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Kaito Tokoyami was a very very serious child.
Now, that’s not to say that the 1-year-old infant didn’t react to anything. The kid would often emit these small chirps of interest when played with, he would often cry very loudly at 3 am when Fumikage’s froggy wife would kindly remind him that it was his turn to check what was wrong that specific time (More often than not it was nothing than a change of diaper and a few minutes carrying him around their small apartment wouldn’t fix) and every now and again the child would babble incoherently, oftentimes interrupting whatever conversation was going on at the time. Overall very normal baby stuff as far as Tsu seemed to think and he trusted her judgment because despite his ample experience dealing with childish shadow creatures, between the two, when it came to child rearing he was most definitively outmatched. He supposed that being an only child had its downsides.
Most of the time however, the child would simply and adamantly refuse to laugh. Fumikage was sure the baby could laugh; he’d heard it one afternoon after a long day at work when out of nowhere he heard a sudden bark of laughter come from the small infant sitting on the couch, he wasn’t exactly sure why the baby was laughing, Tsu who was also on the couch seemed also very surprised at the reaction and in retrospect he really wished he could’ve recorded the event.
Several people had tried to make the baby laugh again, only to be met with curious eyes and relative silence. He still remembered the last time Tsu and him went to their class’ bi annual reunion, originally they planned to leave the small child home with a babysitter (A.K.A. his mother who had very gracefully accepted to watch over her grandson) but Ashido, who was part of the team responsible for the event, insisted that they bring him along so everyone can meet him.
That and she also mentioned something about wanting to see if Fumikage himself had to feed the baby like a mother bird would, something that he refused to dignify with an answer.
The dinner party seemed to be going well, the restaurant seemed to be on the classier side of things, mostly catering to special events and the like, they luckily did have a high chair for Kaito to sit on. Most of their class attended the event; with a few exceptions being Katsuki who was in his own words ‘too busy to waste his time with us’ and Izuku & Ochako who were both on their honeymoon. Conversation was lively and the food was great, overall it felt good to know that despite all the time that had passed, class 1-A was still as close as ever. Ashido and Tooru both seemed absolutely fascinated with the small infant on Tsuyu’s arms with Tooru asking a few times to pet the downy fluff that still covered the head of their child.
Apart from a few awkward questions regarding but not exclusive to the nature of Kaito’s conception and birth (more specifically as to whether or not he had been born from an egg), it really did seem that his fears regarding his ex-classmates’ ability to behave around a small infant were for the most part unfounded.
That was until he went to the bathroom, only to return to a slightly charred, covered in foam, now tablecloth-less table, the overhanging decorative light blown out, an unconscious Tsuyu lying on the floor being tended to by Aoyama and Mezo calling an ambulance on the phone while simultaneously trying (and failing) to console the baby in his 5 remaining arms, while Ashido and Momo seemed to be busy apologizing to the staff, Rikido and Koji attempted to get both Sero and Minoru unstuck from each other and Shoto was carrying a fire extinguisher which he assumed was the source of all the foam.
Dark shadow had told him that he should’ve probably seen that coming and if Fumikage hadn’t been so worried about his unconscious wife at the moment, he would’ve probably agreed.
From what he could gather from what Tsu had told him afterwards when they returned home and from the long string of texts apologizing for what had happened from pretty much everyone that had attended that day. It had all started after Tooru had asked Tsu to play with the baby; she then at some point noted that, unlike her younger cousins, the baby didn’t laugh at all (Though Mezo told him that the invisible woman had decided that playing Peek-a-boo was a good idea) so it all spiraled into a competition to see who could make the baby laugh first, the prize being that the losers would have to pay for the winner’s food.
Tsu told him that, in retrospect, she probably should’ve stopped the competition before it started but she admitted to feeling curious as to whether her classmates would be able to pull a laugh from the kid.
After a long series of failed attempts, it was Denki’s turn and the electric blonde had decided to try to lift his own hair using static electricity, though in his own words he ‘added too much juice’ and ended up blowing up the lamp and short circuiting his own brain. What followed was that, the explosion from the lamp ended up knocking over a set of decorative candelabra, which in turn set fire to the table, being the ever quick thinking person that she is, Momo generated a fire extinguisher from her skin and used it on the table before anyone got hurt, however in the commotion, Denki had wandered of with the baby. In their rush to catch Denki before he got himself or the small infant in his arms hurt, Tsu, Hanta and Minoru tripped over each other which resulted in Tsu being knocked unconscious and Hanta and Minoru stuck together. Luckily Mezo managed to catch the baby before Denki promptly fell down a flight of stairs, Tenya, Kyoka and Mashirao had apparently gone looking for him after he disappeared again (And at that point he had to wondering how he kept doing that considering the man had a current IQ of 50)
He wanted to be mad at everyone (specially at Denki) for endangering his child, his wife and potentially burning down the restaurant with everyone inside but Tsu managed to convince him to forgive everyone since it wasn’t really their fault and that if he should be mad at anyone it should be at her because she allowed the contest in the first place.
But he could never be mad at her, she always knew him too well for that.
So in the end, nothing really changed. The baby was still as serious as ever. That fact frustrated Fumikage deeply, he knew the baby wouldn’t remain small forever, one day he would grow and it would feel bad knowing that he missed the opportunity to make him feel happy while he was still a child.
It really seemed like a hopeless situation until one night while they were making dinner; Dark Shadow had asked to hold the baby. Now, this wasn’t unusual for the shadow familiar, he had asked multiple times before that night to be allowed to hold their child since from a certain point of view, it was his son too. However Fumikage had always refused; something about giant shadowy claws holding a potentially fragile, very irreplaceable infant didn’t sit right with him. This time was going to be no different until Tsu intervened and somehow managed to convince him to let Dark Shadow hold the baby (Fumikage wondered just how much control over him she had gained and if it perhaps was a secret quirk of hers).
The reaction from the baby was almost immediate, as soon as Dark Shadow picked up their son with one of his large claws, the baby burst into a fit of laughter and began clapping it’s small chubby hands as the large shadow creature seemed equally surprised at the reaction. Fumikage was struck with the most curious wave of happiness and shock he had ever experienced as Dark Shadow (who at this point was laughing too out of pure shock) began tossing the baby from one large claw to the other as the small infant began laughing even more hysterically. Tsu had at some point gotten her phone out and began recording the whole thing, telling him later after Dark Shadow had put the baby down that she was reminded of how she used to play with her younger siblings as a kid, tossing them up into the air using her tongue (albeit with a bit more form that Dark Shadow had).
From that day forth, Dark Shadow was allowed to play with the kid (so long as he did it with a bit more care next time) and while Fumikage knew that the small infant would eventually outgrow such silly games, he felt confident that Tsu and him would give it their all to make their son happy.