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2025-06-26
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2025-07-12
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4/?
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Fire and Ice, makes Water

Summary:

Kiara comes home with a kid, and who is Calli to say no to her wife? Parenthood is a journey, though, and not everything is smooth sailing.

Notes:

Short, af, but I wanted it outta my drafts, cuz I feel like it'd work better. I am cooking tho, so, babay Kobo an' TakaMori parent enjoyers, stay patient! Lmao

(See the end of the work for more notes.)

Chapter 1: Dad meet kid, kid meet dad

Chapter Text

Kobo is a tiny thing. Thirteen years old, yet barely coming up to her waist, she is a spark of anger in the body of a hurricane. 

 

Calli didn't know how to feel about her, when Kiara had brought her home one day, eyes hard and smile strained. 

 

"We're keeping her." She had said, voice firm, arms and wings wrapped around the dozing child on her shoulder, occasionally twitching in her sleep. Calli had agreed, equal parts too soft for her wife, and concerned for the little one who looks like she was a half drowned cat struck by lightning.

 

It was only a few days later that Calli realised why.

 

A Rain Shaman.

 

'At least it explains the contrasting injuries', Calli thinks dryly.

 

The child had ignored her the first few weeks, had no time for her, between getting fretted over by Kiara and recovering, something the reaper was fine with. She was thin, concerningly so, flinching violently at hints of rain, deathly scared of water. It had Kiara agitated, every nesting instinct, every protective nature inside her buzzing as she spent days dogging after the child. It would have amused Calli if not for the lost look on her face.

 

It was perhaps five weeks after living with them that the child had approached the reaper. Calli had been in her office, headphones blaring as she fiddled with the strings of her guitar. A cup of wine rested precariously on the recording table next to her, half empty with a few bottles next to it.

 

She had been distracted, lost in the rhythm of songs and the beat of lyrics, when a hand tugged softly at the collar of her jacket. 

 

Calli blinked, the moment lost, the flow broken. She took off her headphones, half annoyed, as she turned her chair, mouth snapping shut at seeing the child stand shuffling next to her. 

 

"Uhhh, hi..?" Calli murmurs, fingers tapping along the band of her headphones in awkwardness. It matched the beat of how the child moved her left leg. 

 

"....hello." the girl eventually mumbles, hands wringing themselves as she looked anywhere but at Calli.

 

The reaper smiles, a bit helpless, awkward in the tilt of it. "Hi."

 

The girl looks up, meets her gaze for a second, and Calli thinks she understands why Kiara was so enamoured with her. "Um. Mama Kiwawa want me to talk to you." She shuffles on her feet, a writhing wiggle of torso, right foot sliding back and forth on the carpet.

 

"That so?" Calli says, amused but soft, putting the headsets down, turning fully towards her. The girl nods and Calli smiles just a tad wider. "Well then, I'm Mori Calliope. Though, it's a bit long, so just call me Calli."

 

The girl nods, head finally tilted to look at Calli, a concentrated look on her face. "Kali." She nods again, and Calli snorts.

 

"Calli." She corrects, and a tiny nose scrunches up, brows furrowing. Calli barely stops from reaching over to smooth it.

 

"That what I said..? No?" 

 

Calli snorts, and the confused head tilt breaks the reaper, reaching over to ruffle her hair. 

 

"Sure kid. Whatever ya want."

 

She huffs, but doesn't move away from Calli's hand nor does she do anything to bat it away. "My name is not kid. It is Kobo."

 

"Kobo," Calli murmurs, tests the name on her tongue, dissecting the syllables and pronounciation in her mind. Something slots into place in her ribs, seamless and smooth, always there, and Calli tucks a wave of blue behind Kobo's ear, barely resisting cupping the girl's face. "Nice to meet ya then, Kobo."

 

Kobo beams, and Calli finds she can understand Kiara just a little bit more. 

 

'Mine-mine-mine.' the marrows of her bones, where her ribs quake and her facsimile heart thuds, where nerves meet organ meet flesh meet skin, sings gleefully. 

 

Calli returns the smile with a soft one of her own. One reserved for only those that are held close to the bars of her ribs, melted into the shadow-flesh-bones of her unbeating-too-fast-beating heart.

Chapter 2: Get you a mom that's willing to fist fight the weather for you

Notes:

So, uhhhh. Kinda sorry for the very abrupt change in writing style, but, imma be honest, this fic will Not have a consistent style, so I'm kinda sorry, y'all 🙏🙏 lol

Chapter Text

Kiara was never one to care for rain. Sure, it was beautiful, if admired correctly, and the light drizzles refreshingly wonderful, had more than one night spent dancing out in the moonlight with Calli. Point being, Kiara loves the rain, when it is light and little, adores summer showers, the occasional sprinkle.

 

This rain, pounding at the roof of her house, and rattling her windows, occasionally accentuated with flashes of lightning and crashes of thunder, is not one Kiara likes. It had started as a good day, she had made plans to go out for a picnic with Calli an' their new kid. Kobo had seemed excited,  bouncing around the house and filled with a thousand emotions.

 

Then Calli got called for a sudden job, a man had died after being struck by lightning, and soon after, the rain had started storming. Kobo had went rigid along with the first crackle of lightning, shaking with little sniffles. Then the first bang of thunder struck, and Kobo screamed. 

 

It was pure instinct that had Kiara throwing herself from one side of the room to the other, wings bursting out of her back in a shower of sparks. She doesn't think as she throws her arms around Kobo's waist, lifting the wailing child into her arms, tucking her against Kiara's collar.

 

"Shhh, baby," Kiara murmurs, rocks Kobo in her arms. "It's okay, baby. Mommy's got you. I've got you, liebling."

 

Kobo hiccups, clawing a hand down flaming feathers, and the hiss of evaporating water has Kiara taking the hands into her own. She lowers them to their knees, bracing the child between her and the couch, wings coming up to cocoon them in a small bubble. 

 

"Mommy." Kobo cries, heaving for air, and Kiara shushes her, presses a kiss to the space between her brows. "Mommy, I gonna die!"

 

Kiara's heart clenches painfully, a pained noise punched out from her lungs. "No. No, baby, no. You're not going to die, Kobo, you know daddy won't allow it. You're not allowed to die, liebling, you won't die." 

 

The words, just as much a comfort for Kobo as it is a reassurance for Kiara, don't do anything to calm the sobbing Shaman. Kobo heaves out like she is going to throw up, shrieking as the next strike of thunder booms louder than the previous one. 

 

Kiara feels tears stinging at her own eyes, centuries spent as a warrior never preparing her for a crying child so sure they are going to die. She tightens her hold on Kobo, rocking her slowly to and fro, a soft lullaby hummed into the skin below Kobo's ear. Kiara knows her shirt is wet, snot crusting at her collar, as Kobo hiccups and sniffles.

 

"Mommy." Kobo whimpers, pressing closer with another flash of lightning. "Mommy, I don't want to die. Please don't let me die, mommy."

 

Kiara leans down, bows over her baby, presses a kiss to her forehead, to her cheek, murmuring soft nothing as she wipes away Kobo's tears. "You're gonna be okay, liebling. I promise, you're going to be okay."

 

The next hour is spent in silence, the occasional flinch and sob following the crash of thunder. Kiara soothes it all, brushing a hand through Kobo's wave of hair, curling her wings tighter around them with every word of fear Kobo lets out. The only sound is the soft German Kiara speaks, assurances and terms of endearment fall in the same breath used to curse out the storm outside.

 

"Baby?" Kiara murmurs, brushing back bangs from a sweat slick forehead, fingers gentle as they wipe away drying tear tracks. At the soft noise of protest, Kiara coos, kissing at the scrunch of her brows. "Hello, my baby. My brave baby, my liebling. Mein licht meines lebens."

 

Kobo's answer to words she don't understand murmured into her hair is to yawn, nuzzling into the feathers lining Kiara's neck, glare on her face angry kitten like. "'not brave, mommy."

 

"And who are you to decide, mein seele?" Kiara huffs, turning from her kneeling position bowed over the couch, groaning as she heaves into the cushion, Kobo still on her lap. "You were very brave, and nothing can convince me otherwise."

 

Another yawn, this one longer, eyes slipping shut as the hands rubbing down Kobo's back melts the fear from her bones. Already, the storm is quietening, going away, leaving only the gentle pitter patter of rain on roof. 'It's a nice sound', Kiara thinks, as Kobo's breaths even out, weight going slack on top of her. It takes a few gentle maneuvers, and more than one whine of protest, for Kiara to lay down on the couch, Kobo comfortably asleep on top of her.

 

Her eyes drift towards the parted curtain, gaze caught on the mist wafting in the air, the raindrops sliding down the glass. There is a few flashes of lightning, the occasional thunder that Kobo flinches at, that Kiara soothes away with soft words and even softer affection.

 

Kiara blinks, eyes growing heavier with every second, a yawn slipping through her lips, nails scratching gentle at the baby hairs along Kobo's neck. She leans down to muffle another yawn against the top of Kobo's head, brushing a kiss to her scalp. "Schlaf gut, liebe, mommy will keep you safe from anything."

 

The rain is a light drizzle when Calli comes home. There's drops of water on her lashes, dripping from the ends of her hair. "I'm home." She calls, hanging her cloak as she walks into the living room, hands busy drying her wet hair, reaper attire dissolving into dark smoke. 

 

She blinks, hearing no reply. She's softening immediately at the sight of her wife sound asleep with her kid cuddled to her. Her smile is soft, honey dipped and sappy, as she walk over, steps quiet, throwing the pull up blanket on top of them. She spends a few seconds bent over them, brushing Kiara's hair away, love threatening to crack a hole in her ribs as she gazes at their child.

 

The next flash of lightning in the sky, no thunder following, illuminates the family of three, sound asleep. Calli's arms thrown over the back of the couch, cheek squished against the arm rest, Kiara on her lap, with the phoenix's wings wrapped around Kobo like a safety net, a blanket to keep away the fears. Light rain is the only sound that follows after, soft snores and the occasional sleep mumbling accentuating it.

Chapter 3: Big bad reaper, big soft dad

Notes:

This is the actual chap 2, but I just wasn't able to lock in. This one is pretty different to the last two, but hopefully not shit.

This is for you, Cheese, who wanted more Calli an' Kobo! An' she was in luck, cuz this chap just so happened to have been always planned to be dad an' babu, lmao

Chapter Text

Kobo rises with the sun.

 

Calli is surprised by the fact, blearily stepping out of her room, bed head tangled and bangs slipping into her eyes, she nearly had a heart attack seeing the child staring right back at her.

 

Her shriek has Kiara rushing into the room, wings out and blazing, arms wreathed in flames. The way Kobo flinches violently at the sound has something ugly rising in Calli's chest, sticky and burning, clawing up her throat.

 

"Calli!?" Kiara exclaims, bemused and still tense. Calli waves her off, accepting a clingy phoenix slumping against her shoulder, arms wrapping around her waist. She soothes the whine with a kiss to Kiara's temple, scratching softly at the wings, looking at the child out of the corner of her eye. 

 

Kobo looked a deer caught in headlight, fidgety on her toes as she kept her head down to the floor. A gust of wind rustled the trees outside, and she got impossibly tenser.

 

The reapers softens, bone cage heart thudding painfully. "Hey kid," the whisper has Kobo's head snapping to her, Kiara's shut eyes opening, ever so slightly. Calli smiles. "Whatcha doin' up so early, eh?"

 

The child wrings her hand, nervous and flighty yet shoulders loose. Another gust of wind, knocking against the wood of the door like a childhood monster in the closet. The child stays silent, and Calli beckons her with a hand, smile tugging wider, achingly tender, at how quick she accepts the offer of protection.

 

Calli wraps her arm around thin shoulders, tucking the girl against her waist, feeling warmth curling around Kobo. "Just cuz you live with us doesn't mean you have to live like us, kid." She jokes, gripping the back of Kobo's head, pressing closer like she hopes to fuse them together, bone and soul deep. 

 

Kiara lets out a sleepy chirp, and Kobo mumbles something unintelligible. She tucks herself under Calli's shoulder, a slow, exhausted blink, and Calli lets it go to bend down and scoop up the child into one arm. Another soft noise answers her as she turns her head to kiss Kobo's hair, the child resting against her neck.

 

"She looks exhausted." Kiara comments, and Calli hums. Her wife's tone is concerned sadness, a subtle crackles of something raging under the love.

 

Calli doesn't take her eyes off her child when she tugs Kiara by the hair for a kiss, tender-slow, a soft brush of lips that has the reaper sighing. Kiara breathes it in with a giggle, magenta eyes glowing dangerous as she brushes blue waves out of shut eyes, the bags under them dark like smoke.

 

"She'll be okay." Calli murmurs, conviction rumbling dark and final in her voice. Kiara smiles, leaning to press her lips to Kobo's forehead.

 

"She has to be." Kiara agrees, eyes just as soft as Calli is, as she gazes at the sleeping child. 

 

.

..

...

 

Calliope has always prided herself in being steadfast. A rock in the face of life, steady and standing strong. Emotions tucked away in favour of results, Death's first ever apprentice with more kills under her scythe than even her senior reapers, with only Death itself coming close to the count. She is a beast of her own league, matched only by the friends she had collected, begrudgingly, that were just as dangerous as her, a cold unfeeling cloak of bones and shadows.

 

And yet, Calli muses, laying on the couch with her child on top of her, the soft noise of the kids show making her ears ring, only soothed by the occasional soft murmur by Kobo. No one would believe any of those things.

 

"Daddy?" Kobo whispers, voice still laced with sleep, quiet in the late evening light. Her cheeks are pressed to Calli's collar, and occasionally she twitches her head to brush blue bangs out of her eyes, rubbing her face against Calli's neck.

 

Calli hums, fingers mindless in the soothing action of scratching the child's scalp. "Anything you need, kid?"

 

A huff, a soft headbutt against Calli's jaw. The reaper exhales an amused noise, free hand reaching up to boop Kobo's nose, smile quirking smug as the way her nose scrunches.

 

"Not kid." The child protests, batting the hand away from her face, hissing when the fingers in her hair attempt to move as well. "Kobo. Kobo, my name is." She nods as if her word is law, and if Calli had anything to say about it, it may as well have been.

 

Calli nods. "Kobo." 

 

At the soft triumphant noise from the child, Calli smirks. "Bokobo." 

 

She chuckles at the whine of protest, the half-hearted slaps against her shoulder. "Daddy, nooooo! Bad daddy."

 

"Oh?" Calli raises a brow, show entirely forgotten as a soft drizzle falls outside. "Me? A bad dad? I'm hurt, sweetheart."

 

Kobo huffs, pointedly turning back to the show, but Calli smiles at the way tiny fingers squeeze her hand. The cheek pressed to Calli's collar is warm, and the amused inhale from her brushes against a reddened ear.

 

"Shut up, daddy."

 

"Sorry." Calli chuckles, smoothing her hand down Kobo's back. "Sorry, what did you wanna ask me?"

 

There's a few seconds of silence, the child making nonsensical humming and hawing sounds. Calli chuckles at all of them, joins in on some of them. 

 

"Daddy, would you still keep me if I was bad..?" Kobo finally answers. Her tiny hands clench tightly at the cotton of Calli's shirt, and Calli takes the hand into hers, squeezes it softly.

 

"Where's this coming from, sweetheart?" Calli murmurs, the soft-quiet of her child's voice making her ache. The drizzle outside pours into a shower, as if crying for their Shaman that refuses to, stone faced and quivering lips pressed thin.

 

Kobo doesn't answer, not for a few seconds that feels like an eternity for the reaper. Calli doesn't let it show on her face, though, calmly rubbing the girl's back and waiting patiently for her to talk. 

 

"Nothing, daddy." She whispers, and thunder booms in the distance. She traces random patterns on Calli's palm, and Calli does the same on Kobo's back.

 

A star. 

 

"Are you sure?" Calli asks, just as quiet. As if speaking any louder will break the fragile peace, rain shower and TV static the only noise in their world. 

 

Kobo nods.

 

A heart.

 

The crude imitation inside Calli's chest aches. She grips Kobo's head firmly, tuckes it into the crook of her neck, buries her nose in blue foam waves. Kobo's little shuddering breath hits her skin, and pierces deeper into her marrow, leaving a gaping hole where once her bone-shadow heart was.

 

Calli presses a kiss to where waves meet the shore. "We'll always love you, Kobo. You could kill a thousand men, and me and your mother will still love you. We can't hate you for being bad, because you never will be." 

 

There is the distant strike of lightning, somewhere in the sky, flashing up the world for but a moment. 

 

"I love you, kid. Always."

 

A water droplet. 

 

The rain outside lessens. Water drips into the cold skin of the reaper, soft sniffles hitting her ears. Calli pays no mind to it, turns up the volume of the TV, hands squeezing the small one it hers, fingers tracing the shapes Kobo etches on her palm to her back. A quick press of lips against cool skin, nose nuzzled into blue hair.

 

"'love you too, daddy."

Chapter 4: Tfw you get so sick you hallucinate god

Summary:

this is for, user BrianEdward96, who wanted a Kobo pov. Technically.

Special thanks to everyone of y'all in the comments, 'specially Cheese, this chap is half cuz of you, you fucking GENUIS./aff

On that note tho. This may be my final chapter.

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

Since the moment Kobo woke up, she knew it was not going to be a good day. Her head was pounding when she dragged open her eyelids, heavy, far too leaden, hissing through her teeth at the light that momentarily blinds her. Swallowing felt like nails down her throat, and every breath she took had her hacking into her palm.

 

Kobo groans, turns around and curls up tighter at the wind blowing at the glass of her window. There's a soft drizzle, and the sky darkened like it was getting ready to rumble and boom like a shotgun any moment now.

 

"Kabar baik." She whispers into the air, hazy fever heat making her slip into her mother tongue, into the repetitive habit of reassuring the elements around her. The wind whistles through the gap in her windowsill, hissing angry-concerned through the sweat stuck bangs on her forehead.

 

Kobo curses, soft and low, batting weakly at the whirling wind blowing her hair around her, lifting under her shirt to curl around her heart. "Kotoran. Stop it, bastar!" The wind is underrated, blowing into her ear and making her growl.

 

It settles down after the soft rumble of distant thunder, a warning static shock against her spine. Kobo sniffles smugly, laying back down to bask in her victory. The rain picks up speed, only a distracted wave of her hands keeping it from outright hailing.

 

"'am fine." She murmurs, nuzzles under the covers smelling like faint smoke and citrus. 'Ayah's perfume smells different than usual.' She thinks, distant, fading.

 

The window latches up, ever so slightly, and the breeze blows in a hint of rain. Kobo rasps out a giggle at the clingy droplets, the rain outside whining their discontent at being away from their Shaman. "Sangat dramatis." She mumbles, eyes slipping shut, soothed to sleep by the background of rain against earth.

 

Lightning cracks against the clouds, parting it to illuminate Kobo's world, contrasting with the dark spots at the corner of her eyes. It sounds harried, sharp panic edged into the rumble of thunder that follows, closer than before.

 

Kobo doesn't catch the grief swimming in the next crackle before darkness greets her like an old friend.

 

.

 

..

 

...

 

Kobo wakes up to rain beating down on her, soaking her to the bone, shivering and teeth chattering. She's wearing thin rags, barely covering her up, as the heavens pour down onto her, merciless and unending.

 

It's hard to move, laying there on the ground, a dark puddle around her, haloing her. The sky crackles, and a face parts between the clouds, pale and thin, the storm in its hair. Hands reach down for her, deceptively gentle, far too perfect in its inhumanity. It holds her, cradles her gently, reverently, brings her up, towards the sky, the rain no longer drowning her. No longer protecting her.

 

"Tidak. Tidak tolong." Kobo can't move, skin sticking to bone through blood, lungs too small to hold her shortening breath. "Tolong. Saya mengemis engkau. Saya mengemis dari engkau. Tidak."

 

Lightning crackles like laughter, next to her, in her ear, whispering in her mind. Thunder booms like a mockery, dangling escape in her face, knowing the hungry mutt will not take the rotten carcass, fattened and spoiled on cow and sheep.

 

The sky is impossibly blue, drawing her in, suffocating her, drowning her far more effectively than mere rain. The winds howl in her ears, an angry whistling screech that is chorused by the rain beating down on the earth like war drums.

 

"Ours." They hiss, spitting and raging. "Our Shaman, you will not have her." 

 

The sky answers with tittering laughter, dangling Kobo like a puppet on strings, dancing to their every whims. 

 

"Yours no longer." They crackle, and boom, and cry gleefully, a harmony of taunting murmurs. Holding the ultimate prize, waiting for the dogs to leap. "Ours to take. Yours no longer to keep. Ours to brand."

 

Kobo stays hanging, caught between the heavens and earth. Between the wind in her teeth, and thunder under her bones. The next crackles of lightning is a breathy whisper in her ears, excitement thrumming through her skin like it was hers.

 

"Ours to brand. Forever ours to keep. Strong, brave, chosen Shaman. All for us. Ours to brand. Forever ours to keep."

 

The hands under Kobo open, ever so slowly, like the gentle flap of wings. There's a scream lodged in her throat, desperation a clawing animal burrowed under her skin.

 

"Will you survive, O' girl with wild rain eyes? Will your clear-wind blood spill on Mother's Nature? Is your animal desperation enough to keep you alive?"

 

She falls. The winds hum hymns in her ears, mournful songs whispered into the nape of her skin, the roots of her hair. Kobo doesn't scream, the water in her eyes from the hailing rain, the cry of grief dark clouds.

 

Thunder strikes. Lightning follows. The smell of charred, burning flesh is pungent in the air. The body hits the ground with a sickening thud.

 

It does not get up.

 

Thunder strikes. Lightning follows.

 

.

 

..

 

...

 

Kobo wakes up to the soft light of the setting evening sun. The rain is a clear drizzle, catching beautifully in the gentle glow of the lingering twilight. A cold weight on her forehead makes her blink, and the winds coo against the crook of her neck at her noise of confusion.

 

"Kobo..?" 

 

The sound of her names makes her turn, sticky slow after the fever heat. Her eyes are still crusted, vision hazy, and it takes multiple blinks for Kobo to see her Mama in front of her. Her hands are cupping Kobo's cheek, and the realisation makes her nuzzle into the warm palm with a soft noise.

 

"Nightmare?" Her Papa enters, a bowl of steaming deliciousness in her hands. Kobo nods, and Papa Calli puts the food down to run her fingers through Kobo's hair. "Well, at least the fever's goin' down."

 

Mama Wawa nods, actions soft like a beating heart as she brushes Kobo's bangs from her face, wiping the sweat on her skin. Tender like the bleeding sinews and tissues under meat as she cups the back of Kobo's head, pulling her up into a sitting position, cold hands bringing her flush against Papa's front.

 

The burning crackle of lightning is forgotten, in the quiet-soft moment of post-fever delirium. The moon paints her parents in gentle hues, and the whistling hum of wind in her ear has Kobo smiling. The cough shrinking her lungs and leaving her heaving not enough to ruin the night.

 

Not with the way her Papa makes silly noises everytime she takes too long to swallow a mouthful, the way she tucks the blanket more snug around Kobo everytime she sniffles. Nor the way her Mama's quiet words are as gentle as the hands rubbing circles on Kobo's shoulder, the concerned coo and the proud smiles with every bite of soup she swallows down.

 

Deep, foreboding sky blue is distant with pink and orange caught in her vision. Falling is a far memory tucked into the warmth of her Mama's neck, laying on the steady rise of her Papa's chest.

 

She gets up, better in the soft rising dew of the morning.

 

Winds chime. The rain falls gently to the earth.

Notes:

Might be wrong, btw

(Kabar baik- I am fine
Kotoran- shit
Bastar- bastard
Ayah- papa
Sangat dramatis- so dramatic
Tidak- no
Tolong- please
Saya- I
Mengemis- beg
Dari- of
Engkau- thee)

Also, feel free to leave suggestions for my next chap in the comments, cuz this is my last chap idea, I have

Notes:

As always. Comments feed starving writers. an' artists too, but I'm not one, so feed me, an' go be really nice on an artist's art!!!