Chapter 4

Chapter Summary: Epilogue of adorable!

"Madara."

"Kem— wait," Madara said, bewildered, "did you just use my actual name?"

Kemuri rumbled in amusement. "I'm afraid your old title has a new bearer." Then her head ducked down and she murmured, "Come on, kitten. Come say hello."

There was a pause, and then an adorable little soot-black face poked out from between her front paws, golden eyes wide and ears perked. It stared at them curiously before apparently deciding to get closer. Emerging from its hiding place – revealing the rest of the body to be smoky grey – it tripped over a paw, tumbled, then found its feet again, and made some sound that mixed purr and giggle.

"Hello! I'm Susu!"

"My son," Kemuri rumbled proudly.

Madara stared at the kitten, then blurted, "Do you have a mane?"

Susu perked up. So did his whiskers. "I do! A little one. But Mama says maybe it'll get longer when I'm bigger! I hope so!"

"Fascinating," Tobirama murmured, kneeling down and holding out a hand, which Susu was quick to nuzzle into. "I hadn't expected a non-genetic change to be heritable. Obviously, it's something to do with the chakra…"

"You! With the white hair! And red eyes! You must be the Tobirama!"

His lips quirked. "I am indeed 'the Tobirama'."

A little pink nose twitched, then wide gold eyes whipped towards the other human. "Then you're the Madara!" But he looked away quickly, which… fair. Even Madara agreed that Tobirama was far more worth watching. "Mama said you gave her the mane! Will you grow mine for me?"

"What does your mother say? Personally, I'd advise you to wait and see if it grows out on its own first."

His whiskers seeped to droop. "Oh. That's what Mama said." And he gave a dejected sigh, flopping down on the ground.

Tobirama shot a twinkling-eyed look up at Madara, and Madara quite agreed with the silent message. Susu was ridiculously cute.

Still… "How did this happen?" Madara asked Kemuri. Then, because he knew her, he quickly added, "Not the mechanics!"

She rumbled, amused, telling him he'd been right to add the disclaimer. "Well," she said, "it had been far too long since I last saw you, and that mission at the circus made me all sentimental, remembering you tiny and small, especially since you're finally all grown up—"

"I've been trying to tell you that for ages!"

She ignored his interjection. "—and finding a mate of your own. I suppose it got me a little broody. So I went and found an appropriately appealing tom willing to offer his… assistance. Nine weeks later, I had Susu." She hooked a paw around the kitten, who had tried to wander off in their distraction, tugging him close. Susu struggled, but soon gave up as her tongue dragged over his head, grooming his tiny little mane. "Is he not perfect?"

Madara sighed. "He's adorable. And I'm sure he'll grow up clever and handsome and strong."

Kemuri nodded firmly, like 'Of course he will'.

"I don't understand, Mama," Susu said, wriggling free but not going far.

"What don't you understand?"

"You said the Tobirama would sign the contract once he and the Madara mated. Well, they obviously have." Susu sniffed the air. His nose wrinkled and he sneezed. "A lot."

In the background, Madara quietly died of mortification at having his very active sex life revealed to all and sundry by an oblivious child. Well, 'all and sundry' was maybe exaggerating – it was just the four of them – but it was the principle of the matter!

Tobirama, apparently immune to embarrassment – which made sense, he had survived growing up with Hashirama – merely stood and moved to press against Madara's side, dropping a kiss on his red cheek.

Susu meowed plaintively. "So why hasn't he signed yet?"

"Well kitten," Kemuri said, "it's kind of like with your sire. I mated with him, but I'm not mated to him."

The kitten's eyes went wide. "Oh! I get it." Then his ears folded back. "But you said the Madara loooovvvveeesss his Tobirama lots. Does… does his Tobirama not love him too?" he asked, voice small.

Kemuri stared them down imperiously, an unspoken 'Well? Explain yourselves!' and also a 'Don't you dare disappoint my sad kitten!'. Madara was lost for words. Fortunately, Tobirama was not.

"I love him a great deal," he said, smiling softly down at the kitten, who perked up. "But any mating of the official kind would be very much up to Madara."

Madara's head whipped around. "What?"

Tobirama's eyes darted away. "Well, you are the head of your clan. I'm not even the heir of mine, since Mito and Hashirama have progeny. You very much outrank me socially, and thus it would be highly inappropriate if I were to be the one to broach the topic of any sort of matrimonial—" Red eyes met Madara's, glaring over the hand covering his mouth.

"You're being too articulate," Madara said faintly. "You only do that when you're nervous." Like that first time they had sex, he recalled. Apparently, Tobirama had been under the impression that Madara might not want to be fucked, only to do the fucking. They'd since cleared up that misunderstanding – and been happily having a lot of fantastic sex in a variety of positions of give and take.

But that was not the point.

No, the point was that Tobirama was nervous, and there was a pale pink blush high on his cheekbones, and what he'd said sounded a lot like…

"Would you?" Madara asked, hands cupping Tobirama's face now instead, staring at him intensely, wanting to be really sure. "If I asked, would you say yes?"

"I… know it's probably too soon – it's not even been a year – but… well, according to Izuna, I wasn't the only one pining for ages. So from a certain perspective, it's not that precipitous a decision—"

"Articulate," Madara said, and ignoring the glare for interrupting, he breathlessly asked, "Marry me?"

The glare melted away, expression gone gentle and wondering and lovely.

"Oh," Tobirama said quietly, and then he smiled. It was the small, soft one. Madara had lost count of how many times he'd received it – okay no, he hadn't actually, not that he'd admit it – but whether the first time or the thousandth, it still made Madara forget how to breathe for a moment. But that was fine, because Tobirama was kissing him.

Obviously, there were more important things for his mouth to be doing.

He didn't hear Kemuri's smug purr, or Susu's chirpy, delighted one, nor did he notice them unsummon themselves in a rare show of feline tact. No, Madara was too busy kissing – his fiancé! – and being kissed – by his fiancé! – in celebration of a commitment that had been a long time coming, as Izuna's claims of his long-term pining could attest, and—

"Wait," he said, jerking back, frowning at the confused, temptingly dazed Tobirama.

"Madara? What—?"

"Pining? Pining… piney… pine trees!?" His eyes went wide with outrage. "That brat! It was a conspiracy!"

"What?"

"I'm going to yell at him till his ears ring!"

"Menō will kill you if you storm in and wake the baby. They've only just got Reisenji sleeping on a schedule."

"You don't understand!" Madara shouted, waving his hands wildly. "Blue-breasted yodelling robins probably don't even exist!"

Tobirama stared. Then he shook his head. "For once, I'm putting my curiosity aside—"

"But—"

"—because you've just asked me to marry you, and I've just said yes," Tobirama continued. Madara's reflexive surge of giddy joy at the reminder soothed his ire. "Which means I deserve consolation sex."

Madara spluttered. "Consolation!?"

"It was going to be celebratory, but you already ruined the celebratory kiss, making me doubt my romantic taste. So yes, consolation sex." He nodded firmly, and the look in his eyes was… intense. "You're going to fuck me against the wall, Madara Uchiha. Right. Now."

Madara fucked him against the wall.

Right. Then.

It was an excellent decision. He was sure Tobirama felt very consoled.

They slid to the floor afterwards, curling together, holding one another close, kissing softly and sharing wondering looks. They were going to get married.

…Kemuri would be insufferable.

END

Chapter Notes:

The adorable Susu's name comes from 煤, "soot".

Baby Reisenji (like his mum) was named for a mountain in the Iizuna mountain range.

Tobirama does indeed sign the contract once he marries in. In fact, no sooner have they said their vows than Kemuri strides in, scroll in her mouth, and dumps it in front of Tobirama with all the impatient presumption you'd expect from a cat – and not a lick of care that she's interrupted the wedding ceremony.

Susu calls dibs on being Tobirama's personal summon. Tobirama accepts, because Susu is too cute to deny.

(And no, blue-breasted yodelling robins don't exist.)

Story Notes:

Aaannddd… that's a wrap! I hope you all enjoyed this one. It ended up much less smutty than expected. I had, in fact, expected it to be my smuttiest MadaTobi fic yet, given how it started (check out the delightful comment thread linked over on the AO3 version if you're curious). Hopefully Tobirama's hotness, and Madara being a hilarious disaster, made up for it!