Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Kurogiri was just trying to sleep. He had just earlier in the day teleported everyone, minus Twice and Compress, back from a failed recruiting. It was around 3am, when there was a loud THUD and then a child crying.

…Wait, a child crying?

Last Kurogiri checked, there were no children among the League. 

Kurogiri immediately created a portal to where he assumed the noise was coming from, ending up a door away. He looked to his left and saw Compress not far behind, and Twice stumbling out of his room.

“It’s 3 in the morning, what’s that noise!? It’s too early for this! Waking up early is good for you! ” Twice yelled, coming up behind Kurogiri and Compress.

“It really is quite the perplexing situation at hand. Have the others played their cards and brought a child aboard? I believe that is quite… not the trick we need at this moment,” Compress said in his usual theatrical speaking, though it was obvious he too was confused.

Kurogiri opened the door to Shigaraki Tomura’s room, where the noise was coming from, “Shigaraki Tomura, why can a child’s cries be heard?” he asked, bemused by the noise. Suddenly, he found something much more bewildering than the crying being heard.

The fact that in Shigaraki’s room there was not Shigaraki, but rather 5 children. One of them looked to be only a year old and was currently crying in the arms of another young child, both of them on the floor. Three other children stood by, all looking equally as terrified as one another.

“What the hell?? Who thought it was a good idea to bring a bunch of tikes to the bar?? I think we should keep them!” Twice contradicted himself, looking equally as shocked as Compress and Kurogiri.

“Get the hell away from us!” The one with red and white hair yelled, making fire appear in his palm, looking just as terrified, but there was a burning passion in eyes that could not go unnoticed. He had a stance that looked like he would throw the ball of fire at them, but after a moment of him standing there, unmoving, Kurogiri took a step forward.

“We won’t cause harm to you without proper reason, children. Why is it that you are here?” Kurogiri asked, not unkindly but not with much emotion to it either. He did quite well at taking care of children, having practically raised Shigaraka Tomura himself.

“Why the hell would kids be here? They kinda look like the others!” Twice exclaimed, noticing the child who looked suspiciously like a mini-Spinner. 

Kurogiri took a further look at the children. There was one with short, blonde hair, and gold eyes, no older than a year old. Then Kurogiri froze. How did Shigaraki look like that? Like the day he met him, only with black hair and dark eyes. Now that he thought about it, the small lizard mutant child had the same purple hair as Spinner, and the little boy looked awfully like Magne, except well, a boy. The other child, who appeared the second-eldest, looked least like any of the League. He had half and half red and white hair, a fire quirk as shown earlier, but his face shape and eyes were similar to Dabi’s.

It must’ve been how Dabi looked before he became a burn victim and went down this path of villainy. Kurogiri had noticed the black hair dye left in his room while cleaning, maybe he had naturally red and white hair? 

Kurogiri’s brain quickly supplied the fact that yes, these are the rest of the League members. Only much younger than they were only a few hours ago. 

“It appears that our fellow members have been hit by an age-regressing quirk. How long this will take effect, I am unsure of,” Kurogiri told Compress and Twice, watching their confused faces turn to shocked ones.

“What a perplexing situation this seems. The curtains have been drawn on their acts of villainy for now, and in such a snap!” Compress supplied in his usual ostentatious manor.

Twice rushed over, still standing in the doorway, to get a better look, and sure enough, that was a little baby Himiko crying on the ground. He couldn’t help but coo at the sight of the little League members, especially Himiko.

“They’re so adorable! So gross, I hate kids! ” Twice said, bouncing on the back of his heels to get a better look over Kurogiri’s misty form.

The second-eldest child, Dabi, looked confused, “What are you talking about? What’s going on? Where are we?” he demanded, drawing a flame from his hand once again. Kurogiri noticed how his hand was beginning to become red with a 1st degree burn.

Kurogiri was going to tell them they got hit by an age-regressing quirk, but something deep inside of him stopped him. He felt a sudden urge to protect these kids from the villainous paths they have followed. Who knows how long they would be like this for? Perhaps when they changed back, their memories would be restored and they would forget all about their time as children. For now, Kurogiri would take care of these children as he did with Shigaraki Tomura.

“Please wait a moment, young ones. I must speak with my comrades,” Kurogiri said, beckoning Compress and Twice to follow.

Once in the hallway further from the room containing the little League member’s, Kurogiri turned to address Compress and Twice.

“I have a proposition of sorts.”

“Proposition? Spit it out already, man! ” Twice stage-whispered in the hallway, trying to be quiet so the kids wouldn’t hear. 

“Do go on, dear. I am interested to hear what you might propose,” Compress said, quite interested in what Kurogiri had to say, as usually, he just followed whatever Shigaraki told him.

“We do not know when this quirk will wear off, so why don’t we just let them be children for a little while? It could be good for them, and they might not remember their time as children anyways.” Kurogiri said, a bit softer than how he usually speaks. 

Compress and Twice stood for a moment, thinking about this decision as they didn’t have the others to hear from.

“Why not? It could be fun! Just rip the bandaid off and tell the little shits!” Twice said, jumping in place from excitement at the thought of taking care of the baby league.

There once was a time where Jin wanted to be a father, although the other members didn’t know this. He used to be good with children before he went down the path of theft, and later had his mental break. 

“This could be quite entertaining, but Kurogiri, are you sure about this?” Compress questioned him in a soft tone, never really seeing this much caring from Kurogiri.

“I am sure.”

“Then I will help. I have not very much experience with children, but I will not let you do this alone.”

Kurogiri could almost smile at Compress’s words, but he did not have anything under the mist, so he could not. Instead, he stepped away to go back to the children. 

With Kurogiri stepping back into the room, the young Dabi tensed up once more. Kurogiri put his mist-hands up in surrender, “We aren’t here to harm you. To put it simply, your parents have all dropped you off here for a while. Though I am unsure of when they plan to come back. Think of it as a long-term daycare of sorts. Except, you get to spend, possibly, weeks or months with us.”

Dabi nodded along, eyes narrowing, “My dad wouldn’t just leave me here! We still need to train, I’m going to become the number 1 hero one day! I can't train if he’s not here!”

Tenko was scared, but he was just grateful he hadn’t done something to upset the mist man and get put outside again. He wouldn’t even have Mon-chan with him now for comfort. He wondered why Hana wasn’t here with him, but he tried to stay focused on the mist man as he started to speak.

“I’m sorry young ones, but like I said, I’m unsure of why your parents left you here. Perhaps they have become busy with work?” Kurogiri said, trying to supply a reasoning as to why his lie would make sense. It seemed the simplest way to explain to young children how they got here.

The children all slowly nodded, still unsure of the situation. They just suddenly woke up in a strange place, their parents nowhere to be found. It’s no surprise that they’re all terrified and unsure of everything happening around them.

“Why don’t you introduce yourselves, little ones? Special guests need their titles! It’s best to have names to call each other if you’ll be performing together!” Compress exclaimed, jumping out from behind Kurogiri and accidentally spooking the two youngest.

Though a bit confused at Compress’s wording, the children made a messy circle, likely how they remember doing at the first day of preschool, minus the youngest ones. Kurogiri, Compress, and Twice listened as they introduced themselves to get their correct names.

“My name is Todoroki Touya,” Dabi, no, Touya said, shocking the still-adult L.O.V. members. They tried not to let it show, deciding to circle back to that at a later date. Touya continued, “I’m eight years old.”

Magne, the eldest, went next, “My name is Hikiishi Kenji,” they said, “and I’m nine!”

Spinner glanced up, a bit shy, “My name is… Iguchi Shuichi. I’m four…”

Shigaraki came next, and Kurogiri was surprised to hear what came next, “I’m Shimura Tenko and I’m also four.”

The baby couldn’t speak, so Kurogiri spoke for her, hoping she didn’t have a different name before villainy. “Her name is Toga Himiko, she’s unable to talk just yet.” He told the children, not sure if that had been her villain name or not, but going with it.

The children stood around, unsure of what to do with themselves now. They were left here for who knows how long, and they weren’t exactly sure how to pass the time.

Kurogiri was going to have to go shopping soon.

Twice jumped in, “Why don’t you talk about things you like? Just shut up, you babies! ” he yelled excitedly.

“Do not worry about him! He tends to play two characters on stage!” Compress reassured the tiny league of villains members.

They nodded timidly, Tenko deciding to be brave and go first. If he was going to be a hero, he needed to be able to speak in front of crowds, right?

“Well, I really like All Might. Heroes in general are awesome! My dad doesn’t really like heroes though so don’t tell him that… but me and my friends play heroes all the time and I get to be All Might a lot of the time since they said I’m so nice,” Tenko said, half-murmuring it all.

That came as a surprise to the older league members, not expecting one of the biggest All Might haters in their group to have been such a fanboy at a young age. It makes them wonder what exactly happened for him to do a complete 360 like that.

“Me too!” Touya jumped in, going on a tangent, “I love heroes! I’m going to be the best hero ever when I’m older. I’m going to surpass All Might and be the next number one! Then my dad will be so proud!”

Kenji decided to stay quiet, as he was suddenly very aware that his younger sister was not with him. Was this one of his mothers attempts in making him “normal”? He looked down at his borrowed Barbie shirt from his sister, he just hoped she was fine.

Shuichi tried to keep to himself, Touya and Tenko debating on if Endeavor or All Might was the better hero, until Touya looked at him and asked, “Hey! Shuichi, right? Who do you think is better?!” Shuichi was startled, but he decided to go for it.

“I..uhm..like Snipe more.”

The two were quiet for a moment before continuing.

“That's cool! Snipe is a good hero too!” Tenko rattled on, thinking Shuichi looked really cool with his lizard features.

“Hmph, I guess he’s good, but definitely not better than Endeavor!” Touya said, continuing on fanboying over his dad.

Kurogiri watched, now noticing just how tired he was. He remembered that it was in fact 3am, and realized he’s just been standing here in his robe for 20 minutes. He also realized that he had absolutely nothing for a baby. No crib, bottles, formula, diapers, toys, nothing. He had nothing for Toga, and barely anything for the others.

Compress, taking notice of Kurogiri’s tensed mist, decided to step in.

“I will help you make a make-shift bed for her with pillows, Twice, we need formula, diapers, and something for Toga to wear other than a diaper. Would you be able to go get those things?” Compress asked, they couldn’t just keep Toga in only a diaper, and she would need to sleep and eat soon.

“Yes! I can do that! Do it yourself! I couldn’t give two shits! ” Twice said, already leaving the room to get something to wear to leave and get the baby supplies. 

Kurogiri picked up Toga, who looked half asleep, and went with Compress to Kurogiri’s room to make her a makeshift bed. He put her down on the bed, looking around at her surroundings.

“Okay, I will go find some pillows, will you be fine with her alone?” Compress asked, concern slightly flooding his words.

“I will be fine with her. I’ve never been around a baby this young before, but I am sure I will manage.” Kurogiri reassured.

Compress stood for a moment, watching Kurogiri sit and watch Toga, before going to grab pillows.

Kurogiri sat, just watching her looking around. He didn’t know what to do, All For One and Shigaraki had always told him what to do. But now All For One was in prison, and Shigaraki was just a child that couldn’t make decisions for himself anymore. He didn’t really know what to do with himself, who knew how long Shigaraki would be like this?

Kurogiri didn’t know how to be.

Before he could spiral any further, Compress came back with the pillows.

“Here they are, dear. Put her laying parallel on the bed.” Kurogiri listened, and moved her. Compress put the pillows around her, so she couldn’t roll off the bed while she slept.

“Thank you, Sako.” Kurogiri quietly spoke. The rest of the members didn’t know just how close the two men were. Sometimes Compress wondered what they were. Kurogiri couldn’t tell him.

“Your welcome, my dear.” Compress told him softly. Kurogiri felt warm under the mist, especially where his face should be. “You can go to sleep with her, I will put the others to bed.”

“Are you sure? I could put them to bed.” Kurogiri tried to argue, but Compress lightly pushed him onto the bed.

“Sleep, you already do so much for the league, let me do this for you. I will come get Toga when Twice comes back with the supplies. This will be a long, adventurous time with them as young as they are now.” Compress continued. Kurogiri looked at him, Compress had his mask off as they had all been asleep when they heard the commotion. He could see not Compress, but Sako.

It wouldn’t hurt to let Sako put them to sleep.

“Alright, you can put them to sleep.” Kurogiri told him, getting under the blanket on the bed while trying not to disturb Toga, who had already fallen asleep.

Compress walked to the door, turning off the light then shutting the door.

Kurogiri laid there for a moment, watching Toga’s rising and falling chest. As he fell asleep, he could only wonder,

What did he just get them into?

Chapter Text

Kurogiri awoke to two things. One was silence, which is not unusual in the league at early hours, but when more than half of the league is currently under the age of 10, it’s a bit concerning. The second thing was the distinct smell of something cooking, but it quickly became more apparent that it was not only cooking, but it was burning as well.

He got up quickly, entering the main area of the bar. He was met with the sight of Compress laying on the couch with not one, not even two, but three of the little league members all curled up in some way against him, save for Magne who was sitting against the couch on the floor, since they were the largest of all the children. As well as Toga, who was in a playpen off to the side.

Wait, where did they even get a playpen from?

Kurogiri followed the scent of burning to the kitchen behind the bar, only to see Twice standing there, panicking, holding out a pan that was undoubtedly on fire.

“Oh hi, Kurogiri! I’ve got everything under control, no worries. Oh my God, we’re all going to die!” Twice exclaimed, with a panicked look on his face.

Kurogiri heaved a deep sigh, summoning a portal to send the burning pan to who-knows-where. Not his problem anymore.

“Twice, you do know you’re not supposed to be on kitchen duties for this exact reason. Also, do you happen to know why there’s a playpen in the middle of the main area?” Kurogiri asked, all while getting out another pan to make breakfast without nearly burning down the bar.

“I kinda panicked and stole a bunch of baby stuff? No clue! Ask someone who cares! ” Twice said sheepishly. Kurogiri took notice that Twice wasn’t wearing his usual mask, something that was very rare to see from him. 

“What were you trying to prepare?” Kurogiri questioned Twice, as the pan of fire had held no clues as to what it was supposed to be.

“Oatmeal! None of your business! ” Twice told him. Kurogiri looked at him for a moment, not exactly knowing how to feel with the knowledge that Twice had just tried to cook oatmeal in a pan.

He did have to admit, it was slightly funny.

Kurogiri warped another small bag of microwaveable oatmeal from the cabinet, grabbing a bowl to pour it in, “Here, Twice. This is how you make it. You’re not supposed to make oatmeal in a pan, you only have to microwave this kind.”

“Oh… that makes sense. I’m so confused! ” Twice contradicted, looking over Kurogiri’s shoulder.

Kurogiri grabbed a cup to fill with water, pouring it into the bowl of oatmeal.

“Twice, you can mix it. This may be a good learning opportunity,” Kurogiri says, turning towards Twice. Secretly Kurogiri knew he’d be watching the kitchen closely to make sure Twice was never inside of it unsupervised again, but nobody else had to know that.

Of course, nothing in this bar was simple. Twice grabbed a kids spoon (must be another thing he stole in his panic) and began mixing the oatmeal, but it was definitely way too hard to stir a small bowl of oatmeal. Somehow, the oatmeal went flying everywhere. Kurogiri really wondered just how Twice got into these situations.

“Ok, nevermind… it’s quite alright, Twice. Just go help Compress watch the children while I make them all oatmeal.”

Twice nodded, undoubtedly embarrassed. Kurogiri doesn’t blame him though, because how can you mess up mixing oatmeal?

As promised, Kurogiri quickly made four small bowls of oatmeal. Since none of them had ever taken care of a child as young as Toga, in Twice’s panic-stealing he got one of the large formula containers. Kurogiri wasn’t sure if she was still supposed to be drinking formula, but for now it would have to do. They would all be able to do more research later. For now, they had to do as best as they could. Nobody could quite blame them for being unsure of these sorts of things when they had never taken care of babies and now in under twelve hours have multiple children to take care of.

Kurogiri looked at the container of formula, following the steps listed. He glanced at Toga, noticing she was now out of just a diaper. She now adorned a pastel pink sweater, some black leggings, and her hair was brushed out of her face.

Toga looked back at him, continuing to drool over a toy she was playing with in the play pen. Kurogiri walked over with the now finished bottle, he wasn’t sure if she was able to drink it on her own yet, so he picked her up out of the play pen and gave it to her.

He tried to feed it to her himself, but she proceeded to snatch it out of his hands and feed herself.

If it works, it works, Kurogiri supposes.

He sat her back into the play pen to give the other little league members their breakfast. He warped the bowls to the bar, normally children sitting at a bar would be unsafe, but unfortunately Shigaraki had decayed the last table they had, so the bar had to work.

All the children were still asleep on top of Compress, except for Magne, and he wasn’t quite sure how to wake them up.

“Let him sleep for a little more, dear. They’ve certainly all had quite the sudden performance, don’t you think?” Compress said, lifting his head as best he could.

Kurogiri turned to him, surprised, “I thought you were asleep as well, my apologies.”

“No worries, I was just resting my eyes,” Compress remarked with a wave of his hand.

He definitely was asleep, but Kurogiri won’t hold that against him. Compress was the best at taking care of the youngest children out of all, which is surprising to say the least, since Kurogiri at least has the experience of raising Shigaraki. This led to Compress taking care of the children throughout the night, calming their worries and helping little Shigaraki through a nightmare.

Something in Kurogiri’s soul tugged at hearing Compress take on such a parental role. At hearing Compress be so domestic, it made his soul feel a way he couldn’t describe. And it couldn’t be his heart, because Kurogiri isn’t even sure if he possesses one.

Deciding to take his mind off of the complexities of that, he turned back to Toga, surprised to find the bottle already halfway gone. Now Kurogiri was unsure if he was feeding her enough.

“Sako, do you know how much Toga is supposed to eat?” he asked, turning to Compress to address him once again.

Atsuhiro felt something stir in his heart as Kurogiri once again called him by his last name. Even though Kurogiri almost always addressed him by last name, minus when they were on missions, it warmed something in him to know that Kurogiri held him to a higher thought than the others.

Something in him sometimes wished he would address him as Atsuhiro instead.

Snapping out of his thought process, Compress replied to Kurogiri, “I’m not quite familiar with children of such a young age, but perhaps it would do us good to do some research. That way we won’t have any mishaps when it comes to the little actors.”

Kurogiri nodded, “Perhaps we should have a meeting along with Twice to figure things out. For now, let’s just feed them all to the best of our abilities. We don’t want starving children at our hands.”

Compress got up from the couch, slowly to not disturb the children too poorly, but enough to wake them from their slumbers. He gently shook Magne’s shoulders, the eldest child startling awake before calming down when seeing it was just Compress.

“What is it..?” Magne murmured, rubbing at their eyes. The other children all murmured words alike while yawning or stretching.

“Breakfast time, dearies! You all had quite an eventful night, you must be hungry. After grueling performances I know I need quite the pick-me-up to continue through the day!”

Magne and Spinner were the first to get up and make their way over to where they saw the bowls of oatmeal on top of the bar, Magne easily climbing into a bar stool while Spinner struggled to climb up. After a while, Magne lifted Spinner onto the stool for him and Spinner mumbled a sheepish thanks.

Dabi and Shigaraki were still a bit unsure and apprehensive about all of this, so they took longer to coax into getting food. Eventually, they too made their way over to the oatmeal when the other children seemed okay with it.

Magne helped lift Shigaraki onto the stool next to Spinner, while Dabi easily got into his own stool as Magne did the same.

Now that all the children were sitting at the bar, Kurogiri gestured to the oatmeal, “Go ahead, little ones. I hope it’s quite alright.”

As the children began to eat, faces quickly turning from nervous to pleased, Compress and Kurogiri beckoned Twice over to them.

“Ah, before we talk,” Compress murmured, walking over to Toga. He attempted to grab the empty bottle out of her hands.

Well, today Compress finds out that babies have surprisingly strong grips.

After a bit of struggling, Compress gave up and allowed Toga to hold onto the bottle as she chewed at the top of it, babbling here and there.

Making his way back over to Kurogiri and Twice, the three sat on the couch, lowering their voices as they spoke.

“If anything is certain, it’s that clearly none of us have perfect experience taking care of children,” Kurogiri began, “Even though I have raised Shigaraki myself, I never met him when he was quite this young. And little Toga, I’m unsure of how to provide for her.”

“So, what do we do about it? Let’s do nothing! ” Twice asked, glancing at Toga. He seemed especially keen on taking care of her, seeing as the two were already like father and daughter, perhaps more like uncle and niece, before this entire quirk incident happened.

Compress jumped in at Twice’s question, “Well, we should all do some research on how to properly care for them. If we’re serious about doing this, we need to have the proper items and knowledge of how exactly to take care of children,” this time he didn’t add any of his theatrical speaking, his tone entirely serious.

The three agreed to do more research on the topics of how to raise children, especially ones as young as Toga.

“We need to figure out exactly what kinds of foods Toga can eat, first of all. I’m not sure if she’s still supposed to be drinking formula or not. She doesn’t appear to have teeth yet, but she may be able to eat soft foods,” Kurogiri said, mentally listing what they needed to do.

“We should also find out ways to keep them entertained, don’t you think, dear? We don’t really have much for children to do around here, and it’s best to keep them from getting bored,” Compress added.

Twice decided to speak up then, “Now that we’re clear on that topic, I think we should revisit the shit with Giran. We can’t just leave him with the Meta Liberation Army.” he said, completely serious. He didn’t even contradict himself as usual.

Yeah, Twice was definitely very protective over the League.

“But is it a smart choice to move forward when we’re down five members? We all agreed we’d most likely have to fight, and I’m not sure we’ll be able to do that without some of our strongest members at hand,” Compress piped in with his own thoughts.

Kurogiri was unsure. He rarely made decisions without Shigaraki telling him what to do. Now, don’t get him wrong, Kurogiri is extremely intelligent, but he is also extremely dependent. Ever since he can remember, he has had someone there to tell him what to do. Whether it be All For One or Shigaraki Tomura, Kurogiri has never made most decisions without the order coming from someone else. Now he was alone, as All For One is now in prison and Shigaraki is now only four years old. Needless to say, he was very uncertain of his actions.

“I’m sure we’ll be able to handle anything that comes up. No we won’t, we’re doomed! ” Twice replied, snapping Kurogiri out of his thoughts.

“If the worst comes to worst, I can always warp us away,” Kurogiri supplied.

Compress nodded, “That’s true. Once we’ve figured out where Giran is being held, we can just simply have Kurogiri warp us all back to the bar.”

Twice piped in, his usual frantic nature bubbling to the surface once more, “Uhm.. who’s gonna watch the kiddos? Not me, I hate kids!”

“That… is something we can touch on later! For now, it appears our little actors have finished their meal, so let’s wrap this up for the meantime,” Compress said, slipping back into his enthusiastic tone.

Kurogiri couldn’t help but think, Wow, great meeting guys

Chapter Text

Hello everyone! This is not a chapter sadly :(

Me and Marslyie have realized that we didn't plan this fic completely through, and the only way to keep with our original plan for the fic would be to change canon heavily which we don't want to do, so we've decided to go on hiatus for a bit to figure out a new plan for the fic and then rewrite the first 2 chapters. The rewrite will most likely be very similar but just starting further into the canon story.

I have also been dealing with some personal issues that have made writing difficult, which is why a 3rd chapter didn't come before this. 

But we promise the fic is not discontinued or abandoned, we are still working on it and during our hiatus we will be rewriting everything we had before!

Thank you to everyone that's been reading, we'll hopefully be back soon!! Have a great Thanksgiving (if you celebrate lol) <3

Chapter Text

hey guys, its been a hot minute so I thought I should give anyone still waiting an update, the fic is still not abandoned, but I don't know when we will get a rewritten version up, it may be in the summer when me and marslyie have a lot more time, but me personally, I have been going through it, with mental health and sick family members getting worse, I do apologize for that.

I wish I could give better news, but I can't, and its sad to say that we haven't even started the rewrite yet, life has just been a bitch lately. we did slightly make a better plan for the timeline so what we wanted in the fic could actually work this time, but that was back in early december, so me and mars will most likely be going back over it when we have time.

please don't think this is the last of this fic, me and mars will hopefully be able to get new versions of the past chapters or just another update between now and before summer, for those that have been still waiting, thank you for your patience, we hope to see you guys soon! happy new years, and happy valentine's day.

anyways, back to coding 🤓☝️