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When the baby wakes up, Riku is always the first one out of bed. She doesn’t even really need to cry for him to wake up. He’s always been a light sleeper so all she has to do is breath slightly faster and making the beginning of a whinning noise before he’s untangling himself from Kairi and Sora and scooping her out of the bassinet.
Kairi actually made the bassinet herself, five months into her pregnancy. Sora and Riku had to beg her to let them chop down the tree for her but she carved out a narrow u shape with crescent moon shaped legs for the frame and whittled two short poles to maintain the shape of a small hammock hung off the top of the u shape. Sora had suggested hanging a light mesh net across the top to keep bugs off of her during the night.
It’s around three in the morning when the change in her breathing wakes Riku this time. He’s had the same wake up every night this week. He’s starting to feel the lack of sleep now but when he looks down and sees Sora and Kairi happily snuggled together and blissfully unaware he doesn’t have the heart to wake them.
He whispers out a soothing coo as he scoops the infant out from where she’s safely nestled and silently shuts the bedroom door behind himself just as she lets out her first cry. She’s not old enough to produce real tears yet, but her face is starting to go red and her tiny fists are beginning to quake. Riku smiles tiredly and lets out a resigned sigh -- it’s going to be a long night.
--
Two hours later, he starts to run out of ideas.
Her diaper is dry. She isn’t responding to any of his usual soothing tricks. He took her temperature at least four times and the baby health guide Kairi had been given by her midwife said that she was reading at perfectly normal.
He shows her all of her favourite toys, he tries playing peek-a-boo (when Sora did it he always got a laugh out of her) and he holds her all the different ways Minnie had showed him to help relieve gas but all that seemed to do was make her scream louder. Watching her beet red face and staring into her toothless screaming mouth, Riku wonders if crying too much can give babies throat infections.
He sits down in the rocking chair next to the bay window with the health guide and the baby tucked up against his bare chest (his hand is big enough to support her from head to hip, her tiny legs dangling off the butt of his palm). He sets into a gentle rhythm, pushing off against the hardwood with a foot and flipping through the health guide to read about infant throat health.
He’s halfway convinced that she’s some how gotten strep throat and if he doesn’t get her to a doctor immediately she’s going to grow abscesses on her tonsils and run the risk of kidney failure when he notices his chest tickles and the crying has stopped.
He looks down and there, his beautiful baby daughter is toothlessly gnawing on his nipple. She still seems irked, annoyed that milk isn’t flowing into her mouth but even the simple action of nursing is comforting in and of itself.
“Baby,” Riku whispers, “that’s not...” suddenly, exhaustion hits him like a brick wall. His ears are ringing but at least the crying has stopped. He isn’t able to resist the gentle nod of sleep that pulls his head down, the tip of his nose brushing against his infant daughter’s fine hair.
--
Kairi wakes up shortly after dawn because her breasts ache. She’s taken to sleeping in her nursing bra if only so she has something to hold milk pads against her leaking nipples. The baby is by no means a fussy eater, opting to nurse every time Kairi offers her the teat, but ever since she delivered Kairi’s breasts have been in hyper drive.
She notices the baby is gone before she notices Riku isn’t in the bed, but neither fact surprises her. Out of the three of them, Riku seemed to be the one most sensitive to the baby’s needs.
Yawning and stretching her sleep-stiff limbs, Kairi pads out into the living room. She sees the top of Riku’s silver head over the back of rocking chair.
“Morning Papa,” She says to him, coming closer “How’s our little bundle of-- oh...” Her voice drops into a surprised whisper.
Riku’s head is leaning on his shoulder and cradled gently in his huge, strong arms is their little girl. Riku’s chest is a glistening mess of baby drool as the sleeping infant continues to sleepily suckle his pec. She stifles a laugh behind her hand as Sora comes out to join her, his arm sliding around her waist.
“Huh,” Sora says in a soft voice, still sounding a little asleep “... that’s really cute.”
Kairi giggles and leans her temple against Sora’s cheek “the cutest,” she agrees “will you get him a burp cloth? And one for me too actually.” She reaches down, carefully extracting the babe from Riku’s embrace.
She watches from the couch as Sora wipes down Riku’s slobbered on chest. She nurses their daughter, who was happily awake and sucking down milk like she’d never been fed before.
Sora leans back to admire his handiwork before reaching out and pinching Riku’s sore looking nipple, making Riku wake with a shout. Kairi can’t help but laugh as Riku catches Sora in a merciless headlock and grinds his knuckles into Sora’s scalp. Sora begs for mercy and she doesn’t pity him.
All three of them freeze when the baby stops nursing to let out her own delighted, pure giggle. They stare at her chubby little face, cheeks bulging with the curve of her gummy smile before looking at one another to exchange meaningful looks.
This moment is exactly what they’d spent their lives fighting for.