#Rina Sohma (OC)

[lostbutterflyutau]

Morning Conversations

Note: I'm not great with crossovers, so I decided to dust off another piece and not use the prompt. I'm also always wary of being the first poster for an event, but here we go.

Plot explanation here is simple. This takes place in my post OG canon divergent timeline (does that make sense?) the long story short version for this fic is that Akito ended up breaking things off with Shigure and ultimately married someone else (who was formerly part of her staff (hired post canon)) and they have a daughter who's the same age as Kyo and Tohru's younger son.

Thanks to AO3 author OnigriCat4Ever for letting me use their names for Kyo and Tohru's younger children!

And if you can spare a word, comments are much appreciated! They seriously fuel me!

Again, no beta. Apologies for mistakes that will be caught with later re-reads.

****

Prompt: N/A

Timeline: Post-OG Canon.

**** Tohru hummed to herself as she carefully ran a comb over and pulled back the black hair of the little girl sitting between her legs.

“You have very pretty hair, Rina,” She complimented, frowning when a section fell out of her hand as she attempted to comb it over to the side.

Rina didn’t respond, only flipped a page in her picture book.

“Rina?” Tohru asked, tried to see if she could make out her expression from over her shoulder.

“No talking,” Rina muttered, flipped another page.

“I’m sorry?”

“You’ll mess it up.”

Tohru blinked, but continued on, wondering as she did so exactly what Rina was talking about. She ran over the words in her head again. It wasn’t surprising that at just four years old, she could speak so directly. Her mother was the same. When Akito didn’t like something or needed tasks done, she was never afraid to say it. Her own feelings, however, were another matter.

With a chuckle at the thought, she reached for the hair tie next to her, paused again as she wrapped her fingers around the blue baubles and the thought morphed into the realisation that Rina was likely repeating something Akito had told her while attempting to style her hair.

Even with a group of women to help, she still struggled with the task, something that was understandable given how she’d been raised for the first twenty years of her life and her choice to keep her own hair short. Knowing that, it made sense that trying to talk and work with her hands in her daughter’s hair at the same time could be distracting.

“You don’t have to worry about that with me,” Tohru reassured. “I’m an expert!”

“What’s that mean?”

Tohru smiled, pulled Rina’s hair through the tie. “It means that I practiced a lot and now I’m very good at hair.”

“Mama’s not.” Rina closed her book.  

“Not yet.”

“Why not?”

“She doesn’t have as much hair as you do. That’s all,” Tohru said, secretly hoping that, unlike her youngest son, she didn’t continue to ask questions.

“So…” Rina said, shifted her bare feet as she thought. “She needs me to practice?”

Tohru laughed as she finished securing the side ponytail, gave it a gentle pull to silently let Rina know she was done as she continued. “She needs you for more than that.”

Rina stood and turned in her spot, her dark eyes full of an innocent curiosity that was completely contradictory to the way some of the older maids described them. At least that’s what she’d heard after a bit of pressing. It was something that Akito and Tedachi had been reluctant to talk about, especially given the other accusations that came with the comments.

“Like what?” Rina said, her voice and touch as she played with a piece of Tohru’s hair pulling her out of her thoughts.

Her face softening, Tohru gently took Rina’s hands. “Everything, really.”

Rina tilted her head.

“You make her so happy. She smiles every day just because you’re here with her. Your Daddy too,” Tohru said earnestly.

“Mama says that too!”

“Because it’s true! Your Mama and Daddy love you so much. We all do.”

Tohru knew well how complicated Akito’s life had been up to a certain point and how hard things still were at times despite everything she had done to turn things around. Not to mention how difficult the entire process of having this child had been for her. From even trying to conceive right up until her daughter was born, the complications that followed and the period of depression she battled after it was all over, nothing had been easy.

She still vividly remembered how, during her first visit to meet Rina, Akito lamented to her and Shima that the baby hated her. That all Rina did when she was around was cry. And even after Tedachi came in with the sleeping baby in her carrier and said that their daughter cried for him and her paediatrician at that day’s appointment just as much, Tohru still saw hesitation in her eyes. One that only started to fade when, the following day at lunch, Mayuko gave her the same wisdom she had once given Tohru. That ‘babies who cry grow.’ That her crying meant she was healthy and would grow up strong and also that, in accordance with an old belief, it may have been a way of protecting her parents and chasing off their anxious thoughts.

Seeing how they all were now, it was interesting to look back on those early days. Now Rina rarely cried. Like any child, she had her moods and moments and could be picky about certain things, but a cry-baby she was not and even if they didn’t often say it, Tohru knew that her parents were glad those days were behind them. And though some were still hard, most days now were filled with love and laughter and learning new things.

“Auntie?” Rina asked, the question bringing Tohru’s focus back to her. She then continued once she was sure she was paying attention, “If they love me so much, why’d they leave this morning?”

Unable to help herself, once Tohru processed the question and realised exactly what Rina was talking about, she laughed, quickly figured that her parents had forgotten to mention their outing.

Tohru gently pulled at the girl’s long, lose fringe piece. “They went on a date, Silly!”  

Rina frowned at the explanation. It just didn’t make sense. Her Mama and Daddy never went out in the morning, only at night. When they did, usually Uncle Hatori or Auntie Shima came over. Sometimes they didn’t come back until morning. Those times she stayed with Grandma and Grandpa, but she didn’t remember them ever leaving early except for work.

“In the morning?”

Tohru laughed again. “It’s a breakfast date!”

Not understanding what was funny, Rina crossed her arms. “That doesn’t make sense. Dates are dinner.”

“Of course it does,” Tohru said, this time holding in her laugh. She could see from the look on her face that Rina didn’t quite understand the teasing. She really was just like her mother.

“Dates can be whenever. They don’t have to be only at dinner.”

Rina opened her mouth to speak again, but before she could get a word out, Katsuro called her name. At first, he sped past the room, but quickly came running back moments later with a ball in hand.

“There you are!” He said. “You’re on my team!”

“What team?” Rina asked, all thoughts about what counted as a date and what didn’t forgotten as she ran over to join him.

“Be careful!” Tohru called after them, remembering how her son had tripped over a rock during a game the previous day and came back with a scraped knee and bruised ego.

“We will!” Katsuro called back over his shoulder before disappearing through the door frame with his cousin.

Tohru smiled, let out a sigh as she leaned back on her hands, happy to have a small, quiet moment to herself, at least until her husband came in with Sachiko in her carrier.

“How was your trip?” She asked, sitting straight again.

“It was nice. She likes the supermarket,” Kyo said, gently setting the carrier down as he sat, not wanting to disturb the sleeping baby.  

“Of course she does! There’s so much to look at!”

Kyo laughed. “Where are the boys? I didn’t see them when I came in.”

“I think they went to play with the neighbour kids. Katsuro said he needed Rina for his team,” Tohru said and then giggled as her and Rina’s conversation came back. “But before he did, she said the funniest thing.”

“Did she?”

Tohru nodded. “When I told her that her parents were on a date, she said that people can only have dates at dinnertime. And she had this serious look on her face. You know, that same one Akito gets sometimes?”

“I swear, between the two of them, Tedachi must have his hands full.”

“I don’t think he minds,” She said, remembering both just how happy the family looked when they arrived for their visit and how cheerful the couple had been that morning just before heading out, but still serious enough to give Tohru a few basic instructions regarding their daughter’s morning routine and which comb worked best for her hair.

The thought both widened her smile and got the metaphorical gears turning in her head.   

“And you know, Rina did give me an idea.”

Kyo didn’t answer, only looked over to her in a silent cue to continue.  

“We’re overdue for a breakfast date of our own, don’t you think?”

“Just let me know when,” He said, smiling as he slid his arm around her waist and then softly kissing her head when she leaned against him.