Affection

By

katiesparks

12/17/08

Hattori Heiji was not the most affectionate man in the world. He kissed his wife in private and he didn't carry his children around after they were old enough to walk. He was stern, but loving. He showed his affection in odd ways.

He left the light on in the hallway for his daughter, because she was scared of the dark. He tucked in his son at night and checked the closet for monsters even as he berated the boy for not being a man. He pulled his wife close to him when she was cold and didn't let her move from his embrace. He let his children sit in his lap to drive up their driveway on cold winter mornings. Years later, his daughter started wearing his old leather jacket; when asked why, she merely blushed and said softly the smell of the old leather and the softness of it under her fingertips made her feel safe.

When his children awoke at night from bad dreams, he let them crawl into the bed with him without a word. His son always snuggled up to Kazuha, but when it was his daughter that slipped in between them she curled up against his chest and fell asleep within minutes. He rarely took a night off for his wife and himself, but when he did, he hired the Kudo boy to watch his kids and reserved a room at a fancy restaurant entirely for the two of them.

When any of his family failed, he did not scold them, but they crawled off by themselves for hours on end, the idea that he was disappointed in them cutting them deeper than any mere berating might do. He pushed his daughter on the swings at the playground and helped his son reach the monkey-bars. He chased off bullies and patched up their injuries himself. He wore Kazuha's omamori, despite the fact that he didn't believe it did anything, so he said aloud. He didn't let his son near crime scenes until he had two digits in his age and he prayed for the souls of those he had avenged at Obon every year.

Hattori Heiji was not an affectionate man. In his later years, one could even say that he was a man of few words. But he kissed his daughter every night, read to his son every night, held on tight to his wife every night. Some things did not need to be said, only felt. And while Hattori Heiji was not affectionate, and he said what he meant when he meant it, without sparing anyone's feelings, he was a man of many emotions. The most prominent always being love.

Another theory piece, I don't think Heiji and Kazuha would have one of those feeling each other up in public kind of relationships. And I don't think he would encourage any form of weakness in his kids. But I do think that he would be a great dad.