#also yes this is free to reblog and honestly highly encouraged too to see who is a safe space/safe friend | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

datheetjoella · 6 years

Text

I’ll Paint a Smile on Your Face - Part 1

Fandom: Free! Pairing: MakoHaru Rating: T Summary: What was supposed to be a calm afternoon of painting with the children goes a little different than planned when Makoto comes home from work and Haruka greets him with an unexpected surprise. Shenanigans ensue and the afternoon turns from calm to unforgettable.

That evening Makoto and Haruka reminisce about the past, appreciate the present, and make a promise for the future.

Word count: 24,547

Notes: Ho Ho Hey, @tachinanabananase, guess who your gift-maker is? ME BITCH! In all seriousness, merry christmas! This fic is not only based off your prompt (Inspired by BTS Crystal Snow) but also off of an otpprompt that I once reblogged and that you sent to me and told me to write. When I saw your prompt, I had the (in my opinion) perfect idea of what I wanted to write and I thought it might be nice to mix the two prompts into one massive fic! Because it is so big, I decided to split it up in two parts because I didn’t just want to throw this massive fic at you all at once when you’re probably very busy and it’s totally not because I haven’t finished part two yet or anything. Unfortunately, the main part that was inspired by Crystal Snow is in part two (”that evening” part of the summary) and this part one is mainly just the prompt that we’ve talked about before. I really hope that’s okay, I’m sorry if that disappoints you but I’ll try my best to get part two out as soon as possible. I just hope that you’ll like part one enough to stick around for part two. I’m sorry this fic is so long and I’m sorry that you have to wait for the second half, but I still hope you’ll be able to enjoy this fic because I had a lot of fun writing it.

I also want to thank the sweet @anunyun for organising this exchange! I had so much fun doing this with you, Inna, and I hope you had just as much fun as I had. Thank you, dear!

Just one more thing: this fic is set in the same universe of the fic “My Most Precious Treasure”. It is by no means necessary to read that fic because this can be perfectly read as a stand alone, but in case you want a little more context and background, then I would advise to read that fic first because it’s set about half a year before this one.

Sorry for rambling for so long, I’m not sure if I said everything that I wanted to say but I hope this covers it. Merry Christmas and I hope you enjoy!

Read at: AO3 - FFn or right here

"Daddy?"

Upon being called, Haruka peered over his shoulder to where Umiko and Mizuki were sat at the kitchen table. He had just picked them up from school and was now pouring them a drink and getting their afternoon snack. "What?"

"I want to paint," Umiko said, mindlessly tapping her fingers against the wooden surface while she was waiting.

"Paint?" Haruka questioned as he put the cups in front of them - lemonade for Umiko and fruit juice for Mizuki - to which she nodded vigorously. It wasn't very surprising that she wanted to paint because she had been getting more and more into arts and crafts lately. Ever since she had found one of his old sketchbooks from back in high school with Makoto's image plastered all over it in the attic, she constantly wanted to draw and colour to improve her own skills, like the portraits and illustrations her dad had made of her father had inspired her to master the art as well. Perhaps it was only a fleeting interest and she would become obsessed over something entirely different next week, but Haruka wanted to encourage her creativity and enthusiasm nonetheless and he knew Makoto completely agreed with that; he honestly thought it was adorable that Haruka was such a role model for her and when Haruka told him about her discovery in the attic, he was endeared with reminiscence. But then he remembered some of the drawings Haruka had made in the past and his endearment turned into mortification, but Haruka assured him that she hadn't found one of the more… eccentric and intimate sketchbooks he owned because if she had, then she definitely would have asked him about it. He had made sure to tuck those further away and out of sight and reach of the children that night to spare them all from a highly inappropriate conversation taking place in the near future. "We can paint. It's a nice day so why don't we take advantage of that and go paint outside?" Haruka proposed, seeing that as a chance to not only enjoy the nice weather, but also to keep the house clean.

"Yes!" Umiko cheered before taking a big gulp of her drink.

"Slow down a little," Haruka advised with a chuckle, mentally shaking his head at her eagerness, "There will be plenty of time to paint later so there's no need to rush."

"Yeah," she agreed, catching herself on her own enthusiasm and she put her drink down, still grinning to herself.

Seeing how excited she was made Haruka smile as well as he walked back to the counter to get the plate of leftover chocolate-chip cookies from the batch he had made earlier that week. Before he went to put it on the table though, he grabbed a few of them and wrapped them in the aluminum foil that had been covering the plate. He knew Makoto would want some too when he came home because he had mentioned craving his homemade cookies when they were having lunch together earlier that day, and he couldn't seriously expect their little monsters to resist the temptation and leave some for their father so Haruka made sure to hold some back for his husband beforehand. He was certain Makoto would really appreciate that.

With the plate and a mug of tea for himself in hand, Haruka joined their kids at the table, sitting down in his usual seat. In his head he was already planning what the best setup would be for painting in the backyard and it was then that he realised that Mizuki hadn't actually confirmed that he wanted to paint as well. Although he usually wanted to do whatever his sister was doing too, it could be that he had something else in mind as to how he wanted to spend his afternoon, which was fine as long as Haruka could keep an eye on both him and Umiko. He figured that it didn't hurt to ask him directly rather than just assuming.

"Mizuki?"

The little boy, who had been completely focused on the cup that was clutched tightly in his tiny hands as he held it to his face, looked up to his dad without ceasing to drink.

Knowing that he had his attention, Haruka asked, "Do you want to paint too?"

Mizuki only nodded in return before he put his empty cup back down onto the coaster and then he grabbed a cookie from the plate, taking a bite that was slightly too large for his mouth. This didn't stop him from trying to speak, though.

"Don't speak with your mouth full," Haruka gently reminded before he could finish his sentence.

"Oh, right. Sorry," Mizuki mumbled instead, completely unaware of the fact that he was still chewing while he said it and Haruka couldn't repress a snort of amusement. Disciplining little kids was so hard when they didn't even notice what they were actually doing; since Mizuki had already apologised and wasn't even aware of his own action, Haruka decided to let it slide. When his mouth was empty Mizuki made a second attempt. "Can I have more juice?"

"Of course," Haruka answered and he got up to go to the fridge again, "Umiko, do you want more too?"

"Just a little."

Once he had provided both of their children with a refill of their respective beverages, he sat down in his chair again and took a sip of his tea. Immediately Mizuki put the remaining half of his cookie down on the table to drink some more, the action leaving Haruka in bewilderment.

"Are you that thirsty?" he wondered at the rate he was gulping down his juice and Mizuki simply nodded again. "You must have had a busy day if it made you that thirsty."

"Yeah," was all Mizuki said in response and it made Haruka smile once more out of fondness. In some aspects their son really reminded him of himself when he was younger, like in how quiet and reserved he was, not wasting any words when he spoke and only answering questions and remarking the things he wanted to mention. But his silence shouldn't be mistaken for shyness or disinterest, because he was always perfectly able to make clear what he wanted without holding himself back. At home he could be pretty talkative, but only in an engaging conversation that someone else had started. Therefore Haruka knew that he had to specifically ask him what he wanted to know.

"And did you have fun at school today?" he questioned, knowing how much he had enjoyed going to school so far. He had recently started kindergarten and he had made quite a few friends already, contrary to Haruka himself when he was his age since he had only had Makoto back then - though Makoto was really all he had ever needed. Even if Haruka was pretty sure that he wouldn't enjoy going to school anymore a decade from now, he was glad that he did find it fun right now. After all, having to drop the children off at school every morning was already hard enough as it was, so the fact that they actually wanted to go definitely made it easier than if they hated it.

"Yeah," Mizuki repeated, and it was all he said before he he took another bite of his snack.

Since he had just told him not to speak with his mouth full, Haruka decided to leave it at that for now. He could always inquire further when he wasn't eating, so Haruka directed his questions towards Umiko instead. "And you, did you have fun as well?"

"Yes!" Umiko exclaimed excitedly, and unlike with Mizuki, Haruka didn't have to ask her in order for her to elaborate on what she had done that day that had made it so enjoyable. In that sense Umiko was similar to Makoto, in how cheerful and enthusiastic she was, although she wasn't shy like Makoto had been at her age and was a lot more bold and daring. She always had fun at school because she loved gathering knowledge and making friends, and school happened to be the perfect place to do both of those things. Because of that he wouldn't be surprised if she would still like going to school in the years yet to come.

Haruka listened attentively to their daughter blabbering on and on about what she had learned that day and what she had done with her friends, adding commentary here and there in between sips of tea and small bites of a chocolate-chip cookie. Throughout conversation he was also able to decipher the enigma that was Mizuki's eventful day at kindergarten whenever he added his two cents and shared his own experiences. In return Umiko asked Haruka about his day at work and because the finances and administration of the swim club were hardly interesting to little kids, he just told them that he'd had lunch with their father and had purposely finished early so he could swim some laps in the pool once he was done.

"I want to have lunch with you and Papa too," Mizuki pouted, making it obvious that he disliked the fact that he couldn't be there with them and Umiko immediately expressed her agreement.

It was adorable that they wanted to have lunch with Makoto and him and he honestly would have liked them to be there too, but on weekdays that just wasn't possible since they had to go to school while Makoto and he were at the swim club. Because of that, Haruka decided to turn the impossible into something a little more positive. "But you already have breakfast and dinner with us every single day, and we do have lunch together on the weekends. Isn't it more fun to have lunch with your friends too for a change?"

"Yeah," Umiko concurred and she nodded in understanding, seeing that there was a point of truth in her dad's words because she did like having lunch with her friends too.

"But it's still unfair," Mizuki insisted and he crossed his arms, completely sure that he was right about that.

"Unfair? Unfair that Papa and I get to have lunch together but you don't?" Haruka questioned and Mizuki nodded in confirmation. Admittedly, in a way he was right; it was a little unfair, but if he told him that then he'd never hear the end of it and he knew that it wasn't something that he could actually change. So instead he just had to give different arguments to convince their son otherwise. "But you get to have lunch with your friends, and I get to have lunch with my friend," he reasoned, hoping that Mizuki would find that an acceptable answer and that it would suffice as the end of this discussion.

Fortunately, Umiko cut in with a different subject that her dad's words had brought her on, diverting the attention away from the topic of lunch. "Papa has always been your best friend, right Daddy?" she asked, already knowing the answer yet loving to hear her parents affirm it and she grinned brightly.

"Always," Haruka muttered and warmth and affection spontaneously overflowed in his heart at the mere thought of it. They had been joined at the hip from the first moment they met, even though that was so long ago that he couldn't remember a time Makoto hadn't been by his side and even now, decades later, they remained inseparable and Haruka knew they would be together forevermore. Because Makoto was the love of his life, his other half with whom he had spent every day and had vowed to continue to spend the rest of his life with.

Lost in daydreams of his husband and their eternal love, Haruka hadn't even noticed that their children were still talking. But they didn't seem to be bothered by it and just continued the conversation with each other; it wasn't a rare occurrence that their dad's thoughts drifted off for a little while so it wasn't very remarkable to them. Although it may have seemed a little odd, Haruka didn't mind dissociating from reality for a second because it was nice to stand still and really feel how happy he was, like joy and love liquified and coursed through his veins, filling him with too much bliss to contain. It was good to take a moment to properly take everything in and he truly appreciated all that he had; the things that Makoto and he had fought so hard for and were now reaping the fruits of. And every day was truly a gift that was meant to be cherished and enjoyed to its fullest.

Suddenly he was overcome with a need to see Makoto and to hold him tight for the adoration he felt was too strong to go unexpressed, but alas Makoto was still at work. It wouldn't be too long until he got home though, so he would just have to bottle up those feelings until then and let them run wild later. For now, he could show their kids his affection and he made sure to do that like he did every day.

"Dad? Daddy?"

The sound of Umiko's voice pulled him out of his reverie and he blinked a few times before he met her large brown eyes. "Sorry, what?"

"We want to go see Papa and swim too," she announced decisively and her brother nodded in agreement, showing that that was what they had been discussing while his mind was on cloud nine.

This statement surprised Haruka a little, considering they had been so excited about getting to paint before yet it appeared that the revelation of what his early afternoon had been like gave them a change of heart. He would never be one to turn down an opportunity to see his husband and swim on top of that so if the kids really wanted to go to the club then that was completely fine with him. But he supposed that it couldn't hurt to remind them of their previous plans since it seemed like the idea of a trip to go see their father at work was one that entered their mind suddenly and made them suggest it on a whim. "That's fine, but I thought that you wanted to paint?"

"Oh yeah!" Umiko recalled, the tone of her light voice clearly showing that she had forgotten about that in her enthusiasm.

"So, which is it?" Haruka questioned, wanting to let Umiko and Mizuki decide since he didn't mind either way. "Painting or going to Papa and swimming?"

Mizuki simply peered up at his sister like he was waiting for her answer and would go along with that, but Umiko appeared to be seriously torn up. Her adorable face was twisted into a frown and she hummed softly as she deeply pondered about the options, finding it hard to make a choice when they were both so appealing. Since it was obvious that she found it very hard to make up her mind, Haruka made the decision for her.

"I think Papa will be home in about an hour, so what about this," he started, and both Umiko and Mizuki stared at him attentively, waiting for his proposal, "We'll paint today and tomorrow we go swimming together with Papa. If it's as warm tomorrow as it is today then we can go to the beach, and otherwise we'll just go to the pool. Is that alright?"

"Yeah!" the kids gushed in unison, making Haruka smile at their enthusiasm. He knew just how much they loved going to the beach and because they lived close to the coast they went whenever the opportunity presented itself, which was quite often around the summer times. It was still spring so warm and dry weather wasn't exactly guaranteed, but it was gradually getting warmer outside as the summer approached and if the forecasts were right, then they should be able to go to the beach tomorrow for the ocean would be warm enough to swim in.

Although Makoto was still afraid of the ocean and would most likely be forever, that didn't stop them from going often because Makoto wanted them to go; he didn't want to take away something his husband and their children loved just because he feared it himself - they had never told Umiko and Mizuki about their father's fear because he didn't want them to become afraid of it too just because he was and therefore they were waiting to tell them until they were a little older. Truth of the matter was that Makoto enjoyed going too, he loved watching their kids play and his husband swim and swimming together with them. As long as Umiko and Mizuki were supervised and accompanied when they went into the water and didn't go too deep then everything was alright for him. Arm floaties used to be one of the requirements as well, but since Umiko was old enough now and could swim pretty well only Mizuki had to wear them, much to his chagrin. Telling him that it was necessary for his safety didn't alleviate his dismay, but once he was in the water and playing with his family, he forgot all about the uncomfortable arm-traps and he was just having fun. The promise that he wouldn't have to wear them anymore once he was able to swim properly made him even more eager to learn how to swim as well, so a lot of time would be dedicated to teaching him how to swim this summer.

The children weren't the only ones who were getting a little excited, but Haruka told himself to postpone his enthusiasm about swimming until tomorrow; today they were going to paint together and that was a lot of fun too. "Well, go finish your drink and cookies so we can get started," he teased and Umiko and Mizuki didn't need to be told twice.

Once all of their cups were empty and the plate was cleared, Haruka took the kids upstairs so he could change them into some old pyjamas that he didn't mind Umiko and Mizuki getting dirty. Even though they always made sure that the paint they bought for the children was non-toxic and - according to the label - would wash out of clothing if stained or spilled, it was better to be safe than sorry and he didn't want to risk ruining their good clothes. For good measure, he put on some old clothes of his own as well.

When they were all dressed, he took the children to the bathroom so he could tie Umiko's hair into a ponytail and clip back Mizuki's fringe so their hair would stay out of their face and wouldn't bother them while they were painting. Although it usually wouldn't be necessary for Mizuki, he had been complaining that his fringe was too long and was constantly adjusting it. Haruka really needed to cut them soon, but for now hair clips would do so Mizuki wouldn't have to keep pushing them back and wouldn't accidentally smear paint into them in the process.

While he was brushing Umiko's long black hair she kept unconsciously bouncing up and down on her legs out of jitteriness, which didn't exactly make it easy for him to make a ponytail because the locks kept being pulled out of his hands.

"Sweetheart, can you stand still for one second? Otherwise I can't tie your hair," Haruka requested because he knew it wasn't going to work otherwise. Although he had never really been one to use pet names with anyone, that gradually changed when they first adopted Umiko; the pet names just rolled off Makoto's tongue when he was cuddling with her or playing with her or begging her to please stop crying and go back to sleep, and that proved itself to be quite infectious because soon the pet names were leaving his lips without his awareness as well. He hadn't done anything to stop it though, because he supposed it was just another token of affection towards the children and he wanted to do everything he could to let them know how much they were loved. Since then, calling Umiko and eventually Mizuki by the occasional pet name just became a habit.

"Oh, sorry," Umiko mumbled and she stopped moving, allowing Haruka to make a neat, tight ponytail. Then he turned her around so he could clip her fringe to the side as well.

"Daddy, hurry up!" Mizuki complained for the minute that had passed had taken far too long for his liking, already growing bored and impatient.

"Calm down, I only have two hands," Haruka replied, not fazed at all by the little boy's attempt at rushing him, "We have all the time in the world so there's no need to hurry."

"I know…" Mizuki sighed with a pout and although he understood, he was still rather displeased by what he interpreted as his dad taking his sweet time for something that could have been done much faster. Rather than trying to explain the situation to Mizuki, Haruka decided to just focus on Umiko's hair so they could get started soon and wouldn't have to dwindle on useless discussions like these.

When all of Umiko's stray hairs were pinned aside, he walked into Makoto's and his bedroom and the children followed him like he was luring them along with enchanting pipe music. He opened the door of one of the closets and got up on his toes, rummaging through the contents of the highest shelf before he pulled out an old sheet. "Here," he said as he handed it to Umiko, "If you two go lay this out in the yard then I'll go grab everything else."

"Okay!" Umiko easily replied with newfound excitement, quickly leaving the room to fulfill the task her dad had given her and Mizuki immediately left after his older sister.

With a sigh of fondness Haruka watched them go before he went up to the attic to grab some stuff. A little while back when he was at the art store to get some new watercolours for himself, he had seen these miniature easels that were meant to go on tabletops. He had figured that the kids might like them and therefore he had bought four, one for each of the kids and the other two for Makoto and himself so they could play along - although Makoto's artistic skills hadn't improved much from when he was a child himself, he did always play along when they were doing something crafty even if his abilities when it came to art obviously couldn't match up to Haruka's, but he saw it as an opportunity to teach Umiko and Mizuki that it didn't matter if you were good at something or not as long as you enjoyed it. The easels hadn't been for a special occasion or anything, it had been a little gift just because and like he had expected, the children were really happy with it. Admittedly, Makoto and he spoiled them a little - a lot - but he honestly liked spoiling them and didn't see the harm in it; they could afford it and as long as Umiko and Mizuki didn't become haughty or ungrateful, there was nothing wrong with spoiling them a little and they were still kind and humble and appreciated everything they got. In the end, that was all that mattered.

With three of the four easels tucked under his arm and some small canvases in his other hand, Haruka went downstairs so he could set everything up.

At last he had gathered all the paints, brushes and other miscellaneous painting necessities and they could finally start, much to Umiko and Mizuki's joy and relief. He had set them up in a half circle, with Umiko beside him and Mizuki across from him and all the supplies in between them so they could all easily reach everything. He had already put dollops of all the colours of paint onto a paper plate from a stack that he had found somewhere in the back of the pantry so the kids didn't have to struggle with the tubes and could access everything without having to ask him for help - of course, if they needed more paint then he'd happily oblige and get them some more, but it was less complicated this way. Next to that he had laid out numerous brushes in varying sizes to satisfy all their painting needs and a cup of water and some paper towels so they could rinse out the bristles. The perfect recipe for a fun afternoon of painting together, Haruka thought.

"Daddy, what are you going to paint?" Umiko asked, peering up at him with her large, shining eyes in an attempt to gather inspiration from him.

"I don't know yet," he answered truthfully after a moment of pondering. "And you?"

"It's a secret!" she exclaimed with a grin and she turned one side of the easel closer to herself so Haruka wouldn't be able to see what she made. In actuality, he could still look onto her canvas if he really wanted to but he decided to humour her and not mention it, yet he did keep his gaze averted from it like she had requested because he respected their children's boundaries, regardless of how insignificant the situation at hand may have been. He also didn't mention the fact that not a single stroke had been applied to her canvas yet.

"And you?" Haruka then asked while suppressing an amused smile, turning to Mizuki who was already holding a brush with the bristles covered in black paint, "Is yours a secret too?"

Mizuki thought for a second before he nodded. "Yep," he said and he got started, pushing the tip of his brush down on his canvas and applying rough strokes onto it.

"Alright," Haruka replied with a shrug, knowing that they would eventually let him see it anyway because they always showed Makoto and him everything they made, whether it was a drawing or a sandcastle or anything in between. Until that time, he would respect their privacy and focus on his own painting.

But as he was staring at his blank canvas he unfortunately concluded that his mind was equally blank, really not knowing what he could paint. He looked back at the children - all the while making sure that he didn't catch a glimpse of their work in progress - and saw that Umiko had also eagerly begun to paint with an excited twinkle in her deep brown eyes, contrary to Mizuki who seemed to be in utmost concentration, his small mouth pressed into a firm line as he assaulted the canvas with his brush in a way that would most certainly destroy the bristles sooner or later. Because he knew that he wasn't intentionally rough but simply lacked the motoric capabilities to handle to brush with more finesse, Haruka decided to not stop him or correct him but let him paint to his heart's content. Brushes were replaceable and as long as Mizuki enjoyed himself then it didn't matter if the bristles died in action; it was a very low price to pay for their son's happiness and Haruka would gladly spend every penny on him - and on Umiko too, of course, but since she had mastered a painting technique that was much gentler he was pretty sure she wouldn't unconsciously destroy anything.

As he was watching over them, the need to capture their adorable faces onto his canvas welled up inside of him and since his models were sitting right in front of him, he would have acted on that feeling if it weren't for the art supplies he currently had. With nothing more than various shades of paint that were clearly designed to be used by children and paintbrushes to match, he wasn't confident that he could make a painting that would do them justice; he couldn't sketch them first because he had no pencils and this wasn't exactly the type of paint that he was used to either, so he couldn't guarantee that it would turn out the way he envisioned. He didn't want to risk ruining their cute faces so painting them would have to wait a little longer. For the same reasons he couldn't paint his husband either, who was usually his favourite subject to draw - even if Makoto wasn't here for reference, after more than thirty-five years of studying his features and about thirty years of relaying his image on paper, he didn't need the reference because he could draw him with his eyes closed and in his sleep.

There was nothing he could do right now besides looking for something else he could paint. In a sudden wave of nostalgia, he was reminded of something else that he loved - granted, not as much as he loved his husband and their children, but still - that he didn't need any references for. With that in mind, he grabbed another paper plate from the stack he had found and begun to mix some paints in an attempt to get the exact shade he was looking for. When he was satisfied with it, he smeared off the excess paint at the edge of the plate before he turned back to his canvas and started.

From then on, it was silent for a while. It didn't surprise Haruka at all, because even though Umiko and Mizuki could get quite loud and jittery when they were excited, that didn't mean that they couldn't be quiet and sit still at other times. He definitely didn't mind it when they were a little noisy and active, but he had to admit that he rather liked moments like these when everything was calm and serene yet they were still happy and entertained. These moments wouldn't last forever though, so he had to savour every second while he could.

Like he had already expected, it didn't take much longer until the silence was disrupted by Umiko's light voice, speaking in that honey-sweet tone that she always used when she wanted to ask something that warranted Makoto's and his approval but wasn't sure if they would go along with it - a tone she had learned from none other than her father. "Daddy?"

Curious as to what her question would be, Haruka decided to play along for now and not show that he already knew her intention. "What?"

"Can we get a dog?"

"A dog?" Haruka asked in bewilderment, not knowing where that suddenly came from when they hadn't seen or talked about anything related to dogs all day - then again, the mind of a six-year-old worked in mysterious ways. Before he could question it any further, Mizuki chimed in.

"Yes, a dog! I want a pom… pom…"

"A pomeranian?" Haruka helped, seeing his struggle to find the right word and filling it in for him.

"Yeah, that one!"

"No," Umiko objected, "I want a golden retriever!"

"A golden retriever?" he wondered, being a little perplexed since he didn't know why she was so specific about it. He knew that Mizuki had a special fascination and adoration for pomeranians so him mentioning them wasn't very surprising, but Umiko had never shown any particular interest in golden retrievers before; she loved all dogs so he had figured that it didn't matter to her what kind of dog they would hypothetically get as long as they got one. The fact that she was so steadfast about it now had to mean that she had put more thought into it than he initially expected. Perhaps her proposal was not as sudden as it had seemed. When he was about to ask her why she was adamant about her choice of dog, he was reminded of something that happened in the past and he could hardly suppress a snort, therefore he couldn't not make a remark about it. "But we already have a golden retriever."

"Huh?"

"What do you mean?" Umiko asked in confusion and Mizuki wore a matching frown at their dad's statement because they clearly didn't have a dog, much less a golden retriever.

The looks on both of their faces rendered Haruka unable to stop himself from chuckling. In a silly conversation back in high school about what breed they would be if they were dogs, Makoto had been compared to a golden retriever and Haruka still hadn't forgotten about that because admittedly, he did see the resemblance. Since explaining this would only distract from the discussion at hand, Haruka decided it was better to let that anecdote be saved until later, perhaps as a bedtime story tonight. So instead he just mumbled, "Never mind."

In spite of the fact that he still didn't understand what his dad had said before, Mizuki saw this as an opportunity to steer the conversation back to where he wanted it to go. "If we already have a golden retriever then we can get a pom… pomer…"

"Pomeranian," Haruka supplied again, knowing that he still had trouble recalling and pronouncing some words, especially if they had that many syllables.

"Yeah, so are we getting one?" Mizuki gasped excitedly, interpreting his dad's assistance as agreement and he leaned up on his knees, his sea-green eyes widened in hope.

"That's not what I-"

Before Haruka could finish his sentence, Umiko interrupted him, "No! We don't even have a golden retriever so we can get that one!"

At this point the children were full on arguing about what kind of dog they were going to get - without providing any arguments as to why the dog of their choice was the best for their family - and Haruka knew he had to put a halt to this before it escalated. "Hey," he called, a little louder than he usually would have so that they could hear him over the sound of their own bickering. Usually this would be something that he would have to discuss with Makoto first, but in this case he knew for sure that Makoto would agree with him and he thought it was better to stop Umiko and Mizuki's dream from developing further rather than giving them false hope. "We can't get a dog."

"Aww," Umiko sighed in defeat, a sad pout forming on her lips.

"Why not?" Mizuki questioned and suddenly his sister and he were on the same page again in their shared melancholy about their dad's disapproval.

"Dogs aren't toys," Haruka tried to explain gently, part of him feeling bad that he had to disappoint them when he wanted to give them the world but the rational side of him knew that their current lifestyle didn't have place for a dog, "They're living creatures that need time and attention and care-"

"We will take good care of it!" Umiko quickly assured and Mizuki vigorously nodded in agreement. "We'll love it and walk it and play with it and-"

"I know you would," Haruka interrupted, shaking his head dismissively, "But dogs are still a big responsibility. Who is going to take care of it when you are at school and Papa and I are at work? We can't get a dog and then expect Grandma and Grandpa to look after it all day, but we can't leave a dog alone in the house all day either. That would be sad for the dog, wouldn't it?"

"Yeah," Umiko agreed and although she still seemed disappointed, Haruka was glad that she understood that it simply wouldn't be possible.

"But can't the dog just sleep when we're not here?" Mizuki bargained, desperately looking for a solution because he just wanted to have a dog and he didn't quite understand the issue as much as his older sister did.

"You can't expect a dog to sleep all day and then sleep at night as well," Haruka opposed, thinking that a comparison might help him understand, "Would you like to sleep the entire night and then have to sleep during the morning and afternoon too?"

"No…" Mizuki admitted, averting his gaze because he knew his dad was right. He wouldn't want to be alone all day either, let alone having to sleep when the rest of his family was gone, but that didn't take away from the fact that he wanted a dog really, really badly. Although he knew that it was a wasted effort, he couldn't give up without trying one last time. "But… I could take it to school with me," he mumbled dejectedly despite knowing that Haruka wouldn't approve of that either way.

"You can't take a dog to school with you," was the already expected answer. "You can't learn or play when you have to look after a dog the entire time and your teachers would never allow you to bring it, and neither would Papa and I."

"Well… you could take it to work with you," he reasoned for there was no boss to tell Haruka that he couldn't bring the dog since Makoto and he owned the swim club. Unfortunately, this suggestion also wasn't plausible either because a swim club had no place for a dog.

"Mizuki…" Haruka sighed at their son's insistence. If Mizuki truly wanted something then he wouldn't easily give in, and although Haruka knew that, the time for him to accept the rejection had come because it was useless to argue about this back and forth when the answer would ultimately stay the same. "I'm sorry, sweetheart, but we can't get a dog. We just can't."

The finality of that answer paired with the fact that he wasn't able to come up with any more solutions to the issue made Mizuki come to terms with the fact that there was really nothing more he could say or do. He stopped objecting, but it wasn't without a big huff of disappointment leaving his mouth before he puffed up his cheeks in discontentment. He resumed painting in silence, though there was an obvious lack of enthusiasm in his movements now.

And even Umiko, who had long since given up on pushing her dad into agreeing to get a dog and had continued to paint much sooner, had lost her usual cheerfulness when she had been so excited before.

Seeing the disheartened looks on their faces made Haruka feel a little guilty, but he knew that he couldn't give in to them on this. Perhaps it was good that they didn't get their way this time, because they would have to learn how to deal with disappointments that would surely come in the future. Still, that didn't mean that it didn't make him feel bad, because he completely understood how they felt; back when they were young, Makoto and he had found a stray cat and had decided that they wanted to keep it. They went to ask Makoto's parents if he could keep it, but unfortunately that wasn't possible since his mother was allergic. So they had gone to his parents instead, but he wasn't allowed to keep it either. The memory of the dejection he had felt when his parents refused was very vivid and he had been so upset back then because his parents hadn't even given a reason as to why they couldn't keep it. Although he had hidden his dismay quite well, Makoto had seen right through his demeanour and tried to console him a little even though he was just as upset himself. They had vowed to each other that one day when they were old enough, they would get a cat together.

About thirty years had passed since that promise, eighteen of which they had lived together, yet that day still hadn't arrived - although he frequently fed the stray cats around his house and Makoto and he often played with them back when they were in high school, that didn't exactly count as truly owning a cat. It wasn't so much that they had forgotten about it or had changed their minds, but more so that it never seemed like the right time to get a cat. Whenever it was brought up in conversation, they agreed that it would be better to wait a little longer until things settled down a bit because they were currently too busy; college was way too time-consuming and stressful, once Haruka's Olympic career truly kicked off they were away from home too often, after he retired they were occupied with taking over the swim club and planning their wedding, and once they were married they were diving headfirst into the complicated adoption process that brought along more stress and nerves and once they were finally blessed with Umiko and Mizuki, they had more than enough on their plate with just raising them.

But now, the children were a little older and didn't need the same kind of constant attention and care that they needed back when they were still babies. Everything had settled down into a comfortable and pleasant daily life without them being obligated to do anything, but with a wanting to do many things that brought them joy. Perhaps it was time for that day to come.

"We can't get a dog," Haruka repeated, breaking the somewhat tense silence that hung in the air around them and Umiko and Mizuki both looked up upon hearing their dad's voice. "But, maybe we can get a cat."

"A cat?" Umiko gasped, the excited glint returning to her eyes and Haruka nodded in confirmation.

"Why can we get a cat and not a dog?" Mizuki questioned in confusion and he furrowed his eyebrows.

"Because dogs and cats are not the same animals," Haruka stated because that seemed pretty obvious to him, but then again, Mizuki probably didn't see any difference other than their appearance so he explained, "Unlike dogs, cats don't really mind being alone that much and they sleep more than dogs. Cats don't have to be taken out for walks either so we don't have to worry about that when we're gone during the day, but since we are here in the late afternoon and evening, they're not alone for too long and can still get the attention and care they need."

"Oh… okay," Mizuki said and he nodded in understanding. It luckily hadn't taken much to convince him this time despite him usually being quite stubborn, but Haruka reasoned that that was because even if it wasn't a dog, getting a different pet was better than having no pet at all. "I want a white one!"

"No," Umiko objected once more, "I want an orange one!"

And another discussion ensued. It was almost funny how this always seemed to happen at one point or another, but the factor that Haruka found to be the most amusing was the fact that instead of arguing about breeds like they had earlier, they were now solely worried about what colour their potential future cat's fur would be. He figured that they simply didn't know any specific cat breeds, but he honestly couldn't blame them because he didn't know any either when he was their age.

"Hey," he called once more because he didn't want them to get into a fight over this, "I said 'maybe'. I have to discuss this with Papa first."

"But Papa loves cats so I'm sure he will say 'yes'."

Well, she wasn't wrong. He only had to pronounce the word 'cat' and Makoto was already looking on the website of Iwatobi's shelter to see if they had any cats up for adoption. Still, he couldn't just promise them a cat without getting Makoto's permission, and although the chances of Makoto disapproving were miniscule, that was just not the way they managed things in their home; they would always discuss everything with each other before making a decision, no matter how insignificant or obvious the decision at hand may be.

"What are we going to name it?"

"Tora!" Mizuki chimed in excitedly, and despite it being a common name for cats, Haruka didn't entirely understand where the suggestion came from since it didn't exactly match the image of the white cat he wanted. Then again, he probably didn't even think of that; he just yelled out the name and colour he liked best without considering whether or not they were fitting for one another - though arguably, whether something was fitting or not was an entirely made-up concept that most four-year-olds didn't find any value in to begin with.

"Wait," Haruka interrupted, shaking his head dismissively, "We're not naming anything until we have Papa's agreement. I'll talk with him as soon as I can, so for now we can stop talking about this and talk about something else instead. Alright?"

"Alright," they said in unison, but the expressions of joy that lingered on their faces told him that their minds were already entirely set on that they would get a cat and that even if they didn't mention it anymore, their thoughts were still filled with cats.

Since they agreed and continued to paint in silence, Haruka decided not to say anything more on the matter either. He was pretty sure that their family would be expanded with a feline friend in the near future because Makoto was surely on board, but he didn't want their kids to think that he made all the decisions on his own - which he didn't because Makoto and he'd had this conversation many times before, but they didn't know that because they hadn't been there and had never been told about it either. So for now, it was just better if they postponed this talk until after he spoke with him about it.

With newfound enthusiasm Umiko and Mizuki painted and Haruka continued where he had left off as well. But based off their jittery movements, their focus had long since drifted from their paintings to kittens, resulting in their strokes becoming a lot less refined and coordinated. It was all fine though, as long as they were content.

"Daddy?" Umiko sang again, disrupting the tranquility that had settled once she and her brother had been satiated with the likelihood of getting a cat, and although her voice was still light and high-pitched, it wasn't in the same tone that she had spoken with earlier.

"Yes?"

"Can I see your painting?"

"Sure," Haruka replied and he lowered his brush so she could see the entirety of his canvas. It wasn't finished yet, but unlike those of the children, his painting was no secret and after years of being watched as he worked, he was more than used to curious eyes roaming over every line of the unfinished whole.

Umiko scooted over to his side and a beaming smile lit up her face when she saw what he had been drawing. "Iwatobi-chan!" she exclaimed, catching the attention of her little brother who looked up when he heard that familiar name despite not having shown any particular interest in his dad's painting before, too absorbed in his own ministrations.

"Can I see too?"

"Of course," Haruka muttered, and when his gaze drifted from his canvas to their son's face he saw that Mizuki had been absorbed in his work quite literally: a smudge of green paint stained his cheek and he seemingly wasn't even aware that it was there. Wondering how it got there, Haruka's eyes naturally went to his hands and he had a hard time suppressing a grin at the paint coating his little fingers. Although he didn't quite know how he managed to get it all over himself, he honestly wasn't surprised since he had already anticipated that this would happen at one point or another, so in hindsight he was very glad that he had put him in some old pyjamas; if his face was already smudged then it was only a matter of time until his clothing followed. "How did you get paint all over your face?" he asked in amusement when Mizuki was sat next to him as he rubbed his thumb over the spot on his chubby cheek. The paint had dried up almost entirely already, and Haruka didn't know if it was because the paint simply dried quickly or if he'd had smeared it on his face much sooner than he noticed it.

"Paint?" Mizuki questioned in confusion, his sea-green eyes looking downward until he realised that he couldn't directly see his own face. This silly action made it even hard for Haruka to keep himself from smiling at their adorable son. Since the first plan didn't work, Mizuki opted for plan B and looked at his hands instead, seeing that the fingers on his right hand were covered in the shade he had just been painting with. "I don't know."

Although Haruka was quite certain that he had unconsciously scratched his face earlier, he didn't exactly know how the paint got onto his fingertips in the first place considering he had been painting with a brush the entire time. But that in itself shouldn't be much of a surprise either, because regardless of what Mizuki did he always ended up making a mess of himself, whether he was eating ice cream or brushing his teeth or anything in between, really. Even if that was a little inconvenient sometimes, he couldn't deny that it was very endearing. "We'll wash it off later, alright?"

"Okay," Mizuki responded with a shrug, not caring whatsoever either way. It wasn't like he could blame him since he couldn't see it himself anyway, so it was useless to be bothered by it.

"Who is that?" Umiko asked, steering the attention back to Haruka's painting and she pointed at the figure on the right side of the canvas.

"That's Samezuka-chan," Haruka said and he realised that Umiko and Mizuki had probably never seen her before. "Remember that we told you about the school that Papa and I used to have joined practices at? This is their mascot."

"Oh, I see."

"Iwatobi-chan is cuter," Mizuki thought and Haruka chuckled at that remark since he honestly couldn't argue it. Just like him, Umiko and Mizuki loved mascot characters so it was nice to finally have people who also thought they were cute because no one else ever agreed with him on that - well, except Nagisa, but his tastes were honestly all over the place. "And what is this?" he asked, tapping on the wet surface of the left side of the canvas that Haruka had been working on and getting blue paint on his index finger in the process.

"She's also a mascot," Haruka supplied with a snort, not finding it surprising that he couldn't make out what she was since he had just started working on her, "Her name is Shimashima-chan and she was modeled after the islands Mizushima, Ooshima and Sukishima."

"How do you know her, Daddy?" Umiko wondered, interest clear on her face. "I've never seen her before."

"Back when we were in high school, our swim club held a training camp, right?" Haruka reminded because he knew they had told them about this before, but he didn't know if they had forgotten about that already and therefore how much he needed to tell them right now. When they both nodded in return, he continued, "It was my seventeenth birthday and it was the last day we were at the islands for training. There was this event featuring Shimashima-chan and I really wanted to go to it, but for some reason Papa and the others were acting very strange and they kept finding excuses to stop me from going to see her and kept me inside the cabin. Since the event was over before they let me go, I at least wanted to go buy her strap but Papa objected and was saying all kinds of weird things that didn't really make any sense."

His story was interrupted by Umiko, whose eyebrows were furrowed in disbelief. "Why didn't Papa just let you go if you wanted to get it?"

It wasn't like he didn't understand her confusion since he knew that that didn't sound like Makoto at all, so he just answered her question while simultaneously resuming his anecdote. "Because Papa and the others were preparing a surprise for me on the beach right in front of the cabins, and if I went outside then I would see it and that would spoil the surprise."

"A surprise?" she asked in a mix of excitement and curiosity, "What kind of surprise?"

"A giant birthday cake made from sand," he recalled with a smile, "Instead of candles, this cake was so big that it had fireworks instead."

"Wow!" Mizuki said, his large eyes lighting up at the mental image of that.

"It was really pretty," Haruka affirmed, the sight of that cake permanently etched into his memory, "I think we might have some pictures of it too so I can show it to you sometime."

"Yes!"

"But you didn't get to see her then," Umiko commented and Haruka understood what she meant with it, because how could he know what she looked like if he didn't get the chance to see her or buy her strap.

"Well, even though I really liked and appreciated the surprise that Papa and the others made for me, Papa still felt bad that they had kept me away from her. When we got home that night, he was sleeping over at my house and right before we went to bed, he gave me a gift. It was Shimashima-chan's strap that I had wanted to get and because he knew that, he had gone out to the souvenir shop right before we left and bought it for me, mostly for my birthday but also because he wanted to apologise for keeping me from meeting her."

"Aww, that's so sweet of Papa," she sighed, a dreamy smile appearing on her lips and Haruka mirrored her smile before he nodded in agreement. "Do you still have the strap?"

"Of course I do," Haruka said like it was obvious, because he kept everything Makoto gave him, no matter how small or insignificant it may be; he treasured even the tiniest of things because they were gifts given to him by someone who was so special that everything he touched automatically became special as well. The mere thought of throwing out or losing something that Makoto had given him was enough to make his stomach churn. Therefore he knew exactly where everything was, putting it in places where he could easily find them so he could keep them safe and cherish them forever. "I'll show it to you later too, alright?"

"Alright!" she echoed excitedly, her grin widening in anticipation.

"Your painting is very pretty," Mizuki suddenly remarked, drawing the attention back to the image at hand rather than the story behind it.

"Thank you," Haruka replied with an unwavering smile, "Can I see your painting too?"

"Yeah." Mizuki crawled back to his easel and tried his best to turn it around so his dad and sister could see his picture. The canvas was filled with a whole array of different things without a clear theme, suggesting that Mizuki just put down whatever it was that was on his mind that second: from a stick figure with pitchfork-hands and spikes for hair in the middle to stars and hearts surrounding it to a smiling sun in the corner, Mizuki had painted it all. It was very colourful to say the least.

"Yours is really pretty too," Haruka complimented and those simple words were enough to make a satisfied grin settle on Mizuki's face, which in its turn made Haruka's smile soften as well.

Not wanting to be left out, Umiko immediately went back to her own easel and shifted it towards her dad. "And mine?"

"Yours is very pretty as well," he assured, finding it adorable that she wanted to get praised too and of course he would always give her the approval and attention that she was seeking. In terms of the painting itself, the one Umiko made had more of a clear subject that Mizuki's had; contrary to her brother, she had upgraded from stick figures to figures who had bodies and clothes - although the hands of her characters still resembled gardening equipment, though he supposed hers looked more like rakes - and she had painted four of them on a patch of grass next to a yellow blob of what he assumed to be a dog, which indicated that the four figures were her and their family. So much for that 'spontaneous' idea of wanting to get a golden retriever.

"Thanks!" she beamed and a joyous smile stretched her lips as well. But as her brown eyes went from her own canvas to Haruka's canvas and back, the smile soon fell from her face and made place for a sad frown. "Why can't my drawing be as good as yours?" she questioned, sounding almost desperate.

Rather than biding her false words of comfort and assurance that hers was just as good as his, Haruka thought it was better to just be honest with her because she could clearly see the difference between the two paintings and wouldn't buy those white lies anyway. "Because I have thirty years more of experience than you," he stated kindly, still wanting to sound reassuring and encouraging because he didn't want her to feel insecure or inferior, "You can't expect to be super good at something at first because you aren't born with those skills. You have to practice a lot and then you can improve; and I have had much more time to practice in my life than you have had so far."

"So if I practice a lot then I'll get just as good as you?" Umiko asked with a tiny flame of hope rekindling in her shining eyes.

Haruka nodded in return. "Perhaps even better than me, because I think you're already better now than I was at your age." He didn't recall if this was true or not but that honestly didn't matter, because this was the type of white lie that the kids would easily believe.

"Really?"

The undiluted excitement in her voice was too cute, the tone reminding him of how Makoto used to sound when he was her age and that mental comparison made it even more endearing than it already was. But before he could respond to it, Mizuki spoke up.

"You can't get better than Daddy," he said resolutely, "Because Daddy is the best."

It was absolutely adorable that he felt that way, but it was far from the truth. "That's not true, there are people out there who are even better than me, who have even more years of experience and practice or who just have more natural talent than me," Haruka defended because he saw this as a stepping stone to teaching them another one of life's lessons, "There will almost always be someone who's better than you at something, but that's alright. You shouldn't compare yourself to others, because it's not about what others can make, but what you can make yourself. If you think about the drawings you made last year then these ones are better, right?" When Umiko and Mizuki nodded in confirmation, he continued, "That shows that you have improved since then, so if you practice more then you'll get even better. But even if you don't, that's alright, because it's not about how good you are at something, it's about having fun and as long as you have fun it doesn't matter how good you are. And if you're not good at one thing, then you shouldn't feel bad because there will be always something else that you are very good at," he trailed off because he didn't want them to get upset if they ultimately didn't improve as much as they wanted to even though they practiced a lot, "Take Papa for example: he's not that good at arts and crafts, but he's super good at games and he can explain things really well and he's so strong and smart and-"

He cut himself off because he realised he was going off-topic; instead of using Makoto as an example, it was more like he was bragging about him to their kids and even though he could go on and on about his husband for hours, there was no reason to do that because they knew like no other how amazing Makoto truly was.

"He's not good at art, but he does always have a lot of fun when he's drawing with us. And even though he beats us in every game we play, we also have a lot of fun playing with him, right?"

"Yeah!" Umiko exclaimed and she seemed a lot more elated and enthusiastic than she had before his little speech; although he didn't know what exactly it was that she had found strength in, it didn't matter either as long as she was happy.

"One day I am going to beat him," Mizuki vowed solemnly, nodding his head in determination.

A chuckle escaped Haruka's lips without his intention. "Well, you're going to need to practice a lot then, because Papa is only going to get better and better too."

"I will," he declared and Haruka believed that he would try his best, but whether he was going to succeed was a whole different issue because just like with Haruka and Umiko's art skills, Makoto had thirty-two years worth of gaming experience more than Mizuki and he was only getting better with the day.

Back when they were kids themselves Haruka was still able to beat Makoto sometimes, but those days had long since passed and from a certain point in time, it became nearly impossible to win from him. Regardless of what game they were playing, whether it be a video game or a board game or even a card game, Makoto completely obliterated everyone time and time again. It used to be a little annoying, but that soon changed when they decided that whenever they played a game with just the two of them, the loser would have to 'reward' the winner. Needless to say, he never minded losing after that because in the end, they both won.

And now, when they were playing games with the children, it was only amusing to him how even in four-player games, Umiko and Mizuki always insisted on playing in teams and then immediately called dibs on teaming up with their father so that when Makoto destroyed them, they still felt like they had won, too. They weren't as sore of losers as Ran and Ren had been when they were young, but that didn't mean that they didn't want to win because they were pretty competitive when it came to games, always telling Makoto that he shouldn't go easy on them because if they won from him, they wanted to win with everything they had. Makoto always complied with their wishes, for it was blatantly obvious if he lost on purpose anyway.

Speak of the devil, it was at that exact moment that he heard the distinct sound of their car coming to a halt in front of their house; the sound that indicated that Makoto had arrived back home - and a little earlier now than Haruka had expected. Although that sound always filled him with joy and relief, there was now another feeling that was put into the mix: mischief.

"Papa!" the kids cried out in unison, immediately jumping up from where they were seated on the blanket and about to run inside to be the first one to greet their father home, but Haruka stopped them.

"Wait!" he called, holding his hand up in a gesture for them to not make a beeline for the door and luckily, they both listened and looked at him with large, questioning eyes. His gaze quickly shifted from the stain on Mizuki's face to his tiny hands and then to the paint that was still on the paper plate before he proposed, "Shall we play a trick on Papa?"

Those words made clear interest appear on their faces that soon morphed into playful grins. Knowing that they both were on board, Haruka pressed a kiss to the silver band that was wrapped around his finger before he took it off. He always hated to take off his wedding ring because it was a symbol of their everlasting love that he carried with him everywhere he went, but he still took it off pretty often for that exact reason; he would never risk getting it dirty or damaging it in any way, so he would much rather take it off and keep it safe even if that meant missing the familiar pressure around his finger. But whenever he took it off, he always knew exactly where he put it because losing it would be even more of a disaster, for losing it would be like losing a part of himself - despite usually not being materialistic at all, Haruka couldn't help but safekeep everything that was connected to Makoto in one way or another, protecting it like he was protecting their love with his bare hands. When he did take off his ring, he always made sure to kiss it beforehand in a short apology and because kissing his ring felt like he was sending a kiss over to Makoto when they were apart and he was confident that Makoto felt and received every single kiss too.

There wasn't much time left after that, so Haruka quickly explained his plan to Umiko and Mizuki, whose playful grins turned even more mischievous with every word that left their dad's mouth.

"I'm home!"

Makoto's gentle voice rang out through the house, that was unusually empty. From where he was waiting in the kitchen, Haruka did his best to repress any form of noise at the image that he could see so clearly in his head: Makoto looking around himself in confusion, wondering where the children and he were since they were always at the door the second he came in to welcome him home and tackle him in bear hugs and claims of how much they had missed him during the day. He was probably wondering if they were out, if Haruka had taken the kids out to the park or took them along as he went grocery shopping; these were all speculations from Haruka himself, but he was almost certain that they were the thoughts coursing through his husband's head at that moment and that made it even more difficult to stop himself from laughing. Finding that he had kept him waiting for long enough, Haruka stepped out from where he had been hiding and walked into the living room.

"Haru! Umiko! Mizuki!"

Instead of his handsome face lighting up at the sight of him, Haruka was met with Makoto's backside because he was facing back through the door that led to the hallway, attempting to peer up the steps to see if his family was upstairs. In order to suppress the chuckles that were bubbling up inside of him, Haruka told himself to focus on the joke at hand.

"Makoto."

Surprised to hear that lovely voice, Makoto abruptly turned around and the smile that Haruka had been expecting adorned his features. "Ah, Haru!" he said with obvious joy in his tone and his smile softened when he met his husband's beautiful face. "I'm home."

Without replying, Haruka went over to Makoto and came to a halt right in front of him, smiling back at him before he got up on his tippy toes - because Makoto hadn't been tall enough already in high school and just had to grow even bigger, hadn't he? - and cupped his face into his hands before he kissed him tenderly.

A startled noise escaped from Makoto's mouth at the feeling of Haruka's hands against his cheeks because they felt different than usual, but he soon forgot that train of thought as Haruka pressed on and he simply melted into the kiss, his mind void of any thoughts besides the love for his husband. Naturally he wrapped his arms around Haruka's waist to support him and hold him against himself as he kissed back, sighing deeply in contentment because he was finally, truly home.

After exchanging a few slow and sweet kisses Haruka pulled back but did so with great reluctance. He could honestly do nothing but kiss Makoto for the rest of his life and enjoy every second of it, because he would never get tired of the wonderful sensation of his husband's lips sliding over his so gently to convey their affection for each other. But he knew he couldn't get sidetracked right now because their prank was still full in motion and the kids were waiting for the result in the yard.

When they parted ways there was a hazy look in Makoto's gorgeous eyes, like he had literally kissed him senseless and a smirk stretched Haruka's lips at the sight of it.

"Welcome home," he whispered against Makoto's mouth and then he pulled away entirely and released Makoto's face, innocently holding up the palms of his hands that were covered in blue and green paint before simply stating, "The kids wanted to paint."

It was easy to pinpoint the second Makoto realised what was going on; the dreaminess in his gaze dissipated and made place for confusion that soon turned into shock and he lifted his fingers towards his face and ran them over his cheek. When he saw the paint that lingered on his fingertips, everything hit him at once and he sped over to the nearest mirror that hung on the wall. Once he was in front of it, he was greeted with the familiar image of his own face but with a light coat of paint covering his skin in vague handprints.

"Haru! I already thought I felt something weird!" he whined in protest but as he heard the sound of his husband's beautiful laughter ringing in the background, his astonishment turned into mischief as well and he turned back around to Haruka with a sly grin, which looked nothing but silly when it was surrounded by paint. "Oh, you're going to get it now," he promised in a playful threat and even though it was hard to take him seriously when he looked like this, Haruka didn't wait to find out what Makoto meant with it and ran away from him, back outside where the kids were waiting with Makoto following closely behind him.

The high-pitched giggles that sounded out shortly after he left the house told him that Makoto wasn't far behind. Haruka knew that he would catch up to him sooner or later because he was much faster than him and it wasn't like he had any place to run in their backyard - he could simply go around the house and onto the street, but he didn't want to bring the whole neighbourhood into their little joke and besides, he had gone into this knowing that Makoto would catch up to him eventually. Unfortunately for Haruka, that moment came way quicker than he had anticipated as he felt Makoto's arms catching him around his waist and Haruka let himself fall to the ground, deciding to give Makoto a chance to get his revenge a little. But even though they were fooling around, the protectiveness in Makoto never wavered as he felt him cup the side of his head and wound his arm around his torso to shield him from the impact despite it being soft grass that he landed on.

Once they were both safely on the ground Haruka turned to lie on his back and Makoto immediately straddled him, pinning one of his wrists down - for good measure, Haruka held down his other wrist as well - before he raised a paintbrush that he had quickly snatched from the blanket while he was chasing him down. "Got you," Makoto taunted as he brought it down to Haruka's face and Haruka squeezed his eyes shut as he braced himself for Makoto's attack, not even making an attempt at dodging because Makoto deserved to get at least one strike on him as well and he could barely contain his laughter. Besides, struggling would be useless anyway because if Makoto really wanted to, then he could easily maneuver him with brute strength alone but Haruka knew that he would never do anything that could possibly hurt him.

Seconds ticked by but the impact never came. Confused as to why he wasn't doing anything since Makoto was not one to back out of a game, Haruka opened his eyes again. While Makoto had definitely started to bring it down towards him like he was going to stab him with colour, he had halted halfway through when he realised that there was no paint on the bristles and Haruka burst out in laughter when he saw it. In his haste to get to him, Makoto had grabbed the first brush he saw without checking if there was actually any paint on it and the blank stare on his face was priceless. "So much for your revenge," Haruka giggled and upon hearing his voice, Makoto recovered his demeanour and smirked back at him.

"For this plan, yes," he admitted, "But this is not my only plan; I've got a few more tricks up my sleeve." He discarded the paintbrush next to them and his now free hand took ahold of Haruka's other wrist. But instead of pinning him down again, this time he did his best to move his arms because he wanted to bring Haruka's palms to his own face so his skin would be covered too. Of course, Haruka already knew that that was his plan but this time he wouldn't play along; he had already given Makoto a chance to get him back but he had wasted it himself, so now he was back to resisting.

With all his strength Haruka tensed up his muscles to prevent Makoto from maneuvering his hands towards his face, but it was honestly like fighting a losing battle: for Makoto, that was. Because Makoto was not battling against Haruka, but against himself; he wanted to get back at Haruka and strength-wise he could easily win, however, there was the risk that he would hurt him by handling him so roughly and the fact that Haruka was resisting only increased that risk. And that risk was one that he was never willing to take, even if it meant losing their silly little paint fight.

Realising this, Makoto gave up and slackened his hold, letting Haruka's wrists fall back onto the ground but he didn't release them just yet. "Well then," he sighed, shaking his head in what was supposed to resemble defeat, "Seems like I have to resort to the old fashioned way." He brought Haruka's hands together over his head and shifted his hold until he was holding down both wrists with one hand - damn Makoto for having such large hands. Then he held up his free hand again and wiggled his fingers in the air. "Ready?"

When it dawned upon Haruka what Makoto was planning to do, his eyes widened in horror. "No, Makoto… please don't," he pleaded but it was in vain; it was at that moment that Makoto brought his hand down and started to tickle him, assaulting his most sensitive spots with his sneaky fingers. Although he usually loved the fact that they had been together since the beginning and therefore knew everything about each other, in scenarios like this it proved that their connection could work against him because Makoto knew exactly where to tickle Haruka to reduce him to a tearful, giggling mess. And he was rapidly succeeding in doing just that. "Makoto!" Haruka managed to get out in between his loud laughter, but sadly he couldn't speak beyond just his name, "Makoto!"

"What? I'm sorry, Haru-chan, I don't understand what you mean," Makoto said innocently, batting his eyelashes like he was trying to comprehend Haruka's laughter, "You're going to have to be clearer than that."

"Makoto!"

The children, who had watched their parents' scene unfold in amusement, saw this as the cue to step in and get involved as well, no longer content with just standing on the sidelines.

"I'll save you, Daddy!" Mizuki proclaimed as he ran up to them and jumped on Makoto's back, wrapping his legs around his waist and clinging to him like he was a baby koala.

In order to let him play along, Makoto let out a big huff as if the collision of Mizuki's small, light body against his own had actually impacted him in any way and he stopped tickling Haruka, both to make Mizuki feel like he had won and because he had teased his husband enough already. He straightened his back to give Haruka more room to catch his breath, which Haruka dearly appreciated as he heaved deeply with remnants of laughter, wiping away the stray tears that had leaked from his eyes with the back of his wrist.

Now that he had gotten his revenge on his husband, Makoto intended to tease their kids a little as well since they had been his accomplices. He was about to grab Mizuki from where he hung off his neck and lay him down on the grass next to Haruka to get a few tickles on him as well, but before he had the chance to do that Umiko decided to join in since she surely couldn't be the only one left out when the rest of her family was playing together.

With a paintbrush in her hand, she walked up to them and stopped right in front of Makoto. "Daddy, you missed a spot," she remarked and she promptly ran the bristles over Makoto's closed mouth, leaving behind a quick, crooked stroke of red.

"Ah!" Makoto gasped in surprise, his mouth falling open at that unexpected addition of colour. "How unfair is this?" he questioned in feigned disbelief, "The three of you are always conspiring against me." It was obvious that he was pretending to sound offended, but it was hard to buy when Haruka could see that Makoto had to do everything he could to stop his genuine smile from breaking through the demeanour he was putting on. "So unfair, three against one!"

"All is fair in love and war," Haruka simply reasoned with a shrug, not even bothering to cover up his own smile because there was not a single fiber in his being that wanted to hide just how much joy there was coursing through his veins at that moment - and at any other moment spent with his family, really.

"Oh, is that so?" Makoto mumbled, nodding his head like he was contemplating that, "So what is this? Love or war?"

"Love!"

"War!"

"Both."

At those three different answers being chimed out simultaneously, Makoto really couldn't hold himself back any longer and he chuckled merrily. "It's good to know that you're at least all on the same page about that."

"It's a war of love," Haruka explained, trying to recover the façade that their plan had been more thought-out than it actually was, more so for the kids than for his husband because he always saw right through him anyway. Like he had expected, Umiko and Mizuki immediately voiced their agreement, making Makoto chuckle once more. "Don't you see, Papa?" Haruka continued as if all of this was very logical and it was just Makoto who didn't understand what was going on, "The paint symbolises how much we love you."

Once again Umiko and Mizuki vigorously nodded to show that that was what they had meant all along, putting on what was a very convincing act in their own eyes, but of course their parents knew better than that and did their best not to snort at their little thespians.

"Oh, I see," Makoto played along, rubbing his chin to make it look like he was in deep thought, "In that case-" Before he had properly ended his sentence, Makoto swiftly swept Umiko up in his arms and pressed a kiss against her cheek, smearing paint onto her skin in the process. She burst out in a mix of giggles and screeches as she tried to free herself from her father's grasp but unfortunately for her, he wasn't about to let her go so easily, not until she'd had her fair share of paint as well - of course, he made sure that his hold couldn't hurt her, because it wasn't just Haruka who he would never risk hurting, but the children as well.

In addition to the mark his lips left on her, he also rubbed his own cheek against hers and only when one of her cheeks was covered in a mix of green and red paint did he let her go and she immediately ran away, not waiting for her father to possibly change his mind. Luckily for her Makoto had already set his sights on his next victim, and when it got through to Mizuki that that would be him, he released his hold around his neck and was about to run off as well, but unfortunately he was too late.

"Not so fast!" Makoto objected as he caught their son before he could escape and he proceeded to give him the same treatment his sister had received as well; though Makoto placed the kiss on his nose instead before using his other cheek to get some paint onto him as well, leaving vague blue smudges on his face before he granted him mercy.

Like his sister, Mizuki didn't waste a second before he was gone and he went back to the table to grab some more paint to get his part of the retribution as well - after all, he was the only one who hadn't actually gotten paint on Makoto's face directly despite being in on the plan, so he had to make that right.

But Makoto's interest had already shifted back to Haruka, who was still lying beneath him in the grass. Knowing that he had nowhere to run, Makoto didn't make any haste in blemishing his porcelain skin since he thought he had all the time in the world. The playful smirk returned to his lips as he stared down at his husband, not even caring about how foolish he was looking at that moment because he knew that he could always be himself at home regardless. "Then that leaves just you, Haru," Makoto provoked for even if he had already gotten him back when he tickled him, the game had changed the moment Haruka said that the paint symbolises love; after all, he just had to show his husband how much he loved him, right?

Haruka wasn't very impressed by Makoto's taunts and snorted in response. "Fine. Come at me, Makoto," he retorted like he was ready to take on that challenge when in reality, he was already more than prepared for whatever it was that came next and would welcome it with open arms.

Of course, Makoto didn't need to be told twice and he leaned down once more and began to drop kisses all over Haruka's face. There wasn't much paint left on Makoto's lips because he had smeared the majority off on Umiko and Mizuki, but that didn't stop him from continuing with his mission. The most prominent mark was left on the apple of Haruka's left cheek, and from that point on the kiss marks only got vaguer and vaguer.

Because Makoto was so focused on showering every free patch of Haruka's skin in kisses, he didn't notice that Umiko and Mizuki had returned for a rematch; Umiko wielding two brushes with yellow and purple paint - because she loved colourful things and those colours were still missing on her father's face - and Mizuki with only his fingers covered in more green paint since he couldn't care less about the whole image and only wanted to get some hits in as quickly as possible. They ambushed him at once and Umiko ran the bristles over Makoto's nose and once more over his cheek while Mizuki jumped on his back again, not caring where he landed and leaving smudges of green on his father's neck and throat.

When Makoto felt the cool paint on his skin - and the child on his back - once more, he focused his concentration back on the kids and sat up straight. "Oh, so you two still haven't had enough ye-"

Before he could finish his sentence, he was interrupted by a loud gasp leaving Umiko's mouth and her brown eyes widening in horror. "Mizuki!" she shrieked, immediately gathering all attention from both her parents and the boy in question, "You got paint on Papa's shirt!"

That accusation made Mizuki frown and he let go of Makoto so he was standing on his own two feet again. "What? Where?" he questioned since he was still facing the back of Makoto's shirt that was seemingly spotless.

"Here, look!" Umiko beckoned him with a wave of her hand and when her brother was beside her, she pointed at Makoto's shoulder where there was indeed a vague blotch of green on the light blue fabric of his work shirt. "You ruined it!"

Since the smear of paint hadn't been there before and he was the only one who currently had green paint on his hands plus the fact that it was undeniably there because of how carelessly he had climbed on his father's back, Mizuki knew for sure that it had been his doing. He had ruined his father's shirt and that thought made tears well up in his sea-green eyes. "I didn't mean to!" he quickly exclaimed, not wanting his parents to think he did it on purpose and scold him because of it, "It was an accident!"

The second Makoto and Haruka saw that his eyes were glazed over with tears that would soon be shed, every ounce of their playfulness immediately dissipated and turned into worry. Makoto leaned up from where he was still straddling his husband and collected their son in his arms, not caring about the paint that lingered on both of their faces because he prioritised comforting Mizuki and he held him against his chest. "It's okay, darling, it's alright," he assured as Mizuki began to cry and he stroked his fingers through his brown locks, "Shh, it's okay."

"I-I'm sorry," Mizuki bawled and he tangled his fingers into Makoto's shirt, too upset to realise that he was only getting more paint on it in the process but because he was already so distraught, Haruka didn't remind him of that and just wanted to do everything he could to make him stop crying.

So Haruka pushed himself out from underneath Makoto and sat up on his knees, reaching out to caress Mizuki's back in support. "It's okay. We know it was an accident."

"Yeah," Makoto concurred, loosening his hold so he could pull him back a little and wipe the colourful tears from his cheeks, "It's just a shirt, it doesn't matter."

"B-But Daddy s-said…" he stuttered as he hid his face in Makoto's chest again, unable to finish his sentence because he was sobbing too hard so Haruka filled it in for him.

"I said that we didn't want to get paint on our clothes and that's why we're wearing old pyjamas," Haruka explained to Makoto, who nodded in understanding yet never stopped rocking their son gently to calm him down a little.

"It's okay, Mizuki," he murmured softly before pressing a kiss to his forehead, "It's just a shirt, we can wash it so there's no need to be so upset about it. And if it doesn't come out, then that's alright, we can always get a new shirt. It was just an accident and there's nothing we can do about it now, so please don't feel bad."

Fortunately, those words seemed to soothe him a little, relieved to know that neither of his parents were mad at him and his hiccups gradually passed. Haruka was glad about that, because no matter what the reason behind the tears was, seeing their children cry always broke his heart and he knew that it broke Makoto's too.

When he had calmed down a little he let go of Makoto's shirt and removed his head from where it had been buried in his father's body. Makoto offered him a gentle smile before he raised his hand to brush the remaining tears away. "We were having a lot of fun, right?" he said and Mizuki nodded in agreement before sniffing deeply.

"Yeah," he answered and a small grin appeared on his face as he thought back at their little war. He had seemingly already forgotten all about the reason he had been crying in the first place.

"So why don't we go have more fun?" Makoto proposed, his smile softening and he tilted his head in that adorable habit he had never grown out of, addressing both Mizuki and Umiko, "It's much more fun to smile, so let's smile a lot today, alright?"

"Alright!" they echoed in unison before large smiles stretched and adorned their faces as well, and the sight of seeing his three rays of sunshine so happy automatically made Haruka smile too, contentment settling into his previously troubled heart.

"So let's forget about this," Makoto muttered as he pulled off his shirt - most likely because he didn't want Mizuki to notice that he had only stained it further when he was crying - baring his toned torso. Haruka was almost grateful that Mizuki had gotten paint onto the shirt, because he would always shamelessly indulge himself in ogling his husband's wonderful body. Makoto crumpled up the shirt and threw it aside before he resumed speaking, "And let's go have some fun. Is there anything you want to do?"

The children pondered about that for a second, not immediately giving an answer and as Haruka ran his eyes over Makoto's face and his naked chest and abdomen, he was struck with an idea. "I have an idea," he declared, making three pairs of curious eyes turn their gazes onto him, waiting for him to elaborate, "Since Papa's face is already covered in paint anyway, why don't we use his torso as a canvas too? We have the paint ready and Papa's torso is as large as a canvas anyway, so would you like that?"

"Yes!" Umiko gushed, enthusiasm lighting up her face at the thought of that.

"But how will we do that?" Mizuki wondered sincerely because his dad's proposal had piqued his interest, but he didn't know exactly how that would go down.

"We just paint on him like we would on paper or canvas; you get his front, Umiko gets his back."

"What about you, Daddy?" Umiko questioned, because even if it was fair that one of them got their father's back and the other his front, that left no room for Haruka to paint on.

"I'll take his arms," Haruka simply shrugged, not really caring beyond that as long as the children wouldn't argue about it. But then he realised that he forgot something vital, something he otherwise never forgot and he could practically hit himself for being so dumb because the children were already getting so excited about this; he forgot to ask Makoto's consent. "If Papa wants us to, of course," he quickly added but then again, he should have known from the start how Makoto would respond to this.

"Of course," Makoto echoed, his smile never leaving his handsome, paint-covered features, "It's been a while since I've been drawn on so that should be fun!"

He was right; it had been a long time. In the past, long before they even had Umiko and Mizuki, Haruka frequently used his skin as a canvas, whether it was by making an elaborate painting on his back when he felt like it or simply by doodling little stars on his lower arm when they were on the train together and he was bored. Drawing on his lover's skin just felt really intimate, to use the natural lines and planes of his body to make an artwork that was almost as beautiful as the person it was painted on. Whenever he drew on him in the past, Haruka felt like he had grown a little closer to him even if that seemed impossible since their hearts were already connected at the core and they practically shared a soul. It was just something that was really pleasant to do and he wanted to share that experience with their children. They probably didn't think about it as deeply as he did and just saw it for what it was: them drawing on their father's skin, but nevertheless Haruka felt like it was something special, like they were about to make a memory that would be treasured for years to come. A moment of family bonding that would be cherished forevermore even if they might forget all about it when they grew older because it left an everlasting mark on their relationships as a whole. Something that seemed so mundane yet held deep underlying feelings, at least to Haruka.

"Wait a minute," he called as he got up and walked inside where he quickly washed his hands to rinse the majority of the paint off his palms before he went to retrieve the camera. After all, it would be a shame for such a wonderful activity to take place without capturing it and eternalising the moment to be reminisced about for years to come. Taking pictures of his family and loved ones was a hobby and habit he had adopted from his mother-in-law. There were photo albums filled with the entire childhoods of Makoto - and therefore, his own too - and Ran and Ren, and it was really nice to have those pictures to look back on, to thumb through them with each other and recall all of the wonderful adventures they had gone on together. Makoto and he had always taken pictures of important events and also on some normal, everyday occasions, but it was around their wedding that Haruka truly started to document their lives. Since then, whenever there was a moment that felt special or significant in one way or another, his hands were already itching to get the camera and snap photos and take videos. And today was no different.

When he was back in the yard again, he first took pictures of each of their faces to commemorate the paint war they were having before it got interrupted - for good measure, Makoto took the camera from him to capture his image as well, since he obviously couldn't be left out considering he had also been part of it, proven by his face adorning its fair share of paint-smudges. Because Haruka had been taking pictures since long before they were born, Umiko and Mizuki weren't camera-shy at all and happily posed for more pictures, both by themselves and with their sibling and parents and Haruka and Makoto gladly took turns snapping photos.

Once the immediate need to have their picture taken had dwindled, they finally got started on the main event; transforming Makoto into a living canvas. They made room on the sheet, putting the easels aside to be cleared away later and Makoto seated himself on the center of it. Mizuki instantly settled himself in Makoto's lap and Umiko sat down on her knees behind him as they both began to paint on their father's tanned skin.

Despite it being pretty warm outside, Makoto shivered at the cold feeling of the paint being spread out over his chest and back. Unaware of this - or perhaps just unbothered by it - the children wasted no second by pondering about what they would draw because they were so excited about getting to paint on their father that they didn't want to wait any longer.

The sight of Makoto doing his best to keep his spine straight while Umiko and Mizuki applied stroke after stroke on him, making his skin burst with colour in a matter of minutes, was incredibly endearing to Haruka and the familiar itch returned to his palms. A need to capture his three favourite people in the world having fun together on video so he could relive this moment whenever he pleased welled up inside of him, so he switched modes on the camera and began to record them instead.

"Hey," he called to get their attention, wanting to let them know he was filming so they could engage with the camera, "What are you doing?"

The question was asked not because Haruka didn't know - because he obviously did, considering he had been the one to suggest it in the first place - but to give the video a little more context and to spark a conversation. The children knew this of course, and were more than happy to play along and explain it to the future audience.

"We're painting on Papa," Umiko provided with a beaming smile before she concentrated on her image again, rinsing out the bristles of her brush before dipping it into the dollop of orange paint.

"Oh, really?" Haruka wondered with feigned astonishment, "So what are you drawing?"

"It's a secret," she claimed just like she had earlier that afternoon. Apparently everything she made was a surprise today. To respect her wish, he made sure to not film onto Makoto's back until she gave explicit permission.

"Hmm, it feels like a circle," Makoto muttered teasingly, trying to get a reaction out of her and easily succeeding.

An offended gasp left Umiko's mouth before she chided, "Papa, don't spoil it!"

For the umpteenth time that day, Makoto chuckled heartily and Haruka felt extremely blessed that he got to capture the wonderful sound to be replayed whenever he needed to hear it. "Sorry, I promise I won't do it again."

"I'm making a heart," Mizuki interrupted, deciding that his wasn't a secret this time and that he wanted his image to get the attention that it deserved. To comply, Haruka extended his arm so the outline of the heart that Mizuki was drawing on Makoto's chest could be seen more clearly. "Because the paint means love and I love Papa."

"Aw," Makoto cooed, voicing Haruka's exact thought as well, "That's so sweet of you; I love you too."

"My paint means love too! Even if it's not a heart," Umiko quickly said, not wanting anyone to think that her drawing held less meaning just because it wasn't a heart, "I love Papa, too!"

"I know that and I love you too," Makoto assured because he didn't want her to feel left out, craning his neck awkwardly in an attempt to look at her while he spoke. Then he faced the camera again, staring straight into his husband's endlessly blue eyes as he murmured, "And of course I love you, too, Haru-chan."

That sudden declaration of affection being caught on video still made blood rush to Haruka's cheeks even after all those years of hearing him say it. Now Haruka was kind of grateful for the fact that he had random smudges of red paint on his face to hide behind, and if anyone mentioned something about the blush that dusted his cheeks, then he would just blame the paint. "Drop the '-chan'," Haruka mumbled out of habit, but the words held no bite and only conveyed the same sentiment that Makoto had expressed as well. I love you too.

Completely ignoring the tender interaction between his parents since it was honestly nothing out of the ordinary, Mizuki continued to speak his thoughts as if that had never happened in the first place. "It's good that you're not drawing a heart because Papa only has one heart and it's here in his chest," Mizuki reasoned as he tapped with his brush on Makoto's sternum.

Rather than getting into a complicated discussion about the human anatomy, Haruka only snorted at his reasoning before he mumbled, "Well, he has a point."

"But I can never have enough hearts to contain all the love I feel for you guys," Makoto argued just in case Umiko had planned to draw a heart later on so she wouldn't feel hindered by her brother's statement.

"One heart is enough," Mizuki disclosed decisively and dismissively, making both of his parents laugh once more at how steadfast he was about his own beliefs.

"Whatever you say," Makoto chuckled, his body shaking slightly as he did. The last thing he wanted was to get into a discussion with their four-year-old son about how many hearts one person needed so he figured it was better to just leave it at that.

"Papa, sit still!" Mizuki scolded with a frown, which only made Makoto laugh again because it was funny how instead of saying it to the kids, he was now on the receiving end of that order.

"Sorry, sorry, I'll try my best," Makoto promised, though the amused smile still stretched his red lips.

Deciding that the time to give that part of their activity a little more context had long since come, Haruka questioned, "So what happened to all of your faces?"

"We had a paint war," Mizuki clarified, no longer looking into the camera as he spoke because he thought that that was not worth it anymore because it only distracted him from painting.

Umiko, on the contrary, hadn't had enough of the camera yet and leaned up to place her head on Makoto's shoulder as she continued where her brother left off, "A war of love. The paint symbolises how much we love each other," she repeated what she had heard her dad say earlier like a big, adorable parrot.

"Oh? We must love Papa a lot then," Haruka commented as he zoomed in on the colourful mess that Makoto's face currently was.

"We do!"

"But we love Daddy a lot too," Makoto supplied, not letting Haruka get away without having displayed his face in this video too. "Look at him, only kiss-marks!"

To humour him, Haruka turned the camera around to briefly show his own face before he directed it towards his family again. "This is all Papa's fault," he accused as he pointed the camera to Umiko and Mizuki's faces as well.

"You started it!" Makoto yelped, doing his best to sound insulted but utterly failing, "Welcoming me home with two handprints on my cheeks. So mean!"

"Umiko and Mizuki told me to do it," Haruka lied to provoke a reaction out of their children and he was a lot more successful in his game of pretense.

"That's not true!"

"You're lying, Daddy!"

They simultaneously shot back their defenses, definitely not eager to take the blame for something they didn't do because truthfully, Haruka was the mastermind behind this plan and no one else.

"I'm just joking," Haruka admitted easily because it would be bad of they got really worked up over something that was intended as a joke. "It was all my idea."

"You're not supposed to tell lies, Daddy," Mizuki said disapprovingly and Haruka had to do everything he could to hold in his laughter since it was his turn now to be lectured by their kindergartner.

"You're right, I'm sorry," he apologised, his voice trembling with amusement but luckily Mizuki found it an acceptable apology and left it at that.

"Daddy, you should stop filming now," Umiko thought, her words honestly taking Haruka by surprise because it was quite unlike her to propose something like that.

"Why? Do you not want to be filmed anymore?" he wondered and if that was the case then he respected her wish and would turn the camera off like she requested.

"That's not it," she replied, shaking her head to indicate that that was not what she meant, "But if you keep filming then you can't paint on Papa. You have to paint with us."

It was endearing that she wanted him to join in too, and he had to admit that he was also looking forward to getting to paint on his husband again for the first time in what felt like forever. He had always really enjoyed doing it, but these past couple of years they had been so busy and occupied that it hadn't even crossed his mind until a little while ago. But now that he was reminded of it, the urge to pick up that old hobby bubbled up inside of him and he decided that he had waited long enough already.

"That's true, I'll come join you then."

"Alright. Bye," Makoto said, closing his eyes and smiling brightly as he waved towards the camera and Umiko and Mizuki naturally mimicked him and waved the future audience goodbye as well.

Knowing that was his cue, Haruka pressed the button to stop recording and switched back to picture-mode, snapping a few more shots before he turned it off for then and sat down on the sheet as well. The need to take pictures still hadn't completely left him, but it was satiated for now and he would continue to take more when they were a little further into their drawings. So he put the camera down behind him so he could easily reach it but wasn't close enough to them to accidentally get splattered with paint in a moment of carelessness.

Unlike the children, Haruka didn't have an immediate idea of what he was going to draw yet. He started out with stroking Makoto's left arm, caressing his hard muscles as he ran his hand down over his skin, hoping that the shape of his arm would give him some inspiration. After all, he didn't exactly have that much room to work with: his arms were bigger and more defined than most arms, but it definitely wasn't the same as getting to work with his broad shoulders or his wide chest. But he adored every part of Makoto's body and he was determined to make this work, to shower Makoto's arms with all the love they deserved in the form of a drawing to express his feelings with.

With that in mind, Haruka grabbed a medium sized brush, dipped it in paint and began to draw on his shoulder.

Although Umiko was very secretive about her own paintings, she couldn't help the curiosity she always had to know anything and everything, so soon she was peering onto her father's arm, but she wasn't quite able to make out the pattern her dad was drawing. "What are you drawing?" she wondered, furrowing her eyebrows as she tried to see the complete image but failing to do so.

"Scales," Haruka simply replied, never ceasing to stroke his brush down Makoto's arm in the half-circle pattern.

"Scales?" Makoto echoed in confusion before he whined, "You're not turning my arm into a mackerel, are you?"

"No, don't worry," Haruka assured and a teasing remark entered his mind at his husband's complaint: a joke about mackerel being fitting for him because he was just as delicious as a mackerel was. He decided to keep this joke to himself though, because it was a little too inappropriate to make in front of the children. The last thing he wanted was them to bombard him with questions about what he meant with that, because they were quite a bit too young to hear and even think about stuff like that. Nevertheless, a small smirk appeared on Haruka's face at the thought of Makoto's possible reaction to him making a joke like that in front of Umiko and Mizuki.

"Scales?" Mizuki repeated, "Are you making a reptile? A dinosaur?"

"Good suggestions, but no," Haruka denied, thinking that it was his turn to leave his family in the dark for once, "You'll see what it is eventually."

"Can we still look, though?" Umiko asked because she had been taught the same respect of boundaries that her parents had as well.

"Yeah, looking is fine, but I'm not going to tell you what it is."

"Okay," their daughter mumbled and as Haruka resumed with the same pattern down Makoto's arm, her deep brown eyes never left his hand, determined to find out what exactly it was that her dad was making.

"You can't finish your drawing if you only keep looking at mine," Haruka commented, not averting his gaze from his husband's arm because he didn't need to to know that she was staring at him since he could practically feel her eyes burning a hole through his fingers.

Feeling caught, Umiko quickly faced away from him and leaned forward to get some more paint onto her brush, acting as if she hadn't been staring and she wasn't the one he had addressed with those words. Seeing this made Haruka chuckle a little and he did his best to repress it as much as he could. She was just too cute.

Silence settled between the four of them as Haruka, Umiko and Mizuki were concentrated on their respective images while Makoto was content with just sitting there and providing enjoyment for his family. But it was never quiet in their home for long, and soon Umiko's honey-sweet voice sounded out again.

"Papa," she called, this time using her pleading tone on him and Haruka could pretty much guess what she was about to say. But in case he was wrong, he didn't speak up and chose to wait it out instead, letting her bring up whatever it was that she wanted to talk about.

"Yes?"

"Daddy says that we're getting a cat."

Of course he was right. What else could it have been? Although that was not what he had said at all, he was more than relieved that she didn't bring up the subject of dogs again so she didn't put them all through an awkward conversation as to why a dog wasn't a plausible pet for their family to get again.

Makoto's response, however, was something he hadn't predicated yet knowing Makoto, he should actually have been expecting it.

He turned to him with his gorgeous eyes widened in surprise. "We're getting a cat?" he asked with a beaming, hopeful smile. Instead of the thirty-six-year-old man he was, at that moment Makoto looked like his six-year-old self to Haruka and it was both incredibly endearing and quite amusing. Like Makoto forgot for a second that he was a fully-grown adult who got to decide everything himself. So Haruka thought it was good to remind him of this fact.

"No, that's not what I said; I said maybe," he emphasised, not only for the children this time but also for Makoto, "I was going to talk with you about it first so we could decide together."

"Oh," Makoto muttered, suddenly reminded that he was a parent in this scenario and not a child, "Well, I want a cat. You know I've always wanted a cat. And you always have too."

"If you both always wanted a cat then why don't we have one already?" Umiko questioned in confusion since things just didn't add up to her, because she hadn't been given all the information required to paint the full picture.

"Because it just never seemed like the right time to get one," Makoto explained with a melancholic smile, "We were always busy, either with school or work and Daddy's swimming career. And after that we had you two and we decided that it was better to wait a little longer so we could focus all of our attention on taking care of you."

"Oh," Umiko mumbled, nodding her head as she was trying to comprehend that and she soon found a conclusion, "So now is the right time! We are big enough now and we will also take care of it!"

"Yeah!" Mizuki agreed, not really having much else to say besides that but wanting to express his support nonetheless.

"I do think you are big enough now," Makoto concurred, but Haruka doubted whether he really thought that or if he simply said it because he also dearly wanted a cat. Probably a mix of both. "I am for getting a cat," Makoto declared as he raised his right hand, "and you, Daddy?"

Three pairs of awaiting eyes turned his way and Haruka sighed in defeat. How could he ever resist those adorable faces? "I suppose we're getting a cat then."

"Yay!" they all cheered at Haruka's approval and Haruka knew that even if he hadn't wanted to get a cat himself, he wouldn't have standed a chance against his husband and their children because they had him completely wrapped around their fingers.

They all resumed painting even though the conversation was far from over, but Haruka guessed it was because the most thrilling part had already been addressed. Before they could continue to chat about cats though, something else caught Haruka's eye; Mizuki's enthusiasm had made him fall back into his old habit of rough strokes and although it didn't matter if he destroyed the brushes or even the other canvas, Haruka didn't want him to destroy his father because even if Makoto's rock-hard abs could handle some roughness, it just had to hurt and could possibly even damage his smooth skin.

"Mizuki, don't put so much pressure on your brush; you'll hurt Papa with those rough strokes," Haruka lectured and the sound of his voice made Mizuki look up at him with big, questioning eyes, proving once more that he simply wasn't aware of his own actions.

"Oh, sorry," he mumbled as he pat Makoto's abdomen in apology, not realising that he had just painted all over it and now had a fresh coat of yellow paint on his hand. He stared at his palm as if the paint had physically manifested there and was almost offended that it had the audacity to stain his hand.

Makoto only giggled in response at their son's antics. "It's alright," he said to that apology, the fondness at that reaction making every bit of pain that had possibly lingered on his skin from the rough bristles disappear immediately.

This time around it was Umiko completely ignoring an interaction because she wasn't done yet with talking about cats. "Can we go get a cat tomorrow?"

"Tomorrow?" Haruka inquired in confusion. Umiko's memory wasn't as optimal today as it usually was since she kept forgetting things in her excitement. "We can try, but I thought you wanted to go to the beach tomorrow."

"Oh yeah!"

"We're going to the beach tomorrow?" Makoto asked in the same intonation he had earlier and it reminded Haruka of the fact that he hadn't told him about that yet.

"If you want to and if the weather is nice," he stated because even if it wasn't as significant of a decision as getting a cat was, he wanted Makoto to be on board too.

"Of course," he affirmed with a gentle smile and Haruka knew that hidden behind it was his fear of the ocean but that he didn't want to let that shine through, so Haruka obviously didn't mention anything about it either. "We can go to the beach tomorrow and in the meantime I'll try to look for a cat that is suited for us to adopt. Is that alright?"

"Yes."

"Daddy, if we go to the beach tomorrow, will you make me a mermaid again?" Mizuki asked with a glint of excitement in his eyes.

"Oh, me too!" Umiko added, her face lighting up at the mention of that.

"Sure," Haruka responded, knowing just how much they liked it when he did that and the children cheered again. One time they had seen old pictures of when he made Makoto into a merman out of sand back when they were younger, and since then they wanted to be transformed into merpeople as well. He'd cover their lower bodies in sand and shape it in the form of a tail so that they resembled merpeople and even if it was hard to see it for themselves when they were lying down on the beach, they still loved the idea of it and often didn't even want to get up because that broke the illusion. They always made sure to take pictures of it so that they could properly see themselves as merpeople afterwards, but no matter how many pictures were taken, during the next trip to the beach they wanted to experience it all over again. It didn't matter how often he had already done it before, because as long as it made them happy, Haruka would gladly oblige every single time.

He made a mental note to clear off the camera that night so that they could take it with them to the beach the following day.

"And me?" Makoto inquired with amusement lacing his beautiful voice, and Haruka had to stop himself from saying his initial response to that. It wasn't so much that it was an inappropriate remark, but it would spoil something that he didn't want to reveal yet.

Ultimately, the remark wasn't even needed because just this conversation as a whole was enough for Umiko to put the pieces of the puzzle together. She gasped, "That's what you're making: a mermaid tail!"

"That's right," Haruka confirmed, chuckling lightly because she had guessed it sooner than he had expected. Then again, it did kind of resemble a mermaid tail - for as much as it was possible to make an arm look like one with cheap paint - so it shouldn't have been that surprising that talking about mermaids enabled her to connect all the dots and see the full picture.

"What is this on his fingers?"

"That's the end of the tail," he explained as he gently held Makoto's hand up in his to show Mizuki what he had made.

"That's not what mermaid tails look like!" Mizuki objected since it looked nothing like the tails of mermaids that he had seen before.

"Not traditionally no, but mermaid tails can look different ways. They can look like anything you want, really," Haruka reasoned because he didn't see why he should let his creativity be restricted by what others generally thought a mythological creature looked like. It was his creative liberty as an artist to reimagine that what so many others had created in the past and make it his own. Besides that, he had to keep the natural shapes of Makoto's limb in mind when drawing it and it would never look like a traditional tail anyway since that shape was a little contrasting with the form of his hand. But using those reasonings as ways to describe his creative choices might be a little too complicated for Mizuki to comprehend, so instead he just said, "It'll look more like a mermaid tail when I'm done. And even if it doesn't, that's fine because we're just having fun, right?"

"Yeah."

"I think it's really pretty, Daddy," Umiko commented as she leaned in to study every line of the unfinished whole closely.

"Thank you."

"I didn't say it wasn't pretty!" Mizuki denied, not wanting to have given off the impression that he disliked it when that most certainly wasn't the case. "I think it's pretty too!"

"I know," Haruka chuckled because he hadn't taken his observation the wrong way. He had long since passed the point in his life in which he took offense to critique, mostly thanks to Ran and Ren who used to share their thoughts without second thought or hesitation. "Thank you."

All of those compliments made Makoto curious as well and he craned his neck so he could see his arm without moving it. "Ah, it is very pretty. It's really starting to look like a mermaid tail," Makoto gushed in awe. Although he had been the witness of pretty much every artwork Haruka had made in his lifetime, it never ceased to amaze him how skilled his husband was and it completely blew his mind time and time again. "I can't wait to see what it looks like when it's finished."

"Papa, you should see mine too!" Umiko suddenly said, apparently discarding the idea that it should stay a secret until she was finished because she wanted to get praised by her father too.

"I would love to, dear, but I can't directly see my own back," Makoto muttered regretfully, an apologetic look appearing on his face.

"That's a problem we can easily solve," Haruka stated as he reached behind him to grab the camera once more, "May I?" he asked Umiko just to be sure he had her permission and when she nodded, he scooted over to her so he could take a proper picture of Makoto's back and the painting that was being made on it.

When he saw what it was that she had been working on, a deep sigh left his lips. Of course. Haruka should have known from the beginning that she would use her painting to reinforce her wish and attempt to get her family on her side.

With the image displayed on the little screen, Haruka held the camera up in front of Makoto's face, who smiled when he saw it. "A cat!"

"Yeah!" Umiko agreed, "I really want an orange cat."

"No!" Mizuki protested once more, "I want a white cat!"

Before they had the chance to get into a discussion about it, Makoto cut in with, "I want a black cat," he declared with a cheeky smirk, "One with large blue eyes and really soft fur. And it would love to bathe but it would also loves being dried off and-"

"Oh, shut up," Haruka interrupted with a scowl, knowing that Makoto was teasing him. Back in high school he once dreamt that he was a cat and that Makoto had found him in the bathtub and proceeded to dry him off before taking him to school with him. When he told Makoto about it some time later, he had giggled and cooed at him that the dream hadn't been a far-fetched one because he was quite similar to cats. This was only strengthened when the dog-breed conversation was held some time later and Nagisa had proclaimed that he was a cat. It wasn't so much that he disliked being compared to a cat, but when Makoto teased him about it like that then he couldn't help but get defensive about it. He was about to say that he wanted to have a cat with messy brown fur and droopy green eyes, but he decided not to be childish for once; he had already teased Makoto without his awareness earlier when he had called him a golden retriever, so he thought it was better to just leave it at this.

"In all seriousness," Makoto continued even though the joke had gone completely over Umiko and Mizuki's heads, "I'll go see what kind of cats the shelter has and see if there's one suited for us to adopt. If that's the case then we'll just adopt that one, but if there aren't any then I'll look if there is anyone in the neighbourhood who has a kitty litter, alright? And then we can always see what colours they have and which one we want."

"Alright," Umiko said, proving that she was always the easier of the two to please.

Fortunately Mizuki didn't seem to have any objections for once either because his father's explanation made sense; and besides, when push came to shove then he always had the opportunity to state his preference again. So for now he was appeased about that, but that didn't end his list of kitty-criteria. "Are we getting a boy or a girl?"

That was something that Makoto and Haruka hadn't actually discussed before, because it honestly didn't matter that much to them since cats deserved love regardless of their sex and they were more than willing to offer it to either of the two. But just because they hadn't thought about it yet didn't mean that no one had made a decision.

"I want a girl!" Umiko exclaimed eagerly, "Because then we can have kittens!"

The protests that had begun to form on Mizuki's lips vanished when he heard that conclusion. A female cat meant that they could get even more cats. He had originally wanted to get a male cat, but male cats couldn't make kittens and female cats could so his preference completely changed when he comprehended that and he nodded in agreement. "Yes, a girl!"

"We'll see about that…" Makoto chuckled awkwardly in an attempt to hide that the prospect of having a litter of kittens themselves made him incredibly exhilarated. The mental image of having so many tiny kittens to take care of and cuddle with melted Makoto's cat-loving heart, but rationally speaking he knew that raising kittens until they were old enough for adoption took a lot of time and effort, and he wasn't exactly sure if they could manage that. And then he didn't even mention the factor of how heartbreaking it must be to have to give the kittens they raised with so much love and care away to strangers. "If there's an older cat up for adoption then it doesn't matter what sex it is, and if we're getting a kitten then we can always see which one we want, just like with the fur, alright?"

"Alright," they said again, simultaneously now because they did see what their father meant.

"And…" Makoto continued in that voice that always indicated that he was about to tell them something thrilling, "If Daddy agrees and if we're getting a kitten… then maybe we can get two kittens."

The large pairs of eyes that were staring up at him widened at that. "Really?!"

"Hmm," he hummed in confirmation before he turned his head so he could look at his husband, "But only if Daddy wants to as well."

"Daddy?" Immediately the gazes were directed at him and Umiko and Mizuki looked at him while trying to put on their best sad, pleading puppy eyes and Haruka only sighed again.

"Okay," he said, making it seem like they convinced him rather than that he actually loved to have two as well. "But just so they have a friend and won't feel lonely."

"Yay!"

"Then we can get a boy and a girl!" Mizuki cheered, but Makoto promptly shook his head in response.

"No, if we're getting two cats then we're either getting two boys or two girls."

"What? Why?" Mizuki whined with a pout because he thought that had been a good solution; then they could get kittens and he still had a male cat too.

Makoto didn't reply immediately, thinking of the best way to explain this to their four-year-old son and from the corner of his eye he sent Haruka a look that was asking for his assistance.

"Otherwise they'll fight," Haruka simply surmised, not really eager to get into the whole issue of mating and heat cycles, so he just fabricated a white lie that would scare them off the idea of wanting to get a male and a female cat. "We don't want the cats to fight, we want them to be friends."

"But I thought anyone could be your friend regardless of if they're a boy or a girl," Umiko said, a confused frown settling on her face because her parents had taught her this themselves yet her dad was now claiming the opposite to be true.

"For humans it doesn't matter, but for cats it does," Haruka pointed out, hoping that she would accept that and wouldn't inquire any further because his lies didn't exactly have much basis.

He was fortunate that he wasn't alone in this, because before the children had the chance to respond, his husband cut in to help him out. "But enough about cats for now," Makoto diverted with an innocent smile, "How was school today?"

Luckily the children fell for it and began to jabber about their days. Because he had already heard these anecdotes earlier today, Haruka tuned them out for a moment and mixed some paint so he could get a lighter shade of green to fill in the scales on Makoto's arm, wanting to give them a shimmering, contrasting look. He wasn't sure if he would succeed because he didn't trust this type of paint to give the desired result, but it was worth a shot at the very least.

The afternoon progressed like this, with Haruka working on Makoto's mermaid-tail-arm and putting his paintbrush down every once in a while to take some pictures while Umiko and Mizuki excitedly told their father about everything that they had done that day that was remarkable enough for them to recall. Since the children were pretty divided between painting and talking, not quite having figured out the art of multi-tasking yet, Haruka was able to finish the transformation of Makoto's arm before Umiko and Mizuki deemed themselves done with painting on Makoto's torso.

"I'm done," he called to get their attention and immediately three sets of curious eyes turned his way. He had only done the upside of his arm, since going around and doing his entire arm would have been much too time consuming.

"Wow!" Umiko gushed as she ran her gaze over her father's arm.

"It looks amazing, Haru," Makoto murmured as he stretched out his arm and fingers, shifting it so he could properly see it himself. "How did you even do this?"

Knowing that it was just a rhetorical question, Haruka didn't answer it and just mumbled, "Thanks."

"You should paint on Papa's legs so he really is a mermaid!" Mizuki suggested with an excited grin.

The thought of that made Haruka chuckle awkwardly, "I'm not sure if that's a good idea, but painting on Papa is pretty fun so it would be nice to do that more often. If Papa allows us to, at least."

"Of course," Makoto said with his angelic smile, and it shouldn't have been surprising that he agreed because Makoto used to model for him a lot in the past, so having to sit still for extensive periods of time was something he had gradually gotten used to. Next to that, Makoto loved to make his husband and their children happy so this was a small sacrifice for him if it meant that they were entertained for the afternoon.

"Daddy, you should paint Papa's other arm now!" Umiko proposed in a need to see even more of his talent brought to life through another drawing.

"Yeah!"

"Alright, what do you want me to make?" Haruka asked, not necessarily having an idea himself and wanting to let their kids get a request in. Maybe they had some good ideas, children had a very vivid imagination after all.

It was quiet for a while as the children were thinking and in the meantime Haruka got up and walked around them before sitting down on Makoto's right side. He caressed Makoto's arm again, not so much to come up with an idea this time but just because he wanted to. After all those years, Makoto's arms were still so beautiful and they hadn't lost their shape whatsoever, and neither had the rest of his body courtesy of his job as a swim teacher and the generally healthy diet that was forced upon him by his husband's cooking - although forced was not exactly the correct word considering that he found every meal Haruka made for him absolutely delicious, like he was served little pieces of heaven. To appease his - and the children's - sweet tooth Haruka also made cakes and cookies every so often, but that in and of itself wasn't that bad because he made sure to balance it out enough. Besides, Haruka couldn't not do that even if he wanted to because he loved to spoil his three rays of sunshine, and seeing their beaming smiles when he served them some delicious homemade sweets always brightened up his day in every sense of the word.

"I know!" Mizuki suddenly exclaimed, halting the train of thought that had quickly left its track and calling Haruka to attention again. "A robot arm!"

"Yeah, that's cool!" Umiko chimed in, her eyes gleaming with exhilaration.

"A robot arm, huh?" Haruka mumbled under his breath, already trying to form a mental image in his head of what that would look like. He shot Makoto a questioning look and Makoto chuckled in response, not needing any words to know what his husband was asking him.

"Fine with me," he giggled, "I guess this is my chance to finally be a cool parent."

"But you are cool, Papa!" their daughter insisted and her little brother wholeheartedly agreed.

"Yeah! The coolest!"

Those declarations only made Makoto laugh harder. "Daddy, did you record that? I need to let them listen to that ten years from now to show them that they once thought I was cool."

The confused reactions from Umiko and Mizuki made Haruka laugh as well. "You're going to change your minds about that one day," he told them, but their children didn't believe that at all which only added to their amusement.

"Are you implying that I'm not actually cool?" Makoto asked with feigned offense, but he was giggling too much to successfully execute this act.

Biting his lip to repress his smile, Haruka raised his hand and placed it over his chest in an attempt to look as sincere as he could and he said, "You'll always be cool to me." Before he had properly finished his sentence, Haruka snorted because even though he did think Makoto was cool, he also thought he was a huge dork. And he loved that huge dork so much, it was almost ridiculous. He supposed that made him a dork as well, but he didn't mind it at all. They could be massive dorks together for every single day, for their entire lives.

"That doesn't sound very convincing, but I'll take what I can get," Makoto muttered and Haruka knew for sure that he had just read his mind because he could see the same sentiment reflected in the forest of deep green, could see the hints of a smile tugging at the corners of that lovely mouth that, in spite of being covered in paint, looked no less inviting than it usually did. The mere thought of it made his own lips tingle in a way that could only be resolved with a firm yet passionate kiss.

"Anyway," Haruka uttered, shaking his head to rid it of the stupid, love-struck thoughts. It was strange how the love and desire he felt for his husband had never dwindled, on the contrary, it seemed to have grown only stronger day by day. Then again, it wasn't that odd, because his husband was Makoto, the man who he had loved since they were merely kids themselves and who he would continue to adore until his very last breath left him - and probably long after that as well. When he realised that the smitten thoughts were still coursing through his head, he cleared his throat before he mumbled, "Robot arm."

He grabbed a smaller brush this time and dipped it into some black paint as he began to lay out the basic form of Makoto's robot arm, following the natural shape of his biceps and triceps for a realistic effect. When he got the basic outline done, he slowly started to fill it in with some grey. He noticed that this robot arm would probably require much more time and concentration than the mermaid tail had because he had more experience drawing merpeople than robots. But he supposed it was a nice exercise and the children really wanted to see it, so he was determined to make this work.

With that in mind, Haruka focused all of his attention on his husband's arm and continued to paint.

The afternoon slowly passed but it seemed like the time had gone by much faster than it actually had and before Haruka knew it, the sun was starting to set. The children had finished their own images some time ago and were now content with just watching Haruka work, letting out little gasps of awe and making little suggestions of what they would like to see; per Mizuki's request, he drew bolts on the joints of his shoulder and elbow and Umiko thought it was too boring if it was only in various shades of grey so he added some dark reds on certain parts for her. In the meanwhile, Umiko wanted to take some pictures of her dad's work progressing as well so Makoto quickly explained which button she needed to press to snap photos.

In the end, Makoto's robot arm didn't look realistic at all in Haruka's opinion, because rather than looking like a cyborg, he frankly just looked like someone painted onto his arm. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't necessarily great either but considering it was only his first time doing anything like this, Haruka told himself to be satisfied with it; he was sure he could do an even better job if he had better materials and references and maybe a little more practice. But no one shared his opinion of it not looking good though as Umiko, Mizuki and Makoto flooded him with compliments of how amazing and beautiful it was until he was practically drowning in them. From a more trained and experienced artistic eye, Haruka knew that it wasn't that good, but if they loved it then it everything was alright because that was all that really mattered.

At last he put the brush down and took the camera from Umiko so he could take some final pictures of all of their drawings: the mermaid tail and robot arms that Haruka had drawn, the heart on Makoto's chest and flowers and butterflies on his abdomen that Mizuki had made, and the big orange cat surrounded by little kittens and framed by curly and colourful lines that Umiko had painted on Makoto's back. It was a shame that unlike with canvases and papers, these drawings couldn't be preserved, let alone be stuck on the fridge, but fortunately they still had the pictures and memories they could safekeep and cherish.

Once he had taken numerous photos just to be sure, Haruka stretched out his back and Makoto directly followed his lead.

"Well then," Haruka muttered, "If the three if you go take a bath, then I'll clean up this mess and get started on dinner."

"But if Papa takes a bath then the paint will go away!" Umiko protested, a somber pout forming on her lips at the thought of all of their hard work going down the shower drain.

"That's kind of the point," he replied, understanding that it made her sad but knowing that that was really necessary, "You can't expect Papa to walk around with paint on his body."

"Still, it's a waste…" Mizuki thought as a sorrowful expression appeared on his face as well.

"I'm sorry," Makoto apologised sincerely, for even if he knew that he had to wash it off, having to disappoint their children still stung him regardless. The gears in his head were turning as he tried to come up with something that would cheer them up a little. "Even if I don't bathe, the paint is going to wear off sooner or later anyway, and then it will look really deformed. So it's better if I wash it off entirely now so your drawings will stay pretty until the end. And besides, we always have the pictures to look back on."

"Think of Papa as a whiteboard," Haruka added, also wanting to lift up Umiko and Mizuki's spirits while simultaneously wanting to make sure that his husband could bathe like he definitely should, "If the whiteboard is full, then it's pretty but you can't draw or write on it anymore. But if you clean it off, then you can draw on it again and again."

"So we can draw on Papa again?" Mizuki questioned, interest lighting up in his sea-green eyes at that prospect.

"Yes, of course," Makoto affirmed with his ever-gentle smile. "I'm not sure how easily this paint will come off, though, so we might want to look into some actual body paint for that next time."

"Okay," Umiko replied, a tiny smile blossoming on her lips as she thought of all the things she could draw on her father in the future. She was going to practice a lot on paper so that the next time her father was her canvas, she had improved a little and could maybe draw something similar to her dad's paintings.

"And if it makes you feel a little better, then I can put you two in bath first so you can look at your drawings a little longer. Is that alright?" he proposed, the kind expression on his face never wavering, his eyes holding the softness and fondness that they always had when he was looking at their children.

"Yeah!"

Those chiming answers made Makoto tilt his head sideways in that adorable habit before he said, "Why don't you go on upstairs then and I'll be there in a second."

"Alright!" they reiterated before they bolted off and disappeared inside, leaving their parents behind in the backyard.

"Are you sure you can manage cleaning all of this up?" Makoto asked just to make sure, "I'll help you."

"It's fine," Haruka muttered, rejecting his husband's offer to help but appreciating it nonetheless, "You really need to go take a bath."

"I do," Makoto chuckled in confirmation, "I don't know how I currently look, but I'm assuming I look terrible."

"You could never look terrible," Haruka murmured sincerely as he averted his eyes, "Not even with a whole bucket's worth of paint on your face." Because Makoto was so unbelievably gorgeous, both inside and out, there was nothing that could ever take away his immense beauty.

The somewhat shy words that left Haruka's lips only made Makoto's smile soften in affection; the smile that had always been his. Makoto reached out and placed his hand over Haruka's own, intertwining their fingers before he lifted them to his face and pressed a loving kiss against the back of Haruka's hand. "Thank you, Haru-chan."

"I told you to stop with the '-chan'," Haruka mumbled under his breath and Makoto only chuckled again, softly as to not disrupt the tranquility that always seemed to settle between the two of them. Instead of muttering a remorseless apology like he would have in any other situation, Makoto only squeezed his hand lightly and naturally Haruka squeezed back to return the silent gesture of adoration. It was quiet for only a second before Haruka broke it again. "Makoto?"

"Hm?" Makoto hummed, his eyebrows raising in a questioning look that encouraged him to speak his mind.

"Sorry about the paint and… welcome home."

Instead of responding verbally, Makoto raised his free hand and cupped Haruka's cheek before he kissed him chastely, making sure to keep his mouth closed so Haruka wouldn't have to taste the paint that stained his lips. It was only a short peck, but it conveyed everything Makoto needed him to know; that he didn't need to be sorry for the paint-surprise because he had really enjoyed himself and, "I'm home."

It was a small whisper against Haruka's lips, so quiet that it was almost inaudible but Haruka had heard him clearly, had felt it in every fiber of his being and he briefly rested his forehead against Makoto's as his eyes fluttered open and his cheek was caressed by a large hand. The touches lingered for a moment before they pulled away, knowing that they could only last this briefly because they still had stuff to do. But Haruka promised himself that he would let out all his cravings for his husband's affections later that day, when it was just the two of them for at least a couple of hours.

As if that thought had been read, Makoto stood up and offered out his hand to help Haruka get up as well. Even if he didn't really need it, Haruka would never reject that hand and allowed his husband to effortlessly pull him up like he had done for so many years already and would continue to do in the future.

Once they were both upright, Haruka gave his hand one final squeeze before he let go. "Come on, you really need to go take a bath."

"Yeah," Makoto agreed with a longing smile before he realised something, "But how will I get the paint off my back?"

That question gave Haruka the mental image of Makoto in the shower in a flailing mess of limbs as he tried to scrub his own back and he snorted lightly. "I'll help you. I'll clean this up first and then I'll come upstairs to help you out."

"Thanks, Haru," Makoto beamed, grabbing his discarded shirt off the ground to be thrown with the rest of the laundry before he chuckled as well, "Then you can go wash your own face as well."

"Oh yeah," Haruka sighed, since he had already forgotten that he had paint on his face as well. He really hoped they'd come off, because having to walk around with these kiss-marks on his face was pretty embarrassing.

"I really hope the paint comes off too because I think I look a little more embarrassing than you do," Makoto remarked, proving that he still hadn't lost his ability to read his mind and Haruka laughed lightly.

"Yeah, yeah, just go upstairs," he said in what was supposed to be a scolding manner but came out more amused than anything else, "The children are waiting on you."

Makoto only stuck out his tongue in a childish response before he went inside and disappeared from sight as well.

Shaking his head in a mixture of endearment and happiness, Haruka sighed again as he began to clear off the mess that they had made in the backyard.

They were a handful, really, but they were all Haruka could ever ask for and more. Even if cleaning up their mess was quite troublesome sometimes, he always did it gladly because he loved them immensely and it was a small price to pay for their happiness. And as long as they were happy, then so was he.

#mhgiftexchange2017 #i'm sorry i'm stupid #makoharu #makoharu fic #my fic #i'll paint a smile on your face #part 1 #i'm sorry this is so long but i put a lot of time and effort into it so i hope that you and everyone else who reads it will like it #i honestly don't know what happened either with a prompt this short #no makotos were harmed in the making of this fic #but the author was #lmao i literally burned my leg while i was writing this fic but it's cool it's fine #idk what i'm saying at this point help me #also thanks a lot alex now i'm addicted to crystal snow please take full responsability

35 notes · View notes