Settima Finestra: Sogno di Tempesta

Gokudera was brushing Fuuko's hair happily as she was getting ready for school. Today they would have a school festival and Gokudera wanted to make sure his daughter looked dazzlingly cute.

"Wow, that's so cute Mommy!" she flailed happily as he finished placing a hairpin with a butterfly on it. She turned around to look at him with a big smile, which quickly transformed into a look of horror.

"W-w-who are you?!" she screamed and cried stepping away from him "Where's my Mommy?!"

She fled with tears in her eyes and crashed into Yamamoto, who seemed to have materialized out of thin air.

"Daddy, Daddy! That horrible man was touching my hair! Where's Mommy?! I'm so scared!" she cried, hugging his legs.

Gokudera, who had been too shocked to speak, looked up to meet Yamamoto's eyes and his heart stopped when he noticed how cold they were. He opened his mouth to try and say something, but no words would come out.

"Don't worry, honey, everything's alright. Daddy will protect you from that horrible man. Come on, let's go find Mommy." Yamamoto said, ignoring Gokudera and taking Fuuko's hand.

As the two started to walk away, Gokudera felt like he was drowning. The air seemed to have escaped his lungs and he felt himself sinking into oblivion. As he cried and tried to scream to no avail, everything turned into darkness.

His emerald eyes flew open, terrified. The room was pitch black, but he could still tell the bed was empty. Well of course, he told himself trying to steady the beat of his heart, Takeshi's out on a mission and won't be back until next week.

He could feel the cold wetness of tears streaming down his cheeks. That nightmare had become a recurring one recently, especially when Takeshi wasn't home. He covered his eyes with his forearms, not bothering to hold back a sniffled sob.

It was then that he noticed he wasn't alone in the room. There was the sound of another sniffled breathing and sobbing. Gokudera sat up and turned on the bedside lamp to see his little daughter by the bed.

"Oh dear, what's wrong, love?" he asked, wiping away his tears and forgetting his own insecurities for a moment, scooting closer to her and placing a hand on top of her head.

"I-I… I had a scary dweam!" she wailed, throwing herself into his arms, crying in earnest.

Hayato kneeled next to her and held her to his chest, humming softly, trying to calm her down. "Will you tell me about it? Bad dreams will never come true if you talk about them." He said, stroking her hair.

She sobbed and sniffled and shivered in his arms. Hayato's heart tightened. If there was something he couldn't stand it was the sight of his daughter crying like this.

"I-it was about D-d-daddy and Papa going to w-w-work. A-and then… a-and… t-they di-didn't come b-b-b-back!" She wailed, losing her voice at the end, which broke Hayato's heart. She looked so genuinely scared and frail he was afraid he wouldn't find the right words to comfort her. One of her friends had lost his parents in an accident last week, and she'd been having a lot of nightmares, especially since Takeshi left two days ago.

Hayato held her tighter to his chest and nuzzled the top of her head affectionately. "It's okay, love; everything's okay. You're the most precious thing for your Father and me, there's no way we'd ever leave you alone." He cupped her flushed, tear stained cheeks in his hands and rubbed their noses together. "We will always be here to protect you, in one way or another." He reassured her with a soft smile.

Fuuko nodded and bit back her tears. "Can I… can I stay with Papa? I don't want to be alone." She sniffled, rubbing her eyes vigorously to wipe the tears away.

Her father ruffled her hair. He knew how scared she must be; after all, their job meant getting involved with dangerous things all the time, and it made him proud to see how brave she was trying to be, even if he also felt guilty for putting such a weight on her shoulders at such young age. "C'm'ere, honey. Papa was feeling a little lonely too." He admitted, pulling her up to sit on the bed.

They crawled under the sheets and curled against each other, knowing there would be no more nightmares to disturb their sleep.

Yamamoto walked through the door and dropped his coat and tie on the coach, promising to pick them up later. He was exhausted. Against all their expectations, they'd manage to seal the deal peacefully, which took an insane amount of work, but also meant he could come home four days earlier than he'd planned, and that was always great. Being away from his family was torture.

He kept advancing towards the bedroom as he unbuckled his belt and unbuttoned his shirt. It was about four in the morning, so everyone must still be sleeping. As exhausted as he was, he'd decided he'd give Hayato a morning surprise. An R-rated morning surprise. He grinned mischievously at the thought and finally crossed the threshold into the room he shared with his one true love… only to find two people in the bed.

Yamamoto's visceral shock at the scene was quickly replaced by a smile of endearment when he noticed a tiny head with black hair sticking out from the sheets. He sat on the edge of the bed and watched as his two most precious persons slept, curled into each other, both with peaceful smiles on their faces while the sheets rose with their synchronized breathing.

There goes my naughty plan. He thought, not as sorry about it as he'd usually be. He crawled under the sheets by Fuuko's side and cuddled against her, draping his long arm across the bed to hug them both protectively.

In his slumber, Hayato could feel the familiar warmth washing over him and his own hand moved unconsciously to find the larger, battle-scarred one and lace their fingers together. When he felt the other hand squeezing his, he sighed and sank back into sleep.

-Finito-

I hope you like this, it's one of my favorites so far. I wanted to dwell a little further on Gokudera's insecurities and fears (yes, I know I do that all the time. I can't help myself), those moments of darkness that will always be there in which he'll feel like an intruder in Yamamoto's family. Add to that his fear of being rejected by Fuuko for not being her real parent. I know I keep insisting on it, but I think it's an important part of who he is. This is especially true considering Fuuko will eventually figure out she must have had a mother too at some point (and Gokudera knows it and fears it), which will inevitably bring a sort of confrontation –something I too, hope to write about at some point.

Of course it's not all sad and bitter, since the whole point is how Gokudera is able to put aside his insecurities for the sake of the family he loves, and essentially, just how much the three of them love each other and are able to cope with their fears when they're together. Or something like that. Even if it starts out kind of dark and depressing, I ultimately wanted it to be a cute fluffy piece for them as a family, if that makes any sense at all.

I'm sorry for the delay, I've been kind of dry and focused on my KuroBas stories, but I tried to make up for it by replying to everyone's reviews (yay?) I hope you guys like it