Wrists deep in bread dough, beads of sweat inching their way down his back, making his shirt stick to his thin body in the uncomfortable heat of the kitchen, Hakkai blinked as more salty sweat burned his eyes. He hated making bread. Hated the way the dough dried out his hands and how his wrists hurt from all the twisting. Detested how hot and airless the kitchen got during the summer heat. Frankly despised watching over the ovens like a mother hen waiting for her chicks to hatch.

Pulling the first batch of bread out of the oven, Hakkai set the two loaves on the counter to cool. He had to admit, the bread did smell so good and it’s scent filled the house, waking up the smallest member of their household.

“Poppa?” Tsubaki, the little girl they had found in a grove of trees beside her murdered mother a year and a half ago, had woken up from her nap. Brilliant red hair, the ends curling into ringlets that Hakkai painstakingly formed every morning, floated around her impish face. He and Gojyo couldn’t have loved the little 3 year old more if she had come from one of their bodies.

“Hi, honey. Did you have a good nap?” Hakkai, busy kneading the next lump of dough, turned his head to look at his daughter.

“Um hmm.” She looked even more like Gojyo now than she had 18 months ago when they had found her. She wasn’t related to him but she did have long legs just like Gojyo and wherever they went, a few flutters of those long black lashes and women gushed over her, spoiling her by giving her a hard candy or two. Sanzo still clung to his delusion that he didn’t like her but on more than one occasion in the first year they’d had her, Hakkai had found his daughter curled up in Sanzo’s lap, her tiny fist curled around the bottom of his sutra, rubbing the soft fabric against her nose while she fell asleep.

Shuffling over to Hakkai, scrubbing the sleep out of her eyes, Tsubaki dragged her favorite red and green plaid blanket behind her. The ragged old blanket had been worked over by Hakkai many times, stitching a worn patch here, a hole there but Tsubaki didn’t care. As long as she had her blanket, she was happy.

“Daddy home?” Red eyes grew larger as she watched Hakkai work over the dough.

“No, honey. Daddy’s running an errand for Sanzo.” The little girl nodded, her curiosity over what Hakkai was doing growing with each twist of Hakkai’s wrist and each downward movement from his arms. Over and over the dough rolled and twisted under his sure hands. Tsubaki made little oohing noises and Hakkai smiled at her. “Want to help?” The nodding of her head was so energetic it almost set Tsubaki on her bottom. “Bring Poppa that chair from the table and put it right beside me.”

Hakuryu, awoken from his napping by the loud scraping of wood across wood, soon settled back to sleep as Hakkai’s low voice instructed his daughter on the proper way of making bread. Tsubaki stood on the chair next to Hakkai, her tiny hands mimicking his every movement. If he frowned, she frowned. If he laughed, she laughed. Oh how he loved this tiny creature with every fiber of his being. She brought joy and laughter into their lives, bringing he and Gojyo closer, making them the family both men had sought out all their lives.
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Gojyo found them in the kitchen an hour later, Tsubaki still on the chair next to her Poppa, white flour decorating her hair and holding a lump of dough in her chubby hands. She was chattering away and Gojyo’s best guess as to what she was saying was that Hakuryu could fly and Goku was funny and Sanzo made this face a lot. Hakkai burst into laughter at the frown and pursed lips on Tsubaki’s face.

His heart hurt fiercely as he watched them but it was a good hurt. Gojyo’s heart, so empty for so long, had finally been filled with love for Hakkai and then for Tsubaki. Tsubaki started singing the song he sang to her at bedtime, her little head bobbing back and forth as she rolled out the dough with the tiny rolling pin Hakkai had bought her.  Gojyo turned around, not wanting to admit that his eyes were burning with unshed tears and mumbling to himself that the water in his eyes was because of the smoke from his cigarette. A shaky laugh passed his lips as he muttered about how it was probably time to quit the damn things.

“Yes, perhaps you should.”

“Dammit, Hakkai! Quit sneaking up on me like that!” Hakkai only laughed and put his arms around Gojyo and turned him back around so they were facing the kitchen. Tsubaki had stopped rolling the dough and had made it into a ball and was poking her fingers into the soft dough.

“Daddy!” Scrambling off the chair, Tsubaki hit the floor running. Her arms up in the air, squealing, she was scooped up by two strong arms and Gojyo rained kisses over her face. Giggling, Tsubaki kissed him back.

“Welcome home, Daddy.”