The kids down the street were staring at them. They were dressed in the same uniform Izuku had worn for years. Ten years ago, he and Kacchan would have been indistinguishable from the mass of gawking students. Ten years ago, it didn't seem possible that kids from his school, that anyone, would ever look at Izuku like he hung the stars.
Izuku checked the time before pocketing his phone. He met the eyes of one of the kids—a tall girl with blue pigtails—and she squeaked and ducked behind one of her friends.
“Do you think I should have worn a hat?” Shouto asked.
“Maybe,” Izuku said, feeling faint.
“Izuku.” Shouto wrapped an arm around his shoulders. Izuku sagged against him. “Inko will be here soon. She’ll be so happy to see you.”
“I’m not worried about my mum. I’m just … it’s weird, you know?” Izuku’s eyes flicked back to the kids, huddled together, whispering furiously. “Being recognised in my own neighbourhood. Down the road, All Might offered his power to me. And at that corner, Kacchan once poured cold soup over my head when I was walking home from school. And now, when I’m just here to see my mum, a group of kids from my old primary school are freaking out at the sight of us.”
“You’ve been famous since high school,” Shouto pointed out.
“Not here,” Izuku said. “I shouldn’t be famous here.”
Shouto rubbed his thumb along Izuku’s shoulder blade. He didn’t understand, Izuku thought. Not really. Their childhoods were too different. He doubted anyone every opened a thermos of soup over Shouto’s head, or ground his tear-wet face into the dirt of a local park, or laughed when he walked past, like just the sight of him was funny.
Shouto had experienced a different kind of violence.
“Izuku?”
Izuku looked up. “Mum!”
Inko dropped the grocery bags and launched herself at her son. Izuku returned her hug just as fiercely. Shouto edged around them to pick up the groceries bags before the vegetables could roll across the pathway, and Inko reached out and dragged him into the hug. Shouto didn’t go stiff, the way he had in the beginning when she hugged him unexpectedly. He hid his face in Izuku’s jacket.
“Hello, Inko.”
“My boys came home,” Inko said, finally letting them go. Her face was wet. Izuku’s was bright red. “What are you doing here?”
“Visiting you, of course,” Izuku said. “Is that okay? They had to rearrange everyone’s schedules because of an error, and when we realised we both had the next two days off, we thought … but if you’re busy, we can go!”
“Don’t you dare,” Inko said. She tried to take the bags from Shouto, but he refused to give them up.
She lead them the apartment building. Izuku turned and waved at the crowd of kids before he followed her in. A toothy smile and a simple acknowledgement was all it took to make the neighbourhood kids start shouting.
Direct message
Deku: have you visited your parents lately?
Kacchan: are you fucking nagging me right now? is that what you’re doing?
Deku: no it’s just
Deku: shouto and i are visiting my mum. and it’s weird.
Kacchan: is she okay??
Kacchan: i can be there in an hour - half an hour if i decide that the law doesn’t matter
Deku: no, no! she’s fine! she looks happy to see us and she says everything is great at work.
Deku: i mean it’s weird being back here as an adult. i still feel like a kid, but i’m not? and everyone knows that?
Deku: sorry. i know that doesn’t make sense. we haven’t even talked in weeks.
Kacchan: it’s fine so shut up with that apologetic bullshit
Kacchan: i’m a fucking top hero but sometimes
Deku: … sometimes?
Kacchan: sometimes i feel like that shitty snot-nosed kid again
Deku: do you want to talk about it?
Kacchan: fuck off
Kacchan: some other time, maybe
Kacchan: look, you just need to do something to not feel like such a kid anymore. buy a car or learn how to do your fucking taxes already
Deku: my agency already provides a car, why would i go out and buy one?
Kacchan: there’s not much adult shit that we don’t already do. i don’t know. knuckle up and propose to strawberry shortcake already. adopt a kid.
Kacchan: don’t adopt a kid. that was a bad example.
Deku: it’s okay. i understand what you mean.
Deku: thanks, kacchan :)
Kacchan: whatever, i have to get back to work
Kacchan: i’ll rise above you in the ranks, fucking slacker
Deku: we’ll see :-)
The shouting began after dinner.
Izuku and Shouto were stationed behind the sink, washing dishes, while Inko bustled around in the living room, setting up their bed for the evening. Over the spray and the clinking of dishes, the sound of raised voices floated through the wall. Shouto switched the tap off, but the sound of running water persisted. The people in the other apartment sounded panicked. Scared.
Izuku and Shouto looked at each other, briefly locking eyes, before they put down the dishes and sprinted for the front door. Inko jumped as they flew past, dropping the duvet.
In the hallway, apartment doors were opening. People were drawn to the noise. Water gushed from beneath one closed door, flooding down the hallway and into people’s apartments.
“Stay inside your homes,” Izuku told the residents as he passed.
Their eyes flicked over him, and then over Shouto, his long, two-toned hair loose around his face. Izuku didn’t pause to think about how strange it was to be recognised as a hero in his own apartment block.
He knocked at the flooding apartment. No answer came. He jiggled the door, and when it didn’t budge, he broke it off and shoved inside. Illegal, yes, but the voices inside had climbed in pitch. They were nearly screaming.
The apartment was flooded. Water reached Izuku mid-calf and was rising rapidly. The small table in the entryway was bobbing in the water.
Izuku pushed deeper into the apartment. He found a woman on her knees in the hallway, clinging to a doorknob and wailing. Her tears came in unnaturally thick rivets, soaking her blouse. More water gushed out from beneath the locked door. Someone inside the bedroom was shouting.
It sounded like a little girl.
The woman stopped wailing when she saw Izuku standing in the middle of her hallway.
“Deku?” she choked out. “Wh—what—?”
“Is someone in there causing this water?” Izuku asked. “Are they in any danger?”
She sniffed and tried to stand. Izuku helped her to her feet and then gently passed her to Shouto.
“My daughter,” she said. “She’s not in danger, she’s just very upset. She won’t listen to me. She’s—she’s just—”
She threw her arms around Shouto and dissolved into tears again. She drenched Shouto’s button up immediately. He held her awkwardly, looking at Izuku over her head. Izuku wrenched his gaze away from the blessed image of a woman overflowing with tears clinging to his panicked boyfriend.
Izuku broke the lock on this door, too, and shoved it open. A little girl was flung over her bed. Her hands hung over the edge, and water sprayed forcefully from her palms, like an industrial hose. Her room was nearly waist-deep in water.
“Hey there.” Izuku had to raise his voice to be heard over the spray and her violent cries. “I’m Deku. I’m a hero. I’m here to help, okay? You’re going to be alright now. I’m here.”
She raised her head. Her wet blue hair hung around her face. It was the girl from earlier—the one with pigtails who panicked when they made eye contact. Izuku smiled at her, and she choked on her next ragged inhale.
Izuku slogged his way through the floodwaters. When he was close, he knelt down by the bed, getting on her level, even though that put him nearly throat-deep in the water. It was lukewarm, like tap water.
“Hello,” Izuku said again. “I’m Deku. What’s your name?”
It took her several goes, but finally, she managed, “Miya.”
“Hi, Miya,” Izuku said. “Can you turn the water off for me?”
She shook her head furiously, and then broke down crying again, so Izuku started talking about his quirk, and how learning how to handle it had hurt him sometimes, but the effort always paid off, because now he was a hero, and he got to meet so many great people—people like Miya. He knew it was hard sometimes. He knew it was scary. But he knew Miya could do it.
She stared at his face as he talked. He never dropped his smile. With each passing word, her breathing calmed. The water pulsing out of her hands slowed, until it was a mere trickle.
“Ready to stop, now?” he asked.
She nodded, just once, and then the water stopped. “You’re here,” she said against her wet bedspread.
“I am,” he said. “My mum lives down the hall. Are you okay, Miya?”
“I get panic attacks, sometimes. My mum gets them, too. It triggers my quirk sometimes, and then it triggers her’s, and …” She hid her face in the soaked blankets. Her voice was muffled and shaky. “I’m a baby.”
“You’re not a baby.”
“I got worked up just from seeing you. My friends made fun of me for being too scared to talk to you, even though you went into my apartment building, and Akari said I was a loser who didn’t deserve to meet you, because I was a useless crybaby.”
Maybe that primary school hadn’t changed so much, after all.
Izuku pushed himself out of the water and sat down on her bed. “Shouto—Polarise was teasing me for being too nervous to talk to you guys,” Izuku said. “I grew up here, you know. I went to your school. I got nervous coming back here.”
She blinked up at him. Her eyes were such a light blue they were almost white. “You get nervous, too? You?”
“I get panic attacks, too,” Izuku told her. “It doesn’t make me any less of a hero. My mum once said that it made her even more of a hero in her eyes—to get up and push through life even though you’re nervous, or scared, or get hit with panic attacks sometimes. To not let the fear keep you down. That’s what makes a hero.”
“Thank you,” she said, and she seemed calm—calmer than she had seemed all day. But then she stiffened back up and water gushed down her hands again. “The puppies!”
“Calm down,” Izuku instructed, folding his hands over hers. “What puppies?”
Miya took a deep breath and forced the water to reside. When her palms stopped dripping, she said, “All Mutt had puppies.”
“All Mutt?” Izuku said faintly.
“They’re in the other room. I—I must have drowned them—”
“It’s okay,” Izuku said, before she could break down again. “I’ll go rescue them. I’m a hero, remember? It’s what I do. Which room are they in?”
Izuku left Miya in the hands of her still crying mother, hoping Shouto would stop her from setting her daughter off again, and wadded as fast as he could through the water. The bathroom door was shut, blocking off some of the water. He shoved it open with a burst of One for All.
And there, curled up in the mostly dry tub, was a dog and a handful of puppies. All of them were mounds of fluff. All of them were safe.
Izuku knelt by the tub and held out a hand. The dog sniffed him. He was cold and wet all over, but the dog didn’t care. She smiled up at him, more fur than flesh, and Izuku couldn’t help but smile back. All Mutt. A very good name.
Shouto called a local hero agency, and they were able to get into contact with a weather-type hero who could remove the water for them. Afterward, the apartment was still damp and there was a great deal of water-damage, but at least it was no longer threatening to cave in on the residents below.
The mother—Shimizu, he found out—was going to take Miya to stay with family. Unfortunately, they couldn’t bring the dogs.
“We can look after them for the night,” Izuku offered, picking up All Mutt when she ventured over to sniff at his wet socks. He glanced at Inko, hovering in the hallway with a handful of neighbours. “As long as that’s okay?”
“Of course it is,” Inko said.
“Thank you.” Shimizu looked as though she was going to start crying again. “Thank you very much.”
Izuku cradled All Mutt to his chest. Her fur tickled the underside of his chin. She felt like a hot-water bottle against his soaked t-shirt. He didn’t want to put her down.
[Image: Shouto was sprawled out on the pull-out couch. His hair was spilt across the pillow in a two-toned halo. A mound of fur rested on his chest, a tiny nose pressed against the base of his throat, and two identical balls of fluff were sleeping under each arm. Both Shouto and the dogs were fast asleep.]
no1smallmight
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<3
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deathonation: i tell you not to adopt a kid, so you go ahead and adopt THREE? can you fucking read?
ururavity: DID YOU ADOPT PUPPIES WITHOUT TELLING ME?? ANSWER YOUR PHONE, DEKU
plantazar: so cute! what are their names??
animediac: eeee sleeping polarise ヽ(*≧ω≦)
Izuku woke that morning to a mouthful of fur. It wasn’t uncommon for him to wake up with Shouto’s long hair in his face, but fur was a different experience.
He pulled the puppy off his face. He was small enough that Izuku’s hand wrapped almost entirely around his stomach. He made a small squeak of protest at being moved. When Izuku set him on the mattress, he scuttled back onto his chest.
Shouto huffed a laugh against Izuku’s collarbone. “I think he likes you.”
“Where are the others?”
Shouto pulled himself off Izuku’s chest long enough to check on the other dogs before curling back around him. “On the floor with their mum, unlike this one. I think he might be attached.”
Izuku closed his eyes. The puppy had settled down now that he was back on Izuku’s chest. Shouto was a warm and familiar weight, cheek pillowed on Izuku’s shoulder, lean arm draped over his waist. Izuku couldn’t remember the last time he had slept in for the sake of sleeping in, instead of late missions that ended at dawn, or nocturnal patrols that ended in Izuku crashing on his agency’s couch just as the sun was peaking through his blinds.
He didn’t plan on falling back asleep, but he was pulled under, anyway. He awoke a few hours later with the sluggish and heavy feeling that came with oversleeping.
Izuku squinted at the ceiling. It took him a few minutes to recognise where he was. The framed—and signed—Deku poster hanging on the opposite wall reminded him. It was one of the first ever posters of him, printed at the beginning of his third year when he was still wide-eyed and skittish around professional photographers.Mum refused to get rid of the poster though, no matter how ridiculous Izuku knew he looked in it, or how embarrassing it was whenever she had guests over.
Shouto leant over the edge of the pull-out bed, obscuring the view of seventeen year old Deku with his grimace-like smile and birds nest hair, eternally burnt into the glossy paper.
“Good morning,” Shouto said. “You two have been sleeping very deeply. I could hear the snoring from the kitchen.”
Izuku never snored. He tried to sit up, but the lump on his chest squeaked and ran up his chest so he could lick at his chin. Right. The dog.
“He’s definitely attached,” Shouto said.
“I don’t remember becoming a single parent. Aren’t we in this together?”
Shouto took the dog when Izuku handed him over, and they exchanged morning kisses, shallow and lazy. When they pulled away, Izuku stole the rest of Shouto’s lukewarm coffee, draining it in one swallow
“Inko is making breakfast,” Shouto said, taking back the empty mug. “You get dressed. I’ll make us more coffee.”
Deku @officialdeku
@dadmight This dog’s name is All Mutt. ALL MUTT.
[Photo: All Mutt sat on the kitchen floor, watching something off-camera. Shouto could be seen behind her, balancing a puppy in one arm while pouring several mugs of coffee.]
Replies
All Might @dadmight
@officialdeku Young Izuku, have you adopted? Am I grandfather now?
Deku @officialdeku
@dadmight No! We’re just babysitting for the night!
All Might @dadmight
@officialdeku Well I’m not getting any younger, you know…
Deku @officialdeku
@dadmight Did Mum put you up to this?
All Might @dadmight
@officialdeku No, but I am in a group chat with both Inko and Rei, and they want me to tell you that they both aren’t getting any younger either. When are the grandbabbies coming?
Deku @officialdeku
@dadmight [Gif: “I can’t read suddenly. I don’t know.”]
The puppy slept on Shouto’s lap during breakfast. Shouto’s unbrushed hair was tucked behind his ears. He was sleep-soft, eating his breakfast with one hand, idly running his fingers over the puppy’s downy fur with the other.
Izuku wrenched his gaze away from his boyfriend. Inko was trying to discretely take a photo behind her bowl. He couldn’t blame her, really.
Every day, he thought Shouto couldn’t be more beautiful. And every day, Shouto proved him wrong.
“Mum,” Izuku began, and pretended not to notice the way she fumbled with her phone before hiding it under the table. “Do you talk to Toshinori?”
“We talk fairly regularly,” Inko said. “I don’t always have time to visit him all the way out in the countryside, but we email and text back and forth when we can.”
“You wouldn’t happen to be in a group chat with Toshinori and Rei, would you?” Izuku asked.
Shouto looked up at the sound of his mother’s name. Inko’s smile didn’t fade.
“How else are we supposed to keep up to date with our boys?”
Shouto was suddenly very interested in the sleeping dog on his lap, rather than looking at either of them. The idea of a group chat entirely for the purpose of parenting both he and Izuku must have been dizzying.
“You could message us,” Izuku pointed out.
Inko stared at him balefully, and Izuku focused on a tea-coloured stain on the ceiling and chugged the rest of his coffee, almost drowning himself in the process, rather than admitting that he was terrible at staying in contact.
When Inko turned her stare on Shouto, he calmly met her eyes. In this way, he was braver than Izuku.
“What do they think?” Shouto asked. “About the dog?”
All the harshness dropped out of Inko’s stare. She reached across the table to touch one furry ear. He made a soft displeased noise at being jostled, nosing into the folds of Shouto’s pyjama shirt. Inko pulled away.
“They approve,” Inko said. “They approve, Shouto.”
After the puppy had fallen asleep again, after Izuku stepped into the other room to make a phone call, Shouto caught the fond look Inko tipped him over her shoulder. He didn’t say anything. He kept running his fingers over the puppy’s spine, and let the white-noise of running water and clinking dishes and Izuku’s muffled voice calm him.
Group chat: dekusquad
purple people eater: saw your instagram post last night
purple people eater: I don’t like dogs all that much but I do like watching certain people suffer, so here:
purple people eater: [Image: A screenshot of a site that sold fancy costumes for dogs.]
purple people eater: you can get dog costumes based on heroes from our class
small might: shinsou, why do you have this
purple people eater: i find weird sites when my insomnia kicks in
asui tsuyu’s girlfriend: deku!! why didn’t you tell me you adopted dogs!!!!
small might: we didn’t!
purple people eater: sure, jan
tsuyu: You two will make good parents :)
asui tsuyu’s girlfriend: can I come over and play with them???
small might: we’re not adopting!
small might: ….. oh my god, does this site sell all might dog costumes??
purple people eater: I found a detonation-themed one
purple people eater: I know, it might be considered animal cruelty to put a dog in something so ugly, but god. imagine bakugou’s face.
mr midoriya: I heard someone dragging bakugou and I came running
small might: you’re not running anywhere. you’re stuck beneath a sleeping dog, you liar
mr midoriya: don’t expose me, izuku
Shimizu came to talk to them after breakfast. Inko offered to look after the dogs for another few days while the water damage in their apartment was being repaired, and Izuku offered to foot the bill. Shimizu refused. Izuku told her that when he said offer, he wasn’t giving her a choice. He was going to pay for the damages. That made Shimizu start crying all over again, great big tears that dripped soaked her cardigan.
Shouto leant over, and murmured, “She reminds me of you.”
Izuku poked him in the ribs.
Miya was watching them with big eyes. When they looked at her, she flinched and hid behind Shimizu, and only reemerged when Izuku pulled on his billboard-worthy smile.
“Th—thank you,” Miya said, rubbing her hands together. They were slick with water. “For yesterday.”
“Thank you for letting us spend the night with your dogs,” Izuku said. “They’re so cute. I don’t ever want to let them go.”
“We’re selling them for 5,000 yen,” Miya offered, and then quickly back-pedalled. “But—but I’m sure mum wouldn’t make you pay! You saved us, and you’re a hero, and my friend Tamaki has a backpack with your face on it, so—”
Izuku smiled, and opened his mouth to tell her that it was alright, that they didn’t need a dog, but then closed it. He peeked over his shoulder at Shouto. He was watching Izuku calmly, puppy balanced in the crook of his arm. It was the same one that had insisted on sleeping on Izuku that morning. The same one that slept on Shouto’s lap through breakfast. (Maybe, Izuku thought, Shouto felt a kinship with the dog for that reason; Shouto loved nothing more than to nap through his days off, and it was near-impossible to slip out of his octopus hold on sleepy weekends.)
This puppy was puffier than the rest, more fur than dog, and he seemed boneless in Shouto’s arms.
They had been talking about moving apartments for a while now, after officially moving in together. Maybe they could find somewhere bigger. Somewhere that wouldn’t feel claustrophobic with a pet. Their bed was already large enough, and Izuku could take the dog with him when he went running in the morning, and—
And they were heroes. Their lives were chaotic and constantly disrupted—could they really be responsible for a life?
In the end, Shouto made the decision for him. He hefted the dog higher in his arms, and said, “That’s alright. We’ll pay the 5,000 yen. It’s not problem.”
“Shouto,” Izuku said, voice pitched low, and Shouto met his gaze evenly.
“What should we name him?” Shouto asked.
“I’m not sure,” Izuku turned to Miya. “Do all of them have hero-themed names, or just All Mutt?”
“We haven’t named them, not really,” Miya said. She gestured to the strip of neon orange fastened around the dog’s neck. “We’ve been calling them by the colours of their collars.”
“I have a feeling you’re going to stick with the tradition of hero names regardless,” Shouto said.
“It’s a shame All Mutt was taken,” Izuku mused.
Shouto’s smile was small, more a smirk, barely visible over the dog sniffling against his chin. “Oh, I’m sure we can think of something.”
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Shouto placed the puppy in his jacket for the train ride home. His little head poked out above the zipper. He seemed content there, curled up against the softness of Shouto’s jacket and the body heat that his quirk put out.
“Mind Bark?” Izuku said, staring idly out the window. He seemed oblivious to the people in the next carriage who kept aiming their phones at them to take photos. “Shinsou is more of a cat person … Mutt Lady? That sounds insulting. Pooch Charming? Eraser-Hound? This is harder than I thought it would be.”
Shouto didn’t offer any ideas. He ran a finger down one of the dog’s downy ears. The simple touch, combined with the weight and warmth of the small animal, settled him. He hadn’t interacted with animals much before. He would never have thought that a dog could have the same calming effect on him as Izuku.
Izuku’s phone rang. He fished it out of his backpack and answered it.
“Kacchan?” Izuku asked, voice pitched low so he wouldn’t disturb the other passengers. Shouto could hear Bakugou’s tiny voice yapping through the speakers. “No, the mission brief isn’t until tomorrow. My agency’s schedule was rearranged. Don’t shout at me, I didn’t do it! Oh, like you would win that fight, you bastard.”
Shouto nudged Izuku. “I know what we can name our dog.”
Izuku tipped a smile at Shouto. Our dog. They shared a small moment of knowing, of appreciation, that their family had grown, and then Izuku said into the phone, “I have to go.”
Izuku returned his phone to his backpack, grimacing. “I’m going to pay for hanging up on him.”
Shouto smirked. “That’s not the only reason he’s going to be mad.”
Deku @officaldeku
Introducing the newest member of our family — Barkugou Midoriya-Todoroki!
[Image: Izuku and Shouto’s legs spread out on the bed, their ankles tangled together. Izuku’s lurid yellow socks, speckled with tiny smiling All Might’s, poked out beneath Shouto’s grey slacks. A puppy stood on their thighs. He was white-blond and impossibly fluffy, like a marshmallow with legs.]
Replies
Detonation @king.deathonation
@officialdeku ANSWER YOUR PHONE, YOU FUCKING FUCKASS
Uravity @officialuravity
@officialdeku !!!! I’m on my way over right now to meet him
All Might @dadmight
@officialdeku A grandson, at last!
Polarise @officalpolarise
@officialdeku Welcome home.