When Kanji woke up, he saw both his wife and son entering the bedroom.
"Oh. Mornin'." Kanji greeted them.
"Good Morning, Honey." Naoto gave him a kiss on his cheek.
"Guh Mohni, Hanee." Ren tried to repeat his mother's words.
"Mornin' to ya too, buddy." Kanji ruffled his son's hair.
"I take it you two had breakfast already?" Kanji asked to which Ren nodded.
"Ren woke me up half an hour before my alarm because he was hungry." Naoto explained.
"Sheesh, Ren. Have some mercy on ya Ma." Kanji chuckled.
Ren made an apologetic look towards his mother.
"Naww, no need to worry about it, Sweetie. It just means that I get to spend more time with you." Naoto's heart practically melted when she saw Ren's face lit up again.
While Naoto was getting ready and Kanji had some breakfast, the ladder's phone buzzed. Kanji looked at it and frowned when he read what was sent to him.
"Ah, shi-" Kanji immediately covered his mouth when he noticed that Ren was standing nearby. Ren tilted his head and tried to mouth what his father was saying.
"It's nothin', dun worry 'bout it." Kanji scratched the back of his head. He then walked towards where Naoto was getting dressed .
"Hey Naoto… There might be a slight problem."
"What is it?" Naoto asked, slightly concerned.
"So uh, remember that one custom order I was given a few weeks ago? Something went wrong and I need to fix it today before the whole thing's ruined. And since you're at work and Ma's havin' her appointment at the hospital… " Kanji explained.
"There's no-one that looks after Ren until Mother comes back." Naoto concluded with wide eyes.
"Yeah, so what do we do about that?" Kanji asked.
"It's going to be alright… I hope. If I remember correctly, Senpai should have today off, so we could leave it in his hands." Naoto hesitantly took out her phone.
"You're sayin' it as if there was a problem." Kanji gave her a confused look.
"It's just… this is the first time neither Mother nor us are able to look after him. I don't know whether Ren will be alright or not." Naoto admitted.
"Yeah, I'm worried 'bout that too… Let's just hope Senpai will be able to handle this." Kanji put a hand on his wife's shoulder and nodded.
Naoto then proceeded to call Yu.
"Hello?" Yu asked when he picked up.
"It's me. Are you free today?" Naoto replied.
"Yeah, why? Did something happen?" Yu asked slightly concerned.
"To put it simply, neither Kanji nor I are capable of looking after Ren today. Usually we would have Mother look after him in these kinds of scenarios but since she is having an appointment at the hospital today, she won't be here for a few hours." Naoto explained.
"So you want me to look after him in the meanwhile. Alright, I can do that. I'm sure Rise would be more than happy to help out as well." Yu answered, getting a relieved sigh from Naoto.
"Thank you. Mother leaves at one, so please be there at 12 so Ren gets used to your presence." Naoto requested.
"Will do. I'll see you in the evening." Yu ended the call afterwards.
He then put his phone down at the table he and his wife were eating on. When he looked at Rise, she was beaming at him.
"At 12." Yu explained with a knowing smile and chuckled at her excited antics.
Kanji and Naoto had already left and Ren was sitting on his grandmother's lap, who was reading him a story.
"...and then they lived happily ever after." she read the last line of the book and softly smiled at her grandson's clapping.
When the doorbell rang, Ren looked at his grandmother.
"Door?" he asked.
"Mhm, come on dear, let's go get it." she answered and put him down from her lap to get up herself.
"We're here~." Rise announced when the door opened.
"Ah, right on time. Welcome, you two." the elderly woman greeted the young couple.
"Thanks for having us!" they said in unison and gave her a small bow.
"Hey, RenRen! Look at you! You've already grown so much already." Rise excitedly squealed.
"Hello!" Ren waved his hand at them.
"Hey there, little guy." Yu knelt down to the boy's level and patted him on the head with a warm smile.
For the next hour, everything seemed to have gone smoothly. Ren energetically dragged Yu and Rise through the house either playing tag or hide and seek with them. However when his grandmother left for her appointment, Ren went completely silent, worrying the young couple looking after him.
"Something wrong, RenRen?" Rise knelt down and put a hand on his shoulder.
"Where Grandma?" Ren continued staring at the door, completely confused as to where his grandmother went.
"She's got an appointment. Don't worry, she'll be back." Rise reassured.
"Ap-po..." Ren tried to pronounce that weird word his Aunt just said. Seeing an opportunity to distract Ren from his confusion about his family's absence, Yu stepped in.
"It's 'Ap-point-ment'." the young adult tried to guide the boy.
"Apu.. Appoimenh?" Ren tried.
"You're getting there, RenRen! Say it again, after me." Rise then continued alongside Yu to teach Ren how to pronounce the word.
Once he got it down, the boy clapped enthusiastically, warming the young couple's hearts.
"Good job, Ren. How about we reward you for it? Is there anything you want to do?" Yu asked softly.
Ren thought for a moment, and then pointed at a book on a nearby shelf. Yu picked up the one he assumed Ren was pointing at and looked back at the ravenette boy.
"This one?" Yu asked and got a few excited nods from his nephew in response.
"You're a little bookworm aren't you?" Rise affectionately ruffled Ren's hair.
Yu and Rise then sat down on the couch, putting the little guy on his aunt's lap, who would hold him securely in her arms.
Yu started reading out 'The calm detective' for the young boy, who was completely hooked on it, despite not understanding every word. Rise couldn't help but giggle at the boy's excited reactions.
"Didn't expect you to be interested in that kind of stuff already." Rise muttered as she looked at Ren, who was smiling back at her.
"Who knows? He could make a great detective in the future." Yu said half-jokingly, getting an excited squeal from Ren in response, causing Yu's heart to melt.
"Guess you already know what the future holds for you, don't you, RenRen?" Rise asked softly.
"Mhm." Ren nodded determinedly. "Be de-dete..." Ren again tried his best to properly pronounce it.
"De-tec-tive" Rise spoke loud and clearly in order to guide Ren.
"Detective." Ren repeated.
"There you go, Ren." Yu smiled proudly at his nephew. "Wanna tell us what you want to be in the future again?"
"Be detective."
Notes:
I know I said this last chapter already but writing babies/toddlers is hard.
Thankfully, Ren should be able to talk more comprehensable next chapter (whenever that is) so that's gonna be easier.
Overall I think it got pretty cute in the middle part but I kinda didn't know what to do in the last part, so I hope it turned out alright.
I should probably also mention that I have little to no experience in babysitting/spending time with babies/toddlers.
I've said it here and in the main fic many times before but I'll say it again. I got some fun stuff planned in this fic, getting there is the hurdle I need to overcome first.
As always I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter as much as I had writing it and I'll see you guys next time :)