Chapter Text
“Dada! Dada!” Your almost one-year-old says from the floor in front of the couch. Your gaze drifts off the laundry you’re folding and towards the TV that’s currently showing the local news channel. And sure enough, your husband Kirishima stands talking to a news reporter in regards to a villain he had just brought down or something. You had been so lost in thought, you hadn’t realized that he was being featured until your toddler broke your thoughts.
“Dada!” They laugh again. A smile tugs at the corner of your lips as you watch the gin on Kirishima's face, knowing that he’s exactly who he is supposed to be and you are so proud of him. Leaving the basket of clean laundry, you move to sit on the floor next to your son who is staring up at his dad with his ruby-red eyes and a drooly smile on his lips.
“That’s daddy honey,” you agree as you move one of the toys further in front of him, a plush Charge-Bolt thanks to his uncle Denki, but your son already moves to a shaky crawl and speeds towards the tree in the corner. “Shiro,” you laugh as you stop the baby only inches away from the tree that he has become obsessed with trying to pull over.
“Mama, mama,” he seems to complain and you lean down, gently rubbing your nose against his own in a little kiss. His ruby red gaze is wide as he looks at you, completely astonished at your action as if you haven’t been doing it since the first moment you held him in your arms. Babies are funny like that. Holding him on your hip, you retreat away from the try and towards the kitchen where you hear more than seeing the interview.
“So it’s Christmas tomorrow, do you have any plans Red Riot?” the news lady asks.
“Just to spend the day with my family.” The answer makes you smile as you shift Shiro from one side of your body to the other. He was getting heavy now, and the thought was heavy in your heart although also a beautiful one.
“You announced just a few weeks ago that you and your wife are welcoming baby number two soon, how is that going to affect your hero life?” You could practically see the slight frustration he hides behind his smile at these questions, but Eijiro powers through it like a champion.
“The same way I always do. It’s a struggle for any hero to juggle both, but I have been blessed with my wife who moves mountains for me and our kids, so she makes it much easier.” You gaze down at the prominent bump under your sweater and grin at the idea of having another little set of feet running around the house along with Shiro. It would be some work, but you were both ready for it.
Your phone suddenly beeps as your son babble in your arms, his gaze out the window.
“Snow! Snow!” he laughs and you look down at your phone to see the extreme weather alert. Great, Kirishima was still out on patrol in Esuha City helping out at Fat Gum’s agency for the day, and now he had a multiple hour trip to get back home, and somehow beat the blizzard that was supposed to hit very soon.
Your ringtone bursts from your phone loud enough startling you and your son who’s lips start to wobble as water fills his eyes. You immediately answer though, expecting the person on the other side is someone who can also help the situation.
“Hey love,” Kirishima sighs through the phone and you know it’s bad news. You hold Shiro a bit looser and tickle his stomach which makes a bubble of laughter leave his lips and just like that your crisis is averted. Thank goodness your baby is 99.99% of the time as happy and go-lucky as his father.
“Are you stuck in Esuha?” you ask, closing your eyes, already knowing what the answer is going to be. You look back to the news on your tv where it has changed to the weather, saying that it’s one of the worst snowstorms seen in Japan in a long time. Of course it damn is, you growl inside your head.
“It looks like it, love. I’m so sorry. I’m going to try everything I can to get back to you guys. I don’t want to miss Shiro’s first Christmas, and I want to see my beautiful wife.” he complains through the phone and you smile softly.
“Well I preferably would like my husband alive and well, so don’t for a second think about going full hero and trying to face a snowstorm to get here. We’ll still be here when you make it home Eiji.” You mumble, putting the phone on speaker and putting Shiro in his high chair.
“Yeah well no offense to Fat Gum, but his face ain’t cutting it. I want my wife.” you hear arguing in the background from the other side of the phone and a huff of a laugh from your husband. “And Shiro too.” Who upon hearing his name whips his head from the window and looks around the room, searching for the source of the voice, and the action makes your heart clench.
“Dada,” he says, his eyes looking around the room for his father.
“Hey, buddy! You take care of mummy okay? I’m going to try and get home soon, but you need to be the man of the house and wait on your mama’s every single need okay?” Kirishima jokes through the phone and you grin as you watch your son look at you with wide eyes, not being able to see his dad, but hearing him.
“Dada,” is all he says in response but Kirishima makes a sound of acknowledgment through the phone.
“I totally agree little dude. We’ve really gotta start doing better. Your mama is very patient with us, so we shouldn’t take it for granted.” You laugh and leave the two of them to chat as you move to the fridge to get stuff out for Shiro’s dinner. For a second you close your eyes and listen to the random gibberish coming from your son’s mouth, and Kirishima’s reaction as if he’s having a completely logical conversation with him, and for a minute it almost feels like its normal and that he’s right there sitting in his usual spot next to Shiro. It hurts to know that he’s stuck hours away, in a different district, away from you both.
You come back to the table with the food for Shiro and put the plate in front of him, the various foods distracting him from his conversation.
“What’s for dinner?” Kirishima asks as if he’s actually there and you rest your chin on your hand, watching Shiro stuff broccoli into his mouth with a smile.
“Just leftovers from last night, we had an emergency run to the hospital today because someone managed to get into the cupboard in the bathroom and shove a cotton bud up his nose.” you laugh as Shiro tries to shove multiple handfuls of food into his mouth, and you gently reach forward and take some out of his hand so he doesn’t choke. Like his father, he gets excited over the possibility of food and can’t get enough.
“Fuck, was he alright?” Your husband asks, with concern in his voice. You can laugh about it now, but at the time you had been terrified. You had rushed straight to the emergency after Shiro had pulled it out and blood began to pour from his nose. By the time you reached the front desk, you were in just as many tears as your child and you were so grateful for the nurses that managed to both console you and deal with your baby. You’d felt like a failure of a parent, but when you finally got around to seeing the doctor and explained what had happened, she’d made you feel completely better about it. Kids no matter how much you prepare, tend to get into all kinds of trouble, that’s just life.
“Yeah, he’s alright. He was distressed because it hurt and then he yanked it out and there was blood, so I freaked out. But we’re all good now, in fact, he’s stuffing his face with broccoli as we speak, so I would say more than fine.” You reply, watching your son lovingly as he makes a mess of his food. He’s an adorable little bean who’s cuteness kills you and your husband on a daily basis, but you wouldn’t have it any other way.
“Maybe it’s a good thing you were there. I’m sure that I would have freaked out even more.” Kirishima sighs, and you can imagine him sitting down in the agency just taking a break, maybe that’s what he’s doing now he knows he can’t really get anywhere with the weather.
What he said though is one hundred percent true. Although your husband is a pro hero and can be as domineering and scary as his colleagues when it comes to villains and his job when it comes to his baby or you… the man is an absolute sook. You had to stop bringing him to when Shiro would get his injections because Kirishima would get upset that he was upset and you would be standing there not knowing who to console first.
So yeah, maybe it was a good thing he wasn’t the one who found Shiro with the cotton bud. But you do wish that he was there just to experience it with you.
“I miss you.” Kirishima’s words make your heart clench tightly in your chest. You missed him so much it was hard to put into words. When you were younger, you never wanted to be the kind of person that is so dependent on another being. You wanted to be happy by yourself before you brought someone into the picture. However life doesn’t work that way, and your world’s axis shifted until you were orbiting around a new sun that was so bright and bubbly, you couldn’t not grow to love it.
“I miss you too,” you breathe out, your voice barely a whisper, but you know he hears it anyway. Shiro begins nodding off in his chair and you’re not completely surprised, it’s past his bedtime by almost an hour, little house chores made time slip from you. Deciding to put him to bed, you bring your phone with you and move to the nursery. Knowing that Kirishima likes the background noise when he’s in a funk, you put the phone on a shelf as you whisk around the room. As you finally put your sleeping toddler in his crib, your eyes well up at his peaceful cherub-like face.
He’s honestly perfect. A hand drifts to the large bump that shows your thirty-three-week date quite well. You know though, no matter what that the next little one will be just as perfect as Shiro is.
Picking up the phone again, you slip out of the room, leaving the nursery door open just a sliver as you move back into the living room and begin to fold the rest of the laundry. To be honest, it's mainly just Shiro’s clothes because babies are messy and every time you’ve gone outside this week he’s been inclined to take a swan dive into snow or muck wherever he is. So he goes through clean clothes fast.
“Have you thought of any more names?” You ask the phone, turning down the tv and switching it onto Netflix.
“Not yet, although Kaminari is still trying to bribe me into calling her Denki Junior.” You both had decided to leave the gender of your baby a secret until the last minute, making it a big surprise for you both. Although, you had a feeling that it was a girl. A really really strong feeling, and when you had told Kirishima a few weeks back, you had both accidentally just started calling it her. So you were trying to come up with names for both in case you were wrong, but so far nothing seems to have stuck.
“You sure you want to give Bakugou the list of names and have him pick one? Like our kid could end up Queen Explosion Murder.” Kirishima warns and you can’t help but laugh at the thought.
“He’s going to be her godfather Kiri, so I thought he might want to be a part of it all you know rather than just accepting the title. Besides, that’s what we did with Hitoshi,” You reply, who is in fact Shiro’s godfather and your best friend. You had written down all the names you loved when you couldn’t decide on which one out of the three, and Hitoshi had crossed out the last part of one of the names and had somehow made it better.
Shirogane Kirishima.
And you planned to do the same with the guy that had been the best man at your wedding and your husband’s best friend.
“As long as you’re sure, love. Let’s just give him like three options though and make sure he knows he can’t edit them.” Kirishima continues, still slightly unsure and his concern makes you smile. He would do anything for his family, or his friends, and that had been one of the things that had first interested you in the spikey-haired ray of sunshine when you were still in high school.
You were in class 1A right alongside him, and you’d quickly become friends throughout the year. However, it wasn’t until the entire situation with Bakugou’s kidnapping at the Summer camp that you realized just how you felt for Kirishima. He’d come to you, not quite knowing what to say for the first time in his life, about how he felt for the situation, and you had just sat outside on the front steps of your dorms just listening to him.
You’d been right by his side when they’d gone to rescue him, and then once you returned to school, Kirishima made it very aware how he felt about you. The rest was history until Shiro came along.
You hadn’t been scared to tell Kiri, so the first time you got bad nausea, you immediately brought up the possibility. You had been careful, however, you had stopped taking your contraceptive pill due to it making your hormones a-wire, so you were in the process of finding a new one. However, that was all you needed it seemed.
Kirishima had gone to the shops for you and with no shame had bought about ten pregnancy tests, just needing to be sure of course. And when each one came back positive, he was next to you in the doctor’s office, getting a professional test. Every day since then, he’s been by your side, holding your hair back from morning sickness, which unfortunately there was a lot of, and going out to the drug store at three am because you were craving cheese puffs. He was the best husband and the best father, and you couldn’t be more in love with this human if you tried.
So it was strange not having him next to you on Christmas eve. You both seemed to have a pennant for the event, where the first Christmas you had together you had told him you loved him. Then the one two years later, Kirishima had proposed to you in front of all your friends and family. As for last year, you were very pregnant and only days away from giving birth, in all your crazy hormonal glory had forced your husband to buy the biggest tree that would fit inside your apartment. Now it was about to be Christmas once more, and Shiro’s first one - but there was a chance it would be spent without your husband. And that was okay, it had to be, even though it crushed your soul a little bit.
“Eiji?” You ask quietly, realizing you’ve both been quiet for a while and you’re not sure if you were so spaced out in reminiscing about old times that he hung up and you didn’t notice.
“Yeah, love?” His gravelly tone flows through the phone and you fold the last shirt of Shiro’s before setting it down on the growing pile next to you. You’ll put it away in the morning.
“It’s not your fault that you can’t be here. We both love you so much.” Knowing your husband, he’s without a doubt blaming himself for the situation, but that quality is part of the man you love ever so much. And it’s your job to remind him that things are sometimes out of his control, and that’s just life.
“Thank you, love. I love you both so damn much, and I’m going to try and get there tomorrow for you guys.” Kirishima's voice is full of confidence, and you know that he truly will try. But even if he can’t it’s enough, because you know he’ll be there some other way, even if it’s just facetime to see Shiro open his presents or try a fruit mince pie for the first time. Tomorrow is full of possibilities.
“It’s late sweetheart, you should be going to bed.” Considering you took time off work for Shiro and now because you’re far too pregnant to continue working, you’ve gotten out of the habit of waking up at the crack of dawn. But you were still tired all the damn time, thank you pregnancy, so you agree with your husband and trudge to your bedroom.
“I am. Talk to me about your day whilst I get ready?” You don’t even need to ask, because the second the question is out, Kirishima is rambling about the villain that they brought down today and some of the antics that Kaminari got up to whilst he was helping them out. Occasionally, Kirishima will team up with his old high school friends, ‘out of necessity’ he claims, but really you just think it's because they all miss spending so much time together. You can’t blame them, because you miss them all dearly too.
By the time you slip under your sheets and putting the baby monitor on your nightstand, Kirishima has just finished his daily report and it almost dozed you off. He must be able to tell because his voice changes from exhaustion to a soft and gentle tone that warms your heart.
“Go to sleep, love. I’ll see you soon. I love you.”
Your eyes droop and you bury your face slightly further into the pillow your husband usually uses, and it’s his scent that is untangling the day's worth of tension from your shoulders and letting you finally relax.
“I love you too Eiji.” The moment your eyes close, you’re out like a light.
❅ ❅ ❅
It’s far too early, and still dark outside when you’re awoken the next morning by something stirring around your room. Groggily cracking an eye open, a sleepy smile pulls to your lips as Kirishima slips into the bed next to you, in only his sweatpants.
“What time is it? Is Shiro awake?” You manage to ask through a yawn. Even with sleeping pulling back at you, you have to ask about your son to make sure he’s not awake because god help you it’s too early.
“Too early for your pretty eyes to be open. And he’s sound asleep too.” Your husband’s voice is hoarse with exhaustion and you inhale deeply as Kirishima wraps his arms around you pulling your back into his chest.
“I’m so happy you’re home.” You exhale, sleep threatening to pull you back under its lull, and you feel as though you can finally sleep comfortably again with Kirishima beside you.
“Me too. Merry Christmas love,”
“Merry Christmas Eiji.” Kirishima was home in time for Christmas and was next to you. Right where you both are supposed to be always.