Work Text:
Izuku lifted weights, Haru joined him with small weights as if it were a game. He watched Izuku particularly closely with his big brown eyes before he finally asked “Daddy how come you're not a hero anymore?”
“I’m still a hero, I'm ju –more of an everyday hero, you don't have to wear a cool costume to be a hero.”
“But I like your costume.”
“I like it too.”
“You never wear it anymore.”
“Yeah…”
“When I'm a hero, can I use your costume?”
“It can be all yours buddy.”
“Because you don’t need it anymore?”
“I– I have more than one.” Izuku said, as he blinked back moisture from his eyes. He worries his kid is too much like him.
“I forgot about that! When you're done with this boring workout, can we play heroes again?”
“Yes, I love pretending to be a hero.”
—---
“Uravity welcome,” the person checking the list said before crossing Ochako’s name off the sheet barely looking up at them. “You are at table ten”
“Thankyou," she said, as she thought of her invitation, the only one they’d received even though they both should have gotten one. She had told Deku she would complain to the hero commision about forgetting to send him his own invite again since she knew he wouldn’t.
“'I'm going with you anyway, it's not worth getting worked up about.” he’d said defending the society that wouldn't take his license away, but would make working as a hero untenable for him. Deku never complained and he had specifically asked her on multiple occasions to leave it alone.
So she was. Mostly.
Deku’s eyes drew her in after they found their seats at the hero networking event, Ochako could not take her eyes off him, some things never changed. Despite all they had been through scars and all he still was the most attractive man she had ever met. “Ocha, I can’t believe that it was five years ago today that you took me as your groom,” he said. She tried not to roll her eyes at that. He was always cracking jokes about being her trophy husband. She hated all of them.
“The time has really flown by, hasn't it. I'm just as lucky now as I was then,” she said and took his hand. "I can hardly believe that Haru is turning four next week. Are you still okay to take him to the doctor for his quirk assessment?”
“Yeah,” Deku said a little too softly.
“Are you sure you don't want me to just take some time off and come with you guys?”
“Dont worry about it, I'm home with him anyway. I've got this.” he said and squeezed her hand tenderly.
Before she was able to push the subject Izuku's previous employer Fifi, an undercover hero, came up to them and Izuku stood when she spoke to him “How is UA treating you? You know, whenever you want to come back, we will hire you in a heartbeat.”
“I’ll keep that in mind, I appreciate that.” he bowed.
“You know I'm serious, despite all the outrageous restrictions the Hero safety commission made me place on you. you were still one of the best staff I ever had the pleasure to work with.”
“Thank you ma’am.” he bowed again.
“I have thought about you a lot, and I almost wonder if you might get further in your career if you just revoked your license. You could do all the strategy work behind the scenes, get paid more and be rid of all the rules placed on quirkless heroes. Most of them make no sense.”
“Yeah,” He said with a frown. “But currently UA is able to let me teach as an off duty hero and I get to keep my license.”
“I see, don’t be a stranger. Let me know what students would be a good fit at my agency then okay” Fifi patted him on the shoulder before she moved on.
As the evening progressed they eventually mingled with a small group of their old classmates.
Katsuki attempted to pull her to the side unnoticed while Deku was distracted with Tenya, Momo, and Shoto.
“Hey, I just wanted to let you know, we are making all kinds of progress in America with getting the technology approved. We may need you to get some sizing information from Izuku on the sly.”
“It’s that far along, I thought we weren’t engineering it without hero safety commission approval?”
“Shield corp is designing some individual pieces. They think it will help to have some physical items to get approval, they said it’s an expensive but common practice with normal support tech.”
“Oh okay, let me know what you need and I'll take care of it.”
When they joined the group again Deku glanced between the two of them, he’d definitely noticed their brief aside.
“Izuku, I hear that little punk Kota is in your class this year.” Katsuki said.
“Is that the most interesting news you could think of?” Deku teased. “I heard –”
“Well I am talking to you.” Katsuki grumbled, cutting Deku off before he brought hero rankings.
“Kota is in my class, it's actually really nice to have a familiar face.” Deku answered innocently, taking his friends not so subtle hint.
She’d always struggle to understand their relationship.
On the drive home, Deku asked, “Was it just me or were Momo and Tenya acting strange, like stranger than usual?”
“I hadn't noticed,” she lied.
“Actually almost everyone from school seemed … ah nevermind it's probably nothing.” he said with a scrunched up face, somehow staying focused on the road ahead while he drove.
And normally she would have pried, but she’d felt the awkwardness among their former classmates and assumed it was because they were all keeping the same surprise a secret. No point in getting his hopes up if the hero safety commission won’t approve it, the class had decided. He had already been denied so many support items and had been so devastated every single time.
She really hoped with all their hero classmates and All Might’s involvement that they would get the needed approvals somehow. She didn't like that all this secretiveness was making her husband feel even more ostracized.
—---
Izuku loves that he gets to spend the entire summer break hanging out with Haru, His mom had been kind enough to fill in the gaps when his and Ochako schedules had not allowed for it. But now that he is working at UA he has affordable access to their excellent daycare and playschool, which runs all his work hours. So he only has to ask his mom for help on date nights. It is better now that he doesn't have to burden her as much.
For the summer he and his little guy could spend all day just exploring, if they woke up and they wanted to go search for seashells they could. Each day was full of possibilities.
When school was in session he liked to take Haru to see all the cool stuff going on in hero support and development anytime he got the chance. It fascinated Izuku and his son never got bored there either. After being hired at UA last year he'd found that wing of the school was one of his favorite job perks.
Since it’s summer break heroics support and development was pretty slow, so instead he has charted out all the festivals, and summer events. They have scheduled days at museums, parks, festivals and days at the beach.
Today was a day at the park. Haru let go of his hand and ran ahead. Izuku watched his son’s fluffy green hair bobbing from side to side as he raced to the playground. When Izuku pushed him extra high in the swing, Haru cried out in delight “look at me daddy, I can float just like mommy.”
“You are so cool, just like mom!” Izuku said, his chest tightened.
After watching him climb up the slide and down the ladder at least one hundred times and pushing him on the swing even more times than that, Haru was ready to leave.
And so with his time to spare they headed to the doctors office to get the results of Haru’s quirk assessment. He wished he had asked Ocha to come with him, he felt so nervous to take his son to the doctor… It was silly. He squeezed Haru's hand tight as they walked into the building.
—--
When Ochako walked in the house Haru flew into her arms sobbing “mommy, mommy I'm just like daddy. I can't float like you. The doctor said I will never float things like you do.”
“I” she was lost for words. How did it come to this? Arriving at this moment without a plan in place. She’d known this was a very real possibility when he showed no signs of a quirk and they had avoided discussing it. Deku had been an expert at dodging the topic and she just left it alone, she foolishly decided to take the heat if it came rather than prepare for the possibility. She hugged her son tightly. “That's wonderful, you being just like your dad is a wonderful thing, your daddy is one of the best people I know.”
“I want to be a hero with powers like you, not a hero like dad.” he said, still hugging her she felt his tears soaking into her shirt.
“You can be a hero, there are lots of kinds of heroes.”
“No mommy, not a stupid everyday hero, I want to be a real hero!”
“I promise your dad is a real hero and you can be one too,” she said, shaken. She hoped Deku had not heard any of that, unlikely as they lived in a humble two bedroom apartment.
He pulled his head back and looked at her with tear filled eyes “Really? Are you sure?”
“I'm a hundred percent sure!” she said.
He rubbed at his tear filled eyes, nodded and ran off to his room.
She took a deep breath and went into her room. Deku shuffled slowly out of their closet and peeked at her with red rimmed eyes from behind a box “Sorry I started organizing. And I never did make any supper, I guess I lost track of time. I can start it now —” she pushed the box aside and wrapped him tight into a hug. He hugged her back even tighter, clinging to her as if his life depended on it. They stayed like that for a long time, holding each other as if that could stop the storm that they had been pretending had already passed from continuing to pound on their life fiercer than ever.
“I'm sorry he said those things, he doesn't know what he is saying.”
Deku pulled back, grimaced and whispered ”he's not wrong.”
“Deku!” She said sternly, “we have been over this a hundred times! You don't have to teach at UA if you don't want to, you can go back to hero work.”
“You're right.” he pulled away from her blinking back tears, “We have been over this a hundred times and I don't know how to explain myself anymore than I have, you just don't understand.” he sniffled quietly.
She knew about all the obstacles he faced, she knew that there was no one in the world who would have stuck it out as long as he had. And she knew quitting his last heroics job and switching to teaching at UA had been a painful choice for him. It was so hard to watch him fight for everyone but himself.
“I'm sorry, I'm sorry… I – what I'm trying to say is you are a hero, you are a great hero.”
His expression softened then he started to sob quietly into her shoulder. He was almost incoherent but amidst his tearful muttering she did catch one thing: he was sorry too, sorry he couldn't give his child a quirk.
Frustration and pain bubbled up inside Ochako. There was nothing she could do to fix this, any of this. “It's okay Deku, you didn't do anything wrong.” she said as she rubbed his back with her hand she breathed in deeply. “We all just need some food and everything will look brighter after a good night's sleep, I'm going to make us something to eat.” She pulled herself out of the embrace. He nodded, and she knew that was the best she could hope for right now.
She left Deku alone in his suffering, she didn't want to but their child needed her too.
“Haru, what would you like to eat?”
“Spicy ramen, with lots of eggs?”
“Spicy ramen it is, are you going to help me make it?”
“You are making it?” he said, squinting, “will it be good, like daddy’s?”
“I'll try,” she said. Haru glanced at her bedroom door before pulling up a stool to help her.
“We need eggs and noodles,” he said.
Ochako opened the fridge to find only one egg left. “Hmm, we need to get eggs before we can start. Let's walk to the corner store to get some okay.” When they got to the local shop the smell of meat buns was divine. So they made a change of plans and bought meat buns and a premade salad for supper instead. When they got home Izuku did not feel up to much. So she left him some food to eat alone in their room.
“Daddy will still make me ramen again right?” Haru asked.
“Of course he will… Why would you say that?”
“Well he didn't make it tonight. So, I was just wondering?” He asked.
“Oh,” he thought about everything, and noticed everything just like Deku. “Right, he is not feeling well tonight, maybe when he is feeling better.”
Haru washed up and got into his favorite pair of Dynamite pajamas, they played a few games, it felt weird without Deku. Once he was settled for the night she went to her bedroom to check on Deku. He was asleep. She got into one of his old t-shirt tee shirts that she had long since claimed as her own for a night shirt and crawled into bed and cried.
Deku had awoken enough to cuddle into her. Her back was against his chest and his muscular arms wrapped around her stomach, this cuddle always made her feel safe. “I'm sorry Ocha,” he didn't owe her an apology but if she tried to explain that he would just apologize again, so she nestled into him and cried herself to sleep.
— The next morning -–
“Deku,” Ochako whispered, waking Izuku up. “Do you need me to stay home today, I can call out if you do?”
“No, I'll be fine.”
She pulled him close and kissed him tenderly several times, leaving him wanting more. “Are you sure?” She held her hand on his neck below his ear with her thumb on his cheek.
“Well, less sure now.” He grinned and pulled her back in for a drawn out kiss, before he managed to pull himself away “but I'm sure we can pick this up again later. You don't need to worry about me. I’ve got this.”
“Okay, well call me if you need me,” she said.
“But I always need you,” he said which earned him a bright smile.
“Alright, I guess I'd better get going then,” she said then left.
He was fine, everything was fine. All he had to do was face his child out there and be the best dad he could be to make up for having failed him so miserably. He would tell his son all the lies he had wanted to hear as a child. He doesn't have to be the one to shatter his son's dream; the world would do a good enough job of that on its own. No extra help from Izuku was required. This was going to be difficult.
When they ate breakfast Haru looked at Izuku like he wanted to say something. Izuku didn’t ask, not ready to hear more cutting words like his son had thrown at him yesterday, the truth hurt.
“Want to go to the beach today buddy?” Izuku finally ventured.
“Yes, I really want to swim today!” Haru said as he nodded his head.
“Sure, let's go for a swim.”
—--
At the beach Haru more played in shallow water then swam sporting his half red half blue trunks. It was perfect weather to be playing at the beach.
They sat on the shore beside each other facing the ocean at a spot where the waves hit them occasionally and they drew shapes in the sand and watched as the water washed them away.
“Daddy I like when you make ramen, did you learn that at school?”
“My mom taught me, but I learned a few cool tricks from friends when I lived in the dorms at school.”
“Oh, grandma taught you and that's why mom makes the plain ramen, can you teach mom the good way?”
Izuku laughed, “ you do have a lot to learn, I can teach you how to make ramen, but I can't teach your mom unsolicited.”
“Why?”
“Because mom likes the way she makes it, and I love your mom. Besides, it's not bad, it is just different.”
“Like how you are a different kind of hero than mommy is?”
“Yeah,” he said after a thoughtful pause. “Kind of like that.”
“Your ramen is tastier and her hero stuff is cooler.” Haru said.
“And neither one is bad, they are just different.” Izuku agreed.
“But, I can choose what kind of hero I want to be, and what kind of ramen I want to cook?”
“Yes, if you have the right ingredients.”
His son watches him closely searching for something, then nods” Okay let's build a castle as big as you today, ones as big as me are too small.”
They got to work.
As they dug in the sand and built Izuku recalled three years ago.
Fifi came in to work and pulled Deku to the side “hey i'm sorry to do this to you, i know you had your schedule all worked out for child care and such. But I have to cut and change all your hours just until I can figure all these new rules out.”
“More rules really?” Izuku asked, disheartened, as she had already been struggling to give him hours from the previous update.
“Yes they sure are worried about our quirkless hero population!” she rolled her eyes. “So worried I'm afraid these rules are effective immediately and if we don't comply I could be shut down, and you and I both could have our licenses revoked if we don’t.” Fifi said.
“Oh, what is it now?” He tried to sound neutral.
“It looks like you can only go on patrols with myself at our agency or with other teams of two heroes depending how many years they have been working, also that you must do a minimum of forty percent of your working hours on patrols. And you are under no circumstance to go to any emergency or crime scene without meeting those same criteria.”
“These are stricter rules than first year work studies students have.” Izuku sighed.
“It's stupid, but we have no choice. I'm sorry. I'm going to have to hire another person to accommodate this, so it may be a while before I can get you full hours again. For today since I'm not patrolling and don't have enough staff on for you to go out with apparently, could you organize the supply room?”
“Yes ma’am.” Izuku said. Appreciative that she didn't send him home.
“We can get you on some better projects later this week,” she apologized.
Izuku pats more wet sand into a pail and flips beside the pail Haru had dumped and lifts adding to the castle. “Daddy together we are going this make this great, it is going to be amazing”
“Yeah it is going to be great buddy.” Izuku said, as he watched his perfect child build. We are going to build a bright future.
—--
Ochako showed up to work and had hit the ground running. It was a good thing Deku Had seemed in much better spirits this morning because she had so much on her plate at work.
Unlike Deku who was every bit as deserving, she had gotten plenty of offers for work upon graduating, she had chosen to stay on with Ryukyu as they had a history and she was comfortable there. Ryukyu had helped her immensely in all her quirk counseling and advocacy projects, as well as having been a huge supporter of Ochako professionally and personally.
Near the end of her work day she was sitting in on a seminar with counselors from over a hundred schools for professional development. After the meeting a man whom she assumed was only slightly older than her had come up to her.
“Uravity, it is so nice to meet you, and I just wanted to say I think the work you are doing here is excellent.”
“Thank you.”
“You are married to the guy who saved the country, Deku right?”
“Yes.”
“That is nice, is he doing well then?”
“Yes”
“Oh that is such a relief, everyone worries for him, It is such a shame he lost his powers. He was incredible”
“He is incredible and is doing just fine without them, thank you for your concern.” she said curtly and walked away from the man. Her Blood boiled.
Something about this whole hero charade unsettled her. She often considered quitting heroics but stuck it out because she knew that Deku loved that she was a hero, it paid well, and she felt like her battle to help those who needed quirk counseling carried more weight coming from Uravity than Uraraka Ochako.
But if she had to sit through one more conversation only to hear what a pity it is that her incredibly capable and clever husband had lost his powers she might actually send someone to outer space. No quirk required just pure frustration and her right hook. If she were having to deal with what she is sure Deku deals with she would have been locked up for assault by now, or in anger management at the very least. But he just took it, almost never complained, and he usually defended those who wronged him.
She remembers when for a while he was barely getting any hours at work, he was embarrassed that he wasn't contributing enough, he wasn't angry, he was grateful he still had his hero license. She had wanted to fight for him then, but he had begged her not to, to leave well enough alone.
Well enough.
Even the people who understand what she was advocating for, quirks supports, can't seem to grasp that the quirkless population falls under the same umbrella. That they need better support too. Deku was a prime example of society's failings, because even after he had saved their country. Society ground him down to the point he believed he was undeserving because he didn't fit a certain mold.
Just thinking about all this made her fume before when it was only her husband who had been hurt, but now she is afraid she might tear apart anyone who would have her child feel less than for something beyond his control. She headed back to her agency to take out some of her angry energy on a punching bag before she went home.
—--
When Ochako walked in the door she recognized the smell of the spicy ramen instantly. Izuku always loaded it up with lots of vegetables, meat, and eggs so it was pretty healthy as far as comfort foods were concerned.
“Mommy, mommy dad taught me how to make good ramen today, and guess what?”
“What?”
“He said he could teach you too.”
She looks up at Izuku who is waving his hands frantically “no no that’s… umm well I could, but that's not exactly what I’d said.”
“I'll deal with you later, mister,” she said with a grin to Izuku then turned back to her son. “Oh, I'm glad your father taught you that, now I never ever have to make it, seeing as the two of you already have it covered.” She pulled Haru in for a hug. “I missed you, What else did you do today?”
“We built a daddy sized sand castle, really mom, it was as big as daddy! We also shared our lunch with a hungry man at the beach.” Haru said as Izuku set three beautiful bowls of spicy ramen to the table and pulled up a picture of Haru and the sand castle and showed her it. They both seemed happy enough.
—--
Izuku loved spending his days with his son. But there was something magical about the hours between when Haru went to bed and when Izuku went to sleep.
He laid in bed looking over the latest quirkless hero rules link he'd been sent in an email a while back, no rules had changed in the last two years just a little longer than when he had started to teach, Then he meandered over to other things on the Hero Network.
“Deku” Ocha said, having no right to look as gorgeous as she did wearing one of his old shirts with her hair tied up. “What are you reading?” she asked, he set his phone to the side.
“It’s… Stupid,” His stomach churned just admitting to looking at it.” I don't know, I was just on the hero network looking at job postings and stuff.”
“Really?” She said, sounding a little too hopeful as she crawled into bed and laid her head sideways against chest and shoulder, his arm wrapped around her as she cuddled into him. He breathed in her fresh calming scent.
“Yeah, but I'd have to be crazy to leave UA. They treat me so well, and I don't feel like I'm a problem to be solved, in fact I'm a problem solver there.” He said, running his fingers through her hair. Could she feel how fast his heart was beating? He had been worn down by the relentless winds, he had given up fighting for himself, and was at peace with hiding from the elements, but now… the storm had breached his home.
“Part time hero work maybe?” She asked.
“Maybe,” he exhaled, “but I don't even know if that will help.”
She lifted her head and met his eyes, she was encouraging him to take up this unfair battle once again, not for himself but for Haru’s sake. “We'll figure it out together,” she said. She had always been so positive even when things had been hard, she was his refuge. He hoped he could muster the strength to be the same for her and their son. He knew exactly what he was doing when he nodded in agreement.
Ocha didn’t say anything else and she moved in closer and pressed her lips gently against his, Izuku felt her love radiate through him. He pulled her in closer and kissed her back, they picked up right where they had left off that morning seamlessly. Ocha had always known when there had been enough talking.