Creating a new family (Chapter 9)
Previous Chapters: 1 // 2 // 3 // 4 // 5 // 6 // 7 // 8
Nagase took Satoshi outside most of the weekend after Satoshi finished his homework on saturday of course. He watched as Satoshi played most of the time football or ran around on the playground trying all the stuff that was there and talking with the other kids who visited the playground on those days. He even seemed to make some new friends and Nagase was really happy.
It was good to see Satoshi laughing more often and playing without much thinking. In the evening he told him stories about his parents and what they did on the weekends and Nagase told him some things from his childhood.
On monday Lara came to visit them in the late afternoon. She smiled at Satoshi and tousled his hair.
“Hello Satoshi. What are you doing?”, she asked curiously as he was bend over the little table in the living room and seemed to be deeply concentrated. She couldn’t see what exactly he was doing since he was almost completely curled around his part of the table.
“A drawing for school,” he mumbled and she blinked surprised.
“Sounds nice, what are you drawing?”
“A dog. It was in the park and I was allowed to play with it. Look, it’s cute isn’t it?” he asked and showed his picture. It wasn’t finished yet but almost and Lara smiled at the detailed picture.
“Wow! It’s really great. You are good.”
“Thank you.” Satoshi smiled happily and put his things away when Nagase came into the room. “Why are you here?”
“Manners, Satoshi. You didn’t even greet Lara,” Nagase scolded and Satoshi pouted a little before he mumbled a ‘sorry’ and ‘hello’.
“Actually I’m here to tell you, that I talked to a nice couple this morning. We talked about you and that we are looking for a family to take you in,” she explained and Satoshi stiffened a little bit.
“So soon?” he asked and she nodded.
“Of course. You can’t stay here forever.”
“I know…” Lara smiled and patted his hair and Satoshi tried not to grimace at that.
“They are called Paul and Jane Mann and they are really eager to get to know you and want to meet you soon.”
“How soon?” he asked and looked a little helplessly and nervously at Nagase who gave him a cup of cocoa.
“Not before the trial, Satoshi. You will live with me till then and we will meet them together for the first times so that you won’t be alone.”
Satoshi nodded and looked into his cup. He didn’t want to leave and he was nervous when he thought about meeting the couple.
“I’m sure you will like them and they will like you. You don’t need to worry, Satoshi,” Lara promised and he nodded once more mutely. He didn’t know what to say. Lara left soon after and Nagase sighed.
“Don’t look so down, Satoshi. I’m sure it will be fine.”
“If you say so… Ne Tomoya? When will the trial be?” he asked lost in thoughts and Nagase hummed.
“Next monday.”
“That soon, huh?” Satoshi mumbled and shook his head. Everything seemed to move too fast now and it scared him more than he had thought at first. He excused himself early to go to bed and stayed more or less silent the next few days, too. Nagase was worried about him but in the end he couldn’t do anything about it but to make sure that Satoshi knew that he would stay with him as long as he could.
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“I’m not feeling good. I don’t want to go to school today,” Satoshi said monday morning and Nagase looked up from his newspaper. Today was the trial of his father and originally it was planned that Satoshi would go to school normally as he didn’t want to be at the trial himself and Nagase was allowed to make the testimony in his place if needed. But the evidence from the police should be enough to convince the judge of the crime. Besides it didn’t seem like Satoshi’s father wanted to put his son into the court and seemed willing to confess too. Nagase looked at the pale face of Satoshi and nodded in the end.
“Okay… I won’t force you to go to school,” he allowed and called the school to tell them that Satoshi would be absent for the day. Afterwards he called Judith so that Satoshi could talk to her about what he wanted to do while he called the police to ask if there was a place for Satoshi to stay.
When Satoshi put the phone down he looked a little better and Nagase forced him to eat some breakfast at least.
“You can come with me to court and sit in another room,” he explained and Satoshi nodded nervously.
“Will I have to go in, too? I don’t want that. Judith said I don’t have to because he is my dad or something like that,” he asked a little panicked and Nagase shook his head.
“She is right. You don’t have to if you don’t want to since you are related, if you are asked. But I don’t think they will even ask you. It’s clear what happened and that should be enough.”
“Can I see him? Not in court but… Before he has to go to jail?”
Nagase watched him for a moment and nodded slowly. “If you really want.”
“Yes… I have to tell him that I don’t hate him. I… really don’t. Is that weird? I don’t forgive him for killing mom but I don’t hate him either. I talked to Judith about my feelings about the trial and everything. And I realised that I want to see him and tell him. It’s not normal, is it?”
“No, it is not weird,” Nagase said after a moment and took his hand in his own to give it a squeeze.
“He is your dad, after all, and you told me he was really nice when you were younger. Even if you don’t really know why you want that, it’s enough that you feel like that’s the right thing. You normally are really good at realising what you need to feel good.”
Satoshi nodded and smiled relieved. He didn’t want to live with his father anymore and he wasn’t sure if he really still loved the man but he didn’t hate him and that was enough for him in the moment. He just wanted to let him know.
They left shortly after and Nagase kept an eye on Satoshi and their surroundings so nobody would recognise the boy or even try to talk to him about what happened or took photos - Nagase really didn’t like reporters at all - and steered him into the building safely. He spoke with a woman at the front desk before leading the boy again to a little room right beside the courtroom.
“You can talk to your dad after his trial. I asked for him to stay in a room for just a few minutes afterwards.”
Satoshi nodded and felt nervous once more at the thought about seeing his dad again. He hadn’t thought he would ever want to see the man again after that day but now everything was different somehow.
“And you can tell me if you decide not to. We can postpone it if you don’t feel up to it later.”
“I promise, Tomoya. Thank you for your help.”
Nagase nodded and tousled his hair grinning a bit before he searched for his mobile. “Here you can listen to some music and read or draw something while I’m away. There will be a policemen in front of the door to look after you so you don’t have to worry about anyone coming in,” he explained and Satoshi frowned. He didn’t trust any policemen.
“I promise they will look after you, Satoshi. You can trust me, can’t you?” he asked and made a mental note to tell his new family later that they had to work with Satoshi to trust police once more at least enough to believe that they will help him if needed.
“Yes…” Satoshi mumbled.
“Drinks are there on the table and I put some snacks in your bag for you.” Satoshi grinned and looked into the bag.
“Thank you, Tomoya. I promise to stay here till you get me,” he added and Nagase nodded a little relieved.
“Very good. See you later, Satoshi.”
He left the room when there was a knock and met Lara on his way to the courtroom. She would attend as well to stand for Satoshi’s wishes and well being after it was decided what to would happen to the man. And to obtain a approval of adoption for Satoshi as well.
“Satoshi is here, too. He wished to meet his dad once all of this is over,” he told her and she frowned a bit.
“And you promised him before talking to me, didn’t you?”
Nagase shrugged and nodded. “Yes, and I’m sorry about that but I thought it would be a good for him. I think Judith thinks so, too, otherwise she would have said so to Satoshi.”
Lara thought about it before she nodded slowly. “I think you are right. But that doesn’t mean that I like his decision,” she said and entered the room together with him.
Next
I hope that part is okay... I really had some problems with it.
And if you are a little confused because of the timeline: I decided randomly that the attack happend at the 20.05.2003 which was on a tuesday, early in the morning. He was in the police station till midday when Nagase took him for ice-cream and lived with him since then. They met Judith on that thursday for the first time. The second time was the thursday afterwards which was when they decided that Satoshi would go to school come monday the same week he met with Sho at home. It's the 9th of Juny at the beginning of the chapter and the 16th at the end. So yup he is at Nagase's for a little while now. Normally they would have tried to look for a more permanent residence sooner, I think. But I know that there are some kind of social worker in Germany where kids live right after traumatic experiences or to be accompanied till a trial of family members start and trhoughout it so that they aren't alone and well cared for. Normally with therapeutic sessions, too... Let's just pretend everything is totally fine like it is?