The biggest difference between his first child the second was the simple fact that his daughter, for whatever reason, loved "uncle" Judar a little bit too much.
Hakuryuu's daughter was a fast learner just like her brother with whom she got along very well. His son was proud to be a big brother and tried his best to help his parents with raising his baby sister. There wasn't much to do or to help with for him, but even the smallest kind of help was help.
In the morning it was still Hakuryuu who woke up first. And it still was his duty to prepare the breakfast and wake the kids up as well as his wife. Usually, his son was already awake. His daughter, on the other hand, slept longer and deeper and hated it when her father took her out of bed. Thankfully, her mood got better as soon as her mother fed her. Maybe it was because of her mother or getting food or the cuddling afterwards or all of it.
His first born help with setting up the table and calling mommy after they were finished doing so. He also wanted to explain to his sister which food tasted good and which did not. She did not listen or care. Hakuryuu found it amusing and lovely!
***
Like her big brother she learned to walk and speak extremely fast. One child that did run around without knowing fear was exhausting and worrying enough. Two children like that were the worst possible nightmare coming true. Fortunately, his children were together most of the time. So finding one was enough to find the other one as well.
What worried Hakuryuu more was his daughter's love for Judar. Even as an adult that guy refused to act as such or take up his responsibilities. And Judar loved to play pranks! The victims were the poor servants in most cases, sometimes Judar dared to prank Hakuryuu's wife, but then he would not get out of it unharmed. Getting on her bad side was something everyone tried to avoid, even Judar.
Hakuryuu thought of it as very amusing to see his second child, barely able to walk and talk, running around and trying to prank the people of the palace, while imitating the priest. Some day he would probably die out of laughter.
His daughter came after her mother in regards to her appearance. Her behavior was like her mother's as well, but sometimes she reminded him more of himself or his own late big brother Hakuyuu. His son on the other hand was very similar to Hakuyuu in both cases at least as far as Hakuryuu could judge. Unfortunately, he had been only six years old when his brother had been murdered.
***
When he had time, Hakuryuu played a lot with his children or read or tell them stories. The games they played were very different. Sometimes they played a role play in which he often had to be the bad guy, while his kids were the good ones. Mommy had to be saved from the daddy! He gave his best to be as bad as possible which wasn't so easy with such cute children and such a lovely wife.
Sometimes he would just sit on the ground and let his daughter make him "even prettier" than he had ever been. Afterwards he looked more like a clown, but she was happy and proud of herself and so was he.
And other times he was only in the same room as his children and watched them doing their own things.
His wife was able to spend more time with her little babies, therefore she always had to tell her husband a lot.
Like about that one time when their daughter thought the she could pet a fish. Or that one time when their daughter drunk cold black tea. Or that time their daughter tried to dress herself up. Hakuryuu wished he had been there when that happened. He had also missed her first words and her first steps. Sadly, he had missed these things with his son as well. Well, he had only missed his son's first steps. But that had been sad enough. He still regret it!
He wanted to be a better father for his son. He wanted to be a better father for his daughter! And now he spent almost no time with any of them because of his duties as emperor! Maybe that's the reason why he used every free second of his life to be with his son and his daughter.
Besides his daughter being a fast learner and being extremely curious – too much for her own good sometimes – she also wanted to appear more mature – at least that was what Hakuryuu thought, while his wife meant that their daughter's behavior was totally normal and had nothing to do with trying to be more mature –, so she refused to wear her diapers or her bib as soon as her brother stopped doing so. She never liked her bib anyway! How many tear had been shed because of them? Hakuryuu had not dared to even start counting. Again, it had been his wife who had remained level-headed in such a situation – Hakuryuu was bad with handling his crying kids. His wish to see them smile and happy influenced him so much that he sometimes was not sure what to do. He was overwhelmed in such situations and wanted to cry and get away. And then his wife would appear and handle everything with such a grace and easiness that he only could be astonished. He wanted to become a better father and to learn how to deal with, for him, difficult situations. Strangely, but fortunately, his children did not use his weakness against him. Normally, they were so well-behaved that it was almost scary and worrisome – of course, there were also times when the two were far away from being well-behaved, but no one was an angel.
***
When his daughter was older she once found him crying. That day had been terrible. So many things had gone wrong, then he had a fight with his sister Kougyoku, then he remembered the fire accident – which happened because of the fight with his sister – and in the end his two children were misbehaving and he didn't know how to handle them. The thought that he was an adult and should have his emotions under control, especially in front of his children, was not really helping. If anything it made it even worse.
So, instead of telling his children that they should apologize for what they had done and why it had been wrong and bad, he told them that he was disappointed with them, that he was annoyed by their misbehavior and that they should stop acting so stupid – both of them were still very young and had not known better – and of course he had cried at that point already. He also did not listen to what they were trying to say to him, instead he dismissed them and told them to not make up some excuses. All in all he had been the one who behaved like a little child and had been wrong – he later apologized to his son and his daughter who forgave him.
His daughter and his son had started to search for him after he just left them in their playroom. Never had they seen their father to be so sad, loud and helpless. They were worried and even a little bit scared. It had been their fault that they father was unwell!
When his daughter had found him, he was still crying. She hadn't had said anything, was just sitting next to him and gave him a hug. She had been so much more mature than him at that time and there were no words to describe how ashamed he had been of himself – and he still was ashamed of himself, when he thought back to that day.
This happening made him realize that he still needed a lot of help to move on from his past and that being a father meant more than just spending time with one's children and the responsibility that came with being a parent was much greater than he had first thought and one would expect.
Fortunately, he had his wife with him and two very great children.
***
Probably due to his daughter's love for "uncle" Judar she developed some kind of obsession with peaches. When she got older she started cooking lessons – Hakuryuu felt so proud when she had asked him to teach her. Peach cookies, peach cakes, peach muffins and many more dishes including peaches were created by her and eaten by the priest and herself. At that point Hakuryuu had accepted his daughter's strange taste in people – he was the one to talk since he and Judar were close friends and the priest was very important to him. If Judar were just a better role model!
On the other hand, his daughter was a sassy and confident girl from the start and Judar's was not responsible for that – Hakuryuu had no problem with his daughter being like that, her mother was like that too.
***
All in all there was nothing Hakuryuu could really complain about. Yes, there were times when things didn't go well, when he and his daughter had an argument or when there was an argument between the children. Yes, there were times when he wished things were easier and he would have more time for himself and his wife. But that were problems every family faced sooner or later. In the end all that matter was the fact that they loved each other!
***
When his daughter was three years she became a big sister.
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There will be at least 4 more chapters. I think about making a 5th one as bonus, but that depends on whether you (the readers) want it or not.
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Happiness
Fanfiction[Complete] One Shots about Hakuryuu, his wife and his children.
