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After the card incident Kaoru and Kojiro started to grow worried, this was not the first time that this type of meltdown happened, Reki was a sensible child and he tended to cry and scream when he got sad, overwhelmed or overstimulated.
However the little child made a card everytime his nonna visited him, she travels to Japan at least once every three months, and this was the first time that they had this sort of incident. But currently they found themselves dealing two to three meltdowns every week, either about the child saying that he was weird, too laud, ugly, dumb or that he’s drawings were ugly.
Along with this Reki’s behavior started to change and be a cause of alarm, he got more easily frustrated or overstimulated, started to have really intense nightmares and started eating less or completely refusing food.
Recently the situation started to reach a peak when Kaoru noticed bruises on his little arms and back, when asked Reki would say that he fell or that he crashed with something, this caused them to brush it off because the little ball of energy was prone to accidents but when the bruises started to get constant and worse it was clear that Reki was lying.
Now the parents were at a lost with what to do, the lack of eating was causing the young child to loose some weight and the bruises were something they couldn’t ignore.
They couldn’t ignore their son’s suffering but at the same time the source of the problem was a mystery to them, technically there was nothing wrong, Reki was taking his medication for ADHD, Kojiro talked to the daycare principal and Reki’s teacher and both said that everything was regular and they were always careful not to trigger the overstimulation episodes.
But something was clearly wrong because right now Kaoru was cradling Reki after spending forty five minutes calming him from a nightmare and getting him back to sleep.
The pink haired man sighed quietly while laying his oldest song back onto his little bed, after tucking him in and giving him his stuffed penguin, to which he latched immediately getting a little smile from Kaoru, the man made his way back to his room.
Kaoru opened the door and proceed to lay down, he felt a pair of arms wrap around his middle just before he was pulled into his husband chest.
“Maybe we should take him to the doctor” Said Kojiro with his voice still hoarse from sleep.
“Yeah…I will make an appointment from Miya too, it’s been a while since he has gotten checked” Kaoru said making himself comfortable against the other’s chest “Could you take them?”
“Hmmm…yeah I can take Thursday free this week”
Thursday arrived and Kojiro found himself sitting on a chair with Miya in his lap while the baby tried to reach the man’s hair so he could pull on it, while Reki colored on the floor with his tongue out.
They had been waiting for thirty minutes when the nurse called Miya’s name and asked them to go into the room.
The doctor checked both Miya and Reki while asking Kojiro questions.
“Well little Miya seems to be completely healthy” said the doctor making funny faces to the baby who giggled “And Reki, apart from the bruises and little weight lost, seems to be healthy too” said the doctor stucking his tongue out to Reki which caused the kid to stuck his tongue out while mocking with his hands.
Kojiro chuckled at the woman’s antics and sighed, he was relieved that nothing was wrong but it also sent them back to square one.
The doctor looked compassionately to the man before looking at one of the childs in his lap “Reki sweety why don’t you go ask mister Endo for a candy at the from desk while I talk to your dad?”
The child quickly hopped off his father’s lap and ran tripping to the door.
“I may not be an expert and this may not be the case but when my daughter was a little older than Reki she started behaving like him, getting angry easily, having nightmares and getting picky with food” said the doctor once the toddler was out of the room.
“And what was it?” Said Kojiro giving his full attention to the older woman in front of him.
“She was getting bullied at school, this may not be Reki’s case but it would explain both the bruises and the strange behavior”
“But we went to his school and talked to the teacher and she said that everything was normal” said Kojiro while bouncing a now fuzzy Miya who wanted his brother.
The woman put her head on her hand “Sometimes the teachers consider it rough playing or are not aware of the problem at all, some teachers ignore it completely”
“What do you suggest?” Said the man.
“Get your husband to go to the school with you unannounced while the kids are in class, you could use an excuse or simply say you’re there to pick them early and ask to be taken to the classroom so you can check for yourself”
With that Kojiro thanked the woman for her time and advice, just in time because not even a second after Reki reentered the room this time with a strawberry lollipop in his little hand, the man thanked the woman again and told Reki to say goodbye, the little child ran up to the doctor and gave her a goodbye hug and with that they made their way home.
After arriving home Kojiro fed Miya some baby food and prepared lunch for Reki, the rest of the evening consisted of a nap and a mix of cartoon, mega blocks, baby music and crayons.
Kaoru arrived in time for dinner, he asked about the appointment to which Kojiro told him they will talk later.
After dinner Kaoru bathed the kids again, brushed their teeth and got them into their pijamas, Miya sporting a little green cat onesie and Reki a really soft oversized shirt.
After that as usual they watched a movie in the living room, Kaoru had his head on Kojiro’s shoulder while the man wrapped his arm around the other’s shoulder, Miya was laying on his papa’s chest and Reki was squeezed wrapped in a little blanket between his dads.
Miya fell asleep ten minutes into the movie and Reki crashed at the half, normally the toddler would finish the movie and then Kojiro would read him a fairy tale while Kaoru got Miya on his crib, the fact that the young child didn’t reach the end of the film was a sign of how bad he was sleeping lately.
Sharing a concerned glanced the two decided to turn off the movie and call it a night.
Now in their own room, after laying down the children, Kojiro told Kaoru what the doctor had said.
“Bullying she says… well it would explain everything…” Said Kaoru while tying his hair into a bun to sleep.
“We could do what she said about showing up unannounced, last time I went I did call to say I was going to be there” Said Kojiro
After discussing a little longer and deciding on visiting, both went to sleep.
Two hours later laud screaming from Reki’s baby monitor woke them up.
Kojiro got up and ran to the toddler’s room to find the kid on his bed trembling while crying and screaming, the man approached the bed and slowly reached for the redhead so he wouldn’t scare him further.
The nightmare had scared the child more than usual and after calming down enough to talk, the child asked to sleep with his daddy for the night, the man quickly accepted while soothing the child and carried him to his room.
Kaoru lifted the covers to tuck the kid in who cuddled to his papa’s side and quickly fell asleep again.
“We’re going to the school tomorrow” Kaoru said voice thick in determination while looking at reki’s tear stained cheeks, Kojiro couldn’t agree more.