Canon: Remove if not applicable.Things are not going well for Kouen. He would rather not admit to having trouble with anything, ever, but right now, he finds himself in a great struggle for his life, in a battle that he is fairly - almost entirely - certain that he cannot win.
The bathroom is a war zone. He is soaked to the bone and no towels are left dry. Every item in the room is over-turned and just about every inch are covered in soap suds. Kouen is particularly covered in the gently perfumed thing. Or perhaps that's just the way he sees it in his irritation.
Water splashes everywhere and Kouen sputters after another Great Big Wave hits him square in the face.
He sneezes as he gets soap in his nose and he slips and falls flat on his face, nose suddenly smarting painfully, when he tries to catch the little girl that snakes out of his grip, out of the tub, and away to the over-turned laundry basket. The way everything is going, he wouldn't be surprised if his nose had been broken by the floor tiles, even if he isn't sure if it's blood or water wetting his face even more.
Completely dishevelled with hair on end and shirt almost falling off because of several buttons having been torn off, he gets back to his feet, almost slipping on the wet tiles again but he somehow manages to regain his balance, and he follows the child, who has planted her bare ass in the middle of the dirty laundry. When she sees him coming, she crawls into the laundry basket, and he tips it back up on the right end. She squeals in delight. As if it were some new kind of game - and Kouen curses, ignoring the fact that his husband would be upset to hear such language around such a small child. But if she really gets it into her three-year-old little head that this really is a new, exciting game, they are sure to suffer the consequences of laundry everywhere and baskets on the run.
The basket is lifted off the ground and placed on the washing machine, so he can fish the laughing girl out of the basket. She, in amusement, tugs at his goatee, and he scowls at her. "That is not a toy, young lady," he scolds. He says it over the sound of the bathroom door opening, and he continues to tell the child about proper manners. Proper manners which does not include pulling your brother-in-law's facial hair or bangs or biting his fingers or ruining his clothes. Then he stops, mid-rant, as he hears the soft sound of a chuckle. Now, normally, he likes the sound of that gentle laugh, but now he rounds in his husband, and abruptly walks over to him, while the child puts his wet hair in her mouth and sucks on it.
"And you." He shoves a finger into Mu's chest; the man looks startled, and even takes a step back as he sees the dark look on Kouen's face. "You were the one who made me do this."
"I didn't really make you do it, I just asked if you---" Mu falls silent when Kouen sends him an even darker glare.
Kouen untangles his hair from the small mouth and pushes the toddler into Mu's arms, and stomps past him. "You will clean up this mess and her bath. If it is not clean when I come home, I swear to god that I will force you to sleep on the balcony for the rest of the week."
Mu doesn't protest, or even point out that he must mean the whole next week? as it is Sunday. "Where are you going?" he asks instead, a hint of confusion in his voice.
"To buy cigarettes so I can calm my nerves," Kouen says through gritted teeth, and he hears a disgruntled, concerned sound from Mu. But the man doesn't get the chance to protest against the habit, as the girl he's holding does something - perhaps she tugs at his impossibly long hair - because the only thing Kouen can hear as he heads for the door is "ow ow ow" and then he's out the door in wet clothes and he knows its dumb but he grabbed a coat and he'll go to the public bath house to wash all of the baby-perfumed soap out of his hair, and buy one of the yukata that they have there. They have an open bath where he can smoke, anyway, and he can buy his cigarettes on the way.