Kotetsu loved coming home. The visits were few and far between so the time spent in his old house with his family was precious. He got to hang out with Kaede, walk around his old town and think nostalgic thoughts and enjoy his mother's delicious cooking. Pretty much everything was great when he came home.
There were a few downsides though. Besides Muramasa and Kaede occasionally giving him a hard time, his mother would make him do chores. He'd tried to talk his way out of it, claiming that this was supposed to be his 'down time' and he shouldn't be made to do work but Anju just had to give him a look and he was off to do what she asked, head down and shoulders sagging in defeat.
This particular time she asked, or told, him to fold the laundry. Not an overly difficult task, but a very boring one. So, there he stood at the dryer, folding the family's clothing and organizing them into piles; one for his mother, one for his brother and one for Kaede. After what felt like forever, he finally finished and bent down to shut the door on the machine.
"Oh, I missed something," He mumbled, noticing a small, red piece of fabric that had been hiding in the drum.
Pulling it out, he saw it was a pair of underwear and thought, 'Definitely too small to belong to mom or Muramasa so they must be Kaede's' and just as he was about to fold them, he noticed something written across the back.
Reading the curly white writing, his face grew hot and he nearly tore the garment in half.
"AARGH!" He cried just as his daughter walked by the door.
Curious as to what her father was freaking out about, she peaked her head in, noticing his tense posture and asked, "Dad? What's the matter?"
He turned to her and she was surprised by how red his face was as he looked at her with wide amber eyes.
"What the heck is this, Kaede?" He demanded, his voice cracking slightly in a mixture of disbelief, anger and despair.
Confused, Kaede looked over at the pair of underwear he was holding up. When she read the "Mrs. Brooks" printed on them her face flushed as red as his and she jumped up and snatched them from his hands.
"They're my underwear! Don'ttouchmythings!" She shrieked, clearly very embarrassed.
Putting a hand over his face in exasperation, he groaned, "Where did you get that anyways? You're only ten for crying out loud! Get rid of those!"
Kaede glared at her father and stomped out of the room while muttering, "God, dad, you're so old-fashioned…"
Staring at the place she'd been standing, Kotetsu's shoulders dropped and he sighed. Another downside to coming home was that every time he did, Kaede seemed a lot older, more in attitude than actual age, and half the time he could never catch up enough to be able to deal with it.
He shook his head and rubbed the back of his neck. One thing he was sure of; Bunny could never, ever know about this…