Hello! I am back after I think two weeks. Sorry, but after my flight back to US I was dying of jetlag and we've had guests in the house so I've been busy. Also my iPad picked a very inconvenient time to shut down on me for two days. But yes, here I am.
To Saaaiki: Omg thank you so much I've never had someone compliment my writing before so I'm really excited!
Anyway, on to the next chapter!
Chapter 3
Bokushi woke up again a couple of hours later.
Peeking his head out from under the covers, the continuous sound of tapping drew his attention to the study desk, where he saw Seijuro typing away on his laptop. He seemed extremely engrossed in whatever he was doing, his eyes focused and his fingers rapidly dancing across the keyboard, so Bokushi assumed he had long tuned everything else out. But when Bokushi made a move to get out of bed, the typing immediately ceased, and soon he found himself staring into Seijuro's eyes.
"Ah, you're awake," said Seijuro. "Good afternoon."
"Afternoon…?" Bokushi turned to the digital clock on the nightstand to see that it was just past noon.
He slid off the bed and made his way over to Seijuro to peer over at his laptop screen.
"What are you doing?"
"I was just sending an email," said Seijuro. "I thought I'd keep myself busy while you were asleep and tend to a few things."
"Okay."
As Seijuro closed the tab and began shutting off his laptop, he was well aware of the silence in the room. It was awkward, and it was uncomfortable.
At first, he didn't take much notice of it, but he didn't realize how weird it felt when neither of them talked like this. It was like Bokushi never talked unless Seijuro was the one who initiated the conversation. He'd have to get used to that if he was going to be caring for this child. After all, he was an older brother now.
That still sounded weird to him after being an only child for sixteen years.
When Seijuro finally closed his laptop, he stood up from his chair and set it on the desk.
"If you're wide awake now, why don't we go shopping now? Then we could come back early and do whatever. Does that sound like a plan?" He watched as Bokushi nodded. "Okay, now go put your shoes on so we can go."
Bokushi went to go fetch his shoes from next to the bed and slid them on while Seijuro went and grabbed his phone and wallet from his desk, putting them into his bag and waiting for Bokushi to finish before they both went out of his room and exited the dorm.
~O~
Finally leaving the building as quietly and as stealthily as possible, Seijuro and Bokushi left the Rakuzan campus to take a bus downtown going towards a shopping center. It had many stores of different varieties, so everything they could have possibly needed was conveniently in one area. Sunday was apparently a busy day, so there were quite a few people in the area. The second the two got into the area, they immediately began searching for a clothing store.
"Do you know where you're going?" Bokushi asked as they walked down the street.
"I believe so," said Seijuro. "I do remember passing by a children's clothing store when I came here on a previous outing."
The smaller boy nodded and continued trailing behind his older brother, re-familiarising himself with the area. Passing by a toy shop window, he caught a glimpse of a bunch of toys that made him stop for some reason. He stood in front of the shop window and surveyed the items on display.
An RC car, a rainbow-coloured kite, and some building blocks constructed to look like a castle were what was shown from the window. It wasn't like he wanted them, but the vibrant colors piqued his interest and he ended up standing there for a couple of minutes.
"Do you think they sell shogi boards in here?" he asked at last.
He received no answer to his question.
He turned around and realized that Seijuro wasn't next to him as he imagined. All he saw were strangers.
That wasn't good.
Bokushi looked all around him, but Seijuro wasn't there.
This couldn't possibly be happening. Bokushi wasn't exactly panicking, but he realized the consequences of losing someone in a crowded shopping center, so he tried walking around to see if he could find Seijuro.
Calling out his name would be the most efficient thing to do, but Bokushi would rather die than look like a helpless little child screaming "Seijuro-nii" at the top of his lungs, so sticking to just walking around sounded like a much more comfortable decision.
Well, that was what he thought, until people on the street who didn't notice him kept bumping into him, making him stumble a few times. It got to the point where somebody's shopping bag rammed into him from behind and knocked him off his feet, making him fall to the floor in front of a woman, who was startled when she saw him.
"Are you okay?" she asked him. She helped Bokushi up to his feet and brushed the dirt off his clothes before looking around.
"Are you here by yourself?" she questioned. "Who did you come with, little boy?"
"I was here with my... brother," Bokushi replied, still not used to the fact that he has to refer to Seijuro as his brother now.
The woman made a face of sympathy. "Oh you poor thing," she cooed. "Come with me, I'll help you find him. You can tell me what he looks like."
She beckoned him over and Bokushi obediently followed, telling the woman basic details of the person he was looking for.
...
Seijuro was beyond stunned when he turned around and realized that Bokushi wasn't behind him. He was so quiet on the way there that Seijuro hadn't realized that he had wandered off until it actually happened.
He mentally cursed as he spun on his heels and began to backtrack. I have only been in the area for less than two minutes and I've already lost him, he thought to himself. What kind of a person loses their younger brother with record timing? I'm supposed to be watching him, how could I be so irresponsible?
He went to any passerby he could get a hold of and asked if they had seen a young boy with red hair, but so far no one had seen him. He had been searching for what seemed like an eternity until he heard someone.
"Ah, excuse me, young man!"
Seijuro looked behind him and saw a woman waving over to him with Bokushi walking along beside her.
"Would you be Seijuro, by any chance? I believe this little boy was looking for you."
He sighed in relief and walked over to them. "You found him, thank you so much," he said to the woman. "I was looking for him everywhere."
"Not a problem," the woman said. "I've helped a few lost children in my time, and usually they're on the verge of tears, if not already crying when I approach them. Your younger brother is very mature for his age."
"So I've heard. Bokushi, say your thanks to the nice woman."
Bokushi looked up at her and gave her a polite bow. "Thank you."
"You're very welcome. Now don't you go running off again." With a brief wave of her hand, she disappeared into the crowd again, leaving the two brothers by themselves once more.
Seijuro turned to Bokushi with a look of disapproval. "You're lucky that the woman found you, Bokushi," he scolded. "What were you to do if no one was there to help? You should know better than to wander off in a shopping center. It's dangerous."
Before Bokushi could say anything, Seijuro offered his hand to the boy. "Just stay close to me, alright?"
Bokushi stared at the hand for a moment before holding it. "Okay."
"Good. Now come along, the store should be right around here."
Bokushi couldn't help but gaze up at Seijuro as he allowed himself to be guided down the street. He didn't entirely understand why Seijuro looked so concerned when he was looking for him since he had only lost him for a few minutes, but there was another problem that arose from that situation.
Bokushi never had someone be this genuinely concerned over him in his lifetime, not to that extent, at the very least. And he was having trouble trying to deal with this feeling inside of him. What was it? What was it about Seijuro that made him so hard to understand?
"I believe this is the store."
Bokushi cut off his train of thought and saw the clothing store Seijuro was talking about. It was like any other children's clothing store with vibrant colors and several posters on the window with a store mascot advertising something or another.
Seijuro led him inside and past the automatic double doors. The breeze from the inside blew past and suddenly it became warmer than before.
This store was relatively big, and the number of things Seijuro planned to buy there wasn't going to fit in a small basket, so Seijuro went and got a shopping cart from where they were lined up, and pulled it away.
"Did you want to sit inside?" he asked Bokushi.
The younger boy huffed and crossed his arms. "No, thank you," he said. "That seat is for children."
"Right... of course," said Seijuro, wondering if he should remind Bokushi that he was, indeed, a child. "Pardon my ignorance."
He pushed the cart along and Bokushi followed, keeping close to him as they entered the store and strolled through the area. Seijuro was about to pick up something from one of the racks, but Bokushi stopped him before he could.
"I want to pick out my own clothes," he stated.
Seijuro did nothing except raise a brow and step aside. "Be my guest," he said and stood by to let Bokushi make his own decision about what clothes he was going to get.
As Seijuro stood there and watched, for one thing, he was grateful that Bokushi kept his sense of fashion. He continued to observe the boy, seeing him put clothes into the cart and go back to look through the racks some more. His style was definitely not one of a five-year-old. Seijuro was honestly impressed.
Well, not that his own fashion sense was anything to sneeze at. He's been told on more than one occasion that his fashion sense could, on occasion, be... questionable. It was usually Mibuchi who mentioned it since no one else had the balls to do so (most of the team thought that Mibuchi was either really brave or really stupid), and he sometimes took it upon himself to, in his words, "educate" Seijuro in the ways of fashion. On good days, he'd usually humor him and listen.
While Bokushi kept sorting through clothes, Seijuro held up the price tag on one of the items and nearly choked.
"I see your taste is as expensive as ever, Bokushi."
Bokushi barely batted an eye as he put another shirt in the cart.
"You say that as if you can't afford it," he replied before going back to the rack he was looking through.
Seijuro sighed. The child had a point. If Seijuro really wanted, he could have purchased everything in the store, heck, he could buy the franchise for all he cared, and he'd still have money left over. But Seijuro tended not to go for expensive things these days because he didn't like flaunting his financial status wherever he went, especially not for something as unnecessary as frivolous shopping.
"Fair enough," Seijuro relented. "But don't go overboard. We only need clothes for five days, so choose carefully."
"Okay."
Because he had a limited amount of things he could buy, Bokushi took all the more time choosing what to put in the cart, so Seijuro had to wait for a while, secretly rejoicing in his mind every time Bokushi put something in the cart. The sooner he finished, the sooner he could pay and they could leave. At the rate he was going, Bokushi would almost take as much time as Mibuchi in a clothing store.
Almost.
"Are you done?" Seijuro asked tiredly for the third time in ten minutes. Bokushi just hummed in thought.
"I would like to see the clothes over in the other sections," he said. It took everything Seijuro had to hold back a groan. Being picky with clothes was both a blessing and a curse.
"Sure," he said reluctantly. "Let's go then."
"Actually, I'm quite tired. Can I sit in the trolley?"
Seijuro looked down at the boy, whose face didn't show even the slightest expression.
"You want to sit in the trolley?" Seijuro repeated. "But you said it was for children."
"I changed my mind, I want to sit down." He held up his arms, waiting to be carried into the trolley, making Seijuro sigh in exasperation.
This kid, he thought. He's awfully spoiled.
He reached down and lifted Bokushi off the floor, placing him into the children's seat in the trolley and continuing on, trying his best not to tune Bokushi's voice out while he pointed out the different areas of the store he wanted to look at. All this made him wonder if this was what being a single parent felt like.
~O~
After shopping for clothes, Seijuro and Bokushi emerged from the store and walked to the nearest grocery store to go food shopping. Seijuro had already situated Bokushi in the trolley in the grocery store before going around and browsing the aisles.
As he looked through the shelves, Seijuro was beginning to realize that he was feeling a bit awkward right now buying groceries. He didn't know exactly what Bokushi wanted.
Bokushi was originally a part of him anyway, which meant that Seijuro would know his likes and dislikes since their preferences were exactly the same, but he felt like he didn't know at the same time. It was different when they shared the same body, but now Bokushi had his own body, and Bokushi was more than capable of making his own independent thoughts and decisions. So, Seijuro didn't want to assume and make choices for him, because for all he knew, Bokushi was a complete stranger to him now, and he had to reacquaint himself with his other personality little by little.
He was wondering what to do about the situation until Bokushi pointed to something in the refrigerated aisle.
"I want that over there," he said.
Seijuro paused. "Oh... alright then."
He shook his head as he pushed the trolley over to where Bokushi was pointing. He was making it way too complicated. He should have just asked him what he wanted, it was that simple.
Well, he had been told that he tended to overthink things, like the time he thought Murasakibara was angry with him after he scolded him for being late to their practice match, only to call later to resolve the matter and find out that the Yosen Centre had forgotten the whole ordeal, and was instead going on about limited edition maiubo in Kyoto. Maybe he should stop taking issues so seriously.
He ratcheted up the pace as they went, and soon they were out of the grocery store in no time, adding more baggage for Seijuro to carry back.
...
After taking the bus back, the two of them finally made their way back to the Rakuzan campus. They had just arrived at the dorm building when Seijuro took a quick look around the area.
"What are you doing?"
"Making sure that no one is in sight," Seijuro said quietly. "I can't let anyone see you here. Now, we just have to get upstairs and-"
"What the hell?"
Seijuro froze on the spot, feeling his whole body go numb as his brain registered what he just heard.
He recognized that voice.
Slowly turning around, Seijuro felt his heart in his throat as he faced the person behind him, a teenage boy with grey hair to match his grey eyes with a light novel in hand who, not to mention, looked painfully confused at the situation in front of him. Seijuro had to take a deep breath to keep his crumbling composure.
"Mayuzumi-san...what are you doing here?"
Read and review please!