Work Text:
"Miri-chan!" Kotori waved the girl over as soon as she was done unloading all of her things in her assigned cubby. Hinata was with her as well.
Miri beamed at her friends, and was ready to take off running toward them. Before she did, she turned toward Kazuki and gave his leg one last giant squeeze. "Bye-bye Kazuki-papa!"
"Miri-chan, bye-bye." He returned her smile, looking on as she raced toward her newfound friends, before leaving.
"Kotori-chan, Hinata-chan. Morning!" Miri sat at the low table in the corner where the other two girls were seated.
"Miri-chan!" Kotori sang, before a giggle erupted from her lips. "Hinata-chan was just talking about her mommy and daddy."
"Kotori-chan.…" Hinata groaned, her face turning red as she pushed her glasses more securely upon her face.
Miri tilted her head to the side. "Hinata-chan's mommy and daddy?"
Kotori was all too excited to relay the information she had heard. "Uh-huh. She said that they were alllll lovey dovey yesterday."
Miri looked toward Hinata, and the other girl sighed, still red in the face.
"It's because of their anniversary."
It was a new word for Miri, and she stumbled as she tried to say it aloud. "A...anni-basari?"
"It's when your mommy and daddy are together for a really long time, and they dress up, and go out. And kiss a lot."
"Chu chu. Chuuuu~" Kotori giggled, enjoying the embarrassment of her friend.
"Oh! But Miri-chan has two daddies. Do they have an anniversary too?"
Miri tilted her head to the side. "Kazuki-papa, and Rei-papa?"
"Yeah! Do they hold hands, and hug, and kiss and stuff?"
"Mmmm." Miri held a finger to her chin, as her lips pulled down at the corners. She tried to think back to the things that her daddies did together. "Kazuki-papa always cooks for Rei-papa. And he cleans up after him too!"
"My mommy does that." Kotori replied.
Hinata echoed her words immediately after. "Mine too!"
"I've never seen my papas do that."
"Whaaaa? Maybe they do it when you're asleep?"
"Uh-uh," Miri shook her head, "They sleep in different rooms. Rei-papa likes to sleep in the bathtub. They only sleep together when Miri asks."
"Eh? Really? Are they mad at eachother?"
"Kotori-chan!" Hinata hissed.
But the words were already out there, and it made Miri think about her daddies again. To her, they always seemed to get along. Maybe Kazuki-papa got upset at times when Rei-papa wanted to play video games instead of eating, or sleep in late instead of doing anything. But she knew they were still friends and cared about each other a lot because they were always together. And they always went out on jobs to fight bad guys together too!
When Kazuki had gotten Miri from the daycare one day, he finally decided to approach the other parents. They had already been aware of him and Rei because of the grand entrance they'd made on Miri's first day, (afterall, it had been about ascertaining dominance – even though it did technically backfire,) but that was it. Aside from a glance, or a wave when it came to picking up or dropping Miri off at school, he had no further interaction with any of them.
Honestly, it had been for the best. But the universe had bigger plans for him. Due to him and Rei being busy with their assignments from Kyuutarou, Kazuki barely found the time to check up on things with the daycare. One way or another he would forget to update Miri’s journal, or forget if they needed to bring specific clothes, or sign papers for a school outing.
He had to admit that it was getting to be a lot to keep track of, and he hated seeing the reproving or disappointed look on Miri’s face whenever something of the sort happened. So one day, he had finally bit the bullet and simply asked. Kazuki would have gone to their teacher, Miss Anna, from the beginning if he didn’t worry that it made him look incompetent. But he figured that the mothers would have an idea of what he was dealing with since they all had to juggle their daily lives as well as their own little bundles of energy.
He had approached Kotori’s mother since Kotori and Miri were always together now. It had seemed like the logical choice. And he was not disappointed. The woman had been overly enthusiastic to introduce him to the parents’ – though it was really just the mothers’ – group chat.
Staying on top of things had become as simple as checking his phone. Messages like ‘Kazuki-papa, don’t forget today is–’ or ‘The kids need to bring their–’ always kept him in the loop, and he saw less and less of Miri’s disappointment. There was always the occasional gossip as well, about how one or the other’s husbands did this or that, or how someone found a great deal in the supermarket. And Kazuki found it was something that could fill in the empty spaces as he prepared food for Rei and Miri. The bargains sometimes gave him ideas on what to cook as well, so it was an added bonus. So when he flipped his phone over and opened the Aozora group chat while getting dinner started, he thought nothing of it. And when he saw his name pop up in the conversation, he figured it was information that he would need for the upcoming days for a trip or something he had once again let slip by.
It wasn’t.
‘Kazuki-papa, are you and Rei-papa doing well?’
The message seemed innocent enough, albeit strange to ask so suddenly. Regardless, Kazuki decided to respond in kind. ‘Of course! I’m just preparing dinner right now. That two for one tofu deal was a life saver. Eri-san, thank you!!’
‘Haha. Of course!’
A moment passed with no further response and Kazuki thought that was the end of the conversation. But shortly after, Tsumugi's mother sent a text to the chat. And when he checked, he saw that it was in reference to him again.
‘What about Rei-papa?’
Kazuki glanced over to the couch where Rei and Miri were in the middle of a nap. They weren’t related but they certainly seemed to act alike in sleep, legs sprawled and mouth agape.
Kazuki sighed. ‘He’s asleep.’ And he didn’t know what possessed him to elaborate further, but he did. ‘As usual.’
‘You should get him to cook together with you.’
Kazuki almost laughed at Yuki’s mother’s suggestion. There was no way Rei would ever help him out in the kitchen. If it were left to him, they would probably have to survive on cereal, and instant noodles for every meal. He had no idea how Rei ever managed to live on his own before he had moved in. ‘I don’t think that’s possible ladies. Not if I still want the kitchen functioning at the end of the day.’
At that the chat was flooded with a stream of laughing emoticons and stickers, while some of the mothers typed out that they knew exactly what he was talking about having dealt with similar things with their own husbands.
‘But Kazuki-papa, remember. It’s important to make time for yourselves.’
“Eh?” Kazuki blinked down at his phone screen. He wondered if Hinata’s mother had made a typo and actually just meant Kazuki himself. Despite his confusion, the following message cleared it up, but brought up a different type of confusion instead.
‘Yes. Kazuki-papa and Rei-papa need alone time every once in a while.’
‘Even if he’s sleeping, you should slip into bed and give him a special wake up.'
‘Meiko-san!’
Some of the mothers sent out laughing stickers, while others sent ones of shock. Kazuki was squarely in the latter half, but he didn’t have the wits about him in the moment to even respond to the chat.
The woman was clearly not shy, and stood by her words. ‘We’re young. You need to add some spice to your life!’
‘What Meiko-san means is if you need advice on things with Rei-san as well, you can count on us!’
There was a series of agreement throughout the chat. But while they continued sending messages, Kazuki had to scroll back to make certain that he hadn’t hallucinated the entire interaction.
‘Ah, yes. Thank you.’ Kazuki’s fingers felt stiff as he finally wrote his response to everything. There was so much to be said, but nothing else came to mind. How else would he even begin to explain their little family unit to others.
“What are you doing?” The sound of Rei’s voice suddenly in his ear made Kazuki jump. He threw his phone up in surprise and was forced to juggle it before it could fall into the pot. With the device securely back in his hands, he shoved it into his pocket and turned to Rei.
“When did you wake up? Is Miri up as well?” Kazuki glanced over in time to see the girl turn over in her sleep.
“You’re not done cooking?”
“No thanks to you! Now get out of the kitchen so I can finish up.” He waved his hands back and forth at Rei who reluctantly did as he was told, lifting his shirt to scratch his stomach as he went.
“What is all this garbage?” Kazuki fussed as he left his bedroom and entered into the living room first thing in the morning. A heap of several plastic wrappers lay scattered on the floor around Rei's position on the couch. The sight of the mess alone drove Kazuki into action, as he bent down to pick them up.
“Ah.” Rei glanced at him from the corner of his eyes, not fully taking his attention away from the game he was playing.
“What?” Kazuki glared at the man as he gathered more of the plastic and bunched them together.
“I need those.” Rei's fingers stilled in their movement on the game controller. He looked over at Kazuki to see him already looking back.
“Why do you need a ton of garbage?” Kazuki’s face was carefully arranged in the image of incredulity.
“They’re for a special plate.”
“You hoarder!”
“You’re a clean freak.”
Kazuki lifted a finger to point accusingly. “You don’t have to be a clean freak to not want to live in a garbage dump!”
"Pa–" Both men turned at the sound to see Miri standing near the corner of the wall leading from the hallway to the living room.
She looked up at both her papas with a weighty frown pulling at the corners of her mouth.
Without warning, Miri's lips began to quiver and her eyes glazed over with a sheen of tears. And it wasn't long before the dam to her emotions broke– tears flowed wild and free down her cheeks.
"Miri!" Kazuki flinched at the sudden outburst. "What's wrong? Why are you crying?" He took a few steps to reach her and crouched down in front of her, arms flailing wildly.
"You're no good with women." Rei quipped.
Kazuki whipped his head around to glare at the other man. "You're no help either!"
Rei had no rebuttal so he kept his mouth shut as Kazuki turned back to their child.
"Come on, Miri-chan. Tell Kazuki-papa what's wrong.”
Whatever intentions Kazuki had, failed as Miri's cries only grew louder.
"Do you have a tummy ache? Does your head hurt?” Kazuki pressed the back of his hand against her head. “Not a fever,” he mumbled to himself. “Papa can't fix it if you don't say what the matter is."
It was only then that Miri was able to get her cries under some kind of control. She sniffed while rubbing at her eyes with the sleeves of her sweater, snot smeared against her face until she wiped it again.
“You and Rei-papa don’t hug, hold hands, and kiss! And now you're yelling!” Miri’s eyes wavered as she sniffled, fighting to keep the snot from leaking out of her nose.
“Eh–?” Kazuki and Rei both made a sound at the same time.
“Yuki-chan said that when mommies and daddies don’t love each other, they go away and don’t live together!” The words made a fresh wave of tears spring to her eyes. “You’ll leave Miri all alone!”
Kazuki flinched at the emotions in her voice. He was still learning when it came to Miri, but he knew without a doubt that he hated to see sadness in her eyes. She deserved nothing less than to have her usual radiant smile on her face.
“Kazuki-papa and Rei-papa don't love each other."
“Well…” Kazuki hesitated, “we’re a bit different from the parents of those kids at your daycare….”
Miri pouted. "Isn't Kazuki-papa Miri's papa?"
"Yes, well–"
"And Rei-papa is Miri's papa too."
"Yes." Kazuki responded while Rei simply nodded his head.
"So your Miri's papas together!"
Kazuki sighed. “....You’re right." A tiny self-deprecating smile lifted one corner of his lips. "Don’t cry Miri. Papa and Rei aren’t going anywhere.”
Miri stared at him.
And stared.
Kazuki began to feel antsy under the scrutiny of her gaze, not sure if she would burst into tears again, or had something more to say.
In the end, it turned out to be the latter. But the words she spoke were nothing like what Kazuki had expected to hear.
“Then you have to kiss.”
"Eh? I don't think–"
Miri cut in before he could finish. “Kiss so you can love each other.”
"No, you see. We're not like that."
"Papa is a liar! He’s going to leave Miri!" The girl's tears grew too much for her and began to fall again.
"Papa will do anything, Miri. Do you want to go shopping? Do you not like your toys? We'll get you new ones. How about a bigger bed?" Kazuki rambled off multiple suggestions trying to distract the girl. "We can all go together. Won't that be fun?"
"No. No. No!" Miri fell onto her stomach. Her arms and legs flailed up and down hitting the floor each time.
"...You can't be serious..."
"Papaaaaa." Miri's cries rose louder. "Y-you have to kisssss!"
"Ah…” Kazuki looked over at Rei for help, but the man had been walking quite hastily toward the exit. “Where are you going?" Kazuki yelled.
"Ah– to water the plants."
"Do you think that's important right now? Come here!"
"Kiss. Kiss!" Miri's wails continued in the background as Rei frantically shook his head.
"Nooo."
Kazuki ignored his cries as he grabbed Rei by the back of his collar to stop him from escaping. "Listen! We have to do this for Miri. It wouldn't have happened if you had just cleaned up your mess–!"
"Waaaaa!"
At the higher pitch of Miri’s cry, Kazuki backtracked to change the tone of his voice to something less harsh. "I-I mean. I'm so grateful for you letting me stay in your apartment."
Miri's cries quieted a bit, but they had not stopped entirely. Kazuki knew he was on the right track. Just one kiss and he would hopefully succeed in getting Miri to calm down. Though, it seemed to have the opposite effect on Rei as the man continued to shake his head, groaning "nooo" in his arms.
"Just stay still and I'll kiss you on the cheek." Kazuki whispered harshly as he turned Rei to the side, so that Miri could see that her precious papas were going to grant her wish. He figured a kiss on the cheek wouldn't be so bad. It was simple enough. Or it should have been.
But Rei seemed not to have heard what he had said, or had been surprised over the suggestion regardless, and had turned to look at Kazuki right as Kazuki's lips descended toward him.
Three pairs of eyes widened at that moment. There were a lot of things that Kazuki could have thought about at the moment, but the only thing that fully manifested in his mind was how Rei's lips felt soft despite being a bit chapped. He hadn't expected it, even if he had never really thought about his lips until they were pressed up against his own. And he noticed that Rei had already brushed his teeth for the morning since Kazuki could smell the hint of mint on his breath. So he at least knew that Rei hadn't simply woken up on the weekend and started playing video games.
Rei made a small, "mm" noise, but it was enough to snap Kazuki out of whatever trance he had fallen into. He pulled away, only to see a patch of red violently clashing with the paleness of Rei's cheeks.
"Kyaa~"
They both startled before turning to see Miri looking at them with wide eyes, and an even wider smile. Her eyes sparkled and almost lit up the entire room.
"Again!"
"Wha–"
Rei’s words were cut short when Kazuki grabbed his face, holding his jaw between thumb and the rest of his fingers, and turned it to the side. Before he could think more of it, Kazuki placed a chaste kiss squarely upon Rei's cheek.
Miri let out another squeal of delight, and ran to both men, wrapping her arms around their legs. "Miri too! Miri wants kisses too."
Kazuki let out a sigh of relief over the fact that they had gotten her to smile again. He gathered the small child into his arms, and placed a small kiss on her cheek as well.
She giggled, and Kazuki peppered a series of small kisses over and over again upon her cheek. When he was done, he looked over to Rei with a grin on his face. Miri's joy was infectious.
His tone was teasing when he spoke. "You too, Rei-papa."
Miri waved her arms over at the brooding man. "Rei-papa too~!"
"Rei-papa~"
"Rei-papa~" Miri parroted.
Before the chanting could go on any further, Rei leaned in and gave a kiss to Miri's other cheek, earning a happy squeal as a reward. It was better to just give in rather than have the two nag at him the entire time, but Rei had to admit, if only to himself, that it was a good feeling to make Miri as happy as she was.
“Miri.” Kazuki called the girl’s name, gaining her attention. “You’re part of our family now, so we won’t leave you. We’re all stuck together now, okay?” He had once told Rei that with their line of work they shouldn’t carelessly take people or things into their lives that they could not afford to take care of. But it was different now. They had already done so much for Miri, the only thing they could do now was stick with it and try their best to make her happy and do everything they could to protect not only her, but each other as well.
Rei looked at Kazuki as he spoke, but he didn’t say anything in response as he mumbled the word “Family,” under his breath.
Miri’s eyes had widened as she’d listened to Kazuki’s words. Without warning she wrapped one arm tightly around Kazuki’s neck while stretching to wrap the other around Rei’s. "Un! Miri loves Kazuki-papa and Rei-papa sooo much."
And she kissed both her papas on their cheeks, her tears dried and forgotten.
When Miri got to school the next day, she was a ray of sunshine, and her smile lit both her lips and eyes.
Kotori and Hinata had arrived slightly before Miri, so they were still with their parents saying their goodbyes. A few of the other parents were still scattered around the field as well.
Miss Anna walked over to Miri and Kazuki, and crouched down to eye level for the greeting. "Good morning, Miri-chan. You look very happy today. Did something good happen?"
Miri's little head went up and down in rapid movements even before she could speak. "Un!" Her smile got a bit brighter, and it caused her teacher to smile as well.
But Miri wasn't done. "Kazuki-papa kissed Rei-papa!"
"Oh." Miss Anna blinked, and smiled at the girl’s enthusiasm while casting a glance toward Kazuki.
"Ha?" The joints in Kazuki's neck creaked as he slowly turned to look down at Miri. The girl seemed to be completely unaware of the gravity of her words, as she skipped ahead to join in with her friends, happily chatting and relaying the rest of her story. Thankfully at a volume low enough that everyone in the vicinity couldn't hear. But the damage was already done.
As Kazuki looked at the mothers standing around, he saw them tapping away rapidly at their phone screens.
At the same time his phone vibrated and dinged incessantly from its place in his pocket. He took it out and saw several notifications from the Aozora Daycare Mom’s group chat.
Kazuki didn’t open the messages, but he could tell what the current topic would be about just by the latest message that lit up his phone screen. He stared at the ‘Congrats, Kazuki-papa!’ for a moment longer before glancing over at the group of mothers huddled together.
Midori’s mother noticed first, and flashed him a smile before giving him a thumbs up.
“Ha… Ha–” Kazuki’s hand shook as he raised it to return a weak thumbs up of his own.
He didn’t care what he had to do, but he knew one way or another he would make Rei take Miri to school for the next couple of days.