Taking Care

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When I rang Shu's doorbell, it was a while before Shu answered. 'Finally,' I said. 'I was starting to think that you weren't going to answer.'

I was joking lightheartedly, but Shu got flustered. 'Sorry,' he said. 'I was reading in my room earlier, but I fell asleep.'

'Oh. You're still tired?'

Shu yawned a little. 'Yeah,' he said. 'But it's alright.'

It's alright? 'Er, Shu, do you ever get enough sleep?'

'Well, not really,' said Shu. 'On weekdays, I sleep for five hours. On weekends, six or seven.'

'Why?'

'Well, after I started beyblading, I felt that I had to work extra hard to be any good. Of course, I also had to do homework, cook my own meals, and clean the house. I would train during free hours at school and after school as well, do any cleaning and cooking after I get home, and do my homework at night.'

'What about weekends?' I asked.

'I would do extra training during weekends,' said Shu. 'Sometimes I wouldn't go to bed until past midnight.'

'No wonder you look so burnt out,' I told him. 'You should take time off to look after yourself.'

'I guess,' said Shu.

'I'm serious,' I told him. 'You look like you're going to fall asleep at any moment.'

'I guess that I could use a break,' said Shu. 'Besides, I'm too tired to argue with you.'

'Good,' I told him. I made him lie down on the couch. 'Get some sleep. I'll wake you up when dinner's ready.'

'Can you cook?' asked Shu.

'I can cook simple meals,' I told him. 'Now sleep.'

Shu nodded and closed his eyes. In seconds he had fallen asleep, so I went to the kitchen to make dinner.

I couldn't make spaghetti carbonara like Shu, so I had to find something else to cook. I found some leftover tomato sauce and cheese slices. Perfect! Only there was no meat.

After some more digging, I found luncheon meat slices in the fridge. Great!

I boiled macaroni in a saucepan. Then I heated up the tomato sauce and added a bit of water to dilute it.

The meat was the tricky part. I usually microwaved it, but I had cooked all the other food from scratch. I decided to microwave the meat alone before serving it with the other food.

I poured the macaroni into two bowls. Then I poured the tomato sauce and placed the cheese slices on top. Then I added the meat.

I went back to the living room to wake Shu up. I gently nudged him. 'Wakie wakie. Dinner's ready.'

Shu woke up. Then he sniffed the air. 'You made pasta?' he asked.

'Yeah. It's not like yours, but I hope you like it.'

Shu looked surprised at the macaroni, but when he ate it, he said that it was delicious.

'Oh, thanks,' I said. 'I'm afraid that I'm not nearly as experienced as you though.'

Shu smiled at me. 'Well, I think that you're a good cook,' he said.

My heart was doing somersaults. I wanted to fly.

Well, after dinner, Shu and I changed into our pyjamas. Then we watched two movies. To my surprise, one of the movies was The Little Mermaid.

'Sorry, but I think of you every time I see Ariel,' said Shu.

I couldn't help but sing to Part of Your World again. I think that the song is starting to have an effect on me.

Now that I think about it, I didn't watch The Little Mermaid often in my real life. It was always Frozen, Frozen, Frozen!

When the movie was over, Shu asked me which movie did I want to watch next. I drew a blank.

I decided to look through all the movies Shu owned. To my surprise, there were quite a lot of Barbie movies. The first one was Barbie in the Nutcracker and the last one was Barbie in 'A Christmas Carol'.

'I didn't know you were into Barbie,' I told Shu. He looked really embarrassed at that.

'They belonged to Aunt Hinata,' he said. 'When I was little, she would play the Barbie movies all of the time. The Christmas Carol one was the last movie we saw together before she died.'

'Which one did you like the most?' I asked.

'The Princess and the Pauper,' said Shu. 'When I was little, I could never remember the full name so I called it The Poor Person and The Rich Person.'

I couldn't help snorting at that. 'Why don't we watch that movie now?' I asked.

'Sure,' said Shu.

Unfortunately, I was the only person who actually watched the movie, for Shu fell asleep two minutes into the movie. Not because he was bored; he was just exhausted.

Still, it was amazing. The songs are spectacular. My favourite has to be the ending song. I think it was called Written in Your Heart.

Anneliese and Erika could have passed for twins. Well, they had different hair colours, different lifestyles and different voices.

The love interests were also good. Julian and the king were both really awesome. No wonder Shu liked it so much.

As soon as the movie was finished, I prepared to stand up, but I found out that Shu was now sleeping on my lap. He seemed so peaceful that I really didn't want to move him. I gently stroked his hair.

I yawned. I was starting to get sleepy too. But I just can't sleep without a blanket, or else I feel cold in the morning. That is odd considering I lived in an all-sunny country in my real life.

Then I remembered that my new parents told me not to sleep with Shu. They were probably scared that I might accidentally get myself pregnant. But there was no harm in getting a sleeping bag and setting it next to the couch.

I turned all the lights off (which took a while as I had to learn where all the switches were and guess which switch was used for lights) then went to bed. Though I couldn't resist giving Shu a little kiss again. Luckily he didn't wake up.

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