Beyond the Stars (All the Way to You) – My Hero Academia (2019)

Overview: A “My Hero Academia” commission revolving around the AU that Shinsou Hitoshi, while getting multiple new “quirks,” discovers that he’s actually not human, but something else.

Fandom: Boku no Hero Academia | My Hero Academia    

Relationship: Shinsou Hitoshi & Aizawa Shouta | Eraserhead, Shinsou Hitoshi & Yamada Hizashi | Present Mic, Yamada Hizashi | Present Mic/Aizawa Shouta | Eraserhead

Characters: Shinsou Hitoshi, Yamada Hizashi | Present Mic, Aizawa Shouta | Eraserhead

Rating: Teen Audiences

Word Count: 19,834

Summary: Shinsou Hitoshi is finally home with his new family and ready for a long break of doing nothing before he starts his second year of U.A. in the heroics course. His break doesn’t quite go to plan, though, when his body starts going through changes. And not changes as in getting older, but changes as in he suddenly has pointed ears, sharp teeth, and wings and a tail growing out of his back.

It’s a scramble to figure out if what’s happening is a rare quirk mutation or if it’s something else much more serious. While the answer might lie with his birth family, it’s the family he has now that’s going to help him through it. One thing is for sure, though, and that’s the fact that Hitoshi is never going to have a normal life again. (Posted to AO3)

Beyond The Stars (All The Way To You)

Shinsou Hitoshi – now Aizawa-Yamada Hitoshi in all legal databases – lingered on the top step after climbing the stairs of the house he was slowly exploring. While he had been about to start poking around the second story, he instead found himself sitting down on the top of the staircase, his attention caught by the quiet, rumbling laughter and soft voices that he could hear drifting up from the kitchen that he now knew was filled with warm yellows and soft browns. 

While it was impossible to make out any words or topics on what was being said, the warm voices and gentle laughter had caught Hitoshi’s attention as easily and quickly as the cats that were quickly crawling over him and into his lap. 

“Let me guess,” Hitoshi said quietly, laughing as a large white cat near yelled in his ear as he draped himself over his back. “You must be Snowball.” There was a higher, sweeter chirp from the cat that had crawled into his lap, a fuzzy little thing with bright, shining eyes. “And you must be Jelly. Those two really are bad with names, aren’t they?”

Between the soft, pleasing blues of the hallway walls, the rumbling purrs of the cat curled in his lap, the warmth of the cat that was draped over his back, and the rumbling laughter and quiet voices he could hear from the downstairs part of the house, Hitoshi felt like he could easily spend the rest of his life in that one moment. It was incredible just how different it all was compared to how his school year had begun. 

His first year at U.A. had begun with him in the General Studies course while also living in an abusive foster home that was known for being ‘the last resort’ for kids from ‘troubling backgrounds.’ Hitoshi, luckily, had never had to put work into being a troubled kid. His quirk had done all the work for him. 

Then the Sports Festival had happened, and Hitoshi had caught the attention of none other than Eraserhead, one of the men now laughing in the kitchen downstairs. The man had offered to train Hitoshi to get into the heroics course and, not long after, had found out about Hitoshi’s home situation. 

As usual with everyone from U.A., he had gone ‘Plus Ultra’ in how he had handled the matter and, a few weeks later, his new foster parents were Aizawa Shouta and his husband Yamada Hizashi, the man who happened to be Hitoshi’s other favorite hero Present Mic. After all was said and done, Hitoshi had only been at U.A. for a couple of months before he had a new home and new parents who actually cared about him. He had also been moved into the dorms which had been heaven compared to all the other houses he had lived at over the years. 

Of course, if he were being honest, he had spent most of the school year asleep on the couch in Hizashi and Shouta’s on-campus apartment. If he were being further honest, it was all Hizashi’s fault for dragging Hitoshi there during a particularly bad week when his insomnia had been worse than ever. It wasn’t like it was Hitoshi’s fault he had just never left and had eventually been given a sleeping bag of his own just so ‘he wouldn’t break his back on that goddamn couch.’

That had been during the school year, though. Now it was break, Hitoshi had just survived his first year of U.A. and would start the heroics course when school went back into session, and he now lived with Shouta and Hizashi in their house after being adopted. 

“Ah, so that’s where you three got off to!” The chipper voice had Hitoshi startling out of his thoughts, blinking at where Hizashi was halfway up the stairs and grinning at him with pure amusement and his phone held out in front of him. Hitoshi could feel himself flushing even as he glared. “Aw, cute!” 

“If that goes on your Present Mic account then I’m disowning you as a parent,” Hitoshi managed, huffing as he heard another shutter sound from the phone. “You’re awful.” 

“The absolute worst,” Hizashi agreed cheerfully. “Already done exploring the place? We’re not leaving for dinner for another hour or so. It would be sooner, but then Tensei decided to join, and if he joined then Nem had to join, and it takes her forever to get ready to go someplace.” 

Hitoshi choked back a laugh, carefully nudging Snowball off him before standing up with Jelly still in his arms, shuffling out of the way so Hizashi could slip past him up the stairs. “You know, I’m pretty sure you don’t get to complain about people taking forever to get ready. Last I checked, it takes you how long to do your hair?” 

Hizashi twitched, giving him a ‘frown’ that was nothing more than a dramatic pout. Hitoshi grinned because he knew, if nothing else, Shouta would have been proud. “Unbelievable,” Hizashi tsked. “Betrayed by my own son. It was Shouta, wasn’t it? I bet he turned you against me.” 

“Nah,” Hitoshi shook his head, acting nonchalant as he scratched under Jelly’s chin. “It was the fact you hogged the bathroom for so long one morning I had to go all the way back to the dorms just to find another one.” 

Hizashi gave another tsk, Hitoshi trying not to laugh as the other stuck a hand in his hair and ruffled it as if that would actually bother him. “Alright then, Mr. Smartypants. If you have the answer to everything then what… is your favorite part of the house?”

Rolling his eyes at the dramatics, Hizashi grinned as Jelly snuggled up to him and rubbed at his neck, Snowball screaming from where he was cuddled up against Hitoshi’s legs. “Jelly and Snowball.” 

“Aha, so you haven’t explored the entire house yet!” That was the only warning Hitoshi was given before he was being gently steered and pushed down the hallway, Hizashi leading him all the way to a door near the end of the hallway. He was also rambling nonstop as he did so. “Okay, so that door there is the bathroom, that’s a guest bedroom, that’s the linen closet, that’s the cat’s bedroom which is sometimes also known as our bedroom, and this… is yours.” 

Hitoshi wasn’t even done laughing over the comment about their bedroom being the cat’s bedroom when the last part of Hizashi’s explanation registered. “Wait? My- Oh.” Hizashi had opened the door and pushed Hitoshi inside, Hitoshi staring at his bedroom.

He wasn’t sure when the two had managed it, but all his things were already in the room. A few of his textbooks and folders that he half-remembered throwing in a box were settled on a wooden desk that was placed just perfectly under a window that looked out onto the street. His backpack and suitcase were propped up neatly between the desk and a dresser that looked brand new, little items and trinkets already scattered around on top. 

A glance to his right showed an almost empty closet with a few of his things, all new and having been bought for him over the last few months, hanging up neatly. A quick look to the left showed a bed with some type of overhead storage, the bed itself absolutely filled with blankets, pillows, his blue sleeping bag that Shouta had bought him, and the odd stuffed cat or two. 

There was also a small blanket or curtain of some kind hooked onto the bars that helped make up the overhead, Hitoshi realizing it would only take a few quick seconds to pull it across the bar and practically hide the bed, and whoever was in it, from view.

Hitoshi felt like it was a lifetime that he just stared at the bedroom – his bedroom – before he carefully set Jelly down onto the floor. He then immediately turned out and latched onto Hizashi in a tight hug, burrowing his way close and hiding a smile when the hug was returned without even a second of delay. 

“Welcome home, ‘Toshi,” Hizashi said softly, Hitoshi squeezing tighter for a moment even as he laughed. Laughter, he had found, was better than getting emotional enough to cry. 

“I’m home,” Hitoshi said softly, finding that, with every single part of him, he meant it. It was a moment in time he thought he would never get. 

It was also a moment broken by Shouta shouting up the stairs at them with a halfhearted, “The harpy says she needs another hour before she’s ready.”

“She what?!” Hizashi moved to lean out of the doorway, even as he kept hanging on to Hitoshi – which was more amusing than anything else. “We told her about dinner tonight this morning! What do you mean she needs more time! I don’t even take that much time- Shouta!”

There was a soft, quiet laugh from downstairs that Hitoshi just barely made out, followed by Shouta’s call of, “You’re the one who wanted to be friends with her.” 

Hizashi grumbled, finally letting Hitoshi go with one last hug and a ruffle to his hair. “If Nemuri thinks she can out drama me then she has another thing coming. Get ready to go, kiddo, I need to go yell at a best friend over the phone.” 

“Have fun,” Hitoshi laughed, waiting until Hizashi was down the stairs before he turned back to his room – his room – and leaned against the doorway’s edge before taking a moment to just look at everything. “Home, huh…” 

It wasn’t until later that night, long after a night out with family that had felt like family, did Hitoshi really take a few minutes to think about how different his life had become ever since he had started U.A.

He had started the school year sleeping in a closet of a room with four other kids, foster parents who didn’t give a shit, and almost nothing to call his own. Now he had a home, a family, a room of his own, two pet cats, and parents who actually cared and loved him. 

Instead of cramped into a small space and curled up and cold, Hitoshi was curled up in a bed that had so many pillows and blankets it had become a nest. The bed-curtain-thing-or-whatever had been closed and Hitoshi was in pleasant darkness with nothing except a few strips of moonlight and it was perfect. 

It was just… He was home. Hitoshi was home, and safe, and didn’t have to worry about the next disaster that would happen in his life or worry that he would wake up scared and alone and fearful that the whole world was against him. It was all because he knew, even if the world was against him, he had two people on his side who would stick by him. 

It was a good feeling. 

It was a good feeling that he knew, with everything in him, would make everything feel okay – even if it wasn’t. 

At least, that was how he felt before he woke up the next morning.

His first morning in his new home was filled not with contentment, but with annoyance because his skin was itching. God, it fucking felt like Hitoshi was going to go crazy and he had only been awake for two minutes. 

“If I find itching powder in these blankets, I’ll kill everyone in this house,” Hitoshi muttered under his breath, scratching at his arms even as he struggled out of the blankets he had tangled himself up in. He then paused to make a mental note that he would kill everyone but the cats. 

It wasn’t even just the itching, either, but it felt like he was exhausted. He also felt absolutely wired. It felt like he had gotten both too much sleep and not enough sleep all at the same time. Or, well, maybe more accurately it felt like he had gotten no sleep and then downed a half dozen shots of espresso. 

Actually, coffee sounded great right then. Right. Hitoshi would hit the bathroom, maybe take a shower to stop the goddamn itching, and then he would drink all the coffee in the house. He would try, at least. Shouta seemed to survive off coffee, too, so it might be a fight. 

That had been the plan, at least, until Hitoshi, still bleary with sleep, caught sight of himself in the mirror. He then closed his eyes, counted to thirteen, blinked his eyes open, and then closed them again with a sigh. 

“It’s too early for this,” Hitoshi finally managed, cracking his eyes open and, yeah. That seemed about his life. 

He finally felt safe, happy, and utterly content, and then he woke up to what looked like purple and blue spiral rashes everywhere. It at least explained why Hitoshi woke up to his skin itching like crazy, but what wasn’t explained was why Hitoshi had what looked like tattoos just about everywhere on his body. 

Purple and blue spiraled swirls of color formed a solid band of color around his wrists before crawling up all the way to his elbows and, if he wasn’t wrong, even further up his arm and past the sleeves of his shirt – which wasn’t that bad. The tattoo-possibly-rash-looking-thing wasn’t all that bad if it was only on his arms. 

Instead of just on his arms, though, there were two swaths of the thing starting from under his eyes and slicing down his cheeks and following the curve of them to stop at a point, the thing dark purple with some kind of twisted runic pattern of lighter purple on top. It might have even still been okay if it stopped there, but it didn’t. 

The thing had spread to wrap around his forehead in some weird form of what Hitoshi might call a crown or a circlet or something if it wasn’t branded into his skin. It was a mix of purple and blue with another weird runic symbol looking thing and, Hitoshi had a feeling, it wrapped around his entire head. He was now viciously thankful his hair was purple as that seemed to hide the rest of it if that were the case. 

Oh, yeah, there was also the fact it looked like whatever it was had given him freckles. There were dark purple freckle looking things that matched the other parts of the thing and were all over the bridge of his nose, his cheeks, and the tips of his ears. 

Judging by the itching that was on his chest, legs, and back, Hitoshi had a feeling that The Thing covered more than just the skin he could see. A quick peek down his shirt to see swirls of purple and blue showed that, yes. The Thing covered more than just a few parts of his body.

“Right,” Hitoshi mumbled to himself, staring at the mirror for a few extra seconds. “Okay. Yeah. Right, then.” Hitoshi took one last long look at himself in the mirror and then nodded, turned around, and opened the bathroom door.

He then promptly stuck his head out the door and started shouting, “Dad! Pops!”

⁂

Shouta stared down at his kid, tied down in half a dozen blankets on the living room couch, and did his best not to panic as he waited for the beeping of the thermometer. His attention was evenly split between Hitoshi, who was trying to use the blankets to hide every inch of his skin, and Hizashi, who was pacing up and down the living room floor and muttering about quirks under his breath. 

“It has to be some type of rash,” Shouta finally said, narrowing his eyes as Hitoshi began scratching at his cheek again. “There are quirks that cause rashes.” Granted none that would be so… colorful, but it had to be something to cause Hitoshi’s skin to itch so badly. Shouta was half-tempted to start treating the kid like he had chicken pox and put a pair of mittens on him. 

“Not necessarily,” Hizashi sighed, finally speaking loud enough to be heard as he walked over towards him. “‘Toshi, can you show me one of your arms?”

“Can I not and then we just say I did?” Hitoshi mumbled around the thermometer. He looked miserable enough that Shouta wanted to bat Hizashi away just so the kid could try to get some more rest. 

Hizashi, on his part, waited patiently until Hitoshi finally sighed and stuck one of his arms out. “Thank you. Now, Shou, you said rash, right? It could be, but also look at the skin around the edges.” Shouta sighed but did as told, studying the edges of the pattern and frowning at the red skin. Would itching cream help? It couldn’t hurt, at that point. “What does that remind you of?” 

“Right now? The fact that we don’t have any itching cream in the house.” Shouta felt a little better at Hitoshi’s snort of laughter but sighed at Hizashi’s look. It was a look that, very clearly, told him he was letting his worries get the best of him. “I don’t know, ‘Zashi. It…” Actually, it did remind him of something. “Tattoos?”

That got a reaction, Hitoshi squirming around and talking fast enough the thermometer fell out of his mouth. “I swear I did not go out last night and get tattoos all over my body or find someone with a quirk who would do that I mean- Why would I want tattoos? I have freckles and they’re purple! I look like a giant bruise! I-!”

“Hey, hey, easy, ‘Toshi.” Hizashi was sitting on Hitoshi’s other side in a heartbeat, soothing the kid down and gently running a hand through his hair. It seemed to work, Hitoshi quieting under the soft touch at once. “We know you wouldn’t do something like that. It’s just that if this was a rash then we wouldn’t be seeing red edges like this.” 

“It looks like when Hizashi got his tattoos,” Shouta explained, sticking the thermometer back in the kid’s mouth when he opened it to ask a question. The glare was hilarious. “I’ll tell you the embarrassing details later.”

Hizashi tsked, tucking Hitoshi’s arm back in his blanket bundle before sitting back and crossing his arms. “I don’t know,” Hizashi finally sighed. “I know a few quirks that could cause something like this, but it takes prolonged contact. Nothing I know could do this with a touch and have a delay on it. I don’t know… Maybe we should go to the hospital-?”

“No!” The shout took all three of them by surprise, it seemed, Shouta staring down at Hitoshi who flushed at the attention as he fiddled with the once again dropped thermometer. “I just- Please no hospital. I mean, I’m fine, right? I’m not in pain or anything. Just itchy.”

“I don’t know, ‘Toshi,” Hizashi sighed, looking to Shouta and alright. Shouta would need to stay firm. They needed to do what was best for their kid. “Shouta?” 

“He said he’s not hurt.” The disappointed look given to him by Hizashi was only made marginally less painful by Hitoshi’s grateful one. “I’m not sure the hospital could do anything right now.” 

Hizashi grumbled but seemed to relent, Shouta once again picking up the thermometer and staring down at Hitoshi. The kid blinked at him, mumbling an apology before opening his mouth back up. “This time,” Shouta sighed. “Try to wait until we actually get your temperature.” 

There was a little mutter that sounded like no promises, Shouta making sure to fix the kid with a look before he was looking at Hizashi. “So?” 

Hizashi looked between the two of them, finally groaning. “Alright, fine. Most quirk-induced effects last three days. So, we’ll monitor Hitoshi closely, and as soon as we see another symptom that causes any sort of pain of any kind we go straight to the hospital.” 

Shouta narrowed his eyes as Hitoshi looked ready to open his mouth. Shouta didn’t let him before he was hooking his fingers under the kid’s mouth and snapping it shut. “Temperature.” The look Hitoshi gave him was worse than any of Hizashi’s pouting could ever be. 

As if to spite him, Hitoshi started scratching again. Shouta sighed, standing up at last. Jelly and Snowball immediately took his place, crawling into Hitoshi’s lap and purring or, in Snowball’s case, screaming up at him. Shouta gave a half-smile, turning to head towards the first-aid kit. “I’ll get the mittens.”

The dramatic groan had him glancing back, Shouta feeling a wave of worry at how Hitoshi had just tilted over straight into Hizashi’s arms. He looked miserable, but if the kid was that against the hospital…

There had been more than just a desire not to go. Something had obviously happened in his past, but this wasn’t exactly the best time to pry into the kid’s head. Besides, three days wouldn’t be too bad. 

Three days and everything would be back to normal and Hitoshi would be complaining about his horrible start to break. 

Except as the three days passed, the ‘rash’ wasn’t going away. 

If anything, things were getting worse. 

“I do not need to go to the hospital,” Hitoshi groaned, ‘glaring’ at them. It wasn’t an effective glare considering he was curled up on the couch and hunched over a small plastic trash can and looked ready to be sick. Again. “It’s just a stomachache. I’ll be fine in a couple of hours.”

Considering Hizashi looked ready to vibrate out of his skin with how stressed and worried he looked, Shouta took it upon himself to drop a cooling pack against the back of Hitoshi’s neck. The betrayed look was almost enough to make him laugh. “Kid, this is the third meal you’ve thrown up. It might be time to go to the hospital-”

“Please don’t make me go to the hospital.” The plea wasn’t anything like Hitoshi’s usual apathetic whines. This time it was full of fear and terror and begging and Shouta was nowhere near strong enough to deal with that coming from his kid. “I just- Maybe it’s just what I’ve been eating! Food poisoning or something!”

“Kiddo, there’s no way this can be food poisoning.” Hizashi started firm, but Shouta watched as he immediately fell into distressed whining when Hitoshi went pale and started retching into the trash can again. “We all eat the same foods and I’ve been changing ingredients for every meal you’ve gotten sick from!”

Shouta watched as Hizashi rubbed at Hitoshi’s back, muttering soft little reassurances as the kid emptied whatever was left in his stomach. While Shouta didn’t want to upset Hitoshi anymore than he already was, this was… not good. Hitoshi hadn’t even been able to keep down a few saltine crackers before throwing those up and looking even worse than he had before. It was as if his body was rejecting everything he ate! It was all well and good to say it was food poisoning, but if his body was rejecting everything- Actually. That was wrong.

Shouta remembered the first morning before Hitoshi had gotten sick he had managed to eat a couple of slices of toast and whatever he had managed to filch out of the frying pan before Hizashi had finished breakfast. He had been perfectly fine and then started complaining that he was hungry again. It wasn’t until after he ate everything else that he became sick. 

It had kept happening, but there were small snacks and little pieces of food that he had managed to eat with no repercussions. The saltines, though. They were almost impossible to throw up and were one of the few things that had always helped Shouta and Hizashi when they were sick themselves. It was nothing except flour, yeast, and… 

“Hizashi.” Shouta couldn’t quite hear whatever tone his voice took, but it was enough to have Hizashi and Hitoshi both looking up at him. “All the meals you’ve made recently? How much sodium and salt are in them?”

Hizashi stared at him for only a moment before paling and then looking back to Hitoshi, who was squinting at Shouta with a skeptical look, “You think I’m sick because I’m getting too much sodium in my diet?” 

“No,” Shouta shook his head, heading towards the kitchen. “I think you’re sick because you developed a food allergy recently.” Shouta heard one of them give an incredulous laugh even as he dug through the cabinets before pulling out the container of salt they used. 

When he got back to the living room, Hitoshi was looking at him as if he were crazy, “There is no way I suddenly, out of nowhere, became allergic to salt. That’s like- That’s not a thing! I’m not some werewolf!” There was a snort of laughter from Hizashi that quickly turned apologetic at their kid’s betrayed whine – which was good. Shouta was not willing to sit through another lecture on the difference between mythical creatures and what could supposedly kill them.

“Salt allergies are actually more common than you would think,” Shouta shrugged, sitting down on the couch next to Hitoshi with the salt. “Allergies develop most often in childhood, but some of them develop at later stages in life. Salt is an… uncommon one, I’ll admit, but it’s not unheard of. Plus, this would explain why you immediately threw up the saltines.” 

“You’re never gonna let that go, are you?” Hitoshi scowled, trying to cross his arms before fumbling with the trash can and settling for squeezing it tighter. “It’s probably just a stomach bug or something!” 

Shouta raised an eyebrow, watching Hitoshi pout before Hizashi gave a quiet sigh and a soft mumble of, “Sorry kiddo, but you kept down one of the jelly pouches-”

“Nutrition pouches,” Shouta interrupted, rolling his eyes as Hizashi raised his voice to compensate. 

“-jelly pouches and kept that down just fine for hours. The moment you ate a salty cracker, though, you were right back to where you started.” 

Hitoshi looked ready to argue until he was blue in the face – more proof that he was certainly their kid. Shouta decided to end it early by grabbing Hitoshi by the chin and stilling him before holding up the salt. “Proof. Swallow some of this and see what happens. If it’s really food poisoning or a stomach bug then a few pinches of salt on your tongue won’t do anything than maybe make you gag for a second or two.” 

“Shouta,” Hizashi scolded, glaring at them both. “If he’s really allergic to salt then doing this might as well as be a form of torture– No. We can go to the hospital and they can do an allergy test-”

Hitoshi, without breaking eye contact with Hizashi, opened his mouth and stuck his tongue out. Shouta gave a soft huff of laughter as he poured a pinch or two of salt on the kid’s tongue. Hitoshi closed his mouth, gave the two a significant look, and then opened his mouth to probably try to say he was fine. Instead of speaking, however, he immediately started retching into his trash can, Shouta rubbing at his back as he looked to Hizashi. 

Hizashi, for his part, groaned as he got to his feet, mumbling a soft, “I’ll dig out the allergy meds and see if those help…” 

Hitoshi, when he finally managed to lift his head from the bucket, gave a careful shake of his head, “That was still better than going to the hospital.”

Shouta couldn’t stop a soft snort, brushing the kid’s bangs back as he went straight back to curling over trash can. “Only you, kid.”

Overall, the discovery wasn’t a good one. Hizashi had still wanted to go to the hospital but had relented at Hitoshi’s logical appeal that a sudden food allergy did not mean it was rash – or quirk – connected. Shouta was absolutely certain Hizashi hadn’t relented at the logic so much as the fact he would do anything their kid asked. 

He also probably relented because Hitoshi had near revolted over the fact that he could no longer eat some of his favorite foods. At that point, adding a hospital trip on top of it would have been cruel – at least, it would have been in Shouta’s opinion.

A food allergy, at least, was something that they could handle without involving medical professionals. A quirk-induced rash was something that they could handle as long as it was temporary and caused no pain.

The tip of Hitoshi’s ears starting to hurt before growing to a point, however, was starting to feel like something they couldn’t handle.

“I look like an elf.” The beginning of the third day of Hitoshi’s ‘rash’ had arrived with, as Hitoshi horrifyingly referred to them, elf ears. “I look… like an elf.”

“Could always be worse,” Shouta pointed out, shrugging at the betrayed look Hitoshi shot him through the bathroom mirror, all three of them crowded around it in the far too early morning. 

“Ignore him, ‘Toshi, he has no empathy this early in the morning,” Hizashi sighed, ignoring Shouta’s pinch to his side as he brushed some of Hitoshi’s hair behind his new ears. “It’s… Well. A lot of people these days have pointed ears due to quirks-”

“Quirks that they’re born with or get when they’re kids,” Hitoshi huffed, poking at one of the changed ear tips with a twisted scowl. “I’ve had my quirk – my brainwashing quirk – for years. There’s no way it’s causing this. My quirk is mental!”

Shouta sighed softly, rubbing at the kid’s back until the fight drained out of him as it always did in the end. Giving the kid a minute to pull himself together, Shouta looked back to the pointed ears. They were certainly… something. They looked natural enough considering the diverse nature of quirks, but it was odd to see them on Hitoshi – especially coupled with his ‘rash.’ 

“Well,” Hizashi finally drawled, crossing his arms. “How about that trip to the hospital now?” Shouta groaned the same moment Hitoshi glared. He didn’t need to have years of dealing with teenagers to know how the conversation was going to end. 

“It’s not like they hurt or anything. You said we’d only go to the hospital if something started hurting and nothing has besides the weird food allergy thing which is still bullshit-”

“Language,” Hizashi scolded, halfheartedly, raising his hands peacefully at Hitoshi’s glare that was aggravated enough to rival Shouta at his worst. “Force of habit.” 

Hitoshi huffed, looking to Shouta with an obvious plea for help that had Shouta’s will weakening more than he would have liked before he pulled himself together. “We also said that we’d go if your ‘rash’ didn’t go away after three days-”

“Which means that, technically, I have until tonight,” Hitoshi pointed out quickly, grinning at Hizashi’s mixture of both a scoff and a laugh. “Hey, you didn’t specify, and, besides, I’m no longer itching.”

“Really?” Shouta looked down to the swirls and marks, noticing that the skin no longer looked so red or irritated. There were still traces of aggravated skin, but nothing worse than what one would get from a mild sunburn – if that, even. It was a good sign. “That could mean the effects really are temporary, but that doesn’t explain why only now your ears are pointed.”

“Quirks are weird?” Hitoshi tried, Shouta giving him a hard look until the kid sighed. “Okay, I get it, this is still- I mean, it’s not good, but nothing is hurting. That’s good, right?” 

“It is, but there’s still the fact that your body just went through another major change that it shouldn’t have. Hizashi’s right. We really should get you checked out by a professional before this turns into something serious.” 

Hitoshi seemed to wilt, Shouta glancing up at Hizashi who looked as lost and defeated as Shouta felt. Hizashi, thankfully, was the one to break first, groaning a soft, “But that can wait until tomorrow morning if it’s still there.” 

“Go get some rest,” Shouta said softly, gently nudging Hitoshi out of the bathroom and back towards the kid’s bedroom. “We’ll wake you up for breakfast later and if, after tonight, this problem is still here then we are going to do something about it. Understand?”

“I understand,” Hitoshi said softly, arms wrapping around Shouta in a soft, tired hug that Shouta didn’t hesitate to return. “Thanks, Dad.” 

“Of course,” Shouta managed, firmly ignoring Hizashi’s bright smile and glittering eyes as he, no doubt, signed something insulting towards him. “Now go sleep. It’s too early for all of this emotion.”

Hiding a grin at the laugh, Shouta made sure Hitoshi really did go back to his room before he turned around, took a few steps forward, and collapsed against Hizashi’s chest with a soft groan of, “Don’t start.”

Hizashi, as he had every day since they had met, completely ignored him and instead cooed as he wrapped Shouta up in a tight hug while fully supporting his weight. “Shou-chan you’re such a softie to your son.” 

“I don’t want to even start to hear that from someone like you,” Shouta muttered, halfhearted scowl vanishing under the soft press of lips against his own. The kiss was slow and familiar, easing some of the fear and tension that had been there since Hitoshi had first called him Dad months ago. “Why did no one warn us?”

“Because we wouldn’t have listened,” Hizashi giggled, planting another kiss against the edge of his jaw, Shouta tipping his head back almost absently to give the other more room. “Besides, I thought you liked a challenge.” 

“A misconception.” Shouta enjoyed a few more soft kisses before he was sliding away from Hizashi and back towards their bedroom. A lazy reach of his hand behind him had Hizashi’s fingers lacing with his own in a heartbeat. “C’mon. Kid has the right idea going back to bed.” 

“Alright, alright, but only for a little while longer!” Hm. That meant at least three more hours – maybe longer if Shouta was careful about it. “Nemuri is supposed to be in town still until tomorrow, right?”

Shouta paused, glancing over his shoulder at where Hizashi was looking ‘innocent.’ The act didn’t last before Hizashi’s gaze slid from Shouta to the closed door back the way they had come from. “It’s just… we might need an effective sedative tomorrow.” 

“I’ll make sure he knows it was all your idea,” Shouta snorted, ignoring the whining as his own thoughts turned back to Hitoshi. For as exhausted as he was, he knew he wouldn’t get much more sleep. 

How was a parent supposed to sleep when something was wrong with their kid and they didn’t know how to fix it? 

A strange set of markings that looked like a rash was one thing that could have been handled depending on how long they were there for, but then a food allergy out of nowhere? The timing was suspicious – not to mention the ears after two days of no further changes. 

Shouta had seen plenty of odd quirks that did any number of things to the human body, but changes like these were ones he hadn’t seen before. He wasn’t even sure what a healing quirk could do to help, but it was better than waiting for more changes to happen. It was better than sitting around and watching his kid get even worse. 

All things considered, it wasn’t any surprise when, on the night of the third day, Hizashi’s startled shout of surprise from the front door had Shouta out of bed and down the stairs with his binding cloth on before he was even fully awake. 

Over a decade as a pro hero and a year of dealing with his most recent homeroom class had Shouta prepared for any number of things, but he wasn’t prepared for what met his eyes. 

There, in the entryway, was a speechless Hizashi with wide eyes. He had no doubt just arrived home from an overnight shift at the radio station but that wasn’t what had Shouta’s attention so much as what – who – Hizashi was staring at. 

Hitoshi – curled up on the middle of the couch with both cats and a heap of blankets – was nervously looking between the two of them. The reason for his nerves seemed to be the fact that every marking on him was glowing an electric blue so bright it was almost white. 

“In my defense,” Hitoshi mumbled after a rough clearing of his throat. “I didn’t think you would scream. It, uh… It also doesn’t hurt, at least?”

Binding cloth falling limp around him, Shouta slowly moved to lean against the wall, looking between his kid and husband before shutting his eyes with a long, slow exhale.

Finally, he managed a tired, “I’ll call Nemuri.”

⁂

In the end, after a lot of begging and implied trust issues, Hitoshi had managed to talk his parents out of calling Kayama-sensei over just barely. For as much as he trusted the three of them, he wasn’t about to let them knock him out for an unknown amount of time only to wake up in a hospital of all places. Thankfully, before Hitoshi had to resort to desperate measures such as running away after breaking a window to escape, Hizashi actually came up with a good idea that involved getting help without doctors and a hospital. 

“You know, if you think about it, Recovery Girl has probably dealt with way worse than this, right?” Hitoshi looked to Shouta, who was sitting next to him on the couch and carefully watching Hizashi, who was pacing back and forth while talking on the phone quietly. “I mean she deals with Midoriya on a daily basis.” 

“She’s been the nurse at a school for heroes for almost as long as the school has been open,” Shouta snorted, looking to Hitoshi before combing through his hair softly. “We might not know what this is, but she’s definitely seen worse.” 

As always the gentle touch had Hitoshi relaxing slowly, eyes fluttering shut for a moment as he focused on the two bundles of purring warmth in his lap and by his side, Shouta’s soft breathing and half-humming noise, and Hizashi’s soft, worried voice. They were, more than anything else, reminders that he was going to be alright. 

At least, they were supposed to be that until Hitoshi snapped his eyes open at Hizashi’s shaking sigh and soft, “Alright. I understand. We’ll see you when you return. Thank you.” 

Shouta seemed to have noticed the change in tone as well, sitting up straight and half-rising from the couch. “Hizashi?”

There was a long moment where Hizashi stared at both of them, Hitoshi feeling anxiety and stress bubble up in his stomach before the man gave a defeated groan and yeah, no, that really wasn’t good. 

“Recovery Girl is out of the country for another week.” Ah… Hitoshi barely had time to nod before he glanced to his dads. The panic was almost visible. “She said she’d be happy to look at him when she gets back, but next Saturday is the earliest she can get here.”

“It’s Friday.” Okay. Shouta stating the obvious. That meant the situation was about to rapidly devolve and spiral into the two panicking at each other and then hovering over Hitoshi for hours, at the very least. While he usually didn’t hate that, it was more hovering than he wanted after everything that had been going on.

Hitoshi couldn’t help but remember the last time he had fainted during one of his and Shouta’s training sessions. The panic he could practically feel coming from them was near the same and he had no doubt it was going to get even worse before it was all over. Maybe he could just crawl back under his covers and sleep until the changes went away. It wasn’t the best plan, but it was a plan. Oh, maybe-

“We need to take him to a hospital.” Ah… so Hitoshi would have to disown Shouta as a father. That was going to be difficult, but he could manage it if he had to. “Hitoshi-”

“No way.” Hitoshi hadn’t even realized he had leaned away from Shouta until he realized his body was twisted away and Jelly, the purring ball of fluff, had turned into his shield. “There is no way I’m going to a hospital. It’s seven days! We can wait seven days until Recovery Girl gets back! I’m not in any pain-”

“You were glowing,” Hizashi interrupted, sounding as stressed as he looked. “Hitoshi, you were literally glowing in a way that looked like bioluminescence. Considering this is a new symptom that means parts of your body are changing again – your entire internal structure could be changing and we’d have no way of knowing! We need to get you to a hospital-”

“No way. Hospitals are not- I’m not- Ugh!” The only thing keeping Hitoshi from throwing his arms in the air to make his point was the fact that he didn’t want to drop Jelly, who had started pawing at his cheek. “I am not going to a hospital. Hospitals are where- They’re where bad things happen.” 

Hitoshi wanted nothing more than to stop seeing the looks his dads were giving him, but he didn’t dare close his eyes. He knew what he would see if he did and he had seen enough sterile walls, white coats, and pitying looks to last a lifetime. Besides, he didn’t need some stupid hospital when nothing was hurting.

“Look, I know you guys are worried, but I’m not going. Hospitals are for bad news and bad things and where people go to die and where you found out that they’re dead and I am not going.” Ah… he had said a little more than he meant to at the end, there.

There were seven beats of silence where Shouta and Hizashi shared a look before Hizashi sighed out a soft, quiet whisper of his name. There was enough pain and worry coating the words that Hitoshi almost apologized on reflex before he stopped himself just in time. The only thing apologizing would do was start another round of ‘reassure Hitoshi from his fucked up childhood.’ 

“I… I know you guys are worried about me, but I feel fine. I’m not hurting or anything and I know this is bad, but…” Hitoshi trailed off, looking between them before lowering his gaze to the cat. His fingers curled into the fur and pressed against soft skin that vibrated with loud purring, the sound and feeling giving him just a measure of calm. It was enough to center himself, at least. “I’ll be okay for another week.”

There was a moment where Hitoshi believed he won and the two were going to drop it before he felt the sigh Hizashi gave. “Sorry, ‘Toshi, but we agreed on three days and things are only progressing. I know you wanted to see Recovery Girl, but we need to get you to a hospital. Today.” 

Hitoshi knew he wasn’t the best with his feelings and expressing emotions, but he did nothing whatsoever to curb his glare as he snapped his head towards Hizashi, feeling a swell of rage and panic. He hated the fact he felt so angry, but he had told them that he didn’t want to go.

“No.” He knew the other two only cared for him and wanted to help, but taking him to a hospital wouldn’t help him. There was no way something like that would help him. It would only hurt. 

“Hitoshi.” Hizashi was frowning at him, arms crossed and looking disappointed – as if Hitoshi didn’t already feel guilty enough for what he was feeling. “This isn’t up for debate.” 

“No.” Hitoshi, for as much as he wanted to curl up and look away, didn’t. He sat and stared and met Hizashi’s gaze evenly, feeling that rage and panic swell and he didn’t want to go. He was not going.

“Kiddo-” Hizashi took a half-step forward and Hitoshi saw white walls and red-flecked skin and felt like something in him snapped.

“I’m not going!” The scream was loud, Hitoshi almost wanting to flinch back from the sound before he grit his teeth and stayed firm in the wake of the ensuing silence – silence that felt like it was sharp and cutting. Hitoshi wasn’t going to be the one to break it, though. 

He kept his gaze on Hizashi, watching as the man’s arms dropped limply to his side and he stared back… blankly. There was no emotion in his expression, there was no upset ranting, or quiet platitude, or soft reassurances, or anything. It was just blank as if someone had reached in and turned everything that made him Hizashi off. It was as if he was… 

Hitoshi moved fast enough that the cats scattered and hit the floor with annoyed yowls, Shouta saying something that Hitoshi couldn’t hear over the rush of pounding blood in his ears as he scrambled over the back of the couch and set his hands on Hizashi’s shoulders, giving him a light shake, “Pops?”

There was nothing. There was no movement, no sound, no acknowledgement, and nothing else. There was just a stillness that Hitoshi had only ever seen after he had… brainwashed someone.

“Stop- If this is you trying to prove a point then fine, point proven, I’ll go to the hospital!” Because the fear he had felt before was nothing to what he felt now. “Just- Stop it. Stop it- Dad-!” 

Hizashi wasn’t moving. Hizashi wasn’t moving because Hitoshi had brainwashed him. Hizashi wasn’t moving and Hitoshi had managed to brainwash him without asking a question. He had just… done it. He had used his quirk by just talking. He… he… 

“Hitoshi.” Shouta’s voice, calm and layered with authority, had Hitoshi snapping his gaze over before he saw bright red eyes looking into his own. Hardly a moment passed before Hitoshi felt like a thread that had been tied to him had been cut, Hizashi stumbling out of the corner of his eye before catching himself with a surprised expression.

Hitoshi wasn’t much better himself, almost certain that Shouta’s grip on his shoulders was the only thing keeping him from falling over himself. “Sorry- Sorry, sorry, sorry, I’m so sorry- I didn’t mean to I just-”

He wasn’t even able to finish a sentence before Hizashi’s arms were wrapped around him, the man hugging him tightly and firmly rubbing at his back with a soft, calm voice, “Easy, ‘Toshi, easy, it’s okay. I’m okay. You didn’t hurt me, okay? I’m fine. I’m right here, I’m in control, and everything is okay.” 

The calming words and touch worked as they always had, Hitoshi slowly feeling himself calm down as he tried not to shiver between the two. The fear didn’t completely leave, however, not when he realized what he had just done. 

“I…” Hitoshi swallowed, forcing himself to look between their concerned faces. “I just used my quirk on you. Without a question. Without a response.” He had just used his quirk by just talking. He… “This is-”

“A good thing.” Startling at Shouta’s words, Hitoshi stared at him with wide eyes because how could this be a good thing? “Hitoshi. You were just able to use your quirk in a way that you previously weren’t able to – and this is after the changes your body has been going through. This is good.”

“How- How is this-” Voice dying out before he could finish the question, Hitoshi closed his eyes and took a steady breath, focusing on Hizashi’s soft touch and Shouta’s gentle take your time. Hitoshi was sure that if this had happened around anyone else then he wouldn’t so much as be speaking. Finally, though, he managed a soft, “How is this a good thing?”

Hizashi squeezed his shoulders, giving him a nudge before smiling as their eyes met, “This is a good thing because if it’s affecting your quirk to where it’s stronger, then it means that all of these changes were caused by you.” 

“By me?” The question was out before he could think to worry, Hitoshi too surprised as he looked between the two men. He knew quirks could do some pretty incredible things, but his quirk was a mental quirk. Getting stronger was one thing – plus ultra and all of that – but his body changing, too? “How is that possible? My quirk…?”

“It’s mutating.” Hizashi looked thrilled, but Hitoshi looked to Shouta because that seemed to be a very bad thing. “This is incredible! The odds of a mutating quirk are exceedingly rare and usually only happen at birth, but there are remote cases of it happening during puberty! There are one or two adult cases, but those have always been caused by outside factors, of course, but a randomly and naturally mutating quirk! Oh, this is so exciting! I wonder if the physical changes are reflecting the quirk of someone else in your birth family…”

Watching Hizashi pace, ramble, mutter, and trail off into what sounded like statistical probabilities, Hitoshi looked to Shouta. It was an effort not to laugh at the man’s fond and amused expression. He settled for asking a simple, “Why do people think he’s an idiot?”

“Because he’s loud and isn’t afraid to argue,” Shouta shrugged. “He knows what he’s talking about when it comes to quirks, though. Half of his shows are about quirk statistics and quirk-related facts, after all.” 

“So all of this… The rash, the ears, the allergy even. It’s just my quirk?” Hitoshi looked down at his hands, frowning at the swirls of color. “And what he was saying about the physical changes, it could just be… what? Me mirroring a weird quirk one of my grandparents or something had?” 

“Possibly,” Shouta nodded, giving him an odd, searching look for a moment. “I could try to look into your records and see if I can’t find out the quirks of your immediate family…?”

Hitoshi thought about it, finally grinning as he leaned against Shouta and almost laughed when the man was caught off guard for a moment. “Birth family, you mean, since you guys are my immediate family now.” Heh. It was good to win. “And… yeah. I think that’d probably be good. But, uh, this means I don’t have to go to the hospital. Right?” 

Shouta did nothing to hide his laugh, winding an arm around him and pulling him in for a tight, one-armed hug. “Yeah, kid. No hospital – but you’re still going to Recovery Girl next week as soon as she’s back.” 

“Sure.” Recovery Girl would know how to deal with a mutating quirk, after all. “This is good, though, right?” Hitoshi grinned at Shouta and then looked back to Hizashi, who had finally stopped his pacing and mumbling. “Like, okay, yeah, kind of serious, but, I mean, you guys teach at a school that’s all about quirks and quirk development. I’m in the best place for a sudden quirk mutation.” 

“Exactly! This is something we can finally deal with and handle,” Hizashi said, coming over to pull Hitoshi into a tight hug. “You’ll be fine, ‘Toshi.”

“I know.” Besides, how bad could a sudden quirk mutation really be? At most Hitoshi’s quirk would get stronger as all the weird physical changes settled down. 

That was what he had thought, at least.

Hitoshi had thought that his quirk mutation would just mean he could brainwash people without asking questions anymore, but it turned out that a quirk mutation meant a quirk mutation. He had heard stories about kids who had been born with mutated quirks, sure, but he hadn’t really put much thought into what that meant. 

So, yeah, he could brainwash people without asking questions anymore. That in itself was something incredible that opened up a whole new avenue of options for fighting, but there were other things. Other things like the fact he could hear people’s thoughts. 

“‘Toshi?” Twitching at Hizashi’s voice, Hitoshi slowly and carefully looked up to see the man giving him an odd look. “Hey there, kiddo. Are you… alright?” 

“He means why are you collapsed in the doorway and clutching the mail like your threatened firstborn,” Shouta called as he walked past them and towards the kitchen. He then stopped, backtracked, and narrowed his eyes at Hitoshi. “What-”

“I can hear people’s thoughts.” The two stared at him and Hitoshi stared back, clutching onto the mail tightly because, look. He had gone out to get the mail. That was his thing. He picked up the mail, set it on the counter, and then ate breakfast. That was how it went. Except, apparently, this time he had heard his neighbor’s thoughts. 

Hitoshi watched as Hizashi and Shouta shared a look, Hizashi opening his mouth to say something before Hitoshi shook his head, “No, this isn’t like- This isn’t I’ve gone crazy and I think I’m hearing people’s thoughts, this is- I just heard Suchimogo-san when he was getting his own mail and he-” Cutting himself off, Hitoshi looked at them pathetically. “He was thinking about his wife. And I mean he was… he was really deeply thinking about her.”

Hizashi frowned, crossing his arms with a soft, “What do you-” He then paused, blinked, and immediately paled and thank you. Now Hitoshi wasn’t alone, at least, in suffering through those mental images. “Ah. I see how that- Yeah. Oh, jeez. Your quirk…?”

“Probably,” Hitoshi muttered, hands twitching on the mail as Shouta walked over to him and kneeled down. “Uh… hi?”

“Hi,” Shouta smirked, amusement falling after a moment as he studied Hitoshi. “Can you still hear his thoughts? Or was it just when you were looking at him? Eye contact?”

“Oh, uh…” Hitoshi frowned for a moment, slowly relaxing as he analyzed what had happened and that he could do, at least, without thinking about those thoughts he had heard. “No eye contact, but it lasted for as I looked at him. As soon as I turned away and went inside the connection ended.” 

“I thought this might happen,” Hizashi sighed, walking over to them and bending down to gently help Hitoshi to his feet. The hug he pulled him into wasn’t so bad, either. “Your quirk is the type that’s always ‘on’ and looking for a connection, right? It makes sense that the strength of that connection has grown. Have you ever heard anyone’s thoughts with your quirk before?”

“I… think I have, actually.” Hitoshi didn’t usually really think on how it felt when he had someone under his control, but there were times when it felt like he could hear or feel something. “Nothing as clear as what just happened, but it was like… I could pick up on what they were feeling, I think.”

“Sounds like your quirk expanded to include the abilities of a telepath,” Shouta said with a light hum, tilting Hitoshi’s head up and looking him over for a second. “Can you read our thoughts right now?”

“Oh, uh… no, actually. I mean, Suchimogo-san’s thoughts were really loud and felt like he was talking, but, uh, I haven’t heard anything from you guys, actually.” Which was a relief. The last thing he wanted to hear was his dads’ sappy thoughts towards each other first thing in the morning.

“Well, no time like the present to give it a try!” Hizashi chirped, Hitoshi wondering if he could run. The arm Hizashi had around him tightened before he could try, Hitoshi huffing as he slumped back into the hold. 

“Thought I was supposed to be the mind reader now,” he grumbled, looking to Hizashi and staring at him. Hizashi gave a cheerful and encouraging smile and Hitoshi only frowned when he heard nothing but silence. 

It wasn’t that he wasn’t trying either. Hitoshi had immediately reached out with his quirk like he would when trying to use it on someone, although without the mental image of latching on that usually meant he had brainwashed someone. It felt like he should be able to hear Hizashi’s thoughts, but there was just… silence. 

Switching to Shouta, Hitoshi stared at him, repeating the same mental images and motions before jumping as he suddenly felt fond and amused and wary and curious and concerned and- 

“You’re so emotional,” Hitoshi groaned, rubbing at his head as a shock of surprise ran through him that wasn’t his own, Hitoshi quickly looking away from Shouta and shutting his eyes. “Jesus, Dad, you’re supposed to be the quiet one.” 

“You heard his thoughts?” Hizashi asked, tugging on Hitoshi’s shirt. “Hey, you okay? Headache? Nausea?” 

“No, just… feels weird,” Hitoshi muttered, shaking his head as he cracked his eyes open. “I dunno. I couldn’t hear thoughts from either of you, you were like… a blank wall so I looked at Dad. There weren’t any thoughts or words or anything, but there were just emotions.”

It was hardly a second before Hizashi was bursting into laughter, Hitoshi looking at him and then back to Shouta who was looking far less amused. “No, no, it’s just- Everyone we’ve known has always complained about what an ‘unfeeling bastard’ Shouta is and now- This is great.”

“For you, maybe,” Hitoshi grumbled, looking back to Shouta warily and careful to keep his quirk to himself. “If you kill him I’ll pretend I don’t know anything. He probably deserves it.”

“I’ll wait until the next major villain attack,” Shouta snorted, jabbing at Hizashi’s side and smirking at the yelp of pain. “Easier to hide.”

“You’re so mean,” Hizashi ‘complained,’ Hitoshi taking a moment to be thankful he couldn’t hear their thoughts. He had a feeling they would be either stupidly mushy, or… not. That was knowledge he didn’t need or want. 

“So!” Hitoshi grabbed their attention before they could start flirting. “I guess this means more training, huh?” Because the last thing he wanted was to hear his classmates’ thoughts on who liked who. 

Shouta and Hizashi shared a look, and, yeah. That definitely meant more training. That was good, though. Training, at least, meant he could do something about the changes that were happening to him. 

It was when it came to the changes that he couldn’t do anything about that scared him – such as feeling like if either of his dads left the house then something bad would happen.

“Are you sure you have to leave? I mean, Pops, really, you own the radio station, don’t you? You can just make someone else do the show!” 

It had been two days since Hitoshi’s new telepathic abilities and, while he had started learning how to avoid looking at people until he could block the thoughts out completely, he had noticed his anxieties had gone up. It was the biggest reason as to why he was trying to convince Hizashi to stay with a near pleading, “You should just stay home. And not leave.”

“‘Toshi,” Hizashi sighed, and, alright. Hitoshi felt a little bad for how torn up Hizashi looked over denying him. “Usually I would at least try, kiddo, but this is one of the days where I have to be there. It’ll only be for a few hours, though! And Shouta will be back even quicker!”

“Dad’s going somewhere? He’s leaving? Why? What’s happening?” It felt like being punched with his anxiety, Hitoshi quickly whirling around and looking towards the hallway Shouta had just come out of. “Where are you going? Why are you going?” 

Shouta blinked at him with what looked like a blank, neutral expression, but Hitoshi could feel the worry simmering under the surface. “My agency and then the police station,” Shouta finally replied. “I have to deal with a few files and reports – ones I need to legally sign in person.”

“So you’re both going to be gone. Right. Okay. That’s fine.” Hitoshi was about to freak out- Scratch that. He was freaking out. “Or you could just maybe stay home sick and claim you have a cold? I mean, haven’t we all done that at one point or another? Right?”

“‘Toshi?” Hitoshi felt Hizashi’s hands gently rest on his shoulders, tugging his attention towards him. “Hey, kiddo, what’s wrong. Did something else change? Any pain?” 

“No- No. I’m not hurt. I just feel…” He felt like if Shouta and Hizashi left the house without him then they wouldn’t come back. Which was ridiculous. Hitoshi was home at their house, of course they would come back. But what if a villain attack finally did them in? What if a train crashed and crushed them? What if- “Worried. I feel a little worried, is all. Guess I just got used to you guys being here.” 

Hizashi didn’t seem to fully buy it, but he dropped it with a soft sigh and a squeeze to his shoulders. “Tell you what, why don’t you text us whenever you start feeling… worried, and we’ll do our best to respond to you right away. Does that sound alright?”

“I…” Actually, that wasn’t a bad solution. He was still scared shitless at the idea of the two leaving the house, but seeing texts from them? That was good. It meant they were okay enough to talk to him and not actively dying. “Yeah. Yeah, I, uh… I’d like that if you don’t mind or anything.”

“We don’t mind,” Shouta said, walking up to ruffle his hair. “I should be home in two hours or less, and Hizashi should be back within… five?”

“Six at the most if anything goes wrong,” Hizashi snorted, rolling his eyes. “I’ll try to be home in four or five, but it’ll definitely be before six hours have passed. Sound good, ‘Toshi?”

“Yeah,” Hitoshi sighed softly, rubbing at the back of his neck as he felt some of his fear-filled tension finally leave. “Yeah, that sounds good.” 

While he hadn’t minded the new quirk abilities, a change like freaking out over his parents – who were pro heroes – suddenly leaving him alone was… new. Hitoshi found he didn’t much like it, either. 

His suffering was made even worse when, by the time the both of them were home and they had eaten dinner, Hitoshi found his gums itching. It would have been fine if it were just another short allergic reaction or his toothpaste finally turning against him, but it never stopped. 

“End my suffering,” Hitoshi groaned, pushing to be loud and dramatic because there was no other way to deal with the fact he had a frozen teething ring in his mouth. “Please. I’ll never live this down when people find out.”

“What makes you think people will find out?” Shouta glanced up from the book he was reading on the couch next to where Hitoshi had collapsed. Hitoshi, for his part, merely looked at Hizashi who ran social media pages with millions of viewers. “Ah.”

Groaning again and rolling himself over onto his back, Hitoshi took the teething ring out and glared it. It was yellow with ducks on it. He hated it. “Hey,” Hitoshi said, looking up at Shouta. “What does itchy gums have to do with quirk mutations?”

Shouta sighed, rubbing at the bridge of his nose and, huh. He looked more sleep deprived than normal. Hitoshi would have to convince Hizashi to dose the man’s next meal with sleeping pills. For now he wiggled his way up to be sitting before collapsing against Shouta’s shoulder, grinning at the snort of laughter. 

“We’re not sure if this is to do with your quirk,” Shouta finally said, slumping so Hitoshi was more comfortable. It made him as gleeful as it did every time before, Hitoshi hiding his reaction by shoving the stupid teething ring back into his mouth. He hated that it actually helped. “It could be something to do with your recent sodium allergy.”

“It could be more than just sodium you’re allergic to,” Hizashi pipped in, legs thrown across the armchair he was collapsed in as he stared down at his phone. Hitoshi bet he was either on social media or reading complex medical articles that made no sense. “Quirk mutations can mess with the other parts of the body. Our bodies are a complex system, yo, so it’s possible your mutation affected you by giving you food allergies-”

“Allergies? As in plural?” Hitoshi whined, slumping back down against Shouta and looking up at him pathetically. “How do parents deal with this? We’re already in a nightmare and most quirks develop at age four. How do they cope?” 

Great. Shouta and Hizashi were laughing at him. He was so glad his suffering was a source of amusement for them. Hitoshi groaned and slumped more against Shouta, peeking down at the book he had been reading for the last hour. “Hey,” Hitoshi nudged at him. “What are you reading?”

Shouta blinked at him before flipping the book so he could read the title. It was tempting to grab the book and just toss it out the window considering the title was Quisquous Quirks and You. Considering the bright color that he hadn’t noticed on any of the bookshelves in the house, Hitoshi looked up at him with a judging look, “Did you buy that when you went out the other day?”

“No.” Shouta stared at him evenly, but Hitoshi could feel his embarrassment. It was kind of funny as much as it was horrible. It was mostly horrible because his dad was buying parenting books to try and cope with his quirk.

“Dad,” Hitoshi said as sternly as he could. “I’m basically a human lie detector at this point with the whole thought thing. Seriously, is that like a self-help book for when your kid gets their quirk?”

Hizashi snorted, looking up at them with a grin, “Look at this way, ‘Toshi, at least you’re old enough to practice your quirk in a logical way.” Hizashi only grinned wider at Shouta’s glare at him. 

“I’m not worried about your developing quirk,” Shouta sighed at last. “I’m more worried about how long it’s taking your quirk to stop changing. Hizashi?”

As always, Hizashi seemed to read Shouta’s mind before he could voice the question. It was as cool as it was creepy. “Sorry, Sho, everything I’m finding is saying case dependent. It could last a few days to a few weeks. One case lasted a couple months-”

“Months?!” Hitoshi looked at them with wide eyes, feeling hopeless even as Shouta shifted so Hitoshi could dramatically collapse over his lap. “I’m not sure how many more changes I can take.” Which, while even he could admit sounded a little dramatic… it wasn’t wrong.

Shouta shifted before Hitoshi felt a blanket thrown over him, a hand that felt like Hizashi’s ruffling his hair softly as he cooed a soft, “Easy, ‘Toshi. We’ll figure this out soon, alright? It’ll be okay.”

Yeah. That would have been great if Hitoshi didn’t peek up and feel Shouta’s worry and fear wash against him.

The itchy gums went away, at least, after a couple more days, but that was mostly due to the fact it had been followed by a second set of teeth.

“Right.” The word was half slurred and awkward in his mouth, Hitoshi trying not to bite his tongue as he stared at himself in the mirror. There were definitely two sets of teeth and they all seemed sharper. He looked like that weird rock kid in Shouta’s class who had a hardening quirk. “Okay.”

Two sets of teeth. Right. Two sets of very sharp teeth in his mouth where before there had only been human teeth. That was fine, though. That was something Hitoshi could have probably eventually come to accept and deal with. It was the teeth with his eyes, however, that threw him off. His eyes which were bright red as always but had concentric circles. His eyes looked eerily like Hizashi’s, all-in-all.

Nodding in the mirror one more time, looking at his teeth again and then his eyes, Hitoshi raised his voice as loud as he could handle, shouting out a loud, “Dad! Pops!” 

Unlike the first morning where it had taken a few minutes, Hizashi and Shouta were already in the hall and at the door in a few seconds, both looking battle ready. Hitoshi merely stared at them, waiting for one of them to notice his eyes, first. That, at least, would soften them up for what else had changed. 

Surprisingly, Shouta was the first to notice, looking at Hitoshi, then at Hizashi, and then back to Hitoshi. “Your eyes…”

“Yup,” Hitoshi sighed, shoulders slumping. “That’s not all, either.” With that, he opened his mouth enough that they could see the two sets of teeth. Shouta stared before slowly nodding, Hizashi merely falling back to lean against the wall with a tired groan that was probably to try and hide his worry and fear. 

“Right,” Shouta said after a long few seconds of silence, standing up straighter. “Right. Okay.” Huh. So Hitoshi had picked that up from Shouta, then. “Recovery Girl should be at her office soon. If we leave now then we can meet her once she arrives.” 

“It’s definitely more than a quirk mutation,” Hizashi finally said, pushing himself back up and looking at Hitoshi before drawing him into a tight hug. “But that’s fine! You’ll be perfectly okay once we get to Recovery Girl, kiddo!” 

The words rubbed against his skin like chips of wood pressing in and pushing under, Hitoshi shuddering and squirming at the sensation. He noticed the odd looks from both of them, but even then it took a few moments before he could find his words, unsure of what to even say before he settled with, “There’s another change, too.” 

Hitoshi swallowed, silent even as he felt their attention fully and completely on him. After a long moment, he pulled back and looked between them. Finally, hesitantly, he mumbled a quiet, “I can tell when you’re lying.”

In the end it took twenty minutes of reckless driving before they were at U.A. and inside Recovery Girl’s office at an empty school – which was creepy all on its own.

Hitoshi, from where he had been pushed onto a bed and given a cup of ice chips to munch on due to his still swollen gums, looked at his dads. While Recovery Girl was gathering what she needed, both equipment and files, Hizashi was pacing across the room while Shouta leaned against a wall silently and blankly. Their fear and worry were almost overwhelming, especially since Hitoshi could feel even Hizashi’s fear and worry. 

They needed a distraction, obviously. It didn’t take long to think of the perfect one, Hitoshi swallowing his ice chips and speaking up, “You know, the whole eye change is at least pretty cool. Didn’t even mess with my vision.” 

Hizashi and Shouta both snapped their attention towards him, Shouta raising an eyebrow while Hizashi looked caught off guard before frowning. “Your eyes shouldn’t be changing at all ‘Toshi, especially in a way that’s unexpected like this.”

“Well, yeah, but now I look more like you.” The embarrassment it took to say the words was worth the way Hizashi immediately blushed and fumbled with his words while Shouta burst into laughter. 

“What’s the matter, Sunshine?” Shouta teased, still absolutely delighted as Hizashi scoffed at him. “You can give it, but you can’t take it?”

Hizashi opened his mouth and Hitoshi immediately, reflexively, snapped out a, “Please don’t.” When they both looked at him, Hitoshi shook his head, “Pops. I listen to your radio show and follow your accounts. I know exactly what kind of comment you’re about to make and, I’m literally begging you, please don’t.”

Hizashi made some strangled scoffing noise as he flushed bright red – without denying Hitoshi’s claim – while Shouta laughed even louder than before.

The moment didn’t last long before Recovery Girl was coming back in and bringing all the tension with her. She at least smiled at him and didn’t seem ready to scold him, thankfully. “I have to say, I didn’t miss having both of these two in here at the same time.”

“We were never that bad, Chiyo-san,” Hizashi frowned, red slowly fading from his cheeks while Shouta raised his eyebrows beside him. “At least, I wasn’t as bad as someone who broke an arm and then finished the rest of the sparring match before telling anyone.”

“Oh, yeah, this coming from the one who went mute during training and then didn’t tell anyone for three days.”

Hitoshi, who had been happily and eagerly listening to their embarrassing school stories, frowned at that one. He couldn’t help but to ask, “Why did it take three days? He can’t go a few minutes without talking.”

Hizashi gave him a glare that was more amused than upset, Shouta rolling his eyes, “He wrote down that he was doing a quirk experiment, and, considering how weird he is, we all bought it.”

“Dear me they never change,” Recovery Girl sighed, turning back to Hitoshi with a smile that proved she was used to dealing with scared and hurt kids. She then proved how evil she could be when she looked directly at him and said, “Alright, would you prefer I refer to you as Aizawa or Yamada?”

It was a question that really shouldn’t have taken him as off guard as it did, but he could feel the warmth and embarrassment fighting in his chest. He also felt a burst of delight from Shouta and saw teary eyes from Hizashi. “E- Either is fine, ma’am,” he finally managed after a rough cough to clear his throat. 

“Alright, Aizawa-Yamada.” He was going to die. He was going to die from a mix of embarrassment and delight and his dads would be forced to bury him. “When was the last time you went to a hospital or were seen by a doctor?” Ah… there went the good mood.

“I, um… I’ve never actually been to a doctor as far as I can remember…” There was a surprised noise from one of his dads, Hitoshi only focusing on Recovery Girl’s encouraging nod and the steady way she took notes. “I was… I was at a hospital once, when my, um, when… when my birth family died in a villain attack. I wasn’t hurt, or anything, so I never saw a doctor when I was there.”

Recovery Girl gave a soft hum and Hitoshi looked to where Shouta and Hizashi had looks on their faces. It was equal parts devastation, protective fury, and a million other things. The looks definitely meant that there were to be emotional talks later. It was as reassuring a realization as it was awful. 

Thankfully, Hitoshi was quickly distracted as Recovery Girl checked his vitals and whatever else she was doing, writing things down, measuring his vitals, and finally ending with a cheerful enough smile. “Well, I believe I’ve seen enough, here.” Recovery Girl patted his knee, Hitoshi feeling a swell of hope before she said a simple, “Your only problem is that you’re not human.”

Hitoshi, who had been ready to hear any number of things, slumped back with a frown because, well. He didn’t have a clever retort for that one. It wasn’t an insult, at least it didn’t sound like she was insulting him, but she also wasn’t lying, but what did she mean he wasn’t human?!

Was he dying or something? Was he sick? Was this some kind of outside quirk effect that was fucking him up? Was there another way to be not human and still be human? Was this just a riddle? Oh, god, he was not awake enough to deal with mind riddles. It had to mean something about his quirk going crazy, though.

Hizashi and Shouta probably knew what she meant- Nope, no, they did not. “I’m sorry, Chiyo-san, but what did you just say about my kid?” The tone was as cold as Shouta’s emotions, and oh, jeez. 

“Did you just call our kid not human?!” And there was Hizashi, his voice a presence in of itself. “How dare you-!”

It was kind of flattering, Hitoshi supposed, that they were so offended on his behalf, but, well. He was pretty sure Recovery Girl hadn’t meant her comment in an insulting way. It was still confusing him, but she hadn’t felt mean about it and- Ah. He was right.

Recovery Girl had calmly walked over and smacked both of them with her walking-stick-slash-giant-hopefully-fake-needle. It was delightful to watch, and Hitoshi did his best not to laugh as he watched Recovery Girl chew them out, “Shut up! Honestly, you’re both still such children. You should know very well that is not what I meant because you’re supposed to be pros for God’s sake. Now start acting like it and pull yourselves together!” 

Silence followed her scolding, all of them quiet before Hitoshi cleared his throat loud enough to get their attention. He then completely betrayed them with a simple, “Recovery Girl is now one of my favorite heroes.” The scoff and whine made the situation seem a bit less like he had fallen into a bad nightmare. 

Recovery Girl, on her part, only sighed and dug around her desk before giving Hitoshi a handful of gummies, and, alright. That was something, then. They at least tasted good, even if it felt like he was eating batteries with how energizing they were. 

“I’ve never seen anything like this myself, but colleagues of mine have, and there’s been similar cases that have cropped up over the years. I’m certain that if I were to do a complete physical there would be differences that would make my assessment very, very clear.”

Almost choking on a gummy, Hitoshi rushed to speak, “Wait- Wait, you mean, like- I’m actually not human and that wasn’t just some turn of phrase or riddle- Like seriously not human?” No one was laughing or rushing to explain and suddenly the gummies felt like lead weights he had choked down. “But I’m- I mean- I have birth records and everything there’s no way- What?!”

Recovery Girl was silent, handing over a bundle of papers to Hizashi with a quiet, “These are all my notes on this matter that might help. There’s not much I can do myself as nothing seems damaged. These changes are natural, though, and they will continue until they’re done. I’m afraid that’s all there is to it.”

Hitoshi wasn’t sure if his dads were talking or not, all he could hear was blood rushing in his ears because… she was serious. She was actually serious. He wasn’t- It had to be impossible- He had been human for years! He was human! There was no way he just suddenly became not human. But… all the changes he had been going through…  

“But if I’m…” Hitoshi swallowed around a dry throat, his eyes wide as all three of the adults looked at him. “If I’m not human then what am I?”

He wasn’t given an answer. 

In fact, Hitoshi wasn’t even sure if anything was said after that. One moment he was in shock on the flimsy bed in Recovery Girl’s office and the next he was stumbling into his room and locking the door before crawling into his nest of blankets and pillows.

He felt numb, that was for damn sure. Numb and- And- He didn’t even know. Because a professional, a medical professional, just told him in all seriousness that he wasn’t human. If he wasn’t human then who – what – was he? 

Were… were Hizashi and Shouta going to get rid of him? It wasn’t like they had set out to adopt a teenager before Hitoshi had barged his way into their life, after all. It was one thing to adopt a traumatized teenager, but something that wasn’t human? That… That was too much to expect even them to deal with, right? 

He- Hitoshi would lose this. The safe feeling of being home with parents, the content softness of being curled up in somewhere warm with plenty of blankets, the knowledge that he was safe- He would lose it. 

Shouta and Hizashi were sweet, and kind, and loving, but they could only deal with so much. This had to be over the line. It was way over the line. This would probably be Hitoshi’s last night in a room that belonged to him and only him before he… left. Left. Given up. Kicked out. Traded off. It was all the same thing, in the end, wasn’t it?

He wasn’t human. He wasn’t human and no one had an answer to what he was – no one had even a guess. 

God. He half-wished he could go back to when the only thing to worry about was his quirk getting him labeled as a villain. Instead he was… this. He was different, and a freak, and in pain, and suffering and- 

Well. 

Same old story, he guessed.

⁂

As a pro hero, teacher, and late night radio DJ, Hizashi was well used to sleepless nights that ended in only an hour or two of sleep – if it was even that much. He had long since mastered how to work around his sleep schedule to accommodate his jobs and the work that went into them. He had spent years doing it and had it near perfected, so why, after a full night of lying in bed and waiting for sleep to come, did he feel so tired? 

It wasn’t a lack of sleep tired. No, those he knew intimately. It wasn’t a tired that came from the healing of broken bones, either. This was a bone deep tired that he had felt only a few times in his life, emotions building up and thoughts racing so fast that it felt like his mind was screaming as loud as his voice when using his quirk. 

It was a tired that had him staring listlessly at the wall, his hearing aids and glasses never having left his face, as sunlight filled up the room slowly, eyes itching and aching enough to make him feel even more sympathy for his husband. After all, it wasn’t hard to tell that the man curled up to him and resting in his arms was just as awake as he was. 

Shouta finally shifted, looking towards their open bedroom door. From the angle their bed was at, they could see the closed door of their son’s room. It hadn’t opened since yesterday afternoon after their visit to Recovery Girl. 

Finally, after hours of silence, Hizashi risked a soft sigh, tucking his face against Shouta’s hair. “We really dropped the ball on this one, didn’t we?” It had just started with what they thought was a rash, but then… 

“I think that’s putting it lightly,” Shouta mumbled back, turning in his arms before he had Hizashi tucked under his chin. “You read all of the research she gave us.” It wasn’t a question – not that Hizashi expected it to be one.

“Every word.” Hizashi sighed, his breath no doubt rushing across Shouta’s neck and causing him to squirm. It was enough of a reaction that it had him smiling just for a moment. “It ranged from other dimensional being to alien to straight up E.T., which I thought was just poor note taking, honestly.”

There was a stretch of silence before Shouta twitched against him, Hizashi pulling back to look up in worry before seeing the narrow-eyed look on his face. “Shouta? You alright?”

“Dad.” Dad? What- Oh! Wait. What did he have to do with any of this? “He was suspicious after I told him we were adopting Hitoshi, do you remember?”

“Shou-chan,” Hizashi sighed, shifting to pull Shouta closer to deliver a soft kiss to his cheek. “No offense, but he always acts suspicious.”

Shouta didn’t seem to hear him, only continuing to grumble. “If he had any idea this was going to happen before he left the country I’ll-”

“Pout at him for a couple hours until he apologizes and explains his reasoning?” Hizashi guessed, laughing at Shouta’s very clear pout. Watching Shouta get ready to argue, the next sound to fill the air was not a rebuttal, but a cry of pain. 

Hizashi wasn’t sure if he blacked out or just didn’t pay attention, but between one second and the next he was at Hitoshi’s door, jiggling the handle because their wonderful, scared, paranoid son had locked it. “‘Toshi! Can you open the door for us! What happened!”

It was too long – it was an eternity – before Hizashi heard Hitoshi’s wavering voice. “I’m fine. I just tripped over something, is all.” It was a bullshit answer and Hizashi knew that their kid knew that.

“Hitoshi?” Shouta moved forward, giving a soft knock on the door to accompany his soft tone. “Can you open the door for us, please?” 

“I’m fine, Sensei.” It wasn’t the tone of voice that had Shouta flinching back into Hizashi’s side, but the fact he had used sensei. God, Hizashi had gotten so used to him calling them Dad and Pops that he had forgotten what Hitoshi used to call Shouta. 

Before either of them could think of what to say to something like that, they heard a whimper of pain from behind the door. Hitoshi didn’t even get to finish lying about how he was fine before Hizashi was kicking the door open and breaking the lock. Shouta was rushing in right after him and straight to their kid, who was collapsed on the floor and bent double with things coming out of his back. 

“I told you I’m fine,” Hitoshi snapped, gaze full of pain and anguish as much as his body language screamed pain and hurt. Shouta was at his side in a second, hands hovering over him but not sure if his touch was welcome, no doubt. “I’m just packing all my things up now.”

“Packing?” Hizashi startled, looking around the room to see most of Hitoshi’s old possessions, the ones he had originally come to them with, were being packed away into a backpack and battered old suitcase. “‘Toshi, why are you packing your things up?”

Hitoshi gave a snort of laughter, a sharp bitter sound that had parental terror crawling up his throat. “I’m not stupid, Mic-san.” The impersonal title had Hizashi flinching, feeling as if his heart was being clawed out of him. It was probably the same feeling Shouta had felt. “I know how this works.”

“How what works?” Shouta asked softly, careful as he finally threaded his fingers through Hitoshi’s hair. “What are you doing, Hitoshi?” It seemed like the careful brushing of his hair was what did it, Hitoshi jerking away from his grip and turning to scream at them.

“For when you kick me out!” The words shot around the room like bullets, but Hitoshi didn’t seem to notice or care, only screaming out louder. “I know how this works! You feel sorry for me or think I’m pathetic or want to look good for taking in the kid with the villain’s quirk, but then it gets to be too much work! 

“And this?” Hitoshi violently gestured to himself. “This isn’t some quirk! I’m probably just some fucked up experiment that my ‘parents’ took in out of pity before getting themselves killed! So yeah, I know how this works.” Bitterness and anger and terror coated his words. “You’re going to sit me down and tell me that I’ll be better off somewhere else, that there’s the perfect family out there for me, but you’re not it. You’ll tell me that I just have to wait, and be patient, and it’ll all work out before kicking me to the curb. I know how this works.”

Left panting and shaking in the silence, tears streaming down his cheeks, Hitoshi roughly scrubbed them off before looking up to them. His voice was wrecked and cracked when he finally asked a quiet, “So. When do you want me out of here?”

For one of the few times in his life, Hizashi was utterly, absolutely, completely speechless in the wake of his failure- Because he had to have failed. If their son thought they were going to get rid of him instead of helping him through what was happening, then he had definitely failed. 

Slowly sinking down to the floor, Hizashi felt like he could start crying himself because how had this gotten so far? In one night Hitoshi had convinced himself that not only was he some monster, but that they were going to get rid of him because of it. 

Shouta, however, for one of the few times in his life, didn’t look like he was going to sit aside and think on how they should proceed logically. Instead Hizashi watched as Shouta steadied with determination, dragging a fussing and squirming Hitoshi in his lap before holding him still by his cheeks. “Hitoshi. You told us you can sense when we’re lying.”

“I- Yeah?” Hitoshi tried to lean away, looking frantic while Hizashi only sucked in an unsteady breath because… Hitoshi could sense when they were lying. “What does that have to do with-”

“We do not feel sorry for you or think you’re pathetic,” Shouta said firmly, Hitoshi finally going still in his grip. “You are a good person who is going to become someone incredible because all you want to do is help people, even if others don’t realize it.”

Finally moving forward, Hizashi settled beside them, clasping one of Hitoshi’s hands in both his own, waiting until their son looked at him. “Your quirk is not a villain’s quirk, ‘Toshi. It is a quirk, your quirk, that you’ve made into a hero’s quirk.”

“You are not a fucked up experiment, either,” Shouta continued, Hizashi squeezing Hitoshi’s hand gently when he saw more tears fill the boy’s eyes. “This changes things, but it doesn’t change the fact that you are our son. You think we’d ever be selfless enough to give you up? You are our son, and you’ve done enough waiting to finally have people who actually care about you.” 

Hizashi made a soft noise, tears streaming down Hitoshi’s cheeks. “‘Toshi,” Hizashi called softly. “You’re still our son. You’re still ours. No matter how this ends or what else changes, we’re your family. We love you and we aren’t letting you go. Even if you never call us those wonderful names again, we’ll still always be your Dad and Pops. Okay?”

That was the last break, it seemed, Hitoshi bursting into loud, painful sobs as he collapsed into Shouta’s hold, burrowing close and hanging on like he was never going to let go. Shouta wasn’t much better, his own eyes cloudy with tears as he held onto Hitoshi just as tightly, rocking them lightly and rubbing at the boy’s back, careful to avoid… Ah. Right. Another change. 

Gently letting go of Hitoshi’s hand, who immediately latched onto Shouta even more, Hizashi slid around to get a look at the kid’s back. It… Hizashi wasn’t sure what to make of it. 

Coming out of his back, right near his shoulder blades, was what looked like rounded columns of skin and bone, the area red and abused. Further down, near the end of his tailbone, looked like there was something else and, huh. 

Gentle as possible in setting his hand on Hitoshi’s back, Hizashi studied the changes, eyes narrowing at what looked like bristles coming out of the columns of skin and oh- Oh.

Sitting back, Hizashi cleared his throat, hand still resting on Hitoshi’s back. “Hey, ‘Toshi? How do you feel about wings and a tail?” His answer was another loud sob, Hitoshi shaking under him and, right. Time to do things a different way. 

Recovery Girl had been right, after all. Hizashi and Shouta were pros and it was time they started acting like it – and that meant preparing themselves for what lay ahead. 

That meant gathering information. The notes they had been given were a good start, but, well. Hizashi had a feeling there was more information out there then what they were seeing.

Which meant visiting every bookstore, open research center, and library he could find and calling home with his findings as often as he could. 

“Nothing at that library either, huh?” Shouta’s voice was tinged with worry, but Hizashi could tell, even over speakerphone, that his husband was mostly focused on Hitoshi. “You sure?”

“Well, I found some fiction books on fairies and aliens, but that’s about it,” Hizashi snorted, looking down at the list of places he had scribbled on a piece of ripped paper before leaving the house. “How’s everything at home?”

“My body seems to think you’re dead since I can’t see you,” Hitoshi groaned into the phone, sounding as if he was shuffling around and making a fuss about it. “I also can’t even sit with the fact I have wings- Wings! They’re not even normal looking feathered wings! They’re like these weird dragonfly bug things.”

Dragonfly wings, huh? That was definitely interesting, but not something Hitoshi should really be able to fly with once they finished growing in. “The tail isn’t much better, either,” Hitoshi continued, still grumbling. “It’s purple and ends with the same weird shiny stuff- I just want to sit at the kitchen table and watch Dad cook!”

“Shouta’s cooking, huh?” Hizashi thought for a moment, finally deciding that he would be perfectly fine sleeping on the couch that night. “Let him know the fire extinguisher is under the sink, okay?”

“I can cook, you know,” Shouta ‘argued’ back. As if he had a leg to even stand on. “I just happen to place value on simple things rather than your five-star meals.”

“Aw, babe, you think my food is that good?” There was a snort of laughter from Hitoshi and there. Much better already. “Alright, I have one last place I think I can check. ‘Toshi? You gonna be alright a while longer?”

“I’ll be fine. Just annoyed about the chair-” There was a sudden, sharp cracking sound of splintering wood, the line silent for a moment before Hitoshi gave a nervous laugh. “Uh, nevermind.”

“Hey, Shouta?” Hizashi called, already knowing with certainty what had happened. “Wanna tell me what that sound was?”

“Hm?” Shouta sounded lazy and proud of himself as he answered. “Nothing, really. Just looks like one of our chairs turned itself into a stool.” There was another burst of laughter from Hitoshi, and, well, at least their kid was happy. 

“Just make sure Jelly and Snowball don’t get any splinters, okay?” Hizashi looked around at where he was at, crumpling his list up as he entered an old, dilapidated district that Hizashi was certain was on Shouta’s patrol route. “Alright, I’m here, I think. I love you both and I’ll call you back soon.”

“Don’t get yourself into trouble, Sunshine,” Shouta said softly, Hizashi smiling at the warmth he heard in the words. “Any last words, Hitoshi?”

There was a beat of silence, and then a soft, embarrassed, “Love you too, Pops.” The call ended shortly after and Hizashi had to take a moment to get control of himself because his family was so goddamn cute.

Finally, though, he pulled himself together and tracked down the building that housed the bookstore he had jotted down. From the outside it was an old, dusty thing with cracked windows that made Hizashi uncertain if it was even open or not. Finally, though, with nothing to lose, he pushed the door open, glancing up at the soft tinkling of a bell.

It was an effort not to sneeze at the dust that seemed to coat everything, but something about the entire room felt… not safe, but maybe soft. Dust motes slipped through lazy patches of sunlight, bookshelves seemed to creak under the weight of the books that filled them, and from somewhere in the store Hizashi could hear the sound of a ceiling fan lazily spinning. It seemed like a simple old bookstore, but… 

Instincts were strong, especially in the age of quirks. A decade of working as a pro hero? Hizashi knew when to listen to his instincts, and right now they were telling him to tread very, very lightly. 

The sound of footsteps caught his attention at once, Hizashi tensing as he snapped his eyes to the side to see a small, wizened old lady who had a face filled with lines upon lines that spoke of smiles and laughter. Whether those were good smiles or laughter was the question he wanted an answer to. 

She was the one to speak first, a soft, surprised little, “Oh. Well aren’t you an interesting one.” Aaand Hizashi was immediately on guard because really. That was a line from How To Be Evil 101. “What sort of knowledge are you looking for today?” Creepy.

Remembering his kid, scared and feeling alone, Hizashi managed to push whatever fear and reservations he had to the back of his mind as he forced himself to relax, “I was hoping you could help me find a couple of books on something that’s… a bit unique.”

“You’re in luck,” the woman laughed softly, stepping around a corner and beckoning him to follow and, again, creepy. “This shop happens to specialize in unique books.” Hizashi was in a villain hideout, wasn’t he? He was calling this place in as soon as he escaped out a window. “What uniqueness are you searching for?” Creepy. As. Shit.

Taking a calming breath, Hizashi forced himself to stay calm as he looked around the worn and torn books. When he looked back to the lady, he met her gaze evenly. “I’m looking for something to help my son.”

“Oh?” That was definitely interest in her gaze, if nothing else. “And you think you’ll find a way to help here from my humble books?”

“Your ‘humble books’ are all I have left.” Hizashi crossed his arms, looking around the shelves they were encased by.

“Is that so?” Gaze drawn back by the melodious voice, Hizashi felt even more tension leak out of him as he stared at the owner of the bookstore he was in. “Tell me, young hero, what do you think you will find here?” 

“I…” Hizashi trailed off, staring at her evenly before he found himself grinning. “Is this a test?” The proud, curious look in her eyes told him his answer. If she was a villain, she was an interesting one, Hizashi would give her that. “I think, if I’m right, I’ll find an answer on what’s happening to my kid, and how to help him, and keep him safe.”

“Is that truly what you want? It seems like the situation your ‘child’ has found himself in could bring quite the attention – to all involved.” A feeling not dissimilar to Hitoshi’s quirk felt like it was pushing against him.

“Why should that matter?” Hizashi shrugged, crossing his arms again. “If he wants the attention then we’ll deal with it when the time comes. If he doesn’t want any attention brought to this, then we’ll help him keep it hidden. It’s whatever he’s comfortable with.”

“A good father who just wants to help, hm?” The lady’s voice was like soft silk, that feeling pushing against him again. It was just enough for the pieces to click into place, Hizashi blinking as he readjusted his thoughts and stared at someone just like his son. “I find that hard to believe if you’ll forgive me. This world can be such a dark place, after all.”

“Oh, no doubt,” Hizashi laughed, closing his eyes for a moment and sighing softly as he let that pressing feeling in. “I’m a pro, you don’t have to tell me how dark the world is, but… That’s why we have to make the light up in other ways. I don’t know what’s happening to my kid, but I’m going to help him through it – no matter the cost.” 

That feeling seemed to swirl and flow around his mind, the feeling akin to something shuffling through his thoughts with soft, meticulous care. Hizashi didn’t dare look away once he opened his eyes, only meeting the look leveled at him evenly as he could. Finally, after what felt like a lifetime, the feeling was gone and the owner was laughing. It sounded like bells. 

“Your partner is accurate in the name he calls you!” Partner- Oh. Oh! Well, he supposed Sunshine did apply to their conversation. “I believe I have just the books to help you and your family.”

It was a blink of an eye and Hizashi found himself standing outside the shop, now with a closed sign, and holding a stack of old, handwritten journals in his arms. Blinking at them slowly, Hizashi carefully pulled his phone out and, okay. He had been in that shop for an hour and had two missed calls from Shouta. Great. Yeah. Okay. 

Well. At least he would be calling in with good news and a new place to avoid at all costs. Hopefully, if nothing else, the journals he had found would finally help them understand what was going on.

⁂

“Wait, wait, just- Hang on a second here.” Hitoshi took a steadying breath from where he was curled between his dads on the couch with a bunch of handwritten journals by people like… him. “You’re telling me that I’m a fairy?”

“Not quite,” Hizashi frowned, flicking through a journal himself with a focused, but baffled expression. It reminded Hitoshi of when he was grading Class 1-A’s English tests. “Or at least, not in the way you’re thinking. You’re more like…”

“An alien.” Looking to Shouta, Hitoshi stared at him. Shouta, on his part, only flipped around the journal he was reading to show them. Hitoshi could feel Hizashi’s desire to get up and just get himself drunk. “Apparently you’re not the first one here, either.”

Apparently, from what they were reading, the old stories about fairies and fae and The Fair Folk all came from the semi-telepathic alien race that liked to visit the planet – the alien race that Hitoshi was a part of. Him. Hitoshi. He was an alien. 

A few more pages and he sighed, looking back up at his dads, “I don’t know if I want this to be a joke or not, you know?”

“Trust me kid, I know,” Shouta snorted, flipping through the journal he was going through. “From this it seems like most of them came here officially during the whole Rise of Quirks age. Makes sense after seeing what you’ve been going through with the changes.”

Hitoshi was ready to try and complain again, but instead was distracted when Hizashi started dragging a hand through his hair. Really, was he not supposed to relax at that? “It does make sense,” Hizashi said, still horribly distracting Hitoshi from the conversation. “But I’m more curious about how ‘Toshi looked completely human until a couple weeks ago.”

Shouta flipped through the pages of his journal, holding it up after a minute or so. “Puberty and shapeshifting.” Right. Shapeshifting. Of course. Because why not at this point?

“Puberty?” Hizashi frowned, looking at Shouta and then at the journal he was holding up, squinting his eyes to read it as Shouta gave a snort of laughter.

“Turns out if a young child grows up among another species then at puberty their body will start to go through the changes expected of their race.”

Hitoshi huffed as Hizashi abandoned him to grab Shouta’s journal and scan the pages, refusing to look at Shouta’s amused expression. Hitoshi only felt fear, though, when he glanced up and saw Hizashi grinning. 

“It’s not just generic shapeshifting or puberty,” Hizashi said and oh. Oh, no. That was a grin that meant horrible things. “Apparently babies, after a few weeks of settling, will begin to change their appearance based on those they look up to or feel a strong connection with-”

“Pops,” Hitoshi cut him off, knowing straight away where the shapeshifting thing was going and wanting it to stop. He was self-aware enough to know he stupidly looked up to his dads and had for a long time. “Please. I am begging you to stop right there.” 

“Aw, ‘Toshi,” Hizashi cooed, pulling him into a hug and trapping him. “It’s cute you think I would stop!” The traitor. “Now let’s see here… Wild hair that sticks upright, bright red eyes, red eyes that now have concentric circles-”

Hitoshi was saved by Hizashi grunting as Shouta pinched him on the side. He could always count on Shouta to stop the embarrassment early. “I thought we had a talk about you embarrassing him too badly.” 

“Hm… Did we? I must have forgotten!” Hitoshi scoffed, not doing much to escape Hizashi’s hug trap before Shouta was rolling his eyes. 

“Come on, you two. We have a lot more of this to get through before we figure out everything we need to know.”

As it turned out, there really was a lot of new information for them to know. 

It also made so much sense. 

From minor shapeshifting abilities, which explained why Hitoshi looked so much like their kid, and semi-telepathic abilities that apparently overloaded the human mind, which explained his ‘quirk,’ to being highly empathetic and able to pick up thoughts off of those with unguarded minds – which explained why Hitoshi hadn’t been able to pick up much off of his dads. It even seemed that the only reason Erasure worked on him was because he thought it should, and so it did. 

“Ah. There’s more on the whole ‘puberty’ aspect. It looks like when the kids reach a certain age to become an adult they unlock ‘all genetic potential.’ Increase in telepathic abilities, changes in body structure, and wings, a tail, and ‘clan markings’ to reflect which clan they were born into. Apparently the changes also only really start when the child feels safe and protected.” 

“Aw, ‘Toshi, you feel that safe with us? That’s so sweet-!”

“I will not hesitate to call Kayama-sensei and tell her every embarrassing thing I’ve learned about you that she doesn’t know yet.”

“Testy- Oh! Hey! Look! In some cases, if a child was raised by a different species, then their body will adapt to take on that species’ appearance. Then The Change, capital letters, reverts them back to their ‘true’ form, which, apparently, can freak kids out and make some of the changes painful.” 

“No kidding- Oh, hey, found the allergic to salt thing. Guess that’s where the whole salt can keep away fairy thing started, too. It’s not supposed to be too bad, but we live in Japan with Pops’ cooking, so I guess I’ll just suffer.” 

“Huh… This is… well. Looks like the race that you came from is a nocturnal species and are typically active at night-”

“What?! This is why I have insomnia?! Because I’m an alien?! How is that fair! I’ve suffered for years because I’m an alien?!” 

“Aw, c’mon, ‘Toshi, at least you have a valid excuse for your insomnia now! And this will just make you a better underground hero when you get older-”

“Years. For years I’ve dealt with insomnia and insomnia tips and how to get to sleep at night and all that crap and it was because my entire biological makeup was different?!” 

“If you keep that up then you’ll sound more dramatic than Hizashi. Ah, here’s the part on the tattoos or ‘clan markings,’ by the way. It looks like the design has to deal with your birth family and who your family was and so on. Says the bioluminescence can be controlled after all changes have settled.”

“Good. Can you imagine me as an underground hero when my whole body is glowing like a night light? The villains would give themselves up just to laugh at me.”

“Looks like the pointed ears are just a thing-”

“That’s so stupid!”

“Be thankful so much of the population has ears like that these days- Ah. Your telepathic abilities are going to get stronger and you might get minor precognition, empathy, and dreamwalking.” 

“Dad, that literally sounds like the worst fucking thing in the world. Can we just put one of those quirk-suppressing bracelets on me or something? Would that even work?”

“Okay, okay, so you can shapeshift to hide the most eye-catching of it, that second set of teeth can retract once the swelling goes down- Oh! I found an entry about the bonds and why you don’t like us being out of your sight! Also, you’ll one day be able to fly with those wings-”

“What?!”

By the end of all of their research and journal reading Hitoshi was fully curled up and collapsed against Shouta as best he could with his tail and wings, trying to wrap his mind around the fact he was an alien. 

Both of them were trying to reassure him, Hizashi looking ready to steal him from Shouta and suffocate him with hugs, “Aw, c’mon, ‘Toshi, when you think about it this is like just getting a bunch of new quirks! That’s not so bad, right?”

Staring at Hizashi evenly, Hitoshi finally turned and buried his face into Shouta’s chest, who gave a soft laugh and let him do as he pleased. It was nice. Especially as Hizashi whined and sounded absolutely defeated. That was definitely nice. 

Hitoshi may have tuned them both out and fallen into a mild panic attack that he only crawled out of when he heard Shouta say the words, “-might as well be a family tradition at this point.” 

“Hang- Hang on.” Pushing himself up, Hitoshi squinted at Shouta, who was looking smug at probably pulling him out of his attack. “What do you mean family tradition? Pretty sure you both are human.” Then again… 

“Yes, but your grandfather on my side isn’t.” Hang on what? What was that supposed to mean?! That- He couldn’t just drop that and then act like that was normal information-

“Dad, I love you, but I swear to everything I believe in that I will make all of our lives a miserable wreck if you’re telling me that you knew what was going on this whole time and you never told us-” 

Hizashi was grabbing him and dragging him into a hug before Hitoshi could attack, laughing softly, “Easy, ‘Toshi, we didn’t know anything about this. Shouta’s dad is a different sort of not-human.”

“Honestly? Even I don’t know what he is,” Shouta snorted, crossing his arms. “He still just stays behind that dog bear mouse joke or whatever it is.” Hang on. Dog bear mouse… Wait.

“Nezu is your dad?” That- That made no sense at the exact same time it made a horrible amount of sense. Forget being an alien, this was what was gonna make Hitoshi lose his mind.

“We were going to bring it up sooner,” Hizashi chimed in, giving him a tighter hug. “But he always goes off networking in other countries during the summer and we all wanted to let you settle in first before throwing any curveballs at you. And then, well, this.”

Digesting the information for a long moment, Hitoshi finally looked at Shouta with what he hoped was a neutral expression. “Your dad… is a mouse.” 

Shouta snorted, giving him a grin, “And our son is an alien. Our family dynamics aren’t exactly normal, kid.” 

Hizashi snickered, giving Hitoshi a little nudge, “It’s also a family tradition to adopt kids straight out of U.A.” Tradition? Why- Oh. Oh, that made so much more sense. “Deep breaths, ‘Toshi. It’s going to be just fine.”

Hitoshi tensed, waiting for the uncomfortable sharp, pricking sensation that came at hearing lies but there was… nothing. Just Hizashi’s warm hug and Shouta’s soft smile. “Oh, hey! We can contact Gang Orca and ask him how to deal with the teeth!”

“Good idea,” Shouta nodded at Hizashi, shutting his journal to finally stand up and stretch. “I’ll try to get in touch with Hawks. He’d know more about the wings – did he grow them or was he born with them?”

“I think they grew in when he got his quirk?” Hitoshi half-asked, reaching for his phone and doing nothing to shove Hitoshi off him. If anything he just held him closer. “Here, I got Mandalay’s personal number. She’ll be able to help a little with the new telepathic part of all of this.” 

Watching his dads make plans on which pro heroes to talk to and what to do to make his life more comfortable, Hitoshi closed his eyes and finally breathed out a breath that felt like he had been holding in for a lifetime. 

Everything… was going to be fine. 

Epilogue

Right. It was official, then. Hitoshi would rather go through his entire painful ‘puberty butterfly metamorphosis’ thing than do what he was about to. Maybe it wasn’t too late for him to bail? It would be easy. He could just shimmy out the window, climb down to a tree that was in the courtyard, and then- “Stop trying to think of ways to escape the school. We have cameras and a fence.” 

Looking to Shouta, who was a hypocrite, Hitoshi simply raised an eyebrow and waited for the man to cave. It didn’t take long. “If it gets too bad you can hide out in the teacher’s lounge. You also don’t have to do this-”

“I know, I know, it’s my choice, I control my destiny, and since I can shapeshift to cover up everything no one has to know about what I am. Trust me, Dad, you guys covered everything and more last night.” As he spoke, Hitoshi didn’t take his eyes off the door that led into the 2-A classroom. He had a feeling if he fully looked away, he would lose. 

There was a small scoff from Shouta in response, though, and an amused, “You also hid under your blankets for an hour sprouting off everything that could go wrong.” Ah. Once again, his father was dead to him. “‘Toshi.” Hitoshi twitched, finally conceding defeat and looking away from the door and towards Shouta, who was giving him a small, understanding smile. “You really don’t have to do this.”

“I know, but that’s… kind of why I have to do it.” Because he knew how being a hero worked, and he especially knew how this class worked. “I don’t have to, but… I want to prove that they can trust me like…” Trailing off, Hitoshi avoided Shouta’s gaze as he pushed out a rushed, “Like I trust them, okay?”

“And here you used to hate every single one of them.” He wanted to argue that, but back at the Sport’s Festival, well… He hadn’t exactly been friendly to them – he had also basically declared war. “Speaking of no longer hating them, or at least one in particular-”

“I can and will get Pops to get my revenge for me. And he’ll be disappointed in you.” The two were both quiet for a moment, Hitoshi feeling a burst of relief as Shouta rolled his eyes and didn’t continue his torture. “Besides, it’s this class. They’re gonna find out on their own anyway no matter what we do.”

Shouta laughed softly, moving to go through the door. “You’re not wrong, at least. Come on. I have a couple of tests for their first day back, so they’ll be distracted soon enough.”

“You’re so mean to them,” Hitoshi snickered, pausing in the doorway and taking a deep breath as he glanced down to himself. 

It had taken the rest of the break, but Hitoshi had gotten a handle on his powers and was on his way to really controlling them. He had also discovered how to change his appearance back to ‘normal.’ Although he had kept the pointed ears because it was a pain to switch back and forth, and the concentric circles in his eyes, because, well. Watching Hizashi cry about it had been kind of funny. 

Overall, he had survived through it, barely, and was now about to enter the Heroics class for his first day of real hero training. His dads still loved him, he was half-alien and was sort of okay with it, and his ‘grandpa’ had been all too delighted to spend time with him and help him understand his powers. 

“Alright, settle down!” Shouta’s voice brought Hitoshi out of his thoughts. He spent one last second in the moment before everything changed and then stepped inside and shut the door behind him. 

Two students were already yelling a greeting at him and Midoriya jumped out of his seat to wave enthusiastically at him. Hitoshi decided he was both blind and deaf at that moment, even if his dad wasn’t and was probably already making mental notes to torment him later.

“As you can tell, we have a new student joining us today. Shinsou Hitoshi is now a part of the class. Feel free to go all out on him since if you take it easy you’ll probably regret it.” Such a flat, even tone, but also such pride radiating from him. 

“Alright! We get the superior purple kid now!” It was almost easy to guess who yelled it, but what really had Hitoshi fighting his laughter was the way Shouta didn’t even shout for the kid to shut up, instead just pretending he hadn’t heard anything. Hitoshi supposed he had gotten it from somewhere. 

A few seconds and Shouta looked back at him, studying him before giving a small huff of laughter, “Here’s where you introduce yourself so they can finally shut up. Oh, by the way,” Shouta raised his voice to the rest of the class. “One more thing…”

And okay, that was just the perfect setup. Hitoshi grinned as he loosened his hold on his ‘normal’ form, tail slipping out, wings fluttering to life before laying against his back, and tattoos crawling up his skin inch by inch before they were all revealed. He didn’t much bother to hide his sharp teeth, either. 

“Nice to meet you,” Hitoshi grinned, feeling the wave of shock that ran through the class. It was a good feeling. “I hope you’ll take good care of me.”

The wall of sound that hit him was pretty satisfying too, he had to admit. 

Pictured Above: A character design sheet showing Hitoshi’s new form including a long tail and irridescent dragonfly-esque wings. His arms, cheeks, and forhead have tattoo patterns that are primarily purple but have shades of blue within them. His ears are pointed and a portion of the sheet shows Hitoshi’s tattoos glowing at night. The art is credited to Ashidoodle.