Work Text:
“Haru! Where are you going?!”
“Good job. You just let your kid ran away,” Akito dryly commented, doing zero effort to run after the overly energetic kid, hands in his pockets while the rest of the people on the line quietly saw the scene. “Mom of the year over here.”
“Shut up, Akito! Instead of standing there like an idiot, you could've ran after him!” Ena replied back, feeling her cheeks burn in mild embarrassment at being watched by other people. She shoved her purse with more force than necessary to Akito, trusting him to keep their place in the unnecessarily long wait line for their favorite ice cream shop, to run after her kid.
Ena likes to think she's doing good at parenting Haru by herself. Well, she certainly wasn’t burning down her kitchen every time she prepared Haru breakfast, so she likes to consider that a win. She wasn’t particularly alone in her journey of solo parenting a child— her parents, Airi, and, ugh, Akito, were there to help her every now and then.
It isn’t that Ena hates Haru. Not even in her wildest yet honest dreams.
She loves that boy with her life. She probably loves Haru more than she loves herself.
She just hates the memories that come when she tucks him to sleep. She just hates the pity looks other parents give her every time she picks Haru from school.
“Oh, it must be so hard to raise him by yourself!”
“His father is missing the best years of raising a sweet kid like him.”
“He must look like his father, then!”
Yeah, Ena already knows what people will say, how people will look at her, every time she mentions she's a single mother. Just because an asshole feared commitment, she now finds herself playing mother and father to a boy who has the same eyes as the idiot he calls “dad”.
It isn’t that Ena regrets having Haru.
She just regrets that he was the man who gave her the best blessing in the world.
Maybe, if he were there, she wouldn’t have to embarrass herself running after Haru and looking like an irresponsible mother who can’t control her own child.
“Haru, come here!” She called, following the boy's surprisingly quick steps. “How are you so fast?! You're just two years old!”
“Hi!”
“Huh?”
Ena came to an end in the middle of the nearby park, panting from having to run under the suffocating heat of the summer. She reached for Haru's little hand instinctively once she was close enough to him to pull her toward her. “Haru! How many times have I told you to not let go of my hand in the streets? You can’t just run away like that—” she gently scolded him, lifting him into her arms, “I'm so sorry, he usually—”
A soft chuckle came from the person that Haru had randomly decided to run into, making Ena blink in mild surprise. “He's yours?”
“W-Well, yeah,” Ena replied, looking up at the woman in front of her, focusing on her for the first time during their unexpected encounter. “S-Sorry about that— Haru likes to make friends anywhere he goes…”
“It's alright,” she replied. The kind smile that she gave to Ena was honestly blinding to the tired eyes of an artist. Only then did Ena take a good look at the stranger Haru had taken a liking to. A stunning woman— that she could admit. Flowing pink hair, stupidly long lashes, charming smile, taller than her, but not as tall as Akito, dresses as if she was an influencer walking through a runway Ena wasn’t aware of, apparently. “I'm Akiyama Mizuki.”
For whatever reason, Ena didn’t answer immediately, even when Mizuki bowed politely. It definitely didn’t have to do with Ena's mind immediately comparing Mizuki's smile to the perfect golden hour she has never painted but suddenly felt an urge to paint as soon as they arrived home.
“Oh,” the smartest reply that could’ve ever come out of Ena's mouth, adjusting Haru in her arms as he was fidgeting a lot, “I'm Shinonome Ena,” she finally replied properly this time. If Akito were there, he'd probably already make a the obvious observation that Ena hasn’t pulled out the ‘Shinonome Customer Service Voice’ like she does with most people she meets for the first time.
“And who's this little guy?”
Right.
This whole weird interaction started because of Haru.
“Come on, introduce yourself.” Ena gently encouraged, her tone softening as soon as he glanced down at her smiling boy in her arms.
“Haru!”
“Oh, really?” Mizuki chuckled, lowering herself down to Haru's level. “Well, I'm Mizuki. You shouldn’t run away from your mom, y'know?”
“You look like dad!”
“What?”
“What??”
Ena almost couldn’t believe what she had actually heard. There was no way Haru had just looked at a stranger, and decided at that moment that this woman looked like his dad. Almost unconsciously, Ena eyed Mizuki as if to make sure that Haru's judgement was even remotely close to correct, trying to find any resemblance.
She found none.
Blush spread across Mizuki's cheeks. Although you had to squint to see it, Ena wasn’t quite sure if the blush came from Haru's words or from the abnormal heat of today's weather.
In all honesty, Mizuki didn’t look like Haru's father at all. Maybe she could see some mild resemblance in the light tone of their hair in the pink, red-ish spectrum, but there wasn’t much to work with.
So why would Haru—?
“Smile like dad!” He explained, barely, “Hair looks pretty like dad!” Haru said, pointing to Mizuki's pink hair.
Oh.
Well, at least Ena now knew that Haru had inherited her artistic eyes.
“Hm,” Mizuki hummed after a definite moment of awkward silence between two adults who knew absolutely nothing about each other but were somehow interacting thanks to a child. “Well, you are right about that, buddy. I can see that,” she nodded like this was some serious matter, “I know I'd be a fun dad, but unluckily for you, I didn’t meet your mom at the right time.”
“Ah… ha, ha, yeah,” Ena gave her oh most fake laugh ever in her twenty something years of living. Akito would’ve gagged. “Haru, you can’t just—” she paused, trying to choose her words carefully to cover up the awkward stammering of her heart, for whatever fucking reason.
As if whatever god was out there decided to take pity on Ena, she heard the voice of the most insufferable guy on all of Japan call them in the distance.
“Oi! Y'all left me over there looking like an asshole ordering three huge ice creams for myself!” He yelled as he lazily walked toward their way, carrying three cones of ice creams—although one slightly smaller for the baby of the household—
Ena sighed, while Haru just giggled, raising his little arms as soon as he saw Akito.
Mizuki, however, didn’t seem to be weirded out by their strange family dynamic. “He's your…?”
“Ugh, no. He's my brother.” She immediately corrected, not even needing for her to finish her question to know that she was about to ask if the guy walking toward them was her husband. “We get that a lot, unfortunately…”
“Ah. So it’s a little family outing,” Mizuki nodded, the same easy smile still there. “Sorry about accidentally making your son ran away… Didn’t know I had an unexpected fan.”
“N-No! It’s okay! I should be the one apologizing… Haru doesn’t usually… go around telling people that they resemble his dad. I don’t know what got into him.”
“Nah, don’t worry about it. He seems like a good kid. Maybe he got a random burst of energy.”
“Yeah, maybe…” Ena simply replied, nodding ever so slightly as Haru kept wriggling in her arms, trying to reach Akito.
Something resembling an awkward silence fell between the two women, as if Akito's loud complaints and Haru's loud giggling didn’t exist. Ena could barely maintain eye contact with Mizuki, which was mind blowing for Ena herself because she was so used to having to give her best fake calm smile with other people when all she wanted to do was just flip everyone off so she could have a moment of peace without having to remember what led her life turn out this way.
There was something about Mizuki that made Ena feel… somewhat calm? Somewhat flustered? Because she looked so… easygoing. No tension on her shoulders. Calm smile. Eyes gentle. Approachable. If she were to compare herself to Mizuki, then she would be standing there all day.
Mizuki's smile offered a hint of calmness, something steady to stand on after so many years of walking on a tight rope.
Almost as if Mizuki could offer comfort when Ena can’t find any in other people.
“Well, I should get going. My friend invited me to see the new show he directed on ArcLand. Ever heard of that place before?” Mizuki then said, rocking back and forth on her heels, sounding way too casual for Ena's liking, when she was over here having a mild crisis because why would she feel comfortable around a stranger she just met? “It's a theme park. I think Haru-kun would like it.”
“Ah, yeah…” Ena nodded for whatever reason, unsure of how to handle herself. She sounded as if they've known each other for years, so casual, so easy to talk to. Mizuki was looking at Ena the same way Ena would look at a beautiful painting in a museum. “I-I've heard of that place.”
“It's gotten pretty famous these days, huh? The shows they offer there are family friendly, for all ages,” Mizuki added, chuckling softly. Was she inviting them?
“M-Maybe I'll take Haru to ArcLand for his birthday…”
“Yeah? Well, if you ever decide to visit, don’t miss one of Rui's shows! They’re really good.”
“I'll keep that in mind,” Ena simply replied, the easygoing nature of the conversation easing some tension in her.
“Ma! Uncle!” Haru tugged at Ena's sleeve, bringing her back to reality. Haru was pointing at Akito, who had the biggest resting bitch face ever, waiting for them at a respectful distance under a tree, carefully balancing three ice creams on his hands.
“Right,” The artist blinked, remembering why they were there in the first place. “We need to get going too… But, um, it was a pleasure to meet you, Mizuki.”
“The pleasure's all mine, Ena. Have a nice day.” Mizuki smiled, before looking back at Haru, who was looking back at her with wide, brown eyes. “Goodbye, Haru-kun! Be good to your mom, alright?”
“Bye! Let's play one day!” Haru smiled, waving his little hand at her.
“Oh, sure! I'd like that!” Mizuki smiled too, eyes almost shining. “Maybe next time you and your mom visit this park, we could play together!”
“Yay!”
Mizuki walked away with a small wave, returning back to her day as if the interaction hadn’t altered something in Ena's brain.
Well.
She now had an idea of where to go whenever Haru wanted to play. Ena smiled, just a bit.
“You two comin' or not?” Akito huffed as soon as he saw them approaching him. “What's up with you? Why did Haru run away?”
“No, it’s nothing,” she lied, while Haru reached out to hold his ice cream cone excitedly. “He just… wanted to meet a nice lady. You know how he is. She was friendly.”
“Uh-huh…”
“Hey, Akito?”
“What?”
“You're free next Saturday, right? This park is actually quite nice. Let's start bringing Haru here more often.”
“I have a life outside babysitting Haru, you know.”
“I know, I know… I just thought…” Ena smiled for herself, looking to the way Mizuki had walked away, almost as if she could still see the pink of her hair catching the sunlight. “I just thought that maybe Haru could see his new friend more often.”
“… Whatever. Sure.”