#sparrowmoth

    Kaoru was having a very, very bad day. First, he slept through his many alarms and was almost late for a meeting; he forgot to eat breakfast too. Then, he had to deal with clients that take up way too much time and space. And he had to kick out a very influential client for being too handsy and getting in Kaoru’s personal space after being told not to plenty of times. Finally, he kept having to restart a piece for an upcoming gallery because he didn’t like it. However, before he could throw his canvas across the room Carla dinged. 

    “Incoming call from Seaweed Brain.’”

    “Thank you, Carla. Please transfer the call to my phone.” It was the lunch rush, why was Kojiro calling him? 

    “Okay, Master, transferring call.” Once the call was transferred, Kaoru picked up immediately.  

    “Shouldn’t you be working right now, Gorilla?” Kaoru was worried, although he would never admit to it. 

    “Yeah, yeah, yeah, four-eyes, I should be working but I just got a call from Miya’s school,” Kojiro sighed. “Apparently he got into a fight with another student, can you pick him up? I can’t leave the restaurant, it’s incredibly busy.” Kaoru pinched the bridge of his nose, he could hear how stressed Kojiro was.

    “Yes, I can pick him up. Now get back to work,” He hung up without letting the other respond. 

    He was secretly thankful to take a break, after his incident with Adam, his wrist couldn’t handle working all day without breaks anymore. He would try to remember to take some painkillers and ice it after he picked up Miya. He grabbed his keys, locked up his shop and went to the school.

    It was lunch by the time Kaoru arrived and he was reminded of the fact that he forgot to eat this morning. He walked through the halls towards the principal's office, unfortunately, this wasn’t the first time that Kaoru had met with Principal Wakabayashi. He spotted Miya sitting outside of the office next to another kid.

    “Are you alright, Miya?” Kaoru calmly asked, he wasn’t happy with the younger skater but he wasn’t going to yell at him, he knew how it felt. He massaged his wrist, the pain was starting to get harder to ignore. 

    “Yeah, I’-” 

    “He started it! I didn’t even do anything!! He just comes up to me and hits me!” The other boy screeched and started to cry. This didn’t make his day feel any better, honestly the boy’s screeching was giving him a headache. Even so, Kaoru was livid, not only did this child interrupt Miya, he never asked what had happened and the child was making a very out of character claim about his son Miya. Knowing the younger skater, he would never start a fight without reason.

Kaoru looked the other kid straight in the eyes, calmly enunciating every word that came out of his mouth, “Did I ask?”

“N- Nnn -oo, no,” The child blubbered. Kaoru turned back to Miya and inspected him for any injuries. 

“Miya, do you want to tell me what happened before we speak with the principal?” They had to wait until the other boy’s parents showed up until they could speak with the principal. Kaoru would prefer to speak with Wakabayashi as soon as possible. 

Miya glared at the other boy before answering Kaoru’s question, “Daichi and a few other students were making shit up about Takashi. I told all of them to stop but they wouldn’t, instead they just tried to ruin my notebook.”  

“So,” Kaoru paused to absorb the information, “did you punch him first?”

Miya shook his head, “No, he started it. I tried to stay away from him but he tried to punch me so I fought back.”

“I did n-” He shut his mouth the moment he made eye contact with Kaoru. 

Kaoru sat between the two boys to make sure that they didn’t get into another fight while waiting for Daichi’s parents. While they were waiting, Miya was telling him about a new game that was coming out soon that he wanted to play. He was also telling Kaoru about teaching Reki a new trick and Reki was having trouble getting it down. He asked Kaoru if he could help Reki out with the trick later. 

Daichi’s mother showed up and apologized for being late, she couldn’t leave work right away. They all headed into the principal’s office to finally get this figured out. After everyone got situated within the office, Wakabayashi started speaking.

“Daichi, can you tell me what happened?” 

The boy told a completely different story from Miya’s with many inconsistencies. Wakabayashi didn’t even give Miya a chance to speak and immediately took Daichi’s side. 

“Are you not going to listen to what Miya has to say?” Kaoru asked. 

“I don’t need to. I know the Kato family very well and I know that Daichi would never bully or start a fight with anyone. Also, this isn’t Miya’s first offense, he’s been in fights before. So, why should I listen to a broken record?”

Kaoru stood up, placing his hands on the desk and leaned forward. “Why? Well, I happen to know that the Kato family pays you a lot of money to keep their children out of trouble. But if you do not take Miya seriously then I will tell the Board of Education every bad thing that you have ever done. Even if it is slightly bad they will hear about it, I will ruin you. Now,” he paused, “will you take him seriously?” 

All the principal could do was nod and look over at Miya to let him speak. After listening to both sides, he made a better decision. Miya was in the right and was defending himself and Daichi will be suspended for a week. Everyone was finally released from this shitshow of a meeting. 

“Hey, Cherry,” He turned to look at the kid, “You didn’t have to do that. I would have been fine, with whatever punishment he gave me.”

Kaoru just shook his head and frowned, “But that’s unfair, you should be able to tell your side and be heard. Does Kojiro just accept whatever punishment the principal gives without listening to you?” If Miya said yes, Kaoru was going to kill Kojiro. 

“No, he makes Principal Wakabayashi listen but it’s always my fault no matter how hard Joe tries to argue.” 

Kaoru just hummed, he’d talk to Kojiro more about that later. Speaking of Kojiro, the lunch rush should be about done by now. They agreed to head over to Sia La Luce for something to eat and Kaoru really needed to rest his wrist. 

“Incoming call from Seaweed Brain.” Speaking of the devil. 

Miya scoffed, “Seaweed Brain?” Kaoru may be fond of the kid, but Miya was uncultured in this moment and it disappointed him. 

“Thank you, Carla,” Kaoru glared at the younger teen before answering the call. “What do you want?”

“Hello to you too, Princess. How did the meeting go?”

“The meeting went fine, there’s no need to worry.”

“That’s good, are you coming by the restaurant?”

“Yes, Kojiro. Miya has homework he needs to do and I haven’t eaten, we’ll be there soon.” Kaoru once again didn’t wait for an answer and hung up, he was very hungry. 

Ten minutes later they had arrived at Sia La Luce and sat in their usual spot at the bar. Kaoru helped Miya with his homework while they waited for their food, Kojiro stopped by and talked with them when no one else needed his attention. 

After they ate, Miya went to hang out with Reki and Langa but would be back at the restaurant for dinner. Kaoru on the other hand, went up to his and Kojiro’s shared apartment above the restaurant to relax. He took some painkillers for his wrist and listened to an audiobook while putting ice on it. 

*****