THE QUEEN
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Miwa had to retake a test, and Takeda got roped into helping a teacher with something, so it'd just be you taking care of the children.
"Sorry (f/n)! I'll find a way to pay you back!"
You begrudgingly walked to the club room, not too happy about having to take care of all the children by yourself.
You slid the door open, mentally preparing yourself to be bombarded by children, but instead, you just saw a little boy sitting alone on the carpet, holding a volleyball.
"Tobio? Where's everyone else?"
He stood up and waddled over to you, giving you a hug before answering.
"They all went on a field trip!"
'EVERYONE???'
Now that you thought about it, you did remember Tooru asking your mother for her to sign something, but it seemed odd that EVERYONE was gone.
"Why didn't you go with them?"
He raised his arms, letting you know to pick him up, which you did. He cupped his hands around your ear and whispered, almost as if he didn't want anyone else to hear.
"My parents weren't home so I didn't get permission,"
He seemed slightly bummed out by this, and who wouldn't be? Field trips didn't really happen too often, and missing out on them wasn't fun, especially on the day after, when everyone is talking about it.
You started to gently rock him,
"Well Tobio, it's your lucky day. You get me all to yourself today! What do you want to do?"
He blinked a few times before asking,
"Can we do anything?"
You nodded, and heard him gasp to himself before taking a few moments to think to himself.
"I want to watch volleyball!"
After a moment, he spoke again.
"Please!"
You didn't see why not, after all, it was just him, so it most likely wouldn't be too hard to keep track of the child.
You set him down on the ground, and held onto his hand.
"Okay Tobio, you ready to go watch how big kids play?"
He nodded excitedly, and you couldn't help but notice the jump in his step as the two of you walked through the hallways.
Before entering the gym, you knelt down to eye-level with the future setter.
"Okay Tobio, make sure to be quiet, we don't want to distract them, do we?"
He shook his head, and you smiled.
"Great! Make sure to stick close to me, okay?"
"Okay (f/n) nii-chan!"
The two of you quietly entered the gym, and you found a place to sit down, holding little Tobio in your lap.
Throughout the whole of the practice, his eyes were glued to the volleyball and the players, watching each and every move.
This gave you free reign to let you poke and squeeze his pudgy cheeks, as he was too absorbed in the game to notice.
About halfway through though, you started to notice his eyes starting to droop, and it seemed to get harder and harder for him to stay awake.
You whispered to him,
"You tired, Tobio?"
He slowly nodded.
"Mhm. But I wanna keep watching..."
You started to maneuver him around so that his head would lay down on your lap.
"I know, but sleep is very important, Tobio. You need it to grow big and strong so you can play volleyball!"
Your reasoning seemed satisfactory to him, and he started to let himself drift off.
"Nii-chan... do you think I'll be able to do that one day?"
You smiled gently as you soothingly pat his head,
"Of course,"
When you started to hear him snore, you picked him up, bringing him back to the club room.
'I WISH YOU WERE ALSO MY YOUNGER BROTHER'
Although the children always left you feeling so tired that you could disassemble like a Lego building, you couldn't deny that they were very cute and endearing, and you wouldn't mind being an older brother to them all.
•
"No fair! I want to spend the whole time with Nii-chan too!"
You chuckled as your younger brother slumped himself on your back, resting his head on your shoulder.
"You always get to spend time with me, Tooru,"
He whined,
"But that's different! You never take me to watch volleyball!"
You couldn't argue with him there. Well, I mean you could, and you had a good excuse too. There was never a good time for you to take him to watch the highschool team practice, or to watch any of their games. It always clashed with his bedtime or school, but if you could, you'd definitely take him.
"Stupid Nii-chan!"
He stormed off to his room, presumably to go to sleep in anger.
You followed him there, and got into your bed.
"I'm sorry Tooru. Good night,"
You just heard him huff in response, and decided that you'd deal with this problem later.
•
That morning your younger brother decided to give you the silent treatment, only responding in angry huffs, nods, and head shakes.
You opened the front door,
"You ready to go to school?"
He gave you an angry look, grabbing your hand.
You made it to his friends house, where he greeted you with a hug.
"Morning Hajime,"
Tooru let go of your hand, now reaching for Hajime's.
"We can go the rest of the way ourselves!"
He started running with his friend, and you did your best to silently follow them, doing everything to make sure they couldn't see you.
As soon as you saw them get to school safely, you bolted away in the other direction, not wanting to be late to your class.
•
"He's mad at you? Really? You two are so close, it almost doesn't seem possible for him to get angry with you!"
You sighed, poking at your food,
"Yeah normally he doesn't get too mad, but this time is different I guess. He was right though, I should've made the time to bring him to a game,"
Your friend stared at you with annoyance,
"It's totally not your fault! You're always somehow managing your schoolwork and taking care of him at the same time! Of course you wouldn't have that many opportunities to take him!"
You chuckled nervously,
"I guess you have a point. But imagine it from his point of view? Imagine if your older brother never takes you to something, and then, he ends up going with someone else?"
"But-"
"Yeah, I don't really let anyone but you know about my... situation, not even Tooru. Although I suspect my mom knows, but there's not much she can do,"
Takeda sighed in defeat. He wanted to help you. He really did, but there wasn't anything he could do. All he could do was hope for your luck to turn up.
"But enough about me? How are you feeling? I heard someone got an academic excellence award!"
His face went pink with embarrassment,
"It's not much..."
"Don't say that! You earned it!"
He was glad he had you to cheer him up.
•
Miwa approached you,
"What's up with Tooru? He keeps glaring at you and Tobio,"
You waved your hand,
"He's mad at me because I took Tobio to watch a volleyball practice and not him,"
He rested her arm on your shoulder and stared at your younger brother.
"How about you take him now? I think Takeda and I can manage,"
"Really? Thanks Miwa!"
She watched you walk over to your younger brother, telling him something with a smile on your face.
Unexpectedly, Tooru turned away from you, refusing to speak to you, before walking away with his friend.
You walked back defeatedly to the volleyball-loving girl, a dead expression on your face.
"...it didn't work..."
"I could tell..."
The door opened, and your home room teacher called for you.
"(L/n)? Could I borrow you for a bit?"
You took your apron off and walked outside of the room, closing the door. After a few moments you walked back in with an apologetic expression on your face.
"Can you and Ittetsu man the ship for bite? The teacher wants to talk to me about my future plans,"
She nodded with a confident look, and went to fill in Takeda while you left the room.
•
Your teacher handed you the future plan form, which was all empty besides your name.
"You didn't even list a single college!"
You nervously scratched the back of your head,
"That's because... I'm not too sure what I'm going to do..."
Your teacher gestured for you to take a seat, which you did.
"Would you care to explain?"
You sighed, doing everything besides making eye contact with them.
"Well, it's just me, my mom, and my little brother, and my moms always working, so..."
"So?"
You gripped onto your knees as you explained,
"Tooru's only six, if I leave for college, then who's he gonna have at home?"
"So are you going to get a job after high school then?"
"Yes? Maybe? I'm not sure, I'm still figuring that out! I want to do what's best for my family,"
Your teacher sighed before taking a sip of their coffee, soon returning their attention back to you.
"What do you want to do? You said you wanted to do what's best for your family, but what if you did what's best for you?"
That question made you pause, too many thoughts in your head fought to be seen, and only one was able to push down the rest.
"I- I don't... I don't know..."
A silence filled the room as your teacher watched you with a concerned look.
"Look, I'll give you till the end of the month before you need to submit the form. Just... try to figure it out, okay?"
You held the form in your hands, staring at the blank boxes left unfilled.
•
"Hey kid, why don't you forgive your brother already?"
The girl towered over your younger brother, but she wasn't able to intimidate him in the slightest.
"Because he's stupid! He likes Tobio more than me!"
She groaned,
"Kids are so dumb! He doesn't like Tobio more than you, you're his younger brother!"
He pouted,
"Then why hasn't he taken me to any volleyball games?!"
Takeda whispered into Miwa's ear, and she relayed the message to your younger brother.
"BECAUSE HE DIDN'T HAVE THE TIME TO!"
Tooru still wasn't having any of it.
"He should've anyways!"
She didn't want to do this, but she really wanted to end the whole thing.
"Well, soon he won't be able to have time ever!"
She knelt down to be eye level with him, noticing the confused look on his face.
"Yeah, soon, he's gonna go off to college!"
He spoke quietly,
"College?"
"Mhm! He'll go off to some college and live there every day, and only be able to see you sometimes!"
His voice got shaky as tears threatened to form,
"E-every day?"
She nodded, and the boy burst into tears.
"MIWA!"
"I DIDN'T THINK THIS WAS GONNA HAPPEN!"
"HOW?!?!"
"I JUST THOUGHT IT'D MAKE HIM APOLOGIZE?!?!"
They both panicked as they tried to get the boy to calm down, worried about what you'd do to them if you found out they made your precious baby brother cry.
The door opened, and to both their delight and dismay, you walked in.
You were immediately hugged by your brother, who wiped his wet face all over your pants. You picked him up and held him close, trying to wipe his tears away with your thumb.
"Tooru? What happened?"
The tears continued to pour out of his face, and he sniffled before answering.
"DONT LEAVE ME NII-CHAN! DONT GO TO COLLEGE! I DONT WANT TO BE ALONE! IM SORRY!"
He hugged you and continued to cry into your shirt.
All of your reservations about going off to college seemed to be made manifest.
How could you go to college and leave him all alone? Sure he had Hajime, but who would take care of him while your mom was at work? Who'd help him get ready for school?
You sighed, feeling a tether link you to your situation.
"It's okay Tooru. I won't leave you alone,"
He looked at you, snot dripping out of his nose.
"*sniff* you promise?"
You took a tissue and helped him blow his nose.
"I..."
You looked into his sad yet hopeful eyes,
"I promise,"
You instantly felt regret wash over you as you made a promise you weren't quite sure you could keep.
The tears spilling out of his face started to decrease in numbers.
"I'm sorry nii-chan!"
You pat his head as you whispered soothing words to him.
"It's alright Tooru, I'm sorry too Tooru. Can you forgive me?"
He nodded, hugging you tightly as if you'd slip away from him if he let go.
"You two,"
The demanding inflection in your voice sent shivers down the spine of them both.
You sighed, a tired yet annoyed look clear on your face.
"I know you both did what you thought would help, but... don't do something like this again, please?"
They both nodded frantically, uttering apologies to you.
Your tired expression soon faded away, leaving you with a tired blank expression.
"I'm going to ask the teachers if I can go home early today. I'll see you both around,"
They watched you walk away, almost as if there was a hint of hesitancy in each step.
•
When you got home, you made sure to make Tooru as happy as possible, sitting him down on the couch with his favorite alien plushie, giving him a bowl of ice cream while playing his favorite movie.
You thought that this would also be a good opportunity to get some alone time, but the younger boy was adamant about you staying with him.
Eventually your mother came home, thankfully bringing dinner with her. After the three of you ate, she sent Tooru off to play by himself so she could talk to you privately.
"(F/n), I need to tell you something,"
"If this is about the washing machine, then-"
She stopped you with a stern look.
"Listen to me. When you graduate, I want you to go to college,"
You hated to admit it, but when she said that to you, you felt as though the chains of fate that bound you had started to loosen.
"Go to college, get a degree, and get a good job, so you won't have to work as long as I have. You and your brother's future and happiness are what matters most to me, and going to college will insure it,"
You held tightly onto her hands,
"Okay mom. I will,"
You saw her facial expressions soften, and she brought you into a hug,
"Oh my precious boy... I'm so sorry that I've had to rely on you so much,"
You held her tightly, remembering life before Tooru.
"It's alright mom..."
The hug soon ended, and after a deep breath, a smile appeared on her face.
"Well that's enough of that! I have the day off tomorrow, how about we go eat out tomorrow?"
"I'd like that,"
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IM SORRY THIS IS SO LONG AND IDK WHY IT GOT A LITTLE SAD??? I SWEAR THIS WAS SUPPOSED TO BE A HAPPY FIC BUT NOW IVE INVOLVED COMPLICATED FAMILY LIFE AND LIFE DECISIONS