AN: There's not nearly enough Kanyui content in the world, or just Nagano trio content in general, so here I am, trying to amend that great injustice. This fic is set somewhere in the future, where exactly, I'm not entirely sure, but at least a year or two past canon time, at the very least. Just some cute fluff, mostly!

Thanks for reading!

Small Miracle

Characters: Yamato Kansuke, Morofushi Takaaki, Uehara Yui

"Shouldn't you be in there?"

The cessation of noise was a blessing, Morofushi thought, though he'd long since grown used to the sound of Kansuke's crutch striking the floor. Even so, he had his limits- and when the man was all but pacing back and forth seemingly without end, it was enough to wind down even his last nerve.

In such a tense situation, all the more so.

"Uehara'll be fine." Kansuke shortly responded, not even bothering to look at him.

"Mm." Merely arching a brow, Morofushi took that for what it was- a mark of him not being honest with himself. "Then why are you pacing so restlessly, Kansuke-kun?"

"I'm not." Kansuke said curtly, even as he began doing very much that all over again, much to Morofushi's growing annoyance.

"I see." Morofushi noted. "So I suppose it's merely just my imagination that you've been winding a path down in the hallway."

"Always did have an active one." Kansuke noted, turning on his heel, taking care not to unbalance himself as he did so. "She'll be fine."

"I didn't even ask this time." Morofushi observed.

Stopping in his tracks once more, Kansuke locked eyes with him, using the fact that he was the only one standing to all but loom over him. It would never work, and the man knew that, but it never stopped him from trying anyways. Merely lifting his arched brow higher in response, Morofushi let out a long sigh.

This simply could not go on.

"You're worried about her." Morofushi stated plainly.

"Of course I'm worried." Kansuke responded, his tone and expression both terse. "But Uehara can handle this."

"I'm sure that she can." Morofushi noted. "Her midwife is more than talented. Still," lifting his chin so that he could level his gaze with his longtime friend, "...one would think that the father should be in there with her right now."

The long silence that his words earned was rather unlike Kansuke- normally, he was the type to lash out with angry words, whether or not he'd had the time to think them through. The fact that his response to this was silence was not lost on Morofushi.

"The baby is only premature by a week." Morofushi noted. "By all means, it should be a fairly easy birth."

Nothing. That wasn't it then, Morofushi realized.

With a slight frown, he mulled over what the cause of Kansuke's behavior could be. His eyes falling on Kansuke's left, the one scarred shut, Morofushi pursed his lips together, a faint thought drifting up in his mind. Letting out a short sigh, he couldn't help but find the thought ridiculous himself, but then again, this was Yamato Kansuke he was speaking of here.

"Don't tell me you're afraid it will cry." Morofushi dryly noted.

"Of course it'll cry, it's a baby." Kansuke retorted. "Other than shit themselves, that's all they know how to do."

"Mm." Wondering for a moment if he should perhaps leave it at that, Morofushi merely let out another curt sigh. He owed it to Yui to try and talk this foolishness out of her husband- there was probably still time to get him in there with her, during this all too critical moment.

"You know that's not what I meant, Kansuke-kun."

Another long pause, Morofushi noted. Kansuke's gaze didn't drop from his own, but his good eye did narrow- before he finally jerked his head away, turning on his heel to face the door of the room that Yui had been brought into.

"Shut your damn mouth, Koumei."

Ah, so he'd hit his mark.

"Not until you go in there to be with Yui-san, I won't." Morofushi said simply. "She needs you."

"I thought we both agreed she'd be fine." Kansuke grumbled.

"Oh yes, she'll be fine." Morofushi agreed. "But you know just as well that wasn't what I meant either, Kansuke-kun."

Nothing. Heaving a long sigh, feeling like he was speaking to a particularly difficult child, Morofushi rose to his feet at last. For a man who spent most of his time taking advantage of his admittedly somewhat intimidating appearance, one wouldn't think Kansuke would ever be sensitive about it- but that would merely be because they were thinking logically, unlike the scarred man in question, who outside of police work, barely seemed to have need for such a thing.

Thankfully, he knew exactly how Kansuke worked- more than he ever wished to, at times.

"I never thought that you were a coward, Kansuke-kun."

Ah yes, there we go. That was the response that he had been looking for. Goodness but he was rather fond of lifting people by their collars- he was almost entirely certain it was all but second nature to him now.

"What the hell did you say, Koumei!?" Kansuke spat out, looming over him for everything that he was worth, even as the mustached police inspector barely even batted an eye at it. "You want to say that again!?"

"I called you a coward, Kansuke-kun." Morofushi merely repeated, deftly removing his hand from his collar. "You're so afraid of a mere infant, that you can't even be by your wife's side as she gives birth to your first child together."

"Listen here-" Kansuke began, his step forward punctuated by the sound of his crutch.

Morofushi, however, didn't let him finish.

"If I'm wrong, then go in and be with her." Morofushi told him simply.

There was another long pause, filled with Kansuke opening and shutting his mouth, trying and failing to think of something to say in retort- before he finally turned on his heel, making a disgusted sound.

He half thought that he might start pacing again, but instead, he headed for the door, leaving him alone in the empty hallway.

Letting out a long sigh, Morofushi merely shook his head, fixing his collar, and taking his seat once more.

To think out of all things, Yamato Kansuke would be afraid of his newborn son crying at the sight of his face... goodness, but this friend of his was nothing but trouble.

"Kan-chan."

Yui's soft smile was somehow more radiant than ever- not that he'd ever admit something that cheesy out loud, Kansuke thought to himself. Maybe it was the glow of motherhood- or just the vast relief that came with not being in the throes of labor pains anymore, he didn't know.

Didn't much care either, not in this moment.

"Ue-" He began, before cutting himself off. Maybe he didn't have much of a right to complain about her persistent use of his childhood nickname, when he couldn't shake the habit of calling her Uehara, in spite of the fact that they were married now. In his defense, she still used it professionally- just to spare the rest of the Nagano Prefectural Police from having to deal with both a Detective and Inspector Yamato in the same department.

"...Yui."

"Do you want to hold him?" Yui asked, softly cradling the tightly wrapped bundle in her arms. A baby boy, perfectly healthy, from the sound of what the doctor had to say.

"Do I look like I know how to hold a baby?" Kansuke asked.

"You would, if you went to any of my classes with me." Yui noted. "This is why I told you-"

"Like I said, I was busy!" Kansuke retorted, narrowing his eyes- and for once in his life, regretting his action, as the baby, which had been rather silent in his mother's arms up until now, began wailing once more, startled by the sudden loud sound.

"Geez, look what you've done now, Kan-chan." Yui lightly chided him. "There, there, it's okay, Kai, it's just your father being noisy. That's just his natural state of being."

Kai.

When they had learned the baby was going to be a boy, they had decided on that name without a second thought.

(It would have been Aoi, were it a girl.)

"Don't teach the kid weird things." Kansuke grumbled, before holding out his arms. "Fine, I'll hold the kid, if he's going to be so whiny about it. Just show me how."

Turning back to him, Yui gave him a soft smile, shifting a little in her hospital bed. "Be careful of his head." She told him, gently transferring the still crying baby into his arms, fussing with them until he held the small, shrieking infant correctly- a process through which Kansuke grumbled throughout, yet did nothing to impede her process.

Damn, this baby sure could cry though.

Yui must have been thinking the same thing, because she lifted a brow. "I see he gets his lung capacity from his father."

"You say that like it's a bad thing." Kansuke noted.

"It sure will be in the middle of the night, when we're both trying to sleep." Yui merely replied, folding her hands in her lap, watching the rather amusing scene of feared police Inspector Yamato Kansuke cradling a small infant.

"Fair." Kansuke noted, casting a glance down towards the baby. "He has two eyes."

In spite of herself, Yui let out a faint snort. "I don't think your scar is hereditary, Kan-chan."

"Never know." Kansuke shrugged.

"Mm." Leaning back, Yui merely gave him a soft, gentle smile. "Shouldn't we let in Inspector Morofushi sometime soon?"

"Not until the baby stops crying." Kansuke told her. "Not sure why you gave him to me, now he's never going to stop."

"You asked me to." Yui pointed out. "And he'll stop. You've got a face that can quiet even a crying child, after all."

"Yeah, right after I make it cry." Kansuke dryly noted.

"Maybe you should try learning how to smile then, Kan-chan." Yui playfully teased.

"Nah," rocking his infant son in his arms, much in the same fashion Yui had been doing just before, Kansuke hid that very same expression, "...too much work."