Diary of a Father

Sleepless Nights

The babies awoke during the night for the third time, and groans came from every bedroom that the priests slept in. Fujimoto last told them that if it happens again to let them be, there's nothing wrong with crying as long as it's not from being hurt. So all waited and clutched their pillows over their heads for the babies to cry themselves back to sleep. After fifteen minutes feeling much longer, the cries were silenced. They all let out a sigh of relief and began to relax again, however the worry of 'what if' crept into their minds and all at once they were all awake and peeking out their door and traveled down the hall to the room that held the babies, and looked inside. Shiro had the babies nestled in his arms rocking slowly on the rocking chair.

"Are they okay??" They asked.
"They just don't want to be alone." He whispered softly not to wake them and half asleep himself. The warmth they shared soothed and brought him to fall into a light sleep with them cuddled on his chest. Everyone else finally went back to bed.

For many nights they lost sleep switching about to care for the children but none more than Shiro, always being first called when diapers needed changed. During the day he had a hard time staying awake while filing the bills of the monastery and keeping up with sermon skipping out on a few turns and would stay behind the seats at confession and began to drift off to sleep while listening to the people who would come in and talk. Which later he pretended to know everything they said and passed them along with carefully worded suggestions to make them feel he had listened. Finally when all was said and done after work and he made it back to the living quarters to the further back of the monastery. It was quiet, and all he wanted was to crash into his bed, but he's fallen into the habit of checking on the two new children in their crib. Two pairs of shining blue eyes stared up at him and their small hands extended forward their tiny fingers grabbing at the air. He extended his hand down and let them grab his fingers holding in their tight grip and made cooing noises while flailing their legs.

"Look at my little peanuts." Shiro smiled wiggling his finger in their hands. Rin pulled his finger closer and popped it in his toothless mouth. "Ah someone's hungry." He withdrew his hand part of his finger covered in drool and searched for the bottle they hadn't finished their last feeding.
'Hmm you know what would be nice... If I could hire a 'wet nurse' to feed these guys. They'd benefit from natural breast milk and I'd just have a nice big breasted woman around for a while!~' he joked with himself and brought a bigger smile to his face while he held hungry Rin feeding him the bottle. Yukio was silent for most of the while making babbles while squirming. Rin fell asleep his mouth stuck in the motion to suckle as Shiro pulled away the bottle and shifted him softly to pat his back but also found himself nodding off to sleep as well with the deep and steady breath of the warm baby in his arms. This time sleep was able to last from that time and most of the night, having to wake at three in the morning to unite the twins in the crib once more as Yukio began to fuss with having such a big space to himself. This time Shiro met the pillow of the bed his hand reached up to his face only forgetting what for and fell back asleep within the seconds of trying to remember, that he'd meant to take his glasses off.

T.B.C