Chapter Text
– VI –
Laundry day / “Home is a shelter from storms—all sorts of storms.”
The sound of the door slamming shut gives Katsuki a hint that something is up. He stirs the sauce a few times, then turns off the stove and walks around to the genkan where Izuku is putting his shoes away, looking agitated.
“Didn’t think you’d be back yet,” Katsuki says. “Weren’t you s’posed to go to Auntie’s?”
“I did!” Izuku replies, and when he looks at Katsuki he seems to be flushed with something between anger and embarrassment.
“My mom’s…seeing someone.”
Katsuki blinks, twice.
Okay, he would not have gotten it right even if he had a hundred guesses as to the reason why Izuku is upset. Before he manages to ask, Izuku launches into an explanation.
“We were having tea and chatting like normal, and the washing machine beeped and I started helping her hand the laundry because that’s what I always do…and then I found a pair of men’s underwear in there! That’s definitely not mine!”
Inko was apparently completely blindsided by the discovery, and she told Izuku everything about a man she met through someone at work. That they have been seeing each other for some weeks, and have been getting more serious…
“The day she told me she had plans for the evening…she was having him come to spend the night,” Izuku says in a haunted voice. “She said his clothes must have gotten…mixed with hers at some point to end up in the laundry…”
“Go, Auntie,” Katsuki snorts despite himself.
Izuku looks horrified.
“No, definitely not ‘go Auntie’! Doesn’t this freak you out? Imagine if it was your parents!”
“Seeing someone else? The hag would probably murder my old man if he tried to cheat on her. And if it was her…he’d probably be so miserable about it she’d have to do herself in.”
“That’s– ugh! Not the point,” Izuku shakes his head. “Who even is this guy and what does he want with mom? What if he’s some kind of con artist? Or a villain who’s trying to hurt her? Does he know that I’m her son?”
Izuku paces across the corridor, fingers combing through his hair anxiously.
“What if he moves in? What if he brings his daughters from his earlier marriage?”
He stops on his tracks and gasps.
“Am I going to have to call him dad?”
Katsuki whacks Izuku on the head with one of the guest slippers. There isn’t real strength in the strike, but Izuku’s hands still fly on the crown of his head in protest.
“Ow! Kacchan, what are–”
“You’re being a Deku right now,” Katsuki tells him bluntly, dropping the slipper on the floor.
“But–”
“What’d you do after she told you?”
Izuku purses his lips, thinking back.
“I…I’m not sure exactly. My mind blanked completely so I just told her goodnight and…sort of…left.”
The way his voice becomes quieter with every word suggests that he can already see how his answer sounds.
Katsuki’s had enough of standing around in the genkan, so he ushers Izuku into the living room. The nerd tries to ask about the smell of food floating around, but gets told to ignore it.
They sit on the sofa, and Katsuki pulls Izuku’s head into the crevice of his own neck, hugging him closely. This is probably more for his own sake than Izuku’s since he’s not convinced he can express himself clearly if he has to look Izuku in the eye while he’s doing it.
Either way, the nerd returning the embrace is nice.
“Remember when we went to tell Auntie that we weren’t just reunited as really close childhood friends?” Katsuki asks, lips almost touching Izuku’s ear.
“...Yeah,” Izuku nods slightly.
“She was freaking the fuck out,” Katsuki says with a small rumbly laugh. “I could see she knew it was coming, and while she was sitting there I almost thought she was gonna snap.”
Izuku hums. He must remember the tears in her eyes that were hard to interpret, the stiffness in her initial congratulations.
“She came around, of course, but at the moment she had a hard time with it,” Katsuki continues. “How’d it have felt if she just bolted on us right after you told her?”
Izuku says nothing, but his grip on Katsuki tightens a bit.
“Your dad’s been out of the picture…for how many years now? Haven’t even met him, and that’s something,” Katsuki huffs. “Made sense to not bring a bunch of guys in while you were still around…but she’s on her own now. She ain’t just your mom.”
“I know,” Izuku sighs, his demeanour a lot calmer now, “and I don’t want her to be all alone either.”
He pulls away and looks at Katsuki with a wobbly smile.
“If he’s an asshole or a villain, I’ll hold him down while you let him know what’s what,” Kacchan offers, slightly illegally.
Izuku laughs.
“Thanks, Kacchan. I’ll keep that in mind.”
“...And I mean, it was obvious sometimes my old man and the hag would send me to your place for a couple hours so they could fu–”
“NOT ANOTHER WORD, KACCHAN!”
– VII –
Flowers / “You can have more than one home. You carry your roots with you, and decide where they grow.”
The next day, Izuku turns up at his childhood home’s door with a small bouquet of flowers and an apologetic smile.
He already sent his mother a message the previous night after the chat with Kacchan, telling her he’d like to talk things through face to face. She agreed, and welcomes him inside warmly despite the slight bags under her eyes.
“I’m sorry for reacting like that yesterday,” Izuku says as soon as he sits down opposite her in the living room. “It was thoughtless to just run out on you.”
“I don’t blame you,” she shakes her head. “It definitely wasn’t the way I wanted you to find out. I should’ve told you before…but I didn’t know when or how to bring it up. I’ve always wanted to be a good mother to you, and it just felt…like a betrayal.”
Her words tug at Izuku’s heart painfully—if she asked him in his frenzy last night, he probably would have agreed with that assessment.
“You’ve been the best mom I could ever have asked for,” he says resolutely. “Always taking care of me and loving me, even when I was causing trouble or making you worry. And even though I’m an adult now, I still need you.”
He draws a deep breath, thinking back to Kacchan’s words.
“But you’re not just my mom for the rest of your life. You allowed me to chase my dreams even when it scared you—it would be unforgivable if I didn’t let you do the same.”
She looks at him, at a loss for words. He uses the moment to his advantage to take one more step of bravery.
“Do you…have a photo of him?”
She does. He’s shown a picture of the two of them in a natsumatsuri just a couple months ago. She’s wearing a lovely blue yukata, hair adorned with a simple yet elegant lotus kanzashi. The unfamiliar man is wearing a navy blue polo shirt and round-rimmed glasses. Stout, not much taller than her, peering into the camera a bit awkwardly—not exactly the spitting image of a casanova stealing women’s hearts left and right.
Izuku’s attention is drawn back to his mother. There’s a slight blush on her cheeks that may or may not be the magic of makeup, but her smile is unlike anything he can recall having seen on her. It looks giddy, almost girlish, lighting her up so much that Izuku feels it even through time and space.
“You love him, don’t you?” he mutters.
Those are the same words that she asked him a couple days after he had told her about being romantically involved with Kacchan. Whether she recognises the parallel or not, it’s at this moment that her tears finally spill over.
“I…I think I do,” she says. “I’ll be forever grateful to your father for giving me the greatest gift of my life, and that won’t ever change…but…”
She sobs, overcome by emotion.
“I know,” Izuku nods, feeling wetness creep into the corners of his own eyes, too.
He needs to hurry up if he wants to finish saying what he wants to say.
“Mom, I…the reason why I panicked last night, it was…” he swallows. “When I thought of you finding someone new, getting a new family… I was scared that there wouldn’t be a place for me anymore. That I wouldn’t have a home to return to.”
“Izuku…”
He shakes his head to show he’s not finished.
“But it’s not true. I have Kacchan, and so many friends who care about me. And deep down I know that even if you remarry, even if this becomes a home for other people…even if you sell this place and go somewhere else entirely, you won’t abandon me. You’re still my mom…and that’s enough.”
Now he does let the tears free, just as she gets up from the sofa with open arms. They actually end up somewhere in the middle, kneeling on the floor while holding each other. Izuku breathes in her scent and doesn’t worry about wetting her blouse while she mutters soft words in his ear. It feels like he’s a child again, and he welcomes the wave of nostalgia that washes over him—the palpable sense that everything will be alright, that he’s loved and protected.
Kacchan will make fun of his puffy eyes when he gets back home, calling it the ‘Midoriya method’ of conflict resolution. But at the same time he’ll put food and water in front of Izuku, and toss him in a too-hot bath that’s not really big enough for two, stroking his scalp until Izuku almost falls asleep. And he’ll keep doing it, again and again, for as long as both of their hearts are beating.
And that’s enough.