by Laine Watson
“What’s up, buddy?” Haru asks as he sits across from him.
Max doesn’t answer.
I pour him a glass of mixed berry juice and place it beside him. “You want some juice, Haru?” I ask, but he isn’t paying attention. He’s staring at Max.
I stare at both of them.
Max won’t even look at Haru. I wonder why? Is he angry?
“Max, are you okay?” Haru presses.
Max remains silent and continues to avoid eye contact as he eats his breakfast.
Haru looks over at me with concern etched all over his face.
“Max, is everything okay?”
“Can you sit by me for breakfast, Summer?” Max asks in lieu of an answer.
“Um,” I say, glancing at Haru. “Of course. Let me get my plate and pour Daddy a glass of ju—”
Max cuts me off. “Daddy doesn’t get any juice! He can have water.”
“What?” Haru asks confused.
Max says nothing. I take the cup of juice for myself. I grab my plate and sit next to Max at the table. Haru studies Max while he eats.
“Fine, I won’t have juice. I guess he’s not talking to me either. Whatever.” Haru smiles.
I start eating. Haru glances at me and then at Max. “I’ll get my own God damn juice,” he says, getting up.
I thought you were okay with not having any, I think, wanting to smile but I don’t.
Haru gets his juice and sits back down, and we all continue to eat. The tension grows in the kitchen, heightened only by the sound of clanking forks against plates. Finally, Haru drops his fork forcefully and addresses his son, “C’mon, Max. Why aren’t you talking to me?”
Max continues not to speak.
“Summer?” Haru says as if I am supposed to do something.
It startles me, but I take my cue. “Max, what’s wrong?” I ask sweetly.
“I don’t like Daddy,” Max reveals.
“Why?” I ask.
“Because he made you cry.”
“No, he didn’t,” I say as Haru sips his juice.
“Yes, he did! This morning. You were crying and telling him no! No means no, Daddy!”
Haru chokes on his drink, spilling a little on the table. Unable to get out words, he coughs. His eyes bug and face flushes.
My cheeks burn.
“U-um…” I stutter.
“You can sleep in my room, Summer. You don’t have to sleep with Daddy if he’s going to be mean. What did he do? Did he steal the covers? Did he turn the light off when he said he was going to keep it on?”
“Um I-I…” I continue to stutter. My skin starts to sweat and the feeling in my fingertips leaves.
“Max,” Haru calls in a fatherly tone.
Max looks right at him.
“I did steal the covers from her. I’m sorry. I promise I’ll never do it again.”
“You promise, Daddy? Because you promised me too, but you still did.”
“I promise. I’ll even get her a cover just for her, if I can’t stop stealing,” Haru says sweetly.
OH, MY GOSH! I can’t believe Max heard us having sex.
The feeling returns to my fingertips and a sigh of relief comes out of me. “Max, I’m sorry.”
“You don’t have to apologize. You probably didn’t want to say a lot to Daddy because you just started staying here forever. Daddy, when Summer says no, you have to understand it, okay?”
“Okay, I promise. Are you still mad at me?” Haru asks with puppy dog eyes.
“Summer, are you mad at Daddy?”
“No.” I smile.
“Then okay, I’m not mad anymore either.”
Haru finishes his food with a few sly smirks my way. “You know buddy, we’re not going to be here at the house forever?”
“Oh, I didn’t mean at the house forever, Daddy. I meant with us.”
“Oh, Max.” I rub his hair as he finishes his breakfast and drinks the last of his juice.
A few moments go by. It’s May, I gasp slightly, that’s six months from their birthdays. “Hey, your half-birthday’s coming up. We should celebrate.” I smile.
“Half birthday?” Haru inquires.
“Is that a real thing?” Max asks.
“Yeah. It’s halfway to your birthday. Since I missed it last year, we should celebrate it.” I explain.
Max smiles, “Like, have a party? We never have parties.”
“We should. That would be fun. Wouldn’t it, Haru?”
“I don’t know, princess…” He trails off in thought.
My hands ball up, and my cheeks start burning. He’s calling me that in front of Max now? “Well, I think we should.”
“Dad, please.” Max backs up my statement with his sweet pleading.
Haru is jolted out of his thoughts. “What happened to ‘Daddy?’”
“I’m going to be a super big boy at my half-birthday, I’ll be almost seven. ‘Daddy’ is for babies.”
“Oh? Well, if you’re going to be a super big boy then I guess we’d better have a party, huh? You’ve never been super big before.”
“YEAH!” Max says, running to hug Haru.
Haru kisses Max in his coal black hair and shoots me a sweet stare. I smile as Max shuffles over to me and throws his arms around my waist. Content with the news, he skips over to his backpack and shoots up the stairs.
Haru sighs after his last bite of food. He washes it down with the last of my juice. I stare at him endearingly until he stands and walks over to me with a certain look in his eyes. He raises my chin with his index finger.
“I love you,” he says earnestly. “Sometimes you want these things that I never thought of having.”
“A party?”
“I never thought that Max would even want a party. Am I completely stupid? Of course, he wants a party. He’s never asked. These last two years he’s been happy with whatever we’ve done.”
“Haru, it’s okay. You seem troubled by this and untroubled by the fact that he heard us having sex.”
“That was my bad. We definitely have to be more careful, but this … I don’t know—you’re exactly what we needed.” He kisses me again. “We’ll see you later.”
“I’ll pick Max up from school. I just have some studying to do today.”
“I was thinking we can probably wait to move until the semester’s over.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. I know it’s a lot to give up to just come and be with us and it’s only a month.”
I smile; my cheeks are on fire. “Haru, I love you and Max so much. Thank you.” I gaze up into Haru’s beautiful eyes.
Max runs down the stairs, grabs his lunch, and heads for the door.
“Don’t forget to tell Summer goodbye,” Haru reminds his son as he throws his suitcoat on and buttons it.
“Oh!” Max says, running back into the kitchen. He stops abruptly, changing his demeanor. “Summer…” Max starts as if he’s about to say something else.
“Yeah?”
“C-can I call you ‘Mom?’”
My shoulders drop.
Haru looks over at me.
Max scrutinizes my every move, examining me.
“Y-you want to call me ‘Mom?’” I stammer.
“Aren’t you my mommy now?”
“Um,” I say, glancing at Haru. He too seems to be waiting for my answer.
I gulp. “Yeah. You can.”
“Okay, Mom.”
Chapter Twenty-One: Family Meeting
It’s Friday—the Friday before finals. It’s about five or six in the morning, and I’m having the uncontrollable urge to moan.
“You’re awake,” Haru states from between my legs.
“You couldn’t wake me up first?” I ask in pure pleasure as his tongue tickles my lady parts slowly.
I open my eyes, and our eyes lock. He stops and sits up.
“Well, I was asleep, and then your pussy said to me, ‘Haru, can you please lick me?’”
“What time is
it? It’s almost daytime. You know Max heard us the last time we had sex in the morning.”
“It’ll be fine. I forgot to put his sound machine on. He won’t hear us this time.”
I sigh.
“Yeah, so anyway, as me and your pussy were conversing, I asked ‘do you think I should wake Summer up?’ She didn’t like the idea because she wanted us to have some personal time—so we could get to know each other a little better.”
I roll my eyes, playing along with his little narration. “So, what kind of ‘person’ is she?”
“Not a person. She’s a vagina. She hates when she gets lumped in with other species just because she’s attached to them.”
He’s nuts.
“But her name’s Kathy. She works in accounting. She likes long strokes of the tongue, followed by gentle slurping around her pearl—”
“Shut up, Haru.”
He laughs. “She’s a sweet girl—a little naughty at times. Oh, let me tell you when she’s wet, she makes a lot of noise.”
“Oh, my gosh! Shut up! You’re so embarrassing.”
He laughs sexily. “So, now that she’s all moist and glistening,” he says, climbing on top of me. “I’d like for her to meet Bob.”
“Bob?”
“Yeah.” He shrugs. “He’s from accounting, too.”
I roll my eyes and then put them right on him. “First of all, Kathy and Bob sound like boring old people, and accounting? Really?”
“What?! Fine, her name’s Mecca, and she’s a fashion model. His name’s—”
“He has to have a name like you, Haru.”
“Takumi! He plays bass.”
“Okay.” I smile mischievously. “So, are you going to make love to me or not, Takumi?”
A sexy, sly smirk appears across Haru’s face. “Damn right I am. Hope you’re ready for your tax refund, it’s going to be big.”
“What?” I giggle, but he doesn’t answer. “It’s Mecca and Takumi, not Kathy and Bob, they’re not accountants, you said Takumi plays bass. Wouldn’t it be a music reference?”
“Eh, I like the accounts, boring names, dirty minds.”
He slides into me and proceeds to roughly re-introduce his shaft to my flower. When he’s done ringing my bell and pounding his orgasm out, he wraps me up in his arms.
“Haru,” I moan, still panting from our early morning session.
“Good, princess?” He kisses me and lies beside me.
I pull the covers up over us and scoot close to him so we can cuddle. “Yeah,” I say as he puts his arms under the covers to hold me. “Haru, can you stay home from work today?”
“Are you going to stay home from school?”
“Yeah.”
“I got some paid time off. Let me just take Max to school.”
“Can we all stay home together? Like a family day?”
“Oh. I seriously thought you were suggesting we have like a sex party day or something.”
“We can have a sex party tonight. Today, let’s be with each other.”
“What’s so special about today?”
“Well, it’s May twentieth—you and Max’s half-birthday.” I smile.
“Half-birthday?”
I scoff, “Haru! We talked about this already.”
“Sorry. Sorry. Okay. Half-birthday.”
“Yeah. Remember I said let’s have a party?”
“Uh…”
“You don’t—that’s fine.” I roll my eyes, “Anyway, I was thinking, maybe not a party. Maybe we should have a mini vacation. Let everything fade away, except us. It could be a tradition that we start or something.”
“Tradition?”
“It doesn’t have to be like something we pass down through the years, and suddenly, it’s some sacred thing that deems you a horrible person if you don’t do it. Just something that’s only ours?”
“Okay, maybe.” His eyes shoot up to mine. “Yeah, let me go see if Max is up.” He gets out of the bed and leaves the room.
A few minutes later, Haru walks back into the room and pulls his pants off and hops in bed with me. “It’s not even seven, princess. He’s sleeping. I guess we’re all staying home today and playing hooky. Starting traditions and shit.”
I smile. “Can we go back to sleep?”
“Fuck yeah. I never get to sleep in. We go to bed late.”
“Because you want to have sex.”
“Exactly. Now, I’ve already fucked that little pussy and beat it up, so I’m good.” He smiles slyly.
I roll my eyes. “Shut up.”
He laughs sexily as we cuddle one another. I snuggle into his tattooed arms and fall back asleep.
After a while, a faint knock stirs me awake. I cuddle deeper into Haru’s masculine arms without opening my eyes.
“Mom. Dad.” Max’s sweet little voice causes my eyes to open immediately.
Mom. I smile so big.
“Haru, wake up. Max is at the door.”
“What?” he asks in his sexy, groggy man voice as he stirs from his sleep and grabs me, tucking me in closer to him.
“Wake up, Haru.” I get out of the bed and throw on a romper. Haru slowly pushes the covers off himself and slips on some shorts.
I open the door with a smile. “Good morning, Max.”
“Morning, Mom.” He smiles.
Haru joins us at the door.
“Hi, Dad.”
“Max it’s you and your dad’s half-birthday, so we’re just going to have fun today.” I smile.
“That’s today? Yey!”
“Yeah.”
“Okay then. Happy half-birthday, Dad.” Max smiles big.
“You too, buddy.” Haru smiles back.
“So, you guys want to help me make breakfast?”
“Yeah, sure.”
“Yeah!” Max jumps.
“Awesome!”
“Okay, can I stay in my pjs?” Max asks.
“Yeah.” Haru allows.
“Cool. I’m going to go put some cooler ones on,” he says, darting down the hall.
I laugh. “So, he’s going to change anyway?”
“Whatever he wants,” Haru says and gives me a sweet kiss on the cheek on his way to the bathroom.
Max returns to our doorway, in what he considers ‘cooler’ pjs, with a balled-up fist and a frightened look on his face.
“Is everything okay?” I ask.
Max says, “Um … so I was excited, and I was rushing to change my pjs. I don’t really know what happened.” He extends his fist forward opening his hand, palm-side up. In the middle of his palm is a baby tooth.
I gasp. “You—is that the first tooth you’ve lost?” I ask.
“Yes.” He stares at me unsure.
“Was it bleeding?”
“Not really. I didn’t even notice it was loose.”
“That happens sometimes. It’s okay. Can I take a look?”
“Yeah,” he says, stepping into the room and opening his mouth. He tilts his head back a little, and I rest my hand in his hair and the other on his chin. Looking around his mouth I don’t see any blood, but I do see a space at the center of his bottom row of teeth. I examine it more closely. “Wow, the other tooth is already growing in.” I step back smiling at him. “Does it hurt?”
“No, it didn’t hurt when it came out either. It just fell out. I think I was smiling too hard. Is that how it is all the time?” Max asks.
“I think it’s different for everyone and maybe even every time.”
Haru joins us at the door.
“Wow. You lost your first tooth? You’re snaggle-toothed now.” Haru laughs, sleepily.
“No, he’s not.”
Max stares at Haru.
“So the Tooth Fairy’s going to be paying you a visit.” Haru smirks.
“Tooth Fairy?”
“Yeah, you know.” Haru shrugs.
“I—” I study Haru. This is probably something Haru never talked to Max about. “Do you maybe want to talk about it? The Tooth Fa
iry and stuff?”
“I have my own ideas of the whole thing,” Max says.
“Well, I’d love to hear them.” I smile.
“Really?” Max stares at me with a happy expression on his face.
“Yeah.”
“Could we … could we have like a family meeting?”
“Family meeting?” I question. “Sure.”
“Awesome!” Max darts toward the stairs and disappears down them.
Haru sighs. “He’s taking this ‘family’ thing too far.”
“I think it’s cute. He probably has been waiting to have one, or at least thinking about it. Let’s see what he thinks about the Tooth Fairy and losing his first tooth.”
Haru smiles at me.
“What’s that smile about?”
“You’re so sweet about Max. Some people might think he’s bothersome because he’s not really like a kid. He doesn’t have any kid friends or anything. I never take him on playdates. I never go to any of the parent stuff at school. You know, I’m just trying to be good to him. It comes so natural to you.”
“Don’t worry. I’ll go on playdates with him and go to the parent stuff if you want me to.”
“I think Max would like that.”
Haru kisses me and leads me out of the room by the hand. We head down the stairs and into the living room where Max is patiently waiting for us. Haru and I sit down on the sofa as Max sits on the chair next to us.
“So, what do you think about losing your first tooth and stuff?” I ask.
“Honestly, I’m fine with it. I just—please don’t be mad guys. I don’t really know if the Tooth Fairy is real. I have my doubts about Santa, too. That okay?”
“Yeah, buddy, whatever you want.” Haru smiles.
“I was thinking, since I’ve never really had a Mom and a Dad at the same time, if the Tooth Fairy, or any of the holiday magical people are real, maybe you could ask them this year to kind of … just … let us do everything.”
“What do you mean?”
“Maybe you could email them or call them up or something and tell’em you guys will do it. It’s already so hard to believe, and honestly, if you think about it, it’s kind of scary.”
“Scary?” I question.
“Well, yeah, I mean, do we know them?”
He thinks about stuff like that?
“I was just thinking maybe it could be a family thing, and we don’t really need the Tooth Fairy or Santa or anyone.”