Archive of Our Own ^beta

Arataka was going to die. He would die, and he would die happily. Maybe also somewhat embarrassed, because Boss was right there too, looking at him with such familial strawberry-pink-love and bubblegum-pink-amusement, but he would die happily.

“Score.” Kageyama-otouto took a picture, peach-soft-fondness curling around through his own aura near his center, like he was trying to hide it. What a softie Arataka worked for. He should totally tease him about this later.

“Kageyama-otouto!” Arataka tried to whine, before immediately getting distracted.

It was hard not to, kittens were so cute after all, and these kittens seemed to recognize Arataka from when he used to feed them when they were in a box in an alley. A pure black kitten absolutely was refusing to leave the top of his head, purring like an engine that had been left in idle. Another kitten was bating at his hoodie strings in his lap, and the third was draped across his neck, a weight that reminded him that he was in the present and that he wasn’t stuck in his head.

Mom had found out pretty quick that Arataka shouldn’t be left alone without a way of grounding himself in reality. Nothing had really happened, but the boiling water for tea had looked so appealing to see if this was real life or not. Luckily, Dimple was swirling around and trying to yell at Arataka and the weight of trying to figure out if he should use it or not stopped him long enough for Mom to find him.

Not knowing if he was in reality or still in that world that the man had created in his head was hard. Yes, the colors were around people again, their emotions were on full display for Arataka to see. And he could feel heat or cold or his emotions now.

But what if the guy managed to fix his fake reality so that Arataka was still trapped? What if he was still trapped away in that world? What if there was no way of getting out and if no one was coming for him?

[He’s getting trapped in his head again, isn’t he?] Kageyama-otouto’s thought whispered into his mind, and Arataka had to blink.

The telepathy was the only thing that he could use to ground himself sometimes. Listening to voices that weren’t his definitely helped, since he couldn’t do that beforehand. The man definitely couldn’t have put that in the world he created in Arataka’s head.

And the kittens helped. They remembered him, and he remembered them. He hadn’t seen them anywhere in that world the man had made, so he couldn’t be in that world. Not if the kittens were here. The kitten on top of his head purred louder, almost as if it could sense his thoughts and didn’t want him thinking those things. Thinking about that man.

[You’re getting distracted.] A newer voice teased, and Arataka pouted. He glanced up at the other man who was with him with the kittens who refused to leave him alone, and the man smiled down at him. He had a blue and pink aura that flickered around him like static electricity, and Arataka couldn’t help but stare at it a little when they had met.

Takenaka Momozo certainly had an interesting aura, one that Arataka had only seen on Serizawa-senpai.

[Still distracted.]

If only he didn’t tease so much.

Arataka rolled his eyes. Takenaka-san was a powerful telepath that Mob-boss knew from his days at Salt middle school, and he had apparently been a part of the tennis club. Arataka wondered if he should try being a part of the tennis club now, if it helped keep himself in line. Plus, physical fitness on top of his shaolin kung fu lessons.

Also, finding out that the man that worked at the shelter on weekends was a telepath was not on Arataka’s agenda for the day. But he would roll with the punches. Besides, Boss wouldn’t take him somewhere that he thought would hurt him, the man had steel-gray-protectiveness woven into his aura practically every day now.

Back to Takenaka-san. Back to Takenaka-san’s aura. Sunset-yellow-playfulness, while not a base color of Takenaka-san’s, was definitely something that was staying there. Ever since he met Arataka, it had stayed there. It seemed the man was someone who liked to tease. Didn’t Arataka have enough of a hard time with Kageyama-otouto? Why must he also spend time with another person who liked to tease?

[There are kittens. It’s easy to get distracted.] Arataka thought, trying to picture the thought as an arrow and sending it straight to Takenaka-san’s forehead like a bullseye.

[Interesting imagery. The reason you’re probably so overwhelmed is because your mind is different than how it used to be.] Takenaka-san didn’t even seem surprised at Arataka sending thoughts now. [Thanks to your innate ability, you’re used to thinking of the worlds in colors and emotions. Now adding another layer to that is adding pressure.]

Arataka made a face.

[Can we get rid of this layer?] Arataka sent with a slingshot to Takenaka-san.

[You’re getting better. The message was clearer.] Takenaka-san had what looked like almost cloud-white-pride and definitely goldenrod-yellow-satisfaction. [And if you do find a way, do let me know. I’ve been searching since I was five.]

Damn. Arataka was outta luck then.

Arataka leaned back, the kitten on his head shifting and finding a new perch on his head before settling again and restarting its purring.

[Kageyama told me that he was a little worried about you.]

Arataka raised an eyebrow at Takenaka-san. He didn’t even need to send a thought this time, Takenaka-san snorted and shook his head, his hand that was petting the stray cat in his lap not even stopping in its slow movement.

[Okay. He’s very worried about you. He’s rather attached to you.] Takenaka-san teased, and Arataka turned his head away, a huff escaping him. Okay yeah. He was attached to Boss, and it made sense for Boss to be attached to him too. That was just, it was how normal relationships worked, wasn’t it? The two people got attached to each other and didn’t want to let each other go. That was just how relationships worked, wasn’t it?

[We aren’t here to talk about me and Boss.] Arataka sent back like a rock through a window. [We’re here for me to try and make sure I can’t listen in on people’s mind on the train or on the way to the offices.]

Takenaka-san leaned back, his own eyebrow raising. [Oh? Why don’t you want to know what people are thinking?]

Arataka glared at the man. He could feel the slightest colorations of mahogany-annoyance trying to color his aura that was beneath his skin. Is this a way to try and train him? To try and block out the strongest telepath and maybe he’ll be fine elsewhere because he can block out Takenaka-san?

[That’s private stuff! I don’t wanna listen to that.] Arataka thought grumpily, playing with the kitten on his lap and making the strings of his hoodie jump up and down. Which in turn, made the kitten in his lap reach up with its upper body to try and swat at the strings with its claws out. [Animals are nice. They don’t have loud thoughts, just emotions that are a lot more simple than human ones.]

He saw Takenaka-san nod out of the corner of his eye. [Yeah I get that. It’s why I work here. The most I found that could help is wearing earplugs. Or just getting used to it.]

“Or I find a way to block everyone out.” Arataka shrugged, right as a kitten claw caught on his hoodie string. “Oh c’mon! This is my favorite one!”

Takenaka-san laughed, disturbing the cat that was on his lap and making it run away.

“At least the cats won’t leave you.” Takenaka-san got to his feet, and Mob-boss opened to door to the room they were in. They had a window open so Arataka could call for help if need be, which was how Kageyama-otouto snagged the picture of all the kittens on him, but mostly the other men had stayed out of Takenaka-san’s way when he had realized that Arataka could hear his thoughts.

“We won’t either.” Boss said firmly, and Arataka kept his head down, his cheeks burning bright as he struggled to untangle the hoodie strings from the kitten’s claws. “Thank you though, Takenaka-san. I know you don’t really like taking your earplugs out.”

“Eh, it was for a good cause.” The man shrugged. “Plus, it’s not that often that I get to flex my telepath muscles. This brat thought he could block me out, which was just adorable.”

A hand was roughly ruffling his hair, and Arataka huffed as he brought a hand up to swipe the guy’s hand.

“I had to at least try. If I can block you of all people out, I can block out anyone.” Arataka muttered, finally freeing himself from kitten claws and carefully putting the little thing on the floor of the shelter. “It’ll probably become a thing, like how Teru-san keeps challenging Boss.”

“Someone challenges you, Kageyama?” Takenaka-san asked, eyebrows raised as baby-blue-surprise tinging his aura. “Do they have a death wish?”

“Nah.” Kageyama-otouto waved his own hand with a groan. “Just a crush and a hope.”

“A what!?” Boss’ head snapped around to look at Kageyama-otouto. “Ritsu, Hanazawa-kun doesn’t have a crush on me!”

“Goldilocks, back me up here.”

“Boss, did you really not know?” Arataka asked as he carefully pulled the kitten that had draped itself on his neck off and placed it on its paws. “Ah wait, I shouldn’t have asked that. No, you didn’t know. But yes, Teru-san definitely has infatuation in his aura whenever he’s near you. Although it wasn’t there when, yeah. The whole thing happened. But he really does have a crush on you.”

Arataka peeled the last kitten off of him, the one on his head, and placed it down on the ground. It tried to immediately crawl back up into his lap, so he was quick to stand up. Looking up, he winced.

Cranberry-red-embarrassment, crimson-red-franticness, and cerulean-blue-confliction were warring against each other, or with each other, in Boss’ revolving blue-pink-purple aura. Oh no. Boss must be overthinking every single interaction that Teru-san has had with him. Oh no, was Boss going to explode? Was he going to explode over something like finding out that someone had a crush on him? Actually, that was a fair reaction.

Arataka would probably have the same reaction if he found out that someone had a crush on him, but that was mostly due to his school. No one in his school would have a crush on him.

“Boss? You know it’s not the end of the world, right?” Arataka got to his feet, rushing to his boss’ side and grabbing his hand. He would try to inject butter-yellow-calm into Boss if he became too upset over someone having a crush on him, but hopefully it wouldn’t come to that point. “If Boss doesn’t feel the same, it’s not the worst thing ever. Boss doesn’t have to do anything that he doesn’t want to do.”

Crimson-red-franticness cooled off, as did the cerulean-blue-confliction, while the cranberry-red-embarrassment grew in color. Mob-boss’ hand squeezed down on Arataka’s, the man taking a deep breath as he was clearly trying to regulate his emotions. He obviously hadn’t thought about the fact that someone liked him like that. He liked people, but people never really liked him back before Arataka-kun and–

Arataka twitched his head to the side to jolt the thought out of his head. It wasn’t his own after all.

Latent thoughts that slipped through with touch were something that he needed to get used to. Apparently Takenaka-san wore earplugs every day to prevent his telepathy from ever escaping, but that wasn’t a life that Arataka could ever see himself living. So Arataka would find a way to block out the thoughts that Boss had whenever he was thinking them, and hopefully he would forgive Arataka for the intrusion into his mind.

“Shige, you really don’t have to stop being friends with Hanazawa, if that’s what you’re worried about.” Kageyama-otouto said slowly, even though he had navy-blue-awkwardness in his aura. He had probably never talked about stuff like this with Boss before. “While I would never like the guy to be around you again, since you deserve someone way better in my opinion, but he’s still a good friend to you.”

Bubblegum-pink-amusement flickered into Mob-boss’ aura, his hand relenting on its squeeze on Arataka’s hand. He soothed it with a sweep of his knuckles, probably apologetic. Silly Boss had no reason to be apologetic, but Arataka bumped his arm into Boss’ so he would know that Arataka heard his apology loud and clear, and that it was accepted. The butter-yellow-calm wasn’t needed thankfully. Not this time.

“I’m, I’m going to have to think about this.” Mob-boss rasped.

“You can talk with Mom about it at dinner tonight.” Kageyama-otouto shrugged. His eyes danced down to Reigen, ocean-blue-concern flicking into his aura. He was likely worried about Arataka’s reaction to their father. But if their father wasn’t anything like his own deadbeat, and was like them, who were so wonderful, then surely it would be okay, right?

Boss was nodding. “Dinner tonight. Right.”

“We should head to the office.” Arataka said, glancing at his watch and then pulling out his planner after letting go of Boss’ hand. The man’s aura flickered with sky-blue-disappointment at the fact, but Arataka focused on the planner. “We have two hours allotted for walk-ins soon, and while this is a great time to spend lunch hour,” fantastic time to spend lunch hour, Arataka wanted to spend all lunch hours like this really, “we probably should eat.”

A quick flick of Kageyama-otouto’s aura made his bangs float upwards for a second.

“Yeah, you do need to eat.”

“Ramen?” Arataka asked, excitedly.

“Nope. Today is soba, you eat too much ramen anyways.” Arataka was about to open his mouth to yell that no he didn’t, but Kageyama-otouto continued. “Your mom insisted that we find a way to lower your ramen intake.”

“Aww.” Arataka whined as he stored his planner away again, and Boss took his hand again as they started to walk out the door.

[Kid, be careful.]

Arataka glanced back at Takenaka-san, who had a rather deep ocean-blue-concern in his aura now, and it was clearly seen on his face.

[What? Why?] Arataka sent back like a slingshot, trying to slow his steps without making it seem like he was. He didn’t know why he was hiding it from Boss and Kageyama-otouto, but this felt important, what Takenaka-san had to say. Maybe he should tell them later?

[I– I don’t wanna tell you how to live your life.] Takenaka-san’s words jumbled together, trying to get the message across before Arataka was out of range. [But I don’t think that you guys have a rather healthy relationship. So just, be careful.]

They were out of range before Arataka could get indignant with the man. He huffed and squeezed Boss’ hand tighter. Who did Takenaka-san think he was? Sure he said that he didn’t want to tell Arataka how to like his life, but then he goes and alludes to the fact that he thinks that Boss and Ritsu aren’t good people? He went to school with them, didn’t he? Didn’t he know that Boss and Ritsu were the best of the best? They weren’t anything like Arataka’s deadbeat, they didn’t hurt him in any way. So how could he compare them in any way?

“Kid?” Ritsu looked down at him, a small frown on his face. “You good?”

“I’m fine.” Arataka sighed, swinging his and Boss’ hands again. The man had yellow-sunshiney-happiness filtering through his aura now as they just walked along to the soba place that they liked to eat at. Kageyama-otouto gave him an unimpressed eyebrow raise, and Arataka rolled his eyes at the face. “I will be fine. I just, the kittens are cute.”

“They are cute.” Mob-boss nodded, and Kageyama-otouto nodded as well, but he had some carbon-gray-calculation in his aura again. Dammit, hadn’t they gotten past that already? Why was he trying to outthink Arataka right now?

“Have you ever had a kitten before, Arataka-kun?” Boss continued, drawing Arataka away from the one-sided staring contest with Kageyama-otouto’s aura. Staring wouldn’t do him any good anyways. Kageyama-otouto would tell him when he was certain of whatever happened or certain about whatever he was thinking about.

“Hm? No.” Arataka sighed. “Uhm, Mom promised to get me one. Me and my sister. When we were waaaay younger. But, that never happened. Obviously.”

Boss’ hand squeezed his, and Kageyama-otouto’s aura flickered with deep-blue-sadness. Why were they sad? It was just a fact of Arataka’s life now. He could have had a kitten, but obviously he didn’t. So that was just something he probably should have in the future when he was allowed one by just Mom, because he could prove himself as a responsible adult. He was an adult, no matter what Shimazaki-senpai said.

“What would you have named the kitten?” Boss asked, obviously trying to move the conversation along, despite the navy-blue-awkwardness that was trying to permeate his aura.

“Aaah, that’s hard.” Arataka whined to get them both smiling. And it worked, bubblegum-pink-amusement filtering into their auras. “Like, what if it was an orange kitten? I would totally name it Momotarou. Or or! If it was a tuxedo, I would totally have named it something along the lines of Ninja-san. Because ninja need their hands free. Or maybe I would have named an all black cat that. That would have been a good name for it.”

Kageyama-otouto snorted at that name. “Only you would name a cat after a historical assassin.”

“Hey! If the shoe fits!” Arataka gasped, free hand pressed to his chest. “Especially an all black cat, do you know how much trouble they get into?”

“Actually no.” Boss noted as they ducked into the soba shop. “We didn’t have a cat growing up. Or a dog.”

“Awww. Everyone deserves a pet growing up.” Arataka was a firm believer of that anyways.

“Eh, we have Dimple now. That counts.” Kageyama-otouto said after ordering his own food, making Arataka cackle.

“Ritsu, be nice.” Boss scolded.

“I am being nice.” Kageyama-otouto replied with a grumble. “He’s lucky that he got to go with Hanazawa today.”

Aaaanndd, the cranberry-red-embarrassment and cerulean-blue-confliction was right back in Mob-boss’ aura and his cheeks were a bright pink. Clearly, thinking about the crush that Teru-san had on him. Arataka sipped at his water sans lemon that Kageyama-otouto had ordered for him while watching the two talk this over. He would intervene if necessary, but they were adults, right? They should be able to talk this over without Boss getting too upset and the white-clear-dangerous-ouroboros coming out to play.

“Why did you never tell me that Hanazawa-kun has a cr-crush on me?” Boss asked, stumbling a little on the word crush like a high schooler. Or maybe middle schooler like Arataka was. That would have been fun, if Arataka and Boss grew up at the same time. Sad it didn’t happen, but maybe if it had, some things would have been different.

Huh, would they even had been friends?

Ah, what was Arataka thinking? Of course they would have been friends. Even if their ages were swapped and Arataka was the adult and Boss was the middle schooler, he had a feeling that they would still be friends. Maybe not the exact same way, but Arataka had a sneaking suspicion not even a kami itself could keep himself and Boss away from each other in each life. Maybe that wasn’t good thinking, maybe it was a little too attached. But Arataka knew, he just knew in his bones that they were friends in every universe.

At least. . . . . .

He hoped they were.

“Well, I did throw him across the room when he tried to sit on your desk and flirt with you.” Kageyama-otouto dropped casually as soon as Arataka stopped drinking his water. Thank goodness for that, because he started spluttering and laughing. Of course, of course Teru-san had tried to sit on Boss’ desk to try and flirt with him and Kageyama-otouto had intervened with violence.

“When was this!?” Arataka knew it had to be during school hours. He wished that they had waited until he was there though. That would have been hilarious to see, and he needed to draw it immediately.

“Back when he first started coming around the office. Before Emi-san.” Boss sighed. “I didn’t, why would that have clued me into the fact that he was flirting with me?”

“Nii-san.” Kageyama-otouto deadpanned. “No one sits on a desk if they don’t want some sort of attention from the person who is behind the desk. And he was focusing completely on you. Of course he was flirting with you.”

“Okay, you knew immediately.” Boss groaned, before looking down at Arataka, who tried to look innocent. “Why didn’t you tell me, Arataka-kun?”

“You would panic.” Arataka said plainly. “And it should be on the adult’s shoulders to say their feelings plainly to each other. So I was waiting for Teru-san to scrounge up the courage to finally confess to you.”

Boss ruffled his hair.

“At least I can count on you to think about others.” Mob-boss teased his younger brother.

“Oi. I think about others. I was clearly thinking about you when I tossed the blond idiot across the room when he tried to sit down on your desk and flirt with you.”

“Yes, clearly.” Boss deadpanned. “Clearly thinking of me. Clearly not thinking of just getting someone away from me just because you were annoyed that someone was flirting with me.”

“Clearly clearly.” Arataka nodded along, trying to stamp down on his giggles as Kageyama-otouto reached out and flicked the top of his ear gently.

“I don’t want to hear anything from you, Buttercup.” Kageyama-otouto rolled his eyes. “You clearly don’t want to do anything with Shimazaki’s crush on you. Or are refusing to do anything about it.”

Arataka wasn’t sure if there was a screeching car outside and he was hearing the squealing tires there, or if the sound was in his head.

And then all of the sudden, the voices that had been existing on the outside of his peripheral knowledge suddenly rushed in, the small barrier he had kept around in his head to keep them out popping like a bubble, and Arataka felt three times as fragile. The thoughts pressed against his own, drowning out his questions and pressing them down, and he was breathing. He was breathing, right?

Revolving blue-pink-purple pressed around him, pressing into his head, creating a new barrier in his head, and Arataka shivered as the voices went silent.

Green-apple-worry and deep-blue-concern was also in that aura, along with a little bit of firetruck-red-alarm, but thankfully Boss kept those to himself as he held Arataka’s face in his hands. Arataka shivered, and reached up and took his hands off Arataka’s head, looking down.

That wasn’t what he was expecting to happen. Then again, he wasn’t expecting Kageyama-otouto to make such an– an outrageous claim. Shimazaki-senpai didn’t like him. He couldn’t have a crush on Arataka of all people. He hadn’t seen that saffron-yellow-infatuation, so Kageyama-otouto was totally wrong. He had to be.

“Kid, I’m sorry, I didn’t, you’re okay, right? We can postpone going back to the office.” Kageyama-otouto was floundering, he could see it through the tears that were trying to line the bottom of his lashes. Neon-yellow-panic was lining his aura now. “I can just take you home, and then I can pick you and your mom up later for the dinner.”

“No, I’m fine.” Arataka said, wincing at just how broken his voice sounded. He cleared his throat and grabbed at his water, taking small sips. Their food was in front of them, it must have been brought while he was trying to restore the barrier in his head. “I’m okay. Just, wasn’t expecting that joke, Kageyama-otouto.”

Cerulean-blue-confliction curled through Kageyama-otouto’s aura, but he nodded slowly.

“Yeah. Just a joke.”

That’s all this would turn out to be.

Just a joke.

“Let’s eat.” Boss said, a hand on Arataka’s head, ruffling his hair to calm him down a little bit, and it did. Even though Boss wasn’t an empath, he really was attuned to Arataka’s emotions sometimes. That helped a lot, and Arataka’s shoulders dropped in relief.

“Yeah! Let’s eat!”

“Oi! Don’t eat too much you brat. Mom makes a damn good curry.”

“Ha. My mom makes a better one.”

“What did you say you little–”

Soft chuckling.

“Don’t encourage him Nii-san!”

~~~~~~~~~~

Ritsu wasn’t exactly sure what to do in his old home anymore. He knew theoretically what was where and how to make a meal in this place. He knew where his room was and where the silverware was (Nii-san still teased him over the incident where he bent all the spoons) and how to set the table. He knew what books were on the bookcase in the living room and which ones that Dad read all the time when he was home.

But he didn’t know that Mom and Dad had gotten a new table. He didn’t know that Dad put up a new framed picture in the hallway. He also didn’t know about Mom getting a new pot that had to be watched more closely because of the copper bottom and that meant it heated up far more quickly.

He knew things about this house. His home. And then he didn’t know other things about this place, his home. It was weird. It was like he was both a stranger but also not a stranger here.

Whatever.

He could deal with this feeling while he helped Mom with dinner and waited for Nii-san come back here with Reigen and Reigen-san. Next week, Emi-san and Hanazawa would be coming over, and Ritsu honestly couldn’t wait for THAT trainwreck. But he would have to wait a week for it, and now he would just watch his mom and dad immediately try to mother and father Reigen and Reigen-san in some way. While Reigen-san was an adult, he had the sneaking suspicion that Mom would immediately take the woman under her wing.

Reigen-san could use more adult friends anyways, from what Ritsu heard from Reigen, the woman had been busy trying to climb the corporate ladder to get a promotion so she could spend more time with Reigen. It didn’t make a lot of sense to Ritsu, but what did he know about the corporate world? He didn’t even go to college, he had stayed here in Seasonings City to make sure Nii-san wouldn’t ever explode again and take care of him.

Even though Reigen had been putting thoughts in his head about going back to school so he could actually become a doctor like he wanted to do before the initial explosion when he had been a kid. . . . .

And Nii-san was way more balanced nowadays because of Reigen and everyone else. . . . . .

And Mom and Dad were so happy that Nii-san was happy. . . . . . .

No.

Ritsu couldn’t do that. He needed to stay here until he was certain.

And then maybe–

Just maybe–

The front door opened.

“We’re here.” Nii-san called out.

“Pardon the intrusion.” “Pardon my intrusion!” Two voices rang out, one that Ritsu knew better than the other. He should try to get to know Reigen-san more, he really should. But the woman worked so much until recently. Maybe with her becoming friends with Mom and Dad, Ritsu and Shige could make a deeper connection with the woman. While they talked here and there about the kid that connected them, they weren’t the best of friends.

Predictably, Mom was exiting the kitchen with a bright smile on her face. She did adore having guests over, but couldn’t really have them over when Ritsu and Nii-san were in their teens. Psychic powers and teenage hormones weren’t exactly the best of combinations. Huh, maybe Nii-san and Ritsu should bring that up quietly to Reigen-san. Or maybe Mom and Dad will on their own. Knowing Mom, she had already a list of conversation topics for the women to talk about.

“Hello! It’s so wonderful to meet you at last.” Mom greeted sweetly, Dad poking his head out of the living room as Mom approached. “I’m Kageyama Yuka, and my husband is Haruto.”

“Lovely to meet you as well.” Reigen-san greeted with a smile, her hands full of drinks. She must have bought them as a gift for having them over. She was always so nice, even if she was absolutely terrifying. “I’m Reigen Yoshiko, and this is my son Arataka.”

“Hello.” Reigen bowed, before reaching out and nabbed the bottles from his mom.

“Taka-kun.” Her voice was chiding, but Reigen grinned at her and ducked into the kitchen where Ritsu was. “Kageyama-otouto, where do these go?”

“What are they, brat?” Ritsu replied, stirring the rice for the katsudon. Mom had debated on curry or katsudon, but Shige had given her the slightest bit of puppy eyes and she had caved for katsudon.

“Mom got adult drinks for the adults.” Reigen made a face. Ah, wine then. Ritsu would have to check if it was red or white. “And she got me and Boss some cold teas that aren’t too caffeinated. She did research on it.”

“That’s nice of her.” Ritsu flicked the door to the fridge open, and Reigen was carefully putting his drinks in there, but kept a hold of the wine bottle. “Is there a reason she brought them? I know Nii-san told her she didn’t have to bring anything other than herself and you.”

“I think she’s nervous about meeting other adults.” Reigen whispered softly. “She’s been really nervous all day, but she’s hiding it right now.”

A laugh from the living room, and both Ritsu and Reigen poked their heads out to look over there. Reigen-san was laughing at something that Dad said, a broad grin that he had never seen on her face. It was nice, seeing Reigen-san smiling like he hadn’t seen before. Nii-san was smiling, ever so slightly, matching with Mom as she lit some candles in the living room.

“She has no reason to be concerned with Mom and Dad liking her.” Ritsu replied, going back to the vegetables once he checked on the rice. The onions still had some color to them, and he added just a little more heat to the stovetop. They needed to be translucent. “Mom and Dad want someone to talk to as well.”

Mom and Dad hadn’t really had friends since the explosion. That wasn’t really Nii-san’s fault, it was mostly the fault of the fearmongering of the teens that had gone after them for the money. Seriously, what teenagers decided to go after ten and eleven year olds for money? And what parents decided to be afraid of those parents who raised the kid who could explode? Everyone could explode, in their own little ways. Shige’s explosion was just very, external when he did.

But maybe Ritsu shouldn’t judge the kids, and maybe he shouldn’t judge the parents either. After all, he was the one who had decided to stay by his brother’s side to make sure that he wouldn’t explode. But if he hadn’t done that, then they wouldn’t be here tonight, and they wouldn’t be the successful office and spiritual consultation work that they were today, if Ritsu hadn’t decided to stay.

A poke to his side reminded him that Reigen was here, and could see his emotions.

“Kageyama-otouto, why’re you conflicted?” Reigen, nosy brat that he was, asked. And poked at his side again.

“Hmm, no reason.”

“Liar.” Reigen huffed, and he eyed Ritsu’s wrist. The kid’s new telepathy made it hard to keep things a secret now. How would his mom keep his birthday presents a secret now? Did she even know about the telepathy, or had they forgotten to tell her about it? Had Reigen forgotten to tell her about it? He wouldn’t put it past the kid, the damn brat was always keeping secrets in his own way.

“Quit trying to use your powers as a shortcut you brat.” Ritsu scolded.

“As if you didn’t try to fly to the roof one time with telekinesis when your powers awakened.” Nii-san tattled, and Ritsu huffed as Reigen cackled with glee and darted out of the way of the spatula that Ritsu was aiming at the kid. All in peace and love, of course. Nii-san didn’t need to tell the kid that story, or even allude to it!

“Okay, but you also had fun with your own powers Nii-san.” Ritsu called the spatula back before Mom could see. He poked his head around the corner to make sure she was busy with her adult guest. They were having a grand old time talking about. . . . books? About gardening? Whatever. Not Ritsu’s problem right now, Mom had probably mentioned her garden out back. “If I recall correctly, you tried to make plants grow at super speed, just to see if you could.”

And those plants had tasted horrible. Not that he would remind Shige of this fact, he had been upset about that fact then. He would probably be upset about that fact now.

Reigen tilted his head.

“The plants tasted horrible? What sort of plants did you try to make grow quick Boss?”

Damn him and his latent telepathy.

“Just because you can do something with your powers Arataka-kun, doesn’t mean you should.” Nii-san sighed. “In this case, I tried to make some broccoli and some cucumbers grow quicker than they should be forced to grow. And as a result, they were without the proper nutrients.”

“Huh. That’s odd. And fascinating. I wonder how it would work to make sure the proper nutrients are in the vegetables.” Reigen cupped his chin to think about it, more than likely.

“Well that’s something you can think about later.” Mom’s voice startled Reigen out of his thoughts and made him jump. It also made him dart behind Nii-san and grip his shirt. Ah, they were back to that again? Or maybe he thought it would be simply too presumptuous to grab his hand in front of their mom? “It’s time to eat dinner, and I would like to get to know you better, Reigen-kun.”

A tightening of Reigen’s hand in Nii-san’s shirt behind Nii-san’s back, where Mom couldn’t see it. But he gave such a blinding smile to the woman as he responded.

“Of course! I really want to talk to you and Kageyama-san too, I’ve only heard a little bit from Boss and Kageyama-otouto.” Reigen was all smiles that scrunched his eyes up and hid them and nods.

Reigen was lying, either because he was uncomfortable or because he didn’t know what to say. It made sense. The kid did it often enough in the office, now that Ritsu had gone over the memories that they had made together. Or maybe semi-often, but it happened. Ritsu wished he had a lie detecting ability in his psychic repertoire. Unfortunately, Ritsu did not.

“I can tell you all about the boys when they were growing up.” Mom said, and Ritsu could see proverbial flowers around her as she smiled oh so sweetly down at Reigen. “Could you be a dear and help me set the table?”

Reigen’s fist tightened on Nii-san’s shirt again, before letting go.

“Of course! Point me to where everything is ma’am!” Reigen pushed his sleeves up like he was going to be doing heavy work. Ritsu snorted at that, giving a final stir to the vegetables. The onions were finally translucent, but how Mom knew that was beyond Ritsu’s knowledge. Maybe it was just some innate knowledge that all Mom’s could get from cooking? Because Ritsu still had to watch everything that he was cooking to know when it was done.

“Please, call me Yuka dear.” Mom waved away Reigen trying to act polite. “You’re practically family at this point, according to my boys.”

Ritsu nearly screeched in indignation. Okay, he could get that sort of vibe from Nii-san and Reigen. The two idiots really cared about each other, Shige had literally exploded for the brat for crying out loud! But to lump Ritsu of all people in there!? Yeah he cared for the kid, but that didn’t mean that he saw the damn idiotic Goldilocks as family!

. . . . . . . .

Oh who was he trying to kid? Himself? There was no one else in his mind, a quick glance to Reigen showed that he was chatting with Mom and definitely wasn’t listening in on Ritsu’s screeching thoughts, so he really shouldn’t fight himself. He shook his head and started to scrape the vegetables into the bowl Mom had pulled out earlier, before the guests had gotten here.

Ritsu sighed to himself, shaking his head at his own idiotic tendencies. Nii-san sidled up beside him, eyebrow raised.

“Ah, nothing. Just realizing how bad it would be for Reigen to leave now.” Ritsu murmured, careful not to miss a single vegetable in the pan. “I used to think that maybe it would be best for him to not get involved with us, but now I can’t think of a day without him. He just fits, you know?”

Shige clearly did, because he gave his equivalent of a beaming smile.

“Yeah. Could you even, think of a day in the office without him?” Shige laughed. “Or even an exorcism job without him trying to help in some way?”

Ritsu shook his head, a small smile on his face as the thought about all the shenanigans that Reigen somehow got into. Even without the craziness of Claw, he was still a bundle of energy that somehow managed to get along with Hanazawa (not a surprise) and Nii-san (more of a surprise, but who didn’t like a little light in their life), even Shimazaki the little idiot liked the kid (more than Reigen himself was willing to admit at this point in time, but whatever).

Reigen was like their little ray of sunshine that wasn’t going anywhere any time soon. Because they would fight anyone who tried to take him. Case in point, the entire facility that was currently rubble about two to three hours westward of the city.

Reigen reentered the kitchen to grab something for Mom, and stared at Ritsu, before shaking his head. He muttered something under his breath, and Ritsu was just barely able to catch it.

“Now there’s two of them? What am I supposed to do now?”

What did that mean? Ritsu was going to ask, but Reigen quickly was diving into the silverware drawer and waving some spoons in Ritsu’s direction with a shit-eating grin on his face. Oh no. Who had told him? Certainly not Mom. Mom was still displeased with Ritsu’s stunt when he was younger.

“Don’t you even start you brat.” Ritsu muttered, giving him a little glare that absolutely had no heat. “Where did you even hear about it?”

“Your father.” Reigen tapped at one of the spoons with his finger. “He. . . . . he seems really nice.”

Ah.

“I told ya so.” Ritsu walked by the kid, bumping his hip against him.

“Yeah yeah.” Reigen seemed still a little apprehensive. Made sense, the poor kid’s deadbeat (didn’t deserve the title of father, didn’t even deserve to breathe the same air as Reigen and Reigen-san, but that was something to be dealt with later) had sold him out to Claw just last weekend. He was going to be apprehensive around male figures that he didn’t know beforehand. The kid could rest easy around their dad though, because Ritsu and Nii-san would know if their dad was spending time with someone new. The man wouldn’t be able to shut up about it if he was.

“If you’re uncomfortable, just tell me or Shige.” Ritsu said, and saw Nii-san nodding fervently out of the corner of his eye. “We’ll be a barrier for you, since you’re incapable of creating one on your own.”

“Hey!” Reigen, like any kid, took the bait that Ritsu laid down without even thinking about it. His unease melted away as he followed Ritsu out of the kitchen, all fired up over the fact that he couldn’t make a barrier and Ritsu had poked fun at it. It was just a little thing for them, and it made Ritsu feel needed, actually. Ritsu could do something to protect the kid, he could keep him safe.

“I’m fully capable of making a barrier in my head!” Reigen fumed as he handed over the spoons to Mom. Reigen-san walked up to him from behind, a gentle hand soothing over his hair as if she was soothing his hackles down. Funnily enough, it worked. Reigen was actually like a kitten from this morning, how adorable. All hissy but was instead needing love.

What a troublesome little kid they had taken in.

Ritsu really wouldn’t have it any other way.

Reigen glanced at him out of the corner of his eye and darted behind his own mom, grabbing onto her shirt. Ah, had he let that thought be heard? Welp, there went all his bravado and trying to act like a cool guy. Well, not that he probably had much of that in the first place, the kid could see his fucking emotions after all. There was no way he hadn’t clocked Ritsu’s protectiveness already.

“This looks amazing!” Dad said as he strolls into the room, already holding a glass of red wine. Ritsu hoped that he wasn’t going to get too drunk tonight. Reigen might not be able to handle that, he was already so skittish around normal men nowadays, Ritsu didn’t know how he would handle the clingy, happy drunk that Kageyama Haruto would turn into.

“Yes, thanks to you staying out of the kitchen, dear.” Mom said fondly. The truth really, because Dad was a disaster in the kitchen, and Ritsu wondered how the hell he had survived before Mom sometimes.

Reigen giggled, sending a look to Ritsu and Nii-san. They must be thinking something similar, or their emotions must be similar. Ritsu sent his own look to Nii-san, who was smiling a beaming smile. So much emotion tonight from his brother, this was a new record, especially in their childhood home. Hopefully this would, and could, come over to offices too. Ritsu would love to see the new emotions in the offices and seeing Hanazawa stumble over them.

“So Reigen!”

Oh no. Dad no. Ritsu sent a look to his father to get him to stop talking as Reigen froze up where he was. The kid swallowed, visibly swallowed, before unhinging his hand in his mom’s shirt and standing tall.

Damn the brat was being so brave.

Maybe Ritsu should hit the final punch on the punch card so he could swear? That might be a nice reward. Or maybe some mochi ice cream, Reigen liked the strawberry ones. Everyone in the offices did though, but Ritsu might get one especially for Reigen.

“Yes sir?” Reigen’s voice had only the slightest waver to it, and his hands didn’t clench.

Dammit. The mask was on and wasn’t going to come off until he felt safe.

“Your mom tells me that you’re in a kung fu class.” Dad continued as he sat down at the table and everyone filed into their spots. Nii-san sat between Dad and Reigen. Reigen-san sat on Reigen’s other side. Mom sat on Dad’s other side and Ritsu sat next to her. So he and Reigen-san met in the middle of the circle. They shared a commiserating glance at what was unfolding.

“Yes sir, I am.” Reigen said, hands folded in his lap.

“I learned something about kung fu master today actually!” Dad continued, and Ritsu suddenly had a very foreboding feeling that he knew where this was going.

“Did you sir?” Reigen asked politely, like he wasn’t a gremlin in the office. He would enjoy this at least, when Dad revealed what was going on. If this was going the way that Ritsu thought this was going.

“Yes, did you know that kung fu masters cut up their pizzas in a bullseye pattern?” Dad asked, a grin on his face.

This was going the way that Ritsu thought it was going. He refused to facepalm though.

“I– no I didn’t.”

Reigen-san’s hand came up to cover her mouth.

“Yes, it’s apparently so they can get to the inner pieces.” Dad finished with gusto.

Silence. A beat. Two.

Shige broke first, snorting into his fist.

“Dad, that was horrible.” Ritsu groaned, reaching up to massage at his forehead. Reigen seemed puzzled, and then his eyes widened. His jaw dropped. Ritsu waited.

Reigen laughed. Loud and long, his hand coming out and latching onto Shige’s sleeve so he didn’t topple over.

There we go. Ritsu was happy now. Reigen was relaxed now, and Shige was happy, and Reigen-san was far more relaxed than he had ever seen her. Maybe this dinner would turn out alright instead of the disaster that Ritsu had been expecting it to be.

~~~~~~~~~~

Teruki leaned against the side of the building as he waited for Salt middle school to let out for the day. He had never come here as a kid, but apparently Kageyama-kun and Otouto-kun had come here as kids, as well as Emi-chan. How funny, they had all been in close proximity of each other, but had never had the fortune of meeting back then. That would have been interesting, meeting back when they were all kids and growing up together.

How much would have that changed the trajectory of their lives? Would Emi-chan be an actual writer currently, and would Teruki even be a television star? Would the two brothers even have those offices? Well, Teruki at least knew that he wouldn’t be as conceited as he used to be, if solely because of Kageyama-kun’s influence and power. That was for certain. Middle school Teruki definitely wouldn’t have been able to pass up the chance to fight another psychic, and if Kageyama-kun had less control back then, it would have ended in just as much disaster as their first fight did.

Probably more.

Definitely more, because Reigen wasn’t there to stop Kageyama-kun from fully exploding. Teruki didn’t think that Otouto-kun was capable of stopping Kageyama-kun from exploding, from the little glimpse he had gotten that first fight before getting knocked out, Otouto-kun had been scared. Made sense, if Kageyama-kun had been exploding since his youth, and the brothers had been incredibly close back then, then the little brother would have been there for that first explosion.

Kids started to spill out of the building, and Teruki sighed, shaking his head.

What-ifs and what could have beens weren’t something he could or should dwell on. Right now, he should be focused on protecting the kids. Yeah sure, Ryou-kun could certainly fight and get them out of a sticky situation, and Reigen was more than capable of overwhelming someone if he used his psychic empathy correctly (see when he overwhelmed Ryou-kun last weekend in that Claw facility), but Teruki might be a little on edge. The more he dug into the underworld and dug into information on Claw, the more he really just wanted to bundle the kids into an aura, maybe Kageyama-kun’s, and never letting them out.

People going missing, children disappearing, They showed back up, but scars marred their bodies and their eyes were haunted. Or they had the worst smiles that Teruki had ever seen, and he had seen a lot of bad acting smiles. Because those were either acting as normal smiles, or they weren’t even hiding the fact that they had been warped.

So yeah.

Teruki wasn’t going to let the kids walk anywhere without an adult. Or without an adult spirit. Dimple hadn’t been around the kids recently, not unless they were in the offices. Or whenever Reigen was at home with his mom. But the damn thing was only growing in power, and while Teruki was somewhat side-eyeing the spirit, it would come in handy. Hopefully. Maybe. Teruki was keeping his eye on the spirit. Just for prosperity’s sake.

Anyways.

Back to the kids.

Ryou-kun was walking out first, his hand on his walking cane, a finger tap-tap-tapping away. Clearly something had agitated the kid today, maybe something had happened? Did the bullies act out again today? Or had something else happened and was Teruki going to deal with immediate fallout? Ryou-kun was practically pushing other kids out of his way, making sure that no one came near them. Except for the kid that was already by his side.

Another kid walked out beside him, looking back at Reigen. He had a head full of thick curls, and he was a psychic, a rather powerful one too from what Teruki could see. He was clutching at the bag in his hands, looking between Ryou-kun and Reigen, who was following behind the two. What on earth was going on? Had someone tried to cut Reigen’s hair again? Was Teruki going to have to go into the school and try to wreck it or talk to the principal?

And bringing up the rear of the trio was Reigen. Reigen, who had his head down and was gripping his gakuran tight as well as his schoolbag. His arms were wrapped tight around the front of his body tightly. Like a shield.

Oh, oh no.

Was the telepathy acting up? That would make the offices horrible, not even mentioning school. A school that was packed with other kids that apparently bullied him. Or something else could have happened. Teruki needed to get to the bottom of this, something had happened and Teruki needed this defused before it got to the Kageyama offices, because Kageyama-kun would definitely be on the higher end of an explosion if it got to that point.

“Oi.” Teruki called, his voice softer than usual as he approached.

Reigen flinched.

Okay nope. Not good.

“Ryou-kun? What happened?” Teruki immediately switched targets.

Ryou-kun rocked his jaw back and forth. He looked back at Reigen, who was looking down at the ground. Okay, it wasn’t telepathy then. What else could it be? Reigen was at school, he was doing fine currently. The other kid was looking between him and the other kids, clearly uncomfortable but not leaving their sides. Loyal to a fault, Teruki could like this kid.

“Ryou-kun?” Teruki’s voice hardened slightly. “What’s happened? Do I need to call Kageyama-kun?”

“No!” Reigen finally responded, head snapping up. “No, don’t tell Boss something has happened. I’m fine. Everything is fine. No reason to tell Boss or Kageyama-otouto anything.”

Teruki raised an eyebrow and crossed his arms.

“So are you going to tell me what’s going on then?”

The kids were quiet.

Before the new one spoke up.

“Reigen-kun shouldn’t be allowed around knives.”

“Serizawa-senpai!” Reigen hissed. He glared at the older boy, who jumped a little, but stood his ground regardless.

Teruki however, felt the bottom of his stomach give out and the saliva in his mouth dry up. Reigen wouldn’t, would he? There was no way. Sure the kid was being bullied, but Teruki was dropping hints to Kageyama-kun and Otouto-kun so they could act on it. They had just rescued the kid, there was no way he would stoop to that, right?

“He didn’t.” Ryou-kun said suddenly, his finger still tap, tap, tapping away on his walking stick. “I stopped him.”

Reigen shifted, suddenly uncomfortable.

“He was just in, cooking class.” Ryou-kun shrugged. “And I had my awareness stretched out because I don’t think Claw is going to stop anytime soon. So I stopped him. It’s fine. It’s, everything is fine.”

Everything was decidedly NOT fine, but it was slightly more fine in the fact that Reigen hadn’t actually hurt himself. Teruki could breathe a little easier now. Tilting his head, he saw that Reigen looked dangerously ready to run away, and Teruki didn’t want to deal with a meltdown. Not without Kageyama-kun right now, Reigen and Kageyama-kun were attached at the hip and he would be able to handle it better.

“Ryou-kun, why don’t you take Serizawa-kun to wherever he needs to go. I’ll take Reigen to the offices.”

Ryou-kun tilted his head, and even as he grimaced, he nodded. Ryou-kun and Serizawa-kun walked towards to the exit for the school. They headed to the left, while Teruki tilted his head to the right. Reigen followed, arms still crossed tight in front of him as he followed Teruki.

They found themselves in a park, Teruki stretching his legs out in front of him as Reigen sat on the edge of his seat. They watched the ducks in the pond quack at them, asking for food. Unfortunately, neither of them had any, so the ducks quickly lost interest, so they paddled away.

“What brought this on?” Teruki decided to ask. “You didn’t show signs of this before. Sure, signs of bullying, thanks to the impromptu haircut, but nothing like this Reigen.”

Reigen kicked his foot out, dislodging a rock and making it fall into the water.

“That guy in the room. That was supposed to be a psychic. Do you remember him?”

“The one with his arm in the sling?” Teruki wanted to make sure.

“Yeah.” Reigen blew his breath out. “He, he trapped me in my head. It was a bleak world. So incredibly gray, there were no auras because he took away my powers in that world.”

Teruki let the kid talk. Clearly he needed to.

“When I got out of that world, it wasn’t a pleasant experience. It kinda, was almost like a tidal wave of my own emotions overwhelming his own.” Reigen reached up and tugged on his hair. Teruki watched that out of the corner of his eye. If he got worse about it, then he’d take the hand away from the hair. “But because of that, I. . . . . I sometimes just forget. If I’m in the real world or not.”

Oh.

“You can’t tell if you’re still trapped inside your own head or not?” Teruki asked for clarification.

Reigen nodded, another tug to his hair.

“Sometimes, I just need to, make sure. So I. . . . .”

“Make sure that you’re in the real world.” Teruki breathed out. “And sometimes the only way to do that is through pain?”

Reigen nodded, his shoulders finally starting to relax when Teruki didn’t demonize him for it. Why would he? Teruki had an entire god-complex and a half when he was Reigen’s age. This just needed to be addressed by the right people, like Kageyama-kun, or like Otouto-kun.

“Is there another way that you can make sure you’re in the real world?” Teruki asked.

Reigen tapped the wristwatch on his wrist. “I realized I was stuck in my head because of this. That world didn’t have any color, but that was there. So I guess, things that have bright color and aura infused in them?”

“Does pressure work?” Teruki asked. If that worked, then he could swing some things.

“I– yeah I guess.”

Teruki nodded, already thinking about the order he was going to place tonight. For now though, he had held Reigen back enough. And he needed to let Kageyama-kun know about this new development with the kid.

“Alright, I can work with pressure.” Teruki sighed as he got to his feet. He groaned as knees cracked. Damn, he needed to do some stretches.

“Are you going to tell Boss?” Reigen’s voice was so small.

“No.” Teruki sighed, and Reigen’s hand reached out and grabbed his shirt. Nowadays, Teruki acknowledged that this was just Reigen’s way of wanting to stay close. “But you do have to tell someone other than me, kid.”

Reigen was quiet as they walked towards the offices.

“I can tell my therapist. Mom is getting me one. That’s something you tell them, right?”

Teruki smiled. “Yeah, that sounds like a plan.”

~~~~~~~~~~

Keiji flexed his hands as the foreign psychic energy flowed through his body.

Boss hadn’t been happy at him losing his powers, but he had been oh so fascinated at the fact that there was a psychic out there that could take away powers.

Boss could give powers, and this boy could take them away.

It was utterly fascinating.

The Boss, no, the entire organization was intrigued. No one was going to let such a powerful psychic go now that they knew about them.

Keiji just hoped that the Kageyama brothers were prepared for a war.