Work Text:
Shouta was not a nervous man. He had never been a particularly anxious person to begin with; paying attention to one’s surroundings and analyzing situations could hardly be classified as anxiety or paranoia when one was a professional hero, especially with the way things had been in the past few months. His current hell class demanded more of his attention than any before with the apparent fixation villains seemed to have on them and their own never-ending magnetism for trouble.
All in all, Shouta was not one to care much for what other people thought of him. He had a reputation as the teacher who would expel whole classes, he was an underground hero who never had to worry about his popularity with the public, and even his small friend group had been (almost) the exact same since highschool. He made his decisions based on logic and in what he believed to be right.
Things were a little different when it came to his parents, he thought, fiddling with his cup of tea.
"I can't believe we're the last ones to know, Shouta! Honestly, we're basically the girl's grandparents!" His mother said exasperatedly.
Shouta sighed, bracing himself for the next half an hour of snarky comments and complaints. He and Hizashi had come here today to tell his parents about Eri’s adoption. After months of being under the custody of UA, being watched by teachers and older students alike, it felt like the little girl needed more stability in her life. After everything she had already been through, being passed from one authority figure to another like some sort of school equipment felt disrespectful to her.
Shouta had been there during her rescue and she trusted him more than most, in addition to the fact that he was the one who could keep her quirk under control. Though he was loath to admit it, he had long since become attached to little Eri as well and Hizashi both loved the girl and was adopted himself so really, it was an easy decision.
There had been nothing to consider: he didn’t talk to his parents often enough to keep them up to date on all developments of his life, nor would he have told them about a mission as sensitive as Eri’s rescue or about her personal life at UA. It was only now with Eri’s adoption being approved that this had become relevant for them to know, so here he was.
He was so not in the mood for the guilt trip today. He wanted to go back home already and as his mother shook her head indignantly at him and his father grunted, Shouta vaguely wondered how bad it would have been to bring his sleeping bag with him. Getting through this afternoon as a cozy caterpillar would be so much easier than taking the brunt of their disappointment unprotected. That, however, would only give his parents yet another thing to complain about since it was “ridiculous that a grown man still needed his nap blanket”. No, better to leave that at home.
A loud huff by his side interrupted his thoughts and made him look at his husband, sitting with him on the couch. His tea cup trembled slightly from the tight grip he had on it. Hizashi had a disbelieving smirk on his face and the most disdain in his eyes Shouta had ever seen.
"Zashi..." He said quietly, reaching for the other's knee and trying to avoid a conflict before it started.
"No, don't ‘Zashi’ me," Hizashi replied without even looking his way. "You guys have a lot of nerve complaining about Shouta ‘taking too long’ to tell you anything considering how you reacted the last time he told you something important!" The blonde’s voice was also quiet, but it dripped with venom.
Shouta looked away, maybe he had not come as unprotected after all, but he didn’t mean to start a fight. This was not a side of Hizashi many people knew. People knew Present Mic, he was all smiles and positivity, and typically everyone would think of him as this loud, funny guy; not many took the time to search for any depth in Present Mic, even if he was powerful in battle. But this? This is where Hizashi could get truly terrifying when he wanted, when he chose his words quietly and let his anger target you; that’s when his Voice could do the most damage.
His husband wasn’t wrong, but Shouta didn't want to do this now. It was ancient history. Gone, forgotten, with no need to keep dredging it up.
His mother had the decency to look uncomfortable, but his dad puffed out his chest, feeling threatened in his own environment.
"Our history with our son is our own. We apologized and resolved that situation years ago. You have no business talking about our family matters," the man boasted.
"Easy for you to say; it was my moms' house Shouta moved into when you kicked him out at 16! I'm still the one by his side while you guys continue to do the bare minimum!" Hizashi's voice was rising dangerously despite his careful control over his quirk, and Shouta did not wish for things to escalate any further.
Before his father could even get the air to reply, he intervened.
"Hizashi. Let it go." There was no emotion in his voice and he knew that would make it look like he was choosing a side, but he honestly had no energy to do any differently right now.
His husband looked slightly startled at his tone, but said nothing more.
His father smiled. "Like I said, everything is fine between us. Right, Shouta?" The man looked over at his son, that smug smile still splattered on his face.
"I've come to tell you both about Eri and now I have," Shouta answered, avoiding the question as he got up from the couch. "We'll be leaving now."
His father's face soured again, annoyed, but he nodded. Hizashi got up to follow him out without a word.
"Shouta..." His mom called as he was almost at the door.
"I'll call you, mother." He said turning back out of courtesy before walking out.
***-***
Hizashi followed Shouta out of his in-laws’ building, gnawing on the inside of his cheeks. He’d said too much, he knew that. Shouta had even asked him not to before he started, and yet… It was just so hard to keep himself all nice and polite around these people. All he could think about anytime he saw them was Shouta’s miserable face at the end of their second year, showing up at Hizashi’s doorstep with a backpack of clothes and his school stuff, asking if he could stay for a while.
The fact that anyone would kick out their own child just for being who they were was already hard to swallow, but it hadn’t even been that long since they had lost Oboro. They just threw away their grieving son to fend for himself! Now, because everything turned out fine in the end (not that they had anything to do with that), and they ‘accepted their relationship’, Hizashi was supposed to just think everything was fine?
For whatever reason, Shouta had forgiven them, though. They weren’t close, and he and Hizashi had already talked about it: Eri wouldn’t be spending any unsupervised time with the couple, but he had forgiven them. And asked Hizashi not to pick a fight. Which he did.
Shouta walked briskly the whole way to the car, only slowing down as he opened the passenger door and slumped into the seat. Hizashi was apologizing before the doors were even properly closed.
"I'm sorry, Shou!" He said, reaching a hand to touch his husband’s leg.
"It's ok." He replied tiredly.
He shook his head even though Shouta still had his eyes closed and couldn’t see him. "No, it's not. I crossed a line. You asked me not to and I still picked a fight. I just hate the way they treat you! But I'm really-"
"Zashi... I'm not mad."
Hizashi blinked. "You're not?"
"No, I just wanted to get out of there..." Shouta sighed, turning towards Hizashi with a small smile. "Thank you. Don't do it again, but thank you."
Hizashi would level entire cities to see that smile. Maybe, just maybe, he could not chew their heads off next time. It wasn’t like Shouta was asking him not to glare at his parents from a corner; he could still do that.
Rubbing the back of his neck Hizashi returned Shouta’s smile with a sheepish one. "Deal!"
"Let's go home, Zashi."
And at the end of the day, this was what really mattered. Maybe Shouta’s shitty parents had wormed their way back into his life. Maybe they weren’t much better then they had been fifteen years ago. But home?
Home would always be the two of them.