Enji frowned down at his son. Surely he wasn’t bored already? He’d been talking about this trip for weeks! So much that Enji had almost regretted giving him so much warning.
Touya swayed slightly, his body listing towards Enji for a moment when the elevator stopped with a mild ding.
They hadn’t even made it to the support labs yet. Enji was very familiar with Touya’s feelings on the support labs. Something, something “whoosh” and “clang” and “they’re so cool!” Enji didn’t quite understand the appeal but thought it had something to do with his son’s fascination with the toy race cars he’d gotten as a gift last year.
“Touya?” He asked, abruptly realizing that his son had stopped chattering about anything and everything. It had felt like he hadn’t stopped talking from the moment he found out about the trip and now Enji wasn’t sure when he’d stopped. “Are you alright?”
The child hummed absently and blinked. “I’m fine.” He insisted after a moment’s delay. “Wanna see your office! And the support labs! And…” He trailed off with a small frown.
“The training rooms?” Enji suggested, the memories of Touya enthusiastically telling him about all the cool features of his own agency’s training rooms came with a strangely fond feeling.
“Yeah!” For all his delayed attempts at bravado, there was something very wrong in his tone. It had none of the energy he’d displayed last night or even that morning. He hadn’t even done the little hop he liked to perform to punctuate his enthusiasm.
Enji hummed, considered his little boy and the hallway before them. Rei was better at noticing these things but he wasn’t completely oblivious. Heroes couldn’t afford to be oblivious. They really hadn’t gotten very far in the promised tour at all and his son was already flagging. He knelt down to face Touya better.
His eyes were a bit unfocused and he reacted to Enji’s movement on a slight delay.
Enji reached out and settled a hand on his son’s forehead.
This seemed to be offensive somehow and Touya squirmed in protest. “I’m not sick!” He declared, apparently still aware enough to make the necessary connections.
“Your forehead is too warm.” Enji told him. Even he could tell.
“Your forehead is too warm!” Touya retorted with a petulant stomp, it almost held enough energy to be convincing.
“We’re going home.” Enji announced. There was no need to push the child and he would be much happier touring Enji’s agency later, healthy enough to barrage everyone in the office with fun facts about their workplace they already knew.
“Nooooo…” Touya whined, flopping forward in a move that was likely only partially motivated by protest. He was burning up and no doubt miserable enough that keeping himself upright and active was a chore. Enji caught him easily and shifted to pick him up all the way without comment. “You promised…”
“We’ll reschedule.” Enji clarified. He doubted Touya had the energy for a real fight but those were always best avoided. His son could really turn up the volume when he wanted to.
“But–” Enji sent him a quelling look, it was not the end of the world to do this next week or even next month, and nearly startled visibly as Touya’s eyes started to well with tears.
“What’s wrong?” He asked, hoping that it was something actually fixable. Children could be so confusing at times, upset at the strangest things.
Touya didn’t answer right away, choking back sobs and hiding his face in Enji’s shoulder.
“It’s not fair!” He wailed and Enji did his best to remember Rei’s gentle suggestion that ‘life isn’t fair’ wasn’t an ideal response to childish agonies and often only made things worse.
“You can come back when you're better.” Enji tried to be reassuring.
Touya didn’t have much of a response to that beyond more heartbroken sobs. Enji did his best to not let it get to him and started the journey to his office. It was a longer journey than usual as he tried for slow, smooth movements that wouldn’t shake the sick child into nausea.
They stopped briefly at his secretary’s desk, someone really ought to know he was leaving soon and if anyone knew where they kept the office first aid kit with the thermometer it was her.
Touya didn’t stop crying until after they had arrived which was a testament to how truly miserable he must have been.
Enji’s secretary not only presented him with a thermometer and cold medicine for children but also gifted his son with a small sticker with Enji’s face on it. He couldn’t remember approving those. She told him all his public-facing employees had been handing them out to small children for years now. She also told him that their internal research indicated a surprisingly positive impact on his public approval. Touya took the sticker and did not otherwise engage or remove his face from where he was hiding it in Enji’s shoulder.
They made it into his office without further incident and Enji set his son on the most comfortable chair he had and fetched a glass of water.
“I feel icky.” Touya finally admitted between sniffles after downing the glass. “My throat hurts and my head is bleh and I’m hot and my stomach hates me.”
“I see.” Enji responded. He really didn’t have much that would help in his office, unless bandages and disinfectants could fix a mild illness. He glared at the cold medicine and decided it probably wasn’t going to hurt anything.
“Would you like more water?” He asked as Touya took the medicine.
“I guess.” Touya kicked his foot out absently. “We’ll come back, right?”
“Yes, Touya.” Enji reassured him. “You can pester my sidekicks all you like when you don’t have a fever.”
“You promise?” He looked up with his big teary eyes and there was nothing Enji could do but swear they’d return soon.
“I wanna go home.” He admitted in a tiny voice. “Can we go?”
“We’ll get you home.” Enji agreed and picked him up again, rubbing his hand slowly up and down his son’s back. Touya buried his face in his shoulder and said nothing.