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“Kiyoshi! You can’t pick that face! Pumpkins are supposed to be scary!”
The timid boy squirms in his seat at his sister’s words, folding his hands together in his lap. “But…I don’t want my pumpkin to look scary. I want to put the kitty face on mine…”
Two small hands slam on the table. “You can’t! It has to be scary!”
“Hotaru,” a soft voice chides, “don’t raise your voice to your brother. He can put whatever face he wants on his pumpkin.”
“But mama!”
Tooru tuts at her, “Don’t you ‘but mama’ me. You can make your own pumpkin scary and Kiyoshi can make his pumpkin a kitty. They both are still going to be very wonderful pumpkins.”
It’s obviously not the answer she’s looking for, especially by the little scowl that turns up on her lips, but Hotaru drags her hands off the table and sits quietly back in her chair.
The omega mother doesn’t miss the little peek of tongue that pokes past her lips though. ]
“Hotaru.” He scolds.
She jumps at the call of her name, turning and giving him a regretful look. Tooru gives her a pointed stare, gesturing with his head to Kiyoshi. Hotaru takes the hint and immediately faces her brother. “I’m sorry for sticking my tongue out at you.”
Kiyoshi smiles, “It’s okay. I’m sorry for not making a scary pumpkin with you.”
Hotaru shakes her head, “No…you don’t have to be sorry for that. Mommy’s right, both of our pumpkins are going to be great even if they aren’t both scary.”
The younger boy looks really pleased with her response and nods once. “Yeah.
It’s with pure fondness that Tooru smiles down at both of his kids, happy to see them both in agreement. He reaches to pet both of their heads. “I’ll go get the pumpkins. You two sit tight.”
He turns to go towards the kitchen where they had been leaving the two pumpkins since they’d bought them the other day. There was a big one and a medium sized one both sitting on the counter, the biggest being Hotaru of course, and the omega could already feel the grief his back just at the sight and realizing he’d have to move this all the way to the table.
Honestly, the things a mother would do for their child.
“Well I won’t get there any faster by staring at it…”
Tooru wraps his arms around the giant fruit, bracing himself so he didn’t throw out his back trying to pick this thing up.
“What do you think you’re doing?” A sudden voice cuts into the room.
The omega startles, letting out a small “Eek!”
He spins around quickly only to find his husband being the voice standing in the doorway. His jacket is removed, with his tie loosened around the collar, shirt sleeves pushed up to his elbow as a signal he’d been home at least for a few minutes without any of them hearing him. Hajime’s eyeing him standing there, arms crossed over his chest, and Tooru smiles at him when their eyes meet.
“Welcome home.” Tooru tells him in their familiar greeting, smiling even more when his husband simply steps forwards to take him into his arms, giving him a kiss as his own form greeting.
Hajime keeps a hand around his hip, looking over his shoulder to the counter. “You guys about to carve the pumpkins?”
Tooru nods, “The kids were getting impatient. I figured it was either me or the pumpkins they were going to carve today.”
His alpha laughs at that, “Well let’s hurry and get these to them then. I’d like to keep you fully intact if I can.”
“Oh how kind of you.” He returns playfully, pushing away so he could grab one of the pumpkins to help carry that way.
Only his husband decides to side steps in front of him suddenly, getting in the way of him trying to grab as he put himself in front and carefully nudged him back. “I’ll carry them. You just go and start helping the kids.”
The omega gives him a narrowed look, arms crossing over his chest. “Don’t think I can handle carrying them, alpha?”
“No,” Hajime smiles, expression honest, “you’ve just been looking kind of exhausted and I figured this is the least I could do for you.”
Tooru smiles at the gesture, patting his alpha on the shoulder and planting a quick kiss to his cheek, “What a considerate man I married.” He informs him knowingly.
There is an eye roll from Hajime as he leans over to pick up the heaviest pumpkin, following behind Tooru as they made their way back to their dining table. They have matching smiles when they see their two kids faces as Hajime sets down the first pumpkin in front of Hotaru.
She quickly hugs around his waist. “Thank you Daddy!”
He pats her head, “You’re welcome baby girl. Let Mommy help you cut off the top while I go get Kiyoshi’s pumpkin, okay?”
Her little head nods and Tooru assumes the position behind her, taking one of their kitchen knives and carefully cutting and almost perfect circle into the top. Hajime disappears and reappears with the second pumpkin in arms, bringing it to the youngest Iwaizumi and helping cut a hole into that one so he can start reaching in to scoop out its guts. Hotaru’s starts squealing when she finally reaches into hers.
“It’s so gross feeling!” She’s got the biggest grin on her face.
“It’s also gross to clean up too.” Tooru laughs, “Try to make sure you get it all on the newspaper.”
Hotaru nods, looking oddly determined for a child simply de-gutting a pumpkin. She takes her scooper tool and goes at it, very careful to put the pile on the laid out paper in front of her like her mother had just told her.
Kiyoshi’s looking at his pumpkin with a bit of hesitancy after Hajime’s done cutting and pulls off the lid. The alpha decides to reach in and scoop a little out, just to prove there was no harm in it. “It’s just a little squishy feeling, nothing bad. If you pull out all the seeds from here, we can even cook them in the oven and eat them later if you want.”
The young boy perks up at the mention of that. “We can eat the seeds…?”
“Of course we can. You can help me clean them and put them on the tray later if you’re up for it.” Tooru tells him and Kiyoshi nods eagerly.
It takes a little while, but after both kids are done scooping out all the mess inside, Tooru and Hajime help them put on their stencils, letting them use their little kid-safe toolkit to start carving out their faces. Kiyoshi needs a little more help than Hotaru does, but Hajime’s behind helping them each time they ask for it, leaving Tooru to simply watch with a big smile as he separated seeds from the guts into a bowl.
They end up with two slightly crooked but very adorable pumpkin faces.
“Our pumpkins are going to be the best looking on the block!” Hotaru exclaims when they are finished and Tooru’s trying to put the lids back on properly.
It makes even quiet Kiyoshi let out a shout of “Yeah!” in excitement, making their parent share a look with matching grins.
“Why don’t we go put them on the porch so everyone can see them? We’ll put candles in them when we take you out in your costumes so that they can light up our porch.”
Both of them are thrilled by the idea and while Hajime ends up being the one to carry them again, the two young kids get to arrange them outside just how they prefer, even getting to put the little thing of pumpkins Tooru had also bought around them to make it even better.
The omega leans into his husband as they watch the two try to place everything just right. “This was a good idea to let them do this.”
His alpha nods, “Turned out a lot better than I thought it would. I was expecting someone to lose a finger.”
An arm gets throw around Tooru’s waist and he smiles, “I’m happy you could be here with us to do it. It’s always better when we do things like this as a family…”
He trials off, suddenly bringing a hand to his stomach as a quick bout of nausea washes over him. It vanishes just as quickly as it came but Hajime still picks up on it.
“You okay…?” He thumbs carefully across his hip.
Tooru nods, resting his head on the other man’s shoulder, “Just felt like puking for a second. Maybe playing in all of those pumpkin guts got to my brain.”
“Do you want to sit down?”
He shakes his head, “I don’t want to ruin the fun. Just let me lean on you some more, I’ll be alright.”
Hajime tucks him closer, “You better not get be getting sick on me. I’ll smack you if I have to take these kids to get them candy all by myself.”
“You wouldn’t hit a sick person.” Tooru tells him knowingly.
He squeezes his hip. “Yeah, but I wouldn’t give you any get-well-soon kisses and we wouldn’t share any of the candy with you either.”
The alpha pressing a kiss to the side of his temple, obviously joking.
“I guess I’ll just try my best to stay healthy then.”
“You better.” Hajime presses another kiss to his head.
Tooru smiles, smoothing a hand over his stomach once more.
He wonders how excited his husband will be when he finally tells him about the little pumpkin growing in there.