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synergetic2024-08-08 06:22 pm
senselessness) wrote in synergetic2024-08-08 06:22 pm
Entry tags:
Sometime in the future...
Himawari's crying was usually enough to make her doting father fly, an anxiety-inducing siren call that hit something primal in a part of his soul so deep he hadn't even known it was there--
But there on the stairs, directly in his way, was a different little damsel in distress, and she was not an obstacle he needed to overcome, she was not a problem he needed to solve, and if he kept saying this to himself he might believe it.
"Yukiko-chan, what's the matter?" Yukimura glanced up at the exact part of the ceiling that happened to be underneath his infant's crib and wondered why humans hadn't evolved X-ray vision.
"My tummy hurts."
"Still?" He was concerned. It'd been a couple of hours since she'd gone to lay down over it. He hadn't wanted to jump right to medicine, especially since it would have been somewhere in Bunta's boxes and crates, and he didn't trust himself to recognize the right one anyway.
"It's because I didn't have Hanabi to stay with me," she said, with the roughly the same conviction he'd had when he said he was going to go undefeated across all three years of middle school.
No, when he ordered his teammates to go undefeated.
She was going to be formidable if she took up sports.
"Did Daddy pack Hanabi up?" He'd seen pictures of the stuffed mouse Jackal gave her the day she was born, but no sign of it (her?) since he'd welcomed the Maruis into his home late last night. (Or was it early this morning? The commencement of Himawari's control over his life seemed to have negated his awareness of the passage of time.)
"When did you last see her, and where? Do you remember what box Daddy might have put her in? Or where he put the boxes?"
Yukiko just started up at him with a slowly crumpling face, and Yukimura might have said a few things Yukiko shouldn't repeat, but he knew damn well she'd immediately repeat them, probably to her brother, and he needed to calm her down after his barrage of questions clearly overstimulated her.
And he should have gotten Atobe to move in, because that bastard did have X-ray vision, he thought, as Himawari wailed again.
"Let's go look upstairs together," he said quickly, hoping against hope that Marui managed to get some of the kids' belongings upstairs by now. "I'll carry you," he added, assuming it would be faster and leave less risk of him trampling her in his need to get to Himawari, now.
He opened his arms and luckily she cooperated, and he forced himself not to groan because he'd had no idea she was this heavy and what if he needed to check Himawari's temperature, he was going to need a free arm, could he hold her with just one? At least he didn't have to choose which one... his athleticism was getting him up the stairs under the weight of an eight year old girl and he'd developed Mirage Mirror so he could use either hand for anything, right? Right.
There were crates between Himawari's and Yukiko's room, luckily, and Yukimura somehow, with Herculean strength, kicked it into Himawari's room so he split his attention between both girls.
"Now my ears hurt," said Yukiko, and Yukimura gave her a little squeeze.
"I'm sorry, honey."
"She needs a Hanabi too."
"Soon, soon," he murmured, shifting Yukiko, who, with the patience of a saint and not an elementary schooler, waited for him to look over Himawari frantically.
"What's the matter, darling?" he wondered out loud, unable to stop himself from hoping for an eloquent and detailed answer.
But there on the stairs, directly in his way, was a different little damsel in distress, and she was not an obstacle he needed to overcome, she was not a problem he needed to solve, and if he kept saying this to himself he might believe it.
"Yukiko-chan, what's the matter?" Yukimura glanced up at the exact part of the ceiling that happened to be underneath his infant's crib and wondered why humans hadn't evolved X-ray vision.
"My tummy hurts."
"Still?" He was concerned. It'd been a couple of hours since she'd gone to lay down over it. He hadn't wanted to jump right to medicine, especially since it would have been somewhere in Bunta's boxes and crates, and he didn't trust himself to recognize the right one anyway.
"It's because I didn't have Hanabi to stay with me," she said, with the roughly the same conviction he'd had when he said he was going to go undefeated across all three years of middle school.
No, when he ordered his teammates to go undefeated.
She was going to be formidable if she took up sports.
"Did Daddy pack Hanabi up?" He'd seen pictures of the stuffed mouse Jackal gave her the day she was born, but no sign of it (her?) since he'd welcomed the Maruis into his home late last night. (Or was it early this morning? The commencement of Himawari's control over his life seemed to have negated his awareness of the passage of time.)
"When did you last see her, and where? Do you remember what box Daddy might have put her in? Or where he put the boxes?"
Yukiko just started up at him with a slowly crumpling face, and Yukimura might have said a few things Yukiko shouldn't repeat, but he knew damn well she'd immediately repeat them, probably to her brother, and he needed to calm her down after his barrage of questions clearly overstimulated her.
And he should have gotten Atobe to move in, because that bastard did have X-ray vision, he thought, as Himawari wailed again.
"Let's go look upstairs together," he said quickly, hoping against hope that Marui managed to get some of the kids' belongings upstairs by now. "I'll carry you," he added, assuming it would be faster and leave less risk of him trampling her in his need to get to Himawari, now.
He opened his arms and luckily she cooperated, and he forced himself not to groan because he'd had no idea she was this heavy and what if he needed to check Himawari's temperature, he was going to need a free arm, could he hold her with just one? At least he didn't have to choose which one... his athleticism was getting him up the stairs under the weight of an eight year old girl and he'd developed Mirage Mirror so he could use either hand for anything, right? Right.
There were crates between Himawari's and Yukiko's room, luckily, and Yukimura somehow, with Herculean strength, kicked it into Himawari's room so he split his attention between both girls.
"Now my ears hurt," said Yukiko, and Yukimura gave her a little squeeze.
"I'm sorry, honey."
"She needs a Hanabi too."
"Soon, soon," he murmured, shifting Yukiko, who, with the patience of a saint and not an elementary schooler, waited for him to look over Himawari frantically.
"What's the matter, darling?" he wondered out loud, unable to stop himself from hoping for an eloquent and detailed answer.
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"No, I think it was a smart solution for all three of us. As expected from Yukimura-kun!" Jackal got his house back for moving forward with his relationship. Yukimura got house help. Marui got a replacement place to live. He's grateful, frankly. Everyone just needed a little time; it was always an adjustment to bring someone new into a living arrangement.
He leans over slightly for a better look at Himawari, and feels a smile spreading across his face. She looks so content.
"She has your hands."
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"Where are you getting that from?" he asks, amused. It's not the resemblance people usually comment on.
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Bunta shifts his finger to the top of Yukimura's knuckle, hovering just above the skin as he traces the visible ridges that run from the base of his fingers down into the top of the palm, like spindles.
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Practically cross-eyed from only sleeping in two-to-three hour intervals since Himawari came to dominate his life, Yukimura gives Marui a good look at his elbow before burying it in his friend's upper arm.
"Hands are all the same. Difficult to draw."
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But he had a dreamy look slowly glazing over his face. He wondered if Himawari would be the type to scare herself with her imagination? He didn't remember ever believing in things like that, though he did think Sanada had taken some of his games too seriously back then... but Sanada took everything too seriously.
"I want to know already if she'll like art, and tennis, and gardening," he murmured.
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"Exciting, isn't it? Watching them grow into their own person is the best."
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"I would be okay if she was a singer," he said, remembering his earlier contemplation. "Or something elegant like dressage or gymnastics. But maybe she'll surprise me and be a wrestler."
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He sets his glass down and lets himself settle just a little bit more back against the couch.
"That would be nice. Well, she'll probably go through lots of interests while she grows. Can't know what you like until you try them all!"
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But he could get used to this. Having another adult nearby makes sleep seem less dangerous. Less neglectful.
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This time Yukimura's eyes don't open again, not until he hears thunderous staccato beats coming down his stairs and across the room. But they slip closed again quickly, since he can't imagine the source of the sound, and hides them, for good measure, behind a bony, shoulder-shaped pillow.
1/2
The music changes to the hard, deep pound of a drum as it starts up a dance number. Boom ba-boom boom boom boom, bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-buh--
2/2
"Dad dad dad dad dad DAAAAD!"
Couch. Keita. Bunta's eyes blearily hone in on the wriggling mass of offspring practically lodged head-first in his stomach.
"Pancakes!!!"
"Pancakes? What time is it?!"
The sun is out. It's morning already? Ughhhhhhh.
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Himawari waits expectantly for him, with a coo of greeting and arms outstretched and yes probably a used diaper. His nose wrinkles and he apologizes as he carries her off to be changed, hoping it hasn't been too long.
He picks up his phone (damn, forgot to charge it), too, and frowns.
"Half past eight."
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Pancakes. Kid needs food. Bunta pushes himself up, collects the mostly-empty glasses from the prior night, and starts walking for the kitchen with Keita hot on his tail.
"With the pillow top and strawberry!" Keita eagerly added.
"Right. Pancakes with whipped cream and strawberry. Banana too?"
"Yeah!"
"Okay. We remember pancakes take time to make, right? Do you want to wait for pancakes or do you want to eat something now?"
"PAAAANCAAAAAAAAAAAKES."
Bunta dumps the drink remnants down the sink and rinses the glasses. "I can't hear you when you're that loud! Try an indoor voice."
"PANCAKES PANCAKES PANCAKES PAAAAAAAAAAANCAAAAAKES!"
"Huh? What's that? Boiled spinach and natto you said?"
A little alarm bell goes off in Bunta's head as he hears Keita's voice transform into a whine teetering on tears. "Nooooooooooo, I want pancakes...!"
"Got it. Thanks for not yelling inside so I can hear you. Pancakes coming soon."
Without too much thought beyond that, he washes his hands and starts pulling ingredients for pancake batter. Might as well make enough for everyone!
When he notices Yukimura return with Himawari, he calls over his shoulder, "Hey, want pancakes with us? I can make something lighter too."
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Hopefully. But also, suspiciously.
"Are you big enough for pancakes?" he asks her, deciding that she probably wanted breakfast more than the devoted charioteer ferrying her around in his arms.
"Do you have time for pancakes?" he asked, after a moment of contemplation. Himawari, as usual, was less than forthcoming...
By the time it sank in that she couldn't answer him in sentences and he would be better served babytalking, he thought, she'd probably be graduating.
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Three... two... one...
Marui's face falters. "Crap...!" And high-tails it up the stairs to Yukiko's room, where he pats her lightly on the shoulder until she wakes.
"We messed up. Past time for school-- up up!"
This, unfortunately, left an already fragile-from-hunger-and-teasing Keita standing alone and abandoned in the kitchen. No more pancakes??
That little thread of warning Bunta heard moments ago now fully unravels into a fit of tears and wailing.
"I waaaaaaaaaaaaant paaaaaaaaaaaaancaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaakes...!"
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But of course she joins in, with a heartfelt wail of sympathy.
"Paaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!"
Quickly, quickly-- he doesn't have time to count to ten and he doesn't feel right about setting Himawari down while she wails so pitifully, but the cause is what has to be remedied right now, and Yukimura racks his brain for a pancake recipe that isn't forthcoming.
And Marui couldn't be kind enough to work from a mix.
Still, Yukimura just has to assure him of pancakes, right? He quickly gets Himawari settled in a high chair and looks up pancake recipes on his phone.
"We should have time for pancakes if we gets things started for your father," Yukimura tried. He quickly cracked an egg into a bowl. Things should be fine if he kept the wet and dry ingredients separate, right?
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"I told you, didn't I?" He says to Keita with just a slight edge of exasperation in his voice. "Pancakes take time. Try and wait a little."
Moving to the counter, he places a giant mixing bowl on top and measures out the flour into a sifter. Now that Keita's crying is in full swing, it isn't so easy for him to turn it off, so Bunta simply works through it. Trying to calm him down will make pancakes take longer, and sometimes a kid just has to cry it out. Sucks for their ears!
"Thanks-- we're gonna need three more of those!" He says to Yukimura as he starts sifting through another round of flour. "Five cups of milk after that."
Once the flour is sifted, he adds baking powder, salt, and sugar to the dry ingredients bowl.
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(For some reason.)
Having a task helps. He can concentrate on that.
Yukiko stumbles into the room with her uniform on but hair unbrushed, and sits at the table, ignoring the crying baby and also Yukimura's daughter. Her earplugs were safe under her pillow, and she regretted it.
"Can you stop?"
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Keita by now actually has been starting to wind down-- until his sister grouches at him and he, in all the glory the logic of a four-year-old can muster, fires back the wittiest comeback he can think of in defense through a pitiful screech.
"You stop...!"
"Hey, hey," Bunta warns from a few feet away. "Both of you, stop and take a breath."
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He hears a gasp of air and sees Yukiko take a breath and not give it back. Keita quickly copies her.
He glances at Marui, thinking that this cannot be something he taught them. This is childish innovation.
Himawari's calmed enough to just look curiously, and Yukimura doesn't want his peace bought by the children's faces turning blue.
"I need proof you can both still eat before I give over this butter," he says, a bit concerned.
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"Ah! You both got me. Good job. Ok, who wants sprinkles on their pancakes?!"
"Meeee, meee!" Keita quickly calls out, his tiff with Yukiko and the upset that preceded it forgotten. Sprinkles!!!
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This is the future, Yukimura thinks idly. And the present. Marui's always had an enviable ability to just roll with whatever happens to happen around him, and it's probably what's made him so close to his children. He has so much patience for them. Yukimura's felt a sudden sympathy for parents who terrify their children into submission, but it makes Marui the better person that he hasn't.
He sees a cue to put coffee on, however, thankful that he fell asleep before drinking enough to trigger a hangover.
"Mmmmee!" Himawari adds, earning herself a smile from her adoring parent.
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