Work Text:
Hizashi is worried.
That in itself is not unusual, Shota always calls him a worrier, something about overthinking possible outcomes making him prone to negativity even when he insists it’s being realistic. If one were to look at them as a couple, no one would guess that his grumpy-looking husband was the optimist one. The point is, this time he knows the situation is worth being worried about, especially with the people involved. It may not have downed on his husband yet, but the similarities are startling, sooner or later Shota will realize how history is repeating itself and it will surely take a toll on his capacity to make rational decisions, let alone his mental health. He still remembered talking him through a couple of guilt-filled episodes all those years ago, slowly watching him come to terms with it through repeated visits to his therapist, and finally accepting that he couldn’t have done anything to change the outcome.
Todoroki Toya would be dead either way.
Kami, it had been at the start of his teaching career too. Most people probably thought that he and Nemuri had to drag Shota into teaching, but his husband had been the first to jump into the educational sphere. As much as Hizashi was immensely grateful for Nezu’s actions during his time in U.A. and would always enjoy debating with the chimera, he never even considered coming back to the school for more than a friendly chat over tea until Shota told him during a video call that he was starting out as a teaching assistant in the next school year. They had both been out of school for three years already and Hizashi had left the country for a big opportunity in the United States, so to hear on an international video call that his best friend wanted to go back when they’d barely left… well, he may have called him crazy. Nem, who was only just starting to stand out as a sidekick and wanted to get into the cosmetics market, wasn’t that far behind in echoing his sentiment. Tensei thought it was a riot, of course, and said he’d pay to be a fly in Sho’s classroom to see how he dealt with the loud students. Of course, they still wholeheartedly supported him as he worked on his teaching certificate and all other certificates associated with wanting to work at the country’s most well-known hero school.
So there went his husband, who was only his best friend back then due to both of their pathetic and clueless pining, twenty-two and turning twenty-three right as a new school term started, just as Endeavor’s son started on his first year of heroics. Hizashi lost count of the number of times he heard the kid’s name during that year. It started as an afterthought, mentioning having had to erase the kid’s quirk so much his dry eye was acting up, or annoyed mentions of how Todoroki was smart enough to control his output but not enough to understand that he shouldn’t be hurting himself messing with his fire’s temperature and trying to make it hotter. By the kid’s second year it had been enough to make him a little jealous, which was stupid considering Shota would never go after someone underage and he was starting to sound more worried than fond, so he swallowed down the feeling and tried to help as much as he could from a distance.
It happened in Todoroki’s third year, a few months into the second term. Shota had called him at their usual time, but the numbness in his voice immediately clued him in to the fact that something was most definitely wrong. Watching as his best friend told him in a perfect monotone that his student had committed suicide had been one of the hardest experiences in Hizashi’s life and it took all of his self-control and a significant lack of funds to keep him from hopping into the next plane bound for Japan. Of course, he did the next best thing and called up Nem to check on his clearly dissociating best friend. The following months were a trial to get through, watching Sho retreat into himself with guilt and tell them that he knew something was rotten in the Todoroki household - had heard it from Toya himself - and didn’t think he’d done enough to help. That was when they found out that their best friend had been basically living with the kid since the end of his second year, offering his cramped apartment whenever Todoroki needed to get away from his house and feeding him when his father cut him off ‘until he was done being difficult’.
Thankfully, with a lot of help and support, his now husband eventually accepted his part in the whole tragedy, and he had definitely helped more than he thought. He became even more determined to reach a place of authority in the school, entirely focused on acquiring all licenses and certificates necessary to avoid a repeat of the situation, and Hizashi figured he was probably one of the most qualified members of the staff when he joined U.A’s heroics department staff at twenty-five. He had been one of the loudest advocates for the implementation of optional dormitories for the students and talked Nezu into it so easily that Hizashi suspected the chimera of already having planned to agree from the start. Sho had poured his soul into both his jobs and told him he swore to never leave a kid hurting again.
Standing in the kitchen and listening to his husband lay down the law to the number one hero - when he didn’t have the opportunity to do it to the number two - and then return to helping the hurting child that came to him for help… it hit a bit too close. So he turns back to his peanut butter and jelly sandwich, lets his husband comfort their student in private, and worries. Because All Might was both an immovable object and an unstoppable force if he needed to be, with the weight of a whole government and public opinion behind him, and for as much faith as he has that his husband will give his all to help Midoriya-kun out of whatever situation he’s in, he’s not quite sure what the result of that confrontation would look like. Not physically, of course. Sho could wipe the floor with All Might any day. But in a battle of wills… well, no one becomes the Symbol of Peace by being a pushover.
Hizashi sighs into his sandwich, suddenly lacking the appetite for it, and grabs his phone instead. The general staff chat is mostly silent after his announcement of Shota’s rule on All Might’s interactions with Midoriya-kun, which he’d added all other students to, just to be on the safe side, and to avoid calling attention to the issue before due time. The heroics department chat has the most verbal acknowledgments, but he figures the non-heroics teachers probably have better things to do on a weekend than lurk on a work chat that is to be used only for staff-wide announcements or so help them Nezu. There’s also a notification from his private chat with Nem, she’s asking for more information and who asked him to make the announcement, he hesitates for a minute before telling her it was Shota’s decision and that he would probably explain when he could. He probably wouldn’t and they both knew it, but they also knew Hizashi would talk his husband into it eventually, and really, it’s about the same thing.
When he walks out of the kitchen with his plate in hand it’s to find Sho and Midoriya-kun back on the living room sofa, a comfortable silence over the room. His student has dry tear tracks over his cheeks and red, puffy eyes clearly indicating some recent crying and he could hardly blame him, he thinks as he catches sight of the boy’s bruised and broken arm.
“Hey there kiddo, are we doing something about that arm?” He asks when both notice his approach. Now that All Might had been told off, there was no need to delay treatment.
“I called Chiyo up to look at it,” Sho answers as Midoriya-kun only offers a slight shrug, “If she can’t fix it here, we’ll go down to the infirmary.”
“Good, no one should continue injured if it can be helped,” he points out and for some reason, it has Midoriya-kun looking away and hunching over slightly. Now that won’t do. “So, I made some PB&J sandwiches and can’t eat all of it, fell like helping me out kiddo? It’s more energy to help with Chiyo’s quirk.”
Midoriya-kun looks up and for some reason trades a look with his husband. What the heck? It’s way too early into this relationship for silent conversations, the kid just started warming up to them! So not fair.
“He can’t eat jelly, and I know you haven’t eaten yet Zashi.” Sho levels him with a disapproving look that he definitely didn’t deserve for trying to feed their student, never mind that he didn’t eat either.
“No need to call me out like that,” he sighed with a put-upon sigh and sat down on the sofa by his husband’s side, placing the plate on the table in front of them.
“ Zashi, ” his husband repeated in a worried tone, looking at him with questioning eyes that could probably read more of him than he wanted them to. Not that he’d ever resent him or stop him.
“Fine, fine,” he picked up one half of a sandwich and pointedly bit into it, rolling his eyes at Sho’s slight smirk and maybe exaggerated enough to see the slight smile he saw from Midoriya-kun in the corner of his eye widen a little in amusement. “See, I’m eating, no need to be a mother hen,” he added with a bit of English at the end, holding back a satisfied smile at the chuckle it prompted from their student.
Sho only shakes his head slightly, but he can tell his husband appreciates the theatrics if only to alleviate the heaviness in the air from the entire situation. He’s good at that, bringing attention to himself and being the comic relief. It’s not his main ability, of course, but right now his husband and student don’t need a hero to fight a villain, a radio host to inform the masses, or a teacher to try dragging up some sort of lesson from this whole thing. So he’ll smile, be dramatic and loud, and generally make himself useful by shifting their focus for a little while, being here as his husband’s support until they turn to him for help. Only then will he change his tune and present a couple of strategies already running through his mind of how to keep All Might in line without jeopardizing Sho’s teaching and heroic careers or dragging a distressed minor into the spotlight. All Might may be an immovable object or an unstoppable force, but he’s human and therefore not invincible, and definitely not above the law they have been trained to enforce. No one said his husband had to go at this alone.
This time, Hizashi wouldn’t let there be any reason for guilt.