Chapter Text
Yamato’s hands grasped at the door of his room… or, at the very least, tried to. A cover had been put on it so that he couldn’t open it, as his tiny little fingers couldn’t get a good grasp of the knob.
He felt trapped.
What was his papa doing? Was he focusing on the evil replacement toddler again? Had he forgotten about Yamato?
His hands banged into the wood and tears welled up in his eyes. “Papa! Papa!” He called out as he continued to bruise his tiny hands in a desperate attempt to get his father to come. “Papa! Here!! Yato here!!”
His crying grew ever louder as he continued to try to get his father to remember him. He didn’t want to be replaced by the new kid. He wanted his father back.
But he felt so painfully alone in ways that a toddler shouldn’t feel. His Papa and his Mama… they didn’t live together anymore, and Papa wasn’t always able to read bedtime stories to him, and Mama wasn’t always able to sit by his side until he fell asleep.
Now that Papa had another toddler to take care of, it seemed like that time was cut down extensively, and Yamato didn’t like it very much. He didn’t like it at all, really.
Had his Papa forgotten him? His banging grew weaker as his hands began to ache and his tears began to choke him as he began to stumble back from the door and to his bed.
But then it swung open, and from the shadows emerged his father.
“Yamato!” His father exclaimed softly as he rushed to scoop his sniffling son into his arms. “Yamato, buddy, what’s wrong? What happened?”
“Papa forgot!! Papa forgot Yato!” He bawled as he dug his fingers into his father’s shirt and buried his snot and tear-covered face in the cloth. “Papa don’t want Yato! Papa forgot!!”
His father paused, sighed, and then carefully sat on his son’s race car bed. He rubbed Yamato’s back carefully, lovingly, and patiently as he sought out and selected his words, trying to figure out how best to explain everything to Yamato without hurting him more, but… it was hard. Because Yamato was a toddler.
It wasn’t that Yamato’s toddlerhood made his emotions stupid, it was that he was effectively going through a pre-order of puberty—growing and not being able to understand as his emotions were all over. And the added struggle came with the fact that he wasn’t able to understand big words quite yet…
Hanzo took a deep breath and shook his head before pressing his lips to his son’s head in a small kiss. “Papa’s not forgetting you any time soon, buddy.” He began slowly as he gave Yamato’s back a gentle pat, “But I know it must be scary, because there’s been a lot of change lately, huh?”
The toddler sniffled and curled his fingers tighter into his father’s shirt. “Uh-huh.”
“I know it must be super hard, now that Mama doesn’t live with us.” it was. His papa was smart, because he was able to understand Yamato when nobody else really tried to. “And it’s even harder because there’s somebody new living with us, right?”
Yamato nodded and wiped his nose on his dad’s shirt.
Hanzo wavered as he sought out new words. “I know it’s hard getting used to having a sister…” he paused as Yamato hit his bruised hands against his chest before going back to sniffling—clearly, he wanted the topic to change. “...Hm. Buddy, do you wanna sleep in dad’s room tonight? Would that help you feel better?”
“...Uh-huh… And…. Papa tells Yato a story. Please!” the toddler pleaded as he finally looked up at his dad. His face was red from crying, his eyes puffy, and his nose dripping snot, but it would be okay.
His father wasn’t going to forget him.