SALVATORE || Sano Manjiro X Fem! Reader

*+*CHAPTER 15 || SLEEPLESS NIGHTS*+*

Bringing a hang up to the back of her head, he smooths down the blonde strands that she inherited from him before nuzzling his cheeks against hers. Sachiko whines impatiently and Manjiro coos down at her. "I know, Mommy's coming back with your milk."

Just as he finished saying that, his wife emerges from the kitchen, a warmed up bottle in her hands as well as a bib for when milk spills. She gives him a smile and he flashes her one back.

"Do you want to feed her this time?" Y/n asked because she knows just how much Manjiro adored feeding Sachiko with her bottle when she's not being breastfed.

Just as expected he nods, carefully taking the bottle before settling Sachiko in his arms properly after placing the bib around her neck, her head laying perfectly against the crook of his arm.

Manjiro brings the bottle towards Sachikos mouth only to furrow his brows when she turns away from the silicone bottle hood, a high pitched whine leaving her mouth when a tiny drop of milk slides down her cheek. "C'mon, baby, aren't you hungry?" He gives the bottle back to his wife and then wiped away the liquid on her skin.

Manjiro attempts again, only to receive the same response. He pouts with a sigh. "The little baby doesn't want me to feed her, Y/n." A whine leaves his throat as he gives his smiling wife a look when she laughs at him.

Reluctantly, he places his baby girl in his wife's already opened arms. "She hates me."

Y/ns lifts up her shirt, suppressing a sensitive wince when Sachiko eagerly latched onto her and suckled. She gives her husband a small chuckle. "She doesn't hate you, Manjiro, she's just a little spoiled. A spoiled little baby, isn't that right, hun?" She tells him before whispering down at their baby girl who stares up at her Mother with watery does eyes.

Manjiro playfully rolls his eyes. "Remind me to introduce our next one to a bottle earlier." He leans back against the couch cushions, an arm coming and resting against the back of the couch.

Y/n nods and let's out a noise of agreement. "Hm, I don't think I can take another round of the constant biting and suckling once they're starting to teeth-" Manjiro laughs at that.

She gives him a look and Manjiros innocent grin widens even more, narrowed eyes giving him a tiny glare, a small action that's telling him that she knows exactly what he was thinking about. The glare from her eyes vanishes before she proceeded to pout at him. "Hey, I'm serious here."

A sigh and a smile before he leans in to kiss at her lips. "I know." He does and Y/n knows it too.

---

Hanagaki Takemichi gives a polite smile and nod to the old lady Naoto had as a neighbor, she gives him a gentle smile back before he fastens his pace towards his detective friends apartment.

It's been half an hour or so since he left from work after clocking out and he wanted nothing more then to just go back home to his apartment to rest for some time but Naoto had other ideas as he called him just as he was making himself comfortable in his futon making him have to reluctantly unroll himself from his cocoon of blankets and comfort.

Pressing the doorbell, he hears the muffled footsteps before the door opens up to show the younger face of Naoto. The blacked haired man gives him a welcoming smile before ushering him inside his home, telling him to be comfortable on his couch.

Takemichi just does that, intently watching Naoto as he pours him a glass of refreshments. He happily accepts the drink, settling the cup in between his hands.

"Sorry for calling you on such a short notice, Takemichi-kun but I thought you would have wanted to hear what I have to say in person." Naoto starts, sitting across from him on another couch, papers and documents on the coffee table separating them. The blue eyed man is assuming that he just finished doing his detective work, either that or he is setting it aside for later.

"It's fine, Naoto, it must have been pretty important if you had to call me over about it." Takemichi assures him, taking a swig at the glass in his hands.

"Right." Naoto nods, gathering the stack of papers in his hands before neatly placing them down again and facing him properly, a seriousness he knew all too well settling in his features. "I did a little digging the other day when you told me about how your conversation with Y/n-san went and surprisingly enough, it turns out what she was saying was actually true. Sano Manjiro did run away when he was 15 years old."

Takemichi furrows his brows. "Why would you even assume she was lying to me in the first place." He questions.

"Takemichi-kun, can you really blame me for being a little suspicious of her? I admit, at first I didn't quite understand why you were so invested in her in the first place when we achieved the greatest timeline yet so far but after thinking about it some more, it had me thinking on what exactly her role was in the past." The detective reasons his suspicions.

"I suspect that she must have been someone very dear to Mikey if he were to say her name when he was in the midst of dying." Naoto brings his fingers down to his abdomen, a little habit he picked up after getting shot and dying previously in the last timeline. Takemichi follows the action curiously, blinking with concern etched into his face at seeing the pinched look displaying across the detective's face.

Naoto, himself ,knows firsthand that you don't just think about anyone during your last few moments before death consumes you into its grasp.

The younger man shakes himself away from his thoughts, stoning his expression into its usual serious look. "Based on what she told you, it seems like she wasn't involved with any of the Tokyo Manji Gang members until after their mix with Tenjiku in the last timeline. I'm still not quite sure where she was during the other timelines or what she was even doing but we can only assume that she's gotten mixed up with the gang in the later years. I theorized that the only reason why she wasn't involved this time around is because of the disbanding of both Tenjiku and the Toman gangs."

Takemichi frowns, taking another drink to finish the beverage after that rollercoaster of an information dump. "At least that clears some stuff up but I do wonder how she even got involved in the first place. Do you think it was also my other selfs doings?"

"That's something I can't really answer confidently, Takemichi-kun. It's a possibility that I doubt we would ever find out for ourselves." Naoto looks down, a small frowns on his face before he brings up a hand to his forehead, fingers massaging them like he's trying to give himself some sort of relief.

Takemichi gives him a concerned look. "That's not the only thing, is there?"

Naoto gives him a look, one that tells him he's hit the mark. "No," The detective shakes his head. "It's not the only thing." He confirms the older mans words.

"Like I said before, I dug around a little bit and I found out that Sano Manjiro had disappeared just a little while after you came back from the future, his grandfather, Sano Mansaku had tried to file a missing persons report but since the police didn't really find any evidence to suggest that something was done to him, they had concluded that Mikey had been a runaway."

"I don't understand, where are you going with this? Are you saying that Mikey-kun is gone? That he just disappeared? Just like that?" Takemichi interrupts him, a small conflicted look on his face.

Naoto sighs. "I'm getting to that, Takemichi-kun." He tell the time traveler patiently, understanding where exactthis frustration is coming from.

"Here's where the situation gets a little more complicated. In the last decade or so, a criminal organization called 'Bonten' has been quickly rising up in the ranks of the world of criminals."

Takemichi can feel his heart beat pick up the pace, the implications of the other mans words slowly making sense in his head. "You don't mean-?" He cuts himself off when Naoto nods.

"The man that's leading that evil organization is none other then Sano Manjiro himself."