"Daddy!"

Shizuo's reaction time was always a bit delayed whenever those two syllables met his ears. But he immediately felt himself light up at the sound and turned towards Shizuko who promptly threw herself into his outstretched arms. Feeling those little arms wrap around his neck always served as the main reminder that he was a father-he had a daughter.

Then he'd look up and see Izaya closing the front door-the front door to their home-and Shizuo felt a pleasant suffocation when their eyes met.

Shizuko suddenly pulled away and her excited expression pointed at Shizuo demanded attention.

"Mommy said you have a surprise for me!" Shizuo felt his palms start to sweat as he sat Shizuko next to him on the sleek leather couch. Izaya sat on Shizuko's other side and looked at Shizuo in amused silence, his eyes shining crimson with barely concealed mirth.

Shizuo narrowed his eyes at him before directing his attention to Shizuko. Damn flea, making him even more nervous. He raised Shizuko's expectations and Shizuo wasn't sure anything he had to say could warrant her radiant excitement.

"Uh, yeah I do. But I'm not sure you'd like it-"

"I will!" Shizuko sat up straighter and bore her eyes into his with a presence and tone which exceeded her size-Damn she's just like him, isn't she?

"Um well, you're my- I mean- I'm your dad, right?"

Izaya almost managed to hide his snort beneath Shizuko's answer of "Yes?" Shizuo felt his brow twitch in irritation-Shut up Izaya. This is hard enough as it is-but otherwise kept his eyes trained on Shizuko.

"Yeah so, shouldn't you kind of have the same last name as me?" There, he said it. And with a hell of a lot less verbal stumbling than he expected.

All at once, Shizuo felt the breath he didn't realize he was holding knocked out of him as Shizuko all but tackled him. He felt more than heard the little girl's answer pressed against the fabric over his chest.

Before he could ask what it was Shizuko said, she pulled away from his chest to look up at him and the only reason Shizuo didn't immediately begin to panic at the sight of salt water forming endearing streams down chubby and reddened cheeks, was the full smile that left him with significantly less air. "Daddy's gonna adopt me, right? That's why you want me to have your last name?"

One day Shizuo was going to stop being shocked speechless at how fast Shizuko's brain worked. Or at least he'd like to think so, but in reality he seriously doubted he ever would and that contradictory fact itself made him happier than he could possibly hope to express.

Brown curls willingly gave way to the brush of his fingers. "Is that a yes?"

"Of course!" The immediacy of the reply solidified something in him which steeled him for what would come next.

Hitching, and obviously fucking fake, breaths made Shizuko turn to look behind her.

Izaya had his face buried in his hands and raised and lowered his shoulders with sporadic movements. Shizuo rolled his eyes even as tiny, concerned fingers frantically tried to pry Izaya's hands from his face.

"Mommy?! Mommy, what's wrong?!" Now Shizuko sounded like she was going to start sobbing, damn it.

Izaya wiped the nonexistent tears from his eyes and gave Shizuko such a pitiful look, it made Shizuo's teeth ache. "You and Daddy are so cruel Shizu-Chan." The cat showed up just in time to be the flea's prop. Scooping the protesting Kanra into his arms and hugging her to his chest, Izaya continued. "You two are going to have fun being Heiwajimas together and leave me and Kanra as Oriharas. That's so mean, ne~" The pout he sent the two of them was most definitely not cute in any way.

Though if Shizuo was unimpressed and unaffected by the flea's performance, Shizuko was the exact opposite. She latched onto Shizuo's vest and turned tear flooded rubies on him. "Daddy adopt Mommy and Kanra too, okay?! Please! You'll make Mommy and Kanra Heiwajimas too, won't you?"

Shizuo sputtered in startled embarrassment, leaving his daughter to interpret his reaction as a negative response.

"You won't?" Shizuko's lower lip trembling may as well have been an electric shock to his system.

"I am, I am! See?!" Shizuo extracted the cubic box whose edges digging into his skin through the fabric of his pants kept the presence of it and its content at the forefront of his mind. Until that point.

Well, fuck. Weeks spent rehearsing what he was going to say, and more specifically the last two hours spent circling the living room couch like a wary predator (and bending some of the silverware from nerves only adding the concern of getting more before Izaya noticed) thrown out the window in a moment of panic.

Looking up, Shizuo realized he wasn't alone. Shizuko stared at the velvet cube in fascination while Izaya seemed to have become ten shades paler. Kanra leaping ecstatically out of his loosened hold escaped the notice of Izaya's wide eyes which darted rapidly from Shizuo's hand to his face and back again. Shizuo could see Izaya stopping just at the precipice of the obvious conclusion, refusing to take the dive and make it-He would put this all on me, wouldn't he?

"Izaya-" Izaya started violently and looked at Shizuo like he wasn't sure who had spoken or where he was or what was happening and Shizuo felt his heart drop because uncertainty was not something he saw or wanted to see on that pale-made-paler face and it was damn near contagious with how Shizuo's hands started to shake. Yet he knew that their respective uncertainties had more to do with the other's possible reactions than with their own feelings which were doing everything they could to choke them with the intensity of what was not only within but between them, almost palpable.

Cheeks burning and creating a contrast to Izaya's bloodless ones, Shizuo swallowed the rising fear in his throat and lowered himself until he was on one knee in front of Izaya.

"Shizuo-!" Izaya frantically began but suddenly cut himself off when Shizuo's eyes caught his.

"I- I should have done this a long time ago but I was stupid and I let my fear hide what I kinda always knew. And I…well you…you know I-!" Shit, what the hell was he doing? In desperation, Shizuo opened the small box then grabbed Izaya's frozen hand gently. Izaya's breath hitched and a twin sound came from Shizuko who otherwise remained silent. "I know that I can be stupid and you can be an annoying flea and I know that we piss each other off most days of the week. But I-" Come on, come on. "I love you. I love you." Relief had him repeat himself, overwhelmed by the truth and lethality of three little which had almost choked him in the frantic rush to repair the damage done by the implied inversion of one of them.

Shizuo rubbed soothing circles onto the back of Izaya's hand which was trembling with the same barely perceptible movements as his lip which he momentarily bit to steady. Upon first opening his mouth to speak, no sound came out but Izaya tried again and managed a, "You mean it?" His voice was so quiet, like he thought if he spoke too loud, the illusion in front of him would disappear.

But it wasn't an illusion. Shizuo needed Izaya to know that it wasn't. So he squeezed the hand in his and said, "I do. I love you."

He could see Izaya frantically searching his eyes for any indication of deception, any reason to withhold himself in an act of self-preservation. Shizuo knew he wouldn't find any.

His only answer was a small nod and Izaya's hand allowing him to slip the simple band of silver on the second finger.

Amusement lent itself to Shizuo's happiness when he kissed Izaya's hand causing Izaya to squeak-yes, squeak flea-in embarrassed indignation and Shizuko to release her pent-up squeals which had been kept quiet by giddy awe.

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Ne, I got quite a bit of hate because Izaya and Shizuo's daughter was an OC. I know writers in the fandom usually use Tsugaru, Psyche, Delic, etc., as the child character and I'm a fan of that as well but for this story I felt that the doubles were a bit too much that. Doubles. I wanted an original character that represented what I'd like to imagine as the results of Izaya's parenting. Shizuko was more of a plot vehicle for Shizuo and Izaya to begin again but from real life observations it's clear that a child can solidify a relationship and make what can be taken only as bitter a little sweeter. And that's what Shizuko has done. I plan on writing a handful of short one-shots showing the sickeningly fluffy domestic life of these three but, once again, they will feature Shizuko as a character meant to drive the personal growth of both Shizuo and Izaya. (I'll keep the imaginings of her independent adolescence to myself). I also plan on writing a slightly long epilogue for this story, concerning the marriage of the two protagonists (yes, I'm calling Izaya a protagonist) of Ikebukuro.

Thank you for reading.