Ms. Tanada opened her mouth to greet her class a good morning but—
"YO! Newbie teacher! I heard that it takes a girl and a boy to have a baby!"
Ms. Tanada set her things down on her table.
"That is correct Mr. Sakuragi," she answered, her eyes focusing on the tall redhead.
"Then how come me and the fox get to have one?"
The young teacher raised an eyebrow in surprise. So, the boy had learned about the birds and bees. Her eyes shifted and she was even more surprised to see Kaede nodding his head. Of course it may have been that the boy was just asleep—but, no wait! His eyes were glaring at her! He was awake and agreeing with the redhead!
"Uhm…well you see there are many ways to get a child without going through the usual process. There's artificial insemination—"
"Ar-ti-fi-cia-ru inse—what?!"
Ms. Tanada looked at all the faces staring raptly at her. She wasn't sure if she was the right person to talk about sex education since she didn't really have any experience in that department.
"It's an alternative method of getting pregnant," she said after a long pause. "Another method is adoption. How about this, for you and Mr. Rukawa we will pretend that a relative of yours died recently and you two decided to adopt the child instead of giving it up for orphanage or some other relative. Is that satisfactory?"
She saw the two boys adopt thinking poses and smiled.
"While you're both thinking, let's get on with the lesson for today, shall we?"
— 0 —
"Okay, for our next meeting we'll continue this chapter. Oh and before I forget, so, Mr. Rukawa and Mr. Sakuragi, do you agree to my proposal?"
All students turned to the two boys who shared a brief look over Youhei's shoulder.
"We'll fail if we don't do it, huh?" Hanamichi asked.
Ms. Tanada just smiled.
"We'll do it," Kaede said.
Ms. Tanada nodded.
"Good. Now for your next assignment for the project, I want you to give me a schedule."
"EH?! SCHEDULE?!"
"Yep, a schedule for a week. Remember that you guys are partners. That means you and your companion must share things equally. Also remember that you both work, which means you'll probably both be tired to even lift a finger at the end of the day. Does this mean that you'll let the dirty plates just pile up?"
"Of course not!" a girl piped in confidently. "Tomi will do all the washing!"
"But what if he's sick?" Ms. Tanada countered. "Or what if he has overtime work? For those who have children, who will take care of the baby and when? Consider all these things. I'll give you two weeks to think this over. Thank you very much for listening today."
— 0 —
Hanamichi slammed the front door, calling out a loud "I'm home" to the living room. His mother came out of the kitchen to greet him.
"Welcome home dear," she called out. "You seem agitated?"
Hanamichi dumped his things to the floor, removed his shoes, slipped on some slippers, and finally kissed his mother as he walked towards her.
"It's nothing mom! I'm just mad at the fox!"
"Your partner? Again?"
"He just won't listen! I told him that I'll take care of the baby and other things in the house on Tuesdays and Thursdays only because I have work on Mondays and Wednesdays and Fridays but he won't listen!!! ARG!!!!! Stupid fox!!!"
"You two haven't done your schedule yet? Youhei and his partner have done theirs last week."
"Because I've got a stupid partner who won't listen!"
Mrs. Sakuragi smiled at her son. It was indeed rare to see him all worked up about something other than basketball and Haruko Akagi. She led him into the dining room where dinner was laid out.
"Just why won't he listen to your demands anyway?" she asked when she saw her son slow down shoveling food into his mouth.
"Oh, because he says he's got work too. But I had dibs on the work schedule on those days 'cause Youhei also has those days off!"
"And you want to be free to be with Youhei during those days," Mrs. Sakuragi wisely concluded.
"Well yeah! 'Sides my favorite TV program will be on during those days!"
"Hanamichi…" Mrs. Sakuragi looked at her son for a moment before getting up and taking the dishes to the kitchen. "You know your dad and I also had to make a schedule when we were first married."
"You did?" Hanamichi stopped short, carrying two plates in his hands. "Why?"
"Well because we were both working and then we had you."
"Me?"
"Why, yes, of course. Taking care of a baby is not an easy thing to do. You won't even have time to visit your friend, especially when your baby is as energetic as you were."
Mrs. Sakuragi pinched Hanamichi's cheek.
"Aw, mom! Stop it!"
The old lady giggled.
"I remember that even while crawling you were already very fast," she turned back to washing the dishes while her son rummaged around for a snack to munch on while listening.
"Anyway, dad and I made this schedule that we posted near the TV where we could easily see it. We'd discuss every change that would occur. The schedule was not just to make sure we had a fair share of the work, but to also make us see that work doesn't just involve going to the office. Working at home can be just as tiring. Most importantly, the schedule reminded us that in everything we did, we had a partner who would be there at the end of the day to share our problems and our joys with."
Hanamichi tearfully looked at his mother then proceeded to hug her.
"I miss him," he whispered.
"Me too," she whispered back. "Hey, want to know a secret?"
She pulled back to look at his face.
"Every time I look at you, I know in my heart that he will always be my with me because he left me a wonderful son to take his place."
The tears threatened to overflow over Hanamichi's face but the moment was ruined when their doorbell rang. The redhead cursed softly.
"Hana…" his mother's voice warned him softly.
"Eh, he-he, sorry mom. I'll just go get the door."
Hanamichi sprinted towards the door and flung it open. His jaw dropped when he saw who the visitor was. He stared. He blinked. He rubbed his eyes.
"Oi, aren't you going to invite me in, stupid," Kaede muttered after waiting for a while.
"Ahhh! Fox! What're you doing here?"
"We need to finish the homework or we'll fail."
"But what're you doing here?"
"Idiot, to do the assignment of course."
"Hanamichi who's our guest?" Mrs. Sakuragi asked, coming out of the kitchen. "Why don't you invite him in?"
Hanamichi looked at her and pointed at Kaede.
"Mom! It's the fox! It's the bane of my existence! He's here! Wait a minute…" he turned back to Kaede, "you're really here. Ah! You might infect our house with your stupidity and foxy ways? Mom, we have to disinfect him first! I'll go get the alcohol."
He proceeded to run to his room.
"Stop it Hanamichi," Mrs. Sakuragi scolded, pulling his son by his shirt with surprising strength then turning to Kaede. "Please come in."
Kaede bowed respectfully causing Hanamichi to almost have a seizure.
"Thank you. My name is Kaede Rukawa. Forgive me for intruding this late," Kaede said causing Hanamichi to really have a seizure.
Mrs. Sakuragi let her son collapse on the floor, twitching and clutching his heart. She was used to his theatrics.
The dark-haired boy also ignored him. "We just need to finish this assignment for our project," he explained softly to the old lady as he let her lead him to the seats.
"I understand. Have you eaten dinner?" Mrs. Sakuragi asked.
"Yes."
"Well, maybe you'd like some tea while you work?"
"That would be nice. Thank you very much."
Mrs. Sakuragi beamed at him before going into the kitchen. Only when she was gone did Kaede look at Hanamichi's prone body.
"Oi, idiot, are you going to stay there all night or are you going to come here so we can start?"
Hanamichi jumped from lying to full battle mode in seconds.
"Damn you fox! Now you've got my mom under your spell too! Well you can't have her! She's my mom and I will free her from whatever witchcraft you put on her and every other girl who meets you! You hear me?!"
"Whatever."
"Damn you—"
"You can have the Tuesdays and Thursdays with the baby."
Hanamichi stopped in the middle of trying to strangle Kaede.
"What?"
"You heard me the first time, stupid."
"Why?"
Hanamichi was so surprised that he actually sat down opposite his partner.
"I'll agree but you have to do the laundry on those days too," Kaede explained further.
"What?!" Hanamichi bellowed, standing up again. "Laundry day is supposed to be Saturdays?"
"Yeah, but the baby stuff will need to be washed more because it's going to be used faster."
"Huh?"
"It's true, Hanamichi," Mrs. Sakuragi interjected as she came in with a pot of tea and two cups. "Babies tend to get dirty a lot. There are now dispensable diapers but a lot of mothers still prefer the old linen cloth more since they cause less rashes."
Kaede nodded. The two began a discussion on diapers and baby clothes. Hanamichi looked from one to another before feeling left out.
"Oi, oi! Hey I'm still here!" he said, sitting beside his mom and wrapping his arms around her to get her attention.
His mother laughed and patted his arm.
"Oh, I'm sorry. Well I'll leave you two so you can get started."
The two boys stood up with her and bowed to her, Hanamichi giving her a small peck, as she left. Before she reached the door to her room, Hanamichi caught up with her.
"Hey, wait mom, since you and dad had a schedule, maybe you can stay and see if what we do is okay," the boy whispered fervently. "That fox might do something wrong and you can back me up when I say that he's stupid."
"Hanamichi I don't think I should…"
"Oh please mom…please?"
Mrs. Sakuragi took one look at Hanamichi's eyes and caved in.
"Okay. But I'll be here to just advise you guys. No saying one of you is stupid or anything like that," she said as they walked back to the couch.
"Okay! Hey, Fo—Rukawa, mom's gonna stay and see our work."
Kaede nodded and whispered a thank you to Mrs. Sakuragi.
"Oh, it's quite alright," the old lady answered. "This is probably the first time I'll be seeing Hanamichi actually do his homework."
"Mom!"
"Right, right. So, what exactly have you done?"
"I have it here in my bag somewhere," Kaede answered, rummaging through his backpack.
An idea suddenly hit Hanamichi.
"Hey, fox? Oi, Rukawa!"
Kaede looked up and met the other boy's eyes.
"How did you know where I live? I'm sure I never told you…"
Kaede dropped his eyes, took out a piece of paper from his bag, and turned to Mrs. Sakuragi.
"This is what we've come up so far," he said handing her the paper.
"Oi, Rukawa! I asked you a question! Oi! Answer me! Damn you!!!"
-ARC-
1. Wow! I didn't know you guys would like the last interlude so much! Thank you all for liking and reviewing it!!!! Oh and anime-luverjc, i'm honored that you placed my story in your favorites. thanks. ^___________^
2. I've finally introduced Hanamichi's mom and his house. Yay! I'll need them for future chapters. Please tell me what you think. Thank you.