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Shigaraki turns nineteen today, and Midoriya is insisting on throwing him a birthday party. Despite being a villain of sixteen years of age, Midoriya is rather childish sometimes – which is part of the reason why Kurogiri supposes he and Shigaraki get along so well – so it isn’t very surprising that Midoriya wants to have a birthday party for his boyfriend and fellow member of the League of Villains. Still, Kurogiri finds himself wanting to laugh as he sees Midoriya covering the bar of the hideout in homemade banners and crudely wrapped gifts. He sighs instead.
“Midoriya Izuku, are you aware that Sensei hates birthdays?” Kurogiri asks. Because Sensei does detest birthdays, stating that they are pointless and age is just a social construct that makes no sense.
Midoriya grins at him, green hair sticking up at strangles angles from running his fingers through it. “I know that. But Tomura said he’s never had one before and I don’t think Sensei will mind as long as we don’t make him join in, so I just wanted to throw him a birthday party.”
“An accurate assumption, Midoriya,” comes Sensei’s voice over the speaker, and Midoriya jumps and faces the blank TV screen. “Do what you please as long as you do not insist I join in with your pointless and frivolous festivities.”
“Thank you, Sensei,” Midoriya says, grinning again.
“So you are having a birthday party in here after all?” Kurogiri says, hoping they won’t make a mess of his perfectly clean bar.
“A birthday party?” Toga says, laughing as she walks into the room holding a large knife (Kurogiri doesn’t even bother to ask why). “How old are you, Mido?”
“The same as you, genius,” Midoriya says. “But birthday parties are awesome. Have you never had one?”
“Nope.”
“Well I have. They’re fun.”
“When was that then?”
Midoriya’s smile falters. “You know. Before…”
He doesn’t finish his sentence, but Kurogiri understands. When Midoriya was thirteen, his mother died after a hero accidentally caused a huge fire whilst trying to apprehend a criminal, killing ten people (including Midoriya’s mother). His mother died in a highly preventable accident all because a hero was trying to catch a criminal. So he obviously had birthday parties when his mother was alive, before he became a bitter young villain who hated heroes and society in general, a boy who bumped into Dabi one day and ended up learning about and happily joining the League of Villains.
Obviously sensing that this is a topic Midoriya doesn’t want to talk about, Toga ruffles his hair and says, “Whatever. Got a cake yet?”
“Oh shit, I forgot!” Midoriya says, laughing. “Can you get it?”
Toga grins. “You want me to steal a birthday cake from a bakery so we can give it to Shiggy?”
“If that’s okay with you.”
“Are you kidding? I love stealing!” Toga says; Kurogiri knows for a fact that Toga has huge amounts of fun stealing things.
“Well as long as you don’t draw attention to yourself,” he says, not wanting a repeat of last week, when Dabi narrowly escaped arrest after stealing a huge amount of cigarettes.
“I’ll try,” Toga says, but he knows she never does what he says. “See you soon, guys!”
She runs out of the bar, slamming the door behind her. Kurogiri shakes his head slightly, wondering if this is what it feels like to be a single father.
Midoriya smiles and continues hanging up banners that say Happy birthday Tomura! In Midoriya’s clumsy handwriting (the boy has dyspraxia, adding him onto the list of developmentally disabled members of the League after the autistic Shigaraki). “Thank you for letting me do this.”
“As long as you don’t damage my bar or betray us to the heroes, I literally don’t care what you do, Midoriya Izuku.”
As Midoriya nods and Kurogiri prays that Toga isn’t causing chaos, Dabi wanders into the room. He has his hands in his pockets and that scowl of his on his face. At eighteen years of age, Dabi is technically an adult, but is also the biggest teenager stereotype in the whole group.
“So you’re seriously going through with it?” he says.
Midoriya grins. “I sure am. Tomura’s gonna love it!”
“I don’t doubt that Shigaraki will like it, but what exactly is villainous about birthday parties?”
“Nothing, I guess… although there’s nothing inherently heroic about birthday parties either – it’s totally a neutral thing – so I guess anyone can do it. And I—”
“Shut up!” Dabi snaps, managing to stop Midoriya mid-mumble.
“Don’t tell me to shut up, you jerk!”
“I’ll tell whoever I like.”
“Yeah, but I don’t have to listen to you.”
“Look, Midoriya, I’m more of a villain than you, so I’m superior to you, and I know your mumbling is incredibly annoying.”
“Since when have you been more of a villain than me?”
“Because I’ve killed three people, and you’ve only killed one.”
“So?!”
If you didn’t know them, you would probably think that the brats are having an argument. But Kurogiri knows them well enough to know it is just bickering. As much as they bicker, they are good friends.
“Be quiet, both of you,” Kurogiri says without raising his voice.
Dabi and Midoriya turn to look at him. As he stares at them, Kurogiri realises he is acting like a parent. Well, maybe more of a childminder. But anyway, he acts like a guardian to these teenagers, and he doesn’t get paid for it.
“Yes, Dad,” Dabi says, and Midoriya bursts out laughing.
The pair are about to carry on calling him ‘dad’ (Kurogiri very much hopes it isn’t going to become a nickname), but get distracted when the door opens. Shigaraki walks into the bar, ‘Father’ in his hand and his hair a mess, rubbing his eyes. He looks half asleep – at least, until Midoriya spots him.
“Tomura!” he yells. “Happy birthday!”
As Dabi rolls his eyes, Midoriya literally jumps on Shigaraki, wrapping his arms around him and kissing him all over his face.
“Izuku, what are you doing?” Shigaraki asks, letting Midoriya kiss him but then pulling away to stare around the room. “What the fuck…?”
“Yeah, this brat’s seriously done a birthday party for you,” Dabi says.
“Don’t call my Izuku a brat, you shithead,” Shigaraki says, glaring at Dabi, who rolls his eyes again.
“But, yeah, it’s a birthday party. You’ve never had one before and Sensei and Kurogiri are letting me do it, so I thought why not?”
Shigaraki wanders around the bar, looking at the banners and the gifts, and a smile crosses his face. “Izuku?” he says, holding out a hand and grasping Izuku’s hand with three fingers. “Are you serious?”
“Dead serious,” Midoriya says, kissing Shigaraki again. “Happy birthday, Tomura.”
Shigaraki stares at him, avoiding eye contact like always. It is only subtle, but Kurogiri notices him start to rock back and forth on his feet, one of the stims he does when he is happy (as opposed to scratching his neck when stressed).
“Thank you,” Shigaraki says, smiling.
---
Two hours later, Shigaraki has unwrapped his presents (all video games and gaming accessories), and Kurogiri is now cutting the cake Toga got for them. As the four teenagers sit around the bar and watch him cut the cake, Kurogiri feels more like their dad than ever before.
Still, he supposes there must be more annoying teenagers to be the guardian of. Such as those irritating teens from UA who keep foiling their plans.