Chapter Text
For the first time in a while, Izuku went right back to the Midoriya apartment after school. He knew his mom would expect him - and Akatani wouldn't be home until much later in the day. Something about 'dealing with Tomura' that Izuku didn't care to learn more about.
The celebratory mood of early-dinner katsudon was slightly dampened by Izuku's inner cringing over the impression he'd made to his classmates. Eventually, Inko called him out on it: "Honey, is something wrong? You seem worried."
Izuku took a fortifying breath.
"So, um, you know how Kacchan was bullying me but I never said anything because I didn't want you to worry or have to move schools? I finally confronted him in homeroom and it went well - he's leaving me alone now! - but I was practicing this glare to intimidate him with and it worked and it also scared everyone else so now they kind of think I'm the bully-"
Mom laid a hand on his arm, the other hand over her mouth. "Izuku," she interrupted, voice wavering, "did you say you scared Katsuki-kun?"
Oh no. Kacchan's mom and his mom were best friends, and now he'd changed the way they would interact, and what if mom didn't stay friends with her?! "...Yes?"
Inko burst out laughing, tears of mirth gathering at the corners of her eyes. (These fortunately didn't count as Midoriya Tears.) Izuku found himeslf enveloped in a hug. "I'm - so proud of you, honey," she managed between fits of giggling.
"...You're not upset?" Izuku asked into her shoulder.
Mom sat back, smiling. "Izuku, that brat's been keeping you down for years. I was looking forward to the day you did something about him."
She... she had?
"I was starting to worry last year, when it seemed like he was getting violent-" he had been, Izuku recalled sourly- "but then you stopped coming home with bruises, and you seemed a lot happier, so I thought you might have settled it a while ago." A second bowl of katsudon was set in front of him. Trying not to look too eager to dig in, Izuku did exactly that.
This was... a lot to think about. Izuku had thought he was hiding the Kacchan situation better. And that he needed to hide the Kacchan situation. Maybe... maybe he'd started distrusting Mom without needing to.
Maybe he could tell her some of his secrets.
"Also, um, I might have developed a quirk?"
Inko dropped her chopsticks. "You what."
[ninth: MAYDAY MAYDAY]
[eighth: !!?!]
[ninth: i forgot to tell mom about my quirk]
[ninth: can you come over]
Toshinori would like to say he’d prepared for the eventuality of his successor telling someone else about the legendary quirk he had inherited. He’d told Young Midoriya that he could, when they were still clearing Dagobah Beach - and he'd somewhat expected to be asked to give an explanation then. When months had gone by without any such invitation, he had assumed he just... hadn't been needed, and let himself not worry about it anymore.
The reality was that he bolted across Musutafu with several minutes’ worth of his three-hour window, appearing on the Midoriya family’s doorstep in his muscle form as soon as he could after getting that text. Then, when Young Midoriya’s mother recovered from the surprise of seeing said Number One Hero at her door and invited him in, he sat down at their kitchen table to give a halting explanation while Inko-san eyed him suspiciously over tea.
“-and that’s, uh, how it went?” the All Might slouched in his seat at Inko’s kitchen table, smiling nervously, an hour later. “We - that is, young Midoriya and I - had decided to let him tell you when he felt he was ready. I see that was a bit later than anticipated… I do apologize.”
Inko, still reeling at the concept of her son being given a legendary quirk from his personal hero, gave a wordless nod that she hoped conveyed her forgiveness. She Attracted the teapot over to refill her cup one more time, looking between Izuku and All Might’s equally earnest expressions - and eventually, let out a sigh.
Truth be told, she was… relieved, she supposed, that Izuku’s quirk situation was thanks to this wild story, and not something else.
With how nervous her son had been about introducing her to his ‘mentor’ ahead of this conversation, she had almost worried he’d befriended a shady adult off the streets.
Thank goodness that wasn’t the case.
"So it... went pretty well, I guess?" Izuku shrugged, plucking a dumpling off the serving dish. "At first I thought she was going to skewer All Might with a sharpened chopstick and that'd be the end of him."
Akatani snorted at the mental image - and stole the last dumpling before Izuku could reach for it with a lightning-quick flash of telekinesis. "But you only told her about One For All?"
Izuku eyed the menu buttons on the wall beside their booth. Did he want to order another dumpling set? It was - he checked his phone - almost three a.m. already, but that wasn't exactly a deterrent. He pressed the button for dumplings... and then, impulsively, for yakitori. The tiny light next to each item lit up to show their order had been received.
“...The way I see it,” he said at length, “she would have had to find out at some point. Other people already know about One For All; they would wonder why I wouldn’t tell my mom. And being friends with All Might,” Izuku’s mouth twisted in a very Akatani smirk, “is a really convenient cover, isn’t it?”
His dealer grinned back. “See, this is why you’re the favorite,” he declared. “Now have a look at these new quirks on the list: just got ‘em in this weekend, and I think you might like this one the best…”
