.
.
After Chiyuki gives birth, their daughter is swaddled in a hospital blanket and handed to her; Chiyuki sees blue eyes and pink skin, and her small hands are curled up into tiny fists.
Decim is smiling. There are tears in his eyes, which he wipes away, quietly.
"Humans cry when they're sad, isn't that right?" Decim says. He holds the baby, smiling and crying. "But Chiyuki-san, I'm not sad."
Chiyuki smiles and holds his hand. "No, you're not."
xXx
.
The baby looks just like him. When she opens her eyes, Chiyuki is surprised to see the pale blue irises staring back at her. The baby watches quietly, dark pupils wide and dilated, drinking in everything.
Decim, as it turns out, is well-suited for the challenges of parenthood.
"He never gets frazzled, does he?" her mother says wonderingly, as Decim methodically and carefully changes a diaper, wipes up spit up, holds the baby while she's crying, tirelessly walks the baby back and forth in the apartment, holds Chiyuki while she breaks down crying, tends to Chiyuki because she's been up all night nursing and she looks like a soul on the brink of the void. He holds the baby, feeds the baby, changes a diaper again.
"I wish you didn't have to go back to work," Chiyuki says. He squeezes her hand reassuringly.
"You will be fine. I will be back, shortly."
"Okay," Chiyuki says. She's exhausted and on the brink but she bounces the baby in her arms, lovingly.
xXx
.
The baby learns how to crawl, and it's pretty soon it's tearing a path around their apartment, pulling apart bookshelves and cruising on end tables. Chiyuki is tired and just lets the baby play with the books on the bottom shelf, waiting until she tires herself out before putting the books back up again.
There is the sound of tearing paper, and Chiyuki's head jerks up. The baby has somehow gotten into Decim's notebooks. She looks at Chiyuki and smiles, proudly, waving around a torn sheet of paper.
"What did you tear? Oh honey, no..."
It's the notebook Decim had written his memories of Quindecim in. Probably the most important of those notebooks, he had left it carelessly on the bottom shelf, even though he packed up the other notebooks of Chiyuki's memories and put them away. "I don't have any of your memories anymore," Decim explained to her, even though Chiyuki insisted he should pack up that notebook too. "I still have our memories in Quindecim. I see no reason to be as careful."
Well this is a reason why, Chiyuki thinks, and sighs inwardly as the baby chews on paper.
xXx
.
The baby squeals as Decim pulls her to a stand, and Chiyuki watches them as Decim walks her around the park. It is a ridiculous sight: Decim is practically bent in half as he holds the baby's hands, solemn and stoic as he walks her forward.
"You are doing very well," Decim says, and Chiyuki laughs.
"DA DA DA DA."
"Yes, you are doing quite well."
xXx
.
He carries the baby while Chiyuki pushes the empty stroller, and again Chiyuki is struck by their likeness. The baby paws at Decim's face, then giggles, pushing her little hand up to pat at his smile.
"What happened to your wrist?" someone asks as Chiyuki is holding the baby, and for the first time she realizes she hasn't bothered to cover it.
She thinks of her knee and all the things that had come after, when she tells her, "I fell and I hurt myself." But the stranger is too busy admiring her baby's eyes.
xXx
.
Chiyuki watches as the baby sleeps. She breathes deeply, her small body rising and falling with each tidal breath. Her eyelashes are long and the rosebud of her lips are parted. She is the most beautiful thing Chiyuki has ever seen.
In the bedroom, Chiyuki doesn't sleep. Ignoring the ticking of the clock, she concentrates on Decim's breathing. Quietly she watches the rise and fall of Decim's chest, and feels the constant beating of his heart beneath her palm.