Incomplete [Chapter 4]

[Chapter 3]

Izuku carried a massive cardboard box in his arms when they reached the doorway, stepping aside to let Katsuki knock on his behalf. One of the caregivers was opening the door within seconds, clearly awaiting their arrival, and Izuku smiled brightly when their eyes met.

“Thank you for having us!” he said quickly, when she welcomed them in. “We’re super excited. Um, we brought a couple of treats for the kids – for all the kids – is that okay?”

“Well, that’s very kind of you!” she smiled warmly, taken in by Izuku’s infectious smile just like everyone else in the world. “Of course it’s okay, I’m sure they’ll be very pleased.”

She led them through to the living area, and Katsuki barely managed to contain his little snort when he saw the mass of kids inside. Most of the little ones were playing on the floor, fighting over toys and throwing stuff around, but Koharu and a couple of others were sitting at a low table, drawing in the empty spaces on bits of paper that had clearly already served a purpose or two in their lifetime. She smiled when she saw them coming, a hint of shyness in the expression, but she seemed to relax a little when Katsuki walked straight to her.

“Good to see you again,” he said quietly, crouching down across the table from her. “What are you working on? Can I see?”

“It’s me flying wayyy high up in the clouds,” she explained, turning it around to show him. “Like a real superhero.”

A little kid at the other end of the table snickered at her, and Koharu’s smile wobbled, eyes darting toward the toddlers.

“You can’t be a hero,” he smirked. “You’re Quirkless.”

“Anyone can be a hero,” Katsuki scowled, glaring the kid down. “It doesn’t take a good Quirk to be a hero, it takes dedication, and sacrifice, and the attitude of a hero. People who tease others about their quirks are the ones who clearly can’t handle it.”

“But you have a cool Quirk, I haven’t seen any Quirkless heroes yet.”

“Maybe you’re just not looking closely enough.”

Koharu smiled up at him fondly before she ducked her head again, returning to her drawing with her tongue poking out to help concentrate. Katsuki couldn’t help but find it endearing – who the hell was he?

“We brought some snacks for you guys, if you want them,” Izuku offered, leaning over to show the little cluster of toddlers his wares. “I have potato chips, or biscuits, or if you’re really good, we even have chocolate.”

One of the boys glanced at Katsuki warily, opting for one of the bags of chips, and Katsuki smirked. At least the kid had enough self-awareness to not try it.

“What about you, Koharu?” Izuku prompted, when the boys had picked something each. “I bet you’d like this one a lot, do you want to try it?”

He offered her a bar of chocolate with fizzy candies in it, the kind he’d loved himself as a kid, and she beamed at him as she accepted.

“I love chocolate, thank you!”

“You’re very welcome, sweetie! What good manners you have!”

He ruffled her hair fondly, a mess of blonde that rivalled even Katsuki’s, and then he was gone to continue his lap of the room, delivering snacks like some kind of weird, belated Easter Bunny.

“So you like to draw?” Katsuki prompted, sitting down to watch. “I used to draw a lot too.”

“You can draw with me!” she offered, picking out the nicest page from their paper pile and handing it to him. “You can share my crayons, I don’t mind!”

“That’s very nice of you, thank you.”

As he settled in to chat and draw, Izuku finished his loop around the room, ending in the little corner where Yoshiki sat on a cushion, scowling stubbornly. He sat down without waiting for an invitation, ignoring the look of surprise that briefly passed over Yoshiki’s face, and slid the box over pointedly.

“Plenty left,” Izuku assured him. “What’s your favourite? I like the sweet stuff, even though it’s bad for me. These ones are really good, or if you like salty ones, I know these chips are super popular.”

He picked out a handful of things, offering them up with a big smile, and warily Yoshiki accepted a little bag of corn snacks.

“Do you get stuff like this often? The others seemed super excited, but they’re also young, so they probably get excited about everything.”

“Tell me about it,” Yoshiki huffed, popping his bag open. “No, if we get snacks it’s usually just fruit.”

“You don’t like fruit?”

Yoshiki shrugged, but Izuku just smiled again, nodding as he opened a bar of chocolate for himself.

“I love anything sweet,” he continued, when Yoshiki didn’t speak up. “Fruit included, but I’m a sucker for things like chocolate and ice cream. Or homemade baking, like muffins and cake, I could live on those forever if it wouldn’t ruin my career.”

“Sometimes they let me have vegetables instead. Carrots, or celery. If we have them.”

“Ahhh, you like savoury stuff better? Yeah, K-” He paused, biting his lip. “Um, Dynamite does too. He eats the baked goods too, I think everyone is a sucker for homemade cookies, but usually he prefers a sandwich or something. He’s a really good cook though, so it works out.”

Izuku picked out a couple more bags of salty and crunchy things from the box, sliding them to Yoshiki while no one was paying attention.

“Here, keep these just for you,” he smiled. “For when they only have fruit around, you know?”

Yoshiki’s eyes narrowed at him like it might be some kind of test, but Izuku’s smile held no secrets, and Yoshiki conceded a nod after a moment.

“Thank you. That’s uh, really nice of you.”

“My pleasure!” Izuku assured him. “You must get bored just sitting here alone, what do you normally like to do?”

“Read.”

“Oh! I love to read! You’re not reading now, are you? Am I interrupting?”

He shook his head, and for a moment he was quiet again, eyes darting toward the supervising caregivers.

“They told me not to,” he explained. “Whenever people come visit, they make us all come down here, and I have to leave my book in my room.”

“Oh, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to drag you away!”

“It’s okay,” he shrugged. “Most of them don’t bring food.”

“I’ll keep that in mind,” Izuku grinned. “What else do you do for fun? Koharu seems to like her art.”

“We draw together sometimes,” he mumbled, glancing over at where she and Katsuki talked together so comfortably. “And I like the brick toys.”

“Oh, the construction ones? Those are super cool, you can make so much cool stuff from them.”

“If your pieces don’t keep going missing all the time,” he grumbled. “Yeah, they’re cool.”

“Are there some around here? We could play together for a bit, since you’re not allowed to read. Unless you want to go grab your book and we can read together, would they be mad?”

“Maybe,” he pulled a face. “I can get bricks.”

“Yeah, let’s do it! Actually, why don’t you grab them while I do a second round of snacks to keep everyone quiet? I’ll meet you back here in two minutes, okay?”

“Okay,” Yoshiki agreed, lips quirking into the tiniest of smiles. “Sounds good.”

Izuku left the box with Katsuki after his second round, getting a little nod of understanding when Izuku looked over at the quiet corner. He paused for a few minutes to chat with Koharu, too, but then he was back in the corner, tearing up a little when he found a second cushion laid out beside Yoshiki’s.

“The instructions don’t really work,” Yoshiki explained, as he opened up the box. “Since so much is missing or broken, I mean.”

“That’s okay, we can make something else that’s cool instead! Who needs the instructions, right?”

“Okay.”

They played together until the smell of food cooking began to waft out from the kitchen, when Izuku gave him an apologetic smile and began to climb to his feet.

“Sorry, I didn’t realise how late it was, we wouldn’t want to out stay our welcome. If I come back another time do you think we could talk again? We could play more, or draw, or maybe just read our books quietly together.”

“Yeah, we can,” Yoshiki nodded, eyes darting to Koharu again. “She likes him a lot.”

“He likes her too,” Izuku grinned. “He doesn’t normally like kids, but he adores her.”

Yoshiki nodded faintly, understanding, and Izuku could only hope he was taking the hint well enough. It was too soon to say anything direct, he knew that better than anyone, but he hoped maybe he could at least reassure them that someone wanted them.

“Alright kids, let’s get cleaned up and ready for food!” one of the caregivers called, when Katsuki stood up knowingly. “What do we say to our Hero friends?”

“Thank you!” the little ones chorused, making Yoshiki cringe. “Come again soon!”

Izuku laughed, patting Yoshiki on the back lightly as he thanked the little ones, and Katsuki smiled awkwardly at Koharu as he slid her a piece of paper. He tucked the box under his arm, and Izuku waved as the kids all quickly disappeared up the stairs to get ready for dinner, leaving them in a silent room with the smiling caregiver.

“They all seem very fond of you,” she praised, when they were all out of earshot. “You’re very good with them all.”

“Thank you,” Izuku laughed sheepishly, rubbing at the back of his neck. “It was a lot of fun, getting to talk to them and all.”

“I’m glad you thought so. If you’re still as keen as you were, we’d welcome you to another visit nextFriday.”

“That would be great!” Izuku beamed, practically clapping his hands in his excitement. “Actually... Do you think we could take them out somewhere? With supervision, of course! Just somewhere a little more private, where we can talk to both of them, maybe? Without so many others around – not that I don’t like all the kids! I just-”

Katsuki clapped a hand over his mouth to shut him up, and the caregiver laughed, nodding her agreement.

“I think that should be fine. What did you have in mind?”

“Oh, uh...”

“Ice cream,” Katsuki suggested quickly. “There’s a place down on the corner, right? Maybe we could just drop in after school and buy them an ice cream?”

“That sounds lovely. I’ll have to confirm with all the staff and check their schedules, but I’m sure it will be fine.”

“Great, we’d better get out of your hair then.”

“Actually...” Izuku cut in, making his best puppy-dog eyes. “If it’s not too much, do you think we could just go say goodbye? It’ll only take a moment, I swear.”

“Of course you can! They’ll be up in their rooms, putting their things away. Would you like me to show you?”

“That’s okay,” Katsuki answered gruffly, already heading for the stairs. “We saw last time.”

“One minute, I promise!” Izuku reiterated, hurrying after him. “Thank you!”

Katsuki took the stairs two at a time, and Izuku kept pace behind him, laughing to himself at Katsuki’s sudden eagerness. They slipped past a few waving toddlers on the stairs, heading back down to wash their hands and get seated, but sure enough Yoshiki and Koharu were on his bed again, debating if they wanted to go back down.

“Hey,” Katsuki said quietly, watching them both jump regardless. “Keep these leftovers, hide them from the others.”

Yoshiki stared, wide-eyed, as he held out the box, contemplating to himself as he looked at the remaining contents.

“I should probably keep the box, so they don’t notice,” he continued, looking around. “You guys got somewhere you can hide them?”

Koharu giggled, but she climbed to her feet all the same, reaching into a tiny gap between the bedside table and the wall. Izuku smiled when he saw the little plastic bag she produced, full of paper and pencils Yoshiki had clearly smuggled away from the group, and despite the nervous look on his face, Yoshiki didn’t stop her.

“Might be a bit much to fit behind there,” Katsuki hummed, looking around the sparse room. “What about in the drawer? Hide it under your underwear, that’s where I used to hide stuff.”

He poured the ample leftovers into the bag for her, and Yoshiki finally stood up, opening a drawer and clearing a space at the back for the bag. It wasn’t too hard, honestly, considering he only had about three changes of underwear and some shirts in there anyway, but he managed to squirrel it away out of sight, and Izuku gave him a thumbs up.

“You should still go eat dinner though,” he added. “They’re snacks, not meals.”

“Meals are so noisy.”

“I can imagine,” Katsuki nodded. “Sorry, bud. But you’ve gotta eat, you’ll get sick. Just eat nice and quick then escape, yeah? For us.”

“Okay,” he conceded, glancing over at Koharu’s nod of agreement. “We’ll try.”

“Good man. Alright, we’d better get going, before anyone comes looking. We’ll see you guys again soon, okay? It was good to hang out with you.”

“Come back soon!” Koharu beamed. “I had fun!”

“I’m glad, me too.”

They said their last farewells, leaving the kids to go wash their hands for dinner, and at the door they said an equally bright goodbye to the caregivers – friendly to the very last second. Even Katsuki could suck it up for a few minutes, if it meant getting to see his kids more often.

“That was fun,” Izuku said, when the door was shut behind them. “I’m gonna miss them.”

“We’ll go back soon,” Katsuki assured him. “Next Friday, right? At the latest.”

“I’ll still miss them.”

“I know,” Katsuki assured him, wrapping his free arm around Izuku’s waist. “Me too.”

[Chapter 5]