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Last bell after last class; 1-A gathers their things while Eijiro’s worries multiply in his head. He packs up slowly, makes excuses to Bakugo and Kaminari so they go on ahead; the person Eijiro wants to walk back with is taking his time with his Hero Analysis notebook. It’s so manly how driven he is! How much time and attention he devotes to noticing and making meaning of everything he can…
Then it hits Eijiro: when he’s Eiji, Izuku’s keen powers of observation…are solely directed at him. Izuku will pour himself into making little-time absolutely tailored to Eijiro’s wants and needs. Naturally. It’s so…loving--Izuku is naturally loving.
Eijiro’s tummy flips; he tries to suppress a smile. Zuuu!
By the time Izuku’s gathered his things, Eijiro’s cheeks are glowing pink and his mouth is the wobbliest line across his face. He grips his bag’s straps, mentally steeling himself. Can I even use my quirk when he holds me in his arms? He makes me feel as soft as whipped cream! He walks over to Izuku’s desk.
“H-Hey, man!” Eijiro greets him. Izuku’s faraway expression slowly morphs into a bright smile which makes Eijiro’s knees turn a little bit to water and his tummy a little warm and fuzzy. Flashes of memory burst through his mind’s eye--bottles and cooing and cuddles that make him feel like he’s the favorite child of the whole Universe--and wow does he want to get back to more of that! But they have to talk about this thing and he’s not very good at words when he’s Eiji, so.
So time to follow Red Riot’s example! Even he’s scared sometimes. If he can be brave, then so can I!
“Hi, Kirishima!” Izuku says. “You did so well in search and rescue today! I think 13 was really impressed!” He walks over to Eijiro, seeming as calm as a cucumber.
Eijiro blushes brighter at the praise. It means so much more now from Izuku, even when they’re talking like equals, peers, about everyday things.
“Y-you think so? Th-thanks, man!” Eijiro says. So nervous! Can he tell? “Wanna walk back with me?”
“Sure!”
They exit the classroom side by side. Eijiro tries to focus on his breathing.
“It’s such a nice day today,” Izuku comments, staring out the hallway windows that look out over a little courtyard and a field of greenery. The sky is clear and the sunlight gentle. “I wish we didn’t have to work out every day…”
“W-well,” Eijiro says quickly, “why don’t we spend a little time outside? Enjoy the sunlight for an hour. Unless there’s a reason you have to finish up at the gym early today…”
Izuku’s face turns back to Eijiro with a much improved expression. “You want to? Let’s get a snack and go!”
Ten minutes later finds them both seated in the same little courtyard they glimpsed from the hallway above, the two boys munching their snacks and slurping their drinks. Eijiro’s jacket is gone, stuffed in his backpack, and Izuku’s is unbuttoned. There are trees and ferns and some flowers dotting the green space around the cement benches. The sunlight and fresh air are helping Eijiro’s nerves a bit, but the talk he’s needs to have is still a Big Deal and he’s still jittery.
Eijiro keeps glancing from his food to Izuku right beside him, who seems completely happy with his rice ball and a bottle of green tea boosted with electrolytes. The packaging of Eijiro’s snack has smiley faces plastered all over it, but inside he’s chanting a mantra of oh fuck, how do I start this conversation?
“Midoriya, u-um, can we talk?” he forces out. He makes himself look Izuku in the eye. “About, ah, that thing we do together?”
Izuku blinks, swallows his mouthful, and nods at him. “Do you want to keep doing it?”
Why him asking that reduces Eijiro’s anxiety by 5%, he cannot say.
“Yeah,” he says shakily, “I really…like it. It helps me relax and I…feel recharged afterward. More energy when I go back to the gym and studying and…yeah. What about you?”
“I enjoy it a lot!” Izuku says in a tone that’s as calm as Eijiro’s was quavering.
That’s good to hear. Eijiro takes a breath. Sometimes I wish I could just yell what I wanted like Bakubro and not care if Izuku didn’t go along with it. But Baku does care, when he’s alone.
“Well I’m glad, man! It’s really special…what you do for me! And there’s, ah, sometimes--er. Sometimes when you take care of me that way, m-my body does this…thing…”
“I noticed,” Izuku says. “I wondered what you wanted to do in that area.”
Oh thank god I don’t have to describe it, that would be so awkward!! But now for the scary part…
“N-nothing. Nothing at all. I-if that’s…okay…” Eijiro scrubs his hand through his hair. He curses when he realizes he’s pushed his carefully styled spikes out of place. He wipes his hand on his pants leg and clears his throat. “I know that…might not be fun for you. Often the…the caregiver…gets more things out of it than I can…give…”
Suddenly his stomach rolls over and a wave of nausea hits him. I might be about to lose him…and how he makes me feel! So good and so…easily, like it’s no bid deal for him. How can it be so natural for him…? He probably has no idea how much I love it…
He sniffs. Fuck! Didn’t wanna cry! “I-i-it’s okay if you don’t wanna keep helping me! I’ll be okay!” he declares, his bright tone all bravado; as if he can just go back to being the wall guarding the castle without any mortar to hold him together. If he loses this, he doesn’t know when he’ll stop crying.
Strong arms wrap around Eijiro’s shoulders like a scarf warmed on a radiator. Eijiro’s stomach loosens and he opens his mouth around a full sob.
“Shhhhhhh,” Izu whispers in his ear. His soft cheek rests in the crook of Eijiro’s shoulder while he rocks the redhead from side to side. “Hush now, honeyfish, shhhh… You don’t have to do anything about it with me when you’re little, sweetpea. You’re a perfect slice of cherry pie just as you are!”
A few more sobs break out of Eijiro’s throat as that sinks in; he grasps Izuku’s arms, squeezes him so. “You’re sure?” he begs with a stab of embarrassment at how high and pained his voice sounds. Supposed to be a hero! Heroes don’t…don’t sound like…
“Can I pet your hair?” Izuku asks. Eijiro nods. Izuku turns Eijiro towards him so he can keep one reassuring arm around him while he guides Eijiro’s forehead down to rest on his shoulder. That hand cradles the back of Eijiro’s head, his palm all lovely warmth and certainty.
“Kiri--Eijiro. Wait, can I call you--? Thank you, Eijiro. You can call me Izuku too! Whenever you want to. Yes I’m sure. I’m so sure! I promise.”
Eijiro sucks in a deep breath of air, squeezing Izuku even tighter for a moment. I get to keep him? I get to keep You? I’m really enough? Thank Kami, thank you--oh my god…
It takes Eijiro a couple minutes before he’s ready to talk further. Izuku just holds him and rocks him, holds and rocks, waiting without complaint.
He’s so manly!! I’m so lucky!
When Eijiro’s ready, he clears his throat. Izuku stops rocking him and pulls back enough to look him in the eye. “I also, ah, need--needed to say,” Eijiro trails off. He tightens his arms around Izuku with a spasm of shame and worry. “When my body reacts that way, don’t…I need--I really need to know you’re not…gonna make fun of me. It. Both.”
“You never want me to make you feel badly about having a boner in little space? I can do that!”
“A-and, so, you--you won’t make fun of me for being a bad baby?”
“Ohhh nooo, shhhhh!” Izuku starts rocking him from side to side again. “That doesn’t make you bad, lil’ fish! You just have feelings; your body has feelings too. It’s okay to have feelings. Would you like me to remind you of that when it happens? If I notice you’re getting scared? Just like that: it’s okay to have Feelings. That can be our code: you’re just as good a baby shark whether or not Feelings are happening. How does that sound?”
Eijiro nods into. He sniffles, swallows. “Y-yeah, I’d like that. It’s already hard ‘cause, ah, in little space every part of me looks wrong. All my work outs are paying off, heh…b-but every time I see myself I think…I can’t imagine how you’d…want to take care of me at all. I’m not small or cute or soft. I don’t…don’t know how you can even look at me and want to coo and cuddle and…you know. Give me--all of that.”
Izuku gives him a reassuring squeeze. “I promise that the way you are in little space, the way you naturally are there, is so cute and soft and sweet! You make me want to give you bouncies and carry you around and feed you your bottle like nobody’s business! It doesn’t matter that you’re taller than me and that you’re so physically strong. I just want so much to take care of you. It’s just easy and natural for me, wanting to do those things for you.”
Eijiro shivers with relief. His doubts aren’t dead, but it’s the reassurance he needed. “It makes me really…really sad to think I’m not…not little enough on the outside t-to make you…happy,” he says.
“You make me very happy when you’re little! You look just right in my eyes! You’re still just a tiny sea-pup. I couldn’t love you any more even if I could fit you in a soup bowl. Little baby shark soup! Like you in your bath…so cute… But you know what?”
Eijiro freezes, hanging on his words.
“I bet,” Izu whispers in his ear, “I could juuuuust fit you in a meatloaf pan!”
The shame and worry evaporate as warm relief blooms inside. Eijiro giggles, his legs feel a bit fin-like as they jig up and down; it doesn’t have to make sense for Eiji to adore it. For him to be expertly reassured of how little and precious and loved he is… He sobs once more but this time it is a sound of gratitude mixed with hope.
“You don’t judge me for it?” Eijiro asks. He thinks he knows the answer but he wants to hear Izuku say it.
“No, sweetpea. You’re just little sometimes, that’s all. Maybe that’s how you recharge from doing so well at being a big, powerful savior all the time!” Izuku says brightly.
Eijiro blushes brightly enough to almost match his hair. But a wobbly smile still spreads across his face. Zu…
“I-I’m confused about…feelings,” Eijiro admits with a sniffle. “You make me feel things but…first of all, these feelings got so big so fast, and second of all, I don’t know what to call them. It’s like having, ah, kind of like a crush on a…parent figure? Not, like, with the sexual part of a crush though… At least not now. I want to keep this and that separate for now. Does that even…make sense?”
To his relief, Izuku smiles. “I think it does. But I’ve never been in little space so I can’t say how I’d feel about the person helping me. I think I get it though.”
Oh no did I just say I don’t think he’s not--
“B-but, ah, I’m not trying to say you’re not handsome! At all!” Eijiro rushes to explain. “You definitely are! Just when I’m little, it’s…different. That’s not a factor in how I…see you.” Adore you. Zuzuzuzu! Eijiro shakes his head. This is not the time or place to get little!
Izuku giggles. “You trying to tell me you think I’m cute when you’re big?”
“Y-yes. Really…cute. Very handsome.” Somehow Eijiro starts blushing again; he buries his face in Izuku’s shoulder. After all that talk--this is what does it? Has Red Riot ever been in a situation like this? Does he even blush?! If I ever meet him and it goes really well…maybe I can ask him, hero to hero. Man to man.
“I think you’re really handsome too, Eijiro,” Izuku murmurs shyly.
Eijiro’s heart flutters a bit at that. “I don’t know what to do about that. Or if we need to?”
“I don’t know,” Izuku says after a pause. “But what I do for little-you is a kind of close relationship. I’m sure of that, actually! The feelings I have for you are very special and I don’t want to do these things for just anyone. I only want to do them for you and Bakugo, although…sometimes I wonder why I even want to with Bakugo. Yet both of you are very, very special to me; you make me want to be your big, strong, nurturing person who devotes all their attention to you while you’re little. Someone who takes care of the big stuff so you can just live your lives how you want, and if spending part of your time being little is it, then I want to make that possible for you!”
Eijiro chuckles. “Heh. Any way to be a hero, huh?”
Izuku jumps, his arms going tense and tight around him for an instant before he comes back down. “Ah…ha ha, I didn’t even see it that way,” he says sheepishly. “Is that bad?”
“No,” Eijiro says, hugging Izuku closer while burrowing into the side of his neck. “You’re my hero when you take care of me.”
Izuku hums tunelessly. They hug each other for a while.
“I really mean that,” Eijiro says into the curls at the nape of Izuku’s neck.
Izuku squeezes him so tightly Eijiro half wonders if he’ll need his quirk just to survive this hug. But after a moment Izuku loosens his grip with a bone-deep sigh.
“We should take some time soon when you’re big, for us to write out the specifics of what you do and don’t when when you’re my lil’ minnow. Maybe later this week?” Izuku says.
Eijiro nods into Izuku’s neck. He feels brilliant compared to earlier! Red Riot would be proud of me! He wiggles happily. Then he wiggles more: Zu IS proud of me!! WARK!!!!
“Now,” Izuku murmurs goo-ily and rather Stingray-like in his ear, “does a certain baby shark want his bottle?”
Just like that, Eijiro’s tummy turns to melted butter. He squeezes his very own extra magical super-Zu, jigging his bottom fins in excitement.
“Mlem!!” he cries, happy and eager.
``
Izuku beams, taking in his eager sweetfish who was just moments ago a mess of nerves. He’s so cute like this! I just wanna burrito him in a blanket and carry him around in my backpack!
“Hee hee! Of course, tadpole,” he says. “And I saw you got a nasty ouchy during the basic training exercise today! You want Zu to put a special seaworthy bandage on it, one just for fearsome piranhas?”
Eijiro vibrates. His eyes go wide and his face becomes earnest and intense and he grabs fistfuls of Izuku’s uniform shirt in his hands and just stares him in the eye--as though this is the most important opportunity in his entire life. Setting a single scale out of line might blow his chance of getting his booboos tended by Stingray!
After a long moment of watching his little’s silent intensity, Izuku bursts into giggles. Adorable!!! My little scallop! He hops to his feet and guides Eiji onto his bottom fins.
“C’mon, tadpole,” Izuku coos, picking up their bags. He’d love to carry Eiji in his arms all the way back but that might embarrass the redhead. “I’ll carry our bags and we’ll sneak back to the dorms so you can have fishy time! I’ll deal with anyone who tries to talk to us on the way there, okay? Now…I have a baby fish-sized job for you, but it’s very important! Can you carry my snack wrapper to the garbage? You got it secure in your lil’ fins? Okay, fishcake, I’ll guide you to the bin. Therrrre we go! That’s my minnow! Now c’mon! We’ve got booboos to bandage!!”