Chapter Text
Rain, thunder, and wind, that was some of the many things that didn't discourage him, even if the world outside howled like it wanted to eat him whole the sound hashira would do no such thing as cower to the elements that were thrown his way. His job was taken seriously through thick and thin, he valued the life given to him and the life of others that lay in his hands. So that work carried on for days on the day, but he was lucky to have time off and there was nothing better than to spend that time with his three lovely wives.
Tengen did love them dearly so on days like this where he could be with them for the next couple of days were real bliss. Even if he walked through the rain he had a slight but visible smile on his face at just the thought of the three women that had caught his eyes.
Harsh drops of water beat down on his skin as he made his feet move through the mud that was collecting on his shoes. He made his way to the house they shared when all together. He can always remember the smell of their home, it always smells like the cold fall air, and the leaves of cherry blossom trees no matter the season. This is what his home was, his home was here right in front of him, not the place he was born and raised. No, that was a prison, a place where he was lied to and manipulated into believing that he was inferior to the monster he had once followed word for word. But now that's not important, now he could smell the cherry blossoms he associated with the women he loved so dearly. Taking the front door handle he walked into his home quietly to surprise his wives.
years of learning to be stealthy and silent paid off because the two of the three girls relaxing on the living room couch did not see their husband looking right behind them so in turn and favors he got the reaction he wanted out of them. Scaring them was one thing but him coming how was another, at this point they rarely got to see each other so that was a surprise and reward in itself.
The two girls jumping on top of him directly after having the shit scared out of them was mostly a turn of events that favored Tengen because he soon didn't have to deal with the backlash and scolding from the two.
After all that it was all hellos and hugs for the three of them.
… three? there should be four?
Tengen soon realized that one of his ladies had not been there, if she was then that scare would have made her scream the loudest out of the other women. But yet suma was no wear to be found, she would usually be latched onto him the moment the four were reunited but now she wasn't here.
Looking around he still couldn't recall if she had been in his presence or not, so the two girls noticed him and looked at him, seeing his behavior the girls looked back at each other.
“Hey so, where's suma?” out of curiosity he asked the two where their other wife had gone. Makio was the first to respond to him
“She went out to get stuff for dinner but she's been gone longer than she usually is”
“Yeah I was starting to wonder how long until she comes back”
Tengen got half of the answer he was looking for but he took it anyway, yet thinking to himself he started to over-think, every possible thing that could ever happen to her was flooding his mind.
“How could she go out alone in this kind of weather?”
Hinatsuru had to explain that she had insisted that she do the day's chores, she was persistent for sure and even makio yelling that it wasn't a good idea to go out in this kind of weather did not pull her down.
All suma wanted was for her wives to rest after they had done most of the week's work, she felt as if she needed to pull the weight she knew she could. So in persistence, she went out and let them rest before she got home to cook dinner for them before their husband came home.
But now she was beyond late and worry was plastered onto the three faces, Tengen grabbed his swords and headed to the door.
“I'm going out to look for her, I’ll be back soon I’m sure she's fi-”
And just before he could finish his sentence he was hit directly in the face by his own door. After being betrayed by his door he had stumbled back a couple of feet, shocked by the power he looked back to see his one and only ‘missing’ wife.
She was covered head to toe in water, treading into the house tracking mud onto the floor. Makio would have yelled at her for being irresponsible but she decided to resolve a problem first. Their wife was very obviously on the verge of breaking down on the floor, tears flooded down her face as she tried to conjure up any kind of words but nothing came out of her mouth except for an out-of-breath gurgle of cries.
Tengen, makio, and hinatsuru quickly went to comfort their wife, she cried often but they could tell that now she wasn't ok. Hinatsuru was first to ask questions
“Suma are you ok, tell us please what happened?”
Even if they tried they couldn't get an answer out of their wife, suma tried too but she just couldn't make herself talk through the sobs. Placing a hand on the woman’s shoulder Tengen tried to talk to her
“honey take your time I don't want to rush you but please tell us what's wro-”
Again he was interrupted in the middle of his sentence, this time by a sneeze. Reactively he said bless you, yet so did everyone else, including suma which was her first word since she got home.
“Why did you bless yourself Hina?” tenge asked, he just thought it was weird but just asked anyway.
“Huh? I thought makio sneezed”
“Like fuck I sneeze like that it was suma”
“umm…”
“No, it was the baby” oh that makes sense…
BABY?
Whipping his head back to her he realized something he had failed to see when she had come home. Suma was in fact carrying a small baby in her hands, it looked around a couple of months old. The bundled-up blanket lay in her arms the entire time and no one had noticed.
Finally, suma had gathered her words together
“I was just trying to find ingredients for dinner in town and right before sundown, I found this basket in an alleyway. My gut told me to check it and when I did I found him I had to take him he was abandoned and he wouldn't make it past sundown”
She moved her arm just a bit to show off the face of the infant, he had hazel eyes and black hair. At first, Tengen thought he was good at scaring people but this time Suma wins. He had never thought of himself as a person who really liked kids but this was out of hand.
“I’m sorry Tengen but I could just leave him there he would have died within hours”
Suma went back to sobbing uncontrollably while clutching the boy.
“Suma, suma calm down your being crazy” makio went back to being herself and yelled back to the other woman. While they tried to fight each other hinatsuru was hand off the baby so he wasn't caught in the middle of their conflict. She and Tengen just watch them brave it out until they are tired and give up.
“Ladies I know you're a little busy but can we go back to the subject of suma bring back a whole ass baby”
Truth be told, Tengen was hungry and just wanted to have one normal day, so this wasn't really what he had planned. Turning their attention back to the baby now in Hina’s hand they gather around him to inspect it.
He stared up at the four as he was observed, he didn't know where he was or really how he got there but it was better than the cold rain so he didn't mind. Makio raised her hand to poke his cheek and then checked his forehead.
“He doesn't have a fever so that's good”
She continued to poke at his little chubby baby cheeks and soon the other women joined. Confusion soon washed away as the three girls fawned over the baby, closing in their own little circle excluding their husband who was at a loss for words.
All he could do was exclaim he was going to take a shower and walk away, he needed to clear his head for a second. Making way to his bathroom he got in the shower and tried to let the water wash away his thoughts. The hot water felt refreshing and he soon forgot about the events that had gone down.
After his shower, he had slipped on some casual clothes and walked back to find the girls. He guessed they were in the kitchen by the smell of food, as soon as he walked in he was reminded of what had happened earlier. Makio and hinatsuru had their backs turned to him as suma cradled the baby, talking to him as if he understood what she was telling him.
“Tengen-sama welcome back”
Suma waved to him with her unoccupied hand, giving him the hello’s she didn't get to say when she first walked in. The two others gave their welcomes too but continued to cook with their backs turned, focused on what they were doing not wanting to mess up or burn their cooking.
He walked closer to suma and looked down to see the baby was still in his house, feeling as if he had enough time to process what was happening he cleared his throat and gave his announcement.
“So umm, what the fuck are we supposed to do with that thing”
Looking up from their work Hina, Suma, and Makio looked at their husband who was addressing the stray baby their wife had brought home. The three women thought to themselves before they said something back. suma spoke first
“Well first off feed him something and then probably give him a bath, then aft-”
This time Tengen was the one to cut one of them off,
“Then we find someone who will take Hina and then we can go back to being a 4 person household” Tengen didn't want any more words from them, he spoke and expected their agreement but this time was different. All three seemed to strongly disagree with him.
Hinatsuru fought off that idea saying that if no one in a crowded town even bothered to help him they should trust anyone to take care of him. Makio agreed with her wife, stating that the town itself was pretty sketchy and that the only reason they went was for groceries, suma just cried(again)
The four bickered until all of them had enough of their fighting, it was useless in a 1 v.s 3 fight. Tengen wasn't convinced that having some random baby in their house was a good idea.
But even if that was the point he defended, that wasn't the reason he thought the baby shouldn’t stay, he was scared. The things he went through as a kid brought him to be the man he is today. That training and fighting gave him skill, strength, and everything he needed to be the hashira he is. But yet he's scared that if he had a kid of any kind he would turn into the monster he was forced to call his father.
The same blood ran through them and they shared the same last name, that itself was enough of a reminder of where he came from and what he's done. One day he will die, not knowing when or how maybe he’ll retire and maybe he will die at the hands of a demon but he won't know till it hits him.
Though he wants to tell them that, he wants to say how scared he is of being gone one day leaving them and this world and how having a baby would make it even worse. Even if he loved them so much and would tell them everything, he had to keep this to himself, they knew of his past and what he's done but he never let out how it felt to him, how much these memories haunted him and ate him from the inside leaving an empty feeling where there should be feeling for the people he has wronged.
Now wasn't the time to bring that up so he stayed strong and looked back and forth through different options he could suggest to his wives.
“We moving too fast with this, that's an entire baby how are we going to care for it”
“There are three to four of us here all the time we can take care of him just fine, and we don't trust or know anyone in this town”
Suma was partially right through all of the people near them seemed to be untrusting of each other.
Tengen then stuck his finger in front of the baby's face and looked back at his wives.
“Look I think that someone would either take him in or help find his parents”
And at that moment he had to cut himself off, the feeling of something clutching onto him was apparent so he looked down to see what.
The baby he had vetoed out of his house was grabbing onto him, his entire hand could barely hold his finger. The other three looked to the infinite and stopped as well, the baby clung onto him and giggled at the man in front of him.
“Oh no stop, hay come on dude”
He tried to shake the little hand off his finger but the baby refused to let go no matter how much the man asked. Eventually, he gave up and stood there defeated by the kid, lowering his hand so he could hold it better.
Tengen's little ‘problem’ seemed to be fascinated by the rings and other shiny objects the man had on his hand, giggling as he inspected them one by one. Then turning his head to look at the man, the other shiny things he had on were very amusing to the baby.
The very man who disagreed with the other women had forgotten about them for the moment and zoned out at the baby dumbfounded by his actions. The three stared at their husband wondering what was going on in this man's head.
He soon realized they were watching and jerked his hand away from the baby knowing that if he looked any longer he would get attached to it.
“Ahem, as I was saying I just don't think we should rush int-” for what felt like the 5th time today he was interrupted.
The wails of the baby that was just inspecting the man's jewelry were heard from all of the adults in the kitchen. The three women were the first to try and help the baby but he continually tried to squirm out of their arms. They passed him along to each other trying different ways of calming him down.
It wasn't until they passed him to makio who happened to be standing right next to Tengen that he calmed down only a little after again grabbing the man by his shirt. Without thinking Makio passed the baby to Tengen and with open arms, the man finally held the boy. It only took a second until the baby was completely calm, gnawing on one of his hands as he used the other one to hold onto Tengen’s shirt.
Stunned that Tengen calmed down the baby, they stayed like that until he finally broke the silence.
“Ok, Tengen Ok fine we can keep the baby”
The four had finally come to an agreement and after some more discussion they figured out plans for their new addition to the family, all while he sat in Tengen’sTengen’s arms.
All conflict and problems seemed to disappear as they talked about what they were thinking in regards to the baby. After talking it out like adults they conclude he could stay.
After only some minutes things were back to how they were before he had walked in, Hina continued cooking and suma passed makio the baby. Soon finding a name written on the blanket, Zenitsu Agatsuma. They would let the boy choose later in life if he wanted to keep his current last name to switch over to their family name.
After exchanging words, the smell of dinner soon began to fill the air. Before anyone knew dinner was hot and on the table before them. Eating the food he was given with a baby he possibly didn't hate now and the three women who made his life better with every moment they were there.
The baby still clings to him at every given chance, acting like Tengen was his lifeline. Looking down on him he really couldn't see how someone could have abandoned him but that didn't matter.
Plus how hard could being a parent be?