Work Text:
Out of the blue, Izuku had gotten a text from All Might.
It wouldn’t normally be surprising for him to get a message from his mentor, as they often texted back and forth when they couldn’t meet for lunch and weren’t planning to train on that particular day. The texting had even increased once he had moved onto the U.A. campus with the dorms and All Might had to avoid the press, since it was easier for them to coordinate times to meet and train.
What was odd about this particular text, was that it was inviting him directly to All Might’s apartment for a meal. He’d had plenty of bento boxes from his mentor before and they’d gone out to dinner as well, but he’d never been in All Might’s home.
That had always just seemed like a line that their relationship as mentor and mentee wouldn’t cross.
It felt, in a way, intrusive as if he wasn’t allowed to be there as he stood on his mentor’s doorstep, but that might’ve just been the anxiety talking.
He eventually worked up the courage to knock on the door, mindful of the fact that he was in the teacher’s apartment building and it was odd for a student to be there.
All Might swung open the door almost immediately. “Come on in,” he said. “Food is almost ready.”
Izuku greeted the man, giving him a nervous smile and stepped in, taking note of the very American and largely simplistic decor.
The smell of katsudon floated through the air in the apartment. Had All Might just made it because it was Izuku’s favorite? He really didn’t have to do that.
He then sat down at one of the place settings which his mentor had already set out.
“Not that I don’t appreciate it, but why’d you invite me over? Is there something going on off campus?” Izuku asked carefully after he was settled.
All Might just laughed at him, but not in a mean way. “Is it too much to ask to want to have a home cooked meal with you, my boy?”
Izuku blushed bright red. “I didn’t say that,” he mumbled, sliding his finger in circles along the table beside his napkin.
All Might let out another laugh at that, plating the Katsudon just so in the bowl as Izuku watched him with the awed air of a fanboy discovering new things about their hero.
All Might then dunked the dirty dishes into the sink where sudsy hot water was waiting for it to soak and then picked up the bowl of Katsudon.
He set it down in front of Izuku with a soft expression on his face and then sat down across from Izuku with a bowl of plain rice for himself.
“Oh.” Izuku blinked, looking from his bowl to All Might’s and back again. “You didn’t have to work so hard just for me. I would have been okay with plain rice too…”
“Nonsense my boy!” All Might boomed, clacking his chopsticks at Izuku playfully. “There’s no need to limit yourself on my account. You’re a growing boy, you need your reds and your leans, your proteins and your carbs, your— oh! That reminds me.”
He got up, dug around in the fridge a moment, and emerged triumphant with a large serving bowl of ready salad. “And your vegetables,” he finished, setting it down on the table between them and pouring water into Izuku’s glass for him.
“Now where was I… oh yes. An old man like me needs to watch his salt and sugar and cholesterol. There’s no reason for you to stick to my diet simply because I invited you.”
“Still,” Izuku mumbled, staring down at his bowl and thinking about how much effort had clearly gone into his single serving of food alone.
“My boy, please don’t worry about it. I made it for you because I care about you, please don’t feel guilty for my work,” All Might said to him as if reading his mind.
Izuku blushed and looked down again.
They both continued eating, chatting about their weeks.
Even if it was perhaps a touch strange to be in his mentor’s house, he didn’t feel anything but welcomed.
His mentor was kind and wholly accommodating to him even though he was nervous. Even after they had finished eating, they continued speaking for hours. It was almost Izuku’s (admittedly late) bedtime before he even left his mentor’s house.
It may have been a touch weird at the time, but it soon became a habit for the two of them to meetup in All Might’s apartment at least once a month for a home cooked meal and to just catch up.
Years later, Izuku was the one to offer a meal to his mentor.
They had largely kept up their routine of monthly meetups even as he became a pro hero and his mentor faded more and more into support obscurity. Less and less new generations knew All Might as anything more than a statistic and a figure from their history books, but in a way Izuku selfishly liked that. It meant, for a little while, he simply had his mentor to himself and they could go out in public a little easier without being harassed.
But in those times, it was still usually All Might who cooked. It wasn’t that Izuku couldn’t cook, quite the opposite even, but his mentor clearly loved creating dishes for him to try, so he never wanted to get in the way of that.
This time, however, was different. All Might had informed him earlier in the day that he wouldn't be able to cook that night due to a flare up of past injuries, suggesting that instead they go out for dinner.
Izuku wasn’t having any of that. He didn’t want his mentor to be uncomfortable sitting in a restaurant with pain when he could instead be at home.
He had simply responded inviting his mentor to his house, promising a home cooked meal.
He didn’t cook anything super elaborate, nothing like the dishes his mentor cooked in his spare time, but he did his very best.
Tonkatsu and Tamagoyaki, while not necessarily going together perfectly, worked well as a meal to his standards and were presentable in a plate together, so that was what he made.
It was really nice to be able to cook for his mentor for once, instead of always being the one cooked for. The pair of them had some of their best memories over the years together over a home cooked meal.
Which was why it was extremely unfortunate that Izuku had burnt the shit out of it.
He stared down at his frying pan in dismay, scraping the blackened eggs from the pan and into the trash with a spatula that just wasn’t cutting it.
Oh god. He was going to have to toss the whole thing wasn’t he?
Which would be fine– he had enough money from his multiple years as a hero to replace as many frying pans as he could ever possibly need. The problem was that he needed a new frying pan right the fuck now if he wanted to have the food ready by the time All Might arrived for dinner.
Dammit Ochako, why did she have to call him right then and distract him while he was cooking. Or better yet, why had he answered the phone?
Well he knew the answer to that one– all of Class A had been programmed early on to always answer their calls and texts from each other just in case.
It had started with Izuku and his mass location text sent out in Hosu, where out of all his friends and classmates only Shouto had taken it seriously and shown up to help. Everyone else had of course felt guilty and awful about ignoring it afterwards, especially once they’d heard that he’d somehow wound up in the hospital that night.
Next had been Ochako, who had taken one look at Shigaraki with his hand around Izuku’s neck at the mall that one time, and had immediately taken a leaf out of Izuku’s book to mass spam the class with their location behind her back. Once again, the majority of the class had assumed it was a mistake, either that Ochako had meant to share her location with a classmate not currently at the mall yet, or with her parents, or she’d accidentally hit the button by mistake. Once again everyone had felt terrible about having ignored an actual emergency.
And thus, the policy.
By the time graduation had rolled around everyone in Class A, Hitoshi included, had gotten into the habit of never ignoring a call or text from a classmate. Just in case.
Izuku glared down at his still ruined frying pan and the remains of his dinner plans and scowled.
Yes. This was all Ochako’s fault. She knew he wouldn’t ignore her call on the off chance that she was requesting backup for an emergency. Why didn’t she just text him? It wasn’t even important!
And then the solution hits him. That’s it! Since Ochako was the one that ruined his frying pan, she should be responsible for replacing it! Immediately!
He shot off the text before he could second guess it, dumped the entirety of the frying pan into the trash, and returned to his attempts to air out the apartment from the smoky burnt eggs smell permeating the place.
Ochako was at his house within minutes with her set of cookware and a determined look on her face. “We are getting this done right now. We don’t have time to burn it again.”
Which, surprisingly considering their chatting even while trying to focus, did not happen. Ochako was at least a far better cook than he was, given that she always tried to eat in in order to save money.
Between the two of them, no item was perfect or near to it, but it was warm and made with love.
Just as they finished, Ochako turned to leave.
“You know, you can stay. I’m sure All Might would love to see you again and we made extras.”
Ochako hesitated. “Are you sure? I know this is just your guy’s time normally.”
“I’m sure. Besides, this food isn’t just coming from me.”
She gave him a kind but slightly nervous smile. “Alright.”
He slid around her in the kitchen, pulling out the tableware and setting it up for the food to be served.
“Go on, sit down,” he told her. All Might was about to arrive, so he was just setting out the final things before they would be able to eat.
Only a minute later, he was setting the last dish on the table and his doorbell rang.
He darted across the house to open it up, giving his mentor a bold smile. “Hi!”
All Might returned the smile and reached out to ruffle Izuku’s curls. “It’s good to see you, my boy.”
“You too.”
He led All Might farther into his apartment to where the dining area was. “Ochako helped me cook this for you!”
“Oh! It’s good to see you, young Uraraka. How are you doing?”
Ochako, slightly sheepish, smiled at him, and continued their small talk as they all sat down and Izuku served them dinner.
It was perhaps the loudest and most rambunctious dinner Izuku had ever had with his mentor, but he wouldn’t have it any other way.
It was so nice to have his favorite people with him for an evening. Sure, he texted Ochako a lot but outside of work they almost never got to see each other and he knew for a fact that All Might hadn’t had the chance to speak to the rest of his peers in months because of how busy they had all been as of late.
They were, just for the time of dinner and desert after, content without worrying about the rest of the world around them.
After they were all done, Ochako was the first to step out, claiming an early day and work the following day.
Once she was out the door, All Might turned to him. “We should do this again, it’s nice seeing you smile that much and catch up with your peers.”
“Yeah,” Izuku agreed. “We should.”
It might not have been perfectly planned or executed, but he’d had the most fun he’d had in months.
He really should cook dinners for them more often, if this was the result.
He loved seeing them and he’d do anything to keep that up.