Shouta is feeling pretty good about today.
He’s supporting his kid’s dreams, making sure he gets to hang out with his little friends, he breaks out the good coffee and it tastes just as amazing as always.
The sparkle in Izuku’s eyes when he’d offered to let him and his friends run around one of the obstacle courses at U.A. is worth any amount of trouble they get into.
Shouta is certain of it.
That is… he’s certain of it right up until he sees the look on his husband’s face.
He’s on his way to join them, Nedzu needed to discuss a minor issue with him so he came early and had Hizashi bring the kids at a more reasonable hour.
“What.” He asks.
Hizashi’s eyes are dancing with mischief, glancing down at his hero uniform.
“Oh, nothing.” He smiles.
Shouta would be a fool to trust that smile. He narrows his eyes.
“Is there something wrong?” He glances down too, he's sure he grabbed the clean uniform this morning but it’s not impossible he got the wrong one.
“Not at all, you look very handsome.” Hizashi’s smile becomes softer. “Now, go see what devastation they’ve managed in the five minutes they weren’t supervised.”
That gets Shouta moving.
He knows the capabilities of teenagers and while these kids aren’t there yet it’s always possible they only get better with age and Shouta should be counting himself lucky to be a high school teacher.
He hopes that isn’t the case.
He arrives to discover no fires, which is good, none of them are climbing equipment either.
In fact, the little trio is sitting in a semi-circle and whispering about something. Well behaved, good.
He wasn’t expecting trouble but… well, children can be impulsive.
Izuku spots him first and waves with an excited grin. The other two jolt slightly at the interruption and perk up as well.
Shouta ducks his chin into his capture weapon to hide a tiny smile.
He walks over so he doesn’t have to yell and runs through the points of his safety speech in his head one last time, debating whether to add anything since they’re younger than his usual brats.
He refocuses to find that Shinsou has frozen solid.
He darts a questioning glance at Izuku and finds him no help at all. His kid has, for some inconceivable reason, started giggling uncontrollably.
Asui just looks vaguely amused.
Shouta hesitates for only a second before crouching in front of the little group and turning to examine Shinsou.
He’s grown fond of the kid and his rapidly softening attempts at intimidation and determined protectiveness of Izuku. He’s a fairly quick mind too and Shouta doesn’t want him getting hurt.
“Shinsou?” He prompts. “You doing alright?”
Izuku’s giggling gets even louder at that and Shinsou’s frozen expression morphs into something bright red and horrified.
Shouta settles back on his heels, mostly satisfied that Shinsou isn’t experiencing a medical emergency.
Shinsou blinks a few times and just as suddenly as he unfroze whirls on Izuku.
“YOU!” he accuses. “YOU KNEW!”
Shouta turns to Izuku and gets no answer to what should be an obvious question. Izuku’s laughter is starting to turn to wheezing now.
Before Shouta can even try to ask what’s going on Shinsou has pounced. He doesn’t take Izuku down, Izuku’s mostly on the ground already. Shouta should… intervene… right?
Except Izuku’s shrieking doesn’t sound distressed and Shinsou’s tackle was about as gentle as those tend to get.
They wrestle for a few moments, Asui shaking her head from the side, before Shinsou seems to claim his victory. Izuku squawks in outrage as Shinsou ruffles his hair and releases him.
“What?” Is apparently all that Shouta can manage.
Asui, the nice child that she is, answers him.
“You’re wearing your hero uniform, Aizawa-san.”
Huh?
Oh.
Well, crap.
He hadn’t forgotten that Shinsou idolizes him, exactly. He’d just gotten so used to Shinsou he’d forgotten that… well, he’s not exactly dressed as Aizawa Shouta, foster parent to Shinsou’s friend right now. He’s dressed as Eraserhead, the hero Shinsou knows and apparently likes well enough to make merch of.
He can feel his ears getting hot.
It's no wonder Hizashi was so amused.
He can’t help ducking his face in his capture weapon just a little bit. It’s fine, there’s only one person here who can call him on it and he hasn’t recovered from his giggling yet.
Shouta and Shinsou accidentally make eye contact.
The kid somehow turns even more red at this and turns to bury his face in Asui’s side.
“I’ve been betrayed, Tsu-chan.” He complains. “This whole time!”
She runs a hand over his head in a soothing motion.
“There, there.”
Shouta stares at the obstacle course.
Izuku’s breathing starts to calm from desperate gasps and he sits up from where he’d sprawled out to recover from his defeat. Getting up completely seems beyond him so he just crawls over to his other friends.
“I’m r-really sorry ‘Toshi. I really-, I wanted to tell you, I promise.” He sounds so genuine Shouta’s almost sorry they impressed the importance of keeping their hero identities a secret on him.
Shinsou makes a grumbling noise but doesn’t sound upset, which is good. Shouta would feel guilty forever if this made them fall out.
“I-I got you something.” Izuku wheedles.
“What?” Shinsou peaks at him suspiciously.
Izuku reaches into his bag and pulls a sheet of paper carefully preserved in a sheet protector.
Shouta glances over and narrows his eyes, he can’t quite make out what the paper says.
Shinsou’s eyes widen and he pulls away from Asui’s side completely.
“Is that…?” He asks and Izuku nods vigorously.
“Forgive me?”
Shinsou seems to be barely paying attention as he nods.
“‘Course.”
Thank god.
Shouta, sensing the emotions are mostly over, clears his throat casually to draw their attention back.
Shinsou’s face is still slightly pink but he reverently places the paper in his bag and sits attentively between Izuku and Asui.
Shouta slips into his stern teacher mode. Izuku and Asui nod very seriously at all the right points which is honestly better than what he gets from most of his actual students half the time. Shinsou’s expression is still slightly too… awed for his comfort. So long as he actually listens.
Children are exhausting.
Shouta knows this.
It’s a fact of life.
These children are exhausting.
It’s nothing new.
“How did you even get up there?” He sighs more than asks.
Shinsou doesn’t answer from his place on top of one of obstacles. One of several that are not meant to be climbed.
“Just… don’t move.” Shouta flicks his capture scarf and tugs it taut to make sure his hold is solid.
He makes his way up easily and grabs Shinsou without comment. The kid squeaks at the contact and Shouta belatedly realizes he probably should have warned him about how they were getting down.
“Alright, hang on.” He waits until Shinsou’s arms are loosely arranged around his neck and rappels down.
Izuku hugs his friend once he’s safely on the ground and Shouta lets them have a moment.
-
In the end, Asui beats them all for speed.
Shouta won’t do her the disservice of attributing it to her quirk. She’s more clever than a lot of people probably give her credit for.
She looks very pleased when he tells her so.
There’s plenty to work on, she’s still very young but he can see that her ambitions are not the delusions of youth.
Shinsou manages one good run, tricking both of his friends into answering him and exploiting his head start for all it's worth. It’s a shame his confidence falters so quickly.
He’ll have to get used to using his quirk. He’ll have to get used to being ruthless.
Shinsou doesn’t seem to like that idea much but ruthless saves lives. Ruthless means no hesitating, no mistakes born of timidity. In a world where some people will probably always accuse him of cheating, ruthless is what Shinsou will have to be.
Shouta is ruthless and he tells him so.
There is no cruelty in being efficient, no unfairness in tricking people to save lives.
He’ll get there.
Izuku is smart.
He only manages to pull out one win over the other two, right towards the end and part of it only really works because Shinsou tired out first.
Shouta doesn’t care about that.
He can see the potential.
He’s seen it before, of course.
There’s something about watching him successfully duck past Asui in a very clever move that nearly has him passing her completely.
He face planted into the ground right after but, well, everyone makes mistakes.
Shouta is not being biased when he ruffles his hair after and tells him he did a great job.
The beaming smile Izuku sends him means nothing.
He’s totally objective.
Nothing but professionalism from Eraserhead.
His students might not agree but they aren’t here to argue.
Hizashi comes by long after the “training session” has devolved completely into what Shouta is fairly sure is just an enthusiastic game of hide and seek.
He has a selection of snacks in his arms.
The criminal, trying to win the affections of small children via bribes.
The children, of course, do not agree with Shouta’s fair and valid assessment and are completely taken with the idea.
Shouta leans against his husband where they’ve settled on the ground.
“They have fun?” He whispers.
“Seemed like it.” Shouta responds.
“How’s your little fan?” Hizashi teases.
“He’s fine.” Shouta can only groan. “You could have warned me.”
Hizashi only hums in response.
They settle in silence for a few moments, watching the kids giggle in their little circle of happiness and snacks. Hizashi starts humming absently after a minute, some mindless tune.
“Do you know what Izuku gave Shinsou?” Shouta is a little curious and something about it just screams Hizashi’s influence.
Hizashi’s quiet humming takes a slightly mischievous tone.
“Well, he was a bit worried, you know. Not as much as he would have been a few months ago but, still.” He says quietly. “So, I suggested an apology gift. I think they would have been fine either way but I didn’t want Izu to worry about it.”
Shouta notes that he hasn’t said what it was.
He waits.
Hizashi says nothing and he sighs in defeat.
“What is it?”
“Why, Shouta, it’s a genuine, impossible to find autograph from Eraserhead himself, of course.” He can hear the smile in his voice.
“What.” Shouta doesn’t give out autographs.
“Hmm, apparently you don’t check your paperwork as thoroughly as you should.” He muses absently.
“He snuck an extra sheet of paperwork in?”
“Yeah, I think he had fun.” Hizashi smiles. “He forged his own form so nobody's information would get compromised.”
“That’s… sweet.” Shouta manages. He really doesn’t want to have to start paying even closer attention to his paperwork. “He could have asked.”
“Now, where’s the fun in that?” Hizashi grins.
Oh, so it was definitely Hizashi’s idea then.
Shouta leans more of his weight on him in revenge until he shifts to push back.
“Autographs.” He groans.
“Welcome to the woes of being a spotlight hero, Sho.” Hizashi grins. “Next thing you know you’ll be drowning in merch contracts, half of which are probably scams.”
“My worst nightmare.” Shouta will happily leave that to the countless heroes who want it.
They settle again for a few minutes, absently watching as the kids stack their trash in a pile and run off again.
Shouta is struck, again, by how normal it feels.
It hasn’t even been a year.
“You think we’re doing alright?”
Hizashi hums, actually thinking about it for a moment. Asui jumps to avoid Shinsou and accidentally puts herself in Izuku’s path in the process. Shouta isn’t sure what the goal is but Izuku is smiling so wide and free it doesn’t really matter.
“Yeah,” He tips his head against Shouta’s. “I think we’re doing just fine.”