Chapter Text
1. 10
Toshinori was nervous. He was excited. He was wearing his best shirt and shoes, and was sitting on the train station bench with the least gum on it, just in case.
Rikki said that he saw his dad coming off the train this time last week. Rikki was a big kid, he was real smart, he’d been at the foster megahouse for years! He had to have seen his parents when they dropped him off.
Toshinori stood to let an older lady sit down, smiling lightly at her as she thanked him.
He’d been practicing his smile too. Adults like it when the kids smile.
He perked up when the train pulled into the station. The subway platform was full of bodies quickly, and Toshinori pulled himself up into a pillar to see over the crowd.
He searched and searched, squinting, and after the station cleared, he slumped against the pillar.
He was close to tears.
He looked around one more time before stepping off the pillar’s foot and rubbing his face with his sleeves.
He’d worn his best. He’d been in the right place at the right time.
He just realized, he didn’t know what his dad looked like.
The old woman watched him, then waved him over back to her.
“Sweet child, are you okay? Are you waiting on someone?”
Toshinori fought a sob, nodding his head. “R-Rikki said my dad was here. I…I dunno what he looked like though.”
The old woman looked him over, from the old shoes to the stitched in emblem of the foster house in his lapel.
“Oh, sweetheart….your father isn’t coming for you.”