Natural Selection

by murinae and aishuu

They went over to her parents' house the next night for dinner. It was a ritual they observed once a month, and Haku never enjoyed the experience.

Akio was convinced Haku was a no-good, evil man who was set upon corrupting his perfect daughter. No matter what Haku did, it would never be good enough for Akio. While Yuuko was friendlier, she had a habit of not listening to anything anyone said. Haku wished they didn't have to go, but Chihiro was loyal to her parents.

It was one of the sore points of their marriage, Haku knew, that they would never manage to reconcile. Chihiro loved her parents fiercely – after almost losing them at the Aburaya, it was understandable – and liked to believe that they would accept Haku in time. Haku found them boorish, the kinds of humans who destroyed the world around them without second thought. He knew that Akio would never accept him, no matter what Chihiro kept hoping.

They arrived a couple minutes late, which got the evening off to a rough start.

"So, you haven't manage to lose that job yet," was the first thing Akio said upon Haku entering the door.

"Now, dear, you know that isn't nice," said Yuuko as she joined them in the entrance way. "I'm sure Haku doesn't mean to lose all those jobs, right? It's not his fault he hasn't been able to hold onto anything. I'm sure he tries hard enough."

"Mo-ther! Fa-ther!" Chihiro chided as she took their coats to hang in the hallway closet. "Haku's actually doing very well in the library. And Mother, what have I said about talking about him as if he wasn't there?"

"Yes, dear, we know," said her mother, even as she floated past Haku without really giving him more than a half nod.

"I hardly say that a few months are consider really holding things down," Akio grunted. His little beady eyes squished tight and his mustache twitched. "Come on boy, speak up! Don't you even know how to give a polite greeting to your elders?"

Haku took a deep breath then let it out again, "Good evening," was all he could manage.

"It would be good," said Yuuko as she settled into the living room couch. "If Haku could really settle down in a job. Then you two could plan on starting a family, you know! Have babies."

"BABIES!" Akio roared. "Not until he shows he's worth something!"

"Mother, Father..." Chihiro groaned.

"Now, dear, I'm sure it will be fine!" Yuuko said as she stood up and walked over to place a placating hand on her husband's arm.

"How will he ever support you and children, Chihiro?" Akio rumbled.

From his forgotten position by the doorway, Haku could only watch soundlessly and dream of quick exits.

"Father, stop that!" Chihiro crossed her arms. "How many times must I say that Haku supports me just fine!"

"Dear, I'm sure your father will forget it all his anger as soon as he first sees the face of his grandbaby!" Chihiro's mother patted Chihiro's hand in what Haku supposed was a confident manner.

"No. I won't! Don't you even think about doing that to my daughter!" howled Akio as he stormed over to shake a finger in Haku's face. "I don't care what face of what grandbaby I see! Don't you even think about doing anything with my daughter."

Haku had a brief thought about the strength of dragon jaws against the fragility of human bones, but he immediately quelled that instinct. Quick on the heels of that thought, though, was the uneasy sensation that the conversation always brought. Yuuko never passed the chance to bring up grandbabies.

But now the thought of bringing a new life into the world, in the wake of that which he found in the library...

"That's enough, dear!" Yuuko chirped. "How about dinner?"

It was going to be a long night indeed.

They settled at the table, each claiming a side of the small square. Haku and Chihiro's house had a much more traditional decor, so he wasn't comfortable seated in the high-backed chair as he ate. It had been one of the compromises they made – Chihiro had agreed to his preferences for the living area (which included a low table for dining in proper Japanese fashion) and the futons for the bedroom, but she had insisted on a modern kitchen and bathroom.

Akio, unfortunately, chose to sit directly across from Haku. Haku resigned himself to an evening being glared at, although Akio would find no fault in his manners. If anything, Haku found his father-in-law unpleasantly uncouth, since he was more concerned with stuffing his face than maintaining decorum.

Yuuko starting to pass out plates, which the food was arranged adequately on, although not with any particular flare. Haku always found her cooking slightly off, probably because Chihiro made many of the same dishes. Yuuko's efforts were pleasing enough, but he could taste the boredom she felt while making the food, while Chihiro's dinners always tasted of the love and hard work she put into everything.

He didn't even want to think about what dinners made by Akio would taste like. He had enough of swallowing poisoned objects when he was in Yubaba's service. Fortunately, Akio considered cooking, much like common courtesy and decency, to be beneath him.

Tonight, the dinners tasted of boredom salted with the slightest hint of anxiety, which was odd. Yuuko was rarely worried about anything. However, knowing the woman as he did, Haku was sure that he and Chihiro would hear about the source of her anxiety soon enough.

He was right.

"I've been thinking," Yuuko said as she laid down a plate of cut oranges. Haku took one gratefully; at least she wasn't trying to make strawberry daifuku again. Just trying to ingest one had somehow glued his mouth shut for a frantic minute or two. "I've been talking to my Ikebana circle, and I know Haku has been settling down in his library job, but dear, I was thinking that would be a temporary thing until he could be moving onto something better."

"'Bout time," Akio grumbled as he eyed the oranges distastefully. "Hon, where are the shu creams?"

"You know what the doctor said, sweetheart," Yuuko tsked at him. "Not so many fatty foods. Anyways, we were talking, and would you know it, Haku? One of the ladies has an opening for a bank teller. Now there's a really respectable job, don't you think? Haku can work his way up, maybe even become a bank manager!"

"Hmph," said Akio. His mustache twitched. "Though I have to say it's better than being an namby pamby librarian. That's not a man's work!"

"Dad!" Chihiro frowned, crossing her arms. Haku just bit into another orange slice, letting the citric acid burn on his tongue.

"Well, like I said, I know you're settled in that library position, but I really think you can go farther in this," Yuuko said as she wrung her hands. "And banking is such a stable job. Great to support families on. The offer's open until the end of next week; you wouldn't ever have to step foot back into that place! Not that we were looking down on Haku, dear," she said to Chihiro as her daughter turned a narrowed eyed stare towards her, "it's just that... being a librarian... well... I didn't think it would last that long!"

Haku frowned. He would have been lying if he didn't admit that the thought of never having to step foot back in that place did hold some appeal. The dark closet waited, after all.

"It's really none of your business, mother," Chihiro said, her face a bit flushed although she managed to keep her voice from going shrill.

"I'm your mother, of course it's my business," Yuuko replied, scowling at her daughter. "There's not much need of librarians nowadays, not with the Internet and all. I think libraries are going to be phased out of existence, so it's better to be prepared."

"Right! Who reads books anymore, anyways?" Akio agreed, snatching up an orange slice as his hunger overcame his distaste.

Haku doubted Akio had ever read a book outside of homework while in school. And maybe not even then. "There's always going to be a place for libraries in this world, Akio-san," Haku said politely. "Our library is a multimedia center, providing access to plenty of materials that may be hard to come by." Haku forced himself to stop talking before he lapsed into one of Kuwabara's rants about the importance of access for information.

"You mean it's a place for lazy layabouts who are using the working people's hard earned tax dollars to fund their free internet handout," Akio grumbled. "That's what's wrong with Japan today; no one works for anything anymore."

Haku had to remind himself yet again why it wasn't wise to argue with Akio; it was rather like arguing with a walrus. The creature was just going to belch, scratch its belly disinterestedly, and then bulldoze the matter over with its blubber filled viewpoint anyway.

As if to prove his point, Akio promptly burped. "That line of work is going obsolete. You have to go where the money is, boy, and you can't get a better place for that than a bank. That's where all the money is, right? Or are you just being disrespectful to my wife and sneering at her kind offer?" Mustache twitching, Akio crossed his arms, just waiting for Haku to make the wrong move.

Haku, already feeling off-balance after finding the remains of the library god the day before, felt his temper snap.

"Money is no concern for us, Akio-san," he said, his words hard-edged and lacking the usual softening of manners. He felt, more than saw, Chihiro stiffen as she realized Haku had been pushed too far by her father's rudeness. "I do the work because I enjoy it, not because I have to. I have enough wealth to support both myself and my wife for the rest of our lives in comfort without requiring either of us to work."

It was true, too. When he'd come to this world, he'd exchanged a small part of his fortune for human currency using a couple of less-than-reputable sources as fences. While his fortune was relatively small for a dragon god, even the fraction he'd brought was quite a lot in human terms.

And he hadn't, after all, been working for wages when he had come to Aburaya. Working for a home and for his honor was a completely different story (and one he found himself constantly repeating, no matter what world he found himself drifting in.)

The thought of the library slowly disappearing away like his river drying out... the thought made his mouth thin, just a bit, so his teeth were showing at the edges. He felt Chihiro's fingers steal into the crook of his elbow, but he didn't need the warning.

Both in Aburaya and in where he was now, Haku had learned that lesson, very bitterly. It came down to pride. And the price of being himself, under his own terms, in his own name. Haku knew he had an answer, even as he closed his own hand gently above Chihiro's.

His words, uncharacteristically aggressive toward Akio, had frozen both of his in-laws in their tracks. For a second, he allowed himself to feel satisfaction at the opened-mouth gaping expressions they wore (since neither of them were his favorite people), but he realized for Chihiro's sake that he would have to settle the matter in a fairer way.

"While I respect your concern for Chihiro's welfare, the career I choose is my choice. Someday the library may be torn down, but something will replace it. That is the way the world works; nothing is stagnant, though we may not have control over what life evolves into," he said. "The one constant will be the affection Chihiro and I share. I know neither of you likes me, but be assured that I will watch out for her, just as she does for me."

"And Daddy, Mom, you're forgetting one thing," Chihiro stepped forward, eyes narrowed and shoulders straight. "I chose to be with Haku. And I've had enough of you telling him what he is or should be. Haku is Haku, and that's fine with me. Stop trying to change him to be what you think is best. All it's doing is making it hard for both of us, because who he is now and who he will be in the future... well, that's who I'm always going to choose. So don't make me choose in another way as well."

If Haku's words had stunned them, it was really Chihiro's words that sealed the blow. For all of their rude and self serving ways, both Akio and Yuuko truly cared for their daughter. And even if they didn't remember their time as pigs, Haku suspected that both parents felt, unconsciously, that they owed something of a debt to both him and Chihiro. And perhaps it was that which made them so prickly towards him in particular.

Haku could understand the weight of debt. And knowing that, as well as their genuine feelings for their daughter, tempered his actions now as it always did.

So he smiled softly, reaching out to take another slice of orange with his fingers. "I would never ask you to choose, Chihiro," he said, hoping her parents would understand he was speaking to them as well. "I wouldn't be worthy of you if I asked you to give up people you love."

They arrived home later than usual from the meal, both tired from the ordeal. Akio and Yuuko had been unusually quiet throughout the rest of evening, and neither of them spoke to Haku directly. It had been a pleasant change for Haku, even though he was worried about his wife.

He didn't have to say "You know I meant what I said about not making you choose" because he knew that Chihiro knew him well enough that if he didn't mean it, he wouldn't have said it. He wondered if that was what love was about, these rounded layers of just knowing wrapped in familiarity.

Though that didn't mean that their relationship didn't have its edges. The way Chihiro had curled one arm around her middle was like a sharp corner to his side. He didn't like the pensive look on her face.

"That wasn't fun, was it?" she said. After the first time she had tried to apologize for her parent's behavior and Haku had only given her a long look before wrapping her firmly in a hug, she never tried again.

"They are still a part of you," he said (though he was wise enough to not add "that's how I know there's still wonder and magic in the world, because I have no earthly idea how else they manage to produce a being as wonderful as you.")

Chihiro still elbowed him gently anyway. "What they said though... and always going on about having babies..."

Haku tilted his head, waiting.

"Idon'twantonerightnow!" she blurted out in a rush, just like she would when she was a child and had too much to say and not enough breath to say it. "But..."

He waited.

"I guess we never talked about... could we even have kids? In the far future, I mean. Far! Like in galaxies far far away future... if we wanted to?"

"Hmmm." Haku thought of the rivers disappearing (and libraries too) and the full measure of Chihiro's question.

"I don't know why what mom said finally got to me now," Chihiro went on, "but it was just something in how she was so sure that we couldn't support a family unless we measured up to some standard of respectable! Ugh!"

He smiled and cupped her chin in his hand, tracing the familiar lines of her face with his eyes. "No couple ever knows for sure if they will be able to bring children into the world together," he said. "So I will not make you any promise I cannot keep. What I will say is that I've known other gods to have children with humans, so that it is not out of the realm of possibility. When you're ready, I'd definitely be willing to try."

"Oh!" she said, dropping her eyes with a trace of shyness, before offering him a smile that melted his heart. Despite her strong spirit, there was gentleness inside of Chihiro, gentleness that would translate well into motherhood. "I've never really thought about the idea of having a child, you know?"

Haku's hand dropped from her face, running it along the smooth plane of her stomach. "Children are a form of immortality. They spring from their parents, and continue on the path of life."

"That almost makes them sound like gods," Chihiro laughed.

Haku just shrugged. "Perhaps. Or perhaps it makes gods sound like little children... but with less of the springing from the parents and more of the being immortal thing. At least in my pantheon. I can't speak for the barbarian western ones, what with their penchant for swans and golden rain showers."

Chihiro chuckled at that. She intertwined her own fingers with his, and together they rocked for a little, back and forth. "A baby," she said, stretching out the words slow and soft, as if trying out them out for the first time. "Our baby. Not now, or anytime soon... but yeah. Someday."

As a god, Haku was used to creating things, like his riverbank, but he felt that this would be a whole new sort of creating. He though back to the idea of magic and wonder, then nodded. "Yeah. Someday."