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Mitsuki was going to kill Hisashi, Masaru could see it in her eyes. (Not that he blamed her in the slightest. He certainly would have gone to jail on charges of aggravated assault if the bastard ever showed his face again.)
Even so. “You know, Izuku needs all of us,” he told her the night after they were officially named guardians to her best friend’s son. “So don’t go hunting him down.”
“I know, I know,” she growled, thumping her fist down on the table. “But if he ever comes back and hurts Izuku again, I’ll break his neck and bury him in some forgotten construction site, mark my words!” (Then she went off into a string of creative insults and nicknames for him, most of which did not bear repeating.)
“Anyway, Mitsuki,” he interjected, keenly aware of their proximity to the boys’ room, “we should get to bed. We’ve got a lot of work to do.”
Still growling a little, she nodded and switched off the kitchen light.
The next morning was better, but not by much. Izuku still wasn’t talking (or crying, for that matter, which was more alarming than the silence itself) and Katsuki was too quiet, too, watching his new sort-of-brother closely. As such, breakfast was a stilted affair and when Mitsuki left for work, Masaru had to pull his son aside.
“Now, I want to ask you something, and it is perfectly okay if the answer is ‘no,’ okay?” he said, tilting Katsuki’s chin up to meet his eyes. He nodded glumly. “Do you feel ready to go to school today?”
Katsuki blinked and hummed. “I’m fine, old man.” (Masaru didn’t believe that for a second. A fine Katsuki would have yelled that statement. A quiet Katsuki was an upset Katsuki.) “I can go.”
Masaru sighed. “Okay, if you are sure. But if, for any reason, it gets to be too much, I won’t say anything or ask questions: you just call me, and I’ll pick you up. Alright?”
“I can handle it, you shitty old man!”
Ah, there it was. That was better. “Alright. Go get ready, we’ll leave in a few minutes.”
A gentle tug on his pantleg brought his attention down to Izuku, who pointed mutely at his shoes where they sat by the door. It was fairly obvious what he meant.
“No. You’ve still got a week before they expect you back.” He reached over and gently squeezed the boy’s shoulder. “If you’re bored or need something to do, you can help me around the house or with ideas for designs?”
Izuku nodded and went over to the sink to start on the dishes. They worked in companionable silence until Katsuki burst back in with his backpack and grabbed his bento from the fridge.
“Ready!” he shouted, turning to face them proudly.
Masaru smiled and nodded, drying off his hands and grabbing his coat. “Do you want to come with for the walk over?” he asked Izuku.
Izuku nodded, setting the last dish down on the rack. Katsuki, ever the competitor, raced him to the door and slipped his shoes on. Masaru shook his head fondly and made sure, much to Katsuki’s chagrin, that both of them were bundled up against the chill. And finally, they were off.
The walk was deeply ingrained in them, of course, so usually the boys didn’t feel the need to stick close and Masaru could let them wander so long as they were where he could see them. Besides, the sunlight was warmer than it had been, even if the wind still had a bite to it, so it was the perfect day for it. Katsuki seemed to agree, but Izuku stayed glued to Masaru instead of chasing after him.
Then, something unusual happened:
A stray cat trotted up, having materialized from around the next corner, and jumped into Izuku’s arms like of course it belonged there.
Like the sun breaking through a bank of clouds, Izuku smiled and whispered, “Hi, Ao. I missed you.”
So. Looked like they were adopting a cat, too. He mentally added cat food and an eventual vet visit to his list of things to do.
“Who is this, Izuku?” he asked, leaning down to get a better look. The cat was mottled black and brown, with maybe some orange mixed in, and bore some minor scars on its legs, ears and face. So a feisty stray. Hmm.
“This is Ao. She helped me when. . .” Izuku trailed off, burying his face in the thick fur. The cat deemed this the appropriate moment to lick his forehead.
Masaru made a noise of understanding. “Well, she’s welcome to stay with us, provided she doesn’t poop in the house. At any rate, we should get going before we make Katsuki late.”
Speaking of, he glanced around for his son, only to find him watching them from a few steps away.
“Come on, nerd,” Katsuki said, jerking his head. “The sooner we get there, the sooner I get to come home so we can play with the cat.”
Izuku smiled brightly at him and nodded, trotting to catch up, still toting Ao.
Hopefully that would be enough to convince Mitsuki of this.
School was a pain in the ass, but sometimes it had its uses. Sure, Katsuki hated being bored and that was usually enough to make him appreciate some of the lessons, but today it was much more about getting out of that silent house.
At school, he could be loud and not risk making fucking Deku shut down even more. Hopefully, the nerd would go back to being his normal annoying self soon, because the frail look was driving him insane.
Being at school was normal. Listening to the teachers drone on about basic shit was normal. (Not having anyone muttering somewhere in the corner behind him wasn’t normal. Why did that bother him so much?)
And the whole morning, no one talked about Deku or Aunty Inko.
Then lunch rolled around, and the extras had to ruin everything.
“Hey, I heard Deku ran away from a villain! He wasn’t even hurt, so why does he get to miss school?” Fingers Extra griped, plopping down with his lunch next to Katsuki.
“Yeah, no kidding. Villian attacks happen nearby all the time, and we don’t get to miss school,” Tall Extra added.
Katsuki stamped down the urge to spit at them. Instead, he growled, “His fucking mom died, you dumbasses. That’s why he’s not here.”
Wings Extra blinked at him. “Yeah, but he didn’t see it right? So what’s the big deal? It happened weeks ago.”
His palms crackled and popped, blackening a small section of the table. “You’d be a mess too if your mom up and died, fucker. Doesn’t matter if you saw it or not.” That’s what the old hag said anyway, and well, Katsuki didn’t want to think about what he’d feel if. . . He gritted his teeth and shoveled some food in his mouth. He suddenly couldn’t wait for this day to be over.
Especially now that they got to bring home that cat. If he’d heard right, she’d been there when Aunty—either that or right after, since Deku seemed happy to see her. He’d never gotten to have a pet before, so it should be interesting.
The extras thankfully had moved on to other topics so he could tune them out and focus on his lunch. Only a few more hours.
Mitsuki came home to a spanking clean house and her son conked out on the couch, notebooks scattered on the coffee table. Beside him, Izuku was curled up with—was that a cat? What the hell?
“Ah, welcome home,” Masaru said, voice low. “Sorry, I didn’t warn you. That cat apparently helped Izuku during the storm, so. . . well, he smiled for the first time since then because of her.” He rubbed the back of his neck and rambled on. “She’s an outdoor cat, mostly, but today—”
“It’s fine. I’m glad he’s feeling a little better.” She smiled at the scene and took out her phone to snap a pic. She was not about to waste something so important, even if she didn’t like cats.
Inko, I swear I will do my best for them both, she promised, deep in the confines of her heart.