Chapter Text
Nobody would have thought it possible, but some had dared dream of it.
The relationship between a curse and a human questioning the long-established order of sorcerers, and the curse birthing a child, questioning even wider concepts.
A soul regaining control of a dead body once inhabited by Kenjaku.
A highly threatening group of curses setting their differences aside and becoming part of a half-human family.
It took Mahito a long while to convince Nanami to let Jogo, Hanami and Dagon interact with their son. Just like little Kenshiro, they all took baby steps.
At first, another sorcerer (in that case, Gojo, though Nanami wouldn't have picked him if he'd had the choice) had to be present so they weren't outnumbered in case things went south. Nanami was tense, but Mahito seemed happy to see the closest thing to a family he had finally meeting his child. The disaster curses were lucky enough to still be around even after Kenjaku got defeated by Gojo, but they knew not to push their luck and remained into hiding for some time. Mahito's situation was unstable too, at first, but eventually once his case was cleared and he was allowed to live as long as Nanami took the responsibility, he reached out to them, finding them, as he'd imagined, in Dagon's domain in one of their hideouts.
Hanami and Dagon were happy to see him, but Jogo took a little bit more coaxing to accept to talk things out. After Mahito gave him a good beating and beheaded him for good measure, planting his head in front of him in the sand while Hanami and Dagon restrained the headless body, Jogo agreed to a civilized conversation.
They talked about how Kenjaku had never truly cared about them or their fates after his plan would get to fruition. He was a human, after all.
But then, Mahito had to find the right words to explain that, as human as he was, Nanami on the other hand was worth trusting. Mahito himself realized things were more complicated than the far easier and often comforting black and white thinking.
Eventually they came to an agreement. If a perfect harmony between humans and curses was impossible, then they'd restrict it to their family. The curses would accept Nanami and the half-curse child, and in return, the only full human would tolerate them and, as much as he could, he would invite other sorcerers to leave them alone — as long as they weren't being a direct threat.
Mahito didn't fool himself and didn't expect his curse family to be around for much longer, which made reconnecting with them all the more important while there was still time.
He also believed it would do his son good to meet curses other than his Mama, considering the boy was half-curse himself. Sure, Mahito could and would teach him everything he needed to know, especially if he turned out to have inherited his technique, but he believed that his baby, just like himself, should learn from all kinds of different people. Nanami had several fellow sorcerers on his side, but Mahito only had his little odd family to make Kenshiro feel accepted and understood in his curseness.
Little Kenshiro, with Nanami's blond hair and both of his parents' eyes (one blue, one brown), was seven months old when he met his Mama's side of the family for the first time. They didn't get to hold him right away, of course; and Gojo was truly the right choice to protect Kenshiro, Nanami realized, as his former upperclassman created a selective infinity shield around the baby that only allowed Nanami and Mahito to touch him.
Kenshiro didn't seem fazed by the shield, or the three unknown curses standing before him; but then again, his vision wasn't the best yet.
"You made that?" Jogo finally asked while pointing at the partly human baby, and Mahito beamed with pride:
"Nearly all by myself!"
"Don't call him 'that' ," Nanami retorted coldly, and Jogo gritted his teeth.
"He'll have to get used to it. That's how humans refer to you, when you're a curse."
".namuh a rof ssap ylisae dluoc eH .ylirassecen toN" Hanami objected, making everyone in the room wince with her otherworldly speech.
"No need to say it," Jogo grunted. "I can see he's more human than curse, and that's too bad."
Before anyone could ask the curse what he meant, the baby's face constricted and he began to whimper. Surely startled by Hanami's voice, Kenshiro started to wail in Mahito's arms, and Jogo rolled his single eye.
"Great, one more who's unbearable to listen to…"
Gojo caught the slight disapproving raise of Nanami's eyebrow and turned to Jogo.
"Come on, now, stop disrespecting my nephew," He razzed cheekily, even adding, "You're his uncle too now."
Jogo's eye widened and a puff of smoke rose from his head.
"Don't rope me into this family nonsense!"
"We've talked this over already, Jo-go.~" Mahito tutted as he gently bounced Kenshiro whose face was flushed a deep pink from being so upset. "Kenshin won't calm down if you keep fighting like that in front of him."
Mahito's reaction successfully shut Jogo up, and the volcano head could only stare as the younger, cruel and childish curse he'd always known was focused on shushing his baby and cooing to his little snotty face.
It had taken Jogo a while to believe Mahito had a child, and somehow successfully managed to keep it alive for so long. The Mahito he knew would have never passed the opportunity to experiment on his own offspring, not caring that he'd birthed them himself — in fact, he would've found it even more interesting.
"What have you become…" He let out, and Mahito barely even seemed to care. He was too busy brushing his nose against Kenshiro's, finally eliciting a giggle from his baby boy.
"What did you do to our Mahito?!" Jogo asked the two sorcerers in the room, keeping his voice surprisingly low. Only to avoid having to endure irritating baby cries again , he told himself.
Hanami gestured for someone to cover the baby's ears before she spoke, which Nanami did with a thankful nod. ".reippah skool eh kniht I"
"Huh?!" Jogo sputtered while looking at her like she'd just stabbed him in the back. "... I don't even know why I listen to you anyway, you don't have eyes." He grumbled, and Mahito's clear laughter filled the room.
"What's better, a blind person who understands, or a one-eyed person who refuses to see?"
When he got no answer from Jogo, Mahito sighed and shook his head.
"Come on, let's all sit down."
Jogo and Hanami settled on the couch, Nanami and Gojo on chairs, and Mahito, Kenshiro and Dagon sat on the floor by the baby's sensory mat.
Dagon, who hadn't uttered a word since he'd gotten there, pointed to one of the toys laying around, looking up at Mahito with excited eyes. It was a small blue whale plushie with a crinkly tail.
"That's his favorite toy!" Mahito exclaimed, "He takes it everywhere with him. One day he lost it at the aquarium and was inconsolable."
"Thankfully we had a spare." Nanami added with a soft smile on his lips.
"He loves fish," Mahito continued, "so we got him a sea-themed sensory mat."
Dagon took a closer look at the round piece of fabric to see it was covered in all kinds of colorful fish, a turtle and starfish, and that a dolphin, an octopus, a seahorse and a jellyfish were hanging above the baby's head.
"We haven't taken him to the beach yet, but we're planning to once the weather is warm enough." Nanami said, and Mahito immediately lit up.
"Oh, but we could go to your domain someday!" He said while looking at Dagon. "The weather is always nice there."
Nanami's expression turned sour at the thought of willingly taking their child into the domain of a curse powerful enough to have one. He didn't want to shatter Mahito's dreams of a perfect, functional family, but hankfully for him, Jogo seemed to gladly take that part.
"Have you gone crazy? There's no way he'd survive even ten seconds inside."
"I know he's strong enough." Mahito replied as an enigmatic smile spread on his face.
It was the kind of smile Nanami dreaded, because it always meant Mahito was hiding something from him — like drinking shampoo and puking on the bed or bringing home one of his human experiments. It had been a while since he'd done the latter, but Nanami didn't like the idea that whatever Mahito had done somehow involved their son.
"He's not even one year old, Mahito. How would you know he can handle it?"
Nanami's stern tone gave Mahito the chills, both in a good and bad way. He hated when Nanami was mad at him, but he couldn't deny his clenched jaw and furrowed brow made him feel things. It reminded him of the first time they met.
Kenshiro couldn't care less, laying on his back on his little mat and smacking the octopus toy hanging above his head. Small bells were sewn into the inside of each tentacle and jingled every time Kenshiro hit the mobile.
"Answer me." Nanami pressed his partner, and Jogo snickered.
"Ooooh, Mahito's in trouble." At last, he was having fun.
Mahito twirled his hair and looked at Nanami with the biggest eyes he could manage (while making sure they remained cute and did not take up his entire face).
"I… miiiiight have shown him my self-embodiment of-"
"Did you take our son to your domain?!"
Mahito's face instantly fell and he crawled on all fours to Nanami's feet, hands holding onto his knees as he rested his head on his lap.
"The hands were so gentle with him, they made him slides and threw him up in the air…"
When he saw the frown on Nanami's face deepening, Mahito immediately added:
"But they always caught him! He had fun, and look, he's fine! Not a single bruise!"
Nanami looked truly disgusted at the thought, and the curses in the room watched with a similar emotion as Mahito pressed his forehead to Nanami's knee and whimpered.
"I knew what I was doing, I would never risk our son's life."
Jogo couldn't believe his eyes and ears, but it wasn't the first time today. Mahito had truly been tamed. It was sickening, but at the same time oddly satisfying. Mahito had gotten on his nerves so many times that he couldn't help but feel this was some kind of revenge.
"Don't look at me like that…" Mahito whined, lower lip trembling.
"Nanamin-" Gojo tried when Mahito's eyes began to water.
"Shut up." Nanami cut him off, before speaking to Mahito again.
"What do you mean by 'like that'?" He asked much more calmly than how he'd snapped at Gojo seconds before.
"... Like you're sick of me." Mahito murmured, avoiding Nanami's eyes and staring at his feet instead.
Nanami's hand found its way on the back of his neck, gently brushing the stray hairs that had escaped Mahito's high ponytail.
"I'm not sick of you, Mahi."
Mahito looked up at the sound of the familiar nickname. It couldn't be that bad if Nanami was using it.
"You're not?" The curse asked hopefully, eyes brimming with tears.
"I'm just really, really mad at you right now. You should've told me about it first."
"You would've said no if I did."
"Of course I would've said-" Nanami sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. "That's not the point. Like you said, he is our son, so I'd rather be involved when it comes to big things like this."
"I'm sorry." Mahito sniffled, and Nanami pulled him up so the curse could sit on his lap.
"Apologies accepted." Nanami told him as he kissed him on the cheek. "No one was hurt, so I forgive you. But I want you to let me know when you do something like that again."
Just as they'd come, Mahito's tears were gone the moment he knew Nanami wouldn't stay mad at him forever, and a smile was back on his lips. "You want to see him slide down the hands too, don't you? It's the cutest thing you'll ever see."
Nanami finally broke into a smile and he pushed a strand of hair away from Mahito's face.
"Maybe when he's a little bit older, my love."
Jogo cleared his throat awkwardly after a few seconds of blissful silence, and Mahito sneered at the older curse.
"You're just jealous."
"I assure you I am not." Jogo said with as much disdain as he could muster.
Nanami's eyes then fell on Kenshiro who had been left alone with Dagon. Although the curse was in his most harmless form, Nanami still silently signaled for Mahito to go back to their baby's side, which he did.
But immediately after he sat down by the sensory mat where the little boy was wriggling and reaching for Dagon, Mahito suggested:
"Do you wanna hold him? I'm sure he'd love it. You're probably the biggest sea creature he's ever seen."
Dagon's eyes lit up, but Nanami looked wary.
"Mahi, I think it's a little early for that…"
He didn't want to say no to everything Mahito asked, but he considered that allowing three special grade curses inside of his home was already a lot more than he should've agreed to.
"It's fine, Nanamin." Gojo reassured him while massaging his shoulders. "You're so tense over nothing all the time."
"This is my baby, Gojo." Nanami grunted, and Gojo sighed.
"Hm, makes sense considering I'm the godfather but you won't even let me babysit."
"Nami, pleeeaaase…!" Mahito begged, eyes looking a bit wet again. "Kenshin needs to get to know curses other than me, and Dagon won't try anything."
Nanami looked around the room. Mahito and Dagon were making puppy eyes. Gojo had that irritating look on his face that said "give in, Nanamin". Hanami was expressionless and Jogo stared back with a frown that screamed "don't look at me, I want nothing to do with this situation".
Then he looked at Kenshiro, and the way he was reaching out his arms toward Dagon, soft coos gradually turning into frustrated little grunts.
Nanami heaved a deep sigh and gave in once more. "Fine. But one wrong move and it's over, you understand?"
Mahito grinned from ear to ear and nodded. "Got it!"
Gojo released the spell preventing anyone other than Nanami and Mahito from touching the child, while carefully eyeing the two curses on the couch.
Nanami watched as Mahito helped Dagon hold his arms in the right position before picking up his baby and placing him gently into the other curse's arms.
"There you go," He breathed out, "make sure you give some support to his head, okay?"
Dagon stared wide-eyed as the little boy squirmed in his arms, trying to grab one of his tentacles.
"You don't have to hold him too tight, just adjust your grip following his movements." Mahito reassured him with a look on his face that Nanami had rarely seen before. He looked so proud, but not in a cocky way — he seemed completely at ease with having both sides of his family together, and took pride in proving they could get along with some effort.
Kenshiro successfully took hold of one of Dagon's face tentacles and the curse let out a small, confused "bwoo!" as the baby tightly closed his fist.
"He's so strong already, isn't he?" Mahito beamed.
".mih gnitruh s'eh kniht I ,otihaM" Hanami said tentatively.
"He's just a baby, how strong can he be against Dagon?!" Jogo exclaimed, while the baby was so focused on Dagon that Hanami's voice didn't faze him.
"You'd be surprised at the iron grip of a baby's fist, Jogo." Mahito teased the older curse, while Nanami kept a nervous eye on his baby in Dagon's arms.
But the sea creature didn't try anything, just like Mahito had said. He just stared at the baby, and his eyes crinkled up. Nanami couldn't be sure, as the curse's mouth was hard to make out, but it did look like he was smiling.