Everchanging

First Christmas

!!TW!! Very vague thoughts on abuse/SA

To be entirely honest, Urokodaki didn't know what to expect. He had heard about his son's new boyfriend and the whole family was buzzing around in preparation for the new arrivals. The father was sure he would like the man, he trusted Giyuu's intuition. But it seemed that Sabito and Tsutako were anticipating the younger brother's arrival more than the boyfriend. Which was odd to say the least.

"How old is the boy, you said?" He hummed towards his eldest daughter, taking a deep breath to smell the aroma of food in the kitchen.

"Sixteen, I'm pretty sure." Tsutako smiled, handing her father an oven mitt as a beep filled the room. "He's a sweet kid, you'll like him. He is pretty skittish, though."

"That's fine. I've dealt with worse." He hasn't been told a whole lot about the Shinazugawas, but he had been keeping up with the news, so he knew at least a little. Their father was a monster, and that was putting it lightly. They had just been shoved into the worst, painful situation you could ever fathom, losing their siblings. However, as a father, Urokodaki couldn't stomach the entire court case. He had gotten just about as far as it took for Kyogo to take the stand, and then he couldn't bring himself to listen to what that man had to say. He had seen the lists of convictions and injuries he gave his second eldest, which was enough for Urokodaki.

But it was odder that Tsutako told Mahiro and Makomo to keep a healthy distance from the teen. Of course, she had worded it more gracefully, but that was what she meant. Sure, it could be that the kid was shy, but Urokodaki hadn't been told to steer clear. Only the girls were, which was confusing.

And that didn't even touch on how his other son was acting currently. Typically, you couldn't get Sabito to shut up, but now he was silently watching the door as if counting down the seconds until the rest of the arrivals. Whenever Tsutako went over how to treat the boy, Sabito became a little green in the face like the fact that the girls had to not crowd the child sickened him. Which didn't settle Urokodaki's stomach any.

See, he had worked as a detective for a long while. He had gotten just about every case you could imagine, so it didn't take super long to arrive at some theories for the warnings. And he knew that Sabito had just finished with a case that significantly rattled him, refusing to speak about any of it whatsoever. The two were definitely connected, Urokodaki was sure.

Fear of women, history of abuse, needing bodily space from girls alone. Urokodaki knew what those pointed to, but he wouldn't arrive at any conclusions. It wasn't his place to, so he would just take it as he went. He just wished that he didn't startle the teen any.

Speaking of which, the doorbell chimed through the home and Sabito flinched at the sound. But it was Makomo who was moving to open the door.

"Makomo, I'll get it." Sabito grabbed his little sister's hand, giving her a sweet smile as he slipped by. The girl huffed, stepping back to look at Tsutako.

"I wanted to get it."

"Maybe next time, Mako." Mahiro laughed, her smile brightening when her daughter scrunched her nose up in humor.

The door was opened completely, blasting the home with snowy air to make everyone shiver but it seemed like Sabito was immune to it, raising a brow at his brother. Giyuu stared blankly at the other for only a moment before he smiled at his brother.

"You're late."

"Couldn't figure out what to wear." Giyuu shrugged, nudging the other two inside gently and finally Urokodaki got a good look at the new arrivals. They couldn't deny their relation to one another, looking so identical that it was charming. The white-haired one was turned around to guide the taller one to stand directly beside him and Urokodaki was stunned at how big his violet eyes were, taking in the home around him. "Hi, dad."