Work Text:
Ruri (瑠璃 / るり): Meaning "lapis lazuli" or "emerald." A name that leans into the gemstone motif, symbolizing something rare and meticulously cared for.
________
In the center of the plush baby proofed living room, Seishiro lay flat on his back, his long limbs sprawling across the rug.
He looked like a giant, defeated sloth. Straddled directly on his chest was a tiny, bobbing anomaly of adrenaline.
Their daughter, Ruri possessed her mama’s sharp expressive purple eyes but she had inherited her father’s gravity defying fluff ball hair though hers was currently pulled into two chaotic, asymmetrical pigtails courtesy of Seishiro’s questionable styling skills.
She was enthusiastically slapping Seishiro’s cheeks with wet chubby hands while letting out high pitched screeches.
"Ruri," Seishiro murmured, his voice thick with sleep. He didn't move an inch to stop her. "Look at your dad..He is dying."
Their baby’s response was to grab Seishiro’s nose and bounce.
"Ah," Seishiro droned up at the ceiling. "Mama.. save meee.."
From the bedroom came a muffled jangling of a belt buckle.
Reo was not coming to save him.
Reo had, as of three months ago, become the newly appointed director of Mikage Corp's latest branch. This was, by all accounts, a very impressive thing to be.
Since paternity leave had quietly become a hybrid schedule, his weeks had split themselves in two, half to the office, half to the family of white fluff currently in his living room.
He emerged from the hallway fastening a cufflink with his teeth, iPad tucked under his arm and found Seishiro on the floor looking like a man who had not slept since sometime last Tuesday.
Reo was pristine, cologne, sandalwood, pressed collar, seishiro was wearing a white tee with what was hopefully baby formula on it.
"I heard screeching," Reo said, though his eyes instantly softened into mush the second they landed on his daughter.
He dropped his briefcase on the entryway bench and immediately knelt by Seishiro’s side, leaning down to press a kiss to Ruri’s forehead. "Good morning, are you bullying Papa already?"
Ruri let go of Seishiro’s nose and reached her chubby arms out letting out a toothless babble. “Ma ma ma!”
"Incredible sweetheart.." Reo praised, melting completely. He caught Seishiro’s exhausted gaze and offered a deeply apologetic smile. "I'm so sorry..The European market opened badly and I have to be in Shibuya by seven. I really thought she'd sleep until seven."
"Ruri doesn't want to sleep because she is plotting against me," Seishiro sighed, finally sitting up with the baby securely tucked into the crook of his arm.
He leaned his head against Reo’s shoulder, exhaling a long, lazy breath. "Reo…Don't go to the office..Just stay here and be a pillow."
Reo laughed a bright sound and Ruri giggled back at him like it was the funniest thing she'd ever heard.
He reached out, gently combing his fingers through Seishiro’s messy white hair working out a small piece of fluff. "I wish I could. But the faster I get through today the faster I can take that three week
block off.. Can you handle today? She seems…” he glanced at Ruri, “incredibly energized.."
As if on cue Ruri suddenly lunged forward trying to grab the silk tie dangling from Reo’s neck, Seishiro caught her around the waist without even looking, all of his focus was on the love of his life.
"I've got it," he said, with the gravity of someone accepting a military commission. "I am Ruri’s manager, we’ll be fine."
Reo smiled and immediately leaned in, pressing a lingering kiss to Seishiro’s cheek and then another to the top of Ruri’s head. "I'll be back by four, call me if anything happens! There's pumped milk in the fridge and her mashed sweet potatoes are already prepped.”
"Yeah, yeah. Bye bye, corporate Mama," Seishiro mumbled, lifting Ruri's little hand and waving it at the door.
The moment the front door clicked shut the apartment went quiet and huge all at once, Ruri turned her big violet eyes slowly up to Seishiro's face.
Three seconds passed.
Before she let out a cry and tried to somersault directly out of his arms.
Here was the thing everyone who knew Seishiro, had assumed pretty reasonably that he would be the passive parent.
That Reo would handle everything while Seishiro napped somewhere nearby, this was a fair assumption.
But the moment Seishiro had held his daughter in the hospital room watching her tiny fragile fingers curl around his thumb a switch had flipped inside his brain.
The man who historically hated exerting any form of effort had suddenly become a hyper vigilant girl dad.
He read parenting blogs and memorized her nap schedule down to the minute, he just let Reo remind him about it anyway because Reo liked feeling useful and Seishiro was at his core a generous man.
But Ruri was a special breed of baby, she was not a sit quietly and watch cartoons kind of baby. She never had been, Seishiro definitely knows who she got this from.
By 10:00 AM the living room was unrecognizable. Seishiro had lined up every single one of her plush blocks into what he had decided was an impenetrable fortress and he sat cross legged behind it on the floor, the pink plastic tiara Ruri had crowned him with earlier still perched lopsided on his head.
"Okay, Riri." He spread his arms wide, very serious. "This is the defensive line. You cannot pass."
Ruri, resplendent in her strawberry onesie, squealed. Then she put her head down and crawled at him at a supersonic speed.
She didn't go around the blocks. She went through them -forehead first- laughing her head off with blocks flying in every direction before her face planted directly into the giant stuffed bear with a sound like a muffled explosion.
Seishiro stared at her.
"A breakthrough," he said solemnly.
He had his phone out before she even rolled over. He took a rapid fire sequence of twenty photos and then he had his chat with Reo open and was sending all twenty of them before he'd even looked at a single one.
He typed with one thumb “Our daughter is unstoppable.“
Nine minutes later Seishiro saw the three dots appear.
Three crying emojis. A heart. Then “Please ensure she takes her nap at eleven.”
Seishiro already knew about the eleven o'clock nap. His lips turned into one of those rare smiles. He stared at the message anyway and didn't say anything.
The nap, as it turned out, was not going to happen on its own.
Ruri's eyelids were doing that heavy fluttering thing, the sure sign she was running on fumes, but her little arms and legs hadn't gotten the memo yet.
She kicked away the bed. She arched her back against the swing. Seishiro resorted to his ultimate weapon.
He exhaled through his nose and went for the carrier, he got her strapped in against his chest, her warm weight settling into him and started moving slow laps around the kitchen island, past the windows, back down the hallway.
He hummed under his breath a half remembered video game soundtracks blurring together into something that wasn't quite a song.
His hand rested on her back. He swayed a little with each step without meaning to.
Slowly, the frantic movement of Ruri’s legs slowed down.
Her breathing deepened as Seishiro stood entirely still in the middle of the quiet living room, looking down at her.
Her tiny mouth was slightly open, a little bit of drool pooling on his shirt. She looked so much like Reo when she slept, she had his features the only difference was the hair otherwise she would be a copy paste of her mama.
Carefully Seishiro navigated himself to the couch, lowering his long frame onto the cushions without shifting her an inch.
He leaned his head back, closing his eyes and within minutes the exhausted girl dad was fast asleep.
Reo unlocked the front door at exactly 4:15 PM He stepped inside first dropping his briefcase quietly and then slipping off his shoes with practiced silence.
He expected toys scattered everywhere, maybe a few overturned chairs and an exhausted Seishiro nagging for help.
Instead he walked into a scene that melted his heart, Seishiro was sitting on the floor, leaning back against the couch, he had changed Ruri into a fresh sleep sack.
He was holding a tiny glittering plastic teacup while the smaller white fluff sat opposite him, holding a matching one.
There was a circle of stuffed animals arranged around them.
Seishiro was still wearing the pink plastic tiara completely unbothered by how ridiculous it looked against his sharp handsome features.
"More tea Princess?" Seishiro asked in a deadpan, entirely serious voice he then lifted his empty toy cup and made a dramatic drinking sound. "Ah, vintage, very sweet."
Ruri banged her cup on the floor letting out a loud bubbly giggle, entirely charmed by her father.
Reo stood in the doorway of the living room, his heart swelling so violently it almost felt achey.
The stress of the boardrooms and the endless numbers with the corporate politics all evaporated into meaningless compared to the two people in front of him.
"Can I join the party?" Reo asked softly while loosening his tie and pulling it completely off, tossing it onto a nearby chair.
Ruri’s head whipped around her eyes immediately widening. “Ma!” she shrieked and her entire body shaking with excitement as she immediately abandoned her tea party to crawl toward him.
Reo dropped to his knees catching her in his arms lifting her high into the air as she let out delighted shrieks. "I missed you so much! Look at you, were you a good girl for Papa?" He brought her down, burying his face in her soft neck, making her squeal with laughter.
Seishiro stayed on the floor looking at them with shining eyes. He then reached out tugging gently on the hem of Reo’s trousers until Reo shifted sitting down right next to him on the rug Ruri settled happily in Reo's lap.
"Reo," Seishiro murmured, leaning sideways until his head rested comfortably on Reo’s shoulder, his pink tiara tilting slightly. "Your daughter is crazy..She tried to eat a crayon.."
"Did you stop her?" Reo asked while kissing the side of Seishiro’s head.
"Of course.. I traded it for a piece of apple" Seishiro sighed, closing his eyes, basking in the warmth of Reo’s presence. "I missed you."
Reo wrapped one arm around Seishiro’s shoulders, pulling him closer while his other hand gently rubbed their little princess’s back.
The baby was finally beginning to wind down her high energy melting into drowsiness as she leaned against Reo’s chest.
“Missed you more..” Reo whispered, his voice deep as he looked at the ridiculous tiara resting on his husband’s head.
Seishiro reached over his large hand covering Reo’s, intertwining their fingers over Ruri’s small warm back.
Reo let out a soft laugh, pressing his cheek against Seishiro’s messy white hair. "Just go to sleep, dummy.."