Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Izuku wanted to scrub his eyes clean. Wanted to purge his mind of the memories that now stained the back of his eyelids. The tears helped soothe his heartbreak, even if only a little bit. 

He sniffled, holding back another sob. Of course, this would happen to him. After all, his bad luck was so widely known. It had only been a matter of time until his fiancé, Katsuki, found solace in someone newer, someone better. Izuku had just held onto the childish hope that maybe it would never happen. Or, at the very least, it wouldn’t have happened with his best friend. 

Izuku had come to check in on Katsuki after the last big fire that he had put out not even an hour prior. But it seemed that the firefighter had someone else on his mind if the way he had Ochaco pressed up against a wall of the fire station was any indication.

None of Katsuki’s friends were around from what Izuku could see, so realistically he wasn’t sure if any of them knew. Granted, only one of them was also a firefighter. The others were a diverse bunch of people, so there was no telling if they knew either.

Izuku stood on the edge of the sidewalk, waiting for the crosswalk light to change. He sniffled again when his little pity party was interrupted by the soft ringtone of his phone. The brunet wanted to ignore it, not wanting to find out if Uraraka had actually seen him. He had sworn he saw her staring directly at him as if gloating that she stole his man.

He shuddered but reluctantly pulled his phone out of his pocket. ‘Mama’ was displayed on the screen and Izuku couldn’t help but let out a watery laugh. Trust his mom’s sixth sense to tell her when something was wrong.

He clicked the green answer button and brought the phone up to his ear. “Hi, Mama.”

“Izuku, I just wanted to call in and check on you. How are you?” Inko, his mother, asked softly.

“She felt a disturbance in the force!” Izuku heard his dad’s laughing voice in the background only to be cut off by a wheezing noise.

“Ignore your father, dear. You know how he is.”

The young man couldn’t help but smile. “It’s okay, Mama. His weirdo personality is why you married him.”

“I suppose that’s true.”

There was a beat of silence before Izuku sighed and cradled his phone closer to his face and spoke softly, “I’m… not doing great, Mama. I… I can’t marry Katsuki. I just can’t.”

He was reluctant to say anymore. Even if the firefighter had hurt him, Izuku didn’t want the man to face any repercussions. He was still Izuku’s first love, his childhood sweetheart, there was no way that the brunet wouldn’t feel guilty if something happened to him.

“Oh… oh sweetheart,” Inko began. “If… if you can’t marry him. Hm… come home, Izuku, and we’ll talk about this, okay?”

Izuku easily agreed, and soon his phone was back in his pocket. Realistically, it wasn’t going to be easy to suddenly call off his marriage. After all, everyone he knew thought he was head-over-heels in love with Katsuki. And he had been, before those rose-tinted glasses he wore had been so violently ripped off that it left him feeling hollow.

His green eyes darted up to the crosswalk light the moment it changed symbols for him to go. He stepped forward when an arm was wrapped around his waist. He was forcefully pulled backward right as a car hurled past them. 

Izuku was panicked, what-ifs swirling around in his cluttered head. He only seemed to snap back to himself when a deep, gruff voice spoke far too close to his ear.

“You okay, kid?”

Usually, Izuku would have been upset about being called ‘kid’. After all he might not look it, but he was already 21. But any protest died on his tongue the moment he looked up at the man who had undoubtedly saved him.

He was tall, maybe 20 centimeters taller than Izuku. He had dark hair, it was long and had a slight wave to it but it was pulled back from what the shorter man could see. His eyes were a deep grey with blue bleeding out from his pupil. He looked tired, light bags under his eyes and stubble that looked like he didn’t bother to shave. Extremely attractive to Izuku’s subconscious. Really, if Izuku had still been looking for love, maybe he would have asked the taller man for his number or something (not that Izuku wouldn’t have stuttered his way through the question). 

“You still with me?”

Izuku was aware of the heat against his back. He cleared his throat, voice hoarse as he spoke.

“Yeah, I’m okay,” Izuku began. Only then did the man step back, and it gave the younger man a chance to turn and bow to his savior. “Thank you for saving me. I don’t want to imagine the alternative.”

The stranger grunted, “Be more careful next time.” Then he stepped away, turning to continue off down the sidewalk. Izuku wanted to stop him, but he wasn’t sure what he’d even say, so he didn’t bother the man, watching as the man rounded the corner out of sight.

Izuku stood there for a moment longer before shaking his head and gently slapping his cheeks before finally crossing the street and heading back to his house.

-

Izuku got home and threw himself into his mother’s outstretched arms, his chest heaving with quiet sobs. His dad was there as well, one of his large, warm hands coming to rest on one of Izuku’s shoulders as a comforting presence.

“Are you going to tell us what happened, son?” Hisashi, his dad, asked as softly as he could.

Izuku took a long moment before he shook his head. “Not yet… I don’t think I’m ready.”

Both of his parents sighed, and it just made Izuku feel even more guilty, but he could be stubborn. He wasn’t going to give in and just tell people what had happened when Izuku himself couldn’t even wrap his head around it. 

“We could always find different arrangements. The Bakugou‘s kid isn’t your only option, Izuku,” his dad finally said, sounding more upset than Izuku did.

-

Okay, so maybe Izuku would tell one person. But only because said person was so nice and was like a grandfather to him, and also because Izuku couldn’t keep his big mouth shut when said friend seemed to know that he was hiding something. He sat across from the older man, who already seemed to have a head of white hair despite his insistence that ‘he wasn’t that old yet’.

“And my poor parents, they haven’t figured out what exactly to do about it yet… I’m so worried about my family’s reputation being shredded because of my… my inability to keep my own boyfriend in check! Well… I suppose he isn’t my boyfriend anymore, but my point still stands. What am I even supposed to do in this case?” Izuku lamented, leaning down and pressing his forehead to the cold metal of the table he was seated at.

“I see. What an unfortunate turn of events. I can only hope that the situation will eventually resolve itself in a timely manner. But from what it sounds like, you simply need someone to…fill in the empty spot as your fiancé,” Nedzu theorized, taking a long sip of tea. He was silent for a moment before he smiled widely. “Say, I’ve told you before that I have a son, right? He’s not too much older than you, and he’s single. He hasn’t been looking for a partner despite my… gentle prodding. Perhaps something can be drawn up for the both of you?”

Izuku had just sat up and started drinking his cooled-down tea, but now he was sputtering. Tea dribbled from his lips as he coughed, his fist lightly banging against his chest in a futile effort to get the tea out of his lungs.

“I’m sorry, did I hear that correctly? You want me to marry your son? But—”

Izuku was cut off by Nedzu speaking again, “Not to worry, my Shouta would never do anything bad to you. He’s a good boy, if a little stand-offish. I believe you two will get along splendidly! Don’t worry, I’ll handle everything, and I’ll even send a marriage contract to your home.”

The younger man sat there in utter shock as Nedzu hummed happily, sipping his tea like he solved some major crisis and not just decided on Izuku’s entire love life for him. And the brunet didn’t want to think about the fact that the older man implied that he knew where Izuku lived . 

“I—… okay,” Izuku murmured with resignation, staring down into his teacup, not noticing the utterly smug look on Nedzu’s face.

-

A few days later, Izuku was still hiding from Katsuki. He was avoiding all contact with the firefighter and his ex-best friend despite the number of text notifications that had been cropping up on his lock screen. That hadn’t stopped him from hanging out with his other friends but it did prevent him from bringing up anything about what had occurred. 

(And believe Izuku when he says that they definitely tried to get him to spit it out, considering if Ochaco was there, the heartbroken boy was mysteriously absent.)

Late in the afternoon, Hisashi and Inko called Izuku into the study, a stack of papers in his father’s hands. 

“A sketchy solution has found its way to us, Izuku. Someone claiming to be saved by you has offered their kid up to marry you,” the older man said, a good amount of skepticism lacing his voice as if he doubted the words on the papers. He carelessly tossed the contract onto the desk as if he couldn’t bear to touch it.

Izuku paled, his shaky hands coming up to rub at his face. “Oh… I thought he was joking! I didn’t think he’d actually—oh god, who am I kidding, of course he would, but… but…I don’t even know his son!” 

Inko tilted her head, swiftly approaching him and taking his clammy hands in her soft ones, “Izuku, you know who sent this contract, don’t you.”

The young brunet jerkily nodded, his green eyes fluttering up to meet his mother’s. “ Yeah… Mr. Nedzu sent them. He said he would after all, but that was honestly quicker than I expected.” Izuku took a breath to steady himself before continuing on. “I think I told you both this story before. About an older man who I found in the woods, bleeding out?”

A look of realization dawned on both of his parents' faces before Hisashi scoffed, “You kept in touch with a strange man who now wants you to marry his son… Izuku what the fuck?”

“Hisashi!” Inko scolded, “Izuku, darling, you can say no. If he’s forcing you into this, you don’t have to—”

“No no, Mr. Nedzu is a really good man! Okay, so maybe he’s a little manipulative, and I have a sneaking suspicion that he’s broken a couple laws… but he’s never done anything to harm me! In fact, that contract is his way of helping me out of my situation. Think of it as him paying back the favor of me saving him?”

There was a long bout of silence before Hisashi sighed and rubbed his forehead, picking up the papers again, “Fine, but just know I don’t like this idea. Not one bit. However, there is merit in marrying you off to someone else if it keeps you away from that brat… Let’s review the contract as a family and go from there.”

Chapter Text

After going over the contract (and it was a very nice contract that allowed for flexibility from both parties and a divorce after a year if need be), the Midoriya family quickly decided that it would be best to go through with it despite not necessarily knowing the other party. Izuku had faith in Nedzu, even if it was wavering at the moment.

“So, this is it… I’m marrying him. Okay, I can do this. Everything will be just fine. No need to panic,” Izuku murmured to himself. He was alone in his room, wearing a track into his floor with his pacing.

“It’s not like I still want to marry Katsuki, but what would he think…? What would my friends think if I marry someone I’ve never even spoken about?” Izuku squeaked. He groaned and ruffled his already disheveled and tangled hair. “Why is it so hard to just… not think about that cheater?”

Izuku flopped down onto his bed, staring at the ceiling. He took some slow deep breaths before he nodded to himself, mentally deciding. “I can do this. I can marry a stranger. Anything to not have to be with… with him. Anything to cut ties with the both of them. Oh god, that means I’m going to suck it up and actually explain to my family and close friends what is going on. That’s… ugh… later. I’ll just do that later.”

-

‘Later’ became a week when Izuku was on a FaceTime call with his closest friends, Shouto, Tenya, Tsu, and Hitoshi. He had been laughing about a joke that Shouto had told, and while it wasn’t necessarily funny, the deadpan delivery had Izuku rolling.

There was a soft knock on his door, and his mother stepped in, a suit draped over her forearm. “Izuku, sweetheart, it’s time for you to get ready.”

The brunet’s friend had all shouted hello to his sweet mother, but then Tsu asked the dreaded question.

“Get ready for what?”

To which Tenya piped up in a matter-of-fact tone, “Don’t you remember? Bakugou and Izuku’s wedding party is today.”

Inko’s face went dark at the mention of Katsuki, and Izuku thought the woman was about to combust. He had given in and coughed up the news to his parents earlier that week, wanting no future misunderstandings between the family.

-

“Mom, Dad? Can I talk to you both for a minute? Please?” Izuku asked, having caught them both when they were relaxing in the living room. 

It had taken no coaxing at all to get them both to start worrying over him. “What is it? Did something else happen? Oh, my poor baby,” Inko cooed.

“Nothing new. I just… wanted to tell you both what’s going on. I—” Izuku bit his lip, squeezing his fingers as he thought of how to properly articulate his thoughts. “I can’t marry Katsuki because he hurt me… not physically! Not physically!” Izuku rushed out as he saw his dad immediately start trying to stand, anger in every line of his face.

“Him and Ochaco—” 

His mother’s gasp cut him off as she looked just as angry as his dad who had just started cooling off, “He chose her over you ?”

Izuku winced and shyly nodded before immediately piping up, “But I don’t want either of them to get in trouble or anything! I don’t want it to reflect badly on them… I just want them to be happy. Even if that happiness doesn’t have me in it. Which is why I was hoping that this arranged marriage would help remove me from their situation.”

“I see,” Hisashi said gruffly with a low huff. “Bastards. You’re too nice for them, Izuku.”

“Don’t worry, Izuku, we promise we won’t do anything to them. But remember, what goes around comes around. Just because you don’t plan to do anything doesn’t mean nothing will happen to them, okay?” Inko soothed.

That did actually make Izuku feel better, surprisingly. As long as he had no part in the retribution, he could continue guilt free. And that took quite a bit of stress off his shoulders.

-

“Izuku is not getting married to some… some… self-important, narcissistic, little brat!” Inko said, and Izuku instinctively flinched.

But thankfully, his mother was smart enough not to elaborate to which Izuku ran his fingers nervously through his hair as he turned his attention back to his friends.

“Tell us what’s going on, ‘Zu,” Hitoshi’s lower voice asked. It was hard to hear, but his concern was palpable.

Faintly, the brunet heard his mom leave his room, giving him a bit of privacy, probably feeling bad about giving up the game to his friends. But Izuku knew that this had to happen. And sooner is always better than later (unfortunately).

“So… let’s start with last week, when I started acting strange. You all kept asking why I didn’t want to hang out with Ochaco. And while I don’t necessarily hate her per se…” Izuku took a deep breath. “You remember that big wildfire that was broadcast. We knew that Katsuki and Kirishima had been deployed because they were on the news. Well, I went to go check on Katsuki, y’know, like I always do when he gets done with a particularly exhausting fire. Because it’s what a good boyfriend does. But when I got there, to the fire station, I saw my boyfriend, because of course he’d be there.”

Katsuki’s name tasted like ash on his tongue and his face screwed up into hurt which prompted his friends to fuss over him like he was a newborn baby.

“You don’t have to keep going, Izuku,” Shouto said. 

“Yes, if it’s too much, you should stop for your mental health!” Tenya chimed in.

Izuku shook off the worried looks. It was best if he got this out now.

“Katsuki was there… I should stop calling him that… Bakugou was there. But so was… Uraraka. At first, I wouldn’t have thought anything of it since I know that they're also friends. I can’t keep people all to myself. That's just rude. And then I saw them. I went to go say hi, but then I realized what they were doing. Bakugou had Uraraka pinned to the wall, and they were…. They were making out… and I can’t be sure… but I’m certain that Uraraka knew I had seen them.”

There was silence in the call before he heard Tsu’s voice utter an ‘oh,’ and Izuku couldn’t help but feel bad for her. Other than Izuku and Tenya, she had been the closest to the brunette girl. In fact, when they were in high school, many of the class had believed the two would end up together. 

“So just to get this straight, Bakugou was cheating on you… with Uraraka?” Shouto asked, his head tilted to the side.

Izuku gave a solid nod, and it was silent again before Hitoshi scoffed.

“Good riddance then. Bakugou was a bastard, and I’m glad I can finally say it now. You deserve better, ‘Zu. So I say fuck ‘em.”

Izuku slowly smiled before laughing, leaning back on his bed, “You’re right, Toshi. I’ve been carrying around the stress of whether or not I should tell you guys because I wasn’t sure what you would think. Not sure why I thought I would be hated… Did I do anything wrong? I was hurt and I’m simply licking my wounds before I confront them.”

“I don’t think you did anything wrong,” Shouto stated.

“I don’t either. It was inappropriate for such a thing to happen, but it is not as if you lashed out at them. And you tried to save their faces,” Tenya slowly said.

“Agreed. Don’t worry too much about it,” Tsu piped up.

Izuku sat up, and he smiled at his small group of friends. Then his face scrunched up, and he sighed. “Thank you guys for understanding. But I didn’t tell you about something important. What I’m getting ready for. Uh… how do I put this… I’m getting married to someone I don’t know. I’ll let you guys meet him soon!”

Izuku dove for his phone as his friends’ voices rose up in disbelief. He suddenly ended the call and turned off his phone. He groaned and buried his face in the blankets of his bed.

Then there was another knock on his door, and his mom stepped in and held up the suit. Izuku groaned again but slid off his bed to get dressed. He showered quickly and put on the suit before letting his mom at his hair.

Inko helped put product in his hair to style it out of the messy frizz it was in. “Unfortunately, your father and I can’t go with you today, so I hope everything goes smoothly. But just know that you’ll always have a place here at home with us just like Tenko does.”

Izuku nodded in a daze because, of course, he forgot that he had to move into a house with this man that he didn’t know yet. But he just had to trust that Mr. Nedzu didn’t raise a child as eccentric and manipulative as him.

“Thank you, Mama,” the brunet murmured as he sat still, allowing her to do whatever she wished with his hair.

Not even a minute later, there was a knock on his bedroom door, and his father stepped in with what Izuku would have described as a grimace.

“I still don’t want you to get married to some random man’s kid, Izuku. But, as long as he treats you well… well, plausible deniability and all that,” the albino sniffed his red eyes starting to tear up. “My baby is getting married…” he murmured, voice wobbly.

Inko cooed as she stood cuddling into Hisashi’s side to comfort her husband, “I know, dear. We both knew this day would come, but I don’t think we were prepared for it.”

Izuku stood and took a few steps before collapsing into his parents’ arms. “Don’t worry, I’ll come to visit often. I love you both so much.” The young man’s voice wobbled with sadness.

“We love you too. We expect, at the very least, visits every other week, son.”

“Every other week? Tenko doesn’t even have to visit that much!”

“Tenko lives in a whole other prefecture and… well, his boyfriend is… nice… we don’t…” Inko seemed to be having trouble saying anything nice about his adopted brother’s boyfriend. But his dad never had any qualms about it.

“He’s a Todoroki. And he’s an asshole. Not like his god awful man of a father, but still. Once a month is still too often, but I still want to see my other son dammit.”

Izuku just nodded sagely, trying to remember if he had ever told his dad that he was friends with another member of the Todoroki family.

Chapter Text

Izuku stepped out of the car, nervously adjusting his suit jacket. He worried his bottom lip between his teeth, as he looked up at the government building. There was a pit forming in his gut, and the blood in his veins felt both hot and cold. He swallowed hard as he took a shaky breath to try to calm himself down.

He felt like he had been on edge ever since he had caught the scandal. And now he couldn’t back away from it. 

(A small part of him hoped that his new husband would be a more level-headed fellow to round out the nervous bundle of energy that was Izuku.)  

With another deep breath, Izuku stepped into the building. The inside was surprisingly grand. Marble walls, a delicate yet huge hanging chandelier, tiled floor that his dress shoes clicked against. There were a few signs set up and one of them made a shudder run down his spine.

This particular building offered conference rooms to rent out for events. They were booked in advance and then advertised day-of so people could easily navigate to them.

Izuku pointedly walked past the sign that advertised the wedding party for him and Bakugou. It was obviously designed by Mitsuki, Katsuki’s mom. She’s a famous fashion designer and extremely detail-oriented. It was a gorgeous sign, but he didn’t want to see it anymore.

“If he wants someone to go with, he can go with Uraraka,” the brunet grumbled as he trudged in the direction of the Marriage Registration Department.

He hadn’t even been able to take a couple steps past the sign before a chill ran down his spine. There were footsteps heading in his direction and he instantly recognized the heavy footfalls.

“Oi, Deku!”

Izuku tried not to flinch as he turned around to come face-to-face with his ex-fiancé.

“Bakugou.”

Izuku felt a slight thrill run through him as the other man flinched at the formal address.

“Deku, where the fuck have you been, huh? Our party is starting in a couple minutes,” the blonde seemed to recover and scolded him. “And what on earth are you wearing? I told you not to make this a big deal either, there is no damn reason for you to be wearing a fucking suit.”

Izuku stood there and let Katsuki yell at him. It was only when the brash man grabbed his wrist tightly and began tugging did he finally speak up.

“I’m not here for the party,” he began, but he didn’t get much farther than that.

“The fuck you mean you’re not here for our party? What the hell else would you be doing here? Don’t be stupid, come on. Everyone is already there waiting for you.”

Katsuki began to tug harder, and despite the pain that the brunet felt shooting up his arm, he held steadfast to his spot.

“I already told you, I’m not here for that,” Izuku yanked his hand out of the blond’s grasp.

Bakugou growled, getting ready to throw a tantrum like he always did when he didn’t get his way.

He opened his mouth when the sound of shoes on the tiles caught both of their attention.

“I hope I’m not interrupting anything, but if you’re going to argue, don’t do it in public. You’re disturbing everyone else.”

Izuku tensed because he knew that voice. Sure he had only ever heard it once, but of course such a nice deep voice would stick with him.

Green eyes flickered up to meet the dark grey he had seen on the day of his world falling apart around him. The stranger was clean shaven today and Izuku couldn’t help but silently mourn the loss of the stubble. It had suited him more.

“Don’t tell us what to do, fuck off, extra,” Bakugou spat.

Izuku rolled his eyes at Katsuki's belligerent behavior and bowed to the newcomer, “I’ll be more considerate of those around us. Sorry for any inconvenience.”

When he stood straight, the tall man seemed to have a slightly shocked look on his face, but it was fleeting and Izuku tilted his head a bit as those grey eyes looked him up and down.

“You wouldn’t happen to be-”

“Why haven’t you fucked off yet? Deku, come on, I’m done dealing with your stubborn behavior,” Bakugou grunted and reached out to grab Izuku’s wrist again.

The smaller man was faster as he took a step back out of his reach, “I already told you that I’m not here for that. Why would I want to go when… never mind, I’m not going to fight with you.”

Izuku turned on his heel, briskly walking off, leaving Bakugou to shout after him.

“Hey, where do you think you're going? Come back here! You’ll regret this, you damn Deku! You hear me? Your family is ruined because of you!”

The brunet flinched, but kept on. His parents had already assured him that their family wouldn’t take any sort of hit from this, yet that couldn’t quite quell the fear and guilt that had taken root in his subconscious.

It was after Katsuki’s voice faded into nothing that he realized there were footsteps following him to the Marriage Registration Department. He glanced over his shoulder to see the stranger a couple steps back with an amused look on his face.

“O-Oh, you’re still here. Again, sorry for any inconvenience my ex-fiancé and I caused with our disagreement.”

The man waved his hand, “Don’t worry about it. Kid seemed to have anger issues. I highly doubt you were the one who started it seeing as you were definitely the more reasonable one out of the two of you. But I do recall beginning to ask a question before I was so rudely interrupted if you don't mind me actually asking it.”

Izuku turned fully to face him and motioned for him to continue, “Yes, I remember. Please, ask away.”

“I overheard him say that you both were here for a wedding party. And I can only take a logical leap and assume that your name was on the sign for that particular room. You wouldn’t happen to be Midoriya Izuku, would you?”

The brunet slowly blinked owlishly and nodded. His mind ran a mile a minute and he felt like he was beginning to overthink things about the man standing in front of him. There weren't that many similarities, but not just anyone would be looking for him.

“Oh… oh you must be Mr. Nedzu’s son. I… I’m sorry, I wasn’t given anything about you…? I think he might have mentioned your name but I don’t remember... Sorry,” Izuku stuttered out.

Nedzu’s son simply hummed and dipped his head in greeting, “the name’s Aizawa Shouta. Father and I don’t share a family name. It’s complicated so I wouldn’t ask.”

“Mr. Aizawa then, it’s a pleasure to meet you… well… really, to see you again. You saved my life a couple weeks back after all. And, you saved me again today.”

“You remember that?”

“How couldn’t I? It’s not every day something like that happens,” Izuku murmured before shaking his head. “Well, that doesn’t quite matter now though. I’m sorry for forcing you into this marriage. I’m aware that your father is… an interesting man, but I have a sinking feeling that he didn’t quite tell you what was going on until after the contract was finalized.”

“You’d be correct. But it’s not as if I really have a choice. He’s been like that since I was kid, so I’ve learned to roll with it. This is actually more of a mild inconvenience than what he would normally throw at me. I wouldn’t think too much of it,” Aizawa dismissed his concern and stepped past Izuku. “Come on, let's get this over with and go home.”

Izuku trailed behind, his mind swamped with thoughts. 

‘He doesn’t seem like he’s related to Mr. Nedzu, but maybe that’s because I haven’t spent any time with him? I hope he doesn’t think I’m annoying, I don’t want the year we have before we can divorce to be utterly miserable. God, what did I get myself into? Why did I think I could do this?’

If Aizawa heard Izuku’s thoughts spilling softly from his lips, he didn’t make any indication. Which… didn’t really make Izuku feel any better when he realized he had been mumbling to himself. But he didn’t have any more time to wallow in his self-deprecation and nervousness because soon enough, he was standing next to Mr. Aizawa in front of an official, updating their family registries and creating their own between the two of them. 

Izuku could feel the heat in his cheeks as he realized the looming finality of their actions. Sure they could just as easily divorce, but as the brunet stared down at the words on the papers in his hands, he shuddered. He supposed he would be an Aizawa for the next year. He wasn’t sure if he’d get used to it, but he’d figure something out. 

“What’s with the face? You look like someone stomped on your grave,” Aizawa murmured from beside him. 

The green-eyed man jolted and he looked up at his newly-minted husband. “Sorry, just… it didn't really hit me that this is actually happening until just now.”

“Ah, makes sense. You seem like the type to overthink until everything comes grinding to a halt and suddenly reality hits,” Aizawa said, amused once more.

Izuku’s face reddened again as he got indirect confirmation that the man next to him did indeed over-hear him. And it was such a mortifying realization that the younger man’s jaw locked shut and he looked away.

-

The brunet couldn’t even bring himself to look at Aizawa again after that. Not even as he climbed into the passenger seat of his husband ’s car. Not even as he marveled at the house they were staying at. Not even as they awkwardly sat on opposite sides of the couch away from each other.

“You know I won’t bite right? Well, not hard anyway.”

Izuku didn’t know whether to take that as a threat or if he had simply been making a joke. His blasé tone made him think of Shouto, but at least he could understand the heterochromatic man.

“I-I know you won’t bite. Mr. Nedzu would be highly disappointed in you if you did. At least... That’s what I’d like to think,” Izuku said just barely loud enough for the raven-haired man to hear.

“You’d think correctly. From how Father spoke of you, I’d say he would rather have you as his child than me. Probably why he came up with this entire plan,” Aizawa said idly as he stood.

Finally the brunet looked up at him, surprised. “Really? I didn’t think Mr. Nedzu liked me that much.”

Izuku watched as the taller man stepped into the kitchen, still visible from the brunet's spot on the couch. Aizawa reached into a cabinet and pulled out a bottle of wine and two clean glasses. He returned to the couch and set them down on the coffee table.

“Don’t sell yourself short, my old man doesn’t do anything he doesn’t want to. He wouldn’t set time aside every two weeks for someone he didn’t find the least bit interesting or entertaining. And from what I heard, you are quite a unique combination of both.”

The younger man blushed again and simply stuttered out an, “oh.”

They lapsed into silence as Aizawa opened up the wine bottle.

Izuku bit his lip and decided to finally get his thoughts out of his head. He spoke slowly, “You know that this is simply a contract marriage right? I’m not forcing you to act like you’re in love with me, and I surely don’t expect you to fall in love with me, that’s not my intention. As long as I can prove that I’m taken, I won’t get in your way if you decide to pursue someone else,”

He glanced up to see the way Aizawa’s movements ground to a halt, freezing right before he poured the wine. Izuku watched him blink slowly and set the bottle down. Grey eyes met green and the older man opened his mouth to say something before he was interrupted by the ringing of his phone.

The brunet tilted his head as Aizawa pulled his phone out and answered it while grumbling something about always being interrupted.

“What?”

Izuku almost wanted to laugh at how annoyed he seemed until he saw a fleeting glimpse of panic on his new husband’s face.

“What happened? No, no, I’m on my way,” he hung up and looked at Izuku. He seemed to sigh as he stood. “It’s nothing against you, I promise. But a close friend of mine is in the hospital and I need to go.”

Izuku simply nodded and stood, “go ahead. Like I said before, I won’t get in your way.”

He wasn’t about to lie and say he wasn’t the tiniest bit hurt, but Aizawa’s friend was also hurt and possibly in a more life threatening way. Besides, Izuku would hope that the grey-eyed man would give him the same courtesy if one of his friends was in the hospital.

“I don’t know when I’ll be back, you can pick any of the rooms, but I think Father already picked one out if I’m honest. I’ll make it up to you later.”

And then he was gone, the door clicking shut behind him. The brunet took a shaky breath and nodded to himself. He leaned down grabbing the bottle of wine and poured himself a glass. He had a feeling he’d need it.

Chapter Text

Izuku wasn’t quite sure what to do with himself after Aizawa left, so he roamed the nice house and gave his parents a call. It wasn’t a long call by any means, but it did allow him to finally begin to unwind. 

“Wow, this place feels huge. What do we even need four bedrooms for?” Izuku wondered aloud into his phone. He heard his parents laughing.

“It’s good that it sounds like you live in a good sized house,” Hisashi said.

“Tell us about your husband! Is he nice to you? What does he look like?” Inko butt in to ask.

Izuku could feel his face heat up, “Well, he’s… handsome. And he seems really sweet. After all, he saved me from Katsuki when Katusuki tried to drag me into the wedding party. He’s not home at the moment or I would have you both meet him now. But if I can convince him, I’ll bring him home sometime later this week.”

“What do you mean he isn’t home, Izuku?” The brunet heard his dad practically snarl.

“His friend is in the hospital! I wasn’t gonna say he couldn’t go,” Izuku defended. “Besides, contract marriage, remember.”

The call went silent and he heard his parents sigh.

“Sweetheart, you realize you deserve to fall in love, right?”

“I know… but that can wait until after everything finally blows over. And after the contract is up of course.”

The call took a lighter turn afterwards and after a few more minutes, the brunet was alone again with his thoughts.

Of course he knew that he deserved love. He wasn’t… unlovable, but his track record with relationships wasn’t great considering he only had two. His failed one with Katsuki and the marriage of convenience with Aizawa.

Izuku groaned and shook his head. He could think about it all later when his brain wasn’t fried (whenever that would be).

He stepped into what he assumed was the master bedroom based on the sheer size of the closet and the attached bathroom. He saw his suitcase sitting next to the bed and assumed that this was the room Nedzu had chosen for him. Faintly, Izuku thought it was weird that he was given the master bedroom, but he wasn’t about to complain. Aizawa had said that the old man liked him after all.

The brunet opened up his suitcase, a gaudy yellow thing and a relic of his childhood. It was themed after a superhero from a TV show he had loved dearly growing up, and he always found it funny now that he knew the actor of his favorite character happened to be an uncle of his.

Izuku dug through his clothes, pulling his pajamas out from underneath other essentials. He padded over to the bathroom and peeked in. It was sleek and monochrome and more modern than Izuku would like. He preferred the coziness of a clean yet cluttered bathroom. One that was brightly colored and showed signs of life. But he’d survive keeping the bathroom the same. He wasn’t the owner of the house and he wasn’t going to change a thing. It was temporary after all.

He took a quick shower, cleansing the troubles of the day from his body.

He hadn’t been out of the shower for more than a handful of minutes when he heard his phone ring, thankfully he had put pants on. He wandered back into the bedroom, swiping it off the bed where he had left it. The screen lit up with a picture of him and Hitoshi at a comic-con from a couple years ago.

He answered the call and turned on the camera as he brought the phone back into the bathroom with him.

“Izuku! I’m surprised you answered considering how you hung up on us earlier today. So, you’re married now?” Hitoshi asked idly. He looked like he was playing a game on a handheld console.

“Yup… married… and yet alone in this big house,” Izuku responded as he put product in his damp curls.

“Alone?”

“His friend’s in the hospital, so he left.”

“On your wedding night? Ouch. So, you never said who the guy is.”

Izuku straightened from where he had hunched over the sink. He hummed as he glanced at his phone only to see Hitoshi much closer to the camera than before and staring right at him.

The brunet let out a startled little laugh and shook his head, “I doubt you’d know him.”

His friend looked utterly unimpressed and simply raised an eyebrow as his patented “disappointed” look appeared on his face.

Izuku swallowed hard and looked away nervously, but it took less than a minute for him to crack and began to describe Aizawa.

“Are you suddenly a poet?” Hitoshi groaned, “Just tell me the man’s name!”

“Aizawa Shouta,” Izuku finally spat out after stalling for as long as he could.

He watched as his friend’s face went through a very complicated set of emotions before settling on a mix of disbelief and disgust.

“Oh my god… no fuckin’ way. You’re lying to me right now. You have to be,” Hitoshi said, sounding slightly hysterical.

“Why would I lie to you, ‘Toshi?”

“Because you just told me that you married my cousin?!”

Izuku dropped the bottle of curl cream into the sink as he made direct eye contact with his friend. They were silent for a long time, just staring.

“Please tell me you’re just pulling my leg.”

“Nope. You married my cousin.”

“Mr. Nedzu has siblings?” Izuku heard himself ask in a squeaky voice.

“Hm… I think we might be second cousins, so like, related through common great grandparents. But my point still stands, we see each other at family gatherings.”

“I’m starting to think I need sleep,” Izuku murmured as he picked up the curl cream and continued putting product in his hair.

“Yeah, you look really tired, but then again, we both always look really tired.”

“Yours are because your sleep schedule is actual trash. Mine is just because too many things have happened today. Like Bakugou trying to drag me into that damn wedding party.”

“If he wanted to go with someone, he should have taken Uraraka,” Hitoshi grumbled.

“That’s exactly what I said, not to his face obviously,” Izuku laughed.

“Obviously.”

The call went on until Izuku yawned one too many times and Hitoshi decided to let the poor newly-wed get some rest. Izuku plugged his dying phone in and turned all the lights off, settling in for the night.

-

Shouta stumbled into the house. It was late, later than he would have liked it to be, but nothing can ever go his way. He kicked his shoes off and swapped into his house slippers. As he walked through the living room, he noticed that the wine bottle and glasses had been cleaned up and put away.

He headed up the stairs and peeked into each of the rooms. He stuck his head into the master and noticed Izuku asleep. He stepped into the room and closed the door behind him. Shouta was as quiet as possible as he pulled a set of clothes out of one of the dressers tucked into the walk-in closet. 

He took a quick shower before climbing into bed next to his husband. He silently looked at Izuku while the younger man slept, his grey eyes tracing down his face and neck. His husband was really cute.

-

The next morning as light filled the room, Izuku’s face scrunched up. He rolled over trying to get some more uninterrupted sleep only to feel something hard and warm next to him. Something that felt like a human body that he did not fall asleep next to.

Green eyes cracked open and he came face to face with Aizawa. The older man was still asleep as far as the brunet could tell. Izuku couldn’t help but stare, it wasn’t his fault that they were currently eye level. 

The brunet’s fingers twitched as he noticed that the older man's stubble was already growing back. The longer he stared, the more the younger man began to notice things. The faintest of scars cut under his right eye. A small mole hidden in the arch of his left eyebrow, just barely visible. 

Izuku felt his face getting hotter as it began to sink in more that they were in bed next to each other. He was careful, but quick in scrambling out of the bed and quietly bolting into the bathroom, his hand over his rapidly beating heart.

What he didn’t get to see in his panic, was a small little smirk appearing on Aizawa’s face as the black-haired man’s eyes cracked open.

-

The fact that they woke up in the same bed wasn’t mentioned at all later that morning when they both were more awake and functioning. Izuku had made a small little breakfast for the both of them. Usually, he wouldn’t eat much for breakfast if at all. He waited until lunch to eat, mostly because he was required in his father’s office rather early in the morning.

But he had been forced to request a couple days off for and following his impromptu wedding event and he wasn’t sure what he was going to do with himself for the next couple of days.

“You know you didn’t have to make breakfast, right?” Aizawa asked, glancing up from his plate.

“You’re eating it aren’t you?” Izuku murmured as he pushed his food around on his own plate.

Aizawa snorted and nodded. They lapsed into silence until more food had been eaten.

“I noticed you only brought a single suitcase of clothes. Were you planning on stopping by your parent’s house to pick up the rest?”

Izuku chewed the food in his mouth, thinking about the question. He had originally planned to do just that. But the more he thought about it now, the more he didn’t really want to. His wardrobe wasn’t exactly the biggest and at the moment it was clothes Bakugou had wanted him to wear. Because of course Izuku couldn’t dress the way he wanted to.

So instead, Izuku shook his head, “No, they weren’t exactly my style. I’ll figure something else out.”

“I’ll take you shopping today then. That is, unless you had something else planned.”

“Nothing planned. I’d be grateful, but you don’t have to come with me. I can shop on my own,” The brunet said, looking up at his husband.

Aizawa’s face seemed to scrunch up for a second before looking wholly unimpressed which just made Izuku squirm in his seat (he also didn't want to acknowledge that he'd seen the exact same expression on Hitoshi's face).

“I suppose I could stay home, but if Father finds out I didn’t accompany you, I can only imagine what he’d do. So if you don’t really mind me tagging along, I think I’ll come with. Warning, I’m not really a fashion kind of person, so I won’t be of any use to you.”

The younger man couldn’t argue with that. Just the thought of Mr. Nedzu’s retaliation made him shudder, “We could leave after breakfast then?”

“Sure.”

(Later Izuku would realize that maybe Aizawa was like Mr. Nedzu considering how he was manipulated in that moment.)

-

Izuku was beginning to wonder if his husband ever wore or even owned anything that wasn’t black or black-adjacent. It being slightly cold outside meant that Aizawa wore a turtleneck and a coat. The turtleneck was dark grey, the coat was black, the pants were black, the shoes were black, hell even his scarf was black!

Izuku walked next to the taller man, eyeing his clothes. The younger was in more colorful clothing, greens and yellows and blues. So while he looked like a normal human being, Aizawa looked like he was straight out of a black-and-white film.

“Glaring at my clothes won’t change what they look like,” The older man hummed.

“You never know, maybe it might convince you to add a pop of color. The fact that your clothes match your hair and eyes is almost concerning.”

“Your eyes are green and it matches your sweater.”

“Correction, it matches one color on my sweater.”

Izuku couldn’t help but smile at their light bickering. It didn’t feel as patronizing as it had felt with Bakugou, and something about Aizawa made him feel more at ease. 

“Oh! Tenya had said something good about this store!” The brunet pointed out a store and absently grabbed the raven-haired man’s hands and tugged him in that direction.

“Tenya? You’re friends with the Iida’s?” Aizawa asked curiously.

“Yeh, but only their youngest son. He’s one of my closest friends. You wouldn’t guess it from how he acts, but he likes to break rules sometimes,” Izuku answered with a fond smile. “In fact, most of my friend group is like that. We used to get up to some crazy stuff in high school.”

They wandered around the store, looking at clothes that Izuku liked or that Aizawa thought would fit him. Which led to them bickering again because the older man really wasn’t good with anything related to fashion.

“No wonder you dress in black! I thought it was just because you looked good in it, not that you suck at color combinations! I was forced to learn, but I doubt you can be taught.”

“Hey, some of my friends tried to teach me. But I find it useless. You think I  look good in black?”

Izuku blushed, “That’s not the point!”

“Oh? And what do we have here?”

A shudder ran down the brunet’s back. Dread filled his entire being and he knew from the sudden worried look on Aizawa’s face that it must show.

Slowly, he turned around only to be face-to-face with his worst nightmare.

Chapter Text

Shouta hadn’t even gotten to turn around yet when he saw Izuku’s face fall from the cute little smile he had been wearing mere moments before. He didn’t recognize the voice, it wasn’t one he had heard before, but when he finally turned, he recognized one of the faces.

Izuku’s ex-boyfriend and who Shouta was going to assume was said ex's shiny new girlfriend. It was no wonder his husband looked like he was on the verge of bolting away from his side.

“Oh Deku, who’s your friend? I don’t remember you knowing anyone who looks like… well, that,” the girl laughed softly like she hadn’t just insulted Shouta’s appearance to his face. 

“He’s-” Izuku had only gotten the one word out of his mouth before he was so rudely cut off.

“Don’t tell me that you’re cheating on me with this hobo-looking loser!” the blond scowled. 

Shouta’s eyes narrowed as he glared at the ex-boyfriend. He was honestly surprised still that his easily flustered spouse would have chosen someone so… abrasive to be with before. He crossed his arms and huffed softly at the loud boy.

“I’m not cheating!” Izuku shouted. He looked furious, an expression the black-haired man never would have expected to see on his face. 

“Not cheating? Don’t lie. Though with how much of a doormat you are, I wouldn’t be surprised if he was actually a sugar daddy instead,” the woman said with a sneer.

“I‘m not a sugar daddy, I’m his husband.”

Izuku startled slightly as Shouta wrapped an arm around him, hand settling on the smaller man’s arm.

“Married? The fuck are you talking about? You can’t be married, you’re still dating me,” the angry blond all but shouted at the married couple.

Shouta went to argue, but his husband seemed to beat him to the punch.

“Dating you? I’m not dating you. I haven’t been since I caught you with your tongue down Uraraka’s throat! You didn’t even have the decency to break off our relationship, Bakugou. How long were you two sleeping together before I even found out? Never mind, I doubt anything you say would be worth listening to. C’mon, let's get out of here,” Izuku said evenly as his hand wrapped around Shouta's, pulling him as he shouldered past the other couple.

“You always run away with your tail between your legs. You’re a fucking coward, Deku. Now come on, stop playing around, you know marrying me is the only way to make sure your family’s reputation isn’t tarnished by you,” the ex spat.

Shouta watched as Izuku froze midstep. It seemed like neither of them could believe what had just come out of the blond’s mouth. Shouta wasn’t going to stand for this. This Bakugou kid seemed like he had an ego as big as the sun and he needed someone to pop his hot air-filled balloon. He turned around but Izuku quickly stepped in front of him as if to stop him. 

“I’m not some object you can just toss around when you feel like it. Again, I’m already married and it’s not to you,” the brunet said. His anger was quiet and more controlled, Shouta really couldn’t see how anyone thought his husband and Bakugou fit together. 

“Stop lying, as if anyone would actually marry you except me. You’re an idiot and a doormat. You couldn’t even dress yourself properly, I had to buy you all the clothes you own. Just accept the fact that you’re nothing without me. You’re only gonna bring shame to your family by yourself,” Bakugou waved off Izuku’s statements. “So come on, stop playing around. Are you really so upset that you’re trying to make me angry by getting with another man?”

Oh, now Shouta was even more agitated. He couldn’t believe how thick the walls that were built in the blond’s head were. Especially since they seemed to keep his brain cells from pinging together to form logical thoughts.  

“Upset? Yeah I’m upset. Upset that you don’t seem to understand that I don’t want you anymore. And I’m done dealing with you. We aren’t together anymore and I don’t want to see you again.”

-

Izuku was angry and sad and just generally feeling off kilter. He couldn’t believe that he actually managed to talk back to Katsuki, but the longer he stood there facing Bakugou and Uraraka, the more out of his depth he felt.

He turned on his heel and speed walked off. He only stopped when he heard someone gently call his name.

“Izuku.”

The brunet came to a halt and took a deep breath. He hadn’t even realized he hadn’t been breathing.

“You okay now?” Aizawa asked as he stepped closer to him.

Izuku went to nod but then shook his head, “I’m sorry that you had to see that.”

“It’s not your fault. You couldn’t have known they were going to be there.”

“But I should have. Of course he shops at high-end places. His parents are moguls in the fashion industry. Wherever we go we might have to deal with him,” Izuku explained with frustration . It felt like there was nowhere he could go at the moment and he wanted to cry.

“Hey, it’s okay. I promise. I’m not going to say that we won’t ever run into them again because promises like that can’t be kept. But I can try and limit contact. I know a clothing place owned by an acquaintance that we can shop at. And there is a jewelry store owned by a close friend. I’ll take you to both of them, okay?” Aizawa patiently explained.

Izuku had never had anyone but his parents and close friends be so kind and understanding to him. Never mind that composure that reminded the brunet of those detective shows he used to watch on TV growing up.

He smiled and opened his mouth to speak when his husband’s phone rang. The older man sighed and dug his phone out of his pocket and answered it.

“What?” He said gruffly, reminding Izuku of how he had answered the phone the night before.

The younger man watched as his husband’s face went through a myriad of emotions, including agitation and resignation. “Yeah, I’ll be there soon.”

He hung up and grunted, his hand coming up to rub at his eyes, “Sorry, but my friend is having some issues with the hospital. I need to go help take care of it.”

Izuku’s face fell, of course he had to go. He knew he shouldn’t be upset because this was just a contract marriage. But he didn’t really want the other man to go just yet.

Aizawa dug through his pockets again and pulled out a credit card, handing it over to Izuku, “Buy whatever you want as an apology. I’ll text you the locations of those stores and the names of the owners. I’ll also let them know to keep an eye out for you. If anyone gives you any trouble, let the owners know and they’ll help you out. I’ll head back first.”

And just like that, the brunet watched the older man walk away until he could no longer see him. He frowned as he looked down at the card in his hand. He almost just wanted to go back to the house, but he did need new clothes. He tucked the card away and pulled out his phone as he was sent the location of the two stores. They weren’t too far away from where he was so he hoped he could get there without any issues. 

“Aww, did your new man leave you for someone else? Did you really think anyone would pick you as their first choice?”

Izuku spun around quickly to see Uraraka standing a few paces behind him, a small smirk on her face.

“I don’t know why you even bothered trying to please Katsuki so much. You must have known that you were never gonna be the one he ended up with. You’re too… you I suppose,” she laughed.

The male grit his teeth and practically snarled at her, “If his type is betrayers with no sense of morality. I’m glad he didn’t end up with me, because that seems right up your alley.”

Uraraka didn’t seem at all fazed by his words, picking at her nails, “well, unlike some people, I at least still have friends. After all, you didn’t think our friend group would choose you, did you? Oh they all came to your little wedding party and were so shocked and upset the entire time that you didn’t show up! I bet they haven’t even called to ask what happened. But that’s probably because I already explained everything to them.”

Izuku’s heart dropped. Sure he had spoken to Hitoshi who was one of his closest friends (not counting that he was now related by law). But he hadn’t heard anything from the others. And they had sounded so sincere just the day before. Izuku really didn’t want to believe it. And he wouldn’t, not until he talked to them himself and heard it straight from their mouths that they no longer wanted to be his friends. 

After all, he couldn’t trust Uraraka anymore. Her betrayal had cut deep and he wasn’t going to try and let her words burrow under his skin and fester.

“You say that, but I doubt that was the actual reason they were shocked. I bet they haven’t even called to talk to you since you explained your side of things. Probably because they couldn’t believe how shameless you are,” Izuku scoffed.

He crossed his arms, trying to comfort himself. He’d have to call them and see what was going on for himself later in the day. 

Uraraka’s face shifted, looking more and more upset that Izuku didn’t seem fazed at all by her scathing words. Instead she just huffed and stomped her foot like a little kid throwing a tantrum.

“Stay away from Katsuki, he’s mine! You hear me, Deku!”

“As I already said, you can have him,” Izuku said, sounding more calm than he felt.

He walked past her, forcefully shoulder checking her on the way past. She stumbled and Izuku grinned a bit as he heard her frustrated little noises.

-

Izuku felt almost burdened with the several clothing bags in his hands. He had bought several outfits from the overbearing man in all denim. Mr Hakamada was nice enough, but he had nitpicked everything from a stray thread in Izuku’s sweater to his admittedly messy hair. As nice as the store was, the brunet thought it might be best to keep a wide berth from that particular place in the future.

Now, he looked up at the sign of the jewelry store Aizawa had sent him to. He wasn’t sure why the man had mentioned the store as Izuku wasn’t really a jewelry person. But his husband had said that one of his close friends owned the store so Izuku figured that it couldn’t hurt to meet them. 

There was a soft chime as he opened the door and stepped in. The inside felt upper-class with glass and sleek black metal. There were uncomfy looking chairs settled around the area and mirrors strategically placed near displays. 

“Welcome, how can I help you?”

The woman who had spoken was in a deep purple pantsuit with a cream blouse underneath. Her long back hair seemed to shine blue underneath the soft lights. Her face was framed with silver horn-rimmed glasses. She wore a warm smile on her face.

“Um, hello. I’m just… looking at the moment,” Izuku nervously murmured as he stepped closer to the center display cases where she stood.

The brunet glanced around before looking at the woman only to see her squinting at him with a scrutinizing look. After a long minute of which Izuku thought he was going to be accused of shop-lifting, the woman gasped loudly.

“Oh my god! You’re Shouta’s new little husband!” She squealed as she practically launched herself into the younger man’s personal space. “I’m Kayama Nemuri, but you can just call me Nemuri. I’m a friend of Shouta’s. He told me you were coming, but I’m gonna be real honest with you. I thought he was joking when he referred to you as his husband . But gosh you are just the cutest thing!”

Izuku’s face broke out into a nervous smile. She was hyper in a way that reminded him of Bakugou’s friend Mina, but with a maturity that reminded him of his friend Momo. It was an odd combination, but the brunet wasn’t uncomfortable. In fact, he had a good feeling about Nemuri.

“It’s nice to meet you, Miss Nemuri. I’m Izuku. I… thank you for the compliment…? I’m not usually a jewelry kind of person, I apologize.”

The woman simply smiled, and motioned to a chair, “It’s not a problem. I’m sure I can find something for you, even if it’s a watch. Set your bags down on that chair and I can show you a couple things that I think would absolutely suit you.”

Izuku gently set the bags down and returned to the counter, gently drumming his fingers on the metal edges of the showcases.

“Now, let’s see… your green eyes and warmer skin makes me think you’d look better in gold or maybe rose gold? But you do have a choice!” Nemuri began, but then her eyes seemed to wander and she gasped.

Within seconds, the brunet’s left hand was grabbed and pulled making him grunt as his body hit the case.

“You don’t have a wedding ring?! What was that man thinking! I’m sure you’re shopping on his dime, so let’s set you up with a set for you and Mr Grumpy,” Nemuri said as she dropped his hand and began looking over the rings within the cases.

“Oh, but I’m not sure what he likes or what his ring size is,” Izuku stuttered out, trying his best to stop her from searching.

“Don’t worry, I have all of my friends’ ring sizes memorized! And considering what Shouta looks like, he’s a silver or tungsten kind of man. Now let’s see. I don’t think he likes any stones, but I’m romantic at heart so… a green gem would be perfect. For you, if you go with gold, a regular clear would work. What do you think?” She smiled as she pulled out a tray and pulled a couple rings to show him. “Of course, any of these can be customized and picked up or delivered to you.”

His face was red, he was sure of it. How could he even bear to think of getting wedding rings for a man he just met even if they were legally married. “I… I still don’t think this is a good idea. After all, we're not even really…” the words died on his tongue. He didn’t want to admit it out loud to anyone that their marriage was one of convenience.

“I see how distressed this is making you. If you really don’t want them at the moment, I won’t press the issue,” Nemuri said softly. She leaned over the case, gently grabbing his hands this time. She looked worried about him. 

Izuku thought about it for a long moment. And then it dawned on him. He had heard gossip in the office once that one of the women in the HR Department had taken to wearing a ring on her finger to deter men from flirting with her even if she wasn’t actually married. Technically, this wasn’t the same thing, but wearing a ring might help sell their relationship to outsiders.

He took a deep breath before nodding. He gave her a small smile, “sorry, just working through my thoughts. I think rings would be perfect, if you don’t mind.”

Nemuri’s face broke out into a smile and she let go of his hands to nudge the ring tray closer to him.

Hesitantly, Izuku looked over the rings, it was a bit overwhelming, but looking them over, he thought he liked the ones without the big flashy stones. And he was sure his husband would too. In the end, he picked out two simple bands with a single line of color splitting the center of them. 

Nemuri used a ring sizer to figure out Izuku’s ring size, and within 20 minutes, Izuku was paying a highly discounted price because her ‘friends don’t pay the markup prices’. Then he was out the door and on his way home.

-

Izuku opened the front door, calling out to Aizawa who he knew was home because his car was out front.

“I’m back!”

Izuku kicked off his shoes in the genkan and slipped on his house slippers. He was a couple steps into the house, holding all of his bags when he saw his husband sitting on the couch. Next to him was a blond male who looked a bit sickly, but had a bright smile on his face. They were sitting awfully close to each other.

“Welcome back.”

Aizawa’s voice was warm as he stood. He took a couple steps as the blond also stood, “Izuku, I’d like you to meet a friend of mine. This is Hizashi, he’s the one that was in the hospital.”

Izuku gave them both a wobbly little smile, the ring on his finger feeling like it was burning a brand into his skin. Absently, the brunet was already regretting getting the rings. Hizashi was good-looking and seemed to be a visual opposite of his husband. The blond’s eyes were just a shade lighter than Izuku’s and he already knew Aizawa, presumably for years at this point.

“You must be Midoriya Izuku, yes? Can I call you Izuku?” Hizashi asked.

Izuku swallowed hard and nodded. The man’s voice was smooth, completely made for a radio personality or with his looks, he could even be an actor.

“I have to make a quick call, I’d… like it if you two got along. Excuse me,” Aizawa bowed his head before making his way upstairs.

Izuku’s heart was beating out of his chest as he stared up at the man his husband kept running off for.

Chapter Text

“It’s… nice to meet you, Hizashi,” Izuku murmured.

He set all of the bags on the empty coffee table and glanced around. By the look of things, the older two men had gotten here not too long before him. The brunet looked up at the blond who was watching him curiously, no trace of malice at all on his face.

“Can I get you a water or anything to drink,” Izuku offered, not liking being stared at so intensely.

Hizashi smiled and nodded, “water would be nice, if you don’t mind. At least you asked, Sho just told me to sit down and not move.”

The pout that appeared on the blond’s face had Izuku giving another wobbly, little smile. They were close, that was obvious. As the younger man shuffled over to the kitchen, his fingers ran absently over the cold metal on his finger. He knew he told Aizawa that he didn’t care what he did relationship-wise because it didn’t involve Izuku, and so the brunet just needed to remember that there are no feelings between the two of them.

He slipped the ring off and tucked it away into his pocket. Then he grabbed the glass of water and returned to the living room, offering it up to Hizashi who gratefully took it and began sipping on it. The blond had sat down and patted the seat next to him, placing the glass on the coffee table to give his full attention to Izuku.

“Sit, please. I want to learn more about you. Sho was no help, he didn’t bother to answer any of my questions! I still can’t believe you managed to convince him to marry you. He’s dodged any and all blind dates me and our mutual friends have tried to set him up on. He’s really stubborn, so you must be special!”

Hizashi must have meant well, he didn’t seem to have a mean bone in his body. But his words only stuck the idea in hi head that Aizawa was getting something out of the contract marriage as well. A way out of the blind dates. Of course he had to be getting something out of the deal. The stoic man had only said that he didn’t really have a choice. But it stood to reason he wouldn’t have signed something so spontaneous if there wasn’t anything about the marriage that benefitted him.

“I’m really not all that special. Our marriage was orchestrated by his dad. Mr Nedzu wanted to help me out of a rough situation. Mr Aizawa is just nice enough to go along with it,” Izuku spoke softly. He kept his eyes on his lap.

He wasn’t sure why he bothered to tell Hizashi that their marriage wasn’t real when he had withheld the information from Nemuri just a couple hours before. But as he sat there, he looked up into the blond’s eyes. They were warm and understanding, and there wasn’t an ounce of pity or even disgust in them. He felt a hand softly land on his shoulder.

“Don’t sell yourself short. Even if the marriage isn’t real now, that doesn’t mean it will stay that way. Trust me, the look on Sho’s face when you walked in the door… I’m sure you could have him eating out of the palm of your hand in a few weeks,” Hizashi said before bursting into laughter. Though his giggles were cut off by heavy coughs and a wince.

Izuku immediately scooted closer and picked up the glass of water that the blond had set on the coffee table. He placed it in Hizashi’s hands and watched the older man drain what was left of it. His coughing subsided and a morose look appeared on his face.

“I’m sorry, I had forgotten for a moment that I was sick. I hate it… And, I’m sorry that I kept calling Sho away from you. He only bothered to tell me that he was married today when he brought me back here. If I had known, I would have called any of our other friends, I promise!”

Izuku stared for a long moment, before lowering his head. He was gonna cry, he could feel it. Of course he was gonna cry, he was known for doing so in any situation with intense emotions (which meant that he was surprised he didn’t burst into tears when confronting Bakugou in any capacity).

“I don’t blame you… how could I?” The brunet’s voice was soft and just as wobbly. 

With a lighter heart than before, he shoved his hand into his pocket and retrieved the ring he had placed in there a couple minutes before. Knowing that Hizashi wasn’t going to fight him for Aizawa meant that he didn’t have to worry about him.  Carefully he slipped the ring on to his finger.

“Ooh! I was wondering if you two had rings, I didn’t see one on Sho’s hand. Where did you get it, it’s so pretty!” Hizashi cooed as he gently grabbed Izuku’s hand and brought it closer to his face, examining the ring.

“Oh, I met Nemuri earlier today. She helped me pick out some ready-made rings. She also said that if I ever wanted custom ones to let her know,” the younger man explained.

From there on, Izuku and Hizashi seemed to get on like a house on fire. Despite the brunet’s anxiety, Hizashi was kind and willing to answer any and all of Izuku’s questions. Questions that only piled when he realized the blond was a radio host.

-

Shouta sighed heavily as he sat on the edge of the bed in the master bedroom. He wished he wasn’t being primed to take over his dad’s “Empire” as he called it. It was draining and always had him busy and working overtime. He really just wanted to climb into bed and take a nap right then and there, but he remembered who he had left downstairs.

He had seen the tenseness lining Izuku’s shoulders. Figured that it could be from Shouta bringing a friend home without telling him or from said friend being the one he keeps deserting the brunet for.

He stood and left the bedroom, hoping with all his might that he wouldn’t walk downstairs to a distraught husband and a friend who wore a mask in his presence. But all his worries vanished as his slippers hit the lamented wood of the ground floor. 

Izuku and Hizashi were eagerly chatting on the couch. The brunet was relaxed in a way that made a seed of jealousy bloom in Shouta's chest. In the 24 hours they’d been married, the younger man had always looked uncomfortable in his presence. Sure, Shouta didn’t know Izuku before their marriage. But that didn’t mean he didn’t-

“Sho! I have to get going. Oboro is here to pick me up. He's gonna to keep an eye on me while he’s off from work,” Hizashi’s voice cut through his thoughts.

“Oh, I’ll walk you out then.”

Izuku stood and smiled warmly at the blond, “I had fun talking to you. We should definitely hang out sometime. Oh! Let’s exchange numbers.”

“I was going to ask, but you beat me to the punch!”

Shouta’s eyes twitched slightly as he watched them both stand so close to each other and exchange numbers. He fought to keep his face devoid of the pout that was trying to form.  Finally, the dark-haired man was able to usher his friend out of the house.

“Shouta,” Hizashi said the moment they were outside.

Aizawa grunted and looked at the blonde. He was then startled when the sick man grabbed him by the shirt and yanked his close.

“If you hurt Izuku in any way , I will never forgive you. He is such a sweet guy that if you are ever rude to him, you’re a cruel person. He doesn’t deserve to have his heart broken, got it?”

Before Shouta could even get any words out of his mouth, Hizashi had let him go and strode down the driveway to Oboro’s car that was idling in the road.

Now Aizawa needed to know what they had talked about. He left them alone for maybe 15 minutes maximum! Granted, he was sure that if any sane person was left alone with his husband they would be the same. After all, he had read the text Nemuri had sent him after Izuku had left her shop.

Shouta stepped back inside and glanced at Izuku who was sitting on the couch folding his new clothes. He still had the relaxed look on his face, and the grey-eyed man didn’t want that look to go away. So he figured that he wouldn’t ask. As long as the two had gotten along, he could be happy.

He shuffled over to the couch and sat down, “Looks like Hakamada set you up nicely.”

Izuku, who had blessedly not flinched when he sat down, smiled up at him and nodded, “Mhm. He was… particular. But it didn’t seem like he meant any harm. I only got enough clothes for a couple days and a second pair of pajamas. I’ll have to go out shopping again another time. But I didn’t want to spend too much of your money.”

Shouta wanted to squish his cheeks. His husband was so cute.

“Spend as much as you want. We’re married after all. And I’m sure if Dad found out that I cut you off, you’d suddenly be single again. And I doubt either of us wants that at the moment.”

That seemed to pull a small little laugh out of Izuku, and any leftover anxiety seemed to drain from him.

“Oh, what do you want for dinner? I’m not much of a cook, but I can order in,” Shouta offered.

Silence before Izuku was looking at him in disbelief. “How have you ever survived by yourself?” He asked with a small squeak.

“Good question. I-... I don’t even know.”

“Well, you have me now. You better hope you have food in this house I can cook.”

Shouta could only look the other direction as Izuku’s mounting concern became more palpable.

Chapter Text

Izuku had taken one look at the meager food in the kitchen. He had only grabbed what he needed for a light breakfast that morning, so to see that there was hardly anything other than what he had used was jarring. And Aizawa didn’t even want to meet his gaze anymore! Serves him right, Izuku was disappointed. 

And that disappointment was exactly the reason why he was in the grocery store, dragging his husband along like he was a petulant child.

“Hm, what sounds good for dinner? Curry? Yakitori? Ooh, maybe katsudon…” Izuku idly wondered, glancing at Aizawa who, despite the blank face, almost looked lost. “Why do you look like you’ve never been in a market before?”

Green eyes met grey-blue and a laugh bubbled up from the brunet’s mouth.

“I usually just order everything online and have it delivered. Saves me the trip and having to deal with so many people,” Aizawa slowly explained, stepping closer to allow someone to pass behind him.

Izuku almost took a half-step back as the dark-haired man got closer. But he didn’t and swallowed down a squeak. Though he couldn’t stop his face from heating up at the sudden close proximity. He cleared his throat and shook his head a bit.

“I suppose you’re right, it does get a bit busy. Well, next time I’ll just come by myself. Now, what are you hungry for?”

-

They had been home for less than 10 minutes. Izuku hadn’t even gotten that far into food prep when there was a knock on the front door. He made eye contact with his husband who was on the couch with a laptop balanced on his legs. The older man’s eyes suddenly widened like he knew something that Izuku didn’t. He swore and set the computer on the coffee table before getting up. Izuku watched as Aizawa trudged over to the front door. He looked reluctant to do so and Izuku was curious as to who was on the other side.

The brunet snatched up a hand towel, drying off his hands before tucking it into the pocket of his apron as he rounded the counter, stepping into the living room right as the front door was opened.

In an instant, Izuku knew who had arrived. Mr Nedzu just had an aura about him. He was a bit unnerving, something the brunet had gotten used to rather easily, considering his father gave off the same kind of feeling.

His suspicion was confirmed as the little old man walked in with a wide grin. Izuku smiled upon seeing him.

“Mr Nedzu! I didn’t realize you were coming over. I would have bought more ingredients for dinner!”

His father-in-law waved his hands and strode over, not even greeting his own son who was still holding the front door open.

“Don’t worry about it! I don’t eat much anyway. I wanted to see how you’ve been settling in. Has Shouta been treating you well? You can tell me anything, don’t worry, I’m on your side,” Nedzu said as sat on the couch, grabbing the laptop his son had been using and looking over whatever the screen was on.

The brunet glanced over at Aizawa who sighed and closed the door, making his way over and sitting on the couch next to his dad.

“We can talk more over dinner. I was just about to start cooking,” Izuku said with a smile.

“Have Shouta help you, he should learn how to cook for you in the future,” Nedzu said matter-of-factly.

The married couple made eye contact again and Izuku’s eyes narrowed. Aizawa raised an eyebrow. After a couple tense minutes of a staring contest, the dark-haired man stood up from the couch and trailed after the brunet into the kitchen.

“What would you like me to do?” Aizawa asked, while rolling up his sleeves and washing his hands.

“Wash and chop these vegetables if you wouldn’t mind,” Izuku said as he set the plate with the vegetables on the edge of the sink. “You do know how to do that, right?”

He was met with an almost offended look to which Izuku laughed, “How am I supposed to know, hm? All you said was you couldn’t cook. I don’t know exactly what you can do.”

“I know how to wash vegetables, Izuku.”

“I’m glad I don’t have to teach you then!”

-

They sat at the dinner table, Izuku setting down the dishes before finally removing his apron and settling down.

“I hope everything tastes okay. My mom taught me how to cook,” the brunet idly said, looking at Aizawa and Nedzu. 

Aizawa opened his mouth as if to speak.

“I’m sure it tastes amazing,” Nedzu suddenly said, effectively cutting off his son.

Izuku laughed softly as he watched his husband glare at his father before huffing softly. The old man just looked smug, almost like he was competing for Izuku’s attention.

The first bite was eaten and at the same time, the father and son duo were humming softly. Izuku beamed happily. It was almost adorable to see exactly what traits the two shared.

“I’m glad you both seem to like it!”

“I might have to come over for dinner more often,” Nedzu said only to receive yet another glare from Aizawa. 

Dinner seemed to go peacefully after that, and the brunet had no complaints about spending time with Nedzu. Especially since one he thought about it, they would have met up the next day anyway.

About halfway through the meal, the old man turned to Izuku, a wide smile on his face. “Oh! I have some business close to here tomorrow morning, you don’t mind if I stay the night do you?”

Aizawa suddenly choked on the bite of food in his mouth, banging on his chest with what Izuku could only describe as a horrified look on his face. The dark-haired man grabbed his glass of water and drank the entire glass.

“I don’t quite mind, but I’m not the only one living in this house, Mr Nedzu,” the brunet said carefully.

Izuku looked at his husband who had finally caught his breath and was holding his face in his hands. He seemed to heave a heavy sigh before looking up.

“Fine, I suppose you can stay,” Aizawa begrudgingly said, picking back up his chopsticks only to set them back down.

“Perfect, since you both stay in the same room, I can pick whatever room I want, right?”

Izuku froze, food halfway to his mouth. He looked up at Aizawa yet again and made eye contact. Sure they had slept in the same bed the night before, but the brunet had no intention of sharing a bed again. It was an accident the first time… wasn’t it ?

“Yeah, pick whatever room you want.”

A shudder ran down Izuku’s spine as Aizawa spoke up, keeping eye contact. The brunet had no idea what this man was doing. Was he implying that they would be sleeping in the same room again? If so, he’s sleeping on the floor. Izuku would make him.

“Thank you, Shouta, I’ll make sure to pick the room furthest, just in case.”

Izuku bristled. These two were conspiring against him. He could feel it . He jolted when he felt a hand on his arm. He looked over to see Nedzu smiling at him with the same smile he had given him when he suggested the contract marriage in the first place.

“Don’t worry, I promise to give you both some space. I’m aware that my… ungrateful son left you alone last night. He won’t be leaving your side tonight.”

Green eyes slowly looked over and squinted at Aizawa. Said man immediately picked up his chopsticks and started eating as if trying to avoid responsibility. Eventually Izuku just sighed and went back to eating as well.

-

“This is all your fault,” Izuku said as he sat on the edge of the bed, looking up at Aizawa.

“My fault? You’re the one who said he could stay the night in the first place,” Aizawa countered.

The brunet groaned and flopped over on the bed burying his face in the sheets. He stayed there for a long moment before he felt the bed dip under the weight of his husband. He lifted his face a bit.

“Yeah, well you agreed with me… I suppose I can’t make you sleep on the floor?”

“Not unless you do too. And I highly doubt either of us want to wake up in pain. Besides, we’ve already slept in the same bed once, what’s the harm?”

Green eyes squinted again before letting out another heavy sigh, “Fine, I’m going to go shower.”

Izuku climbed off the bed and dug through his suitcase, before slipping into the bathroom.

-

Shouta waited until he heard the shower turn on before he grabbed the bags of clothes that Izuku had gotten earlier. He set them on top of a small table in the room so that they were off the floor. They’d need to get washed before his husband could wear them.

As he set them down, he noticed a bag from the boutique that Nemuri owned among them. Shouta hadn’t expected the younger man to actually get anything there. Against his better judgement, he peeked into the bag. There was only a simple box and that piqued Shouta’s curiosity even more.

He grabbed it and lifted it out of the bag. He shot a glance to the bathroom door before opening the box. Inside was a single ring, though it looked like the box was meant to hold two. Honestly, the ring was beautiful and something Shouta would wear easily despite not being a jewelry person. 

The dark-haired man took the band out of the box and slid it onto his ring finger without thinking. It was a perfect fit. He could feel a grin forming on his face.

Sure, he should put the ring back, he wasn’t given it yet. But it belonged to him, didn’t it? It was a wedding ring, and he was married. With a soft huff, Shouta pulled the ring off his finger and gingerly placed it back in the box before putting the box back. 

The metal had only been on his finger for less than a minute, and yet his hand suddenly felt empty.

Shouta turned on his heel and entered the closet. It was mostly empty in the first place and if he played his cards right, Izuku would be filling out more of the empty space. But just to be safe, Aizawa went about rearranging some of his clothes, keeping it all to one side of the closet. He’d have to bring up the idea of Izuku putting his clothes away soon. The younger man couldn’t keep living out of his suitcase like this was a hotel that he was only staying at for a few days.

He finished right as he heard the bathroom door open. He stepped out of the closet to see Izuku standing on his side of the bed, phone in his hand typing away.

“Your hair isn’t wet,” Shouta pointed out as he approached.

“I don’t wash my hair every day. It’s curly and doing so would take a little too much product,” the brunet said.

The younger man looked up at Shouta, “It’s not like your hair.” 

Shouta tensed for a moment as a hand reached up, gently running through his dark hair. He shuddered.

“Oh wow, your hair is really soft! I kinda took you for a guy who would use those 3-in-1 bottles of soap. You’ll have to let me braid it one day.”

If Shouta were a lesser man, his face would be red, he knew it. He leaned slightly into Izuku’s hand, letting the shorter man touch his hair all he wanted.

“I did, back in high school. But I have a bunch of annoying friends who wouldn’t stand for it,” Shouta murmured, trying to keep his tone low. “They went through the whole song and dance to find out what would be best for my hair. They check that I’m still using those products quite often actually.”

They were standing close to each other and the dark-haired man wasn’t about to point it out for fear of his cute little husband moving away.

“You could braid it tonight after I dry my hair?” Shouta offered.

The risk of the offer was worth it as he saw that freckled face light up in excitement. But it was even more worth it when Izuku’s cheeks began to pinken. Shouta wanted to bite them.

The brunet cleared his throat and pulled his hand away, stepping back from him, “you should go shower.”

Shouta smiled slightly but acquiesced, stepping back and putting more space between them. 

-

Izuku gently ran his fingers through Aizawa’s hair. He had a hair band around his wrist as he carefully worked through the thick strands. As he began to braid his husband’s hair, he could feel his face heating up. It almost felt like this moment was too intimate, but it wasn’t. It was just Izuku’s mind overthinking again. 

His hands stalled for a moment, his thumb brushing over the black hair. He stared off into space for a moment before he heard Aizawa make a small noise.

“You okay back there? Falling asleep?”

“No, no. Sorry, I was a little distracted with my thoughts,” Izuku murmured, finishing up the braid and tying it off. He backed away from Aizawa towards his side of the bed.

“There, all done.”

The brunet watched as the older man turned his head and pulled the braid over his shoulder, examining it. He made an approving noise before sliding back so he was fully on the bed and not sitting on the edge of it.

They sat there in silence, Izuku looking down at his hands. Though, he could feel Aizawa’s eyes on him.

“We should go to bed. It’s late,” Izuku spoke up as he turned off the lamp on his side of the bed and slid underneath the covers, pulling them over his shoulders. He turned, his back facing the other man.

There was no movement for a moment, then the other light clicked off and the blankets shifted. Everything seemed to settle.

Time moved sluggishly, green eyes often opening up to peer at the dim numbers on the alarm clock. An hour passed. Then two.

Izuku was having trouble sleeping. It’s not like he hadn’t shared a bed before. He had plenty of times! Trips had him sleeping with his older brother or his friends if there weren't enough beds. He’d slept in the same bed with Bakugou dozens of times before. But there was something about laying in bed with Aizawa that was different. It didn’t matter that there was nothing between them, Izuku just felt nervous. Anxious in a way he hadn’t ever felt before. 

It almost felt like sleeping next to a crush.

He listened to the soft sounds of Aizawa breathing. He had fallen asleep not too long after the lights had turned off. Izuku almost envied the ease at which he was able to slip under. 

He sighed softly and gently moved, turning over to try and get comfortable on the suddenly uncomfortable mattress. His eyes slid shut and he tried to relax, wanting to get at least a couple hours of sleep.

A handful of moments with no sleep and the bed began to shift. Izuku’s eyes cracked open and almost jumped as he saw Aizawa’s face, slack with sleep, right in view. Another spike of jealousy. But that disappeared in a puff of smoke as he felt a heavy, muscular arm slide around his waist, pulling him close.

Izuku’s face heated and he wiggled, trying to work himself away. But the grip was unnecessarily strong and he was pulled against the older man’s body. It was a warmth he was used to, yet it didn’t feel as scorching hot as it had with Bakugou.

The dark-haired man shifted again, this time practically curling around Izuku’s smaller body. Aizawa’s face was buried in the brunet’s hair, and at this point Izuku wasn’t even sure if the older man was still asleep. It sure didn’t really feel like it.

But after minutes of being held, drowsiness began to creep in, sleep overtaking him before he could even realize how comfortable he was. Within seconds, he fell asleep.

Chapter Text

Morning came, and Izuku’s embarrassment shot through the roof as he woke up alone in bed. He decided to ignore the disappointment that rooted itself deep in his chest. After all, no one wants to admit they want to wake up in bed with someone they hadn’t wanted to sleep in the same bed with the night before.

Carefully, he got up and got dressed and ready for the day. Last night he had messaged the group chat for all his friends and asked to meet up for lunch. Thankfully they all had readily agreed within minutes. It was like a breath of fresh air. Now he just had to hope that they really did side with him and not Uraraka.

He yawned as he descended the steps. Aizawa and Nedzu were in the kitchen, talking about what Izuku was gonna assume was work. It easily could have been something else, but the brunet wasn’t close enough to hear it.

They were both in suits, Aizawa’s being all black with no tie. He looked… good. The brunet shook his head.

“Good morning,” Izuku said softly, interrupting the older men.

“Good morning, Izuku! Did you sleep well?” Nedzu asked, a mug in his hands of what was probably tea.

The brunet nodded his head as he wandered over to the counter, reaching into the cabinet to grab out a very stylized mug. It was his favorite mug that he had managed to sneak out of his parents house. He only had to sneak it out because his dad constantly stole it and used it.

“I’m glad. I went to check on you both this morning and you were fast asleep, so I didn’t want to wake you.”

“That didn’t stop you from practically dragging me out of bed,” Aizawa grumbled into his cup.

Izuku poured himself some coffee and grabbed the milk from the fridge.

“Oh, so that’s why you weren’t there when I woke up. I was wondering,” he idly commented as he added and stirred a bit of sugar into his mug. He returned the milk to the fridge and scooped up his cup, taking a sip of coffee.

He turned to find both of the other men staring at him. Izuku made a small confused noise, not understanding why they looked like he had said something so outrageous.

Nedzu took a second before he burst out laughing. He reached over and slapped his son’s arm with enough force to make the dark-haired man stumble. Some coffee spilt from the edge of his mug, dripping down the side of the ceramic.

“Ow,” Aizawa said, obviously upset. “What was that for?”

He didn’t get an answer as Nedzu frowned slightly before easily switching topics, “I’ll be stealing Shouta away for the day unfortunately. He still has some things to learn about the business. You don’t mind, yes?”

“Not at all. I have a couple things to do today as well,” Izuku agreed.

“Oh?”

“Mhm, I’m meeting up with some friends. Not sure how long I’ll be out.”

A silence settled over the trio. Izuku watched in faint amusement as Nedzu looked at his son and once again hit him in the arm as if signaling him to say something.

 Aizawa coughed and looked at the brunet, “You mentioned you were friends with the youngest Iida. But I don’t believe you’ve mentioned your other friends before.”

“I haven’t. But I’ll let that stay a mystery. You’ll meet them one day. Oh! That reminds me. I’m… going to visit my parents this weekend and I know they’d love to meet you…” Izuku trailed off, absently drumming his fingers against his mug. He bit his lip. “Would you… like to come with me?”

“Yes.”

The brunet looked up to see Aizawa staring at him intensely. He had responded so quickly and confidently that it almost left Izuku breathless. Instead, he smiled and nodded, “I’ll let them know to expect us then.”

“Alright, as cute as you two are together, I’m going to go wait in the car. I expect you soon, Shouta. Have a wonderful day, Izuku. Next time I come over, we should play chess!”

Izuku, despite the blush he was sure covered his face, bid Nedzu good bye and watched the old man leave after placing his cup in the sink. The moment the front door was closed Aizawa spoke from beside him.

“So, you were disappointed you didn’t wake up next to me?”

“I did not say that!” Izuku squeaked, hitting the arm that Nedzu hadn’t hit.

“Ow, what is with both of you hitting me?”

“You deserve it,” the brunet huffed.

He leaned back against the counter and took another long sip of his coffee. They stood there in a comfortable silence.

“Do you think your parents would like me?” Aizawa softly asked, a rare note of vulnerability coloring his voice.

Green eyes looked up, searching. Izuku didn’t know why he was asking. Though, he could see how others would find Aizawa lacking in a sense. Mostly silent, independent to a point, stoic. Really, Izuku wasn’t sure why he was attracted to him in the slightest. And yet, he did. The companionable silence, the ability to just exist in the same place. A pillar of strength, a protector. 

“I’m sure they’ll love you when they get to know you,” Izuku eventually said.

He looked down into his mug, taking a deep breath. When he looked up, he was startled. He hadn’t even heard Aizawa move. But there he was, standing too close for comfort.

“Does the same apply to you? Would you love me if you got to know me?”

Izuku’s face heated up. He swallowed hard. He wanted to lie and say he didn’t understand what the older man meant, but he did. He understood it perfectly. And a small part of him wanted to say yes. Wanted to admit to Aizawa that he wanted to fall in love with him.

But he couldn’t. He didn’t want to lock the older man into a relationship that was built on a need to escape. Built on secrets and baggage.

So he simply didn’t say anything. He bit his lip and looked away. After a minute, Aizawa sighed and stepped back, walking over to the sink and placing his empty mug inside.

“I’ll be working late tonight. Don’t worry about cooking dinner, I’ll just order to the office,” Aizawa said as he turned on his heel and walked to the living room. He made it to the genkan and swapped out his shoes and reached for the doorknob. 

He stopped and Izuku glanced up. The grey-eyed man looked back at him, expression more unreadable than the brunet had seen in the last two days. He almost looked like he wanted to say something, and he opened his mouth.

“You…” he trailed off before licking his lips, “Have fun with your friends.”

And then he was gone, pulling open the door and leaving for work.

Izuku let out a shaky breath and slowly slid down to the floor, mug still in hand. His heart hurt slightly but he brushed it off. No one should fall so hard for someone they just met. It was unreasonable, and yet… Izuku wanted to. He craved the love he had once had with Bakugou. It was so jarring to have it for years and then have it ripped from his grasp.

He didn’t want Aizawa to simply be his rebound, someone to fill in the cracks. So he couldn’t give into the temptation the older man was dangling in front of his face. It would be hard, but he could do it.

The brunet gave himself some time to finish drinking his coffee on the floor before standing and washing the cups in the sink. He checked his phone and realized the time was marching without him. He didn’t bother with breakfast since he was going to apparently have a big lunch according to all of his friends who were planning the lunch for him.

A lot of time was spent scrolling through social media and begging his dad to go back to work the next day because he was getting bored and restless. It didn’t end up being as fruitful as he had hoped, his dad saying that he should indulge in his hobbies now that he’s married. Izuku swiped off that particular text chat and immediately messaged his mother who would be more helpful in the situation.

Not even 5 minutes later and Izuku had the a-okay to return to work as soon as he wished. Mission accomplished. He checked the time and stood from his spot on the couch, making sure he looked okay before heading for the door.

He stepped out of the house and sitting in the driveway was a car he recognized. He grinned and strode over, pulling open the passenger door. He easily climbed in and looked at the driver.

“Fancy seeing you here.”

“Well who else was gonna pick you up, huh?” Hitoshi said, switching the car to reverse. “Seatbelts, children.”

“You’re literally only 2 weeks older than me, shut up ‘toshi,” Izuku said with a laugh as he obediently buckled his seatbelt.

“I got you to laugh, my work here is done!” Hitoshi gave a monotone cheer as he switched to drive. He glanced over to him, grey eyes looking him over. “But for real, you kinda look like shit. What’s up with that? Is Sho not treating you well? If he isn’t, just say the word.”

“No… no… He’s actually treating me well. Too well…” Izuku murmured, twisting and pulling at his fingertips.

Hitoshi made a small confused noise, eyes trained on the road in front of them. “‘zu, what aren’t you telling me?”

The brunet groaned and rubbed at his face. He didn’t want to tell Hitoshi. He really didn’t. They were related , it didn’t matter how much his friend would take his side, it would be awkward. He leaned his head back, gently banging it against the headrest.

“I don’t want to make this awkward.”

“Fuck that. Tell me.”

The words began to bubble up in his throat. Hitoshi hadn’t always been his friend. In fact, they had hated each other at first. Misinformation and assumptions clouding their perceptions of each other until everything boiled over into a confrontation that dissolved into a friendship closer than either of them had had before.

And that of course made Izuku want to spill his guts, so he did.

“I want to fall in love with him, but I don’t want to hurt him with how messed up I am.”

The brunet yelped as the car came to a very abrupt stop at a red light. The other man in the driver’s seat turned at breakneck speed, a mixed expression on his face.

They stared at each other before Hitoshi sighed heavily.

“You’re not messed up, Izuku. I keep telling you this. You’ve never been messed up. Bakugou just got under your skin and made you doubt yourself. Hell, he’s called you useless pretty much all of your life. He still calls you useless. It’s not your fault if you want to find someone, literally anyone, who treats you better.”

The light turned green and Hitoshi turned back to the road, pressing the gas. The car was silent for a moment.

“But isn’t it too soon? I’ve known him for 2 days. And I’ve only been broken up for about 2 weeks.”

“Okay and? Yeah, it might be too soon. But as long as you think you’re mentally ready enough, what’s the harm? Here, answer me this. When was the last time you… loved… Bakugou? Like, wanted to go on a date with him, sleep with him, whatever,” Hitoshi asked.

Izuku sat there and thought about it. It had been a good long while since the last time he and Bakugou had done anything. The blond had always been busy with work or his parents. Because despite being a firefighter, he was still involved in his parent’s business. Being a model made him relatively popular and well known, something that had been lorded over the brunet’s head like an axe.

So he went through the days. Counted them individually. Then he tried to place his feelings against them. And the more he thought, the more angry he became. 

“That fucker had been cheating on me for months! ” Izuku suddenly burst out.

“Not the question I asked… but now I’m curious,” Hitoshi mused from the driver' s seat.

“I was thinking about it. Obviously. And I thought, ‘wow I haven’t really been doing anything with him for such a long time. I kinda felt abandoned actually’ and then it hit me. He started being stand-offish with me almost 6 months ago. The moment it started I began to try and compensate, y’know?” Izuku began to explain.

“But within a couple weeks I had given up. Bakugou wouldn’t do anything he didn’t want to. And I knew how he was, so I’d just ignore it when he did anything slightly out of the usual. But… didn’t Uraraka begin acting weird around that time too? In fact, she had begun saying that she had gotten a boyfriend, and started bragging about him. But we didn’t really hear any specifics and we didn’t get to meet him. She stopped talking about her supposed boyfriend about a month after it began.”

“Oh yeah, I remember that. We all just assumed it didn’t work out. Swept it under the rug since she didn’t seem beat up over it in the slightest,” Hitoshi added.

Izuku nodded and hummed. He drummed his fingers against his thighs. He looked back at his friend.

“Yeah, swept it under the rug and didn’t bring it up anymore. But… none of us knew who she had been dating which was… odd. Whenever anyone in the group started a relationship, we would meet them within a couple weeks. Because we didn’t want anyone to be wronged by their new partner. She might not have brought anyone in, but she knows how the group works. So she would have. Unless…”

“Unless it was your current fiancé. Someone she literally couldn’t bring in without backlash. I’m seeing your reasoning. And your revelation is amazing, Izuku. We’re almost there by the way.”

“Exactly. She couldn’t bring her supposed partner in if he just so happened to be engaged to someone in the group. But that meant that she didn’t just break up with him. She stopped talking entirely so as to not draw any suspicion. Wow… they’ve really been playing me for a fool for so long…”

Hitoshi pulled into a parking spot and put the car in park before reaching over and grabbing one of Izuku’s hands. He squeezed them gently.

“It’s nice you’ve figured that out… but Izuku. You never answered my question.”

The brunet took a shuddering breath. He was reeling over his discovery. It hurt even worse than before. He thought that maybe it was a spur of the moment thing that just devolved. And maybe it was, but to know that it had been going on for possibly months was a whole different can of worms.

“I… think you might be right… I had already started distancing myself long before I ever caught them. I think… I had already been preparing for the worst.”

Izuku’s vision became blurred with tears. He couldn’t help it. It hurt . And it all came flooding in at once. That it really happened. Everything recently had all felt so much like a dream. Like he was going to wake up one morning and it would be blond hair and blue eyes laying next to him. 

And now, just thinking about it made Izuku ache. Because he didn’t think he could be happy if it was all a dream. He thought about yesterday morning and last night. Sleeping in the same bed at Aizawa. Dark eyes, dark hair, a quiet maturity and yet a hidden childishness that peeked through every now and again. A vulnerability that he never quite got from Bakugou. And every part of him suddenly yearned with the need to stay in his husband’s arms.

“Oh,” was all that came out of Izuku’s mouth. He sniffled and looked up at his friend. 

“Good or bad?”

“Not sure.”

The brunet was pulled over the console into an awkward hug. Izuku still leaned into it, letting the comfort wash over him. They sat like that for a couple of minutes before Hitoshi eventually pulled away.

“As much as I love your hugs, this hurts and everyone else is probably in the room already so we should get in there before they call the cops because we didn’t show up.”

“Are you kidding? Tenya would lead a manhunt before he’d ever call the cops. He’d think we did something illegal and not want us to go to jail.”

“You’re right.”

Chapter Text

Izuku stepped into the private room reserved for them by Tenya who wanted a bit of privacy for their little gathering.

“Izuku, you made it! I’m glad to see you are in good health,” Tenya stood from the table to walk over to him. 

Before the brunet could even get a word out, he was engulfed in the dark-haired man’s arms.

“He was worried. Like usual,” Shouto piped up from his seat. The heterochromatic man wasn’t a touchy-feely kind of person, so Izuku wasn’t surprised he didn’t move.

Tsu wasn’t either, but she smiled up at him and nodded. “He was ready to go find you if you didn’t arrive in the next 10 minutes.”

“Tenya, you know better. You could have just called. Besides, I wouldn’t bail on any of you after I asked you all to clear your schedules at the last minute,” Izuku murmured, patting the bigger man’s back.

Tenya pulled away and adjusted his glasses, blue eyes practically glaring down at him. “I know. But you married a man none of us know, including yourself. So what else was I supposed to think, hm?”

The brunet ducked his head and rubbed the back of his neck. He did feel bad that he technically went radio silent on most of them for the last two days after dropping such a big bomb.

“I know… you guys deserve an explanation. But before I give you one, it turns out, Hitoshi knows him. Quite well actually.”

The one who had driven him here had already sat down at the table and was leaning back in his seat, tapping his nails against the lacquered wood.

“He married my cousin.”

Tsu snorted right before she busted out laughing. Shouto looked confused for a second then looked bewildered. Tenya’s face screwed up and he looked like he was mentally trying to recall Hitoshi’s entire family tree. Then something must have dawned on him before he gasped. Quite loudly too.

“Oh! Are you talking about Tensei’s friend? Aizawa, I believe. I completely forgot he was related to you! ”

“You know him too?” Izuku said in disbelief.

There was no way that this was happening. Two of his friends knew Aizawa before he did. Why hadn’t Izuku ever met him before? After all, he had met Tensei a couple of times back in high school when he’d gone over to the Iida’s to study. And Tensei had mentioned a couple times that some of his friends were visiting yet he had never seen any of them.

His head was spinning. He needed to sit down.

“So.. how’s married life?” Shouto asked him when he sat down. 

The brunet blushed, and shook his head. “Since it was a flash marriage there isn’t much to talk about.”

“That’s not what the ring on your finger says,” Tsu pointed out, motioning to his hand that was resting on the menu in front of him. 

Izuku’s face heated up more and he let out a pitiful noise, “ I can tell you all a little bit about what’s happened the past few days. But…. I want to get something out of the way first. Let’s order some food and I’ll talk.”

“Is it something I haven’t heard yet?” Hitoshi asked as he looked over the menu.

“Yeah actually.”

“Woah, something that hasn’t graced Hitoshi’s ears yet? We’re blessed,” Tsu said absently, picking at her nails with a faint smile.

Izuku pouted at the only girl at the table, “Hey I tell you things Hitoshi hasn’t heard yet.”

“What? Tsu gets inside information? How dare you,” Hitoshi grumbled.

“I think we all know different things about Izuku that none of the others know. It’s nothing against any of us, but we help him in different ways… I’m sure we don’t tell each other everything ,” Iida said placatingly.

“Yeah, agreed,” Shouto said, squinting at Izuku. “But some of the things he’s told me I wish he hadn’t. ”

“Hey, if I had to listen to it through thin walls, so did you,” Izuku said with a grin.

Shouto almost screeched, covering his ears like he was hearing something he didn’t want to. “No I didn’t! I did not want to ever know those things about my eldest brother!”

Everyone at the table winced in sympathy as it began to dawn on them exactly what secrets Izuku had coughed up to the strawberry blond. Almost all of them had siblings or family close enough to feel like one, and even they didn’t think they’d want to be privy to bedroom activities.

“Well suck it up, because I kept hearing it all the way until I moved out. Which is ridiculous! In my parent’s house, honestly. Touya and Tenko need gags,” Izuku grumbled with a shudder.

-

Food had been ordered and lunch was a fun affair. Laughter and stories from more recent times shared around the table. But as the laughter wound down, Izuku felt that now would be the best time to bring up what had happened with Uraraka.

He set down his chopsticks and took a deep breath. His friends had seemingly noticed his shift in demeanor and all of their attention was now on him.

“Yesterday, I went out shopping for clothes. Everything was… fine . Great even. I had a fun time learning that Aizawa is utterly blind when it comes to fashion. But then… It happened. Bakugou and Uraraka just so happened to be in the same store and they came to mock us. Uraraka called Aizawa my sugar daddy embarrassingly enough. But the problem didn’t really come from that. Afterall, I knew Bakugou was… abrasive,” Izuku stopped to take a sip of his water.

“We left the store, and I thought everything was going to be fine. But, Aizawa had to go grab his friend from the hospital, so he left me to finish up shopping. Once he left, Uraraka came back. She was… taunting me. She said that you guys didn’t want to be my friends anymore. Said she had talked to you all already.”

Hitoshi grunted from his left, “sure as hell didn’t say anything to me. Then again I wasn’t exactly close with her. Different kind of brightness from you I suppose.”

The brunet looked up at the other three in the room. They were all looking at each other and a small pit began to form in his stomach. “Guys?”

Tsu was the next one to speak up, “She talked to me, yeah. She must have singled me, Shouto, and Tenya out because I was alone. She said something about you being a pushover and a cheater. Said you were messing around behind Bakugou’s back and that was the only reason they had gotten together. To teach you a lesson.”

“That’s not what she said to me,” Shouto said, idly stabbing his chopsticks into his half-eaten bowl of rice. “She told me that you’ve gotten unstable. That you had accused her of plotting against you and that you couldn’t be trusted. She implied that you’d betray me one day. Not sure how though…”

All eyes turned to Tenya. If Uraraka had told the other two different stories, it only stood to reason that she would have had something different to say to the biggest man in the room.

Tenya sat there for a minute, silent, just thinking. Then he took a breath and began to speak. “Looks like she was trying to split us apart. She told me that you had started rumors about her behind her back. That you had tried to ruin her reputation. Seems like she tailored her stories to us.”

“Probably why she spoke to you all separately. Damn, that’s messed up. Like seriously messed up,” Hitoshi scoffed. He crossed his arms and shook his head. “Did she get hit in the head at one of her parent’s construction sites? How did she turn out like this?”

A contemplative silence took over the group. Izuku had no doubt that each of them were going over their own previous interactions regarding Uararaka. He knew he was doing just that. It was hard for him to reconcile that the woman who was actively trying to ruin him and his relationships was the same bubbly girl he had met in high school.

But maybe that’s because Izuku hadn’t been looking . And now he was . Uraraka had approached him not too long after the beginning of their first year. She was charismatic and kind and an extrovert. She was the epitome of who Izuku had wanted to be. He wanted to break out of his little shell and be able to surround himself with people he could be comfortable with.

She was his salvation at that moment. With her, he began to pull others into his orbit. Tenya, then Tsu, Shouto, and lastly Hitoshi. There were others who weren’t as close but yet Izuku cherished them still. Some of them overlapped with Bakugou’s friend group, so the brunet silently mourned the loss. And yet, Izuku had attributed it all to her.

And apparently she had an ulterior motive. From the moment high school had started, it was no secret that Izuku and Bakugou had been in a relationship. They had been a little rocky in middle school, but throughout their first year of high school, their relationship seemed on the mend. They became as inseparable as they had in their early childhood years.

If Uraraka had wanted Bakugou, she’d have to get Izuku out of the way. And if she didn’t care about how long it took, infiltration worked well enough.

Granted, this was all pure speculation, and Izuku knew he liked to overthink things. So maybe he was just trying to justify why bad things always happened to him.

“Izuku, are you okay?”

The brunet jolted out of his thoughts as he felt a warm hand on his shoulder. Tsu and Shouto were standing just behind him, Hitoshi and Tenya leaning in on either side. It was then he realized hot tears were rolling down his cheeks.

“You know we stand by you, right?” Shouto said.

“Yeah, she’s messed up big time. I don’t think it would be a good idea to stay friends with her,” Tsu murmured, voice soft.

With his friends around him, he just nodded. He would be. He now knew his friends were going to stick to him. And he had his family who would support him no matter what. And then there was Mr Nedzu and Aizawa, Izuku doubted they’d turn on him. He had more people backing him now than he had ever thought he would growing up.

He sniffled and then devolved into crying, bordering on wailing. He reached out, pulling his friends as close as he could. They let him, leaning into his hold and letting him exhaust his tears.

-

After the emotional scene, things moved back to the light, fun atmosphere that it had been before. While Izuku was still feeling a little raw, laughing and poking fun at his friends was soothing. And all too soon it felt like it came to an end. 

“You want me to drive you home? Help avoid somehow managing to run into those stalkers?” Hitoshi offered up as the others bid their farewells and left.

“I would very much like that. It does feel like they’re always a couple steps behind me. It’s frankly, very weird,” Izuku shuddered.

They left the restaurant, looking around like Bakugou and Uraraka would jump out at them. The ride home was silent, but that was often how it was between Izuku and Hitoshi. Just coexisting together, no need to fill the space with mindless chatter all the time.

By the time they pulled into the driveway of Izuku’s current residence, the brunet decided that he didn’t want to be alone at the moment. He turned to his friend.

“Are you doing anything else today?”

The dark-haired man looked at him, a grin splitting across his face, “calendar’s free. Wanna give me a house tour?”

Izuku nodded and hopped out, leading Hitoshi inside.

The older male whistled as he stepped into the genkan, “damn, this is a nice place. How much do you think my cousin shelled out to buy it?”

“No clue. Is it nicer than Mr Nedzu’s house?”

“Are you kidding? Uncle’s house is practically a mansion. And for some reason, part of it was built to function like a maze. I’ll never understand that old man’s brain,” Hitoshi snorted as he kicked off his shoes and shuffled into the living room, looking around.

Izuku swapped into his house slippers and joined him, “That’s so interesting! I’ve never actually been to his house. Usually when we did our bi-weekly meet-ups it would be at, like, a park or something. Now I want to go and see his house!”

“Gods, you’re a freak of nature, ‘zu,” Hitoshi laughed. “Now, show me around!”

-

Izuku had given a nice tour and even ended up showing Hitoshi the ring he had gotten for Aizawa since he had asked. They eventually settled down in the living room, simply chatting. Izuku, emotionally drained from the day began to nod off.

“You can lay down. I’ll stay here," Hitoshi murmured.

Izuku made a grateful noise. He moved and rested his head on his older friend’s thighs. He settled and within seconds, was blissfully asleep, the revelations of the day melting away into nothing.

And that was how Aizawa found them when he got home.

Chapter Text

“I’m home,” Shouta called out as he stepped inside.

He was still wondering whose car was in the driveway, but that question was answered when he saw his cousin sitting on the couch on his phone. He went to greet him despite being suspicious considering the younger man shouldn’t have known his new address, that was until he noticed his husband asleep on the couch next to Hitoshi, head of fluffy curls resting on his cousin’s lap. He knew that they had been friends in high school, Hitoshi had mentioned him in passing quite a few times, but Shouta hadn’t realized they had stayed friends. It would have made sense though.

Jealousy spiked through his chest at seeing how Izuku was comfortably sleeping on his cousin, no matter how illogical. (The brunet was married to Shouta not to Hitoshi after all.)

“Hitoshi, I didn't realize you’d be coming over,” Shouta said as he approached, he shed his suit jacket and draped it over the arm of the couch.

“Of course you didn’t. It was unplanned. After lunch though, I figured it would be best if he wasn’t left alone,” the younger said, one of his hands coming up to pet Izuku’s head.

The sleeping brunet curled more into him and Shouta swallowed the noise rising in his throat. The older man knew that Hitoshi was baiting him and he wasn’t going to fall for it. He was more curious as to what had transpired on their outing than trying to pick a fight with his little cousin.

“I can take him to bed,” Shouta murmured.

“I think he’s good right where he is, don’t you?”

Shouta’s eye twitched and he stared down at the boy who resembled him. Hitoshi knew how the older man felt about Izuku. He knew and he was acting like a brat. But Shouta was an adult, he could handle this calmly.

“I know he’s comfortable right now, but Hitoshi, please, stop being difficult.”

The younger man didn’t respond at first, only set his phone down and crossed his arms. They stared at each other without saying anything. 

“He’s concerned y’know…” Hitoshi mumbled softly, looking down at Izuku. “He thinks he’s not allowed to fall in love with you. Something about not being right for you. I’ve considered him family for so long, so I suppose it’s not too bad if it’s official. That means you better do your best to convince him he’s allowed to feel things for you, got it?”

Shouta swallowed hard, grey eyes dropping down to look at his husband’s sleeping face. He hadn’t realized that that was why the brunet had been so hesitant to answer his question that morning. But it made sense. Shouta might have the emotional capacity of a teaspoon according to everyone that knew him, but Izuku bled emotions like he had an overabundance of them and paired with a tendency to overthink? He must not have had it easy growing up. And if he was right about Bakugou, Izuku’s heart was a lot more shielded than Shouta had originally thought. 

He’d have to take his cousin’s advice. He didn’t want the brunet to distance himself even more when all Shouta wanted was for him to be happy and smiling and in his arms.

“Yeah, I got it,” he responded. He wasn’t going to point out that maybe he wasn’t the best choice, but he didn’t want anyone else stealing his husband away from him when he just got him.

Hitoshi motioned to the sleeping brunet and Shouta took the chance to lean down and gently coax Izuku into his arms. The younger man let out a little whine, clinging to Hitoshi for a second before letting the older man scoop him up. The moment Shouta had him settled against his chest, Izuku relaxed, slumping against him.

“He seems used to being in your arms already,” Hitoshi pointed out suspiciously.

“We sleep in the same bed. I’m making him acclimate.”

“It sounds like you’re manipulating him.”

“Is that not what I said?”

Hitoshi groaned and covered his face, “God you’re just like Uncle. No wonder Izuku seems to like you.”

“I’ll take that as a compliment,” Shouta snorted, looking down at Izuku. Then he looked back up to his cousin, “You can stay the night if you want, I’m sure he wouldn’t want you out driving so late.”

“Thanks, but I have work in the morning so I better get back,” the younger man said as he stood, stretching like a cat.

Hitoshi stepped closer and before Shouta could protest, leaned down and kissed Izuku’s forehead. Shouta made an annoyed sound in his throat to which his cousin only laughed.

“I’ll text him so he doesn’t worry when he wakes up. Be prepared to see a lot more of me around,” the younger practically sang as he shuffled over to the front door, leaving quietly. 

The dark-haired man rolled his eyes. He shuffled to the door, managing to lock it despite the body in his arms. Then he turned on his heels, gently carrying Izuku up the stairs and to the bedroom. Carefully he set his husband on the bed. He stood back up and slipped the house slippers off Izuku’s feet, setting them on the floor next to the nightstand. He looked back down at Izuku and frowned slightly. He didn’t think it would be the best for Izuku to stay in his outdoor clothes, but he also doubted that the brunet would appreciate being undressed by the older man.

As Shouta mentally debated whether it was worth getting inevitably scolded in the morning, something tugged at his pant leg. Grey eyes looked down to see Izuku’s hand pinching the fabric around Shouta’s thigh. The brunet’s freckled face was scrunched up yet his eyes were still closed.

The older man stepped closer to the bed, fingers reaching down to run through curls. Izuku murmured something that Shouta didn’t quite catch, but then the tugging came again.

“Do you want me to lay with you?” Shouta asked softly, his other hand coming up to run his thumb along Izuku’s freckled cheekbone.

The brunet let out a small noise that sounded like an agreement. The taller man smiled.

“Alright, let me just plug in our phones,” he cooed.

Izuku’s face scrunched up again but he let go of Shouta’s pant leg. That allowed the older man to swiftly plug in their phones and click the lights off. He didn’t bother changing as he climbed into bed, easily pulling the smaller man into his arms. Izuku immediately pressed his face against Shouta’s chest which made the dark-haired man chuckle, a deep rumble in his chest.

This was how he wanted it. He wanted his cute little husband to cuddle into him, wanted him to allow Shouta to care for him, and wanted him to let Shouta love him the way he had wanted to since the older man had first seen him.

And it had been so long ago, yet Shouta remembered it with striking detail. The teary eyes and flushed cheeks. He had wanted nothing more than to hug him tight and never let go. And as fate would have it, he was given a chance to. He had gotten this far, they were married now. And Shouta wasn’t planning on letting him leave.

The older man buried his face in Izuku’s hair and let himself fall asleep.

-

Shouta woke up to his alarm and grunted. He didn’t want to get up, not when he could feel Izuku still fast asleep in his arms. And yet he moved, rolling over enough to turn his alarm off. That didn’t stop him from rolling right back over to squeeze his husband against him.

“Stop squeezing me so much,” Izuku suddenly grumbled.

The older man tensed for a moment before loosening his grip and looking down. The brunet’s green eyes were partially opened, slowly blinking as he looked up. His cheeks were already tinted pink as he pouted slightly.  

“Your alarm woke me up,” he grumbled again.

Shouta practically cooed, “sorry, didn’t mean to wake you up. I was planning to let you sleep in a little longer.”

“It’s fine… I’m going back to work today anyway.”

The dark-haired man made an inquisitive noise as Izuku reached up to rub his face. That was when the older man caught a glimpse of metal.

“Oh? What’s this? A ring?”

The younger man froze and wide eyes peered up through his fingers. He let out a nervous laugh and Shouta could hear him swallow. 

“Ah, when I met Nemuri, she insisted on… rings… um. There is one for you too… they match,” He stuttered out, blush creeping up to his ears.

“Matching wedding rings. How thoughtful,” Shouta mused.

The older man fought to keep the pout off his face as Izuku moved out of his arms, sitting up. The younger man looked down and tilted his head.

“I’m still in yesterday’s clothes,” he quietly pointed out.

“You are. You fell asleep on Hitoshi and I didn’t change your clothes when I brought you to bed. Would you rather I have?”

“No! No no, this is fine, thank you!” Izuku squeaked out, voice high pitched as he quickly slipped out of bed.

Shouta sat up and stretched, groaning as he felt some of his bones pop. He slid out of bed and picked up his phone, checking for any important messages or emails. But after a second he heard shuffling to his right and glanced over only to see Izuku standing there, a familiar ring box in his hands.

He opened it and thrust the box forward in the older man’s direction. Shouta chuckled and leaned forward a bit, raising his left hand.

“I seem to still be a bit tired, can you put it on for me?” 

Izuku looked up and his mouth opened, but no words came out. The blush that had started to fade came back full force. He stood there before huffing and pulling the ring out of the box. He tossed the box onto the bed and grabbed Shouta’s hand gently pushing the ring onto his finger.

“There… lazy…” Izuku grunted, fingers lingering.

The grey-eyed man laughed softly, “thank you. How about I treat you to dinner tonight? It won’t beat your home cooking, but will you at least let me do this for you?”

“Do you just like spending money?”

“Sure, when it’s Father’s.”

His unexpected answer startled a laugh out of the younger man who finally let go of Shouta’s hand only to gently hit the older man’s chest.

“Fine. Dinner it is.”

Chapter Text

Izuku’s cheeks were on fire. He had left the house that morning absolutely mortified at the events that had transpired. The gall of that man to make Izuku put the wedding ring on him! But he had to admit, it was kind of nice to hold Aizawa’s hand. The older man had long, slender fingers and as Izuku had slid the ring on he couldn't help but think of how his husband could have been a hand model. Or really, a model in general with his looks.

How does he always end up with a man handsome enough to be on the cover of magazines when he looked like he could blend into any crowd?

He groaned and scrubbed his face with his hands. He had to tune into work. He was shadowing his dad today and knowing his old man, there would be questions. A lot of questions. And the brunet wasn’t sure if he would be able to handle the onslaught without melting into a puddle from embarrassment.

As the private car his dad had arranged for him pulled up to their company building, Izuku cringed. Standing outside the building, surrounded by reporters and employees alike was his ridiculously tall father who had a smug look on his face like usual.

Izuku sighed and rested his forehead against the back of the passenger seat’s headrest. He was grateful he had a dad that cared for him, but did the man really have to come pick him up at the front door like a parent picking up their kid from school? It was embarrassing. No doubt Hisashi would say something that caught the attention of every journalist in the vicinity of the building, leaving Izuku to handle the fallout as “training”.

Sometimes Izuku wished that their family company didn’t rely on the entertainment business as their front. It would make it a lot easier for the brunet to avoid the limelight. 

After lamenting his fate and debating on asking the driver to take him home, Izuku opened the door and stepped out. Usually his arrival wouldn’t catch anyone’s eye as he tended to blend in, but considering the fact that his dad was moving closer, all cameras were on him.

Izuku mentally groaned as he closed the door behind him.

“Father,” Izuku greeted softly.

“Izuku,” Hisashi greeted in return.

The albino motioned for the younger of the two to lead the way into the building, and Izuku reluctantly did so. He slipped one hand into his pocket to fiddle with a small toy he kept, the other hand hanging loose in case he needed it for something.

“I’m surprised you came, thought you’d be too busy spending time with your husband to work.”

Izuku smiled placatingly to mask the way his eye twitched. And there it was. The statement that caught the eye and ear of every journalist who heard them. The brunet heard the footsteps, the voices calling out questions about his marriage. He took a deep breath, calming himself before he spoke to his father.

“Getting married does not mean the world stops turning. Work is important if you want a good life,” Izuku responded with a bit of a bite.

An employee opened the door and Izuku stepped into the lobby, the air in the building only marginally warmer than the chilly air outside. A deep breath and Izuku dipped his head at reception as they passed to the elevators.

“So, how is he? Everything you’d want from a man you’ve never met?”

The brunet took another deep breath, this time to center himself before looking over his shoulder and up at his father. He glared slightly, but it had no effect on the older man who simply set a large hand on the smaller man’s shoulder.

“Is it so wrong for me to want to know how my dear youngest son is after moving out?

“No, but you could stand to be more subtle,” Izuku grumbled as he stepped forward into the elevator. “I’m not talking about my married life today. I’m sure you’ll hear more than enough about it this weekend when I bring him over for dinner.”

The wide smile on his father’s face faded as the tall man stepped into the elevator behind him.

“ Excuse me ?”

“Oh? Did Mama not tell you?”

“No,” Hisashi said through his teeth, immediately pulling out his phone and tapping on the screen.

Izuku could never get over how tiny the phone looked in his father’s large hands. Growing up it had always made Izuku laugh, mostly because of how annoyed it made Hisashi to try and use it for anything other than phone calls. Though that never stopped the albino man from trying.

While his father was too busy clicking one letter at a time on his keyboard, Izuku felt his phone buzz. He assumed it was Hitoshi, the two of them having started up a conversation this morning about something Hitoshi had seen on social media. He pulled his phone out of his pocket and expected to see a dumb reaction image that his friend was so fond of. But it wasn't.

[Shouta <3: I didn’t have the chance to tell you before you left. But have a good day at work.]

Izuku’s eyes widened at the text. He knew that he had Aizawa’s number in his phone, but that was not what his contact name was. He swapped over to his conversation with Hitoshi.

[Me: YOU]

[Tosh: me???]

[Me: DID YOU CHANGE AIZAWA’S NAME IN MY PHONE?!]

[Tosh: oh]

[Tosh: haha yeah thought it was funny]

[Me: It about gave me a heart attack. He texted me and I couldn’t figure out who it was for half a second.]

[Tosh: u didnt remember ur own husbands name?]

[Tosh: woooow]

[Me: I don’t call him by his given name so I wasn’t looking for it.]

[Tosh: damn i suddenly feel sorry for him]

[Me:???]

[Tosh: anyway arent u at work???]

[Tosh: doubt ur dad would be happy ur on ur phone]

[Tosh: ill text u later]

Izuku let out a frustrated little noise as he swapped back to his chat with Aizawa. Sometimes Hitoshi managed to get under his skin, but the brunet knew it was all in good fun. 

[Me: Thank you! You have a good day too.]

It took less than a minute before he got a response, making Izuku think that maybe his husband had been waiting for a text. The brunet could only imagine a dog waiting at the door for its owner to come home.

[Shouta <3: I’ll try but I don’t think Father will let me]

[Shouta <3: Keeps asking about you like he doesn’t have your phone number or know where you live]

Izuku let out a soft laugh. He looked up when the elevator dinged and the doors opened. He stepped forward, tucking his phone into his pocket.

“Oh, now you’re paying attention?” Hisashi spoke up from beside him, stepping out of the elevator as well.

“Huh? You were texting Mama. I can’t text people now?”

“Who were you texting? Your fancy new husband?”

“Dad!” Izuku groaned, obviously exasperated with his dad’s constant teasing. “I was texting Hitoshi if you absolutely have to know.”

“You mean that kid who looks like he’s always on the verge of passing out? The one who’s related to my new son-in-law?”

The younger man froze mid-step. They had been walking to his father’s office, passing by rows of empty desks (his father didn’t like keeping personal assistants because they couldn’t keep secrets according to the older man).

“You knew ?”

“Of course I knew. You think I didn’t research who you were marrying beforehand? Granted, information such as age, occupation, schooling and whatnot don’t give me insight into who a person is. Thankfully credit card transactions and connections give a little bit. But he was surprisingly clean on that front,” He stopped to grumble something under his breath. An insult probably. “Which is why I didn’t want you to marry him. But, you don’t have any visible injuries, so I’ll let him slide this time,” Hisashi said nonchalantly as he strode past Izuku and into the office.

The brunet blinked owlishly before sighing heavily. He wasn’t sure what he expected. It was so typical of his dad to dig up any information on someone. The old man hated not knowing. It’s why he decided to stick his nose into every family of high society. If there was drama going on, he would know about it. 

It stood to reason that Mr Nedzu had flown under his radar until that contract had arrived at his parent’s house. No need to guess that Hisashi had done everything he could to find information on the family.

“Dad that’s… you can’t keep doing that. What happens if someone finally finds out that you’ve essentially been stalking them?” Izuku asked, rushing to keep up with the taller man.

They stepped into the office, Hisashi rounding the desk and making himself comfortable in his oversized desk chair. The young brunet stood on his left side, arms crossed looking at his father with a disappointed stare.

“They won’t. No one ever realizes how much I truly know about them. It’s how you portray information, how you carry yourself. Besides, all you have to do is throw some fuel on an already existing fire to get the heat off your back. Here, lesson one of today. How to manipulate the competition into fighting amongst themselves.”

Izuku sighed and nodded, listening to Hisashi’s words. It was moments like this where he wished that Tenko hadn’t dodged the family business and ran off to do his own thing. Not that the younger son wasn’t happy that he was being useful, but his dad hadn’t announced him as the official heir citing some nonsense about others taking advantage of his ‘baby boy’. 

The brunet inwardly cringed and shook his head.

“Spreading rumors may look easy, but nowadays, people can track the origin of much of the gossip out there. So the easiest way to make sure it doesn’t come back to you is making sure that info makes its way to someone with loose lips that have no connection to you. Also include something scandalous about yourself. Preferably something debunkable, but it will make sure that no one bats an eye in your direction because who would start rumors about themself!”

His dad kept on talking, but Izuku was already tuning out. He loved his dad, but the man had a tendency to repeat himself, so this conversation was one the brunet had heard at least twice before. Instead, he pulled his phone back out to respond to Aizawa, feeling bad that he had left his husband on read.

[Me: Sorry, Dad distracted me. Don’t give Mr Nedzu a hard time. Tell him I’ll text him later.]

There wasn’t an instant text back, so Izuku figured that he had gotten busy. He supposed he should as well. So he tucked his phone back into his pocket and tuned back into his father’s monologue about gaslighting and manipulation like it was something so normal no one would have given it a second glance.

Suddenly, his father stopped talking and spun to face Izuku.

“I nearly forgot to mention. Ever since you told me about that brat cheating on you, I decided to take a really good look into his life and that girl’s life too. I found something.”

The older man opened a drawer and pulled out a file folder, handing it over, “I suggest reading it. I’ll give you time to do it now or after lunch. Or, you don’t have to. I just thought that you shouldn’t have to be in the dark too much.”

“Thank you, Dad,” Izuku murmured, staring at the folder in his hands. He wasn’t sure if he really wanted to read this, but he would. He needed to know how deep the hurt went.

“I’ll read it after lunch.”

Chapter Text

Izuku stepped out of the private car, tired and mentally exhausted. His dad had decided that today he would amp up the amount of work given to him. And the brunet had a sneaking suspicion it was retaliation for planning to bring Aizawa to dinner without informing him first. But how was he supposed to know his mom wouldn’t tell his dad! 

That and the folder. That damn folder. His dad loved him, Izuku knew that. It was evident in everything Hisashi did. He wanted to make up for missing so many years, so he did everything he could to help Izuku after missing some of the most important parts of his life. (Excluding the fact that Hisashi had called every single day and whined about spending so much time away from home.)

He sighed and dragged himself up the pavement. Aizawa’s car was already parked in the driveway. Izuku wasn’t sure how the other man made it home before him, but he didn’t really care. He unlocked and opened the door, kicking off his shoes. He located Aizawa sitting on the couch, laptop on his lap.

“I’m home,” Izuku called out, slipping into his house slippers and shuffling over to his husband.

The dark-haired man looked up and smiled slightly, “Welcome back. You look tired, how was work? ”

The brunet practically threw himself onto the couch and without thinking too hard about it, curled into Aizawa’s side, the older man moving to accommodate him like it was normal.

(Izuku didn’t want to admit that the thought made his stomach do a flip.)

“Dad made me do mostly busy work, but a lot of it. Guess he was just being his usual vindictive self when he doesn’t get what he wants. He’s like an overgrown toddler sometimes. Don’t know how Mama deals with him 24/7. He’s good when he’s not in one of his moods.”

“At least Father is level-headed most of the time. Don’t think I could work for him otherwise.”

“I’m jealous,” Izuku sighed, slumping more into Aizawa’s side.

The older man hummed and continued to tap away on his laptop, allowing them to lapse into a comfortable silence. The brunet soaked it up, but eventually he squirmed a bit.

“My dad gave me a file on Bakugou and Uraraka today. Turns out he dug up some stuff about when they got together,” he murmured quietly.

Aizawa tensed and then slowly closed his laptop, his grey eyes dropping down to Izuku, “oh?"

“Mhm… It was… not a great read. I had theorized with Hitoshi yesterday that they had gotten together 6 months ago.”

“Were you correct?”

Izuku’s eyes watered as his mind conjured images of the file. He sniffled and wiped at his cheeks, catching some stray tears.

“No,” the brunet’s voice cracked slightly. “It was… worse than I thought…”

The older man clicked his tongue and set his laptop on the coffee table, before twisting his body to pull the younger man into his arms. His large hands smoothed over his back in a soothing manner.

“How worse is worse?”

Izuku didn’t answer right away as he leaned into the older man’s chest. Then he took a deep breath and whispered softly, “Just over a year.”

A sharp inhale before the brunet felt himself being pulled closer into Aizawa’s body. It was awkward and yet one of the most comforting hugs he’d ever had.

“Is there anything else from that file that you want to share?” His husband slowly asked, his voice low and quiet.

The younger man thought about it for a moment before adjusting his position.

“Not really. Not much to say. Every time Bakugou said he couldn’t hang out he was with Uraraka. According to Dad, Uraraka has been positing pictures of the two of them on a private social media account that’s blocked everyone in the friend group… she really had me fooled.”

Another sniffle as silent tears rolled down his cheeks. Izuku wiped more tears away before Aizawa's voice washed over him

“We still good for dinner? It could help take your mind off things.”

Izuku made an affirmative noise, “Thank god you offered to take me out, don’t know if I have it in me to cook at the moment.”

“It works out perfectly then. Do you want to change or stay in your suit? I had someone pick up your new clothes and take them to get them washed earlier today. So they’re all upstairs in the bedroom closet.”

“Thank you. I should have washed them yesterday when I was waiting for ‘toshi to pick me up for lunch. But it didn’t even really occur to me at the moment. Was worried about too much I guess,” the younger man sat up, mourning the warmth from his husband’s body. He stretched and stood. “Are you gonna change too?”

“No, I don’t like changing clothes too often. Especially if I’m not gonna wear them for more than a few hours. I feel like it’s a waste. But you don’t look particularly comfortable in that suit, so go change.”

Izuku nodded and shuffled over to the stairs, climbing them. He walked to the bedroom (he didn’t think he could convince the other man to not share a room now, not that Izuku really wanted to separate at this point) and opened the closet door.

He had only ever peeked in before, but he wasn't necessarily surprised to see the closet space split in half. Izuku’s stuff on the right with Aizawa’s stuff all on the left. And upon further inspection, his husband’s side of the closet really was mostly greyscale. Izuku would have to find a way to sneak other colors in, somehow someway.

He changed into comfier clothing and trekked back downstairs. Aizawa had put away the laptop and was leaning back on the couch, typing away on his phone, no doubt texting his extroverted friend group.

“I’m ready to go,” Izuku said as he made his way over, leaning on the back of the couch.

“Alright, let me just tell Hizashi that, no he cannot join our dinner just to talk to you more,” the older man grumbled, hunched over his phone.

The brunet could practically hear the scowl on his face, and he snickered into his hand, muffling it enough for Aizawa to not notice too much.

-

“This place seems too fancy, especially with the clothes I’m wearing,” Izuku murmured, staring up at the face of the restaurant. He had gone with an oversized sweater and khaki cargo pants with his signature red sneakers. He looked so… pedestrian next to Aizawa still dressed in his suit from work.

“I think you look perfectly fine. They don’t have a dress code, I checked. If they try to kick you out, I’ll tell Father and  we’ll go somewhere else,” Aizawa said as a wide grin that showed off too many teeth appeared on his face and the brunet shuddered. He didn’t want to imagine what Mr Nedzu would do to the restaurant. His dad would probably be just as bad or worse.

“Fair enough, let's go in, I’m starving.”

Aizawa opened the door for him and Izuku entered with a smile.

“Thank you.”

-

They surprisingly weren’t turned away at the door. And the surprise morphed into embarrassment as the hostess apparently recognized Izuku from the very limited variety shows he had been allowed to do right out of high school. The brunet had thought they had all been scrubbed from the internet after Hisashi realized that it brought too much attention to his youngest son.

They had been seated in a prime spot, and Aizawa just looked smug the entire time. The moment they had sat down, the dark-haired man spoke up absently while perusing the menu.

“So, variety shows, huh? I think I managed to catch a couple when they first aired.”

The brunet’s face dropped into pure horror as he balked at his husband’s words. “You what?” he managed to squeak out.

The corners of Aizawa’s eyes crinkled in amusement as he let out a little laugh, “I think the first one I ever saw was the one where they had you participate in a dance battle. You have skill.”

“Oh, that’s not… one of Bakugou’s friends is a really good dancer. She taught me in high school for a festival. I’m not really that good,” the younger man immediately brushed off the compliment.

“She might have taught you in high school, but I somehow doubt she was your choreographer for the show. So just, take the compliment.”

Izuku couldn’t say anything to that as maybe the older man had a point. He grumbled as he looked over the menu.

-

“Oh, this food is so good,” Izuku kicked his feet as he took another bite. 

“I’ve only ever been here once before. I came with Father for a work meeting. But that was years ago now, and I hardly remembered what the food tasted like. So I’m glad I didn't bring you somewhere with trash food after the day you had.”

The brunet beamed up at Aizawa as he took another bite.

“Shit,” the dark-haired man suddenly mumbled under his breath. “I think that’s your ex. I would ask you to confirm, but don’t turn around. Damn, is the hostess leading them over here?”

“Probably,” Izuku lamented immediately. “If she knows me from variety shows, I mentioned Bakugou a lot as he was my boyfriend at the time. I had fully intended on marrying him. But now…? God I hope she doesn’t recognize him and just coincidentally happens to be seating them in this section.”

“I’m sorry,” Aizawa murmured to Izuku across the table.

“Don’t apologize, you couldn’t have known,” Izuku responded.

The brunet thought that, perhaps, they wouldn’t be noticed. Those hopes were immediately crushed when he felt a presence appear to his left. He looked up and cringed.

“Do you mind? Your presence is ruining my meal,” Izuku huffed.

“The fuck do you mean by that, Deku?”

The brunet stood, turning to face Bakugou with a sneer, “You heard what I said. The scenery is ugly. Leave.”

The blonde scoffed and crossed his arms. Uraraka was right next to him, clinging to his arm like she couldn’t breathe without skin contact. It made Izuku want to laugh.

“Why are you suddenly so stubborn, huh? You always talked about how handsome I was before.”

“Mhm, he used to go on and on about how lucky he was. And yet he threw you away so easily, Katsuki. Makes you wonder, doesn't it?” Uraraka tacked on, trying to instigate.

Izuku turned his gaze to her and smiled, “Have you talked to the others since the last time we talked? Because I had a very nice lunch with them yesterday.”

That got her to shut up immediately, sputtering. But the brunet simply ignored her, his sharp green eyes turning back to the ex-boyfriend. 

“I’ve always been stubborn. But I didn’t ever bother to fight with you because you just talk over others like  they don't exist.”

“I don’t fucking talk over people. You do with your goddamn rambling. You never shut up. I don’t know how I ever managed to deal with you on a daily basis,” Bakugou seethed. He uncrossed his arms and brushed off Uraraka’s hand as he stepped forward, getting into Izuku’s personal space.

The smaller man swallowed hard, but didn’t back down. He couldn’t, not when he just wanted to be left alone. Giving in would be letting the bully win. He glanced over at Aizawa who was glaring at the couple. Mostly likely upset that the two had ruined their very nice dinner.

“Apparently you didn't have to since you have Uraraka wrapped around your finger. And according to my dad, you’ve been sneaking around behind my back for months! Almost a year of going on dates and trips together. Did you like betraying me? Did you have fun?”

The woman’s mouth dropped open, “You knew ?”

Bakugou scoffed yet again. “He’s bluffing. He’s guessing and I know he’s guessing because this fucker’s dad hasn’t been back to Japan since we were young. There’s no way he got any information from him.”

Izuku laughed almost hysterically. Bakugou was really marching to the beat of his own drum wasn’t he? He shook his head. When his mom and dad first adopted Tenko, Izuku was 4, and the older boy was in bad shape. He was jumpy and seemingly scared of his own shadow.

He had gotten used to their little family, acclimating well, and Izuku had been so excited for a big brother! But when Izuku was about 9, Tenko’s health took a turn for the worst. Dad had taken him out of the country to get treatment, leaving just him and his mom.

They were gone for years and everyone just forgot about it. Izuku became fatherless in the eyes of many of his classmates, and it was a reason he was bullied in his younger years. The summer during his last year of junior high, Dad and Tenko came back. Tenko was doing much better and immediately enrolled in online classes to catch up in school. Izuku hadn’t bothered to tell anyone that his dad had come back. It didn’t really matter unless they came over and he was home.

“Why the fuck are you laughing? You know something I don’t?”

“Of course I do. You like to think you’re observant, but you don’t pay attention unless you really care. My dad came back before high school started. Not that you ever came over to my house because you thought that me and my mom were so pitiful. Get over yourself.”

Bakugou’s eye twitched but that was all he saw before his head jerked to the side, cheek stinging in pain. His eyes widened, unbidden tears beginning to well up.

“You hit me,” he whispered, hand coming up to soothe the agitated skin. 

He turned his head to look back at Bakugou. Uraraka looked delighted while the blond had a mix of shock and smugness warring on his face.

The sound of a chair scraping across the tile and suddenly Aizawa was too close, fist coming into contact with Bakugou’s jaw with enough force to make the bully stumble back.

“You can talk and yell all you want. But the moment you lay a hand on him, you’ve crossed the line,” The older man said, anger lacing his voice. He stood squarely in front of Izuku, blocking him from their view.

The brunet let his tears fall, curling up so his forehead pressed against Shouta’s upper back. He had never been more glad for the taller man’s comforting presence. 

Bakugou snarled as he rubbed at his jaw, “He fucking deserved it!”

“Ugh you again? Why do you even bother sticking around with him? Is he paying you or something?” Uraraka accused as she gently reached up, playing the doting girlfriend, examining the damage to the blond’s face.

Izuku felt the muscles in Aizawa’s back tense up, and the brunet was going to guess that he was offended on his behalf. He took a deep breath before gently patting his husband’s shoulder blade. He stepped out from behind him, hand still over his cheek.

“Not everyone is able to be bought, unlike you . I remember how desperate you were for money in high school, always asking for us to pay for lunch when we went out. We spent so much money on you. It’s no wonder you clung to someone who could catapult you into a life that isn’t construction. It’s just a shame he’s a firefighter instead of a fully fledged model,” Izuku taunted.

It made her upset and she stomped her foot in frustration. But then she smirked and laughed as she wrapped herself back around Bakugou’s arm like she lived there.

“Oh? Didn’t you hear? My Katsuki is going into the entertainment field. He’s gonna be an actor with me,” She bragged with an annoying little laugh.

It made Izuku’s blood boil. Mostly because once Bakugou had decided to become a firefighter, he had tried so hard to convince the blond that the job was too dangerous and he should look into safer occupations. But he had always been brushed off, left to worry himself sick.

“Oh is he? Indulge me, what company are you planning on signing with?” Izuku’s eyes shifted between the two. 

The brunet couldn’t help but be curious. His dad ran one of the biggest entertainment groups in Japan. They had always been praised for how well they did business and how well they treated their talents. It was a point of pride from his dad who built it from the ground up. But Izuku wasn’t exactly forthcoming with his family’s finances. It wasn’t anyone’s business and he wasn’t one to go around bragging anyway.

“His parents are already in talks with the Heritage Entertainment group. Not that you really need to know because you aren’t even half as talented as he is,” Uraraka laughed.

“Heritage Entertainment? You really think you are worthy of such a well reputed group? Keep dreaming, with your attitude you wouldn’t even make it through the front door,” Aizawa said before the small brunet beside him could say anything.

Izuku turned his head into his husband’s shoulder to muffle his laughter. He couldn’t help it. Usually his dad didn’t deal too much with the talent they hired, but he would definitely make sure Hisashi was aware of everything that was happening. It was his right as the heir to the company. Even if it wasn’t official , Hisashi had promised him. And if there was one thing his old man was good at, it was keeping his promises.

“Why the fuck are you so giggly? You’ve never laughed this much before,” Bakugou huffed. He seemed almost upset. Not that Izuku cared.

“Whether my husband wants to laugh or not has nothing to do with you anymore. You’ve already caused enough of a commotion here, are you done now?” Aizawa asked blandly, arm wrapping around the smaller man next to him protectively.

“He’s not your fucking husband! Deku’s my fiancé. He has been since we were young.”

Izuku wanted to say something, but Aizawa had suddenly let go of him and stepped up to Bakugou, coming chest-to-chest with him. The dark-haired man had to look down to make eye contact, but the moment he did, he jabbed a long finger into the blond’s chest.

“ Wrong . He might have been your fiancé once upon a time, but you made your decision very clear. Izuku doesn’t want you anywhere near him. He married me . If you can’t get that through your thick-ass skull no one and I mean no one is going to want to work with you. You can cry and whine all you want, but if you want any sort of chance for you or your broad here, shut up and leave. ”

Izuku shuddered, something he definitely didn’t want to identify running down his spine. He bit his lip and dug into his pocket, pulling out his phone and opening his friend group chat, deciding to chronicle everything that just happened before it could leave his mind. Sure Bakugou and Uraraka were still there, but Izuku was sure his husband would take care of it. And besides, he was a fast typer.

“You think you’re some big hotshot just because you’re with that nerd now? Oh please, Katsuki will prove both of you wrong!” Uraraka chimed in, just as affronted as Bakugou looked.

And the blond did look upset and angry, but he seemed to know better than to continue making a big deal after getting hit and he simply just huffed. Then Bakugou pulled on the brunette’s arm and instead of staying for dinner, both of them left, not bothering to cast Izuku and Aizawa another look.

The brunet startled as he felt long, slender fingers gently graze his cheek. The sting had faded, but that didn’t stop Izuku from leaning into his husband’s cold hand.

“Are you okay? He put a lot of force into that slap.”

“Yeah, but… I mean… You also punched him really hard in the face. Are your knuckles okay?” Izuku asked softly, setting his phone on the table and giving his husband all of his attention.

“My hand is the least of my worries. I shouldn’t have let it get as bad as I did. I’m sorry, this was supposed to be a relaxing dinner. I’ll make it up to you another time. Perhaps some local place in another prefecture far away from them. How does that sound?”

The brunet felt his cheeks heat up and he smiled, “I’d like that.”

-

The rest of dinner was peaceful, and they decided to take a little walk after eating, just to get some air. It was still chilly outside but it felt nice. 

Izuku took a deep breath. “Thank you for dinner. As… eventful as it was.”

“You’re welcome. Again, I’ll make it up to you. I’m sure Hizashi has a whole list of good local places he’d willingly give us.”

They lapsed into a comfortable silence before Izuku made a fool of himself by tripping. He stumbled forward, his mind panicking as he struggled to react in time. Thankfully, muscular arms wrapped around his waist and steadied him.

“Careful now,” Aizawa murmured, voice close to Izuku’s ear.

The brunet’s face turned red. “Thank you, Aizawa,” he stuttered, feeling more embarrassed than ever before. 

“Y’know, I call you by your given name, but I haven’t heard you call me by mine yet. You know you can, right?”

Tense silence as Izuku was righted and stabilized. Of course he knew he could call Aizawa by his given name. They were married, but something about it felt too… intimate. They have been married all of 3 days after all. That wasn’t a long time! Disregarding the fact that they’ve slept in the same bed since they got married. Disregarding the fact that Izuku knew Aizawa’s closest family members and most of his friends by now. Disregarding the fact that the older man was going to meet Izuku’s parents that weekend. But he supposed the older man was right. It was inevitable that this would happen.

The brunet looked down at the ground, nervously twisting his fingers. He mouthed Aizawa’s given name to himself before taking a deep breath. He looked up at his husband.

“Shouta.”

He wasn’t sure what he was expecting, but the most breathtaking smile appearing on Aizawa’s face wasn’t it. He hadn’t ever seen him like that before and the brunet’s hand itched to take a picture. In record speed, he whipped his phone out of his pocket, taking a photo before Aizawa could register what was happening.

“Hey, did you just take a picture?” He asked incredulously.

“Maybe, are you saying I can’t take pictures of my husband now?”

“I’m not saying that, but you could at least ask before doing that. I’m not photogenic in the slightest.”

Izuku raised an eyebrow as he slowly looked down at the picture on his phone. It wasn’t the best photo by far, it was a little shaky, the background lights blurring. But it was a nice candid photo, Shouta looked good.

“You lie.”

“I do not, you should see my high school yearbook.”

The brunet perked up at the thought, “Could I?”

“You should not be that excited to see my high school photos.”

Izuku hummed and tapped his chin, “I think… Hitoshi should have my high school year book. And, Tsu liked to take pictures so I think she had a whole photo album. I’m sure she’d let me borrow it. Is that a good enough exchange?”

“I’ll see if any of my friends have photos. I have no doubt Hizashi and Oboro took a lot.”

“It’s settled then! Next time I can meet up with my friends, I’ll try and get the pictures.”

 Shouta nodded in agreement and with that, they continued their walk, Izuku setting the photo of his husband smiling as the man’s contact photo and his home screen.

Chapter Text

Shouta sat across from him at the kitchen table and the older man made a noise and gently nudged Izuku’s leg with his slipper.

“What’s got you looking so upset? We’re visiting your family today, that should be a happy occasion… right?”

“Right… and it would be! If my dad wasn’t still venting his frustration on my work life,” Izuku sighed. He stabbed his chopsticks into his egg and huffed. “Yesterday still wasn’t an easy day. And I’m anticipating him doing something else to throw a wrench into today. I’m just worried for no reason.”

“Don’t say that. Everyone has worries and yours are valid. Your dad sounds like a tad more unstable version of Father. And I can’t even fathom that.”

Izuku looked up and gave his husband a small little smile as a thank you for even bothering to ask what was wrong. It wasn’t as rare now as it had been growing up, but the brunet was still thankful all the same.

“Now, eat your food, you’ll need some sort of energy to deal with him if he’s planning something for today.”

-

Shouta pulled into the driveway of the Midoriya residence and Izuku’s blood ran cold. Aside from his father’s car, there was a second one parked behind the luxury vehicle.

The brunet let out a hysterical sounding laugh and shook his head. He turned and looked at his husband.

“How about we do a rain check and leave before someone notices we’re here?” Izuku offered sounding hopeful and slightly manic. His hands had reached over the console and grabbed Aizawa’s arm with an almost bruising grip.

“Huh? Why, what’s wrong?” Shouta asked, sounding so concerned and worried.

“It seems my dad hasn’t run out of things to torture me with. He invited my brother back. And it seems said brother dragged his boyfriend along which can only mean one thing.”

“And that would be?”

“An interrogation. So just, start the car back up and let’s go home, yeah?” Izuku asked, pulling at the taller man’s arm, ignoring how close their faces were getting for the health of his own heart.

Shouta made a noise and his grey eyes flickered down to Izuku’s lips (yes he did notice, he just really didn’t want to think about it) before his eyes moved over towards the front windshield. They lingered for a moment before he spoke.

“As much as I’d love to, I think that’s your mom watching us.”

Izuku jerked back and turned his head quickly to see his mom watching them from the front steps. She smiled widely and waved as she caught her son’s eye. The young man nervously removed one of his hands from Aizawa’s arm and waved back.

“Dammit. That means we can’t leave now,” Izuku said through his teeth as he unbuckled his seat belt.

He opened the car door and dragged himself out. He closed the door and scurred up the stone steps towards his mom. Behind him he heard the driver side door open and close.

“Mama,” Izuku greeted. “It’s good to see you.”

“Izuku,” Inko said warmly as she gathered her son into her arms, squeezing him into a tight hug. “I’m glad it looks like you’re doing well! Hisashi hasn’t given me much in the way of news. Though I think that’s from his bruised ego. And this is?” She prompted as she pulled away, looking at Aizawa.

“Oh! This is my husband,” the younger man stuttered out nervously. He felt like his palms were sweating and his mother was the easiest of the family to get along with.

“Aizawa Shouta, ma’am. It’s a pleasure to meet you. I’ve heard nothing but good things about you from Izuku,” Shouta said smoothly as he came to a stop at his husband’s side.

The brunet was almost envious of the ease at which the older man spoke. It was like he wasn’t nervous at all. Which Izuku knew he was because before they had left the house, he had once again asked if the younger man’s family would like him.

“Such a polite young man. Please come inside. Izuku, Tenko and Touya are visiting, so it’s a full house tonight.”

The young brunet smiled and bit back a groan as Inko ushered them into the two story house, built to accommodate his father’s extra large size.

“Please, make yourself comfortable, Shouta. You’re family now, after all,” the older woman said kindly. “Tenko and Touya are in the living room, your father is in his office. I recommend introducing him to your father first.”

Izuku nodded and grabbed Shouta’s hand, gently pulling him along, “Thanks, Mama.”

The moment they were halfway up the stairs, the brunet stopped and turned to look at his husband whispering softly.

“I should warn you before we go into his office. I’m sure you’ve noticed that this house is… large. And my mom and I aren’t that tall. I did not get anything from my dad except my curly hair. He’s huge and he’ll try to intimidate you with his height and presence.”

“Thank you for the warning, but I’m sure he can’t be that tall.”

“You’d think that.”

They climbed the rest of the stairs and Izuku knocked on a door waiting for the call for them to come in. The brunet took a deep breath and pushed open the door.

“Dad, heeeey. Mama told me you were in here, and I brought him for you to meet,” the young man nervously said as he stepped in and to the side, allowing Shouta to enter the office.

“It’s nice to meet you, sir. I’m Aizawa Shouta,” his husband greeted.

Hisashi lazily looked up from his computer screen, his red eyes looking the dark-haired man up and down, “I know. Izuku regrettably married you because of his bull-headed ex.”

Said brunet winced and rubbed his arms, glaring at his dad. But a glance at his husband showed no fear or even anger, just a calm indifference.

“I’m aware. I read the contract as well and have even had a few… memorable confrontations with Bakugou and his girlfriend,” Shouta stated. “But I don’t find it regrettable that we married.”

The albino man made a noise of interest, “Oh? So you don’t mind being a rebound? A cover? A fake husband? Are you planning to leave him the moment the year is up?”

“You misunderstand. I don’t regret marrying your son, I just find it a shame we hadn’t met and married under better circumstances.”

Izuku stood there, listening to them both talk. He couldn’t read his father’s facial expression, couldn’t tell if the tall man would end up accepting Shouta into the family. But Izuku hoped with every fiber of his being that he would. He wanted his family to like Aizawa.

“A shame indeed,” Hisashi said as he stood and rounded the desk, stepping closer to the couple. “You almost make it sound like you want to marry my son for real.”

The brunet glanced over again and saw the way Shouta’s eyes widened minutely as the albino had gotten up and closer. Izuku had tried to warm him. His father was over 40 cm taller than Aizawa. Hell, the dark-haired man only went up to his dad’s chest. Both of them had to crane their necks to look up at him.

Aizawa seemed to recenter himself and nodded, “And if that was really what I meant?”

They lapsed into silence and Izuku began to want to be anywhere but in the office, standing there while his husband and his dad had an intense staring contest. But then Hisashi smirked.

“Not bad. I’ll be keeping an eye on you, but until you screw up? Welcome to the family. You should head back down and introduce yourself to Tenko.”

“Oh, that reminded me. How could you?” Izuku suddenly piped up with his arms crossed. “You invited Tenko on purpose! Do you understand what you did? Sure he brought Touya along, but after Bakugou do you think he would keep it a secret from Uncle Toshinori or Uncle Yoichi? What about Grandma? What happens if they suddenly show up too huh?”

The slightly smug look on Hisashi’s face slowly began to turn into a grimace, “I doubt he would. Besides, they’re prefectures away, I only told Tenko last night so they could get here this morning.”

The brunet raised an eyebrow and sighed, “You’re severely underestimating them, but I digress. A little warning would have been nice.”

“Oh, like you warned me?”

“I did. I told you two days ago. It was only planned three days ago, how much of a notice did you want?”

“An immediate one.”

Izuku groaned and rubbed his face. “I’m going to take Shouta to meet Ten now,” he said as he grabbed Shouta’s hand and began gently pulling him out of the office and down the stairs. The moment they hit the ground floor again, Aizawa mumbled something.

“What was that?” the younger man asked, looking up at him.

“You weren’t kidding. He’s the tallest man I’ve ever seen,” the dark-haired man murmured a little louder this time.

Laughter bubbled up out of the brunet’s mouth, “My Uncle Toshinori is almost as tall.”

“Did the genes skip a generation? Why are you so short?” Shouta teased.

“Hey!” Izuku gasped as he gently hit the taller man’s chest. “You should be nice to your husband.”

Aizawa laughed, “Oh should I?”

They were cut off by some shuffling and a gagging noise. The brunet rolled his eyes and turned around coming face-to-face with his adopted brother. Tenko was hunched over and swaddled in an oversized sweater. He looked like he hadn’t seen the sun in weeks and knowing the man, he probably hadn’t. Next to him was a red head who wore the same grimace that his boyfriend did.

“Do you mind being sickeningly sweet somewhere else?” Tenko grumbled.

“Would you prefer my old bedroom instead? Y’know, the one that shares a wall with yours?” Izuku asked innocently, watching with amusement as Tenko’s face turned red.

“Shut up!”

The brunet laughed and looked up at Shouta, “Shouta, this is Tenko, my older brother. He doesn’t get out much, so you’ll have to excuse his lack of manners.”

Behind Tenko, Touya muffled a snort causing his boyfriend to elbow him in the stomach.

“Don’t take ’zu’s side, asshole.”

“Ah, and that’s Touya, his long-term on-again off-again boyfriend.”

“Oi, brat, we made it official, stop spouting nonsense!” Tenko grumbled, suddenly grabbing Izuku and ruffling his hair.

Izuku let out a squeal and squirmed in his older brother’s arms, loudly protesting his treatment, “Stop! You’re gonna mess up my hair!”

“Like it ever looks like anything other than a rat’s nest. Even Dad’s hair looks better than yours and you inherited it! And Mom’s is straight so I don’t know where they went wrong with you!”

The younger brother finally wiggled out of the older one’s arms, huffing and finger combing through his curls to try and untangle whatever Tenko had done with it.

“It’s nice to meet you,” Shouta murmured in amusement. “This is the one you said would interrogate me?” The older man asked Izuku who flushed in mortification.

“Oh? You want an interrogation? Follow me,” Tenko said loudly before the younger brother could say something. He quickly strode off into a side room, Aizawa following obediently, only giving Izuku a small reassuring smile before they disappeared behind a closed door.

“Oh god what have I done?”

Touya took a deep breath before patting the younger brunet roughly on the shoulder, “You sentenced him to death. But don’t worry, maybe Ten won’t kill him and instead he’ll come out only missing a leg.”

That did not make Izuku feel any better.

“Great. Thanks.”

-

Shouta was led into a furnished side room that he guessed was a room for entertaining guests by the lack of personalization. He sat down once his brother-in-law did and looked at the other man. The younger (and he was guessing here because he wasn’t sure about the age gap between the two brothers) seemed to squint at Shouta through his fringe.

Yet another staring contest before the other man spoke up.

“Bakugou is a bastard. ‘zu and him were practically betrothed when I was adopted into the family. It was… freaky to see the two practically attached at the hip. I don’t know how much he’s told you about me, but Dad took me overseas for medical treatment a few years after I was brought in. When I left, they were beginning to fall out. They were still in elementary school back then and we were away for years so when we returned, in about a year they were beginning to mend their relationship.

“I never liked the kid. Even back then he was a brat. Yet, Izuku kept covering for him in everything they did. From what I heard, junior high was rough for him. Bakugou was… a bully. Not that he wasn’t before and isn’t still now. He’s an awful person. My brother deserves better,” Tenko explained, his hands shoved into hoodie pocket. “They got better and Izuku wouldn’t shut up about him, talking about how great he was and a whole lotta other bullshit. There weren't any cracks until a couple weeks ago. So I need to decide if you’re going to shatter his heart more.”

Shouta simply nodded, taking it in. It was a bit nicer to hear a timeline as everything he had heard from Hitoshi and Izuku were just bits and pieces.

“I saw a glimpse of you when you first walked in. I’ll be honest, you look old. No, sorry, you look old and tired. What do you do?”

Ah, now they were getting to the interrogation portion of the conversation.

“I’m the heir to my father’s technological company which focuses on Cyber Security and Surveillance.”

“Safe. I suppose I don’t have to ask your salary then. Highest degree of education?”

The older man tilted his head, he wondered why exactly he would need to answer that question, but he didn’t get to say a word.

“Nevermind, you’re right, that’s dumb. How many past relationships have you had?”

“None. Izuku is the only one. I’ve never been interested in dating.”

“You’re what, 30? You’re telling me you’ve never been in a relationship? You don’t look like you’d be a virgin.”

Shouta had to mentally remind himself that this was his cute little husband’s older brother and not someone he could deck in the face for assuming that he would debase himself by sleeping around. He took a deep breath through his nose.

“I’m not 30 yet. And it’s not hard to abstain when you’ve been in love with the same person for years.”

That seemed to get the other man’s attention as he suddenly sat up, brown eyes staring intently at Shouta with something he couldn’t decipher.

“You realize Izuku is 21, right?”

Suddenly, Shouta thought he was going to get stabbed. Tenko’s voice was wobbly with anger and he seemed to be clutching something in his sweater.

“Did I say it was Izuku?”

“So you just lied to my face about a previous relationship?”

Shouta groaned and rubbed his face. He was starting to get why Izuku didn’t want him in an interrogation. He took another deep breath and decided to switch tactics. Being any kind of vague here wouldn’t work. He surely couldn’t tell Tenko everything. But maybe he could try to reason his way around it. He straightened up, sitting taller, and taking on his professional demeanor.

“I’ve never been in a relationship. I didn’t officially meet Izuku until we married. Don’t lump me into a category without an explanation. I’m sure you’ve met Hitoshi before?”

A nod.

“He’s my younger cousin. I’ve had to listen to him talk about Izuku since their first year of high school. At first it was nothing but scathing remarks. Then one day it was all good things. My cousin doesn’t care about just anyone. The men in our family are… picky. Then my father happens to mention one day that he’s also met Izuku and finds him a good conversational partner. You can see how this might pique my interest? Two of my closest family members are aware of him and they find him interesting, so of course, I do my research. I hear stories. Hitoshi shows me pictures and videos. Tell me, have you ever fallen in love with the mere concept of a person?”

Tenko’s face twisted up like he was thinking about it, then he opened his mouth, “I think I get what you mean? It’s like playing a gacha otome game kinda. You don’t really know the character because they’re 2D and most of the time not fully fleshed out. But you skip their entire main story route which includes all of the background information and history and then only play through the limited time events. So you only get bits and pieces of their story and nothing necessarily connects together, but you get attached anyway.”

That’s… Shouta understood none of that. But it sounded reasonable enough so he decided he’d just assume the younger man knew what he was talking about.

“Sure. So, despite never fully meeting Izuku, I felt like I knew him well enough. At Hitoshi’s graduation, I saw him in person for the first time. It was only a glimpse. I had wanted to approach and introduce myself, but Hitoshi told me to stop being a creep and leave. So I left. Hitoshi is… well aware of my feelings for Izuku, yet he tried to keep me away. I think it was because he knew if I got my hands on him, it would’ve been a disaster since he was still so devoted to Bakugou at the time.”

“So… you’re telling me… You somehow fell in love with Izuku… before even meeting him… and then took advantage of his emotional turmoil to marry him before someone else got to him.”

“Essentially, yes.”

Silence again and then Tenko laughed, it was loud and scratchy almost like he didn’t do it often. He grinned, it was wide and showed off too many teeth. Somehow it reminded him of his own grin.

“I’m not sure if that’s really a good thing. But if you’re willing to play the long game like that, I wonder what else you would do to keep Izuku by your side.”

“I’d never hold Izuku against his will. That’s why the divorce clause in the marriage contract said that divorce was available after a year. Though, in the fine print, Izuku can divorce me whenever he wants. A stipulation I asked Father to include just in case he decided he didn’t like my style of doing things.”

“Oh please, you’re Izuku’s type even if he doesn’t know it himself. Brat’s not divorcing you. In fact, we might have to pry him off you if a divorce is filed.”

The door suddenly flew open, Izuku stepping in, face red and looking ruffled.

“You would not! Don’t tell him that!”

Shouta’s head swiveled and he coached his face to stay indifferent. He really hoped that Izuku hadn’t heard his explanation, because Shouta had a completely different set of events he needed to tell Izuku about being in love with him.

“How much did you hear?”

“Not enough,” Izuku suddenly pouted as he strode over to his older brother, grabbing the hoodie of Tenko’s sweater and forcefully yanking it over the man’s head.

The older brother yelped and his hand shot out, knocking into Izuku’s gut, making him stagger backwards. The brunet kicked Tenko’s leg for good measure after rebalancing himself before stepping back across the room to Shouta’s side to get out of hitting range.

“He retroactively sicced Touya on me to keep from eavesdropping so I didn’t hear anything but the divorce stuff. You really made it to where I could divorce you in the first year?” Izuku asked quietly, ignoring Tenko's disgruntled noises of pain.

“I thought you read the contract?”

“Dad read it out to me. I don’t recall hearing that bullet point.”

Shouta went silent and then sighed heavily, “Dammit. Father probably didn’t send the one with it in because he really wanted you as a son-in-law. I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay. I wasn’t going to divorce you in the first year.

“You mean you aren’t ever going to divorce him,” Tenko grunted, pulling his phone out of his pocket and tapping the screen.

“Shut up, Ten!”

Shouta caught a glimpse on the screen and realized that the older brother had recorded their conversation. Well fuck. He would need to confess to Izuku sooner rather than later before that recording made its way back around to bite him in the ass or explaining his peculiar situation would become infinitely harder. Especially because Nedzu had heard about Izuku from Shouta before the brunet had even met Hitoshi or saved the older man.

And if Izuku decided to dig even a little deeper from hearing it? Well, everything Shouta’s worked so hard for, will unravel at the seams.

Chapter Text

“Stop yelling at me, you’re making my ears hurt,” Tenko whined, reaching up to rub his ears.

Izuku scoffed and rolled his eyes. His older brother was overreacting as always. But then again, so was he. It was something that just happened when he was with his family.

He perked up when he faintly heard his mom’s voice calling from the kitchen.

“Ooh, I think dinner’s ready.”

The brunet looked at Aizawa with a smile, “If you like my food, you’ll love Mama’s.”

He grabbed his husband’s hand and pulled him along, ignoring the grumbling from Tenko following behind. They met up with Touya in the hall. He had been leaning against the wall, rubbing his lower back and glazing at Izuku. The smaller man just grinned and kept walking.

“What happened to you?”

“Your fucking brother threw me off of him. I landed on my back…” Touya grumbled, bumping into Tenko’s shoulder as he stepped in line with his boyfriend.

The youngest of the group laughed, “If you didn’t want to get thrown, you shouldn’t have tackled me to the ground.”

Shouta looked down at him, a hand coming up to rest on his shoulder, “He tackled you? Are you okay?”

“I’m fine. I’m much sturdier than I look.”

“Oh, I don’t doubt it.”

“Could you two please stop flirting in front of me?” Tenko suddenly said, tugging at the strings on his hoodie.

Everyone was sitting at the table, happily eating food. There was a conversation going about what everyone has been doing recently, especially since Tenko and Touya were visiting.

“My entire e-sports team, the entire team sucks! It’s like they’ve never even touched a video game before! The only one who’s even slightly good at it is an idiot who goes by the nickname Spinner. Who calls themselves that?” Tenko ranted in between aggressive bites of his food.

“In other news that isn’t about Ten’s awful teammates. I had lunch with my siblings yesterday. It was calmer than usual since ‘yumi kept us from complaining about dear old dad the entire time,” Touya began after his boyfriend made it clear he wasn’t going to continue.

Hisashi scoffed into his bowl as he ate. His absolute hate for the Todoroki patriarch reared its head. Perhaps it’s because Todoroki Enji ran a competitive entertainment group to find talent that could rival the Midoriya’s best actor. (In Izuku’s opinion, no one would ever be better than his Uncle Toshinori).

Touya took another bite full of food before resuming, “It was all normal stuff. ‘Yumi and Natsuo’s careers and Shouto’s friend group drama. Which, surprisingly, had him reading texts straight off his phone.”

Izuku froze, chopsticks halfway to his open mouth, horror dawning on his face. Of course he had guessed that Shouto would have shared the drama, his heterochromatic friend never kept secrets from his older siblings. But who would have guessed that it would have been shared the day after.

“Izuku, this might interest you and your husband. After all, the drama is from your end and about a certain blond.”

The brunet laughed nervously as he slowly set his chopsticks down, realizing both of his parents were staring at him with narrowed eyes. He cleared his throat and sat up, looking at Shouta as if the older man would help him. But Aizawa simply raised an eyebrow and took another bite of the katsudon in front of him.

“Is there something you’d like to tell us, sweetheart?” Inko asked, her voice unnervingly sweet.

“Well, Thursday, after work, me and Shouta went out to dinner. And we ran into Bakugou and Uraraka,” Izuku began to explain slowly, folding his hands in his lap, twisting his fingers. “It wasn’t bad. He just had some choice words to say. A couple insults from both of them. Nothing unusual at this point.”

“He hit Izuku,” Shouta suddenly spoke up.

The entire table stopped moving and all eyes landed on the youngest at the table who was blinking owlishly at his husband.

Hisashi suddenly stood, slamming his hands on the table. “He what? And you just let him?” He seethed.

“I couldn’t stop it, so I punched him in the face,” Shouta explained calmly, fingers absently rubbing along the knuckles on his right hand. “Hard.”

“Did you at least break his jaw?”

“Dad!” Izuku sighed heavily.

“Hisashi, dear. It wouldn’t be good if Shouta went to jail over a physical assault charge and using excessive force. We should just be grateful he gave Katsuki worse than Izuku got,” Inko said, then frowned and looked at her youngest son. “Katsuki didn’t punch you, did he?”

“No, Mama. Just a slap. And after that he looked kinda guilty.”

“You read that as guilt? I think he was just surprised he hit you, but I don’t think he felt guilty. I think he’s wanted to hit you for a while now,” Shouta explained, raising his glass of water to his lips.

The oldest at the table took a deep breath as he slowly sat back down, clasping his hands together. He snarled, red eyes glaring down at his food. He didn’t say anything, thinking. About what, Izuku had no idea.

“On another note, Uraraka also said that she and Bakugou are going to try and become actors.”

“Oh? With which group?”

Izuku shot his father a meaningful look which had him laughing loudly.

“You’re kidding,” Hisashi said, wiping a tear away from his eye. “Well, they can surely try. Bakugou might be able to secure something based on his parents’ connections. But the girl will hardly be able to get a foot in the door, especially since she doesn’t have any sort of background in the industry.”

“Does that mean you aren’t going to block them?” Tenko piped up from across the table. “Because I don’t think it’s a good idea to let them get in.”

Inko hummed and tapped her chin, “I think it’s perfectly reasonable to let them try. If they fail, it’ll prove to them that their best is below standard. If they pass, you simply need to expose them as awful people. I’m not sure if they have any other scandals besides what happened with Izuku.”

“Precisely. You’re so smart, my love,” Hisashi cooed at his wife, causing most of the others at the table to cringe.

Izuku sighed and rubbed at his temples, “So I guess that’s settled. We won’t bother them. Yet.”

The next two weeks had gone by in a flash. Izuku had only gotten closer to Shouta and the older man seemed receptive to literally everything. He never shied away from physical contact despite what Hizashi and Hitoshi told him through text. He seemed to make sure to accommodate Izuku into his obviously busy schedule.

It made Izuku feel… wanted. It was something that Bakugou had never quite done. And if he did, it was always half-assed and like he didn’t want to be near the brunet at all.

But they were coming up on a month of being married and Izuku got it into his head that he needed to give Shouta a gift. That’s how he found himself having lunch with Hizashi. The blond was his husband’s closest friend and knew the dark-haired man the best.

“You want to give him a gift? That’s so cute!” Hizashi gushed as he wrapped his hands around his cup of tea, trying to warm them.

The blond was finally getting over whatever sickness he had, claiming that he’d be able to return to work the beginning of the next week. He confided in Izuku that Shouta had been paying for all of his medical expenses, something he wouldn’t have been able to afford on his own off of only his radio show host gig.

He had, of course, told Izuku he’d pay the money back to which the brunet had told him that he didn’t think Shouta would care if the money was returned.

“I just… he’s been so caring and kind and everything I could have wanted and more. And it’s crazy because I didn’t even know him before we got married,” Izuku admitted, sounding less hysterical than he felt.

Hizashi laughed and shook his head, “You don’t have to explain anything to me. I told you before, I knew you’d have him wrapped around your finger eventually. I didn’t think it’d be mutual though!”

He took a moment to sip some of his tea as he hummed.

“Sho isn’t someone who really likes… material things. I’m sure you’ve noticed from your house, but he doesn’t own much. He hardly likes receiving gifts as it is. But he’s been like that since I met him in high school.”

“Really? When I gave him his ring, he didn’t say anything about not wanting it. He even made me put it on him, the nerve. Either way, do you happen to have any ideas on what he might like?”

The older man made a noise and tilted his head to the side. Then he let out a little laugh, “I have no doubt that he’ll accept anything you give him whether he likes it or not, simply because it’s from you. But, let’s see… He loves cats, it’s the only animal he’s ever mentioned wanting as a pet. He’ll actually accept clothing as long as it’s black. He always rejected mine and Oboro’s attempts at getting him to wear other colors. Hm… oh! Back in high school, in our first year I’d always see him with a puzzle book! And now that he’s working at his dad’s company, he always seems to be busy paperwork, so maybe some sort of personalized office supplies?”

Izuku nodded as he jotted down the blond’s thoughts into a small notebook he always kept on himself. This was a good starting point as he already had ideas of possible gifts.

They were interrupted by Hizashi’s phone pinging. He gave Izuku an apologetic look as he pulled his phone from his pocket and answered it quietly.

The brunet didn’t mind, not bothering to listen in as he continued writing his ideas. But when he heard a sharp gasp, he looked up to see the blond on the verge of tears. He grimaced and set his notebook aside as Hizashi hung up looking utterly distraught.

“Is everything okay?”

The older man shook his head and removed his glasses to rub at his eyes, “I just… the radio station just fired me because I haven’t been able to get into the station because of my illness. I told them that I’d be in soon and they said that my attendance was unsatisfactory. How am I supposed to pay my rent now? I don’t want to rely on my friends…”

That made Izuku wince. He hadn’t realized it was that bad. He bit his lip and weighed the consequences of throwing his weight around a little bit. He bobbed his head a bit before standing.

“Give me one second, I’ll be right back. I might be able to help out.”

Hizashi opened his mouth, presumably to protest, but Izuku ignored him and stepped outside for a moment. He pulled up his dad’s number and took a deep breath, clicking the call button and placing it to his ear.

The conversation wasn’t that long. But having Hisashi pulling up information on people took up a majority of the call. By the time Izuku stepped back into the cafe, Hizashi looked sick with worry.

“Sorry, took a little bit longer than I wanted,” Izuku apologized as he lowered himself back into his chair. “I needed to wait for some documents to be passed on.”

“Izuku, you didn’t need to do anything. I can find a job on my own, it’s hardly an issue.”

The brunet raised a hand to silence the blond as a call from Shouta came in. He answered it.

“Hi Shouta. Did you need something?”

“Me? Not really. ‘Zashi texted me and said you were about to do something dumb. So I wanted to make sure you were okay.”

Izuku’s eyes narrowed and darted up to Hizashi who was now dodging eye contact.

“I wasn’t doing anything dumb. I was calling my dad. Did he also happen to tell you he was fired from his job? I was just trying to see if I could get him a job, even if temporary,” the brunet explained. He picked up his cup of now-cold coffee and took a sip, his face scrunching up a bit.

Shouta hummed on the other end. Izuku could hear the faint sound of typing.

“I see. And what did your dad say?”

The younger man laughed, “when has he ever been able to say no to me. Hizashi should be receiving a call from one of our recruiters soon. Dad passed on the order almost immediately after I practically cried over the phone.”

“Manipulative. Smart. Since it looks like you have everything handled, I’ll see you when you get home.”

“See you later then. Bye, Shouta!”

Izuku ended the call and set his phone aside, focusing back on the older blond. He leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms and raised an eyebrow, “you tattled on me?”

Hizashi nervously laughed and adjusted his glasses, “Only a little. I didn’t tell him about the gift. That counts for something, right?”

The brunet rolled his eyes and pointed at the other man’s phone, “you heard me just now. You’ll get a call within the next 10 minutes.”

“You actually got me a job? Doing what? No, wait… what do you do again?” Hizashi asked as an afterthought.

“You’ll find out eventually.”

It was Hizashi’s turn to give Izuku a bland look. He shook his head and waved it off, “never mind. Let’s go back to what we were talking about originally. Have you thought of what to get him based on what I said?”

Izuku nodded and picked up his notebook again, flipping to the page. He hummed as he read through them again, running through scenarios of what he thought his husband’s reaction to them would be. It wasn’t exact, but it would do.

“You said puzzle books, but since he’s busy, he might not have much time for that anymore. And cats are hard to take care of. I know he’s not the material sort, but my dad always says that you can’t go wrong with a nice watch. Or I can get him a nice personalized reusable pen. Something that he could use every day for work.”

They devolved into a more in-depth conversation until Hizashi’s phone rang. They both stopped and Izuku motioned to it.

“Answer it.”

The blond seemed nervous but plucked the phone up from the table and placed it to his ear.

“This is Yamada Hizashi speaking.”

Now, Izuku couldn’t hear the other recipient, but he had a good idea of what they were saying. He also knew exactly what the job offer was. He could only hope that Hizashi would actually accept the offer. The blond was a radio personality, but Izuku thought he could be so much more. He had the looks, the blond was attractive and the brunet had noticed several people looking over in the half hour they had been at the cafe.

The younger man watched as the blond’s eyes widened, darting over to look at him. He was in shock, Izuku recognized the look. He had seen it on his own face several times over the years.

“Really? Are you sure you don’t have the wrong number?”

Izuku snorted and drained the rest of his cold coffee. He shuddered and grabbed his glass of water to flush the taste out of his mouth.

“I… I’d love to. Yes, I can come in on Monday. Perfect. See you then!” Hizashi sounded almost out of breath as he hung up, hand holding the phone dropping into his lap. “What connections do you have to get me hired as a variety show host for Heritage Entertainment?”

The brunet grinned and shrugged, “You have a job now don’t you? I have to get going. But thank you so much for helping me out with gift ideas.”

Standing, Izuku gathered his things, patting himself down to make sure he had everything he had come with.

“Of course. Thank you for helping me. I know I said you didn’t have to, but I appreciate it nonetheless.”

“You’re my friend now. I’ll do anything for my friends. I’ll see you on Monday then. Bye!” Izuku called as he turned on his heel and strode out of the cafe, ignoring the blond’s confused calls for clarification.

Chapter Text

Izuku quietly entered the house, a shopping bag in his hand. Of course the gift was already wrapped, but that didn’t mean much if Shouta caught him the moment he stepped into the house. He kicked off his shoes and swapped into his slippers. A glance around the bottom floor yielded no results, his husband could be upstairs, and that sounded far more likely.

The brunet climbed the stairs and peeked into the bedroom. He made a confused noise when he didn't see the taller man inside. He glanced down the hall only to see a light peeking out from a crack in a door further down the hallway.

He tilted his head, but instead of peeking, headed back downstairs. He set the gift bag down on the coffee table and checked the clock on the stove in the kitchen. It was almost time for dinner and Izuku debated on whether or not he should order takeout or just cook food.

After wandering over to the kitchen and staring into the fridge for a long moment, he heard a thud. Izuku turned only to see Shouta frozen like a deer in headlights halfway down the stairs.

“I didn’t realize you were home, welcome back,” He murmured as he fully descended to the ground floor.

“It’s okay, I didn’t call out so I didn’t expect you to know. You weren't in the bedroom so I didn’t want to bother you,” Izuku turned fully to face his husband.

Shouta frowned for a second, “ Oh. I was… preparing something.”

It didn’t take a genius to realize the man had the same idea he did about a gift. He laughed instead and nodded.

“I was out preparing something as well,” the brunet admitted with a smile. “But at the moment, I was debating on cooking or ordering food.”

“Well, Hizashi did give me that list I asked for. We could go out for dinner. There is one that is maybe an hour away? A little place that we hopefully won’t be interrupted at.”

Izuku hummed, tilting his head. It had been a little while since they had gone to eat. The last time they had been out was tainted and it would be nice to overwrite that. Green eyes glanced at the little shopping bag on the coffee table. It would be a perfect time to give him the gift as well, and the promise of a stress free evening was alluring.

“Sounds like a plan.”

Dinner had gone exceedingly well. No disruptions and more good food. Izuku would have to remember to thank Hizashi for the recommendation. That was a thought for later thought as they were on their now usual after dinner walk.

Izuku thought about the gift that he had in his coat pocket. This was as good a time as any.

“Shouta?”

“Hm?”

The brunet looked up and caught his husband’s eyes. He stopped walking and waited for the older man to as well. It was fairly empty in the streets despite the hour, but it was perfect because Izuku was already embarrassed and having by-passers watching would only have made it infinitely worse.

“We got married about a month ago. And, I’ll be honest, I hadn’t expected much. But… it’s been… nice. Well, really I can think of so many different words better than nice to describe our marriage. It’s just different from what I had imagined. Really I thought you’d be more of a carbon copy of Mr Nedzu or even just dismissive of me. I'm thankful that you’re not. You treat me better than I thought I had deserved. It’s… a bit embarrassing, but I went out with Hizashi yesterday. I asked him about you because I wanted to get you something you’d like as a gift. But after talking, I realized something.

“You’re someone who would prefer a practical gift over anything else. I know you won’t wear colors, I’m going to get you to wear something other than black though. I know you have a favorite mug when drinking coffee. I know you’re a workaholic and don’t have time to take care of a pet. So instead, I got you something you can use every single day,” Izuku said. He felt like he was talking too much, but Shouta had that small little genuine smile on his face that made the younger man’s insides melt.

He dug into his coat pocket and pulled out a nice box. He hesitated for a moment before handing it over.

Aizawa gently took it from his hands, long fingers lingering against his skin before pulling away, leaving Izuku’s hands tingly. Shouta opened the box and made a pleased noise as he lifted out a fountain pen. It was a sleek black with silver and gold banding around the cap.

“It’s… refillable, so you can keep reusing it. It… also has your name engraved on it so no one can steal it,” Izuku explained, hands shoved into his pockets and not making eye contact.

“Thank you, I’ll use it well,” Shouta murmured, tucking the pen back into the box and slipping it into his own coat. “I wish I had thought about bringing my gift for you along as well. But, I left it at home. I’ll keep it for now. I’ll give it to you another time, if that’s alright?”

“That’s fine. I don’t mind at all. Just the knowledge that you got me anything makes me happy.”

The next morning was business as usual. The couple had settled into a routine, having created a schedule for the bathroom with Izuku going first and then starting the coffee pot once it was determined that the brunet’s coffee was superior. Then Shouta would drop Izuku off before heading to work himself. It was a system that worked well for both of them.

Izuku yawned as he clutched his travel mug tight to his chest as he pushed open the door to the lobby of the company building. Hisashi had, thankfully, stopped waiting outside for him, deciding to let his son be and head up by himself.

“Izuku?”

Said man stopped walking and turned to see Hizashi standing there, dressed into a well fitting suit. The brunet had never seen the blond in anything other than comfy clothing, so it was a bit of a shock, but the older man looked good.

“Hey! Good morning. I told you you’d see me on Monday, so why are you so surprised?” Izuku teased.

The blonde laughed nervously and nodded, “You did say that. I guess it just didn’t click that you worked here I suppose. Though in hindsight it makes more sense the more I think about it. You must be awfully high up to get me an immediate interview though.”

They walked up to the receptionists’ desks as Hizashi had quietly rambled, obviously filled with anxious energy.

“Excuse me?My name is Yamada Hizashi, I have an interview today?” Hizashi cleared his throat and asked one of the women behind the desk.

The receptionists looked up, they looked irritated that someone had interrupted their gossiping.

“Please wait until one of us is able to service you. We are busy at the moment,” one of them said snootily.

Izuku sighed and shook his head. He gave his friend an apologetic look just before leaning over the desk. He looked around before reaching over and plucking a visitors’ badge that was just laying in the open, something that was not allowed.

The receptionist closest to him turned, looking furious, but when she saw who it was, her words died on her lips. She sputtered, scrambling to apologize.

“You all are being paid to welcome guests and help them with their interviews and appointments. That is what you were hired to do. You are also meant to keep all visitors’ badges out of view and reach in case someone who means harm approaches the desk. This is your first and last warning,” Izuku sternly said.

They all nodded and turned to the monitors on the desk, working to help the guests that had been milling about the lobby waiting to be helped.

The brunet turned to Hizashi who looked gobsmacked and pinned the visitors’ badge to the taller man’s lapel.

“Make sure this is visible at all times. I’ll direct you where to go, come on,” Izuku motioned for the blond to follow as he headed to the elevators.

When they were inside and headed to the appropriate floor, Hizashi spoke.

“They looked so scared of you. Are you part of the HR staff that you have the power to write people up?”

“While I do have the power to write people up and fire people, I’m not part of the HR department. But they are some of the fairest people in the industry. They take all claims and accusations very seriously and they do extensive investigations to make sure no one is accidentally wronged in any way.”

The taller man whistled and shook his head, “This place is crazy. I can’t believe I have a chance to interview here. And for a live TV position too! I really can’t thank you enough for the opportunity.”

“I’m sure you’ll do great,” Izuku said as the elevator dinged. “You can ask anyone on the floor and they’ll direct you where you need to go. I hope to hear about your success!”

Hizashi nodded, bid him farewell, and stepped off the elevator. The brunet, now alone, tapped the button for the top floor.

“You’re later than usual,” Hisashi’s voice came out loud in the silence of the office.

Izuku had just stepped in and he rolled his eyes, “You know exactly why. Incompetent receptionists and a lost friend. It was only two minutes.”

The older man grunted as he waved him over. He had a constipated look on his face as he squinted at his computer monitor.

The younger man walked over, rounding the desk to stand next to his father like usual. A file was shoved into his hands and he cautiously opened it.

Inside was the details of a variety show catered to introducing Heritage Entertainment’s newest rookies to Japan. There was a schedule of Q&As and an impromptu cooking show. There was even a section dedicated to completing tasks given by a select audience to show how the rookies worked with “fans”. It was a basic version of their usual variety shows.

“This is the show I am going to have Bakugou and Uraraka assigned as their first hurrah into the industry. As far as Heritage Entertainment is aware, there is nothing wrong with their characters and no notable evidence of them being problematic. Therefore, I want you to supervise the show. If you can somehow encourage their bad behavior, they can gain a negative reputation so their careers can be dead in the water before they even really begin,’ Hisashi explained. He turned to face Izuku. his office chair creaking under his weight.

“That sounds doable. But, wouldn’t that impact the company negatively?” Izuku asked as he set the file on the desk, hand coming up to tap at his chin.

“Yes it would, but we can mitigate it easily. After all, they wouldn’t be fully integrated as our talent. In fact, we could spin it in a way that the public would call it divine intervention. That their bad characters were revealed before they became big and ruined one of the best entertainment companies out there. What do you think?”

“I think you have too much time on your hands, Dad. Fine, I’ll do it. I’ll go supervise a bunch of rookies. I noticed that you haven’t declared a host yet. Is this, perhaps, because said host is interviewing today?”

“You’re so smart, Izuku,” Hisashi praised. “I listened to Yamada’s previous radio shows. He had the perfect personality. Really, you’ll make a fine CEO one day.”

The brunet smiled, happy with the praise from his father. It just solidified the fact that eventually eventually, he’ll announce Izuku as the official heir.

Chapter Text

Izuku had a headache. It wasn't exactly uncommon for him to have a headache, but the thought of where he had to go the next day made the pounding infinitely worse.

“It feels like someone is driving a nail into my eye socket,” Izuku groaned from his spot on the couch. His right hand was covering his eye, trying to limit its exposure to the already dimmed lights in the house.

“Yeah, well that’s your dad’s fault,” Hitoshi snorted from the couch cushion next to him.

The dark haired man had come over to hang out while Shouta was at work dealing with what Mr Nedzu had deemed an "emergency". Izuku wasn't sure what that had meant and he didn't really think he wanted to find out. But he was grateful to his friend for coming over to keep him company. After all, it wasn't often that Izuku was alone these days.

The brunet sighed and shifted, rolling on to his side and burying his face into the couch cushion.

"I'm not going to make it through the next week. I'm actually going to die."

"Well, I'll watch it live so I can record your sad death and play it at your funeral."

"You'll do no such thing! I doubt you'd want to deal with my family glaring at you for laughing at my expense," Izuku grumbled.

Hitoshi made a noise and the brunet looked up only to see horror dawning across his face, "Oh no… I'd also have to deal with Sho's moping! Yeah, you better not die. I can't handle that man being in a mood for very long."

Izuku burst into laugher at his friend's disgruntled expression. He reached up, pat the older's man thigh, and gave him a commiserating look.

He spoke in an almost babying voice, "It's okay 'toshi. I'll stay alive just to save you from your big scary cousin."

Then he yelped when a hand came down, swatting his head lightly.

"Shut up will you? God, when did you get so annoying? Must have been when you decided that it was a good idea to commit to a flash marriage with my cousin."

Izuku snorted and settled again, turning back over to stare up at the ceiling. He let out a long sigh and closed his eyes, the headache still spiking behind his eye socket.

He spoke softly, "Is this the right way to do things…? To actually go to the shooting of the show and work to get my revenge on those two?"

Hitoshi didn't answer right away. He hummed and drummed his long fingers against his thighs.

"I don't really think there is a right way of doing things in this situation. However, you have to think about it this way. If you left them alone to their own devices, would they leave you alone? Would they move on and continue on their own path or would they keep trying to interrupt your life and put you down?"

A grunt and the smaller brunet smacked the older man's thigh.

"When did you become the sensible one?"

"Excuse me, I've always been the sensible one. But you're only just noticing now because Sho is coddling you."

"He is not!"

"Oh he so totally is and you're in denial."

A gaudy yellow suitcase was sat next to the genkan, it was the same one Izuku had used to move into the house and he still refused to get a new one no matter how much others complained.

"It's only a week, right? A week and then you'll come right back home?" Shouta asked, his voice low.

If asked, Izuku would describe the look on his husband's face like he was looking at a kicked puppy. He was pouting, though it was hard to make out as stoic as his face was. His brows were pinched and he was huffing and puffing, just short of throwing a tantrum at the thought of being alone in the house.

The older man was still in his pajamas which amounted to sweat pants and a tank top. His hair had been thrown up into a messy pony tail and it made Izuku want nothing more than to call off his trip and curl up back in bed with the older man. But duty called and he couldn't easily worm his way out of his job.

"One week, then I'm home," the brunet promised softly.

"You better come back in one piece. If you come home with any injuries…" the dark-haired man's voice trailed off into a broken grumble and a promise of violence.

A quiet snort and Izuku stepped forward, hugging Shouta around the taller man's middle. He leaned into the comfort he knew he'd miss in the coming week. Large, warm arms wrapped back around him and Izuku let out a sigh of relief.

The younger man wasn't sure how well he would fair mentally during this, but it was the beginning of the end. That's what he had to keep telling himself. He wasn't sure how long it would take, but eventually he wouldn't be plagued with paranoia, the fear of Bakugou or Uraraka popping up in front of him like they kept a GPS tracker on him.

The buzz of a phone broke them up and Izuku sighed, rubbing the back of his neck, "Guess that means it's time for me to go."

It was silent as Shouta shuffled of to the genkan, guiding Izuku with a large hand on the smaller man's lower back.

Izuku slipped off his slippers and stepped into his usual red shoes. He tapped the tip of each shoe against the stone a couple times before looking up at Aizawa. They stood there, staring at each other, almost expecting something anything to happen. Izuku knew what he wished to happen, but neither of them made any moves.

The brunet broke the tension, his face breaking into a lopsided, shy, little smile. He reached out, grabbing his suitcase and hoisting it to his side.

"I'll see you in a week."

"In a week then. Stay safe, Izuku."

Peering out the tinted, back windows of the company car, he could see all the rookie talents that were going to be participating in the variety show. Admittedly, it wasn't something he had really paid much attention to while mentally preparing to deal with Bakugou and Uraraka.

A green file folder sat open in his lap as his eyes scanned the profiles on the other three newbies. Izuku thought it was odd that there were an odd number of participants for the show considering they were often paired off for certain tasks to make it easier to gain footage and not have dead air.

He sighed, something niggling at the back of his mind, no doubt Hisashi had planned something without warning him. Izuku's dad was never one to pass up on an opportunity, but the brunet just couldn't figure out what the opportunity was. Well, not at first. But it was slowly dawning on him.

"Sir, are you going to be getting out anytime soon?" the driver suddenly asked, breaking through Izuku's thoughts.

One eye twitch and a repressed lecture later and Izuku was standing outside the car, suitcase sitting next to him. He clutched the file tighter in his fist, barely holding back the urge to complain to his dad about how impatient the driver had been when the burnet knew the man had no where else to be.

But he didn't want to deal with it. He'd have to deal with a lot in the coming days and he didn't need the added stress. So instead, he took a deep breath and grabbed the handle of the beat-up suitcase, wheeling it over to the group as he went.

The first person to see him wasn't who he thought it was going to be. He was expecting harsh words and snarky comments. Instead, he was looking into the bright green eyes of one of his husband's closest friends.

"Izuku, what the hell," Hizashi hissed, grabbing the brunet by the arm and dragging him unnoticed further away from the group.

"Well hello to you too, Hizashi," Izuku said snarkily.

The blonde let out a tense little laugh and ran his fingers through his shoulder length hair which already looked disheveled, most likely because of Hizashi's already mounting stress.

A steadying sigh and Hizashi spoke again, "Hi. What are you doing here? Are you here to participate or something? You must be the sixth person. Why didn't you tell me?"

The taller man's voice took on a whiny, nasally tone as his frown morphed into a pout. He crossed his arms and it made Izuku let out a little laugh.

"Not here to participate. At least, that's not what I was sent to do. But knowing who assigned me the job, I highly doubt that I'll only stand by and watch like I originally thought I was going to," Izuku grumbled.

Hizashi smiled and nodded along, "At least you'll have me then!"

Soon enough, the two men were on their way back on over to the group. Izuku wanted to duck away, to avoid seeing his tormentors, and he barely managed to sneak his way on over to the director, carrying his suitcase with him so it didn't make any noise on the sidewalk.

"Excuse me, I'm Midoriya Izuku. I was sent to oversee the production of the variety show," Izuku introduced himself to the woman with a slight bow.

The Director was a shorter than Izuku, and she sported a short black bob that was slicked back, a single lock of hair dangling in front of her face. She looked him up and down before raising an eyebrow at him.

"You're the one they sent from the company?" Her brown eyes glanced down at the clipboard in her heads, eyes roaming down the words on the papers. "I don't see your name on he-…"

She frowned and squinted at the paper. After a long moment she scratched her head and pulled her phone out of her bag. A couple taps on the screen and she turned to Izuku with a wide and overly polite looking smile.

A bad feeling wash over Izuku and it was at that moment he knew that his dad had done something.

"I was told about your arrival, Mr Midoriya. Please forgive me for not recognizing you sooner. it's a pleasure to have you on-site. It seems you've participated in variety shows before, and as you can see, we're currently down an actor. I'd hate to ask, but do you mind filling in?"

There is was. Sure, Izuku had expected it, mentally prepared for it to because of course nothing could ever be easy. Not that it was going to be easy in the first place. The brunet decided that instead of scolding his dad, he'd have his mom do it for him, it'd get the message across much quicker.

Izuku plastered a fake smile onto his face and dipped his head, "Since this show is my responsibility, it would be remiss of me to allow such an oversight. It's a… shame that production is already behind schedule so we can't find someone else to fill in. This time I'll pick up the slack, but I'm sure you don't need me to tell you that this is not something that can happen again."

The sheer panic on the director's face made the younger man feel bad, but he had to keep up appearances. This last minute swap wasn't something that was tolerated in a normal setting, so it was still important to warn the director against letting something like that happen again.

"If I recall, we'll start with a Q&A first for the day, correct?"

"T-That's correct, sir," the woman stumbled over her words as she flicked through pages on her clipboard before handing it over with the schedule on the front page. It felt like she was trying to get on his good side.

Wise.

"Mr Yamada, please come here," Izuku called over to Hizashi which got everyone's attention.

As his friend strode over, the surprised and subsequently angry expressions of Bakugou and Uraraka, who had been so up in each other's business before hand, made a pit form in Izuku's stomach.

He handed over the clipboard and turned his attention back to the host and director. He wanted to get some work done before he inevitably had to deal with the two of them insulting him with no Shouta to protect him.

"Have you been given the prompt cards yet?" Izuku asked to which Hizashi shook his head.

The Director scurried off and returned within a minute with the cards, handing them to Izuku to look over first. A glance through the cards and he passed them off to his friend.

"Let's get everyone settled in and set up to begin filming then," the woman glanced at Izuku as it to make sure she didn't say anything wrong. When she received a nod she let out a sigh of relief and walked off to instruct the crew.

A deep breath and Izuku grabbed his suitcase and motioned Hizashi to follow him, pointedly ignoring the two pairs of eyes boring into the side of his head. He'd deal with them later.

Chapter Text

"Gonna explain the two that looked like they wanted to murder you?" Hizashi suddenly asked the moment they had stepped into the house where everyone would be staying for the duration of the show.

"Does Shouta not share everything with his friends like I do?"

"Shouta? Sharing? He doesn't share anything unless affects us," the blonde lamented, whining and gently shaking the shorter brunet. "So tell me! What's going on?"

Izuku laughed softly, amused by Hizashi's antics. He reminded the brunet of one of Bakugou's friends. It was really sad that Izuku hadn't reached out, mostly because he wasn't sure if he wanted to know if they had known. It would hurt if they did and he had no want to make the wound that much worse.

"Ex-boyfriend, ex-friend. Need I say more?"

The wince he received was more than enough to let him know he had made his point. They were guided into a large sitting room with six chairs lined up in a row. Most likely for the contestants. There was another seat not too far away that was angled to face the row of chairs and a camera that was set up, one of the many that would be used to record the show. It was supposed to be a 24/7 kind of thing to let fans really get to know the new talent.

Which made Izuku shudder at the thought of being under the scrutiny of the populace. He was a bland looking guy so he wasn't sure how he would be received, especially since most mentions of his early TV appearances were wiped rather fast from the web.

"I don't believe I ever got your name," Izuku said idly to the director who had come to stand next to him.

She spooked easily, jumping before turning to look at him. She laughed nervously, tucking the lock of her hair behind her ear. "It's Masu Komako, sir."

The taller brunet wanted to insist that Masu call him by his name instead, but decided that that was unprofessional, so he swallowed his comment and firmly nodded his head.

"When do we anticipate the show to begin streaming?" Izuku asked, checking his smartwatch.

When he flipped his wrist to see the time, he was surprised by the sight of a notification popping up onto the screen. He retrieved his phone from his pocket and grumbled at the sight of his dad's contact. He bit back a groan and opened the text.

[Dad: :) Don't tell your mom please, I'll already be getting an earful when she undoubtedly sees the show. I have a surprise for you when filming is done, though. So don't be too angry with me just yet.]

Izuku scowled and just shoved his phone back in his pocket. He was sure his… displeasure with his father would be nothing in the face of whatever the surprise may be, but that didn't mean he couldn't still be upset with him.

"We plan to start before dinner so we can roll into just seeing what the evening is like for everyone after the Q&A. Then tomorrow we'll open up with pairings," Masu explained, having got the clipboard back from Hizashi.

"Sounds good. The rooms?"

Masu waved over an assistant and had them lead Izuku to the room he would be staying in for the next few days to a week depending on how much content could be milked out of the contestants.

The room was nice, but it was bare since he doubted he'd be allowed to spend too much time alone. He set his suitcase aside and sat down on his bed, fingers absently twisting at his wedding ring. He had been gone only an hour or two and he knew he'd been separated from Shouta for longer than that… but he missed the older man. Terribly.

Maybe it was the knowledge that he wasn't going home at the end of the day. Wouldn't see Shouta's small, fond smiles or just bask in his presence. He also missed his husband's cologne as cheesy as it sounded. He wasn't sure when he noticed how nice the man smelled all the time, but the moment he did, he realized he tended to sit a tad bit closer to Shouta whenever they were together.

He could feel his face heating up and he groaned, scrubbing at his cheeks to try and get rid of that line of thought. It was embarrassing to admit to even himself that he often sat close to Aizawa just to smell him. He shook his head. No, he'd never mention that to anyone… other than Hitoshi maybe. Just so he could watch the man squirm and delight at the horror on his friend's face.

The brunet's musing was cut off by heavy footsteps. At first, fear had spiked through him, thinking that he was about to be cornered by Bakugou. But that was swept away when all of the contestants appeared in the doorway of his room.

Without an invitation, they all stepped in and Izuku idly reminded himself of their files that he had read on the way in. He felt bad that his mind had been a bit preoccupied and didn't remember really anything about them. He'd have to refresh his memory before being paired up the next morning.

"Deku, the fuck are you doing here? You aren't good enough to be here, who on earth did you bribe?" Bakugou scowled, stepping even closer to the bed, arms crossed making his muscles bulge slightly.

"I didn't bribe anyone, we all work for the same company. I'm just a last minute fill in," Izuku explained. He sounded more patient than he felt.

The brunet kept his face as neutral as he could. He stood and walked past Bakugou and Uraraka, lips cracking into a wide smile as he bowed to the trio of newcomers.

"It's a pleasure to work with you three. My name is Midoriya Izuku. I've known the other two for years now," he introduced himself politely, earning a scoff from his ex-friend.

The first one to introduce herself was the shortest of the trio, her dirty blonde hair done up in two messy buns on her head. Her brown eyes peeking out from under long bangs.

She giggled and grabbed Izuku's hand tightly, "I'm Toga Himiko, but you can just call me Himiko! Ochako was telling me so much about you."

Izuku cast a glance over his shoulder at Uraraka who wore the slightest of smirks on her face. If she wanted to play ball, fine, he'll bite. She just better be prepared for the consequences.

A softened smile and sturdy fingers grasped around Toga's. Izuku tilted his head, eyes crinkling just barely at the corners.

"Himiko then. I hope she's said good things about me. She was always one of my closest friends," he murmured, stuttering over his words nervously, his other hand coming up to rub the back of his neck.

God, he hated having to manipulate people, but it was better than having his entire life brought down around his ears because of two people who couldn't stop acting like the earth revolved around them.

(And it still hurt to think about the fact that just a month ago he was friends with them. Had gone out to lunch and laughed and shared things with them. He wanted a hug and Shouta wasn't here to give him one.)

The way Toga's entire demeanor shifted was almost as clear as night and day. The sly smile she had worn turned into something a little more nervous as she bobbed her head and pulled her hands away.

The other girl stepped up, waving in his direction with a wide grin. She was chewing gum and swept some of her light brown hair out of her face.

"Oh em gee! It's, like, so totally nice to meet you! I remember seeing you on TV before. I lowkey thought that you were, like, not real. I couldn't find any of your stuff! It's, like, totes insane. Name's Utsushimi Camie. But all my friends just call me Camie."

Izuku almost blue screened as she talked. It wasn't that she wasn't understandable, but that he wasn't prepared. Especially when she said she had watched his previous variety shows. There is no way she's so chronically online that she caught all 3 of them for the 2 weeks they were aired. He almost cringed away. Almost.

Instead, he laughed nervously, face turning red as he waved his hands, "You saw those? That's so embarrassing, I'm sorry you had to witness me right out of high school."

"Don't be! Your such a snack that I totes didn't even mind."

The last of the other contestants coughed and stepped up, taking all of the attention. He was more of a yellow blond compared to Himiko and Bakugou. Blue eyes looked Izuku up and down and he scoffed.

"Monoma Neito. I'd say it's a pleasure but I don't know how to feel about you yet."

"That's… fair. I don't doubt we'll get to know each other well soon enough. We're all in this together after all!"

A large hand settled on Izuku's shoulder and he was forcefully turned around by Bakugou who hissed in his face, "Don't act all fucking buddy buddy with these extras and tell me why you're here. You don't have a single acting bone in your body, Deku."

Everyone was staring. He could feel their eyes. Bakugou was trying to get everyone on his side, but he was going about it wrong. Some people just didn't like the bullying type, and Izuku had no intention of standing up here and now. Having others underestimate him was something that was so ingrained in the brunet that he had no doubt he could successfully pull it off.

Within seconds, Izuku had winced and curled in on himself, telltale tears forming on command. Blurry, green eyes looked up at Bakugou and he stuttered nervously.

"Sorry, Kacchan. I just wanted to see how good of an actor you could be."

Shock and confusion warred on the blond's face as he let go of the brunet's shoulder. Within seconds, Uraraka was at his side, glaring at Izuku like he had done something wrong.

She snipped at him, "Don't act like you still care about him!"

Before Izuku could say anything else, Masu appeared in the doorway and clapped her hands, "I had hoped you would all have settled in by now, but it can't be helped. It's go time! Everyone back into the sitting room, it's time for the Q&A."

Izuku settled down in the chair he was guided to. He adjusted his clothes and pulled his phone out, checking his notifications. While he was thinking about it, he opened his text conversation with Shouta.

[Me: Shouta, we're about to go live! Also, a warning. I'm going to be referring to Bakugou as Kacchan again. And I'm going to act like they're still my friends.]

He made a move to put his phone away when the three dots symbolizing that Shouta was typing appeared. He waited to see what his husband was going to say instead.

[Shouta <3: Alright be safe and don't let them get to you]

[Shouta <3: Also text me before you go to sleep]

A light blush spread across Izuku's cheeks as he read through the texts. It wasn't the most romantic thing that's ever be said to him, but he could feel Shouta's worry and it was everything to Izuku.

[Me: I will. :D]

Izuku wanted to keep texting him, but he heard Masu clapping and shot off a quick "gotta go" text before slipping the phone back into his pocket.

"Okay everyone! Filming begins in one minute. Please make sure you are paying attention and don't have your phones out. Remember that everything that happens from here on out is recorded and will be broadcast to the nation. When Mr Yamada or I say something to you, I expect it to be done. This is your moment to gain fans before your planned debut. Don't mess this up," Masu said as a social media manager was on standby, softly counting down to the cameramen who all shifted on their feet.

Just to make things clear, Izuku wasn't going to have a debut. That's not why he was here. But that didn't seem to matter as he could feel his anxiety skyrocket. He was going to be on TV again and he would never get used to knowing that he was being watched by thousands of people. And it was only get to get worse if he was declared the heir of the company.

He took a deep breath as the cameras started rolling.

Chapter Text

"Hello and welcome to the show! My name is Yamada Hizashi and I'll be your host for the week!" Hizashi greeted the cameras with a wave and smile.

It was weird for him to be in front of a camera, to know he was being seen and not just heard. But it was a new experience and one he was delighted to have. Really, he couldn't thank Izuku enough.

"Let's meet our contestants!"

Hizashi angled his body more towards the row of participants. Izuku was the closest to him, and it was nice to have a friend sitting practically next to him. It was comforting. He wasn't sure of the names for everyone else, but he'd make sure to memorize them quickly.

Izuku squeaked and straightened up, casting a shy smile to the camera and a little dip of his head as he introduced himself. He was more shy than when the blonde had first met him, then again Hizashi was sick and might not have remembered their meeting properly. The contrast was curious, but Hizashi would have more time to think about it when his facial expressions wouldn't be scrutinized by thousands of people.

The next contestant introduced herself. She seemed bubbly enough and the only reason Hizashi could even understand what she was saying was his exposure with social media teens. He inwardly shuddered, at the thought.

But still, he filed her name away, green eyes sliding over to the next young man. This one he was much more interested in. After all, the blond was one of the people mean mugging Izuku to hell and back.

"Bakugou Katsuki, an interesting name for sure," Hizashi thought to himself.

It was obvious the moment the younger man opened his mouth that he had a holier-than-thou attitude and it made Hizashi's jaw tense. He had dealt with those types before, and it always grated on his nerves to even be close to them.

The next girl was another blonde, cute little space buns on top of her head. But something about her gave Hizashi a bad feeling. Whether it was her teeth, her canines just a tad too sharp or her brown eyes which, just like Bakugou's, seemed to lean just a bit too close to red.

Something about her set the host on edge. He'd keep an eye on her too.

Moving on to the next contestant, Hizashi could tell that this one had the same flair for dramatics as he did. The way the younger man was practically on the edge of his seat as he introduced himself to the camera was very reminiscent of himself.

The last girl was another to keep an eye on. Her personality seemed to flip on a dime, Hizashi didn't need anyone to tell him she was two-faced.

"Uraraka Ochaco, another name to remember," Hizashi mentally noted.

But he turned back to the camera, a live chat feed just off to the left for him to read.

"There we are! Now that you've met everyone, it seems like some of you out there recognize a couple of our contestants! But don't worry if you don't, to kick off the show this week, we'll be conducting a Q&A session for us to get to know our rookie socialites a little bit better," the host explained with a little laugh. "Now, now, let's be a bit patient and get through some of the preliminary questions first! Let's begin with an easy one, shall we?"

He hummed theatrically and shuffled the cards in his hands. He settled on one then cleared his throat.

Shouta sat on the couch. The house was eerily silent without the sound of Izuku's quiet rambling or just how loud his presence was. It was crazy just how much his husband's presence had changed his entire lifestyle.

Granted, Shouta knew his life would change the moment he decided that Izuku would be his whether the younger man knew it or not.

He let out a soft sigh as he hugged a pillow to his chest. It still smelled just like his cute little husband (who had, again, only been gone for a couple hours at most). His phone laid forgotten beside him, Izuku was busy now and Shouta was waiting for the show to start streaming. The TV was on, but nothing interesting was playing. Not that he was even paying much attention.

Suddenly the screen lit up with a logo Shouta didn't recognize. But it was okay, he wasn't here to pay attention to anyone but Izuku anyway. Not that he expected the younger man to have much screen time with his position as overseer.

Shouta was completely set up until there was a knock on his front door. He wanted to ignore whoever was on the other side, but knowing his luck, it was a family member that would make his life hell.

A.K.A Hitoshi.

And wouldn't you know, speak of the devil and he shall appear. Hitoshi stood on his front stoop. A shit-eating grin on his face.

"Hello, Cousin."

Shouta's hand twitched, itching to slam the door, Izuku's pillow and lonely nights awaited him. Something he didn't want to give up if he was to be interrupted by his nosy no-good little cousin.

"I'm not taking guests," the older man said, trying to close the door.

Hitoshi didn't seem to care that the older man didn't want him there and just bulldozed straight in, kicking his shoes off and making himself comfortable on the couch.

"Oh you already have the TV prepared, perfect! You got food in this place without 'zu cookin' for ya?"

Like a good, proper adult, Shouta did not scoff, but he did throw a spare couch pillow straight at the younger man's face. He delighted in the yelp that he received.

"Oi! I'm here to support your husband with his new endeavor. Let me at least watch the opening part with you," Hitoshi grumbled as he took the pillow from where it landed on his lap and hugged it to his chest.

Resigned, Shouta sighed and sat himself back down on the couch. He grabbed Izuku's pillow, ignoring the look on his cousin's face.

"Don't you dare say anything."

"Wasn't going to. This is infinitely better than you waxing poetic about the color of Izuku's eyes or how you could listen to him talk for hours because of how soothing his voice is. So snuggle his pillow or whatever, freak," his little cousin mumbled under his breath, earning another pillow to the face.

A noise rang out and both men's eyes darted to the TV.

As the logo spun around, the first (and very obvious) thing Shouta noticed, was the friendly face of his now ex-friend. It didn't matter that Izuku hired him, to not be told he was gonna be onsite was treason of the highest degree.

The next thing Shouta happened the notice was Izuku sitting next to Hizashi in the second act of betrayal. After all, no one told Shouta that his husband was going to be a big part of the show. Sure, he had been warned that his husband was reverting his personality to a version Shouta had only heard about from Hitoshi.

But then Izuku opened his mouth and Shouta just about flinched. The stuttering, the nervous habits, everything about him had the older man baring his teeth. He didn't think he liked this at all. He had prepared himself to see it, but it still made his flight or fight mode activate.

"Did he really used to act like that in high school?" Shouta asked Hitoshi who's mouth was trying to catch flies.

A slow nod, "Yeah… I… I didn't think he could still act like that. It makes him seem so unassuming… it's creepy."

Of course this wouldn't stop the older man from watching his husband on TV, but it was off-putting in a way that made him want to drive there to hug Izuku and punch Bakugou in the face again. Not that he would, but he really wanted to.

Neither spoke as the rest of them introduced themselves.

"Since you're all relatively new to the spotlight, we'll begin with this one. Why are you here? And to clarify, what's got you seeking out Heritage Entertainment for a job? Let begin with Midoriya," Hizashi motioned to Izuku with a bright smile.

Izuku swallowed, his hands felt sweaty. He smiled with what he hoped wasn't a grimace. He couldn't just come out and say the he wasn't supposed to be here. That he was just some fill in that had no place among those here. So he didn't.

"Ah, well, thank you for the opportunity to speak! I really wasn't expecting to invited to the show, y'know? I was completely blindsided, but I'm still happy to be included! I work with Heritage Entertainment as a… well… the secretary to the CEO and a talent recruiter. So I suppose I'm here to get a bit more hands-on experience," Izuku explained with a nervous laugh.

His voice was more wobbly than he thought it ought to be, but he thought that his words should be enough for people to gloss over him and focus on the others more.

Though a glance around the set and even to his right, revealed that everyone was staring at him with a look he couldn't quite decipher.

Well, not at first. After thinking on it, it became obvious why they were staring. He just admitted that he was close to the CEO on live TV. If he was lying, he would be fired rather quickly. If he wasn't… Izuku was sure they'd be clamoring to get in his good graces and become his best friend.

Despite the momentary silence, Hizashi made up for it by immediately jumping in with a clap.

"Wow! Even if it's not really your cup of tea, we're proud to have you on to learn the ropes. It seems some of our watchers recognize you from other variety shows. Any comments on that?"

Izuku didn't fight to keep his blush down, his face heating as he ducked his head and laughed nervously.

"When I first began working with the company, I worked on a couple shows. But when I became the CEO's secretary, he didn't want me to be bothered so he had them wiped from the internet. It's an honor that some of you recognize me. I can't thank you enough for supporting me!"

The brunet immediately bowed his head and sent a wide smile to the main camera that was filming them.

Thankfully, Hizashi moved onto Camie who was sat directly to Izuku's right. It allowed the young man to gently fan his face and calm himself down a bit. No matter how often he did it, he could never get used to be on camera. It was nerve-wracking and he heavily disliked public speaking.

He did have to get used to it though, so this was as good of practice as any.

Inko hummed softly as she busied herself with cleaning up the kitchen and prepping dinner. It was strange, having the house so empty.

Hisashi told her she had Empty-Nest Syndrome, but Inko just liked to think that she missed her kids. Izuku and Tenko were always so loud and boisterous when they got together. It was such a relief that the two had gotten along like a house on fire when her husband first brought Tenko home.

She was brought out of her thoughts when she heard her phone ping from where she left it on the dining room table. Surely Hisashi wasn't texting her random things throughout the day again. That man had a mind that could wander. It was no wonder Izuku seemed to get all caught up in his thoughts.

Swiping her phone off the table, she held it out a bit as she read the notification. Her brows pinched together as she realized it was from her eldest son. Tenko never usually texted unless it was something important.

Unlocking her phone, she opened up her messages with the dark-haired man. It had been a simple sentence.

[Tenko: Izuku's on a variety show, turn the TV to this channel: XXX]

Inko followed the directions and gasped as her youngest appeared on the screen, wobbly smile on his face. And there, not too far away was those two no-good kids who broke her baby's heart.

What really took her breath away was hearing that the show was hosted by the company her husband owned. Anger flooded her veins.

Why did Hisashi always do things that could compromise her babies' welfare and not warn her! This is why she never bothered to let him know things, because he didn't ever offer the same courtesy.

She texted Tenko back.

[Me: Thank you, Tenko. I'll handle it]

She heard the front door open and familiar heavy footsteps in the genkan. Hisashi didn't even have the chance to call out that he was home before his wife yelled his name. And not just any name, his birth name.

"Shigaraki Zen, you better have a really good reason for this!"

Chapter Text

"Let's keep it moving, Bakugou! Why don't you go next?"

Now this, Izuku was interested in hearing. He was under the assumption that his ex-fiancé was only here because of Uraraka and she need to be rich and popular. Thusly, Bakugou's family was the perfect gateway into stardom.

Oh… so that's the real reason Uraraka stole Bakugou from him. That… made sense in a way that Izuku hadn't really put together before. Sure he had thought about it a little while ago, but it never really clicked.

For some reason, the brunet couldn't help but feel bad for Bakugou. After all, Izuku didn't think the blond knew he was being used. He'd find out eventually though, Izuku was sure of it.

"My family is in the fashion industry. While I don't like the idea of being a fashion designer, I'd like to try and continue the business in another way the help the brand."

A PR answer complete with absolutely no swear words. And the blond's face was surprisingly not scrunched up like he hated the world and everyone around him.

Usually, Bakugou looked like he'd rather be anywhere but where he was, face all tense. It tended to make him look uglier than he actually was.

Regardless of his bad attitude, Izuku would need to find a way to crack the public's perspective of him if he was going to put on airs for the camera.

"How sweet! Being loyal to your loved ones is always a good cause. Toga, you're up," Hizashi commented lightly.

Izuku swallowed his laugh at the backhanded compliment. Leave it to the only friend he had on set to subtly insult someone to their face. He really wanted to laugh out loud.

The rest of the others answered, but Izuku wasn't really paying attention. He hated to admit it, but he didn't really care what their motivations were. He had their files and he'd make do with just that. It was more how they'd interact with each other when their guards were down that he was mostly interested in.

Hizashi spoke up after they all answered and he smiled brightly, "Amazing reasons, all of you. I'm impressed. Let's roll right into another question and then we can have our lovely watchers ask you all a couple. How do you hope the audience will see you in the coming days. How could they relate to you?"

That was a loaded question and Izuku couldn't help but wonder who on earth green-lit it. Inviting fans to form a para-social relationship with them based on shared experiences almost always spelled an idol's doom.

But maybe the brunet could use this to his advantage.

"Uraraka, why don't you kick us off with this one," Hizashi prompted.

Izuku's eyes darted over to the woman, curious as to how she'd respond. Oh he had a guess, having been close with her since his first year of high school had it's… perks. 6 years of friendship meant that Izuku could read her pretty well.

"Oh! Well," Uraraka began, tucking some of her hair behind her ear. She portrayed herself as bashful, a more endearing version of Izuku's nervous energy. "I come from humble beginnings. My parents work in construction like I mentioned before. I want to show everyone that no matter where they come from, they can achieve their dreams!"

Damn them both, making Izuku's life that much harder. They were good actors, he'd give them that. He'd need to cement himself among the group, which meant he needed to think about his answer a bit more.

The brunet made eye contact with the host as the blond's eyes darted across the cast. There was a seed of acknowledgment and Hizashi moved on with someone else, giving Izuku time to formulate an answer.

Dammit! What was even a good answer for him! Again, who green-lit this question?!

His anxiety mounted and he twisted his fingers, mind kicking into overdrive. He honestly didn't think Bakugou and Uraraka were conspiring against him here, at least not with this. Bakugou would have enough sense not to jeopardize their precarious positions, but… Uraraka doesn't really like to play by the rules.

Perhaps… He had his answer. Just in time too as he was jolted out of his thoughts by his friend calling his name.

"Ah, sorry. I was lost in my thoughts for a moment! What do I want the audience to take away when they see me? Well… It's…" Izuku hummed and bit his lip. "Like Ochako said—oh! Sorry, Uraraka. I want to give the feeling that anyone can do what I do. I've… never been the most social guy, so being seen is… well, nerve-wracking!"

Izuku laughed nervously and tilted his head, green eyes darting back and forth between Hizashi and the cameras broadcasting him.

"So many people out there, no matter their background, will have feelings of self-doubt. It's human nature. But I want to show, that you can do it. No matter if anyone tries to put you down, the sky's the limit!"

There was a silence that settled over everyone and once again, Izuku was left trying to figure out why everyone was looking at him. He didn't say anything particularly groundbreaking, so why were they staring?

"Wow, and I think I can speak for the general population when I say that your words were awe-inspiring! It seems that some of our lovely viewers are getting a little antsy. So let's let them guide the last few questions to kick off the start of the show," Hizashi smiled widely.

The blond's words felt genuine, like he was a parent proud of their child doing well in school. Izuku's face flamed red and he ducked his head. Aside from the squirmy feeling in his chest from being praised, he could feel eyes on the side of his head.

No doubt it was Uraraka seething that he took her words and used them to further his own reputation. But all Izuku could think was "you deserve this. I had just hoped I wouldn't have to be the one holding the knife this time."

"Woah there viewers! We can't have so many questions directed to Midoriya! Especially not about his relationship status. Instead… oh! Here we go, Bakugou, this watcher wants to know what the name of the fashion brand your parents own."

Izuku's face was probably so red, and while Bakugou answered the question, he couldn't help but cover his face in embarrassment. Getting asked if he was single was always one of the most mortifying questions he could ever have. And that was even true when he was with Bakugou. Izuku just never knew how to answer the question.

Sure, saying he was taken was easy, but some people were just so damn persistent.

"Utsushimi, one of the viewers says they have seen you active on social media. In response, others have asked if you already have a fan base. Care to answer?"

She smiled and sat up, "Okay bet, I am always active. I love my fans and so of course I want to share my life with them. But…"

Izuku tensed from where he sat next to her and immediately avoided eye contact.

"Call me mad, but I'm highkey more curious about your boo. Don't think I don't see that ring on your finger. C'mon, spill, you're totes in a relationship aren't you, Izuku? I can call you Izuku, right?" Camie said, leaning closer to the man in question.

The nervous laugh that Izuku let out wasn't acting in the slightest. He flinched, but didn't lean away. He glanced at Hizashi who solemnly nodded slightly meaning it was best if he answered the question.

He took a deep breath, "You can call me Izuku. If I can call you Camie."

"Deal! Now, gimme the tea!"

Izuku could feel his face heating up. Oh how he wanted to mumble his way through an explanation, but if no one could hear it, he would just have to say it again and that would be even more mortifying.

"Well… I am married. My husband is related to a couple of my closest friends. So it was kinda inevitable. We… well I think we clicked right away as embarrassing as it sounds," Izuku explained. He turned to the cameras and smiled shyly. "I can't tell if everyone is simply curious or if some of you wanted to try your luck, but I'm sorry." Izuku bowed apologetically.

"I love my husband so I can't return any of your feelings."

The mug Shouta had been holding shattered against the floor. In the back of his mind, he was glad the mug was empty. But the more pressing of his thoughts were that his cute little husband had practically just confessed to him over live TV.

Was this all part of his plan or did Izuku really mean it? Shouta couldn't tell, so carefully he edged over to the couch were Hitoshi was sitting, his younger cousin's jaw dropped open.

"Was he… was he being serious?" The older man asked, hands darted out to shake the younger man's shoulders.

Hitoshi yelped as he was pushed around, smacking Shouta's hands off him with a temperamental huff.

The younger man brushed himself off and glanced back at the TV, "You know I hate lying. And Izuku hates manipulating people just as much. But I do know one thing. He would never play around with feelings. Especially not after what Bakugou and Uraraka put him through. Sure he might be planning to put them through the wringer, but he wouldn't mess with your feelings. He wouldn't want to ruin a relationship he has hope for."

Silence overcame the two of them. The show kept rolling, having moved onto other questions.

Shouta straightened and ran his fingers through his hair before whispering to himself, "Oh my god… he loves me…"

"Did you really not figure that out until just now?" Hitoshi snarked.

"Oi, don't be a brat," The older cousin swatted at younger one's head. "Knowing that he does and hearing that he does are two completely different things. It's a verbal confirmation. Now… if only he had said it directly to my face…"

"Y'know, I don't even think he realized that you would decide to watch the show for him," Hitoshi mused as he kicked back and threw his feet up onto the couch. "I bet he thinks you have more important things to do with your time. That being said… how did you convince Uncle to give you the day off?"

Shouta lunged for his phone where he had left it on the couch, grunting in pain as his knee hit the arm of the couch a little too hard.

"Getting old, much?"

"Would you shut up?" Shouta grumbled as he settled on the couch, unlocking his phone. "And if you simply must know, I told Father what was happening, and threatened to move to a house off the grid with Izuku. He's watching the episode now too."

The dark-haired man laying on the other couch barked out a laugh, "You threatened him!" He managed to get out between bursts of laughter only to be hit with another pillow.

"Okay, where the actual fuck are you getting the infinite supply of pillows from?"

"That was my last one," Shouta admitted as he drafted a text to Izuku.

But where should he even start? Should he ask how the show was going, knowing that the brunet wouldn't read it until later? Just come out and say that he was watching the TV show? But then his grey eyes caught onto his last sent text.

A nighttime phone call. That worked, he'll just casually bring up that he and Nedzu had tuned in. It would give him a chance to hear the cute stuttering and rambling Izuku tended to do when embarrassed. Perfect plan, as most of his plans were when he had set his sights on Izuku.

He had just felt a grin start to stretch across his face when he was hit with a pillow, Hitoshi grimacing on the other couch.

"Stop smiling like that, it's freaky."

"You have the same smile, Hitoshi. It's genetic."

Finally the Q&A was wrapping up. Sure, Izuku managed to answer his questions without making an absolute fool of himself, but it's looking like he had his work cut out for him. Bakugou and Uraraka had made formidable opponents, but that just meant that Izuku needed to prod until their shells cracked and they barred their teeth like a cornered animal.

The moment they had a second to themselves, Hizashi was at the brunet's side, practically vibrating. Izuku had a bad feeling.

"So you love Shouta, huh? When did this happen? Last I checked you still seemed on the fence."

Izuku's stomach sank, of course, the questions never really ended. He sighed and scrubbed at his face.

"Well… how do I put this…"

"You… he's your definition of perfect. Izuku, I'm going level with you. Shouta is like a feral cat that doesn't let anyone pet him except for one person. You're that person. But you need to decide whether you're gonna adopt him or not. Otherwise he's gonna stare at you all pitiful like until you do it out of pity and then that's just no fun for anyone."

The brunet couldn't stop the laughter that bubbled up from his chest. He smiled and nodded, "Your metaphor is pretty spot on. Thanks… I'm gonna really think about it. But, I think I already have my answer. It will have to wait though. I have a couple more… pressing issues at the moment."

"Oh yeah, they're staring by the way."

Izuku groaned and dropped his head into his hands.

Chapter Text

"I'll deal with them later. I need to figure out what exactly I'm going to do about them. I also need to figure out how the public already thinks of me. I can't do anything if I'm not liked. So, I need to figure out how to better endear myself," Izuku reasoned quietly.

He looked up at Hizashi and sighed. The blond simply laughed and pat his shoulder.

"I'm sure you'll figure something out. You're smart."

Izuku gave him a weak smile as he walked over to the rest of the cast and sat down on one of the couches in the common room. He pulled his phone out, fingers hovering over the darkened screen. He wasn't sure what he was waiting for. Was he waiting for a text? He didn't think anyone would be messaging him at the moment.

Then his screen lit up with a text from Shouto. Izuku unlocked the phone and let out a unbidden laugh. His heterochromatic friend had sent him a gif of people making disgusted faces with the simple caption of "me when my arch nemeses act like good people".

Izuku snorted and went to respond when a shadow fell over him. He glanced up and startled at the sight of Monoma standing in front of him. The blond seemed to hesitate for a moment before sitting down.

"You said you're the secretary for the CEO," Monoma spoke slowly like he was afraid to say it out loud for fear it would get him banned from the company.

"Yes, I am. Coincidentally, the CEO and I share the same last name. He said that since his eldest son didn't want to shadow him in his work, he needed someone to keep pace and hired me for the position," the brunet explained patiently.

Out of the corner of Izuku's eyes he could see a camera trained on him and getting ever closer. He smiled slightly and waved. It was tiring, playing up his nervousness and insecurity for the cameras. And yet, with every passing moment it felt less like he was faking it and more like he was about to spiral off the edge and out of control.

He missed Shouta.

Monoma seemed to hum and tilt his head like he was a bit confused, "Y'know, you don't seem to act like you're nervous all the time."

Izuku tensed and he turned to look at his co-star with a too-wide smile that didn't look too far out of place for the TV. "What do you mean, Monoma? I really am nervous, but I'm trying my best to hide it. Especially since…" Izuku trailed off, face twisting a bit before shaking his head. "No, never mind. It's not my place to talk about such private things on live TV."

The way the other man's eyes narrowed made Izuku's skin prickle uncomfortably. Izuku swallowed nervously and scratched at the pads of his fingers with his thumb. He glanced away and cleared his throat before looking back at Monoma.

"Did you need something else, Monoma? I'm not much good company so-"

Izuku didn't get too much farther until a body sat down on the other side of him. His head whipped around only to come face-to-face with Camie who wore a big grin.

"Sorry to interrupt, but I wanna hear more about your hubby!"

The way the brunet let out a strangled noise had her laughing and patting him on the back. Monoma, for all that he tried to look unfazed and even slightly disgusted, couldn't help but lean it as if he wanted hear what Izuku was going to say.

Now, Izuku didn't think the blonde was really one for gossip, so it was slightly surprising he'd want to hear Izuku gush about his husband. Not that he was going to sit here and talk about how great Shouta was.

Okay, so maybe he would play it up a little bit for the cameras. But moderation is the key to a lot of things, so he couldn't talk about Shouta too much or that's all Izuku will be known for and that's not good branding.

"Well… I don't want to talk about him too much. I doubt many people want to hear me gushing over him."

"Why don't you just answer a couple more questions about him then?" Monoma suggested with a slight shrug.

"Exactly! Like, what does he look like? How tall is he? How long have you two been together?" Camie suddenly bombarded Izuku, leaning closer with every question.

Izuku let out what sounded to him like a wheezing noise. He could feel his face heating up as he waved his hands , "W-Well, I don't want to make anyone uncomfortable."

Camie then turned to the person holding the camera and motioned them closer. They stepped closer and that meant that the three of them could get a better view of the view chat. A lot of them seemed curious, while quite a few wanted to find out what the other three were doing.

A heavy sigh and Izuku slumped in defeat. He wasn't going to be able to get out this easily.

"Well… without giving away his identity, which I'm sure he wouldn't mind, he's… tall. Just over 180 cm I believe? He's a bit older than me. I'll be honest, I'm not sure of the exact age difference. It's… only been a month since we've gotten married? But like I said, he's related to some of my closest friends."

Camie nodded along before raising an eyebrow, "Gate keeping his appearance, are we?"

Izuku let out another noise that sounded slightly like a tea kettle.

"Just show us a picture. You do have one, don't you?"

The brunet reluctantly sighed and picked his phone up from his lap, pulling up the picture he had taken of Shouta right after he had punched Bakugou in the face. It was far from the only picture Izuku had of his husband. But it was his favorite. It was the most honest of them all.

He hesitated before leaning forward a bit to show his co-stars.

"Well isn't he a snack. No wonder you're in love!"

"He's… nice looking I suppose," Monoma said, his words sounding like he was trying his best to force out a compliment.

"Be for real, he's hot!"

"Hey, he's married," Izuku said with a slight laugh.

"Remind me what's next on the agenda?" Izuku asked Masu quietly as everyone milled around.

He had come over because he found it odd that there was any downtime for the contestants to mingle. Sure, it wasn't uncommon for these types of shows, but that's not usually how these work.

"Ah, well we didn't really plan for anything after the Q&A for today," the director laughed nervously which only received a bland look from the other brunet.

Green eyes scanned the other contestants and hummed, "I know there's a more competitive cooking segment planned for after we're split off into pairs. But I doubt any of us have eaten recently. How about a couple volunteers to cook dinner for the night before nighttime routines?"

It wasn't really a question even if Izuku had phrased it like one. The fact that there were gaps were concerning, but he could make it up as he went along. If he wanted to, he could probably just blame his dad for the lack of planning since that was what this was. He was forcing the young man to multi-task. Fix the show on the fly and deal with pests at the same time all while keeping up a persona for the cameras.

Definitely something that man would do. It was a wonder why Izuku loved him.

"Perfect, we'll do that. I'll send some assistants out in the morning to restock food before the competition."

Masu stepped forward and waved to get Hizashi's attention, motioning the blond over to where they were standing, isolated from cameras.

As Hizashi and Masu were talking, Izuku's mind began to wander again. He really wasn't sure how to best go about breaking down Bakugou and Uraraka's personas. There had to be a crack somewhere… right?

Suddenly, there was a hand on his shoulder and he jumped. Izuku looked up at his blond friend with a startled look. Hizashi gave him an apologetic smile and motioned him back to the group where he caught everyone's attention.

"It's dinner time! But it would be no fun if you all just ordered in when we have fresh food on site. If we could get a couple of volunteers to cook for us tonight."

Immediately, Bakugou stood, volunteering himself. Izuku could see the moment Uraraka went to stand but he wasn't going to let that happen.

"If you all don't mind, I would also like to cook. But don't worry, me and Kacchan have cooked together before since we're childhood friends, so I can promise it'll be good."

The look of anger that flittered across the brunette's face was just as amusing as the shock and confusion on Bakugou's.

"Perfect, to the kitchen with all of you! Bond and get to know those who you're working with for the week."

A slight stumble as Izuku was nudged forward and he was rushing to the kitchen after everyone, shooting Hizashi a small smile and a mouthed "thank you" for the cameras.

The moment he stepped behind the counter, Bakugou was next to him, arms crossed.

"I don't know what game you're playing, but it's not fucking funny. You haven't called me Kacchan since you shacked up with that homeless looking motherfucker who punched me. But whatever your getting at, don't fucking ruin this for me and 'chaco. Got it?" the blond hissed low enough that the cameras wouldn't register his words.

Instead of fighting back, Izuku felt hot tears well up in his eyes.

"I just wanted to cook with you again, Kacchan. We haven't cooked together in just over a year since you were so busy," Izuku warbled out loud enough for the cameras to pick up.

He sniffled and rubbed at his eyes, "If you'd really rather cook with Ochako, I'd understand… I just thought… ever since you and her got together we really never did anything together again…"

As the cameras got closer, he could see Bakugou's eyes narrow as the blond fought against barring his teeth at the brunet. Izuku knew he had struck a nerve slyly throwing his ex's infidelity at his face.

"It's fine. At least you know what you're doing in the kitchen," Bakugou said, face smoothing out into a carefully neutral expression.

Izuku wiped at his eyes, "Are you sure? I don't want to get in your way anymore."

The way the blond's eyes minutely twitched made Izuku inwardly delighted. This was payback for all those dates he was stood up on.

"Hey, are you two fighting? If you're not going to cook, let someone else into the kitchen," a voice piped up from behind Izuku.

The brunet turned around to meet Monoma's blue eyes. Knowing that he wouldn't say something nice, Bakugou turned away, digging through the fridge and pantry leaving Izuku to explain.

The brunet gave his co-star a wobbly smile and wiped the last of his tears away, "Sorry, we'll start cooking right away!"

"Hey, don't get distracted, we have work to do, Deku," Bakugou grumbled from behind him.

"Ignore him, Kacchan's been like that since we were kids."

Suddenly, a hand wrapped around his wrist and he was dragged away by Monoma to just outside the kitchen, a little closer to the cameras than he would've liked. The blond looked… worried? No, that couldn't be it. A random stranger wouldn't be so worried about Izuku.

"Are you okay? You were crying," Monoma said haltingly, almost like he was forcing himself to ask.

The brunet sighed and glanced over his shoulder where Bakugou had already decided on a dish. Across the counter, Uraraka stood, cheerfully chatting Bakugou up. By the way her face kept trying to twist into anger, Izuku guessed it was about him. Behind her, Camie and Toga were talking and interacting with the fans to keep them entertained while dinner was being made.

He rubbed his arm and turned back to Monoma, "I wouldn't want to bother you. But I'm fine! Really."

The blond's face scrunched up as Izuku spoke. He went through a myriad of emotions before settling on indignation.

"He called you… Deku. That's not your name. Why does he call you that?" Monoma prodded.

"Oh! Well, that's just Kacchan's nickname for me. He's always used it, even when we were together," Izuku rushed to say.

Though this was a perfect gateway into putting that crack into Bakugou's facade. If everyone can determine that the blond even slightly bullied Izuku growing up, that could tip the scales in his favor. But what Izuku didn't mean to say, well.. imply, was that they had been dating at one point. Because that was a whole can of worms that didn't really needed to be opened on a live stream.

"When… you were together… you dated him? And he called you useless still?" Monoma said in disbelief.

Panicked, Izuku waved his hands, "I-I didn't meant to say that. It's all in the past. Really it's nothing! When I met Ochako, she kinda repurposed the nickname so…"

The blond did not look convinced in the slightest and turned his head to stare into the camera like he was on a sitcom. He took a deep breath and looked back at Izuku.

"So… Uraraka calls you Deku too?"

"Well…" Izuku trailed off, rubbing his arm. "I… I can't really tell them not to anymore. They've been calling me that for years now."

"Call me Neito. We'll have the same deal you and Utsushimi do. I'll call you Izuku then."

Before Izuku could even try to protest, Monoma had already turned and walked off. The brunet stood there by himself, confused why his co-star would even care so much. It's not like anything about this situation affected him. It was all Izuku's issues.

Still, he wasn't going to sit and ponder what he couldn't reason out at the moment and made his way back to where Bakugou was. He slid up to Bakugou's side with a slightly forced cheery smile.

"Sorry, Kacchan! What would you like me to help with?" He asked, interrupting his conversation with Uraraka. The brunette seemed disgruntled, but she couldn't say anything snarky, not now.

Izuku focused on his ex-fiance, and he was sure the blond wanted to wave him off with a "you'd only burn the food", but he couldn't. Not without harming his new reputation.

So, he motioned to a cutting a board. "Dice the vegetables," he instructed.

The brunet washed his hands well before stepping up and carefully dicing the veggies. He hummed to himself, at peace for a moment while willfully ignoring the feeling of eyes on him. He was going to, perhaps, contribute to the conversation. Y'know, act like he was actually close with the two, but then his peace was so ruthlessly ripped from him.

"You're not cutting them right."

Izuku stopped and looked over at Bakugou, "You said dice though?"

"Yeah, and you're cutting them too small."

"Well, you could have just told me to chop them up instead…"

"Don't argue with me, Deku."

Izuku flinched and set the knife down to take a moment. He took a deep breath, ignoring the way tears welled up in his eyes again. He hated that he would cry at the simplest things, but then again, Bakugou was always mean to him.

He picked up the knife again and began to cut up the vegetables into larger pieces.

"They're too big now."

The brunet's eye twitched and he suddenly felt the overwhelming urge to take the knife in his hand and— okay, maybe he's overreacting.

Instead, his tears welled up again and he turned to Bakugou. And with his most pathetic sounding voice, warbled out, "I'm sorry I can't cut the vegetables the size you want them. Maybe if you showed me how you want them cut, I could be of more help."

"I can take over for you, if you'd like, Deku," Uraraka volunteered from across the counter with a smile much too demure to be real.

The cameras had immediately picked up on the scene and while Izuku couldn't see the live chat feed, he could guess what they were saying.

"Wow, Bakugou is being so picky about the food!"

"I thought they were childhood friends? Why is there so much animosity?"

"This guy is really getting on my nerves, stop crying!"

"The veggies look fine to me."

Bakugou once again was put into a situation where he had to be nice. His eyebrows were pinched and he looked down to the cutting board.

"Never mind, cut them however you want."

"Are you sure? I don't want them to ruin your cooking. You've always been such a good cook, Kacchan and I'd hate it if it doesn't turn out okay!"

The way Izuku spoke was almost reminiscent of the way he used to speak with Bakugou. Before everything went down. But he didn't miss it. He would never miss how much he pandered to the blond's ego. How much he practically idolized the ground the older man walked on. It sickened him now, but he could still use it to his advantage.

Bakugou tensed and glanced over at the cutting board. Then pointed to the smaller size, "That's fine."

Izuku beamed at him, "Okay, I'll make sure they're all cut like that then."

"What about the pieces that you cut too big?" Uraraka spoke up, leaning across the counter. "We can't use them right? What a waste of vegetables. You should have asked what size he wanted them before cutting, Deku."

Wow, Izuku couldn't believe she just said that. Especially when she's trying to come off as relatable.

"Huh? They aren't wasted. I can cut them up smaller so Kacchan can use them. You're right though, it's bad to waste food. So I hope everyone is hungry," Izuku said with a kind smile. "If not and we have leftovers, I'm sure the cameramen could use a bit of food. They're doing so much work for us after all."

Checkmate.

Her smile faltered and she nodded, "You're right. Of course, you're right."

Izuku just beamed at her and turned his attention to the cutting board, carefully cutting the larger pieces smaller and then continuing the dice them.

The rest of dinner prep went nicely. Well, nicely for Izuku. Maybe not for Bakugou and Uraraka who kept trying to subtly, insult him or whatnot, but Izuku simply did not care. He could usually shut them down will little effort, giving him a step up against the two.

By the time everyone had settled in to eat, Bakugou and Uraraka were in a mood. Not that it was Izuku's problem. It was, but he was trying hard not to think about anything that might accidentally happen while on this show. He didn't need his own reputation in tatters if he was ever going to be announced as heir to the company. Which was added stress on top of added stress.

Monoma and Camie sat on either side of Izuku like they had before. And everything seemed to be a pretty quiet affair. Izuku picked at his food before Camie sighed loudly.

"Why is everyone so quiet? We're supposed to, like, become besties, y'know?"

"I don't really think we're supposed to become… besties, Utsushimi," Monoma grumbled from Izuku's side.

But Izuku agreed, bobbing his head, "Since I'm friends with some of you, I'd really like to be friends with all of you! After all, we're gonna be working rather closely during and after the show."

"Why would you see us after the show?" Toga asked, from where she sat between Monoma and Uraraka.

The brunet frowned and tilted his head. He couldn't understand why she had asked that. Did he not make it clear that he was an important part of the group they worked for.

Before Izuku could get anything out, Toga continued talking, "You're the CEO's secretary, why would you interact with newbies?"

Monoma scoffed, "He's working with us now, isn't he?"

Izuku let out a soft laugh and sat up. He shook his head a bit and gave a nervous little smile, "The CEO interacts closely with some of the bigger celebrities within the company. In order to keep everything working smoothly, since he doesn't have any other personal assistants, he has me looking out for the rookies to see if there are any… rising stars of sorts."

The table went silent. Then Camie leaned closer to him.

"So, you're totes saying you could get us, like, higher jobs if you deem us good enough?"

"Well, not me specifically… but I could recommend you to be put on a priority list. It's really rare for that to happen though, so you'd have to wow me and the other recruiters," Izuku explained patiently, but he really hated that he was having to explain this. Cons of the job he supposed.

Izuku was in his room, getting ready for bed. He was finally relieved to be away from the cameras for the moment, and it was the perfect time to call Shouta. But then there was a gentle little knock on the door and Izuku froze. He had no idea who could be at the door, really it could be anyone.

He shuffled reluctantly to the door and unlocked it, peering into the hallway. On the other side of the door stood Monoma, looking relatively uncomfortable.

"Can I come in for a moment?"

"No. I want to call my husband instead," Izuku thought to himself. But he wanted to be nice to his co-star. He wanted to have more friends on set. It would ease his nerves a bit.

Instead, Izuku moved, allowing the blond to step in. He closed the door and turned to look at Neito.

"Is there something you needed?" The brunet asked absently.

Monoma seemed to look around, but there was nothing really interesting to look at in the room. They were standard for everyone.

"Me and Utsushimi were talking earlier when we had gone to the bathroom before dinner. There weren't any cameras around and I learned that she's surprisingly observant. Anyway, we came to the conclusion that there is something going on between you and your so-called long term friends. Earlier you let it slip that you and Bakugou used to be together, so what more is there?"

Loaded question, that one. And all Izuku wanted to do was grit his teeth and bear it. He wanted lie straight to Monoma's face. But if it ever somehow got out that he did lie, then it would be egg on Izuku's face.

The brunet sighed and shuffled over to his bed sitting down. He didn't bother offering Neito a seat, though he had thought about it.

"I did let it slip that me and Bakugou used to date," Izuku began.

He noticed the way the blond's eyebrow twitched, most likely noting that Izuku no longer called Bakugou "Kacchan".

"That wasn't exactly the extent of it. But what I am about to tell you better not be spread around. If you have to share it with Camie, go ahead. But it's my story to share. We were fiancés. In fact, if everything had gone to plan, we would have been married last week. Nothing ever goes to plan. Not when Bakugou is involved. You see, Uraraka was one of my closest friends in high school, dare I say, my best friend. But I… caught them together a couple months ago."

Neito had found a chair and sat unprompted, looking at the ground like he was trying his best to process what he had just heard. "So… You broke up with Bakugou just two months ago…? Because he cheated on you, with your best friend? Wow, that's actually kind of fucked up. Where does your husband come in?"

Izuku sighed and ran his fingers through his hair, grimacing slightly. "I married him a month ago on a whim. It was impulsive, and I didn't realize until after that he's closely related to some of my other friends, one of them being my actual best friend. He's… the best thing that's ever happened to me. And he punched Bakugou in face."

A laugh startled Izuku, Monoma bent over in the chair, wheezing softly. It lasted almost a minute before the blond had calmed down enough to speak.

"Serves him right. I don't need to know how long you two had been dating before you found out, but I don't think it really matters. Again, you two were engaged and he still called you Deku? That's really just not right… Whoever is forcing you to work with them is really cruel. Is it the CEO? I think you should give him a piece of your mind. Actually, don't you might get blacklisted…" Monoma trailed off.

"It'll be taken care of, don't worry about me. But thank you, for even caring. It means a lot."

Neito left after a couple more minutes to go share his findings with Camie. Finally, Izuku collapsed against his bed, phone in his hand. He tapped the call button and on the first ring, Shouta picked up.

"Izuku. How has your day been so far?"

Izuku shuddered and smiled, "It's been awful. But I'm working through it."

"I'm glad to hear it. Hitoshi came over and we caught the beginning on the show. Though I couldn't watch the entire day because Father came over demanding dinner."

A bit of muffled laughter but it slowly turned into mortification as Izuku processed with Shouta had said.

He squeaked, "You watched the show? That's so embarrassing, why would you do that?" It was at that moment Izuku remembered that he had said he had loved him. "You didn't… you didn't hear…" Izuku stuttered, hardly able to get out words as his face heated up.

"Don't worry. I'll wait until you can say it to my face. I'm patient. Putting on a persona for the TV is different, I'm aware. Also, how dare you not tell me that you were going to be a featured star and that Hizashi was the host for the show."

The brunet calmed down, relieved that Shouta wasn't going to confront him over the phone. It made him resolve to prepare himself to confess. He just hoped that he wouldn't make a fool of himself enough for Shouta to reject him (which Izuku was still terrified could happen even if it seemed like the older man reciprocated his feelings).

"I really hadn't planned on being on the show. But my dad's meddling never ceases. Plus, I'm not sure what you expected when I told you that I got Hizashi a job."

"Hm. I suppose I'll let it go for now. Ah, before I forget, I have another bone to pick with your ex. I mean, how can one man be so picky about how vegetables are cut. What an asshole."