Chapter Two: Small Hands, Big Presents
Chapter Two: Small Hands, Big Presents
Two weeks after Marie’s birthday, around midday, Anima, Luina, and the girls were all in one of the rooms on the second floor. In fact, they had been there since the moment they’d finished breakfast. Normally, they would have been playing outside, but they’d recently started spending more time indoors.
One factor behind them staying in the house was that the weather was slowly changing. It hadn’t gotten so cold that they could see their own breath, but the morning dew had become a frequent guest in their garden. The lawn was often quite slippery when Luina and Anima would air out the laundry while the girls were sleeping. Luina had even slipped on it that very morning, but Anima had quickly caught her. He hadn’t done anything special, but her body had suddenly gotten warmer in his arms and her cheeks had turned bright red.
The couple’s early-morning exploits aside, while mornings and evenings were rather chilly, midday was still on the warm side. If dressed properly, spending time outside was actually rather pleasurable. Even so, they had spent the whole day inside.
The reason for that was simple: Marie had gotten hooked on drawing. She really liked spending time with her family, too, and not one of them could say no to a request from such an adorable little angel. As such, the five of them were sitting around a table, all of them drawing.
“I dawed hair!”
“Wow!” Luina exclaimed. “Mommy’s hair looks very nice, Marie! What color will you be using next?”
“I do red now, ’cause I daw Myukey’s hair! You watchin’, Mommy?!”
“Mm-hmm, I’m watching.”
Luina watched as the children put their sweet memories and fantasy worlds on paper with the help of their colorful crayons. Anima couldn’t stop himself from smiling at the peaceful, idyllic scene.
“I think Daddy’s broken.”
“He’s totally lost in Mommy’s looks, m’kay?”
Anima immediately snapped back into reality as his two older girls teased him. On his one side, Myuke was looking at him with a playful gaze, and on his other, Bram was wearing a cheeky smile. The girls were helping him get better at drawing, just as they’d promised. It would have been rude of him to keep staring instead of giving it his full attention, so he turned his eyes back to his art and tried to focus on drawing.
On his paper was a uniquely shaped table with strange, colorful whirlpools on top. It was supposed to be the perfectly normal dinner table filled with Luina’s delicious cooking, but it looked more like a bacterium that had been highlighted in random areas. It wasn’t great by any stretch of the imagination.
Anima was beginning to lose hope that he would ever learn to draw. He had been optimistic during his first training session, but he was already on his third. The girls kept trying to give him tips and tricks, but he wasn’t improving at all.
“Sorry, I’m hopeless…”
Myuke turned toward the defeated Anima and flashed him a warm smile.
“C’mon, Daddy, you can do it. Look, this is how you draw lines.” Myuke scooted next to him and took his hand, which he relaxed to allow her to lead his movements. Guiding his hand, she drew the beautiful, defined lines of five people sitting around the table. “Like that, see? You just gotta relax and not smoosh the crayon against the paper. Your lines’ll be perfect if you do it that way.”
“Wow, thank you. You’re a very good teacher.”
“I-It’s nothing special,” she huffed proudly as her mouth curled into a smile and her cheeks flushed. Jealous of the praise she was getting, Bram grabbed Anima’s hand.
“I’ll help too, m’kay?”
“Do that later! It’s my turn right now!”
“Quit trying to hog all the compliments for yourself, m’kay?!”
“I-I’m not doing this just to get compliments!”
The girls started arguing with each other, with Anima caught in the middle of it. They were too good of friends to ever truly fight, but it was still difficult for Anima to watch his daughters get worked up over him.
“It’s okay, girls. I can draw with both hands. Myuke, you take my right, and Bram, you take my left.”
His idea seemed to have worked. They stopped glaring at each other, sat down, and placed their tiny hands over Anima’s much larger ones.
“And we’re done!”
“It looks great, m’kay?”
His piece was finally complete. What he’d drawn was a picture of his family sitting around the table, enjoying a feast and merrily chatting amongst themselves. It was a drawing of the birthday party they’d had for Marie a couple weeks earlier.
What a great drawing, Anima thought. While the drawing wasn’t able to convey just how tasty the birthday meal had been, everyone in the picture wore a broad smile, perfectly encapsulating the atmosphere around the table. Just looking at it filled him with happy memories of the event.
“It turned out really good, Daddy! Good job!”
“It doesn’t look like yarn anymore! I can tell what it is now, m’kay?!”
The girls looked at the finished drawing, satisfied. They’d done the bulk of the work, but they seemed happy for him. It wouldn’t have been right for him to bring it up.
“Thank you, girls. I would never have been able to make something so precious on my own.”
“You’re welcome! Just let me know if you wanna practice again, okay?”
“I love playing with you, so I’m always here to help, m’kay?”
Anima couldn’t get enough of their heart-warming smiles.
“I finissed too!” Marie announced, proudly presenting her picture. She’d drawn all five of them working in the field, merrily harvesting ripe vegetables from the ground.
“That’s awesome!”
“She’s got us all beat, m’kay?”
“You may have what it takes to become an artist when you grow up.”
“Hear that, Marie? Everyone loves your drawing. Well done.”
Hearing everyone’s compliments filled her with pride. She quickly jumped off her chair.
“I put it on wall!”
Drawing in hand, she hurried out of the playroom. The others got up and followed her into the sunny bedroom, where all four walls were already covered with various drawings. One such drawing was Anima’s “ball of yarn” that he’d wanted to throw out, but Marie liked it, so it ended up decorating the room.
“We have quite a few up there already,” Anima said. “We’re going to run out of space for pictures sooner or later.”
“It’s a good thing we have a lot of rooms in this house. We can start hanging our drawings in them once this one gets full,” Luina replied.
“You can take mine down if you want to put another one in here.”
“We’d never do that. Marie loves it, and it’s a fun little memory.”
As embarrassing as it may have been, that strange drawing held a lot of meaning for Anima. It reminded him of the panic that he’d beaten himself up over at the time, as well as the subsequent hijinks that he looked back on with a smile.
“Besides,” Luina continued, “I really enjoy that drawing. It has its own unique flavor.”
“Did Mommy tasted it?”
“No, silly,” Luina chuckled. “It means that I really love his drawing.”
“I love it too! It gots flabor!”
Anima put his hand on her head and ruffled her soft hair.
“Thank you. I love your drawing too, Marie.”
“I love it too! We should put this one in the best spot in the room!”
“I like this spot, m’kay?” Bram tapped the wall directly across from the bed. It would be the first thing they’d see every time they woke up.
“I like! I like there!”
“I suppose that settles it.”
Anima walked over to the closet to get some thumbtacks, which were kept at the very top of the closet so Marie couldn’t reach them. The moment he took the picture, Marie jumped excitedly to reach it.
“Me! Meee! Lemmeee!”
Though he loved nothing more than fulfilling his daughters’ every wish, letting Marie use thumbtacks was one request he simply couldn’t fulfill, as a simple mistake could lead to an injury. He didn’t want to put her at risk, but he didn’t want to upset her by telling her no either. Luckily, he had a brilliant idea in mind.
“Why don’t we hang it up together? You hold the picture, while I pin it to the wall. I know it’s difficult, but a big girl like you can do it, can’t you?”
“I can! Lookie!”
She pushed the paper against the wall with all her strength and looked up at Anima, waiting for him to compliment her.
“Wow! That’s incredible! Who knew you were so good at this?”
“You’re amazing at pushing!”
All the praise Anima and Myuke were giving her made Marie incredibly happy. Her big, bright smile was almost too distracting for Anima, but he managed to push through and secure the drawing with pins in each of the four corners.
“Wooow! Daddy doed it!”
“Thank you, Marie. I wouldn’t have been able to do it without your help.”
“You welcome! Lemme help s’more!”
Marie looked at Anima and Luina, hoping for more things to help with. As a four-year-old, she decided that it was time she got taste of the responsibilities a big girl would have.
“Hmm. I have something in mind, but it’s very difficult. Do you think you’re ready to take the laundry off the line with me?” Luina asked.
“Uh-huh! Lemme clean! I do laundy!”
She took Anima’s and Luina’s hands, ushering them outside.
“We’ll clean up the crayons.”
“You can do it, Marie, m’kay?”
Myuke and Bram watched them leave. They’d been trying to give Luina more private time, but not because they’d grown to dislike her. In fact, for the exact opposite reason: they’d been secretly working on a drawing for her. Only three weeks after Marie’s birthday was Luina’s; she would be turning twenty-one.
Familiarized with the concept of gifting, Anima had gotten something for her as well. He’d hidden it on the top shelf of one of the kitchen cabinets, and was excitedly awaiting the big day. Although an obvious place to hide a present, it would be practically impossible for Luina to find it on her own. The only conceivable way for her to reach it was to stand on a chair, and Anima made sure he was by her side every time she cooked, giving her no reason to overexert herself.
The lead-up to Marie’s birthday had been nothing short of a disaster, but the lead-up to Luina’s was going smoothly. No matter how much he was looking forward to his beloved wife’s birthday, the blissful everydays he got to spend with his family would always be irreplaceable. Instead of worrying, he decided to simply live in the moment.
“Lessgo, Daddy!” Pulled along by Marie, the three of them left the room and headed to their peaceful garden. The early-autumn breeze carried the scent of nature as it fluttered the hanging clothes. “I want up!”
“Upsy-daisy!”
Anima lifted Marie into his arms so she could reach the laundry.
“I’ll hold the basket,” Luina said, “so can you put the clothes in there for me?”
“’Kaaay!”
Marie quickly reached out to the closest piece of laundry, which just happened to be Luina’s underwear. As Anima unclipped it, she raised it high into the air, proudly presenting it to him.
“Daddy, I taked it!” she announced. Luina quickly rushed over to them, flushed.
“Let’s just put everything into the basket, okay?”
Embarrassed by her underwear being shown off to Anima in such a triumphant manner, she guided Marie’s hands to the basket.
“’Kaaay!” She plopped Luina’s underwear into the basket and moved on to the next article. “I taked it! Lookie, Mommy! It’s big!”
She raised Anima’s underwear in front of Luina’s face, which only caused her to turn an even brighter red. Even though she dealt with it almost every day, it probably embarrassed her to have it so close to her face.
“Well done! Now tell me, what do we do with the laundry we took off?”
“We put in bastet!”
Just as she had with Luina’s, she plopped Anima’s underwear into the basket. After that, they got into a rhythm, with Anima unpinning the clothes as Marie reached out to them. Each time she got a new piece of clothing, Luina was there with the basket.
Even though it was only a day’s worth of laundry, it had come from a family of five, so there was still a substantial amount—enough to cause beads of sweat to start rolling down Marie’s face. She must have been happy to have been entrusted with doing something so essential, however, as she didn’t let it affect her. She forged on without so much as a short pause, working her hardest until they’d taken all the laundry down off the line.
“We finished very quickly thanks to you, Marie.”
“You did really well, Marie. Come, let’s have a glass of water together.”
Knowing Marie, she was going to offer to help until she collapsed, so Anima tried to sneak in a break.
“I bing water!” Marie offered excitedly. Anima was afraid that she was pushing herself too hard, but besides the sweat, she looked as energetic as ever. She always ate a lot and got a full night’s sleep every night, so her reserves must have been full.
“Then why don’t you help me bring water into the dining room?”
“I bing! Daddy, I bing water! You go in!”
“Sure. I can’t wait,” he answered, then went inside. Marie followed soon after with a cup of water in her hands. She approached him with small, quick steps, causing the water to splash against the sides of the cup. She lost a couple of drops here and there as she made the journey over to her loving father, but she reached her goal without any major issues.
“Daddy, here!”
“Thank you.” Marie watched excitedly as Anima took the cup, carried it to his mouth, and drank its refreshing contents. Finished with it, he lowered the cup to reveal a cheerful smile. “Ah, that was great. Very tasty.”
“You welcome!”
“Aren’t you happy Daddy liked it?” Luina asked.
“Uh-huh! I want water too!”
“There’s some right here for you. You can sit down and drink it, okay?”
“’Kaaay!”
Anima watched as his precious daughter gulped down her cup of water. At the same time, he could hear footsteps growing louder and louder. Myuke and Bram, the source of the footsteps, wore proud smiles as they entered the dining room. They were finished with their secret project.
“What are those lovely smiles for, girls?”
“We’re super excited for your birthday, m’kay?”
“You better look forward to it! We’ve got an amazing present for you!”
“Me too! I’m big girl now! I give pesent too!”
“I can’t wait to see it!”
“Yaaay! And then, and then I get pesents for Myukey ’n Brum ’n Daddy too!”
“That’ll be great, even though my birthday’s not for a looong time, m’kay?”
“It’s still sooner than mine, though.”
“Heeheehee, are you dreading the day I turn the same age as you? Don’t worry, I’ll try not to rub it in too much, m’kay?”
“Tch, whatever. It’ll only be a little while until I’m older than you again, though.”
“I’m excited for both of your birthdays,” Anima interjected. “We’re going to throw a huge party for each of you.”
“It can’t come soon enough. But speaking of birthdays… when did you say yours was?”
“Oh yeah, I don’t think you told me when it is, m’kay?”
“Actually, I don’t think you told any of us when it is. I hope we didn’t miss it.”
Anima shook his head.
“I don’t know if we missed it or not. I don’t know when I was born.”
“Don’t tell me it’s ’cause your world’s calendar is different than ours, m’kay?”
Not long after they took Bram in, Anima had explained everything to her. He didn’t want to hide anything from his family and, even if he did, it would have been extremely difficult to do so considering the horns on his head. He’d decided that it was better to clear things up before Bram asked why he was constantly using a minotaur stone, so he’d told her about his situation. She was surprised at first, but had quickly accepted what he’d told her. All in all, Anima’s birthplace had little to do with their relationship.
“No. I simply don’t know when I was born.”
Anima was despised by his family. He didn’t even know who his own mother was, so there was no way he could know when he was born.
“No pesents for Daddy?” Marie lamented. She really wanted to celebrate Anima’s birthday, and knowing as much made him all the happier. Unfortunately, however, they couldn’t celebrate his birthday without knowing when it was.
“I’ve got it!” Myuke announced. “Why don’t we celebrate it together with Mommy’s birthday?!”
“Ooh! That’s genius, m’kay?!”
“That truly is genius!”
Anima praised the idea. Having his family celebrate him was something straight out of a dream for him. He was already excited for Luina’s birthday, but now he was outright ecstatic for that day to come.
“I’ll bake the most delicious birthday cake for you!” Luina exclaimed.
“And I’ll get you the best present you could ever ask for,” Anima replied. He’d already gotten her present, but that was going to be a secret until her birthday. He wanted to see her beautiful smile when he gave it to her on the day she turned twenty-one. Imagining that magical moment the entire time, Anima sat at the table with his family as they talked all through the afternoon.
◆◆◆
After eating dinner, while Luina was busy warming the bathwater, Anima and the girls set off to wash the dishes. With a towel, a lamp, and the dirty plates nearby, Anima drew water from the well and they went to work on cleaning the dishes.
“Daddy, lookie! I maked it sparkly!”
“Wow! You’re really good at washing dishes. How does mine look?”
“Daddy’s sparkly too!”
“She’s not kidding! Those look brand new, Daddy!” Myuke praised his work. She was under the impression that he performed better when he got compliments, which might very well have been the case. When he was first summoned, he’d thought plates were disposable after a single use, but after half a year, he was cleaning them to near perfection.
“I’m done, m’kay?”
They finished cleaning up in no time, then carried the sparkling-clean dishes back to the kitchen and put them away. Once that was done, they all took a breather in the dining room until Luina arrived.
“The bath’s ready,” she told them, and Anima sprung up from his chair.
“Time for our big family bath!” he announced excitedly, but Myuke simply shook her head.
“I’m not taking a bath with you today.”
“Huh?”
His expression froze. He collapsed into the chair, his face distorted with dread. Myuke, not having expected the news to hit him so hard, panicked. She hadn’t expected her beloved Daddy to slump into his chair, his spirit broken.
“I-It’s not like that! It’s not because I don’t want to take a bath with you! I do! I really do!”
“You mean it?!”
“Thank goodness. Aren’t you happy, Anima?”
“I’m relieved, to say the least.”
Myuke let out a sigh upon Anima’s return from his momentary clinical death.
“For crying out loud, do you seriously think I’d single you out like that? You know I wouldn’t do that—I’m not taking a bath with Mommy either.”
“Huh?” Luina’s expression froze. Her eyes clouded over and began collecting moisture. “Do you hate me, Myuke?”
Both of her parents were devastated to hear those words come out of her. The fact that such a minor inconvenience crushed them showed just how much they loved her. That didn’t mean she could yield, though.
“Of course I don’t. This is just for today, okay?”
“Why won’t you bathe with me, then?”
“I just feel like having a girls’ bath night tonight.”
“I’m a girl too…”
“I-I mean, yeah, but, umm…” Myuke dug her thumbs into her temples, trying to come up with an excuse. “Ah, right! We want to practice swimming! We can’t really splash around in the bath if all five of us are in there, can we?”
“It’s dangerous to splash around in the tub.”
While Luina scolded her, Myuke watched Bram shrug her shoulders in confusion. She could feel her dignity as the older of the two slipping away. If she wanted to stop that, persuading Luina had to be her top priority; she could explain things to Bram later.
“I know. We’ll be careful. I promise there won’t be any problems. I’ll be there to keep an eye on these two.”
The seriousness of Myuke’s tone resonated with Luina. Letting out a small sigh, she nodded.
“Make sure to wash yourselves really well, okay?”
“We will.”
“Just say the word if you want me to join you,” Anima added.
“Got it. C’mon, it’s bath time!”
Taking her sisters’ hands, she dragged them toward the changing room. She and Bram quickly took off their clothes, then waited patiently for Marie to do the same before entering the bathroom. The three cut through the warm steam and slowly submerged themselves in the comfortably hot water.
“Okay, so…” Myuke said, addressing the others.
“I’m up for practicing either the backstroke or the breaststroke, m’kay?”
“Whassat?”
“You can choose whether you wanna face up or down when you’re swimming. But this water’s hot, so you should probably face up, m’kay?”
“We’re not actually gonna practice swimming. I made that up so we could get in here, just the three of us.”
“Why’d you do that?” Bram shot a curious look at Myuke. “I love taking baths with everyone, m’kay?”
“I do too. I actually like it better that way, but this is something we can’t let them know about, so just deal with it for today, okay?”
“All right, tell me all about this ‘something’, m’kay?”
“I wanna talk about what we’re gonna do for them for presents.”
Everything was finally coming together in Bram’s mind.
“Ah, gotcha, m’kay? I was thinking of doing a drawing like we did for Mommy. Lemme know if you’ve got another idea, though, m’kay?”
“I’ll draw him a picture too, but I wanna do something else besides that. They’ve done a lot for me, y’know? It only seems fair.”
Anima and Luina took good care of every member of their family, but Myuke probably had more reasons to be thankful to them than anyone else. She’d been with Luina the longest, having arrived at the orphanage at a very young age, and Luina had been there with her through thick and thin, showering her with nonstop love and care. They were together even when the Scarlett family had fallen into ruin, but Luina had never stopped supporting her in everything she did.
The same was true of Anima, who had saved her more times than she could count. Ever since he’d become a part of their tiny family, Myuke had been having the time of her life. They were, for the first time in what felt like an eternity, financially stable, so she no longer had to try to make a living as a Hunter and suffer under the tyrannical adults who ran the Guild. She could spend her time playing with her lovely little sisters instead.
She was full of gratitude for the happy, carefree life they provided to her. It was that gratitude that made her want to give something back—something that would make them happy. Her passion carried over to Bram, who nodded with a warm smile.
“I get you, Myuke. I love them to bits too, m’kay?”
“Me too!”
“Yay! Thank you! I’m sure we’ll come up with something amazing! Okay, so, let’s start with some ideas.”
Marie raised her hand the moment Myuke opened the brainstorming session.
“Yes?”
“Y’know, y’know, I tells them habby birday!”
“Oh, that’s a great idea! Let’s do that!”
“Yaaay!” Marie celebrated her success. Myuke was already planning to do that, though, so she needed a bit more to work with.
“Bram, do you have anything?”
“Hmm… Maybe we could cook something, m’kay?”
“Oh, that’s genius! But, uh… can you cook?”
“I can be the taste tester, m’kay?”
“That’s not what we need right now!”
Bram dejectedly hung her head.
“Believe me, I’d love to do some cooking, but I’ve never even held a knife before, m’kay? What about you, Myuke?”
“Nope, never.”
Both of them helped Luina in the kitchen fairly regularly, but they’d only ever been given the safest tasks such as washing vegetables and setting the table. They couldn’t jump straight into cooking a birthday meal if they didn’t know how to use a knife or operate the oven.
“Maybe we shouldn’t cook after all, m’kay?”
“Yeah. It was a great idea, though! Keep ’em coming!”
Marie again raised her hand high into the air.
“I pet-pet them!”
“Awesome! Great idea!”
“You’re on a roll, m’kay?!”
Delighted by all the praise, she happily kicked her legs around in the water. Unfortunately, however, that alone wouldn’t cut it. Wishing them a happy birthday, petting their heads, giving them a drawing… it all seemed lackluster. They needed something special, something that would make them the happiest parents in the world.
“What should we do…?”
“That’s a good question, m’kay?”
Myuke and Bram sat at the edge of the tub with their arms crossed, deep in thought. Catching on to the trend, Marie quickly assumed the same position. Then, out of nowhere, Myuke broke formation, almost jumping out of the water when she heard the door to the changing room open. She pressed a finger against her lips and gave her sisters a serious look. Bram nodded silently, and Marie pushed both of her hands against her lips.
“We brought you clean clothes!”
“Are you girls doing okay?”
Luina and Anima shouted from the changing room. In response, Marie took her hands off her mouth.
“My soulders is in!” she shouted back.
“They are?! That’s my girl!” Anima cheered. “Don’t be afraid to tell me if you want me to join you, okay?”
“It’s just the three of us today, sheesh!”
“I can curl up in the corner so you can splash around freely in the water,” he reasoned. Taking a bath with his family was obviously the highlight of his day. Myuke didn’t want to hurt his feelings, but she had to steel herself and stay vigilant. Their meeting was important for coming up with the best possible birthday present for him.
“We’re fine for today. You guys should go relax or something.”
Immediately after saying that, Myuke froze. She’d had an epiphany.
“You heard her,” Luina said. “Let’s go have a seat in the dining room.”
“I guess we can do that…”
A few moments after they left the changing room, Myuke turned to her sisters.
“I know that look. Please tell me you’ve got something, m’kay?”
“Yep. I just had an incredible idea.”
Proudly puffing out her chest, Myuke shared her plan. Once finished, the other two looked at her in awe.
“Wow, that’s genius! I’m sure that’ll work, m’kay?!”
“Myukey geenus!”
“What did you expect? I mean, I am the oldest.”
She was clearly enjoying all the admiration she was getting. Even more than that, though, she was going to enjoy Luina’s and Anima’s delighted smiles when they received their special birthday present.
◆◆◆
Some days later, Anima was in high spirits as he and Luina did the laundry, enjoying the gentle rays of the morning sun all the while. He was in such a wonderful mood because it was a very special day for him: his and Luina’s birthday.
We’re going to make this a day we’ll never forget! he cheered to himself, bringing a fist in front of his face.
“Umm, Anima?” Luina nervously called out to him. Turning around, he noticed a slight flush in her cheeks. A tinge of worry propped up in Anima’s mind.
“Your face is red. Are you okay?”
If she wasn’t, then he would cancel their birthday celebration right away; her health was far more important than any sort of party. He would rush her into the bedroom and lay her down, then summon the best doctor in the town—no, the country to tend to her.
“No, I’m perfectly fine.”
“Oh, okay. That’s good, then.”
While that was great news, it didn’t answer his real question. If she wasn’t sick, why did she have a tinge of pink on her cheeks?
“Would you please put down my underwear…?”
He took a good look at his hand and realized that he was indeed clutching her underwear, holding it inches from his face. To someone who didn’t know better, it could have even been seen as him fulfilling a deviant, perverted desire. No matter how close he and Luina were, he would have to have been truly twisted to succumb to his lust in such a way on his significant other’s birthday. The last thing he needed was for her to leave him because she thought he was some sort of hopeless freak.
“Th-This isn’t what it looks like! I wasn’t doing anything strange with your underwear, I swear! I swear…” he whimpered anguishedly. Luina took a step forward and wrapped her hands around his with a smile.
“Don’t worry, I’m not mad.”
“R-Really?”
“Really really. So please, don’t be upset—smile. I love your beautiful smile, and it would be a shame to spend this special day moping around.”
“Luina…” She was right. Such a special occasion wasn’t meant for sadness or worry, it called for cheerful smiles and love. “Like this?”
He looked at Luina and slowly curled the edges of his mouth.
“It’s a bit stiff.”
“Then how about this?”
He put his whole face into smiling, and waited for Luina’s judgment. She was really cute when she smiled, but her serious, inquisitive look as she examined Anima’s face was adorable as well. Being so close to his wife put a natural smile on his face. Seeing that, Luina chuckled.
“That’s the one. It never gets old.”
“I’m happy to hear that.”
Anima’s smile broadened even further. He’d have loved to keep talking with Luina, but they had to continue hanging the laundry out to dry. If they didn’t, they were going to end up having a late breakfast, leaving their precious daughters to starve.
After finishing with the laundry, they made their way back to the kitchen. While Anima was busy making ham and cheese sandwiches with lettuce, Luina prepared a pot of bean soup. Bearing witness to his wife’s mastery of the kitchen left him awestruck.
“Could you go wake the girls?” she requested. “I’ll set the table while you do.”
“Of course.”
He quietly entered the bedroom, stopping for a moment to appreciate his three little angels as they enjoyed their sweet dreams. He could have spent the entire day listening to the quiet symphony of their peaceful breathing, but breakfast was best served warm.
“Rise and shine, girls,” he whispered. “It’s morning.”
“Bwah!”
To his surprise, Myuke immediately sat up on the bed. While giving himself an imaginary pat on the back for the effectiveness of his morning greeting, Myuke turned toward Bram and started violently shaking her.
“Wake up!” she cried, her sharp voice filling the room.
“Hmmm’kay…”
“Hrmnrmnrm…”
Myuke turned toward her sisters, who were both awake, but only just barely.
“Today’s the day!”
Their eyes flew open and they scurried off the bed, rushing to the dresser to change.
“Umm, what are you girls doing?” Anima asked.
“I change ’lone! I’m big girl!”
“I-Impressive. Good girl…”
Anima was thoroughly confused, but all three of them had finished changing before he had time to guess at what was happening.
“Let’s go, Daddy!”
Myuke took his hand and dragged him out of the room. They quickly arrived at the dining room, where Luina had just finished setting the table and bringing out the food. Seeing Anima and the girls burst into the dining room caught her completely off-guard.
“Wh-What’s the rush, girls?”
“It’s morning, right?! And that’s our breakfast, right?!”
“It is, yes…”
“Phew, good…”
Myuke breathed a sigh of relief, then exchanged a quick glance with her sisters. They both nodded, then all three of them opened their mouths, and…
“Happy birthday, Mommy and Daddy!”
“We’ve got an awesome present for you, m’kay?”
“Eat your breakfast, and then go out on a date!”
The two of them were too shocked to move.
“A date?” Luina asked.
“You girls want to go out after breakfast? Fine by me.”
“Nope!” Myuke shook her head. “Just you and Mommy!”
“Stay out until tomorrow morning! It’s your birthday, so just go have fun, m’kay?!”
“Down! Down! I pet!”
Still confused, the couple crouched down to let Marie pet their heads. Bram and Myuke followed suit, ruffling their hair even further.
“Thank you for the wonderful present,” Luina said as she and Anima stood back up.
“Yes, thank you. You really went out of your way for this, and I appreciate that. I really do, it’s just…”
Anima cut himself off. He really didn’t want to say what was on his mind, though a quick glance at Luina’s troubled expression confirmed that she felt the same way.
“You don’t like our present?” Myuke asked with a worried look on her face, realizing that something was wrong. Anima, however, immediately shook his head.
“No, we love it! Right, Luina?”
“Yes, we’re both very happy with your incredibly thoughtful present. We’re just wondering… Are you going to be all right by yourselves?”
They were both worried about the girls. Going on a date was a dream come true for them, and they were overjoyed that the girls had figured out as much and offered them a chance to do so. Even so, leaving three children alone in the house wasn’t something they could agree to without a second thought.
“I can be ’lone! I’m four!”
“Let me borrow that fire lizard stone and I’ll have the bath warm in no time!”
“If any bad guys come here, I’ll send ’em packing with my Jade Dragon stone, m’kay?”
The girls tried to reason with them, but it didn’t seem to be having much of an effect; Anima and Luina were still extremely worried about them. Despite their concerns, however, they knew that declining their daughters’ kindness would deeply hurt them. They had to trust the girls’ resourcefulness. After a brief silence, Luina smiled warmly and nodded.
“Thank you, girls,” she said. “Daddy and I will be sure to have lots of fun on our date.”
“Yes, thank you. It means a lot.”
The happiness radiating from the girls’ huge smiles was almost blinding.
“Good! Now hurry up and eat!”
“Don’t even chew! You won’t have any time to spend together if you do, m’kay?”
They sat down at the table and had a rushed breakfast. The moment they were done, Myuke sprung off her chair and grabbed Luina’s hand, pulling her toward the bedroom.
“C’mon, let’s pick up the pace! You wanna dress up for your date, don’t you?!”
“But the dishes…”
“We’ll take care of them later!”
“I don’t have to change, so I can help wash them.”
“We do disses with Daddy!”
With Marie’s command given, they went to work on the dishes. Once they were all cleaned and dried, Anima put them back in the cabinet, quickly nabbing his present from the top shelf and hiding it in his robe as he did.
“We doed the disses!” Marie announced as loudly as she could. She and the others were probably trying to act livelier than usual to ease their parents’ worries.
Anima reached down and pet her head for a job well done. Just as he finished, Luina descended the stairs, wearing a loose white top and a long crimson skirt. It was an outfit that he’d seen her wear from time to time, but for some reason it made her look even more beautiful than it ever had before. Spellbound by his gorgeous wife, he was only snapped out of his trance by a shove from Myuke.
“I know she’s beautiful, but quit drooling and go! You’ve got places to be, remember?!”
“The longer you stay here, the less time you have to kiss, m’kay?!”
“Bye-bye!”
With all three of their daughters rushing them out the door, Anima and Luina set off on their first date.