Before the weather got too cold during the autumn season, Kiyoshi always made sure his daughters got to play outside as much as they could and wanted to. Like that afternoon when his youngest wanted to shoot some hoops in their driveway.
"Daddy! Daddy! I wanna dunk!" the little 5-year-old squealed.
Kiyoshi let out a cheerful laugh. "Alright, hold on, Mariko." He picked up little Mariko, holding her up so she could dunk. She held onto the hoop a bit, even after Kiyoshi carefully let go.
"Daddy! Look it!" Mariko squealed again, giggling as she dangled her short legs.
Kiyoshi couldn't help but smile at Mariko's contagious laughter. "I see you, I see you." He began helping her down. "Let's get you down before someone gets hurt though."
"I'm not gonna get hurt," Mariko huffed. Her pouty cheeks deflating soon after though as she darted for the stray basketball. She began dribbling, sprinting circles around Kiyoshi. "I bet you can't catch me, Daddy!"
"We'll see about that," Kiyoshi played along.
Kiyoshi halfheartedly went after the ball, being careful of his tiny daughter. She barely reached his hip in height. Though Mariko was tiny, she was still quick. She could literally zoom under Kiyoshi's legs.
"Oi, that's cheating," Kiyoshi joked.
Mariko only laughed more. Her dad's words only seemed to motivate her to 'cheat' more. She zoomed between Kiyoshi's legs once more, her dad crouched on the ground now after losing some balance.
"Woah!" Kiyoshi yelped. He turned to Mariko, giving a playful yet stern look. "Mariko."
Mariko giggled again, though this time it was more timid. She knew she wasn't quite in trouble, but her dad's words got across to her. "Yes, Daddy."
Mariko perked up once more. "But look it!" She turned back to the tall hoop, throwing the ball as hard as she could so it'd reach its mark. Sadly, Mariko's aim was off.
The basketball ricocheted off the hoop and Mariko's (child level) strong throw made it fly back with such force.
Mariko yelped, ducking her head. The ball thankfully missed her, but sadly collided with Kiyoshi's knee. Kiyoshi's bad knee.
Kiyoshi grunt loudly in pain, falling over. He was already crouched near the ground, so it wasn't a big fall, but it was still enough to panic little Mariko.
Mariko watched, gaping in horror, as her dad was curled on the concrete ground and clutching his knee. She for one loved all things pain and suffering—heck loved causing it— but not when it came to her beloved family!
Mariko grew even more pale, realizing she caused her dad what looked to be agonizing pain. She was the one who made him take a knee to the ground in the first place. She was the only who threw the basketball with all her might. She was the one who ducked. She was the one to cause Kiyoshi pain.
"M-Mariko?" Kiyoshi called, trying to hold down his pained expression, when seeing his youngest frozen. "D-Daddy's alright—"
Mariko let out an ear piercing shriek of horror.
Kiyoshi pulled back a bit, eyes wide. Never had he heard Mariko let out such a shriek in a negative sense. "Mariko! No! Daddy's okay! Really!"
Trying to calm his daughter down as quickly as he could, Kiyoshi attempted to stand. Sadly, he only made things worse when his knee refused to work right for him. He collapsed to the ground once more, Mariko letting out another scream.
With her eyes bawling tears, Mariko ran into the house.
"Mariko! Daddy's okay!" Kiyoshi called after, continuing to try and calm her down, but Mariko was too upset to listen.
"Onee-chan!" Mariko cried bloody murder as she darted up the stairs. She swung the door to her older sister's room, shocking the 12-year-old and making her smudge the lip liner she was practicing with. It drew across her cheek, but now was not the time to worry about that.
"Mariko!" Koharu cried, alarmed when seeing her precious little sister so upset.
"Onee-chan!" Mariko cried once more, running in and dramatically plopping down on her sister's lap. "I broke Daddy!" she screamed as tears continued to stream from her eyes.
"You what?" Koharu asked, more for clarification reasons.
"I broke Daddy!" Mariko repeated, crying even louder. "Daddy's broken because of me!"
"Mariko! Daddy's okay! I'm okay!" Kiyoshi continued to frantically call, now inside as well. He had struggled to make his way up the stairs, hopping on his good leg, to reach his daughters. "See!"
Sadly, Mariko only saw that Kiyoshi was standing on only his good leg. She screamed once more, sprinting out her sister's room.
"Mariko!" both Kiyoshi and Koharu yelled, the latter rushing out the door as well.
"Dang it, Teppei," Koharu scolded, though more because she was upset that Mariko was upset than because Kiyoshi supposedly made things worse.
"K-Koharu, mind getting an icepack please?" Kiyoshi pitifully asked.
Koharu groaned, still rushing to get the icepack her dad needed.
While the day at home was as heck as could be, it wasn't so much elsewhere. Until a phone call was made.
Hanamiya was just finishing up looking over his current case. He grabbed his coffee, mentally preparing for his next task, when his phone rang. Seeing it was from home, Hanamiya answered.
"Hello—"
Before Hanamiya could even finish his hello, a cacophony blasted through his phone. Hanamiya had to hold his phone away to protect his ears.
"Teppei!" he hissed through the phone. "What?"
"Makoto! Mariko! She's upset and we can't calm her down!" Kiyoshi cried from the other side of the phone.
"What do you mean she's upset? What'd you do?"
"We were playing basketball and the ball sort of hit my knee."
Hanamiya pinched the bridge of his nose with an annoyed groan.
"I'm alright! Really!"
"Yeah, I don't care. What's Mariko doing now?"
"She's hiding under her bed and won't come out. Koharu can't even console her to come out. What do we do!?"
"Just have Koharu slide her some snacks and juice boxes," Hanamiya nonchalantly answered, already pulling out his next file. The thumbed through the file. "She'll have to use the bathroom eventually. I'll handle it when I get home."
"You're coming home early!?"
"Why would I need to do that?" Hanamiya rhetorically asked. "Teppei, you are just as much as her father as I am. Handle it yourself. See you at home."
"But Mako—"
Before Kiyoshi could even finish whatever had wanted to add, Hanamiya already dropped the call. He took another sip of coffee. Well, he didn't mind admitting that being at home is definitely a lot more interesting than criminal law. At least he'd be done in a few hours.
Once those hours past, Makoto peacefully made it home. Upon entering his home, not so peaceful.
"Makoto!" Kiyoshi yelled once Hanamiya closed the door behind him.
"Is she out from under the bed?" Hanamiya asked.
"Yeah, you were right about her needing to go to the bathroom," Kiyoshi answered. "But," he drawled with a higher voice, "she's hiding in the curtains now."
Hanamiya and Kiyoshi both went to the living room to see a little bulge in the curtains. Mariko was wrapped up in the fabric, Koharu beside her and keeping her company.
"What is she doing?" Hanamiya asked, talking about their eldest.
"She's telling Mariko the Annabelle story again," Kiyoshi responded. "It seemed to calm her down, but not 100 percent."
Hanamiya nodded his head. He then turned to his spouse's knee, seeing a thawed out icepack awkwardly wrapped in place. Kiyoshi also wasn't putting pressure on it.
"The, uh, ball hit my knee," Kiyoshi sheepishly retold.
Hanamiya nodded once more. "Uh huh…"
"I'm fine though."
"I don't doubt that."
Hanamiya finally made his way to his daughters. Koharu scooted over when he sat down by them on the floor. "Mariko," he called.
The bulge in the curtain twitched before Mariko unfolded herself. "Papa…" she sniffled.
"What'd you do?" Hanamiya asked flat out.
Mariko began tearing up again, crying, "I broke Daddy!"
"Yeah, don't give yourself that much credit," Hanamiya said, wiping Mariko's tears with a tissue from the box Koharu passed to them.
"B-b-but—!"
Hanamiya twisted his body to show Mariko his triceps. "Punch me."
Both Mariko and Koharu stared at Hanamiya. "Eh?"
"Punch me," Hanamiya repeated. "As hard as you can. I can prove you didn't break Daddy."
Mariko and Koharu shared looks for a moment, the latter soon smiling and nodding her head. They turned back to Hanamiya, Mariko winding her fist. With everything she had, she punched her papa's arm. Nothing.
"See. You're not that strong, Mariko," Hanamiya said, pulling his arm back.
"But Daddy?"
"His knee was bad before you," Hanamiya answered. "Trust me."
Mariko stared back at her papa before turning to her dad. Kiyoshi was sitting on the arm rest of the couch. Mustering up some courage, Mariko stood and headed over to Kiyoshi. "I'm sorry, Daddy."
Kiyoshi's heart broke when seeing his daughter still blaming herself. Even so, he put up a smile and ruffled her dark hair. "It's okay, honey. It was an accident. And I really am okay."
Mariko looked up at Kiyoshi before turning to his knee. Without warning, she poked it, Kiyoshi flinching.
"O-okay, maybe not super okay," he added with a sheepish smile, Mariko giggling.
"Go get the first aid kit for Daddy," Hanamiya said, joining Mariko and Kiyoshi with Koharu.
"Yes, Papa!" Mariko responded, back to her cheery self as she ran to get the kit in the bathroom.
Hanamiya turned from watching his youngest daughter to his eldest daughter. His eyes went blank at the makeup still smudged. Koharu was too busy helping Mariko that she completely ignored her makeup. "You go help her and wash your face while you in there."
"Maybe I like it like this, Makoto," Koharu replied, still following her sister.
"Don't call me 'Makoto,'" Hanamiya called after her as he made Kiyoshi sit properly on the couch.
Mariko had just returned with the first aid kit as Hanamiya was removing Kiyoshi's icepack. The 5-year-old ran off to her sister once again after dropping the kit off.
"Did she throw the ball directly at you?" Hanamiya asked as he properly wrapped up Kiyoshi's knee.
Kiyoshi winced a bit. "Not exactly. The ball bounced back down from the hoop."
Hanamiya still couldn't picture something so idiotic, but didn't press forward to spare a headache. "Better?" he asked once finishing up and massaging Kiyoshi's knee.
"Yeah," Kiyoshi answered, smiling his usual smile. "You did a great job calming Mariko down. Koharu and I couldn't a thing!"
"That's just with this one case," Hanamiya responded, not meeting Kiyoshi's eyes. "Everything else with the kids, you're pretty decent."
Kiyoshi's smile grew at Hanamiya's version of a compliment. He leaned over and graced his spouse's temple with a kiss, getting shoved away soon after. Kiyoshi gave another laugh as Hanamiya fumed. Oh home life…
at 5 years old, mariko doesn't know about the knee incident hehehe~ koharu... idk you'd have to ask my friend about that bc yeah his oc! hc Hanamiya is a criminal justice lawyer. he understands criminal minds~