Author's Note: I am so glad Mila is getting such a positive reception. She had been in the works for a long time but I was playing around with age and type of bird quirk. A bluebird seemed appropriate given they sing a lot.

Chapter 45 - New Family Member

Mila was staring out the car window with wide eyes. Her wings were flat against the back seat of Soji's Tesla. Azumi was sitting in the front seat, glancing back occasionally as she asked about dinner ideas. Keigo was flying ahead of the car, too excited to be confined in the car again. As the young, almost 5 year old, little girl kept looking out the window, she seemed to whistle at things and ask about her new home, any chores she had, would she go to daycare and more.

They had decided after their family meeting, and because the house inspection was already done, to take Mila home immediately. They had everything at the house already, and could buy anything else they needed later that day. Keigo had landed in front of the building, his glasses up on his forehead and his red headphones around his neck as he grinned seeing Soji park the car. Azumi stepped out and offered Mila a hand, which the little girl took, and everyone walked up to Keigo. He smiled and crouched down as his wings seemed to be settling from the flight.

"Welcome home little sis." He smirked as the white haired girl hid behind Azumi a little bit and chirped as she looked at him with wide blue eyes. They went inside, up the elevator and into the apartment, making sure to show Mila where the shoes and coats went. Once in the living room, the tiny girl slowly walked around, wings flapping slowly, getting used to the space and movement. Soji pulled the blinds up for her so she could see out the balcony doors before he moved to put the adoption paperwork away with Keigo's. Azumi pointed out they never lock the balcony doors as a rule and that Mila would be responsible for picking up her feathers in the house. Keigo couldn't take his eyes off of her. The more he watched, the more protective he felt, like a warm piece of himself fitting into place that he hadn't realized he was missing.

Mila stopped walking around, standing in front of Keigo as she looked up at him. The teenager crouched down to be at her level as she chirped curiously. Keigo smiled softly and chirped in return, pointing to Soji and Azumi before speaking. "That's dad, that's mom and I'm your big brother. Nii chan." She nodded and took his hand smiling brightly. "Can we play a game Nii chan?" Azumi looked at Soji as he grinned walking over to them.

"I think that is a fantastic idea. Keigo, how about you and Mila stay here and get her settled. Your mother and I will run and grab a few things that we need and then when we come back we can all do something as a family." Mila looked at Keigo as he nodded, still crouched down. "Sure. I can babysit." When Azumi went to put her coat back on, Mila ran over to hug her, then hugged Soji. "I will be good for Nii chan. I promise!" Soji laughed. "If a 17 year old hero in training can't take care of a 4 year old then I would be really worried about that hero exam you're going to have coming up, Keigo." Keigo stuck his tongue out as Azumi and Soji laughed, then slipped back out the door to the store.

Folding his arms, Keigo moved to sit on the sofa, Mila running behind him as the adults left the apartment and Keigo pulled out his phone. Mila leaned over his arm to look at his messages and Keigo got a great idea. "Hey Mila, want to take a picture with me? I want to show my friends my new little sister." Mila's head tited curiously. "Ok Nii chan!" Keigo grinned and moved to lean close, the phone held at arm's length as he smiled and threw up a peace sign. When she saw him do it, Mila held up both her pointer fingers together like a V and grinned. Keigo laughed and showed her how to make a V with one hand.

"There. It means peace. You use it to let someone know you care about them from afar." Keigo sent his text and picture message as Mila looked at her hand. "I don't have anyone who is far away." Keigo looked at her. "What about the other kids at the orphanage? Aren't you going to want to see them occasionally or say hi? I'm sure mom and dad would let you." Mila looked at her hand, quiet before she clasped her hands together. "They don't like me." Keigo frowned. "Not even one of them?" She shook her head no. "I made too many noises they didn't like." Keigo frowned and looked thoughtful as he reached out to poke her nose.

"Hey." Mila looked up at him as he smiled brightly. "I understand your noises. When I was about your age and first started living with Azumi, she told me it's ok to make bird noises. Mom and dad have never had any problem with quirk. Not the noises, not my eyes, not my feet. So even if you don't have friends back there, you'll make friends here, and mom and dad will be the best parents you could ask for because they understand and will do what they can to understand. Ok?" Mila smiled wide and chirped, eyes closed as she jumped on him to give him a hug. Laughing, he hugged her close and held up his phone again.

"Sibling selfie!" She beamed and he held her close before she reached out for his phone. He let her take it, laughing as she tilted the screen back and forth on the selfie screen. Handing it back to him, he hopped up off the sofa and headed to the kitchen to get a snack. Mila followed him like a baby bird, her eyes wide and curious about everything as he sliced up some fruit for them both. They were sitting at the kitchen table when she spoke between bites.

"Do you have lots of friends, Nii chan?" Keigo thought about that and shrugged. "I have a few. Jin, Dabi and Sasha are the ones that come to mind the most." She hopped in her seat smiling. "Can I see?" He hesitated, eyes on her. He had pictures of everyone on his phone, but Dabi had scars and sutures all over his face now, and he didn't want her to be scared of him. That's just what he needed, was her to have nightmares her first night here."Maybe later when mom and dad are here so you don't get scared."

"I won't get scared! Promise!" She pouted and offered her plate with a few pieces of fruit. "I'll give you the rest of my fruit." He blinked and leaned back in surprise. "What? No! You don't have to do that. You should eat that, you're too skinny as it is." She whined and stared at him, a whistle mixed into the whine. "Please?" He knew those eyes were going to be trouble as he groaned and opened his phone up, flipping through photos. "Here, this is Sasha. She helps fashion and stuff for my hero work." He started with the selfie of him and Sasha, Mila tilting her head to the side. He flipped to another of him and Jin both biting into the same large slice of pizza.

"This is Jin, he's my oldest friend. The first one I made when I started living with Azumi." Mila's head tilted the other way as she looked intently at the picture. Hesitating, he swiped to a picture of him and Dabi and showed her. Mila blinked at the picture a moment and then smiled wide at him. "We have the same eyes!" Keigo blinked at her in surprise before he started to laugh hard. "Oh my god, he's going to have a field day when he hears that!" He kept laughing as he typed out a message, noticing she was laughing as well seeing him happy about what she said. Keigo leaned his chin on his hand and grinned as he watched her finish her fruit.

This was going to be a lot of fun.

/

Dabi was walking out of the bar in a back alley of Hosu City when his phone chimed. He had been at a meeting with Stain and other underground quirk users that believed in his ideals. Since leaving Fukuoka, Dabi had started following Stain and working with a small group of vigilantes that did small demonstrations about hero society and the changes that needed to be made. Stain believed there were major problems with heroes that were following the HPSC and its procedures, making money as heroes and only doing what they did because it was a job not because people needed it.

Dabi, as a child of a hero that Stain repeatedly called false, understood this moral and clung to it. He kept in touch with Jin because Jin's agency that he interned at was nearby. He also received messages regularly from Keigo, keeping in touch as much as he could. He didn't send text replies because he feared being tracked by the Commission, but he always read them and saved pictures. He sent a few pictures back, nothing that could show where he was or anyone around him. Sometimes he sent them through Jin.

Dabi leaned on the bricks in the alley as he opened his phone and blinked, eyes widening as he saw Keigo grinning with a little girl in his lap. She looked adorable, there was no other word for it. He squinted as he brought the phone to his nose and saw blue wings poking out from where Keigo was holding her. They looked happy, close already. He knew Aunt Zumi and Uncle Soji were looking to adopt. They were perfect parents as far as Dabi was concerned. Something in him stirred when he saw the way Keigo was smiling at the camera, eyes half open but relaxed.

The next picture that followed while he held the phone was both of them with their hands on their heads making deer antlers as they stuck out their tongues. Followed by a message.

'Showed Mila your picture. She says you two have the same eyes. Can't wait for you to meet her.'

Dabi was smiling as he closed the phone. Leave it to Keigo to introduce his ugly scarred face to a little girl. He couldn't believe she said nothing about his scars but it was wishful thinking. He continued his walk down the alley towards his apartment. Stain was going to start taking his ideals into action, and Dabi was excited to start following him across Japan. Keigo would be taking his hero license exam soon and then doing hero work. Jin had mentioned he was going to try and visit again for a relaxing time some time soon. Maybe Dabi could go with.

Another chime on his phone caused Dabi to check. This time the picture was just Keigo. He had a soft smile on his face, eyes looking right into the camera and one hand on his chin. Dabi stared at the picture, pausing from his walking as he saved it to his phone. He missed Keigo, and never got to tell him what he wanted to last time they were on the roof. That reminded him he needed to incinerate whoever bust through the door and interrupted them.

/

Jin was crouched on a rooftop scanning the streets with his goggles down. He was listening to the police ban, and his hero that he interned for was also on patrol. He had gotten some texts earlier about Keigo's new little sister, and then Dabi had asked if he'd seen them, which he had to reply to. He figured it was slow enough, he was about to reply to Keigo when his intercom went off. It was the hero he interned for, Molten Arms. Able to turn his arms into molten lava on command

"This is Molten Arms! There's a villain with a gun who opened fire on a crowd. Black hair and white jacket. He disappeared in the alleys. Get me his location, Echo!" Echo took off after confirming the description and began zig-zagging through the air as his echolocation went off. His night vision goggles were flipped to heat signature so he could see which alleys to focus his search on. He spotted his subject and was about to call it when the guy disappeared. Taking a moment, he reappeared in another alley, as if he teleported through the building. Echo frowned and kept above him as best as he could.

"Echo to Molten Armth. Doeth thith guy have a teleport quirk you didn't warn me about?" Another one of the sidekicks under Molten Arms, a girl named Granite who was able to harden her skin to resist even lava flowing over it, spoke over the radio. "We just got his information. Yoshimu Togetsu, age 23. Able to phase through objects at will." Echo rolled his eyes and darted left to keep on him. "Great, well he'th running through buildingth parallel to the main thtreet." Molten Arms must have been running because he sounded winded and Echo could see a huge thermal detection in the edge of his vision.

"See if you can herd him towards the main street or out of the alleyways. I'll move to intercept." Echo banked back to the right and landed on a rooftop, peering down at the alley where he predicted the guy was going to come out. Taking a deep breath he had just enough time to get ready before the gun wielding villain popped out. Once he saw the target. He let loose a sonic blast that hit the guy so hard, he stumbled and slammed into the brick of the building in front of him and crumpled to the ground. Echo winced at the impact, having heard it from the roof as he radioed.

"Thubject ith down in the alleyway before Brook Threey acroth from the Creamery." He hopped into the alley and saw the gun on the ground. Shooting a quick snap of air at it, he made sure it was too far for the guy to get to before he creeped forward, handcuffs out. He wasn't going to try anything until backup arrived, but the guy wasn't moving, which was concerning. Had he hit him that hard before he hit the wall? Or was he just running that fast?

He crept forward pulling his mask up over his mouth speaking as clearly as he could through the vocalizer. "Don't move. You are under arrest. Stay down and keep your hands clear." He heard Molten yelling over the intercom. "Do not engage! He had multiple guns!" Echo blinked and started to leap back as he realized the man was already moving to close the distance. His last thoughts, as he saw a large round barrel in his face followed by a large white explosion, was why he was never trained to deal with villains that used guns.