It has been six months since Hoshino Aquamarine's first playdate with the Arima siblings, but only about three weeks since he's last seen them. Since then, they'd had playdates four times. Not quite one playdate a month, but definitely more than one every two months.
It was amazing, honestly, how they were able to fit that many playdates within that period of time, especially when the two families weren't even neighbors.
Despite the somewhat high quantity of playdates, the group of kids had only been fully complete for the entire playdate two out of the four times: the first and second.
Mana, as expected of the usual organizer via his mother, was present in each and every organized playdate. It honestly hurt Aqua's pride somewhat to have a three year old organize playdates for him, but judging by Mana's personality and Kana's complaints about her brother's antics, he'd chalked it up to the Arima brother being overly aggressively friendly and wholesome. Just like he was when they first met him.
The other person that made it to every playdate completely was Ruby. As a somewhat normal three year old, Ruby didn't have any jobs that would make her busy enough to not make it, and so she was free enough to make every playdate without fail. Well, it was as expected of a normal three year old child, anyway, Aqua reckoned.
It was the third playdate that started without everyone. It wasn't anything major, really. Kana, the genius actor she is, simply had to film somewhere. It wasn't far, thankfully, so the other three were still able to meet. Kana was able to join in after her roles were done since, when possible, the child's parts were often finished first so they didn't have to stay for the entire filming.
In the fourth playdate, embarrassingly, it was Aqua who couldn't make it. He had a nasty case of an upset stomach on the day of the playdate, almost entirely because he'd had the smart idea of trying out some particularly spicy curry. In his past life, he loved spicy food. He believed he'd be fine with it in this life. He craved the heat once more, especially since he didn't have it for more than three years straight. He asked for it, insisted on it, even, to Miyako, Ai, and Ruby's disbelieving looks.
He was wrong, evidently. The spice turned out to be too strong for his new body's childish tastes and too much for his weak, little body.
He loved the heat, and even if it was too much for him right now, and so he finished his entire serving, but his body suffered quite severely from it.
He never really truly understood why people kept making toilet jokes in his past life when he mentioned he ate curry, but now he knew, quite personally, he might add.
Ai stayed home to take care of him during his little bowel issue, to his rather covert pleasure and to his more overt embarrassment. Aqua loved receiving attention from Ai, any time of any day, but he still cringed to this day whenever he thought about what caused it to happen.
Ruby was going to stay too, but both Ai and Aqua knew just how much she looked forward to the playdates. She loved getting to run around with her new friends. She just looked so happy to be out and about that Aqua insisted she go anyway. It almost wasn't enough, but even Ai helped insist, and so she went with Miyako.
Aqua flushed with embarrassment, remembering that when Ruby returned, she dutifully reported how she and the Arima sister had a good laugh at his predicament. When asked about Mana and his reaction, Ruby started laughing even harder.
Apparently, Mana had done something similar, but for coffee this time. He supposedly snuck a cup of coffee in while his mom wasn't looking, and in a few sips, he already needed to visit the toilet.
So while Mana did indeed join in the laughing at Aqua's expense, he was quickly exposed and embarrassed by his mom and sister, who wasted no time telling Ruby all about his misadventures.
'Serves him right for laughing at me.' Aqua thought vindictively, more than a little happy that he was teased less than Mana by virtue of not being there. Although considering that they were on a car ride to meet them, now, that could very well change, Aqua considered.
Today, Aqua recalled from the Arima family's invitation, was a movie viewing and a birthday party at the same time. Mana's birthday, to be precise. That's why, even if the movie had been released for well over a week at this point, everyone had only gotten together to watch it now.
Mana apparently had some surprise activities lined up with the help of his mom, and Aqua was really curious about what they'd be.
He'd heard a little about Mana's previous antics and experienced some of them. In the third playdate, the one where Kana was out filming for the first half of the playdate, there was a swimming pool in the area, and so Mana invited everyone for a swim.
To this day, Aqua still thanked Mana as his lucky star for what he was able to witness: Ai in a swimsuit. As a cover, Ai didn't come on the first and second playdates since the initial playdate, wanting to keep hidden her relations with the children, but the third playdate seemed fine and she played up being eccentric to tag along so she could join everyone for a quick swim.
As a fan, Aqua thanked Mana with all his heart for the chance offered him. Even Ruby, who despite her initial discomfort with Mana, had been spotted by Aqua while she was thanking Mana in private, not ever mentioning what exactly she was thanking him for. It both surprised and didn't surprise Aqua that it was this incident which started to lower Ruby's guard towards Mana. She was a die-hard fan of Ai, after all.
Mana was apparently really good at swimming, having taken to it like a fish to water. In fact, he was so good at it that he taught Ai, Ruby, and Aqua during the swimming pool playdate.
He supposedly learned to swim on his previous birthday, where instead of enjoying a birthday party like a normal kid, he wanted to have swimming lessons alongside his sister Kana. While Kana learned to swim to a level moderate of a three year old at the time, it was Mana who really took to it.
And now, Mana was doing something similar for his birthday, apparently. The Arima mother told/complained to Miyako that she'd had to go through quite a few annoying lengths to set up Mana's surprise at his behest.
Aqua wondered sometimes about what was going on in that kid's mind.
Today's playdate/movie viewing/birthday party would be different from the previous playdates. Apparently, one of the Arima family's neighbors would be joining them.
According to Mana, who insisted on inviting them, it was a family of… three (Aqua noted Mana's hesitance in saying the word three, but decided not to dig into their family affairs). The three consisted of a father, an older brother, and a little sister, all of whom doted on the Arima siblings very much.
Aqua would've personally preferred not to have others with them, but this playdate doubled as Mana's birthday celebration and so he shrugged it off. The birthday celebrant wants and so the birthday celebrant gets.
The addition of the neighbors almost got President Saitou to put his foot down and prevent Ai from joining, too, but the combined efforts of a video call from Mana, who begged the president with tears in his eyes (clearly, he was learning to act like his elder sister, Aqua thought), Ai and Miyako's disapproving glares from over the phone, as well as the president's lack of an explainable reason to keep Ai from going, all of it combined to get grudging approval from the president. The president raved on and on afterwards about safety measures, though.
As the car slowed to a standstill and Miyako fired off another set of reminders about their safety measures and what to do and what not to do, Aqua looked out the window, already spotting Mana waving at them from the building they were about to enter.
'That guy…' Aqua wiped a beat of sweat from his face, already suspecting that his day was about to get much more troublesome.
Hoshino Ruby peered at Aqua sweat dropping at the sight of Mana, waving from the room of the building that he rented for today's activities, the sight bringing a thought to her mind.
'Aqua… doesn't know, does he?' she thought, recalling the last play date they had.
They didn't do anything particularly special. Mana felt like stretching, and so he started following some tutorial on the internet. Eventually, she and Kana got curious and decided to join him, even roping our "mother", Miyako and their mother, Miura, into it.
It was during the stretching that Miyako and Miura continued talking amongst themselves. Ruby overheard them talking about father figures. Miyako seemed to want to complain slightly about the president. Miura, on the other hand, opened up about the Arima family's father, who left them. An utter scumbag. Ruby went to check if Kana heard the two adults speaking and opening up, but she showed no sign of it, struggling as is to follow the stretches.
Speaking of fathers, Ruby's brain trailed off to her own situation, her mouth forming a grimace as she imagined it all.
In her past life, she wasn't very lucky on the parent department. Neither her mother nor her father loved her. It seemed to her that they were just waiting for her to die. She didn't even know if they visited her on her deathbed. They had no love for her, and so she had no love for them.
That is why Ai and Goro were so important to her. They showed her love and she will forever remember how she felt whenever she was with them. That is why her mama and sensei would always occupy a special place in her heart.
In her current life, however, her family had a similar situation to the Arima family. A single mother raising two children. She couldn't help but relate to the Arima family.
A scumbag father who abandons his family.
Ruby appreciated how much Ai did for them, even if she recognized too just how much the Saitou couple helped their family out. That's why she loved Ai, her mama, much more than just as her beloved idol.
"Mama…" Ruby suddenly reached out, lightly tugging on her mother's sleeve, clasping her mother's hand as she turned to look at her.
"I…" Ruby trailed off, unsure if she should be speaking for Aqua, deciding in the end not to do it. "I'm really happy that you fought for Aqua and I to meet Kana and Mana. We made new friends and I'm very happy, so we don't need a father." Ruby trailed off, not entirely knowing where exactly she was going for this, when Aqua cut in.
"Yeah." Aqua nodded, holding onto Ai himself. "We don't need him. I'm happy enough with mama and Miyako-san, and even president Ichigo." he tagged the Saitou couple on, drawing a smile from Miyako-san in the driver's seat.
Ai smiled. "Awwww…" she drawled, her smile warm. "I'm glad I can make you guys happy. My children are so sweet!" Ai took both of them in her arms and embraced them tightly for a minute, only letting go once she noticed Mana still waving from the window in the distance.
"We should get going before Mana gets tired." Ai giggled, drawing laughs from everyone in the car.
"Yeah!" Ruby smiled happily, she couldn't wait to see what Mana had in store for them.
And that's chapter 8! We're back to a Hoshino focus. Ruby inadvertently tries to reassure Ai and make her feel loved out of nowhere, just remembering the Arima family situation. Lowkey, unknowingly, recommending that they don't need a father :))
Who needs scumbag fathers who abandon their families am I right, guys?