Chapter Text
Reigen was getting paid to watch over children. If you had asked him, he would have prefered watching over dogs instead. Nonetheless, rent could not pay itself and here he was, at the Kageyama’s, patiently waiting outside for the parents to come answer the door.
He had been waiting for quite a while now. He reached over to ring the doorbell again when the door suddenly opened to reveal a smiling lady with two little boys by her side, not willing to let go.
“Mama, nooooo!” The smallest one cried, tugging harder. “I don’t want a stinky man in our house!”
Reigen resisted the urge not to choke on the spot.
Mrs Kageyama sighed, pulling both of her sons’ fingers off her work dress and grinned awkwardly at Reigen, as if the little one hadn’t made that comment moments ago. “I’ll be back around ten, help yourself to the fridge and their bedtime is at nine. I’m sure I’ve already told you about Shigeo’s...powers?”
Ah, yes, the powers. It made Reigen’s eyebrow quirk up in confusion when he had first read the email about it, at first, he thought she might’ve meant he had some weird talent that no other kids had, but the more she described it in later emails, the more he realized she wasn’t joking. Shigeo could make things float, bend spoons and break glass, but he was only ever a handful when he was upset, so Reigen should be fine.
Hopefully.
“Yep, I’ll be fine Mrs Kageyama,” Reigen grinned, shooting her a double thumbs up. The older son giggled and the younger one growled.
“Okay. Perfect. Now you two better behave, alright?” She turned to her sons, giving them a stern look, before she gestured Reigen inside and closed the door behind her. The house went uncomfortably quiet.
“So, let’s introduce ourselves shall we?” Reigen clapped his hands together, making his way to the living room with the two kids trailing behind him. “My name is--”
“Reigen Arataka, eighteen, stinky.” The younger one answered for the man, gripping onto his brother with strength that made Reigen want to wince in pain. The brother didn’t seem to be bothered at all.
“Okay, what about you then?” Reigen wasn’t liking this kid one bit, the boy kept calling him stinky, and he had showered before coming over so he should be smelling like lavender or something right now.
The boy didn’t answer, he only kept glaring at Reigen. The teen swayed his arms back and forth in the middle of the living room, staring at the clock, it was only seven, he wondered if they had dinner yet. “Which one of you is Shigeo?”
The older one squeaked in surprise -Reigen assumed he probably didn’t think the teen would know him by name yet- and slowly raised his hand. Reigen grinned and squatted down to meet the boy at eye-level. “Your mommy told me about your powers, I think they’re pretty cool, mind if you show me?”
Shigeo’s eyes twinkled in excitement, nodding his head so furiously to a point it made Reigen worried if it’ll roll off his neck. He frantically looked around the living room, finding something to float, before settling on a couch cushion.
He pointed his small finger at it, and to Reigen’s surprise, it actually began to float. It smacked Reigen at the back of his head moments later, causing the man to stumble a bit, which made Shigeo’s younger brother burst into a fit of giggles.
“Sorry, I’m still learning,” Shigeo dropped the cushion to the ground and folded the edge of his shirt with his hands. Reigen rubbed the back of his head, standing back up, it didn’t hurt all that much, but it definitely caught him by surprise.
“It’s okay, have you guys eaten yet?” He mumbled, he didn’t feel like cooking today though, so hopefully they would say yes.
“Yes.” The two said in unison, and to confirm it, Reigen glanced towards the kitchen to see dirty dishes resting within the sink. Good, though he should probably help in washing those later.
“Can we have ice cream?” The younger one asked, still clinging onto his brother like his life depended on it.
Reigen smirked, folding his arms. “How about you tell me your name first then maybe you can have some.”
Shigeo watched as his brother pressed his head against his shoulder, mumbling incoherent angry words before answering their babysitter, “Kageyama Ritsu and I’m five.”
“Five?” Reigen squinted at the boy. Sure, Ritsu definitely looked the age, but he sure as hell didn’t sound like a five year old, he was a bit… “Smart for you age, aren’t you?”
“Dad says that a lot, he says I got it from mama. Now can we have ice cream?”
Reigen sighed, adjusting his hoodie before walking towards the fridge.
The three of them were huddled at the front of the TV, three bowls of half melted ice cream were sitting in front of them as they watched Wall-E. It was going to be nine soon, but the movie was going to end too, so the kids could afford sleeping a little later than usual.
Which was what Reigen thought until he realized the two were already asleep.
They were small enough, he could carry them up the stairs and towards the bedroom easily, but he had underestimated the weight of two healthy children because the moment he tried to heave them up, he nearly tumbled. One at a time it is then.
He went for Ritsu first, since he was easier, a bit smaller, and brought both his arms under the small boy and pulled him up.
Ritsu didn’t notice a thing, he was still sound asleep and breathing steadily as Reigen began to walk up the stairs and towards what he assumed to be the boy’s room. He bent his knees a bit to turn the knob with his occupied hands and pushed the door open with his body.
There were two beds in the room, so the boys both probably slept in the same room, there was a froggy patterned bed and a plain blue one. Reigen made a guess that the blue one was Ritsu’s, since Shigeo’s shirt had an identical frog cartoon on it.
Reigen left the door open so he wouldn’t have trouble entering back in later, and skipped down the stairs. He still needed to wash the three bowls that were still on the floor and turn off the TV, then maybe he could read a book while waiting for their mother to return.
With all that thinking, he had forgotten to step on the last step and promptly tripped, face first into the floorboard. A hundred and one thoughts ran through his head, ranging from ‘How could I be so careless’ to ‘God I’m so dumb’ then there’s ‘Not my pretty face!’. A small percentage was him cussing. He awaited to kiss the floor, probably knocking out a tooth in the process.
Except his face didn’t touch the floor because he was hovering above it.
“Bubby Reigen?” Shigeo rubbed his eyes sleepily, a finger pointed at Reigen while holding a cup. He probably used his powers to fill himself a cup of water while Reigen was tucking Ritsu into bed.
“‘Bubby’?” Reigen raised an eyebrow, and was promptly dropped to the floor with an ‘oof’.
Shigeo blushed at his mispronunciation of brother, too sleepy to properly say it. Reigen waved a hand, dismissing the nickname and pushed himself off the floor.
“Let’s get you to bed, okay?”
“Okay.”
Reigen wiped his hands on his jeans after washing the three bowls and one cup from earlier, he quickly checked the time to find out it was already a quarter to ten, thanks to a bit of procrastination after bringing Shigeo to bed, and flopped onto the couch, sighing loudly.
“Yes!” He punched the air, he had survived babysitting the Kageyama’s, now to wait for their mother to come back, which won’t be long. He had picked up a book about exorcisms and such yesterday, which was the closest thing to psychic powers, he wanted to know more about it in case Shigeo became an issue.
Fortunately, the kid was like a little angel -a contrast to his brother-, so he didn’t need it after all, but Reigen didn’t mind reading about new things anyways. Besides, this Mogami guy sounded pretty interesting.
There was a familiar sound of the front door clicking open and he lifted his eyes off the page of his book to see both Kageyama parents coming in.
“I hope they weren’t an issue,” Mrs Kageyama said, setting her bag on the table. Reigen got off the couch, tucking his book away and smiled widely.
“Not at all! Little angels, in fact.” Reigen said, placing both his hands behind his back. Mr Kageyama snorted, laughing loudly.
“Ritsu? Angel? Sure,” He said, wiping the corner of his eyes. “He’s only ever nice to people he likes, it’s a surprise he tolerated you. The first time he went to preschool and found out he wasn’t gonna be in the same class as Shigeo, he cried angrily and called the teacher names.”
Reigen laughed nervously at the thought of Ritsu being incredibly mad, on one hand, it was cute, on the other...it was a good thing his brother was the one with powers, otherwise, a lot of people would’ve been hurt.
Mrs Kageyama passed him the money, it was around 2000 yen, and smiled at him one last time, “I’ll put in a good word for you.”
Assuming he was still going to babysit children. He took the money and smiled back, nodding a thank you and a goodnight before leaving.
In the end, he still preferred dogs over children, but this was certainly an experience.