Work Text:
It was a Saturday afternoon with the sun high up in the sky peeking out from between the clouds. The breeze was gentle, and the air was cool. Normally, Touko would be leisurely sipping some tea on their porch around this time, appreciating the good weather and pondering on what to prepare for dinner later.
Today, however, she was moving with a clear agenda.
“Thank you again for accompanying me today, Takashi-kun.” She smiled brightly with a hand on her own cheek as the boy before her bashfully ducked his head and smiled back.
“Of course, Touko-san,” he said with a voice so quiet that it was nearly drowned out by the light bustling of their rural shopping street. It’s already been a month since he moved into their cozy little house, but he was still so reserved and soft-spoken. Still, Touko would be a fool not to notice his more frequent smiles and the growing peace in his eyes. They had done that much for him, and they still wanted to do so much more.
She giggled as she handed him a second paper bag, which the boy carried on his right hand this time. “It must be boring to accompany my shopping though, no?”
“No, not at all,” Takashi said immediately with a shake of his head. “It’s—It’s fun. I haven’t been around the shopping street yet, so I’m enjoying just looking around too.”
Touko smiled warmly at him. “I’m glad you’re having fun looking around, but make sure to let me know if you see anything you want, okay?”
She didn’t miss the way his eyes widened in shock before they immediately ducked beneath his bangs. “It’s fine. You’ve already done so much for me. I couldn’t possibly…”
It was at these instances, far too frequent for her liking, that Touko found herself smiling more sadly than she ever had for any of the injured animals she took in. In no world was a child supposed to think of being given a home and fed daily as having had “so much” done for him, but until now, Takashi had been living in a cruel and harsh world that taught him exactly that. So many times in the past month had she and Shigeru showered the boy with love and care, and just as many times has he shrunk back in shame as if he deserved none of it.
Still, they never would have taken him in if they weren’t resolved to go through the long and patient process of teaching this neglected child how to be loved. It was one step at a time, and in fact, Touko believed that they had taken a rather big one just last week.
“Nyanko-sensei!” The boy exclaimed in surprise, raising Touko’s shopping bags as the round calico cat darted out of an alleyway and rolled up by his feet. The silly thing looked up at him slyly and meowed. “What are you doing here? Aren’t you supposed to be at home?”
A sweet and fond giggle slipped through her lips as the boy conversed, always so one-sided yet so animated, with the cat they took in last week—at his own request, no less. It was the first time he ever asked anything of them, so of course, they both easily accepted. After all, that bright and grateful smile that spread across his face was worth so much more than anything it could possibly cost.
And they later learned that it was more than just a grateful smile that their easy acceptance of the cat had earned them. Ever since it came to live with them, Takashi had somehow become more open and outgoing. It was a quiet little change that nobody else may have noticed, but it was clear as day to Touko and Shigeru. The boy used to stay in his room so often, as if hiding from everything outside, but he now volunteered himself for walks with the cat a heavy yet comfy weight in his arms. He used to be so quiet, only speaking when spoken to and responding with only what was necessary, but now, he had these funny little one-sided conversations with the curious little thing. And the most endearing thing about it all was that the cat, silly as it looked, always seemed to understand his words.
They’re like best friends, Touko once noted with great fondness. The cat acted snobbishly toward him, and Takashi often regarded it with exasperation, but they stuck together all the same.
“Nyankichi-kun must have gotten bored of staying in,” Touko said as she bent over with her hands on her knees. “Why don’t you walk him around here while I shop in that store over there?”
Takashi blinked at that. “Oh, but I’m here to accompany you…”
“Goodness, it’s fine! It’s just one shop. We can meet again once I’m done.” She lifted herself back up and placed a gentle hand on the boy’s cheek. “You should go around and enjoy yourself too.”
He blushed under her kind touch, like he always did, shy like a little child. Touko always found that so endearing about him. She giggled and pulled her hand back, waving at the boy as she made her way across to her favorite clothing store.
Humming to herself, she decided to take her sweet time looking through all their new selections.
It was a good fifteen minutes later when Touko walked back out of the shop with two new bags in hand. She stopped for a moment and looked around before spotting Takashi three stores away down the right. He was crouched down in front of the shop’s glass display, and beside him, Nyankichi was playfully slapping at the glass with his tiny paws.
Touko giggled at that. “A rowdy little kitty, as always.”
In the time she took to walk closer, Takashi had stopped reprimanding the cat and was instead staring intently at something inside the glass display. Then, he frowned and placed a hand over his mouth in thought.
“It would definitely be nice to have, but I don’t think I can afford it with the allowance I have left… Maybe if I save next week’s too…”
He was mumbling to himself, but Touko was already used to straining her ears to hear her boy’s quiet words. She bent down beside him and smiled brightly.
“What’s this? Do you want something, Takashi-kun?”
“Oh, Touko-san!”
She took a peek in as well—it was a fanny pack with a simple yet sleek design. Nothing else about it stood out in particular, but the description beside it listed a price that was on the expensive side, along with a declaration that the product was both waterproof and shockproof—easily identifiable as the reason for the inflated price.
“You want this bag?” She tilted her head and looked over at the boy, but she realized that his face had now paled.
“N-No,” he said faintly with a vehement shake of his head, making Touko’s heart twinge in pain. “It’s far too expensive. I can just—”
“Takashi-kun.”
Her voice was stern yet gentle, and it made his shoulders freeze. He was staring down at the ground, so she crouched down beside him and patiently waited until he lifted his eyes up once more.
When he finally did, she gave him a smile as warm as those brown eyes that bravely peeked out at her from under his pale strands.
“Do you want it?”
His shadowed eyes widened ever so slightly. Then, he slowly turned his head to look at the pouch again. He almost looked as if he were weighing his options, as if asking for something so simple bore some sort of catastrophic consequence. Even when he seemed to have finally made his decision, the oddly determined look on his face almost made it seem as if his decision carried a hundred lives rather than just several hundred yen.
“Yes, please.”
She longed for the day they no longer had to see such heavy expressions on his young face—but for now, she was happy with just that meek little nod.
Touko smiled brightly as she pulled her foster son into the shop that afternoon, and while he later came home with just one small shopping bag compared to her huge haul, Takashi seemed greatly fond of that fanny pack and made constant use of it since then.
On days where he didn’t have many things to carry in his yellow shoulder bag, he would always have the fanny pack wrapped securely around his waist instead. Sometimes, he would even voluntarily ask her to mend a tear on it—something he never did with any of his own clothes or other things that get roughed up in his oddly eventful walks through the wild. And whenever she handed it back, he would always look over it so carefully like it was a precious vessel of sorts.
She wondered what he felt was so valuable that he always wanted to carry it in such a secure little bag, but whatever it may be didn’t really matter to her. She would think back to that afternoon, to that rare selfish desire she had gently drawn out of him, and just hoped that she had managed to help him carry even just a little bit of whatever burdens he had on those thin shoulders of his.