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There was water, and as you breathed your lungs stuttered in protest, finding no oxygen coming in as it tried to do its most basic function. Maybe it was that, the thing that had you jolting in panic when you woke up; mouth sucking in the air around yourself in the dark room. Well dark except for the small sliver of light peaking under the bathroom door. That little ounce of light was enough to see why you felt like you were being waterboarded.
Even in the dim light, you could see the bright eyes almost glowing in the darkness, bringing an uncanny feeling into your gut. Or at least it would if it wasn’t your son and the carbon copy of the man you decided to marry all those years ago. Gently you pushed him back, freeing your nose from its gummy prison.
“My little kikufuku why are you up?” You ask the baby as if he was going to respond. While he was smart, you knew immediately when he opened his eyes to look at you and your husband already recognizing you both; he was seven months old.
The baby let out a happy giggle, little hands pressing against your cheek as he pushed himself up to his shaky legs. Gods no, the last thing you could handle is a walking mini Gojo. But thankfully the soft mattress you picked out was to your advantage, plopping the little baby back on his butt.
“Silly little boy,” You cooed softly, earning another happy giggle from him, soft babbles leaving his drooling mouth, wetting your poor cheek. “So it was you him?” You poked his little belly, gently bringing out a hand from under the covers to wipe the drool away. Must be more teeth coming in, that won’t be fun.
“Toru,” you softly called, your tired voice drifting through the room. You could hear the rattle of the object he dropped, heavy steps coming to the door.
Soon the sliver of light got bigger with each second, stopping when he was able to peek his head out to look at the bed. “Come get your heir, he’s waterboarding me.” You softly complained, but there was a happy smile on your tired face as you stared at your pride and joy.
“ My heir? Honey, I do believe you are also a Gojo.” His voice was light and bubbly, even this early. But you couldn’t even bring yourself to look at the clock, the weight from being the only non-morning person in the family already being punishment enough. You didn’t want to confirm your agony.
It took only a few steps it felt like, the bed behind you already dipping due to his weight. “My son you can’t kill your mama,” He bent over your head, his lips blowing little raspberries into your baby’s chubby cheeks. “How else are you supposed to get all those siblings I have planned?”
You chose to ignore that comment, covering your head with the blanket to stop their future assaults. They could be up, screw them, but there was still sleep to be had. The morning folk can entertain themselves, while you take pleasure in the dwindling presence of the moon outside.
“C’mon my little mochi,” Satoru said in this sickly sweet voice, kissing all over his little face as he let out the gleeful belly laugh, much to his parent's delight. “Just a happy little guy huh?” The soft conversation between the two of them gently floated away from the room as they retreated back to the bathroom and his father’s little routine.
Originally you wished to go back to bed, but sleep lingered just out of reach in the outskirts of your mind, giving you the only choice but to listen to the muffled voice of your husband, gently singing what little song he came up with as he got ready with his son. Oh how he loved your son, his little mini-me. The rhythmic claps of his hands brought a smile to your face followed by the echoed cacophony of baby giggles off the stone tile. Whatever they were doing sounded comically hilarious but in reality, Satoru was probably making his son cheer as he combed the little tuft of white hair that was coming in.
Looking back you had no idea this was going to be your life, never in your life did you predict that you were going to be the one to make the strongest settle down. But here you were at some god-awful time of day as he cooed and entertained the baby you blessed him with.
While the two of you practically raised two kids already, sadly none of them living at home anymore, they were children already when you got them. Neither of you got to experience the highs and lows of infancy, it only made you sad that your now teen kids were so grown up. But your moody first son melted when you offered him the small bundle, immediately melting a few inches of ice that was around his heart.
Your little joy seemed to have that effect on everyone.
“C’mon little man, want to go on your first mission?” Your husband’s easygoing voice caused you to jump out of bed, looking as he walked out of the bathroom, son sitting in the crook of his arm as he chewed on one of the many masks Satoru had.
“Absolutely not,” You were immediately jumping in, arms opening wide so he would walk your baby back to you. Your overgrown man-child stomped his feet and whined, head throwing back with a dramatic sigh as he handed the baby off. “He’s not even walking!” You rebutted.
“But I want father-son time,” Satoru whined, but he handed over the baby nonetheless, however, there was a rather large pout on his lips as he stood at the edge of a bed.
“Take him to the park,” You deadpanned, bringing the baby to your chest as you kissed the top of his head. “There are normal ways of bonding without curses Toru.”
“But that’s not exciting enough!”
“He only recently started seeing color, he’s excited by anything.” You shook your head, but you reached to take your husband's hand to comfort him. “It’s okay,” you could sense his insecurities immediately.
“I just miss him,” His voice was soft, and his touch was even softer as his finger brushed the top of his head, “And I feel like I am missing so much.” He gently moved towards the bed, wiggling himself next to you and the baby who was contently chewing on his mask.
“I promise you, his hatred of peas and carrots is hardly frontline news,” You tried to tease but when you glanced from the baby to him you softened, realizing the magnitude of your words. You were often with the baby all the time, the things boring you were little details he wasn’t privy to seeing. “Toru,”
“No, no you’re right,” He tried to shake the guilt off. But you were smarter than that, gently taking his hand firmly and bringing him towards you.
“I’m sorry, that was insensitive to say.” You immediately tried to tell him but he seemed to be closed to any further topics related to this. So to try and remedy this you took your hand away from his and instead cupped his face. “You’re a great dad, I promise you. And Haku loves you so much.”
This made him smile softly, looking fondly between the two of you. “Thank you, I love him a lot.” He went from having a loving face to one of mischief almost in a blink. “I can't wait to make him a big brother,” he leaned in but you blocked him.
“No! Absolutely not. I’m still debating if I should even let you touch me after this,” You gently picked your son up and pointed him at your husband. “Do you see how big he is? I can barely understand how I got him out with everything still intact.”
Maybe you were just being dramatic, but after almost two days in labor, you hardly took the nurses' statements of your son being the biggest baby they ever saw as a compliment. “He got your head and I’m sure the rest of them will too.”
Satoru just laughed, this made your son wiggle, mirroring his happy expression. “Baby see, he said he wanted a sibling though! Look how happy he is at the mention of them!” He whined, giving you a soft pout.
“You push it out your dick then,” You said with a ‘humph’ as you took the baby back.
“That’s not fair!” He tried, climbing into the bed to try and schmooze you with his charm. “You were hardly complaining when we made-”
“Enough,” You were exasperated, covering your baby’s ears even though he wouldn’t have any idea what was being said. “Isn’t Megumi waiting for you, don’t make him wait, it's too early for your shenanigans.”
Something remnant of a light bulb going off in his head flashed across his face as he made an expression you didn’t know, which was dangerous. In a blink of an eye, your husband was gone. Oh dear.
You were thankful you put one of Satoru’s shirts on before bed, because now in front of you were two teens, one already pissed and the other in his p.j.’s looking genuinely confused.
“Sensei, where am I?” Yuuji yawned, eyes barely open as he scratched his stomach with one hand and rubbed his eye with the other. Megumi let out a groan of annoyance, shaking his head but he still walked to your bed. Sitting down next to you.
“Good morning Gumi,” you smiled, leaning over to kiss his forehead. He allowed you, even going as far as to let you ruffle his hair with minor disgruntled expressions.
“Morning,” He whispered, a lone finger poking the baby in your arms. “Hi Haku,”
The baby twisted around in surprise, not expecting to see his brother there so suddenly. Unable to contain himself he started to wiggle and screech in pure joy, arms flapping so hard he could have taken flight. Megumi let out a rare laugh and took him from you, fondly looking at him. It was a real shame he looked just like his dad though.
“Perfect performance!” Satoru clapped, wrapping an arm around the still half-asleep teen in Naruto sleeping pants and a hello kitty shirt, “I say we vote!”
“I vote no to whatever it is.” Megumi immediately shut him down, but years of this left Satoru unphased, instead it only drove him to say more.
“Everyone who thinks me and my lovely wife should have a kid, say ‘I’” He so proudly announced, leaving you with your face in your hands.
He of course was the first ‘I’ as he proudly proclaimed it to their growing audience. Yuuji, gods bless his little soul, softly said ‘I’ as he tumbled down into the bed, curling himself up as he went back to bed; only needing moments to reset his snoring.
“Two out of four, I’m thinking this is a good sign!” Satoru smiled, still gently clapping his hands.
“ No, this world is already bad enough, ” a shrill voice spoke from the cheek of the pink-haired boy. You fought the urge of slapping him, but that would startle poor Yuuji and you didn’t want that.
“He doesn’t count,” Satoru quickly brushed him off. All eyes landed on Megumi now, who awkwardly held Haku up so the baby could play with his wild hair. The boy immediately clammed up, his body becoming tense as he looked at you.
“I,” He almost bashfully said, cheeks pink as he looked at you with a soft smile. You felt your heart melt, looking at how far he’s come from that distressed child Satoru brought home.
You rolled your eyes playfully, giving in to his antics in hopes you could get more sleep. “I,” Almost immediately you felt your body tackled into the mattress, kissing being pressed across every available inch of your face.
If it wasn’t for Megumi’s flick to his head there wouldn’t have been much stopping him from his love assault. “That’s so gross,” he tried to claim, covering your baby's eyes from the ‘horrors’, something he claimed every time he saw them together as a child.
“Okay okay,” you pushed against your husband's chest, “don’t you have a mission? I won’t stop Yaga this time.”
“I don’t need protection from him,” He scoffed as he coolly tried to get him and Megumi ready a little too quickly. You rolled your eyes again.
“Say goodbye, sweetie, brother is leaving,” you tried to take Haku from him but for the first time this morning he made an unhappy noise, throwing a small tantrum when you touched him. “Don’t start with this,” You sighed, gently taking him in your arms as Haku screamed as if you burned.
Thick, hot, messy tears came pouring from his eyes as he reached for Megumi but wasn’t getting any closer. You tried to kiss his face but he shook you off, crying even harder now. Great, the last thing you needed was a grumpy baby. Glancing over you saw how upset it was even making Megumi, his hands staying oddly still at his side as he suppressed the urge to take him from you.
While this wasn’t the best solution you gave the baby back to everyone’s surprise, “Fine, let me get dressed.” You huffed, not planning on going to work today, but you guess you have no choice.
“You’re coming?” Satoru asked in confusion, but you saw the delight on his face. This was his perfect version of a family outing.
“Give me a few minutes and we can leave.” You promised. And true to your word you were stepping out into the room, now illuminated with a lamp Megumi probably turned on. The baby was content sitting in his lap now, eyes fighting to stay awake.
“Let’s go,” Satoru smiled but Megumi didn’t move.
“What about him,” he pointed to the kid everyone forgot about. Every head turned to look at Sukuna’s vessel, the boy going from curled up in a ball to a starfish. His mouth was open and snoring as he peacefully slept on the very edge of the bed.
“He’ll be fine.” Satoru shrugged but you at least came over and dropped the blanket over him. You smiled fondly and ruffled his hair, fighting the urge to this time kiss his forehead like you’ve done with your other son. Instead, you tucked the corners of the blanket around him, finding that was good enough.
“Okay let’s go,”
~~~
As the four of you sat in the small diner eating breakfast Megumi got a call, eyes opening wide as he completely forgot.
“Hey, Megumi… do you know whose bed am I in?” The poor boy asked, his tone indicating the distress he was feeling.
“I’ll go get him,” Satoru laughed, disappearing once more. You couldn’t help but laugh, enjoying the little family you had created.