Everchanging

His Story

!!TW!! Talk of shooting, vague panic, talk of abuse, vague grooming mentions

Kotoha hummed as she fixed one of the peonies, excitement buzzing through her body to make her hands shake a little. Every couple of minutes she would glance at the clock to see if her shift had ended yet, but alas she still had an hour left to go. She knew that it was a little ridiculous to be so happy about a little slumber party, but she couldn't help it. Her baby boy had been talking about his new friend for a long time now, eyes almost sparkling as he described him, that Kotoha couldn't help but want to meet the child.

"Kotoha, something wrong?" Her coworker, Aya, piped up from behind the cash register. It was a rather slow day, not many people coming to buy bouquet arrangements, so both women were able to fiddle and play around.

"Ah, my son's having friends' over tonight after they all get off of school." Kotoha smiled, her beautiful face beaming. Aya hummed, tapping her fingers on the counter. "The boy he's been raving about is finally coming over. I'm excited to meet him."

Aya's burgundy eyes slimmed around her cheeks as she grinned, dark hair sticking to her lip-gloss. She was a beautiful woman, so nice and social. Kotoha hadn't been surprised when she got married to such a wonderful man, Issei, a year ago. Their son, Suzune was born swiftly after; since Aya had gotten pregnant half a year before the wedding.

Kotoha was rather sad to see Aya's last name go, Miyano was such a pretty sounding surname. But love prevailed and Aya chose to take Issei's last name, now officially Kitakura Aya.

"I can't wait till Suzune gets old enough to make friends and have slumber parties." Aya whined, laying her head on her arms. "What's this new boy's name? You said Inosuke talks about him a lot, yeah?"

"Yeah...but you know my son, he can never remember a name for the life of him." Kotoha chuckled, pinching her cheek a little as she tried to think. "Tenya maybe... or Genta?"

Burgundy eyes shifted, Aya lifting her head.

"Genya? Was his name Genya?" Kotoha looked at her coworker, noticing a shift in Aya's tone.

"Could be. I don't know, Genya's not that typical of a name." The woman laughed airily, looking to see that she only had five minutes till her shift was over. "Why? Do you know a Genya?"

"Ah, one of my exes had a son named Genya. The only reason I stayed with that asshole was for that kid." Aya laughed wistfully, her face flushed. "He was such a cutie and so sweet. We would play together all the time. I got so attached, sometimes I can't help but miss him. Y'know?"

"Oh, I could imagine." Kotoha glanced at her flip-phone to see her son had texted her, letting her know that he had gotten home safe. "I'll let you know how it goes. My shift's over!"

"Alright, alright. Have fun, Kotoha. Tell Inosuke I said 'hi'~"

With a swiftly beating heart, Kotoha clocked out and made her way out of the shop. She was unsure if her beating heart was because of the excitement waiting for her or because of Aya's face that she couldn't shake somehow. She felt like something was wrong but there couldn't be, Aya was such a sweet person.

Kotoha hoped.

—

Feet slapped against the carpet as Inosuke tore through the house, trying to make everything perfect for his friends. Zenitsu huffed from where he lounged on the couch, having already shown up.

"Y'know you shouldn't overthink everything, Ino, your brain might explode." Zenitsu rubbed his itching nose, watching his friend toss more pillows on the ground. The boy was practically exploding with nerves, his feet tapping and shuffling while his hands stayed busy. Zenitsu almost felt bad...almost. "I can see the steam puffing out of your ears already. Anymore and you might burn to a crisp."