AN: Okay so this is a different style of writing than I'm used to, so please let me know if it doesn't work. I've become rather preoccupied with the Cobb/Saito pairing and so I've ended up writing this. There will be more coming as I write it. Feedback is much appreciated. 3 Also, this is unbeta'd so any mistakes are purely my own and probably the result of writing this at 1:30am.
It was less than 10 hours after they landed in the US that Saito got the call to say that his wife had been killed in a car accident. The extraction team joined the distraught in flying to Tokyo for the funeral, to act as moral support rather than for any proper grievance on their part for none of them had even met the woman. Dom in particular found it very difficult to watch Saito saying goodbye, in part because of his own experiences in losing a wife, but also because he realised that this meant there was a strong possibility that Saito would grow old alone as he had done in Limbo. Perhaps that was why when Saito sold all of his lavish and extravagent apartments in Japan because they reminded him of her, Dom was more than willing to allow him to stay with him for a while. Until you get back on your feet, he had said. Saito slotted into place with the Cobb family so easily it was as though he was born a part of it. He returned to work a month later, yet he ensured that he spent quality time with Dom and the children as many days of the week as he could. It was almost a year before he stepped down as chairman of his company in order to spend more time with his adopted family. The kids were delighted when Saito announced that he would be taking them Disneyland. Phillipa had queired whether their Daddy would be accompanying them. Saito smiled fondly at her, informing her that he would indeed. It wasn't long after returning home that Saito moved into the master bedroom. At around the same time, Phillipa began to call him Uncle.
Phillipa's 7th birthday was the first time she saw her Daddy kiss Uncle Saito. When she asked her daddy why he had done that he told her that it's what two people who love each other very much do to express their love. So she asked him why he didn't kiss Arthur, or Ariadne, or Eames, or Yusuf, as though she was concerned that this implied that her father did not love them. So Dom explained to her that there were different kinds of love. There was love between friends, like that between himself and Ariadne, or Phillipa and her school friends. Then there was love between family, brothers and sisters, like Phillipa and James, or Dom and Arthur. Phillipa had laughed at this, contesting Dom's assertion that he and Arthur were brothers, to which he replied that a family is more about the bonds between the people, rather than their biological relationship. Lastly, he told her, there was romantic love. Love like that between Poppy and Gran, and he and Uncle Saito. It is when you love someone romantically that you kiss them, he told her. Three days later Phillipa asked her Uncle Saito if she was allowed to call him Papa Saito. The young girl was too caught up in the embrace that followed to witness the tears in the older man's eyes. But Dom saw them, and felt his own eyes begin to well up as he watched his daughter openly accepting the man he loved. It was not long before James, almost 5, copied his sister's example. Dom was unable to control his smile the following Friday, when he overheard James telling one of his little friends that he would ask Daddy and Papa if he could stay over. In spite of himself, Dom couldn't help but think that Mal would be proud of her children.
Only once was Phillipa ever teased for having two fathers. A particular vicious set of rumours started to circulate when Phillipa was in the 8th grade, referring not only to the gender of her parents, but also to Saito's Japanese heritage. It all came to a head one lunch break, when three of her classmates cornered her and started to hurl insults at her. You and your fag dads are going to hell. What's it like being raised by a chink? Do you eat anything but rice? The taunts grew more severe in both homophobic and racist intensity, as the bullies became more and more frustrated at her lack of any kind of response. That was, until one of them finally went too far in their desperation to provoke a response and said something that Phillipa could not ignore. Was that why he killed your mother? So that he could be a fag with some Gook? Phillipa punched the girl square in the mouth, feeling her own fingers breaking with the force. It was nearly seven hours before she arrived home, between all of the medical treatment she had to undergo, and the meeting with the school where she received a weeks suspension. The other girl had a cut lip and a blood nose, but no permanent damage had been done. Dom had quietly but firmly discussed with Phillipa that while he understood her reasons, violence was not the solution to those problems. It only makes things worse sweetie. These things need to be resolved through means other than confrontation and aggression. She had been rather indignant, finding it to be particularly unjust that the three bullies only had two days suspension each compared to her five. You punched her Pip. I know her words hurt, but physical violence just isn't acceptable and that's what the school is trying to teach you. But after that day, no one ever mentioned Phillipa's two dads in a negative fashion again.