1389 Words
No TW’s, just cute fluffy parents and Kenji being a little dense at the end
They had been watching a movie, the six of them; a father, mother and their four kids. Their oldest daughter sat at the far end of the couch and she had fallen asleep a good halfway through the move, arms crossed on the armrest with her cheek pressing against her hands, breathing deep and even though rain pattered on the screen. Her father really couldn’t blame her, she had taken on so much as of late and was extremely busy. If she had the time, doubtless she would nap in the middle of the day, as well.
The second oldest daughter sat snuggled in her mother’s lap, curled up slightly but also fast asleep. She was prone to nightmares – something the adults had learned early on, that was, in fact, a shared trait among the youngest three. Thankfully, the young girl had learned that clinging to her mother was an excellent way to dispel the demons.
They should have been thankful that their children clung onto them so tightly, no? In reality, all of them would go to either Ayaka or Kenjirou himself save for one; the younger of the two boys, who remained steadfast and stubborn in his efforts to deal with his problems on his own. It took a lot of guessing, and sometimes third party intervention, to find out what the problem was so that they could deal with it accordingly. It could range from him being sick (which he would try to hide), to him feeling lonely (which he would try to hide), to having a nightmare and being so struck full of terror that it nearly paralyses him (which he also tries to hide, with varying degrees of success). This also happened to be the only child that would stay up and watch the entire movie while the other three fell asleep at some point in time during the movie and they stayed asleep. It almost always worked like a charm.
Their father loved all of them identically, really, but out of the adopted children he held an especially soft spot for the second youngest son. He was weak when they had met him – or rather, he was frail. He held no muscle mass, he was thin beyond compare and any clothes he wore were almost too thick. The way he shied away from them was even more painful and though Kenjirou knew that he had to show his love evenly, he could not help but pull little Kousuke into his arms first thing, rub his back, and tell him that the three of them were going to live with them.
He remembered how the child had reacted – at first, he did not move, startled and terrified by the giant male who had picked him up without warning but then he seemed to calm, most likely reading Kenjirou’s mind as the father learnt later on. Then the child had begun trembling, Kenji’s lab coat dampening in one spot as he felt a soft, barely-there cry escape the child.
He wasn’t sure if he felt pity or adoration for the broken child. While the other two had watched, Ayaka had knelt down and hugged both Tsubomi and Shuuya tightly, assuring them that they were coming too and they were all going to be one big family.
He supposed that, back then, it may have seemed too good to be true for the kids. Now, though, they were well settled in and quite comfortable.
Kenjirou would often sleep on the couch so that Kousuke could, too – mostly because the child would often complain about how strange and bizarre Shuuya’s dreams were, sometimes even scary and since, for a long time he could not shut his power off, he was forced to listen to those awful dreams and be unable to sleep.
Sometimes he would sleep with Tsubomi, but most often he’d go to Kenji and the brunette would be woken up, he would roll out of bed, grab an extra blanket with one hand, hoist Kousuke up with the other, and the two of them would plonk down on the couch.
Even on movie nights, the two of them would be extremely close. Much like Ayaka’s position with Tsubomi, Kousuke was curled up on Kenjirou’s lap, head nuzzled into the crack between his arm and his side, breathing deeply. He loved it when his children were like this – at their most serene (barring Shuuya, who had begun throwing pieces of popcorn at Tsubomi). One hit her in the ear and she flinched in her sleep, curling up slightly and Ayaka gave Shuuya a look, one that said ‘do it again and you’re grounded’.
In retaliation, Shuuya went to go after Kousuke and Kenji rather kindly nudged his hand from the bowl, moving it so that there were no more projectiles immediately available.
He glanced up at his wife and she nodded, standing up from where she sat on a rocking chair and set Tsubomi down, instead taking Shuuya’s hand and tugging on it slightly.
“Come on you, bed,” She chided softly and Shuuya whined faintly before relenting, following his mother out of the room. With a soft chuckle, Kenji stood up as well and set Kousuke down, instead picking up the much heavier Ayano to lug the oldest back into her room to tuck her in. Thankfully, she already had her pyjamas on so it was just a matter of tucking her in.
“Mm… Dad?” She had stirred, becoming half-aware of her surroundings as her position was changed and her head was placed on her dad’s shoulder. With a faint smile and a hum, the brunette rubbed his daughter’s back before heading upstairs with her.
“You fell asleep during the movie again, Ayano?”
“’Gain? Oh…” With a soft sigh, almost with an ‘I don’t care’ sigh, Ayano fell back to sleep nearly immediately while still in her father’s arms. It was amazing how the kids did that. He gave her a quick kiss goodnight on the forehead just as Ayaka entered with Tsubomi, who had woken up, at least somewhat, and trotted after her mother obediently. She crawled in as directed and accepted a good night kiss from both of her parents.
Once the door was shut and the headed back into the living room for Kenjirou to pick Kousuke up, Ayaka tapped his shoulder and gestured for him to sit down. A little thrown off but nodding slowly, the brunette sat down with the last slumbering child in his lap. Ayaka sat down next to her and ran her hands through her son’s hair.
“Can you believe it’s almost been a year already?” She murmured, eyes soft and Kenji chuckled softly, shaking his head. It felt like it had been a matter of weeks.
“Listen, Kenjirou, you really should pay some more attention to the other kids.” That statement caught the brunette off guard and he raised an eyebrow at his wife, who did not look at him, seemingly absorbed in petting her son’s hair and smoothing out any tangles that may have formed. The father shook his head and took Kousuke’s hand in his, giving it a gentle squeeze.
“Like that. You’ve never done that for Shuuya or Tsubomi-” Kenjirou cut her off quickly, with a soft kiss and a reply.
“Tsubomi sticks to you like glue; if she wanted to come to me, she would. And Shuuya’s a ton more comfortable with a mother than a father, Ayaka. Kousuke’s never had either, so…” He let his reply hang in the air and he saw his wife sigh from beside him, removing her hand from Kousuke’s hand and standing up, allowing her husband to do the same.
“Well… just, be a little more conscious, okay? They’re not as distant as you think. They give you these looks, sometimes, and I think that they’re just scared to talk to you, but they’re a bit jealous, too. That’s not good.” With a faint sight, Kenji peered down at his son and nodded. Maybe he should work on that. At least a little bit.
“All right. Now let me put him to bed and I’ll be there soon, okay?” There was a chuckle and a faint nod before Kenji started upstairs with Kousuke, and Ayaka cleaned the living room from Shuuya’s target practice.
