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From the moment Fuyuhiko Kuzuryuu first lays eyes on her, he knows.
Well, okay, that’s an exaggeration. He can barely make her out the first moment he technically sees her – there’s a flurry of activity surrounding her, after all, as the midwife attempts to clean her up (not to mention how his eyesight is suddenly blurry – he’s not fucking crying, though, no matter what Peko says). He’s kind of busy holding his wife’s hand as she labors through the afterbirth, anyway, so they only officially meet her together after everything’s over.
She’s not particularly pretty (then again, after what she’d just gone through – being pushed out like that – he’s not sure that any baby could ever be). And yet, he’s mesmerized.
This is his daughter. This absolutely fucking tiny little thing, able to rest comfortably within the cradle of Peko’s arms, is the heir they’d been trying so hard to conceive. They’d had no real desire to be parents, to be perfectly honest, aside from their duty to the family. Because after all, neither of them really knew the first thing about parenting – Peko’d never had any sort of parental figure in her life, and considering what a mess his own parents had made of his childhood, he doesn’t think their example really counts either.
Even so, just looking at those big, wide eyes (the color of his own, he thinks, although when he asks about it the dumbass midwife feels the need to point out that it might change) attempting to take in all the new sights of the world around her, he thinks he can get used to this. Maybe he still has no fucking idea what the hell he’s doing from this point on, aside from avoiding following in his parents’ footsteps like the goddamn plague, but it doesn’t matter.
She’s his – part him and part Peko, something nobody else has aside from them – and when he gets the chance to hold her himself, cradling her like she’s made of the finest china the Kuzuryuu family has ever acquired, he knows beyond a shadow of a doubt that he’d protect her from anything (family tradition be damned).
(His cheeks are not wet with tears. If the photos sworn-brother-and-designated-photographer Hinata took of their new family show shining cheeks and suspiciously bright eyes, it’s clearly Hinata’s fucking incompetence at photography – but at least he’ll admit that his wife and daughter are radiant.)
*****
Even as she grows older, he is no less wrapped around her little fingers.
The yakuza members think they’re clever, offering him condolences on the birth of a daughter and telling him that they’ll make offerings for the next one to be a son. A couple fingers later make his position on the matter pretty clear – he and Peko have already decided that they only want one child, and he doesn’t think the fact that she’s a girl will hold her back from being a great oyabun at all.
Besides, in some ways, he feels it’s almost fate. Fuyuhiko and Peko come to the decision to name their daughter Natsuhi, after his late sister – as a way of honoring the dead – and in some ways he thinks it’s only right that the next heir should take after his sister in some ways (even if said sister often made him want to yank out his hair in frustration…she’d truly earned her title of Super High School Level Little Sister).
His daughter’s the smartest little two year old he knows, though (…not like he makes a habit of hanging around with toddlers, though, so what the hell does he know). She knows how to get Daddy to do almost anything for her by just pouting or batting her little eyelashes – Natsuhi’s stuffed animal collection is almost as large as her mother’s, despite her young age. Her closet’s a mess of cute clothing (almost half of which is panda outfits – which he doesn’t question, since he knows it makes Peko happy) and toys that would make bills quite difficult for a typical family, but luckily the activities of the Kuzuyruu family enable such spoiling.
Plus, she’s a whiz with words (in his humble and completely unbiased opinion, of course). From the first word she mastered, “Mama” (he later learned that Hinata made ¥5,000 from Souda over it, since the latter had bet that, knowing Kuzuryuu, her first word would be “fuck”. Hell, Hinata hadn’t even been ashamed about such a blatant betrayal of his sworn brother when confronted about it – “At least I bet against Souda,” he’d pointed out), she’d learned how to use her simple vocabulary to make all the adults around her bend to her will.
(Which makes him think – as much as he hates the thought of his little princess succeeding him as the oyabun of the Kuzuryuu family, considering the danger involved, he at least has to admit that she’d probably manage to whip all the yakuza thugs into shape in no time flat.)
Her favorite thing to do, though, is ride around on her father’s shoulders. Even at her young age, she likes the feeling of power she gets as the yakuza members flinch away and avoid eye contact as they walk by (he doesn’t want to know what they think of their “fearsome” oyabun carting around his tiny, adorable daughter – but he’ll fucking shoot anyone who thinks he’s gone soft, don’t fucking test him). As a little baby, she’d enjoyed angrily babbling at passerby while waving her bottle in a “threatening” manner – now that she’s able to talk, she settles instead for repeating Daddy’s threats from the safety of his shoulders (she knows that she’s not allowed to repeat swear words, though, or there are consequences – last time she tried that her favorite stuffed bunny was taken away for a day, and ever since then she’d been pretty good).
Plus, once they finish making rounds, her father often rewards her for her good behavior (it’s not just an excuse, goddamnit, his daughter’s a fucking angel okay) by taking her out to get ice cream. It’s the good, two-scoop-per-cone kind, too, so by the time they start wrapping things up she’s lightly bouncing and squirming against him in excitement (and he has to remind her to knock it off, he’s not going to risk dropping her for anything). But even so she still gets her double-helping of chocolate ice cream, and Kuzuryuu figures that he’s pretty lucky to have his daughter share his sweet tooth.
It’s a special bonding moment for father and daughter…so he tries not to take it too badly when he learns why she only likes to ride on his shoulders (they find out when Peko attempts to give her a ride – the moment Natsuhi’s placed up on her mother’s shoulders, she breaks down whimpering and crying, clutching on desperately to her mother’s braids and shirt because “no high, no high!!!”
No matter what Peko says, he most definitely did not sulk for days afterward).
It’s not the little girl’s fault, really – a two-year-old child can’t be expected to understand things like his sensitivity about his height. He was lucky to have grown a bit in high school, finally reaching five-foot-three-and-a-half inches (and don’t you forget the half-inch, that’s fucking important, shithead!), but Peko still dwarfs him by four and a half inches. He’d be lying if he said it didn’t smart.
Which is why, while hunting online for his daughter’s next birthday present, he caves in and buys himself a pair of platform shoes. As embarrassing as it is to admit he needs the help, the extra few inches make a huge difference when it comes to intimidating people – after all, the more height you can get against someone else, the better.
So come her third birthday, his daughter enjoys her new dollhouse…and two weeks later, he gets his new shoes. He puts them on almost immediately after they arrive (but he’s not fucking eager, don’t call him that!!). It doesn’t take him long to acclimate to his new height – he enjoys his newfound ability to loom threateningly over some of the yakuza thugs (…and the new ease with which he can kiss his wife, but like hell he’d admit that).
He’s the king of the world now – so when it comes time for him and his daughter to do their daily threatening, he feels like he’s more than ready to go. That pumped feeling lasts up until he settles his daughter on his shoulders – and hears her immediately burst into tears. “It’s too high, too high…!” His heart sinks. She’s clutching onto his shoulders like she’s terrified of falling down, so he gently lowers her back into the safety of his arms, allowing her to cling to him like a koala.
The next day, he takes one look at his new shoes before opting for his old ones instead. Yeah, it sucks to go back to being so short again – but looking at his daughter’s beaming face as she runs into the room and demands to “go up, Daddy, I wanna go up!”, he thinks it’s worth it.