Sho had never known that making cake was this complicated.
"Cake now! Sho cake now!" said baby sis as she banged a pan against the floor. She liked to do that. They used to do that when she'd been little…well littler than she was now. She was still pretty little. She wasn't going to be big for a while. Not as big as he was. He was the one in charge…and he had to be in charge…
Which meant making a cake.
"It's coming, it's coming. Just…let me figure it out." Said Sho as he leaned against the counter. He scrolled through his phone…all of these recipes were so complicated….why hadn't anyone told him that cooking was this hard?! Big sis made it look easy. She just put stuff together and it turned into food. Shibata made it look even easier. Sometimes Sho just found cakes and cookies and stuff that looked good and brought the recipes to Shibata…or not even the recipes just the pictures….and then Shibata made them and…
And why was this so hard?!
He had the stuff that you needed for cake. There was butter and water and sugar and eggs and…well there was baking soda and that must have been close to baking powder…and also there must have been vanilla somewhere…well he could crush some of Fukuda's gross vanilla cookies and melt some of his ice cream…or something. There. He had all the stuff that you needed for cake….so….so he just had to figure out how to make cake!
Why hadn't big sis taught him how to cook?
She had been cooking since even before mom had left. He remembered how, sometimes, before school she would stand on a chair and make them breakfast. He also remembered how he would sit there and play while she cooked. That had always just seemed like a girl job. Dad had said so anyway…and he got the feeling that dad was wrong about that. Shibata liked to cook and he was a guy, and he could pick you up and throw you over the house if you said otherwise, and even Shimazaki could cook too….well he knew how to make grilled cheese and tea and hot chocolate and…and ok he couldn't really cook…but he could do better than Sho could.
Sho wished that Shimazaki had been there.
He could have just teleported and gotten a cake…well Sho would have had to go with. Shimazaki couldn't tell what stuff was a lot of the time because of packaging and how nothing but beer was in braille…and when Sho ruled the world then he would change that. Braille for everything. Then Shimazaki would be able to steal stuff easier….not that he would have to steal…but if he still wanted to then he could have. He could have stolen and Sho would have been able to make it legal for him to steal because Shimazaki was his best friend and his best friend would be able to do anything he wanted when Sho took over the world…
A whole lot of things.
If Shimazaki had been there, and Sho ruled the world, then he could have let Shimazaki pick him up and pull him close and be all like 'Sho, you're going to make the best cake ever and I think that you're cool and I want you to kiss me' and then Sho could have been all 'but I have a girlfriend' and then Shimazaki could have said something like 'she found a better boyfriend than you so now we can be together and if anyone asks your heart is so broken that you'll never love a girl again' because he was smart like that and then it would have made perfect sense for them to be together and then it would have been ok for Shimazaki to pick him up and-
Hit him in the back of the head.
"What the fuck!?" said Sho as he rubbed the back of his head. Baby sis was laughing now. He took a step back and tripped over the pan she'd thrown at him…for some reason. Baby sis reasons. He didn't get mad ta her…well he did his best to not get mad at her…even though she had no reason to throw a pan at the back of his head…well she was only two and she didn't know any better….or maybe she did because she was laughing…
But it didn't matter how he felt. She was happy and that was what mattered.
"What the fuck! What the fuck!" laughed baby sis. She clapped and laughed and…and he was not going to get mad at her. He was not going to let his aura get all bright. He was…he was sorry. He shouldn't have yelled at her and he was sorry…and he shouldn't have taught her to curse…and now she was cursing and her mom was going to be so mad at him. She had told him that he could take baby sis to his apartment if, and only if, he agreed to take good care of her. That meant feeding her and changing her and not giving her more than ten M&M's a day….and probably not yelling at her or teaching her to curse. That hadn't been said but it didn't seem like the kind of thing that her mom would have been ok with.
Moms weren't ok with stuff like that.
He knew that his mom wouldn't have been. If his mom had been there then she would have bene mad at him. She would have picked him up and sat him on his bed for a timeout. It would have been eleven minutes not because he got one minute for every year that he'd been alive. That was a long time….so maybe it was good that she wasn't there to have heard that….but he wished that she had been there even if she had heard that. She would have known, at least, how to make a cake. She would have said something like 'Sho, you're too little to be in the kitchen so go and play' or…well she would have been in bed actually, because she had been sick a lot of the time…
But maybe she would have gotten better just for a little bit. This cake was for Fukuda after all and they had been best friends.
Well he and Fukuda were friends and…and he could…he could make this cake! He could make this cake and he would make this cake and….and now he was going to make this cake! But first he was going to do something about baby sis. She was cursing, still, and she was tugging at his hair too. He was the big brother and he had to makes sure that she grew up to be better than he was. She could curse when she got older but not now.
Now she was only two years old.
"What the fuck! What the fuck!" laughed baby sis as she tugged on his hair. He reached back and held her hand. She didn't like that, based on how her aura flared, but he couldn't let her tug on his hair or curse. If he let her do that then she would grow up and think that it was ok to do things like that…and then he would have been a bad big brother. He wasn't her for real big brother, even though they had the same hair color and eye color and aura color…and even though their hair even did the same thing where it stood up like they were going super saiyan, he was just her pretend brother….but that didn't mean that he didn't have to teach her good from bad and right from wrong and how not to be like he was when he was little.
"Baby sis, no. Don't say that…and don't pull my hair either." Said Sho. Baby sis just laughed some more…and he was not going to yell at her…even though she was reaching for his hair again. Why did she want to pull his hair? They had the same hair! She should have just pulled her own hair if-no, no, no. Don't do that, don't get mad.
He loved her and when you loved someone you didn't get mad at them.
"No. Mukai, no." said Sho
"No, Sho, no!" laughed baby sis. She wasn't cursing anymore…so that was good. She was still trying to pull on his hair then. He thought about pulling her to show her that it hurt…but he hated himself for even thinking thoughts like that. She was his little sister, his pretend little sister, and he was going to be nice to his pretend little sister…he was going to be a good big brother.
And good big brothers did not pull their sister's hair….and good little brothers didn't do that either…he'd have to say sorry again to big sis at some point.
"Mukai….do you want more M&M's? I'll give you more M&M's if you stop pulling on my hair and saying that word." Said Sho. There. When big sis needed him to do something that he didn't want to do she let him have soda and poptarts.
He knew what he had promised her mom but…well this was important.
"More please!" said baby sis. She stood up and held her hands together. He used his powers to get two M&M's out of the bag for her. These were his, they were the good kind with the caramel in them, but he would gladly share with her. She had her own of course but those were back at her house and he didn't want to walk all the way back there. He didn't want to run into any of those Scars. They were a bunch of weirdos…
And not nice weirdos like his friends.
"Here, but you have to promise not to ever say that word again." said Sho
"Word!" said baby sis. She was either trying to be funny or she forgot, he didn't know which. Either way was good. She wasn't cursing anymore and that was what mattered. He didn't want to turn into Fukuda and be all 'language' all the time. He also didn't want to have to punish her for something that he did all the time. Maybe it was ok because he was older…but it still didn't seem fair.
Things needed to be fair between brothers and sisters.
When he had been little mom had made sure to keep things fair between him and big sis. They'd had the same bedtime and bath time and eaten the same food and had the same amount of TV time. That was better, in his opinion, than how things were now. Now she was in charge of him like she was the mom and he was the kid…and that wasn't fair. Just because she was older than he was and just because she was the only girl did not mean that she had to be the one in charge…when he had kids he wasn't going to that.
If Emmy left him then he wasn't going to put his daughter in charge.
He didn't want his kids to have to listen to his other kids. It took too long to get used to and also it didn't seem like it was fair to them. He was the dad, well he was going to be the dad, and he was going to be in charge. He was going to be busy running the world, he knew that it would be a lot of work, but also he was going to be the dad and even if he had to only sleep one hour a night he was going to have enough time to take care of his kids…and he was never going to hit them or make them feel like they were bad people just for how they'd been born. He was going to make them happy and he was going to make sure that everything was fair between them.
Fairness was very important. For your kids or your little….your pretend little sister.
"More!" said baby sis. She was tugging on him again. She wanted more and…and he knew that there were rules…and he knew that he should have followed them but…but she wanted more and he loved her…
"One more, but that's it. I still have to figure out how to make this cake." Said Sho. He used his powers to hand her another M&M and then he went back to his phone. He found a recipe without too many directions…but the ones that were there were so complicated. Cream the butter? Butter was butter and cream was cream…and he knew that you could turn cream into butter but….did that mean that you had to…reverse the butter? He didn't know. Big sis would have known.
She knew a lot about milk.
She was probably drinking it right now. She was probably sitting around with Minegishi drinking strawberry milk and watching one of those boring shows that she and Minegishi liked…and she had better have been keeping Minegishi busy. If they were busy with big sis then they would have been too busy to hang out with Shimazaki and do boyfriend and theyfriend stuff with him…and even if they were hanging out with both big sis and Shimazaki then they probably weren't going to do boyfriend and theyfriend stuff right in front of her…
But everyone had better not have been having fun without him!
"Cake?" asked baby sis. Her mouth had blue all around it. She didn't put M&M's in her mouth and chew them, no, she kept them in her hands and licked all the color off before she chewed them. That was why he didn't feel her like a bird anymore. He loved her a lot but…well her little baby drool could be kind of gross sometimes…and not in the cool way.
"Later, I'm still trying to figure it out. Here, why don't you play pots and pans band while I try and figure out how you turn butter back into cream?" Said Sho. He used his powers to pass her back a pan. Her aura flared and she reached out. She was trying to use her powers…if she even had any….and he knew that when she grew up he would love her no matter what….but she did not need to worry about having powers…
And he needed to stop using his powers in front of her.
"Music! Music! Music!" said baby sis as she banged her pots and pans together. She didn't know any songs, only parts of some, but that was ok. She was happy and that was what mattered…and he could concentrate just fine when she did that!
"Yeah…music….bang those pots and pans." Said Sho. He did not have a headache, he was going to figure this out, and he was going to make a gross vanilla cake with vanilla icing because that was Fukuda's favorite kind….for some reason. He didn't always understand Fukuda but it was his birthday today and on his birthday he could have whatever he wanted….even a super gross vanilla cake.
Well he could if Sho ever figured this out.
"Pans! Cake! Pans cake!" shouted baby sis. Pans cake…pancake…pancakes! He knew how to do that! Well he knew how to add water to mix…and they had mix….and…..and he could do this! There was nothing wrong with pancakes on your birthday! That was how Shibata did birthdays and he knew about parties!
Sho could do this!
"Baby sis! You're a genius! A drooly, sticky, genius!" said Sho. He got down onto her level and kissed her on the head a bunch of times. Even though that made her kiss him…which was more like licking his head a bunch like they were puppies…but love was love and she was a genius so she could lick him if she wanted to…well it was gross but that was a part of being a big brother, putting up with gross stuff.
And also making pancakes.
Making pancakes went faster than making a cake. Mostly because all you had to do was add water to the mix and fry them. Also you had to watch the stove. Shibata didn't always watch the stove and that was why his were black on one side a lot of the time. Well Sho was going to pay attention…most of the time. Sometimes he got distracted with the pots and pans band…and sometimes baby sis needed more M&M's…and sometimes he had to chase her around because baby sis ended up with a sugar rush…but….well…
They wound up with some edible pancakes.
"Cake?" asked baby sis as Sho tried to sit her down at the table. She was too short to see over the top so he got some cushions from the couch…and that helped make her taller but it also made her more unstable on her chair. She was squirming and wiggling and he had to use his powers to keep her from falling over. He was glad that he hadn't put sugar in these….and also he wished that he had listened to her mom about only giving her ten M&M's a day.
"Pancakes, baby sis, we have pancakes….now sit still. I have to call Fukuda and then he's going to come and then we're going to yell happy birthday and then-" said Sho as he tried to keep baby sis from squirming out of her chair.
"Pancakes? Pancakes for me? Pancakes now! Sho!" said baby sis
"Yeah, in a minute. Let me call Fukuda, alright? We can't eat until he gets here. It's his birthday and we can't start before he gets here." Said Sho. This was going to be the best birthday that he had ever thrown…well it was the only birthday that he had ever thrown…but this was still going to be good! Fukuda's birthday was today and Sho….well he hadn't made a vanilla cake but he made pancakes….
And who didn't like pancakes?