Work Text:
Adam’s new sibling is annoying. All he does is cry and whine and ruin things for Adam. He’s not allowed to be loud or have any fun at ALL. Adam wants to watch tv? “Sorry baby, Lance is sleeping, you need to turn it down.” Adam wants to play pranks? “Look what you did, Adam, now Lance is crying!” Adam wants to play with his mom, who he had even before this little weird punk came around? “Sorry Adam, babies are a lot of work.” it’s not fair. It’s not! This little thing literally JUST arrived and is already stealing all of Adam’s attention away from his parents.
So here he is, crouched close to the somewhat muddy floor of the playground close to their house. Technically his mom should know where he is, it’s close enough for him to be allowed to come by himself, but he’s still told no one and it’s threatening to get closer to sundown.
He’s sitting and scribbling something on the ground with this one really big really cool stick he found (that he can’t even show his dad because he’s so tired all the time now, but Adam’s not pouting, no sir, he’s a big boy and he doesn’t cry no matter how mist his eyes are), just making cool shapes in the mud when he hears some sniffling (that’s not his own.) And he knows it’s not his because it’s still there when he stops to listen for a second.
Adam gets up, his little interest piqued and moves towards the sound. It’s coming from the little hollow tubes that the other kids use for hide and seek. He moves towards it, intending fully to see what’s inside, but stops short when he hears other voices. Voices he recognizes. Voices he despises.
Voices of bullies.
Two mean kids, barely older than him but much bigger, two who tortured him for months because of his accent before he bit them hard enough to bruise. And the taunts are familiar, the same topics and the same ridicule - it’s just clearly intended for a new audience this time. They’re clearly making fun of someone and while Adam is a big boy who can stand a lot of things and doesn’t make problems (he can’t fix) normally, bullies are a category of their own. What does his dad tell him?
when someone’s being mean, use your words to fix the problem. And if your words aren’t enough, then make them listen. It’s probably not good advice to give a feral five year old, but Adam’s only really six, and it’s the only way he’s been able to solve his problems so far. So.
He moves back to his old position, now focused on the problem at hand and uses his cool stick to map out a plan. It’s not a very good plan, and it’s not a very thought out plan, but Adam’s got a stick, a loud voice, and a set of teeth that’s already left indents on one of their arms before. So when he starts running at the bullies, waving his stick, and yelling as loud as he can, it’s good enough of a plan to work.
(later, much later, a few years down the line when their brains have developed enough to learn shame and then some more to unlearn a majority of it, Shiro will recall and tell Adam how that day he truly looked like a hero, waving his sword to kill the villains for Shiro, and Adam will punch his shoulder, playful, and blush into his shoulder. It’ll be adorable if anything else, and will make up for the fact that there was no one there to videotape the six year old with missing front teeth scaring off teenagers with a shrill yell a stick almost half his size.)
The bullies quite literally run away screaming, and Adam takes a moment to stand there, proud of himself before he shakes himself out of it to look for the source of the sniffling. He approaches the little tube, leans in and finds… exactly what he thought it was.
It’s a boy, around his age, sitting there and sniffling. He’s rubbing at his eyes and wiping his nose on his sleeve, his knees busted and muddy under his shorts (which - who wears shorts with a long sleeve sweatshirt?? whatever) and if there’s one thing Adam’s mom has drilled into his head, it’s to NOT use his sleeves as wipes. So he simply crawls in next to the boy, ignoring all pretense, and firmly tells him to stop wiping his face on his sleeve.
The kid looks at Adam all weird (which is like. Adam’s pretty sure he used the right language, so go figure) so Adam repeats himself, but slower this time, and pulls the kids sleeve down. The kid’s still staring at him, but he’s stopped sniffling and also wiping at his eyes, so Adam counts this as a win. He does have bandages, but his knees look pretty muddy and Adam doesn’t have water, so he just lets them be. The sting isn’t bad enough to disturb their positions. Adam would know, his knees have gone bloody more times than there are fingers on his hands.
They sit there together for hours (around fifteen minutes) when the kid (Shiro, Adam later learns, at the same time Shiro learns his name, actually, because neither of them remembered to introduce themselves, actually,) speaks up to thank him. It sounds a little funny, and the kid stumbles on his own words, trying to find what Adam assumes is the English versions to his own, but Adam accepts it anyways.
They sit there long enough for Adam to learn that Shiro’s a little younger than him, that his dad recently remarried, and that he knows japanese (cus his mom’s from japan) and turkish, (cus his dad is turkish) but he’s just now learning english - and his new “mom” is korean, so now no one at home will talk to him in a language he understands.
(years later, Shiro will be grown enough to recognize that he was scared of losing himself and his tie to his birth mother, and that he’d be replaced and that the loss of language was the first step in that, but right now, he’s five, and he’s scared.)
In turn, Adam tells him about his brother, about how his family is already so big you have to carve attention out for yourself, and somehow this baby has come along to steal all the work that he’s worked so hard to achieve. The kid teaches him how to introduce himself in Japanese, and then in Turkish, and then Adam teaches him how to do so in Spanish. They stay in the tube until the sun goes down, and then when they manage to drag themselves to Shiro’s house (Adam’s still avoiding his) Adam gets to meet Shiro’s dad and his new “mom”.
He stands there behind Shiro as he speaks to his dad, and then sits next to him on the counter while Shiro’s dad patches him up. When his new “mom” comes in and the kitchen gets tense, Adam manages to pretend that his shirt lint is the most exciting thing in the universe, and when she (very shakily) introduces herself to him in Japanese, he also manages to pretend he doesn’t understand, that he doesn’t see the tentative olive branch for what it is. It feels a little too private; but it was still Shiro who taught him anyway.
Shiro’s dad calls Adam’s mom with the number he provides once it’s clear he’s not leaving that night, which, Shiro’s dad just seems happy his son’s making some friends. And then, when Adam goes back home the next day after that impromptu sleepover, instead of getting mad at him his parents hug Adam, and tell him that they’ll make sure to play with him too. So, Adam forgives them, buries his face in his dad’s shoulder, with his tiny fists clutching his shirt in one hand and Shiro’s borrowed pajama top in the other (that he’s still wearing), and cries.