Chapter Text
Snow storms weren’t always this bad, but they made everything around them extremely cold despite how warm the minka was. The tabi could only wear off the icy cold by a bit, but it’s better than having nothing on their feet. Everyone is sleeping in their futons, the kids mostly sharing one since they are small and they basically fit. Itsuki sleeps like a starfish, a leg across Kazuya’s stomach. It’s a miracle he can sleep in that position when it’s so cold, snoring with his mouth wide open a fly could just waltz in there if it wanted to. Giyuu ended up as the little spoon, Sanemi held him close so that the other’s warmth radiated to him as well. However, Giyuu stirred in his sleep, he found it hard to sleep comfortably. Not that he didn’t like the cuddling position, he was just burning up but he didn’t want Sanemi to feel empty. He decided to turn around and have his back face the scarred man instead, it felt better that way. He attempts to sleep now that he wasn’t burning up.
Kazuya on the other hand, whimpers softly. Eyes shut tight, he feels as if something was grabbing his throat and suffocating him. His head tosses and turns occasionally, frustrated in whatever nightmare is taking place in that helpless mind of his. Everything felt like fire to his skin, sweating, and panting. He began to breathe a little heavier than normal, sometimes even stopping as if he’s holding his breath and then breathing again. He mumbles little help’s here and there, Giyuu hears the silent cries from Kazuya and opens his eyes. His little boy had tears streaming down to the sides of his temples and turned his head side to side. His hands gripped the sheets that covered him. Giyuu knows that body language, he remembered those sleepless nights from the days after his sister passed away. The same nightmare reoccurring over and over…and over, it felt like a maze. It pained him to see his kid in that situation and whatever nightmare Kazuya was having, Sanemi was right that night.
“one of them is going to have nightmares.”
A week has passed since the wolf incident, so it is no surprise that’s what’s haunting Kazuya. So Giyuu sits up without waking up Sanemi and crawls over a bit to Kazuya’s side, he gently takes Itsuki’s leg off the boy and covers him up before bringing Kazuya into his arms. He cups the boy’s scrunched up face with his left hand, “Kazuya? Come back to me dear, papa is right here. It’s not real,” the boy was shaking, not waking up. Giyuu’s heart clenched, he wasn’t sure what to do but he continued to speak to him. Shaking him awake would only scare him more. “It’s okay dear, you’re safe here. You’re at home.” Kazuya whimpers and grips Giyuu’s yukata , the raven haired man untangled the small fingers from his yukata and held the boy’s hand, “Nothing in that world is real, only my voice. Come back to me Yaya.” Kazuya finally opened his eyes, they were frantic and he scanned everything around him until they landed on his father’s face who watched him with worried eyes. As if to make sure he was really home, he turned his head to look at his brother who was sleeping peacefully. Then turned to the other side to look at Sanemi. Giyuu turns his body just a little so Kazuya can see his father also sleeping peacefully.
Then he looks back at his father, the man gives him a small warm smile. Relieved that he got the boy to wake up. Kazuya felt his eyes prickled, his small hand reaching out to cup Giyuu’s face. Just to reassure himself that he is in fact home. “Papa?” Giyuu nods. This sets Kazuya’s switch to flip, his cries erupt from his belly and hides his face on Giyuu’s chest. The man held him close, hoping that his warmth was enough to secure Kazuya’s thoughts. Sanemi jumps up from his sleep and looks around the room, that’s when he sees Giyuu next to him holding a crying Kazuya into his chest. He asks what’s wrong with the boy, reaching out to cup his cheek, and Itsuki? That boy is fast asleep, not even his brother’s cries can wake him up. At least he gets to be in dreamland, Giyuu continues to hug his child until he calms down. It took some time until Kazuya finally stopped crying, so Giyuu brought Itsuki into their futon and kept the other boy in his arms for the time being. Sanemi was forced to go back to sleep because as always Giyuu insists that he’s got this.
In the end, he had to listen to him because Itsuki had already settled himself under Sanemi’s chin. The black haired boy is getting comfortable once more, his father was really warm too and since he was woken up to be moved from his futon to the big one. He was cold. A true deep sleeper once settled. Kazuya was wide awake, afraid that if he sleeps he’d go back to that awful nightmare and everything was quiet again. The wind of the snowstorm still went on, the one thing keeping the room from being completely silent. “Do you wanna talk about it?” Giyuu finally speaks. Kazuya opened his mouth to say something but closed them and shook his head, “No.” The boy shifts to get more comfortable in his father’s arms, hand in a firm grip at Giyuu’s yukata. Giyuu is still very much new to this, Sanemi has his experience since he was the oldest of seven. In this field, it’s all unknown and foreign to him. He was the youngest, his sister always took care of him. She always knew how to make him feel better, how to heal what hurt, what to fix what’s complicated. She took the role of being everything in one to him, the mom, the dad, and a figure to look up too.
Thinking about it hurts, it will never change. How he wished he had what his sister embodied that he doesn’t.
So all he can do is hold the little boy close to ensure he wasn't going anywhere. He began to recall things his sister did to make him feel better. With his nightmares she would always sing him a lullaby, but she would always make them up and never really stuck with one. Thinking on it made Giyuu smile a little, if only she was here he would ask her what he should do. It’s been so long he can’t remember each of the songs. He shushed quietly and brushed Kazuya’s snow-like strands behind his ear. Giyuu thinks for a moment, he can’t make up a lullaby like his sister did. That was a talent she had, he only hums whatever she sings when he helps her with chores. Yet that only drove his mind into memory lane. He remembers the time he hurt himself one time, his sister had asked him to bring a bucket of water to boil for their dinner. He was small at the time, so reaching for the bucket from the table was probably a fifty percent chance of him getting it down or not. Yet in the attempt to grab it, the bottom part of the empty bucket hit his head. His eyes stung and he cried, his sister came looking for him after wondering what took him so long and found him crying on the floor next to the “evil” bucket.
She giggled and made her way over to him and massaged the part where it hurt and said “Pain, pain go away!” Confused, he stared at the girl unsure what she did. This only made her giggle and helped him onto his feet. It caught him off guard, but it stopped him from crying at least.
What a memory…
Then something clicked. There is one song that he can remember the tune from, so he began to hum softly and rest his chin on Kazuya’s crown. He gently rocks them side to side.
The song that came to his mind was actually one Nezuko would always sing to his boys when they were just born. It was always the same lullaby, even to this day when he goes to visit them. She always puts them to sleep with her angelic voice. Which Giyuu was always thankful for, because doing it alone was always a pain in the ass. Dad life is hard, it’s never easy. He wondered how his own parents did it and as much as he loves being a father, kids will always be a huge responsibility. Tanjiro would bring him some tea for him to relax while Nezuko helped put the boys to sleep. The reason for this was because when Giyuu travels to see them, it’s always dark when he arrives.
“You’re so good at this.” Nezuko smiles at Giyuu with the two boys in her arms asleep.
“My mother would always sing to us, and when we couldn’t sleep. The times she couldn’t Nii-san and I would be the ones to sing to our siblings.”
Giyuu sways and sways, checking on the boy every once in a while until Kazuya finally surrenders to his heavy eyelids. Begging for shut eye, Giyuu slowly lies down back in the futon and places the boy next to him and pulls the covers over them. In doing so, he realized that Sanemi was watching the whole time. He was very entertained, he smirked at Giyuu seeing how his cheeks flushed red. He will never let this one down, another excuse to tease his lover when he gets the chance. Well, also it was to see if Giyuu needed help. Sometimes Giyuu can’t handle it, so plan B is…well Sanemi.
“I thought you were asleep,” The raven haired man kept his eyes on Kazuya, going back to humming after speaking. God, his cheeks feel so hot. How embarrassing is what he thought. Everytime Sanemi does something like this, his brain short-circuits or curses at him.
The other whispers, “Well I was, but seeing you like this was just too good to miss. I rarely get a chance to see this everyday. Who am I to miss such a cute moment.” Giyuu looks away, he rather put his attention on his kid than look at his partner. “Then I’ll make sure it doesn’t happen again.” Sanemi stares at him surprised then laughs quietly to not wake up Itsuki.
He snickers, “What’s so wrong with being so tender with the children? Looking domestic isn’t wrong at all, in fact,” Giyuu watches the scarred man’s face watch him with such fondness it makes his stomach do a bunch of flips and the butterflies panic, “it makes you look pure…yet we both know that’s not true.” God, does he ever shut up? Giyuu thinks to himself, for a man who struggles to express himself he sure can express his naughty thoughts without a problem. In a… subtle way that is. He isn’t any different but the naughty part? Never around the children, even if they’re asleep he would never. Sanemi may have no filter but Giyuu likes to keep his on.
“You have no shame Shinazugawa,” before the other could protest Itsuki shifts against him. Sanemi covers the boy adjusting the blanket.
“You know… I was thinking, we should have some time to ourselves one day, it’s been too long,” Giyuu rolls his eyes, choosing to snuggle up to Kazuya and shut his eyes. “We don’t have time for that, besides, your getaway fantasy to play hide the sword will just be a dream. We don’t even have anyone who is available to watch them.”
“Uzui?”
“Absolutely not,”
Sanemi sighs, “But his wives will be there,” with little hope in his tone of voice Giyuu still denies his suggestion.
“They’re nice and all, but this whole parenthood thing is still new to us, I’d worry about them and you would too,” Sanemi feels himself getting irritated but Giyuu isn’t entirely wrong. However, he isn’t trying to get away from his job of being a dad. That’s not the case, he just wants to at least have some alone time with Giyuu. Just for a day or few, he just wants his lover’s presence without the two children dragging them away from each other. The last time he tried for a quickie, the boys came bursting into the room and Sanemi had to shield Giyuu by hovering over him. While Giyuu had to grip the cover over them because the kids were trying to yank it off of them. The last thing they need is a horrifying sight for kids to see. Bodies cold in all their glory covered his sweat. Yeah, distraction isn’t enough to keep the boys occupied. Ever since they’ve had children in their life, privacy isn’t an option anymore.
“We should prioritize them instead of putting our wants on top of that,”
“I never said we shouldn’t Tomioka, but leaving them with someone for a little while isn't going to make them disappear. Is it so wrong for me to just have some alone time with you?”
Giyuu doesn’t say anything, it’s not like he doesn’t want that either but they can’t just “abandon” their duties as dads. So instead he just avoids the question, “We should get some rest…”
Sanemi gives up, trying to not show his slight annoyance, “Sure, yeah…” he scoops Itsuki up and lies on his back to sleep better, he holds the boy on his chest and goes off to dreamland with him.
Giyuu frowns, he didn’t like the aftertaste that conversation left on his tongue, so he fell asleep thinking about it all through the night.