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Tilting her head and smiling, Kohota offers her pinky to Inosuke and sings to him. She walks through the halls with her baby wrapped up in his blanket. Inosuke babbles and grips her pinky, pulling it into his mouth and smiling.
“Hello, my Inosuke, mommy will always keep you safe, alright? I pinky promise!”
Inosuke giggles and pulls Kohota’s pinky out of his mouth, squirming in his blanket. He seems utterly entranced by her finger. Eventually, Inosuke lets go of her pinky to grab at her hair, trying to put it in his mouth.
“Eating hair isn’t good for you, Inosuke,” she says, sitting down at a bench. “Are you hungry?”
Inosuke doesn’t seem interested. He scrunches up his face instead and sneezes. Kohota continues talking to Inosuke, and Douma can’t help but watch them intently. His blank eyes follow her movements, and he listens carefully to her words. It would be boring just to eat her, she has a beautiful singing voice, and the way she moves is surprisingly graceful for how stupid she is. Douma tilts his head to the side, trying to decide. Her face is pretty, and her mannerisms are adorable. No, he won’t eat her; she’d be a cute thing to keep around.
Douma steps out from the shadows. His face morphs into a familiar mask, a playful smile, eyes wrinkling a bit in the corners, brows in a neutral position.
“Hello, Kohota, how is Inosuke?”
Kohota jumps a little and bows her head quickly.
“Douma-sama, I didn’t notice you! Ah, he’s alright…how are you?”
She looks flustered, and he makes his smile a bit wider to portray a bit of mirth at her words. He returns his expression back to its original mask of casual playfulness.
“I’m quite alright, may I?” he asks, gesturing to the space on the bench next to her.
“O-of course, Douma-sama! It would be an honor,” she says.
Sitting close enough to lean over her shoulder, he stares down at the baby, turning his expression into something similar to Kohota’s, perhaps fondness. Inosuke is too busy playing with the edges of his blanket to notice Douma.
“He’s quite cute, isn’t he. Of course, he looks remarkably like you, doesn’t he?” Douma says.
“It’s not that strong of a resemblance,” she claims, embarrassed.
He makes himself giggle, and he gently strokes Inosuke’s cheek with the back of his finger. Inosuke startles, looks up at Douma for a moment, and wails loudly. Kohota gasps and tries to calm him down quickly. Douma makes his face look embarrassed and covers his mouth with his sleeve.
“I must have startled him. I apologize,” Douma says, leaning away a bit.
“Ah, he might just be hungry! He often cries when he wants to eat! I doubt you made him cry, Douma-sama,” she quickly reassures him.
Douma nods and moves his hand away, shifting his features into a mildly saddened expression. Kohota offers milk to Inosuke, who latches quickly and calms down.
“See? He was just hungry,” Kohota says and smiles brightly at him.
He smiles back at her and offers a finger to Inosuke. The baby squeezes it, and Douma can’t believe how weak Inosuke’s grip is.
“He’s already quite strong, isn’t he?” She asks.
Her eyes shine with excitement, and he smiles back at her and nods enthusiastically. Looking back down at Inosuke, she wipes away his remaining tears and hums to him softly. Douma doesn’t have anything better to do, so he just stays there watching the mother and child. She seems to have finally relaxed and occasionally beams at him or coos happily when Inosuke does something ‘cute.’ He can’t quite figure out what is unique or cute about the way the baby is drinking. Still, he needs to figure this idea out if he is ever in a similar situation again.
“Thank you for spending time with us. It is kind of you,” Kohota says.
A much softer smile is on her face before she readjusts her Kimono and lays a cloth over her shoulder to burp Inosuke. She pats Inosuke’s back and starts humming again. Inosuke spits up a bit, and Kohota wipes it away.
Kohota offers to let him hold Inosuke with a smile.
“Are you sure? I don’t want to make him cry again,” he says.
She smiles sweetly at him and tilts her head a bit.
“Of course! Like I said, he was just hungry. He’s a little demon when he wants to eat.”
As she says the last part, she tickles Inosuke’s belly, making him laugh loudly. Taking Inosuke in his arms, he smiles a soft smile at Inosuke, emulating the expression that Kohota often wears when looking at her son. Inosuke smiles back at him and grabs the cloth hanging down from Douma’s hat, covering his mouth with it. He spends a few minutes holding Inosuke and smiling at the baby. He hears Muzan-sama in his mind giving him orders. There’s a Hashira nearby.
“I must be leaving now,” Douma says, smiling.
Kohota nods, takes Inosuke into her arms and bows her head deeply.
“Thank you again, Douma-sama.”
“I enjoyed spending time with you both very much,” he replies.
At that, he turns away and swiftly heads in the direction Muzan-sama said the Hashira will be. Perhaps he’ll keep Inosuke around until after Kohota dies. He doesn’t want to make Kohota cry because then she might run away. Douma lays eyes on the Hashira and smiles sweetly at them. He thinks it would be nice having someone as pretty as Kohota beside him.