Interlude - Morning Thoughts

Akira Hideyoshi POV

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I stirred awake and stretched my arms and let out a large yawn.

It was too early in the morning, Akira and Hoshi were still asleep.

I wanted to prepare coffee to wake myself up.

So I headed downstairs to fill the kettle with water and set it on the stove.

I grabbed my coffee cup and spooned in some instant coffee powder.

It won't be the best cup of joe, but it will do the job.

While waiting for the water to boil, I began thinking about my unique son.

The morning after Hoshi first birthday was odd, it was the beginning of my everlasting confusion.

My son looked upset, he was hunched over in his playpen.

When I questioned my wife, she had no idea what was causing him displeasure.

We quickly questioned him to make sure everything was fine.

Hoshi told us he was just thinking and nothing was wrong.

It was unusual to see a 1-year-old display heighten introspection and self-consciousness.

We left him for the time being, and watch from afar.

He began going through his old toys, playing with them each for a few minutes before tossing them aside.

I was surprised because Hoshi never properly played with any of his toys before.

After watching him for some time, it looked like he was testing something and not playing with his toys.

He was so engrossed into whatever he was doing, Hoshi never noticed Akira taking photos of him.

"Honey, don't you think you got enough photos already?" I muttered.

"NEVER! There never will be enough!" yelled Akira.

I rolled my eyes at my wife and looked over to my son again.

After playing with every old toy he owned, Hoshi sat down and began to stare straight into the wall of his playpen.

It was one of his weird habits, he often zones out and stares straight for a few minutes.

His expression began to change from confusion to surprise.

It looked like he gained some sort of revelation.

"Our son has bipolar disorder, we should get him checked," I jokingly whispered.

"He doesn't have bipolar disorder, he just very emotional!" replied my wife.

Hoshi scampered over to his new chef's play kitchen.

My son began going through each of the items of the play kitchen.

To my disbelief, Hoshi placed the cutting board on the counter space and grabbed a kitchen knife with his right hand completely behind the bolster on the handle and position his left hand into the claw position.

Holding the tip of the blade against the cutting board with his knife angled upward he began trying to slice an invisible ingredient by guiding it with his left hand while curling them inwards, using his knuckles to guide his knife.

With the tip of the blade in constant contact with the cutting board, pull the knife backwards slightly until the blade slices into the invisible ingredient.

I just saw something unbelievable, this was not something a regular one-year-old would do.

"What is he doing? some sort of image training?" I instantly resorted.

"My Hoshi is a genius. He must have learned it from me!" said Akira.

"No no no, this isn't about being a genius. This is abnormal!"

"Are you calling my baby boy abnormal?" Akira whispered.

I felt the cold edges of her word and denied everything.

I didn't want to sleep on the couch or get thrashed by my wife.

Hoshi continued his image training and after a few hours, he looked disappointed.

My wife wanted to walk over and cheer him up, but I prevented her from doing so.

I felt Hoshi would deny everything, and the best way to spot the problem was to watch him.

My son took a deep breath and looked around his playpen.

He spotted a few containers of play-doh we brought him.

He showed no interest in it previously, but his eyes were telling a different tale at that very moment.

Instantly, Hoshi displayed an incredible amount of zeal and grabbed the play-doh and took it out of the container.

He threw the play-doh onto the cutting board and began to slice into it.

After slicing it as thin as possible, Hoshi would reform the play-doh and slice at it once again.

Hoshi would repeat this cycle for a few hours.

"Woot!" my son exclaimed.

We weren't sure why he was celebrating but he looked content and accomplished and that's all that matters to us.

The kettle began to whistle, I woke me up from my little daydream.

I stood up to turn off the stove and grab the kettle.

I began to pour the boiling water into my coffee cup while stirring.

I took a sip and sighed aloud, my expression began to change from sleepy to awake.

I heard some noise coming from the stairway and looked.

I saw my wife coming downstairs; I stood up and greeted her with a hug.

"Good morning, honey!"

"Arent you chirpy today?" noted Akira.

"Just got some coffee in me, feeling much more awake now."

"That's great because it's time to prepare for Hoshi second birthday!"