The Story Of Us (Todobaku)

Shouto's First Day

Rei nodded and carried Shouto out of the kindergarten classroom and into the hallway. He cried into her shoulder, his little hands clutching her shirt in a death grip. She rocked him side to side, whispered the words to his favorite lullaby, anything she could think of to soothe him. But nothing worked.

She kissed his hair as she continued rocking him. "Oh don't cry, baby. There's nothing to be scared of."

Shouto cried harder. "I w-want to go home," he said between his sobs. "I'm not ready for kindergarten, Mommy. P-Please take me with you."

After several more minutes of attempting to calm him without luck, Rei set her son down and pulled out her phone. Shouto, still crying, sat on the floor and with all of his might ripped off his left shoe and chucked it at the wall. He tried to do the same for his right shoe, but he was too worked up and his arms were too tired. Unfortunately, he hadn't learned how to tie and untie his shoelaces yet, for that would've been far easier for him. He also took his backpack off, but he chose to set it next to him instead of throwing it. He actually liked his backpack a lot. Anything that had kittens on it he treated as a national treasure.

Rei ignored Shouto's tantrum as she punched a combination of numbers into her cell. She held  the phone to her ear and, when someone eventually answered, she had to turn her head away from Shouto so his screams wouldn't drown out the noise.

"Hello, this is Rei Todoroki calling," she said to the mystery person on the other line. "If it's not too much trouble, may you call Touya down to the office so I can speak with him?"

Shouto stopped crying immediately. "Touya?"

Touya was the oldest of the Todoroki siblings, and also Shouto's hero. Shouto'd idolized his big brother since the day he was born, which wasn't hard given how much time they spent together. Even if Touya had a friend over, he did his best to include Shouto in his daily life as much as possible.

Touya was Shouto's favorite person in the entire world, and Touya reciprocated those same feelings. Even though they had the largest age gap between the Todoroki siblings at eight years, they had the closest bond.

Shouto, still missing a shoe, bounced on his heels at his mother's side. "Is that Touya on the phone? Can I talk to him? I promise I'll stop crying." He rubbed his eyes to prove it. His face was flushed and his eyes were still puffy, but the tears did stop.

Rei smiled but held a finger to her lips, signaling for Shouto to be patient. While his mom waited, he grabbed his shoe near the opposite wall and slid it on his foot. He then approached his mother with caution as the laces were undone and he didn't want to trip. Excitement built up in his chest as she spoke again.

"Hi honey," she said. "Sorry for pulling you out of class. I'm at Shouto's school and he's struggling a bit and I thought he may feel better if he got to talk to you."

Shouto couldn't contain himself and started jumping, arms stretched above his head, reaching for the phone. It didn't work. His mom was too tall. He made a mental note to eat an extra portion of vegetables at dinner so he could have a growth spurt.

His grin stretched across his entire face when Rei finally handed the phone to him. He shimmied a bit as he held it to his ear. Wanting to ensure his brother could hear him, he projected his voice to the best of his ability.

"Hi Touya! It's me, Shouto."

"Hey buddy," Touya's voice rang from the other line. Hearing it lifted Shouto's spirits immediately. "What's going on? Mom says you're having a hard time."

"Yeah." Shouto sucked in his lower lip. "I don't like kindergarten. It's too scary. Can you come pick me up?"

Touya laughed into the phone. Shouto didn't understand what was so funny, but he laughed too since his brother did.