My baby
he was so small
the child’s tiny fists were balled as he flailed them frantically in the air, his round, chubby face turning red as he screamed his as loud as his little lungs would let him. His clothes were now bigger on him than ever before, practically swallowing up his tiny form.
Giyuu stared slack jawed in shock at the tiny, crying bundle on the ground, tangled in the oversized garments of the mist hashira.
the demon that they had been fighting had hit muichiro with their demon blood art, and before tomioka even realized what was happening, the demon was gone and tokito was reduced to the state of an infant.
at the sound of his baby’s destress giyuu snapped out of his thoughts. The baby, muichiro, must be hungry, and cold. This weather was definitely not the place for a newborn to be.
tomioka scooped up his baby into his arms, stopping to fasten the mist pillar’s sword to his belt, and swaddle him in the oversized clothes,and runs towards the hashira village to the butterfly mansion, or well he was, before he is stopped by one of the masters crows. “Hashira meeting! Hashira meeting! You are expecting there, immediately!” Giyuu sighs. This is just awesome.
Giyuu arrives and stands right outside of the master’s mansion, he honestly contemplates not going in there. How was he supposed to explain that their baby member, turned into an actual baby!? He thankfully managed to stop at a local village and purchase diapers, a onesie, paci, blanket, and some formula that he immediately fed him.
obviously he can’t just pretend that he didn’t get master’s message, but he also doesn’t want to, A. Disrupt the meeting with a screaming baby(who now has now thankfully calmed, but who knows how long that will last.) or B. Cause any panic among the other pillars.
holding the child a bit closer, and snuggling him more in his way to oversized baby blanket, he takes a deep breath and makes the decision to attend the meeting.
he sits in the back, no one paid him much attention, other than a quick glance from his husband, sanemi. Thankfully, no one noticed the baby and his soft coos, and babbles over their own chatter.
until tengen…
The man perked up from his conversation with his fourth spouse, and seemed to listen for a minute before starting at giyuu. “Do my flamboyant ears deceive me? Or does giyuu have a baby?!” The entire room quieted for a moment.
the baby giggled and squirmed despite the restrictions of his blankie, flailing little arms out to reach for his father’s face.
the entire room erupted with noises of cooing over the tiny human, and the noise of everyone rushing over. “I didn’t know you and sanemi had a baby! Congratulations!” Mitsuri said, hands flying to her cheeks. “I didn’t either!” Yelled sanemi, he clearly was surprised to know that giyuu decided without him that they needed another child. “His hair is certainly flashy.” Tengen gestured to the swirling poof of black and teal. “Tomioka, he looks just like muichiro?” Shinobu stated as she reached her hand out to comb through the baby’s hair.
“this is muichiro.”
“the master of the mansion has arrived.” Two of the quintuplets said in unison as their father situated himself on the floor. “My children, why all the fuss?” Giyuu was currently struggling to bow while holding an infant, he hopes he didn’t crush the poor thing, but he simply couldn’t allow himself to let the baby leave him arms.
“Where is young tokito?” Thanks to some of shinobu’s medicine master was finally Regaining some of his lost sight.
The hashira slowly came out of their bow. “Master, this is young tokito.” Giyuu held up the baby so he could see.
the others who were still recovering from their shock, some of them thought that they had simply heard him wrong, others were just confused on how that baby could possibly be muichiro. Regardless of what they thought, this is muichiro.
master stared for a while in utter shock and disbelief. “Forgive me master.” Giyuu bowed the best he could without crushing his son. “I was unable to protect him from a demon’s attack.” The baby started to cry, and giyuu rose from his bow, silently cursing himself for being so rough with such a fragile being. “He was hit with demon blood art, and reverted back to an infant.” He attempted to soothe his baby by bouncing him, and nuzzling his tiny face.
tomioka dared to gaze up at the man’s face, it was gentle and caring. He didn’t look angry. “Tomioka,” the master said. “Will you take care of muichiro along with the help of your husband until he is back to normal?” The master asked as if he already knew the answer.
”of course, master.” Was that even a question? He’d take care of muichiro even if he wasn’t a baby! He’d do anything to keep his child happy and healthy!
“then you are forgiven.”
“Look at my son!” were words that commonly left the mouth of the wind hashira. Even before he was a baby, sanemi had felt nothing but love and pride for his little boy.
his son. His little boy. His baby. Muichiro was precious to him, and sanemi had thought that he was small before, but now, he was so little, and pudgy. It made him want to tickle his belly and kiss his chubby face.
now he was holding the former mist pillar as he fed his baby his warm bottle, the baby was a tired little one, as it was almost his bed time.
tomioka had insisted that he take care of muichiro as it was his fault that the child was a baby, and sanemi had responded to that by forcefully tucking his husband into bed and laying on top of him until he fell asleep. It didn’t take long as the water hashira was exhausted.
maybe muichiro being a baby is for the best. Maybe this time around he can have loving parents he won’t lose at the age of ten. Maybe this time around they’re be less blood in the few memories he can piece together from his past. Maybe he can go to school? Maybe they could parent him?
yes, he can parent him.