AN: Cheers for 709 hits!
shinigamikiller16 got me thinking I have a responsibility to speak up, so before we jump in to the final chapter of this story, I want to use this small platform to bring attention to the fight for reproductive justice in Poland. I'm not knowledgeable enough on the situation to offer much, but I can recommend looking in to mutual aid network Widoczna Ręka (Visible Hand) and the crimethinc article titled "Doing What State and Market Cannot: The Visible Hand How a Mutual Aid Network Serves Tens of Thousands in Poland" is a good place to start.
Bonsai.
[Summer 2083]
When Anna thought back on her life, she felt she could confidently say, that so far it was by and large a good one. She may have had a rough start, but from there she found a home among Scepter 4 and before that Homra, and she had gained loving parents Reisi and Mikoto, who she loved in return. That had been the chance she needed, they had offered her the means and support to not only survive her childhood, but go on to lead a personally fulfilling adult life.
Now she was in her eighties and burying Reisi's sword carefully, in the shade of a tree that once was a bonsai, on Scepter 4 law firm grounds.
Reisi had passed away in his sleep the previous day, surrounded by the people who loved him. Anna herself, Saruhiko, Seri, Umi and Kai to name just a few.
Because her father had a death plan, she had known what he wanted and could carry out his final waking wishes, this had been immensely comforting to her.
A home funeral and direct cremation, his ashes should be strewn in the water by the bridge that led to and from the school island. As to his sword, she had already immersed the blade among the sakura tree roots.
Also a comfort was the knowledge that, leading up to his passing into the dream, Reisi had lived a truly great life, and now he was with Mikoto and Hibana. But even so, she felt her eyes burn and grow damp behind her rose tinted glasses.
Letting her glasses down, she dabbed at her tears with the heel of her palm.
"Anna, here use this." Came the voice of her platonic life partner, Sukuna Mishakuji, himself an adoptee of Duohan and Yukari. He offered her a handkerchief, and placed a straw hat atop her head, to keep the summer sun from burning her sensitive skin.
Taking the handkerchief gratefully, she dried her eyes.
"Reisi, thank you for everything." Her words may have been simple, but they covered more than she could possibly articular in any number of words. Her father had been her confidant after Mikoto's passing. Supporting her in all her decisions, from getting a tattoo as a young adult, to choosing not to marry or have children, and instead focus on fostering cats and running homra cafe and bar. He cared for her through her teens into adulthood, and was someone she could always trust and depend on. Playing an essential part in making her life what it was, a happy one. "I'll miss you until it's my turn." She finished.
She welcomed Sukuna's pitting an arm about her, and walked with him to the fourcort. There a car was waiting to take them to the shore by the bridge, where their friends and family were waiting for them.
_
When Munakata awoke at bar homra at around mid day, the place he had been staying since his health declined at the beginning of winter. He became aware that rather than his nemaki, he was wearing a suit and his glasses were perched on his nose. That was right, he recalled laying down for just a moment, and had evidently slept through the morning without intending to.
But that wasn't all there was to it, something was different. For one thing, it had been a long time since Munakata's joints were free of pain.
What's more, the room was different. In place of the king-single bed and extra sofa, a super king sprawled out beneath him. The plaster had been removed from the external walls, to expose the red brick, and the paint stripped from the door and window frames, before the wood was revarnished. There was a 1920's floral rug he had never seen before, and replacing the dresser draws was an inlaid armoire. The only things he did recognize, was the cream paint on the interior walls, the floor lamp, wing-back chair, and the ashtray on the other bed stand.
Rocking up out of bed, Munakata paused when his hair, it's previous blue-black color, swung before his eyes. That confirmed his hypothesis. Examining his hands, he found the skin smooth and soft, no longer thin and papery like it had become in his old age.
Mikoto told him once years past, in a waking-dream. About how people who crossed over to the dream proper, appeared as the age most significant in their waking life. So he had died, and this was the dream.
That meant. "Mikoto." The name came to his lips without his realizing it.
Heart beating a staccato, he stood and crossing to the steps took them three at a time, down to the bar.
Stepping from the door frame to the space behind the bar, he came to a slightly staggering stop, when he found someone there already.
Clearly not expecting someone to arrive from upstairs, Mister Awashima spun on the spot and clapped a hand to his chest. "If I hadn't already died, that might have done it." He welcomed, a slightly rattled expression on his face. "You finally made an appearance huh, it's been what, thirty years since I saw you last?"
"Mikoto and Hibana, are they here?" Munakata cut to his main concern without thought to preamble.
Mister Awashima's expression took on an understanding quality. Setting down the glass he had been cleaning, he waved for Munakata to follow him.
Outside it was a brilliant summer evening, the bright sun glaring off every surface, a strikingly blue sky overhead. A day much like another summer day more than seventy years past.
"How's Seri keeping?" Mister Awashima asked as they walked.
Despite his impatience to be with his own family, Munakata relayed. "Good, you'll be glad to hear. She told me to tell you that she's 'looking forward to sharing a cocktail with you, 'five scoops of anko please'."
Mister awashima's smile was wide and somewhat wistful. Then, coming to a stop at last, he gestured towards the park just off the street.
Munakata recognized the place, this was where he and Mikoto had spoken for the first time in another life.
"Mikoto take's Hibana with him on his strolls, they usually end up here." Mister Awashima mentioned. "I'll head back to my place tonight I think, give you and them some time to catch up."
Hardly hearing or acknowledging the other man's words. Munakata navigated the U-bars, and stepped into the park with its fountain, playground, and established trees.
And there was Mikoto, stretched out on the bench in the dappled shade, an arm draped over his eyes and a cigarette burning to a stub between his fingers. He looked just as Munakata recalled, like it hadn't been decades since the last time Munakata had set eyes on his husband.
Breath held, Munakata approached, coming to stand at the foot of the bench.
Gazing out on the playground, Munakata observed the children at play for a moment. One of the number had auburn hair, brown skin and, he suspected, blue eyes. "Hot, isn't it?" He managed past the lump in his throat.
Starting up out of his recline, Mikoto's eyes wide with surprise were unfalteringly locked on Munakata, the stub of his cigarette falling away unnoticed. "You're late." The words left his lips raw and scratchy around the edges.
Emotion now truly catching and keeping anything he might have said, Munakata took a moment to dig his packet of blue sparks from his inner pocket, offering one to Mikoto, while he wrestled back mastery of his voice once more. "Sorry for keeping you waiting, how rude of me."
Bypassing the offered cigarette, Mikoto stood and looped his arms tightly about Munakata's shoulders, his face pressing against Munakata's shoulder, damp tears seeping through the fabric of his clothes. "You had your reasons." Mikoto intoned on a shaky breath, then clearing his throat. "Fuck."
Despite that his vision blurred with hot tears of his own, there was nothing Munakata could do about the smile that entirely took over his face. Throwing his arms around Mikoto, and pressing his nose and lips to the smoke and sakura scented hair just behind Mikoto's pierced ear. He returned. "Anna says 'hello' by the way."
He felt Mikoto laugh in his arms. "Our daughter, always remembering her manners."
"Mikoto!?"
Both of them returned suddenly to their surroundings, they broke apart while keeping an arm about each other, in order to receive the someone who had called out to Mikoto. A child of about four or five years in appearance, with auburn hair, brown skin, and unusual blue eyes.
Windmilling to a stop in front of their parents, Hibana's eyes darted between their faces, a small hopeful smile beginning to form on their own. "You're really him, aren't you, my pa." They addressed Munakata, voice brimming with wonder.
A long time ago, Mikoto had explained for Munakata, that their second child was a 'voice' or rather among those who were understood to be the will of the stone incarnate. One born of Kings into the dream. As such, Hibana would mature exceedingly slowly, so Munakata was not surprised by their apparent age in human years.
Sharing a look with and receiving a nod from Mikoto, Munakata knelt to lessen the distance between his youngest and himself. "I am, and it's good to finally be meeting you." So saying he held out his arms in an offer.
Hibana opened their mouth, closed it again, and at last launched forward to hug him. Pressing their little face to his shirt, they stayed that way a long moment crying openly in stuttering little gasps. Nevertheless, when they looked up toward Munakata again, they were beaming.
Hibana did not known him, not wholly, yet his child welcomed him without hesitation. Ducking his head, Munakata cuddled them right back, even bringing them with him and spinning them about in the air when he stood.
"Mikoto and uncle Tatara and uncle Izumo and uncle Taishi and grandma and grandpa Munakata told me all about you! Coz I don't remember anything from when I was a baby and could use my power to see the waking." Hibana explained comprehensively as children often do. "I've always wanted to meet you too."
Dabbing at his child's eyes and nose with his pocket square, Munakata agreed entirely saying. "After I learned about you, there was never a day I didn't think about you and Mikoto." Over Hibana's head, he met Mikoto's eyes, before casting around and noting that they were drawing looks from the other parents.
_
"I could use a bite to eat about now." Mikoto put in, more as an excuse to be with his family in a less public setting.
On their own feet again, Hibana grasped Mikoto's arm, and Munakata's hand. Walking between their parents on the way back to bar homra.
"We see your folks every now and then, they asked to be contacted when you arrived. And my grandfather and mum want to meet you too." Mikoto recalled for Munakata.
"If that's the case, then maybe I should put on something a bit less funeral vogue." Munakata joked.
Taking a look at Munakata's three piece satin suit in a sharp saturated blue, Mikoto only grinned crookedly.
Making it back to bar homra, Mikoto set about finding them a bottle of bourbon to split, disregarding the early hour. Munakata meanwhile was busy helping Hibana heat the curry on the stove, while Hibana chatted away. Watching his husband and kid cooperating so naturally, Mikoto allowed himself a fond smile, his heart abounding with love for the both of them.
"-oh uncle Izumo also told us about how big sister Anna made friends at school, coz cousin Umi helped her and Kai also, and that Anna and auntie Honami met again. And about how you and the Blues made Scepter 4 a law place, that helps people. And AND grandma Munakata told us about when you and Anna went in an aeroplane to Australia and visited grandmother Suoh's family over there!" Hibana went on enthusiastically.
Dropping back on the sofa, and scoping Hibana against his side when the kid joined him, they made room for Munakata. Mikoto next lifted his glass. "To Anna's health, since I don't reckon we can toast to yours Munakata."
Seating himself on Hibana's other side, Munakata lifted his own glass, and drank to the proposed toast.
"How'd it happen?" Hibana wanted to know next.
Mikoto considered things from Hibana's perspective. Death was a force that brought people together in the dream, as a result, Hibana had never known otherwise, never learned to fear, begrudge or resent death.
"Old age isn't bad by any means, but as things stand, it does put one at a higher risk for cardiovascular disease. I don't know for sure, but my best guess is that's what did it." Munakata answered his brat's honest curiosity without offense.
"Is that when your heart breaks?" Hibana wondered.
"More or less." Munakata chuckled. Changing the subject, he asked a question of his own. "So, I'm dying to know, how have things been on your end?"
Mikoto's brows lifted at the pun. With a look he deferred to Hibana.
"For a long time it was just Mikoto, uncle Tatara, Mizuomi, great grandfather and me. At the end of summer, we usually go to great grandfather's orchard, and help bring in all the fruit! Then grandpa and grandma Munakata came to live in the dream, and later uncle Taishi, now we visit them all the time for new years and things." Hibana recounted for their father. "Then uncle Izumo arrived too. And even though we couldn't be in the waking with you, and don't have any photos of you, I always knew who you were. When I ask, Mikoto or grandma and grandpa tell me about what you're like or about when you were a kid like me. And I used to use their bonds with you and my power, to see their memories and see you. But now you're here, and I don't need to borrow their bonds any more, coz you're really here!"
"And now I have the chance to get to know you too. For starters, can I ask, what gender and pronouns you've chosen, if either are applicable?"
Hibana grinned, clearly pleased with the show of interest. "I'm no gender most of the time, but sometimes I like to be a boy, and sometimes I like to be a girl. I use 'they' or no pronouns."
"I'll remember that." Munakata promised.
"Did you know, I wear reading glasses. Mikoto says you'd probably take me to get some new ones when you came to live with us in the dream. Since my old ones will be out of date soon." They prompted eagerly.
_
"Your birthday's coming up, let's make sure we get new glasses for you before then." Munakata decided.
The three of them talked like that over good food, until Hibana needed to head to bed at seven. Munakata, lifting his half asleep child, carried them up the stairs to their room.
Setting them on their bed with their toothbrush and a cup of water. Munakata switched off the main light, and switched on their outer space themed night light.
Coming back over to Hibana, he crouched to take the cup and toothbrush, and tuck them in under their duvet. "Goodnight you."
"Even though we never met till now, I missed you." Hibana peeked out from under the blanket. "Did you miss me too?"
"Very much, you and Mikoto both." Munakata told them truthfully, while stroking their wavy hair.
Eyelids drifted closed as they fell fast asleep, a soft smile remained on Hibana's face.
Closing Hibana's door soundlessly, Munakata took their toothbrush and cup to the bathroom to wash it.
There, Mikoto was already soaking in the bath, looking utterly tantalizing, and just lighting up one of Munakata's Blue Sparks cigarettes. "Room for one more if you're interested." His words mingled with the smoke from his lungs.
Shrugging out of his tailored suit, Munakata folded the items of clothing neatly, then rinsed off under the shower. Mikoto glancing his way, a particular expression behind hooded eyes, part baiting, all want.
Joining Mikoto in the bath at last, Munakata allowed Mikoto to occupy his lap, thoroughly appreciating the intimacy of the moment.
Taking the offered packet of Blue Sparks, Munakata lit up using the table lighter on the vanity.
"I never thought I'd live to see the day you would suggest partnered bathing." Munakata couldn't help but tease. "Though, technically I didn't 'live' to see it I suppose."
Mikoto grunted a laugh. "I take back what I said that time, you were right about it's virtues."
Munakatas's heart hasn't stopped pounding since laying eyes on the man he loved hours ago, but now it gave an extra leap. Holding Mikoto against him with a hand on the slope of his toned back, he very tenderly touched his own pale lips to brown ones, The taste of bourbon and their toxic breath shared between them.
Mikoto furthered the kiss, angling his head to do so. His free hand, moving against Munakata's chest, came to rest by the side of his neck. And his thighs hugged Munakata's slender middle. Then he leaned back slowly, pulling Munakata atop him. A deeply pleased rumble vibrating in his throat.
Breaking the kiss at last to rest his head against Munakata's shoulder, Mikoto took another draw on his cigarette.
Munakata, an arm propped up on the baths end, on which he leaned his temple. Pressed a kiss into vividly red hair.
They finished their smokes that way, soaking in a companionable quiet. Stubbing out the ends in the ashtray by the lighter, only when they were burning filter.
Climbing out and draining the water, Munakata toweled off. Mikoto did the same. And after Munakata was dressed in his nemaki, Mikoto in lounge pants and singlet. They retired to their bedroom.
Bar homra had several upstairs spaces, but only two were furnished as bedrooms. The larger one that had served as both Anna and Hibana's room, and the smaller though still generous quarters, that had been a store room before becoming Mikoto's bedroom.
Here Munakata hung his suit up in the armoire. That done, he turned to discover Mikoto had collapsed into the right side of the superking bed already, his clothes discarded on the radiator.
Making his own way around to the bed's left, Munakata set his glasses on the side table, and slid in between fresh sheets behind his husband.
For his part, Mikoto opened one hazel eye to cast an invite over his shoulder. Taking Munakata's hand he guided it around in front of himself, and held his wrist so he could run his teeth lightly over Munakata's fingers, paying special attention to the Ring on his ring-finger. Then at last he spoke, warm breath meeting Munakata's palm. "So, I'm not just dreaming. You're here with us after all this time."
"I just came here to see an old friend, who also happens to be my husband." Having said this, he pressed a kiss to Mikoto's shoulder.
That's right, Munakata savored the thought, Mikoto Anna and Hibana were his own family. He hadn't managed to recreate the small worlds, he saw on the other side of the divide between himself and most people. Conversely three of them had been Kings, Anna was a strain before that, and Hibana they were an entire universe personified. Still, these were the bonds he always wished for.
"That right?" Mikoto turned in his embrace to face him.
"I have missed you causing me trouble at every opportunity."
"I guess I missed your awful face and boring lectures just a bit. But don't push your luck."
"I'll save the 'hem and haw' for tomorrow."
Mikoto snorted, amused. "You won't have time for it, not with our youngest biting at your ankles. But now I'll be able to get some proper sleep, so I'm not complaining."
Munakata was, he found, unusually drowsy. A mixture of good company and heartfelt peace, combining to set his mind and body at true ease. Lifting his hand from Mikoto's middle, Munakata rested it over his husband's heart, feeling it's often entropic motions.
Mikoto searched Munakata's eye's for an extended moment. Then kissed him leisurely, teeth scraping Munakata's lips. His palm against the orderly beating of Munakata's own heart.
Finally Mikoto relaxed into a restful sleep. And Munakata wasn't far behind him.
[Finish]
Post Story concepts: Seri crosses over in to the dream, and Izumo retires to support her career, as a stay at home husband. Anna arrives in the dream as an adult and takes over running bar homra. Mikoto, Munakata and Hibana move in to the Scepter 4 building. Mikoto and Munakata start trying for a third kid. And by time Hibana becomes a teenager, their stone is the one around which the next universe forms. Everyone lives happily ever after. X^P
