Chapter 2
Waking up at an early time as usual, I do my training routine, shower, brush my teeth, put on some eyeliner and put on some clothes.
Making a bowl of cereal I see that the time is 8 o'clock. Having another hour, I finish my breakfast and got on my bike.
It was nothing fancy just a bike you'd see every day on the road. I take my time getting to the Sano household since I'm way too fucking early.
Finally getting there, the first thing I see is Mikey and Baji playing in the yard. Chuckling, I climb off my parked bike and walk towards the gate.
"Knock knock!". "Wah!". "Xeno!". The two young boys run over and unlock the gates. When I enter they tackle me into a hug, making me stumble and nearly fall over.
"Good to see you again Xeno!". "Yeah! Are you the one who's going to look after us!?", Baji asked excitedly.
"Yah. Shin asked me to babysit you two for a while!". "Ah, Xeno! Thanks for coming. I really need to go visit someone for a while so I'm glad you can look after them".
Well speak of the Devil and he shall appear. Looking at Shinichiro I nod with a grin and followed them towards their house.
Once inside the two boys ran off to the living room. "Okay so while I'm gone can I ask you to do a few things with them?".
"Of course. That is why I'm here after all", I reply to Shin. He gives a grateful smile while continuing.
"So, if they're hungry you can use the kitchen and whatever you find in the fridge or cupboards.
They need to study for about an hour and then do training, after that they can do whatever they want".
"Alright I understand everything but.... can you tell me what age they are??". Looking at me he answers "Five". "And you?". "Fifteen"....
To be honest I thought they were somewhere around eight or nine..... oh well. "Alright then. I'll do everything needed, so go and visit whoever your supposed to".
He gets sad when I usher him out of the house and into the garden, getting puppy eyes as he whines. "You want me to leave so quickly?! I'm hurt!".
"Yeah yeah. Go on, you did say you really needed to see someone so, go!". "Alright! Alright!". He walks towards his own bike and starts it.
"I'm apologising in advance if they're too much trouble!". And he just drives off. *sigh* "Well babysitting can't be that bad can it?".
Wrong! Dead wrong! Babysitting is not fun!
When I return I see the 5 year olds in the kitchen trying to open the fridge...... by climbing on top of one another. Baji was at the bottom holding up Mikey.
"What do you think you're doing?", I ask crossing my arms in anger. I cannot catch a break, can I?
They freeze and slowly turn around as if they were caught at a scene of a crime. "I'm hungry!", complained the blonde boy. "No, we're hungry!", Baji said back to him.
"Well what do ye want to eat?". "TAKOYAKI!!", I jump as Mikey shouts his love for it to the high heavens.
"Alright alright! I'll make it, but for now you have study". "Awwww but we don't want to study!", they whined in sync.
Rubbing my forehead I'm hit by a brilliant idea. "If both of you don't study..... I won't make Takoyaki!". "Let's do maths first!".
"No! Mikey you know how hard it is for me!". "Baji anything to do with school is hard for you!".
I giggle at their little fight but in the end they sit down in the living room and do some work. Looking through the kitchen I find all the ingredients I need to make Takoyaki.
First I cut the octopus into bite sized pieces then put it aside. To make the batter I get a bowl, put in plain flour and cornflour.
Mixing it I get another bowl and whisk the egg. "Xeno-kun!!!". I sigh and put down the bowl, walking towards their table. "Yes?".
"I don't know what this question means!!", pouts Baji. I smile and explain it to him so he could understand. In the end he gets it but I learn an important thing about him.......
Baji is horrible at schoolwork. Well not everyone is capable of everything. "Thanks Xeno-kun!". I smile and go back to work on the Takoyaki.
I add the egg to the dry mixture then slowly pour in the dashi stock and mix it all together. I check if it's the right texture since it needs to be thin and runny.
Leaving it in a bowl I heat the takoyaki pan over a medium high heat and brush oil over the entire surface. "Xeno-kunn!!!".
I let out a huff and quickly make my way over to them. "Mikey broke my pencil!!". "I did not! It's all baji's fault!".
I take out a pencil from my pocket and give it to Baji. "There problem solved now get back to work!".
I rush back to the kitchen and pour the batter into the pan. I continue pouring it until all the wells are full and the batter covers the entire pan.
Placing a piece of Octopus into each well I then scatter some spring onion, ginger and tempura crumbs. Across the lot. "Hmm what are you doing here?", asks a sleepy voice.
I startle and look behind me to see..... Emma! Oh god!!! I forgot about her! Why didn't Shinichiro tell me!??!
"Well you see your Aniki went to see someone so I'm going to look after the three of ye for today". "Mmmmm what are you making??".
"Takoyaki. The two boys grew hungry".... "That's not how Aniki makes it".
"Well this is how I make it. Now can you look after those two boys for about?
I need to finish this or else they'll annoy me to death, I'll burn the Takoyaki and we'll have two hangry boys on our case".
She chuckles and goes to check on them. I hope she'll warm up to me soon....... since I feel like I'll be here often.
Looking at the pan I see that the batter started turning crispy, so I get a pair of chopsticks and cut out a square shape around each takoyaki well.
Moving my chopsticks in an L shape around each well, I then immediately push down into the well to flip the batter, forming a rough ball shape as I go.
I continue flipping the balls occasionally as the batter becomes crispy and golden brown on all sides.
The easiest way to do this is to pierce the takoyaki ball with the chopstick and pull upwards to flip.
A few more rotations and my batch of takoyaki became glorious, crispy and golden balls.
After a few more minutes of flipping them, I get a plate and pop the cooked takoyaki onto it.
I carefully top the takoyaki with bonito flakes and put it on the dining table. "Its ready!". Just as I finished I heard a thundering sound as they all raced to the kitchen.
Laughing I see them stare at the takoyaki in awe. "Woah! Those look delicious!". "My precious!".
"Mikey stop drooling!". I grin as I see them grab the takoyaki and start eating. While they do that, I put away the other ingredients and wash the dirty cutlery.
Placing them on a rack I wipe down the counters and head back to the dining table only to see.......... nothing left.
I collapse onto the floor as crocodile tears slip from my eyes. They left me!!!! They ate all the food and didn't leave me a single crumb!!!! Such cruel kids!!!
And after everything I've done for them!!! After getting up off the floor I also wash the dirty dish and go look for the kids. Entering the living room I'm met with an adorable sight.
Mikey lay collapsed on the couch. Emma leaning onto him on the left, while Baji leaned onto him from the right.
All of them sleeping after filling their stomachs. I sigh and pick all of them up, heading up the stairs and laying them on their own beds.
I put Baji into Mikey's bed since he doesn't have a room here. Tucking them in, I close their doors and go back downstairs. Sitting on the couch I quietly watch the TV while relaxing.
Surprisingly they were still asleep after a few hours but I guess its expected since their kids.
*Thud thud*
I looked up to see Shinichiro walking in, looking around confusedly. Turning to me he asked a question that's been on his mind, ever since he entered the house. "Where are they?".
"They're thankfully still asleep". His eyes widen as he looks around in disbelief. "You've got to be kidding me! How did you do it!?".
I smirk as I said in all seriousness ......
"I fed them".
His jaw dropped open as he couldn't quite believe what he heard. "What exactly did you feed them? Sleeping pills!?".
I roll my eyes as I reply to his question. "No dummy! I fed them takoyaki". And that my friends is how Shinichiro Sano collapsed from traumatizing news.
After mulling over my options I pick him up and slowly carry him to his room tucking him in. Walking downstairs I decide to make some dinner for them since watching TV is kind of boring.
Using the left over ingredients I make more Takoyaki and with it I make some miso soup. Just as I finished the dinner Grandpa Sano walked into the kitchen.
"Oh well if it isn't a young lad. Good to see you again Xeno but may I ask what your doing here?".
"I was babysitting for Shinichiro since he needed to see someone. I made Takoyaki for the kids after a while then Shinichiro came in, fainted and now I'm here".
"Hahaha! Oh those kids give Shinichiro so much hassle. Thank you so much for looking after them and making us dinner. You didn't have to".
I shake my head at the elder and smile. "No no! I'm glad I helped and besides watching TV was getting tiring so I decided to make dinner".
"Well thank you. You can go now since I can handle it from here. Take care".
"Thank You sir, have a good day!", I cheerily reply to him as I get out of the house.
Checking the time I see that it's still 5 in the evening which is way too early! So I head to the playground just for some fun.
There I see a white haired boy talking with a black haired one who had a scar. I pay no attention to them and head towards the swings.
Sitting on them for a while I feel a tap on my shoulder, turning around I'm met by white hair and purple eyes. "Can I help you?".
"Listen here pheasant. I already said this to other kids who thought they could come onto my turf but I'll say it again".
"'This is my turf', and if you don't get off of it I'll beat you up till you crawl off of it. So make sure you get out of here quickly". I raise my eyebrows before a chuckle escapes me.
"Pfft! You think you can defeat me?? I'm an assassin and your a cute, smoll bean so go back to chatting to your friend".
I can see him getting angry as a tick mark forms on his forehead. "Come here.... so I can kill you!". I quickly jump off the swing as he sends a kick to my back.
Facing him I take a fighting stance and deflect any attacks. After a few minutes of tiring him out I make my move, by flipping him over my back and holding him in place.
"So small bean..... want to talk again??". There was a few seconds of silence before he spoke.
"Are you the friend Shinichiro spoke about?". "Hmmm that depends who you are to him". Another few moments of silence before he decided to speak the truth.
"Shinichiro is my Aniki. He came to visit me today and talked about you". "Oh so your the person he had to really see today", I teased the white haired boy.
I stood up and placed him on his feet as the scarred boy ran up to us. "Izana are you okay?!". "Quiet servant! I'm fine so no need to shout!".
I raise my eyebrow at their exchange. Peasant? Servant? Never know what's going on in people's heads these days. "By the way I'm Izana and this is Kakucho!".
"Sorry for attacking you earlier I didn't realise you were Aniki's friend", he rubbed the back of his head as he admitted sheepishly. I smile at his cuteness as I wanted to pinch his chubby cheeks. So kawaii!
"Its find, and for a small bean you fight pretty well, but question why don't you live with Shin?". A dark look passe his face as he spoke.
"I'm living in the orphanage for now". "Well hopefully we'll see each other again. Have a good day Izana, Kakucho".
I walk away and drive away on my bike. Seriously ever since I've met Shinichiro I've met ton of people...... sadly I know that good things don't last forever.
SHINICHIRO'S POV
I wake up to a loud shout downstairs as always. Getting up I head to the dining room, only to see...... the three five year olds fighting over takoyki.
Seeing gramps I ask him "What's going on?". "Hahaha! Well it seems that the young man decided to put all of you to bed and made dinner. He left when I returned".
Oh my god I didn't even thank him! How stupid can I be!?. "Now the kids are fighting over the Takoyaki since they claim it to be food from the gods!".
My eyes turn to saucers as I listen to their fight. "Mikey give me that Takoyaki! I had it first!". "Mikey! You already ate more than half of them so give me and Baji some!".
"No! They're mine!". It continued like that till Gramps came in between them. The rest of the dinner went by without a hitch as we ate the Miso soup.
After eating I washed the dishes and went to my room. I enjoyed seeing Izana again but I was also disappointed I couldn't spend time with Xeno. Taking out my phone I text him a message.
Shinichiro:
Sorry that I fell unconscious. I just wanted to thank you for looking after those three. Can you please come over to Sakura cafe at 3 tomorrow? It's in Shibuya
A few minutes went by before he replied.
Xeno:
It's no problem. I'll be there tomorrow.
Shinichiro:
Thanks
I put away my phone and go to bed, thinking how they will react tomorrow, since I've been meaning to do this for a while and my decision will change a few things.