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With Kenma’s job mainly having him to be home, Kouichi never had to go to Nursery School. Kenma did have a system set up on how he would look after Kouichi during work; Streams and videos of Kenma with sling carrying the infant was one of highlights for months. When Kouichi was old enough, he would just be seen in the background, playing his own stuff. But Kenma did have to keep his stream PG for a while – he wasn’t allowed to swear in front of their son. (Not yet anyway). When Kouichi was older, Kenma would just have him play in his own playroom while he had a camera to monitor him, ensuring his son won’t do anything stupid.
It was on rarer occasions that Kenma was forced to leave his home to tend to some business meetings for Bouncing Ball. And that was when Kouichi caught the first glimpse of hel- nursery. But at least he knew Inouka so it was fine. And Hitoshi was there too so bonus point.
Primary school though. That was a whole different matter in the Kozume household. Tetsurou and Kenma had to make sure they could explain to him how school would work. How he needed to start his learning journey to grow up. How he would need to go through this for at least the next 9 years. 12 if he really decided to continue optional education in High School.
Preparing Kouichi for school was easy in some parts. The kid was already too smart for his own good, mastering how to write his name since he was 3. And some other useless Chemistry facts that he didn’t really need until at least his last year of Primary School but Kenma will touch upon that fact later. But there was one thing that Kouichi refused to acknowledge and understand. And that was Tetsurou and Kenma’s worse nightmare.
Separation anxiety.
Kouichi furrowed his brows, still not understanding the situation. “What do you mean you’ll leave me?” He turned to his parents, frowning. “For a whole day?”
“We can’t exactly go to school with you, Kou.” Tetsurou tried to explain, “but it’ll be okay. Hitoshi will be in the same class as you.”
Kouichi’s frown deepened and turned to Kenma. Kenma honestly wasn’t sure what he was expecting. He was aware of what he needed to do at this place called ‘school’. He would be stripped away from his parents for a while and will be forced to socialize with humans.
“Stop acting like we’re abandoning you to live in the wild for a while.” Kenma scoffed, “though I have to admit, school does suck.”
“Kenma! Stop giving him bad ideas.” Tesurou hissed at his husband, “we need to prepare him on what he should expect, not scare him off.”
Somehow, Kouichi felt lighter after what he heard from Kenma. He could see the small smirk on the streamer’s face when they made eye-contact before he went back to listening to what Tetsurou was saying.
They really should have known what they were about to get themselves into when the Opening Ceremony rolled around. April arrived and Tetsurou was already tearing up while he watched Kouichi put on his school uniform. He took way too many pictures for the young Kozume’s liking and 90% of the pictures on Tetsurou’s phone that day contained only his son wearing an annoyed scowl on his face.
And then there was another issue that Kenma couldn’t avoid.
“Stop staring.” Kenma gave up on fixing his tie when he could feel his husband’s eyes on his back.
“But I get to see Kodzuken wearing a suit for the first time in a while…”
“That’s a lie. You saw me in a suit in a meeting few weeks ago when we were talking about sponsorships.”
“Yeah well, can I not take the time to admire how hot my husband looks in a suit?” He wiggled his brows with his signature smirk.
Kenma’s face flushed, averting his eyes away from the mirror, knowing if he looked, he’ll be met with those smirks. The family did manage to finish preparing to leave for the Entrance Ceremony. Though Kouichi had wished he didn’t walk in on them flirting when he tried rushing them out of the house. The kid would not go into detail on what he saw in that mere second.
On their walk to school, Kouichi was occupied with the cherry blossoms decorating the road as well as the new scenery around them. He was full on engaged and absorbed in talking to Kenma about a dungeon map he could make up while pointing to almost everything around them.
“And what would the cherry blossom be in this map of yours, oh great Hero?” Tetsurou decided to humor his son and Kouichi pursed his lips, thinking for a bit.
“A special effect on the battle field!” He huffed out his reply, pulling out an imaginary sword to swing about. “Of course, me and the allies will get boosts to our stats while the enemies will be slowed down.” He continued to ramble on about his imaginary world.
“At least he’s in good spirit before school.” Tetsurou hummed, “hopefully he’ll keep it up when we arrive.”
Kenma hummed, “emphasis on hopefully.”
The moment they arrived at school, Kouichi was surprised at the sheer number of families walking through the gate. There were far too many people, way more than Kouichi had expected. He ran back to his parents, grabbing onto their hands tightly as they walked into the premise. He ducked his face behind his parents’ hand, not replying to the greetings from the teachers and staff while they walk up to his class. Reality was finally setting in on Kouichi.
“Year 1 Class 5, this is it, Kou.” Tetsurou stood in front of the classroom’s door, “we’re here.” He glanced down at his son and watched the way Kouichi was looking at the teacher talking, calming some kid inside the room. Suddenly, with the sound of children crying echoing the hallway, Kouichi felt like joining the crying festival too.
“Little man?” Tetsurou glanced at him. He reached down for his son and it seemed like that was the thing that broke the dam. Kouichi suddenly broke into a wail as well, surprising both Tetsurou and Kenma. He let go of their hands to bury his face onto Kenma’s legs. “K-Kou?” He reached over and Kouichi flailed, shaking his head.
“Dun wanna…”
Tetsurou let out a sigh, watching his crying son and back towards his husband to see if he had any plans to help calm him down. He was really glad they left an hour early so they could prepare themselves for this.
Kenma carefully extracted Kouichi’s hands from him so he could turn around and knelt down, “Kou?” He brushed his son’s bang to the side, looking at the teary eyes. “We told you about this before, didn’t we?”
A small nod.
“It’ll be okay. Just go inside and find your deks. We’ll see each other again later down in the gym.”
Kouichi shook his head, lowering his head.
“Why don’t you want to go?”
“I-I don’t want to be away from you two.” He admitted quietly.
“I know this can be a bit overwhelming. It is quite a lot of people, isn’t it?” Kouichi nodded again and Kenma smiled, ruffling his head. “It’ll be okay, little man. You’ll be fine. First day of school can be a lot to take in. This change is sudden, but you will get used to it.” Kenma murmured, using his thumbs to wipe the tears away.
“Besides.” Tetsurou knelt down, grinning. “You won’t be alone; Hitoshi is going to be in the same class as you.”
“Hitoshi will?” Kouichi seemingly had calmed down and Tetsurou took out a packet of tissues to wipe away the snots. “Where is he now?”
“Keiji and Kotarou will bring him over soon. How about wait for him inside, okay?”
Kouichi glanced back at the classroom before nodding slowly. Tetsurou and Kenma then smiled, leaning over to give Kouichi a kiss on the top of his head before walking him up to the door. Kouichi froze a bit when he met eyes with the teacher but she gave him a soft smile, greeting him before leading him inside.
They stood by the door, making sure Kouichi had found his desk and comfortable before making their way towards the gym for the ceremony. Without even taking a glance, Kenma handed the older man his handkerchief.
Thankfully, Kouichi seemed to be a lot more cheerful when they saw him walking into the gym with his class. Well, he was still quiet, still shy but at least he and Hitoshi were next to each other for the entirety of the ceremony. They had each other to help get use to their new environment.