Prompt: Family

"I wish she'd gotten your eyes. Oh, oh—she could have gotten one yours, one mine. That'd have been so cool."

"My heterochromia is acquired, not genetic. It's impossible for me to pass it down." Hajime lightly ran a finger over Shiori-chan's cheeks. "Her eyes have my shape, but most of her facial structure seems to come from you."

Chiaki beamed down at the baby in her arms. She was almost disappointed by how strongly Shiori-chan resembled her, except that implied her daughter wasn't perfect and that was completely wrong. She just would have been even more perfect if she'd had a bit more of her father in her.

At least Shiori-chan had been lucky enough to get his hair—there was even a single piece sticking up among the dark tufts. Chiaki knew it'd be nice and silky if she grew it out. The kind of hair you saw in shampoo commercials, the kind of hair girls would kill for.

She made a kissy face at her daughter, and was delighted when a small smile appeared in response. The newborn had been cleaned and fed, but instead of sleeping was just watching them with oddly intelligent eyes.

"Hey," Chiaki said suddenly. "This is kind of like Fire Emblem Awakening."

Hajime was used to her out-of-the-blue game references by now, so all he asked was a mild, "How so?"

"Well, her main appearance is 'set' after me, but she's got your hair, and she probably inherited lots of skills from us. Hmm, I wonder what classes we'd be if we were in a Fire Emblem game?"

"Excuse me…" The couple turned to see Tsumiki-san poking her head in. The nurse had briefly stepped outside to give them time alone with their daughter, and to clean up from the delivery. "Everyone's g-gathered outside…they're all eager to meet Shiori-chan."

"You can let them in," Hajime nodded, and the nurse hurried off to fetch them.

The labor had been trying on all three of them. Ten hours, in which Hajime tried to backseat deliver. He'd been holding Chiaki's hand, peering over at what Tsumiki-san was doing and offering advice at the same time, unintentionally eroding the nurse's composure and irritating his wife. He'd finally stopped when Chiaki had snapped that Tsumiki-san knew what she was doing and just because he had the same skills didn't mean he knew any better, and this was his fault, so he'd better have the decency to pay attention to her and not another woman.

"I'm sorry for yelling at you," she apologized again.

He kissed the top of her head. "You were giving birth. It's normal."

"How's your hand?"

"Still fine. I have a high threshold for pain tolerance." He smiled slightly and waved his fingers at her, showing off their lack of stiffness and injury.

He paused, head cocking slightly as he listened to some sound beyond Chiaki's hearing. "Get ready," he told her, and oh, now she could hear the footsteps. "It's probably going to be like when the Kuzuryus had their kid."

Then the door was thrown open, angry shouts rebounding—"Move over, dumbass!" "Let me through!" "HEY! My foot!" "Excuse me, please! I would like to see the baby too!"—as bodies clogged the entrance. From the very back, Chiaki could catch Tsumiki-san squeaking "H-Hold on! No more than four!" as she tried to impose some order.

"Listen to Tsumiki!" Hajime called, the authority in his voice silencing everyone.

The nurse pushed her way to the front, panting. Then she straightened up and looked the group in the eye. "No more than four," Tsumiki-san repeated, firm, and pride for her friend washed over Chiaki. She's gotten better at standing up for herself.

The rest of their classmates paused. Some unspoken consensus was reached as to who would visit first, as one by one they filtered out, until only Kuzuryu-kun, Soda-kun, Sonia-san and Komaeda-kun remained. Immediately they gathered around the bed, craning their necks to see the baby.

"Oh, she's simply precious!" Sonia-san squealed, clasping her hands together. "She is—what is it?—the dog's bark!"

"Cat's meow," Kuzuryu-kun corrected. "She's cute, you two. Congratulations."

Soda-kun shook his head. "Look at that! She barely has hair and she's already got an ahoge!" He slapped Hajime on the shoulder.

"How marvelous!" Komaeda-kun exclaimed, eyes sparkling. He looked like he was going to cry, Chiaki thought in some alarm. "The union of two perfect hopes is an even greater, more sparkling hope! I really am lucky to bear witness to it!"

"If my daughter's first word is 'hope', I'm blaming you," Hajime said drily. Then he took her from Chiaki's arms and offered her to the other man. "Want to hold her?"

Komaeda-kun's eyes widened in alarm, and he backed away, hands raised. "Haha, I'm flattered you would entrust me with such a fragile, beautiful hope, but given my luck—"

"You're not gonna drop her, dumbass," Kuzuryu-kun rolled his eye. Indeed he wouldn't, because they'd all practiced holding dolls when Pekoyama-san announced her pregnancy. It would only be by his luck that something unfortunate happened to any of the babies (plural, now, Chiaki with a dumb little grin, because she had one), but they all tried to show Komaeda-kun that he could still be part of things despite it.

It was only through a matter of insistent shoving that Shiori-chan ended up cradled in Komaeda-kun's arms. He took the baby gingerly, looking as if he was expecting a meteor to fall through the roof and crush them both. Well, at least he's actually here and actually holding her.

"Hey," Soda-kun said, peering down at Shiori-chan. "You're gonna call me Kazuichi-jisan, aren't you? Your dad's my soul friend, so you have to!"

"I would like to hold her next!" Sonia-san exclaimed, and with an expression of profound relief on his face Komaeda-kun passed her over. The princess promptly rocked Shiori-chan back and forth, cooing down at her. Chiaki imagined she was easily picturing her and Tanaka-kun's baby there, only a few months away now. "Who's a good girl? Who's an adorable baby for Sonia-basan? You are! Yes, you are!"

"Oh!" Tsumiki-san gasped. "Oh, um…c-could I be Mikan-basan? Oh, that's not formal enough, is it? Mikan-obasan? Er…"

"We all agreed our kids could call us 'aunt' and 'uncle' if we wanted," Hajime commented, eyebrow arching. "I don't see the reason to reiterate that."

The Ultimate Nurse blushed. "W-Well, I figured I should ask, just in case you changed your mind…I'm sorry!" Her spine bent, deepened into a bow.

"Tsumiki, no, I've told you before, you don't need to apologize for everything. It's fine—"

"Hey, think I can get her to call Saionji 'oba-san'? She wants to be 'nee-san', she'll be furious—"

"Please forgive me!"

"Soda-san, it is most impolite to make implications about a woman's age! Desist at once!"

"There's nothing to forgive—"

"Whaaaaaat? But Sonia-san, it'll be funny—"

"I think I'll take my leave and tell the next group to come in, shall I?" Komaeda-kun asked brightly, and wisely made his escape right as the noise level amplified, several different conversations going on at once. Shiori-chan, who had been quiet this entire time, finally started crying, distinctly displeased by all the loud sounds that had ruined her peaceful atmosphere.

Kuzuryu-kun snorted, taking Shiori-chan from Sonia-san without notice. "Welcome to the family, kiddo," he sighed.

"There's no leaving once you're part of it," Chiaki agreed, smiling.

And I wouldn't want to for all the world.

A/N: Shut up and let me have my guilty pleasure kid fic.