Mrs. Sakuragi opened the door and beamed at Kaede's tall form. The boy bowed then turned slightly to reveal his parents standing beside a long, black limousine.
"Oh!" Mrs. Sakuragi stepped outside. "I didn't know you were dropping Rukawa off. Would you like to come in?"
Mrs. Rukawa eyed the small apartment and grimaced. She caught her son's glare and composed her face into something more appropriate. Mr. Rukawa just kept glancing at his watch.
"Uhm…no, thank you," she replied. "We just wanted to see where my Kaede would be spending the next two days, right Kuromatsu?"
Mr. Rukawa nodded but kept his eyes glued to his watch. Mrs. Rukawa moved forward to embrace Kaede.
"Now, Kaede be good and—"
"Hey mom what's going on here?" Hanamichi emerged from the house wearing a pink apron with sunflowers as a design over a shirt twice his size and a matching pink handkerchief with bright yellow spots that looked like a bonnet over his head. He was holding a spatula in one hand.
All the Rukawas stared at him.
"Oh, the fox has arrived," the redhead continued as he surveyed everyone standing outside, his eyes settling on Kaede. "Well don't just stand there, come on in. You'll make my mom catch cold out here. Just because I agreed that you could come early I didn't mean Friday evening and I still say you tricked my mom into agreeing too and—"
"Is this little Hana-darling?" Mrs. Rukawa butted in, coming forward and pinching Hanamichi's cheek. The boy was too stunned to react. "She's a bit taller than I expected and she has a weird voice, do you have a cold or something? Nevertheless, you really are a cutie."
She turned and glared at Kaede. "Kaede-dear you will behave in front of this girl and treat her good," she said.
"It's running late, we have to go," Mr. Rukawa said from beside the car.
Mrs. Rukawa glanced at him before turning back to the still speechless redhead.
"Now, darling, I'm sure you and Kaede will get along fine. Someday you have to come to our house and we can talk all about your little project, hmm? We have to go."
She kissed Hanamichi then pecked her son before getting into the car, waving like a queen. A heavy silence descended on the trio that watched that the fast disappearing car.
"Idiot, what are you wearing?" Kaede finally blurted out, galvanizing Hanamichi into full ranting mode.
"What do you mean by that you fox? And what did your mother say about me? I am not a cutie! Cuties are for girls! I am not a girl!"
Mrs. Sakuragi cleared her throat. "Well, actually dear, Kaede's parents seem to believe that you're a girl because of your name."
"What?" Hanamichi screeched.
"I think we better go in now," Mrs. Sakuragi said before her son could erupt into more tirades. "I think I smell the dinner burning."
Hanamichi cursed then sprinted into the house. Mrs. Sakuragi and Kaede followed.
"I'll show you where you can put your things," Mrs. Sakuragi said as she walked into the house. "It's a bit small."
"I'm the one imposing," Kaede whispered.
"Oh please don't think that! My son's friends always sleep here."
Kaede raised an eyebrow.
"I love it when they do actually," Mrs. Sakuragi smiled. "My son is always so alive when he's with people. He takes after his father, always making friends easily. Well here we are. You can freshen up a bit or change your clothes. Dinner will be along shortly."
"Thank you," Kaede said.
Mrs. Sakuragi turned to leave.
"Uhm," Mrs. Sakuragi looked back and could have sworn that Kaede was blushing as he asked, "does he always wear that apron when he cooks?"
Mrs. Sakuragi grinned. "Yes. Actually we only have that one apron so when it's your turn to cook, you'll have to use it too."
— 0 —
The next day started early and proceeded from bad to worse—well for Kaede at least. He opened his eyes only to have a screaming mass of plastic skin, wet diaper, and electronic wailing thrust into his face.
"Wake up, fox! Ken needs to have his diaper changed and you have to feed him breakfast!"
Kaede grabbed the electronic baby and glared at Hanamichi who was already striding out of the room.
"Where are you going?" he asked getting out of bed and holding the baby carelessly in one hand.
Hanamichi looked back at him. "I need to go to the market early to get all the good stuff."
Kaede walked to the door.
"Kaede what are you doing to that baby?" Mrs. Sakuragi asked, coming out of her own room. "If that were real you would have choked it to death by now!"
Kaede guiltily shifted the still crying thing so that he was holding it properly. He walked to the front door with Hanamichi and Mrs. Sakuragi. The old woman nudged her son just before they went out. Hanamichi scowled at her but she stood firm. He sighed.
"Would you like me to buy you something while I'm out?" he asked through clenched teeth.
Kaede blearily looked at him then shrugged.
"More diapers," he mumbled before turning and heading into his room where had brought extra diapers.
— 0 —
"Oi fox," Hanamichi stomped towards his partner sitting on the couch. "What're you doing here?"
Kaede glared at him. "If you wake up the baby, you put him to sleep again."
Hanamichi looked down to see Ken sleeping on the couch next to Kaede.
"Oh," he whispered. "Well, he's asleep now. Come help me with the laundry."
Kaede slowly stood up. The baby shifted. Both boys froze. The baby kept on sleeping. Kaede managed to tiptoe to the back of the couch. The baby gurgled. They froze. It slept on. The two moved.
"Wait!" Hanamichi whispered, looking back and reflexively holding Kaede's arm. "I think you should put a pillow beside it. It might roll off or something."
He looked at Kaede and saw the other boy staring at the restraining hand. Hanamichi let go as if he was burned. Kaede grunted at him before going back to the couch to put some pillows around the baby.
— 0 —
"No! No! No! Jeez, fox, the way you're doing it, it looks like you don't know how to do the laundry!"
Kaede glared at Hanamichi. The redhead placed his head to one side and gazed at the other boy. Kaede transferred his glare to the washing machine.
"You're rich," Hanamichi said slowly, as if he was trying to solve a complicated problem.
"So?" Kaede asked balefully.
"You have lots of servants."
"Brilliant deduction."
"You don't have to do anything in your house." Hanamichi grinned. "You really don't know how to do a simple thing like laundry, do you?"
The washer would have melted at the intensified glare given to it. Hanamichi cackled.
"Rukawa doesn't know how to do laundry!"
"Shut up stupid!" Kaede threw a box of detergent at the redhead, sprinkling him all over with white powder.
Hanamichi stopped laughing. A glint appeared in his eyes. He grabbed the hose and sprayed water over the other boy. Kaede retaliated by throwing clothes at his partner. Mrs. Sakuragi found them later trying to punch each other in a room full of slippery bubbles.
— 0 —
"Why am I doing this again?" Kaede asked for the nth time that morning.
"Because you can't hold Ken properly and cook lunch at the same time," Hanamichi answered smugly. "Besides it says on the schedule that we do all the chores this morning and cleaning the floor is one of them."
He looked down at his partner and laughed like crazy. Kaede was crouching on the floor with a piece of rag and a bucket full of water. He was wearing an old pair of jeans and a T-shirt with holes in it that he had borrowed from Hanamichi since all of his clothes were drying out. He was also wearing the headkerchief that Hanamichi had worn the previous night. He had only agreed to use it after becoming irritated with his sweaty bangs. He scowled at Hanamichi and resisted the urge to throw the dirty rag at the laughing redhead.
Ken burbled and Hanamichi shifted his attention to the baby. He made funny faces at it and soon it was emitting electronic laughter at him. Kaede went back to scrubbing the floor.
Mrs. Sakuragi smiled at the tableau they made in the kitchen.
— 0 —
"Hey fox, you can get the laundry while I do the dishes," Hanamichi said, standing up and gathering the plates one-handed.
"I can do that," Kaede growled. "You cooked."
"Yeah, but these are the only plates we have. I don't want them broken."
"I'll wash them. You get the laundry."
"You'll break all of them."
"I won't."
"You will!"
"I won't!"
"Yes, you will!"
Mrs. Sakuragi stood between the two glaring boys.
"Hanamichi, dear why don't you give Kaede a chance," she said. "I'm sure he'll be very careful."
"But mom!" Hanamichi wailed just as Kaede said a soft thank you to Mrs. Sakuragi.
"Hanamichi, come outside now."
Hanamichi pouted but followed his mother. Outside, Mrs. Sakuragi got her batch of clothes.
"You know, Hanamichi I didn't know how to do any household chores either when your father and I were married," she said as Hanamichi joined her. "I managed to break quite a lot of plates during those early days but your father always encouraged me to do my best despite my failures."
"But that's you and dad. I don't want to encourage Rukawa! He's a fox!" Hanamichi retorted sullenly. They heard a sound behind them and they both turned to see Kaede holding a plate in his hand.
"I chipped it," he whispered, looking at Mrs. Sakuragi. "Sorry."
Mrs. Sakuragi hurried over and examined the plate. "It's only a small chip, nothing to worry about, right Hanamichi?"
Hanamichi was too stunned to hear Kaede apologize to form a coherent reply.
— 0 —
"Ak! No! Don't leave it for too long!" Hanamichi shrieked as he rescued his favorite shirt from the hot iron. "Jeez! Look! I'll do this you just fold all those others that don't need to be ironed."
"I can do this!" Kaede stubbornly replied, holding on to the iron.
"But fox you don't know how to iron!"
"You don't either! I bet your mom does this most of the time."
"Well yeah but I'm still better than you!"
"I can do this! It's just like basketball. You just have to know the proper timing to this thing."
Hanamichi stared at Kaede with a look akin to awe before shaking his head.
"Okay! Jeez stubborn stupid guy! But you won't do my clothes. You'll iron yours so that you'll only ruin your own stuff!"
Kaede merely grunted. Hanamichi went out to put his clothes into his closet and met his mom.
"Where's Kaede?"
Hanamichi grinned.
"In his room burning his clothes!"
Mrs. Sakuragi peeked inside and saw Kaede concentrating on getting a crease out of his school uniform.
— 0 —
"Fox, give me that remote!"
Hanamichi lunged at the black thing in Kaede's hand. Kaede held it out of his reach.
"No fair! This is my house I should get the choice of what to watch!" Hanamichi grumbled trying to grab the remote while balancing Ken on his lap.
"For tonight until tomorrow it's my TV too," Kaede replied. "Besides this is NBA, don't you want to watch it too?"
Hanamichi glared at the TV and settled into his seat still grumbling under his breath. They watched in silence for a few minutes.
"I'm hungry," Hanamichi said.
"We just ate," Kaede said.
"Yeah, but I'm hungry now."
"Then go get something," Kaede said, eyes never leaving the screen.
"I can't."
Kaede risked a glance at the redhead and saw the baby sleeping in the other boy's arms. He frowned at Hanamichi then at the TV then at the baby. The game went on a break. Kaede sprung up and sprinted for the kitchen. Hanamichi stared at the hall like a koi fish until Kaede ran back to the living room with some drinks and several snacks. He flung most of them on the table near Hanamichi before settling back into the couch. Hanamichi continued to gape at him.
— 0 —
"No! Nuh-uh! He slept with me last night, you get him tonight," Hanamichi insisted, shoving the baby into Kaede's hands.
"We officially start our project tonight," Kaede answered, giving back Ken to Hanamichi.
"Yeah, but you were here already and I still got him last night."
Mrs. Sakuragi came into the living room dragging some mattresses with her.
"Uhm…mom what're you doing?"
Mrs. Sakuragi smiled.
"You two are supposed to share everything right? So, you're going to share the living room for tonight."
Both boys opened their mouths to protest. Mrs. Sakuragi glared at them.
"No arguments."
They closed their mouths with a snap. Later on they didn't care who had the baby. They both slept like logs, exhausted from all the chores they had done that day.
— 0 —
Late the next morning, Hanamichi cooked breakfast while Kaede tried to feed a stubborn electronic baby.
"Hey Rukawa, it says here that we have to do the grocery today and the bills too," Hanamichi said as he read the placed on the fridge.
"Hello dears," Mrs. Sakuragi greeted as she entered the kitchen. She placed some bills and some money on the table in front of Kaede. The boy looked at them then at the old woman.
"Since you're going to balance the money, you might as well know how to pay the bills and put away enough money for the grocery and the rest of the month. Your teacher told us to let you do things hands-on, as much as possible," she explained.
Kaede nodded. Hanamichi sat down beside him and looked at the scattered materials.
"You do that, I'll feed the baby," he said.
Mrs. Sakuragi was surprised to see Kaede agree wordlessly. An hour later, the budget was done and she was even surprised at how good Kaede had managed the task.
"This is good," she beamed at Kaede. "You managed to stretch a small amount for quite a while. Maybe I should let you do our monthly budget from now on."
Kaede gave her a small smile.
"Don't encourage him mom," Hanamichi warned.
Kaede rolled his eyes while Mrs. Sakuragi chuckled.
— 0 —
Hanamichi and Kaede dumped the various bags of grocery on the counter and leaned tiredly.
"Oh my!" Mrs. Sakuragi exclaimed as she walked into the kitchen. "What happened to the two of you?"
Kaede's shirt was torn in several areas while Hanamichi's hair was disheveled and he was convulsively hugging the baby in his arms.
"This idiot's fans saw us in the mart," Hanamichi explained shuddering at the memory. "They actually liked him better with Ken in his arms!"
"Why don't you two change and rest for a while. Go on, shoo. I'll take care of this. In fact, why don't you take the rest of the afternoon off? I'll take care of Ken."
Hanamichi gawked at his mom.
"But Mrs. Sakuragi…we need to do this," Kaede said, beating Hanamichi's protest.
Mrs. Sakuragi waved her hands at them.
"Oh, don't worry about it," she said. "You can always leave the baby to grandma while you two relax for a while, right? It says so in your schedule that Sunday afternoons are free."
The two boys looked at each other then back at Mrs. Sakuragi who just smiled at them.
Kaede reached into the bag near him.
"We'll you put these away first," he said.
"I'll try to make Ken sleep while you do that," Hanamichi said, striding towards his room.
— 0 —
Hanamichi and Kaede entered the house bickering as usual.
"I got that point," Hanamichi said.
"No, the time was already over," Kaede insisted.
"Hello you two," Mrs. Sakuragi greeted, coming out of her room with Ken in her arms.
Kaede bowed to her and extended a bag of food.
"You bought dinner! Thank you! I'll set the table."
"If I lost, then why did you buy the food?" Hanamichi asked smugly as if the question made his point.
"It isn't for you stupid," Kaede replied.
"I'll still be eating it!"
"You better change quickly if you want to eat this while it's still hot," Mrs. Sakuragi shouted from the kitchen.
— 0 —
Somebody knocked on the door just as they were settling down on their meal.
"Hanamichi please get the door," Mrs. Sakuragi requested.
"Why me? Why not the Rukawa?"
"Hanamichi…"
The redhead stood up, grumbling. "You better not eat all the food fox!"
He hurriedly opened the door and saw Ms. Tanada outside.
"Eh? Teacher! What're you doing here?"
"I did say that I would be going around to look in on you guys," Ms. Tanada said, smiling. "Aren't you going to let me in?"
"Oh, yeah come on in," Hanamichi said, letting her enter. "We're just eating dinner. Gee, you really have good timing."
The two walked into the kitchen.
"Hey, Rukawa get one more plate, teacher is here."
Kaede glared at Hanamichi, his chopsticks were poised near his mouth. Hanamichi sat down and stubbornly glared back.
"I got the door," he said. "You get the plate."
Kaede stood up while Mrs. Sakuragi led Ms. Tanada to an empty chair.
"So, how are these two?" Ms. Tanada asked as Kaede placed the plate and utensils in front of her.
"They're quite good, despite all the fights, they work good together," Mrs. Sakuragi replied.
The two women talked on as if the two weren't there. Hanamichi and Kaede pretended they weren't listening while eating. Near the end of the meal, Ms. Tanada turned to Kaede.
"So, Mr. Rukawa you're going back to your house tonight?"
The two boys looked at her then at each other.
"They had quite a long day today," Mrs. Sakuragi interjected. "I think you should stay for the night Kaede. You do have your uniform here and your books too. I think you mentioned that your parents won't be home tonight anyway."
Kaede looked at her gratefully while Hanamichi unusually kept eating quietly.
— 0 —
The house was silent. Ken was sleeping peacefully between the two boys stretched out on the floor.
"Hey, fox?" Hanamichi whispered. He had been sneaking glances at the other boy but couldn't see if Kaede was asleep on not.
Kaede grunted.
"Oh, I thought you were sleeping already," Hanamichi said.
"Then why did you ask me a question?" Kaede said.
Hanamichi was silent for a long time that Kaede almost gave up on getting an answer.
"Hey fo–Rukawa did you…did you have fun these two days?"
Kaede's eyes widened in the dark.
"Hn," he answered.
"Is that a yes hn or a no hn?" Hanamichi asked, trying to peer into his face in the gloom.
Kaede sighed. "Did you?" he asked.
"Huh? Did I what?" Hanamichi asked.
Kaede sighed louder. "Did you have fun?" he clarified.
"Oh, yeah I guess. So did you?"
Kaede settled down into the mattress.
"Yes," he whispered.
In the dark, both boys smiled.
ARC:
1. I think Hanamichi would know more about household chores since he has to help his mom some time too.
2. This one was quite long. Oh well, one more chapter to go!
3. Again and again, thank you to all those who reviewed. THANK YOU!