Chapter Text
The first time was at Kanna's first parent teacher conference.
She and Tohru showed up at the two story brick building on a Tuesday night- Kobayashi had finished early (which is what non-software people called 'on time') and took the bus, Tohru flew there by herself, and they met up at the school and ended up sitting at the other end of a table from Kanna's 3rd grade teacher - a somewhat nervous young woman with neck-length brown hair and whose name Kobayashi completely spaced on, and who was too awkward to ask. Kobayashi slouched in her chair, with her arms crossed. In contrast, Tohru looked alert, possibly because she was curious about this world's education system. Kobayashi wondered idly about what kind of educations dragons received in the other world.
They were informed that Kanna had excellent grades, though the teacher did complain about some sort of 'wicked' incident. Tohru immediately closed her eyes and rubbed the back of her head and chuckled awkwardly at that point, but Kobayashi didn't press the matter.
"And one last thing; I know transferring can be very hectic, but its been a month and we still haven't received Kanna's vaccination records," said the teacher. "We're going to need those at some point, especially if Kanna's going with us on our overnight trip to the capital."
Kobayashi sat up a little straighter. "Oh? You didn't need those before?"
"We do give some leeway for transfer students to get their medical records in, especially of they're coming in from out of the country, but since the overnight trip is paid for with national funds we need to adhere to the national health code."
"Oh! No, I have those...somewhere...." Tohru she fumbled through her satchel for a moment.
Kobayashi blinked. Huh.
Eventually, the dragon pulled out a stack of papers.
The teacher looked over what was handed to her. "This look mostly in order," she said, with a smile, "but it looks like Kanna's missing her meningococcal vaccine. That's no biggie right now; just make sure she gets it within the month."
"It should be on there." Tohru put on her poker face. She tapped the paper, and a part of it only visible from their side glowed green, almost imperceptibly. Kobayashi's jaw dropped.
Tohru returned the paper, pointing to a particular section. "See, here it is."
"It is- Oh, I guess I missed it the first time." The teacher jotted something down, "Well, in that case, look's like Kanna's all set for the trip to the capital, just make sure she brings sunscreen, some pocket change, and some ripe tomatoes in case we run into a beaurocrat. The kids are all so excited for it! We've been learning all about the political process...."
"Y-yeah," Kobayashi said. She managed to be a polite regular, normal, non-magical guardian for the rest of the meeting.
As they left the conference room, Kobayashi let Kanna hold her hand. She was used to it at this point. She was also used to Tohru getting jealous, and holding her other hand.
And shortly after they left the room, Kanna tugged on Kobayashi's hand. "Kobayashi- Kobayashi- can I play with Saikawa please?"
Kobayashi smiled and rubbed Kanna's head. "Sure thing."
Kanna nodded and ran up to the youngest Saikawa child, and together they ran towards the play area.
And Mr and Mrs. Saikawa approached the two of them.
"And you must be Kanna's parent's," said one of them, "You must be so proud of her!"
At the same time Tohru stood up straight and put her fist to her chest and exclaimed her thanks, Kobayashi managed a spittake with nothing in her mouth. "Kanna's not- she's not my daughter-"
"Oh, don't be so hard on yourself," said Mr. Saikawa, "I mean, it's kind of obvious that Tohru's the birth mother, since you don't have horns-" (Tohru chuckled suspiciously and touched her horns.)
"Dear, don't be so rude," said Mrs. Saikawa. "I'm sure you're an excellent mother to her."
"I took that as a given, considering how well Kanna's turned out."
Tohru smiled. "Thanks!" she said.
"No, I mean-" Kobayashi didn't know what hand gestures she was trying to make, "She's, like, not my daughter-"
"If you're that worried about it, you can get a second parent adoption," said Mr. Saikawa, "But that's mostly just for legal purposes. I'm sure Kanna already considers you her mother."
At that point, Kanna showed back up, and she tugged on Tohru's hand.
"Lady Tohru, come with us- we want to show you the bouncy thing."
Tohru smiled. "Oooo~! I'd be happy to come with you!"
And then she ran off to play with the girl who was legally registered as her daughter. And that left Kobayashi alone with two real adults. "Ahhh," Kobayashi began.
But she was saved when Mrs. Saikawa said, "Ah, to be so youthful. How fortunate for you, Kobayashi-san, that you married someone so young." Mr. Saikawa shot her a look.
Kobayashi took a breath and decided that the truth was a lost cause, and that she was fine with this new line of conversation. "Funny enough, Tohru's actually a bit older than me, " where 'a bit' meant, like, in geological time-frames, "but I totally get what you mean. I remember being able to pull all-nighters like five years ago, and now I get cranky if i'm not in bed by 10:00. And don't get me started on the lower back pain."
"Oh, I can relate to that," began Mr. Saikawa. His right arm reflexively drifted to his lower back.
They shared their experiences with various back medication, and that line of conversation lasted long enough for Kanna to finish playing, and for the time to come for them to leave.
Later that night, out of a bit of morbid curiosity, Kobayashi looked at the process for getting a second parent adoption, for the political subdivision in which current residence was located.
And when the dragon maid next walked past Kobayashi's door, the programmer beckoned her in. "Just a random question- you have all your paperwork in, right? Like the immigration forms and stuff?"
"Yep, of course!" Tohru smiled. "They'd kick me out otherwise."
"And you have a citizen number and everything?"
"I- I'm pretty sure I have that. I can find if for you, if you need it?"
"Well, maybe at some point it'd be helpful for me to know that." Kobayashi thought for a bit. "Anyway, I wanted to ask, did you put down yourself as Kanna's mother on her citizenship papers?"
Tohru stood up straight and put a fist to her chest and closed her eyes. "Indeed! I've always looked out for her, so I figured I'm qualified to be her mother."
"She seems to think of you more like a playmate, though," said Kobayashi.
Tohru deflated at that. "Yeah, well, I'm working on that. But I'd rather be the kind of mom who's close with her kids, rather than some sort of distant authority figure whom from which you occasional derive validation from." Tohru clutched her chin and there was a glint of mischief in her eyes. "Besides, the myth of the infallible parent is just part of a conspiracy designed to perpetuate a permanent underclass stratified along age lines, keeping the younger people dependent on their older masters and depriving them of legal capital."
Kobayashi blinked and smushed her mouth. "You've been reading the internet again, have't you?"
"tch."
The second time was at work, when one of her managers asked her a favor.
An older man approached her at the end of the day. "Hey, Kobayashi-san!" said Mr Magatsuchi. He waved. "How's it going?"
Kobayashi smiled. It was important that your boss liked you, so she used all her learned social skills for this interaction. It was pretty automatic at this point; boss said hi and asked you how it was going, you always said things were fine, boss leaves, you do good work, boss doesn't have any reason not to like you, you keep working your job for twenty or so years until you get laterally promoted, etc.
"I'm fine thanks for asking," Kobayashi said. She smiled and nodded. "How are you?"
"I'm great, all around," said the manager. He smiled and nodded as well. "How's the wife and kid?"
"Oh they're fine-" then Kobayashi's brain caught up and she choked down a spit take. "Wh- <cough> what did-"
"Heh, listen, I need a huge favor," he clasped his hands together and closed his eyes and smiled. "I've got to go to a conference this weekend, and my wife's gonna be out until Tuesday. Since Shouta knows Kanna, do you think you could watch him for a few days?"
Kobayashi had mostly recovered by this point. "S-sure thing. It shouldn't be a problem."
Mr. Magatsuchi visibly relaxed. "Thank you so much. He doesn't have a lot of friends his age- to the point where he got himself an, aha, imaginary friend. A demon, if you can believe it. Kids have such the imagination!"
Ah yes, an aha 'imaginary' friend. Kobayashi resolved to have a few words with Lucoa.
But, there was someone she needed to have a few words with right now. Kobayashi leaned in, "I don't mean to be rude but could you not refer to Tohru as my wife-"
"Hey, don't worry, our firm is devoted to equality and support for all our employees, especially for our hardworking ones, ha!" He smiled again. "If Google can manage that, we can do just as well."
The director clenched his fist and looked off into the distance. "Damn you Google. One day, we'll beat you, mark my words...."
Kobayashi chuckled awkwardly. If that became a company directive, then well, it wasn't the worst thing in the world. Probably wouldn't affect her, very much, right?
He then stood up. "And anyone eavesdropping on this conversation should keep that in mind." There was a rustling around the adjacent cubicles.
"And that reminds me- " he said, "If you haven't already, you should update your employee benefits to include Tohru and Kanna on your health insurance, and update your household information for our tax purposes."
Kobayashi decided it would be best not to argue with a boss. She bowed. "Thank you, sir. I'll look into it."
However, right after he left, Kobayashi made a face at her computer screen.
And that night, when Kobayashi returned back to the apartment she shared with two dragons, she had the urge to yell 'Honey, I'm home' into the house. Heh heh. She probably shouldn't do that, though, because she didn't want to lead Tohru on....
But as always, Tohru was there, at the door, when Kobayashi entered. The dragon helped her out of her coat and escorted her to the dining room, where she had dinner prepared (paella with a side of red peppers and fresh bread from the market), hot and looking delicious as always. After Kobayashi ensured that it contained no trace of tail meat, she dug in.
"Delicious as always, Tohru," Kobayashi said. "Thanks for all your hard work."
Tohru smiled, like Kobayashi's praise was all she wanted in the world (which might actually be true, Kobayashi mused, with a sinking feeling of guilt in her stomach- but the food helped overpower that). "Thank you, Kobayashi-san! I aim to please."
Kobayashi knew what Tohru's next line would be, so she preemptively shot down the sexual innuendo.
The third time was the very next day at work, when the secretary, a young woman with brown hair, approached her for gossip. Kobayashi didn't want to get sucked into any sort of gossiping conversation, and she had thought the younger employee knew better than to look for gossip in the programming department, but apparently this instance was a specific exception.
"Hey, Kobayashi-san," she said, "I ran into your wife at the market yesterday-"
Kobayashi scrunched her mouth. "We're not married-"
"Sorry, 'girlfriend'," said the secretarial finance technician. She smiled and her eyes sparkled. "But she's living with you, right? With her daughter?"
"Kanna's not my daughter-"
"Sorry- sorry, both your's daughter," the woman waved the air in front of her face and then paused. "Or does that not count unless you get married?"
The developer in the adjacent cubicle leaned out to interject. "Legally, I don't think so- she'd have to get a second parent adoption for that."
"But I thought both legal parents get on a child's birth certificate regardless of whether or not they're the birth parents?"
Kobayashi leaned out of her cubicle. "First of all, you only need to get married to do a step-parent adoption. Second parent adoptions don't require any prior biological or legal relation to any of the child's guardians. Second of all, a couple gets on the birth certificate if they're married at the time of the child's birth, if at least one of the parents is biologically related to the child and the surrogate agreed to give up parental rights."
Kobayashi inhaled. "Third of all- you were supposed to be debugging the client-side garbage collection protocols. Are they done yet?" The neighboring programmer pretended to resume working.
"Fourth of all, I also have work I need to be doing, and finally, Tohru and I aren't married."
Unfortunately, that didn't end the conversation. "Anyway, I was going to ask," The secretary's eyes sparkled as she beamed, "Was that why you've seemed more open lately? You got yourself a nuclear family?"
Kobayashi breathed. If she played along, maybe she could get back to work sooner. "Yeah, I guess. It's nice having some company around the house."
Out of a little morbid curiosity, Kobayashi decided to ask a followup question. "So you met Tohru; did you get to talking, or did you just bump into her briefly?"
"Yeah, I said hi, I mentioned I worked with you, and we chatted a bit."
"So you got to talk to her. What impression did you get of her?"
The secretary smirked, under her hand. "Oooh, I know that's a trap, Kobayashi-san. Of course, she's a very wonderful person. You're very lucky to have her."
"O-kay..."
"But seriously, she seemed really sweet! She compliments your personality. Upbeat and bubbly balances your surly- ah, um.-" the secretary coughed- "And she's got a really good accent for a foreigner- has she been living here long?"
"I didn't think so, but her hometown wasn't that different in terms of language, from what I've gathered."
"And she's really into cosplay, huh? Definitely a catch." The woman clicked the side of her mouth and pointed finger guns at Kobayashi.
Kobayashi smushed her mouth to the side.
The secretary waved the air. "Its okay, we're all closet nerds here- it's all cool. But you're really blessed to have found something you can share the things you're passionate with."
Kobayashi leaned back in her chair and reminisced. "Well, I guess it's pretty great to have someone to talk to about my hobbies..."
And then, Kobayashi found herself getting sucked into the conversation and it wasn't until her coworker left, twenty minutes later, that she got back to work.
And later, HR asked to see her, over the intercom.
Kobayashi got a little nervous. She didn't think she'd done anything wrong, though maybe she shouldn't have gotten sucked into the office gossip, especially when they were approaching crunch time.
As Kobayashi sat down across from a sort-of sleepy looking office worker, a manila folder was presented to her.
"I was recently made aware of changes in your family situation that qualify you for special enrollment with our health insurance," said the HR rep. "I just wanted to meet to go over your options..."
"Oh, what? Tohru and I aren't married," Kobayashi tried to explain.
"Don't be so hard on yourself. It's as real a marriage as any other."
"No, I mean," Kobayashi didn't know what hand gestures she was trying to make, "We're like, not, like." She gestured with her hands, vaguely, "-Married. Like at all."
"Our insurance provider accepts civil unions and domestic partnerships too, for qualifying purposes-"
"No, I mean," Kobayashi took a breath and calmed herself. "We're not, like, together at all."
The rep blinked, and then withdrew the manila folder. "Oh, I get you. Well, once you do get your marriage paperwork in, we'll update you in the system and you'll qualify for a health insurance change.
Kobayashi sighed. "Sure, fine, whatever."
"However, if you're living together and if you have a dependent, you'll pay less in taxes, so you'll want to update that information. I know it'll get paid back with your rebate, but having an extra thousand or so dollars in the short run can really help a family out, I know...."
Reluctantly, Kobayshi saw the need for that, at least.
Once the weekend came, and Kobayashi finally shambled out of bed, and ate the breakfast Tohru made for her. She helped Kanna with her homework, not that the centuries-old baby dragon needed much help, and she grinded a few levels in a few video games to pass the time and gather some gumption.
And once she felt awake enough, she got the attention of her dragon maid. "Hey, Tohru, would you like to go into town with me today?"
Tohru brightened up. "That sounds wonderful! Let me go get Kanna-
"Actually, I was thinking it'd be just the two of us?"
"You mean, like a date?" Tohru said.
Kobayashi looked at the wall. "Sure."
Tohru brightened up. It was nice, the way she smiled when she was praised, how much she appreciated Kobayashi...
"Kanna, will you be alright by yourself for a bit?"
"Yeah," said the baby dragon. She raised her arms. "You two have fun!"
The train ride was nice. Kobayashi was used to the commute, so she usually just pulled out her phone during the commute. But next to her, Tohru sat up straight and smiled, her mouth closed, looking alert and happy to be there, pointing at the scenery and the passersby, asking about bits of human technology and offering her own commentary. And, for the first time in a while, Kobayashi admired the view on her train ride.
And they arrived at the courthouse.
Kobayashi rubbed the back of her head and turned to her dragon. "So, uh- just for legal reasons, mind, -like, we're already two adults living together with a kid, so we fit the profile of a nuclear family, and there's legal bonuses to registering as a family, so- don't like look into it or anything, but," She turned to the wall. "Would you like to get married?"
Tohru blinked.
Then she smiled, mouth open wide, her fangs poking out under her lips.
And then she reached smile Lv. 2, where her mouth was even wider and her eyes brightened up even more, bigger and brighter, and she clutched both of Kobayashi's hands in her own.
"No," said Tohru.
"Sweet, the court's right here-" Kobayashi managed to spit take on nothing, again, "Wait, what?
Tohru smiled. "I'm afraid i must decline your offer of marriage, Kobayashi-san."
"Oh. Huh." Her face felt hot. "I-I guess I got used to you always going along with what I said. Sorry for assuming." Kobayashi bowed, partially to cover the embarrassment "That was really rude of me. "
Tohru smiled softly and clasped Kobayashi's hand. "Kobayashi-san," She said, and she looked into her beloved's dead fish eyes, "You say that we resemble a 'nuclear' family, and that all these human laws benefit standard family units like that. And I do want to have a family with you, but not because we fit the superficial idea of one." Tohru tilted her head to the side and her smile widened as she took a breath, "But rather, because we've found a sense of family with each other. Because you're kind, and responsible, and smart, and such a good mother for Kanna, and you've brought out the goodness in me as well- I'm happier and more content and I'm more proud of myself than I ever remember being, when I'm with you."
Kobayashi felt her face heat up as she blinked, lamely.
"And, that's why," Tohru glanced at the ground, very briefly, before reaffirming the eye contact and the gentle smile and her expression of absolute contentment. "That's why every day I fall deeper and deeper in love with you, Kobayashi-san."
Kobayashi's heart thundered in her throat and her ears and against her ribcage.
Tohru let go of Kobayashi's hands and stepped back. "And I don't need a silly judge to validate that for me."
A blush effervesced across Kobayashi's cheeks, and she blinked a couple of times. "Oh. Wow."
Tohru turned back towards the train, tilting her her head backwards. "But you knew that, right? I keep telling you."
"Yeah, I guess you do. I guess I started tuning that out."
"Ah- Kobayashi-san!" Tohru pouted." So mean!" but both of them laughed.
Kobayashi rubbed the back of her head. "Honestly, Right now I'm a little put out that I forget the true meaning of family."
"Oh! Kanna and I saw a movie that explained that- you should watch it with us." Tohru brightened up, "Oooh, you should do that right when we get back, Kobayashi-san!"
Tohru took steps towards the train station.
"Tohru, wait one moment," Kobayashi said.
Tohru turned,
Kobayashi smushed her mouth to the side and looked to the side and she rubbed the back of her head. "Tohru, you bring out the best in me too," she began.
Tohru tilted her head to the side.
"And you know, I never really saw myself as the type to start a family- maybe get married someday, but families were for like adults, you know? And I never really had to grow up, that much, before I met you- and it's a lot better than I thought it'd be, you know?"
Kobayashi cleared her throat, "So what I'm saying is, I'm glad you and Kanna came into my life, and- I'm glad I found a sense of family with you, too, Tohru."
Kobayashi knelt down on her left knee. She dug in her pocket for something that might make do-
Hey, look, a hair tie. That might work.
"So what I'm saying is," said Kobayashi. She held out the elastic loop, like a ring. "Would you maybe like to get engaged?"
Tohru blinked.
Then her face jumped directly into smile level two, and then beyond, and she seemed to literally float in elation, and she leapt forward to hug the human with her whole body, squeezing her right, and planting a brief smooch on Kobayashi's cheek.
"Oh Kobayashi-san, Yes! Yes, I do! I do!"
"You're going to have to get me a real engagement ring, though," Tohru said.
Kobayashi laughed, "Yeah, I know."