(( A.N. - HEY TOSHINKO FANS. I just joined the fandom and this is the first pairing I wanted to write for. Hopefully if this part is well received there may be another later, idk, hahaha~ XP Well, hope you enjoy and if you do please let me know! ^~ ))
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For a long time, Toshinori Yagi had been thinking to himself, 'I'm too young to feel this old'...
The last couple of days, however, he'd been thinking to himself instead, 'I am WAY too old for this...'
Midoriya Inko... He had been thinking to himself for a while that she must hate him. She was a saint and had kept it to herself until she thought she had no choice, and put her foot down only when she thought she might lose her only son if she didn't. Even then she was understanding and eventually let him go. But surely, despite all his promises and assurances, she must hate him, deep down...
That's what he assumed anyways, and he was quite convinced of it until one day he randomly received postage from her out of the blue. He got post from plenty of people of course, but naturally hers was a name he looked out for especially. When he got the letter, he immediately took it aside to read privately.
It was short and sweet. Not too sweet, though, just a little bit cold and distant. It said she wished to speak with him sometime, and invited him to do so over dinner with her. Specifically, at her home...
Well of course that was only prudent, they couldn't eat out or they'd attract the media. But going to her home personally, without Midoriya there, who he knew would be at the school dorms instead... What did Mrs. Midoriya have in mind...?
Dinner. Of course. Dinner, and a talk. Surely that truly was all. And he certainly wasn't hoping that wouldn't be all, certainly wasn't remembering all the other times in his younger days when someone had invited him to his or her home under the pretense of "dinner and/or a talk". Because he was MUCH too old for THAT! ...His thumping heart seemed to be voicing it's disagreement against his rib cage, though...
So for this reason, the Almighty All Might was shaking like a leaf as he approached Mrs. Midoriya's front door that evening...
Apparently though, she really did have dinner in mind for the night, and she made that very apparent from the moment he arrived, practically shoving a whole salad bowl in his face as she opened the door and exclaiming, "I made Southwestern! Ah, I mean, southwestern style - It's okay, right? I forgot until the last minute about your stomach issues! But it's mild! Not too spicy, I promise! Is it okay...?"
Toshinori sniffed at the bowl, and peered at all the colorful contents inside. Crisp green lettuce, sweet red bell pepper, blackened yellow corn, and grated shreds of orange cheddar cheese. Drizzled on top of that was a paler orange sauce. It smelled... Zesty. Definitely not what he would consider 'spicy'.
But it was most definitely... American.
Suspiciously... American...
"Please, come in." Inko urged him, taking the bowl back and mixing it's contents with a spoon. Then she brought it to the table, and laid out two proportions on plates on opposite sides of the table. Lastly, she crumbled up some corn chips and sprinkled them on top. "There!" She exclaimed, and motioned for him to sit. He took his seat, and then the western style fork Inko had provided for him, although there was also chopsticks on the other side. There was clearly a theme going though, so he went with it.
Suddenly Inko called out in surprise, "OH! WAIT! I did forget something!"
His hand stalled as she turned around and rushed to the kitchen, coming back barely a minute later with two things - A bottle of sriracha sauce and two extra slices of fresh mozzarella cheese, sliced from a ball and still wet around the edge. On the flat side of the cheese she used the fine tip of the sriracha to draw a small smiling face with a few little hearts and stars around it. Then she placed the cutely decorated extra cheese and hot sauce onto the middle of the salad.
Okay, now it was just a little spicy. But he could handle it. It was a lot of cheese though, with both the cheddar and the mozzarella. That was pretty interesting. A lot of Asian people tended to be lactose intolerant, and therefore avoided cheese and other dairy. It seemed Inko didn't have that problem, although the extra cheese was probably where her adorably thick figure had come from in recent years. Frankly though, Toshinori had no problem with that whatsoever. She was cute like that too...
...Wait, wait, NO. He SHOULD have a problem with it, for other reasons! Get your head together! Stop staring at those sriracha hearts and just eat the damn salad!
So he began to do so, and it was delicious. Inko raised a strong young man on her cuisine, clearly. Toshinori felt some strength return to him from eating it, too. But he willed himself to only eat less than half of what she gave him before hesitating to inquire, as he shyly wiped his mouth with a napkin... More hiding than cleaning, honestly... "So... I suppose this visit was with Young Izuku's well-being in mind, correct? You probably want a status report on him, right?"
Instead of answering straightforwardly, she suddenly began to stammer, "Huh-Oh, well, yes, of course! Naturally that's the most important reason, so, how is he?"
So he told her. He told her what he was sure she had to already know, since Izuku would never let his mother go more than a day or two without a call if he could help it, and it was indeed what she had already heard from her son. That he was doing as well as could be expected, that he had encountered a few roadblocks but that overall he was excelling with his can-do attitude and strength of spirit, and getting along splendidly with the vast majority of his peers.
She nodded in acknowledgement, and sighed in relief. "That's good to know. Thank you..."
She seemed to be holding back. Not quite lying, but you don't get to be a pro hero without knowing when someone is hiding a truth, too. "Was there anything else you wanted to discuss?"
Looking up in surprise, she squirmed in her seat. "O-Oh, well... Truthfully... I've been feeling lately as if we ought to clear the air about a few things between us..."
Finally. Honesty hour. Surely she was now about to finally give him the good chewing out he had long since incurred upon himself for choosing her one and only son to succeed him. It had been a selfish action on his part. Any mother should have the opportunity to air her grievances about such a thing. And once she had, once she had finally told him how much she hated him and how selfish and thoughtless he had been, maybe then he could convince his silly heart to stop tripping over itself whenever he saw the woman...
"I guess... You must probably think that I hate you, right?" Here it came... He sucked in a breath and braced himself, staring her right in the eye as she said it. "Well... I don't. I just wanted you to know that..."
His face fell in shock. "...Huh?"
She went on, not waiting for his confusion to catch up. "I admit, I definitely resented you for a little while. And part of me will always worry about my son and wish he didn't have to do such things... But he does have to, because that's just who my son is... I've been struggling to accept that, but I wanted you to know, I don't hold it against you anymore. Izuku was always going to try to be a hero no matter what. So it's better that he has some kind of power on his side. And you always inspired him as a child. He was always your absolute number one fan. It only makes sense that he would be the one to succeed you. So I just wanted you to know... I don't hate you, and I don't hold it against you. Really, it's quite the opposite... I... I owe you everything..."
Now he felt compelled to put his hands up, to motion for her to slow down. "N-No, please Mrs. Midoriya-"
But she wouldn't be swayed. She forged on insistently, "Please listen... Izuku's father..."
That word alone caused Toshinori to fall silent. The forbidden subject. Izuku never spoke of him, and Inko never spoke of him. The aura around the subject seemed to suggest it was a painful one, to be avoided. So everyone always avoided bringing it up around them. But it seemed Inko was ready to discuss it...
"He's been gone... A really long time." She finally sighed. "He took a job abroad when Izuku was still very little... We received a bit of money from him here and there, and less often than that, a short personal letter... But then the money and the letters started coming in less and less often... Then, after I wrote to him to tell him that Izuku had been diagnosed as Quirkless... Well, the letters stopped coming at all after that..."
"That's terrible." Toshinori immediately supplied, a fire of righteous fury lit in his gut for her. It was quickly contained by his empathy as he added, "I'm sorry you two had to go through that..."
"It was painful..." She agreed sadly. "But... It was a long time ago, too. And I'm happy to see that despite that, Izuku has grown into a fine, upstanding, and well-adjusted young man. And well... I wanted you to know, that it's all thanks to you. You were the one Izuku looked up to and learned from. You were the one who instilled good morals into his heart. You were the one who inspired him to be a hero when he grew up. I know you think of yourself as a father figure to all of your students, and I swear I'm not trying to impose anything on you, but... I just wanted you to know that. I wanted you to know just how much good you've done for us, and that you didn't just cause harm to my son. Everything he is, he is because of you. Not just his Quirk, but everything that's good about him too..."
The man who made the grandest speeches in the world... Was speechless now. He blushed, and looked down, unsure of how to respond to something so life-affirming.
It was fine, though, because Inko wasn't quite done yet, although it was clear that what she was about to say was taking a lot more courage out of her. "And... I just wanted you to know... How grateful I am to you. I know that everything you've ever done, you've done to try to help someone. You've always been so selfless. If literally anyone else in the world had tried to take my son under their wing, I would have doubted them much harder, but you... I know you did it with only the best intentions." Sitting straight up, she steeled herself with a quick breath before addressing him again, "So, I just wanted to make all that clear between us - I don't hate you, I don't blame you, I forgive you, and... And I still admire and respect you!" She suddenly added in a bit of a huff. "A-and...! If there's anything I can ever do for you, please just let me know!"
He... Had heard that line before. 'If there's anything I can ever do for you... I'm so grateful, please tell me if there's some way I can repay you...' It was always said in a sultry voice before, not a scared and timid one, but... Was it possible, was she trying to tell him...?
No, no, NO. You CANNOT rush to assume such things!
Looking back down, he returned to his salad, taking a few bites to stall while he thought of how to respond. Of course there was the 100% professional way to respond, the way he normally responded to 99.9% of the men and women who became enamored with him after being saved by him. It was far from uncommon for people to develop feelings for their rescuers, after all. So Toshinori already knew how he was supposed to respond, that she owed him nothing and that it was just his duty... But he also knew that Inko already knew that was the standard response for a rejection...
And for some reason, despite his mind hurling all the valid reasons he shouldn't at it... His heart was still begging him to at least not outright reject her...
It wasn't as if he had never done so before. There had been more than a handful of times when a fellow hero, or once or twice when a very attractive and capable civilian, managed to catch his fancy. None of them were ever serious, though. He would always let them know that his career made it too dangerous to have a steady lover, and they had always accepted it, if they wanted to be with him at all.
But that... Wasn't what he wanted for Mrs. Midoriya. If she really wanted him, he hoped dearly it would be the for the rest of his probably short life. But first, he had to make sure that this wasn't just guilt and obligation doing the talking for her right now...
"I... I think I understand what you've trying to say, Mrs. Midoriya-"
"P-Please, call me Inko!" She nervously interrupted him to request. He supposed it made sense after telling him what she had about her husband. It probably pained her to keep his name, but she did so anyways to protect herself and her son from the shame others might impose on them.
He slowly nodded, "Inko... Please, call me Toshinori, then. And... If that is what you are trying to say, then I need you to know... That I know that you already know you don't have to do that. So if you really, truly want that from me, I need you to ask me more straightforwardly. Because it's a little hard for me to accept that someone as cute as you would really want anything to do with someone as broken and scarred as me, if they didn't feel they had an obligation to..."
A silence passed between them. It got a little awkward, so Toshinori finally looked up. As he did so, she began to balk at him, "You... You've GOT to be kidding me, right?" Was one of her eyes twitching? Wait, had he misinterpreted...?
But before he could worry about that a second longer, Inko rushed onward ahead of him, "You're telling me... I worried for months that you'd probably find ME unattractive, and YOU are the one with the body issues?"
She took in a deep, suffering sigh at that, but quickly after, she began to bubble up into laughter. It was genuine laughter though, so it put Toshinori more at ease than not. Still, she probably didn't realize quite how bad his body was under his clothes... Anyways though, before they even got to that, it was more important to sort out romantic and emotional feelings, before more primal ones.
So he redirected his thoughts back to what she'd said, without mentioning her much-too-generous words about his own physique. "Surely you have to know you're the cutest woman on Earth, Inko... Perhaps you haven't been told so enough in too long, but... You're easily one of the most beautiful women I've ever laid my eyes on. Body and soul..."
Inko went stiff, but then she began to shake. Fat tears started to well up into her eyes. "Y-You... You can't be serious..."
No longer worried about finishing what was on his plate, since this clearly wasn't about dinner after all, Toshinori got up from his chair and walked around the table, until he stood right beside her. Then he leaned down low, and placed a short, sweet kiss upon the young mother's cheek.
"Inko..." He proceeded to whisper straight into her ear, causing her to shake and shiver even harder. "If you'll really have me, then I would be honored to have you too. But I need to make sure... That you know what you're really getting into..."
He didn't wait for her to put the puzzle pieces together. He needed an honest reaction. So when he pulled his shirt up and over his head suddenly, he was expecting the younger woman to scream or even faint. She did recoil a bit, that was only too natural a response, but... After staring for no more than a few seconds, she almost immediately inquired, fraught with worry, "Does it hurt you...?"
He answered her honestly. "Of course. It's killing me. But... Usually gentle touches like hugs don't really hurt..." Well, no more than a dull ache, but again, he could handle it...
She was silent for a minute, staring right at that terrible wound. He was sure she was reconsidering her naive pursuit of him, but suddenly, she got up from her chair, facing him directly. Her eyes were level with his chest. Moving slowly, she leaned in and gingerly placed her lips upon the least sensitive-looking area of the wound, giving him a small, quick, and airily-light kiss 'All Better'.
Her eyes were still sad as she pulled back. "I know most mother's can't really heal people with their kisses. At least, that's not my Quirk, but... I hope it made you feel a little better. I hope I can make you f-feel..." She almost trailed off, but then she forced herself to look up as his face again. "I want to make you feel good, Toshinori!"
So gosh-darn unbelievably cute...
"Inko..." He breathed, shaking a little himself now. From nervousness, but mostly, from excitement... "If you really want that... Then so do I."
Reaching down, he cupped her chubby cheeks into his long, gaunt hands. She was so unlike him. His body was rigid and hard, angular and sharp. Jutting bones and gnarled-up skin. But she... She was soft. So soft, all over. She felt like every inch of her was made of that feeling you get when you put your feet in the sand at the beach when the water is nice and warm. But without having to worry about the jellyfish.
His heart was thumping fast. He was starting to doubt himself a bit, the longer he stared at her. He was no coward, but it had been a long time, and the feelings that she was inspiring within him now... It had been a long time she he felt them so strongly, and unlike what most people assumed, it was pretty far and few in between.
But still, he knew full well that Inko had much less experience than that. Of course, she got married young, had a child, and then was abandoned to take care of that child all by herself. She never remarried. So, in all likelihood, only her husband had ever... And it had been a long, long time since then...
She was practically still a virgin, if you really thought about it... So, she would need him to take the first initiative.
Which he was unused to. 90% of the time it had always been his lovers putting the moves on him, and him simply reciprocating if he felt like it. But he was strong! He could do this! He just had to think of a good line...
"Tell me, Inko..." He slowly began again. "Making this delicious Southwestern-style food for me... What were you hoping to receive in return? Perhaps..." He leaned down again, whispering heatedly into her ear once more, "The Extra Special Texas Smash?"
...Okay that was really NOT good, but, hopefully it still worked...
Inko's eyes went almost as wide as her salad bowl, her cheeks were as red as the bell peppers. So, SO cute...
Shaking almost as hard as he had been on the way over, Inko cast her eyes to the side, but didn't move away from him. "O-Oh! I don't know, I suppose that depends... This move won't be performed with your fists, will it...?"
His lips stretched into a grin at her coy but inexperience attempt at flirting. Not too bad though, considering how out of practice she must be.
"No, Inko... The Extra Special movies..." He grinned like a devil, while his heart was fluttering on angel-wings inside. "Those are performed with another body part..."
"...Th-The kitchen! I-It's not really the place for this, is it?" Inko stammered back. But now she was clearly shaking more from excitement. "P-Perhaps we should go to my room now...?"
A most excellent idea. Izuku clearly got his quick thinking from his mother.
So Toshinori took the much smaller woman by the hand, and she began to lead him down the hallway. Little did he know, however...
That he wasn't the only one who had a few Extra Special Moves...