When it rains, it pours (Completed)

when it rains, it pours

Kalego was staying late at Babyls to mark assignments and finish up reports. Well, he had been, until suddenly he was summoned by his student to the middle of nowhere in the pouring rain.

His... fur was drenched immediately. Kalego prepared his scolding as soon as he saw Iruma sitting in front of him.

"Why did you-"

"I'm sorry, Kalego-sensei!" Iruma shouted. He sounded more... distraught than usual.

He was also trembling quite a bit, and he had a terrified look in his eyes.

Before Kalego could ask what had happened, Iruma began to explain.

"I-I fell and...and I don't-I don't know where I am..." Iruma stammered. Kalego noticed the way he had trouble getting his words out. And he picked up on Iruma's shallow breathing. "And... and I didn't know what else to do. I'm sorry... I'm sor-"

"Silence!" Kalego shouted, and Iruma jumped, but it shut him up.

The kid was hugging his knees and full-on hyperventilating now. It didn't seem like he was looking at Kalego anymore, more like looking past him.

"Iruma, you need to calm down," he said. He'd never seen Iruma so shaken up before; it was startling.

Iruma brought his hands to cover his face. "I'm..."

Whatever he was about to say, Kalego would never know because a sob came out instead. And another. And another.

Iruma had faced things far scarier and far more dangerous than this, so why did it elicit this strong of a reaction from him?

"Iruma, what's scaring you so much?"

He shook his head violently, and his gasps for air sounded quite painful.

"If you don't talk to me then I can't help you. Summoning me was... the right choice judging by these circumstances," he admitted. "Talk to me, Iruma."

Slowly, Iruma drew his hands away from his face and wiped his eyes with his sleeve. His attempts to take deeper breaths fell flat, but he spoke regardless.

"Being-being alone."

The rain continued to pour, but they were both already drenched. Iruma's hair was sticking to his face and his tears blended in with the drops from the sky.

"You're scared of being alone?"

He nodded wordlessly. It appeared as though he was trying to hold his breath, but another sob broke through anyway.

"I'm sorry-"

"What do you have to be sorry about?"

"I-I shouldn't... I shouldn't be... this shouldn't be happening... because..." Iruma paused, seemingly to catch his train of thought. "Because I was always fine by myself before."

Kalego had a feeling this conversation would last in his memory for a long time.

"Before?" he asked.

Closing his eyes, Iruma tried once more to steady his breathing, at least enough to give an answer.

"Um... before my grandpa took me in," he mumbled.

Oh.

"My, my um, parents, uh, they, uh..." Kalego noticed his breathing picking up again. "I... I had to take care of myself..." he said, forcing the words out. Kalego could hear the pain in his strained voice.

The netherworld was a cruel place, but to think that the grandson of the chair-demon had faced this much of it outside of what he'd witnessed wasn't something Kalego had been expecting.