy suddenly remembered something, asking Gojo to let him down. He extended his hands to grab the backpack Gojo had on one shoulder, which he easily shrugged off. Nanami quickly recognised it as the tiger backpack he used the day before.
"There's a lot of cool stores around! I even found some bathroom and house things I was missing" the boy explained.
He was crouched down with his backpack in front of him, seemingly looking through some of the smaller things he had packed in it. From the bag he saw Gojo carrying, he assumed the man had also ended up helping carry the heavier things.
"Gojo even showed me a nice bakery that has a lot of nice sweets!" Yuji commented excitedly, despite the little frown on his face as he didn't seem to find what he was looking for.
"Of course, he did" Nanami couldn't help but comment quietly, as it wasn't a surprise the man had shown where he probably got most of the sweets he kept pestering him about.
He watched as Gojo carefully put some of the bags down, opening one for the boy to look into, as if knowing what he was looking for. Yuji smiled brightly when he found what he had been looking for, getting it out and then showing it to him.
It was a box of two Hokkaido cupcakes with was seemed to be a strawberry on top of each. "I wanted to thank Nanamin for helping me yesterday!".
Nanami was a little surprised by the sudden gift, taking the box from his small hands. Yuji looked so happy and excited that he accepted it that Nanami decided not to comment on how it wasn't really necessary.
"Thank you, Yuji" he smiled, "Would you like to share it with me?" he then suggested. He wasn't exactly a big fan of sweets himself and it would be both a shame and a waste if he didn't eat the two cupcakes quickly enough.
"Eh! I want to eat sweets with Nanami and cute Yuji too!" Gojo commented after slinging an arm around Nanami's shoulders, making the man sigh and roll his eyes. Yuji only laughed at his words, before saying "But Gojo, we already went to eat crepe together!" giggled the boy.
Nanami looked at Gojo at his words, knowing the nearest crepe shop wasn't next door either. This had been more than just "Making a tour from the nearby stores". Oh well, it wasn't so bad if yuji could know the area more like this, although with Gojo he had probably not paid attention to what the way to go there was.
"But yeah! I want to eat with Nanami and Gojo!" the boy replied. "If it's not a bother of course" he then quickly added more quietly after.
This made Nanami soften again, reaching to gently pat his head. "Of course, it's not a bother Yuji" he assured him, keeping to himself that Gojo was the bothersome one. This seemed enough to bring back his bright smile.
With this Yuji excitedly lead the way to the second floor, both adults carrying his bags as Gojo kept adding to his excitement by mentioning the fun they'll have. Although Nanami did say Gojo would have to help if he wanted to eat at his place, to which he surprisingly agreed quickly.
They left the bags at the boy's house, making sure nothing needed to be put away in the refrigerator. Only then did they make their way to Nanami's room.
It was a bit strange seeing people in his living space. When was the last time anyone came over, even more, to have dinner with him?
Poor papamin, worrying so much about the little boy living next door suddenly not being there. While writing, I realised that this chapter reminded me of the brookly 99 meme:
Nanami: I've only had Yuji for a day and a half, but if anything happened to him, I would kill everyone in this room and then myself.
100% applies for Gojo too, although you could change the day and a half for a couple of hours xD