Now, I know a few of you aren't going to agree with the whole Hotaru thing, but it's kind of crucial. Just wait and see what happens?
Tom stood awkwardly with his back to his sister and Shizuo, it appeared as if he held something in his arms gingerly.
"Tom-nii?" Atsuko approached her brother slowly
"How well do you think you could take care of a baby?" Tom asked slowly turning to reveal an infant
"A baby?" She cooed taking the baby from him "Oh it's so precious. What's it's name?"
The infant stared up at her, with expecting slate eyes, as if it was waiting for an answer. It took her finger in it's chubby fist, it had a strong grip, nothing like Shizuo's of course, but strong for a newborn.
"She doesn't have one" A man stated coming out of the shadows, his starched lab coat was splattered in blood
"What? How can this teeny tiny little thing not have a name?" Atsuko asked "what about her mother- Oh…oh…"
"So, could you take care of it?" The bloodied man asked awkwardly "I'll give her the checkups and chart her growth if you'd like"
"Was- was her mother a nice woman?" She asked
"Nice enough I guess, for a lady nearly seven million yen in debt, so, there she goes, into labor" Tom sighed before motioning to the man in the bloodied clothing "So Shizuo goes and gets Shinra here, who delivers her baby, and next thing we know, the lady's gone and bled out"
"Oh" Atsuko looked down at the baby before her lips curved upwards sadly "Well, I'll be your mama now, and you my hime, you can be my little Hotaru"
"That's a beautiful name for her" Shinra grinned happily "do you know how to take care of a baby?"
"I can change diapers and feed her, if there's anything else to parenting, they have loads of books out there" She smiled cradling the baby "I'll do the best I can with this little tyke"
"Oh! You're going to have kids of your own one day and they'll be absolutely beautiful!" Shinra flailed spastically "Why, my beautiful Celty, if we ever had children, I imagine they'd be by far more beautiful than anything in existence!"
Leaning over to her brother, Atsuko "Did he just compliment and insult my future spawn in the same sentence?"
"Yes, I believe he did" Tom nodded smiling "Though, I'd like to see their children, a bunch of peculiar individuals those would be"
"Why?" She frowned letting Hotaru's head rest on her shoulder
"Well, Celty, she's a bit…different" Shizuo nodded exhaling smoke in the duo's general direction
Shinra and Atsuko shrieked as the smoke came near the infant, quickly stepping back Atsuko stood near the unlawful surgeon. The two of them curled their lips in horror as Shizuo asked what was wrong.
"You can't smoke around Hotaru!" Atsuko shook her head fiercely
"Haven't you ever heard of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome?" Shinra added
Shizuo frowned and dropped his cigarette "I'm not going to be the one responsible for killing Atsuko's baby"
The woman in question smiled cheerfully and began to sway to soothe the fussy baby. Shinra looked thoughtfully at the adoptive mother, motherhood suited her greatly, the way her eyes kind of sparkled was really pretty in it's own way, nothing like how Celty's eyes would've shined. He paused briefly to wonder, horror struck, if the smoke emitted from her neck would harm an infant. He decided no, the smoke wouldn't harm a baby, not at all, Celty and her smoke were too nice for that.
Atsuko had unzipped her coat to place baby Hotaru into the warm confines of fabric and body heat, she was already whispering demands to the debt collector and his body guard, demands for diapers and formula. Demands for help if she was going to raise some stranger's child. Shinra decided that she was a great mother, but a marvelous mother.
"Thank you Shizuo-kun" Atsuko smiled at the man dressed as a bartender who was presently awkwardly holding out a bottle
The chain-smoker grunted in response, clearly unhappy about the lack of cigarettes in his mouth. If it were up to him, he would have an entire pack of cigarettes bundled and he would smoke them all at once. Like a giant cigar.
It had been two days since Atsuko and Tom had brought the little bundled baby to their apartment, the siblings had been awkward about it at first, I mean, who lives with their brother and a baby they stole from a now dead pregnant woman?
"I'm scared about going to work tomorrow, I know Tom-nii will take good care of Hotaru while I'm gone for like five hours, but what if something happens? What if a stray flying vending machine sails right into our apartment and crushes them both?" She asked raking her fingers though her ponytail
"I'm not throwing a vending machine at your daughter" Shizuo huffed crossing his arms
Beaming at the previous comment, the young Tanaka fed Hotaru, which, she supposed was now Tanaka Hotaru, which had an alright ring to it. Besides, one day Hotaru would marry a man and have a better name, or, what if she married someone like a Yamaguchi? Oh! The horror! Those people with their big mouths and big egos and little penises.
"You've been shaking your head for the past five minutes" It was a statement, with an underlying question of 'are you alright?'
"Shizuo-san, do you think you could go with Tom tomorrow to Hotaru's check-up?" Atsuko attempted to shake the thoughts from her head again
"Yeah, sure" He shrugged "I'm going out for a smoke, you want anything from the store?"
"I'm good, though, Hotaru could use some more diapers"
Shizuo stared down the infant who was currently gurgling at him, mocking him. Tom had stepped out to take a phone call while Shinra was rummaging through the closet, attempting to find a tiny scale to weigh her on. They had purposely left him here with this daunting task. To change Tanaka Hotaru's diaper.
He waved to the woman wearing a sunshine yellow cat helmet, her head was cocked to the side, curious about what was occurring. Pulling out a PDA she typed a message out "Is that your baby?"
"I don't want kids" Shizuo grumbled
More typing "Who's baby?"
"Tom's sister's…I guess" It's a hard question to answer, when asked directly, he could lie and say it's her baby, but, it isn't.
"Why were you staring at her like that?" comes after a brief period of typing
Shizuo deadpanned "I have to change her diaper"