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 Posted: Sat Jul 05, 2008 12:55 am
Raleigh was happy. He was in enough of a good mood for the intense young man to actually smile at the lady at the airport who sold him an overpriced bottle of water and to tip the taxi driver ten dollars when he ran through a ran light at Raleigh’s urgings. Why was he so happy today? Well, after months of living by himself in Hawaii he was visiting Ruri and Ai for the summer holidays. It was almost embarrassing to admit how much he had missed them. Without them to level out his day, he spent hours either staring at the ceiling in boredom, training until he dropped from exhaustion or just generally being moody.
As soon as he knocked on the door Ruri was out, wrapping her arms around him and jumping up and down like a ten year old girl. “You’ve gotten bigger! I knew you voice sounded more muscular and manly on the phone! You better have been eating right. Well, you must have been. I’m cooking a nice big lunch for us all.” She brought her hands up to cup his face, smiling broadly. “Is that a smile? Naaah, couldn’t be. Must be a trick of the light." She chuckled. "Hannah hasn’t shut up about you coming for a week. She’ll be so happy to see you. Come on.”
She practically dragged him inside; though to be honest it wasn’t like he was putting up much resistance. In his current happy, placid state she could have pushed him down the stairs if she so desired. “Tom is doing super stuff today, so won’t be joining us for lunch. It’ll just be us four.”
Wait, four? Who was the fourth person?
“Aiiii darlin’. Raleigh’s here!”
There was a loud squeal and them a little girl came darting out, hurtling down the hallway and attaching herself to Raleigh’s legs. With a delighted chuckle Ra scooped her up, hugging her against his chest. “Hey Ai. Miss me?”
“Yes, yes!”
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Posted: Sat Jul 05, 2008 3:52 am
Ace had been running around with Ai, really acting as a big playmate more than anything else in these past few weeks. Oh, and once Ruriska had gotten on his tail, he was becoming a pretty good role model in helping her to keep things cleaned up. He wasn't a good house-boy like Raleigh was, but it he was a source of unending energy that could out do everyone else in the household.
He'd been helping Ai make pictures for Raleigh---lots and lots and LOTS---of them when he said he thought he heard Ruriska at the door. Then Ai was gone before he'd even scrambled up to his feet.
Ace tumbled down now, "Heya, Su--Raleigh!"
He was only trying to be polite because he'd realized when Ai had started saying Sushi instead of Raleigh earlier that week Raleigh would probably be kicking his butt if she said it in his presence. Reminding her would be a bad idea.
Ace trotted over and tugged on Raleigh's pony tail, then pull out the band that held it. Why? Because it was likely the only time he'd be able to. It was easy when he had a toddler in his hands!
OOC: How old is Ai now? 2? 3? 4?
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Posted: Sat Jul 05, 2008 4:20 am
Well, here was number four.
Raleigh’s expression went blank for a moment, and then moved into something akin to mild exasperation. Of course he was here. It wasn’t that he was unhappy to see Ace. He was surprisingly fond of his annoying student, but any hopes Ra had of having a relaxing time here had just been dashed… completely. A theory that was proved moments later by Ace decided to remove his hair from its ponytail.
Sometimes Raleigh wondered how such a random idea could pop into a persons head. But then, this was Ace. No explanation necessary.
“Hello Ace.” He shook his newly freed hair out and gave Ace’s a ‘look’. His smile soon returned when Ai began jabbering happily about what she’d done while he was gone. Most of it didn’t make sense, and she liked to add in sound effects that didn’t seem to fit in with what she was saying, but it was damn cute.
“I better go check the food before it burns itself again.” A grinning Ruri took her chance to give Raleigh an affectionate kiss on the cheek and then flounced off.
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Posted: Sat Jul 05, 2008 4:38 am
"Hey, Ai, wanna go show Raleigh what you made for him?" Ace offered, bending over now to take up the handle of Raleigh's suitcase. His room was close enough he could drop it by while they went.
Ace put the band--with strings of hair still attached to it--on Ai's head. "Man, in real life you really do look like some hippie and wrestler mix wannabe." But this time Ace wasn't looking at Raleigh with a mix of hyper boyish familiarity or determined rebellion. He looked half thoughtful. Then the grin was on his face again, "I wanna live in Hawaii too! You're so lucky! I bet it's tons better."
Then he turned, dragging the suitcase behind him, "Time to be impressed by Ai's genius!" An edge of sarcasm. He was quoting someone who'd called Ai's work genius, and he held a different opinion.
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Posted: Sat Jul 05, 2008 5:05 am
“Yes, yes.” Ai took her chance to grab a hunk of Raleigh’s hair and give it a happy pull, a habit she’d still carried over from when she was younger. “Come and see!” She’d been working very hard to make lots of pretty thing for her brother and she was excited to show them all off.
“I’m glad you think so Ace, because that was the look I was going for.” Raleigh replied dryly. “You’d haaate Hawaii trust me- Ouch, not so hard Ai.”
“Noooooow.” Hannah bounced up and down in Raleigh’s arms.
“Okay, okay.” Raleigh followed Ace down the hall and soon past him, with Ai pointing directing. Once in the room, where it looked like a colored paper bomb had exploded, Ai demanded to be put down. She toddled over to a pile of the ones that had were ‘done’ and then toddled back, handing him her first gift. It had pink swirly things, some blue swirly things, and two black squiggles.
“It’s wonderful Ai.” He crouched on the ground and smiled as Hannah pointed at one of the squiggles and announced proudly, “Is you!”
"Amazing! What a reat job you've done! Thankyou."
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Posted: Sat Jul 05, 2008 5:16 am
OOC: Sounds precisely like a 3 year old to me, lol.
IC:
"Really?" Ace looked surprised, "Trying to westernize the whole ying and yang thing, huh? Be two different forces, and be a girly-man, and you shall reach.. uh... zen, isn't it?" He snickered, "Or, if you prefer, the American dream. You're psychotic, Sushi."
Ace passed the room to place the suitcase by Raleigh's door, then came in, "I think I'd like Hawaii...You have EVERYTHING there a person could want!! What's not to like? Oh, look, pink, blue, and a little black... Ai understands girly-boy really well, though she needs to work out on balancing her light and dark side."
Ace sat down to watch the art show, and presumably to comment on it all as well.
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Posted: Sat Jul 12, 2008 2:30 am
Ace was lucky Raleigh had Ai in his arms with the last comment or the younger boy might have found himself flat on his back from an impromptu ‘training’ session. As it was Raleigh passed him by without a word and was now surrounded by cards made with uber love. Unfortunately not even there was he spared from the indignities Ace loved to hand out left, right and center. “You, me and Hawaii just wouldn’t get along.”
Another card was waved in his face, Ai demanding his attention. “Look, look!” Ra took it, gaining a brilliant smile in return, and looked it over with an expression of brotherly admiration. The blue piece of paper sported a few more spots, a few randomly placed lines and a yellow thing he assumed was a sun.
“It’s me at the beach, right? Wow.”
“Yes!” Ai crawled up under his arms and onto his legs, sitting awkwardly on him so she could see her gift as well. Her cheeks were tinged slightly with pink as she giggled, reaching a little hand up to tap the paper. “Yasu is ‘wimming.”
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Posted: Sun Jul 13, 2008 8:51 pm
"You don't think so? Why not? It'd be fun to go to the beach with Raleigh, huh, Ai? We could all go swimming together and have a real good time. You like to swim, Ai, don't you? It'd be really cool!"
He frowned a bit at Raleigh reading some of his face, "Well, unless you're hiding something you don't want us to know about, I guess. But I could keep a secret! There's LOTS I don't tell 'em all anyway..."
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Posted: Wed Jul 23, 2008 6:26 pm
“Yes, yes!” Ai agreed with Ace loudly, waving a blue heart-shaped card around. She certainly liked swimming at the beach, and she hadn’t gone to the beach since they left Hawaii. Only gone to the pool, and there was no sand for sand castles there.
Raleigh chuckled, giving one of Ai’s pigtails a light tug. “We’ll go swimming together soon.” His gaze slid over to Ace, a light smirk on his lips. “You can keep a secret can you? Well... there is something I haven’t told anybody yet. Something very secret that I’m hiding because if anybody found out... well...” He trailed off.
And Ruri’s loud voice came floating down the hall. “Foooood’s ready!”
In an instant Raleigh was on his feet, Ai in his arms. “I’m starving. Come on Ai, let’s eat.”
--
Ruri had laid out a meal fit for a king; a huge roast pork dinner with all the trimmings. Nobody could say Ruri couldn’t cook when she put her mind to it. Unfortunately she rarely did put her mind to it, and that’s when the burnt toast made an appearance.
“.... who else is coming?” Ra joked as he took his seat next to Ai’s highchair.
“Shaddup you. Appreciate all the work I put into this.” Ruri swatted him lightly across the back of the head and then sat at the head of the table. “Enjoy!”
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Posted: Thu Jul 24, 2008 1:49 am
Ace had leaned in, looking like he was all ears. When it was the proper time to press for more...
"Man!" Ace groaned, "I swear, she's got this amazing timing. I think she's evolved too, with this freaky ability to spy about and say things at just those times! You think?"
....
... !!!
She could cook?? Ace took a look around to scan for delivery logos or something. Whoa!
"Whoa! This looks fantastic! It's like..." He frowned, then shrugged. "Thank you. You really do know how to be a mother."
It was a sincere Ace-statement.
((Dunno how she'll take that, if you have difficulty in answering, I have some backup reply ideas. ^_^ Ace always can be added onto. ))
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Posted: Thu Jul 24, 2008 2:09 am
Ruri an evolved? God forbid!
…
Looking up from putting on Ai’s little bib, Ruri flashed Ace a wide grin. “Why thank you Ace.” She was genuinely flattered, more so than if somebody had told her she looked good. Ruri already knew she looked damn good, but being told she was ‘motherish’ was a different story.
“Why don’t you ever say such nice things to me, Raleigh?” She teased as she took a seat. Even Ruri wasn’t immune to doubts. “When I first fell pregnant I was terrified. I thought I’d be a horrible mother.” She looked over the food thoughtfully. “Maybe I should cook like this more often?”
… nah, too much work.
Raleigh was already eating. He hadn’t eaten since getting onto the plan after all. Ra had standards, and to him plane food didn’t come under the banner of eatable.
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Posted: Thu Jul 24, 2008 2:54 am
Ace shook his head, "No way. Cooking all the time doesn't have a thing to do with it. My mother does that, and I wish she was li---Mmm."
Ace shoved a mouthful of food in his mouth to shut himself up.
When he swallowed, he was much more thoughtful, "I mean, you know what really counts and when it counts."
He hoped that was an acceptable substitute for ever-so-wrong statement he almost made, and had no idea that was probably a lot more revealing than the usual teenage gibberish about one mother being better than another.
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Posted: Mon Jul 28, 2008 4:13 pm
Ruri arched an eyebrow and then gave a chuckle. “Well, I’m glad I make a suitable mother.” She turned in her chair as she talked, preparing Ai’s mixture of baby food. “Being a mom is hard. You have to make a lot of changes to yourself. You constantly worry about the world your child is growing up in, are they safe, are you doing a good enough job, are they happy?”
Hannah ate her first spoonful of food then lifted her arms in the air and declared, “Yum!!”
“The amount of worry Raleigh puts me through. I’m surprised my hair isn’t grey.”
“Tsk. You know there’s no need to worry about me.” Ra interjected with a frown. The idea of her worrying about him was odd. Ruri had always been a carefree kind of person. He didn’t want to think she lost sleep at night because of what he was up to. “I can take care of myself.”
“Sure you can.” Ruri replied with a sarcastic air.
“Oh gee, thanks.”
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