Canon: Remove if not applicable.Upon entering the kitchen one Saturday morning, Kouen finds two girls at the counter.
"What are you doing, Kougyoku, Muron?" he asks them, and Kougyoku beams up at him and climbs down from the stool she was standing on for the sake of better reach. The hug she gives Kouen causes flour to stain his jeans, but she doesn't notice, her eyes turned up towards his face. "Cookies!" she exclaims, and Kouen reaches down to pick her up in his arms. She's getting big, he notes. He doesn't lift her every day and when you spend time with someone on a daily basis it's easy to miss such things initially, he supposes. But she does reach a bit further up when she hugs him, now. "Cookies?" he repeats, and Kougyoku nods, so eagerly that her braid bobs like a happy dog's tail.
Kouen puts Kougyoku back down on the stool and picks up one of the cookie cutters that the girls are using. It's not exactly a conventional form, a far cry from the stars, hearts and circles which were normally used to give the cookies shape.
An arm wraps around Kouen's waist and he feels his husband's chest press against his back, and his head leans against his shoulder. "Isn't that Totoro?" he says as he grasps Kouen's wrist and pulls it closer so he can look at the cookie cutter. He looks over at the other cookie cutters. "They're really cute."
"I found them in a shop," Muron says, with a pleased look on her face and a nod that rustles her ponytail. "Not all of them are sweet by the way," she adds, directed at both men. "Kougyoku wanted to be sure that you can eat them too." After all, both Mu and Kouen were not too fond of sweets.
There's a smile in Mu's voice and from the corner of his eye Kouen can see his cheerful expression. "That's very thoughtful of you, honey," he says and pets Kougyoku on the head. Kouen notices that the look on Muron's face seems to express her desire to get a pat on the head too, and Mu seems to notice it too, because he gives her a fond headpat as well. Both girls looks happy, cheeks turning red and eyes shining bright.
"I'm sure they'll taste great," Kouen says, as he leans into his husband's embrace when both his arms settles around his waist. Kougyoku nods again, even more fervently than before. "Brother gets the first!" she says, and beams up at him. He returns her smile with on of his own. Not as beaming as he doesn't smile that way, but it is enough of a smile to make the little girl beam even brighter at him.