My Father's Son - Chapter 3

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Katsuki tried his best to act like everything was normal. Hiroki still did all his classes, still practiced the piano and did his homework, but when Katsuki picked him up on Wednesday he led the way to the parking lot.

"Are we going somewhere, Daddy?"

"Yeah, bud. I've got a new friend for you to meet, he has a son the same age as you."

"A new friend?" Hiroki asked eagerly. "Okay! Can we play? Or should I do homework first?"

"You get a break from homework today," Katsuki answered, Hiroki's eyes widening in his shock. "Just today, never again!"

"Okay!"

He drove them to a family restaurant on the edge of town – a lot closer to Izuku's apartment than their place, but he knew the idiot would be late again if he had to travel much further. As it was, when they headed inside, he couldn't see the nerd anywhere.

"Guess they're not here yet," he shrugged at Hiroki. "Let's grab a table and get comfy, yeah?"

He explained the situation to a hostess, and she assured him it was no trouble at all to wait. They got a little table at the back, with a clear view of the play area, and Hiroki beamed when Katsuki allowed him a chocolate milkshake.

"Is it a special day?" he asked, when the hostess left with their drink orders.

"Yeah, 'cause you get to meet a new friend, duh."

"Oh yeah! That's super special!"

Katsuki ruffled his curls fondly, smiling at the shining green eyes, watching tiny feet kick happily as he waited for his giant glass of sugar to arrive.

"I'm so sorry we're late!" Izuku huffed, out of breath by the time they arrived. "Pre-school and trains and- It doesn't matter, I'm so sorry!"

"Sit," he said simply, waving toward the two empty chairs. "Hiroki?"

"Hi!" the boy said brightly, flashing his gorgeous smile. "My name is Bakugou Hiroki and I'm five years old! I'll be six soon though! And that's my Daddy!"

He pointed proudly at Katsuki, who snorted as he swatted the hand away lightly.

"They know that, idiot," he smirked. "But good job."

"It's nice to meet you, Hiroki!" Izuku grinned right back at him, the expression almost achingly familiar. "My name is Midoriya Izuku, and this is Yuuto!"

He nudged the boy with his elbow, and scarlet eyes jumped up from his menu.

"Oh, yeah, I'm Yuuto," he agreed.

"And I'm Katsuki," Katsuki finished off, knowing the kid couldn't care less. "I'm buying today, so order whatever you want. Both of you."

A waitress showed up right on time, setting a massive milkshake in front of Hiroki's eager grin, sliding a dark coffee across to Katsuki.

"And what would you like to drink, hun?" she asked sweetly, looking at Yuuto's spiky head buried in a menu. "Have you had a look?"

"Uh, yeah. Juice. Please."

"Sure! Which kind would you like? Apple, orange, or pineapple?"

"Apple. Um, please."

"Sure thing! And for you, Sir?"

"An iced chocolate would be fantastic."

"Coming right up!"

As soon as she was gone, Izuku began his quiet protests, insisting Katsuki didn't need to pay for them and in fact he would pay for them, but Katsuki cut him off quickly.

"I'm a hero, nerd, you know that. You think a meal is any skin off my back?"

Yuuto finally looked up, his interest piqued by the words, and Katsuki almost laughed at him for it.

"A hero?" he asked, feigning disinterest. "You got a good quirk, huh?"

"Daddy has the best quirk in the world!" Hiroki answered for him, clapping in his excitement, feet swinging again. "He has a thingy in his hands that makes his sweat go boom! So he can make biiiiig explosions!"

"It's a little like yours, right?" Izuku smiled awkwardly, when Yuuto looked up at him. "You wanna show him?"

"I guess so," he agreed, pouting a little as he brought his hands together. "Look close."

Little white particles began forming between his hands, like bright, fluffy dust, and when Yuuto closed his hands they lit up one by one, letting off tiny pops as they burst into bright lights.

"That's so cool!" Hiroki marvelled, leaning in and waiting patiently for Yuuto to do it again. "What's your quirk, Mr. Midoriya? Do you have booms and lights too?"

"Oh, um, n-no, sweetie, I- Actually I don't have a quirk."

"At all?"

"At all," Izuku confirmed, ignoring the way Katsuki's eyes widened.

"Wow!"

Katsuki could see the man cringing, waiting for an excited "me too!" but with a little smirk he gave Hiroki a nudge. He'd long since been taught that he wasn't meant to use his quirk in public, especially with a top hero for a father, but that didn't mean they didn't occasionally play with it at home.

With a slow, steady movement honed only by hours of obsessive practice, one of Yuuto's little pops began to move. Yuuto watched with confusion as it floated away from his hands, whirling around his head instead of disappearing right away, and with a little giggle and a snap, it burst before his eyes.

"Hiroki can control fire," Katsuki explained, when Izuku blinked at them in shock. "Not a lot of fire, mind you, but like... A match stick, or one of Yuuto's sparks."

Izuku teared up, swallowing hard as he nodded, his smile wobbly.

"That's amazing, Hiroki," he choked out. "What a cool quirk you have!"

"Daddy thinks my Momma must have controlled stuff," Hiroki explained proudly. "Because the fire bit came from him, and the control must have come from her!"

"You don't know her?" Yuuto asked bluntly, making Izuku cringe.

"Nuh-uh! She didn't want me, so she left me with Daddy, but I don't mind! Daddy is the best!”

“I don't have one either, she died.”

“Oh, I'm sorry!” Hiroki gasped, face falling. “That must have been so sad!”

“I never met her,” he shrugged. “It was when I was born.”

The waitress returned with their second lot of drinks, breaking the awkward pause, and Izuku met Katsuki's gaze across the table with a faint, sad smile.

“Do you guys wanna play before dinner?” Izuku asked, gesturing toward the bouncy castles and giant inflatable slide behind them. “Just let us know what you want and we can order it for you in a bit.”

“Yeah!” Yuuto nodded, taking a big sip from his straw then jumping up from his seat. “Curry! Come on, Hiroki!”

Hiroki shot a shy little look at Katsuki, relieved to get a nod in return, and set his menu down neatly on the pile.

“Chicken katsu please, Daddy!”

“With the egg too?”

“Uh-huh!”

“Got it. Be careful.”

“I will!”

Yuuto snatched his little hand, dragging him off to the playground, and Izuku smiled fondly at their backs until they were out of earshot.

“My mother has telekinesis,” Izuku said softly, “and my father breathed fire. I always wondered, if I'd gotten a quirk, how they would have combined. I guess I know, now.”

“Yeah,” Katsuki agreed. “You must have been a bit more confused about the explosions, huh?”

“I thought the fire might be hidden somewhere in my genes,” Izuku admitted, glancing back at the boys again. “My partner made gases, flammable gases mostly, so I thought maybe they mutated together somehow.”

“Oh,” Katsuki hummed, drumming his fingers on the table. “Yeah, Hiroki can kind of fuel the fires himself? Like, if I give him the last little bit of a match, it doesn't go out when the match would. He can keep it going for as long as he wants.”

“Like Yuuto's explosion. They're normally gone right away, but he took control of it.”

“Yeah, exactly.”

They fell silent, watching the kids climb, until Katsuki let out a short sigh.

“Can I be really blunt with you?” Katsuki asked, leaning over a little to make sure no one was listening – the kids, especially.

“Of course!”

“Every fibre of my being is telling me to find a way to cheat you out of both kids,” he admitted, ignoring the gasp and the horrified expression across the table. “I can't do it, because I'm a fuckin' hero, but that's what my head says to do, because this whole thing is shit.”

“I know,” Izuku agreed quietly. “I don't want to give up either of them.”

“So what are we gonna do, huh? Use that little nerd brain of yours. Can we split them or some shit?”

“I guess we could... I don't know, share custody? Like, we alternate weeks or something?”

The thought of giving Hiroki away for an entire week was gut-wrenching, and he suspected he would feel the same about Yuuto, soon enough.

“How about this,” Katsuki began, watching Izuku tense up. “You let me send Yuuto to a good school instead of that shitty public nonsense, let me send him with Hiroki, I'll cover all the costs, no matter what.”

“I'm not letting you take my-”

“I'm not taking shit,” Katsuki interjected right back. “You let me choose his school, you let me think about his education and his future, and in return, I let you both come and live with me and Hiroki.”

“W-What?”

“We have plenty of extra space, it's no big deal. There's a spare room by the kitchen that used to be Hiroki's nursery, now it's just like a playroom, but we hardly use it anyway. I'll clear it out and Yuuto can have it. And there's a guest room downstairs that you can have, with a bathroom across the hall and everything.”

“Th-that's an incredibly generous offer, really, b-but I... I can't. It's too much, and- and my mother, and-”

“Oh, she lives with you too? She can come as well, it's fine. Maybe she can have the downstairs room and Yuuto can share with Hiroki.”

“Th-That's not what I meant! I j-just-”

“What's the big deal, then? Like, if you dare try to take them while I'm working or some shit then you will feel the full wrath of a pro-hero's legal force come crashing down on your curly little head, but it's not like I could run off with them, everyone would recognise me. So what's the big deal?”

“It's not that,” Izuku insisted. “It's just too much.”

Katsuki sighed, folding his arms stubbornly and looking over to where the boys were playing. They stood at the top of the biggest inflatable slide Katsuki thought he'd ever seen, a big grin spread across Yuuto's face, a much shakier look on Hiroki's. Before Katsuki could think twice about it, though, Yuuto was taking Hiroki by the hand, coaxing him over to the edge.

To Katsuki's surprise, Hiroki leapt right along with him, the pair bouncing and sliding down the slope with smiles and giggles. Yuuto patted him on the back when they reached the bottom, and Hiroki stood tall with a pride Katsuki rarely saw, usually put aside for his surprisingly large sense of humility.

“Neither of us has to give one of them up,” Katsuki said softly. “That's what we want, right? Both of us get both kids. We can make it work.”

“And if it doesn't?”

“If what doesn't?”

“If it doesn't work. If you get sick of me, or we mess up the house, or... or...”

“Then I'll buy two houses next door to each other,” Katsuki snorted. “We can figure that shit out, if and when we get there.”

The waitress arrived right on time again, breaking up the tense discussion so they could place their orders. Katsuki signalled ten minutes to Hiroki, getting a little nod in return, and finally Izuku loosed a small sigh.

“Let me think about it, okay?”

“No,” Katsuki flashed a sharp smile. “Your apartment is shit, the school is shit, you want better for him and we both know it. And don't use your mother as an excuse because we both know she'd be thrilled to live in a nice house that doesn't take three damn trains to get into the middle of the city, with both of the boys around her, and no financial stress.”

“But-”

“She would tell you you're an idiot to consider saying no.”

“I want to at least see the house first,” Izuku huffed. “And she would not call me an idiot.”

“Come over on the weekend. Bring your mother and your shit.”

“It's not that simple!”

“Don't you know a good hero always gets what he wants?” Katsuki smirked. “And this hero wants two sons, a scrawny idiot, and a sweet old lady in his house. Trust me, nerd, it's gonna happen. Mark my words.”

─────

When Katsuki pulled up outside the little apartment, he was once again hit by how old and shitty it seemed. Izuku must have been really hard up for cash if this was the place he'd settled on, especially with an older mother living with them too.

“Papa, can I show Hiroki my figures?” Yuuto asked, peeking around the front seat to look at him. “He likes heroes too.”

“Um, Mr. Bakugou might need to get home tonight, hun. Maybe another time?”

Both the boys pouted, and Katsuki raised an eyebrow at Hiroki, watching him immediately snap out of his little mood.

“Ten minutes,” he conceded, glancing at Izuku's wide eyes. “If it's okay with you, I mean.”

“Of course! C-Come on in! I'll make tea! Oh, unless that takes too long. Do you even drink tea? You probably prefer coffee, right? Would you like a coffee? I'm sure I can-”

“Tea would be great,” Katsuki interjected, more to shut him up than anything else. “We don't have anywhere to be, Hiroki just needs to do piano before bed.”

“I'll do my piano super fast! Perfect on the first try!” Hiroki assured him. “I promise!”

“Alright, let's go see what we're working with.”

Hiroki and Yuuto didn't even notice the words, too busy climbing out of their seats and closing the car doors, but Izuku gave Katsuki a scathing look, bordering on pained. Katsuki just smirked in return, locking the car behind them and stuffing his hands in his pockets as they followed the boys to the elevator.

Strike one: the elevator was rusty as fuck. It creaked and groaned the entire way up, and Hiroki reached for Katsuki nervously, clutching at his pants. Yuuto didn't seem to think anything of it, so Katsuki could only assume it was a constant factor, not a bad choice of days to visit. Izuku shot him an apologetic look after a particularly loud clunk, his cheeks flushed pink in his awkward embarrassment.

Strike two: the apartment was tiny. They had to go one by one through the entryway, Yuuto leading the charge and dragging Hiroki behind him, barely giving the slightly ill-looking boy a moment to take his shoes off before he was being dragged into the main room.

“We're home, Nana! You wanna met my new friend?”

Izuku waved Katsuki in ahead of himself, watching as he neatly tucked his shiny leather shoes off to one side with Hiroki's, then following him in and locking the door behind them. Katsuki's fancy clothes and general demeanor seemed so out of place in the cramped little apartment. Not because he sneered or cringed, no, just because a handsome, well-dressed, well-built hero seemed so wrong in a dirty, falling-apart building.

“I'm sorry,” Izuku mumbled behind him. “I know it's, uh, not much.”

“Whatever, it's not for much longer.”

“Stop.”

Katsuki shot him a sharp-toothed smirk, and Izuku blushed bright red, diverting his gaze in a heartbeat.

“It's a pleasure to meet you, Mrs. Midoriya!” Hiroki was bowing politely by the time Katsuki caught up, a little nervous but extra polite all the same. “I'm sorry to barge in on you like this! Pardon the intrusion!”

“Not at all, sweetie,” the lady said softly, her face creasing into a dozen wrinkles as she smiled at him warmly. “It's very nice to met you, Hiroki. Are you a big fan of heroes like Yuuchan is?”

“Yeah! My Daddy is the super best hero, but I like all the other ones too!”

“Nice to meet you, Mrs. Midoriya,” Katsuki offered, bowing slightly as he enterred the room. “Sorry to interrupt, the boys wanted to discuss their action figures.”

“Not at all, you're most welcome here!”

She hauled herself out of her chair, taking a moment to find her balance, but when Izuku stepped forward Katsuki beat him to it. He offered her an arm, and she giggled as she accepted, hand winding around his thick bicep to help steady herself.

“You're such a lovely young man,” she praised. “And you can call me Inko, no need for formalities.”

“Call me Katsuki, then,” he answered easily, and Izuku marvelled at them as she led the way to a little table by the balcony doors.

“Come sit, son, let me fix you some tea.”

“I can do it, Mom, you just sit,” Izuku said firmly, hurrying to a cupboard to sift through their mugs. “How do you take it, Mr. Bakugou?”

“You can call me Katsuki too,” he snorted. “You think I'm playing favourites with your mother or something?”

“It wouldn't surprise me,” Izuku said flatly.

“Probably because I am,” he smirked, seating her carefully in her low little chair before he sat on a cushion next to her. “Just straight, no sugar.”

“Coming right up!”

Katsuki managed to stick a smile on his face as he looked up at Inko in her chair, gesturing vaguely at the apartment around them.

“Have you been living here long?”

“It's not much to look at, is it?” she chuckled. “A little while now, since Yuuto was born. We get a good deal on rent, so we can spend more time with him.”

Katsuki realised all at once that Yuuto was the reason. It hit him like a ton of bricks, a heavy weight in his stomach. Probably explained why Izuku wasn't working much, too. Wow, he was an idiot to take so long to catch on.

“Well then have I got a proposition for you,” Katsuki smirked, ignoring the glare Izuku levelled him with. “I imagine Izuku has told you all about everything that's going on – you didn't seem surprised to see Hiroki, after all, and I know I've told my parents – but I'm sure you can understand, neither of us wants to give up our son.”

“I told Izuku from the beginning that he should leave things as they've always been,” she nodded solemnly. “I was surprised you even met with each other! Blood isn't all it's cracked up to be, after all! You should just take the settlement money from the hospital and be done with it all!”

“See, but the blood matters to me,” Katsuki corrected her, surprisingly gently if he did say so himself. “And I think it matters to Izuku too. So my genius plan is-”

“Katsuki.”

“This weekend, you two pack up your bags, and-”

“Katsuki!”

Inko seemed confused more than anything else, looking between Izuku's blushing glare and Katsuki's conceited smirk.

“I'm a hero, Inko,” he explained, leaning in closer. “And the nerd keeps objecting like some kind of an idiot, but I have money.”

“You're not seriously suggesting you buy him from us! Shame on you!”

“Haaah?!” he snapped, the softer look immediately wiped from his face. “What the hell? No! Christ, what kind of asshole would even think of-?”

He cut himself off when two little heads poked through a doorway, Yuuto's eyes wide and searching, Hiroki's more concerned than anything else.

“Sorry, boys, I didn't mean to raise my voice,” he calmed himself quickly. “She surprised me, that's all.”

“You should apologise for yelling, Daddy.”

“You're right. Thank you, Hiroki.” He turned to look at Inko again, shaking his head. “Sorry, you caught me off-guard, I never thought that would be your response.”

The boys disappeared again, fears assuaged, and Izuku set three mugs down on the table, still glaring in a completely unmenacing way.

“I want you to move in with me. All of you,” he explained, relieved when Inko's face turned from concern into surprise. “I've got two spare rooms, one would be perfect for you – a nice tatami room with a bathroom right across the hall. The kitchen and living room are up a flight of stairs, of course, and you're most welcome to the entire house, but if you're tired after a long day I imagine it would be nice to not climb them. Unless you'd rather be upstairs and we can stick the nerd in the basement, that's your call. But this way we can all have both boys in our lives, and none of us need to feel like we're giving up anything.”

“That's... a very generous offer, Mist- Um, Katsuki. Wow, I'm not even sure what to say.”

“Convince the idiot for me, he's determined to say no for some stupid reason.”

“Please understand, it's a very clever idea, it's just that, well...”

“If it's about the money, I don't want any. All I want is for both my sons to have all three of us, and my parents too, in their lives. I want to be able to send them both to good schools, to provide them with anything they might need for their future. You can accept that, can't you? It's not like I'm offering to just hand you a wad of cash and kick you out of their lives. I honestly think we can make this work.”

“And if it doesn't?”

“Like I told the nerd, we'll figure that out if we get there. I'll get us two houses or something, if you need your own space so badly. But we can try, can't we? Do you have a better idea?”

“No,” she admitted. “But we'd have to at least pay you rent.”

“Your rent is babysitting when I have to work extra hours,” Katsuki snorted. “Maybe cooking dinner on occasion.”

“Daddy! Come look at this!”

Katsuki looked up when the little voice interrupted, the freckled face immediately falling when he realised what he'd done.

“Sorry!” he said quickly, bowing low. “I didn't mean to butt in!”

“It's quite alright, sweetie,” Inko assured him. “We were just drinking tea anyway!”

“D-Daddy, if you're not busy, you should come l-look.”

“I'm coming, bud,” Katsuki nodded, taking a sip from his mug before he climbed to his feet. “You guys discuss.”

He followed Hiroki back into the next room, ruffling his hair when he whispered another quick apology, and when he found Yuuto standing at a bookcase he couldn't help but laugh.

“Wow, look at you,” he grinned. “That's a lot of merch.”

“These ones were Papa's when he was small,” he explained, pointing to a row of vintage All Might figures. “He used to have more, but he sold them for money when my Mom got sick. So these are just the real important ones. And these ones in the middle we got together, but these ones are mine.”

On the bottom shelf were a collection of familiar figures, cheaper and newer rather than the collectables up top, worn in places by games and love.

“Look, Daddy!” Hiroki grinned, carefully sliding one out of its spot and holding it up. “He has my favourite!”

Katsuki felt himself blushing when he saw the figure, decked out in black and orange, a dark mask tied around his face. The hands were his favourite part, though – he'd been ridiculously picky about them in manufacturing. Every finger was curled just right, his palms bursting with red and orange.

“Is he really you?” Yuuto asked, his voice barely a whisper. “I didn't know.”

“Yeah, that's me,” Katsuki smiled faintly, sitting down with them on the rug. “I'll show you my costume some time.”

“Really?!”

“Yeah, of course. Oh, you have Hair-For-Brains too. And is that Dunce-Face in the back?”

“Uncle Eijirou and Uncle Denki,” Hiroki nodded, beaming from ear to ear. “And look, Auntie Mina is back here too!”

“Wow, you've got the whole gang,” Katsuki nodded approvingly, watching Hiroki slot the plastic statue back into place carefully. “Have you met any heroes, Yuuto?”

“No,” he mumbled, ducking his head and rubbing at the back of his neck awkwardly. “Um, I was meant to, once. For a signing. But, um, Nana got sick, and we were with her in hospital instead.”

“Oh, that sucks.”

“Yeah. I was sad, but Nana got better so it was okay.”

“Which hero were you trying to meet?”

He didn't answer, and it took Katsuki a moment to catch on.

“Was it last year?”

“Yeah.”

“Oh jeez, I'm sorry dude. It would have been cool to meet you too. I can sign something for you now, though. Or whenever you feel like it.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, of course. I think we're gonna hang out this weekend, so you can figure out what stuff you want signed, and I'll show you my stuff too.”

“You're the best.”

“I know,” Katsuki smirked, reaching out to ruffle his hair and thinking better of it far too late. To his surprise, though, Yuuto didn't pull away, despite the little pout it brought out. “Does Nana get sick a lot?”

“Not hospital-sick,” he shrugged, brushing some dust off the shelf carefully. “But sometimes she stays in bed all weekend. She has medicines that make her better, but sometimes she forgets to buy more.”

Katsuki understood immediately, unlike his other stupid moments as of late, and for some reason that made him weirdly proud of himself.

“Maybe she'll get better at remembering soon,” Katsuki suggested with a smile. “I'm sure she will.”

“Yeah! I'll keep reminding her too!”

“You're a good kid.”

With a last little nod, Katsuki left them to their games, heading back out to join the oddly quiet adults sitting at their table. They both looked up when he arrived, then shared a glance with each other, and Izuku kept his mouth firmly shut while Inko smiled warmly.

"We'd love to come visit on the weekend," she said firmly. "Thank you very much for the kind offer."

"Glad to hear it."


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