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It’s the small things, he notices, that draw him to her. She’s grown to accept him, or so he hopes, for a while Inko Midoriya could not be in the same room as Toshinori Yagi without looking like she was going to explode. ‘I guess that’s what happens when you give the only child of a single mother a very self destructive quirk.’ He can’t help but think to himself as he stares at the glaring woman in front of him on his first of many visits to the Midoriya home.
It takes months, almost a year for Inko to slowly get used to Toshinori’s regular visits. Each time he tells her how well Izuku is doing, how he’s growing and learning to control his quirk more. This does nothing to placate her, she’s still as angry as the previous visits. It isn't until Izuku himself comes home and invites her to watch him train because he can’t stand the fact that the two most important people in his life don’t get along. He thinks that maybe if she see how well All Might takes care of him, and guides him she will let up. Hopefully grow to accept the man, so then Izuku’s poor heart can rest easy.
Lo and behold, the impromptu trip to the school did the trick. Inko watches and Toshinori sweats, hoping his teaching will pass the mom test. By the end there’s a slightly different air about her, she smiles slightly and hugs Izuku good bye. At the gate she turns to Toshinori and nods at him, wishing him well until the next time he comes over. It’s a little less curt and for some reason it makes the tall, skinny man a little relieved and… Hopeful?
After that, it takes almost the rest of the year but Inko suddenly apologizes. She feels like she didn’t give the man who gave her son an amazing opportunity a chance. She was blinded by her instinct to protect her son because from what she saw, all this quirk did was hurt him. She couldn’t stand the thought of her son destroying himself to become a hero.
“That’s my fault.” Toshinori says, hastily trying to make his host feel a little less upset. “I knew it would be hard, and I didn't’ give him enough time to prepare. We only worked on his body, to condition it for One for All, I didn’t train him how to control it more. That is until the last year he’s spent in Yuuei.” he says reaching up and scratching his neck, He suddenly feels a lot more self conscious about his impulsive decisions made over the last two years.
He expects this to make Inko mad but she surprises him, by just shaking her head. Looking up nervously she denies his claim.
“You just fell victim to the circumstance, it would be almost impossible to train someone in ten months to fully control and obtain a new power.” she says earnestly, surprising even herself.,
“For that I thank you for taking the time to train my hard headed son.” and she bows in her chair. What she says next almost breaks his heart. Her voice shaking, he could hear the tears beginning to form.
“You gave him hope, more hope than I will ever be able to give him.” The meeting ends with the Hero holding his hand out awkwardly, trying to decide whether he should comfort her or leave. He leaves. (Inko almost looks thankful)
From then on everything goes smoother. Inko always greets Toshinori at the door with a nervous smile, she makes small treats ahead of time to feed him when he gets there. He begins to list the constants in his mind. Like a checklist it goes like this: a warm cup of tea (caffeine free, how did she know?), a soft hello, delicious snacks that taste like only a mothers’ cooking could, a small ever present flush to the cheeks of his host. He nearly keels over when he adds the latter to the list. It almost feels too inappropriate. He also notices it's always traditional japanese sweets, like when it was getting close to New Years she made mochi. He was impressed and always expressed how much he liked everything. Though he noticed the longer he complimented everything she made the more frustrated frustrated she looked.
It wasn’t until he stumbled upon a homemade cookbook on his trip to the kitchen for water while Inko was in the restroom. It was filled to the brim with recipes; with notes, and then he understood. He looked through the pages and noticed the neat handwriting across all the margins of the things she made. “Izuku wouldn’t eat this, make for yourself when he’s not home.” “Izuku’s favorite cookie, use less flour and more butter.” “Good comfort food, make when Izuku is sad.” “Easiest soup to eat when sick. Substitute celery for softer, easy to digest veggie.”
He came to the back of the book and recognized the recipes for the snacks and treats he had been gifted with every time he showed up. The pictures looked different, but he could tell either way. The pages were filled with recipes but the margins were bare. Not a single note. It was such a stark contrast to the notes written with love in earlier pages. Somehow Toshinori felt bad, and when the two sat back down together he asked Inko about the cake she had made a few weeks back.
“It was truly delightful.” he said with a smile “I haven’t stopped thinking about it since, I must have the recipe.” he adds, though he knows there is no way in hell he will ever make a cake.
The look on Inko's face is more than enough, her smile is nearly blinding as they take a detour down a snack filled side road. They both nearly forget the real reason Toshinori is here.
Toshinori is halfway down the road from the Midoriya apartment when he hears a quiet call from down the street. He turns around to see a woman slowly jogging to catch up with him, and when she does she’s out of breath and flushed to her hairline. Inko mutters to herself
“I need to get in shape.” and she looks up at Toshinori, hanging onto his sleeve, chest heaving and smiles. “Thank goodness you waited, I’d have never caught up, your legs are much longer than mine.” she says huffing out a laugh and looking a little embarrassed.
‘ Cute’ he catches himself thinking and almost pukes on the spot. “What’s the matter Midoriy-san?” he asks, trying to keep calm but his voice cracks, causing him to flush. And curse a million times over in his head. He’s how old for christ’s sake and his voice is cracking?
Ms. Midoriya grabs the Hero’s hand and he can feel his heart leap into his throat. She then slowly places a folded up piece of paper into the center of his palm and closes his hand around it. She lets go quickly and clears her throat and lets out another deep breath. She places her hand over her heart and nervously looks away.
“You said you liked this cake and you wanted the recipe. I forgot until just now, sorry for taking up your time.” She says bowing and wringing her hands together. “I folded it up, sorry, I just thought it’d be easier to fit into your pocket.” She says bowing again and then looking up at Toshinori with big, hopeful eyes and he just swears internally.
“You’ll have to give me your number.” he chokes out finally, folding and unfolding his hand around the small piece of paper.
“Pardon?” Inko asks looking taken aback and Toshinori flounders but for only a second.
“So I can show you how it turns out! I’ll send you a picture.” He says smoothly, well as smoothly as a man can be when trying to ask for a girls number. She smiles and asks for the paper back, writing down her cell phone number with a pen she takes out from her bun.
“I look forward to seeing it, Have a good night All Might, sir!” she says waving and heading back down the road toward her home.
Two days later Toshinori sends Inko a deflated and sad looking castella cake with a sad emoticon. ‘What did I do wrong?’ all he gets in reply is a long series of ‘hahahaha’s’ and ‘maybe you didn’t whip the eggs enough? Oh dear...’ followed by an easy to follow instruction video on how to make the cake.
Two hours later he receives a text from ‘Midoriya, My Boy’ that only has the thumbs up emoji. All Might throws his phone on his bed and laughs at his student.
They text back and forth in bursts between visits. Making light of the weather, or the blunder on the news that morning. It’s comfortable, and once Inko takes the initiative.
‘Please Mr. All might, call me Inko!’ and then and there, Toshinori Yagi almost falls over on his couch. He sits there, all angles and too long, too thin limbs. He replies as causually as he can, hands shaking as he types ‘Then call me Toshinori’.
Inko is perfect.
She’s straightforward and follows what she believes is right. She is unbelievable humble and thoughtful. Not to mention she called him on his hot pile of crap that was the beginning of Izuku’s quirk training. (Nighteye doesn’t count because….. Because.) It was the small things, the recipe she had given him, the humble apology, the cookbook full of notes, that drew Toshinori to the conclusion that Inko was, indeed, too good. A soft, yet powerful woman.
So there he sat with his phone in his hand an unfinished text waiting to be sent.
‘Next time we meet there’s a place I’d like to go. It’s a coffee shop with good scones.’ Toshinori had never been to this coffee shop but a google search and a few yelp reviews sold him.
He jiggles his leg and clenches and unclenches his free hand a few times before leaving his phone and walking across his room. A few minutes later he hears a ding and his heart drops. No.
He just dropped the phone on his bed, and he rushes over to find his unfinished text sent and a reply waiting for him.
‘Sounds wonderful! Are we meeting at the same time?’
He has to take his bed spread to the laundromat to wash it, hoping no one there would ask about the blood stains.
The weather is nice, the wind blowing slightly giving the general populace a break from the blistering heat that had set in for summer. Toshinori has been there for fifteen minutes, he almost regrets chugging his tea latte or whatever it was that he ordered. He fiddles with the loose collar on his polo and looks around for what seems like the millionth time. The sky was a perfect blue and the sun shone brightly and he really wished he had some sunglasses. He nearly jumps out of his skin when someone steps up to the table on the opposite side of where he was looking.
“H-hello Toshinori.” Inko says and Toshinori’s head whips around so fast, hair flying in every direction as he goes.
There she is, Inko Midoriya in all of her glory. She’s wearing white capris and a loose black floral print top with cap sleeves to accommodate for the summer heat. Her hair is pulled back into it’s usual style, but instead of a bun, a clip holds it back out of her face.
“Did I make you wait long? P-please give me a moment.” and she disappears into the building to buy her coffee before Toshinori can even offer to buy it for her.
This is not going well. She reappears with a scone and a cold coffee of some sort. The shade from the trees overhanging the outdoor parking puts them in partial cover. They go back and forth with the usual information about school and how her son is doing but before long the conversation has derailed, and Inko is talking with a lot of gusto about something. Toshinori stops listening fully, only catching snippets of the conversation as he rested his chin on his palm and watches Inko talk. She smiles and tucks her hair behind her ears as the wind blows, and just when Toshinori thinks it can’t get any better she lets out a laugh, followed by a series of quiet giggles. With her hair moving in the breeze, and her cheeks flushed, she truly is a sight to behold. He doesn’t realize he staring until his mouth is moving on it’s own and he says:
“You’re so pretty.” and then he’s spitting blood, face flushed and his brain melts. ‘Oh god’ he thinks ‘why did i say that?’ he looks up to Inko, who’s now standing and her arm outstretched. Her face a mix between worry and embarrassment with her cheeks flushed and eyebrows drawn into an anxious curve. In her hands is a fist full of napkins and before he can say anything she’s laughing. She’s wiping the blood off his chin and laughing a far away laugh and tears form in her eyes.
“It’s been a l-long time since someone said that about me!” she exclaims and before she can stop it, a tear rolls down her cheek and falls from her chin to the table.
“O-oh” she says quietly bringing her other hand up to her cheek. And that does it, he leans forward and grabs her hand from her cheek and holding it both of his own.
“I meant it.” He smiles at her gently and she smiles back at him and laughs a little her face flushing. They continue their meeting, and it’s the small things that Toshinori notices that give him confidence. The small glances, letting him buy her a scone, her laughing more and looking less nervous, and her genuine reactions to everything. Even when the sun moved and the shade disappeared she didn’t look uncomfortable. (he also noticed her sunburn that appeared on the bridge of her nose and he couldn't find anything in the world more endearing ) So before they part ways he gathers all the courage he’s gathered and asks.
“Inko, would you like to go out this saturday night?” Toshinori says just as Inko is turning to head in the direction of the station. She turns and looks at him with wide eyes before smiling, tears coming fresh to her eyes.
“Yes,” she says softly, almost so softly her companion doesn’t hear it. Then louder “Yes,” and her tears spill over and her eyes close as a smile breaks over her face so bright it could power a city.
“I would love to.”