tagging @fire-tempers-steel @passthroughtime and @c-cw-f-saeko (sorry if you don't have anything to share lol)(but i must participate) & whoever else wants to do this (lately it's been really forcing me to write a lot)
lost judgement spoilers below:
another bit of a post-LJ au, where kuwana takes care of mitsuru while reiko is in prison. writing to make mitsuru's disabilities more accurate from canon and to mend my broken heart.... :cry:
The beep at nearly-eight is the rice cooker. Kuwana's bones creek, aging him as he pulls himself up from a squat. He paddles two servings of rice into his bowl and pairs it with natto, reheated soup, and a cold karage cup he bought from Seven. The vegetables steam a little longer before he puts a tiny serving in front Mitsuru and hurriedly finishes off the rest.
Mitsuru mashes a piece of carrot with his rubber-banded chopsticks. He ate picky like his mother, and scowled like her, too. Their shared nose and thin eyes crinkled harshly, disgusted by the steamed purée Mitsuru unaffectionally—and ironically—called baby food. It was swallowing practice and a nutritional trick, suggested in a letter from Reiko—a response to his medical documents:
...It's not very difficult to do. Steam them for thirty minutes. If you lose track of time and think you've cooked it for too long, add another ten minutes. I did that when he was little...It should be the consistency of chewed gum or silt...No soy sauce...He doesn't like broccoli. No broccoli. Potatoes are the best for gaining weight, cut them into sixths. Give him small portions or he won't eat it. Smaller than you think...If you can encourage him to practice swallowing, you can encourage him to eat more. He's malnourished now. You know that...Don't push him. I think he'd cry. It would be like trying to make an infant solve a jigsaw puzzle....
Don't push him.
No broccoli.
Thank you.
Kuwana picks a piece of broccoli off of Mitsuru's plate and eats it. It tastes like hot ice cubes. Mitsuru looks offended and unhungry, leaning back in his wheelchair with his shirt over his outie.
"Let's go to the beach later," Kuwana suggests, swallowing the rest of his breakfast whole. "After you finish."
Mitsuru nods while tapping the plastic tubing with his nail. He looks up—almost done. "Tastes like," he exhales slowly. "I wonder."