𝐃𝐈𝐋𝐅 || 𝐉𝐮𝐣𝐮𝐭𝐬𝐮 𝐊𝐚𝐢𝐬𝐞𝐧

Chapter 1

Toji hadn't worried when he'd sent Megumi to kindergarten. He remembers when Tsumiki was little, she was sweet and prone to crying, but after the accident, Tsumiki was harder. Which Toji worries about, but the upshot was that it had meant she'd be fine at school. In fact, Tsumiki had practically flung herself out of the car to get away from Megumi, who had been crying desperately because Tsumiki got to go to school and he didn't.

Today is Megumi's first day of kindergarten and Toji is terrified. Megumi has always been equal parts space cadet and sensitive; Toji wants to go to school with him and throw any kid that looks at Megumi wrong out the window.

"Oh my god, Dad, he's going to be fine," Tsumiki says from the passenger seat. "You keep looking like you're going to kill someone."

"Does Dad need to kill someone?" Megumi asks, sounding a little worried from the back seat. "Did you have to kill someone when Tsumiki went to school, too? How come you never told me about it?"

Toji rolls his eyes. "No, Megumi, I don't have to kill anyone. I haven't killed anyone, either." Megumi looks a little mollified but still wary and concerned.

"What are you doing?" Tsumiki demands as Toji cruises the parking lot for a space.

"I'm coming in with you both," Toji says, confused.

Tsumiki stares at Toji, horrified. "Oh my god, he cannot have you drop him off, everyone will think he's a baby, I'll take him," Tsumiki tells Toji.

Toji raises an eyebrow at her, but Tsumiki holds her ground. "Megumi?" Toji asks, because really, it's Megumi's call.

Megumi frowns, but visibly pulls himself together. "Tsumiki can walk with me if she wants, but I bet I could find it on my own." Megumi says.

"Yeah, right," Tsumiki mutters, but quietly enough that Megumi doesn't hear her. Toji shoots her a look and Tsumiki unbuckles her seatbelt, grabbing his backpack.

"Okay, okay! C'mon, Megumi, get your bag, we're going!" Tsumiki says, opening the door. Megumi scrambles out after her, shooting Toji a wobbly smile.

"Bye, Dad!" Megumi yells in unison with Tsumiki's "Bye, Dad!"

"Hey," Toji pins them both with a look. "Be good. Tsumiki, watch out for your brother."

"Yeah, okay, we gotta go," Tsumiki says, dragging Megumi along.

Toji goes to work because going home would just be depressing without Megumi running all over the house, screaming at the top of his lungs that he wanted to play aliens and ninjas. Everyone simultaneously annoys him and keeps their distance, which annoys him all over again. Toji would be lying if he said he wasn't counting down the minutes until 2 pm.

Toji's first in line at Kiss and Ride, mostly because his boss had come over at 1:30 and said, "Go, you're making the interns cry."

Tsumiki's 1st grade teacher is running Kiss and Ride. She catches Toji's eye and scrambles to find Tsumiki, and by extension, Megumi. She'd been constantly talking about Tsumiki running the class and Toji had countered that Tsumiki was a leader, nothing wrong with that and it'd ended with the two of them at a vicious stalemate that somehow ended up with Toji having to chaperone every field trip. In return, in one of his rare attendances to the PTA, Toji suggested that Mrs. Porter, with her training as a reading specialist, would be a good choice to run the reading workshop the PTA had been talking about forever. On Friday nights.

Tsumiki is dragging Megumi by his backpack straps over to the car.

"Oh my god, you'll be back tomorrow, come on, we're going home," Tsumiki says.