Dragon King of the Butterflies

Ryu and Koko

Blonde hair in pigtails, so pale it was often mistaken for white, filled his vision.

"Daddy, Daddy, help with my homework!"

He pushed her hair out of his mouth and patted her head distractedly. "Darling, personal space. Daddy is doing work."

"But Daddy, multiplication is hard!"

Holding back a small sigh, he put aside his lesson planner and sat forwards, resting his elbows on his knees and looking at the worksheet held just too close to his face. "Ah, let's do this at the table, Koko."

"Okay Daddy!" Koko skipped over to the low table that served as their family of two's coffee table, work desk, and dinner table, and she pushed a cluster of scented candles so old they had long lost their scent out of the way so she could slap down her worksheet and scribble her name at the top of the page messily.

With a slight grunt, he got out of his armchair and knelt next to Koko on the floor. "Okay, let's see what this is." Resting one elbow on the table, he stretched out as far as he could and bent his legs to the side, since he couldn't fully lay down the way he'd have liked. "This is advanced stuff for a five year old. Koko is really smart! So, what's two times three?"

"Uh... five?"

"Nope. Did they explain multiplication at school?"

Koko shook her head so hard her pigtails slapped her face. "Everyone else is still adding."

"Hm." He picked up her pencil and flipped over the paper, avoiding a blob of squashed wax stuck to the back. "Two times three is the same thing as saying three, two times. So hold up three fingers on each hand and and then count them all."

She mouthed the numbers as she counted. "Six!"

"Great job! I'll explain it again on paper." He wrote 2 x 3 = 3 + 3 = 2 + 2 + 2 = 6 and underlined it twice. "Multiplication is the short way of saying a number plus a number plus a number plus a number, and so on and so forth. Mathematicians are lazy."

"Okay."

He watched as she finished up the worksheet on her own, holding up his fingers when she needed him to. "When I'm not with you and you need to count, just imagine me holding up fingers and count the imaginary ones, okay?"

"Okay Daddy. Now I'll help with your homework!"

He grabbed her before she could run off and made her sit on the floor as he got up, bones figuratively groaning. "Nope, Daddy does his own homework. I'll make dinner. Do you want dumplings?"

"Dumplings, dumplings!" Koko cheered, scavenging around on the overcrowded coffee table until she found a blank sheet of paper and a broken pink crayon. "Daddy, when is Mommy coming home?"

He froze in place the kitchen before sagging heavily against the fridge door for a good twenty seconds. He was too young to be a parent. He didn't have enough experience with children to do all this. Food, homework, getting her to school, he could deal with. Love and stories and dealing with awkward questions? Not so much. "Koko, after dinner."

"But all the other kids have a Mommy and I want one too."

He set down the ingredients he had just taken out and returned to the den. "Koko, I can't just give you a Mommy." He bit his lip for a minute, then lifted her up and carried her into the kitchen with him, though she protested at not taking her drawing. "Mommy is up in the sky."

"But people can't live in the sky," she pointed out, clutching his hand in their tiny kitchenette.

"You're absolutely right, Koko. You're absolutely right." He sighed heavily. "Do you want to skip dinner and have dessert?"

"Ice cream!" the five-year-old chanted, good either way and with her mother forgotten.

"Ice pop," he corrected after checking what they had, opening one and putting it her hand as well as taking a handful of napkins and sitting in his armchair again while she kneeled at the table.

"What's Daddy's name?" Koko asked between licks as the sugary treat coated her face.

"Ryu. It means dragon. You know that already, Koko, why'd you ask."

"I wanted to. My Daddy is a dragon," she declared, dripping all over the napkins strategically spread under her. "And dragons are cool, so Daddy is cool."

"Thanks Koko." He ruffled her hair and used a mostly-clean napkin to wipe her face, taking away the Popsicle stick. "Bath time and then bed."

She nodded and pulled out her pigtails with sticky fingers, getting ice pop residue in her hair. "Is Daddy staying up late again?"

"No, I'm going to bed on time," he told her. "I got a video game to try out while I sleep. If it's good I'll get you one too."

"What's it called?" she asked, peeling off her clothes (with help) and being lifted into the bathtub.

"Second Life," Ryu answered, whose white hair and red eyes so resembled that of the most famous player in his new game.

"Have fun Daddy." She tried to shampoo her own hair and got it all over her back, completely missing her hair and wasting half the bottle.

He sighed. He really was too young to be taking on the roles his little sister's father had run out on five years ago and their mother had abandoned soon after.