Karaapa
Day 3 of the 2025 Advent Event title inspired in part by yuuka's takopa cw: nosey neighbors, small towns, poly au for jjk
All of you may be going a bit stir-crazy. Moving to the countryside had initially seemed an enormously good idea. Get out of the miasmic crush of the city, find your footing together. Go through growing pains this new dynamic between four of you. There's a trainstation nearby, a bus.
It doesn't seem to matter though because your boys are starting to become trouble. The convenience store owner likes Satoru, luckily, because he's in and out of there every time anything new gets released. Suguru has started to skulk around like a feral cat and although his politeness generally wins out over suspicion, the villagers still can't seem to shake the feeling of being watched by an overly interested predator. This isn't to mention your own strangeness, using your umbrella on cloudy days, appearing in utter silence, walking in the woods around the village to figure out the pattern of curses out here.
Shoko has, in utter disgust with all of you and tired of the staring and whispering of your new neighbors, been spending most of her time in the city. Which is unacceptable. She is, as always, welcome to come and go as she pleases, but you want your wife home sometimes!
If you follow her back to the city, Satoru and Suguru will more likely than not follow you and then you're all back exactly where you started.
And you liked the new house. You liked having tons of rooms to decorate and space for a dog maybe and not having a manager call you for other peoples' stupid problems. You wanted the four of you to give the place a good try, at least for a year. That was never going to happen if the villagers kept acting like one omega was a ghost and the other omega was a tiger and ambushing all of you whenever Shoko was mentioned, like she couldn't be real.
And then there had been that one ojisan who had been far too loud in his… concern you had somehow coerced everyone into an archaic pack situation. As if you could coerce the two troublesome omegas. Suguru had very nicely refuted being forced but apparently your face had done something that made him very earnestly say you can force me if you want too, in public. You'd wanted to die and abandon you very adult plan to integrate into your neighborhood community, but unfortunately for Suguru you were also stubborn.
"Obaa-san," you called from the walkway, feeling very much as though you were in your home village suddenly, five years old.
An old voice, creaky with age, called back. Shuffling footsteps rapidly approached from further inside the community center, a low older-style building, concrete walls, tiled roofing. You stood politely outside as an older woman in double-thickness coat came to the door.
"Oh!"
You could see immediately that she recognized you, although you couldn't tell how she felt about that.
"Can I help you?"
"How would we rent the hall?"
After a long moment, she beckoned you in out of the cold, watching you as you unwound your scarf as if you might reveal some physical mark of strangeness.
"What would it be for?" She let you to a small desk, scattered with a pleasantly organized amount of clutter.
"Well, we were thinking of hosting an event for the community."
"All four of you will be home?"
"If Shoko doesn't have to work."
The old lady asks a few much nosier questions, a predictable one about the "omega that dyes his hair" where you don't correct her, and a slightly less polite implication that Suguru was never where one would expect him because he was unsatisfied.
You resigned yourself to it. Small towns always had something like this. Unfortunate really that country life had made you all a little bored, to have you running harmless schemes on your neighbors.
"What are you thinking of doing?"
"We'd like to have a fried chicken party."
"Pshaw, sure you need the main hall for that? Unless you don't have a good frier?" she moved on quickly. "Mr. Sato can lend you his deep pan."
"We want to host everyone who wants to come. A community event."
"Really?"
"Really."
Luring people's good will with food should be easy.
"Why can't we just buy a hundred boxes of KFC and pass them out," Satoru asked without taking his eyes from the tv, leaning hard to the right as he pressed buttons on his controller.
"That defeats the purpose," Suguru sighs from the floor where he was doing leg raises with weights around his ankles.
The only thing that kept this from looking like a college dorm was the room being relatively organized and clean.
"What purpose? We don't have to make friends with every single person in a ten kilometer radius," Satoru sniffs disdainfully.
"They think we're weird," Suguru said dully, switching to a series of crunches, pulling on knee and then the other to his elbow.
"Chicken isn't going to fix that."
Suguru's shirt is riding up and he isn't fixing it, which is deliciously distracting.
"Half the town thinks we were sold, harassed, or abused into getting mated together," Suguru puffs between lifting one knee and then the other.
Satoru choked out a laugh. "Leave it that way. If everyone thinks our alpha is extremely aggressive, they won't bother us once they get used to us."
"The other half are starting to wonder whether we're all Sanseito." Suguru paused, violet eyes narrowing on Satoru.
"Oh." He paused on an inventory screen. "Well it won't matter once the kids get in for the new year break." He flipped between a set of potions before picking on and moving onto the next area. "I don't want to spend hours cutting chicken."
Ugh, you hadn't realized that the gossip in town was so bad. You watched Satoru's character do a back-flip and slash a couple of slimes.
"Do you want the guy who runs the ice cream store ask if you're having any cravings?"
Satoru winkled his nose.
But Suguru didn't seem thrilled at the prospect either. "Maybe we can streamline things," he mused. "Buy something premade so we just have to cook it the day of."
You'd just remembered, "Suguru?"
"Yes?"
He blinked up at you from the floor.
"Am I leaving you sexually unsatisfied?"
His eyes went very cold in a way that sent shivers up your spine, cursed energy flaring around the room. He picked his phone up from near his hip, typing rapidly. "We're making fried chicken. Shoko can get wicked with a cleaver."
"I think we can buy things pre-cut-"
"Shh," Suguru snapped. "No more ideas from you for a little bit. Who knows who you've been talking to."
"Oooh," Satoru drawled, eyes glinting from over his glasses. "Is that a yes?"
"Don't you dare leave scratches on my floor!" you squawked as Suguru scrambled from the floor, cushions flying, scorpions tearing through rifts in space behind him as he lunged at Satoru.
"If you two cause any trouble, I'm going back to Tokyo," Shoko said, arriving with eyebags and workbag in tow, barely with house slippers in and suffering both Suguru and Satoru draping themselves over her, scanting her and looking sinister while she let them do it.
She looked you in the eye, hair frizzing from Satoru rubbing his cheek on it. "I'm only here because you've volunteered yourself for a lot of unnecessary work. Can these two idiots even cook?"
She was finally freed from the two-omega static electricity machine only to be yanked into the house like a ragdoll.
"I can cook," Satoru protested, taking one of her bags and opening it, keeping it out of reach of Suguru trying to stop him, which at least freed poor Shoko to straighten her sleeves and come over to lean her shoulder against yours, smelling content and fond as Satoru unearthed a bag of candy from the bundle of a winter coat and a set of thick sweaters.
"Thankfully, the lady who runs the community center was able to find us some help once she finally acknowledge we were serious. And a few of the neighbors have offered to bring in some pickled vegetables."
Suguru winced, pushing Satoru's hand away to avoid having a peach flavored jelly shoved into his mouth.
"Ms. Kondou is going to use the huge rice cooker at the school. Suguru is going to help with that."
Suguru pulled another face as Satoru stuffed something grape-colored in his mouth and bit down, making Satoru yell.
"They're like children," Shoko sighed. "How have you been managing all on your own."
Perhaps the haunted look of a person who had made a project for themselves they were no longer sure they wanted to do let he know that you had not, in fact, been managing.
"I never thought I'd want to go back to work," you said glumly.
"Go work for Satoru's family." Shoko moved to the kitchen, found kombucha in the kitchen, and you found her a glass.
"I don't want to fry fifteen kilo's of chicken by hand. I want to use magic to cook it with fire," you flexed you hand, staring into your palm, and slumped over when Shoko clapped you between the shoulder-blades. Something about hitting right over Satoru's mark made him shout from the next room.
The day of your holiday fried chicken party started early. Suguru set off for the local mixed grade school while you and Satoru and Shoko bundled up to walk to the community center.
It was actually surprising and a little nice that there were several others who had come out to help, either due to pity or kindness or curiosity. Together, everyone patted chicken dry, got a marinade ready for half, mixed sauces, cut cabbage and carrots and pickles, cracked eggs and got the dredge ready.
Suguru showed up with Ms. Kondou in your car and carried three pots full of rice inside to much ooing and aahing over the flex of his shoulder muscles, which precipitated Satoru harassing him into a growling match near the fridges that garnered some alarmed looks which cooled when neither you nor Shoko intervened.
The cooking part actually went quite smoothly, with people showing up at a reasonable point so they could eat. There were enough people around that you all didn't have to talk that long to any one person and quite a camaraderie had formed among the kitchen crew.
Suguru was listening quite contentedly to Mr. Watanabe talk about his three children. Satoru and Shoko were chatting quietly with Ms. Kondou. Ishida-san had struck up a conversation after thanking you for bringing a community-friendly spin to a holiday tradition a lot of people here had no way of participating in, short pink-dyed hair flipping this way and that as they seemed to talk with their whole body.
Eventually though, the group of you were pulled out of the kitchen by the community center director to enjoy the food too. And someone had brought alcohol.
This meant Shoko was off and away to see if there was anything local worth keeping in the cupboards, and that people began to loosen up.
You were standing by Satoru when someone offered him a drink. When he declined, the other omega, an aged gentleman with a pot-belly and unrepentant bald spot, guffawed and asked if Satoru was pregnant.
At which point Satoru had grabbed the offered cup before you could take it for him and down the whole thing.
"Oh, I guess not," the new introduced Mr. Kamada laughed, just as loudly while you stared at Satoru.
Just because you didn't need to use jujutsu so often… you hadn't seen him drink since high school and it was very clear to you that Satoru had to choke down a gag.
Soon after that, you excused yourself to make sure he was okay, fussing over him in a corner as his cheeks reddened slightly and his eyes went a bit blank. He leaned into your palm rather cutely. He really was such a lightweight.
"Why did you drink the whole thing?" you scolded, flustered. What if he evaporated the building on accident? What if he expanded his infinity too far and people noticed. What if an assassin showed up with a knife when his infinity was flickering on and off?
"Isn't that what you do with spirits?" he asked, a little muddled, the side of his head thumping to your shoulder. "Will you take me home now?"
You looked around the room. Was it okay to leave yet? It felt rude to leave cleanup to others when it was still an event you were hosting, although you were tempted to just pay people to clean up. First Grade salary and a big three clan omega had spoiled you, you thought wryly, but drunk Satoru and nosy people who thought his hair color made him a strange made you ready to get out of here too.
"Think Suguru had enough too," he murmured, eyes of course finding Suguru before you did. And he did indeed look like he was ready to go. Suguru had a particular energy to him now when he was finished being polite and his inner personality was emerging.
You found Shoko next. She looked alright, but at your waving at her, came over.
"Time to go?"
Satoru had gone very quiet against you, similar to when he was extremely tired, but there was something about his posture that made you feel very protective suddenly, keeping your back between him and where the heaviest clumps of people were.
"Drank something with grain in it," Satoru mumbled. You'd never found out if he could RCT out poison, but if he could, he was choosing not to, or being very slow about it.
Shoko did the same as you, putting cool hands to Satoru's pink cheeks and forehead, although more briefly, checking for fever rather than coddling.
"Do you want to go or shall I?" you asked.
Shoko frowned for a moment while Satoru tightened his arms around your waist.
Suguru finished winding his way over to your cluster, looking a bit more relaxed. "Ms. Tanaka said they'll start on the cleanup. If we were having trouble."
His eyes landed on Satoru at trouble, but his eyes were soft and hands relaxed in his pockets.
"Can you get the keys from my pocket?" you angled your hip at Suguru. You always did tend to baby Satoru when he was like this. "Go ahead and go home. I'll stay."
Satoru squeezed your middle.
"I'll stay," Shoko said with a fond exasperation. "Just don't leave me here."
"It was my idea," you said guiltily. "Why don't Suguru and Satoru go and—"
Suguru had Satoru up on his feet, tethered with one held hand like a balloon. "Take us home before everyone acts like both our alphas are neglectful."
Your boys snuggled in the back seat on the short drive back to the house, and although the alcohol did seem to be clearing from Satoru's system, they talked you into nesting in the bedroom for about fifteen minutes before you begged making sure Shoko didn't get mad having to wait.
Back at the community center, you were impressed with how quickly the center director and your volunteer crew had gotten everyone to clear out, leaving chairs already stacked, tables wiped down, and leftovers packed and distributed. The scent of oil lingered in the air, but it was joined by soapy steam drifting from the kitchen doors.
You and Shoko helped the others wash the dishes, suffering only one or two comments on how nice it was to see alphas in the kitchen, Shoko having revealed her biologic dynamic to others at some point in the afternoon and it making its way around. Neither of you felt like correcting them about assumptions of balance of household work in your home. And after being inundated with socializing, it seemed you'd been somewhat desensitized to the anachronisms of people assuming omegas did most of the domestic work while also judging your pack-like marital situation.
None of the comments were mean spirited so the two of you just replied when you needed to, and the work was quickly done, allowing you and Shoko to catch up on the walk back home by half-frozen rice patties and plastic-covered greenhouses.
Back at the house, Satoru had recovered enough to make a big pot of hot chocolate. He stuck his tongue out at Shoko pouring a hearty glug of peppermint schnapps into her and Suguru's mugs.
"I'm not certain that was a success," you said, leaning against Suguru and sipping on your chocolate while a movie started.
It was quiet as Shoko looked over Satoru's shoulder at whatever he was doing on his phone. Eventually, he showed you too. He was sending pictures of the event to Megumi and Tsumiki.
»I'm glad it was fun.
"Everyone seemed to enjoy it just fine," Suguru soothed, rubbing your arm. "It was hard work, but I had fun. You were right. We don't have to make friends, but it was interesting at least to see the people who live nearby."
"It was nice to have so much help. I don't think we could have done it on our own." Not without being miserable.
"It wasn't so bad," Shoko agreed.
That seemed the consensus and you all let your exhaustion fold you into the muted sounds of the movie Satoru had chosen.
What you'd really wanted was everyone together, generally feeling non-threatened, without the dull lethargy of nothing to do.
"Do we have leftovers?" Satoru asked.
"On the left side of the bottom drawer," Shoko replied as he padded into the kitchen.
The four of you ended up there together in short order, picking at the fairly generous portion of chicken, and the side of vegetables with it. You'd pulled a lemon from the fridge too, which was being squeezed over the box.
"Was this your recipe?" Satoru asked you.
"I found it."
"You've made chicken before though," he crunched through a piece of batter.
"Not at that scale."
"It's really good. But you would have had sooo much less work if you'd let me buy it."
"Satoru," Shoko sighed.
You felt a bit scandalized. Of course he'd get his energy back right now. "If we did that, everyone will think we're some rich city assholes."
Suguru's face said he agreed with you.
"You don't need to cook for others," he grinned.
"Satoru," Suguru sighed.
"They're still going to think we're a pack of weirdos."
"Satoru," you whined. You wanted one win. One thing to be easy.
"If you start building up some kind of annual expectation, that's a lot of work."
"Satoru," all three of you said.
"Please don't make me think of that right now." Not when your wrists hurt from using a mandolin to sheer cabbage into strips.
But it made you happy, just a little, that he was thinking maybe you'd do this next year too. It might have just been you, but in the dim kitchen, the leftovers tasted better than they had fresh.