Archive of Our Own ^beta

As a 6 year old, Catherine knows quite a bit. She’s observant, imaginative, and intelligent. At least, these are all the things her daddy has told her.

And Catherine loves him more than anybody else in the world.

Ever since she could remember, her father was always there. Kazuhira, or Benedict as he introduces himself to others, Miller is a doting and loving stay-at-home father. 

He cooks, he cleans, he makes sure Catherine gets to school on time and picks her up afterwards. Miller knows Catherine’s favorite meal is ravioli with his homemade sauce and her favorite subject in school is science.

He helps her with her homework, and offers as many additional lessons as he can about everyday life. Miller is aware she struggles with math and is good at helping her with that, and teaches her Japanese and works on her Spanish with her she mostly learned from Mommy. He knows she loves to learn about wildlife and wants to learn how to fish.

He teaches her how to take care of the dogs. Miller has two of them, a really big dog the size of a wolf, and a golden retriever, Goldie, and knows Catherine loves to play with them and give them baths. The big one, DD, sleeps outside of Catherine’s bedroom at night, as if to protect her from any harm.

He plays monsters and dolls with her, and watches her favorite movies while snuggled on the couch together. Miller knows which monsters are Catherine’s favorite and which dolls to take extra care of when they’re playing. He helps brush their hair out afterwards.

He makes sure her baths are warm and full of bubbles. Miller places her favorite toys to play with in the tub, and reminds her to spell words for Daddy to look at when she’s done with her bath.

He brushes her long, dark brown hair out after bath time, and braids her hair. Miller learns many different kinds of braids for her with fancy hair ties and barrettes. In return, he lets Catherine practice her braids on his long, blonde hair. 

He tells her the best bedtime stories, anywhere from fantasy lands to his own made up war stories and talking about his old war buddies. Miller doesn’t talk about himself much from the war, Catherine knows this. She doesn’t ask, she knows how painful it is for Daddy to talk about it.

Mommy doesn’t do anything like Daddy does. But Catherine loves Mommy anyways. 

Nadine is gone a lot. Catherine knows this. She’s a nurse at the hospital where she met Miller when he had to go in for physical therapy for his new arm and foot. That’s what they told her, anyway. They got married after Catherine was born, and Nadine’s parents weren’t too thrilled about it. She mentioned that they don’t approve of “Ben”, thinking he’s shady and hiding things from his family. 

Catherine doesn’t care. He’s her daddy and she loves him.

Nadine used to not care that her family disliked her husband. As time went on, Nadine got to know Miller more and more. Then she stopped telling him she loved him, and began to call Miller the same things her family did.

Miller says he doesn’t care what people think of him.

Nadine argues that he should care more, and that he needs to change.

They fight over that a lot.

Catherine tries to ignore it every time and goes back to playing with her monsters and Legos.

Tonight is different. 

Nadine is yelling at her husband, using his full name ‘Benedict’. 

Catherine knows that Daddy is in big trouble whenever Mommy does that. Catherine remembers it also because Daddy made the joke about eggs benedict and made it for her many times for breakfast. 

Miller is standing in the kitchen, holding his mug of coffee straight from the pot. He’s not saying anything, and letting Nadine yell at him. 

She’s going on about seeing another man’s clothes in the house, that she knows aren’t his because they’re a few sizes too big. Miller isn’t denying anything, and simply looks tired.

“He’s just a friend that stopped over when he was in the area.”

“A friend that slept in our bed while I was working overnight.”

“He slept on the couch, Nadine.”

“You’re so full of shit, Ben.”

Catherine looks up at her parents when her mom says the bad word. She’s heard Daddy say that word a lot when he’s angry, or something bad happens, and has told her to never use it. 

The friend Nadine mentioned, Catherine is pretty sure she knows who it is. A man stopped over once, really late at night. The dogs barked when he came, and woke her up. But when she peeked out her bedroom door, she saw both of the dogs wagging their tails and enjoying the attention from the new man. 

The first thing she noticed was how large he was. And he had a horn sticking out of his head, and a red hand. She wondered if he lost his real hand, like Daddy lost his arm and foot. Catherine knows she shouldn’t ask people how they lost their limbs, but even now she doesn’t even want to say hi. 

She thought he was scary. 

Next, she saw Daddy and the scary man hugging each other. She couldn't hear what they were saying, but they hugged for a long time. Until Daddy came back to tell Catherine she had to go back to bed. 

The next morning, the big, scary man was gone. 

At present, Nadine is still yelling at Miller on a regular basis, and now she’s threatening to leave with Catherine. Miller reminds Nadine that he’s the primary caretaker of their daughter, and Nadine drops the topic with a huff, and leaves the house to go to work.

Miller sets his mug down on the counter top and rubs his face with his hands and walks into the living room to sit down hard on the couch and lean his head back against the back of the couch.

Catherine simply looks at her dad and frowns. After a moment she stands up and hops onto the couch into her father’s lap gently and leans against his chest. A strong, silver arm wraps around her and holds her while his other hand comes and starts to tickle her everywhere.

She hates being tickled, but she laughs every single time.

“Daddy! You’re tickling meee!” Catherine squeals as her giggles fill the room. Miller’s laughs follow hers as he stops and pinches her cheek to finish off his tickle attack. 

“Was I? That couldn’t have been me,” Miller smiles at his daughter, and gives her a raspberry on the cheek. This elicits another round of giggles from her.

As Catherine’s giggles die down she reaches up to pull her father’s sunglasses off his face and put them on herself. They’re comically oversized, but she loves to wear them anyways.

“You and Mommy are fighting again.” Catherine sadly states as she starts to play with Miller’s prosthetic fingers. He splays out his palm for her to have access to all of them. 

“Yeah, we are sweet pea,” Miller states simply, he knows he can’t keep anything from Catherine. She’s smart, and knows when adults are lying to her. Even worse, she calls them all out on it.

“Mommy’s not going to leave right?” Catherine frowns without making eye contact with her daddy.

“I don’t know, baby,” he responds and takes his sunglasses back but doesn’t put them back on his face. He turns Catherine’s face and bright blue eyes up to meet his grey, cloudy eyes. His eyes once used to be the same colors as hers, he told her once. “No matter what though, remember we both love you very much.”

“Susie at school said that her daddy left. He never came back.” Catherine begins to pout. “If you or Mommy leave, I hope you come back.”

“I’ll always come back sweet pea, don’t you worry.” Miller boops her nose and gives her a smile. He purposefully doesn’t mention her mother. He doesn’t know what she will do. “Come on, let's get you ready for bedtime.”

“Can you tell me the story about the cowboy?” Catherine rubs her eyes and yawns big. “I like that one a lot.”

Miller stands up with a slight groan as he sets Catherine down and holds her hand to walk her off to the bedroom. “Alright, alright. I’ll tell you about the one where he wrestled a giant snake.”

***

Catherine heard her parents fight every single night after she went to bed, and every morning before she came out of her room to have breakfast for the next few weeks. 

One morning Nadine left. She gives Catherine a kiss on the forehead and a stuffed animal from the hospital. It’s a brown teddy bear with a bow around its neck. Nadine says she loves her very much, and that she will see her daughter again someday soon. 

She clutches it tightly as she watches her mother leave with packed bags into a taxi, tears streaming down her small cheeks. 

Catherine heard Mommy tell Daddy that “this was the last straw”. She didn’t know what she meant at the time. Daddy never told her. 

Instead, Miller holds onto his daughter the rest of the day, wiping her tears and putting on her favorite movies to watch. 

That night, Miller lets Catherine snuggle in bed with him as she cries, missing Mommy. 

***

A quiet month goes by. 

Mommy didn’t come back.

Catherine is woken up by the dogs barking again, however DD is not moving from the doorway to her room. The first thing she does is make sure she has her stuffed animal, an ocelot she got from one of Daddy’s friends. She takes a look at what time it is on her clock beside her bed. Catherine is okay at telling time, the only thing she can tell is that it’s five o’clock in the morning. 

The hallway is quiet for a brief moment before barking starts back up again. She opens her door more and puts her hand on DD to calm him down, but he walks to the door to bark more and Catherine rushes into her father's room.

She doesn’t turn the light on, but Miller is sleeping soundly in his large bed, and she can see that much from the light in the hallway filtering through. Catherine reaches for Miller’s shoulder to shake him awake, and being a light sleeper, he wakes up almost immediately and groans. Goldie, the retriever, next to him wakes up and hops off the bed to join Catherine at her side.

“Mm.. Cathy, what is it?” Miller squints as he opens his eyes, looks at Catherine and then reaches up to his alarm clock to pick it up and hold it close to his face to read the hands. Catherine knows his eyesight is bad, he has problems reading things. It’s why she’s working as hard as she can to learn to read better for him. But right now reading the alarm clock is the last thing on her mind.

“DD is barking… I think there’s someone outside,” Catherine half whispers, speaking loud enough for her daddy to hear. She watches Miller sit up fast, the blankets falling down around him to his sleep shorts and he pulls the covers back to free himself when DD begins to bark again. His long hair is loose from his ponytail, Catherine tells herself she’ll brush it out later for him. 

“Grab Daddy’s leg,” Miller whispers in return, and Catherine knows the drill by now. She also grabs his bionic arm, but Miller holds his hand out to stop Catherine, he says it takes too long to get it on. Catherine helps her father buckle on his fake leg fast, then she watches him reach under the bedside table for a hidden pistol he always has there (Catherine isn’t allowed to look for it or touch it, ever. Guns are very dangerous and aren't toys). He tucks it in the waistband of his sleep pants and walks past her into the hallway and through to the living room.

Catherine pads her bare feet fast behind Miller, but he stops and looks behind him at her. 

“Stay with Goldie, don’t come closer.” he whispers again as he walks to the door slowly. The lights are out in the house aside from the nightlight in the hallway. 

Catherine is holding onto Goldie’s fur around her collar, mostly for comfort. She’s scared. Is this one of the bad men that Daddy always warned her about? They moved out of the city to get away from the bad people, and Catherine thought they would be safe. 

Miller is pushing back the curtain next to the front door only enough to peek through to see who is out there. He’s frozen for a brief moment, before he moves to open the door slightly and aims his gun outside the door. Catherine hides her face in Goldie’s fur, hearing DD bark even louder and prepares herself for that loud sound she remembers from when Daddy would have target practice. 

But it never comes. 

Catherine looks up, long, dark brown hair falling from her face to reveal a tender sight. 

Her daddy is hugging somebody. The gun is in the other person’s hand, and Catherine can’t tell who it is he’s hugging. 

But her heart skips a few beats, it’s gotta be her right?

She runs down the hallway, her little feet pat pat pat on the hardwood, yelling “Mommy, mommy, mommy!” until she reaches her father and looks up.

Miller and the other person part and look down at Catherine, and she looks directly at their guest.

That’s definitely not Mommy.

“Catherine, I told you to stay in the hallway,” shortly after Miller reaches his hand down to rest it on Catherine’s hair, DD has stopped barking and immediately sniffs their guest, and whines happily and sits obediently. The man leans down to pet the dog with a bright red hand.

“It’s alright, Kaz.”

Kaz? Who is Kaz? Catherine looks between the man talking and her father, and then back at the man.

She finally notices the horn in his head. And the red hand. Catherine whines and scurries behind her father’s legs, and holds onto them tightly, hiding her face.

Miller bends down with some trouble and turns to face his daughter, and puts his hand on her forehead to push her hair back and rest his hand on her shoulder. “Hey, it’s alright. He’s a good man, I’ve known him for a very long time.”

Catherine looks at her father, his eyes sincere and comforting, and looks up at the other man, still in the shadows but her eyes have adjusted to the darkness enough to see his face. He’s got an eyepatch on, but he’s smiling. 

She smiles back. 

The man squats down to her level, and from here he doesn’t seem so big and scary. Catherine peeks her head out more from behind her father and looks at his outstretched hand and then back up to his face.

“My name is V. I’m a close friend of your dad’s. What’s your name?”

The first thing Catherine notices is his deep voice, a lot deeper than her daddy’s is. She spots the red hand again, but the normal hand is the one held out, and she slowly puts her small hand in his big one, and he gently closes it around hers in a handshake.

“My name is Catherine,” she says quietly. “Daddy calls me Cathy sometimes too.”

“Cathy it is then,” V smiles gently, and it makes Catherine smile in return. “It’s very nice to meet you. You’ve got a pretty great dad don’t you?”

“Mhm!” Catherine nods and looks at Miller. “Daddy and I do lots of things together. Do you want to have breakfast with us?”

“I would love to have breakfast with you. I’m starving.”

“Daddy,” Catherine looks over at her father with big, pleading eyes, who looks back at her with a smile. She hasn’t seen him smile like this since way before Mommy left. “Can he stay?”

Miller puts his hand on his knee to start getting up, but before he can put any weight on his legs, V is there to help him up. He looks at V and then down at Catherine and nods.

“I think that can be arranged.”

***

Their breakfast begins with lots of conversation, mostly on Catherine’s side. She likes to talk, much like her father does. V only speaks when asked a question, and when he talks, it’s short and sweet and to the point. 

Catherine is digging into her ham and cheese omelet, her favorite breakfast food, with her fork and chatting away with V. When the  lights are on, even as dimmed as they are for her father’s photosensitive eyes, V doesn’t look nearly as scary as before. She likes his smile and his scruffy beard, and that he loves to answer all of her questions.

“Where do you live?”

“I travel around a lot. I don’t really have a home.”

“What’s your favorite animal?”

“I love all animals, but I think dogs are good.” V reaches down to pet DD’s head who has laid his claim at the man’s feet.

“Why do you call Daddy ‘Kaz’?”

“Because that’s what I’ve called him ever since I met him.”

“I thought his name was Benedict. That’s what Mommy calls him,” Catherine scrunches her nose as she pushes the remnants of her omelet around with her fork.

“Benedict? That’s quite the name.” V can’t help but chuckle at that as he looks over at the man in question. Kaz simply rolls his eyes behind his aviators and shakes his head.

“What’s your favorite color?”

“I really like the color red.”

“Is that why your hand is red? Daddy has a silver hand and foot.”

“Yes, that’s why.” V chuckles and looks over at Miller who just smiles and shakes his head. 

“Why do you have a horn?” 

“Catherine Josefina Miller,” Miller chides before V can answer. His eyebrows are narrowed and he nearly drops his fork.

“It’s alright, Kaz. I don’t mind,” V cuts in to quell anything from rising up. He looks back over at Catherine, who is simply waiting for her question to be accepted, not affected one bit by Miller chastising her. “I’ve had it for a very long time, I was in an accident and the piece of metal went through my skull and it’s stuck in my brain.”

“That’s cool!” Catherine almost stands up in her chair, her eyes bright and wide smile. “Does it hurt?”

“Only when you touch it,” V holds his finger out, pointing to it. “I get a bad headache.”

Miller simply sighs and shakes his head with a smile. He begins to pick up the plates from their finished breakfasts, and V is quick to take Miller’s plate out of his hands. 

“You cooked all morning, I can clean up.” V takes their plates and walks to the other side of the kitchen to deposit their plates in the sink.

“Cathy, go help V. I’ll let the dogs out.” Miller nods to where their guest went as he stands up. He kisses the top of his daughter’s head as he disappears into the backyard with the dogs.

Catherine hops off her chair and grabs her empty milk cup, and quickly pads into the kitchen. She goes on her tippy toes to reach the counter to place her cup next to V and looks up at the man. A smile grows on her face as he looks down at her with a soft smile.

“You got more grey hair than Daddy does. He says he hides all of them, I can’t find them! Even when I braid his hair!” Catherine throws her hands up in exasperation. V laughs heartily as he begins to clean the dishes off for the dishwasher. 

“I think I look quite handsome with grey hair, don’t you think?” He smirks at the young girl. “Maybe you should let your Daddy know that if he grew some grey hair he can be as handsome as me someday,” he winks and puts a red finger to his lips.

Catherine giggles and covers her mouth as Miller comes back into the room. His hair is tied back again and he raises an eyebrow at the both of them.

“Am I interrupting something?” He stops at the coffee maker and pours himself a new cup. He leans his back against the counter and takes a drink. 

“Not at all,” V places the last dish in the washer and dries his hands off and looks back at Catherine with another wink, and she giggles again in response. 

“It’s our little secret.” Catherine says as she runs over to Miller and wraps her arms around his legs.

“Mhmm, I see. You two have become fast friends,”

“Yes!” Catherine tilts her head up and looks up at her daddy with a big grin. “Can he play with us today? Pleeeeease?”

“As long as V doesn’t have anywhere to be.” Miller looks over at their guest as he takes a drink of his coffee. 

“I’ll do whatever little Cathy wants to do.”

Catherine cheers loudly as she pushes off of her father and jumps up and down.

“Let's play outside!!”

---

Catherine Miller is the light of Kazuhira Miller’s life. 

And she is bar none the best thing to ever happen to him.

Even if she isn’t his own flesh and blood, he treats her no different than if she were. Her dark hair and tanned complexion are from her mother, through and through, and shares very little with her father in terms of looks. When he and Nadine were still married, they desperately wanted to have a kid despite Kaz being rendered infertile in the early 80s. He spared her the details on that, and whether Nadine believed Miller or not, she still wished to go through with the major life decision. Thankfully, Kaz had enough money stored away in offshore accounts to pay for sperm donors and artificial insemination. 

The day Catherine was born was the best day of Miller’s life, and every subsequent birthday after that is better than the one previous. They’re a reminder to keep his past behind him and live in the present for Catherine. 

With Nadine working 60 hours or more a week at the hospital as a nurse, Miller has been a stay at home dad all of Catherine’s life. Kaz has worked enough for three lifetimes, and he wants to spend every waking moment with his daughter. 

Instead of instructing new recruits at a military base, or running a private military force, he teaches Catherine everything he knows. Catherine may not have any of Kaz’s genes, but she’s grown up with his discipline, intellect, and world knowledge. Miller couldn’t be more proud of her watching her learn all sorts of things at school, and coming home to ask her father questions that her teachers refused to answer; or to get better answers. 

Life was simple, despite the days where his limbs felt like they were on fire and it took him a lot longer to get out of bed than usual and his nightmares come back to haunt him. Those are the days where Catherine would bring her father two pieces of slightly burnt toast with butter and cinnamon sugar on them. Miller ate them happily while Catherine ate her own pieces on the bed together. Catherine learned quickly to help out her father when he asked, and she did without complaint. 

Those are also the days where Kaz’s temper is on a short fuse, and on more than a few occasions he would snap at his daughter at random times for even the most insignificant things. She never cried in front of him, she didn’t want to seem like she wasn’t the strong little girl Miller always prided her to be. 

Every single time that happened though, Miller would always find Catherine in her room under the covers hearing quiet sobs muffled into a pillow. He apologizes, feels terrible about his anger, and tells Catherine that she did nothing wrong (unless she is in trouble, but that’s a different scenario) and tries to make it up to her. Without fail, Catherine requests to sit on the couch with some popcorn and watch a movie together. 

He makes his homemade popcorn exactly the way Catherine likes it. And life goes on from one day to the next, tackling each day as it comes, the good and the bad.

That’s always been Kaz’s life philosophy. It’s easier that way rather than ruminating on the past, or preparing for an anticipated future that may never come.

This is why, Kaz admits, his marriage fell apart. 

Kazuhira Miller’s past came back to haunt him in the form of the phantom he knew, and loved. Loved before Catherine was even a concept in his mind, before he and Nadine met in a flurry of lust and romance that turned into a hasty engagement and subsequent marriage. Miller was desperate to settle down, and Nadine was the first woman who was receptive to his admittedly rusty charm. He knows he doesn’t have what he had back in the 70s, but Nadine didn’t seem to mind one bit.

However, the romance fell to the wayside as Kaz continued to struggle with domestic life. The night terrors and bouts of phantom pain aside, it became painfully clear that living as a civilian after a lifetime of military duty makes it nigh impossible to blend in properly.

Kaz does things that are unconventional to Nadine, and many other young parents in suburbia. Hiding weapons in the house, carrying a loaded pistol and a knife on him at all times outside of the home, insisting on living far away from the city as Nadine would allow (they agreed on a quiet suburb in Los Angeles). Nadine has caught him shouting orders to herself and others from time to time, and she has to remind him to lower his voice and that he’s not talking to soldiers. The random bouts of PTSD that Miller suffers is more or less normal to Nadine, however not everybody in the neighborhood is that understanding if Kaz has an episode.

There is a classic car parked in their driveway that Miller works on from time to time as he’s blasting 80s hits. The car just sits in front of their garage, which is full of things . Miller seems to have a thing for everything, he’s always prepared even for the smallest activity, even more so after he and Nadine had Catherine. He had set up a home surveillance system all around their property, which even in a safe neighborhood like the cul du sac, Kaz can never be too sure. The neighbors have noticed that Miller carries out a large packed bag to his truck before he goes into the city, but for what reason no one is sure. Kaz insists he has to be ready for anything; just in case. He’s aloof most of the time, and on the rare occasion he does speak to another neighbor, it’s simple and to the point. 

He sits out on his porch everyday smoking out of his kiseru as he watches the younger kids play in the cul du sac, including his own daughter. Catherine would bring her friends over to the house to play in the yard, and Miller watches them in case he needs to break up any fights that would erupt between the children. Otherwise, he is quite kind to Catherine’s friends. Kaz knows kids will be kids, but there’s a line he draws at toys being flung at one another. He would stand up from his porch chair and loom over the front lawn with his arms folded, silver metal from his prosthetic gleaming in the California sunlight and order the kids to knock it off as if they were soldiers in boot camp. 

Catherine paid no mind, but the kids scatter as soon as his voice becomes loud enough to be heard across the street. Miller became known to the other parents in their cul du sac as “the bitter angry war vet” and that their kids should stay away from him. They never let their kids into the Miller household, despite Nadine insisting that her husband is harmless; he’s just intimidating.

Miller wouldn't care if it didn’t hurt Catherine so much that she could never invite friends over. Nadine blames him for acting that way, and all Miller can do in return is apologize and say he will do better. 

The damage has been done, however. Despite the fact that Kaz loves kids and his charisma is unnaturally high, he has spent his entire life on military bases, or in the military itself, and that kind of life doesn’t leave a soldier easily. 

The only person in the world that doesn’t shy away from Miller and his unconventional lifestyle is Catherine. Whether it’s because she’s grown up in that environment and she knows her father is a kind man or not, Miller isn’t sure. But he wouldn’t trade what he has with his daughter for the world. No matter what happens.

Even if his old lover shows up at his door one fateful night and throws his entire marriage out the window. Nadine had had enough, but it didn’t deter Kaz one bit. He knew she was falling out of love with him, even though he did and still does love her, Miller can’t blame her for leaving. 

The only thing Kaz refuses to give up is his daughter. At least Nadine can agree that her now ex-husband does more for their daughter than anybody else in the world, and she wouldn’t deprive Catherine of her beloved father.  

Kaz isn’t sure if he wants to introduce any part of his past to his daughter. But when he opens his front door to a potential intruder with a pistol aimed directly at their face, instead he sees a familiar blue eye, an unmistakable eyepatch and shaggy hair falling around two pieces of shrapnel protruding out of his skull, he has no choice but to accept when his two worlds collide. 

At least it wasn’t Ocelot again. He’s the last man he wants around his daughter, right next to Big Boss. 

The first time Venom Snake showed up at his door, Miller couldn’t believe his eyes, as terrible as his sight had become. He knew Snake was still operating with Diamond Dogs, working in South Africa on Outer Heaven, and once Kaz left Diamond Dogs for good, he said goodbye to Snake for the last time in the mid 80s. 

Miller came to terms with the fact he wouldn’t ever see V again. But here he is, unmoving even at gunpoint, knowing that his former lover could never shoot him. 

As Kaz lowers his gun, his chest begins to tighten as V takes the gun from Kaz’s hand and wraps his arms around him in a tight embrace. 

“You shouldn't be here,” is the only thing Kaz can say as he buries his face into V’s neck, filling his senses with a long lost but familiar scent; wormwood and tobacco. 

“I know. I needed to see you again. Outer Heaven can operate without me for a while,” V’s gruff voice rings in his ear.

Suddenly Miller feels ten years younger, chained to a pole in Afghanistan, knowing that they were likely his last days on Earth. The smell of wormwood and tobacco was the first thing he sensed before a warm and cool hand cupped his face, his name being spoken, the jingling of chains unlocking and freeing him from his ten days in hell. And he’s clinging to the man who saved him with any strength he had left in him. 

“Is your wife here?” V whispers as he’s looking over Kaz’s shoulder as a little girl stands in the dark hallway. 

“No, she… we’re divorced now.” Kaz responds as he pulls away from V momentarily and looks up at him. When he realizes V isn’t meeting his gaze, he looks behind him as his daughter is running up to them yelling ‘Mommy’. 

There is no going back from this, might as well make the best of it.

***

Kaz is finishing up cleaning the kitchen and picking up the back yard from their afternoon of playing. He’s sure the neighbors are going to be talking about Catherine playing around with a man old enough to be her grandfather for the week, but Kaz doesn’t care. 

He would suffer years of suburban mom gossip to be able to see Catherine asleep in V’s lap like this everyday. Her head is resting on his chest, with the old man himself snoozing with an arm wrapped around Catherine’s back preventing her from falling, his signature red prosthetic hand resting on the back of the couch. His head is tilted to the side as he sleeps, and Kaz can’t help but take the polaroid out and snap a photo or two. 

The sound and brightness of the camera alerts V slightly, causing him to wake up and blink sleepily at where the flash came from. Kaz simply smiles softly as he sets the camera and photos still developing on the coffee table and sits on the small couch opposite of V. He brings his right knee up as his bad leg hangs off the edge, and V moves his left hand down to rest on Kaz’s knee.

“I never pegged you for the father type, Kaz.” V whispers as to not wake Catherine up.

“Me either. But I wouldn’t give it up for the world.” Kaz looks fondly at his daughter, napping peacefully against her new best friend. “She really likes you.”

V hums in response, looking down at the 6 year old. He shifts slightly and listens to her mumble nonsense in response, falling back asleep immediately.

“Nadine had her in ‘87, right after we got married. I met her while I was getting my new bionics fitted after I left Diamond Dogs.”

“Does she know anything about you from before you met?”

“No,” Kaz shakes his head as he rests his silver elbow on the back of the couch and leans his head into the palm. He reaches over to V’s hand with his free one and places it on top of the cool metal. He begins to trace around the grooves etched in from years of action. “I told her I was stationed in places around the world, Colombia, Costa Rica, Afghanistan, Africa… nothing specific. Told her most of it was classified and she seemed to accept it. She’s a nurse at the VA, so she’s likely used to it.” he shrugs and sighs as he continues.

“When you’re a soldier, you’re treated the same regardless of your background, your battle wounds or lifespan of service. When you’re a civilian living in the city, that’s not so much the case. Adjusting has been the most difficult part, but I figured if I got married and settled down, things would fall into place.”

“But they didn’t, I assume.” V chimes in, almost able to read Kaz’s mind. Kaz just nods in response, his ponytail that was resting on his shoulder falls forward completely showing its full length. 

“Not many people that look like me are running around the city, but that doesn’t bother me. It’s the incessant gossip between mothers around here that drive me insane.” Kaz growls and shakes his head.

“Have you thought about leaving?” V questioned quietly. Kaz goes silent for a few moments, as if he doesn’t want to reveal a secret. 

“I’ve actually been recruited to Washington.”

“...Washington?”

Kaz doesn’t respond right away. He looks off beyond the back of the couch to the rest of the open concept house. 

“Boss has asked me to be a survival instructor. For FOXHOUND.” he finally looks back at V, who has almost a stunned look on his face. “He heard of my efforts with the Green Berets and wants me there, specifically to train his son, David.”

“I see.” V murmurs and looks down at their hands, Kaz’s flesh one still resting on his bionic one.

Kaz turns his gaze to V, who isn’t meeting his eyes. They both know what this means, and neither of them like it. Kaz left Diamond Dogs because he didn’t agree with Big Boss’ grand plan, and vowed to help V and Boss’ son take down Big Boss. What they didn’t plan for, was Big Boss returning to FOXHOUND as the commander. No matter what, Boss has Kaz’s puppet strings wrapped around his fingers, and Kaz has no other choice.

“I’ll be moving to Washington before the end of the year, and bringing Cathy with me. Nadine is surprisingly okay with it, as long as Cathy goes to school and I’m home in time to pick her up. I think Boss can give me that at least.” 

“Mmm… Where are we going, Daddy?” Catherine’s sleepy voice cut into their conversation, and Kaz lifted his hand from V’s and rubbed Catherine’s back. 

“I’ll talk with you about it later, sweet pea.”

Catherine sits up in V’s lap and rubs her eyes as she yawns. V fixes her long hair and brushes it out with his fingers. She looks at Kaz with her big, brown eyes and pouts slightly.

“I’m hungry. Is V staying for supper?” she looks up at the large man, who just smiles down at her.

“I could go for some food.”

“How about some homemade pizza?” Kaz sits up from his relaxed position and stretches his joints out, feeling a few in his back pop. 

“Yes!” Catherine’s eyes light up as she nearly bounces out of V’s lap. She claps her hands together once and looks up at V. “Daddy’s pizza is the BEST!” Kaz laughs at the praise.

“Run into the kitchen and get the ingredients out for Daddy. I’ll be there in a second.”

“Okay!” Catherine gets up out of V’s lap, and as she’s told, runs into the kitchen as cupboards begin to open and close and utensils shift around.

“Pizza is a big deal, huh?” V raises his eyebrow as he looks back at where Catherine disappeared into the kitchen.

“Pizza is indeed a big deal, especially to a 6 year old.” Kaz gets up with a groan, and steadies himself on the arm rest of the couch. Even after years of wearing prosthetics, his balance is still an issue to contend with. He holds out his hand for V to take. “Come on, old man. You can watch us make a mess making the dough.”

V takes his hand with a soft smile, and as he stands up he steals a small kiss from Kaz. 

Kaz hums in approval, and closes his eyes briefly to reciprocate the gesture. He knows there will be much more where that came from later that night.

***

The next morning, Kaz wakes up alone in bed. 

He rolls over to face the empty bed sheets, and sees a small note resting on the pillow. He rubs the sleep from his eyes before he reaches for it and holds it close to his face to read it. 

Until next time

      - V xoxo

Simple, and sweet, just how V always has been, and always will be. Kaz brings the note up to his lips and presses it against them, taking in the last smell of wormwood and tobacco.

Kaz very well knows there may not be a next time. The wheels of fate are constantly turning and playing right into Big Boss’ hands. If Kaz can do anything to prevent the inevitable, he could keep V in his life and take down Big Boss all together. But he knows even Kaz might not be able to conduct a brilliant enough plan to best Big Boss himself.

His door opens quietly, and Miller turns over to face the door and his daughter peeking into the bedroom with her stuffed ocelot in her hands. He smiles and pats the bed. As soon as he does, he’s joined by two large dogs wagging their tails.

“You can come in, I’m awake.”

“Did Mr. V go home?” Catherine pads in and crawls onto Kaz’s large queen bed, and slides in next to her father. She looks around with a sad pout.

“Yeah… yeah V went home.” 

“When will he come back to visit?”

Kaz bites his lower lip at that. He shifts his body weight to sit up, letting the covers pool around his waist. His old sleep shirt hanging loose on his body, the right sleeve just barely covering his scarred stump. 

“I don’t know sweet pea. V is a really busy man.” Kaz hates lying to his daughter, but there are some things that have to be kept secret. 

“Next time he comes I want to take him to the zoo. He said he likes animals, and the zoo is really fun.” Catherine holds her stuffed ocelot tightly and presses her face into it. 

“Hey,” Kaz pulls down the stuffed animal and lifts her chin up. “The next time he visits, we’ll go see the zoo together, all three of us.”

“You promise?” Catherine’s pout stays put, and her big doe eyes are too much for Kaz to resist. He breathes a sigh with a heavy heart and gives his daughter a soft smile.

“Yeah, I promise.” he takes a deep breath to prepare for his next conversation. 

“Daddy has to talk to you about something really important.”

“What is it?”

“I gotta go back to work. That means, we are going to be moving soon.”

“Work? Like going back to the army?” Catherine’s eyes start to well up with tears, the thought of not being able to be with her father is almost too much for her little heart to take.

“I won’t be fighting, don’t worry. You don’t want me to lose any more limbs do you?” Kaz raises his eyebrow with a smirk, and it causes Catherine to giggle.

“No, that would be silly.”

 “It would be. Instead, I’m going to be an instructor for new recruits.”

“Like… like a teacher?” Catherine blinks the tears away from her eyes as Kaz drops his hand and she rubs her nose with her forearm back and forth. Kaz makes a mental note to get the snot washed off later.

“Exactly like a teacher. I will be able to drive you to school, and I will be there every single day to pick you up and take you home.”

Catherine beams, her eyes lighting up and she lunges forward to wrap her arms around her father’s chest. Kaz exhales a breath in a quick ‘oof’ as he wraps his arm around his daughter in return and laughs softly. 

“I take it you’re okay with moving, huh?”

“Yeah, all my friends here are mean. I want to meet new ones.”

“Mean?” Kaz freezes in defense, his mind shifting into ‘protective dad mode’. “Who’s being mean to you?”

“Not to me, to you. I don’t want people to be mean to you anymore.”

Kaz smiles and leans his head down to kiss the top of Catherine’s head.

“Thank you for looking out for me, sweet pea.” Kaz pats Catherine’s back. “Come on, let’s get some breakfast.”