Todoroki Shinkou reflects on how her life has grown since Shouto visited her after his first UA sports festival.
Sometimes, she expects to wake up back in the hospital.
But then she wakes up in the pretty, minimalist room Momo-chan had decorated for her in her home with Shouto. Shinkou knows she could decorate it however she wished, that her son and daughter-in-law would gladly help her.
However, Shinkou likes this room as it is. It's pretty, with warm yellow walls, white, practical bed linens that are so soft to the touch. Momo-chan cleans the room once a week, unless Shinkou does so herself. Strangely, it's not as intrusive as the nurses, in the hospital. Momo-chan just makes sure her dirty laundry is done and that the room is dusted. Shouto brings both her and Momo-chan flowers every once in a while, smiling with an ease that tightens Shinkou's chest.
When she was shown this room, Shinkou had to fight tears. It was comfortable, homey without trying, and had framed pictures of her children standing on the desk. Better, letters from each of her children had been placed on the desktop. Each had detailed events that she'd missed in her children's lives, included requests for them to visit. Shinkou had had to dab at her eyes as she finished them.
The visits had started awkwardly. Shouto and Momo-chan had been present every time, and when they couldn't Shouto had been very strict about others being around when his brothers and sister were around. It had been strange, that her son and his wife were so overprotective, but nice. Still, Aizawa-san and Shinsou-san's wives had interceded and Shouto and Momo-chan had relented, so her relationships with her children were better than ever.
It's hard, sometimes. Unlike Shinkou, who hasn't had time to be a parent, Inko-san, Aizawa-san, Toshinori-san, Hizashi-san and Enya-san have all been adopted as something like parents by Shouto's entire year group. And Shinkou knows, really, that it isn't her fault that she wasn't around for her children, but the easy acceptance of the Nightside crew had helped. Sometimes, it was harder than usual not to be bitter. That someone else had had to be Shouto's parent and mentor was hard to swallow, sometimes, but the way these people cared made it easier. Most of the time.
The best part of being an unofficial Nightsider was that she got to play the part of grandmother to Kirishima-kun and Mina-chans' twin girls, who adore their parents but find it wonderful to have a third grandmother who dotes on them. Eijirou-kun and Mina-chan seem grateful, to have someone in the neighbourhood who will watch the kids at the house when they're both working. And Momo-chan always thanks her when she does some of the housework, but Shouto always frowns and tries to pamper her.
Not perfect, but wonderful nonetheless.
