Chapter Text
‘𝘛𝘪𝘯𝘺.’
Was Takiishi Chika's only thought as he stared at the boy cowering before him. He had his fists up as if he was trying to defend himself—which he probably was.
The boy before him was unique in appearance. Hair split into two colors, his eyes silver and gold. The boy looked as if he was an eclipse humanized.
So he thought his name would be something like an eclipse too.
“... Your name.” He crouched down to the boy's level, sitting on the balls of his feet, arms tucked between his chest and thighs.
His action only seemed to make the boy curl into himself even more. Still, he doesn't run.
He waited for just a minute. Until he decided he didn't want to wait.
“What's your-”
“S-sa… Sakura…”
Huh. Not an eclipse, but a flower.
He stood back up. “Your full name.”
He seemed to hesitate for a second before they locked eyes.
“... Sakura Haruka.”
_____________
“Holy shit.” Endo gasped, the mug in his hands slowly slipping off.
*𝙎𝙃𝘼𝙏𝙏𝙀𝙍!*
Oh. That was a nice mug.
The sound made the kid… Haruka flinch. Gripping on Chika's shirt tightly as he his behind him. Chika didn't know how to comfort children. Or anyone, for that matter.
“Takiishi… that's a child.” Endo pointed at the boy, eyes still wide with disbelief.
Chika didn't respond, and instead just stared at Endo. He didn't really know how to reply to that, so they just stared at each other for just a few seconds until Chika felt the need to punch him.
“If you wanna keep him, that's fine by me!”
And, again, Chika has poor social skills, so he just nodded and started dragging Haruka to the bathroom.
… Does he just bathe Haruka like how a person bathes a kitten?
He turns back to Endo.
“Wash him.” He ordered, as he carried Haruka by the armpits and presented him to Endo.
𝘏𝘦 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺 𝘭𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵. 𝘐𝘵 𝘧𝘦𝘭𝘵 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘩𝘰𝘭𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢 𝘣𝘶𝘯𝘤𝘩 𝘰𝘧 𝘱𝘪𝘭𝘭𝘰𝘸𝘴.
And no, he isn't going to call Endo out for cringing when Haruka quite literally hissed at him.
Endo flailed his hands around, wondering how to carry the child without it possibly biting his entire arm off. Chika just huffed before shoving Haruka into Endo’s chest, before stomping off into his bedroom.
├┬┴┬┴ 🐍 ┬┴┬┴┤
Now… How the hell is Yamato going to bathe this-
“PUT ME DOWN! I'LL GOUGE YOUR FUCKING EYES OUT, YOU CREEP!”
—This absolute threat to society??
He's human, or at least Yamato thinks. He has the face of a human, a body like a human's, and he can talk.
But he 𝘩𝘪𝘴𝘴𝘦𝘴. He has 𝘤𝘭𝘢𝘸𝘴. And Yamato isn't one to judge, but his pupils? His pupils are terrifying and it's not even because he has heterochromia! And he moves like he doesn't have bones!
“Calm down, won't you? I'm tryna clean you up!” He held the brat away from him after said brat actually tried to go for Yamato's face with his long and concerningly sharp nails. How did it even grow like that!?
“Clean? 𝘊𝘓𝘌𝘈𝘕?! YOU'RE GONNA DROWN ME, I KNOW IT!”
“I ain't! Now you either cooperate, or…” Damn, this kid literally has nothing to lose! What the heck is he gonna threaten him with!?
“Or WHAT?!”
“Or I'm telling on Takiishi!”
For some reason, and maybe a valid reason, that threat worked like a miracle because the brat actually stopped trying to attack him. Or at least, stopped trying to gouge his eyes out.
Yamato let out a sign of relief, before he quickly goes to the bathroom in case the kid starts acting up again. Who knows how long he'll behave?
He puts the feral kid down so that he could get the bathtub ready and not kill the brat from pneumonia or something—whatever cold temperatures can do to the human body. He fills it just halfway, in fear of what Takiishi will do to him if the boy drowns.
He loves getting beaten up by Takiishi, but he still values his life!
“Okay, now…” He turns to the kid, only to see that the kid is not there.
He looks back at the bathtub and find it occupied. By the kid. Who just stood in there awkwardly, not knowing what to do in a bathtub—Yamato assumed. Well, at least he knows that he should not be wearing clothes while bathing.
And also…
“Do you 𝘯𝘰𝘵 eat at all? You're practically a walking skeleton!” How did Yamato not notice that when he was literally carrying him earlier!? The split haired boy splashed water at him, obviously aiming for Yamato’s eyes.
It was hard not to be concerned when his ribs were literally showing! And this kid is like, what- six?! Kids in general shouldn't be 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 skinny! Well, maybe 𝘯𝘰𝘳𝘮𝘢𝘭 kids.
Yamato wiped the water off his face, frowning at the boy as he hesitantly brings himself to sit in the middle of the tub. If Yamato didn't have properly working eyes, he would've mistook him for a kitten getting used to water.
Yamato sat on the edge, letting the kid be so that he doesn't get clawed for rushing him. After a few minutes of just sitting there, he stood up to get the soap and shampoo. He'll look for a so are toothbrush later for the kid.
“Hey,” he starts. “I'm gonna rub this in your hair to get it clean, ‘kay?” He holds the shampoo bottle up.
He then holds up the bar of soap. “And this one is so that we can get rid of that dirt and whatever is on your body.”
The brat looked at the items in Yamato's hands like it owed him money, before nodding slowly.
Yamato puts the things down by the bathtub so grab a stool he can sit on. Which was behind the child. Which also got him splashed again.
“Stop that!” He huffs, wiping the water off his face with the hem of his shirt. “I ain't gonna do anything other than washing you up, alright?”
The heterochromia brat grumbled curses under his breath, shoulders tense like he expect Yamato to do 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 to him.
Endo Yamato didn't like the knot that his guts were forming.
He shrugs the feeling off, reaching over to turn the shower head on, and ignoring the way the boy flinched. He turns it on the drizzle mode or whatever they call it, so that it won't feel like a hurricane for the boy.
“Hey, move to this side.” He said, scooting the stool over. The boy follows reluctantly.
And then he finally gets to work.
_
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___
That was a shit ton of work, but hey! Yamato succeeded. The brat was clean, and he doesn't smell like garbage anymore! Last thing this kid needs is clothes!
… which he doesn't have!
Takiishi comes out of his room at the perfect moment, looking at Yamato and the stray wrapped up in a towel like a swaddled baby.
Yes, he can feel the kid trembling in embarrassment and anger, but at least he's warm!
“Hm.” Was all he heard from the shorter teen before he goes back into his room, seeming to look for something from the way Yamato could hear the sounds of Takiishi rummaging through his closet.
… IS TAKIISHI GONNA LET THIS LITTLE KID WEAR HIS CLOTHES!?
“LET GO OF YOU CREEP! PUT ME DOWN!” Hissed the bi-colored gremlin, who somehow managed to get his little limbs free from the confines of the towel.
༶•┈┈⛧┈♛🐦🔥♛┈⛧┈┈•༶
His t-shirt was too big for Haruka. That's alright, they could just go shopping tomorrow. For now, they all need to eat dinner and sleep.
Haruka napped soundly in Chika’s lap, falling asleep while they were waiting on the couch in the living room for Endo to finish cooking.
Haruka’s hair was surprisingly soft. Chika had expected to find lice when he combed his fingers through it considering he found Haruka in the streets, but there were none.
Chika wonders how. Perhaps Haruka hadn't been in the streets too long, or he found a way to keep it safe from those blood sucking creatures.
He feels Haruka squirm against his torso, and Chika realized he had stopped carding his fingers through black and white hair.
The white side was as white as snow, when it was not covered in dirt and dried blood. It was so bright, like it was shining.
And maybe Chika had somehow grown attached, but he wanted to keep it bright.
He wants it to keep shining.