The birth of Nakamori Aoko was something that the Nakamori-Kudo family had celebrated in a small hospital room at the University of Tokyo Hospital, followed days after by the arrival of her cousin, Kudo Shinichi.
Both happy couples, or at least the mothers, had spent hours gushing over the wrinkly, pink bundles. Ginzo had poked one skeptical finger into a pudgy cheek, questioning whether his wife had lost her sanity for calling the odd, vaguely human-like form 'cute'. Said woman had promptly glared at him for his daring, which had the usually bold officer quickly raising his arms in surrender.
"Oh, I can't wait for them to be able to walk and talk. I'm sure they'd get along great," Rina, Ginzo's rather intimidating wife, cooed over her pudgy pink blob as her sister-in-law did the same.
"Shin-chan and Aoko-chan will get along great," Yukiko agreed happily. Yusaku, who had been fairly quiet in all of this, still hadn't raised his eyes from the newborn clenched tightly in his wife's monopolizing arms. A part of him wondered if the poor man had gotten to hold his son yet.
"And we'll have such fun taking Aoko-chan shopping," Rina agreed merrily before gently placing her daughter in her husband's arms.
"O-oi! Rina, I don't know how to hold her," he scowled, trying to give her back to her mother. "And what better time to learn?" she gazed back calmly with those oh so familiar blue eyes. Eyes her brother shared. Would his daughter, currently sleeping soundly (and he prayed that didn't change anytime soon), also inherit that brilliant shade of blue? He hoped she did.
"But what if I drop her?" he tightened his arms around the small bundle. And just as his luck would have it, his daughter woke up. He braced himself for screaming and crying, as he had read that babies, especially newborns, did. Instead, she just looked up curiously at him, squinting adorably with those bright blue eyes. He knew she couldn't really see him but he couldn't help but feel pinned by those eyes. Eyes that seemed to hold the galaxy in their depths.
And he knew he was in love.
A part of him still believed he was dreaming, hearing about Rina's pregnancy, walking through it with her, and even standing beside her as she gave birth. But the moment he had held her in his arms and she had stared at him with those big blue eyes he knew this was real. He was a father. He had a daughter. A child to love, to care for, to protect with his life.
"Well, it looks like Aoko-chan has her father wrapped around her finger already," Rina's dry voice interrupted his internal monologue.
Yukiko giggled, "True. Ginzo-chan, if you look any more dazed we might have to send you to the nurses ourselves,"
"Maa maa, Yukiko. He did just hold his daughter for the first time after all," his brother-in-law reached for his son again. This time Yukiko allowed him, making sure Shinichi was properly positioned in her husband's arms. As calm as the man usually was Ginzo could make out the absolute wonder on his face as he gazed into the blue eyes, the same blue eyes his daughter had, of his son.
All too soon, the woman reached for her son again, but this time brought her up to where Aoko laid in her father's arms. They turned in unison as their cheeks met and Ginzo could see them gazing at each other. If not for the knowledge that newborns could barely see blurry shapes Ginzo would think that the two of them were sizing each other up. And apparently finding the other satisfactory, grinned widely at each other.
Yukiko chortled, "Well it looks like they'll be great friends." Rina nodded enthusiastically, overjoyed at the thought that the son of her best friend and her brother would become her daughter's friend. Seeing the matching smiles on the women's faces Ginzo couldn't help but shiver at what the two had planned. He could see a lot of clothes and photo albums filled with pictures in the near future.
But that future had never looked so bright.
It was apparent from a young age that neither child was normal, though Ginzo honestly hadn't expected them to be. There was no way that someone who bore such a likeness to his brilliant wife and the son of her equally brilliant brother would be. But he hadn't expected the sheer intelligence that either child had shown from such a young age.
Intelligent enough that the books he read on how to amuse her bored her. He could tell the same of little Shinichi the few times he had been unfortunate enough to babysit them both. It was hard keeping an ordinary toddler engaged, and nearly impossible to do so for two young geniuses.
But for all that Aoko was absolutely exhausting, more so than his police work at times, she was also his precious baby girl. And when she looked at him with those big blue eyes he could feel his resolve caving in. Which was why his wife always yelled at him to make sure she ate her vegetables instead of him eating it for her, or to make sure she went to bed on time and he didn't let her spend the night reading just because she pouted at him.
By four, Ginzo realized that his daughter's blue eyes were different from Shinichi's. They both rang with intelligence, but hers different, more intense than even her mother's.
Her eyes were as penetrating as the rest of the Kudo family, but they were different. They were special. They didn't ring with the calculative intelligence that Yusaku's did, or the eerie concentration Rina's did, or even the confident focus Shinichi had. Her eyes were knowing.
No, his daughter gazed at someone like she could see their soul. She looked at them like she saw their vulnerability and their weaknesses. And a part of him wondered if those searing blue eyes would be even more intense as she got older.
Because Nakamori Aoko was definitely not ordinary. There was no way she could be, with the family she had. But there was something special in her. That much Ginzo could see.
Shinichi liked Aoko. She was smart and fun and made their games far more enjoyable. And she definitely didn't like the makeup, and the dress up, and the picture-taking sessions his mom loved to have. He supposed that for a cousin he could have gotten a lot worse.
He liked being with her though because she was the only person besides his father that could keep up with him. They had spent many fun afternoons playing Holmes and Watson, and even better she seemed to enjoy being Watson so he could play Holmes. It was fun guessing what the people around them were like, and seeing a piece of their lives without even talking to them, even if Aoko made sure that he didn't talk like Holmes to the people he met.
So when they had their playdate interrupted and Rina-obaasan telling her it was time to leave, he had mutinously grabbed her arm and declared that she couldn't leave. It had nothing to do with the fact that he liked her. It was just that he didn't have anyone else to play with since all the other kids didn't like Holmes because they couldn't read advanced kanji yet.
Aoko had turned to him and looked at him with those blue eyes, the same color as his own, for a moment before she grinned at him. She grabbed his pinky with her own and intertwined them, "I'll definitely come back again, Shin-chan," her eyes flared mischievously for a moment, "You look like a male version of me. See, we have the same brown hair and blue eyes. That means we're connected and nothing can break us apart."
"Barou, that's just because we're related," he couldn't help but drawl back, refusing to entertain any thoughts of mystical forces engineering their next meeting.
She smiled and her eyes sparkled, "Duh. Family sticks together, ya know,"
He couldn't help but smile back. He knew that they looked similar, they were related after all. But it was nice to hear it the way she put it. Like they had a connection that no one could break, and their appearance was the physical proof of their unbreakable connection.
When Yusaku had seen his little niece darting around their mansion with her equally little cousin he couldn't help but think of his sister. The sister who had always had a smile on her face and that sparkle in her eyes. Blue eyes just like him, but oh so very different. He looked at a person and deduced their secrets from their physical form. She looked at a person like she could read his mind. And how so very fitting that her daughter had eyes that could see even deeper.
She was no ordinary child, even her father could see it, but not even Yusaku could guess what she would become. Something extraordinary, something dazzling.
He only hoped it didn't end the same way it did for her mother.
AN: So this story just came to me one day because I was irritated by how Aoyama has so many awesome female characters but the male leads' love interests are clueless; it's the kind of story where if it focused just on the romance between them, without the background, then people would ship them more. I just wanted at least one of them to be more involved;
Yeah Ginzo is really optimistic about having kids, but he doesn't really know what he's getting into either
