A/N: I got a little hyped up about the Birthday Bash and started writing the prompts that I was hoping would win the vote. I used the logic that even if my votes lost, I could always just post the 'extra' fics later.
This is later.
This is the distant epilogue to All I Have Needed.
18. The Joys of Parenthood
"Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you!" rang through the corridors in a long joyous echo from the kitchen of the von Gikkingen manor.
"Happy birthday, little Natsu! Happy birthday to… you!" was sung out by everyone who could crowd into the large kitchen.
Well, nearly everyone. Haru had contented herself with signing the words while gazing happily at her baby sister who was smiling and slapping her tiny hands on the tray of her booster chair.
Muta couldn't resist the chance to press a kiss against his baby's red-brown hair while setting a tiny slice of Nirvana pie in front of her. "Have fun with your mess, pumpkin."
Natsu squealed with delight as her hand splatted the slice into purple mush, but at least she was bringing the mess to her mouth. Then she started hyperventilating and almost bouncing in her booster chair with glee in her large brown eyes.
"I see good taste runs in the family," Baron couldn't keep from laughing as he gave his wife a gentle squeeze around the shoulders.
All Haru could do was nod and lean against him in perfect contentment.
"You won't sing, even for your sister's birthday, my lady?" Alanna asked with disapproval from her place next to Matthew.
"She's fine," Baron wasted no time defending while covering Haru's open ear with his gloved hand.
"She's more than fine," Muta added just as hastily with an apologetic grin to his older daughter as he continued cutting and setting slices of Nirvana pie onto plates for everyone else to enjoy, starting with Toto's children and the two cats waiting patiently on the table. "The only time I want her singing is in emergencies."
"Thank heaven," Lune moaned before enthusiastically licking at his slice of pie. "I think my ears are still ringing from last year."
Haru couldn't resist a wicked giggle as Baron winced at the memory, and for more reasons than the horrible screeching he remembered.
Muta was remembering that night as well as Haru translated that statement for those who had not visited the Cat Kingdom and permanently gained the ability to talk to cats. He could distantly hear an appreciative laugh from most of the humans in the room but couldn't make himself care.
That… horrible, dreadful time when he had almost lost the second love of his life. He looked down at Natsu, once again overwhelmed by the heavy resemblance between her and her older sister as she made a bigger mess of herself and her first birthday dessert.
He had never gotten to do this with Haru. He had been on the other side of the planet for the first seventeen years of her life. Her first steps, her first word, the first chance to whip that Kamui brat for harassing his daughter her first day in kindergarten… he had literally missed out on everything.
Naoko gently removed the pie server from his hand before he knew what she was up to. "Paul, could you take over serving the pie?" she asked with a weak smile.
The other cook must have seen the look on Muta's face, because he took the server without question and gently shooed his friend away from the most convenient place to serve up his famous pie.
Naoko was gentle but insistent as she gripped her husband's arm and led him out of the kitchen and down a few doors into a broom closet to keep their conversation private.
Muta couldn't help a reminiscing smile at the small space as she closed the door behind them. "This brings back memories."
Naoko couldn't help grinning as she turned to face him. "As I remember, we would have started kissing if that custodian didn't need floor cleaner."
Muta laughed as his eyes faded over a thousand miles away. "It was one way to help you avoid another date with that creep. We really should have seen 'us' coming."
Naoko beamed up at him with so much love. "I was already hoping by then that it would." Then she reached up with both hands to cradle his face between them. "Honey, we were both stupid back then. I know it's hard to let go of all the mistakes we made, but we need to. For our daughters if not for us."
His shoulders slumped in depression. "She needed me. Wanted me. Wished I would show up and take her and you away probably every day of her life."
Naoko looked down and adjusted her hold to as much of his middle as her arms could handle. "But I'm the one that knew it and said nothing. Not even after she slipped those papers into the mail." She closed her eyes and rested her forehead against him. "I think it took me a month to look Haru in the eye after that."
Muta couldn't resist the need to take his wife into his arms and hold her close. "… I just feel so guilty. Changing Natsu's diapers, helping her eat, cradling her to sleep every night. Haru never got that from me."
"Isn't it wonderful that she isn't the jealous type?" Naoko breathed happily as she rubbed her face against her husband's chest. "She's already told us repeatedly that she's glad Natsu isn't getting her childhood, and…" The red-headed woman chewed her lower lip in frustration before forcing herself to say the next part.
"Haru turned out surprisingly well, all things considered. Her painting career is thriving, she's happily married into a good family-"
"Still not happy that he's our age," Muta grumbled under his breath.
"But he is good to her," Naoko reminded him, clearly still not happy for the same reason her husband was. Then her lips twisted into a more genuine smile. "Plus she doesn't look half-bad as a werecat."
Muta had no choice but to agree on that point. "Her purr is definitely easier on the ears than her attempts to sing. Thank heaven Lune knew a way to lessen the pain of their transformations. I just couldn't take it if I knew she was screaming in pain two to four times a month. I don't care how soundproof her rooms with Baron are. I would know, and it would just…"
Naoko nodded before getting on her tiptoes to kiss him. He had to lean over to still make it work, but he never complained about needing to.
"Haru insists that she's moved on. We should follow her example."
Muta tiredly nodded, giving his wife one more hug before maneuvering her just enough so that he could open the door. "We'd better head back. We still want to look everyone in the eye after today, so no making out in the broom closet when people will come looking for us if we don't return."
"Oh, poo," she half-jokingly pouted, hugging him like she never wanted to let go.
The huge cook had to say that he was feeling a lot better as he and his wife walked back to the kitchen. He still felt guilty, naturally, but Naoko was right. Haru had moved on and was all the stronger for it. Even though he would have sacrificed a limb to have been a better protector to her, Muta was beyond proud that his oldest daughter was so firm about rejecting the 'damsel in distress' role that more than one creep had tried to force on her.
Almost everyone had a slice of pie by the time Muta and Naoko returned to the kitchen. Their hearts could only swell with joy when they saw Haru very carefully using a spoon to scrape the excess pie off her sister's face.
"One of the greatest commandments is 'thou shalt not waste good food'," she informed Natsu lovingly as the baby happily opened her mouth wide for the pie scrapings.
Baron was watching from barely two feet away, holding his wife's plate as well as his own as he patiently waited to eat with her. But there was a certain ache in his own eyes, one that wished there had been a chance for Haru to behave like this with a child of their own.
Despite the young Cat King's efforts, he hadn't been able to reverse that damage his kinscat had inflicted.
"We can take over that, Chicky," Muta offered, but Haru shook her head stubbornly as she scraped what she could off of the booster seat's tray.
"Eat your own pie. I've wanted to do this for a sibling since I was younger than Tanya."
"I'm not that young! I'm seven now," Toto's small daughter pouted as she tried to keep her messy two-year-old brother from her slice of pie.
"You're young enough," Haru informed her niece with a loving smile over her shoulder before returning to her baby sister.
Muta couldn't help but feel his chest swell with pride again as he and his wife also took a plate each of his famous pie. He couldn't help feeling grateful for this recipe. It had landed him this safe haven from the Jirashi family when they tried to wreck his happiness after he finally wizened up, and it was the same one that had won him the contest that had been in Naoko's papers for her to contact him.
That made him stop cold while licking his fork from the first bite. "Chicky?" he asked out of nowhere. "Where did you find the article on the baking contest to slip your mother?"
Haru blinked and looked up at him as she tried to wipe off her sister with a damp cloth. "I thought I told you."
"Actually, dear, that was me," Baron reminded her with a gentle smile.
"And me," Yuki added while licking her plate clean as her own husband did the same.
Haru thought that over before nodding. "Yeah, you're both right. Mom and Dad never asked before now. Hey, Mom, didn't you find it suspicious that I was working on a school report about England at about the same time you got those papers seven years ago?"
Naoko flinched guiltily. "I didn't pay attention to it before the papers, but yes, I noticed."
Their daughter's smile turned a little mischievous as she pressed a kiss to her sister's head. "Have you ever noticed when surfing the internet that sometimes random things that have nothing to do with your search pop up?"
Naoko made a comprehending sound as a few of the other people in the room gave scattered noise of agreement.
Spilling a handful of dry cereal on the tray to keep Natsu busy while she enjoyed her own slice of pie, Haru rejoined her husband and took the plate he offered her. "Of course, if I had known how long you were going to delay contacting him, I'd have marched myself to a pay phone and said something like 'Hi, I'm the daughter Muta doesn't know he has. Would you please get him on the phone so I can let him know how miserable my mom and I are without him?'" Haru gave a long sigh as Baron wrapped a comforting arm around her. "I bet you used a pay phone to call him. That jerk probably had both of our phones bugged before the salesman even handed them over, and he didn't have anything prepared to stop Dad from taking us here."
Naoko nodded as her face became clouded with guilt and shame.
Seven years. That was seven years he could have had his little girl instead of two. Muta ruefully concluded that his wife hadn't put things behind her as confidently as she had been trying to tell him. His hands were full of pie and fork as were hers, so he settled for nuzzling her soft red hair with one cheek to remind her that things hadn't turned out so bad, all things considered.
They were all together for this special day, for one thing. That in itself was nothing short of a miracle.