Work Text:
After classes are done for the day, Eijiro has a faint blush on his cheeks as he walks back to his dorm with Izuku. It’s been a week since the first time they…and Eijiro’s still blushy and nervous about it. They talk more now--someone seeing him at his weirdest kinda does that--and they’re building upon their friendship.
But today they’re building upon their thing as caregiver and...baby shark.
Eijiro unlocks the door to his room and steps inside. Izuku follows and shuts the door behind them.
Before Eijiro can even think, Izuku wraps his arms around him, lifts with his knees, and carries him to bed.
“Shhhhhhh,” Izuku soothes as he tips Eijiro onto his back. He smooths a hand over Eijiro’s brow. “It’s okay to be little now, baby shark. I’ll help you, sweetie!”
With wide eyes, Eijiro watches as Izuku unlaces his school shoes. Eijiro likes it--a warm, fuzziness begins in his stomach, but it feels so wrong to be lazy so he starts helping: he unbuckles his belt but Izuku grabs his hands.
“Heeey, sweetie,” Izuku coos, rubbing his thumbs over his knuckles. “You don’t have to do the big jobs anymore, okay? It’s sweet of you to want to help though! My sweetest little boy!”
Eijiro blushes. He smooths a hand over his face. It’s a little embarrassing how much he likes that…
Then off come his pants. Eijiro can’t look so he puts his hands over his face. Then one sock, two socks, and a little tickle on each sole--just enough to make Eijiro giggle, wriggle, and get a little bit closer to being…Eiji.
Izu comes forward and gets his hands on Eijiro’s tie. He unravels the knot with gentle hands while issuing many a soothing sh-shhhhh, is my little baby in there?? He softly pulls the tie away and his sweet hands alight upon the top button of the jacket.
“It’s little baby sharkling tiiiime,” Izu sings quietly. That makes Eijiro wriggle! There are bubbles of light growing up around his heart! Shy, Eijiro tries to keep his face covered, but when the jacket comes off, he gets a point-blank shot of Zu’s beaming face. There’s no dodging that, there’s no parrying it either, and a deep red blush spreads over Eiji’s face in time with a big, happy grin.
“You know, shushes don’t mean be quiet, they mean you’re loved! You can make noise, baby. I’ll give you nice shushes all you want! Shhhhh,” Zu hushes. Eiji experiments with grunting and cooing and gurgling. Zu leans over to place a kiss on Eijiro’s forehead. Then another when Eijiro gurgles, perhaps for insurance.
“Mlem!” Eiji says, making grabby hands for Stingray. Zu gasps and dives onto him, giving him a tight bear hug.
“WHO IS THIS BABY???” Zu asks, delighted as he gives Eiji’s sides a little tickle. “He seems so familiar! Do I know who this little boy is? Do I?? Can you help me, baby piranha?”
Yis can do!! Eiji flips onto his hands and knees and digs Rainbow Fishie out from where he’d hidden him in the bed covers that morning. He pulls back the covers with his teeth and roots about with his nose until--“Brrrrr!” he proclaims, proudly holding aloft his teether between his chompers just like a driver’s license to a bartender on his 21st birthday.
Okay maybe not quite the same.
Zu gasps, clapping his hands over his face in shock. “Oh my goodness, IT’S MY LITTLE EIJI!! Is this my precious baby sharkling? Is this my cutest guppy? Is this my favorite lil’ fish? C’mere, baby, let’s get you out of that yucky big shirt and into your shark gear.”
Eiji distracts himself by chewing on Rainbow while Zu does the work of unbuttoning things and getting him out of them. Zu disappears to the dresser and returns with an aqua onesie with whales and jellyfish--
Eiji points at the pajamas. “Aaales! Ishers!” he bleats.
--with whaaales and jellyfishers.
“That’s right, baby!” Zu says happily. He unzips it and slides it up Eiji’s legs. “Here comes the net! Don’t you wriggle away now!!”
Eiji gasps and wriggle, wriggle, wriggles for his life! For his very survival! Oh no, the net’s got him!!!
“Gotcha!” Zu cries as he zips him up. He cups his cheeks and presses a kiss to the tip of Eiji’s nose. “Cute lil’ nose!”
But today that does it and Eiji becomes Too Aware of his body. Now all the issues he has with his body image in little space are right In His Face.
Frowning, Eiji rolls over and curls up on himself. Just too big. His everything is too big! Wouldn’t Stingray Zu like him better if he was pipsqueak-sized? Probably… Zu will find a real baby-sized fish to care for and be much happier; he should just let him go…
Just then, Zu grabs him up! He starts swinging Eiji from side to side. “You’re my lil’ itty-bitty baby,” Zu coos. “Who’s my little red candy? Who wants to be my cherry pie?”
Eiji slaps down his fins with All His Might; his face is the intensity of the sun. ME PLS.
Zu giggles and cuddles him up and smothers him in smooch after smooch. “Who’s filled with sugar and love? Who’s just the size of a single slice of pie? You are! Yes you are!”
Eiji’s eyelids slide almost shut. His bottom fins jig and twitch and bounce. Awyis yis yis…
After a luxuriously long while of this, Eiji starts getting a little self-conscious again. He stretches out a bottom fin and tries to find the floor so he can save Zu’s strength.
But then--that fin gets caught! Eiji gasps.
“What’re you doin’, sharkling?” Zu coos down at him. “You tuck that little fin right back, you silly guppy! You can’t walk! You can’t even swim! No you can’t!! You’re still too little for that big fish stuff!”
Eiji closes his mouth so his top teeth sit on his bottom lip. He wraps his fin back around Stingray.
“Good boy!!!” Zu sings. “Who’s my good little baby? My best baby? Do you know who???”
A big smile lights up Eiji’s face and he bounces in Zu’s arms. Meeee, hee hee!
Zu keeps on saying sweet things to him as he carries him around the room. He walks lap after lap without a break--without breaking a sweat--showing Eiji just how light and little he is. It fills Eiji with warm bubbles! Maybe he is small enough to make Stingray happy! He can believe it now!!
When Eiji can believe again (and looks like a happy little cloud in Izuku’s arms), Zu carries him back to bed.
~
Back on the bed, they’re cuddled up and playing around with Rainbow Fishie. They’re playing tug-of-war and based upon Zu’s completely objective feedback, Eiji is the strongest baby piranha in the world, fins down. This time Eiji wrests it from Zu’s hold and Fishie flies all the way to the foot of the bed. Eiji tries to crawl across the bed to retrieve it, but Zu grabs his shoulder and smooshes him down into the mattress.
“What are you doin’, my guppy?” Zu cries, shocked. “You’re much too small for that!! That’s so far--what if you exhaust yourself and the current carries you away? What would Stingray do then?”
Wide-eyed, Eiji looks from Zu’s face to the edge of the mattress. It’s four feet.
The biggest, wobbliest of smiles stretches across Eiji’s blushing face. ZUUUUU!
Zu scoops him back up onto his lap, cooing, “Don’t do that to Stingray, sweetie! Let me get it for you, tadpole. Don’t let the current steal you away from me!” He presses a kiss onto Eiji’s forehead.
So Zu tucks Eiji fast against him like he’s the most precious and delicate piece of glass the ocean had ever seen, and gets Rainbow Fishie for him. He places it between Eiji’s top fins and then wraps his arms securely around him again.
Zu sits down. He cups the back of Eiji’s head and cradles his face against the curve of his neck.
“That’s better now, baby… You’ve had to do so much on your own before I found you, huh? Well now that’s over. Stingray’s gonna show you just how microscopic you are!”
Eiji curls up into a sausage-seal shape as he gazes wonderingly up at his Stingray, the source of all light and coziness in his universe.
``
He tugs on a lock of Zu’s hair to get his attention (as though he needs to try).
“Thirs,” Eiji bleats.
“Thirsty? Are you thirsty, sweetie?” Stingray asks.
Eiji nods with his whole body.
“Okay, be right back, okay?” Zu walks to the mini-fridge and looks inside. He takes out a juice pouch and wags it at him. “This what you want, sharkling?”
“Mph,” Eiji grunts, making grabby hands.
Zu brings it to him and Eiji picks up the juice pouch and pulls the plastic-wrapped straw off the back. He’s about to tear off the top of the plastic with his teeth when Zu stops him.
Eiji looks up.
“Whatcha doin there, sea sprite? That’s way too big of a job for you!” Zu says. He takes the pouch and the straw from a stunned Eiji and begins setting it up himself. He winks at Eiji. “You can just leave the big jobs to Stingray, okay?”
Eiji stares at him bug-eyed.
Love... LOVE.
“Wark!” Eiji cries. He clambers up onto Zu and tries to rub his face over every bit of Zu’s fins and chest he can reach to show him just how much. “WARK! Warrrrrrrk!”
Zu laughs. “Aww, I think somebody likes that!”
He hands Eiji the pouch, all nice and ready for him, and Eiji tugs Zu’s shirt until he sits down on the bed beside him. Holding the pouch between his teeth, Eiji crawls onto Zu’s lap and seats himself there. He tugs each of Stingray’s fins around him. There. All ready!
Eiji holds his pouch with both fins and drinks his juice, really concentrating on what he’s doing with laser focus.
Juice is important.