she's just gonna ... snuggle into his lap and Not Talk about everything thats going wrong
It was still too early to tell.
There wasn’t a body. Or a sign of forced entry. Or anything like that. He was just…gone.
He lived in a secure building. He would’ve been safe. He should’ve been safe.
The police wouldn’t do much. Couldn’t do much.
‘You know,’ Some detective had told them, ‘A lot of the time, after a traumatic event, people will…disappear. Run off somewhere. Try to find some semblance of normalcy again. Do you think it’s possible tha–’
Tora stood and left the room.
Tomoko was shaking her head while tears ran down her face.
‘No,’ She signed. ‘No, he wouldn’t–’
They didn’t talk about it on the way to Tensei’s parents’ place. Nor did they make any mention of Tomoko’s bloodshot eyes when Tensei’s mom looked on in concern when handing Tensei the diaper bag.
It wasn’t until they were back in their own apartment, the baby bouncing along in some weird circular seat that Tensei didn’t recognize when Tomoko brought it home, probably because Tenya, as a baby, did not require any extra leg workouts as he probably would’ve launched himself through the ceiling, had he bounced a little too hard.
But their baby was, at least, for now, without leg rockets. So bouncing was an acceptable activity. Bounce away, tiny human.
Tensei was pulled from his thoughts when his arm was nudged up, and Tomoko crawled into his lap. Instinctively, Tensei’s arm tightened around her, pulling her close, and pressing a kiss to the top of her head.
“Maybe he went to Milan.” Tensei mumbled. “If I were him, I’d go to Milan. That’s where all the fashionistas are, right? Or is it Paris? Both? Is it both? I feel like it’s both. Milan sounds funner, though. if you ask me.”
He rambled on about absolutely nothing for a few minutes, one arm around her waist, and his other hand stroking her hair slowly. Tensei tilted his head to catch her eye, pouting a bit as he sighed. “Hey–hey, seriously, we’ll find him, alright? He’s one of the best out there. I’d say it’s more likely that he went on vacation and forgot to tell all of us than it is that anyone could even lay a finger on him. Seriously. For…for all we know, he might have…I don’t know…a cousin none of us know about that he took the train to see. Or–” A gasp. “A secret child with an ex-lover…or–wait. Does he–is Best Jeanist gay?”
Tensei furrowed his eyebrows as he thought for a long moment, before letting out a small, defeated sigh. “No, no, seriously, I…I know this is really hard. I was about ready to turn this country upside down when you were gone and I couldn’t. I couldn’t move. I couldn’t do anything, but–but I had to trust that…everyone else would be able to handle it. i think this is…kind of like being on a hero team…” He mumbled, eyes shifting over to the baby, who was now hopping while shaking some plastic rattle–the sound of which was definitely hitting the back of Tensei’s skull in all the wrong ways. Oh, he’d be feeling that later.
“It’s…well, when you’re on a team, you have to trust that everyone does their jobs, right? That’s how you do the most efficient work. If you spend your time worrying if Tiger is doing this or that then it detracts from the work you’re doing. But when you all…trust each other, then that’s when the good stuff happens, right? That’s how lives get saved. When you were gone I realized…well, me being involved in that at all would slow everyone down. I’d be a liability, if anything. So I had to sit, and wait. And try my hardest to not stress out because when I stress out too much I get sick and oh my god, if I have to hear that stupid doctor lecture on keeping my heart rate down one more time–” He trailed off, shaking his head. “No–I mean–yeah, we’ll be up the police’s ass about it, of course, but we aren’t…in a place to go save the day anymore. We need to trust that heroes will keep on saving and the police will keep on…policing…? Even without us. Because now…”
Tensei squished Tomoko’s cheeks in his hand, guiding her gaze to the still bouncing baby. Rock on, little weirdo.
“This is our job now. And It sucks that this is happening, and I know how easy it is to feel helpless right now, because I get that, trust me, I do, but–Hakamata kept his ranking while being on a hiatus. That is someone who is so loved that…his fans won’t let him stay missing for long. And neither will the rest of the pros. They’ll find him. Someone will. I’m sure of it. And we’ll do what we can, too. But that’s all we can do. That’s all anyone can ever do.”
Tensei squished Tomoko’s face again, letting out a laugh. “Hey! Look at Mommy! How silly! She has a fishy face!!”
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