A Place Where I Can Go

To Take This Off My Shoulders

"Home. A place where I can go. To take this off my shoulders. Someone take me home."
–Machine Gun Kelly, X Ambassadors & Bebe Rexha - Home

Word Count | 4,532
Happy Birthday, Nagisa!
One Shot

It wasn't the most idealist of days, he was sure. He's had better days, days where he felt as though nothing could tear him down. Nagisa stared dully at the calendar, at the red ink that circled today's date. July 20th. He knew he should feel happy that today was his birthday, but he couldn't force himself to feel anything remotely positive. The reason behind that was... his mother had left bright and early for work today.

He woke up, excited, mind you, but she was nowhere to be seen. The thing is, his relationship with his mother was somewhat complicated. Scratch that, it was very complicated. But there was always that one day where they could talk and laugh and joke around without a care in the world... and that day was supposed to be today.

A cloud of gloom surrounded the boy, though there wasn't much he could do about it. At the very least today happened to be a school day, which meant that he didn't need to stay cooped up at home with nothing to do. His mind didn't need to focus on the bad if he was distracted with school.

Even if his gloom made him feel heavy, he pushed himself to change into his uniform and drag himself to school. He ran into a few of his friends on the way to the mountain, such as Kaede and Sugino, which, all things considered, made him swell with happiness. At least there were his friends to spend the day with. They had congratulated him and even gave him a bag filled with sweets!

His mood definitely got better.

As the day progressed, he figured that it wasn't as bad as he thought. Those who knew it was his birthday gave him a pat in the back (Isogai) or a ruffle of his hair (Maehara), and those who didn't know would peer over in curiosity and join in on the celebrating. It truly was a good school day.

When school was over, Karma and Nakamura proposed a play date to properly celebrate his birthday. His classmates (those who were available after school) went along to the arcade where they played various games. Nagisa was versing the Gamer Queen, Yukiko, but alas, he failed miserably. As it was beginning to darken outside, his classmates and friends bid their goodbyes and ran along home.

Kaede was kind enough to escort him home, no matter how much he protested against it, but she insisted either way. He remembered his mother usually arrived no later than 18:00, so he decided to wait for her to come home. He was quite excited to tell her about the day he had today, and hopefully be able to reassure her that he didn't mind that she worked.

Knowing her and how she'd reacted in the past, surely she would feel nothing but guilt. But it wasn't her fault so he would be sure to brush it off without holding a grudge.

But his mother arrived with a tired look on her face. Nagisa, once seeing her expression, immediately sent himself to the kitchen where he prepared his mother's favorite tea. Luckily, his mother didn't venture off into her room like he expected. After setting down the tea before his mother, he made himself comfortable on the other side of the table, calmly sipping from his own cup.

When she started drinking from her cup, Nagisa decided to start a conversation by asking the simplest question, "how was your day today?" His mother didn't respond verbally, instead, she had quirked her brow in a questioning manner, which confused the boy. That wasn't something he asked with ill intent... Nagisa smiled tensely, hoping that she wouldn't go into one of her moods. At least not today. It could be tomorrow or the day after, but please not today.