Kiji's lips were pursed as he stared at the kid across from him. "Eat. Your. Food."

"No."

"Jason! Eat!"

"No!"

Kiji groaned as his head sank to the table, his hat falling off to land in front of the boy. "You were just eating that last week! What changed?"

Jason offered no reply as he picked up the guard's hat and put it on, the rim covering his eyes making no hindrance as he ran to the other room.

The heavily made up man threw himself out of his chair and followed after the little "pitter patter" the seven (and a quarter!) year old's feet made. Coming to a stop in the living room, he couldn't see the boy anywhere. Not behind his eccentric teal coach, nor under his lovely mahogany coffee table. Kiji yelled, not quite being able to keep the anger out of his voice,"Jason! Stop playing around and eat your breakfast!" He realized his mistake as soon as he heard a quiet gasp coming from down the hall and more running footsteps. Silently cursing himself, he quickly made his way to his bedroom, stopping when he saw a child-sized bump under his silk zebra comforter.

The bump was shivering underneath, causing the black stripes to have a slight wiggling motion. Kiji made hesitant steps over to it and kneeled next to the bed. "Jason?" He reached out a hand to touch him, but stopped to ask, "Can I touch you, love?" He could tell by the slight movement under the comforter that he was shaking his head "no" and put his hand down. "Can I speak? Or do you want me to be silent?" Realizing his error, he restarted, "Sorry, can I speak to you?" The bump reluctantly nodded, and Kiji could barely hold back a sigh of relief.

"Jason, I'm so sorry, love. I've had a really...rough week at work and I took my anger out on you." The man almost put his hand on the lump of Jason, but held himself back. His fondness for physical affection wouldn't help Jason right now, the boy needed space. "That, of course, doesn't excuse it in anyway. I've been teaching you not to do what I just did, and I must seem a horrible hypocrite to you."

Kiji waited until the shivering went down, then continued, "I know better then that, yet I did it anyway and you are the one suffering for it." He waited again until the ball-shaped lump turned into a boy-shaped lump. "Can I touch you now?" There was a short pause before Kiji was able to distinguish a soft, "Yes."

Sitting on the bed, Kiji lightly placed his hand on the boy's back. "I cannot promise I'll not do it again, since I can't promise what will happen in the future, but I will readily promise to try as hard as I might not to do it." The guard finally felt the boy's muscles relax under his hand, and felt the corner of his painted lip twitch up in relief. "I also think it would be only fair if you picked the punishment for me."

Throwing back the covers, Jason looked at him, his eyes wide and twinkling in excitement. "...really?"

Kiji, examining the boy's red-rimmed eyes, felt an ache in his heart, but replied with enthusiasm anyway, "Of course, I don't lie to my favorite child!"

Jason let out a delighted giggle. "I'm your only child, Kiji!"

Letting out a dramatic gasp, the prison guard clutched at his heart. "Even so, you're still my favorite!"

They both dissolved into giggles, Jason because of Kiji's theatrical display, and Kiji because his boy was laughing so much.

When the laughter died down, Jason got a strangely serious look on his face and looked down at his lap again.

"...Jason?" Kiji asked, with a worried tone.

The seven year old looked up at him shyly, and softly asked, "C-Can I have a hug now?"

Kiji immediately scooped up the boy and hugged him. "You don't even have to ask, love," he said, before pulling back slightly, just to see the other's face, "If you ever want attention or affection from me, you are always welcome to it."

Jason looked down again and smiled. "Okay."

Taking Jason to the living room, Kiji called in to say he'd be a few hours late to work before sitting down to play with him. He knew he was probably being a bit overbearing, but he didn't want to drop his son off at school just yet, not when he'd just been so worked up.

Looking up at Kiji while playing with his dolls, Jason said his caretaker's name.

"Yes?"

"What's a hippo crite?"

Kiji stared at him in confusion, before he realized what he was talking about. Should've known better then to use big words in front of a seven year old, I suppose, he mused dryly.

"Well, I guess we should bring out the dictionary then, yes?"

Kiji knew the moment he picked Jason up from daycare that his punishment was decided. The kid's eyes basically gleamed with mischief, and he grinned the whole way from the daycare to the car.

"Jason?"

Jason looked innocently into the rearview mirror, not quite being able to hide his glee. "Yes, Kiji?"

"Did something...happen?"

"What do you mean?" The kid asked, still somehow able to keep up a halfway angelic facade.

"You seem very happy today," Kiji replied, before turning his gold eyes away from the mirror and to the road.

Humming, Jason practically bounced in his car seat before finally blurting out: "I picked out your punash," he made a face then tried again, "panish—."

"Punishment?"

"Yes!" He trilled, "That word."

Kiji tried to conceal his amusement by raising a perfectly plucked brow. "Ok…. What is it? It can't be too extreme or—" He was interrupted from restating his rules that he'd laid out earlier that day with Jason chiming in and swearing that it didn't go against any.

"We need to go to an ice cream shop."

The guard sighed in amused exasperation, and changed his route to go to the nearest one. He really should've known that was coming. Jason was absolutely enamored with ice cream the first time he tasted it, and was constantly begging to go there. He cringed, suddenly wondering if the reason they were going there was so Jason could smear ice cream on Kiji's face (Kiji, admittedly, let the boy watch too many YouTube videos) and silently mourned his perfect makeup.

Jason was a mess the whole ride; singing, grinning, and randomly laughing at intervals. While Kiji thought it was quite adorable, he couldn't help a slight foreboding. Maybe letting a seven year old pick an adult's punishment was not smart? He hadn't known what else to do, though, and had felt terrible about the whole ordeal. Sighing to himself, the prison guard eyed the road ahead of him, berating himself in his mind. Taking some time off work might've been a bit much-especially when Jason was fine soon after—but he couldn't leave him. It had taken Kiji months to get Jason to open up after adopting him, and the thought of the boy just...closing up again, made Kiji want to cry. Especially when it would've been his fault. While children easily forget instances, they also take them more seriously than most adults when they occur, a fact that Kiji kept forgetting.

Pulling the car into a parking space, Kiji shook away his thoughts and put on a smile for Jason. "Well someone's excited," he said teasingly, after opening the rear door.

Jason practically launched himself out of the car and onto Kiji. "Yes!"

Kiji carried him into the cutesy shop, afraid that the boy might go out into traffic with how excited he was. It was their favorite, but Kiji limited to two visits a month, possibly more if there was a special occasion. He didn't want Jason to be unhealthy after all, and cutting back on ice cream wouldn't be bad for the older man's waistline.

The shop was painted a pastel pink, with thin lavender stripes and elegant white trim. What mainly impressed the two was the heavenly ice cream and the fact the round white tables had a dusting of glitter on the surface.

After putting Jason down, they walked toward the counter hand-in-hand. Jason whispered what he wanted to Kiji-a frighteningly full of sugar chocolate sundae-and Kiji was about to place his order when he heard a small: "No." Kiji and the woman behind the counter both started and looked at him. Jason refused to talk to strangers, nor around them, most of the time, The woman had been there long enough to know that, especially after an attempt to talk to him had him turning away and shutting down.

Kiji spoke after a couple of seconds, "Jason? What do you mean?"

Jason looked warily at the woman before elaborating, "You can't have ice cream."

"Well...you heard the boy. Just a chocolate sundae, please."

Sitting down at the glittery tables, Kiji let Jason enjoy his sundae for a bit then asked, "Now, how in the world did you come up with that?"

Jason looked up at him, mischief sparkling in his eyes. "My friend came up with it."

The guard's eyebrow lifted. "Is that so?"

"...she said it because her parents don't share their grape juice with her."

Kiji quickly covered his face with his hand to conceal the little snort he felt rising. "Well. You've got me there I suppose," he chuckled,"You'll have to commend your friend for such a horrible punishment."

Jason paused. "Is it really that horrible?"

"Oh absolutely!" Kiji teased, reaching out to ruffle the boy's hair, "I was so looking forward to having my cotton candy extra sprinkles treat, but alas…."

Jason jammed his spoon into his ice cream, pulling out a large dollop of it, and waved it in front of Kiji's face. "Here you go! You can have some!"

"Oh no, no, that's okay!" Kiji hurried to say. There was so much ice cream piled on it that Kiji doubted he could fit it all in his mouth if he tried. "I was teasing, Jason. I'm fine."

"...are you sure?"

"Yes, perfectly." Kiji gave him a wide smile. "I'm content just seeing how happy you are with it."

Jason pondered that for a second, then shrugged. "If you say so," then took the large helping and shoved it in his mouth, too caught up in getting his favorite treat to remember that this was supposed to be Kiji's "punishment".