Fireproof

“It’s not like she’s going to remember this, right? Nobody gives a shit about what they get at this age – we’ll just make up some stories and tell her how good it was. She won’t know the difference.” Klaus was walking fast through the outskirts of the city. He was simultaneously pulling small toys out of his jacket and pant pockets. He had been wearing a larger jacket than was necessary for the weather for the express purpose of stealing these items.

Ben had his hands in his hoodie, walking next to his brother, “I haven’t said anything – You’ve just been arguing with yourself about this the whole time.”

Klaus stopped at a trash can and started ripping the tags off what he was able to lift from the
store which included a couple small Halloween stuffed animals, a new pacifier, a couple of plastic baby toys. The only thing he had bought was the box of diapers and either no one noticed the theft, or they were kind enough to let him just take them.

“We could edit some pictures! And we’ll make it up to her when she’ll actually give a shit – By that time maybe we won’t be living handy to handy – maybe I’ll have a sexy firefighting spouse to take care of me – one of them will have to accept my marriage proposal eventually, right?”

“Klaus, you’re late – I’m sure Glenn wants to go home. Focus.”

“We never had birthday parties growing up and we all turned out fine! Except for the whole trauma thing – and being unable to function as an adult thing… and the dead thing…”

To his credit, Klaus actually did speed up – bobbing and weaving expertly through the people, many of them already sporting Halloween costumes or pulling last minute decorations or bags of candy for the evening. He arrived at the fire station ten minutes later, the toys stuffed precariously under his arms. He went inside the office where usually they would be keeping Kenzie while they were babysitting her, he raised his arms out like he was going to announce something then his face fell as he realized that no one seemed to be around.

“That’s disconcerting.” He looked at Ben who only shrugged in response.

He dropped the toys he stole on the desk and poked around the corner, glancing around suspiciously.

“Relax – they probably just took her to the lecture area with them – check in there.”

Klaus moved through the station and the farther he explored the more alarmed he became as he found no one in the immediate area. Finally, as he came to the door to their usual meeting / update room they started hearing voices. He sped up and wrenched the door open.

He was met with the main team of firefighters that usually stay with Kenzie; they were sitting around in metal chairs. There was a table set up in the back with a large Halloween themed cake, bottles of soda and bags of ships. A small banner that said, “Happy Birthday, fireball!” hung from the edge of the table.

Around them were haphazardly covered boxes and items that were just hidden from sight. The team stopped what they were doing and look at Klaus and Ben in the doorway. Glenn Ryan, a large jovial man who would have made a great Santa Claus just with his beard and cheerful demeanor, was holding Kenzie on his lap.

He stood up and raised his free arm “There you are! We’ve been waiting for you to get here to start, man!” Kenzie sat comfortably in the crook of his arm looking ridiculously tiny against his large frame.

Klaus took a step backwards, suddenly at a loss for words – before he could properly respond Glenn pulled an arm around him and squished him against his side “If we had to wait any longer for cake I think Fireball was going to throw a fit.” He laughed, “And we all know she’s the only one here who can throw a bigger tantrum over food than me.”

Jessie Everett, a short woman with long blond hair and a personality 10 times her size – she jumped up and hopped over to Klaus – “It’s the fireball’s birthday, you didn’t actually think we weren’t going to do anything did you?”

“Listen – we get that all she’s going to care about is the cake – So we figured we’d just go all in on shit you guys actually needed.” Nova Brown, possibly the chilliest and most adaptive firefighter of the lot, with bright tattoo sleeves that went to his knuckles, grinned from his seat.

Klaus turned to his brother, “You bitch – you knew about this and you let me just –“

“And I enjoyed it, too.”

Kenzie was tucked safely in a fireproof blanket and handed over to her father – Klaus happily took her and kissed her cheek, “Seems like someone has got a bunch of firefighters wrapped around her little pinky.”

She cooed and babbled, she had yet to actually say her first words, but it wasn’t for a lack of trying. She was a pretty loud baby and she would copy vowels said around her and sometimes just yell nonsense into the air.

Jessie put her hands up, “Okay! We’re doing cake first then presents. We need to eat before a call comes in and we have to leave. Liev, can you get the candle ready to light?”

Liev Vaughn was a quiet career firefighter with a shaved head and a burn scar that covered their left arm. They jumped up dutifully with a quick salute and left the room through a back door. They came back a moment later with a “1” shaped birthday candle.

“Klaus, got a spare?” They asked, making a downward flicking motion with their thumb.

He rummaged in his pocket and pulled out a red lighter – he tossed it to Liev and they caught it smoothly. “Alright - let’s get this party started!”

“This is so sweet!” Klaus was pulled forward towards the table as everyone gathered around the cake.

The chief, who as always, had been standing in the back watching everything with a calculative and observing eye finally stepped forward. “Let's set her on the floor – the last time we lit up a candle she decided to copy it.”

They sat her down on Ben’s lap a few feet away from the table and Klaus settled down next to them, far enough away that he wasn’t in immediate danger if she went up in flames. She was completely enraptured by everything happening and her head was snapping back and forth as everyone got into position around her blanket. Her mouth hung open in confusion and she babbled nonsensically.

“Maybe we should just let her light her own candle – “ Nova suggested with a smirk.

“Okay, everyone get ready!” Jessie grabbed the candle and held it firmly in front of the baby while Liev got ready with the lighter.

Klaus kept his brother corporeal so that he could continue to hold her – she was grabbing onto his hand – tugging absently at his fingers and watching what they were doing.

Liev lit the candle and just a couple seconds after the wick caught Kenzie’s eyes went wide as the little flame danced. She giggled and erupted into a small ball of fire – everyone leaned backwards and waited for it to be over. As it had always been in the past, when she alights due to joy or from copying a flame – it tends to just peacefully flicker away and they are left with a normal baby.

Jessie nodded to Klaus and gave him the number one candle – he took it and brought it close to Kenzie. She reached for it and he handed it to her, keeping his hand just behind her wrist just in case she dropped it.

She looked between the little flame and Klaus, he nudged it closer “You gotta make a wish, pumpkin- pie.”

She brought the candle to her face and kissed the flame sweetly, making a little “muah!” sound as she did so. The fire sparked around her face then disappeared into a tiny trail of smoke.

She threw her head back to look at Ben for approval, he clapped, “What did you wish for?”

“Mmm.. Bah ka—Too!”

“A million- billion dollars!? That’s what I wished for too!” Klaus leaned over and tickled her belly.

“Happy birthday to you!
Happy birthday to you!
Happy birthday dear Fireball,
Happy birthday to you!”

Everyone clapped and cheered. Kenzie copied them with a squeal – she was loving all of this attention.

“Glenn, you couldn’t even wait till we were done with the song?”

“I bought it – you’re lucky I even left you people any.” Glenn said through a mouthful of cake.

The next several minutes were filled with people plating pieces of cake and getting everyone settled back into the half circle of chairs in the middle of the room. Klaus ended up settling in the middle with Kenzie on his lap as she attempted to eat a piece of cake. A solid 40% went into her mouth and the remaining 60% was just smashed against her face – Hand to mouth accuracy just wasn’t her strong suit yet.

Live and Jessie pulled up all of the items that had been covered in blankets and brought them to the forefront of the chairs. The chief sat down with a plate of cake and nudged Klaus, “Listen – If your brothers or sisters bought her any of this stuff first, just let us know and we’ll trade it for something else.”

Klaus shot a quick glance at his brother, “You’re too kind! And I wouldn’t worry about that - her aunts and uncles are just shit at buying presents- harkens back to the days dad would give us lumps of coal for christmas and tell us it was his heart.” He snorted as his own joke.

She stared at him, “Okay, well, I still don’t want to bully in on her actual family time - I didn’t know if they were having a party or not so…”

Klaus smiled at her, “They came over yesterday and spent time with her - you’re golden, chief! He lied through his teeth.

The department gave them a crib that would expand as she gets older, a small dresser, a very fancy bouncer and a toy box - all the things that Klaus just hadn’t been able to buy her even after they got into an apartment. As he read the card on the last item he could feel his chest constricting and a lump forming in his throat.

He looked around the room at the people who had not only helped secure their home and baby sat while he was working but they had actively supported them - they didn’t treat Kenzie any differently because of her abilities, in fact they showered her in praise for it.

Thankfully Glenn pulled him in for another good natured hug before he could do anything stupid like cry. An alarm went off and everyone got up, they patted Klaus on the back and gave Kenzie soft high fives as they jumped into action leaving only the chief behind, she stood up “I haven’t given her my present yet.”

She left for a moment then came back with a firefighter helmet, bright yellow with red straps. She placed the hat on Kenzie’s head and it just dwarfed her, coming nearly her entire face. She laughed, using her hands to push it up above her eyes.

As Klaus and Ben were watching her fondly, the Chief snapped a photo of the little family. “She’ll grow into it.” She said and shoved her phone back into her pocket.

She reached out her hand and Klaus stood and shook it, “She could be the greatest fire fighter in the world some day - might as well start her early.” There was a soft smile on her face that Klaus couldn’t quite place.

When she took her hand away there was a piece of paper left in Klaus’ palm. He looked at it- it was a check for 1000$. She had already walked away. He whined and quickly wiped his face.

“What is that?” Ben asked.

But Klaus was already following her out into the next room, “Chief - Chief!”

She turned, “What’s up, Hargreeves?”

Klaus looked at the check one more time before folding it and shoving it into his pocket. Alvarez was already uncomfortable being in the spotlight - this would only make her uncomfortable.

He sniffled, “I don’t know how I’m going to get all this stuff home - I’m such a weak-” His voice lowered dramatically, “Weak man - I could really use someone… Maybe, I don’t know, a strong firefighter to help me?” He fluttered his eyelashes.

“I’ll help you as long as you never do that again.” She smirked “I was already going to take you home - we can load it all up in the truck.”

Klaus clapped, “Yay! Another ride in the lesbian mobile!”

She rolled her eyes then helped - did most of the heavy lifting to load everything into the back of her blue Ram truck. Finally everything was strapped down and protected, Kenzie and her uncle Ben were settled in the back of the cab.

“The height of this beast is a little excessive- I might need to be lifted into it…” Klaus leaned against the side of the vehicle.

“You can levitate.”

He pouted, “It’s not the same.”

Once they were all inside the truck and beginning to drive back home, Klaus turned in his seat to look at his daughter. She was tuckered out, staring straight ahead with a bloated expression on her face with bits of orange icing staining around her mouth.

He pulled out the small stuffed bat that he stole earlier that day and handed it to her - she made a tired sound but grabbed it nonetheless and immediately brought it to her mouth. She inspected it, squishing it around in her hands before hugging it to her belly. “Happy birthday, tiny demon.”

When he turned back around, Chief Alvarez flashed him a proud wink.