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Lewis has assumed having an ill-advised long hair phase in his senior year will help him in all matters of hairstyling, but he’s rarely felt this lost.
The store is sparkly and very pink, and it’s full of teenage girls.
“Spar Kaiser,” Lulu exclaims upon entering the shop, and Lewis winces at the volume of her voice.
Three pairs of eyes snap to them immediately—two customers and a clerk. Lewis knows they must look odd to strangers: a big, tall, blond foreigner with a tiny little girl in a kindergarten uniform, in the middle of a store for women’s accessories. Lewis just hopes the moms in his kindergarten class group chat remembered correctly and this is the right shop.
Impatient, Lulu tugs on his two fingers that she’s holding. “Smith, come oooon.”
“Okay, kiddo,” Lewis says, matching her English just not her volume. “But remember what we said about indoor voice?”
“Ga-pi,” Lulu whispers and nods vehemently. She brings a finger in front of her lips. “Shhh. Be quiet.”
“Good girl.”
People are still looking, but once Lulu remembered her indoor voice, they should move on with their own shopping. Lewis grabs the smallest shopping basket available.
Lulu tugs on his hand again, and pouts. “Smith,” she says, pronouncing his—their, technically, since last month—surname in the way the kindergarten teachers do. Apparently she took a liking to how it sounds. “Su-mi-su.”
“Let’s go and look for the hair ties,” he says.
Lulu lets out a happy little squeal—the appropriate volume this time. She’s been wanting a Spar Kaiser hair tie since she overheard some boys talking about it during playtime the previous week. With the help of the LINE group chat it didn’t take Lewis much time to track down whose children they were, and the mother in question directed him to this specific store.
A shop assistant materializes out of thin air.
“Can I help you?” she addresses them in English.
“We’re looking for the Spar Kaiser pop-up shop,” Lewis replies in Japanese. “Are we at the right store?”
Clearly surprised at the reply, she switches back to Japanese with an awkward smile. “Yes. Please follow me.”
Hidden behind a different display there is a roughly twenty-square-foot space all covered by sparkly new Spar Kaiser merchandise. Most of them seem to be on the subtle side, or as subtle as merchandise for a retro super robot anime can be, except for—
“Ga-ga-pi.” Lulu beams and makes a beeline towards the hair tie section. Lewis makes a futile attempt at catching her—why are toddlers so fast—but his daughter is in front of the display in the matter of seconds, jumping up and down in excitement.
Lewis crosses the distance in three steps and squints at the—
“This one, this one,” Lulu says as she points a tiny finger towards a hair tie. “Spar Kaiser!”
Lewis is familiar with the design, he googled it and found the website dedicated to the collab merch, but the photos did not do it justice.
“Are you sure, Lulu?” he asks, even though he knows what her answer will be.
Lulu nods, her hair flying everywhere in her enthusiasm. “Lulu wants this one.”
There's no way to put it nicely: all the hair ties are hideous. Who thought it’s a good idea to make a merch line of decapitated characters stuck to a simple, single-colored hair tie? But Lulu likes them and Lewis can rarely say no to his daughter. Resigned, he picks up two Spar Kaiser heads and puts them into the shopping basket Lulu insists on carrying at every store they visit, even when they have no plans on buying anything. She often carries them, too.
Lulu beams and grabs Lewis’ hand.
At the cashier’s there’s only a group of three high school girls in front of them. Lewis can hear a hushed conversation from two of them, not loud enough to make out full sentences, but they pay for their purchases quickly and leave before Lulu could catch on. Wanting to leave as soon as possible, Lewis fishes out his debit card from his wallet and swiftly swipes it, but when Lulu takes the small plastic bag from the cashier she insists on wearing it now.
“May I help?” the shop assistant from before offers and Lewis accepts the help when Lulu expresses interest. He’s not that bad with styling Lulu’s hair, he’s gotten the hang of braids already, and various hair clips no longer cause hisses and teary eyes, but an expert is an expert. He watches the young woman gather Lulu’s hair with dexterous fingers, and the two small pigtails are done in no time at all.
“Thank you,” Lulu says in Japanese, without Lewis’ prompting, and he follows.
It…doesn’t look as bad as Lewis assumed it will.
“C’mon kiddo, let’s go home.”
Lulu reaches for his hand on her own. “Su-mi-su,” she singsongs as they exit the store. “Let’s show Isami?”
Lewis falters for a bit—she doesn’t know how much his coworkers have been teasing him about his hopeless crush on a certain florist—but Lulu’s looking at him with such a cute, earnest expression he gives in. It’s a detour from the mall, but if Lewis was honest, it’s not something he particularly minds on any day.
Once outside the mall Lulu carefully pats the decapitated robot heads in her hair as Lewis unchains his bicycle. “Up you go, sweetheart,” he says and Lulu makes grabby hands when he reaches for her to put her in the child seat at the front.
“Spar Kaiser, ready to deploy,” she recites with grave seriousness, then giggles. “Go!”
While the ride from the mall to the flower shop Isami works at is short, Lulu is a bit drowsy by the time they arrive, but she’s jostled awake when Lewis parks the bike.
“Is’mi, Is’mi,” she whispers sleepily.
Lewis drops a kiss on the top of her head before he unbuckles her and lowers her to the ground. She rubs at her eyes with a tiny fist, but she’s immediately wide awake when the door of the shop opens and it reveals Isami in his usual green uniform apron and a…pair of black-rimmed glasses? Lewis hopes he’s not staring, but Isami looks so handsome, and it somehow softens his oft-present frown.
“Isami,” Lulu squeals and sprints towards him.
Isami furrows his brow when Lulu predictably latches onto his leg, but Lewis can see him shift his weight to accommodate her. Warmth spreads in his chest at the small act of thoughtfulness.
“Bravern too?” Lulu asks in Japanese.
Isami makes a face. He often shows mixed feelings when it comes to his small robot companion. “He’s inside.”
(“I have a friend who likes to fiddle with robots” is the only explanation Isami has offered.)
Lulu cheers but doesn’t release him. Isami glances down at her windswept hair. He looks up and glares at Lewis.
Lewis shrugs and crosses the distance between them. “Come on, Lulu, let’s release Isami and show him what we came here for.”
She reluctantly lets go of Isami’s leg and tugs on his sleeve. Isami crouches down to be at eye level with her, and Lewis’ heart swells. In the beginning it was abundantly clear Isami's not used to small children, and maybe never wanted to be, but for some reason he’s making an effort with Lulu.
“Isami, look, look.” She leans forward so much that Isami has to put a hand on her back to prevent her from toppling over. “Spar Kaiser!”
“I…see.”
Lewis can’t blame him for that reaction upon seeing the odd merchandise, but the contrast of Lulu’s pleased expression and Isami’s scowl makes a fit of laughter bubble out of him. Lulu giggles. Isami’s scowl deepening as he stands up just makes Lewis laugh harder.
Lewis is also dying to ask Isami what’s up with the glasses, but the last time he commented on Isami’s appearance it backfired.
(When it comes to Isami Ao he has the unfortunate tendency to put his foot into his mouth, and he’s still learning how to navigate the cultural differences and not coming on too strong.)
“Going out for a delivery?” Lewis asks Isami, before he could blurt out something embarrassing, like how much the simple black frame suits him.
“Nah. Just checking something.”
Bemused, Lewis nods, then lifts Lulu up. “Let’s choose some new flowers and leave Isami to his work.”
Lulu squirms in his arms.
“Lulu can do it,” she declares with a puff of her chest. “Alone.”
“Sure, sure, kiddo,” Lewis says, but he lowers her to the ground and watches her run into the shop, accompanied by the happy melody of the chime above the door. “We’ll be out of your hair in a sec,” he tells Isami.
Isami frowns again. “You could—”
Isami averts his gaze, allowing Lewis a glimpse at his profile. The tips of his ears are red.
‘Stay’ is what Lewis is hoping to hear, but—
A loud crashing noise and an excited “Ga-ga-pi” coming from inside the shop interrupts their little moment.
“Shit, Lulu,” Lewis curses in English. “I’m sorry. I’ll pay for whatever she—”
He doesn’t wait for Isami’s reply, just takes off.
The inside of the shop is less chaotic than the noises suggested. There's no visible damage to any flowers or flower pots and nothing is spilled onto the ground. At first glance nothing seems off, but Lewis has been parenting a toddler long enough to know that itself should make anyone wary.
Lulu waves. “Su-mi-su.”
Her hair is a mess and one of her hair ties is missing, but she doesn’t seem to be bothered by losing her precious new gift. “Braven will make more. Like Spar Kaiser. But Isami.”
A muffled yell of Isami’s name comes from the back. It suspiciously sounds like “Isamiiiii, wait for me.”
Isami, who has just arrived at the doorstep, groans.
“Sorry,” Lewis says, like a liar.
The look on Isami’s face says he isn’t fooling him even the slightest.