Akito went down the stairs carefully, so as not to make his hair messy again. The smell of toast and omelets filled his nose. He heard the sound of his parents and sisters talking, but mostly was hearing the excitable voices of his sisters' questions.
"How many children do they have?" "Are they nice?" "How did you keep in contact 'till now?" "Are there girls my age? What about boys?" "What time will they come?"
He heard his mother's soft laughter and his father's deep, cool voice answering their questions.
He finally came in the dining room, and his pink-haired mother stopped to smile teasingly at him and say, "Well, look who's finally come down!"
Akito smiled back as he saw his family's knowing smiles, Miu looking more mischievous. He took his seat next to his father, Ikuto Tsukiyomi.
"How's my only son this morning?" he asked, playfully ruffling his hair. Akito smiled up at Ikuto's handsome face behind the bangs that were now in front of his eyes. "I can't wait for this afternoon!" he told Ikuto, who replied with a chuckle and a nod.
"So I suppose you'll be willing to help this afternoon?" his mother, Amu, gave him a hinting smile.
"Of course! I'll do anything I can to help!" Akito replied energetically.
"Aww, no fair!" protested a tiny voice. "Kiku wants to help, too!"
"You and Ai can help me set up some games and activities, Kiku," replied their father.
"And Miu can help me, too, along with Akito," Amu added.
Kiku and Ai are the youngest siblings in the Tsukiyomi family. They both have dark blue hair and dark blue eyes. Kiku is six and Ai is four. Kiku always wants to do "big things" and do things that look grown-up. She's competitive when it comes to games, and is a little nosy. But she's always polite when she talks to those that are older than her.
Ai, on the other hand, is timid, quiet, and sweet. She loves to be around her daddy and shows him more affection than anybody else. Akito, personally, loves Ai the most because she's "less annoying" than his other two sisters, and Ai equally loves her "onii-chan." Indeed, as her name suggests, she pretty much loves everybody!
At the mention of her going to be able to help Daddy, Ai went wide-eyed, blushed, and smiled big. She would do anything she could to help him.
Breakfast was finally over. Kiku and Ai went with Ikuto while Akito and Miu helped their mother clean up. By this time Hakase and Tetsu came down and accompanied Akito, with Tetsu also helping.
"Thanks for helping, Tetsu," Amu smiled warmly at him. Tetsu blushed and bowed politely. Seeing her son's and daughter's charas reminded her of fond memories with Ran, Miki, Suu, and Dia.
Wait… daughter's?
A happy, giggly voice filled the kitchen as the tiny yellow chara helped dry the dishes with Tetsu and Hakase (Akito washed the dishes, Miu rinsed them, and Amu put them away).
"Drying dishes is so fun~!" she sang. "Since it makes people happy, that makes it all the more fun!"
Everyone smiled at her brightness, Tetsu blushing a little. The happy chara hummed a little tune that could reach into the very depths of the heart, even the depths of the coldest person on earth.
This little chara is known as Natsumi and is Miu's only chara. She hatched recently about two months ago and is born from Miu's desire to make others happy. Her orange-brown hair is always in two braids, reaching to the middle of her back, with two smiley faces to hold her hair in place. She has orange eyes and white skin, a bright yellow spaghetti-strap top with a sun on it, a yellow frilly skirt with orange frills that reaches just below her knees, and yellow flip-flops. Her egg is orange with a smiley face and sunrays on it. The most important feature of all is her sunny smile, which brightens everyone around her.
"Natsumi, what tune is that?" Hakase asked, curious.
Natsumi smiled brightly. "Oh, I don't have a name for it. I just made it up! When you're happy, your heart tends to want to sing a song that hasn't been invented before. Everyone has a different tune! I call it your "heart's song!"
"Is that so?" Hakase smiled at this new thinking. Tetsu, hearing this, also wondered at it. Right now he was feeling happy (because of Natsumi), and he wanted to hum a tune, but not a tune that's been sung before. So, guided by his heart, his throat let out his "heart's song."
Natsumi grinned when Tetsu hummed his own tune. "Tetsu-kun, your heart's song is refreshing!"
Tetsu stopped humming for a moment and smiled at Natsumi, saying, "Really? How can you tell?"
"By the sound of it, of course!" she replied, and hummed a different tune than she had hummed before.
With the thought of "heart's song" in mind, everyone started to hum their own tune until it sounded like a choir. Miu, with the same attitude as Natsumi's, smiled at the music they were making. She hoped that, no matter where she went, she would help people find their heart's song.
Ikuto, Kiku, and Ai, upon hearing the humming music, curiously went into the kitchen and found the gang happily doing their job, singing their own tunes to speed up the job a little. Ikuto smiled at his wife and two oldest children and their charas enjoying a good time. He figured Natsumi started it. He was rather fond of Natsumi because she comes to cheer him up whenever he's stressed out. He would look forward to the day when Miu becomes just like that, a light to people's darkness.
Ikuto looked down at his two youngest girls, who were enchanted by the humming. He wondered what their charas would be like someday.
Natsumi was the first to spot Ikuto and the other two girls. She called to them happily, "Ikuto-san, Kiku-chan, Ai-chan, come join us!" with a smile.
Ikuto and Kiku stepped boldly forward, while Ai, holding on to Ikuto's pant leg, being timid, was uncertain of what to do.
Even though they didn't know what was going on, Ikuto and Kiku felt the happy aura coming towards them and suddenly made them want to hum a tune. Ai, seeing that even her Papa and onee-chan started to hum, also felt the aura, and started to hum her timid little tune.
Everyone had big smiles when they were finally done with the dishes. The happy energy made them show their affection. In no time Ikuto kissed Amu all over and kissed Ai, Kiku hugged her siblings with great fervency, Akito returned his sisters' hugs and hugged Ai (giving her a kiss), Amu hugged her husband and children, and Miu kissed and hugged everybody that she saw.
The charas? Natsumi, of course, hugged everybody by the cheek, and hugged the two male charas (Tetsu blushed by her warm hug). Hakase and Tetsu hugged Akito, and were much too timid to hug anybody else.
After everyone was done with their hugging and kissing spree, Amu smiled and announced, "Alright, everyone, back to work! We've only got a couple of hours until noon, the expected time everybody'll be here."
So Ikuto, Kiku, and Ai went back to working on the games and activities, and Amu, Akito, and Miu (with the charas) worked on setting up decorations, plates, silverware, napkins, etc, and making little sandwiches for lunch (the preparation for last night was for dinner).
Miu and the charas were assigned to do the sandwiches. The choices were ham and egg, cucumber and tomatoes, cheese and butter, and tonkatsu (pork cutlet).
Natsumi tried to lift a cucumber slice onto the bread. Considering her size, it'd be heavy for her. Tetsu saw the trouble and thought he'd be gentlemanly by helping her (despite his equal size, he's very strong).
"Here, Natsumi-chan, let me help you," he offered, taking the other side of the cucumber slice and helped her put it on the bread. They (Natsumi & Tetsu) kept making cucumber and tomato and tonkatsu sandwiches until they were all done. Natsumi smiled gratefully at Tetsu and said, "Thank you, Tetsu-kun! I guess you're strong when it comes to things like this. As for me, my strong point is making others happy," she giggled.
Tetsu blushed at her thanks and bowed politely.
Amu and Akito were setting up decorations like: a big banner that said, "Welcome," some balloons, stars, hearts, and little banners that said in English, "Let's party!" Then they put two tables together for the adults to eat around, and put another two tables together in another room for the children. Finally, they set up fancy paper plates, cups, napkins, and silverware on the tables.
All of the preparations were done. It was close to noon, and the children couldn't hardly wait until they got here. They all went around the house and checked once more to see that everything was in place.
Then the doorbell rang.
"That must be one of them!" Amu announced, smiling. The children were close to jumping up and down with excitement as Amu told the visitors, through the intercom, to come in.
That's it for this chapter! I didn't intend for it to go exactly like this, but since I got started on the "heart's song" thing, it changed into something else. I hope it wasn't too boring!
Once again, please be patient for the next chapter because it might take longer to think up than this one.