They retired to bed not long after they'd finished eating, Hizashi having waited until Hitoshi was upstairs before returning to his husband on the couch and helping him up. They took each step slow before they finally reached their own room, Zashi gently depositing Shouta on the bed before getting changed.
"I scared Toshi this morning in that training session; I wasn't expecting it to flair so bad that I'd end up collapsing."
"He's a tough kid."
"He shouldn't have to deal with my annoying crap."
"It's a serious medical condition, Shou, and it's not like any of it was your own doing, Toshi understands and he just wants to help."
"I still don't like it."
He attempted to take his costume off which only resulted in gritted teeth and a curse.
"Hey hey hey..." Zashi crossed the distance between them, halting Shouta from potentially causing himself anymore pain. He gently pulled the costume free before folding it to lie on the back of the chair. "There."
"Thanks."
Ditching the pants of his costume Shouta allowed himself to lie down on the bed with a thankful groan.
Once finished with his own Hizashi came to join him, gently entering from his side of the bed carefully to not cause his husband any further pain.
"I know you're determined to push through days like this, but there's always going to be times when you can't and there's no shame in that, Shou. I don't want you to put yourself through that when you don't have to."
"Zashi..."
"I just... want you to be okay."
Shouta sighed.
"I am okay, I just don't like feeling useless and sometimes being stuck on the couch literally unable to move makes me feel like an utter failure."
"Hey..." Zashi reached out a hand and placed it against his husband's cheek. "Don't say things like that."
"Sorry, I just... nevermind." Shouta offered a smile, leaning forward to peck a kiss to the voice hero's lips with a smirk.
"Hey, sneaky..." Zashi teased, following it with a kiss of his own before leaning back on his pillow and just taking in the sight of his husband. "You're so beautiful."
The erasure hero blushed.
"Aww." Zashi pinched the offending cheek which was then swatted away. "You've done that since high school, it's cute."
"Stoppppp, you're so embarrassing." Shouta smirked, hiding his face in his pillow.
"You love me really."
"I must be mad, but yes, yes I do, more than anything."
The sincerity of the answer ended the amusement on Hizashi's face replacing it instead with a warm smile.
"A lot of people didn't see me as much but you did and as much as I still don't understand why, I love you for it all the same."
"Aww Shou..."
The next morning much the same as during his internship, Hitoshi was up early and already downstairs before his parents.
Shouta, feeling a million times better than he did the day prior, walked over and smushed his kid into a hug.
"I'm sorry about yesterday, I know I probably scared you so I apologise, I pushed myself a little too much clearly."
Hitoshi shook his head.
"No, no, no, I'm sorry if I made you feel like you had to train with me when you were feeling like that, I never would have-."
"Toshi it's okay." Shouta cut off with a reassuring smile. "It's not your fault, kiddo."
Zashi came down the stairs.
"Morning, Tosh."
"Mornin'."
"Are you excited for tonight?"
The response was a giddy squeal accompanied by a large grin.
"I'll take that as a yes." Hizashi smirked.
He turned to see his husband getting ready to head out the door.
"Take an umbrella; it looks like it's going to come down hard."
"Thanks." He gave a nod before feeling for the umbrella on the side table by the door and picking it up. "I won't be long."
Hitoshi turned to his Papa after the door had closed.
"Where's Dad going?"
"More than likely the graveyard; he had a lot of time to stew with his own thoughts yesterday so I wouldn't be surprised if he wants to see his Mom and Oboro."
"I would've gone with him."
The sun was trying to peak out through definite rainclouds as Yui Shirakumo entered the graveyard on his morning walk. Following the trail through another visitor caught his attention.
A familiar visitor.
He watched as the man rubbed a hand along the top of the memorial before kissing his fingers and pressing it against the stone. After that he was off in the direction that Yui himself had been heading towards.
Walking down the path he stopped to look at the stone his child's old friend had been visiting.
'Kaiyo Aizawa ~ 2116–2148
Loving Mother'
That was right; he remembered both him and his wife's reaction to discovering the article the press had published regarding Shouta and her death, they had been furious at the time.
The kid had been almost a regular at their house over the years and Oboro's closest friend, their son having been deadly protective over Shouta and consistently getting himself into trouble in defence of him.
So much had changed since those days.
He continued on towards the plot at the back of the graveyard and as he'd predicted the kid was paying a visit to Oboro too.
Not that he was a kid anymore; Oboro would have been thirty-one this year making the Aizawa kid a few months shy of being the same age. It was almost scary to see how different he looked since, and saddening.
What would Oboro have looked like now?
He walked a little closer which caused the kid to turn in his direction.
"Good morning."
The kid's eyebrow furrowed a little, clearly trying to place the voice, before he seemed to piece it all together.
"Morning."
He took a step back from the memorial.
"Look, you have as much right to come here to see Oboro as we do and we should never have said differently. There isn't an excuse for how we treated the two of you back then, it was disgusting and I feel ashamed for ever even thinking that way in the first place. You and Hizashi were Oboro's best friends, and you especially had known him for years so denying you the chance to come to the funeral was just cowardly. I should never have pushed you either, again there's no excuse, I assaulted a damn grieving kid so I'm probably going to hell for it, but I am sorry regardless."
The kid nodded.
"Let's go grab some coffee; it's too cold out here to just stand around."
Sat in the booth at the local coffee shop in town, Shouta warmed his hands around the mug.
"So you're a teacher at UA now, right?"
He nodded.
"So's Hizashi and Nemuri."
"Wow, what about Tensei?"
"Nah he was a part of his family's agency but he got hurt out on a job a while back so he's weighing up his options of what he wants to do. The last time I spoke to him he was practically running the agency; he's pretty much a one-man call centre for the Iida's." Shouta smirked.
"You and Hizashi are married now, right? I think I remember the article in the news about the two of you."
"Yep, and we have a kid."
"Really?"
"Yeah his name's Hitoshi; he was originally a placement with us and then we adopted him officially. He's an amazing kid; he even came with me once to visit Mom and Oboro."
"While we're on the subject of your Mom, your Dad won't have long left now will he?"
"It was two days ago actually."
Shouta took a drink of his coffee.
"Wow."
"Yup, good riddance to him, I only wish they'd done it sooner."
"Did you do anything to celebrate?"
He shook his head.
"Toshi's been focused on him internship so I just let him concentrate on that rather than bothering him, plus he's been a little down lately so you know."
"Well I'm glad your Mother got justice, and of course you too."
"It feels so long ago now, I mean I was eight when I transferred into the same school as Oboro and we became friends."
"How many years were you in the foster system?"
"About five, I never really stayed in one place though, people got sick of me pretty quickly." Shouta scoffed taking another mouthful of coffee. "Mitsuki and Masaru adopted me when I was fourteen."
"I remember that well, Oboro couldn't have sprinted out of the house faster after he got that call from the police saying they'd found you."
"Sorry about that."
"No not at all, it just showed how close the two of you were."
Shouta smiled.
"I miss him… so much." He admitted with a sigh. "He had such an impact on my life and then he was just gone… it's cruel that someone so happy and caring and talented as him was taken away so quickly."
He heard a soft exhale of breath from across the table.
"You mentioned your son's internship; am I right in thinking then that this is the first time they've offered them since the four of you took them?"
"Yes. Principal Nezu felt that it was only detrimental to the students for them not to have that hands on experience prior to leaving UA."
"And what are your thoughts on it all?"
Shouta fiddled with his ring.
"It sounds cowardly to admit, but those years were I never even had to utter the words hero placements or internships were a godsend because neither Hizashi nor I could even say it without freaking out or throwing up. We were in such a bad place even after all those years of therapy and grief counselling, it just looked like that was always going to be something that triggered us. We wanted nothing to do with it and told Nezu straight to never put us down to teach any of the classes for it because we just couldn't. Then the attack at the USJ happened and I nearly died. Every single one of my students could have died if they hadn't have thought on their feet and put their lives at risk to get the word back to the main campus. I was so determined to make sure that those villains didn't lay a finger on any of my kids that the explosions, the falling debris, nothing triggered me because I didn't have time to be scared. I had to save them, I had to, I couldn't handle the idea of losing anyone else, anyone at all, and it pushed me beyond my limits as a hero."
"Well it sounds like those kids are lucky to have you; there aren't many teachers who would deliver a speech like that about their class."
"I don't know if they'd agree with you on that."
"I'm sure they would."
Shouta smiled.
"Well, I better be going before the missus wonders where I've gotten to. It was nice getting to talk to you again after all these years and I'll hopefully see you around."
He nodded, offering a hand to shake which Yui took.
"It was nice talking to you too."
"Take care."
"You too."
Footsteps crossed the coffee shop before the door opened and clicked closed. Finishing the last of his mug of coffee he picked up his umbrella as he headed off.
His phone began to buzz in his pocket.
"Hizashi. Hizashi. Hizashi." The electronic voice alerted.
"Hey."
"Where are you?"
"I'm just leaving the coffee shop in town."
"What, why?"
"Because I bumped into someone when I went to visit Mom and Oboro this morning; I'll tell you about it when I get home."
"Want me to come and pick you up, that raincloud looks like it ready to come down any minute?"
Shouta smiled softly.
The chronic pain from yesterday may have mostly subsided but both he and Hizashi knew that the cold temperatures of a rainstorm only make the aches worse meaning his husband was a softie with a big heart.
"I love you."
"I love you too, sweetie, I'll see you in a few minutes."
