SixTONES, Good Things Come To Those Who Wait

Title: Good Things Come To Those Who Wait (Shintarou, Juri)
Rating/Warnings: G
Summary: Shintarou refuses to tell Juri what they’re planning to name his daughter.
AN: So we named Shintarou’s daughter, and then this happened. It’ll probably make the most sense if you read the Shintarou has a baby fic I posted a couple days ago, but it’s cute enough on its own I suppose. Written for Shiritori.

Good Things Come To Those Who Wait

“You guys all suck,” Juri says, pouting. The pout gets him nowhere because Taiga has been sworn to secrecy, and they know better than to tell Hokuto anything they don’t want spread all over Japan in five minutes flat. “You can’t keep the kid’s name a secret for another four whole months, be serious.”

“Challenge accepted,” Shintarou says.

“How come Taiga gets to know and I don’t?!” Juri demands. Taiga grins smugly. “I’m supposed to be your best friend!”

“There there, I still love you best,” Shintarou reassures, grabbing Juri in a hug and nuzzling his cheek showily. Juri whines because other dudes are watching them, but doesn’t exactly struggle. “Surprises are fun, right?

Juri doesn’t really get it, since they started calling Shotarou Sho-kun when he wasn’t even the size of Shintarou’s fist, but just this one time Shintarou gets really serious about keeping his secret. Juri spends a couple weeks guessing, but soon grows bored of it when Shintarou refuses to budge. Maika is way smarter than him and Taiga likes watching people suffer, so Juri realizes quickly that all avenues are closed.

In revenge, he begins to refer to the baby as “Shinderella.”

“Stop that!” Shintarou says in horror when Juri does it in front of his mother and his mother cracks up. “Don’t get her started!”

“She’ll be your little princess,” Juri coos, and Shintarou shoves him off his kitchen chair. From the floor, Juri just kicks at Shintarou’s legs. “If you’d just tell me, I wouldn’t have to get creative.”

“I won’t lose to you,” Shintarou sniffs.

It’s some sort of natural law that Shintarou’s kids all have to be born in the dead of summer, when it’s so hot that even people who aren’t nine months pregnant are entirely uncomfortable.

“Magic birthday, though!” Shintarou insists. Maika gives him the dirtiest look possible from the couch. Juri is on the floor, coloring with Shotarou and trying to keep him in a halfway decent mood. Ever since he stopped fitting on Maika’s lap, Shotarou has been kind of touchy about this whole new baby thing.

“I swear to god, if you don’t get away from me—” Maika cuts off mid-word, face going tight.

“What?” Shintarou demands immediately. “Are you okay? Is that a contraction? Should I boil some water?!”

“No more medical dramas for you!” Maika snaps. The tense set of her shoulders eases a little. “Yes, it’s a contraction, but they’re a million years apart, so slow your roll. Juri, sorry, but I think it’s time.”

“No problem,” Juri assures, gathering up the crayons quickly and getting to his feet. His assigned job is to take Shotarou over to Shintarou’s parents’ house to wait for the new baby. “Come on, Sho-kun. Time to go pack, like we practiced, okay?”

Shotarou looks like he wants to throw kind of a tantrum, but Juri is his favorite uncle after all, so he grudgingly takes Juri’s hand and follows him to his bedroom. Juri gets Shotarou’s new backpack, for when he goes to stay overnight at his grandparents’, and they pick a pair of pajamas, a couple of his books, and a stuffed animal.

“Anything else?” Juri asks. Shotarou thinks a second, then goes over to his toy chest and comes back with the penlight from the last batch of junior concerts, a rainbow shape that blinks through a surprising amount of colors. Juri tilts his head.

“In case it’s too dark,” Shotarou explains, and that’s the most sensible use for a penlight Juri has ever heard.

On the way out Shotarou hugs both of his parents. Juri wishes Shintarou good luck with a punch to the shoulder, and then leans down to kiss Maika’s forehead. “Keep my little princess safe, you.”

Maika pulls a face at him. “You want her so much, you have the next one.”

Juri is still laughing about Shintarou’s scandalized face when Shintarou’s mother lets them in. She offers them some ice cream, a shameless ploy to trick Shotarou of his morose mood, but it doesn’t really work that well.

“Aw, cheer up, kiddo,” Juri encourages, rubbing Shotarou’s back. “You’ll be a big brother soon.”

“Ryutarou was a mess when Shintarou was born,” their mother says fondly, ruffling Shotarou’s hair. “It was like he knew they’d be fighting over attention from then on.”

When Juri tries to go home for the night, Shotarou throws arms around his waist and begs him not to leave.

“Juri has to go home for his bedtime too,” Morimoto-san scolds. Shotarou looks up at Juri with pleading eyes.

“I don’t mind, if it’s okay with you,” Juri tells her. She hugs him and says that sometimes he’s the most reliable kid that she has.

She sets them up in Shintarou’s old room, and Juri reads bedtime story after bedtime story until Shotarou finally falls asleep. Juri clicks off the light and dozes beside Shotarou, his phone on his chest so he’ll feel it when Shotarou calls, the penlight lighting the ceiling in soft pinks, blues, and greens.

The magic happens at about 3 am, and Juri is smitten from the very first picture of Shindarella’s red, angry face and wild poof of hair.

In the morning, Shintarou’s mother drives them to the hospital for the earliest visiting hours they’re allowed, all of them yawning from lack of sleep. Juri piggybacks Shotarou through the hospital hallways when he drags his feet, hoping seeing his mom will fix at least a little of Shotarou’s crank for all their sakes. He seems slightly mollified when Juri drops him off on Maika’s bed and Maika hugs him tightly, IV tubes bedamned.

“Here she is,” Shintarou says, holding up his daughter but not exactly handing her over, because that idiot still hasn’t learned to share.

“You hand that baby over,” Juri demands, eyes for nothing else once he’s got her in his arms. “Hi there, beautiful. Can I know her name now?”

He doesn’t get it at first when Shintarou says it, because Shintarou’s English is the worst, but when Shintarou holds up the birth certificate, Juri is struck speechless.

Her name is Morimoto Julie, and she has Juri’s kanji.

“Shin, are you sure?” he asks, hushed. His eyes are blurry with tears, and his hands are too full to wipe at them.

“Surprise,” Shintarou says, looking a little glassy-eyed himself as he wraps an arm around Juri’s shoulders to beam down at Julie-chan. “I told you surprises are fun.”

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