Work Text:
Baby Kusuo, liberated from his itchy apparel, has his eyes locked on Papa's hands as they make sure to massage every inch of his and Kusuke’s bodies clean.
Soap bubbles on their skin as Kuniharu scrubs away any impurities there may be on his sons' bodies.
Kusuo thinks the bubbles are cool and finds the massaging to be pleasant, so, while Papa is occupied with Kusuke, he copies what his Papa did and lightly rubs his soapy tummy.
Kusuo's eyebrows furrow. That doesn’t have the desired effect of more bubbles.
From his spot, seated on his stool, he captures Papa's hand in his and guides it toward his body. Letting go of Papa’s hand after placing it onto his arm, he gazes up at Papa and hopes Kuniharu gets his nonverbal message to magically rub more bubbles onto him.
Papa can’t refuse little Ku’s charming purple eyes, especially since they carry the same hint of purple that he sees in his own beloved wife’s wide and innocent ones. He humours his youngest, and more bubbles are made... with Papa sneaking in a few tickles to elicit a giggle or two from his baby.
Kusuo feels unstoppable, covered head to toe in bubbles. The males can't help but laugh at his bubbly armour.
Hmm, big brother doesn’t have nearly as many bubbles as he does. Feeling generous, Kusuo takes a handful of soap and carefully places it onto Kusukes nose. Kusuke goes cross-eyed looking at the gift, thanking Kusuo for sharing.
Picking up on Kusuo’s newfound fascination with bubbles, Papa shows them a new trick. Rubbing his soapy hands together and making a circle with his index finger and thumb, he blows into his makeshift bubble wand.
The reflective soap film expands forward as a pocket of air is made inside, a battle happening between the pressure and the surface tension. When the deformed film reaches the maximum curvature, a transparent sphere of gas escapes Papa’s ok symbol-shaped hand and floats away.
Face craned upward, Kusuo’s attention is absorbed in the hollow, reflective thing. Because the light waves were reflecting from the soap film's inner and outer surfaces, Kusuo can see his face and surroundings all distorted and upside down on it. Whoa…
It seems Papa made a bubble! A bigger one than the ones covering Kusuo!!
Sure, the bubble has an early death, but the genius children Kusuke and Kusuo have picked up and replicated this skill instantly.
Bubbles fill the bathroom as Mama makes her appearance once more. She laughs and pops a few as she comes in and joins the fun.
Some land and pop on Kusuo’s nose while others stick together midair in an attempt to minimize their surface area. Kusuo jabs at one floating nearby with his finger and it erupts. He is having so much fun.
Kusuke has a large bubble on his soapy hands, stretching it until it separates into two. He blows one off his hands and observes as it shrinks to assume the smallest possible shape it possibly could for its volume of air: a sphere. It pops the second it falls to the floor of the wet room.
It was time for a shampoo. Mama lathers the baby shampoo into Kusuke’s hair first, so Kusuo won’t be afraid when his turn comes.
Kusuke likes the attention from Mama, but he also wants to make her proud by being a big boy and doing it himself. This was his chance to prove how cool and grown-up he is to Mama. Making sure to clean all the important bits deeply as a “demonstration” before dependable Kusuke can get to it, Mama gave the toddler the illusion of being independent as he thinks he's cleaning it all himself.
One child down, one more to go. Now it’s Kusuo’s turn! Mama is careful with the sensitive dip in the middle of his skull as she massages Kusuo’s scalp, a sensation that is rather pleasant for Kusuo.
Gentle hands comb through his magenta strands, shampoo forming even more bubbles to little Kusuo’s glee. Of course, as with most babies, there is an unidentifiable clump of... something sticking a bunch of his hair together. Mama swiftly untangles and eliminates the sticky mess.
Hmm… it oddly resembles the candy Kusuo was eating that afternoon before it mysteriously disappeared. How curious, Kusuo wonders why.
Well, no time to ponder that! Seeing as the suds make it easy for Kusuke to shape his golden hair into silly shapes, he parts his hair into two big spikes on each side of his head. They stay up and sway side to side as Kusuke energetically makes funny faces and impressions for Kusuo with each bubbly edit to his appearance.
There’s no way Kusuo couldn’t laugh at that. Kusuke feels proud that he could be a good big brother and Mama can’t help the smile on her face at the sight of her two boys getting along for once.
From the way their parents washed off the soap on their kids' bodies, it was almost time for the family to go into the bath. And while Baby Kusuo doesn't exactly know why his Mama and Papa placed him and Kusuke into this white container of warm water, he finds it is not unpleasant.
He is loving this new sensation. It may be wet, but it's soothing for his bare young body to be in the relaxing water that his Mama made sure was at a perfectly warm temperature for her two precious baby boys.
Kusuo examines the liquid, picking it up with his hands and watching it drip from his fingers. Fascinated with hypnotic ripples made by the plummeting droplets, he admires how, with each wave on the water's surface, the bending of light distorts the image of his two submerged feet.
Wiggling his toes and swishing his legs from side to side, he realizes there is more resistance to moving underwater than there would be otherwise when moving in the air. Nothing a superhuman baby can’t handle, though.
Papa, supervising nearby, was supplying them with toys. Rubber duckies and plastic sea life may invitingly bob and float, but Kusuo will play with them right after he is done conducting his very important scientific study. Ku’s examination is too fascinating to grab the trinkets just yet, as enticing as they may be.
Denied a bathwater taste test by both Papa and Kusuke, Kusuo moves on to the next phase of his experiment. Very professionally and... scientifically, he shall apply force to this liquid in the direction of his brother (very coincidental direction, of course) and assess its reaction... for future reference. Quickly discovering the entertaining result of a splash toward his brother, Baby Ku decides to repeat this experiment a few more times… just further experimentation for conclusive results.
Kusuke, not one to back down from a challenge… especially not one for the “sake of science”, retaliates with his own man-made waves.
Thus begins the legendary battle between Kusuke and Kusuo.
Using his powers to wobbly manipulate the water, Kusuo commands streams of water to rise and twist around mesmerizingly around both children (and their unsuspecting father), the mini hurricane showering them with mist.
Vaguely registering how his soaked but entertained Papa offered him more toy ships (an unsuccessful attempt to try and distract his superhuman son from flooding the bathroom), Kusuo turns to see how his brother feels about what he did. Using his playmate's reaction, he is gauging what is acceptable as play. Baby Ku is growing and adapting to this world.
While, at first, Kusuke gawked in awe at Kusuo’s grand display and excitedly showered his brother with applause, he gradually started grumbling about how cold he was getting. Kusuke tried to ask him to release the water, claiming that they needed the water to stay in the tub to keep having what is considered a bath, but Kusuo comes to a different conclusion: He finds Kusuke’s whining annoying.
It is only when Kusuke claims Mama might be upset if Kusuo makes a big mess that Kusuo complies with his request.
(Looking around the room, Papa knows it’s a bit too late to prevent a mess.. but, he doesn’t say anything.)
Fine.
Ku’ll put the water back down, alright...
He’ll dump it all right on top of Kusuke’s dumb little head.
Malicious compliance is what the blond should have expected from the mischievous Kusuo.
Gasping as he breaches the water's surface, the grinning Kusuke stares down at Kusuo with a playfully vengeful glint in his eyes. It’s clear he survived the sudden onslaught of water and won’t take this quietly.
Kusuo knows Kusuke is secretly just as excited as he is and is pleased to know his Big Brother likes their new game.
Kusuo’s evil little smirk rubbed Kusuke in the wrong way. As the older brother here, Kusuke would not tolerate his little brother's taunts. No way, two can play at this game.
Kusuo, it is ON.
Grabbing whatever bath toys he could within his short reach, Kusuke began disassembling.
Kusuo watches in interest at the swift, mechanical way his brother's hands separate and weave the pieces back together into his new creation. How did Kusuke manage to create such a strange-looking object out of random toys so fast?
Kusuo might not know what it is, but for Kusuke, his fully loaded ultra Kusuo-soaking water gun was complete. Kusuke couldn’t help but grin wider as he aimed the device at his unsuspecting baby brother. This contraption will give Kusuo the spray of his lifetime, just you watch.
Have a taste of Kusuke’s REVENGE!
Kusuo shields himself with his hands as water repeatedly squirts him in the face. Nose all crinkled up and eyes squinted, he can’t help but smile. It tickles. Smiles turn into giggles as Kusuke feels a bit more mischievous.
Aiming discreetly, he suddenly shoots a burst of water at Kuniharu, who lets out a cry in alarm and falls backwards.
There, now Kusuo and Kusuke are even. They’ve both successfully drenched Papa with water.
Playtime isn’t over yet. The boys didn’t even wait for their father to get back up before they started their new game. Kuniharu doesn’t know if it’s because Children generally have short attention spans and require constant stimulation or because they seemingly hate him for some reason.
He doesn’t know why his kids bully him but, well… as long as they’re happy, he supposes.
A rubber ducky floats in the air as a pirate ship and the toy gorilla have a battle to the death in Kusuo’s hands. Plastic wood meets the primate's hairy fist as the two fiercely fight for superiority against their foe. Courtesy of Kusuo’s mouth, every impact is accompanied by an appropriate explosion sound.
Kusuke’s dinosaur enters the battlefield with a roar, smashing headfirst into the boat.
A critical hit.
Kusuo makes a whooshing sound as he stretches his arm backward to make the ship fly away from the impact. The dinosaur and gorilla have a staredown as they confidently walk toward their new opponent before lunging at each other. Giant gorilla vs the ancient beast, who will gain the upper hand?
Soon, Mama comes back and presents to her boys a spherical item. What could this “bath bomb” item be?
Was Mama, once again, fooled into buying a weapon of destruction? Is Mama secretly an assassin or ninja?
Fortunately, it is None of the above.
Kusuo is understandably excited from Mamas' claim that this thing was the perfect opportunity to make their bath time extra fun.
First bubbles and now this? Awesome.
Kusuo is pleased to find out about more mysteriously round and fun bath-related objects.
Kusuo and Kusuke have no clue what this powdery object is, but they are excited to see what it does.
Both of them scoot closer as mama plops the colourful object into the water and….
A chorus of gasps.
The Saiki’s watch in amazement as the multicoloured ball instantly jumps into action and fizzes. Clouds of glittery colour explode inside the bathwater as a calming flowery aroma dutifully graces the air. The bath bomb sizzles and spins on the water's surface.
Propelled to every corner of the tub by the force of the chemical reaction, the bath bomb paints the previously transparent bathwater into an artist's rendition of the galaxy.
The family cheers, in awe at the mesmerizing golden glitter sparkling inside the marvellous blue, pink and yellow hues.
Kusuke starts wondering what makes up this item and mentally listing exactly what chemicals could be reacting here?
If it’s for a bath it’s likely good for the skin (he will check to see if his skin feels softer later) and if so, it must be made up of ingredients like Epsom salts? Whatever the case, he wants to replicate this reaction and create stuff with this concept to possibly prank his dad in the future.
(Kuniharu doesn’t know why, but he feels a chill go down his spine.)
Less analytical of the orb than his brother, Kusuo wonders about the inky blackness of space.
The water looks like the sight he sees looking up at the night sky, glitter resembling the distant stars glimmering in the atmosphere, hiding solar systems farther than the eye can see.
He doesn’t ponder on this for long, though.
Looking at the ball (which is now falling apart), Kusuo has another mental image, even better than the last. The baby salivates as he imagines a hollow ball of chocolate, filled with hot chocolate powder and marshmallows, splitting open and melting into a warm glass of milk.
Classic Kusuo and his sweet tooth.
Mama and Papa switch posts. While Kuniharu goes to bring towels (and change into drier clothes) as Kurumi supervises her children. They play and soak for a while in the water until Papa returns with their towels.
Bath time is over.
Kusuo waves bye-bye to the tub as Mama and Papa wrap their sleepy sons into their towels and carry them back to the room. He had fun, but being held close to his parents was very comfy. Every step feels like he is being rocked to sleep. His eyes feel a bit heavy.
Kusuo and Kusuke both glance up at their parents then make eye contact with each other, giggling as if some unspoken joke was told.
Mama and Papa smile, protectively holding their loved ones closer to their warmth to ward away the cold.
Kusuo yawns, tuckered out from his eventful first bath. He can’t wait to be put into his warm pyjamas.