Bakugou Natsume is many things.

Coworkers have told her that she's rash – prone to growl first, ask questions later, more inclined to bend the rules for her benefit. But above all else, at the end of the day, Bakugou Natsume is firmly bound to her code of honor.

This is the reason she finds herself at the steps of the plain and comfortable house tucked away in the suburbs. Asato, the nameplate reads.

He won't be home, Natsume knows, it's what she's counting on. And the pride and anger burn low in her stomach but the disgust and shame rise above it and forces her to move.

Her finger presses the doorbell.

The woman who answers the door is slender, apron wrapped around her waist and suds on her fingers and earnest trust in humanity in her eyes, every inch what Natsume is not, and the shame stabs through her like a hot poker.

"Hello!" Asato Inko says, bright smile in place. "Can I help you?"

Don't trust people so easily, Natsume wants to snarl. The world is cruel, you need to learn to protect yourself – but she swallows it down and says, "I'm here about your husband, Asato-san," softly, softly, because whatever she says after this will hurt.

Asato-san's smile fades a bit, but she sees Natsume's stance, hears her tone, and invites her in.

Inko sinks down into her couch, nerveless fingers clenched in her apron.

I'm here about your husband, Asato-san.

The woman who comes into her home and crashes whatever fragile peace Inko thought she had is tall, taller than her, with a no-nonsense haircut and grim features that hint at a short fuse. Inko has no doubt that if this woman wanted to she could tear her and her life to shreds, could take away everything Inko holds dear.

But she doesn't.

Instead, Natsume-san comes in and folds herself down, forehead pressed against the floor as she asks for forgiveness. Inko is flustered at first, bewildered at the sudden apology from a stranger she has never met, but then Natsume-san pushes herself up and quietly tells Inko that she might want to be seated for this.

The news breaks her, of course it does. It takes Inko's heart and shreds it, shatters it into a million tiny, tiny pieces, and in the wake of the despair comes an all-encompassing anger, at Yuuta, at this woman who waltzed into her life and yanked the ground out from under her feet –

But Natsume-san is not triumphant, is not here to gloat. If anything, the woman's face is twisted in self-recrimination, and the whole time she tells Inko of her husband's affairs, she stays on her knees.

"I cannot say I am sorry enough," Natsume-san says. "It's fine if you choose not to believe me, Inko-san." Her face darkens in anger, and she growls, "But men like Yuuta don't deserve peace."

Inko hiccups a sob at that, buries her head in her hands. The anger swells up and burns itself out, leaving nothing but cold ashes that cling to her, turn her world gray. She sobs, and Natsume-san gently, carefully drapes the sheet folded over the couch – for the nights Yuuta was working late and had to leave early in the morning, how has she been so blind – over her shoulders.

Disappears from Inko's line of sight, returns with a cup of warm water and a box of tissues. Stays by her side, until the tears don't come anymore.

As it turns out, they are both pregnant.

It seems like a cruel twist of fate, like the world mocking them for their idiocy, and Natsume grits her teeth and suppresses the urge to hunt down the bastard and end him.

Natsume had found out a week ago, had blithered for a bit before deciding to tell Yuuta. The idea of children had warmed her, the thought of miniature mixes of her and him – but a chance encounter slams reality into her like a freight train.

Yuuta is married.

Has been, the lying bastard, for three years now, has a wife and a house and is respectable. The realization that he has made her the other woman makes her blood boil, makes her sick to the stomach at how stupid she's been. But Natsume is anything but not honorable, and so the day after she understands the situation she's at the Asato residence.

She tells Inko-san, holds her gently as she cries, and rages inside when the woman tells her, through sobs, that she is pregnant as well.

"A-after three y-years of trying," Inko-san chokes out through sobs. "I-I was g-going to t-tell him t-today."

Natsume knows at that moment that she will spend the rest of her life paying penance for even being remotely involved in destroying Inko-san's happiness.

Inko divorces him.

She doesn't tell him the reason, but maybe he can see it in her eyes; he accepts the papers without a single protest and is gone by the end of the month. The house is empty of his clothes (he leaves almost everything to her, doesn't ask for money), but Inko can't stay another moment surrounded by walls that echo her heartbreak and sells the house.

Through the whole process Natsume-san is there, unobtrusively helping and ready to disappear if Inko wants her to. And Inko is still angry, still wants to blame someone for the ruined tatters of her life, but she takes one look at the strain on Natsume-san's face and forgives her on the spot.

Yuuta was at fault, not Natsume-san, and Inko is determined to live life anew, to cut bitterness off from her before it festers. So she keeps asking Natsume-san to stay, to help, would you like to go out for coffee?

They end up moving into houses in the same neighborhood, become fast friends.

Because the reality is that they are both young, single mothers, divorced and unmarried, and the stigma is thick, is evident in the glances thrown their way when they walk around without rings on their fingers and obviously pregnant. In this time Inko grows to be thankful that Natsume is with her; the woman is strong in her opinions and isn't afraid to tell people to shove it when the judgment starts.

Also, Inko is alone; her parents have long since passed, leaving her, the only child. Any relatives she has are too far away to be considered more than strangers, and so she attends her gynecologist appointments with Natsume, and they laugh and cry and binge-eat together. Inko is so glad she does not have to go through it on her own.

Bakugou Katsuki is born mid-April with a set of lungs fit to shake the whole world awake. Natsume laughs with tears in her eyes and says that she can tell he will have a temper fit to match hers.

Midoriya Izuku (Inko takes back her maiden name and gently folds it around her son) is a month early in July and quiet, but when he opens his wide, green eyes Inko is swept away; she caresses his cheek with a trembling finger.

"Oh," she says, and Natsume, beside her and holding Katsuki close, smiles and nods.

"I know," she whispers back, fingers brushing aside her own baby's fine strands. "He's your whole world, isn't he?"

Inko just holds her son close and cries.

Izuku and Katsuki grow up together, but Natsume and Inko never tell them the truth.

It is enough that their children have to grow up without fathers, that sometimes other children push them down and tease them on the playground. The women went through their pregnancies hearing everything and anything about how alone they were, and Natsume will do anything to keep that from happening to Katsuki, and Inko will do anything to keep Izuku safe.

The time will come when it comes to light, they know. But for now, they are content to leave their children safe, sheltered, warm.

After all, they will both grow up too soon.

Author's Note:

Crosspost of my BNHA flashfic on Tumblr. My other stories aren't abandoned, per se, but I still have things to figure out, so... No updates anytime, soon, sorry. So, background for this fic: newandold gave me a headcanon, and I wrote about it, enough said. *Currently internally screaming at the angst*

Thanks for reading! Please review :D