Chapter Text
Kaoru doesn’t remember getting this big this fast with Sayuri, and every doctor had been sure to remind him she was a big one.
He stares at the mirror, at the prominent bump already forming at around eight weeks. A discovery he’d made because his obi already weren’t fitting. Last time it had taken a few more weeks to reach that point, even longer for him to really start showing.
He narrows his eyes, running his hand over it. “Stupid gorilla genes,” He mutters under his breath.
“What’s that about jeans?” Kojiro asks, poking his head in the door. “Yours not fitting anymore?” He teases as he enters, closing the door behind him as his eyes settle on Kaoru’s belly.
Kaoru doesn’t even bother arguing that that wasn’t the ‘jeans’ he was talking about. He just turns, pouting.
“I’m huge,” He mutters, “I’m not supposed to be this huge this early.”
Kojiro only grins, running his hands over the expanse of Kaoru’s stomach as he pulls him in closer. “Isn’t this what you wanted?”
Kaoru’s face scrunches even more, but there’s no denying it, not when his cheeks burn at the observation. “I…”
“Maybe it’s a second kid thing,” Kojiro interjects with a shrug. “I think you look perfect.”
“You would,” Kaoru mutters, but it lacks any real bite. He sighs, letting the resistant obi fall to the floor, his kimono falling to his sides as he gives up trying to make it fit.
Kojiro crowds into his space, showering his body in so much attention he feels significantly less insecure.
It’s at the first ultrasound that Kaoru discovers the source of his bloated size.
The wand glides over the generous swell of Kaoru’s belly. The technician smiles warmly at the screen. “Well, that explains it,” She hums, “Look here. See those two little heartbeats? Fluttering away?”
Kaoru’s hand, which had been resting in Kojiro’s, squeezes tight enough to bruise.
“Two?” They repeat in tandem.
The technician points to a spot on the screen, and both men lean in to get a better look at the grainy grey blobs of what were apparently two babies, and not just one. “That’s why you’re measuring a bit ahead, Sakurayashiki-san. Two babies, growing exactly as they should. Strong, healthy heartbeats.” She turns back to them. “Congratulations, you’re having twins.”
Kaoru releases Kojiro’s hand from his bone-breaking grip, settling it instead on his stomach. He stares, the size of him taking on much more weight, both literally and figuratively.
On their way out, Kojiro asks, “Do you think it’s because we…?”
“Don’t be an idiot,” Kaoru retorts with a sideways glance.
· · ─ · ❀ · ─ · ·
This pregnancy proves to be more torturous than the last.
Kaoru had been so confident it would be a breeze, that he’d figured it all out and was absolutely prepared for another. He hadn’t factored twins into this.
The first trimester is the worst, and Kaoru is more irritable than he’s ever been in his life, which should be some sort of feat.
He’s sick constantly and so, so tired. He begins to regret every last second of their honeymoon.
“Is Papa okay?” Sayuri asks one afternoon, when Kaoru still hasn’t left their bedroom after spending all night feeling nauseous.
Kojiro hesitates telling her that Kaoru’s fine. He hated when Kaoru used that word when he wasn’t, and Kaoru obviously wasn’t. “It’s tough work carrying your siblings, Sayuri,” He says instead, lifting her into her arms and carrying her away from the door.
Sayuri beams at the reminder she was getting siblings, plural. But it drops back to a frown when she asks, “Did I make Papa feel this sick?”
Kojiro chuckles. “I don’t know if it was ever this bad, but yes. And your Papa was real bad at asking for any help, so it’s a good thing he’s got us to take care of him, huh?”
Sayuri nods. Kojiro sets her down once they reach the kitchen, filling a glass of water. He hands it off to her. “Go bring this to Papa for me, okay? Make sure he drinks it!”
“Okay!” Sayuri chirps, gripping the glass with both hands as she runs off to get it to Kaoru.
The door to their bedroom creaks open. Sayuri trots over to Kaoru’s side of the bed, looking at him with big, concerned eyes as she holds the glass out for him to take.
Kaoru accepts it with a groan, because staying hydrated was such a pain when he knew he’d just pee it all out. “Thank you, Sayuri,” He says, because he’s not about to complain about all that to her.
Sayuri smiles, climbing onto the bed without a second thought. And she watches, very seriously, when Kaoru takes a sip.
“Your father send you to keep an eye on me?” Kaoru asks as he sets the (still mostly full) glass on the bedside table.
Sayuri nods, a wild forward motion. “Yes! To make sure you stay hydrated!”
Kaoru’s lips quirk into a smile. Because when Kojiro said it, it was annoying, but hearing it from Sayuri’s mouth at least made it cute.
“Are you feeling better?” Sayuri asks as she scoots closer on her knees.
“It comes and goes,” Kaoru responds, patting his side for Sayuri to join him there. She does happily, curling into his side. “I feel better with you here, though.”
Sayuri grins. “That’s cause I’m magic!”
“You’re magic?”
“Uh-huh,” Sayuri nods emphatically. “I gave you my magic healing potion,” She proclaims, pointing to the glass of water.
“Is that what you did?” Kaoru raises his eyebrows. “And you tricked me into thinking it was just water?”
“So you’d drink it!” Sayuri exclaims. “Dada said you don’t like to be helped!”
Kaoru shakes his head in disbelief, his smile a permanent thing on his face. “Well, if your healing potions work this well, then I’ll definitely be asking for more.” He brings the glass back to his lips, taking another, longer sip.
Then he feels it, the pressure on his bladder. He sighs, adjusting to get out of bed. Sayuri’s expression morphs into one of concern as his warmth is removed from her side.
“Just gotta go to the bathroom,” Kaoru says, stretching his back once he’s on his feet. “You think you could get me a potion that keeps me from having to pee?” He asks, and sounds almost serious about it.
Sayuri giggles. “I’ll try!”
The symptoms seem to ease up by Halloween. Kaoru, still in the first trimester, feels like he’s the size he’d been with Sayuri during the third.
Sayuri, now capable of selecting her own costumes, dresses up as a tiger for the second year in a row. It at least saves them from having to buy another costume.
But, in an effort to match the theme she’d set up for them— Kojiro’s decision, not Kaoru’s— they dress as animals as well. At the discount store, Kaoru is teeming with barely-concealed delight as he shoves the gorilla costume into Kojiro’s arms.
Kojiro is equally delighted when he comes back with a kangaroo costume for Kaoru, sized for the pregnant body. “Look, it even comes with a little baby in the pouch!”
Kaoru snatches it. “It’ll need two.”
A tiger, a gorilla, and a kangaroo feel like the cast of characters for a bad ‘walked into the bar’ joke. Kojiro had stuck one of Sayuri’s stuffed animals into the pouch alongside the joey, so now Kaoru’s pouch carries two.
Sayuri peeks into the pouch. “Do you think I could fit in there?”
Kaoru looks down at her, his response an immediate, “No,” softened when he adds, “You had your turn in my pouch, little tiger.”
She swings her tail as she’s reminded that she is indeed a little tiger. Her desire to be carried around in the pouch is swiftly forgotten as she crawls around on all fours, roaring.
On the prowl, she leaves the living room to find Kojiro, and Kaoru hears a scream once she’s found him.
Suddenly, she’s rounding the corner and running for safety in Kaoru’s arms, followed closely behind Kojiro in a full gorilla suit, topped with an (admittedly frightening) mask that covers his entire head.
He peels it off, looking apologetic as he tries to reassure Sayuri it was him. Kaoru tuts, “This is why they keep you in a separate enclosure.”
“Hey, I don’t recall the tigers sharing theirs with kangaroos!”
Kaoru gestures to his belly, where a plush tiger resides next to the baby kangaroo in his pouch. “We’re on good terms. You may not be, after the terror you’ve just inflicted.”
Kojiro sighs, disgruntled. The mask stays off for the rest of the night.
· · ─ · ❀ · ─ · ·
The first time Kaoru walks into the kitchen dressed in his husband’s clothes is during the second trimester. Kojiro’s head shoots up, nearly dropping his spatula.
The shirt, one that’s no doubt big on Kaoru, still manages to strain over the lowest part of his belly. Underneath, a pair of Kojiro’s sweatpants settle on widened hips.
“You raiding my closet now?” Kojiro prompts as he takes their breakfast off the stove.
“My clothes don’t fit,” Kaoru reminds him. They hadn’t for a while.
“Thought you had all those special obi from last time,” Kojiro comments, taking three plates out from the cabinet. “The stretchy kind?”
Kaoru seats himself at their dining table, shaking his head. “Putting on a kimono is too much work. I can’t even stand for that long anymore,” He mutters.
Kojiro swivels after sliding an omelette onto each plate, not sure why he’s even arguing with the fact that Kaoru is wearing his clothes. And he looks damn good in them. Comfortable, relaxed.
Kojiro sets the plate down in front of him before nuzzling into his hair, kissing the top of his head. “You wake Sayuri up?”
“She’s coming. I told her to get dressed.”
At that, tiny footfalls become louder as Sayuri bounds into the kitchen. She’s wearing one of Kojiro’s button-downs like a long robe, the ends of it dragging behind her.
“Papa!” She runs towards Kaoru. “I couldn’t button it.”
Kojiro looks from Sayuri to Kaoru with fond exasperation. “Always involving someone in your little schemes,” He hums.
Kaoru lifts Sayuri into the chair next to him, leaning over to help her with the buttons. “Someone might as well make use of your shirts,” He says, glancing sideways to where Kojiro stands shirtless behind him.
All buttoned up, Sayuri is still swallowed up by Kojiro’s shirt, but she doesn’t mind at all. It makes her look even more like Kojiro, if that was even possible.
He scoops her up. “My little mini-me!” He coos. Sayuri giggles as she’s spun around, the shirt billowing out around her.
Kaoru watches while taking big bites of his omelette. He hopes, as he rests his other hand on his stomach, that he may be granted at least one ‘mini-me’. He’s not sure what he’d do if he gave birth to two more Kojiro clones.
With his appetite restored, Kaoru’s cravings make their grand return, and this time he’s eating for three.
While the first pregnancy brought cravings for sweet and salty, this time, it’s all protein. Kojiro complains but keeps him well-fed, and Sayuri is eager to try everything, not put off at all by Kaoru’s choices.
She’s a big fan of the gelato noodles. Kojiro tells her it’s because that’s all Kaoru wanted to eat when pregnant with her.
But the bliss of the early second trimester is short-lived. As soon as it feels like the worst of the symptoms have passed, the twins decide to start moving.
There is no joy this time in the first flutter, and especially not in the first kick. Not when every movement is doubled and constant. When one twin is asleep, the other is awake, and Kaoru doesn’t like what that says about their schedules when they’re born.
Kaoru grows increasingly sleep-deprived, and that makes him cranky. And the twins won’t stop growing and growing and kicking and moving. All while Kaoru doesn’t even feel fit to stand, let alone move around.
Why do they get to have so much energy when he feels zapped dry?
But the novelty hasn’t worn off for Kojiro, who is just as hands-on and talkative as he was the last time, and Sayuri is equally fascinated by every movement. She acts surprised by them every time, her hands recoiling as she shrieks in delight before she places them back and waits for another.
Kaoru is sick of it, and then he hates himself for feeling sick of it. His daughter’s delighted squeals should make him happy, but he just wants to retreat into his room and not come out of it until he’s finally given a moment to rest.
“Sayuri.” Kaoru’s voice is firm when her sticky hands are back on her belly for the upteenth time this afternoon. “I know, this is all very fascinating stuff, but can you please—”
Before he can boil over, Kojiro comes to his rescue. He knew all the telltale signs of a Kaoru about to snap, and reacts accordingly, scooping Sayuri up and over his shoulder. “Alright, monkey, let’s give Papa and your siblings some space.”
Sayuri whines, kicking and trying her hardest to get out of Kojiro’s grasp. That lifts Kaoru’s mood just slightly. Kojiro got to experience a fraction of what he was feeling all of the time.
There’s a foot in his face, another to his chest, and then her hands find a similar momentum as she pushes away from him, hard. “Hey, hey, hey, we don’t—” Kojiro pauses at the familiar sound of Kaoru’s laughter, and looks over at him in disbelief.
Kaoru tries to hide it behind his hand, but his shoulders still shake with the effort of holding it back.
“Oh, you think this is funny?” Kojiro pulls Sayuri away from him. With one arm, he dangles her foot from his hand, and she squeals as she’s held upside down. “It’s just like you to encourage such violent behavior from this little beast.”
Kaoru shakes his head, but the motion only works to release the floodgates of his laughter as Sayuri fights to be let down. “Just make sure to include these two in your lecture,” He manages, gesturing down to his stomach where the twins inside are still kicking up their own fuss.
Kojiro nods, swinging Sayuri back upright. He tosses her back down on the couch. Kaoru no longer minds it when she immediately cuddles up to his belly. He’s too focused on the way Kojiro begins marching back and forth in front of them, hands clutched behind his back like a drill sergeant.
“Okay, everyone, listen up,” He begins, “We do not kick. We do not punch. We do not cause bodily harm to others,” He lists off, his eyes darting from Sayuri to Kaoru’s belly and then meeting Kaoru’s eyes. “You got that, Kaoru?”
“Singling me out?” Kaoru feigns offense, “You’re wearing your daughter’s footprint on your face, and I can tell you these two aren’t listening.” He once again points down, wincing as he’s kicked again.
“They had to learn it from somewhere!” Kojiro attests, placing his hands on his hips.
“Yes, from the gorilla who swings his daughter around like she’s a bag of flour,” Kaoru tuts, smoothing down Sayuri’s hair. “Such aggressive handling, huh, Sayuri?” He hums.
Sayuri looks up at him, grinning as she says, “But Papa, you kick Dada aaaall the time!”
Kaoru’s expression drains of all its warmth. “Whose side are you on?”
Sayuri blinks, not realizing she’d taken any sides, or that she was supposed to. “…You kick Dada. I kick Dada. It’s fun to kick Dada?”
“It’s…” Kaoru avoids looking at Kojiro’s smug expression as he’s proven right. It’s made worse by the fact that all Kaoru wants to do is agree. It is fun to kick, Dada.
He bites his tongue, takes a deep breath, sighs it out. “It’s not nice to kick anyone, Sayuri. Your father is right. We don’t hurt people with our bodies.” Each word comes out strained.
“Or our words,” Kojiro tacks on with another glance at Kaoru.
“Are you vying for some perfect parent award or something?” Kaoru snaps, already breaking that rule.
Kojiro rolls his eyes. That’s all it takes for the stern parent act to crumble. “Well, I’d definitely be beating you in that competition, four-eyes.”
“Remind me,” Kaoru does his best to sit up straighter, the effort it takes only proving his next point, “Who is the one carrying not one but two of your children?”
“Children that are going to come out of the womb with foul mouths and violent tendencies, because they’re learning from the worst!” Kojiro flops down on the couch beside Kaoru, poking the exposed part of his stomach. “They hear you, Kaoru. You’re teaching them to be mean to their father before they’ve even met me!” He sighs, all dramatics.
Kaoru huffs, folding his arms over his belly. “I recall you telling them to kick me because you felt too bad to be doing it yourself.”
“That was with Sayuri!” Kojiro argues, as if that makes it any better.
“Yet you want to blame me,” Kaoru tsks.
“You heard what she said!” Kojiro gestures to Sayuri, “She said, ‘It’s fun to kick Dada!’ Me! Not you!”
“And I said, ‘It’s not nice to kick’,” Kaoru reminds him.
“Different choice of words, Kaoru,” Kojiro waggles his finger. “Is it not nice, but still fun?”
“Well, yes,” Kaoru replies, looking quite pleased with himself. This expression is forcefully kicked off him by one of the twins. He hisses, clutching his stomach in pain.
“Karma, Kaoru, karma,” Kojiro points out, his turn to look pleased.
Kaoru kicks him in the shin.
Kojiro’s eyes widen. “And you have just been disqualified from the perfect parent awards. Good job.”
“And you stopped being in the running the moment you started trying to pick a fight with me!”
Sayuri only watches, eyes darting from parent to parent as they go about their usual back and forth, unfazed. Maybe she had heard them in the womb, and always knew what to expect before she came out.
Regardless, she rests her head back onto Kaoru’s stomach, whispering, “It’s not nice to kick, okay?”
Miraculously, they stop, at least for the moment. Sayuri smiles, because she’s magic.
· · ─ · ❀ · ─ · ·
Sayuri has her fourth birthday just before Kaoru can enter the third trimester.
She begs and begs and begs to have all her daycare friends over for a birthday party. Kojiro, of course, says yes after the first please. Kaoru shrugs, letting Kojiro do his thing. If he wanted to plan and host a party, he could have fun with that. There was no way Kaoru was helping in his current state.
And Kojiro does, because he’s amazing and capable and may be back in the running for that perfect parent award, even if Kaoru would never say any of that outright. He handles food, cake, and all the decorations, with Sayuri eager to help wherever she can.
Kaoru pitches in with the invitations, using his belly to prop up his tablet as he puts it together. Once he’s done, it’s sent out to Kojiro’s beloved ‘mom group chat,’ family, friends, and the RSVPs start flying in.
Sayuri spends the entire party boasting about the fact she’d be a big sister soon, which puts more of a spotlight on Kaoru than he’d like.
He answers questions about his pregnancy with a tight smile, growing more and more irritated by the other daycare parents by the second. And he’s just a bit too pregnant, a bit too exhausted, a bit too cranky, for this not to show all over his face. Gone are the practiced smiles he puts on for clients or shows, replaced by an obvious grimace as he’s congratulated again and then asked how far he is along.
Kojiro swoops in to save him— or the guests— from the oncoming explosion of hormonal terror. Always knowing the right thing to say, Kojiro swerves the other parents into conversation with him, letting Kaoru excuse himself so he can hide somewhere else. He glares at anyone who stares too long so they don’t get a chance to linger on the way he waddles into the other room.
As soon as he’s within the privacy of his bedroom, he undoes the button of the jeans he’d put on for appearances’ sake, flopping back onto the bed. Cocooned by the pillows he’d set up to keep sleep comfortable, he stares down at his belly. He’s about 27 weeks along now and measures around the size he’d been when he’d brought Sayuri to term.
It’s obscene. Kaoru doesn’t want to think about the fact he still had another trimester left, the doctors telling him the twins still had growing to do.
“You can come out now,” Kaoru mutters to his protruding stomach, “I’m ready to be done, and… I’d like to meet you both.” He smiles at that, the reminder that he was going to be able to hold them in his arms soon and meet them. That this was all for a reason beyond: I asked for a lot when I was horny and on my honeymoon and now have to suffer the consequences of my overzealous desires.
He sighs, resting both hands over his belly and feeling the movement in response.
“Maybe you can wait until after your sister’s birthday,” He hums, “She’s not very good at sharing.”
Speak of the devil, and she shall appear. The door swings open, Sayuri running inside. “Papa! We’re having cake now! You have to sing Happy Birthday to me!”
“Oh, I have to?” Kaoru echoes as he sits up, supporting his belly as he swings his legs over the side of the bed.
“Pleaaaase!” Sayuri adds, because she’d figured out how to use the word— say it after every forceful demand, and you’ll still get your way.
Kaoru zips his jeans back up before taking Sayuri’s hand in his, letting her guide him back to the party.
He finds his spot beside Kojiro, leaning into him as they sing happy birthday. And this time Sayuri needs no help blowing out her candles. All four of them.
Kaoru sniffles, and then he curses his stupid pregnancy hormones as he buries his face in the crook of Kojiro’s neck.
Kojiro blinks, looking down as he feels his shirt dampened by Kaoru’s tears. He smiles, squeezing him tighter against his side as Kaoru lets it all out.
He looks to his mom, quietly asking if she could cut the cake by handing her the cutter. “Save a slice for this guy. A real big one.”
Then, he pulls Kaoru aside, knowing he couldn’t help the tears, but if he could, he wouldn’t want to be doing this in front of so many people.
“You okay?” Kojiro asks, gently prying him from his chest before he could use his shirt as a tissue.
Kaoru’s lip quivers, and he lifts his glasses to wipe desperately at the tears. To hide all the evidence. “Fine. I’m fine.”
Kojiro stares at him, unconvinced. That’s all it takes for the tears to stream down his face in fuller force.
“She’s growing up so fast, Kojiro!” Kaoru sobs, his shoulders shaking with the force of it.
Kojiro pulls Kaoru back into his side. And he doesn’t mean to be smiling so much when Kaoru is wailing like this, but he can’t help it. It was— or used to be— so rare to see him cry, and never for cute reasons like this.
“I know,” Kojiro hums, feeling himself get similarly emotional. “But she’s four, not forty, Kaoru. We’ve got plenty of time.”
Kaoru swallows, looking unconvinced. Kojiro chuckles, taking off Kaoru’s glasses so he can wipe away his tears properly.
“Don’t laugh at me,” Kaoru grumbles.
“I’m not!” Kojiro replies, laughing. “You’re just so… cute when you get all sentimental,” He says, squeezing Kaoru’s cheeks.
Kaoru swats him away, “I am not being sentimental!” He argues, no matter how unconvincing the claim, considering his current state.
“C’mon, Kaoru, I know just what’ll make you feel better,” Kojiro says, cajoling Kaoru back to the other room, “A big, delicious, homemade slice of birthday cake.”
Kaoru wipes away the last of his tears with a sniffle, letting himself be walked back to the kitchen for cake. It does make him feel better. Especially when Sayuri gets hers all over her face and has to be wiped down, and he realizes how much she hasn’t grown up at all.
· · ─ · ❀ · ─ · ·
Kaoru is bedridden for most of the third trimester. He handles work from there, handling clients and work all digitally. He’s lucky he’d already made a name for himself as a calligrapher who mixed technology with the art form, because the transition to all-digital actually brings in more clients. Which would be nice… if he wasn’t so exhausted.
But Kaoru trudges on, because at least it gives him something to do while Kojiro is off at work and Sayuri at daycare.
Besides, he doesn’t know how much of this he’ll be able to do with two infants on his hands. He both dreaded it and also couldn’t wait.
Kojiro comes home in the evenings with a bag of food and Sayuri in tow. She’s hopping onto Kaoru’s bed before he even has a chance to sit up.
“Papa! Papa!” She says in greeting, the mattress bouncing under all her enthusiasm.
“What? What?” Kaoru asks, his eyes trailing every up and down motion.
“Look what I drew today!” She whips out a piece of paper, shoving it into Kaoru’s face. He pulls it back to get a better look at it. “We had to draw a family portrait!”
“Is that right?” Kaoru hums as he examines the drawing. On the left, a tall figure with green hair and big arms— Kojiro, obviously. Then, in the middle, the tiniest figure with a triangle dress and the same green hair— Sayuri. Finally, on the right, a pink-haired figure with a giant circle for a body, two distinct scribbly circles inside.
“That’s you,” Sayuri points out, even though Kaoru had figured that out and is now trying to muster something nice to say. “And that’s the babies!” She adds, tapping the smaller circles.
“I told her it looks just like you,” Kojiro comments, coming in to lean against the doorframe. “Just needs a scowling expression.”
Kaoru realizes that’s the expression he’s making now, and fixes his face. He’s supposed to encourage his daughter’s creativity. He points to the babies in the drawing, “What color hair do you think they’re going to have?”
Sayuri sits back on her heels, thinking about it with a long, “Hmmmmmm.” Then, she bounces with the answer, “Purple and blue!”
Kaoru stares, raising his eyebrows. “Purple and blue?”
“Yeah, cuz that’s what you get when you mix pink and green!” She answers, matter-of-factly.
Kaoru feels his lips twitch with amusement. “Is that what they’re teaching you?”
“That’s what I know!” Sayuri exclaims.
Kojiro comes up from behind her to tug at her pigtails. “Explains why you came out blurple.”
“Blurple?!” Sayuri gasps, whipping her head around to look at him. “My hair’s green!”
“Then how does that make any sense?” Kaoru asks, since this went against her previous (flawed) color theory.
“Cuz I’m Dada’s ‘mini-me’!” Sayuri replies, wrapping her arms around Kojiro.
“That’s right!” Kojiro grins, taking her with him as he falls back onto the bed beside Kaoru.
The scowl returns to Kaoru’s face. “If the rest come out looking like you, you can keep them."
Kojiro gasps.
“I want one too!” Sayuri says, raising a hand.
And the rest do come, a few months later in April, and to Kaoru’s exhausted glee, they come out looking like him.
His eyes are barely open, wet from the tears he’d shed during the whole excruciating process, but he sees splotches of pink in his blurry vision. Two separate splotches.
He reaches for his glasses so he could see more clearly as they’re placed into his arms. Two heads of pink hair. He kisses them both on their perfect pink heads, deliriously happy.
As they’d come out, one after the other, they’d learned the sexes. The first was the girl, who came out with a screeching cry that Kaoru had to listen to the entire time spent pushing out the second. He came seven minutes later, a boy, whose crying was softer and calmed the moment he was in Kaoru’s arms.
“Looks like you got what you wanted,” Kojiro muses as he comes up beside him, petting the girl’s head with a hand that encompassed the entire size of it.
“They have your eyes,” Kaoru points out, grinning now that he gets to be the one to say that.
“And my nose,” Kojiro says, tapping the boy’s.
“They can’t all have your nose,” Kaoru retorts, pulling the boy closer.
Sayuri is let in a moment later, and she runs inside without waiting for her grandparents behind her.
Kojiro scoops her up before she can climb onto the hospital bed herself, holding her up so she can see.
Her eyes widen. She reaches out with grabby hands for them. “Can I hold them? Can I name them? They’re both pink! Can I touch?” She babbles, one after the other.
“Not just yet, monkey,” Kojiro says, pulling her back.
Sayuri pouts. “Please?”
Kojiro has to avoid meeting her big eyes, resisting the temptation to give in. “Later, Sayuri. You’ll get your turn.”
“Papa’s falling asleep!” Sayuri points out. “I can watch while he sleeps!”
“You can watch,” Kojiro agrees, “But we have to let all of them sleep, okay?”
“Okay!”
Kaoru is discharged a few days later.
The twins are named Hana (flower) and Haru (spring). Names that go with their pink hair and the season they were born in.
Already, they’ve learned a lot about their personalities. Hana likes throwing a tantrum, one that being held only activates tenfold. Even when she’s not in tears, she looks perpetually pissed off. Haru, on the other hand, is quite the crybaby as well, but his are calmed whenever he is held, especially by Kaoru. When he looks up at Kaoru, his eyes are big and adoring, and he lets out the cutest little coos. Those quickly become cries again the moment he’s pulled away.
Sayuri had been a cryer, but never to this degree. They both dread going home and losing the assistance from the hospital’s nurses.
On their way out, Kojiro grins as he whips out the double stroller they’d been gifted for Christmas. (Yes, the presents were all baby-related again, much to Kaoru’s chagrin.)
As soon as they reach their car, trying to squeeze all five of them into Kaoru’s electric five-seater, they realize they’re going to need a bigger one.
Sayuri whines as she’s squished between two massive carriers in the back, and the twins decide they’d like to join in on the complaining. They cry the whole way home.
Kaoru turns to Kojiro, squeezing his hand as hard as he had when he’d been told to push, deadly serious when he says, “Never again.”
