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It's 10 in the morning when Tome’s body finally decides to wake itself up, the curtains still drawn so she’s met with a dark ceiling, glow stars, and undistinguishable paint patterns. That’s one of the hard parts about having a loft bed, you can’t sit up all the way so you’re stuck lying down and end up falling asleep again. That’s if you don’t force yourself to stay awake, which Tome is trying her best to do. The dark of her room makes each blink feel heavier but she knows she has to get up at some point, she had plans on being productive today and she didn’t want a late start to stop her. She turns her head to the side and huffs out a sigh as she’s met with the numerous faces of her alien plushies that she had received over the years. They stare back at her with large eyes and she knows she won’t be getting any pity from them anytime soon, yes she’s aware they don’t actually have any feelings but that doesn’t stop her from thinking otherwise. Her whole body tenses as she tosses her blankets to the side and is met with the cold air of the house, doing everything in her power to not reach back out for the warmth of her blankets that she had just discarded. Goosebumps rapidly spread over her body but it was her fault for choosing lighter clothing when summer hadn’t even begun to arrive yet.
Tome brings her knees up to her chest and rotates herself sideways so that she can begin her descent down the ladder, being extra careful to not miss a step. It’s a fear of hers that she’ll one day fall down the short ladder and chip a tooth or something. She won’t say that fear outloud or else her dads– Serizawa and Reigen, will make her get a boring, regular, basic bed.
Dads, right.
It was still weird to think about sometimes, how her life had changed so drastically. Reigen and Serizawa have never forced her to call them her dads and were fine if she didn’t, but she wanted to. It was still taking some time to get used to; she was still getting used to being able to express herself openly, to not be called weird by the people she now considered family, to have them lend an open ear when she allows herself to ramble about the latest discovery by NASA that week. She yawns as she pulls her blackout curtains back, scrunching up her face as the sun shines directly into her room. It takes a solid minute of rubbing at her eyes with her fists before she’s able to finally look out the window without having to squint, getting a good view of the garden Reigen has been cultivating for a better half of the year. He keeps talking about all the meals he’s going to make with his cucumber plant (she hopes he makes plenty of batches of sunomono so she can bring it with her lunches).
She quickly pushes herself away from the windowsill and heads for her bedroom door, tugging off the zip-up hoodie that hangs off of the hook attached to her door. She shrugs it on, instantly feeling warmer before opening up her door and peeking her head out. She had expected the house to be silent as Reigen and Serizawa had discussed that they would be running errands and Tome had opted out, wanting to work on organizing her room properly. Instead of silence, she’s surprised to be met with the sound of a pan moving on the stove and a cabinet being shut. Shit, someone hadn’t broken into their house and started helping themselves to their kitchen, right? Tome bit her lip in apprehension, grip tightening on her doorknob. That had to be ridiculous. Who the hell would break into a home just to use the kitchen? Maybe Serizawa and Reigen hadn’t gone out after all and were helping themselves to an early brunch, or a mid morning snack. Besides, a break in shouldn’t scare her, he had been possessed before and had partaken in numerous exorcisms this past year! She could definitely handle a potential intruder despite what Reigen might say if she entertained the idea.
She quickly made her way downstairs, making sure to avoid the two creaky steps that Reigen swore he was going to fix every time he stepped on them. She makes sure her steps are light as she peeks her head around the corner, eyebrows raising in surprise as it's only Serizawa in the kitchen who seems to be working on scrambled eggs. He isn’t the best cook but there’s a few things he’s learnt to master thanks to his partners' never ending encouragement. He’s still in his pajamas.
“Serizawa?” Her confused voice breaks through the quiet and the man in question doesn’t even jump. She had learnt a long time ago that it was hard to sneak up on him; experience from being a personal bodyguard, always on high alert with pricked ears. “I thought you were helping Reigen today?”
Serizawa glances behind him and offers her a smile as he moves the pan, which Tome can now see has scrambled eggs in it, off of the stove. “Good morning to you too, Tome. I was supposed to, but-” He glances out of one of the nearby windows with pinched brows. “It just wasn’t a good day for me. I guess.”
Ah. A flare up.
It happens once in a while where the idea of leaving the house made Serizawa feel queasy all over again. Luckily, those moments were stretching themselves thinner and thinner as if they were desperately trying to hold onto him like a desperate spirit. “Residual trauma” as Reigen had called it once when trying to explain it in a way that would make sense to her. She didn’t want to dwell on it for too long, less it made her feel sad and being sad meant she would get stuck in her feelings and wouldn’t be able to get any of her plans done.
These flare ups have never swayed her opinion of Serizawa. Looking at him always made her feel determined, like he was one big reminder of how possible change could be, how drastic it was. The fact he’s able to trudge on after tougher days has always lit a fire in her when thinking about how far he’s come. She had seen photos of him while he was in Claw, blurry news coverage stills and one photo Serizawa still held onto with the rest of the five in shot. She was relieved to see that the man who was helping raise her was healthier looking, dramatically happier even if the eyebags never went away. She liked that he wasn’t afraid to tease all of them now, that he could point out when Reigen says or does something stupid. Though she wasn’t immune to that treatment, either.
“What are you making?” She tries to look over the counter to get a glimpse at the food.
“Breakfast.” He says plainly, causing Tome to snort.
“That’s not what I meant!”
“Just give me a minute, go sit down.” She can hear the fondness in his voice and she immediately complies, heading towards the table.
She takes her seat and a minute later is when Serizawa walks out of the kitchen. He has a plate containing blueberry pancakes and a small mound of scrambled eggs, a cup of green tea in his other hand. Gently, Serizawa sets the plate down in front of her as he passes by. He sits in the chair across from her, setting his tea in front of him. He’s been trying to get off of energy drinks, subtly encouraging Tome to do the same.
“Obviously, I slept in so much later than I meant to! I-” She pauses as she looks down at her plate, trying to hold in a laugh at the poorly made smiley face Serizawa had attempted to make with the blueberries. She appreciates the sentiment– especially since blueberries were her favorite. She folds one leg under her and lets the other swing back and forth, getting comfortable so she can shovel food into her mouth.
“What’s so funny?” He takes note of her amusement, grinning. “If it's that bad, I can just take it back.” He slowly begins to reach out towards her plate.
“No, It’s cute! It’s super cute!” She swats his hand away like its an annoying fly, pulling her food closer. “I’m sure it tastes better than it looks, anyways.
The velocity at which she eats has to be something she’s picked up from Reigen. The two always finish their dinners while Serizawa has only gotten halfway through his, sometimes they end up getting seconds. Reigen makes enough food for all of them to have extra portions if they really want it. Serizawa can eat a lot like they can, but he has to go slowly or else his stomach will hurt for the rest of the night.
He takes a sip of his tea, a smile on his face that hides behind his cup as he watches her wolf down food that wasn’t really going anywhere. “What time did you go to bed?” There’s a knowing look on his face, the two of them are notorious night owls but Tome claims her habits are out of necessity in case an alien lands in their backyard to recharge.
“Well-” she looks like a deer caught in headlights, quickly swallowing a mouthful of eggs and pancake so she can lean back and rapidly wave her hands back and forth in a defensive motion. “That has nothing to do with how late I slept in! I bet if I had gone to bed at 9 I would’ve woken up at the same time”
Serizawa scratches at his stubble as he listens to her and only raises an eyebrow when she finishes her spiel. She deflates at his expression and stabs her eggs with her neon green chopsticks that she had begged them for. “I went to bed at 3 am.” She grumbles out, unable to lie to him.
“You’re lucky it's the weekend.” he reaches out and rips off a bite of her pancake, dad tax for making her breakfast. “Did you want help working on your room today? You mentioned it at dinner last night.”
“What?” She squawks “No way!” Did he seriously think she wasn’t capable of cleaning her own room? Total bogus, she thinks as she gives him a look. “Just because I’m having a late start doesn’t mean I can’t do it myself.” Besides, she wanted the time to herself and she had no idea what Serizawa might find if she did let him help her out. There was nothing in her room that she had to keep from them but it made her paranoid that they might find something in there that even she wasn’t aware of.
“I never said you couldn’t do it-”
“You were thinking it!” She points her silverware at him with an incredulous look he swears he’s seen Reigen make before.
“That’s the last thing I’m thinking, and last I checked; you weren’t a telepath.”
An indignant gasp sounds from across the table as Serizawa does his best not to laugh. It’s nice to be able to joke so freely, the joy to not be scared of his own tongue.
“How. Dare you!” She abruptly stands up with her palms flat on the table but it's obvious by the way her right eyebrow twitches that she’s also trying not to laugh. “Do you have no respect, Serizawa?” She accuses “Are we not equals?!”
“Not really, considering I’m the adult.” He reaches over to grab her plate to finish off the few bites she has left.
“Ew! Don’t say that! That makes you sound like Reigen!” She half shouts as she makes her way back to the stairs, the sound of her feet hitting the steps echoing throughout the house. She needs to get started with her day, the sooner she can clean her room the better. She grins to herself as she pauses in front of the bathroom door, hearing Serizawa laugh at their antics. Her cheeks hurt from how hard she grins as she pushes open the door.
She flicks on the bathroom light and gives herself a good look in the mirror, frowning at the stubborn acne speckled around her face that won’t seem to go away no matter how often she’s been washing her face. Maybe she needs to try a different face wash? It's so odd, she used to never care about this type of stuff before and she doesn’t want to admit that highschool is changing her, or all the pretty girls in her class that she can’t seem to properly connect with. She huffs in annoyance before pulling her face away from the mirror so she can actually get started on taking care of her face and teeth.
The sink water is perfectly warm and it makes her want to melt and get back under her covers all over again. One of these days she’s convinced she’ll end up falling asleep standing like a horse while warm water runs over her picked at hands. Today won't be that day, she has things to do, people! She squeezes her eyes shut and splashes her face with warm water before flailing an arm out to find her face wash and squeezing it into her hands. She likes how it feels when it suds up on her face and how smooth her skin temporarily feels afterwards, though it always makes her cheeks look like little apples with how red and shiny they get.
Brushing her teeth is next, which is a major annoyance to her. Glaring at her toothbrush like its her mortal enemy, she lets a fat glob of toothpaste smear over its bristles. Maybe if she didn’t have to take extra time to scrub between the brackets of her braces she wouldn’t detest it so much but she won’t let anyone underestimate the beef she has with oral hygiene. Not to mention the monthly tightening of her braces, or the fact her dentist knows she’s eating foods she’s not supposed to with braces. Being a teenage girl with braces has to be the worst thing in the world, she thinks.
“Finally.” She breathes out. Now she can get to work. She makes the quick steps from the bathroom to her room and looks around. The time on her clock reads 11 and she lets out a sigh of relief. There’s plenty of time to work. She just has to figure out where to get started…
Right. Getting started. She can do that! She just has to stop standing in the middle of her room looking at everything. She could start with her closet, or her desk, or her bed. No, not the bed. Definitely not her bed. There’s no point in making the bed when she’s just gonna mess it up again after she cleans everything. Don’t start with the bed, Tome. Maye the bookshelf would be a good start? But she’d have to take everything off and then risk stepping on her mini figures or accidentally bending a book. Serizawa had been teaching her the importance of upkeeping a collection after she had asked about his Gundam figures. Maybe she should save the shelf for last? But she wants to save her desk for last too! Maybe the shelf could be second to last? Besides, she needed to deep clean the surface of her desk after she had spilt paint all over it and had let it dry after getting distracted by Mob texting her.
Closet it is, then.
She immediately frowns upon sliding open her closet door. She hadn’t been able to go through her things when making the transition to living with Reigen and Serizawa so she hadn’t realized how much stuff she had jammed in her closet. There were clothes she hadn’t worn since she started middle school, things that would never fit her anymore. It made her kind of happy to see that she had gotten taller, proof that she was growing up. But growing up also meant going through all your belongings, which she really did not want to do right now. Not when she had an entire closet looking at her.
The clothes on their hangers she knows for a fact is what she can still fit into, but everything else? It’s all on the floor of her closet or on top of unopened cardboard boxes from when she moved which is super embarrassing. She’s so glad she hadn’t accepted Serizawa’s offer to help because there’s socks mixed in with t-shirts and scarfs wrapped around jeans.None of this is going to fit into her laundry basket. All she can do is groan before moving to sit in front of her closet so she can start the process of dragging everything out, cursing her past self for not thinking about how this would affect her future.
The first shirt she pulls up from the floor is something she hasn’t worn since elementary school, its bright pink with a sparkly butterfly on the front and ruffled shirt sleeves. She looks at it with a grimace, most of the clothes from her childhood are so… girly. Something she had never really resonated with, always getting in trouble for getting those shirts dirty with mud and grass stains. Though she had never really had a say in what she wore back then, whatever her mom thought was cute was what she wore. Things are obviously different now that she’s older– the people she associates herself with are the ones who encourage her to be herself. The sparkly shirt is balled up and thrown somewhere behind her so she doesn’t have to look at it again. Wherever it landed will be the start of her donation pile. She’s pretty sure there’s a lot of kids out there who act like proper girls who would want these clothes.
By the time 12:30 hits, all she’s been able to do is throw clothes around the floor of her room in partially sorted piles and get distracted by the various little treasures from her childhood. There’s a pile of silly bandz she was slowly building after finding them in the pockets of some of her old pants, a few bouncy balls meant to look like planets, and old plastic ponies that looked like they had a trip to the salon. Her current distraction is a tamagotchi she thought she had left at a park years ago. She’s hunched over so preoccupied trying to take care of the poor creature that she doesn’t hear the sound of knocking at her bedroom door.
“How’s it going?”
Tome practically jumps out of her own skin, dropping her tamagotchi in the process. She frantically looks around for the source of the voice before finally seeing Serizawa’s broad figure in the doorway.
“Holy shit! Don’t scare me like that! Don’t you know you’re supposed to knock? I have a ‘please knock’ sign on my door for a reason!” She’s quick to stand, surrounded by a ring of clothes and random toys that look well loved.
“Uhh, I did knock.” He steps inside her room with a curious look, wise enough to not question her methods.
“Yeah, yeah. I’m sure you did.” She rolls her eyes before looking over at her clock, eyes widening as she sees the time. “You’re kidding! It’s that late already?!” She stumbles over her pile of clothes to get a closer look at the clock, face displaying total shock. She lets out a long, frustrated groan as her hands run down her face slowly.
“Oh my god.” It feels like someone is laying a 50 lb weight on her chest when the realization hits. “I can’t do anything.” She mumbles the words moreso to herself but Serizawa still hears it all the same.
His eyes widen before he’s clumsily stepping over wrinkled clothes so that he can stand in front of her, no hesitation in his movements as his brain tells him to comfort her. He reaches out, putting both hands on her shoulders to give them a gentle squeeze.
“Tome.” His eyebrows furrow in concern, looking down at the young girl who’s refusing to meet his eyes. “Hey. C’mon, don’t talk about yourself like that. Please?”
He’s all too familiar with how paralyzing self depreciation can be, the last thing he needs is for Tome to lose her spark. She’s always so headstrong, taking the bull by the horns. He’s seen her run into exorcisms like death isn’t a variable and watched her rearrange the office multiple times with more vigor than he’s seen in any other kid her age. He’s almost jealous of her bravery and drive so it’s hard for him to understand where all this negativity is coming from.
All she can do is shake her head, invested in what her carpet has to offer. “It's true, Serizawa! I can’t even clean my own room!” Her hands fly up to tug at her hair in frustration. “It’s all so overwhelming! I couldn’t even pick a place to start and now all I've been able to do is make an even bigger mess! Its- I just-” Her cheeks are red either from embarrassment or from the fact she’s on the verge of tears. Possibly both.
He needs to find a perfect balance between being gentle and stern, he has to be careful with his words right now. “Shit-” he tenses up, he wasn’t supposed to swear out loud. Great going future dad of the year. “I mean- Hey! Don’t talk to yourself like that!”
Serizawa reaches out to gently pull her hands away from her hair to prevent damage to her scalp. Her hands are so tiny in his own palms but he doesn’t need to get emotional thinking about that right now. “Where is all this negativity coming from, Tome?”
His concerned tone makes her bite her lip and her shoulders shake. This all feels so stupid, she shouldn’t be having a major freak out because she got overwhelmed trying to clean up her room. She knew it would take a lot of work, she had been hyping herself up for this all week! She sniffles and is immediately horrified by the fact Serizawa is gonna see her ugly cry so she quickly throws herself at him so he won’t have to see her face.
Serizawa lets out a quiet “oof” but his body barely budges when she buries her face into his chest and wraps her arms around him as tightly as she can. His warmth is comforting and all it does is make the dam break and Serizawa can hear her muffled cries and hiccups, quickly wrapping his own arms around her as he looks down at the top of her head in concern. Maybe she’s been a bit overdue for a good cry.
“Oh, sweet girl. C’mon, it’s alright.” His voice is barely above a whisper as he gently lowers the both of them to the ground so he can sit and hold her as she cries. He keeps her close and rubs her back with a soothing hand, content to let her ride out her emotions until she’s able to speak again. He rocks her back and forth, something he’s always done for himself when trying to calm down and he hopes it helps her like it helps him. Days like these remind him that he’s still going into this whole “parenting” thing blindly, that he still doesn’t really know what it is that he should be doing.
Her grip on the back of his shirt vacillates between weak and strong whenever she takes a particularly rough breath before doing her best to breathe through her now stuffed up nose. Her breakdown is like watching a bottle rocket explode, or like watching an earthquake tear down buildings. Powerful in magnitude with remains left behind in its wake, but he has to remind himself that she’s still only a kid. A kid with really big emotions, which seems to be a common theme for the people he’s friends with nowadays.
They sit together like that for a while. Their rocking mimics the swaying trees outside of her room in the gentle wind. The sun is coming into her room in bits and pieces as the swaying leaves block out some of the rays. Soon enough, Tome is able to finally catch her breath and collect herself, slowly pulling away from Serizawa so she can sit in front of him– which feels like trying to pull apart two stubborn pieces of velcro. She doesn’t want to pull away, Serizawa doesn’t want to let go but they have to so she can finish calming herself down.
She sniffles again while wiping the remaining tears out of her eyes. Serizawa sits in front of her patiently, knowing that pushing her would likely only result in more tears being shed. He watches as her left hand picks at the skin around the nails on her right hand; this has been a habit she’s been doing long before they even knew each other and he wants to tell her to stop it but he doesn’t know if that would be appropriate for the moment.
“Um.” her voice comes out shaky and her face pinches in frustration. “Sorry, for that. That was weird. Right?” Her head has been down the whole time but she finally glances towards Serizawa to make eye contact. Her eyes are huge and glossy, red rimmed and tired.
“Weird?” Now he looks confused, eyes squinting as he looks at Tome. “What’s weird? That you were crying?”
“Yes!” her arms fly out as if trying to encapsulate how big her point is. “Crying is weird! It makes me feel weird and I hate doing it and I bet you were super uncomfortable!” She sighs, slouching forward as she lets her arms fall back into her lap. “I dunno. I just hate crying.”
“Tome, it didn’t make me feel uncomfortable. I’m glad you were able to let it out, which I struggled to do when I was your age. Crying is a healthy thing,” something his therapist had been telling him for a while now. “I’m your- well, I guess I’m technically just your-”
“You’re my dad, right?” She leans forward slightly, able to properly look at him now. She doesn’t miss the way his eyes widen or how he becomes rigid at her words before forcing himself to relax.
“Well, yeah,” he breathes, smiling affectionately at her. “I am, but you don’t have to-”
“Call you that, I know. But I want to.” She brings her knees up to her chest, drawing circles into the carpet with her finger. She can only maintain eye contact in moments like these for so long. “It’s cool having you guys as my dads now. I like that I can be loud at dinnertime and that I can play my music without headphones.”
“Well,” he leans back, supporting his weight with his hands firmly planted on her floor. “It’s pretty cool having you as my daughter. Which is kinda weird, too. I never thought I’d be here, especially when I was still in my room.”
She hums in thought as she continues to trace shapes, watching how the carpet bends when she runs her finger over it. “I never thought I’d be here, either. Even when I first started working for you guys, I also never thought I’d see aliens either.”
“...Did you still want help cleaning your room?”
He watches as her face goes through a few puzzling expressions, obviously thinking about if she wants to accept his offer or not. She stops drawing shapes into the carpet and rocks herself forward so that she can sit on her knees, sitting up straighter as she finally looks at him. Her eyes are still puffy and red from tears but she doesn’t look as tired, more determined than anything with a glint in her eyes. He grins at her, happy to see her back to herself and she grins right back before huffing out a laugh.
“I guess so.” She rolls her eyes playfully as she begins to stand up. “You have more experience than I do, so I’ll need your expertise.” She throws a hand out for Serizawa to grab.
He gladly takes it even if she actually wouldn’t be able to help pull him up, she’d probably just get dragged down instead. Once he’s back on his feet he lets go of her hand, moving to rest his own on his hips as he looks around her room. Her room isn’t even that dirty but he supposes he isn’t the best at judging the cleanliness of a room when he remembers how awful his own room used to look. Maybe Tome is scared of her room looking like that? But he knows that would never happen, especially with Reigen in the house. If anything he’d also offer to help her keep her space clean with a few additional tips and maybe a few new pieces of furniture to keep everything off the floor.
“What's up with all the clothes on the floor?”
“Oh, right. I was gonna try to make donate and keep piles but I couldn’t stand looking at any of them and I kinda just… threw them around? So I don’t actually think I’m keeping any of these.” She starts nudging all of the clothes into a big pile with her foot as she talks, careful to avoid the childhood toys that are scattered about the mess.
“Okay.” He nods along as he walks over to her closet so he can grab her laundry basket. “And everything in here is stuff you want to keep?” He gestures with his shoulder to the inside of her closet and she nods quickly.
“Yeah!” She bends down to pick up an armful of clothes so she can put them in the hamper. “That’s all stuff I still wear, this was all just on the floor of my closet.” She goes to grab another pile while Serizawa lifts up one of her old shirts.
“Aww! This is so cute! You used to wear this?” He turns the shirt around to show her. It's lavender colored with a design of a cat on the front with a bunch of cartoon hearts surrounding it. She can’t help but to grimace when she sees it and quickly yanks it out of his hands so she can stuff it into the bottom of the hamper.
“Unfortunately. It was just whatever my mom liked until I was old enough to voice my opinions.” Serizawa comes over with another pile of clothes as she finishes stuffing the clothes down so they’ll have more room. “But I like getting to choose what I wear now, excluding my school uniform, obviously.”
He nods along understandingly, recalling a time when his mom had tried to make him wear a certain shirt when he was younger. He remembers crying because the texture of it had been too itchy on his skin and that shirt had quickly been trashed afterwards. Luckily all the clothes Tome has now seem to be the ones that make her the most comfortable with herself, much like Serizawa’s wardrobe of baggy clothes and heavy jackets.
“Fair enough.” He watches as Tome drops the last few pieces of clothing into the hamper before pushing it towards her bedroom door. “What about this stuff?” He leans down to pick up a pony figurine that had its hair almost entirely chopped off, there’s a few more in front of him that have suffered the same fate.
“Oh, those? Umm..” She picks up another one off the floor, looking at it from different angles. “I think I want to keep them? I wanna put them on my bookshelf but I don’t think there’s enough room for them.” She frowns at the pony like it's their fault she’s run out of room. She already knows all the stuff on her bookshelf is things she wants to keep well into her adulthood even if she has to leave them in her room while going off to college. She’s pretty sure her future roommate wouldn’t appreciate a collection of tiny alien figures staring at her.
“Oh, that’s fine. Why don’t we put them in one of those shoeboxes in your closet? We can try and put up some shelves on your walls in a few days so you’ll have more space to display this kind of stuff.” He tosses the pony to her and moves to stand up.
“We can do that?” she furrows her eyebrows as she watches him grab one of the empty shoe boxes from her closet. Dang, she had wanted to save that one for a possible school project. Oh well, they won’t be banished to cardboard hell forever.
“Of course we can!” He hands her the box and watches as she starts throwing the toys that littered her floor into the box. “We bought this house, remember? We don’t have to worry about a landlord or anything like that.”
Right. With some of Reigens funds and the insane amount of money Serizawa had unintentionally saved up from his days at Claw. He had never touched that money before, let alone know that it had existed. He was always used to Toichiro buying things for him. It wasn’t until Reigen had helped him get set up with a bank that they had notified him that he already had an existing savings account. Being a personal bodyguard had paid handsomely, but that would never make him want to go back to that place. Especially when he had so many things to look forward to now that he owned his own life. He gets to wake up to a partner who actually loves him, he’s pursuing his education, he has a family he can call his own. Why would he want to give any of this up?
“Can we get a lava lamp for one of the shelves?” She had always wanted a lava lamp, something she had continuously asked for when with her parents. Her mom was paranoid that it would catch on fire so the answer had always been no. She waves goodbye to the toys before carefully putting the lid back on the box. She’ll see them again soon but she feels a little bad putting them back in her closet again.
“Ohh, that would be cool!” he nods enthusiastically which surprises her. It shouldn’t, really, Serizawa can be a big kid himself sometimes when it comes to cool decor and collectibles, or how he still gets excited to buy and build models. The idea of it catching fire probably hasn’t even crossed his mind. “Do you want to work on your bookshelf next? Or should we take a break?”
“No! No breaks, or else I won’t be able to get back to cleaning again!” She jumps to her heels, fists bouncing up and down as she talks. “We’ll do the bookshelf next! Besides, all I wanted to do was reorganize stuff so it looks nicer.”
There’s a bunch of little knick knacks and memorabilia on the shelves; rocks, her miniature alien collection, various books, manga’s, and a few character and alien figures. It’s a collection that’s steadily been growing, a perfect microcosm of herself. She firmly believes some of the rocks on there are genuine ones from the moon, which she has been lucky enough to find on her walks home from school. No one has attempted to argue with her about those claims. They are accompanied by one rock she is certain is celestial in nature, spherical and strangely patterned, catching the sunlight on its unnaturally rounded, smooth surface. The little aliens she got from her favorite gachapon that she would pass by on the way home from elementary school are next to the rocks. She always chose the same machine, she wonders if it's still there. Her favorites have always been the “rarer” ones that glow in the dark
Serizawa is bent down in front of the lower shelves with his hand resting on his chin as he looks at something. That “something” being some of her school books from the previous year, which he pulls out and flips through briefly. They’re mainly her math and history books with some of the questions filled out but never turned in. “Do you still need these?” He turns his head to look at her, holding up one of the well used books.
“No way! That’s what those are?” she grabs the book out of his hand, opening it up to a random page. “Aww, man! I thought these were my review books, not my homework books!” She huffs in frustration before tossing it to the floor beside her feet. “We can just throw these away, they’re useless anyways.”
“Right… Why are there so many pages left if this was your homework book?” He grabs the rest of them and stacks them neatly on top of the book she had thrown onto the floor.
“Well-” she jolts, gritting her teeth. “Don’t worry about that! These are all from last year so it’s too late to even turn in anything!” She quickly distracts herself by taking care of pulling her personal books off of the shelf so she doesn’t have to look at Serizawa.
All he can do is shake his head a little with a sigh, he has no place to judge her. Besides, he knows she’s taking her highschool years a lot more seriously compared to when she was in middle school. He was relieved to see her start to take things more seriously, both he and Reigen had privately shared the same fear that she would try to get focused when it was too late.
“You wanted to make this look nicer, right? Why don’t we try staggering some of this stuff?”
“Stagger?” She turns her head to look at him, confused. She’s taken a majority of her books and cd’s off the shelves, now it’s just her collectibles.
“Yeah! Like, umm..” His hand covers around idly before grabbing a few of her books, putting them onto the shelf, then taking some of her CD’s to put in front of the books. “You can change it out if you want to, this is just an example. You had all your things dedicated to one shelf but it would look nicer if you mixed all of them. You could put the aliens on top of the books if you wanted, or you can let them stand on the shelves. It’s up to you, really, but it's fun to mess around with.”
She nods along seriously to what he’s saying, watching him place things around. He puts her cd player in the middle of her books and CDs to create a nice display and he suggests that she can change things around again but she doesn’t think she will. Tome chooses to sit back and watch him, occasionally handing a figurine or manga to him. He has a better eye for this than she does, but maybe she had been a bit lazy when they had first set up her room. She thought keeping everything together would’ve made things easier for her but it had ended up looking cramped and made her room feel smaller, funnily enough. There’s more clear space on her shelf now with things stacked on top of eachother, she could spend more money on gachapons with the excuse that she needed to fill her shelves again.
Something catches Serizawa’s eye, causing his movements to stutter. He picks up the CD he had been eyeing, huffing out a laugh when he sees who the artist is. “You listen to them?” He looks at her, turning his wrist over so she can get a better look at what he has in his hands. It’s an album from an American band she had listened to called Kittie, who she had found through some forums online. She was taking an English language class and had heard that listening to music in the language you were trying to learn could help you learn it faster. She still had to find translations of the lyrics online but it was getting easier to understand now.
“Mhmm!” she nods quickly. “There’s a store by my school that has imported CD’s for cheap, I was lucky to find them there. I like that they’re all girls.” She had discovered one of their live shows on youtube once and had watched it every day for a week straight, mesmerized. “You know them?”
“Of course I do! I’ve always liked heavier bands and my experience in America gave me a lot of opportunities to discover other artists.” He picks up another CD, looking at it before laying it flat on the shelf, starting a small stack that he plans to put one of her sailor moon figures on.
“Woah, wait a minute, you’ve been to America??” She rocks forward, looking at him expectantly with wide eyes.
“Of course. Wherever Suzuki went, I went. Claw did a lot of national travel, making allies and all that jazz.” He wishes he had been more present in those moments, that he could’ve appreciated the diverse beauties of other countries. Those past regrets make him appreciate every little thing in his day-to-day life.
“Y’knowww…” he starts, leaning back to look at their work. “I think I still have some of my old CD’s in a box somewhere, probably under our bed.”
“Seriously?!” She gasps, excited. “Can I see? Please? I promise I won’t scratch them!”
“Well not right now! I have to find them first! And, we still need to finish your room.”
She groans loudly, throwing herself onto the floor and spreads her limbs out. The ceiling has glow stars all over and she can recognize the constellations her and Serizawa had done their best to replicate. It was shortly after she had moved in with them, making Serizawa help her since he was the tallest member of their household. She can still remember how confused he had looked when she tried to give him directions on what star went where and how many times they had to take them down and replace them. Later that night the two men had let her talk all she wanted about constellations at dinner, asking questions about the stories behind them and their significance. It was a moment that had made her realize they genuinely cared about what she had to say. They cared about her interests, they didn’t tell her they were childish or unimportant. Not once had they told her to “hurry up and grow up” like how her parents used to tell her. In fact, just last week her and Reigen had been exploring future career options based on her interests. He had told her that now was the best time to start thinking of those decisions so her highschool classes would reflect positively on future colleges. Which was still hard to think about. She had all of highschool ahead of her but she’s convinced she won’t be ready to leave after everything is said and done.
“You should probably vacuum. Do you want me to go get it?”
Tome scrunches her nose up at the idea but reluctantly agrees. “Please?” By the time she’s gotten herself to sit up, Serizawa has already left the room.
She pushes herself up to stand, raising her hands up to the ceiling as she stretches. Her eyes squeeze shut and her whole body shudders with the effort, cursing her poor posture habits. She doubts she’ll ever have good posture with how often she hunches over her space books and her computer. Tome lets out a sigh as she lets her body relax, feeling the tiniest bit looser. She probably should’ve paid more attention when the Body Improvement club had given a brief lesson on stretching to Mob. At this point she’ll just have to start joining Reigen for his morning yoga time.
She hears a clunk against her door and a quiet “oops” before it door opens, revealing Serizawa with the clunky, ancient vacuum behind held up in one hand and a duster in the other. He must’ve hit the door with the vacuum on accident seeing as how awkward the poor thing is. Reigen refuses to let them get rid of it for a slimmer model because the one they have works “just fine” and that there’s “no reason” to replace a perfectly good vacuum. She’s praying one day that thing will go kaput.
“Here, you vacuum and I’ll dust. That way we can get both done at the same time.” He plugs the vacuum into the outlet by her bedroom door before handing it off to her with a grin.
“Do we really have to vacuum today?” She hates how loud the vacuum is, usually she can hide in her room or outside when Reigen and Serizawa are doing their once a week vacuuming.
“Yuup.” he pops the ‘p’ at the end. “I think you got glitter in the carpet from that art project you had to do last week.”
“Finneeee!” she groans out, finally turning on the machine. It whirrs to life and she does her best to not grit her teeth or cover her ears. Getting glitter out of the carpet is her only motivator, the last thing she needs is for a guest to see that. But then again the only guests they really have over are the other kids and she’s convinced Shou has been trying to steal her little plastic aliens.
The sound, come to find out, isn’t as bad when she can continuously move it up and down her carpet. It’s only when the thing is stagnant that it gets unbearably loud to her. She wants to rush the vacuuming process so she can turn it off but going too fast starts to make her arm hurt. Maybe cleaning is how Reigen stays in shape? Or maybe she’s just not as strong as she thought she was. Ugh, she does not want to try going to a gym anytime soon. It's kind of cool, she thinks, to see the difference in the carpet when the vacuum goes over it– wait, was her carpet really that bad? Surely not, but also when had she last vacuumed? Actually, she doesn’t think she has since moving in, so probably before she even moved in with them. Gross, she’ll definitely have to start joining in on weekly vacuuming. Maybe she can just put headphones on to drown out the sound.
Across from her, Serizawa is seemingly unbothered by the sound. He’s dusting off her windowsill, making a face when some of the dust tickles his nose. He’s quick to rub his nose on his arm to satisfy the itch, not wanting to let out one of his notorious “dad sneezes” as the kids have called it. Tome has moved to the left of him, trying her best to get the carpet under her loft bed where most of the glitter resides. The space down there is cozy, enclosed with blankets and holding her desk space where most of her studying got done. He’s a little jealous of how nicely her room has come along, wishing his room had looked like hers when he was a kid. Though obviously he would’ve replaced the alien figures with his gundam models and the shelf would’ve held all his games and consoles instead of books.
The obnoxious whirring comes to an end and Tome sighs in relief, letting her body sag. She doesn’t want to have to hear that monstrous thing ever again even if it means having a significantly cleaner carpet. Maybe she can convince them to switch her floors to wood.
“That bad, huh?”
“Duh, it's so loud! I hate this thing.” she halfheartedly kicks it and watches as it wobbles back and forth trying to right itself. She wouldn’t mind if that kick had deliberately broken it.
Serizawa gives her a funny look, like he’s trying to connect the dots for something she’s not in on. Whatever it is doesn’t seem to be too important because he shakes his head and chooses to shrug instead of saying anything. Maybe he just thinks she’s weird for having such strong feelings towards a piece of household machinery. She wants to know what he’s thinking but she knows not to ask, he won’t tell her.
“Well, I think we’ve gotten all the tough stuff out of the way.” That was something his therapist and Reigen had taught him; when things are overwhelming, get what's most difficult out of the way. Being able to do that makes the rest of the tasks a lot less daunting. “Did you need help with your desk?”
“No! No, I mean- No, thank you.” She laughs awkwardly, avoiding eye contact. The last thing she needs is for Serizawa to see her sketchbook and try to thumb through it. She knows he would always ask her first, but it's still a risk she doesn’t want to take.
He lets out a hum in acknowledgement as he starts for her bedroom door. “Alright, let me know if you need me, okay? I’ll be in the living room.” He gives her a relaxed smile as he makes his leave, the door shutting with a quiet click.
She lets out a sigh of relief as she stands in her room, the only sound being the birds chirping outside her bedroom window. Her desk shouldn’t be that bad, just reorganizing the space and throwing away the trash that’s littering the surface. She wants to make space so that she can use her sketchbook and her laptop at the same time without having to pick one or the other. But first, the candy wrappers. She holds one of her makeshift blanket curtains up and ducks under it so that she can get into the cozy space beneath her loft bed, which Reigen has called the Tome Cave. She turns on the lamp on her desk and begins the tedious task of picking up all of her candy wrappers. It’s mainly her senjaku ramune candies, which she had discovered a few weeks ago and had been eating non stop. A classmate had given her one and she had been instantly hooked, begging Reigen to buy her a bag at the konbini they always walked past on the way home. She likes to eat them when trying to do her homework, or while drawing and listening to her music.
She throws all the collected wrappers away in the trash can under her desk– don't ask her why she doesn’t just throw them away immediately, she doesn’t know either. She doesn’t have a lot of items on her desk, but it's not very large, either. She pulls out her chair and moves it aside so she can stand in front of her desk, hands on her hips as she looks down at its surface. There’s only a few items on her desk; laptop, sketchbook, two school books, a pencil holder, and her lamp. She doesn’t want to move her lamp, it's on the right corner and provides the right amount of light so she can see everything. She grabs her school books and sets them on the left corner, turning them at an angle towards herself and gently sets her laptop on top of it. Now her sketchbook can be in the middle, maybe a little more to the left. Her pencil holder, which is full of colorful pens, is right next to her lamp so she doesn’t have to awkwardly reach across to grab what she needs. She’d like to have a bigger desk someday, but the one she has will work for now. There’s a little bit of extra space, maybe she can put a figurine there to encourage her to work? But not right now, the desk is considered a done job. That alone makes her a little excited to sit down later and get some of her school work done later.
She pushes her desk chair back into its spot and she smiles at her work. She really hadn’t done much with her desk, but she was still proud of it nonetheless. It was something she had been putting off for a while now so it was good to finally see some change happening. She gets out from under her bed and looks at the clock, it's 3 going on 4. Her stomach growls as she realizes just how long it's been since she had breakfast, maybe she can just snack on some chips until Reigen gets home for dinner? Getting to dig into a big bag of chips is what gets her to leave her room, quickly running down the stairs and quickly turning the corner to go into the kitchen. The TV is on but she already knows what Serizawa is watching by the sound alone. He’s trying to catch up on the Pokemon anime, having missed out on a large chunk of it while running around with Claw.
The pantry door is yanked open and she immediately begins rummaging around the tiny space until she finally finds what she’s looking for, its plastic packaging shining like a treasure in a video game. Honey butter potato chips, which go incredibly fast in their household. One of them is always complaining that they never got to the now empty bag whenever they see it in the trash can. She kicks the pantry door shut behind her as she focuses on pulling open the bag, making her way to the couch so she can join Serizawa in his rewatch. He’s sitting on the far right corner of the couch, leaning towards the armrest with one leg pulled up and the other resting on the floor. She flops down right next to him and shovels a handful of chips into her mouth before holding it out towards him.
“D’you wan’ some?” She asks with a mouthful of chip-y mush that she’s still actively chewing away at.
He lifts his face from where it was resting on his fist, looking over at her with raised eyebrows. “Ah, finished already?” he reaches out, taking a handful for himself and begins picking away at it with a thanks.
“Oh, c’mon! It wasn’t that bad!” She kicks his thigh with her socked foot in protest.
“I don’t knowwww.” He sings out, voice wavering as he tries to carry the w’s. They had learnt a while ago that he couldn’t sing at all when they tried taking him out for karaoke one time.
“Ugh and I was trying to be nice by letting you have some of these!” She waves the bag of chips around before reaching in to grab another handful.
He rolls his eyes with a smile before regaining focus on the TV, snuggling back into the corner like he was earlier. Tome scoots closer and leans against his side, bringing both of her legs up onto the couch and tucking them beneath her. The chip bag now sits between the both of them and Serizawa wraps his free arm around Tome, giving her a gentle squeeze as she relaxes into his side. Serizawa radiates warmth, which Tome is desperately trying to steal from him. The tv flashes bright colors as Ash fights against Leon and Tome grins, already knowing what the turn out is going to be.
“Y’know,” She starts “we’re kinda like Quagsire and Clodsire.”
Serizawa glances down at her, curious. “Really? What makes you think that?”
She shrugs, watching as the fight plays out. “I dunno, vibes? You’re Clodsire and I'm Quagsire”
“Aww,” he chuckles at the thought, grinning at her. “You would’ve made a cute wooper, then.”
“Nuh uh, I would’ve been a badass wooper!”
“Hmm, if that's what you want to think. I won’t argue with you.” He knows that if he does try to argue, they’ll end up going back and forth well into the evening and maybe even before they go to bed.
Tome stays firmly planted in her spot as the episodes go by, almost dozing off a few times until something in the show is able to catch her short attention span. Their house is bathed in an orange glow as it starts to change into evening, the natural dust in the air dancing on top of the waves of evening sunlight. They make brief commentary on the episodes they watch, making dumb jokes at the characters expense. The two are so invested in the show that they don’t register the sound of the front door opening and closing until they hear Reigen call out to them from the genkan, keys jingling around as he takes off his shoes. Tome sits up a little bit and sees that the clock is now displaying 5:45 pm and she lets out a quiet “huh” not realizing that much time had passed. It still felt like she had just gotten done with her room and was sitting down with Serizawa. Speaking of which, the man immediately perks up, looking towards the direction the sound is coming from. Tome reaches out and grabs the remote, pausing the episode they’re currently on.
“Hey you two! Did you miss me?” Reigen steps into the living room, carrying two bags full of groceries. He smiles at the scene he’s greeted with, it makes his heart feel warm. Hopefully that's not a medical concern.
“Wow, you were gone that long just for groceries?” Tome pushes away from Serizawa to try and get a better look at everything he got.
“No!” he scoffs, rolling his eyes. “Groceries were my last stop. I had to go get some supplies earlier and drop them off at the office, then I met up with Teru to help him out with some after school fundraising project. I still don’t get why he couldn’t have asked Mob, those two are crazy about eachother.”
He walks past them, stopping by the back of the couch to lean down and meet Serizawa half way for a kiss. He smiles into it and lets his cheek rub against Serizawa’s stubble before pulling away. Tome makes a face that vaguely represents disgust and quickly looks away from the scene.
“Welcome home, honey.” Serizawa’s voice is borderline sappy with affection, happy to see that his other half has come home safe and soundly. “Do you need help?” he throws his arm over the back of the couch, watching Reigen enter the kitchen.
“Some help would be nice, just put the vinegar and cold stuff away for me. Keep the veggies out, I need those for dinner.” He sets both bags on the counter, pulling out the previously mentioned groceries, setting them by the sink so he can wash them off in a few minutes.
Serizawa is quick to push himself off the couch and go into the kitchen, happily following the directions Reigen had given him. They move around the kitchen comfortably and Tome can’t help but to watch, cheek squished against her palm. She frowns slightly, Reigen didn’t even hesitate to take the open hand Serizawa had given him when asking if he could help. Maybe she should’ve been nicer when Serizawa had first offered his help, especially when she can see that the simple act of putting groceries away brings them closer together. She feels a little guilty, Serizawa had never meant that she was incapable, he just liked spending time with her. She understands that now as she watches the couple in front of her.
“How was your day, Tome?” Reigen glances over at her briefly as he asks the question before looking back down at the veggies he’s now rinsing off over the sink, she wonders what he’s making for dinner tonight.
She shrugs, covering her mouth as she yawns before responding. “Kinda productive? Dad helped me organize my room, which was nice.”
He pauses in his movements briefly, eyebrows shooting up in surprise but instantly tries to cool his expression. He glances behind him at Serizawa, who grins at him before going back to packing their fridge with the groceries. “Ah, I see. Do you like it better than how it was before?”
Reigen pulls out a cutting board from one of their cabinets, spinning a knife in his hand as he gets ready to start chopping veggies. The movement makes Serizawa tense, only relaxing when he sees him grab onto the handle and not the blade. Tome gets up and walks over to the kitchen table, pulling out the chair and sitting on it backwards. She crosses her arms over the top of the chair, still trying to guess what he’s making. She doesn’t know what recipe calls for veggies to be cut into thin strips, she’ll just have to ask at this point.
“I think so. It doesn’t look so crowded anymore and I wanna get shelves to put on the walls.”
He hums in thought as Serizawa steps out of the kitchen, he walks quietly enough that sometimes they can’t hear him. “We can do that, maybe we can go out tomorrow? The department store should have plenty of options for you to look at.” He makes his typical hand movements as he talks, the knife is incorporated into that as he waves it around and points at her with it.
She watches him with a muffled snort, he looks like a crazy murderer or something. “Yeah! Can we put them up afterwards, too?”
“We’ll see, probably if we’re not tired afterwards-”
“Old!” Tome interrupts from her seat, pointing at him with a grin.
“Oh, knock it off! I am not that old! You should be calling Serizawa that, he’s two years older than I am!”
“Oooh,” she giggles, “don’t let him hear you say that!”
He groans, remembering the last time Serizawa heard him make a comment like that. “Trust me, I won’t.” He sets the chopped veggies to the side, going to the fridge to grab a few eggs.
“What’re you making?”
“Kakiage. Do you wanna help?” He sets the eggs in a bowl so they won’t roll off the counter, he’s learnt his lesson enough times to not make that mistake again.
“Mmm. I guess so.” She gets up to join him in the kitchen, looking at the array of veggies he has on the cutting board as he begins cracking the eggs.
“Get me the flour and some water, please?” He’s busy beating the eggs so she quickly does as she’s told, setting the two items on the counter next to him. She watches as he grabs their measuring cups and begins to pour the flour and water into the bowl.
She jumps up onto the counter, swinging her legs as she watches his precise movements. He knows what he’s doing without a recipe book– she can’t even imagine doing that, every time she’s tried to make something she’s always had to look at a recipe book. She guesses it’s because he has more experience in the kitchen than she does. Or maybe he’s just bullshitting everything like when he’s at work. He gets a heavy pan heated on the stove and motions for her to come over, setting the bowl with the mixture next to the chopped veggies. Tome hops off the counter and peers over his shoulder as he begins pouring oil into the pan.
“I want you to dip those–” he points at the veggies, then the bowl. “Into that, then you’re going to gently put it in the oil, okay?” He puts an emphasis on gently, the last thing the two of them need right now is to get burnt by boiling hot oil.
“Okay, sounds easy enough.” She nods along to his words and picks up a strip of onion, dipping it back and forth in the batter mixture and holds it up, glancing at Reigen. He nods approvingly at her and she lowers it down into the oil.
The veggie begins to sizzle and pop immediately and she grins, quickly going to grab another strip to put in the oil. This time she grabs a strip of carrot, doing the same process as last time. Reigen lets them sit for a few seconds before pulling them out with tongs, then lets them dry on top of a paper towel. The two work together rhythmically until they’re about halfway through the mound of veggies.
“Katsuya!” Reigen suddenly calls out, making Tome jump. She pauses her movement of reaching out to grab a green bean, glancing over at him.
There’s a distant “yeah?” from somewhere deep in the house as they wait. Reigen calls out to him again. “Come here! We’re almost done and I need you to get the rice started!” Both of them are too preoccupied to wash rice or even start the rice cooker. If their veggies stay in the oil too long they’ll fall apart or start to burn. Plus, Reigen doesn’t want to leave unoccupied popping oil on the stove.
It takes about a minute before she sees Serizawa coming down the stairs, hitting the squeaky steps that makes Reigen squeeze his eyes in mild frustration beside her. He’ll fix those eventually, like he always says. Serizawa offers a smile to Tome as he steps into the kitchen, bending down to grab the rice cooker from the cabinet. It had been a housewarming gift from his mom when they first moved into the house, obviously being put to good use almost every other night. When Serizawa starts washing the rice, Reigen motions for her to continue where she had left off.
The light above them is warm, their house smells like yummy food, and she’s in the kitchen with the two people in the world who make her feel the safest. She doesn’t know how to describe how she’s feeling right now, but it feels like her whole body is being enveloped in one giant hug. It makes her smile as she lowers the green bean into the oil, brushing her arm against Reigen’s. Serizawa comes up behind Reigen and wraps his arms around his middle, chin resting on his shoulder as he watches them work together on dinner. Reigen leans back against him with a content sigh and glances over at Tome.
“Dang, Tome-ato, I didn’t know veggies made you so happy.” He chuckles as his tongs go back into the oil.
“They don’t. I just- I just feel…” She glances to the side, suddenly frustrated as she tries to come up with a way to articulate how she’s feeling. Her eyebrows draw together in concentration as she chews the inside of her cheek, god she really needs to learn more descriptive words.
“Safe?” Serizawa chimes in, squeezing Reigen a little tighter
“Oh, I got it! Warm, it's definitely warm.” Reigen turns to look at Serizawa.
“Nooo.” He shakes his head. “That’s not right, maybe comfortable?”
“Why would it be comfortable? Maybe she’s feeling cozy!”
“It’s all of those, I think.” She butts in before the two keep going, which she knows they will if she doesn’t stop them.
The two adults turn to look at her, both of them smiling at her. The sound of oil popping fills the space and Reigen quickly turns the stove top off. They’re finished by now, anyways. They just have to wait for the rice to finish.
“We’re glad you feel that way, Tome.” Serizawa reaches out to put a comforting hand on her shoulder. “It just means you feel safe at home, which has always been our goal first and foremost.”
“Exactly!” Reigen nods in agreement. “This is your space as much as it is ours, and what you’re feeling is normal. It’s domesticity.”
The rice cooker beeps and Reigen is immediately going over, pressing the button that pops open the top. He’s met with a face full of steam, resulting in him scrunching up his face. He fans the steam away with his hand and grabs the rice paddle to begin fluffing up the rice.
“Is domesticity supposed to make your stomach feel funny?” Tome asks, looking up at Serizawa, who’s still in front of her.
“Kinda?” He tilts his head slightly as he thinks about it. “But also, I think you’re just hungry.
“That’ll do it!” Reigen pipes up as he starts portioning the rice out into bowls, setting them on the counter one at a time. Serizawa goes over without prodding and begins putting the tempura veggies on top of the warm rice. It smells delicious and Tome is immediately going over to their table to take her seat.
She leans forward, arms folded on the table in front of her as her dads walk over with dinner. Serizawa carries his own while Reigen carries his and Tome’s in each hand. He sets her bowl down in front of her as he sits in his own seat which is right next to Serizawa. The food smells delicious and makes her mouth water, immediately going to dig in. She shovels veggies and rice into her mouth and immediately hisses, eyes watering alongside her reaction as the food burns her mouth. She lets out huffs of air and tries to fan her mouth with her hand as her cheeks turn red.
Across from her, Reigen is trying not to laugh while Serizawa swats his arm with a stern expression. Reigen puts his hands up in surrender, leaning away from him as he still has a crooked smile on his face. Serizawa ignores him and immediately focuses his attention on her, a concerned expression replacing the previously stern one. Luckily, she’s gotten the food down and is just trying to exhale to satiate the lingering burning feeling on her tongue.
“Are you alright?” He asks, leaning forward a bit. “Do you need some ice water?”
She quickly shakes her head no, wiping her eyes and swallowing. “No! I’m good now! I just forgot how hot it was.”
“Obviously.” Reigen shakes his head in amusement, picking up a piece of veggie with his chopstick. He makes an exaggerated example of blowing on it before putting it in her mouth.
She glares at him, but there’s no genuine anger behind it. He just grins back at her like he didn’t do anything.
“Ignore him.” Serizawa puts his hand out in front of Reigen’s face, hiding his smile. It kind of reminds her of an eclipse with the way she can’t see his face but can see the top of his hair.
“Hey!” Reigen puts his hand on top of Serizawa’s forearm, pushing it down. “I’ll have you know I’m just as concerned, I just have a different way of showing it.”
“Oh yeah, like laughing at her pain?” Serizawa fixes him with a pointed look.
“Bingo!” he snaps his fingers, nodding.
Tome giggles at their antics, grinning more freely as she tries to hide her face behind her chopsticks. Dinnertime, she thinks, has to be her favorite time of day. When all three of them sit under warm, yellow lights and laugh at each other. It feels like family, and she knows they would never intentionally hurt her feelings. In fact, there’s been a few times when one of them had worried they’d gone too far with a joke, knocking on her bedroom door later that night and apologizing for it. Those jokes never hurt her feelings and she had never understood why they had apologized at first, but she felt safe being with two incredibly caring people.
Serizawa shakes his head and grumbles something unintelligible at his partner's antics, finally starting to work on the dinner in front of him. It’s cooled off enough now that none of them have to worry about burning their mouths. It's quieted down now, their cutlery clicking against the bowls and crickets begin singing as it gets darker and darker. Tome smiles down at her food once more, she really is happy to call this place her home now. Here and the office, or just wherever her dad’s are that she can follow them to.
She chooses to sit back and listen as Reigen recounts his day while the two had stayed at home. She doesn’t know how someone can make an ordinary shopping trip sound so interesting, but Reigen has always been able to pull it off. He can make the most mundane things sound captivating, she wants to have that skill someday. She eats at a slower pace than she usually does, tired from the mini emotional rollercoaster she had been on. If the two have noticed, they don't say anything. Besides, the two of them are currently bickering over some grocery item Reigen claims the shops aren’t selling anymore. Serizawa is telling him they do, that he saw whatever it was just yesterday. She’s not really paying attention anymore, phasing in and out of the conversation as she tries to savor the flavor of their dinner. She should’ve gotten some soy sauce, but it’s too late for that considering she’s almost done with her dinner. She knows they’ll have leftovers so she can try that combination for breakfast tomorrow.
When she finally lets out a yawn, her dinner has been finished. The plate is clean, like nothing was even on it in the first place. Serizawa is working on his last bite, and Reigen had finished sometime before them. The two look her way when they hear her yawn, smiling fondly as she rubs the corner of her right eye. Serizawa makes the move to stand, gathering their bowls together so he can make for the sink. Using his powers would be easier, he thinks, but he’s still trying to get used to using them for trivial things.
“You tired, kid?” Reigen asks, still sitting in his seat.
All she can do is nod. It feels like her sleepiness has hit her like a truck coming full speed. Reigen chuckles across from her and she can hear the sink being turned on.
“She had a long day, kinda.” Serizawa supplies as he looks around for the sponge. “I’m sure she can tell you about it in the morning, right?”
“Mmmhmm.” She finally moves to get up, having to internally hype herself up again. Reigen gets up when she does, though his movements have a lot more fluidity to them.
“Goodnight, Tome. I’ll see you in the morning, ‘kay?” He reaches out to pull her into a quick hug, a routine that had been started recently. She always got a hug from at least one of them before she went to bed. She immediately hugs back, giving him an extra squeeze before pulling away.
“M’kay. We’re gonna get the shelves tomorrow?” She just wants to double check, so she can imagine how tomorrow will go as she falls asleep.
“We will, promise.”
“Awesome.” She steps away, sloppily turning on her heel before heading towards the stairs, she gets about one step up before looking over her shoulders. “Goodnight, dad’s.”
Reigen is watching her from his spot by the table, breaking out into a grin when he hears her. She can only assume Serizawa is doing the same as she hears the sound of dishes clinking together pause momentarily. Reigen nods at her, his hair is glowing in the warmth of the light.
“Goodnight, Tome!” Serizawa calls out from the kitchen, the final confirmation she needs before she can allow herself to head up the stairs and towards her bedroom. Skipping the creaky steps have become second nature to her now, a sign she’s getting more used to their home. She passes the bathroom as she heads to her room, too tired to even think about brushing her teeth. She’ll just take extra time in the morning like she usually does.
She sighs contentedly as she steps foot into her room, the newly organized space giving revitalized energy to the room. She takes off the hoodie and hangs it back up on the back of her door, glad to have taken a pajama day. She wants to get cozy in her bed as soon as possible. The moon shines brightly into her room and she waves goodnight to it as she peeks out of her window. She doesn’t know if the moon has feelings or not, but she likes to think it does and it makes her wonder how many other people wave goodnight to the moon. She doesn’t dwell too much on it as she tightly shuts her curtains, not wanting any sunlight to peek in through any gaps when the morning comes. She won’t sleep in as long as she had today, she thinks, and one of her dad’s will wake her up in the morning anyways. Reigen is always an early riser, she can hear him sometimes in the morning when she drifts in and out of consciousness.
She lets out a long sigh as she finally gets to lay down on her plush mattress. Any tension in her body that she didn’t know she was harboring finally lets itself loose and she wiggles her fingers and toes as her whole body unwinds. There’s light coming in from under her door and she can hear laughter in the kitchen that causes her to smile to herself as she rolls over onto her side, reaching out to the alien plushie that's in front of her. She pulls it close and finally allows her eyes to fall shut, face going slack against her pillow as her body easily succumbs to sleep.
Today, for what it’s worth, was a good day. The road may have been a bit bumpier than she had expected, but she didn’t allow that to stop her. And she’s pretty sure that tomorrow will be an even better day.