Chapter Text
i. Sad
Luca and Oliver were perfect from the moment he first saw them, from the soft shocks of hair on their heads right down to their tiny toes. Tiny long toes, Noiz notes vaguely as he rubs the sole of one small foot with the pad of his thumb as he tries to soothe Luca's crying. That could only come from Aoba.
Despite all of the care they'd taken and the effort they'd made, Oliver had come down with a cold which he had then shared with his older brother, and the result was two young babies who fussed and cried miserably because of their illness, and who constantly wanted to be held and comforted. Neither had stopped crying for more than a few minutes for several hours, and there was very little that could be done to help aside from hoping the tiny amount of medicine they were allowed to give them would soon take effect.
Aoba dropped the bottle he was holding and ran his hand through his hair as the formula he'd tried to feed to Oliver dribbled down the baby's chin, looking close to tears. The constant crying had almost become a low, upsetting hum in the back of Noiz's mind, but when Aoba's was added to it he snapped out of his trance and frowned.
"Aoba..."
"Something's wrong," Aoba muttered, voice watery and thick. "They haven't stopped crying and the medicine should be working by now. We need to take them to the hospital."
Noiz wanted to say it was just a cold, that it would get better on its own and things would get easier, but he couldn't even be sure of that anymore. He nodded and pressed a kiss to Aoba's forehead before gently placing Luca into his crib, feeling a pang hit his heart as his crying became even more strained. He gave Luca his pacifier, but it didn't do much good; he didn't spit it out, but he continued to cry around it. Aoba gave Noiz a confused look, but Noiz simply took Oliver from him without a word and put him in his own crib.
"They'll be fine. I'll stay while you get changed."
As Aoba nodded and left the room, body shaking from stress and exhaustion, Noiz sat in the chair between the two cribs and rubbed his hand over his face, feeling sleep pulling at his mind as the room gradually got quieter, quieter...
"Some lookout you are."
Noiz was shocked awake by Aoba's soft voice, and the older man put one hand over his mouth before he could speak and raised the other to his own face, index finger extended over his lips as a sign to keep silent.
It took Noiz a few moments to realize that both of their sons had stopped crying. He stood up a little too quickly and almost knocked Aoba off-balance in the process, but was relieved to see that both Oliver and Luca were now sleeping peacefully, breathing evenly and looking a lot better than they had before. Luca's tiny mouth was sucking furiously on the pacifier Noiz had given him, but Oliver's was lying just beside his pillow, out of reach. Noiz leaned over slowly and grabbed Oliver's discarded pacifier, gently pressing it to his son's lips. Oliver's mouth opened to accept the pacifier's rubber nipple, but a second later he yawned with a soft sound of contentment and the pacifier began to gradually drool back out of his mouth.
Once they had ensured everything was alright in the nursery, they left the room hand-in-hand and headed for their own bedroom, relieved that they would be able to catch up on some much needed sleep.
"I'll make an appointment with the pediatrician tomorrow," Aoba whispered, and Noiz nodded and brought their joined hands to his lips.
As it turned out, things had gotten better on their own.
ii. Sound
Aoba pointed to himself, his eyes fixed on Luca's face.
"Papa."
Luca kicked his feet out and squealed, up-ending the bowl of baby food on his high chair tray as he slammed his fists down onto it.
"Bababababah..."
Aoba sighed and shook his head, looking over to where Noiz was sitting at the dinner table. "He said it earlier, I swear."
As Luca kept screaming the same sound over and over again, Noiz winced.
"Are you sure he wasn't just saying what he's saying now?"
Aoba gave Noiz such a dirty look that he decided that turning back to his meal and maintaining a dignified silence was the best reaction. After Aoba went back to Luca, Noiz reached over between mouthfuls of his own meal to spoon some of Oliver's baby food into his mouth, catching the dribble of food on his chin on the spoon before it reached his jumpsuit.
"What about Oli?"
"Nothing," Aoba said, shaking his head. "I mean... he's loud, but he's still just making sounds."
"Don't look so worried. The doctor said that they were both fine for their age, right?"
"Yeah, she did," Aoba agreed, sighing as he began to clean up the mess Luca had left behind. "I'm sure he spoke today though."
"I can do that," Noiz said, finishing up with Oliver's food. "Go and get washed up while you have the chance."
"Washed up? Oh," Aoba said as he noticed the large splatter of baby food that now adorned the front of his shirt. "Okay. There should be enough food left for another bowl..."
"I'll make some if there isn't, don't worry," Noiz said, and Aoba nodded his thanks as he left the kitchen. Noiz carefully dragged Luca's highchair closer to his own side of the table and mopped up the mess so he could feed him properly, finding the lukewarm remains of the baby food in the microwave while he was up. He hit the reheat button and sat back down to watch the boys. Oliver reached for him, making soft whimpering noises as he did so.
"Ahh... aahhh..."
"You've finished your dinner, Oli," Noiz said gently as he turned back to his own meal, but Oliver persisted.
"Ahhh, ah, va... ti."
Noiz almost dropped his fork in shock and looked over at Oliver, who was now staring back as if nothing had happened.
"Noiz, the microwave beeped ages ago..." Aoba said, coming back into the kitchen wearing a clean shirt. "Huh? Why are you looking like that?"
"Aoba," Noiz said, voice deadly serious, "Oli just spoke."
"Eh? Really? I'm with them all day and I've never heard him say anything..."
"He just did, watch," Noiz said, and he turned back to his confused-looking son as Aoba retrieved the food for Luca from the microwave.
"Oli, say 'Vati'."
Oliver looked even more confused, but began to open his mouth. Noiz nodded to encourage him... and immediately shut his eyes as Oli blew a loud, wet raspberry in his face. Luca giggled in delight, and not even Aoba could hide his amusement.
"Are you sure he wasn't just making the sound he just made now?" Aoba asked innocently, and he grinned as Noiz glared back before offering the younger man a tea towel.
iii. Happy
The apartment was suspiciously quiet when Noiz got home, and once he'd ditched his briefcase and suit jacket he walked further into their home to investigate.
"Aoba?"
He got no verbal reply, but the telltale sounds of muted voices and splashes of water more than gave away the location of his family. As Noiz opened the door of the bathroom, Noiz came face-to-face with Aoba sitting back comfortably in a bath full of bubbles, his hair pulled into a messy bun at the back of his head. Oliver and Luca were both in the bath with him and Aoba seemed to be attempting to get them to concentrate on the colourful charts stuck to the bathroom wall. For their first birthday, Grandma had sent over a parcel from Midorijima and the two plastic alphabet charts had been among the storybooks, clothes and toys also included in the gift. Aoba had immediately put them up in the bathroom so he could teach their children during their daily bath, something about giving them a head start.
Unfortunately, it seemed Luca and Oliver were too preoccupied with trying to pull Aoba's hair free from its bun to pay attention to his lesson. He patiently took hold of both their hands and moved them away from his hair, pointing to one particular hiragana character on the chart.
"This one is 'u'," Aoba said, tracing over it with his finger before pointing to the picture next to it. "Like 'usagi', see? And like Usagimodoki! Oi, Oliver, don't do that."
Aoba brushed the handful of bubbles that Oliver was trying to eat back into the bathwater and pointed at the picture again.
"'Usagi' is bunny," Aoba said, grinning. "That's your Vati's favourite, right?"
Luca had been vaguely staring into the distance over Aoba's shoulder at that point, but a second later his eyes locked onto Noiz and his face split into a bright grin.
"Vati! Vatiii!"
"Yup, Vati will be home soon... Lu, don't climb out of the bath! You'll hurt yourse-- ahh!"
Aoba jumped in surprise and Luca fell harmlessly back into the bath with a squeal of delight, Oliver joining in as a large splash of water sloshed over the side of the tub and onto the floor.
"I'm home," Noiz said with a smirk, walking over to clean up the overflowing water with a discarded towel as Oliver and Luca reached for him and left several tiny, damp hand prints all over his work shirt. Once that was done, he leaned down to kiss Aoba hello and shook his head at the twins' insistent shrieks of "Vati bath!".
Aoba mirrored Noiz's grin as both boys tried to clamber all over both of them. "You're already damp, so you might as well listen to them. Do you want Vati to get in the bath?"
The happy giggles that resulted from this question was the only answer Noiz needed; he couldn't argue with that majority, and a few minutes later he was in the bath with the rest of his family.
"Welcome home," Aoba said with a small smile, and Noiz managed to return it between several suffocating hugs from their sons.
iv. Lost
"They're both about this tall," Aoba said in a rush, all of the colour draining from his face and hands shaking as he showed the police officer a spot just below his hip. "Luca has blue hair green eyes and Oliver has... what's the word... hair like his Vati. And his eyes are light brown, like mine."
"Sir, please try to stay calm," the officer implored, and Noiz couldn't help but agree despite his own worry; Aoba kept speaking in a mess of Japanese and German out of nerves.
It was the first time they'd taken Oliver and Luca to the Weihnachtsmarkt in their town; Noiz and Aoba had been looking at a stall of delicate handmade Christmas decorations when Oliver had noticed something and had broken free from Aoba's grasp to chase it. Luca had chased after his brother and both had disappeared into the large crowd.
"Can you recall what they were wearing?"
"Oliver was wearing a purple jumper with a hood," Aoba said in a rush, "the hood had rabbit-like ears stitched onto it. Oliver was wearing a black jacket with a fake fur lining around the collar, and a blue beanie with a green rabbit pattern knitted into it, it's far too big for him and it comes down over his ears."
"Did they have anything with them to help reunite them with you if they got lost?"
"T-they were giving out arm bands that you could write your number on, they were both wearing them, but it's been about an hour since we saw them and no one has called."
Tears suddenly appeared in Aoba's eyes, and Noiz moved reflexively to hug him. He could feel the tightness in his own throat and the telltale burning behind his eyes, but he refused to cry. He needed to stay strong for Aoba, try to comfort him through it.
All of a sudden, Aoba's Coil lit up and began to ring. He immediately answered it, and the face of a rather kind-looking old lady greeted him.
"Are you Aoba?"
"Yes," Aoba replied, and the old lady smiled and directed her Coil's camera down to the floor of her stall, where Oliver and Luca were sitting and happily helping themselves to a bowl full of sweets.
"I've got your boys here, but judging from the look on your face I don't think they were supposed to be off on their own little adventure, hmm?"
"No," Aoba said, shaking his head as relief flowed through him. "Thank you so much for looking after them. Which stall are you at?"
"43A, in the middle of it all."
"Thank you, thank you so much," Aoba said, wiping his tears away. "We'll be over to pick them up in just a second."
As Aoba ended the call, he turned back to the officer that had been taking the boys' details with a grateful smile.
"It's alright now, but thank you for your help."
"No problem," the officer said, a broad smile on his face. "Now you'd better go after your husband before you lose him too."
"Eh?" Aoba asked, turning around to the spot where Noiz had just been standing only to find him gone.
Noiz had run off as soon as the old woman had mentioned the location of the stall, legs burning in the cold of the air as he ran, the strange looks he was getting from others meaning nothing in the face of being reunited with his sons. He found the location quickly and pushed to the front of the group of people surrounding the tiny stall, the old woman he'd seen in the video call frowning as he did so.
"May I help you?"
"Yeah," Noiz said shortly, catching his breath. "You have two lost boys here, right?"
"And who is it that's asking?"
"Their other father."
"Vati!"
Oliver crawled from beneath the stall at the sound of Noiz's voice and Luca followed close behind, Noiz's old hat so big on his head that it almost completely obscured his vision.
"Thank you," Noiz murmured, dropping to his knees to gather them both into a tight hug.
"I'm just glad that they're back with you," the old woman said with a grin. "I didn't mind at all."
"Don't ever, ever run away like that again," Noiz said.
"Sorry, Vati," Luca said, not sounding sorry at all as he grabbed Noiz's hand and pushed a wrapped hard candy into his palm. "I got this for you. Merry Christmas."
"I got you one too," Oliver said, voice muffled by Noiz's coat. "But I got hungry."
Suddenly another weight forced its way onto Noiz's back, Aoba's familiar scent filling his lungs as he caught his breath from the sudden surprise.
"You two... no, you three... one day you're going to scare me to death with all this."
Noiz hummed and awkwardly nuzzled his head against Aoba's cheek.
"It's okay now, Aoba."
v. Flying
"Wow, Vati, the plane is really big!"
Noiz nodded as both Oliver and Luca pushed their noses up against the glass windows at the departures lounge to get a look at the plane they'd be traveling to Japan on. It was almost 8p.m. already and was therefore about half an hour from their scheduled departure. Both himself and Aoba were hoping the boys would be able to rest on the plane so they'd be refreshed for their first day in Midorijima the next morning.
Before the boys were born, he and Aoba had traveled to visit Tae and had stayed in Aoba's old room at her house. For the first years of the twins' lives, Tae had always traveled to Germany instead to spare them the prospect of a twelve-hour flight with young children. Now the twins were about to start their first year of school and they'd decided they were old enough to make the trip with them, though they were all staying in a Platinum Jail hotel due to lack of space at Grandma's house as a result.
"Okay! I bought everyone gifts from the duty-free store," Aoba said, coming up behind Noiz, Luca and Oliver with his hands full of plastic carry bags. "We're all set. Are you excited?"
Oli nodded enthusiastically, seemingly more excited about flying on the plane than anything else.
"I can't wait to see Grandma," Luca grinned, face flushed with excitement.
When the boarding call came over, Noiz took both boys' hands and gestured with his head for Aoba to follow.
"The boarding call is for first class," Aoba said, and Noiz nodded.
"I bought us first class tickets."
Aoba groaned. "I should have guessed."
"You'll thank me when these two are tucked into a comfortable bed, getting a good night's sleep before we land," Noiz said, squeezing both the smaller hands clasped in his own. "Let's go."
Once they had crossed the tarmac with what little carry-on luggage they had, the hostess beamed at them and directed them through to first class towards the front end of the plane. Aoba's eyes widened when he saw the first class rooms -- he couldn't just call them seats -- as Noiz busied himself with securing their luggage for the take-off.
"The compartments are designed for two people, so how should we split up?"
"I'm not sure..." Aoba said, only to feel a sharp tug on his coat from about waist-height.
"Papa, we're not babies," Oliver said with a pout that suggested he wasn't nearly as mature as he was trying to convey. "Lu and I can have a room by ourselves."
"You are babies," Aoba said simply, and Oliver looked offended.
"You'll never be anything else to us," Noiz said.
"No fair!" Luca exclaimed, and just as Aoba was about to argue the point when one of the hostesses walked down to greet them.
"Is there a problem with the rooms?"
"Ah, no..." Aoba said, "we were just wondering if it would be safe for our sons to be on their own in the other room."
"Our stewards and stewardesses can be informed to check on them if you wish. How old are they? Five?"
"Almost seven," Noiz said, gently rustling Oli and Lu's hair as they looked insulted at the woman's guess.
"As long as they can follow the safety instructions without any trouble and do not bother the other passengers, they should be fine. The televisions provided have channels for children's entertainment, too."
Oli and Lu looked at their fathers with hopeful eyes, and Noiz sighed and nodded.
"Okay, you can share. But you heard the stewardess, you have to listen and behave."
"Yeah!"
Both boys grinned and went to the second cabin down from Noiz and Aoba's. At that point they decided to sweep the curtain separating the cabin from the passageway beside, and Aoba's eyes widened. There was a proper, albeit cramped double bed and a television on the wall, as well as space for their personal belongings. In the middle of the plush quilt covering the bed was a small tray containing chocolates, a bottle of champagne and a small bouquet of flowers, along with two glasses. Two clear bags of brand name personal care products and pajamas were laid out on the small bench next to the bed.
"I trust you find it to your liking?" asked the stewardess, and Aoba nodded. A second later Oliver ran out of the boys' room with an identical bottle of champagne in his arms.
"Papa, vati! We get to have wine!"
"It's champagne," Noiz said, taking the bottle from his son, "and no you don't."
"Hey!"
"I'll bring you some juice after we take off," the stewardess said kindly. "How about that? You can be my special customers."
"I guess," Oliver said, the slightest of blushes on his cheeks.
"Say thank you," Aoba said, and Oliver did so before returning to his brother red-faced.
Once all the passengers were settled and the plane was taxiing along the runway, Noiz felt Aoba's head resting against his shoulder.
"What's wrong?"
"I hope they're okay. It's still their first time flying."
"They'll be fine," Noiz murmured, pressing a kiss to Aoba's temple. A few moments of silence passed before Aoba spoke again.
"I didn't think that they'd stop needing us so soon."
Noiz couldn't help but smile. "They still need us. They'll always need us because we'll always be there for them."
As the engine began to power up and the plane jerked forward, Noiz nuzzled his nose into Aoba's hair.
"Besides, isn't it good to have some time alone in such a nice place? We could make it like the first time we were flying together."
Aoba glared, his face almost as red as Oliver's had been before.
"Brat."
Noiz's laugh was drowned out by the roar of the plane taking off.