My Father's Son - Chapter 54

Izuku let out a long breath as he closed the door behind him, taking a second to gather himself as he kicked off his shoes...

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Izuku let out a long breath as he closed the door behind him, taking a second to gather himself as he kicked off his shoes. It had been a long day at work, he still hadn’t gotten used to the whole full-time-job thing, and he was just relieved to finally be home again, where it was warm and comfortable and he was surrounded by the people who loved him. Or at least, like, cared about him in general, or something. He still wasn’t exactly sure how to categorise Katsuki, in that sense.

An image flashed through his brain, and he shook his head roughly, shoving it aside – he didn’t have the time or energy to think about that.

Piano music floated down the stairs, as Izuku got closer, and he smiled to himself softly as he paused for a second to listen. Hiroki was getting surprisingly good, for someone who’d rather not be doing it, and Izuku could kind of understand why Katsuki wanted him to keep going – he had a talent for it, it was something he might turn out to be really good at. It was a real shame he didn’t enjoy it anymore.

Izuku plodded up the stairs, preparing himself for bright smiles and hugs and every detail of the kids’ first day at school, but instead he found a surprisingly empty house. He peeked his head in to check on the boys, freezing when he saw a different figure on the piano bench – a much taller, broader one.

“Oh. Hey,” Katsuki said simply, fingers halting. “Work okay?”

“Not really,” Izuku admitted. “I didn’t know you played.”

“You didn’t?”

“No. It was pretty, you’re really good.”

“Not really,” Katsuki shrugged, fingers starting up again, pressing keys with smooth, gentle motions. “Inko took the boys for ice cream, to celebrate their first day. She felt bad that she missed them this morning, I think.”

“Did they have a good day?”

“Haven’t seen them yet, she sent me a text.”

“Oh good, I haven’t missed the stories.”

Izuku pulled out a chair, sitting down at the table and resting his head on his hands, turned slightly to watch Katsuki play.

“Do you play often?” he asked.

“No.”

“Oh.”

“I just saw it here and kinda felt like it.”

“That’s cool. Keep going.”

Katsuki huffed a little, but he didn’t protest the direction, just continued obediently while Izuku closed his eyes to listen. Izuku was pretty sure he’d have kept going anyway, but he kind of liked to think that it was just for him.

“I know you play the drums,” Izuku mumbled after a minute. “Which came first?”

“Piano, when I was a toddler,” Katsuki said. “Good for coordination and memory and shit.”

“Oh, that makes sense. I guess that’s why you want Hiroki to play, too.”

“Mm-hm. The benefits, not because I did.”

“Yeah. And the drums?”

“When I was a bit older. Dad thought it might help me work out some frustration and anger.”

“That’s clever of him. I guess Hiroki just wants to be like you, though; he doesn’t seem to get angry.”

“He does,” Katsuki said, shrugging a little when Izuku opened his eyes to stare at him. “He’s gotten good at handling it, like I have. I knew how to help, my parents were kinda figuring it out as they went along. Ryouji helps too, I think. He talks to Ryouji about it more than he talks to me, but Ryouji comes to me if he thinks he needs to.”

“Oh. I never knew.”

“He’ll be glad.”

They fell silent again, but this time Izuku saw it when Katsuki glanced over his shoulder, looking at him with a surprisingly soft expression on his face.

“I play guitar, too,” Katsuki offered. “And I once taught myself to play a harmonica, just for the hell of it.”

“Wow.”

“And if you tell anyone I’ll murder you, but I spent about a year taking cello lessons too. I thought they looked cool.”

“I wouldn’t tell anyone,” Izuku assured him, cracking a smile. “I don’t see why, though. I think it’s cool that you’re so multi-talented.”

“I have to be good at everything,” Katsuki said with a shrug. “Easier to just learn as many things as I can, on the off-chance they come up later, so I can be prepared.”

“Why do you have to be good at everything?”

“Look at me, nerd. I’m the number one hero, like I always said I would be. I always talked the talk, had to walk the walk too.”

“That doesn’t mean you have to be good at everything,” Izuku pouted. “Isn’t it hard? Like, every time you try something new, it must be really frustrating if you’re not just magically good at it.”

“Yeah.”

“That must suck,” Izuku said sadly. “I think it’s fun trying new things, even if I’m terrible at them.”

“Then why do you complain every time I make you do it?”

“Because you’re amazing at them, so it’s embarrassing!”

Katsuki stopped playing again, and Izuku immediately regretted his words, lamenting the loss of music that came with them.

“I’ll never judge you for being shit at stuff, as long as you’re brave enough to try,” Katsuki promised him.

“Me too.” Izuku smiled softly. “If you want to try something new together, I don’t mind going with you and being shit together. I won’t even tell anyone, I’ll lie my ass off and pretend you were amazing right away.”

Katsuki cracked a smile, holding out a hand, and Izuku laughed when he saw the pinky finger extended his way.

“I promise,” Izuku said, linking their fingers together lightly. “Just say the word, I’ll be there.”

“Sounds good, ner- Izuku.”

The front door opened below them, and both of the men rose from their chairs, preparing for the hugs and excitement that would come bursting up the stairs at any second, as soon as they saw their dads’ shoes in the little cupboard. Izuku shot Katsuki one last little smile, his heart beating a little faster when he found one already waiting for him in return.

“Daddyyyyy! Papaaaaa!”

Hiroki grabbed them each by a hand, dragging them close enough to hug them both at once, and Izuku couldn’t resist a laugh as he returned it. As silly as it was to try to hug two grown men at once with his little kiddy arms, especially when one of them was a bulky pro-hero, Izuku was delighted that Hiroki thought it was just as important to hug him as to hug Katsuki.

“How’s our big boy doing?” Katsuki asked, scooping Hiroki up into his arms. “Did you make lots of new friends at school?”

Hiroki hesitated, not answering right away, and Izuku reached over to ruffle his hair.

“More importantly, did you have fun?”

“I liked being at school with Ryou!” he said, looking over at where Yuuto and Ryouji were just catching up.

“Our teacher is cool,” Ryouji offered. “He’s fair.”

“Yeah!”

“That’s great,” Izuku said, smiling at them. “And you, Yuuto? How was school?”

“Good.”

“Yeah? I’m glad!”

“And we brought dinner,” Inko said, bringing up the rear on the stairs. “We thought pizza sounded like a good idea.”

“I agree,” Katsuki said, setting Hiroki down with a last little squeeze. “Thanks Inko, thanks boys.”

“Ryou is staying too, Uncle Suneater said it was okay!”

“Good, it wouldn't be the same without him.”

Ryouji smiled surprisingly brightly at that, and Katsuki patted him on the back as he headed to the kitchen, opening up a cupboard to grab a stack of plates.

“So, tell us your fun stories,” Katsuki prompted, as he laid out plates for the pizza. “There must have been something cool that happened?”

Ryouji glanced at Hiroki, but Hiroki remained silent, just smiling away as he sat down to pick out his pizza slices.

“We joined hero club,” Ryouji said finally. “Once a week we go to club meetings to talk about heroes and stuff, sometimes they even do hero training.”

“It won’t be like your hero training, though,” Hiroki said pointedly. “It’ll be like family workouts!”

“It’ll still be fun.”

Hiroki nodded, and Izuku grinned at them both.

“I think one of the kids from your cram school told me about it, he said you learn about different heroes and things like that.”

“Uh-huh, Shinokun,” Hiroki agreed. “He helped me get water once when I was too little to reach at extra school. Today he made sure all the new people were happy.”

“I’m glad, he seems very nice.”

“Uh-huh!”

“Are your classmates nice, too?” Inko asked, reaching for some pizza of her own. “I bet you guys made lots of friends.”

Hiroki and Ryouji glanced at each other again, silently, and Katsuki cracked a little smile.

“I’m sure these two were too busy hanging out together to find out,” he explained. “They’ve been waiting a long time to be in the same class.”

“Yeah,” Ryouji agreed, smiling faintly. “It was fun to sit with Hiro all day and work together lots. And our buddies are friends too so we get to all play together. They taught us how to get the lunches for lunch duty.”

“Oh, that’s so cool, being responsible already!” Izuku praised. “I always felt so important when I was on lunch duty.”

“I got to give everyone rice,” Hiroki agreed. “They all said thank you.”

“I’m glad they used their manners!”

“How about you, Yuuto?” Inko prompted, leaning forward a little to catch his eye. “Did you make any friends?”

Izuku cringed a little, mentally preparing himself to assure Yuuto that it was okay to take some time, that some people were shy meeting new people and there was nothing wrong with that, but when Yuuto opened his mouth, he just froze.

“Tsutomu sits beside me, he likes eating natto for breakfast even though everyone else thinks it’s icky,” Yuuto said casually, not even meeting anyone’s eyes as he wiped his greasy hands on a napkin. “I told him I would bring vegemite for him to try, because you guys don’t like vegemite, so maybe that’s like natto.”

“He sounds like an interesting person!” Inko said enthusastically.

“Uh-huh. And I ate lunch with Aiya, she doesn’t like to touch people so she didn't make many friends, but we sat beside each other to eat and I was careful to not touch. Except I think I did by accident once but I apologised and she didn’t run away or anything so I think it’s okay.”

“I’m glad you were nice to her,” Izuku said fondly.

“Wataru plays soccer, so he said he’ll teach me to kick a ball in the goal, because I’ve kicked a ball lots but I never got it in the goal, and he says there’s special tricks to it, so he can teach me.”

“That sounds fun!” Hiroki said brightly.

“Ikari drew a picture of a dinosaur on my notebook, she’s a good draw-er and she asked what animal I like best and I said dinosaurs so she did a dinosaur. She called it the Yuuchasaurus because it has lots of spikes and she says it’s because it matches my hair. I made her promise it wouldn’t eat my homework though because then my teacher would be mad.”

Katsuki had to cover his mouth with his hand to stifle his snort, but Yuuto didn’t seem to notice.

“Miko plays the piano like Hirokun, she says she’ll play me a cool song some time, and I have to play her the first song I learn on a violin. She said we should pick a song together one day and learn and play it together, it sounds fun.”

“I wanna hear too,” Ryouji said, through a mouthful of pizza. “Play me your first song too.”

“Okay,” Yuuto agreed, eyes widening when he saw all the surprised faces staring his way. “When I’m good at it, I mean.”

“I’ll wait,” Ryouji assured him.

“I’m so glad you have such cool classmates!” Izuku said, after a moment of silence that stretched a little too long. “I bet you’ll be really happy with them!”

“Mm-hm. We played lots of games today, I liked it.”

“That’s so good!”

“Did you guys play games too?” Katsuki asked, looking over at Ryouji and Hiroki. “Since it was day one?”

“Some games,” Hiroki confirmed, he and Ryouji locking eyes again, something clearly going unsaid between them. “We did lots of stuff with our buddies.”

“That’s cool too,” Katsuki said. “You’ve got someone to help you out if you get stuck, that must be nice.”

“Uh-huh,” Ryouji picked up, when Hiroki didn’t answer. “They were the ones who took us to hero club, and they stopped on the way to get Yuuto, in case his buddy was busy.”

“She had music club,” Yuuto confirmed. “She was gonna take me first but Kita and Kou said they’d take me.”

“That’s good of them, I’m glad they’re considerate.”

“Yuuto’s buddy is super nice too!” Hiroki offered. “She waited for us at the bikes, in case we didn’t know how to get to our classrooms.”

“Uta,” Yuuto confirmed. “You met her.”

“I remember,” Katsuki agreed. “She plays violin, right?”

“Uh-huh, she said she’ll help if I need it. I think I’m going to the same teacher as her.”

“Yeah? That’ll be handy, I’m sure she’ll be a big help.”

“Uh-huh.”

Apparently done, Yuuto got a lot quieter again, focused on the pizza that kept dripping toppings all over his hands. The conversation moved on, but still Izuku caught Hiroki and Ryouji sharing looks he couldn’t quite read – the two of them had some kind of unspoken language between them, understanding each other without even a word said aloud, and as much as Izuku thought it was both adorable and very impressive, he wished he knew what it was that they didn’t want to say.

“Relax,” Katsuki whispered, when they brushed past each other over the dishes. “They were probably just messing around in class and got told to quiet down or something, they’re good kids.”

“I know! I just hope everything is okay!”

“They’ll tell us if it’s not. Hiro will say something if he needs help, and Ryouji will tell me if Hiro is being too stubborn about something we should know about. We’re good.”

“I’m gonna hold you to that,” Izuku huffed. “I’m blaming you if something is wrong!”

“Go for it,” Katsuki shrugged. “I trust our boys.”

The our echoed through Izuku’s brain in a weird way, forcing him to remember a soft touch and even softer lips, that he forced himself to shake off in a hurry before his entire face could turn bright red.

“Fine,” he choked out. “I do too.”

“Good boy.”

Katsuki turned and walked away, and Izuku was grateful for his departure, considering he now knew he looked like a damn tomato. He ducked his head in a hurry, hoping maybe the hot, soapy water would give him some kind of cover for it if anyone else walked in, but knowing, deep down, that there was no way in hell it would actually sound like a plausible excuse.

How was he supposed to survive living with Katsuki until the boys were adults?!

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