Until the Sun Rises in the West...

... I'll Always Love You

"When is Mister Gojou coming back?" Mimiko suddenly asks. Suguru looks down at the young girl that he was trying to tuck into bed. She wiggles out from underneath the blanket and scrambles to sit on Suguru's lap, fiddling with the plush doll in her small hands.

"What do you mean? He's never been here," Suguru asks as he smoothes down her already messy hair. Mimiko has such fine and thin hair that it tangles with the slightest of movements. Even though he had just brushed it for her moments prior, it's already a half formed bird's nest.

"I mean," Mimiko pauses as if she's searching for the right words. "When is Mister Gojou going to come back to our ramen stand?" She doesn't look at him, keeping herself busy with clumsily braiding the doll's hair.

Suguru hums before he rests his chin on the top of her head.

"Maybe he'll visit soon."

"How soon?" Mimiko shifts again until she's staring up at him with wide eyes. Suguru can't help but chuckle.

"Whenever he has time. He's a very busy man. Why? Do you like him more than me?"

"He's fun!"

"If he's so fun... maybe I should ship you two off to him, then you can see how 'fun' he is!" Suguru teases, snatching her doll and holding it above his head, waggling it. "You'll be crying about how much of a bully he is and begging to come back here."

Mimiko ignores what he has to say and instead clambers all over him to get her doll back. Her whines of dismay make Suguru chuckle before he gives the doll back to her.

Next, he sets out to find Nanako. Out of the two, she's always been the more difficult one to coax to go to bed. Long ago, Suguru had learned to let her stay up while he gets Mimiko ready for bed instead. Thankfully, even though Nanako is stubborn, she's happy enough to go to bed after her younger twin is already tucked in. That makes Suguru's job much easier.

It seems that tonight, she doesn't want to play a game of hide and seek- which is perfectly fine with Suguru anyway. He finds her twirling around the living room.

"Nanako." Suguru stops abruptly in the doorway to the living room. "What are you wearing?"

When she hears him, she freezes like a deer in the headlights, gaping. From the looks of it, she's gotten her hands on a pair of shades. Shades that look all too familiar to Suguru. Gojou must've accidentally left them with Nanako when she asked about them the other day... 'accidentally'. Knowing Gojou, it's some sort of ploy to be invited over to Suguru's apartment so he can get them back.

"Nothing!" Nanako squeaks and quickly takes off the sunglasses, hiding them behind her back. She gives him a wobbly smile before she runs past him, almost running straight into the kitchen counter behind him. In a blink of an eye she disappears into her room. Suguru sighs. Maybe he made a mistake by letting Gojou continue to hang around their stall on his off hours.

He stands there for a couple more heartbeats before shaking his head and calling out after Nanako.

"Get ready for bed. After I'm done cleaning up the kitchen, I'll read you a bedtime story." He smiles when Nanako peeks from the doorway and nods before she disappears again. With that settled, Suguru turns on his heel and heads to the kitchen. He figures he might as well call Gojou about the shades before he forgets.

Of course, nothing can ever be too easy for Suguru. From the moment Gojou picks up, he's chatting without giving Suguru a chance to say anything. Shaking his head, he listens with a fond smile as Gojou updates him about his latest fight with the elders.

"It's honestly amazing how great they think they are, Suguru. They're just a bunch of old farts whose opinions are from the last millenia! They're so old fashioned, they make my ancestors look modern." Gojou grumbles over the line. "Anyway, enough about me. How're you and the girls?"