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Shouto suddenly shot up, waking himself up from a nightmare that he couldn’t even begin to remember. All he knew was that he was terrified, his mouth was dry, and he was shaking horribly. He was a bit confused when his eyes finally adjusted to the darkness of the room. The room clearly wasn’t any of their dorms. Then he remembered it was summer break, and they were staying at Izuku’s house.
Shouto’s mouth was so dry, he felt like there was cotton in it. He didn’t want to wake either of his partners, but he knew he was definitely not going to get any sleep like this. He awkwardly tried to move himself off of the bed, which was a bit difficult given the fact that the only way of getting off the bed was for him to scoot himself to the bottom of the bed and Tenya still had his legs tangled with Shouto’s. But he still somehow managed to successfully get himself out of the bed and he walked over to the door that separated Izuku’s room from the rest of the house.
He really hated to do this. Every instinct he had told him not to go out there. That he would get in trouble if he did. But he knew he needed water. He would be fine, he just needed to be quiet and not wake anyone up.
He took a deep breath and opened the door as slowly as he could, wincing when the door creaked a little bit, But when neither of his partners stirred and he didn’t hear anything from the rest of the house, he took a soft step into the living room.
He finally made his way into the kitchen and opened the cabinet that Shouto knew the cups were in. He made sure he was as quiet as possible. His heart was racing and his brain had convinced him that he was going to get in trouble. That he was going to be punished and hurt, and it would be horrible. What was he doing? A cup of water wasn’t worth this. Then suddenly the sound of glass shattering pulled him out of his thoughts, then he realized that he had dropped the cup he had been holding.
“Shit”, he whispered, before kneeling down to pick up the glass. But before he could he heard a click and light filled the kitchen. Shouto froze and didn’t dare to look up, as he hoped and prayed that it was just Izuku or Tenya and that he wouldn’t get in trouble.
But then he heard a soft and caring, yet very tired voice say “Shouto”, and his eyes widened and the shaking in his hands got worse when he realized it was Izuku’s mother. He had woken up Inko. He was going to get punished.
He then slowly stood back up, trying not to let his fear show. If he showed that he was scared, that he was weak, his punishment would be so much worse.. He had learned that long ago.
He still refused to look at her, “Mrs. Midoriya”, he said softly. She had insisted that he call her Inko but that was before he woke her up, broke one of her cups, and had woken up in the middle of the night when he was supposed to be sleeping, “I’m so sorry for waking you”.
“Oh Shouto, it’s alright”, she said before taking a step towards him. On instinct, he flinched back prepared to get hit, which made Inko stop in her tracks, “Shouto”, she said a little shocked, “I’m not going to hurt you”. She said the last part softly and she honestly sounded a bit hurt.
Shouto just stared at her with wide eyes, still trying to figure out what her intentions were and try to react in the way that will get him hurt the least.
“I-I’m really sorry”, he said, trying to sound as if he wasn’t on the verge of falling onto the floor and bawling his eyes out.
“Shouto, really it's okay”, she said before she got quiet and looked at him for a minute. Shouto didn’t know what he was supposed to do, “why don’t you sit down, I’ll clean this up and then I can make us some tea and you can try to calm down a bit”.
Shouto nodded even though he wanted to request literally anything but tea. The idea of being alone with a mother (even if it wasn’t his) in the middle of the night with a hot kettle was far too familiar and terrifying. But the idea of what could happen if he denied her offer was somehow more terrifying. So he nodded and went over to the kitchen table and waited for Inko to join him.
It took everything in him to not run away when Inko came back carrying two steaming mugs of tea. But she just gently placed one in front of Shouto before taking a seat across from him.
It was silent at first and Shouto realized that he had never actually been alone with Inko, and now that it was forced on him he had no clue how to act or what to say. All he knew was the way she was acting was a way that he had never seen a parent act before. Even in his memories of his mother, she was diffrent than Inko. Yes she obviously tried to be caring and motherly to him, but everything seemed forced and that she was terrified the whole time. With Inko it was different, she did seem a bit confused with how to handle Shouto, but it wasn’t forced, and she wasn’t panicked. It seemed like this just came naturally to her.
“You don’t have to be scared of me, Shouto”, Inko said softly breaking the silence, “I know I am your boyfriend’s mother and that can be a bit intimidating. But I promise there is nothing to be nervous about”, she gave him a bit of a sad smile.
Shouto didn’t know what to say, he brought his legs up to his chest and stared down at the steam rising off of his tea. He can’t remember a time that an adult had ever told him to not fear them. He had always been taught that he is inferior to adults and that he should be intimidated by all of them. But Inko was telling him the exact opposite, and it seemed so genuine, it confused him.
He knew that his dad was different from other adults and that he hadn’t been treated correctly as a child. But it was still hard to figure out what the correct way for a parent to act was. Was Inko overly nice, or was this normal for most parents. Shouto had no clue, and it put him on edge.
“Shouto..”, she started again, but almost seemed to hesitate before she opened her mouth again, “why did you think I was going to hurt you before? I haven’t ever done anything to make you think that I would, right? I would feel terrible if I ever did anything to make you think I wanted to hurt you”.
“No”, Shouto said quickly, wanting to make sure that Inko knew his reactions were not a result of anything she had done, “You haven’t done anything..”.
“Has somebody else done something”?
Shouto curled in on himself. Every part of him told him to close himself off. To not open up to her. She would just hurt him. That’s what adults did.. no that’s what people did. The only two people who were safe were Izuku and Tenya, and he just wanted to go back to them. He wished he would have never gotten out of bed. He never even got the glass of water he stupidly came out here for.
“Shouto, if someone is hurting you, you can tell me. I promise you can trust me”.
Shouto still didn’t say anything. Something in him wanted to believe she wasn’t lying. That she was trustworthy. But he just couldn’t be sure.
“I know how much you mean to Izuku”, she said, “he would be absolutely devastated if something happened to you. I also don’t want to see anything happen to you. I just want my to do what I can to help, Shouto”.
At that point Shouto started to cry. He wasn’t quite sure why. But the tears just came pouring out, and then suddenly so did his words.
“I mean, I’m fine. I am. My dad.. he just.. he isn’t the best”, Shouto knew that was putting it lightly but Inko still didn’t have his full trust.
“Oh, Shouto”, Inko seemed to put the rest together in her head as she moved to sit in the seat closest to him before wrapping him up in a big hug.
Normally Shouto would hate to have someone who wasn’t his partner hug him, but this was different. If it felt so comforting, like a hug from a mother he never really got to have. Someone who cared about him and loved him unconditionally, and just wanted what was best for him. It was new, and new was normally scary. But in this case the comfort that it brought him outweighed the fear, and he melted into the hug, crying into her shoulder.
“Shouto”, she said as she rubbed soothing circles on his back, “what can I do? What do you need me to do to help you”?
“I- I don’t know”, he said as he pulled back from her, wiping away the rest of his tears, “I’m not home much anymore really. I mean most of the time we are at the dorms and now when we are on breaks I’m either here or at Tenya’s house”.
“So you’re safe now”?
Shouto nodded, even though he knew that wasn’t entirely true. He still did have to go home every once in a while. But he thought it would be better to lie in this situations he knew if Inko tried to do anything to get him taken away from his dad it wouldn’t work, that’s why the UA staff hadn’t done anything yet either. Who was going to take the number one hero’s child from him? It just wasn’t something that would ever actually happen. Everyone either feared or respected his father way too much.
“Okay”, she said with a small nod and smiled at him a little, “but I want you to know, you are ALWAYS welcome here. If you need a place to go to no matter what time it is, you can come here”.
Shouto smiled at her, but didn’t actually get to say anything because just then Izuku stumbled out of his room with a worried expression on his face. He most likely had woken up and noticed Shouto wasn’t there anymore. He let out a small breath when he saw Shouto, but still looked a bit concerned.
“Mom? Shou? What are you doing”, he asked as he walked a little further into the main living room area.
Inko smiled, before standing up, “just doing my job as a mother”, she said as she gently placed a hand on Shouto’s shoulder.