Chapter Text
Naoya doesn’t realize how present his wife is in his life until she’s confined to their marital bed or one corner of the couch in the penthouse’s living room.
While Naoya has already managed to secure several of the branch family spinsters to come by and take care of the apartment and their meals, there’s still something that feels… off.
“Naoya-sama?” His wife calls from him from the couch where she’s been half-dozing in front of the television. While her voice is still soft, there’s a rasp to it from her persistent coughing. Even with the medication prescribed by the Zenin family doctor, she still keeps breaking down into coughing fits. Despite that, however, she smiles up at him when he makes it to her side. “Are you done with work for the day?”
Naoya has a “real” job.
The sorcerer stuff – exorcisms, hunting down Special Grade curses, and whipping his useless family members into shape – keeps him busy enough. However, Naoya gets bored easily. Putting his business degree to use in a company bringing in 7 trillion yen a year?
He does that shit for fun.
“I’m done,” Naoya says, trying to soften his voice. He peers down at his wife, taking in the sight of her as she sits wrapped up in several blankets. He touches her under the guise of possession, pressing the back of his hand against the side of her neck, the swell of her cleavage, and her clammy forehead.
Unlike a few days before, when he’d found her collapsed in the bathroom, his wife no longer feels scalding hot with fever and her dark eyes are bright.
“Why d’you need me?” Naoya asks, his own voice gruff. “You want somethin’ from me?”
At first, Naoya’s wife doesn’t answer him. She glances down at her hands and then at the television playing a clip from one of those stupid end-of-the-year music shows. But when she does answer him, her voice is small.
Hesitant.
“Could you please make me a cup of tea, Naoya-sama??”” At whatever look she sees cross his face, she practically falls all over herself to explain. “I finished the tea Hana-chan made before she left but I’m feeling a bit –”
Naoya cuts his wife off, scoffing as he rolls his eyes.
“Do ya think I’m too stupid t’ make a cuppa tea?” Naoya asks, annoyed at his wife’s words beyond any reason. But he doesn’t let it show, keeping his voice calm, neutral. Never mind that he’s never so much as turned on a kettle before. If Hana can do it, he sure as hell can. “Or d’you like Hana-chan better than me? Is’at what’s going on?”
Hana-chan is one of Naoya’s younger cousins from the branch side. So distant that they’re barely connected by blood. Her being a useless girl is even further compounded by the sad fact that her mother is, herself, a branch member of the Kamo clan. So an incoherent cursed technique, barely any cursed energy to speak of and her looks –
Ugh.
And yet it still stings that his wife has taken a liking to that gloomy little shit.
“H-Hana -chan is a good girl,” Naoya’s wife says, her voice trembling. When she reaches for Naoya’s fingers, he graciously allows her to hold his hand even though her words annoy him deeply. “She almost makes me want a daughter – not now, but eventually.”
Naoya stares down at his wife, looking at her as if he doesn’t understand the words that have come out of her mouth.
“That sour-faced little fuck made you want a kid,” Naoya asks, blurting the question out. “A daughter?”
Of all the stupid things his wife has said, this might be the stupidest.
At least she has the sense to blush and look embarrassed, squeezing Naoya’s hand like a lifeline.
“Eventually, we have to have a child,” she reminds him gently as if Naoya hasn’t been in the room when his father made comments about her fertility. She pouts a little, bottom lip poking out. “And Hana-chan is sweet.”
Naoya snorts. He’s watched the girl spit in her father’s sake during a banquet and then lie to his face about it. ‘Sweet’ is the last word he’d use to describe that little demon.
His wife shakes her head as if she can hear the words running through Naoya’s head.
“She is,” she insists. “And, Naoya-sama, she really does make a lovely up of tea.”