"Mako-chan!" Nagisa yelled as Makoto came home from work one late afternoon. He'd brought his childhood friend along with him.
"Mako-chan?" Kisumi asked. He looked at Makoto with questioning eyes. "Who is that kid anyway?"
Makoto smiled. "I adopted two kids recently," he explained. Rei appeared in the door just then. "The blonde is Nagisa, and the one with the glasses is Rei," Makoto said. "We got on first names a while ago,"
"I don't get it," Kisumi said. "My ex had them over once and she said that they were more trouble than they were worth,"
Makoto just smiled. "She's not the first. Though I don't mind such a small amount of trouble as these two are. It's only natural for a pair like them,"
"Mako-chan, who's that guy?" Nagisa asked, pointing at Kisumi.
"Don't point at others," Rei corrected the younger one. "He is Makoto's guest so we have to be nice to him," he instructed.
Makoto laughed. "It's alright, right?" he looked to Kisumi who nodded before Makoto turned back to the two children. "This is my childhood friend, Shigino Kisumi. He is here to have dinner with us tonight,"
"Nice to meet you, Shigino-san," Rei took a step forward. "I'm Ryugazaki Rei."
Nagisa stepped forward too. "Nice to meet you, I'm Hazuki Nagisa," he said.
"Nice to meet you too," Kisumi said. He took off his shoes and entered the house. Makoto followed right behind him. The two men went to the kitchen to prepare dinner while Rei went to do his homework and Nagisa sat down and started drawing.
It didn't take long for dinner to be prepared and soon the four sat around the table and got started on eating. Kisumi and Makoto were talking about anything friends would normally talk about while Rei and Nagisa were just sitting, not saying a word until Makoto started to send Kisumi looks, encouraging him to speak to the two children.
"Eh… so… how old are you two anyways?" Kisumi asked, a bit insecurely.
"I'm eight years old," Rei answered.
"I'm five," Nagisa followed up. "How old are you, Shigino-san?" he asked.
Kisumi smiled. "I'm 26 years old," he said. "May I ask how long you have been here?" he asked.
"You already have," Nagisa stated.
"Nagisa!" Rei exclaimed.
Makoto let out an amused laugh, and so did Kisumi, although he was a bit more hesitant at first.
"We were adopted a little over two weeks ago," Rei said.
Makoto nodded. "This Tuesday it'll be three weeks exactly," he said. "Reminds me, what are you going to do on New Year's? Are you going home?" he asked.
"Yeah," Kisumi said. "Mom says she misses me and I'm sure dad and Hayato won't mind me coming home either. What about you? Are you going to visit your family? Or are you spending New Year's with your own, now that you've become a father yourself?" Kisumi asked. There was a slightly teasing look in his eye since he believed you seemed older once you became a parent, regardless of how old you actually were.
Makoto smiled. "I'm going to see my parents," he said. "New Year's is also the perfect time to introduce them to Nagisa and Rei, or the other way around."
Kisumi sent Makoto a disbelieving look. "Do you mean…" he began, but then trailed off. He decided to take this conversation while Rei and Nagisa weren't around. It could end up going in some directions he didn't think they should know about.
"What?" Makoto asked.
"Nothing," Kisumi answered. "It's really good food you've prepared. You seem to know what I like." He smiled at Makoto as he said this.
Makoto laughed. "That's because we've been so close for the past 20 years or so," he said.
"Has it really been that long?" Kisumi asked.
"Shigino-san has really known Mako-chan since childhood," Nagisa said. "What was Mako-chan like back then?" he asked.
Kisumi turned to Nagisa. "When Makoto was your age?" he asked. "He was a crybaby." He stated.
"Oi, that's mean!" Makoto exclaimed. "I didn't even cry that much."
Kisumi laughed. "You cried whenever our classmates said your name was girly and teased you a bit about it. I admit, they did tease you a lot though."
"Was Makoto bullied?" Rei asked, arriving at the conclusion that a lot of teasing was equal to being bullied.
"You could say that," Kisumi said. "Most kids in our class picked on those with weird names. First only Makoto, but once we started English they started teasing me about my name as well." Kisumi laughed at the thought of how his classmates would say "Kiss me" whenever they tried to speak to him. In response to this, Kisumi had once kissed one of his classmates when he said it. This had stopped the teasing.
"How?" Nagisa asked.
"That's not a tale I'll tell now," Kisumi said. "It'll take forever, and you need to finish up," he said.
Nagisa nodded and finished up, surprisingly willingly considering he had just been given this order by someone he barely even knew. Rei finished up too and the two soon went to take their baths and go to bed. Kisumi and Makoto stayed in the living room.
"You were about to say something earlier," Makoto remembered. "Are you still sure it was nothing?" he asked.
"Do your parents know that you have adopted? Did you talk to them about it?" Kisumi asked.
Makoto shook his head. "No," he said. "It all happened rather suddenly, so I didn't get the chance to ask anyone about it," he said. "I never called to tell them about this either."
Kisumi patted Makoto's shoulder. "What kind of child are you? Not telling your parents that they have become grandparents now, any normal child would have done that on the moment it happened!" he said.
"Would you call and tell your parents?" Makoto asked.
"Well…" Kisumi looked distant as he spoke. "I would, if it ever were to happen, but it probably won't. I've never had a really serious relationship, you know."
Makoto smiled. "That's true," he said.
"So… how does it feel… to suddenly become a parent?" Kisumi asked.
Makoto thought. "Eh… well… not much different than before, actually. I feel like I need to be a bit more responsible, but it's not much different than taking care of Ren and Ran when they were young," he explained.
"Except you're all alone on this one," Kisumi said. "You had your parents before, but now you only have yourself to rely on. It's gotta be tough."
Makoto shook his head. "Not really," he said. "They say the most troublesome years are those when they are from newly born until the age of two or three years old, or so I've heard. So I've skipped that, and both Rei and Nagisa have already proved to be a good help. Sure they are still young, but they know to clean up after themselves. Sure, I need to remind Nagisa of a few things, but that's what's to be expected from a five-years-old. He is exactly like any five-years-old should be. Rei is a little too proper for his age, but it's not a bad thing, I only wish he would loosen up a bit. Aside from that, I'm not going to change either of them. I will just take care of them as best as I can and try to give them a family and a place to call home."
"That was a beautiful speech," Kisumi laughed. "You sound so serious, Makoto."
"Do I?" Makoto looked surprised at Kisumi.
Kisumi nodded. "You're really devoted to this parenting thing, aren't you?" he asked.
Makoto thought about this and then smiled. "I guess I am," he said.