Chapter Text
It had been over a year now since Jougo and Mamoru had gotten married, and life for the couple had been just as wonderful as they’d always dreamed. There was still the work and stress that came from running a kingdom together, but they always had each other to escape to and keep each other grounded after a long day.
It was the end of one of those long days that saw the two of them sitting together in one of their favorite spots, the grassy field out by the lake, just watching the stars together. Mamoru had an arm wrapped lovingly around Jougo, and Jougo more than happily leaned into Mamoru’s embrace as the two of them stared up at the night sky.
Things were quiet for a while, the two of them just enjoying the cool summer breeze and a peaceful night together. Mamoru held Jougo just a little tighter for a moment and Jougo looked up with a smile and gently nuzzled his shoulder. Mamoru returned his smile and softly kissed Jougo’s forehead. He had noticed that Jougo had been more quiet than usual lately, which often meant that he had something on his mind, and while Mamoru couldn’t make him talk about it and didn’t want to force him to, he still wanted his husband to know that he was there for him if he did want to share his thoughts.
Jougo’s hand reached over to find Mamoru’s, twining their fingers together as the brunette’s soft smile grew even more. He really loved Mamoru with all his heart, and he didn’t dare to think about what his life would be like without him. Being king certainly had its downsides, he hated being run around from here to there and feeling like he carried the world on his shoulders at times, but he was still happier in his life than he’d ever been now that he had his husband by his side. Though for as happy as he and Mamoru were, over the past couple of months Jougo had begun to feel like they needed something more.
When Jougo finally spoke his voice was quiet, but it still seemed to ring out across the otherwise silent field, “Hey, Mamo? What do you think about having kids?”
Mamoru froze and his face flushed a bright cherry red, having children was not at all what he thought Jougo had wanted to talk about. He couldn’t say that the thought had never crossed his mind though, he’d wondered himself a few times what it would be like to start a family with Jougo and raise a child, but there were definitely a few problems that got in the way of ever making that a reality.
“I–I…” Mamoru barely managed to stammer a response, “Not that I’m against us starting a family, Jougo, but there’s no way for us to have a child. I mean, we can’t exactly…”
Jougo blushed and pouted, looking up at his husband, “I know THAT. I just wanted to know what you thought about it.” His face softened as he sighed and looked back at the stars, “I’ve just been wondering what it would be like for us to raise a kid. Though you’d probably be a lot better at it than I would, you’re a lot smarter and more responsible than I am, after all.”
The blush on Mamoru’s cheeks had died down a little bit, but he was still feeling caught off guard by this conversation. Still, he was able to mask some of his surprise as he held Jougo a little tighter to try and reassure him.
“I’m sure you’d do fine, you’ve grown a lot more than you think.” Mamoru spoke with a smile on his face, “All the kids in town love you, and you’re so much better with them than I am. I don’t know how to handle children at all, they ask me to play or tell them stories and I have no idea what to do, but you seem to be such a natural.”
Jougo giggled softly, “Yeah, I guess you’re right. That would make me the fun dad though.” he stuck his tongue out and laughed again, “You know, the more I think about it the more I think that we could be really amazing parents, don’t you?”
Mamoru laughed as well, “I think we’d do alright. And given the chance, I’d be more than happy to raise a family with you.”
Jougo gave Mamoru a quick kiss as he snuggled back against him. He sighed happily, “Someday we can get a chance, I’m sure of it. If you could be brought you back to me then what’s stopping a baby from finding us?”
Mamoru smiled as he leaned against his husband, it was true that it was nothing short of a miracle that had saved him and brought them back together. Maybe they could get lucky and have another miracle fall into their lap. He laughed, Jougo continued to be a blinding ray of hope and optimism even after everything they'd gone through, and it truly was one of the things he loved most about him.
He closed his eyes and a little daydream crossed his mind, visions of Jougo gently holding and rocking a baby in his arms, the two of them trying to change diapers or feed their baby a bottle, playing around with baby toys, and standing over a crib trying to put the baby to bed. His smile grew, thinking on what it would be like to hold their baby in his arms and whether they’d look more like himself or Jougo. If anything he hoped that they would at least have Jougo’s sunshine smile.
Mamoru’s dreaming was cut short by Jougo suddenly pointing up at the sky. The brunette beamed with excitement as he tried to get his husband’s attention, “Mamo, look! Shooting stars! We gotta make a wish!”
Exactly like Jougo had said, there were little specks of light shooting across the night sky. The two of them had seen meteor showers before but that never made the sight any less breathtaking. Jougo had a habit of having them make wishes on the falling stars, they’d both make a wish for something and then Jougo would spend the night trying to guess what Mamoru had wished for. Mamoru’s wishes were often for something simple though, usually something like just wanting Jougo to be happy, but tonight’s wish would end up being something different.
“Hey, Mamo?” Jougo asked, “I know we normally make our own wishes, but what if we made one together this time?”
Mamoru smiled, he had a feeling he knew what Jougo wanted to wish for but he asked him anyway, “What were you thinking of?”
Jougo smiled, bright and excited, “Let’s wish for a baby!”
Mamoru laughed, he knew that simply wishing for a baby probably wouldn’t give them one, but it would still be fun to try and it would make Jougo happy too.
“That sounds great, let’s do it.”
Jougo giggled, “Okay. Next star we see, we’ll both close our eyes and make our wish together, alright?”
It didn’t take long for another set of stars to shoot across the sky and Jougo was quick to enthusiastically point one out. The two of them grabbed each other’s hands and closed their eyes, making their wish to have a child and start a family of their very own.
And as they made their wish, the star they had chosen seemed to sparkle just a bit brighter before disappearing over the horizon.
After staying up for a while longer, watching the stars and talking about what they would do with a child of their own, the two of them would have to return to their bedroom in the castle.
Jougo and Mamoru were fast asleep, cuddled together in their impossibly large bed, when Jougo began to stir, being awoken by a noise he could barely make out but was getting persistently louder. It sounded like… Crying?
“Hmm… Mamo? Is everything okay? I’m right here.” Jougo sleepily rolled over to check on his husband, concerned that he may be having another nightmare.
Mamoru was still asleep though, only now stirring from Jougo’s attempt to check on him, “Mmm… I’m fine, love. I haven’t gone anywhere.”
But the crying sound was still there, and now that Mamoru was awake he definitely heard it too. In fact they could both hear it much clearer now, and they could tell it was distinctly the sound of a baby crying, and it sounded like it was coming from their balcony. Things only got more confusing for both of them, and Mamoru started to pull himself out of bed to go investigate.
“Don’t worry, I’ll go see what it is, you go back to sleep.” Mamoru said as he kissed Jougo’s cheek.
Jougo hummed with a smile on his face, but he was already awake and curious himself about what was happening, so he quickly pushed the covers aside as well and followed after Mamoru.
Sure enough, there was a tiny basket sitting on their balcony which seemed to be the source of the crying. Mamoru picked up the basket as both his and Jougo’s minds raced with the implications of such a thing being here in their chambers. Mamoru stared at the basket in disbelief while Jougo peeked around his husband to get a better look and both of them gasped when they saw what the little basket held.
Lying there in the basket was a baby, wrapped in a small blanket, crying and reaching its tiny arms out for someone to hold on to. The only other thing inside was a piece of paper with a small star drawn on it, folded in half and sitting on top of the blanket. Jougo reached into the basket and took the baby in his arms and Mamoru grabbed the piece of paper and unfolded it.
Mamoru read the note in confusion, “‘May your wish be fulfilled’. That’s all it says.”
The baby began to calm down as soon as Jougo held them and their eyes finally opened revealing their heterochromatic colors, one a warm caramel brown and the other a bright sapphire. The baby smiled, reaching for Jougo with a happy squeal, a sight that made Jougo's heart melt.
Jougo gave a small laugh and smiled at the child, tears welling in his eyes, “Hi there.” He looked up at Mamoru, “So does that mean the baby’s ours? Really?”
Mamoru stared in amazement at the baby smiling and cooing in Jougo’s arms, shaking his head. This seemed too good to be true, they had to be dreaming. There was no way they had really made a wish on a shooting star for a child and had a baby just given to them. And yet, here they were, with a baby in a basket seemingly left for them on their balcony. Their room was so far up that there was no way that someone else could have left it there, and from what he could see the baby did in fact look like both of them. It was impossible but then again, saving him had been deemed impossible at one point too.
Mamoru looked at the note in his hand again, it had no signature, no indication of who wrote it, just the one sentence and that was it. There couldn’t be any other explanation for it, could there? He looked back to Jougo, who was now laughing and tickling the baby’s tummy. His husband had the brightest smile on his face and looked on the verge of tears as the baby in his arms giggled and smiled, and Mamoru found himself about to cry tears of happiness as well. Before everything there was no way he would have ever believed that they could be so lucky, but now after all they had lived through...
He put his arm around Jougo’s shoulder, looking down at their new child with a smile. The baby looked up at him and smiled, now reaching for her other father as well.
Mamoru laughed with tears falling down his cheeks and reached over, letting the baby latch onto his finger, “Hi. I guess we’re your dads now, aren’t we?” He turned his attention to Jougo, “Did you check if it’s a boy or a girl yet?”
Jougo nodded through tears of joy, “Yeah, it’s a baby girl. Our baby girl.” He turned back to their daughter, who was still holding tight to Mamoru’s finger and giggled, “Look, she’s got your nose and she got one of your eyes, too.”
Mamoru softly kissed Jougo’s temple, laughing through his tears, “And she has your smile.”