A/N:
since this is written in third-person, character thoughts will not be italicized. i only italicize character thoughts when writing in first-person. additionally, bold text signifies that the text is from the past.

Shoto Todoroki

Shoto was unable to adequately express his unwavering, absolute love and gratitude for the family he began with Izuku Todoroki, or formerly, Izuku Midoriya. Married at the age of twenty, Shoto could not have been more thankful for his affectionate and compassionate husband. He devoted his all to Izuku, and merely a few years later, the two had adopted three children: Yuujin, Kirusuke, and Rina. Although raising the three kids certainly did not reside within the propinquity of Shoto's prowess, Izuku was a phenomenal caretaker of the three.

However, because Shoto struggled to express himself and constantly folded up his emotions into his back pocket, he wondered if the kids ever feared him. The kids seemed to be drawn to Izuku like magnets, and Shoto couldn't deny that he sometimes wished that his children would offer him the same affection as they smothered Izuku with.

It was dinned into Shoto's mind to never allow himself to become emotionally dependent on anyone or anything, but he desired to be a father that his kids could smile at and form firm bonds with. Yet, a thought jammed at the back of his head that was adorned with jagged teeth reminded him that it was perhaps for the better if his loved ones never forged considerable bonds with him. After all, as a unit in the military branch known as U.A., he was no stranger to war, and when summoned to fight, he was never guaranteed to survive.

While lingering in his remission from his grueling and gruesome duties that were away from home, Shoto scooped up Rina, his youngest child and only daughter. Rina seemed to be half-asleep, but upon being lifted from the armrest of the couch, her squinting, azure eyes silently exclaimed otherwise.

"Sleepy?" Shoto whispered with a warm silkiness to his husky voice, but Rina replied with a perfunctory shake of her head. "Yuu and Kiru are asleep. It's time for you to sleep as well." With deft, delicate digits, he patted the midnight locks of hair draped across his daughter's head.

From the corner of his eye, he caught the minute flicker of movement from the frothing peripheries of the shadows, but such a splash of shadow had simply been Shoto's husband poking his head around the corner. Izuku grinned as he gripped the wall, but Shoto exhibited no signs of a reaction to Izuku's presence.

"Okay, Dad," Rina murmured in a slurred string of stretched words.

With Rina's nose facing his spine and her chin resting on his shoulder, Shoto stood up to his feet. "You're not going to argue about it like your brothers?"

"No."

Sighing, Shoto nodded and carried Rina to her room. Like a bubble had formed in his chest and progressively inflated itself, he was cognizant that he wished to respond in a loving way, but he was uncertain of how to express it. The thought pushed on his ribs and pressed on his lungs, but it felt as though there was no proper way to extract such a vexing cloud of ponderous wonder.

After silently nestling Rina into bed and suctioning the light from the room, Shoto returned to the living room to see Izuku sitting on the couch with a smile. The two alternated between who tucked in the kids each night, but whenever Shoto's duty arose to lay the kids in bed, he couldn't help but wonder if the kids preferred the nights when Izuku would snuggle them into their beds.

As Shoto sat beside his husband, Izuku leaned up against him and chuckled, "Can you believe Rina's turning nine next week?" He tipped his head upwards to gaze into Shoto's blank eyes.

"It was bound to happen, wasn't it?"

Izuku's expression wavered like the light of an ember. "Well, yes, but it feels like just yesterday that we adopted them. Look at how much they've grown. I never understood why my mom would always say that to me, but I get it now." His brows arched a bit. "Is something on your mind?"

"I guess," Shoto muttered with a certain despondence embedded within the inky cracks of his voice. "Izuku, do the kids…not like me?" His gaze was pinned to the wall.

"I don't want to grow up to be someone like him—someone who always hurts us."

I won't repeat the past, Shoto thought to himself.

Izuku rapidly shook his head. "No, not at all. Shoto, of course not… Why—"

"They've always been ecstatic to see you when you come back, even if you only leave for an hour. They want to be around you all the time. Do I seem like I don't love them? Do I scare them? Do I treat them like they're five years old? I know we still tuck them into bed, but… What am I doing wrong?" He could feel the honeyed movements of Izuku's arm wrapping behind his back.

What I want to be? Shoto pondered while recalling a shard of his past. A loving father to my kids and a loving husband to my own husband. Everything that he wasn't. My husband…won't commi—

With a film of solicitude clinging to Izuku's viridescent eyes, he shook his head again. "Shoto, you aren't doing anything wrong. I know you're not the most affectionate person, and there's nothing wrong with that, but kids usually want love, attention, and excitement. Trust me, Shoto, they love you, and they know you love them. When was the last time you told them that you love them?" His mien was tinged with crestfallen curiosity.

Shoto finally blinked. "I don't remember." He could visualize the astonishment flaring up on his partner's face. "You already know about my father, but my mom never told me that she did. I knew she loved me without her verbalizing that, but she was a kind woman." He paused for a moment. "I can't remember when I last explicitly said that I love you, excluding now. But I love you, Izuku." He planted a firm, ephemeral kiss on Izuku's cheek. "I must be a terrible person."

As Izuku parted his lips to speak, the grinding buzz of a phone seemed to intercept his breath. Shoto sighed and plucked his phone from his pocket, but the call he received was another barrier of jaundiced ice besieging his mind.

Urgency and acute awareness tramped through Shoto's thoughts. A detached remoteness smothered any embers of emotion that might have illuminated his countenance. Memories of the rain that could not wash the baths of blood and broken bodies from the ground twitched as they rose from the malodorous mire of his mind.

Despite the onslaught of deplorable memories dinning through the frigid labyrinth of Shoto's mind, the monotonous proclamation of dire desperation from the voice on the phone, and the harrowed stare of dubiety from Izuku, Shoto had only one word to reply to his caller with:

"Understood."

At the drooping chime of the call being cut, Izuku queried, "What's going on? Your…" His words were lapped up by fractured waves of silence as Shoto coiled his arms around Izuku like a python. "Sh-Sho—"

"I have to leave," the taller of the two sibilated. "Another revolt of those that were experimented on in an attempt to give them superhuman powers—labeled as 'Quirks,' apparently—is likely going to precede another war. It's happening far north of here, which is presumably where some of the first initiators of the experiments are located. There are countless experiments, but not all joined the revolt, obviously. The majority chose not to or were unaware of it. You and I are both examples of both. To think it took so long to finally uncover the motive behind all these experiments done at birth… I don't know when I'll be back, but I promise that I'll return. I love you, Izuku…" He fastened his lips together with his husband's luscious lips, but in an instant, the latter clutched his cheek and deepened their ardent kiss as though it would be their last. "I don't know if the kids will be worried, but even if it's a blatant lie, don't let them worry about me," he sighed once their lips retreated. "I'm going to visit them one more time, but after that…"

"Mom, before it's too late… Please stop. Please don't go yet."

Silence. The silent whisper of glass.

"I'll join you…"

"Please be safe…" Izuku implored him in a whisper. "All four of us will be supporting you from here, so please…" The dejected, forlorn trepidation glimmering in his eyes evinced a somewhat sympathetic frown from Shoto. "But I know you're strong, so I know you'll come back." A slight, hopeful grin materialized on his freckled mien.

Shoto nodded. "I will," he replied while returning to Rina's room. "I love you, Rina." He kneeled down to kiss her forehead, yet he found himself simply staring at his daughter for a few seconds before finally offering his physical affection; something about affection never felt natural or normal to him.

Next was Kirusuke, the middle child. Shoto gently placed one hand atop Kirusuke's hand while stroking a strand of the latter's black hair with his spare.

"When I get back, why don't we play some tennis together? I…love you, Kiru."

After planting a kiss just beneath his son's temple, Shoto entered the room of their eldest child, Yuujin. He deftly massaged Yuujin's shoulder and tucked a strand of his deep magenta hair behind his ear.

Staring at the bed sheets rather than his son, Shoto murmured, "You'll have to remind Papa to record your piano recitals for me. I… I love you, Yuu." He shook his head at himself as though mortified by his own actions and words.

"Izuku," he called after closing Yuujin's door. "I guess this is goodbye. When I see you again…I hope that you and the kids are well." His eyes darted to the wall from the familiar memory of a gunshot preceding the hammering tacks of bullet volleys raining down.

I was a mess, Shoto began to ruminate as Izuku pulled him into an embrace. But if I can get through it once, I can get through it twice. Shoto unconsciously scratched at the interminable itch plaguing his wrist. A few wouldn't hurt. Only if I desperately need it. I don't want to be dependent on it again. For Izuku's sake and for my kids' sakes…

Izuku joined their lips together once more in the sultry silence of the night before Shoto departed for his deployment in what he could envision only as another fractured field of bullets, blood, and bodies.

A/N:
Yuujin, Kirusuke, and Rina are all original characters that I created.

The fact that Shoto and Izuku are "experiments" is negligible when it comes to the main plot of the story—everyone that has a Quirk would be considered an experiment. Essentially, unauthorized experiments were unknowingly being performed on newborn children in hopes to develop what we know as Quirks. The effects that the experiments had on the newborns is minimal, but in some cases, the effects are lasting/permanent. The effects on the U.A. characters (I'll note that U.A. being a part of the military does not mean all the students we know to be in U.A. would be in it) would be based on some of their traits/Quirk(s) that we've come to know. These experiments were eventually found out, but the motive behind them and the information surrounding them was sealed tight until a long while later.

That was long. My apologies... Just wanted to provide some clarification.