I'm Not Giving Up On You [Tadashi Hamada X OC] [COMPLETED]

The End

3rd POV

"So, when we finally graduated college-" Tadashi begins.

"A year later than we were supposed to, because both of us missed a good portion of our final grades in those five months," Cherry interrupts with a wry smile on her face, and her husband pokes his tongue out at her and pulls her onto his lap. They immediately link their fingers together, and the group of children sitting before them echo a chorus of 'yuck's to the adults' amusement.

One little girl with hair as yellow as sand asks eagerly, "Then what? Tell us, Auntie Cherry and Uncle 'Dashi!"
"Yeah, tell us!" the children clamour to know, and the two lovebirds bite their lips at the same time, a habit they picked up off of each other, and smile at the kids.

Cherry continues, "When we graduated, we got married. Just a small wedding, with all your parents and Tadashi's family, but it meant everything to us."

"Was Dad there?" a small charcoal-skinned girl with a backpack stuffed full of toys deemed 'safe' asks, and Tadashi laughs and nods.
"Yes, your dad was there, although he hadn't met Mommy by that time and back then we called him Wasabi."
"Like the condiment?" she asks, before she is interrupted by a boy wearing items from the dressing-up kit that the couple keeps for visits.

"Had you met my Mommy by then?" asks the grandson of Stan Lee, and both Cherry and Tadashi think back to their wedding and whether or not Fred had a plus one to it. They then look at each other, and Tadashi flashes that brilliant corner smile that got his wife so hooked on him in the first place.

"You know, Freddie Junior," Cherry replies with a thoughtful look, "you might have to ask Dad about that, because we can't remember everything."
"Otherwise we'd be historians and not scientists," Tadashi adds, in such a dad-joke fashion that she swats him lightly in the chest.

In response he mimes heartbreak and tips her off of his lap, and she shrieks and falls onto the floor in front of the children. They all laugh, just as the gang enter the Lucky Cat Cafe on a closed day to collect their children - well, apart from GoGo, no way was she getting saddled with tiny humans that she has to take everywhere.

"Carmel!" Wasabi runs and kneels to his daughter like he hasn't seen her in years, despite dropping all the kids off earlier today, and Carmel laughs delightedly and holds out her chubby little hands to her loving father.

Honey Lemon picks up her lookalike daughter and rests her on her hip, the toddler being just light enough to pull off. "Well, what did Auntie Cherry and Uncle 'Dashi do with you lot today?"
"We played dolls all together, although Freddie hogged the Ballerina Barbie which was totally unfair and he didn't even listen to Cherry and 'Dashi when they told him to share, so they had to take it off him and then he cried for a bit, and then we all came here to the Lucky Cat and Cass baked us some cookies, and then they told us about how they met!"

"Wow, that must've taken a while," GoGo remarks while they all watch Fred 'fly' his son about the empty cafe, "Where did you finish up?"
"Our wedding," Tadashi replies as the married couple begin to wash up so they can go back to their joint lab after everyone's left. Wasabi blows air through the side of his mouth.
"I hope you didn't tell the story day by day, because that would've taken much longer than your babysitting hours," he chuckles, then starts to double check everything is in its place in his daughter's bag. "Come on, little munchkin - Mom wants us home in twenty minutes, and she's made cheesy pasta bake."

"Cheesy pasta bake, oh boy!" Carmel exclaims as she runs around and hugs everyone including GoGo - to her slight discomfort - before the father-daughter duo leave for home in the suburbs of San Fransokyo.

The gang all chuckle.
"Aren't they just adorable?" Tadashi croons, and at that Cherry swats his chest again.
"Nope! If you want a kid, you gotta give birth to it yourself and be a stay-at-home dad, I've told you before!" she jokes light-heartedly, and GoGo, Fred and Honey Lemon all laugh at the only married couple who haven't had kids in their friend group.

Honey and Wasabi each have their own families by now, at least two children per household, and although Fred broke up with his girlfriend he still helps out a considerable amount with his son and namesake. It's just Cherry and Tadashi who still refuse to let kids define their lives, from the colossal amounts of work they each have, to the fear of letting children wreak havoc on both their bodies, to how much work it takes in raising children whilst still maintaining good jobs - in which they work as the heads of a leading global science Entrepreneurship organisation, which holds a lot of responsibilities.
No, for now and probably a long time into the future, both Cherry and Tadashi are genuinely fine with having no children and only being problem-free Auntie and Uncle.

Although Tadashi still likes to joke, "There was a time when you wanted to keep my baby," to which Cherry replies, "That was when I thought you weren't included in that deal," and the two laugh as if encased in their own little world, even now, ten years later.

Honey Lemon adjusts her owl glasses and says earnestly, "Well, we've gotta go too: Samuel's cooking tonight, and GoGo's joining us."
"Hey, they're vegetable dumplings, who wouldn't wanna gatecrash?" the still punky short friend leans down to the same height to her niece as little Emilia high-fives her aunt from her mother's hip.
The three take their stuff and leave with a lot of heartfelt compliments exchanged, leaving Cherry and Tadashi to cross their arms and tut jokingly at Fred and his son.

Fred puts Freddie down and lifts his hands in surrender. "Fine, we're going. But just remember, I can dump him on you at any point, so you watch out." He finishes with a slumped laugh, takes his son's hand in one hand and his belongings in the other, and walks out of the cafe, leaving the couple alone.

After they wash and clean up, kissing Aunt Cass on the cheek and cuddling the now almost immobile Mochi, they get onto their renovated joint motorbike and ride home to their house in the middle of the city - a five minute ride away from their organisation HQ, which they went to beforehand to check everything was still running smoothly.

After cooking a meal of Hitsumabushi, the two of them flicking pieces of rice at each other like little kids, the two eat in hearty conversation, clean up, watch some TV together, and slip into bed. They instantly pull like magnets into the sleeping position they've always been in, Tadashi on his back with Cherry's legs and arm and half of her torso placed over him, and Tadashi kisses his wife's forehead. Cherry smiles just like old times, since the lovers started going out.

She whispers in the dark, when it feels safer to talk about secrets, "Do you really feel that strongly about having kids, 'Dash?"
It's a question that's been brought up in her mind ever since that fateful day she miscarried fifteen years ago, but no matter how many times they discussed it she still wasn't sure of the answer because of how he looked at his nieces and nephews.

Her husband kisses her forehead again, then her lips. "Cherry, I promise you I don't want to have children. Possibly in the future, when we're old and decrepit and actually want to commit," he continues, feeling gleeful at the sight and sound of her chuckling heartily, "but for several years now we've been babysitting for our friends, and I've gotta say it's only fun when we have to look after them for a day or less."

More laughs elicit from Cherry, and her husband listens avidly and smiles in remembrance of the first time he heard that genuine laughter of hers:

On an insignificant cold and breezy day in San Fransokyo, when Tadashi Hamada told Cherry Riegan a really dorky science joke - "Did you hear that Oxygen went on a date with Potassium? It went OK" - and she laughed so genuinely hard that the surprised herself.

On the day that these two fell in love, with a bond that would never break.

♡THE END♡