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Hitoshi is waiting by the door, excitedly bouncing on the balls of his feet, waiting for his mother to come back from her grocery run.
He was very well behaved today and his mom promised him some ice-cream for that and Hitoshi can't wait. He can't remember the last time he had ice-cream and he really wants one again, so he was trying extra hard to behave and he did it!
Hitoshi was quiet and unobtrusive and he even helped with the dishes and he didn't break anything and his mom promised him ice-cream this morning if he did all of that, and now she'll come back any second now and bring him the promised treat.
"Don't be a nuisance and hound her the moment she comes back," his father snarls at him as he moves past the hallway and spots Hitoshi lingering there and he ducks his head, freezing where he stands.
It's very important that he holds still when his dad is there, Hitoshi knows that, so he doesn't move a muscle, almost stops breathing even, and he doesn't shudder under his father's burning glare.
"Get away from the door," his dad finally mutters and Hitoshi scrambles away, hides himself in his room, though he keeps the door open, so that he can hear his mom coming back.
It takes another ten minutes before he hears the key in the lock and Hitoshi starts to bounce on his feet again, because she's here! And she'll have ice-cream for him because he was a good boy!
His mom doesn't call out for him as she enters the kitchen, but he still follows her there, careful to make just enough noise to let her know that he's there, but not enough to make himself a nuisance and earn his father's anger—it's a very delicate balance, but Hitoshi has been getting good at it lately—and his mom looks at him over her shoulder before she lets out a sigh.
"What do you want?" she sighs out, sounding tired beyond belief and Hitoshi wonders if she gets enough sleep or if she's like him and doesn't sleep much at all.
Or maybe he's like her?
Anyway, that's not important right now, because she's unpacking the bags and his ice-cream will make an appearance any moment now.
Hitoshi excitedly grins at her and says "Ice-cream!" only for his mom to frown at him.
"What are you talking about?" she asks and now something cold settles in Hitoshi's stomach and it's nothing like the nice, sweet coldness of ice-cream.
This feels infinitely worse.
"You promised me ice-cream if I behaved and I did! You said so, so now I'm getting ice-cream," he explains and he thinks maybe his mom was just playing a trick on him, just a little joke and she'll get his ice-cream out any moment now.
"Oh," she says, sounding completely bored and just her tone makes Hitoshi shrink in on himself. "I forgot."
"You—forgot," he repeats but she's not even looking at him anymore, too busy with unpacking the rest of the groceries. "But you promised!"
"Don't be a spoiled brat now," she chastises him and Hitoshi flinches. "It's not a big deal, I'll get it for you next time."
Hitoshi wants to argue, he wants to cry and to rage and to scream, but then his father steps into the room and just one look from him silences Hitoshi and so he slinks back off to his room.
He makes absolutely certain to hide his sobs into his pillow and it doesn't feel good at all when he falls asleep with tear tracks still drying on his cheeks.
And he never even gets his ice-cream.
~*~*~
Hitoshi lingers in the kitchen doorway with the rest of his foster siblings, all of them attentively watching their foster mother unpacking the groceries.
They are all hoping for something; a treat, something sweet, a magazine and—in Hitoshi's case—ice-cream.
Well, hoping is a strong word. Hitoshi knows better than to expect anything. He has learned to accept a while back that it's unlikely he'll get anything, that his caretakers are more likely to forget about him and his wishes than to bring something back for him and it would seem as if today is not that different, either.
The bag is getting emptier and emptier and still, there's nothing.
The one positive thing at least is that apparently neither of them are getting anything.
It's horrible, it unfair and cruel and Hitoshi hates himself for it, but at least he's not the only one being forgotten here.
At least he doesn't have to watch his foster siblings get what they asked for while he's being forgotten and ignored, while he is being punished for nothing.
Here, all of them are the same—worthless and useless and not deserving of getting what they asked for, no matter how polite they were about it.
"But—where are our treats?" one of his younger foster siblings dares to ask and their foster mother whips around to them, her eyes burning.
"You think you deserve anything, you damn leech?" she hisses and Hitoshi knows better than to immediately slink away to their room.
Now that they have gotten her attention, they'll have to endure her ire too and there's no way around that.
They'll have to stand here for the next twenty minutes at least, so she can berate them and yell at them and call them stupid and dumb and demanding and Hitoshi tunes her out for all of it.
He's fourteen now, and even though he would never admit it he's still waiting for that ice-cream his mother promised him when he was five.
But he knows better by now. He's not deserving of that.
~*~*~
Hitoshi unsurely lingers in the doorway, carefully watching Yamada unpack their groceries.
It's stupid; he's too old to still be hoping for something that is never going to happen and yet, Hitoshi can't help himself.
He's standing there, tracking Yamada's movements with eagle eyes, just in case he does unearth Hitoshi's ice-cream.
Which he doesn't.
Yamada pulls the last item out of the bag and there's no ice-cream to be seen and Hitoshi really shouldn't be crushed by that realisation but he can't help himself.
He's still stupid and still too damn hopeful for his own good and yet again it leads to nothing but the feeling of his heart getting crushed right in his chest.
And to make matters worse, Yamada turns around and notices him.
"Whatcha doing there, buddy?" he cheerfully asks and that just makes it worse.
He doesn't even realise that he didn't get Hitoshi the promised ice-cream, he doesn't seem to remember that he and Aizawa asked him what he wanted right before going out and then promised him he'd bring the ice-cream with them.
"Nothing," Hitoshi mutters and shuffles on his feet.
Yamada doesn't really seem to believe him because he starts to frown and Hitoshi is apparently nothing but a glutton for self-punishment because he takes a breath and says "You promised me ice-cream."
His voice is barely audible in the room and he's not facing Yamada, so he can't even read his lips to understand him but he must have heard anyway, because there's a dramatic gasp and then Yamada whirls back around to the counter.
"Shou!" he yells out and Hitoshi flinches, before he presses himself to the doorway, so that he isn't in Aizawa's way when he comes in.
Which he does about three seconds later, an annoyed look on his face and Hitoshi shrinks back even further.
He really shouldn't have said anything.
"Where's the kiddo's ice-cream?" Yamada asks, riffling through the groceries as if it would magically pop up but Hitoshi already knows that it's not there.
He watched Yamada unpack like a hawk after all.
"What are you on about, it's right—" Aizawa starts and then trails off, his gaze far off as he seems to recall something. "Oh no," he finally whispers and something cold and heavy settles in Hitoshi's gut.
They forgot.
"'Oh no'?" Yamada repeats and Aizawa grimaces.
"I was right there at the ice-cream isle but then I remembered that Hitoshi never told me what flavour he wanted and I got out my phone to call and ask, but then Tsukauchi called and I just—forgot."
"You forgot our son's ice-cream," Yamada repeats and his voice is dangerously low.
Low enough that the hairs on the back of Hitoshi's neck rise and he needs to diffuse this situation right now or he'll be punished for causing a rift between them.
"That's understandable," he says, because he can't quite bring himself to say 'That's fine' and both of his guardians look at him.
"That's not fine," Yamada finally hisses as if he heard Hitoshi’s unspoken words anyway and glares at Aizawa again. "Go. Now!"
Hitoshi expects Aizawa to protest; he just came back, it's too hot outside to make unnecessary errands, it's not that important anyway but to his surprise Aizawa just nods and turns towards Hitoshi.
"What flavour do you want?"
It makes Hitoshi freeze up because no one has ever asked him that and the last time he had ice-cream was so long ago he can't even remember the flavour and so he doesn't know what to ask for.
"I—it doesn't matter," he finally settles on and he hates how Aizawa's face falls so he quickly looks to the ground. "You don't have to go out for that again."
"Oh no, I do," Aizawa says, at the same time Yamada says "Oh no, he does," and apparently that's that.
"Any is good?" Hitoshi weakly offers, suddenly too ashamed to admit that he doesn't even know what ice-cream is supposed to taste like anymore but Yamada must notice it anyway because he nods as if he understood something Hitoshi hasn't even said in the first place.
"Shou, get one of those tubs with all three basic flavours," he instructs and Aizawa nods once before he leaves without another word.
It's strange, and new, and nerve-wrecking, and scary as fuck and when Hitoshi finally, finally gets the ice-cream he's been after for ten years now, he definitely doesn't sob into it.
~*~*~
Hitoshi lets out a wail as he flops over the kitchen table.
"Christ, lower your fucking volume, would you," Katsuki snaps at him, which of course only prompts Hitoshi to wail even louder.
"The hell is your problem?" Katsuki yells against Hitoshi's noise and he stops, for the sake of forcing out one fake tear.
"You didn't get me my ice-cream," he sobs out and bites back a smile when Katsuki rolls his eyes so hard, his head moves with the motion.
"You can shove your fucking ice-cream up your ass," he grumbles, turning away from Hitoshi again, who wails again, just for good measure, in case Katsuki hadn't heard him the first two times.
"But you promised! You said you'd get some for me!"
"Never did that," Katsuki refutes and unpacks the last of the groceries. "I said I'd make sure you'd have it."
Now Hitoshi frowns.
"That's what I said."
"Nu-uh, it's not the same," Katsuki all smugly says and then lets out an aggrieved sigh when Hitoshi wobbles his lower lip. "I really need to have a word with Yamada, you did not need to inherit his dramatics," Katsuki mumbles and even though it's been years since Yamada and Aizawa adopted him, it still makes something warm and fuzzy bubble up inside of Hitoshi's chest when they are referred to as his parents so casually.
When it's insinuated that they truly are related.
"I learned them from the best," Hitoshi agrees, because he did and he waits just until Katsuki's face goes all soft before he puts on a mask of hurt and misery again. "But you're not the best. Because you leave me ice-cream-less."
"I did no such thing," Katsuki replies and when he moves past the table to their fridge, he pats Hitoshi's head in that way they both love but would never admit to and then he unceremoniously opens the freezer. "I hit up a delivery service and scheduled a bi-weekly ice-cream delivery. You'll never run out of ice-cream ever again."
For a moment Hitoshi can do nothing but stare.
There's an entire drawer stuffed with his ice-cream and if what Katsuki is said is true, then it'll never be empty ever again and just like that, Hitoshi's eyes burn with tears.
He got past all of the hurt of never getting what he wanted or asked for with Aizawa and Yamada, because they always made sure to listen to him and to get him what he wanted—within reason of course—and so by now Hitoshi knows that joking around with Katsuki like this is fine and he never thought he forgot his ice-cream on purpose but this?
This is so much more than Hitoshi could have ever hoped for.
Apparently, though, his silence has lasted for too long, because Katsuki slowly closes the freezer again and his expression is suddenly unreadable.
"Sorry if it's too much," he mutters and Hitoshi is at his side a second later.
He might be the one with the more obviously fucked up childhood, but that doesn't mean that Katsuki isn't without his insecurities and hurts either and coming off too strong when he was just trying to be thoughtful and caring is one of the many fears he still has more often than Hitoshi would like, especially in cases like this.
"It's not, angel," Hitoshi mutters and gathers Katsuki up in his arms. "It's exactly right, I just needed a second to not burst into tears," Hitoshi honestly tells him and Katsuki immediately relaxes against him.
"Yeah?"
"Yeah. I love you, too."
Katsuki doesn't say it, not verbally, not ever, for reasons Hitoshi isn't yet entirely sure of, but he shows it.
He shows it so often, his every action practically screams his love for Hitoshi and Hitoshi has gotten good at hearing it.
"Go stuff your face with unhealthy shit and don't be all sentimental like that," Katsuki grumbles but he's the one to pull Hitoshi into a kiss and he's the one who gets out the ice-cream and a spoon and he's the one who doesn't even explode Hitoshi's head off when he eats the ice-cream straight out of the tub.
Yeah, Hitoshi damn well hears how much he's loved and the taste of the ice-cream melting on his tongue only drives that point home even more.