Daycare

✧1:Daichi✧

My phone was sandwiched between my ear and my shoulder, the smooth voice from the other side of the line explaining to me that there had been an incident involving my son. My fingers hovered over my work keyboard and I stared blankly at my screen, closely listening to what I was being told. From start to finish, the scenario was played out for me before the voice fell quiet allowing me to process everything.

Finally, "Well Mr. Sawamura, I know you are a very busy man but I am concerned about your son's behavior today-"

The chatter of children buzzed in the background, "I completely understand, please let me know what I can do." I finally spoke, breaking myself from my trance.

There was a thoughtful pause followed by a small sigh, "I feel bad about asking this of you, but I think we may need to have a short parent-teacher conference?" this came out more as a question than a statement. I can pretty much hear a hint of distinct uncertainty in the man's voice.

The phone call moved along shortly after this, at this point I really had no other choice but to agree, in all honesty, I was almost excited. This excitement however really only pertained to the opportunity of getting to see my son's teacher.

The void of feeling disappointment or anger towards the boy for the alleged trouble he had been causing made the small tinges of excitement stick out like a sore thumb.

In an attempt to overlook the shy guilt I could feel building in the pit of my stomach, I reminded myself Tobio had recently begun living with me alone and due to my hectic work schedule, had to be enrolled in daycare.

Seeing as Tobio was not only young but also somewhat pretentious when it came to other kids, it was understandable how he would not be adapting well to his new surroundings regardless if he already had friends in the class or not.

It hadn't really helped that even a couple of days into meeting Mr.Sugawara and enrolling Tobio, I had been unspeakably late to come to pick my boy up. But since then, after hours of stressing and going 35 miles over the speed limit, I had been pretty timely. Only sneaking in basic conversation with the gray-headed man, 'hello's' and 'how are you's' when I came.

Each time I would follow my better judgment of not trying to make more small talk past that. Constantly I would try to convince myself to give in and try, but I knew my intentions went past innocent friendly chatter. If only I had a quarter for every time I had to remind myself that he was my son's teacher.

That is until I got a phone call from the daycare.

Now I find myself here, sitting in a chair that is uncomfortably small for me at an equally small table with bright shapes of all different categories spread across it. Tobio's, undeniably attractive, daycare teacher sitting with folded legs directly across from me.

Mr.Sugawara picked up his arms and folded them over each other on top of the table. He pushed some of the falling hair behind his ear sighing deeply as he did.

"So, Mr.Sawamura..." I could feel the stress in his voice. The softness that hung on his words created a contrast heavy weight that shot past my ears straight down to the pit of my stomach, bursting as it hit the bottom, freeing a wave of butterflies.

He continued, and immediately my ears perked up, "as I said on the phone, Tobio has gotten himself into some trouble. A fight, actually".

This was a fact that was left out from the earlier phone call, but in all honesty, I couldn't say I was surprised at this fact. I almost felt like I had almost even called it, through my weak attempts to comfort my guilty conscience earlier in the day.

But regardless the notion was true, setting my excuse aside, Tobio has always been a strong-willed boy. Even at such a young age he felt like the world owed him something, not that I could blame him he was an amazing kid (I wouldn't replace him for the world) ( I mean of course I wouldn't; he's my son, not a pair of jeans that didn't fit).

I looked at the grey-haired man and tried to feign the expression of shock, letting my head fall lightly to the side. Mr.Sugawara's eyes met mine, and for a second his face was unreadable. I almost had half the mind to think he had seen through me until he gave me the look. The look that could only be described as sympathy.

God, I hated that look. I hated people how people always gave me that fucking look. Ever since she left that's the only look I ever get from anyone any more people thought they owed it to me. My chest felt heavy again but this time it was different.

"Why? With who?" I asked, discreetly attempting to wipe the nervous sweat from the palm of my hand onto the surface of my jeans.

The man's brown eyes widened with what I could only identify as embarrassment before softening again into the same pity he wore earlier, before answering though, he called Tobio over.

Tobio was sat quietly across the room with his face buried in a volleyball magazine when Mr.Sugawara called him over. I could see a touch of clear annoyance on his face as he trotted over to our footstool sized 'table'.

Tobio's attitude, on most occasions, never ceased to surprise me but this was different. For days he had ranted and raved about how much he enjoyed Mr.Sugawara's company, and now it seems he can't even stand to be around him.

Briefly, I moved my eyes from studying Tobio and moved them towards Mr.Sugawara who looked away in an embarrassing state. It almost seemed like he was scared to look at me or Tobio.

"Buddy, what happened today?" I asked, grabbing his shoulders lightly attempting to relieve the tension. Tobio's face balled up as he looked up at me before tearing his eyes away.

His voice was so quiet I almost couldn't hear him, "Well, I got into a fight with Shoyou",

Now, this was interesting information. Tobio, as much as I've tried to put past him, was kind of known to hate a lot of things and didn't get along great with a lot of people. Shoyou, no matter how much of an act Tobio tried to push, was not one of these people. Sure, he may act as if he couldn't stand the boy but it was so clear that the boy had an overwhelming soft spot for the other.

Attempting to put my knowingness in the back of my mind, I put on my best-surprised tone. "Shoyou?! You guys are best friends. What happened?"

I moved my eyes from Tobio to Mr.Sugawara again, attempting to gauge his reaction to all of this. To my surprise, the man was looking back up at me but when our eyes met he once again tore his away in embarrassment, but even that split second of eye contact made my heart skip a beat. As bad as I felt for Tobio's sake, I couldn't deny the return of the underlying heat in my chest I felt being around the man.

I almost hated that this was the card I was dealt with, having an unwarranted school girl crush on my son's daycare teacher, especially when I'm supposed to be focusing on the fact that my son just got into a fight with someone he's been friends with since birth. And was absolutely not supposed to focus on the fact that the velvety glow of the man's skin and the puffiness of the man's bottom lip, a result of biting it from the stress, made my stomach do flips.

Tobio hesitated, I could tell he was debating against his desire to be open with me but risking letting the other man see him with his guard down. Sighing, he decided to spit it out" he said he wants to marry Mr.Sugawara".

Again, the quietness of his voice made it so I just barely caught it, but as it hit me I felt an odd wave of confusion. As I thought about it, as bad as I felt for thinking it, kids are typically attracted to pretty things so in a way it only made sense that Shoyou took a liking to Mr.Sugawara. Hell, before this incident, Tobio had taken a liking to the man as well- not to the level of marriage, but a liking nonetheless.

Before I could question him further he spoke up again, and what came next sent me into a further state of shock and confusion.

"He's supposed to marry me! It's not fair!", and although Mr.Sugawara did not catch it, as I eyed the small boy, I noticed the small pools of water begin attempting to fall from the boy's eyes. I could feel my heart aching a little bit, not even thinking of taking the actual severity into consideration but rather reacting as a parent whose child is hurting.

" it's not fair... I've known him longer. I've liked him longer"

A couple of tears had successfully squeezed from the boy's eyes, however, he wiped them away so swiftly so that even under my watchful eye, I had almost failed to notice. I couldn't tell if it's because he doesn't want to cry in front of the teacher or if it's because Yuu just came in hand in hand with Shoyou.