From Distant Lands - Juro's Return

Chapter Forty-Three

EIGHTEEN MONTHS LATER

"Oh you are the world's cutest baby" I croon to my niece, Ichika as she rests on my legs, staring up at me with eyes that are far more observant than I've come to expect from tiny humans. 

"She doesn't seem to care" Katsuki muses on the couch behind me, absently playing with my hair, and I frown. It's true. At just eight months old, Ichika is immensely disinterested in most things, and despite my attempts at amusing her, the kid rarely ever actually cracks a smile.

"She doesn't have to care for it to be true" I tell him, lightly tapping Ichika on the nose and smiling faintly when she blinks at me, a faint look of interest in her violet eyes. Katsuki chuckles a bit, fingers combing through my hair and lightly scratching against my scalp, making my skin tingle. 

For the last eighteen months, everything has been relatively quiet. After the death of Juro, most of the hero world fell back into a comfortable routine, and once I accepted the commission's offer, I was able to join it without much effort. 

The commission is tough, but the contract is at least clear. I'm on call for the commission, and I maintain my own schedule and freedoms when it comes to my freelancing otherwise. However, if the commission comes calling, their orders take priority over whatever I'm doing. It wasn't an easy pill to swallow, not for me, or Katsuki, but if either of us were put off by the idea, Endeavor was livid. Still... for all the commotion it caused in the beginning, the commission has kept me on a loose leash in the last year, and without any current criminal masterminds wreaking havoc in our city, things have been... peaceful. 

"You guys gonna come to the table anytime soon?" Shiori calls out from the dining room, setting a couple things on the table. I grin down at Ichika, playing with her little hands. When Shiori first told me she was pregnant, I was equal parts ecstatic for her and horrified. It seemed so fast for kids, but Shiori and I have always been on different wavelengths when it comes to that kind of thing. Then she had Ichika and it was like a whole new world opened up for me. 

"Maybe... maybe never" I call back, waggling my eyebrows at my niece who just stares at me flatly. I stick out my tongue and she blinks a few times before a nearly imperceptible smile graces her little face. 

"Please bring my child to the dinner table" Shiori replies, an amused hint to her voice, and I smirk. When Ichika was born, I realized very, very quickly that I would easily die for this kid. I mean, I didn't entirely dislike kids before, but for some reason, when my sister's kid made her first appearance, I realized that I loved this kid. More than I ever thought I'd be capable of loving a child.

"Yes, mom" I sigh dramatically, reaching for Katsuki to help me up as I adjust Ichika onto my hip and we head into the dining room together.

"Ichika says you're a killjoy" I inform my sister, and Shiori just arches a brow at me. She has a habit of acting equally as unimpressed by everything as her daughter, but Shiori also tends to forget that I can read the amusement on her face like an open book.

"I'm sure" Shiori says as Katsuki pulls out a chair for me, kissing the side of my face, and Shinsou exits the kitchen with a large pot of something. I grin at my husband, passing Ichika off to her mother as we start to all get situated around the table.

"Have you told dad yet?" I ask Shiori as we sit, and Shinsou raises a brow at her. 

"Told him...?" Shiori trails off, and I roll my eyes, looking pointedly at her belly.

"Baby number two?" I clarify, and Shiori sighs, sharing another look with Shinsou.

"No... he just..." she sighs again, waving off the question.