Chapter Text
After the chaos, there is quiet.
Worn and weary, Ryū sleeps soundly in her cot, the soft serenade of her heart rate monitor filling the silence. The murmur of the hospital proper is muffled through the shut door, giving the new family a little peace. For the moment there are no medics, no nurses, just…the three of them.
Seated in a chair at Ryū’s bedside, Obito stares at the new life cradled in the crooks of his arms. He’s so…small. So fragile. At first, there’d been a flicker from the past, a memory of the last time he’d held a person so tiny, so new.
It had almost made him refuse the bundle. But Ryū’s gentle coaxing helped him overcome the flinch, aiding him in adjusting their son in his arms.
Their son…!
In a way, it still doesn’t quite feel real. After so long of trying, and then finally, finally having new life take root. The lingering doubts, her gentle reassurances, watching as her body made room for another. And then in the matter of a few hours, after three-fourths of a year of waiting, it was over.
He still can’t describe everything he felt when he heard those first cries.
But now, the noise and action is over. Reiji, named in trend of Ryū’s mother, sleeps soundly in the cradle of his father’s arms. A dusting of white hair is framed by a deep black along the rear and sides of his head. The few glances Obito’s gotten of open eyes showed greys darker than his mother’s, but lighter than his own.
…he has to wonder if those eyes will ever be another color.
The thought is interrupted, however, as the infant moves. There’s a light grunt, little untrained limbs wobbling as he struggles against his swaddling. Then those eyes open, staring up at the face of his father.
Obito stills.
A buried anxiety starts to build. This face has earned scorn and scrutiny since it was unmasked. How many stares, how many horrified glances? The marred surface has unnerved children and adults alike…few offer any kind of sympathy or understanding.
What will his own blood think?
Quiet gurgles bubble up the babe’s throat, still wriggling in his confines as Reiji adjusts to an existence separate from his mother. And all the while, he keeps staring, gaze thirsty for knowledge of this new world.
Obito hardly dares to breathe, waiting for the crying to start.
…but it never comes.
Instead, Reiji gives another grunt, arms struggling against gravity and novelty to reach…up? Obito knows that many a toddler enjoy grasping at hair, but…his own is hardly long enough to warrant attention. But he’s curious, so he carefully shifts his grip to bring his baby closer.
But rather than hair, Reiji makes to hold something else. A tiny hand, fingers still untrained, whispers along the ridges of his father’s right side. Greys drink in the image, exploring with all the senses he can spare as he memorizes a face that will - gods willing - be one he knows and loves for many years to come.
The touches are so soft, so innocently inquisitive…it reminds him of the first time Ryū dared to caress the hardened skin. How gentle she’d been, how reverent. She’d looked at him much the same way: without judgement, without fear…just a genuine curiosity colored with a fondness that only grew. The only one to call him beautiful.
Before he can stop it, there’s there telltale sting in his eyes, which soon well with traitorous tears. Lip trembling, he struggles against the urge to cry - who knows what reaction that will bring, and he doesn’t want Reiji to wake his exhausted mother. So instead, he brings a hand (mindful of his grip) to his face, hiding behind it as shoulders quake silently in emotion.
What has he ever done to deserve this…? He thought it miracle enough to find what he found in Ryū after all he’d done, all he’d become. But now she’s given him this: something he never thought he’d have the chance to have. Something that, for years, he thought he never wanted. A new life, half his own, to mold and shape…to love and protect. So fragile a thing, so untouched yet by the cruelties of the world he faced…and faced nearly alone.
No matter what it takes…no matter what he has to do…it won’t happen again. This life, his responsibility, won’t ever feel what he felt. See what he saw. No…this time, everything will go right. No more orphans, no more lonely children, no more hardened hearts. Together, he and Ryū will make sure Reiji has all they ever lacked. He will grow surrounded by a family that loves him, that will be there through the good and the ill. Their world is changing, even if Obito once thought that impossible.
…he thought all this impossible. And yet, here they are.
Sniffling and heaving a shaking sigh, he does his best to swallow down the feeling - not to repress it, but to accept it. Baring his face, he gives a tearstained smile, leaning forward to ever so carefully rest his brow to his son’s.
“…happy birthday,” he murmurs, hearing the babe give a gurgling giggle that births a smile so wide it makes his scars ache. But that pain is all in the past.
Now…something new must begin.