Disclaimer: I do not own Buso Renkin.
Family
She was awake a full hour before she needed to be, the first rays of sunlight were drifting in through the gap in the curtains and she could hear the birds singing away outside their window.
Muto Tokiko was not aware of what had awoken her but she new that she would not be able to go back to sleep, nevertheless she remained lying there listening to the birds and the gentle snoring of her husband who lay next to her. She gazed on Kazuki's sleeping form for a moment and saw that he was drooling slightly from the side of his mouth, she smiled in his sleep he looked innocent like there was not a devious bone in his body although the "game" the two of them had played the night before had proven any such ideas false, in fact right now under the covers she was only wearing one of his t-shirts which was a couple of sizes too big for her. She contemplated waking him for another round but decided against it, there was no need to wake him just yet, besides she did not want to be the one doing the "chasing". She rolled on to her back and stared at the ceiling and as she did her mind began to drift.
It came to rest upon the day of her twenty-first birthday, a little over seven years ago, she remembered it vividly because it was also the day that Kazuki had proposed, he had picked someplace private to do it as well knowing that she did not do well with public displays of affection. At the time however she had wondered how the hell he had convinced her to break into Ginsei private academy after dark, and then she had wanted to know why, it was only when he got down on bended knee and produced the box that she caught on. She had been shocked although she knew she should not have been. Kazuki had a strong romantic streak so that he would propose in the spot where they had first…admitted their affection for each other should have come as no surprise.
At first she had not even been able to able to speak, she had never thought… never even imagined this moment, she knew there were a lot of girls out there who dreamed of this moment but she was not one of them. She had suddenly become scared, he was asking something very big of her, he was asking if she would spend the rest of her life with him, a life in which, until fairly recently, she had never thought far beyond the next battle. Images began to flash before minds eye, visions of them living together, of children, of growing old, of other things she had never considered before.
Suddenly she was dragged back to the present, Kazuki was now standing before her, both his hands on her shoulders whispering her name and looking worried. Abruptly she realised that she was breathing heavier and faster than normal and forced herself to calm down, as she did she began to feel the strength leave her legs and she all but leapt into him and wrapped her arms around him tightly, hugging herself to him and felt his arms wrap around her in turn.
As the two of them stood there embracing each other her mind began to work again and as it did she realised that none of the images she had seen had been bad in fact some of them had been nice and she had meant what she had said almost three years ago, they were one. With this in mind and her thoughts now clear she had uttered a single word:
"Yes."
She knew immediately that he had heard her because she felt his body stiffen and he drew back, now at arms length she saw a smile on his face that made her think he was going to start whooping and cheering and bring every guard in the place down on them. Instead he began to lean in towards her but at that moment they were interrupted by a cry from behind them. They had both turned to find one of the school's security guards standing at the entrance to the roof. Grinning (well he was grinning like a fool, she was simply smiling) the two of them had leapt from the top of the water tower and began to make their escape.
Tokiko returned from her reverie to find that at some point during her reminiscence she had subconsciously begun smiling. She supposed it was quite funny, she could face off against a dozen man-eating monsters without breaking a sweat but one question from Kazuki was enough to make her lose her head. Then again it had only been a few years since she had started getting in touch with her more "sensitive" side. Marriage was part of a future she had never even imagine herself being a part of.
She remembered their wedding day, Kazuki had picked Bravo as his best man and Daihama and Rokumasu as his groomsmen, Okakura had been displeased but Tokiko could completely understand why Kazuki would not want the overly passionate man helping with any part of the wedding. Initially she had been taken aback by Mahiro's excessive amount of enthusiasm at being made head bridesmaid.
Kazuki had also insisted upon inviting that freak Papillion. Fortunately, although he was still the most flamboyant guest at the chapel, he had toned it down a bit for the day. That had been good for both the homunculus and Tokiko because if he had outshone her she would have had to kill him and she had not felt like spending her honeymoon in a cell. As she continued to reminisce on this day her right hand unconsciously crossed over to the other side of her body and began playing with the gold band on the third finger of her left hand. At the wedding she had half-expected the commander to say Bravo when he had handed to Kazuki for him to place on her finger.
Once more coming out of her trance she glanced over at the alarm clock which was on top of her bedside table right next to the baby monitor, and saw that she still had thirty minutes left before she had to start getting ready. Deciding that she might as well get it over with now she threw back the covers and felt the crisp November air nip at her exposed arms and legs. As she swung legs over the edge and rose to her feet she mentally laughed, there had been a time when she would have considered lying in for even half an hour to be a complete waste of time. With that thought in her mind she began to move in the direction of the bathroom.
After she had finished in the bathroom and gotten dressed Tokiko had ventured into Asuka's room. She spent an entire ten minutes in there simply watching her thirteen-month-old daughter as she slept. The little girl had her dark blue hair and as for her eyes, when they were open you could see that they were two different colours, the left one was the same golden colour as her mothers but the right one was the exact same shade of red as Kazuki's. This had not stopped her father proclaiming her to be "the most beautiful little girl in the world" nor had it stopped Tokiko from silently agreeing with him. Tokiko gently stroked the little girl's head; she had spent most of her life taking life and this child was a new life that she had brought forth. Eventually she managed to drag herself away from her daughter and made sure to collect the baby monitor from their room before heading downstairs.
As she waited for the kettle to boil she had started about how strange it seemed for her to be with her daughter, it all felt so natural but that was what was weird, before Asuka's birth she had never once imagined herself feeling so maternal. The fact of the matter was her daughter meant the world to her and if had not been for Kazuki working from home then she might of even quit her job in order to look after her, rather than hire a nanny despite the amount of financial pressure that might have put them under.
When these thoughts had finished going through her head she head a light ping to her left that told the kettle had finished boiling her water. After she had finished making her drink she sat down at the table in the middle of the room, she would wait for Kazuki before having breakfast, what she cooked was edible and tasted fine but Kazuki seemed to have a flair for it, in his word he was "a master of cooking". What could she say? During her life as a warrior taste had always taken a backseat to nutrition.
As she drank her coffee Tokiko found that her mind began to wander again, this time going back to the point just after they had gotten married. Things had been tight for a while financially, they had had to work hard to make ends meet he was a struggling manga-ka and she had somehow drifted into becoming a trainee teacher, both had had to take extra jobs to supplement their income and they had lived in a tiny one bedroom flat. They had also had their fare share of arguments (and still did) but they never let it affect how they felt about each other and she defied anyone to find a single couple that never even occasionally argued. Then they had fallen pregnant.
Almost immediately upon discovering that she was with child Tokiko had begun to panic although she had done her best not to show it, they were having enough trouble holding things together as it was how were they supposed to care for a child? Then there were her fears that she would not be a good mother, such a large part of her life had been dedicated to battle and she had never once in life envisioned becoming a mother, at least not that she could remember. At one point early on her traitorous mind had thought had brought up the word abortion but she had crushed that thought swiftly and ruthlessly, even as panicked as she was that was one thing she refused to do and she knew Kazuki would not go along with it either and this was his child too. Speaking of Kazuki he had been there every step of the way with that goofy grin on his face and constant reassurances that it would all be okay despite the fact that she knew he did not have a plan, yet still it had calmed her down…a little.
Then a month after finding out that they were going to have a child they had had an incredible piece of luck, one Kazuki's work had been bought by Shonen Jump magazine and was actually doing rather well. She remembered it well, she had been sitting at the table in their run-down kitchen eating and when she had read the plot she had almost choked on her ramen. It was their lives, or at least their lives between the point where she had replaced his heart with a kakugane and the point where they had rescued him from the moon, although names and locations had obviously been changed. She herself had been offered a very good job as a high school chemistry teacher (easy for her as it was just a watered down version of alchemy) and amazingly had not seemed to mind that she would soon need to be taking maternity leave. After that it had not been long before they had been able to buy an actual house in a good area of town and her fears for the future had died down, but never disappeared completely.
Suddenly she heard the sound of movement coming from above her a sure sign that Kazuki was finally awake and at that same moment the unmistakable sound of crying came from the baby monitor on the table in front of her. She sighed as she rose to her feet, although she also had a smile on her face, looked like it was time to start the day properly. She placed the now empty mug in the sink as she exited the kitchen and as walked towards the stairs she thought that although life had not worked out as she had expected when she had joined the alchemic regiment she knew one thing for sure, if anyone ever tried to harm her family… she'd splatter their guts.
Okay, I decided to give Tokiko and Kazuki some problems in their married life because life is not easy no matter who you are. Also this is the first time I have really tried to get into a female character's head, how was it? Did I do Tokiko justice, or did I do irrevocable damage?
As always constructive critiscm is appreciated, please read and review.