Daycare

✧20:Koushi/ E N D✧

Days turned to weeks turned to months. I glanced over at the calendar, which this month was displaying a picture of a Dalmatian puppy, and sighed. My sigh slipped into the noisy air before disappearing into the chatter of the children who were running around the room.

I watched them intently, partially because it was, in fact, my job to do so but also in mindless wonder. Many of them stubbled carelessly around the room, spouting whatever popped into their mind, fearless of any repercussions from the weight of their meaningless words. Their heedless actions almost made them appear like they were floating, almost looking down on the rest of us. Like they were above us.

And I guess, in a way, they were. They had the ability that most lose in the procedure of aging, the ability to be careless. Both with words and actions. And in that way, their wrath was more feared than those of glare from the eyes God herself.

At first, I found myself envious of this power. Holding my tongue had developed into a talent and I swallowed my words like they were pills. After so long, compliance became my standard.

It didn't take too long for my compliance to be put to the test. The negligence of the children eventually rubbed off on me. It started with a small smudge, coming out of my comfort zone to ask something of others. And when the smoke had been rubbed into a full stain, I had been doing things I would have never even dreamed of doing. However, this was one of the first times, in all my years of being a daycare teacher, that this was the case.

It was almost a snowball effect. When I first started this job, I would never even imagine staying here with the mindset that I have right now, experiencing things I never even could imagine.

Lost in the time of my own thoughts, I hadn't noticed the amount of time that had come and gone. I glanced mindlessly at my wrist checking the time. Almost as if on queue a pair of parents waltzed through the doorway, their kids automatically dropping everything and ran to them.

I let a small smile make its way onto my lips as I wordlessly waved them off.

More parents came and the number of kids in the room was now down to just a handful, the amount of noise dwindled down as the numbers decreased. And when most of those kids left, all that remained was Shoyou and Tobio.

This was something that I was used to, and knowing their family situations I knew exactly why.

I let myself relax as I slowly walked behind my desk and fell into my chair. I watched the pair carefully out of the corner of my eye, knowing that the two of them were usually well behaved but Shoyou had his slip-ups at times.

I watched as Shoyou carelessly passed off a toy that Tobio had asked him for, ranting and raving to him about nothing in particular. My mind wandered curiously, imagining them in their later years. They had such an interesting bond, even at such a young age. A slight pang of jealousy struck me due to the fact that I could only imagine feeling that when I was that young, but quickly flattered.

In my thought, I failed to notice that Asahi had quietly walked into the room, directly followed by Daichi. The sight of the tanner man caused my heart to quicken in its pace and my body to become antsy, causing me to stand up from my chair.

I watched Daichi intently, almost commanding him with my mind to speak to me but he didn't. He walked directly towards Tobio and pulled him up into his large arms, causing Tobio to stubbornly protest claiming that he was 'too old to be carried'. Daichi chuckled at this, explaining to the boy that he would never be too old due to the fact that he would always be his 'little guy' in his eyes but complied and dropped the boy from his grasp.

At this point, I was practically staring holes into Daichi's body, to the point that he could probably feel the weight of my gaze against him. He pulled his eyes from Tobio and moved them to me.