Chapter Text
The controller clicked under Bobby’s fingers as he fiddled with his game. He leaned against the back of the couch, Daken sprawled next to him, legs over his lap, reading a book.
“Do you have plans tomorrow?”
“Hmm?”
“Tomorrow. Dinner time. Are you busy?”
“Don’ think so? I’m dependent on nothing trying to destroy the world, but there’s other X-Men, so.”
Daken exhaled, and his brow furrowed slightly. “Would you like to come to a ‘family dinner’? Now that me and my father aren’t trying to kill each other, Gabby is even more insistent on us doing dinners together.”
“You’ve been going to family dinners?” Bobby paused his game to look at Daken. “ I’m not even well-adjusted enough for that, you go eat with your whole family? And it goes well?”
“So far, yes.” Daken shrugged. “So? Will you join me?”
“Will it be weird or something, if I show up to your family dinner? The weird kinda-boyfriend kinda-tried-to-kill-you-once?”
“You couldn’t kill me. Besides, Jubilee is there, too. It’s not strictly family, I don’t think. I haven’t quite figured out Gabbys parameters.”
“I’m tabling the who's stronger talk because I’m stressed, and Jubilee’s more a member of your family than anyone actually related to Logan, ‘Hiro. It’s so not the same as me showing up.”
Daken leaned his head back, stretching. “Is Jubilee her human name too? Or just her mutant one? I’ve only ever heard her being called Jubilee, but most people on the island have two names. I haven’t been able to decipher that.”
“Mm? It’s Jubilation, I think. We were still X-Factor when she joined the X-Men, I missed her beginning. Jubilees clearly a better name, I think she was kinda young when she picked Jubilation? I dunno, ask her yourself, or ask Laura, I’m not close to her.”
Daken made a sound with his mouth, closing his book finally. “Good to know. So? Will you be joining me?”
“I. Guess? You promise it won’t be weird? I know my whole thing is making unwanted jokes and appearances, but I don’t want to butt in on a family thing.”
“Relax, Snowflake, you’re my plus one.” Daken stretched out, book forgotten. “I believe you have X-Man duties to get to, now.”
Bobby groaned, leaning his head back.
“You were a teacher for too long, you don’t know how to be a superhero anymore, do you?”
“That’s mean; I’ve been a superhero since before high school, it’s in my blood.”
“Then go do it, be my hot superhero boyfriend.”
--
Bobby tugged at his collar uncertainly. He’d been lingering outside, iced out so nobody would smell him, for nearly twenty minutes. Now, seeing Daken approach, he de-iced, and shook the frost out of his sleeves.
“Ready?”
“No, not at all, the chance I’m going to get stabbed is so high-“
Daken adjusted Bobby’s collar, crumpled from all of his fidgeting, and planted a kiss on his forehead. “If you do die, at least you won’t remember whatever happened right before.” He smirked.
Bobby took a deep breath before stepping in, and it was surprisingly quiet. The high chatter of girls who Bobby. Actually wasn’t totally sure the age of, was coming from one room, Shogo’s squealing echoing from somewhere he couldn’t pinpoint, but that was all. Obviously, he wasn’t hearing as much as Daken with his enhanced senses, who was certainly aware of the rapid pace of Bobby’s heart as the pair walked through the empty entryway.
Jubilee and Laura were perched on a couch, Gabby above them on some kind of branch-thing protruding from the wall, making faces at Shogo, who was being bounced furiously as his face contorted into an almost-cry.
“Akihiro!” Gabby almost fell off her perch, catching herself in the nick of time.
Daken lit up at the sight of his little sisters, hiding it easily under a relaxed smile, but his eyes were sparkling.
Jubilee glanced up. “Hey guys, Daken, take Shogo.” She held up the baby, still on the brink of tears, and Daken grimaced, but took him.
Bobby was fully entranced, watching how he awkwardly tried to hold the kid, every muscle tensed, moving with careful precision.
Shogo snuggled in, smiling broadly at Daken.
“He missed youuuu.” Jubilee said in a singsong voice, a loose smile on her face.
Daken sat awkwardly, moving differently with the kid clinging to him, and Bobby sat next to him, barely able to tear his eyes away.
Shogo pulled himself up, wriggling his fat legs as he twisted onto Dakens shoulders, giggling the entire time. Bobby didn’t miss the fond way Daken watched the kid, and he leaned into his boyfriend's shoulder to whisper.
“You need to get me a baby right now, this is too much to bear.”
“There are children present, Snowflake, and I doubt my sisters want to hear about my sex life.” Daken pulled Shogo down, settling him in his lap.
“ I could care less about our sex life, but you are violently reigniting my old pretending to-be-straight-baby fever.”
“Cute.” He smirked. “Take the baby, I’m going to the washroom.”
Bobby looped an arm around Shogo’s waist. “Hey, buddy.”
Shogo squirmed, sliding under Bobby’s arm and nearly tumbling to the floor. Bobby sighed and set him down on the floor.
“I think Shogo hates me.”
“No, you’re just stuck in a room with all his favourite people.” Laura laughed.
“Shogo! Come to mama!” Jubilee leaned down, reaching her arms out to scoop up the kid toddling across the room at lightspeed. She lifted him in the air, and dropped him onto the couch next to her.
“See? He hates me.” Bobby laughed.
“Your loss.” Laura smoothed down Shogo’s hair, smiling at the baby.
--
Nearly a week after their little ‘family dinner’, Daken was cornered in his own bedroom.
“Did you need something? Bobby?”
Bobby stepped back, tugging at the bottom of his shirt. “You reacted weirdly positively to my acquiring a baby joke and I need to know if you were joking or not cause I was only kind of joking-“
“Slow down, I have enhanced senses and even I can barely understand you, alright?”
“Were you actually not super against the idea of acquiring a baby? I get it if you were just kidding, it’s fine, but.”
Daken frowned. “You. Want children? I’ve never seen you around them.”
“I mean, kinda a lot?” Bobby scratched his arm. “Ever since I was little, I’ve wanted to, but it’s never really come up naturally that I had a chance. Jubilee asked little me to babysit once, I think? And that was pretty much it, and you never really even met little me without extreme violence.”
“But you do want children?”
“Yeah. I mean, I’m not saying I want to have a kid with you on the spot-“
Daken blinked.“You’re lying.”
“Yeah, but you don’t just say it like that! You’re supposed to have conversations and clarify feelings and shit, I was trying to do it properly.”
He blinked. “Part of you really just wanted me to bed you right here and now and try kickstarting the process, didn’t you?”
Bobby cringed. “Ok, stop knowing me and using it to bully me, it’s getting weird.”
“I’m good at reading people and you have no transparency, what do you expect?”
“Just. What do you think?”
“I’m not. Opposed.” Daken exhaled. “Not instantly, but in the future, I’m not saying no.”
“In the future. We definitely couldn’t handle it right now, we’re on separate teams, we’re so busy, I just wanted to talk and see. I don’t want to get my hopes up because we never talked about it.” Bobby took Daken’s hand, feeling the warm skin under his.
“Yeah.”