Title: Scent

Fandom: Get Backers

Characters: Midou Ban x Kudo Himiko

Prompt: #26, Parents

Word Count: 1,528

Rating: G

Author's Notes: Fluff. XD

Inhale.

Her scent was not overbearing, nor intoxicating—it had no single defining adjective. Even after she washed up after a hard day's work, the faint mix of her perfumes clung to her, acquired from long hours spent making them. Still, it was a pleasant scent, weaving and overlaying with the scent of her. Overall it always reminded him of something muted yet vibrant, tingling and in-between. Like dusk, or like the echo of the midnight hour.

He didn't know when her scent had begun to have a soothing effect on him. Perhaps around the same time he had begun to love her. But it wasn't like he knew when that was, either. To both of them, though, it didn't really matter.

The small form cuddled against his chest stirred, made a tiny, contented sound. Midou Ginji was small for a eight-month-old, with thick, fine brown hair and the beginnings of the shape of his mother's face. Ban opened one eye, checking if he was still asleep, and grunted in amusement. Someone had clambered onto the futon to snuggle against the baby while Ban had been dozing—his eldest son, four-year-old Yamato.

Ban stretched out his hand to ruffle Yamato's green hair. Sleepy eyes opened and Yamato yawned. "Is Kaasan coming home yet?"

"Almost," Ban promised. Two more days. "Couldn't sleep?"

But Yamato had already shut his eyes, and nestled closer to Ginji. The baby shifted and whimpered. Ban laid his hand on the tiny one's chest, feeling the quick, bird-like beating of his heart, smoothing the material that served as the baby's makeshift blanket—one of Himiko's nightshirts, the one from the night before she'd left.

It was an old method, Paul had said—one of their first parenting problems had been putting Yamato to sleep when Himiko was on overnight business trips. To soothe babies who couldn't sleep when the mother wasn't with them, wrap them in her old clothes, something that carries her scent. It comforted and quieted them.

Ban drew his sons closer, amazed that they were both small enough for him to drape one arm over them. He made sure they were comfortable, and lowered his head to rest near Ginji, breathing in once more the scent of his wife mixed with the milky, clean smell all babies had. He closed his eyes, feeling himself drift into the peace of sleep.

The method did wonders for husbands, too.

--EnD--