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There’s a saying.
My well-behaved first born gave me the courage to have my wild child second.
Ochako hadn’t believed the saying when the receptionist had mentioned it at one of her prenatal appointments. She still hadn’t believed it when the doctor handed her their precious second son and a warm sense of deja vu flooded her.
He was perfect.
Just as Kyo had been.
Ten fingers.
Ten toes.
Button nose.
Chubby cherub cheeks.
A perfect blend of her and Katsuki.
And quite the set of lungs.
She didn’t remember Kyo screaming like that or the nurse wincing at the sound before plastering a smile as she handed her the baby.
“Nice healthy lungs,” the nurse commented, forcing her smile to be sunnier.
She’d been able to clearly hear his screams from the nursery when they’d taken him for his first bath and tests. Little Hiro’s screams echoed throughout the maternity wing and probably beyond.
The pediatrician said it was normal during their two-week appointment.
She’d told them that Hiro was probably cluster feeding since the baby seemed to calm when nursed, but she’d breastfed Kyo and she didn’t remember this frantic screaming.
Kyo, like all babies, had cried, but Hiro-
Hiro screamed.
Red faced.
Fists bawled.
Arms and legs flailing as his cries took on an inhuman pitch. It was an angry hiss, a warning before it exploded into a rage-filled shrill.
But it was normal.
That’s what the doctor said.
The doctor had said she’d heard worse, and furthermore, she was hesitant to diagnose it as colic so soon. She’d smiled, patting her and Katsuki on the shoulders before telling them, “If this goes on longer than three weeks we’ll talk about colic.”
That had been two long sleepless weeks ago.
Ochako dared the pediatrician to tell them it wasn’t colic at their next appointment. “Katsuki,” she whispered, roughly slapping a hand against his chest as she rolled to her back. “Katsuki.”
“What?” he groaned through the pillow over his head.
Ochako lifted her head. “It’s quiet,” she marveled, narrowing her eyes as she looked around their dark bedroom. She focused on the bassinet across the room and marveled at the silence. “Hiro’s not crying.”
After Katsuki spent the better part of the evening trying to soothe the baby from hunger, gas, frustration, pain, or gods knows what else, he managed to silence Hiro’s screams at around 9:30 before getting him to sleep minutes later. She’d watched as he placed him in the bassinet and backed away from the infant like a bomb waiting to explode. They’d waited for the inevitable screams that never came before jumping at the chance to close their eyes themselves.
For a solid five hours.
And it was still quiet.
“Don’t fucking jinx it,” Katsuki groaned, rolling away from her as he hugged the pillow against his chest.
Ochako pulled herself up, crawling to the edge of the bed to get a look at a rare glimpse of their son sleeping peacefully. “Katsuki?”
“You’re gonna jinx it.”
“He’s not in the bassinet.”
Katsuki’s eyes shot open as he sat up. “Huh?” He was out of bed and to the bassinet before Ochako set a foot on the ground. “Where the hell did he go?” He touched the empty mattress of the bassinet.
“I don’t know.” It had been too quiet. “How did this happen? We’re heroes, and we let our son get kidnapped.”
He shook his head, looking around the room. “Brat wasn’t kidnapped.” Katsuki dropped to his knees searching the floor.
“He can’t walk, Katsuki!” she panicked. “I’m gonna go check out Kyo.”
He continued looking around the room before going back to the bed, shuffling the covers around. Katsuki was ninety-nine percent sure that he hadn’t fallen asleep with the baby in his arms, but the lack of sleep had him questioning the night’s events.
He paced around the bedroom trying to soothe Hiro to sleep as he held the baby against his chest.
Just like every other night since they’d brought the kid home from the hospital.
“Kyo isn’t in his room!”
Katsuki froze, pillow dropping from his hands as he turned to his wife standing in the doorway.
“I went to check on Kyo,” Ochako started, frantically as she rushed over to grab her phone from the nightstand, “and he wasn’t in his bed. I’m calling the police.”
“Why?”
She stared at him, eyes wide. “Our children are missing!”
“Did you look under the brat’s bed?”
“Why would he be under the bed?!”
“Cause he’s a kid,” he reasoned, forcing himself to think about the situation rationally. “Nine times out ten whenever brats go missing, they are hiding somewhere in the house.” Katsuki had trouble recalling a time when he’d been called to an actual kidnapping incident. He’d had received many reports of missing kids and nearly all of them had been hiding. Some had gotten lost or there had been a miscommunication between caregivers, but none had actually been kidnapped.
“Our three-week-old son is not hiding!”
“But our four-year-old probably is,” he explained, taking a deep breath in. “Brat probably got thirsty and decided to get a glass of milk or a snack something.”
“Or-”
“If the brat had been kidnapped, there would be fire or smoke or something!” They’d carefully explained to Kyo that the only acceptable time to use his quirk was if he or someone else was in serious danger, and he couldn’t get an adult to help him. He and Ochako had given him many recurring talkings about the meaning of the word ‘danger’. That definition was constantly evolving.
But the definition of kidnapping was clear.
Kyo knew that if someone was trying to take him or his brother away, then he should defend himself.
Kick.
Scream.
Bite.
Burn.
“This doesn’t explain why our baby isn’t here,” Ochako panicked, digging her fingers in her hair as he paced around the room. “We need to call the police and Sho and Deku and just everyone because time is valuable.” She rushed over to grab her phone. “We’ve got twenty-four hours, gods less than that because he’s due for a feeding soon and-”
“Oi!” Katsuki gently grabbed her, pulling her against him. “Breathe.”
She took a shuttering breath in.
“Keep doing that and listen to me.”
Ochako took slow breaths as her body started to relax.
They were both exhausted. “We need to look around the house. I know,” he stopped the argument before she could get a word out, “the brat can’t get up and walk around but we need to look around the house before we call in the fucking calverey.” But they needed to be rational about this.
She leaned against his chest for a moment.
“I got the upstairs, you go look downstairs,” Katsuki told her gently, kissing the side of her temple. “I’m sure the brats are in the house somewhere.” He wasn’t, and he knew that she knew he wasn’t confident.
Exhaustion was the only thing keeping him from jumping to the same conclusion as his wife.
“We’ll find them.”
Ochako sighed, eyes glassy as she nodded, “Okay.” She quickly rushed out of the room and made her way down the stairs. As she approached the bottom of the stairs, the soft blue light from the television glowed from the living room and filled her body with relief. “Kyo?” she called out as she made her way into the living room.
Though the television volume was low, Ochako would recognize the movie playing from a mile away.
All Might: One for All
Kyo had watched that movie every week, at least, for the last two years.
She stepped into the side of the couch, body melting at the sight. “What are you doing down here?” she whispered.
Her eldest son turned his head, looking up to his mother sweetly. “I got Hiro his bottle,” he answered quietly. His little hand patted the baby messily swaddled and sleeping peacefully in his lap. Kyo’s pajamas were rumpled and had wet patches on the legs of his Deku bunny pajamas. The empty baby bottle was on the cushion next to him along with Kuma-chan the second and a settled patch of curdled baby vomit. “I wanted to let you and Papa sleep.”
Ochako didn’t even have the heart to cringe at the sight of the trail of milk leading from the couch to the empty breastmilk bag on coffee table. “Sweetheart,” she started, moving to sit next to him. She carefully wrapped her arm around his shoulder, “that’s so nice of you, but you’re supposed to be asleep.” Sometimes she wondered if they weren’t paying enough attention to their first born. They’d explained that the baby would need a lot of their help for the first couple months, but neither she nor Katsuki thought it would be this hard.
“You and Papa are really tired.”
Or exhausting.
“And I wanted to give you both a break.” And it was obvious.
“We’re okay,” Ochako assured as she gently stroked his hair.
Kyo made a little sound of disagreement before he nibbled on his lip. “Are you sure, Mama?” he questioned with a steady glare that reminded her so much of Katsuki.
“Yes.” She stopped herself from lying. “And yes we’re really tired,” she nodded with a small smile.
All the parenting books and blogs stressed the importance of being honest. They couldn’t expect Kyo to be honest with them about his feelings if they didn’t do the same. Not to mention, the boy was obversent and, more often than not, he could tell when they weren’t being truthful.
“But we don’t want you to be tired,” Ochako continued gently. “You’ve got school tomorrow.”
Kyo nodded, looking up at his mother with a little pout. “I wasn’t gonna stay up all night.” He looked down at his little brother. “It’s just I heard Hiro whining when I got up to go to the bathroom and, and you and Papa were sleeping so I decided I would give him a bottle cause I saw how Papa and Baba makes them when he can’t drink the milk from you.”
She nodded, encouraging him to continue.
“So I took him downstairs and set him on the couch and turned on the movie while I made bottle.”
The kitchen was probably had milk on the counters.
“I tested on my arm to make sure it wasn’t too hot, and I didn’t put it in the microwave,” Kyo assured as he looked at his mother with wide eyes. “I ran it under the sink water like Baba does.”
“Good job.” She couldn’t help but be proud of him.
“And I fed him, and he burped, he puked on the couch a bit, but-” Kyo’s shoulders dropped. “-then he fell asleep.” He looked down at the baby in his lap.
“You didn’t wanna wake him up?” she smirked. It was funny how Kyo could do what she and Katsuki couldn’t.
Get Hiro to sleep.
He let out a big exhale. “I love him, mama, but he is really grumpy.”
Ochako chuckled.
“Even grumpier than Papa sometimes!”
“Oi! I heard that,” Katsuki commented as he approached them. “What the heck is this?” He raised an eyebrow as he stared at Kyo and Hiro. “What are you brats doing down here? You scared the shit out me and your ma.”
“You said a bad word,” Kyo pointed out. “You gotta put money in the bad word jar.”
“Small brat is asleep, and you know better than to repeat it.”
Kyo narrowed his eyes, tilting his head, “Do I though?”
Katsuki raked a hand down his face and rubbed his mouth as he tried to conceal a smirk. He looked at Ochako. “Remind me to yell at scarface for teaching my kid sarcasm.”
“Cause you wanted to do it?” Ochako grinned.
“Exactly.”
“So,” Kyo started slowly, “I’m not in trouble for being up past my bedtime?”
“No,” Ochako told him gently, petting his head.
They couldn’t be mad at him.
“We were scared when we couldn’t find you brats,” Katsuki told him, pressing a kiss to the top of his head, “but we’re not mad.”
“I told Mama that I was just trying to help,” Kyo explained to his father. “I wanted to give you guys a break cause Hiro needs you guys a lot.”
“How about this,” Ochako hummed. “Kyo, what if you stayed home from school tomorrow, and we had a fun day?”
“Fun day?”
“Yeah. You, me, and Papa. We’ll ask Baba to watch Hiro.” Even though they had only been a family of four for a few weeks, it was important to make sure that Kyo didn’t feel forgotten. “How does that sound?” Ochako didn’t know what it was like to have siblings, neither did Katsuki.
She could only imagine how her oldest son was feeling.
Excited to be a big brother.
Eager to play with his sibling.
Upset that he had to share his parents after years of having them to himself.
Tired of hearing the crying.
Kyo hadn’t shown any bitterness or anger about having a younger brother. He’d been excited during her whole pregnancy, and now he was trying to take some of the burden off his parents. But that little phrase made her heart ache.
Hiro needs you guys a lot.
“But I have school tomorrow,” Kyo pouted.
“Eh, you can miss one day,” Katsuki shrugged.
Kyo frowned, guilt shining in his eyes, “But you said school is important.”
“So is rest,” Ochako added, “and sometimes it’s okay to take a break. Like Mama and Papa are staying home for a couple weeks to rest and take care of you and Hiro.”
“But you’re adults, and I’m a kid.”
“You still need rest,” she assured him, “and I think we could all use a break. Together.”
“Well,” Katsuki yawned as he walked into the kitchen, “I’m gonna make us some cocoa and get us some cookies. Might as well finish the movie.”
“You’ve both seen quite literally thousands of times,” Ochako commented as Kyo giggled.
“Still a good movie. If we’re taking the day off tomorrow, then the fun starts now!”
Kyo giggled, leaning against his mother. “Mama?”
“Yes sweetheart?”
“I don’t want Hiro to stay at Baba all day,” Kyo told her softly. “He’s grumpy, but he’s my brother. I don’t want him to feel left out.”
She smiled, “Okay.”
“Lunch can be just you, me, and Papa but then we can have a fun day with Hiro,” Kyo decided, nodding his little head.
Kyo really was the best of both her and Katsuki.
“Mama?”
“Yes,” she whispered, savoring this wonderful moment.
She knew it wouldn’t always be like this.
There would be days Kyo or Hiro might wish they were only children.
Squabbles.
Fights.
Tears.
Tantrums about sharing.
Bickering about who had gotten the bigger piece of cake.
Or who would get to do something first.
Ochako planned on hanging onto these moments, so she could never lose sight of the fact that underneath it all-
They loved each other.
“I think Hiro needs a new diaper.”
She chuckled.
“And I don’t know to change diapers,” Kyo explained. “I don’t think I’m qualified.”
“Really?” She gently took the sleeping baby from him as she watched him drop back against the couch in relief.
“Yeah, and it’s gross.”
Fin.