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Terui Ryu had known that on the surface, their lives seemed normal.
A man and his wife living in their own home, and raising a young daughter. It was all normal. He went to work, went back home to his loving family. Their friends often visited them, and they still often went to the Narumi Detective Agency. After all, Narumi Akiko was still the owner of the place. Of course the Chief would still go over there, even with a child in her arms.
The two detectives in there were obviously ecstatic. Who wouldn’t be happy to be around the child of their friends?
Even Haruna was often whiney, if they couldn’t go over for a few days.
“At this point, maybe we should just ask them to move in with us.”
For anyone else, this would have been just a joke.
And clearly a ludicrous idea. What kind of married couple would want the wife’s coworkers moving in with them?
Even if they were on good enough terms to have them at their wedding.
No married couple would want that, right?
“Honestly, you know I love the guys, but they’d kind of get on my nerves every day,” Akiko muttered, handing Haruna over to Ryu, before continuing. “Maybe once Haruna gets older and once she won’t wake up multiple times through the night. I love Shotaro and Philip to bits, but with Shotaro’s own quirks, and Philip’s research spirals, we probably would get even less sleep for now. Even though I really do miss them dearly.”
“We still see them at least every second day.”
“I knooooow.”
Haruna’s hands were grabbing onto Ryu’s face, babbling, and Ryu couldn’t help but smile. Of course he’d keep smiling, holding her.
How could he not?
“Hey there Haruna. Do you think we should visit Shotaro and Philip, huh?”
“Sho! Phi! Sho! Phi!”
Haruna was babbling, and Ryuu just smiled a little.
“Are you also coming, Chief, or are you staying behind to rest a little?”
“Of course I’m not staying,” Akiko puffed her cheeks. “I also miss them, you know. Besides, I need to look after the three of you, in case you decide to run off to fight someone again.”
“That’s fair enough.”
Just because the Sonozaki family had stopped their activities, it didn’t mean that the dopants were gone. Far from it.
So really, things were bound to happen still.
So maybe, it was still fair.
Except…
“And what about you, Chief? Can you stay still if something happens?”
Akiko stuck her tongue out.
“Let’s go, dear husband.”
Truth to be told, it’s been a while since Akiko transformed.
She transformed, using her father’s GaiaMemory, and taking the LostDriver from Shotaro, yelling at them about how can you tell me this is dangerous, when all of you run off to be Kamen Riders multiple times a month?
Of course once they found out she was pregnant, she stopped transforming, and she never stopped sulking about it.
“Occasionally I could transform and one of you could stay behind.”
“Which one of us?” Ryu asked, while driving them to the agency. They actually had to get a car to get Haruna around. “Philip and Shotaro either both of them stay behind, or neither of them does. And if I stay behind, people are going to be suspicious.”
“Not like they know that you are Accel.”
“...fair enough. Maybe I could stay behind next time. Although I also miss fighting together with all of you.”
“One day, it’ll happen again. Because things are never going to completely calm down in Fuuto, will they?”
They never will.
Which Ryu used to hate more than anything.
Sure, he wished there would have been no need for Kamen Riders, the way he wished there would have been no need for the police either.
But there was something exhilarating about fighting alongside his wife and the two men they both loved.
Because really, that was what was really going on.
“Ah, look at who graced us with her presence! The prettiest lady in all of Fuuto!”
Shotaro almost kicked over his chair hurrying over, cooing at Haruna, taking her into his arms, and Haruna giggled, grabbing at his hat, pulling it into his face.
So Shotaro took off his hat, putting it on Haruna’s head, which covered her face partially too, making her giggle.
“Philip is in the back?”
Ryu asked, while Akiko flopped down on one of the armchairs, and Shotaro nodded.
“Yeah, he had been researching bookbinding today. The entire back room is full of books he took apart and re-bound now.”
That definitely sounded right.
So Ryu just walked to the back, and Shotaro’s description was indeed right.
“Hello, Philip.”
“Hello, Terui Ryu. Shotaro had been wondering whether you would come over today.”
“Weren’t you?”
“Judging by your habits, I thought it was more likely than you not coming over.”
“So you were expecting us?”
“Something like that! But then I saw a video about bookbinding. It’s so interesting. Did you know that—”
Ryu didn’t let him finish it, he just hurried over, picking Philip up into his arms, which made him yelp a little.
“Tell me a bit later,” Ryu promised. “Tell it to all of us outside, rather. When we are all together. Haruna wanted to see you as well.”
So he just carried Philip out to the main office, and the sight made Akiko laugh so much she almost fell off the chair, and after Ryu put Philip down as well, Shotaro handed Haruna over, and Philip indeed started to talk about bookbinding techniques and Haruna listened to him, babbling, holding onto Philip’s hair, and all of them also listened to him. Akiko was curled up in the armchair, her head on Philip’s shoulder, and Ryu had an arm around Shotaro’s waist, and Ryu pointedly ignored the offers of coffee.
None of them ever learnt how to make coffee, even after all this time.
For the longest time, Ryu didn’t think he’d have something like this. He missed hanging out at the detective agency. To this day, he’d still call Shotaro Hidari to his face, and Philip would still call him by his full name, just like he’d also call his wife Chief after all this time.
It was comfortable, and nice, and Haruna was a new, shining light in their lives, and Ryu was sometimes terrified.
There were times when he dreamt about Isaka.
He dreamt about the agency being covered in ice, and he dreamt about their home being frozen over, he dreamt about all of them being frozen, and those times, he’d climb out of bed, and going over to Haruna’s bed, and he’d just watch her sleep, sitting next to her. Usually Akiko would realize it, follow him, cuddling up to him in silence, and it was nice but also wasn’t quite enough.
Because he missed those days when they would put down blankets and bedrolls in the backroom of the agency, and all four of them were all tangled together, bodies getting sweaty and warm even when nothing happened and they just slept together, just from the heat of their bodies.
He missed that.
Shotaro and Philip would still sleep over at their place, and they had a big enough bed they could all fit on, and it was always so nice, but whenever it didn’t happen, Ryu missed them.
Akiko was right, all of them living together would have been way too tiring, and besides, you couldn’t have carved the two detectives out of the agency.
It was not possible, so they just had to make do with what they had. Which made sense.
But he still preferred it, if all of them were together.
Because of course he did.
Not to mention when Shotaro and Philip stayed over at their place, Shotaro was also likely to climb out to bed to look after Haruna. Philip was very hard to wake up, and even when he woke up, he was more likely to poke Shotaro awake as well, honestly.
Which was always a fair thing to do, as Shotaro seemed to have a knack for dealing with Haruna.
Those days, the mornings were more chaotic too, their kitchen getting livelier than usual, and Ryu really did wish these days would happen more often.
Well.
They could always coax Shotaro and Philip back into their car, and made them spend the night over.
At least spending the night together again, because when that happened, it seemed to keep the nightmares at bay more.
So that sounded like a good idea.
And he knew Akiko won’t argue about this either.