Work Text:
“Here, kid. How about a smoke?” Shaking, Taro looked up at the guard escorting him back into the Foundation. He had to blink a few times before he could get his vision to clear up enough to see what was being offered to him. A half-smoked cigarette, almost down to the end. The guards usually smoked when waiting for him to be finished with whatever Grandpa had pulled him out to do.
“Why’re you wasting a cig on a freaky little kid?” another guard sneered. “He’s just gonna choke.”
“Aw, Singh. Don’t you feel bad for him? He can barely put one foot in front of the other. Spent half the night ripping out people’s brains for Khun Tony in some warehouse, now even he’s scrambled. Come on, little guy. This’ll calm you down before you go to bed.”
“500 baht the brat starts hacking.”
With the bet made, Taro had the cigarette pressed into his hand. He stared at it for a moment, wondering if he would get in trouble. But his grandfather hadn’t driven back with him, and there was no rush to get back to his dad and brother. His dad wouldn’t come looking for him. Grandpa always sent them back eventually when he had Taro and his brother taken away. His dad just didn’t know that Taro didn’t always head straight back to their room. That he usually didn’t, most nights. And Taro didn’t really want to see his dad and baby brother until he stopped shaking, or else the two might get upset. No one that mattered would see him smoking.
Plus, even as disoriented as he was, exhausted and his head aching from overusing his ability, Taro thought the guard was pretty stupid. He’d grown up around guards that smoked whenever they could, had just been driven in a car with guards who didn’t care that there was a kid in the backseat when they lit up and didn’t bother rolling down the windows. Cigarette smoke had always lingered on his dad like it was part of his natural scent instead of something clinging to his clothes and breath, at least until around when his dad had figured out Buddy was going to be coming along and had stopped for some reason, so the smell was almost comforting.
The guard ended up scowling and muttering curses when Taro didn’t cough after taking a hesitant drag from the spent cigarette. The other laughed, holding out his hand for the 500 baht, which was soon dug out of a pocket and tossed over with some more swears. That one turned tail and left, storming off in frustration, leaving Taro with the other guard.
When he didn’t give up the cigarette, the guard eventually pulled it from his fingers as it got down too far. “Careful, don’t burn your fingers. The boss’ll be pissed if you get hurt and go tattling.” Then he frowned a bit. “Don’t go telling him I let you smoke. It was just for fun. Quick.”
“...Give me another one and let me in the pool room, and I won’t tell anyone.” His head felt slightly better already, and he wasn’t shaking as badly.
The guard scowled down at him. He opened his mouth to say something, but hesitated. “Fine,” he finally agreed. As they started walking towards the pool, Taro heard the guard mutter, “Don’t know how Singh has the guts to talk shit in front of a kid who could wipe his mind.”
Most of the guards, if they knew what was good for them, feared his grandfather. The ones who knew what Grandpa used him for feared Taro too. It wasn’t something he liked to think about. At least it meant they left him alone unless his grandfather ordered them to fetch or accompany him.
And it meant he had some level of authority over the fearful ones. They wouldn’t mention if he snatched a baton or didn’t want to go to his room. If it meant they didn’t have to deal with him or risk making their boss angry, they were fine with letting things slide.
It helped, to sit at the edge of the pool and be handed a cigarette. Taro pulled his shoes off and lightly kicked his feet in the water. Then he let the guard light the cigarette for him. As the guard went off to stay away from him and smoke on his own, Taro stared down at the water and tried to will himself to forget about what had happened. To make himself calm down. The quiet was nice, and so was the coolness of the water lapping against his skin. And the acrid smoke in his lungs seemed to settle, and a calmness started to spread through him, coupling with his exhaustion of having been woken up and kept out so late.
His shaking stopped. His head still hurt but not so terribly. His vision was just blurred with exhaustion instead of disorientation. Things were better.
He’d have to start adding a new step to his nightly routine. It was difficult, hiding from his dad that he used his power on the other kids when he could, after his grandfather left him with guards who would let him go wherever he wanted in the Chen estate. Grandpa didn’t mind that he rarely went back to his dad’s room, since he’d told Taro that he was such a good boy, using his special ability to help the Foundation children to be happier. Maybe stealing cigarettes from the guards would help calm him down, so he could go back to bed sooner. And if it really worked again, then he could use his power more even when it gave him headaches, to make his Grandpa even happier, and everyone else too.
Once he’d finished, Taro put the cigarette out against the concrete flooring. Then he got up and handed the spent cigarette butt to the guard, who didn’t look too pleased to be given it. “I’m ready to go back to my room now,” Taro told him.
“Finally- um, sure. Come on. It’s in the guard’s dorms, right?” Taro gave a brief nod. It was kind of hard to stay awake on the walk back, but soon enough they were back at his dad’s door. The guard knocked on it, a few sharp knocks that were really too loud. Taro scowled as he heard Buddy start wailing, his baby brother woken up by the loud noise for the second time that night.
Soon, the door opened. His dad immediately pulled him into the room, and then shut the door and locked it before the guard could say anything. Taro got scooped up, and was met with faint bitter mint scent coming from his dad. He was brought over to the bed, his dad fussing over him, asking him if he was okay. As he was sat down, his dad checked him over.
“Daddy, I’m fine,” Taro said, yawning. He got a big hug, his dad exhaling heavily. Buddy was still crying. Taro squirmed to try to see his baby brother. “Buddy-”
“Buddy’s alright,” his dad assured him. It was too dark for him to really see his dad’s face. And it was getting hard to keep his eyes open. “He just missed you. And the knocking startled him.”
“I missed Buddy too… Did it wake him up?”
“Ah, no- we’ve been up.” Before Taro could have any chance of processing what that meant, that his dad and brother had been up all night worrying about and missing him, Kenta stroked his hair and moved him over to his spot on the bed. “You know how he wakes up during the night sometimes. He’ll be fine now that you’re back.”
“Oh. Was he hungry? Does he need to eat?” Taro pulled his baby brother close to him. The almost one-year-old started to calm down as soon as he realized who was snuggling around him. Buddy reached for his brother’s face, and Taro nuzzled him. “Are you hungry, Buddy? Daddy can feed you if you’re hungry.”
“He’s not hungry. He just wants you.” Taro could feel himself starting to drift off already as his dad curled around the two of them. He wanted to stay up to help soothe his baby brother, but it was nice to be back with his family. His dad didn’t suspect anything was wrong other than the usual, and Buddy had stopped wailing already. “It’s okay now, pup. Your brother is back.”
His dad had been so worried about him. Taro reached out, wanting to use his ability to make his dad forget about another anxious night of separation, but he was too tired. Instead, his dad just tucked in his arm around his brother, unaware of why he’d reached to touch his face, and drew them both even closer. He was usually too tired or too disoriented to take away the bad nights, and by morning his dad would be like normal or already off to work, so he wouldn’t feel the need to try to cut the bad memory away.
With his dad shushing Buddy to lull the baby to sleep, Taro finally dozed off to catch a couple of hours of sleep himself before he’d be woken up to get ready for breakfast and the start of his lessons for the day.