Within the hour, the parents of both troubled teens arrive. All Might goes outside to meet Inko Midoriya at the gate and escort her to her child. Along the way, he tells her that her kid miraculously recovered somewhat and is in better condition than when they called her. He doesn't bother to mention how it happened, since he's certain the kid will be better at explaining it. And boy has that kid got a lot of explaining to do.

And of course, when Inko hugs her baby in tears, Izuku apologizes. At first, he wants to say he's fine. He's so used to saying it now. But he can't. He just can't this time. Because he's…

That's okay… That you don't feel okay… It's okay to feel that way sometimes.

Now of all times, he remembers what Todoroki-kun told him. It feels like so long ago. But he remembers. Maybe he should've been remembering that all this time. If he had just listened and remembered every time someone asked him the dreaded "are you okay?" But just like Todoroki-kun said, he was too proud, too afraid of being a burden. And maybe if he had just been honest from the beginning, if he hadn't tried so hard to smile away the pain, that weight wouldn't have gotten so heavy that it crushed him.

"I'm sorry… mom…" He starts to cry again. "I'm sorry. I almost gave up and… left you… I'm… not okay… I'm sorry," he sobs. She cries with him and pets his head, telling him he's going to be okay now because mommy's here.

Meanwhile, the Bakugos arrive a few minutes later, and Aizawa (who had been doing damage control after Bakugo's outburst in the hall and subsequent mental breakdown) goes out to meet them and escort them to their son. He warns that the boy might be violent in his current instability, but they're unfazed. On the contrary, when they do finally get to Bakugo's room and the boy opens the door, his mother takes one look at his haggard face and crushes him in a suffocating hug. She calls him an idiot for not talking to them if he was having problems at school, and he lets her do it. No resistance, no yelling. He quietly lets himself be smothered even after his father joins in and hugs them both, mussing his son's hair. Bakugo didn't like to admit it (heck, he'd never say it to anyone for as long as he lives), but there was something comforting about his mother's hugs. Maybe it's because she was normally smacking him around, but on the rare occasions when he was actually deeply hurt, she would hug him like this, and he'd feel his pain melt away.

"You're going to tell me everything," she demands, "Y'hear that, you little shit?"

He doesn't want to, but he knows he can't argue with her.

Aizawa takes that as his cue and says, "I'll be downstairs… We'll have to have a talk later too, Bakugo."

The blonde doesn't reply. As Aizawa leaves the floor, the Bakugos retreat into the boy's room and sit down next to him on his bed. As Mitsuki continues to coddle her son, Masaru reminds her, "Sweetie… The therapist said we shouldn't try to force anything out of him and that she'd fill us in…"

"I don't care. Nobody is going to tell me not to talk to my son." From her tone, he can tell it's no use. Nothing's going to stop her. She pinches her son's ear a bit and says, "You. Talk. Now."

He isn't even sure where to start, but before anything else, he comes up with a question. "Hey, guys… Am I just… a rotten brat?"

"…Who told you that?" Mitsuki answers. He sits there silently for a moment, and she gets impatient under the stress. "Is someone saying things like that to you?"

"Answer the question, Ma." Her eyes widen a bit at him. Normally, he calls her a hag, and there are only two situations where he calls her "Ma": on a very "good day", like the day he got his quirk, or… a very "bad day". He's never angry when he calls her that. He's either happy or sad. No in between.

And when he's sad, so is she. "…You aren't a rotten brat."

"Don't lie to me."

"You know I wouldn't lie to you."

He sighs. "…You remember Izuku Midoriya, right?"

She blinks at him. "Of course! Inko's boy! He's in your class, isn't he? …Wait, what did you do to him this time?" She's aware that Izuku Midoriya was turned into a girl and sexually assaulted recently, and she can't imagine what her son might've done to make things worse for the poor child.

At that, he whips his head up at her, giving her a horrified look, the likes of which she's never seen on him before. "You… If you knew… then why didn't you stop me?"

She's so shocked at his face that it takes her a moment to respond. "H-How can you say that? Don't you remember? I tried to stop you! I told you to stop being so mean to that boy. We punished you, took away your toys and everything! Do you know how many times I had to apologize to Inko? To a lot of kids' parents every time you were mean to them? I swear, you got so full of yourself, you thought you could get away with anything."

Yeah, he remembers now. He did believe that. Because he was the best, no one else mattered. They were all a bunch of extras getting in the way of his shining dreams, even his parents. That's why he never noticed how much trouble he caused them. He deflates, his gaze dropping back to the floor again. "Yeah… I'm sorry."

His mother, who was ready to go on a tangent, suddenly stops and stares at him like she doesn't recognize him. Her son just… apologized! Then she looks at her husband, who stares back at her, equally speechless.

Then their son asks them something he needs to know, but that nearly breaks their hearts, "Do you regret having me?"

He's not sure he can handle the answer to that question, but he's decided it's best to just rip off the Band-Aid. After all, today marks the first time in his life he's considered it might've been better if he was never born. It's not that he wanted to die. It's that he wondered if he should've been born in the first place. If it meant he'd always go around ruining other people's lives, even the lives of those he wants to protect, what point was there really in him being born?

"Mitsuki!" he hears his father shout.

Then he turns to his mother and realizes she has a fist raised, poised to hit him… with tears in her eyes. She looks so much more hurt than Katsuki expected that he just stares at her for a long moment. She shakes her head with some mix of pain, anger, and disappointment.

"You gonna tell me you don't?" the boy asks.

Masaru clutches his son's shoulder in a strong, unusually manly grip for the normally timid soul. "Katsuki." His tone is equally grave and stern. "We have never regretted having you." Mitsuki is silently grateful for his intervention as she finally lowers her fist, uses it to wipe her eyes, and tries to regain her composure.

Katsuki asks, "Why?"

Mitsuki sniffles. "You got a problem with us loving you, you little shit?"

"…If I'm a little shit, then why… how could you love me? Are you guys crazy?" Honestly, it would explain a lot of his childhood if they were.

"A mother doesn't need a reason to love her kid… When you have one someday, you'll understand."

"Like hell I'd have one."

"You better."

"…To have a kid, I'd have to get married."

"And? You don't want to get married?"

"Not a chance… And no one would wanna be with a little shit like—" Midoriya flashes through his mind. And something about that fills him with a myriad of emotions he can't explain. Confusion, disgust… heartache…

"…Let me tell you something, kid. If your mother can love you, then someday, someone else will too. It's a fact of life." She wraps her arm around him and nuzzles her cheek to his spikey little head. "That's why moms love their babies… So you'll know what real love looks like." Her voice takes on that gentle tone that makes him feel safe and sleepy, wrapping him up in a warm cocoon, probably like the day he was born. "So when you find someone who loves you half as much as I do, you'll know."

Tears line his eyes again. "But I… wouldn't deserve it… I did some awful shit, Ma… I'm a scumbag…" They fall out, rolling down his flushed cheeks.

"But I still love you."

The dam bursts and he sobs in earnest, hugging his mother's torso, bawling into her neck, while his father grabs the tissues off his nightstand and hands them to his wife. She wipes her son's face, and he gently rubs his son's back. And they sit there comforting him and loving him until he finally calms down. Turning quiet, he just sits there, silently enjoying the rare feeling of being held by his mother, and come to think of it, he regrets not holding her more often. If he had known this was what it felt like to be loved unconditionally, he wouldn't have pushed her away all these years… Heck, he might've actually listened to her when he was a brat.

"…Hey, Ma… Would you love me even if I told Midoriya to jump off a building last year?"

She can't hide her shock upon hearing that, but she's also relieved that he's finally opening up. "I would. I still love you. If I had known back then, I would've punished you so hard, you would've jumped off a building. But I still love you… And it sounds like you know you were wrong."

He might be smirking a little bit, but he's not sure. "…Yeah. I wanna apologize to him." Not a half-assed apology like he tried to do today. Not even like the sincere apology he did the very first time. Something bigger, something that'll make Midoriya never question his sincerity ever again. "I wanna do right by him… But every time I try to, I just fuck things up even more."

She chuckles a bit in her throat.

He pouts. "It's not funny."

"Sorry… It's just… knowing you, you probably tried too hard again."

"…Too hard?"

"Sweetie, you've always been a hard worker. But sometimes you'd try too hard and hurt yourself, remember?"

Yeah, he kinda does.

His father adds, "And you'd get so bitter when you failed at anything that nothing either of us did could cheer you up. You wouldn't feel better until you came back and won at whatever you couldn't do before. Not that it happened very often, though."

Yeah, he remembers that too.

Mitsuki continues. "That's right. That's why we knew that no matter what you decided to do when you grew up, you'd be successful. Without either of us telling you to, you always worked harder than anyone. That's why all the other little kids thought you were so cool. And that's how you got that big'ol swelled head of yours." She gently noogies him.

"Come to think of it," Masaru starts again, "Izuku did say something like that."

Katsuki perks up at that and turns to him.

"You all had come back filthy from playing who knows where, and when I asked you all what you did today, none of you said a word at first because you knew you were in trouble. But Izuku couldn't resist telling me that you beat a monster in the woods. I knew it wasn't a real monster, but he looked so amazed, I didn't have the heart to tell him." He chuckles amiably.

Hold on. Katsuki remembers that day. He's right, it wasn't a monster. It was actually a very young boar covered in dirt and leaves, but they thought it was a monster back then. Katsuki had his quirk by then, so when the boar charged at them, he beat it pretty easily. He remembers how pissed he was when Midoriya blabbed to his father. He remembers thinking something like, "Deku blabbed just so I'd get in trouble." Man, Katsuki really was an idiot back then. But even so… Even though he was an idiot who could never figure out how Midoriya really felt, no matter how obvious it was… Even so Midoriya still…

Katsuki smiles.

It's a warm, knowing smile, accompanied by a thudding pulse and a slight flush of pink on his cheeks. And when Mitsuki and Masaru see it, the recognize it immediately, barely containing their excitement as they share a look. Silently, psychically, in that way that only a couple truly in love can do, they scream, "He's in love!" It's a miracle! They just want to jump and cheer and talk about marriage and grandchildren and how Katsuki shouldn't move too fast and should wait until he's a little older to have sex. Which reminds them that they haven't had "the talk" yet with their son. Which makes them wonder exactly how much their son knows about sex to begin with. And nevermind the fact that Izuku Midoriya used to be a boy and could return to being a boy any day now. Heck, compared to how shocked they were when they heard about Izuku's transformation, their little Katsuki falling in love is waaayyy more shocking!

But before their sharp son can catch the looks on their faces, they regain their composure. Mitsuki clears her throat. "That's why we know you can do it this time too. If you want something, you won't stop until you get it. Our stubborn little winner."

His smile fades, replaced by a look of uncertainty. "I almost gave up, though… So did he. If giving my all is just gonna fuck up everything, then what am I supposed to do? How am I supposed to win?"

"…Katsuki, you really don't remember anything we told you, do you? I swear…" He wishes she would stop beating around the bush and just say it. "I always tried to tell you that if you kept running around doing too much, you'd get burnt out. And sure enough, you did. You never learned how to pace yourself. I was always worried you'd go running off so fast, you'd forget to stop and smell the roses sometimes. Life isn't always about winning or doing better than you did yesterday."

He still doesn't get it and cocks an eyebrow at her.

"When you're always obsessed with the big picture, you miss the little details… things that could've been important to you if you'd just stop to look around."

Huh… That sounds like… sort of like how he never noticed how Midoriya felt about him because he was so obsessed with winning.

"But when you slow down, and pay attention to the little things…" She and her husband reach out their hands to each other in front of him, thinking about all the little moments they've enjoyed together, dating, getting married, and having their son, how their happy relationship was never one big goal, but just a collection of moments they can remember fondly when they're old and grey. As their hands touch, they feel it as strongly as ever. "That's when you really start living. And all those little things aren't so little anymore."

Despite how much it grosses him out to see his parents having a "moment" right in front of him, he forces himself to really think about what she's saying. Little things that he didn't think really mattered. Little things like…

"What is Midoriya to you?"

"Do you really think this is the right thing to do?"

"You didn't fail the licensing exam because you weren't strong enough. In the end, it was because you weren't kind enough!"

He remembers how frustrated he's been, feeling like he doesn't see something that everyone else sees. Is that maybe because… this whole time he's had tunnel vision? Everyone keeps bugging him about feelings. Is that maybe because… they're more important than he thought? And he just didn't notice because he never took a moment to slow down? That… That sounds just like…

Making smoke. The rabbit. When he learned to calm down and just breathe… when Midoriya taught him how… it was like… he unlocked something he never knew he was capable of. It was something he couldn't have done without stopping to calm down. For just a little while, he had to stop fighting, stop trying to win, and just… breathe.

He looks at his hand. As vivid memories of his youth flash through his mind, all the events leading up to who he is now…

He finally understands.

He knows what he has to do.