Work Text:
It was the end of exam time, meaning things have slowed down for Genya but have picked up for Sanemi. He had far too many exams to mark and it was honestly a headache. Most of this students did decently well, meaning he didn’t waste his time teaching them, others did horrible and it made Sanemi wonder how the fuck they got this far in their schooling.
Sanemi decided to bring some of the exams home to mark. He just wanted it to be over with but he knew after exams he had to grade homework, it was nearly never ending work for him.
Across the hall Genya was in his room. He had finally finished with his exams this week and now he was tired and worn out. Weeks of studying followed by weeks of exams and that whole time he never regressed once.
Genya was tired and worn out and was finally allowing himself to slip and be little.
For a bit he just sat on his floor coloring. He gripped his crayons and just scribbled colors into his Bluey coloring book, and he was rather proud of the picture once he finished it, so proud in fact he wanted to show his brother.
Genya stood up and grabbed his coloring book and toddled across the hall to his brother's room.
Sanemi was sitting at his desk, hunched over papers muttering under his breath.
Genya was cautious as he approached Sanemi.
“Nemi,” Genya quietly called his brother's name.
“Not now Genya I’m busy,” Sanemi replied.
Genya knew at that point he should have left his brother alone, but in his little brain he didn’t want to. He came over to show his brother the picture he colored and it would only take seconds for Genya to do that.
Genya stepped a bit closer to Sanemi, “Nemi,” he repeated.
“Genya,” Sanemi’s voice was stern and rather harsh, go away I’m working.”
“But, I wanna to show you something,” Genya's voice was soft and hesitant.
Sanemi slammed his hands down on his desk and turned to face Genya, “Genya I don’t fucking have time for this,” he snapped.
Genya stepped back tears welling up in his eyes. For a moment he didn’t see Sanemi sitting at his desk, but his father. Someone who was cruel and unkind, someone that Genya knew he couldn’t trust and had to stay away from.
The little took a couple steps back, trying to put distance between himself and Sanemi, the coloring book he was holding falling and hitting the ground.
“S’rry,” Genya whispered, as he reached the door, tears freely falling down his face.
Then Sanemi realized what he had just done, “wait Genya-”
As Senemi stood up from his chair, his brother went back across the hall and into his own room closing the door behind him.
Sanemi cursed under his breath as he went over to Genya’s door.
“Genya,” Sanem called, knocking softly on the door.
Once in his room Genya grabbed Bingo from his bed then went into his closet closing the door. He sat in the dark and cramped space softly sobbing as he held Bingo close.
He didn’t want to get into any trouble, he didn’t want to get hurt.
He tensed as he heard the knocking on his door and his brother calling his name.
The only thing Genya could think of was their father. The way he was harsh. How his dad would hit his mom and if he couldn’t hit her he would hit Sanemi and Genya, or their other younger siblings, how he would yell when he was drunk the time that he had locked the kids in their rooms when their mom was out working. It was all awful memories.
Genya didn’t want to be hurt like that again.
“Genya,” he heard his brother call again.
Genya didn’t say anything, he just hugged Bingo closer and tried to ignore that his pants were wet and waited for his brother to go away.
The knocking stopped and Genya was sure he heard Sanemi walking away, but he still didn’t move; he stayed in his closet softly sobbing.
Sanemi fucked up and he hated that. He was supposed to be taking care of his brother, he was supposed to keep Genya safe.
But right now his brother was hiding in his room because Sanemi yelled at him. It was moments like these that Sanemi hated that he couldn’t be a more patient person.
Sanemi paced around the living room trying to figure out what to do. He didn’t want to barge into Genya’s room; it would only make things worse. But he didn’t want to leave Genya alone in his room all day either.
Sanemi pinched the bridge of his noise as he tried to think of a way to fix the situation but no matter what he did he couldn’t come up with anything.
So eventually he gave up and grabbed his phone and decided to call Giyuu.
It wasn’t that Giyuu was great with kids or anything, but he knew that Giyuu was someone that Genya trusted and that was what mattered.
The phone rang a few times, and Sanemi was starting to get annoyed, hoping that at least once his boyfriend would answer his phone, but just as Sanemi was about to give up Giyuu picked up.
“Hello?”
“Giyuu, I need your help,” Sanemi wasted no time, “I yelled at Genya when he was regressed and now he’s locked himself in his room.”
Giyuu was quiet for a moment before he finally responded, “what am I supposed to do?”
“I don’t know! He trusts you, maybe you can get him out of the room.”
Again Giyuu was quiet before speaking again, “I can try. I’ll be over soon.”
Sanemi sighed in relief, “thanks Giyuu, I’ll see you soon.”
“See you soon,” Giyuu replied and then the call ended.
Sanemi put his phone back in his pocket then sat on the couch. He hoped that Genya would leave his room on his own, and then he could apologize. But minutes ticked by and Genya stayed in his room.
Then the front door opened and Sanemi turned to see Giyuu.
“I’m here,” Giyuu announced as he took his shoes off.
“Genya’s still in his room,” Sanemi explained.
“How long has he been in there?”
“Like,” Sanemi looked up at the clock, “half an hour?”
“What happened?”
“I was grading exams, which is a huge pain in the ass, then Genya came into my room to show me something. I snapped at him, I didn’t realize he was little,” Sanemi explained.
Giyuu nodded, then went down the hall to Genya's door.
“Genya, It’s Giyuu,” he said as he knocked on the door.
After a few seconds with no response Giyuu continued, “is it okay if I come in?”
Then there was a barely audible response “maybe.”
“That doesn’t answer my question. Can I come in?”
There was a longer pause, and Giyuu could hear movement from the other side of the door before it slowly opened.
Giyuu did his best to smile at the little as the door opened.
Genya moved aside and let Giyuu into the room and as soon as he was, the door was again closed.
“What happened?” Giyuu asked.
“Nemi, yelled at me,” Genya murmured looking down at the ground, “don’ want him to hurt me.”
“Sanemi would never hurt you,” Giyuu quickly explained.
Genya squeezed Bingo, not lifting his gaze, “he still mad.”
“He’s not mad.”
Genya shook his head.
“He’s worried about you,” Giyuu continued.
Genya finally looked up at Giyuu, but quickly looked back down again.
“We can both go and talk to him,” Giyuu offered, reaching out a hand to Genya.
Genya slowly and hesitantly took Giyuu’s hand choosing to trust him. Giyuu then led the little to the living room where Sanemi was waiting.
“Genya,” Sanem instantly shot up from the couch.
Genya flinched, taking a step back but he didn’t let go of Giyuu’s hand.
“Genya, I didn’t mean to upset you. I was stressed about work you didn’t do anything wrong.” Sanemi softly explained.
The little stayed at Giyuu’s side, not letting go of his hand.
“I’m sorry,” Sanemi breathed.
Sanemi wasn’t sure what else he could do.
Genya then slowly let go of Giyuu’s hand then toddled over to Sanemi, hesitantly hugging his brother, wordlessly forgiving him.
Sanemi could have cried as he wrapped his arms around his little brother.
“I’m so sorry, Gen,” Sanemi whispered, running his fingers through his brother's hair.
“It's kay,” Genya mumbled into his brother's shoulder.
Sanemi squeezed his brother just a bit tighter.
“Let's get you cleaned up,” Sanami told Genya once their hug finally broke apart.
Genya looked down at his wet pants which had only grown more uncomfortable the longer he stayed in them, then nodded as he grabbed his brother's hand.
Sanei led Genya to the bathroom to get him cleaned up and changed.
On the way back to the living room, Genya stopped in front of the doors to the bedrooms then pulled Sanemi in the direction of his room.
Sanemi then remembered that this all started because Genya wanted to show him something.
Sanemi let Genya pull him into the bedroom where he then picked up the coloring book that was dropped on the floor. Genya held it out to Sanemi.
Sanemi smiled and patted his brother’s head, “that’s a very pretty picture,” Sanemi told him.
Genya smiled brightly and hugged Sanemi.
“How about we show Giyuu the picture too?” Sanemi suggested.
Genya nodded and started to pull Sanemi to the living room where Giyuu was sitting.
Sanemi was happy that Genya seemed to be over the earlier incident. The last thing he ever wanted was to upset his brother especially when he was little, because being little is meant to be a safe and healing thing for his brother.
“Hey Giyuu,” Sanemi said as the two returned to the living room, “Gen wants to show you something.”
“What do you want to show me,” Giyuu turned to Genya.
Genya held out the coloring book with the page he had colored.
Giyuu smiled softly, "that’s a wonderful picture,” he told Genya.
“‘M gonna color more,” Genya said, placing his coloring book down then heading towards his room to grab his crayons.
Sanemi sat on the couch and sighed, a huge weight having been lifted off his shoulders, “thanks Giyuu. You saved my ass.”
“I didn’t do anything,” Giyuu replied.
“You got Genya out of his room,” Sanemi explained, “lord knows how long he would have stayed in there.” Sanemi grabbed Giyuu’s hand and smiled softly, “I don’t know what I would have done without you.”
Before things could go any further, Genya returned to the living room with his crayons placing them on the coffee table before flipping to a new page in his Bluey colouring book.
Sanemi leaned into Giyuu as he watched Genya color.
He and his brother had been through a lot, and living away from their mom and other siblings they in some ways only had each other. He never wanted to hurt his brother the way their father had hurt them. He wanted to keep Genya safe forever.
Sanemi knew he wasn’t the perfect brother, in fact he was far from it. He knew sometimes he was too harsh, too strict, too unkind. But sometimes that was the only way he could think to protect his little brother.
Sanemi sighed, watching as Genya dropped one crayon on the coffee table then grabbed another and scribbled in his coloring book.
“You okay?” Giyuu asked Sanemi softly.
“Yeah,” Sanemi replied, not looking away from Genya, “just thinking.”
“About what?”
Sanemi shrugged. “All sorts of things,” he admitted.
Giyuu hummed in response and for a bit it was quiet, then Sanemi spoke up again. “Am I doing everything right?”
“What do you mean?”
“For Genya. Am I taking care of him right?”
“I don’t know,” Giyuu told Sanemi, “but I think you do your best.”
Sanemi leaned into Giyuu more. “Thanks,” he whispered.
“Of course,” Giyuu whispered back, then leaned down kissing Sanemi’s forehead softly.
A few hours later and after lunch Sanemi had put Genya down for a nap and rejoined Giyuu in the living room once more.
“You know, Giyuu I’ve been thinking,” Sanemi began. “You should move in with me and Genya.”
Giyuu blinked rather surprised at the suggestion, “what brought that on.”
“I’ve been thinking about it for a while. But after today, I think it’d be a good idea. Genya trusts you a lot and it’d be nice to have someone else around,” Sanemi explained.
“Oh.”
“You don’t have to though.”
“No, I think it’s a good idea.”
“You do?” Sanemi was genuinely surprised.
“Yeah. I already spend a lot of time here plus if Genya trusts me as much as you say, then it’s probably a good idea.”
Sanemi smiled, “guess we have to figure out a plan for this.”
“Guess we do,” Giyuu replied.