The bathroom of their base was thick with steam, carrying the scent of lavender soap and the sound of a five-year-old's laughter echoing off stone walls.
Domino wrapped Luv in a fluffy towel that practically swallowed his small frame, lifting him out of the tub with ease. Water dripped from his brown hair, plastering it to his forehead that made him look impossibly vulnerable.
"Alright, kiddo, time to get dressed," Domino's voice carried maternal warmth she was still getting used to hearing from herself, rubbing the towel over his hair with gentleness that contradicted years of mercenary training.
Jay emerged from their bedroom with an armful of clothes, various shirts, pants and socks that they'd hastily grabbed from storage. Most were too big for backup outfits, but surely something would fit. He dumped the pile on the counter, fabric spilling across the stone surface in a cascade of colors and sizes.
"Okay, so we've got..." Jay paused mid-sentence while his hands sorted through the pile, his expression shifting from hopeful to resigned. "Actually, we've got nothing that'll fit him properly."
Domino's scarlet-tinted eyes gleamed with sudden inspiration. "Hold that thought."
Crimson strings materialized from her fingertips, her quantum manipulation made visible. They wrapped around one of Jay's old t-shirts, and the fabric began to shift at the molecular level, threads unweaving and reweaving themselves in new patterns, probability collapsing countless potential configurations into the single outcome she desired. The oversized shirt compressed, reshaped, and became a perfectly sized outfit for a five-year-old.
A simple blue shirt with a cartoon dinosaur on the front.
"There!" She held it up with pride that felt disproportionate to the simple act of reshaping fabric. "What do you think, sweetie?"
Luv's blue eyes went wide. "Whoa! That's so cool! Mom, you made the shirt small! How did you do that?"
"Magic," Domino winked while slipping the shirt over his head, and her hands smoothed the fabric across his small shoulders with instinctive care.
But then she paused, crimson strings still hovering around her fingers, and a mischievous smile crossed her face that Jay recognized immediately as trouble. "Actually, wait. Let's try a few options first."
What followed was pure chaos in the most cute way.
Domino's quantum strings danced through the air, transforming Luv's outfit again and again with the enthusiasm of someone discovering a new favorite game. A red shirt with a rocket ship became a green one with a smiling frog. Shorts morphed into overalls, then back to shorts, then to tiny jeans that made Luv look like a miniature hipster.
Jay pulled out his phone, snapping pictures with the enthusiasm of a parent discovering their child's first smile.
"Oh, this one's perfect," Jay said as Domino created a tiny leather jacket over a white t-shirt, and his phone's camera shutter sound clicked rapidly. "He looks like a baby biker. Do we have a tiny motorcycle somewhere?"
"Don't tempt me," Domino laughed, already shifting the outfit again. This time, a formal button-up shirt with a tiny bow tie appeared, complete with miniature dress shoes that materialized on Luv's feet.
"Ooh, fancy! Look at our sophisticated little man!" She grabbed her own phone, taking pictures from multiple angles with the focus of a professional photographer. "Luv, sweetie, can you turn around? Perfect! Now smile! Oh my God, Jay, look at how adorable he is!"
Luv stood patiently at first, enjoying the attention and the novelty of watching his clothes change like magic, his small hands touching the different fabrics with curiosity, patting the leather jacket, rubbing the soft cotton of the t-shirts, tugging at the bow tie with fascination. Each transformation drew gasps and giggles from him.
"This one's scratchy," he said about a wool sweater. "This one's soft!" about flannel. "This one's got buttons!" He tried to undo the button-up shirt, fingers fumbling with the small fasteners.
But as the minutes stretched and the outfits multiplied into double digits, a superhero costume with a cape that dragged on the floor, a tiny three-piece suit that made him look like a miniature businessman, pajamas with stars that glowed faintly in the dim bathroom light, his patience began wearing thin.
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The outfits kept changing with increasing speed as Jay and Domino got more competitive. A pirate shirt with an eye patch and a tiny plastic sword. A soccer jersey with the number five. Even a onesie with a hood that had bear ears, complete with a tail that Luv kept trying to catch.
Jay and Domino were completely absorbed, phones out, taking what had to be hundreds of pictures.
"Wait, wait, go back to the overalls," Jay insisted while scrolling through his phone to compare images. "Those were so adorable. Actually, can you add a tiny bandana? Make him look like he's about to go farm some crops?"
"No, the dinosaur shirt was better," Domino countered, strings already shifting the fabric again, her competitive streak emerging. "Classic, and the blue brings out his eyes. See? Perfect."
Luv's small face scrunched up with growing frustration. His shoulders sagged, and he started shifting his weight from foot to foot. His hands dropped to his sides, no longer reaching to touch each new outfit.
"Mom," he said quietly. Then louder. "Mom. Mommy!"
When neither adult responded, too busy debating the merits of a cowboy outfit versus a astronaut suit, his voice rose with the indignation only a five-year-old could muster.
"Stop it!" The words burst from him, loud enough to make both adults freeze mid-motion. "I don't wanna wear any more! You keep changing and changing and I'm cold and bored and my arms hurt from holding them up!"
His lower lip trembled dangerously while tears built at the corners of his blue eyes.
Jay and Domino exchanged guilty looks, phones lowering simultaneously.
"Oh, sweetie," Domino said while crouching to his level, her hands reaching out to steady his small shoulders. "I'm so sorry. We got carried away, didn't we?"
Jay knelt beside her with his phone hastily shoved into his pocket, his face showing sheepish regret. "Yeah, buddy, that's on us. We just... you looked so cute, and we couldn't help ourselves."
They both wore matching silly smiles of embarrassed but unrepentant expressions that only proud parents could pull off.
Luv sniffled, wiping his nose with the back of his hand, his small chest heaving with emotion he was trying to control. "You promise no more changing?"
"We promise," they said in unison.
Domino's quantum strings moved one final time, settling on a compromise that made Luv's face light up immediately. Black overalls with brass buckles over a shirt split perfectly down the middle, black on one side and white on the other, mirroring Domino's own coloring.
"There," she said softly while her hands smoothed the overalls into place. "How's this?"
Luv looked down at himself, small hands touching the fabric, then at Domino, then back at the outfit. His small face broke into a grin that could have powered the sun. "I look like you, Mom! We match!"
"You look like a million bucks," Jay said, ruffling his damp hair. "Now, how about we get you set up with some cartoons while Mom and Dad talk about boring grown-up stuff?"
"Cartoons!" Luv's earlier frustration evaporated instantly, replaced by pure excitement that made him bounce on his toes. "What are those? Are they tasty? Can we have some? Please, please, please?"
Jay lifted him easily, carrying him to the couch and setting him down with care, adjusting his position to make sure he was comfortable, grabbing a blanket and draping it over his lap with the fussiness of a new parent.
The TV flickered to life under Jay's technoforming, the familiar theme song of Tom and Jerry filling the cave.
"Alright, buddy, this is a cartoon. It's like... moving pictures that tell a story." Jay settled beside him briefly, pointing at the screen where Tom was already chasing Jerry through a kitchen. "See? The cat wants to catch the mouse, but the mouse is too clever. It's funny. And this one happens to be my favorite."
He grabbed the remote, making sure the volume was appropriate, then stood. "Mom and I need to talk about some important things, but we'll be right over there. You enjoy the show, okay? And when we're done, we'll all go outside and explore together.
Luv nodded enthusiastically, his eyes already glued to the screen where Tom was chasing Jerry through a kitchen. His small hands clutched the blanket, pulling it up to his chin while his legs kicked beneath it in unconscious excitement, and within seconds, he was completely absorbed, giggling at the cartoon violence with the uninhibited joy of childhood.
Jay straightened, exchanging a look with Domino. They moved to the kitchen area, far enough to have privacy but close enough to keep Luv in their line of sight.
Neither could help stealing glances at him every few seconds, watching his small form curled up on the couch, and his face lit up with each new scene. watching their son exist in their space and still barely believing it was real.
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