#i'm mostly basing yusuke off my sisters who WILL tell you when something is shit

[yusuke-of-valla]

So I’ve been working on a proper Uncle Zenkichi AU fic since I beat Strikers almost a year ago now and obviously that isn’t coming together but I do like how this scene turned out even if I’m not sure it’ll even be in the final fic so... here

~

Zenkichi’s sister, Tsuru, had always been the more artistic of the two of them. She just sort of had an eye for color and patterns that Zenkichi could never understand or follow. Maybe if he practiced he’d get it, but it never really interested him so he never bothered. However, even without his sister’s talent, even he could tell that the nursery looked awful

Aoi had been so stressed preparing for the baby, that Zenkichi had hoped he could help by getting this out of the way while she was away at her parents’ for the weekend. They’d discussed what colors and designs they wanted, and Zenkichi made sure to keep track of all of it to be extra sure he got it right. Then it was simply a matter of painting the walls, right?

Easier said than done.

“Wow, Uncle! That looks really bad.” Yusuke pointed out helpfully from behind his mother.

“Yusuke!” Tsuru whispered.

“No, it’s fine,” Zenkichi sighed. “He’s right. I mean, the walls look like they’re melting.”

“You put the paint on too thick,” Yusuke explained. 

Zenkichi collapsed into the nearby kitchen chair. “Aoi’s going to hate me.”

“Aoi will not hate you,” Tsuru said, “because we are going to fix this. She’s not coming back until the day after tomorrow, right?”

“Right.”

“Great! So first things first,” Tsuru knelt down next to Yusuke, “hey bud? How about you start painting over the bears in the corner while I talk with your uncle for a bit?”

Yusuke poked his head around his mother to look into the nursery. “I think they’re supposed to be houses,” he said.

“Flowers,” Zenkichi sighed, not lifting his head from the table. “They’re supposed to be flowers.”

“Why are they brown then?” Yusuke asked.

“I was going for red.”

“Oh well, next time you should--”

“Yusuke!” Tsuru coughed. “Just get started. Let me know if you need help, ok?”

“Ok!” Yusuke happily grabbed a paintbrush and went into the nursery, leaving Tsuru and Zenkichi alone.

“Is he going to be okay?” Zenkichi asked.

“Oh Yusuke’ll be fine. I’ll have to wash some paint out of his hair later but he can handle painting over some stuff.” Suddenly Tsuru stopped. “Oh, shi- I mean shoot, unless there was anything you wanted to keep?”

“Tsuru, even the toddler saw it was a mess, there's no salvaging that.”

“Since when are you such a pessimist?” Tsuru asked. “Water? Tea?”

“I’ll take a coffee with a cup of whisky mixed in.”

“Yeah, no. You clearly need a nap.” She slid a glass of water over to him and sat at the other side of the table. “So seriously, what’s going on? You look like shit, when was the last time you even slept. It can’t just be the nursery.”

Zenkichi lifted his head. “Tsuru, if I can’t paint a room, how the hell am I supposed to be a good father?” 

“Oookay,” Tsuru whistled. “So you definitely need a nap. But to answer your question, you’re gonna be a great dad. That’s just nerves talking! Believe me, I was the same way with Yusuke. The room isn’t some portent of your ability to raise a kid.”

“But if I fuck up with the kid, I can’t just call you to help fix things!”

“Well for one please don’t curse within earshot of Yusuke,” Tsuru said, “and for another, who says you can’t? I called you when I needed someone to watch Yusuke while I was at the doctor’s or working. It’s ok to ask for help.”

“That’s not the same thing!”

“What, are you worried you’re going to drop the baby? You never had a problem with Yusuke.”

“No. What if I, I don’t know, forget to pick her up from school or something?”

“Well then you should pick her up, and apologize. Preferably with ice cream. Then don’t do it again. Put it on your calendar or something.”

“How can you be so flippant?” Zenkichi snapped. 

“I’m just trying to make you see that you don’t need to worry!”

“This is a human child, Tsuru! They’re not something you can take lightly! ”

“I know that! Try raising a kid on your own while holding down two jobs and then we’ll talk about taking things lightly!” 

Tsuru took a sip from her glass. “Da- darn it, maybe I’m explaining this wrong. I know you can fuck up a kid, you know I do. But it takes more than forgetting a few dates or picking a wrong outfit, you know? With those things, it’s like when you fuck up with any person. You apologize and you do your damndest to make sure it doesn’t happen again. You talk and find a way to compromise and you work together. And maybe the kid isn’t as good as that as an adult is, but if you’re patient with them, you can figure it out. The way you fuck up with a kid is not caring at all, or being so stuck in your ways that you don’t listen. Just trying, and letting them know that you’re trying, goes a long way.”

“You make it sound so simple,” Zenkichi sighed.

“Lots of things sound simple on paper,” Tsuru replied. “Or maybe I’m completely wrong and when Yusuke grows up he’s going to have all sorts of issues because his mom asked how he was feeling too much and smothered him and then she died.”

“Now who's being morbid?”

Tsuru chuckled. “All I know, Zen, is what I hated about growing up, and try to steer as far away from that as possible. I just want things to be better for Yusuke. That’s all any of us can really do.”