My Father's Son - Chapter 26

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Izuku barely slept, waiting for news about Eri's condition. She'd been whisked off to U.A. for evaluation, to check on her health and keep her safe if anyone came looking. As far as they were aware, the last of the gang who had been using her was officially wiped out, but they could never be too cautious, especially not about a young girl who could barely speak, could barely walk unaided. She must have been through so much, Izuku knew – he didn't understand the half of it, but he was determined to get the information out of Katsuki as soon as possible.

"Have you heard anything yet?" he demanded, the moment Katsuki glanced back at him from the coffee maker. "Is she okay? Is she taken care of? Did anyone come looking? Is someone with her?"

"Calm down," Katsuki answered flatly, holding his mug under the spout, though from the dark circles under his eyes Izuku suspected he'd have preferred to just stick his mouth straight under it. "She's fine."

"Are you sure?"

"Don't fuckin' test me this early in the morning," he growled, taking a long slurp from his mug. "You working today?"

"I'm supposed to be, but if you're going to visit her, I can-!"

"Nope," he cut in quickly, stopping Izuku's babble in its tracks. "She's spending the day with a couple of doctors and a detective to find out if she knows anything valuable to us. I'm gonna drop by after work, but Aizawa will take good care of her. He knows how to handle all sorts of teenagers, he can handle one who's a little damaged."

"A little?"

"You know what I mean."

Izuku nodded faintly, pulling the fridge open to debate breakfast options, only to find two little lunchboxes waiting for him, labelled "breakfast" and "lunch". Katsuki held up his own matching ones in answer to the silent question, and Izuku pretended not to notice that it was clearly not his mother's handwriting on the notes. Katsuki could have his little game if he wished.

"Can you tell me what happened with her?" Izuku asked quietly, sitting down with his box of food. "At high school, right?"

"To start with," he nodded. "There was this big operation that went on without us knowing. Some of our teachers were out for it, and the students who had work experience positions at the time were in there too. Shitty-Hair was one of them, and Mirio- Um, Lemillion too."

"You're allowed to call him by his name," Izuku grinned. "You're close enough to be on a first name basis, huh?"

"Shut up, nerd. We worked together a lot. Do you want to hear the damn story or not?"

"I do!"

"Alright, well, shut up then. There was this big operation to raid a mafia hideout, and most of us were left completely in the dark about it. I was doing the stupid license exam resit shit while they were out fighting villains. But yeah they screwed up or some shit, caught some of the assholes but not the important ones, and not Eri."

"Oh," Izuku pouted. "The villains got her away?"

"Yeah. Second year, they got a lead, this time I'm invited along. But I fucked up, made too much noise when I was meant to be sneaking in, we got caught. I fight the assholes while Lemillion and his agency run off to follow her, and by the time I'm done fighting I find out she's gone, they didn't get her back."

"Oh gosh, that must have been awful."

"Third year," he continued, scowling a little more genuinely. "I told them I wasn't going to let her out of my sight, and they tried it a couple of times, tried to send me with another group or whatever, and suddenly I had this stubborn asshole reputation with every hero in the city because I refused. And I followed her, and I got her, and then this fuckin'... mob boss asshole with the most annoying fuckin' quirk in the world, he shows up, and I know... I know I can't fight him alone. And he calls Eri, he tells her to go with him, and she does it. I was so fuckin' close and I shouldn't have let her go, but I did, and I hated myself for it every damn day of my life."

"Oh Kacchan!" Izuku bit down on his lip, trying hard to think about his words rather than let them pour out unfiltered. "That's awful, I'm sorry you had to go through that."

"Mirio was the only one who really understood," he shrugged, looking away stubbornly. "He came close too. We both had her in our fingertips and watched her slip away. There were two more after graduation, too, where we got there too late and shit. She was like eight years old and we just let her go."

"Can I ask, um, why she was so important? I mean, I know you're a hero and you want to save her, but they were so determined to keep her and... Well, you said tortured before, so...?"

"She has a powerful quirk," he explained, pulling a face. "That sounds like a shitty reason, like quirkless people don't need saving. No, she uh, her quirk was being used for villain shit. Like, they were using her flesh for it? It's gross as fuck. That's why..."

"The bandages," Izuku nodded, tears threatening to spill over. "That poor girl."

"I promised her, that time. I promised her I'd be back, and I'd get rid of that asshole gangster they called a boss. I yelled my throat raw, calling after her, and obviously that asshole didn't take me seriously because he didn't kill me on the spot."

"Was he the one you were hunting down for two days?"

"Yeah," Katsuki nodded. "Mirio got the faintest hint of a lead on him and we went for it immediately. Took a little while, but we managed to get in there. I guess he planned on ending the shit with us because it was empty except for him. Thankfully we've worked together enough times that we managed to take him out."

"But no Eri."

"Yeah. I swear I had no idea she was gonna show up last night, I just saw this guy moving in the shadows and saw a flash of her hair. It was convenient as fuck and I probably should have assumed it was a trap, but I couldn't let the opportunity slip away."

"Fate."

"I don't believe in that shit."

"I know you don't, but I still think it was fate."

"Maybe."

They fell silent for a moment, and Katsuki finished his food and coffee, shrugging his bag on to leave but pausing in the doorway.

"They used her to make drugs to erase quirks," he said softly. "Bullets that if they hit you, they'd just destroy your quirk completely. Not temporary like Aizawa's quirk, just... gone. I was scared shitless that it would happen to me if I held on that day, if I didn't let her go. I was a stupid coward and I won't let it happen again."

"You made the right move, Kacchan. Who knows if you'd even be here now, if you hadn't chosen the safe option that day. Besides, you didn't give her to him, you just... let her go."

"If you were me, you had this quirk, you got to train at U.A., if it was all you... Would you have let her go?"

Izuku paused, staring at his food as he contemplated.

"Yeah, I think so," he said softly. "I wouldn't want to, and I might make a stupid decision or something in the moment, but... I probably would have let her go, too. And then hated myself for it, like you."

"Yeah," Katsuki mumbled. "There really wasn't a good option, I guess."

"But you're here, alive and with your quirk, and now she's safe too. So you won, in the end."

"Yeah, but a lot of other people lost theirs in the process. If any of them knew I'd let her go, they'd never forgive me."

"Friends?"

"Yeah," he admitted, stuffing his hands in his hoodie pockets. "They probably wouldn't be anymore, if they knew."

"I'm sure that's not true."

"I don't plan on finding out," he shrugged, and Izuku knew immediately that the conversation was over. "Gonna go say goodbye to the boys and head out. Good luck at work, try not to tell everyone about Eri just yet, yeah? Gotta keep her safe."

"I won't say a word to a single soul. Have a great day!"

"I'll try."

─────

"Alright, move over," Katsuki demanded, shoving Izuku out of the way to get to the stove. "What are you lot even thinking? Ugh. You have to stir it slowly on a low heat, why would you leave the nerd in charge?"

"I was doing fine!" Izuku pouted. "Don't be mean to me just because you're tired!"

"Shut up. Oi, old man, take Deku and the boys out to do something fun. Don't want the nerd in my way while I'm cooking."

Mitsuki and Inko had taken up residence in Katsuki's kitchen to start cooking for the new year, preparing boxes for the night before as they waited for the clock to strike, and the early days of the year, too, so they wouldn't need to cook for a few days over the holiday period.

Katsuki had come home to chaos, since the boys had been stuck inside for a few days with everything else going on and were now starting to go stir crazy, making a mess of the living room with attempted pillow forts and abandoned games and toys. Izuku was too much like them for his own good, never wanted to insist on cleaning up when they had their next idea in mind already.

Most of the time Katsuki didn't mind it too much, but coming home to it all after a long day of work just made him instantly more exhausted.

"You hear that, boys?" Masaru called, smiling his understanding. "Let's go out and have some fun while the boring work gets done."

"Yay!"

They ran off to get their coats and shoes, and after a round of goodbye hugs they were out the door, Izuku smiling awkwardly back at the group as he followed them out. The room fell silent other than the bubbling of pots, and Katsuki breathed a sigh of relief.

"Must be about time for some adult time?" Mitsuki teased, watching Katsuki blush bright red. "I hear you promised to have regular adult time."

"I told them not to call it that."

"They told me that, too. So the dinner went well, then?"

"Yeah," he admitted. "Was kind of nice to chat with him with no kids around. I adore the little bastards but I guess taking a break is nice too."

"I told you so, brat!"

"Shut up, hag."

Inko smiled fondly at the two of them as they glared at each other, and Katsuki couldn't help but soften a little when she laughed.

"Izuku had a lovely time too. I'm glad you boys get along so well."

"Yeah," he grimaced, rubbing at the back of his neck where spiky hairs had grown a little too long for his comfort – he really needed to find time for a damn haircut. "It's whatever."

"So when's the next date?"

Katsuki almost knocked the pot to the floor when he whirled around, gaping open-mouthed at Mitsuki's smirk and Inko's teasing little smile.

"It was not a fucking date!" he insisted, jaw clenched. "Why the fuck do you listen to a six year old about this shit instead of me, apparently the only sensible adult in this damn house. I thought you were better than this shit, Inko!"

"Oh sweetie, when you get all worked up like this it just encourages the teasing," Inko smiled, patting his shoulder fondly. "It's okay Katsuki, you and Izuku are what you are, nothing we can say will change that! Don't worry about it so much!"

"But-"

"Now, have you invited Toshinori over for New Year's Eve? I'm sure he'd love to spend it with the rest of us!"

"Ah, n-no, I- I haven't," he admitted, thrown for a moment by the quick change of subject, still stuck in defense mode. "Um, I will."

"And Eri-chan, of course! And Aizawa, does he have a family of his own to spend it with? You should invite him to join ours, if not! And what about that lovely Togata fellow?"

"Mirio and his Tentacle Monster boyfriend will be together, they'll have plans. I'll talk to Aizawa about him and Eri."

"Good! Why don't you go do it now, and take a nice bath, too? We'll hold down the fort until you get back!"

"Alright," he conceded, nodding just once. "Don't do anything stupid, I'll be back soon."

"Of course not, sweetie! Go relax, we'll save all the tough jobs for you!"

"That is not what I meant," Katsuki grumbled, nudging Inko with his fist as if he might punch her, but putting no real pressure behind it. "Just don't overwork yourselves and shit. Two jobs at a time, not seventeen."

"Go, brat," Mitsuki shooed him away fondly. "Go take your nice bubble bath."

"Fuck you, bubble baths are amazing and manly as fuck."

"Of course they are. Off you go, then."

"I'm going because I want to," Katsuki said stubbornly, as he slipped his way back out of the kitchen. "Not because you told me to, hag!"

Behind his back, as he headed for the stairs, he could hear the two women talking together. Despite his occasional frustrations, he was a little glad that they got along so well. Inko needed some more friends to spend time with when she wasn't working, and he supposed his own mother probably did too.

"Do you two ever turn off?" Inko asked fondly, getting a laugh from Mitsuki. "You're always so energetic."

"I have to be, to keep up with him. We'd never talk, otherwise."

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