Work Text:
Shouto puts down his pencil, having finished his homework for the day. He stares at his phone and sees a new message as his phone reminds him of a new notification. Following the message is a text from Midoriya; something relating to his mother.
He blinks.
Pondering for a few moments, he still can’t recall his mother informing him anything of the sort. Although his relationship with his mother isn’t fully fixed, he doesn’t believe she’d forget (and definitely not purposely) to tell him a matter involving his friend. The Sports Festival had been retold to her the first time he visited her, after filling in the parts about his home life for the past 10 years. So he doesn’t believe she wouldn’t mention the friend that helped him realize that using his left side didn’t mean he was following his father’s wishes. That he should give it his all, with everything he has. And about what kind of hero he wants to be.
He taps a finger on his desk.
Thinking it’s useless to continue worrying, he checks his phone for the time. It displays 5:30pm in the middle of the screen.
Shouto sighs.
Thirty minutes before dinner and he’s not sure how this one will go. They used to only involve his father rambling endlessly on the villain arrests he’d done earlier that day. Natsuo would do his absolute best to not up and leave in the middle of eating; going according to Fuyumi’s wish of having “normal” family dinners, with everyone at the table. Now with his father “trying” to make up for his past mistakes, dinner stays quiet with everyone silently swallowing down food in an attempt of not choking from the suffocating ambience.
He normally ignores it and continues eating without a care for whether his father is there or not. But then because of the recent event, his father fighting with his life to protect the city and its citizens, he can’t quite understand his feelings towards his father. Is it hate because of the past? Is it worry, because he felt relief after knowing his father was still standing? Is it love?
Ever since then, it’s….hard for him to figure out emotions.
Then his mother was released from the hospital. Surprise as it may have been, there was still a lot more his father had to do to earn forgiveness. It didn’t erase what he did, driving his mother to the point of breaking, and it was good that he knew it himself. At least there are now improvements in his attitude and training has stopped.
Checking his phone again, currently showing 5:40pm, Shouto stands up to head downstairs.
Even if he’s not certain tonight’s dinner will go well or be the usual, he has a feeling today might be a bit different.
He smiles thinking of Midoriya.
It’s a normal evening in the Todoroki household; family members either sitting in the living room, in the training room, or in the kitchen preparing for dinner.
Fuyumi knows that it’s still not the best at the moment, even if they are doing better than before. She knows there’s needed time for everyone to get used to things, she knows not everyone can be optimistic like her when it comes to the connection in their family. That’s why she’ll put on the front that everything is fine, knowing full well it’s not the truth.
“Fuyumi, are you done with the sauce? Need any help?”
Turning to Rei, Fuyumi shakes her head. “I’m fine Mom.”
Even though it doesn’t take long to make the noodles, they could always use pre-made noodles; but her mother prefers making her own. Fuyumi still makes sure they have some on hand.
Smiling at her mother, Fuyumi finishes boiling the sauce and sets it aside.
“Hey Fuyu, Mom, is it almost done?”
Behind her, Natsuo sweeps a glimpse over the kitchen counter. He grins at the sight and walks over. “Need any help? I could help Mom make more noodles—”
“Just set up the table Natsu. Me and Mom are still finishing with the soba, and Shou still hasn’t come down yet so there’s no rush.” Fuyumi shoos Natsuo out of the kitchen, plates and chopsticks in hand. He’s struck a little dumb by the obvious want of him out of the kitchen, but Fuyumi ignores it. She knows Natsuo isn’t experienced when it comes to cooking, meaning she wouldn’t have him prepare their meals.
Someone else enters the kitchen right after Natsuo leaves, already eyeing the boiled noodles.
Fuyumi beams at them. “Shou, ready for dinner? It’ll be done soon in about 15 minutes.”
Shouto nods, seemingly noticing something missing as he goes to the fridge. He takes out two stalks of green onion and a pack of nori seaweed from one of the nearby cupboards.
Only a few moments later does Fuyumi realize what Shouto is doing. Shouto starts washing the green onions in one of the double-bowl sinks while their mother uses the other to drain the soba noodles in. This puts a smile on her face.
Seeing she isn’t required any longer, she heads to the tea room to prepare tea for everyone to enjoy.
She should’ve known this would happen.
Holding a cup of green tea in her hands, Fuyumi almost glares at the mess in front of her. The fact she hasn’t frozen the cup is already an achievement.
There’s no description for the appearance of the chopped green onions Shouto cut himself. She trusted that Shouto may be even a little better than Natsuo. It’s almost worse.
“I— Shou. It must’ve been my mistake, I didn’t take into account that you didn’t know how to chop the green onions.” She regrets this, and needs to rethink the next time Shouto steps into the kitchen. Taking a sip from her cup, she slurps her tea while judging both her brother and her past self who allowed this.
With the most confused expression, Shouto looks between Fuyumi and the pile of poorly chopped green onions. “Hm, Bakugou tried teaching me back at the dorms. I thought it was fine, but Bakugou is always angry whenever I try cooking so I was wondering what was wrong.”
Fuyumi is done.
On her right, her mother is also holding a trembling cup of tea that’s close to becoming a block of ice. “It’s okay, Shou. You just need practice, nothing wrong with not being an expert.”
Fuyumi highly doubts her mother isn’t silently judging, despite the small grin on her face.
This goes on for another excruciating 20 minutes of Shouto trying to chop the green onions before a figure walks into the kitchen.
“Dad seriously needs to put security cameras around the house. Anyone can just waltz right in without his knowledge. Imagine a villain were to enter the Number 1 Hero’s own house, the news would chew him out.”
The voice is familiar, it brings back so much nostalgia from her childhood. Fuyumi whirls around and comes face-to-face with the brother that she hasn’t seen in years. Who’s also now one of the most dangerous villains, Dabi.
Although she has mixed feelings, Fuyumi still loves her brother and is glad that he at least had the decency to contact them again after revealing himself during Shouto’s training camp. Natsuo was overjoyed to find out his older brother didn’t die and immediately got back into the habit of bonding with the one who always comforted him.
There’s really nothing else for her to say, so Fuyumi opens her mouth (and she can just feel the corners of her mouth rising) and says:
“Welcome home, Touya-nii.”
Strange as it may be, Dabi still feels the tiniest of emotions for his family (excluding Endeavor, he’s holding this grudge forever). He just never thought they’d continue loving him, be understanding of him, and forgive him.
So when he saw Shouto, the baby brother that he’d left in the hands of his father, don’t blame him for being emotional. And maybe antagonizing said baby brother by kidnapping his classmate right in front of him.
But that doesn’t matter right now. How Shouto found out he is Touya, oldest son of Endeavor who supposedly died from a fire, will be a mystery to him. He does remember it being called “conspiracy theories”; at least according to Shouto. His baby brother needs to stop thinking he’s purposely going for the emo-look to be cool though; he isn’t doing anything of the sort and he’s most definitely not wearing staples to be daunting.
Back on topic. He'd been hesitant the first time he contacted Shouto, Natsuo, and Fuyumi. His mother didn’t seem to mind a lot about the villain business; she only saw her first born child, rather than a big, bad, villain who would only end up an enemy of hero society. Basically an enemy of his family.
It was hard to stop hurting himself and overusing his quirk after he was thrown away for being a failure of a successor. That’s how he got himself on the wrong side of law, not that he cared for that. Then he somehow survived for over 8 years (he eventually lost count of the days, so he gave up somewhere at 6 years) and ended up becoming a villain. He was already an arsonist and he didn’t really enjoy it, but Giran kept giving him jobs, so he kept burning. When he got the message to join a villain group that called themselves The League of Villains, he was skeptical. Toga wasn’t his idea of a teenage villain, and definitely not a normal one; if the “becoming like the person you like” was an indication. Shigaraki hadn’t been what he had in mind when meeting the leader of the villain group, though it seemed he wasn’t the one pulling the strings. Kurogiri was very well the only truly more sane person, and polite at that.
In the end, it all led to meeting Shouto at that training camp, and needing to act like a real villain under the pressure. It’s also why he had to contact Shouto to make sure he was okay. Definitely not a wise decision, especially when he’s the villain, but he couldn’t rest easy without knowing he was safe. Of course, whether it was his eyes or quirk, Shouto found out on his own that he is Touya. He was mad that his classmate was kidnapped and for not contacting anyone after the accident.
Somehow, Natsuo and Fuyumi got wrapped up in the mess of him explaining in broken sentences what happened after he left and Shouto trying to back up his theories about the teachers and classmates he knew nothing of.
If that wasn’t enough, the bird brain (who thought being a double-agent for the Hero Commission and infiltrating the League was going to work) went as far as to seduce him. Meaning, he has a burnt chicken nugget for a boyfriend; on top of the fact that their relationship borders between trying to kill each other and making out within seconds.
So here he is, suffering a family dinner with his birdie - if he gets his ass here - for the sake of his mom.
Looking at Fuyumi, Dabi gives her a lazy grin. “What’s up, ‘yumi?”
She answers with a huff, brows furrowing. “That’s what you ask me first? Not “how’ve you been” or “is everything going great” ? Is all concern for your younger sister, your family, erased; just like your identity?” Fuyumi always was the stern one, even with her being timid around their father. Didn’t change the fact that she could very well be scary if she wanted to.
Dabi merely raises both arms in defence. “I only left you with cooking duty for maybe 8 years, calm down.”
This flips Fuyumi even more. “Cooking duty? Cooking duty?! You left me alone to look after the family, not just handling meal making!”
In the background, Rei pauses and contemplates the years she’s missed; 10 years of being in the hospital and away from her children.
Shouto, probably the most levelled one in the room, peers at Dabi before shrugging and pours himself a cup of tea. He enjoys the show in front of him.
After settling any sibling arguments that needed to be resolved (and finishing the tea while judging how on earth their family can continue functioning like this, and after Natsuo came back to a chaos of Todoroki siblings making jabs at each other), they all sit at the dinner table and start serving cold soba.
At this moment, Enji walks into the room and is immediately greeted with five Todoroki’s eating cold soba. They all turn to look at him and at least 2 of them slurp condescendingly at him. He’s not certain whether he’s sweating from his quirk or the staring, but it doesn’t seem like Rei or Fuyumi will stop this nonsense because they’ve already moved onto slurping soba. As if they have nothing to do with this.
Dabi, being the sole villain among his family, doesn’t give a neutral stare nor a bright beam but rather a vicious smirk for his father. About to go and capture the villain, even though he is his son, Enji is stopped by the near cold gaze Rei gives him. That makes him backtrack and sit down, grumbling under his breath.
The doorbell rings and Fuyumi is out of her seat in seconds. A few minutes later, she comes back with a guest who happens to have white hair and rabbit ears.
“Gotta say, didn’t think I’d meet the entire Todoroki family when Fuyu invited me for dinner.”
In comes the Rabbit Hero: Miruko; the Number 5 Pro Hero. Though currently in civilian clothes, she still houses the confidence that exudes every time she’s shown on tv.
Recognizing the hero, Dabi makes eye contact with her and they seem to communicate a message that has Dabi smiling to himself.
Most likely catching on, Fuyumi playfully giggles in Dabi’s direction and goes over to nudge his shoulder. This annoys Dabi because he scowls at her but only amounts to Fuyumi nagging him about payback.
The rest of the Todoroki family has no idea what’s going on, so they just judge the other three in the room while slurping on soba.
What has everyone in the room looking at the window is a figure knocking on the panel. It’s not completely dark outside, allowing them to make out the winged hero hovering in front of the window panel and holding a bag of takeout. Hawks waves at them.
By now, Miruko and Fuyumi are barely standing, leaning against a wall and dying from laughter. Enji can only ignore whatever is happening and continue slurping soba. Shouto and Natsuo aren’t sure what’s going on, but based on the knowledge that this seems to be normal, they blankly slurp their soba. Rei calmly pours herself another cup of tea.
Being the only one with any sense (clearly), Dabi stands up and walks over to the window and lets in the winged hero. Hawks flies in, Dabi shortly after closing the window.
“Hope I didn’t miss too much. Had some hero work left to do before coming here; then I went to pick up some food. Everyone fine with chicken wings?” Hawks lands on the ground and walks over to the table, promptly plopping into one of the empty chairs that Natsuo set up beforehand. There’s three other seats remaining; one being for Miruko.
Snorting at Hawks, Dabi sits back down; though this time in a seat next to Hawks.
With everyone sitting at the table, they all resume eating soba; Fuyumi handing Miruko and Hawks a plate each. They’re all talking amongst each other; about heroism, school, and the League; when Natsuo asks Shouto a question.
“Hey Shou, why not bring your friend over for dinner? Since we already have people over.”
Shouto pauses from eating his soba. “What friend? Bakugou? He hates when I call him that.” He casts Natsuo a perplexed look.
Now the one confused, Natsuo veers to lock eyes with Fuyumi, who’s just as muddled as him. Rei chuckles at this; getting up to grab her phone and appears to be texting someone, if the twinkle in her eyes was anything to go by.
Not even five minutes later, the doorbell rings for the second time that evening; Rei being the one to get up and open the door. Who enters this time surprises some, has some snickering, and others bewildered.
The new guest shyly makes his way into the room, pulling at the hems of his sleeves. He waves at Shouto with a small smile, but Shouto is too busy trying to process why on earth his green-haired friend is here. Midoriya fiddles with the scarf around his neck, looking nervously at Rei. Sighing, Rei guides Midoriya to the empty beside Shouto and goes back into the kitchen to make another plate of soba for their new guest.
Having finally realized what was going on, Shouto glances at Midoriya’s scarf and begins to unravel it from around the shorter boy’s neck. When he’s finished, he places the scarf on Midoriya’s chair and goes back to eating his soba. He can’t see the other boy’s expression, but his mouth twitches when he sees from the corner of his eye a slight blush on the boy’s face.
Everyone at the table judges the two teenagers while slurping soba.
“Shou, where are your manners? You’re supposed to introduce people,” Fuyumi scolds, though the way her face is puffed shows that she’s barely holding back from tittering.
“Hmm? But he already knows about all of you?” Shouto cocks his head to one side, in a show of puzzlement.
It isn’t obvious, if you look at their face, but majority of the people at the table inwardly face-palm. Fuyumi and Natsuo are unable to determine how oblivious their younger brother is. Dabi, knowing the full extent of the situation, can’t help but shake his head. Miruko goes over to pat Midoriya on the back. Hawks and Enji just look at each other like the others have grown an extra head.
Giving in, Shouto complies; but there’s a glint in his eyes. “This is Izu, he is my best friend.”
Midoriya flushes all over from being addressed by a nickname and wraps both arms around his head so as to hide his tomato red face.
Rei comes back with a plate of cold soba and sees all that’s happening. She agrees with her eldest, shaking her head with an amused smile.
“You don’t mind if I call you Izu, right?” Shouto questions, peering at his best friend.
Barely stammering a “yes”, Izuku peeks out from between his arms and relaxes a bit from the soft smile Shouto gives him.
Because Izuku sits on Shouto’s left, Shouto can see that Izuku’s right hand tenses at his side, like it always does, and he feels guilty. So what he does next is impulsive, yes, but there’s no resistance. The greenette winces for a moment before intertwining his fingers with Shouto’s; scratching a finger on his left cheek.
Izuku tries to hold his chopsticks and eat his soba using his left hand, but the noodles keep slipping through. Seeing this, Shouto leans to his left and turns to his best friend.
“Should I help feed you?” Shouto whispers in a low voice against Izuku’s ear.
Finding no words to communicate his reply, Izuku nods meekly; eyes wandering anywhere but Shouto’s face in embarrassment.
Picking up his chopsticks, Shouto starts feeding Izuku soba slowly without a care for anyone else in the room. When Izuku asks for a napkin to clean the sauce off his face, Shouto puts down his chopsticks and reaches to hold the boy’s face with his free hand. He licks off all the sauce, including the stains near the greenette’s mouth.
Redirecting his attention to his own bowl, Shouto wipes the remainder of the sauce from his own mouth with his thumb. “Yum.”
At this point, Izuku is mumbling incoherent ramblings and sporting a crimson red tint that covers his entire face and neck.
This renders everyone speechless; Fuyumi wondering how her younger brother can be this possessive and oblivious, Natsuo firmly ignoring whatever’s happening beside him, Rei just about ready to take a picture, and the others judging as they slurp soba.
“Moving on…” Natsuo cuts in, “are you going to have us meet your dad, Izu?”
Hearing the use of the nickname, Shouto whirls to his right with a glare in his eyes; which Natsuo relishes in.
No longer fully red in the face, Izuku pokes out his head to get a better view of the person asking him a question. “My dad? I don’t think you’d be able to meet him.”
“Hasn’t All Might retired though?” Fuyumi chimes in.
“All Might? Why would you bring him up?” Izuku looks at the two Todoroki siblings in bewilderment.
“Are you not though, Izu?”
Izuku blinks.
He can see Shouto is being serious (he thinks), but it’s very hard not to dash out of the room and question his entire existence. This is the second time he’s been asked whether he’s All Might’s son, but for it to come from someone other than Shouto makes his head hurt a little.
“Can’t believe I need to deal with All Might’s son,” Enji mutters, though everyone hears it loud and clear.
“But I’m not his son!”
“Are you sure about that, Izu? Look at your quirks, they’re basically identical. Then there’s that bond you and All Might seem to have.”
Starting to get lost in the conversation, Izuku sputters at whatever nonsense he just heard from Shouto. “But so many quirks are similar! You can’t just put two and two together for the reason that their quirks have the same nature! And with All Might, he’s only my— my mentor!”
“He’s All Might’s son.”
Only now noticing the villain in the room, Izuku faces the black-haired Dabi with wide eyes. Dabi smirks back; though not vicious like with his father, more so jesting.
“It makes sense when you think about it,” Hawks says, nodding in agreement; tapping a finger over his mouth.
“I’m not—”
The doorbell ringing interrupts any protest Izuku has, leaving him to stare blankly. He’s still holding hands with Shouto.
Gesturing towards the door, Rei has Enji go to answer the door, who stops himself from objecting. Opening the door to see yet another villain, who’s the current leader of the League, has Enji breaking down.
Shigaraki, ignoring Enji, walks right in like he owns the place and into the dining room. He nods at Dabi across the room, both knowing the reason for each other being here.
Spotting Natsuo, he greets him, taking a seat in the remaining empty chair. “What’s up.”
“Nothing much, but Izu is pretending All Might isn’t his dad,” Natsuo replies, frowning momentarily before grinning at Shigaraki.
For all he knows, Shigaraki has no idea who this “Izu” is, but seems to catch on quickly and subtly points at Izuku. He’s immediately jumping on board with the idea of “Izu” being All Might’s son after seeing Natsuo nod. “That’s why we were targeting you?”
Izuku’s not sure whether he should be mad about the fact that yet another villain walks into the Todoroki household and no one stops him, or that said villain starts pointing fingers at him and joining the Todoroki’s with their theory. Slumping into his chair, Izuku feels all the energy drained out of him and thumps his head on the table. Worried for his friend, Shouto squeezes the hand he’s been continuously holding. (He feels the hand squeezed back)
In the entrance hall, Enji snaps out of his daze and enters the dining room to go capture the other villain that’s trespassed into his house but is stopped by Rei again. For a split second, he has no idea why Rei is stopping him but has a realization from looking at his children. It’s to give him a chance at redemption and show his family how he truly feels. This is all to fulfill the promise he made that he’d try to become a better hero and father, so he just ignores the fact that two high ranking villains are sitting at his dinner table and eats his noodles.
He looks across the table to see Hawks eating the chicken wings he brought with him. Scrunching his face, Enji is conflicted between chucking his something, anything, at Hawks or committing die right there and then.
Noticing his father’s return, Shouto follows his line of sight and calls out to Hawks.
“Isn’t that cannibalism?”
That gains the attention of everyone in the room, all watching Hawks. There’s Cannibal playing in the background, but no one even asks who put on the song. Panicking, Izuku lets out a “Shouto, nooo” that only has Shouto overjoyed, forgoing any theories his mind supplied earlier.
Ignoring the teenagers, everyone else solemnly judges Hawks and his choice of food; all while slurping on soba.
Hawks stares at everyone before whining. “What, nooooo!”
To this, everyone wears a deadpan expression as if to challenge Hawks to continue.
“We are completely different species, thank you very much.”
‘You both have wings, so close enough,’ everyone else thought.
“Ha! I finally have validation, no take back Hawks!” Miruko shouts, banging a fist on the table.
“Come oooon, Miruko! I’ve said before that it’s not!” Hawks hollers, his wings ruffling.
“Pftt, it’s fine birdie. She’s been going on like that even before we started going out, so stop trying to convince her otherwise.” Dabi rests his chin on Hawks’ shoulder, eyes drooping at Miruko.
“Wait, you and Hawks are….?” Shouto realizes, glancing between the two.
Both Dabi and Hawks shrug at the question. “Thought you knew.”
Shouto isn’t the only one missing something. Enji is at his limit for how much he can take in one night. “If Hawks is with Touya, then why is Shigaraki here?”
“Oh, he’s my date.”
The statement has Enji’s eyes twitching because it comes from Natsuo. “Does anyone in this house like girls?”
“I do,” Fuyumi responds.
Enji fumes. “Anyone else want to come out while we’re here?”
“Is this supposed to be when I say yes?”
Not really wanting to know who answered this time, Enji ganders at Rei; who got herself another plate of soba. It’s quite noticeable that he’s currently irritated, something a few of the Todoroki’s enjoy seeing.
“It’s a joke, Enji,” Rei chuckles, blinking back at Enji.
He doesn’t quite believe that’s true, but goes along with it.
“Seriously though, Touya. Hawks? You like birds?”
“Shut it, Natsu. Least I’m not with Mr. I can beat you NPCs.”
“W-Well, can’t say I’m a fan of muscular women!”
“What was that, Natsu? You wanna be questioning my tastes when you seem to like ones with a tendency to refer to others as game characters?”
“I do wonder how you found him, Natsu. Should probably teach him how to properly make a villain entrance next time. Least you may have a better idea than barging right in —”
“Shou, you’re the oblivious one so you shouldn’t be talking.”
“Dabi, stop petting your boyfriend.”
“Izu, your hair is so soft.”
---
“We get it Fuyu, she’s strong.”
“Look, Izu can lift the fridge.”
---
“Shouto, can you help me clean this up?”
“You’re adorable”
---
“Wow, you’re hot Shouto!”
“It’s my quirk.”
---
“So you can make snow? I haven’t seen that before!”
“Yeah. I’ll show it for you”
---
“Hic- so, hic- cool…sorry.”
“It’s okay, heroes cry too sometimes.”
“Ah, I remember your hero costume; with the bunny ears?” Miruko grins at Izuku from across the table.
“It’s not bunny ears! It’s meant to be—”
Waving off the outcry, Miruko continues. “Us buns’ have to stick together, no one takes us seriously.” She hops out of the room, and no one really knows where to.
“You do look like a bunny, Izu. Especially with your hero costume.” Shouto compares pictures of real bunnies and his best friend; nods to himself when he sees a clear similarity. He gives Fuyumi a hard stare. “My bunny is better than your bunny, Fuyu.”
Dragging a hand down his face, Izuku goes back to eating his plate of soba.
A few minutes later, Miruko comes back holding something in her hands.
“Rumi, did you go into my room again?” Fuyumi asks Miruko, trying to think of what was taken.
“Nothing much! Just a little something to give a certain someone a push.” Rumi walks over to Izuku and pulls him aside. She looks straight at Shouto with a mischievous smile as she takes Izuku out of the room.
About to stand up, Shouto is stopped by Fuyumi who’s also giving him a mischievous smile.
Minutes later, Rumi and Izuku walk back into the dining room. Izuku is wearing white bunny ears that contrasts with the small blush lighting his cheeks, pulling at the hems of his shirt. Miruko, standing behind Izuku, has her hands on his shoulders and pushing him forward like he’s a gift to be shown.
Immediately, Shouto’s thoughts go haywire at the sight of his best friend in bunny ears. His first thoughts are “he’s so cute” that then stumble to “I want to hold him". He doesn’t even pay any mind to the expressions of everyone else in the room. Quivering a little, Izuku has his arms close to his chest and his hands curved inwardly like paws. “What do you think, Shou?” Izuku flashes a big, bright smile for Shouto and he can’t handle it. He already feels his temperature heating up quickly.
“Damn it, it’s too bright and cute and adorable and I want to kiss him so bad.”
Realizing he just said that out loud from the fact that Izuku combusts on the spot and faints, Shouto bursts into flames. His shirt is the first to go, burning to ashes in seconds. Then the table catches on fire. No one is really surprised by this (though Enji does stare down Shouto, because he should have better control over his fire), so they calmly move away from the crackling wood that’s burning; except for Rei, Natsuo, and Fuyumi who use their quirks to put out the fire. Any remaining larger pieces are handed over to Shigaraki (by Natsuo) to clean up, begrudgingly as it is for him to help these heroes.
“I told you to make sure the table was fireproof too,” Rei tells Enji, using her quirk to freeze most of the table.
“I had to get it replaced after an incident, one of my sidekicks didn’t get the memo,” Enji groans.
(The incident: Miruko slamming Natsuo through the table)
While the table is being taken care of, Shouto manages to control his flames and carries away Izuku, who’s now awake and flushing furiously.
There's a fresh new table in 20 minutes to which surprises Hawks and Miruko. When they ask how the Todoroki family did it so quickly, the answer they get is: "We worked hard."
Noticing the disappearance of two hero-in-training, the others look to each other.
“If they aren’t dating when they’re back, I’m locking them in a closet. I can’t handle this anymore,” Rumi complains, tapping a foot on the floor impatiently.
Everyone else just nods.
They come back from Shouto’s room holding hands, much to everyone’s relief.
“Finally Shou, you got yourself out of the friendzone,” Natsuo sighs.
“I’m proud of you, Shou. Izuku is an amazing partner to have.” Rei hugs the two teenagers, grinning from ear to ear.
“Good job, squirt.” Dabi pats Shouto’s head and smirks at Izuku, who fidgets under the stare.
“Congrats on getting a boyfriend!” Rumi pulls Izuku into a headlock, ruffling his messy green locks.
“Happy for you Shou, Izuku.” Fuyumi grins at her brother and his boyfriend.
“Seems to me like we’ll have a power couple in the future,” Hawks chirps, looking at the two hero-in-training.
“This is nice,” Shigaraki voices, despite there being three pro heroes in the room.
“This is ridiculous. I won’t have any grandchildren in the future,” Enji mutters to himself. “We really are all gay.”
Laughing at Enji, Rei comforts him by handing him a cup of tea and smiles.
(They still haven’t run out of soba)
As it’s nearing midnight, all the guests pack up and leave to go head back to their own homes to rest for the night.
Fuyumi leaves with Rumi to their apartment, giggling amongst each other about how the evening went.
Shouto sends off Izuku to the nearest bus stop, holding hands and beaming.
Natsuo walks with Shigaraki to an alleyway where Kurogiri will warp him back to the League.
Dabi and Hawks fly off somewhere, nobody really wanting to know the extent of their relationship.
Rei and Enji stay warm inside the house, the winter snow starting to pile outside.
Although no one voices it out, everyone thinks about how for once they had an enjoyable dinner. They’ll do it again.
“Your hand is warm, Shou.”
“You're warmer.”
---
“We should go to some cafes sometime, Izu.”
“Sure!”
---
“Bye, Shou! See you in school!”
“Bye, Izu.”
“Wait, you’re telling me you're the son of Endeavor? That’s Endeavor? And Dabi is related to Endeavor?! I'm going to be related to Dabi?! I don't want to be his brother!”
“Shiggs, I thought you knew this. And what's wrong with Tou- Dabi?”
“You didn’t tell me! And he doesn’t look like Endeavor without the flames! Can’t expect me to remember the faces of all the lower bosses… And Dabi is my subor- player! No way I'm going to ever call him nii-san.”
“....Then what about the other heroes at the table? You didn’t seem to mind them.”
“There were other heroes there too?!”
“Three. Three pro heroes and two hero-in-training.”
“There was another student?!”
“I really didn’t think this through when I agreed to date you."
“Your family is really great! We should go over more often.”
“Really? I thought you’d want to spend more time alone with me.”
“Can’t we do both?”
“Fine. Whatever you say, bird brain.”
“Thanks, hot stuff!”
(After all the guests have left, Enji cries into the mochi Rei made the previous day. All he can think about is when they first started out as a family. But he regrets his past actions, he does, so he’s going to keep trying. What he currently has is already much better than the past 10 years, and he’s perfectly happy with that.)
(Though he has always wondered why there were so many gaps in his bank account. It’s been happening for years.)