A/N: Challenges:

Prompt in Steps Challenge, 5.05 - serenade
Diversity Writing Challenge, g6 - write a threeshot
The 28 Days of Love Challenge, day 2 - Tomoko/OC (with the OC narrating, and I don't know how that happened...)
New Year's Mini Advent (2016), write a fic between 3-5k

For a Romeo and Juliet Moment
Chapter 1

If you're dating a woman with kids, it's generally a good idea to clue the kids in. How much you clue them in depends on their age and life experiences, of course. You wouldn't bother telling much to a baby, except get familiar with them so they gurgle instead and don't scream their cute little lungs out when they see you. If they're about three or four, you say you're a friend of their mother or something like that until you're closer to the "I'll be your new daddy" part of things and things don't get too complicated. But when the kids are eleven, they're at the point where they might not want a new daddy in the least and that's another thing that needs to be taken into account.

But if you date their mother and it becomes a long-term thing, you'll have to address that little concern sooner or later. Maybe you can get into the house a few times before you're caught. Maybe that's not even worth the risk because the mother's going to take their kid's side in all this, aren't they? And you also have to squeeze in some bonding time with the kid to show you're not inamiable to having kids sprung on you before even the marriage, that you don't care they're some other guy's kids and you'll treat them well and, by that age, it's a concern of the kids as much as it is of the parents because no-one ever talks about the good step-parents unless you happen to know one personally...or your bestie does, maybe. If you're close enough to talk about personal stuff like that. If you want to talk about stuff like that on your lunch break, I guess.

But yeah. If the kids catch you kissing their mother, or worse… I guess that's one of the worst nightmares of a guy dating a woman with kids. Or a guy with kids. Or even when you get married, does that awkward fear ever go away because it's more acceptable now? Maybe i'll find out later. Maybe now. marriage isn't quite on the table yet, but before that…

The kids catching you kissing their mother isn't the worst situation to be caught in. Funnily enough, I wound up caught doing almost nothing at all.

Well, not almost nothing. I was just trying to be romantic. Like leaving flowers and a note on the doorstep and hiding to see her reaction because I still wasn't too sure how the first date had gone and I wanted to see if she'd be amiable for another one… but I'm a bit of a coward.

Of course, at this point, I hadn't thought too much about the son. It was one date, after all. It might never become relevant.

Except he'd stopped by the library after school and was behind me when I turned around.

And somehow, I startled more than him.

To be fair, he had the advantage of approaching me. But I had to admit, at the time, I thought it was a very brave or very friendly eleven year old that would sneak up to a total stranger at their front door. Unless he mistook me for the postman.

Except the postboxes were in the front yard, and they were in the first floor hallway. Beyond the lobby, even. In the small hallway that led to only one room, so not many misunderstandings possible there.

'I'm sorry,' I stuttered. Was I scared of a kid? Nope, but I was a little worried about where things were going to go. The flowers were obviously poking out behind me. "I'm just - '

He didn't interrupt me. Or ask me anything. I kind of expected a "who are you" somewhere in there, or "what are you doing here" or even the blunt "are you dating my mother"? - though I was hoping to avoid the last one. He didn't seem too concerned either, though he was in the more advantageous position, blocking my escape route. Of course, if I was the villain (not that there is a villain in this tale, mind you), when (or if) his mother opened the door, i could take her hostage.

Except I know him better now and am fairly sure I'd have bruised ribs and a knocked head - or worse - if I looked like I was going to try that. That unthreatening stance is tricky and tends to catch people out. But you just don't expect an eleven year old to be any match at all against a grown man -

But how was I supposed to know that Kimura Tomoko's child - or children, as it was - weren't normal eleven year olds at all?

So, anyway. The boy in the hallway, and there was me trying to stutter through an explanation that didn't say anything at all while he waited patiently. Or not patiently, but he waited anyway. Until he decided it just wasn't worth waiting anymore or he was simply tired of waiting, but the question was: 'Are you here visiting Mum?' Which implied he had a bit of an idea of who I was already.

Except I wasn't visiting. I was trying to leave a bunch of flowers and surely he hadn't missed in front of the door.

'Mum's not home,' he continued.

My face might have fallen. 'Well… can you make sure she gets those?' I gesture to the flowers, then totter a few steps. He doesn't move aside, though he gave a little shrug and nod.

It was awkward. My face was getting redder because here I was, telling the son to give red flowers to his mother from a man that wasn't his father, and he was barely batting an eyelash. Of course, Tomoko had been divorced for a long time so maybe he was used to admirers coming after his mother. Or maybe he did want a step-father. Not really the sort of stuff you talk about on first dates. Then again, i guess previous marriages aren't either, but Tomoko made sure I knew what I was getting into before I took her out. Or, that was the idea anyway.

She didn't mention how awkward it would become with the son around.

'Do you want to come in?'

It took me a moment to realise he was talking to me.

'You shouldn't invite strangers in.' At least I managed not to stutter that.

He shrugged though. 'Didn't you take my mother out on a date yesterday? I don't think that's much of a stranger.'

'Two days ago, actually,' I correct, wondering how he managed to get the date wrong. Unless Tomoko had been on a different date, and that thought shot my confidence down a few more notches. Not that there was anything wrong with a single, uncommitted woman going on separate dates with different people.

'And if you hadn't, you would have agreed with yesterday.' He brushed past me to unlock the door, then invited me in again. He'd carefully sidestepped the roses, so I picked them up and followed him inside, still wondering if that was a good idea even if I seemed to have passed a test i hadn't even know I was undertaking.

Which is another problem, similar to when you date girls or womens with siblings with a sibling complex, but you think you've avoided that when the woman's old enough to have an eleven year old child - except the child can just as easily pick up that role, and you can't even dodge them like the sibling because the kid will be living with the pair of you if you ever get married and, unlike a sibling, the mother can't just ignore the child's opinion on the matter, and neither can you if you want to marry the woman.

Though this was after the first date and really too early to be thinking about that stuff because all i'd been trying to do was getting a second date.