Work Text:
It was about a week ago now since Ranpo had been sobbing into Fukuzawa’s chest, saying he was sorry, and right now they’re sitting around Fukuzawa’s table, eating breakfast together.
You see, he basically adopted Ranpo, because, well. He was alone and didn’t have anywhere to go. But there was also something slightly different about him, and not just his ‘ability’, but he also has Tourette’s. Ranpo had told Fukuzawa that people would look at him weird whenever he would tic, sometimes even mocking and trying to trigger the tics. And of course he couldn’t just leave a child all alone with people like that around. So Fukuzawa took him to his home. And it turns out that parenting is way harder that Fukuzawa thought it was.
Today Ranpo’s tics were more active than usual, especially his motor tics, which caused him to hit himself. “It’s the muffin man!” Ranpo ticced, pointing at a muffin he saw in the fridge. “I’m sorry” he mumbled after he took his hand back down. “Ranpo, I told to stop apologise when you tic. It’s not under your control.” Fukuzawa tells the younger. “I know, I’m sorry”
After the short breakfast they had, with Ranpo continuing to tic, they had decided the day before that they should bake today, cause that’s what Ranpo wanted to do.
Ranpo is still in his pyjamas, so he goes to the old guest room, that is now his, to change into his regular clothes. It takes him a few tries to put his socks on, as his tics apparently does not like them, but eventually he gets them on, and finishes changing. Then they take Fukuzawa’s car to the store to buy some ingredients.
——————
Ranpo had a lot of neck jerking tics in the car, and Fukuzawa was starting to wonder if going to the store today would really be a good idea, but he didn’t say anything about it.
A few minutes later, Fukuzawa had just parked the car, right now he was waiting for Ranpo’s tics to calm down a bit before they went inside.
“Meow” Ranpo ticced, then hit his chest, “ow” he said quietly. “Are you okay Ranpo?” Fukuzawa asked, “we don’t have to go to the store today if your tics are this bad” he finished. “No! It’s okay. We can go today.” He said quickly. “Alright then.”
They got out of the car and started walking towards the store.
Fukuzawa went to get a cart, leaving Ranpo to stand by himself for a bit. It always made Ranpo anxious to not be around someone he knows when his in a store. His anxiety caused him to tic more.
So there he stood, alone, twitching and ticcing. Some elderly couple looked at him weird, and a small group of teenagers saw him. One of them said something to the others, then pointed at Ranpo and laughed a bit, like he was some sort of clown.
He was just about to go looking for Fukuzawa, when he saw him walking towards him with a cart.
“Sorry that it took a while. There wasn’t any left, so I had to wait for someone to leave their cart, so I could take it.” Fukuzawa said, first now seeing how distant Ranpo looked, he asked, “Did something happens while I was gone?” Ranpo shook his head, but didn’t say anything, and then his head jerked to the side again. “Okay,” was all Fukuzawa said, knowing that was a lie, “anyway, how about we get some more of those chocolate cereal that you like while we’re here?” Ranpo lit up at that, “Really?!” “Of course.”
There were a lot of people in the store today, and because of Ranpo’s tics, people were looking at him. He hated it. When Fukuzawa was looking for one of the ingredients, and had his back tuned to Ranpo, a mom with her child walked by. The child was in a stroller, but you could still see them. “Kick the baby” Ranpo ticced, then flipped the mom off. “Excuse me!?” The mom yelled at Ranpo, causing him to flinch. “I’m sorry” he quickly said, trying not to cause a scene, but the yelling mom and his tics made i nearly impossible not to. “I didn’t mean it!” He tried again when he saw that the mom still looked furious. Fukuzawa, who had watched the chaos break out, stepped in.
“He didn’t mean, and he’s sorry” Fukuzawa said, trying to get the mom to stop yelling. “Didn’t mean it?!” The mom yelled again, “It’s not like he didn’t have any control over what he just said!”
“He has Tourette’s, so he didn’t have any control over that.” Fukuzawa informed her.
“Then he needs to learn how to control it!” She yelled even louder. “He can’t just say that! Even if he can’t control it! And look at him now!” The hag started to point to Ranpo. “He is twitching like some fucking freak!” She yelled. Freak
She kept yelling something, but Ranpo didn’t hear it. Freak
He’s just some freak
He couldn’t breath. Where’s Fukuzawa?
Suddenly he hears a voice telling him to breath.
“ That’s good, in and out, just like that.” The voice, Fukuzawa, tells him.
His voice is faint, but Ranpo could still hear it.
He feels himself being pulled up from the floor, so that he’s now standing, “Ranpo?” It was Fukuzawa, “Are you with me?” He asks. “Yeah” Ranpo answers quietly. “Do you want to go out to the car while I get the rest of the stuff? Unless you want to go home right now.” Fukuzawa says. “I can wait in the car” he answers. He takes the car keys, and leaves the store. He unlocks the car and gets inside.
He’s exhausted, and his head is throbbing. He’s pretty sure that he had a tic attack during the panic attack, and hit his head. The good thing is that his tics has calmed down a lot down, so he gets a bit of a break.
Soon Fukuzawa comes back, gets in the car, and then they drive home in a comfortable silence.
——————
“Do you want to bake today, or do you want to go to sleep right now?” Fukuzawa asked, as he started to take the ingredients out of the paper bag.
“M’ tired” Ranpo mumbles. “Okay then,” Fukuzawa starts, “we can bake tomorrow, if you feel like it.” He finished.
They went to Ranpo’s room, and Fukuzawa tucked him in. “Goodnight Ranpo.” He said softly to the boy. “G,night, dad”