The freak is looking at him, the freak is totally staring at him, but Richard couldn't care less because

Holy shit

What has he done?

The smile that braces his lips when the living, moving thing in his arms beams at him is completely out of his control. Richard knows he's saying something underneath his breath but he can't grasp his own words, his calm demeanor hiding his inner panic because

Holy shit

That's his baby

With Danny

He wished to have a baby with the fucking freak.

*

The school's 'Wishbaby Protocol' proves to be more tedious in practice than in theory, as it equally proves to be quicker than imagined. Principal is informed, diaper is acquired by dubious means, guardians are told of their kid's mistake via phone, and before they know it, Richard and Daniel are in a ban being taken to the nearest hospital. Richard's eyes never come off the baby until they get to their destination.

"Is she supposed to be this..."

"Loud?"

"I was going to say big, but that too"

The middle-age woman laughs, her eyes crinkling in the corners as she does, a lock of her escapes the captivity of her tight bun and she puts it behind her ear. Daniel wonders if its possible to hear a British accent when the person isn't even talking.

"Oh, yes darling. It is quite normal for a newly-wished to be as big as a two month old, hence her ability to smile and amount of hair," the woman calmly explains, raising her voice a little so she can be heard amongst the cries of a really mad baby.

Those who dare immunize her must suffer, that's what Daniel thinks the little proven-to-be demon is thinking. A normal human can't scream that high, surely. Dr. Kilton, however, thinks is marvelous that the child is as healthy as it appears to be in the test results. Her positive yet realistic way of thinking will be what make her and Daniel long time acquaintances.

They don't know that yet, though. And as Dr. Kilton, sitting on her office chair, rolls to the side of the rigid pole that is Richard Davis— with a baby in a diaper of unknown origins pressed to his chest— Daniel gets the faintest thought that having known her for merely an hour is enough to like her. He thinks that with people like Dr. Kilton guiding him, this won't be so bad.

As the older woman shows Richard how to sooth a baby, because clearly his amateur rigidness isn't cutting it, Daniel surveys the room. Which, as expected, is like any other doctor's office; white, and clean and with a smell of alcohol and baby powder. On the walls, in an attempt at making the atmosphere less intimidating to children, there are stickers of cartoons in random locations, and accompanying them are posters, which are what catch Daniel's attention in the first place.

Frozen, smiling faces stare back at him, phrases like: Be careful what you wish for and When want materializes into reality, responsibility comes along too making their way into his retinas. Daniel looks away. It's like the words are haunting him, mocking him in his current predicament. Daniel always thought himself to be smart, and things like the 'Anti teenage wishing' movement and their ideals were something he thought to be self explanatory. Teenagers plus baby equals bad. Who wouldn't get that? Why are wishbabies so common amongst the youth? Whatever the reason is, it is a fact that most wishbabies end up in the system, there comes responsibility with raising a child, teenagers clearly don't have that. Thus, Daniel always considered those who found themselves with kids at a young age stupid, just take your suppressants and don't have unprotected sex, easy enough. But here he is, unplanned baby on tow, not even eighteen yet.

Daniel sees milky hands caressing white dotted light brown skin, in circles and circles thumbs rub on the baby's back. Richard is back at looking more like a human than a painting brush left on the sun to dry, and the baby seems to be calming down because of the motion, all thanks to Dr. Kilton of course. Richard wouldn't know what to do were he be left alone to his own devices, it's like he feels any movement would break the baby, needing Dr. Kilton's guidance on how to even stroke it.

Who would dare to hurt an angel?

Daniel would have done it himself, but when the doctor suggested one of them to take off their shirt and place the baby against their chest because the body warmth soothes them, he couldn't deny Richard the privilege. The boy had been behaving ever since the whole thing started and Daniel had been the one to hold her during the ride to the hospital, it was only fair. He wasn't expecting this much of Richard in the first place.

What even is his life anymore?

This morning he'd been having a perfectly normal day, having mash potatoes tossed all over his unsuspecting person, and now he's staring at fucking Richard Davis (the tosser to begin with) being all nice and gentle with their baby. A human combination of the two. Because one of them wished to have it with the other.

Daniel tries to stop thinking after that.

When the alarming cries subside into small sobs, Dr. Kilton is back at her desk murmuring something about being tired of seeing babies wishing for babies.

"We're seventeen, barely babies anymore," Richard notes, his usual bite back from wherever it went since the baby decided to appear. Daniel feels relieved, not because he likes the mocking tone Richard's words often take but because he wouldn't have known how to deal with the nice, gentle version of him. Now Daniel is back to familiar ground— not like they talked at all since they got out of that classroom though.

Dr. Kilton only hums, acknowledging Richard's comment but not responding to it. The 'tell me that when you can hold her properly' remains unsaid.

"So, what should we know?" Daniel asks when the silence, only broken by the little clicks of Dr. Kilton's keyboard, prolongs. The baby is fast asleep by now and the trail of saliva its leaving on Richard's naked chest can't be called anything but endearing.

Daniel's voice is entirely steady and composed, not betraying how utterly terrified he is of what the answer to that question might be. He knew, from the moment he saw her, that there had to be something wrong with her. Her eyes, her hair, her skin. Of course it could all be the vitiligo, it more likely was, but what if it wasn't? What if he lost her before he even got the chance to know her?

The older woman doesn't lift her gaze from her computer as she answers Daniel's question with another question, "What do you want to know?"

"Everything"

After a beat, she finally turns away from the screen. She considers Richard and then Daniel as she leans back on her chair. "Well gentlemen, one of you actively wished for a child with the other, while the other actively or passively wished for it as well. You made eye contact and that's how we get that blessing over there," she indicates towards the drooling baby sleeping on Richard with a pen she hasn't been using.

Daniel ignores the unnecessary lesson (everyone knows where babies come from for god's sake) and the implications of it— that's something he'll have to think about in the future, he doesn't have the brain power for it now. "And the second part, is she healthy?"

"Completely so, which is fascinating considering all of her mutations"

Daniel lets out a breath he didn't know he had been holding and continues to inquire about everything that distresses him; the baby's red hair, her different color eyes. Richard tunes out after that, it's not like he doesn't know the answer to that already, the only thing he needs is to know that his daughter is healthy. Suddenly, he remembers something, and interrupts Daniel's deep conversation with the pediatrician as he carefully hands him the child. He puts on his shirt, not minding to clean the wet spot on his chest, and quickly makes his way outside with a I'll be right back. Don't leave.

Daniel is startled, not only because this is the first time Richard has talked to him since the baby got here, but because of how much emphasis the boy puts on the don't leave. He would have thought Richard would leave and not come back, he would have thought Richard would abandon the baby, weren't it for the desperate expression he makes when saying that. So Daniel does as told, he doesn't leave as he cradles the sleeping baby all through his conversation with Dr. Kilton, and he doesn't leave as he gets out of her office and makes his way to the waiting area. To wait, because it's been twenty minutes and Richard is nowhere in sight, and the baby woke up ten minutes ago and its in a bit of a cranky mood. Daniel doesn't known what to do.