Chizuru happily sighed into him, cherishing the softness of his voice. With Chiharu now walking, running, talking...quiet times were rare, as she was exuberant and inquisitive. She was quite the handful, lacking the bashfulness of both her parents and not yet adopting a sense of propriety that the adults had always shared.

"Thank goodness..." Chizuru lightly laughed, pulling back and reaching for Saitou's shoulder to turn him to face her. "I think she could use the distraction. I could finally get some work done."

Chizuru was guilty of frequently indulging their daughter, if only because she wanted her to have the closest thing to a normal life as possible. Her own life taught her that normalcy had to be cherished while it was there, for you never knew when it would be taken from you. She was too often distracted with playing with her daughter and entertaining her. It was easy to squeeze in chores when it was only for three people you had to care for, but there were still the bigger chores that were being neglected.

...and, of course, there were other things being neglected...

"Should we test and see how long she'll stay asleep?" Chizuru softly smiled, a knowing blush creeping onto her cheeks.