Monkey: Sorry it's been a while. I already had this chapter ready about three days ago, but I wanted to include like, mini chapters so I could focus more on the families separately but I really wanted to put this chapter up so I'll just have to think of something else to do. Lol.
Also, the stuff about The Canterbury Tales in here, it's just a small bit from a discussion a classmate of mine and I had during class last week while we were translating a passage from Middle English to modern English. I just like including bits of my lessons/experiences with works of literature into my fics as often as I can before it's ridiculous lol.
Thank you for all the wonderful reviews and all the favorites and follows! You guys are awesome! :)
It was becoming a bit of a habit, now. Light, with or without Sayu's blackmail, kept coming to Stylin' Cute at least once a week with Matt in tow.
The two arrived to the hair salon and walked in, Light making his way to his sister's station while Matt instinctively went to one of the chairs in the back left specifically for him to work on his homework while his father either worked or socialized.
"Light," Kiyomi greeted as she worked on cutting a blonde man's hair. "It's good to see you today. How's Matt?"
Light flashed her a kind smile. "He's doing well, although he is busy with some homework."
Misa came bouncing from the back of the salon where the mini break room was and skidded to a halt in front of Light, nearly colliding with him. "Light! Guess what?"
Caramel eyes blinked. "What?"
The hyper blonde grinned and pointed to the door as soon as the bell went off, signaling someone's arrival.
Light turned around and before even saying anything, bit back a laugh because really, what were the chances?
L, Near and Mello walked in, a considerable difference from the first time those three stepped into this salon. L's gaze immediately went to Light whose attention was taken up by the two kids in front of him.
"Dare I ask what happened?" Light asked curiously as the two boys walked up to him, trying to elbow each other out of the other's way so Light would only pay attention to one of them.
Near was sporting a bright pink streak in his hair in a significant chunk of his hair while Mello had a large clump of dried blue bubblegum.
"It's all his fault!" the boys yelled simultaneously, pointing at each other with a glare.
"You shut up you gremlin! You put gum in my hair!" Mello exclaimed, attempting to launch himself to the smaller boy had it not been for L taking hold of the back of Mello's shirt and holding him back.
"You thought it would be funny to put pink hair dye in my white hair, I merely returned the favor!" Light hadn't seen Near much, but he guessed that kind of reaction wasn't a very common one, coming from him. The smallest boy tried taking a step towards his older brother but Light put a hand on his shoulder to stop him.
Light bit his lip. "I'm sure that both things can be fixed by Misa."
The boys paused in their glaring before turning to look at the brunette. "We want you to do it."
Light glanced at L and opened his mouth to reply before a voice cut him off.
"Dad, do you think you could help me here?"
The three newcomers froze as a young redhead who looked to be between Mello and Near's age stepped up to the stunning brunette and held up a thick Norton anthology.
Light turned to face his son. "Of course, Matt. What's going on?"
"I'm just having a bit of trouble translating this bit here," Matt began, oblivious to the attention of the three people as he pointed to a certain chunk of the text. "Chaucer is talking about a Monk, but the way he writes him, I'm a little confused."
Light nodded. "I remember the Monk." He pointed to the first lines in that part of The Canterbury Tales. "Remember, this was written during the time of the bubonic plague."
Matt nodded. "Wiped out about a third of the European population and allowed for the people that lived to have more mobility when it came to the social hierarchy."
"Right. And what was one superstition that people had back then, when it came to asking why did that plague nearly annihilate them?"
Matt thought for a bit. "The church."
Light reached out and ruffled Matt's hair. "Yes. Chaucer wrote the Monk, along with the rest of the people of religion, as his reaction to the corrupted church."
"So the part of the Monk being a hunter?"
"Hypocrisy at its best," L cut in before Light could reply.
Caramel eyes turned to look at him before looking back at his son. "Exactly."
Matt nodded a couple times, eyes scanning over the page. "Ok, thank you." He looked up at the raven haired man with the two children. "And thank you too, mister."
"My pleasure."
"Matt, this is L and his kids, Mello and Near," Light introduced. Matt noticed the two boys around his age for the first time and hid behind his dad, a little shy. He brought the book up to nearly cover his face.
"Hello, nice to meet you," he spoke timidly, contrary to how he had sounded previously with his father.
"Likewise," L replied.
Mello and Near turned to look at their dad and each raised a brow. "Hello," they replied as well to show that they did have some manners. They noticed their synchronicity and went back to glaring at each other for the damage in their hair.
Light watched his son walk back to the chair by the mini break room then faced the family of three. Misa and Kiyomi were unintentionally forgotten during this scene as Kiyomi finished up with her customer, the girls smiling to each other over the interaction between the boys.
"Thanks, L."
The raven-haired man nodded. "Your son is reading The Canterbury Tales?" He received a nod and a smile from Light. "He looks about Mello's age, what grade is he in?"
"Third. He asked his teacher if he could read the book she was reading for some of her online classes. She thought he was joking and said that if he managed to translate the first three hundred and eighty lines into more modern English, she would let him have a free pass regarding tests for the rest of the year."
L was impressed. "He is doing well so far."
"He started this morning during class and plans to finish by tonight." Light was never one to brag about anything, but everyone could tell how proud he was of his son.
L was very impressed. If anything, Matt was on par or even exceeded the place where his own sons stood in the literary studies.
Kiyomi rang up the customer she was with and Misa joined her in walking to the boys, gently guiding them to their chairs as Light and L shared their small conversation.
"Have you thought about letting Matt skip a few grades?" L asked as he noticed his children were now in the hands of who he assumed were Light's closest friends while he and Light walked to the break room to be with Matt who was marking up the anthology and translating onto a notebook.
"I've asked him and he wants to finish elementary school with his class before possibly jumping once he gets into middle school or high school. Ultimately, I've left the choice up to him." The brunette sat down in the chair next to his son while L perched in that idiosyncratic way of sitting on the last chair next to Light. The brunette found it intriguing but didn't say anything on the matter, something L appreciated.
"Ironically, my sons have chosen the same route." He looked back at the boys who sat with almost permanent pouts on their faces as they realized that Light would not attend to them today because his attention was taken up by his own son. L noticed that Matt, besides the red hair, looked very much like Light. He watched the redhead scribble a bit in the margins of the book before getting some kind of breakthrough and jotting something down on the piece of paper.
"He's well-behaved," L commented. Matt was too focused on his work to pay either of them any attention.
"Thank you," Light replied with a smile. He cast a glance over to Mello and Near who were being taken care of by the girls.
"He would be a good influence on my sons."
Light chuckled. "Your sons are also well-behaved."
"No. They just act that way in front of you. They are two little terrors," L deadpanned in such a way that Light took it as him joking and merely laughed.
The three sat in a comfortable silence for a couple minutes before Matt yawned and looked over at Light. "Dad, do you have any snacks?"
The brunette pulled out his cell phone since he lacked a watch and checked the time. "I don't, but we should get going soon, Sayu's break is about to be over and I don't want her knowing I was here." He pocketed his phone and waited for Matt to gather his things into his Super Mario backpack.
L stood up with Light and the three of them walked back through the salon, L stopping by his sons.
Light took hold of Matt's backpack, preventing him from walking out the door without saying goodbye. He walked to the two boys in the chairs, guiding his son towards them as well. "It was nice seeing you guys again, but you shouldn't go around trying to mess up each other's hair," he lifted a hand to stop them from yelling out that it was the other's fault, "it doesn't matter whose fault it is, it isn't nice. And you worry your father."
"Not so much worry as I am tired given that this is unfortunately normal behavior between the two," L replied with a look at his sons. Misa and Kiyomi giggled as they continued trying to salvage the boys' hair. The boys gave L their best innocent look but knew they would get grounded again.
"Regardless, you shouldn't keep doing this otherwise you'll literally be in here every week." Light finished with a small shake of his head.
The family of three didn't see that as a bad thing.
"Well, I really have to get going now lest my sister ambush me here." Light gave everyone a grin and gently motioned for Matt to speak.
The shy redhead looked up at L. "It was a pleasure to meet you, Mr. L." He turned to look at L's sons. "It was nice meeting you guys too." He felt his face turn red and attempted to hide behind Light. Kiyomi and Misa couldn't help the coo that escaped them. They really loved how adorable Matt was.
L nodded at him. "I am sure you will complete the translation of The Canterbury Tales by tonight, your teacher would do well not to underestimate your intelligence." What bit of Matt's face he could see turned a little more red and Light hugged his son close with a smile.
Near and Mello stared at their dad through the mirrors in front of them. L gave them a pointed look.
"It was nice to meet you too," they chorused, a little thrown by today's events. This was not how they planned this visit to Stylin' Cute to go, at all.
Now they had another factor to account for when trying to think of how they could set
Light and L up together: Light's son, Matt.
Light said goodbye to his friends and he practically rushed out the door with the redhead
because he really didn't want to meet up with his sister, Sayu, also a factor currently unaccounted for.
Kiyomi and Misa finished up about ten minutes later minutes later and while Mello's hair was a little shorter and part of Near's hair had to be bleached to match his natural hair once more, they were otherwise back to normal. L paid for their hair treatments and the three left after saying their goodbyes to the girls.
About five minutes after they left, Sayu came strolling in, tossing her purse onto her work station and hoping nothing broke.
"Man, you guys wouldn't believe the traffic I faced trying to get back here." Sayu said as she dug through her purse to find her phone. She heard her coworkers and closest friends giggling and she glanced up from her phone. "What's up? What did I miss?"
Misa and Kiyomi shared a glance and then outright laughed. Sayu frowned.
"Guys, what'd I miss?"
Monkey: So Sayu is still kept out of the loop (unintentional on my part, but I guess it works?) and I know it may seem a bit far-fetched to have a third grader reading and understanding something in Middle English but I just wanted to put a little something in there and I will only make the kids' genius come out during school-related or mafia-related (lol) things.
Also no, I didn't check this before uploading so please excuse any mistakes I will fix them later n.n;
Sorry if the chapter seems a bit rushed but the next one will take things a little more slowly. Also, accidentally kinda broke the fourth wall during a scene here and was too lazy to fix it. n.n;;
Thank you for reading :)