The bathroom on the second floor of this house is pretty different from those you’d see everywhere else. My father was a big fan of japanese culture (guess who chose my name), and so quite a few years back, he decided to remodel the entire second-floor bathroom to be similar to those you can see in japanese houses. Instead of having an area for showering and let that be it, the entire bathroom had been turned into a giant shower-like thing divided in two sections. The first and biggest one is a large washing area with shower heads and stools, where you are supposed to wash and rinse yourself before going into the second section, which is a rectangular bathtub that is built into the wall the furthest away from the changing room door.
I don’t really remember when it was remodeled this way, since I was very young back then, but growing up, I remember taking most of my baths here. And I guess that from that the habit just stayed, as I still very much prefer dipping into this room’s tub than taking a normal shower. And, I mean, Sora prefers it too, so as long as we have enough time in our hands, we always just bathe here. Though it does make up for a huge percentage of the water bill, I like to think of it as one of the few things I spoil myself with.
"Hey! What have I told you about running in the bathroom?!" Sora and I enter the bathroom already in the nude while carrying our towels, and she starts dashing over to the washing area. Geez, this girl. The floor isn't wet yet, so the chances of her slipping aren't all that big, but still, she's barefoot, and the floor isn't very anti-slippery either.
"...Sorry…." Sora apologizes as she lowers her head a bit in what I guess is disappointment, or maybe she thinks that I’m angry at her, which isn’t the case at all.
"C'mon baby, don't give me that face. You know you need to be careful in the bathroom." I gently lay my hand on her head, as I try to soften my voice as most as possible.
"I'm not angry, 'kay? Let's just be more careful from now on." Sora raises her head to look at me, and when she does, her expression brightens up a bit. See? I told you I wasn't mad. I'm just worried.
Throughout my life, I've always been surrounded by parents who like to take a hands-off approach when it comes to raising their kids. Older cousins, aunts, and even my own mother, they all followed the idea that kids should learn by allowing them to do whatever they want, and then having them face whatever consequences their actions caused. And I'm not talking about consequences imposed by the parents, but rather things like 'Oh, you decided to touch the stove? Well, too bad, here's a burn scar you'll have for the rest of your life, to remind you that you shouldn't touch it when it's hot.' Maybe it's just me, but I think that’s seriously stupid.
I've long lost count of how many times I've done stupid things when I was younger because my mom never really warned me against it. Things like, for example, the one I just reprimanded Sora for: running in the bathroom. I have a small scar on the back of my shoulder because of a time I did it and slipped when I was like six. I deserve it, 'cause it was stupid, but I would've at least wanted my mom to tell me, 'don't do it, you're going to get hurt.' Hmm… Now that I look back on it, more than hands-off parenting, I guess you could say my family's raising methods were more akin to child neglect.
That's why unlike her, I like to take a more authoritative role with my own parenting. To prevent incidents like that, and 'cause I think my mom made a bad parenting decision, and I don't want to repeat her mistakes. I know that people claim a hands-off approach is good 'cause they learn to be independent or whatever, and that might be true, but I think it also makes the kids feel lonely. At the very least, that was the case for me, and I prefer Sora being a little less independent, and a bit more reliant on me if it means that she won't be as lonely as I was. If you think that's stupid, then…fuck you! It's my life!
"C'mon baby, sit down."
"Nn!" Sora nods vividly before taking a seat on one of the stools, the smaller one of the two that are on the floor. Hahaha, look at her wriggle around waiting for me. Let's not keep her waiting too much, then.
"'Kay, here we go."
"Nn!" I grab one of the shower heads hanging from the wall, and turn it on, aiming it at my hand. Hmm… let's let it warm up for a bit…'kay good enough. Now aim…and shoot!
"Hehe! Hehe!" Sora giggles happily as the water splashes against her body, starting from her hair and going all the way down to her legs before falling onto the floor. She looks so comfortable, it makes me kind of want to hurry up so it can be my turn already. But nononono! I first need to do my job properly! It's not like being like this is too bad, anyway. I'm feeling a bit tired today, which is making the water look incredibly soothing and relaxing, but usually the thing I enjoy the most about bath time is watching Sora play around and do her own stuff while I wash her.
"'Kay. Baby, can you get me the shampoo, please?" Sora nods and does as I say, and once I have the bottle on my hands, I press on its cap once to get the shampoo out. "Close your eyes."
"Nn!" I look to confirm Sora's indeed closing her eyes, before starting to pass my hands through her hair. Her hair's short, so it only takes me a couple of minutes to spread the shampoo through its entirety. Having finished, I turn on the showerhead once again to wash all of the shampoo off.
"You can scrub yourself with the sponge, right?"
"Nn! Nn! Sora can!" Saying that, Sora starts washing herself with the most serious expression that I've seen her wear the entire day. She takes deep breaths as she goes, "Nn…Nn…" nodding at herself every time she swipes her body.
Pfffft, it's kind of funny to watch when you know that there's a lot of spots that she's pretty clearly missing, even though she's giving it her very best. Well, it doesn't matter, I'll scrub her myself in a bit, anyway. This is just so I can win a chance to wash myself in the meantime, 'cause I can't if I'm busy taking care of her.
It takes me a bit to clean myself up, especially due to how long my hair is, but anyway, a few minutes later, I finally finish my care by rinsing my body with water, and turn to look at Sora who…
"''Kay, baby. C'mere let me—…huh? Soap?" …Is completely covered in bubbles.
"....Nn?" Nonono, Sora, don't tilt your head like that, I'm pretty sure you're not as confused as I am. Like, how is it even possible to get yourself covered in soap to that point? Like, only your eyes can be seen, you know?
"Baby, you're a bit…soapy…"
"...Hm? …Ah! Nn! Nn! Sora went scrubby scrubby!" So you went scrubby scrubby...but that doesn't really explai—okay, no, you know what, let's just forget about it. I should just rinse her off before some soap gets in her eyes.
"'C'mere, baby." I turn on the water and completely shower her in it. And…tadaaa! She's back to normal! After this, I don't think there's much of a need to wash her myself anymore, right? Like, c'mon, if she still needs more soap than this, I'll eventually go broke just from buying soap. And that sounds stupid just by thinking about it, so yeah, let's avoid that.
"All done. 'Kay, let's get in." And so with that, I give the green light to get into the bathtub. Sora loves it, so she excitedly stands up before I even have a chance to react.
"Yay! Go! Go! Go!"
"Wait! I told you not to ru—"
"Hiiiih?!"
"Wah! Be carefu—ouch?!"
"?!"
"........."
...Urgh…That was stupid. That's why you shouldn't run in the bathroom.
…Hmm? You're asking what happened just now? Well, I think it's pretty obvious, but the moment Sora stood up, she started dashing with all her might towards the bathtub…and slipped on the ground. She fell on her back…no, she almost fell on her back. In that small time frame after she slipped and before touching the ground, I somehow managed to react, and threw myself between her and the floor, managing to catch her. Due to that, she thankfully remained unscathed from the situation.
…Hmm? What about me? Well…the impulse from my jump made me slide on the floor a few meters, so I ended up hitting my head on the stone-carved bathtub.
"...Mama?! You okay?! Mamaaaa?! Mamaaaaa!"
"...Urgh…M-Mama's 'kay, baby, calm down…" I can't say that it doesn't hurt, but it definitely isn't an injury that I need to be concerned about. It's just like when you bump your shoulder into someone because you weren't paying attention while walking down the street. It's that kind of physical discomfort that tells you you've hit something, but that goes away after a couple of seconds or minutes have passed. It's definitely no biggie.
I might wake up tomorrow morning with a slight bump on my head, though.
"How about you? Did you hit yourself somewhere?" Rather than my own condition, I'm much more worried about her. I'm pretty sure I managed to completely protect her from taking a hit, but I still want to listen to her saying it, just in case.
"N-Nnn…" Sora shakes her head, which finally allows me to breathe a sigh of relief.
"Baby…this is why you shouldn't run in the bathroom." Sora, who has been so energetic and happy a few seconds ago, lowers her gaze to the ground like a rejected puppy when I scold her.
"...Sorry…Sora's sorry." She starts fidgeting uneasily as she lays above me, which causes an awkward smile to spread through my face. Haaaah, this is so complicated. Part of me wants to pamper her and tell her it wasn't a big deal…but the other side of me is struggling with that sense of needing to scold her for her recklessness.
"...It's fine. Just make sure not to do it again." In the end, I just decided to go with the less scolding-like approach. It's been a long day, and I really don't feel like I have the energy needed to go into scolding mode. Honestly, I just want to enter the bathtub, get out, and go to bed. I feel like today's gonna be one of those days that I'm able to sleep like a log.
And I wasn't wrong.
After getting out of the bathtub and drying out our hair, Sora and I were hit by a wave of drowsiness. It was so intense that we both fell into deep sleep the moment our heads touched the pillow.
In the end, Sora forgot about the cookie I promised she'd have after dinner.
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