Chapter 2
"I'm home," Shouta calls as he enters his apartment, toeing his shoes off in the entryway.
"Papa!" he hears from the other room before he's almost bowled over by an energetic child.
"Hey Er-bear," he says fondly, bending down to hug her. "Did you have a good time with Kaede-san today?"
"Mm-hmm!" she says with a grin. "She did my hair!"
"She did," Shouta says approvingly, looking at her dark hair pulled back in an artfully done fishtail braid. Looks like some braiding tutorials are in his future. "It looks very pretty. Did you say thank you?"
"Yeah!" Eri says, nodding.
She continues to chatter on about her day as Shouta hangs up his coat, and it cheers him to see her so lively. She was so quiet when he first took her in, scared that the man she'd been running from would find her again. But with a little hair dye she looks like she could be his actual daughter, and although it took some time, she's now smiling and laughing like a kid her age should.
It helps that Shouta can tell her with absolute certainty that the man who'd been chasing her can't hurt her, can't hurt anybody anymore.
"Thank you for looking after her," he says to the older woman sitting on his couch. "I really appreciate it."
"Of course," his neighbor, Hanabusa Kaede says, a smile stretching her wrinkled face. "We have fun together, don't we Eri-chan?"
She's been an absolute godsend, watching Eri during the day when Shouta has work. Her youngest grandchild is in high school now, so he thinks she's just happy for the company of a child. He's certainly happy not to have to shell out for daycare; Kaede-san insists on not accepting any payment so although it hurts his pride a bit, Shouta's just taken the gesture of goodwill as is.
"Would you like to stay for dinner?" he asks.
"Oh, thank you for the offer dear," she says. "I have my book club tonight though, so I'm afraid I'll have to decline." Eri clambers up on the couch to give her a hug goodbye so she doesn't have to lean down, and then Shouta makes sure she gets to her apartment down the hall without any problems.
"Did you have a good day at work?" Eri asks as Shouta starts getting dinner together. The kitchen is too small for her to watch him cook without getting underfoot, especially when he's using the stove, so she perches on a chair just outside it.
"It was all right," Shouta replies as he gets out the ingredients he needs for stir-fry. "Do you want rice or noodles?"
"Rice," Eri decides after a moment, and Shouta measures out what they need for the rice cooker. For a five year old she's surprisingly not very picky about food, though Shouta wonders if that's a holdover from wherever she was living before. She especially likes apples, so he adds one to the produce to wash.
It's short work to chop everything up, though he's careful not to go too quickly so as not to scare Eri. She likes to watch him cook but doesn't like knives, so he makes sure she can see where it is when he's handling it. She giggles when he gives her a couple of apple chunks and he eats one himself, smiling back at her.
"Loud noise," Shouta warns before he drops the diced pork in the pan. It sizzles loudly, smoke rising immediately, but aside from an initial flinch, Eri doesn't react to it. "Everything okay?" he asks to make sure.
"Mm-hmm," she replies with a little nod, and he hands her another apple chunk as reward.
After cooking through, the pork gets put in a dish to the side while Shouta adds the chopped broccoli and carrot to the pan. After a couple of minutes he adds the apple, moving the ingredients around to make sure they get evenly crisped and not burned. Once everything looks almost done he adds the meat back in for the last couple of minutes and covers the pan to let the flavors mix just in time for the rice cooker to ding that it's done.
For his own dish he puts everything into one bowl, but for Eri he serves the rice separately with a spoon so she can eat all of it. The rest of the ingredients Shouta's cut to be just the right size for her to take a crack at with her chopsticks, but the rice is just a bit too small for her to get the last grains.
The tiny noises of enjoyment she makes as she eats warm his heart as much as the food warms his stomach.
"Kaede-obaasan asked about my mommy today," Eri says apropos of nothing after they've finished dinner and Shouta's putting the dishes in the dishrack to dry.
Shouta doesn't quite freeze, but it's close. "What did she ask?" he asks, careful not to let the worry he's feeling show in his voice.
"What she looked like, what she was like." Eri frowns a little. "She asked what you liked about her."
Oh, he thinks with relief. Just matchmaking then. Though considering he never actually met Eri's mother, that last bit would be rather difficult to answer. "What did you tell her?"
Eri shrugs. "I don't really remember her. Grandpa took care of me after she left, so I told her that." She rests her head against Shouta's leg, her little fingers clenched in the fabric of his pants. "I miss him."
He lays a hand on her head, brushing softly. "I know," he says. "I'm sorry."
"I wish you were actually my Papa," Eri says quietly.
"Sure I am," Shouta said, kneeling down in front of her. "Might've been a bit weird how we got here, but so far as anyone else is concerned I am your dad." Well, anyone barring the law that is, but he's working on it.
Eri hugs him tightly around the neck, and Shouta isn't surprised to feel wetness on his shoulder as he wraps an arm around her back while he cradles her head with his other hand.
"It's okay sweetheart," he murmurs, rocking back on his heels. "It's okay, I've got you. I've got you."
Hitoshi lets out a short huff as they finally get back to the office building serving as headquarters, the only outward sign of emotion he's allowed himself all afternoon.
He's been itching since they left the café to call Hizashi and tell him what happened, who he'd found, but no one knows that the two of them have a third soulmate; hell, the fact the two of them are soulmates isn't something they advertise to anyone outside a trusted few. In their line of work that's the sort of thing that can easily be used against you, and Hitoshi isn't about to air their secrets to just anyone passing by who could overhear.
When they'd first met, Hizashi hadn't told anyone beyond the head of the Yuuei group exactly why he was bringing a seventeen year old in under his wing. Everyone else was told that he owed it to someone he knew to take care of the kid, but Nezu, who had a faded badger outlined in grey on his arm, understood exactly why Hizashi wanted to keep the information need to know.
Hitoshi had been resentful at first, of Hizashi, of the situation, of the universe itself. But eventually his temper had cooled, and he'd resolved to make the best of the turn his life had taken. The ink covering his left arm and shoulder is proof of the strength of that resolve, of his commitment to the path he's chosen.
The building isn't nearly as tall as the headquarters back in Musutafu, but it's still a bit of a wait for the elevator to get to the second topmost floor – alone, his shadows dismissed. He doesn't need an audience for this.
"Boss," he says as he closes the office door behind him, his tone polite and deferential, but the smile curling around the word is small and intimate.
Hizashi returns the smile if not the greeting, the corded desk phone tucked between his cheek and shoulder as he jots something down. "Sounds good," he says to whoever is on the other end. "Yeah, next Friday should work."
Hitoshi comes to a stop at the edge of the desk, where he busies himself fiddling with the bowl of paperclips there. He has a chain of about fifteen made when the phone call ends.
"What are you doing?" Hizashi asks, rhetorical but with a hint of laughter as he takes the bowl away.
"Keeping myself occupied," Hitoshi replies. "You know how my hands get when left... idle." He lets his eyes wander over Hizashi, appreciatively taking in the long sleeved white shirt with the top two buttons freed. His hair is pulled back into a simple half updo, the kind that makes Hitoshi's fingers itch to undo so he can run his fingers through the long blond locks. "How's your day been?"
"Busy," Hizashi says, and relaxes back in his chair with a languid grace that tells Hitoshi his appraisal did not go unnoticed. "The final negotiations with the last bits of the Shie Hassaikai have finally been scheduled; this Saturday morning at a neutral location."
Hitoshi's eyes narrow. "I'm coming with you," he declares with no room for argument.
Hizashi grins crookedly. "Of course you are. I don't think it'll go badly, in any case. We have the upper hand and they have more to gain by meeting and negotiating with us in good faith than in laying any kind of trap."
Hitoshi gives a small hum of acknowledgment. It's a valid point, but people are stupid so he won't be letting his guard down regardless. He picks up the paperclip chain, starting at the end as he unhooks each link from the next. "I met someone today, during collection," he says, his manner almost confessional.
"Oh?" Hizashi says curiously, bright green eyes fixed on him as he sits up.
Nimble fingers carefully drop each paper clip back into the bowl. "Our soulmate."
"What?" The word comes out hushed. "You did? Where? Who?" The rising excitement in his voice and the awestruck grin on his face are contagious, and Hitoshi can't help his own little grin.
"He works at this dinky little café, The Daily Grind. About your age, I think. Dark hair, kinda scruffy." Hitoshi lets out a little breath of a laugh. "Looks as tired as I feel some days."
Hizashi lets out a bark of a laugh. "No one's as tired as you, hon." His gaze goes towards Hitoshi's right arm. "Did you...?"
"No." Hitoshi shakes his head. "Wouldn't have been right without you, and... well, he's a civilian. Affirming our marks in public could be dangerous for him."
He watches Hizashi's brows furrow, the excitement leaving his face for concern. "Shit. That could be a mess."
"How do you want to pursue this?" Pursue him, because whether or not they want him isn't up for debate. There'd been more than one long night spent tracing the dormant part of their marks on each other, wondering in hushed whispers what someone the universe deemed compatible with both of them would be like. Would they be a boy, a girl, neither, or maybe something in between? Who would they be closer to in age? What would their personality be like? Would they like cold or hot foods? Would they hog the blankets?
They're so close to getting answers.
"Carefully," Hizashi decides after a moment of quiet. "We don't want to scare him off, but I wouldn't feel right lying about who we are either."
Hitoshi nods. "Yeah. Do you want me to go back, test the waters?"
"I think a little research is in order first. You said he worked at the Daily Grind?" Hizashi opens one of the drawers and takes out a thick sheaf of file folders. "We have dossiers on the businesses we took over for collecting, there should be at least a list of employees for each one."
"Good place to start." Hitoshi pulls over one of the chairs from the side of the office to the desk. He takes a few of the folders, looking at the growing pile on the desk with disbelief and a little horror. "Please tell me we have some of this digitized."
"Haven't gotten around to it yet." Hizashi grunts as he opens another drawer. "The old Shie Hassaikai boss was a bit paranoid, didn't want the cops hacking them."
...okay, that was a fair concern.
Hitoshi sighs. Their soulmate had better appreciate all the hard work the two of them were putting in here.
A/N: Hitoshi, I don't think Shouta is going to appreciate any of this xD
You know for someone who doesn't like to cook I sure end up writing characters cooking and eating a lot xD;; This is a legit stir-fry too, you could make and eat this if you wanted.
I hope you enjoyed the chapter, let me know if you did! Eri being cute and ShinMic being cute were my fav parts to write; this fic is so fluffy compared to everything else I've been working on lately lol