It's All About Haruko, Baby

Chapter 3
Chapter 3

Chapter Description: Naota continues to deny his feelings for Eri, and he also gets his first true experience in childcare.

It’s All About Haruko, Baby!

Day 2

Naota looked at the clock. Five a.m. The boy hadn’t slept a wink all night, and it could be told just by looking at him. His eyes were bloodshot and his hair was a mess. Naota managed to pull himself out of bed, exhausted but still unable to even contemplate sleep. Maybe he would skip with Eri for today; hide under the bed, attempt to get some rest, even if only for a few hours. A Wednesday, it was, and Naota couldn’t imagine having to spend the remaining thirteen days, especially the weekends, doing as he had done the night before.

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“Um... is he okay?” Gaku asked as he and Masashi stared at their friend during lunch. Naota ?s head lay on the table, the boy all but asleep as he didn’t move, make a sound, or seem to notice anything going on around him. He had decided to come to school after all- bad move on his part.

Naota attempted to pull himself up from the table, but failed. 13 more days of this... 13 more days... he thought, while continuing to lay unmoving.

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Naota practically had to force himself out the building that day, struggling to take a sole step, much less walk the entire way home. As he walked, Masashi and Gaku ran up behind him.

“Hey, what was wrong with you today?” one asked. Naota was too tired to identify which was speaking.

“Yeah. We haven’t seen you this bad off since that time your dad threw you down a well while trying to reenact Inuyasha.”

“Didn’t get any sleep,” he droned in response, sounding almost like some sort of robot that was working on half the power it should have. Truth be told, that’s pretty much how he was feeling anyway.

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Eri was sitting on the floor of the ship, playing with Haruko (who, naturally, was focusing most of her attention on the Vespa). Eri had to admit that, although what Haruko had her do was basically as enjoyable as repeated blows with a wrench, there was something about it. It was that innocence... there was something about it Eri just couldn’t seem to get enough of. She loved doing all this, she realized; her maternal instincts were just too strong to not do anything she could to make the toddler enjoy herself. She had to admit that a lot of that came from how, up until a number of months before, she was generally treated by her parents in the midst of their many crises, but there was also a natural drive there, taking any chance it got to make itself be known. Eri’s contemplation of all of this was interrupted when the door to the ship opened and Naota stepped in, closed the door, and promptly fell over.

“What happened to you?” Eri asked before getting up and rushing over, helping the boy to his feet and dragging him off to the bed in the next room.

“Didn’t get any sleep,” he moaned, by now struggling to understand where he was at or what was happening.

“Worried about me and her? That’s so sweet,” she answered while lying the boy down on the bed. That definitely wasn’t what Naota wanted to hear, but he was much too tired to argue this point with her or to really care.

“Tell you what: I’ll stick around and watch Haruko for now and I’ll take her to my house at dinner again. I’ll bring her back afterwards and then maybe you’ll have slept a little.” Naota doubted he would be able to sleep now either, but closed his eyes anyway.

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Apparently Naota did manage to fall asleep after all, as when he sat up he saw that Haruko was lying next to him, an arm draped over him. Eri looked at both while sitting in a kitchen chair she had apparently dragged in from somewhere else (probably his house).

“Awake already?” she asked as Naota rubbed his eyes and yawned.

“How long have I been asleep?”

“About three hours,” she answered him. “I was just about to leave with her.”

“I’ll handle it,” Naota replied, still a bit groggy but feeling much better than he had before. “I think I can manage that.”

“Alright, good to hear you’re feeling better. Don’t worry, you really don’t have to worry like that.”

It wasn’t so much worry as it was great guilt and a sense of having all he knew shattered. He’d thought Haruko had been the perfect warrior, born a-kicking and meant to die the same way she’d come in. He’d thought Haruko was and would be the only girl he could ever love but... No, he didn’t want to even begin to consider that. It was too complex, and he knew it just wasn’t going to work out.

“I’m sorry,” he said simply, much to Eri’s confusion. He then embraced her tightly, saying simply, “I’m sorry I’ve made you have to go through all of this.”

Thought he couldn’t see it, Eri grew bright red as soon as he hugged her, at the same time smiling like she’d just won the lottery. “Don’t worry about it.”

“Don’t say that. It’s all my thought... I shouldn’t have dragged you into this...”

“Actually, to tell you the truth, I like doing this,” she admitted, a bit surprised that he wasn’t able to tell. He let go of her and stared at her like she just told him she was from Mars (well, considering where the toddler sleeping on the bed behind the two was from, that really wouldn’t have been much of a big deal but...).

“What do you mean?”

“Just what I said. Sure, it’s hard but... Well, it’s kind of like school. You’ve got all that work, but you still have a ton of experiences that...” she broke off.

“Well... uh... I’d better get going,” Naota said, quickly changing the conversation to avoid further humiliating himself.

“Yeah, same here,” she answered, seemingly feeling very much like he was. As the two just stared at each other, they heard a voice behind them.

“He he, you two hug’d.”

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Naota walked into his room, having just finished dinner. As he entered, he failed to see Haruko at first, drawing a major concern.

“Where’s she at!?” he panicked, looking around the room and failing to see her. Suddenly a sound entered his ears- the sound of a Rickenbacker bass guitar emerging from the direction of his closet. He turned to face the door to that room, there seeing the door open and Haruko sitting inside, the guitar that used to be hers draped over her legs as she fiddled around with the strings on it.

“Nota,” she said, “Will you petty please pway me a song?” she asked in an unbearably adorable fashion while continuing to occasionally pluck at the wires.

“I don’t know ho-“

“Please?” she asked once more, giving him the adorably large eyes he’d only seen before in TV shows and the occasional movie. He had to admit, the effects in media weren’t exaggerated in the slightest.

“Alright,” he sighed, picking up the guitar and strumming a few lines on it. He sounded horrible, admittedly, but it was apparently enough to please the toddler as she began to shout out random words in an attempt to get an encore. He did so just to keep her happy, then laid the guitar back where it belonged and scooped her up, sneaking out the window of his room.

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Naota laid Haruko down on the bed, having just fed her some small leftovers of what he had for dinner (he managed to sneak some into his pockets, with the attitude being that she was too young to notice or care about a little lint). Just as he was about to lay down as well and put the entire miserable, exhausting, embarrassing day behind him, she began to wail once more.

Naota sighed, “What’s wrong this time?” Then it hit him, or rather his nose. He knew he’d have to experience changing her eventually, but he was hoping his first time would at least be with a wet diaper instead of... well, didn’t matter at that point. He picked the girl up and laid her on the floor, carefully removing the diaper and doing everything Eri had told him to do the day before. Naota actually shocked himself with how well he did with his first time at changing Haruko’s diaper; he could attribute part of that to the fact that she didn’t struggle in the slightest, instead working along with him and doing everything she needed to. But he was still pleasantly surprised with just how well things had went. After finishing the job and dropping the soiled diaper in a trash bag Eri had left lying in the room for just that purpose, Naota laid the toddler down once more then lay down next to her.

“Nighty-night,” she said, and though Naota had already begun to get somewhat used to this, it still bothered him a little.