Work Text:
“Honey, you’re home!” Hizashi shouted from the living room, hearing their front door open.
The indeterminate grunt that came from the door proved Hizashi’s assumption right. In a few seconds, a tired, scruffy Shouta limped to their living room, his shoulders hunched and his hair still sticking to his forehead.
“Maybe physically. Mentally, I’m already in bed.” He rubbed his face as Hizashi stared at his exhausted husband from the couch. He put down the book he was reading, removing their cat from his lap to go welcome him home.
Even sweaty and beaten up from his patrol, Shouta was always pulled into a tight hug when he arrived home.
“Oh, really? Funny I didn’t notice you when I last went to our bedroom.” He grinned, stretching his arms over Shouta’s shoulders and leaning in for a quick kiss. Shouta rolled his eyes, which meant his exhaustion hadn’t reached its worst capacity yet.
“Very funny. I’ll shower and take a quick nap, then get back to work.” Shouta spoke with a serious voice, brushing a piece of Hizashi’s loose hair from his face.
“Work? You just came back from the patrol!” Hizashi raised his brows.
Hizashi had luckily finished work at school a couple of hours ago, while Shouta had been having classes since the morning, on top of a five-hour patrol in the afternoon. Hizashi had been expecting to get to cuddle next to Shouta on their couch for the rest of the evening, to sip on some wine and make out when their kids had gone to sleep. It wouldn’t be as fun alone..
“I mean, I have to finish my grading tonight. I’ve been putting it off all week and now I just have to do it all tonight. My own fault for not starting earlier.” Shouta started taking off his shoes and hero gear, huffing and winching at the small nicks he had gotten fighting villains.
“Well, yeah, because you’ve been teaching, doing paperwork and saving the city, babe! When did you think you’d have time to grade?”
“Somewhere in-between?” Shouta smirked, and Hizashi was just happy he still had some humor in him. His humor was gonna run out if he had to give up on his cuddling-wine-make out-plans.
“And when are you gonna spend time with your family?” Hizashi crossed his arms.
He couldn’t be angry, just worried for his husband’s wellbeing. Hizashi knew firsthand how hard their jobs were, and how much it consumed their time and occupied their mind even after leaving the workplace. Luckily, it was pretty rewarding too.
But he also knew how much Shouta needed some time with the people he loved, to balance out all the stress. For Hizashi, family-time (and blasting music in full volume when he was alone at home) did the magic of relieving him. And maybe some alone time with his husband..
“We’re gonna have some time on the weekend, ‘Zashi, I promise. I’m sorry I haven’t been helping you at home this week.”
Hizashi sighed deep, giving Shouta a sad smile to show his compliance. It seemed that every other week one of them was drowning in work and the other had to step up at home and keep their two kids in check. Hizashi loved how they balanced each other like that, taking whichever role the other left vacant that week. But it wouldn’t work if they never had some time to be together as a family, all four of them.
“I know you are.” He squeezed his shorter husband into his chest for one last time. “Just sleep for a bit, Shou. I’ll tell the kids you’re home.”
He left Shouta in the living room, going to find Hitoshi and Eri in Hitoshi’s room. They were sitting on the floor, Hitoshi pushing rapidly on the buttons of his game controller and Eri sitting next to him, eyes glued to Hitoshi’s character on the screen, her mouth open. Maybe she was still too young to watch video games.
“Hey, your father’s gonna take a nap so maybe turn the tv down a bit.”
“Daddy’s home?” Eri’s eyes tore away from the colorful game, an innocent excitement in her eyes.
“Yeah, but he’s tired and he’s gotta rest for now.” Hizashi smiled sadly.
“I bet he forgot that he was supposed to train with me tonight.” Hitoshi shrugged his shoulders, his eyes staying on the game.
“I wanted to show daddy my drawings.” Eri lowered her head, still not as skilled at hiding her disappointment as her brother.
Hizashi stared at his kids, their kids. He could’ve helped Hitoshi too, he also could’ve cheered up Eri by roping her in to drawing a nice picture for Shouta. But that would have not been the same. He could give them the same parental love as Shouta, but it wouldn’t make up for the fact that they wanted Shouta’s love too.
These kids needed some time with their father, as desperately as Shouta needed it too.
He wasn’t supposed to meddle with Shouta’s work but he’d be damned if Yamada-Aizawa Hizashi would not do what was best for his family.
“C’mon, kids. I got an idea!”
Hizashi slammed the stack of papers on the kitchen table dramatically.
“What are we gonna do with these?” Hitoshi looked at him with confusion and annoyance.
Hizashi grinned at his son, while Eri looked excited every time she saw paper she could draw on.
“You see, this is Shouta’s work for tonight. Buut ~ if they somehow magically would get done before Shouta wakes up, then he’d have the night free to spend with us!” Hizashi announced.
“So you plan on using us as your labor force?” Hitoshi raised his eyebrow but the confusion had turned into curiosity.
“Heavens no! I’m gonna do the actual grading, but you’re still gonna help me, do something nice for your father, right? I mean, grading can be fun.” His voice wasn’t as confident as he would have liked.
Hitoshi sighed. “Not like I have anything better to do, since I can’t train with dad. Just tell me what to do.”
“I want to help too, papa!” Eri shouted. Hizashi shushed her a little, glancing at their bedroom door which luckily stayed closed.
“Of course, sweetheart! I’ve got the perfect jobs for both of you!”
In a few moments, the trio had a little workshop arranged on the kitchen table. Hizashi did most of the grading, reading the students’ essays and giving the grades, while Hitoshi helped him by checking the multiple-choice questions and counted up the score. Eri had been given a special task to put stickers on the students’ papers and to draw little doodles of flowers or suns on the tests. They were a nice change from all the red markings Hizashi had to decorate the students’ tests with.
While Hizashi wasn’t exactly qualified to teach hero history and physical education like Shouta, he still had some clue how to rate the students’ answers. Though, a few times he needed to ask Hitoshi for the right answers, which Hitoshi always knew too.
After just an hour they were more than a halfway done.
“Papa, look at this frog I drew on Tsuyu-chan’s test!” Eri lifted the paper and Hizashi cooed at the cute little frog, which almost resembled one.
“She’s gonna love it, hun’!” Hizashi praised their daughter. To his right, he saw Hitoshi chuckling to himself. “’Toshi, you’re not supposed to read your classmates’ answers!”
“I’m not.” He said without looking up from the essay which seemed to be—Kaminari’s. Well, that boy had it coming, with the obviously made-up people that he wrote about in his essay.
“Just.. don’t tell your friends I let you see their tests.” Hizashi whispered.
“Sure, pops.” Hitoshi grinned mischievously at him, but Hizashi knew his son was kind and considerate at heart. He just liked to cover it with feigned annoyance, indifference and mischief. Just like his stubborn father, Hizashi thought and wiped imaginary tears from the corner of his eye.
Hizashi hummed as he read the papers, his eyes widening at the next exam he reach for, his son’s test. He knew how hard Hitoshi studied, and he had great expectations when he began reading Hitoshi’s answers.
“Wow, ‘Toshi! You got almost all right! It must be close to 90.” He gave the paper over to Hitoshi, letting him look through his own answers. Hitoshi’s eyes widened as he grabbed the test and eyed the red markings on it, his expression falling.
“I got the second question wrong?” Hitoshi whispered to himself.
Hizashi lifted his head in surprise. Wow, he didn’t remember how hard on himself Hitoshi could be.
“Kid, no one expects perfection out of you. Making mistakes and being imperfect is just human.”
Hitoshi avoided his father’s eyes, rubbing his neck. “But I should’ve remembered this. It was really easy in the end.”
Hizashi sighed, placing his hand on his son’s shoulder. “You know me and Shouta are already so proud of you, right? Not even because of your more than excellent performance at school but because of how hard you’re working, how dedicated you are and how much you enjoy what you do. It’s much more important to us that you can be yourself, without any pressure or requirements from us. We love you unconditionally, and I hope you can do that for yourself as well.” He smiled. Eri had stopped drawing too and listened to Hizashi talk, which the blond answered with a kind smile.
Hitoshi didn’t say anything, but he put the paper down and seemed to stop worrying about his grade. Hizashi saw him chew on his lower lip, trying to fight back a smile.
After another half an hour, the door of the bedroom suddenly opened and a warm, relaxed Shouta came out, immediately starting to fuss about work.
“’Zashi, you didn’t wake me up. Now it’ll take me all night to-“
“Don’t interrupt us! We’re trying to work here!” Hizashi grinned as he handed another test into Hitoshi’s hands.
Shouta had stopped at the bedroom door, his eyes focusing on his family at the kitchen table.
He stayed silent as he slowly walked over, looking at the large stack of papers, already graded and filed away. The one’s left on the table would probably be done in another 10 minutes.
“What are you guys doing?”
Shouta would sometimes get angry when Hizashi had one of his ingenious, spontaneous ideas, especially if it ended up inconveniencing Shouta even more in the end. But now he sounded well-rested and his voice soft, maybe a bit in wonder.
“We’re helping you, daddy!” Eri smiled.
Shouta glanced over at Eri, at the little flowers she had been drawing on the front page of Bakugou’s essay.
“Oh really?” The man smirked, patting down his daughter’s head. “Are you guys sure you agreed on this and haven’t been bribed by your father?”
“Shouta! I am a just and caring employer!” Hizashi dramatically placed his hand on his chest.
“We just want you to rest more.” Eri explained with a serious face.
Hitoshi nodded too, too embarrassed to lift his head from the papers. “You should have more free time. It’s not a big sacrifice from us to give you that.” He spoke quietly.
Hizashi could see how important those words were for his husband. Shouta stared again at the finished exams, then at his children and smiled.
“Thank you, kids. I really appreciate you doing this for me.” He ruffled Hitoshi’s already messy hair and patted Eri once more. “Does this really mean I will have a free night? I don’t even remember when last I had one.” Shouta smirked.
“Then- Then you can come play house with me, daddy! You promised me this week! And draw with me!”
“Well, I suppose-“
“And we were supposed to train tonight, dad.”
“Oh, right. Sorry, Hitoshi, I’ll help you tonight.” Shouta quickly replied. Hizashi smirked at his husband, knowing that he might get annoyed for not being able to just sleep some more but still glad to make some much needed time for his family. “And is there something you want, Hizashi? Might as well jump in now.”
Hizashi’s smirk widened. “Oh, I’m fine. I know I’ll have you all to myself later tonight.” He winked.
Eri jumped up from her chair to fetch her art supplies, a whole backpack full of them, and Hitoshi went into his room to change, grimacing at Hizashi for the gross implication.
When Shouta had attended an actually quite nice tea party with Eri’s plush animals and been tied up by Hitoshi’s capturing weapon for a few hours, the house was finally quieting down. Hizashi had put Eri into bed and Hitoshi had retreated into his room too.
The blond walked back to the living room, fully anticipating to find his husband already asleep on their couch, but was surprised when he found the man still up, sitting on the kitchen table and looking through the graded exams.
“Do you really think I can give these back to my students?” Shouta spoke softly, an amused smirk on his face.
Hizashi smiled to himself as he made his way to hug his husband from behind. “Hey, we worked so hard on those! What’s wrong with them?” He dramatized.
“They are full of stickers and doddles made by a 6-year-old, written in at least 2 different handwritings, none of which is mine, and some of the exercises are graded incorrectly.”
“So? Even teachers make mistakes sometimes!” Hizashi countered. Shouta sighed, and Hizashi knew he was rolling his eyes. “You can check them later again if you want. My point was just to get you to relax for one night.”
Hizashi went to grab the exams to see how bad the damage actually was when Shouta suddenly drew the pile closer to himself.
“I guess.. I can let my students off easy this time. It’d be criminal to rob them of these drawings Eri made personally for them.” The peaks of Shouta’s ears were tinting red as he spoke. “And.. thank you, ‘Zashi. This was just what I needed right now, to remember what I really should prioritize in my life.”
“-And to remind yourself that we are here to help you, too. Not just as a way to escape work but to also to help you through it, y’know? And the kids really liked it too! We had a lot of fun, so who knows, maybe they’ll be inspired to do more grading in the future-”
“You can’t make our children do your work, Hizashi.” Shouta smirked at him.
“But if they want to help!” Hizashi pouted exaggeratedly. “Hitoshi is already doing much better than I did in high school, though he was worried for not getting a perfect score.”
“Really?” Shouta raised an eyebrow.
“Yeah, but he recovered.” Hizashi smiled, seeing Shouta look through the stack to find the specific paper. Hizashi had already graded it and left a small note of ‘Great work, ‘Toshi!’ on it. Shouta reached for the pen on the table and scribbled something down too, looking very much like an ‘I’m proud of you’.
“Maybe you should use these extra hours to get some more sleep, love.” Hizashi reached to give his husband a kiss and decided to head for the shower.
“What about your promise to ‘have me all to yourself’ tonight?” Shouta joked.
“I’d never suggest anything like that on a school night!” Hizashi grinned back. “But maybe the kids would like to have a nice sleepover at aunt Nemuri’s this weekend, whatcha say?” He blabbered as he left the living room.
At his last glance backwards, he saw Shouta still smiling at his son's test, and taking pictures of some of Eri’s little doodles.
“Maybe next time I’ll help you with your English tests.” Shouta spoke, the dim light of Hizashi’s night lamp still on as they settled into bed.
“Really?” Hizashi beamed, turning to his side to face the man.
Shouta just gave him an annoyed look, the sarcasm dripping from his expression. “Eri knows more words in English than I do.”
“Aw, but you know the best ones!” Hizashi winked.
Shouta rolled his eyes. “I love you.” Hizashi giggled at the poor pronunciation and clumsy intonation. It sounded more like a cute, tenor robot than a confession of love.
“I love you too, Shou.” He curled into the man’s warm chest.
Evenings like these were what made all the long hours at work worth it.