(demon) in-law
Rasa liked a quiet home.
It was peaceful and after years of having a house with squabbling children and their obnoxious friends and unnecessary fights, he appreciated the peace and quiet. He loved his kids, hell if he'd admit it to their faces, but he was more than glad when they all eventually grew up and got the fuck out.
He was content with relaxing in his recliner and watching some TV show while his wife was out with her shrill friends. Sounded like a perfect afternoon to him.
And then his front door banged open.
Rasa resisted the urge to groan and simply slouched further into the buttery leather, listening as whoever just came in shucked their shoes off. Light footsteps. Couldn't be Karura since she just left so maybe his daughter. And while Temari was clearly his favorite (he didn't give a fuck that you weren't supposed to have favorites, Temari was an angel compared to her hard-headed ass brothers) he was still quite irritated to have his afternoon interrupted.
"Karura?"
Nope, that was definitely not his daughter. It was worse. It was his goddamn daughter-in-law.
That probably sounded like he disliked this particular daughter-in-law but that wasn't exactly true. He thought she had a big ass mouth and was bossy but he didn't really dislike her or anything. Even if she had been the first to boldly point out that he was a shitty father. That was all in the past though. They were good. Kind of.
"Karura?" Xin repeated and he noted a strain in her voice. Xin came flying around the corner at that moment, swinging into the living room like there was a fire lit under her ass.
"We gave you a key for emergencies, Xin," Rasa said instead of a proper greeting, slowly sitting up. When Rasa didn't want to deal with someone, he had a particular knack for simply ignoring them until they eventually went away. It sometimes worked with his kids and was always successful when used against his son-in-law.
It did not, however, work on the likes of Xin. There was something wrong with that girl, something wasn't wired right in her brain because Xin fuckin' refused to be ignored. Maybe it had something to do with her abysmal ass height. It was easy to be overlooked when you barely cleared five feet even.
"This is an emergency!" Xin snapped. There was definitely something panicky in her voice, he realized now that he was looking at her. She looked like she was going to have a panic attack any second.
"If it's an emergency, shouldn't you be harassing Gaara? Your husband?" To this day, he was still so very impressed that his youngest terror on the world had actually gotten married.
Usually the mere mention of his name was enough to put hearts in Xin's eyes. This time, it made her wig the fuck out. "Fuck no! He can't know about this!"
He was always surprised by the horrible language that came out of her. He remembered back when Gaara and Xin first started dating, how Temari described her as looking angelic in nature. It was true until she opened that fat mouth of hers.
"Language," Rasa sighed, though he knew it was useless. Xin only curved her crude mouth when Karura was around. "He can't know about what? What'd you do?"
Xin didn't immediately answer. "Karura isn't here?"
"She's not."
Xin faltered and looked down at her feet, her expression cloudy and troubled. He hadn't seen her so torn up since that brief breakup she and Gaara went through during the college years. Gaara had been absolutely insufferable.
Rasa squinted slowly at her. "Xin, did you cheat on my son?"
Obviously that was the wrong thing to ask because gone away was that troubled look of hers, replaced by white hot anger. "No? The fuck I look like?! Why the hell would you think that?"
"Because you're acting guilty, you moron."
Xin pouted because, okay, yeah, she was acting suspicious as fuck. "I'm not cheating on Gaara, you absolute menace to society. Do you know how long it took to get him to notice me? To take me seriously?"
He always found that a bit strange, that Xin was the one essentially vying for his son's attention. She came from one of those wealthy families and while Rasa and Karura weren't struggling or anything, Gaara was a bit of a troublemaker. What a rich girl like Xin wanted with his bonehead son was beyond Rasa.
"Two years!" She exploded when he didn't ask the necessary follow up question of how long. "It took damn near two years! I finally got that idiot to marry me and you think I'd cheat on him? You'll have to do better than that if you want to get rid of me, Rasa!"
He sighed and scrubbed roughly at his face. "My son might find your temper appealing and your ranting endearing but I don't."
"Ew, don't do that. You're my father-in-law. You aren't supposed to find anything about me appealing."
"I fuckin' don't, Xin, believe me. I don't."
She shot him a dirty look but said nothing in return, frowning instead. Something was wrong, that was obvious enough. Something really wrong if it humbled Xin enough to actually shut the fuck up longer than two seconds.
"Xin, I don't know how long until Karura will be back…" he trailed off, hoping she'd take the hint and get the fuck out ASAP.
She turned her big eyes on them. "You're a parent." She decided after a moment, throwing him for a loop.
"That's what it says on three different birth certificates." He leaned back into his recliner. For a moment, Xin stood there with a thoughtful look. Finally, she scurried over towards him, settling on the edge of the coffee table. She angled herself so that she was facing him and he knew whatever she wanted to talk about with Karura was now his responsibility.
"Were you happy when you and Karura had Temari?" She asked abruptly, throwing him for yet another loop. Too many fuckin' loops.
"Sure, once the panic settled."
"You panicked?"
Rasa shrugged a shoulder. "Xin, if we're going to have this strange ass conversation, I'm going to need a beer or something." She made a face but got up, hurrying into their kitchen to fetch his beer. He expected her to bring back one for herself too but she was carrying mango juice instead. Hm.
"I love my children," Rasa nodded his head in thanks when she passed the beer over. "I was not…ready for Temari but that didn't make a difference either way."
"You two were married though."
He snorted. "Barely. Kankuro…we were a little more prepared for him. Gaara…was….a pleasant surprise."
This time she snorted. "Did you just call the love of my life an oops baby?"
"I never said those exact words."
She grinned and then laughed. Rasa watched her patiently, accessing her strange mood, the panicked need to talk to Karura and then the very strange conversation they were now having. He sighed into his beer.
"You pregnant, Xin?"
She froze in place, lips tightening into a thin line. She avoided having to look at him, eyes dropping to her lap instead. "I…don't know."
"Xin, how the fuck—"
"My period is late but that happens, you know? With stress, sometimes it can be a little late." It sounded like she was trying her damned hardest to convince herself of that.
Strange conversation indeed.
"Sure, Xin. That could be it, stress," he shrugged languidly. If he learned anything from Karura and Temari, it was that antagonizing a woman when she was having a moment was a signed death certificate. "Did you take a test?"
"No…but I…have one," she nodded her head towards her abandoned purse.
He took a deep breath, exhaling loudly. He sighed in exasperation a lot when Xin was around. "Thought these sort of days were over for me. Let's go."
"Go? Where are we going?"
"You're taking a pregnancy test and then you're getting out of my house."
"You are fuckin' awful sometimes."
"Language, Xin."
Rasa hustled the young woman into their downstairs bathroom, leaning against the opposite wall. This was jarring, he thought, that he might be a grandfather. That just seemed…wrong. Well, he'd gotten his children through school and two out of the three were married, at least. It wasn't like it would be some big scandal.
"I…I can't do this."
"Xin, you just pee on the fuckin' stick. It's not rocket science."
"For shit's sake. Not that. I mean..what if it's actually positive?"
"Then in nine months, you'll be pushing a big headed child out of you and blaming Gaara for every horrible second."
She laughed. "I'd be so bad at parenting."
"How do you even know that? You haven't been one yet."
"You tell me I'm a bad person all the time."
"No, I say you're a tiny terror. Just take the damn test, Xin."
Six minutes later and the door swung open almost roughly. "Oh my fuckin' God! It's positive!" She screeched like a disgruntled bird. Tears began to gush down her cheeks and Rasa recoiled like she burned him.
"Shut the hell up, Xin. Jesus Christ."
"Fuck, what am I going to do? Gaara is going to freak. We're too young for this, aren't we? What if he doesn't want a child? Oh my God, what if he fuckin' divorces me?!"
"Xin—"
"I swear to God, if he thinks he's going to leave me, he's got another thing coming. He'll see a new casket before he sees a new bitch!"
He snorted because that was a good one. For all her faults, he could admit that Xin was a funny individual. Psychotic, maybe but still hilarious. At least, when her erratic moods are directed at someone else.
"Calm down and shut up. He's not leaving you."
"How do you even know that?!"
"Because he loves you, Xin. Jesus."
Her expression crumpled and he feared she'd start hyperventilating. He could not deal with this shit, this was too much. It was not his fuckin' job to comfort this little demon from Hell. Besides, he didn't even have the sort of skill level for this meltdown. Karura and Temari were never this fuckin' emotional and erratic. Must be the Hyuga in her. He knew that family was fuckin' nuts.
"Calm down. I'm going to call Gaara and tell him you're here."
"What? Why?!"
"Were you not going to tell him?" He deadpanned.
"…."
"Right, because I'm sure he won't notice when your belly starts to grow or anything."
"Don't be mean, I'm pregnant."
"Get out."
Gaara was rightfully disturbed to find out that Xin was at his parents house. With Rasa. She got along well with Karura and would often make time to go visit her and hang out for a while.
She did not hang out with Rasa.
If Rasa happened to be home while she went to see Karura, then of course she'd greet him and speak to him. They got along well enough, he guessed. But Xin had a knack for saying whatever the hell she wanted and Rasa didn't always appreciate that from her. Especially since she once called him a shit dad.
Good times, good times.
Upon arriving, he was not expecting to find Xin curled up in his father's favorite chair, arms wrapped around her knees. Tear stains tracked down her cheeks, smudging the makeup he watched her apply that morning. Rasa stood over her, one hand holding a beer while the other rested on the crown of her head.
"You made her cry? The fuck?" Gaara stormed over, startling Xin.
"I didn't make her cry. This is more so your fault."
"My fault? How the hell is this my fault? What'd you say to her?"
"Nothing that isn't true."
"What the fuck does even mean?"
"Um—"
Gaara remembered that Xin was actually present. He looked down at her, frowning. She was twitching but stilled when Rasa patted her on the head. That was fuckin' bizarre. Rasa sighed and pulled his hand back. "I'm going to go….fix a kitchen drawer or something." Ridiculous. This was his fuckin' house.
The two stared after the older man but Xin cleared her throat, shifting nervously. "Um. You remember that one time we were intimate and I—uh—called you Daddy?"
Something clattered in the kitchen, followed shortly by Rasa swearing.
Gaara squinted at her. The fuck did that have to do with anything? "Yes…?"
"Okay and remember how you kind of liked it?"
"…Uh-huh…"
"Well, do I have some news for you."
And news it was.
TeeBeMe: ModernAU Rasa and Xin would definitely be frenemies. Strictly ModernAU though, any other timeline, Xin would be at Rasa's neck if he weren't deceased.