Sho didn't like beer.
He didn't like beer because it was way too bitter. It came in a can, like soda, and it was fizzy, like soda, and it was dark colored, like soda, but it was bitter like…like nothing that Sho had ever tasted before. It was bitter and it made his stomach hurt and his head hurt and he just…did not like beer. He did not like this one bit even though the can was cool. It was tall and silver and got skinnier in the middle…the can was cool but what was inside was just….the worst.
Also it was warm.
"You know, Kai, for a guy so fucking paranoid about committing crimes that he won't even let the kid near the windows I'm surprised at you." Said Shimazaki as he took another sip of warm beer. Honestly, he was with the kid. This shit was nasty. Kai had a fridge, he had room in his fridge once he took all the food out, so why not keep his beer in his fridge like a normal human being? Honestly. You leave town for a few years and everyone forgets basic decency. You just didn't serve people warm beer, especially not guests, but especially not kids.
Way to ruin beer for the kid.
Really. Well Shimazaki was partial to the hard stuff, it messed you up faster, the kid was way too young for all of that. He got way too sick way too fast. It was amazing to think that he and Mob were related. Sho was so…Sho. He was always up for something, anything, but he also couldn't handle it. Stuff. Drinking made him sick and he went from zero to stoned in an instant. His tolerance was way too low. Shimazaki would have to fix that for him. The last thing he needed to be was an adult with no tolerance. How were they supposed to have fun like that?
Really, he had to think in the best interest of the child.
"What? You said he could have one. If something happens to him then it's on you, man, ok? I don't need any more to worry as it is." Said Kai. He needed Shimazaki to get the fuck out…but he also wanted him to stay…but he also wanted him to take the kid and get the fuck out before he wound up in prison or dead or dead in prison or alive and wishing that he were dead in prison. Shimazaki Ryou was a dead man, he knew that he was a dead man, and anyone found associating with him would wind up a dead man…and he deserved it after everything that he did. Betraying the family…nobody betrayed the family….but he had betrayed the family…
And also he hung out with kids now and there must have been a story there but Kai figured that if he knew then he would have to cut out his tongue so he could never be tortured into repeating it.
"Yeah, but they're warm. Who the hell drinks warm beer? Now that's a crime. That's more of a crime than all of your crimes put together." Said Shimazaki as he took a long sip, more like a gulp, like he was taking medicine. It may have been warm but, hey, free beer. He could feel the kid doing the same. He was sick, Shimazaki could tell, and next time he'd teach the kid about good beer. Not this Sapporo shit, actually good beer, and maybe good sake too. If he was a good kid and didn't get sick off of his beer then he could have some sake. There. That was responsible adulting.
"Yeah. This sucks dick in a public bathroom on golden week for ten yen coins….but it got talked down to five." Said Sho. He still wasn't sure why that was funny, well it was funny because it was gross, but Shimazaki thought that it was really funny. He laughed really loud and Sho had never really given much thought to other people's laughs before but he decided that he really liked it when Shimazaki laughed. He would say that again and again just to keep on making Shimazaki laugh.
And to keep on making his friend make that face.
He looked like he was sucking on a lemon and he was scared that he would get caught. He kept on looking at the windows even though the blinds were down and the curtains were closed. Sho had no idea what he was so afraid of. Shimazaki said that a lot of people were after him, that a lot of people wanted him dead, but it wasn't like anyone or anything could hurt him. He was Shimazaki. Sho had seen him get shot before, his barrier stopped bullets, it stopped bullets so well that Shimazaki hadn't even been scared.
Shimazaki was the bravest person that Sho had ever met in his entire ten and a half years of life.
"You know, that might be your kid after all. I mean he doesn't look a thing like you but he sure sounds like you." Said Kai
"Thanks. I'm flattered." Said Shimazaki. He was being serious. He had no clue what the kid looked like in relation to him, apparently his hair was red which was the same color as blood and ketchup while Shimazaki's was black which was the same color as having no color at all, and the kid had blue eyes which were supposedly the same color as the sky and the ocean, and Shimazaki…well he figured that any kid he had would have come out like him. Was this dominant? Or recessive? How did shit even get inherited? He didn't know.
All he knew was that he would have been happy as hell if Sho had been his kid.
He would have been happy to have had any kid, and he very well could have had a kid, but he didn't. Well at least he figured that he didn't have any kids. No one had tracked him down demanding that he take responsibility for a human being or anything like that. Still, if he had a kid, if he and Toshi ever wound up having a kid, then he hoped that his kid turned out to be just like Sho…minus the whole 'being in love with him and stuff' because it would have been pretty fucking weird if his own kid had been in love with him.
Hell, it was pretty fucking weird that Sho was in love with him.
"…this still tastes really fucking gross." Said Sho. He hated it when people thought that his was Shimazaki's kid. He hated it when Shimazaki wanted people to think that he was his kid. He wanted…well he wanted a lot of things that he shouldn't have wanted. He wanted to stop thinking about him like this. He had a girlfriend. He had just finished sending her a giant box of presents…maybe too many presents…but he had to give her a lot of presents.
He had to make up for all the cheating thoughts that he kept on having.
In the books that his mortal enemy had given him, and Minegishi was his mortal enemy, they had said that it was normal to think thoughts like that about boys and girls and both and neither…so that was ok…but still. He should not have been thinking about that when he had a girlfriend, especially one who loved him, and one who he was supposed to love right back. He needed to be a better person than he was…and since he didn't know if he could fix his stupid cheating thoughts he could at least send her big boxes of presents. Just like how dad had sent to mom back when they had all lived in the castle so that mom would remember that she had a husband and so she would think that dad loved her even though the only person who dad knew how to love was himself…well himself and big sis…and Sho…he was…
He was not turning into his dad!
"Then give me the fucking can, kid. Nobody's make you choke it down. I'll tell you what. When we get home I'll teach you about good beer. Not this Sapporo shit." Said Shimazaki. The kid passed him the can and Shimazaki took a drink…and he ignored that aural giggle the kid did. It hadn't been voluntary, and it had only been audible to Shimazaki, so there was no need to get into it with him here or, well, anywhere.
"I'm sorry that I don't keep all of your favorites on hand in case you feel like popping by. Why don't you and that kid just head out, then, since my hospitality apparently suck." Said Kai
"It sucks dick." Said Sho
"It doesn't but we'll go. You need all of your fingers to work after all and it would a shame if something terrible happened to you before you could finish this thing." Said Shimazaki as he pointed down at the bandage on his leg. He could not wait for this thing to be done. Then he could let the forest retake the leg land again. God, how could Toshi survive like this? Hell, stubble was hell plain and simple. Stubble was hell and he was in hell and he could not wait to get back home and back into long pants and then he could teach the kid about good beer and also, maybe, the kid would come to his senses at some point and then shit could go back to normal between the two of them.
Not that he was going to confront the kid or anything.
No, that would have been stupid. He would have made the kid sad and sadness did not suit the kid. He had enough on his plate as it was. He was a good kid, he was a fun kid, and he was like what Shimazaki could have been like as a kid if he had been more comfortable with who he was. If he hadn't had all of that shit going on…not that the kid didn't have a lot going on in his life…but at least nobody was telling him that he was supposed to have been killed after he had been born…or whatever. Shimazaki was fine with his life and the kid…well the kid was fine just the way he was. No matter how he felt it wouldn't change the outcome.
The outcome being, of course, that he was going to be friends with this kid until one of them died either of old age or doing something ridiculously stupid.
"…it's almost done anyway…" said Sho. He wished that he had drawn something more simple. He wished that he could have drawn something in black and white and with a lot of blocky lines, like a square or a circle or something, and then it would have been done by now. Sho had never imagined that getting a tattoo done could have taken so much time. He had thought that it all got done at once but it didn't. The line work took a lot of time and the colors took a lot of time and really the whole thing was just a lot of time…
And Sho was glad to be home.
Well he was glad to be gone, anyway. He wasn't home, not in his home, even though he knew that he could never go home again. He wasn't at the Claw house they were staying at, though, no. He was at the Claw house that Shimazaki and the others were staying at. Everyone was somewhere else. He could feel big sis and Minegishi…they were next door…and everyone else was out of his range. Good. He and Shimazaki were all alone and…
And then he was nervous.
That weird sort of nervous that he got sometimes. The nervous that came with all of the cheating thoughts. He hated the cheating thoughts. He wished that they would just go away and he could just think about Shimazaki like normal…but maybe he had always thought about Shimazaki like this. He remembered, before, that he had thought about Shimazaki as the coolest person in the world and from the moment they'd met he'd REALLY wanted to be friends with Shimazaki…and maybe that feeling of really wanting to be friends with someone was the same as the feeling of liking them. He'd had feelings about other guys like that since he had been little…and he thought that he had just really wanted to be friends with those guys…but he knew what that meant now and…
And he'd always felt like that about Shimazaki…so he wasn't sure what he even wanted to go back to.
"Alright then. Let's think until our blood gets thin and we bleed out. How's that sound." Said Shimazaki as he put the kid down in the desk chair. The kid was all pulled in and his aura was all 'leave me alone' and that, well, that was not a god time at all. He got like this sometimes. Shimazaki wished that he could have heard what it was that went on in that head of his. What was he thinking about now? Probably the same thoughts that Shimazaki used to have about people when he'd been ten, almost eleven.
That he still had about people.
Yup. The kid was there on that long and terrible life path that started in happy little boy land, went through angsty and angry teenager town, and ended in perfectly normal grown man land. Well as normal as the kid was capable of being. Hopefully not too normal. Hopefully he could be fun, as fun as Mob was going to be when she grew up, but not fun in the same way, of course. The kid was always going to be his kid, in his mind at least, and he didn't see the kid ever getting out of the kid box even when he was two meters tall and thirty and Shimazaki was sixty or whatever. Nope. The kid would always be the kid no matter how old he got.
And right now he was going to get that kid drink so maybe, just maybe, he would come off of this stupid 'love' thing that he was on because, yeah, this was getting to be a little…much to deal with.
"Sounds good." Said Sho even though he knew that Shimazaki couldn't hear him. He'd teleported away to the kitchen it felt like and now Sho was all alone. He was all alone in his room, Shimazaki's room was the same as his and big sis's room pretty much, and he just…he didn't know. He wanted to be near Shimazaki and he wanted to be alone. He wanted to be able to just tell Shimazaki how he felt but he also wished that he could take these stupid feelings that he had inside of himself and just exorcise them already. He wished that he didn't have these feelings. He wished that he had been born normal, like everyone else, or that there was some way to just…get rid of all of this…
Because it was just…it wasn't good.
It was good, though, the way he felt when he was with Shimazaki…and that was bad. Those were cheating feelings and also he had cheating thoughts and also he wasn't supposed to have those thoughts because he was not a cheater. Cheaters were the worse people in the world. Having a family was important, the most important thing, and when you cheated you betrayed your whole family. Not that Sho was married to anyone yet but he could not even begin to imagine putting his wife and kids through that. He may not have liked Emmy like she liked him but he wasn't going to just walk out on his family and stuff. He wasn't just going to walk out the door and disappear and make his wife and his kids spend every single day of their lives wondering where he had gone. He would never put anyone through that and he would never betray anyone, either.
He was not a traitor.
Traitors were the worst people. He agreed with dad about that and he never agreed with dad about anything. Traitors were bad people and they deserved to rot in the traitor holes. They deserved to starve to death down there for betraying everyone. Not that Sho cared too much about Claw, it was dad's thing and he would care more when it was his thing but right now he wanted nothing to do with dad, but he did know that you were not supposed to just go around and betray people like that. When people put their trust in you, when they decided to trust you with their secrets, then you were not just supposed to run around telling other people all of your secrets! That was not ok! That was the most not ok!
Fucking Fukuda!
Fuck him! Sho had trusted him and…and Sho was glad that he hadn't trusted Fukuda with ALL of his secrets. With this secret. With how he felt about Shimazaki and…and stuff. Because now he knew that Fukuda would not be able to keep anything to himself. Ever. He had told dad when he had promised, he had PROMISED, that he wouldn't…and then he did…and Sho…he had trusted him. Out of all the people in his life he had trusted Fukuda the most. Sure he could be a jerk sometimes but he was still…he was still Fukuda. He had always been there for him. When he had been little and gotten hurt Fukuda had been there for him. When he had been older and mom had gone and dad had been…worse…Fukuda had been there for him. When he had been alone and angry all the time Fukuda had been there for him. Fukuda had always been there and Sho had trusted him…
And Sho could betray him right back.
But he wouldn't! He couldn't! He knew that Fukuda belonged in a traitor hole! He knew that traitors had to go in the traitor holes and he knew that Fukuda wouldn't have died in one, since he could heal, but he knew that…that even though he had been a traitor…Sho could never become a traitor right back. Sho could never walk up to dad and tell him that Fukuda had been friends with mom because she had been lonely…and he couldn't tell dad that Fukuda used to come by every single day it felt like…and he could not tell dad that Fukuda even used to sleep over…and he could not tell dad that Fukuda still emailed mom even though she never even read them….he just…he could not betray Fukuda like that!
He was not a betrayer!
But he was a desk kicker. He didn't know who he had been trying to kick, there, maybe dad or Fukuda or even…even himself…but he had kicked Shimazaki's desk. For a moment he stayed still, very still, and he just waited for Shimazaki to come in and ask him what the hell he thought that he was doing. He was allowed to go into Shimazaki's desk just so long as he didn't take any of the pills and he put everything back where he got it from. He couldn't make a mess because then, if he made a mess, Shimazaki would not be able to find anything ever again. He could only see so much with his powers…and Sho…he had made a mess out of his desk. The stuff on top was everywhere…and the computer had slammed shut…and one of the drawers had come opened. The stuff inside of the drawer was a mess and Sho tried his best to put it back the way it was…even though he had no idea how it had gone, before. He just…well ok he knew that the comb had slid into the drawer and he knew that…wow, that was a lot of sugar cubes but those had been in there from before, and also….well he knew that those bags of pills had been in a specific order but…well they had braille labels on the outside so they were ok. Sho just put them so the labels were facing the right way.
That was a lot of medicine.
He had no idea what it was for. Shimazaki had said, before, that he wasn't sick…but this was a lot of medicine for a healthy person. There were little white rectangles like Minegishi had to take to sleep, there were little white circles, and there were bigger white circles too that looked like Mentos, and there were green rectangles and….oh. It looked like Sho had broken a bunch of them when he had kicked the desk…and he hadn't thought that he had kicked the desk so hard but the pills had turned into powder…and he put that plastic bag at the very bottom. Maybe if he put it on the bottom underneath everything then Shimazaki wouldn't notice and he wouldn't get mad and-
Hey, candy!
There. Shimazaki had candy this whole time! He had been holding out. Sho took out the little plastic sandwich bag with the yellow emoji candies. They looked sort of like hard candies…maybe. Sweet Tarts…or Smarties. Something like that. They were like little Smarties with different smiley faces on them. Some of them were happy and some were angry and some were crying and some were meh and…and Sho wondered if Shimazaki would have noticed if he took just one…
Especially since big sis was on this 'sugar is poison' thing.
Just because he had a black spot on his tooth, and sometimes it hurt to eat on that side of his mouth, did not mean that sugar was poison. He liked eating whatever he wanted whenever he wanted to eat it and she was so bossy sometimes…but that was because she was the boss of him and she had no choice…but still! Sho could eat all the candy he wanted to. He reached into the bag and took out a bunch of those little candies…but Shimazaki…well he hadn't said if Sho could ever have any of those candies let alone all of them…
Sho put back all but one.
He wouldn't notice one. One wasn't that much. Besides, he didn't even know if he would like these. They were yellow. Yellow could have meant lemon flavored, which was the sickest and most disgusting of all flavors, or it could have meant banana which wasn't so bad…or it could have meant birthday cake flavor which was awesome….but Sho didn't know. So he only took one. He took one and sucked on it like a Smarty…and…and this was not a Smarty. It wasn't a Smarty or a Sweet Tart or…or anything. It wasn't tart at all. it was…bitter. So bitter. So bitter that Sho wanted to spit it out…but then if he spat it out then Shimazaki would know…and he couldn't know that Sho had taken something from his desk without asking…
So he chewed and swallowed.
Bitter. This was…he had no idea what this was…but he knew that it was not candy. Sho had eaten a lot of candy in his lifetime and he had never eaten any candy so bitter in his entire life. This was…he chewed and swallowed and then licked his arm to get the taste off…and now he just tasted saltiness and bitterness…and he wanted to taste…anything else. The world was full of tastes and he wanted to have literally any other taste in his mouth than the taste that he had now. This bitterness…how could anyone have ever eating anything so bitter?!
He needed a drink.
"Alright, drink this….whatever it is. Toshi just wrote 'beer' on it and, as grateful as I am to them, that tells me nothing. The top of the can already says beer so….yeah. Drink up." Said Shimazaki. He had turned his shirt into a basket to hold the collective beer supply from the fridge. The others would be pissed at him but, hey, what else was new. Besides, this was an important part of the kid's education. You needed to learn what good beer was or you could never become a proper adult. Really it was important to always think in the best interests of the child.
The child who, apparently, was dying of thirst.
The kid popped the top and started to pound that beer back like, well, a younger version of Shimazaki. Him at ten…or maybe older. Him at twelve. Him at twelve or maybe eleven. Back when life sucked dicks and he didn't think that he would make it to thirteen. He had, though, and then to fourteen and beyond. Now he was thirty one, almost, and passing down important knowledge to one of the best kids that he had ever met. This was a good day. He sat down on the bed careful not to disturb his leg. He knew not to drink so soon after a session but, hey, life was to live and all of that.
Also the kid was lapping him.
"That sucked!" said Sho as he finished the can of…he read the label. Wheat beer. Well that hadn't tasted like wheat at all. That had tasted like…like bitterness…but not as bitter as the candy he had eaten. Maybe that was just what adults liked. Maybe liking bitter things was just a part of being an adult. Maybe one day Sho would wake up a grumpy old man who ate bitter candies and betrayed everyone's secrets and stuff…
Or whatever.
If Shimazaki liked this then he would make an effort to like this. After all he had gone through the trouble of making his shirt into a basket and stealing everyone's beer, including the stuff in the green bottle that Minegishi liked to drink, and if Sho could get one over on his mortal enemy then he was happy to do so…even though this stuff was so bitter that he could barely stand it.
"Well, yeah, you pounded it. Relax. We have all day. Actually taste what you're drinking. There are notes of…well whatever the hell that was supposed to have notes of." Said Shimazaki as he opened up a bottle of…he took a sip. Hell yeah, this was the good shit. It tasted like beer with chocolate and caramel, the two best flavors for beer if he did say so himself, and he did not think that this was disgusting. The rest of the house had but the rest of the house did not have his sense of taste.
"It's just bitter all the way down." Said Sho. Shimazaki handed him the bottle that he had taken a drink out of…and that was normal for him. He ate and drank right after people all the time. He had drank out of Sho's cup plenty of times and eaten off of his plate…even leaned in and bit the food off of his fork…and this was ok…even though it made his heart beat really fast. His heart was beating so fast and he knew why and he wished that it could stop but it wasn't stopping. If anything it was speeding up…and he reached over with his powers…and they were all shaky….and he was so nervous…and he didn't know why he was so nervous. This was just Shimazaki and they hung out together all the time and they were friends and…and he felt nervous but also…also a little bit sick…and he just…he wanted to…he wanted to have….
He took a drink.
"See? That should be better. Actually taste it, though, since that one tastes like caramel and chocolate. Well it has notes of caramel and chocolate. Just sip it." Said Shimazaki. They kid was freaking out again…and he assumed that it was for puberty reasons. He assumed that the kid was nervous about him or about this or just…nervous. He was a kid and he couldn't control how he felt and Shimazaki was not going to draw attention to it. Maybe it was like the time there had been a bat in the attic. They ignored it and eventually it went away…
Well it had died…but still. The basic principal still stood.
"Nope, this tastes bitter too." Said Sho. This wasn't good…but he kept on drinking it. If Shimazaki wanted him to drink this then he would…even though it kind of made his stomach hurt. That didn't matter, though, because…because his stomach hurting was better than…than this weird feeling he got…the weird goldfish feeling he always got….the weird…the weirdness of it all. He just…
He took another sip.
He wondered how adults could stand to drink this. Why did they like bitter things? And why did they hate sweet things. He used to think that it was only his dad who hated sweet things but now he knew that all adults liked bitter things…and he didn't know why. Did they all think that sugar was poison? Like big sis was always telling him. Wait…oh no…did she think that….that sugar and sweets were gross now? Was she crossing over to the adult side? Was that what happened when you turned eleven?
He didn't know. He was only ten and a half.
But he would be eleven one day and he would change…and he didn't want to change. He had already changed enough as it was. Being ten was hard enough. It felt like the minute he turned ten the goldfish in his stomach had gotten even worse. Maybe it was because he'd had his first good kiss after his tenth birthday, like right after, and that had been the thing to make him just…think about stuff…and now it felt like this was all that he could think of. His own stupid feelings.
Which were very stupid.
He was being very stupid. His heart was still beating like crazy and the goldfish in his stomach was swimming like it was trying to get out…and he had no idea why. Shimazaki was over on his bed. He was sitting all leaned back on his bed and his coat was off and his head was tilted back and…and he just…he looked so…Sho wanted…well he had no idea what he wanted. To be near him. To be sitting on that bed next to him and…and to just…he wanted to rest his head on Shimazaki's chest like he was tired…even though he wasn't tired. He wasn't tired at all. He was wide awake.
He was wide awake and he was being stupid.
"Yeah, ok, I can't listen to this anymore. Kid, pick an album." Said Shimazaki as he finished his beer, this was a Toshi beer and they were going to kill him for drinking but, hey, as is life. He finished his beer and put the bottle down on the ground before getting up out of bed. He just could not listen to that kid's aura anymore. The kid sounded like someone lined up a bunch of tea kettles and put the tea on at all different times and now they were just whistling like crazy…and he could not take it. He needed peace. He needed to listen to something else. The way that the kid felt about him would not change the outcome, he loved the kid as his own and other such sappy feelings, but right now the kid was giving him the mother of all headaches.
"What?" asked Sho. Shimazaki was getting up and coming over…and Sho got out of his chair. Sho got up so he could sit down…and he was close enough that Sho could smell him…and he smelled like he always did, like cologne, and Sho had no idea why he even cared but he did…probably because he liked Shimazaki so, of course, he would like everything about him…and stuff. But still. That was a weird thing for him to get weird about…
But then again he was a very weird guy.
"Pick an album, any album in the world….and I thought I left this opened…." Said Shimazaki. He reached for his keyboard but felt….well he had closed it at some point then…and he maybe had been going a little too hard today. He had been kidding about thinning their blood until they bled out but…yeah. He had been going since that morning and he was relying more on his other senses than his powers…and that was never a good sign. Maybe he should slow down…or speed up.
He reached over to his drawers and…and he didn't remembered leaving that drawer opened.
He also didn't remember his MDMA being on top like that…and the labels were all facing weird…and well he did have periods of time where he just did stuff and didn't remember but those time should have been few and far between not….he had been going hard today but not that hard. Not even hard by anyone's…well by some people's standards. He didn't know. Not hard enough to black out…and if he had blacked out then he wouldn't have been so coherent now…but then why were his drawers opened….
He listened to the kid's aura.
"I like Magical Mystery Tour….or Yellow Submarine…or One…the one with the number one on it…and…." Said Sho. Shimazaki noticed. He noticed and now Sho was in for it. He just….he had no idea what to do. Run and hide? Dive under the bed? Explain? Blame it on someone else? Punch Shimazaki in the back of the head and then have a play fight with him, or even a real fight, so that he forgot that Sho had gone into his desk? He didn't know….
He had no idea.
"Kid…were you in my desk?" asked Shimazaki. He had been listening to the kid's aura…and he was nervous….but not that lovesick sort of nervousness that always clung to him. This was a different sort of nervousness. This was a nervousness that Shimazaki…he wasn't even sure if he wanted to deal with this sort of nervousness. This was a guilty sort of nervousness…and the kid might as well have confessed right then and there…
The diving onto the bed and hiding under the blankets just cinched it.
"I'm sorry…don't be mad." Said Sho. He felt like Hatori. He felt like he just wanted to hide and never come out. He knew that he should have denied and denied…but then Shimazaki would have been even more pissed off at him…and he was pissed off now…and Sho should have just ran all the way home…but even as mad as Shimazaki was at him he just….he still wanted to be near him. Even though he must have been mad Sho still felt good and safe and warm under his blankets on his bed…and he knew that it made no sense….and that was just…how he felt.
"Fuck…kid. I know I said that you could go in here but all of my pills are messed up…and…you didn't take any of these…right?" asked Shimazaki. He wasn't a religious man, he had never been a religious man, but right now he was praying to whatever God who was up there and listening that the kid hadn't taken anything and that he wasn't on his way to overdosing…because then Toshi would never have forgiven him…and also he would never have forgiven himself. He loved the kid. He wanted the kid to live. He loved this kid like he did his own…
And maybe this was why Toshi was always saying that the two of them had no business having kids.
"I just ate one…and I thought that it was candy." Said Sho. He was just going to confess. Maybe if he confessed then Shimazaki would be less mad at him. Maybe if he confessed then Shimazaki would still want to be his friend. Maybe if he confessed then Shimazaki would be…would still want to be…would still want to be his friend.
Big sis loved him no matter what, he knew that, but he also knew that not everyone in the world was big sis.
"How?! How in the hell did you mistake any of this for candy!?" said Shimazaki. He maybe shouldn't have raised his voice but…but the kid had really fucked up! Seriously! He gave the kid one rule, don't touch the pills, and then the minute he had been left alone he went right for the pills…and not even just for the total normal reason of taking a handful of normal pills to see what would happen. How could he have thought that they were candy? This kid….he was such a kid…and this was not Shimazaki's fault! So if the kid died then it was his own fault…and nobody would ever believe that….Shimazaki didn't even believe that….and he was the one telling himself that!
God….this kid….
"Because they were yellow! If they weren't yellow then I wouldn't have eaten any but they were yellow so I had to eat them!" said Sho. Shimazaki was mad at him. He was hiding under the blanket and he couldn't see him…but he could see his aura…and he was just…He had never been mad at Sho before but now he was mad at him…and he didn't like this at all…but this was just…something that happened…something that was happening….
And he had no idea how to make this stop happening.
He didn't like being yelled at…and he wanted…he wanted to be there and he didn't. He wanted to be next to Shimazaki, right next to him, and he also wanted to hide somewhere. He wanted to go outside and dig a hole and hide in the hole until…until Shimazaki forgot what he had done…but he couldn't' go outside and live in a hole in the ground. Big sis would come looking for him. She would wonder where he was and he couldn't just run away from her like that. She would have been sad…and he didn't want her to be sad….
But he didn't want to be sad either.
"Kid…is all candy yellow? This is a legitimate question, by the way, I'm not being sarcastic. I'm trying really hard to understand what was going through your head. I gave you one rule about my desk, just one, don't touch the pills…and you touched the pills…and I just can't begin to understand why you would do something like that." Said Shimazaki. He had hated it, when he had been a kid, and his dad would yell at him. Shimazaki wasn't about to go on one of dad's 'you were a mistake and your mother should have let me drown you at birth' lectures….the bastard was choking on cocks in hell….but he was just…he was upset and…
And he was not going to tell at Sho.
Even though he had fucked up, majorly, and now he was in for either heaven or hell and he didn't even know it. That kid…that stupid fucking kid…but Shimazaki had been a stupid fucking kid once. He had been just as much of a stupid fucking kid as Sho was when he had been ten years old…and he wasn't going to yell at Sho. He wasn't going to make the kid feel like his dad had made him feel….
He was going to get another beer.
The kid wasn't answering. Shimazaki decided to give him a minute. He put on Magical Mystery Tour, the kid liked that one, and then he went over to the bed. He was too freaked out, and he hated being freaked out, and he especially hated being so freaked out that he couldn't see. He wound up walking right into the beer hoard, thankfully nothing broke, and he fixed it as best as he could. He put everything upright and then he grabbed a beer and sat down on the bed next to the kid.
He leaned over onto the warm blanket lump that used to be Suzuki Sho.
"I'm not mad at you….anymore. Well I am but….God I suck at introspection….I guess that I was more freaked out than anything. You just….you did something really dangerous back there…you know? When I say that something is dangerous then I expect you to listen to me. OK? I'm sorry that I yelled at you. I never…I mean you deserved it but…God. I sounded like my dad back there…well I mean I didn't tell you that I should have killed you when you were born…because I wasn't there when you were born…and also I'm really fucking happy that you're alive…and shit. Just….talk to me, ok? Talk to me because I'm no good at this shit." Said Shimazaki. The kid was still silent. He was awake, of course he was awake, but he was just….quiet. Being quiet did not suit the little guy one bit….and also it was sort of….unnerving….
Shimazaki focused on his breathing.
He focused on the fact that the kid was still breathing and his heart was still beating and…and he was ok….he was ok. He was still alive and…and if he overdosed then…then Shimazaki had no clue what to do. The hospital was out of the question and…and he couldn't just see what would happen if the kid did start to overdose…well there was always that healer…who would go running to Suzuki with this information…and Shimazaki knew that Suzuki didn't much like the kid but this was also his only son and guys got so weird about their sons and their bloodlines…
And there was probably a beating coming in his future.
But he could take it. He could take it for the kid. He just…he did not want to be responsible for the kid dying. He had been responsible for a lot of people dying, he had personally saw to it that those people died, but never kids. He had never killed a kid in his life even when he had been a kid. He just…this kid was too young to die. There was so much that he hadn't done. So much that they hadn't done together. They hadn't ever done coke together, they hadn't ever tripped together. They hadn't ever set animals free from the zoo together, the kid talked about it all the time, and they had never set the fish at the aquarium free together, something else the kid talked about all the time, and they had never….they had never done a lot of things together. Things that Shimazaki hadn't even thought of until today.
There was so much he could do with the kid when he grew up.
He had a thought that…that he could introduce the kid to his kid…if he and Toshi ever had a kid…and by the time Toshi came around and agreed to have a kid with him then Sho would be old enough to have kids on his own, Suzuki seemed like the 'where are my grandchildren' type, and then his kid and Sho's kid could be friends…and shit like that. The kid wouldn't be a kid forever and…and hopefully he was fine. Hopefully he had just taken…well everything in that drawer could kill you if you took enough…but hopefully he had just taken a Xanax or something and now he was just on his way to dreamland….
It didn't feel like the kid was about to go to sleep anytime soon.
"Not…not all candy is yellow…but I thought that those were Smarties or something to I ate one…because my sister says that sugar is poison…and I wanted a piece of candy." Said Sho. He knew that he had to say something. He knew that Shimazaki had asked him to say something and the polite thing to do, when someone asked you to talk to them, was to actually talk to them…and he just…Shimazaki had yelled at him…and he had never yelled at him before…
But he had said that he was sorry.
The only person who had ever said sorry for yelling at him was big sis…and she said sorry to everything. She was his big sis, she had to, but Shimazaki didn't have to say sorry to him. Shimazaki could have told him to get the hell out and never talk to him again. Sho had broken the rule, the big rule, and Shimazaki could have easily told him to get lost…but he didn't. He just sat down next to him on the bed, and used him as a table or something, but still. He was being all nice….and Sho….
He was really hot.
"So you go and get a piece of candy. Sho…come on. You know…wait, you don't know better….right. I gave you a rule and I didn't tell you why…well I told you that pills would fuck you up….but I didn't tell you how pills could fuck you up….and I guess that you need to know why….God. This is hard." Said Shimazaki. Well this was good practice for what to do if his and Toshi's kid ever got into this situation. He would just….maybe get a drawer with a lock on it, or something, or just go through everything he had and explain to the kid why taking it was a bad idea. Or something like that. He didn't know. All he knew was that the kid's heartbeat was picking up…and he was just…not doing too well it seemed….
Shimazaki pulled the blanket off of him.
"Hey!" said Sho. He had been hiding under there. He sat up quickly. He was hot, too hot, and it felt like….like he was way too hot. Too hot and too thirsty. He needed something to drink. He reached over and took Shimazaki's beer from his hand.
"Hey yourself." Said Shimazaki. He surrendered his beer over to the kid. That was shitty beer anyway. He had no idea who's that was but whoever that beer belonged to had severely disappointed him. Honestly. They were in Japan, beer was plentiful and delicious, but someone was wasting their time and money on this shit? God. If the kid wasn't starting to get high on….whatever he had taken…then Shimazaki would have taken him to a liquor store so he could see what was good…and also because it just went easier when he went with someone who could, you know, see.
Well he was in better spirits now at least.
"I'm thirsty. I'm really thirsty." Said Sho. He hated this, it was bitter and gross, but he was really thirsty. He needed to drink something, anything, before he died of thirst. If he died of thirst then big sis would have been mad at him and he loved her so much. She would have been mad and sad and he didn't want her to be mad or sad. He loved her. He loved her so much and he wanted to hug her. He needed to hug her…
But she was not there.
But he needed a hug. He needed to hug and to be hugged….but mostly he just needed to drink. He needed to drunk because it was so hot in this room. Really. Why did it have to be so hot in this room? Who's idea was it to make this room so hot? Maybe Shimazaki was still mad at him even though he said that he wasn't…and maybe that was why he had taken the blanket off of Sho…or maybe he had just done that because it was hot as hell in this room!
"Uh huh, I can tell. How else do you feel?" asked Shimazaki. Well the kid was talking and moving and his aura sounded like the time he had put a metal cup in the microwave just to see what would happen, fire happened, and so it was some kind of upper he was on….which was and was not good. The kid wasn't going to close his eyes and never wake up again, which was good, but he could also…well he could start tripping and that was always bad when you weren't expecting it…or he could just…had he eaten any of the mushrooms? No, those weren't a thing like pills….God. He had so much shit in there….some of which he hadn't even tried yet…and a lot of it was research chemicals and those….well a kid Sho's age should not have been fucking with those…
Hopefully he was going to be fine, perfectly fine, so fine that nobody had to know about this. Ever.
"Hot….really hot. It's hot in this room and it's getting hotter…and how do you not feel that?" asked Sho. He was…he had been fine a minute ago….or a lot of minutes ago. He had heard this album before and he knew that it was almost done…so it had been a lot of minutes….and he just…he knew that Shimazaki had told him that he shouldn't take the stuff from his drawer but…but he had always imagined that this would have been like smoking. Smoking always made him feel slow and hungry…but he wasn't slow and hungry. He was going….he felt sort of like he was going fast…or maybe that was just his heart…and he was thirsty and he wanted….
He wanted a hug.
"Because I'm not on….MDMA I'm guessing. Do you want a hug too? And do you feel like the whole world is your best friend? And that you can do no wrong?" asked Shimazaki. Well someone had moved his MDMA to the top….and that was a relief. Out of everything in that drawer the kid had pulled out the thing least likely to kill him or ruin his life…unless he pulled a Hatori…so maybe it was time to stop drinking. The kid didn't need his inhibitions lowered any further…and also he didn't need any more declarations of love from the kid….and he had a big enough chance of getting them. The kid's aura was yelling at his, now, and the kid was sitting so close…and also he did not smell good. Not at all. He was sweating and….yeah. At some point he would have to give the kid a crashcoarse in deodorant and cologne but not right now. For right now he would just deal with things as they came. Come what may and all of that.
"Yes…yes to all of that! I want a fucking hug right fucking now! Now I'm going to hug you!" said Sho. He didn't wait for an answer. He got up on his knees and threw himself at Shimazaki…and he didn't care if his beer hit the ground because it was mostly empty, anyway. Shimazaki was there and he was so warm and he was just so…..Sho loved him! Sho loved him and he was loved by him and he felt loved by the whole world, like Shimazaki had said, and it felt like the whole world was his best friend and he wanted to be best friends with the whole world and this felt so good and nice and right and he just…he was so happy!
"What's it been….half an hour or a little more….or way more…yeah. You're in the thick of it. Ok, time to be responsible." Said Shimazaki as the kid hugged him…and he could deal with this. The kid was high off his mind and…and that was ok…because he was a good kid and…and also he was a strong kid…and he was really telekinetically strong….actually….and Shimazaki…..he wasn't sure if he could teleport away without the kid…
Not that he wanted to teleport away.
Nope. Not going to happen. He was going to be this kid's Sherpa. Not that he'd ever been this kind of Sherpa before, most people who took this shit knew what to expect, but for the kid he would do anything…including let the kid pin him down and mutter into his stomach about the whole world loving him and him loving the whole world….
Aw….he wished he'd been recording that.
"Don't be responsible. Hug me back. You're my best friend and I'm your best friend so let's hug." Said Sho. Shimazaki wasn't mad at him, Shimazaki loved him, and he loved Shimazaki right back. They were best friends…and only best friends…and that was ok. They were still there for each other and they still cared about each other like all the people of the world would come together and care about each other. The world was big and fun and they were fun and they could be there in the world with all of it's love…and that was what it felt like. The world…the world just felt like….like love….
Everything felt like love….and also Shimazaki…and he felt like love too.
"Kid, as much as I would love to be my usual irresponsible self I can't. Not right now. Not when you're like this. I have to walk you through this." said Shimazaki as he was hugged by the kid. He reached over and put an arm around him. Sure, ok, this was nice…but it would have been nicer if they had been on the same level…but he couldn't get on the kid's level because then…well Toshi was right next door and they had been pissed as all else when he tripped with Mob…so getting on the kid's level was out of the question…..
God, being responsible sucked.
"No, don't walk, hug. Please don't….don't go. Keep on hugging me. I want to hug you." Said Sho. He didn't want to think about it, Shimazaki walking out that door and away from him…and he just…he wanted to be near Shimazaki all the time…and especially now. Especially when he felt like…like this. All….it was like someone had taken all of the bad feelings from inside of him and scooped them out. Then they had filled him with ice cream….but warm ice cream….but not like it was melted just that it wasn't cold…and that was what this felt like…like he felt….good. Like he felt good and the whole world was good…and he was good….
He felt like he was good….very good…
"Ok, keep hugging me, but listen. You know that you're safe, right?" asked Shimazaki
"I know that I'm safe." Said Sho
"Good. You know that you're loved right? That I love you. That I love you as my best friend." Said Shimazaki
"I love you too…" said Sho. He meant it. He had never meant something as much as he meant those four words. He loved Shimazaki and….and he wanted him to know it. It was like he had so much love inside of himself that he needed to share it…and who better to share it with than the person he loved…and he knew that wouldn't…that they never could…but now it felt almost like…like they could. Like they could and it would be ok…because love was good and the world was made of love so the world was good and since the world was good and made of love then maybe it was ok to love Shimazaki…and stuff.
"Yeah, as a friend….anyway you're going to be feeling really good for about three or four hours and then you'll start to come down. That can take between six and eight hours…I sound like a fucking Wikipedia page…God. Ok what else….there must have been something else. Think, Ryou, think. Um…God….right! Also you need to drink a lot of water and…..God….what else….yeah. I'll turn the air up too, alright? Sounds good?" asked Shimazaki
"Just keep on hugging me." Said Sho. He never wanted to be apart from Shimazaki ever again. He wanted to be there with him for the rest of eternity. Just the two of them there in love…all the love…because Shimazaki loved him too…and that was the best part of all of this. Shimazaki loved him…and he loved Shimazaki….and this was so….so good…
"Yeah, I will in a minute. I have to find you something to drink that isn't beer….ok? Just….here. Hug my jacket until I get back." Said Shimazaki as he picked his coat up off the floor. Not the best place to store it, especially since he could smell beer on it, but it was what it was and right now it was a security object for Sho. It seemed that he was one of those people who got clingy….which was all people….but at least he wasn't one of those people who got weirdly horny…
Thank God he was only ten.
If he had been older then, yeah, he would have had a very awkward problem on his hands. Shimazaki…well he was one of those people who got very touchy and very horny, though to be fair sex on MDMA was the best sex that a person would ever have in their lifetime, and if the kid had been older and asking him for more than a hug an assurance that he was loved well….well then he would have had to teleport to somewhere either than the kitchen.
Because he wasn't going to be doing any of that.
Not with the kid now, he was ten and that was wrong, and not when he grew up either, because he thought of him as his kid and that was wrong. His sister, well when she grew up, but that was Mob. She was less a kid to him and more of a very short friend. The kid on the other hand was a kid to him….so he was glad that he was only ten. This could have been so much worse….and he was bracing himself for any forthcoming declarations of love, but at least that was all that he had to worry about. Well that and how he was going to explain to everyone why the fridge was bereft of all drinks….
He was Shimazaki Ryou. He didn't have to explain himself to anyone.
Though it would be hard, he thought as he teleported back to his room, how he was going to explain the state that this kid was in. Toshi was still next door and the sun, from what he could feel from his window, was still high enough that Suzuki wouldn't be home for a while. Toshi never stayed when Suzuki was home, and he didn't blame them, but the kid would have to go home when Suzuki came home because that was dinner time…not that the kid would be hungry anytime soon….but he would have to go home….unless he stayed and made Shibata cook for him…
But then all the others would know…..
And then Toshi would know and then they would be pissed at him and then all the progress he had made with them, they loved him they just didn't want to admit it for Toshi reasons, would go down the drain…and he couldn't fuck this up with Toshi. Not when he was so close to….well he had no idea what he was close to but he knew that he was close to something so….so he couldn't fuck this up…but he needed this kid back to normal…now!
Maybe smoke him down.
He sat down on the bed and left the drinks over on the floor. He reached into his coat pocket, well he wrestled it away from the kid first, and then he clicked it on and handed it to Sho. Stoned Sho was better than clingy Sho. He could explain stoned Sho to Toshi and he would get into a lot less trouble than if Toshi knew that truth…even though Sho was the one who had done the direct opposite of what he had been told…but then again Shimazaki was no hypocrite. He did the direct opposite of what he had been told to do on a daily basis.
Or maybe not….he didn't know. Responsibility sucked.
"Hey…I was hugging that. I was hugging that and I was pretending that it was you. I like hugging you. I like you." Said Sho. That felt good to say…and it was alright to say that. It just came out…and that was alright….because the world was made of love and he was made of love to it was ok to say that…even though….no. It wasn't like he was going to kiss him or anything so then…so then it was ok to tell him how he felt….and stuff.
"Well now the real me is back….and smoke this. I know that this is really early but this shit is hitting you hard and fast, probably because you're only ten, so I need you to smoke yourself down." Said Shimazaki as he pressed the pen to the kid's mouth. He took it in his hand but didn't smoke it. Great. Just great.
"But…I like this. It's like….a lot of the time I feel really bad. Sort of like….like I don't like myself. Because of how much of a jerk I used to be to my sister and….and about how I was born wrong….and about how I'm always thinking about cheating on my girlfriend with you…well with you and also sometimes other guys like this one guy I know named Hideki who I kissed in the coatroom at the stupid party…..and I hate myself for thinking like that…but I just….now I don't. Now I feel like I'm just all full of love and stuff and I want this to be my life from now on." Said Sho. He hoped that Shimazaki could hear him. He buried his face in Shimazaki's stomach while he said that. He smelled good and his shirt was sort….Sho rubbed his head and arms against him…and he was so soft…and there was this music playing in the background and it was so good…and he felt so good….and Shimazaki felt so good…and he smelled so good…and this was just…
This was the best thing ever.
"Kid….listen. I'm flattered, really I am, and you have every right to think whatever you want-" said Shimazaki
"I think about you a lot." Said Sho. He thought about this a lot, being this close to Shimazaki, close enough that he could hear his heartbeat and rest his head right on his stomach…and this was ok. Hugs were ok. Hugs were more than ok. Hugs were the best thing ever!
"Yeah…I know. Listen, you think that I've got it going on and that's cool but you're a kid and I'm not. Ok? You're way too young for me and even if you were three or four years older that would still be a 'no' since I don't think about you like that. I love you but as a friend and, ok, think about me or whoever else you want to but, yeah, don't wait for me to come around or anything like that because…this is as around as I'm going to come. Ok? But remember, I still think that you're the coolest kid in the world." Said Shimazaki. This was not the place to reject him but….yeah. Better now than later on when he was even further in the thick of it. This shit…this shit made you stupid. It made you say and so stupid things…and he didn't need the kid getting any stupid ideas. He didn't want to hurt the kid, he didn't want to ruin MDMA for the kid, but he also didn't want the kid to end up thinking anything that wasn't true and…
And this being responsible thing was really fucking hard.
"Say it again." said Sho. That was the nicest thing that anyone had ever said to him…and Shimazaki had been the one to say it. Shimazaki thought that he was cool. Shimazaki, the coolest guy in the whole world, thought that he was cool…..and that was just….that was the best thing ever!
"What? That you're cool?" asked Shimazaki with a groan. Great. That was what the kid took from his heartfelt little speech? This kid…he just heard what he felt like hearing, didn't he? He just ignored all of the sappy rejection stuff and went right to the part he wanted to hear. Well wasn't that just wonderful?
"Yeah….I like it when you say stuff like that to me. It makes me feel all happy inside. Like I could do anything." Said Sho. When he was with Shimazaki he felt good about himself and Shimazaki needed to know that. He needed to know that he was Sho's very best friend. He needed to know that if Sho had been Shoko then he would have married him and kissed him and whatever else he felt like doing…and that if Sho hadn't had a girlfriend he would have kissed him right then…and he wanted….he really wanted to kiss someone….
"That's all you got out of that, huh?" asked Shimazaki with a shake of his head. This kid…this kid. He loved this kid, he really did, but he could be kind of ridiculous sometimes. Well no more ridiculous than Shimazaki had been as a kid, anyway. Love…love made you stupid and drugs made you stupid and he could put up with the kid's stupid for now. At least he was happy. That was a good, thing, right? To be able to make the kid happy? You had to think of what was in the best interests of the child after all…God. He sounded like he should have been in family court or something.
"Yeah, now say it again." said Sho. He wanted Shimazaki to tell him all the time that he was cool…because he thought that Shimazaki was cool…and now they thought that they were each cool…and that was just the best thing ever. If they both thought that the other was cool then Sho…he could imagine Shimazaki thinking about him….the same way he thought about Shimazaki…even though he knew that Shimazaki could never feel the same way back….but he felt too good to feel like that right now.
"Fine. Sho, you're so cool. You're the coolest kid that I have ever met and I am happy to have you for a FRIEND." Said Shimazaki as he patted Sho on the head. They were just friends and he needed the kid to get it through his little head…but obviously that wasn't going to happen today…so he had might as well ride this out for what it was now.
"You're my best friend too….and I like hugging you. Your shirt is soft and it smells good." Said Sho. He felt Shimazaki hand on his back. He wondered if he could live the rest of his life in a hug like this. He loved hugs and he loved hugging Shimazaki and he was so happy and….and he wanted to be this happy for the rest of his life. He wanted…he wanted…he wanted to feel like this for the rest of his life…
Shimazaki really felt good.
Sho hugged him close and tight. His shirt was so soft and…and so was his skin. He had skin on his arms and he was holding Sho and…and he had skin on his stomach too…and his shirt had gone up and Sho had found his stomach and he knew that maybe this was too close but the skin on his stomach was soft and Sho…he felt…weird. Just….just weird but good weird and he wanted to-
It didn't matter what he wanted because now he was being sat up.
"Hey, ok. How about I tell you a story or something? And then you drink…whatever's in this bottle. How's that sound?" asked Shimazaki. He pried the kid off of him and reached down for a two liter he liberated from the fridge. The kid was getting more than a little handsy there and…yeah. Shimazaki knew that he was getting to that age and he did not want to deal with that right now. All the new and confusing feelings he would have to explain to the little guy. Nope. Not dealing with that. He would gladly tell all the gory and violent stories the kid wanted to hear but he was not, absolutely not, going to let the kid get up to…all of that.
Too weird. Way too weird.
"This is….value brand cola with natural coloring and flavors." Said Sho as he read the bottle that had been put in his hands. He wanted to go back to feeling Shimazaki's skin…but he was thirsty and he liked soda…and big sis never let him have a whole two liter to himself anymore….and he still loved her even though she could be sort of bossy about that soda…but he still loved her…and he still loved Shimazaki too even though Shimazaki had pulled him off…and he loved everyone in the whole world….except for dad…and Minegishi…well Minegishi was ok since they had given him books so he could love them….but not dad. Pretty much everyone but dad.
But especially Shimazaki.
"Good drink that and I'll tell you that story you like about how I stabbed my dad. You like that one, right?" asked Shimazaki. He needed to take this kid's mind off of…all of that. He was not ready for the kid to start feeling like that about him. He didn't know if he would ever be ready to deal with the kid feeling like that about him…so he would deal with it later. Much later. Not now. This was…he did not want to deal with this now….he would gladly bring up every single violent, gory, or both thing that had ever happened to him in his entire life if he meant never having to address the fact that the kid was having feelings like….that…about him…
Toshi maybe had a point about this thing going in the wrong direction.
"I do…I really do…but can you tell me about that and then something else. Can I have two stories? And can I get back to hugging you?" asked Sho. As he held his soda. He wanted to get back to hugging, to get back to the softness of skin and clothes and…and this bottle was soft too. He rubbed it against his arms. It was soft but in a cool and plastic sort of way…and that didn't mean that it wasn't nice…because it was nice. It was so nice. Everything was so nice. The feel of his own skin, this bottle, the sun coming through the windows, the bottles by his feet, the bottomless well of love that existed inside of him, Shimazaki, and all the other people in the world….this was just…this was so nice…and he wanted to feel this nice all the time….and he wondered if he could. What else was in Shimazaki's desk drawers?
And why had he wanted to keep Sho out of there.
There were so many good things and good feelings inside of those drawers and…and he wanted to eat everything. If eating just one of those yellow Smarties made him feel this good then what would it have been like to have had two or three? Or the whole bag like he had been about to eat? And what about the other stuff? And what about the pen that Shimazaki had given to him? What would it have felt like to smoke from that while he felt like this? Or like how all of the other stuff would have made him feel?
He didn't know…but he wanted to know….but also he was very thirsty and he really wanted to drink this soda so that would come first.
"Kid, you can have all the stories you want just so long as you keep it all above my clothes, ok?" asked Shimazaki as the kid went to town on that soda. He was not ready for all of that…but he was ready to tell stories. Yeah, stories would work. One day the kid would be too big for stories…but that day was still a long while off. Right now he liked soda and stories and hugging him platonically.
"Deal. Ok, you can start now." Said Sho as he drank his soda. This was the best day ever and he was the happiest he had ever been….and he wanted to stay this happy for the rest of his life…and maybe he could…he didn't know….
But he did know that he liked yellow Smarties more than beer.