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“So, I’m dating Deku.”
The cutlery stops clinking. Izuku sighs into his spaghetti. They’d talked about this. Izuku had talked about it, anyway, although come to think of it he really should have known Kacchan wouldn’t listen to a word. Dropping bombs even in the middle of a nice family dinner. How very on-brand. “I thought we agreed to break the news gently.”
Kacchan shrugs. “You agreed to that. I was just gonna tell them a couple days before the wedding.”
Masaru’s fork freezes. “You’re getting married?”
“No,” Izuku says and kicks Kacchan’s ankle under the table. He glances at Inko; his mother’s sitting opposite him, stock-still, and hasn’t said a word. “I mean, maybe someday, but we haven’t made any plans. We just wanted to tell you that we’re together. Romantically, I mean.”
Mitsuki, to her credit, takes the revelation in stride. “Well, I thought you might be, considering how quickly you decided to move in together after high school. And stop chewing with your mouth open, Katsuki, you look like a wild animal.”
Kacchan chews louder just to spite her. “We didn’t start properly dating until a year ago. We were just roommates at first. But Deku was obsessed with me and eventually wore me down.”
Izuku kicks him again. “That is not true. Anyway I distinctly remember you were the one who asked me out.”
“I was coerced. Deku said he’d turn to villainy if I didn’t date him. I took one for the team.”
“Kacchan.”
Masaru gazes mistily at the tablecloth. “My little boy’s getting married. I’ll be a grandpa.”
Mitsuki pats her husband’s hand. “Katsuki, stop slandering your poor boyfriend. Izuku, we’re very happy for you, really. You’re a sweet kid and you’ll be a good influence on my stupid son.”
“Thank you, aunty.” Inko still hasn’t said anything. Hesitantly, Izuku reaches across the table to brush his fingers against hers. “Mom? You’re being awful quiet.”
Mitsuki nudges her. “I’m sure she’s just surprised. Really, Masaru and I should be thanking you, Izuku. You’re far too good for our son.”
Inko smiles very sweetly and takes a sip of her wine. “You know what, Mitsuki? I agree.”
They’re quiet on the train ride home.
Izuku thinks Katsuki might be in shock. Honestly, Izuku might be in shock. A horrible part of him is also delighted. Inko had just drunk her wine and cheerfully continued the conversation while the rest of them waited for Katsuki to explode, except he’d only sat there all wide-eyed with his plate of half-eaten pasta. She’d sassed him. Izuku’s sweet middle-aged mother had sassed Bakugou Katsuki like a misbehaving toddler. And he’d taken it.
Discreetly, Izuku leans over to check Kacchan’s pupils for signs of an oncoming absence seizure. “You know she probably didn’t mean it.”
“Oh, she meant it,” Kacchan says hollowly. “She doesn’t like me. She thinks I’m not good enough for you.”
Izuku resists the urge to reassure him. Kacchan would see through it, anyway. Izuku’s a terrible liar. “There’s some history. You know how it is.”
“It was ten years ago.”
“She gets protective.”
“You’re a grown man. I’m not – I’m not some kind of thug.”
“I know, sweetheart.”
Kacchan looks at him, stricken. “Does she think you’re afraid of me? You’re not – you don’t think I’m forcing you into a relationship or whatever –”
“Kacchan,” says Izuku patiently. “I am not afraid of you. You remember in high school you teased Ochako about her cheeks until she cried and I put you through a wall?”
“Fuck.”
“I would not hesitate to do it again.” A part of him wonders how his life ended up here, that such a statement would come out of him without sounding completely insane. Kacchan, for some reason, seems comforted. “Look, try not to take it to heart, Kacchan. It doesn’t matter to me what anyone else thinks because I’m happy with you and I love you to absolute pieces. You are one of my favourite people in the world.”
“One of?”
“After my mom and All Might.”
Katsuki opens his mouth, and then shuts it. “Yeah, fair.”
“So don’t worry about it, okay?” Izuku says and rests his head on Kacchan’s shoulder. He smells like his smoky cologne, comfortingly masculine without being overbearing. “You’re my boyfriend and I wouldn’t give you up for the world.”
“Whatever,” Kacchan grumbles. He doesn’t sound happy but he does relax a little. Izuku links their fingers together, secure in the knowledge that everything’s fine and they can leave this night behind them.
He’s wrong. It’s not fine.
Izuku doesn’t know how he could ever be so naïve as to think Kacchan would take an insult lying down. He wakes up to a forest. Two bouquets of tropical flowers in every room in all colours of the rainbow. Izuku doesn’t even know where they came from. It’s nine a.m. and the closest florist is halfway across the city. He follows the trail to the kitchen, where their little dining table is decorated with origami napkin swans. “Kacchan, what’s going on?”
Kacchan spins around. He’s in an apron and striped boxers, adding to a towering pillar of pancakes held upright only by whipped cream and determination. “Good morning, Deku. How does it feel waking up to a special surprise from the best boyfriend on the planet?”
The maniacal way he’s smiling makes Izuku think the special surprise might be a dead body in the fridge. “Are you – are you okay?”
“I’m fucking peachy. You want some coffee? I made it just how you like it. Milk and four sugars for your diabetic ass- I mean, almost half as sweet as you.”
Izuku blanches. Kacchan’s gripping the frying pan handle so hard it looks like it’s denting. “I did tell you I loved you regardless of what my mom says, right? Is it bothering you still?”
“Who’s bothered? I’m not bothered. Now sit your ass down, I’m about to start on the bacon.”
Izuku sits. Breakfast is predictably delicious, and Izuku can admit in the privacy of his own mind that it’s sort of nice to have Kacchan feed him. Kacchan doesn’t even make fun of him for wanting so much maple syrup. “This is very thoughtful. Thank you. Is that my phone?”
“I’m sending a picture to your mom,” Kacchan says. The camera goes click. “So she can see how well I treat you. Open.”
Izuku obediently opens his mouth, feeling like a roman emperor being spoiled with grapes. Or a horse with sugar cubes. “You treat me well even without all this, Kacchan. You don’t have to prove yourself to anyone.”
“I don’t have to, but I will.” Kacchan’s face darkens, looking at Izuku’s phone. “She says I should have made something healthier because if you eat too much sugar you’ll get sick. Because – you ate a whole pack of bon-bons and threw up in her begonias? Why?”
Izuku sighs. “I was five. Kacchan, ignore her. She’ll take a little time to come around. It’s really not a big deal.”
“The fuck it isn’t,” Kacchan says, outraged. The next forkful of food is shoved into Izuku’s mouth with slightly more force than necessary. “I’m an excellent boyfriend. Top tier. Do you know I was named Tokyo’s fifteenth most eligible bachelor before we dated? Do you, Deku?”
Izuku chooses not to mention that he himself had come in fourteenth. “She knows I love you. She’ll change her mind sooner or later.”
“Unacceptable.” The fork makes an awful screechy noise against the plate as Kacchan violently saws through a pile of bacon. “I’ll show her. I’ll show everyone. She’s gonna change her mind right fucking now.”
It’s mildly concerning, really. Izuku’s used to being in mortal peril, but it’s not often his danger sense goes off when Kacchan comes barreling into the living room after work. “Deku,” he bellows, skidding to a stop in front of the couch. “See what I got you. I outdid myself this time.”
It’s an action figure from when All Might was in his prime. Izuku holds the box up to the light. It’s got the genuine watermark, of course, because Kacchan would never settle for knockoff goods. ”Oh my god, is this from the Bandai Namco collab ten years ago? I thought they sold them all! How’d you find it?”
“Saw a villain with an All Might hoodie and beat him up a little, don’t worry about it,” Kacchan says and flops onto the couch next to him. “So? Aren’t you gonna show your mom?”
Izuku hesitates. “Right, of course. Well, uhm, maybe we should have dinner first! Do you want to try the shawarma place down the street?”
He studiously avoids eye contact. Kacchan’s face instantly darkens. “You already have this one, don’t you.”
“Uhm, I hear there are kebabs and stuff too -”
“You bought one when they first came out.”
“And this spiced tea they apparently make in house –”
“Your mom got it for you, didn’t she?”
Izuku squeezes his eyes shut. “I still appreciate it, Kacchan! You’re really sweet and you obviously went through a lot of effort to find this and have I mentioned I love you?”
Kacchan screams into a throw pillow. “Fucking hell, I knew I should’ve gotten the Sanrio collab plush.”
“I have one of those too,” Izuku says sheepishly. “Really, you don’t have to give me things. I’m grateful and you’re being super nice but you don’t have to kill yourself over it.”
“Well how the hell else am I supposed to woo you?”
“We’ve already been together a year?”
Kacchan makes a strangled noise. “This is bullshit. Bullshit, Deku, you hear me?”
Izuku pats his back. Kacchan tries to set the coffee table on fire with his eyes, shoulders hunched near his ears like an upset turtle trying to return to its shell. Shyly, Izuku puts All Might in Kacchan’s lap. “Do you want to keep this instead? Would that make you feel better?”
Kacchan’s expression is murderous. He does, however, clutch the box to his chest, so Izuku decides he’s probably going to be alright.
The next gift is a box of artisanal chocolates. Then comes a cute stationery set, then cologne. At some point Kacchan even brings home a wiggly brown puppy, which he for some reason decides to call ‘Carpet’ and unfortunately won’t answer to anything else. Izuku’s still trying to change it to ‘Carmen’. She ignores him, more interested in lying on his feet while he dries out Kacchan’s bouquets so he can keep them forever.
“He is a good boyfriend,” Izuku sighs to himself, pressing a rose between two dictionaries. “But I don’t want him to stress himself out just because he thinks mom doesn’t like him.”
Carpet yawns. Izuku reaches down to scratch behind her ears. “Well, you’re right. I guess she doesn’t like him. But she’s not the one dating him. I am.”
The heater buzzes quietly. Izuku rubs his finger between Carpet’s eyebrows in that spot that makes her go squinty. “I have been begging him for a dog all year, though,” he can admit in the quiet of the apartment. He’d be lying if he said the pampering wasn’t nice. Kacchan’s been going above and beyond and it makes Izuku feel like someone special. Like a prince, or the protagonist of a romance novel being slowly won over by the handsome millionaire next door. Kacchan’s devastating when he wants to be. They’ve known each other for decades but the overt gestures and thoughtful gifts still turn Izuku into a warm puddle of goo.
“I’m a terrible person,” he says and picks Carpet up off the floor. She licks his chin sleepily. Izuku puts his feet on the table, next to the stack of wedding venue brochures that Masaru has quietly taken to mailing them. He’s lucky, he decides. All the people on earth and Kacchan still chose him.
Carpet curls up on his chest. “You know what?” Izuku tells her. “I don’t think Kacchan’s winning mom over, but it’s definitely working on me.”
Weeks pass. The weather gets cooler. Izuku falls more in love with Kacchan every day, until the wooing gets out of hand and he promptly regrets everything in his life that has led up to this point.
Their apartment looks like a weird shrine. There are flowers and All Might everywhere, which Izuku normally wouldn’t complain about except a) the pollen’s getting to him and b) there is no way on god’s green earth they can even make out when there’s a talking All Might doll I AM HERE-ing from inside the wardrobe. Kacchan’s made so much food Izuku’s constantly bloated. And they’re 10,000 yen poorer because Kacchan had tried to sky-write I love Deku but got fined for irresponsible use of his quirk in public.
“Kacchan,” he says warily. He’s just got home from work and had been hoping for a normal day this week, but no dice. “I think maybe we should talk about what’s been going on with you lately.”
Kacchan looks up. He’s on his knees in front of the coffee table trying to construct a figure of Izuku out of toothpicks. “Nothing going on but me being loving and supportive. Also don’t go out onto the balcony. I made a paper-mache of your head and it’s still drying.”
“Oh dear.” Carpet’s hiding in the shoe-rack. She looks at Izuku as if to inform him Kacchan’s beyond help. Izuku shuts the door behind him and goes to take the glue away from his poor unhinged boyfriend. “Okay. Kacchan. Look at me. This must stop.”
Kacchan hisses. “I’m not done with that!”
Izuku dodges the hands grabbing him and darts away. “You are obsessed. You don’t have to prove yourself to my mother, you beautiful idiot. I love you and I don’t need you to do all this stuff for me.”
“Who cares what you want?” He prowls around the coffee table like a crazed jungle cat. “This is a matter of principle, Deku. I’m a great boyfriend. I’m the perfect boyfriend and I’ll make her understand how good I am for you.”
“You are good for me! You’re great! But you’re also completely feral right now and your wooing is getting out of hand!”
“You like my wooing. I took you on a surprise date to the beach two nights ago. Wasn’t that romantic, Deku? Wasn’t it?”
It wasn’t. Katsuki had grabbed him and blasted off without any warning right when Izuku was trying to eat an onigiri, and also the water was freezing and Izuku got attacked by a seagull. A kid saw him. Izuku’d had to make a public apology this morning for punching a bird. “You’re losing your mind.”
“Gimme the glue.”
Izuku ducks under Kacchan’s arm and escapes into the bedroom. The lock clicks just before Kacchan starts banging on the door, howling about Deku get out here and let me love you. Izuku fumbles for the phone in his back pocket. Inko picks up on the third ring, sounding absurdly chipper over Kacchan’s angry yodelling. “Hi, honey! What’s up?”
“Mom,” Izuku begs, back braced against the door so Kacchan doesn’t break it down. “You need to put a stop to this. Make a formal acceptance speech or something before Kacchan implodes.”
Kacchan shouts something about taking Izuku out. There’s a pause on the phone. “Did I just hear him threaten to kill you?”
“Worse. He’s threatening to take me on a date. I can’t handle this anymore, Mom. If he brings me any more flowers I’ll die of hay fever. He’s trying to prove himself to you and he’s become a whole other person.”
Inko makes a thoughtful noise. “That doesn’t sound like such a bad thing.”
“I don’t want another person. I want my boyfriend.”
There’s a sigh on the other end, and then the clinking of porcelain. Izuku imagines her fixing a cup of iced tea to drink on the balcony. “Izuku, sweetheart. You’re an adult. You know I’m not trying to interfere in your relationship, right? I don’t want you to think I’m forbidding you from seeing Katsuki or anything.”
“I know.”
“But I’m your mother. And I remember your middle school days, you know. I know you’d come home crying because of something he said to you. I’m never going to forget that.”
Izuku fiddles with the hem of his t-shirt. He’d thought he was being subtle, back then, but Kacchan’s always says Izuku’s easy to read. “He’s changed. You’ve seen him change. And so have I. I’m stronger than you give me credit for.”
“I know you’re strong. I also know you have a habit of putting yourself second. How badly would someone have to hurt you before you could be convinced to give up on them?”
“Kacchan’s not going to hurt me.”
“I’m not saying–” she cuts herself off, frustrated. “You said he’s become someone else? Why?”
“To prove himself to you.”
“It’s not about me, Izuku.” Her voice softens sadly. Izuku desperately wants to give her a hug. “I don’t want him to prove himself to me. I want him to prove himself to you. I don’t want him to change just because I don’t like him, I want him to change because he treated you badly and he has to own up to that.”
Carpet whines. Kacchan stops banging on the door. Izuku folds his arms around himself, staring at his toes. “I really think he has, in his own way. He makes me happy, Mom. It’s different from middle school. I like the way he makes me feel when I’m with him.”
“I’m sorry, baby. I promise I’m not trying to upset you.” Ice clinks in Inko’s glass. “I’ll reign it in. But I can’t promise I’ll like him. I’m your mom. D’you hear me, Izuku? I know you care about him but I’m always, always going to put you first.”
They say their goodbyes and hang up. Izuku opens the door. Kacchan stumbles on the other side of it, holding Izuku’s papier-mache head like he’d been just about to use it as a battering ram. “There you are. Where’s my glue?”
“I’m not giving you the glue,” Izuku says. Carpet trudges up to sit on his foot. “Kacchan, why are you doing this? Is it a pride thing? Do you just not like my mom criticizing you?”
Kacchan’s face scrunches up. “Obviously. When have I ever done something and not been the best?”
Izuku deflates. He scoops Carpet up and sits on the edge of the mattress, idly playing with her ears while Kacchan watches him from the doorway. “Is that it?”
The clock on the wall ticks. Kacchan looks at him, looking more lucid than he has in days, doing that thing he does where he stares Izuku down but never actually asks the question. “Deku.”
“What?”
A pause. The laminate creaks as Kacchan comes closer to stand over him. “Deku.”
“What?”
“I like you.”
“Okay?”
The mattress dips. Carpet tucks her head under Izuku’s chin and yawns. “I like you, Deku. As a person. Not just because you’re my boyfriend. But if I weren’t your boyfriend you’d have no reason to like me.”
Izuku opens his mouth to argue. Kacchan puts a hand over Izuku’s face and squishes his nose flat. “No, Deku, listen. I’m a lot of things but likeable isn’t really one of them. Of all the people on earth, you’re the one with the most reason to hate me but somehow you don’t. I don’t get it. I’m not about to look a gift horse in the mouth but I got used to you liking me and I guess sometimes I – I forget. That I don’t deserve it.”
“Kacchan –”
“I’m not asking for pity, Deku. I don’t really care what anyone thinks of me. But from the outside it looks like things haven’t changed. You’re still too nice and I’m still kind of a dick. I just… I don’t want anyone – I don’t want you thinking I take you for granted. I don’t want you to look at me and see the fourteen year-old asshole who blew up your notebook.”
Gently, Izuku touches Kacchan’s hand. “I don’t. I see who you are now.”
“Your mom doesn’t. And anyway, she’s right. You deserve nice shit. You deserve the best boyfriend on earth. I don’t know how to be, like, not me. But I know how to cook and clean and buy you presents. I can do nice shit. I can be good.”
There was that one day in kindergarten. A girl had called Kacchan mean for pushing her during recess. Kacchan had sneered then, but Izuku’d found him later crying in the bathroom and insisting I’m not mean, heroes aren’t mean.
Izuku doesn’t mention this. Instead he puts his head on Kacchan’s shoulder, Carpet slowly falling asleep in his hands. “You know there’s this boy I’ve had a crush on since high school.”
“Yeah?”
“He’s really sweet. Sometimes he gets it into his head that he needs to do big things just to show me he loves me.”
“Bet he makes a fool of himself.”
“A little bit. I still appreciate it. But you know my favourite moments are when he does little things for me. Like when he turns off the alarm clock before it rings so it doesn’t startle me. And he wakes me up himself and makes me coffee, but with not enough sugar on purpose and he won’t add more even when I complain.”
“Sugar’s bad for you.”
“And this boy of mine, he got me a phone charger without me asking.”
“Yours was falling apart.”
“He sends me pictures of cats on the street even though he doesn’t like cats.”
“They make you laugh.”
“He plays in the snow with me when I ask even though he hates the cold.”
“You make ugly snowmen.”
“I know,” Izuku murmurs and hides his face in Kacchan’s neck. “I know you love me. You show me every day. I don’t need you to prove yourself to me. You’ve already done that. You’re enough.”
Sighing, Kacchan rests his cheek on Izuku’s fluffy hair. “Your mom still doesn’t like me.”
“That doesn’t matter,” Izuku says and kisses his shoulder. “Because I’ve already made my choice, and I like you just fine.”
“Let’s get hitched.”
“I’m not marrying you to spite my mother.”
Kacchan huffs. His voice sounds tinny on the other end of the line, buzzing comfortingly in Izuku’s earpiece as he sits on the edge of a rooftop, crouched low out of sight. “So how am I supposed to impress her with these fucking poetic vows I wrote?”
The villain they’re tracking darts through an alley and out of the main street, hiding something in her jacket. Izuku trails her, jumping silently from building to building, not close enough to draw attention but making sure not to let her slip out of sight. “We’ve had this conversation before. And should I be worried about you writing vows for my mother?”
“Very funny, asshole. Keep that up and I’ll start wooing her instead.”
“Gross.”
The intercom crackles as Jirou clears her throat. “I’m going to remind you that you are on a mission, so you should probably cut the chatter. Also, Izuku, stop talking back to your new stepdad like that.”
“Don’t encourage him, Jirou.” The villain rounds a corner. Izuku pauses, waiting to see which building she ducks into, checking up and down the street to make sure there are no civilians in range. “Looks like she’s alone. I can probably corner her. Should I engage?”
“Don’t engage. Get closer but don’t let her see you,” says Jirou. “Bakugou, location?”
“200 meters. I’ll be there in a minute to back you up.”
“Don’t use your quirk.”
“Obviously, Deku. Explosions tend to draw attention.”
Izuku leaps off the building he’s on and sidles up to the shop house the villain has disappeared into. It’s silent. He pauses by the door, and then swiftly steps back when a knife comes flying at his face. “Whoops. Looks like I got caught.”
“Shit,” says Kacchan. “Hang on, I’m coming.”
There’s a distant explosion as Kacchan abandons discretion. The girl tries to stab him again. It barely takes any effort to disarm her, even as she struggles to get her wrist out of Izuku’s grip. “Let go!”
Izuku tries his best to sound disapproving. “I’d rather you didn’t attack me again. Are you planning to give back the jewelry you stole?”
“Fuck you.”
“I suppose it was too much to expect you to co-operate.”
The window above them opens. The girl’s too busy trying to bite him to notice but Izuku sees the barrel of a rifle pointing right at them. He could dodge but he doesn’t. Instead he spins to bodily protect her, hearing more than feeling the bullet graze his cheek.
The lights come on and several people shout. It’s an ambush. He’s walked right into a trap.
Someone reloads. Izuku takes a deep breath and braces for impact.
And then Kacchan blows up the whole building.
It’s not the worst they’ve ever been hurt, which perhaps isn’t saying much considering their history.
Kacchan’s well enough to be angry, anyway. Izuku sits in the hospital room with him and allows himself to be glared at. Kacchan’s been lecturing him for the past half hour, pausing to cough every third sentence from of the dust and smoke inhalation. He’d gotten buried in the rubble. Brought all the villains down with him while he was at it, but it cost him two fractured bones and a black eye.
He’s alive, though. Already on the way to recovery thanks to healing quirks and modern medicine, so Izuku takes the memory of pulling Kacchan out of the wreckage and puts it away to be mulled over later. If he cried now Kacchan would just get angrier. Quietly, he reaches out to brush Kacchan’s hair out of his eyes.
Kacchan bites him. “Don’t you get all soft with me, dumbass. You’re the reason I’m here, you know that? You could have gotten out of there fine but no, you had to use yourself as a human shield for the fucker we were supposed to be arresting.”
Izuku rubs his hand. “Stop yelling at me! What else was I supposed to do? Just let her get shot?”
“Yes, you big green moron. If her friends want to pump her full of holes that’s her god damned problem.”
Someone knocks on the doorframe. Izuku turns, expecting a doctor, but it’s Inko. She’s got a coat over her house clothes like she’d heard the call from their agency and come running. “Oh, honey, your friend Jirou told me what happened. Are you boys okay?”
Izuku softens immediately. “I’m fine, mom. I only got grazed. Do you want to come in?”
“Mitsuki’s on the way.” Inko sits next to him, looking Kacchan over with big, worried eyes. “They said a shop collapsed on you.”
“Exactly,” Katsuki spits. Izuku shrinks. “Do you want to talk some sense into your stupid son? Look at his arm. He got shot because he decided to defend a villain. Because Deku’s got a martyr complex and can’t walk away from someone in trouble even when they deserve it.”
“She was just a kid,” Izuku whines, trying to hide behind his mother despite her being half his size. “You’re the one who went and slammed yourself into a building! Why isn’t anyone yelling at you?”
Kacchan throws a pillow at him. “I only did that to save you because you refuse to use your tiny little brain. You’re a danger to yourself, Deku. You’d risk your life for a house plant if you thought it’d be friends with you. I can’t let you do missions alone anymore. Someone needs to put you on a leash.”
Inko starts laughing. Izuku wonders, not for the first time, how they must look from the outside. Kacchan sitting in a hospital bed, wrapped in bandages and daring to shout at Izuku for getting hurt. “Oh, Katsuki,” she says. “Maybe you should take a deep breath. You’re going to pop a blood vessel.”
Kacchan makes a noise of outrage. Izuku would laugh too if he didn’t think he’d get the IV stand thrown at him. “A deep breath? A deep breath? Do you have any idea how much stress this fool causes me? You’re going to give me high blood pressure, Deku. I’m not gonna die in the line of duty. One day I’ll die from a heart attack because you decided to break your neck saving a kitten from a tree.”
He’s working himself into a rage. The heart monitor starts beeping nervously behind him, and Izuku considers gently smothering Kacchan until he calms down. Inko gets there first, though. Gently, she puts a hand on his, just below the IV. “Katsuki.”
“What?”
“You can’t die.” She smiles and squeezes his fingers, just once. “You’re right. Izuku’s reckless. So you need to stick around because he needs someone sensible to take care of him.”
Kacchan stares at her. His face is blank but Izuku sees something untangle inside him, faltering the way Kacchan always does when someone shows him sudden kindness he doesn’t understand. Izuku gives him a brief, beaming smile. Then he whines again, drawing Inko’s attention so Kacchan has a second to himself.
“I’m an adult,” Izuku insists, allowing Inko to run a hand through his dusty hair. “You act like you can’t take your eyes off me or I’ll spontaneously combust.”
Kacchan snorts. He’s sealed his vulnerability away and is doing a good job of looking unruffled. “I left you alone for a week while I was on a mission and you gave yourself food poisoning.”
“I made dinner like you always do! Medium rare!”
“You can’t do that with chicken, you disaster.”
“Boys,” Inko says fondly. Izuku shuts up. “I’m just glad you’re both okay. Why don’t we save the bickering for when you’re both home and feeling better?”
“I’ll never feel better,” Kacchan declares. “Deku will plague me until the day I die.”
“Sucks to be you,” Izuku retorts. “You just basically said we’d be together forever. No take backs.”
Inko kisses Izuku on the cheek. “Forever’s a long time, sweetheart. But it doesn’t matter. Right now, at least, I can see you’re in good hands.”