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Six-year-old Sukuna who grew up doted on by his parents. He’s not spoiled per se, but he knows he’s got all of his parents’ attention. Then his mother announced she was pregnant and everything just changed. Suddenly, his parents don’t have time for him anymore. As his mother’s belly grew, so did his parents’ diminishing attention towards him.
Sukuna thinks babies are dumb so he knows that the baby inside his Mama’s belly is dumb too. He even has a dumb name. Yuuji or whatever. He didn’t bother remembering it coz dumb names didn’t need to be remembered.
Then Mama and Papa had to go to the doctor and when they came back, Mama had a dumb potato in her arms that only knew how to eat and cry and poop. Sukuna didn’t even dare go hold him or even look at him coz what if he becomes dumb, too?
Then one day, as Sukuna was playing Sorcerers vs. Curses (of course, he played the King of Curses), he heard the dumb potato crying. Their rooms were beside each other and he left his door open, so he heard the ugly potato crying. But he didn’t do anything because Mama or Papa always goes to him to stop him. He was probably hungry or something. He’s always hungry and always eats.
But after a few moments, the crying got louder. Irritated, Sukuna shouted from his room, “Mama! The dumb potato is crying again!”
But he didn’t hear any response from Mama and the crying was getting more and more irritating. Fed up, Sukuna dropped his toys and marched right to the nursery to scold the potato for being so noisy. He had to bring a small stool coz he couldn’t see over the crib but the moment he did, a scowl on his face and his mouth open ready to scold, Sukuna paused.
This was his first time seeing the baby potato up close. He usually just sees the blanket his Mama wraps the dumb potato with. And well, he doesn’t really look like a potato anymore. He had chubby arms and legs like mitarashi dango, his body was plump like a thick roll of futomaki Mama makes for him, but the best part was his pink pudgy cheeks like pink daifuku filled with sweet anko!
Baby Mochi or Yuuji-mochi (those were the baby’s new names now) was obviously surprised to suddenly see a new face. He was still hiccupping as he regarded Sukuna with round, glassy, honey-brown eyes. The hands that were fisted on either side of his head slowly lifted and opened to reach out to Sukuna. He tried to lift his little body to try to reach farther, almost started sobbing when Sukuna wouldn’t reach out to him.
So Sukuna did, put his hand out to his mochi baby brother and to his delight, the baby immediately latched on Sukuna.
Later when his parents came into the room, they would be surprised to see their six-year-old inside the crib holding baby Yuuji in his arms and they would be scolded by Sukuna because why would they leave Baby Mochi alone?
‘Baby mochi?’ Jin repeated dumbfoundedly.
After that, Yuuji-mochi became Sukuna’s favorite person.
Whenever he arrived from school and Jin greeted him at the door, the father was disregarded because his first born was already running to the nursery. Sukuna would always tell Kaori what happened in school, but now, it’s being shared with Yuuji. He still shares it with Kaori but she’s obviously not the priority anymore. During art class, Sukuna always draws his Mama or his toy car or fire truck but now, it’s Yuuji-mochi with the car or the fire truck!
Sukuna was the one who announced to their parents when Yuuji was able to stand on his own for the first time (even if their parents were there to witness it themselves) and he fought back sobs when Yuuji’s first words were, “Nii, Nii!” because Yuuji-mochi can only be calling his Nii-chan right?
The sentiment was reciprocated by Yuuji, and his Nii-chan was quickly his favorite person.
As soon as Yuuji could crawl and walk, with assistance or not, when Sukuna arrived from school, Yuuji-mochi would quickly dash to the genkan to his Nii-chan, offering the biggest gummy smile, and shouting, “Nii! Nii!” He would latch on to his big brother and just like Sukuna, Yuuji would tell him about his day even if they only consisted of incoherent babbling and happy squeals.
Even if Yuuji was feeding on his bottle, he would always be with his Nii-chan, laying on the bed or the couch together, or Yuuji resting his body on Sukuna, or Sukuna holding Yuuji in his arms as he fed. More often than not, as Yuuji is preoccupied with feeding and whatever was on the TV, Sukuna would chomp on Yuuji’s soft pudgy cheeks. He didn’t put force, of course, because he didn’t wanna hurt Yuuji, but he liked doing it and Yuuji would always giggle whenever Sukuna blew a raspberry on his cheeks.
Both would be inseparable. Even when it was so hot outside as the summer season came. Sukuna usually liked playing outside with the neighborhood kids (note: he lords over them) but this time, all his time was spent with Yuuji-mochi. Both were at the genkan once, Sukuna stripped down to his shorts and Yuuji with only his diaper because of how hot it was. And Sukuna actually complained to Kaori about it.
“Mama, it’s so hot and sticky!”
Yuuji made a fussing sound as if agreeing to what his big brother just said.
Kaori let out a chuckle as she joined them, bringing a plate of cool sliced watermelons with her. “Darling, it’s your sweat. You have to let go of Baby Yuuji so—
Sukuna didn’t even let Kaori finish before a scandalized, “No!” came out of his mouth, followed by his tightening hold on his baby brother.
Kaor wasn’t the least bit surprised at this point. And they got stickier as they ate the watermelon. Sukuna carefully checking that all the seeds were removed (even if Kaori already did) before feeding them to Yuuji. Yuuji would always give his big brother a toothy smile. Sukuna squawked when Yuuji almost bit into his fingers so Sukuna playfully bit Yuuji’s fingers when the baby copied his big brother and fed him. Yuuji’s laughter filled their genkan and both her boys only got stickier from the watermelon juices. (Kaori expected the bath that followed to be eventful but it was actually tame. Sukuna liked playing in the water and always brought toys with him. But with Yuuji around, he was careful, not splashing too much, making sure water or shampoo doesn’t go in Yuuji’s eyes or his mouth, holding him close against his body to make sure Yuuji didn’t accidentally slip in the tub. He was even the on who told Kaori they should be quick or Baby mochi might get sick.)
Bedtime was becoming harder as the days passed because both always wanted to sleep together. Yuuji wouldn’t want to be placed on the crib without Sukuna and Sukuna would always ask his parents if Yuuji could sleep with him.
This had also become a testament of Sukuna’s overprotectiveness and possessiveness over his baby brother.
Whenever they went to the park, he would glare at the people who would coo over Yuuji. He didn’t like it when they touched Yuuji whenever they wanted, even if it was to squish his pudgy cheeks. When his parents tried to talk to him about it one time, he told them Yuuji didn’t like it and Sukuna didn’t like it if Yuuji cried, and also because, “Baby Mochi is mine!”
Or that one time Sukuna came with them for Yuuji’s shots. He and Jin stayed in the waiting area while Kaori brought Yuuji with her inside. The glare Sukuna gave the doctor and the nurses when Kaori came out with a sniffling baby didn’t fail to amuse them. Sukuna held the sniffling baby in his arms and they all heard him as he whispered, “It’s okay, Yuuji. I’ll tell Mama and Papa not to bring you here anymore.” And his glare intensified as he promised that, eyes burning with his protectiveness. (And yes, he tried his best to convince his parents not to bring Yuuji to the doctor anymore. Jin had to explain to him the concept of vaccines. Which wasn’t easy to say the least. Especially when said kid was already hellbent on thinking that anything that made Baby Mochi cry was bad.)
Still, his protectiveness over his baby brother impressed both Jin and Kaori.
So it wasn’t a surprise when they visited Kaori’s side of the family and Sukuna got in a fight with one of his cousins.
Sukuna had no problem socializing with his cousins, in fact, he liked to lord over them the same way he does the neighborhood kids during playtime. As long as no one got hurt and as long as the children had fun, Jin and Kaori were fine with it. Both parents expected the same to happen today.
It was their first time bringing Yuuji to Kaori’s side of the family so everyone was very much enamoured by the energetic baby. They had expected Sukuna to find his cousins and play with them. They did not expect him to stay with Yuuji, eyes as sharp as an eagle as he watched his baby brother being passed around the family members who wanted to hold Yuuji.
He didn’t exactly stop the adults from holding his baby brother, but he did tell them what to do or what not to do, especially when Yuuji started fussing. ‘You gotta hold his head properly! Mama said you gotta support it!’ ‘Don’t kiss him! Only Papa, Mama, and me can do that!’ ‘He doesn’t like you coz you’re ugly!’ Papa scolded him and told him to apologize, which Sukuna begrudgingly did. But Sukuna wasn’t lying because Uncle Jogo was really ugly!
In the end, the children were left to play in the kids room while the adults did what adults did. Yuuji was left with the kids. Papa and Mama were supposed to take him but Sukuna told them he would take care of his baby brother.
The adults left the kids on their own for a little over thirty minutes when they heard a loud bawling from where the children were. The adults immediately rushed to see what happened. Toys were scattered everywhere, as was typical in the playroom. They saw one child bawling his eyes out, three others with him looked ready to cry too. Sukuna was on the far side of the room, cradling baby Yuuji in his arms.
When the crying boy saw the adults arrive, he immediately ran to his mama.
“Sukuna-kun, hurted me!” the child said to his mother. “He kicked me!”
“Sukuna—” Jin started, tone ready to scold, only for the six-year-old to turn to his parents with an angry look.
“He hurt Yuuji!” And Jin and Kaori could see that Yuuji was crying too, big tears streaming down his face. His cries were drowned out by the cries of his cousin. Sukuna glared at the cousin, “So I hurt him, too!”
The mother, who was previously sympathetic to the wailing child, leveled her son an angry look, “What did you do?”
“He bit Yuuji’s cheek and hurt Yuuji!” Sukuna informed when it looked like the other kid wouldn’t talk.
“You did it, too!” the cousin accused.
“But I didn’t hurt Yuuji!” Sukuna retorted.
“Okay, okay,” one of the adults tried to placate. “Why don’t we put the two of you away from each other?”
“Nii, nii,” Yuuji cried out, reaching to his big brother, and Sukuna quickly turned back to him, softly kissing one red cheek, bite marks evident on it.
“It’s okay, Yuuji,” Sukuna whispered, “I won’t let them do it again. I promise.”
Kaori came to his boys and sat in front of them, “Okay. Let’s put the two of you in the living room, how’s that? We can watch Juju Sanpo.”
“And eat ichigo and banana! Yuuji likes them!” Sukuna suggested as he let Kaori take Yuuji from him.
“Of course. How could I forget that?” Kaori said, smiling. “Can you help Papa prepare the ichigo and banana for Yuu-chan then, Suku-kun?”
Sukuna didn’t say anything, just stood looking determined and took his father’s hand and led him out of the room.
Kaori stood, holding Yuuji to her hip as he soothed the sniffling baby in her arms. Then she turned to her relative and said, “I think they’ll be okay. But it might be better to separate the kids for now. Suku-kun’s very protective of Yuuji.”
The relative only had time to nod before Yuuji was calling out, “Nii, nii,” again, making Kaori chuckle.
“Hai, hai, Yuu-chan. We’ll go to Nii-chan now.” Kaori gave a smile to her relatives before exiting the room, Yuuji bouncing in her arms, still calling out his nii-chan.
Later would find the siblings in the living room, watching Yuuji’s favorite show, Juju Sanpo, and eating banana and ichigo. Yuuji would be seen sharing his fruits to his Nii-chan, and Sukuna would be found wiping any stray fruit crumbs on Yuuji’s cheeks. It was an adorable sight.