Chapter Text
Ira woke up to the blaring sounds of his alarm clock. What he thought was his alarm clock, before remembering he didn’t have one.
Ira swung his feet over the bed to look down at Shadow, who was making a disturbingly accurate noise to an alarm.
”Okay okay! I’m up!” Standing up, Ira grabbed his uniform, tugging his jacket on as he ran into the bathroom to brush his teeth.
Grabbing his phone, Ira glanced at the time. Thankfully he was up early…for once.
Splashing water in his face, Ira walked down the stairs to feed his cats. It was quiet, as per usual now that Joe’s moved out and into Trump Republic or whatever it was called now.
Ira didn’t mind the quiet. Made things easier for him. And he knew how to look after the place…after Rikka helped him.
He never could forget the moment he called her to ask her what was wrong with the dishwasher after he put dish soap in it.
Apparently…you’re not supposed to do that.
Still, despite the hiccups alls been good.
To think…it’s already been four months since they defeated King Mercenare. And nearly a year since Ira became Cure Jack.
As Ira passed the table, his eyes landed on the papers that lay atop it, tensing, Ira grabbed his bag.
Couldn't have that distracting him.
Once Ira stepped outside, he saw the others waiting for him.
”Hey guys!” He greeted as he jogged down the pathway.
Makoto, Mana, Regina and of course, Rikka were standing on the sidewalk, waiting for him.
”Would you look at that? You’re not late for once.” Regina teased.
“Shut up, what matters is I’m here. So let’s get moving.”
”I’ve never seen you so excited for school,” Rikka laughed as they began to walk.
”Nah, he was excited to see you.” Regina smiled. Ira flat tired one of her shoes after she said that. Tripping, she glared at Ira, shoving herself against him so he also toppled over.
”Hey!” Ira snapped.
”You started it!” Regina stuck out her tongue as the two glared at each other, sparks flying between them.
Behind them, Makoto sighed.
”They’re like children sometimes.” The other two nodded in agreement as Ira and Regina continued bickering.
”Anyways- the reason I’m actually excited is because this is hopefully a normal day where we don’t have to stop some huge catastrophe or do some government assigned side quest.” Ira explained.
”Are you still upset about the satellite?” Mana asked. “That was already a few weeks ago.”
”But it ate into my precious free time! I already didn't have much with school work, but now there’s even less with having to take care of all the house chores now that Joe’s gone!”
“Well, you could always live in Trump Republic, didn’t Joe offer?” Mana asked, Ira burst out into laughter.
”Me? In Trump Republic?! HAH! They hate my guts! I’d be lucky to make it one day!” No, but seriously, Ira didn’t visit Trump Republic that often, only when the others went for a little trip. And even then he’d get side eyes, people yelling words that definitely shouldn’t be heard by children, and someone even threw a big rock at Ira that broke his nose.
It was the first time he saw Rikka almost get into a fight.
It’s not that he could blame them.., even if he did help save it, Ira was the one who first helped destroy it in the first place.
Rikka must’ve noticed Ira’s expression as she sped up and took his hand.
”I’m sure today will be more relaxed.” She reassured him, squeezing his hand. Ira felt his face flush and he couldn’t stop the goofy smile on his face.
To think he could do this so casually….
Maybe she was right…, yeah. It would be a good day.
“Ughhhhhh!” Ira groaned as they walked out of school. “I hate schoooolllll!”
”You were all excited this morning.” Makoto pointed out, only her, Rikka and Regina were walking home with Ira as Mana got caught up helping the tennis team.
Regina had wanted to stay but Rikka reminded her she had overdue homework.
”Yeah but then I was reminded why I like weekends!” Ira whined, Regina would normally make fun of him…if she wasn’t making the exact same expression, slumped back and all.
”I never wanna go backkkkkk!” Regina cried. When they came to the shop, Ira waved goodbye to them.
”Make sure you get your homework done!” Rikka reminded him as he walked inside, he gave a thumbs up.
As Ira walked inside, he immediately face planted onto the couch. Opening his bag, he let out a louder groan as he looked at all the work he needed to do.
“Alright…time to get some brain food and get to work.” Said brain food was sugary cereal at 4:30 PM. Luckily Rikka’s tutoring sessions have proved useful as he was able to knock out everything within an hour.
Finally done with work for the day, Ira was about to go upstairs when his phone rang.
”Huh..? Oh, hey Rikka!” Ira greeted Rikka, even if it’s only been an hour he never really got tired of talking to her. “Everything okay?” He walked to the kitchen, holding the phone up to his ear with his shoulder as he grabbed the cat food.
”Oh…nothing. I just remembered something you were trying to tell me the day the satellite fell. I’m so sorry, I completely forgot about it with all the craziness.”
”Oh…that….” Ira’s voice became smaller. “No, it’s fine. It’s nothing all that important anyways.” Despite his assurance, Ira could practically see her eyebrows furrowing in concern. “It’s not about my past, I promise you. I’d tell you guys if it was.”
“Are you sure everything’s okay? I’m here if you need anything.” She really was an angel.
“I’m a-okay. Don’t worry about it.”
”Okay…. Bye.”
”Bye, Te Amo.” Ira bid goodbye but before he could, he heard Rikka begin coughing on the other end.
”Rikka? You okay?”
”Yeah-yeah….” Rikka assured him. “It’s just…I should’ve told you I’ve begun studying Latin…since you were working so hard to understand Japanese I only thought it was fair I learned your language….”
Ira’s face began to turn a deep shade of red
“Oh! OkAy-“ Ira’s voice cracked. “That’s soooo cool- well- bye forever!” He quickly hung up the phone and buried his face in the bag of cat food and slid to the ground.
After a few moments, he felt pawing on his arm, lifting his head Ira saw Bowling.
”Yeah yeah…I got you.” Picking himself back up, Ira poured the food in their bowls and allowed them to feast on the offerings. Once he put the bag back down, his eyes fell on the papers on the table again, Ira braced himself before walking over to them.
He picked them up and sat on the couch, looking over them again.
Joe had given them to Ira around a month ago when he came back to pick up the last of his things.
”What…are these?” Ira asked, looking over the papers Joe handed him. Ira knew what it said, but it was still hard to process.
”Well…I don’t know if you’re familiar with this stuff…but a lot of things in both this world and Trump Republic require you to have a legal guardian when you’re a minor….” Joe scratched the back of his neck, not looking Ira in the eyes.
”I was able to forge some documents to enroll you into school, however I do think it would be easier if you had an actual legal guardian. In short…they’re adoption papers”
Ira stared down at them, face unreadable. After a moment of silence, Joe picked up his remaining luggage.
”Anyways…it’s just an offer. You can take as much time as you want.”
“Right…thanks.”
Even a month later, Ira still wasn’t sure. Joe had been nice to him even if it did start off awkward.
He was the first adult to actually be kind to Ira. Along with being the first one to discover Ira’s dreams, even comforting him whenever he did.
Well…less comforted and more just made Ira tea and sat in silence with him until Ira would talk his anxiety away about any random thing. Joe would listen, even if he clearly didn’t understand a word of it. Be it Ira’s cats, ranting about whatever annoyed him that week or explaining the lore of a new show he got into.
But he didn’t know that they were that close that Joe would offer to…adopt him.
Maybe he really was doing it out of convenience. That had to be it…after everything Ira’s done…or maybe it was just pity.
He's seen his friends relationship with their parents, they seemed so close.
After everything Ira’s done to him…he could never see Ira as his son.
Even…if that would be nice.