Chapter Text
Okuto busied himself with wiping down the minimal furniture in his small but empty house. He really is lonely these days; twenty-five and still not over his childhood crush and best friend. If only he got over it he could find someone to share the house with.
Maybe he’ll learn to be straight and have the opportunity to have children like he’s always wanted; since in Japan only married couples can adopt (other than familial exceptions), and gay marriage is illegal.
Okuto is doomed to be familyless, and maybe that’s for the best. Nobody wants a partner that’s probably going to be hung up on their best friend.
After wiping down the counters and the dust from above the cabinets, his afternoon cleaning is finished. He moves to grab his laptop from his leather work bag, a homemade beaded keychain from Aiki still attached from when he gifted it to Okuto at his college graduation.
He sits down on one of his two blue loveseats, both of them from a second-hand store. He had gotten them for a good deal when he bought the house. He sets his laptop on his lap and the second he pulls out his latest research paper, Lights, Camera. Action! By Halcali blasts, scaring Okuto and leaving him scrambling to find his phone.
Finally finding it in the cushions of the couch he wasn’t sitting on he clicked accept, answering the call out of breath.
“Aiki! What’s up? Is this about our trip to the aquarium tomorrow? Please don’t tell me we have to cancel, I haven’t seen you in a week!” Okuto doesn’t want to seem too eager but at this point they’ve been best friends for ten years, he should be allowed to want to hang out.
“Okuto. We call every day, I’ve just been having a hard time finding a job for the summer since teaching does not pay enough to sustain me.”
“Isn’t break only forty days? Do they seriously pay that little?”
“Yes! And my rent just went up!” Aiki exclaims, his annoyance seeping through his voice.
“God at this point you should just move in with me, I have an extra bedroom! You wouldn’t even need to pay rent! Just split utilities and it’d be fine and-“
“Okuto, stop rambling.”
“I just want you to know I'm serious!” His voice cracks at the end of that, shit.
“I know, I know. I just can’t. I don’t want to bum off of you like that, you know?”
Okuto interrupts. “I actually don’t, Aiki.”
Aiki groans, and Okuto can just see him running his fingers through his hair even though this isn’t a video call. “Let’s just be done, we can come back to this later. Now let me tell you the reason I’m calling you, before you distracted me.” Aiki takes a deep breath, “Okuto, I have a kid.”
Okuto’s jaw drops. A kid? But Aiki told him that he doesn’t feel sexual feelings unless he knows someone really well and Okuto would have been aware of a long term relationship.
Before Okuto has the chance to question, Aiki speaks up. “I got drunk at a house party and this girl approached me offering her drink to me since she was handed it and was her group’s designated driver. I-“
“Since when do you go to house parties?”
“This was in college, right before you broke up with Ganto.”
“For the last time, we were barely dating! I literally only got with him because he asked me out at the start of the semester-long project that we partnered for and I didn’t want to get a bad grade. I didn’t even like him like that! He kissed worse than Icchan!”
“Icchan kissed you? Wait, nevermind. Let me keep on track. Anyway I declined the drink and started walking away but she kept feeling my chest and asked if I wanted to go upstairs and I didn’t really want to but I guess I was feeling like I had to, you know? What guy turns down the opportunity to be with what was a conventionally attractive woman? So after she basically begged me, I said fine and went with her. I guess I didn’t use protection and I don’t really remember much but I know she barely got me to umm- you know. But I guess that was enough because now I have a four year old daughter named Kiyomi who I was never told about and I would’ve probably never known about except for the fact that the woman I impregnated died. And now I’ve been called and told that I am the sole guardian of this kid that I’ve never met!”
Wow. That was a crazy thing to drop, especially after the lighthearted conversation they were having before. Okuto doesn’t even know what to say to that.
“Okay. What can I do to help?”
~~~~~~
Placing the last pair of socks in his suitcase and zipping it up, Okuto makes his way to his door. When he got a call from his best friend this morning he did not expect to be temporarily moving in for a week, just to help Aiki and his daughter to settle in.
Unfortunately Okuto cannot bike because he has a big ass suitcase to drag behind him, so he instead chooses to take his red Peugeot 106 to Aiki’s apartment.
He really only uses the car for large store runs or to take Aiki places since he really can’t afford a car on a teacher income. The scratched octopus keychain from Aiki dangles on the rearview mirror along with a friendship bracelet Aiki gave him when they were in their second year.
If you look in the passenger seat you can see an assortment of Aiki’s forgotten items. A pen in the compartment on the car door, his travel blanket draped over the seat, a pile of papers placed on the dashboard. It was like Aiki actually lived with Okuto.
Okuto decides to not dwell on that too long. Aiki is only his best friend. Slapping his cheeks and starting up the car, Okuto makes his way to Aiki’s apartment complex.
Pulling up to the front of the building and parking has Okuto’s heart racing. Is there really a kid in there with Aiki? Is this a prank?
He puts his worries aside, if there really is a kid it wouldn’t be good to add more stress.
~~~~~~
“Okuto! Oh my god I’m so sorry! Here, here, let me grab your bag.” Aiki takes Okuto’s blue suitcase and pulls it into his apartment.
Okuto steps in, sliding off his shoes and hanging up his newsboy cap. “So, were you serious about the child being there- oh.”
Sitting on the couch kicking her feet was Aiki’s supposed daughter. Her hair was black, short, and fluffy, but she one-hundred-percent had Aiki’s eyes. She was wearing a purple striped shirt with the cat from Kiki’s Delivery Service and shorts-overalls. The overalls looked worn though, with many stains and unpatched holes. And when she wasn’t fidgeting with her stuffed animal, she kept itching at the shirt’s seams.
Okuto noticed that she seemed to move in an oddly familiar way to himself. The way her feet hit the couch in the same pattern, the way she fiddled with her stuffed animal, rubbed it against her face; kick lift kick lift kick lift, up down up down up down.
Her eyes stared at the wall ahead of her, practically unblinking. Her body stiff, face unmoving.
“She doesn’t talk.”
“What?” Okuto looks at Aiki, his brows scrunched, lips pressed together.
“She doesn’t talk. The lady who dropped her off said nothing about any major disabilities that would largely affect the way I parent. She had even said that Kiyomi was doing well for her age, physically and developmentally. I feel like a four year old should be able to talk, right?”
That does confuse Okuto. But maybe she’s still processing? “What have you tried?”
“Well I tried asking her questions and she wouldn’t respond, she kind of just blinked at me. But I might’ve come off a bit too strong.” Aiki scratches his head, stepping more into Okuto’s space. He lies his head on Okuto’s shoulder, hugging him around the waist.
Okuto leans into the touch, rubbing his best friend’s back in an attempt to comfort. “Hey, it’ll be okay. Lemme try talking to her and we’ll go from there. It’s gonna be okay, I promise.”
Aiki nods, reluctantly pulling away from Okuto and moving to the small pile of boxes that are labeled Kiyomi Hirose. “I’m gonna try to see what she has, it doesn’t seem like much, especially for a four year old, but I can’t judge. You know I don’t have the greatest financial situation either.” He chuckles but it sounds more like he’s trying to laugh away the pain. Sigh, the life of an underpaid teacher.
Okuto walks to the girl, her light brown eyes widening before she looks back down to her- “oh my god! Is that an octopus plushie?”
The girl shyly nods and then whispers, “brick.”
Brick? Okay, okay, at least she’s talking. “Brick? Is that her name?”
Her face lights up as she aggressively nods her head. “He’s a boy. I choose that when I got him.”
A boy? But he doesn’t have a hectocotylus! The suckers reach the tip of the tentacles on every arm! It can’t possibly be male! Okuto needs to tell her, she can’t be misinformed like this! “Kiyomi, it can’t be a boy. It doesn’t have a hectocotylus. See, when they want to reproduce, male octopi use their hectocotylus-” A pillow hits Okuto square in the head.
“Okuto! You know better! She’s four!” Aiki hisses, though he’s secretly glad that Okuto has managed to get the girl to talk.
“But it can’t possibly be a male! You know this Aiki! Tell her the octopus can’t be a boy-” Another pillow. Where is he pulling these from? He’s on the opposite side of the room as the couch!
Kiyomi huffs, taking Brick and hitting Okuto in the head. One of the slobbery tentacles hitting him right on the nose, yuck.
“Brick is a boy! You are mean for calling him a girl! I don’t care about a stupid, heck-toe-cock-“
“Alright! We are done with this conversation! Okuto, come talk to me for a minute!” Aiki finishes his sentence with a glare that says listen to me or else.
Okuto sighs, ruffling Kiyomi's fluffy hair before following Aiki into the hall.
“Okay so I have a problem. She doesn’t have any clothes that aren’t stained or have ripped and she has no bed. And I don’t have a second bedroom for her so I’ll probably have to get a pull out couch for me and move her into mine. But that means buying shit and I don’t know if I can do that all right now, especially on top of a new wardrobe and furniture and rent and-“
“Aiki. Calm. We’ll go shopping for a bed for her tomorrow. You don’t need to give her a whole room yet since she’s only four, she can sleep with you in yours. There are plenty of second-hand shops that sell clothes, and if it’s really too much you can come live with me. I have a spare bedroom, so you can just share with me or keep sharing with Kiyomi.”
“Okay. We’ll go shopping.” Aiki completely ignores another one of Okuto’s invitations to move in with him. It’s not that Aiki doesn’t, because he does. It’s just that he can’t leech off of his best friend like that! He can manage himself alone, he always has. “You’re still gonna stay right? It would help.”
“Yeah of course. Anything you need.”