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Mitsuki was at her wits end trying to control her six-year-old son while taking care of the finishing touches of the afterparty. Katsuki was running around, letting off explosion after explosion. Each one caused her eye to twitch as she talked with the caterer.
“I’m sorry, one second,” Mitsuki apologized to the caterer then yelled at her son. “Katsuki! Stop using your quirk inside and sit down! You’re going to start a fire!”
Katsuki screamed in anger then crossed his arms and sat down where he was, pouting at the situation. Mitsuki shook her head and finished her conversation. Her son wouldn’t look at her while she walked toward him and even turned around to face the wall when she knelt beside him.
“Katsuki, this is a very nice establishment. I expect better behavior from you.”
“You’re the worst! I want Dad.”
Mitsuki exhaled in frustration and yanked Katsuki by the armpits to get him to stand up. He fought her aggressively and Mitsuki dropped him in anger.
“Well, if your father were here you wouldn’t be!” Mitsuki huffed and left him there to talk to the band. Masaru was on a last minute business trip this weekend. She hadn’t been able to find a sitter and her parents couldn’t take Katsuki this weekend. She didn’t blame them. He was hard to handle for her, let alone them.
“I don’t want to be here! This sucks. There’s no good food and there’s nothing to do,” Katsuki continued to pout on the floor.
“Entertain yourself then!” Mitsuki yelled mid-conversation with the lead singer. Katsuki frowned.
“I was! You said I can’t do that!”
Mitsuki took a deep breath and ignored him. Katsuki didn’t like that and ran over to her to tug on her arm.
“Mom!”
“Katsuki, can’t you see that I’m talking!?” Mitsuki said through gritted teeth. She didn’t know if she could hold it together anymore.
“Hey, man, why don’t you come up here? I’ll show you around while yo’ mama works,” a young man with a long ponytail said from the stage.
Mitsuki smiled at him, thanking him with her expression and then turned to Katsuki with fire in her eyes. She leaned down and whispered in his ear with as much intimidation as she could muster.
“If you break one thing, screw one thing up, you will be in more trouble than you can even imagine.”
Katsuki glared at her.
“I’m six! I know what I’m doing!” Katsuki ran away from his mother and over to the ponytail man.
“What’s your name?” The man said as he showed Katsuki how a trombone worked.
“Katsuki Bakugou. I’m gonna be the greatest hero ever!”
“Is that so? What kind of hero?”
“One who always wins! Just like All-Might!” Katsuki grinned then let off some small explosions in his hand.
“With a quirk like that, I don’t doubt it! Have you ever seen a trumpet before?” Ponytail Man said as he put the trombone down. He cleaned out the mouthpiece of the trumpet nearby and brought it over.
Katsuki shook his head, staring at it.
“Here,” he handed Katsuki the trumpet. “Go ahead and blow. I cleaned it for you.”
Katsuki took the trumpet and blew but nothing happened.
“It’s broken!” Katsuki said angrily. Ponytail Man took it back, cleaned it and blew through it. This time it worked as he played a quick little ditty.
“What!? How’d you do that!?” Katsuki yelled, grabbing for the trumpet. Ponytail Man moved it away from his reach.
“I’ve been playing the trumpet since I was about your age. It just takes practice. I don’t think the trumpet is your instrument though.”
“I can do anything. I can play trumpet!” Katsuki stomped his feet in anger.
“I’m not saying you can’t. Just saying another might be better,” Ponytail Man moved over to sit at the drum set. “Now, I’m not too good at this thing but it seems more your style.”
Ponytail Man picked up the drum sticks and played a basic tempo with a little cymbal action at the end.
“How do you like that?” Ponytail Man asked.
“I can totally do that. Better than you too!” Katsuki ran over to the stool and Ponytail Man stood up to let him sit in it.
“I bet you can. Show me what you got," Ponytail Man said as he handed him the drum sticks.
Katsuki gave a determined grin and banged on the drums aggressively. There wasn’t much of a tempo but it still sounded somewhat good. Kind of like an improvised drum solo.
“Hey, that was pretty good. You sure you never played the drums before?” Ponytail Man asked with a sly smile.
Katsuki shook his head.
“Lady, you got yourself a natural here,” Ponytail Man said loudly towards Mitsuki. She nodded and waved, her attention still on the lead singer. Katsuki eyed his mother and looked down at the drum set.
“She never pays attention. Unless I’m doing something wrong.”
Ponytail Man could hear the tinge of sadness in Katsuki’s voice. He didn’t really know what to say. He settled on something his Dad told him.
“It doesn’t matter what other people do or think. As long as you’re doing your best that’s enough.”
Katsuki looked up at him, the small bit of sadness washed away and was replaced with a fierce look in his eyes.
“I always do my best!”
“Then you got nothing to worry about. Do you want to see more?”
Katsuki shook his head.
“I like this one!” Katsuki banged on the drums to prove it. Ponytail Man gave him a thumbs up.
“Hey, Wato, it cool with you if this dude plays if I watch him?” Ponytail Man asked a guy with a beard who was helping set up some equipment.
Beard Guy shrugged.
“If he breaks it, you buy it and we’re screwed for this gig.”
“Sounds like a yes to me,” Ponytail Man whispered to Katsuki, who happily started banging on the drums.
Mitsuki finished all of the final touches for the afterparty, finally being able to focus with Katsuki banging on the drums. Truthfully a sentence she’d never thought she’d think to herself.
When she was done, she came over to collect her son, who reluctantly went with her at the instruction of Ponytail Man.
“We have to get set up, man. I had fun listening to your awesome rhythm though!” Ponytail Man waved as Katsuki and Mitsuki went backstage hand in hand.
They walked to her makeshift office in the venue and Katsuki sat on the couch next to his mom. Mitsuki opened her laptop and typed up a few last minute emails.
“Looks like you had fun with the band,” Mitsuki commented after a few minutes.
“Yeah! I’m gonna be the greatest drummer ever!” Katsuki mimicked playing the drums ferociously.
“I thought you were going to be the greatest hero ever?” Mitsuki asked, still staring at her screen.
“I’m gonna be both!” Katsuki said fiercely.
“Uh-huh.”
A knock at the door interrupted the conversation.
“Come in,” Mitsuki said off-handedly.
An intern with a headset and clipboard came in, trembling slightly.
“Sorry, ma’am, I don’t mean to bother you,” the intern said with a shaky voice.
“Spit it out, Ishino,” Mitsuki turned to look at her.
“One of the designers has requested a music change for tonight. He says that swing and jazz are outdated. He wants people to dance and he doesn’t feel like they will with that kind of vibe.”
Mitsuki took a deep breath and clicked her tongue. She knew which designer it was and she didn’t like him. A young man with little class who she only brought to fashion shows because his name was big.
“Tell Kasagi it’s not up to him. People will dance because they always dance. It’s not his party, it's mine. Jazz and swing are classy and don’t result in the kind of dancing that I’m sure Kasagi wants to happen to him on the dance floor. I plan only the best events, Ishino. I don’t design makeshift clubs or pop concerts. Even if I had time to change the music, I wouldn’t. Any future requests for music changes can be thrown out. There will be no budging on that aspect of my events.”
Ishino nodded in a hurry and left Mitsuki and Katsuki alone together. Katsuki knew better than to ask his mother questions when she was working but did so anyway.
“Why is that music better?” Katsuki asked. Mitsuki looked at him for a second and closed her laptop.
“Jazz is music born out of immense skill and knowledge of their craft as well as true passion for music. That passion travels and when people hear passion they stop to listen. Swing on the other hand is music that makes people happy. Most people can’t help but dance to it.”
“You want people to be happy and dance?” Katsuki asked with a confused look. That was such a stupid idea to him.
“You don’t want to dance and be happy?” Mitsuki asked him, showing him a rare vulnerable side to herself.
“Nuh-uh, that’s for wussies! Dancing is stupid!” Katsuki yelled.
Mitsuki sighed. She’d tried. She went back to work as Katsuki pretended to play the drums next to her. Somehow he was practicing loudly even though he didn’t have an instrument.
Eventually it was time for her to welcome everybody to the party as they arrived from the fashion show.
“Stay by Ishino until I come back, you hear me?” Mitsuki threatened. Katsuki groaned but agreed.
Mitsuki, in her best professional demeanor, walked on stage and greeted her guests.
“Thank you all for coming to our Fall Fashion Walk and its subsequent afterparty. I hope my curated designers left you all in awe and inspired for the upcoming season. I will be making my rounds during the party for any questions about our upcoming line or future shows that I’m working on. Please enjoy as much food, dancing, and engaging conversation as you can muster. I am also pleased to welcome Tokyo’s very own Jazz Heroes who have just come back from their Asian tour.”
Mitsuki and the crowd applauded as the band bowed in recognition.
“Without further ado, let the party begin!” Mitsuki said loudly into the microphone.
The band immediately began to play and the people gathered in front of the stage dispersed to the food, surrounding tables, or to follow Mitsuki off the stage for questions.
Katsuki wasn’t paying attention though. He was watching the drum player in the band.
Beard Guy was focused, fast, and grinning like a mad man. The band had begun with a pretty fast song and Beard Guy was doing quite a bit of work on those drums. Katsuki was in awe. Unknowingly, he started tapping his foot to the rhythm.
Next to him, Ishino was still trembling slightly. She hated watching Katsuki since he almost always ran away from her and then Mrs. Bakugou would yell at her. Luckily, she thought, he was actually entertained by the band.
“That drum player is so fast! I’m gonna be that fast!” Katsuki yelled over the music at Ishino. Ishino nodded with a nervous smile. “I’m gonna go on stage to see how he does it!”
Katsuki got up from his chair and began to run to the stage.
“Katsuki-chan, no!” Ishino said as loudly as she could without drawing attention to herself.
Katsuki was running to the stage when his mother grabbed his wrist and spun him around to face her.
One look was all it took for Katsuki to see how mad his mother was. Only she couldn’t do anything about it because everyone was watching them. The dance floor was empty except for the two of them.
Pushing her anger aside, Mitsuki made a smart decision for her image and started to dance with her son.
Katsuki was shocked at his mother’s reaction and followed along as best he could. His mother knew what she was doing when it came to a dance floor and guided her son through the basic dance moves she knew he could learn quickly.
She grabbed both his hands and they rocked side to side to the music. Mitsuki sometimes threw in some spins for Katsuki, who was actually enjoying himself. She was astounded by his reaction since he had been so adamant that dancing was stupid.
Katsuki was just glad that his mother wasn’t mad at him for leaving Ishino. He didn’t know dancing could be fun like this. He only had ever seen those idiots on the T.V. dancing to bad music. This was good dancing with good music, Katsuki thought to himself.
The pair finished the song together and the crowd went wild for the cute mother-son dance. More people had joined them while they danced and they all clapped for the duo as the song ended.
“Great dancing, boy!”
“A natural!”
“So talented!”
Katsuki and Mitsuki bowed and the crowd ate it up. They left the dance floor and before Mitsuki could rip her son a new one for disobeying her, Katsuki jumped up and down in excitement.
“Mom, that was fun! Why didn’t you say dancing could be so cool?” Katsuki was grinning widely.
Mitsuki blinked a couple times and gave him a smile.
“I did say that swing music was hard not to dance too. Did it make you happy too?” Mitsuki took him back to Ishino, who began to apologize quickly, and Mitsuki held up her hand to silence her. Katsuki was going to answer her question but his mother wasn’t paying attention to him anymore.
“Would you mind taking Katsuki back out to the dance floor? I’ll pay you double tonight,” Mitsuki asked kindly.
“Uh, yes, ma’am, of course!” Ishino squeaked. She put her headset and clipboard on the table and dragged Katsuki back out. Katsuki looked back at his mom and sighed.
Of course she had to go do stuff without him.
“Whatever,” he mumbled as he rolled his eyes. He turned his attention back onto the music and dancing. “I want to lead this time!” He yelled at Ishino.
“Of course, whatever you want!” Ishino responded in fear. She let Katsuki lead and, even though he was much shorter than her and not as good at dancing as the crowd and himself believed, he did okay.
Mitsuki watched her son for a few moments. For all the trouble and stress he caused her, she did love that little boy. Her heart melted as he laughed and danced to the music. Composing herself, she went back to her rounds for the party. She couldn’t focus too long on other things or she’d miss out on networking opportunities.
Katsuki had a blast for the rest of the night. Ishino offered many times to switch up activities as her feet were beginning to hurt but Katsuki wouldn’t bite. Most of the guests had left before Mitsuki came to claim him.
“Thank you, Ishino. Triple pay tonight. I thought Katsuki would tire out eventually.”
“Thank you, ma’am, I-,” Ishino started until Katsuki interrupted her.
“I don’t want to stop dancing, Mom!”
“Katsuki, you don’t interrupt people!” Mitsuki shook her head in annoyance. “Sorry, Ishino. You did great tonight. Please coordinate with the cleanup crew and band for breakdown. Send me questions if needed.”
“Yes, ma’am!” Ishino rushed over to the table where her headset and clipboard were.
“You and I are going home,” Mitsuki said to Katsuki.
“No!”
“Don’t talk back to me like that, Katsuki. It’s time to go home. The band is tired and you’re tired.”
“I’m NOT tired!” Katsuki shouted.
“Enough,” Mitsuki snarled and Katsuki hung his head subordination.
They exited the building and a car came by soon to pick them up. Mitsuki and her son climbed into the back and within minutes Katsuki was leaning on his mother, his eyes dropping closed every few seconds only for him to pull them back open with his remaining energy.
“Did you folks have a good night?” The driver asked them.
“Yes, we did,” Mitsuki responded as she ran her fingers through Katsuki’s hair. It always helped him sleep. She’d rather him sleep on the way home than throw a fit because he was too tired.
“I danced,” Katsuki mumbled sleepily.
“Danced, eh? No wonder you’re so tired. I bet it was a lot of fun, huh kiddo.”
Katsuki nodded slowly, cuddling up to his mom.
“So happy,” he said finally before slipping into unconsciousness.
Mitsuki relaxed as the weight and stress of planning the show and the afterparty was finally behind her. She looked down at her son for a few moments, his breathing rhythmic and soft. Maybe music and dancing was how she’d get this boy to behave, she thought to herself. It was the only time she’d seen him act that way other than when he got to see All-Might on T.V.
She continued running her fingers through his hair.
Mitsuki knew her son was too much like her. A fiery temper, a huge ego, and talent to back it up. She sometimes wished he were more like his father but tonight she was glad that he shared her love of jazz, swing, and dancing. It was the one thing she could actually be happy they had in common. She hoped Katsuki would be happy about that too.
In his sleep, he grunted softly and grimaced like he was uncomfortable as he snuggled deeper into her.
Mitsuki smiled softly and looked out the window as the car drove past the city lights.
“Love you too,” she whispered almost inaudibly to her son.