Rien was so completely and fervently grateful to be home again that it was almost surprising to him, and for a few days he just soaked it in, settling back into familiar routines and relearning everyone else’s schedules as Kippei and Shinji went back to school and work.

He himself had to deal with work to some extent as well, but he ignored it as much as possible because he was already reluctant to think about when he might have to go away again. He would never have dreamed of himself becoming a homebody, but his little family was wrapped tightly around his heartstrings now, and he would just as soon never have to leave them again.

Every time his little girl smiled at him, every time Shinji kissed him, every time Kippei looked at him with that deep warmth that said he understood even if he didn’t, his heart felt so full that it felt like it was breaking, and it was completely ridiculous to expect him to leave them behind so often, wasn’t it?

He laughed softly at himself as he stood contemplating this again for the hundredth time, and decided that if he was going to aspire to be a soccer mom then he should do it right.

“Hey, princess, wanna go see Shinji?” he asked Hyun-ki, smiling as he watched her eyes light up and her small hands clasped pleadingly as she nodded.

“Shinji!” she agreed eagerly, and Rien chuckled softly, finding her jacket and bundling her up, checking the time to see if they should take the long way or the longer way in order to arrive exactly when Shinji had archery practice, so they could watch.

“Ready?” he asked her as he carefully zipped her up, pulling her hair free so none of it got tangled in the zipper.

“Go go go go!!” she answered impatiently, tugging on his sleeve with cheeks flushed with excitement. Rien laughed as he swung her up on his shoulders and headed for the door.

Shinji was tired, cranky because he hadn’t been able to see Kippei all day and his morning class on crystals just made him think of Kippei and Rien and Yuni and made him homesick as hell. He’d managed to steal a ten minute break near Kippei’s classes but Kippei had been talking to a professor and Shinji hadn’t wanted to interrupt so he’d gone on to his next class. By the time archery came around he was tempted to just call Rien and ask him to come take him home, only his sense of duty to the team driving him to actually go.

Once he was geared up and had a few shots he felt better; calmer and more centered and he looked over at Kaneda and grinned, thoroughly delighted when he hit the center of the target each time.

Kaneda smiled wryly back, having gotten resigned to the way Shinji made the rest of them look bad all the time. It wasn’t like he did it on purpose, and he was so transparently thrilled by every shot, like he couldn’t quite believe it himself, that it was hard to grudge him anything.

Still, it made taking his own turn slightly depressing, and he stepped back and looked around while he waited for Ren to holler at him.

“Hey,” he murmured, frowning slightly in puzzlement. “Hey Shinji,” he said louder, half turning to get his attention as he gestured toward the side of the field. “Isn’t that your….” Whatever he was.

Startled by the question, Shinji turned to look and then let out an excited cry, rushing over the field to where Rien was standing with Hyun-ki, the two of them waving. He shoved his bow into Rien’s hands and took Hyun-ki, hugging her tight and looking from one to the other excitedly.

“What are you two doing here? It’s not hometime yet…I still have a half hour of training left.”

“Yeah,” Rien agreed comfortably, pleased with himself. That was the point, after all. “We came to watch,” he explained, though really, did that need explaining? It was kind of obvious he thought, but Shinji clearly hadn’t expected it. Rien grinned and leaned over to kiss his cheek.

“You look beautiful,” he noted randomly, because it was always worth noting. Shinji actually looked fantastic right now, with his cheeks pink from exercise and his eyes shining with suprise and delight, hair a bit mussed and flyaway but yeah – fantastic, and sexy too.

“How’s it goin’?

Shinji flushed a dark red at the compliment and kissed Hyun-ki’s cheek to hide his embarrassment but inside he was thrilled. He had wanted to see them all day and here they were, sooner than he had been expecting. He grinned and motioned over to the stands where they could watch more closely and headed over.

“It’s good! Started off feeling a bit off but I feel good now. Hit all my targets so far. Here, this is the Captain of our team, Ren.”

Ren just grinned and reached out to shake Rien’s hand, delighted to be getting to meet the little family Shinji was always mumbling about.

Rien nodded at the odd looking kid, shaking his hand and studying him curiously. Interesting didn’t begin to cover it; plain weird might work better, but he seemed like a nice enough guy.

“Nice to meetcha,” he said with a friendly grin. “We jus’ came t’ watch Shin practice, if that’s okay… we’ll sit there out of the way,” he assured the captain, not wanting the man to tell him they couldn’t stay. He was pretty sure both Yuni and Shinji would be rather heartbroken if so.

“Come see Shinji,” Hyun-ki agreed excitedly, hugging Shinji’s neck and kissing his cheek too. “Is okay, Yuni can stay?” she asked pleadingly, a touch of worry entering her eyes as she looked back and forth between them and glanced warily at Ren, finding him rather scary.

Ren just grinned at them all, studying them shrewdly and nodding his agreement, ushering them over to where Shinji had put his bags in the bunkers.

“Of course, of course! People are always welcome to come watch; helps give the team a feeling of the sort of pressure they’re under at comps.” Not to mention gave him the opportunity to spy on family members of his team. This little family was by far the most interesting though.

Shinji was just too delighted by them being there to think anything else of the visit, taking Hyun-ki over to his bags and digging out some cheese and crackers he hadn’t eaten so she had something to nibble on while she watched.

“Yuni can stay,” he told her quietly, just in case she wasn’t sure. “Shinji always wants Yuni to stay.”

She beamed at him and settled down in Rien’s lap to watch, listening seriously as Rien explained to her what Shinji was doing, although she probably wasn’t understanding more than half of what he was saying. It was too cute though and Rien just grinned at Shinji and waved every time he caught his eye, making sure Yuni at least knew when to jump up and clap and cheer because Shinji made another shot.

“Yay, Shinji!” they shouted together, faces bright and happy as they waved. Shinji was totally cool, and he was theirs.

Shinji knew he was red, skin flushed with a strange mix of excitement, embarrassment and joy, but he couldn’t stop blushing any more than he could stop smiling. Every time he hit the target just right they would cheer and the sound went straight to his heart. It only made him shoot straighter, paying more attention and going for the really hard shots, crowing in delight whenever it hit the mark.

When he was finally done, his hands were blistering and his arms ached horribly, but he hadn’t felt so good in a while. He rushed over to kiss Hyun-ki’s cheek breathlessly and held out his arms for Rien to get the braces off, because he just couldn’t be bothered himself when Rien could do it for him.

“God, that was so cool! I’m so glad you two came…thanks, Ri, I know it was your idea. Thanks so much!”

Rien grinned at him and leaned over to steal a kiss as he unfastened the braces, rather delighted with the color in his cheeks.

“So, that mean we can come again, yeah?” he asked hopefully, and Yuni fixed him with an equally hopeful look from her big brown eyes, dancing from foot to foot as she waited for Rien to finish getting Shinji out of his gear so she could hug him.

“Come again,” she begged, nodding emphatically and making her carefully styled hair threaten to fall apart. Rien had gotten fancy with it today, and it wasn’t quite as secure as sometimes.

Shinji grinned down at her and looked curiously over at Ren, not sure if it was allowed as a regular thing but Ren was just waving his arm at him and nodding so Shinji snatched his hands free of the braces and swept Hyun-ki up into a tight hug, nuzzling her cheek.

“Yeah, Yuni can come watch again. Come again Yuni.”

Ren was just fascinated. Rien didn’t look that old, but apparently he was and they really did have a kid and it was just so interesting he was afraid his brain was going to explode thinking about it. He hurried over to Kaneda, poking him in the side.

“What do you think?”

Kaneda had no idea what to think, still stunned by the fact that Shinji’s husband – one of his husbands! – and his daughter! – amazingly incredibly cute little girl, had come to watch Shinji and cheer him on. It was a little surreal.

“He’s married,” he noted blankly. “With a kid!” He shook his head, both awed and incredulous.

Ren was nodding with a rather ridiculous grin on his face as Shinji wandered over to them, Hyun-ki on his hip, rocking her gently before pointing at first Ren and then Kaneda, introducing them.

“This is Captain Ren, and this is Kaneda. Say hi, Yuni.”

She buried her face in Shinji’s neck, peeking through her fingers at the scary man.

“Hi,” she whispered, clinging to Shinji uneasily and swallowing hard. “Shinji yay, good!” she told him seriously, wanting him to understand how lucky he was to have Shinji doing things for him.

Ren grinned at her and reached out to shake her hand gently, nodding in agreement.

“Shinji yay, great!” He corrected because having Shinji on the team was awesome. He pushed the others to work harder and the team already had higher morale than last year because Shinji was impossible not to get along with. He was intrigued though because the girl clearly spoke another language as her mother tongue, and he wondered where they had adopted her from and how. Three gay men with a child was certainly not, in any way, normal.

“It’s nice to meet you, Yuni.”

Shinji smiled, quietly delighted to be able to introduce his family to his archery captain, and pleased Hyun-ki hadn’t completely flaked in terror and was instead talking to them.

Hyun-ki just nodded, relieved that the man had understood and Shinji was happy and nobody was upset with her after she’d dared to speak up. She hugged Shinji tighter and laid her head on his shoulder with a little sigh, feeling drowsy now that she was comfortable and content, ready to take a nap in Shinji’s arms.

Rien chuckled softly and gestured toward the field. “You gotta go back out there, babe, shift ‘er over here an’ I take care of her for you.”

Entirely reluctantly, Shinji handed her over, running a hand through the parts of her hair that weren’t tied up and smiling a little sadly because it was ridiculous how attached he was to her, and how badly it would hurt if she didn’t like him. He sighed and went out to help with the clean up, fetching their arrows and collecting his own in his quiver, amused when they had to go hunting behind the targets for the strays. He never really understood how arrows ended up behind the target, but whatever.

They were just about done with clean up when a shadow caught Shinji’s eye and he gave up any pretense of helping with the rest and bolted across the field, ignoring Ren’s shout of annoyance because if someone had been firing he would have gotten shot, absorbed in the sight of Kippei standing by the gates. He flung himself at him, hugging him hard and inhaling the scent of him.

“Rien and Yuni are here! They came and watched!”

Kippei had headed for the archery practice as soon as his class was over, nearly as desperate to see Shinji as Shinji was to see him, after almost an entire day without their usual contacts.

He hugged Shinji back hard, almost bruisingly tight, burying his face in his hair and breathing in deep of the sweet, slightly tangy scent that was Shinji, heating his blood and soothing deep in his soul.

“Missed you,” he said finally, softly stroking Shinji’s hair. “Love you so much, angel, god so much.”

“Me too,” Shinji sighed breathlessly, feeling more grounded now that he could touch Kippei and know he was okay and just reconnect in a way he’d been needing all day. “Missed you like crazy and I love you.” He dropped back on his heels and looked up at him, smiling and just incredibly happy to see him.

“I hit all my targets. Yuni and Rien cheered.”

“Cheered?” Kippei asked bemusedly, looking around and blinking in confusion when he saw them sitting in the stands, now getting up and heading their way.

“They came to watch you?” he asked rhetorically, grinning a little. That was just plain adorable, that was. “They are so cute,” he murmured amusedly under his breath, just quiet enough to pass before they got within earshot.

“Mmhm,” Shinji agreed, hanging off Kippei’s arm and smiling as Rien and Hyun-ki came over as well. It was plain adorable, having family come and watch him play archery; it felt like the times Sada had come to watch him play tennis, only better somehow.

Ren eyed the quartet in fascination, poking at Kaneda and pointing out various things, like the way Shinji attached himself so firmly to Kippei, in a way they had never dared at high school but people had guessed at. And the way Kippei seemed to favour one leg now, as if he had hurt the other. And the way the pair looked at their older lover and child, and just so many little details.

“They’re fascinating!”

Kaneda thought they were weird – nice people but extremely weird. He had to admit they were – well, he wouldn’t use the word fascinating, but they were definitely interesting. He liked having Shinji for a friend, and it was curious to see this other part of his life, his family, although it was a little embarrassing when they were so obviously completely absorbed in each other.

Blushing, Kaneda looked away as the little girl threw herself at Shinji again and the other two were kissing again, in a way that didn’t quite seem to be decent for doing in public. Really, were they going to make out here at the field in front of everyone?

“Guess so,” he sighed, knowing that Ren’s fascination meant he would be poking at them and wanting to get to know them better, which most likely meant rather inappropriate behavior, and naturally he would drag Kaneda along for it. So, if those older men were upset by it – a good possibility since they both seemed very protective of Shinji – then he was going to get the shit beaten out of him too. Joy.

“What are you gonna do?” he asked finally, not without deep misgivings but curious in spite of himself.

“Oh nothing…for now. But camp is going to be so much more interesting this year,” Ren grinned, thrilled by the idea. He knew he could guilt trip Shinji into coming, but what happened as a result was what he really wanted to see. Shinji didn’t look ready to give up his family for the week they always took for camp, and his family didn’t seem any more ready to lose him for that period of time. Fascinating was an understatement, really.

But Shinji knew nothing of camp and for now was completely content.

“Can we go home now? I want a milkshake so bad. And a massage…I totally deserve a massage after that.”

Rien chuckled, taking Yuni back from Shinji and swinging her up on his shoulders again, carrying her like a little monkey and grinning at Shinji as Kippei took his bag and wrapped an arm around him, tugging him away to follow Rien.

“Absolutely, princess. I give you a massage anytime you damn well please,” he noted, eyes twinkling a bit wickedly with the thought that a good massage could just as easily turn into sex, and in any case like he was ever going to turn down a chance to get his hands on Shinji, sex or no sex.

Shinji grinned knowingly, more than happy for it to turn into that later, after Hyun-ki was in bed. But for now he was looking forward to dinner and a spa and a massage and maybe a movie before bed.

“So glad you came to watch,” he grinned again, waving at the team as they left and wandered down to the carpark. “Makes it more interesting with you there.”

“We come as often as we can,” Rien promised cheerfully, “right, Yuni? Go see Shinji playing Robin Hood lots?”

“Go see Shinji,” she agreed firmly, nodding, looking down at him from her perch high on Rien’s shoulders and smiling bright and happy, her eyes shining with delight and excitement.

Kippei chuckled. “Robin Hood, is it?” But it was cute, and he wouldn’t be surprised if Shinji ended up with a new nickname sooner or later. Rien seemed to love making them up for the people he cared about. Likely he got it from his mother, Kippei thought wryly.

Blinking, Shinji just stood beside the car and laughed hard for a few minutes before clambering in so they could get going. Robin Hood was it? Well, he liked it more than some of the other nicknames Rien came up with, like Little Bird…that still made no sense whatsoever.

“What did you get up to all day?” He asked Kippei seriously. “I saw you talking to a Professor?”

Kippei blinked at him, puzzled. “You did? I didn’t see you…you didn’t come in?” He felt a bit crestfallen, having wanted to see Shinji all day but he hadn’t had time to look for him, and here Shinji had come to see him after all but hadn’t even said hello.

“It wasn’t that important, just a project I’m doing for extra credit,” he sighed, shrugging.

“…oh.” It had looked important, but knowing it wasn’t really just made Shinji wish he’d had the guts to interrupt. But the professors intimidated him more than he liked to admit, and he really didn’t want to piss anyone off and have Kippei get in trouble for it.

“…well that sucks.”

Kippei easily read the regret in Shinji’s expression, and oddly it made him feel better. He grinned a little as he climbed into the back seat with Shinji, letting Rien put Yuni up front, next to him.

“It’s okay,” he told Shinji reassuringly. At least Shinji had wanted to come see him, and it was kind of cute that he’d been worried about interrupting something important. As if anything was going to be more important to Kippei than Shinji.

“Next time just…don’t worry about it. I won’t ever be doing something so important that I wouldn’t want you to come and at least say hi.”

“Okay…” Shinji wasn’t sure that was really okay, but for now he was going to take Kippei at his word. Neither of them were at a point where college was all that important. They weren’t doing a thesis or anything, so he supposed that it really was okay, for now. Besides, he thought he might go mad if he had too many days where he didn’t get to see Kippei at all.

“Love you. I missed you heaps. I just thought…I didn’t want to be a pain.” Kippei and Rien had both warned him about taking too much advantage of the school allowing him to sit in on Kippei’s classes, and he was really trying hard to only do it when he thought he really would snap if he didn’t get to.

Kippei had never actually warned him of that in so many words – he’d worried about it a little, when school had first started, but he’d known that mentioning it to Shinji would be a bad idea, since Shinji would take it to mean that he should never take advantage of it if he could avoid it, and more than likely would end up pushing himself too far.

If he’d known that Shinji had picked up on it anyway, he would have felt terrible, but as it was all he could do was reassure him to the opposite.

“You’re never a pain, Shinji. I always want to see you, I don’t mind, ever. I miss you too when I don’t see you all day,” he admitted. It was hard on both of them, having to be separated for school, and maybe that meant they were both too dependent but it didn’t matter, it worked for them and he just wanted Shinji to know he could come anytime. It wasn’t like Kippei was going to scold him for it, or interrogate him to make sure he really had needed to come.

“Love you,” Shinji murmered softly, flopping sideways into Kippei’s lap and settling there, warm and comfortable, not wanting to move and not having to. It made him smile, to know Kippei wanted him there as badly as he needed to be there, right at Kippei’s side as often as possible.

When they got home he sighed heavily and sat up with reluctance, smiling wryly at their little house-like complex and climbing out but waiting patiently for Kippei, wanting to stay close.

Kippei wrapped an arm around him as they headed into the house, smiling faintly and pleased as always to have Shinji right where he belonged, as close as possible.

Following them with Yuni in his arms, Rien grinned at the two of them looking almost literally joined at the hip, and pointed them out to Yuni with a faint smirk.

“Ain’t they cute, darlin’?”

“Love Shinji and Papa-Ki!” she agreed, nodding her head against his shoulder. She didn’t understand the cute part, but seeing them close and together like that made her feel warm and safe, and she smiled happily at the sight.

“Love Yuni,” Shinji agreed, looking over his shoulder at her and grinning, always determined to make sure she felt happy and safe. He squeezed Kippei’s hand and wandered in to rummage through the fridge, finding some apple slices and munching on them while he studied what he assumed was Rien’s preparation for their dinner. He had no idea what it was, he just knew he was hungry.

“Can we eat soon? I’m starving!”

“Soon,” Rien told him amusedly, handing Yuni off to Kippei and coming over to get started on dinner. “Bout half an hour maybe, if y’wanna get cleaned up first it should be about ready then?” He knew Shinji often liked to take a shower and change when he got home from school, especially when he’d had archery practice and gotten all sweaty doing that. Rien figured that would give him just enough time to finish getting dinner on the table.

“Awesome!” Shinji was already striding through to their bedroom, determined to have a hot shower before dinner and get squeaky clean. He hesitated and went back to give Hyun-ki a soft kiss on the cheek before rushing out of the room entirely.

The shower was hot and exactly what he wanted, his skin a rosy red when he got out and hunted through the closet for some clothes, finding a pair of soft silk thai-styled trousers Rien must have bought him at some point and a plain shirt to put on, laughing at himself in the mirror because he looked like he was staying at a swanky resort, not relaxing at home though he supposed the relaxed part of it was the same. He left his hair down, wandering back out to find Kippei with Hyun-ki in his lap doing a puzzle at the table while Rien quick-stepped around the kitchen. He didn’t think any resort in the world could make him as relaxed as his family did anyway.

“It smells awesome,” he pointed out softly, going to sit beside Kippei at the table, stroking a hand reflexively down Hyun-ki’s hair, just needing to touch and reassure both her and himself.

“Mhmm,” Kippei agreed, a bit absently as he focused on helping Hyun-ki finding pieces to fit in. He leaned closer to Shinji all the same, automatically seeking the warmth of him and the sense of peace that came from having him right there.

Slightly amused, Rien moved easily around them as he set the table and brought over the dishes of food, arranging everything to suit his sense of artistry and then tsking at them to stop with the puzzle making and get ready to eat.

“Hands, go wash ‘em!” he ordered sternly. Hyun-ki went dashing off to wash up immediately, but Kippei tilted his head and merely smirked at him for a minute, prompting Rien to smack him upside the head. “Go!” he tried to growl, although it was kind of hard when Kippei was looking at him like that, and Kippei finally moved to follow Yuni, chuckling to himself in a way that was really, unfairly sexy.

Rien sighed disgustedly and dropped into a chair across from Shinji. “How come he’s still so sexy when he’s bein’ that annoying,” he muttered plaintively.

“Because he’s annoyingly sexy?” Shinji countered, rolling up the puzzle mat and carefully putting it aside for later, clearing the table for dinner and setting out the placemats before fetching a bottle of wine and some juice for Hyun-ki. Then he sighed and sat down, looking a little more seriously at Rien across the table. Seeing Hyun-ki at school had only reminded him that they had to do something now, not later when people learned her name and asked questions.

“We have to change her name. People are starting to meet her…”

Rien nodded. “Yeah, I know, princess – sooner better’n later.” He reached over for Shinji’s hand and squeezed it, a warm soft smile playing across his face as he looked at Shinji over the table.

“I take care of it, don’  you worry none.” He didn’t want Shinji to ever have to worry about things like that.

Kippei came back in a moment later with Yuni in his arms, giggling as he tickled her before he let her go, helping her into her seat and then taking his own, sniffing appreciatively at the delicious smells of the meal.

“Mmmm…how much of your day did you spend on this?” he asked Rien teasingly.

Shinji grinned at that, but he was still frowning at Hyun-ki, wondering about the name.

“Just…don’t make it Yuni! It’s a nickname! No twenty year old woman is going to want their name to be Yuni. Make it something else…something that Yuni can still be her nickname, but that’s different…classy or something, you know?” He was really worried about changing her name to something she would not like when she got older.

“Classy?” Rien asked, raising an eyebrow. What did that mean, exactly? He wasn’t at all sure what Shinji would consider acceptable and shook his head, unable to think of any likely candidates off the top of his head.

“How ’bout you make me a list, then?” he suggested wryly. “I ain’t gonna know what you’d approve of elsewise.”

Not sure that would work either, Shinji nonetheless had no better ideas and nodded, figuring he could always go online and search for names that contained ‘Yuni’ or variations thereof. It would be fun, and he could probably rope Kippei into helping.

“Okay, I can do that.” He just wanted her to have a great name; one that she liked and would still like down the track. Not one he randomly gave her one morning as a bit of a joke.

“So…does the wine I picked up match what you cooked?” He had no idea, had just figured white went with just about everything.

“Of course,” Rien assured him, grinning as he poured glasses for each of them and handed them over. “Juice for Yuni,” he told the little girl, giving her a small cup of her favorite juice instead.

“Juice!” she agreed, beaming delightedly.

Shinji felt overly full with an emotion he couldn’t name. He picked up his glass and sipped at his wine and just watched her, taking in the bright white flash of her teeth and the way he lips remained turned slightly upward even as she sucked at her sippy cup. Happy…she looked undeniably happy, and it made him feel like a king.

“It’s good,” he noted softly, feeling weirdly like crying. “The wine, and dinner…everything’s really good, Ri.”

Kippei looked over at him in concern, but Shinji looked okay, just… emotional, happy in spite of the sound of tears in his voice. He reached over to take Shinji’s hand and squeezed it, understanding all too well how Shinji felt. To be here together like this, after everything…it was a little overwhelming sometimes.

“Life is good,” he agreed contentedly.

Shinji just nodded, not trusting himself to say anything more, reaching to dish up what he wanted for dinner and digging in with a heartfelt sigh. Life was very, very good and he refused to take any of it for granted.