My Father's Son - Chapter 59

“It’s okay, they’re not looking!” Kitarou whispered. “Just a little one!”

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“It’s okay, they’re not looking!” Kitarou whispered. “Just a little one!”

Hiroki glanced back nervously at the teachers, but Ryouji just nodded, holding out his hands. They were meant to be doing some kind of school treasure hunt, finding the answers to questions about the campus, but as soon as they’d gotten far enough from the adults to go unnoticed, their conversation had switched to quirks.

Hiroki was used to seeing an intense look of concentration on Ryouji’s face when he fought, the look that came with his complex combinations of food properties all working together to accomplish incredible feats, but this time Ryouji’s expression didn’t even change. His hands began to glow bright blue, starting out a little softer and quickly turning neon, leaving little trails of light when he wiggled his fingers. Kitarou marvelled over it, already asking exactly what else he could do, but Kouichi just smiled, giving him a thumbs up for his efforts.

“That’s awesome, it must be great for navigating in the dark and stuff.”

“Mm-hm.”

“He can use it for combinations too,” Hiroki said, despite the eye roll he got for it from Ryouji – he always hated it when Hiroki bragged about him. “He can even turn the glow into explosions, like my dad’s.”

“They’re too loud,” Ryouji said, before Kitarou could ask. “And it depends what I’ve eaten.”

“Do you have to keep track of what you’ve eaten each day, so you know what you can use?”

“I can kind of feel it, but it helps if I know. I eat lots of the same things anyway, so I always have some ready to use.”

“Can you make tentacles and stuff like your dad?”

“Yeah, but it’s harder, and I don’t like octopus. I mostly make gases and stuff.”

A deafening boom interrupted them, echoing through the school yard, and Hiroki turned to look with wide eyes, staring at the flaming rubble that burst through the sky. People around him were screaming, older kids were sprinting toward the school building with their sobbing buddies in tow, but Hiroki just stared up into the sky, mouth hanging open a little, as he watched the mess unfold.

Reality hit him when he felt a rush of air, as Ryouji darted away from his side. Strong arms glinted in the sun as his skin turned to metal, and he raised his hands, bracing himself. A massive piece of rubble hit his hands, and he stumbled backwards with the impact, gritting his teeth as he caught it safely in his grip. Hiroki threw a hand out toward him, closing his fingers and watching the flames blink out before they could risk burning Ryouji. A tiny girl cowered as Ryouji set the rubble down, her buddy rushing over to drag her up off the ground, but Ryouji didn’t even notice the thanks they gave him for shielding her, too busy looking around the playground as more and more rocks began to hit the ground and shatter into pieces.

Hiroki finally understood.

“Lockdown is now in effect.” The loudspeaker crackled to life, spreading the message throughout the school. “Please begin lockdown procedures.”

Hiroki heard Kitarou’s voice start behind him, but he was too busy staring up at the sky, holding up both hands and feeling for the hottest pieces. One by one they began to flicker out as he moved, extinguished by the time they smashed into the ground. They still left craters in the grass, still sent chunks of concrete flying where they hit paths and courts, but Hiroki refused to let any part of his new school burn down.

“Light on your feet,” Ryouji reminded him, as he dove in to bat a chunk of stone away from Hiroki’s head. “Protect yourself first!”

But you’ve got me, Hiroki thought, unable to make his mouth work with how many flames were calling to him. I’ll be okay.

Despite Ryouji’s complaints, he never strayed too far from Hiroki’s side. He never let anything come close to hitting him, eyes darting from target to target, rapidly calculating which ones he needed to prioritise to keep them both safe.

“Ryouji! Hiroki!” Kouichi yelled, jolting Hiroki out of his daze – he’d never heard Kouichi so loud before. “Everyone is inside!”

Hiroki glanced back, at where the last of the kids were hurrying through the doors, Kitarou holding them open as he waved people through. As much as Hiroki wanted to stay, he could already feel his limit drawing close, and a quick glance from Ryouji told him it was clear to everyone else, too. There was no way Ryouji would let him stay much longer, not if it meant putting himself at risk.

“Fall back,” Ryouji said firmly. “I’m right with you.”

With a last nod, Hiroki ran for the doors, letting Kitarou grab his arm and drag him inside, as if he might try to take off again. Light, rapid footsteps behind him told him that Ryouji was on his way, and he stepped aside, yanking Kitarou with him, just in time for Ryouji to skid to a stop on the shiny floors. Kouichi slammed the doors behind them, turning a lock and sliding a heavy bolt into place to keep them secure. The hallways were empty by the time they began to move again, classroom doors closing and locking around them, but the 1-A door was still waiting for them, Terada looking oddly shaky as he ushered them inside. Every other member of Hiroki’s class was sitting under their desk, half of them hugging their knees and sobbing, most of them accompanied by an older buddy who sat next to them, urging them to stay quiet. A few of the older buddies still moved around the room, closing blinds and turning off lights, but most of their class, too, trembled as they listened to the crashing and explosions beyond their classroom walls.

Hiroki reached into his pocket, ignoring Kouichi’s pleas for him to get under his desk, in favour of unlocking his phone and navigating to a familiar page. Even with the volume turned right down, he saw the relief in the reporter’s face, and smiled to himself softly.

“What?” Kouichi asked finally, sighing as he gave up on his efforts.

The report cut away to a long shot of the action unfolding, and Hiroki turned his phone around to show them, his smile stretching into a wide grin as he held it up.

“Our dads are already there.”

───

Yuuto huddled under his desk, trying to squish himself up as small as possible, to let Uta have space beside him. As soon as the noises had started, before the lockdown announcement had even begun, their buddies had been pushing them under desks, hurrying around the room to close the curtains and turn out all the lights before they joined them. Norizuki had locked the door to the hallway and taken roll call in a whisper as she sat against it, blocking anyone from getting inside. Yuuto wondered what would happen if someone from another class showed up needing help, but he supposed that was why she stayed near the door – at least, he hoped.

The room was oddly dark with all the curtains pulled, he hadn’t realised how much sunlight came streaming in through their big windows. It was much nicer than his old kindergarten, with the tiny, narrow windows all set high in the walls, where he couldn’t see anything but the birds that flew by. He glanced over at Uta, a little impressed by how brave she was pretending to be. He could see the way her lips trembled, the way she tried to keep her breathing so carefully steady, the way her eyes watered even though she blinked hard to keep the tears at bay. He admired her for that, he wasn’t as good at hiding his feelings as she was; his Papa had always told him to ‘let it out’ and show how he was feeling, or talk about it, so that people could help him. He wondered if Uta had anyone to help her, if she let it out.

Some of the older buddies were hugging his classmates, trying to comfort them and hush them all at once, and fewer still were crying right along with them, silent tears streaming down their cheeks as they held their buddies tight and prayed for it all to be over. He wondered if he should hug Uta, let her pretend to comfort him, when really it was him doing the comforting. He didn’t really like hugs, though; it was okay with family sometimes, but he’d never really hugged even his best friends, let alone the ones he’d only just met recently.

All the hugging made his eyes drift across the room, to someone he knew would be avoiding them just like him. He expected Aiya to just be sitting with her buddy calmly, waiting for it all to be over, but instead he found her alone, not calm but not crying either. Her chest rose and fell at an alarming rate, and Yuuto wondered how she was even getting any air, breathing like that. He didn’t think he’d ever seen anyone breathe like that, although Hiroki had come close once, the time he got angry at one of their kindergarten classmates and started to yell, catching himself mid-sentence and forcing his mouth shut. It had been strange, watching him try so hard to just breathe. Yuuto breathed without even thinking about it, but Hiroki had stood there with his knuckles white against the edge of his desk, clearly focussing every single bit of his brain on that series of in and out.

Aiya didn’t look angry, though.

Yuuto crawled out from under his desk, ignoring the whispered protests from Uta and the hushed reprimands from Norizuki, shuffling over to where Aiya sat, with her blue eyes so wide it looked painful, her face so white that Yuuto wondered if she’d been making bread with her buddy or something when the fight had started – he’d been white like that too, the time he spilled flour all over himself.

She opened her mouth, but Yuuto shook his head, cutting her off.

“I don’t mind if you see,” he whispered, when their sides pressed together to fit them both in. “Are you scared? You don’t need to be. My dad will be there fighting now, making sure everyone is safe. He’s a hero, the heroes always win.”

“I know,” she whispered back, her voice strained. “I just...”

“You’re scared of something else?” Yuuto asked knowingly. “I can protect you.”

“I don’t like the dark,” she confessed, hands trembling against her knees, where she squeezed them tight. Her fingers had turned white like Hiroki’s.

Yuuto lifted his hand, and from it came three fluffy little sparks, floating gently in the air. Three seemed like a good number – enough to make a little light, and to control them for a while, without lighting up enough of the classroom to draw attention from anyone. Aiya stared at him as they floated toward her, but when he curled his fingers slightly, they began to glow a little brighter, and her shivers slowly came to an end. She lifted her hand slowly, and Yuuto carefully navigated it toward her, letting her catch it between her hands. Her face softened a little, for the first time, but soon the spark was fizzling out, and Yuuto had to produce a new one for her. One by one he continued making a steady little stream of them, even when his hand started to feel tingly. He let them dance around her head, putting on a little light show for her to watch, to distract her from the darkness that consumed their classroom.

Heavy footsteps began pounding outside, and Yuuto watched everyone in the room tense up as they drew closer. He stared at the curtains, sparks forgotten, left to hang limp in the air until they inevitably burnt away.

“Hiro!” a voice yelled, from beyond those dark curtains. “Yuuto!”

Yuuto jumped to his feet with a grin, hurrying over to the windows, pushing aside the heavy cloth to peek outside.

“Yuuto! Get down!” Norizuki whispered.

“Why?” Yuuto asked, waving out the window to get his attention.

“Oh thank god,” he heard, when those fiery red eyes landed on him. “It’s okay, they’re gone.”

By the time he got to the window, his big hand pressing to the glass like it might reach through and touch Yuuto’s on the other side, the loudspeaker was starting up again, making everyone jump as the voice echoed through the school.

“The lockdown has ended,” it said. “You may resume normal operations.”

Older buddies got to their feet, turning the lights back on and opening the curtains, and a small mob of people quickly surrounded Yuuto, staring at his dad through the window. They waved and gasped and called their thanks, and Yuuto took his hand off the glass, freeing him up to wave back to all Yuuto’s excited classmates.

“Are you all okay?” he asked, when the noise calmed down a little.

“We’re fine,” Yuuto said with a nod. “Go find Hirokun.”

“I love you, Yuuto.”

“I love you too!”

───

“Did you see Dad at school?” Yuuto asked, swiping his hand through the air and sending out a wave of sparks. “He came to my window.”

“Yeah!” Hiroki grinned, raising both hands and pointing them at Yuuto’s sparks. “We were watching on my phone first, they disappeared off the screen and then Uncle Suneater was at the window calling out to us, and Dad was there a minute later!”

Despite the chatter, Hiroki snatched one of Yuuto’s sparks from him, stealing it from his control and letting it burst into flame. Yuuto frowned, trying his best to pull it back, but Hiroki was itching to finally feel the fire in his grasp, instead of putting it out right away. The heat enveloped him like his cozy bed on a cold day, and Hiroki quickly grabbed another one as it whizzed past him, laughing when Yuuto immediately stole it back.

“Gimme!” Hiroki demanded, laughing all the same as they wrestled for control. “I want it!”

“I didn’t have my phone,” Yuuto said, struggling to keep the spark away from Hiroki. “Did you get it from your bag?”

“I keep it in my pocket,” Hiroki admitted. “It doesn’t make noises so no one knows.”

“How come?”

“Mm... I like knowing I can call Dad if something happens. Or he can call me. His one is the only one that makes noise, so I know if it’s important. Ryouji does it too.”

“Can you make mine do that too?”

“Sure!” Hiroki agreed, smirking as he stole away a different spark, while Yuuto was focussed on the one they competed for. “Mine!”

“No fair!” Yuuto complained, exploding all his other sparks and instantly grabbing back the one Hiroki was in the middle of igniting. “It’s my quirk!”

Hiroki laughed brightly, and Yuuto grinned along with him, throwing out a few more sparks once he’d secured Hiroki’s ones back in his grasp.

“Why are you only using one hand?” Hiroki asked, as he reached for sparks, watching them whip away before he could fully gain control. “I can do more!”

“I used the other hand earlier and now it feels funny.”

“Did you hurt yourself?”

“No, I just made lots of them.”

Hiroki tilted his head slightly, surveying Yuuto’s expression. There was something he wasn’t saying, something he didn’t want Hiroki to know, but Hiroki had plenty of his own secrets, after all – it didn’t seem fair to push.

“How come you can take Shouto’s fire but not mine?” Yuuto asked, when Hiroki missed another attempt at theft. “His is much bigger and hotter.”

“Exactly!” Hiroki said, huffing a little. “I can grab his from anywhere. Yours just keep running away from me! Fire is my friend, it isn’t meant to run!”

“Can you burn this one?” Yuuto requested, closing one hand and letting a single spark explode with a little pop, Hiroki snatching it before it could vanish entirely. “Hold it there.”

He waited until all of his own presence in the spark had burned away, then held out his good hand, frowning at the little ball of fire as he tried to drag it back. He searched it for something, anything to grab onto, but everything had disappeared, replaced by Hiroki’s bright warmth and strength.

“Okay now this one,” Yuuto said, flicking another spark Hiroki’s way and letting him catch it with his control. “Fight me.”

Hiroki grinned. Those little wrestling matches were his favourite part of playing Quirks with Yuuto, seeing if his fire magnetism could outweigh Yuuto’s control. Snatching them from each other while they were distracted was great fun too, but those little tug-of-war matches were the best.

Yuuto closed his hand, and the spark popped in Hiroki’s face, making him jump. He burst into laughter, and Yuuto let his hands hang down to rest, smiling faintly at Hiroki’s joy.

“Once you take the fire, my part goes away,” Yuuto explained. “But if you take it before it burns, I can still make it pop, even when you have it.”

“That’s cool!” Hiroki said, mind already whirring with possibilities. “Wait let me try the other way around.”

Yuuto blinked at him, but popped out a couple more sparks anyway, letting Hiroki stare them down. He didn’t snatch them away this time, let them stay floating under Yuuto’s control, but he pushed his own heat into them, fueling them, trying to burn them from the inside out. They wiggled a little in the air, but nothing changed, they didn’t burn or explode like Hiroki wanted, and he sighed as he finally gave up.

“I guess I can’t explode your ones,” he sighed. “That would’ve been cool.”

“It’s okay, I can explode them for you,” Yuuto grinned. “We’re a team!”

He closed his hand, and Hiroki watched in awe as one of the tiny, fluffy sparks turned into a big, fiery explosion. He’d never seen Yuuto’s sparks do that, they’d always been smaller, quicker pops, and he was delighted to see something so powerful come from his best-friend-slash-kind-of-brother.

“Woah!” he gushed. “How’d you do that?!”

“I don’t know,” Yuuto admitted, staring at his hands. “I haven’t done that before.”

“Really?!”

“Did you do something to it?”

Hiroki’s jaw dropped, and he turned to look at the other spark still floating around them. Yuuto glanced at it, staring in silence for a second before he raised his hand again, closing his fingers and watching it explode just as brightly as the first.

“I was trying to burn it,” Hiroki said softly. “I wanted to find the fire in it and make it mine, but there wasn’t any.”

“But you made it big instead?”

“I think so.”

To Hiroki’s surprise, Yuuto’s face lit up at the news, immediately producing another handful of sparks despite the fatigue he’d been feeling a minute ago.

“Again!” he demanded, shooting them Hiroki’s way. “It’s our first duo move!”

Hiroki grinned as he began fuelling them, put everything he could in them to try to make them burn. He wondered if maybe they would eventually explode of their own accord, but he wasn’t sure he could produce enough fuel to make it happen. He wasn’t even entirely sure how he did it, other than trying to make fire and failing. Maybe he should have been focusing on that one, before he worried about duo moves, but he couldn’t resist playing around with Yuuto and their combined quirks.

A car turned into their street, and Hiroki put his hands down, taking a step back to give Yuuto some space. Yuuto closed his hands, igniting all his sparks at once and watching them explode around him in a wave of fire. If Hiroki hadn’t known any better, he’d have thought it was their dad who’d set it off, and while he was a tiny bit jealous of that, it was overwhelmed by the delight he got out of watching Yuuto laugh at his own explosions.

They stepped out into the hallway when the garage door opened, waving as their Papa drove in, and Hiroki waited patiently for him to park and turn off the car before he ran over for a hug.

“Welcome home, Papa!”

He crouched down to hug Hiroki back, and Hiroki beamed, smushing a cheek against his chest and savouring his warmth. His Dad was a good hugger too, always happy to grant them when Hiroki wanted, but there was something so warm and comforting about his Papa that he couldn’t get enough of.

“I missed you,” he whispered into Hiroki’s ear, squeezing him a little tighter. “How was school?”

“It was good,” Hiroki assured him, grinning again when they parted. “We did art class.”

“That’s awesome, you’ll have to show me what you made!”

“I’ll bring it home when the paint dries,” Hiroki promised. “Yuuto did cooking.”

“It was just putting the tops on little pizzas,” Yuuto said. “But I got to stretch the dough they gave us and that was fun.”

“Were they tasty?”

“Uh-huh!”

“Well that’s what counts!”

“Yeah,” Hiroki agreed. “And when we get bigger they’ll let you do harder stuff!”

“I can already do harder stuff,” Yuuto huffed. “When we get bigger I’ll still be able to do harder stuff!”

“Then just enjoy the time away from reading!” Hiroki said, grinning. “You got to eat pizza instead of reading books!”

“That’s true,” Yuuto agreed. “Are you making pizza tomorrow?”

“Yup! I’m gonna sneak cheese in my pocket since you said you wanted more.”

The two of them giggled together, and their Papa joined in, ruffling their hair fondly as he nudged them toward the stairs.

“I’m gonna go get changed,” he said, as he kicked off his shoes in the entryway. “I think after that I’ll have some ice cream, before Katsuki gets home to tell us it’s not healthy.”

“I’ll get it out!” Yuuto said, already running up the stairs. “Hirokun, come get the bowls!”

Hiroki shot his Papa one more smile before he left, chasing Yuuto up the stairs, only pausing to look in at their Nana in the living room, peeking around the door frame to see her on the nicest couch, carefully tapping at her phone with one finger.

“Do you want ice cream, Nana?”

“That sounds like an excellent idea.”

“Okay! I’ll bring it to you, you stay comfy!” Hiroki insisted. “Say hi to Grampa for me!”

Inko chuckled as he ran down to the kitchen, but she didn’t deny it, and Hiroki couldn’t help but grin to himself as he grabbed out a pile of ice cream bowls and lifted them onto the counter.

“What’s funny?” Yuuto asked.

“Nana is talking to Grampa again,” he sang. “When do you think they’ll get married?”

“Never!” Yuuto objected, stabbing a spoon into the ice cream. “She already got married but Papa’s dad wasn’t nice enough to her.”

“But Grampa Toshi hasn’t been married before, and he’s super nice to her!”

Yuuto hummed thoughtfully, carefully scooping out the first helping of ice cream, and finally managed a short nod.

“Fine,” he said. “Maybe they can get married if they want, but only once I know he’s nice enough.”

“But she knows he’s nice enough, and so do I!”

“I gotta be her hero!”

“Grampa Toshi can be her hero!”

Yuuto grumbled, but shoved the first bowl in Hiroki’s hands all the same, pointing Hiroki to the living room.

“Take Nana hers first,” he instructed. “She doesn’t like sauce.”

“Okay!”

Hiroki left him to his thoughts, hurrying back to pass over the ice cream, and his Nana gave him a bright smile as she thanked him, setting her phone aside to take the bowl.

“Grampa Toshi is nice to you, right?” he asked.

“Of course. Very nice. But you knew that, surely – you’ve known him your whole life!”

“I know,” Hiroki agreed, glancing toward the kitchen and lowering his voice to a whisper. “I don’t mind if you want to get married, I know he’ll be your hero and take care of you!”

She didn’t answer right away, so Hiroki gave her one last smile, hurrying back to the kitchen to help. As Yuuto served up the rest, Hiroki doused them in chocolate sauce, watching gleefully as it hardened into a thick shell.

By the time their Papa got back, Yuuto and Hiroki were already settling in the living room, their Papa’s bowl sitting on the coffee table in wait. He joined them with a thanks and a contented sigh, settling in on the other end of the comfy couch, and glancing at the phone their Nana set down once more.

“How’s he doing?” Papa asked, making Hiroki giggle. “Well?”

“Very,” Inko assured him, smiling warmly. “He’s teaching the next few days, but we’re going to meet up again next week while he has time off.”

“I wonder if he’ll still be teaching when you guys get there,” Papa said, looking at Hiroki and Yuuto. “It would be cool if you could learn from All Might, huh?”

“He will be,” Hiroki assured him, kicking his feet. “He promised me.”

“Oh yeah?”

“Uh-huh! He told Daddy people don’t need him anymore, and Daddy argued with him, and I said I want him for my teacher, so he promised to be my teacher at U.A. one day!”

Papa’s smile wobbled, and Hiroki wasn’t really sure why, but he didn’t bother to say anything. Sometimes his Dad and his Papa just made those faces, but when they hid them away again with smiles, Hiroki knew he shouldn’t ask.

“I love you, Papa,” he said instead, watching his Papa’s eyes get watery.

“I love you too, Hiro.”

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