The kid looked a little nervous when walking back to the booth with him. Shouta didn't know if it was that he was intimidated or if he had something to hide.
Shouta was sure he had told him that he was hero so at least the kid knew he wasn't some kind of child kidnapper, right?
They walked back over to the table and Shouta closed the open files and put them off to the side.
"Come on, sit down. Or do you just want to stand there?" He asked.
"A-Ah Sorry," The kid sat down across Shouta and looked at his drink. His name written on the lid in sharpie with sloppy kanji.
Cats strolled up to them and the kid reached down and picked up a calico, placing it in his lap. He decided to just start off, because it was obvious the kid wasn't.
"So what's your name?" He asked.
The kid looked up at him, "Esu Akiro."
"Akiro, huh? I should've asked for your name before. I'm sorry about that. Where are your parents, Akiro-kun? You're alone a lot."
"You can just call me Esu, no need to be formal. And for your question, my mom is at work. She won't be home for a while," Akiro said.
"What does your mom do?" Shouta asked.
"N-Nothing special. She works at a store somewhere near here. I always forget the name but I know she stocks the shelves."
Shouta hummed in acceptance, though he didn't really think a minimum-wage job would be able to support a whole family.
"What about your dad?" He asked. He hoped that the kid's dad was there working another job to support them. But from the way he didn't mention any father figure when he asked about his parents made him doubtful.
The kid was silent for a second, staring into Shouta's eyes, looking for any sort of emotion or sense of suspicion. "He left," was all he said and then looked back down at the cat.
The amount of distrust in the kid's eyes put him on edge.
Shouta sighed deeply.
A single mother trying to support her and her kid with a job as a store worker. It didn't really look like it was going too great.
"Anyone else in the family?" He hoped that there weren't any other kid's that his mother had to feed.
"No, it's just me and her," He looked down at the cat in his lap. Shouta could see sadness in the kids somewhat dull eyes. A loneliness that tore through his own heart just by looking at it. There was a sense that he was violating his privacy by just seeing it.
Akiro looked so so very small, like a kicked puppy lost in a crowd of strangers, not trusting anyone.
"Are you guys in money trouble?" He asked.
"No, sir. We're fine," The kid smiled but it looked so fake.
Shouta sighed and decided to change to subject, "So what's with the warehouse? You said it was like your hang out spot? Why don't you hang out at home?"
"It gets quiet, and sure the warehouse is quiet too but there I can mess around as much as I want without worrying about the neighbors," Akiro said.
"You had a mattress there," Shouta said simply as he remembered vaguely how he woke up, confused and startled, and then saw the child huddled in a ball on the floor against the wall staring at him.
Akiro was silent.
"Are you safe at home?" Shouta asked carefully.
YOU ARE READING
Shinko's Pursuit
FanfictionWith his dreams shattered and his future seeming to be lost, Izuku Midoriya runs. He ran away from police custody before they even knew what to do with him and lived off the streets. He didn't know what to do. His mother dead and his source of stabi...
