#14: Lazy Day

Zoisite was beyond the point of exhaustion. It felt like he had been doing battle all day and didn't even have the luxury of using any of his weapons. Kunzite had definitely not trained him for this and Endymion could have had the courtesy of giving him some due warning about these types of trials.

Ami trusted him to take care of business so that she could have one lazy day with the other girls. The problem was, he decided to take a lazy day too, and would soon be paying the price. It all started with what should have been a typical sentimental moment between a father and his daughter.

"Daddy, I made art!" squealed his rather rambunctious 8-year-old Zhea. He dreaded what he would find. He could only imagine a wall painted some ghastly shade of orange, or glue stuck all over the table, or perhaps macaroni noodles spilled all over the floor.

His daughter held up a neat painting of a blue goose. There was nothing like the feeling of sweet relief. If his daughter who was usually messy had found something to do that was organized, then he had nothing to worry about. Ava and Herman took after their mother, so he didn't expect much grief from them.

"It's very nice, honey," he said as he continued to lounge on the sofa.

"Thank you. I made it for you to hang in your office!"

"I can't wait to hang it up," he said, smiling at her.

"Did I tell you that Ava wants to be a hair stylist?" she said as she jumped on top of him. Well, this was news to him. Zhea's twin sister wanted to be something new every week.

"Auntie Minako wouldn't let Ava practice on her, so Ava has been practicing on Herman," Zhea said as if this was commonplace.

"On your baby brother?!?" Zoisite sat up, alarmed.

"Don't worry, he didn't end up bald," she said. Hair was such a precious thing!

"Where are you sister and brother now?" he asked, standing up.

"Oh, last I saw they were in Herman's room." Great, now he would have to clean up hair and explain to Ami why their son had a hair cut.

"But at least when Ava started cutting his hair, he stopped playing Shitennou on your bed," Zhea continued.

"Shitennou on my bed?" Whatever that was, it did not sound good.

Zhea shrugged. "It's just some game him and the other boys made up. They take tree branches and use them as swords. Sometimes they like to jump on beds when they play so they can feel like they're flying."

"So he went outside to get a tree branch?" Zoisite asked warily.

"That's where tree branches come from. I'll bet he found a real nice one full of green leaves, since it rained this morning," Zhea commented.

Zoisite nearly swooned at the thought. That meant there had to be mud, water, leaves, and tree bark all over their pristine bed. It was probably going to be a most comfortable night of sleeping on the couch.

"If Ava had decided to be a hair stylist sooner, maybe she could have stopped him, but she didn't decide to be a hair cutter until after lunch. Before lunch she wanted to be a doctor, so she was busy in mommy's laboratory." Oh, he felt a definite migraine coming on.

"You girls know that you never go into mommy's lab!" Zoisite said sternly.

"Don't be mad at me, daddy! Yesterday Ava wanted to be a journalist. It wasn't me who went into the lab."

He didn't know what Ava wanting to be a journalist had to do with anything, but he did know that he had a whole lot of messes to clean up, and quickly!

Oh, Ami would freeze him to oblivion when she found out that he spent a lazy day on the sofa rather than entertaining their children.

"Mommy!" he heard Zhea shriek. "Look at the art I made for Daddy. And you'll never believe what Ava wants to be today!"

Oh heaven help him!