Chapter Text
‘Ok, kid, just spill it out already', Reigen put a working computer in sleeping mode, laid back a bit in the chair and crossed his arms, looking at Teru expectedly, ‘What do you want? I am not looking for new official employees’, he barely managed to keep the ones he had, ‘and, well, as you already must’ve realised I am not exactly someone to study spiritual powers with’
He still felt uncomfortable speaking about it; "speaking about it" felt like eating a spoonful of sand without drinking any water afterwards.
Teru stumbled a bit in the middle of watering the plant and stared. Reigen eyed a plastic bottle in his hand and suddenly it felt like there was something dry and gritty on the tip of his tongue.
‘Am I not allowed to be here?’
‘What? Of course, you are allowed’, Reigen stood up and came closer, taking a water bottle from the teen’s hands, looming over pots in front of him. Some flowers needed less watering and others would need vitamins added into the soil soon, ‘but this - this is about something else, isn’t it?’
Teru looked annoyed. Good, it meant he was getting closer to the truth.
‘Five jobs in one week, three emergencies', Reigen put the bottle aside, touching the leaves gently, ‘you talk to me voluntarily for more than thirty minutes per day and come here after school', he was avoiding eye contact to give Teru and his emotions some space, ‘and yesterday you actually said ‘no’ to Mo- Shigeo’s invitation to some kind of event nearby’, which, believe him, was rare and also made no sense, ‘so I do feel like you need something from me. I just cannot understand what’
‘I've been helping out before, haven't I? I like doing it for free, it's not a big deal’, Teru replied, defensively, until a smile appeared on his face, ‘If I was bothering you so much, you should have told me sooner’
Reigen was fully aware of what a joke with little to no humour looked like. Now he was starting to feel concerned.
‘Teru you are not bothering me’
‘It feels like I do’
‘Teru’
It was a good thing Serizawa was off that day - he had one of his last exams and kissed Reigen goodbye that morning, sweating so profusely, he decided to put spare clothes into the poor man's backpack. Serizawa always got tense when he would start arguments with others - kids especially - because he struggled to see a line between a friendly bunter and literal assault.
Not to blame him for that - they were constantly surrounded by teenagers. With them, it was rarely easy to tell.
What a man Serizawa was, though. He wore his heart on his sleeve - no wonder Reigen stole it, greedy hands unable to stop themselves. The heart was practically taunting him every day - what else was he supposed to do?
‘I just want to hang out and do some good work’, Hanazawa stepped aside and started looking for his schoolbag, ‘Is it that weird?’
Reigen thought back to it - to Teru as a whole. He was a friendly kid, the nicest of the bunch, respectful even. At least to those, he did not consider dangerous. Going all the way from idolizing to realising then analysing and coming to terms with what Reigen was. Hanazawa was also a great, almost clinical liar when it would come to personal matters, something Reigen was always worried about but never brave enough to breach.
Reigen often looked at Teru with silent worry. The kid was not supposed to hide stuff - he was fifteen but acted like he was thirty with his calm demeanour and a plastic smile, ready to bullshit his way through, charming and challenging at times.
As if he was mimicking someone out for lack of a better example. Yes, maybe, that was why Reigen was cautious about going deep into it.
‘I cannot read your mind’, he doubted he would be able to even if he had powers; either way, Reigen rarely wanted to know what people thought of him. This ability would bring him more harm than benefit, ‘So you have to tell me. You mustn’t, but you should’
Reigen was tired and didn’t feel like listening; it was like testing waters with your legs on a beach, knowing fully well you didn't feel like swimming.
Over the years, he tried teaching himself to not get too involved because he knew his heart and its borders. He had plenty of kids around - he had Mob for the longest time to understand eventually that Mob hardly needed him in the first place - and all of those kids had respectable parents. Someone to look up to and follow and someone whose rules he was not allowed to breach just out of egoistic longing to be useful and feel less lonely since he no longer had a calm little Shigeo attached to his hip wherever he went.
That is why he never ended up having a dog; not to compare people to animals, but he knew his old stupid soul would not handle it well.
Getting attached was scary anyway, and in those rare moments when he’d let himself do that, it would come with little sacrifices he wouldn't be prepared for.
Like doing the dishes more often since he had guests at least once a week.
Like throwing out your favourite bedding because your boyfriend couldn't sleep on it.
Like saving a child who destroyed half of the city and looked like a void sometimes or shooting a random guy because it seemed like he might have unironically killed the said child otherwise.
Yet his eyes landed on Teruki once again and he thought back to the fact that the boy never called anyone, never brought lunch, never complained about explaining where he was the whole night to his parents and despite his big social circle and great attitude just seemed like a lonely teenager with too much to take care of and poorly bleached hair.
Reigen recognized someone in Teruki and that someone smiled at him coughing out cigarette smoke he didn’t even like; "The attention seeker!", sneered the boy and laughed cheerfully, disappearing.
Luckily, before he had time to feel weirded out by the mirages his tired brain provided him with, Hanazawa finally said:
‘My school is having a parents' meet-up next Wednesday’, there was sweat gathering up in the corners of his face, right where one could see the fact that he would need to recolour his hair soon, ‘And hey maybe. Maybe I would be very thankful if you could’ve come and uh...pretended to be…’
Teruki stopped and took a deep breath, fighting his frustration.
‘It is all this stupid Miss Hanukawa!’ he exploded and immediately retorted, ‘She is not actually stupid, she is a teacher, and I guess she is nice and all, but she just- won’t let me do what I need to do!’ Teruki continued with less vigour, but the room rumbled a little, a clear sign of distress, ‘She wants to see my parents no matter how many times I tell her they cannot come! She told me she is very close to calling child services on them!’
The pot with a flower flew up and Teruki caught it hurriedly, hugging it with both hands and turning fully to Reigen with an open and distressed expression on his face.
‘Child services? I am not even a child anymore, goddamnit!’, he proclaimed, sounding very much like a child. Reigen just stared at him, feeling lost.
‘You want me to go to your school?’
‘Yes’
“And pretend to be your…’
‘Yes, my. Dad. I guess’
Reigen panicked out of surprise mostly, his hands moving uncontrollably, face changing within seconds.
‘Wh-wh-hw-h-wait! Why me? And is that even allowed?! Won’t it just make it worse?’ he took the flower pot from Teru's hands and put it on a shelf, trying to calm himself down. ‘I’m barely thirty, and you are what? Fifteen? She’s smart, so surely she can do basic math?’
‘We will just pretend you were a nasty teenager and got someone pregnant in high school’
‘How is that an option?! Who do you– Do I look like someone who would–’ he was gay. ‘We don’t even look alike!’
‘Well! We are both blond!’
‘Yeah, unnaturally!’
‘We can tell her it’s a family tradition’, Teruki started smiling, used to being instantly amused by their banter. ‘A son-father bonding exercise. Want me to do your nails? I will choose matching colours’
‘That’, Reigen wheezed out and admitted, reluctantly, ‘Actually yes, but do not change the subject’
‘You want me to do your nails?!’
‘No, Teru, it is you who wants something today’ Reigen pointed at him, accusingly. ‘More specifically, me going to your school and pretending to be your dad! This is ridiculous!’
‘Is it really?’ Teru asked and looked away, slowly losing his eagerness to mock Reigen more. It seemed like he was starting to realize they weren't both on the same page of "joking out of stress and disbelief".
That book had a shit ton of volumes.
That was when he felt it. He was undoubtfully getting involved and it was his last chance to stop - he could. Reigen was good at avoiding things, great at pretending he was blind. Yet the look on Teru’s face - the look of a child slowly getting ready to be rejected and not for the first time in their life made him keep moving.
Why did he even think he would be able to escape the unavoidable? He never did, no matter how much he should have.
Oh but, really, it was already starting to give him a headache for a number of reasons: he couldn’t say "no". He would have to leave the office early on Wednesday. He understood on some level that if not Miss Hanukawa, he would eventually call child services on Teruki’s parents himself because he was awful at following his own advice.
Reigen was insanely bad at minding his own business when the kids were involved; there was no other option for him, really. He was going to face difficulties just to wipe that expression off of Teruki’s face, and he couldn’t even find it in himself to be angry about it. Hanazawa deserved a lot - he could try and give him the bare minimum for now.
Instead of giving the boy a clear answer, Reigen exclaimed, ‘Well then! Which colours have you got?’
Teruki understood the implication immediately; Reigen did not feel better seeing the relief wash over his face, but that was as much as a conman like him could do in that situation.
🍵
It went well.
Fucking Crist, it went so well that he was creeped out by it almost.
The number of times random people would come up to him and say that, yes, wow! They looked so much alike! This is exactly how they'd imagined Hanazawa's father to be! It made him dizzy.
Hanazawa was also a great student. Not outstanding in any topic outside of geometry and modern literature, but good overall.
It took everything in Reigen to not let the teachers know how impressed he was by that because modern literature, really?
Geometry?
'You must be proud of your boy, he's showing potential!'
'Yes, ah,' Reigen's mouth was dry like a desert, 'they grow up so fast...'
Everyone just ate it; without questions or doubts or even suggestions to be a better parent from now on. The meeting went well, yet when he found himself talking to a random middle-aged woman about that-one-English-essay he absolutely, definitely knew about, he felt the skin on his face prickle a little.
Someone was staring at him. No, not someone, Teru's homeroom teacher, Miss Hanukawa.
She was staring right at him while they were waiting for a PE teacher to show up and give some kind of notice about the upcoming sports festival. While Reigen was fine with staring - he was the type to stare back even more intensely - her gaze just was the type of honest, piercing one that would not stand there and simply accept his bullshit.
Those were the eyes of someone young, determent and honest.
It felt like trying to lie to Mob when he was in a bad mood.
He turned his back on her and, excusing himself, went out of the room to find a restroom.
Teru picked up the phone at an amazing speed.
'Hey, so how's-'
'She knows. That lady most definitely does not believe me at all’, Reigen thought for a bit and asked, 'Is it too late to be your uncle? Older brother?'
Teru murmured "told you she was smart" then added, 'Try and talk to her? I mean…she will think you are a creep, but if you talk to her...'
Reigen couldn't see Teru but he imagined him waving his left hand around, 'Everyone thinks you're creepy until you do your talking, you know?'
'What', he was not about to let a middle schooler insult the perfected corporate image he'd harboured for years, 'Since when?'
'You hang out with middle schoolers and trough salt at people'
'They never complain', he paused, 'They almost never complain'
'Yes, and middle schoolers actually like your company, which does not make it sound any better. You should just tell her you're like my guardian or something', Teru smiled, he thought, because his voice sounded warm, 'She is just worried. That should put her mind to rest'
'Hopefully' Reigen was about to hang up when it suddenly hit him 'Teru, they told me you won second place in an essay contest?'
'Oh? The modern literature one? Yeah,' he didn't sound like he felt anything about it, 'What about it?'
'Great job!', Reigen laughed a little in disbelief, 'Look at you, all calm and unbothered about something so cool. You should be proud of yourself'
'But it's the second place?'
'Yeah, so? Just one place away from the first one', he had to go back if he didn't want to seem even more suspicious, 'Pretty, uh, neat if you ask me. Is that the word? Well, either way, gotta go. Your teacher is waiting'
He hung up before Teruki could say anything to that.
Good, because Hanazawa had nothing to say to that; he just sat there, looking at his phone's display like it was alien to him.
🍵
As predicted, once he was about to leave the classroom and head home a gentle voice stopped him.
‘Mr Hanazawa, could you please stay for a bit?’ Miss Hanukawa wasn’t looking at him, she was nervously gathering some papers on her desk, ‘I have something very important to discuss with you’
So Reigen stopped. He turned and came up to her, looking for a chair to use in order to sit opposite the young woman.
He knew how to do this, how to make this work; he gained money with his mouth after all.
No, wait, he should really look for a better way to describe his job. Maybe that will lessen the amount of misunderstanding between him and his family.
For some time they just sat there staring at each other; it was weird to be acting this way as if they both knew what they had to talk about, yet couldn’t decide where to start.
‘Teruki is not your son, is he?’
‘What makes you say that?’
‘Can I see your ID?’
‘I left it at home’ he lied. ‘And me and his mother? Divorced. My family name is different from his’
‘I would expect it to be the other way around’
‘His mother is a very independent woman. A salty one, as well’, Reigen would feel bad about making up an unpleasant image, if he ever heard of Teru’s mom. He’d never had, ‘You told me you wanted to discuss something with me. Is my son studying poorly?’
‘He is not your son’, she retorted, stubborn. ‘And what if he is? Will you teach him a lesson?’
‘Teaching him a lesson? Like, how? I thought it was your job, Miss Hanukawa’ Reigen relaxed his posture a bit, sliding into each line with as much confidence as he could master. ‘Either way, no one is perfect. If he has any issues, he usually tells me and we try to work through it’, it wasn’t even a lie, merely a half-truth.
‘You are very young, Mr Hanazawa’
‘Well, thank you. People often tell me I look younger than I actually am’
'Uh-huh', the teacher hummed, 'How old are you?'
'Forever twenty', he mastered a cheeky smile and her lack of response did make it funnier. Should he look for the dad jokes inside his head to make it insufferable? Ritsu with all his mastery in acting polite always cracked on the dad's joke stage, 'People often look at me and think I am not a father but a cool older brother instead'
‘You are-’, she stopped and shook her head. ‘You are not Teruki’s father. It is all right, I don’t have an issue with that, so please, would you drop the act?’
Reigen thought for a bit, figuring out just how likely was this young woman using her wits to lure him into a trap by bluffing and pretending to be exhausted; to be fair, he really couldn’t believe she would. Miss Hanukawa looked honest and very righteous - unlike him, she wouldn’t keep this bravado up for sports only. She was but a concerned staff worker, trying her best to deal with him, and Reigen surrendered, mentally saying sorry to Teru. They agreed to tell her the truth, but he still hoped to make it work somehow - he wanted Teruki to be impressed.
Reigen nobbed. The woman smiled at him for the first time, but it was small and barely hopeful; as if she saw an ally in him, but wasn’t sure of where he stood.
‘Do you know anything about his real parents?’
‘I don’t’, he admitted, ‘but I am very close to asking him’
‘He trusts you and looks up to you too, otherwise, you wouldn’t be here’, well, if she put it this way, sure, ‘and while you are not his father, I must say, you two have a lot in common'
‘So how did you know?’
‘I saw Teruki’s father through a video call’, she laughed a bit when he opened his mouth in quiet shock. No, she wasn’t smart or nice, Teru, she was a cheater! ‘This is as far as I’ve managed to go with his family situation and, to be honest, neither was I surprised or impressed by his biological father’
It was as if a part of her personality fell away, leaving behind a much yonder face, coloured by annoyance and tiredness. She was young, and when he said it, he meant probably fresh out of university, just a few years younger than him and yet to be worn out by the chaotic school life that lay ahead of her.
She was young, thus inexperienced, thus still too empathetic and kind, and very much involved; that explained to him right why she didn’t just pretend everything was okay.
‘What, was he too busy to talk to you?’
‘No, nothing like that’, she took her glasses off. ‘Just a plain old asshole’
Reigen barked a laugh and she smiled back at him, a bit ashamed of her honest opinion. It was every bit unprofessional of her to say that, but Reigen had this aura around him - an image of someone you could trust with your honest opinion on things.
‘I don’t know how to help him’ she confessed, crossing her arms on her chest, ‘I don’t know how to help most of them, you know? This job is way harder than I imagined’ she laughed bitterly ‘And I imagined it is very hard! But seeing young children neglected, forgotten’, she struggled a bit, suddenly overwhelmed with guilt, ‘abused even and being unable to help is just…'
She visibly stiffened now ashamed of openly sharing something that clearly was bothering her for a long time. Reigen let her talk, focusing on what else she had to say, but when nothing came, he told her, ‘Well, you are doing a better job than most, that’s for sure. At least you care’
‘What does it meter?’, Miss Hanukawa pursed her lips, changing the subject to what she had originally wanted to talk about, 'At first, I was worried. I saw you on TV some time ago and forgive me but…you didn’t exactly leave a nice impression. But now, after talking to you, I feel relieved’
‘Relieved?’
Why?
There was nothing to be relieved about; Reigen could understand kids not seeing how lame he was in reality, but she was an adult.
This turn of the conversation just made him feel guilty. He wanted to leave and pretend this never happened because again the gap was closing on him, the responsibility was climbing on his shoulders and he was starting to feel scared of what all of that might bring into his life.
The guilt intensified when he grabbed the edge of his seat and looked at his painted nails; God, what was he doing? What was he thinking?
‘You care enough to go all this way just to cover up for him. I saw how you talked to other parents’, she pressed, with the unknown intention to prove something to him, ‘Once again If I didn’t know the real one, I would be easily convinced you were his dad. You even wear the same nail polish and I doubt that was necessary at all’
He subconsciously hid his hands in his pockets.
‘That was a part of a plan’
‘A plan you agreed to for a reason, right?’
Ah, well. What could he possibly say to that?
‘There is nothing I can do for him’, Miss Hanukawa looked him straight in the eyes. ‘Nothing outside of what I already did. You can’
Reigen stared back, lost in his thoughts.
Could he? Could he really?
It was true; even those who were kind and great struggled to successfully save; Reigen was neither, so what was the point of even trying?
He thought back to Teru watering his plants with a victorious smile on his face, doing everything in his power to hear a simple ‘thank you’ from someone; adding too much sugar in his green tea, while no one could see him do so and helping Serizawa with homework when Reigen was too busy for that.
Teruki would hum a happy melody to himself when he was doing Reigen’s nails; he would be the only person to text him first in ages to ask for trivial advice and carefully share his worries, covering them in the pretence of asking advice for a friend.
Goddamnit, he really was just a kid.
Miss Hanukawa could stay out of it from now on, but would he be able to? Knowing all of that? Finally not being able to pretend he doesn't have eyes?
It was as if she was passing on duty to him, without stating it out loud and all Reigen could do was nod, with a conflicted expression on his face.
Two powerless cowards with little to no salary and no powers whatsoever to give them any weight, who failed to stand aside and watch this mess unfold without interfering.
Well, he supposed, there was no point in being afraid of failing a lonely kid; he already failed Teru by watching from afar and not doing anything for so long.
Reigen stood up and bowed to the teacher.
‘Thank you for your concern. I’ll do my best’.
With a promise he wasn’t sure he would be able to keep, he started walking away until he was about to leave the classroom. This is where he paused and looked back.
'Miss Hanukawa'
'Yes?'
'It is not your fault. It is never your fault. You should remember that', and with that, he finally left the room.
It didn't seem like he had anything to say to that either way.
Reigen breathed in the fresh air and thought for a bit about how to get home at record speed; he was very tired. He hoped that the store near his office was still open and he would be able to buy a strawberry cake to share the next day.
He had a kid to praise for a good academic performance, after all. He could start by doing that much, at least.