Forever & Always

CHAPTER TWENTY THREE

Shoto grunted when he heard Hikari's cries in the middle of the night-- it had been a while since their bundle woke them up in the middle of the night.

Cracking one tired eye open, Shoto willed his body to get up from bed-- gently as to not wake a very exhausted Izuku up-- and walked down to Hikari's crib where his baby girl cried her eyes out.

"Hush, Hikari..." Shoto cooed as he bent over to pick her up. "Are you hungry? Mommy's asleep so you'll have to wait for me to reheat your milk,"

But Hikari continued to wail in discomfort that sounded wrong to her father's ears.

"What's wrong, sweetheart?" Shoto asked but was surprised when he felt his daughter warmer than usual as soon as he picked her up.

Hikari gripped her father's shirt as she continued to cry, burrying her wet face at the crook of his father's neck-- demanding Shoto to take the feeling of discomfort away so she could get back to sleep.

"I-Izu... Izuku, baby..." Shoto called, shaking Izuku gently that woke the omega up.

"W-what's wrong?" Izuku groggily asked, before his eyes snapped open and he realized his daughter was crying. "What is it? Is she hungry?"

"I don't know," Shoto said before he pursed his lips. "B-but... Hikari, she... she's warmer than usual,"

That woke Izuku up.

"What? What do you mean, warmer?" Izuku said as he sprung out of bed and took Hikari out of Shoto's grasp before gasping at how hot his daughter's skin felt against his. "W-what... why is she... S-Sho..."

"Calm down, calm down," Shoto said, wrapping his mate and daughter around his arms comfortingly. "I'll go wake mom and Inko-san up, okay?"

Izuku stiffly nodded as he gently rocked his daughter while Shoto weny out to wake Rei and Inko. In no time, both grandmothers were up and ready to check their granddaughter.

"What's wrong, Izu?" Inko asked gently as she watched his son rock her daughter in attempt to stop her from crying, all the while attempting to stop the tears that were forming in his eyes.

"M-mom, I... Hikari was crying a-and... she felt warmer than usual, I-I'm scared..." Izuku struggled to keep his composure, Hikari picking up his stress and cried some more.

"Izuku, why don't you let me take Hikari for a while..." Rei said as she gently reached up for Hikari but Izuku, upon seeing this, tightened his hold on his daughter.

"It's okay, Izuku..." Inko said, seeing how her son backed away. "We have to check Hikari's temperature, okay?"

"O-okay..." Izuku answered before he let Rei take his daughter while Inko rushed out to grab a thermometer.

"Come here," Shoto whispered as he wrapped Izuku in a hug to calm him down. "She'll be fine... you can't let her see you crying or she'd get more upset,"

"B-but--"

"What's going on?" Enji asked, who seem to have been woken up from Hikari's cries.

"Hikari's got a slight fever," Rei answered as she rocked her granddaughter to calm her down. "Inko-san's gone down to get a thermometer so we can check her temperature,"

"I-is there anything I can do to help?" Enji asked as he awkwardly stood by the door.

"Can you go get a basin with warm water and a towel?" Rei said with a gentle smile. "The one you usually make when Shoto got sick one time when he was four,"

Enji smiled a bit at the memory before he nodded and went to the kitchen to prepare the things his ex-wife requested.

"R-Rei-san... do we need to call Koushi? Do we have to bring Hikari to the hospital?" Izuku asked worriedly as he looked pitifully at his crying daughter.