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Someone's watching him.
He feels it. A pair of intent eyes burning a hole in the back of his head. He knows he's in his own bed in his own home and judging by his internal clock, it's around 7, maybe 7:30 in the morning.
Who the hell is watching him at 7:30 in the morning? On a Saturday no less?
It takes him a second to confront the problem. He's still pretty exhausted thanks to having to ensure his insomniac son was actually in bed and not downstairs abusing his Netflix privileges again.
Then again, it's not exactly ideal to have a possible murderer looming over you either, so he decides to take the chance. He turns over and opens his eyes, coming face to face with his aforementioned 9-year-old insomniac son who is just staring at him with his cold blue eyes. Haru flinches, but quickly relaxes and sighs, “ Asahi . What are you doing?”
Asahi continues to stare at him, almost unblinking. Haru furrows his brows. “Uh, Asa? You okay there, bud?”
Asahi doesn’t answer. Instead, he slowly reaches down and pulls up a file, crunching it between his oddly battered stained hands. Haru’s golden eyes went wide.
“Asahi,” he says, carefully propping himself up on his elbow, “Is that papa’s case file you’re holding?”
Asahi nods slowly, a devilish smirk similar to his father’s stretching across his face.
Haru holds out a hand, “Asahi…give it to me.”
The boy doesn’t say anything. He stares at Haru a little while longer before he dashes out of the room with the file still in hand. Haru bolts upright, rousing Daisuke who barely has time to register what the fuck just happened before Haru jumps out of bed and chases after him. “ASAHI!”
Asahi laughs, sprinting down the stairs with much more ease and grace than his father.
He’s getting way too old for this shit.
He continues to chase after the boy as he bounces around the house, shouting at him to stop, that he’ll get hurt if he keeps running around like this. Mentally, however, he’s scolding himself for not just keeping the digital versions of the very important case files his son is currently manhandling like his husband had advised him to do a million times before (it’s just easier for him to read physical copies than just scrolling through his phone).
They’re approaching the last flight of stairs. Haru has barely managed to graze the collar of his son’s ratty T-shirt and he can barely understand why today of all days his son has decided to choose violence against him.
“Asahi, I am not playing with you – give me the folder!” he shouts.
Asahi jumps into the living room, spins around, and shouts back, “Think fast!”
Haru dives for the file as Asahi laughs. He flips through the pages and it’s…empty. In fact, it’s not even the right file. He snaps his head up, his eyes going wide.
Hanging above the kitchen and around the living room is a large, colorful banner with ‘Happy Birthday!’ written in bright highlighter colors held up by various streamers. The twins pop up from behind the couch and toss confetti in the air. Haruka pops out from the kitchen, precariously balancing a plate of fruit-covered flapjacks in her arms. Asahi holds his middle as he continues laughing.
“Happy birthday, papa!” they all exclaim in unison.
Haru takes a minute to take everything in before looking back at them. His immediately melts away. A soft smile replaces his wild expression. He sighs, “Seriously, you guys?”
“You shoulda seen your face!” Asahi exclaims, pointing at him.
Haru playfully rolls his eyes, reaching out to ruffle his already messy hair. “Yeah, ‘cause I thought you were gonna mess up my work, ya ‘lil stinker!”
“Papa, we made you a card!” Kokoro exclaims, running up to him with Masayuki in tow.
Masayuki holds out the card. It’s an amalgamation of mediums – crayons, stickers, watercolors, and cut-out shapes pasted in various places on the card. Haru feels his heart soar. He scoops them in his arms and gives them a tight hug. “Thank you!”
“Haruka and I made you pancakes!” Asahi exclaims.
“I made the pancakes. You ‘supervised.’”
“It counts!”
“Does not!”
“Does too!”
“Does–”
“Okay! Okay!” Haru interjects, “It’s okay. Glad you all did this for me. I love it!”
They grin up at him. His heart melts.
He takes the plate from Haruka’s hands, nodding toward the kitchen. “Come on. Let’s split it.”
They beam significantly brighter at that. They join him at the kitchen table. The twins sit on his lap while Haruka and Asahi sit on either side of him. Daisuke appears half-dead soon after they sit down. He shuffles over to them, tiredly resting his chin atop Haru’s head and murmuring “happy birthday, love.”
Haru chuckles, reaching up and gingerly patting his hair. “Thanks, babe. You want in on these pancakes Haruka made me?”
He nods tiredly.
“You gotta sit at the table, though. Not gonna feed you like a bird.”
Daisuke mumbles something unintelligible but complies, sitting beside Asahi and reaching over to ruffle his head. “No more waking me up to wreak havoc on us.”
“No promises!” The nine-year-old exclaims, stabbing his fork into the top of the stack.
Daisuke smirks, eyes flickering up at Haru. Haru just shrugs. Daisuke slides his hand across the table to hold Haru’s left hand, their wedding bands clinking together. Haru gives his hand a squeeze and lifts it up to his lips, pressing a kiss to his two big knuckles.
Not a bad way to start a birthday.
Though maybe a little less running next time.