Josh had his hand pressed firmly against his forehead, kneading the skin with his eyes shut tightly. Keiren understood why. He understood very well.
Though Keiren had never really seen Solis eat at a restaurant when he still thought him to be Syrus Wilson, his lack of table manners was still quite surprising, but more than that, it was funny. He grabbed handful after handful of Spaghetti O's and stuffed them into his mouth. His face was coated in that manufactured, chemical orangish red sauce, and he'd by proxy coated the table around him as well.
"It's fine," Josh mumbled. "It's all fine."
Josh went rigid all of a sudden, his hand falling while he sucked in a deep breath. Keiren looked over at him and quirked his head.
"What's up?"
"Oh, nothing," Josh sighed, "I'm just... trying not to get upset."
"I'll clean it all up," Keiren tried, "you know that. Just let the boy eat for now."
"He didn't make this mess with the sandwich," Josh grumbled, gesturing to Solis' battleground of an eating area, "I don't understand how this happened."
"Sandwiches are meant to be picked up," Keiren shrugged. "Maybe this is the only way he knows how to eat."
"Uh-huh," Josh groaned.
Solis looked up from his bowl, looking wide eyed at the two of them. Keiren gave him a small wave, and Solis did the same back, flinging little O shaped pieces of spaghetti across the room.
Josh's eyelid twitched. Then, he lifted his arms, dipped his head, said, "I'm going to get ready for work," and retreated to their room.
"Love you," Keiren called, receiving a quiet assurance of the same from Josh as he made his way up the stairs.
Turning his attention back to Solis, he placed his hands on his hips, trying to think of what to do about all the mess. Solis was happy, and Keiren thought that his safety would be all that mattered to him, but he couldn't quite find the will to be pleased with cheap spaghetti sauce all over his table.
"Solis," Keiren cleared his throat finally, "Do... do you know how to use a spoon?"
Solis stopped his feast, blinking as he looked at Keiren before shaking his head.
"Here," Keiren sighed, grabbing the spoon from Solis' bowl and scooping up a bit of the food, "like this. You just pick stuff up with it and put it in your mouth."
"Oh," Solis mumbled as Keiren set the spoon back down to let him try it for himself.
Solis grabbed the spoon's handle with his full fist, shakily lifting it from the bowl and stuffing the end in his mouth. A few spaghettios dropped from the spoon onto his already stained shirt, but it was progress.
Keiren took to mopping up the table with an abundance of paper towels, deciding it was okay to hurt the environment a little to save his precious cloth towels. Solis was still making quite the mess, but at least he wasn't flinging stuff everywhere anymore.
Solis licked his fingers when he reached the bottom of the bowl. Keiren instructed him to wash his hands, and he was grateful that Solis at least knew how to do that. After, Solis retreated to the couch. He returned to watching his children's programming with his newly acquired seal plush.
Last night, Solis had slept in the guest room. He'd requested (and been given) a mound of blankets, and how he snuggled the seal plush was admittedly very cute. However, he got very upset when Keiren tried to close the door. He wanted the door wide open, apparently because he didn't want to be locked in again. Keiren wondered what awful abuses Solis had suffered. Sadly, he didn't have much time to wonder while he cleaned up the blood of a thousand spilled Spaghetti O's.
"Ok! I'm headed off to work!"
Keiren looked up, seeing Josh at the base of the stairs in his police uniform. As much as Keiren avoided the police, he had to admit Josh looked good in that uniform. Not that Josh didn't look good in all his clothes, but he really rocked the police getup.
"Alright," Keiren smiled, tossing a wad of bright orange, sauce slathered towels in the trash, "I love you. Stay safe out there."
Josh smiled, sidling over to Keiren. They shared a short kiss, looked wistfully into eachother's eyes for a moment, and then Josh was gone.
In truth, Keiren worried about Josh's safety often. Dispars weren't exactly common, but they were dangerous, and an uncharacteristic amount of criminals were dispars - hence the entire villainy industry. Josh was just normal. Going out on the field every day to be faced with what could be the end of him - well, apparently it scared Keiren more than it scared Josh, or Josh wouldn't still be an officer.
"What was that?"
Keiren jumped when he realized Solis had somehow migrated across the room to his side. The boy was eerily silent sometimes.
"What was what?"
"You did the thing," Solis explained, pointing to his own mouth, "that they do in the shows. I've only seen a girl and a boy do it before. What's it called?"
"Oh," Keiren blinked, "it's called a kiss. When you love someone, sometimes you kiss." He found himself not all that surprised by Solis' lack of knowledge anymore. It was a constant, like the blueness of the sky.
"Kiss," Solis repeated, "kiss." He nodded to himself, then sidled back to the couch and plopped down yet again.
Keiren let a heavy sigh fall from his mouth. Solis was like a large toddler. He had a tendency to accidentally hurt Keiren, he didn't know what anything was, and he had an almost charming childlike wonder about him. It was cute, in a way, but more so it was sad.
Keiren walked over to the kitchen table and set himself down where Solis had sat before. It didn't take him long to start messing on his phone, and eventually, he'd navigated to his list of contacts. He wanted to talk to someone, but who?
Josh was at work, so no.
His mom was likely also at work - no.
Keiren realized quickly that he didn't have many friends while looking at his contacts list. There were a million people in there, and yet, only three were commonly called - Josh, Mom, and Boss. Ambrose wasn't too infrequent, especially as of late, but they really weren't friends. And the Boss - well, he only ever called him to secure a gig.
"Hey, Solis," Keiren looked up suddenly, "do you wanna go to the park?"
Solis looked up as soon as his name was called. "The place with the trees?"
"Yeah," Keiren nodded, setting his phone face down on the wooden table.
"Yes." Solis said, standing up again. Keiren was going to tell him to set his plushie down before they left, but thought better of it, and instead stretched his arms and headed towards the door.
"We can grab some more food on the way over, if you're still hungry."
Solis became much more enthusiastic at that.
Come to think of it, Solis was awfully food motivated. Keiren hoped dearly that was just gluttony and not the lingering effects of starvation.
Keiren helped Solis buckle his seatbelt when they reached the car. Then, he sidled over to the driver's seat and got in. He found Solis fiddling with the buttons and knobs on the stereo, his head quirked to the side.
"They only work when the car's on," Keiren noted, sliding the key into the ignition.
As soon as the car started, both of its occupants cringed at the loud, grainy sounds of the radio. Keiren quickly pressed his palm into the knob to shut the sound off, then fixed the station so it would play actual music and began his drive to the park.
