Little Oni
Kan-U looked up as he heard the quieted footsteps, there was no alarm as the mech knew the pace. The soft chirp only confirmed it was Koumei that was walking the halls of the inn. Checking on them all as the stagiest had a habit of doing, poking his head into each room to be sure himself that his new companions were safe and healthy.
Listening to the footsteps, Kan-U mentally fallowed Koumei as he first went to Ryuubi. He always checked on the dragon descendants first, Ryuubi as the descendant of the great dragon spirit himself. Than over to Chouhi next, as the descendant of the lightning dragon herself, rumored that she was the mother of several Musha clans instead of just one.
Next, Koumei padded over to the third room, moving just a little faster as if belatedly remembering (again) they had a younger member for now. Normally it would take almost a full minute of watching for Koumei to be satisfied of his companies well being. This time Kan-U knew ahead of time that the pattern would be broken.
An alarmed sound, half chirp came from Koumei's little phoenix that rode on the purple mech's shoulders when not in public.
Young Pei wasn't in his room at this late hour, yet Kan-U wasn't worried since the youngling mech was right beside him. Well, partly in the Oni's lap really.
Somewhere about two hours ago the boy had edged in to Kan-U's room, shivering from a nightmare memory of one or another of the two bloody and resent tragedies in his resent past. Shaking from fear that Pei was hesitant to show in the day, but now... in the darkness of the night that let the imagination go wild, he retreated to the big Oni-mech.
Not that Kan-U minded, and knew all too well what the boy was going through.
Kan-U listened as Koumei's steps were faster paces over to his room, the door slid open and the purple mech poked his head in, opening his mouth to tell the older mech their collective charge was missing. And stopped, blinked and his eyes softened at the sight before him before blinking again.
"So he is an Oni as well." Koumei relaxed, stepping into the room to get a good look and be sure, as normal, that the other two were well. He knelt down beside Kan-U who nodded.
"Yes," He big musha nodded, running his hand gently over Pei's small silver horns that were rounded and blunt to show just how young he was. Kan-U carefully fingered a nub on one side of each horn that would, in time be 'branches' as Pei's horns turned into adult antler's like Kan-U had.
"He's much younger than we thought," Kan-U said with a heavy hart, rubbing the sliver horn spurts with one finger as he used to do for his nieces and nephews when they came for a cuddle.
"You can tell?" Koumei asked tilting his head as his little mecha bird hopped off too flit around the room and land on the mech's other shoulder.
"The length and bluntness," Kan-U explained, still keeping his voice low. "I don't think they'll become sharp for another dozen years... but he will need a new helm in less than two."
Lifting his gaze to Kan-U's golden antlers, Koumei noted the thickness and how they curved back a little only to rise up and then branch. The mech looked back down, "They will raise and change color?"
"Hmm?" the Oni-mech looked up, blinked and then shook his head, "Oh, yes to the lifting, no to the color. We are of differing clans." Kan-U said nodding down to the youngling in his lap, "Pei is of the silver valley clan, I am from the mountains, from what I was told the Oni-Gundams generations ago helped mind silver and were exposed so much that their horns turned silver."
"Interesting clan history," Koumei hummed thoughtfully as he stood, after a moment he met Kan-U's gaze. "We will all protect him, so that young Pei may live to his dream." He swore.
"Kan-Pei." The older Oni-mech corrected with a deep rumble in his chest. He waiting the few seconds that would take to sink in, and felt Koumei grip his shoulder and took as much comfort in the mech's words as the youngling took from getting his horns rubbed.
"You'll be a good father Kan-U."
Queen's Note: okay not very long but by goodness I wanted to do a cute between Kan-U and the younger oni-mech X3 I know they don't say in the show if Pei is an oni like Kan-U but they didn't say he WASN'T... so to me the subject is fair game for an adorable. The idea of the oni-mechs' horns I got from Fatala in our rp.
I might do some more one shots like this