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“Okay, let’s see here… You should have enough food for the week but if you need more there’s cash in an envelope on top of the fridge. If you somehow run out of that, call us and we’ll put money into your bank account. Normal house rules still apply while we’re gone; no TV until homework is done and kids have to be in bed by nine-thirty. If there’s an emergency or you need something quickly, call uncle Natsume first and call us later. Don’t get into any trouble while we’re gone,” Oda listed off, tapping his fingers against his chin and looking up at the ceiling as he spoke, trying to remember anything that he might be forgetting.
“And Dazai is not allowed to come over while we’re gone,” Ango warned, giving Chuuya a stern look.
Chuuya glared back at him. “Yeah, I know that, asshole,” he grumbled.
Oda sighed, removing his hand from his chin. “Son, don’t talk like that to your father.”
“Sorry, Dad,” Chuuya said, also with a sigh. All three of them knew that he wasn’t really sorry.
“Where are the kids? We need to say goodbye before we leave,” Oda said, pushing a hand through his hair.
“Hey, snot rags!” Chuuya shouted, turning his head to look towards the stairs that led up to where all of the kids’ bedrooms were, “Dad and Ango are leaving! Come say goodbye!”
Within a few seconds, doors were slamming upstairs and a stampede of children came down the stairs. They darted into the hall, sweeping past Chuuya and almost pushing him over in the process. They crowded around their father and step-father and gave both of them tight hugs.
“Be safe, Daddy! Be safe, Ango!” Sakura chirped.
“Have fun!” Katsumi cheered.
“Take pictures for us!” Shinjii pleaded.
“Be home soon!” Yuu said.
“You better bring presents back for us!” Kousuke said sternly.
Oda laughed. “Only if you’re good for brother, understand?” he said.
Kousuke grinned and nodded. “We will be! Promise!”
“You better be. Chuuya will tell me if you aren’t. You know he won’t cover for you,” Oda said with a light smirk.
He knelt down to give each of the kids a hug and a kiss in turn, then sent them off to Ango so that he could do the same. Oda gave Chuuya a hug and a kiss as well, but Chuuya and Ango kept their distance from one another. Their goodbyes consisted of Ango giving Chuuya a look and Chuuya grunting in response. Oda sighed again, then wrapped his arm around Ango’s waist and pecked his cheek.
“Come on, let’s get going,” he said.
The two of them turned to the door. Oda unlocked it and pulled it open. “Have a good week, kids! We’ll miss you! Be safe!” Oda called over his shoulder as he walked out the door.
“And no Dazai!” Ango repeated before following Oda.
“I know!” Chuuya shouted, and kicked the door shut once Ango was outside.
The children rushed to the living room window, and Kousuke pulled up the blinds. They all crowded around the window, smashing their faces and hands against the glass, watching as Oda and Ango got into the smaller of the two cars that was in the driveway, turned it on, and drove away.
“Alright, buttmunches,” Chuuya said once the car was out of sight, “time to get breakfast and start the day. We’re gonna have a fun time while Dad and Ango are gone. We’re going out for ice cream today.”
“Ice cream?” the kids all said in unison, turning their heads away from the window and looking at Chuuya.
“Well, as long as you behave yourselves until this afternoon, that is,” Chuuya told them.
“We’ll behave, Chuuya! We promise we will!” Sakura beamed.
“Well, I don’t see any of you in the kitchen getting breakfast,” Chuuya said, folding his arms over his chest.
Quickly, the children all pulled their hands away from the window and darted down the hall, into the kitchen. They didn’t speak, but the sounds of their rapid footsteps filled the house with noise. Cabinets started slamming around in the kitchen before Chuuya had even started walking towards it.
“No pushing! No slamming!” Chuuya shouted as he walked.
The cabinets quieted down.
By the time Chuuya had gotten into the kitchen, all of the children had bowls and spoons and were waiting in a line to pour cereal and milk into said bowls. One by one, they served themselves their preferred breakfast cereal out of the four different kinds that they had apparently set out on the counter and then walked slowly over to the kitchen table, being careful not to let the milk slosh over the sides of their slightly overfilled bowls. Chuuya smiled faintly and went to one of the dish cabinets to get his own bowl.
“You need some fruit with that, you know. You can’t just live off cereal,” he chided, taking his bowl over to the spread of cereal and the jug of milk that was on the counter. “Do you want me to make smoothies?”
“Yeah!!” the children exclaimed in unison.
Instead of pouring himself a bowl of cereal, Chuuya set his bowl down on the counter and then walked to the cabinet where they kept the blender. He pulled it out and set it on top of the counter, near an outlet, so that he could plug it in. Once the blender was set up, Chuuya went to the fridge to grab orange juice and strawberries. He set the strawberries and the orange juice down on the counter and snapped two bananas off of the bunch that was in the fruit bowl on the counter. Finally, he went into another cabinet to find vanilla extract and powdered sugar.
He chopped the bananas and strawberries up, put them into the blender with the orange juice, vanilla extract, and powdered sugar, blended it all together, and then split the smoothie evenly among six cups. For the finishing touch, he went into one of the kitchen drawers and found the pack of bendy straws that Oda had bought for “special occasions.” He stuck one of the neon colored straws into each of the cups and then carried them in two trips to the table.
Once the kids had their smoothies, Chuuya finally poured himself a bowl of cereal. He brought his bowl to the table and sat down with the kids. The six of them ate breakfast together. While the kids chatted together, Chuuya pulled his phone out of his pajama pants pocket, set it on the table, and unlocked it so that he could scroll through it. Halfway through his meal, he received a text from his boyfriend Dazai.
[Baby Slut]: hey so ur dad and Ango are leaving for their vacation sometime today arent they?
[Chuuya]: ya they left like 20 mins ago
[Baby Slut]: ...so in other words, ur parents wont be home tonight, right? ;)
[Chuuya]: yeah idiot they wont be back until next sunday
[Baby Slut]: no chuuya LISTEN. your parents. wont be home. 2nite. ;)
[Chuuya]: what
[Baby Slut]: ;) ;) ;) ;) ;) ;)
[Chuuya]: dazai im not inviting you over here to have sex
[Baby Slut]: :(
[Baby Slut]: babe why not tho
[Chuuya]: bc there are CHILDREN in the house and also bc dumbass ango said you cant come over while he and dad are gone so
[Baby Slut]: so??? the children??? need??? to learn??? who do u think is going to teach them ur dad and ango??? no theyre old and have old fashioned sex education we’re the voice of the new generation. also. since when do u give a FUCK about what ango says.
[Chuuya]: dazai shut the fuck up you gross ass bitch
[Chuuya]: also i dont care about what ango says but he has the authority to ground me now so
[Baby Slut]: how would he even find out tho
[Chuuya]: bc he’s like a bloodhound when it comes to you. if u so much as step in our YARD while he’s gone when he comes back he will know u were here
[Baby Slut]: :(
[Baby Slut]: well what r u doin w the kids all week then
[Chuuya]: idk they have school all week. im probs gonna take them to the park and then out for ice cream later today nd i’ll figure out sth else to do w them on saturday
[Baby Slut]: oh okay cool :) well have fun being a nanny all week :) hmu when u decide u dont give a fuck about what ango has to say anymore <3
[Chuuya]: fuck off whore
Rolling his eyes, Chuuya decided to just put his phone to sleep and shove it back into his pocket. He felt his phone buzz against his thigh, but he ignored it. He finished eating his breakfast in peace, and then waited for the kids to finish with theirs so that he could clear the dishes away and start to clean the kitchen.
“Go get dressed, guys. After I clean the kitchen and get dressed we’re gonna head out. I’ll take you to the park before we get ice cream.”
“Yes, sir!” the kids said in unison.
All at once, all of the children pushed their chairs away from the table and darted up the stairs. Their heavy footsteps shook the upper floor of the house as they ran. After the last of the doors had finished slamming, Chuuya got up from his seat and started to clean the kitchen.
After Chuuya had finished cleaning the kitchen, he headed upstairs so that he could get dressed for the day. Sakura and Shinjii evidently were already finished getting ready, as they emerged from their shared bedroom dressed in brightly colored clothes and headed for the stairs just as Chuuya had made it into the hallway. He sent them off with a smile and instructed them to wait patiently in the living room until he had finished getting dressed himself.
By the time Chuuya had gotten dressed, all of the other children were also ready to go. Chuuya came out of his room to see that every other door in the hallway was wide open and the lights had all been left on. With a soft sigh, Chuuya went into each room and flipped the light switches off. Once he was finished, he headed back downstairs to find the children chatting away and messing around with each other in the living room.
“Hey punks, come line up by the door,” Chuuya called over his shoulder as he walked towards the front door.
As the children dashed out of the living room to line up by the door like they had been asked to do, Chuuya grabbed the backpack harnesses that were hanging on the coatrack on the wall beside the door and handed one of them off to each child. There was a Hello Kitty one for Sakura, a tanuki for Shinjii, a turtle for Yuu, a monkey for Katsume, and a crocodile for Kousuke. Once the children had their backpacks on, Chuuya slipped the ends of the leashes around his wrist so that he didn’t have to grip all of them at once.
“Shinjii, open the door, please,” Chuuya requested, grabbing the keychain that had the house key and the key to the van in the driveway on it off of the coatrack hook that it was hanging on.
Shinji nodded and did as he was told, twisting the doorknob and pulling the door open. The other children stepped back as the door swung into the hallway. Once it was open, the children started to file out of the house, and Chuuya followed behind them.
Once they were on the porch, Chuuya turned and closed the door. He locked the door once it was shut and then stuck the keys into his pants pocket. He had the key to the van with him but he wouldn’t be driving the kids to the park. Their home was only a few blocks away from the town and they could easily walk to the park, and then to the ice cream shop.
“Come on, keep moving,” Chuuya urged, jerking the leashes just a little.
Shinjii, being the head of the line, was the first one to move off of the porch. The others followed him quickly, and Chuuya took up the rear. He let them run as far ahead of him as the length of the leashes would allow. By now, they were familiar enough with the route to the park that they could walk without Chuuya having to lead them. He was merely keeping an eye on them to make sure that they didn’t get lost, kidnapped, or otherwise harmed on the journey.
It took about twenty minutes to get to the park. The children started to pick up speed once they saw the entrance. Chuuya had to jog to keep up with them.
As Chuuya and the children approached the entrance to the park, they were greeted by someone who was already there. Chuuya blinked a few times in surprise, recognizing immediately the bouncy brown locks and the bandage-covered arms of his boyfriend as Dazai walked towards them with a broad grin on his face. Somehow Chuuya felt that this wasn’t any sort of coincidence.
“Hey, nice dogs!” Dazai called out, glancing towards the children as they walked past him and standing still until Chuuya had caught up to him.
“Thanks, I got them at PetSmart,” Chuuya said, rolling his eyes as Dazai fell in step beside him. “What are you doing here?”
Dazai shrugged, his grin growing wider. “Ango said I can’t come over to your house but that doesn’t mean we can’t see each other outside the house,” he said.
“Is that why you asked me what I was doing with the kids this week?” Chuuya asked.
“Maybe,” Dazai replied.
“Fucker,” Chuuya hissed under his breath, so that the kids wouldn’t hear.
“Aw, come on! You know you’re happy to see me!” Dazai prodded, wrapping an arm around Chuuya’s shoulder and hugging him close.
“Not right now, no,” Chuuya responded.
Dazai pouted. “Mean, Chuuya!! Chuuya is such a mean boyfriend!!”
Chuuya rolled his eyes and pushed Dazai away from him. As they were walking, he started to pull on the leashes a little to direct the kids over to a park bench. Dazai followed them as they walked.
Chuuya sat down on the bench and the children lined up in front of it. Chuuya slid the leashes off of his wrist and then tucked each one of them into the respective backpacks of each child. As Chuuya was doing that, Dazai sat down beside him on the bench.
“Alright, get out of here. Go play. Come get me when you start feeling hungry,” he said and waved his hands to shoo the kids away.
The kids darted off one by one towards the playground that was at the center of the park. It was a little way away, but Chuuya could still keep an eye on them from the bench that he and Dazai were sitting at. Once the children were on the playground, Dazai wrapped his arm around Chuuya’s shoulders again and hugged him close.
“How do you get all of them to listen to you like that? Every time I’ve tried to get a kid to listen to me they start screaming,” he said, watching the kids as they ran around.
“That’s because you’re a bitch and all kids have bitch detectors built into them. If they detect even the slightest amount of bitchiness they start acting like bitches too,” Chuuya said, matter-of-factly.
“You’re just as much of a bitch as I am,” Dazai said. “So is Ango.”
Chuuya glared at him. “I am not as bitchy as Ango,” he protested.
“Please,” Dazai said, scoffing, “you two are the bitchiest people I know. Every time you two are in the same room together it’s a constant bitchfest. It’s like you never stop trying to out-bitch each other.”
“I’m not a bitch. He’s the bitch,” Chuuya grumbled, folding his arms over his chest and looking away from Dazai.
“You are a huge bitch,” Dazai said, leaning his head down to kiss Chuuya’s cheek, “but you’re my huge bitch and I love you.”
Chuuya rolled his eyes. “Love you too, skank.”
After about two hours, the kids started to trudge back towards the bench that Chuuya and Dazai were sitting on together. They were tired, hot, and sweaty. They had certainly burned a lot of energy while running around together.
“Chuuya! Can we go get ice cream now?” Katsumi asked once he was within earshot of Chuuya.
“You all want to walk to the ice cream place now?” Chuuya asked as the children gathered around him.
“Yes!” they replied together.
“Alright, we’ll go then. Turn around so I can get your harnesses first,” he instructed.
The children did as they were told, turning around so that their backpacks were facing Chuuya. Chuuya unzipped the pouches where he had tucked the leashes away and then pulled the leashes out of them. He slipped the ends onto his wrist again and stood up.
“Can I tag along, too?” Dazai asked, standing up when Chuuya did.
“No,” Chuuya said bluntly. “Start walking,” he told the kids.
“Why not?” Dazai asked, following Chuuya and the kids as they started walking.
“Because there’s a reason that I don’t ever let you watch the kids with me and you’ve proved that reason to me twice today already,” Chuuya said.
“What? What do you mean? What’s the reason?” Dazai asked confusedly.
“You’re inappropriate, irresponsible, disobedient, and a bad role model,” Chuuya told him.
“Oh, well how are you any better?” Dazai asked, raising an eyebrow.
“I don’t swear or talk about sex in front of children, I don’t let them do anything dangerous or that Dad wouldn’t let them do and I keep a watchful eye on them instead of being distracted, I actually listen to Ango when he says that I can’t have you over even though I don’t want to, and I don’t go out of my way to find loopholes for any of the aforementioned things,” Chuuya said.
“You just said the word ‘sex’ in front of the kids,” Dazai pointed out.
“Shut up,” Chuuya snapped. “I hate you.”
Dazai grinned. “Does this mean I can go out for ice cream with you?” he asked.
“No,” Chuuya said again.
“Well, too bad, because I’m tagging along anyways,” Dazai said.
Chuuya only sighed.
It took another twenty minutes to get to the ice cream parlor, only because traffic was heavy and it took a while for the crosswalk lights to turn white. Dazai followed them the whole way there, but Chuuya ignored anything that Dazai tried to do to annoy him, instead focusing on the kids and making sure that they didn’t run into the street before the crosswalk lights had turned. When they were near the shop, Dazai rushed ahead so that he could pull the door open for Chuuya and the kids.
The kids walked into the shop with Chuuya and Dazai following behind them. Immediately, they all crowded around the counter and looked behind the glass at the flavors that were being served in the shop. Chuuya already knew what he was going to order before he had looked at all of the flavors.
“When you figure out what you want, just tell the server,” Chuuya said to the kids, then looked at the server, “one scoop waffle cones for all of them. I’ll have two scoops of strawberry in a waffle cone.”
The server nodded as Chuuya pulled his wallet out of his pocket and opened it to get his credit card out of it. He handed the credit card to the server and she rang him up, slid his card, and then handed it back to him with the receipt. By the time she had finished, the other kids had all decided what flavors they wanted.
“Strawberry, please!” Sakura said.
“I’ll have chocolate,” Yuu said.
“Superman!!” Kousuke exclaimed.
“Ah… Can I have mint chocolate chip?” Shinjii asked.
“Rocky road, please!” Katsumi requested.
The server began to scoop ice cream into waffle cones and then hand them over the counter to the kids. Finally, she served up Chuuya’s and gave it to him. He thanked her and then ushered the children off to a table at the back of the shop so that they could sit down and eat.
Before sitting down himself, Chuuya reached over to the far end of the table and pulled some napkins out of the holder. He set them down on the middle of the table and then pulled five out of the pile to position underneath the children’s cones, just in case anything spilled. The table that the children were sitting at was already full, so Chuuya slipped the ends of their leashes off of his wrist and onto the back of each of their chairs and then sat down at the table that was right beside it. Dazai joined them a few minutes later, holding a waffle cone with chocolate ice cream in it.
“So, what do you guys have planned after this? Going anywhere else fun that I can tag along to?” Dazai asked as he sat down in the chair opposite of Chuuya’s.
“No,” Chuuya said bluntly and took a lick of his ice cream.
“Why not? Where are you going?” Dazai asked.
“Home,” Chuuya said.
“Why can’t I come with you?” Dazai asked.
“Because Ango will kill me,” Chuuya said.
“Can’t I at least walk you guys home? It can be dangerous for a woman and her children to walk home all alone! Some creep could follow you, you know!”
“Yeah, like you,” Chuuya grunted.
Dazai pouted. “You’re being mean again, Chuuya!! So mean!!” he whined.
Chuuya rolled his eyes and looked over at the kids. “Kids, am I being mean?” he asked them.
“I don’t think you’re being mean,” Shinjii said.
“Yeah you’re just doing what Ango asked, that’s not being mean,” Yuu said.
Dazai looked at the kids as well. “Well, then Ango is the one being mean, isn’t he? Since he said I can’t come over? Why would he say something like that?” he asked, though he knew full well what the answer was.
“Ango doesn’t like you,” Kousuke said bluntly.
“Why doesn’t he like me?” Dazai asked, though he could think of quite a few reasons off the top of his head.
“He says you’re loud,” Katsumi said, “and obnoxious.”
“He says he gets migraines whenever you’re around. He takes pills before you come over and he calls you a walking headache,” Yuu said.
“He thinks you’re a bad influence on Chuuya and that you make Chuuya even more disrespectful than usual,” Shinjii reported.
“He thinks that Chuuya should get a better boyfriend and that you should stop eating him out like a cheesecake!” Sakura exclaimed.
Chuuya choked on his ice cream.
“He said that in front of you!?” he demanded of Sakura through a coughing fit.
Sakura nodded, taking a huge bite of her ice cream. “He was complaining to Daddy while they cleaned the kitchen together. You were at Dazai’s house,” she said innocently.
“Oh, fuck him,” Chuuya said, then quickly covered his mouth, his eyes wide. “You didn’t hear that! Don’t say that!” he told the kids.
“Doesn’t that mean cannibalism?” Kousuke asked. He raised an eyebrow and looked at Dazai. “You don’t cannibalize Chuuya, do you?”
Dazai blinked a few times, then opened his mouth with the intention to explain to the child that eating someone out did not, in fact, involve cannibalism. However, before he could get a word out, Chuuya reached over the table and punched him in the arm. Dazai yelped in surprise and almost dropped his ice cream.
“Chuuya! What was that for??”
“Don’t say a damn word, Dazai. Not a damn word.”
“Chuuya did have bite marks on his neck when he came back home that night,” Katsumi pointed out.
“Maybe we should call the police,” Shinjii said in a whisper to his siblings.
“I don’t wanna get eaten out!” Sakura said, her eyes suddenly looking fearful. “Ango was right, Dazai is a bad influence! He’s eating Chuuya out! He’s going to eat us out too!”
“No, no no,” Chuuya said quickly, his face flushing bright red.
He waved his hand, trying to get the kids to calm down. It didn’t do any good. Suddenly all of them were in a tizzy. Sakura was in tears and the boys were glaring at Dazai with the fury of Hell in their little eyes. The server, as well as the few other people who were in the shop, were looking towards the children with a mixture of fear and concern on their faces. A mother reached for her phone in her purse.
“Okay, we’re leaving, right now,” Chuuya said.
He quickly stood up from his chair and grabbed the ends of the leashes off of the back of the children’s chairs. He tugged on them a little to get the kids to stand up. He slid the leashes onto his wrist and then took Sakura’s ice cream from her so that he could hold it until she had finished crying. He led the children out of the shop as quickly as he could manage. Dazai stood up and quickly followed after them.
“Babe, wait--” Dazai called out, doing his best to catch up with Chuuya without spilling his ice cream on the sidewalk. “Babe I didn’t mean to make a scene, I really didn’t. I’m sorry, don’t be mad, please.”
Chuuya sighed heavily and took another lick of his ice cream. “I’m not mad at you,” he said. “It’s Ango’s damn fault. You didn’t do anything wrong, for once.”
“Why is he following us??” Katsumi demanded, looking back at Dazai and glaring again. “Didn’t you hear Sakura! He’s going to eat us out!”
“Stop saying that, Katsumi! Don’t say that. You don’t know what it means,” Chuuya snapped. “Dazai isn’t going to eat any of us. Calm down. Ango shouldn’t have said something like that in front of you. He was saying mean things about Dazai. It isn’t true.”
“...So Dazai isn’t going to eat us out?” Shinjii asked, a little skeptically.
“No. And I told you not to say that. Don’t say that again,” Chuuya scolded. He sighed again. “Sakura, do you want your ice cream back?”
“Mmhm,” Sakura whimpered, trying to hold back her flood of tears.
Chuuya leaned over and handed Sakura’s ice cream cone back to her. She took it from him and immediately began taking huge bites out of it. Seeing that their sister was calming down, the other children seemed to relax for the time being.
“So… Uh… I guess I should leave you guys to get home, huh?” Dazai asked as they approached the first crosswalk on their route and waited for the light to turn.
“No,” Chuuya said. “You’re coming back home with us.”
Dazai blinked in surprise. “What? But I thought you said--”
“Yeah, that was before I realized what a shitty parent Ango is. I don’t care if he said you can’t come over. You can stay over the whole damn week for all I care,” Chuuya grumbled.
“Really?” Dazai asked, his eyes widening a little.
“Yes,” Chuuya replied.
Dazai grinned broadly. “Sweet!”
So Chuuya, his siblings, and Dazai made their way through town and back to the neighborhood where the Oda-Sakaguchi family lived. Everyone had finished their ice cream by the time that they had returned home, but since they hadn’t taken any napkins with them when they had left the ice cream parlor, the children’s hands were sticky even after the children had licked them clean. Once they were on the porch, Chuuya pulled the house key out of his pocket and unlocked the door. He pushed it open and let the kids rush inside.
Dazai was the last person into the house and he closed the door behind him once he was inside. He helped Chuuya remove the backpack harnesses from the children and hang them back up on the coatrack, along with the keychain. Chuuya urged the kids to run to the bathroom and wash their hands. Once the children were gone, Chuuya walked into the living room and slumped down onto the couch with another sigh.
Dazai followed Chuuya into the living room and sat down beside him on the couch. He wrapped an arm around Chuuya’s waist and pulled him close. He pressed a tender kiss to Chuuya’s cheek and then nuzzled his nose into it.
“Hey, I’m not just gonna lay around on the couch the whole time I’m here, okay?” he said. “I’m gonna help you take care of the kids all week, I promise.”
Chuuya rolled his eyes. “You? The guy that kids scream at when he tries to get them to do anything?”
“Trust me, Chuuya! Give me a chance! I really will help you out!” Dazai insisted.
To Chuuya’s surprise, he ended up fulfilling that promise quite spectacularly. He helped Chuuya cook dinner for the kids that night. He helped wrangle them all into bed by nine-thirty. He helped clean up the house after the kids were in bed.
But it wasn’t just on that day that Dazai helped Chuuya take care of the kids. Dazai fully accepted the invitation to stay at Chuuya’s house all week long. He helped get the kids up in the morning. He helped make breakfast, get them dressed, and send them off to school. He continued to help make dinner every night, get the kids into bed, and clean up the house every day.
He didn’t even try to get up to anything inappropriate when the kids weren’t around. When Chuuya and Dazai had time alone together during the day, they spent it watching movies, playing video games, and reading books together. The only thing that he tried to get from Chuuya were cuddles and gentle kisses. He did everything that he could to make Chuuya’s life as easy as possible while his parents were gone.
Chuuya was almost disappointed on Saturday night, knowing that his parents would be back the next morning. He had missed his father, of course, but he wasn’t looking forward to Ango coming back again, or to Dazai having to leave. In hindsight, perhaps he should have made Dazai sleep in the guest bedroom instead of sharing his room with him. He had gotten used to sleeping with someone else and it would take a while for him to get used to sleeping alone again.
On Sunday morning, Chuuya, Dazai, and all of the children were up early so that they could all be awake when Oda and Ango got home. Dazai got dressed and said his goodbyes to Chuuya and the children as quickly as he could. He didn’t want to be in the house when Ango returned. The children had all promised to keep quiet about Dazai’s stay after Chuuya had said that their dad and Ango wouldn’t have any treats for them if they knew that they had broken the rules and let Dazai come over.
At 10:13 AM, Chuuya and the children heard the sound of a car pulling into the driveway. The children elicited a collective gasp and quickly dropped the toys that they were playing with to head to the front door. Chuuya followed after them slowly. Kousuke threw the front door open, and everyone filed out onto the porch to wait for Oda and Ango to come into the house.
The car was turned off and Oda and Ango stepped out of it. The children decided they couldn’t wait for their fathers to come up to the porch, so they ran into the driveway as Oda and Ango walked to the back of the car to get their luggage out of the trunk. They were bombarded by a storm of excited screeches and tight hugs.
“Daddy! Ango! You’re home!” Sakura gasped.
“We missed you so much!” Shinjii exclaimed.
“We thought you’d never get back!” Yuu whined.
“Did you have fun?” Katsumi asked.
“Did you bring us gifts?” Kousuke asked.
Oda and Ango both laughed, hugging the children back loosely.
“We missed you too, kids,” Oda said, dragging his suitcase out of the trunk of the car.
“Be patient. We’ll tell you all about it once we get inside and get unpacked,” Ango told them.
The children let go of them and gave them room to carry their luggage into the house. Ango shut the trunk and Oda locked the car. The kids rushed ahead, back to the porch, to wait for Oda and Ango. Chuuya smiled and waved at Oda and Ango and then went back into the house.
“Hey, son,” Oda greeted as he saw Chuuya, once he and Ango were in the house.
“Hey, Dad,” Chuuya greeted back, stepping forward to give Oda a hug. As Oda patted his back, Chuuya and Ango simply glanced at each other for a greeting.
“Did you have fun?” Chuuya asked after he and Oda had pulled away from one another.
Oda nodded. “Yes, we had an amazing time. Were the kids good for you while we were gone? Did you have a good time?” he inquired.
Chuuya snorted with laughter, nodding his head. “Oh yeah. We had a great time alright. No thanks to you,” he said, looking at Ango again.
Ango pursed his lips and narrowed his eyes at Chuuya. “What on Earth is that supposed to mean?” he asked.
“Nothing,” Chuuya said with a smile, then turned and walked away.