||The Trouble with Twins|| A DisxSei Future AU Drabble
The small, soft voice came from behind her and Dis had to turn away from the dish she was making to see it came from her eldest son, who’d seated himself at the kitchen island.
“Yes sweetie, what is it?” She asked, smiling as she turned off the heat on the ginger chicken stir fry she’d been finishing up for that evening’s dinner.
“I... I need your help for something. It’s important!” His voice was full of determination, his face bright red as he clenched a pen and notebook in his hands.
“My, that sounds serious. Is it something for school?” Dis came over to the sink and went about washing her hands, grabbing a dish towel from off the rack to dry off when she was done.
“No. I mean, kind of, i-it’s not schoolwork exactly, but it does involve something at school.” He was looking down at his lap, seeming unable to meet her eyes.
“Something personal, then?” She tucked the dish towel into the front pocket of her apron as she walked around to stand with her son on his side of the island.
He greeted her question with a nod. “It’s... a letter I want to write.” He said, opening up the notebook to show a half-finished draft full of crossings out and rewordings. It didn’t take more than a few seconds scanning the page to see why he was having such trouble with it:
“Ohhhh, I see.” Dis smiled knowingly, her voice warm with affection. “What part do you need help with?”
“I-I don’t know what to put down. I tried poetry, but it all sounded too fancy, and then I tried writing my own but it’s not... it’s not going well.” He looked forlornly down at his work, his shoulders hunching. “Nothing rhymes right with what she’s called.”
“Well, poetry is all well and good, but maybe that would be a bit much at this point? Correct me if I’m wrong, but it looks like this draft has you admitting how you feel for the first time.”
“...Yes. She doesn’t know how I feel yet.” Saren admitted, blushing slightly.
“Then I think it might be best to start off with something simpler. Letting her know plainly how you feel and why you like her.”
“You mean... like telling her I think it’s cute how she always does assignments in her favorite color ink even when the teacher says to use a pencil?” He asked, finally looking up at her. “You think that’ll be good enough...?”
“I think that will be perfect, so long as what you say is kind and comes from the heart. Doing special things like sending the person you admire roses or writing them poetry isn’t the core of romance, being honest with your affections is.” Her eyes crinkled gently as she reached out to put an arm around his shoulder. “So now that you’ve found someone you like, you have to be sure to treat them gently and with lots of care, alright?”
“Huuuh? But Momma, Daddy doesn’t treat you very gently.” A small voice interrupted the tender moment, coming from the direction of the living room next to the open kitchen. The curious teal eyes of a young girl far too cute to be trustworthy stared at them from over the back of the couch.
“Yeah,” Another face joined the first, almost identical except for the colorful red band-aid on his left cheek. “When we came down early the other day to steal extra cookies for our lunch boxes, we saw you and Daddy kissing in the kitchen, and it looked almost like he was attacking you!”
“Yeah! Like one of those late night dramas where they kiss so hard it’s like they’re trying to eat each other's faces.” The girl, Kazumi, chimed in again, giggling as she remembered how silly such passion looked to a child like herself, who still thought of romance as a symptom of cooties.
“Ah!? Um, well, i-it’s not like he-” Dis turned red as a tomato, fumbling for a few moments before catching herself and straightening up to both hands on her hips. “W-wait a minute, since when have you two been up late enough to watch those kinds of shows!?”
“Since we sneak back into the living room after you and Daddy go upstairs to cuddle.” Masaru said, matter-of-factly and without even a smidgen of guilt over the little ‘crime’ he was admitting to.
Kazumi seemed to share her brother’s lack of guilt, barreling on ahead with her questions. “Daddy’s actually pretty rough with you, isn’t he? Like that time he pinned you against the wall.”
Poor Dis turned even redder at that, her eyes going wide. “Wh-what are- when did you-”
“He was biting your neck too, like a vampire.” Masaru broke in, seeming intent on adding fuel to his mother’s obvious embarrassment. “Is Daddy a vampire?”
“I, um, I-I’ll go ahead and ask him about th-that while I bring him up for dinner! You kids go wash up and, and sit down at the table!” Practically bolting from the room, Dis made her escape to go and inform Sei that not only was dinner ready but that he was never allowed to show his particular brand of affection for her in the common areas of their shophouse ever again.
She went so fast, in fact, she completely missed the twins casually high-fiving as they slid off the couch, as well as Saren’s comment to them that they should really stop teasing their mother so much since ‘she’s gonna catch on one of these days, you know’.
They paid what he said absolutely no mind, and snuck some cookies from the cookie jar instead.
