Forever With You

“Oh, thank god!” Prince Tsuki exclaimed as he hurried over with Yuki in his arms. “You’re both alright! We were worried, Yacchan!”
“I’m sorry, your highness,” she dipped a curtsy, and then another when Prince Kuroo came over with Haru. “Someone wouldn’t let me leave without her Very Important stuffy.”
The two of them gazed at her child fondly, sound asleep with her tear-stained face, snotty nose, and her stuffy practically squashed between her baby and her chest. Prince Tsuki reached over to play with a little curl of blonde hair.
“I’m glad you’re both okay,” he said softly. “We’ll let you get settled in the nursery before unleashing the boys on you, if that’s alright?”
“Thank you, your highness,” she curtsied again. “Am I keeping them overnight, or…”
“Up to you. You know how they can be.”
Hitoka smiled as she gazed at two worried little faces. It looked like she had her mind made up for her already. Chuckling softly, she nodded.
“Just let me put Aiko down for a nap, and I’ll get their futon ready.”
“Wait a sec,” she heard Eita’s baritone interrupt quietly. Hitoka turned around to face him, smiling. “When was the last time you ate?”
As if on cue, her stomach growled, and she flushed so hard, averting her eyes with embarrassment. Eita chuckled and then looked behind her at his friends.
“Think you can spare us some time for her to get settled and eat something?”
Hitoka grinned and ruefully shook her head. Prince Tsuki looked bemused, and Prince Kuroo raised an eyebrow.
“It’s fine, Eita,” she said, gaining a surprised smile from him, and then turned to find two pairs of princely eyebrows raised in astonishment. “I can still put her in her cradle, and spend time with the boys.” When they didn’t respond right away, she tilted her head, befuddled. “What?”
“Oh, nothing. Nothing at all,” Prince Kuroo said, taking hold of his husband’s arm and pulling him back. “You two go do what you need to do. We can keep the boys for the rest of the day.”

Hitoka watched as the pair made their way back to their suite, playing with their sons to distract them, all while Prince Kuroo whispered something into Prince Tsuki’s ear. The door started closing, but not before Prince Tsuki turned and winked at them with a look of complete understanding. Though, she wasn’t exactly sure what he understood at all. She was about to turn back to Eita, when she found him standing next to her.

“What was that about?” she asked him. Her heart skipped a beat when she felt his hand settle at the small of her back.
“I can only guess,” he replied, walking with her as they went to the nursery.

She walked in and went straight to the cradle, carefully settling her daughter inside. Noticing Eita watching her, she suggested he sit down for a bit while she puts her things away. Instead, he left to go speak with someone, and then came back into the room. Since they were only supposed to be down here for a few days, she was nearly done with putting her and Aiko’s stuff away. What she was currently pondering was the stuff she’d brought for the kids.

“Need some help?” Eita asked quietly, just a few steps away. Hitoka had to keep herself from squealing.
“You startled me!” she chided him, though she was grinning. “I was just trying to figure out where all this,” she indicated the toys, blankets, and other accoutrements, “needs to go.”
His eyes widened a bit and he exhaled dramatically, looking at everything like it was some sort of monumental task, and making her giggle like a smitten school girl with the boy she had a huge crush on. Which wasn’t that far from the truth, really.
“Well, if we split it, maybe Tetsu and Kei will take some of this to their room?”
“Maybe. Though, I’m not sure if they will.”
“Why not?”
“They need their rest to be able to run the principality and chieftancy with clear heads, especially now with the storm raging around us. Besides, I usually have the boys with me most of the time, anyway.”
“No wonder they call you mama,” he teased. “Well, then, I guess we got our work cut out. Let’s do what we can,” he said, moving past her and picking up a few toys. “Got a toy box handy?”
“Over in the corner,” she laughed, gathering up more toys.

~*~

“You mean to tell me you’ve only been Grand Duke for five years?” Hitoka exclaimed as they finished folding the spare blankets and towels. She looked at him like she couldn’t believe a word he just said.
Eita chuckled, felt his face heat with a flush and rubbed a hand on the back of his neck “Yeah. And to be honest, I never thought I’d inherit. It still feels surreal. I mean, I only ever thought I’d take over for my dad at his music shop, not be the Grand Duke.”

He watched her face as she processed what he just told her. Her eyebrows scrunched up adorably as she tried to think of more questions.

“I thought the line descended from Washijo?”
“It does, or rather, it did. The Washijo line was the trunk of the tree, you could say. Good memory.”
She blushed and shrugged. “My mom loved telling me about the Grand Dukes of Shiratorizawa. Sometimes, she’d make the story into a game and we’d dress up. I remember her calling me her little duchess sometimes, but that was just part of the story.”
“Now I wish I’d met you when we were kids,” he said. “I bet you were adorable dressed up all fancy.” Plus, he couldn’t lie to himself and wonder what her mother knew of their family history.
Hitoka smiled gently. “Just my ballerina outfit, complete with plastic gold crown and fairy wand, dancing with my mom and my favorite teddy bear.”
“Yeah, adorable.”
“Stop. I was just a little girl who liked to play princess, with a mom who indulged her.”

She didn’t say anymore about it, and seemed a bit melancholy, too. Eita knew she still missed her mom terribly, so he quietly helped her put away the blankets and towels. The little glimpses of her past were like glittering pieces of gold. He normally wasn’t a greedy man, but with her… He wanted more. And he’d seen the curiosity in her eyes, wanting to know more about him, but unsure how to even ask.

A knock on the door startled them both, and they turned to see a maid bringing in a tray loaded with their lunch, and Taichi behind her with another tray of drinks.

“Let's eat,” he suggested, waving a hand toward the table where their meal was being set out.
“Okay, I’ll just get Aiko.”
“She’s finally awake?” The last time he’d looked, baby girl was still snoozing away in her cradle.
“Not too long ago. Be right back.”
“Okay.”

Eita panicked briefly. He didn’t think to ask for anything for the baby, and a quick glance at the table showed him they didn’t have anything that could be mashed up for her. He looked up at his advisor, who smirked at him, and whispered something to the maid. She curtsied and left. At that moment, Hitoka came back with her daughter, happily gurgling around several fingers in her mouth. And holding her teddy bear.
When she saw him, she held out two chubby arms and screeched merrily, surprising everyone. Eita glaced at Hitoka, who grinned and handed Aiko over to him.

“Guess she’s picked out a new favorite person,” she said as she sat down in the chair Taichi pulled out for her. “Thank you, uuhhmmm…?”
“Kawanishi, ma’am. But you can call me Taichi.”
“Thank you, Taichi,” she repeated with a smile.
“My pleasure,” he answered, and then blinked as if shaking himself from a spell. He covered his little faux pax up by moving the high chair closer to Eita. “My apologies for not bringing anything for the baby. I’ve already sent for something softer.”
“Thank you,” Hitoka said again, brightening up. “She can have a few solid foods. She loves scrambled eggs, and little pieces of bread.”

Hitoka smiled at him, remembering their breakfast the other day. Eita scanned the table quickly, and found bread. He tried not to make it look like he was desperate for it to cover a mistake she didn’t know he made. Breaking up the bread into baby sized pieces, he made sure Hitoka was good with them, and then handed a piece to Aiko. At first, she just stared at his offering with those big blue eyes of hers, and for a moment, he was afraid she’d push it away with a chubby hand, refusing to take food from someone who wasn’t her mother.

But then, she snatched the little chunk of bread from his hand and stuffed it into her mouth, chomping away at it. Eita sighed internally. He didn’t even know why this was so nerve-wracking. He’d been the one to take care of Aiko (with a little help from Kiyoko) while Hitoka was recovering from her panic attack. But even then, he knew Hitoka wasn’t watching him take care of her baby. Now, she was. When he looked at her across the table, her smile was gentle, almost wistful. He could honestly say he’d never felt so relieved in his life until this very moment.

“You look so surprised,” she giggled as Taichi set a bowl of soup and another roll in front of her. “Oh! Thank you, Taichi. You didn’t have to. I can serve myself.”
“Don’t worry about it, ma’am,” he said with a little wave of his hand. “It’s part of my job.”
“Hey, Taichi?” Eita looked at his friend. “I think we can manage.”
“But, your grace! As your attendant, I must…”
“Taichi?”
“Yeah?”
“Get out.”
“Fine. I’ll just go keep Kenjiro company or something.”
“You do that.”
The maid came back with a warm bottle of formula for Aiko, and a bowl of what looked like mashed carrots.
“For young mistress Aiko,” he said grandly, giving both to Hitoka before bowing his way out behind the maid.
Eita watched his friend go with fond exasperation, and then returned his attention to Hitoka, who looked like she was caught between amusement and confusion. She was just so expressive, it was hard not to sit there and watch her face. Stifling a laugh, he coughed politely and then tried to school his features.

“Are you always like that with him?” Hitoka finally asked, passing him the bowl of mashed carrots and a baby spoon. “She won’t eat it all,” she told him.
Eita grinned, put a bib around Aiko’s neck, and started feeding her. “We’re friends,” he explained. “Practically grew up together. His family has always served as advisors, or counselors, so when I was invested as Grand Duke, naturally I thought of Taichi to serve in that capacity.”
“Ah. But… he wasn’t with you at dinner last night?”
“That was Kenjiro, my newest advisor. Takes his job way too seriously, but he’s good at it, so we just end up teasing him.”
Hitoka smiled. She was about to say something else, but ended up nodding at her daughter. “I think she’s finished.”
“Yeah. She isn’t so much eating as she is trying to make mashed carrot art,” he quipped, regarding the tray of the high chair currently decorated in orange smears and tiny handprints.
“I’ll go get a washcloth,” she said quietly and left the table.

Eita placed the nearly empty bowl and baby spoon on the table, and grabbed a few paper towels to wipe up what he could of the mess. Including the baby, who was giggling all the way through it. Then, he had the brilliant idea of taking her out of the high chair and away from the mess, but somehow managed to forget he didn’t fully clean her hands, and forgot to take off the bib. When Hitoka came back, he had to watch her fight not to laugh too much.