THAT HOLE IN HER HEART | KURAPIKA ❀

ii. father

TWO

"Mommy!! Daddy you need to get up!" The bed shifted and two feet at the end of the bed were jumping up and down on my legs.

I opened my eyes, placing my hand over my face as the sunlight from outside the window got into my eyes. Rowan was on the end of the bed, jumping up and down.

"Rowan," Kurapika starts, sitting up and wrapping his arms around her. He lays back down with Rowan laying across his chest. "What did we say about jumping on the bed?"

"I don't remember." Rowan laughs.

"You woke up your mom, look." He sighs, pointing over to me.

"Sorry, mommy." I smile to myself. I could never be mad at her.

"Okay, well no more jumping. You'll hurt yourself." Kurapika sighs, tucking her hair behind her ears.

"You hungry, Rowan?" I ask, turning over to face the two.

"Yeah. I want a pancake. And then Daddy said he's taking me to the park."

I pushed myself out of bed, making my way down to the kitchen. Rowan liked her pancakes with chocolate chips on it and Kurapika liked his with fruit. The two of them always got along well, and it brought a warm feeling to my chest.

I poured the pancake batter onto the pan as I head occasional thumps and laughs from the room next door. Kurapika really is amazing with kids. I didn't really expect that with him. When I first met him, he was very quick tempered and often found himself in arguments with others. I'm glad now, that he's matured. I think Rowan had some part in helping him calm down.

The pancakes were done just a moment later, and I set them on the plates and made my way back to Kurapika and Rowan to get them to come eat. Upon entering the room, I found Rowan clipping her butterfly clips into Kurapika's hair. The blue butterfly clips made Kurapika look even more feminine than he already did, making me chuckle quietly to myself.

Kurapika's head snapped over to the door when he heard my voice. "This was her idea, I swear!"

"Mommy! Look how pretty he looks!" I picked Rowan up from the bed and she wrapped her arms around my neck. "I have more for you too, so you and daddy can match."

"We can do that after breakfast, I made you your pancakes."

I carried her back to the kitchen and Kurapika followed behind us, keeping the clips in his hair. Taking them out would only upset Rowan, and he couldn't upset his daughter. It was adorable to me how careful he was to not upset her.

I set her down in her seat, pushing her plate closer to her and passed some syrup over to Kurapika. I sat in the seat across from Kurapika and next to Rowan.

Kura's hand on the table slipped over to mine, taking my hand in his. "Ew!" Rowan stuck her tongue out. "Ew! You're holding hands. Don't even think about kissing in front of me."

"Why can't I kiss your mom?" Kura pouted. His emotions were always dramatic around Rowan. I had actually asked him about it once. He just told me he wanted to show her that when she experienced emotions, he wanted her to understand that it's something everyone gets from time to time and that it was okay for her to feel that. He was usually upfront with her when there was something upsetting him or something that made him really happy.

"Because kissing is in appropriate. And gross."

Kurapika leaned over the table, pecking my lips as Rowan let out a fake gag. She can make fun of our relationship all she wants, but she's the one romanticizing all the princess movies and always saying that I need to get her a pet frog so she can kiss it and get a prince out of it.

After finishing breakfast, I took all of the plates and placed them into the sink, preparing to wash them all so I wouldn't have to deal with them later. I was about to start before a pair of arms wrapped around my waist.

Kurapika rested his chin on top of my head. "I can do those for you."

"No, it's fine I can do this."

"No, seriously. I can do this so you can pick out Rowan's outfit. I don't really know how to dress her anyways."

"You sure, Kura?"

"Of course." I turned around to leave for Rowan, but his hand gripped onto my arm and pulled me back to him. His hand pushed my hair behind my ear and his fingers trailed down my face to cup my jaw. He pulled my face closer to his and placed a gentle kiss on my lips.

We separated and I walked back to Rowan's room as I could hear the water in the sink filling up.

"Let's find an outfit." I smile, crouching down beside Rowan. We stepped over to the closet and I asked her which shirt she was wanting to wear today. I picked the rest of the outfit for her. It was something childish and cute, but it was for her. She's only four years old anyway. There's no reason for her to dress like a millennial.

A couple moments later, we had walked to the park (which was only about a five minute walk from the house). We always went to the park with Rowan every Monday. Me and Kurapika sat at the bench, watching over her to make sure she didn't get hurt.

Kurapika's hand grabbed onto mine, rubbing circles over my knuckles. "It still feels like we just brought her home from the hospital." He sighs.

"Right." I laugh. "It's still so strange to me that she's able to speak in a full sentence. It went by way too fast."

There was an intense looming fear between me and Kurapika. Just like the phantom troupe from the past, someone could come and try to take Rowan's eyes from her. Rowan inherited the scarlet eyes from Kurapika, which could potentially danger her life later on down the road.

"I don't really want her fighting later on." I mutter to Kurapika.

"I don't want that either." He starts. "She may have to. I think she should, just in case. For now though, she's got us."

When we got back home, I felt a yawn coming in from my throat. Rowan woke me up early and I had a late night last night. Kurapika turned around to face me, noticing the yawn.

"Hey, (Name)." I looked up to him, raising my eyebrows. "Go take a nap. I can take care of Rowan for the afternoon. Ill try to keep her quiet for you."

I was far too exhausted to argue with him. "Thank you so much, Kura."

I walked down the hall, turning into our bedroom and climbing into bed, pulling the blankets up over my body. Nothing but warmth surrounded me now. My eyes grew heavy as I soon found myself falling asleep.

"Mom! Hey, wake up!"

I squinted my eyes open, only the dim light of my lamp illuminating Rowan standing in front of me.

"I overslept, can you drive me to school?"

WORD COUNT : 1224 words . . .