Absence made the heart grow fonder, and yet, Kaho's head wasn't filled with worries about Tatsuya. They were filled with Naseru. Mostly, because he was stood in her kitchen, putting the utensils from Kikiyo's house away in drawers. He was wearing casual clothes, something she hadn't seen him in before, and while the rest of the team were pulling trolleys across the estate, or loading personal effects into Taiga's car, Naseru had busied himself in the kitchen.
Kaho was mesmerised by how at home he seemed in the kitchen. He looked at ease decanting cups from plastic boxes.
"Matsuoka? You nearly done with that box? Iwai needs it!" Captain Hirano said.
"Yeah," Naseru replied, placing the last few cups on the counter.
Hirano crossed the room and grabbed the big plastic box. It was filled with unpopped bubble wrap, ready to be reused for the rest of the items on Mrs Aigawa's itemised checklist.
She and Taiga had risen with the sun and had cleared the last of the junk out of Raffy's study, now Ichigo's room, ready to start moving boxes by seven. They hadn't had time to paint it, so it was still the ugly shade of mustard yellow Kaho's father insisted upon, but it was a bedroom, in a house. Better than what would be waiting for them if they didn't get out of that house in the next few days.
Taiga had collected the basketball team from their designated meeting point, outside the school gates, and brought them to Kikiyo's house. Ryota had chosen to just walk. He had, magnanimously helped eat the rest of the perishables.
While Mamoru had offered to pay for professional movers out of his monthly allowance, Kikiyo had said she was happy to just use her friends and family for the hard stuff. After all, they didn't have that much stuff. The rest was just going to be left behind. It wasn't a sixteen-year-old's responsibility to take care of where their old sofa went, or the wonky wardrobes.
Naseru had walked to Kaho's house, not knowing how to get to Kikiyo's and had instead, helped Ichigo and the boys get settled when they got out of Mrs Aigawa's car. Mostly the boys.
Naseru had joined Mrs Aigawa in the car and made the journey back to Kikiyo's leaving Kaho and Ichigo in charge until Hirano, Sunada and Michio arrived, all in jogging bottons and vests. They were hot and sweaty, and struggled to remove their shoes in the porch. Kaho beckoned them inside, insisting they not worry about the floors when their arms were full of stuff. She could mop when everyone had left. Thus began the flow of guests flocking in and out, from Rana and Tama, weaving their way through unsuspecting boys' legs, to Stupid Tamaki sticking his head in and asking if Kaho and her family were finally moving out.
But mostly, it was members of the basketball team, bringing in toys for the boys, and leaving with boxes to re-use.
Ichigo had set up a few extra controllers for Himiko's console, she and Kikiyo sold most of their belongings to buy them second-hand so Naoki and Daichi could play video games with her. They sat, squealing, their limbs flailing, jostling a big bowl of cheese puffs as Mario and his friends raced to the end of their level. It kept all three kids occupied and together, far out of the way of the floods of people heading up and down the stairs.
Kikiyo was unpacking the boys' clothes in their new bedroom, the biggest of the three rooms. They'd packed everything the boys owned in whatever they could find, from old shoeboxes to kitchen Tupperware, to bin bags. Kikiyo and Ichigo had refused to give up anything their brothers could be attached to. But the girls were different. Kaho noticed their clothes, mostly school uniform and underwear, were crammed into small carry-on suitcases and a bin bag, each. It was their books and their own sentimental items that took up more space, which was fine. Their rooms, frantically assembled, had been originally used for storage, and barely fit a single bed, a wardrobe, bookcase and teeny tiny work desk in it.
Kaho wondered how much money it had cost to set up those bedrooms, and when her mum had assembled all that flat-pack furniture. Her credit card bill was probably going to be massive. Was Taiga helping? Should she? Had anyone found Kikiyo's mother?
Ichigo came downstairs, her hair in a lopsided ponytail. She wiped the sweat from her brow, "Kaho? Can you give us a hand up here. Your cat fell asleep on a pile of clothes."
Kaho nodded and ascended the stairs.
Kikiyo and Ichigo had put most of their brother's belongings together, meticulously lining up teddies and toy soldiers, big plastic robots and toy cars, figurines of all of the characters from Mario were on the lowest shelf for easy access. Their beds were made with brand new bedspreads – one had rockets and astronauts on it and another had sharks and sea creatures on it. Their teddies from home and a few other comforters were on the beds. Daichi's blankie, fraying as it was, was folded on his pillow, protected by his bear.
Her cat, Tama, was on Naoki's bed, the one adorned with astronauts and rocket ships. She was lazily sprawled over a neatly folded stack of clothes, Kaho prised Tama from the pile and held her like a baby, close to her chest. Tama squirmed, adjusting herself and trying to get comfortable.
"I'd do it but I'm a bit busy," Kikiyo said. One of the boys toys, a multi storey race track, had been broken into pieces to transport it. She had a small plastic Ziploc bag, full of tiny screws, and a tiny screwdriver that looked like it may have come out of an ancient Christmas cracker.
"Thank you!" Ichigo said, "I tried, and she scratched the shit out of me."
Ichigo held out her bare arms, littered with shallow scratches. They'd heal in a day or two. None appeared to be deep.
"I'll trim their nails tonight."
"Thank you, God. I sound so ungrateful. I just – I don't want the boys to get scratched and them lose their minds, you know?" Ichigo said. She ran a hand through her hair, "You've done so much for us, and we are so so grateful, but they," Ichigo turned her head to look at the bedroom, "They aren't going to understand. They still think she's coming back."
Kaho let Tama go. She scampered onto the balcony. Far from Himiko and the boys. Kaho held her arms open for Ichigo. Her lip trembled. Kaho took a step closer, and Ichigo barelled into her arms, letting out ugly, heaving sobs, all snot and fat tears. Kaho smoothed Ichigo's hair.
"I'm so sorry," Kaho whispered, "So, so sorry."
Someone was making their way up the stairs. Ichigo stiffened in Kaho's arms. Kikiyo nudged the door closed with her foot, and the tension melted from Ichigo's spine.
Kikiyo got up from the race car track. One last screw in her hand. She frowned and put her hands on her hips, "Any idea where this one goes?"
"Maybe it's a spare?" Ichigo said, pulling back and wiping her eyes on her arms.
They heard a laugh from someone in the hallway, followed by some footfalls. a plastic bag rustled in the hall.
"Who would have thought there were so many different types of tampon!" Matsushita laughed.
All three girls rolled their eyes.
"I just bought whatever was on sale…" Kikiyo admitted, "There are like five different brands in our bathroom back home- I mean, in the old house."
"You did everything you could, Keeks," Ichigo said, "Do you think I cared where my tampons came from? I was just glad there were some in the bathroom."
Kikiyo sighed, "I wish… I don't know…"
She turned her gaze back to the plastic race car track, looking for the illusive hole for the last screw. They'd long-since lost the instructions, but assembly seemed simple enough, just screw the pieces together.
Ichigo flipped the race car track over, so it sat flat on the floor. she shook it vigorously. One piece, by the starting line clanked, the plastic piece flying off. Ichigo handed it to her sister, "Screw goes there. I'll put those clothes away."
Kikiyo elbowed her sister in the ribs. They shared a glace and burst into peels of laughter, "That's one way to find out, 'Chi'!"
Kaho smiled at the sisters. Kikiyo was so lucky to have a sister so close in age. Himiko was still so young, too little and innocent to understand let alone relate to her problems. And Taiga was like a bright yellow warning sign when it came to girl problems. Maybe, while Kikiyo was there, in the Aigawa house, she could get a taste of what that kind of sisterly bond was like.
Kaho excused herself from the boys' bedroom, backing up into the hall and bumped straight into Nitta. He steadied her with a hand. She smiled.
"Thanks."
"No problem, Kaho. Which way are you going?" he gestured behind him with his thumb and then pointed down the stairs.
She ought to go downstairs and return to the kids. Someone was supposed to be watching them. who knew what kind of anarchy could have commenced over a game of Mario?
"Down," Kaho said.
"Lead the way," Nitta said, "Matsushita is still sorting out all the toiletries."
Kaho snorted and headed down the stairs.
To her surprise, all three children were perfectly intact, shouting at their characters to move faster or kick or duck without pressing their buttons. Omura was watching over the back of the sofa, an amused smirk on his face.
"I've been banished," he explained, "From the other house. I was getting in the way. Yamada sent me packing with the rest of the boxes."
"We might have an extra controller somewhere?" Kaho said, "It's a four-player game."
Omura grinned, "I won't ask you to go rummaging for another controller. Your house is already upside down."
Kaho's eyes flickered behind her, "Where's Matsuoka?"
"Hirano and Sunada dragged him to the convenience store. Your sister demanded a platter of the finest snacks, 'Pringles', 'Pop Tarts', red liquorice, salty popcorn, the bubblegum that's shaped like golf balls, a litre of strawberry ice cream with the blue sauce, a whole platter of tempura-prawns and a massive bottle of vanilla cola. Am I forgetting something?"
"More cheese puffs!" Naoki declared.
"Jelly beans!" added Daichi.
"And a blue 'Ramune'!" Himiko shouted.
Kaho rolled her eyes, "They're going to have the worst sugar crash known to man."
"Not my problem," Omura said, "Now, I have a bag full of towels. Your mum wanted me to wash them."
Kaho reached her arms out for the bag. Omura handed it to her. He continued supervising the kids while they played, and Kaho crammed eight towels in the washing machine. She switched it on and watched it whir to life.
"Can you keep an eye on them? I have no idea what I'm supposed to be doing."
"Yeah, of course. But, I think your cat just made a bid for freedom."
Kaho groaned. She trudged out onto the street. Tama was causing trouble again. She bolted down the street, scampering excitedly, jumping on fences and bins to get out of Kaho's reach. At the street corner, Tama leapt to a low-hanging tree branch and proceeded to clamber up among the sparse blossom.
"You pest!" Kaho huffed. She put her hands on her hips, "Tama come down!"
"You're going to get stuck!" Kaho protested, stomping her foot. Stupid Tamaki cycled by on his bike, trilling his bell, jeering at her, she hadn't listened to him, but could probably guess he'd said something along the lines of 'I told you so'.
Kaho glared up at her cat, who had proceeded to climb higher. She turned on her heel and trudged back to the house, the door still open, and Omura still diligently spectating the kids' game. More of the team were descending the stairs now, Nitta, Matsushita and Konoishi were talking about homework.
"I'd ask Coach for an exemption letter but this doesn't count as basketball training," Konoishi said, "I have work all afternoon tomorrow."
"Sucks to be you," Matsushita said.
"Don't write the day off yet, Satoru, if we convince Coach to take us to the court down the street to play ball, then it does count as training. We'll call going up and down all these stairs…endurance," Nitta grinned.
"Good luck with that. Oi! Omura. You done the maths homework?"
"Nope!" Omura grinned, "It's not on my radar until Monday morning."
"You mean when you guess in the locker room or on the bench during practice, you lunk?" Matsushita grinned.
"Don't be a meanie, Mister!" shouted one of the boys. Daichi or Naoki, Kaho couldn't tell. Not from the doorway. She heard a snort from the stairwell.
She crossed the room, trying to stifle her laugh, as she made her way to the stash of cat treats. She had to wrangle Tama.
The basketball players were also trying not to laugh, getting red in the face, holding their breaths as they stuttered and spluttered. Kaho dashed out the door and bent over double, wheezing.
"Aigawa! You okay?" Hirano asked. He was at the end of the street, carrying two plastic bags, one in each hand. Beside him was Sunada and Naseru brought up the rear, something orange in his arms.
"Yeah," she said, clutching her sides, "Matsushita just made me laugh, that's all."
"Okay," Sunada said, rolling his eyes, "What are you doing out here?"
"Oh! Tama is stuck up a tree."
"Tama?" Hirano said, "Your cat, right?"
Kaho nodded vigorously, "I need to get her down or Stupid Tamaki is going to say I'm a bad cat mother again."
"Considering you didn't birth a cat, I'd say you're fine on that front, Aigawa," Hirano said.
Naseru stepped around the other two boys, a smug loaf of a cat purring in his arms. He put Tama back in Kaho's arms and continued to walk toward the house, "She launched herself at me. The pinnacle of grace. I can see where she gets it from."
"Thank you- hey!" Kaho said, "Matsuoka! Was that sarcasm!"
Naseru strolled into the house, Kaho hot on his heels. She put Tama down, and she scarpered upstairs. Half of the basketball team were in the kitchen, huddled around Matsushita's phone, watching a video. None of them heard Kaho, or Naseru come in, except Omura, who just nodded.
Hirano and Sunada weren't far behind them, and while Sunada distributed an array of soft drinks, from cola, to 'Pokari', Hirano looked down at the three children playing video games. They stared up at him, each frantically attempting to play on.
Hirano put his plastic bags down on the coffee table. Himiko huffed, pausing the game. She looked away from the TV, expectantly, while the captain of the basketball team retrieved every last whim and request from his carrier bag, from the 'Ramune' for Himiko, to the jelly beans for Naoki. They squealed in delight. Omura's jaw dropped.
"Hirano, what the fuck? How much money did you spend?" Omura exclaimed.
"Language," Sunada snapped, "There are children present."
"Fuck!" exclaimed Naoki, "Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!"