Entwined // Kenji Sato

⚾️ seven

☾ ⋆*･ﾟ⚾️ :⋆*･ﾟ

Saki's pov

At the hospital during my rounds my eyes fixated on the TV again, but it wasn't a live screening, of Kenji's game, more like a re run.

I watch him swing but he misses completely, "And there's another strike. Sato just looks exhausted."

His back is slumped and his swing was sloppy. And I knew what the reason was behind his exhaustion.

The catcher for the opponent team says something to Kenji and they get up in each other's face.

"And now it looks like there are words being exchanged between Sato and the Swallows catcher."

Kenji hits the catcher's helmet off and they get into an altercation. Would I be lying if I said I wasn't surprised?

"Oh! Oh, no. We haven't seen a brawl like this in a long time. Both benches have cleared. They're throwing punches..."

I was going to visit him anyways after my shift but now it seems I'm going to have to bring a first aid first kit too.

☾ ⋆*･ﾟ⚾️ :⋆*･ﾟ

I pull up to the familiar house on my bike and park it in the driveway. I grab the mini first aid kit in my seat and walk into the house knowing Mina was going to unlock it for me anyways.

I hear the faint sound of the television and I could only assume that was where Kenji was. I open the door slightly and let myself in.

My footsteps were either quiet or he was so fixated watching the rerun of his game today that he didn't even notice I came in. He was submerged in an ice bath tending to his wounds, leaning against the back with lots of his favourite fizzy drinks floating.

I peer my head over to see the side of his face. All bruised and cut up and it hurt me just the same to see him like that.

"Hey," I finally say.

The sound of my voice shocks him back to reality and he jumped in shock, his arms flailing in the air. His chest rose rapidly as I let out a chuckle.

Mission success.

"When did you get here?"

"Just now."

His eyes widen and he looks down as I smirk and roll my eyes watching his arms fall to cover what he was trying to hide under the transparent ice water.

"Relax. You think I don't see that at work hundreds of times in a day?"

"What are you doing here?"

"I'm your personal doctor tending to your wounds."

"You don't have to do that-"

I grab his arm and slide him closer to me before he could get out of the rest of his sentence, "just let me do it."

He gives in and I watch him fixate his eyes back on the TV. I open up my first aid kit and bought out the supplies needed to clean his cuts near his eye first before carefully applying antiseptic to a Q-tip.

"I don't want you to move because this is going to sting," I warn.

The Q tip makes contact with his wound as he winces slightly but eventually, he gets used to it.

"You always amazed me. Your love for baseball since we were kids was admirable. I know you feel like you're in the slumps right now but I'm here to help you. We're in this together. So I want you to know you can lean on me or talk to me whenever you need."

He doesn't look over at me and I'm glad he didn't because I just said a bunch of jumbo that I didn't even know I wanted to say.

"Yeah well I just hope that Mina finds Kaiju Island quickly so we can go back to our old lives."

I don't let his sentence phase me, "back to our old lives where we didn't speak for 20 years?"

His face freezes up and a part of me thinks he didn't mean it like that but another part of me also thinks that maybe it was for the best.

"No, Saki. I-"

I finish applying the bandage to his wound and the sound of closing the first aid kit interrupts him.

"Look, I don't like this arrangement anymore than you do. We're entwined by a baby Kaiju for gods sake so just get yourself together!" I snap.

"Ken, Saki. We have something to show you."

Thank god.

I huff an exhale to calm myself down, "you're all done. I'll see you downstairs."

I walk away first and head down to the basement and the baby looks just as happy to see me. Her face pressed against the glass.

Shortly after Ken is by my side again, "Mina, please tell me you've found Kaiju Island."

"No, Ken, but the baby has a surprise for you two."

Mina plays an upbeat Japanese song and the lights around her shine all types of colours. The baby starts bopping up and down and then jumps on one leg and then on the other, copying Mina. But then a loud rumbling sound comes from the baby and a smell arrives shortly after.

I wanted to gag so bad. I pinch my nose together and Ken does the same, "dear god, what ... what is that smell?" He says.

"You cannot feed a 20 foot baby a half ton of fish and expect anything but a giant pile of ..."

I look at the unit and see a puddle of some green goo which I could only assume was her waste. I gag again and turn away before I puked.

"Which brings me to something I would like to discuss with the both of you. Until I'm able to find kaiju Island, you both are going to need to raise her."

Ken is the first to object, "Mina, I've got a whole season of baseball ahead of me. I just can't do it."

He turns around but I wrap my hand around his upper arm, stopping him in his tracks. His bicep tensed and bulged under my hands and I pretended like it bother me even though it did internally.

"Ken, I understand completely why you don't want that. Trust me, neither do I but we bought her home and she's now our responsibility," his expression softens as I spoke and I turned us so we were now facing each other. I put my hands in his so he wouldn't leave, "I know what I said upstairs and I'm sorry, I just snapped. Raising a kid is not easy but if it'll help you, I'll take less shifts at the hospital so you can focus on your baseball career as much as possible but you're going to need to meet me halfway, okay?" I pause for a moment, knowing just what to say next, "you and I, we're a team. Just like old times remember?"

He stares into my eyes for a moment and lets out a defeated sigh, "okay! okay! Mina what do we need to do?"

"We'll have to have a schedule that'll accomodate both your schedules. Continue feeding her, washing her, develop a strategy for taking her to potty. You'll have to learn the five s's; swaddle, side, shush, swing, suck."

I look at Ken and see him already staring at me. Our expressions replicated. Wide eyes, jaws open.

I'm going to regret this, aren't I?