[ Buddy Daddies | Oneshots ]

[ papa rei ]

Rei woke up to the sound of a clay pot breaking. He winced at the noise, knowing that it meant there'd be cleaning up to do. The Aozora Daycare was closed today, because of some emergency that came up or whatever, so Miri would be home all day.

He glanced over at the blonde on the other side of the bed, who was deep in his beauty rest, still snoring. Guess that it was his turn to get up. He sighed and got up from the bed.

"Uhm, Papa Rei," Miri's small voice sounded as soon as he stepped out of the room, "I broke something..."

He paused for a moment. "Did you get hurt?"

Miri shook her head, twiddling her feet and looking at the ground.

"Where is it?" He grunted.

Miri led Rei to the balcony where all of his plants were and he frowned, his eyes settling on the shattered clay pot on the ground. Luckily, he hadn't planted anything in it yet, so there wasn't dirt scattered everywhere like he had expected there to be.

"I'm sorry! It was an accident!" Miri confessed.

"Apology accepted, but now you have to go buy a new one to replace it." He told the little brunette. After some quiet consideration, he decided that he could get her out of the house today, "I'll take you to the store."

"If I'm good, can we get ice cream after? And go to the park?" Miri looked at him with hopeful, wide eyes.

"No."

Miri essentially deflated, melting dramatically to the ground.

"But Papa Rei! I want ice cream! Pleeease!" She begged, flailing her feet on the floor. Rei looked on, unimpressed.

"Yes, Papa Rei can absolutely take you to the park and get you some ice cream today." Kazuki stood in the kitchen, putting on his apron. He had just woken up. "You two can leave right after breakfast."

"Yay!" Miri jumped into the air, hands held high in celebration. She danced around and giggled.

"Kazuki, I'm just taking her to the store, that's it." Rei established, brows furrowed.

"No, no I don't think you are. It'll be good for her to go out and play a bit." Kazuki replied, "Besides, I want to have some time to myself for once."

Rei glared at him, and Kazuki glared back.

"Why are you looking at each other like that?" Miri asked, curiously joining in on the staring contest.

Rei let out a harsh sigh. "Fine. We can go to the park but we're not staying there forever, got it?"

Miri beamed and nodded excitedly.

"Just let me finish making breakfast." Kazuki smiled smugly, knowing he had won.

----

Miri skipped along the sidewalk, holding onto Rei's hand at her insistence. She had on her pretty pink coat and brought along her favorite gloves, for whatever reason. It wasn't even cold enough to need gloves, but she swore up and down that she wanted to bring them with her. Kids are weird.

"Do you have to skip?" Rei grumbled, a bit annoyed by the constant up-and-down tug from Miri's hand.

"Yes!" Miri answered cheerfully.

He sighed and gave up on his attempt to keep her at least somewhat still. It's a good thing they were almost at the store.

----

Miri skipped on the way to the park, as well. She held a little, colorful and patterned clay pot in her hands that she intended to carve her name into when she got home.

"There's the park!" She squealed and pointed toward it, running off. Rei let her.

"Don't break that pot!" He shouted after her, and she gave thumbs up in reply, almost dropping it in the process. He sighed.

Miri was waiting on the swingset when Rei finally caught up to her.

"Push me, push me, push me!" She shouted, kicking her legs.

He complied, careful not to shove her too hard. She soon got bored, however, and decided to make sandcastles with the pot, but it was a bit tricky with the dry sand. She played and played, even playing pretend with the other children before she really wore herself out.

She sleepily stumbled over to where Rei sat on the bench, her clay pot all sandy and dirty.

"I want ice cream now..." She yawned and rubbed her eyes.

"You're too tired for ice cream. You'll fall asleep before you can eat it all." Rei stated.

"No, I'm not!" Miri fretted, "I'm wide awake!"

"Sure."

"I am!" She yawned again. "I can still have ice cream! You promised." She pouted.

"I only said we could go to the park. Nothing else."

Miri's lip trembled and tears welled up in her eyes.

Rei sighed, accepting defeat and sagging his shoulders. "Fine. We'll go get ice cream."

"Yay!"

----

"Looks like you two had quite the day," Kazuki remarked. "How was it, Papa Rei?"

"I hate you." He blushed slightly at the little title.

Rei held an unconscious and snoring Miri in his arms, her ice cream melted all over its cone and was now dripping onto his clothes. She had fallen asleep nearly as soon as she had taken the first few licks of the strawberry ice cream.

"Just–" Rei sighed, "Just take her off me, will you?"

"Fine, fine." Kazuki transferred the sleeping girl into his own arms.

----

"Papa Rei." He whispered to himself, humming. He had been called it for most of the day and he found that he didn't truly mind it. He almost smiled to himself and placed the colorful clay pot up on the shelf. He'd have to ask Miri what she wanted to plant when she woke up.

----

alright ending it there. still sort of sucks but i'm content with this one. ugh i love this show so much <333

865 words

written 1/29/2023