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It was a normal evening in the Izumi household. Iori was warming up the milk for their nightly hot milk with honey, while Riku was putting their three year old son to bed. Thunder rumbled in the distance, alerting the family to an incoming summer storm.
It should’ve been a normal evening, until there was a loud screech from the bedroom, followed by lots of shooshing from Riku, and slightly panicked reassurances that Iori knew would only make the toddler scream harder.
He sighed, putting the pot of milk aside to heat up later, and made his way down the hall.
“Iori, do you know where his blankie is?!” Riku asked, holding the child in his lap as he screamed and sobbed into his chest.
“His blankie? I always fold it neatly next to his pillow.”
“It’s not there, and it’s storming out,” Riku gently rubbed the child’s back, “come on, Tsubasa, it’s okay.”
“I’ll go find it,” Iori reassured him.
“See, your dad is going to find it, okay?” Riku reassured him.
Tsubasa raised his head, big gray eyes filled with tears, which Riku promptly wiped off his cheeks.
“You’re going to be okay,” Riku smiled gently, kissing the tuft of black hair on the top of his head.
Iori, meanwhile, was tearing the apartment to shreds trying to find the damn blanket that his son hasn’t been able to let go of since the day he was born.
“He must’ve left it at the store,” he grumbled under his breath as he checked under the couch for the third time.
Without the blanket, the two parents were in for a very, very rough night.
“Riku, can you come here?” Iori called after about fifteen more minutes of searching.
“Be there in a second,” Riku responded from Tsubasa’s bedroom.
Riku pried the little one off his chest, setting him back on the bed, “your daddy needs me, can you be a big boy for a few minutes?”
“But-”
“I’ll be right back, I promise,” Riku reassured him.
“But my blankie…”
“We’ll find it, I promise.”
“Okay…”
Riku gently closed the door to Tsubasa’s room, making sure to leave the light on to avoid frightening him further, before making his way to the living room.
“Can’t find it?” Riku asked.
“I’m going to call Nii-san, he closed the store tonight. I wonder if he left it there. Can you think of where else it might be?”
Riku sighed, leaning against the wall, “we dropped Tenn-nii off at the airport this morning...but I don’t remember him bringing the blankie.”
“I’ll call the airport just in case.”
While Iori was making phone calls, Riku’s own phone went off.
“Tenn-nii…?” he questioned.
“No luck,” Iori concluded, “Nii-san didn’t see it, and the airport said no one turned anything in.”
“I just got a rabbit chat from Tenn-nii…he’s in Los Angeles...”
“Can you reply to him later? Honestly, the blankie is still missing and you’re texting your brother!”
“No, Iori! He has the blanket!” Riku exclaimed, showing Iori the rabbit chat which consisted of one Kujo Tenn taking a selfie with the ratted blanket in the middle of the airport.
“Why the hell…?”
“I don’t know, he says he found it in his carryon while going through customs, he thinks Tsubasa put it in when he wasn’t paying attention.”
The situation just got from bad to worse.
“What do we do? He’s definitely not getting it tonight!” Riku exclaimed.
Iori sighed heavily, “I have an idea, you just go warm up the milk for us, and talk to Kujo about sending that blanket back when he gets settled in New York.”
Riku cocked his head, “you have a plan?”
Iori smiled softly, “leave it to me.”
Riku raised an eyebrow but left him to take care of their son.
Iori walked back down the hall, and opened the door to his son’s room, to find Tsubasa wringing at the sheets, crying silent tears.
“Daddy, did you find Blankie?”
Iori knelt down next to the bed, gently smoothing the child’s hair.
“Tsubasa, did you put your blankie in your uncle’s bags this morning?” Iori asked calmly.
Realization flooded the toddler’s face, and he nodded softly.
“Why did you give it to him if you need it to sleep?”
Tsubasa wrung at the sheets further, curling his toes nervously under the blankets.
“I’m sorry, daddy...I didn’t want him to be scared in America…”
Iori had to struggle really hard to keep his composure. His son was impossibly cute, it was almost too hard to punish him.
“Your uncle is an adult, just like Papa and I, he can handle America just fine. You’re little, though, and you need your blankie to sleep.”
Tsubasa nodded sadly.
“Now, your uncle is going to send it back as soon as he can, but it’s going to take a long time to get back to Japan,” Iori explained.
“Can I sleep with you and Papa?” Tsubasa asked.
Iori cringed at the idea.
“Absolutely not!”
“But daddy!” Tsubasa protested.
It wasn’t like Iori and Riku had any...bedroom plans that night, but Tsubasa was a violent sleeper, and many times Iori had woken up with several new bruises, and one time Riku was headbutted at three in the morning one night, giving him a nosebleed.
Riku swears he went into labour early because Tsubasa accidentally kicked his way out, which is seeming more and more plausible every night that goes by.
“No way!”
Tears filled Tsubasa’s eyes once again.
“But…I’m scared...”
Iori sighed, pulling out yet another parenting trick.
“Tsubasa, can I tell you a secret?”
The toddler’s eyes got super wide in anticipation. Iori learned quickly that small children love secrets.
“What’s the secret?” Tsubasa whispered.
“You need to come reeeeally close,” Iori whispered.
Tsubasa obeyed, coming so close his nose was almost touching his dad’s.
Iori chuckled, “you look silly this close.”
“Daddy!”
“Alright, alright,” Iori leaned in and whispered in his son’s ear, “I’m super scared of the dark.”
Tsubasa gasped, “just like me?!”
“Yes, just like you,” Iori smiled, “in fact, before I married your Papa, I slept with a stuffie.”
Tsubasa giggled, “that’s funny.”
“Stay right here, I’m going to show you daddy’s old stuffie. But you can’t move, okay?”
“Okay.”
Iori left the bedroom, making his way to the linen closet in the hall. Digging behind all the spare sheets and pillows, he found what he was looking for: a blue and white lop-eared rabbit, with a red bow tied around the neck.
“This is Roppu-chan,” Iori introduced to the curious toddler.
“Hi Roppu-chan, I’m Tsubasa,” he greeted back.
Iori handed the stuffed rabbit to him, and Tsubasa immediately squeezed it in a tight hug. The rabbit was about half his size, and Iori couldn’t help but admire how adorable his son looked snuggled up with the rabbit.
“Roppu-chan is soft like my blankie,” he sighed happily, nuzzling his chubby cheek against the plush of the rabbit.
“You’re right, Roppu-chan is very soft. Do you think you can sleep with her instead of your blankie?”
Tsubasa nodded, snuggling close, “I will, daddy.”
“That’s my boy. Come on, I’ll tuck both of you in.”
Iori pulled the blankets up to Tsubasa’s chin, making sure to tuck in the rabbit beside him too.
“Daddy, won’t you be scared without Roppu-chan?” Tsubasa asked.
Iori chuckled, “no, I have Papa, remember?”
“Oh yeah,” Tsubasa giggled.
“Take care of Roppu-chan, okay?”
“Okay daddy. You take care of Papa.”
“I always do,” Iori smiled.
Iori kissed his forehead before rising to his feet.
“Don’t forget to kiss Roppu-chan!” Tsubasa argued.
Iori smiled gently, “of course, how could I forget.”
With a kiss to Roppu-chan’s forehead, Iori flicked on the nightlight, turned off the ceiling light, and closed the door.
Riku was curled up in the living room with a book and a cup of warm milk and honey, smiling softly to himself. He could hear the entire conversation going on in the bedroom.
“I can’t believe you gave him Roppu-chan,” Riku teased when Iori emerged into the living room.
“You gotta do what you gotta do for a decent night’s sleep,” Iori replied coolly.
“Even lying to your child about how you’re scared of the dark.”
“Like you’ve never lied to him,” Iori protested, pouring himself a glass of milk and honey.
Iori plopped onto the couch next to Riku with a mug in his hands.
“being a parent is suffering,” he complained.
“It’s kinda fun, though,” Riku smiled, “besides, he’s almost four, you should cherish his cute years a little more. Next thing you know, he’ll be in school.”
“I suppose,” Iori leaned against Riku, who put an arm around his waist.
“And when that happens, we’ll just have another one,” Riku added innocently.
Iori spit hot milk out his nose, causing Riku to burst out laughing, putting his book away to cuddle up to his husband.
“Don’t say things like that out of nowhere,” Iori grumbled.
“I’m kidding,” Riku yawned, “...kind of.”
Iori smiled fondly as his husband’s eyes drifted off. It seemed he would have to put him to bed as well.
As the summer storm faded away, and the mugs were emptied, Iori scooped up his husband and carried him to bed, making sure to tuck him in just as tightly as he did the other members of the family down the hall.
Although he hated to admit it out loud, there was nothing Izumi Iori loved more than his perfect little family.