Chapter Text
Kinger took a sip of his coffee and sighed. It was a pretty quiet morning in his home, the sun smiling over the horizon through the kitchen window. The way the rays illuminated the table and wall of pictures gave it a relaxing feel. The smell of bacon added to it, cooling off on a plate next to scrambled eggs and toast. It was so nice, and peaceful…what a way to start the morning.
It shouldn’t be too long now…
“AAAA!”
“Hahahaha!”
“GET BACK HERE YOU LITTLE PEST!”
Aaand there it is.
It was the skittering of fast little feet that entered the kitchen first. Feet that belonged to a small 6 year old purple rabbit, with a large yellow grin.
“Morning Dad”, he greeted the chess piece. “What’s for breakfast today?”
“Toast, bacon, and eggs”, Kinger looked down at his son. “Care to explain what that outburst was about?”
“JAX!”
Seems like the boy didn’t need to. In the kitchen came Kinger’s oldest child, though not really a child. More an 18 year old beginning young woman, with a button eye and licorice hair. “Do you ALWAYS have to barge into our rooms so early?”
“Whaaat? I’m just helping you wake everybody”, Jax shrugged, grabbing a plate. The girl huffed, moving her attention to the chess piece, wrapping a hug around him. “Morning Dad.”
“Morning Ragatha”, somehow he placed a kiss on her cheek.
“I get it done faster my way”, Jax continued, piling on the bacon.
“Yeah but I don’t have to run away from Zooble everyday.”
As if on cue, in came the teenaged toybox themself, soaking wet and antenna twitching.
“YOU”, they lunged forward at the rabbit, grabbing him by the neck. “How many times do I have to tell you to say the FUCK out of my room?!”
Jax gasped loudly and pointed. “You said a swear word!”
“Wha- No! That just-”
“Ah-ah-ah Zooble”, Kinger waved his finger. “You know the rule.”
Zooble let go of Jax, the kid immediately pulling out a jar full of bills and coins. They groaned, very irritated, but still put a dollar bill inside.
“So”, Jax put the jar away and smirked at his sibling. “You were saying?”
“.....How many times have I told you to stay the HONK out of my room”, Zooble strained the words out, as if to keep themselves from launching again.
Kinger raised an eyebrow. “Jax..”
“I didn’t go in their room! I was OUTSIDE their room, and so was the bucket of water!”
“Well what about the centipedes in MY room”, Ragatha jumped in the convo, grabbing a piece of toast.
“I just set them out in the hallway. I can’t control where they decide to crawl.” Jax walked towards the table, sitting down in a chair.
“You can set them out somewhere that’s NOT right outside my room!”
“Ok, let’s hold our horses here”, Kinger interrupted, serving scoops of eggs onto plates. “Jax, we keep the bugs outside the house where they belong. Ragatha, Zooble, you only have one brother, be nice to him.”
“Him FIRST”, Zooble glared down at the boy, who stuck a raspberry out.
“Hey guys.”
A new voice entered the kitchen, grabbing a piece of toast in her mouth like she was late for the day of school. Even though it was only 7 AM. The voice belonged to a 13 year old walking mass of ribbons in a large anime hoodie, with black eyes on a white mask with bits of red acne, somehow.
“Hey Gangle”, Zooble’s expression softened up, holding a plate out. “Dad already set out eggs.”
“Thanks”, she took the plate, sitting down at the table, a seat in between her and Jax. She reached out for the orange juice in front of them.
“Morning Pizzaface”, Jax grabbed the juice first.
“Hey”, Gangle moved to grab the carton back. “I was getting that.”
“You were too slow.”, suddenly Jax felt the carton grabbed out of his hands. “Hey!”
“And you are too small”, Zooble kept it out of his reach. “She was grabbing it first.”
Jax flailed his arms up in vain. Curse this little body. So, he leaned into it that disadvantage, biting Zooble’s shoe leg piece.
“OW!” Zooble yelped out, dropping the juice, spilling all over the table, splashing onto their face. “Now look what you did!”
“It’s not my fault, you’re just too tall” Jax smirked…for a second, before Zooble strangled him on the table. “ACK!”
“Zooble”, Gangle tried to get out of the way, but was dragged into it by little gloves. She screamed as food flew off the table onto the floor.
“Guys stop, come on”, Ragatha reached out, turning to Kinger. “Dad, could you help out?”
But the chess piece didn’t move, didn’t respond. Staring off into space, as if in a trance. Ragatha sighed, “Aw, not again.”
Her attention was brought back to the fight, bits of eggs flying in her hair. “GUYS!”
And now all 4 children were fighting in the room over the table, shouting loudly. Trying to get Jax under control, Gangle’s ribbons getting tangled and knots in plates, Ragatha’s hair being harshly pulled as Zooble’s pieces were ripped off in the mess. All while their father was lost in his thoughts..whatever those were. But clearly wasn’t going to stop the fight anytime soon.
“What’s going on?”
Well that broke everything up.
The 4 suddenly stopped fighting, looking into the kitchen hallway. And there was the last child, a 10 year old jester girl with a long hat and dangling bells covering brown bobbed hair. Her pinwheel eyes looked at her family, fighting on the table, the food around them on the floor in a mess.
“....I guess it’s gonna be cereal again.”
“.....AAAA!”, and Kinger snapped out of his thoughts, looking down at the jester. “Oh, morning Pomni, you startled me.” He looked back towards his other children, and what used to be breakfast. “Wow, we’re gonna have to clean this up.”
Jax grabbed the box of Literally Just Sugar Spheres, but barely got a sphere out before the box was snatched from him. “Hey!”
“Sorry Jax, you know what sugar does to you”, Kinger replaced it with a box of Oat-Os. The boy slumped in his chair, annoyed.
“That’s not fair! Pomni can have it!” He pointed to his sister, already pouring a bowl of her own cereal. “And Rags get to have the candy one!”
He pointed to his oldest sister, pouring a bowl of Candy Crunch out of a yellow box with a smiling princess on it. “Do you remember what happened last time?” Ragatha raised her eyebrow.
Jax snickered to himself. That teacher had so many trample marks and bites, he could still hear the screams in his dreams. “Yeah.”
“Well, so do we. No sugar on weekdays”, Kinger poured an oat bowl, his son pouting at the lack of flavor. “But if you’re good, you can have a piece of cake at Zooble’s party.”
The boy’s eyes lit up. “Can I have one with the frosting letters? And sprinkles?”
Kinger chuckled, that cake wasn’t having any sprinkles. “Sure. Now eat your cereal.”
And the groaning came back again, with a begrudging bite of what might as well have been cardboard.
Pomni swallowed a bite that had actual flavor. “It’s not gonna be a big party is it? Like..with a lot of people?”
“How many can there really be”, Zooble shrugged. “It’s just you guys and some friends with a few games and cake. That’s all I really need.”
“Still it’s exciting”, Gangle poured her own bowl. “You only get one Sweet Sixteen.”
“I’m cool with it being less sweet really. Not like those massive parties with the rich cars and flashy performers”, the teen shuddered at the thought. “It’s gonna be pretty low-key, don’t worry.”
Kinger sighed wistfully. “It seems like just yesterday we were planning Ragatha’s 16th birthday. And now you Zooble…you kids are growing up so fast.”
Suddenly, Kinger’s nostalgia was interrupted by ringing. He looked down at the fliphone, his eyes lighting up as he saw who it was. “Oh! I gotta take this. Don’t kill each other while I’m gone!”
And with that he slid out of the room, into his office.
Once inside, locked, and childless, he answered the phone. “Hey you..”
“Well hello there yourself”, followed by a boisterous chuckle. “So how’s my superstar doing this fine morning?”
“Oh, nothing too big, just getting the kids fed for school.”
“Wowza, at this hour?”
“Oh we always end up needing two breakfasts", Kinger laughed. “But you’re a bit early to call aren’t you Caine?”
“I just can’t stop thinking about tonight”, Caine’s enthusiasm reverbed over the phone. “I finally get to meet your famous little ferrets for my own eyes! I’ve been planning non-stop. Which reminds, do they like a fancy look, or should we go more with the Hawaiian shirt vibe?”
“Aww as long as you’re yourself, they’re gonna love you”, the chess piece started to blush a bit. “Just like I do.”
“Oh st..stop that”, Caine stuttered. “Well I wanted to check that. I’ll be seeing you and your kiddos later tonight.”
“That’s still the plan”, Kinger nodded. “See you tonight!”
And the line was off. Kinger flipped the phone shut and sighed.
He stared in his office space, full of numerous pictures. Some of Gangle’s drawings, different trips over the years, an assortment of crude handmade Father’s Day presents….
And of course, on his desk, there was…her.
….He needed to visit her.
“Dad! I need you to sign this for me today, I almost forgot about it!”
Pomni walked around the house, a permission slip in hand, but there was no sign of her father anywhere. Not in his office, the newly cleaned kitchen, or his room.
Well..then there was only one more place he could be.
The jester opened the sliding door to the backyard. It was still lush and green as ever. In the midst of different toys and chairs was the garden. Full of many different flowers of various colors, shrubs, and bushes. All of which were teeming with insect life, buzzing and pollinating the nectars. And in the center of it all, was a bench..a bench currently occupied by her father.
“Oh, you should’ve seen Pomni’s face”, he said out loud. “She was so proud to bring that home”
Pomni hid behind the shrubs, it seems like he was still talking to Mom. She didn’t want to interrupt that.
“Zooble’s turning 16 this weekend, we’re getting a little party together for it. I think Jax is gonna be good until then, to get a bit of the cake. Ragatha’s doing well, can you believe it? Our baby’s a college girl now”, he sighed, looking a little crestfallen. “I wish you were here to see all of this..”
Pomni looked at the grass awkwardly…if only she WAS still here…
“But, I also had a little update of my own.” The girl’s bells perked up at that. “...I met someone.”
What?
“He’s so…energetic, so spontaneous and enthusiastic. You should hear the way he talks about his bees. He even gave them all little hats”, Kinger laughed as he talked. “We’ve been going out for the past few weeks, but..tonight, I’m bringing him over, for an in-house date. A chance for him to meet the kids.”
WHAT?!
Pomni ran back into the house, the permission slip laid on the ground unsigned.
“I hope you’re not upset at this, wherever you are now...No one is ever going to replace you, not even for a moment, but…I really love him too, Queenie…with some of his jokes, I think you would’ve liked him too, actually.”
He looked out in the sky, a pair of butterflies entering the garden and landing on his head cross. He beamed happily, this must’ve been a sign of approval.
“Thanks honey”, he looked back at the house. “..I wonder how the kids are gonna react.”
“GUYS!!”
Pomni ran into the hallway, interrupting Gangle talking about some recent anime episode and Ragatha getting Jax’s backpack on him.
“Pomni there you are, we’re gonna be late-”, Ragatha stopped her chiding as Pomni took heavy breaths, exhausted by the running. “Woah, easy. What’s wrong?”
Finally, Pomni’s breath came to her, blurting out the news.
“DAD’S DATING A GUY!”
The following minute was the quietest their family morning had ever been.