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Kaoru has always loved the holiday season.
The festive food and warm drinks, the even warmer nights wrapped in blankets watching Christmas movies; the magical atmosphere of the twinkling lights decorating the houses on the streets. The effervescence that sparks everyone’s attitudes alight, fizzling out old stresses and bringing about a settling calm as the year comes to a close.
But that was before.
Before Kaoru learned what true love really means.
No, Kaoru has never loved the holiday season as much as he does now: seeing it through the eyes of his five year old daughter.
Now his heart is full to the brim and bursting because he’s unequivocally allowed to love and dote on and spoil Yua, and he watches as Kojiro does the same.
The home they share is filled with music and laughter when Kojiro and Yua bake together; when Kaoru slips a few extra marshmallows into Yua’s hot chocolate, Kojiro pretending not to look and Yua giggling over their small ‘secret.’ When their movie nights turn into blanket forts in the living room, and Yua bestows the honour of holding and caring for her favourite stuffed animals to her parents at her Christmas themed tea parties.
On the first Saturday in December, they go to pick their tree, and Kaoru even loves this part so much more than he ever did before. Walking around the lot, looking at what’s on offer; Yua holding both his and Kojiro’s hand, and excitedly swinging between them.
And then, on the first Sunday: they decorate.
Once upon a time, Kaoru may have lost a small amount of patience when Kojiro’s distractions caused the decorating to take longer than necessary.
But this year when Kaoru walks into the living room, coffee mug in hand and ready to get started, he knows he has all the patience in the world for this—
Kojiro is singing along to the song Buon Natale, currently playing on the speakers. He’s holding Yua’s small hands in his, and she’s standing on his socked feet looking up at him and giggling while he sways with her.
Taking a seat on the couch, Kaoru hides a smile behind his mug, drinking his coffee, and more than content to watch the two of them dance.
“You don’t wanna dance with us?” Kojiro asks, smirking over at him.
Kaoru hums. “I’m good right here.”
Kojiro was always better at embarrassing himself for Yua’s (and his) entertainment, anyway.
The song finishes and Yua runs over to Kaoru, jumping up onto the couch (Kaoru holding his mug out of the way to avoid an accident) and onto his lap.
“Hi Papa,” she smiles brightly, kneeling on top of his thighs.
“Morning, Yua.” Kaoru smiles back, bringing an arm around her waist to cuddle her close and kiss her head.
She settles onto his lap and Kaoru finishes his coffee. The two of them watch quietly as Kojiro brings in the boxes of ornaments for the tree.
Kojiro had already put the tree up when they brought it home last night, and he’d dangled the lights from it, leaving only the baubles to be hung by the three of them today.
Which is exactly what they start doing, once everything is ready to go, their little family working in tandem to decorate the tree while Kojiro’s Christmas playlist rings softly throughout the house.
Kaoru takes the more delicate ornaments and places them on the branches at the top of the tree, while Kojiro and Yua pick out the plastic baubles and Kojiro helps her place them gently on the branches at the bottom.
When everything is hung, Kaoru hands the star tree-topper to Yua. Kojiro picks her up from around her waist, holding her up high enough so that she can put the star on top (with Kaoru standing behind the tree, pulling it down to make sure it sits properly without falling.)
“Done!” Yua exclaims happily. Kojiro chuckles.
“Good job, baby girl.” Kojiro takes a step back and moves Yua to balance her on his hip so they can look at the finished product. “You made it extra pretty this year,” he says, kissing her on the top of her head.
“Thanks!” She says, proudly, and both Kaoru and Kojiro huff out another chuckle at her unfiltered joy.
Yeah, Kaoru thinks, the holiday season is definitely better like this.
🍵🌸
“Come on, Papa,” Yua says in her soft-spoken, but still very excited, voice. “We have to be quick, Santa’s a busy man!”
Kaoru chuckles down at her as she tugs his hand, attempting to pull him along through the mall. She’s making no difference to Kaoru’s steady pace at all, of course, but in her five year old mind, it’s making all the difference.
“It’s okay, Yua,” Kaoru assures her. “Santa’s magic means he has all the time in the world, so there’s no rush.”
“Okay, Papa,” Yua says, but doesn’t stop her insistent pull on Kaoru’s hand to hurry him along because right now there’s nothing more important than getting to Santa.
They do, eventually, make it through the queue and to the front where Yua all but runs up to Santa on her turn. Kaoru leisurely follows behind her, watching as a worker (dressed as an elf) lifts her onto Santa’s lap.
Kaoru stands off just to the side, lovingly watching Yua’s excitement radiating from her as she looks up, starry-eyed, at the one-and-only man himself.
She bounces her legs, completely enamoured, as Santa initiates the conversation by asking her what she would like for Christmas.
Yua hums thoughtfully and then says, “I want a baby brother!”
The sheer unexpectedness of it causes Kaoru to almost drop his shopping bags on the floor.
The mall Santa chuckles and she continues, “but you have to be faster this year, because last year I asked for Daddy and Papa to get married and they told me that won’t happen until next year.”
She says it in a stern voice, or at least as stern as she can sound, and Kaoru inwardly groans at her bluntness; slightly mortified that in all her childish non-filter, she decided to tell Santa off.
“Yua,” Kaoru prompts gently, and she turns her doe-eyed gaze over to him. “Why don’t you ask Santa for something a bit more… realistic?”
Yua nods firmly at him, as though she’s been given a Very Important task, and turns back to Santa.
“And,” Yua hums again in thought. “I want a skateboard!”
Kaoru huffs out a small, incredulous laugh at that. At this rate, this child is going to give him emotional whiplash.
“A skateboard?” the Santa asks, curiously.
“Yeah! Papa has Carla, and Daddy has his fish, and Daddy lets me sit on his and he pushes me around the garden! And also sometimes inside when Papa’s not home! It’s really, really fun and if I get my own, I can go with Daddy and Papa and Carla!”
Kaoru’s heart clenches in his chest listening to her as he’s hit with an overwhelming sense of, Oh. This is my child. She’s mine, and the man that I love’s, and she’s a product of us.
Although, in the back of his mind, he does file away that part about Kojiro using the skateboard indoors when Kaoru’s not home. That needs to be revisited. He knew he wasn’t imagining those scratches on the floor.
Yua finishes telling Santa what else she wants, Kaoru makes a mental note of everything, and then they resume shopping around the mall. Kaoru realises they’ve probably been shopping a little bit too long when Yua starts dragging her feet and getting fussy, her excitement having fully dwindled after meeting Santa and her fatigue catching up with her.
He ends up wishing Kojiro was here when he struggles to carry her back to the car, resting her on his hip, while attempting to carry all the shopping bags he’s accumulated too.
Somehow he manages to make it to the car, bags in one piece, and he straps Yua into her seat. She’s dead asleep to the world by the time he’s driven home.
“Hey,” Kojiro smiles warmly at Kaoru, from the kitchen, when he walks through the front door, Yua asleep in his arms.
“Can you get the bags from the car?” Kaoru asks.
Kojiro does as he’s told, and Kaoru toes off his shoes before making his way into the open plan of their home and laying Yua down on the couch, pulling a blanket over her. He sits down at the opposite end with an exhausted sigh.
“You really wore her out, huh?” Kojiro asks quietly, gently lifting Yua’s legs to sit down next to Kaoru, and then placing her legs back down on his lap.
“She wore herself out. She was too excited about meeting Santa.”
Kaoru sighs again and scoots closer to Kojiro, letting his head fall to Kojiro’s shoulder when he realises how exhausted he is, too.
“So what did she ask Santa for?” Kojiro asks, bringing an arm around Kaoru and stroking a warm, calloused hand over Kaoru’s side.
“A baby brother.”
“No, really,” Kojiro snorts a laugh. “What did she ask for?”
“Really,” Kaoru deadpans.
“Really?”
“Yes, really, Kojiro,” Kaoru huffs. “She asked Santa for a baby brother, right before she told him off for taking so long to get us married.”
“She told him off?” Kojiro snorts again. He looks down at her sleeping soundly next to him, and brushes some hair from her face. “That’s a risky move. She’s definitely a Sakurayashiki.”
“I never would have spoken to Santa like that,” Kaoru huffs at the thought. “That’s more a Nanjo trait, if you ask me.”
“Yeah, okay,” Kojiro chuckles. “Although, to be fair to Santa, it wasn’t his fault we took so long getting engaged. I did try to propose last Christmas, if you remember.”
“Yeah. Incorrectly,” Kaoru pouts.
“This again!” Kojiro balks. “How does someone propose incorrectly?”
“You should know,” Kaoru smirks up at him, from where his head is still resting on Kojiro’s shoulder. “You’re the one who did it wrong. Twice.”
“I should have taken those opportunities to duck and run.”
Kaoru hits Kojiro in the chest, enough that Kojiro makes a small oof sound.
“Anyway, it wouldn’t be so bad,” Kojiro says, rubbing at the area where Kaoru just hit him. “Would it?”
“Marrying you?” Kaoru hums. “I’m having second thoughts.”
“No, I mean about the baby brother.”
“You—” Kaoru sits up and frowns at Kojiro. “You want another baby?”
“Yeah,” Kojiro shrugs, and then looks down at Yua again. “The first one wasn’t so bad, right?”
“We’re not even married yet,” Kaoru says, waving a dismissive hand.
“We will be soon. And anyway, we weren’t married the first time, either,” Kojiro says, and Kaoru can’t help but notice how sure he sounds about this, as though he’s been thinking about it.
“Yeah, but—” Kaoru stops to rub a hand up over his face, under his glasses. “That was different. Different circumstances.”
Kojiro nods slowly, and then sighs, his mouth turning up into a sad smile. “So—no to another baby, then?”
“I don’t know,” Kaoru says honestly, because he’s never really given it much thought.
Yua happened so suddenly, and sure, Kaoru loves her with his whole heart. But he never really considered making space for any more after that.
“Okay,” Kojiro smiles understandingly at him, running a soothing hand over Kaoru’s arm. “No biggie. Maybe this is just like the proposal thing, and I’ll have to ask another two times before you say yes.”
Kaoru huffs out a laugh at that, and any tension that was threatening to spill dissipates before it gets a chance to fully form. He drops back down to rest up against Kojiro, head falling back onto broad shoulder.
“Asking for another child when you can’t even learn to not be a child yourself, and not skate in the house,” Kaoru huffs.
“I’ve never—”
“That’s not what Yua said,” Kaoru interrupts.
“I can’t believe she ratted me out!” Kojiro gasps in fake disbelief. “Traitor. We had a pact.”
“And yet you want another one,” Kaoru scoffs. “Even though the first one betrays you like this…”
🍵🌸
Kaoru is sitting in the living room, attempting to work, but with it being so close to Christmas (only a week away), his mind has already shut off completely from ‘work mode.’
Not to mention, in the open plan space of their home, he has the perfect view of Kojiro and Yua baking in the kitchen.
The two of them are running through their ‘trial run,’ making a batch of cookies that they bake every year just to leave out for Santa on Christmas Eve. And, sure, with Kojiro’s expertise, they don’t need to do a trial, but they do it anyway. As an excuse to have a whole batch of cookies to themselves. (They also make some small cupcakes too, but that’s solely for them and not Santa.)
Kaoru places his tablet down on the coffee table, giving up completely on whatever work he was looking at. He’s already pushed all his important deadlines into the new year, anyway.
Right now there’s nothing more important than getting comfortable, tucking his legs underneath himself, and watching his two favourite people as they make a mess of the kitchen, singing along to Frosty the Snowman.
Yua is standing on a stool, Kojiro stood behind her with his arms bracketing her entirely, and he’s helping her mix the batter together.
It looks like incredibly messy work, and Kaoru knows Kojiro would be much more efficient and quick without Yua, but Kaoru also knows Kojiro loves spending this time with Yua as much as Yua loves baking with her Daddy.
Once the dough is formed, they scoop it out onto the side and use the Christmas themed cookie cutters to shape out trees, snowmen, and Santa hats, before placing them onto an already lined baking tray.
Kojiro helps Yua get down from her stool and she runs over to Kaoru, while Kojiro places the cookies in the oven to bake. Yua jumps up onto Kaoru, getting flour on his comfy yukata in the process.
“You have batter on your nose,” Kaoru says to Yua, now on his lap, wiping it away with a finger.
“Daddy let me lick the bowl!” She says excitedly.
“Well, where’s the fun in baking if you can’t lick the bowl?” Kojiro laughs as he walks over, sitting down next to Kaoru.
“Yeah!” Yua agrees, with the same level of enthusiasm as always.
“It’s all over your hands and clothes, too,” Kaoru chuckles, tickling her sides to get her to laugh too. “Go wash your hands, sweetheart,” he says to her, picking her up and placing her down on the floor.
“Okay, Papa,” she says softly, running down the hallway.
“You have some flour—” Kaoru scoots closer to Kojiro so that their sides are flush together, brushing his thumb over Kojiro’s bottom lip, “right there.”
Kojiro’s mouth curls into a gentle smile, and his lips are warm against the pad of Kaoru’s thumb when he presses a light kiss on it.
“Thanks, flower,” Kojiro teases, winking at him. “You’re always so nice to me at this time of year.”
“Yeah, well—” Kaoru wants to protest, wants to banter back and forth a little bit, but he’s feeling warm and loved today; the tender look in Kojiro’s eyes causing all other feelings to disappear, and all he can manage is an all-too-fond, “Be grateful.”
“You have no idea how grateful I am,” Kojiro says, so quietly it’s almost a whisper.
And then he smiles that stupid, lazy, signature, boyish smile of his and Kaoru is helpless but to lean over and kiss him; helpess but to cup Kojiro’s face between his hands and press chaste kiss after kiss against his warmth. It’s a catch-22, really, for Kaoru to fall prey to the temptations of Kojiro’s smile like this, yet with each touch of their lips Kojiro’s smile only becomes more endearing.
They hear Yua barrelling back into the room before they see her. She huffs out a giggly, “Ew,” and when they pull apart, she’s standing next to Kojiro’s knee, looking up at them with her little nose wrinkled in fake disgust.
“Ew?” Kojiro parrots back at her, still smiling wide, running the pads of his fingers over the loose green curls hanging down her forehead.
“Kissing is yucky,” she says defiantly.
“Yucky, huh?” Kojiro says, humming thoughtfully.
Kaoru snorts a laugh at the two of them and how seriously they’re taking the conversation, and then rolls his eyes fondly when Kojiro scoops Yua into his arms and starts splattering kisses all over her cheeks, her forehead, her hair.
“Daddy!” Yua shouts, in between laughter, palming her hands onto Kojiro’s face in an attempt to lightly push him away.
“I can’t believe you don’t even want to kiss me,” Kojiro pouts, continuing to kiss her all over while she fidgets on his lap, filling the living room with loud shrieks of laughter.
“Ew, Daddy,” she complains, wiping a hand over her cheek where Kojiro has placed one last sloppy kiss.
He stops, letting her catch her breath from the unending giggles, softly tucking hair behind her ear that has fallen loose from her pigtails.
“Okay,” she sighs, when she’s calmed down. Placing her hands on Kojiro’s chest to leverage herself, she stands up. Kojiro holds her around her middle so she doesn’t fall from where she’s now stood, unsteady on his thighs. She grabs his face in between her small hands and says firmly, “You can have one kiss,” and then presses her lips to his nose.
“Thank you, baby,” Kojiro smiles softly at her.
She huffs out a “You’re welcome,” while she crawls out of Kojiro’s grip and onto Kaoru’s lap, standing on his thighs as she just did with Kojiro.
Kaoru holds her steady as she takes his face into her hands, softly saying, “You too, Papa,” placing a kiss to the tip of his nose, too.
“Thank you, darling,” Kaoru says, just as soft, and then he pulls her gently to sit down on his lap, holding her in the crook of his arm and placing a kiss of his own onto the top of her head.
Yua cuddles closer to him, and Kaoru pulls a blanket over the three of them. She falls asleep in his arms, to the smell of freshly baked cookies wafting through the air.
🍵🌸
It’s far too early in the morning, and they got to sleep far too late, to be woken at five-thirty a.m. by Yua’s excited squeals on Christmas morning.
“Santa came, Santa came!” Yua chants, climbing up onto their bed, jumping and throwing herself on top of them both.
Kojiro laughs, grabbing and pulling her down into a hug so that he doesn’t have to sit up.
“Morning, baby girl,” he mumbles, voice croaky from sleep.
“Too early,” Kaoru groans, trying to pull a pillow over his head.
“Santa came!” Yua says again.
“And the presents will still be there in a few hours,” Kaoru says, almost slurring his words in his sleepy state. “Come sleep in here for a little bit.”
“But Papa, Santa came!” Kojiro says, teasing Kaoru by mimicking their daughter’s enthusiasm.
Kaoru opens his eyes enough to shoot Kojiro a glare, but he only laughs in response.
“Why don’t you go get your stocking from your room, baby?” Kojiro says, turning his attention to Yua once more. “You can open the little presents first, in bed with us.”
“Okay!” Yua shuffles from under Kojiro’s heavy arms and jumps off the bed and out of the room.
When she comes running back in, she’s dragging her stocking along the floor behind her. She passes it to Kojiro and then uses both of her hands to climb back up onto the bed, where she promptly resumes jumping with excitement.
And then—in her excitement—she accidentally hits Kojiro in the groin.
“Motherf—” Kojiro recoils in instant pain.
Yua looks over at him, worried, unsure what happened, and Kaoru’s eyes snap open.
When Kaoru realises what happened, he immediately bursts into laughter. Yua looks between her parents, one writhing in pain and the other laughing uncontrollably, and she quickly follows Kaoru into fits of giggles.
“Well at least that woke you up,” Kojiro mumbles to Kaoru, his voice strained.
It just makes Kaoru laugh harder. He sits up, attempting to wipe the tears of laughter from his eyes, but more just keep coming.
“Trust you to find humour in my pain,” Kojiro grumbles, wincing as he sits himself up too.
Yua crawls over to sit on Kaoru’s lap, still giggling along with him even though she still doesn’t understand what happened.
When they both calm down, and Kojiro isn’t in pain any more, Kaoru reaches over for the almost forgotten stocking. He passes it to Yua and she starts pulling her stocking fillers out, unwrapping them one by one while her parents watch on.
Eventually, they move to the living room for her to open her big presents; Kojiro and Kaoru watching from the couch as they drink their morning coffee.
“Merry Christmas, baby,” Kojiro whispers against Kaoru’s temple when he presses a light kiss there.
Kaoru leans into the touch and then turns his head to capture Kojiro’s mouth with his own. “Merry Christmas, Koji.”
🍵🌸
The morning passes in a blur of coffee, Kojiro’s food preparation, and Yua’s unyielding excitement as she storms the house with all her new toys—which is to say, she spends most of the morning dragging herself over the hardwood floors on her new skateboard.
As it approaches midday, they start getting ready to head out to the Nanjo household, where the entire family is gathering for a large meal cooked by Kojiro’s mother (including all the food Kojiro is bringing with them, of course.)
Kaoru is finishing up the last touches of his eyeliner in the bathroom mirror when he hears, and feels, a tiny presence sneak up on him.
He looks down at Yua, standing next to his leg, looking shyly up at him.
“Can I help you?” He asks her, a playful smirk toying with his lips.
She shakes her head, but she’s worrying her bottom lip between her teeth and her eyes are shining bright with something Kaoru’s coming to recognise as childish curiosity.
Kaoru decides not to ask again, knowing she’ll gather the confidence to ask eventually, so instead he says to her, “You look beautiful, darling.”
He knows Kojiro dressed her while he was getting ready, and she’s wearing the new dress that she was gifted from her grandparents. Her lightly coloured green hair is tied into two braided pigtails on the side of her head, and as always the soft curls that are too small to fit into her braids are hanging loose, framing her forehead and face.
“Did Daddy do your hair?” Kaoru asks.
“Yeah,” she replies, quiet. She’s rocking back and forth on her feet. “You look pretty, Papa.”
“Thank you, Yua.”
“Can I go next?”
Kaoru frowns, not immediately sure what she means, and then he looks down at the eyeliner he’s still holding and he realises.
“You want to wear some makeup?” Kaoru asks her, slowly.
She nods enthusiastically, no longer nipping on her bottom lip.
“Okay, baby,” Kaoru says, putting the lid back on the eyeliner and lifting her up to sit on the bathroom counter. He stands in front of her, telling her to be careful not to move too much.
Kaoru opens up his makeup bag and lays some things out next to her. He hums thoughtfully, looking over what he has. “Do you want some eyeshadow?”
“Yeah,” Yua says softly.
He opens the palette to let her pick the colour, and they have some discussion over whether she wants to match her hair colour, eye colour, or dress colour. When they settle on a light red colour, Kaoru applies only a small amount to each of her eyelids. She’s never worn makeup before, and he doesn’t want to overdo it, but Yua seems more than happy with what she’s getting anyway.
The two of them talk away to each other while Kaoru works, adding a small amount of mascara, a little bit of blush to each cheek, a dab of lip gloss.
At some point, Kaoru catches a glimpse in the mirror and sees Kojiro standing behind them, arms folded, and leaning up against the doorframe as he watches them. Kaoru’s not sure how long Kojiro’s been standing there, but he stays until Kaoru’s finished.
Giving Yua a kiss on the top of her head, he lifts her and puts her down on the floor. She runs over to Kojiro, entirely delighted with her makeup.
Kojiro kneels down to her height as she exclaims, “Look, Daddy!”
“Well, aren’t you the most beautiful girl in the world,” Kojiro smiles, kissing the top of her head. “Now, the quicker you get ready to leave, the quicker you can show Nanna and Grandad your pretty makeup and dress.”
She nods firmly, running away to put her shoes on.
“You look beautiful too, baby,” Kojiro says, standing to meet Kaoru when he walks toward him.
Kaoru hums, accepting Kojiro’s kiss on his cheek.
“And you look—fine, I suppose,” Kaoru says in return, but his voice is full of far too much fondness for it to be taken any other way.
They make their way out of the house—putting their shoes and coats on and Kojiro grabbing the bag of food—before they open the front door and Yua runs out ahead of them.
On their way out behind her, Kaoru grabs Kojiro’s wrist to stop him.
Kojiro looks back over his shoulder and frowns. “Is everything—”
“Okay,” Kaoru says firmly, cutting him off.
“—okay?”
“Let’s have another one,” Kaoru says, quietly.
“Another—”
“Let’s go!” Yua shouts at them, from where she’s standing, waiting (not so) patiently by the car.
They both look over to her, chuckle at her abrasiveness, and then it must dawn on Kojiro because when he turns to look back at Kaoru, he looks slightly more optimistic than he did a moment ago.
“You want another baby?” Kojiro asks, his voice hopeful.
Kaoru smiles. It’s a barely there smile, but Kaoru hopes it’s noticeable nonetheless. He nods his confirmation anyway, just to be safe.
Kojiro’s smile in return is blinding—but really, when isn’t it? He leans in to quickly kiss Kaoru on the cheek before the two of them are dragged to the car by their not so patient five year old daughter.