Chapter Text
The knock at the door came long past any reasonable time for strangers to be calling, and lacked the urgency that would prefigure an emergency, so Hizashi was perplexed enough to hesitate before answering. Curiosity won out after only a moment's pause, but when he saw it was Shinsou standing in the dim light on the porch, his surprise leaned much more toward concerned than happy.
His persona came to him easily, though, and he smiled as he opened the door. “Hey there!”
For a moment, Shinsou just stared, looking thrown, and it was enough to tell Hizashi that Shouta had probably never specified the exact nature of their relationship.
“Mic-sensei?”
“I guess you’re looking for Aizawa?”
“Uh…yeah.”
“He’s out on patrol. Wanna come in?” Hizashi stepped back, opening the door a little wider.
“Oh…no, it’s fine. I just…”
“You sure? I can call him if you want.” The longer Shinsou stood there, the more Hizashi noticed—the wide eyes and darker than usual bags beneath them, his tense posture, how his hands kept fidgeting in his pockets, the way he kept his face turned slightly to one side the whole time.
“But he doesn’t answer his phone on patrol.”
“He keeps it on silent except for a few numbers. He knows if I call, it’s important.”
Shinsou dropped his gaze. “No, it’s not important, you don’t need to…”
“It’s really no big deal.” Hizashi toned down the exuberance in his voice a little, disliking the situation more and more. “He won’t mind.”
“I’ll just talk to him tomorrow.”
The shallow breaths, the heavy swallow, the look on his face that was slipping into agitation…Hizashi made a snap decision before Shinsou could walk away.
“I’ll probably end up calling him anyway.”
Shinsou looked up at him sharply.
“He wouldn’t be too happy with me if I waited until he got home to tell him you dropped by looking as freaked out as you do.” He kept his face neutral, maybe a little worried, half-afraid the kid would bolt. As it was, he had no reply. “Why don’t you come in?” He opened the door fully this time, stepping back, and after a moment of staring into the house, Shinsou stepped inside.
“I’ll just text him, tell him to call when he gets a chance.”
“It’s really not a problem, you don’t need to bother him.”
With the tone he was hearing in the kid’s voice, Hizashi would probably only have stopped if Shinsou outright begged him to. “He won’t consider it a bother, promise.” He sent off a text saying ‘call when convenient. non-emergency??’ “He checks his phone every so often, so it shouldn’t be too long, hopefully. Make yourself comfortable. You want a drink or something?”
“Uh…no, I’m fine, thank you.”
Hizashi bit his cheek and told himself to rein it in and try not to overwhelm him. He’d been about to step away when Shinsou turned to take his shoes off, but from the new angle Hizashi could plainly see the redness on his cheek he’d been trying to hide. He turned away, unwilling to bring it up yet because he barely knew the kid outside of class; better to either let Shouta ask him or at least wait until he looked a little calmer.
Hizashi’s phone went off and he pulled it out and turned back to Shinsou.
“You wanna talk to him?”
Shinsou stared at the phone in his hand, anxiety plain on his face.
“It’s fine, you don’t have to.” Hizashi smiled and moved past him out the door, shutting it behind him as he answered. “Hey babe.”
“Non-emergency? This better be serious.” He didn’t sound bothered; Hizashi knew he’d probably rolled his eyes at the text.
“Maybe, maybe not. Shinsou came by.”
“What?”
“Yeah, just showed up.” Hizashi shivered a little, wishing he was wearing more than just a t-shirt. “Told him you were on patrol and he tried to play it off, but something’s bothering him.”
“He’s okay, though?”
“Mostly, yeah. Looks a little spooked and there’s a red mark on his face, definitely looks like he took a hit.”
“Is he still there?” There was gruff edge in Shouta’s voice, and Hizashi could picture the look on his face, the one that was always there when he worried over Shinsou.
“Only because not coming in would have been rude at that point; I almost felt like I was forcing him. He looked about to panic when I asked if he wanted to talk to you, though. He was pretty set against calling you in the first place.”
“I’m coming home.”
“I figured as much. I’ll try not to let him feel guilty.”
“Try to get him on the phone again.”
Hizashi stepped back inside, grateful to get out of the chilly air. Shinsou had stepped away from the entryway, but only barely, stuck between not wanting to venture further inside but also not wanting it to seem like he’d been eavesdropping. Hizashi held out the phone, saying Shouta wanted to talk to him, if that was okay, and Shinsou took it after briefly hesitating. Hizashi headed back toward the living room to give him at least a little privacy, scooping up one of the cats on the way.
He could hear Shinsou’s voice, but couldn’t make out any words from his spot on the sofa, so he focused on trying to calm his jittery concern by getting the cat in his lap to swat at her own tail.
The call didn’t last very long, and Hizashi looked up when Shinsou entered the room.
“He said he’s on his way.” He held out the phone but didn’t look at Hizashi, who just took it back without mentioning it.
“Shouta’s mentioned we have cats, I’m sure.” If Shinsou didn’t already know about them or hadn’t been able to piece together their relationship from Hizashi living there (or at least hanging out there alone in pajamas), he did a good job of hiding any surprise at the use of Shouta’s given name and the implication that the cats belonged to both of them.
“Once or twice.” A ghost of a smile appeared on his face as he looked the cat Hizashi was holding.
“This is Ladybug. She’s the clingy one. There are two more around here somewhere, but they’re not all that sociable.”
He put Ladybug down and she trotted over to Shinsou when he crouched down. Hizashi left the pair alone and went to start on the dishes he’d left in the sink earlier, not knowing if Shinsou would feel awkward around him at all. They’d hardly seen each other outside of school, even with Shouta training him the past few months. The way Shouta talked about him, though, Hizashi had already been starting to feel both a little proud and a little protective of the kid.
But he’d been watching Shouta tear himself apart over Shinsou. It killed him that he had no proof of what he thought was going on, nothing more than a suspicion. He wouldn’t confront Shinsou directly, not when he could still so vividly recall his own reactions to Hizashi doing the same all those years ago, but he was always asking him how things were at home, always reminding him he could call him or come to him if he needed anything.
Every time Shinsou would show up with a poorly-explained bruise, Hizashi had to keep Shouta from taking it out on himself. He’d explained it to Hizashi before: a kid in that situation would feel like just a burden and wouldn’t want anyone else to have to deal with their problems, and he was probably ashamed that it was even happening at all, would be even more so if it was discovered, so any desire he felt to spend time with an adult who actually cared about him was overruled by thinking that he wasn’t actually worth it and nobody really cared as much as he wanted to think they did.
Hizashi finished washing the dishes and figured he should try and talk to the kid. If he really felt like Shouta said, he may very well have been interpreting Hizashi giving him space as giving him the cold shoulder.
Pleased to see that Shinsou had at least settled down enough to sit, Hizashi plopped himself on the other end of the sofa. Ladybug glanced over at him from her place on Shinsou’s lap, but made no move to get up. He made small talk about classes, and his immunity (though Shouta called it obliviousness) to awkwardness seemed to be having an effect—Shinsou was at least giving him more than one-word answers, even if he didn’t seem all that relaxed.
When the front door opened, though, Shinsou sat up straight, eyes widening again. Hizashi half expected Shouta to come sweeping into the room immediately, but instead he heard him calmly call out a greeting. Hizashi replied without moving, and Shouta was at the doorway moments later, eyes going from Hizashi to Shinsou to Ladybug.
“Figures.” The cat rolled over and jumped down to pad over to him. Shouta swept her up and walked over to deposit her back on Shinsou’s lap. He sat between them, and Hizashi wordlessly stood after briefly squeezing Shouta’s hand. Shouta looked at him, but didn’t ask him to stay, so Hizashi went and hid out in the bedroom, where another of their cats had made himself comfortable. He didn’t know how much Shinsou normally opened up to Shouta, but he had a feeling the kid would be more comfortable without him there.
Hizashi absently played around on his phone, petting Seven, until Shouta pushed open the door and came to sit next to him as Hizashi sat up.
“Everything okay?”
Shouta sighed and scratched Seven’s chin. “He says he had an argument with his foster father and just needed to clear his head. Didn’t say he’d been kicked out or anything, but I gathered that he wasn’t planning on going back until late, so he’s probably going to sneak in while they’re asleep. I told him he could sleep here, I hope that’s okay. He said no, anyway.”
“That’s fine, babe, I’m fine with him being here. But he said no?”
“He said he’d have to ask before staying the night and that they’d just say no. He agreed to stick around for a while, though, but I…” He shook his head, hand stilling on Seven’s fur.
“I know.” Hizashi pulled him close, somewhat awkwardly with a cat between them. “Maybe we can change his mind, hm?”
Shouta sighed though his nose, giving Hizashi a brief kiss. “I hope so.”
They settled into a modified version of their usual evening routine, Shouta grading instead of patrolling and Hizashi making idle conversation with Shinsou after settling on a t.v. show he’d long since given up on trying to get Shouta into.
Shinsou’s phone buzzed near the end of the program, and Hizashi could see Shouta watching from across the room as he typed out a message. There was an awkward moment where Shinsou stared at his phone as he waited for a reply and Shouta pretended like he wasn’t watching him while Hizashi tried not to be obvious about looking back and forth between them.
Then the phone buzzed again and Shinsou seemed to collapse in on himself, thumb rubbing small circles on Ladybug’s head as if to soothe himself.
“Everything alright?” Shouta asked.
Shinsou swallowed, shifted, didn’t look up. “Earlier you said I could sleep here.”
“That’s fine. We have a futon for the guest room.”
“I can just sleep on the couch. You don’t need to go to any trouble for me.”
“It’s no problem, kid,” Hizashi said, smiling. “Futon’s much more comfortable.”
“We should have a spare toothbrush somewhere,” Shouta said. “And I probably have some sweatpants that will fit you.”
Shinsou was still looking down at the cat in his lap. “It’s really fine, you don’t need to worry about me. Whatever’s easiest for you.”
“Hey now, Shouta’s a total mother hen,” Hizashi stage whispered to him. “You’ll just make him anxious if you don’t let him take care of you.” A cat toy hit the side of his head and Hizashi rejoiced in getting a breathless chuckle out of Shinsou at the offended look on his face.
Shouta stood up and headed toward the room that had started out as a guest room (mostly at Nemuri’s insistence that she have a place to sleep whenever she came over and they got to drinking) but had gradually started becoming storage space.
“He’s embarrassed because it’s true,” Hizashi said once he was out of earshot, and was glad to see Shinsou was definitely smiling, however small it was.
Shinsou said goodnight soon after, and once they heard the door to the guest room close, Shouta went and sat next to Hizashi, slumping against him. Hizashi put an arm around him, kissing the top of his head.
“He’s here, at least, and he seems calmer now.”
Shouta only hummed in acknowledgement.
“You gonna sleep tonight?”
“Probably not.”
Hizashi wasn’t terribly surprised. Shouta had already been prepared to be out for another few hours anyway, and now with his worry for Shinsou hanging over his head, at least this particular sleepless night would have an explanation.
“Come lie down at least?”
“Yeah.”
*
If Shouta slept at all, Hizashi still woke up alone. He found his husband slouched against the window, closed book in his lap, empty mug on the nearby table. He looked up and gave Hizashi a sleepy half-smile as he approached and kissed him good morning.
“Shinsou been up yet?”
Shouta shook his head. “He’s implied that it’s noisy at his house, so I’m not surprised he’s still asleep.”
“He’s just trying to set a good example for you.”
Shouta gave him a distinctly unimpressed look.
Hizashi went to start on breakfast, and Shouta followed after a minute, yawning. He attempted to help, but by the time things were busy frying, Hizashi was quietly trying to cajole him into dancing with him. His arms around Shouta’s waist while he mostly just leaned on Hizashi, faces close, and he’d just managed to coax a reluctant smile from Shouta when Shinsou appeared in the doorway.
Shouta pulled away immediately, he and Shinsou both apologizing.
“Guess you probably didn’t need to see that first thing in the morning,” Hizashi said.
“I’d kinda guessed about you guys, but I wasn’t sure.”
“You’d been keeping me a secret?” Hizashi asked Shouta with mock indignation.
“Believe it or not, I talk about things other than you occasionally.”
“So you say. Married for eight years and I bet he barely even mentions me,” he added to Shinsou.
“But people are always talking about you dating someone new.”
“The press are rabid because I don’t talk about my love life, so they’re always making something out of nothing. The reputation actually helps, though; Shouta shows up next to me in pictures rarely enough that people don’t make anything of it, but if they thought we were together, he’d suddenly be much more interesting. Which doesn’t really vibe with the whole underground thing.”
“There aren’t a lot of heroes who aren’t straight.” Shinsou was leaned against the doorway, arms loosely crossed, still looking notably uncomfortable but far more relaxed than he’d been the night before.
“Midnight has never hidden that she’s bisexual,” Shouta said. “But people seem to think it’s just part of her image.”
Shinsou didn’t stay long after they ate, citing homework he had to finish between chores. Shouta told him to bring his backpack with him next time, to which Shinsou had stared for a moment before gathering himself and thanking them formally before leaving.
Shouta went over to Hizashi and leaned into him, pressing his face into his neck as Hizashi hugged him. He didn’t say anything, but he emanated exhaustion that came from more than just being up all night.
“He trusts you,” Hizashi said eventually. Shouta hummed but didn’t move. “He knows he can come to you if he needs to.”
“But what if he doesn’t?”
“Don’t think like that. Last night he was asking for help, whether he realized it or not, and you gave it to him. So he knows even more than he did before that you’re willing to be there for him. You just have keep showing him you care and eventually he’ll let himself believe it.”
Shouta finally hugged him back, wrapping his arms around Hizashi’s waist and sighing before leaning back to look at him. “He warmed up to you pretty quickly. Last night…He wasn’t as comfortable with me at first.”
“Well he basically idolizes you, and people seem to think you’re intimidating anyway. And I come across pretty different here than while I’m teaching. Or maybe it was just seeing you be so relaxed around me.”
Shouta raised an eyebrow. “Weren’t you always telling me not to explain away compliments?” He rested his head on Hizashi again. “You’re a bright person. It’s good for him.”
“Hope it’s good for you, too. You’re worried to death about that kid and it’s got me worrying about both him and you.”
“Sorry,” Shouta muttered.
“I wasn’t looking for an apology, babe. Just want you to let me know if this all starts getting to you. Let me help.”
“You’re already helping.”