Haru's Baby

The first night back home with a new baby is always tough on the mother. Or in this case, Haru. Should he keep rocking him? Should he prepare a bottle in case he wakes up? Is it okay to just watch him through the night so he knows that papa is there? Daddy Makoto comes in with the intent to bring Haru back to bed, but maybe five more minutes wouldn't hurt.

Hello Free fandom. I'll just get straight to the point since I'm sure you're all dying to know how I came up with this. (Can you hear the sarcasm in my voice?) But for those that do care, I always see pictures of Makoto and Haru taking care of the twins until one day I saw one of Haru taking care of some babies and looking really nervous and thought that, even though it is "Mommy" Makoto, I think that Haru would be the worrying mother always watching the babies as they slept kind of person. So here's my interpretation of that. Also, I really had a hard time deciding if I wanted this to be a past mpreg story or adoption one and it was really close but just thought that the mpreg would be better for the mermaid AU and this would just be the first day home from adopting the little nugget. Hope you guys agree with my decision.

Haru's Baby

The first day home from the adoption agency was a day that Makoto and Haru had been waiting for ever since they first filled out the adoption papers. They had made sure to set up the baby's room, made everything in the house childproof and Makoto-approved, and collected all the toys they could think of that the child could ever want to play with.

So, during the first night with their new baby, Haru was sure that Makoto would be the one fusing over the infant throughout the night. Mama Makoto was his nickname after all.

But when they had all settled in for the first night, it was Haru that had trouble finding sleep and crept out of bed so silently as to not disturb the still sleeping Makoto.

Haru wandered through the house, wondering what could have distracted his mind enough to keep him from sleep. He tried the kitchen to see if he was hungry but all that appealed to him was a glass of water that he could only sip at until half the glass was done. He walked into the bathroom thinking he may have forgotten a routine that his body was reminding him about. He even went outside to stare at their covered pool wondering if he needed a swim before falling asleep, but even the prospect of water was not enough to fulfill his sudden unnamed desire.

So he went back inside having ignored the pool and trudged back to his room with his husband.

On the way however his feet stopped in front of their newly arrived child's door and, hoping against all hope that he didn't wake the baby, silently opened the door.

Haru peeked inside, staring at the rise and fall of the blue covers shifting in the crib before deciding that he wanted a closer look. Tip-toeing deeper into the room, the twenty two year old leaned slightly over the edge of the bars.

Maru Tachibana continued sleeping peacefully, blissfully unaware that his new father was watching him. His already green eyes lightly shifted beneath his eyelids, frowning at whatever he was imagining in his dreams.

Haru reached out to play with the tuffs of hair on the boy's head.

For being only a few months old, Maru already had a shockingly large amount of black hair covering his head. There were always a few strands that continually strayed away from the back of his ears and made it to the front of his face no matter how much Haru pushed them back. Makoto jokingly said that he would end up having hair just like Haru's, laughing at his husband's face when Haru pouted as he couldn't keep the strands in line.

But as much as Makoto said that Maru looked like him, Haru believed that because of his green eyes he would take after Makoto more.

Hopefully not too much though, Haru thought to himself with a small smile. Makoto was always a scaredy-cat when they were growing up—and even now he still got scared whenever the lights were out for too long—and Haru wanted his son to have at least a little more backbone then his second father.

His feet were starting to get numb from standing so long, so Haru crouched down to lean over the crib a bit more. He trailed his fingers down from Maru's hairline to barely ghost over his eyelids and slid over the tip of his curved nose.

Despite his wanting to be as gentle and unnoticeable as possible, Haru's light touches still woke the baby up. Maru's eyes scrunched up tightly before opening, taking in the sight of his smaller father looking back down at him.

The two quietly observed each other before Maru decided that he didn't want to be down when the other was so close by and started to tear up.

Haru swooped him into his arms before he could even make a sound. "Maru?" he whispered, trying to rock him while holding him tightly to his chest.

The baby settled down at feeling the comfort in his father's warmth and was content to just stare at the larger. Haru was at a loss for what to do.

Maru wasn't crying, so that meant he wasn't hungry or needed a change. Right? But he was told that babies were rarely awake during the night without wanting something so for his child to be this silent was abnormal…right?

Haru took to pacing the room.

There were bottles made in case he got hungry and Haru contemplated going to the kitchen to be prepared in case Maru did start crying. He didn't want to wake Makoto up with the baby's crying after all. But if Maru didn't want any formula he risked the chance of waking the still sleeping parent up with all the rustling he would make getting the bottle. Decisions, decision. Who knew that becoming a parent meant having to make such hard decisions so early on?

Right as Haru was prepared to take the chance of going to the kitchen he heard a pair of footsteps coming closer to the baby's room.

"Haru?"

Makoto walked in, his still tired eyes glancing around the small space before settling on his husband cradling his child. "Is something wrong?" The larger looked a bit more awake at the thought. "Was he crying?"

Makoto stepped behind Haru as the slighter one shook his head. "Then why are you here?"

"Couldn't sleep," Haru mumbled, keeping his eyes on the still awake baby.

Understanding what had happened, even if Haru couldn't yet, Makoto showed one of his infamous caring smiles. He laughed to himself but kept it quiet to not upset the other.

"Why don't we go back to bed then?"

Maru gazed up at him with such—to Haru—pleading eyes and Haru was unable to resist.

"Can't we stay here…just a little bit longer?" His voice trailed off until it was just a mumbled whisper. Makoto still heard him though, he prided himself on hearing anything his love ever had to say after all, and wrapped his arms around his smaller husband. Looking down at the baby too now, he directed his smile towards Maru.

The two pairs of green eyes looked at each other before the youngest reached out and touched the side of Haru's face. Haru immediately lifted one of his own hands and covered the baby's with his. Makoto laughed, moving an arm from Haru's waist to compensate for the other half of the baby, feeling like his son just challenged him for the affection of his husband.

But that was all right because Maru was the only person he wouldn't mind sharing Haru with. They both took up equal spaces in his heart—even if a small portion was already occupied by the pool—and filled different voids that Haru was missing to make him complete whether he knew it or not.

Tightening his grip on his small family, Makoto let out a content sigh and smiled as he leaned his head down on Haru's shoulder so that they could both still look at Maru.

"Mm…five more minutes wouldn't hurt," Makoto teased, his eyes lowering slightly from tiredness.

Haru nodded wholeheartedly.

"And if he's still awake we can stay up another five minutes after that."

Maru learned, right then and there in his smaller father's arms, that he should feel very lucky he was born with Makoto's shade of green eyes as they kept both his father's holding him long after those ten minutes were up.

End

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