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Chapter Text

Kid's Craft!
When his mother insists that her son, Rei Ryugazaki, volunteer at the local library with the kids to help him with his people skills, Rei truly believes it is the end of the world. That all changes when his friends from the track team bring along some other friends who end up bringing other friends. Eventually Regisa omg wat a summary

Kid's Craft
Day one, Tuesday: Clown faces
Hours of Operation: 10-12:30
Volunteers on Hand: Melissa Reid, Patrick Matsumoto, Rei Ryugazaki

"Please don't touch me," Rei tried to say as cheerfully as possible to a small child who was tugging on his pants to get attention. The small girl held up a blank clown face template to Rei, who crouched to speak with her. It had only been five minutes of his first day, but his face was in pain from his fake smiling. The little girl didn't say anything, simply held it up to him. Rei made an overly concerned face and took the clown template, "You didn't put anything on it?" The girl just continued to stare between Rei and the clown face. "Um," Rei tried, "did you need the facial pieces?" She turned her head to the side and nodded. Finally, something to work with. Rei stood back up and turned around to the counter to get the pieces for the face. One crescent for the mouth, two circles for the eyes, a triangle for the hat, four pieces of red string for the hair, one pom pom for the hat, one small triangle for the nose, two large circles for the cheeks. Once assembled, he crouched and handed the kit back to the girl. She smiled brightly at him, her confused look gone, and ran back to one of the many small tables to work on her newly assembled clown face. (Rei didn't understand why she didn’t have the pieces; everything was set up on the tabl- oh. All the facial pieces were on the floor around her. He would have to pick those up later.)

"Did you count her on the clicker?" Melissa asked, always busy. She was around 70, and incredibly short, about 4'9".  She was constantly moving, and her apron matched her entire personality. Her sister made the bumble bee patterned cover up and gave it to her a very long time ago, as Melissa had told Rei. She really told him a lot of things, even though he had been there, by looking at the clock, only seven minutes.

Rei searched the counter for the small metal clicker that was used to count the number of people who entered the craft room. Rei pressed the little button once and quickly realized that it was a very nice sensation. He would be the counter from then on, and put the small, silver, perfectly shaped for your hand clicker in his pocket. He checked the time and wondered where the little girl's parents were. Rei thought of asking Patrick, but he was nowhere to be found. A man in his early 50's, Patrick was the head of Kid's Craft. He was also incredibly short, about 5 feet flat. Being the head of Kid's Craft, and many other parts of the Children's section of the library, he was constantly going back and forth between the front desk and the craft room.

There wasn't anyone in the craft room besides Rei, Melissa and the small girl. Rei already assembled over 50 Clown face kits and had three sitting on every small, circular table besides the ones that were lying in wait on the work counter. There were four on the rectangular tables because they could hold more people. Though the tables only came up to just below Rei's knees, the chairs were even worse, and parents still had to sit with their children.

Patrick came into the room then, or maybe it would be more accurate to say that he was just suddenly standing next to Rei - maybe the room was the thing that moved while Patrick stayed still.

That didn't make any sense and it didn't stop Rei from jumping about a foot in the air when he turned and saw the small man standing there. Patrick laughed and set down his huge stack of papers; clown templates. He had a pleasant laugh, and was a generally pleasant man in his sweater vest and wire framed glasses. The mousy haired man looked over and saw the girl sitting by herself, "Where are her parents? Do you know?"

Rei shook his head, "No, she has been in here alone since we opened the doors."

Melissa rushed over and jumped into the conversation, her small voice full of concern, "You mean she's in here all alone?"

Surprised that she hadn’t noticed yet, Rei nodded, "Yes, ma'am."

She looked lost in thought and leaned her hips against the counter while she cradled an arm and tapped a finger on her chin, "I'm gonna go ask her where her parents are."

Rei checked the clock; it was almost ten after one.

Rei looked back down to the counter when that time registered in his head, and he snapped up to look at the clock. It remained the same, ten after one, the thin red hand ticking away the seconds. Momentarily confused, Rei looked at his phone and his confusion was sorted out. It was almost fifteen after ten, the opening hour. He had been there fourteen minutes.

He breathed deeply, thinking that today would be a very, very long day.

***

People slowly trickled in, right until 10:30.

Then, very suddenly, there were over one hundred people in the small room all at once.

At 10:28 Rei noticed that from across the hall, where the main attraction Story Time was held, people were slowly exiting and coming over to Kid's Craft. He smiled brightly at them and welcomed them into the brightly lit, friendly colored room. He informed them that "Clown faces are on the tables, please take a seat!" and noted them down on the clicker. Standing at the doorway into the craft room, one bears to witness the onslaught of people coming out of Story Time. His eyes widened in slight fear and his smile got even brighter, sunnier, faker, as small children, babies, pre-teens, elderly, and adults frolicked, ran, stumbled, sauntered, and slugged into the room.

Rei tried to smile and keep calm and tell everyone where to go. The room filled up and people continued to come, ignoring the sign that said they were open until 12:30 and they could come back. Some people did leave.

But finally, finally, the hallway outside of the craft room was empty. Looking down to the counter, Rei saw that 108 people were currently in the room. Give or take the few that left or snuck in behind a large person or cluster of people.

All the crafts that had been pre-made were gone from the counter and Melissa was scrambling more than she usually was and Patrick was gone to make more face piece templates to cut out to make more because they were gone already and holy shit that was a lot of people to be in that small of a room.

Rei quickly slipped into step beside Melissa and scrambled to make more Clown kits.

***

It was over, it was over, it was over, it was over.

It was 12:40 and the last person left and it was over.

Rei slouched against the counter and breathed deeply. That was traumatic. He looked down at the counter. 0337, it read. He was crying on the inside as he set the clicker back to 0000 and got to washing tables. There was glue - glitter glue - stuck to the tables. For the life of baby Jesus it wouldn't come off.

"Oh, you should go on home, Rei!" Melissa insisted, busily scraping the tables down.

"I, I think I will, actually," Rei put his paper towel in the trash can and took off his volunteer badge.

"See you tomorrow then?" the busy bee asked.

Rei cringed a little, "Yeah! Tomorrow."

***

The morning was practically nonexistent and Rei soon found himself running off to the library for Kid's Craft. In his neighborhood, some kids were having a birthday party. He realized that he recognized them from Craft time, one of them was the first little girl who stared at him blankly. She had the same expression on her face as she pointed at Rei. All the children's faces turned to him and screamed. Looking down at himself to see if anything was wrong, and finding nothing, he looked back up to find himself surrounded by children. This party just so happened to have a clown. The short, fat clown looked at Rei brightly and began chasing the blue haired teenager as he ran, screaming, down his street. The children were running after him as well. Everything was moving so fast and he finally got to the library, out of breath and head spinning. He turned to see that the clown and children were still behind him when he ran inside the building and an alarm went off. Rei had given up any hope of today being a good day. The alarm continued, insistently burrowing into his head. Turning to see the children and clown laughing and staring at him, Rei woke up.

It was 6am. Rei's usual morning schedule consisted went like this:

1) wake up
2) restroom
3) two cups of water
4) one cup of coffee
5) study for maximum thirty minutes while he finishes his coffee
6) go for a brisk jog around the neighborhood
7) come home and do a short workout w/ plenty of yoga
8) shower
9) breakfast with family
10) prepare for day ahead

Rei liked having exactly ten items on his list. Ten was a nice, even number. It was beautiful.

When he got to step ten, today Rei chose to lie back on his bed and relax for a little while. He ran a hand through his still damp hair and checked his phone. He had a message from Ciel, a member of his track team.

Mornin' Rei boi

Rei decided to shoot a reply.

Goodmorning, Ciel

Wacha up to today on this fine Wednesday

I have to complete volunteer work today

Sounds dull, he sent another before Rei could reply, wait volunteer work tell me more?

At the library, I help children complete art crafts

Omfg, rei no
One day, one day and u dnt know when, we will come *we will come*

Please, no.

***

Chapter Text

That Wednesday was not the day that his friends would come. That didn't happen until next week, when three high school track runners appeared with their younger relatives.

Ciel led the way with his 5 year old nephew. When the three of them walked in and Rei clicked the clicker seven times to signify each person entering the room, his face burned red. He directed them to seats and told them how to make the craft and then he went back to the working counter for the volunteers and tried to ignore them.

They made sure to make ignoring them difficult, however, as it was a quiet time in the craft room. Story Time across the hall was still in session and there weren't many people in the children's department altogether. The track teenagers were the only ones in the room besides Melissa, Rei, and one other family who sat quietly making their craft in the far corner of the room. Ciel and Rei's other track friends sat nearest to the door and counter/workstation for volunteers. Rei busied himself in assembling more craft kits for the next wave of people to come in, but when Ciel cried out, "Makoto!" the blue haired volunteer turned his head.

An older teenager with two younger siblings who Rei recognized as a regular that came every Wednesday stood in the doorway with a dopey smile on his face. He greeted Ciel and the pair of them spoke for a moment before 'Makoto' guided his siblings over to the countertop and Rei, "Hey, what's the craft today?"

Rei reached behind him, "Jumping frogs, you'll need to pick out pipe-cleaners for them. One per crafter, please."

Ciel rushed over, "My pipe-cleaner came undone, Senpai!"

Glaring at Ciel for the use of the term 'senpai', Rei handed him the basket with curled pipe-cleaners, "I am in no way your senpai, Ciel."

"You know each other?" Makoto asked as his siblings found seats and began coloring in the frog.

"Oh!" Ciel exclaimed, "Rei goes to our school!"

Makoto smiled up at Rei and held out a hand, "I thought you looked familiar."

Rei shook his hand and smiled a real smile, "Same to you."

Just then, Story Time let out and Rei grabbed the clicker, apologizing quickly to Makoto and Ciel before excusing himself and greeting the rush of new arrivals.

When people stopped coming in from the front and there was no one in the carpeted and decorated wooden walled hallway, Rei stepped back inside of the Craft room. He took the basked with curled pipe-cleaners and walked around the room, making sure that people had one if need be.

There was a chorus of, "Reeeeeeeiiiiiii-chan!!!" that resounded from near the door of the craft room. Smiling brightly, Rei maneuvered his way back over to his track teammates.

Pretending that they were needy children, Rei responded in a sickeningly sweet voice, "Yes?" He crouched next to the table and placed the basket on his knees. He looked at them worriedly and listened.

Making sure to cheese up the act of needy children, Ciel and friends pouted and held up their crafts, "How do we put the pipe cleaners on the frog?"

"Yea, Rei-chan, how do we put the pipe-cleaners on the frog?" Ciel's niece asked.

Rei smiled, "Easy!" He hopped behind him to grab the tape off of the counter before taping the orange curled fuzzy thing to the back of the cut out frog.

"S-s-sugoi!!" the track teammates and their smaller siblings exclaimed.

Rei shook his head, "Oh my god, put the pipe-cleaners on and then just go. Check out books. This is a library. Look at the books." He left that tape roll with them before going back to the desk.

A pair of small children ran past Rei. He stepped to the side and put his hands up, "Hey, no running," he warned.

"Ran! Ren! Hey," Makoto rushed up behind the twins. He looked up at Rei and smiled wide, "Thanks for catching them."

"Of course," Rei said before he felt pressure on his legs. He looked down, startled, as Ran and Ren had latched themselves to Rei's legs. "Hey, hey, hey, hey!" The blue haired volunteer yelped.

"I made my frog for you, Rei-chan!" the girl shoved her dark blue frog up at Rei.

The boy looked at his sister before he thrust his up as well, "Me too!"

Behind him the track members all sang out, "Awwwww!"

Rei knelt down and asked gently, "Don't you want to take them home?"

"No, I wanna give it to you!" Ran responded stubbornly.

Rei carefully took the frog before looking over to Ren, "You too, huh?" He nodded vigorously and handed the frog to him. Rei smiled at them, "Thank you very much! They are very beautifu- hey!" He held the blue frogs up next to his hair, "Did you do that on purpose?" They both nodded.

"It matches you, Rei-chan!" Ren explained before leaning forward and taking Rei in a hug. Ran followed suit and Rei gently patted them on the back before standing up, forcing the kids to let go.

"I will put them on my lanyard," and he did.

Makoto laughed and placed a hand on one shoulder each of his siblings, "Alright, kiddos, ready to get some lunch?" There was a little chorus of 'yah's between the two of them and Makoto thanked Rei for his cooperation and help with the twins.

As they left, Rei leaned against the counter and looked down at the two little frogs jumping off of his lanyard and thought about his effect on kids in Craft Time.

Chapter Text

Run.

When you calculate your velocity you can find exactly where your problems are and how to increase that velocity.

Increase your velocity, Rei. Go faster.

Winded, Rei looked up to Ciel who had been timing him. The expression on his face was carefully masked; Rei knew that that run had been terrible. But no matter how he calculated it, he couldn't figure out where his problem was.

"Rei, I don't get it," Ciel remarked as he walked to the blue haired teen. He handed him a water bottle from which Rei drank eagerly. "You're one of the best runners on this team but that time was kind of really bad." Rei did not respond and Ciel continued, "What's going on?"

"I don't know. The only factor that is different is my volunteer work, but that should not affect my running. I need to re-examine everything and make new conclusions," Rei muttered.

Ciel patted his back, "Well whatever it is, find out fast."

Rei simply nodded and walked off from Ciel, taking his stopwatch with him. He reset the watch before he read the numbers on the watch.

****

Rei dreamed in color that night. Abstract shades and tones met with one another and swam against one another, creating a beautiful medley of deep purples and peachy pinks. He woke up feeling warm and empty.

He stretched and looked to his calendar, noticing that it was Tuesday. Another day, another Kid's Craft.

****

The small blond was awoken from deep sleep with the ringing of his phone. Nagisa lifted his heavy head from his pillow, his curls in a wild halo around his head. He blinked, his eyes refusing to open wider than narrow slits. He finally uncurled his leaden arm from under his pillow and fumbled around on the bed until he located his phone. His eyes narrowed and opened wide to focus on his phone. The time was the first thing he noticed, 8:27am. The fact that it was Makoto calling him was the second thing he noticed. His green haired friend wouldn't be calling him this early if it wasn't an emergency.

"Hallo?" Nagisa slurred.

"Nagisa!" Makoto boomed through the phone. He hadn't mastered the art of speaking normally into a phone and Nagisa had to take the phone about a foot away from his ear to recover before putting it back near his ear.

"Yah?" The sleepy blond replied.

"Do you want to meet up today?"

"Um," Nagisa mumbled and thought about what day it was.

Makoto continued, "I'm going to take the twins to Kid's Craft and Haru is going to come with me I thought why not make it official and bring you too? We can hang at my place afterwards!"

Nagisa blinked, "Yeasure."

"Sweet! The twins have been bugging me about when they were going to get to see Haru and you again."

"Mhmm," Nagisa rolled over and sat up.

"Alright I'll be at your place at 10ish, alright?"

"Yeasure. See ya," Nagisa knew that Makoto would know that the reasons for the short answers would be because of the time. He wouldn't blame him.

Nagisa hung up and flopped back down onto the bed, just a few more minutes hours of sleep.

**

It was nine when Nagisa woke up for real. He went to the restroom and splashed water on his face to wake up. His stomach growled and he went into the kitchen and read the note from his mom on the fridge, "there is a good HEALTHY breakfast prepared for you young man! <3 mom." He rolled his eyes and laughed, taking the note off the fridge, opening the door and looking in. He saw the plate with eggs and veggies and fruit and potatoes and cringed. He took out the plate and took everything off save for the egg-veggie omelet so that he could microwave it.  While it was microwaving he ate some of the strawberries before glancing around the room and seeing the chocolate puff pastries under the cake lid. He bit his finger before smiling madly and reaching in to grab two. He ate them quickly, licking his fingers as the timer on the eggs went off. The more he thought about it, the less he liked eggs, and the more he thought that his dog would definitely love eggs. That is how Nagisa ended up eating a breakfast of chocolate puff pastries and strawberries.

He watched TV for a little while before he checked the time and got dressed to go with Makoto and Haru.

Finally there was a knock on the door and, as Nagisa was now fully awake, he hopped over excitedly and opened the door. He was attacked by Ran and Ren.

The first thing he saw when he walked into the craft room was that lovely ass.