synergetic | Sometime in the future...

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Sometime in the future...

Himawari's crying was usually enough to make her doting father fly, an anxiety-inducing siren call that hit something primal in a part of his soul so deep he hadn't even known it was there--

But there on the stairs, directly in his way, was a different little damsel in distress, and she was not an obstacle he needed to overcome, she was not a problem he needed to solve, and if he kept saying this to himself he might believe it.

"Yukiko-chan, what's the matter?" Yukimura glanced up at the exact part of the ceiling that happened to be underneath his infant's crib and wondered why humans hadn't evolved X-ray vision.

"My tummy hurts."

"Still?" He was concerned. It'd been a couple of hours since she'd gone to lay down over it. He hadn't wanted to jump right to medicine, especially since it would have been somewhere in Bunta's boxes and crates, and he didn't trust himself to recognize the right one anyway.

"It's because I didn't have Hanabi to stay with me," she said, with the roughly the same conviction he'd had when he said he was going to go undefeated across all three years of middle school.

No, when he ordered his teammates to go undefeated.

She was going to be formidable if she took up sports.

"Did Daddy pack Hanabi up?" He'd seen pictures of the stuffed mouse Jackal gave her the day she was born, but no sign of it (her?) since he'd welcomed the Maruis into his home late last night. (Or was it early this morning? The commencement of Himawari's control over his life seemed to have negated his awareness of the passage of time.)

"When did you last see her, and where? Do you remember what box Daddy might have put her in? Or where he put the boxes?"

Yukiko just started up at him with a slowly crumpling face, and Yukimura might have said a few things Yukiko shouldn't repeat, but he knew damn well she'd immediately repeat them, probably to her brother, and he needed to calm her down after his barrage of questions clearly overstimulated her.

And he should have gotten Atobe to move in, because that bastard did have X-ray vision, he thought, as Himawari wailed again.

"Let's go look upstairs together," he said quickly, hoping against hope that Marui managed to get some of the kids' belongings upstairs by now. "I'll carry you," he added, assuming it would be faster and leave less risk of him trampling her in his need to get to Himawari, now.

He opened his arms and luckily she cooperated, and he forced himself not to groan because he'd had no idea she was this heavy and what if he needed to check Himawari's temperature, he was going to need a free arm, could he hold her with just one? At least he didn't have to choose which one... his athleticism was getting him up the stairs under the weight of an eight year old girl and he'd developed Mirage Mirror so he could use either hand for anything, right? Right.

There were crates between Himawari's and Yukiko's room, luckily, and Yukimura somehow, with Herculean strength, kicked it into Himawari's room so he split his attention between both girls.

"Now my ears hurt," said Yukiko, and Yukimura gave her a little squeeze.

"I'm sorry, honey."

"She needs a Hanabi too."

"Soon, soon," he murmured, shifting Yukiko, who, with the patience of a saint and not an elementary schooler, waited for him to look over Himawari frantically.

"What's the matter, darling?" he wondered out loud, unable to stop himself from hoping for an eloquent and detailed answer.

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Keita's in a good mood, all considered. For the last while, he's been parked at the coffee table in the living room floor, where he has a good view of the front door and can play with crayons while he sings to no one in particular, simply enjoying the sound and company of his own voice.

Daddy has been gone a long time. The store is what he said. Keita has no idea what takes this long to buy. A new house? This must be it, and that's why they aren't with Uncle Jackal now. Daddy was buying their new house. It could even have a pool!

Across the construction paper under his crayons he draws a box with a triangle on top and a couple of rectangles inside it, then a big blue blob beside it. That's when the baby starts crying.

Aneki comes down the staircase, and Keita watches the exchange between her and Yu... Daddy's-friend-san. He picks Aneki up (strong!) and climbs the stairs with her. And Keita is alone.

If the baby is crying, it must want milk. Warm milk sounds good for upset tummies, too. He can help by making a glass of milk.

Setting the crayon down, Keita pops to his feet and dashes to the kitchen. It's a little hard to pull the refrigerator door open, but he manages. Where is the milk?

...Everything in here is labeled in kanji! He can't read that yet.

He sees a carton shaped like milk on the top shelf, and without a second thought steps onto the bottom ledge, grabs the middle shelf that he can reach, and starts to climb.

Seconds after Yukimura reaches Himawari, there's a crash downstairs from the area of the kitchen and a piercing wail from a four-year-old.

Yukimura's blood runs so cold that he nearly loses his grip on Yukiko. Something cold and distant in his mind congratulates him for not automatically tuning out anything that could distract him from Himawari, but he brushes it aside and tries to calculate which of the three doors he needs to take in the fraction of a section he might have before Keita potentially exsanguinates all of the blood in his tiny body, because that wail must foretell murder.

The part of him that vividly remembers the days of having a new baby sister is irritated, but he hugs Yukiko to soften the blow.

"Honey, I have to get to Keita immediately," he says in a breathless blur. "If you go lay down again, I'll try to find you some medicine and we'll look for Hanabi very soon."

She looks pretty distressed herself, but she accepts it when he sets her down.

He quickly lifts Himawari into the nearby carrier and hurries down the stairs as efficiently as he can, hoping infants don't remember if they see horrifying crime scenes.

"Keita?"

Keita's good intentions have long since fled the forefront of his mind. He sits at the floor in front of the fridge, its doors wide open, surrounded by a spreading mess of groceries from the snapped middle shelf that had not been meant to support the weight of a climbing child. A dented can of tea puddles around him, soaking his legs and bottom. His right hand and wrist are smeared with blood.

It hurts. It's cold and wet. He's startled and it scared him and he's sure he's in big trouble. He broke the fridge!

He can't manage any words as Yukimura rushes down and finds him. It's like he's lost all concept of how to respond beyond sitting there and crying.

Immediately the fridge is on the bottom of his priority list.

Being held briefly and the novelty of the carrier seat seems to have distracted Himawari for the time being, if not actually soothed her distress, but she isn't bleeding.

Things he'd have written off as a grade school tennis captain suddenly seem a thousand times more dire and concerning.

Change. Change the situation. Yukimura sets the carrier securely on the kitchen table, so it's easy for him to see through the backdoor, and immediately lifts Keita out of the mess and takes him into the backyard beset by the soft morning sunlight, surrounded by... well, by some greenery. Years of a career that involves long and many trips around the world meant that there wasn't nearly enough to his garden, but there was only so much he could ask of the friends and family who heeded the constant calls to please water his plants while he was away. Green was supposed to be a calming color.

A little more light, a little distance from the disaster zone, and with cold tea seeping into his shirt, he's glad he hasn't bothered to wear new clothes since about a week after Himawari came home. Keita, meanwhile, hasn't bled to death yet, but Yukimura knows what Marui is capable of when he has a target he needs to hit and he tries to sound soothing, not panicked, when he asks.

"Want to talk about it?"

He still can't quite see the wound.

Edited 2024-08-15 03:06 (UTC)

Keita's main problem is inertia: now that the crying has started, it's just sort of continuing on auto-pilot. Stopping isn't as as easy as turning off a faucet.

Yukimura's response isn't nothing, though. The change of location is good, out of the cold wet puddle and into the warm sun. He doesn't sound angry or scared. It helps the crying come down a couple of notches.

Formulating words is still a bit too tall a bar, so instead of speaking, he holds up his bleeding hand in display. It isn't as bad as it looks-- just a little cut that happened to cross a small blood vessel. Most of the actual bleeding has already nearly stopped, leaving Keita's arm messy but relatively unscathed.

By no coincidence, Yukimura had ensured that baby wipes were never too far away in this house. They're right on the table, within feet of Himawari's carrier, and he quickly gets one to clean the blood off Keita's hand.

"All right, it looks scarier than it is," he says, trying to decide if Keita has reached the threshold where he's okay now. He can see Himawari's face starting to scrunch up in discontent and he's still left Yukiko alone upstairs and without her toy and holy Venus and Serena, how the hell does Sanada juggle four of these? His are positively angelic whenever Yukimura swoops in to rescue them from Sanada's 18th-century mundanity, but now he's suspicious of all babies.

By the time Yukimura has Keita's arm cleaned off, the crying has diminished to a high-pitched but quiet whine with sniffles. He doesn't like the way his pants chill and cling to his legs. Being the center of attention is assurance, though. Things are okay.

"I wanted to get milk for Hima-chan," he explained feebly. "I'm sorry I broke the fridge."

"How thoughtful," is all Yukimura says, determined not to actually look at the mess until Keita is occupied doing something else. He can feel a surge of annoyance coming, but can't, can't, can't express it. Babies can't run laps, he reminds himself. It doesn't work if they don't why they're running laps.

"Next time you'll remind me to get the milk, okay?"

Already Bunta misses Jackal helping him carry groceries. He definitely didn't think through the journey back before finishing checkout. It's taken a couple of short rest stops, but he is, finally, home and loaded like a pack mule everywhere but his wallet. A minute of wrestling with the front door and he nudges it open with his knee to squeeze inside and slip off his shoes.

"Tadaima," he calls at a volume respectful of the potential for sleeping babies. Eyes and ears are already taking in the scene. Keita not in the living room, quiet upstairs, baby carrier on table-- whoa. Mess on the floor. That's not good. And it's faint, but he can hear remnants of Keita's sniffling and hitches beyond the back door. More in proximity, Himawari sounds on the brink of a fuss. Better get the groceries set down-- floor by the stairs works for now. He walks towards the back door.

Just outside it, Keita nods at Yukimura's question.

"I need a bath."

And, without further thought or explanation, sheds the entirety of his lower half attire in one pull and shimmy-out, leaving them in a wet wad on the ground as he heads barebottomed back inside.

"Daddy!"

Bunta takes one look at Keita and blinks. "Where are your pants?"

"Tag?" Yukimura suggests, having followed Keita in and seen, with great relief, Bunta there. He lifts Himawari from the carrier and hopes he remembers where he left it later. She does not look happy, and Yukimura feels actual despair at the thought.

"Yukiko-chan was still achy when the-- when I came down here," he said. "I had to pause her twice for Himawari and Keita and where is the stomach medicine?"

"Oh, is her stomach still upset? Sorry. Medicine's right here," he answers over Keita announcing his need for a bath as he returns to the grocery bags and starts rooting through them.

"Keita, medicine comes before bath. What happened to your pants?"

"They got wet."

Bunta pulls out a can of instant chicken noodle soup and a pack of matcha KitKat bars. "I see. Are they with the dirty laundry?"

"No..."

"Then you know your mission. Good luck...!" He says, giving Keita's mop of auburn hair an affectionate tousle as he stands and navigates around the mess in the kitchen, sets the can and candy on the counter, and starts cleaning the floor.

"Sounds like it got hectic," he observes nonchalantly to Yukimura. Keita briefly disappears outside, returning with his pants and wordlessly taking them towards the dirty clothes. Once he's out of earshot, he lifts his eyebrows and continues, "Any misbehavior?"

He doesn't want to jump to conclusions, but it's hard to miss the broken fridge shelf and the spilled perishables across the floor-- never mind the edge of exasperation Yukimura's trying to contain as he catches him up to speed.

Edited 2024-08-15 17:57 (UTC)

Is misbehavior the correct way to characterize this?

"I think he meant to be helpful, and he won't try that again," Yukimura said ruefully.

He cradles Himawari, and collapses gracelessly into the nearest kitchen chair. She makes a pitiful sound of discomfort, which is better than the full-throated wailing from earlier. She knows Daddy is trying to help, but also knows that he hasn't yet, and her besotted father is positively heartbroken by the realization.

"As soon as both girls needed attention, he went for the fridge, I suppose."

Bunta takes two seconds to process and analyze that response.

"Gotcha. I'll talk with him later. Sorry."

Failure and learning from it was part of life; what Bunta wants to ensure is that Keita's lesson here is "don't climb the fridge" rather than "don't try to be helpful." He's in a sensitive phase.

He wipes up the last of the mess on the floor, unable to quite help a look of endearment seeing Yukimura crumpled in the chair all fussed over his daughter. They do that, don't they? It makes him a little nostalgic for when Yukiko was that size.

"Keita," he calls while washing his hands, summoning the child back into the room. "We're going to play the counting game. Stay here and try for a new high score! When I come back downstairs, the game is over."

He spares a brief helpless look to Yukimura as he opens the KitKat and snaps off one of the bars. He hates to subject Yukimura to it, but preoccupying Keita with an activity will help keep him from getting into anything else while he takes care of Yukiko and Yukimura tends to his own baby. You have to strategize when you're outnumbered!

Keita begins reciting numerals from one up as Bunta bounds up the stairs and peeks into the room where Yukiko's bed has been set up.

"Yo," he greets. "You've been waiting patiently, huh? Thanks," and offers her the KitKat piece.

"How's my big girl?"

Yukiko sighs the sigh of a long-suffering older sister, but snatches and eats the candy before answering.

"I guess I have to be a little grown-up," she says, but the whine is making it clear she's tired of that. Is it over?

"I can't find Hanabi," she added. Her eyes start to well up. She knows Hanabi was from Uncle Jackal, and now Uncle Jackal is all the way across town, and..

We all do, kiddo, better get used to it!

Even if his inner parent that was just reminiscing about her days as a swaddled infant abhors the thought of it already happening. But for now, they can still indulge in this.

"Hanabi's here, even if you don't see her." A quick pause for the decision: try to find Hanabi or try to help her accept that she doesn't know exactly where Hanabi is right now? Keita needs a bath, groceries need put away, dinner needs starting...

"What kind of tummyache do you have? Like you might throw up?" Not out of the question is she's just stressed out from moving and her life getting upended.

Yukiko frowns but shakes her head.

"It's twisty... and feels weird," she offers, not sure how else to describe it. "But it's not in my throat."

She sits up a little, and while she has Daddy's ear and Daddy's friend isn't around to hear, she lets herself be a little honest.

"My ears hurt because it's loud here," she says. "It's quieter at home." Home, of course, still meaning Uncle Jackal's house to her.

Bunta allows himself a quiet giggle and ducks in like a partner in conspiracy, sneaking an arm around her for a companionable squeeze.

"It is, isn't it? Babies are super loud when they cry! Do you want some ear plugs?"

He's pretty sure he understands what's wrong with her stomach.

"...Yes," she says after a moment, because that would solve the problem, and smiles in spite of herself. Daddy could do that really easy, and it'd seemed like a much bigger thing, she'd been prepared to really complain, but Daddy already had it solved.

Yukiko turns towards him so she can snuggle up a little closer.

"Hanabi will also need earplugs, since her ears are big," she said. She didn't really believe that anymore, but she wanted to see what Daddy would do with that information.

If Yukiko is ever at all too big to be playing games of pretend with her stuffed animals, Bunta will be the last one to say it. He's here for this game as long as she is.

"I guess so," he agrees, responding to her lean in with a little more squeeze and a pat on the arm. "We'll look for her together after dinner. I have a good feeling about it if we work as a team. Sound good?"

"We should start soon," Yukiko said, eager to take advantage of the rarity that was having Daddy's undivided attention. Usually, it was okay, because Mommy or Uncle Jackal was always there to help, but it was going to be different now, because Yukimura-san having a daughter meant there was a third kid to take attention.

"It'd be easier if Himawari's mommy was here," she said out loud, and figuring Daddy would agree with her. "Is she coming back soon?"

Meanwhile, Yukimura was trying to get a bottle prepared while Himawari tugged on his collar.

"You won't have any weaknesses, will you?" he murmured, smiling. "You're going to be strong, and smart, and you're going to beat Sanada's daughters at everything you try. Yes, all four of them."

She made a silly face at him and he couldn't resist kissing her. It looked like a smile! She looked happier and more content. But he hadn't actually done anything...

"And you're going to talk in full sentences and tell me exactly what to do and no one will ever know we had this conversation," he added, carrying her and the bottle to the living room.

He settled down in the living room and was about to just give his undivided attention up to the little dictator running his life now, but paused. And listened.

No, he still heard Keita counting, not running water. So how was Yukiko faring?

Edited 2024-08-17 21:25 (UTC)

"I dunno about that," Bunta mused aloud with his usual nonchalance as he shifted and got up from the bed. "Starting dinner soon sounds good, though. I'm starving! Let's go!" Yes that means you too, Yukiko.

Meanwhile, downstairs, Keita is still trying to focus on his new high score. Daddy said it was easy to go to all the way to a hundred, which sounds super high to him.

"Two-ten-six. Two-ten-seven. Two-ten-eight. Two-ten-nine. Three-ten! Three-one. Three-two. Three..."

Something wasn't right about this.

....

"CRACKERS! I MESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSED!"

This was clearly an earth-shattering announcement that the whole house needed to know, as he began tearing around through the lower level yelling it at the top of his lungs.

The enthusiasm across Bunta's expression falters as he hears the commotion below.

"Well, let's not waste time standing around here."

Translation: we are needed downstairs stat.

All the commotion and his perfect angel baby looked right into Yukimura's tired face, slapped her bottle aside, and tried to say Mess!

It sounded like "Mmmeeee!" and it would have been adorable, like everything else she did, except he had two ears and a kid in each one.

"You couldn't learn your numbers from Keita-kun, hm? Too good for you?"

His buchou voice clicked into place, he turned his shoulder and called, "You have time to get a high score before your father comes down if you start now."

Keita barely even registers the sound of the cool, logical counterargument from the former Rikkai captain. Processing the words is out of the question.

It's not even that he's upset about it. He simply has a surplus of energy after spending the last couple of hours entertaining himself quietly at the coffee table. He continues to run an aimless path through the downstairs projecting a yell because it feels good to do so.

"Memememe!"

If Keita hijacked Himawari's first word... well, it'd be a funny story.

The baby was starting to beat her little fists against his shoulder, just to add to the noise, he supposed.

Yukimura wondered, had he moved all of the breakable things? He was pretty sure he had. Everything that could fall on little heads, too. Part of him wanted to call his mother and apologize, but he didn't remember being half this energetic... Leave this one to Marui, possibly? Let him work out his energy?

"MEMEMEME!"

...for a little while...

Keita. Yukimura is going to turn you into a rug if you disturb his--

"MEMEMEME!" Himawari's mimicry carries up the stairs.

Bunta spares a look at Yukiko that says he is desperately trying not to laugh.

"I'm coming down!" He calls down, both for Yukimura's sake and Keita's, and takes Yukiko's hand as he grins and tugs her along. "Time to join the party!"

With his daughter in tow, he moves to the staircase and releases her hand, descending solo with a merry, "Now, where's the rest of that KitKat bar~?" and intercepts Keita as he tries to fly past, scooping him right up off the ground as he continues to scream and flail.

"Outside play for outside!" Is the only correction given as he carries him to the bath, closing the door behind him. The yelling becomes muffled and then a few moments later dies out.

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