Kindergarteners 2
Koshiro pieces together the drawing that's been torn into thirds. It's a stick figure drawing of a wedding, with Zoro being the bride. The cryptic message on the top is easy enough to decode given the context and his personal experience with kindergartener spelling thanks to Kuina. It's cute, really, that a classmate of Zoro's liked him enough to ask for his hand in marriage. They get to be this pure only once in life.
He looks from the drawing to Zoro, who's sitting across from him rubbing at the bruises he received from the fight this morning.
"So he gave you this, and you punched him?" He prompts. The boy nods. "Why?"
"He drew me wearing a dress and called me names!" The boy shouts defensively.
"What did he call you?"
"He called me 'Mary'!" The frown deepens on the boy's face. A redness lines the rim of his eyes. "Mary, like Mary from Mary Had a Little Lamb!"
It takes Koshiro a few seconds to process the situation, and when he does he bursts into laughter. Zoro glares at him with a pout, tears threatening to spill.
"Sorry Zoro. I'm not laughing at you." Koshiro says between the last few chuckles. "I don't think he called you 'Mary'. He asked you to 'marry' him."
The boy wipes off his tears with the back of his hand and gives Koshiro a scowl of confusion. The man sighs, mind racing to pull together a decent explanation.
"My parents?" The boy echoes, eyes still wet from crying earlier. One of his hands moves absently to the pendant around his neck, three small bars of solid gold. A memento.
"Yes, they were married. They lived together and made all the big decisions together, like partners in life. Marrying someone means you promise to do that with them for the rest of your life."
"But he drew me wearing a dress!" He bites, folding his arms with a seriousness that clearly doesn't match the issue. So precious.
"What he drew is a ceremony people have to get married. The dress is part of the ceremonial costumes."
"Did my parents wear a dress too?"
"Your mother did. She was beautiful that day." The memory brings a fond smile to the sword master's face.
Zoro's steel grey eyes light up in awe, scanning over the drawing as his hand wraps tight around the pendant.
"Can you show me how to fix it?" The boy asks after a minute and gently picks up the torn pieces of paper.
As it turns out it didn't matter whether Koshiro showed Zoro how to tape the torn drawing back together. The next morning it rains for the first time since the start of school a month ago. Between the chaos of pulling rain jackets out of closets and trying to get two kids to school in time for Kuina's morning practice, nobody notices the fact that Zoro's backpack isn't protected from the rain.
Koshiro watches from the hallway window as Zoro pulls the wet lump of paper from his backpack, with clear tape peeling off from the moisture and water-based ink bleeding through the layers. He watches as Zoro tries to open it and to lay it flat on the table without ripping it again. He watches as Zoro carefully dabs at the drawing with a paper towel, only to damage it further with tears and scratches. He watches as Zoro sobs into the crook of his little elbow on his little desk in the empty classroom.
He should probably go in and do something, but since he can't think of anything he can do to make it better, he cowardly mutters an unheard apology to the boy under his breath and leaves.
A/N:
I'm sorry I just wrote a light and pure fic about kids into an angsty corner... I guess kids have their own worries in life too.
I'm not too fond of Koshiro as a parent. I guess it shows... lol...