It had already been a year since Ren had been born.

He was a rather quiet baby, only crying when he was uncomfortable, which was rarely the case. Although he was very shy during his first months.

For example when he first met his aunts and uncles, he immediately started crying and hid his face in his father's chest.

It took his parents almost half an hour to sedate him with plenty of soft kisses and tickling.

And when he eventually stopped crying, he would occasionally glance at them only to hide his face in the chest of whichever parent was holding him at the moment for the next hour.

Chie finally managed to break the ice when she decided to pull faces on Ren the moment he took another glance at them.

Ren laughed cheerfully at the faces she made, much to the relief of everyone, and started feeling more comfortable around them.

Ren's first birthday came along on May 22nd.

When Kanji woke up, the first thing he saw was his son, gripping the bars of his crib.

Kanji observed his son, confused about what exactly his son was planning.

He slowly walked up to the crib and crouched down to Ren's level.

"Hey there, little guy. Whatcha doin'?" Kanji softly spoke to his son.

Ren made a noise before gripping the bars again.

"You wanna get out? Come on, let's get ya some breakfast." Kanji picked Ren up.

To his surprise Ren made a dissatisfied noise and pouted at his father.

"Huh? What's wrong, kiddo? You can talk to me." Kanji gave his son a puzzled look.

Ren flailed with his legs a bit, which Kanji understood as a sign to put him down.

What Kanji didn't expect was that Ren suddenly started gripping onto his leg.

"H-huh? Ren, are you alright? You need something, buddy?" Kanji decided not to move his leg and look at what Ren is doing.

Naoto soon woke up from the dialogue between her husband and son. She opened her eyes and saw Kanji standing next to the crib, looking down with wide eyes.

She redirected her vision towards where her husband was looking and saw Ren trying to pull himself up from Kanji's leg.

When Ren managed to stand on his own, he looked proud of himself letting out a cheerful noise before becoming completely quiet. While it was great that he managed to get up on his own, he didn't exactly know how to get down by himself.

Naoto immediately got up from her bed and held a hand against Ren's back when she saw his legs wobbling.

Kanji recovered from his initial shock of seeing his kid get up and let out a short chuckle.

"Geez, warn yer old man before ya pull a stunt like this. Almost had a heart attack." Kanji crouched down and ruffled his now one-year-old son's hair.

"I suppose we should have seen this coming, he already is a year old now. Speaking of which, happy birthday, Sweetheart!" Naoto planted a soft kiss on her son's forehead.

"Time sure flies, doesn't it? C'mon we should get him some breakfast." Kanji got up before his stomach started growling.

"And I guess I should get some too." the man sheepishly scratched the back of his head while Naoto and Ren giggled.

The rest of the former Investigation Team arrived in the afternoon after Ren had a nap.

Teddie immediately asked if he could hold Ren, only to get a no and a glare from the boy's parents.

Yosuke tried to make Ren laugh with dumb fart noises, which didn't work as the baby just shot him a confused look.

Yukiko put her joke glasses on Ren and bursted out laughing until Ren got curious about his new accessory and tried to put it in his mouth, which his grandmother thankfully prevented.

Chie imitated some kung fu moves from a safe distance, exactly 2 and a half metres without shoes on, as told by Naoto, making absolutely sure her baby boy wouldn't get hurt. The baby clapped gleefully at his aunt's performance, even kicking his feet up and down as a means to imitate her.

Rise cuddled her nephew as much as possible when his parents weren't holding him, teasing him with a few tickles here and there and affectionately poking his cheeks.

When she did, Yu would look at Ren with a soft smile, making an effort to communicate with him and playing peek-a-boo with him to make him laugh.

To say his joy would make their hearts melt would be an understatement.

Once Rise was done cuddling him for the upteenth time, Ren crawled towards his father and grabbed him by the leg.

"Oh, you tryin' ta get back up, buddy?" Kanji kneeled down to make sure his son didn't fall over.

"Awww, RenRen is already trying to walk." Rise got a confused look from Naoto.

"RenRen?"

"Pretty cute nickname, right? Only fitting for someone as cute as him." Rise said enthusiastically.

"Y-yeah, right." Naoto decided not to think too much about it and looked back at her son.

Ren cheerfully laughed as he was capable of standing on his own without losing any balance. He slowly lifted one foot and managed to make a step forward. He managed to step a few steps further towards his mother before falling over.

Kanji immediately ran towards his son, to ease his pain from falling over and help him back up. Surprisingly Ren wasn't crying instead he pouted and gripped onto his father's leg for support.

"Man, the kid sure is a fighter." Chie commented.

"Gooooo Ren!" Teddie cheered as Ren got up once again.

"Come on, we believe in you!" Yukiko added to Teddie's cheering.

"Looking good there, kiddo. You're almost there." Yosuke remarked when Ren started walking again.

"You can do it, just keep believing in yourself!" Yu told his nephew in a motivating tone.

Ren steps started getting more and more consistent. The more he walked the faster he got. Once he arrived at his destination, he hugged his mother's legs.

"He sure is a fast learner, ain't he Naoto?" Kanji smiled at his wife, who was more than just proud about her son's achievement.

"Yes, he indeed is." Naoto smiled at her baby, who was still hugging her legs.

Ren looked up to Naoto and smiled back before opening his mouth.

"Ma..ma"

The room was silent for a moment before being filled with 'Awwww's.

Naoto could feel tears forming in her eyes but couldn't care less about that. She carefully removed Ren's arms and crouched down to envelope him in a deep hug.

"So Kanji, when do you think he'll call you 'Papa'?" Teddie asked Kanji.

"Eh, dunno. Just give him some time." Kanji shrugged.

"You could always just teach him." Yukiko offered, to which Kanji shook his head.

"Nah, no need ta force him. I mean, considerin' how quickly he learns on his own..." he looked lovingly at his wife and son.

"I'm sure he'll be willin' to take the first step."

Author's Notes:

Writing babies is hard, writing this in general was hard.
But overall I think it worked out pretty well.
Fun fact: I actually read an article to see at which age babies start walking on average and apparently it was 12 months/ 1 year.
I could be wring since it was only one article but I just stuck with it to write it.

Like always, I hope you guys had as much fun reading this as I had writing it and I will see you guys next time ;)