Chapter Text
Constant snoring was the only sound that filled the otherwise silent room. Even though sunlight was blaring into the room with abnormal intensity, the young owner of the room was still sleeping late into the day, oblivious to what was going on in the house he lived in; oblivious to the footsteps that were coming up the stairs, the creaking of the door and the small chuckle that followed. A soft wrinkled smile stretched on the newcomers face. Deep brown eyes, similar to the sleeping boy’s, softened at the image of the starfish spread and open mouthed teen.
“Dramatic sleeper,” an elderly woman said as she went to sit on the bed. “Just like your grandfather.” She moved a stray hair from the boy’s face and simply sat there for a moment. A minute passed before the woman decided it was time that the boy woke up. A smirk appeared on her face as she saw a feather sticking out of the boy’s hair. She grabbed it and started tickling the teen’s nose.
Grumbling came from the boy and grimaces appeared on his face as he started moving his head away from the assault on his nose. But the woman continued doing it, quiet laughter filling the room. Hands started moving to get the feather away, but the only thing they boy ended up doing is slapping himself, making the gray haired woman laugh out loud. The boy sat up, rubbing his eyes with his hands.
“Mom, what was that for?” he asked.
“Mom is it? I’m not that young anymore, I must say,” the woman answered, tickling his nose with the feather one more time.
The teen leaned back as far as he could go, face scrunched up. Then he peaked one brown eye open and grinned. His whole face lit up when he saw his grandmother. “Grandma!” He leaped into her arms causing the woman to laugh joyfully while wrapping her arms around him.
“Good morning to you, too, Mamoru.” Endou Kaede, the young boy’s grandmother, caressed his hair, hugging him tightly after a weeks of not being able to see each other.
“I didn’t know you were coming today.” Mamoru leaned back, the smile still on his face. “Why didn’t you say anything?”
“We wanted to surprise you a little bit. You had quite an interesting few weeks I heard.” An eyebrow raised in amusement as she waved the feather in front of his face again.
The boy pouted. “Don’t remind me. Mom grounded me for a whole week.”
“As she should. Going to junkyards to steal tires.” She ruffled his messy hair. “What were you thinking?”
“I do that every few months! This one just…” He looked a the feather as if it had killed his best friend. “Had some surprises.” The feather was blown into his face making him jump back.
“Well, today your punishment is officially over, right?” she asked standing up. She watched the boy blink for a moment, counting down the days in his head, before a giant smile appeared on his face and he nodded a million times per second. “Good, because today is a perfect day to spend time with us. So get dressed, and get down. Breakfast should be ready by the time you are done.” Kaede started to go towards the door.
“Wait, us?” Mamoru tilted his head to the side, messy hair flopping with it. “Does that mean…?”
“Yep, Rei and I are both here,” the woman answered. “And don’t worry, she’s not making any food. I sent her to the store for groceries, she should be out for a moment.”
Mamoru let out a sigh of relief. He had come to notice that his grandma and mom both fell in love with people who were absolutely horrible chefs. He didn’t know if his grandpa was also a horrible cook, but he was honestly too scared to ask. His grandfather was amazing in his eyes; if he were to be a terrible cook, he’d probably lose a bit of respect he had for him.
Just then, they both heard some music coming from the kitchen. They both frowned at the door before looking at each other.
“Does that sound like the Mamma Mia soundtrack to you?” Kaede asked.
Her grandson looked at her and nodded slowly.
“Damn it! She came back early.” Kaede opened the door and was about to step out before she turned back to him. “Do get ready, and I’ll make sure I’ll cook breakfast and lunch today.” She then hurried out the door, gently closing it behind her.
The youngest Endou waited a moment before he heard laughter and bickering coming from the kitchen. He chuckled and looked over at his grandfather’s picture. “I wonder if you’d also visit like this.”
By the time Mamoru had gotten ready for the day and headed downstairs, the smell of bacon and rolled omelets were coming from the kitchen. Along with the song Money, Money, Money.
“Mom, I can cook.” That was the voice of his own mother coming from the kitchen before his grandmother’s laugh followed.
“Sweetheart, I know you can cook. But you had a stressful week, so I’m cooking today.”
“But you came for a visit.” Mamoru saw his mother standing with her hands on her hips while staring his grandma down.
“Well, if you want, I can cook, honey,” Mamoru’s dad said.
Immediately there were three shouts, one from each of the Endous. “NO!”
Endou Hiroshi simply smiled at his wife and mother-in-law, who were pointing at him threateningly, as if they would kill him if he even tried to touch the stove. Then he turned to his son who was standing at the doorway to the kitchen, hands raised and a horrified look on his face. “Good morning, Mamoru. Did you sleep well?”
Mamoru’s mother also turned to him and smiled. “Morning, sweetheart.”
The teen’s hands lowered and he grinned at his parents. “Morning! And yeah, I slept okay.”
“If snoring like a tuberculosis patient means okay,” his grandmother said from where she was cooking another omelet.
The adults chuckled as the boy pouted, only to laugh out loud when a scream left the boy as he was pulled into a hug from behind. The old woman that held him “hostage” laughed loudly as well.
“Nonna!” Mamoru yelled, struggling to get away. “Let go!”
“What? I can’t hug my Mamo-Inu?” Nonna Rei spoke. “I haven’t seen you in three weeks, and you say let go? Well absolutely not! Try to break free, see what happens!” She held him tighter and blew raspberries into his cheek and making him groan and laugh at the same time.
“Grandma! Mom, help!” He reached out for the two women in the room as they were the closest. His dad simply took out his phone to snap a picture of the moment, the click sound distant in everyone’s ears.
The old woman looked up from the teen and glared. “No. Mine.” Atsuko simply giggled at the display and went to sit down next to her husband. The song was closing in the background.
“Rei, let Mamoru go. He’s going to help me make onigiri,” Kaede spoke without looking up from the stove. She blew a stray hair from her eyes and tucked it behind her ear.
The short haired woman humphed, her arms loosening on the boy. But instead of him running away, he turned around and hugged his nonna. Her long eccentric earrings tickled his neck a bit, but he was fine with that.
“Missed you, nonna,” the boy mumbled.
“Missed you too, scimmietto,” she said, hugging him tighter. “Now go help your grandma make onigiri before I do it.” She let him go and pat him on the shoulder.
“Last time you helped me make onigiri, we somehow ended up with rice on the ceiling. Do not come near the food or so help me. Sit down instead,” Kaede said as she pulled her grandson to her and handed him an apron. “Wash your hands, honey.”
Just then Dancing Queen started playing and his mom started humming along. Nonna Rei decided to outright sing it. Hiroshi took out his phone again and proceeded to film the moment. The brown haired teen, now with the apron on, washed his hands and helped his grandma make onigiri as he swayed from side to side to the music, humming along as well.
“Remember when we played the original version on Atsuko’s seventeenth birthday, Kaede?” Rei stopped singing to speak to her partner. Atsuko groaned.
“You played it seventeen times for good measure, too.” Dark brown eyes looked at her with fond annoyance. “It was fun the first three times, but then it just became a chore.”
“I remember it perfectly. You woke her up with it,” Kaede said as she placed a onigiri on the plate. “And then on the last one you forced me to sing it with you.”
“I suggest we do the same for when Mamoru gets to seventeen.”
The teen looked at his parents. “Mom. Dad. No.”
His dad smiled. “You don’t like ABBA? Should we disown you?”
Mamoru laughed awkwardly. “I do, I do! Just don’t do it like that, please.” He put his own onigiri on the plate.
His mom let her own smile turn mischievous. “I don’t know.” She looked at her husband, taking a sip from her coffee. “We could make it be a new family tradition.”
The young boy looked at his parents in alarm making all the adults laugh. “How about we don’t? I like ABBA and Mamma Mia, but not to that degree.”
His mother stood up to put her cup in the sink and pat him on the head. “If I suffered, so shall you.” The sound of his groan was entertaining for everyone’s ears. Atsuko then picked up some plates and went towards the backdoor. “Honey, could you help me set the table outside? I was thinking of eating outside today since it’s sunny and warm.” Her husband nodded and stopped filming. He picked up the tray with glasses, chopsticks and the tablecloth his wife left on the kitchen table and followed her outside.
Everything was silent for a moment as the music changed to The Winner Takes It All, before Endou’s grandmother started speaking. “So, I heard you beat Teikoku.”
Mamoru looked up at her and bit the inside of his cheek. He usually didn’t talk to his family about soccer, due to his mom’s bad memories of it and his grandfather’s accident. But his grandmother always asked him when his mom wasn’t near, so he could do it with someone. He looked out towards the backyard to see if his mom was coming in or not. Thankfully she wasn’t, but he still kept his eyes on the door, periodically switching to look at the onigiri he was making.
“Well, kinda. We did play against them, but they had a bunch of goals on us already.” And so he proceeded to tell the story of his first match to his grandma and nonna. Both frowned at each other when they heard how rough the other team was with them. “But then Gouenji finally joined, I’ll tell you about him later and how I met him. So the ball was shot at me again, but Gouenji ran forward and I knew I had to stop the shot, so I just-” He looked at both of them then, a huge grin on his face. “I finally managed to use God Hand! Just like grandpa did!”
Rei proceeded to enthusiastically congratulate him and ruffle his hair. The boy laughed as he tried to get away from it. His grandmother stopped for a moment, an unreadable expression on her face before she smiled gently. She put the last onigiri she had on the plate and wiped her hands on her apron. The boy was still laughing when he felt his grandmother’s hands pull him into a hug.
“That is wonderful, Mamoru,” she whispered in his ear. “I’m sure your grandfather would be proud.” Mamoru froze for a moment before he returned the hug.
Shyly, he asked, “You thinks so?”
The old woman pulled back, a gentle smile on her face. “I know so.”
The brown haired teen smiled at that, and then continued on with the rest of the story of how the match went, all while making the last of his batch of the onigiri. The two old women listened to him carefully, giving him their full attention.
“We actually have another match on Tuesday! And Gouenji finally joined the team too!” The boy kept babbling on. “Though Someoka doesn’t really like him being on the team yet. But I’m sure he’ll come around pretty quickly!”
The song changed to Our Last Summer when Endou’s mother finally came back inside. “Should we start taking the food out, mom?”
The eldest Endou hummed. “Yes. I’ll stay inside to make some tea as well and Mamoru can help me carry it out.”
“Okay then. Rei, could you help me carry some of the food?” Atsuko took the plates with bacon and rolled omelets and started carrying them out.
“Sure,” the old woman said and took the plates with onigiri out, giving a nod and small smile to her partner in the process. Mamoru washed his hands and took off the apron while all this happened.
“Rei’s out of the kitchen, I can now drink my coffee peacefully.” The two family members in the kitchen heard Endou’s dad say from the garden, a bickering session following right after.
“He says when he also gave me anxiety while he was in here,” Kaede mumbled through her chuckles.
Mamoru snickered a bit. He looked at his grandma with a tilted head. “Was grandpa also a bad cook?”
A snort followed. “Well. He wasn’t the worst.” She looked at him as she swayed to the song. “I remember that the last meal he ever made for your mom and me was actually quite edible.” A chuckle left her. “I’m glad you inherited his knack for getting into trouble rather than his cooking skills.”
He laughed sheepishly as he scratched the back of his neck. “Hey.”
She came closer and put a hand on his shoulder. “You’re doing good, mago. You always are.”
Mamoru looked at her and smiled softly before hugging her tightly and burying his head into her torso. “Thanks, grandma.”
Soon enough, the tea was prepared. The grandson carried out the tea to the rest of the family that was sitting outside in the warm day while the grandmother turned off the music and went to join her family. She stopped before stepping out, looking out at the sky. “You’d adore that little boy, Daisuke.” She looked at her family and smiled as she saw the parents tease their son with two feathers they found in his hair, making him run behind his nonna and stick his tongue out at them. “He’s simply wonderful.”
And somewhere in Cotarl an old man smiled in his sleep as joyful images of the family he had to leave behind appeared in his dreams, even if the youngest member was a little blurred.