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Kento loved his children, he truly did. They were precious bundles of joy brought onto Earth with the seemingly singular objective to make Kento's life better. They were sweet, and smart, and kind, and Kento doesn't know what he would do without them. Can barely even remember how he achieved fulfillment in his life before they came into it.
That's not to say that some days they make him want to rip out every strand of his hair one by one until he's completely bald. As much as his children are truly the best things that have ever happened to them, they are still children, and children can be- difficult, to put it kindly.
This was one such day that made Kento question his decision to fall in love, get married, and expand his family.
For starters, Kento had been awoken just as the clock hit 5 to the sounds of tiny feet pattering up to his door and swinging it open. He'd had approximately a millisecond to roll out from where Satoru was attached to his back, limbs wrapped around him like an octopus, before there was suddenly a tiny human being occupying the space that had once been Kento's. An infectious under any other circumstance laugh fills the room and it takes every bit of self control that Kento has to not grab his pillow and slam it over his ears, roll over, and go back to sleep. Instead he chose to be a good parent and force his eyes open, craning his neck to look at Yuuji.
“Daddy!” The barely three year old screeched into the quiet room, tiny hands reaching out to plant them on either side of Kento's face. The noise echoed in Kento's ears, causing almost an immediate headache to form. Still, he forced himself to plaster on a smile and turn over on his back, extending his arms to pick the boy up and place him on his stomach.
“Good morning, beautiful boy.” Kento muttered, voice thick from sleep. Yuuji beams down at him and for just a moment Kento was able to forget the circumstances. Forgot that he's gotten maybe four hours of sleep on and off because Nobara just could not settle down and was constantly out of her bed. Forgot that the sun hasn't even begun to rise and he's allowed himself to be a living, breathing trampoline for his toddler.
He quickly remembered when Yuuji threw both of his legs up and slammed them into his sides, squealing in excitement as he pitched forward and laid his head down on Kento's chest. A breath was forced from his lungs as he tensed up. Yuuji quickly began babbling away about something while Kento stared at the ceiling and contemplated his life choices.
He couldn't be sure how long he was there, zoning in and out and Yuuji went on and on about some dream before the weight was suddenly gone and he shot his eyes open (he absolutely could not recall closing them). He was met with the sight of Satoru holding Yuuji in the air before bringing him down, littering his cheeks with kisses, lifting him back up and repeating the process. Giggles from both father and son filtered in the room, almost lulling Kento back to sleep.
That route had been interrupted by a new figure in the door. The outline of unruly hair indicated it was Megumi, which was confirmed quickly when his voice broke through the giggles.
“My tummy hurts.”
Three little words that had preceded the projectile vomiting onto Kento and Satoru’s bedroom carpet.
Quite the wake up call.
Which is how Kento ended up where he was now, watching Nobara and Yuuji chase circles around each other when attempting to get Megumi to down some soup. The kid had been adamant on refusing to eat or drink anything for fear of it coming back up, which Kento understood, but he really, really needed him to drink something or Kento was going to go insane with worry of dehydration. It didn't help that the negotiations with the six year old were being constantly interrupted by a scream from Yuuji or shout from Nobara as they continuously bickered over literally everything. First it had been playing hide and seek versus pretend superheroes, then it had been who got to read the book that Nobara had plucked off the shelf (the answer was very clearly Nobara, as Yuuji didn't know how to read), then it had been over the last banana. Kento lost track after that, just trying to mediate whatever the newest argument was.
Every bone in his body wishes he could just send them outside and let them duke it out there (which was not responsible parenting, but he's tired and not at peak mental capacity to be the perfect parent), but it's absolutely pouring because of course of it is and the last thing he wants is more sick kids. He also wishes he could just get Satoru to intervene, but he'd left an hour ago to get some medicine to help with Megumi's fever and something he might be able to keep down (but with their luck today, that's probably not going to happen). The irrational part of his brain wants to scream at Satoru for even agreeing to leave the house, but he knows better than to let the frustration get the best of him.
For now.
“Please, Megumi.” He pleads, tipping the mug of broth towards his lips. Megumi shakes his head, closing his lips together somehow tighter to drive home his refusal to consume anything. Kento sort of wants to cry, throw the mug at the wall, and give up completely on this day. Just wants to usher all his children back to bed and declare the day to be officially over and restart fresh tomorrow.
The feeling only grows when a crash and clatter is heard in the distance, followed by the undeniable sound of Yuuji beginning to cry. With a little more force than intended, Kento puts the mug down on the table and stands.
“Go lay down on the coach.” He directs to Megumi, who takes the out and scampers off to the living room. Kento sighs and rubs a hand over his face before steeling himself to deal with his two younger kids. He walks through the living room and down the hall to find Yuuji and Nobara in the bathroom. Yuuji's sat on the floor, face red and tears streaming down his face, holding onto his right knee. Nobara is on the counter, arms crossed and rolling her eyes as Yuuji scrambles to get up and rush over to Kento, latching onto his legs.
“Nobara pushed me.” He babbles into Kento's pajama pants (Kento does not enjoy being in his pajamas past 8 in the morning, but he's been non stop moving since he got up that he hadn't even had the chance to consider changing). His little fingers are curled tightly into the material and it takes every bit of willpower to not immediately reach down to scoop him up. They try to do the best they can to make sure that the kids know there’s not any form of favoritism going on, so Kento does his best to not baby Yuuji. The last thing they want is to cause any more conflict between their kids, so Kento leaves him on the floor despite every instinct telling him to cuddle the tiny toddler.
“I did not!” Nobara practically screeches, causing a headache that was on the precipice of forming to roar full force, pounding against Kento’s skull as her screech echoes through the bathroom.
“You did!” Yuuji whines back before throwing his face full force into Kento’s leg and continuing to sob. It takes all of Kento’s strength not to let out the most agitated groan on the planet at his youngest children. He loves them to death, he does , but their unnecessarily ridiculous antics on top of Megumi’s sickness and unwillingness to cooperate with Kento is fraying every bit of sanity he has. Instead of throwing his hands up and completing aborting the situation for the sake of his mental health, he takes a calming breath and assesses the proper way to handle this.
“Nobara. Please be honest with me, did you push Yuuji off the counter?” He’s pointedly deciding not to acknowledge that fact that neither of them should have been on the bathroom counter in the first place, lest he cause more frustration and agitation of every one of their parts and leaves that as a later issue to address.
Nobara crosses her arms and fiercely shakes her head. “ No. He’s lying. He’s a lying crybaby, he just wants to get me in trouble.” Nobara pointedly directs her insults at the ground where Yuuji is standing, which just causes the little boy to cry even further and babble into Kento’s pants.
“She pushed me, she did .” Yuuji insists over and over again. Kento is slightly ashamed to admit that the crying is beginning to grate against his skull even further. He takes a second to close his eyes and reminisces on the time where none of them were able to speak, or walk, or cause indeterminable amounts of chaos in short periods of time. Yeah the baby stage was always hard, and got harder the more kids they had, but at least there’s only so many hazards with babies. They cry and you figure out why they’re crying and move on. No having to deal with running around, roughhousing, random crashing and breaking of an object, and no Nobara pushed me or Yuuji hit me or Megumi stole my apple slice .
“Yuuji please calm down.” Kento really hopes he’s not coming off as aggressive, but he truly can’t help how his tone is coming across right now. The attempt at soothing the toddler does absolutely nothing and Yuuji just continues to ramble on between sobs of desperation (or possible attempts at attention seeking, Kento still hasn’t figured it out yet). “Nobara, I’m going to ask one more time. Did you push your brother?” Nobara opens her mouth to speak, but Kento puts his hand up to stop her. “If you lie there will be more severe consequences than if you actually did push him.”
This causes Nobara to pause and think about her response before rolling her eyes and uncrossing her arms. “He got in my way.” She mumbles, looking anywhere but at Kento. The admission causes Kento to let out a breath of anticipation he didn’t even realize he was holding to leave his lungs.
“Thank you for telling the truth.” And now comes Kento’s least favorite part, doling out punishments. When becoming a parent Kento thought he was going to be a lot better at the whole discipline thing. He didn’t think having to look into his child’s eyes and tell them that there were consequences to their actions was going to be the hardest thing he ever had to do, but it absolutely is. He can already see the tears welling up in Nobara’s big brown eyes and his heart begins to shatter slightly. He knows he has to do it, no matter how much he hates it. It’s not often that he actually does have to do it (for as rowdy as his children can be -namely Yuuji and Nobara, given that Megumi is just mouthy- they don’t often get into trouble in a way that doesn’t resolve itself with natural consrqurnces), and so every time he does it feels like he’s practically being forced to imprison his own child. and He hates it more than anything. “Now please get off the counter and go sit in your room. Door open, no books, no toys for ten minutes.”
Kento truly believes his heart breaks into a million pieces as he watches Nobara’s lip wobble as she shyly nods her head and slides carefully off the counter, padding slowly to her room. He takes a second to compose himself so as to not burst into tears in front of his son who also has to discipline.
“Yuuji.” Kento looks down, grabbing the attention of the pink haired toddler. “You know that climbing on the counters is wrong, right?” Yuuji hesitates before nodding and rubbing at his eyes. “Alright, I’m going to take you to your room, you will sit on your bed for five minutes with no toys and your door open, okay?” More tears begin to fall instantly and Kento has to ignore them as he picks Yuuji up and carries him to his room, sitting him on the bed, and walking away and keeping the door open. Putting his children in time out truly does make Kento feel like a monster, but nothing makes him feel more like the worst parent in the world than the way one of his kids cries when they get in trouble. Getting hit with two back to back is almost more than he can take and he prays to any deity he can think of that Satoru will get back soon.
—
Satoru does eventually make it back, soaked to the bone with three different types of children’s fever relief, electrolyte drinks, and way too many cans of soup in tow. Kento has to resist the urge to roll his eyes and go off on how annoying it is that Satoru wasted time grabbing too much stuff they didn’t need when he could have been here helping Kento with the children. He doesn’t, because of the more pressing matter that is dealing with trying to get Megumi’s fever down and Nobara and Yuuji complaining about being hungry.
Kento assigns Satoru to figuring out what they want for lunch whilst he deals with getting Megumi to take the medicine. He rejects even attempting any of the three flavors that Satoru got, and Kento is trying his damndest to convince the kid that he has to take something , but Megumi is stubborn if not anything (a trait he’s usually fond of but wildly irritated at right now).
“C’mon, ‘gumi, it’ll help you feel better.” Kento knows his voice is edging on exasperation, but he absolutely cannot help it. He’s tired and frustrated and wishes that just one of his kids would cooperate with him today.
“No.” Megumi refuses, closing his lips tightly and looking away as if that’s somehow going to change the matter at hand.
“Megumi, please, I understand, but please just-“
“Daddy! Can you make your potatoes please?” Yuuji asks, skittering up to where Kento is situated on the coffee table in front of the couch. Kento internally groans, knowing exactly what Yuuji is talking about. He’d taken to making sure that parts of his danish heritage was passed down to his children, and the easiest way right now was through food. Yuuji had his favorite, Brændende kærlighed, and which he had a terrible pronunciation of so he just called it Daddy’s potatoes . Under different circumstances Kento would have no problem doing this. He knows both Yuuji and Nobara loved it and would eat several plates of, but he specifically had Satoru handle lunch for a reason. He absolutely does not have it in him to worry about cooking.
“Not today, buddy, maybe tomorrow.”
Queue the melt down.
Yuuji proceeded to scream about daddy’s potatoes for 30 minutes before Satoru sat him at the table infront of a quickly made up noodle bowl. He then acted like nothing had ever happened and ate happily. Kento’s headache had quite literally tripled and he had completely given up on getting Megumi to eat or take his medicine. At this point he was mostly focused on not screaming or dissolving into sobs.
The day pretty much continued the exact same way. Megumi threw up three more times before giving in a taking the medicine Satoru was threatening to force down his throat. He fell asleep before dinner and Kento couldn’t bring himself to wake him to try and get him to eat something. Instead he’d focused on keeping Yuuji and Nobara as far away from each other as humanly possibly. Satoru was set on trying to get Yuuji to be excited about dishes and laundry and failing pretty miserably. Kento would give it to him, no matter how annoyed his at his husband right now having left him in the dust for most of the morning, he’d be pretty convinced to be excited by chores with the way he was explaining them. But he does say it’s fair that Yuuji could give less of a shit about them.
Kento was tasked with getting Nobara in the bath and distracting her with coloring or anything that would grab her attention. He gave up pretty much right after dinner on the distraction part and put her to bed. He’d crossed paths with Satoru who was wearing Yuuji down to go to sleep at the same time he was ushering Nobara into her pajamas and to brush her teeth.
It took two hours to get both of them to fall asleep. Satoru succeeds first after several escape attempts from the slippery toddler. Kento finds him in the hall after Nobara is fast asleep (but not after several arguments that convinced Kento he has a future lawyer on his hands). He pointedly ignores him in favor of going to the kitchen and pouring himself a drink.
Since becoming a father he’s taken to not drinking near as much as he used to. He would say he had something adjacent to a problem in his early twenties when he would drown most of his problems in the closest drink he could find. He’d slowed down a bit when he met Satoru, seeing as how his husband pretty much never drank, so Kento wasn’t around it near as much. When Megumi came into their lives he simply hadn’t had time to think about alcohol, instead commiserating in misery with Satoru.
That’s not to say he didn’t have access to it. He had a nice bottle of scotch that Satoru had gifted him a couple birthdays ago that he sipped on after especially rough days. One of those days being today.
The liquid burned down his throat for half a second before settling nicely. Kento closed his eyes and took a deep breath, fingers gripping the cool glass as he took a moment to let the day settle. Trying to decompress and pointedly not think about the screaming children that plagued his day was not always the easiest for him, but he did the best he could.
He’s not sure how long he’s standing there before arms are wrapping around his waist, a chin finding its home in his shoulder. Satoru is a nice few inches taller than Kento so he has to bend down a bit to be at his shoulder, but he acts like it doesn’t bother him in the slightest.
“Whatever I did, I’m sorry.” Satoru starts, voice in a low whisper.
Kento sort of kind of wants to roll his eyes, but the exhaustion from the day is beginning to weigh on him, and he finds himself too tired to be annoyed anymore.
“It’s okay.” He mutters, melting back into Satoru’s embrace.
Satoru hums, pressing a kiss to Kento’s neck. “It’s probably not, but I appreciate you trying to be forgiving.”
A small smile appears on Kento’s face as he shrugs. “I was mad, but it doesn’t matter anymore.”
Satoru hums again, pressing more kisses up and down Kento’s neck before pressing on into his jawline. “Well since our demon children are finally asleep, let’s see about getting some Daddy Papa alone time.”
Kento turns, escaping Satoru’s grasp and throwing his arms over his shoulders, kissing him on the lips. “I love you.”
Satoru beams, eyes bright as he basks in the moment. “I love you too, Kento.”
Satoru leads them back to their bedroom, both stripping and changing into more comfy clothes. They both practically throw themselves in the bed, falling asleep almost instantly.
Tomorrow will be a new day filled with more screaming children, more demands, and levels of stress Kento cannot begin to fathom. And he’ll end up grateful for every minute of the life he’s made with his husband and children.