Chapter Text
What was he doing?
What was he thinking?
All Shouta could hear was the distant voices of the conversation that was happening in front of him while he sat and stared down at the coffee in his cup. He registered the delicious aroma of the black liquid but made no move to take a sip of it, mind focusing on what had him worrying nearly the whole morning instead of what was in front of him.
He woke up and the moment he opened his eyes, his brain had decided it would be a good time to bring up what had happened last night before he even get out of bed.
So Shouta woke up and stared at the ceiling for five minutes as his brain replayed the moment he told the boy he would adopt him.
‘…What was I thinking?’ he had thought as he sat up slowly, eyes wide as the fact slowly sinks in, ‘…Was I even thinking??’
Shouta felt like screaming, but he was never one to scream, that was usually Yamada’s thing.
Was it on impulse? It better not had been on impulse because Shouta was planning on adopting a child.
He groaned into his hands as he rubbed his face in disbelief.
‘…I told him I’ll adopt him… Can I even take care of a kid??’ he thought as he rubs his eyes, ‘…Will we even survive the first week together?? Will I even be considered qualify?!’
Shouta took a deep breath and let his shoulders relax in an attempt to calm himself down.
‘…Am I even the best person to be adopting Izuku?’
He didn’t want to go back on his words. No, the boy didn’t deserve that and despite all his current denial, Shouta wouldn’t give anything to take back his words.
He wanted to adopt the boy. He wanted to.
But it also seemed like the most illogical thing he could ever done, mainly because his lifestyle was a bit of a mess and wouldn’t exactly be a good example for Izuku.
The boy deserved a parent who actually ate three meals a day, not foregoing some meals for a jelly pouch to fill his stomach instead. He also deserved a parent who have better sleeping schedule than Shouta does and more energy to play with him.
He stared ahead, mind racing as he kept asking himself ‘why do you think it’ll be a good idea for Izuku??’.
But again, Shouta had already decided to adopt Izuku (over the weeks he had been thinking about the kid, deep down, he had made up his mind). It wasn’t because he pitied the boy or because it was something a hero like him can do.
Something about the boy caught his attention from the first moment they met. From there, the boy continued to slip his way into Shouta’s heart and now he wouldn’t mind meeting Izuku again as his son.
Actually, he would love to.
Maybe it was his smile. Maybe it was the way the boy approached him with delight and happiness. Shouta didn’t know. All he knew was that it clicked and now he was going to adopt the boy.
What he wasn’t sure about was if Shouta was a good person to adopt Izuku.
There were many things he wasn’t sure about, but the decision was made. Shouta wasn’t going to go back on his decision, he didn’t regret making that decision, and he was going to follow through with it.
…As soon as he stopped feeling daze and questioning himself on his decision…
“Aizawa? You okay, man?” Yamda called, a hand shaking his shoulder gently.
Shouta looked up slowly to see Yamada with furrowed brows and Kayama watching him with pursed lips worriedly.
He gave them a confused blinked.
“Huh?”
“You were way off into the distant land for a minute there, you okay?” the blonde asked, watching Shouta with sharp eyes, he will probably start the secret operation him and Kayama have planned for when Shouta was too sleep deprived if he saw the need.
“…Yeah,” he answered dazedly, black eyes back to staring at his coffee.
“You don’t exactly look fine there, Aizawa,” Kayama pointed out, glancing at Yamada for a moment then back at Shouta, “Have you been sleeping well?”
“…Yeah,”
“…So…why are you so…out of it today?” Yamada asked slowly, treading carefully, probably because most of the time Shotua tended to attempt to brush off the topic.
He wasn’t sure what possessed him to tell them what was on his mind. Maybe it was because he needed help, and he wasn’t about to try to navigate it all himself (especially when he had nearly no clue of what to do) when it could directly affect Izuku.
“…Remember the kid I told you about?”
“The Little Listener that likes you?” Yamada asked for confirmation.
Shouta nodded, brain slowly putting information in as neat pile as possible.
“…He’ll be adopted soon,”
“That’s great!” Yamada exclaimed, a happy smile on his face, relieved now that the boy won’t be staying at the orphanage for any longer.
Shouta nodded slowly in response and Kayama must had interpreted that as him feeling sad that he won’t see the boy anymore, since she looked at him with understanding eyes.
“…But you can probably ask to see him, right?” Yamada asked, trying to be optimistic when he noticed Shouta’s daze gaze.
“…Yeah,” he started slowly, rolling the words around in his head for a moment, testing to see how he want to say it, “Since I’m adopting him.”
Everything went silent. The only thing filling it softly was the electrical hum from the fridge.
Shouta glanced up to see Kayama staring at him, blue eyes going wider and wider while Yamada stared at him, mouth gaping.
“Wait-” Kayama started.
“WHAt?!” Yamada shouted with Quirk slightly activated for a moment until Shouta turned to him with Erasure activated on reflex.
“You’re adopting him?!!” Kayama stood up from her chair quickly and shouted in shock, hands nearly slamming into the wooden surface of the table in the process.
“His name’s Izuku,” Shouta informed them, “He gave me another star last night.”
He pointed at the fridge and Yamada got up, chair scraping the wooden floor in his hurry.
The blonde scrutinized the sticky note for a moment before turning back slowly to them.
“…You got another blue star,”
“He only gives gold and blue star to people he likes,” Shouta started softly, still staring at the warm cup in his hands, “He gave me one of those two colors each time he met me.”
“…Is that why you’re adopting him?” Kayama asked cautiously, “…You don’t particularly like to be around children, Aizawa. Not that I don’t agree with you adopting him, but it’s just a surprise?”
Shouta looked up and stare at the heroine for a moment, head processing the words slowly.
“But well, we both always know you’re a softie… Just thought you’d probably mentally adopt some kids, not actually adopting one,” Kayama elaborated.
“It wasn’t in the realm of impossibility, we just didn’t consider it at first,” Yamada added, nodding along.
“…I don’t know,” Shouta whispered, eyes focus on the dark liquid in his cup.
“What was that?” Kayama asked, leaning forward a little, unable to hear him clearly the first time.
“I don’t know,” he said a little louder, hands off the cup and rubbing his face as he felt all kinds of emotions at once, they were like a pile of tangled strings in his chest, continuing to knot together the whole morning, “I don’t have a particular reason for adopting him! It wasn’t because of pity or anything. I don’t know why I even think I should adopt him! I’m the worst person to be adopting a kid. Look at me! I can barely take care of myself-”
“Woah, calm down, Bud. Calm down,” Yamada exclaimed, giving him a pat on the shoulder while glancing at Kayama.
Both of them look a bit worried. Kayama was pursing her lips as she thinks while Yamada’s brows furrowed as he thinks of what to say.
“Okay, so, looks like you’re attach to him enough to the point of wanting to adopt him…” Kayama started slowly, hands under her chin as she prepares what to say next, “So, you’re going to adopt him! Congratulations! It’s a boy!”
Shouta groaned.
“…He’d be better off with anyone else!”
“Will he really?” Yamada asked, Shouta wasn’t sure if the man was trying to do something with that question, but it made him think.
“…Maybe not…” he sighed as he rubbed his eyes in frustration, “…He said people didn’t want to adopt him because of his sharp teeth… When I took him back to the orphanage yesterday, the caretaker wasn’t happy that he sneaked out and was shouting at him… Izuku didn’t just look guilty, he looked terrified…”
“Well, he did sneak out,” Kayama pointed out.
“The caretaker that came to pick him up the second time I met him was more worried about Izuku being in possible danger and outside all alone than sneaking out,” he continued dazedly, “The caretaker from last night also have this…hostile look in his eyes, like the kid wasn’t something worth his time.”
“That’s worrying…”
“But Izuku-kun will be with you now, right? He’ll be fine now, and we can start an investigation on the orphanage for possible discrimination and mistreatment!” Yamada pointed out.
“I still have to find out if I’m qualify to adopt a kid,” Shouta muttered, “Am I even qualify? Should I even attempt to adopt a kid??”
“Izuku-kun likes you, right?” Kayama started, “And you like him! Enough to want to adopt him too. It’ll be fine!”
“Me? And a kid? When I can barely take care of myself?”
“I’m so proud that you finally admitted that you don’t take very good care of yourself instead of denying it, but we’ll get to that later,” Kayama continued, “The thing is, you can change up your lifestyle! Right? You can start taking better care of yourself now, so you can give Izuku-kun a good example and take good care of him!”
“…I guess…” he mumbled, blinking at Kayama, still a little daze.
“You’ll do great, Aizawa!” Yamada added, “Despite how grumpy you usually are, you care, so the kid will be fine!”
“…I don’t know how to raise a kid…”
“You’ll learn!” Kayama countered, “And the kiddo chose you to be his dad. And you choose him to be your son. So, I think it’s a perfect match!”
“…What if I mess up?” Shouta muttered, rubbing his hands together nervously, “What if I accidentally did something wrong??”
“Then we’ll help you figure out how to go from there!” Yamada exclaimed enthusiastically, already in full support of the adoption.
Kayama suddenly gave a dramatic gasped and slammed her hands on the table.
“Yamada!” she squealed with a smile on her face, “You know what this means?? We’re going to be aunt and uncle!!!”
Yamada somehow gave an even more dramatic gasp at her words.
“I’m going to be an uncle!!!” he squealed loudly, raising his fists in the air, “I’m going to be an uncle!!!!”
“…I still need to start the process,” Shouta remind them slowly, finally slipping out of his daze.
“We can’t have the Little Listener waits too long, Aizawa!” Yamada pointed out, shaking his shoulder lightly, then pause, “By the way, are you going to rent a new apartment? This one is only one bedroom. Or is he going to sleep in your bedroom too?”
“I’m renting a new apartment,”
“Oh! We can help you look!” Kayama offered, turning to look at Yamada with a grin.
“…I’ve already look,” he told them, “Got one in mind, actually.”
Yamada and Kayama stared at him with wide eyes.
“Holy cow,” the blonde muttered, “He got it planned out already??”
“So, you’ve been thinking about adopting him since you can’t stop thinking about the kiddo,” Kayama said, nodding like she understood Shouta perfectly, “It’s perfect! You’ll do great, Aizawa!”
“…Thanks for the encouragement, I guess…”
“Oh! Can we take a look at that apartment you’re eyeing?” Kayama asked, a determined glint in her eyes, “We have to make sure it’ll be a perfect fit for both you and your new son.”
“He’s not my son yet,”
“He’ll be soon!!” Yamada exclaimed, “And yeah! We should take a look. And when you go out to buy the Little Listener outfits, you have to call us.”
“Why?” Shouta asked, brows furrowed, slowly going back to his usual self after not feeling so dazed anymore.
“Because of your fashion sense, Aizawa,” Kayama answered, “You wore sweatpants and nearly identical t-shirts nearly every day! Where’s the variety?!! We’re not having your new son have all black clothes and pink and black color combinations in his wardrobe!!”
“They were comfortable,”
“People usually thought you might be a homeless man with those outfit, Aizawa,” the heroine told him calmly and elicited a laugh from Yamada.
Shouta glared at her for that statement.
“Come on! We can all pick nice outfits for the Little Listener!” Yamada commented after his laughter finally turn into little chuckles, a grin on his face, “It’ll be a nice hang out too.”
Shouta groaned at that.
“And we can all think about what to get for your new son as a gift on his first visit to your new apartment and when he gets adopted!”
“…You sound so sure that I’ll be qualify,”
“Be more optimistic, Aizawa!” Yamada said, patting his back enthusiastically, “You’re qualify!!”
He let out a soft sigh and rubbed his neck nervously.
“We’ll have to wait and see…” Shouta muttered, attention back to his coffee.
“When are you going to start the process? What goes into the adoption process anyways?” Kayama asked aloud.
“I don’t know. I’ll do some research and see if I can start the process tomorrow,”
“You go, Aizawa!” Yamada cheered, “Adopt the Little Listener!!”
He couldn’t help but huff a laugh as the two started cheering. He usually didn’t like loud noises, but Shouta appreciated the cheers this time.
He appreciated it, but their prolong cheers were going to disturb the neighbors.
“Alright, quiet down, you two,”
They had always known that Aizawa care a lot more than he looks.
Despite how stoic and apathetic the man seemed to be, he could be quite softhearted, so Hizashi wasn’t that surprise when the man looked so concern and seemed a bit attach to a kid he met for only a few minutes.
He had expected Aizawa to keep on worrying about the boy and do something eventually. It’s just that he didn’t expect that something would be adopting the kid.
Aizawa tended to shy away from people, he didn’t involve himself with children more than he had to, usually. It made Hizashi curious about what this kiddo is like, since he practically broke down the wall around the man’s heart in the short span of time they get to meet.
Hizashi couldn’t really imagine what the boy might be like. The boy could possibly be a cheery kid, or he could be a shy one. He knew that Aizawa cherished the boy though, he kept all three stickers and stuck them on his fridge instead of somewhere more private after all. It must mean the man was quite proud of the little stars he was gifted with, even if he didn’t realize it.
Aizawa suddenly panicking in front of them was also a shock. There were times that the man couldn’t quite take all the emotions anymore and break down, but they were all rare occurrences. Aizawa had learned how to manage them over the years, and he was also the type that didn’t like showing his emotions for everyone to see.
He panicked in front of them today, though. Hizashi knew Kayama can also see how worried and anxious Aizawa was over the fact that he decided to adopt the boy.
It was an abrupt decision, but Aizawa was committed to it, despite all the insecurities he was feeling. The boy had slipped passed all the barriers in the man’s heart and ended up right in the inner most part, the part Aizawa didn’t usually show to anyone.
‘…I want to meet the little guy,’ Hizashi thought as he watches Shouta with Kayama, making sure that the man wasn’t having any more thoughts building up that’ll drive him to be unsure about himself once again.
It seemed like Shouta was doing better now though. His shoulders were less tensed now and he wasn’t staring at the coffee dazedly. He wondered if they could glean some more info about the boy…
“How old is our new nephew, Aizawa?” Kayama asked casually, leaning forward slightly, getting to the information gathering before Hizashi could.
“He’s six. I thought he was four though,”
“Couldn’t that be because you’re tall?” Hizashi asked, it was easy for tall people like himself, Aizawa, and Kayama to misjudge a child’s age, since they were quite small compared to them.
Aizawa was pretty tall, but Hizashi was taller by a few centimeters (Kayama asked about their heights once, wanting to compare which one was taller, since their height was pretty close).
“…No, he was just small,” Aizawa answered, his brows were furrowed though, so he was probably a bit skeptical, “…He was a little on the thin side.”
“Then we’ll have to make sure he gains a few more kilos!” Kayama exclaimed, “Maybe you should take some cooking classes or practice cooking a variety of recipes, Aizawa. You’re the one cooking for him. You’re not thinking about having him eating only take-outs and microwave foods, are you?”
“…Oh yeah,” Aizawa muttered, eyes widen slightly like he had just realized it, “…I can fry eggs, a least… Maybe I should buy a cookbook…”
‘…Did he just considered buying a cookbook? Did Aizawa just considered learning to cook more recipes?’
The kiddo wasn’t even there physically and already brought some changes. What was happening?
‘The Little Listener’s going to be an amazing kid,’ Hizashi decided, nodding to himself in confident, ‘I just know it.’
If the kiddo was able to make Aizawa consider actually cooking something to eat, he’s going to be amazing.
“What’s his favorite food?” Kayama asked.
“I have no idea,” Aizawa said, eyes widening a little more.
Hizashi hope he wouldn’t start to stress over the fact that he didn’t know much about his new son’s preferences.
“That’s fine, isn’t it? You’ll learn when you meet him again,” Hizashi pointed out, tone lighthearted and calm.
Aizawa paused, then nodded slowly. It looked to Hizashi that a list was starting to form in the man’s mind about what to do when he next sees the kid.
“What’s his Quirk?” Hizashi decided to ask, feeling curious.
Maybe it was something that create sharp objects on his body? Aizawa did say that the boy had sharp teeth.
“Some kind of fish Quirk, I think,” Aizawa answered, “He have some scales on his cheeks too.”
“What do you two talks about when you see each other?” Kayama asked casual and curious, but she probably didn’t expect any answer the first time, since it was about conversation that Aizawa had.
“…Not much. He can’t talk,”
“Wait, what?!” Hizashi exclaimed, didn’t quite expecting that answer, “But wait, you two talked… He learned sign language?”
“No, he has a notebook with some words and a lot of symbols to communicate,”
“…Maybe you should enroll him in a sign language class, then you can communicate with each other,” the heroine suggested, “…And maybe some kind of text to speech support item too? That way he can talk to other people too. And it’ll be a lot faster than using symbols on a page to communicate.”
“We can communicate, it just takes a while for me to interpret what he’s saying. But those are good ideas,” Aizawa muttered, seeming to mentally note the ideas in his head.
It seemed that Aizawa was slowly processing what he had done and slowly getting himself back on track. Hizashi had a feeling that the man was probably mentally cataloging what he needed to buy for his new son in his mind right now.
“…I’ll need to buy him a bed…” Hizashi heard Aizawa muttered quietly.
Kayama blinked at the man and chuckled.
“Thinking about buying him a bed already huh? You’re committed, Aizawa. He’ll be your son legally soon, I’m sure,”
‘Legally’, since they both know Aizawa had mentally adopted the boy as his son to a certain degree right about now.
“…What do kids play with???” Aizawa asked suddenly, eyes a little wide as he looked between the two of them, seeming like he had just faced a dilemma.
“Uh…blocks?” Hizashi throwed out the first thought that pop up in his mind.
“Plushies?” Kayama guessed.
Aizawa narrowed his eyes at the empty space, clearly thinking and probably having some kind of internal battle judging from how his brows furrowed.
“…I’ll let him choose…”
“Yeah, that’s a good idea,” Kayama agreed to Aizawa’s mutter, a little amused smile on her face.
Aizawa looking confused and worried was a rare thing. How the man was currently in a bit of a dilemma trying to figure out what he needs to prepare for his new son was also a little amusing to Hizashi and Kayama, especially when they didn’t see him like this often.
“…I need to make a list…” Hizashi heard the man muttered to himself and can’t help but chuckle along with Kayama.
The boy would be an interesting new addition to Aizawa’s life, he’s sure.
The black cat Izuku saw walking on the wall outside the big window at playtime reminded him of Eraser.
It was thin and its fur were short, but all mussed up. One of its ears have a scratch, leaving a gap between the tissues. Sometimes it sat down on the top of the wall and started to gloom itself, then turned to look toward the window with narrow eyes like it didn’t like all the noises the kids around Izuku were making.
Eraser-san looked a little grumpy too, but he was nice.
He even gave Izuku five pages of stickers! The black kitty playing with yarn reminded Izuku a lot about the man, but he only ever takes it out to look when everyone went to sleep and the light outside shines in just right.
He had been thinking if he should keep it or give it to Eraser. Izuku ended up deciding that he would keep it for now, since Eraser didn’t want him outside at night anymore and told Izuku to wait for him at the orphanage.
‘…I hope he come soon,’ Izuku thought as he absentmindedly rearranges the four blocks in his play area.
There were more blocks, but the other kids have them. If Izuku wanted more, he had to ask for some or ask to play with them.
That didn’t work though, he always asked, and they always yelled at him, calling him mean things just because they couldn’t understand Izuku and because he had sharp teeth.
Izuku didn’t always have sharp teeth though, he had the normal human shape ones before, but then it changed when his Quirk came in.
But even before then, Izuku wasn’t really liked in the orphanage since he always goes around and ask questions about other people’s quirks.
The caretakers and some kids said it was creepy, some other said it was weird how Izuku asked all those questions and make up theories about them, since he didn’t have an intelligence quirk.
Airi was nice to the boy though, and she help him write down all the difficult words in his analysis notebook.
But she wasn’t there most days like the other caretakers, so Izuku had to wait when it was her workday to ask her to write for him.
The boy felt bad having her write for him though, so he tried to write more, practicing his Hiragana, but it was still hard.
So, he would leave it to Airi for now, until he figures out Hiragana.
…Or maybe he could ask Eraser? But it might be a long time before they meet again. Eraser had told him to not go outside anymore and wait for him to come to adopt Izuku, so he can’t see the hero.
The man said he would adopt Izuku, and he didn’t sound like he was lying. So, he will really adopt Izuku?
He didn’t think the man would lie to him. He was a hero, right? He didn’t sound like he was lying too. If Eraser just said that to keep Izuku at the orphanage, he would be sad.
But Eraser was nice, and his hugs were warm, so Izuku can trust him, right?
‘…I hope he come soon,’
Izuku want to give him another gold star, since the man was so nice.
He had let Izuku sleep, resting on his shoulder all the way to the station and kept him warm. To the boy, the hero deserves the gold star he was going to give him when they meet again.
Soon, hopefully.