Chapter Text
"Do you feel lonely, Osomatsu?"
Osomatsu looked up and away from the T.V. that was behind the glass of the electronics shop that he and his mother stopped in front of to take a small break from their walk back home from the grocery. Little flakes of snow fell from the sky and, for a moment distracted, he tried to catch one on his tongue. It was early into the winter months and today was the first day of snow, a small special occasion that Osomatsu liked to celebrate by himself. So when his mother had asked him if he wanted to come with her to go grocery shopping, he enthusiastically agreed, thinking that maybe he could convince her to buy him a snack while they were there. After all, what was a celebration without a small feast? After he finally caught a snowflake in his mouth and felt it melt immediately, he smiled up at his mother and answered the seemingly silly question. "Nope!"
She knows that there are people who think that she'd gone into her marriage too early, too soon, but she knew that what she had with Matsuzo was real and she'd have been a fool to turn down a happy life when it was already presented to her on a silver platter. She was the first among her friends to get married and bear a child, so aside from the assistance from her mother and mother-in-law, she didn't have much guidance when it came to raising a child. She was worried about her son, who spent most of his free time out of school lounging around their home and playing with an imaginary friend who got him hurt more often than not. But what could she do? She never finished her schooling in order to take care of her son, and Matsuzo had to pick up extra shifts at work to support their small family.
She sighed at her son's sincere but shallow response. "Why not?" she asked carefully as she shifted the grocery bag in her hand, and clutched onto Osomatsu's hand a little tighter in her other one.
Young Osomatsu hummed thoughtfully, shifting his weight from one foot to the other as he pondered the question. "Because I'm with mommy," he answered easily. "And I have friends at school! And sometimes I play house with Totoko-chan!" He answered excitedly, skipping along side his mother as she began to pull him away to continue their trek home. He wasn't lonely, of course he wasn't. He was perfectly happy with the arrangement of his life right now.
Matsuyo decided to drop her worries for now and let a smile grace her face. "Do you like, Totoko-chan?"
"Un!" Osomatsu replied without hesitation at all. "I'm gonna marry her when I grow up!" he told his mother excitedly, letting go of her hand for a moment so that he could circle around her. "She promised, and I promised, so we're gonna get married. And there's gonna be a lot of cake, and a lot of food!" He ran several feet ahead of her and found a small pile of snow that was slowly growing with each passing second, and he decided right then and there that it would be a good idea to throw himself at it. The pile of fresh powdery snow let a small "poof" noise as it erupted underneath his sudden weight, and the young boy grinned widely and laughed as his entire being was covered in white.
His mother sighed fondly. There was nothing in this world that she would exchange her one and only son for. He was her little angel who looked like the perfect genetic mix of her and her husband; he got her big round eyes and her husband's small button nose, and sometimes you could never truly tell which one of them he looked like more.
She approached him then as he started swinging his arms and legs around to make a snow angel, crouching down to help him to sit up. She brushed the snow away from his hair and face and clothes to the best of her ability before pressing a kiss to his squishy round cheek. "You silly boy, come on get up," she instructed, taking his hand into hers to pull him back up. "You're going to catch a cold at this rate."
"Nu-uh!" Osomatsu argued and finally let his mother pull him home. "I'm strong, like dad. Dad never gets sick."
"Sometimes he does," his mother corrected. "But he's strong because he eats vegetables and takes care of himself. You have to take care of yourself too or mommy will be worried."
Osomatsu gasped softly, his usual bright smile slipping from his face for a moment as he contemplated his mother's words; he didn't like it when his mom got worried or sad and he'd hate to be the reason for her negative feelings. He nodded his head in determination and held his mother's hand tighter in his own small one. "I'll be strong," he told her with conviction. "So I can protect you when dad can't."
"That's my brave little boy," Matsuyo said proudly, smiling just as bright as Osomatsu would. Her kind, and playful, and understanding little boy who loved her just as much (if not more) than she loved him. She doesn't know what she could have done to have been so blessed, but she's thankful everyday for her little bundle of joy, and her husband who tries his best despite his hectic work schedule.
Maybe one day they'll be able to live a little more comfortably. Maybe one day they can buy a house of their own and move out of the small dingy apartment that they only managed to find by luck. It was a dream they were working for and she already knows that it's going to be worth it in the end; she was already so happy now, and the only way left to go was up. As she unlocked the door to their little home, she turned around just in time to see Osomatsu's curious stare. "Do you want to help mommy make dinner tonight?"
And Osomatsu's bright smile was back on his face. "Un!"