Anyway, Merry Christmas NoticeMeOppai!
As always the prompt and my author’s notes will be at the end of the story.
Feels Just Like Home
As the taxi comes to a stop in front of the house, I am finally getting a bit nervous.
When Kenji messaged yesterday telling me that his mom had invited me to visit his family for Christmas, I had jumped on the chance of not having to spend the holidays with my family and agreed immediately, but now I am wondering…
We have only been dating for a couple of weeks, but Kenji has never spoken of his family at all in all this time. Sure, I haven’t talked about my family either, but I have reasons to avoid talking about my family.
Just in that moment it occurs to me that Kenji might as well…
The house is not as big as our family home, but it has a modern look, and the area is quite expensive. There is a pretty big garage adjacent to the house, and the yard is also quite big, but it has a sterile look about it. The thing that makes it stand out most from all the other houses in the street is the complete lack of Christmas decorations.
I get out of the taxi and grab my suitcase. The driver seems to offer to carry it for me, but I have packed very lightly, so I just shake my head and hand him the amount of money displayed on the taxameter.
He bows before me, then gets back into his car and drives off, leaving me standing in the driveway.
I take a few moments to gather my courage, then go up to the door and press the doorbell.
Only a few seconds later the door is opened by a young man in a white shirt with a tie. He is weraing dark trousers, and his hair is neatly parted down the middle and gelled in place.
For a moment I don’t know what to do. I hesitantly start to sign. Good evening, my name is Shizune Hakamichi. I was invited…
Before I can continue, the man interrupts me. What are you talking about, Shizune? I know who you are. Come on in.
Seeing the slightly clumsy signs makes things fall in place. Kenji?
Who else did you expect? Come in, mom wants to meet you.
He pulls me inside, sticks his head out the door, looking left and right, then quickly closes it.
Don’t worry, you’re both women, so I’m pretty sure she won’t kill you.
With that ominous reassurance he leads me inside. I am just able to kick off my shoes, but since he is holding my hand, I am not able to question his assertion.
We cross though an entrance hall into an office where a middle-aged woman is sitting at a desk looking through a heap of documents.
She is wearing grey two-piece dress with long sleeves and a knee-length skirt. Her straight black hair is falling to just below her shoulders, she wears some unobtrusive make-up, and her fingers are painstakingly manicured.
Apparently, Kenji has announced our presence, because she looks up from her documents, though she does not seem inclined to rise to greet me.
I give a slight bow and start to sign. Good evening Mrs. Setou. My name is Shizune Hakamichi, I’m very pleased to make your…
At this point I notice that she has already started talking, so I stop and look to Kenji for a translation. He tries his best to keep up with what seems to be a rapid surge of words. Luckily he’s gotten a lot of practice in the last few months with Misha being mostly occupied with reeducating Hisao.
So you’re the girl who is dating my son. I guess your looks are decent, and he tells me your marks are as well, so for now I have no reason to object. I had a background check done on you, and it seems you are not in it for the money either. That’s good, though I struggle to understand what else your motives could be. Just remember that if you let him knock you up, the bastard will be entirely your responsibility. Catering should be about finished setting up, and dinner will be in thirty minutes. You’re free to relax in the lounge until then.
When Kenji finally stops signing I look back to his mother, but she has already returned to studying her documents.
Kenji carefully moves to the door and waves for me to follow. When we are both back in the entrance hall, he looks at me with a slight grin. That went pretty well, don’t you think?
I wonder in what universe this would be considered “going well”, but first things first:
Kenji, what’s with the getup? I almost didn’t recognize you?
He shrugs. In the lair of the evil overlord a certain dress-code is prescribed. She sent me to a stylist first thing this morning. If I had resisted I would be feeding the fishes right now.
Frankly all of this is too much to wrap my head around right now, so I follow Kenji across the hall to a larger room with several armchairs and sofas arranged around a large, heavy wooden table.
On the sofa across from the door a young woman is slouching with a notebook on her lap, apparently browsing the internet. She seems to be around 25 years old, and her features look a bit similar to those of Kenji’s mother, but that is where the similarities end.
Her hair is bleached a garish blonde, and she has so much make-up in her face that I find myself looking for places where it might be crumbling away. She also has several piercings in each ear and a small one in her nose.
As we enter she looks up from her notebook, and a wide grin spreads over her face – miraculously still no make-up crumbling.
Kenji is speaking to her while signing to me. Shizune, meet my older sister Ayumi. She is… He is interrupted, when Ayumi is pointing to my suitcase and then upstairs. They argue for a few seconds then Kenji deflates and turns to me again. I’m going to be taking your suitcase to your room now. He then turns his back to his sister and continues to sign so she cannot see his hands. I have faith in you. Don’t die!
Then he puts his hands on my shoulders and looks me deep in the eyes. He nods once, then takes my suitcase and disappears through the door.
I find myself alone with Ayumi unsure of how to proceed. I start to sign a greeting, but she just shakes her head - wasn’t Kenji just trying to hide his signs from her?
Instead she swings her feet from the sofa and pats the place next to her. I move over to sit down while she closes her browser to start up a text processor.
Still grinning like a crazy person she begins to type. “So, you’re Ken-chan’s girlfriend? Didn’t think he’d ever find one, honestly.”
Uncertain if that is supposed to be a question I just look at her and nod.
Enthusiastically she continues typing. “And? Are you two fucking?”
I almost gasp when I read the question, but after a second to collect myself, I type out an answer. “We have agreed to a mutual ceasefire with regard to that for the time being.”
She looks at me confused then bursts out laughing. “Hey, you’re funny! I think I like you!”
“Thanks?”
“Have you met the hag yet?”
“You mean your mother? Yes, briefly.”
“And she didn’t throw you out yet. Which means we’re practically in-laws already!”
I decide not to comment on that and try to find another topic. “So is Kenji always looking like that when he is at home?”
“Of course! The hag would throw him out if he protested. She can’t do that to me, because I already left. Found myself a boyfriend who gives me loads of cash, so I only have to come around two or three times a year for events like this, so she doesn’t remove me from her will entirely.”
She pauses. “Anyway, I just wanted to get to know you a bit. We’ll have time to chat more after dinner. The hag will be back at her desk as soon as the plates have been cleared. So you can go get Ken-chan now. I told him to wait in your room until I send you up. It’s the second on the left when you go up the stairs.”
She winks. “You might even have time for a quick fuck before dinner is ready, if you decide to break the ceasefire.”
Deciding not to deign to answer that, I stand and give her a quick bow. She just waves and grins at me.
Navigating the unfamiliar house on my own I arrive at the room Ayumi directed me to. I knock on the door and wait a few seconds before entering.
On the bed Kenji is sitting looking dejected, but as he notices me coming in, he brightens immediately.
You’re alive! I knew you’d make it through!
He stands up and embraces me fiercely, then steps back to continue signing. I don’t know what I would have done if they had eliminated you. I’m SO sorry, I know I should have warned you about the feminist stronghold, but Ayumi was looking over my shoulder when I was typing the message. And after that mom confiscated my phone, because I complained about having to wear contacts today…
He pauses. I’m sorry for my family…
As I see him looking all dejected again, I feel as if the whirlwind of everything that happened since I crossed over the doorstep of this house is finally coming to an end. I place one of my hands below his chin and lift his head up, so I can place a kiss right on his mouth.
He relaxes, and I feel him put his arms around my back. I return his embrace.
When we separate a short time later – both a bit out of breath – a thought comes to my mind, and I start laughing out loud. It’s not something I do often because I have no idea what it sounds like to others, and it might just be the first time Kenji has heard me do so. He looks at me, astonished.
Don’t be sorry for your family, Kenji, I sign when my mirth has subsided. This feels just like home.
The End.
Prompt:
The most difficult thing about the prompt was that you specified a “crackfic pairing”. Normally crackfics don’t stay in my memory all that well – you could also say that I’m doing a good job of suppressing my memories of them.”NoticeMeOppai” wrote: Your favourite crackfic pairing (romantic or platonic) spend the holidays together at one of their parents' houses, meeting the parent(s) for the first time.
Thankfully I remembered that I had written one myself a long time ago…
I never would have expected to come back to this and write what could be called a sequel after such a long time…
After deciding on Shizune X Kenji the question was who was visiting whom. That was easy, since I don’t like Jigoro, and Kenji’s family rarely if ever features in any stories, so I thought it would be interesting to explore just what Kenji’s home must have been like for him to turn out that way – a healthy dose of neglect and trauma were practically a given…
The result is the above. I feel as if it's come together better than the story it is based on.
Again, Merry Christmas!
