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“I’m going to need you to keep a secret, Miri. Can you do that?” Miri looks up from her menu, her mouth so open that a little drool falls onto the table, and nods vigorously.
“Yeah!”
Kazuki reaches across the table, holding one pinkie finger out. “This is serious—you gotta pinkie promise. No telling anyone, alright?”
Miri begins to reach her tiny hand across the table, when suddenly she stops. A curious look materializes on her face. “Not even Papa Rei?”
“Especially not Papa Rei!” Kazuki’s face goes slack with shock, imagining what a mess it would be if Miri blabbed her adorable—but rather loose—mouth. “Now, do you promise? I can’t tell you unless you do,” Kazuki warns, dangling the temptation right in front of Miri.
Miri hesitates for all of one second before wrapping her pinkie around Kazuki’s. She has a surprisingly strong grip for a five-year old.
“I promise! Now tell me! Tell me!” she chants, pounding her fist against her lap. “I wanna know what the secret is!”
Diner patrons begin to turn their way because of the noise. Kazuki shies away from the attention, bringing a finger to his lips. “Shush! It’s a secret, remember?”
“Oh, right!” Miri settles, though beneath the table, her legs move a mile a minute in excitement. “Tell me! Tell me!” she repeats, this time a stage whisper.
“Alright, alright. Listen up, since I’ll only say this once,” Kazuki warns as Miri’s eyes light up. She nods vigorously and leans closer. Kazuki takes it as a signal to proceed. “Well, when one daddy loves another daddy—”
“You’re having a kid? Miri is going to be a big sister?”
Kazuki immediately blanches. “What? No! How’d you get that idea?” He doesn’t get an answer, though by replaying the last few seconds in his mind, he realizes readily enough that it’s his own fault. “Uh, never mind that. You’re enough for the both of us, Miri. What I was saying is that while I love Papa Rei and have loved him for some time, I’d like to love him in a more…official capacity.”
“Official capacity?” Miri owlishly tilts her head.
Ah, right. Children. Kazuki rethinks his phrasing, coming directly out with it.
“I’d like to marry Papa Rei.”
Miri’s eyes go wide. Kazuki can see the cogs turning in her mind before they click into place and she absolutely beams at him, her legs swinging rapidly under the table in excitement.
“Papa Rei and Papa Kazuki are going to get married?” she repeats, loud enough that the whole diner can hear. Some patrons turn towards them.
“We gotta be quiet, remember?” Kazuki chastises gently, though he doesn’t really blame Miri. It’s exciting news, or at least, it will be if he successfully pulls off the proposal. “But yes, I hope so—Papa Rei needs to accept my proposal first. And that’s where you come in.”
“Me?” Miri points to herself, like Kazuki could possibly mean someone else. Kazuki nods.
“Yes, Miri. I’m going to need help proposing—would you be willing?”
Nothing can compare to the sheer joy on Miri’s face as she exclaims her agreement, clearly enthralled by the idea. “Yeah!”
“Yeah? Thanks,” Kazuki smiles, his mind temporarily imaging a future with Rei in a very dashing suit, Miri in a cute little dress with a basket of flower petals, and a newly placed ring on his finger. It’s a good vision, but he’s quickly dragged back into reality by Miri impatiently waiting for him to continue across the booth. Right, the logistics.
“Here’s the plan…”
Miri’s got that grin on her face again, like she’s about to pull something that’ll require no less than hours of cleanup. Rei doubles his concentration on his game, as if he can manifest Miri approaching Kazuki instead of himself through sheer will.
It doesn’t work.
“Papa Rei! Papa Rei!” Miri chimes, jumping onto the couch to sit beside him. Rei reluctantly snipes one last enemy, then hits pause on his game. He’s tried to converse with her while playing before, and every last time it ends in a game over. Best to not even try; he’s learned his lesson.
“Miri,” Rei acknowledges, lacking for a tone. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing’s wrong!” she exclaims, fumbling around in her pockets. Her tiny hands find purchase around a shiny package, pulling it out and extending it towards Rei. “Here, I brought you a treat!”
Rei picks it up gingerly, more than a little suspicious. He examines the label; it’s a ring pop. Not his favorite candy by any means, but candy’s candy, and besides, it’d actually be pretty easy to eat it while playing games.
“Thanks,” he murmurs, tearing the plastic wrapping open. He takes the pop out and attempts to put it on his ring finger. It won’t go on, his finger too wide for the ring’s opening. “It doesn’t fit.”
To be fair, ring pops are meant for children—he probably shouldn’t have expected it to fit in the first place. Still, it’s a little disappointing.
“That’s okay, Miri has lots of ring pops!” She upturns her overall’s pockets, revealing a litany of pre-packed ring pops, all of different sizes. She begins to tear their packaging open one by one and shoves them at Rei.
Rei awkwardly sets the previous ring pop on the table and tries on the ring pops as Miri hands them to him. Most don’t fit, however, the fifth one surprisingly fits just like a glove.
He immediately puts her ring pop parade to a halt. “This one fits. Thanks Miri,” he murmurs, grateful, if a little conflicted, given the graveyard of abandoned ring pops on the counter—it’d be a shame to waste them, but also, there’s a limit to how many ring pops he can take, and he’s sure this exceeds it.
“No problem!” she beams. “What size is it? Y’know, so I can buy the right one for you next time?”
And lessen this mess? Yes, please. Rei slides the ring off his finger, reading the tiny numerical indent on its inside out loud.
“Twenty-two.”
“Thanks!” Miri exclaims, repeating it to herself like she’s trying to memorize it. When she’s satisfied, she hops off the couch and immediately runs out of the room.
“Enjoy the candy, Papa Rei!” she shouts, then leaves him be.
Odd. It’s rather unusual for her to let him go that easily, but Rei isn’t complaining. She even left a minimal mess this time, only wrappers and extraneous ring pops—as far as encounters with Miri go, it’s a good one in his book.
Even if he still doesn’t know what that look on her face meant, soon long forgotten in favor of the surprisingly tasty ring pop on his finger, and the thrill of his game.
Kazuki’s getting strange looks.
Which is fair enough, given he’s taken a very young, very clumsy, and very energetic kid with him to a shop full of exceedingly expensive rings. Kids aren’t normally their clientele, he’s sure, but Miri’s opinion matters too much to him for him to make such an important purchase without her around.
Still, he takes some precautions—if Miri were to run amuck, he certainly can’t afford to replace everything in the store—so he hoists her up onto his shoulders, keeping her secure with a strong grip around her ankles. She giggles, clearly thrilled, and Kazuki doesn’t have to worry about her breaking anything, so it’s a win in his book.
From her bird’s eye view, Miri scans the vicinity of the store. “Papa Kazuki, what type of ring are you looking for?”
Kazuki thinks about it briefly, then realizes he has absolutely no idea. Whatsoever. He has the size right thanks to Miri’s hard work, but beyond that, he has not a single clue.
“I’m not sure,” he admits. “Do you think we should get help?”
Instead of replying, Miri decides for him. She points forward, steering Kazuki straight towards a worker. He sighs but complies anyway.
“Hi!” she exclaims when they approach the worker, putting her chubby little hands on the glass casing. “We’re looking for a ring for Papa!”
To the worker’s credit, he doesn’t wince when a faint dusting of sugar rubs off Miri’s fingers onto the casing. Instead, amusement shines through his face.
“Of course,” he nods. He directs his attention towards Kazuki. “Sir, what style of ring are you looking for? And what ring size are you?”
Another day, another misunderstanding it seems. Kazuki winces a little as he prepares to correct the worker; reactions to their relationship are unfortunately all too varied in today’s society.
Miri, however, beats him to the punch. “Not this Papa, silly! It’s for my other Papa!”
The worker, to his credit, catches on immediately. He smiles a little. “Of course, my mistake. Sir, what style of ring does your partner like?”
In all honesty? Kazuki doesn’t have a clue.
“I’m not sure,” he admits after a brief pause. “He’s a gamer though, and he doesn’t like standing out. I want to propose sooner rather than later, so I’d prefer to go with something that’s already in stock—he’s a size twenty-two.”
The worker nods his head and leads them to a case of rings. Kazuki and Miri peer down, but none of them stick out—they’re too gaudy, too fancy, too bulky, on and on the list continues. Nothing’s perfect, and Kazuki won’t settle for any less.
“Do you like any of them?”
Kazuki and Miri look at each other, then Kazuki shakes his head. “None of them…seem right,” he confesses. “Do you have any others in stock?”
The worker’s eyes twinkle. “There’s one more,” he says, briefly disappearing and coming back with a black box. He gently opens the lid, revealing what is undoubtedly the perfect ring.
It’s a silver ring, a trio of diamonds laden in the band itself. It’s not flashy, but it’s still gorgeous, and more importantly, in Kazuki’s mind, it’s the right ring for Rei.
He looks up at Miri. Her face is absolutely entranced, her eyes not leaving the ring for a single second.
“Well?” the worker asks, looking at the pair. “How do you feel about this ring?”
Kazuki grins, his heart, mind, and wallet in perfect agreement.
“We’ll take it.”
“Are you sure you’ve got the plan down? I’m counting on you,” Papa Kazuki says, crouching down so that their eyes are level.
Miri gives a nod. She knows the plan in and out and she’s going to nail it, she’s sure of it!
Papa Kazuki doesn’t seem quite as convinced, but he ruffles her hair fondly, flashes a thumbs up, and stands back up. “I’ll trust you, then. Good luck! See you soon, Miri!”
Miri waves him goodbye, then steps inside her nursery school, carefully removing her shoes at the door and setting her jacket and a change of clothes in her cubby. She won’t be needing them, of course, but it doesn’t help to look the part.
Putting her best acting face on, she weakly greets her friends and chooses to play alone with a set of toys in the corner of the room, where she has a clear picture of the clock. She doesn’t know how to read it, not yet, but Papa Kazuki was very careful to teach her to go home when the hand is on the line and hole next to it—ten, he had said.
Rather impatiently, Miri plays by herself despite wanting to be with her friends, and the second the clock hits the right time, she puffs out her cheeks and runs to the bathroom.
“Miri-chan?” Anna-chan’s voice rings out against the bathroom door. “Are you alright?”
Instead of responding, Miri takes the bottle of liquid soap in the room and dumps it in the toilet, making a retching noise.
“Oh dear,” Anna-chan murmurs from across the door. “Too much for breakfast?”
Miri does her best to make her voice wobble. “I don’t feel so good, Anna-chan.”
“Let me check if you have a fever.” There are footsteps, and then Anna-chan is back, knocking on the door.
“Miri-chan! Come on out; I have a thermometer.”
Miri sweatdrops. She can get out of this, she must! Papa Kazuki had warned her that she might encounter an obstacle as such during their training and trained her appropriately.
“I can take my own temperature! I’m a big girl,” Miri insists, though she tries (and fails) to keep her voice weak.
“If you say so, Miri-chan. I just want to make sure you’re alright, sweetheart,” Anna-chan says as underneath the door, a thermometer is slid her way.
Miri picks it up then realizes that if Anna-chan is still outside the door, she’ll be caught.
“Um, would you be able to go outside? I’m shy.”
Anna-chan hesitates, Miri’s behavior seeming rather uncharacteristic, but walks away. Miri waits for her to be out of the vicinity, then turns the hot water on, running the thermometer under the sink. She waits until it hits the right temperature, a medium grade fever, then pops it into her mouth and opens the door, splashing a little water onto her face to act as sweat before she leaves.
Immediately Anna-chan runs over to her, gently taking the thermometer out of her mouth and reading its temperature. “That’s high,” she murmurs, placing a gentle hand on Miri’s forehead. “You’re sweaty too. Let’s get you home so you can get some rest. I’ll call your Papas for you. Feel free to nap on your mat until they get here; I’ll wake you when they’ve arrived.”
When Anna-chan turns and leaves to make the necessary arrangements, Miri’s façade finally breaks, a huge grin appearing on her face. She did it!
Now, all she has to do is wait for Papa Rei to pick her up from school, then she’s just one step away from officially having two married Papas!
When Rei got the call from Anna, he rushed over as fast as he could possibly pedal on his bike, scared out of his mind. She had seemed fine this morning, but that fever is higher than anything he’s ever seen before, and frankly, extremely concerning.
By the time they make it back home, however, Rei has to admit that Miri doesn’t seem any different than normal. She’s plenty chatty and seems energetic enough. Was she faking it?
After they’ve made it inside, shoes left at the front door, Rei turns to Miri. “Miri,” he murmurs.
She turns and looks at him, her head tilting. “Hm?”
“You aren’t actually sick, are you?”
Immediately, panic flashes across Miri’s face. “Nuh-uh!” she insists, forcing out some weak coughs into her hand.
She’s definitely faking it; Rei has no doubt.
“Your teacher said you had the stomach flu.”
Miri looks everywhere but Rei, a guilty look on her face. Rei chuckles slightly to himself; he gets it, he really does. He was never fond of school all that much, and for her to put so much effort in that it convinced her teacher, then it’s worth a day off in his mind.
“It’s alright,” he says, crouching. “Let’s just take the day off to rest and play games. How does that sound?”
Miri finally removes her gaze from her feet, grinning up at him. “Yay!”
Rei can’t help the smile that crosses his face. He offers a hand to her, and she takes it as they stroll into the living room, when suddenly he stops.
The living room…it’s not how he left it just an hour ago. Immediately, he panics, stepping in front of Miri to protect her. Kazuki and he have numerous enemies; could one of them have broken in? He has to keep her safe!
“Papa Rei!” Miri’s voice, excited and full of wonder, breaks him out of his temporary trance. She untangles herself from behind Rei’s legs and points forward. Rei attempts to look that way, but then the lights break, the room going completely dark.
Out of instinct, he drops low to the floor, Miri beneath him. “Be quiet,” he whispers, his adrenaline pounding. She giggles instead and worry strikes through Rei’s heart. If anything happens to her, he doesn’t know what he’d do with himself.
Suddenly, a figure strikes at him from the dark, hauling Rei up. Rei does his best to fight them off, but he doesn’t succeed, and something is forced onto his finger. He tries to shake it off, fearing the worst, but the grip on his arm is too strong.
Miri, thankfully untouched, giggles. She’s been through enough to be aware of the danger; why would she act like that? Rei can’t fathom the reason…that is, unless there’s no danger, and she’s in on the plan. It would explain the fake sickness from earlier, certainly.
Rei stops fighting back as the lights flicker on to Kazuki dressed in a suit for once, a giant grin on his face as he subdues Rei in place. Rei brings his gaze down to his ring finger, where a silver ring, on the plain side but gorgeous all the same, now rests.
This elaborate setup, the ring pop incident from a few weeks ago…it all clicks in his head.
Dumbasses, the lot of them. But Miri and Kazuki are his dumbasses, and he wouldn’t have it any other way.
“Miri!” Kazuki whispers, gesturing toward their daughter. Her eyes light up, and she pulls a crumpled piece of paper out of her pocket, shoving it in Rei’s face.
It’s a crude drawing—Miri’s young, and not particularly gifted at art—but despite that, Rei can recognize the scene drawn on the paper. She’s drawn the two of them exchanging vows of holy matrimony, giant smiles on their faces.
It might be the best of all the pieces she’s made them. Rei immediately decides to display it at the highest place of honor in their home: the fridge, held up by a series of magnets.
“Well?” Kazuki asks, nervousness obvious on his face for all to see. “What do you think?”
Rei snorts. For all that planning, Kazuki’s forgotten to even ask the right question.
“I think you’re forgetting something.”
Kazuki’s eyes glaze over, thinking it through, when the lightbulb in his head flickers on. He rubs the back of his neck a little ashamedly, then gets on one knee, extending out an empty ring box, given he’s already jammed the ring onto Rei’s finger.
“Rei, will you marry me?”
“No.”
Immediately, Kazuki and Miri falter. Rei’s lips quirk upwards; it’s only fair he gets back at them after what they pulled.
“Just kidding,” Rei smirks, after a heart wrenching pause. “Of course I’ll marry you. But I had to get back at you for all of this.”
Kazuki pauses, taking a bit to process Rei’s reversal, but then his face lights up, the dopiest grin Rei’s ever seen smeared across his face. He immediately goes in for a hug, this embrace tighter than any they’ve ever shared before.
“I love you,” Kazuki murmurs into Rei’s ear.
Rei hugs him back tighter and whispers the same affirmation.
“Don’t forget about Miri too!”
Rei and Kazuki laugh, picking Miri up and letting her join the hug.
While Rei certainly didn’t anticipate his future ever being this domestic, he couldn’t be happier than he is now, surrounded by his daughter and soon to be husband, the two halves of his heart made whole.
Here with them, he’s home. And there’s no place he’d rather be.