This bed was not big enough for two.
Not platonically, anyway, and not that Shimazaki would ever have been anything other than platonic with the kid. No, despite popular opinion he was not a creep. He was a lot of things; an asshole, a dick, a contrarian, unnecessarily belligerent, impulsive, a former bed wetter, a former yakuza member, a current cult member, annoying, generally unpleasant, the worst kind of Beatles fan, general fan of overplayed rock music, disliker of boybands, and also he could be a little bit immature sometimes…
But he did not mess around with kids!
And if people wanted to make something of this then…well then they fuck them. Someone else could fuck them. Not Shimazaki. They didn't deserve him and also he was not in the mood. He had never been less in the mood as he had for these past couple of days. This had been…well not that bad but….well not that great either. For the kid and for him….
Mostly for the kid….but also mostly for him.
"You up yet, kid?" asked Shimazaki from where he was folded up into the corner of the bed. The kid…he kicked a lot. He kicked a lot and also he tossed and turned, too, and Shimazaki….he needed to be still to sleep. He did not like to be touched while he slept, not by anyone other than Toshi, and also he did not like to be kicked while he slept either. Or rolled over into. He needed his sleep and….and as much as he hated to admit it…
He sort of wanted the kid to sleep in his own damn bed.
"Yeah….kind of." Said Sho from his spot where he was curled up into Shimazaki. He didn't want to get up. When he slept he could be warm and comfortable and just…he was happier asleep than awake. He was happier when he could close his eyes and just pretend….well he could pretend the he was someone else and he was somewhere else and…
And he had just…
He had been weirdly sad for a while.
Ever since he had eaten that thing that looked like candy but wasn't he had just been…well at first he had been very sad but now…now he was just a little sad. Like he had gotten out of the sadness ocean but he still had sadness salt on him…or something. He didn't know. All he knew was that he sucked. He sucked for being in love with his best, he sucked for always thinking about cheating on his girlfriend, and also he sucked for….well for being away from home for two whole days. Big sis must have been so worried about him. She had come over bunch of times asking if he was going to come home and he had always told her 'not yet' and…and he didn't know when 'yet' would be….
He didn't want to go home.
"Can you get your elbow out of my stomach then?" asked Shimazaki. He loved the kid, he really did, and he wanted more than anything else to have a kid just like him…and not just because having kids would have been awesome. If he had a kid just like this kid then the kids could have been friends and Sho could have been in love or like or whatever with his son and not him and then, well, he could have his bed back. He was thirty, thirty one in a few months, and he was too young to have his back aching like this. His back ached and it wasn't going to get any better because the kid…he was not going to be going home anytime soon it seemed like…and he just…yeah. He loved the kid more than he loved any other kid but…yeah. He needed his bed back.
And soon….but that was ok….because he was making an effort to be a nice person for once in his life…and he was not going to tell he kid that he needed to go to his own house and sleep in his own bed…sideways….because he slept sideways…and also he kicked…a lot….
"Sorry." said Sho. He sat up and stretched. He…he liked this. He liked sleeping next to Shimazaki and…and that was not ok. Well the books said that it was but also…also he had a girlfriend and he should have been sleeping next to her…well no because she had her own family and also he was not bringing her here to deal with dad and his….everything that was wrong with him….but he still should have been thinking about sleeping next to her. He should have been thinking about when he would next see her and kiss her and how good it would be when they grew up and stuff….and….
And how proud dad would be of him…
That was the worst thing ever. He could have….he could have been fine….if dad had kept his mouth shut. If dad hadn't gone on and on and on about how he was so proud of Sho just because he had a girlfriend. That was the only thing that dad liked about him…and also that he could draw….but dad only liked the fact that he could draw because he liked to steal his drawings…and dad only liked that he had a girlfriend because that meant that he would have grandkids to be a jerk too…and Sho…he didn't know why he even cared what dad thought of him…
How dad was proud of him.
Dad was only proud of him for all the things that he could do for him or the things that he would do for him in the future. He didn't care who Sho was as a person. He didn't care that Sho…he didn't care that Sho liked to climb trees and look at baby birds and also feed them crushed up worms so they wouldn't starve to death before their mom came back….and he didn't care that Sho could name from memory all seventy one breeds of cat and all five breeds of pet hamsters and also he knew how to walk on his hands and make a sandwich out of poptarts and frosting and that he could spit across the room in one try and that he could….he could…
He could do a lot of things.
He could do a lot of things but dad…he just didn't care. He didn't care what Sho could do. He only cared about the things that…that benefitted him…and stuff. Also dad he just…he was proud of Sho and…and Sho didn't want dad to be proud of him! He didn't want dad to think about him and be all proud and also…and he didn't care how dad felt….and he didn't care if dad was proud of him or anything and….
And he just…he couldn't go home…because dad was there…being all proud of him…and stuff….
"It's ok, I'll live." Said Shimazaki. He scooted to the end of the bed and sat next to the kid. He stretched again. His aura and perceptions stretched out as he stretched. He could feel the kid next to him, God he was small, he could feel Toshi sitting up in their bed with something square…a book…in their hands. He could feel Hatori flopped over onto his stomach with one leg dangling off the bed, he had probably been up all night with Suzuki doing whatever it is they did together, and he could feel Shibata passed out on the couch clutching something round…..the waffle maker. It was early. He expanded out further. Suzuki was starting his day, he had moved the jerking off from late at night to early in the morning, and Mob was still passed out….it was early. If everyone was still sleeping then it was early. The blinds were closed, the kid needed darkness to sleep, and Shimazaki had no idea what time it was. Early. Early enough for Toshi to be the only one awake….early enough that he would have gone back to bed…next to them…but he couldn't go back to bed…because the kid needed him…
He heard the kid's stomach rumbling.
Right. Kids needed food. Well he could make food. He could make…well he could make oatmeal and porridge, there was a difference, and he knew how to fry eggs and bacon….and he did know how to make waffles from the mix he just didn't like to…and he didn't feel like cooking…but the kid was hungry. This was part of taking care of a kid, one of the parts of taking care of a kid, that wasn't so fun. They weren't all building forts, climbing trees, doing drugs, and putting worms in people's beds. No, they also needed food and water and…and baths. This kid needed a bath….and also to change his clothes…
And also to go back to his own goddamned house for a little bit….but Shimazaki could handle this…and he was handling this….
"I really am sorry." said Sho. He didn't know what he was saying sorry for. Sleeping with his elbow jammed into Shimazaki's stomach, sleeping next to Shimazaki, not going home, telling him that he loved him, being in love with him, eating random stuff from his drawer, kicking him in sleep….he didn't know. He just knew that he was sorry…and stuff…and he knew that he should have been sorry….and he knew that he should have been sorry in his own house….but he just did not want to go home so he was going to stay here and that was just the way that it was going to be…or something. He didn't know.
He needed to change his clothes.
He could smell….well he didn't need to smell himself to know that he needed a bath. He used to be able to go days and days without bathing but now he smelled bad if he skipped his bath…and he didn't want to take a bath here or at home…but maybe changing his clothes would have helped…but all of his clothes were at home and…and if he went home then he might run into dad again…he could feel dad's aura and he did not feel happy….or he would run into big sis and she would ask him why he had been gone for so long…and he couldn't tell her what happened because then she would worry…and stuff…and he didn't want her to worry because if she worried then she would ask way too many questions….questions which he did not want to have to answer….
So he was just going to sit there for the rest of the day.
"It's fine, anyway you want some breakfast?" asked Shimazaki. He could make something…or he could wake Shibata. He wouldn't cook for Shimazaki, for some reason it seemed like Shibata disliked him, but he would cook for the kid. He loved kids. One of these days he would have a million of them and they would all be three meters tall and weirdly nice. Like a subspecies of gentle giants or whatever. Shibata would feed the kid in true gentle giant feature and then….
Well Shimazaki would find some way to make him feel better.
Because he felt like crap. His aura was all lethargic…and not from all the edibles he'd been feeding him to try and fix his brain…and also he was pulling his shirt up over his face like he was crying again…no. He wasn't crying he was smelling himself….and yeah, he stank. The kid stank to high hell. It was the special kind of 'your body just figured out how to stink, stink' that was, honestly, the worst kind of stink that a person could….well there was the three days into a bender stench...yeah. That was worse. They were in that two day into a bender stench…if the kid eating molly and then him trying to fix the kid's brain chemistry with copious amounts of edibles and smokables could count as a bender…
He was doing his best here.
"Yeah….ok…are there poptarts? Um…uh….and can I borrow something to wear? I think that my clothes might need to be washed." Said Sho as he put his shirt back where it belonged. He smelled terrible. If dad had been there he would have told Sho that he either had to get in the bath willingly or he would hold him under the water until he was clean…probably right after he told him how proud he was that he had found a girlfriend finally…or whatever. He didn't want to go home and…and Shimazaki had clothes…and his clothes might have fit Sho…maybe…
Or maybe he just wanted to wear Shimazaki's clothes.
He didn't know and he didn't want to know. He was tired of feelings, having them, and thinking about them. Every time he thought about his feelings he just felt worse. The way he felt about Shimazaki and…and how it just…it wasn't getting any better. He knew that, in the movies and on TV, people fell in and out of love all the time. That was just what happened and it happened so easily…but real life wasn't like a movie. He was in love with Shimazaki and he had no idea how to fall out of love with Shimazaki….
And also…being in love with Shimazaki…it felt…kind of good….bad because he wasn't supposed to feel this but also….also kind of good and….and he didn't want to think about it anymore.
"I have no idea if we have poptarts or not but, yeah, you can borrow some of my clothes. The box closest to the desk has clean sleep clothes in it. Grab one of my t-shirts and sleep shorts, probably the ones with the drawstring unless you want to hold them up all day, and then toss your old stuff in the dirty basket and I'll do a load…and don't mess anything up. I have a system and, let me tell you, it's a bitch organizing clothes when you can't see." Said Shimazaki. The kid had better not have been about to mess up Toshi's handiwork. Shimazaki picked out clothes for how they felt….and before Toshi had decided to take over buying his clothes apparently he had been dressing like he was colorblind….heh….
He was funny in his head sometimes.
But the things happening outside of his head were not funny. The kid…well he was a kid. His brain chemistry should have bounced back by now. MDMA worked by pumping your brain full of all of it's feel good chemicals and that left you depressed when they were depleted….but getting good and stoned, and taking a Xanax for that deep Xan sleep….well all of that should have reset his brain…but it hadn't. He had no idea how kid's brains worked, he wasn't a brain doctor, but he did know that the kid should not have been this down….
When you think bad thoughts then push them away.
That was what he had taught the kid, well what he had been trying to teach the kid, to do. He had been trying to show him that you didn't have to be sad. That being sad was boring and being boring was a fate worse than death. Life was to live. If you just kept moving then the bad thoughts couldn't catch up with you. Just keep on moving and keep on doing what you had to do to keep them away. Otherwise you got all sad and boring and dwelt on the past all day every day and you started asking yourself the stupidest questions like 'why was I even born?' and 'what's the point of my existence?' and 'does anyone even want me here?' and other such things that you shouldn't have ever asked yourself. You should have just….just kept on going. Drink and smoke and take whatever you could and just…just so you could FEEL something. Something other than that heavy, cold feeling that sometimes liked to set in on you. That stupid feeling that clung to you like a desperate ex…that stupid feeling that liked to pop up when you least wanted it…
Those were the feelings…the boring feelings…..that a person didn't need to feel.
So he focused on something else, anything else, as he left the room and left the kid to get changed. He didn't care if the kid changed in front of him, to him naked people looked pretty much the same as clothes people, but he didn't want to make everything that the kid felt any worse than it had to be. The kid…he was going through a lot and Shimazaki….he had no idea what he was supposed to do about that and…
And he decided to just figure out what he was going to do this morning…then he could figure out the rest of the kid's life.
He walked over to the bathroom first before anything. He needed to brush his teeth and his hair was driving him crazy. He hated it when it got all droopy in the mornings like this. He knew that he could always cut it, they were in a free country for the time being, but then he wouldn't be able to spike it up and he liked it all spiked up. It felt nice and people seemed to like it…well Toshi, he knew for a fact, liked it. They liked it so much that they ran their hand through it sometimes without even realizing it…like when they cuddled and he listened to them reading….and he hadn't been able to do that in a while…but that was ok. He could feel….Toshi was getting up….and he knew that Toshi was going to come over and run a hand through his hair before they called him a moron…
Maybe he was clairvoyant.
"You have toothpaste on the corner of your mouth, you moron." Said Minegishi as they ran a hand through his hair. They would never admit it but they liked his hair like this. After he combed it, once it was all spiked up, it was hard to tell just how long it was. Longer than theirs. Softer, too, probably because he hadn't been dying it for years and years. They missed this, being near him, though they would never admit it. They had missed being able to be near him….
Idiot that he was.
"Somehow I knew that you were going to call me that." Said Shimazaki as he rinsed his toothbrush off and licked the toothpaste out of the corner of his mouth. Minty fresh for that artificially clean feeling.
"Maybe you can see the future." Said Minegishi rolling their eyes. Ryou…that moron Ryou. They didn't know whether to kiss him or to strangle him. They had set out to ask him, exactly, what he thought that he was doing borrowing Suzuki's kid like that. If Mob's little brother was going to be moving in with them now. If they should go and get some bunk beds for him and Sho. If Shimazaki had even come close to beginning to think any of this through….
But then they had seen him.
Absence makes the heart grow fonder and other such clichés. He hadn't been absent just…they hadn't had their time together in a couple of days. They hadn't had their time to cuddle and listen to books or smoke and listen to music…or other things. Times when they would just…be together….and he would be there and they would be there and it would all just be so….so nice and…and they had it bad. It had been so long since they had been together, alone together, and just…seeing him there…and he was an attractive man. He was attractive and he said that he knew it…but they got the feeling that he had no idea the true effect he had on them and…
And they needed to stop reading trashy romance novels so early in the morning.
"Maybe….and maybe you can too. Guess what I'm about to do?" asked Shimazaki as he turned around and put a hand on their waist. On the dip in their waist. He loved that space, there, right above their hip. They were thin, boney even, but he liked it. Their hip was sharp, sort of, but it reminded him that they were there. He could get a better look at them this way, well his aura could, and they were so….
God, he loved Toshi so fucking much.
"I don't need to be a fortune teller to see my future. You're going to kiss me, I'll kiss you back, and then you'll say something stupid like 'I love you' and then I'll tell you to shut up about that and then you'll tell me that you can't help the way you feel and then Mob's little brother, who by the way is wearing your favorite shirt, is going to overhear and then his little heart will snap in two and then he'll finally go home to his own and he'll finally get over this crush he has on you." Said Minegishi. They picked up his hand and took it off of their waist. They…maybe have had feelings…feelings which went beyond friendship…for him but they weren't going to just….sit there and get lost in….in him….
He needed to deal with this.
Not the feelings that they had for him, one of which Mob would have called 'doki doki' and grilled them about for hours if she had been there watching all of this, but the feelings that the kid had for him. Feelings which also could have been called 'doki doki'…or maybe even something more. Sho…he was not leading a good life. Ryou was one of the few positive people in his life, and he was damn good looking too, and of course Sho had developed a crush on him…and Ryou finally had someone to live vicariously through since he had spent so much of his childhood suffering…..not that he would ever call it that….and all of this was just a recipe for disaster….
A disaster that Ryou needed to have dealt with before it had gotten to this point.
"Damn Toshi….that was pretty good. Are you sure that you aren't clairvoyant?" asked Shimazaki. He faced them as he reached over to the counter and picked up his comb from the sink. He felt Toshi shaking their head. They reached past him…and they needed a bath…but in a good way. They smelled like they had just gotten up…and he missed getting up with them….but those times would come back. Maybe if he teleported Sho back to his bed…yeah. That might have been the thing to do…but then he would be sad…he would figure this out later.
"No, I just know you…and I know you well enough to know that you aren't going to do anything about Sho, are you?" asked Minegishi as they handed him his hair oil. He needed a shower….but not in a bad way. He smelled like old cologne and hair oil and….well…himself. They leaned away, out of it, because they just…could not think while he was that close.
"I am doing something." Said Shimazaki. He knew that he was doing something. Toshi's aura was giggling. He could hear it. He could feel their heartbeat. They were close enough…and then they weren't. They leaned out of his space and then against the doorframe. He shrugged and combed the knots out of his hair. He loved them but also he could tell that they wanted their space…and he wanted to be in their space too…
"What? You're going to stand here combing your hair until he gets bored and leaves?" asked Minegishi motioning out towards the hallway. They could hear him, now, and apparently he had decided that he was going to be helpful and do some laundry…and they half expected to see a toothbrush with Sho written on it hanging out in the toothbrush cup with all the others. That kid had better not have been planning on moving in. There were four of them already. One more and then…well Minegishi would bring it back down to four soon enough.
"No….because I know that he won't get bored. I'm just going to comb my hair and then I'm going to look for the poptarts because the kid is hungry and then I'll smoke him up again and-" said Shimazaki. Maybe the kid just needed to get more stoned. Just…maybe if he was stoned twenty four seven then whatever depression he was in would end and then he would be back to normal…or something. He didn't know. This might have been a job for a healer, this seemed like a brain chemistry thing, but he knew not to give that Fukuda bastard anything else over him…and if Mob hadn't been Mob…and if she hadn't been strong enough to stop him than that bastard would have been a smear on the ground….but she had stopped him and…
And he needed to stop thinking about this because he was starting to pull his hair out….and he had been told before that it was one of his best features. By Toshi, anyway, and their opinion of him was the only one that mattered.
"Yeah, can you maybe stop that? Mob at least has an excuse, I'm pretty sure that she's the one who destroyed the Eighth Division because she lost control of her powers, but her little brother has near perfect control. He doesn't need any of that, Ryou, and honestly I think that you're ruining his life with that." Said Minegishi. Honestly had always been a thing between them. Honesty and also telling each one telling the other when they were fucking up….and he was fucking up. The things that they did to cope…they had enough sense to know that there were other ways to cope…and they wished that they had other coping skills…and for the rest of their life they would regret setting Mob down the same path that they had been walking down for years…but at least Mob…she had a valid reason. That was a lot of uncontrollable power packed into one little girl. She was…someone who had a lot going on and….and so did her brother…but he had near perfect control and…
And the world did not need another Ryou on it's hands.
"I'm not ruining his life. I'm trying to help him. You know how it is, Toshi, when you just….have all of those boring feelings like sadness…and whatever….it's best to just get rid of those. The kid has been so down lately and I'm just trying to help. I love him, not in the way that he loves me you know me and you know that I'm not like that, and if he were my own kid I would do the same for him as I'm doing now." Said Shimazaki
"This, Ryou, is why we are never having children." Said Minegishi shaking their head. They knew that they would not have been able to help their hypothetical child deal with, well anything. They knew that their child would have all the normal problems that a kid had and also all the problems that came with being an esper, they got the feeling that them and Ryou, being as powerful as they were, would make a powerful esper kid, and then the kid would have to deal with having powers and also…everything that came with having the two of them for parents…
They were never having a kid. Ever.
"I never asked-" said Shimazaki. He wondered, for a moment, if Toshi knew how to read minds. If they knew what he had been thinking and if they knew that he wanted that more than…well more than a lot of things. He didn't know. Maybe he was just getting old…or something…or maybe he had just realized how awesome kids could be…
Or maybe he had just realized how awesome Toshi could be…and he wanted…well he wanted to make a person with them because…because then it would be as awesome as they were and also…also he maybe didn't want them to ever just…go from him….or whatever.
"You don't have to ask, Ryou, you're transparent. I know you and I know that you want us to have kids and I know that our child would not deserve us for parents…and also I have no interest in getting pregnant, either. You and I would be terrible parents and Suzuki's kids are a case in point." Said Minegishi. They reached over and took the comb from him. They reached up and straightened his hair out for him. There. Now he would listen.
"Well maybe they just get all of their problems from their dad. I'm not saying that we would ever have to have a kid but-" said Shimazaki
"Because you know better than that." Said Minegishi. There was no way that they were going through pregnancy and childbirth and then raising a human being that they had brought into this fucked up world. If he wanted to have a kid so badly then he could have one with someone else or he could swing by an orphanage or something.
"….yeah. I know better than that. I think that, if we were to have a kid, that you'd be a great parent." Said Shimazaki. He said that and he meant it…he meant it more than anything else in the whole world. Toshi would have been….they would have been the best parent ever. Better than his had been, anyway.
"Yeah, because I've done such a wonderful job with Mob, haven't I?" asked Minegishi with so much sarcasm that even Mob would have been able to notice.
"You're great with Mob. You love her and she loves you. Seriously. You guys are so sweet together I can feel my teeth rotting out." Said Shimazaki. Toshi would have been a good parent. He would have done his best but Toshi had this in the bag. They were more of a parent to Mob than her own parent was…though that wasn't saying much considering how much of a bastard Suzuki was.
"Then might I suggest that you stop eating garbage?" asked Minegishi rolling their eyes. They knew what he was getting at…and they had made some big mistakes with Mob. Mob….they might have ruined her life…or set her down the path to ruin…and she wasn't even their child. If that was what they did to someone else's child then God only knew how they would ruin their own kid.
"Nope. I can't. It's a part of my lifestyle." Said Shimazaki with a laugh that he didn't feel. He knew that Toshi didn't want kids and…and that wasn't a deal breaker….but they didn't even have a deal to break in the first place. He loved them and….and what they had was great but….he didn't even know what else he wanted with them. They lived together, they had sex constantly, they kissed and cuddled, and they just…were….together. Why did it matter, then, if they said it back? He didn't know. He felt like Sho with all of this hopeless pining….poor kid. Poor little guy….God, empathy sure sucked, didn't it?
"Well then can you at least stop giving drugs to kids who don't need them? Mob at least needs them but Sho…you're just teaching him some terrible coping mechanisms. That's a big reason why I don't think that we should have kids. I mean I have no interest in having a kid with you, or anyone so don't freak out and I know you will, but I know that we have no business being parents. That kid…he has a lot of issues and…yeah. I think that you're making this whole thing a lot worse than it has to be." Said Minegishi. Ryou could be something of a coward, sometimes. He liked things the way that they were and he was afraid to lose Sho, he would never admit it but he did have abandonment issues probably relating to his horrifically abusive childhood, and he would never risk losing Sho…and if Minegishi had been in the habit of psychoanalyzing people they would have said that Ryou and Sho were becoming way too codependent.
"Toshi….I'm not. He needs-" said Shimazaki. He was not ruining Sho's life. He needed a friend, Shimazaki was that friend, and he needed to be able to just take a break from his terrible life…and Shimazaki could give him that escape. When he had been a ten year old he would have killed for some way to just…get rid of all of those stupid feelings that…yeah. He wished, back when he had been a ten year old, that he'd had someone like him in his life.
"He needs you to tell him that you're not interested in him and you never will be." Said Minegishi. They reached up and held his head between their hands. He needed to listen. They needed to get through to him before he let this go any further. They knew Mob and if her brother was anything like her then, yeah, this was not going to end anytime soon. This needed to end soon, very soon, because as bad as this was when he was ten they didn't want to know what this would be like when he was eleven or twelve or thirteen….yeah. They had no idea what they would do if Sho was still a teenager and still madly in love, or whatever, with Ryou….
They were going to go and live in the woods, yes, that was what they would do.
"I'm not going to rip his heart out like that. I don't need him being all….mopey and boring. He's going to get over me eventually. I just have to wait for that…and I just have to wait this out." Said Shimazaki. He hated waiting. He had spent so much of his life waiting…back when his life had been four walls and a door that he couldn't open…back when he had been so small and back before he had been able to just…go where he wanted to go and…and he had been so small and…and he was not small again and…and he was not small. He could wait. He could sit and wait for however long it took for Sho's feelings to end or whatever.
How long could that possibly take?
"I've never known you to be capable of just sitting and waiting." Said Minegishi. They reached over and pulled down three pieces of his hair. One looked stupid, so did two, but three…well that was the magic number. They didn't know why. They just knew that he looked best like this…and they knew that he didn't need their help…but also they just…they just kept on doing things for him. Helping him…and they didn't know why…
They knew exactly why.
They knew why they did this for him, why they did anything for him, and why they would never stop doing things for him. They lo-the cared about him. They cared about him and…and they didn't want to see him get hurt…and they didn't want him to accidentally hurt someone else. They knew him, they knew that he meant well, and they knew fully well that the road to hell was paved with good intentions. Ryou….he was…he needed them and…and they needed to be there for him…
Even though they did not need any extra work.
"I'm capable of a lot of things, Toshi, a lot of things that you wouldn't think that I would be. I'm handling this. I'm going to finish combing my hair and then I'm going to get this kid some poptarts-" said Shimazaki. Toshi flicked him over the head. They weren't mad at him. They never did that when they were mad at him. They were annoyed with him, they had every right to be annoyed with him, but they weren't mad and that was what mattered.
"Pretty sure that Hatori finished off the last of them when he stumbled in last night." Said Minegishi
"Well then I'll wake up Shibata and have him make some poptarts. How hard can that be? He loves to cook." Said Shimazaki with a shrug. They shook their head. He focused on them. He focused on them so intently that he could feel their bangs brushing against their forehead. God…he wanted nothing more than to crawl into bed with them…and they were so warm and…and he just…he had someone to think about besides himself and…..and he could feel the kid moving around and…and he needed food…
The not so fun parts of having a kid. They needed food and stuff.
"Right. Well once you're both done with this little picture of domesticity maybe you just, you know, treat him like the child he is. You talk about how you love him like your own son but you treat him like he's a friend your own age. He's a kid. Treat him like one….and tell him to stay the hell away from the washer and dryer, too." Said Minegishi before they went back to their room. Ryou could handle this, at least he said so, and Minegishi…well they knew that everything had an ending and this one….well it might end in a mess that they had to clean up….but it was what it was.
"I can do that! You'd better believe that I can do that! I can do the hell out of that!" shouted Shimazaki…maybe a little too loudly. He felt the house shake as Hatori fell out of bed. He heard the couch groan as Shibata shot out of bed and shouted something about staying away from his waffle iron…and that sucked because Shimazaki might have felt like messing with that again…and he knew that the kid would have liked to have messed with the waffle iron too. They could melt caramels or marshmallows or chocolate….if they had anymore gram crackers they could make s'mores…and Sho would have loved that…
Because he was a kid.
He was a kid and…and maybe making waffle s'more would be the thing to bring him out of…whatever this was. Or maybe something else. Something that…that kids did. Because he was a kid and….and Shimazaki had never thought of him as an adult but…but he had been approaching this thing like he would have if Sho had been another adult. As an adult he knew that, as a kid, he would have loved to have had someone to smoke him up….but he also knew that as a kid he hadn't had any idea that smoking and drinking and…and anything was even an option…and he'd had his own way of dealing with the deep, sad, and boring feelings that he'd had back when…when he had been Sho's age. He'd had toys and music and books and he still had them…somewhere….he'd have to remember where….but he did still have all of that stuff all stored away….
And maybe he could share all of that with Sho. After breakfast, of course, because Sho was hungry and poptarts were delicious…and hopefully he could get Shibata to make enough for two.