lethargy

In the end, she and her preferential treatment were the only reasons he survived the Game. Someone he didn't recognize stood next to her when the end of it came. They looked otherworldly, high strung, sympathetic, tired. They reminded him of the only teacher he had that referred to him as a boy. He felt like he could trust them.

"Charles, correct?" the newcomer said. His face brightened and he nodded. "Ah, good. Well, congratulations on winning the Game. It has been quite a week, mm?" 

Eliza was nearly bubbling over with excitement, already her basket was full of 5 pairs of new, lamp shaped wings and Charles could feel that she wanted him to be her sixth. He swallowed and tried to keep his eyes up on the stranger in front of him. 

"You may come back to life, or you may live the rest of your existence in the London UG, as a Reaper. What would you like to do?" the figure said. 

"Uhm… I… have a question…" Charles mumbled. 

"Yes, dear?"

"My parents… they're gone, right…?" he said, swallowing back heavy tears in his throat. The stranger gave a small, weary sigh. 

"Yes, I'm afraid so. Do you have other family that would take you in?" they asked, their brow knit with the slight worry they allowed themself to show. 

"... No," Charles exhaled. He truly didn't know what would be the better option. If he went back to the RG, he would be forced to live as someone he wasn't, without his medications that served as his lifeline. He may even be strong enough to end it all, if it came to that point. But if he stayed in the UG, while he would still struggle to live as Charles, his body would stay the same. He could escape, one day. And, well, if it didn't go favourably, he supposed he had the option of ending it all then, too. 

Charles shivered. Eliza was watching him with wide, glassy blue eyes, her silver hair in curls framing her face. 

"I'll… become a Reaper," he said, looking up at the angelic figure with tears welling in his eyes. 

"... Alright. If that is what you wish, Charles." 

-x-

He was whisked into a whirlwind of a first few days as a Reaper. He was given a dormitory to live in, a small one bedroom with a communal bathroom, the wings separated by gender. His closet was full of tartan skirts and blazers that he resented, the desk piled high with books on the UG, Reaper powers, and the history of London. As soon as he was settled and dressed appropriately in the wrong gender’s uniform, he was subjected to various tests that drew out his Reaper power and tested his Noise Form. 

"Shadow powers? Oh, that is lovely, [REDACTED], I've been needing a new Reaper in the Espionage department," Eliza gushed. The pile on his desk grew higher with texts on spying and assassination techniques. He was assigned a number, used in place of his old name when necessary. He almost liked the number better.

His only respite was Allen, the only person who seemed to be able to keep Eliza in check. Charles couldn't quite tell what gender they were either, though Eliza referred to them as a woman, as Alexandra. He wondered if that was the reason why they were the only one to call him Charles. He decided he liked them, and he looked forward to spending time with them, whenever he could, and upon seeing the amount of work they did for the city, he gained a great respect for them. 

"Say, have you ever wanted to alter your appearance or anything?" they had asked one day while they were eating crumpets for afternoon tea time. 

"Ah– Uhm, sometimes…" he responded, nearly dropping the butter knife into his cup. They knew very well that he did, why were they bringing this up? 

"You've always seemed a tad uncomfortable in your skin, Charles. What would you change?" They smiled knowingly. 

"Well… I guess I want to look cooler… like an albino bunny?" he said, tilting his head. 

"Aha, bunnies are cute though!" Allen smiled, leaning back. He felt his lips move on their own, cracking a small smile himself. 

Other than those rare, fleeting moments, Charles endured his day to day, undergoing harsh training to optimize his powers and to sharpen his skills as an assassin. He was showered with praise and unwanted affection from Eliza, with comparisons to various female, Asian assassins in media. 

"Oh, but you wouldn't turn against me like some of them do, will you, love?" Eliza smiled, leaning in and giving him a kiss on the forehead. 

The thought never occurred to him, but after he mulled over the possibility, he couldn't stop thinking about it. 

-x-

Once it was all done, Charles left a note on his pillow addressed to Allen and fled the city. He sunk into his shadow the instant the rest of Eliza's body dissipated into static, only narrowly catching the salute of gratitude from the newly crowned Composer. Truly, there was no real threat to staying in London, but he didn't want to wait around to be employed by the new monarch and to spend eternity repeating the last two years. He appeared somewhere outside the bounds of the city, where he wasn't sure if his powers would be as reliable anymore. With nowhere else to go, he did what any respectable Brit on the run would do and boarded a train to Paris. RG or UG, he knew any Parisian would help him in his escape if they knew he was trying to get away from London.

With some luck and a shaky conversation in half English and half French, he ran into a winged man who he knew would be able to help him. Charles briefly explained an embellished version of the truth, though the man connected his story of "I was wrapped up in a political scandal" with the news of Queen Eliza meeting her demise and was delighted to help him. 

"Please, do stay 'ere!" the man offered, "I can only 'ope to assist ze one who ‘az liberated London!" 

"Uhm… Do you know who could change my appearance, maybe…?" Charles asked, tugging on his hair nervously.

Somehow, Paris was a vain enough district that there were powerful Reapers who's sole purpose was cosmetic alterations. He was face to face with yet another Reaper whose gender he couldn't determine at first glance. 

"Ah… S'il vous plaît, uhm… Cheveux… court? Courts? Et blanc? Blanche? E-et, les yeux… rouge," he stuttered, holding up a picture of the haircut he wanted. The Reaper clicked their tongue and nodded. 

"Rouge vif ou foncé?" they responded, and jesus christ Charles would have to learn French fast if he wanted to stay here. 

"Vif… ah… comme ça, ici–" Charles pointed at a bright red fabric scrap hanging from the Reaper's belt. They gave a thumbs up and gestured for him to get onto the table and lay down. The procedure itself was quick and painless, and he couldn't help but smile when a mirror was brought to show him his new reflection. 

"C'est tout pour vous aujourd'hui?" the Reaper asked, tilting their head. Charles took a breath. He had blindly trusted Allen and gotten favourable results there, so… 

"Ah, euh… Aussi… Ici…?" Shakily, Charles pointed his hand downwards to the bottom of his torso. The Reaper watched him and waited for him to continue. 

"... Efface-là, s'il vous plaît." 

-x-

He spent almost two years district hopping across Europe, learning several languages along the way. It was wonderful, having freedom. He relished being able to dress how he wanted, being able to use his powers for something less ugly for once, focusing on learning how to configure his stealth powers into various cute animal forms. His tour ended in France again, this time in the southern city of Marseille as a bunny hopping around the gardens flanking the mansions. The day was just beginning, and Charles was just basking in the sun for a spell when–

"Papa! Un lapin!" 

He peeked his eyes open to see a young boy run out of the terrace area towards him. A girl stood at the door warily, watching her brother move with such little restraint over a grey lop in the grass. Charles was picked up into the boy's arms and brought inside, placed on a cushion and fought for in frantic, accented French that he couldn't quite understand fully. It seemed that the mother was trying to argue that they couldn't take care of a bunny, and the boy fired back that they should at least take care of him until they find the owner. It was one phrase in specific that had him, though. 

"Nous pouvons être sa famille!" 

At that, he burrowed closer to the boy. The mother conceded and instructed a butler to purchase supplies to temporarily house a bunny. In the meantime, the boy hugged him, victorious. 

"Je m'appelle Jean, Monsieur Lapin! Et vous?" the boy grinned. His sister sighed and came over to pet him on the head, too. Charles wondered if he could imprint an RGer from this form, seeing that he asked his name– so he tried it, suggesting his own name in Jean's head. 

"Hm… il ressemble à… Charles!" Jean grinned and squeezed Charles more, the latter utterly confused at how it worked, despite the French accent making his name something quite different. Moreover, considering how Charles was very much not a French name in the least, it will be interesting to see how he justifies this to his parents. 

Nobody minded, though, and the missing bunny posters went largely ignored. Once two months had passed, the father patted his head and announced that the rabbit was now part of the Duvert family. 

Charles' nose wiggled happily at having one again. 

-x-

After years of obsessively consuming anime and video games, Charles could barely believe that he was now living in Japan. As a bunny, of course– he couldn't get away with running off for a week quite as often as he did before, but he knew Carel's schedule and he knew how to teleport out of his cage, so he spent many a day loitering around Shibuya until it was time to head back home.

It was a lovely routine, though it lasted only months. That December, Jean died in an accident that Charles knew resulted in him playing a game. He wanted to go to where he died and work the game and ensure his survival, but Carel's grief was too much for her to bear by herself. Charles steeled himself, hoping that he could come back and waiting for the day Carel's memories of his death were wiped, to no avail. 

Wanting answers, Charles waited for a time where Carel would be out of the house for longer periods of time and took a train to Kawasaki, where Jean died. 

"Haha, you're gonna get erased if you don't keep up, newbie!" Jean laughed horridly, blood from his last erasure still speckled on his glasses. 

"I'm… keeping up…" Charles gritted his teeth, keeping an eye out for the partner of the Player he had erased earlier that day. 

"Sure you are. You couldn't keep up with me, I bet," Jean retorted, licking his lips. Charles squeaked as Jean moved closer into his space, his arm resting on the wall behind him. "Maybe you can keep up in other ways, though. What do you say?" he asked, his voice lowered. 

"N-no thank you," Charles huffed, quickly slipping into his shadow to safety. The district had done awful things to Jean, and Charles couldn't bear to see more. He made an effort to avoid Jean for the rest of the game and slipped away from Kawasaki as soon as he was able. 

-x-

"Charles! I missed you!" Jean said, holding his arms out to hug the bunny. "It's been so long, huh?" 

Not as long as you think, but I'm glad that Carel knows you exist now, Charles thought, snuffling in Jean's arms. 

-x-

"You, ah. Knew I was a Reaper even before I came to Shibuya?" 

"Uhm… yeah. I worked a week in Kawasaki while you were there, and…" Charles trailed off, looking to the floor to avoid seeing Jean's reaction. 

"Ah," Jean responded, "I remember now. I, uh… I'm sorry." 

"Be sorry to yourself, you tried to get your pet bunny in bed with you," Charles scoffed. 

"H-hey, I was just like that back then, it was a phase–!" Jean squawked indignantly, failing to save face. 

"A phase is something that ends, Jean…" Charles tsked, turning back to his newly decorated room. He heard Jean sputtering more behind him as he closed the door. 

-x-

A few months after becoming Conductor, Charles sat down with Jean and told him how he became a Reaper. It went exactly as he thought, Jean crying on behalf of him and wallowing in pity that wasn't even for him. 

"Sorry," Jean breathed, wiping his glasses, "I just can't believe everyone has gone through hell. Please tell me you're happier now, where you are." 

Charles reached forward and swiped his thumb over Jean's teary eyes, wicking away more moisture, his palm resting on his cheek. Jean's eyes widened at the gesture, having never seen Charles be that physically intimate with him before. 

"I'm much happier now that I can finally be who I am. So, thank you, Jean." Another rare smile surfaced on Charles' face, and the combination seemed to be too much, as Jean burst into fresh tears right after. 

-x-

With approved leave, Charles arrived back in London, almost 15 years after he last left. He was dressed smartly, a dark grey suit with a red tie, and a pair of rabbit shaped cuff links that Jean had lent him for good luck. He still remembered well the way towards the entrance of the God's Palace, and his feet led him there without much thought. Once just inside, he approached the reception. 

"Hello, I'm the Conductor of Shibuya, here to meet with the Producer of London," he said. The receptionist looked over the schedule and gestured for him to sit down. It was a short wait before Allen appeared at the door, looking a little confused at having a meeting with a foreign Conductor, though the answer was clear as day as soon as they laid eyes on the man sitting in front of him. 

"You're alive," Allen remarked once they had gone outside for privacy. 

"I am." 

"You're also taller than me now," they laughed, looking up. With the slight heel of his shoe, Charles was indeed 5 inches taller than he was before. He chuckled and took a seat on a bench nearby, Allen following suit. 

"What made you reach out? I thought you'd never come back with the letter you left me," they said, their hands folded in their lap. 

"I was telling my friend… the Composer, about how I became a Reaper, and I realized that I never got to thank you." Allen tilted their head, a brow raised.

"For not intervening in Eliza's assassination? I mean, I'm not supposed to get involved in that, but–" 

"For seeing me as Charles. Honestly, I don't think I would have held onto that if nobody saw me as who I am for two years," Charles explained, a serene smile on his face. Allen smiled widely. 

"Of course I would have. You saw me as Allen, too." They smoothed out their skirt, their smile widening into a grin. "Might I say, you're looking quite sharp. Almost made me swoon when I saw you."

Charles' cheeks pinkened slightly, though he was a large contrast to the flustered mess he would have been even a few years ago. "I did some growing up," he replied nonchalantly, bravado enough to keep an air of confidence up. 

They talked for hours, catching up from over the years, walking around the city Charles had called home for half his life. He felt reacquainted enough with the city by the time that he had to go.

"Thank you for meeting with me, Allen." Charles held his hand out to theirs; confused, they placed it in his. As was his nightly routine so many years ago, he knelt down to a knee and kissed the back of their hand, eliciting a startled noise from them. 

"H-hey, you don't need to do this again–" they sputtered. Charles looked up from his position and smiled. 

"It's the ultimate sign of respect here, isn't it? I'm doing it because I want to, not because I have to," he responded, getting back up afterwards. "Either way… keep in touch. I'd love to come visit again when I can, I didn't realize how much I missed London." 

"London's a home for you, Charles. Come back anytime, okay?" Allen grinned again, taking a step back to let them part ways. 

"Are we practicing the dance routines today…?" he mumbled to himself, pulling out a grey pair of harem pants and a flowy cropped shirt with a hem that barely skimmed the waistband. He picked out a flannel to tie around his waist, a sleeveless hoodie and several wristbands– he may just look like a hot mess, but whenever he made these sorts of decisions he's always lauded as a fashion icon. He quickly changed, catching a look at himself in the mirror. Not having much time left, he threw his hair into a messy side braid. It really was getting long. He pulled on a pair of shoes, grabbed his bag and phased about a block away from the rehearsal space. 

Once the coast was clear, he changed frequencies to the RG and merged into foot traffic seamlessly. He was in the middle of thinking about how good he’s gotten at this when he bumped right into another pedestrian.

“Oop–”

“Haru!” 

Haruki stopped in the middle of the sidewalk, staring dumbly at Lux, who grinned like he knew a bit too much.

“Oh, sorry. I didn’t see you.” Haruki awkwardly gestured for the two of them to keep walking, which Lux thankfully went with.

“I guess you didn’t, huh? Geez, Haru, it’s like you appeared out of nowhere or something…” Lux sighed wistfully, scratching his cheek. Haruki’s cheeks turned the slightest shade of pink at the nickname– when he will get over it, he does not know– and he glanced away to keep from bumping into anyone else. 

“Magic.” Haruki offered in response. 

“Must be. Like you say, you’re immortal, right?” Lux snickered, and Haruki’s slight discomfort around Lux raised by a notch or two. Whether they know the UG or not, those that teased that knowledge always gave Haruki ulcers. 

But hey, at least he cares enough about that now. 

“You know me,” Haruki said in a flat tone as teasingly one can get. He opened the door, leading the way to their regular practice room in the studio. He was greeted cheerfully by the rest of the call group for the day– Mabumabu, Yaburu, Tenhi, Gintoki, and a few others– and the pair being the last to arrive, the group began their rehearsal promptly. 

The first half of rehearsal went smoothly. The choreographer helped them rehearse their dance numbers for their solo songs as well as some of the groups. Urata noticed something glinting in the light on Haruki’s abdomen and, astonished, pointed out that he had a belly button piercing. That led to Sakata tugging Haruki’s waistband down without thinking to confirm the existence of the hip piercings he thought he saw when he twirled earlier. It was certainly a lot of (probably straight) men staring at his stomach and hips, commenting on how brave he was and how they wished they could “be that casually erotic”. Oh, if only he told them about his other piercings.

“Haru-chan, are you able to make it to film a video next week?” Mabumabu asked during their break. 

“Ah… I don’t think I can.” Haruki knew that the next week was a Game, and he was lucky to even be able to show up to rehearsal that day. 

“Not at all next week? I was hoping to get other Utaite into this video, we were going to play a team based board game–” Mabumabu picked up his phone and opened the calendar app. “It’s okay if you can’t, though.”

“N-not at all next week, no. I have something for work.” Should he change the subject? He felt a wave of unease wash over him. 

“Huh, you’re never free the first week of the month. Do they work you that hard?” Yaburu asked. Haruki felt a little self conscious at that, he knew that he was one of the few Utaite in this friend group that still had a “job” outside being a singer– unlike his friends, he wasn’t able to be a proud hikikomori and stay at home with his non existent cats.

“It’s okay. We can reschedule it to the week after, right? Whatever Haru-chan has, it must be important.” Lux gave a smile towards Haruki, one that unsettled him more than reassured him.

The rest of the rehearsal went without an issue, other than the group of friends whooping when Lux was a bit too handsy with Haruki during their duet practice. Once they wrapped up, a few of them headed off in their separate ways leaving the rest of them to search for dinner. 

“Haru-chan, you should invite your boyfriend too! If he’s free.” Gintoki suggested, grinning. Haruki instantly went pink, glancing to the others for their input before he actually asked Kami. The rest of the group echoed Gintoki’s suggestion– they were strangely fond of Kami, though Haruki always wondered if they were all just intrigued because all of them were single, for the most part. In the end, he called Kami and invited them along, and after waiting a plausible time period, they showed up at the restaurant to join them. 

“I can’t believe they keep inviting me,” Kami whispered to Haruki as they were seated. 

“They like you, I guess,” he mumbled back. The group immediately launched into a very heated debate about which Vocaloid could be considered the most useful in production (“IA is the only girl in this world, end of discussion”) which only certain members could really participate in. Haruki stubbornly took a sip of his tea, blocking out the insults his friends were feeding him about his queen. He glanced down at the leftover gyudon in his bowl, his stomach protesting at him for consuming so much meat in one sitting when he had been used to a steady diet of cake, eggs and bubble waffles for the past month.

“Full?” Lux asked, tilting his head knowingly. 

“Nah,” Haruki replied, not giving him the satisfaction, “Saving it for later.” He had to be better at predicting when his friends would want to eat out so he could eat like a normal person and not the cake infused immortal static mass that he really was. He pushed it in front of him and set his chopsticks on top as if proving a point. Fortunately, he was closest to the waiter bringing them the bill and was able to snatch it out of anyone else’s grasp and pay it before anyone could react.

“Impressive, Haru!” Kami laughed, having been a witness to the friend group’s vicious fighting over the bill before. The friends / co-workers shared goodbye hugs and parted ways, leaving Haruki and Kami alone. Though they were all well aware of them dating, Haruki waited until everyone had filed out before sneaking his hand into theirs. 

“What now?” he asked, checking the time. It was surprisingly early, around 8:30 pm and Haruki had barely been awake half a day.

Kami glanced around at the streets, which Haruki knew was to look for something sweet. His chest thrummed slightly at how thoughtful his boyfriend was, always eager to fuel his near addiction to sweets. “Oooh, there’s a new crepe place I’ve been meaning to try, they also have sweet taiyaki too–!” they said, pointing down the block. “Wanna go?”

“Sure,” Haruki replied, tucking his take out container with his leftover gyudon into his static pocket. He readjusted his grip on their hand and he let them lead the way. 

“How was practice?” Kami asked, glancing up.

Haruki hummed. “Productive.”

“Thats good,” Kami chuckled, squeezing his hand. “You’ve got a Game coming up, right?”

“Unfortunately,” he sighed. “Gotta wait another few months before we can change things to every other month instead of monthly.”

“I can stay over again if you want,” they offered, “My schedule’s pretty free next week.” Kami reached forward and opened the door, letting Haruki go in first.

“Mm, if you want to–” Haruki said, a slight smile on his face. Upon a quick glance at the menu, he decided on ordering a custard and a green tea cream taiyaki, while Kami ordered an Oreo flavoured one. The two received their orders and sat down at a table, eating their taiyaki and chatting idly about their days. Haruki promptly burned his mouth on the hot custard and proved that he never learns by burning his mouth again. He shrugged his blunder off amidst Kami’s laughter.

The two eventually parted ways with a small goodbye kiss, as Kami had a meeting in a few hours back in Canada time. Haruki ordered another custard taiyaki to go and wrapped it up in napkins. Once the coast was clear, he phased back home and comfortably in his own apartment.

“Harucchi!” a cheerful voice chirped. Small thuds rapidly approached him as a tiny body hugged him from behind. 

“Hey, Yoshiko– I got you something in Shibuya,” he said, rustling her hair. Yoshiko’s eyes sparkled as she squished her cheeks in awe. He presented her the taiyaki, earning him a pleased squeal. She rapidly updated him on what had happened over the day in between nibbles of taiyaki. 

“Are you ready for the Game, Harucchi?” she asked with wide eyes, sitting with her knees tucked to her chest.

“Is anyone ever ready?” he replied, letting out his hair from its braid and shaking it out. Yoshiko giggled and finished off her bedtime snack, getting back to her feet.

“I’ll see you next week!” she cheered, giving him a kiss on the cheek and phasing away in a burst of sparkles. Haruki gave a faint smile after she left.

“Ah, I should shower before I go to bed…” he mumbled, checking the time again. It was just 10:30 pm but he was already longing for his pillows. He headed to the bathroom, stripping down of his clothes and letting them fall where they did, heading in for a quick shower. Quick– meaning a solid 45 minutes of just his hair routine, leading into another 30 minutes of blow drying and further product outside the shower. His quick shower also included a 15 step skin care regime, meaning that he wasn’t out of the bathroom until just after midnight.

“What do I even have to do tomorrow…?” he asked himself, checking his phone for the next day’s schedule. He had a recording session with Lux in the afternoon, but other than that his day seemed pretty free. With his hair in a loose braid to keep his waves intact, he climbed onto his bed and scooped up his stuffed panda in his arms, shuffling under the covers. 

“Good morning,” he called as he came down to the kitchen. Amaryllis was scurrying about, packing up her homework from the night before, while Charles lay on the couch watching a video with Toyo. Kaito was nowhere to be seen, though he never liked waking up early anyway. 

“Hi Dad!” Amaryllis grinned, putting her bag down and going up to him. He smiled and gave her a kiss on the top of her head, ruffling her hair. 

“Hello, mon fleur. I brought some salmon home last night, how does that sound for breakfast?” He glanced up to the others, though he knew they would always be fine with whatever he cooked for them. 

“Sounds great!” Amaryllis opened the fridge to pull out her packed lunch and tuck it in her bag, taking out three more lunch boxes and putting them in a separate bag. While it was open, Jean pulled out the salmon, some eggs and small stone fruits. He started the rice, turned on the stove, boiled a pot of water and in no time threw together bowls of rice, soft boiled eggs, grilled salmon and sweet grilled apricots. 

“Breakfast is ready,” he called to the others, putting the plates of varying contents in front of the counter stools. He always knew their preferences and tried to appeal to them- Charles liked his eggs with a more cooked yolk, Toyo was a fan of fruit and got a few more halves of apricots, and Amaryllis got a bigger piece of salmon simply because she's a growing girl. The four of them ate in a peaceful silence, content at what the day would bring for them all.

“We’re going to leave in a few more minutes. Get ready, okay?” Jean said once he finished his breakfast. Amaryllis nodded earnestly and gulped down the rest of her milk, letting Charles and Toyo take the empty dishes to wash. Jean grabbed his car keys and a folder of documents, with the intention of heading to the God’s Pad to do some work after dropping the kids off. He returned to the door where Amaryllis sat with her backpack, ready for the day.

“Alright, let’s go. See you two later,” Jean called to Charles and Toyo. He and Amaryllis headed over to the elevator and took it all the way down to the parking garage– in these moments where they had normalcy in their lives, they really took any chance the had– and Amaryllis climbed into the back of the car, buckling herself in. Jean pulled out of the garage and drove through the streets of Shibuya towards Pork City, where Nori, Taiki and Kogasa waited.

“G’morning, Dad!” Taiki chirped when Jean pulled over. “I got the tupperware from yesterday, all clean!” Taiki opened the front door to sit in the front seat– despite Kogasa being the oldest and tallest, Taiki liked sitting next to Jean as he drove. Nori shuffled into the middle seat and Kogasa slid into the last vacant seat, all of their backpacks resting at their feet. 

“Let’s goooo!” Taiki grinned as Jean shifted gears and took off towards their school. On the ride there, Amaryllis shyly distributed the lunch boxes between the Hiraoka brothers, making sure that the biggest one went to Kogasa.

“Have a good day at school,” Jean said, waving to them all as they got out of the car. He left his car parked in the school parking lot, waited for there to be nobody around, and phased back to the God’s Pad with his folder in hand. This place felt vividly nostalgic in the worst ways, sometimes– but at least he had less grievances about it now. He walked over to the piano in the room, his finger tracing a path through the dust.

“Been a while, huh?” he murmured, it not being clear what he was referring to. He gave the dusty black surface of the piano a lingering look, wondering if he should dust it. Regardless, he smiled and went to his desk, greeting any of the Officers working busily around the office. He had a Reaper to check on today, to make sure their rehabilitation was going okay, but after that his day seemed pretty free. He hadn’t had work at the restaurant, either. Maybe he would swing by Nora’s place to say hi. He settled in at his desk to check what was new, when his phone began to ring.

“Oi!” called the voice on the other line as soon as he picked up. “I’m comin’ over tonight, right?!”

“Sorry, who is this?” Jean replied playfully, a hint of a smirk on his face.

“Hey! You know who this is! Ya got me on caller ID or some shit, right!” the voice audibly puffed indignantly, making Jean laugh.

“Yes, yes, Chris. I’m actually going to be visiting Taboo later on, if you’d like to tag along to that, too,” he said, a fondness clear in his voice.

“Hah… maybe not today! I got some homework to do ‘nd shit. Plus, I don’t need more sweets. But you bet I’ll be at your place at like, 7 o’clock!” Chris declared.

“You know you can always be sweeter. Alright, alright. See you later,” Jean said, smiling, hanging up before Chris could protest. He put his phone down, face up in case anyone else called him, and got to work. Fortunately, the check in didn’t require much– Officers had already reported on the Reaper, so he just had to flick through paperwork for an hour before he was on his way to Taboo Sweets. He pulled the door open, the door chimes tinkling happily to indicate his arrival. He immediately was pelted with something soft– a pillow? The offending object landed in his hands and he blinked in confusion. 

“Oh, haven’t seen your face around here lately,” Nora said sarcastically, her arm still raised after her pillow toss, raising an eyebrow from her perch at the counter. Jean chuckled and shrugged his shoulders, guilty of her accusation. He entered the shop, putting the pillow back on a nearby couch. There were a few RGers sitting around the cafe, sipping away at their drinks or soups, but otherwise oblivious to his presence there. 

“Hey, I’ve been busy. It’s been on my list, I swear,” he defended himself, though he always felt light inside whenever Nora expressed anything like that to him– it just meant that she missed him, was all. 

“Want a drink?” Nora offered, bouncing to her feet on the floor. 

“Ahh, hm. I could do with just a green tea, really.” Nora hopped over to behind the counter to fix her friend a drink. She pulled out a slice of a cake of some sort and served them both to Jean with a grin.

“Aw, thanks. This new?” Jean asked, picking up the fork to spear a piece of cake off. 

“Yeah! It’s a peach shortcake. Just trying some new things,” Nora said, leaning her elbows on the counter as Jean ate. They spent a while chatting and catching up, complete with Meira bouncing about and teasingly asking where Charles was. Of course, Jean could sense a certain Reaper’s presence from the shadow underneath a chair shrink at the mention of his name. It was almost time to pick up the kids by the time he left, so he phased back to his car at the school and waited while checking his phone. 

“Utaite Producer Yoshinda to join [REDACTED] on his new tour!” said a headline on his Twitter feed. Damn, Haruki is going on tour? He quickly texted him a “congratulations on the tour!” and smiled when Haruki actually replied with a “thanks” and a cheerful kaomoji.

“Dad!” cried Taiki in excitement, as if he hadn’t seen him just that morning. Taiki and Nori clambered into the car, Taiki once again in the passenger seat. He knew that Kogasa had kendo that day, meaning that Amaryllis would be watching him, so they would be able to get home just fine on their own. Jean still felt slightly complicated at his pseudo-son dating his actual daughter, but… that is life. He drove back to his apartment, going up the elevator with the two younger Hiraokas, wondering what sort of after school snack he should make for them.

He settled on just giving them fruit for now, since he’d have to make the three brothers dinner that day, with Mama Hiraoka doing overtime. Taiki spent the next while telling Jean all of the great things he got up to that day in between chomps of fruit, Nori listening intently with wide eyes. 

“What’s for dinner, Dad?” Taiki asked finally. 

“I was thinking just some roasted veggies and chicken, maybe some mashed potatoes too,” Jean answered, thinking to himself. It wasn’t long until it was time to start cooking dinner in the end, which he started once he got Taiki and Nori to start working on their homework. Chris showed up at some point, too, though once he saw that Jean was still cooking he started to try and escape to avoid having to help with dinner. Jean firmly gave Chris a knife and a bunch of carrots before he could leave, and the Reaper huffed in resignation and started to chop. Kogasa and Amaryllis came home just before dinner was served, a big family dinner with 9 people all talking and chatting happily while eating.

“How was practice, Koga?” Jean asked, glancing up to the eldest Hiraoka son. Kogasa adjusted his glasses in slight embarrassment. 

“Went well,” he replied simply. Amaryllis beamed next to him, which told Jean quite enough of how it went.

Mama Hiraoka came and picked up her sons after dinner, with an extra container of a portion of dinner for her too. She thanked Jean gratefully, as tired as she looked, but Jean was just happy to help keep their family going. 

Chris, Jean, Toyo and Charles ended up playing Mario Party all the way through the rest of the evening, with Charles winning a very unsurprising victory above the rest. Jean chuckled while Chris complained at the mini games being too hard, teasing him about just needing to try for once. It was late at that point, and everybody went to bed, Jean and Chris retreating upstairs. 

“Thanks for coming over,” Jean said, tossing Chris his pajamas. Chris grinned and started to change.

“‘F course, man! Anything for you.” Jean smiled, truly thankful that Chris didn’t mind staying over every now and then to help ward off his nightmares. Of course, sometimes they got up to other activities, but the two of them were both pretty exhausted from the day and they went straight to bed. Chris was out like a light in no time, snoring his stupid head away while clinging to Jean’s arm. 

“...Sorry. One more time,” Haruki said, picking it up and eating it. He grabbed another stick and balanced it in their lips again.

“Two… one… go.”

This time, Haruki clamped his teeth on his end and yanked the whole stick back, pulling it out of Kami’s mouth entirely.

“H-Haru, what the hell–”

“Sorry– one more time.”

This continued, with a different mess up each time– deep throating the stick, scraping the chocolate and leaving a slightly wet wheat biscuit in Kami’s mouth, literally sucking the stick into his own mouth (“Haru! Be careful!”), and finally just letting go of it and letting it fall. 

Haruki spent some time counting on his fingers after that last mess up, munching on the last fallen stick. Kami was absolutely baffled, staring at him with wide eyes.

“I can’t think of anymore,” he said.

“Wh-what?”

Haruki picked up his phone and started to text, Kami interrupting him by tugging it out of his hands. “Wait–”

They looked down to see Haruki’s utaite friends LINE group.

Mabumabu: gl haru!!!

YOSHINDA: i cant think of anymore ways to mess it up

Yaburu: idk, there are lots of ways a pocky stick can fall out right??

Gintoki: ur the only one who can do this punishment game :( u gotta

lux: im here if u need to practice ;)

YOSHINDA: fuck off

“...This was for a punishment game?” Kami asked in disbelief.

Haruki glanced towards the slightly suspicious pile of blankets on the edge of the couch. He silently got up and pulled it off, revealing a camera.

“Haru! Don’t– Wh– Fucking hell, Haru–” Kami began beating Haruki in the back with their fists, beet red. “Look at me, idiot–!” Haruki stubbornly refused to turn over, rummaging with something with his back facing them. He waited for them to calm down and stop punching him and turned to face them with yet another pocky in his mouth.

“... I don’t trust it.”

Haruki frowned, making the stick droop. They scoffed, tugged it out of his mouth, yanked him by the collar and crashed their lips together instead, eliciting a satisfying yelp from him. He returned the kiss with a similar amount of intensity, his hand finding the back of their head. When they finally pulled apart for air, Haruki planted another sweet kiss on their lips and smirked at them.

“What– Oh shit, that was recording us–!” Kami clapped their hands over their mouth.

“Good morning,” he called as he came down to the kitchen. Amaryllis was scurrying about, packing up her homework from the night before, while Charles lay on the couch watching a video with Toyo. 

“Hi Dad!” Amaryllis grinned, putting her bag down and going up to him. He smiled and gave her a kiss on the top of her head, ruffling her hair.

“Hello, mon fleur. I brought some salmon home last night, how does that sound for breakfast?” He glanced up to the others, though he knew they would always be fine with whatever he cooked for them.

“Sounds great!” Amaryllis opened the fridge to pull out her packed lunch and tuck it in her bag, taking out three more lunch boxes and putting them in a separate bag. While it was open, Jean pulled out the salmon, some eggs and small stone fruits. He started the rice, turned on the stove, boiled a pot of water and in no time threw together bowls of rice, soft boiled eggs, grilled salmon and sweet grilled apricots.

“Breakfast is ready,” he called to the others, putting the plates of varying contents in front of the counter stools. He always knew their preferences and tried to appeal to them- Charles liked his eggs with a more cooked yolk, Toyo was a fan of fruit and got a few more halves of apricots, and Amaryllis got a bigger piece of salmon simply because she's a growing girl. The four of them ate in a peaceful silence, content at what the day would bring for them all.

“We’re going to leave in a few more minutes. Get ready, okay?” Jean said once he finished his breakfast. Amaryllis nodded earnestly and gulped down the rest of her milk, letting Charles and Toyo take the empty dishes to wash. Jean grabbed his car keys and a folder of documents, with the intention of heading to the God’s Pad to do some work after dropping the kids off. He returned to the door where Amaryllis sat with her backpack, ready for the day.

“Alright, let’s go. See you two later,” Jean called to Charles and Toyo. He and Amaryllis headed over to the elevator and took it all the way down to the parking garage– in these moments where they had normalcy in their lives, they really took any chance the had– and Amaryllis climbed into the back of the car, buckling herself in. Jean pulled out of the garage and drove through the streets of Shibuya towards Pork City, where Nori, Taiki and Kogasa waited.

“G’morning, Dad!” Taiki chirped when Jean pulled over. “I got the tupperware from yesterday, all clean!” Taiki opened the front door to sit in the front seat– despite Kogasa being the oldest and tallest, Taiki liked sitting next to Jean as he drove. Nori shuffled into the middle seat and Kogasa slid into the last vacant seat, all of their backpacks resting at their feet.

“Let’s goooo!” Taiki grinned as Jean shifted gears and took off towards their school. On the ride there, Amaryllis shyly distributed the lunch boxes between the Hiraoka brothers, making sure that the biggest one went to Kogasa.

“Have a good day at school,” Jean said, waving to them all as they got out of the car. He left his car parked in the school parking lot, waited for there to be nobody around, and phased back to the God’s Pad with his folder in hand. This place felt vividly nostalgic in the worst ways, sometimes– but at least he had less grievances about it now. He walked over to the piano in the room, his finger tracing a path through the dust.

“Been a while, huh?” he murmured, it not being clear what he was referring to. He gave the dusty black surface of the piano a lingering look, wondering if he should dust it. Regardless, he smiled and went to his desk, greeting any of the Officers working busily around the office. He had a Reaper to check on today, to make sure their rehabilitation was going okay, but after that his day seemed pretty free. He hadn’t had work at the restaurant, either. Maybe he would swing by Nora’s place to say hi. He settled in at his desk to check what was new, when his phone began to ring.

“Oi!” called the voice on the other line as soon as he picked up. “I’m comin’ over tonight, right?!”

“Sorry, who is this?” Jean replied playfully, a hint of a smirk on his face.

“Hey! You know who this is! Ya got me on caller ID or some shit, right!” the voice audibly puffed indignantly, making Jean laugh.

“Yes, yes, Chris. I’m actually going to be visiting Taboo later on, if you’d like to tag along to that, too,” he said, a fondness clear in his voice.

“Hah… maybe not today! I got some homework to do ‘nd shit. Plus, I don’t need more sweets. But you bet I’ll be at your place at like, 7 o’clock!” Chris declared.

“You know you can always be sweeter. Alright, alright. See you later,” Jean said, smiling, hanging up before Chris could protest. He put his phone down, face up in case anyone else called him, and got to work. Fortunately, the check in didn’t require much– Officers had already reported on the Reaper, so he just had to flick through paperwork for an hour before he was on his way to Taboo Sweets. He pulled the door open, the door chimes tinkling happily to indicate his arrival. He immediately was pelted with something soft– a pillow? The offending object landed in his hands and he blinked in confusion.

“Oh, haven’t seen your face around here lately,” Nora said sarcastically, her arm still raised after her pillow toss, raising an eyebrow from her perch at the counter. Jean chuckled and shrugged his shoulders, guilty of her accusation. He entered the shop, putting the pillow back on a nearby couch. There were a few RGers sitting around the cafe, sipping away at their drinks or soups, but otherwise oblivious to his presence there.

“Hey, I’ve been busy. It’s been on my list, I swear,” he defended himself, though he always felt light inside whenever Nora expressed anything like that to him– it just meant that she missed him, was all.

“Want a drink?” Nora offered, bouncing to her feet on the floor.

“Ahh, hm. I could do with just a green tea, really.” Nora hopped over to behind the counter to fix her friend a drink. She pulled out a slice of a cake of some sort and served them both to Jean with a grin.

“Aw, thanks. This new?” Jean asked, picking up the fork to spear a piece of cake off.

“Yeah! It’s a peach shortcake. Just trying some new things,” Nora said, leaning her elbows on the counter as Jean ate. They spent a while chatting and catching up, complete with Meira bouncing about and teasingly asking where Charles was. Of course, Jean could sense a certain Reaper’s presence from the shadow underneath a chair shrink at the mention of his name. It was almost time to pick up the kids by the time he left, so he phased back to his car at the school and waited while checking his phone.

“Utaite Producer Yoshinda to join XYZ Tour!” said a headline on his Twitter feed. Damn, Haruki is going on tour? He quickly texted him a “congratulations on the tour!” and smiled when Haruki actually replied with a “thanks” and a cheerful kaomoji.

“Dad!” cried Taiki in excitement, as if he hadn’t seen him just that morning. Taiki and Nori clambered into the car, Taiki once again in the passenger seat. He knew that Kogasa had kendo that day, meaning that Amaryllis would be watching him, so they would be able to get home just fine on their own. Jean still felt slightly complicated at his pseudo-son dating his actual daughter, but… that is life. He drove back to his apartment, going up the elevator with the two younger Hiraokas, wondering what sort of after school snack he should make for them.

He settled on just giving them fruit for now, since he’d have to make the three brothers dinner that day, with Mama Hiraoka doing overtime. Taiki spent the next while telling Jean all of the great things he got up to that day in between chomps of fruit, Nori listening intently with wide eyes.

“What’s for dinner, Dad?” Taiki asked finally.

“I was thinking just some roasted veggies and chicken, maybe some mashed potatoes too,” Jean answered, thinking to himself. It wasn’t long until it was time to start cooking dinner in the end, which he started once he got Taiki and Nori to start working on their homework. Chris showed up at some point, too, though once he saw that Jean was still cooking he started to try and escape to avoid having to help with dinner. Jean firmly gave Chris a knife and a bunch of carrots before he could leave, and the Reaper huffed in resignation and started to chop. Kogasa and Amaryllis came home just before dinner was served, a big family dinner with 9 people all talking and chatting happily while eating.

“How was practice, Koga?” Jean asked, glancing up to the eldest Hiraoka son. Kogasa adjusted his glasses in slight embarrassment.

“Went well,” he replied simply. Amaryllis beamed next to him, which told Jean quite enough of how it went.

Mama Hiraoka came and picked up her sons after dinner, with an extra container of a portion of dinner for her too. She thanked Jean gratefully, as tired as she looked, but Jean was just happy to help keep their family going.

Chris, Jean, Toyo and Charles ended up playing Mario Party all the way through the rest of the evening, with Charles winning a very unsurprising victory above the rest. Jean chuckled while Chris complained at the mini games being too hard, teasing him about just needing to try for once. It was late at that point, and everybody went to bed, Jean and Chris retreating upstairs.

“Thanks for coming over,” Jean said, tossing Chris his pajamas. Chris grinned and started to change.

“‘F course, man! Anything for you.” Jean smiled, truly thankful that Chris didn’t mind staying over every now and then to help ward off his nightmares. Of course, sometimes they got up to other activities, but the two of them were both pretty exhausted from the day and they went straight to bed. Chris was out like a light in no time, snoring his stupid head off while clinging to Jean’s arm.