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The rice cooker beeped, unceremoniously as always. Kenji was in the kitchen in a loose t-shirt and sweatpants, preparing food for himself and his dear wife. Speaking of the dear wife, Kyouka was tending to their 20-month-old baby boy.
'Tending' can mean different things when it comes to a baby. It can mean feeding, changing the diaper, putting the baby to sleep, or playing with him. Right now, according to the baby’s in-built biological clock, the baby was sleepy—a relief for all parents.
Kyouka, very slowly, carefully, and without even breathing too loudly, settled the baby in his blanket-laden crib. She then tiptoed away, staring at the baby intensely. She wore the same calm look. Her eyes, on the other hand, told a different story. She knew the baby was a bomb ready to detonate. Fortunately, the baby decided to be an angel rather than a spawn of satan. She closed the door just as quietly.
Yes! She celebrated mentally before going to the front door. Time to execute my little plan… She thought excitedly.
If there was any clue to what her “little plan” was, she had put the boy in a bunny onesie. Admittedly, it's not a big clue. Unless you're Ranpo and you can already tell how stories go.
Anyways, Kyouka rummaged through her work bag, which was hanging off one of the hooks of the coat rack. She had bought something online—the specifics hidden under a courier's packaging. The plastic bag gave way as her strong fingers ripped it open. She fished out the object of her desire, of her little plan, which was wrapped in a crinkly, transparent plastic bag. It crinkled loudly in her hands.
The object was visible now. It was…
…a bunny tail.
A fluffy, slightly brown but mostly creamy, bunny tail.
Now, you can’t really fault her. She was stuck in traffic early that day and already bored out of her mind. So she stopped her car to save fuel and scrolled on her phone. She went from looking through photos of Kenji and their little boy to watching bunny shorts on YouTube. And that’s exactly where she stumbled across the video of a Korean woman ordering a bunny tail, which activated and wiggled on sound. Of course, that wasn’t astonishing for Kyouka. She knew that she could buy tails and ears from some off-brand app, probably Chinese. She wasn’t stupid. But it was what the woman did with the tail that got her thinking.
Kyouka took the sharp dagger she always had in her kimono sleeve and slashed the crinkly plastic open. She took out the soft bunny tail. She inspected it, eager and curious, but also not trusting the bunny tail completely. It wasn’t heavy, and she was sure that the artificial fur wasn’t the kind to prick one’s skin. There was an adhesive sticker at the end. The more important question was: how was she going to stick it? Was the sticker meant for clothes or for skin? Kyouka frowned in impatience and looked through the papers and receipts that had fallen on the floor. There was no such instruction on it. Figures, no one really gave out an instruction manual on how to use a bunny tail. And there was no way Kyouka would delay her little plan to look through the details on the website from where she had ordered the bunny tail. She would just stick it on clothes to avoid any complications—as simple as that.
Now, another question—the most important one of all—did the bunny tail have a sound sensor in it? Kyouka cleared her throat and whispered, her voice quiet as ever, “Hello…?”
The bunny tail did not wiggle. Kyouka frowned again. “Hello?” Kyouka whispered more firmly this time. Nothing again. “Hello!” Kyouka’s voice rose. And then—the tail wiggled left to right. Kyouka smiled determinedly. She usually hated being loud, but if being loud could get the tail to shimmy like that, she would be as loud as she could.
She tidied up the place of all the packaging waste and moved towards the kitchen. Her footsteps were silent as usual. She stopped at the doorway, observing how her husband was cooking tofu, her favourite food. She felt a rush of love and excitement.
“Honey,” She mumbled affectionately as she stood behind Kenji now, surrounded by the aroma of food and her husband’s natural musk of soap and hay.
Kenji smiled brightly, his heart warming at the sound of his wife right behind him. Her soft and calm murmur never failed to light up his face, especially when they were at home, and Kyouka would finally show her affectionate side openly. “Yes, my love?”
Kyouka then kept her hands on his waist and her face between Kenji’s shoulder blades, inhaling the scent of fields that lingered on him after his day as a farmer. Kenji understood—or at least believed—that she simply wanted to be close to him. So, he stayed silent and continued to cook, recognising that no words were required at that moment.
That was until he felt Kyouka’s hand slip under the waistband of his sweatpants from behind, making him jolt in surprise and blush with sudden heat. Kyouka, meanwhile, had successfully taped the bunny tail on the inside of his sweatpants, making the placement of the tail realistic. She hopped back a few steps, her kimono-laden hands coming up to her mouth in anticipation.
Kenji turned slightly towards her, holding up a ladle dripping with soup. “K-Kyouka-chan?!”
A soft mechanical sound issued behind him because of his naturally loud voice. Kyouka witnessed something angelic—her slightly quizzical and blushing husband with a wiggling bunny tail. Kenji did not know which thing to give more attention to—his quiet and stoic wife, who was now squealing in joy, or the strange sound coming from his ass.
He decided that inspecting what was happening to his ass was more important and looked down from over his shoulder. His eyes widened comically as he discovered the fuzzy thing coming out of his sweatpants. “Love, what’s this?” He asked, puzzled. In stark contrast to Kyouka, his voice was always loud, so he activated the tail again. He saw the tail be all lively and adorable, his mouth opening agape. Kyouka giggled, watching her husband now being a tall bunny man.
Kenji turned completely red, resembling a tomato he had just harvested that morning. He did not expect a bunny tail to be attached to his clothes that evening. However, hearing his wife giggle like that warmed his heart. “Do you want me to be a bunny that badly? Why didn’t you say so before??”
It was Kyouka’s turn to turn red now. “Um… I didn’t want to ask for something so…peculiar,” she murmured, suddenly feeling a bit sheepish.
“Kyouka-chan!” Kenji said with a slight pout in his voice, resting his idle hand on his waist. “I've told you before to be honest with me, haven't I? I've literally seen you give birth to our baby. We are past the point of embarrassment, really.”
Funnily enough, Kenji’s words half registered to Kyouka's ears because her eyes were fixed on the bunny tail. She was watching her slightly red husband be all pouty and mock stern while the tail wiggled wigorously. It was nothing short of heaven.
Kenji realised that and burst into laughter. “L-love, you're so captivated by the b-bunny tail!” He exclaimed in between the laughter. He then made a peace sign and struck a pose. “Do I really look that adorable?”
Kyouka went into a fit of giggles at the comical pose, the tail now wiggling because of their laughter.
Later that night.
It was half past midnight. The baby woke up yet again with a wail loud enough to bring back the dead from their graves.
In between the calls for diapers, milk, and simply soothing the baby, Kenji was too fraught with tasks to remember to take out the tail. The sounds of the tail were buried under baby-induced chaos.
Kyouka's body was on autopilot as she rocked the baby for the umpteenth time, her voice slurring with sleep as she derailed the lullaby mid-key. She was too exhausted to even summon the Demon Snow for help. Kenji was searching for a toy that had mysteriously disappeared right when they needed it. The bunny tail’s charm was now forgotten.
Until…the baby saw the wiggling tail. The wailing dwindled as it stared at what he thought was a toy in his baby mind—which wasn't that far from the truth. Kyouka in her head thanked the heavens above that the baby had decided to be merciful. She followed the baby's gaze and stared at the tail. Then back at the baby, and then at the tail. It took her ten whole seconds to realise that the baby went quiet because of the fluffy object.
“Honey, he likes the tail,” Kyouka whispered, astonished, amused, and a bit relieved.
Kenji was so done that he thought Kyouka was losing it. He then remembered the tail. His mind cleared of sleep as a lightbulb lit up in his head.
Now, a few seconds later, he was dancing along to Bunny Party energetically. The baby boy flailed his limbs in cheer and squealed in delight.
A father wearing a bunny tail danced for a baby in a bunny onesie. As Kyouka recorded it on her phone, she beamed at her beloved husband and son. Her little plan had taken an unexpected but delightful turn.
The boy finally went to sleep. They collapsed on the bed with a breath of relief and peace. Kenji was immediately in sleep land, terribly exhausted after the impromptu dancing. Kyouka smiled and put the blanket over them both. As she snuggled close to her husband, she couldn’t help but admire his features and, most importantly, his ever-present heart of gold. Pressing a soft kiss to his lips, she closed her eyes as well. As Kyouka drifted off to sleep, she thought back to what her past was. She felt proud of pushing through it all to build the perfect bunny family of her dreams.
