Everything (and nothing, all in one)

2

He zoned out for the rest of the day, a blur of medieval fantasy tower defence and the Battle of Pelennor Fields. He heard Honerva come back from work and shout a greeting down the stairs. If he was honest, he could care more. Honerva coming home usually meant more blood tests and awkward same-y questions about his day, but he eventually padded out of the light-lined sun room and plopped himself next to his mother on a couch. She offered him a hug that he happily accepted whilst watching what he eventually clocked was that Jurassic Park reboot with Chris Pratt, quietly getting absorbed in the movie whilst she ran hands through his now short hair. "You cut your hair, Takashi? It's shorter than I remember." Her voice was smooth and dark like the red wine she liked to drink, causing him to curl deeper into the embrace.
"Yeah, Coran helped me."
She hummed, either in impression or distaste, Shiro couldn't tell. Her hands ghosted the bumpy scar tissue that was visible through the undercut. "It's different, I like what you did with your-" she tangled fingers in the white forelock- "tuft." Smiling, she pressed a kiss to his temple. "I love you, Takashi."
"I love you too, Mom."

The buzzer of the door broke through the comfortable silence, and as Shiro rose to answer it, Honerva lay a spindly hand on his knee. "Stay there, my sweet, I'll answer it."
The warmth next to him disappeared, and he heard thin feet nearly floating across the floor. "Who is it?"
An unfamiliar voice replied, a low one that he didn't recognise, soon followed by the whoosh of the airlock porch.

Time to go snoop.

He snook over to the front door camera, gently pressing a button to bring up an image of what was happening on the other side of the infamous airlock.
An image of an unfamiliar duo greeted him, but he knew immediately who they were. On the left was an incredibly short girl, skin pale in the white light of the door and with dark shadows cast by a mane of blonde hair and thick wire glasses.
On her left, Tall Boy. It could only have been Tall Boy. From the caramel skin that glowed in the same light that made his companion look sickly, to the soft-looking brown hair that framed his face beautifully.
He was too busy looking at Tall Boy's face to notice the crudely iced bundt cake in his hands, and his mother's sharp dismissals of the gift.
"No, tell your mother thank you, but no."
Shiro released a breath he didn't realise he was holding. Why he even got his hopes up, he didn't know.
What he liked even less was the look of disappointment on Tall Boy and Short Girl's faces at rejection.
Then Tall Boy's face lit up. "Is your son around, per chance?"

Oh.

Oh, okay.

Even through the static of the microphone, there was no mistaking the fact that Tall Boy was asking after him.

It also wasn't on the script, seeing Short Girl's excitedly shocked face and a playful punch on his arm. "I knew you had a reason for helping me, you usually hate new neighbourhoods!"

Again, his hopes got up, and he knew they would just fall. His mother would never happily allow two dirty, possibly ill, bacteria-covered strangers into her house on one huge but simple request.

"He's not, I'm afraid. Goodnight."

His stomach dropped in time with the opening of the airlock, and he clicked off the feed before Honerva appeared around the second door.
"Takashi? Is everything okay?"

He shrugged, not wanting to face her on account of the bitterness that he expected but couldn't avoid. "Yeah, I'm going to bed."

He heard a shocked gasp as he span on the ball of his foot. "Is- is there anything I can get you?"

"Bundt cake."