There were no particularly important work plans for today, and Soushi figured he'd check if Kazuki was home. It was still morning, and since there was good chance he'd manage to catch him before Kazuki went to work, Soushi headed to the Makabe Pottery store. Maybe he could walk with Kazuki over to Rakuen, he figured. It would be a nice change from his usual routines.

"Morning, Kazuki," Soushi greeted him from the door, noticing Kazuki wandering around the shop with an apron on, looking at things with a notepad in his hand. The store lacked the usual sight of the older Makabe sitting around, but Soushi wasn't here for Commander Makabe. "You seem busy," he noted. "What exactly are you up to?"

Kazuki smiled. "Good morning, Soushi. I don't have work today, so I'm going to clean the whole place. And this is," he explained, holding up the list before he scribbled something on it. "I'm making a list of everything that needs to be done." He wandered off into the house, and Soushi followed him upstairs. Kazuki stopped in the middle of the stairs and scribbled another note down. "Plenty to do here, so might just as well keep a track of it."

"Hmm. Logical," Soushi said as Kazuki stopped to inspect the bathroom. "Gives you a clear idea what to work on. I suppose I could offer to help you with something. My original idea was to walk with you to Rakuen and maybe get some coffee, but if you're staying home..."

"You don't have any other plans?" Kazuki questioned, although he looked quite happy about the offer. "Well, I was also making a shopping list before you showed up. You could help with the grocery shopping. I was just about to..."

Whatever he was going to explain about his plans got cut off as the phone rang, and Kazuki ran off to answer. Soushi followed, figuring they could continue the conversation after the phone call. "Makabe residence," Kazuki answered, then listened to whoever it was. "Oh? Huh? Wait, calm down a little. No, you didn't interrupt anything, I was just..." He went quiet for a moment. "Mmm-hmm. No, it's fine, I'm not busy." Kazuki paused again and listened for another moment. "All right, I understand. See you soon then."

"What was that about?" Soushi wondered.

Kazuki sighed. "Turns out Mr. Mizoguchi got some Alvis schedules mixed up and has to go there right now. Or in the next twenty minutes or something, and nobody's there to look after Rakuen. It also turns out he had promised someone to host a birthday party group in an hour or so. I'm the only one available to go there right now, so I've got to head out." He looked at the notepad in his hand. "Well, that about the house cleaning..."

The look on his face at that point was depressing enough that Soushi just had to act, and he snatched the notepad from Kazuki's hand. "Leave the house to me. I'll take care of everything here. You've got work to do, so just go."

"Huh?" Kazuki blinked. "Soushi...?" Soushi folded his arms and gave him a determined stare, and Kazuki smiled. "But don't you have..." Soushi shook his head, the resolve clearly still there. "...If you're sure," Kazuki conceded. "Here, let me..." He dug out a second slip of paper, checked it, scribbled something extra on it and handed it to Soushi. "This is the shopping list. Just tell them you're getting those for me, they'll know what I want."

"Stop worrying about it and go," Soushi replied.

"You really don't have to do this, I could do the cleaning on another day-" Kazuki started, but at that point Soushi was half-pushing him out of the door. 'No' wasn't an answer he was going to take. "...I'll make this up to you, I promise." Kazuki swore as he took his apron off. "Really."

Soushi took the apron and put it on. "Out," he ordered. The relieved smile on Kazuki's face before Soushi turned to head off to the kitchen made this worth it. What else that 'make up to you' might eventually involve was probably worth it too, but there were priorities. First he had to get these things done.

He stopped in the kitchen and studied the list. Air the futons and the blankets. Wash the dishes. Clean the bedrooms, clean the floors, sort the dirty laundry to light/dark with a side note "do laundry this weekend" which apparently meant Kazuki hadn't planned to do laundry today. Clean the toilet and the bathroom, clean the bath. Grocery shopping. Sweep the storefront. Organize the shop, with a scribble that said "ask dad where he wants those bigger pots". Take out the trash. Clean the stairs, and other assorted cleaning duties. Soushi smiled to himself as he kept reading. An organized list of things to do was something he could get behind.

This would do for supplies for a while, Fumihiko thought to himself as he carried another block of clay into the shop. He set it down and was about to check through his other supplies when Kazuki hurried down the stairs. "I got to go to work," he called to his father as he headed out of the house. "I'll be back for lunch," he added, glancing over his shoulder as he got his coat on.

"Mmmh," Fumihiko muttered. "Later, then," he said, not actually paying much attention to to whatever his son was doing. He off-handedly remembered Kazuki had said something about cleaning today, but perhaps there had been a change of plans. It wasn't like Fumihiko kept a good track of when Kazuki cleaned the house, anyway; he mostly just stayed out of the way, seeing Kazuki tended to complain otherwise.

Supply organizing work aside, Fumihiko took a bit of the clay and sat down to prepare it to make a pot just try the quality. Quite fine, he concluded a few minutes later as he set the clay in the middle of the potter's wheel.

There was a sound upstairs, and Fumihiko raised his head from his pottery work for a moment. Hadn't Kazuki headed out just a moment ago? He shrugged mentally and returned to work. Someone was airing the futons, that was it. He ignored the sounds and set to work on his pot, carefully forming the clay under his hands. The sounds from upstairs continued, but he paid no heed, eventually completing the pot. He had more work to do on the pots later, but the supply organizing came next, and he went through the clay supply and other related items, making mental notes of what he needed to do.

Longing for a cool drink, he headed upstairs afterwards, walking into the kitchen and dodging around Kazuki, who was washing the dishes. He picked up a bottle of water from the fridge and headed back out.

At that point Fumihiko froze, took a step back and turned to look again. Way too long and light hair for Kazuki, that was for sure. He had to stop to stare for a moment, slowly realizing it was Soushi - with an apron on and a scarf covering his head - washing the dishes, not Kazuki.

"Did you need something, Commander Makabe?"

Fumihiko caught himself quick, noticing Soushi had stopped doing the dishes and was looking back at him. "No," he replied, holding up the water bottle for Soushi to see then headed back to the shop. Not exactly what he had expected to find in the kitchen, he thought as he sat back down and took a sip of water. Since when was Soushi the one doing house work here?

Asking about it felt like too much trouble, and he went back to work. More supply organizing, and then he had to take care of applying glazing for some recent pots he had made. It took a good amount of time, and he ended up staining his shirt while working - right, Kazuki had said something about things needing to be washed, anyway. Might just as well go pick up another one, Fumihiko concluded, heading upstairs.

He went to his room, finding it oddly organized. Had he actually left his room this neat? Had Kazuki cleaned it this morning? He shrugged it off, changed his shirt and headed back downstairs.

Or he would've headed downstairs, but through the open living room door, he caught the sight of Soushi sitting on the floor holding up what looked like Kazuki's underwear. This was getting ridiculous, Fumihiko thought as he stopped to look again - and it turned out Soushi was actually going through a pile of clothes, near obsessively sorting them into two piles.

"Oh. Commander Makabe," Soushi raised his head and looked at him. "Do you have any clothes that need to be washed?"

"Mmm. Yes," Fumihiko mumbled. "Hold on a second." He returned to his room and picked up the shirt he had just left there, along with a couple of other pieces of clothing then went back and handed them to Soushi. "...Here."

Soushi nodded and took them, and Fumihiko headed back downstairs to continue his work.

More glazing work, some preparations for firing the pots before he decided to go stop by the toilet. Fumihiko made it upstairs, idly wondering if he was going to find Soushi in the middle of something again.

The answer was yes. "Careful with the toilet floor, Commander Makabe," Soushi called from the bathroom, and Fumihiko, standing in front of the toilet door, turned to look into the bathroom next door. Soushi was on his knees on the floor and was scrubbing the bath tub clean. "I just washed there, it could be slippery."

"...Mm." Fumihiko took care of his business and returned downstairs.

Some time later, he sat by the potter's wheel with clay under his hands. Someone came downstairs, and he paid little attention as the person walked past him to the door. "I'll be going out," Soushi, without the apron now - although he had apparently forgotten the scarf on - said. Fumihiko muttered the usual reply, only stopping to think about it after Soushi had left. Well, guess he was finally done and had left, then. Kazuki really needed to explain this whole deal later today.

How much time passed, Fumihiko wasn't sure. Enough that he finished a few things; maybe an hour, he wasn't keeping track. "I'm home," Soushi's voice called from the door, and Fumihiko muttered a reply again, mostly out of habit and not actually paying attention to who had gotten back. He only looked up when Soushi had already made it to the stairs and was heading further indoors. Was he carrying something? Were those shopping bags? Whichever. Fumihiko took more clay and started making another pot.

Soushi came downstairs after a while, wearing the apron again. He stood there for a moment and looked at some piece of paper then went to pick up a brush, stepped out and started sweeping in front of the store.

That, Fumihiko didn't pay much attention to. Soushi came back in after some time and looked at his note again then looked at the shelf full of pottery. Some minutes passed; there were some soft sounds behind him, and Fumihiko paused his work on the pot and slowly looked over his shoulder. Soushi stood there by the shelf and was moving the contents around.

Was he organizing the pots by size? Fumihiko took another look. "Soushi...?"

"Yes, Commander Makabe? Oh, actually." Soushi picked up his note paper and looked at it. "Where do you want... those bigger pots. The ones over there I take it?" Soushi pointed at a couple of large pots that were kind of abandoned on the floor.

"Just put them on the bottom shelf on the left," Fumihiko said. "And Soushi. We're... Not in Alvis, and not on duty. You don't have to keep calling me Commander."

Soushi looked at him and nodded. "All right," he agreed, then appeared thoughtful. "It wouldn't suit me to not address you properly, though," he pondered with a hint of a smile on his face. "Mr. Makabe is a little awkward at this point. First name basis would be impolite. Do I just skip straight to 'Father' then?"

Was that a joke? The Soushi Minashiro Fumihiko knew didn't tell jokes. "...Commander is fine."

Soushi was in the middle of sweeping the store floor when Kazuki returned. "I'm home," Kazuki called from the door, then smiled as he saw Soushi. "Oh, good, you're still here. I brought lunch, and there should be enough for all of us. Mr. Mizoguchi gave it to me free since I made most of it, and he was really thankful for the help. Did you get everything done?"

"More or less," Soushi replied. "There's still a couple of things to do, and a few minor things I didn't touch since I'm not certain how to do it, or I wanted to ask how you usually do it, but the house is mostly clean."

"You been at work all morning, dad?" Kazuki asked, and Fumihiko paused his work, appearing displeased on his current piece of work. "Come on," Kazuki added. "Let's go eat. Cute scarf, Soushi."

Kazuki headed upstairs to set the table, and Soushi took the scarf - which he had originally found from Kazuki's room - off, only now remembering he was still wearing it and had been all morning. He was also suddenly hoping nobody had seen him wear it around the town while he had been grocery shopping, though it was probably too late to worry about it.

He glanced at Fumihiko, finding the situation slightly awkward. Neither of them had said a word after that stupid joke Soushi had tried to make to lighten the mood, and he had so far figured he was probably really bad at humor and shouldn't have said a thing. Maybe he should've declined the lunch invitation, but since there were the minor things related to cleaning he needed to talk to Kazuki about - and besides, he wanted to know if he had messed up anything - he just followed Kazuki upstairs.

The three of them sat around the table some time later, enjoying the food. Kazuki didn't seem to be picking up on the awkward atmosphere and just shortly explained the situation at work then ate quietly, since his lunch companions weren't very talkative.

"So," Fumihiko asked after a long silence. "You went to work today." Kazuki nodded as a reply and picked up his cup to drink. "Are you making Soushi officially your wife now, then, since he's taking care of the house while you're out working?"

Soushi nearly choked on the piece of vegetable he was eating, and Kazuki, who was in the middle of sipping his drink, almost spit it everywhere, only barely managing to slap his hand over his mouth. "Dad...! What kinda..." Kazuki trailed off, turning completely red on his face and just stared at his dead-serious father with his mouth open.

Perhaps Commander Makabe did have a sense of humor after all. "If you'll have me as his wife," Soushi, recovering fast enough, stated as he bowed his head to Fumihiko, about as stone-cold as the Commander was being. So maybe his joke had been a really bad one, but might just as well play it to the end since he had started already.

Kazuki just stared at the two. "...What the heck did you two talk about while I was out, anyway?"

Author's notes:

I also very much love dad Makabe, can you tell? But hey. Fun fact, went to a pottery club when young, so I actually have a fairly good idea of what he usually sits there doing. ...Which is pretty much, not most of the work that goes into making a pot. Anyway. Soushi'll make a good wife! Maybe. Or maybe Kazuki should still consider taking care of that part of the arrangement. But at least he has his father's approval!

- Lady Harken (December 2015)