Chapter Text
Neito sat slumped over his desktop in the abandoned 2-B classroom, listening to the tortuous ticking sound of the clock on the wall as he awaited his father's return. After his and Shinsou fight, their respective classes were dismissed, and the two students were hauled across campus to their homegroup with not a single word from the two teachers.
Vlad ushered him into their classroom, shutting the door behind him before letting out an exhausted sigh and sitting at his own desk.
Father and son stared at one another in silence before Vlad eventually softened his features and asked a simple “Kid, what happened?”
That was all it took before Neito exploded, with a raised voiced and frustratingly teary eyes Neito vented to his father about the horrible week he’d been having thanks to Shinsou and about everything the other boy did wrong.
Vlad stayed mostly passive throughout the ordeal, breaking his facade once when Neito mentioned his own reaction to Shinsou avoiding his touch.
When Neito had finally calmed down his father just squeezed his shoulder once before saying he’d be back and leaving the classroom.
That had been nearly 20 minutes ago.
Neito was growing impatient, and his split lip was growing more and more irritated as he tongued at it in his boredom.
Why did Shinsou have to be such a prick?
They weren't exactly friends, but every time Shinsou was allowed to train with the hero course classes last year, he’d wound up in Neito’s group and the pair had gotten along quite well. Then he joined 2-A officially and started to associate with those pretentious losers and look where it got him?
He was just like them now, He thought bitterly.
He was pulled from his thoughts by the sound of the classroom door, finally, opening. He glanced over to see his Father reentering, unfortunately followed by a stoic Aizawa and an irritated Shinsou.
The teens nose was splinted, yet it wasn't bruised like it was broken. Neito could only guess that they saw Recovery Girl before coming here. Neito felt himself scowl as his untreated lip throbbed once more.
Aizawa silently motioned for Shinsou to sit in an empty seat beside Neito, to both boys' displeasure, before he stood up at the front of the class next to Vlad King. Neito knew, realistically, that the two boys were about to be heavily scolded before being thoroughly punished for their fight. So, when he glanced at the teachers and saw amusement (Vlad) and exasperation (Aizawa) he was baffled.
What was going on?
Vlad took the initiative and started to speak, thankfully, getting right to the point.
“Obviously what happened today during training wasn't a random, spur of the moment fight fueled by adrenaline.” He started, only to be cut off by a snide comment from Aizawa.
“What it was fueled by was stupid, teenage miscommunication and over inflated egos.”
Vlad cut him a sharp look before he sighed in defeat and solemnly nodded his head in agreement with Aizawa, much to the two teenage boys' surprise.
“To an extent, Aizawa is correct.” He began, a hint of amusement shone in his ruby eyes once more. “After some investigating and note sharing, Aizawa and I have come to the conclusion that no one is at fault for the tension building between you this past week but-”
“But you're both at fault for your actions in class today and will be punished accordingly” Aizawa cut in once more.
Shinsou and Neito were quick to defend themselves and push the blame onto the other one, volumes rising as they struggled to talk over each other.
This was all Shinsou's fault, he’s the one that decided to be a self-absorbed, bigoted asshole out of nowhere one day! Not Neito.
“Silence!” Aizawa growled, his singular eye glowing red as his hair floated up above his head.
Neito and Shinsou were quick to snap their jaws shut.
“Like I was saying earlier, this whole situation was born from miscommunication, assumptions and ignorance.” He glares back and forth between the boys, effectively keeping them quiet.
Vlad placed a large hand on Aizawa's shoulder, causing the smaller man to tense.
“I’ll take it from here, Aizawa.” He gave the man a tight smile before walking towards the boys and leaving Aizawa to stew in his disappointment in the background. Neito felt Shinsou deflate next to him under the stare of his Fathers dark eyes and felt himself feeling sorry for the poor boy.
What! Poor boy? No. Fuck him.
Vlad sat in one of the vacant desks in front of the boys, levelling them with a unreadable look before sighing and scrubbing his scared hands over his face.
“Listen, I know you both fully believe the other started this. That they started acting different and ‘attacked’ you out of nowhere but Aizawa is correct, this is a huge misunderstanding, one that definitely could have been easily avoid with a little communication”
“And a working brain cell between the two of you” Aizawa muttered, loud enough for everyone to hear.
Vlad ignored him and continued on like he hadn't even spoken.
“I started this Shinsou.” Vlad sighed, glancing towards Shinsou to both boys' confusion. “You didn’t give anything away about your living condition, I’m the one that told Neito about your adoption and encouraged him to reach out to you about it.” He sighed once more before declining his head towards the younger and apologizing.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t think about the impact that may have on you or your family and I certainly didn’t consult Aizawa or Yamada about it first.” Shinsou's lilac eyes were blown wide, face heating up in embarrassment at the teachers' apologies.
“What?” Shinsou stuttered dumbly, caught completely off guard and very confused. “Why would you tell him in the first place?”
Vlad righted himself before shooting the kid a soft smile.
“Because you were going through such a dramatic change in your life, and I thought you could use a friend.” He said simply, shrugging his shoulders before his red eyes fell onto Neito. “I’m aware how Neito acts, especially towards your class but I swear, he had no malicious intentions when I sent him to you.”
The red eyes narrowed as he spoke as if daring Neito to prove him wrong and admit to his wrong doings.
“I didn't, I swear, I really just wanted to reach out, to be a support system to you or a f-friend.” He stuttered, his face heating at the confession. He stole a glance across to Shinsou and was shocked (and slightly pleased) to see the other boy seemingly looking flustered as well.
His heart started to beat rapidly in his chest until he recalled the day, he approached Shinsou, the way he rejected his advances, his friendship, his touch.
The warm feeling in his chest died.
He whirled around, sending a burning hot dagger straight into the side of Shinsous head, catching both Shinsou and his Father off guard.
“But you!” You pointed an accusatory finger at the other boy. “You treated me like a threat, like I was less than the dirt beneath your feet like I was a Villain!”
Shinsou flinched at his outburst.
“Neito.”
His Fathers tone was firm but not unkind and while, in any other circumstance, Neito would normally listen to his Father, he found himself too wound tight with hurt to care.
“No! He stood from his seat, his chair scraping harshly against the floor and getting the attention of Aizawa as he became alert once more, creeping closer to their gathering with his hand on his capture weapon. “I’m not going to sit here and listen to what I already know, I tried to reach out to him and all I got was accusations in return.”
“I thought you were trying to start trouble, to use this sensitive information to-to…” Shinsou yelled back, his face twisted with an emotion that looked surprisingly like guilt and regret.
“To what?” Neito sneered. “To be the big, bad Monoma from class 2B? I thought you were different than them assholes.”
Shinsou sucked in a sharp breath, guilt and regret flickered across his expression before his resolve hardened.
“I didn’t know how you knew; no one was supposed to know, and you just waltzed in and caught me off guard” He growled, running frustrated fingers through purple tufts of hair. “I was scared and panicked and needed time to think but you kept seeking me out, kept trying to talk about it and I didnt know why! If you knew about my-my family then you knew that it was a secret and you just kept-”
“I didn't know it was a secret.”
Silence.
There were three pairs of eyes on Neito now, all with varying levels of surprise.
Neitos pale eyes flicked back and forth between the three other people in the room, his gaze questioning as he awaited an explanation.
Aizawa groaned loudly as he threw his head back and glared at the ceiling like it personally offended him.
“This just keeps getting dumber and fucking dumber.”
“Language.” Vlad chastised him, to the teen's amusement.
Aizawa took a deep breath before sitting on a table next to Vlad.
“I’m going to explain this once and once only, so listen carefully.” Aizawa threatened before he started to speak. “Almost no one knows that I’m married to Present Mic, let alone that we have children. Other than the fact that I’m a very private and reserved person, I’m also an underground hero. Any leaks at all about my private lives could be disastrous at best and fatal at worst for my family.”
“I know that Yamada's and Aizawa's relationship probably didn’t seem very private to you since you're used to seeing them be more domestic in the staff but outside of that have you seen them be anything but professional or have you even heard any other students talk about their relationship?” His Father asked him suddenly, giving him a pointed look.
Neito tried to think of a time where his peers had discussed Aizawa and Mic’s relationship but came up blank.
Because they hadn’t. Holy shit, no one else knows.
It was a trippy thing to discover that common knowledge to you was in fact a well-kept secret.
Vlad must have gotten his confirmation from whatever expression Neito was making as he started to speak once more.
“It's my fault again, I didn't even consider the fact that Neito wouldn’t have known and again I didn’t think about how Shinsou would react to all this.” Vlad bowed to Aizawa this time who just frowned at the man.
“Knock it off.” He groaned, pinching the bridge off his nose. “This is partially my fault as well. I didn’t consider the stress that our privacy rule could have on Hitoshi as he settled into a new environment, especially when we all live together on campus.”
Aizawa then turned to his son, his hard eyes visibly softening as he addressed him.
“I should have realized earlier that asking you to keep this a secret from you friends and classmates would be stressful to you. You've already had such a hard life Hitoshi and the last thing your father and I wanted to do was make it harder for you here.”
Neito was both enraptured and unnerved to see this caring and fatherly side to Aizawa, enough so that he almost missed the words Aizawa was saying to his son.
Hard life?
Somewhere in the middle of all this plotting and fighting he’d been doing with Shinsou, it seemed he’d forgotten about the original reason he reached out to the boy.
"You really should talk to him more. From what I've heard of his story you both have a lot in common and maybe someone with similar experiences as him is what Shinsou needs right now."
His Father's words from earlier this week ring through his head.
Someone with similar experiences?
Neito’s mind slipped back to cold lonely night and then a hot blazing fire and a strong hero that touched him without hesitation and-
He forced his mind past those memories to nights in a big, expensive looking apartment with the nice hero who would talk to him and touch him and feed him with no expectation from Neito in return.
He remembered feeling confused and conflicted.
He hadn't done anything to deserve a nice home, or a loving guardian and he didn’t know how permanent his stay here would be if he didn’t find a way to earn it.
He remembered how hard he tried to work about the apartment to keep his clean and tidy, to do his fair share of work and earn his keep.
He was 7 years old at the time and Vlad was horrified when he realized what he was doing.
He glanced over to Shinsou and Aizawa who were still speaking his soft and caring tones to each other. Their words were lost to Neito’s ear, his mind too far away, as he compared their situations.
They were both just scared children making huge adjustments in their lives, learning how to allow themselves to be loved and discovering a new, healthy way to live.
He tried to think about this situation from Shinsou's point of view.
He’d spent an unknown amount of time in foster care with a past Neito didn’t know about. He’d spend the last year of his life fighting tooth and nail to get into the hero course then fighting blood and bone to stay alive in a war. Then suddenly he was adopted by two pro -heroes, his teachers at that, and now he’s adjusting to having a good home, having loving parents and a little sister who was traumatized from a horrible past as well.
On top of all that, He was in his parent pleasing stage of his adoption and a loudmouth blonde known for mischievous and rivalry suddenly announcing that he knows his new family's biggest secrets…
Neito sighed.
While this doesn’t excuse the things Shinsou has said and done this past week, Neito can sympathize with the boy.
He’s going through a lot, mentally and emotionally, and perhaps his judgement was skewed enough to make him act irrationally.
Maybe they could talk this out now they had all the missing puzzle pieces…
A pat on his thigh pulled him to his thoughts. He glanced up to see his Father giving him a soft and knowing look and Neito bit back a smile.
Say what you want about his large and boisterous Father, but the man was scarily perceptive when he wanted to be or perhaps after 10 years together, he's just developed a quirk to read his son's mind.
Both seem possible.
“Okay, now does everything make more sense?” His Father cleared his throat, speaking loud enough to capture Shinsou and Aizawa’s attention once more. “Neito was only trying to reach out for support on my request and Neito, Shinsou was under the impression that he’d somehow broken his newly adopted parents most important rule.”
His Father smiled warmly at both teenagers, leaning back in his chair looking somewhat satisfied at finally resolving this tension between them.
“It wasn’t anyone's fault, just a lot of misunderstandings and miscommunication.”
“Idiots.” Aizawa grumbled but there was a light, amused tug on his lips. Vlad surprisingly chuckled this time before glancing back at the two boys.
“Any questions? Or can we move on to your punishment now?”
Neito thought about the question. Most of his confusion about Shinsou's strange and sometimes hostile behaviour was answered for him, while him and Shinsou were definitely far from okay, Neito felt he was now fully equip to reach out once more and reconcile with the taller teenager.
Neito had just started to shake his head, letting his father know he didn't have any questions, when Shinsou’s deep voice spoke up.
“Wait, I still don’t understand why Monoma knew I was adopted?”
Three sets of eyes turned to the boy; brows furrowed in confusion.
Didn't they already explain this topic?
“Like I said earlier, I’m the one that told Neito about your adoption, I just thought that the two of you could have bonded over past-”
“But why tell him at all? Why did he need to know? And if you're aware about how much my p-parents value their privacy, then why was Monoma in the staffroom and made aware about their marriage?” He huffed; nose scrunched almost cutely in confusion. “What gave in the privilege to all the knowledge over other students that did not? Is he your favorite or something?”
It was silent.
Shinsou glanced around nervously and beheld all the shocked and downright incredulous looks he was receiving.
Even from Aizawa.
With the awkward feeling that he’s missed something and made an embarrassing mistake, Shinsou curled his shoulders in on himself, His neck felt hot under his touch as he rubbed the back of his neck nervously.
Finally, Vlad seemed to get over the shock of Shinsou's revelation and he started to slowly speak.
“Well, yeah, he’s my son, Shinsou, of course he’s, my favorite.”
Shinsou suddenly rocked up straight in his street, his eyes blown wide in confusion as he almost wildly flicked his eyes back and forth between Monoma and Vlad King, as if he was attempting to categorize any similarities between the two of them.
Neito took pity on the boys as the confusion seemed to grow without any of the others stepping in and clarifying anything for him.
“Vlad adopted me when I was 7” Shinsou perked up, glancing at Neito with an odd sort of expression on his features. “Before that, I was in foster care for most of my life.”
Realization drew on Shinsou's face, relaxing his brows and opening his mouth in an almost comedic “oh”
“Yeah…” Neito looked away, feeling a little awkward under such an intense expression.
God, why does he look so cute?
“That’s why you keep speaking about Monoma being a support system for me.” Shinsou turned back towards Vlad as he spoke. The man just nodded, biting as his lip as an amused smile stretched across his face.
Aizawa on the other hand wasn’t as polite as even trying to hide his reaction.
“Oh, my fucking good, Teenager!” He grumbled. “I literally didn’t think this could have gotten any stupider.”
“Language.” Vlad chided.
Shinsou threw his father a death glare before fidgeting with the nape of his neck and turning back towards Neito.
“So, I already definitely owe you an apology but now I feel like the dumbest asshole in the world and don't know how to make up for it.” He said lamely, cheeks red.
“Well, I did break your nose, so i think we’re starting to even things out” Neito couldn't help but quip, a smirk on his lips. “But you're not the only one that needs to do some apologizing and I am actually very sorry for any unnecessary stress I caused you this week.” He bowed his head towards the other boy making him sputtered.
“No, dude, seriously!” Shinsou pulled Neito up by his shoulders “I'm the one that didn't give you the benefit of the doubt and assumed that your intentions were the worst based on other people's opinions of you! I didn’t even believe any of that stuff they say about you, I already liked you well enough as a friend i was just…”
He trailed off awkwardly, hand to his neck once more.
I already liked you enough as a friend.
Neito felt a wave of fondness wash over him, a smile threatening to invade his face.
“Scared?” Neito offered and Shinsou just sheepishly nodded his head. “Hey, it's okay, I get it, remember? Foster kid that gets adopted by a pro-hero to remember?”
“Pro-hero adoptive parents that also doubled as high school teachers at that” Shinsou laughed, his disbelief at their weird circumstances.
“It's more likely than you think” Neito jokes, a sharp-tooth smirk aimed at Shinsou.
“Yeah, try doing it twice at once!” He joked back and the two boys dissolved in laughter, heads thrown back as the high tension of the last week seemed to finally catch up to them.
Neito glanced at Shinsou's open happy face at the corner of his tear-filled eyes and felt his heart soar. Things weren’t perfect yet. Despite what Shinsou said, Neito still felt the need to apologize, if not for the misunderstanding, then at least for their fight and his nose and Neito would really like to hear Shinsou apology and maybe talk about the assumptions they both made about each other and find a way to move past that.
I already liked you enough as a friend.
Maybe they could even reach that point or higher now, become actual friends especially now with their shared knowledge of their similar histories.
Neito found himself smiling widely at Shinsou as the anticipation of their possible future loomed over them.
“I’m good that you're finally getting along but we still need to discuss your punishment” Aizawa deadpanned, his dry voice cutting straight through their laughter and effectively shutting both boys up.
Shinsou and Neito both paled at the sadistic glint to Aizawa's eye, sending each other nervous glances.
“Ah, what would you have us do, Sir?” Neito gulped.