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Life could take many twists and turns. His current life, for example, was one he never expected to live.
The clock struck three in the morning when he heard the innocent thoughts of fear and uncertainty in the back of his head, which soon turned into soft crying. Shin was about to get up, but the voice next to him stopped him.
“I'll go see them, you keep sleeping.” Nagumo, beside him, let out a long yawn before getting up to check on the girls.
If someone had told the twelve-year-old Shin, who wandered through life without a fixed destination or a family to return to, that years later he would finally have his own family, he would have spat at anyone who dared to say such nonsense. But life took many twists and turns, and now he found himself on a Sunday at three in the morning, getting up a few moments later and going down the same path Nagumo had taken moments before.
Nagumo, his husband, was standing in the middle of the girls' room, holding Ayame in his arms to comfort her crying caused by a nightmare. Sayuri, on the other hand, watched the scene sitting down, sleep clouding her face. Shin moved next to her, tucking in and telling her to go back to sleep, and soon after, Sayuri fell back into a deep sleep. Nagumo, with Ayame calmer, finally put her back to bed. They both stayed by their side until their breathing calmed down and they both fell back asleep.
As he walked back to his room, with Nagumo hugging him with one arm, he thought about how much his life had changed. He never thought he would marry Nagumo, but in reality, that fact was the least surprising of all the things that had happened to him. When they both lay down again, and Nagumo wrapped his arms around him, he thought about when he had fallen in love with the man. He couldn't think of an exact date or a specific moment, but one day he realized that Nagumo had become a regular part of his life, and that despite how annoying his jokes could be, he actually always longed to see him show up at Sakamoto's shop in some new costume. He also thought about how sad it made him not to hear from him for days, fearing that something had happened to him on one of his missions as an assassin, and how he felt relief flood his veins when he saw him show up again with his stupid smile.
Nagumo remained a mystery; there were many things he still didn't know about the tattooed man. At the beginning of their relationship, Shin had been eager to discover every secret hidden behind those large black eyes, which sometimes seemed like lifeless black holes, but as time went by, Shin simply stopped thinking about what Nagumo didn't tell him and focused on what he did tell him. He hadn't given up on trying to uncover all his secrets, but when Nagumo proposed to him one afternoon in the middle of the store and his shift, Shin decided that he wasn't in a hurry to discover all his secrets, but instead would have a whole lifetime ahead of him to get to know every facet and disguise of his husband.
The next time he woke up, it wasn't because one of his daughters was crying, but rather because of a sticky tongue licking one of his cheeks.
“Tomo, who let you in?” His voice came out more sleepy than usual, but the barking next to him woke him up enough to open his eyes. “Yes, yes, I understand, let's feed you.”
The dog recognized the word because he quickly got off the bed and headed to the living room where his bowl was empty.
The clock read past nine in the morning when Shin finally got up, but instead of being greeted by the usual “Good morning” from his five-year-old daughters and his husband, he was met with silence, and the only sound was his pet's bowl being filled. Before Shin could find his phone and call his idiot husband, a note stuck to the refrigerator caught his attention with a simple message written there.
“The girls and I went shopping for lunch. We won't be long, baby.
There's fresh coffee in the coffee maker and breakfast is on the table.
PS I love you. ^0^”
A smile escaped his lips as he read the note.
Shortly after, he was sitting at the table enjoying the breakfast Nagumo had prepared while reading messages and emails on his phone. Most were from the Sakamoto family group, where Lu complained that they didn't spend as much time together anymore, while Heisuke just sent photos of Piisuke. The emails were mostly from suppliers letting him know that they would be dropping off merchandise on Monday. It was Sunday, so Shin would worry about all that later. Instead, he left his phone on the table and continued eating, while preventing Tomo from stealing his food.
The second thing he never thought would happen in his life was becoming a father at twenty-seven to two five-year-old girls. When Nagumo proposed to Shin, the only condition he set was that he retired as an assassin, as he didn't want to start a marriage where he would live with the uncertainty and fear that something might happen to Nagumo during one of his missions.
Not to mention that, by becoming family, the Sakamoto family rules would also become rules that Nagumo had to follow. So, no sooner said than done, Nagumo accepted the condition.
Before retiring from the Order, he was given one last mission. It was nothing complicated, as Kindaka, the new head of the AJA, understood his retirement, so he gave him a mission as they were short-staffed. He was to assassinate an organ trafficker, apparently one of his clients was not satisfied with the organ sold, so he ordered him to be killed. It wasn't complicated, it only took him a couple of hours before returning to the house they both shared, a house he bought outside Tokyo after selling his luxurious penthouse, claiming that a house was more domestic and peaceful to start a new life. What Shin didn't expect to bring back with him were the two-year-old twin girls.
After Shin scolded him for bringing two girls out of nowhere, and after a long call with Sakamoto and Aoi about how they should take care of the babies, the two talked for a long time. When Nagumo killed the trafficker, he was about to leave, but the babies' cries alerted him, and since there was no one else nearby who appeared to be their father or mother, or in case their father was the trafficker Nagumo had killed, he couldn't leave them alone, so he took them with him.
The DNA test they had done did not reveal that the trafficker was their father, which was a relief, but they also couldn't find any news or reports about two missing twins, no matter how hard they searched for their biological parents. The conclusion they came to was that the girls must have been the daughters of one of the trafficker's victims. So finally, after months of thinking about it, they decided that they would take care of both girls. The least complicated part was falsifying the papers for their legal adoption and making new documents from scratch. It helped a lot that there were no records of the girls.
The most complicated thing, ultimately, was being parents. They both spent too many sleepless nights trying to figure out if the girls were crying because they were hungry, or because something was bothering them, or if they needed to poop. They needed to make many calls at night to Sakamoto and Aoi, read many of the books the couple gave them, and practice a lot, so that they could finally feel confident raising girls. But the sacrifice was worth it, because now Shin couldn't imagine his life without the two little bundles of sunshine running toward him and calling him Dad, just like now when the front door opened.
“Daddy!” the duo shouted, running to his legs and hugging him. Shin bent down to their height and kissed each of them on the forehead.
“Good morning, princesses. How was your day?”
“We had so much fun, and we ran into Uncle Shishiba!” He seemed angry with Dad about something, but he gave us two hammerhead shark stuffed animals.” the girls showed him the stuffed animals excitedly, and Shi had to admit that the stuffed animal was too cute. “And dad said we could have ice cream before lunch!"
“Dad said that?” Shin fixed his gaze on the jerk he called his husband, but he grabbed the shopping bags and hurried off to the kitchen.
It was Sunday, and none of them had to work, nor did the girls have to go to school, so the four of them took their time preparing lunch. The girls were only in charge of cutting the vegetables with their own special knives, but they were happy to feel involved while Shin supervised them. In the end, the only one who actually ended up making the whole lunch was Nagumo.
As they all ate at the table, they listened to how the girls' week had gone at their kindergarten, all the activities and games they had done, their progress in class, and how they were already beginning to prepare for their entry into elementary school in a couple of months. Shin thought about how quickly time was passing, and how it seemed like only a few days ago that the twins had come into his life.
Another thing Shin never expected to happen in his life was to have his own family.
He had always witnessed the other families around him, how they treated each other, how they lived together, how happy they were. Sakamoto and Aoi considered him part of their family, as well as Lu and Heisuke, letting them take the place of Hana's siblings, even though they weren't related by blood. But in the first few months, something about that felt wrong to him, as if he were taking a place that didn't belong to him. Perhaps it was his own insecurities and fears speaking for him, and over time he ignored them, beginning to feel happy just to be considered a member of their family, even though he had sins and a past dragging behind him.
Then he started dating Nagumo, and for the first time in a long time, he felt comfortable being with someone who shared his sins and guilt. Nagumo was an idiot, and he still, but Shin could never deny that Nagumo knew how to understand and sympathize with him in his most difficult moments, showing him that side that he let almost no one see, his most sensitive and compassionate side. Shin had never felt comfortable with many people since he had acquired his powers, but the silence he always saw in Nagumo's mind was a breath of fresh air in the middle of a sweltering summer afternoon. Falling in love with Nagumo was the least surprising of the things he never expected to happen to him, but beginning to consider him not only as his partner, but as his own family, was the most revealing thing in all his years of life, as if everything began to fall into place where it should. For that reason, and for much more, he said yes to Nagumo when he proposed marriage that afternoon.
Then the two began to live together, began to talk about future plans, about what their life would be like in the years to come, and Shin believed that everything that was happening to him, this new family and life he was beginning to build, was more than he, a former assassin with blood on his hands, could ever hope to achieve.
But life takes many twists and turns, and Ayame and Sayuri were among the most surprising things that came into his life. They were both too small, too fragile, when he held them in his arms for the first time, and he thought —he swore— that he would never let anything happen to them, and that he would stain his hands as many times as necessary so that both girls would never know pain.
Having a family of four was one of the things he never thought would happen to him, but he didn't complain about it. Instead, he was grateful for every choice he had made in his life, every suffering and pain he had gone through, which had led him to be there at that moment, on that Sunday afternoon, watching some random movie on TV, while both girls watched the screen with Tomo lying between them, being used as a personal pillow.
Nagumo's arm was over his shoulder, and the warmth of the larger body warmed his own body. Sometimes, in his moments of doubt, he wondered if all this was too good to be true, if he wasn't actually in a dream from which he could wake up at any moment.
“Shin~, you're missing the movie, what are you thinking about?” the soft voice in his ear woke him up enough to return to reality. Both girls were now half-dozing on top of the dog, making a great effort not to fall asleep so they could continue watching the movie, but the nodding of their heads was a clear sign that they were losing the fight.
He turned his face slightly, seeing the tranquility and love reflected in Nagumo's black eyes, those same eyes that always dispelled his doubts and reminded him that everything he had now belonged to him and that he deserved absolutely everything.
“I was just thinking about how happy it makes me to be here, with you.”
Life could take many turns. His current life, for example, was one he never expected to live. But he was happy that he could live it and enjoy it.