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If there was one thing Shinjiro hated doing, it was laying around all day. Between Ken, Goro, and Theodore, he wasn’t able to do much besides that. Usually he’d be happy to see his charge and half-brother trying to be more independent, but right now? It was a bit much when they were acting like he’d rip in half if he tried to cook or something. And in some ways his boyfriend treating him the same was was even worse.
No one was around right now, though… Ken and Goro were at school and Theodore was working, after all. Maybe now would be the time to get up and do something. He was feeling stressed, so maybe he’d walk Koromaru or go smoke. He hadn’t smoked in a while, but the stress was building up again and he was out of that damn nicotine gum…
He just had to hope no one saw him doing that. He’d gotten in trouble way too many times for doing that… Mitsuru had literally beaten him over it once, after all. Sure, she’d put a lot into getting him to quit after, but being beaten still wasn’t fun.
“Shit…” He stood up and peeked around the drawers in his room and… Yeah, still hidden just where he’d left it. His last box of smokes.
Well, Mitsuru should be gone right now, and if he went out to the back he should be fine, right? He could say he just needed fresh air and he was sure Theodore would leave him alone. If there was one thing his boyfriend was, it was gullible. A blessing and curse for him, huh?
It came in handy here, though. He didn’t want to be nagged for de-stressing, after all. It wasn’t his fault there wasn’t a lot of ways for him to calm down. It didn’t help that there was man he could consider a “smoking buddy” in the form of Sojiro Sakura too. That just made it seem more appealing, even if it was gross as hell.
Koromaru barked at him when he walked out of the bedroom and he put a finger to his lips. “I’m just going out, Koromaru. Aigis said she’ll come walk you later.”
That was right… There were others still insisting on helping out. Aigis and her twin, Mitsuru and her wife, Akihiko… There were too many people who insisted they were going to do things until he could “get back on his feet” or whatever. He didn’t need that, though. He just needed to use his body and he’d be fine…
Koromaru whined as Shinjiro opened the door and he shook his head. He wasn’t going to let it get to him, not this time. Staying in the apartment any longer was going to make him go insane, he swore… There was no way he was going to stay in there just because a cute dog whined at him…
With a deep breath, he forced himself through the door, even if Koromaru’s whines broke his heart. God dammit, why had he told Ken that he could bring him home? He should’ve known it’d cause problems like this. He felt like a monster ignoring the poor thing… But he had to push on.
“I’ll be back soon.” And he was out the door.
--
Shinjiro didn’t know how he got Theodore to leave him alone, but he felt he needed to thank Margaret. She didn’t seem to like the fact he was with Theodore, but she had helped him get to the back of the building without Theodore following him. Maybe she knew he was going to smoke and hoped it would get him killed faster, who knew. Seemed like something she might do.
He pulled out a cigarette and sighed. Where was his lighter…?
“U-uh, hey.” He looked up, cigarette hanging from his mouth. Standing there was a young girl, no older than fifteen. Wait, wasn't she Sojiro’s kid?
“You need something?” He finally found his lighter and started trying to light it. He’d just keep his distance.
“You smoke like Sojiro too…?”
He glanced at her again, a frown on his face.
“Only sometimes...Why does it matter?” He really didn’t get it, at all.
“U-uh…” She wring her hands together, biting at her lip. “S-Sojiro heard about your injury and wanted me to keep an eye on you…”
Shinjiro rose an eyebrow. “Really? Him? We haven’t talked in awhile, though.”
“W-well…” She crouched down, seemingly scared. It was in that moment that his phone went off.
Futaba Sakura: He saw you were trying to quit and was worried the injury would make you smoke again.
Futaba Sakura: The cafe needed running though, so he asked me to keep an eye out.
Futaba Sakura: Please put down the cigarette >:(
Shinjiro rose an eyebrow, how had she gotten his information. Futaba was an odd girl, wasn’t she? Well, he’d worry about that later, since she was now staring up at him, refusing to make direct eye contact. Despite that, he could see she really did want him to stop puffing on the cigarette… Dammit.
He sighed and threw it to the ground, smothering it with his foot. “Alright, fine, you win.”
Futaba’s eyes seemed to light up a bit at that, seemingly excited that it had worked. Shinjiro knew it was only because she reminded him of a small, scared animal, but she didn’t need to know that. He would let her have this one, no reason not to…
“...Shouldn’t you be at school, kid?”
Futaba bit her lip again, still crouched on the ground. She fiddled with one of her sleeves, as if trying to figure out if she could speak or if she should send Shinjiro another text. He didn’t know why, but he was kind of expecting the text. She seemed to be scared of interactions like this, after all.
“U-Uh. I-I…”
“Just text me if you can’t bring yourself to talk. Don’t hurt yourself over it.” He frowned, shaking his head.
Futaba Sakura: I stopped going to school. Middle school was the end.
Futaba Sakura: ...I won’t be going back until next year, maybe.
“What do you mean maybe?” Shinjiro rose an eyebrow and she shook her head. Alright, she didn’t want to talk anymore.
Shinjiro looked around and realized that it was kind of gross out back here. The front of the building definitely looked a lot better than out here… Not much he could do about that, though. Instead he was going to focus on getting Futaba away from here, she was pale, probably didn’t go out much. She’d probably get sick staying out here.
“Come on, then…” He moved to her and knelt down. She jumped back. Okay, maybe he was scarier than he thought.
“W-what?”
“Let’s get out of here, you’re going to get sick.” He stood up straight again and sighed, shaking his head.
Futaba seemed to wring her hands together just a bit more before nodding and standing up. She seemed to be really jumpy… Shinjiro almost felt bad for kneeling in front of her with no warning now. Not much he could do the change that, though. He’d just mentally kick himself over it later…
He started for the front of the building, Futaba tailing after him. She seemed afraid to get too close, but every time there was a noise, she jumped a little closer. He was pretty sure he saw her shaking, the poor girl… She wasn’t good at this stuff, was she?
“Come on, let’s get you back inside…” He turned and pushed her in front of him gently.
“H-huh?!”
She looked even more nervous, if that was even possible. Her hands were being wrung together more intensely and Shinjiro was afraid she was going to bite through her lip. He moved over to her and pat her head, doing his best to smile. He wasn’t very good at smiling, though, and it was probably either impossible to decipher or terrifying to see.
Futaba didn’t seem scared, though, instead just nodding and making her way to the door. He felt this was going to be okay in the end, she was a bit shaky in her step, but nothing too bad. Shinjiro was almost sure she’d make it in ahead of him… When she jumped back at the sight of Theodore.
“What’s wrong? Theo isn’t scary…” He frowned at her and she just shook her head.
Futaba Sakura: Not good with people.
Futaba Sakura: You go first.
He sighed when the texts came through on his phone, shaking his head. Looked like he’d have to go in first. He’d wanted to avoid that because he was sure Theodore would stop him and talk to him, making it harder for Futaba to make it inside. If that’s what she wanted though, so be it.
“Was the fresh air nice, Shinjiro?” The smile Theodore gave him gave him a bad feeling. Okay, maybe he was kinda scary.
“Yeah, it was fine…” He glanced to the side when Futaba ran past him, towards the stairs. So scared of people she’d take the stairs, huh? Damn…
“I noticed that your pocket was a bit... out.” Theodore pointed right at the cigarette packet in his pants pocket. “It reminds me of when you used to smoke.”
Shit, had he caught on…?
“...I didn’t smoke.” He shook his head. He needed to do his best to act like he hadn’t been doing something like that.
Theodore’s scary smile fell away to a pout and Shinjiro almost wanted to say it was cute. He would’ve if he wasn’t terrified that Theodore planned on snitching about it to Mitsuru. He was totally planning to do that, though, wasn’t he? It was after she found out that he’d started trying to quit so he’d just think that was the best idea.
“Give them to me.”
He blinked a few times. “Excuse me?”
Theodore moved and pulled the cigarette packet from his pocket. “Let me keep a hold of this and I won’t tell Mitsuru about this.”
The smile was back on his face and Shinjiro knew it wasn’t one he could argue with. “...Fine.”
“Good!” Theodore moved a bit closer, leaving a kiss on Shinjiro’s cheek and letting his mouth hover next to his ear. “I’ll come help you relieve stress later, alright?”
Shinjiro grimaced a bit, but nodded. He knew that he wasn’t going to get a choice in this. “Just don’t break my back or anything.”
“I won’t!”
--
Shinjiro felt like his back was going to break. Why did he let Theodore give him massages? He knew by now that Theodore didn’t know his own strength, and he never had it in him to tell him to ease up. Koromaru couldn’t even bark at him, seeing as he was currently on his walk with Aigis.
“Isn’t your stress just melting away?” Theodore sounded so excited, but…
“You really aren’t very good at this, you know that?”
Theodore’s hands left Shinjiro’s back and he really wanted to sigh in relief. He held it in, though. He’d probably already hurt Theodore’s feelings, after all. He felt making it worse now would just be a bad idea. His big sisters were just downstairs, after all.
“I’m really not getting any better?” Theodore sat next to him and Shinjiro saw that pout from earlier again. “Elizabeth said I need to stop being so gentle…”
Shinjiro grimaced. “Don’t listen to her, be more gentle… Right now if feels like you’re trying to break me in half.”
“Oh…” Theodore blinked a few times. “Shinjiro, I always thought you were very sturdy, though.”
“Doesn’t change how it feels…” He turned to lay on his side, staring at Theodore. “I appreciate you wanting to help, but…”
Theodore seemed to think for a moment before smiling again. “Then we just have to do something else!”
Shinjiro rose an eyebrow, what else could he think of? It wasn’t like Shinjiro could leave the apartment for long (his wound had been aching most of the day after he got back in from his failed smoke-break). Theodore was really good at coming up with odd activities, though, so maybe he should be more scared than curious.
He blinked a few times when Theodore suddenly sat him up. He should’ve seen this coming… Of course Theodore was going to do something weird without thinking about asking Shinjiro about it first. When it came to helping him relax this was usually the case, and honestly? He’d gotten so used to it he couldn’t even be mad about it.
“What’re you doing?” He could ask about it, though. He wouldn’t just let him do whatever he wanted, after all.
“I’ve heard playing with someone’s hair can be quite calming! I thought I would give it a try.” He smiled at Shinjiro.
“...Just don’t pull my hair out.” He was almost expecting that, seeing as how Theodore usually did things like this. Hopefully the warning would be enough.
“I wasn’t planning on pulling it out, thank you.” Shinjiro could hear the pout in Theodore’s voice and sighed. He hoped upsetting him wasn’t going to make it worse…
And indeed it didn’t. If anything, this was actually nice… Theodore’s hand were just running through his hair. It was actually very nice, if he was being honest here. Made him a little sleepy, sure, but, well… He hadn’t been sleeping well for a few days so that was to be expected--
“Ah shit!” He couldn’t help but yell out when Theodore’s hand caught in a knot.
“Shinjiro! You need to take better care of your hair! Do you ever brush it?!” He felt Theodore tug against the knot, pulling Shinjiro’s head back.
“Shit, stop pulling on it! Stop!” He pulled his head forward and groaned. “I haven’t in the past few days, I’ve just been in bed, so what’s the point.”
“The point is the knots are horrible!” Theodore sounded at least a little peeved about this. “And-- Oh no.”
“What’s oh no?” That didn’t sound good.
“My hand is stuck...In the knot.”
Shinjiro did his best to turn and look at Theodore. “...What’re we going to do about that?”
“Don’t worry, I’ll find a way to get it out…” Theodor smiled at him again. “And then we’ll brush it out.”
Shinjiro didn’t know why, but that sounded terrifying.
--
Shinjiro’s scalp felt like it was on fire. He’d never met someone so rough with a god damned brush of all things. Hell, he’d expected Akihiko or Mitsuru to be rough like that, if anyone, but Theodore? It seemed surreal that he’d been the one behind this all.
“Isn’t that much better?” Theodore smiled at him as he ran a hand through his hair. “All silky smooth.”
“I’d rather be dead than do that again.”
“Oh come now, it wasn’t that bad!” Theodore laughed a bit as he moved to sit next to Shinjiro. “Doesn’t it feel nice to have your hair all neat like that?”
“No.”
Theodore frowned at him and sighed. “You’re being difficult, Shinjiro!”
“No I’m not.” He shook his head, a frown on his face.
“Shinjiro…”
He looked away and decided it was better to think about something else… Maybe that kid Futaba. She didn’t seem to be the best around people, but she’d went out of her way to tell him to stop face to face (or, well, mostly face to face at least). That took major guts, so kudos to her, eh?
“Shinjiro, you’re not ignoring me, are you?”
He was, in fact, the words only barely made it to his ears. He was still thinking about that. Maybe she wanted to do it for Sojiro for a reason? One of those cases of a kid feeling they need to do what they can for a parent? He didn’t think he’d ever see Ken doing something like that, but then again he wasn’t his real father…
“Shinjiro!” He yelped a bit when Theodore pushed him over. “Stop ignoring me!”
He looked over at him, glad that it didn’t feel like his wound reopened. That would mean more recovery, and he really didn’t want that. “Be more careful, I’m injured right now…”
He sat up and it took Theodore no time to lift up his shirt, worry on his face. “Did I make the wound reopen?!”
“No, don’t freak out so much…” He put his hands over Theodore’s and pushed it (and his shirt) down. “I’m not that fragile.”
“Yes, but…” Theodore frowned. “Anyone like you will be affected by a bullet…”
Like him? Theodore said that like he wasn’t like him… Then again, Shinjiro had had his doubts about how human Theodore was (even if he did his best not to). Whenever he said something like this, it just made it harder to ignore the doubt. But then there was another question… If he wasn’t human, what the hell was he and what about Shinjiro interested him?
Well, now wasn’t the time for that. “I promise I won’t get shot again…” He sighed a bit, shaking his head. He was pretty sure it’d been more of a warning to someone else than wanting to harm him, anyway.
Theodore frowned a bit and shook his head with a sigh. “When you say something like that I just want to keep a closer eye on you.”
Shinjiro snorted a bit. “What are you? My mother or my boyfriend?”
“Huh?” Theodore blinked a few times. “I’m your boyfriend, of course!”
“You’re kind of acting like my mother, though.” He was going to try and have some fun with this.
“Says you! You’re more like a mother than I could ever be.”
“No I’m not.” He shook his head.
“Oh? Is that why Ken’s told me he’s caught you watching cooking shows?” He rose an eyebrow at Shinjiro.
“That’s--”
“Or why you’re almost always in the kitchen?”
“Theo--”
“Don’t forget the fact you’re always hovering over both Ken and your half-brother!”
“Okay, so I’m a bit like a mom--”
“Only a bit?”
Shinjiro sighed. He felt this was going to be a long conversation… He might as well prepare himself.