"Want to go see Obaasan and Ojiisan, today?"
"Ojiisan? I have one of those?"
"Yeah. My mom and dad. Remember Auntie Mitsuki and Uncle Masaru?"
"Obaasan and Ojiisan?" Hisami looks pleased, if not a bit surprised by his ever-growing circle of family members. They get dressed for the day and head out.
Hisami's got stars in his eyes as they walk into the yard of Katsuki's childhood home. Katsuki feels a bit bad blindsiding his parents like this, but Deku agreed to let him handle this himself, and Katsuki's never been one for careful conversation. His parent's—or better, his mother—isn't one for careful conversation either, so he figures it's best to just do the damn thing. He just hopes she won't throw a fit around Hisami. He has panicky flashbacks of when he told Kirishima and Ashido as he knocks on the door, but he forces them away.
His dad answers the door, and to Katsuki's horror, Hisami attaches himself to his dad's leg, little hands gripping onto his khakis, and says, "Did you know you're my Ojiisan?"
His dad's easy, heartfelt response is even more surprising.
"I did. Go say hello to Obaasan. She's in the living room." His dad's smile betrays no confusion or shock, and Hisami flies away, his backpack bouncing with his steps. His dad turns his gaze on Katsuki, and some small, leftover portion of his childlike self curls up inside him, terrified of disappointing his dad.
"Surprise?" He says weakly.
"Not really. Kid's a dead ringer for you. Smart of you to bring him in case your mom blew a gasket, though."
"Yeah, that was the idea. She… she knows, too?"
"Let's talk inside."
Katsuki walks into his childhood home feeling like he's walking to the gallows. Hisami is sitting on his mother's lap, showing her the doodles in his notebook. She looks happy enough, rubbing her grandson's back as he points out all his wonky drawings. When she notices Katsuki enter the room, she glares at him, but it's not nearly as hostile as he imagined it would be.
"I love your pictures, Bubba," she says, and it's the softest she's ever spoken in her life, Katsuki's sure of it.
"Papa calls me Bubba," Hisami says, as if the nickname is in any way unique.
"Your Papa was our Bubba when he was little. Do you want to go make a mess of his room?"
"Yes!" Hisami wiggles off his grandma's lap and bolts up the stairs. Katsuki wonders what kind of hell he's going to walk into up there when his parents are done reaming him out. The air is tense and silent once Hisami disappears, but Katsuki is desperate not to be the first to speak.
"Alright, brat. I want to hear it from your mouth." His mother is staring him down, effectively putting the fear of god in him.
"Hisami is biologically mine, and Deku and I worked out a custody agreement," he blurts out, unable to play it cool. His mom curses and his dad looks almost smug. She storms out of the room, huffing and fuming, and Katsuki is certain she's going to come back with some kind of weapon. She doesn't, she comes back seconds later, rifling through her purse. She throws a wad of yen notes at her husband with extreme prejudice, and he calmly watches them rain down on him. Katsuki feels like he's entered an alternate reality.
"I knew it," his dad says, smiling wide.
"Goddamn it. I hate losing."
"Don't worry, dear. I lost, too. Inko won the overall pool. Five months from the dinner—like clockwork."
Katsuki gapes at them. Here he was, thinking his dad would be sobbing, and his mom would be throwing chairs, hissing with rage, and they knew all along.
"You really knew the whole time and you never told me?"
"No, only when we saw you two at dinner. It was pretty obvious when you were right in front of us," his mom complains, sitting back down on the couch and tossing her purse away.
"That doesn't weird you out?"
"We had a grandparent meeting about it. Inko was pretty horrified that Izuku would do something like that, but you've always been weirdly obsessed with each other," she says, and the tense line of her shoulders tells Katsuki that she's already had her own freak out about it, and let it go, just like Katsuki has.
"I was never weirdly obsessed with Deku," he barks, offended at the accusation.
"You used to come home from school and bitch about him for hours. Don't fucking lie to me, kid."
Katsuki pouts. It's true that Deku used to take up a lot of space in his mind, but once he'd gotten to UA that'd changed. Out of sight, out of mind, as it were. Maybe all his sex dreams about Deku were really about his unresolved—unwelcome—feelings about him.
"Anyway, we love that kid, and now I don't have to wait for you to get your shit together to give us a grandbaby. Seems like a win, win to me."
"We don't mean to be insensitive. You seem to be happy about it, so we just figured we wouldn't comment on it. Did you...need to talk about it more seriously?"
Katsuki pauses, thinking over everything they said. This… isn't at all what he expected. Honestly, this is more what he wished would've happened when he told Kirishima and Ashido. He should probably call them back. Their conversation has been stilted and awkward, but the shower is coming up, and he isn't such a bad friend that he would miss that.
"No, I've kind of decided not to be pissed about it. I love Hisami." He didn't realize it was true until he said it. This, though, he was certain of. He doesn't know how he fits together with Deku, but Hisami is a no brainer. "I'm relieved that you're not throwing a fit."
"That's not going to help anyone. We want to support you," his dad says. His mom is silent, and Katsuki remembers that old adage about saying nothing if you don't have anything nice to say.
"I appreciate that," Katsuki says, and when he says it, it's like a weight has been lifted off of him. Maybe his friends aren't all that keen on the new additions to his life, but at least he can depend on his parents.
"You want some lunch, brat?"
He can tell that his mom isn't taking this all that well, so he nods, and let's her escape. His dad's eyes press into Katsuki, the way they always do when he knows Katsuki's teetering over an edge. His dad has a way with him and his mom that breaks through their crunchy exteriors and gets straight to the hidden, gooey center.
"How are you, really, Katsuki?"
He blows out a big sigh, and lets himself melt into the couch. This went well enough, and that's a relief, but he's not sure if he can actually make himself talk about this. He's kept it bottled for so long, it's a natural reaction to hold it in.
"I'm coping. This is our first weekend in my apartment, without Deku, and it's going well. I'm fucking tired, though. I don't know how he does it."
"How are things with you two?"
"As good as can be expected."
"That doesn't tell me anything. Be honest. I can't imagine you were happy about this right off the bat."
"It's been fucking hard, Dad. I never wanted this, and I definitely didn't want this with Deku, but now that I have it…"
His dad waits, lets him collect himself. He's good about knowing when to push and when to wait.
"I don't know. I just keep thinking that Hisami wouldn't be Hisami if he wasn't half me and half Deku. I don't know what to do about Deku, but what we're doing is working, I guess. He's a good dad." Katsuki shrugs because he doesn't know what to say. Whenever Katsuki tries to put into words what he feels for or about Deku, he finds that he can't do it. He gets flustered and angry and confused. And the dreams aren't helping.
"I keep having sex dreams about him, and I don't know what to do about it."
"Uh," his dad says, and Katsuki is horrified. This is not the way he wanted to come out to his dad. He hates how easy it is to talk to him—this is why he avoids it at all costs. He just says shit without thinking.
"Christ," he says, dragging a hand down his face. "Forget I said that. Deku and I are fine. That's it."
"Clearly, that's not it. Are you trying to tell me you're attracted to him?"
"No." Katsuki shakes his head emphatically, like if he shakes it hard enough it will dislodge the thoughts from his brain. "I just… fuck."
"Indeed," his dad says, laughing lightly and sipping from a cooled cup of tea. Katsuki rolls his eyes, and just then his son appears, and he's never been so happy to see him.
"Papa, I found markers!"
"I see that," he says, laughing. Hisami has stripped down to his Ground Zero underwear, and he's absolutely covered in marker scribbles. "I hope they weren't permanent."
"Look, I drew you, and Papa, and there's all my Obaasans and Ojiisan," he says, pointing at the family portrait on his tummy.
"And what's this?" He asks, poking a finger in Hisami's bicep.
"A tattoo! Just like Papa."
"Oh," he says, because he's having a bit of a crisis imagining how his dreams are going to change now that he knows Deku has a tattoo. He wonders what it looks like because the blob on Hisami's arm is unintelligible. His dad seems to sense that he's reeling, so he steps in.
"Let's go get you cleaned up, Bubba."
Katsuki gives him a grateful look before he wanders away to the kitchen. He doesn't necessarily want to check on his mom, but he feels like he needs to. She's angrily chopping vegetables, wielding a giant knife like a professional chef.
"Hey, Ma. Anything I can help with?"
"Are you okay?" She blurts, and Katsuki notices she's all misty eyed. In his twenty eight years of life, he's never seen his mom cry.
"I'm fine," he says evenly. Even if he wasn't, he'd say he's fine. He's uneasy with how affected she is by all this. "Everything is fine."
"I can't believe what he did. And you didn't know. Three years of your kid's life and you'll never get it back!" She's waving the knife around absently as she talks. Finally, the tosses the thing away and it sticks straight up in the wooden cutting board. Katsuki feels like he can breathe a bit easier. "I didn't know until I saw you together and it was so fucking obvious, I've been beating myself up about not seeing it sooner."
"I know. That doesn't matter, though."
"I'd kick him in the nads if I thought it'd make you feel better, or help anything. You seem to be taking it well." His mom submissively ducks her head and forced Katsuki into a hug. This is bad. He can count on one hand the amount of times his mom has hugged him in the last twenty years, and they've all happened after villain attacks, hospital stays, and natural disasters. Hugging him now is effectively equating Hisami's existence with a near death experience.
"Don't cry. It's a shock, but I'm really happy. I love that kid, and so do you," he says softly. He's been taller and broader than his mother for years. She's always been small, but she's never seemed fragile to him until now. He really is in an alternate reality, one where his mom cries, and Katsuki is a comforting son. He tries for some levity.
"Jeez, Ma, I didn't know you were such a damn crybaby. Between you and Deku, I'm going to drown before the year is through."
"Don't say his name. I'm so fucking pissed at him," she says, face still buried in his chest. Her hands fist the fabric of his shirt.
"Don't be. I've yelled at him enough for a lifetime. We're working it out."
"Are you really advocating for not yelling at your self-proclaimed mortal enemy?" His mom scoffs, and he hopes that means she's starting to feel better. He laughs too, at the reminder of his youth.
"Pretty sure I was eight and stupid when I called him that. He's not so bad."
Once again, he's fallen into the trap of protecting Deku from people who want to be outraged on Katsuki's behalf. The role fits easier than it did the last time. He wonders if this is just going to be part of his life from now on, defending Deku until it becomes second nature. He's surprised by how little he minds it.
Eventually, things settle, and his mom pulls herself together enough to dry her eyes. It helps that Dad and Hisami reappear in the kitchen, and his mom is distracted by his delightful babbling and attempts at helping her cook.
The Bakugo house has never seen so much emotion in one day. It feels like something positive, instead of suffocating and strange. They eat lunch, and Hisami soon falls into a food-induced nap in his childhood bed. Just as he's closed the door to his room, his phone buzzes in his pocket.
"Hello?"
"Bro! Please come over. Mina and I just got everything set up in the new house, and we'd really like you to come see it."
Fuck, he forgot they moved. He was supposed to help them with that. It's jarring just how much he misses his friends, and how much he's missed while he's been dealing with his own life. He's still a bit mad at them for the things that were said the last time they got together, but he wants to be there for them while their lives are drastically changing.
"Uh, I have Hisami this weekend," he says, in lieu of a definitive answer.
"Bring him! We can use him to make sure the house is sufficiently baby safe!"
"Oi, my kid is not your guinea pig," he barks, fatherly protectiveness rising in his chest.
"I know, I know. Too soon for jokes. My bad, man. Seriously, though, come over. I really want to apologize in person and put this behind us."
"Hisami's down for a nap right now. I'll see how he's feeling when he wakes up, and let you know."