sword(s): Awataguchi School
contents: slice of life, fluff, found family, Female Saniwa/Reader
word count: 2000k
cw: N/A
overview: The Awataguchi swords find out about Mother's Day and wishes to celebrate it for the first time since becoming human. Who better to celebrate than their dear Saniwa.
Golden beams sneak through the window blinds, painting itself across your eyes. The warmth of the early morning with the ever-slight breeze can be felt as the hair across your forehead gets pushed from the spring air. Your eyes twitch under your lids as the golden glow awakes you to your newfound day. Your (E/C) eyes slowly open and stare up at the ceiling, your room bathed in sunlight and decorated with all your favorite things. From pictures of you and your swords, to the certificate that proudly announces your role as a Saniwa, to small gifts that your Toukan Danshi have given you over the years. A pleasant sight for a pleasant morning… Besides the sunbeams blasting into your eyes and making you squint as you sit up from your cozy futon.
You were stretching out your back with your arms raised above you, letting out a soft groan as your muscles remember their flexibility after the position they were stuck in all night, when you hear a soft call from outside your shoji door.
“Aruji?” calls a soft timid voice, scared of rising even a decibel louder in fear of waking you. “Are you awake?”
“Gokotai! She’ll never hear you if you’re that quiet!” Houchou exclaims, even through the door you can picture Gokotai’s nervous grimace at how loud Houchou was right outside your door so early in the morning.
“W-Well I don’t want to disturb her slumber if she is still asleep and…”
Midare quickly speaks up over the two smaller boys, his melodic voice matching the same sing-song nature as the song birds outside your window. “Can you two not fight outside Aruji’s door when she could be getting her beauty sleep? Besides, she may not want to see anyone before she fully gets dressed!”
Despite the sweet nature of his plea to his brothers… Midare may have been the loudest one yet between the three. You could hear the shuffling of steps and some hush murmurs as their eldest brother, Ichigo, approaches their group outside your door. It seems like the whole Awataguchi family decided to have a big party so early in the morning.
“Now, Now.” You hear the ever princely Ichigo call out to his siblings, soft but ever the leader in command before them. “We shouldn’t wake Aruji before she is ready to start her day. I know you are all very excited, but we can always wait until breakfast to show her.”
You hear a chorus of aws, pleas, and begging from the younger siblings. Many of the siblings agree with Ichigo about his plans and back him up, even though many of the Tantous whine about not being able to get their way, their excitement too high to listen to the logic of their older brother. You couldn’t help but smile softly at hearing the exchange from outside your door, your heart swelling from the smaller swords being so excited to show you something that they couldn’t wait until you left your room. Ichigo, Yagen, and Honebami, trying to reel in the rest of their siblings, crying for justice, wanting to wait outside your door to greet you first thing. You find yourself giggling in the palm of your hand as Hakata tries bribing Ichigo to let them stay with koban.
Wait… Where did he even get that koban to begin with?
As much as you could find yourself laying back on your bed to catch a few more minutes of shut eye, your heart couldn’t stand letting the excitable Awataguchi swords to hang around disappointed that they couldn’t greet you first thing in the morning to give you whatever they had made together. Plus, you were a bit curious what this all was about. It wasn’t your birthday or any special event that you could recall, so why did they suddenly demand to see you so early that they were even willing to grovel before their brother Ichigo for their cause? You had your own anxiety regarding their plans that you just had to know what was going on as soon as possible.
“I’m awake. It’s alright, you can come in.”
Suddenly, all sound evaporates from the hallway. The only thing that the group was still there was the small little chuffing from Gokotai’s tigers. You halfway debated about getting out of bed and sliding the door open for them, or simply to check if they were still there. A soft murmur could be heard from some of the tantrums, clearly giving Ichigo the puppy dog eyes and a begrudge sigh from Tachi as his defenses fell to nothing and gave in to the demands of the crowd.
“Pardon us, Aruji. "We are coming in,” Ichigo said right before he slid open the door with an apologetic smile because of so much noise first thing in the morning. You were still seated in your futon when the swarm of Awataguchi family came into your room with grins that threatened to beat the sun’s brightness. You couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow as you smiled at them since they all carried items in their arms. The one sticking out to you the most was a vase with a bouquet of sunflowers and carnations that Midare was holding in his hands. He was the first one that stride up to your bedside, holding out the vase for you to admire the flowers.
“Happy Mother's Day, Aruji!” He chimed, and the rest of the Awataguchi repeated to him. All of them looked at you, eager for your reaction, some even bouncing on the balls of their feet as they tried to peer over the shoulders of the other swords to look at you.
You looked at them all stunned before your eyes fell onto Ichigo, who still held a small smile on his face.
“They learned about Mother’s Day recently and wanted to celebrate. Although you are not their actual mother, they see you as family, and you are the head of the citadel. They all came together to make things for you today and celebrate meeting you and becoming a family.”
All the Tantous quickly nodded at their brother’s explanation, grinning gleefully at him. Your face suddenly felt hot, you couldn’t tell if it was from the sun shining on you or the big group of people suddenly in your room, but then a small drop of water hit the back of your hand resting on your lap. It's only then do you realize you are crying. Midare quickly puts down the vase, rushing to your side and putting out a handkerchief to dab your tears away, worry written on all the Awataguchi’s family's faces as they all rush to your side. Gokotai lingers back, brows knitted in concern as he hugs one of his tigers close to his chest. Ichigo makes sure they don’t all crowd you but actively looks at you for a single-eyed gesture to tell him to escort them out. Houchou climbed onto the futon, trying to put stolen candy that he shouldn’t have into your hand to console you and give you a sweet treat to forget your tears.
“Did we do something wrong?” Shinano asked warily, standing closer to the back of the room with Gokotai as he gently rubbed his shoulder, “We’re sorry. We didn’t mean to upset you, Aruji.”
“No, no.” You sniffed with a smile, rubbing away at the tears on your cheeks, taking a short moment to look at all of them in the eyes one by one. “You all made me the happiest woman I could ever be today. I was not expecting this at all, and I guess it got to me that you all care so much about me that you wanted to celebrate this day with me. I feel so special to have you all in my life and to be a family with all of you.”
“Aruji…” Midare choked up, tears already forming in his eyes before springing into his arms, crying while hugging him tight. The other Awataguchi swords quickly followed Midare’s example, gathering around to give you a big hug.
Ichigo, patting everyone’s back when everyone got their (Y/N) hug, looked at the crowd of his siblings with a smile. “Well, shall we start our gift-giving then?”
No objections could be heard.
“I’ll start because I have already kind of given you a present!” Midare cheered, eyes still slightly red from the tears but quickly regaining his cheery demeanor once again. He held up the vase with the sunflowers and carnations once more, “This is from all of us! We got permission from Heshikiri-san and Kuwana-kun to take any of the flowers we wanted to make you a bouquet. According to Mikazuki-dono, carnations are what kids normally give their mother on Mother’s Day! We decided to pair it with sunflowers because you are like the sun to us, Aruji! We are able to bloom because of you!”
“On top of that,” Midare continued, placing the vase of flowers next to the window to get light inside your room. He pulled out small hair accessories with sunflowers on them, “I bought this for you! Hakata saved up a bunch of koban for us to all go out and buy you stuff, so I got you these! So even after the sunflowers wilt, you can still remember this day!”
“Me next, me next!” Houchou chimed in before you could even thank Midare for his kind gift, the hair charms still in your palm when Houchou shoved a wrapped package into your hands. “These are my favorite sweets!”
You open the box and see an assortment of sweets laid out in the velvet box lined with paper. Inside, it includes toffee, small slices of chocolate cake, and fudge. One side looks like a professional chef made them… while the other, well… they didn’t have the presentation of a five-star restaurant, a bit misshaped.
“I asked Shokudaikiri to help me,” Houchou started to explain, fiddling with the hem of his shirt as he stared at the box, staring at the side that was clearly the one he had made. “I haven’t baked anything before, so I didn’t want to ruin it but-”
Your fingers reached in and took a small piece of fudge from his side, popping into your mouth without a second thought. It tasted like fudge, though a bit more of a novice level of fudge. Perhaps not mixed as well as it should be, but still very much a fudge. Your eyes looked up at Houchou, who looked like he had stopped breathing as he watched you eat his sweets.
“Delicious.” You grinned at him, “Thank you.”
His shoulders fell, and a relieved smile came to his face as he was finally permitted to breathe once more. “I’m so glad you like it, Aruji! I will be sure to bake a bunch more for you! Sweets are good for you, ya know! So every day I will-”
“Houchou,” Ichigo enunciated, hands on his hips as he gave him a look. We talked about having sweets every day. Moderation. I’m sure Aruji is very appreciative of your sweets, but we don’t need either of you getting cavities, alright?”
“Ah… yes, Ichi-nii.” Houchou looked away as he said it. Clearly, he had already broken that rule Ichigo set for him long ago and felt a bit guilty for being reminded of it so publicly. You couldn’t help but giggle into the back of your hand as you watched the poor Tantou avoid eye contact with his brother.
The rest of the Awataguchi swords stepped forward to give out their gifts to you. A picture of a bird and you from Akita, a small medal with the phrase ‘Best General’ on it from Atsushi, a plush tiger from Gokotai, a collection of fountain pens from Honebami and Namazou, a picture of all the Toushirou siblings with Goutou being drawn exaggeratedly tall from, of course, Gotou. Hirano and Maeda hand over a collection of different types of tea. Yagen gives them some incense that will help with sleep. A handmade scarf from Shinano (clearly he tried to stitch in his sword crest but… uh, it doesn’t look like a crest at all), a plate of aburaage from Nakigitsune… wait, some of it is missing. Mouri gifts a locket with a picture of you and the whole Awataguchi family inside.
Lastly…
“Here you go, Aruji.” Ichigo hands over a small wrapped box. It is wrapped in a blue ribbon and the wrapping paper is all black. It is rather small, fitting the length of your hand.
Slowly, you unwrap the present, carefully undoing the ribbon and trying to preserve how well wrapped it is. The perfect prince perfectly wrapping a present, ironic. You slowly slide off the top to peer inside.
“Do you like it?”
Inside, a blue light reflects from the sun as you see an oval-shaped object covered in gems. Your fingers gently pull it out, careful not to drop it or smudge how clean all the gems are. It is an egg-shaped object lined with an assortment of gems, mainly blue, with a gold three-leg stand for it to rest on. Pushing it back slightly, you can open the egg to see a clock. Your mouth hangs agape as you stare down at the very expensive gift in your hands.
“The last time we went to Osaka Castle to collect treasure, I found it there. I took the time to clean it up so I could give it to you. I hope you like it, Aruji.”
“Ichigo… This is beautiful. I’m almost scared to touch it because I’m scared to break it.”
He smiled at that, his eyes giving off a softer look as he gazed down at him, admiring his gift. “Even if it does break, I will find a way to repair it. You have brought us all to life here, Aruji. You have fixed us and made us more of a family than we ever were before. This is a small gift compared to what your existence gives us.”
He gently clasped your hand in his, pressing a chaste kiss on the back of your hand. “Thank you, Aruji. And happy Mother’s Day.”
