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"Azumi." Hajime called his daughter's name softly, his fingers lovingly combing her hair. He needed to wake his daughter soon. " C'mon, princess. It's Daddy's birthday, you have to give him his present."
"Papa, just a little... while longer, please." His daughter moved lazily in bed and tried to cover her head with the blanket.
"Zumi, baby." The hand that was in her hair moved to her shoulder to move her carefully. "It's Daddy's birthday, don't you wanna be the first to congratulate him?"
Azumi mumbled. "I'm the number one, I'll congratulate daddy first." She went on to say more things, but the rest were incoherent words.
He sighed.
He pulled up the blanket covering his daughter's body until she was exposed to the morning coolness. His little girl let out a whimpering sound before sitting up in bed with her eyes still closed, she stretched out her arms and Iwaizumi immediately tucked his hands under her armpits to lift her up.
"Are you okay, sweetie, did you sleep well?"
" Papa, it's cold." Azumi murmured, laying her head on her father's shoulder. "Is Daddy still asleep?"
"Yes, my love. He sleeps like a bear in winter." He kissed his daughter's forehead as he left the room to go to the bathroom. "Will you help me make Daddy's favorite breakfast?"
Azumi yawned, stretching her arms in the process and opening her eyes to look at him and send him a small smile. "Yes, pancakes!"
He hummed in pleasure at his daughter's more active response, placed her on the little stool they had in the bathroom to reach for the wash and waited patiently for his little princess to brush her teeth. When she dried her face and extended her arms again, Hajime greeted her and then left the bathroom to go downstairs to the kitchen.
" Papa, do you have my birthday letter for daddy? I wanna give it to him with breakfast."
"Yep." He popped the 'p', leaving Azumi sitting on the counter chair. "It's in your room, I forgot to get it." He smiles a little guiltily, maybe he forgot on purpose. "Go and get it and remember you'll be in charge of decorating Daddy's breakfast, so when you come back you'll have to wait a bit while I get it done."
His daughter nodded enthusiastically, resting her elbows on the surface and beginning her usual chatter. Iwaizumi listened to her attentively and opined whenever he had the chance, he moved around the kitchen with agility. A couple of dirty utensils and flour spills later, he had already made half of what he had planned for his husband.
In less than half an hour he'd prepared a full breakfast and was serving pancakes on a plate. He placed the plate on a tray and slid it across the counter right in front of his daughter, pulled out two tuppers containing Wakatoshi's favorite fruits: blueberries and strawberries.
He handed both tuppers to Azumi, leaving her to be in charge of the decoration. While his daughter took care of that, he set about making coffee for both of them and hot milk for Azumi. He poured everything into everyone's personalized mugs and walked back over to the counter to see how Wakatoshi's breakfast was coming along.
"That looks really nice, what did you do?" Hajime already knew. He'd watched his daughter quietly practice with the honey in her own breakfasts to make a little heart in her father's. Seeing the slightly uneven heart was endearing. "Do you want to climb on my back to carry his breakfast to bed?"
Azumi shook her head effusively, carefully lowering herself from the chair. "The letter! I wrote the birthday letter to Daddy at school, my teacher helped me. I'm gonna go get it" In an instant his daughter disappeared from the kitchen, her little feet barely making a sound on the stairs as she made her way upstairs.
Hajime smiled foolishly instead.
He loves his little girl so much.
Azumi was very different from Wakatoshi, quite the little girl full of words and overly social; she conquered the heart of any adult and any child she has ever met from the first instant.
She wasn't like Hajime either, he knew that; Azumi was very calm and oblivious to any kind of anger, her reactions to any potential thing that could upset her were similar to her Uncle Aone's at school. One blink, two more, and then she would look for a way to make amends or cope without complaint or frowns; unless it was about getting out of bed.
Small hurried footsteps echoed down the hallway and Azumi appeared in the kitchen with a paper folded in half. She rounded the counter to stand on her tiptoes and stretch the paper towards her father, Hajime received it immediately and felt his heart melt inside his chest as he saw that it was decorated with a crooked volleyball and contained his daughter's name in sloppy handwriting.
"Put it on daddy's tray, come on." Azumi bounced on her feet excitedly. She was definitely awake now. "Quick, come on. Daddy's gonna wake up without breakfast."
Small hands tugged at his pajama pants and a small giggle escaped his throat, he tousled his daughter's jet hair before placing the letter on the tray and taking it in both hands.
"You go up first and remember, shh." Iwaizumi pursed his lips and lowered the tone of his voice to a whisper. "Quiet as the mother owl, remember?"
Azumi brought a finger to her mouth and whispered a soft 'shh' to turn and head for the stairs once more. Hajime wanted to tease her about how cute she looked walking on her tiptoes even though it really wasn't necessary; Ushijima wouldn't even wake up to the sound of a truck horn in his ear, today was Saturday and his husband was more than serious about days off.
It took them less than two minutes to enter the room (opening the door was a challenge when he was holding a tray in his hands) and find Ushijima's sleeping figure on the bed. Iwaizumi held back the urge to lie on top of his lover and fill him with kisses, instead, he moved closer to the bed before his daughter jumped on him and woke him up; he placed the tray on the nightstand and sat on the edge of the bed, smiling as a whimpering moan left his lover's lips as he felt his daughter's footsteps all over him.
"Daddyyy." Azumi sat on Wakatoshi's belly as her little hops and footsteps did nothing but steal a whimper from her daddy. She gently pushed her daddy's shoulders trying to wake him up like Hajime was doing to her. "Daddy, wake up."
"T-too early." A mumble of incoherent words followed what he said, he sank further into bed as he stretched out an arm to hug Azumi. "Gotta sleep... sleep more."
Iwaizumi couldn't help but laugh when Azumi looked at him in alarm. "He caught me!" She tried to move to escape her father's arm and failed completely. "Daddyyy, daddy get up."
They both realized the exact moment Ushijima woke up 'cause in one movement he pulled his daughter to his chest and squeezed her in a hug being careful not to hurt her. "Morning, my princess."
Azumi's eyes sparkled with happiness and she wrapped her arms around Wakatoshi's neck. "Happy birthday, Daddy!" a flurry of kisses further stunned his husband's sleepy gaze. "We brought breakfast for you."
Ushijima hummed complacently, sitting up still with Azumi on his body, he leaned back against the headboard and yawned before realizing that Iwaizumi was sitting there too and looking at him with loving eyes.
"Happy birthday, Toshi." Iwaizumi reached over as best he could to kiss his husband's forehead under Azumi's watchful gaze. "I made pancakes for you."
"I decorated it." Azumi added with a smile that barely fit her face. "Show him, Papa."
"Let's give Daddy some space first, okay?" Iwaizumi straightens up to grab Azumi and pull her off Ushijima's lap, but his husband doesn't let him carry her very far as he silently points to his side and lets Azumi sit comfortably next to him.
Once his hands were unoccupied, Iwaizumi took the tray and slid it onto Ushijima's lap. "Oh, wow. This smells so delicious." Azumi protested from her place and before she could complain, his husband stepped forward. "Look at this letter. Who must've written it for me, mhm?"
Azumi squeezed into Ushijima's side, blushing shyly as Wakatoshi started to read aloud from the letter.
"To Daddy Toshi, from his pretty princess Zumi." Wakatoshi gives Azumi a glance and smiles softly at the sight of her ruddy cheeks. "Happy birthday, I hope you're strong like Superman and never get ugly and wrinkly, I love you so much."
Iwaizumi feels the heat on his cheeks too 'cause he's holding back a laugh as he hears the contents of the letter. He tries to breathe calmly to keep himself under control and continues to listen to his husband.
"I want you to always be with me and not get wrinkly like Grandpa Utsui." A snort slips in mid-reading and Iwaizumi knows his husband is trying not to laugh too. "You're the best daddy, happy eighth birthday."
Both Iwaizumi and Ushijima look puzzled at the end of the letter, but they don't have time to ask 'cause Azumi has managed to steal the blueberries from the plate and is shamelessly eating them.
"Zumi, that's Daddy's breakfast." His daughter shrugs, stealing a strawberry and popping it into her mouth. Iwaizumi denies, taking his coffee cup that was on the tray and the cup of milk to give it to Azumi. "Don't spill anything on the bed, princess."
"I won't, Papa." He sees his little girl straighten up as best she can despite being pinned between Wakatoshi's side and his right arm. "I'm eight years old, I'm a big girl. Just like daddy."
Hajime hums in surprise. "Yeah, you're big now." He gives Wakatoshi a look and knows he's also realized where the mistake on the letter came from.
"You can have the blueberries, my girl." Ushijima kisses the crown of her head before taking the silverware and starting to eat in silence. Iwaizumi watches them silently as he drinks small sips of his coffee. This is happiness. "Don't you want some, Hajime?"
"No, it's still too early for me."
"If you say so."
His husband continues to eat, pulling to the side of the plate the blueberries for Azumi to eat quietly. Hajime enjoys the familiar, warm view. They are everything to him. He loves them madly. A new smile plants itself on his face as he finishes his coffee before Ushijima takes the last bite of his pancakes.
"This was delicious, love."
"I helped too!"
"I know, thank you so much princess." Ushijima lifts the tray and holds it out to Hajime to set on the nightstand. When his hands are free, he sees that his husband is patting the other side of the bed. "Come here, let's cuddle for a while."
"What are you, a kid?" Iwaizumi teases.
"Yes, I just turned eight." Rarely does Ushijima joke, but this is one of those very few times when he can't help but laugh. "Corroborated by my daughter, right princess?"
"Yes! Daddy turned eight." Azumi states confidently, taking advantage of her parents still not moving to slink to the center of the bed. "Daddy will always be eight, he'll never be old like Grandpa Utsui."
Iwaizumi chokes on his own laughter. His father-in-law would die if he heard his adored granddaughter's words. He slides onto the other side of the bed with little giggles slipping from his lips, settles himself as best he can onto his side and watches Wakatoshi do the same as he covers them with the blanket; Azumi curls up in the middle of them both and closes her eyes ready to sleep on.
So lazy on weekends, just like Ushijima. The thought embeds itself in his mind as he sees Wakatoshi do the exact same thing, mumbling a 'sleep on, Iwa'. He sighs, it's amazing how his daughter can be so different from his husband and at the same time be an exact copy of him.
Hajime spends more time than he would like awake, he's still on his side and is feasting his eyes on the image of his lover and daughter dozing. At least that's what he thinks until Ushijima speaks in a husky, low voice so as not to disturb Azumi's sleep.
"Eight years and growing." Wakatoshi runs a hand through Azumi's hair to push it away from her forehead. "She'll keep stealing hearts everywhere."
"I know, I think she got that charisma from Oikawa during the vacations."
Ushijima groans. "I want her to always be my little princess."
"She's always going to be, babe."
"Can I make her birthday letters where I always congratulate her on her eighth birthdays?" Iwaizumi denies while laughing wistfully. "Thanks for the breakfast, Hajime."
"It was Azumi's idea, I was just gonna buy you a pair of socks." He settles in to drape the blanket over his shoulders. "I saw you had a pair of socks with holes in and thought it would make an excellent gift."
"You could keep that a secret from yourself." If Ushijima blushed, no one but himself knew.
"I still bought it for you, I'll give it to you later." Iwaizumi's voice is lower than before and Ushijima raises his head to find him face down with one arm tucked under the pillow and another carefully hugging Azumi. " C'mon, I'm sleepy already."
"I love you." He's not sure if Iwaizumi heard him, but he doesn't care and continues as he settles into bed. "I love you both, it will be a good birthday because of you."