Chapter 7 Family Life

I really didn't want to go back to work yet, but I didn't have any leave I could take to extend my time at home. My first day back at work was tiring partly because of lack of sleep, and partly because of the excited mothers that accosted me at the start of the day. Leaving work, I found a crowd hanging around the gate, and at the centre of the crowd was Kotomi and Negisa, what followed was a lot of cooing and comments like she has her daddies' eyes and so on. I think Kotomi just wanted to show off our daughter to the other mothers at school.

Kotomi resumed meeting me after school, she made a couple of friends among the mothers at the gates, who gave her advice and tips, the following couple of months things settle into a comfortable routine. Negisa sailed through her two-month check-up, she didn't make too much fuss after getting her vaccinations. She was beginning to try and push herself up when she was on her tummy, she was quite a vocal child with lots of burbling, humming and cooing most of which Kotomi described as Negisa 'talking' to her. It was extremely rewarding when she started waving her arms around when she heard my voice, Negisa that is not Kotomi, that would have been weird.

"Would you like some tea, Kotomi?"

"No, I will wait until Negisa has finished her breakfast first thank you."

"Good morning, Kotomi-chan, Tomoya-kun and hello there Nagisa-chan."

"Morning Ryou, you're up early today, isn't it your day off?"

"Yes, I have something I want to do today."

"Anything exciting?"

"Well…"

"Look if it's personal, you don't have tell us."

"No, it's not that, it's just… I'm not sure you'll like it."

"You're going to start flat hunting again aren't you."

"Yes, I think it's time, you three seem well settled now, so I don't think you need me around anymore."

"That doesn't mean we don't want you around."

"Tomoya, would you take Nagisa for a moment while I talk to Ryou-chan?"

"Have a cuddle with my little princess, how could I say no? Why don't we have a little walk in the garden, while mommy has a chat with Aunty Ryou."

"He really dotes on her, doesn't he? What did you want to talk about?"

"Yes I couldn't wish for a better father figure for Nagisa, I have been considering when to return to work at the lab, I have 6 weeks maternity leave remaining but after that point I will have to either resign or return to work, they have already stated that it would be permissible for me to return on a part time basis."

"Well it's good they are willing to be flexible."

"They are most eager that I return to work, however my return to work does raise the question of child care. It would need to be someone or somewhere that both Tomoya and I trust."

"what about the Furukawas?"

"I had considered that, but we would need care to begin in the morning at a time when they are both still very busy with the bakery. We have reviewed a number of day care facilities, but we have yet to find one that neither I nor Tomoya have reservations about."

"What other options do you have?"

"We have put considerable thought to hiring a nanny."

"That's not a bad idea, did you have anyone in mind?"

"We have decided to offer the position to you. We are willing to match your current income."

"Oh… do you mind if I think about it? It would mean giving up nursing, I love Nagisa-chan too but it's a big decision."

"Tomoya believed you would say just that, this is why we asked you while I still have several weeks of maternity leave remaining. We will require an answer prior to my return to work but as long as we have an answer 1 week prior to my return to the lab we will be able to make alternate arrangements."

"Thank you, I will let you know as soon as I have made a decision. Did you three have any plans today?"

"Yes, we will be visiting Tomoya's farther today."

"How are they getting on these days?"

"I would not describe them as especially close, but Tomoya believes that Nagisa should have the opportunity to know her grandfather. Since Tomoya's graduation Naoyuki-san had been doing better, he had cut back on drinking and was keeping the house tidier, but since Nagisa was born, he has been making more of an effort, I think he believed that he wouldn't be able to see his granddaughter if he did not."

"That's good to hear, I only saw Tomoya-kun's house once and I was quite shocked to see his father sleeping on the living room floor."

"He was much the same way when I first met him myself. I have to admit I was a little apprehensive of taking Nagisa into that kind of environment, but Naoyuki-san has since quit smoking, and although he does still drink more than is healthy, he has cut back significantly."

"Tomoya, Kotomi-chan, it is good to see you, how is Nagisa today?"

"Nagisa is in good health thank you, it is good to see you doing so well Naoyuki-san, you are looking quite well."

"Hi Dad, I was a little surprised when you asked us to come here since you've been coming to our place most of the time, was there something specific you wanted to talk about, or did you just want to play with Nagisa?"

"There was something I wanted to talk to the two of you about, but not until I've spent some time with my granddaughter."

"I shall put some tea on while you two play then."

"That would be lovely, thank you Kotomi-chan."

"I must admit, the place is looking in good shape, have you painted or something?"

"I've given the place a good cleaning, but I wouldn't want little Nagisa to have to breath paint fumes." If I'm truly honest with myself I couldn't help but think 'why couldn't you get you're act together like this when I was still living here' although the happiness on his face as he played with my daughter dispelled any resentment in short order.

"I'll go and check on Kotomi."

"Okay." He was only half listening at this point, playing with Nagisa and a fuzzy dinosaur had him quite occupied for the moment.

"Everything okay in here Kotomi?"

"Oh, Tomoya, I thought you would be talking to your father."

"Between Nagisa and her dinosaur, I'm not getting much of a look in."

"It is gratifying to see him playing with her so enthusiastically isn't it?"

"I was just thinking the same thing, the place looks quite different from the first time we were here doesn't it."

"It is quite the transformation."

"My Dad or the house? Shall we go through and see what he wanted to talk to us about.?"

"I was referring to the house, but your father has changed almost as much." He almost didn't notice when Kotomi put the tea tray down on the table.

"Do you want some tea Dad? Or would you rather keep playing with the dinosaur?"

"Some tea would be nice thank you, but I may return to the dinosaur afterwards." The amusement in his voice seemed both nostalgic and unfamiliar at the same time.

"So, what did you want to talk about?"

"Hmm… where to start…"

"There's no rush if you need to gather your thoughts."

"Thanks, but it's ok. Do you remember your grandmother at all?"

"No, I don't remember much of my childhood, on that point do you know of any reason why I'd forget so much."

"You were quite ill with meningitis when you were 8, I suppose that could have something to do with it. The last time I saw your grandmother was just after your mother died, and I've had scarcely any contact since then, but I thought it would be unfair to both her and Nagisa if I didn't tell her that she has a great granddaughter."

"I didn't think we had any living relatives, so something like that never really crossed my mind."

"There are a few, but there was a big falling out, when I married your mother. We tried reaching out when you were born, but the letters were returned to sender. I wrote to your grandmother just after Nagisa was born, I told her how well you were doing; Lovely wife and daughter, an excellent job that you love, and so on. I'll admit I wasn't sure she'd answer."

"I assume she did."

"Yes, she wrote to me a week or so after, we've spoken on the phone a number of times since. She said that she'd been trying to respect my privacy and was very happy to hear of how well you were doing, I hope you don't mind but I sent her some copies of photos from your wedding and one of Negisa."

"No that's absolutely fine, if she wants any more of Negisa we have hundreds at home."

"I'll tell her that, thank you. She was, however concerned about how I was doing. I have been finding it easier since Negisa came along, but it is far from easy, I don't know that I'll ever recover fully from losing your mother."

"I do not know if I would recover myself were I to lose Tomoya, and to have to raise him on your own as well."

"Yes, it has been a struggle, but I believe that my purpose here has been served, Tomoya no longer needs me, to provide a roof over his head, and he raised himself for the most part."

"Dad it's…"

"I know my own failings, thank you Tomoya. To make a long story short, she has invited me to move back to live with her, she will be needing support herself before too long, she is quite old, so I have decided to accept her offer, I know I won't be able to see the three of you as much."

"Don't worry, we'll come and visit, and you can always come and visit us too."

"Thank you very much Tomoya I really appreciate that, my moving does raise the question of what to do with this house."

"I always assumed you were renting it."

"No, the mortgage was paid off about a year ago. But I will not be needing the place any more, and there are some memories here that I would sooner forget. With that in mind, I have decided to give it to you three to do with as you wish, sell it, rent it out I really don't mind."

"Wow, really? Are you sure? I mean that's huge."

"I am quite sure yes Tomoya. I will be moving in a couple of weeks, after that it's all yours."

"I don't know what to say, 'thank you' seems rather inadequate."

"Keep sending me plenty of pictures of Negisa and that will be thanks enough."

"Yeah, of course." True to his word, he returned to playing with the fuzzy dinosaur, and Negisa too of course.

"Well, that was all a bit of a shock."

"Indeed, it was, do you have any thoughts on what you would like to do with the house?"

"I did have one idea actually, who do we know that is looking for an affordable place to live?"

"You wish to rent it to Ryou-chan?"

"Yeah, I was thinking we could rent it to her at a nominal rent, she won't accept it if we charge too little, but I think if we put it at a little below what her budget is, she would probably go for it."

"You always think of your friends first don't you, it is one of the many things I love about you."

"Hi Ryou-chan, how has your day been."

"A little frustrating actually but thank you for asking."

"What was frustrating about it?"

"I've been looking for an apartment, but there isn't much in my price range."

"We may be able to help you there."

"What do you mean?"

We filled her in on the events of the day and our plans for my dad's house. To say she was surprised would be an understatement.

"But you've already helped me so much, I couldn't…"

"I hadn't realised there was a limit on how much you can help a friend?"

"There isn't but…"

"Look, we have a house already, so we'd end up renting it out anyway, you need a place to live and we don't need the money. It sounds like an ideal solution to me."

"What if I decide not to be Negisa's nanny?"

"One has nothing to do with the other."

"I don't know what to say."

"Yes, would be the most logical answer."

"Would it be okay if Kyou-chan moved in as well?"

"Sure thing."

"Okay, then I'll accept you offer, thank you so much, you're always doing so much for me." Ryou gave us both a slightly teary-eyed hug. "I'll go and tell Onee-chan the news."

Throughout the following week I would see Ryou looking over at Nagisa, while chewing on her thumb nail, it seems she was quite torn over our job offer.

"Umm, Kotomi-chan is Tomoya-kun around?"

"Yes, he is working in the garden, did you need him for something?"

"I wanted to speak to the both of you, if that's okay."

"Of course, I'll go and get him."

"You wanted to talk to us?" Ryou was looking really nervous, and a little sheepish for some reason. "Is something wrong?"

"No, well, sort of, I wanted to talk to you about your job offer."

"Would it be fair to say you've decided to decline?"

"Actually, I wanted to suggest someone else."

"Oh… Who did you have in mind?" I had a fair idea who she was thinking of, but I had no idea why.

"Would you be willing to offer it to Kyou-chan?"

"I don't see a problem with that, but I was under the impression that she was really happy where she was."

"Her school has started offering voluntary redundancy, they're having to down size because of diminishing numbers of students. If they don't get enough volunteers, they'll have to make up the numbers name some to leave."

"And Kyou is in a last in first out situation?"

"Yes, I had been starting to lean towards accepting the job, but Kyou will need a job soon and she adores Nagisa-chan, so I thought that maybe you could ask her."

"Does she know, we've offered the job to you?"

"No, and if you don't mind, I'd rather she didn't know, at least until she's made a decision. I don't want her to say no so that I can have the job."

"That makes sense, alright then, I guess we should give her a call then. I assume you're okay with Kyou doing it Kotomi?"

"Oh, absolutely, she so very fond of Nagisa."

"So, what was it you wanted to talk about? Is it about the house?"

"Actually, Ryou told us about the redundancies at your school."

"I haven't been laid off yet, so, you don't need to worry about me, I've got plenty of time before they make me redundant."

"Is there some sort of financial incentive to take voluntary redundancy?"

"Yes, it's an extra two months' pay, but if it takes me longer than that to find a job, I'm going to end up in a tight spot."

"What if you had a job offer already, would you take it?"

"I guess so, it would depend on the job."

"Kotomi and I are looking to hire a nanny for Negisa, Kotomi will have to go back to work in a few weeks, so we'll need something in place by then. We would like to offer the position, we'd match your current income, so you won't be worse off financially and we'd only need you for four days a week, that's the plan for now anyway."

"You really want me to look after Nagisa?"

"Why wouldn't we? You've got experience working with children, you can help with her education, she already loves her aunty Kyou and most importantly, we both trust you." Kyou started to tear up.

"Thank you so much. I would love to. It really means a lot to me that you'd trust me to look after Nagisa." Kyou's voice was husky with emotion. Seeing how emotional she was about it, I felt a little guilty that we hadn't asked her in the first place.

"You are very welcome Kyou-chan, we know how much you care about her." Kotomi gave Kyou a hug, getting a little emotional herself.

"We don't need you to start for five weeks, so you can take the voluntary redundancy, work your notice and get yourself a nice bonus, before you start." It was my turn for a hug.

"Thank you, Tomoya, I know how protective of her you are, so trusting me enough to look after her while you're both at work, really means a lot."

"Like Kotomi said we know how much you love her, and it's not like you haven't looked after her before."

"I know but that was only for a couple of hours, when you were out for dinner. It's not the same thing, not to me anyway."

"Honestly, if we didn't trust you to deal with whatever happened, we wouldn't have asked you to look after her for five minutes, how far away we are, or how long, doesn't make a difference to me."

"Okay, I'll take your word for it. Oh, and thank you for the house too, Ryou is really excited to be living together again."

"Yeah, she's been talking about it quite a bit. You all set to move in next week?"

"I think so, I'm not really in to having lots of ornaments around the place, so it won't take me too long to pack things up, except for all the books I've accumulated with teacher training and in-service education, they're heavier than you expect them to be."

"I know what you mean, it'd be a nightmare if we ever had to try and pack up all of Kotomi's books. If you need an extra pair of hands, just give me a shout."

"Thanks, I was hoping you'd say that."

The following week while we were putting the last of my Dad's belongings in the back of the movers van, Dad was keeping Nagisa entertained, he'd said he was going to miss playing with her, so I suggested that he take the chance to spend time with her, and Kotomi and I would pack up the van.

"Are you okay Tomoya? You have been very quiet."

"Yeah, I'm fine." Kotomi put down the box she was carrying and gave me the 'I know you're not being honest' look. "Alright, alright, fine. I'm not sure what to feel at the moment. I've spent so much of my life hating being anywhere near him, but lately we've been getting on fairly well and it makes me kind of happy watching him play with Nagisa. I just can't quite process it at the moment."

"I believe I understand."

"I'm glad someone does." Kotomi smiled warmly and placed her hand on my cheek.

"I always understand you." She simply kissed me gently on the lips. We returned to packing the van, true to her word, Kotomi knew me well enough to stay quiet for a while and leave me to sort out my feelings.

The three of us watched the van disappear into the distance, not that I think for one second that Nagisa understood what was going on.

"I don't know if I'll actually miss him as such, most of the time we spent together was more about him having time with Nagisa, maybe I'll miss that… I don't know… it's complicated."

"We are going to visit in the next school holidays, so it will not be too long until you see him again."

"True, we should get going, I need to get dinner started."

The phone rang late in the evening, Kotomi was busy feeding Negisa.

"Hello?"

"Ah, just the man I was looking for. Are you busy tomorrow?"

"Yes, very."

"Oh… well, doing what? Is it important, or can you put it off?"

"How important is it? That depends really."

"Depends on what?"

"How much of a hurry are you in to move out of your flat?"

"You can never make it simple, can you?"

"Not when you make is so much fun to tease you." I could almost hear Kyou's eyes rolling.

"So, can you help me?"

"Yeah, no problem. What time do you need me?"

"Is about 9am okay?" So much for my lie in.

"Yeah that's fine, do you need me to bring anything?"

"You're a life saver, if you have any boxes I could do with some more."

"Boxes? Aren't you packed yet?"

"Not as such, no." I don't like the sound of that.

"How much have you packed?"

"I've packed up most of my bedroom."

"And you have to be out by when?"

"Umm, Monday morning."

"Kyou, it's Sunday tomorrow."

"Yeah."

"Alright, let me see if I can call in the cavalry."

"Thanks, you're a saint. I'll do you and 'The cavalry' breakfast, when you get here."

"Don't saint's usually get stoned to death?"

"Not all of them."

"See you in the morning."

Her flat isn't that big how long could it take.

"This is going to take all day." Akio had agreed to help as soon as I told him Kyou was going to cook breakfast for us. It looked like he was having second thoughts now.

"Why did you leave packing so late?" I was beginning to have second thoughts myself at this point.

"I've been really busy, I don't know about your school, but my lesson plans take forever."

"They don't take that long, seriously, they take me like an hour, give or take."

"ONE HOUR!"

"Yeah… How long does it take you?"

"2 or 3 hours."

"Maybe we should take a look at that, once we've got all this lot sorted."

"What for? I'm leaving at the end of next week anyway."

"Good point."

Akio wasn't far off with his assessment of how long it was going to take. It was three in the afternoon y the time we sealed the last box up, and we still needed to move it all to the house. Thankfully Akio had brought the bakery's van with him, so between that and my car we should be able to take it all in one run.

"Geeze! What's in this box? Rocks?"

"It's my books actually."

"Okay, that make sense. Hey where's Botan?"

"You've only just noticed he's not here?"

"I forgot you had him to be honest."

"He's at my parents' house. I'm not allowed pets here."

"You going to move him into the house?"

"Can I? You don't mind?"

"It's fine, I know how well trained he is, but is he going to be okay around Ryou?"

"Oh, thank you so much, that's awesome. He gets on with her okay now, as long as she stays out of the kitchen anyway."

It was 6pm by the time we finished moving all of Kyou's stuff into the house.

"That's the last box. Alright, who's for take-out?"

"I was going to say that myself. You two have really helped me, so I was going to treat you."

"You can chip in if you like, but Kotomi and Ryou need something, By the way do you want to invite Sanae to my place for dinner?"

"That'd be great, thanks kid."

"Alright, fine. But I'm paying."

"Kyou, I'll let you pay half at the most."

"But… Hey! Don't just start texting while I'm talking."

"Can you really afford to pay for that much take-out food."

"Well…"

"Look, I don't have a problem if you want to chip in for Akio and me, but it's not really fair for me to add a bunch of extra people and expect you to pay for them too."

"Fine," Kyou gave a resigned sigh. "You're a real pain in butt sometimes."

"Right back at you."

Thankfully when it came to moving Ryou's stuff, she was already packed and there was way less of it. But the place seemed really empty without her around.

It was the first time since before Negisa was born, that we had the place to ourselves.

"It seems kind of strange, doesn't it?"

"What is it that feels strange?"

"It's actually never been just us and Negisa in the house."

"That is true, do you find it disagreeable?"

"No, it's just 'different' it's not like Ryou was noisy, but it seems quiet somehow."

"Then perhaps we need to increase the number of permanent residents." Kotomi gave me an impish grin.

"It's a very nice idea, but let's at least get this one weaned first, don't you think?"

"That is probably best, I was not really serious." She looked a little disappointed. "But I would like it if our children were close in age."

"Yeah, it'd be nice. But let's just see how things go for a while. One baby is plenty of work as it is."

"I know, you are correct, of course." She looked a little like I'd taken her toys away from her.

"Look, we can have as many kids as you want. But there's no need to rush, especially as Negisa is our first. Okay?"

"Okay." She looked a little more satisfied with my response this time.

The following week it was Kyou's first official day as Negisa's nanny, she'd been around for a couple of days beforehand so she could get a feel for Negisa's routine, likes and dislikes, that sort of thing, but this was the first time she'd have her to herself all day. She was also going to be helping with a little of the housekeeping, she'd also volunteered to cook dinner for us as well. Her reasoning being we were at work all day and she'd just be playing with Negisa all day. I'm not sure how much 'playing' she'd get to do, Negisa is only a couple of months old, but I wasn't going to argue to much, considering it would mean I'd get to eat Kyou's cooking.

Kyou was a little nervous, which was understandable, I be honest Kotomi was way more nervous.

"So, you have our mobile numbers?"

"Umm yes… I use them like every day as it is."

"Right, right, sorry. Do you have the emergency number list?"

"Yes, it's by the phone, just like it was the last ten times you asked."

"I am sorry, but I am a little apprehensive."

"It's fine Kotomi."

"OH! I did not intend to suggest that I thought that you weren't capable of caring for Negisa."

"It's okay, you're going to be late if you don't get going soon."

"Come on, Kotomi, let's go." I placed my hands on her shoulders and gently guided her out of the door, giving Kyou an apologetic look as we left.

I hadn't seen Kotomi this nervous since, the first day I brought her to work.

"They'll be fine, Kotomi."

"I know, it is illogical, but I cannot help it."

"I know angel, I was nervous the first day I went back to work too. You'll probably be fine in a couple of days." Kotomi was still chewing on her thumb nail, but she nodded and began to walk into the Lab grounds, but she did look back a few times.

"Hello Kotomi, yes Negisa is fine."

"Kyou-chan, how did you know it was me before I spoke?"

"Because it's been exactly 60 minutes since you last rang, just like the time before that and the one before that."

"I am sorry, I am…"

"Nervous, yes I know you are, don't worry about it, I do understand."

"I will attempt to restrain myself for the remainder of the day."

"Don't worry about it too much, I'd rather you rang, than sit and worry at work, okay?"

"Okay, thank you Kyou-chan."

According to Kyou, Kotomi did manage and hour and a half after that before she rang again. By the time I was ready to leave work, Kotomi was already at the gate getting sympathetic looks and encouragement from the other mothers. She was calmer than she had been in the morning, but that's not saying much really.

By the time we got through the front door, Kyou was already standing there with Negisa, ready to hand her off to Kotomi the instant she got in.

"Thanks Kyou, she didn't give you too much trouble, did she?"

"Who, Negisa or Kotomi?"

"I was thinking of Kotomi when I asked, but I guess the same question works for both. She didn't phone you too often, did she?"

"You say that like you didn't call yourself."

"Oh, come on, I don't think twice in a day is too much."

"I'm guessing you'd have called more if you didn't have a class full of kids to deal with."

"Probably. So how often did she call you?"

"About every hour." Kotomi was too busy with Negisa to realize she was being talked about and hadn't even said hello to Kyou yet.

"I'm impressed she managed that, having seen how nervous she was when I dropped her off this morning."

"The first one was about half an hour after she would have got there. After that it was exactly 60 minutes."

"She probable set herself a timer and wouldn't allow herself to call before it went off."

"Sounds like something she'd do. Anyway, dinner is ready when you are."

"Thanks, give us ten minutes to get ourselves sorted," I looked over at Kotomi, Negisa still had her undivided attention, and she was currently playing peek a boo. "Make that twenty."

By the time we actually made it as far as the dinner table Kotomi was looking a little sheepish.

"I am sorry, Kyou-chan. I do not understand quite why I was sorry worried. Logically I know you would never let anything happen to Negisa, but… I will try to do better tomorrow."

"Kotomi, she's our baby, I don't really think logic comes in to it. We're always going to worry about her logical or not. You should see some of the mothers when they drop their children off for the first time. The mothers are more nervous than the children, and that's at a school full of trained teachers. We're just going to have to learn how to manage our worrying a little better."

"Yeah, you should have seen one of the mums at my school, she actually had to be asked to leave the classroom so we could start." Kyou chimed in, trying to give Kotomi a little encouragement.

"Perhaps you are right, I had expected to be apprehensive, but I was not prepared for how intense it would be."

"You'll get used to it soon enough, and until you do, I don't mind you calling to check on her, so if it gets too stressful just pick up the phone, okay."

It was a couple of weeks before Kotomi really adjusted to having to leave Negisa behind, even after that she still rang Kyou every lunch time.

By the time she was five months old Negisa was beginning to show signs of trying to crawl, it looked a lot like she was doing push ups, to be honest Kyou and I found it quite funny.

All in all, Negisa was a very happy baby, she smiled lots and laughed at the simplest things, she hadn't quite mastered sitting up yet so she would often roll over backwards when she laughed a lot. I also caught Kotomi trying to teach her to say Mommy or Daddy, it's a bit optimistic really considering she was only about six months old, but Kotomi insisted that she was a very intelligent baby. Quite how she'd come to this determination was anyone's guess really, but you never know.

Once Negisa did master crawling, Kyou's work load increased tenfold.

"I used to be able to look away and get things done, but now… I look away for five seconds and she's off."

"Yeah, there's no stopping her now, she does have quite the adventurous streak doesn't she."

"How she got so fast is what I'd like to know."

"Well Tomoya is quite athletic, perhaps she has inherited it from him."

"Figures he'd be to blame for it."

"Just imagine what it'll be like when she starts walking."

"I think we're going to need more baby gates."

A few weeks later Negisa began trying to pull herself up on to her feet against more or less anything that she could get a grip on, trouser legs were especially popular for this, and it was only another week before she managed to stand up, not for very long mind you. Kotomi took this as further evidence that Nagisa was "Significantly above average" and resumed trying to get her to speak.

"It's actually got her to stay in one place more now she's started to stand up, it looks like she would rather practice standing up than go off and find trouble."

"You realise it's the calm before the storm, right?"

"What do you mean?"

"After standing comes… walking." Kyou's face fell.

"I hadn't thought that far ahead, thanks a bunch."

"It's not all bad, she can understand 'no' and 'stay there' now can't she."

"Oh yes she can understand what she's be told, but you're the only one she actually does it for."

"That's not true, she listens to Kotomi… most of the time."

"Not even one year old and already a daddy's girl."

"Kotomi does keep saying Negisa is advanced for her age."

"She does, but I think that's more the mother in her saying that than anything scientific."

"I'd have to agree, but it does give me the warm fuzzies to see how happy she is when she's doing anything with Negisa."

"Kotomi never has been one to hide her affections, has she." Kyou gave me wry smile, obviously referring to the amount of time she spends attached to me.

"You're not wrong." I chuckled as I remembered all the times, she made everyone in the room blush, when she 'greeted' me. At that point Kotomi walked in to the room with Negisa in her arms.

"Tomoya, I was about to give Negisa her bath, but I thought you would enjoy doing it yourself."

"That would be great thanks Kotomi. Kyou I'll see you on Wednesday."

"Yeah, see you then."

It was actually about another six weeks before Negisa started to walk, first cruising along the sides of the furniture, griping on for balance, but after that she progressed to walking unaided fairly quickly. Luckily, she wasn't that fast to begin with, and she'd maybe manage ten feet, before plopping down on to her bum, where ever she happened to be, I nearly tripped over her on more than one occasion. We were all very grateful for the baby gates we had put up once she started to speed up.

Kotomi was taking endless photos and videos of Negisa's progress, all of these were sent on to my Dad, he was extremely grateful for them and said he was filling his photo albums up really quickly, the level of affection he showed for Negisa was a little bit surprising to begin with, but I figured he saw it as a second chance at parenting or something like that.

About five weeks before Negisa's first birthday Kotomi came in to the kitchen holding her phone and looking really excited.

"Tomoya, Nagisa has just said Dada!" I was a little sceptical, this wasn't the first time she'd made such a claim, but nobody else ever heard anything that sounded like a word.

"I am certain, listen." Kotomi handed me her phone and pressed play on the video clip. What followed was a lot of Kotomi trying to coax Negisa into saying 'Dada' or 'Daddy' to my surprise Negisa did make a sound that somewhat resembled a word, but still wasn't really sure.

"It could be I guess." Kotomi pouted at my lack of enthusiasm. "Oh, come on don't look at me like that, I'd love it if she was speaking, but you know as well as I do, for something to stand up to scientific rigor, it must be repeatable." I figured appealing to her scientific side would work better than trying to convince the mother in her she could be wrong.

"You are right of course." Kotomi look a little disappointed at being dissuaded from her excitement.

"Alright then, let's see if we can get her to repeat it then." Kotomi brightened up, then grabbed my hand and dragged me towards the nursery.

"Come on Negisa-chan, say Dada… say Dada." Negisa did make some sort of sound at Kotomi's urging, but it was definitely not 'Dada' Kotomi tried a few more times to much the same result. "You should try, she may be more cooperative for you."

"I don't know if cooperative is quite the word I'd use, I don't think she's doing it deliberately. But I'll give it a go. "Negisa, say Dada… Dada." She did make a sound that could have been called a 'D' sound but not quite there. "Say Dada, come on sweetheart say Dada,"

Kotomi gave it a few more tries but didn't get much better replies.

"Oh well, never mind angel, she's getting better at making the sounds, it won't be too much longer." I decided that we weren't going to get any further today and stood up to go back to what I was doing before Kotomi came to me. At this, Negisa raised her arms up toward me, usually meaning she wanted to be picked up.

"Dada~…" The end of it was a little bit garbled but it was pretty clear what she was saying.

"Huh?" It was so sudden and unexpected I didn't immediately register what she had said.

"Dada." It was clear as day.

"She said it, Tomoya, she said it, Well done Negisa-chan." I was a little bit choked up at the fact that I had heard her first words, and that it was 'Dada' that she said first.

"Were you still recording?" I managed to say with a bit of a croak in my voice.

"Yes, yes I was, we shall have to make some copies and keep it safe."

"And send a copy to Dad too, we'll have to get her to say 'Mommy' next won't we."

"That would be wonderful, Negisa-chan, say Mommy… say Mommy." Kotomi was exaggerating the mouth movements, to try and show Negisa how to do it, Negisa's reply was.

"Dada." If I didn't know better, I'd say she did it deliberately for comedic effect. Not that Kotomi cared either way, her little girl was talking and that's all that mattered.

It was maybe two weeks later that Negisa did manage to say 'Mommy' Bringing a tear to Kotomi's eye.

A few days before Negisa's first birthday, Kotomi came into the kitchen, while I was making breakfast, looking a little green.

"Good morning, Angel. Hey, are you okay? You don't look too well."

"Tomoya, you may want to sit down."