Chapter Text
“A child,” Tanjirou sputtered like a dying faucet, “How are we – No, don’t answer that – Do you understand...”
He combusted into flames as his mouth continued to flap like the wings of a bird.
Giyuu gently cradled Tanjirou’s hands and imagined them holding smaller ones, and he glimpsed of another future where they would swing their ball of sunshine to and fro without a care in the world. Tanjirou would be flushed with unspeakable joy, so much that Giyuu couldn’t help himself from kissing those rosy cheeks. He would press all his hopes and dreams into his lover’s flesh until they were marked and branded with his existence.
“Giyuu-san,” Tanjirou looked away with conflicted eyes, “You cannot joke about this.”
“I’m not,” he replied with clear-cut conviction. “I love you, Tanjirou. I want to bring you happiness as well.” Then he asked and tightened his grip, “Do you want this?”
His husband, his love, his flame gulped as he finally recognized that this question was no strange ploy to tease him. Normally at Tanjirou’s age, he would have been expecting a little one. He was not blind to the curious glances in his direction whenever he stepped out of the Water Estate, the needling stares whenever there was a missing woman at his side.
“I do,” Tanjirou said, “But...” Speaking out the truth wounded him. His voice was tinged with misery. “But what is the point if you’re going to leave us?”
Tanjirou knew Kamado Kie was a strong, independent woman, especially after his father passed away, but he was not ignorant to the stale air that surrounded her and the hardships she faced raising six children by herself. Along with Nezuko, he tried to lessen the load, but he also grieved and cried crocodile tears when his father succumbed to his sickness. He cannot exert this kind of pain onto another unsuspecting child. It would be too close to home, a home where he cannot return, a home that was tainted by Muzan’s claws.
“I’m,” Giyuu was almost speechless, “I’m sorry,” he said lamely. For the first time in many years, tears bloomed at the corner of his ocean-filled eyes. “I wish I could give you happiness,” he said as they dripped down his cheeks. “But I seem to be doing the opposite,” he sniffled and wiped his sleeve.
“I just...” He took a shuddered breath and clutched his left breast with a furrowed brow. His sallow skin and darkened bags gave him an unhealthy glow. “Wanted to leave something behind,” Giyuu said helplessly. “Why,” he gritted his teeth and lowered his head. His frustrations leaked out. “I want so much,” he cried, “But I can’t.”
All he had done was hurt Tanjirou and inconvenience him, and in turn, he had hurt himself. Before his body registered the solid chest pressed against him, he stained Tanjirou’s front with his tears, an unrelenting torrent that refused to stop. His lover wrapped him with an encompassing embrace and kissed away his tears, and Giyuu accepted his chapped lips as a welcoming touch.
“Giyuu-san,” Tanjirou said his name with raw emotion, “I love you.”
Despite the loss of his father, Tanjirou remembered as he held the dying man close, he never considered his mother as an unfortunate woman. There were struggles as a poor coal burner family, but her children supported her through thick and thin. Love was abundant within the Kamado family, and mentions of his deceased father would often bring a conflicted but peaceful smile upon her face.
Without a doubt, Kie missed Tanjurou, but she lived her life without regret. Loving his father was never a mistake.
Tanjirou held Giyuu tighter and silently prayed for his mother to give him courage and strength. “Please,” he pressed his lips upon the crown of his husband’s head, “Please give me time to think.”
Even though he said that, he thought bitterly, there was never enough.
XXX
Raising a child was no easy decision, which was why Tanjirou took at least a month until he agreed to pursue this laborious path. When Giyuu and Tanjirou presented their case to Kiriya, he granted them permission to adopt and used his connections to hand them a beautiful toddler.
“Her parents were killed by demons,” he said with pity because he understood how difficult it was to lose a father and mother at such a young age. “She was the only survivor, and there were no relatives to claim her.”
Immediately, Tanjirou and Giyuu accepted her into their dynamic.
She was a beautiful child with obsidian-colored hair and ebony eyes with an ever-present curiosity. Her wide eyes soaked in her surroundings, and she would speak coherently and incoherently day and night, tramping around the household with confident strides.
Nezuko announced she was pregnant when she first met the child, and Zenitsu was once again livid when he discovered Tanjirou had beat him to the punch.
“YOU!” His finger stabbed Tanjirou’s cheek without mercy, twisting it viciously with envy. “YOU CAN’T EVEN REPRODUCE AND YET YOU GOT A CHILD BEFORE US?!”
Tanjirou was not aware there was a competition between them, but then again, he was also not aware this bothered his brother-in-law so much, which earned him another verbal lashing and a chunk of missing hair.
“If this keeps up,” Tanjirou whined as Giyuu patted his poor head, “I’ll turn bald before Nezuko’s child is born.”
Inosuke, on the other hand, was entirely ignorant of Tanjirou’s relationship with Giyuu. There was no mean-spiritedness behind his obliviousness, but he was flabbergasted to see Tanjirou carrying a child in his arms when he crashed into their home. In his defense, he assumed Tanjirou was dutifully training with Giyuu and learning all his secret moves before he kicked the bucket.
“Well, he is learning some moves, but not the moves you’re thinking of,” Zenitsu snickered before he got chopped by Tanjirou’s righteous hand.
Inosuke froze a whole minute. His response proved that he was slowly accommodating to human society since he picked up the blond’s joke. “HAH? GONPACHIRO AND MISMATCHED HAORI ARE MATING?!”
Sadly, Inosuke was the second victim to Tanjirou’s righteous hand.
The trio were a rambunctious bunch, and despite their crass jokes and uproarious banter, Giyuu observed them with a hint of a smile. Already Tanjirou’s spirits were lifted. Fujiko’s arrival brought so many blessings to their household, and Giyuu made sure to treasure each moment, to burn everything into his memory.
Then a voice interrupted his thoughts. “Food!”
Giyuu flickered his gaze to the toddler staring up at his towering form with wide eyes.
“Food!” Fujiko demanded again.
“Hungry?” He asked with a lilt to his voice in order to pitch it in a friendlier tone. He bent down and extended his hand to his daughter, who instinctively took it without question. Her hands were so small, he noted before he hoisted her upon his shoulders. Yet, he smirked as the young girl shrieked in delight, she was large enough to fill in a certain gap in his heart.
“I’ll make us some salmon daikon,” he told her and headed towards the kitchen.
