A few days later, Tohru was at the Hibe grocery store with Hajime in tow. Although it was easy enough to stop in at a larger grocery store in Nigeyashi after work, she always preferred shopping in Hibe instead. In spite of the smaller selection, there were several perks to Hibe: it was a shorter distance to carry everything, it meant she only had to worry about Hajime himself on the bus from Nigeyashi, and, of course, it was an opportunity to catch up on the local news.

"Hello Tohru, and hello there, Hajime," chirped Mrs. Okada, one of the owners. She'd been a huge fan of Tohru and Kyo since their earliest days in Hibe and became a dear friend, even if she was old enough to be their mother, and she never passed up a chance to chat with Tohru.

Especially with Hajime around.

"Hewwo," Hajime said, clinging shyly to Tohru's leg, and Mrs. Okada beamed at him before looking at Tohru.

"I swear, this boy is growing taller and more adorable every time I see him, Tohru! You can definitely tell he lives in a home full of love."

Tohru looked fondly down at her son, who she fully admitted, as an almost exact tiny copy of Kyo, was completely adorable. And he was certainly loved, despite how exasperating he could be.

But she was hardly going to tell Mrs. Okada about him ending up in their bedroom yet again the previous night.

"Thank you, Mrs. Okada! He's definitely growing in leaps and bounds these days," Tohru said, smiling. "I just had to get him new clothes, nothing he had would fit him anymore! And we're very happy to have him," she added, stroking her son's hair.

"I'm sure you are, he's a very sweet boy. I can only imagine what a sweet big brother he'll make, when the time is right," Mrs. Okada added, giving Tohru a smile.

Tohru tried not to look too amused at the question. Before Hajime had come along, she had gotten used to people asking when they were planning to start their family. Even though she and Kyo had only been twenty when they'd gotten married, as soon as the rings appeared on their fingers the questions had started, and neither one of them had really been able to handle them without blushing profusely. Her pregnancy and Hajime's birth had stalled out the comments for a bit...but not for long.

At this point, though, Tohru could handle the questions without blushing. An unintentional positive about making it through a pregnancy and the postpartum period was that Tohru was...a little less embarrassed by certain things than she used to be.

Still, she was glad that Kyo wasn't around.

"Yes, I'm sure he will be, though probably not for a while yet," Tohru said cheerfully, her expression taking on a rueful twist as she admitted, "any baby we brought home currently would probably have to live in a closet!"

Mrs. Okada nodded her head sympathetically. "Still no luck on the house hunting front?"

Tohru sighed and shook hers. "I'm afraid not, no."

"Well, that's too bad. It's really a pity that none of the houses available here in town have met with your approval, I hate to think of you all relocating into Nigeyashi!"

While Tohru and Kyo hadn't exactly broadcasted their house search, it was hard to keep such things under wraps in a town as small as Hibe. Tohru had been quick to point out to concerned friends and neighbors that no matter what house they ended up with, they had no plans of leaving the area or Kyo leaving the dojo. But that had done little to assuage the concerns of townsfolk who hated the idea of anyone actually moving away.

And Tohru herself would miss it, if they did have to leave. Although she, a previously lifelong Tokyo resident, had been nervous at the idea of moving to a small village like Hibe, she'd fallen in love with the community. It was nice, being able to walk to literally everything and knowing everyone by name.

But for now, there was no plan to move, not to Nigeyashi or anywhere. Not until they actually had a house!

Tohru and Hajime resumed their shopping, Mrs. Okada trailing along beside them.

"But speaking of moving, Tohru, have you heard about the Suzukis?"

Tohru glanced up. "Mei and Ryo?"

"No, Ichiro and Haruka."

Tohru knew them in passing; an older couple who lived in a small house less than half a mile south of town. "No, I haven't. Are they moving?"

Mrs. Okada nodded. "They've finally accepted that they can't manage on their own any more, and they're going to be moving in with their daughter's family in Nigeyashi." She sighed, shaking her head. "It's certainly time; poor Mr. Suzuki's balance has gotten so bad that I'm terrified every time I see him out, and Mrs. Suzuki's been declining for months now. But it will be sad to see them go, and it has to be hard for them, leaving after living in that house for so long."

It was a testament to how long Tohru and Kyo had been at their house hunt that the first thing she thought about was the house itself, and she instantly felt ashamed. Mrs. Okada was right; it was a shame they had to leave, and Tohru's heart ached for them having to make that decision. Hopefully they had a good relationship with their daughter and the blending of households went well.

And anyway, their house was far too small. The location was great, but the house itself was pretty much a non-starter.

"I'm sure it will be," Tohru said with a nod. "I remember when my grandpa couldn't live by himself any more, and my aunt's family moved in to help take care of him. It certainly was a big help!"

Though she was very, very happy she hadn't ended up living there as well.

Mrs. Okada sighed. "It's a pity it's not an option for Junko's family to move in with them, instead; I'm sure it would be much easier for Mr. and Mrs. Suzuki. But with jobs and school and everything else, I can't say I'm surprised they wouldn't want to move."

"That, and I doubt an entire additional family could even fit in that house," Tohru said with a giggle. "It's a little on the small side, if I remember correctly."

"Small, and definitely past its prime," Mrs. Okada agreed. "I'm curious if they're just going to tear it down right away, to make selling it easier."

Tohru's eyes widened at that and she looked at Mrs. Okada in surprise. "What?"

"The house, Tohru. Mr. And Mrs. Suzuki's house," Mrs. Okada explained patiently. "With it being the age is it, there's no way anyone else will actually live in it. I'd guess either they'll sell it and the new owners will demolish to build, or else the Suzukis will demolish it themselves to make the sale easier. There certainly isn't a lot of demand for development here right now, so it might be a rough sell," she said sympathetically.

But then she looked at Tohru, whose eyes were rounded and who had a hand over her mouth, and Mrs. Okada suddenly had a realization. "Tohru, is that perhaps something you and Kyo might be interested in? Buying the Suzukis' property and building your own house?"

Until literally this moment, the idea had never even occurred to Tohru. All this time, they had been looking at actual houses, not land. At once point Kyo had tossed out the idea as a theoretical, but they'd shot it down early on as completely impractical. Buildable land wasn't all that common; finding a parcel that met all their requirements seemed just as hard, if not harder, than finding an actual house.

But Tohru's mind was racing. She didn't know how big the Suzukis' land actually was, but she did know that the house was set back a decent bit from the road. It was south of the center of town, about ten minutes further away in that direction than their current house was to the west and on the opposite side from the dojo to the north. The walk to the bus station would be...maybe fifteen minutes? Twenty? Half an hour for Kyo to walk to the dojo, five if he decided to just drive?

There were a few other scattered houses, but none of them all that close. Regardless of the size of the lot, they would have lots of space.

And if they built it themselves...they could make the house look like whatever they wanted.

She realized Mrs. Okada was grinning at her, and she lowered her hand, attempting to look nonchalant. "Well, it's not exactly something Kyo and I have talked about, Mrs. Okada."

Mrs. Okada was still grinning. "But you might be? Interested?"

Nonchalance had never been Tohru's strong suit, and she broke out into a grin of her own. "I'm not sure! But it's certainly worth talking about."

"Oh, I do hope it works out," Mrs. Okada said excitedly. "It would be so perfect, having you three move there! You'd still be so close, still be able to walk to everything, and you'd still be a part of the town! And it would be so nice for the Suzukis, too, knowing that such a sweet young family would be taking over their place."

Tohru wasn't sure how much comfort anyone would get from someone else knocking down their beloved home, but didn't really see the point in mentioning that. "Well, like I said, I'll have to talk to Kyo and see what he thinks, and we'd have to find out what the Suzukis' plans are, and we'd have to figure out if the idea is even financially feasible..."

Mrs. Okada beamed at her. "But?"

"But maybe...we could consider it."

It had been hard to concentrate on the shopping after that, but Hajime's bored fussing had eventually motivated Tohru to focus and finish. Then Mrs. Okada checked her out, swearing up and down not to breathe so much as a word about what they'd talked about to a single soul, but "Make sure you talk it over with Kyo right away, Tohru! We're all rooting for you!"

Shopping had taken much longer than it should have, so she was already behind on supper prep by the time she and Hajime got home. Settling him in the living room with his train set, Tohru got straight to work making dinner...and thinking about building a house.

She admittedly knew nothing about house building. She knew it was a thing, obviously, but beyond that? Clearly you'd talk to...someone. A building company, or a contractor. Maybe architect? And you'd figure out what you wanted, and how much it cost. And then, assuming you had the land...they'd build it for you.

She thought about the Suzukis' property and tried to imagine it without the house. There were some trees, she knew, and one or both of the Suzukis had clearly enjoyed gardening. She smiled, thinking about the beautiful displays colorful flowers she'd seen before when she'd had reason (admittedly very rare) to go that way.

Would she grow flowers there, too?

But she was getting ahead of herself. All of this was hypothetical; she hadn't even talked to Kyo yet. And for that matter, she didn't even know if what Mrs. Okada had said was fully accurate; gossip could definitely twist along the way. The Suzukis might be moving, but they might be keeping their property. Maybe it was staying in their family. Maybe they already had another buyer lined up. There were a lot of uncertainties.

Still...for the first time in a very long time, Tohru was actually excited about their house hunt.

"Daddy Daddy Daddy!" Hajime charged into the entryway as Kyo slipped off his shoes, latching onto Kyo's leg and grinning up at him. And Kyo grinned back, dropping his bag and scooping up his son.

"Hey, Hajime! Did you have a good day today?"

Hajime beamed, nodding his head rapidly. "I good day! Ha-me good day," he said, beaming proudly.

"Yeah? What'd you do?"

"Ha-me go bus, Ha-me go 'cool (school), Ha-me go bus a-dan (again), Ha-me go 'tore, Ha-me go home!"

Kyo looked suitably impressed. "Sounds like a pretty busy day, bud! Have you been being good for Mommy?"

"I good! Ha-me good, I pway twain!"

Kyo could see Hajime's trains scattered across the living room through the open door, and he grinned. "I bet you did. Should we go find Mommy? What d'you think Mommy's up to right now?"

Hajime bounced excitedly. "Mommy cook!"

"She is? Let's check!"

Hajime in his arms, Kyo strolled into the kitchen, grinning. Tohru had been able to hear the entire conversation, and she was beaming as well at the sight of her two favorite people coming in together.

"Welcome home, Kyo!"

"Wewcome home!" Hajime parroted eagerly.

Kyo laughed and cuddled Hajime, walking over to give Tohru a kiss. "Thanks! You two sure know how to make a guy feel welcome."

"Wewcome, wewcome, wewcome," Hajime chanted happily, causing both Tohru and Kyo to laugh again, then Kyo looked back at Hajime.

"Looks like you were right, Hajime; Mommy is cooking. And it looks really good," he added, peering around Tohru at the stovetop.

"Well, hopefully it tastes good," she responded with a smile. "But I'm running a little behind tonight, I'm sorry."

He shook his head. "Nah, it's fine. I don't need to eat the second I walk in the door. This just means," Kyo said, turning back to Hajime, "that I get to play trains for a bit!"

"Yay, twains! Twaaaaaains!"

As Kyo and Hajime headed out to the living room, Tohru couldn't help but smile. "Just make sure you clear them off the table before supper's ready, ok?"

"Got it, Mommy!"

"Gottit, Mommy!"

"So, anything new and interesting at work today, Tohru?" Kyo asked, handing Hajime his children's chopsticks and grinning as Hajime's brow immediately furrowed in concentration over his food. Tohru giggled as well; it never ceased to amaze her just how much Hajime could look like Kyo!

But at Kyo's question, she shook her head. "No, just a typical day. Although I did get to see the cutest little six-week-old today," she said, beaming. One of best things about working the front desk in an OB/GYN clinic was when the new mothers came in for their follow-up checks, often with their newborns in tow. As difficult as Hajime's own newborn stage had been, Tohru had always had a thing for little babies.

And Kyo knew that well, grinning at her. "Bet that must've been pretty great for you. Did you get to hold this one?" Tohru was a favorite with many of the patients, and it was a common occurrence for her to get to hold the babies.

"I did! She was the cutest little thing, with such big eyes!" Tohru's own eyes were a little starry, and Kyo had to chuckle; it was always cute, just how excited she got over babies.

And not for the first time lately, it made Kyo think about their own plans to expand their family. They had started to talk about the idea in earnest a year ago, when Hajime was a year and a half old; neither one of them had wanted to start trying before Hajime was two, and definitely not before they'd sorted out their housing situation. But it was good to talk, and to figure out how they both felt.

If Kyo was honest, he had...concerns. Hajime's slightly early birth via emergency c-section had been traumatic for both of them; Kyo had been more afraid of Tohru dying then than he'd ever been afraid of anything in his life. Tohru and Hajime had both come out ok, but it had taken months before Kyo could even consider the idea of a second child without breaking out into a cold sweat.

As it was, he was still nervous. And he was pretty sure he'd remain nervous, because it was hard not to be, after going through that. But he was less scared, and he was determined, this time, to do right by her. There were a lot of things he hoped to do better, this time around.

Whenever that time actually came.

They were both in full agreement that once they had found their house, they would start trying. Hajime had been conceived almost immediately after Tohru went off of birth control, and while neither expected that kind of luck a second time, they couldn't rule it out, either; consequently, neither one of them wanted to risk having a second child without having room.

And the longer the house hunt took, the more determined they were to wait. It had been nine months now, a timeframe that they both found extremely ironic. If they'd managed to conceive when they started looking for houses, they could have a baby now...and still no house.

"Well, I'm glad you had fun," Kyo said, smiling at her.

"I did," Tohru said, then smiled back. "How about you, did anything interesting happen today?"

"Depends; does two of my nanakyus getting into a fight and me having to explain to a freaked-out mom why her son has a broken nose count as interesting?" Kyo asked, referring to his class of nine-year-olds.

Tohru's eyes practically bugged out of her head as she stared at Kyo. "Oh my gosh, Kyo, what happened?"

He shrugged. "That, pretty much? It happened in the hallway after class, so I didn't see it start, but I heard the shrieking and got there just in time to see the connection. If anything, Hikari at least has excellent form on her palm strike," he said with a grimace.

"I hope he's going to be ok!"

"He should be, yeah. Kids are pretty fast healers, and I got everything sorted out in the end. Luckily his mom was actually pretty understanding, which is a relief since it sounded like both of them were to blame.

In the seven years Kyo had been teaching at the dojo, he'd seen his fair share of injuries, and his fair share of fights. But it still amazed Tohru how calm he was when he talked about them; even though she knew they didn't happen often, it still felt like they happened quite a bit.

It honestly made her a little nervous, thinking about Hajime starting karate. While she hoped that their son wouldn't be one of the ones who got into trouble, you never could be sure.

"But yeah," Kyo said after thinking for a moment, "that's pretty much it. Just a normal day, otherwise; busy, as usual, but nothing too crazy." During summer vacation, the dojo was extra busy as kids and parents took advantage of the time off school. Extra classes could mean extra frustration, but Kyo had always loved working with kids and if he was busy, he was also happy.

"Well, good," Tohru said, smiling at him across the dinner table. She glanced at Hajime, smiling to see him carefully trying to pick up his vegetables with his chopsticks, then looked back at Kyo. "I heard something interesting at the grocery store today."

"Hibe hotline, eh," Kyo said with a grin, and Tohru giggled.

"Yes, so you know to take it with a grain of salt. But," she said, taking a breath, "Mrs. Okada told me that that Suzukis, the older ones? Who live just south of town?" Kyo nodded, and she continued, "she told me that they're going to be moving in with their daughter's family in Nigeyashi."

"O...kay?" Kyo wasn't quite sure where the 'interesting' part of the story came in. He knew who the Suzukis were, just like he knew who literally everyone else in town was, but they rarely if ever crossed paths with them, so he wasn't sure what the big deal was. "Why's that interesting?"

Tohru was getting there. "Mrs. Okada was saying they'd be selling their house."

Suddenly Kyo understood, but he was frowning. "Their house? It's been awhile since I've seen it, if I'm even thinking of the right place, but it's pretty small, isn't it?"

"Yes, but that's just it. Mrs. Okada was saying that it's so old, it wouldn't be livable anyway. That whoever ended up buying the land would just knock it down and build their own."

Tohru had Kyo's full attention now, or at least most of it.

"They live...what, half a mile out? A quarter? Somewhere in there?"

She nodded excitedly. "Not far, no! I'd guess maybe...ten minutes further away from everything than here?"

Kyo was trying not to get excited and failing. Ten minutes was nothing, especially if it was ten Tohru-paced minutes. He couldn't say with 100% certainty which property they were talking about, but he did know that it was close to Hibe, close to the dojo, and had no close neighbors.

He was quiet for a moment, then looked at Tohru. "Is that...something you'd be interested in checking into? Land, and then building?" He remembered that they'd briefly touched on this at one point, but that discussion had ended rapidly once they realized just how impractical it was.

Maybe it wasn't as impractical as they'd thought.

Tohru was grinning. "I think it's worth looking into, at the very least. Obviously I don't know if the costs will pan out," she admitted, "But the location would be just about perfect! And if we could have something built ourselves, then we'd be able to make sure we have everything just the way we wanted it!"

Kyo was nodding. "Yeah...I agree. Maybe it works, maybe it doesn't, but I say we at least check it out."