Prince of Tennis - Yanagi Renji - 024. Family.
Title: A Typical Day
Fandom: Prince of Tennis
Characters: Yanagi Renji, Mizuko, their children ‘Tarou and Ami
Prompt: 24. Family
Word Count:2,855
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Just another normal day....
Author's Notes:
My LDT found here
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
An alarm clock sounded, it’s annoying beeping reaching to Yanagi Renji’s ears. He sighed a little as he reached across his wife to turn the sound off.
“It’s not morning...” His wife groaned.
“Afraid it is, Mizuko-chan.” He answered, kissing her on the forehead. He knew how she wasn’t much of a morning person.
“It’s not.” She declared, and pulled one of her pillows over her head. Renji smiled a little.
“I’ll get the kids up.” He said, giving her a bit more time to awaken from her groggy state. That was a bit of a dilemma though. As he left the room he wasn’t sure whether to wake his son first, who had the same problem as his mother, or his daughter, who was always happy to arise in the morning. Renji decided on waking the more difficult child first.
“Time to get up.” Renji said, as he turned on the light in his son’s room A soft groan from the bed assured him that the kid was at least somewhat awake. Renji sighed a little. “You have five minutes to groan and wake up enough to go take a shower.” He informed ‘Tarou.
“Yes, dad...” came the sleepy reply. Renji shook his head and moved on to the girl’s room, where he’d have less trouble.
“Ami-chan...” Renji called out. Renji was not surprised at all to find her already sitting up with a book on her lap in bed. He smiled a little. “Up already.” He stated.
“I had to finish this book!” She said. “I couldn’t stand not knowing how it ended!.” Renji chuckled a little at that.
“I understand. Your brother will be in the shower in a few minutes. Get your stuff ready, and jump in after him. There should be something for breakfast out by the time you two are finished.” Renji told her, and headed back to the room he shared with his wife.
A sleepy Mizu was sitting up in the bed. “I hate mornings.” She grumbled as Renji changed from his pajamas into his clothes for work..
“I know you do.” He said softly “I’ll get some coffee started.”
“You do that .” Mizu muttered as she put some slippers on Renji bit his lip as he watched her step out of the room. He wondered about her sometimes. He picked up his briefcase and sports bag. It was a bit odd being a teacher at his old school, but it was enjoyable. He was a bit more flattered that he had been asked to coach the boy’s tennis club. Though, some of the students in it were almost as crazy as him and his teammates had been. Then again, with a few of them being the children of former teammates, it wasn’t all that surprising.
The coffee pot made a gurgling noise as the last few drops dripped out of the filter. ‘Tarou was the first to trudge don the stairs to the first floor kitchen. He promptly fell face first onto the table.
“Sit up, Rentarou.” Renji told him.
“Not awake.” ‘Tarou mumbled. It was pretty obvious he wasn’t awake as he hadn’t objected to his father’s use of his full name. Renji sighed as he poured two cups of coffee. He debated fixing a cup for his son. Mizu came down the stairs as he pondered.
“Coffee” She squealed, and grabbed one of the cups. Mizu took a glance at her son. “Wake up, ‘Tarou.” She said, now bustling about, looking for breakfast foods.
“Don’t wanna...” Was the reply. Ami chose that moment to bounce down the stairs.
“Good morning!’ She said brightly, and pounced on her brother’s back. “Ne, nii-chan! It’s going to rain.” She told him.
“No, it’s not.” He mumbled. “Too hot for rain...” Ami smirked a bit.
“You’ll regret it when it does!.” She said.
Mizu finally came down the stairs, and squealed as she grabbed one of the cups of coffee. “Breakfast is what you find.” She said, gulping down the last of the mug. “I’m starting to run late.” She kissed each of the children on the top of their heads. “Sorry, Renji.” She apologized as she gave him a kiss on the lips and left for her job.
Renji sighed. Just another morning he thought as he picked up his bags. “Behave yourselves at school.” He told the children, as he headed out the door. ‘Tarou perked up as he realized both his parents were gone. “Coffee!” He squealed. Ami sighed.
Renji decided that there was a certain amount of insanity involved when he had accepted the teaching position that was open at his old middle school. He’d been teaching for over ten years now, and every year, it seemed the students either got braver, dumber, or occasionally, they were actually smarter. And at some point, he had been granted the privilege of being the teacher advisor..or rather coach, as the Rikkai boys’ tennis club seemed to have really gone downhill from when he was a student there.
Renji set his case with graded papers on his desk in the teacher’s workroom He’d be back for those in a bit. He left for the tennis club’s locker room to make sure the boys weren’t goofing around. The thought brought a nostalgic smile to Renji’s lips. No one in his day would have dared goof off with Sanada Genichirou around. The locker room was mostly quiet, with the underclassmen changing, and the upperclassmen actually going out to warm up like they should.
It was rather an uneventful practice, Renji thought. Well, if one Niou Hiroki managing to hit a ball just so that it managed to take out almost all of the lights on the courts for late evening practices uneventful. Somehow, Renji had the feeling that this was probably going to be normal in the next few years.
Oddly enough, his classes during the day weren’t so eventful. It was the same thing, every day, almost every year. Then again, the curriculum rarely changed. He rifled through the essays his third year students had written. He was amused and disappointed by some of them. He wondered just how many of his third years thought they could get away with just writing something irrelevant to the topic he had set forth for them.
The second years weren’t too horrible with their homework. They were still at a point where Renji could probably still spark an interest in his class and get a few of them to care and not have to take it as a required class the next year.
Renji loved his first years though. Apparently several of his old friends had children all around the same time. Renji hadn’t been aware that any of them had been married (except for his two best friends Sanada Genichirou and Yukimura Seiichi) He had seen several familiar names on the rosters. In fact, he had their sons, and his own in his classes, and he’d seen Niou’s son, Kirihara’s, and Marui's, and one daughter of his former teammates. There must have been something in the water that year, Renji thought to himself. All of them were good kids for the most part. Niou’s son could be a bit of a problem, but he wasn’t like his father in that he went out of his way to pull off pranks and tricks...he just seem to manage such things inadvertently.
And those were only his first four classes before lunch.
Renji sat down at his desk in the workroom over the lunch period. He’d grabbed some lunch from the cafeteria, and came back to finish grading papers for the afternoon’s classes. He was in the midst of marking papers when some students came in seeking him.
“Yanagi-sensei?” A girl’s voice asked
Renji turned around in his chair. “What’s an I do for you?” He asked the student.
She held out a form for him. “I need a signature for this.” She said Renji looked over the form, and nodded,.
“There you go. I hope you do well.”
“Thank you, sensei!” She said, hurrying off.
He was half expecting something major to happen during the last twenty minutes of lunch, luckily, nothing happened, and the schedule resumed like normal.
He was happy to have the third years that actually wanted to be in his class. Then again, that was why he had scheduled the elective classes for the afternoon. He could deal with those that wanted to learn more then the ones that complained about it. He loved his job, but it was quite difficult at times.
With the actual school day over, it was back to the tennis courts. Honestly, things hadn’t changed too much from twenty years ago, the kids still did most of their own training, Renji mostly just offered advice and worked more with the first years. He did insist on the first years playing actual matches at least two days a week. This happened to be one of those days.
He walked among the upperclassmen that were working in the gym, then went outside to check on the first years.
Then he heard the words that made any adult cringe.
“Hey, watch this!” Renji sighed upon hearing this, but looked over to the court he heard it from.
There he saw Sanada’s son attempting a complicated smash. His opponent, his own son, just dropped his racket, knowing what was about to happen.
“Fifteen thirty.” Was the bored call of the referee, Renji smiled a little as he walked on. The boy would either get that right eventually, or not at all. They were still young though.
After an hour and a half of sweaty teenagers, there wasn’t much left to do in the day, except head home, and hope that things wouldn’t be crazy.
Renji was tapped on the shoulder, knocking him out of his musings.
“Hey, Dad, Seiji, ‘Nosuke, and I are going to go over to Seiji’s and help his mom try to speak more Japanese.” ‘Tarou told his fatter. Renji nodded.
“Don’t be too late.” He told him, nodding. The three boys headed off.
He took off walking towards home, making sure to meet Ami at the comer where they always met after she got out of school.
“Dad!” She squealed when she saw him.
Renji smiled a little as she came up to him. “I missed you too.” He said a bit dryly.
“Hanako and Sadako are going to a tournament this weekend. Can I go watch them?” She asked.
“Not by yourself.” Renji answered her. She was about to start pouting when he held a finger up.
You can go if your brother goes with, or if Kenjirou-kun is going to be there.” Ami perked up a bit.
“Promise?” She asked.
“Promise.” Renji agreed. “I know you’re getting older, but I’m not ready for you to go all the way to Tokyo on your own. Besides, I’m sure you might get the whole gang to go along if you tell them what’s going on.”
“Haruka won’t.” Ami pouted. Haruka was the only girl among the group, who was younger than Ami, and therefore didn’t really care about what Ami, her brother, or Ami’s brother and his friends were into.
“She has her own interests. Besides, it’s not a big deal. You’ll get to see your cousins.” Ami nodded.
The finished the walk home in silence.
The two chorused a “Tadaima” as the entered the house. There wasn’t an answer.
“Mom must not be home yet.” Ami said, changing her shoes for a pair of slippers, and took her book bag upstairs to work on the homework she had.
Renji checked his cell phone. Of course he hadn’t bothered checking his messages before leaving work.
Be home a bit late. Almost done with project. Either start something, or order out. Renji considered for a moment.
“Ami!” He called to her. “Want take out for dinner?”
“Sure!” She called back. He figured he wouldn’t get much argument there
Getting pizza. ‘Tarou at Seiji's, but we’ll save him some.” He sent the message back to Mizuko. He almost envied his son. Seiji’s mother was from Mexico, and they had a lot of authentic Mexican dishes served there. He really should ask Seiichi if they could all get together, just so he could sample some of Rosa’s cooking again.
It was about an hour after Renji and Ami had ate dinner when ‘Tarou and Mizuko arrived home. Ami was busy reading a book, while Renji was reading the evening paper. He looked up. Mizuko smiled at him.
“I found a stray.” She said, with a teasing glint in her eye. “Can we keep him?” She asked.
“Mom!” ‘Tarou whined. She patted him on the back.
“There’s still some pizza. It’s in the fridge.” Renji told them..”
“No thanks!” ‘Tarou said. “I’m stuffed. Rosa-san made dinner.” That explained enough in and of itself.
“Lucky.” Mizuko said, heading to the kitchen. Renji finished reading the story in the paper he was reading and joined her.
Mizuko sat back in the chair, sighed. “Remind me again why I agreed to this job working with Seiichi-kun’s firm?” She asked.
“Because it doesn’t hurt to have some extra money in our budget.” He reminded her. She nodded, knowing that was true. She was more than grateful that she hadn’t been through a lot like her friend Akari had been. She honestly had no idea how she had managed being a single parent - other than Mizuko helping her out with babysitting and such.
Renji sat there as he watched her chew on her food thoughtfully. He sometimes wondered what she thought about when she got like this, but sometimes he figured it was just better to let her have those moments. Those were moments where he could ponder on her beauty.
“Oh!” Mizuko said out of the blue, suddenly reminded. “Akari-chan said Masa-chan is going to be home for a week or so.”
Renji looked at her. “’Masa-chan’?” He questioned.
Mizuko grinned. “Yeah, we were thinking of getting everyone together this weekend.”
“It’s short notice…and Ami wants to go watch her cousins play in a tournament.”
“I think we can make it work. I already asked Mikako about it. And I asked Seiichi-kun to ask Rosa about it.” Mizuko paused for a second. “The twins? Tournament?...It’s in Tokyo isn’t it?” Renji nodded.
“I figured she can go as long as Rentarou and her other ‘brothers’ go along - if they’re able. And I’ll assume Kana and Sadaharu and the rest of the family will be there, so it’s not as if she’ll be alone.” Mizuko nodded. Four boys with Ami would be a lot of protection for her ten year old girl.
“We could have them along as well.” Mizuko smiled. “Well, if they can.” She sighed. “Okay, too much excitement for one day. I’m going for a bath.” She said, kissing Renji on the lips.
Renji sometimes wondered about these wild ideas she had sometimes. “I’ll get the kids to bed.” He said. He didn’t really have to worry about his son, but sometimes if he didn’t stop Ami from reading, she might never sleep. He touched Ami on the arm. “Time for bed.” He told her
“Aw..” Ami said, putting her bookmark in the book..
“The book will still be here tomorrow, I promise.” Renji told her Ami trudged up the stairs. As she walked by the door to her brother’s room, she heard a rather loud fart.
“Ew…” She muttered. “Soooo glad I have my own room.” She said.
Renji twitched as he had heard that as well. “No more going to Seiji’s for a wile - at least not at dinner time.” He hollered at his son.
“It was worth it!” ‘Tarou called back at them.
Ami quickly changed into her pajamas and hopped into bed. “Dad, were you this gross at that age?” Renji chuckled.
“Every boy is at one point or another.” He told her. “We grow out of it when we realize there may be someone that likes us.” He told her. “Good night, Ami-chan.”
“Good night, Daddy!” She replied cheerfully. “Hey…” she started.
“What?”
“Do you think anyone will ever like Ren-chan?” She asked. Renji chuckled at her annoying nickname for her brother.
“Possibly.” He answered. “Now go to sleep.” He told her, and headed to his own bedroom.
Renji stood in the door for a moment, admiring Mizuko as she sat on the edge of the bed, combing her long hair out. “I know you’re there.” She said.
“You heard the door close.” He said, pointing out the obvious.
“True.” She said. She turned around just as Renji was removing his clothes. “”You should stay like that tonight.” She said, slyly.
“Oh?” He questioned. “Does that mean what I think it does?”
“How about you stay like that and we’ll see.” Mizuko said, grinning.
“I think I like this idea.” Renji said, smiling as he crawled into bed without any clothes on. Mizuko snuggled up to him.
Renji wrapped his arms around her. All in all, it hadn’t been a too bad of a day.
Fandom: Prince of Tennis
Characters: Yanagi Renji, Mizuko, their children ‘Tarou and Ami
Prompt: 24. Family
Word Count:2,855
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Just another normal day....
Author's Notes:
My LDT found here
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
An alarm clock sounded, it’s annoying beeping reaching to Yanagi Renji’s ears. He sighed a little as he reached across his wife to turn the sound off.
“It’s not morning...” His wife groaned.
“Afraid it is, Mizuko-chan.” He answered, kissing her on the forehead. He knew how she wasn’t much of a morning person.
“It’s not.” She declared, and pulled one of her pillows over her head. Renji smiled a little.
“I’ll get the kids up.” He said, giving her a bit more time to awaken from her groggy state. That was a bit of a dilemma though. As he left the room he wasn’t sure whether to wake his son first, who had the same problem as his mother, or his daughter, who was always happy to arise in the morning. Renji decided on waking the more difficult child first.
“Time to get up.” Renji said, as he turned on the light in his son’s room A soft groan from the bed assured him that the kid was at least somewhat awake. Renji sighed a little. “You have five minutes to groan and wake up enough to go take a shower.” He informed ‘Tarou.
“Yes, dad...” came the sleepy reply. Renji shook his head and moved on to the girl’s room, where he’d have less trouble.
“Ami-chan...” Renji called out. Renji was not surprised at all to find her already sitting up with a book on her lap in bed. He smiled a little. “Up already.” He stated.
“I had to finish this book!” She said. “I couldn’t stand not knowing how it ended!.” Renji chuckled a little at that.
“I understand. Your brother will be in the shower in a few minutes. Get your stuff ready, and jump in after him. There should be something for breakfast out by the time you two are finished.” Renji told her, and headed back to the room he shared with his wife.
A sleepy Mizu was sitting up in the bed. “I hate mornings.” She grumbled as Renji changed from his pajamas into his clothes for work..
“I know you do.” He said softly “I’ll get some coffee started.”
“You do that .” Mizu muttered as she put some slippers on Renji bit his lip as he watched her step out of the room. He wondered about her sometimes. He picked up his briefcase and sports bag. It was a bit odd being a teacher at his old school, but it was enjoyable. He was a bit more flattered that he had been asked to coach the boy’s tennis club. Though, some of the students in it were almost as crazy as him and his teammates had been. Then again, with a few of them being the children of former teammates, it wasn’t all that surprising.
The coffee pot made a gurgling noise as the last few drops dripped out of the filter. ‘Tarou was the first to trudge don the stairs to the first floor kitchen. He promptly fell face first onto the table.
“Sit up, Rentarou.” Renji told him.
“Not awake.” ‘Tarou mumbled. It was pretty obvious he wasn’t awake as he hadn’t objected to his father’s use of his full name. Renji sighed as he poured two cups of coffee. He debated fixing a cup for his son. Mizu came down the stairs as he pondered.
“Coffee” She squealed, and grabbed one of the cups. Mizu took a glance at her son. “Wake up, ‘Tarou.” She said, now bustling about, looking for breakfast foods.
“Don’t wanna...” Was the reply. Ami chose that moment to bounce down the stairs.
“Good morning!’ She said brightly, and pounced on her brother’s back. “Ne, nii-chan! It’s going to rain.” She told him.
“No, it’s not.” He mumbled. “Too hot for rain...” Ami smirked a bit.
“You’ll regret it when it does!.” She said.
Mizu finally came down the stairs, and squealed as she grabbed one of the cups of coffee. “Breakfast is what you find.” She said, gulping down the last of the mug. “I’m starting to run late.” She kissed each of the children on the top of their heads. “Sorry, Renji.” She apologized as she gave him a kiss on the lips and left for her job.
Renji sighed. Just another morning he thought as he picked up his bags. “Behave yourselves at school.” He told the children, as he headed out the door. ‘Tarou perked up as he realized both his parents were gone. “Coffee!” He squealed. Ami sighed.
Renji decided that there was a certain amount of insanity involved when he had accepted the teaching position that was open at his old middle school. He’d been teaching for over ten years now, and every year, it seemed the students either got braver, dumber, or occasionally, they were actually smarter. And at some point, he had been granted the privilege of being the teacher advisor..or rather coach, as the Rikkai boys’ tennis club seemed to have really gone downhill from when he was a student there.
Renji set his case with graded papers on his desk in the teacher’s workroom He’d be back for those in a bit. He left for the tennis club’s locker room to make sure the boys weren’t goofing around. The thought brought a nostalgic smile to Renji’s lips. No one in his day would have dared goof off with Sanada Genichirou around. The locker room was mostly quiet, with the underclassmen changing, and the upperclassmen actually going out to warm up like they should.
It was rather an uneventful practice, Renji thought. Well, if one Niou Hiroki managing to hit a ball just so that it managed to take out almost all of the lights on the courts for late evening practices uneventful. Somehow, Renji had the feeling that this was probably going to be normal in the next few years.
Oddly enough, his classes during the day weren’t so eventful. It was the same thing, every day, almost every year. Then again, the curriculum rarely changed. He rifled through the essays his third year students had written. He was amused and disappointed by some of them. He wondered just how many of his third years thought they could get away with just writing something irrelevant to the topic he had set forth for them.
The second years weren’t too horrible with their homework. They were still at a point where Renji could probably still spark an interest in his class and get a few of them to care and not have to take it as a required class the next year.
Renji loved his first years though. Apparently several of his old friends had children all around the same time. Renji hadn’t been aware that any of them had been married (except for his two best friends Sanada Genichirou and Yukimura Seiichi) He had seen several familiar names on the rosters. In fact, he had their sons, and his own in his classes, and he’d seen Niou’s son, Kirihara’s, and Marui's, and one daughter of his former teammates. There must have been something in the water that year, Renji thought to himself. All of them were good kids for the most part. Niou’s son could be a bit of a problem, but he wasn’t like his father in that he went out of his way to pull off pranks and tricks...he just seem to manage such things inadvertently.
And those were only his first four classes before lunch.
Renji sat down at his desk in the workroom over the lunch period. He’d grabbed some lunch from the cafeteria, and came back to finish grading papers for the afternoon’s classes. He was in the midst of marking papers when some students came in seeking him.
“Yanagi-sensei?” A girl’s voice asked
Renji turned around in his chair. “What’s an I do for you?” He asked the student.
She held out a form for him. “I need a signature for this.” She said Renji looked over the form, and nodded,.
“There you go. I hope you do well.”
“Thank you, sensei!” She said, hurrying off.
He was half expecting something major to happen during the last twenty minutes of lunch, luckily, nothing happened, and the schedule resumed like normal.
He was happy to have the third years that actually wanted to be in his class. Then again, that was why he had scheduled the elective classes for the afternoon. He could deal with those that wanted to learn more then the ones that complained about it. He loved his job, but it was quite difficult at times.
With the actual school day over, it was back to the tennis courts. Honestly, things hadn’t changed too much from twenty years ago, the kids still did most of their own training, Renji mostly just offered advice and worked more with the first years. He did insist on the first years playing actual matches at least two days a week. This happened to be one of those days.
He walked among the upperclassmen that were working in the gym, then went outside to check on the first years.
Then he heard the words that made any adult cringe.
“Hey, watch this!” Renji sighed upon hearing this, but looked over to the court he heard it from.
There he saw Sanada’s son attempting a complicated smash. His opponent, his own son, just dropped his racket, knowing what was about to happen.
“Fifteen thirty.” Was the bored call of the referee, Renji smiled a little as he walked on. The boy would either get that right eventually, or not at all. They were still young though.
After an hour and a half of sweaty teenagers, there wasn’t much left to do in the day, except head home, and hope that things wouldn’t be crazy.
Renji was tapped on the shoulder, knocking him out of his musings.
“Hey, Dad, Seiji, ‘Nosuke, and I are going to go over to Seiji’s and help his mom try to speak more Japanese.” ‘Tarou told his fatter. Renji nodded.
“Don’t be too late.” He told him, nodding. The three boys headed off.
He took off walking towards home, making sure to meet Ami at the comer where they always met after she got out of school.
“Dad!” She squealed when she saw him.
Renji smiled a little as she came up to him. “I missed you too.” He said a bit dryly.
“Hanako and Sadako are going to a tournament this weekend. Can I go watch them?” She asked.
“Not by yourself.” Renji answered her. She was about to start pouting when he held a finger up.
You can go if your brother goes with, or if Kenjirou-kun is going to be there.” Ami perked up a bit.
“Promise?” She asked.
“Promise.” Renji agreed. “I know you’re getting older, but I’m not ready for you to go all the way to Tokyo on your own. Besides, I’m sure you might get the whole gang to go along if you tell them what’s going on.”
“Haruka won’t.” Ami pouted. Haruka was the only girl among the group, who was younger than Ami, and therefore didn’t really care about what Ami, her brother, or Ami’s brother and his friends were into.
“She has her own interests. Besides, it’s not a big deal. You’ll get to see your cousins.” Ami nodded.
The finished the walk home in silence.
The two chorused a “Tadaima” as the entered the house. There wasn’t an answer.
“Mom must not be home yet.” Ami said, changing her shoes for a pair of slippers, and took her book bag upstairs to work on the homework she had.
Renji checked his cell phone. Of course he hadn’t bothered checking his messages before leaving work.
Be home a bit late. Almost done with project. Either start something, or order out. Renji considered for a moment.
“Ami!” He called to her. “Want take out for dinner?”
“Sure!” She called back. He figured he wouldn’t get much argument there
Getting pizza. ‘Tarou at Seiji's, but we’ll save him some.” He sent the message back to Mizuko. He almost envied his son. Seiji’s mother was from Mexico, and they had a lot of authentic Mexican dishes served there. He really should ask Seiichi if they could all get together, just so he could sample some of Rosa’s cooking again.
It was about an hour after Renji and Ami had ate dinner when ‘Tarou and Mizuko arrived home. Ami was busy reading a book, while Renji was reading the evening paper. He looked up. Mizuko smiled at him.
“I found a stray.” She said, with a teasing glint in her eye. “Can we keep him?” She asked.
“Mom!” ‘Tarou whined. She patted him on the back.
“There’s still some pizza. It’s in the fridge.” Renji told them..”
“No thanks!” ‘Tarou said. “I’m stuffed. Rosa-san made dinner.” That explained enough in and of itself.
“Lucky.” Mizuko said, heading to the kitchen. Renji finished reading the story in the paper he was reading and joined her.
Mizuko sat back in the chair, sighed. “Remind me again why I agreed to this job working with Seiichi-kun’s firm?” She asked.
“Because it doesn’t hurt to have some extra money in our budget.” He reminded her. She nodded, knowing that was true. She was more than grateful that she hadn’t been through a lot like her friend Akari had been. She honestly had no idea how she had managed being a single parent - other than Mizuko helping her out with babysitting and such.
Renji sat there as he watched her chew on her food thoughtfully. He sometimes wondered what she thought about when she got like this, but sometimes he figured it was just better to let her have those moments. Those were moments where he could ponder on her beauty.
“Oh!” Mizuko said out of the blue, suddenly reminded. “Akari-chan said Masa-chan is going to be home for a week or so.”
Renji looked at her. “’Masa-chan’?” He questioned.
Mizuko grinned. “Yeah, we were thinking of getting everyone together this weekend.”
“It’s short notice…and Ami wants to go watch her cousins play in a tournament.”
“I think we can make it work. I already asked Mikako about it. And I asked Seiichi-kun to ask Rosa about it.” Mizuko paused for a second. “The twins? Tournament?...It’s in Tokyo isn’t it?” Renji nodded.
“I figured she can go as long as Rentarou and her other ‘brothers’ go along - if they’re able. And I’ll assume Kana and Sadaharu and the rest of the family will be there, so it’s not as if she’ll be alone.” Mizuko nodded. Four boys with Ami would be a lot of protection for her ten year old girl.
“We could have them along as well.” Mizuko smiled. “Well, if they can.” She sighed. “Okay, too much excitement for one day. I’m going for a bath.” She said, kissing Renji on the lips.
Renji sometimes wondered about these wild ideas she had sometimes. “I’ll get the kids to bed.” He said. He didn’t really have to worry about his son, but sometimes if he didn’t stop Ami from reading, she might never sleep. He touched Ami on the arm. “Time for bed.” He told her
“Aw..” Ami said, putting her bookmark in the book..
“The book will still be here tomorrow, I promise.” Renji told her Ami trudged up the stairs. As she walked by the door to her brother’s room, she heard a rather loud fart.
“Ew…” She muttered. “Soooo glad I have my own room.” She said.
Renji twitched as he had heard that as well. “No more going to Seiji’s for a wile - at least not at dinner time.” He hollered at his son.
“It was worth it!” ‘Tarou called back at them.
Ami quickly changed into her pajamas and hopped into bed. “Dad, were you this gross at that age?” Renji chuckled.
“Every boy is at one point or another.” He told her. “We grow out of it when we realize there may be someone that likes us.” He told her. “Good night, Ami-chan.”
“Good night, Daddy!” She replied cheerfully. “Hey…” she started.
“What?”
“Do you think anyone will ever like Ren-chan?” She asked. Renji chuckled at her annoying nickname for her brother.
“Possibly.” He answered. “Now go to sleep.” He told her, and headed to his own bedroom.
Renji stood in the door for a moment, admiring Mizuko as she sat on the edge of the bed, combing her long hair out. “I know you’re there.” She said.
“You heard the door close.” He said, pointing out the obvious.
“True.” She said. She turned around just as Renji was removing his clothes. “”You should stay like that tonight.” She said, slyly.
“Oh?” He questioned. “Does that mean what I think it does?”
“How about you stay like that and we’ll see.” Mizuko said, grinning.
“I think I like this idea.” Renji said, smiling as he crawled into bed without any clothes on. Mizuko snuggled up to him.
Renji wrapped his arms around her. All in all, it hadn’t been a too bad of a day.