“Beep beep!!”
“…Charlotte.”
“Beep beep!!”
Charlotte was tapping Corbin’s back with her hand.
Not just tapping, but making weird sounds all by herself.
“Beep beep!!!”
“Heh…”
Honestly, it was funny.
Charlotte wasn’t just doing it randomly; she must have been inspired by a movie she watched yesterday.
I had no clue what line had “beep beep” in it, though.
Anyway, she kept playing with Corbin and making her strange sounds.
“Lindera. Where on earth did this come from?”
“Good question.”
“Beep beep!!!”
“Charlotte, you can’t hit Daddy.”
“Daddy?”
“Yeah.”
“Beep beep!”
“…Why don’t you do that to Mommy?”
“Beep beep!!!”
Fortunately, she wasn’t hitting me, just joking around with Corbin.
Watching her was quite entertaining at this point.
I guess it was easier for me since I wasn’t on the receiving end, after all.
She seemed to have enjoyed the movie a lot.
If I took her to see another movie like that, I was sure she would love it.
“Charlotte, let’s stop teasing Daddy and do something else now?”
“Huh?”
“How about some juice?”
“Juice!!?”
“You want to drink it?”
“Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!”
Charlotte was shaking her head vigorously.
I remembered how much she loved fruit juice since the first time she had it, and lately, I had been giving it to her occasionally.
Corbin also liked sweet things like lemonade or smoothies whenever we went to a cafe.
Maybe she took after him in that regard.
Compared to coffee or alcohol, it was a much better taste, so I had no complaints.
Once she got a bit older, I considered introducing her to slightly more exciting flavors—just as long as they weren’t bad for her health.
“Juice!”
“Just wait a second. Okay?”
“Yeah!”
Leaving Charlotte sitting in her chair, I grabbed fruit juice from the fridge and cups from the shelf.
While I was doing that, I wondered if Corbin, being the one constantly bothered by Charlotte, was feeling tired.
He was just sitting quietly on the sofa.
“Um…”
Since I still had juice left and I wasn’t going to give too much to Charlotte,
I figured it would be nice to make it extra cold with ice for poor Corbin.
But if I did that for my own as well, I felt like I’d use up all the juice, so I held back.
It was a hassle to go shopping on a weekend anyway.
“Okay, Charlotte.”
“Juice!”
“Yeah, it’s juice. You need to drink it slowly, okay?”
“Yeah!”
As soon as I handed Charlotte the cup filled with juice, her eyes lit up, and she stared at it for a bit.
Maybe it was because of the pretty color, but she had done that before.
Anyway, I had handed over her juice, and now I started preparing some for tired Corbin over there.
“Corbin.”
“Yeah…?”
“Come here and have some juice.”
“Ah… Thanks.”
Corbin got up and trudged over to sit right next to Charlotte.
Well, Charlotte had been poking him since morning.
Hmm…
Actually, it felt like it started from the moment we watched the movie yesterday.
“Charlotte.”
“Yeah?”
“Even though Daddy is funny, you can’t keep bothering him like that.”
“Bother him?”
“Yeah, you can’t do that.”
Up until now, I hadn’t quite understood why the kids at the daycare were so worn out.
When they were with us, they played around a lot, but it never seemed too tiring for them.
But now I finally got it.
So that’s why those kids had been struggling.
As for Corbin, he seemed to have plenty of stamina at night, but right now he looked genuinely tired.
Could it really be because of Charlotte constantly giving him ‘beep beep’ since this morning?
Charlotte, on the other hand, probably thought it was just fun.
She kept it up non-stop.
I bet she had been doing this with her friends at the daycare too.
Of course, the stamina of kids and that of exhausted working adults are different.
“If you keep that up, Daddy might get really mad?”
“One?”
“Yeah, if Daddy gets mad, just how scary would that be?”
“Scary…?”
“Exactly.”
So I decided to tone it down a bit.
I felt somewhat sorry every time I saw the other babies when I finished work.
It might be good to give her friends a little warning too…
“Is Daddy scary…?”
“Yeah?”
“Daddy is scary…”
“…Lindera?”
“Oh?”
“Mooommmmyyyyy…”
Suddenly, Charlotte flailed her arms towards me while sitting in her chair.
She had completely turned her back on Corbin.
And her face was starting to look teary…
“Sha, Charlotte…? It’s not like that…”
“Waaaahhhhhhh!!!!!”
…Did I do something wrong…?
*
“…Hmm.”
“Umm…”
Charlotte had started taking a nap, and I was lying down with Corbin on the bed.
The reason was… we were worn out.
“…I didn’t expect a usually calm kid to cry like that.”
“…True.”
We were both genuinely surprised.
We never anticipated that Charlotte would cry so much just because Corbin said he would get mad.
We both ended up exhausted trying to calm her down.
On top of that, we didn’t even get to rest properly until Charlotte fell asleep.
After a long time, it was… challenging parenting.
“You should’ve kept it together.”
“…If I hadn’t, I would have kept teasing Corbin. I couldn’t help it.”
“That’s true… but I didn’t expect Charlotte to react like that.”
“…I didn’t see that coming either.”
Anyway, after putting Charlotte down for her nap, we were just lying back comfortably on the bed.
It was definitely the weekend, but I didn’t know why such tiring things were happening.
Charlotte was sleeping in a baby crib, so I had no worries.
She’d probably sleep for a few more hours just like this.
“Ugh…”
“Feeling tired?”
“Yeah.”
I was tired.
It couldn’t be helped since something suddenly came up.
“We both don’t seem that active, yet I don’t understand why she’s so energetic.”
“True.”
“I used to worry about Corbin just playing games all day.”
“…I didn’t think Charlotte would turn out like this either.”
“Parents are mirrors of their children, right?”
It was natural to think they’d follow our lead.
Though, Charlotte was walking around and constantly wanting to do things, unlike our hobbies or personalities.
Honestly, I didn’t expect her to become like this before she could even walk.
“…But since I gave a warning this time, maybe when I come home next time… the kids won’t be as tired.”
“That could be a good thing.”
Even though I ended up making Charlotte cry and became quite weary,
I considered it a worthwhile sacrifice.
But if we didn’t teach her anything and just let her do whatever she wanted, it would be quite a nuisance.
…Still, seeing Charlotte cry did tug at my heartstrings a bit.
When she woke up, I should give her some praise and treat her to something delicious.
“Ugh…”
Now that everything was done,
I stretched out and rested a bit.
I had already taken care of all the house chores, and with Charlotte asleep, I couldn’t see anything left to do.
Lying here comfortably with Corbin felt great.
“Lindera.”
“What’s up? Are you hungry or something?”
“Huh? No, it’s not that.”
Suddenly, Corbin, who had been lying down, started turning to face me.
What now?
I thought I had already washed the dishes, hung the laundry, and cleaned up a bit; there shouldn’t be any tasks left.
“Do you want to take a shower?”
“…Suddenly?”
“No, just thought I’d ask since I’m going to shower a bit later anyway. Do you want to shower together?”
“Uh…”
It was a bit sudden.
I was just lying down and relaxing, and now he wanted to shower.
This caught me off guard.
“Let’s take a shower together. Okay?”
“Wait, it’s hot…”
“You’re going to shower again before bed anyway, right? Can’t we just do it now?”
“Hang on…”
Suddenly, he wrapped his arms around me while lying next to me and started speaking.
It felt like he would keep doing this until he got an answer.
Of course, it was nice being embraced by his now more toned muscles due to working out, but…
I felt like if it went on like this, I might lose my mind.
In this close position, I could smell him really well, and seeing his neck made me feel a bit… flustered.
“…Alright. I can shower. Let’s hurry up and wash up.”
I decided to accept Corbin’s offer since my mind was racing with strange thoughts.
Honestly, with all the parenting and everything, I hadn’t been able to do stuff like that at night.
That ended up building up a bit of… appetite…
…Well, I couldn’t do anything naughty during the day, and it felt a bit embarrassing to take advantage of Charlotte’s nap for that.
So I figured we might as well wash up together.
*
“Didn’t you say to hurry up and get out?”
“…I never said that.”
…Honestly, the bathtub was comfy.
Yeah.
It was comfortable, so I couldn’t help it.
Plus, after spending a long day out with Charlotte yesterday, I was a bit tired from coming home late.
So just resting in the bathtub was… just too tempting.
“Want to be alone in the bathtub?”
“Nope, get in here.”
Sure, it would get a bit cramped when Corbin came in, but the bathtub was big enough.
So I just told him to come on in.
“Ah… this is warm.”
“Don’t you prefer warm over cold?”
“That’s true. When putting your body in, warm water is definitely better, right?”
“I don’t have a stupid hobby of jumping into cold water.”
Even if I lived in a warm place year-round, I definitely wouldn’t have the self-harming hobby of submerging myself in an ice-cold bathtub.
It was far from the experience of taking a cold shower.
“…Corbin.”
“Yeah? What’s up?”
“…Why do you go straight to that as soon as you get in?”
Corbin sat behind me, and it was impossible not to notice.
…There was no way to ignore that size.
The feel was definitely different from the water.
“Pervert.”
He must have had this on his mind when he suggested showering together.
It was obvious.
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