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Hizashi couldn’t help but smile down at his second son. He was walking side by side with Hizashi through the grocery store and rambling about NightFight, a new underground hero, ‘s debut. His hands waved around as he spoke and Hizashi couldn’t help but think that he looked a lot happier than he had just over a month ago when they took him out of Inko’s care.
At first, Izuku was quiet. Too quiet. He moved quieter than Shouta and never asked for help. Usually, they had to offer or wait until Toshi dragged him over to them. He was more talkative now, which is how they found out about his, frankly, genius analysis abilities. Shouta and he had been putting off telling Nezu about his notebooks for two weeks now. They knew they wouldn’t be able to keep him away from the rat forever, but they could postpone it. There were days when he seemed confused by Shouta or Hizashi doing chores, and he’d had a panic attack when he’d broken a plate doing dishes. It’d taken Hitoshi twenty minutes to calm him down and another ten for them to reassure him that they weren’t mad.
Needles to say, Shouta and Hizashi had a couple thought out murder plans for Midoriya Inko. Not that they’d ever be used.
One boundary they hadn’t really approached yet was physical touch. Izuku seemed to melt anytime Hitoshi pet his hair or cuddled him, and they weren’t so stupid to assume that he wasn’t touch starved, but other than the occasional head pat, he and Shouta hadn’t really initiated any physical affection. Frankly, they weren’t sure if he’d be comfortable with it and didn’t know how to ask without putting pressure on him to accept it. So, they made the decision to let Izuku initiate any physical touch beyond the occasional head pat.
Either way, it was worth taking Izuku in. He and Hitoshi were brothers and they couldn’t help but love Izuku. Hizashi reached out and grabbed a box of jelly packets from one of the shelves, still smiling at his son. Izuku smiled back at him, sweetly asking how many jelly packets Shouta went through in a year. Hizashi couldn’t help but snort. Too many. The answer was too fucking many.
Hitoshi was sitting on the floor playing with the cats as Shouta marked papers on the couch. He really needed to talk to Kaminari about getting tested for dyslexia. And maybe put a box of fidgets in his classroom.
Hizashi and Izuku were out at the store. Shouta and Hitoshi hated shopping and Izuku was, frankly, too nice to say no when Hizashi asked him. Or maybe the kid enjoyed going shopping. Shouta couldn’t imagine that being true though. Kid fought them practically every step of the way when they took him out to buy him basic needs. Like clothes and hygiene products. They’d ended up having to sneak electronics and extra stuff into the cart based on what Izuku eyed when he thought they weren’t looking or by what Hitoshi subtly pointed at.
“Y’a know, Dad,” Hitoshi said, flicking a cat toy around, “Zuzu won’t mind if you and Pops hug him.”
Shouta sat his papers down. “Are you sure? We don’t want to make him uncomfortable.”
Hitoshi nodded. “I know you’ve been waiting for him to initiate it, but he won’t. It’s gonna have to be you. Otherwise he won’t because he’ll think he’s bothering you. You’re gonna have to show him it’s okay.”
Shouta sighed. “Thanks for the advice. I’ll let Hizashi know when he gets back.”
Hitoshi just hummed as they went back to their respective tasks. Cup ran across the floor, her claws scraping the floor. Shouta grimaced. He’d have to trim her claws soon.
“If it helps,” Hitoshi said slowly, “there’s an old quirkless lullabye I could teach you. He’ll probably realize physical touch is okay faster if he falls asleep on you. And he falls asleep pretty easy with head pats and lullabies.”
Shouta raised an eyebrow. “Oh?”
“Yeah, it’s an easy song. Pretty repetitive too. And the second word in the chorus can be changed out for almost anything. They used to sing us this song on Quirkless New Years. It was an overnight event for safety reasons and they were really good about making sure everyone got home safely by using checkpoints of where to drop people off so they could go home. But not a lot of kids could stay up the whole night, so they had some people that would watch over us and sing us to sleep.”
“Alright, how does it go?”
“Kumbaya my Lord, kumbaya…”
Shouta was sitting between Hizashi and Izuku on the couch, Hitoshi curled up on the arm chair. A pre-quirk era movie was playing on the tv. It was a recommendation from Hitoshi and Shouta couldn’t say it wasn’t good. What was even more interesting was the commentary after the movie ended. The first time they’d watched a pre-quirk movie together, Izuku and Hitoshi talked for over an hour about cinematic effects and how there wasn’t much advancement in them once we shifted into the quirk era. People stopped focusing on technology and mindsets shifted into thinking that quirks were all powerful and that everything depended on them. Therefore, not many people bothered with advancing cinematic effects.
This conversation led into a conversation about technology and science as a whole. Which, Shouta had no idea that Hitoshi and Izuku were so knowledgeable about the subject. They were quoting articles and bringing up more than enough evidence of how technological and scientific advancements had slowed, going so far as to bring medicinal advancements into the argument. Hizashi and Shouta had ended up a bit lost, but the kids were having fun, so it was fine.
Hizashi leaned forward to grab the remote, making Shouta sit up a bit as had been leaning on his shoulder. “Ready for another one?”
Both Izuku and Hitoshi voiced their agreement and Shouta settled back against Hizashi as the beginning credits for the next movie started.
Towards the end of the movie, Shouta glanced over at Izuku and smiled softly when he noticed how his eyes were drooping. Izuku quietly yawned, and, frankly, he had no business looking as cute as he did. Shouta thought back to what Hitoshi had told him about physical affection, and as the end credits began playing, he gently wrapped an arm around Izuku’s shoulders and pulled him to lean against him.
Hizashi was looking at him now, an excited smile on his face. Shouta knew he was trying not to squeal. Shouta began running his fingers through Izuku’s hair, smiling as Izuku melted into him. Shouta nudged Hizashi, who turned the tv off and slowly moved off the couch, setting a pillow down for Shouta to set his head on as he maneuvered himself into a laid down position on the couch, Izuku curled up on his chest.
Shouta kept one hand in Izuku’s hair and his other arm across his waist, holding him close. Then he began to sing.
“Kumbaya my Lord, kumbaya”
“Kumbaya my Lord, kumbaya”
“Kumbaya my Lord, kumbaya”
“Oh Lord, kumbaya.”
Hitoshi was smiling at them as Izuku seemed to relax further into Shouta. Hizashi was holding up his phone, totally not taking a video.
“Someone’s singing Lord, kumbaya”
“Someone’s singing Lord, kumbaya”
“Someone’s singing Lord, kumbaya”
“Oh Lord, kumbaya.”
Hizashi motioned for Hitoshi to go to bed, kissing Shouta and Izuku on the head before heading to bed himself. Izuku hummed, one hand coming up to clutch at the capture weapon that Shouta kept around his neck as a comfort item. Shouta kept carding a hand through his hair.
“Someone’s sleepy Lord, kumbaya”
“Someone’s sleepy Lord, kumbaya”
“Someone’s sleepy Lord, kumbaya”
“Oh Lord, kumbaya.”
Izuku shifted up to bury his face in Shouta’s capture weapon and neck. His eyes were closed now, breath evening out. Shouta turned and kissed the top of his son’s head. Singing out one last verse before falling asleep himself.
“Someone’s praying Lord, kumbaya”
“Someone’s praying Lord, kumbaya”
“Someone’s praying Lord, kumbaya”
“Oh Lord, kumbaya.”