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When Kouyou returned, she wasn’t in the best of states, and she wasn’t alone. It had been a few days since that now, and Chuuya still couldn’t get her to tell him where she had been, nor what had happened in her absence. All he knew was that she’d shown up with a baby - her own baby - and that something terrible must have happened.
The beginning was awful. For the first several days, Kouyou refused to do much of anything. Chuuya would be lying if he said it hadn’t stung. She’d been gone for so long, and now that she was back she wouldn’t even talk to him. Hell, he could barely get her to look at him most of the time.
Chuuya knew it wasn’t fair, but in those early days after Kouyou’s return he couldn’t help but resent the baby. Kouyou might not be willing to tell him much of anything, but he wasn’t so stupid he couldn’t figure out that whatever it was centered around that baby. Whatever it was, it had kept Kouyou away for far too long. Even now that she was back it kept her from him, despondent and self-isolated. It was unfair to blame her, he knew it was, but the baby and whatever baggage was tied to her was stealing his sister away from him and he couldn’t bear it.
The baby herself was delightful, which only made him feel worse about his weird grudge towards her. Maybe, he reasoned, he wouldn’t feel that way if he actually spent some time with her, but Kouyou was adamant that the baby stayed with her at all times. Kouyou wouldn’t even let him hold her.
Until, finally, she did.
Chuuya’s patience was wearing thin. Kouyou refused his every offer to look after her baby for a while so she could rest. She barely let him near her, wouldn’t even tell him her name . At this point, he was seriously considering running to Hirotsu to tattle on her like when they were younger and squabbling over petty things. He’d been quite busy rehearsing how that particular conversation when she finally cracked.
“...Chuuya?” She called out to him, hoarse. “I… Look, just… Come here? Please?”
He sucked in a deep breath, slowly turning to face her. Yeah, he was frustrated that Kouyou hadn’t been talking to him, but he couldn’t afford to fuck it up now that she actually was. He made his way over to kneel alongside Kouyou. She didn’t seem to be looking at him, so for now he directed his gaze towards the baby cradled in her arms, somewhere close to sleep but not quite there. “...Yeah?”
“I…” Kouyou began, then trailed off, then picked back up again. “I’m sorry I’ve been… You know. Since I got back.”
“Right.” He paused, frowned. “Are you - I mean, you’re okay, right?”
She gave him a half smile, just for a second, but that alone was enough to reassure Chuuya that this was still the Kouyou he knew. “As okay as I’m going to be, I think.”
“You wanna talk about it?”
“Not particularly, no.” Another smile, this time a little less strained. Kouyou repositioned the baby in her arms, propping her up so she could bounce on her knee. “Maybe one day, but not now. I’d rather not think about it for now.”
Chuuya nodded, slowly. That was open ended enough for him to hope she would tell him eventually, or at the very least wouldn’t cut him off like this again. “Okay. I won’t pry.” He fell silent for a few short moments, and when it didn’t seem Kouyou had anything else to say he spoke up again. “So… The, uh, the baby. She have a name?”
“Most babies do.” Kouyou smiled again - for real this time - and Chuuya knew he finally had his sister back, shitty sense of humor and all. “Her name is Kyouka.”
“Kyouka,” he repeated, glancing down to her. He held out his hand and watched as she latched onto his finger, tiny hands grasping and tugging to bring it up to her mouth. “It’s pretty.”
“Of course it is. I picked it myself.” Kouyou snorted. After another beat of silence, she looked towards him, shifting Kyouka in her lap. “...Do you want to hold her?”
“I… Can I?” He looked up, then back down to the baby trying to slobber all over his hand. “I know you didn’t want anyone taking her away. I don’t want to make you uncomfortable.”
“You’re my brother. ” Kouyou rolled her eyes at him. “And I need a break anyways. Who am I supposed to trust her with, if not you?”
Chuuya felt tears pricking at his eyes and only barely managed to blink them away. His only saving grace was the knowledge that Kouyou would tease him if she caught him crying over something as sentimental as that, and then he’d have to hear about it for the next millennium. She had kept Kyouka from him since her return, yes, but it seemed clear now that she did trust him, she had just needed a little while to recover from… Well, whatever had happened. Chuuya wasn’t sure he wanted to think about it if it had made her upset enough to brush him off. Besides, it didn’t seem fair to dwell on it when Kouyou was so obviously trying to avoid the topic for now.
He didn’t even need to think about it, but he still took a moment to compose himself before nodding and reaching out to take Kyouka. She squirmed at first, little legs kicking around, but finally settled down when he cradled her close and tucked her head into the crook of his neck. “Fuck,” he breathed. “She’s so little…”
“Language,” she scolded, but he could tell how hard she was trying not to smile. “I don’t want Kyouka growing up to be a delinquent like some people I know.”
Chuuya snorted despite himself, but he did his best not to disrupt Kyouka as he stuck his middle finger up at his sister - her mother . Kouyou was a mother now. “Shut up. You’re one to talk.”
“I haven’t the faintest idea what you mean.” Kouyou was full-on grinning now, the very corners of her eyes crinkled with mirth. “I’ve never fucking cursed even once in my life.”
***
After that, they had to figure out just how they needed to take care of Kyouka. Kouyou was hesitant to let anyone know Kyouka was truly hers, for reasons Chuuya still was not privy to, but he understood she wasn’t fond of having other people in her business. Even so, she couldn’t keep it a secret from everyone . It was simply a matter of deciding who she trusted enough to tell.
Oda knew, because of course he did. He had enough children of his own to understand her situation, so he was an obvious choice. Even beyond that, he had a plethora of knowledge on babies. Kouyou had gone to him for advice after Chuuya recommended it, but he got the idea that even if she hadn’t, Oda would have known. He was just good with these kinds of things.
Yosano knew out of necessity. Kouyou may have been a goddess, but her baby wasn’t, not fully. Demigods carried some of the same fragility as humans, and Yosano was the chief expert among them all when it came to keeping humans alive. Kyouka was so small, so soft. Kyouka was half god, but human enough that illness could be an issue, and she was a baby on top of that. Chuuya had heard, once, that babies were somehow even more frail than regular humans. If she was to remain in good health, consulting Yosano was a must.
Chuuya was in the unique position of knowing purely because he was family. He wasn’t quite sure whether Kouyou had told him because good families shared things like this with each other or if it was because he’d been too stubborn to leave her alone.Then again, maybe that didn’t matter. He knew now, and he had no intention of leaving her to deal with everything alone. Kyouka was a part of their family now, regardless of the circumstances, and Chuuya had every intention of making sure she knew how loved she was by both of them.