Tag: electric016

In Which Junpei Fails at Knitting. Twice.

~ zecretsanta ~ Leave a comment

To: @falselyprofound

From: @electric016

I loved your prompt about Junpei’s scarf knitting not going according to plan! I hope this fic lives up to expectations! Merry Christmas!

Junpei sat clicking the needles. It was therapeutic. Sitting there and just focusing on the looping of yarn around knitting needle. He could relax and and take his mind off the idea that if he didn’t find anything of use to sell this week, he might not be eating next week–not to mention, he could always tell himself that maybe he could sell a scarf.

It was a good time to just let his mind wander, take a break and eat his lunch. Today tuna fish sandwich was on the menu.

As he knit, his mind wandered towards his childhood. When he’d been in elementary school, he’d learned to knit as part of a home economics class. It had been during the last week in February. 

For Valentine’s Day that year, Akane had given him a small box of homemade chocolate, decorated to look like a mini-bento box. It had been really thoughtful. He’d been wracking his brain ever since to think of the best way to reciprocate. After all, what kind of friend would he be if he didn’t return her gift?

The knitting class had given him a spark of inspiration. He would knit her a scarf. 

So when Junpei got home from school he asked his mom if he could go with her to the department store.

“Why do you want to come with me?” his mother asked suspiciously.

“We learned how to knit today at school, and I want to get some yarn so I can practice at home!”

His mother deemed this reasonable because soon he was climbing into the back of the car and off to the department store.

While his mother was gathering groceries, Junpei wandered off to the craft section, the 500 yen coin his mother had given him safely in his pocket. The selection was incredible, so many colors and sizes he didn’t really know where to start.

‘First thing’s first,’ Junpei thought trying to break it down logically, ‘what color would she want?’

His eyes scanned the shelves and landed on a deep, royal purple.

‘Of course, purple!’ Junpei said to himself. It was her favorite color after all. But there were so many different kinds of purple yarn. The big purple ball that had initially caught his eye was kind of coarse. He couldn’t make the perfect scarf out of that. 

Wandering up and down the aisles, he touched every ball and bundle of purple yarn, until he found the perfect one. It was a light lavender color and by far the softest yarn in the store. The only problem was that it was a pretty small bundle. 

He checked the price. 

“Seriously? 450 yen for a ball of yarn?”

Well he certainly wouldn’t be able to afford two of them. Well, Akane was a small girl. She probably only needed a small scarf. 

So everyday after school that week Junpei worked on knitting Akane the perfect scarf. He had to start over once or twice but eventually he got the  hang of it. 

The moment he was finally able to cast off and finish the scarf he realized his mistake.

He’d used the entire ball of yarn, but the scarf wasn’t nearly long enough. He’d made it too wide.

He tried to wrap it around his neck. The scarf was about as tall as his head, but only wrapped around the back of his head from one side of his face to the other. 

Junpei evaluated his options. He could unravel it and start over, but he didn’t have the time. Akane was just going to have to receive the least perfect gift ever for White Day.

Oh well, showing up to school with a misshapen scarf was better than showing up empty-handed. 

So the next day before school started, Junpei approached Akane where she was reading at her desk.

“Happy White Day!” he said in a rush, shoving the gift onto her desk.

“You got me a gift?” she asked setting her book down.

“Well, I made it. So I’m sorry it’s not very good. It’s supposed to be a scarf,” he said blushing.

Akane held up the scarf, letting it fall open. 

“Oh, Junpei! It’s perfect! Just what I needed!”

“Yeah, yeah, you don’t have to lie. That thing won’t even wrap around your neck.”

“No, it won’t,” she agreed with a smile. “But it’s perfect for something else!”

She placed the scarf over her lap, wrapping it under her knees.

“See? This is perfect! It’s always cold in the classroom, and my knees get chilly. This is the perfect thing for that! Thank you, Jumpy. I love it!”

“Oh. Well, in that case–”

His memory was abruptly interrupted by a tugging at his yarn. Great, the ball must have gotten tangled up. He looked over at where the ball of yarn was resting next to him.

“What the–?”

His ball of yarn certainly had gotten tangled up. But not quite in the way he’d been expecting.

A little ginger kitten was tugging on the yarn.

“Hello, little guy. Where did you come from?”

The kitten flopped to the ground, the yarn in his mouth.

“You know, kittens really shouldn’t eat yarn. I think it’s bad for you. It could get stuck in your stomach…or something.”

He picked the kitten up, extracting him from the tangles of yarn.

“Here, you should try some of this instead.” He pulled a bit off of his tuna fish sandwich and fed it to the kitten. The cat ate it up hungrily. 

“Alright, kitty,” Junpei said setting the kitten down and giving him a pat before standing up. “I’ve got to get going, but take care of yourself.”

Junpei headed back inside with his knitting and sandwich, and leaving the kitten looking back at him. 

Junpei didn’t have pets. Even when he was growing up. His mom had been allergic to cats, and she was always saying they didn’t have time for a dog. Rodents were absolutely out of the question, and there was no way she’d allow him to keep a lizard. 

Once or twice he’d won a goldfish at the summer festival in his town, but they weren’t exactly what Junpei would call a pet. 

At this point in his life, Junpei wouldn’t consider himself a pet kind of guy. They were just too much hassle. And what with the state of the world these days, it was enough trouble trying to keep himself alive. 

Just because Junpei sometimes left food out for the cat, certainly didn’t mean he’d adopted it. It was a tough world out there and cats needed to know how to fend for themselves.

And Junpei was always very strict with himself. Absolutely, under no circumstances, did he take in strays.

The Thoughts That Count

~ zecretsanta ~ Leave a comment

To: @electric016

From: @therealhousewivesofhyrule

Merry Christmas! Thank you for the lovely C-Team OT3 prompt! I went a liiiiitle off-topic I think but I hope you like it anyway! ❤

(and as a bonus… here is the big plot device in all its glory.) 

——–

“What the hell is it supposed to be, though?” Aoi asks as he nurses his hot chocolate. He tilts his head to from side to side, squinting at the truly strange and horrendous sweater Junpei is holding up in front of him. “Yo, Carlos, you know black and white ain’t all that festive, right?” 

“Yeah, you should have gone for red, at least,” Akane teases. She leans over Carlos’s shoulder and pinches his cheeks. “Like mine!” 

Carlos turns in his chair to look at her, and she strikes a pose, arms splayed wide to show off the baggy sleeves. Akane’s sweater is long and oversized everywhere, perfect for keeping warm on a cold day. She giggles as Carlos makes a twirling motion with his fingers, and she spins in place to show it off. The rabbits going around the sweater seem to hop around her waist as she moves. 

Aoi gives a low, appreciative whistle. “I know I gave you a hard time about all the knitting you were doing,” he starts, “But damn. Didn’t know you were planning something this cool.” 

Reaching up behind his head to scratch at the back of his neck, Carlos laughs sheepishly. “I don’t know if I’d call it cool…” 

“No, it’s so cool!” Akane insists. 

“Yeah, like you know what’s cool and what isn’t.” 

“Aoi!” 

“Cut it out, guys!” Carlos waves his hands to get the siblings’ attention, and it’s just enough to cut their argument short. He’s a little bit surprised that it’s Aoi ribbing his sister tonight and not Junpei, but Junpei has been abnormally quiet ever since he opened the box and pulled out the sweater. He’s still holding it up in front of him, eyes wide and… reverent? Carlos thinks that’s the word he’s looking for, but he’s not quite sure he wants to give himself that much credit.

The two Kurashikis notice Carlos staring and turn their attention to Junpei as well. “Jumpy, are you okay…?” 

Aoi does not have nearly as much concern for him. “Seriously, man, what is that thing?!” 

Carlos laughs and rubs the back of his neck again. “Well, you know that thing Junpei keeps next to the bed?” 

Aoi raises an eyebrow. “You mean that ugly dog picture?” 

At that, Junpei finally lowers the sweater, and his eyes are alight with fury as he stares Aoi down. Akane sighs and buries her face in her palm.

“Are you talking about the funyarinpa?” Junpei asks, voice nearly a growl. Carlos tenses and stands, ready to get between them, if he has to. This is going to go nowhere good. 

“The ugly dog picture from Q? That what it called?” Aoi snorts. “That’s stupid, but yeah.” 

Junpei looks like he’s about to throw the sweater on the ground, but instead he just angrily pulls it on over his clothes and stalks toward Aoi. He looks ridiculous doing it, and Carlos and Akane both exchange a look and try to stifle their giggles in their hands.

“Look, I don’t care whose brother or boyfriend or whatever you are—”

“Your boyfriend, for the record. Or one of them—”

“But in this house, we respect the funyarinpa!”

Akane sighs, but her smile is bright and happy. “Oh, God, there they go.” 

With a nod, Carlos puts a hand on her shoulder and rubs it gently. “I’m sorry. I really should have thought this through a little better.” 

They’ve completely tuned out of the argument Aoi and Junpei are having. Both men are standing and flailing their arms angrily, but luckily, no fists have been thrown yet. Akane giggles again and stands up on her toes to lean in and give Carlos a kiss on the cheek. “Nonsense!” she says. “It’s perfect. I can tell he really loves it.”

Carlos laughs and puts his arm around her. “With the way he’s defending its honour like that? I think you might be right.” 

Akane shifts in his grip to turn and face him properly. Her arms come up to wrap around Carlos’s neck, and she leans up again. Against his lips, she breathes, “And I love mine, too.” 

They kiss, chaste but long and lingering, only breaking apart when they hear a thud and a yelp of pain. Akane and Carlos jump apart, and Akane immediately drops to her knees next to Junpei, who has her brother in a headlock. “Apologize!” he yells. “Apologize to the funyarinpa!”

“Never!” Aoi yells back. “It’s fuckin’ stupid!” 

“You bas—”

“Okay, boys, that’s enough!” Akane says, and with way less effort than should be humanly possible, she yanks Junpei off of Aoi and into her arms. “Aoi, apologize to Junpei and his silly dog picture.”

“Hey—”

“And you, Jumpy! You apologize to Aoi. We do not tolerate roughhousing like this on Christmas, understand?” 

One of her hands rubs at Junpei’s arm, and she smiles sweetly. Everyone in the room knows that what that look really means, though. There’s absolutely nothing sweet about it.

“…Fine,” Aoi says. “Sorry, Junpei.” Junpei frowns and points to his sweater with both hands. Aoi rolls his eyes and adds, “Sorry, ugly dog sweater.” 

“Aoi.” 

“Fine! Sorry funyarinpa.” He rolls his eyes. Junpei grins smugly.

“Now your turn, Junpei.”

“All right.” He sighs dramatically. It’s all for show, and once again Carlos has to hide his laughter behind his hand. “Sorry for putting you in a headlock.” 

“And?” 

“And for yelling at you.” 

“Now that’s more like it.” Aoi stands up and makes a show of dusting off his pants while Akane turns Junpei’s face to hers and kisses him deeply. They’re both smiling into it, and it makes Carlos’s heart flutter seeing his girlfriend and one of his boyfriends so happy. He only pulls his eyes away when he feels Aoi nudge him. “Guess I’m sorry for calling the sweater ugly, too. So, uh, sorry, Carlos.” 

Carlos chuckles and puts an arm around Aoi’s shoulder. He squeezes him lightly. “Nah, it’s fine. The whole point was to make you guys ugly Christmas sweaters.” 

With a laugh, Aoi gestures to his own sweater – light blue with snowflakes all over it. “That why all the snowflakes on this thing are uneven?” He points to one of them, particularly distorted, with one half of it much smaller than the other. At this, Carlos pushes him away lightly. 

“No, that’s because no two snowflakes are the same.” 

“So you’re saying this isn’t your first ever attempt at knitting sweaters?”

“No, it’s not! Goodness, you are rude today.” 

“You love it, though.” Aoi leans in close and steals a quick kiss, right at the same time Junpei and Akane get up off the floor. Junpei frowns and punches Carlos lightly in the arm that isn’t still holding Aoi. 

“What, no love for me?” 

Once again, Aoi rolls his eyes, and Carlos just leans in close and ruffles Junpei’s hair. “So needy, Jumpy.” But they both lean in and kiss Junpei, one after the other. Dork that Junpei might be, he still doesn’t quite know how to process such open affection like this, and his face blushes a furious red. 

“Th-that’s not…” 

“Aw, shut up.” Aoi pecks him on the forehead again, and somehow, Junpei’s face gets even more red. “You know, you’re cute when you blush like that.”

“Almost as cute as my sweater,” Akane says fondly.

“Almost the same colour, too,” Carlos adds. Junpei throws his arms up in the air and turns around in a vain attempt at hiding his face, but they all already know he’s nothing but a blushing mess now. Akane hugs him from behind and slowly coaxes him to turn around again, once his face is closer to its usual colour. 

“Did you make one for Maria, too?” she asks.

“I did,” says Carlos, smiling softly. “I was going to bring it to the hospital tomorrow. You know, like a normal Christmas morning. And I…” He takes a deep breath, and now it’s his turn for his cheeks to redden. “I was hoping you’d all come too. Make it a family thing?” 

Three pairs of eyes go wide, three mouths fall open. Akane’s is the first to stretch into a smile, and she leaves Junpei to throw her arms around Carlos instead. “Oh, Carlos! Of course we will! You don’t even have to ask us!”

“Yeah,” Junpei adds. “I mean, she’s your sister, right?” 

“And family’s important.” Aoi crosses his arms in front of his chest. “Damn right, we’re going with you.” 

Carlos’s heart swells. He pulls all three of them in for a hug, awkward as it is, and he feels three sets of arms and hands on him, pulling him close and squeezing. 

They’re right. Family is important. And Carlos has never felt so loved by his family in all his life. 

~ zecretsanta ~ Leave a comment

to: @electric016

from: @4ourleafclover

i’m not your santa, but i’m a million percent down for anything where Quark gets to live in any non-apocalyptic world, so i saw this prompt and all i could think was “one million percent yes”

ao3 link

Junpei glanced around the area, doing his best to look relatively indifferent to the circumstances. It was true- this was probably the best possible ending, and he was going to spend longer thinking on that, when he noticed something- or rather, someone that he was pretty sure shouldn’t be there. A little kid had just wandered out of the shelter they’d all just been trapped in. He looked like he was probably no more than ten, with blond hair, brown eyes, and a very odd hat… and after a moment’s eye contact, the kid ran up to him, and gave him a gigantic hug.

“Grandpa!”

Junpei could only blink in confusion, momentarily stuck in place, while everyone else present turned to look. (Was that Sigma snickering in the background? Real rich coming from you, old man.) However, the kid seemed undisturbed by the circumstances, released the hug, and looked up at Junpei with bright, excited eyes.

“So Mr. Sigma really was right! I never thought that thing would actually work…”

The child had crossed his arms, apparently quite deep in thought, and Junpei shot a look at Sigma- who only gave a shrug and a smirk that said he knew exactly what was going on but wasn’t planning on telling Junpei. Finally, Junpei couldn’t take it anymore.

“Uh, sorry kid, but… who are you?”

The child blinked, before realization hit him. “Oh, that’s right! My name’s Quark- we lived together on a different timeline.”

While that still didn’t do much to help his very obvious confusion, it at least cleared up why Quark had called him grandpa- but how old must Junpei have been on that timeline for the kid to call him that? Jeez! Eventually, it was Akane who spoke up to clear things out.

“Junpei, you remember the timeline where Radical-6 escapes, right? After many years, you eventually met and adopted Quark, and roughly ten years after that you both arrive at Rhizome-9 to play a nonary game.”

A hint of a frown made its way onto Junpei’s face at Akane’s description. He had his memories from that timeline back, just like everyone else, but it was quite possibly his least favourite of all the ones he’d had to endure. He’d have to try harder later to see if he could remember things from further down the line, but the thought of this little kid having to live in a world like that… Junpei didn’t like it at all.

“So, why exactly did you come back here, then?”

“It was grandpa’s- er, your idea. Once Mr. Sigma told us about the transporter, you said that you wanted me to have a chance to see the world before Radical-6 got out. So Mr. Sigma helped us send me here! I had to hide for a while because there were some people who were moving things, but once they were all gone I just got up and left.”

Quark looked proud of himself for his daring escape, and Junpei couldn’t help but give the kid a pat on the head and a smile. He didn’t really have the memories of that point from the other timeline, and yet he already felt that Quark was incredibly familiar. Those memories would probably come with time, if he really tried, but for now he’d just have to stick with figuring out what to do next.

“Well, considering you’re going to need a place to live, do you mind if you have to stick with me for a bit longer? My place isn’t that big, but it’s livable.”

Quark gave a vigorous nod, and Akane laughed softly from behind him.

“Junpei, if you need space, you can always come move with me to the Crash Keys HQ. We’re all going to be working together for a while now anyways, aren’t we?”

Junpei blushed, looking to the side as quickly as possible to hide it from view of anyone looking (but when you’re in the middle of a desert, that’s unfortunately hard to do).

“Oh, um, right. I guess you’re already getting a housing upgrade then, Quark.”

That was quite possibly for the best- the longer he thought about it, the more he was pretty sure that his little apartment wasn’t child-safe at all. Or clean. Maybe he should be more worried about how not-clean it was.

_____

Conversation continued on for a while, eventually devolving into random small talk. Sean and Quark seemed to hit it off instantly, talking about all sorts of things, and Phi and Akane had explained a few more things to Junpei about the radical-6 timeline, clearing up more of his lingering confusion. Things were overall fairly calm, despite being stranded in the center of a desert, when he heard the sound of a horn honking.

Looking up, Junpei saw two incredibly familiar faces- Aoi, driving a minivan, and Light, in the passenger’s seat. They explained that they’d used Crash Key’s resources to set up a perimeter around the area and had intercepted Free the Soul’s escape. Then it had only been a matter of using satellite imaging to find the shelter, getting a minivan large enough for everyone to drive back in. It would be tight, yeah, but it was at least better than being squished between Seven and Light in a car.

The drive back was lighthearted- Quark only asked once why there was an old man tied up in the back, but after explaining that he was Brother, Quark didn’t seem to mind much anymore. Delta was a much nicer passenger than Hongou had been, far less noisy- although that could have been due to the large amounts of soporil Diana had been kind enough to administer.

Their arrival back at civilization was confusing and hurried, many quick goodbyes in succession while everyone split up their separate ways. Eric and Mira were taking Sean with them, who was happy to oblige, Carlos had to go back to find Maria and help her get her esper abilities under control, and Diana had things to get sorted out back home; which meant Phi and Sigma were going with her to help. They’d all be meeting up again soon enough- they had a terrorist to catch, after all, and although Junpei wasn’t quite ready admit it out loud, he was quite happy about it. He was especially looking forwards to spending more time with Akane and Carlos- they both meant a lot to him by now.

However, for now, the only people left were Junpei, Aoi, Light, Akane, and Quark, who were all heading back to Crash Keys HQ. Light was going to wake up Clover and Alice, and the rest of them wanted simply to go home and rest.

Junpei had found himself watching Quark most of the drive, both amused and saddened by the kid’s fascination at everything going by. The world he’d grown up in had been completely devastated, but this one was still new and shiny… Junpei found himself more determined than ever that he’d be sure to protect this timeline. The plane ride had been pretty fun too- Quark had explained that he’d taken a space shuttle in his timeline, but nobody really flew planes anymore. The experience was pretty novel to the kid, and eventually the excitement had caught up to him and he fell asleep in his seat.

Junpei ended up carrying Quark inside their new little apartment; two rooms with a living room/kitchen and a bathroom. It wasn’t much, but it was still a million times nicer and newer than where he’d lived last, so it was quite an upgrade. He laid him down on a bed in one of the rooms, taking off his hat and tucking him into the covers, about to leave the kid to get some sleep himself, when he felt a hand grabbing onto his shirt.

“mnnn…. g’night, grandpa…”

Junpei smiled to himself, patting Quark’s back.

“Goodnight, Quark.”

~ zecretsanta ~ Leave a comment

To: @tachibanging

From: @electric016

Merry Christmas Tachibanging! I loved your prompt! I hope this is okay! ❤

Grocery Run

Carlos would be lying if he said he wasn’t a little worried. He knew Akane had total faith in them but somehow that didn’t really help. But unfortunately when it came to potential terrorist plots, alien tech, and things that were severely ‘Classified,’ Akane was the only woman for the job. Which meant Akane had been called away to some Crash Keys emergency, and Carlos and Junpei were left alone with Quark and a grocery list.

This wouldn’t be a problem, except Quark had only come through the transporter two days ago and was still very much adjusting. He had taken to Akane immediately, and Carlos wasn’t really sure if that was down to Akane’s warm personality or the fact that she had been the first person that he had met in this world.

On the other hand, his relationship with Junpei seemed to be off to a rocky start. Neither Junpei nor Quark really seemed to know what to make of one another, giving each other a wide birth and furtive looks when they thought the other wasn’t looking.

“Are you sure you can’t get out of it?” Carlos had asked Akane when she’d announced she was heading into Crash Keys for the day.

“Nope. I’m sorry, Carlos. But you’re going to have to make do without me.”

“What about Quark though?” Carlos asked scratching the back of his head. “Do you think he’ll be okay without you?”

“Of course he will.” She’d said with a smile. “I know you’ll both be great.”

“But Junpei…”

“Quark is Junpei’s responsibility. They just need time to get used to each other. Why don’t you all go out together somewhere. I noticed you’re out of milk. I’m sure the grocery store will be quite the adventure for Quark.”

So here they were. Walking through the parking lot of an out of the way grocery store not too far from their house. They’d picked this one hoping it would be less crowded than the others as Quark found the sheer number of people in their world rather overwhelming. As it was he was keeping very close to Junpei, while his attention was pulled in about a million different directions.

Carlos watched as his eyes flicked from mothers pushing children in shopping carts, to cars weaving up and down through the parking lot, to Carlos to make sure he was still following them before returning to the sky. The kid was fascinated by it. For all the distractions of the world, it seemed the sky most firmly held his attention.

“Carlos, do you have the list?” Junpei asked.

“Yes,” Carlos said, and Quark jumped as the doors opened automatically.

“Wow! You have automatic doors at the market?” Quark asked looking them up and down.

“We sure do.” Carlos replied, pulling a cart free. “Did you have automatic doors in 2074?”

“Yeah. They have them on the moon. But we didn’t have any in our town I don’t think.”

“I see.” Carlos said, as if this were a completely normal thing for a child to have said.

“What kind of fruit do you like?” Junpei asked as they approached the produce section, but Quark didn’t answer. He had frozen in place, staring mouth agape.

“Is it… all real?” He finally managed, looking up at Junpei.

“Well, yeah.”

“And you can buy it all?”

“Well, not all of it. That might get expensive but…” Junpei trailed off when he noticed that Quark had started to cry. “Whoa, hey there. It’s okay.” Junpei awkwardly rubbed the back of his head, not sure what to do.

Quark sniffed loudly. “I know. It’s just. I can’t believe it. I…”

“Here,” Carlos said gently handing him a tissue he pulled from his pocket, and rubbing his back gently. “It’s okay, just take deep breaths. In and out.”

Junpei watched Carlos as Quark took a few shaky breaths.

“There. Better?”

Quark nodded.

“Good. Now you’ve eaten potatoes before, right?”

“Yeah. Of course.” Quark said wiping his eyes with the back of his hand. “Make sure you get the biggest ones.”

“Yeah?”

“Yup! And you should give them a squeeze to make sure they’re not mushy.”

“How many do you think we need?” Carlos asked.

“Hmm. Just one each I should think.” Junpei said.

“But what about dinner tomorrow? They have so many! We should get more just incase.”

Junpei and Carlos exchanged another look. Junpei said “Hey, Quark. You know, you don’t have to worry about that anymore. All of this food will be here tomorrow as well.”

Quark looked a little startled by this. “Really?” He asked sounding on certain.

“Absolutely.” Carlos said. “But why don’t we get two each. That way we can have baked potatoes for lunch tomorrow.

“Okay.” Quark agreed.

“Hmm.” Murmured to himself looking over the list. “We need more fruit. Quark, what kind of fruit do you like?”

“Tomatoes!” Quark responded immediately. “And apples, as long as they’re not too sour. Oh and those little oranges–but Grandpa says they’re not really oranges. You know like mikan?”

“Mikan?” Carlos asked, looking over at Junpei.

“He means like a tangerine.”

“Oh, well we can get some of those.” Carlos said, pushing the cart towards the fruit.

“Also, Quark. Tomatoes aren’t fruit.”

Quark laughed, “That’s what Grandpa says too. But they’re sweet and juicy like fruit.”

“Juicy, yes. But sweet? Where did you get such terrible taste?”

“I think tomatoes are sweet. And they are technically fruit.” Carlos said.

“Maybe in the wasteland apocalypse future, but no kid of mine is going to have to go about pretending tomatoes are fruit. Hey Quark, do you know what these are?”

“Of course I do! Those are bananas. Monkeys eat them.”

“Monkeys and Junpei.”

Quark laughed and turned to Junpei. “What do they taste like?”

“Hmm. Banana-y, I guess. It’s kind of hard to explain. Do you want to try one?”

“Can I?”

“I don’t see why not. Why don’t you pick out a bunch.”

After produce it was onto the meat. Quark had never seen so much before.

“You know, Grandpa and I had chickens?”

“Junpei with chickens? Now that I’d love to see.” said Carlos.

“Yeah, well I took care of them mostly. But they were good because they’d lay eggs. And they were pretty easy to take care of. I could feed them before we went to work…I’m glad there’s another me still in 2074. I’d worry Grandpa might forget to feed them otherwise.”

“Yeah, I’m sure he’s glad you’re there too.” Junpei said, then grinned at Quark, “I know I’d forget to feed chickens. I can barely remember to feed Carlos.”

“You never feed me.” Carlos said. “I do most of the cooking.” Carlos told Quark conspiratorially. “If it were up to Junpei, we’d be having instant ramen and take out food every night.”

“That’s not true.” Junpei said. “We might also have frozen dinners if it were a special occasion.” Which made Quark laugh.

As they continued up and down the aisles Quark seemed to be warming up to Junpei and Carlos. On the cereal aisle he asked about every different kind of cereal, pointing to the boxes and asking if they’d tried it before.

“You’ve only tried three of them?” Quark asked sounding disapproving. “But there are so many different kinds!”

“You’re right.” Junpei said ruffling Quark’s hair. “We’ve obviously not been taking our cereal seriously.” Carlos groaned at that but Junpei continued, “I think we’ll have to try a different cereal each week until we’ve tried all of them.”

“Oh man, that’s a great idea.” Quark said, scanning the aisle for his first choice. “Can we try this one first?”

“No.” Carlos said firmly at the exact same time Junpei said, “Yes.”

“I don’t think it’s a good idea to start with Cinnamon Toast Crunch.” Carlos said. “The kid might end up in a sugar coma. Let’s start with something like this.” Carlos handed Quark a box of Kix.

“Are they any good?”

“I think so. It’s one of my sister’s favorites.”

“Okay,” Quark agreed adding them to the cart.

When it was finally time to check out they decided to use the self-checkout, because Quark wanted to try using the scanner.

“Ugh your touch screen is so sloooow.”

“Yeah, I imagine stuff like this is faster in the future.”

“So much faster.” Said Quark. “I could probably take it apart and try to fix it.”

“I think the grocery store wouldn’t be too happy if we did that.”

“I guess.” Quark said with a big sigh.

“You know Quark, our printer at the house is so slow and always jamming.” Junpei said. “If you’d like maybe you could take a look at it and try to fix it?”

“Yeah? Sure. Sounds pretty easy.”

“Yes.” Carlos agreed. “That would be a big help. Thank you Quark.”

And as they left the grocery store, laden with shopping bags. Carlos watched Junpei and Quark laughing and joking with each other, Carlos realized that maybe Akane was right. They could handle this. Things were going to be just fine.

On Record

~ zecretsanta ~ Leave a comment

To: @electric016

From: @zerotimedilemmaofficial

Merry Christmas electric016! ❤

AO3 link

On Record

“BOY TOY?” The sound of Junpei’s scream shook the walls.

Akane waltzed into her office, grinning. “It could be worse. You could be Head of Boyfriend Resources.”

Aoi followed her and leaned against the doorway. “How about Ambassador of Bad Jokes?”

“Or Meme Supreme.”

“Leading Fashion Disaster?”

Junpei buried his face in his hands. He had only wanted to know what they had been paying him so much for. Junpei had been officially working for Crash Keys for a few months now, and had insisted from the first paycheck that his salary was too high. Dating both Kurashikis was complicated enough, he didn’t need their money too. So Junpei decided to break, no, go into Akane’s office while she was in a meeting and find out his official title.

“I’ve got it! Marty McFly Impersonator in Chief!”

“That was like two years ago! My style has improved since then.” Junpei balked, crossing his arms. Clearly, his plan had backfired. “Weren’t you supposed to be in a meeting right now?”

Akane giggled. “It ended early. Sigma said it was an emergency, something to do with Gab getting stuck on the counter again.”

Aoi couldn’t help but laugh too. “It’s not exactly what I’d call an emergency, but I’m not complaining. It gave us the chance to have impeccable comedic timing.”

“Gab got up there again?” Hearing about the old dog made Junpei relax a bit. “I still don’t know how a dog so small can climb onto counters without Sigma noticing.”

“I don’t think he does much climbing…” Akane murmured, tapping her fingers on her chin. Both boys looked at her, confused. “Last month when we visited them, Diana told me ‘He likes to be tall.’ Sigma probably isn’t aware of that though.”

Junpei smiled. Seeing the two people he loves in such a good mood wiped away his previous irritation. He’d been through hell and back to get to where he is now, and he’d be damned if he let a moment like this slip away. Rising from Akane’s desk, Junpei said, “Hey, it’s lunchtime, why don’t we go out and get something to eat?”

“You know we all have too much work to do to take a break,” Aoi grumbled.

“So the Chief Edginess Officer of Crash Keys can’t make his own decisions own how to manage his time?” Junpei retorted.

Aoi stiffened and turned away from Junpei. Between laughs, Akane giggled, “Oh, how the tables have turned. What am I, hottest boss?”

Grinning, Junpei replied, “I don’t know, your title is off in some other timeline. But if I had to guess, I’d say you’re President of Cryptic and Oddly Specific Information.”

“Aww, thanks Jumpy!” Akane said, planting a kiss on Junpei’s cheek.

Aoi rolled his eyes. “Of course she takes that as a compliment,” Aoi mutters, poorly concealing a smile.

“There’ll be more where that came from,” Junpei replied, “if you go out to lunch with me.”

Akane clasped his hand. “With an offer like that, how could I refuse?” They both turned to look at Aoi. He sighed.

Resigned, Aoi said, “With the two of you looking at me like that, do I really have a choice?” Junpei grinned and used his free hand to grab Aoi’s, and they headed out together.

Akane smiled to herself. Junpei was going to love his new nameplate.

Christmas Cookies

~ zecretsanta ~ Leave a comment

To: @anskeanske

From: @electric016

For @anskeanske who asked for “Lotus and Alice being buddies”. So here are Lotus and Alice making cookies together! I hope you enjoy it! Happy Holidays!

Ao3

The thing was, Lotus never really thought of herself as the maternal type. Sure she loved her girls more than anything in the world and would do literally anything for them, but she never thought of herself as a mother first. She was Hazuki Kashiwabara: free woman, programmer, and mother when it was called for. Never mind that ‘when it was called for’ was most of the time. And never mind that she loved almost every minute of it. Hazuki Kashiwaba was not maternal.

So when she was offered a position in the Silicon Valley, she spent maybe ten minutes going over the pros and cons of uprooting to California before deciding to take the job. (Con #1—pulling the girls from school and moving thousands of miles away from their friends. Pro#1—girls get the incredible opportunity of living in a different country and are immersed in English while their brains are still like little sponges—The decision was simple as far as she was concerned).

Okay, so maybe she made even major life decisions with her girls at the forefront of her mind. But that still didn’t make her a Mother with a capital ‘M’. She wasn’t a PTA mom; she’d never volunteered after school or gotten overly involved with the other mothers. She just didn’t dothings like that. Which was why she couldn’t quite believe that at 7:00pm on a Tuesday night, she was pulling out flour, eggs and milk to bake, instead of kicking back and watching TV with her girls, all on account of the fact that she had agreed to bring in cookies for the Christmas party the girls’ class was having the next day.

And why were the girls not helping her? Because she’d agreed that they could spend the night at a friend’s house as a special treat, seeing as the next day was a half-day, and the only thing happening at school was the Christmas party. But that didn’t mean she had any intension of braving this project alone.

There was a knock at the door.

“Oh thank god! Come in!” Lotus shouted in the direction of the door, as she arranged what she presumed were the necessary ingredients for cooking baking on her kitchen island.

“Hey!” Alice called as she entered, slipping her shoes off. “I’m sorry I’m a bit late. I decided to stop and pick up a bottle of wine.”

“No, not at all, I think we’re going to need it.”

“That bad, huh? How’s it going in here?”

“Ugh, I haven’t really started. Why did I agree to this again?”

“I really couldn’t say.”

“Well that one dad whose name I can’t remember had already signed up to bring drinks, and apparently their teacher’s bringing plates and cups and things, so cookies seemed like the next easiest option.”

“Yeah, You’re probably right.”

“And then that blonde bitch, Sheryl. She looks me straight in the eyes and says ‘Hazuki, have you ever made cookies before? Will you be okay?’”

Alice laughed at the high-pitched simpering tone Lotus had affected and the look of outrage on her face. “She probably just thought she was being nice.”

“I’m not sure that makes it any better. I mean they’re cookies! How hard can it be?”

“Well, it’s definitely easier if you preheat the oven.” Alice responded with a smile, coming over and setting the oven for 350 degrees.

“I was getting to that…” Lotus muttered, folding her arms. “How are your exams going?” She turned to get two glasses down from the cupboard.

“Ugh, please! This is my mental health break. I don’t want to think about any of the papers I’m writing or tests I’m prepping for. I will give you a full update once I’ve handed everything in.”

“Understandable. Well, let me know if you need me to read over anything though.”

“I will. Thanks.”

“Here.” Lotus said handing Alice a glass of wine and taking a sip of her own, “So what’s the first thing we need to do?”

“’In a medium bowl, mix together flour, baking soda, and salt’. Have you measured out the ingredients yet?”

“No, I guess I’ll do that now.”

“I guess you better.”

“Hmm. I have baking powder. It looks like baking soda. Is it the same thing?”

“Oh, honey, no. Not the same thing. Not at all. Baking soda’s probably in a box.” Alice started going through Lotus’s cupboards while Lotus measured out the other ingredients. “Here you go! Baking powder!”

“Thanks.” Lotus liked working with Alice—even if they were only working on simple things like making cookies. It was nice to have a friend she considered on the same intellectual footing…well, that wasn’t quite true. She knew that despite her best efforts to tone it down, Alice was light-years ahead of her intelligence wise. Perhaps what she really liked about Alice was the fact that Alice treated her like an intellectual equal. Which was more than she could say for most of her peers in her male-dominated field.

“Alright, next we want to mix the butter and sugar. Please tell me you have a mixer.”

“Believe it or not I think I do.”

“Is it still in the box?” Alice asked with a smirk.

“I know you’re joking, but actually, yes it is.” Lotus said, pulling the box from the island cupboard.

Alice laughed. “Why do you have it?”

“Oh, somebody gave it to me when we moved in…Do you think we need to wash it first?”

“No, it’s probably fine. Though we could rinse the metal mixing bits with warm water.”

“Yeah, alright.”

Mixer assembled and whirring away at beating together the sugar and butter, Lotus looked up from the bowl and said to Alice, “So you don’t want to talk about school.”

“No, it’s my night off. No school.”

“Okay then. What have you been up to? Any clandestine encounters with gentlemen?” Lotus asked suggestively.    

“First off, way to sound like my mother—“ Alice wished she could have captured the look on Hazuki’s face at her words“—and secondly, yes, but not in the way you’re thinking.”

Lotus raised an eyebrow. “Ladies then?”

Alice grinned like the cat who got the cream. “That’s neither here nor there. I’m not talking about romantic encounters.”

“What kind of encounters are you talking about then?” Lotus said with a frown.

“These weird men keep showing up to interview me for something.”

“Weird how?”

“Oh you know, creepy, mysterious government agency types. Like spies: black ties, black suits, dark sunglasses, the whole nine yards.”

“And they want to recruit you?”

“Presumably. But I can’t tell if they’re CIA or FBI or what.”

“Odd. And you think it’s okay to tell me about this?”

Alice shrugged. “Well they didn’t tell me not to.”

Lotus clicked off the mixer, butter and sugar thoroughly mixed, and looked at Alice. “And do you think you’ll take a job with the government?”

“Well, that depends on what they can do for me.”

Lotus chewed her bottom lip. Alice was so incredibly mature in many ways. It was often easy to forget that she was a whole decade younger than Lotus. She was smart, but despite her maturity, she could be a little reckless. Especially when she got focused on something.

“Alice, I’m not your mother, so I’m not going to tell you what to do, but just be careful, okay?”

Alice looked away. “Yeah, I know.”

Lotus nodded. “Now these eggs, do they just sit here or are we going to mix them in?”

“I guess they could just sit there, but then we would without a doubt have made the shittiest cookies ever.”

“And I can’t have Nona and Ennea showing up to school with the shittiest cookies of all time. What kind of mother would that make me?”

“Probably exactly the kind of mother the other moms suspect you might be.”

“I’ll drink to that!” Lotus said, bringing her wine to her lips.

Eggs cracked and stirred in with a splash of vanilla, they moved on to mixing in the wet and dry ingredients.

“So, secret government agency interviews. What are those like?” Lotus asked, stirring while Alice held the bowl and periodically added more of the flour mixture to the batter.

“Secretive. I don’t know. They asked a lot of questions about me and my family. Which I suppose is to be expected. But then they asked a lot of really strange questions.”

“What kind of strange questions?”

“Like, ‘what did I know about the works of Sheldrake?’”

“Who?”

“Yeah, I’d never come across him either, but I did some research after my interview.”

“Is he a scientist?”

“Pseudo-scientist.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean his field is parapsychology.”

“Like telepathy kind of things?”

“Actually, yes.”

“You’re kidding me!”

“Not at all–It’s not really telepathy the way we usually think of it. But he has this theory about ‘morphic resonance’. It’s this idea about humanity having a shared memory—a consciousness that we could all potentially tap into.”

“That sounds like bullshit.”

“Yeah, I kind of thought so, too.”

“So why do you think they were asking about Sheldrake?”

“I don’t know. Maybe if I’d known a lot about him, they’d have figured I was crazy and written me off as a potential candidate.”

Lotus laughed. “Yeah, most likely.” She stopped mixing the cookie dough. “Does this look good enough to you?”

“Yes, I think we can go ahead and start putting them on the tray.”

“Alright and then only fifteen minutes in the oven!”

“Sounds good!”

“You know,” Lotus said as she slid two trays of cookies into the oven, “when I first moved in here I couldn’t get over the size of the oven. I couldn’t imagine what I would need with an oven this big. And then I realized all of the houses here have ovens this size! But now that I have to bake all these cookies I’m so glad we have an oven this size.”

“What can I tell you, we Americans love our baking.”

“Are you going home for Christmas?”

“Yes. I’ll be heading home as soon as exams are over.”

“That’ll be nice.”

“Yeah, I’m looking forward to seeing my mom.”

“I bet. And I’m sure she’s looking forward to seeing you.”

Alice grinned, “Yeah, definitely.”

Lotus looked around the kitchen. “Well we could clean up this mess, but I vote we watch a movie instead.”

“Are you sure?”

“Absolutely.” Lotus said, nodding. “Did you bring ‘Love Actually’?”

“Of course I did! I’m not going to let you get away with having never seen it.”

“Alright, alright.”

All in all it was an excellent evening, Lotus thought. The cookies didn’t burn and were not only edible, but delicious, and she enjoyed the movie a lot more than she’d thought she would. Alice’s description hadn’t made it sound nearly as interesting as it was. It was nearly midnight by the time Alice left.

“Bye, sweetie!” Lotus said, seeing her off, “If you need anything, call! And tell your Mom I said hello!”

“I will. And I’ll see you when I get back! Merry Christmas, Hazuki!”

“Merry Christmas, Alice.”

By this point, Lotus had long forgotten Alice’s mention of Sheldrake and morphic resonance theory in that way we tend to forget about the unimportant details of our day. It would only be a few more years from now before she would come across that name again. Though the next time she wouldn’t just forget it; it would hold a lot more importance. But she had an awful lot of things to do before then.