#as well as Kazuki's but the point is that she's away from them now and therefore an easy target

[oftheblue]

Spoilers for buddy daddies episode 10 (do not read if you haven't watched yet)

I just got a horrible thought: Imagine... Rei's father, wanting to test Rei's loyalty to the organization and "family" once and for all, gives him an assignment to finish. When Rei opens the file, he sees the targets. Unasaka Misaki and Unasaka Miri.

[dk-wren]

Saw Lily's newest BD art and had a cuteness overload. I couldn't resist writing something, but only had about an hour to throw it together. Anyways, I needed a break between all my coursework to finally work on a (quick) fic again. I hope you enjoy!

New Friend - inspired by Lily_20210401's art and this post from @/grelleswife.

“Oi, Miri, look over there,” Kazuki whispers into Miri’s ear, bending down to her height as she holds onto Papa Rei’s hand.

“Where, Papa?”

“A little further up the path,” Kazuki points ahead. Unable to hear what Kazuki said, but curious, Rei focuses his attention in the general direction his husband’s pointing at.

Whining a little bit, Miri whispers back, “Papa Kazu, I don’t see anything. Show me again!”

Chuckling, Kazuki stands back up and tells Miri, “Hold on, I think if we’re quiet enough and slow enough we won’t scare them off.”

Finding what Kazuki was trying to bring to Miri’s attention, Rei plays along, adding, “We’ll have to use our tippy toes to not to be caught by anything lurking in this park. You think you can do that, Miri?”

Miri shakes her head and raises herself slightly onto her tippy toes, looking between Rei and Kazuki for her next mission directions. Kazuki raises a finger to his lip and quietly starts to move forward, with Rei and Miri following close behind.

As they slowly walk down the park’s pathway, Miri cranes her neck to look ahead at what Kazuki was trying to bring to her attention. Soon enough, she lets out a little gasp that can be heard throughout the empty park. In an excited whisper, Miri announces, “Papa Kazu! Papa Rei! Bunny!”

A smile breaks across Rei’s face while Kazuki leans in once more. “Looks like somebunny wanted to greet you on our morning walk.”

With a giant grin breaking across her face, Miri inches closer to the bunny. The bunny has a brown coat and grayish ears, standing up in attention, likely to detect if the three humans approaching are a threat or not. The smaller size of the bunny suggests it may still be a baby, causing Miri, Kazuki, and Rei to be extra careful as they approach.

Kazuki and Rei walk closer to the bunny than Miri, knowing how to keep their footsteps quiet, light, and most importantly, non-threatening. Not wanting to scare away the bunny, Miri peaks around Rei’s leg for an even closer look.

As the bunny begins to move its head back and forth, looking at the crowd gathered before them, Miri gives a little wave as the bunny’s gaze seems to land on her.

“Oh, Miri, I think it recognizes another of its kind,” Kazuki teases, looking between the bunny and his daughter, who’s wearing a purple, fluffy poncho.

Rei uses one hand to bring Miri’s hood up so the bunny ears attached to the hood of her poncho became visible to the real bunny. “There you go. Now there’s no doubt you two will become friends.”

After a few minutes of the trio looking at the bunny, with only the sounds of nature and the occasional passing car breaking their silence, Miri asks, “Can we keep her?”

With a fake exasperation, Kazuki reminds Miri, “You want a pet bunny? Miri, we have two cats at home. Besides, I don’t know how well they’d get along with a bunny, considering they like to scratch all our furniture and think everything is a toy.”

Miri pouts a little while looking back down at the bunny, who is slowly making its way to the edge of the path. Lowering himself, Rei tries to make Miri understand in a different way why they cannot take home this bunny. “Miri, we can’t take this bunny because it might have a family waiting for her back in their den. We wouldn’t want to take this bunny away from her family to be with ours, right?”

“No…” Miri replies.

“Maybe in the future, we can have a pet bunny at home. But for now, let’s leave her to be and hope we cross paths again soon,” Rei suggests as the bunny disappears into the bushes.

Watching the bunny go, Miri nods her head. Rei gives Miri a quick kiss on the cheek to comfort her before rising back up and taking her hand again. Doing the same thing, Kazuki walks over to take Miri’s other hand as they resume their morning walk through the park. 

As they exit the park and turn towards home, there’s a new spring in Miri’s step. Kazuki and Rei notice this, but don’t question her in case it will cause her to feel down again. However, a few steps later, they get an answer as Miri announces, “Until we can get a pet bunny, I can pretend to be one. So you’ll have to feed me and brush my hair and give me a warm place to sleep.”

Unable to contain his laughter, Kazuki insists, “Miri, we do all those things for you…as our daughter. You don’t need to pretend to be a bunny for us to do that. But, if it means you’ll eat your carrots and veggies-”

“No! No veggies,” Miri interrupts.

Rei’s quiet chuckles join in now as Miri lets go of her papas’ hands and runs ahead a little bit to practice hopping like a bunny all the way back to their home.

[lilyginnyblackv2]

Buddy Daddies Episode 10 - Sub vs Dub Comparison

I’m a bit late on this comparison, since there was so much to talk about in Episode 12! But, I have an hour or so before I’m going to head over to my friends’ place and help them with some inventory, so let’s dive into this!

This is a bit of downer episode, so let’s start with a part of the sub and dub that is a bit funny:

In the sub, Kazuki says to Rei: “There’s nothing worse than having someone else mess around in your kitchen!” Rei’s response in the sub is: “That’s the issue?”

In the dub, Kazuki says to Rei: “What would you know about the indignity of some stranger messing around in your kitchen!?” Dub Rei’s response is: “Actually...”

Because, you know, Kazuki was basically a stranger at one point who used Rei’s kitchen, and is still using Rei’s kitchen, lol.

In the dub, they make it absolutely clear that Misaki’s cancer spread to her throat. 

The dub translation also makes no mention of Misaki going back to her parents, instead the translation it goes with is, “I’m moving back home to get what’s left of my life together.”

The Japanese uses 自家 (jika), which means “one’s own house.” In Episode 11, when Rei talks about returning to his father and the Suwa Manor, he uses the term 内 (uchi), which means “one’s home, one’s family.” But, Misaki’s phrase is specifically talking about one’s own house, so it is a bit different. It also makes whether Miri actually has grandparents or not a bit more ambiguous. I would say it would make more sense that she probably doesn’t. 

One dub translation I don’t care much for is how they changed Misaki’s line from: “If you consider yourselves her parents as well,” to “If you truly care for her,” in the Japanese, she specifically calls them 親 (oya) or parents, so I don’t like how the dub kinda took that away from Kazuki and Rei here. 

Though, perhaps it can be viewed from the perspective of Episode 10 Kazuki and Rei are still, not necessarily pretending, but there is that element of “fostering” still, right. It isn’t “the real deal - 100%” until the end of Episode 11 when they choose to leave the underworld behind. Because, in a way, Kazuki and Rei kind of chose to remain in the underworld in this moment, even though they could have told Misaki, “We’ll be leaving that world behind,” etc. 

But, of course, they weren’t emotionally ready or there at that point yet in their development. And Miri still had other, seemingly safer, options at that time.

Two cute comedic bits that I feel land better in the dub:

When they arrive at Marino City, in the sub, Miri says, “Hey, Hey! Tell me what it is!” In the dub, she says, “We’re really here! Where are we?”  lol It was delivered so well and is very on-point for something a kid would say.

Also, also! 

When Kazuki is like, “Let’s rock this place!” in the sub, both Rei and Miri put their hands up in the air give an sound of affirmation, which gets translated into “Yeah!” In the dub, they have Kazuki ask, “Who’s ready to have some fun? I am!” 

Miri and Rei respond with, “Meee.” It’s just really cute and funny to hear Rei’s VA deliver that “Meee.” He drags it out and everything, lol.

They kept the meanie to weenie translation in the dub, which makes perfect sense.

Sub: You think we took her mother’s happiness?

Dub: Are we taking away her mother’s last shot at happiness?

The sub frames the taking away of happiness as something Kazuki and Rei did, by taking in Miri when her mother was at her lowest point. Meanwhile, the dub is framing it as Kazuki and Rei taking away her mother’s happiness now, after she has shown a desire to change and has started working on getting her life together. That’s a very different thing. Though, the dubs use of last shot, is very dark humor or harsher in hindsight (I think that’s what the trope is called). 

Inside the Ferris wheel, Rei asks Miri, “It’s not scary?” while the dub has him ask, “You having fun?” This change was very deliberate and due to the way that a question like “It’s not scary?” would be answered in Japanese vs. English. 

In Japanese, Miri nodded her head “Yes,” to confirm that it was not scary. But in English, we would nod our head no, to confirm that it is, in fact, not scary. In the sub, they have Miri answer no, but the animation has her nod her head yes. This kind of mismatch is okay enough to have in subtitles, but when it is actually spoken, it would look extremely off. So they had to rework the question completely to make Miri’s answer fit Rei’s question.

Instead of having Rei finish Kazuki’s line when it came to seeing things through to the end, specifically, “Don’t get involved if you can’t see it through...” The dub has Kazuki say the whole spiel, and Rei say back in response, “How are you still saying that crap at this point?” I feel that line is much more in-line with the energy that Rei brings to his conversation with Kazuki in Episode 11, though him finishing Kazuki’s sentence is more accurate to the actual Japanese, iirc. This could have been a situation where they needed Kazuki to say everyting in order for lip flaps and timing to work out right though.

Lastly, we have Kazuki’s “Normal happiness,” line. In the dub, they make it a bit clearer by having him say, “Still time for her to have a normal life.” In the sub, they just have Kazuki say “normal happiness,” and with him going on to talk about things like “getting into fights and singing songs,” etc. the implication is he is talking about Miri having a normal happiness, not them. But, in English, we tend to speak more specifically, so they made it clearer in this part that Kazuki was specifically talking about how there was still time for Miri to have a normal life, which means “normal happiness.”

---

Okay, wow! I finished this post right on time, lol. I gotta head out now. But feel free to add your own thoughts to this as well! :D

[nightwalker6200]

I really think this foreshadows the rest of the season- i think we might see some hurt/ comfort from Rei/ Kazuki with the possibility of them dying in the field or getting hurt/ incapacitated. Perhaps in E8, Rei will come back hurt thus leaving Kazuki to face the idea of fatherhood on his own as we saw Rei face that possibility in E7. I also think Miri will be taken away at some point (either by SS in which Kazuki and Rei would have to figure out if they could even get her back, legally, possibly with Kyutaro’s help in forging, or check in on her from time-to-time as she goes to a “better” family; or, kidnapped as leverage thus leaving Kazuki/ Rei to find her). It would be interesting, as this could happen, with Rei being demanded to take over the family business- Rei would take this deal in order to protect both Kazuki and Miri- the Boss could demand he cut ties and his presence immediately (a breakup/ divorce, if you will). Thus, leaving Kazuki as a single parent for a while as Rei was ordered no contact and no family (I would assume if this were to happen, we’d see some montage or episode with Kazuki and Miri struggling, and Rei even more reclused or depressed- possibly deep in work; then, Miri gets kidnapped (either Kazuki will show up to the Boss’s house, pleading, or Rei will show up at his last apt), leaving Rei to make a choice- become a traitor with his father and go against him in order to find Miri, or remain in the business and leave Kazuki to deal with this on his own. Assuming Rei decides on patricide, I think we will have a huge BADASS fight scene with Rei and Kazuki showcasing their skill sets pushed to the limit. 

Also, unpopular opinion: As much as I want this to be YAOI because come on- two badass assassins protecting a sweet little daughter, I highly doubt we will ever see a Rei X Kazuki scene. 

Something else I wanted to mention- in light of the words uttered in E8 about things being taken: Happiness exists to be taken: Before Miri, the idea that either one of them had to betray or kill the other, would have meant nothing. For example, they seem to be friends who live together, or at least, “friendly” roommates (yes, there’s a difference); so, assuming Rei would have had to kill Kazuki or the other way around, then this task would have been quite easy. They saw each other every now and then, and did some stuff together, but their connections were minimal. They didn’t really mean that much to each other- so killing each other would have been like a small papercut/ annoyance. 

However, after Miri, the idea of having to kill/ betray each other would be far worse and difficult. Even if Miri were to leave the rest of the series, the connections established between Rei and Kazuki would still be there. So, if Rei were to try and come after Kazuki now, I’d assume he’d struggle with the task, perhaps even ignore the order, because he’s developed further emotional ties/ connections with Kazuki through Miri; opening himself up more and establishing himself from the Boss- becoming his own person- the same would be said for Kazuki. Killing each other now would HURT far worse, resembling a breakup or family member death- they’d break the connections between themselves that they have now- at the very least, their connections blossomed into a friendship deeper than the original (deepening every day as they are more than friends at this point; they are family); and they would hurt for Miri as she would also feel the fall out of this transaction. Killing each other or going after one another (ie. Rei targeting Kazuki and vice versa) would essentially kill Miri as well. She regards them, as they themselves, as her Papas. 

The connection between Rei and Kazuki, although might not be, nor ever be romantic, is extremely emotional and nurturing (ie. Rei saying in E8 to Kazuki: Before, you never meant that much to me) from where it originally started. If we ever see a target put on one of them for the other to carry out, i highly doubt they’d be able to finish the job (this doesn’t mean they won’t actually be able to start the job), which in turn could mean that someone else would be tasked with carrying out the hit thus causing a lot more protectiveness from either partner or confessions of guilt. Like mentioned, even if Miri were to somehow “disappear,” those connections would still remain because their memories would still be there as Rei and Kazuki are no longer friends (if they ever were) because they are now family (Miri just helps them see that a little better). 

Episode 8 spoilers discussion below:

With Rei fighting his mentor, and his mentor saying that Rei was a puppet--- that he used to be like that too until he found something to fight for (his now dead girlfriend), foreshadows, in my opinion, Rei’s possible future. We don’t see Rei react until the blade is pulled on him, leaving the real possibility that he could die or fail to kill his mentor thus leading to the Boss coming after his “family” as Rei would be marked a traitor. When he reacts, he shoves his mentor away with some newfound strength, saying he, too, found something worth protecting (Kazuki/ Miri)... This shows that although Rei might have started out a puppet, living any life the organization wanted, he no longer does now (which would mean, unless he cuts ties very quickly, he’ll be labelled a traitor too)- Rei fell in with a family of his own against/ soiling if you will, the Suwa bloodline- ironically the Boss mentions something along the lines of “we are the darkness in sunshine,” which I find extremely befitting as Rei and Kazuki are opposites (dark and light). 

Anyway, back to the main point, Rei’s mentor was basically Rei fighting his future self as he soon will be viewed a traitor, and someone will come after him to kill him. Rei is aware of this; he’s aware that if he doesn’t go back to his father, someone will come after what he loves- Kazuki and Miri. His mentor’s last words, “I’m on my way,” before he dies, is to his dead wife/ girlfriend/ partner- he was happy to die as he knew this was the only way he could be reunited with his family, the cause for his fight (Kazuki, I’m sure, feels this way for Yuko- I forgot how to spell her name- and is learning to live past it. I’m curious as Kazuki has now allowed himself to move on, and the Boss mentioning that Kazuki’s skills were adequate, just how badass he might be- he might be just as equal to Rei when it comes to assassinating, weapons, and stuff but was held back by his desire to see his dead wife/ child again). ANYWAY, the mentor’s last words, “I’m on my way,” were a slap in the face for Rei- he becomes highly aware, in this moment, that if he stays how he is, living with Kazuki and Miri, then he will inevitably get them tortured and killed, and the only way he’d ever be able to see them again (if he stays) is through his own death. 

Rei has found something worth protecting, worth fighting for, but to do so so openly in front of the organization, would mean Kazuki and Miri die (if Rei stays, he stays for his own selfish reasons, and they die; if he leaves, he does so through selfless reasons, and they live). I think Rei mentioning to Kazuki in the car that, “Before, you never meant that much to me,” was a goodbye, in a way. Rei knows in order to protect his family, in order to keep them safe, he needs to leave. Even if this decision isn’t what he wants, it’s one he’d gladly make in order to ensure Kazuki and Miri get to live. This will be, from Rei’s standpoint, his final and most open act of love for Kazuki and Miri. 

[bsd-elle]

KazuRei’s conversation on the balcony.

Their conversation in the balcony was a turning point for both of them. We see Rei smoking after a long time, which according to him, he stopped because of Miri.

And I love that Miri inspired this good habit, because throughout this conversation, he never actually smoked.

Rei winners if Miri is eating well, and he expresses genuine concern for her, and wishes her the best, whereas Kazuki doesn't even stop to consider the possibility that she isn't being treated well, because that would break his entire heart.

To know that they let her go but she's still not living a good life.

Rei says that he's planning on returning to his father's place, to which Kazuki replies that there's no point in them staying together. Which I'm just going to accept as another coping mechanism.

We've seen from past episodes that Kazuki was really concerned about Rei and the chance that he would return to his father's house, because he knows that it would be detrimental for Rei.

But now, we see him, pretty nonchalantly say that it wouldn't matter.

Kazuki, who just lost his daughter, is losing his partner, someone who has been by his side for so many years, and someone he thinks would be better off without him. Someone who wouldn't be considered his family without Miri.

He doesn't think that he can put up a fight, he doesn't think that he has any right to stop Rei, to stop their family from breaking apart.

Which is why, when Rei offers him his apartment, he declines because 'he'd like something smaller', I attribute to the fact that this apartment contains past memories of his family, one he was unable to keep.

From Rei's perspective, I just love that he offered Kazuki his apartment without a second thought, the same person who referred to Kazuki as 'couch-crasher' in the first episode, has had his apartment, his routine, his life be completely altered with a Kazuki shaped impression (and Miri shaped), with clean floors and full fridges.

I also think it was his way for Kazuki to always remember him. He knows that moving to his father's place would potentially mean that they would never see each other again, especially with Miri's absence. He knows that his father is aware of Kazuki's presence in his life, and it would be, on paper, better for him and safer for him to be away.

But he couldn't resist, throwing him his lighter, a constant reminder that Kazuki decided to take in a child, that both of them grew to love and care for, that both of them decided to give up for her safety, a child for whom Rei decided to stop smoking, and hasn't yet, to this date.

[totallyexhausted]

Sick Rei with caring Kazuki/ Miri...

Just small notes on one of the ff’s in case my computer deletes the files again (so I have like a triple backup)...

(Just random-ass notes for right now to have a back-up back-up for myself) - feel free to comment or motivate me lol jk brb crying....

Title:

Kazuki sighed as he walked through the door, his keys jingling against the lock as Miri pushes past excitedly. It’s late in the afternoon which isn’t unusual for them to come home, but today- today was rough. Everything went wrong. The French toast had burned, Miri’s drop-off was late, the weather had changed from sunny to rainy despite the forecast, the store was out of almost everything needed for dinner, and Rei- well, Rei had been a dick pretty much all day.

Moody, Kazuki would say. Not unlike Rei, but that didn’t stop the 25-year-old from fighting Kazuki every step of the way. The older asked for help which he got- eventually- in a half-ass form of quiet grumbling and slow movements. Fold the laundry. Do the dishes. Vacuum. Gather intel on their mission tonight. It wasn’t hard, and these were things Rei had been trying to improve over the past couple of weeks. But today, Rei just fought Kazuki the whole way.

Last night they’d gotten into an argument over dinner. Rei pushing his food around as Miri listed off all the exciting things she’d done in preschool that day. Playing games. Building a castle. Learning a new song. Gossiping about boys. The last one Kazuki didn’t appreciate but he let it go, assuming Anna-chan was the main culprit for “men are a mystery.”

Miri poked Rei in the ribs causing the younger man to flinch, turning towards her a few moments later, a questionable look plaster on tired features. She pointed a finger towards his plate, “You okay, Rei-Papa?”

Rei hummed before turning back towards his food, pushing a tomato around the white porcelain and resting his chin on his hand. Kazuki sighed, glancing over Rei’s features, trying to pinpoint something, anything. Truth was, Rei had been quiet all day- well, quieter than usual. He’d forgone playing his videogames halfway through the day, picking up a book that Kazuki had been reading, flipping through the pages before retreating to his room until the older had called him for dinner. …

           Ever since he turned 25 a few days prior, Rei had backed off. Retreating more to isolation and distancing himself from conversations Kazuki had come to expect from the ladder over the past three years. He hadn’t discussed what his father had wanted, and Kazuki didn’t push him. He didn’t want to know if Rei didn’t want him to- but the past couple of days had been weighing heavily, if not on Rei’s shoulders, but Kazuki’s. Something had happened. With Rei’s father. Something that Kazuki couldn’t fix- that seemed to erase the progress over the past few years. And that pissed Kazuki off.

           Rei hummed again as Miri asked another question, and Kazuki bit his lip as more food was pushed around, chopsticks scraping against glass. Rei had barely touched his food. He’d barely touched anything over the past couple of days- food, drinks, video games- even jerking away from Miri’s wild hands, and Kazuki’s gentle fingers. The 28-year-old didn’t want to pry, he really didn’t, but over the past three years, Kazuki had come to know Rei well enough to know when something was wrong. And something was.

           Rei’s chopsticks faltered, and his fingers froze as he inhaled loudly before setting the wooden utensil against the plate gently. Miri reached over, asking if she could have something from Rei’s plate, and the younger man nodded slowly, his gaze still cast on the barely touched food. Kazuki exhaled forcefully, “What’s your problem, huh?”

           The words left his mouth in a tense fashion Kazuki hadn’t known was there. He swallowed a few times as he closed his eyes, hoping they didn’t sound as harsh as they’d come across. He hadn’t meant to sound bitter- if anything he was more worried over the fact that Rei was mirroring his image from a few years ago than he was mad, but the words were twisted in his throat, dry against the concern he hoped plastered his face. But that was how the argument had started. Kazuki’s question coming out harsher than intended, his concern turning sharp and accusatory. And Rei glaring towards him.

           The 25-year-old leaned forward slightly; his eyes unwavering as he met Kazuki’s gaze. He expression cold as he cleared his throat, “Right now, you’re my problem...”

           The argument had escalated quickly and ended in Miri crying because her Papas were fighting. Kazuki had tried calming her, explaining they were just tired; and Rei had retreated to his room.

And that was the end of it. Until morning.

           Miri had insisted on filling the gaps of silence between Rei and Kazuki over breakfast; her mindless chatter usually a comfort to Kazuki, but today- today it was just a reminder of the previous night. Of Rei snapping at him. Of Rei’s attitude… and the hellish idea that after Miri was dropped at preschool, Kazuki would have to spend the whole day with someone who just wanted to be left alone.

           The 28-year-old had tried, really, to leave Rei alone as it seemed the younger wasn’t in any better spirits than before. But it was laundry day, and most of the chores he had, had become easier over the past few weeks with Rei helping him out. Besides, Kazuki tried apologizing, and Rei tried accepting it; but his part of the housework was sloppy at best. And after refolding the laundry and vacuuming again, Kazuki had given up. Clearly whatever was wrong was something Rei would have to deal with on his own… the 28-year-old would have to just leave him alone until then.

           But that was easier said than done… especially with a hyperactive 4-year-old.

           The apartment was dark when Kazuki stepped over the threshold. This wouldn’t have been as alarming considering it was raining, but it was only 15.00

           Kazuki pressed Miri against his thigh, his hand protectively forced against her shoulder blades as the little girl let out a small whine of discomfort. Kazuki knew he was being a little harsh with his grasp on her, but it was dark in here, and his internal alarms were going off. His observations skills drinking in everything his eyes could grasp, every small detail, every sound…

           If someone was here, if Rei was dead- well, Kazuki didn’t really want to finish that thought; but if Rei was dead, and that would be a big if, then his first act would be to get Miri out of here; away from the scene, the blood, away from a corpse- to protect her, to protect her innocence. But once she was safe, Kazuki was going to tear the whole damn world apart if-

           Miri squirmed against his thigh, slipping out from his grasp, and Kazuki reached for her, his fingers ghosting over her hoodie as he whispered her name. He stumbled, catching himself against the TV, his fingers reaching under the drawer, gripping for the gun locked behind the false bottom before light filled the room, and Kazuki squinted. He raised a hand, shielding his eyes as Miri pulled back the curtains, letting grey light filter through the room, rain splattering against the glass. He quickly released his grip on the gun, shoving the bottom back over the weapon and glanced around.

“Found you, Rei-Papa!” Miri shrieked as she pointed towards Rei sprawled across the couch, sleeping at an awkward angle, and Kazuki relaxed slowly. He let out a loud breath, running a hand through his blonde hair, glancing once more around the room as his eyes scanned for any hidden danger but coming up empty. There wasn’t a threat here. No one was planning on killing them… well, at least, not right now.

           “I found you! Found you! Found you! Found-”

Silence wasn’t something Miri was good at. Neither was Kazuki. Silence meant something was wrong. Silence was pain. Memories… waiting. Thoughts. Silence was thoughts that crept through cracks in the walls of memories Kazuki wanted to forget, to forgive… to leave. Silence wasn’t a comfort to him. But now, right now, silence was all he had.

              “Rei?”

             Kazuki knelt down in front of the couch, his eyes tracing over the pale features of Rei. His black hair covering most of his face as he slept, his left arm hanging off the couch, his fingers ghosting the ground.

             Kazuki smirked, running his fingers through Rei’s hair, brushing some of the black strands away from his face. He faltered, his knuckles stroking against the warmth radiating from the younger’s forehead, and the older sighed loudly. A fever. Rei was sick… or at least, felt sick. That’s why he’d been so moody today. Why he’d been distance over the past few days. He hadn’t felt well. Kazuki should have figured that out. But Rei had never really been sick in front of him. A migraine, sure. Some in-field wounds, and a few nightmares… but sick? No.

 “I found you! Found you! Found you! Found-”

 “Miri, stop… please,” Kazuki said softly, running his fingers through Rei’s hair again as the younger groaned slightly, his eyes scrunching together.

             Kazuki breathed loudly, “Hey.” Handsome.

 “It’s easier for me to leave if you hate me.”

“What?”

Sometimes even clean wounds become infected

 “Your wrist,” Kazuki said softly, his fingers ghosting over the deep three-inch cut lining Rei’s forearm. The flesh was red and angry, enflamed and hot to the touch. Infected. The wound was infected.

           Kazuki’s mind wondered to a few nights ago when… Rei had been hurt then. Kazuki should have seen; should have looked him over… but Rei didn’t want to talk and he was standing… so the thought of him being hurt, hadn’t really crossed the 28-year-old’s mind. Besides, if it was bad enough, Rei would have told him. He had learned from his mistake last year when Kazuki had taken him to the A&E before he bled to death in the shitty apartment bathroom. Blood smeared against the glass pane on the car window, Rei slumped against the door, his breathing shallow as his fingers tried gripping again at the open wound stabbed against his abdomen; and Kazuki cursed loudly as he reached over, his fingers grasping the younger’s shoulder to keep him awake…

           Rei groaned as Kazuki prodded the flesh harshly, pressing along the scabbed skin, his thumbnail digging slightly under the scab, releasing bloody puss from the swollen area. He hummed softly as Rei flinched, his head lolling against the tub before smacking against the older man’s shoulder, and the 28-year-old tightened his grip over the younger’s shoulders protectively, pulling him closer so Rei was leaning against his chest.

           “Rei,” Kazuki murmured, his voice low and soft, “The wound on your wrist is infected.” You idiot.

           Rei didn’t respond, and Kazuki tried again, shifting slightly to peer down at the younger man.

 “Okay, okay,” Kazuki started, reaching behind him, turning the knobs on the bathtub faucets. He needed to get Rei’s fever down. Get him to wake up… and then clean the wound…

 Kazuki’s left arm around Rei’s ribs to support him…

             Rei coughed weakly, turning his head slightly so his forehead pressed against Kazuki’s collarbone, and the older let out a sigh of relief as the younger man shifted. Kazuki dipped the cloth in the water again, adjusting his grip, supporting more of Rei’s weight against his shoulder as he wrung the rag over the 25-year-old’s heated back slowly. Water splashing against scarred flesh, trailing down Rei’s back in sweaty lines, disappearing beneath stilled lukewarm water. Kazuki repeated the action several times, adjusting his grip each time the younger shifted before pressing the soaked material on the back of Rei’s neck.

           Kazuki swallowed slowly; his actions hesitant as he placed a hand over Rei’s bare back, rubbing his fingers against the tension knotted across his shoulder blades, and the younger man relaxed further against him. Something moved outside the door, and Kazuki glanced towards the door, a small smirk crossing his face as he saw Miri’s shadowed back pressed against the frosted glass door. She was worried, and she had every right to be. Probably upset too as Kazuki made her sit in the hallway instead of the bathroom with him and Rei as she demanded. But despite how much she wanted to help, she’d only get in the way at the moment.

           Rei groaned again, coughing roughly as he moved a hand through the water slowly until it connected with Kazuki’s bicep. His fingers gripping at the 28-year-old’s sleeve loosely, his hand shaking before trailing back down and smacking against the water. Kazuki removed the rag from his neck and dipped it in the water once more, wringing out the excess over the younger’s back again, his shoulders, his chest. He bit the inside of his cheek as he gently uncurled Rei’s grasp on him, cupping the back of his neck and positioning the 25-year-old so he was leaning against the end of the bathtub.

           Kazuki brushed some messy black strands away from Rei’s face, mopping against the sweat covering his pale face as the younger clenched his eyes further, curling in on himself, his head turning slightly.

           “Rei?” Kazuki whispered, “You with me?”

           At first, the 25-year-old didn’t respond, and Kazuki swallowed, combing Rei’s bangs away from his forehead so he could see him better. A few minutes passed, and Miri shifted outside the door, her back pressing harshly against the glass and the sound of several small objects dropping to the wooden floor, rolling away quietly. Kazuki tried again, “Rei?”

           He ran his thumb over the younger’s temple slowly, his fingers carded through thick, messy tangles of black hair matted against heated flesh. Rei swallowed loudly before cracking his eyes open, his eyes searching for a second before landing on Kazuki leaning over the tub, his face a few inches from his. Kazuki smiled, “Hey. There he is.”

           Rei groaned, making an effort to force his body up before strong hands forced him back down gently, and the younger complied. He cleared his throat, swallowing again as water washed over him slowly, and the 25-year-old flinched as something pressed against his forehead, cheek, neck… chest. He blinked slowly, focusing on Kazuki’s movements as the older wrung out another cloth, pressing against Rei’s neck and shoulders.

           Rei coughed again, confusion eating away at his features as he pushed his hand against Kazuki’s hovering over his chest. He gulped, his eyebrows drawing together as Kazuki met his gaze, his blonde hair momentarily covering his brown eyes, and the older man smiled softly, pausing as Rei’s heated fingers covered his.

           The 25-year-old glanced around sluggishly, trying to piece together what was happening. His mind was muddled and foggy… like he’d been drugged, or he’d lost blood. Or something. Like something… His movements were weak and slow. And everything was hot. So fucking hot.

           Kazuki pressed the wet rag against Rei’s forehead gently, soaking the sweat rolling from his temple past flushed red set high on pale cheekbones. He untangled his other hand from Rei’s grasp and soaked another cloth, pressing firmly against the younger’s collarbone. The ladder made a small noise, and gripped tightly at Kazuki’s hand again, and the 28-year-old stopped.

           “No,” Rei breathed sharply, choking for a second as a dry cough made its way past his lips. His eyes fixed onto Kazuki’s as the older man held his gaze, making another attempt to move. Rei used his clasp on Kazuki to pull himself up somewhat, shoving his other hand against Kazuki’s chest harshly, preventing the ladder from moving closer to him. Kazuki faltered, wiggling his fingers, and Rei gripped tighter, his glare turning cold as he set his jaw, “No.”

           Kazuki swallowed, letting Rei clasp his fingers harder as he inched forward carefully. He exhaled lightly, a seriousness masking his features as he made sure to keep eye contact with the younger man. Rei’s features were alert- wrong, wild and fevered- but so very alert…

           “Rei,” Kazuki whispered cautiously, “Are you still with me?”

           Rei’s grip tightened, and Kazuki winced as fingernails dug into the skin on his hand, but he made no attempt to pull away. He tried again, “You’re sick. Your fever’s 40.8, remember? I need to cool you off… Please.” Please, let me help you, you idiot…

           Kazuki held his breath, biting the inside of his cheek as Rei kept his grip, his eyes searching over the older man’s face tiredly, before his grip loosened slowly, his hand falling against the water with a loud smack. The expression on Rei’s face softened slightly as realization washed over him, and he swallowed as he flopped back, water splashing against the tiled floor as he let his head fall back against the tub.

           “Sorry, Kazu,” Rei said softly, closing his eyes against the lights hanging above him as he swallowed against the dryness in mouth. Kazuki smirked, “No worries. I was more concerned I’d have to fight you… that would be hard to explain to our daughter…”

           A small smile toyed with Rei’s lips as Kazuki’s words reached him. Our daughter. Our. They weren’t dating. Nor married. Nor even hinted at some form of romantic or physical relationship, and yet Kazuki always had the audacity to describe Miri as theirs… or ours. A stupid inclusion that Rei had grown quite fond of over the past few months… He’d never really been included before, nor had he ever gone out of his way to include others.

But Kazuki had always made an effort to get Rei’s opinion on things- not that the younger really cared either way when it came to decision making. He’d learned a long time ago; his opinion didn’t matter. He didn’t matter. He was a soldier. An asset. Nothing more and nothing less… the product of a loveless marriage and carefully selected breeding. He wasn’t a son. He wasn’t a person. No one claimed him. No one wanted him… until Kazuki wormed his way into Rei’s cold dark little world.

Truth was, at first, it’d been a stupid arrangement that the younger man had gone along with because it didn’t matter- he had planned on killing himself… or at least, getting killed in the field. At least that would have had more pride than the ladder. Thing is, Rei didn’t need a roommate, and Kazuki didn’t need a distraction. But Rei had stupidly taken a bullet for the older man, and Kazuki knew how to cook…

And Kazuki cared. For some ungodly reason, he cared. And that was weird. It made Rei uncomfortable. His emotions, his expressions; the way he made sure the younger man ate, bathed, and looked after himself. He changed things Rei hadn’t cared about. He bought furniture and games, and sat at the other end of the couch, talking, always fucking talking, about some nonsense that Rei ignored… and despite how much of himself Rei had tried to turn off; Kazuki just wouldn’t let him. Even on his bad days. Even when Rei stayed in his room or in the bathtub, curled up, his knees pressed against his chest as he fought to see through memories that haunted sleepless nights and stopped his lungs from taking in air. Kazuki was still there.

He wasn’t overbearing… well, most of the time, he wasn’t. When Rei was struggling, Kazuki would leave his door open, checking in on the other, making sure Rei knew that if he wanted to talk, he was there. But he didn’t pressure him… he didn’t pry. He didn’t ask about the scars littering his chest, back and arms; he didn’t force him to talk when Rei woke up screaming… or when he stayed up for nights on end because he couldn’t close his eyes.

He respected Rei’s boundaries, and very rarely crossed them because that’s just who Kazuki was. He was a good person who lived a horrible life, and yet, somehow, he hadn’t turned out completely fucked up the Rei was. He hadn’t turned out useless… But perhaps that’s why their arrangement remained. Kazuki needed someone to take care of, and Rei- Rei needed someone to take care of him. He wasn’t an invalid, he wasn’t weak… he just didn’t care if he lived or died. Indifference crept into his life a long time ago, and buried itself so far deep within Rei that it became a core part of who he was. Indifferent. And. So. Fucking. Useless.

Something tapped against Rei’s cheek, and the 25-year-old opened his eyes slowly, unaware he’d closed them. He felt exhausted, the idea of having to….

“Can I wash your hair, Rei?” Kazuki asked softly, running his hand through Rei’s stale black hair gently, grimacing at the stiff strands. …

Strawberries. Miri’s tearless shampoo. The smell was overpowering, and Rei gagged loudly causing Kazuki to flinch, pulling the younger up clumsily until he was in a sitting position, his head smacking against the 28-year-old’s chest. The action was sharp and jarring, and Rei gagged again as he shut his eyes, the room around him spinning harshly as his overheated mind tried catching up with the rest of his body. He gripped his hand against Kazuki’s bicep, clenching his mouth shut as he breathed through the action; his body relaxing after a few minutes; the dizziness evading.

Kazuki exhaled as Rei’s grip around his arm loosened, and he cleared his throat, “Sorry, I’m almost done… I didn’t mean to pull you up so quickly, Rei.”

              His fingers felt nice. Strong, warm and gentle; massaging some of the pain exploding along his temples, behind his ears, down his neck.

 Wounds treated- nakedness wasn’t an embarrassment for them as they’d seen each other naked several times over the past few years- patching wounds… comfort…  Flashback to Rei caring for Kazuki (wound)

“I, uh, can stay… if you want.” Rei wasn’t a physical touch type of person but he knew Kazuki was.

               Rei isn’t entirely sure how much time had passed but the next time he woke, he was in bed. A fresh grey shirt plastered against his chest, sweat lining the collar and sleeves…

             “Rei? You awake?”

           “You still have a temperature, but it dropped to 38.8.”

           Rei nods slowly. He isn’t entirely sure what the number means nor does he care… fresh bandages on his wrist…

 Flashback to his father forcing him to work through sickness…. When he was 15, he’d gotten sick. Like really sick….

   Blood trailed down his temple, soaking against the black shirt pressed to bleeding flesh, cuts and bruises, red painting his body as busted ribs took in shallow breathes. Rei pressed the gun harder against Kazuki’s head causing the older to wince as he looked up; the black eye Rei had given him earlier, swelling; his lip busted….

 They were pitted against each other with Rei’s orders to kill Kazuki as he’d become a liability. He was no longer an asset, no longer useful to the Boss. That’s how it worked. Once the Boss had proven you a problem, you were taken out. Most of the time, the task was handed out… but this time, this time, the Boss wanted to give Rei one last chance to prove he wasn’t useless. To prove he could obey. Like before…

 The truth was it wasn’t a fair fight. Kazuki was strong… stronger than Rei had accounted for and determined. But Rei had experience on him. Years and years of experience. He was less emotional because emotions were dangerous. Reckless. And Kazuki wasn’t an assassin- he wasn’t skilled with weaponry or great in hand-to-hand combat. Rei was.

  The Boss yelling behind him to obey. To always obey… Obey. Why? He was old enough now to make his own decisions, and the Boss couldn’t hurt him anymore- he could only kill him. But death was never an issue. Never … if anything, it was a solution. If the Boss killed him in place of Kazuki, then he wouldn’t have to see the ladder in pain. Or watch Kazuki or Miri die… But perhaps that was selfish.

 K- “It’s okay, Rei. I forgive you.”

No one had ever forgiven him before, nor had he ever asked for it. He never needed it but with Kazuki… for Kazuki…

 Rei turns the gun on his Boss. The man who was supposed to be his father…

Don’t be ridiculous, boy. I’m your own flesh and blood. I’m your father.

No.

Excuse me?

“No. You’re not my father. You told me that every chance you got. Every time you were teaching me a lesson. Every time you or someone else was kicking the shit out of me. Every time you forced me to work through the pain, through broken bones and fevers, through bad dreams. Every time I begged you, screamed for you. Every time I cried for you. But that’s not what a father is. That’s not what a father is supposed to be. You were supposed to protect me. You were supposed to keep me safe. To be there when I needed you. To take care of me when I was hurt or sick. To soothe my nightmares, not become them. So, you’re not my father. You never were. You’re a Boss… but you’re no longer mine.”

  Years of sleepless guilt. Some people deserve to die. Strength feels better than weakness. When was the last time I felt like I belonged anywhere, like really belonged?

Why participate in society. It’s a cold, cruel world, and you cant survive on your own. Killing is just a part of the profession.

 “I need to ask you something and it’s going to be selfish.”

 Food hadn’t been a good idea. This was the thought that crossed Rei’s mind as he curled in on himself, his stomach twisting harshly as it made clear that, after a few days of barely eating, food wasn’t something he could handle right now.

 “Metallica?”

“Hey.”

“You were singing Metallica?”

“Yeah, sorry, I didn’t think you were awake,” Maybe Kazuki holding a sleeping Miri, or Miri asleep next to Rei, Kazuki lying on the other side of her… He went to make dinner and when he looked back in the living room, she was gone- she hadn’t really seen you in 2 days—Kazuki found her curled up next to Rei, Rei’s hand on her back protectively so he left them there.

           “How are you feeling?”

[silversoulstardust]

this is for @olyollyoxenfree , for encouraging my horny kazurei brainrot lol ily oly <3

have a 1.9k words of porn with barely any plot. MINORS DNI

-------------------------------

Miri’s arrival in the household had thrown everything off its axis.

It wasn’t enough for her to make it difficult for Kazuki and Rei to carry out their duties as a hitman, or mess with their regular day to day life schedule as two childless men, which was, okay, not as normal as any other two childless men living together because they weren’t assassin with sporadic schedules and irregular sleeping patterns, but with Miri’s presence around the house since Christmas, it had been increasingly difficult for Kazuki to get laid.

Which was fine at first.

Because they were tired most of the time. They chased her around, made sure she was alive and well fed, enrolled her in the best school with the best of everything, providing for her from top to toe with expensive goods and high quality school materials, all the while trying to make ends meet because holy shit having a child was so goddamn expensive. And they were so, so tired. Whenever Kazuki was feeling horny during their down time and having had to choose between sleeping and fucking, nine out of ten times he chose sleep. And Rei shared the same sentiment.

But once all the dust had settled, he started feeling it again. He had an itch that only Rei could scratch. Just watching Rei shirtless on the treadmill with sweat glistening on the beautifully carved back muscles made his dick twitch, reminiscing all the scratches he used to leave on those pale skin. 

The problem was, Miri’s presence was constant. She would be at home whenever they were at home, so when they wanted to get down and dirty, she was always in the way. Miri would walk in on them in the kitchen, or barge into their bedroom after having a nightmare, or climb into the bathtub that was already too cramped up with two adults in it. At this point, Kazuki was worried to do more than just make out with Rei, because what if Miri caught them in the middle of the act, with him on his knees and Rei’s dick deep in his ass? That little girl would be scarred for life.

The opportunity, however, presented itself on one lazy Sunday afternoon, after they had a hefty meal for lunch. Miri was playing a video game against Rei and Kazuki was elbow deep in soap suds doing the dishes while humming to random songs that popped up in his brain. It wasn’t until it was too late that he realized the apartment was devoid of sound of carts crashing and random explosions, and his eyes flicked from the greasy plate in his hands to the video game screen paused on the TV, only soft background music playing from it. A beat later, he felt two strong arms wrapped around his waist, and a nose buried itself on the side of his neck, inhaling deep as Kazuki was pulled into a tight embrace from behind.

“Miri’s asleep,” breathed Rei against his skin, and it sent shivers down Kazuki’s spine. “Let’s do something productive.”

“I am being productive,” Kazuki resumed his washing, working through the pots now, keeping his voice steady. “And there’s a child sleeping literally five feet away from us.”

Rei rubbed his face against the side of Kazuki’s face like a docile cat, and somehow managed to get his hands under Kazuki’s shirt, skating his fingers against his ribs and chest. “I saw how you looked at me while I was running two days ago, Kazuki. I know you want me,” said Rei, oddly confident. “We’re hidden behind this big kitchen counter, she can’t see us from the couch. And she’s asleep. There’s that. Come on, I’ll be quiet. You just need to be quiet too.”

Kazuki turned his face slightly to look at Rei’s determined look, his eyebrows knitted in a twist. “Wait, are we doing it here?” he asked in a loud whisper, eyes bulging out almost out of its sockets. “You’re out of your fucking mind, Suwa Rei.”

Rei never truly smiled, not sincerely anyway, but there was a mischievous smirk pulling at the corner of his lips. His hand snaked down south to palm Kazuki over his sweatpants, his dick already half hard from having this conversation. The fact that Rei was plastered to his back and his hands roam free touching him all over was not helping. “You need to be more honest, Kazuki,” replied Rei, slowly moving his hand up and down, gently cupping his erection that was growing by the moment. “Just let me suck you off.”

A moment of silence stretched between them, then a heavy sigh followed. There was no way of talking Rei out of this whenever his mood strikes. “The magic word.”

“What?” Rei’s scowl deepened, confused.

“The magic word, Rei,” repeated Kazuki as he rinsed a small pot. “Say the magic word and I’ll let you do whatever you want.”

Rei let out a groan and rolled his eyes. “Please let me suck your dick. There. Happy?”

“Yup. Happy,” Kazuki grinned, placing a quick peck on Rei’s cheek. “So how are we doing this?”

Rei let his arms around Kazuki go and took a step back. He then pulled Kazuki back from the sink, but still close enough for him to work on the dishes if he hunched forward. With the flexibility of an acrobat, Rei slink down and kneeled between Kazuki’s legs, with his back and head against the cabinet door, and his face right in Kazuki’s crotch. Another shiver coursed through his body when Rei buried his face right in the pubic mound, inhaling it like it was the most intoxicating thing in the world, feeling Rei’s breath warming up his skin. From where Kazuki was standing though, he couldn’t see what Rei was doing, because his view was obscured by the apron.

“I can’t see you,” whined Kazuki, adjusting his stance so it was optimum for Rei to fuck his dick with his mouth.

“Then remove the apron,” retorted Rei, as he pulled Kazuki’s sweatpants and let it pool around his ankles. 

“But I’m doing dishes,” but Kazuki’s complaint went unheard because in one quick swoop he felt wetness enveloped his length, much like a sucker punch to the gut that threw him off his game, causing him to buck forward. He dropped the pan he was holding back into the sink, thankfully the clatter was muffled by the clogged up suds water. There was a pause in Rei’s movement, and Kazuki froze in position too, waiting to see if the noise had awoken Miri from her afternoon nap. Moments passed, but no other sound filled the space other than soft background music of Wario Cart and small running tap water in the sink. 

Kazuki moved his pelvis to let Rei know it was safe for them to continue. Rei took the hint, taking Kazuki’s now raging hard cock deeper and deeper into his mouth, inch by inch, until he could feel Rei’s nose buried in his pubes. Kazuki finally had the opportunity to appreciate the velvety sensation of Rei’s warm and wet mouth, the push and pull on his erection hitting at the back of Rei's throat in an embarrassingly sloppy rhythm. It had been too long since they last had this. Kazuki had to bite his lower lip hard to clamp a loud moan that was threatening to rip out of him from how good he felt, with molten orgasm coiling at the base of his stomach bidding its time to spill. 

He was completely lost in the ecstasy that none of the dishes were done. There were still a couple of pots left in the sink, submerged in the soapy water untouched. Every time he attempted to wash up, Rei was pulling stunts with his genitals; teasing the slit with his tongue, or cradling his scrotums and sucking it like a treat in his mouth, or simply deepthroating himself with Kazuki’s raging cock. He could feel Rei’s satisfactory hums and moans, feeling the vibration from the back of his throat through his dick. It took everything Kazuki had to stand tall and not cave from the overwhelming  sensation, hands tight against the edge of the sink, knuckles white.

A sudden movement from the couch took Kazuki by surprise. He instinctively crowded Rei against the cabinet, drawing his legs shut to cover his presence, even though Miri was on the other side of the kitchen on the couch and couldn’t possibly see where Rei was. There was a punctuated groan that escaped Rei as the movement shoved Kazuki’s hard cock deep inside his mouth. 

Miri rubbed her eyes, voice thick with sleep and eyes still half-lidded. She took a stock around the apartment and asked, “Where’s papa Rei?”

“Papa Rei went out to the convenience store to get something,” Kazuki managed, keeping his voice and breathing even. Rei was adjusting himself, probably not wanting to suffocate to death from a dick in his windpipe, head bobbing away and still sucking Kazuki off at a time like this. Unbelievable. “Go back to sleep, Miri, and when you wake up again he’ll definitely come back with your favorite pudding.”

For a moment it looked like Miri wanted to protest, but the gravity pull over her eyelids were much stronger than her will to stay awake. She managed to raise a thumbs up before slumping back down on the couch, and it was quiet again moments later.

Rei took the opportunity to ramp up his movement. With one hand he gripped the base of Kazuki’s cock and moved it in tandem with his mouth, up and down, up and down, up and down in crescendo until Kazuki’s knees buckled and he whites out, coming inside Rei’s mouth with Rei’s name falling out of his lips. 

It felt like they just completed an intense mission, what they just accomplished. Kazuki finally threw in the towel and shut the faucet, giving up on dish washing to sit on the floor next to Rei. It was only after that he realized Rei was stroking himself with one hand as he was sucking him off, and he was on the verge of spilling his load. Kazuki took it upon himself to lend a helping hand. With a few strokes and kisses on the corner of Rei’s jaw, thick ropes of cum splattered against Rei’s chest and the kitchen floor.

They sat quietly next to each other, steadying their breath. Kazuki removed the remnant of his cum that was dripping from Rei’s chin using his hand and wiped his fingers against Rei’s already sullied shirt. They exchanged a gaze, staring deep into each other’s eyes before Kazuki laughed and a small smile cracked open on Rei’s face. 

“You’re a freak,” said Rei, amused. “You got off getting sucked out in the open apartment with other people in it.”

Kazuki scrunches up his face, mockingly offended. “Says the freak who suggested we fuck in the kitchen with our daughter sleeping five feet away from the counter.”

“That was a close call,” Rei mused. They both leaned back against the counter, letting a comfortable silence settled between them. Kazuki may be imagining it, but it sounded like a small huff of laughter escaped Rei’s throat, and it sounded really sweet. “Looks like we’re gonna need Kyu-chan babysitting service for this particular need after all.”

[kazukibou]

What was Fuhito's reaction to meeting Makoto for the first time and learning he's dating Kyoko? Alongside this, was this when the tension between him and Kyoko started?

Even though Hikari doesn't like him for understandable reasons, is the feeling somewhat mutual between Hikari and Fuhito? Do you think an argument between the two of them is likely gonna happen at some point?

What kind of activities do Kazuki and Hikari do with each other to pass the time? (Whenever Kazuki isn't busy)

What kind of music does Kyoko enjoy and what period?

Fuhito and Makoto don't meet until after the tragedy and Towa city is safe. If he met Makoto in high school and was dating Kyoko, he'd be unimpressed that someone so average was dating Kyoko.

However, Makoto is now the man who stopped Junko Enoshima and has continued to inspire and bring hope to the world. Fuhito may not agree with how Makoto wears his heart on his sleeve, how open he is, and how much he's supposedly changed Kyoko, but Fuhito respects Makoto.

The tension didn't start until a few years after Kazuki was born. Kyoko wasn't taking as many cases because she was spending time with her family, and as Kazuki was getting older, she wasn't training him for detective work the way Fuhito wanted. Kyoko took this as "You're parenting him wrong," as well as not training him to be a worthy heir. Yeah talk bad about Kyoko's kids and you're gonna get on her bad side. But she tries to still be involved in his life since he is the only blood relative, pre kids, she has left.

Once Hikari is a teenager/young adult, that's when she'd probably get into an argument with him...if Fuhito is still alive by then (sounds harsh but he's very old). He believes Hikari has so much potential as a detective but she's wasting it away by well...being a kid. Hikari doesn't like him, but I think Fuhito likes her similar to how he likes Kazuki.

Kazuki and Hikari play video games. Either they play at home, or they go to an arcade. Hikari always asks Kazuki to win a prize for her from crane games. He lost a lot before becoming decent at them. He struggles to say no to his sister.

I think Kyoko enjoys orchestral. Of course classical, but she enjoys modern day orchestral pieces as well. Her guilty pleasure is some of the music Makoto likes, which is pop music. She won't admit it

[heartlessfujoshi]

flufftober day 12 - kazurei 'say it back'

Title: Say It Back Chapter: 3 of 6 Fandom: Buddy Daddies Pairing: KazuRei (Kurusu Kazuki x Suwa Rei) Rating: Teen (Love Confessions - Domesticated Fluff - Fluff - Kisses) WordCount: ~2,105 Prompt: Fire & Ice

Read: Ch 1 Ch 2

---

Kazuki struggled to stay awake, reaching for his sixth? Sixth cup of coffee. Or maybe it was his seventh. He lost count, and was barely jittery now. His exhaustion was swiftly catching up, but he was so close to finishing their costumes, that he couldn’t stop now. The end was in sight. He could do this. 

Miri had informed them earlier this evening that tomorrow was a parents day at her school, and that it was going to be a costume party to celebrate Halloween early. Very early, as it was going to be the middle of the month in a few days' time. But it was fine - Kazuki worked well under pressure. Especially with Rei being gone tonight on a solo hit job, while he stayed at home and took care of Miri, and got her ready for bed, all by himself. And then had come back down to the dining room table and got to work on their costumes for tomorrow. 

Looking at Miri’s notebook, he saw a note from Miss Anna that had been over a week ago letting them know of the event tomorrow. “I gotta read this more.” Kazuki sighed, picking up his ruler to finish cutting an item for his costume. Miri had made the suggestion what she wanted her papas to be, and he was going to make sure that they were somewhat passable. 

The front door opened, but he was too busy cutting to turn around and greet Rei. He had a pencil stuck between his teeth, needing it there for quicker reach, as he needed to adjust his measurements. “You’re still awake.” Rei commented, coming into the dining room area. “What’s all this?” 

He pulled the pencil from his mouth after he finished cutting, and pointed to the piles. “Miri is having a party at school tomorrow, and we’re invited.” 

“And?” Rei looked at him, eyebrows raised up. “Why are you cutting things?” 

“We need to wear costumes.” 

“Miri?” 

“All of us.” He pointed to the pile that was Rei’s costume. “Look, it’s the best I can do on such short notice. I’m falling asleep, but I’m going to finish.” 

“Do you want help?” Rei came over to him, and kissed the nape of his neck. It was becoming more common that Rei would show small signs of affection towards him since they’d come back from staying in the woods. Rei began to sleep in his bedroom with him, Kazuki not bothering to ask about it as he was getting used to having Rei beside him. It was a natural transition. Sometimes, Miri would join them in the middle of the night, after having a bad nightmare. It was strange how easy it was to fall into this routine. 

Turning his head, he reached for Rei’s hand and saw that there was dried blood on it. “Are you hurt?” He asked, worry now replacing the need to sleep, as he became much more alert. “Rei, did something happen?” 

“I’m fine.” Rei pulled his hand away, and went to the kitchen. He turned on the water, hissing as he held it under the steady stream. “Got nicked, that’s all.” 

“But did the job go okay?” 

“Yes.” Rei shut the water off. “I’ll go see Kyuu tomorrow.” 

He breathed a sigh of relief. “Thank goodness. We could use the money right now.” 

“I know. I’m taking as many jobs as I can.” 

“I know you are.” 

Kazuki wished he could be back out, contributing to their funds but someone had to watch Miri. And he knew that Rei liked her, but wasn’t really into the responsibility thing. It was fine. They all had their own weaknesses. One day, he’d leave Miri with him, but now was not the time. Rei had watched her plenty of times before, but not for an extended period of time. Kazuki knew the day would come where it would have to happen. It was a day he was dreading, but after spending more intimate moments with Rei, he knew it wouldn’t be too difficult of a challenge for him. Although Miri really could be a handful. 

He finished up the costumes, and leaned back in the seat. “I really hope that her costume is perfect.” 

“It will be.” 

“How do you know?” He lifted his head, and saw Rei was sitting on the couch, staring out the window. 

“Because you made it for her.” 

His entire body grew warm at the compliment, not at all ready to receive it. “Want to go to bed?” 

“I’ll be up there soon. I need to shower.” 

“Okay, Rei.” He respected the need to come down from a job, and would leave him alone.

He dragged his body up the flight of stairs, and got into his pajamas before lying down in bed. Fifteen minutes later, he heard the shower turn on, and settled into his pillows, letting sleep claim him for a little while, as he was a light sleeper and would no doubt wake up when Rei came to bed. 

A strong arm found its way to his stomach, startling him out of his slumber. “Hmmm.” He mumbled, trying to get his bearings. 

“It’s me.” Rei’s voice tickled his ear. He smiled, happy to have Rei in bed with him again. “Go back to sleep.” 

“But you’re here now.” He turned his head, and found a comfortable spot in Rei’s arms. “Took a long shower.” 

“Had to.” 

“You are hurt, aren’t you?” Kazuki woke up, needing to see Rei’s body for himself. “Show me.” 

“Kaz.” 

“Show me.” 

Rei turned on the light, and didn’t hide his scarred torso from him. He’d seen his scars plenty of times - Rei tended to work out on the treadmill downstairs without a shirt on. And, now that they were becoming more intimate with one another, he knew where every groove and indentation was on his chest. The bullet wound near his shoulder. The lacerations that he’d received as a child that he still won’t talk about. And now, there was a fresh cut on his side, and a substantial bruise around it. 

“Ouch.” His fingers touched the green coloring, as it was already a pretty bad bruise. “Does it hurt?” 

“Only when you touch it.” He could hear the slight pain in Rei’s voice. “Kaz, don’t.” 

He lowered his head, and left a kiss near where the bruising began. “You don’t need stitches do you?” 

“No. And why are you doing that?” Rei asked, a shaky breath leaving his mouth. 

“I kiss Miri’s wounds like this. She says they make her feel better.” He leaves another kiss near the wound. “Does it make you feel better?” 

“It makes me feel something.” 

Kazuki smirked, then reached over to turn off the light. “Let me help you with that, then?” 

“I’d love it if you did.” 

They fell asleep a little after their adult time, Kazuki holding Rei in his arms now, letting him sleep comfortably on his chest. He was glad that Rei wasn’t hurt too badly, but if any of the kids knocked into him tomorrow, it was going to be a problem. One that he was going to make sure he was on top of, so it didn’t happen. 

“Papas!” Miri threw the door open just as Kazuki’s alarm began to go off. “It’s costume day!” 

“It is!” He sat up, as he knew Miri was running towards the bed. She flung herself to be up on his side, and he quickly caught her before she could fall. “Papa stayed up all night to make sure your costume is the best one.” 

“What about yours?” Miri asked, snuggling close to his neck. She hugged him tight. “You have to have good costumes too!” 

“Don’t worry, Miri-chan.” He booped her nose with the tip of his finger. “Let’s get you ready first, okay?” 

“Okay, Papa!” She looked over at Rei, who was struggling to wake up. “Morning, Rei Papa!” 

“Morning, Miri.” Rei yawned. “Need help?” 

“I’m okay. You get a few more minutes in.” He picked up Miri, and carried her to her bathroom. “Let’s get our princess ready!” 

Miri had had one request for her costume. She wanted to be Elsa, and she wanted ‘Kazuki Papa’ to be someone similar. Rei Papa had to be someone that he resembled. Which, given the items that Kazuki had on hand, meant he was going to be one thing, and one thing only. 

“Look at you!” Kazuki clapped for Miri, as she twirled around in her store bought Elsa costume. “You look beautiful!” 

“Thank you, Papa!” She laughed. “Now you go get dressed!” 

“I will, Miri. Let’s get you some breakfast first.” 

“Okay!” 

He fed Miri, then headed back upstairs, where Rei was already getting dressed. He covered his mouth, trying hard not to laugh as Rei got his costume on. “I cannot believe you.” Rei sulked, putting on the last part of his costume. “Do you match?” 

“With Miri.” 

“Kaz.” 

“Her idea”! He threw his hands up in the air, as if that was his only defense. “You look great.” 

“No, I don’t.” 

Rei was dressed as a devil. It was the easiest costume that he could create on the fly, and it was perfect, as his devil went with his own costume. He put his items on, and then turned around for Rei. “Well? What do you think?” 

“You’re wearing all blue.” Rei deadpanned. 

“Yes! Because I’m Jack Frost!” He grinned, and got his socks on. “Miri wanted me to match her Elsa, and I figured Jack Frost was going to be good.” 

“I’m fire. You’re ice.” 

He grinned. “You got it.” 

Rei chuckled. “That’s dumb.” 

“But it got you to laugh.” He knew it was a silly concept, but he was glad that Rei got the reference for the both of them. “Now, come on. Miri is going to wonder where we are.” 

“Lead the way, Mr. Frost.” 

Miri clapped her hands when she saw the two of them. “Perfect, papa!” 

“Do you think so?” He asked, hoping she was happy. From the smile on her face, he knew that she was. “Will Miss Anna be happy?” 

“She will!” 

They took Kyuu’s car to the school, and made it just as other families were walking in. Everyone was dressed in a variety of costumes. One family was dressed as a few characters from Toy Story. One family was dressed in a couples’ costume, while their son was dressed as a construction worker. It was a large variety of different costumes, which meant that Kazuki and Rei didn’t stick out as much as he feared they would. 

There was a costume parade, and then they were served lunch. After lunch, they went on a trick-or-treat trail around the courtyard, the kids all excited they were getting candy earlier than the 31st. At the end of the day, Miri’s Elsa’s dress was torn in three different places, but Kazuki didn’t care. All he cared about was that she was having a great time. 

“I think we should wear these again on Halloween.” Rei commented, after they’d gone over to Kyuu’s shop and returned his car, and Rei got paid for his hit the night before. “Go out and celebrate.” 

“We don’t celebrate.” 

“We could.” 

It sounded tempting. “Let’s see what Miri wants to do?” She was fast asleep in his arms, as he carried her back to the apartment. 

“That sounds fair.” 

She stayed sound asleep until it was dinnertime, and then woke up to eat. Rei bathed her, allowing him to relax on the couch after a very long day of having to be on with all the parents, who were all very nice. It had been a fun event, and one he was glad was over now. 

Rei came back downstairs, went to the kitchen to grab two beers, then handed one to Kazuki before sitting down. “Do you think we’ll have to get another costume for her for actual Halloween?” 

“Shhhh.” He cracked open his beer, and then after taking a sip, he rested his head on Rei’s shoulder. No one had bumped into him, allowing his bruise to heal on its own. “I don’t want to think about that right now. Ask me again this weekend.” 

A soft chuckle left Rei’s mouth, making him smile as Rei never really laughed. “Fine, Kaz.” 

They sat on the couch, Rei flipping through channels while Kazuki enjoyed his beer, and the peace and quiet for the moment. He knew that tomorrow would bring another problem, but for now, this problem had been handled, and everyone was happy. Especially him. 

---

Cross-posted to AO3

[y0noirs]

youve heard of “i have a new favorite buddy daddies episode” now get ready for “i have a new LEAST favorite buddy daddies episode” // buddy daddies ep 11 spoilers

as i was watching ep 11 the things i kept repeating as i watched were “WHAT?”, “????????”, “this is not fucking happening”, and “oh my fucking god”

needless to say i’m REALLY unsatisfied with the choice to kill misaki off ): i’m 100% not impressed at all whatsoever. i don’t think it was a good or sensible choice, even for the tragedy points. it left a bad taste in my mouth and it really sort of bothered me for the rest of the episode. there was nothing other than annoyance and dissatsifcation with the way she dropped dead.

is that the point? maybe. to which i say: that’s not cool, dude! i don’t think i will be satisfied with this result no matter what!

buddy daddies has had REALLY GOOD story beats so far. much of the writing, i was cool with! i really liked buddy daddies for the refreshing writing it had with this sort of concept. however, killing misaki off right after she had shown just how much she tried to change for miri, just how desperately she wanted to give miri everything, just how much she wanted to do for miri is so wasteful. not to mention, killing off a single mother who tried her best to change and did leaves a really bad taste in my mouth.

was she the most righteous character? no. you could even say that her attempt to change even after all the neglect she put miri through is a little tasteless. not a lot of people like her, and it makes sense because she didn’t treat her daughter all that well, only to come back for her. but she’s a much deeper character than the surface hypocrisy that she displays. she was dealt a terrible hand. she was unlucky and, while she may have perpetuated her unfortunate situation, there’s no changing that she is a victim. and not every victim plays out to be someone who can be admirable or likable. the point is, though, that despite everything, misaki proved that she wanted to be miri’s mother. and that she really did try her best to be a good mother towards the end.

(fuck i hate saying that! “towards the end” is so stupid!)

i, for one, actually really like misaki’s character. i don’t like what she’s done, but she’s a very well-written and complex character. she’s supposed to be this parallel to kazuki, which was clear from their confrontation in ep 3. that’s really neat IMO! the two of them contrasted each other well, especially with how they learned to be the best parent for the same child.

but killing her off? it just seemed like a waste. i don’t feel like there’s a way to justify that choice that will satisfy me. revenge will not make it any better for me, nor will some other choice. i have no idea what they’ll do for the last episode, but i don’t feel like the conclusion will be satisfying for misaki at all. i hope they prove me wrong, but i’m not particularly that hopeful.

would it have been hard to fit her into miri's life if kazuki and rei managed to fix everything? sure. it would've been hard, but it would've been worth it. miri's happiness includes her mother, too. especially her mother who tried her best despite the bad hand she was given. just 'cause it's hard doesn't mean it's wrong.

anyway, what else? that confrontation between kazuki and rei! if there’s anything to be satisfied with in this episode, it’s probably definitely that. the contrast between kazuki wanting to pull away from miri’s life to keep her safe vs rei wanting to continue their family was really great! it flipped their dynamic on its head!

i’m always here for rei growth, ok? the way the last few episodes were about rei’s growth (ep 8 + 9) was really good for what ep 11 did to cement that character growth! and seeing that resolve become what it is now - the determination to give miri the happiness she deserves for bringing warmth into his life - is really so good to me.

and kazuki’s complexity is shown further in here. he just watched misaki die (FML!), possibly even blaming himself for it. at this point he brought BOTH of miri’s biological parents to their deaths. that’s not something that someone as soft-hearted and family oriented as kazuki can take. from this point onward, he has to cut ties with miri so that he doesn’t take any other part of her - or worse, have her taken away from him. in his eyes, nothing has changed at all. he can’t do anything but bring misery to everyone around him, exactly as misaki had once told him. wow! ouch man!

but thankfully rei can convince him. rei, who is now determined to follow through with his resolve. rei who desperately wants to keep the warmth and happiness he’s been shown by this little family of theirs. he can’t achieve that warmth and happiness alone. kazuki was part of that happiness, so he’ll do his goddamned best to to convince him that they can change - for the child who brought that happiness into their lives.

there’s a thousand things i could say about their confrontation, but there’s so many other people who are also talking about it and i don’t want to rehash everything since i agree LOL but i just ... i really liked that flashback sequence, too. “we can change” and kazuki thinks about meeting yuzuko and losing her. he thinks about meeting miri. “this time, we’ll make miri happy” and he thinks about karin’s faith in him to make miri happy. yes you can, kazuki!!! yes you can!!!!!! because when has rei wanted something this badly before? if he’s by your side, if your efforts are combined, can’t you achieve that impossible dream??

it’s not bad for both of them to need each other. it’s not bad for all three of them to need each other. altogether, their little family makes all of them happy.

but mark my words, PAworks. i care more about miri’s happiness than you do GRAHH misaki’s alive in my canon ok

[goldenlie]

glad we share an opinion queen!! also getting annoyed because of 4 year old acting like a 4 year old is incredibly valid to me tbh definitely had my own share of yup definitely no chlidren for me ever moments. I feel like later on it gets a little better because now we are focusing more on Kazuki and Rei's past and issues each of them brings to the table lmao I usually have issue only when people claim Miri isn't at all acting like an actual 4 year old and compare her to... Anya... a child who can literally read minds 😐 and will change her behaviour accordingly to what she hears as we have seen her do many times before and I didn't even watch all of spy x family like sir surely you are joking right now?? anyways I hope you are doing well, it's been a while ^_^ what are you up to these days? hope uni isn't giving you too much of a hard time!

(formerly) QQQQQNFFFFFF ENJOYYEEEERRR!!!! AGNESSS!!! It's so good to hear form you <3

If there's one thing I'm reliant at its being a bit of a hater to kids antics, I simply lack the gift of patience. I am right there with you in those moments I'm ngl. Okay the focus on more of their past dynamic and potentially how they got to be in the profession they're in sounds pretty interesting. The potential for angst skyrockets with each word I hear about this show and I am loving it.

That is,,,, a real unique comparison people have made. As someone who has suffered through two seasons of spyxfamily I can definitely vouch that Anya and Miri are not similar characters at all (To clarify spy family was good up until every progression the characters had was wrote away for a cheap punchline or coincidental memory loss, literally happened every second episode after s1 ep9). The only similarity between the two shows point blank is the premise. I would assume people are trying to draw nonexistent parallels purely based off of that, I have no idea as to why though. From what I saw (so, so little) Miri was undoubtedly acting like a four year old, when she spilt that drink in episode 2 it was very on brand kid looking for attention, I thought it showed her age pretty well. Anya as an older character, literally six years old, but she had a lot more motives at play. Obviously she's still young and immature but a lot more mature than Miri nonetheless. Anya could play strategy and was attempting to aid Loid with his spy missions, I'm going to go out on a limb and assume Miri is not going to locate a bomb or something in the remaining 10 eps I have to watch. Miri seems to be a much more honest and open character whereas Anya can be more scheming and conniving (I say with love, I did like Anya's character up until everyone minus Yor became very dislikable very fast), for her own self preservation. The two of them are pretty incomparable, I can see where your disbelief is coming from.

Uni is making me spin in a circle five times and then jump through a hoop 2 meters off the ground. The biggest thing rn is finding time to carry out experiments for my thesis which I will hopefully finish up with this week! It's actually such coincidental timing but this week I have to give a presentation on the most impactful book I've ever read (purely to build confidence in public speaking, damn though, thought I was in science so I didn't have to talk personally) which was extremely difficult considering all impactful "books" I've read in the past four years have been on ao3. So I ended up scavenging through our old messages trying to locate some book recs you had! I actually ended up with another recommendation from the bts boy though, who was reading Almond, this one is called "The Midnight Library" and sounded pretty intriguing! I'll be reading it tonight and tomorrow so if it's worth it I'll update you. What about you queen, are you still working in the job you started last year? I hope it's been going well if so! I know you're into buddy dads these days but anything else been keeping you occupied? Anime wise myself I'm actually about halfway through hunter x hunter?? I started the end of December and it intrigued me ngl. I'm not sure if you've seen but it's very easy to like the main character and his three main besties so I'm looking forward to seeing how things progress further. I also watched the entirety of Voltron out of pure curiosity for how bad the ending was? And I was surprised to see it was actually as shit as they say. However comma the show did lose its appeal much much earlier, have you ever watched? I actually finished up a kdrama series recently as well I believe you recommended me last year called Beyond Evil and holy fucking shit was it good. Usually I fear for around the halfway mark of kdramas that they lose their purpose but I swear they had only warmed up the engine by ep 8. It was addictive to watch and I was so immersed, my love dong sik and his relationship with inspector Han growing and changing throughout the series was extremely interesting to watch unfold. They were a powerful duo when they worked together and I will miss the thrill of each ep.

I hope you've been having a good time in general queen and things have been going well for you :D

[ambivalence-and-torpor]

🌠🔥❤️🎨📏🍼🙊☀️💤👁 for STRIIGGAAAAAAAAAAAA my beloved

Oh uhm... ehehe... beloved... ehehe... she's blushing...

🌠 SHOOTING STAR - if they could make any wish with no repercussions, what wish would they make?

Striga wants nothing more than her old family to be back together and happy. Though not in the way they used to be together! She wants her dad to be alive again. She wants everybody to get along, while also living their best lives... She wants Stryxe and Kazuki to be back together again, living happy lives away from the stress of everything else. She wants Kyuuga to be well, safe and happy and to do the things he enjoys, find his calling and follow it. She wants a happy family for her own home and she wants the occasional family get togethers where everybody talks about how things have been, exchanging pleasantries and unpleasantries alike. Maybe they can even bring over new friends and family while everybody is sharing food and just being happy to see each other again, and afterwards they return to their own lives... What Striga wants is so simple and sweet... yet so impossible to attain at this point...

-

🔥 FIRE - do they have any self destructive tendencies? what habits do they have that hinder them from becoming their best self?

Striga can get a little one track minded at times. Usually happens when the Rainbowdrinker blood starts boiling, almost like taking over any coherent thought she should be having. It's quite different to how Stryxe experiences it, almost like an all consuming rage, an all consuming hunger, ready to devour whatever comes close enough, ready to jump into any fight no matter how unwinnable. She loses sight of the things that are truly important and sight of self preservation in those moments. Though thankfully she's very aware of this side of hers, so she usually self isolates before it gets that far... usually...

-

❤️ RED HEART - their love language(s)?

Acts of service, quality time, gift giving, Striga just likes to be gentle and kind with just about anybody. And while he enjoys getting all of those things himself, I think words of affirmation are what touches him most deeply.

-

🎨 PALETTE - can they draw? what do they like to draw?

Good lord, Striga hasn't drawn since he was a lil kid and the things he used to draw were those cute kid like family drawings with Stryxe, Kazuki, Kyuuga, Noxtus and himself as pretty bad but very heartfelt stick figures. They used to hang on the fridge before Striga started feeling too embarrassed. Stryxe has since put them somewhere safe. If Striga would see them these days, he'd probably start crying...

-

📏 RULER - is your oc well educated? where did they get their learning from?

I wouldn't say Striga is well educated in a sense of regular school, but she's well versed in many things! She has skills for homesteading, farming, construction, sewing, gardening, cooking and baking, food preservation, hunting, animal husbandry, wiggler care and of course druidic stuff! Most of this she learned from her Pa, Stryxe, though she's since surpassed the old man in skills and knowledge.

-

🍼 BABY BOTTLE - what are their thoughts on children?

Striga loves kids! He's got an adopted wiggler as of now! Though he'd love to have multiple life partners and maybe his own wigglers at some point? Though he'd also be super happy to foster more wigglers. It's a bit of a long term dream of his to have a big ass family.

-

🙊 SPEAK-NO-EVIL - what is something your oc will refuse to stay quiet about?

Seeing other people being hurt. Striga just can't help himself! He's a bit of a worrywart sometimes and just wants to heal people up when he sees them being injured, bleeding, etc. He doesn't like forcing others into it, but he just can't stop himself, he just... he wants people to be safe and healthy for the most part.

-

☀️ SUN - are they a morning person? what is the first thing they do in the morning?

Yep! Striga doesn't mind waking up whenever. She doesn't seem to need all that much sleep to begin with, though first thing she tends to do is check on Revenn, see how he's doing, and then look at the chores for the day.

-

💤 SLEEPING - do they fall asleep easily? what helps them sleep?

Striga doesn't fall asleep easily when she's not already tired to begin with. So anything that tires her out basically makes her fall asleep more easily.

-

👁️ EYE - what colour are their eyes? do people notice their eyes? is there anything special about them (shows emotion easily, literally magical…)?

The color is a pretty piercing shade of a bright almost neon jade while the sclera is almost black. Striga somewhat inherited the eye color from her dad, Kazuki.

-

Send me some Emojis from this Ask Game <3

[five-rivers]

I:"So why?" D:*sigh*"Would you believe me if I said it's because I'm an idiot?" I:*doubtful* T:"Actually, THIS part checks out." D:*flatly*"Thanks, Toshi. You're a real friend." T:*raises eyebrow*"Exhibit A: The dustbin incident." D:"YOU PROMISED NOT TO TALK ABOUT THAT!"

Izuku had some expectations when he opened the door to Aizawa-sensei’s apartment.  Namely, he expected Eri to be in the apartment.  Just Eri, because he had been asked last-minute to look after her by Aizawa-sensei who’d been called away by a hero emergency.  

Now, Eri was in the apartment.  Which was good.  Izuku was always slightly paranoid about leaving Eri alone for any length of time.  

Less good was-

“You!” shouted Izuku, pointing.  

“Uh,” said Danny Fenton, who was, for some reason, kneeling in front of Eri holding a large flower.  “I can explain?” he said.  

“Deku!” said Eri, bouncing on the couch.  “Danny’s teaching me about my quirk!”

“Or she can explain.  That’s good, too.”

Izuku hit the ‘time traveler panic button’ and frowned at Fenton.  Fenton waved.  

“So, uh.  You probably have questions.  Have you seen Banjo-san yet?”

“Do you know All for One?”  

“I met him.  Once.  Not really my best decision.  And before you say anything, I know that what I said to you and what Kazuki-san showed you about that is different.”

“Yeah?  And why is that?” asked Izuku, cautiously approaching.  He wanted to be between Eri and Fenton, but there wasn’t any way he could do that subtly.

“Deku?” asked Eri.  

“Don’t worry,” said Fenton.  “I just worry him.  Here.”  He handed Eri the flower, and stepped away, almost to the other side of the apartment, between the kitchen counter and a table with a vase with decaying flowers in it.  “Would you believe me if I said it was because I’m dumb?”

Izuku, mindful of the new space, put himself in front of Eri.  He almost wanted to take her and run, but he wasn’t sure what Fenton was capable of.  

“Actually,” said Toshinori-san, pushing the ajar door open the rest of the way, “that part checks out.”

“Thanks Toshinori-kun, you’re a real friend,” said Fenton, flatly.  “Who’s with you?”

Toshinori-san frowned, glancing at someone behind the doorframe.  “The dustbin incident, for example,” he said.  

“Oh, come on, you promised not to talk about that!  It wasn’t even my fault.”  Fenton tilted his head.  “Normally, I’d guess Sorahiko-kun was behind there, but he’s too short now...  And that doesn’t feel like his quirk.  Something to do with truth?”

Toshinori-san glanced to the side and shrugged.  “Might as well,” he said.  

Detective Tsukauchi stepped into the apartment.  

Izuku had hoped Toshinori-san would bring someone a little more suitable for a fight.  

“You can call me Detective Tsukauchi.  Although, I suppose you already knew that, being a time traveler.”

“That’s not really how this works,” said Fenton.  

“Then how does it work?”

Fenton looked back at Izuku.  “It’s related to the whole ‘I’m dumb’ thing from earlier.  It’s, ah.”  He glanced at Eri and then Detective Tsukauchi.  “The person that we were talking about, the one who the discrepancy was about, I didn’t realize they were the same person until later.”

“How can you know so much about One for All, and not that?”

“My boss is the one that has all the answers, not me.”

“That’s a lie.”

Fenton frowned.  “Well, I guess...  It would be better to say Clockwork has all the answers, not me.  He’s not really my boss.”

Detective Tsukauchi nodded.  Izuku made note of the name.  It was clearly an alias, but he doubted they’d get anything more concrete from Fenton.

“So what is your relationship?” asked Toshinori-san.  

“He’s... sort of my guardian.  My mentor.”  Fenton shrugged.  “It’s a long story and not relevant.  The thing is, everything is a lesson with him.  As much as this is a learning experience for you, it’s a learning experience for me.”

“When did you first meet All for One?” demanded Izuku.  

“Ah...  From my perspective?  About a month before I met Toshinori-kun.  I didn’t realize it at the time, thought.  I thought that when I joined Toshinori-kun’s school was my first time in this timeline.”

“And what did you do?”

Fenton made a face.  “The details of that aren’t safe.  But, um, the basics are that I got lost, someone asked me for help, and I gave it.”

“Not safe for who?” asked Detective Tsukauchi. 

“You guys, mostly.  I can always just not come back.”

“Did this Clockwork send you to All for One as well?” asked Toshinori.  His tone was bland and even, but Izuku could tell that there was a lot of anger behind his eyes.  

“I-  Look.  I will answer that, just...  Let me say a few things first?”  Fenton’s hands, still in a half-raised position, twitched in an aborted gesture.  “First, I genuinely mean no harm to anyone here.  I don’t think Clockwork does, either.  Second...  Midoriya-san, did you think about what I asked you, last time?  Why Toshinori-kun’s shape changed when he was using One for All, but yours doesn’t?”

Izuku bit his lip, wondering if he should answer.  He’d talked about it with Toshinori-san a few times, but he’d never said the explanation he’d come up with out loud.   

But his curiosity was a bit too great to resist.   

“It was his quirk, wasn’t it?” he asked.  “One for All made him develop his own quirk.”

“Bingo,” said Fenton.  “I mean, you did talk to Banjo-san, right?  At this point?”

Izuku nodded, slowly.  

“Great.  Like, because of that, you might be able to do the shapeshifting eventually, but, more importantly, you can’t move in that space, can you?  When you can...”

“That body,” said Izuku, “it’s not me, it’s my quirk being put together.”

“Basically, yeah.”

Had this been a year ago, Izuku would have been thrilled.  Now, however...  He really had enough on his plate.

“You know what it’s going to be, don’t you?”

“I have guesses,” said Fenton.  “But, no, I don’t know.”

“You said you’d answer my question,” said Toshinori-san.  

“Right.  Yes.  Well.”  Fenton took a deep breath.  “I don’t know.”

“If he sent you to that time-” started Toshinori.

“I don’t know if it was even him that did that part,” said Fenton.  “He might have, but he usually gives me a warning.  No.  It’s... ugh.  Here.”  He reached over to the vase and plucked out one of the flowers.  Light warped oddly around it and his hand, and when everything was clear again, the dahlia was as vibrant as it had been the day it was picked.  “Eri and Clockwork aren’t the only ones with time powers.”  He smiled at the little girl who was still hiding behind Izuku.  “Mine works a little differently, though.”

“You do have multiple quirks, then,” said Toshinori-san.  “What did you do, to get All for One to give you them?”

“I didn’t get anything from him,” said Fenton, sharply, “except for a promise that he broke basically immediately.”  He muttered something under his breath.  “My powers-  I’m not even sure they can be called a quirk.”

Izuku couldn’t help but look at Tsukauchi, who looked... confused.  But not like he was being lied to.

“I didn’t get them from anybody, I wasn’t born with them, they weren’t inherited.  I didn’t have them until I was fourteen.  They were an accident.  Like I told you I’m not from this timeline.  There are no quirks in my timeline, and only two other people even remotely like me, and-”  He took a deep breath.  “Sorry.  I’m ranting.  I have to go, soon, your teacher is almost back.  Last question.”

“Why are you here?” asked Izuku.  It was probably stupid, considering the two adults in the room.

“Um.  I thought that was obvious?  To help Eri with her quirk.  It would be really irresponsible of me to leave things like they were.”  He gave Eri a thumbs up.  “Don’t forget, little sister, it isn’t a curse.  And it’ll be a while, a long while, but you’ll get to meet Clockwork, and it’ll be super coo-”

“And...  He’s gone,” said Izuku, sagging.  

“At least we learned more?” said Toshinori-san.

“I-”

Aizawa-sensei skidded into the room.  “What,” he demanded, “happened?”

Eri tugged on Izuku’s pant leg.  “Deku?  What’s One for All?”

Toshinori-san blanched.  Izuku felt all the blood drain from his face.

This was going to be a problem.  

[theforbiddenpriestess]

The Pharaoh & His Princess

Seven |

Ill Father, Stubborn Daughter

The man couldn't help but puke in the bowl.

A burst goosebumps shot from his shoulders, violently making him shiver before he flinged himself back into his bedsheets. He let out a pitiful noise and rubbed his swollen eyes.

His body felt like it was on literal fire.

"Here, this ought to make it better!" Merit Ptah said as she rushed over to Pharaoh. She draped a cold wet towel on his forehead.

"I beg of you Chief Physician, please make it stop. I wish to see my daughter." he groaned.

"It's alright my Pharaoh" she replied. She pushed back his sweaty blonde bangs and moved the towel on his forehead. "The medicine should work soon."

"How soon?" he asked miserably. His body was wrought with aches and shivers. "I feel like I'm in literal fire."

"You're just sick my Pharaoh, not dying. It is just a fever, that's all." Mahad spoke, trying to calm his best friend. Atem shifted his gaze at Mahad and gave him a thankful weak smile.

Mahad had brought in the best doctors in all of Egypt and made them run every test available. It turned out to be food poisoning from undercooked meat.

Plus a fever as well.

Luckily the Pharaoh was still young and in great health, he should make a speedy recovery.

"Just give it a day, my Pharaoh." Mahad said with a small smile.

"Another whole day? I need to get better now!" he groaned.

Chief Physician Merit sighed and draped a cold towel on him once more.

"I know, but you need to get better. Egypt can wait. You cannot. I do not like seeing you so ill."

"I miss Anippe." Atem weakly let out. Mahad couldn't help but smile.

They had been separated for exactly a week now, and it was killing them. They were not meant to be apart for this long, it was pure torture for them and everyone else. But the last thing the Palace wanted was for princess Anippe to get sick as well.

"She misses you, too. She's always asking for you," Mhad replied before Merit added jokingly, "Please get better soon. I fear that if you do not, our beloved crowned princess will destroy the Palace."

Atem let out a weak laugh before his features changed to determination. "Alright. I promise you both, I will get better."

Merit nodded before taking the towels in the bowl of cold water and leaving. Mahad gave Atem a gentle squeeze on his shoulder.

"You rest now. I will return later to check up on you."

"Thank you, Mahad."

--

It was evening when a "Psst!" awoke Atem.

With a groan, he sat up and walked slowly towards his balcony. The curtains separating him and the person out his balcony.

"Hello?" he asked, too tired to demand the guards outside his chamber's doors to seize the intruder

"Papa?" his daughter's voice called from behind the curtains.

"Anippe?" Atem asked, his eyes widening at the thought of his daughter just a few feet away from him.

"Thank Ra you're okay!" his nine-year daughter let out.

"Anipee," Atem began weakly, yet tried to act upset.

"How did you get up here? This balcony is at least fifty feet high from the courtyard."

Anippe was silent which made Atem grow more upset at her.

"Anippe," he began but his daughter cut him off.

"I'm not sorry Papa. I had to see you!"

She let her head down as she whispered "I miss you."

Atem smiled sadly at her small figure on the other side of the curtain.

"I miss you too, my princess." Atem replied with a tender smile on his face. He had missed his daughter so much that just hearing her beautiful voice made him feel one hundred times better.

"I'm coming in!" Anippe stated suddenly. Atem saw her shadow reach out to grab the curtain separating the. As much as he wished to embrace her, he stayed firm.

"Anippe, no! You'll get sick too!"

"I don't care," she said resolutely. "We can be sick together."

He frowned and shook his head. "No dear. You have to stay healthy."

"Well I don't!" she shot back.

She huffed and crossed her arms.

"I just want to see you Papa."

At that moment, Atem was tempted to yank the curtains separating him and his daughter, just so he could grant her request, but then he remembered how awful he had felt these past few days.

His daughter was everything to him. He had to protect her at all costs. He would never forgive himself if he caused her to be in pain.

"I'm sorry my love, but you can't come in. I promise you, I'll get better soon" he assured her.

"When I do, we can play together again. You just need to be a bit more patient." Atem added as he saw her shoulders slouch.

Her head lowered down.

"You promise?" she asked weakly.

"Yes my love," he nodded. "I promise you."

After a minute she stood up firm and let out a defeated sigh.

"Fine Papa."

Atem smiled.

Anippe turned around and retrieved a small bag from her waist.

"I brought you some food."

Atem was surprised. "You didn't eat your lunch?"

Anippe shrugged. "I'm not very hungry. Besides, it's your favorite today."

"Ta'amiya?" Atem eagerly asked as if his love for his daughter could not have grown even more.

"No, it's batarekh." she replied without emotion.

Atem froze at the name.

Before he could react Anippe burst out laughing.

"Of course it's not! They're ta'amiyas Papa!" she giggled.

"Anippe," Atem let out, setting a hand above his heart.

"Don't scare me like that again." he scowled jokingly as his daughter continued to laugh.

She placed the wrapped food on the ground before standing up and pointing, "It's right here, Papa. They are still somewhat warm. Please eat them and get better, okay?"

A big grin blossomed on the Atem's features. "Very well my love. I love you."

"I love you, too. Bye Papa!" Anippe replied before she made her way to the edge of the balcony and disappeared.

When he was sure she had left, due to the yelling of Mahad down below, he stepped out of the curtains and grabbed the delicious wrapped meal.

Atem noticed a pendant was holding the handkerchief from unfolding. Taking it off, Atem brought it closer to his face and smiled at the realization.

This was the same pendant he had given her when she was sick of the cold back when she was five years of summer.

The pendant was a figure of a cat, symbolizing the goddess Bastet.

Protector of children and homes from diseases.

--

Extra Scene:

"Why you ought to be ashamed of yourself Anippe! Fifty feet high? You've gone too far young lady!" Mahad scowled at the princess as she gave him an emotionless look.

"By the end of tomorrow, I want one hundred parchment scrolls saying "I promise to never disobey Master Mahad again." Do I make myself clear?" Mahad affirmed, crossing his arms.

"Yes Master Mahad." Anippe replied.

With a final nod, he confiscated her rope and began to walk away. Anippe looked down at her shoes.

"Oh and Anippe,"

The princess looked up to see Mahad's back on her.

"Next time, use the secret ladder in the west side of your father's chamber. His chamber has another balcony there. It's just deeply hidden."

Anippe didn't say anything. She let Mahad walk away, before her face broke into a huge smile.

___________________

Note(s):

"Bastet is the Egyptian goddess of the home, domesticity, women's secrets, cats, fertility, and childbirth. She protected the home from evil spirits and disease, especially diseases associated with women and children." - worldhistory .org

"The first known female doctor was Merit Ptah who lived in Egypt around 2700 B.C. According to her son who was a High Priest, she wasn't just any doctor but "the Chief Physician". " - TODAYIFOUNDOUT .COM

According to Kazuki Takashi (the creator of Yu-Gi-Oh), Atem's favorite food is Ta'amiya while his least favorite one is Batarekh.

"Another type of bean identified from ancient sources is ful nabed, a pale variety of the common broad bean (Vicia faba). Pharaonic cooks almost certainly invented ta'amia or falafel, fried rissoles made from mashed beans, onions, garlic, and spices. Coptic Christians consume large quantities of falafel during Lent. The Copts are said to be descended from the ancient Egyptians and many of their traditions are so old that their origins may well lie in Dynastic times." - Hilary Wilson on ta'amiya in her book, Egyptian Food and Drink.

"Fish were also salted or pickled in oil and, in later times, great quantities of preserved first were exported from Egypt. In some scenes of fish preparation, removal of the roes is shown. The dried and salted roe of the grey mullet, known as batarekh, is considered a great delicacy in modern Egypt and is reputed to be a recipe as old as the pharaohs." - Hilary Wilson on batarekh in her book, Egyptian Food and Drink.

Reference: The book is titled Egyptian Food and Drink by Hilary Wilson and is part of the Shire Egyptology series.

Author's Note:

Hey guys. I'm leaving the city today and won't be back till a week or two. Hope you enjoyed this chapter, wherever you are, cause by the time you'll read this I'll probably be freezing myself in Alaska. Take care and see you all soon.

[msiopao]

The One With Koo Koo’s Little Munchkin

pairing: jungkook x nobi (ft. uncle bangtan)

summary: nobi’s brother lets her babysit her niece but her and jungkook don’t really know how to take care of a baby

if she was warned of the disaster and the regret that would happen later, nobi would’ve never let that baby enter her home.

it all started when kazuki, her older brother, needed someone to look after his daughter since him and his wife were going overseas for a week-long medical conference. unfortunately, the grandparents were also out of the country since the youngest child, maiya, had a chess tournament in China and needed her guardians.

that only left him with his other sister, sakura, or most commonly known to the world as Nobi of BTS.

with the ring of cellphone and the familiar ringtone dedicated just for her oldest sibling, nobi placed the washing gloves down and retrieved the phone that was on the counter to squish it between her ear and shoulder. 

“welcome to chili’s, how may I help you?” 

a burst of laughter from the other side caused a smile on her face. “table for 4, please!”

she froze, “WHAT!? HANA IS PREGNANT!? AGAIN!?”

“WHAT!? NO! IT’S FOR THE DOG! WOONGIE THE DOGGIE!”

a relieved sigh passed through her, “dear asahi, please don’t scare me like that again.”

“i mean... my favor might?”

with that sentence, nobi should’ve declined and hung up without a second thought. but as the loving and dependable little sister she was, she pressed farther and asked what for.

“you see... hana and i need to go to germany for some conference and we can’t take nanako since we’ll be in workshops all day. ma and pa are with maiya in China for chess so it only leaves you.”

“wOW, i’M the lAST rESoRt?!” An outraged yell from her caught the attention of jin, jungkook, and jimin, who were lounging in the living room.

“please, kura,” he begged and she sighed. “you love nanako, don’t you? besides! jungkook’s there and i trust him, so you have someone for help!”

“i haven’t even seen the kid since she was born not even a year ago. and jungkook’s a man-child.”

“but you still like her. and him.”

“eh, if she’s 50% of you then maybe i don’t. and he’s a handful already so adding an actual baby will be a pain.”

“kura! please!” 

the loud voice from her sister-in-law made her cringe and back her ear away. jungkook is familiar with the voices in her phone since he roomed with her and she called her brother and his wife often. 

“please take care of nanako!” she yelled and hung up, not even giving nobi time to protest.

nobi cursed under her breath and finished putting the last plate on the rack before wiping her hands and walking over to join the rest. jungkook scooted to the side so she could sit next to him and she curled up on his side since he opened up his right arm.

“what’s up?” jin asked as he placed an UNO wild card on the table during the heated match the boys had.

“kazuki wants me to take care of his brat,” she complained. “didn’t even give me any say in it.”

“ah, it’s okay! jin-hyung knows how to take care of them!” jimin reassured, not looking up from his 5 cards.

“um, not really?” the oldest asked unsurely.

“how old is the kid?”

“she’s turning one in 5 months.”

“aren’t you happy kazuki finally settled down, though?” hobi’s question made her shrug.

“i mean, the parents have been bugging him since he turned 23 to find a girlfriend. the guy married his first ever girlfriend and had a kid with her!” she exclaimed. “to be honest, i really thought he was paying her to act as his lover but apparently not!”

“can you imagine being so desperate to buy a fake girlfriend?” yoongi mumbled making her laugh.

“use that one,” nobi nudged yoongi with her toe pointing to the card. “also, jin-hyung didn’t change any of our diapers.”

“but wouldn’t a baby be easier than raising 4 teenagers?” namjoon said and nobi looked up from jungkook’s chest.

“well, i guess it won’t be that bad if i have help.”

“speak for yourself,” yoongi mumbled to which she playfully jabbed his side.

 “anyways. if their kid goes missing, it’s not my fault because i was forced in this situation.”

jungkook tightened his arm around her. “think of this as a trial-run, bub. since you never took care of your sister, you don’t really know if you’re good with kids or not. maybe you’re like the ultimate mother master.”

she giggled, “nah. suffering 9 months for a demon and being responsible for it for 18 more years? can’t even handle myself.”

...

true to her word, nobi really can’t look after herself, much less with a kid. the doorbell rang meaning they were outside and had the little demon to take care of waiting. she tripped over some of kook’s shoes on the floor and she stubbed her toe against the door frame in a hurry to answer the door.

when kazuki dropped off his baby girl, nobi begrudgingly took the carrier from hana’s hands and snarled when kazuki sent an victorious smile.

“it’s only for 7 days, kura.”

“you know what could happen in those 7 days?! anything can happen in that time period! i wrote an entire album in a week! what’s to say i won’t do something to the brat!” her whines made kazuki roll his eyes before thumping her on the forehead.

“you big dummy,” he mused. “it’ll be fine. besides, hana put in about 7 pages of instructions there for you just in case.” she followed his finger that was pointing to the bag on her arm.

“honestly, are you my brother?” she asked, irritated. “since when do you see me reading instructions?”

“when you’re handling a tiny human and you won’t have anyone there to help you. that’s when.”

the boys were huddled around the carrier in the middle of the parlor, absolutely smitten with chubby cheeks of the baby and the little puffs of air she let out. sleep was heavy on her and her tiny fist clenched the baby blue blanket that her mother knitted her.

nobi was sorting out the baby powder and the nappies at the kitchen while jungkook squeezed some of the milk on his arm to test the temperature. he had assembled a crib in their room earlier and she placed all of the clothes into an emptied drawer that used to house her socks.

“sakura! how could you hate this little angel?!” jin squealed. 

“hyung! too loud!” jungkook chided and nobi laughed.

“she looks too much like maiya.” her answer didn’t reach the others ears since no one reacted. she leaned her hip against the island and crossed her arm, amused and watching the boys get hypnotized by nanako.

“can you believe a little munchkin, not even a year old, has all the members of bangtan wrapped around her tiny finger?” jungkook asked from behind her, resting his chin on her shoulder.

nobi leaned against his chest, “well, the guys love kids in general. even she has yoongi-hyung’s attention, the attention that is reserved only for his baby Holly.”

jimin saw nanako flutter her tiny eyes open and watched it widen at the sight of 6 unfamiliar faces. she must’ve been frightened at the foreign surrounding and the lack of her mother and father only added to the fear. soon, her wails filled the previously quiet dorm and the boys panicked.

“oi! eomma! appa! your baby is crying!” tae shouted and nobi rushed over from the nappies, kneeling quickly and hovering over the carrier.

“hello, darling,” she cooed. “have a nice nap?” nanako didn’t respond but her cries did quiet down a bit, blinking up at the familiar-looking person. nobi picked her up and placed her on her arms, fingers gently touching her cheeks.

jungkook came over with the ready bottle of milk and handed it to her so she could feed the baby. “here.”

the boys watched the 2 peer down at the suckling baby and they snapped up when someone’s camera shutter and camera flash went off. taehyung had his old camera, jin had his polaroid, while namjoon had his phone up, all with wide eyes as if they were just caught.

“oi! nanako is feeding!” jungkook scolded causing nobi and the others to laugh.

“wah, it’s like we’re looking into the future!” hobi whispered, shocked at the sight in front of him.

“joonie, look! our babies with their baby!”

nanako continued to feed, eventually finishing her entire bottle, and nobi passed her off to jungkook so he could burp her while she washes the bottle for the next feed. 

the guys shared a look and they grinned, relieved that taking care of this baby wasn’t going to be as bad as they thought.

...

eyebags and wrinkles were making their home in the faces of nobi and jungkook, victims of her irregular sleeping schedule. it was only the third day and her second night with them was the roughest time they’ve went through in a while. 

jungkook was slumped over at the dining table, sleeping and breakfast shoved to the side, and nobi was clutching her coffee cup and seemed to be sleeping with her eyes wide open. 

jin and namjoon were observing them with concern since they too were woken up by the loud cries of the child and they know the maknaes haven’t had a good sleep since the first night.

“kura?” jin poked her at the shoulder but received no response. “sakura?”

she jolted, wildly looking around as if she didn’t know where she was. “huh?”

her sudden movement woke jungkook up and he also looked out of sorts, eyes suddenly going wide. “the baby!”

“the baby!” nobi echoed before shooting up to stand but a hand stopped her.

“sshh,” namjoon soothed. “taehyung and jimin washed her already and are changing her right now. don’t worry, hoseok’s there with them.”

similar fatigue-laced eyes settled on the oldest and the leader as they sat back down, confusion and alarm slowly disappearing. jungkook groaned and started to slump over to go back to sleep but shot up when he heard the giggles from the devil herself.

“appa! nanako is here!” tae said in a child-like voice, carrying nanako with jimin and hobi trailing behind him.. “nanako is clean!” nanako saw jungkook and nobi and immediately wiggled to go to her temporary parents.

“nanako wants to see eomma!” jimin followed but nobi immediately shook her head.

“no!” she expressed, back away from the baby.

“aw, why?” tae pouted but smiled again when jungkook outstretched his arms.

“come here, my little munchkin,” he grunted. nanako found solace in his arms and she laid her head on his chest, as if she was listening to his steady heartbeat with her eyes closed.

nobi observed the girl’s calm behavior, slightly leaning forward to get a better look. “if only she was this peaceful last night.”

“hm, this is what parenthood is like, kids.” yoongi’s comment made the rest shiver.

“when was the last time you both slept longer than 3 hours?” jin asked as the amount of times he heard walking in their room was concerning.

“the night before she got here,” jungkook answered. 

“well, you’re lucky she’s only here for a week. next week, we have a meeting with Bang and we might start choreography classes then. it’s good that we won’t have a baby in tow.” 

everyone nodded at namjoon and at the mention of the meeting, hobi and yoongi dispersed to leave to their studios while the 95-liners were leaving to go to the gym to prepare their bodies for the grueling dances. namjoon was accompanying jin to the grocery store so it left the maknaes and the baby at home with no one else.

thankfully, the child was starting to fall asleep and nobi noticed jungkook fighting to keep his eyes open.

“come on, let’s go to bed.” her suggestion sparked a little life in jungkook and he carefully carried nanako to their bedroom where they could all get comfortable.

within seconds, nanako fell asleep and with the rise and fall of jungkook’s chest combined with his heartbeat made her slip into dreamworld quickly. jungkook was already snoring by the time nobi laid next to him and she hummed in content, happy that she was able to finally sleep.

...

their days continued on like that.

being fortunate enough to be on break, jungkook and nobi were able to sleep whenever they wanted since they were usually kept up by the energy that nanako only released at nighttime. 

but they weren’t the only ones suffering.

it was now clear that the lungs that sakura had was genetic as it also transferred over to her niece by the way she belted her cries, the boys jokingly singing along to it (cue bretman rock). at night, they have created ways to block out her cries like sleeping with airpods plugged in or on jimin and hoseok’s case, leaving for 3 nights to sleep in a hotel since their room was right next door.

however, tonight was especially bad.

nanako refused to drink her milk, instead crying and screaming the entire time she was awake. when she did sleep, she would eventually wake herself up and start the entire cycle again. nobi was getting worried because she only had 1 bottle of milk today and she didn’t want to be held or touched by anyone.

combined with the worry and the sleep deprivation, nobi was in tears, sobbing on the floor next to nanako’s crib, who was also crying, so together they had a crying session. everyone else was busy, even jungkook since he joined the others in the gym, so she was left to fend for herself and the baby wasn’t helping by refusing to take in any milk.

“nanako, please,” she begged. “one bottle, hm? just one bottle.”

nanako shook her head and cried louder making sakura wail more. maybe it wasn’t the ideal situation or the ideal move but nobi didn’t know what to do because she’s never taken cared of a baby before. initially, she called her brother to figure out how to solve the problem but neither of them were answering and the booklet had nothing on there on how to get her to drink.

honestly, of all things, that should be in there.

the two girls were so busy having their sobbing match that they completely missed the front door and jungkook’s greeting. the boy was in shock at the sight of nobi clutching the crib with nanako inside while they both cried their eyes out.

“bub,” he whispered before grabbing her to his arms.

“i don’t know why she won’t drink, kook. and i’m so tired,” she wailed and cried harder.

jungkook racked his brain on what to do until settling on a decision. “tell you what. go to bed and plug your airpods in so you could sleep while i take care of nanako.”

nobi started to protest because she knew he needed sleep too but he waved her off. the feeling of the plushness of her bed was so foreign to her now since she rarely had time to sleep on it and relish in the comfort. the loud lo-fi music drowned out the screams and wails of the baby, allowing her to finally slip into her own dreamland.

it was only about 2 hours that she woke up and she cursed, fearing that she has so suddenly created a new maternal sense in a span of 5 days.quickly sitting up, the panic in her chest soothed when she saw an empty bottle on the dresser and jungkook swaying with nanako cradled on his arms, sleeping. she gently pried the earbuds out of her ears and smiled softly at jungkook’s quiet singing, feeling relaxed herself.

“go to sleep, my little munchkin,” he whispered. “koo koo will be here when you wake up. i promise.”

nobi closed her eyes in gratitude and forced down a scream of gratitude to the lord and savior, god almighty, that nanako has eaten and finally fallen asleep. and jungkook was here.

jungkook noticed her rising figure and he sat down next to her, still cradling the baby.

“morning,” she grinned to which he returned. “how was she?”

“well, took a while to convince her to eat but she did and she just fell asleep.”

“you’ll be a great father someday, koo koo.” jungkook bashfully looked away to hide the smile that threatened to escape.

“nah, i just communicate with children better.”

“do you want a baby girl? or a baby boy?” 

a moment of thinking caused silence until he answered, “doesn’t matter. as long as i have my family.”

if she didn’t grow up with jungkook and didn’t see through his puberty and awkward and ugly moments, nobi might’ve just busted out a ring and married him then and there.

...

kazuki and hana were amused at the smiling face of the usually shy jungkook and the anger and irritation that radiated off of the girl beside him. the father gently took hold of his daughter from jungkook’s arms and she giggled, seemingly happy to see her father again.

hana placed a hand on nobi’s arm and squeezed in gratitude. “thank you so much, kura.”

nobi had no energy left in her to lie a smile so she sighed. “you’re really welcome. but she’s a handful. she kinda reminds me of maiya.”

kazuki laughed at the mention of their youngest sister. “you stayed with grandmother for a year because you hated her crying.”

“exactly.”

“she was really nice, hyung.” jungkook reassured the man. “loud, but sweet.”

“then she should be over any time, right?”

“during the day, yes.” but she made a cross with her arms. “but nighttime, is no no.”

“either way, thank you so much, sakura, jungkook-ssi.” hana gratefully said and the family finally moved to leave.

nanako, who had her head on her father’s shoulder, turned to peak at the two who were slowly getting farther away and raised a wobbly hand as if saying her good-byes.

“bye bye, my little munchkin!” jungkook yelled and she giggled, flapping her arms.

when they were out of sight, nobi sighed and felt the relief flowing through her veins.

“she’s an absolute adorable little baby. but if i have to spend another night with her, i will lose it.”

jungkook laughed and wrapped an arm around her shoulders to pull her closer.

“again, it’s to prepare for the future, right? because i really want a munchkin of my own.”

a/n: don’t be silly, wrap your willy

[incensuous]

always you (kazuki/yuzuki)

fandom: selector infected wixoss pairing(s): kazuki/yuzuki (tw: twincest) rating: T read on ao3 Yuzuki asks Kazuki a question she’s not sure she’s ready to hear the answer to.

(i will die for this pair of CANON twincest. they’re amazing. i love them. i’m heartbroken there’s not more content for them. i want to give them so much more!!)

“Did you prefer me or Hanayo as me?”

The words came out in a rush, because Yuzuki had been exploding with this thought since she'd returned to her body, and—perhaps more importantly—to Kazuki’s side. When she regained her body, with it came the memories of the time Hanayo had occupied where she existed now. She was able to see all the moments Hanayo, as her, had experienced with Kazuki, and the uncertainty plagued her. 

They were finally home now, together, alone, for the first time in weeks (even though it felt like it had been much longer than that). 

Sitting in her bedroom, she wanted to cry with joy because she never thought she’d be with her twin again. 

Kazuki’s eyes widened at her, and Yuzuki tried to remain calm (ironically, Hanayo’s forte). She almost immediately regretted asking—she knows full well she wouldn't be able to handle it if he said... if he said—

“Yuzuki, how can you think I'd ever love anyone but you?”

Yuzuki deflated, all her anxiety and panic had her bursting at the seams, and her shoulders drooped in pure relief. The euphoria threatened to overwhelm her, and she wanted to leap with joy—this was what she’d wanted her whole life, right before her eyes, but she was so, so exhausted from bracing for the worst. She lifted tired eyes to her brother. 

“I just… I was so scared. I thought I could handle anything in the world, except losing you,” she whispered, weakly. “All this time, I wasn’t sure, that’s why I didn’t say anything.” She closed her eyes. “I thought it was so impossible, it’s why I did all of this in the first place.”

Kazuki didn’t know what to say. Before this, he hadn’t thought it was possible either. He was in so much denial, he’d ignored his feelings to the point of oblivion. The guilt had been eating at him since the realization of what Yuzuki had gone through… for him, for them. 

If he had acted on his feelings, could this all have been prevented? 

But it made no sense to dwell on it now. 

Instead, he sat beside her on her bed, taking her left hand in his. “I know. I’m sorry. We both… we told each other everything, except the most important thing, huh?

“But… I need you to know, the whole time, I thought it was you. I did think you were acting a bit strange at times, but I was always in love with only you, Yuzuki. I didn’t suddenly fall in love with the you who’d confessed to me. But it made me realize I’d loved you all this time. I need you to know that.”

Truly, the deception, even if there was no ill intent, had hurt him. Knowing the confession he’d received, while it was surely everything Yuzuki had dreamt of, had not come from his twin herself—not with her mind and soul present, was painful. Their moments, all the firsts he’d thought they’d cherish together for the rest of their lives… was one-sided, even as Hanayo channeled all of Yuzuki’s love for him. 

He looked at her then, seeing the slow tears trailing down her cheeks. It had always been quite rare for Yuzuki to cry, but much less so for him. 

His hand reached up to wipe them with the pad of his thumb, as he cupped her jaw, gently nudging her to face him. He hovered close, giving her time to edge away if she wasn’t ready, one last chance to back out. 

But she sat there, trembling, as he pressed his lips against hers for the first time, truly. 

Yuzuki felt jealous of her own body for already having experienced this, but the feelings burned away as she wept in joy, leaning in closer. 

Kazuki wasn’t sure if he was just imagining it, but he felt so much relief in his chest, as if he’d been holding his breath for so long without knowing, and finally things were starting to settle into their rightful places. 

He leaned his forehead against hers, staring into her watery eyes. “I love the Yuzuki who protected me. I love the Yuzuki who never left my side. I love you.” 

The ease of being with his twin, the one person he’d known the longest, longer than anyone in the universe, felt so complete. 

“I love you, Kazuki,” she whispered back, the way she'd always dreamed of. “Always.”