It was during the time of Konoha's founding that Momoka, so excited and filled to bursting with energy, wanted to explore, and left her mother's side at the worst possible time... in the market!
The girl giggled, now free, and feeling like she was on top of the world until she bumped into someone. She looked up to see a man staring down at her.
They made eye contact... and Hikaku's breath fled his lungs in a rush so fast that he almost fainted when the little girl, about four, looked up at him. Those dark eyes... that deep, black hair, her apparent age... Fuck, he thought, realization smacking him about the face. As she bowed - perfectly - with an apology and a "Pleased to meet you, sir," and he mumbled the appropriate reply, his blood boiled at the cauldron of his heart.
He wasn't sure how he knew, just that he knew. He could see Toka's passion and composure in the child's bearing, see the brewing secrets in her eyes. The hair was undeniably his, and that inquisitive, intense nature was all Uchiha. He continued to stare at her, taking in everything from the tilt of her chin, the way her hands clasped together politely, those tiny, adorable dimples at the corners of her mouth... Each of these was a confirmation of her parentage.
Meanwhile, his heart was shattering and remaking itself, scouring his emotional center completely raw. He was breaking and reforming, recreating his ability to feel anything while trying not to die from the force of it.
Dear gods above... I'm a father.
He had never thought about being a father. And yet, in the empty place in his soul, a love more intense and pure than anything he had ever felt before welled up from within. The girl - his daughter - imprinted herself upon his heart and soul, the most important person in his world. The center of his universe. One thing he was absolutely sure of: not even death would keep him from his little girl.
It took every fiber of his being not to scoop her up right there, and squeeze her tightly. That meant that with his daughter here... Toka surely had to follow.
He remembered absolutely nothing of why he was here in the marketplace. The whole time, he had spent staring at his daughter, putting all the ill fitting pieces together, painting a picture that made a tragic kind of sense. Their era was not one that was kind to bastard children born out of wedlock.
What Toka must have gone through... he thought with sadness, imagining her unwed, pregnant, and alone in a world where women were hardly valued in the first place except as breeding factories for expendable soldiers. He wished he had been there for her, wished he had been able to feel the life grow within her - their child - and sing off-key songs to their unborn baby. How many things would have been different, if he had only taken her back to the Uchiha encampment---! Too late, again. Too damned late.
"Momoka!" An achingly familiar voice split the air.
Toka Senju caught up to their daughter, not paying attention to him and focusing on the girl. She has a name.. Named after the tree where we first met, no less! he thought with glee. "I told you not to run off! Listen, I'm so sor-" Toka scolded with her hands on her hips and then glanced up and saw him. Looked into his eyes. Hikaku tried very, very desperately not to cry out of guilt, but he was so shocked that all he could do was breathe in sharply.
Momoka mumbled an apology, and turned to look up at the one who raised her single-handedly. "Mother, who is that?" she asked. She seemed to understand that Hikaku wasn't to be feared, but until her mother had passed her judgment, Momoka would defer to her experience. Their daughter was a good girl, and she trusted her mother to take care of her, no matter what.
Toka took a deep breath, her eyes never leaving Hikaku's and vice versa, and swallowed, then painted a smile on her face for her daughter. It wasn't a perfect situation, but it would bring all of them peace at last.. hopefully. Even so, saying the words were difficult. Far too long.
"That's your father, Momoka-chan," she told the girl, looking past her daughter's shoulder to the man beyond. "And he loves you very much." The look she gave him commanded that he would do naught otherwise. Toka noticed his hands were trembling with mixed emotions.
Hikaku slowly bent down to a squat, to Momoka's eye level and pulled the girl closer, but not too close. He looked deeply into her eyes, and Toka could tell that he was getting incredibly emotional, just by looking into her eyes.
"I didn't know I had a father," Momoka said to herself in wonder. She looked from the smiling face of her mother to the arms of Hikaku and seemed to have made a decision. She broke away from Toka and ran across the space between them, hurtling into the man with enough force to knock a grunt from him. Toka saw how his arms wrapped around his little girl protectively, and saw how his expression deconstruct, replaced by raw emotion that he hadn't intended to show. He shut his eyes tight and rocked the little girl, absorbing her into his body, a defensive gesture, and one Toka often made herself.
For her part, Toka breathed a sigh of relief; it was obvious that her intended had a love for children, and immediately was enamored of their daughter. In fact, it looked almost as if he had been waiting his whole life for this moment.
He held her as if she were the most important little person on this earth, as if she were precious, and she was.
For a man that had never seen their daughter before in his life until now, he took to being her father as if he'd been born to it. Toka took several deep breaths, relishing the scene before her. This was a memory that she wanted to savor until the very end of her days.
Toka was surprised when Hikaku picked up their little girl with one arm and grabbed his lover by the hand, leading them through alleyways and behind elegant buildings until they were alone.
As a family... reunited at last.
He put Momoka down and reached out for Toka. Their eyes met, a thousand memories flourishing between them like electricity, before his lips touched hers softly.
He was intent on communicating how much he missed her, how much he loved her. He expressed his passion in a way that made her cheeks flush. After a moment, he gradually started kissing her with more fervor, moving his hand to weave into her hair, slanting his mouth passionately over hers until they both felt heavy with emotion.
She felt like crying, and the hold on her restraint broke. Her heart blew outward, confessing all of it's many quiet truths as she fell into his arms, kissing his face all over, crying all the while. Seeing him reminded her of those years of painful isolation, and just how badly she had ached for him. She felt the few tears upon his face as surely as she felt the ones upon her own. They had never thought to see each other again, and right then the only thing that mattered was that they were there, together, as a family.
