Chapter Text
Hizashi and Shouta were getting things set up for breakfast when they heard the embarrassed “eep!” come from Izuku’s room, followed by a thud and groan. They barely made eye contact before they both hurried to his room. Hizashi knocked and called to the kid, “Hey, bunny? Everything okay?”
“Um, mostly, I think?”
“Can we come in?” At the agreement, they opened the door to see the boy sitting on the floor, rubbing his head. “How’re you feeling?”
“My head hurts. Um, obviously.” He stared at his lap. “Um, no real physical pain? It’s worn off – the quirk, I mean. And the last one was, well, horrible, since my body had changed so much but it wasn’t so bad this time? Or maybe it’s just because the quirk is gone? But slight headache from the memories, I guess, but then I also hit my head when I fell so there’s that.” The words flowed out of his mouth like a waterfall.
“Well, breakfast is about done. You feeling up to going to classes?” Hizashi asked.
“Y-yeah. I think so. But I should probably talk to Recovery Girl first, right?”
Shouta chuckled. “She’d appreciate that.”
The boy’s eyes widened. “And Mom, oh gosh! And All Might… and Uncle Masaru… and oh no, everyone is going to have so many questions…”
“We can worry about that after you eat, Problem Child.” He nodded towards the door. “You coming?”
“Yeah.” He grinned and got off the floor with the coordination of a newborn giraffe, much to his fathers’ amusement.
They ate a simple breakfast, Izuku being quieter than usual. “You don’t have to go today if you don’t want to. No one would blame you for wanting a day to reacclimate.”
“But I’m already so behind! And everyone is going to ask me questions anyway…” He trailed off, staring at his plate like it held all of the answers. “They’re going to ask questions I can’t answer.”
“Like what?” The blond encouraged him to continue.
“Like… you guys… and what my relationship to you guys was? Is? What it was like…” He trailed off once again, shoulders slumped.
“Well, if you’d like, you can stay home today after visiting Recovery Girl and we can meet with your mother this evening. Then you’d have answers to the questions.” It was a logical plan, even if neither adult was emotionally prepared for the meeting to occur.
“But the classwork…”
“Well, I know Iida and Todoroki both offered to take notes for you. I have a free period early on in the day, I can make photocopies for you and bring them over so you can start reviewing the material you missed?”
“Th-that would be okay, I think.” He pushed around the remainder of his food.
“That’s settled then!” Hizashi grinned. “You can spend the day relaxing and going over the notes. We’ll have dinner and a conversation this evening.” He frowned. “I suppose you’ll go back to sleeping in your dorm room, too.”
Izuku awkwardly chuckled, rubbing the back of his neck. “Yeah… Probably should.”
“You’re always welcome here.”
“Thanks, Da-, um, Sensei?”
“You can still call us Dad and Papa, or Pops, if you’d like. Not in class, but outside of it.”
“You sure?”
“Of course, kid. Now let’s get going to Recovery Girl.”
While everyone was in class, Izuku moved most of his stuff back into his dorm room. He took the time to open up the balcony and clean a bit, letting out all the stuffy air and dust. By the time Shouta came by with the notes, he had cleaned up his room at the apartment as well. He gave his dad a hug before settling down at the coffee table, an old All Might cartoon running in the background, and he began to read through the two sets of notes and write his own for his notebook. Iida and Todoroki had very different note-taking styles, which helped Izuku a lot in understanding the content from missed lectures. That said, his notes were drastically different from the others’, where they had neat print filling a page, he liked to illustrate his notes in color and images for his examples. They were very similar to his hero notebooks in that regard. He added in thoughts and questions in the margins while he worked, so absorbed in his task that he didn’t notice his fathers return from work.
“Have you even eaten, bunny?” Hizashi teased, startling the boy out of his concentration. He sheepishly shook his head. “Well, let’s grab you a snack since we still have time before we go to meet with your mother.”
“She’s not coming here again?”
Shouta grunted in affirmation as the two came into the kitchen. “We decided that neutral ground would be the best option for having this conversation.”
“Oh, okay.” He grabbed a jelly packet and protein bar. “How were classes today?”
“Great! I have a couple of second years that are excelling in English and are working on expanding their understanding of different dialects and idioms.” Hizashi’s arms waved in excitement as he detailed how these two students were approaching this task while his husband’s eyes softened at his exuberant display. He was in awe of his little family; two babbling fools that were exceedingly intelligent and often underestimated.
Hizashi left soon after, planning to get an hour or two of work done at the radio station before their dinner. Shouta and Izuku worked in companionable quiet, broken occasionally by Izuku’s muttering. Shouta was working his way through a stack of internship reflections and goals for third years. He was impressed with how introspective some of them were and discouraged by the lack of self-awareness in others. He was broken from his concentration by an alarm on his phone, reminding him that dinner was soon. The father and son changed into nicer clothes before heading out into the evening air.
Yagi knew he was going overboard. His penthouse apartment didn’t see much use since the dorms had been constructed, and even before that it was mostly a place for him to sleep. This meant it wasn’t difficult to clean up, but he did fret and ended up ordering food from three separate restaurants to make sure everyone had something they liked. When they had decided to table the discussion of what happens next, it was Masaru’s idea to meet in a neutral place and Yagi had been quick to offer his home.
But now, with Inko and Masaru awkwardly sitting in his living room, he was wondering if this was his best idea. He wasn’t technically a part of this conversation, though Inko had vented to him a couple of times over the last week or so of the quirk. The bell rang, pulling the skeletal man from his thoughts, and he hurried to let the others in. “Welcome! I suppose now that everyone is here, we can go ahead and start dinner. I wasn’t sure what everyone would like, so I got several different things.”
“Yagi-san, this is wonderful, thank you.” Inko smiled at him kindly.
“Yagi, you didn’t need to do all this! But I am not complaining about the awesome selection!” Yamada grinned as he filled his plate. Izuku was distracted, eyes darting all around the apartment in awe, and had to be nudged into getting his own food. With a blush and a mumbled apology, the entire group of adults had to laugh. They could always count on him being an All Might fanboy.
With plates piled high with food, people found their seats around the low table that the blond had in his living room. They ate in tense silence for several minutes, before Hizashi intervened when he saw Izuku becoming visibly anxious. “Well, as delicious as this food is, there really isn’t any point in delaying the conversation we came to have. I have no idea how you all want to go about this, but we should go ahead and get started.”
Masaru spoke next, because the three at the root of the situation seemed to be statuesque. “Izuku can’t unlearn what he has learned. So, I suppose what has to be decided is what he wants to do with that information.” All eyes turned to the teen, who froze with his chopsticks raised to his mouth.
“What are the options? I don’t even fully know what’s going on… obviously this is about my parents, but I don’t… what are we deciding between?” His anxiety had been through the roof since they had left Shouta’s apartment, and only escalated with all the attention on him.
“Nothing has to change from how it was before the quirk.” Inko spoke gently to her son, leaning over to squeeze his hand. “You’d still live in the dorms and come visit me when you can.”
Shouta rolled his eyes. “Or, if you want to maintain a father/son relationship, we can do that and have both your mother and myself be your legal guardians in full capacity. This would mean that I could make legal decisions on your education, healthcare, and other things along those lines. Though, I do believe that since I never documented signing over those rights, I should technically still have those abilities.”
“What it really boils down to, buddy, is what do you want going forward?” Yamada offered a smile. “Shouta and I will respect whatever decision you make, and act in whatever capacity you’d prefer. Whether that be as parents or just as teachers.”
Izuku looked towards his mother, who seemed near tears. “Mom?”
“I just don’t see why things need to really change! I don’t think I’ve done a bad job raising Izuku. Look at him! He’s a wonderful young man. I’ve been able to make decisions for his welfare just fine for the past fifteen years.”
“Arguable.” Shouta muttered it under his breath, so only Hizashi and Yagi could hear it. Yagi’s eyes widened and Hizashi just squeezed his hand.
“Inko, no one is saying you haven’t done a good job with Izuku. You’re right that he is an amazing young man. But if he wants his father to take full parental responsibility, these things will go with it.” He glanced at the dark-haired man. “These decisions aren’t always fun to make and can often be stressful. They don’t seem like it until you’re in the thick of it. But it is a responsibility of a parent to do what is best for their child.”
“I guess I don’t understand why he wasn’t included in the first place.” Izuku was quiet but commandeered all attention. He looked up and met his mom’s eyes. “You always told me that it was your decision and that he was a good person, but you never told me why.”
“Honey, he was only eighteen. He was dealing with a lot and not in a stable place in life. I felt that it would be best for him and for you if he was able to grow into adulthood without the stress of raising a child.”
“The only problem with me being eighteen was being too afraid to stand up for custody rights.” Shouta shot back.
“Why were you scared?”
“Courts tend to favor the mother in custody cases. She was older and had a less risky job. I was in a relationship with another man, which many people did not approve of. I didn’t know enough about it to push.”
“Oh.”
“I’m sorry. I should have. I’ve regretted it since then.”
“Why did you think that it would be better for me to only have one parent?” He looked at his mom through his tears.
“It would be more stable for you. You wouldn’t have to worry about being shuffled around, about the instability of his job, about how you would fit into two families. And I knew you wouldn’t be alone; I would be there and Masaru and Mitsuki and Katsuki.”
“But I was alone! So much! You don’t… You have no idea what I had to deal with. All the time.” He stood and rushed onto the balcony that neighbored the living room and both parents rose to approach him.
“If you don’t mind, I think I’ll talk to him for a minute.” All Might suggested as he stood. The others were hesitant but agreed to back down.
“Young Midoriya, are you okay?” He approached his successor, who had retreated to the far corner and was staring down at the ant-like cars. He received a shake of the head as a response and chuckled. “I suppose that wasn’t the best question to ask.” He pulled a chair over by the boy and patted his back.
“I shouldn’t have snapped. She was just doing her best and it’s not like I wanted her to know about what was going on so I didn’t tell her and actively hid it so she didn’t worry but maybe if I’d had him around growing up things wouldn’t have been so bad in the first place. I just… I felt like I had to be strong for her, after my diagnosis. I… I didn’t want to make her worry more. But it was so hard. So exhausting! To pretend that I was okay all the time.”
“I’m sure that was difficult.”
“I know things would’ve… they wouldn’t necessarily be easy growing up with parents in different households. With different rules and such. But I could have handled it. There were times… I sometimes only stayed… It often felt like my mom was the only one who would care about what happened to me. For the longest time, she was the only person I had that I could depend on liking me. But she didn’t believe in me. There was still this… this wall between us. And now, I’m scared I’m going to upset her and make her hate me because I don’t want to lose Dad and Papa. Not that I have them now. I don’t want to lose movie nights or silly family dinners or… or…” Whatever he was going to say next was absorbed by the arms that wrapped around him.
“Midoriya, your mother could never hate you. She might be sad, but she would never hate you. She loves you so much. In that room you have several people who deeply care about you and your wellbeing. Who want what is best for you. And you’re old enough to be a part of the decision-making process.” He smiled down at the boy as he relinquished him from the embrace. “Now, let’s head back in there. It sounds like you’ve made your decision. And I will support you when you tell them about it.”
“So, um,” Izuku stuttered as he began to speak to the group, All Might’s reassuring hand on his shoulder. “I shouldn’t have snapped, Mom. I’m sorry for that. But it was true – I tried to hide it, but school was awful. I was treated so terribly and felt so alone all the time. I actually,” he blushed a little, “I actually met Dad a couple years before UA during one of his patrols. We’d end up running into each other on a semi-regular basis. For a long time, he was my only friend. Which is weird to think about now since he’s my dad and my teacher and oh gosh the things I said!”
“Izuku.” Masaru prompted him, cutting off his spiral.
“Right. I really enjoyed the time I was able to spend with Dad and Papa the last several weeks. And I don’t want to lose that. My relationship with Eraserhead as a friend, then Aizawa-sensei as a teacher, and then Dad as, well, Dad… it’s been important to me this entire time. I’ve always been able to trust him and talk to him – even before I knew about this, I thought of him as a father figure. And, Mom, I love you. I loved all the times we spent together when I was younger, and you have done so much for me. But I can’t pretend I understand your reasoning for not letting me have this relationship with him. I’m not even angry… I’m just sad. That doesn’t feel like the right word, either. I just… I don’t understand. If he hadn’t wanted to be there… or was unsure even… I think I maybe could. But he wanted to be there. There was someone who wanted to be in my life and care about me and you didn’t let that happen.” He stared at the floor. “I know that you wanted the best for me… but it feels like you did what was best for you. Because knowing him, I can’t figure out why you wouldn’t think that he would do what was best for me, too.”
“Izuku, I,” Inko started to speak but Masaru grabbed her arm and shook his head.
“I don’t… I’m not sure what has to be done, if anything, to make sure this is all permanent. But I want Dad to be able to actually be a parent to me. All the good and bad that may come with it. And of course, that means Papa would be a parent, too. I don’t know how all that would work as stepfather or anything… But Mom’s the only family I’ve ever had before, and I would be really happy to have a bigger one.” Izuku sniffled. “I never even had grandparents or aunts or uncles beside Auntie Mitsuki and Uncle Masaru.” He hesitantly glanced up at the group, seeing his Papa in tears and Dad with a soft smile. Masaru gave him an encouraging nod and he finally laid his eyes on his sobbing mother.
“Why don’t we all have some dessert now that things have been aired out?” Yagi suggested, hoping to break the emotional upheaval occurring in his living room.
“Actually, I, um. I think I want to go back to the dorms. I’m really tired.” Izuku mumbled.
“I’ll make sure to pack some to go, my boy.” Yagi smiled at the teen.
“Actually, if you don’t mind, I have a question about that.” Masaru spoke up, having seen Shouta’s reactions to the way Izuku and Yagi interacted.
“What’s that?”
“When did you two become so close? Katsuki, not that he talks to us much if he can help it, has mentioned before that you have taken a special interest in Izuku. I can’t help but wonder why that is.”
Yagi coughed, carefully catching the blood that spewed from his mouth. “Well, you see…”
“I met Yagi the day of the sludge villain attack.” Izuku drew all eyes to him. “Before Kacchan was attacked… the sludge villain came after me and because of my mistake, All Might accidentally dropped the bottle he’d caught the villain in. After… after Kacchan was attacked and All Might rescued him, he ran into me again and offered to help me train for the entrance exam.”
“You were caught by that villain?” Inko leapt to pull Izuku into her arms. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I didn’t want you to worry. I was fine.”
“He’s the one who offered to train you?” It was Shouta’s turn to speak, the unwelcome jealousy poking through his mask.
“Well, it was a little more complicated than just that… otherwise I probably would’ve tried to train with both of you.”
“I did not realize my question would bring on more questions. I’m sorry about that. Izuku did mention being tired, and he did answer my question. Why don’t we let the boys head back to UA and Inko and I can help you clean, Yagi-san?”
“You don’t need to do that. Though you all should take some of the leftovers with you. Otherwise, I suppose I’ll have to bring them to the dorms and let the kids declare open season on them!” He chuckled a bit.
“Thank you, Yagi, for hosting this… unusual dinner party.” Hizashi had stood. “Midoriya-san, Bakugo-san, it was nice seeing you again. Hopefully, next time can be in more pleasant circumstances.” The round of farewells made, Shouta slipped out the door with his family.
“Thought you were tired.”
“I was. I am.” The father and son found themselves sitting on the rooftop of Heights Alliance once again, only this time, Izuku curled into his father’s embrace right away.
“Then why are you up here?”
“Can’t sleep. My thoughts won’t stop racing.”
“About tonight?”
“And then some.”
“I’ll listen if you want to talk.” Izuku hummed in acknowledgement and remained wrapped in his dad’s arms.
“I didn’t tell you guys the whole story.”
“The whole story of?”
“The day I met All Might.”
“Do you want to?”
“Yeah but… I don’t want to upset you.”
“Kiddo, you don’t need to put that pressure on yourself. I am here to support you.” Shouta felt the boy take a deep breath.
“That day was an emotional roller coaster. You know abo-, um, I told you back then about the bullying. It was… it was particularly bad that day. The teacher, he, uh, he announced to the class that I planned on applying to UA like Kacchan. He… he didn’t take it well. He used his quirk on my analysis notebook and threw it into our school’s koi pond and then… well, he… he said something worse than he’d ever said before.” He took a deep breath, barreling forward. “Then I was walking home and was attacked by the villain, the day was just getting worse. I honestly thought I was going to die. The sludge… I couldn’t fight it off. Then All Might appeared and he signed my notebook and I was so excited. Like, yeah, I’d almost died but I also met the number one hero. Except then I did something stupid. When he, um, when he leapt away, I grabbed onto his pants. Flying is not fun!” He let out a wet laugh.
Shouta chuckled before his son continued. “We landed on a rooftop and I was so desperate to ask him… I finally asked him the question I’d been asking for years. I asked him if someone quirkless could become a hero. He deflated – and that was terrifying! But he told me no. He explained about his wound and said that a person who was quirkless would be a liability.” Shouta stilled as the boy took another deep breath. “He then left, to turn over the villain I guess, but I had knocked it out of his pockets when I grabbed onto him. I had to find my way off the roof, which double fun, since I was told earlier that day to take a swan dive off a roof and hope for a quirk in the next life… and I was going to go home, because even though it crossed my mind I couldn’t do that to Mom. Then I heard Kacchan’s explosions and the sludge villain had him and none of the heroes were doing anything! So I threw my backpack at its eyes and tried to help Kacchan and All Might defeated him again and then all the heroes were scolding me and praising Kacchan and I left… but then All Might found me on my way home and told me… he said… um, he said that I have the heart of a hero and inspired him to act and thathewaslookingforasuccessortopassdownhisquirkto.”
“Wow, slow down. He said you inspired him and what?”
Izuku sat up, fiddling with his shirt’s hem, eyes averted. “Before the USJ, Asui… she mentioned on the bus that my quirk is similar to All Might’s, but, uh, it’s not just similar… It IS All Might’s quirk. That’s why he was training me, to get my body strong enough to handle it. Though, you saw the entrance exam, even after nearly a year of training, it did that to my body the first time I tried to use it.”
“All Might gave you his quirk?”
“Yeah.”
“Does your mom know?”
“No! It’s actually a super confidential secret and I wasn’t supposed to tell anyone and now I told you and oh no I hope he doesn’t get mad but…”
“Who knows, Izuku?” Shouta’s voice softened from the anger-laced tone he used before.
“Um, All Might, of course. Nedzu, I’m a little convinced he knows everything. Recovery Girl. Gran Torino – he, uh, he taught All Might and knew the 7th holder, that’s why he reached out after the sports festival. And Detective Tsukauchi. And I guess, technically, All for One?” Shouta swore. “He thought he’d defeated All for One when he gave it to me, though!”
“Izuku, this is a lot to take in. And I am furious with All Might, let me explain.” He cut off Izuku’s defense. “He told you, a minor he barely knew, a highly confidential secret and then, without asking or even informing your guardian, gave you a highly destructive quirk. He did not provide any quirk counseling and gave it to you the day you needed to use it for the first time in the entrance exam, so you had no idea how your body would manage it. Shit, kid, he was being highly irresponsible.”
“Maybe, but I am the one who decided to do it! I have always wanted to be a hero and he offered me a way to be one.”
“Izuku, I have no doubt in my mind that you could’ve become the first quirkless hero. And I really wish I had the chance to tell you that before all of that happened.” He sighed. “We can only look forward, though, and we will be having a conversation with All Might about all of this. Fuck, you needed those lessons with Hizashi months ago.”
“Lessons with Papa?”
“Right, we never got around to discussing those. Way back before internships, when you first told me about your quirk coming in late.” Or being given to you by a blond buffoon. “I had planned on you working with him as part of quirk counseling, since he knows a thing or two about quirks too big for your body.”
“Oh! That makes a lot of sense.”
“Is this the thing that has been weighing on you?” Izuku nodded. “Feeling better?”
“I am. Thank you, Dad.”
“Anytime. Though preferably during normal waking hours.”
“Like that means anything to you and Papa.” He teased as they stood and stretched. “Um, can I actually stay in the apartment tonight? I know what I said earlier but…”
“Of course.”