Chapter Text
“Quiet down class! Like I told you last week, we have a new transfer student joining our lovely daycare group today!” Tokushirou Tsurumi clapped his hands as he slid the classroom’s door open and entered the busy room. “Follow me. Come here to the front and introduce yourself.”
A small boy walked close by the teacher’s side. He and his father had just finished a meeting with the man. Father had left but promised to come get him in about four hours. That meant when the smaller one of the clock’s hands was on the number five on the clock. Vasily had made his father show him that, so he could tell when he would be coming back. They had had to go through it a couple times, but Vasily felt confident that he knew it now.
“You have to take your hat and scarf off indoors! Those are the rules!” Usami piped up almost instantly when the group of children in the classroom had focused their attention on the teacher and the new kid, “Teacher Tsurumi, aren’t those the rules? You said that we have to follow the rules.”
“Yes Usami. Thank you. Next time, raise your hand if you have something to say. Vasily, could you take off your hat and scarf so we can see you a bit better? It must be hot wearing all that”, Tsurumi gave Usami a smile as he kindly corrected the young boy.
Usami seemed to blush, mumbling something unintelligible. He focused his attention back to the new kid.
“M-My name is Vasily Pavlichenko”, he glanced at Tsurumi to ask if he needed to write that down on the blackboard behind them, “I-I moved here because my father got a new job. N-N-Nice to meet you.”
Vasily played with the ends of the scarf in his hands. He had stuttered a bit but had managed to say all the things he had practiced. He blushed. They did not think he was weird, did they?
“Why is his hair all weird?” Koito, the youngest of the group, asked loudly, “Why does he have blue eyes? It’s weird!”
“Koito, that is rude”, Tsukishima told him in a serious tone. He was seated next to the youngest.
“Thank you, Tsukishima. Yes, while Vasily’s hair might be a different color from yours Koito, back where Vasily is from it is completely normal to have hair and eyes like this”, Tsurumi explained patiently while trying not to distress their new friend, “Vasily, could you show us where you are from? I have this big map over here.”
Tsurumi pulled down a large world map in front of the blackboard and gave Vasily a pointer.
Vasily pointed to Sakhalin.
“That’s right next to us though”, Kouhei whispered.
“Yeah, right next to us”, Youhei agreed from next to him.
The twins, of course sitting next to each other, nodded in shared confusion.
“Vasily comes from Russia. This….” Tsurumi traced the tip of the pointer along the border of Russia, “is all Russia.”
“That is big!” Koito exclaimed, “Like super big!”
“Indeed. Vasily here has been studying Japanese very hard but be patient with him. He might not understand you right away, so you might have to repeat what you said a second time. Now, could we all introduce ourselves. Vasily still does not understand all the letters, so maybe we can write ourselves name tags so he can all learn our names. This will be a good time to see if you all remember how to write your names! Let us start with the front row. Koito and Tsukishima, please come up.”
Tsukishima helped Koito off his chair and the two made their way to the front.
“Ah, Vasily. You can sit next to Ogata. Go sit there and tell me if you can’t see the blackboard well enough. We might have to move you to the front if you don’t.”
Ogata had been seated next to Usami before, but the two of them had gotten into a heated argument over their portions of shiitake mushrooms at lunch before, so they had been separated from each other. Ogata had just been nice enough to offer all his shiitake to Usami.
Ogata did not even lift his head up from the paper he was drawing on as Vasily sat down next to him.
While Tsurumi had explained the seating arrangement to the new kid, Tsukishima had lifted Koito so he could reach the blackboard. He put the younger one down and fixed a letter on the name Koito had written. He then wrote his next to it, making sure to try and make his hiragana as neat as possible so that they would be easy to understand.
“I wrote mine in purple ‘cause I like purple!” Koito explained to Tsurumi, “It says Koito!”
“Well done, you two. These two are Hajime Tsukishima and Otonoshin Koito. Koito is our youngest while Tsukishima is one of our older classmates”, Tsurumi explained, checking to make sure Vasily had understood.
Vasily was busy writing the names down onto the notebook he and his father had bought for him. His tongue stuck out of the right corner of his mouth as he concentrated on every groove and angle. He made sure to look and connect the name with a face.
“My name is Usami Tokishige! You can call me Usami! My favorite color is pink.”
It really was not about favorite colors but Koito had started it.
The twins said their names at the same time, making Tsurumi miss his chance of trying to make sure he knew the two apart once again.
The boy next to Vasily suddenly took his notebook and wrote something down there before handing it back.
“Ogata, come write your name here”, Tsurumi sighed.
“Do as the teacher says, stupid Ogata”, Usami hissed from his seat.
Ogata glared at Usami before speaking up, “He was writing the names down anyways. He can see it better this way.”
Tsurumi gave in and wrote Ogata’s name on the board instead, “Ogata Hyakunosuke. That is all the kids. There are still two more adults you’ll get to know a bit later. Their names are Kikuta and Ariko.”
Tsurumi wrote his and the other two’s names down.
“How about we make the name tags now? You can use your favorite color or draw what else you like. We can use crayons this time so we can make the tags all colorful”, Tsurumi gave everyone several pieces of paper and a case of crayons.
“What do you like, Ogata?” Vasily tried carefully, eyeing the furious coloring the other was working on. He was seemingly making the lines of the letters in his name as thick and bold as possible with the black crayon.
“Cats”, was the simple reply.
“I like cats too. We have a dog at home. A big one.”
Ogata stopped to stare at the boy. Hadn’t he just replied that he liked cats? Why would he bring up dogs then? What a weird kid. Tsurumi had brought in another weird one.
“I like pelmeni. What food do you like?” Vasily continued, trying his best. His father had told him to try and make new friends, so he would try his best even if it meant that he had to keep asking questions.
“What is that?”
“Food.”
“Yeah, but what kind of food?”
“I’ll draw it for you!” Vasily exclaimed and began digging through the box for the right colors.
Ogata finally drew a small bowl of anglerfish hotpot and a cat to the corner of his paper. If you squinted real hard, you might be able to tell what they were supposed to be. Drawing was not Ogata’s strong point, even though he had the patience to keep trying.
In the end, Ogata still could not tell what a pelmeni was. The drawing Vasily had made looked like something between a meat bun and bug.
Vasily and Ogata stared at the thing for a long time. That did not look like food.
The Russian blushed. His artistic talent had betrayed him.
Everyone stuck their name tags to the whiteboard when they were done. The kids had been focused enough to draw and chat for almost two hours. They would tape them to their seats tomorrow.
Vasily had fun looking through the artwork the others had made. There was a boat, a bunny, some unidentifiable creatures, self portraits and for some odd reason, two drawings of their teacher Tsurumi.
“Mine looks way more like him!” Usami argued with Koito who was trying to reach the older one’s face to punch it. Tsukishima held them both back.
“While I am flattered, the instructions were to draw something you like”, Trusumi told them, “Well, why don’t we go out for now. It is such nice weather too. It would be boring to spend all day inside. Come on, put your jackets on. And don’t forget your gloves and hats.”
The aforementioned Kikuta and Ariko joined them, helping the kids put on their shoes and jackets. They had been out buying the ingredients for tomorrow’s lunch for everyone.
Koito had tripped on his shoelaces and was screaming his head off when Vasily got done tying his scarf around his neck. He looked to see where Ogata had disappeared to and followed him to one of the trees in the yard. The raven head had already climbed up by the time the newcomer made it there.
“Was it okay for us to take the new kid?” Kikuta asked Tsurumi as they made their way outside. The man had Koito sitting on his shoulders, snot running down the boy’s nose. Kikuta sighed when the boy wiped his nose into his precious scarf. That would be a bitch to clean off.
“Doesn’t Asirpa’s group have way less kids in it?” Ariko agreed. He had taken Tsukishima onto his shoulders, the short boy enjoying the view, resting his cheek on the man’s head.
“Are you trying to tell me that we can’t take in one more?” Tsurumi laughed, “No, you are absolutely correct, but Asirpa just began working with us and she is a fresh graduate as well. We need to give her time to get used to it here. I heard that her group is a nightmare as it is.”
Tsurumi meant that last one as a joke, but Asirpa’s small group in the daycare’s other classroom could really be a handful. Especially Sugimoto and Shiraishi. The first was always getting himself hurt somewhere during his adventures, while the latter was known as the escape king. His own mother, having heard that Asirpa had once had to tie the boy down to get him to stay seated during lunch, had suggested that duct tape works the best. It was like the boy had a lit fuse under his ass all day.
The trio shared an understanding moment of silence for the young woman. It wasn’t like they did not have any troublesome kids either. No. They had their hands full as well. That was why there usually were three adults working at the same time. They were a small daycare at the outskirts of a town in Hokkaido. While they had a surprisingly good budget,their space was limited. That part of the town also had a bigger and newer daycare that had taken most of their opportunities. Now Tsurumi was known as the man who could work even with the worst kids who had a hard time adjusting or would need more time and special care to make sure that they could begin in a school setting.
And no one had asked if the man even had the education for all this. No, he did not, but he seemed to win over everyone with his weird charm and sweet talk.
But this was more of a passion project for Tsurumi, who had worked as an Intelligence Agency officer until a head injury left him unemployed. Kikuta and Ariko were his old acquaintances who had both been in the Police force until a situation with a criminal got out of hand and both of them got injured. Kikuta had lost his younger brother in the incident and because of the trauma could not return to work even after healing from the physical wounds.
Tsurumi had offered them both a place to work when he learned of their situation. They quickly proved themselves to be good with kids. Kikuta was like a mentor to the kids although he had his childish side. Ariko was full of stories to tell the kids from his childhood, family history or the hunting trips he went to with his friends. He was proud of his Ainu roots and would often teach the kids how the Ainu would track animals or about their beliefs.
“So, listen Tsurumi. Ariko suddenly said that he can’t go watch that new western with me! We always watch the newest movie together! You know, a movie date. But no, he said that he was going fishing this weekend”, Kikuta huffed, not even hiding his annoyance.
“And I have told you again and again how sorry I am. I remembered that I had promised to go fishing with the others”, Ariko sighed. God, this was not the right time or place for this.
“So Kiroranke and Kirawus are suddenly more important than our movie night?” if Kikuta had not had Koito still on his shoulders, he would have been crossing his hands by now. Koito made sure to tighten his grip on the man’s hair as he got animated.
“I’ll make this up for you. I promise. I can take you to the movie theater in town. They are going to show that movie too, right? We could go watch it on the big screen.”
That got Kikuta interested, “When?”
“Not this week. Tsukishima will be staying with us this week, right buddy?”
“Mm”, Tsukishima nodded.
“The formal side of things still isn’t done?” Tsurumi asked with a sigh.
“No, but we have a court date scheduled for next week. We are meeting with the father’s lawyer”, Ariko nodded. He too, annoyed at the thought.
“Then maybe we can watch the movie together this weekend? The little man and me.”
“Kikuta. Aren’t most westerns a bit too mature for little kids?” Tsurumi pointed out.
Kikuta tsk’d.
“It’s okay”, Tsukishima mumbled as he absentmindedly played with the ring on Ariko’s left hand.
“If not a movie, we will do something else fun while boring Ariko is not there”, Kikuta pet the boy’s head, “We can have a pillow fight, drink hot cocoa and do all kinds of awesome things.”
“I wanna have a pillow fight too!” Koito shouted, puffing his cheeks. He did not like being left out of conversations that sounded important. Daddy and big brother always talked about something important by themselves. Something Koito could not understand.
“Tsukishima can come to my place for a sleepover!” Koito added, “And I can show him all my cool toys!”
Koito was beaming. He and Tsukishima would have the best sleepover ever. Much better than what boring Kikuta had in mind.
“That is a very nice idea Koito, but have you asked your parents?” Kikuta burst his bubble.
“N-no. Not yet! I was going to! I swear”, Koito sniffled, “We could build a pillow fort!”
Tsukishima smiled. He had begun to look after the classes youngest as something he thought he should do. He had been in the daycare the longest, so he had to take care of the new ones, he thought. Koito had stuck to him like glue and there he still was even now.
“Maybe I can come play with you later. We can ask your parents when they come pick you up today”, he offered.
“Big brother is gonna pick me up today! After he is done with school!” Koito grinned. His big brother could forward the message. Maybe he could get the adults to agree to do it. He was always so good at talking to adults.
“Heinojou must be busy with school. Try not to bother him too much”, Tsurumi told him.
“Big brother is really smart!”
Yes, they all knew that. Koito could hold a whole lecture about his family, especially about his big brother and how cool he was. Heinojou was thirteen years older than his younger brother. Just based on that alone, anything the older brother did made him look like a hero in Koito’s eyes. Of course the younger one could call his big brother names and annoy him with his usual behavior, but Heinojou was always very patient and kind with him. Heinojou had been overjoyed to hear that he would be a big brother when his parents had broken the news about the mother’s pregnancy. He had cried when he first held his little brother in his arms.
Tsurumi would write the Koito parents a message informing them of the talk they had had today. He personally found the relationship the two boys had rather endearing.
“We are gonna have a way better sleepover!” Koito told Kikuta and Ariko, finishing the sentence with a shit-eating grin and a huff.
“What are you doing? How did you get up there?” Vasily wondered as he tried to climb the tree after Ogata, “You're really good. Are you a cat?”
“Huh?” Ogata looked annoyed. The new brat had followed him to his favorite spot. This was the best tree for climbing and you could see the whole yard from there if you climbed high enough. Ogata liked to spend all his breaks here, if possible. Sometimes Tsurumi or the other adults would drag him to play some stupid game with the others. He did not like football. He was not good at it. He did not want to play tag either. It was stupid.
Vasily was trying his best to climb to Ogata, huffing and puffing as he tried to lift his body up. He was taller than Ogata, so how had the other gotten up there that easy and quick?
“Are you a cat?” Vasily repeated as he got frustrated.
“Can you do anything else? All you do is ask questions. It’s annoying”, Ogata fired back, his voice flat.
“But are you?”
“No, I’m not a cat”, Ogata finally answered, figuring that it was the only way to get the taller boy to leave him alone, “You put your leg there first. Then your hand goes there and your other foot there.”
Vasily’s mouth made an o shape before he tried again. This time following the other’s advice. He finally made it to the crook where Ogata was seated, sitting down next to him. It was a tight fit but Vasily liked it. You could see everything from up here!
Vasily pointed to Ogata’s shirt, “But there is a cat on your shirt too!”
“This is a Meko oyashi. That is a different thing.”
“What is that?”
Ogata sighed, “Ask Ariko.”
Vasily hummed as he dug out a piece of paper and a pencil from his pocket. He wanted to draw the huge yard from here. There was all this cool playground equipment and other things.
“What do you like to do?” Vasily continued bombarding Ogata with questions.
“Um.. Like in daycare or -?”
“Outside!”
“In my free time then. Guess I like feeding the ducks. There is a small pond near where I live. Mom said that I shouldn’t feed them though.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know.”
“I’ll draw you a duck!”
“Do you know what a duck looks like? Do you even have ducks in Russia?”
Vasily nodded, nose buried in his paper. Ogata had noticed the same thing before. The kid got really close to his paper when he was drawing. Guess he was focusing really hard or something.
Ogata stared at the drawing being created, “No. That is not how a duck looks like. The neck is way too long. That is a swan. Lemme see.”
Ogata took the paper and pen from the other and began fixing the drawing, “Ducks are a lot smaller. They don’t have a long neck like this-”
Ogata halted when he heard a hiccup. He turned to look at Vasily, who had unshed tears in his eyes.
Ogata did not know what to do. He could always run. He had not done anything wrong. Vasily had been the one drawing the duck all wrong.
“Ah… So…. Look, this is not a duck. It’s a swan”, Ogata noticed that he had accidentally picked a red pen to make his corrections on the poor bird’s neck and now the drawing looked quite grotesque, “Ah…”
“I-I’ll draw you a duck! So you better watch me”, Ogata blushed as he got to work drawing a small duck into the corner of the piece of paper, “And ducks are not white either. Swans are though, so you drew a really good swan. You’re really good at drawing.”
The compliment seemed to work as Vasily dried his eyes to the sleeve of his jacket and scooted closer to see what Ogata was drawing.
“A-At least the swans that I saw were white. But all of them might not be white.”
Vasily nodded.
Ogata mumbled, blushing more, “The cat you drew was really good too. I can’t draw that good.”
“I will draw you a cat!”
“No need.”
“But you like cats! Do you want to see my dog?”
“Again, I said that I like cats! Where does the dog come in there?”
“My dog looks like a bear! Because he is so big! Father said that he is a separd!”
“A shepherd?”
Vasily’s dog was a large Caucasian Shepherd male that towered over the six year old. But he was a gentle giant with kids and would only attack you with kisses or maybe lie down on you thinking he was a lap dog. The family had gotten the dog to keep the young boy company during the move and as they got used to the new surroundings.
“Yeah! His name is bear! He used to be grandpa’s dog. Or he was grandpa’s dog’s kid”, Vasily tried to explain.
“Original.”
“He will lick your face.”
“No thank you. Hey, why do you call him ‘father’?”
“Hm? Father is a father, right?”
“Why don’t you call him dad or daddy? You don’t like him or something?”
“Does daddy mean father too?”
Oh right, Vasily was from Russia, “How do you say father in Russia then?”
That earned him a string of really weird sounding words from the blue eyed boy.
“So, you can say father in different ways in Russian?”
“Is it the same in Japanese?”
“Yeah, so maybe call him daddy or something.”
“Is father not good?”
“It makes you sound like…. It sounds like you and your father aren’t that close.”
“But you say father. Are you not close?”
“None of your business! Where is your mom anyways?”
To be honest, Ogata usually did not even use the name ‘father’. The more popular choices were ‘that bastard’ or ‘shitbag’ like his mother would call him.
“She is working. She is the best dancer and the prettiest too!”
“She is a dancer?”
“She dances b-b-b-ballet!” Vasilly huffed when he finally got the word right. His mother was the best Russian ballet dancer he knew. She was the prettiest too. Although he did not know other ballet dancers besides the ones from his mother’s group, he was still fairly certain that his mom was the best there was.
Ogata did not know what ballet was. He did not think that dancing was that cool. His mother would sometimes dance in their kitchen when she came back from work drunk. She was as bad at dancing as she was at singing.
“She sounds kinda cool”, Ogata almost whispered. He had finished his duck and handed the paper back to the boy.
Vasily was smiling as he nodded. He looked at the small bird drawn to the corner of the paper before squinting his brows.
“A bird?” he pointed to the drawing.
“It is a bird!” Ogata blushed bright red.
“An eel?”
“A duck!”
The clock was a bit over four as the first adults came to pick their kids up.
The Nikaido twins’ were the first to arrive. Tsurumi had understood that the parents were both twins as well and had met at an event for identical siblings. The mother, a researcher, had been hosting a speech and debate on the theory of the twinning reaction. The father had joined to listen in because of his own curiosity and experiences with what seemed to be the phenomenon. He had been pushed to take part in the debate and the two ended up with a coffee date afterwards. Now they both worked as researchers and had a pair of twins themselves.
“Hello boys! Were you good today?” the father picked the boys up and gave them both a kiss on the cheek. The mother did the same.
“There was a new kid today!” Youhei told them.
“He is super weird!” Kouhei added.
“Now now boys. You can’t say something like that”, the mother scolded them, “Now… Who wants to go grocery shopping? We will have curry tonight!”
“Me, me, me, me!” both boys cheered.
The parents waved to the adults as they buckled the twins into their car seats.
“Can we buy mandarin oranges too?” Kouhei asked when the parents entered the front seat.
“You already ate the last one? We have to see if they have any in the supermarket today. But if we can find some, then sure. You’ll have to make sure to keep your eyes peeled.”
“Ew, Kouhei is gonna peel his eyeballs!” Youhei screamed and kicked the seat in front of him, “I don’t want Kouhei to peel his eyeballs! He can’t see if he peels them off!”
That got Kouhei terrified of the idea and he screamed too.
“Now boys. That is just a saying! No one will be peeling any eyeballs”, the father tried his best to calm the boys down, “Honey? How many times have we talked about using vague and weird proverbs around the boys?”
The mother just laughed as she started the engine.
“KADOKURAAAAAAA!” Usami ran to the gates as soon as he spotted the man’s graying hair. His parents had not yet come to pick him up, so he had been enjoying his time sitting on Tsurumi’s lap.
Toshiyuki Kadokura and Kirawus were friends with the staff and their walk from work often took them by the daycare center.
Kadokura let out a scream as he ran away. The two had entered the enclosed yard to chat with the adults for a bit. Kirawus was ignored by the kids but Kadokura was attacked as soon as he stepped foot into the little guys’ territory.
“What did I ever do to youuu! Kirawus! Help me! I… I can’t run!” Kadokura was already sweating.
“It’s good exercise. That beer belly does not lose itself”, Kirawus joked, “So, the fishing trip? Kiroranke said that one of his horses had something wrong with its leg yesterday but he’s sure his boys can take care of that for him. He is all up for the trip. Said that he knows a good spot too.”
“No wonder I didn’t see him helping Asiripa today. Guess he was busy”, Tsurumi nodded.
“Don’t ignore me!”
“Kadokura!” Usami hit the man with a plastic shovel. He had gotten Koito and Tsukishima to join him in the chase. The two others just ran instead of picking up any weapons. Chasing Kadokura was always fun. The man had the best reactions.
“Kadokura! Stop running and give up!”
“What did I ever do to you? I am innocent!”
“Remember that one time you made me trip on mud? And what about that one time you got everyone else to chase me in tag? There is still more!”
Kadokura had to stop to catch his breath, choosing to grab Koito to use as his shield.
“KIEEEEEEEH!”
Okay. Maybe that was not the best choice. Now his eardrums were at risk of exploding.
“Mr. Kdokura, put Koito down. He doesn’t like that. Usami, didn’t Tsurumi tell you not to use the toys as weapons?” Tsukishima, the always brave boy, came to rescue.
“Kieeeeeeeeeh!” Koito let out another one of his monkey cries before running to Tsurumi and hiding behind the adult’s legs, “Kieh!”
Tsurumi picked Usami up to end the fighting. He gave Usami a look before focusing his attention back into the conversation they had been having.
“Kadokura. I heard you had one of your unlucky moments again.”
“Don’t even mention it! So, you know those convenience store rice balls, right? I forgot my lunch today so I totally thought that I would buy myself one of those to enjoy during lunch break. I pulled the tab to roll it open and the whole thing just rolled right out my hand and onto the ground, right onto a sandy spot too. Then a crow stole it!” Kadokura explained, fuming.
“But then we checked the plastic package and the thing had expired. Of course Kadokura had lost the receipt but guess he dodged food poisoning there”, Kirawus added. He had been pissed when Kadokura had informed him that he had once again forgotten to take the handmade lunch he had made for him. He had enjoyed his share and it had been delicious. Not to praise himself too much.
“I expected nothing less from the butt inspector”, Kikuta laughed at the image.
“Hey, I told you not to spread that nickname!” Kadokura glared at Kirawus, who looked away.
Kadokura was a former border force agent who specialized in checking for possible contraband. He had once explained to Kirawus how he had probably checked more assholes than passports. The younger man still had not let that go. Kadokura had actually been quite well liked in his workplace. Going behind your boss’ back to go help another company will earn you a dismissal.
Kadokura was currently unemployed but would use his time to help Kirawus with his research and work. Kirawus worked as an assistant in projects that had to do with the Ainu culture, making sure that the facts were correct, the work acceptable and that nothing was offensive or appropriated the culture. He had been working at a university close by for three weeks now. A couple of students had been writing their majors and needed a professional to check them through. And of course Kadokura had almost poured his tea over the papers when they had been reading them today.
The two lived together. It had been hard to try and find a place when they had been looking for one on their own, but as soon as they looked for one together there was suddenly a place open for way cheaper than it should have been. Living on your own could be very expensive, so both men had been looking for roommates online. It had been a quick move as half of Kadokura’s possessions had burned in a random fire.
“Oh right, we still have our table tennis practice to go to. Guess we can’t stay for that long after all”, Kirawus suddenly remembered. It was a good way to try and keep Kadokura in shape and from going out every evening for drinks. Kirawus knew that Kadokura would have much preferred a cold beer and some dried squid over their table tennis, but he was adamant to have the older man join him every time.
Tsurumi had called Ogata and Vasily to join them. Kirawus was currently holding both boys in his arms. The two of them were busy pulling on his headband. Ogata would pull it down onto the man’s eyes while Vasily would pull it back up onto its original place
“Eh? Can we skip? I’m beat!” Kadokura sighed.
“Absolutely not. All we did today was sit at the university and then sit in the train”, Kirawus put the boys down and began dragging the man away. It was a good thing that he had packed their table tennis gear or Kadokura would have forgotten those as well.
The adults and kids waved to the men, wishing Kirawus luck.
“If we get a good catch this weekend, I’ll pack some for Ariko to bring with him. You can use it yourself or make something for everyone”, Kirawus told Tsurumi before the two jogged down the street. They were gonna miss their bus like this.
Usami’s and Vasily’s parents arrived at almost the same time.
None of the parents knew exactly what Usami’s parents did for a living. Probably, hopefully, nothing illegal. Kikuta had told them that he had seen a photo of the mother online and that she ran some sort of the family blog it would seem. The kids had done some modeling for a clothing brand in the past as well. The father was a bigger mystery. He seemed to have a good amount of money. Tsurumi and Kikuta had argued that he invested in the stock market. Ariko thought that he might be a photographer.
All they knew for certain was that the family was big. Usami had three more siblings that would sometimes come to see the annual plays in the daycare. The parents never had much time to stay and talk with the staff, choosing to greet them politely before rushing Usami into their SUV. Usami always made sure to give Tsurumi a hug and a wave goodbye to everyone else.
“See you tomorrow! Usami shouted from the car and they sped off.
Vasily’s father made sure to take his time to introduce himself to the staff properly. He explained that his company had decided to move some of their staff to their Japanese branch in Hokkaido and that Ilya had been one of those chosen. He had studied a bit of Japanese before, so he knew the language a lot better than some of the others that had come with him. He had been showing Vasily Japanese children’s cartoons and reading him his bedtime stories in the language as well, in preparation for their move.
He was married but the couple often had to live separately because of their work. His wife was a professional Russian ballet dancer and toured all over Russia and even the world. She would also teach ballet when she was not touring or practicing. She had promised to try her best to make time for next Christmas so that she could travel to Japan to be with her family for the holidays. She spoke with Vasily and her husband on the phone almost daily. She had even made sure to speak with Tsurumi on the phone, having been surprised at how good the Japanese man’s Russian was.
Vasily kept telling his father about Ogata, while the boy in question just stared into space. He continued telling him about how they drew and climbed a tree as they exited the gate. Ogata gave him a small wave back when Vasily told him that he would see him tomorrow and that he would draw him a picture of his dog, so Ogata could see that the animal really did look like a bear.
As expected, Koito ran right into his big brother’s arms when he spotted him entering. The young one had been busy having an animated one sided conversation with Ogata, who had been trying his hardest to ignore the youngest.
“Big brother! Big brother! Can Tsukishima and I have a sleepover? We can have a sleepover, right?”
The older Koito brother made sure to politely greet the adults as he put his school bag down to pick up his precious little brother.
“Now what is all this about? A sleepover? At our place?” he asked the squirming boy in his arms, “Shouldn’t you ask mom and dad first before you decide on something like that? Since when have you become the man of the household?”
Tsurumi gave the young man the paper he had written, “Here, this should explain the situation a bit. We were talking about how Tsukishima would be spending the week with Ariko and Kikuta. Little Koito then got an idea to have a sleepover of his own. He seems really adamant about it too. I think it is a good idea but make sure to talk with your parents about it first.”
“But of course, Otonoshin talks a lot about Tsukishima, so my parents are aware of him. I don’t think we have had a sleepover before. That might be fun.”
“It’s my and Tsukishima’s sleepover!” Koito informed him before lowering his voice, “But I guess you could help us build a pillow fort. Tsukishima, can big brother help us build the fort?”
Tsukishima nodded, “Sure.”
Koito’s face lit up, “I need to tell mom and dad about this! Big brother! We need to get home right now so I can tell them!”
“Yes yes”, the older Koito laughed, “We will see you all later. Thank you for always looking after my little brother. See you later, Tsukishima.”
Koito ran to give his friend a quick but crushing hug before running after his big brother.
“I can carry your bag for you!” Everyone could hear him tell his brother.
“Well, Tsukishima? Do you think we should be heading home too?” Ariko asked the boy who was quietly kicking small rocks around, still sticking close to the adults, “Kikuta said that he wanted to order pizza tonight.”
“No pineapple this time?” Tsukishima took the hand Ariko offered him.
“We can get one without pineapple. I don’t think I can stop Kikuta.”
“Okay.”
“I keep telling you! Pineapple is good on pizza! You’re the one who keeps trying weird meats on pizza! Who has ever put salmon on pizza before?” Kikuta had gone in to get all their stuff, having overheard the conversation, he had to butt in, “Right, Tsurumi?”
Tsurumi waved his hands, “I shall not take part in this touchy topic. Although salmon and pineapple neither sound too bad. I might not put them both on the same pizza.”
“That is not what I meant.”
“I know. See you tomorrow. Be careful on your way home.”
Tsurumi stretched his hands over his head and groaned, “So, Ogata? Your mother is not going to pick you up this time either?”
The man lived in the daycare building. The building was an old elementary school he had purchased at a laughable price. They had built a new and bigger one in the city center, so this one was not needed anymore. Nowadays people really want their kids to go into big cities’ schools anyways. Like there was any difference, other than the extreme trip to school you had to take if you went to a school out of town. There were two stories.
The upper floor of the old building was a long corridor with classrooms on one side next to each other. They really only needed two classrooms for now, so the rest of them were used for storage. The lower floor had a kitchen, bathrooms, a teachers’ lounge and storage. Tsurumi lived in the storage space on the first floor. He had even built himself a bath and shower. He did not need much. Ariko, Kikuta and their other acquaintances had been a huge help when he had first begun renovating the place. While Tsurumi might have been able to do it on his own, it would have taken him ages. They had also gotten a lot of help with the tools from Kiroranke, who had a lot of stuff he used at his stables.
Ogata was checking his backpack for his wallet, “No. She hasn’t been well this past week. I have to go buy us food tonight. The hotpot stinks already, so we can’t eat that.”
“You should have said something and I could have saved you the leftovers from lunch Should I go get them? They are in my fridge.”
“It’s okay.”
“Tell her that we have the parent teacher meetings coming next month. I would like her to attend this time.”
“I told you she was busy with work that day. She could not take the day off.”
“That is why I am telling you in advance, so she can make sure she gets a day off.”
“It does not work like that.”
“It should. I’ll write you a note tomorrow to give her.”
“Sure.”
“Be careful on your way. I would give you a ride if I could but I gave my car to Ariko last month and he still has not returned it. I asked him to just change the brake pads and some other small things so it would get through MOT. Knowing him, I might just end up with a new car.”
“Then I don’t need the lift.”
“Come on! Is it the flame decal? That was all Arisaka too by the way.”
“You are weird”
“Well, I am missing some of my frontal lobe”, Tsurumi grinned as he pointed to the large scar on his forehead. The surgeon really had done a good job tidying it up. They had all been thinking that the injury would take up most of the upper part of the man’s face, but the surgeon had managed to keep it all on the forehead. It had taken several plastic surgeries and laser treatment, but Tsurumi was happy with it. His insurance had paid for most of it too.
“See you tomorrow”, Ogata wanted out of this conversation.
“Bye bye!”