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Hizashi always comes in early.
It serves a few purposes. For one, he doesn’t like to be late. Two, he wants to get stuff done, and the classroom usually needs some kind of cleaning, given that he looks over twenty small toddlers every day. The place never seems to actually be clean, and there’s always something for Hizashi to do, fix, or wipe down. Third, the little preschool he mostly runs is simply just one of his favorite places in the world, and Hizashi takes pride in his work and what he’s done here and he feels more at home here than he does in his apartment.
And lastly, there’s a new four year-old in his class, a child who’s just developed his quirk, and Hizashi is jittering with excitement to meet him. He always tries to do something special for the new kids to make them feel welcomed in the school, and this time is no different.
As he unlocks the school at dawn, Hizashi wonders what kind of kid he’ll be. He’s been in contact with the boy’s father, though he hasn’t met either of them yet—Emi had been the one to do the initial interviews, as Hizashi had been busy teaching and doing some paperwork that day—but he’s set to today.The boy’s father had been upfront about everything, including the boy’s rare psychological quirk, one that has preliminarily been diagnosed as ‘brainwashing’, and Hizashi had made sure to assure him that he wasn’t one to discriminate against ‘dangerous’ quirks.After all, he’d be a hypocrite to, given that when he’d been a kid, he’d blown his parents’ ear drums out and caused them and himself to go completely deaf.
Sure enough, the previous records he’d received on the boy talked mostly about the dangers of his quirk, but from what Hizashi could decipher from the fear mongering language, the kid hadn’t actually ever used his quirk for nefarious reasons, and he hadn’t had any behavioral problems before developing it, either. In the end, Hizashi isn’t worried. The way he sees it, despite the nature of their quirks and whether or not they’re dangerous, no four year old is inherently evil.
Besides, almost every kid in his class has a quirk by now, and every one of them has trouble controlling it. He is more than prepared for this.
What he isn’t prepared for, however, is the knock at the locked front doors that comes not even five minutes after Hizashi steps into the dark and empty building. He’s still in the entryway, going through the mail that’s come to the preschool center in the past few days, and the windows on the door are glass, so when he glances up, he can see the person on the other side, and they can undoubtedly see him.
It’s not too hard to figure out who the guy standing outside is, nor is it hard to figure out why he’s holding a kid that Hizashi’s never seen before in his life.
The man is dark-haired and unkempt looking, with a scruffy face, long black hair, and dark, tired eyes. He looks out of place, wearing a jumpsuit with some kind of enormous grey scarf wrapped around his neck. He stares inside with a serious expression, and the fact that he has a brightly-colored cat-patterned bag slung on his shoulder is almost funny, given the severe contrast between it and the man’s simple, dark colored outfit. In his arms, partially hiding his face from Hizashi by ducking into his father’s shoulder, is a child, no more than four, with wild purple hair that stands up on his head and a soft face with reddened cheeks, from what Hizashi can see of it. The kid is dressed appropriately, wrapped in a comically thick coat, an oversized scarf, and there’s a hat that Hizashi assumes he took off his head clutched in the tiny gloved hand that’s not clutching onto his father’s dark hair.
There’s no doubt about it—this is Aizawa Shouta, and his son and Hizashi’s new student, Shinsou Hitoshi.
They’re here really early, but Hizashi supposes that’s okay as he approaches the door with a wide, bright smile, and unlocks it to let them in.
“Aizawa-san?” He greets, grinning at him and stepping aside. The dark-haired man gives him a glance as he goes inside, Hizashi closing and locking the door behind them.
“I’m early. Sorry. I just wanted to let Hitoshi get used to his new school before I leave.”
That immediately triggers a reaction from the toddler in his arms.
“No, Dad, don’t leave!”
The smile falls off Hizashi’s face, and Shinsou Hitoshi’s small, high-pitched voice rings through the preschool’s entryway, full of despair and bordering on tears, and the child buries his head into his father’s shoulder, tiny fingers grasping at his hair tighter. Hizashi feels a pang in his chest; he’s always had a bit of a problem with the way he feels way too much empathy for the kids with separation anxiety. It’s due to personal experience, and Shinsou’s reaction pulls at his heartstrings.
Similarly, the serious look disappears from his father’s face, and he watches as Aizawa looks away from him, eyes going slightly wider, and he tightens his hold on the toddler, holding the kid with both arms now in a loving embrace. He doesn’t look annoyed or irritated in the least, as Hizashi sometimes sees in parents dealing with a child with separation anxiety, and he looks more guilty than anything.
“Aw, Hitoshi-chan has a bit of separation anxiety?” Hizashi softens his voice and looks sympathetically from Aizawa to Shinsou.
Aizawa glances back at him and nods, and Hizashi doesn’t miss the way he bounces his son in his arms when Shinsou lets out a small cry, “He’s had it ever since my sister… It’s gotten worse since he’s been treated—badly at other preschools and daycares.”
It’s clear to him that Aizawa is being careful with his words. Hizashi doesn’t blame him, and understands what he means. Aizawa had sent him records detailing Shinsou Hitoshi’s history, and he knows that Aizawa Shouta is not Shinsou’s biological father, but instead his biological uncle, and that his sister had abandoned Shinsou at nine months old. Hizashi can’t deny that he has a definite soft spot for adopted kids and loving adoptive parents, given that he’s only here because his own adoptive parents loved him and believed in him enough to push Hizashi into what he truly wanted to do with his life.
He also knows that Aizawa only found Hizashi’s small preschool because Shinsou Hitoshi has been kicked out and expelled from a lot of higher-end daycares. Aizawa Shouta is a pro hero, the kind of person who doesn’t typically wander upon Hizashi’s preschool, but Shinsou has even been kicked out of daycares for the children of pros. Hizashi’s honestly a little disappointed in the other people in his profession—a kid can’t help their quirk and expecting a four year-old to be able to control their quirk is like expecting them to be able to do university-level math. It’s impossible.
Hizashi hums quietly, “Well, I can keep my word to you, Aizawa-san. Hitoshi-chan is safe here. I can tell you with confidence that he’s not going to be expelled for use of his quirk. You look a little tired—why don’t you and Hitoshi-chan come back to the classroom with me?”
Aizawa pauses, but his voice sounds relieved when he does speak, “I would appreciate that.”
Hizashi grins, and leads the way to his personal classroom. Despite being the head of the preschool, Hizashi loves teaching too much to focus solely on the bureaucracy of running a preschool. He knows that’s probably why his preschool is still pretty small, but he’s pretty happy with it. He’s always wanted to be a preschool teacher, though he’d had a brief stint where he’d actually considered becoming a pro hero, and he’s more than happy he can follow that dream.
His classroom is just off of the entryway, and Hizashi lets Aizawa and his son through, flipping on the light behind them, brightness flooding the large room. In reality, Hizashi runs a joint preschool and daycare, since the kids are with him a majority of the day. The room is decorated brightly, and he’s made sure to keep plenty of room for kids to both run around and play. He has a lot of things he’s collected over the years. There’s a large open space in the middle of the classroom, covered partially by a bright circular rug with numbers and characters printed on it. There’s tables and plush chairs for the kids to sit and do activities at, bins and shelves full of toys and things to stimulate the kids. He’s even built a small loft that the kids can climb stairs to, where the kid’s can have a more private space to sit quietly in. Below the loft, there’s an area for the kids to climb around and gets some energy out. Hizashi’s happy with his classroom, and he can’t help but take a little pride in the way Aizawa looks around it in almost awe.
Silently, Aizawa takes a seat in one of the child-sized chairs at the table, looking comically big for it, and Hizashi has to stifle a laugh. He moves Shinsou down so that the boy sits on his lap, though he still holds him close and bounces him slightly.
Hizashi forces himself to ignore the warm feeling he gets from watching Aizawa and Shinsou. He has a bit of a problem favoring adoptive parents, just due to his admiration leftover from his own mothers. It’s clear from the little time he’s spent with Aizawa and his small son that Aizawa loves this kid, and Hizashi had suspected it from the way he’d talked about Shinsou while emailing and talking to him over the phone.
It’s kind of nice to see a pro hero take such an interest in his child. Hizashi’s never really personally met a pro, but he’s always assumed that they don’t have a lot of time for family, since they’re always out busy saving the world.
Hizashi moves and sits himself on the end of the table Aizawa and Shinsou are near, and smiles warmly at them. He can hear the toddler give a small whimper, but he doesn’t look up from his father’s shoulder.
He likes to have a bit of a personal rapport with the parents of the kids in his class, and he figures that now is the best time to start, given that he’s alone with Aizawa and Shinsou.
“I come in around this time everyday. Since Hitoshi-chan is a little nervous, you’re free to bring him in early and spend some time in the classroom with him, if you’d like,” He offers. It’s not something he usually puts out there, since he does get paid for this, but he’s curious about Aizawa and this is a special circumstance, both in the case of the student and the parent, and Hizashi is more than willing to make an exception.
Aizawa glances at him, and his expression is softer than before, his voice quiet as he tries to calm his son by bouncing him on his lap, “Thanks. I’ll take you up on that.”
He’s starting to see that the anxiety goes for both parent and child.
“If you’d like to stay for a bit today after class starts, that wouldn’t be a problem, either,” That is a common thing he offers to parents, since they like to be assured that his classroom runs properly before leaving their kids.
To his surprise, Aizawa’s mouth curls into a small smile at that, “Unfortunately, I have my own class to get to.”
That surprises him. Aizawa had listed his profession as a pro hero and had provided the necessary identification that revealed that he was a lesser-known underground hero. The admission that he’s either in school or taught is a little shocking, and Hizashi can’t stop the way he hesitates, eyes wide.
“You’re a… teacher?”
He decides that’s the case, probably, rather than Aizawa being in school. The man is thirty, just like Hizashi, and if he’d wanted to go back to school, Hizashi assumes he would’ve already. He doesn’t know much about pros, but he does know about teaching, and he knows that good pro heroes are often recruited to teach at schools. Despite being lesser known, the little information Hizashi had found about Aizawa’s hero persona proved that he was one of the best underground heroes and well respected with a clear record when Hizashi had run a background check.
“It’s a day job,” Aizawa gives a sigh, and threads his fingers through Shinsou’s purple hair. “I took a bit of a hiatus from being a hero back when Hitoshi was younger, and teaching helped financially. I guess I got a bit attached to it and it stuck once I got back into being a pro. I teach a heroics course at UA.”
Hizashi recognizes the name immediately, and he doesn’t try to keep the playfulness out of his voice, “Wow, prestigious. You must be pretty good at your job if they let you teach our future heroes how to save the world. I gotta say, it’s pretty cool meeting a pro.”
He feels like he can be himself a little more with Aizawa, and Aizawa doesn’t seem taken aback by it. Instead, he just plays along.
“Sorry that you have to meet a pro who doesn’t even like cameras. Or publicity.”
“I dunno, I kinda respect that,” Hizashi says, shrugging. “Gives you more time to focus on the villains. I bet Hitoshi-chan thinks you’re pretty cool, too.”
As expected, that gets Shinsou’s attention, and he finally pulls his face from his father’s neck, though he keeps his arms tightly clutched around Aizawa. He looks at Hizashi, purple eyes huge for a moment before he narrows them and glares at him, sticking his bottom lip out in the kind of pout that only a four year-old can pull off.
“My dad’s the best hero,” He tells Hizashi, and Hizashi gives him a laugh. That seems to just spur Shinsou on, though, because he musters an even harder glare at Hizashi. “I like him best!”
“I’m sure you do,” Hizashi assures him with another laugh before he looks back at Aizawa. “Looks like you’ve got a pretty big fan, Aizawa-san.”
The gentle smile that comes across Aizawa’s face is cute, and Hizashi sort of wants to slap himself for thinking that. He hates thinking parents of his students are cute or attractive, and Aizawa seems to hit a few of his points.
Now that Shinsou’s come out of his shell a bit, Aizawa stops bouncing him on his lap, and Hizashi focuses his attention on the kid.
“Hey, kiddo,”He greets him warmly, despite Shinsou’s continued glaring at him. “Wanna get down and look around the classroom? I promise you’ll find something you like in here. You can call me Hizashi, by the way.”
Shinsou stares at him for a long time, and then turns back to Aizawa, pulling at the material of his jumpsuit, “Daddy, kitty.”
Hizashi doesn’t understand what Shinsou’s asking for, but Aizawa does, because there’s no hesitation between the request and Aizawa reaching into the bag over his shoulder and pulling a clearly well-loved stuffed cat from it. Hizashi has to bite back a coo at the adorableness of it, because Shinsou takes the toy from him and clutches it in his arms, murmuring a thank you to his father before carefully climbing off of his lap and standing on the carpeted floor of the classroom.
With Shinsou a little closer, Hizashi can see that the stuffed cat in his arms is tan and brown striped, and there’s a pair of handpainted plastic yellow goggles hanging around its neck. Hizashi wants to comment on it, since he recognizes the goggles from the blurry pictures he’d gotten when he’d searched Aizawa’s hero name, but he keeps quiet, not wanting to embarrass Aizawa or his son. They’re the most recognizable part of his costume, and Hizashi thinks it’s about the most adorable thing in the world that Aizawa’s son carries around a copy of part of his father’s hero costume.
Honestly, at this point, he already has a lot of respect for Aizawa. Aizawa seems like he’s everything that Hizashi wishes every adoptive parent was, and he wishes that people like Aizawa were the type of people that others thought of when they thought of adoptive parents.
Shinsou holds his stuffed toy close to him and takes a few tottering steps away, before looking back at Aizawa. Hizashi sees Aizawa give him a nod, and Shinsou takes off, darting to the center of the classroom and standing in the middle of the circular rug Hizashi has there.
“He’s a good kid,” Hizashi hears Aizawa say.
“Oh, I don’t doubt that,” Hizashi gives Aizawa his usual warm smile. “Even in his records, he didn’t have any negative behavioral notes until his quirk developed and even then—well, it just doesn’t seem like Hitoshi-chan ever did anything actually bad. It’d be a bit of a different story if he’d used his quirk to hurt the other students or teachers, but if I recall correctly he just used it—”
“—To get more pudding and to get the other kids to play with him more,” Aizawa finishes for him. “It was on accident, too. He didn’t mean to.”
“Yes!” Hizashi exclaims, grinning wider. “In my opinion, that’s nothing to hurt a kid over. He’s just like anyone else—he can’t control it, and that’s not his fault. You know…”
He brushes his long hair away from his ears, showing the hearing aids he has in, watching Aizawa’s eyes drift to where he’s pointing.
“I blew my hearing out at his age. I have a voice quirk,” He explains. He’s not used to telling parents about his, but he honestly thinks maybe it’ll put some of Aizawa’s nerves at rest if he hears that Hizashi has his own dangerous quirk. “People used to joke about putting a muzzle on me as a kid. Before I was adopted, the group home I lived in actually did it. I couldn’t control it or anything, so I didn’t understand why that was happening. I think it’s the same with your son. Obviously, he’s been raised right and doesn’t have any intentions of using his quirk maliciously, so I don’t see any reason in punishing him for something no one his age can control.”
He’s watching Shinsou again, as is Aizawa. The kid has discovered a bin of toys next to the loft, and has found a plastic toy medical set. He appears to be playing vet, and Aizawa watches him with fond eyes, seeming far more relaxed than he’d been earlier.
“Thanks,” Aizawa murmurs to him, voice quiet. “Your school came highly recommended and I’m glad I chose it. I think he’ll be happy here once he warms up to everything.”
“I hope so, Aizawa-san!” He’s excited, enthusiastic, and it’s genuine.
He doesn’t get anything else out, though, because Shinsou quickly abandons the toy stethoscope he’s found (and puts it back, Hizashi notes. If this kid always cleans up after himself, his life is going to be significantly easier) and inspects the bookcase nearby. Hizashi remembers being impressed when Aizawa wrote that Shinsou could read fairly well for his age. It doesn’t take long for him to pick out a book, and he runs back to Aizawa, climbing back onto his lap, holding his cat in one hand and the book under his other arm.
“Read, Daddy,” He prompts, and Aizawa gives a clearly fake sigh before opening the book over both him and Shinsou and beginning to read from it with a small glance at Hizashi.
By the time other parents start dropping off their kids, Shinsou seems at ease. So does Aizawa. There’s only a few tears when Aizawa leaves, but Hizashi is able to fix it by scooping Shinsou up into his arms and patting his head and assuring him that his dad would be back soon. Shinsou is mostly fine after that, though he stays away from the others and plays by himself for the most part. Hizashi makes no move to stop him.
—
The first time Hizashi experiences Shinsou’s quirk, it really comes as no surprise.
Shinsou Hitoshi is just like any other kid, and Hizashi has had a solid ten years of professionally caring for children. By now, he knows that four year-olds can and will throw tantrums over small things when they get overstimulated, and Hizashi can see it coming during the end of his first week with Shinsou. They’re in the kitchen, and Hizashi has a group of about ten kids, and they’re all pretty full of energy. He’s handing out snacks to them, and a few of them are getting impatient, Shinsou included.
He knows the following—Shinsou had tried to play with Bakugou today, and Bakugou happens to be a volatile kid with a volatile quirk and a volatile personality, and Bakugou doesn’t like playing with kids who aren’t Kirishima, Sato, or Mina, for the most part. Shinsou had gotten pushed away, unsurprisingly, and it had upset him enough to make him hide in the loft with his stuffed cat. He also knows that Emi had been a bit loud with the kids today and Shinsou and a couple others hadn’t liked all the noise. Lastly, he knows that Momo had found that she really likes the goggles that Shinsou carries around, and had tried to make a replica of them using her quirk. Though all she’d produced was a burning heap of yellow plastic, Shinsou had still been angry that she’d taken a liking to something only he had, the thing that was a part of his own personal hero.
So he can sort of see it coming, because Shinsou’s had a tough day. He tries being careful around him and treating him a little softer in an attempt to ease his nerves, but the fact of the matter is that he has an entire class, and right now, nine other kids to keep track of.
To make matters worse, snack today is Shinsou’s favorite—vanilla pudding. And Shinsou is clearly frustrated that he hasn’t gotten his share yet.
Currently, Shinsou is standing at his feet, pulling at Hizashi’s apron with tears in his purple eyes. Hizashi can’t look at him for long, though, because Jirou is chasing Kaminari around the cafeteria, and he has to make sure that she doesn’t chase him straight into a wall, while Izuku and Bakugou are arguing again over something as the others watch or run around after Jirou.
“Hizashi,” Shinsou’s whining, voice teary and strained and high-pitched in the cafeteria. “Hizashi, I want pudding, please. Hizashi. When do I get mine?”
“Soon, Hitoshi-chan—”
That’s when it happens. And it’s honestly pretty terrifying in the first few moments.
The loss of control is instant. The spoon he’d been washing drops from his hand and clatters into the sink, and Hizashi can’t move an inch and everything seems dark and looming. It’s like sleep walking, or having a nightmare, but Hizashi knows that he’s wide awake.
“Hizashi, Hizashi, Hizashi.”
Shinsou continues to pull at his apron, and Hizashi hears and feels him, but he can’t look down to see him. It goes on for a minute or so, with Shinsou pulling at his apron, before the toddler seems to realize what he’s done.
He immediately bursts into tears, and Hizashi snaps out of it.
Suddenly, Shinsou’s wailing, and there’s a scream of pain from Kaminari following a hard thud into what Hizashi assumes to be either a wall or the floor. The cafeteria is silent otherwise, and Shinsou cries loud.
Hizashi doesn’t hesitate much beyond his initial shock. He ducks his head out the door and yells for Emi, and his assistant comes bounding in with smiles as Hizashi sweeps Shinsou into his arms and takes him out of the room.
They go to Hizashi’s office, which is really just a calm-down room with an extra desk and some filing cabinets. Shinsou sobs in his arms, and Hizashi makes out a few muddled, slurred apologies as he tries to soothe Shinsou. It takes a while, but eventually, Shinsou’s sobs start to subside. He trusts Emi with his kids, and takes the time to make Shinsou feel better, and the kid seems to like it when Hizashi bounces him on his lap like he’d seen Aizawa do the first day. His crying subsides and Hizashi gives him an extra pudding cup, and Shinsou seems to forget all about his accident in the face of getting two snacks.
The rest of the day goes off without a hitch. When Hizashi takes Shinsou back to the classroom, Shinsou is happy and skipping alongside him, holding his cat in his arms. He even lets Momo play with the goggles, though, to Hizashi’s amusement, he watches her like a hawk as she does.
As always, Aizawa is among the first few parents to arrive. Hizashi’s already made the decision to tell him about what happened. He leaves the kids with Emi and calls Aizawa into the entryway, and Aizawa doesn’t hesitate in meeting with him.
“I just wanted to let you know in case it comes up at home that Hitoshi-chan used his quirk on me by accident today,” He says, keeping his voice quiet. He doesn’t want the other parents to overhear and try to guess Shinsou’s quirk. Parents can be a gossip-y folk, though Aizawa seems to be outside the norm in that regard.
Aizawa’s dark eyes go wide, and he rubs at the bridge of his nose, muttering a small, “Shit, I’m sorry, Yamada.”
“No, no,” Hizashi’s voice picks up a little. “It’s fine, really! I just didn’t want you to be surprised by it if he mentions it at home. It wasn’t anything major. He had a little trouble with a couple things today—nothing behavioral, just normal stuff—and he was feeling frustrated and couldn’t control it. He just wanted his snack early and he was frustrated that I was being a bit slow with it.”
There’s a pause, and Aizawa raises an eyebrow, “It wasn’t pudding, was it?”
The stress clears from Hizashi, and he has to stifle a laugh, “Yeah, it was. He wound up getting two cups of it because I felt kinda bad for him after he cried when he used his quirk.”
Aizawa breathes a sigh, but Hizashi can see the worry drain from him.
“He is a good kid, Aizawa-san,” Hizashi looks through the glass door at the classroom. Emi is reading an end of the day story to the kids. Shinsou sits in front, rocking slightly, holding onto his cat as he listens intensely. “He does good here. Don’t worry about him using his quirk. He’ll learn to control it. Until then, I know how to deal with it. Hitoshi-chan is far from a problem child.”
Aizawa casts a glance at him, “You’re pretty good at this, you know.”
Hizashi grins.
While Shinsou isn’t a problem child, he certainly sticks out to Hizashi, and not in a negative way. Shinsou tends to be better behaved than his other kids. He’s a fast learner, and picks up a lot from the sign language and English Hizashi works into his lessons. It’s all an effect of his upbringing, and Hizashi feels his heart swell a little every time Shinsou sees Aizawa and immediately runs into his arms, usually giving little shrieks of joy at seeing his father. Seeing them makes him happy, and he likes watching them interact better than watching other parents interact with their kids. Aizawa’s a great parent, and it becomes pretty obvious that he’s a great guy, too.
—
Aizawa doesn’t ever stop bringing Shinsou in earlier.
To be fair, Hizashi doesn’t tell him to, nor does he want Aizawa to stop. Aizawa is a quiet guy, but Hizashi actually appreciates his company in the mornings. He usually comes in about an hour early, sometimes earlier, and Shinsou will spend some time in the classroom with his father or play while Aizawa watches.
He isn’t sure when, but soon enough, Aizawa starts helping him out in the mornings.
It starts with him offering to help Hizashi wipe down the countertops as Shinsou climbs around on the small jungle gym underneath the loft, sometimes shouting for his dad to look at him. Then it becomes a regular thing—Aizawa starts to not even ask him before starting the routine Hizashi goes through every morning. He appreciates 1the help a lot; with two people, things get a lot cleaner. With a classroom of twenty preschoolers and only a couple teachers, things never get completely clean, but with Aizawa helping, it becomes a lot closer to it. They’ll talk, too, while Aizawa helps him out, and Hizashi usually puts on some music to fill the background.
“Hitoshi’s been teaching me some of the sign language he’s learning,” Aizawa tells him one day as they sort building blocks into differently colored piles. Aizawa looks more tired than usual, and Shinsou’s been coming here for about two months, now. They’ve had a couple incidents, but it’s usually the same thing—Shinsou’s a bit attached to him and when he gets really frustrated, he’ll ask Hizashi something and Hizashi will end up in a slightly terrifying trance. Sometimes, Shinsou will tell him to do something without realizing what’s happened and sometimes he’ll just burst out in tears. Regardless, Hizashi always treats it the same.
“Oh?” Hizashi hums, raising an eyebrow at Aizawa. “He’s a fast learner.”
“He taught me how to sign my name,” Aizawa tosses a few red blocks into the red pile.
Hizashi doesn’t try to stop the wicked grin that breaks out on his face, “Yeah? I wanna see.”
Aizawa gives him an incredulous look, but throws another red block into the pile and raises his hands, fumbling through the movements of fingerspelling his full name. Hizashi’s grin grows until his smile stretches across his face, and he claps his hands together when Aizawa stares at him expectantly.
“Ah, good job! Hitoshi-chan is clearly a very good teacher,” Hizashi beams at him, glancing over Aizawa’s shoulder to see Shinsou peering at them from one of the compartments of the jungle gym.
He almost misses Aizawa’s clumsy sign of thank you.
Hizashi leans in, narrowing his eyes a little, before he realizes what he’s doing, “Aw, how cute.”
And then he immediately shuts himself up. He stares at Aizawa, body going rigid, a colored block still in his hand. Aizawa stares at him. There’s a loud thud, startling both of them.
“Daddy!” Shinsou screams, voice full of pain, and both Hizashi and Aizawa are on their feet in a second. They don’t talk about it, instead focusing on Shinsou, who’d fallen a short distance and scraped his knee. Hizashi gets the first aid kit and gives Shinsou a bandage with cat decorations on it. He seems to forget all about the pain when Aizawa starts bouncing him on his knee.
They talk normally, but Hizashi can feel his face flushed the entire time.
—
Here’s what he knows: Aizawa is single, has never been married, and does not seem to have any potential romantic interests, or at least, none that he ever mentions. He has a few friends, and is friendly with his co workers, but his life seems to revolve around his two jobs and, more importantly, his son.
Here’s what he also knows: He likes Aizawa. He has a certain fondness for Aizawa’s son. He has romantic interest in Aizawa. And He has no idea how to act on the romantic interest he has for Aizawa.
That’s just how life is, he decides. He doesn’t know if he’ll ever act on it, since having feelings for one of his students’ parents is very weird, but he definitely enjoys their mornings together and finds himself missing spending time with Aizawa and Shinsou on the weekends when he doesn’t work. He loves the other kids in his class, but Shinsou has become a little closer to him personally, partially because Hizashi’s situation was rather close to his as a child and partially because Hizashi spends a little more private time with Shinsou due to their shared early mornings.
Shinsou excels in his class. He comes out of his shell more and more with each passing week. He makes friends with Izuku and a semi-mute Kouji, and he has an adorable rivalry with Monoma from the other class in the preschool. He plays well with the other kids, though he’s a bit introverted and sometimes likes to just play alone. He carries his cat and goggles everywhere, and Hizashi makes sure no one pokes fun at him for it. Aizawa is raising Shinsou well, because Shinsou is an incredibly happy and well behaved kid, and he’ll talk about his favorite pro hero Eraserhead to any other kid who will listen.
On show and tell day, where he encourages the kids to dress up, Shinsou shows up in a makeshift grey scarf, a black shirt and black pants, and with those plastic yellow goggles hanging on his neck.
“I tried to talk him out of it,” Aizawa tells him that day.
“Why? Come on, let the kid dress up as his favorite hero,” He teases back, and Aizawa gives him the exact same pout that Shinsou will sometimes wear on his face. There’s no doubt in his mind that Aizawa helped him make this costume, no matter how begrudging he’d been about it.
He gets permission from everyone to take pictures, and he swears he sees a thin blush on Aizawa when Hizashi shows him video of Shinsou running around in his costume, pretending to be Aizawa’s hero persona, but there’s no way he can miss the smile on his face, nor can he miss the way Aizawa puts his hand on Hizashi’s shoulder as they lean over the tablet where Hizashi has the video playing.
“If you don’t ask that man out, I’m gonna do it,” Emi tells him later, as Hizashi watches Aizawa leave.
“You better not,” Hizashi sticks his tongue out at her, and she blows a raspberry at him before clapping her hands together and shouting for the kids to get into a circle. Hizashi doesn’t forget his words, though, and he laughs to himself when he sees Shinsou still running around with that makeshift grey scarf on.
—
As the year goes on, he starts to resign himself to never confessing to Aizawa. It’s better this way, he thinks, because he can just avoid the awkwardness of getting rejected. He can continue to spend the school mornings with Aizawa and his son, and sometimes, the afternoons where Aizawa sticks around for a bit. By winter, he’s resigned to never do anything about his stupid crush, and they’ve developed a little, odd friendship.
What happens is something Hizashi knew was bound to happen. Until then, Shinsou has only ever used his quirk on Hizashi. It’s inevitable that he’d accidentally use it on another student, and Hizashi’s always been prepared for the fallout in case that does happen.
As the year draws to a close, it does happen.
It’s another tough day for the kid. Every kid has them. Shinsou does, too. It’s during an activity with the other kids. Hizashi is having them make holiday cards for their parents, and Shinsou is busy drawing cats all over Aizawa’s, along with a stick-figure doodle of Aizawa himself. Hizashi is helping other kids, since Bakugou is holding a bunch of crayons hostage from Izuku, and Kaminari keeps missing the paper and drawing on the tables, and Shinsou seems to be happily following the directions and keeping to himself.
The kids from the next class seem to bother Shinsou in particular, though. He’s not sure why. Maybe it’s his rivalry with Monoma that the rest of the class has caught onto. Regardless, it’s not until he hears a new student from the next class taunting Shinsou that he steps in, and he feels immediately bad that he didn’t catch the start of it.
“Why don’t you have a mom, Hitoshi? Does she not like you?”
Hizashi hears it, and pats Kaminari on the back quickly, before rushing over, sensing that something’s about to happen. This new kid has been on Shinsou all day. Hizashi’s had to reprimand him a couple times for making fun of both Shinsou and other kids and he wonders if he should start looking more into this kid’s home life to find out why he’s so mean to others.
“I got my dad,” Shinsou continues coloring, and Hizashi counts about ten cats drawn on the inside of Aizawa’s card. Since Shinsou can read and write better than most of the other kids, Hizashi had been fine letting Shinsou write his own message, and when he glances over his messy, childish handwriting, he finds that it’s full of proclamations of love and sweet endearments. He’s coloring in a black cat right now, and he doesn’t even look up at the other boy. “He’s a hero. He can beat you up.”
“Hitoshi-chan,” Hizashi nudges his shoulder, and Shinsou looks up at him, pouting.
“Sorry,” He mutters.
Hizashi’s about to tell him to apologize to the other boy and then take the other out of the classroom for a lecture on being nice, but the kid opposite Shinsou pipes up before he can.
“Your dad’s no hero,” The boy sneers, and Hizashi looks up at him, his own mouth dropping open a little. “If he was a real hero, I’d see him on the news. How come I don’t ever see him? Your dad’s just some dumb guy who pretends to be a hero.”
“No!” Shinsou is up out of his chair in an instant, and his tiny voice rings out in the classroom. The murmur surrounding them quiets, and Hizashi reaches out to pick Shinsou up, but Shinsou squirms, wiggling out of his grasp and continuing to shout at the other boy. “My dad’s the best hero! He’s too good for TV! He’s the best and I love him and he’s better than any other hero! Why do you think a hero has to be on the news to be good?!”
“Because that’s the way it works.”
Shit.
The other kid’s brown eyes go hollow, and the expression clears off his face.
Hizashi grabs Shinsou in an instant, hoping to break his concentration, but it doesn’t work, and as Hizashi holds Shinsou in his arms, he continues to stare wide-eyed at the other kid. Then, it dawns on him, he sniffles, and bursts into sobs. There’s a scream from the table as the other kid comes back, and Hizashi’s already halfway out the door as he grabs Kan’s arm and tells him to control both his own class and Hizashi’s while he’s gone.
It takes longer to calm Shinsou, but a trip into his office, some soft words, bouncing him on his lap, and a cup of pudding eventually does the trick. Hizashi has Shinsou sit at the small table in his office and brings him his card to work on and some markers, and then hesitantly gets on the phone.
Surprisingly, the kid’s mother and father aren’t the angry ones.
There’s just a sigh on the other hand after Hizashi explains the situation, trying to make it clear that Shinsou’s brainwashing was an accident, and then the mother speaks up, “I’m sorry for his behavior, Yamada-sensei. Please tell the other child’s father that we’re sorry he acted out like this. He’ll be hearing about this at home.”
They talk a little more. Neither of them seem to blame Shinsou and for awhile, Hizashi thinks it’s alright. Shinsou comes back to class, though he clings to Hizashi, and Hizashi separates his class and Kan’s for the sake of that not happening again. The rest of the day is fine. The kids in his class are sympathetic. Izuku even entices Shinsou to play heroes with him, and Shinsou puts his toy goggles on and runs around acting like his father like nothing happens.
As always, Aizawa is one of the first parents to arrive. That man has ever once been late, despite his high-stress jobs and despite Hizashi making it clear that if hero work or his own students ever held him up, Hizashi wouldn’t hold it against him. Hizashi ducks out, Emi taking over for him, and pulls Aizawa to the entryway.
“Did something happen?” By now, Aizawa seems much more at ease with discussing Shinsou’s quirk incidents with him. Aizawa’s not the only person he ever pulls aside—he does this with parents whenever there’s a quirk incident with anyone, which turns out to be quite often, since preschoolers are notorious for having terrible non existent control over their power.
“Hitoshi used his quirk on another student,” Hizashi still keeps his voice low. “The parent understood and everything. I don’t think you or Hitoshi are going to catch any trouble from this, and I’ll make an effort to keep Hitoshi away from the kid who was poking fun at him.”
Aizawa seems satisfied with that answer. But Hizashi is wrong.
The next day, early in the morning, while Hizashi and Aizawa talk about some inane topic while they sort out broken toys from working ones as Shinsou plays with plastic cars on one of the mats in the classroom, Hizashi hears a knock at the front doors, followed instantly by the doorbell.
Aizawa falls silent, and gives Hizashi a curious glance. It’s the first time anyone’s ever come in early besides Aizawa.
“I’ll go get it,” Hizashi offers a smile, and rises to his feet, grabbing his apron off of a table and tying it behind him as he makes his way out of the classroom.
“Daddy, look!” He hears Shinsou squeal as he leaves, and then the scuttling of little feet running towards Aizawa.
He leaves the room as Aizawa makes a few comments on whatever Shinsou’s showing him, and as he steps into the entryway, pulling his hair up in an attempt to look more professional, he sees two very angry looking women at the front doors. He doesn’t immediately remember yesterday’s incident, since both Aizawa and the other kid’s parents had been fine and Shinsou had eventually calmed down and gone back to class, and he’s more than a little concerned as he opens the door for them, recognizing them as two parents from Kan’s class.
“Hello. Can I help you? It’s a bit before dropoff, but if you’d like to come in—”
“We would,” The shorter of the two cuts him off with a few curt words, and shocked, Hizashi stands aside. They push past him, the taller, larger woman shooting him a glare as she passes, and Hizashi locks the door again behind them.
“We’d like to discuss something,” The short one tells him, voice tight.
“I have an office right down this hallway—”
“We heard about yesterday,” The taller woman cuts him off again and Hizashi narrows his eyes at not being allowed to finish his sentences. Yesterday…?
Oh.
“I don’t recall that incident involving either of your children,” He fights to keep his voice controlled. He turns his gaze towards the larger woman, “In fact, your daughter wasn’t even in school yesterday. This incident has been worked out between myself and both parents involved in the situation.”
In the classroom, he can hear the muffled sounds of Shinsou babbling to Aizawa in his high voice, and Aizawa responding with his softer, deeper one. He can’t make out what they’re saying, but he can tell Shinsou is excited about something and Aizawa is doing his usual thing where he encourages Shinsou with the occasional comment or question.
“You have to legally disclose to parents when there’s a child with a dangerous quirk in the school,” The smaller woman says, drawing Hizashi’s attention back to her. She looks smug, smiling with her hands on her hips, and the other woman nods at him, as if this was the argument that they’d put all their confidence in. “Kids who can brainwash others shouldn’t be allowed with other children. That child could make anyone do horrid things. I don’t want my kid around him. You’re committing a crime by not telling us about such a danger to our children.”
Hizashi just stares at her. She’s talking loudly, way too loud, and Hizashi realizes that both Shinsou’s babbling and Aizawa’s voice have stopped talking.
“I don’t know what kind of parenting forum you’re looking at, but there’s absolutely no laws like that,” Hizashi can’t hold his tongue anymore. He’s angry, because this is the kid that’s been nothing but pleasant to him and others since he’d enrolled. Sure, Shinsou has his small tantrums and he sometimes needs to be told to share and he doesn’t always like playing with others, but Hizashi’s never had a problem with Shinsou hurting other kids and even when he says something hurtful, he’s quick to genuinely apologize when it’s explained to him. Shinsou is a good kid who’s been raised exceptionally well, and he’s a joy to have in class.
“But—” The taller woman tries, but Hizashi does exactly what she’d done to him earlier and cuts her off.
“‘Dangerous’? That’s pretty funny given that your kid has a fire breathing quirk that sets off the fire alarms here at least once a week. And your kid,” He points at the taller woman, raising his voice slightly, resisting the temptation to push a little of his deeper tones into it to make their ears ring and give them a taste of a truly dangerous quirk. “Has claws that need to be covered because she intentionally scratches kids so often. You know what this kid does with his quirk? Nothing. Every time he’s used it has been on accident. The worst he’s done is used it on accident because he wanted his snack sooner than another kid.”
“What if he does worse, though?” The short woman hisses at him, looking offended at his insinuation that her child could possibly be dangerous. “Imagine what kind of villain he’ll become. It’s better to put a muzzle on him and stop it before it starts.”
His heart nearly stops.
Hizashi’s voice falls to a murmur, “A muzzle, huh…?”
He acts automatically, and he moves towards his classroom, where the door is ajar still. The women mutter and shout after him but unsurprisingly, they’re on his heels in an instant, and Hizashi pushes the door open, standing just inside, letting the two women in the doorway of his classroom.
Inside, Aizawa sits in one of the child chairs at a table. Shinsou is sitting in his lap, grinning at a tablet in his hands, earbuds in his ears. He looks as happy as he can be, bouncing on Aizawa’s lap, and Hizashi is able to see that he’s watching some kids’ show on heroes and quirks. In stark contrast, though, Aizawa’s eyes are red-tinged, and he has a hand in his hair, pulling at the strands as he glances at them, his arm tightening around Shinsou as his dark eyes fall on the two women. There’s no doubt that he’s heard everything.
“Is that—?” One of the women murmurs. Hizashi doesn’t answer, and nods at Aizawa. Aizawa doesn’t even ask him what he means, instead gently pulling the tablet from his son’s hands and taking the headphones out of his ears. Shinsou makes a small disappointed noise, but it’s quickly silenced when he sees Hizashi, and instantly starts talking to him.
“Hizashi, I’m gonna be a hero when I grow up! I’m gonna go to my dad’s school and I’m gonna be just like him! Hizashi, look!” Hizashi doesn’t answer, and Shinsou squirms in Aizawa’s hold, until Aizawa lets up enough that Shinsou can bend over his lap and pull a familiar-looking replica scarf from the bag of things Aizawa always brings for Shinsou. He proudly holds it up, and Aizawa ducks his head away, Hizashi able to see the red tinging his cheeks. It’s the scarf Shinsou sometimes brings to school, but it looks much closer to the real thing Aizawa uses for his hero uniform, and it doesn’t take a lot of intelligence of Hizashi to figure out that Aizawa fixed it for him and made it look closer to his.
“Hitoshi-chan, that looks nice. Your dad must’ve fixed it up for you, right? You’ll be a great hero, kiddo, and I bet your dad thinks so, too,” His smile is half-genuine and half for show. The women in the doorway are quiet.
“He gave it to me this morning!” Shinsou’s voice is loud with excitement. He tilts his head up to look at Aizawa. “I’m gonna be like you!”
“I’m sure you are,” Aizawa tells him quietly.
“I saved our kitty from going outside yesterday,” Shinsou tells him proudly,holding on tightly to the newly remade scarf. Even from here, Hizashi can see stitching in it, and he almost laughs at the prospect of Aizawa sitting and sewing a scarf for his son, who wanted nothing more than to be exactly like him.
“Oh, you’re already very heroic, then,” Hizashi comments. “I have to agree with your dad. I think you’ll be a fantastic hero, just like he is.”
Shinsou shouts with excitement.
Hizashi casts a glance beside him, narrowing his eyes at the two women staring into the classroom, speaking lowly to them, “If I ever hear a suggestion that includes muzzling a child again, I’ll be removing both of you from the school. Which, as I might remind you, I have every right to do if you cause emotional or physical harm to staff, other children, or other parents, per the contract you signed when your kids entered my care. If you don’t like that, you can remove your kids yourself and go. I have a few people eager to send their kids here on a waiting list, so it doesn’t matter to me. I don’t want to ever hear you claiming a toddler is some sort of villain again. Are we clear?”
“You—” The shorter woman huffs at him, giving him a dirty look.
“Like I said, if you don’t like it, remove your kids. I’m not losing anything.”
“We’ll be leaving,” The taller one interjects, grabbing the arm of the other. “And we’ll be discussing this.”
“Fine by me.”
He doesn’t escort them out, staying just inside the classroom as he watches the women struggle with the lock on the door before finally figuring it out and stomping out. Only then does Hizashi close his eyes and sigh, pushing his glasses up on his nose.
“Hizashi.”
Aizawa says his name quietly, and he looks back up to see that Aizawa’s got Shinsou distracted with the tablet again. Hizashi feels warmth in his chest, and despite what’s just happened, it’s pleasant. Aizawa doesn’t look angry or upset in the least, and Hizashi lets out a breath of relief as he crosses the room and sits himself at the table near Aizawa, just like he’d done on the first day Aizawa had brought Shinsou here.
Aizawa leans into him, and he’s close enough that Hizashi can feel the heat radiating from his body.
“Let me buy you a drink,” His voice is quiet, soft, and there’s something in it—compassion. “After school today. This evening. You can pick where. Let me take you out.”
He can’t breathe, and all he can do is give Aizawa a trembling smile.
“Sure.”
—
Hizashi makes his way into the quiet bar, almost expecting to be stood up.
He’s nervous. More nervous than ever. Hizashi had put his love life on hold a few years ago after having his share of rambunctious one night stands and flings in his early twenties. By his later twenties, he really just wanted to focus on his career and maybe eventually settle down with someone his age if he eventually got lucky. Going on dates—romantic ones—was something Hizashi had put on the back-burner a while ago, and it’s almost foreign to him now, though he’d been a serial dater in his younger years.
He’s thirty now, and he definitely feels his age. It’s not a bad thing, but he’s stopped being so indecisive and spontaneous. He’s still loud, excitable, and flashy, but it’s a different sort from the way he’d been at a younger age. He’s more mature, now, and he’s not looking for a fling, but actual companionship, and he really likes what he has with Aizawa, so hanging out with him outside of Hizashi’s work and being on some sort of date with him is nerve wracking.
He hasn’t been stood up, because Aizawa’s already waiting for him at the bar. It’s one of the only times that he’s seen Aizawa out of his uniform, and he assumes, the only time Aizawa’s seen him without his apron on and the shirt he always wears with the preschool’s name printed on it. Hizashi had mulled over his outfit for awhile this afternoon before settling on a long sleeved nicer shirt, dark jeans, and the usual leather jacket he wears outside of work. He has his hair down, though he’s pulled his long bangs into a bun, and it partially exposes his ears.
Aizawa looks nice and somehow, more attractive without the baggy jumpsuit on. He’s wearing a thick sweater and a sports jacket over it, and his hair actually looks properly brushed for once. His eyes find Hizashi as soon as he walks through the door. Hizashi doesn’t hesitate in taking a seat next to him at the bar.
“You’re always early to things, aren’t you?” Hizashi tries joking, voice shaking a bit. Aizawa smiles and snorts at his joke, though, and Hizashi feels his nerves calm a little.
“Being late is an inconvenience and not practical,” Aizawa informs him, drumming his fingers on the bar. “Hitoshi’s with a friend of mine for the evening. I thought, if you’re feeling up to it, I could treat you to dinner and a movie, as well.”
“Is this a date—?!”
Honestly, Hizashi’s lost a lot of his smoothness after years of not dating. His face goes hot, and Aizawa actually laughs, and Hizashi loves the sound of it, even if it’s in response to Hizashi’s blurted out question.
“I thought I made it clear that it was earlier,” Aizawa grins at him, and though his smile is crooked and maybe a little strange, Hizashi sort of thinks it’s his best feature. “I’ve been planning on asking you out to dinner for a while, but haven’t quite found the chance. I don’t—I’ve never really dated anyone, and I never planned to, but things change. What you did earlier—you have to understand how much that means to me. And to Hitoshi. I decided it was then or never.”
“I was just doing what was right,” Hizashi says, his voice quiet against the murmur of the rest of the bar.
“You’d be surprised how many people don’t know right from wrong, then.”
He realizes how close Aizawa is to him. Like earlier, he can feel the heat radiating off of Aizawa’s body. His face is close to his, and it’s only natural as Hizashi lets his eyes slip shut and leans in, Aizawa’s lips meeting his halfway. He wraps an arm around Aizawa’s neck, fingers brushing through his long black hair, and he thinks that this is everything he’s wanted.
He has the career he’s always wanted. He probably has a boyfriend now. He might even have a family.
When he’d seen Aizawa and his son outside his school all those months ago, he’d never imagined that it’d accumulate in this, in him kissing his new student’s father in the middle of a quiet bar, but he definitely wouldn’t have it any other way.
—
Two months later, he moves in.
Aizawa says it’s only practical when he first suggests it. Hizashi’s lease is up at his apartment, and the owners are raising the rent. While he can pay the increased rent, when he describes it to him as he sits at Aizawa’s house one night, watching Shinsou play with their cat, Aizawa simply tells him to move in with them. It’s going to happen anyways, he says, so why put it off another year while Hizashi waits out another lease on his apartment? Besides, he tells him, it’s a house opposed to an apartment, and Hizashi would actually be paying less, since Aizawa’s house in nearly paid off.
So Hizashi agrees, and it doesn’t actually take a lot of deciding to do so. Aizawa’s a logical guy and when he presents arguments like this, it’s a little hard to shoot him down or even argue when he makes rational, valid points.
They’re a good pair, he thinks. They hit it off after the first date. They took things slow. It’s been easy, though, since Hizashi’s found that dating doesn’t mean that he has to change the dynamic they already have. He’s comfortable, and the nervousness had quickly gone away, and Shinsou is absolutely ecstatic that Hizashi’s moving in.
Moving, however, is hard, and by the end of the first day of moving his things, Hizashi is exhausted and even strong, pro hero Aizawa is sweating from hauling boxes around. Hizashi hadn’t even been aware that he’d had this much stuff, and to make matters worse, he’d gotten rid of half of it before the move.
Still, Aizawa drags the futon from a closet and he and Hizashi both flop down on it together. They’re disgusting, sweaty and smelly, and Aizawa’s hair looks more ratty and tangled than Hizashi’s ever seen it before. The two of them catch their breath, laying on their backs, and Hizashi turns his head, grinning at Aizawa.
He doesn’t get to say anything, though, because soon enough, a very excited, almost five year-old comes running out of the bedroom next to what’s now Hizashi and Aizawa’s, and launches himself at Aizawa. Aizawa grunts, giving an annoyed, pained groan, but he catches Shinsou before he can hurt himself by hitting the ground, and pulls him tight against his chest.
“Didn’t I put you to bed?” Aizawa mumbles to his son, and Shinsou explodes into a fit of giggling.
“I wanna help!” Shinsou cries out, squirming and giggling in Aizawa’s hold. “No, lemme go. I can help.”
“Nope. Bedtime.”
Hizashi lets himself laugh. That earns him a glare from Aizawa.
“Don’t encourage him or he’ll never get to sleep.”
Hizashi gives it some thought, “Hitoshi, if you go to bed now, you’ll have more time to help me in the morning. And I’ll see if your dad will let me give you pudding for breakfast.”
That makes Shinsou stop squirming, and Hizashi has to bite his tongue to not laugh more.
“Fine,” Shinsou huffs, and Aizawa lets him up. Shinsou starts to tiptoe off, but he stops, looking at Aizawa, who’s sitting up a little, clearly to make sure that Shinsou actually gets to bed. “Daddy, read to me, please?”
“I’ll be in there in a few minutes,” He can’t miss the fondness in Aizawa’s voice, and it makes him feel warm.
Hizashi looks around, at the place he lives now. In the last two months, he’s spent a lot of time here, and it was like a second home to him even before Aizawa suggested he move in. The house is nice. It’s brightly lit and warm, and though it’s cluttered with boxes and stray things from the moving van, he knows Aizawa keeps his place pretty clean. He thinks he’ll like it here, and as he lays on the futon with Aizawa, he feels happy.
He’d been happy before, and he knows that having a significant other can’t necessarily make someone happy, but he feels complete and secure with his life now. He has what he’s always wanted—a career in childcare and teaching, someone he really genuinely likes by his side, and his own little family. There’s always going to be small problems in his life, especially with work, but he’s happy and right now, he wouldn’t change anything for the world.
“I knew having a preschool teacher in the house would be a good idea,” Aizawa grins at him and sits up, stretching his arms over his head. Hizashi makes an exaggerated, joking groan at the way he smells, though he knows he’s just as disgusting as Aizawa.
“Taking advantage of my profession already, I see,” Hizashi chides back.
Aizawa doesn’t reply, only leaning over him, quieting Hizashi with a kiss pressed against his lips. With that, Aizawa gets up and yawns, making his way to his son’s room and soon enough, Hizashi hears his voice carrying out to the living room as he starts reading to Shinsou.
Hizashi allows himself one last warm smile before getting up to take a shower and then resume his task of unpacking.