Dabi is up waiting for Keigo to get home he'd put Kaiya in bed several hours ago, the lack of windows is disconcerting as is the fact he isn't allowed outside much so he doesn't know what time it is all he knows is Keigo has been gone for too long and it's stressing him out. Finally, when the door swings open he looks over Keigo is hurt a little bit but not too badly which makes him breathe a silent sigh of relief.
"Hey, I'm home." Keigo is sure to be quiet not wanting to wake Kaiya by accident. They go over to the couch and put on a fantasy movie as background noise while Keigo tells Dabi about his patrol and Dabi responds by telling Keigo some funny stories from today about Kaiya, his favorite one was when she accidentally got a wing stuck in the couch cushion while playing with her stuffie, she had given up and just turned herself into basically a burrito until Dabi helped her get unstuck, Dabi had even managed to get a photo which he shows to Keigo, Kaiya has yet to stop melting their hearts with every silly little thing she does, she's also a very talkative kid.
Keigo had given her one of his feathers telling her to keep it safe, and then Kaiya gave him one of her snowy white feathers saying 'Keep safe.' Even though she was just parroting what she'd heard it had been too cute for words. Keigo laughs before hearing crying from Kaiya's room.
"Sounds like she's hungry, I'll handle it you keep her distracted while I grab the baby food." Keigo nods gratefully and Dabi grabs Kaiya from her room before putting her down in front of the couch where there is a bucket of toys. Keigo watches her playing with them before she seems to get bored and looks over at the kitchen clumsily crawling.
"Dabi Kaiya is crawling!" Keigo calls out as a half warning and half in surprise the doctor had said because she was created by a quirk her motor control development could be delayed though that doesn't seem to be the case at all. Dabi stops his struggle with the baby locks, why is everything that is baby-proofed also adult-proofed??? to look into the living room where Kaiya is clumsily crawling around he pulls out his phone to take a video.
"Hey, Kaiya come here kiddo!" Keigo had moved so he was sitting on the floor across the room from Kaiya and she stopped crawling towards the kitchen changing directions so that she was now heading towards him. When she reaches Keigo she crawls into his arms.
"Papa!" Keigo grins, he's very proud of Kaiya.
"Yeah baby bird?" Kaiya grabs his arms.
"Papa up!" She bounces and her wings fluff up a bit.
"You want up?" Keigo grins picking her up. Kaiya snuggles into his arms and flaps her wings, it's not like Keigo is super tall or anything but he can see why his kid loves being picked up, for someone so tiny it must be like when he flies over the clouds. Keigo carries her over to the kitchen where Dabi finally manages to get past the baby lock and has some apple sauce. Keigo puts Kaiya in her high chair grabbing the food from Dabi. At least she isn't a messy eater.
Keigo's phone dings with a notification and he groans picking it up there's a case with a high public profile the commission managed to shoehorn him into. At least he'll be working with Best Jeanist much better than the countless press conferences and missions he ends up with Endeavor on he used to look up to the man but after what Touya had told him... He's disgusted to think that he ever idolized him but what's done is done though there is no chance in hell that Endeavor is getting anywhere near his kid he walks over to Kaiya and ruffles her hair touching the feather she had given him which is safely tucked away in one of the inner pockets of his jacket at all times right next to his heart.
"I have to go to work alright Kaiya?" Dabi is frustrated Keigo had gotten home not even an hour ago and he's already leaving again. Keigo hates it as well, he just doesn't have much of a choice in the matter.
"NO!" Kaiya frowns and cries.
"No?" Keigo asks curiously.
"Papa no go!" She repeats reaching for him.
"Sorry Kaiya but I have to." He stares at her sad little eyes kissing her on the forehead.
"I'll be home as soon as I can baby bird." Then he's out the door and off to meet up with Best Jeanist. When he gets to Best Jeanists agency the thread hero is there to meet him.
"Hey Hawks! We were worried when you disappeared for several weeks." It's nice catching up even if it's mostly for the cameras the HPSC was doing their best to get Hawks as cemented in the public eye as he possibly could be, Best Jeanist notices the little white feather while Hawks is eating, and that makes him pause.
"Since when do you have any white feathers Hawks? I thought they were all red." Hawks looks shocked and glances at the little feather before pulling out his phone.
"It's not mine." He pulls up a picture Dabi had taken of Kaiya and Hawks asleep on the couch, Kaiya's wings splayed out like a blanket.
"Do you have a cousin or something then? She's adorable though." Hawks goes to another picture in the gallery this one is of Kaiya the day she'd been created and he and Dabi were given that ultimatum she's much smaller in this picture because of how much she's grown recently.
"I disappeared because I ended up with a kid through a comedy of events, that's my daughter Kaiya." Best Jeanist looks visibly surprised but then it fades to contemplation and eventually mock hurt.
"It was so unflashy of you not to tell me you have a kid." Best Jeanist genuinely feels hurt by this he was close enough to Hawks that he'd figured something this big wouldn't be something that Hawks felt the need to hide.
"Also please tell me you aren't making her wear normal clothes with holes cut in them for the wings!" Best Jeanist knows from looking at the photos that are definitely what the kid is wearing but now he knows about her he has all sorts of ideas for a gift. His thought process is brought up short by a burning question.
"Whose the mother? Or I suppose second parent if they identify as something else." Best Jeanist knows Hawks is gay so this is a rather confusing turn of events.
"She has a second dad, my boyfriend and I got hit with a quirk that created her. As for the who... He's not someone the public would approve of that's for sure. The HPSC filled you in on the mission I had been assigned right?" At Best Jeanists nod he continues his explanation. "Well, it's him, my boyfriend." Best Jeanist would be convinced this is a joke if there wasn't a child whose eye color now makes a lot of sense to prove it.
"I'm going to change the subject. When can I meet her and have you told anyone else? I guarantee Mirko at the very least will want to meet her as well." Hawks explains that life has just been chaos and while looking at her may tell a different story Kaiya is only a month and a half old, and then he tells some of the funny stories and shows Best Jeanist the video of Kaiya crawling earlier.
"For what it's worth, Hawks, you make a great dad." Best Jeanist insists vigorously that he and Mirko should meet Kaiya sooner rather than later. They had been best friends since UA after all it's not fair for them not to meet their honorary niece, because that's what she is the trio is pretty much family to one another.
"Fine, but only if you prepare Mirko by letting her know who my boyfriend is I refuse to explain how that happened." Best Jeanist immediately agrees to those terms.
"Is there anything I can get or do? She deserves a fabulous gift." Hawks starts to shrug but then pauses thinking for a moment.
"Her feathers are extremely sensitive and keep getting damaged when her wings get stuck in couch cushions or between the bars of her crib if you could think up a solution for that I would sleep much sounder at night." There's probably something he could do Best Jeanist thinks there aren't enough clothes out there for mutant-type quirks.
"Do her feathers get caught in zippers or stuck on velcro?" Hawks shakes his head they haven't had any problems with either of those problems.
"Okay, warn your boyfriend and let me know when I can come over, we should get to work now these villains need a show to keep them in line." So Hawks flys off and Best Jeanist follows.
Back at the house, Kaiya hasn't stopped whining since Keigo left and refuses to go back to sleep Dabi feels incredibly slighted, it's very obvious Kaiya has a favorite parent and it's not him Kaiya keeps perking up and looking at the door with every little noise but goes right back to crawling around, shit does their baby already somehow have anxiety what had they done wrong?! Dabi has to calm himself down by reminding himself that most infants experience separation anxiety from their parents.
"Hey Kaiya you want up?" He asks cautiously and Kaiya immediately perks up reaching for him.
"Up up!" Dabi picks her up noticing the way her wings fluff up and spread out, that happens every time she gets picked up though he doesn't know why she also snuggles into his arms and makes an adorable yawning sound. Dabi bounces her gently in his arms only relaxing once she's asleep though when he goes to put her down in her crib she jolts awake so he walks back to the couch cooing softly.
"Alrighty little phoenix, I've got you don't worry." Dabi coos and croons getting her back to sleep, he lays down on the couch making a little nest of blankets right next to him that he lays Kaiya in. With that Dabi drifts off to sleep it may only be noon but in a house with no windows and only his phone as a clock it's easy to lose all sense of what time of day it is for them it's bedtime, so what? Dabi prefers being nocturnal fewer people to judge when he's outside plus it's colder at night.
"Night kiddo." Dabi falls asleep curled up on the couch around the little nest of blankets.
"Hey, I'm home," Keigo calls out quietly but there's no response so it's clear that Dabi and Kaiya are asleep he walks further in and sees them on the couch. Keigo goes to the bathroom showers and changes before walking back out to the living room, he snuggles up to Dabi. Recently it's been hard to sleep alone he's gotten used to having Dabi there, so since he doesn't have to sleep alone he won't.
The family slept peacefully on the couch for a long while Keigo had been gone almost constantly for the past week and when Kaiya woke up she made a chirping noise crawling over to him and hugging his arm Keigo chuckled at this.
"Heya baby bird, I'm guessing ya missed me?" He sits up and turns the TV on to the kids' channel as Dabi blinks the sleep out of his eyes Keigo checks his phone only to be reminded he needs to ask Dabi about Jeanist and Mirko coming over he could possibly arrange it for what would effectively be Kaiyas first birthday, they had put her official birthday as six months before what it really was to match her mental and physical development though technically she doesn't have a birthday at all he supposes since it was a quirk and she was never actually born... It's something to ponder over but for now, he needs to get his grumpy boyfriend up.
"Goood morning to you patchwork." Dabi playfully glares at him.
"Good morning to you to feathers." He then looks at Kaiya who is still clinging to Keigo.
"And of course an amazing morning to you Kaiya." Dabi boops her nose making her giggle. The family of three starts to go about their wake-up routine, Kaiya crawling around in her playpen while Dabi takes a shower and Keigo makes breakfast. Keigo glances away for a few minutes running into the living room when he hears a thud finding Kaiya outside of her playpen giggling her wings spread out.
"Oopsie!" Kaiya giggles out and Keigo walks over picking her up and setting her in the playpen again.
"Wait, okay Kaiya? I'll help you learn to fly since you're stubborn and I don't want you getting hurt baby bird but please don't try that again okay?"
"Up?" Keigo shakes his head.
"Later I promise." Just in case she tries to fly again he raises the walls of the playpen to the next height before going back to the kitchen despite his daughter almost giving him a heart attack he can't wipe the smile off of his face. Dabi comes into the kitchen and kisses Keigo on the cheek.
"Hey feathers go take a shower I can finish making breakfast." Keigo nods and heads to the bathroom there's a bottle of soap with a note on it.
"I ordered this for you and Kaiya, it's supposed to help with the high density of natural oil at the base of wings. Use it feathers or I will find some way to force you to, you need to take care of yourself. Keigo laughs a little shaking his head and reading the instructions on the bottle might as well since regardless he's going to use it on Kaiya.
Dabi smiles Keigo is taking a while in the shower meaning the damn bird is taking care of himself. The scrambled eggs for him and Keigo are ready and breakfast for Kaiya is peach-flavored baby food, though she also likes chewing on crackers after all she has been teething and the baby crackers are a wonderful way to help with that. Or so they'd read, Dabi and Keigo are just faking it till they make it with all the parenting stuff but they had been doing a good job so far she's a very happy, healthy, and intelligent child what more could they ask for?
"Alright, little Phoenix time for breakfast." Dabi makes funny noises as he feeds her though if asked he would vehemently deny it, he's a villain after all, or ex-villain at the very least. Regardless it wouldn't do to have him seen as silly by anybody outside his family, and if for the first time in his life, the house he's in feels like a home that's his business and his alone. Though he would love to see how Shiggy or the vampire reacted to him going all soft and mushy the reaction would have been priceless.
"Hey love what ya thinking about," Keigo asks and he gets jolted out of his thoughts.
"Just how amazing our kid is." It's mushy but true, so sue him Keigo perks up remembering something.
"Jeanist saw Kaiya's feather yesterday and wants to meet Kaiya Rumi also wants to meet her I was thinking we could invite them over for a celebration since Kaiya should really have more people to grow up around and it trust these two but only if you're comfortable with it of course she's both our kid and i would never commit to anything like that without asking first-" Keigo starts speaking incredibly fast and only stops when Dabi hugs him tight.
"Hey love it's okay, i'm not going to keep your found family away from her, and also long as they don't try anything dumb like getting you to leave me it's all good." That makes Keigo shut up and slump in relief looking over at Kaiya who is chewing on one of the teething crackers and watching them intently with her head tilted to the side curiously. Dabi has to stifle a laugh she has some bird-like habits that are absolutely adorable Keigo had told him that he'd had them too but was trained out of them since it 'would be detrimental to public reputation'. Some of the noises like chirps and coos can be forcefully stopped but it would be detrimental to do so and they were so adorable. Of course, if she wanted help to eliminate the noises later on in life for whatever reason that would be her choice and they would support it, that's an issue for future Dabihawks to deal with for now Keigo had promised Kaiya a flying lesson.
Keigo was kneeling with his hands firmly supporting under Kaiya's arms instructing her as she wobbily followed though more often than not he had to repeat himself at least a dozen times it's oddly therapeutic teaching something that at this point he seldom thinks about anymore as it's become second nature to him like breathing.
"Good job baby bird, do you remember what you did to get off the ground earlier? Can you show me?" Kaiya tilts her head and Keigo rephrases the question simplifying it until Kaiya understands and spreads her wings she tentatively takes off only getting a few inches up but Keigo is proud nonetheless. Kaiya makes a happy trill and the lesson continues including how to land safely that part is what he focuses on most.
Dabi is in the room silently reading in between watching for small bits there's a warmth here that had been nonexistent in the Todoroki household and only present fleeting in the LOV base though it still wasn't there fully. But now it's constantly hanging in the air warm and welcoming, it's the feeling of home, of family, of being able to take one look at his dumb bird and know that everything is going to be okay. He will do anything to keep this feeling tucked safe in his heart as he watches his daughter yawn completely tuckered out from flying, this is all he needs.
The little home is perfect even if it is simply a gilded cage, though unfortunately, the HPSC tends to ruin nice things, especially when they make Hawks happy. For now, this is enough, Though monsters who have been lurking in the shadows mascarading as people are beginning to rear their heads the family is too perfect, and as Dabi and Keigo are painfully aware perfect never lasts.