A whole two weeks without an update? How unlike me...
So here's this. It was originally two chapters but both were short so I combined them into one. Also I'm aware it's ShuMako week in some circles but I won't be participating as most of the subject matter is stuff I've already covered in this fic.
POTTY TRAINING
Ren has bought every book imaginable so that he and Makoto can learn about parenting, but she hasn't even looked at one of them, highly unusual for Makoto. She prefers to just ask her husband about everything she doesn't know, and if he doesn't have an answer immediately for her, she expects him to find the answer.
He's not 100% why his usual bookworm wife has been avoiding what is essentially a guidebook on living the rest of her life with a baby, but he chalks it up to her having a motherly instinct good enough to know what she's doing.
They haven't done too shabby, Makoto has given them a beautiful daughter, with hair like hers, but the girl has his eyes, and the same attachment for his mother that he himself had as a young child, for his own mother.
At least the books haven't gone completely to waste, I've read them.
Parenting is a wonderful yet terrifying thing. To be completely responsible for another human being, who is incapable of surviving on their own, is a humbling feeling to say the least.
His favorite part of having Maya though, is watching her interact with her mother. Whenever the two are together, Ren feels content beyond belief. They are way too adorable together, and his daughter has the same ability his wife has…Ren is wrapped around both their fingers.
Sure he is a parent, and he lays down the law from time to time, but he can only ever stay adamant when it's about little Maya's safety. Other than that, the vocal two year old is spoiled beyond belief.
The time has come to start potty training his daughter, and he's been reading up on the books, since he's sure Makoto hasn't even noticed that it's about the age where they're supposed to start.
He always wakes up early with his daughter, and lets Makoto sleep in, since she tends to stay up later in the night. It's actually quite nice, spending every morning with Maya, getting in that important quality father and daughter time before she becomes completely attached to his mother when she appears, as is his habit.
This morning is no different, at first. Ren gets up to spend quality time with his daughter, but today he has an agenda.
"Guess what sweetie? Today we're going to start with potty training!" Ren announces in an excited voice, hoping his excitement will rub off on the little tike.
"Potty training?" Maya echoes with great interest as she stares up at her father, and Ren grins.
"You're getting to be a big girl now, so I think it's time." Ren says,
"Why am I a big girl?" Maya demands, almost angrily, and Ren has to force himself not to laugh at the indignant look on his daughter's face.
"Because you're not a baby anymore," Ren explains, and his daughter looks more pissed about that fact than Ren could have expected.
"I'm the baby!" She says, and Ren wonders what approach is the best to take, since his daughter is responding to the positive of getting older, and wants to maintain her title of the baby.
"Being a baby is no fun. Being a big girl is really fun." Ren says, trying to coax his daughter into responding better to the big girl argument.
"I'm the baby!" His daughter screams quite adamantly, and Ren swiftly covers his daughter's mouth.
"You're going to wake your mother." Ren says, glancing behind him, and Maya smiles.
"Mommy calls me her baby." Maya informs her father, and Ren rolls his eyes.
"Isn't she helpful…" Ren mutters sarcastically.
It takes him two whole hours to convince his daughter that potty training will be fun. He only manages it because he informs his daughter that there will be treats involved when she gets it right, namely candy.
That gets his daughter's attention, and she's suddenly no longer interested in arguing about whether or not she's a baby. The candy has her on the same page as her father.
Of course Makoto has to walk down the stairs, right after Ren gets Maya all worked up over the reward system, and her daughter tears over into her arms as she spots her.
"Mommy! Mommy! Mommy! Mommmmyyyyy!" Makoto can hardly ignore her daughter when she's being so adamant, and so she looks down at her with a soft look on her face.
"What is it, Sweetie?" She asks, and Maya smiles proudly at her.
"Potty training!" She announces excitedly, and Makoto notices her little daughter is so excited she can barely contain himself.
"Potty training?" Makoto asks, and then she glances up at Ren, with a confused expression on her face
She's two years old, Makoto...
"Yeah!" Maya is jumping around like a tiny monkey in excitement of this so called potty training.
"I told her we were starting potty training today." Ren explains, and Makoto nods her head slowly.
"Learn with me Mommy!" Maya says, and Ren's mouth falls to the floor. Makoto laughs
"I'm already potty trained!" Makoto smiles at her daughter "But I'll help you learn"
"Yeah! Me and Mommy!" Maya cheers, and Ren makes the mistake of looking down at his daughter, rather than keeping his focus on his wife.
Makoto nearly laughs at the expression on her husband's face. He looks like he wants to argue, but can't. She looks down and sees her daughter laying it on thick. Puppy dog eyes, hands clasped together, and an adorable smile on her cherub face.
"Uh….okay…" Ren gives in, since he cannot say no to that adorable little face.
"Yay!" Maya cheers and she turns to latch onto her mother's leg.
"When do we start?" Makoto asks, and Ren shakes his head in disbelief.
"Uh…no better time than now." Ren says awkwardly, as he directs his daughter to the bathroom, where a brand new training toilet is waiting. Makoto looks quite intrigued by the mini toilet, and Ren takes a deep breath.
"Instead of going in your diapers, when you feel like you have to go, you're going to come and go in here." Ren says, pointing at the toilet. He lifts the little lid, and pulls his daughter away from Makoto. "You have to pull down your pants, and your diaper, and go in here." Ren says, and his daughter nods solemnly, before she looks at her mother, who is nodding and smiling. "And when you go in here like you're supposed to, you will get your reward!" Ren explains, and his daughter starts to nearly screech in excitement.
"Candy!" Maya squeals, and even Makoto starts jumping up and down with her daughter. Ren shakes his head again, at the silly duo.
"Wow Maya, you're so lucky!" She tells her, and she looks up at her solemnly.
"I will share my candy with you." Maya says magnanimously, and Ren nearly melts at the scene.
"That's because you're my wonderful little girl." Makoto whispers, before she leans down to kiss and hug her little girl.
Ren steps forward and pulls them both into his arms.
Who knew I'd love having a family with Makoto, this much?
LEARNING ENGLISH
Makoto is unsure of why Ren bought all kinds of different children's cartoons for Maya to watch, particularly since they're in English. She looks at the stack of videos, and then looks at her daughter.
I bet he doesn't even understand this language. Did Ren know these were in English when he bought them? He had to have known!
She waits for her husband to walk through the door from work before she mauls him.
"Ren!" Makoto shouts, and she leaps into her husband's arms.
Their daughter, not to be outdone, latches onto her father's leg, and sits on his foot, firmly attached, making it so that Ren has to lift his daughter's weight along with his own leg if he chooses to move.
"Hi Makoto." Ren says, since he's used to this kind of greeting.
He refuses to admit it, but he loves it when she throws herself into his arms like she does everyday when he gets home from work. It's a nice change from the cold, sheltered Student Council President Makoto
"Daddy!" Maya yells, and Ren sighs.
"Hi Maya." Ren says next, and he waits for his wife to let go, but she doesn't.
Ren carefully takes both his wife and his daughter over to the couch where he sits down, and adjusts Makoto so that she's sitting on one knee, and Maya scrambles up onto his other knee. As a father and husband, he feels his heart swell up in pride at the two beautiful brunette's who mean more to him than anyone else. His wife and daughter.
"Ren…are you aware that you bought cartoons that are all in English over the weekend?" His wife asks him suddenly, and Ren nods.
"Yeah. I did that purposely. I ordered them through the video store, so that Maya can start learning English. School will be easier for her if she starts learning it as early as possible." Ren explains, and Makoto's eyes widen.
"Why didn't you say so!? I could have been speaking to her in English this whole time!" His wife says, and Ren's eyes widen.
"You can speak English?" He asks in shock, and Makoto nods her head.
"I'm not fluent by any means, but I know a lot. Me and Ann sometimes talk in English." Makoto tells him, and Ren looks amazed.
"Really?" He asks her in awe, and his daughter begins to smack his cheeks.
"Cartoon!" Maya demands, and Makoto gets off of Ren's lap to put in one with a gray and white rabbit on the cover.
"Bugs Bunny?" Makoto asks softly with a big smile on her face
"You can read English too?" He says with surprise, and Makoto nods.
"I'm a Police officer, I intend to become Police commissioner. Learning other languages can help, like if a foreigner in Japan needs help but doesn't know the language." Makoto explains "I'm a Niijima, just like my Father and Sister, I have quite a reputation to live up to"
"You aren't a Niijima anymore." Ren grunts, and his wife blushes as she approaches him.
"It's my maiden name!" She says defensively, and she crosses her arms before she sits down next to him rather than his lap, and Maya moves over to her lap rather than Ren's. "I took your name when we got married, but I didn't get rid of mine, my name is Makoto Niijima-Amamiya. You need to understand that." She says in a firm voice, and Ren makes a face.
He'd forgotten that she'd hyphenated the names when they got married. She'd dropped the Niijima name in the casual conversation, but she'd kept it for documentation. He was let down, but he'd been willing to let her do whatever she wanted, so long as they wound up married in the end.
"You shouldn't let a name control who you are." Ren tells her as the opening credits end and the rabbit cartoon begins.
"There is nothing wrong with being me or wanting to learn new languages. Just because it's not something you'd want to do, doesn't mean I should stop aspiring to be the model officer that I intend to be." Makoto tells him.
Ren refuses to respond, because a big happy smile breaks out on Maya's face as she watches the rabbit mess around with the hunter of the video.
"Eh….what's up doc?" Comes from the television and Maya looks engrossed.
Ren watches his wife and daughter laugh merrily over the video, and then he realizes that she is talking softly to Maya in English.
"Rabbit…or Bugs Bunny." Makoto says softly, and their daughter seems avidly interested in the new video.
Ren is beyond horrified that his daughter has inherited his wife's love for cute, fluffy animals. He doesn't know whether to be thankful it's rabbits and not Panda's
Later…
"Come on, I'm taking you two out for dinner." Ren says in a rough voice, and Makoto's eyes widen.
"Really?" Makoto asks, and her husband nods his head.
"I don't feel like cooking tonight…so yeah." He says, and Makoto grins.
"I'll go change!" She says, before she grabs up Maya and pushes her into his father's arms.
Ren knows that if she doesn't do this, their daughter will follow her wherever she goes, and so he hangs on tight while his daughter reaches her arms out in the direction that Makoto is running off to.
"Give your ma a break for once, sweetheart." Ren says as he stares at his daughter with fascination. He knows he was also like his daughter, always around his mother, but he completely does not expect for his daughter to reach back and smack him across the face.
"Down!" Maya says in an angry voice, and Ren blinks a few times at his daughter.
He'd never spanked, or even really punished Maya before, but right know, he's genuinely considering bending her over his knee, since the stinging hasn't stopped.
"Do not hit Daddy." Ren says in a firm voice as he sets his daughter down on her own two feet and grabs firmly at her hands.
Maya takes one look at Ren's serious face, and her big silver eyes begin to well up with tears. Her Daddy is angry with her, and that scares her because he's never shown anything but unconditioned love to her before.
"I want Mama!" Maya shrieks, and Ren doesn't let his daughter go.
"You wouldn't want someone to hit you, right?" Ren asks his daughter quite seriously.
Maya seems to sense that it would not be pleasant, to be hit by anyone, let alone her father, so she begins to shake her head no.
"No…" Maya says, with tears rolling down his face.
"Then don't hit me, or anyone else!" Ren angrily tells her "Go and sit down on that chair right there, until I give you permission to get up." Ren says in the same angry and firm voice that has gotten his daughter all teary, and he lets go.
His daughter doesn't dare disobey. She climbs into the chair and watches her father nervously. Makoto walks back in the room to see her daughter crying, and a bright red mark on her husband's face.
"Is everything okay?" Makoto asks, as she touches his cheek where it's red, and Ren shakes his head at his wife.
"Maya was just testing her boundaries. I think I got through to her that she's not allowed to hit me." He says, as he glances over at his daughter who appears to be itching to get down and go to his mother, but she's still afraid of his father's temper.
"Well that's good." Makoto says with a smile, and Ren kisses her before he looks back at his daughter again.
"You can get up now." He says, and Makoto grins as Maya runs over and hugs her legs.
"You cannot hit people." Makoto tells her in English, and her daughter looks up at her with big eyes, as she tries to comprehend what she just said.
"You're going to be speaking English a lot in front of her now, aren't you?" Ren asks, and Makoto nods her head.
"If it will help her, then that's what I'll do." She says, and Ren grins.
She may not know much about parenting, but once I explain stuff to her, she always works hard to participate and help get things done. She's good at teaching our daughter.