───

     ✐ SUKUNA WAS COMPETITIVE without a doubt, which is how rin had gotten the boy to so easily nap, as she first encouraged the twins to do more jumping jacks and curl ups than her.

"I DID FOUR MORE THAN YOU!", sukuna proudly boasted, as yūji had celebrated along with his brother by clapping.

     "congratulations. we should celebrate with a movie", rin smiled, to which sukuna had begrudgingly accepted, since after all, he is the winner.

"what will we be watching? a horror film?!", sukuna excitedly asked, to which rin had undoubtedly rejected his idea.

     "nope. instead, we will be watching the movie: kiki's delivery service", rin stated, to which sukuna had dramatically covered his eyes with both his hands, groaning.

     "NO!! WHYYYYY?!?!?"

     "miss rin, what's the movie about?", yūji asked, watching rin insert the disk into the dvd player, as she hauled three green beanbags together — in front of the t.v.

"it's about this thirteen year-old girl, who's a witch, that lives with her talking cat jiji—"

"boo! sounds lame!!", sukuna interrupted, crossing his arms in protest, as he unconsciously found himself on top of one of the beanbags.

     "if you can keep quiet throughout the first half of this movie, then we'll stop watching it and watch something of your choice, how about it?", rin bargained.

     sukuna grinned.

     "okay!!"

     as soon as the two itadoris took their seat beside each other, with yūji in the middle between sukuna and rin — because sukuna claimed that he didn't want to be near the woman — the twins had fallen asleep fifteen minutes later.

     it was ultimately rin's plan to tire the boys out after a short exercise that would accelerate their heart rate and then decelerate it, as they calmed down to watch the movie.

     smiling to herself, rin quietly grabbed a thin blanket and draped it over the twins, turning down the volume of the movie, as she stayed beside them through the rest of their nap.

✄ - - - - - - - - - - - - - - ▤

     "really?! I can't believe you got him to sleep!! usually we'd come back and he'd be even grumpier than usual!", kaori stated.

sukuna only frowned, as he can't believe that he had gotten tricked by rin.

"she's a witch, I tell you!! she must've used magic to put me to sleep!!", the older twin huffed.

"sukuna, that is not how you talk to people!", kaori sternly whispered.

"aw, but I don't want to leave", yūji pouted, clutching onto rin's apron, as jin had tried to persuade the boy to come over to them.

     "yūji, we're coming back tomorrow morning. miss rin probably has other things to do", jin reasoned, to which that had caused the youngest itadori to shake his head.

     "no! I want to stay here!!", yūji proclaimed.

     sukuna raised a brow, as usually yūji was considered the "easier twin" to take care of.

     never did he throw a tantrum or cry for no reason.

     "yūji, we have your favorite rice bowl with food on top and noodles", kaori cooed, obviously lying.

yūji seemed to ponder for a bit, as if it were a very serious decision.

rin then proceeded to kneel down to pick yūji up, smiling.

"I'm very happy that yūji wants to stay with me, but I have to go home now and prepare a surprise for you two", rin stated.

sukuna's interest suddenly rose, as he ever so slightly leaned towards rin and his brother while still in kaori's embrace.

"a-a surprise?! WHAT IS IT??", yūji eagerly asked, causing rin to softly chuckle.

     "I can't tell you, because it's a surprise. but if you stay here with me, I won't have time to prepare it, so you have to come back tomorrow", rin explained.

     yūji nodded, understanding his duty.

     "okay! we'll come back tomorrow then. goodbye, miss rin!!"

     with yūji now in jin's arms, both parents and children walked off, as rin waved goodbye.

not a moment later, the phone that was mounted onto the wall in the petite kitchen had rang.

hurrying towards the cooking room, rin had answered the call with a pleasant, "hello! this is rin from jujutsu daycare. how may I help you today?"

"are you the owner of that place?", a gruff voice questioned, to which rin was now slightly skeptical on whether she should truthfully answer or just hang up.

     "yes sir, I am".

     "good. my name's fushiguro tōji, and my wife's been nagging at me to go look for a nearby daycare for our four year-old son, megumi. I lied and told her that he'd be going to a daycare tomorrow, so can I just stick him with you guys tomorrow and I'll fill out the paperwork afterwards?"

rin had to momentarily process what the man was saying before she could respond.

     "umm...I'm sorry sir, but I need all the documents done just in case of emergencies and—"

     "I'm willing to pay double", tōji interrupted.

"sir, it's not about the money. it's just that it's illegal for me to take care of your child without any proper documentation and indication that you both willingly—"

"listen; I don't think you understand. if my wife finds out that I've been procrastinating, I will be sleeping on the couch. and do you know what happens then?"

     rin hesitantly answered.

     "w-what happens then?"

     "I will come and find you. and when I do, I—"

     rin suddenly heard a woman's voice distantly calling for tōji, to which a quiet curse was said by the annoyed man.

"meet me at the café near that one high school at eight. don't be late, and bring all the papers that I need to sign", tōji demanded, quickly hanging up, as rin was left speechless.

'that one high school? oh wow, very specific', the woman mentally complained.

though she supposed that the man had meant tokyo high, since it was the closest one.

     sighing to herself, the woman hastily went into her little office that was located at the very front of the daycare.

     searching through all the paperwork, rin had neatly organized the necessary documents that the man had wished for.

     grabbing her bag and keys, rin had made sure to lock the door as she headed towards the café to go get some dinner beforehand.

     "ah, I still need to get yūji and sukuna a surprise", the woman muttered to herself.

♥

AUTHOR'S NOTE: can you guess who the love interest will be? cookie (🍪) for you if you get it right :)