love is madness | kimetsu no yaiba (slow updates)

giggles and grievances °¦

family au + Uzui–centric

Tengen forgets fatherhood is not just about bottles and diapers.

Word count: 2.6k words
Warning: unedited; requested by yuafujioka
enjoy!

*****

"Is this supposed to go this way or that?"

"Umm, it's the other way around."

Spending approximately 30 minutes in the middle of the baby health and care aisle is enough for Uzui Tengen to slowly lose every bit of his sanity. It didn't help that the creature he was once carrying in his arms has now circled its thighs around his neck and has started munching on his hair like it was the pasta he had eaten for breakfast yesterday. And apparently, it would take time for such scene to become normal for the salesperson of the store, who was kind enough to help him with the hip seat carrier he was wrestling with for the past thirty minutes.

"I'll be taking this on—hey now, Inosuke! Cut it out!"

His attempts of getting the little devil off of his head failed as the child turned screamed to his ear and bit his finger.

"Ack–this naughty rascal. I'm really gonna throw you out of the store window if you don't stop. Flamboyantly."

The child merely hums in satisfaction while continuously nibbling on his hand. Tengen sighs, feeling defeated while the salesperson by the name of Hinatsuru giggles at the sight.

"You've got one interesting child over there. So, his name is Inosuke? Sounds like a great name."

Tengen shrugs, taking the piece of the product and making an effort to reach his pocket for his wallet on his way to the payment counter, supporting the child who had balanced himself on top of Tengen's head like a wild animal.

"As great as the boar I named him after, I guess. He's just like that four-legged beast in all ways," he snickers. "By the way, Hina. Would it be possible get any discount?"

"For being an old friend and good dad? Absolutely."

Uzui Tengen is a father at twenty-two. Never once in his entire life had he thought of taking such a big boulder of responsibility at an early age, all because of one, heavy and drunken mistake two years earlier. He shouldn't have gone to the club with his friends. He shouldn't have randomly hit on a girl three years older than him, who looked like she had greater responsibilities, and brought her to his apartment for one night.

He shouldn't have done it, yet he did. And a year after that fateful encounter, he had a basket carrying a newborn waiting outside his apartment door at dawn. Now he's forced to buy baby stuff at his friend's store, order half adult and half baby food, and wake up at midnight four times a week because a demon inside a child's body decides to scream.

"There, nice and comfy. You shouldn't be giving me a hard time, kiddo, or we'll both be in big trouble," he chuckles, promptly trying to sit the fifteen-months-old baby boy on the hip seat carrier. Surprisingly, the little child followed without resistance. Tengen then gently holds the child close to him in one hand while holding two shopping bags on the other.

He stares at the kid quietly. He didn't resemble him at all, but he can recall all too clearly whom he got those vibrant emerald green eyes from. Although the kid looked nothing like him, the personality does seem a bit similar to what he was in the past, as what his late mother had told him.

"Got something to say, kiddo?"

"Hmn!"

Eyebrows furrowed, Tengen followed the direction to where the child is currently reaching out. There, right in front of them but separated by a thick wall of glass, stood a mannequin that, strangely enough, has what looked like an animal mask over its head–a boar mask, to be exact.