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khrfest: portalettere (Iemitsu/Nana)
Fandom – KHR
Characters – Nana, Iemitsu, Tsuna
Genres – General, Family
Rating – G
Summary – VII - 33. Iemitsu/Nana - Long-distance relationship; "He said his first word today"
Portalettere
*
Her son is born without fanfare.
It is only ten hours of labour, a lot of hand holding, washing away the pain the moment she hears him crying, a smile unraveling on her exhausted face, and a blue cloth wrapped around his fragile frame. His eyes are round and bright and they tell her that the little baby is her son, and Iemitsu cradles their boy with every essence of an awkward new father. His hands are carefully still when he receives the bundle of tears from the happy nurse, his arms rigid and attentive, and it looks like he’s handling Ming dynasty china.
(But really, her son is much more valuable than that.)
She smiles when Iemitsu rests their son on her pillow, and he bawls into her ear. She can already tell that he will be a handful, but when she looks at how her husband’s pride catches the lights in the room, she closes her eyes and sleeps with content.
*
When she is well enough to walk again, she visits Tsuna at the nursery and takes him out to roam the hallways of the hospital. Iemitsu is already off somewhere else, attending to an urgent matter regarding work. She runs a finger along the sleeping infant’s cheek and revels in the privilege of motherhood. When she turns the corner, she looks up to see suited men lining the stretch of the maternity ward, some wearing sunglasses, others holding briefcases. They stand with military stillness, and she wonders why there are so many of them.
“Are you waiting for someone?” she asks one of them.
“Yes,” he replies, the firm line of his lips quirking into a little smile when he sees the baby in her arms.
“I’m sure the baby will be beautiful,” she assures him, rocking Tsuna back and forth as she hears him stirring.
“I agree,” the young man smiles with less restraint, and even though he is wearing shades, Nana can tell that his eyes are kind and that he is a noble man.
*
“Be safe, dear,” she tells him through the phone, because even after you’ve been working at the construction site for ten years, and you’re familiar with the nooks and crannies and the inside-outs, you never know what can happen.
Her husband chuckles and promises with the customary “yes”.
Nana’s hands tighten on the receiver, and she has to tell him this because something is gnawing at her heart and maybe this is the magic of marriage: “Be careful,” she whispers, just once more, just for measured luck. Her husband pauses over the line, a silence that they wait out until Iemitsu sighs in defeat and tells her, “I’ll be back soon.”
Nana is satisfied when she hangs up.
*
‘He said his first word today…’
Her pen halts as she attempts to recount the event to him – using mere words would only condense the overwhelming sensation of hearing Tsuna speak, it isn’t something she can even begin to describe to him in a letter.
She’d intended to call him, but the line had been dead, which made this the fifth phone he’d thrown away in the last year or so. Construction sites are hazardous places, it had always been understandable that Iemitsu would crush his phone under machinery or accidentally drop it into a pool of cement.
Times like these, she writes letters to him and mails it to the unchanging address of one of Iemitsu’s friends, who always promises to deliver the envelope to her husband regardless of his whereabouts or how deep he is underground. Iemitsu doesn’t write back because it’s not convenient. He likes to placate her by saying that it’s because he isn’t capable of writing mushy words, that he doesn’t have pen or paper and that he is happy enough to hear her voice over the phone.
Nana knows that it’s because writing the name of the street they live on on the back of an envelope will never be something he will allow. It’s just that she doesn’t quite know why that’s the case – maybe it’s just a paranoid habit of his.
Iemitsu will probably get a new phone within a week and call their house to tell her he is fine and to apologise for destroying yet another mobile. She will smile even though no one can see and shake her head and tell him that as long as he is fine, nothing else really matters as much.
But Nana doesn’t want to wait for one week.
‘…it was 'Daddy'.’
*
Tsuna grows up into a good boy. He adopts a clumsy personality and has no potential in his studies (or anything else for the matter), a stark contrast to his father. He does not have that rugged daring or the desire for adventure that makes Iemitsu's charisma glow, but perhaps he will find his merits someday. While he is probably the most worthless boy in the entire town, Tsuna is still her ideal son. He is healthy and energetic and he actually has friends that appreciate him for who he is. His smiles are genuine and his frowns are from mistakes that he will learn from. He eats finish all the rice in his bowl, and he greets her ‘good morning’ every day and comes back before eight in the night.
“He’s been going out with Gokudera-kun and Yamamoto-kun more often, and even Kyoko-chan,” she reports into the receiver with the voice of an accomplished mother.
Iemitsu laughs along from his end of the conversation, the sound of his voice is close in her ear. Nana listens to the warm familiarity of it. One of the reasons why Tsuna never complains about his father’s absence is because of his father. When Iemitsu is with them, he makes every second count. He drags them along on family picnics and makes them stay up late to watch movies together. He talks to Tsuna like it is the last time he will see his son and hugs both of them tightly because they mean the world to him. Tsuna is relieved when Iemitsu has to go off to work again, if only to get a breather from his compulsive fathering.
*
“Listen, sorry for the short notice, but I’ll be back this Friday,” he informs her.
Nana turns to look at the calendar she’s pinned on the refrigerator, which tells her the date of the coming Friday is 30th March – the day before her birthday.
She smiles, and she can tell that Iemitsu is grinning on the other side of the world too.
She remembers finding stacks of one-sentence letters in opened envelopes carefully bundled in the backpack he constantly carries around. And this is just another reminder why she loves this man so much.
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Thanks for a comment!
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I agree, Nana needs more love!