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Guren was aware that he had a great perception of reality, even when he was in a deep sleep, hugging his husband's waist, right in his ideal place. So when he felt a weight on the other side of the bed, it took him no more than a measly second to open his eyes.
Anyone could attribute the movement to their pet, and even his cat, Byakkomaru, had a tendency to climb on the mattress to sleep cuddled up to its owner, Shinya. However, Guren was quite sure that this brute and clumsy way of moving was far from the elegance and agility of the cat. It could only be one person out of all the people he knew.
He turned slowly, his still blurry eyes visualizing his daughter trying to settle into the empty space in the bed.
"Keiko, this wasn't the plan..." the adult muttered, pulling himself away from his lover in order to get closer to his daughter, taking her in his arms to prevent his pathetic try to wake her other father.
Guren and Shinya used to tuck the younger one in together when her bedtime came. While Guren covered her with the blanket or made sure to reach her all the stuffed animals she pointed out, Shinya lay down next to her and cuddled with her to read one of the books they had waiting for her.
It was not difficult to notice that Keiko relaxed more with his voice than with Guren's. The little girl listened attentively as the black-haired man told the story, laughing every time Shinya forced him to change his voice when different characters appeared. However, they could only do this when the sun was still in the firmament, at night they needed a quiet atmosphere that would make her rest, now that she had had a bedroom to herself for some time.
Then Guren noticed a pair of bright blue eyes watching him with delight. The corners of her mouth curled into a broad grin, and she wrapped her arms around his neck to snuggle into him. Before she could happily exclaim the word "papa", as she was so used to do whenever one of them woke up or entered their bedroom, Guren made sure to shush her with a sound she easily recognized.
He walked out of the room with slow steps, so careful that he even had to admit that he looked ridiculous. Before closing the door, Guren checked that his actions hadn't been in vain, Shinya was still sleeping peacefully, he just settled down to hug the pillow in front of the unconscious absence of his husband.
"I told you last night that I would come and wake you up," he complained with a sigh, shaking his head as the little girl let out a giggle.
He knew she wouldn't understand, but he thought his words might sink in somewhere in her developing brain.
"I'm going to make you breakfast and you're going to help me choose what to make for daddy, okay?" He tapped his nose to hear her laugh again.
Since the girl had entered their lives, Guren and Shinya had had to change their routine a bit. Special dates, such as Christmas or Halloween, were now celebrated with an extra little person.
Fortunately, it had been so well received that, even for Guren who hated parties, the atmosphere was a little better than usual. Their friends fought over who was the best uncle, Sakae asked to be taken away from time to time so she could get used to spending weekends with her grandfather, and even Kureto had occasionally smiled at her exuberant energy.
After leaving her in her chair with her usual breakfast, Guren took a deep breath and turned to face the various pieces of furniture that adorned the kitchen.
Guren didn't like to admit it, but he was lousy at cooking. As much as he followed the steps to the letter, his taste was simple and sometimes could be considered bad. Shinya wasted no opportunity to tease him about it, commenting that he, unlike him, had been spoiled in his childhood and was now unable to concentrate in front of the stove.
"Well..." Guren cleared his throat and looked around before lowering his eyes to Keiko, who had a cookie-stained mouth, "I know your stupid dad has so little faith in me that he won't see the breakfast I'm going to make form him." He clicked his tongue in annoyance, moving toward the counter as he mentally debating what would be the easiest to prepare.
Keiko stopped eating to stare at him with a small smile on her face. Two seconds later, the sound of her laughter made Guren look at her again.
"What? Do you agree with him?" He asked with a tone of annoyance, even though he knew that a three-year-old girl wasn't capable enough to give him a clear answer to something like that, "well, I'm going to show you that I can manage perfectly well without help."
He came to her with a damp washcloth and cleaned her corners and cheeks after the cookie was fully digested.
"If there's something wrong, I can always blame you by saying it was your choices," he showed her a sly smile, taking her hands to pass the cloth as well, "what am I saying? I know that idiot well enough to only offer you options that he likes."
His expression was clearly one of great pride, as if to demonstrate that he was the person who knew his husband best.
"Well, let's get started, troublemaker, or he'll wake up before we do anything productive." He returned to an upright posture, taking his cell phone from his sweatshirt pocket to split the screen in half and show her two pictures.
Keiko always looked carefully at new things, especially if they were made by someone in her family. Her bright eyes, so similar to those of her other father, looked out at the world as if she were experiencing her first life.
That curiosity that seemed to go on and on, and their attempts at questions or frowns that wanted to know more, were details that endeared both Guren and Shinya. They couldn't help but leave a kiss or caress on her black hair when she struggled to learn something new.
Certainly, Keiko was a smart little girl. The words, the sounds, the colors… that her parents had tried so hard to teach her had stuck in her brain, and Shinya teased his husband by saying that he was the one who had passed the intelligence on to him.
"The bread has to be there, no matter what. I hope you don't inherit that weird obsession, you don't know how many breakfasts I had to buy form him in university," he let out a sigh that could be described as a mixture of drama and false tiredness as he turned the first photos to her.
He continued, crouching down to be at her level, "but you can choose the jam, strawberry or peach? Which one catches your attention?"
After looking at her a little to make sure her eyes were on the screen, he showed her how to do it, "You have to choose the one you think is the prettiest, like this..." He slid his finger to one photo and then another, speaking in a slow tone of voice and repeating the message a few more times.
Thus, Guren was teaching her new words, waiting for her to repeat after him so that her brain would have new inputs. He laughed softly, affectionately, every time she mispronounced a letter, encouraging her to pronounce it again, but this time correctly.
For a short moment, Guren wished Shinya was awake, beside him, so they could share this.
He felt pathetic, to put it mildly. If he spoke with the sixteen-year-old Guren, the boy would not believe that the band on his ring finger was a sign of the kind of relationship he had with the man who had once been only his best friend. Much less would he consider it true that the three-year-old girl they lived with was just another proof of their love, that they had expanded their family for her sake.
He couldn't blame him, the thirty-two-year-old Guren still couldn't comprehend how his life had changed so much since his teenage years, how he could admit that his happiness and comfort revolved around a white-haired man with clear eyes that seemed to hold the ocean.
Back to reality, Guren was once again driven by his emotions. He opened his cell phone camera to capture the moment before he started cooking.
"Come here, my little baby, I'll show you how it's all done..." putting his phone aside, he pulled the chair she was sitting in closer, making sure she was a safe distance away.
He took one of the two aprons they had, making funny faces in their direction to earn the laughter that brought such warmth.
"When you get a little older, we'll buy you one. Although I recommend you take cooking classes with dada, you'll be ahead of the game. "He ruffled her hair some more, Shinya would probably chide him for not combing her hair right after she woke up, "I appreciate that you don't know how to gossip. I'm sure you'll make a gossipy duo with him."
The image could send shivers down his spine, but today his heart felt overflowing with a different love than the one he had for his man on a daily basis.
Strawberry jam, orange juice, waffles, and a cappuccino were his daughter's choices, so Guren cleared his throat and began searching for the necessary ingredients.
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Guren had to admit that he had completely forgotten how outrageous Keiko could be when something was funny.
These three years with her had served her two parents to realize that Keiko had picked up certain bad habits from Shinya, and laughing at Guren was one of them.
"It's okay, it's okay, it's just things that happen..." his words were not addressed to his daughter, but to himself as he rubbed his hands over his apron.
Guren had also forgotten how much work it was to use the waffle iron, and why Shinya was so reluctant to make them, preferring to buy them instead, even though baking was one of his favorite activities.
It was the last thing he had left to do, and as he set the table with a white tablecloth and some fresh flowers he had bought to leave in a pretty vase, his daughter's call behind his back startled him.
Usually, when Keiko said papa out loud, no matter how she pronounced it, both Guren and Shinya turned to look at her. But this time, the little laughs between the letters made Guren frown a bit, it didn't give him a good feeling.
She may not have been able to distinguish right from wrong yet, but her brain felt that seeing the mass spilling out of the device was something worth calling her father.
Guren was trying to stop it while he was cursing under his breath, and his exasperated expression seemed to be funny enough that Keiko couldn't stop laughing, no matter how much the adult reminded her to be quiet.
"Papa!" Guren sighed again when he heard her, imagining that another disaster was about to befall them.
He could imagine that it was Byakkomaru who climbed on the table and threw the juice all over the spotless white tablecloth.
"Keiko... I guess it wasn't such a bad idea to go out on the street after all..." his words faded as he turned to follow the path his daughter's eyes were still on.
The situation had been successfully resolved, but it had caused enough of a ruckus for Shinya to appear with a sleepy expression as he yawned.
"Shinya!" his husband shouted loudly, blinking a little, as if the appearance of his beloved in his own kitchen was like seeing a ghost.
"Guren!" he repeated, with the same emphasis he had used, "What are you two doing? Byakkomaru has jumped on the bed as if he's complaining about you guys..." this time, it was his turn to lose strength as the sentence came to an end.
He had noticed the different decorations on his dining room table and immediately turned his head to take a closer look at the situation.
A simple, soft "oh..." escaped from his lips almost absentmindedly, as Guren sighed behind his back.
He took Keiko in his arms to help her down from the child seat, for she was trying in vain to get to her other parent.
As soon as her feet touched the ground, she ran with the strength of someone so young. She hugged one of his legs, as if it were a way to bring him back to reality, back to today, back to his birthday.
When Shinya returned the hug, Guren spoke again, "we were supposed to call for you in a few minutes..." his explanation began, with an awkward grimace, "but someone doesn't know how to be quiet..." his attention was drawn to the little girl, who giggled with what seemed to be amusement as she leaned back against her father's chest.
Shinya's eyes shifted from his daughter to his husband, and Guren was about to speak again, finding his silence strange, but the laughter of his lover interrupted him.
"I can take it for granted that when Keiko grows up and can cook with you, you two will make a big mess in the kitchen."
"That's not what happened!" He stepped forward with a short stride to reply, interrupting whatever the next hint was.
Shinya giggled again and finally closed the distance between them to plant a soft kiss on his lips.
"Thank you Guren, I really appreciate the detail," he lowered his voice to a whisper, caressing the tip of his nose with his own.
The black-haired man sighed, wrapping an arm around his waist as he allowed his lips to traverse the path between the corner of his mouth and his earlobe.
"Happy birthday, Shin. I hope you enjoy your day with your family."