Chibi Trouble

Three weeks of looking after Zelda and Haru, and Seth already wanted to pull his hair out. It wasn't twenty-four seven. It was eight hours at school. Not even that. Just during class changes and during lunch. Not even three hours during the day. But it was three straight hours of those two getting into one mess after another. Looking after them wasn't really the worst of it, he admitted to himself. Posing as a high-schooler had its own package of head-aches. He did his best to keep quiet and ignore the dreamy stares of the girls. All of them, he had soon realized. He was definitely Rhia's son when it came to attracting too much of that kind of attention. The teachers kept their distance, though a couple seemed rather fond of him. He was smart, did his work, and for all they knew, stayed out of trouble. When he had to find a club after school, as it was a requirement, he decided to join the soccer club, and after only the first couple of meetings, he'd been hailed their star player. All of this attention, good attention, was driving him mad. So why did he keep coming back? He wondered the same thing after each day, walking home with Zelda and Haru's hands clutched in his own.
That afternoon during lunch, he picked out some place quiet to eat, finding a spot up against the side of the school. Before sitting down, he made sure he could see both of them on the playground, then made himself comfortable. They rarely spent too much time during school with him, and he was glad for it. They were making friends and learning to stick together. A part of him was glad he was there to watch them growing up. He kept an eye on them over his sandwich, always wary of them getting into trouble. It happened almost every day, though none of them would ever say that to Rhia or Rhayvin.
And, after about twenty minutes, it would seem that day was no different. Neither of them ever picked a fight, but Zelda's innocence and Haru's height just seemed to make them desirable targets for bullies. And, if one of them got into a scrap, the other wasn't far behind to try and help, only to get into just as much trouble. Seth sighed when he saw a middle schooler shove Zelda off of her swing. She landed in the sand, so Seth wasn't too worried about her getting hurt, but just getting shoved was enough to make her whimper and start to cry. That would get Haru's attention and he'd hurry to her 'rescue'. It was always the same.
Seth got to his feet and started to walk over, doing so slowly, hands resting in his pockets. A few that saw the scrap start would notice Seth starting to walk over and they'd get the attention of a few others. By the time Seth was ten feet away, just about everyone nearby was watching in silence.
"Lemme go! Put me down, right now!" Haru struggled against the kid's grip, being held up off the ground by the back of his shirt.
The older boy would laugh. "Or what?"
Zelda, still crying, would run over to the boy, gripping his shirt and tugging it as hard as she could, which wasn't saying much. "Let him go! Oh, please let him go!"
"Do as she says."
The boy would stiffen, slowly turning around to look towards the voice behind him.
Seth stood with his arms folded over his chest, looking rather menacing, a talent of his. "Put him down. Gently."
The boy gulped and slowly set Haru back on his feet, backing away. When Seth didn't go after him, he'd turn tail and run as fast as he could away from there.
Seth sighed faintly as Haru and Zelda ran to him. They just never learned. The bullies, or these two. He shook his head as he sank to one knee and hugged them close. "When will you two learn to stay out of trouble? At least put up a fight. I can't be here forever to bail you out all the time. You need to learn to look after yourselves and each other."