Chapter Text
Birthdays are complicated when you’re a guardian.
Is your resurrection even your ‘birth’? Does it really matter if you are essentially immortal? At what point do you keep celebrating your birthdays if they will just come infinitely.
Willow had been questioning the issue ever since the young titan was enrolled into high school at the insistence of Shaw and even Zavala. Her classmates had birthdays, they had whole parties and received gifts and congratulations. Sometimes she was even invited to them.
The only times Willow had gotten gifts from people - other than her fireteam - was during the dawning. None of the older guardians in her life celebrated their resurrection day. Dione and Avil celebrated their anniversary but that isn’t the same as a birthday. Shaw and her went to that clearing in the Cosmodrome and clean up the two graves there each year, but that was far from a birthday.
It seemed it didn’t matter for most guardians, maybe they didn’t even think about it. Willow hadn’t though about it until now.
When somebody in her class had asked Willow when her birthday was a few weeks ago she couldn’t even answer. Now she could not stop thinking about it.
Would her birthday be the day she was resurrected? By definition it should be the day someone actually gave birth to her - but she's not allowed to search for that information.
Asking around had not been super helpful either.
Cobalt had just laughed at her for a very long time before simply saying: 'I've been around too long to care enough about still keeping track.' - as if that cleared anything up about what would qualify as a birthday. All that told her that the exo was more of an old man than she already thought he was.
Oleander had tried to be helpful but it boiled down to 'that would probably be the resurrection date'. He didn't celebrate his birthday either.
The only people she knew who were aware of both their resurrection day and their actual birthday had somehow been even less help
Hawk had just kind of shrugged and said she and her ghost spend the day she was resurrected together. Sometimes they would exchange gifts - but it had never exactly been a birthday. And ever since Reana came back into her life her younger sister would give her a gift on the day Evelon had been born - but it wasn't much of a party either.
Crow hadn't been any help because talking to him about his pre-guardian life makes him look kind of uncomfortable at the teenager and it makes Willow nervous. So she had not even asked.
She could just make up a date she supposed, or maybe actually take her resurrection date and just invite her classmates?
It felt like that would that be weird for some reason - no guardian she knows celebrates a birthday. It's not something they think about, or maybe they stopped thinking about it. There is no real party - especially not like the birthday parties she has been to since starting school.
Yes, it would be weird. She deduced.
That didn't solve her conundrum.
"If you keep making that face it'll stay stuck like that." Shaw's voice startled Willow out of her thoughts. She absolutely did not flail and hit her knee against the underside of the coffee table she was sitting at.
"That's not a real thing." Willow replied with a frown as she rubbed the stinging knee.
The hunter grinned at her as he made his way over with two cups of tea. "How would you know?" he said like a smart-ass before sitting down on the couch behind Willow, gently placing one of the mugs in front of her.
Willow didn't bother to dignify that with a reply but took the mug anyway, blowing the steam away to get it to cool down.
Father and daughter sat in a moment of companionable quiet before Shaw spoke again, "You weren't thinking about those math problems at all, were you?"
She glanced down at the homework in front of her that had been a cushion for her head only moments ago. No, she had forgotten she had sat down to do these at all. Willow shrugged as an answer.
Shaw made that kind of 'hrm' sound that meant he was waiting for her to actually talk about her feelings like a mature person. Knowing from experience that her dad was (surprisingly) the most stubborn one out of the two of them she sighed and let up. These thoughts weren't much of a secret anyway - just embarrassing.
"We've know each other for three years now," a statement, not a question.
"Yeess?" Shaw dragged the word out with a tilt of his head.
"How...how long have you been a guardian?" Willow turned around properly to ask, shuffling around on the floor until to face Shaw.
His cheeks puffed as he let out a deep breath, wrinkles forming on his brow with the way they scrunched in thought. He looked young - lots of guardians did - but like this, mug in hand and with his face reflecting how deep in thought he was, Shaw looked a lot more like the age of her classmates dads. After a moment of consideration he shrugged. "I don't know Will, it's been a while."
Willow had expected as much, but the next question was more important anyway. "Have you ever celebrated your resurrection day?"
Shaw stared at her confused at the question - or maybe he was trying to figure something out because that little wrinkle on his brow was still there. It seemed whatever it was he had come to a conclusion because the wrinkle smoothed out with the rest of his face into a completely neutral expression. That always made Willow nervous, because then it could be anything.
"Do you want to celebrate your resurrection day?" Shaw asked instead of answering. And yeah of course the perceptive asshole had figured her out - the only person aside from her ghost that was capable of unravelling the ball of yarn that was her thoughts and feelings with only a slight tug of the string.
Feeling her cheeks heat up she grumbled and turned away, hiding her face in the mug of now lukewarm tea. Shaw didn't let her hide away this time though, hand coming to rest on her shoulder with a short squeeze. "Hey, it's a normal thing to want," the hand pulled her backwards until her back hit Shaw's legs. "It won't be for another few months but we can celebrate your 3rd year, invite friends and family - some classmates too." Shaw began to cart his fingers trough Willow's black hair trying to soothe.
Head falling down onto the knees behind her she looked at Shaw and smiled. "I'd like that."
"Then prepare to have your socks blown off by the best birthday of all time!"