WHAT. Syd’s getting ready for work when a baby Yue comes in the kitchen. WHERE.Death House! WHEN. Backdated to Timeslip 2! WARNINGS. Some mentions of not great parents but it’s pretty cute. STATUS. Complete!
Yue didn't know where he was when he woke up. His room was small, the walls bare. He had a desk to do his school work on, or where he sat to draw most nights. His room was neat and tidy, everything put in its place, no unnecessary clutter.
This room… was not like that at all. It was bigger, the walls plastered in movie and band posters – some of the movies were relatively well-known, like Akira, others were more obscure, like Dead Leaves, a lot of them were B-Horror movie posters that most people would think of as cheesy, but which the young Yue thought were kind of creepy, and he'd never heard of any of the punk bands at all. There were dirty clothes and empty beer bottles on the floor, and a guitar and amp with a pack of cigarettes on top of it tucked into the corner. But the desk that was piled high with school work and sketches was pushed up against the same wall as it always was, and there was a little snowman asleep on the pillow next to him where the teddy bear Sae had given him always slept (he'd thought, at first, that it was a stuffed snowman, but it was cold to the touch and woke up and snuggled in close when he touched it).
He didn't think he was supposed to be here. He was pretty sure if his dad ever saw the state of this room, he'd be very mad, but he was also pretty sure if whoever's room this was walked in, they'd be very mad too. So after a couple or moments, the snowman held to his chest (he'd insisted on coming when Yue had gone to leave the room, and it was kind of nice to get to hug something even if it was a little chilly), Yue made his way out of the room and down the stairs.
His brown hair was shaggy on his head, cut short above his ears, and he wore an oversized t-shirt and large shorts, and a large gauze on his left cheek that almost covered the black and purple bruise there, and a bandage above his left eye.
He froze when he spotted the foreign woman, for a moment hoping she wouldn't notice him – if this was her house, she'd probably be mad to find him there. But he still didn't know where he was, and she was the first adult he'd seen. Maybe she could help, though he didn't know if she spoke any Japanese.
"Um?" he called from the doorway, hugging the snowman a little closer. It let out a small squeak. "Excuse me?"
Syd was up early for work, like most of her Barns days, her giant iced coffee just freshly prepared and stuck on the end of the kitchen counter as she put together her lunchbox for later. Which was dumb, considering she lived only like a five minute walk away, but sometimes the weather was nice enough to lay on the grass and eat out in the sun and walking wasn’t on the docket.
Dol was what alerted her first to the uh- tiny Katou in the doorway, as he immediately got up from his spot sleeping at the front door (so he wouldn’t be left behind) and shuffled his huge body over to the kid to sniff. He passed the test, as Dol leaned forward to give the kid a large lick on his cheek. “Uh-” She probably looked dumbfounded, standing there with her mouth open a little. “Shit.-- Sorry.” He looked so earnest and not anything like what she’d expected.
But Syd herself had likely been that very same brand of small and cute before shit went sideways. She tried for a smile. “Hey, there. Katou?”
That was the biggest dog Yue had ever seen in his life – he didn’t even know dogs came that big, and he shut his eyes and tensed as it approached him, though he made no move to get away from the obvious attack that was coming. But then, instead of biting him, the dog licked him, tongue nearly as big as his entire face, and Yue opened his eyes, looked up at him, and let out a peel of surprised, joyous laughter. He put the snowman down so he could reach up and give the dog scritches behind both his ears.
“Is this your dog? What’s his name?” he asked, smiling up at it.
Which then reminded him that he had to make his own introductions. She seemed to know who he was, but you were supposed to introduce yourself properly the first time you met someone, and so Katou moved away from the dog, holding his arms stiff and straight at his sides, and said, “Yep. It’s nice to meet you! I’m Katou Yue, but you can call me Yue, if you want to. Please take care of me.” At the last sentence, he bowed stiffly at his his waist. But once the proper introductions were taken care of, he relaxed and smiled at her. “Do you know my parents?”
Syd had been ready to call Dol off, though she’d known that older Katou got along with the dog pretty well, kids tended to shy away from ones that big, no matter how gentle they were.
She’d probably never looked as surprised in her entire fucking life as when he burst into laughter, though. Syd was reasonably certain she’d never heard the Katou she knew laugh like that. It made her heart break just a little, given the shit he’d been through.
“Well, hi, Yue. I’m Sydney, you can call me Syd. This is Dol, he’s a good boy, I promise.” While she was sure as fuck glad she didn’t know his parents on account of probably wanting to shoot his dad in the face, explainations became a bit more tricky without that. “Uh- I don’t know them, sorry. You’re in a place called Vallo? We’re all kind of stuck here for a little while, I’m afraid.”
Yue bit his lip. Sometimes, his dad didn’t really care where Yue was, or what he did, so long as Yue didn’t get into any trouble or break any rules, so maybe he wouldn’t even notice he was gone. But sometimes, he got mad when Yue wasn’t where he was supposed to be, and Yue hadn’t managed, yet, to figure out what made the difference. But, well, he couldn’t get mad if Yue was stuck somewhere. And between Dol and the snowman, Yue was pretty sure
“Oh,” he said, after a bit of a hesitation, and then brightened. “Well, I”m sure it’s okay if it’s not for very long,” he said, picking up the snowman and setting it on his shoulder.
“It’ll be okay, promise.” She was doing her best to keep her emotions contained but when he put the snowman on his shoulder, Sydney’s face softened considerably and she practically melted into the countertop. Fuck. Fuckity fuck. Katou was going to probably hate this when he was back to himself but-- well, she wasn’t about to let him run off as a kid without any kind of supervision.
Sydney shot a quick text to Ronan letting him know she’d be fifteen minutes late and turned back into the kitchen. “Hey are you hungry? Do you want some breakfast? Waffles? Cereal?” She hoped one of those worked because cooking was not on her roster of things she was especially good at, but toastering some eggos was easy enough.
Sydney shot a quick text to Ronan letting him know she’d be fifteen minutes late and turned back into the kitchen. “Hey are you hungry? Do you want some breakfast? Waffles? Cereal?” She hoped one of those worked because cooking was not on her roster of things she was especially good at, but toastering some eggos was easy enough.
“Oh! Waffles!” Yue said. “I’ve never had waffles before! I’ve seen them on TV though! Can I have it with sauce too?”
Syd laughed, okay-- that was endearing. She wasn’t much of a motherly-type but she could get waffles done, probably. “You got it. Take a seat.” She set her phone down and pointed to the island at the edge of the kitchen before she went rifling around her freezer for a box of eggos. “What sorts of things do you normally eat for breakfast?”
“Oh, normal things,” Katou said, jumping up. “Rice and vegetables and fish and tamagoyaki. Sometimes my mom gives Father natto, but I think it’s gross.” He stuck out his tongue. “Mom just taught me how to make tamagoyaki, so now I can make a whole breakfast by myself!”
Syd was putting the waffles into the toaster during his explanation, and turned back to him after hitting the button. “So I don’t know how to make any of that except rice. Which means if you’re here for a few days, I might need to be taught how to help you if you’d want it. How’s that sound?”
“Oh, I don’t think I can stay for a few days,” Yue said uneasily. An afternoon, a day was probably fine. But he was pretty sure his dad would notice if he was gone for longer than that. He’d only just come home from a business trip yesterday, he wasn’t likely to go on another one before he realized Yue’d gone. “But if I am, I could make it all by myself! I can make it for you if you want! My mom says I’m a good cook!” He paused, frowned. “So does my big sister, but she’s stupid so her opinion doesn’t count.”
Sydney didn’t want to correct him or ruin the earlier enthusiasm, so she opted to keep quiet on the fact that he’d likely be here at least a few days, if not more.
If she had her way, there were a few people at Vallo that would ultimately end up making it so Katou Yue didn’t worry about not making it home for as long as he remained. First stop, waffles, which popped out of the toaster with a cheerful ding so she could put them on a plate for him. “Well,” Syd deposited the plate onto the counter in front of him and passed over the syrup. “I’d super appreciate that, because I work on a farm and we have a big day ahead of us. Do you like cows and goats?”
Yue tilted his head to the side, thinking about it as he doused his waffles in syrup. “I think so.” He cut into the waffle with the side of his fork, and took a moment to try a bite. “I’ve never actually seen a real life cow or goat before though. Are they friendly? These waffles are really good.”
At his age, the most she’d ever seen a cow or goat was from driving through the midwest (which brought back memories of annoying her older sister with a punch to the arm and well-timed “cow!” shouted in the car), so she couldn’t exactly judge. “They’re pretty friendly. Some of the goats have foam noodles on their horns because they like to headbutt us, but they’re cute so we let them get away with it.”
She pointed to his plate. “I have a friend that would live on them if given the opportunity so there’s more where those came from. I’m sure she’ll share.”
Yue managed to muffle a giggle at the idea of goats running around with foam on his horns, and it was with more than his usual speed that he finished his waffles. When he was done, he took the plate to the sink and stood on his toes so that he could rinse it off. He thought, guiltily, about the fact that he should probably clean it properly, but he was too excited.
“If I promise to finish cleaning up later can we go see the animals now?” he asked.
Given Syd was surprised as fuck that the dish even got washed in the first place, she just shrugged. “Yeah, that’s good enough for me.” She grabbed her lunchbox and iced coffee and gestured to Dol to go for the door ahead of them. “You got it. Prepare to get a little dirty.”
Or she’d introduce him to Opal and probably end up with chaos on her hands, but that was a risk Syd was willing to take.