"I'm home!" Yuuki called as he and Shiko entered the house.
"Welcome, Daddy!" came a voice from the kitchen. "We're having grilled fish for dinner!"
"Did you finish your homework, Yumi?" he asked as they parked Shiko's suitcases next to the living room couch.
"Ye-e-es!" she drawled out the answer. "Do you prefer any particular side dish tonight?"
"Come out of the kitchen and I'll tell you. Where's your sister?"
"Upstairs. Dad, she did it again!"
Yuuki sighed. "What did she bring home this time?" Shiko looked at his resigned face and wondered.
"A bird! And not a useful one like a chicken or duck that I could...cook." A teenager wearing a large apron exited the kitchen, and her voice trailed off when she noticed that her father was not alone.
"Are you tattling on me?" Clattering feet were heard descending the stairs. "It's a sparrow, for goodness' sake. It won't take up hardly any room and," she made the turn into the living room, "oh my god, it's Shiko-kun!" Her shout awakened her sister from her trance, and the two proceeded to squeal and hop up and down in tandem in front of their cousin.
"Welcome to what I call Pandai-monium!" Yuuki shouted over the noise. Shiko gave him a grin tinged with a bit of alarm before he began greeting the girls.
Things had barely settled down when the door opened again. "I'm home!" called Kotoko.
"Mom!" "Mother!" "Shiko-kun's here!" "Can he come to school with me tomorrow?" "No! I want him first!" "She's always the greedy one!"
Kotoko calmly walked through the melee, hugging each daughter in turn while making no promises, then stood before her nephew. "My!" she gasped, reaching one hand to his cheek. "It has been a while since we've seen you. You are the very image of your father." She turned to her husband. "Isn't he, Yuuki?"
"He made me pause for a moment when he walked into the office today."
"What!" Kotoko gasped and turned to him. "You didn't let us know you arrived?!"
"Sorry, Aunt Kotoko." He bent down to kiss her before he repeated the explanation from earlier. "But see," he indicated his two cases, "I am moving in, as instructed."
The girls immediately latched onto a case each and offered to show him his room, chattering as they led him to the downstairs suite . "It was Jiisan's old room, but we turned it into a guest room." "Took out all the old-fashioned stuff, and Obaasan let us help her redecorate it!"
"How was business today?" Yuuki finally was able to approach his wife.
"It's starting to pick up with the American summer break approaching. I might actually have to conduct a few tours if it continues."
"Don't overbook yourself." He leaned down for a quick kiss. "We should probably take some kind of trip once the girls get out of school in a couple months so they can show off their cousin to the world at large."
She chuckled. "That will make their summer! Let me change, and I'll be right down." She leaned up for another, slightly longer kiss. "Do you think I should help out with dinner since Yumi's involved with the new arrival?"
Yuuki shuddered with exaggeration. "Are you trying to poison him his first night here?" He laughed when she swatted him and headed up the stairs. He turned towards the guest room. "Yumiko! Your mother is threatening to make dinner if you don't hurry it up!"
"Ack!" She scurried out of the room. "Not tonight! Not with Shiko here! Shiko-kun," she turned to her cousin behind her, "do you have any favorite foods? I can make just about anything you'd like!"
Shiori followed them out. "She really can. Even I have to admit that she can cook amazingly."
"Then I look forward to dinner tonight." Shiko nodded at the shorter girl, the one who resembled Kotoko the most. "Could I be of assistance? I often helped Mother prepare meals."
"Really?" She looked at him in astonishment. "I didn't think Aunt Sahoko was that forward-thinking, to allow a male into her feminine domain."
Yet another comment about his mother. "No, she allowed both Nami and me to try our luck. Alas, neither of us has her fine touch, but we can manage fairly well."
"Good! Then you're drafted. Roll up your sleeves and get to work."
His uncle kept Shiko busy for the next couple of weeks. He felt an undercurrent of frustration that the laughing girl of his first day had proved elusive since then. It irked him to the point that he asked Kotoko one night about her.
"Yuki-chan?" Kotoko nibbled on a leftover broccoli floret as she stirred the rest in a skillet. "She's been going in to Pandai every day after spending time organizing my tour rosters." She tilted her head. "Yuuki puts her to work in almost any department—she's that capable."
"Then why isn't she in school, or holding down a full-time job?" Shiko asked. "From what everyone says, she has a lot of potential—"
"Mother! Pay attention!" Yumiko snatched the spatula from Kotoko's hand and shoved her to the side. "You have the fire too high!" She turned to her cousin. "Yuki-chan can do anything! Even cook, unlike Mom here."
Kotoko made a childish face behind her back, resuming a normal expression when she noticed her nephew's stare. "Sorry, no one in this family wants me in the kitchen…"
"If you'd confine yourself to coffee, dear wife, we'd have no complaints." Yuuki walked in and bent her over in a dramatic kiss.
"Gross! Get a room!" Their daughter shooed them out.
"We have one upstairs," her father called back to her. "How long before dinner?"
"Stop that!" she yelled, then shook her head at Shiko. "Don't you hate it when the parental units do that in front of you?"
"Ah, sure," he answered hesitantly. He had never been in that particular situation with his parents. Ever, he thought.
Yumiko brought it up again at the dinner table, and Shiori piped up in agreement. "Just because it's a simple hormonal urge doesn't mean that you shouldn't take note of your audience! Humans are supposed to be more evolved than animals, after all. Even Third has better manners!"
"That's because we reinforced the fence—again," Yuuki wryly pointed out. He turned to Shiko. "The first Chibi managed to be responsible for several crossbred litters before his passing. The one that's probably putting your foot to sleep is one of his grandchildren."
"Right. Dad talked a lot about him while I was growing up." He patted the head resting on his knee. "We don't have room for a large dog in the apartment, or he might've fought for him when we moved."
"He might have tried." Yuuki chuckled.
Kotoko made a face. "I would have let him go! Even in his dotage, he still liked to flatten me."
Yuuki took her hand and kissed the palm. "That's because he loved you as much as I do."
"Daddy!" the girls screeched in unison.
"Of course," he continued, "Chibi was in danger of being squashed by you when you were eight months along with those two." He turned to Shiko and spread his hands. "She was this wi—" He broke off when Kotoko's fork stabbed the table near his elbow. "All right. Another subject, anyone?" he asked above his daughters' giggles.
"Why, yes, as a matter of fact," Kotoko said to her husband calmly, "Shiko was asking about Yuki-chan. He hasn't seen her for awhile."
"Really?" Yuuki raised an amused eyebrow. "I'll shoot you her schedule in an email tomorrow."
Shiko flushed. "No, that's not—"
"Yuuki!" Kotoko's voice was stern. "You have been working this child Monday through Friday every week plus half of Saturdays. Don't you think he deserves a day off?"
"If he wants one, all he has to do is ask," he mildly replied.
"Ah, no," Shiko tried to interject.
"I know!" Kotoko bounced in excitement. "Yuki-chan can take him on a tour of Tokyo! You've never really seen the city in your previous visits, have you?" she asked.
"No, not really. But I thought she said she no longer does tours."
Yuuki chuckled as Kotoko waved that away and explained, "That had nothing to do with her ability. It's just that she's so gorgeous some less respectable clients tried to hit on her, and I didn't want to put her in that position at her age. I can't screen them all out beforehand," she muttered, "but I sure can blacklist them after the fact."
"Not surprising they got the wrong idea, the way she dresses," he mumbled.
Shiori heard and quickly corrected him. "No, because Mom's workers have a distinctive but fairly modest uniform while they're guiding visitors. It makes them recognizable when folks wander off."
"I'm sure Kotoko won't insist that she wear it since this will be a family tour." Yuuki winked and grinned.
"It won't matter because—"
He was interrupted by Yumiko. "Hey, Dad, did you have a chance to look at the brochure for that culinary school I left on your desk?"
"Not yet," he took a bite, "but have you had a chance to look at your grade in French? You're going to have to do better than that if you think you'd be able to understand anything in Paris. Your grasp of that language is about as good as your mother's in English before I started tutoring her."
Shiko recalled that his Aunt Kotoko had spoken excellent, if slightly accented, English during the family's trip to the States a decade earlier. Before he could mention that fact, the other twin broke in.
"Just goes to show that I made a better choice," Shiori sniffed. "No one cares that much how you pronounce a dead language."
Yumiko stuck out her tongue. "Dead language, dead meat. If your rabbit escapes into my room one more time and chews up another shoe, the next meal I prepare will be hasenpfeffer."
"You heathen. You're just proving that cookery isn't as noble a profession…"
"Don't start on that subject tonight," Yuuki warned. "While going into animal medicine is honorable, remember that even veterinarians have to eat."
Abashed, the two ducked their heads and concentrated on their meals, still making faces across the table. Shiko looked from one to the other. Quite a difference from home…
"Although it is interesting that Shiori is going into medicine, even though with animals, isn't it, Shiko?" Kotoko asked innocently. "Maybe that's because she takes after the Irie side of the family in looks." When he stared at her blankly, she added, "Your father's interest in the field?"
"Dad wanted to be a doctor?" he asked.
"Oh!" Kotoko ducked her head and darted a glance at her husband, who smiled and patted her hand.
"Ancient history," he stated, which enlightened his nephew not at all. He then turned and teased, "I think it's more amazing that Yumi, who looks just like you, not only can cook but excels at it!"
"So, it skipped a generation from Otousan to her," she riposted.
"Yeah," Yumiko added, her mouth full, "if I wasn't in the kitchen with Obaasan, I was in the back of Jiisan's restaurant."
"She can cook both traditional Japanese as well as western dishes," added Shiori. "I guess being a chef isn't so bad," she conceded grudgingly.
"You ought to admit that, as much as you eat!" Yumiko tried to toss a roll into her sister's mouth from across the table.
Shiko intercepted it. "I think both you girls are fantastic. Talented, even, but with such diverse interests."
They preened and behaved for the rest of the meal.