There's no place like home.
Ritsu had heard that at least a thousand times…but it had never meant anything until now. It had never meant anything until he had been away from home…until he had been taken away from his home. This building…this house…the house that he had lived in for his entire life…it had never meant anything to hi. It had just been a house, brown and white, with a small yard in the front that wasn't really good for playing and a bigger yard in the back that, according to Tsubomi, was terrible for tennis but good for badminton. This house had two yards, four walls, one roof, and more windows than he had been able to count…well he had been about to count them…but he had never thought to count them. Now he wanted to count them.
He had to count them.
The ones in the living room. The ones in the kitchen. The ones in the dining nook. The ones in the hallway. The ones in his bedroom. The ones in mom and dad's bedroom. The ones in Shigeko's bedroom…too…he had never been in Shigeko's bedroom before. Well not after he started to be able to remember things. He hadn't ever been in there…mom and dad had sealed it up. The door was locked from the outside. He had never once so much as seen inside…even now…looking up…he could see her room with the pink curtains…they had been pinker when he'd been little but they'd faded by now…but he could still see them. The pink curtains of her room…he wondered if his curtains had faded. His were blue. He wondered if mom and dad had closed his curtains for him…he forgot to close them at night a lot of the time…he wondered if mom and dad had closed them at night…and he remembered if they'd opened them in the morning….that way at least people would be able to see inside of his room…
He wondered if they'd sealed his room up yet.
That was what you did when you lost a kid, you sealed up their room and then you put up a shrine, or at least that was what his parents had done when Shigeko died. They didn't think that he was dead though, no, just missing. There were orange fliers all over town with his school picture on them. They were taped up in store windows, stapled to trees, stuffed into mailboxes, and just…blowing in the breeze. He was glad that earth day had passed…his teacher would have had a heart attack if she'd seen this mess. 'Ritsu, you should know better than to go missing and make your parents chop down a whole forest to find you' she would say…and then she would ask him where his homework was….and he hadn't even started it!
….he had never been so happy to have homework in his entire life.
He had never been so happy to be home in his life. He was smiling. He had been smiling since he escaped….he had been smiling since he made it out of the woods….he had been smiling since Reigen caught them a ride into the city…and he had been smiling since…well he had been smiling for a long time. He was smiling better than he had been in his school picture, anyway. He was home. He was home, at his house, with his family…well he was almost with his family…dad's car was gone and all the curtains were closed….but that was ok…
He was home now.
"You can go now, I'm fine." Said Ritsu as he opened his front gate. There was a flyer taped to it. Missing: Kageyama Ritsu. Last seen….Friday's date. Then there was his height and weight and stuff…and mom and dad's phone numbers. It was like he was a lost dog or something. He wasn't lost, missing, he'd been kidnapped…but mom and dad couldn't know that. Mom and dad would have freaked out if they'd known what had really happened to him….and also they'd go into the woods and…and he just…
He wanted it to be over…well it was over…he wanted it to stay that way.
"No, I think that as the adult here I should at least say something to your parents." Said Reigen. Home. Ritsu was home…and now he had to get home…and call his mom. He hated calling mom…but….well it felt right. He'd have to call her from the office, though, since they took and destroyed his cellphone when they captured him. Ritsu's too. They were both due for an upgrade…and maybe on Monday after school they could go to the phone store…
Yeah, that was a good plan.
They'd head over to the phone store and get some new phones and then they could stop for ramen from that place that did the good pork broth…and then he could buy some kind of kid leash for Ritsu and never take it off of him since, obviously, he could not be trusted! He went after the people who he knew were after him….why?! Because he was eleven and stupid and…and he was ten! He wasn't even eleven yet and he was so stupid and Reigen had been even stupider for not listening to him and…
And he needed to stop for a drink on the way home. Whiskey sour…heavy on the whiskey and heavy on the sour…
"Don't say anything to them! They'll just freak out and then they'll try and go after Claw-" said Ritsu
"Well it's nice to know where you get it from." Said Reigen
"No, it's not like that. At least I'm an esper. Mom and dad…they aren't and they could get really hurt." Said Ritsu
"Ritsu…we could have gotten really hurt….and we did get really hurt! Ritsu, if the building hadn't exploded then we…we could have died. I know that this is heavy but we could have died. I don't want you fu-messing with those people ever again. Do you hear me?" asked Reigen. He didn't want to have this conversation right out in the street…but it looked like they were. Ritsu…Reigen had seen what had probably been his first kiss…and…yeah. That had been weirdly intimate for a couple of ten year olds…and he had seen the way Ritsu had been looking at the red haired kid afterwards and…yeah. Ritsu was stupid enough to do something completely insane like go back there to save his boyfriend or something….and Reigen knew that next time they messed with Claw they wouldn't be so lucky…
So, really, the only thing to do was to avoid those nutjobs for the rest of time.
"I hear you…and so can everyone else. If you don't want to go home to your own house then you can come inside….I guess…" said Ritsu. He didn't want to go after Claw…and he hadn't been going after them in the first place. Reigen was just being overly dramatic. Ritsu had been gathering evidence and he would have been fine, too, if Reigen hadn't tagged along. Next time….would be better…and there would be a next time…
But not with Reigen.
Reigen…he managed to trip coming up Ritsu's front steps. No. There was no way that he was coming along next time…and Ritsu…he didn't really want there to be a next time. He wasn't even happy that there had been a 'this time'. He…he never wanted to go away again…to be kidnapped again. The smell of home…it hit him as he opened the door. It smelled like Pine Time floor cleaner, that vanilla coffee mom always made, green tea like dad liked, incense from Shigeko's shrine, and just…home.
He was home.
He kicked off his shoes for the first time in days…his feet stank. He stank. He hadn't had a shower or even put on deodorant in days…maybe mom and dad were right about him being old enough that he needed to at least shower every day now….but Reigen smelled worse. They both needed a shower and…and if they got kidnapped again then…then he would probably end up smelling even worse. He could smell…metal…and that was…he could smell cleanser and…and he smelled like…he smelled like that cell and…
He took off his hoodie and tossed it into the corner.
Mom wouldn't have liked that. She was always telling him 'the floor is not a hamper' and stuff like that. She had been talking about the bathroom floor….and his bedroom floor…but not the living room floor…but he needed to get that hoodie off. It had been too hot out for hoodies anyway…and it smelled. It smelled like him…and it smelled like Claw. If Reigen hadn't been there then Ritsu would have taken off every single thing he was wearing. He could have….the curtains were closed….but he wouldn't. Reigen was going home…and it would have been weird to walk around his house naked anyways….
He needed to get this smell off of him.
"Do you want some tea? I'm going to make some tea." Said Ritsu as Reigen faced both of their shoes the right way. He had already taken off his suitcoat and he hung it on the hooks that were on the wall. He was so…calm…even though he had spent most of the…time they were imprisoned….trying to be calm. Ritsu knew that he'd been freaked out though. He'd cried at night, when he had thought that Ritsu had been sleeping. Ritsu hadn't been sleeping….he'd heard the whole thing.
He'd never heard a man cry before.
He knew that guys could cry. He cried, sometimes, mostly when he'd been little. That was when he'd gotten most of his crying out. He'd cried because mom and dad cried. He'd cried because his sister, who he had never even met, had died. He cried for himself, because he knew that he would never be able to meet her, and because he knew that he would never be enough that mom and dad stopped crying. He cried, sometimes, too now that he was older….but not as much. He'd never heard a man crying before…a man who wasn't dad anyway…and dad never made noise when he cried. Tears just sort of came out of his eyes like he was a leaking faucet…
Reigen made noise when he cried.
He sniffled and babbled and sobbed…like mom did when she cried. So maybe it made more sense for him to say that he had never heard a man make noise while he cried. Ritsu had just assumed that any crying he did when he became a man would be silent like dad when he cried….not that he had planned on it. It had just been…something that he had assumed…but he didn't assume that anymore. If Reigen could cry then anyone could cry…and he had been crying…all night in those uncomfortable beds…they'd shared a bed…Ritsu facing the wall and Reigen curled up around him like…like if anything happened he could have protected Ritsu…but he couldn't have protected Ritsu….Ritsu had been the one to protect him…and the one who had protected Ritsu…was still in Claw…
And Ritsu had to find a way to get him out…before it was too late.
"Do your parents have anything stronger than tea around here?" asked Reigen with a sigh. He picked up Ritsu's hoodie and hung it up. There…at least he had done something right…at least he had before he did something very wrong. Ritsu had never seen him drink before…and for good reason. It wasn't a good habit. It was a worse habit, even, then smoking. Nobody had ever come stumbling home at two in the morning screaming about shit that never happened….dumping their kid out of his bed…screaming about nothing…because of a cigarette….maybe he'd hold that call to mom after all…
He was not his mother.
He was not his father, either, he was…he had tried to be better. Ritsu wasn't even his kid but he had tried to be better than his own parents…and look at where that had gotten the two of them. Reigen had done, perhaps, the worst job that a person could have possibly done in their life when it came to Ritsu. He had let him get kidnapped by some crazy cult…almost brainwashed…or even killed. He could still remember what that one guy said…about how it got to the point where you couldn't even tell if you were alive or dead….
Reigen needed a drink…just one….just so he could….calm down.
"They have a coffee maker and a Keurig machine." Said Ritsu
"No I mean…you know what, I'll take a coffee." Said Reigen. He had been about to make a mistake there…one of the biggest of his life. He was not going to teach Ritsu that shit. That you could find your solutions at the bottom of a bottle. Ritsu…he was just a kid….he had his whole life ahead of him…and Reigen wasn't going to shorten that life. In fact, he was glad that they took his cigarettes when they kidnapped him. He was kicking that habit starting today…yeah….Ritsu did not need to be taught that shit.
Ritsu needed to be taught a lot of things but how to drink and smoke….well those were lessons that he would have to learn on his own in university like everyone else.
"We only have vanilla and then the kinds in the k-cups." Said Ritsu
"Surprise me." Said Reigen
"Do you want a k-cup or regular coffee?" asked Ritsu. If he wanted to surprise Reigen then he would have brought him a cup of tea…but that would have been mean. He didn't much want to make two things though…but he did need a cup of tea. He had heard adults say, before, that they needed a drink…and Ritsu…he got the feeling that he needed a drink right now. Even though he was only ten and ten months old he needed a drink right this second…
So he'd have to settle for mom's special sleepy time green tea and herbal blend.
"Look at you, you're like a little barista." Said Reigen with a smile. A real one. Ritsu was just…such a kid. He would have made a great barista, actually, or…well he would have made a great anything that wasn't an exorcist. No more…no more of that. Reigen's smile fell. No more…yeah…he'd find something else for the kid to do. Reigen…he was a licensed masseur…and notary…and dog groomer…and he knew CPR…and he had most of a law degree….and also there had been the course he took in photo editing…and he knew how to work a pasta maker….maybe he and Ritsu could make some kind of business around that?
He'd ask Ritsu…later…after the dust had settled. Not now…this was coffee time.
"I'm making you a k-cup." Said Ritsu. Reigen was talking to him like he was a kid….and he was…but he wasn't. He felt….different. Taller…older…even though he wasn't. He walked to the kitchen….on his way he passed the height chart. Shigeko stopped way near the bottom….but he got pretty high up the door frame. He eyed it as he walked past…he was taller but not…tall like an adult. That was what he felt like…an adult…
And adults made coffee.
Adults made coffee and they paid bills and went to work and shaved and did laundry and talked about politics and drove cars and were married and stuff. He was only ten. He barely knew how to make coffee, the directions were on the machine thankfully, and he didn't have any bills to pay…well sometimes he had overdue book fines but that wasn't the same. He didn't shave, either, and he didn't want to since dad was always cutting himself and complaining about the cost of razor blades too. He did his own laundry sometimes…when he REALLY did not want mom to wash his stuff….and he mostly got it right aside from the fabric softener…as for politics he had done a report last week about the two houses of the diet and what they did…not that he understood what mom and dad weren't talking to the neighbors ever again over. He could sort of drive…dad sometimes let him drive around empty parking lots when they went shopping without mom. Marriage and stuff was…never going to happen…unless they changed the laws which they wouldn't….so maybe he would never become an adult…
He felt like one already….though…
He was still too short to get the mugs out from the cabinet. He used his powers for that. He used his powers to fill up the k-cup machine and the electric kettle. He could reach those but…he liked…being able to use his powers. Now they worked…because he wasn't scared…and also…there had been these weird symbols carved into the bars of the cell that had hurt when he touched them…and they had been on the floor and the walls too….maybe they had done something to his powers there…he didn't know. He knew that he was strong, though, and he would get stronger…so maybe his powers made him feel like an adult…
Or maybe he just…wasn't a kid anymore.
He was in love. Just thinking about Sho now…and their kiss…that made his powers stop working. There was tea all over the counter…he put it back as fast as he could. Right. Big feelings made his powers either go away or go crazy…but he couldn't help it. That kiss…had been the best kiss of his life…and…and this was what love felt like. Sho liked him back…he'd kissed him back and not hit him and called him names or anything like that…and….and Sho had risked his life for him. Nobody had ever done that before…well Reigen…but the thought of liking Reigen…loving him….was gross. He was Reigen! Sho…well he was Sho…and also they were the same age…and…and Sho had risked his life and even blown up a building for him…he said that he hadn't but Ritsu knew that he had…
So this was what love felt like…the real kind…the kind that adults felt for each other…it was really nice….
The k-cup was done first. Ritsu made sure to get out a guest mug, one of the expensive ones that mom and dad bought but never used because they were for company. They hardly ever had company and yet mom and dad still had all of this company stuff…well now they did. Reigen was getting one of the plain white mugs that somehow costed fifteen thousand yen at the department store. Ritsu got out his old Zootopia mug….he had liked that movie for like ten seconds when he'd been little and mom and dad had never let it go…it was good for tea though….
He maybe wasn't all the way an adult…yet.
He carried the mugs in his hands, he didn't trust his powers right now, as he walked back into the living room. Reigen was standing up now and he was looking at Shigeko's shrine. Ritsu but the mugs down and, after a second, got some coasters out. Mom said that these were important so that they didn't ruin the table. It was already ruined, though, it wobbled. It had broken when he had been a baby and dad glued the leg back on. A lot of things in the house had been broken a long time ago. There was the pane of glass that didn't match the rest of the house in the hallway window, the tiles in the bathroom that didn't match the colors and patterns of anything else, the dent in the wall of his room that his parents hung a star chart over, the places where the carpet didn't exactly line up…
Ritsu wished that Reigen had been looking at some of those oddities and not his dead sister's shrine.
"It's a Shinto thing." Said Ritsu as he sat down on the couch. He grabbed his tea and blew on it. Still way too hot. He kind of wished that it was cooler, though, because he really needed a drink. He was thirsty, actually, because he'd hardly had anything to eat or drink…food was out of the question though…he didn't know if he could keep it down. His stomach was doing all kinds of flips….love flips…and fear flips….an also annoyance flips…
What, had Reigen never seen a shrine before?
"Oh! Right….hey. Coffee's done…great! You have no idea how badly I need a good cup of coffee." Said Reigen as he walked away, quickly, from the shrine he had been staring at. He couldn't help it. He'd seen shrines before, his parents had even had one, but those….well the ones that he'd grown up with had always had old people's pictures inside…not…it was a tragedy. Losing a child that young. Ritsu's parents…he wasn't going to pretend to know the pain of losing a child….or the pain of it happening again…
Did Ritsu have a landline?
He hadn't seen one when he came in. He scanned the room as he crossed it. No landline…an empty jack in the wall…and a square of paint, he could see, where one had been hanging in the kitchen. The Kageyama's had probably cut that cord a long time ago. Maybe the neighbors had one. It felt wrong, to Reigen, to be sitting there sipping coffee in their living room while they were probably out there worried out of their minds…or worse. Maybe they were…maybe they were out there getting a second shrine made…and they were planning on using that same picture from the missing child posters that they had blanketed the neighborhood with…
He sat down and sipped his coffee…it was way too hot.
"You're supposed to blow on it." Said Ritsu as he took Reigen's mug from his hands and put it down on the coaster.
"Well now you warn me." Said Reigen with a laugh that didn't quite meet his eyes. Ritsu just sort of stared at him before getting back to blowing on his tea. Reigen's eyes darted around the room before they landed on the remotes lined up on the table. He didn't want to watch TV…but he did want some noise beyond listening to sound of Ritsu blowing on his tea…but he didn't….it would have been a bad idea, watching TV, and avoiding the problem…and there was a problem...well…sort of. There was…the whole…the question of what they were going to do now….
Besides drink tea and coffee.
They had to…to figure something out. No, he had to. There was no negotiating here. He was the adult and he had to lay down the law for once. There would be no more spirits in Sprits and Such. No more messing around with psychic powers…and nothing that could get the attention of psychic cults. He and Ritsu would do literally anything else…anything that didn't involve psychic powers. He didn't know what they would do…hell, he didn't even know how he was going to pay rent this month, but he knew that he had to keep Ritsu safe.
Which meant that they had a lot to talk about.
"Yours is probably still too hot to drink." Said Ritsu before he took a sip of his own tea. Reigen didn't have to do things just because he did them. Ritsu would have been fine gathering information on his own. He would have been able to run away if it had just been him…but Reigen had just been trying to keep him safe…but he didn't need someone to keep him safe…not when he could take care of himself….
He and Reigen had a lot to talk about.
"Thanks, Ritsu, for looking out for me…about the coffee." Said Reigen
"You don't have to thank me, it's just coffee." Said Ritsu
"It's not just about the coffee. You've been a really big help to me these past few months, you know that? You've been invaluable." Said Reigen
"Because I'm the only one of us with powers." Said Ritsu. He had no idea what spiritual powers were but he knew that Reigen had been almost totally helpless back there. He knew that Reigen couldn't do anything close to what he could do…and that was why he was going to have to be serious with Reigen. That was why he was going to have to tell Reigen right now to his face that next time he could not come along. Not even if Ritsu's life was in danger…and it would be in danger…and there would be a next time. He still had to save Sho after all.
"No…yes. You're the only one with powers. Ritsu….I don't have powers. Not psychic…and not spiritual. I lied…to you…because at first….well at first I thought that you were just playing….and I just wanted to play along, you know? You remind me a lot of myself at your age. When I was your age I used to pretend that…well that I was assistant to this TV psychic that came on every night…he was a medium and I would pretend that I could contact the other side…heh…kind of like…now. Ritsu…you're the only one with powers….ok?" asked Reigen. He closed his eyes and braced himself. Ritsu had never been afraid of telling people off…and now was probably no exception. He knew that it was coming…maybe harsh words…maybe curse words….hell, maybe he was about to get a mug of tea to the face…but it was…whatever happened would happen…he would accept anything….
Anything that Ritsu could throw at him he would take.
"Yeah, I figured. Whatever." Said Ritsu. There. Now this would make it easier to tell Reigen to stay put next time Ritsu had something dangerous to do…and also he wouldn't tell Tsubomi next time either since, apparently, she couldn't keep a secret to save anyone's life.
"….that's all you have to say?" asked Reigen
"Yeah. I mean I never really bought it anyway so…whatever. At least now you're admitting it and maybe next time-" said Ritsu
"No….no. Ritsu…there isn't going to be a next time. We are never going to bother those people again…or even pop up on their radar…ok? You and I…we're going to do our best to just…put it behind us." Said Reigen. What they really needed was a good therapist…but there was no way that a therapist would listen to their crazy store for even ten minutes without fitting them for straightjackets….so it looked like he and Ritsu were going to do this alone…no. Just him. He was going to be there for Ritsu…he had to be…there was no way in hell Ritsu was going to get through this alone.
Reigen was the adult and Ritsu was the child.
"Put it behind us? What are you…we can't put it behind us! Not when they're going to keep on kidnapping people and torturing them and…and….and I can't put this behind me! They're going to hurt more people….they're going to hurt him and…" said Ritsu
"Him? Ritsu…is this about that redheaded kid?" asked Reigen with a groan. Of course it was. That kid…Ritsu was in love. He had fallen in love for the first time…and it might not even have been love. Ritsu might have just been reacting to the fact that the redheaded kid had saved them. That might have been it. It might have just been trauma, gratitude, and hormones….was he old enough for the last part? He stank to high hell….but maybe that was just from not bathing for two days…
"Of course it's about Sho. I can't just leave him there, Reigen, I love him….and I know that he's just going to…to get hurt…for what he did-" said Ritsu
"Ritsu, no. You…you heard him. He said that his family ran the place. I'm sure that he'll be fine." Said Reigen
"He got knocked out and dragged off the first time he tried to save us. I don't think that counts as being fine." Said Ritsu
"He came back….and you might not! Just…Ritsu….I know that you think that you're in love. I know that first kisses feel like a big deal-" said Reigen
"That was my fourth kiss." Said Ritsu evenly. What did Reigen think he was? A little kid. Of course he'd done that before. He was almost eleven. He only counted kisses with other guys, though, since those were the ones he actually liked.
"Oh…good for you. Way to uh…put yourself out there." said Reigen. Was that…normal? He hadn't had his first kiss until he was fourteen…well good for Ritsu, figuring himself out….but…yeah. That was…maybe something that he would have to talk to Ritsu about….Reigen added love and puberty talk to the long list of master student talks that were coming up.
"I know how I feel. I know that I love him and I know that I can't just leave him to die. I know….I know myself and I know that if I don't have you to protect then…then I might have a chance." Said Ritsu. Reigen stared at him, turned a weird shade of red, and then drank his coffee in one gulp. He wiped his mouth and slammed his cup down on the table then he was done. Ritsu used his powers to put it on the coaster.
"Ritsu…alright. You know that shrine…right? The one for your sister. The one that you told me was a Shinto thing?" asked Reigen. He had to take a different approach. Ritsu…cared a lot about the people he loved…and there was more than one kind of love than he kind that he had discovered for that redheaded kid.
"Yeah. We put up shrine for people who died…like their spirits and stuff. I think that Buddhists do it too." Said Ritsu. He….had no idea why Reigen wanted to talk about religion now. Maybe because he had just figured out that Ritsu was Shinto? Just Shinto, mom and dad had said, not Shinto with Buddhist. Ritsu honestly didn't care about religion….but if Reigen wanted to talk about religion then they could talk until the sun went down if it kept Reigen from talking about….Sho…and Claw…and stuff.
"We do...but…Ritsu, I've never had to put up a shrine before…and I don't want to have to ask your parents for pointers." Said Reigen
"O….k…." said Ritsu
"They've already done it once….and I know that they could help me…but I don't want them to have to help me….and I don't want them to have to make another one…for you. Ritsu…those are bad people…and yes, you're a powerful kid….but you're just a kid. I don't….I don't want anything to happen to you…." Said Reigen. He choked, a little, at the end. He could not cry…he could not let Ritsu see him cry. Ritsu…he had to feel safe….and he couldn't feel like Reigen wasn't in control of the situation. He was the adult…he was the one who had to be in control of the situation….
He could not cry.
"Ok, ok, I won't go after Claw…just…stop crying." Said Ritsu. He had every intention of going after Claw….but Reigen didn't need to know that. Not today, no, and not tomorrow either. He'd do like Reigen said and wait until he got bigger and stronger….but he would go after Claw…and he would save Sho….he would just keep his mouth shut, next time.
"I wasn't crying….but thanks. Ritsu, you don't know how much this means to me and…and there's something else we have to talk about. About Spirits and Such-" said Reigen. There was the sound of a car pulling into the drive. Two doors opened and closed. He stood still. He felt like he'd been caught…but he hadn't been doing anything….but he still felt like he'd been caught.
"Mom and dad are home. Don't tell them anything about what happened." said Ritsu as he got up off the couch and went to the genkan. He wasn't going to talk about Claw…he was going to say that he ran away…and Reigen had gone to find him. That was…all. He wanted to tell mom and dad about his powers…he didn't want to hide…but he wasn't stupid. He didn't need to make any more problems for himself….he had enough problems…
Mom and dad were not going to be one of them.
He waited by the door…it didn't take long for it to open. Mom opened the door…he had never been so happy to see his mom in his life. His dad, too. He had never been so happy to see both of his parents…and…and he was not going to cry.
"I finally got through to the Takane's and Tsubomi said something about Ritsu going off to play in the woods so-RITSU! Ritsu! My wonderful, sweet, baby boy…you're here!" said Hana. She had barely gotten the key through the lock when she threw herself down onto the ground. She held her son in her arms. She was never letting him go…ever. Not until the day she died. Her boy…her sweet baby boy! She thanked whatever Gods had been watching over him. He stank to high hell…she pulled away from him for a moment….he didn't look hurt…he just smelled terrible…
"Ritsu…son….you're….oh God!" said Ichimaro. He dropped the stack of flyers that he'd been holding. He didn't need them anymore. Ritsu…he was there…he was back! His son…he just…he looked up at the shrine…his eyes met Shigeko's. He thanked whatever spirits had been attracted to this shrine…whatever spirits brought his son back…he had never been a religious man before but…it was time to start now.
"Hi mom…hi dad…." Said Ritsu as he was hugged. He used to hate being hugged like this, like he was a little kid, but now….he didn't mind. This was….this was the best hug that he had ever gotten in his life….and he never wanted mom and dad to let him go…but they did….mom did first….and she asked something that he knew he didn't want to answer.
"Ritsu…where have you been?" asked Hana as she let her son go. He was…he seemed fine. Ichimaro was walking over to Reigen now…and he seemed fine…they both seemed fine. They had been…the house smelled like tea and coffee….they had been here a while…they could have called! No, no, calm down….
Ritsu was back, now, and that was what mattered.
"The woods. I ran away. Reigen found me." Said Ritsu simply. There. That made sense…and now mom could get up off the floor and not ask any follow up questions because he didn't want to answer any. Couldn't they just go back to hugging and kissing him or something?
"Reigen…thank you. You found my son…so thank you…I don't know how to thank you!" said Ichimaro as he hugged Reigen. Hugging another man felt….strange….but he didn't care! His son was back and…and he felt twenty years younger. Thirty…forty…fifty….well now he was a zygote but….he didn't care! He felt so young and light…he could have kissed Reigen full on the mouth! He didn't care…the only thing that mattered was Ritsu!
"You're welcome. So…maybe I should head out. I can see that you have a lot to catch up on and-" said Reigen as he was trapped in the most awkward hug of his life. He didn't want to be here…and not just for the hugs. He was going to have to lie to these people….the ones who trusted him with his son…and usually he had no problem lying…but this was not usual. This was…nothing about this weekend had been usual….and he never wanted to repeat it ever again.
"Ritsu, why did you run away? You can tell us anything. Was…was something going wrong at school? Were the other kids teasing you? Problems with your grades? Your girlfriend only told us that you ran away-" said Hana
"Tsubomi isn't my girlfriend." Said Ritsu. That never stopped being annoying…he knew that he loved his parents…but that was just….so annoying!
"Oh…did she reject you? Was that it? You're not too young for girl problems-" said Hana. Kids….Ritsu…he could be so dramatic…and she loved him. Even if he put her through hell over a girl…but…but he was back now and…and she didn't care why he had run away! She only cared that he was back….well she cared a little why he'd run away…
Because that hadn't been like him at all.
"She didn't reject me, actually she's in love with me." Said Ritsu
"Is that why you ran away? Because you're not ready for a girlfriend? Ritsu, girl troubles can be hard but you can't run away from them. You'll meet a girl and she'll be right for you but if you run away to the woods every time-" said Hana
"Mom, it wasn't about Tsubomi or any other girl. I'm gay." Said Ritsu. There. The truth. Mom and dad….they knew the truth…and he felt…light. He felt lighter now that he didn't have that weight on him. Mom and dad were looking at him like he was crazy…and Reigen looked like he was going to jump out the window or something so he could escape…and with all the staring….well Ritsu sort of wanted to escape too…even though he wasn't a prisoner…he had been a prisoner…but better mom and dad know about him being gay than him having been kidnapped…
Mom and dad were freaking out…but not as bad like if they knew about the kidnapping….
"What?!" asked Ichimaro. He stepped away from Reigen so fast that he bumped into the coffee table. A mug of tea went flying to the ground where it shattered….Ritsu's favorite mug…that could be replaced…right now. He was going to go to the store and replace it. He just…people were looking at him and…and he loved his son! He loved his son and he was just a kid…he didn't…know what he was saying and…
And he still loved his son!
"I'm gay." Said Ritsu. He…didn't like the way dad said that…but…he wasn't going to take it back. He was who he was and…and he wasn't going to hide anymore.
"Are you….sure?" asked Ichimaro. Ritsu…was so young….he must have been confused. Yeah, puberty was confusing….Ritsu was at that age….he'd started doing his own laundry….he was just…confused…about things….
"Yeah, dad, I'm sure." Said Ritsu. Well now he was just kind of…pissed off. What? Was dad sure that he was straight? Well…he was married to mom…and he didn't want to think about his parents being in love even though he knew that they were…just…he was somehow even more tired now than he had been when he escaped Claw.
"So….yeah. I'll just…head on out now…." Said Reigen as he tried to slip away….but Ritsu's mother was blocking the doorway…and he was right in the middle of another awkward moment, wasn't he?
"We still love you! Your father and I…we love you…even if you are a little confused right now-" said Hana. That…made an insane amount of sense. The way he…well the way he had always been around boys. He'd always been better friends with girls…and he'd always been shy around the other boys…and he never gave Tsubomi a second glance even though she was very…developed…for a girl her age. She had thought that Ritsu had just been too young, and in fact she had been happy that her son had other things on his mind besides chasing girls…
But…maybe…..
"I'm not confused. I'm gay." Said Ritsu simply. No. He knew what he was…and he knew that life was too short to pretend to be something other than himself. He was Kageyama Ritsu, he was an esper, he was ten and ten months old, and he was gay. There. It wasn't complicated.
"Are you sure? Sometimes when we start…do you remember what we talked about? The special time in your life? Sometimes things get a little…complicated….." said Ichimaro. Ritsu…was his son and he loved him. He loved Ritsu and…and he….he just…how did this happen? Not that he didn't love his son but…but he was too young to know…how he felt…or maybe not…just….his eyes landed on the flyers on the ground. Ritsu was back…that was what mattered.
"Ichimaro, drop it. Ritsu…is sure of who he is and…and it must be hard on him. That's why you ran away…isn't it? Ritsu…you ran away because of…of this?" asked Hana. Her son was gay. That was…she loved him. She would never stop loving him….and he needed all the love that he could get. The world was a very cruel place to people who were like Ritsu…and she…she should have noticed sooner…and she should have done more to shield her son from the world's cruelty…but she could…she could protect him now…
Anyone who had a problem with her son being gay could take it up with her…she'd set them straight….oh yes she would….
"Yeah! He…was having a hard time so he ran away to live in the woods…kids, am I right? Well he ran away and I went to get him back but then we got lost and we lost our phones and it took us this long to even find the main road. I'm sorry, I should have called you but I….vastly overestimated…my ability to survive out in nature. Those two weeks of boy scouts didn't do me much good! So….I'll just…leave you to…this." said Reigen as he slunk away. Ritsu got caught in a hug from both of his parents. He made eye contact with Reigen. Reigen mouthed the words 'just go with it' at Ritsu…
'Thank you.' Mouthed Ritsu as his parents hugged him from all sides. They loved him…or maybe they were just happy that he hadn't died. He didn't know. He was just….he was happy to be with them even if they weren't one hundred percent alright with him being…the way he was…it felt like. He was home and…and he had lied but…it was for their own good. He knew that he would have to tell them the other big truth about himself someday….but later…not now. Now he would just…enjoy being home…for a little bit…for as long as it took for him to get big enough and strong enough to save Sho…
There was no place like home….so he would enjoy being home…and he would look forward to the day when he could bring Sho home with him….introduce him to mom and dad…as his boyfriend…and….stuff like that….
Nice stuff like that.