Chapter Text
They had a strained relationship, Shouta and Inko. Everyone said that they had some horrible argument, and it lead to their divorce, others say that it was never love. All they knew for sure, was that if they were to ask, they would get some kind of cryptic response.
“It’s in the past.”
“What happened isn’t important anymore.”
Or just plain old changing the subject. They weren’t hostile, no, that would be hurtful to everyone, including, especially, Izuku. Their son. They had managed to keep their quarrels to themselves, especially when the young boy was around. It was civil, but strained. Inko had primary custody, but Shouta had visitation rights, and emergency custody. If anything were to happen to Inko, Izuku would come live with him.
So Shouta had Izuku over at his apartment every second Christmas, and every other weekend. They both thoroughly enjoyed their time together, and some could even say that Izuku and Shouta were closer than the mother-son alternative. Shouta often regretted having the big incident with Inko, leaving Izuku without a primary source of communication with his dad. So the last time Izuku had stayed with him, he gave him a brand new cell phone, and spent the weekend setting it up, adding contacts. He explained to Izuku all he could do with a phone. Texting, calling, pictures, games, and a handy dandy notes app for when his mutism gets to him.
Izuku was selectively mute, and deaf. He had been outright furious when he found out that ‘Kacchan’ had been a little too close to his ears with his Quirk, an he went ballistic. The first thing he did was call his husband, Hizashi, and took Izuku to an emergency check up with his audiologist, to make sure of no life changing conditions. He had ordered a pair of hearing aids, and took Izuku back to his apartment.
Once Izuku was put to bed that night, once he called Bakugou Mitsuki, ‘Kacchan’ had been punished, grounded, until further notice. Then Mitsuki had offered to pay for the medical bill, and his hearing aids, but Shouta respectfully declined. He had the funds for anything Izuku could ever need, and more, so he wasn’t going to force Mitsuki to pay the outrageous fines with her meager savings, until her fashion business took off.
That was a year ago. Inko had been upset and angry too, and Izuku had called to complain about shouting, and Inko sending him away from her office, yelling “Not now, Izuku! I have more important things to deal with than you! You are not the utmost centre of my attention!”
He was sobbing during that call. But Inko had calmed considerably after her explosive outburst at her son. Shouta had been mad at her, and had, immediately, broken their ‘agree to disagree’ promise, to keep things healthy for a growing boy, by screaming at her face. He realized later on that he was over reacting, but he had been upset at the situation without Inko yelling at his traumatized baby, that just piled onto it.
It was Friday now, and Hizashi and Shouta were getting everything clean for Izuku’s weekend. They had been lounging on the sofa, when Inko knocked. When he opened the door, she was standing there with a rigid posture, tightly hold Izuku’s hand, who looked to be distressed. “Inko.”
“Shouta. Here he is. I expect him ready to go home at five on Sunday."
“Yeah yeah. I know the drill. It’s not like we haven’t done this a thousand times by now and it’s always the same. So I’ll take care of him, he’ll be safe, enjoying the weekend. Without you.”
She scoffed, and gave Izuku’s hand to Shouta. “Fair warning. He fell in the river today. His hearing aids are busted.”
Then she walked away, Shouta sending his middle finger in her direction. He was petty. Get used to it. Hizashi has already taken him inside, asking him what he wanted to eat. “Hey, Zuku! How’s it going?”
Izuku just looked up at him, with a nervous smile, and with shaky hands, he replied, “ Hearing aid broke, sorry. K-A-C-C-H-A-N pushed me. I can only sign. I can’t talk right now either.”
“Oh, ok. That’s fine. Handy that we all know Sign in this house.”
Then he looked at Shouta. “Kacchan pushed him. His hearing aids are broken.”
“Yeah, Inko said as much. She said that he fell in the river. So one of them is lying an I’m going to believe Izuku on th-“
“Unless Kacchan pushed him into the river. And he just told her that he fell. Sho, we need to stop this. Either get this ‘Kacchan ‘ to stop, or transfer him.”
Shouta sighed, weariness tugging at his features. “I tried pulling him from that school when he lost his hearing, but Inko wouldn’t go for it. And since I don’t have custody, only visitation rights, if I tried to bring it to court, they could take that from me. That’s the only reason that I haven’t tried for custody again. I don’t want to lose him forever.”
Hizashi nodded, given his reasoning, he couldn’t disagree.
“I’m not even sure that he’ll go to me if anything happens to her. She, at any point, could have changed her will to make Mitsuki his guardian. And I sure as fuck know that I’m not one of his emergency contacts. Inko bragged to me about that one. God she’s insufferable.”
Hizashi turned to Izuku, who looked torn between leaving them to their discussion, or practicing his lip reading. He raised his hands to sign, fluent and swift. “ Ok, before we have a whole lot of fun, we have a few questions about what happened, is that ok? Do you want to wait until later?”
“You can ask questions. I don’t mind. I also have something to say.”
“Okay, that’s fine! You said K-A-C-C-H-A-N pushed you, right? Where did he push you, and why?”
“He pushed me in the river. My hearing aids started sparking and they broke. Momma said that she’s gonna get them fixed in a few days, when she has more time for me. I’d say that he pushed me because of a recent update to the topic I wanna talk about.”
Hizashi turned to Shouta, making sure he got all that. He nodded, tears shining in his normally dry eyes. “ Does your mom usually not have time for you? How often does she neglect your problems?”
“Not often, I guess. She tries, but sometimes thing are more important than me. I sometimes figure out my problem by the time she can help, so it’s fine.”
“But, I seriously doubt that the teachers had the brain cells to learn Sign, so how are you learning in school? Do you have your hearing aids with you? We can go get them fixed tomorrow.”
Izuku nodded and rummaged through his shabby backpack, delicately placing a small box on the table for Hizashi to take. Inside was a pair of waterlogged hearing aids, Izuku gazing at them forlornly, and Shouta looking angry.
“Ok, I have something to say now. Please don’t hate me, okay?”
“Baby, why would we hate you? There’s nothing you could do to make me stop loving you, okay?”
“Okay. I’m Quirkless. Momma took me to the doctor yesterday. And I have the extra toe joint, and everything. I’m sorry, you must be disappointed in me.”
Shouta reached over the table to scoop Izuku into his arms, cradling him close to the mans chest, so Izuku could feel his heartbeat. “ Whoever told you that being Quirkless was a bad thing was wrong. I promise. I will always be there, I will always love you, got it? Being Quirkless changes nothing. You’ll always have me, and Hizashi.”
“Okay, thank you dad. I love you.” He smiled, looking at Shouta like he was his whole world. “ I like listening to your heart beat. It reminds me that I will never lose you, cause if your heart is beating, that means you’re with me.” He grabbed Shouta’s calloused hand and placed it over his own heart. “ And mine means that I’m always here for you. When my heart beats, it means I love you. And that I’m always here when you are sad or upset, I can try and help. I love you.”
Then Izuku fell asleep, and Shouta looked at Hizashi like he was about to cry. “Zashi, he said that he likes my heartbeat because it means that I’m there for him. And- and he-“
“It’s okay, Shouta. I get it, it was adorable. Let’s get him to bed so we can figure this out.”
They set Izuku in the top big bed, and Shouta cringed at his obvious malnourishment. It wasn’t prominent, it was subtle, but it was there, and Shouta was ready to fight Inko with his bare hands for neglecting his son. But there’s nothing he could do about it, the court could take his visitation rights, and Shouta couldn’t let that happen. “Okay, how are we going to handle this? Hizashi, there’s nothing I can do about it. There’s obvious neglect from Inko, and physical abuse at school, but if I go to court like the boy who cried wolf, then the jury will rule in favor of Inko, because she could turn the blame on me.”
“Then get Tsukauchi in there. If Inko tries anything, he’ll know. And with his position of rank, who will the judge believe? The high ranking police officer with a truth Quirk, or the suspected abuser?”
He looked skeptical, worried. “But still, I’m not going anywhere until I have solid, legal evidence, I can’t give them a leg up. Even the smallest mistake, and they’ll take him away from me forever, and he’ll be devastated. I’ll be devastated.”
“We could request a wellness check. Have Tsukauchi investigate the house, and question Inko. And we can give him our statement of probable cause, and he’ll find out about everything. Completely legal, completely safe. We could even get Nemuri or someone to request it instead of us, so the court can’t twist it.”
“Okay, I’ll think about it. But remember, any risk of never seeing him again, and we’re done. Got it?”
“Got it. Now, onto the fun stuff. Let’s plan what we’re going to do with Izuku. We should take him to Recovery Girl for his injuries, and go to my audiologist for his aids, and then-“
“Can we plan this tomorrow, when my heart has settled from being ripped out in two different ways?”
Hizashi smiled, and beckoned his husband into their bed, instantly falling asleep.