Rei’s wedding felt a little like a business meeting.
That was fine. She hadn’t expected anything like her second cousin’s wedding, a lovely ceremony filled with suppressed grins and each half of the couple subtly leaning towards the other.
She didn’t invite her second cousin, or any of her other cousins. He didn’t either. Their parents were there. She suspected that one of them had pushed for a ceremony instead of just signing the papers but she wasn’t sure who.
Rei was not expecting love, though she would be a liar if she claimed she didn’t hold some measure of hope deep in her heart. There was some comfort in the knowledge that she was nowhere near the first to marry like this. For all the world's talk of love she knew that she was far from alone in marrying for the mutual give and take between them and nothing more.
She would provide a respectable wife, children for his legacy. He would provide all the trappings and support of an ambitious and successful hero. Her family was pleased.
She hoped they could be friendly, if nothing else.
Rei’s wedding night was a little awkward. Her husband was not rough or cruel. They were both young, inexperienced, and barely knew each other.
It was nothing terrible and she was glad for it but Rei felt no spark, no great change between them. She briefly wondered if her feelings would ever change.
Enji left for work early the next morning, something about a meeting in Kyoto. He left her flowers. She made sure that they would last. It felt like something a respectable wife would do.
Their marriage was meant to produce children. It was one of the first things that had been brought up when the union was proposed. They hadn’t taken any precautions their first night together, it would have been rather counterintuitive to do so, and yet Rei found herself confused at her persistent morning nausea some weeks later.
Her husband was away for the week. She’d caught sight of him on the news carrying children away from a building collapse and glaring at reporters the evening before. He didn’t call and neither did she.
There was not a single pregnancy test in the house.
Rei had thought she would have more time to adjust. She didn’t even know where the extra towels were kept yet.
She grabbed two of the first pregnancy tests she saw on the shelf advertising early results and several groceries that gave the vague impression of tasting good together out of mild embarrassment.
It was as she suspected.
The newest Todoroki family would soon be three.
Rei didn’t know the first thing about being pregnant. It felt like her husband should be the next to hear the results but Rei had the sense that this was news best said face to face.
So, she was left to puzzle out recommendations and terrifying possibilities on her own. She set up an appointment with a doctor and discovered new recipes she probably wouldn’t enjoy after the baby arrived.
It was something of a relief to know that her husband wasn’t likely to be displeased. There were a lot of things she didn’t know about Todoroki Enji but she did know he wanted a child, preferably one with an appropriately impressive quirk.
He came home with edible souvenirs and gave them to her without comment. She smiled politely and hoped he wouldn’t mind the fact she was certain they would make her gag.
“Enji.” She decided the best time would be after dinner.
He looked up in acknowledgement.
“I have some news.” Rei couldn’t stop herself from fiddling with the hem of her shirt just a bit. “I’m pregnant.”
He didn’t seem to know quite how to react.
“Congratulations.” He settled on. She nearly laughed aloud in surprise. He looked terribly uncomfortable. “This is wonderful news.”
She nodded, though her feelings were a little mixed. She suspected he had also thought they would have more time.
Enji started bringing her crackers and water in the mornings the next day.
She stared at him the first time he did it. The crackers were on a little plate and everything.
“For the nausea.” She hadn’t told him she was having trouble but it felt a little mean to clarify that not every pregnancy came with nausea so Rei just took them with a small smile.
It helped.
A number of books about pregnancy appeared on various shelves. Rei never caught him reading them but saw the bookmarks move over time.
He came with her to her first appointment. It required him to take a partial day off since she hadn’t scheduled it with him in mind. They hadn’t been married for long but Rei felt like this was unusual. Something about the idea this was out of character pleased her.
“Twins.” Rei hadn’t objected to Enji’s decision to accompany her for more visits and, staring at the vague ultrasound blobs on the screen, she found that she was quite relieved that she didn’t need to break the news to him.
“Twins.” The doctor confirmed. “Congratulations!”
Twins.
She met her husband’s wide eyes.
Two babies.
They were going to have to rethink the whole nursery.
Rei didn’t make dinner the night they found out they were having twins. Enji announced they were going out to celebrate instead.
It was a fancy enough restaurant that she felt a little out of place. For his part Enji scowled at the waiter for having the audacity to hand her a wine list. A number of apologies were stumbled through before her husband was satisfied.
Rei hid a smile behind her hand. It was… sweet. That he was so concerned.
A small, vicious part of her said that he only cared for the heirs he so wanted. She was giving him two potential successors for the price of one pregnancy. Of course he would see her to appointments and read pregnancy books.
A perhaps even smaller, almost hopeful part of her said that her morning sickness was not a cause for care. It whispered that flowers and crackers and awkward inquiries into her interests over very expensive food were not necessary for an heir.
He asked her what she liked to read.
She told him the truth and didn’t hide the small smile as she talked this time.
They told their parents over the phone.
It was a mutual decision. Rei could imagine a few reactions from her mother, none of which would be good. She had been thinking about it, with the babies on the way. Her mother could be so cutting with her words.
Had it really been so terrible that her much younger self had wanted to climb trees?
She thought about a little girl with red or white hair, maybe some combination of both. She considered Enji’s eyes and her own nose. She thought about telling that little girl that she was a respectable young woman who could not climb or shriek or play.
She thought about a little boy and a little girl with some combination of red and white hair, identical in so many ways. She thought about her mother and the way she would dote on her little grandson as she had on her son. She thought about how hard it was to be proper and respectable young lady when you hated tags on clothes and were certain that puddles were the height of entertainment.
She thought about her own daughter, who may not exist at all. Rei told her mother over the phone and murmured her agreement to everything she was doing wrong.
Enji spent a lot of time in the training room after he called his father. Rei didn’t hear any of their conversation but she caught his eye as he stormed off and wondered if he was thinking about a little boy and everything he was doing wrong too.
Rei decided to coax the names of Enji’s favorite dishes out of him.
They had had an understanding when they married. Rei was to be a respectable wife. This meant she would keep the house, of course, and cook.
A wife could be very respectable and never cook her husband’s favorites. Except, he kept bringing her flowers like it was the only romantic gesture he knew. He took her out to celebrate again when the anatomy scan came back normal for both twins.
He asked for her input on names and there was something almost playful about their back and forth. They started talking to each other, more than gruff inquiries about dinner or how the day was.
Rei thought she was starting to get to know him. The person beyond the ambitious hero she married at her parent’s urging.
He had favorite dishes, scraped together over a life’s experiences.
She wanted to know what they were.
He told her.
Rei would not say that she had expected childbirth to be easy. Her mother had spent the last trimester telling and retelling her how awful it was over the phone. Rei had been late and had taken too long for her mother’s taste.
Expectations did not always live up to reality.
It hurt a great deal. It was strange and upsetting and she knew it would be but knowing was so different than feeling.
Enji was supposed to be on another trip to Kyoto that week.
He held her hand until she was certain even her own lesser strength had cracked bone and then kept holding it.
His eyes were wide and he didn’t seem to know if he was supposed to say anything. That was alright, she knew he wasn’t always very good with words.
He hadn’t gone to Kyoto. That was more than any flowery string of words he might have spoken over the phone.
Their babies were tiny. She was told this was fairly normal with them being both newborns and twins. She was told they were healthy and adorable.
She couldn’t stop staring at them. Enji twitched when she offered to let him hold them, they probably seemed even tinier to him.
He took one of them, the little boy. She couldn’t hold back a smile at how tiny he looked in his father’s arms with his dusting of red hair.
She was thinking Touya fit him, of all the names they had considered.
Rei looked at the little girl in her arms. Touya and Fuyumi.
She thought they sounded perfect.
Rei had been told that children would change a relationship, would change a person. The last comment was usually directed at her. That she would somehow be different for the experience.
She was, for what it was worth. Her life revolved around tiny little bundles who screamed and cried and slept and ate and were altogether helpless now. It was a lot of work.
Enji barely worked overtime after the babies came. He had worked a lot of it before, or so she’d been told by the brave sidekick who came over on her break to deliver congratulatory cards and cake she’d made herself. Apparently he’d been working less during her pregnancy. They’d been married so briefly before she got pregnant that she hadn’t entirely noticed the change in how often he was gone.
He liked to hold them. He seemed to be very careful to give them equal time though he never said anything.
Fuyumi was the first to coo and Rei was the first to hear about it. She’d never seen her husband so proud.
Touya stubbornly followed within the day and Enji made sure to tell him he’d done a good job. Touya responded by sucking on his own hand.
Touya beat his sister to laughing.
Fuyumi was right behind.
Enji didn’t miss either one of them.
Rei didn’t know what to call the feeling in heart as she watched him grin at them, as if they’d accomplished something great. She liked his smile more each time she saw it.
Her wedding had felt a little like a business meeting, the motions stiff and predetermined.
Her marriage was, perhaps, starting to feel like something a little different.
Enji looked up to make sure she’d heard and she couldn’t help her smile.
Maybe they could be more than an empty arrangement of give and take.
She thought they could be.
The four of them.
They already were.