Broken

Nina had already thrown him for a loop. She seemed a decent girl, regardless of his attitude towards him... One the thief couldn’t blame her for. Accidents happened and if he were to stick around for a kid, he knew he’d mess them up. Or he’d ditch. Either way, being hated by them was an inevitability.

But there were another two. Two that vied for his attention and whilst not entirely unscathed, did not carry the same level of pain that lay behind their sister’s eyes. Even if he did a terrible job with her, it seemed that Nina was a better sister than he a father.

Nina had thrown him for a loop. The twins made it an absolute spiral. Two more suggested commitment. That Araceli wanted to be with him. And that he’d agreed to more children. And Kotone looked up to him, all smiles and adoration. It almost suggested that maybe, just maybe, his future self hadn’t screwed up entirely... But then he remembers that she’s so young. He must have left the picture before she was old enough to remember him for how he really was.

“For me? It would suit your mother better but since you made it especially,” Gods, he had no idea how to talk to children. “I can’t say no, can I?” So her request was granted, Zero brought to his knees for a purpose he could never have guessed.

Kotone was sweet. As was Kanna. And there was something terrifying about the thought of them existing... Eponine was an adult in her own right, or close enough. He didn’t have to watch how he spoke around her. Didn’t have to pretend that oh, of course he had every intention of marrying her mother and having three beautiful children. But most importantly, he couldn’t fuck her up any more than he had already done. Kotone? Kotone was a literal child. She and her brother the youngest of the ones they’d met so far. In fact, Zero was only just a few years off being a probable age for her father. Even his current one wasn’t completely impossible, even if very unusual. He was in prime position to fuck her up, at least.

“Thank you, Koto.”