Work Text:
Oda had never met a more apathetic baby, of this he was sure.
He wasn't even sure if it was possible for a baby to be apathetic? But his baby? His baby definitely was.
Ryuunosuke, that was the baby's name, as Oda had learned from the little tag clumsily stitched into the small, all black onesie, never cried. He never screamed, he never threw fits, nothing.
He didn't giggle, that bubbly sound that Oda had grown to associate with babies either. Ryuunosuke was terrifyingly silent all the time.
Kunikida accused him of hovering, but until the kid learned to talk, it was the only way for Oda to know if anything was actually wrong with the kid.
Here, get this. To express displeasure, little, tiny, baby Ryuunosuke furrowed his eyebrows.
And to top it all off, unlike other babies Oda has met, who typically have paler eyes and hair, Ryuunosuke's eyes and hair are both a shocking black.
Oda finds the soft tuft of black hair on Ryuunosuke's head endlessly adorable, of course he does, because that baby has Oda wrapped around his little finger, but if he has to field one more question about why his baby looks like devil spawn, he's going to lose it and kill someone.
+++
It's a quiet evening, with Ryuunosuke in his high chair, sitting so calmly that Oda might've thought his baby was dead if he hadn't just seen the kid blink about five minutes ago.
Yosano had put the boy's age at about a year old, meaning he was still on formula, also indicated by the half open containers of the stuff in the trashed hideout they found him in.
It had been a… Process learning how to prepare formula the first time around, but now Oda could probably do it with his eyes closed and while solving complex geometry equations.
When he looked at Ryuunosuke for the first time, with the baby lying almost motionless in his crib, eyes almost comically wide in a way that was now familiar, Oda knew, somehow, like it was predestined, he just knew, that was his kid.
Kunikida had worried that having a baby would be too demanding for Oda, that Ryuunosuke would only add to his stress, make him go gray before his years, and had legitimately tried to talk Oda out of it.
But for Oda, he simply had no other choice. Ryuunosuke had nowhere else to go, except a foster home that would most likely mistreat him, and Oda would probably spend the rest of his life agonizing over what happened to him if he gave that baby up.
Contrary to what Kunikida believed, Ryuunosuke was an extremely low stress baby. In fact, Oda was sure that Ryuunosuke detracted from his stress.
Because of his lack of cries, Oda was getting proper rest, albeit with Ryuunosuke curled against his chest and removable railings on the bed to prevent escape.
Don't get him wrong, while it was nice, sleeping through the night, he did his best to facilitate Ryuunosuke's mental development.
The day Ryuunosuke so much as let out a sniffle, that vaguely implied he could be upset, Oda celebrated and called everyone he knew to tell them about how well his baby was doing, learning how to cry.
Kunikida called him insane for wanting a crying baby, but it was said with a slight measure of fondness and relief.
Junichiro and Naomi immediately declared themselves his onii-san and ane-san, despite Oda's countless protests and a heavily sworn 'if my fuckin' baby says somethin' about either of you before he says dad, y'all are dead meat,' that Oda was seventy-five percent certain he actually meant.
As Oda was working on the formula, with the soft drone of the TV in the background, he heard something, a soft noise from Ryuunosuke that he couldn't quite distinguish.
He turned and made his way towards the high chair, leaning down so he could be on eye level with Ryuunosuke.
"What'd you just say?" He asked, despite feeling a little ridiculous, asking questions of a baby.
"Baba," Ryuunosuke repeated, in an entirely flat tone, which shouldn't've been possible for a baby, even as he reached out to grab at Oda's face.
Oda whipped out his phone.
"Say that again, kiddo," He commanded, barely keeping the pure, unhindered delight out of his voice.
That soft, baby brow furrowed, as Ryuunosuke repeated himself.
"Baba,"
Oda turned off the recording and tossed his phone on the table before scooping Ryuunosuke up and pressing a kiss to his tiny cheek.
"I love you, buddy," He whispered. "And I will never, ever, let anything bad happen to you."