(ON HOLD) A Robot With Issues | Ishimondo Android AU

Chapter 14

Kiyotaka sighed as he stretched his tired arms. He had been working for hours restocking the shelves, and occasionally assisting people when he had nothing else to do.

There were a lot of shelves to restock. It was a pretty huge store after all and he was one of the few stockers working here.

After he finished stretching, he picked his box of supplies back up and headed over to another aisle. As he walked, he saw a small puddle on the floor. He made a mental note to clean it up later or tell the janitor about it.

Distracted, he bumped into a familiar figure, making his box of instant noodles drop onto the floor with a light thud. He assumed the man he bumped into was the person he met earlier.

"Sorry for bumping into you! Do you need anything else, Oowa-" he looked up to meet Mondo's eyes, "Oh, Mondo. It's you. What are you doing here?" he asked.

Mondo furrowed his brows and his eyes flashed blue, he then hugged Kiyotaka tightly.

"Mondo! Please no public displays of affection!"

~

"I'm home," Kiyotaka tiredly exclaimed as he locked the door behind him.

He heard someone running towards him until he was embraced by a man. The man was his father, Takaaki.

"Oh my god- Taka, I was so worried about you," he said between sobs.

Kiyotaka awkwardly hugged back, "Ah, I'm sorry for coming home late. A teacher asked me to help her with a few things-"

Takaaki pulled away from the hug to firmly place his hands on Kiyotaka's shoulder, "For the love of god- Taka, please don't forget to call me next time. You have no idea how worried I was," he could clearly see the tears dripping down his sunken cheeks.

"I'm sorry," Kiyotaka apologized once again, "I will try my best to not forget about it next time."

~

Kiyotaka stood still. He didn't know how to react to being hugged. It had been so long.

"Why didn't you tell me that you were going to work this morning? I was so worried," Mondo asked.

"I never intend to worry you, Mondo," Kiyotaka said, "It's just that I would rather not be accompanied by you whenever I go to work, no offense. I only wish to not be distracted in my work hours."

Mondo hugged Kiyotaka even tighter, "What if you get hurt again?"

Kiyotaka chuckled, "Don't be silly. No need to worry about something so trivial. I am perfectly able to fend for myself"

Mondo's soft whirring got louder after he heard his chuckle.

Kiyotaka pulled himself away from the hug, "Why don't we make a small rule? On my work days- Saturdays, you don't get to follow me around." The android whined in complain.

Kiyotaka placed a hand on his shoulder, "It will be for only one day, alright?"

He nodded even though his sad expression said otherwise.

Bending down to grab his box, Kiyotaka said, "Since you're already here you might as well stick with me until I finish work. I feel bad for sending you home after you went through all the trouble coming here," he checked the items inside the box to look for any dents on the items. Thank god they weren't made out of glass or anything of the sort.

Mondo grabbed the box Kiyotaka was holding. Before the smaller boy could react, he exclaimed, "I will help you so that you will finish quicker."

"Mondo, I work extra hours so that I could get paid more. If you do some of the work then I won't deserve all the payment I'll get," Kiyotaka rebutted.

"But if we work together then it would be both of our payment," Mondo said matter-of-factly.

Kiyotaka sighed and smiled, "Alright, fine. Let me get another box."

-

After a few more hours of restocking and assisting others (with Mondo ominously glaring at anyone Kiyotaka was talking to), it was finally time to go back home.

They walked outside the grocery store with their hands intertwined. Huh, Kiyotaka didn't realize that they were holding hands but he made no move to pull away. He liked the physical contact, in a way.

Kiyotaka looked at the path they were going. They would arrive home faster if they walked in this direction which was why Kiyotaka often went down this route. But last week, he-

Kiyotaka shook his head. He'd rather not think about that event again.

He tightened his grip on Mondo's hand and walked together with him. He hoped that nothing bad would happen this time.

Though, his wish didn't come through as a familiar voice called out.

"Oi, hardass! The hell are ya doin' here again?!"

Mondo turned his head to look at the man who yelled while Kiyotaka only stood still.

There was a small group of men- thugs, to be more specific. None of them were nearly as tall or muscular as Mondo.

"Who are ya calling hardass?" Mondo sneered.

Ignoring Mondo's words, the biggest man of them approached Kiyotaka, "I thought we made it clear that we don't want any "genius" Ishimarus 'ere," he told him and then glanced at Mondo, "Ya thought yer' being smart by bringin' a fuckbuddy with ya, ey?" the other men behind him chuckled.

Mondo scowled and raised his fist. He was about to give those bastards a beating but Kiyotaka's hands gripped Mondo's raised arm.

Mondo glanced back at Kiyotaka. Tears were slowly dripping from his red eyes. 

"Please, let's go," he pleaded. He was slightly pulling at the arm, urging him to walk away with him.

Mondo gave the men one last scowl before hesitantly walking away with Kiyotaka. He kept glaring at them as they walked.

"Yer' lucky ya have a bodyguard with ya this time, Ishimaru! But next time, yer' not getting away with this!" one of them yelled while the others were yelling insults at Kiyotaka.

After they were out of sight, Mondo glanced at Kiyotaka and saw that he was still quietly crying. He moved a hand to wipe away the tears but Kiyotaka turned his head away.

"I'm sorry, I was just overreacting. They weren't even hurting me but I just-" he cut himself off to wipe his own tears.

Mondo gently placed a hand on Kiyotaka's short hair and pet it. He knew that dogs and cats would be calmer if they were pet like this. He hoped he could also calm down Kiyotaka like this.

Those men were troublesome. Mondo would have to deal with them later once he was no longer with Kiyotaka.

A/N
hello ily all and u guys are too nice to leave me kudos and a lot of nice comments hh-
but sometimes i have this like.. "insecure episodes" where i randomly got really damn insecure about everything which usually demotivates me a lot :< and that's why i only update once a week-

also, being a non native english speaker sucks when it comes to writing lol. i often get confused on what words to use especially since im bad at socializing so idk what usually goes on in conversations.