Title: Playing House

Author: Hawk Clowd

Disclaimer: Gravitation does not belong to me. Let's just leave it at that, all right? The midgets (you know, the kids), on the other hand, do.

Blood Type: vodka. It's good for you, really.

Warnings: very few.

Part: seven

Author's Notes: This chapter took me forever to write and I'm really not sure why. Okay, not true. I had the first half written a long time ago and have had the last bit written out on paper for almost the same length of time. There was scene transition with which I was having loads and loads of problems! In the end, Joan really played a huge part in helping me get through that scene in a way that wasn't quite melodramatic and wasn't quite a complete cop out, either. So, really, I owe her a great deal, so far as this chapter is concerned. Without her, this would have been delayed for at least another month. Maybe more. Anyway... Enjoy!

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Eiri didn't believe in naptime, and so, around one o'clock, he decided it was about time he took Miho, Hibiki, and Namiko out for the afternoon. He made sure the three children were dressed, checked the weather, and led the midgets out the door toward the elevator.

The heat wave was still hitting Tokyo in force, so, adding that to the normal July temperatures, the parking garage was horribly stifling... but better than the inside of the car. Eiri nearly choked when he stuck his head into the black cabriolet. Yuck. He rolled down the windows and turned on the car's air conditioning full blast, hoping the combined forces would alleviate the bad in-car feeling. That done, he helped Hibiki and Namiko into the backseat of the car and opened the passenger door for Miho. She climbed in and, after seeming to consider the scenario, buckled her seatbelt. Oh, so she remembered Eiri's driving deftness. Wonderful.

The weather was better outside, but not by much. As soon as the stifling feeling was out of the car, Eiri rolled up the windows and turned the air down a touch. Now what? Eiri didn't know where he was going; his original plan had been to take the brats to the park and let them tire themselves out for a while, but it was far too warm for that. So... what? Most of the indoor places around here were air-conditioned, but everyone trying to escape the heat would be there and Eiri tried to avoid large groups of people whenever possible--especially on Father's Day weekend. The last thing he needed was another tabloid splash page.

Splash. Hm.

An idea struck him.

"Hibiki and Miho, do you know how to swim?" Eiri asked.

Miho nodded and Hibiki set off into a long story about how his mother's friend, Hoto-san, had been teaching him. Eiri took that to be a 'yes'. Namiko just pouted. The fact that she'd been left out of that question had obviously not escaped her.

Eiri considered her through the rearview mirror. "Don't worry. I'm not leaving you out of this," he assured her. "I was thinking about taking you three to Kirin--the sports club. They have pools there." That was the only indoor, semi-public pool house he could think of that allowed children under the age of three swim--or at least had separate pools for those children under three. Since it wasn't completely open to the public, it wouldn't be crowded, which Eiri liked. He would have to buy a membership for himself and the brats, but it wasn't as though he couldn't afford it.

"I don't know how to thwim," Namiko said, lip protruding. Eiri could practically see her fingers creeping up to her mouth.

"You don't have to know how," Eiri said, somewhat crossly. "They have little pools."

Namiko popped on her fingers and sucked on them. "But I wanna know how."

Eiri hesitated and decided to try to be a parent for once in his life. "Do you want me to try and teach you?" he offered. He'd taught Tatsuha how to swim, once upon a time, so it seemed logical that he could do the same for Namiko.

Namiko's face brightened and she pulled her fingers out of her mouth with a small 'pop' noise. "Will you rea'y?" she asked. "I wanna learn how to thwim!"

Eiri shrugged. "Sure." He set course toward Ginza. "We'll go to the pool."

"We don't have swimsuits," Miho pointed out.

Was she trying to spoil his one and only attempt at being a decent parent? He shot her a look. "So we'll go shopping first," he said. "I'll buy all of you new suits."

Ginza was busy this time of day, as usual. Eiri, who did not particularly like to shop even under normal conditions, quickly discovered that shopping with children was even worse. Hibiki and Namiko were trying to tear him in two while Miho plodded along in front of them. Choosing decent suits wasn't very hard, especially not for Miho, who seemed to know exactly what she wanted--a purple one-piece. Namiko tried on at least twenty suits before she settled on a pink one with a little half-skirt. Hibiki was nowhere near as fussy, as he simply wanted a suit that would look just like Eiri's. Eiri hadn't really been intending to buy a suit for himself, but he didn't object. Finding a suit that fit him that also had a smaller version to fit Hibiki took some work, but they eventually found blue suits were enough alike to make Hibiki happy. Eiri paid for the suits and the four of them wore them out of the store, under their clothes.

The swim club was not far away, much to Eiri's relief, and both Hibiki and Miho had shed their unnecessary clothing and rushed into the pool even before Eiri could finish paying for their memberships. Namiko started after them, but Eiri stopped her with a restraining hand. If the girl drowned, people might think he had done it on purpose.

Getting a membership for himself was more trouble than it was worth, Eiri thought, and other members of the club were whispering about him even as he and Namiko wandered into the pool house. Eiri put his extra things away in a locker before he did anything else, then looked around for Miho and Hibiki. The two children were splashing around in one of the shallower pools. That was good.

The entire place was permeated with the sick smell of chlorine, which made Eiri almost nauseous, but none of the children in the place seemed to mind... nor did many of the adults. Eiri made a mental note to discover the secret to ignoring the chlorine smell.

Miho and Hibiki went about their own business in the other pool while Eiri attempted to teach Namiko how to swim. It was a task probably better suited for someone Namiko was more secure with, but Eiri had offered and so he would have to do. The smell of the chlorine faded after a while but, after a while, he agreed to buy the three children ice cream and, when they returned to the pool house, the smell hit him full force and he felt himself growing light-headed. He was relieved when Hibiki came up to him and complained about a sudden cramp in his side, probably due to the ice cream. Complained meant that they could leave this wretched place filled with sticky lounge chairs and the intoxicating smell of chlorine. Namiko had managed to get the hang of dog-paddling by then and could, at least, tread water and swim a few feet before she fell under the water and started to choke, but she claimed that her throat was hoarse from swallowing water and was ready to go as well. Miho, true to form, said nothing on the matter but made no argument when Eiri said it was time to go. One of the women in the pool house agreed to help Miho and Namiko into their dry clothes while Eiri dealt with Hibiki in the pool's dirty locker room. Half an hour after having dragged the children out of the pool and nearly three hours after arriving, the four of them left the pool house.

After the pool, Eiri called home to the apartment to find out if Shuichi was there (he wasn't) and then, for lack of anything better to do, took the three midgets to the arcade. When they had finally spent all of his loose change, he took them back to the apartment and found something "suitable" for them to watch while he retreated to his office and tried to work. This, of course, did not go as he had planned; as willing as Miho was to sit quiet and pretend to read, the two other children were not satisfied with this plan and felt the need to heckle Eiri non-stop.

Eiri put up with this for about an hour before he got frustrated and gave up. It was nearly six-thirty anyway, and Shuichi still was not back. So Eiri went for the phone again, planted Hibiki and Namiko on the couch, and dialed Shuichi's cell. He heard the familiar sound of Shuichi's ring tone over in the bedroom and fought the urge to curse. Hibiki and Namiko began to giggle, chatter, and squeal. Fuck. Eiri grit his teeth and called the NG studio, a number he had put on speed dial when he had realized Shuichi expected him to call about silly things like dinner, forgotten cell phones, and small floods due to bursting water pipes. Eiri had to shush the two noisy children several times before he could tell the administrative desk who he was, who he wanted to speak to, and why.

Instead of hold music, NG played a repetitive message: 'Thank you for calling NG Studios. Your call is being redirected. Please stay on the line. Thank you for calling...' The message played eight and a half times before Shuichi finally picked up.

"Yuki?" he asked, voice laced with obvious surprise. He sounded tired, Eiri thought. "Is everything all right?"

The two noisy children started to talk and squirm again, so Eiri whirled around. "Stay on the couch and stay quiet," he ordered, covering the phone mouthpiece with one hand. He whirled back.

"Yuki?" Shuichi was saying again.

"Everything's fine," Eiri said quickly. He tried to ignore the relieved sigh he heard from Shuichi's end of the line. "The brats wanted to know if you'd be back for dinner," he half-lied. He twisted his upper-body and frowned at Hibiki and Namiko, who had obeyed him in not moving off the couch but were raising the volume of their voices as Eiri spoke. He turned back, rubbing his head. He could vaguely hear Shuichi going "what?"

He tried again.

"Will you be..."

"What?"

Eiri's fingers pressed against his forehead and he shut his eyes. Fucking hell. "Will you be home for dinner?"

"What? Yuki, you must be on a bad line or something! I can't hear you!"

God damn it. Eiri started to try again and, suddenly, there was quiet. It felt almost as though a million Shuichis had all whined at once and had been suddenly silenced. Eiri opened his eyes and dared to look over at the children on the couch. It seemed that Miho had taken a pillow and was expertly suffocating the other two with it. With a sharp pain, Eiri realized that he would eventually have to take the pillow away from Miho. It was a shame, really.

"Yuki?" Shuichi was asking. "Yuki? Is everything okay?"

"Fine," Eiri answered shortly. "Are you nearly done with whatever you're doing at NG?"

Shuichi made an 'mmm'-ing sound before he answered. "I don't know. Probably not. Have you guys eaten yet?"

"Not yet."

"Feed them, Yuki," Shuichi scolded. "I'll go out with Hiro when we're done and I'll see you tonight, okay?"

Eiri's mind rebelled. Shuichi expected him to take care of three brats for the rest of the day? His brain screamed at him, but his lips calmly formed and sounded the word "Sure."

Shuichi laughed and there was the sound of someone mumbling in the background, so he went on quickly. "I've got to go! Love you, Yuki! Bye!"

"Bye."

As they hung up, Eiri turned, took the pillow away from Miho, made sure the giggling brats were all right, and then went to face the daunting task of feeding three children.

---to be continued---