𝐋𝐄𝐀𝐍 𝐎𝐍 𝐌𝐄 | 𝙗.𝙠𝙖𝙩𝙨𝙪𝙠𝙞

𝙇𝘼𝙐𝙉𝘿𝙍𝙔

It was Sunday morning, which was probably Kou's least favourite part of the week. She woke up at the crack of dawn, careful not to make too much noise while her siblings slept. Katsuro was god-knows-where, and her mom was too hungover to notice anything going on.

Sunday was cleaning day, and even though the responsibility fell solely on Kou she was more than happy to do it. The house was disgusting- her parents were basically overgrown toddlers in the way that they left their shit around everywhere and treated the entire apartment like their own personal landfill.

She usually started with the living room: picking up the beer and wine bottles littering the floor, tables and couch. She'd vacuum if they had one, but unfortunately she just had to air out the dirty rug as best as she could from the balcony.

She moved onto the kitchen/dining area: cleaning up more empty bottles of alcohol, gathering the pizza boxes and other garbage piled up on the table and putting everything into a giant trash bag. She washes the dishes overflowing the sink, trying to ignore the wretched smell coming from the drains- that was out of her jurisdiction. She'd done groceries yesterday thankfully, so the fridge was fully stocked.

The bathroom was always the worst: 2 kids and 2 alcoholic bums sharing one bathroom was a recipe for destruction, and Kou didn't want to get into the details but what she would say is that she wanted to bleach her hands then cut them off every time she went in there to clean. She had limited supplies (her parents weren't too keen on spending extra cash on something they didn't even care about), so it wasn't 100% clean but by the time she was done it was at least not a safety hazard.

By the time she was done everything it was noon, and after she finished lugging the giant trash bag to the garbage chute, she began to make lunch for Hiro and Machi, who were usually up at this point.

"Morning, onee-san." Hiro mumbled, padding his way to the bathroom to get ready for the day. Kou went to wake up her sister, who whined and demanded ' 5 more minutes '.

Kou made her way back to the kitchen, finishing cooking the eggs and quickly toasted a couple slices of bread for the three of them to eat. She plated them haphazardly, bringing everything to the table and waiting for them to finish getting ready.

Hiro eventually went to go help a tired Machi, and the siblings ate a rather peaceful breakfast without their parents.

"When do you want to leave?" Hiro asked when they finished eating, gathering the plates and bringing them to the sink to wash. He hopped up on the little stool by the sink since he was still a bit too short to reach the faucet. Kou currently has Machi in her lap, wiping the remains of breakfast that were smeared on her face.

"30 minutes?" she asked, and Machi started jumping up and down on her leg in excitement.

"Laundry day! Laundry day!" she cheered happily; for some reason their weekly trips to the laundromat were her favourite- watching the clothes spin in the machines was like magic to the toddler.

30 minutes later the siblings leave the apartment, setting aside a plate of breakfast for their mom who still wasn't awake and locking the door behind them. The laundromat they went to was pretty close by- only a 5 minute walk. Hiro and Kou carried a bag of clothes each, Hiro holding Machi with his free hand.

"Do you have the change?" Hiro asks, "Don't forget it like last time."

"I didn't forget anything, mom ," Kou rolls her eyes sarcastically; for someone 8 years younger than her he sure didn't act like it.

When they finally arrive Machi runs off to look at the machines, her older brother keeping a close eye on her while Kou got started. They'd be here for at least another 3 hours; there were 4 separate loads to do and plenty of waiting time in between.