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It was a normal April morning. Akira could hear birds chirping outside his window as the rising sun streamed in. The sounds of Tokyo waking up around him pervaded his senses. He sat up, yawned and stretched (not all that dissimilarly to a cat), and turned to the left to acknowledge the noise Akira had been staunchly ignoring for the past fifteen minutes.
“But what if something happens!” Goro, his husband of almost six years, said as he paced the length of their bedroom with a manic energy. Akira let out a soft breath as he watched Goro continue to have the extended anxiety spiral he’d been having for the past month. Swinging his legs over the side of the bed, Akira brushed off the comforter and smoothed out the blanket as Goro made another turn.
“There’s all sorts of trouble that could happen and we could be none the wiser to it. Oh, I shouldn’t be this nervous about this,” Goro continued, before throwing his hands up in the air.
“I used to be an assassin in the Metaverse! This should not be as stressful as it- oh. Akira, you’re awake,” Goro said, sounding startled at seeing Akira awake. Like he would sleep in today, of all days.
“I’m not waking up late today. It’s an auspicious day for all of us,” Akira replied, giving his husband a small smile. Goro sighed once, before glancing over at the door that led out of their bedroom.
“True, but it is much more of an auspicious day for him than it is for us, Akira,” he said, before turning back to his husband with a smile of his own.
“But I suppose I can concede that it will be a big day for us as well. After all-” Before Goro could finish, the door to their bedroom burst open with an excited shout.
“Dad! Papa! It’s my first day of school today!” A small boy, just around seven years old, ran up to Goro excitedly, bouncing on his toes and making his wavy black hair bounce with it. Goro gave the boy an indulgent smile as Akira stopped to look at the two for a moment.
“Is it really, Wren? That’s lovely to hear,” Goro replied, prompting an enthusiastic nod from the boy, Wren.
“Mhmm! ‘nd I’m real excited! Cause you and Dad have been talking about all the fun things I’ll get to do while I’m there, ‘nd so has Auntie Makoto and Auntie Sumi and Auntie Haru, ‘nd Monamona keeps on coming over to purr in my lap like he’s telling me it’ll be okay, so I think it’ll be okay!” Wren said, and Akira almost felt sympathy pains from how Wren hadn’t taken a single breath once he’d started rambling. Akira hadn’t been able to ramble like that in years. Where did Wren get it from? Certainly not Akira.
“As excited as you are about starting school, bud, you’ve gotta remember to breathe when you’re talking to your teachers and your classmates,” Akira chimed in, drawing his husband and son’s attention. Wren nodded again, while Goro let out a sigh.
“Akira, our son will remember to breathe when he’s talking,” he said. Akira rolled his eyes, and Goro narrowed his in response. Akira put his hands up defensively as Wren started to giggle.
“I’m just saying! Wren gets really rambly, and he doesn’t get that from me. Which one of the two of us has forgotten to breathe while he was talking about something he was super passionate about?” At Akira’s words, Goro was suspiciously silent. Wren’s giggles only grew louder as Akira let out a (playful) huff.
“That’s what I thought. Our kiddo had to get it from somewhere, and that somewhere is not from me,” Akira said. As Goro gave Akira a half-hearted glare, Wren’s giggles only grew louder.
“Papa does ramble a lot, hehe,” Wren said as his giggles started to slow down. Of course, as any amused six year old would be, the giggles took a lot longer to peter out as Goro and Akira shared a fond look.
“Don’t you need to go get dressed, little bird?” Goro said. Wren gasped, hopping up in the air before whirling around and dashing for the door.
“Right, Papa! I get to pick out my own outfit too! Dad said so!” Wren said excitedly, running out the door. Goro raised a brow at Akira, who gave him a grin.
“Gotta have something else to motivate him to get moving, and we know our son is a fashionista. Wonder where he got that from,” Akira said teasingly. Goro rolled his eyes once again as he walked over to the bed and sat down. Before either of them could say anything, there was a creaking noise at the door and Akira looked over to see Morgana nudging the door open with his head.
“Hey, I saw Wren throwing clothes around in his room, do you want me to keep an eye on him and make sure he doesn’t make too much of a mess?” Morgana asked. As Akira sighed and Goro dragged a hand down his face, Morgana whirled around and started trotting off.
“I’ll take that as a yes,” he said as he started wandering down the hall to Wren’s room to presumably stop their son from making too much of a mess.
“My god. I love Wren, but he…” Akira trailed off as Goro glanced over at him, raising a silent brow.
“He what?” Goro asked.
“He gets a little… intense. And a lot extra,” Akira replied. Goro huffed out a laugh as he leaned on his husband’s shoulder.
“And where did he get that from? Mr. I’ll Do Any Cool Trick Ever?” he asked. Akira barked out a laugh at that.
“So says the guy that had the most extra revenge plan ever! And who laughed like a maniac during every battle afterwards,” Akira replied. Goro sighed, looking up at the ceiling for a moment, before going back to leaning on Akira’s shoulder. The two both turned to stare out the window that gave them a brilliant view of the sunrise and watched silently for a moment.
“Are you nervous, Akira?” Goro broke the silence, not looking away from the window. Akira looked over to see his husband’s leg bouncing slightly as he anxiously fiddled with the comforter on the bed. Did… did Goro think he wasn’t freaking out?
“Of course I am, honey. This is our kid going to school. And he’s already starting a year late, even if we’ve been making sure he could get the best academic advantage he could,” Akira said, prompting Goro to nod once.
“Yes, but what if the fact that he’ll be about a year older than all his peers makes him a social pariah? Or if he’s missing out on some speck of knowledge we should’ve told him about and everyone starts to judge him!” Goro refuted, fingers twisting further and further into the comforter. Akira furrowed his brow, knowing Goro was more focused on the possibilities in his head than what was going on around him.
“You really think that you and Makoto didn’t teach him more than he needed to know for his first year of elementary school? If anything, I think he’ll go in and be so smart that he gets moved up a grade. He’s your son, after all, and he got that intellect from somewhere,” Akira replied. Goro’s head immediately snapped toward him, and the hand that wasn’t clutching the comforter in a death grip (which started to slacken) reached over to grab Akira’s free hand.
“You’re plenty smart too, Akira. How else did you juggle all of the incessant amount of things you needed to do back in high school, not to mention everything you did in university?” Goro replied. Akira laughed.
“Good to know that being self-deprecating by accident can still get you to snap out of an anxious spiral,” Akira said. Goro shook his head.
“No, that wasn’t an accident. But we’ll talk about that later. When we don’t need to get prepared to take our son to school,” Goro said, before giving Akira a brief kiss on the cheek as he made his way over to their shared closet.
“Now, keep in mind that we don’t need to go particularly overboard for dropping Wren off,” Akira said as he stood up and walked over to his dresser. Goro laughed, rifling through some of the shirts on hangers based on the noise Akira was hearing.
“But also this isn’t the opportunity to rock up in jeans and a t-shirt, darling,” Goro said. Akira nodded, before realizing that Goro probably couldn’t see him and gave a hum of acknowledgement.
After what Akira knew Ann would lovingly call a clothing montage, both him and Goro were downstairs with Goro sipping a cup of coffee and Akira grabbing all the ingredients he’d prepped for breakfast the night before. Wren had asked for french toast that morning, and french toast he would get. As Akira took the first slice of french toast out of the egg custard and put the bread in a frying pan, he heard two sets of feet racing down the stairs. He spotted Morgana hop onto his favorite perch - the largest cat tree known to man that could fit in the area between their living and dining rooms - as Wren dashed into the room, sliding to a stop with a large grin on his face.
“Dad! Papa! Do you like my outfit?” he asked, striking a pose for a moment, a serious look on his face. Goro nodded appraisingly, giving a hum of approval as Wren beamed, walking over to his spot at the kitchen counter and hopping onto the stool in the middle, on Goro’s right.
“Looking fancy, little man!” Akira said, turning to get a good look at Wren’s outfit. With brown slacks and a red button-up shirt with a matching ribbon in his hair, Wren really looked the part of a little Victorian child, though the freckles covering his cheeks and forearms made that much less likely.
“Thanks, Dad! I wanna look my best, cause Papa and Aunties Makoto and Haru are always talking about um… good first… um. Ampersands?” Akira had to suppress a snort at Wren’s words. Where did Wren even hear the word ampersand? Oh, who was Akira kidding, he absolutely heard it from Goro, but-
“Impressions, sweetheart. Good first impressions. Ampersands are like the symbol on the awning at Leblanc,” Goro said, prompting a noise of understanding from Wren, their son nodding frantically.
“Ohhhhh. That makes sense! Oooh! French toast and fruit!” Wren said, attention flitting around in the manner of a typical seven year old. Goro gave their son a fond smile as he grabbed a piece of cut up apple and started munching on it.
“Only the best for our favorite kiddo today,” Akira said, turning back to the stove to poke at the eggs frying in the skillet next to the french toast.
“I’m your only kiddo, though!” Wren replied with a laugh. He heard the gentle sound of Goro rustling Wren’s hair as he made a token protest.
“Papa!” The giggles of his and Goro’s son filled the room, and as laughter filled the kitchen, Akira wrapped up breakfast and made sure everyone had their own plates of french toast and their eggs just the way they liked. When Wren dug in enthusiastically to his favorite breakfast food, Goro did as well - even if he’d deny it - and Akira took a sip of his own masterfully brewed coffee.
While Wren started to excitedly talk about all of the things he hoped he would see that day on his first day of elementary school, Akira met Goro’s eyes over their son’s head.
Yeah. Things were going to go fine.