It's one of those rare weekdays where Kenji is home and everyone else...is not.
Alright, Luna is here, as well, curled up in the chair next to him. He's still getting used to the idea that she can talk.
He's reading a rival's paper, something he's always done just so he can see where they're at on certain stories, differing point of views for stories he himself had already covered. Usually he did better, not that he's bragging. Much.
And, now that he knows, he wonders if any of these reporters also know, and how they're covering things.
There's coffee in front of him, a half-eaten bit of toast on a plate. Ikuko dragged Shingo out for some grocery shopping, luring the still half asleep boy with promises of that new DS game since his grades had been good. Usagi is...gone off somewhere, having left directly after breakfast. Things may still be awkward between them, but not so awkward that he can still feel a daughter kiss at his temple.
The front door is unlocked, and those who have used this house as a secondary home over the years, even if that's been a sadly diminishing thing these days, will know it's okay for them to walk on in.
It is becoming a rarity that there's a token knock and then the walking in of a Naru to this quiet home in a morning. No longer is it the near daily occurance it was when the girls were little.
Naru barely stifles a yawn as she kicks off her sandals at the door, padding through the house with familiarity that comes from years.
"Morning." Naru pauses by the kitchen, looking around at the quiet and then offering Kenji a somewhat sleepy little smile. "Everyone else abandoned you, or Usagi's still asleep?" She ventures a guess, based on the level of noise in the house.
Kenji looks up at the knock on the door, recognizing it right away. After all, years of the same soft knock and a shuffle makes for a familiar sound. A very comforting one, he's realizing.
"Naru-chan!" His eyes light up with genuine pleasure and surprise at seeing her, getting up to prepare her coffee the way he remembers her taking it. While she may or may not prefer tea, he doesn't know these days, he at least remembers the right amount of cream and sugar that makes for a spoiling treat. Especially for a sweet sleepy face like that one!
Luna's head pokes up over the table as she echoes Kenji's greeting. "Naru-chan!"
"Luna, don't...run across the table..." It's a voice of defeat as the fur black ball of kitty leaps onto Naru for a hug, but one with a notable lack of surprise at Talking Cat.
He sets Naru's coffee, along with his own refilled mug, on the table but doesn't quite sit down yet. After all, he's gonna give Naru a bear hug at the first opportunity he can.
He sighs, and it's a touch sad. "Usa left earlier. She's -- we're -- still awkward about --" He furrows his brow, because he doesn't really know for sure that Naru knows things. "Kazuo says you go over there on a somewhat regular basis. It leaves me to assume you know, at the least, but I'm not sure. If you don't know, never mind, old man, blah blah. If you do, well. Makes it easier?"
The way Naru looks at that coffee cup with what might be little heart bubbles emerging in her eyes says that treat or not, today is a coffee morning.
"Ooof. Morning Luna." Naru doesn't reach for coffee right away, her arms are out to catch the incoming feline attack, snuggling her up and dropping an affectionate kiss upon a furry head before setting her down. On a chair. It won't last.
Naru blinks a moment at the timbre of the sigh, but her expression changes to sympathetic as Kenji explains the why of it and she comes closer to offer /him/ a hug. "I know." She confirms with a little nod. "And I also know just how seriously /weird/ it is after you find out."
Naru gets a kitty giggles and a kitty nose rub against the cheek before she's plopped on a chair. This is okay with her, because she got her hug!
Kenji feels a great sense of relief that Naru knows. And that she also gets that its weird. The hug is initially one of solidarity. "Oh, thank goodness. It is so weird." He knows, and always has, that his daughter was special. But to find out that Daddy's Little Princess is actually a princess?
The hug takes a natural shift from solidarity to parental, including the large soothing hand on the back of her head. "How's my OtherDaughter, hmm? Been keeping yourself safe?"
It's usually a question he'd ask anyway. But now he realizes it may hold other meanings.
"It doesn't really stop being weird, as a note, you just sort of recalibrate where weird starts. Like.. I forget that other cats won't tell me what they really think." Naru comments as she hugs her pseudo-Papa close.
It's Naru's turn to sigh, a lingering sort of resigned sort of sigh. "Generally. Or other people have been keeping me safe. Which is its own sort of weird." She has to admit as she leans into the hug.
Luna preens at this. "That's because other cats are stuck up snobs."
Says the kitty who is delicately cleaning her paw and snubs her nose at canned tuna.
This, along with what Naru says, earns a raised eyebrow from Kenji. "I'm pretty sure getting used to the weird will be weird in and of itself."
And then paternal hug takes another shift into comforting. "Ahhh. Must be tough for you. You've always been the type who wanted to be self sufficient. Just know you're never too old if you need hugs, okay? Because if you're too old, that means I'm too old. I may not be able to do much, but I can do this at least, right?"
"They can't all be your kind of awesome, Luna." Naru sounds vaguely amused at the feline perspective.
"After you do get vaguely used to the weird? Then you try and explain something to someone who doesn't know, and you realize just how little you can say, cause there is so much weird. I'm pretty sure Alexis has decided I'm completely crazy, not just a little crazy." Naru comments with a little laugh before she squeezes him hard and the lure of coffee starts to outweigh the lure of Papa-hugs. For he moment.
"I'm starting to get better at realizing that we're not completely useless." Naru explains with a twist of her lips. "Not for like.. saving the world level of stuff, but a perspective that sometimes gets lost, or forgotten just because it is fairly basic, is still important to remember." She adds after a moment of thought. "That took.. still kinda takes.. a long time to wrap my head around." She smiles and nods. "Not too old, and hugs are important. Sometimes literally healing, sort of important."
Luna gives a haughty sniff. "Clearly."
Though there's a touch of swagger at Naru's agreement.
He lets her go, because coffee, and he pulls down some danishes he's kept stashed away. He bought them yesterday, and it says a lot that they're still there. His eyebrows raise as he takes a sip. "Oh? Alexis? Is this someone I should know about~?"
He sits back down, scraping the chair across the floor just a bit so he could look at her. He shrugs a little as he offers her a danish, paper towels used instead of plates. "Kazuo has made it very clear how important it is I stay alive. And I believe that level of importance transfers to you, as well." He sighs, and he's picking a bit at his own pastry. "But my perspective still leans toward 'she's fifteen you pervert' and 'you're only allowed to hold hands until you're seventy.' Because, you know, dating at thirty, marriage at seventy. So I know that at least there my perspective isn't...needed."
However, it says a lot that he's not visibly twitching at the idea.
He offers her a grin. "That's good. I'd really hate to think you'd outgrow me one day. Stubborn, independent young woman or otherwise."
Naru tugs out a chair at the table, and curls herself into it, in the casual yoga-esque poses that so many teen girls seem unthinkingly able to contort themselves into. She eyes the danishes and quirks a brow. "Wow, Usagi /really/ hasn't been home."
"Alexis is a transfer student from somewhere in Europe. Germany, I think? He speaks German, I remember that, but his Japanese is really good. I think his family moves a lot. Like a crazy amount a lot, and he's starting at Infinity when school starts again and doens't know anyone. So I'm hoping to introduce him to a few people so that his first day doesn't suck more than it has to." Naru explains as she reaches for her coffee with a contented little sound after the first sip.
Naru takes a danish and then there's a smile at the mention of Kazuo's name. There's a fondness there, undeniably. "Kazuo is pretty awesome, and basically the soul of patience when I text him to pick me up because something's gone weird, or when he gets the List of questions. He gives really good answers."
Naru giggles softly at the parental rant about dating. "Hey, if Usagi is going to be omg head over heels stupid for a guy who is /just/ as head over heels stupid for her, I'm glad its Mamo. It could be the guy Ami's dating, who waffles between alright, and kinda a jerk and it's basically different flavours of mess." She sighs, mournful about /that/. "But she really likes him, and so.. I hope it works out."
And there is, of course, that deep-seated jealousy over the way Naru can sit in that chair. While he's physically fit for someone who spends several hours most days behind a desk, just thinking about sitting in that position causes a spasm in his back.
His expression turns wry and somewhat wistful at Naru's observation. "Yeah. She's not entirely to blame for it, of course. I could probably make more of an effort, but..." He shrugs, and gives Naru a sheepish look. "Next time you see her, could you...tell her I'm not actually gonna ground her for dating a boy since...what was it? The dawn of time?" How does that even work?
An eyebrow raises in curiosity. "Oh-hooooh? Is this a boy I should park myself in front of your apartment door with a shotgun, then?"
Which, of course, won't really happen.
He doesn't own a shotgun.
But, well, Naru's a pretty girl, and he's always known one day he'd have to scare off boys (or girls, he's a progressive kind of guy he likes to think) that got too big for their britches.
And then the other eyebrow joins that first one. He highly doubts a shotgun would scare off Kazuo. He's quiet on that one, at least. "He does explain things well. I'm thinking of having him explain things to Ikuko while I use him and Mamoru as protective shielding against her wrath. You're more than welcome to join, she's always adored you. You'll all be safe from her wrath."
Kenji sighs, and shrugs, holding his hands up in mild defeat. "Hey. I know the kid. You know That Story? He's been part of it. If I didn't know the head he had on his shoulders, that day could have gone a lot differently. I'd be...talking statue what even chow, most likely."
He leans forward a bit. He's glad to have someone who knows his perspective, but also, this is Naru. "Have you been keeping up with your drawing? Ikuko bought some paint for you since the last time you came over. Apparently it's 'of good quality but don't worry it was on sale.'" The assurance had been directed at him, but he passes it along anyway. "It survived that nasty storm. Which I doubt was actually a storm."
"I already did." Naru comments as she casually pops a chunk of danish in her mouth, long before Kenji tried to pass on the assuranges that Usagi wasn't /actually/ grounded forever. She smiles as she says it, playful. Teasing even. "But I'll remind her. It was a little weird right after I found out too, and we sort of needed a little bit to work out how to be besties again, not like a horrible fight, but that awkward. It sorted out." She sounds confident on that fact and then giggles softly. "I have no /clue/ how the dawn of time thing works, so I try not to think about it too much. Which is a totally valid strategy sometimes. Just run with it, don't think too hard about dawn of time, or talking birds making super awkward prince charming jokes, or chatting with a vampire about books at her girlfriend. Sometimes, just run with it."
Naru snorts softly and waggles a bit of danish towards her pseudo-Papa. "He doesn't know where I live. And you don't own a shotgun. So if you're waiting to ambush him, waiting at my apartment door is going to have you waiting a /really/ long time. It's not like that though. He's in a city he doesn't know well at all, and without any friends. I think you may have taught us about being /nice/ to people or something. I'm remembering kinda vaguely over and around the 'share the crayons' and 'please stop eating the paste'." She grins at Kenji, teenage snark fully still engaged, even if it's gentle.
"Ooh! She got me paint?" Naru's face lights up at the thoughtfulness. "Awww, that's so sweet of her. I do a /lot/ of drawing these days. And painting. I had one of my drawings in a contest for tourism Tokyo just earlier this week even. Top three." She smiles, pleased even if she didn't win and then pauses. "Point of curiosity.. have you noticed anything weird with colour this week?"
He gives a soft snort. "Knowing Usa, she was more thinking you were upset with her than anything else. But of course you two would reclaim your bestie status." It sounds awkward, perhaps, the term bestie coming from a man his age. But when you have teenage daughters, you tend to work some of the lingo into your own vernacular.
He's just glad he's never slipped and used any of it in front of his coworkers.
He gives a thoughtful nod and strokes his chin. "Well. You know me. I tend to overthink everything if I can. But in this case, I may just have to follow your example."
Though that inquisitive part of him wants to know, on an intellectual level. He studies Luna for a moment but doesn't say anything more about it.
For the time being.
This time his expression is one of pure innocence as he holds up his hands. "Hey, you never know. You're a lovely girl, I think it's time I invested in a portable phone recharger and one of those fold up chairs. And maybe a paint ball gun."
His shoulders droop and he rubs his face in his hands. "I taught you girls to be nice? I am such a horrible influence. I should have emphasized more on the point that all boys have cooties."
The please on the paste was only used because it was nontoxic.
His hands drop to the table and he uses them to push himself out of his chair. "She did. Let me see if I can remember where she put the box..."
There's a moment where he looks through cupboards, both in the kitchen and in the living room. There are mutters about not being able to find things and who in the world would put a cheese grater there before he comes back. It's a familiar plastic container he holds, old and worn and having survived at least one household destruction. He sets it on the table and unlatches the lid, his eyes lighting up as he discovers the carefully dried doodles and artwork from the old fridge. "Oh, good! I was wondering where those went to!"
He leaves the container open for Naru to look through, various art supplies from various ages, along with the newer paint still in the bag.
He starts to put the artwork back where they belong, on the fridge, dammit. It's a collage of Usagi's more crude drawings and Naru's sketches, complete with a few smatterings of Shingo's own drawings. "I'm not sure on the quality of paint she got you. It could be good for the average artist but subpar for someone of your caliber, but hey! Practice paint if nothing else, right?"
He turns back to her, suddenly brimming with pride and surprise! "I didn't know that! Congratulations! Where do you wanna go for your Victory Dinner?" Because it's a Thing, and he's determined to keep some things a Thing dangit!
He hums in thought as he sits back down. "Color? Can't say that I have. Is there something weird about it going on?"
Well obviously, if it was brought up.
"Sorry." Naru grins at him. "Nice won out over cooties after we were about eight. I'm not sure Usagi /ever/ bought into the cooties thing, she is pretty much bound and determined that everyone is her friend, she could make friends with a mailbox."
A second danish is claimed, and Naru sips coffee and gets a healthy dollop of carbs, carbs and a side order of carbs to start her day off. She is clearly starting to take a page from Usagi's book on the notion of breakfast having the requirement of second breakfast not so long thereafter.
"Oh my goodness!" Naru blinks in delighted surprise at the appearance of the plastic box and she wipes her fingers off to reach for it. "I figured this would never have survived the storm. Oh my goodness, this is awesome." She drags the box closer to her, to go poking about in it. "I haven't used watercolour pencils in /forever/." She comments, pulling out some coloured pencils that could act like paint with some water, but that Usagi couldnt spill everywhere. Again. She goes peeking into the bag with the newest paint and ooohs softly. "She got the good stuff! I'm glad it was on sale, it's expensive otherwise. It's great to work with, though. It blends really well."
Naru beams with reflected pride, able to take a moment, in spite of the mess that came after. "I dunno. I'm tempted to suggest we drag some mix and match collection of family and Mamoru and his crew as who can make it and at least get the first awkward over with."
Naru mmms softly and then nods. "Yeah. There's some weird, but not everyone can see it. I sort of sit in the middle of seeing and not, but its sort of interesting to see who can and can't. It'll sort out. Of that I have faith."
Naru declines to mention that the seeing falls along magical and mudane lines, and equally fails to mention her part in the fixing. Need to know basis.
He heaves a woeful (and exaggerated) sigh. "Making friends with everyone. Bringing that man in Mamoru's building takeout after that storm. Being nice to everyone. Where did I go wrong with her, Naru-chan?"
There's really no need for a wink there, of course.
And second breakfasts are always good, especially for teenage girls needing to rebuild energy!
"I'm pretty sure that thing would survive the apocalypse. Which is a good thing, I say. Post-apocalyptic Japan needs my girls' art in it."
And of course, Usagi being Usagi, she still found ways to make a mess of nearly messless art supplies. But that's what the play mat tucked in the bottom is for!
"Oh she did? Good, I'm glad. They're especially yours to take now."
He hums at the suggestion. "Well, we could do that anyway, but its your Victory Dinner. You get to invite who you want." The Tsukino Budget, of course, includes Victory Dinners, after all.
He pauses, though. "All I ask is that...shop isn't discussed if Ikuko and Shingo are there."
He shakes his head. "Well, I'll keep an eye out to see if I notice anything unusual. Though I likely won't."
He has instincts on what a person like him can and cannot see.
Naru tsks softly, shaking her head. "Tragic." She smirks. "To have gone so wrong with your kids."
Naru can't hold the straight face for much longer, giggling softly as she tucks the art supplies back into the box, keeping the bag of new paints out. And a couple water colour pencils while she's at it, just to experiment with. "We /can/ talk about things other than shop talk. I mean, there's weird and then there's the fact that on some level, we all have vaguely normal lives too. Like the fact that a swack of us are kinda obsessing on Pokemon Go at the moment, or school or hobbies, or what I'm going to paint on the walls in Mamo's apartment. I'm doing a mural in there. I'm super excited, it is going to be epic. Twinkle lights and everything." She beams and reaches for her coffee.
"If you do, yeah. Lemme know. You probably won't, as I said, I don't always. Sometimes yes, sometimes no." Naru gives a little shrug. "That's the other weird, you end up noticing little bits of magic are /everywhere/ after a while. Or I did, at least."
He gives a soft chuckle. "So very wrong. Here I was hoping for a passle of hooligans."
His cheeks turn a bit pink. "If you sit in the living room, you can get the pokestop across the street..." Because yes, he was actually alive when the first games came out, and may have watched the show when he was in high school. Nostalgia is a powerful marketing tool.
His eyebrows raise. "Oh? What were you planning on painting? And, though I don't think it needs to be said, I'm always happy to look at your work. You know that, right?"
"If I do, I'll definitely let you know." He reaches toward the bowl of fruit, hand hovering a moment over the orange. Which is weird, because he loves oranges, but lately... "Meh." He chooses an apple instead. After he takes a bite of it, he flashes a quick wink at her. "This way, if Ikuko asks, I can tell her I've kept to my diet."
"Nice!" Naru grins at him, only a tiny bit jealous that he can hit a pokestop from a comfy chair. "There's a few down by my place, but it's way better pokehunting down by the harbor, or the park."
A shift in how Naru is sitting, to manage to sit cross-legged in a kitchen chair, which just shouldn't be possible to ask most normal adults, but teen girls? Cross-legged in a kitchen chair. "So.. I want to start up in the corner, the one over by the balcony with a night sky and that's where I want the twinkle lights to be, so if the lights are off, and they're on.. then you just get super awesome stars overhead." She doesn't comment on the fact that it is also super romantic, and omg there's enough couples to cater to. Need to know basis.
"Then I want to have that blue shade into a waterfall, coming down along that side wall. No fountain, cause the boys would inevitably dunk people, or homework, or phones, or just mess. Or have to go pee all the time. No fountain." Naru shakes her head at the fountain idea. "Then from that waterfall, I'm currently thinking of having it come to a harbour sort of area, where you can see a less urban landscape to counterpoint the view of Tokyo that's opposite it out the balcony, and then on the other side of the balcony, have a daytime sky to mirror the night time sky that it started with." She pauses then and then bites her bottom lip a moment. "Does that sound cool? Not super hokey? Like honestly cool, not 'Papas are obligated to say its cool, even when it's hokey'."
He shrugs with nonchalance, even though just yesterday he was bragging to his coworkers that he gets to not only sit on the couch all day tomorrow, but that there's a pokestop he can reach from there.
Status comes in the weirdest of places.
"I'll have to try the harbor. But work has a gym I can reach. Not that I can ever defeat the gym. That lady in marketing..."
He leans an elbow onto the table and listens, nodding along as she explains. He may not be an artist, but he's seen the apartment and Usagi comes by her imagination naturally. "That does sound cool. Not just in the 'Papa Obligation' way. If I didn't know what you could do, I'd worry about possible hoke. Good call on the fountain." He strokes his chin in thought. "If you're still worried, once you do the mock-ups I could give it a look over if you wish."
"We're not supposed to play at school." Naru comments, although 'not supposed to' and 'don't' are really very different beasts. "There's a stretch not far from the big park that is basically /perfect/ for sprints. They pokestops are spaced just far enough apart that you get a good run between then, and then a pause while you grab the pokestop." Because Naru now thinks about runs and sprints?
"Well. It might yet fall into hokey. I am pretty confident on my skills, but I'm not confident on painting things I can't see. Just imagining them, so this is a stretch." Naru grins and nods. "I might take you up on that. I've most of the sketching done, not quite, but almost. I didn't really think about how awkward drawing while standing on a ladder would be, I'm glad of a good sense of balance." Naru adds after a moment of thought. "And if it really sucks, it's paint. I can always paint over it and try again."
Kenji can see that. He can also picture clusters of teenagers on the roof or loitering the grounds during lunch, all conveniently located within spinning distance of a pokestop.
His eyebrow raises, though. "Taken up sprinting?" How little he's been around!
"Well, in your favor, murals aren't always done in a day. Plus, you could do what I used to see kids do in school. Get the drawing on paper and project it onto the wall. Trace it there. Still have the awkward drawing while standing up, but it'd also give you an idea of what it would look like when you were done."
"Sprints are only if Hannah's feeling mean. Or ambitious. Or if I want to mess with Zoisite." Naru grins brightly. "Hannah's my usual running partner, unless she's busy and then Zoi comes with me. Mostly cause I told him he'd never manage to get up that early, and he felt he had to prove me wrong. There's a 10K in November that I kinda signed up for on a 'it seemed like a good idea at the time' basis, and well. Stubborn."
"I thought about that, but I'm finding that from my sketches in my notebook, when it goes up onto the wall, I'm adjusting there for a bunch of things to just make it look better, so tracing is just going to mean I'm going to be redoing it anyhow. There's no real rush and I'm not /super/ worried, just .. I'd like Mamoru to like it. And the other guys too."
"Hannah...is this the Hannah Sharpe that's managed to somehow get Usa up before dawn on occasion?" He wonders if there's anything more to 'defeating noodly arms' than previously stated. Probably.
He gives her a grin. "Well, of my two girls, my money would be on you to complete a 10k." And, you know, more excuses for Victory Dinners.
He nods in thought. "Yeah, I can see how that'd be. Sort of like turning a rough draft into a final copy, I'd bet. Even the littlest tweak could change the whole picture."
"The very same." Naru nods in agreement. "She's into like kickboxing and stuff, and she's sort of a force of nature." Which is self evident by the fact that Hannah has gotten Usagi out of bed before dawn. "But she's really cool, and a helluva workout partner, so there is not a lot of slacking, which is good for the prospect of a 10k."
"More like second draft yet." Naru considers that and then nods. "But yeah, exactly that. Refining and changing and sometimes you stand back and go 'that right there? It sucks' and you do it again and the whole thing looks so much better just for one little thing getting adjusted."
"Ah. Yes, it often felt like watching Tsunami Usagi hitting against a tornado." He nods, glad that the Hannah girl seems to be the okay sort.
"Plus, once you start working, the end result is rarely exactly as you picture it. Sometimes it's even better, which is always a bonus."
He hums in thought, making a mental note to keep an ear out for anyone looking for Naru flavored talent.
Of course, the Papa in him thinks everyone in the world ever should have a piece by her floating in their house somewhere.
"That sounds about right." Naru grins brightly at the mental picture of Tsunami Usagi meeting Tornado Hannah and GO!
"Even in my sketches, it evolves while I'm working on it. And on the walls, it changes as I'm working on it, and I fully expect when I get to painting, it's going to change. Hopefully for the better, but we'll see."
Naru wipes off her fingers, danishes well destroyed and she ensures that they're clean before she offers Luna more skritches. "I should probably get headed over there, actually. I had hoped to finish the sketching before school break was over."
And he gets it. While their medium may be different, her with paints and pencils and him with words, they're still artists in their own right. Kenji had always wanted to write, and though he's never had the time between work and family, he's pretty certain that a story, the type found in books and not necessarily newsprint, could soon be easy to find.
Luna leans up into the petting with a purr. Kenji stands to help her out. Not because it's polite, but because he legitimately enjoys her company. "Don't be a stranger, okay? If you ever need a change of scenery, we still have a twin in the attic."
Which is, really, why there is a bed up there. With Usagi's fiery temper at times, temporary bestie breaks were inevitable. And it's not like they could have Naru sleep on the couch! (Or sometimes Usagi.)
Naru gives Luna a good scritching and then moves around the table to give Kenji a good squeeze of a hug. "I promise, I'll try and visit more. I'll even try and bring some of my recent paintings to show you." She laughs softly at the mention of /her/ room at their house, as teeny and occaisional as it is.
"I'll keep that in mind, I'm getting pretty spoiled by having run of the apartment though." Naru grins at him, the topic of her largely absent parent not often mentioned, but not entirely verboten.
Granted, there's not a hope that she's staying at Usagi's without Usagi until the 'Monster of the day' thing has settled down. That's just begging for trouble.
"Oh, I'd love to see those. And whatever else you're working on." The hug may be relatively brief, but it is tight and warm. And he can't resist the urge to ruffle her hair a bit when it's done.
And her mother comes up, even if through implication. "Say hello to your mother for me, would you? I haven't spoken to her since...your last birthday, I believe?"
"Probably." Naru nods at that idea. Even if her birthday was in January. "Sounds about right. I'll tell her." There's a quick wave, and then with shoes acquired and bag collected and paints tucked away, the house gets back to the quiet the comes with no teenagers being present. At least for a little while.