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To Loid Forger, they're just playing house. He was a fake father and husband. Yor was a fake mother and wife. Anya was their fake daughter. Bond was their fake pet.
Their family was a group of strangers living together for convenience. They all knew that their arrangement had an expiration date, that there will come a day they will go on their separate ways and will never see each other again. So whenever he finds himself feeling too comfortable, he always reminds himself that they're just playing house.
Like when he begins the day by preparing breakfast for everyone and Yor is already in the kitchen preparing his morning coffee and Anya's favorite cocoa and she's smiling so brightly at him that he feels his heart skip a beat, it's just playing house.
When they gather at the dining table for breakfast and talk about their plans for the day and they enjoy their conversation so much that they forget the time and they all end up rushing to prepare themselves for the day, it's just playing house.
When they somehow manage to get Anya to the bus on time and he and Yor commute together to their respective jobs and they get to city hall first and after she leaves, he finds himself missing her a little, it's just playing house.
When he's in the hospital pretending to be a psychiatrist because he doesn't have any side missions and he's so bored his mind drifts to thoughts of how Anya is doing at school or how Bond is doing at home, or if Yor has eaten lunch, or what dinner he'll prepare (and feeling a bit disappointed because he remembered Yor won't be joining them), it's just playing house.
When he passes by the market on the way home to buy some ingredients for the meal he'll cook that evening and he sees a bouquet of fresh flowers and he buys it thinking it would look good beside the new set of family pictures in their living room, it's just playing house.
When Anya is being so silly during dinner that he just laughs and thinks Yor would enjoy that moment too if she were there, it's just playing house.
When he's put Anya to bed and he's in the kitchen washing the dishes and he hears the soft click of the front door and Yor materializes in front of him with a sweet smile and she offers to help him finish the chores and he feels the gentle bloom of gratitude in his chest, it's just playing house.
When he and Yor are wiping down the newly washed dishes and their hands accidentally touch when she passes some to him so he can put them back in the overhead cabinet and he swears they both almost jumped out of their skin, it's just playing house.
When he asks Yor if she would like to have wine or tea before heading to bed and she asks for wine because she felt extra tired and they end up talking about each other's day for an hour or so and he caught himself thinking several times that she looked even prettier with a pink flush because it complemented the red in her eyes, it's just playing house.
When they put away the wine glasses and she insists on helping again so she does the washing and he does the wiping and while putting back the glasses he realizes that Yor is standing right underneath the cabinet where the wine glasses are kept so he hovers above her and he realizes it was a mistake not to ask her to scoot over because she just stands there so closely beneath him that he feels her breath on his neck and the sensation kicks all his senses into overdrive and his heart starts beating a mile a minute and a tiny part of him just knows she was feeling the same--even then, it's just playing house.
When a knock on the door startles both of them and he jumps away from Yor as quickly as he could but not quickly enough for Yuri, his fake brother-in-law, to not see their seemingly provocative position and he tries not to die of embarrassment as Yuri cries and moans over his non-existent sex life with Yor, it's just playing house.
When Yuri finishes all the wine and alcohol in the house and passes out in the couch and both he and Yor realize that a guest is staying over and they have to share a bed for the night and they both feel like they're going to pass out at the realization but for the sake of keeping up appearances they power through their mutual embarrassment and somehow make it to bed together, it's just playing house.
When they're both in bed and unsure of how to proceed next so they just agree to put a pillow between them to keep away any possibility of awkward and unwanted touching while they're asleep even though deep inside they're both curious how it
would feel to fall asleep in each other's embrace, it's just playing house.
When they finally turn off the lights and face away from one another with a fluffy pillow between them and even in the darkness they still somehow feel each other's gaze on one another and it's so disconcerting that they both struggle to sleep, it's just playing house.
When he somehow falls asleep and wakes at the crack of dawn and he finds Yor's warm body in his arms, her back a perfect fit against his form and her intoxicating scent overwhelming his senses and he decides to sleep again and so he could get away with having his fake wife in his embrace for a little while longer, it's--still--just playing house.