Nanako and Yu: Another Day at Home

Inaba, Dojima Residence —

<Pose Tracker> Yu Narukami [KDA] has posed.
(Ignoring time, for conveinance sake).
 It’s after six’o’clock in Inaba and the moon is high over the small country town. There’s a gentle breeze blowing throughout, and the ambient temperature of the outdoors is just warm enough for it to be comfortable.

Outside the Dojiima residence, with the sliding glass door to the living room ajar, a graying young man in white short sleeved shirt, black cotton slacks, and a well-worn pair of brown leather shoes is squatted by the open door. He appears to be tending to potted plants presently. It’d be more accurate to say, he’s adding a new one.

 Setting a mud colored clay pot besides the sliding glass doorway, Yu stands to his full height and proceeds to look around… for something. “Where did I put the soil..”

<Pose Tracker> Nanako Dojima [U] has posed.
   “Big Bro?” Nanako Dojima stands in the living room of the Dojima household, her pigtails drooping from ponytail stress as well as ‘it’s getting late and Nanako cannot be bothered to completely fix them’. She’s holding her school backpack, as well as several pieces of paper – it’s been quiet because she was upstairs doing her homework.
 
   “Are you looking for something?” She continues on. She doesn’t move much, she just watches him rather seriously from underneath her fly-away bangs. Then she points at a spot – “Isn’t that the soil?” She creeps a couple of feet forward. “What are you doing?”

<Pose Tracker> Yu Narukami [KDA] has posed.
Upon hearing Nanako’s voice, Yu ceases his searching immediately and peeks through the opening of the sliding glass door into the living room… his fog gray eyes fixing upon the much shorter girl. Grasping the edge of the sliding glass door, and pushing it open a bit more, Yu offers a warm smile to her… “Potting a plant. I thought it’d look nice.”

 Taking two steps inside the house, Yu kneels down upon his left knee on the hardwood floor of the residents and eyes Nanako’s ponytails. “Your hair… is a bit messy.” He was kind of surprised at that. Given how careful Nanako is with taking care of the home, while he and Dojima are away, he’d have figured she’d be taking better care of it. “Do you need some help…?” Noticing then the backpack held in her arms, “…With homework or your hair.”, he offers her a playful grin – jesting just a bit.

 Looking back over his shoulder at the bag of soil sitting right behind him, the graying youth facefaults. “I must be getting old…”

<Pose Tracker> Nanako Dojima [U] has posed.
   Nanako smiles at Yu. “Oh! That makes sense.” She says, just as sensibly as his reply. When he mentions her ponytails, she unconciously reaches up, and gives a little grimace at the reminder. “I was busy and didn’t want to take a break to put them back in order.” She explains. “Math is kind of hard!” The girl admits.
 
   “No, I finally got it. I wanted to put my backpack by the door with my homework so I wouldn’t forget.” She sets the backpack down and kneels down to file the papers, and when she stands, she takes a moment to re-do her ponytails – she’s gotten much better at it in the three years Yu has been here. “Thank you, though.”
 
   Then she offers, witha straight face, “If you’re old, then daddy must be /ancient/.”

<Pose Tracker> Yu Narukami [KDA] has posed.
Standing, shortly after Nanako explains her hair situation, Yu chuckles. “Math is pretty hard.” He could remember how he struggled with it when he was younger… “Okay, if you ever do need help I’m here.” Most of the time. At night, at least…

 “Heh…” Yu grins in an amused fashion as Nanako rather nonchalantly calls her father an old fart. Shaking his head a bit, he asides, “Funny that you say that…” … his shoes suddenly in motion, thudding across the living room floor toward the kitchen softly, “…a girl at Aoba Park the other day called me an old timer. She said it was the hair.”

Reaching the kitchen counter after a moment, Yu grabs a white plastic shopping bag off of it, and starts back toward Nanako with it. “Here…” Reaching his hand into the bag and digging around in what sounds to be paper contents, likely the thin artificial dressing stores always throw into bags to add ‘cushioning’ to the merchandise, Yu furrows his brows. Digging… digging… looking down into the bag, slightly annoyed… !!!

 He produces from the bag a handsewn doll with his right hand, upon closer-inspection… it’s a cotton replicate of Jack Frost. “I had to get someone to do drawings of him… because nobody seems to know who this guy is. But here.” He then extends the snow white soft-cotton doll toward the much younger girl. “I hope you enjoy it.”

He then places the bag back on the counter behind him with his left hand. “The rest are just necessities…”

Nanako Dojima [U] has posed.
“Thank you!” Nanako says. “Sincerely, really.” She follows him across the living room, her backpacks strap drooping in sadness as she deserts it. Why did you go, Nanako? I nestle into your shoulder so snugly and comfort it with my padded strap… Ahem. Back to the actual scene here. “Well it is kind of silvery-gray.” Nanako then says, faithfully, “More silver than gray, though.”

She watches him dig around, then her jaw /drops/. There are many ways to make Nanako act like a six year old again, however, this cute little cotton doll does it in about ten seconds flat. She takes it and speechlessly hugs it tight to her chest, practically emitting heartbubbles. ❤

"Oh, big /bro/…" She finally says. "Thank you!"

Yu Narukami [KDA] has posed.
Soon plopping down on the old sofa across from the living room table and TV, or what passes for a table… being so low it could be used as a foot rest, Yu snakes his hands into his pockets and watches as Nanako bubbles over with happiness at his gift. Finding himself staring at the floor a bit red faced at the display, Yu somehow manages to find words despite ‘cuteness overload’, “… You’re welcome.”

After that’s settled with, and Nanako has presumably come down from whatever high placed she’d gone to, Yu adds, “…So, has he been home lately?” He’s referring, of course, to the older Dojima. Even after having lived here for years he still wasn’t sure whether to refer to him as Uncle, Dojima-san, or something else. Often, it ended up being Dojima though…

Eyeing the television set across the way silently in thought for a few moments whilst awaiting Nanako’s response… perhaps thinking… he mutters to himself.. “I wonder if I should cook dinner…”

Nanako Dojima [U] has posed.
Nanako finally beams at Yu’s slightly red face. “Thankyouthankyouthankyou.” She whispers softly, settling down onto her customary position – er, customary cushion by the table-kotatsu.

“Yes, actually.” Nanako says. “He took me to Junes.” Pause. “I can make dinner.”

Yu Narukami [KDA] has posed.
Nodding, as Nanako thanks him again, Yu stands up from the Sofa almost as quickly as he’d sat down and starts across the living room again to close the sliding glass door. He’ll take care of the plant later, it was already potted by the gardner he’d bought it from… just not very well.

Shutting the heavy glass door with an audible *CLACK*, Yu turns the latch beneath the door handle twice to secure the door. Hearing a small click, he turns, forcing his hands into his pockets again and shaking his gray mane from side-to-side. “It’s fine. … Have you eaten? If not, what are you in the mood for?” He turns his eyes questioningly over his shoulder toward the little girl seated by the kotatsu, even whilst continuing to head toward the kitchen to check the fridge for ingredients.

Nanako Dojima [U] has posed.
Nanako watches him clean up – well, lock up – the pair in the house, and she gives him a little smile that might tremble a little bit around the edges. “Rice, please.” She requests. “Do we have any fish in the fridge? With vegetables?” She’s a growing girl! She needs the food to make Dad twitchy in a few years.

“Are you not going to finish the plant tonight?”

Yu Narukami [KDA] has posed.
Yu nods, silently, as Nanako makes requests. Rice, fish, and vegetables. Japanese staples then. Stopping infront of the refridgerator, and swinging the door wide so he can lean in far enough to gaze inside, Yu’s voice echoes slightly from inside the fridge, “Alright.” Chanpuru then… ~

After probably close to an hour of cooking… after which time the scent of stir fried rice, steamed vegetables, and mackerel practically pervades the entire house… Yu turns off the stove and lifts a pan full of rice from the eye. “Dinner’s ready. … Turn on the news, would you?”

Exiting the kitchen with a large tray, upon which sits several separate dishes, including the main one…. Yu makes his way to the kotatsu and takes a seated position in the floor opposite Nanako. He then gazes at her from across the table, hands folded in his lap, smiling softly. “Let’s eat.”

Nanako Dojima [U] has posed.
“Ohhh..” Nanako sighs. While she can cook, Yu is a very good cook and he is capable of doing things she at eight years old cannot. She takes – and keeps – her seat across the table from him, her brown eyes bright, her nose actively sniffing as she continues. The yes, that’s mackerel fish, yum/my/, and there’s the vegetables and the rice and Nanako very happily makes her way over to the kotatsu at the end, settling into her typical seat.

“Thank you, big bro!” She says softly, or the proper Japanese equivalent before she goes straight for the fish and the sauce, carefully dipping it before her mouth is occupied by food and a happy ‘mmmm’ noise. Her little Jack Frost doll has attained residence on her shoulder, as well, watching the food and Yu across the table.

Yu Narukami [KDA] has posed.
Yu grins, picking up his chopsticks from the table and breaking them properly. He then situates them on his fingers properly and grabs his rice dish from his lift side… offering a quick and simple nod to the gracious little girl sitting across the table from him. “I don’t mind.” He loved it actually, Cooking… like Origami… was an art he definitely enjoyed indulging in.

Watching the muted TV for several moments in silence as a local weather man mouths his latest forecast before a backdrop of a comically large and shining animaed cartoon sun, Yu places another helping of rice in his mouth mindlessly and wonders when it will rain next…

Turning his gaze from the TV to Nanako after several moments, a pleasant expression crossing his features as he notices the doll, Yu asks, “How have you been lately?” He felt kind of bad being that he’d been so busy lately he hardly knew.

Nanako Dojima [U] has posed.
Nanako says, around her food(which she /is/ eating properly, if a bit quickly – she was really hungry, how about that), “I’m doing well, honestly, big bro!” She says. “I’ve been watching Magical Detective Loveline and doing my homework and stuff and talking to my friends so I keep really busy, just like you!”

Pause.

“Except I’m not allowed to stay out late and daddy checks up on me /far/ more often.” She says. Well, ‘far more often’ being ‘more than never’. … Enoha is really in charge of that, /honestly/. She goes back to eating, but slows down considerably over time- she’s getting a bit sleepy.

Yu Narukami [KDA] has posed.
“Ah…” LOVELINE! Yu could practically the hear the iconic magical girl detective screaming in his ears. “…That’s great.” His features grew warm and brotherly again, his tone softening to more a friendly one than it had been. He’d kind of forgotten in his tiredness how cute talking to Nanako was… but she was growing fast… “Well…” He replies, in response to what she says about his uncle checking up on her, “He really loves you. … He’s just…” Yu pauses to chuckle softly.. “..really bad with girls?” It was probably true. Now anyway. Dojima didn’t really express himself enough. “I’m glad you’re staying occupied though.”

After dinner is thoroughly done, Yu takes the tray from the kotatsu into the kitchen and sets it by the sink with an audible *clank*. … “You’re looking sleepy…” He says, from half-way across the house… not far enough for her to not be able to hear though. “Why don’t you go get ready for bed. If you like, I’ll come read to you before I start on the dishes.”

…and so, having finished her dinner, Nanako retreated to bed and Yu came to read her a story before she fell asleep. Poor little girl didn’t last half-way through it. Good night Nanako…