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Daiki will call it coincidence. He has no secret fatherly instincts about it. In fact, when he curiously decides to nominate the boy, he isn’t thinking about his son.
(He was. The name did not surprise him, his partner said it all the time. His silly Michinaga with no dreams and a temper who always followed into trouble but never made it better. His rock. Michinaga is not ambitious like his fathers until he has to be, but Daiki sees the horror morphing to righteous fury on the night Imai Tooru died and recognizes it.)
If he thinks back to why he gave Michinaga up, it came down to two things - Daiki is eternally too obsessed with Tsukasa, and Daiki could practically feel the pull of destiny on Tsukasa’s child. He didn’t want Michinaga to be destined . Destiny, he’s found, is just a curse you have to break to get your treasure.
Of course, Daiki should have known better, writing that same boy’s name down as a nomination, looking on curiously as the Producer clicks purple - like Michinaga’s hair - clicks Buffalo.
Zombie was randomized, but oh so fitting. Daiki will laugh when he realizes the undying of Zombie and the plants and promises of Jyamato tie him perfectly to Yuusuke and Natsumi, too.
He will lie to himself up until he sees the roots of Michinaga’s hair, and Beroba laughs and says Michinaga has destruction in his veins , isn’t that cute? And he can’t deny it, and it destroys him, and he doesn’t–
The thing about Michinaga’s birth is it was an egg, and Daiki hadn’t touched Tsukasa in months, quite frankly had broken up with him even before that first superhero war, but it wasn’t that much closer than a run-in with a phantom. A dark, destructive alternate version of Tsukasa who Daiki let sweep him away for a time. And oh, he’d almost forgotten the way Great Leader had wanted him, needed him… but owned him.
Tsukasa, and Yuusuke, and Natsumi had dragged him back. It was the first time Tsukasa ever said I love you .
It wasn’t enough.
Great Leader called him my Kaitou like he was property. Tsukasa called him Kaitou like an insult. Daiki loves and hates them both in different ways, even now. Even now that Tsukasa is trying…
But Daiki has never told Tsukasa about Michinaga.
Never told him he threw away the treasure they gave him out of fear, but doomed him anyways.
“Surprised?” Beroba asks. Daiki glares, gun still trained on her.
“What makes you think I care about a treasure I threw away?” Daiki asks.
“Whatever you say,” Beroba says. “But he’s mine, now.”
“He’s no one’s Daiki growls, and he doesn’t think he’s talking to this sadistic Kamen Rider lover in magenta.
He keeps watching. He watches it back. He realizes Geats looked at Michinaga like Tsukasa looks at Yuusuke, like a light he can cling to, can nurture, can save and trust and all the things Kaitou Daiki cannot be –
He realizes he can’t lie to himself, and when he goes home, he jerks from Tsukasa’s touch and Looks at nothing and feels outside of his body.
Michinaga keeps fighting.
When he does break, Yuusuke sighs in relief.
“Oh, a secret child,” He says “That I can handle. I was worried it was something dangerous.”
“I think the son I abandoned being a toy of the freaks giving Natsumelon headaches is pretty dangerous.”
“Do you think we should step in?” Yuusuke asks.
“No!” Daiki says. “Yes! I don’t know .”
He wants to leave this conversation and run, he wants to shut Yuusuke up with a kiss and cling to him like he can finally consume the good out of him and fix things.
He does neither. Yuusuke hugs him.
“I left him to get him away from the fate of Riders,” Daiki says. “And shouldn’t you be mad about that? You’re the one of us who wants kids the most!”
“I wasn’t there,” Yuusuke says. “When you made that choice. And from what I know, you were in no place to be a father, either.”
“…I really wasn’t,” Daiki says.
“So, wait and watch you and Tsukasa’s son?” Yuusuke asks.
Daiki nods.
“And does Tsukasa know?”
“…yeah, he figured it out.”
Yuusuke laughs.
Daiki smiles.
It’s too late to go back, but it’s possible to go forwards.