It was late, and the house was quiet. A certain stillness filled the rooms, that certain stillness that only came with the night. A stillness that bespoke rest, and recharging; a stillness that said everything was at peace.
And it was...almost.
"Fuck, Tohru," Kyo murmured, his voice husky in her ear, "how do you always feel so damn good?"
Tohru only made a somewhat incomprehensible sound in response, lifting a leg to drape over Kyo's back as he moved against her beneath the warmth of their blankets. Late as the hour was, neither of them regretted in the slightest their decision to stay up; it was worth it, to have the chance to be together like this.
Kyo reached down to firmly hold onto her leg and resumed kissing along her neck. "Just you-"
"Daddy, where Mommy?"
For a second, Kyo and Tohru both froze. Then Kyo was shoving Tohru's leg off of him and rolling away from her so rapidly that it was like she'd electrocuted him.
He took a second to try and collect himself, then did his best to smile as he looked at the sleepy orange head standing beside the bed.
"Hey, Hajime, what're you doing up? It's sleep time, bud."
Two-and-a-half-year-old Hajime was yawning, clutching his large stuffed bunny tightly as he looked up at Kyo. "Ha-me need dwink. Where Mommy?"
Kyo could feel Tohru fishing around under the blankets for her nightgown, and he silently reached down by his leg and grabbed the garment he'd snagged in his rapid retreat, passing it over to her scrabbling hand.
"Mommy's right here, Hajime," Tohru said, her voice slightly breathless as she sat up after quickly wriggling into the nightgown. "What's wrong?"
Hajime pulled himself and his bunny up onto the bed, climbing over Kyo and over to Tohru. Rubbing his eyes, he plopped down between the two of them. "Ha-me need dwink."
Kyo was making a tiny, almost imperceptible shake of his head that Tohru chose to ignore. "Alright, sweetheart. You wait here with Daddy while Mommy gets you a drink, then we'll snuggle you up back in bed, ok?"
"'K," Hajime agreed, flopping over on the bed and watching as Tohru got out of bed and walked out of the room. Then he flopped the other way, looking sleepily up at Kyo.
Kyo simply stared back, trying to keep his face neutral and not to show any of the frustration he was currently feeling. Very quickly Tohru was back, and Kyo was relieved to have Hajime's attention once more off of him.
He stayed where he was while Tohru carried Hajime back to his little bedroom just off of Tohru and Kyo's, watching through the open door as she laid Hajime down. And he did smile slightly at the scene; Tohru was always so sweet with their son, tucking him in. Tucking Mr. Bunny in. Making sure they were both all safe and snug.
Kyo just liked it a hell of a lot better the first time it happened on any given night.
It wasn't all that long before Tohru closed the door and slid back into bed, but it had been long enough. And they both sighed as she snuggled close to Kyo, resting her head and one hand on his chest.
"You know, Tohru, if you'd just consider a lock-"
Tohru's voice was quiet, but very firm. "I've already told you, Kyo, I'm not locking Hajime into his room!"
"But really, why? We already lock the balcony door, and the closet door in there. Locks work, Tohru."
Even in the darkness, he could feel her glaring at him.
"Because we're not locking him into his room! What if there was an emergency?"
"I'd kick the door down." He was only half joking, probably even less than half.
"Kyo!"
"What? You asked! And for that matter, if there was an emergency I'm pretty sure you could kick the damn door down." He'd seen just how strong Tohru's mama bear instincts could be, and he sincerely meant it.
Not that Tohru took it as a compliment, or even a joke. "No, Kyo. It's not safe, and besides; I don't want him to decide to actually start figuring out how the locks work. He might, you know, if he's actually trapped in there."
"Don't I know it," Kyo grumbled, feeling a weird mixture of both pride and irritation at their son's incredible tenacity. Toddlers were known for their stubbornness, and Hajime had it in spades; he would cheerfully sit for hours, trying to figure out things that were puzzling or annoying him.
And he usually figured them out, too, more's the pity.
Kyo let out an annoyed breath, and Tohru rubbed his chest consolingly. "I'm sorry, Kyo."
"Don't be, it's not your fault. Though I really think we oughtta stop with the water and stuff after bed. Maybe if we just pick him up and put him back without anything else, he'll knock it off."
Tohru wasn't so sure. "The last time we tried that, he just got up again right away. Is that really any better?"
Not really, no. "Well, if we got a lock-"
"Kyo." Tohru's voice was flat and booked no argument, and Kyo let out a grumbling sigh.
"This is six times in barely two weeks now, Tohru."
She gave him an amused look. "Are you counting?"
Kyo bristled defensively. "Of course I'm counting, it's a goddamn pattern! Suddenly the kid won't stay in his bed, don't you think that's a problem? I sure as hell think it's a problem," he grumbled, nestling back into his pillow.
Tohru sighed quietly. As a matter of fact she agreed with him, but it was difficult when the two of them had different ideas for how to handle things.
After a moment of silence, Tohru's voice came quietly. "Kyo...do you think we're being too picky? About the house?"
He let out another deep sigh, squeezing her shoulder. "I dunno. Maybe."
Both of them glanced over at the door to Hajime's room, and both of them sighed again.
There was no question about it, a lot of their issues would certainly be improved with space.
When Tohru's grandpa had passed away the previous fall, Tohru, as the only child of one of Grandpa's two children, had inherited half of Grandpa's estate. Even though it was the standard practice for her to inherit in her deceased father's place, neither Tohru nor Kyo had known and therefore expected it, and they'd been even less prepared for the amount. After everything was settled with probate, Tohru had walked away with an eye-popping amount larger than their annual salaries combined. And with it, they'd decided it was time to start seriously looking for a house.
The two of them had lived together in their little rental for seven years now, ever since first moving to the village of Hibe straight after graduation. It had been a wonderful little house, and they'd made many wonderful memories there. But lately, the key word there was little: there was no denying that it was a house meant for someone just starting out, or a pair of empty nesters winding down. Hajime's tiny bedroom just off of Tohru and Kyo's room would be just big enough for Tohru and Kyo's bed with barely any space leftover; before Hajime had come along, the space had been Kyo's exercise room. And while the room worked for a toddler, there still wasn't a lot of space.
It had sucked for Kyo, sacrificing not only the exercise room but all access to their little balcony. As sad as the balcony, a 3x7 rectangle that looked out at their neighbor's blank wall, was, it was still the only high place Kyo had access to, and losing it stung.
But seeing as how Hajime was a climber in addition to an excellent door opener, there weren't really a whole lot of other options.
And it wasn't just the bedrooms that were crowded. The kitchen was small, the living room was tiny. When they had even one guest, it was like being sardines in a can.
There was no way around it; they were outgrowing their house.
When they'd started seriously talking about buying a house, Tohru and Kyo had both felt confident. The inheritance money was obviously significant, but the two of them had always been savers and kept a significant portion of their generous graduation gifts as well as their obscenely generous wedding gifts. Even before the inheritance came along, they'd started to discuss moving; the extra money only convinced them that it was finally time to pull the trigger.
Except as it turned out, things weren't quite that easy.
In the nine months since Grandpa passed, they had looked at lots of houses. Although they lived in a rural area, the decreasing population meant that they'd actually had a fair number of choices...and literally none of them had been acceptable.
Neither of them had thought they were all that picky, or all that unreasonable, but finding anything that hit their list of demands was proving a challenge. That was frustrating for all kinds of reasons, but so far neither of them had been interested in compromising. This was going to be their home, after all; the place they planned to stay for the remainder of their time in the area, however long that was. It made sense that they'd want it to be perfect.
Hell, not even perfect, but 'acceptable' was proving almost as hard to pull off.
There were certainly a few complicating factors. Hibe itself was a very small town, with only a few hundred people. Most of those people lived in relatively uniform houses on relatively small lots, all of them close together. And while Tohru and Kyo had been lucky in their neighbors, Kyo in particular wanted to have a little more space when they moved.
Tohru had agreed. In the time they'd lived in Hibe, she'd gotten increasingly confident in her gardening abilities, and wanted to branch out into trying more things. But that was hard, when their backyard was the size of a postage stamp. Especially since she also wanted to have room for Hajime to run around and play...and any future children, too.
Both of them were in agreement that another child was in their future, one for sure, possibly more. Kyo was very much in the 'two is fine' camp, but Tohru wasn't so sure, and at any rate, that wasn't going to happen as long as they were living in this house and dealing with the lack of space.
But since they wanted more kids, more bedrooms would be necessary. Also more space in general, since more people would need more room. It would be nice to have a guestroom, instead of making visitors sleep on futons in the living room. They both loved the idea of a bigger kitchen, and Kyo also wanted to finally, finally have some decent elevated space; a roof would be ideal, but a decent balcony would be fine, too.
Such were their priorities in a house. And if it was only the house, it might have been manageable, but it turned out that location was a much tougher problem.
There was no question that the dojo was their biggest priority in factoring in location. Kyo worked six days a week on a somewhat non-traditional schedule; he didn't finish until 6:30 on weekdays, and two of those evenings he had to be back at the dojo an hour later to teach his evening classes. Periodically he picked up extra private lessons, and during the summer when the dojo did additional training camps and prepped for their annual exhibition, he would practically live there.
All of that meant that, while Kyo was willing to commute if necessary, neither of them wanted to live all that far away. As things stood, there were some periods already where they rarely got to see each other; adding in all that much travel time would take even more time away.
They had looked, briefly, at the idea of living in Nigeyashi, the small city where Tohru worked. About twenty-five minutes away by road, Nigeyashi would certainly be workable if they had to live there, and there were certainly a lot more options. Tohru's job was there, along with Hajime's daycare and, in a couple more years, Hajime's school. It was obviously a lot bigger than Hibe, and there were a lot more amenities close by.
But...it was a city. Space from the neighbors would be a lot harder, and the odds of them actually ending up even twenty-five minutes away from the dojo were...questionable. And Tohru hated the idea of Kyo dealing with that commute every day; at the very least, it would mean he wouldn't be able to come home on his late class nights until nearly ten. During the summer...
So for now, they would simply keep on looking.
Tohru was quiet for a minute, then looked up at Kyo. "If we were to decide to compromise, what would you want to compromise on?"
Kyo thought about it, then exhaled. "Honestly, Tohru? I've got no idea. It doesn't seem like we're asking for much, and we've found some places that ticked all the boxes, except-"
"-Location," Tohru said, sighing. "Why is location so hard?"
Kyo shrugged awkwardly against the mattress. "Hell if I know." He was silent again, then began, "I guess if I had to pick something, I'd maybe give up on the outdoor space. That sure seems like it's giving the most problems."
And much as Tohru hated to admit it, she agreed. If they were willing to have a small yard and be right up against their neighbors, they would actually have options, even right here in Hibe.
But it was hard, thinking about not having the yard. It didn't even have to be much of a yard, just enough that Tohru couldn't throw a rock and hit the neighbor's house. But choices seemed to be all or nothing, and that made things...difficult.
She tried to remind herself that she'd grown up in apartment. Even the yard they had now was enormous compared to what she'd had as a child, and she'd still managed to have a happy and rewarding childhood. Hajime, and any potential siblings, would be fine without a yard. She would be fine without a garden. They would all be fine without the space.
But as much as she hated to admit it, she wasn't ready to give up on that hope.
"You're probably right," she said with a soft sigh. "But I don't want to start ruling it out just yet."
"We might have to, you know," Kyo said, his voice quietly resigned. "It's not like there're even bigger rentals available around here just now, so until we find something..." he looked back towards Hajime's door and sighed. "We're all pretty stuck together."
At that, Tohru smiled, trying to look at the positives. "Well, just think how much more we'll all appreciate our new house, the longer it takes to get!"
Kyo gave her a pained look. "I appreciate you trying to help, Tohru, but it's pretty damn hard to be cheerful about that," he said, gesturing to Hajime's door.
"You'd better not be calling our son a 'that,' Kyo."
He rolled his eyes. "Not Hajime himself, the interruptions. The constant interruptions. Six times, Tohru," Kyo reminded her, and she had to admit he had a point.
"It's just for now, Kyo; let's try to remember that," she said, patting his chest.
"Yeah, but how long is 'now' gonna last? Sure, he's gotten outta bed before, but this much? This often?"
Tohru sighed again. "I know. Maybe if we can think of something to make his room more interesting, he'll be willing to actually stay there. But I think at the very least we can start letting him have a water bottle in there with him at night."
"And then we'll see what new excuse he has," Kyo grumbled.
She poked him in the ribs. "You could at least try to be optimistic, Kyo. Maybe it will work!"
"Six times, Tohru."
"I know, you've mentioned that!" Tohru was defensive for a moment, then sighed and snuggled against him. "I don't like it either, you know."
Kyo sighed, relaxing a little bit. "I know. It just...damnit, it's really hard not to feel like it's intentional at this point!"
Tohru sat up and looked at her husband in amusement. "Intentional? Kyo, he's two and a half!"
"I know that! Doesn't change how it feels, though."
Laughing, Tohru settled back down against him. "I'm sure it's not intentional. The only intentional part is him wanting to escape from his room and have some attention."
"Yeah, yeah. His attention, at our expense."
Tohru leaned up and gave him a kiss. "Welcome to parenthood."
He grumbled again, but he was smiling a little bit. "Maybe that's it, actually."
"What's it?"
"Parenthood. That's what he's up to."
Tohru was amused again. "Ok, I need to hear this theory, go on."
Kyo wrapped his arm back around her. "Ok, how's this for a theory: Hajime suspects that we've been talking about another kid, and he's not cool with that. So he's doing his best to stop it from happening. Easy explanation."
She was giggling. "So...our toddler understands how babies are made and is trying to stop that from happening because he doesn't want a brother or sister."
"Yup."
"Even though we're not actually trying yet, and definitely won't be while we're trying to sort out this house situation."
"Hey, he doesn't know everything. He's smart, but he's not that smart."
Tohru looked at him for a moment, then giggled again. "It's a nice theory, but I'm pretty sure it's a reach."
"Just saying, if he keeps this up until high school then I officially give up on any more kids."
"I'm pretty sure he'll stop before then, Kyo."
"He sure as hell better," Kyo muttered. Then he sighed, glancing at the clock. "We'd better get to sleep, Tohru."
Tohru sobered up, glancing up at him. "Are you sure? You don't want to-"
"-And risk having him turn up again? No thanks. Besides, it's already pretty late, and we've both gotta work tomorrow."
He was right, annoying as it was to admit, and Tohru sighed as she snuggled closer to him. "Next time, maybe we should skip the talking."
"Next time, maybe you'll consider locking the door."
