Sweet (Sugawara x Reader)

chapter seven

kindness

You hurriedly rubbed at your eyes, cursing the water droplets that rolled down your face. It was rare that you cried, but you were just so exhausted. Between an intensive university course and what was now essentially raising a child, locking your key in your car early in the morning was just the straw that broke the camels back. And to add to your torment, you were embarrassing yourself in front of the very attractive day-care worker that you were bound to have to see again many times. God, you could just shrink into yourself right in this car park and sob yourself into nothingness. But that wasn't an option, plus you'd just get more and more mortified as you kept crying because the silver-haired man was definitely still watching you. 

Thankfully, you were still facing your car when you began letting the tears run out. So you heaved in a deep, shaky breath; rubbing at your face once more. Convincing yourself that your eyes weren't totally bloodshot and your cheeks weren't tearstained, you whirled around; a half-hearted smile spreading your lips but not reaching your watery eyes. 

'You don't happen to have a phone I can borrow, do you?' You chuckled nervously, rubbing your neck with a freezing hand. 

The stranger looked at you with slightly widened eyes, your brother still calm in his arms. It was clear from his expression that he didn't have much experience with crying girls, not that any boy ever seemed to. His eyes scanned your face as he deliberated whether he should say something about your crying or just answer your question. He wanted to comfort you in someway but he wasn't at all sure what to say since he didn't know why you had cried nor was he really close enough with you to ask. Sighing lightly in defeat, annoyed at himself that he couldn't find any words of comfort to offer you. He just nodded his head softly with a warm smile.

'Yeah, of course,' He said about to reach into his pocket before a look of realisation spread across his face, 'Oh, I actually left my phone here yesterday. You can come in with me and use it though.'

He didn't wait for you to accept or decline his offer before he turned in the direction of the entrance, shuffling your brother to a more secure place on his body. Your shoulders sank, you didn't particularly feel like going parading into the day care when it was so obvious you had just cried but you didn't exactly have a choice. Your phone was locked in your car along with the key and while you wallowed in self-pity the stranger had already walked too far for you to respond without raising your voice and disturbing the little boy cradled in his arms.

As soon as you entered the building, he handed off the child to one of his co-workers with a smile, telling them where to take him, before turning to you and instructing you to follow him down a few corridors. Any door you went through, he held open for you and you thanked him profusely but otherwise the pair of you didn't exchange any conversation on the short walk. You were glad he didn't feel the need to fill the silence: you were fearful of the possibility that you would embarrass yourself any further. He smiled at you whenever his eyes locked with yours and you had to admit it set your heart a-flutter. He was very attractive: kind eyes, a bright smile that could melt anyone's bad mood. You wondered if maybe he was the reason those single moles on people's faces had been titled 'beauty spots'.

'The staff room is just through this door,' He gestured to the metal door on his right with a smile before beginning to push it open, 'My phone should be in here so you can call them right away.'

Pushing the door open, he once again motioned for you to walk in before him with a nod of his head and you obliged with a sheepish smile, slipping through the doorway and into the empty room. It was quite basic, a polished grey kitchen counter with a sink and a microwave on it. A small, white fridge that looked to be on it's last legs beside a row of hooks; most of which were ladened with bags or coats. In the centre of the room was a table with several mismatched chairs around it, a single phone laying face down towards the edge, the phone case was clear but you could just make a polaroid tucked between the back of the phone and the plastic of the phone case.