A/N: Yo ho yo ho a pirate's life for me. (notes readers) Oh, hello! (promptly gets rid of pirate hat) A new (devastating, destroyer-of-the-universe) ficlet. Enjoy. You come across this plot very often, though.
Disclaimer: I don't own anything from Flame of Recca - absolutely none of its entities, people, animals, vegetables, sock puppets or monkeys.
Babies
It was, perhaps, one of the easiest questions (not to mention frequently asked) by children Ganko's age, but it still took Fuuko aback. The way it was enquired - so utterly innocent and peaceful - with those tranquil, big eyes that stared up at her, it was practically scary.
"Where do babies come from?"
Naturally, it was a first instinctive response to either collapse in a fainting spell, or run around hopelessly screaming like an avid fan-girl having just received an autograph from someone she adored beyond boundaries of nature - just without the joy. Well, Kirisawa Fuuko did both.
"I beg your pardon?" she asked breathlessly to confirm that she hadn't gone deaf.
"Where do babies come from?"
Still that same intonation - clueless and oblivious to that harsh, sickening world around her. Ignorance was bliss after all, Fuuko conceded. "Well, it's...it is sort...it's sort of hard to explain."
"But teacher told us to go back home and ask our families where babies come from. It's for our Science project."
Sure, leave the dirty work to the parents slash siblings, Fuuko mused. Whatever were teachers getting money for these days? Honestly...it was stupendously idiotic. Weren't the teachers paid to teach these stuff to kids and act all boring? Fully aware that Ganko didn't have a very patient nature (courtesy of being her adopted sister), Fuuko carefully considered her next move. Would she take Ganko to Yanagi or Tokiya for her answer?
Recca and Domon were far behind times so she had cancelled them out immediately.
She imagined Yanagi's reaction - stuttering and blushing. Bad idea to ask her. Tokiya, on the other hand, would probably recover from shock, but would then proceed to give some long-winded speech of which nobody knew half the things he was saying anyway.
It took her a minute to remember Yanagi was away on vacation with her knight-in-shining-armour Hanabishi Recca.
Shit.
That left only one option. Grabbing her coat, she prodded Ganko to the door and rushed her all the way to the stoic Mikagami Tokiya's house.
----
The prospect of Fuuko ambling over to his house was appalling enough, thank you very much, but to have her instructing him to tell her little sister how babies were developed was far beyond the line of limitation. Tokiya wondered if she had any brains to think beforehand at all.
"And why, exactly, should I tell her?"
"Because you're the smart one."
He arched a fine eyebrow with much expertise. "I still fail to see how you come speeding over to my house demanding me to give free biology lessons to your sister. I've always been smart, but nobody so far has ever come here to request explanations on how babies are born...except for you, but I expect that's your primitive instincts shaking up."
Ducking a flying object - goodness knows what it was - that came his way, he eyed Fuuko, who was red in the face. "May I remind you that this is my house, Kirisawa, and that I do not appreciate anything closest to your violent hands to come crashing at me because of mere facts."
"Shut up, you ice cube!" She huffily took a seat then forced an unconvincing pleading expression. "Please? Just one favour and I promise I'll never eat your school lunch again."
Tokiya gave a derisive snort. "That's like a monkey promising not to eat bananas - wait, I've nearly forgotten. You are one, aren't you?"
"You blasted--!" Fuuko was about to snatch a thick dictionary lying idly on the surface of the table before her when Ganko banged the door open hotly. The former Ensui wielder groaned - just what he needed, a smaller replica of the oh-so-violent Fuuko destroying his house. He would've been lucky if they left him even with a little scrap of floor, at the rate they were demolishing his possessions.
"I just wanted a good explanation!" she wailed, near to tears, as far as Tokiya saw, liquid brimming in the child's eyes. "Why are you dragging me halfway around the world to Tokiya-niisan's place just to answer my question???"
He was about to chuckle in amusement when he caught Fuuko's 'please' look. It was probably the urgency in her expression that made him sigh and gesture for Ganko to take a seat next to him as he started telling her the basics of the reproduction system. By the end of it all, Ganko gazed at Fuuko quizzically. "What's he talking about? I asked about babies."
Wondering why he even bothered, Tokiya smacked his forehead and, suppressing the urge to punch the girl - or both of them, he whirled Ganko around so she was facing him once more. "When a man and a woman like each other, Ganko," he remarked tersely. "They go into a room--"
"Mi-chan!" Fuuko shrieked, ramming her fist into his head.
"ITAI!" He stood up and delivered one of his oh-so-infamous death-glares at her. "What in the world was that for, Kirisawa? You asked me for an explanation, I'm giving it to her!"
Through much effort, as Tokiya could see veins practically bursting on her neck, Fuuko shut her mouth, and let him proceed with his not-too-complicated speech. "Back to the topic before I was rudely interrupted" - he shot her another death-glare at that point, as though daring her to say something - "they go into the room together, sit down on the bed...before--"
"I don't think this is appropriate--"
"--before" - another fierce glare, and he paused - "They take out a sheet of paper and write a letter to the stork, therein applying for a baby. 10 months later, the stork will come and drop it by their doorstep and they have a baby."
Ganko's face cleared, Tokiya noted, by the very inaccurate description of a baby's origins, while Fuuko was aghast. "Ooh! Like in Dumbo!"
An eye twitched convulsively and involuntarily, but he forced himself to utter sonorously, "Yes. Like Dumbo."
Fin.