Who: Shinjiro and TYE!Fuuka
What: Shinji plays House with Fuuka
When: Today
Where: The living room and kitchen areas of the dorm.
Why: because we needed something ridiculously cute
Warnings: Rated C for Cavity causing child cuteness.
Shinji laid haphazardly on the couch in the lounge of the dorm, amidst piles of toys and paints and broken crayons. He flipped through one of his cooking magazines. He finally had a little peace and quiet. Junpei had taken most of his friends-turned-children to the beach, but Fuuka decided to stay along with Koromaru. Not that he particularly minded, she was the most well behaved of the bunch. Regardless, it was nice to just relax a bit.
Fuuka sat on the floor coloring a picture while Koro-chan watched on, occasionally make noises for attention in which case she would drop her crayon to reach out and pet him. When she finished the picture, she picked it up and ran over to Shinji-niisan, climbing up onto the couch next to him. "Look at my drawing! It's me, you and Koro-chan."
He peered up from his magazine his eyes meeting her colorful artwork. "Oh wow..." he said. "That's really good...you're a regular little artist, munchkin." He wondered to himself if Fuuka was always this cute.
She beamed at him. "Thank you! You should put it up next to the other drawing I did for you!" Koromaru came over and tugged at one of her socks with his teeth and she looked down at him and smiled. "I think Koro-chan is hungry. We should feed him and play with my easy bake oven!"
Shinji smirked a bit. "You keep cranking out masterpieces and I'm going to run out of wall space." He closed his magazine and tossed it onto the coffee table. "Alright, get it set up, I'll take care of feeding Koromaru." He stood and shoved his hands into his pockets and headed into the kitchen. he whistled slightly, "C'mere, Koro-chan. Chow time."
"I'll try not to make too many then!" Fuuka said. She hurried after Shinji-niisan into the kitchen, Koro-chan at her heels. The easy bake oven was still on the table where she'd left it earlier and she busied herself getting it all set up. When everything was set and she had her apron on, she held up the cord and said, "Shinji-niisan, can you plug it in for me?"
"One sec," Shinji said as he set Koromaru's food dish down onto the floor and let the little pup scramble over and start eating. He turned and walked over, taking the plug from Fuuka's hands and guided it to the nearest available outlet. "There ya go."
"Thank you!" She grinned at him and standing on a chair, she leaned over to see what recipes she still had left. She held a finger to her lips as she peered down at them. "Shinji-niisan, which do you want me to make for you?"
"Huh? For me?" He asked. "You don't want to make something for you?"
"Well... I'll make something for me after I make something for you." She paused a moment before clapping her hands together and grinning. "I know what would make this more fun! We should play house. I can be the mommy, and you can be the daddy, and Koro-chan can be the baby!" Koro-chan looked up at his name and barked happily. "And mommies always make food for the daddies and children before themself!"
Shinji blinked, scratching his nose a bit. "Uh...I...guess that could work..." First stories and now playing house? At least Everyone was out of the dorms so no one could see this.
"Yay! Now, you have to call me Okaasan and I have to call you Otousan, because that's what my mommy and daddy do!" She danced slightly in her chair. "So, what does Otousan want for dessert tonight?"
He ran his hand through his hair and sighed a bit. Man...kids and their games, he thought. He looked through the remaining recipes scattered on the table and finally settled on a small chocolate cake. "I think this will work...uh...Okaasan..." Man...that sounded weird coming from him.
Fuuka nodded and picked up the packet. She read the directions on the back and started making the cake. She'd only had the easy bake oven a couple of days, but already they were turning out good. She'd only burnt the first few attempts. "Otousan, would you be a dear and get me a plate?"
"A dear...?" he thought to himself. "Uh...yeah...sure..." he muttered as he headed to the cupboard. "...Honey..." he mumbled loud enough just to play along.
She blushed when Shinji-niisan called her honey. "Thank you, Otousan." She stood there, leaning over and peering at the toy oven, waiting for the timer to go off to say it was ready to cool.
He walked over and placed the plate on the table for Fuuka. He took one of the kitchen chairs and spun it around so that he could straddle it and rest his head and arms on the back of it. He watched Fuuka as she busily prepared his cake. He never really took much time to get to know anyone at the dorm, now that he thought of it. Sure he knew Mitsuru and Aki, but he had practically grown up with them. The others were all underclassmen, and all he really knew about them were their names. He had to secretly admit to himself that maybe this whole situation wasn't that big of a mess. It was nice to spend some time with someone else for a change, even if that someone else was only six.
Bored of watching the oven, she looked over at Shinji-niisan and smiled, "How was your day today, Otousan? Anything interesting happen at work?"
He blinked. "Work?" Oh...they're playing house...that's right. What would he do as his job? "Well...uh...we...uh....we sold out of brownies at the bakery today...apparently they're this week's hot item....dear..." When in doubt, go with cooking.
"That's excellent, honey! I told you the brownies would go over well!" Fuuka put her hands on her hips and gave her 'Mother knows best' pose. "How is the competition across the street doing? Didn't they come out with a new super deluxe chocolate cookie last week?"
He smiled. He couldn't help it. The sight of her standing on a chair with her hands on her hips was one of the cutest things he had ever seen. "Yeah, but they lose money on each cookie they sell. They're just too damn big. Not to mention they lack that secret ingredient that we've got: Passion." He cocked his head and winked at her.
"You can't run a proper bakery without passion!" She nodded sagely - or as sagely as any six year old could pull off. "They're going to go out of business soon, I just know it! Or they'll be begging to join up with you." The timer went off and Fuuka moved the cake into the cooling chamber and reset the timer. "Just a few more minutes, Otousan."
"Heh...can't wait, Okaasan..." he thought to himself if this was what it was like actually being a big brother, or hell, even a father. It was weird...when this all started he didn't think he could make it a few hours with all these ankle-biters running around. But as the days progressed, the fact that Fuuka shadowed his every move started to become a bit more comforting. He felt that, once this was all over, he'd probably miss hearing the sounds of little footsteps running after him everywhere he went.
Fuuka tapped her foot, waiting for the timer to go off. When it finally did, she pulled the small cake out and flipped it onto the plate. It broke in half, but didn't crumble completely. She frowned and opened the packet of frosting and began spreading that on. She debated trying to glue the pieces back together when she got an idea. "Hey, Otousan, since it broke in half, I think that means we should share it." She grinned as she finished frosting the cake and turned off the oven. "Can you grab two forks and unplug the oven, dear?"
"Heh...alright, hun." He stood up and unplugged the oven first before heading over and pulling two forks out of the drawer. He handed one to Fuuka and sat down in the chair again.
Kneeling in her seat, Fuuka leaned across the table so that the cake would be right in the middle of them. "Otousan, since you worked all day, you can have the bigger piece." She took a bite from the smaller half and smiled.
He smiled again and thanked her. He took bite from the cake, tasting it.
"So, how is it?" she asked.
He swallowed and smiled. "Delicious as always, dear."
"That's because of the special ingredient," she said. She took another bite and giggled. "After dessert, let's watch tv, Otousan. I bet our favorite cooking show will be on."
He laughed. Whoever thought he'd have this much fun with a kid? The time that they had been spending together almost made him forget the many things that usually haunted his thoughts. He almost hoped she'd never change back at this rate. "Alright, I'd like that a lot, Okaasan..."
"Good!" She ate the rest of her half of the cake in silence then started cleaning up the mess she had made, taking the dirty dishes over to the sink and dropping them in. "Honey, will you help me with the dishes and then we can go watch tv?" She struggled to reach the faucet, but she wasn't quite tall enough, even standing on her tip toes.
He chuckled to himself, grabbing a towel off of the counter. He kneeled and held it out to her. "How about I wash and you dry, okay honey?"
"Okay," she said, taking the towel. She waited for Shinji-niisan to hand her the first dish and she carefully dried it then set it on the counter. They continued until their dishes were done. "I'll put away the baking stuff and you put away the plate and forks." Once everything was cleaned up, she wiped her hands on her apron before removing it, folding it and setting it neatly with her easy bake stuff.
He smiled "You're really taking good care of all of that stuff."
"Of course I am, Otousan, a woman always takes good care of her cooking tools." Fuuka reached out and grabbed his hand. "Now let's go watch tv."
"Alright, alright..." he smiled as he looked down at her tiny hand gripping onto his. Dammit...why'd he get stuck with this soft spot for cute things.
"Come on, Koro-chan," she said as she led them into the living room. The puppy followed after them. "Okay, you go sit down." She pushed Shinji-niisan towards the armchair then spun in place to face the tv. She turned it on and flipped through the channels, looking for a show about cooking.
Shinji settled back into his chair and stretched. He felt his eyes getting heavier and heavier. Taking care of four kids and a puppy, well, more like five considering the fact that he doubted Junpei was capable of acting his age, was exhausting. And why the hell did kids have to wake up at the ass crack of dawn every single goddamn day? Nevertheless, he fought to stay awake.
Finding a cooking show took longer than she thought it would, but Fuuka eventually found one. She turned and smiled. "Okay, Otousan, I found us a cooking show. It's not our favorite, but it looks good." She walked over to the armchair and climbed up into his lap. Leaning back against his chest, she watched the tv while Koro-chan curled up and fell asleep on the floor next to the chair.
He yawned a bit, his mind fluttering in and out of consciousness. He could barely focus on the show, and eventually he felt himself start to nod off.
When Shinji-niisan yawned, so did Fuuka. She hadn't even realized how tired she was until then. Despite the cooking show being vastly interesting, she fell asleep, her cheek pressed against Shinji-niisan's chest.
After about an hour, he woke up in a haze. He looked down to see Fuuka curled into a ball on his lap. He looked around, and finally check his watch. He sighed, Junpei wouldn't be back for a few more hours. He looked down at Fuuka one more time and smiled. He managed to shrug off his coat without waking her, wrapping it around the both of them. He tussled her hair lightly before resting his hand on her back and pulling his cap down over his eyes, he once again descended into slumber.