Disclaimer: If I owned No. 6, I wouldn't have always drawn Nezumi with only one pant leg tucked in. Is it just me, or is the mystery of the tucked pant leg bothering anyone else out there?
She couldn't believe it when Shion's mother had told her babies needed a bath almost every day. But she had insisted, so here Inukashi was now, shirt drenched up to her shoulders as she wrestled with the slippery kid.
He burbled happily – evidently the tyke really liked water. Inukashi reached down and lathered up some soap in her palms before applying it to Shion's hair, trying to keep the suds out of his eyes as he shrieked in protest. The kid could barely say ten words, but he always ran his mouth like he had all the stuff to say in the world. What a chatter box.
"Come on now," she grunted, trying to keep him from falling backwards into the shallow tin she was bathing him in. "If you stopped wriggling so much this would be a lot easier for both of us."
"No. No. No." The angry little face scrunched and pouted, trying to twist away from her hands. She held on resolutely, lips pursed in concentration.
A faint memory rose into her mind. She chuckled. "The baby doth protest too much, methinks," she said.
The words sounded strange coming out of her mouth. Who was she kidding - she wasn't Shion, with his dumb look of rapture as he pored over books, or Nezumi, that crossdressing jerk who had made an art out of melodrama. She was just Inukashi, dog lender.
"Abubu?" Shion burbled inquisitively. His hands reached out to grab at the hair falling over her face. "Mama?"
"Hey, where do you think you're reaching?" she said, sweeping her long hair out of reach of those small, grasping fingers. She scooped him up and laid him on a towel, ruffling him dry. It had been yet another gift from Karan – she really had to stop accepting this kind of stuff.
"Metinks." Shion rounded out the word sloppily, baby drool coming out of the side of his mouth. "Metinks metinks metinks."
"What are you trying to say, you silly-" She paused, the word registering. "Oh. Oh Shion, you aren't really saying what-"
"Metinks, Mama."
She couldn't believe her ears. Her lips tweaked. "Oh man, wait till I tell your Uncle Shion you're trying to quote Shakespeare at this age." She started cracking up. It was just too funny. Baby Shion, trying to use such big words before he could walk.
And I taught it to him.
Wiping tears from her eyes, Inukashi forced herself to stop laughing, wheezing. "Oh you ridiculous little baby, you couldn't just start off with words like 'cat' and 'bottle' and 'shut up, you fat old man', could you? If No. 6 was like it used to be, I'd have to make you take the intelligence test a year early."
She picked him up and started to dress him, still chuckling. Shion evidently thought that it was all in good fun and began giggle too, banging his hands together happily.
A/N: Sorry you guys, it's a little short this week. On the other hand, it amuses me to write about Inukashi suffering through the aggravating daily rituals that surround a baby.
