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"I'll be there."
Those were the words that started their relationship. I'll be there, on our first date. I'll be there on our wedding day.
I'll be there. For You. Their wedding vows, summarized.
He and Hizashi had been having a few issues, especially recently. They were fine. Just… tense. With the threat of the liberation army looming like a grey cloud on the horizon, they barely got the chance to just sit and talk like they used to, and their relationship suffered for it.
Hizashi worked all the time, barely got any sleep, all on top of being a parent. It was all a lot, and Shouta didn't like it.
On the other hand, Shouta also had his own issues, and either couldn't or wouldn't work through them. Including his importance in preventing this war, or ending it quickly, he had a bit more on his plate than usual.
Their kids, Hitoshi and Eri, definitely noticed the tension, the clipped greetings, and the lack of affection through touch. Shouta is a cuddler, so it must have been noticeable when he and Hizashi hadn't immediately settled on the couch in each other's arms, catching up on the more lighthearted news, and instead took their shoes off, and went their separate ways until dinner.
Hizashi indulged his work habits a little more during these times, and stayed later at the station, often missing the few minutes he and his spouse had before Shouta had patrol. Sometimes they saw each other, and stayed silent anyways, and sometimes they gave each other short fused salutations as the stress of the five jobs between them strained their marriage. Sometimes they didn't see each other at all.
When Shouta was asked if he would be at the front lines, if this threat turned to war, and he accepted, the chasm of rigidity between them grew ever wider until they didn't see each other much outside of work at all.
They didn't have time for each other at the moment, is what they told themselves and each other, and their friends when they questioned the unease.
Nemuri wondered if a divorce was on the table, but they looked at each other and said, "No. The kids would be caught in the middle."
No "there's still love", or "I need him". The kids needing stability was a pretty fair reason to hold off on breaking up the relationship, but in all honesty was this even stability?
If anything, the ice between them was lowering the temperature of the entire home. Was it homely if the two men weren't home?
That's what Shouta found himself contemplating when he and Hizashi sat in the teacher's office by themselves. They had work to do. That's why they weren't right next to each other.
The students often know not to interrupt the teachers when they're busy with their own things in the office, but for some reason, there was a collected, and composed knock on the wood, and Shouta hoped that none of his kids were dead. If they were injured, Recovery Girl could help.
He and Hizashi made eye contact, and looked at the door, before the black hair man opened it to reveal his class. But they did not look grim with grief. They looked excited, but with mostly cautious optimism.
Iida was at the front and center, papers in hand, and classmates in tow, "Sensei's! I have something that requests your attention."
"Go on," Shouta drawled, noting that he required both he and Hizashi's notice.
Iida looked behind him to his classmates, and they made little urging motions, and cheered him on. No doubt they dragged him into asking this.
"Here you go," he said, handing Shouta a stack of papers, and one to Hizashi, who had come up behind him to observe whatever it is that's happening.
"A play?" Hizashi asked, skimming through the papers.
"You do not have to participate if you don't want to, but Ms Kayama told us that you two were exceptional at portraying the right scenes. Myself and my classmates are looking for a few tips, so if we could have your help practicing what is required for the roles, we can get started. And credit you, of course."
Shouta could deal with the issue of Nemuri throwing them under the bus later. He liked acting. He was pretty good at it as a kid, and people around him always told him that skill carried into adulthood.
It sounded like fun, if Shouta was honest. And he was. Brutally so. Hizashi, also, had a manic glimmer of excitement in his heterochromatic eyes.
"The play will be put on two months from yesterday," Iida finished, "if we could have your assistance with this project, it would be most beneficial."
He and Hizashi looked at each other, and their little theater nerd inner-children caused them to smile slowly at each other, and accept the invitation.
"We'll do it," Hizashi said for both of them, cheers instantly filling the silence of the hallways.
Shouta looked out among them, and noticed that a little over half the class was here. He smiled slightly in excitement, and walked out to join their celebration.
Shouta stood with Hizashi, and a few students, getting instructions from Iida for what part they would play, and how they could help.
Shouta and Hizashi would not actively participate in the play, which many students profusely apologized for, but the two adults understood where they were coming from. It's a play they wanted to put on by themselves for each other.
He and his husband accepted their parts as cheerleaders and acting coach, and set out to guide them on a very specific scene.
Shouta would "play the part" of a man heading off to war, and Hizashi would play his partner, begging him to stay.
It was so similar to their marital issues that Shouta absently wondered if this was a setup. He wouldn't put it past Nemuri, but this was the kids' thing.
He and Hizashi, like always, outwardly expressed their excitement to try, and coach these kids.
So far it wasn't clicking. The part was going to be played by Hitoshi and Ashido, who Shouta was ninety-eight percent sure were dating. That was good. It helped if the actors had some sort of chemistry, or were good at faking it.
They were definitely not faking it.
But it still wasn't working. Hizashi's job was to guide Ashido, and he was trying. Shouta had to figure out how to help Hitoshi.
"Try to convey as much feeling towards a willingness to go, but a desire to stay," Shouta told him, watching his face scrunch up in confusion, and silently prompting Shouta to elaborate.
"Your character wants to stay at home with Ashido's character. But duty calls for him to attend the front lines, and he can't stay," unknowingly, he directed that at Hizashi as well, who glared at him under his smile reserved for gently suading Ashido into the correct mannerisms.
"Ashido, your character wants the best for Shinsou's character when he has to go. Try to portray that in your expression, and tell him how you feel about him putting his life on the line for something hopeless," Hizashi almost spat at him.
Hitoshi made eye contact with his probably-girlfriend, and marched over to the crowd, clearing his throat, "Good news!"
Ashido walked over to the purple haired teen, and their hands linked together, smiling at each other, "Go ahead."
"My dads have volunteered to show us how the part is played. The struggling soldier going to war, wishing to stay," he gestured to Shouta, and then to Hizashi.
"And the loving spouse pleading for something to change."
The class cheered, and then everyone was off the stage but them.
"Go on," Hitoshi directed them, "Show us how communication works."
He and Hizashi made eye contact, and shrugged. A demonstration, then. A way to have fun.
"I must go," Shouta started, holding the script Hitoshi handed him, and played that he was reading it like a letter. A call to arms, maybe.
"Must go where?" Hizashi replied, holding his own script like a book, looking up, and smiling soulfully at Shouta. He missed that smile.
"The front line," Shouta said, projecting his voice, and having it carry itself through the air to hum in the ears of the listeners, "duty calls."
"But what about us, here at home?" Hizashi asked, body language still languid and slow, easing into his act with each breath he took.
"I promise to be back," Shouta smiled, relaxing into his character. The man he was playing held conviction and confidence in his posture and tone.
If this war was anything like the liberation army, there was a good chance he wouldn't be back, but his issue isn't the point of this demonstration.
"Aftermath," Hizashi's tone carried predictable anger, spitting out reason after reason for Shouta's character to stay. But he would not be surprised if the belief in his tone was real, "You might be back, but war changes you. It will change you, and me, and the people we sit alongside."
Was this the script? Probaby. I t sounded about right. Hizashi was so good at this, it made Shouta forget his line, and have his breath catch in his throat with a merciless vengeance, threatening to choke him with the emotion Hizashi exhibited.
"Perhaps that change will be for the better!" Shouta shouted, "There is no question about this! The war needs me, and I must go, and leave you."
"You must consider how it makes me feel when you go," Hizashi cried, way too real to be anything for this play, "The front does not need you! They do not need you to fight, and die for the sake of revenge."
"Of course I consider," Shouta, playing his part to the best of his ability, "If I leave, I can protect you. How is it different from you leaving me for your own hollow obligations? There is not a difference in the world, love."
"Protection is a strange thing. You cannot oppose a force you cannot see. You can't protect me if you can't know what you're protecting me from," Hizashi's voice trembled, and Shouta was wary of continuing, seeing the blond hold back tears so real they were terrifying.
If Shouta didn't know better, he'd think Hizashi isn't acting anymore.
"I may try. I may not see my adversary, but I see you. And I see my desperate desire to keep you safe despite all harm, and ne'er-do-well, and evilness. Let me go, love. I'll see you soon," in all honesty, Shouta wasn't acting anymore. These were all things he would say, in the right circumstances. Perhaps without all the pompous flower language of words too big for modernism, but nonetheless something he would tell Hizashi in any instance.
"There mustn't be a guarantee that you will," Hizashi whispered, "You may perish when you go. And I wouldn't know. Protection is strange, and so is love. Leave, and smother. In this case, similar. Let me fight with you. I'll be your eyes, and win this battle, and live by the sword, and if you shall perish in the line of duty I will be right by your side. Do not cast me in gold and seal me away. Let me protect you and you do, I."
"Can I pretend to know that you will be safe?" Shouta pleaded, his own tears shimmering in his eyes while he pretended to still be acting. He needed to guide these kids, and not make it about his own issues.
"No, but we must try," Hizashi finished with a flourish, and looked at Shouta with tears in his red eyes.
Shouta ended the part with a nod, and cried as he and Hizashi walked away from where Iida was attempting to keep up with the emotion of the acting.
It wasn't acting, at least not for Shouta. It was a worry he held even as a modern hero, not a knight in this pitiless war his class conjured from fortified imaginations. He and Hizashi signed up to help out those kids. They weren't even going to be in the play.
But they used it as an excuse to work through an issue that had been tainting their relationship for ages. And Shouta felt lighter.
That wasn't right, was it? To use the kids' play to solve their problems?
The guilt of the situation weighed heavy on him, in the very back of his mind, but he did not let it plague the front. The only thoughts he currently cared about was that he hoped that performance helped the kids, and how nice it was to have Hizashi's hand in his again.
"Whoa," Ashido gaped, Shouta taking the final step off the stage, "That was so cool!"
"So realistic!" He wasn't sure who that was, but judging by the aspiration in the voice, and the raw emotion it displayed, he guessed it was Kirishima.
"A passion for theater, sensei's?"
Iida walked up to them with surprise written clearly on his face, shaking the script, and praising them.
"No," Hizashi said, taking Shouta's hand, "a passion for each other."
Half the class, the romantic ones at least, looked enchanted by the declaration.
Shouta hummed, hand clasped with Hizashi's slightly smaller one. Maybe agreeing to this was the best idea he'd ever had, even if it wasn't really his idea.
Fixing his marriage wasn't exactly the goal, but it did somehow help to have done that in some capacity.
Not that they were fine by any means or definitions, but at least they experienced something that they both loved, together.
Iida called for their meeting to be adjourned, requesting that they re-commune tomorrow after school. Shouta called out that they would be there, and left the room with his hand still stuck to Hizashi's.
As soon as they left the room, their friend was on them like a fly to honey, asking them how they felt.
Shouta was sure Nemuri set them up for this for this sole reason, but he really couldn't bring himself to care.
He and Hizashi's hands left each other, Shouta missing the warmth just a little, and they walked to the car, with idle chatter filling the space.
Hitoshi caught up to them, and requested that he get to stay behind. When allowed, he gave them a big hug, with tears clouding his amethyst eyes. The emotion was out of place, considering what he asked, but he thanked them profusely anyways.
Shouta noticed Hitoshi's gaze on the back of his head more than once while he and Hizashi continued their festive walk, and he wondered why for a bit, until he put it out of his mind, and tried to focus on letting Hizashi drive.
He and Hizashi arrived at home, without their teenage son.
Now that he had been witness to it, Hitoshi told him that he was, in fact, dating Ashido. His absence was loud, and spoke volumes of the change in atmosphere. It was happier, but not because he was gone.
Eri probably wouldn't be home, but he wouldn't be surprised if she was waiting for them.
A scene in a high-school play wouldn't fix everything, but it opened the avenues of communication. It was like the spark of a shared interest between them made them fall back in love, and fill his chest with a feeling he wasn't sure was there before. Of course, through their conflict, he still loved Hizashi, but as their closeness waned, so did his consciousness of the feeling.
Hizashi, laughing as he led him inside by the hand, tripped and almost fell. He would have, had it not been for Shouta's arm catching his weight, making the scene look like a dip in a dance. The action, while absolutely appreciated by the blond, sparked more laughter between the two.
"Hello?" A young voice called to them, further inside the apartment.
"We're home, Eri," Shouta called, Hizashi was still laughing, taking off his shoes, and just generally happier than he'd been in a while.
"You're laughing," she observed, coming to meet them.
"We are," Hizashi snickered.
"You don't laugh very much," Eri pointed out, "You are happy? With each other?"
Shouta and Hizashi looked at each other for a long moment, and nodded, "Yes. We are happy with each other."
She looked so damn happy, eyes watering and smile unabashed as she left forward and captured the two of them in a big hug.
"'Toshi and I were waiting for you to get better," she mumbled, pressing her face into Shouta's capture scarf, "We were worried."
Shouta shot a worried glance Hizashi's way, and his husband's hand found its way into the pale hair of their daughter, soothing her worries.
"We're fine," Hizashi told her, "I'm sorry we scared you two."
Eri sighed, refusing to leave Shouta's arms, even as Hitoshi came home, and the girl cheered to him that they were fine.
Finally they got her to sleep, and Shouta was allowed to do other things than hold her. He and Hizashi sat on the bed, in their room. He could only guess how this conversation would go.
"How much of that was an act?" He asked, "Back at UA?"
"None of it," Hizashi replied, shifting around in his place, "I'd say it's all true, that it's all things I would say, that I would say it all again if it meant you reconsidered– but you already knew that, didn't you?"
"Yes, I did," Shouta sighed, sitting down on the opposite side of the bed, backs together, "Hizashi, I promise I would stay, I would let you fight with me, I would stay safe, and keep you safe at the same time, if I could. This is what the hero commision wants. I can't ignore that."
"Fuck the hero commision," Hizashi spat, "I know you can't stay. The threat of war is always looming over us, and it's terrifying to think that you'll be right there. You'll be on the front lines, and for what? Your Quirk? You're more than that, Shouta."
"I know," Shouta sighed, "This can't be the only thing on your mind. Let's lay it all out. What can we fix about this?"
"We need to talk to someone," Hizashi said, wincing slightly, "It's not the most desirable solution. In fact, I would have liked to avoid it all together, snap my fingers and make it all better, but I can't."
"You can't snap your fingers at all," Shouta uselessly pointed out.
"You know what I mean," Hizashi grumbled, but the atmosphere was a little lighter as a result of Shouta's dumb joke, "If we were getting so bad we were contemplating divorce, and scaring the kids with the tension, then there's an issue we can't fix by ourselves, even if we think we could try."
"You're right. We need a bit of help," Shouta agreed, "Should you set that up, or would you like me to?"
"I got it. What is up with Nemuri volunteering us for things? Don't get me wrong, I love acting, but jeez…"
"I know exactly what you mean," Shouta chuckled, "We have very overbearing friends."
They sat in silence for a while, backs pressed together, and hands interwoven with each other.
"I missed this," Hizashi admitted.
"Me too…" Shouta agreed, "I missed you."
Less than a week later, Shouta and Hizashi weren't quite roses and cuddles, but they weren't definitely better.
Shouta honestly could not wait to watch the play that Class 1-A put together and inadvertently helped Shouta fix his relationship. It would be quite the show, especially since Hitoshi and Ashido, the stars of the show, had Hizashi and Shouta's fervent "performance" to look up to for guidance, as well as the men themselves.
"Shouta, we're meeting with the counselor tomorrow at three. Please don't be late," Hizashi called to him, multitasking. He was trying to get Eri and Hitoshi in the car with minimal fuss, with surprising success.
"I'll be there."