"Need any help in here?" Ochako asked as she pushed open the door to the kitchen.

Izuku looked back at her before going back to the task that he had been doing, "I thought I told you to watch over Katsuki?"

"Well I was, but then Tenya started talking about the history of leather and I couldn't take it anymore." Ochako chuckled.

Izuku sighed, "Alright, grab the flour and start making the pancake mix." He instructed her.

Ochako nodded before reaching around him for the designated ingredient.

Unfortunately, this led to Ochako being squished between Izuku and the fridge when he turned around to grab something. Her face broke out into an angry red blush as she stared at the much taller man, who was giving her a skeptical look.

"You know, if you don't want bacon, you could've just said so." He said with a straight face.

Ochako blushed even more as she squeezed passed him and grabbed the flour, "Sh-shut up!" She yelled as she grabbed a pinch of flour and threw it at his face.

Ochako was still slightly blushing as she measured out the flour into the wooden bowl, along with the eggs and milk that had already been in there.

And she was still blushing when she felt a small bit of flour hit the side of her face, she looked over at Izuku and she swore that, even through his thick beard, she could see a smug smirk on his face.

While the two were making the food, the short brunette couldn't help but notice how her green haired cooking partner kept looking out the window and staring at Eijirou and Eri, who had warmed up to the red-head quite quickly.

"Hey, if you're worried about Eijirou sinking his teeth into her. Don't. He's basically just a big teddy bear!" Ochako beamed.

"I'm supposed to worry about her, I'm her father." Izuku told her simply.

"Well she must take after her mother a whole lot because she doesn't look anything like you." The brunette pointed out.

Izuku laughed "I'm not her biological father. I adopted her four years ago, she was six at the time."

"You didn't really think she was my kid, did you?" Izuku asked with a questioning glance.

"I thought it was a possibility." Ochako lied.

"How old do you think I am?"

"Thirty-two?" She hopefully asked.

This got a large bellowing laugh out of Izuku, his laugh probably shook the house a bit.

'He sounds like Santa Claus!' Ochako squealed in her head.

"Oh, that was a riot. I'm twenty, only a bit older than you." Izuku told her as he told her as he grabbed three large plates of eggs, bacon, and pancakes.

Ochako's jaw dropped "So you're telling me that despite the fact that you're barely able to drink, and you already have a full beard!?"

"Yep. Tenya, go outside and tell Eijirou and Eri to come inside." The bluenette nodded, before quickly running out through the front door, returning with the two a few seconds later.

Ochako had to hold back the urge to coo as she watched Eri scramble to get into her chair, and even once she was in it her head barely lifted above the table.

Eri stared at her food for a few seconds before she gazed at her burly father with her big ruby red eyes.

"Papa?"

"Yes?"

"Apple?" It seemed like Eri wasn't a big fan of talking.

The lumberjack smiled before he grabbed a bright red apple from a bowl in the middle of the table, and plopped it on her plate.

Eri's eyes seemed to sparkle as she dug into the sweet fruit happily.

"Pardon me, but you wouldn't happen to have any orange juice would you?" Tenya asked.

"Top shelf." Izuku answered as he practically shoved a whole pancake in his maw. Earning a chuckle from Eijirou and a snort form Ochako.

"This tastes...different from the normal store bought orange juice. Much better in fact." Tenya commented as he took a swig.

"That's because it's not store bought." Izuku explained as he folded up another pancake and shoved it into her mouth.

"What do you mean?" The bluenette speedster asked.

"Papa made it himself." Eri answered quietly.

"I didn't know that oranges were even able to grow in this area." Eijirou stated.

"They aren't. Something you should know about this place is that it's an anomaly in all senses of the word. There's a field of tulips not too far from here. And I was walking through the woods just about a mile east when I came across a banana tree." The burly greenette explained as he sat back in his chair.

"How, it's the middle of fall?"

"After everything I've seen, I try not to question anything. I've seen it snow during the middle of summer. I've seen a lake get lit ablaze. After a while all that just becomes normal." Izuku answered.

The rest of their meal was carried out in silence, before Izuku stood up and informed the group that he was going outside to split some firewood.

"I'll help you!" Ochako quickly said as she stood up as well.

Izuku stared at her strangely for a few seconds before relenting, "Alright fine. Eijirou, you stay in here and watch Katsuki, call out for us if he starts to get rowdy. Tenya, watch over Eri."

Ochako eagerly followed the lumberjack out the door as he grabbed his axe that had been propped up against the wall.

Izuku led her out to the back of the house, where a stump was patiently waiting for them, along with a large pile of smaller logs.

The greenette immediately got to work, grabbing one of the small logs and placing it on the stump. He placed one hand near the end of the handle and the other at the very top, pressed up against the blade. Izuku stood for a moment, before swinging the axe down full force, the hand at the top of the handle gliding downwards as the axe fell.

"I hope you don't mind me asking," Ochako took a step back as Izuku grabbed one half of the split log and placed it back on the stump "But how do you keep this place running?"

"Well there's a generator that keeps the lights on, pipes that lead to a nearby lake with the cleanest water I've ever seen. The rest? Back breaking labor." Izuku grunted as he split the log once more, before throwing the two pieces to the side.

"Now let me ask you a question. Why do you keep insisting on helping me?" The burly man asked as he placed the other half of the log onto the stump.

"I don't know. I guess I feel like I owe you? I mean, you did save my life twice." Ochako chuckled.

Izuku hacked through the final piece of wood before he flipped the axe around in his hand and extended the handle towards Ochako, earning a questioning look.

"You said you wanted to help."

The brunette looked at the handle and bit her lip, before grabbing onto the handle with both hands. Being dragged down slightly by the weight of it.

Ochako raised the axe above her head and slammed it down with all her might, unfortunately, all of her might only put a slight dent into the log.

"I did it wrong, didn't I?"

"You did, but I did the same thing my first time too, so I have no room to berate you. Let me show you how to do it." Izuku stepped behind her and took her soft porcelain hands into his grizzled and calloused ones, using them to guide her hands to the correct position; one hand at the bottom of the handle, and another at the top.

"Loosen your grip on your hand at the top." Izuku commanded, to which she followed immediately. Izuku escorted her hands as the axe swung downwards and split the log in two.

"I did it!" Ochako cheered out, before she began blushing madly as she realized that the burly man behind her still had her hands in his.

Izuku must have noticed this as well because he immediately backed off and, after awkwardly clearing his throat, placed one half of the log on the stump to be split once more.

The two of them proceeded in silence, taking turns chopping the logs into four pieces. Not one word was spoken until…

"Momo?"

The axe stopped inches from the final log as Izuku got a look in his eye that seemed to be a mix between fear and anger.

The greenette began to walk towards the front of the house and saw Eri playing in a pile of leaves and Tenya staring confused at the woods in front of him.

Out of the forest slithered a creature with a fat, slug-like, dark blue body, it had two tiny three fingered arms sticking out of its torso, and its head was flat and wide, with five eyes sticking from the top.

It hissed at Tenya which caused him to gain a small blush on his face, the snake creature outstretched it's arm and Tenya did the same.

"Shit! Cover her eyes!" He commanded Ochako while pointing at Eri.

The two took off in different directions, Ochako got to her target first and placed her hand on top of Eri's eyes, and watched as Izuku hacked off the creature's head with his axe, spurting his and Tenya's face with blood.

Izuku grabbed the creature's body by its tail and slung it into the forest where it wasn't visible, before grabbing the head and bashing it against a rock until it made sounds similar to punching a squashed watermelon, all while yelling with an unbridled rage.

Izuku grabbed Tenya by the scruff of his shirt, lifted him up, and pulled him close to his face.

"Listen to me VERY FUCKING CAREFULLY, the only things in these woods that don't want to tear you apart until you resemble string cheese, are the two inside that house and the three in this yard. You could have easily gotten my daughter killed, do you understand that?! Unless you get an ok from me, don't trust anything in these fucking woods!" Izuku's voice boomed with a mighty rage, before throwing Tenya's catatonic face to the ground.

"Where are you going?" Ochako asked as she watched Izuku take his axe up from the ground and start heading for the woods.

"To make sure that thing didn't have anything else with it." Was what she got as an answer, before he disappeared into the woods.

It wasn't until the sun was almost set that Izuku returned, his face and clothes splattered with blood of all different colors.

--

"Tell me a story Papa!" Ochako halted next to the door of the small girl. She was heading back to her room after taking a quick shower, when she heard Eri excitedly demand a bed-time story.

"Don't you think you're getting a bit old for stories?"

"But Papa-"

"I didn't say no." Izuku chuckled.

"Once upon a time, there was a lonely, and cowardly wolf, shunned by all of the other creatures he came across. One day, as he was walking through the woods, he came across a deer, the deer was being swarmed by vultures and crying out for help, and for once in his life, the wolf decided to be courageous. He sprinted towards the deer and picked her up in his mouth, taking care not to hurt her, before running away from the flock of vultures."

"Then what happened?" Although Ochako couldn't see her, she could hear in Eri's voice that she was beginning to drift off.

"I'd assume you'd know, I have told you this story a thousand times." Izuku pointed out.

"Keep going!" Eri sleepily whined.

"The wolf ran, and ran, and ran, eventually running into a dense forest. His pace slowed before he ran into something, a monster, the wolf got scared before he began to run in the other direction, the creature hot on his tail. He came to a clearing, when he ran into the vultures once again. He had nowhere to go, cornered between the monster and the vultures, the wolf silently apologized to the deer and braces for the inevitable. But it never came. Instead he heard a loud roar and watched a large grizzly bear come crashing through the brush and scared off the vultures and the monster. The wolf became completely enamored with the bear and followed him to his home, with the small deer following close behind him. The bear led the two to his cave, where the three of them lived out the rest of their days in peace." Ochako heard silence, before the click of a lamp signified that Eri was now asleep.

The brunette watched Izuku quietly close the door, with a soft smile on his face.

"You know, if you're gonna try the whole 'heart made of stone routine' you're gonna need to try a lot harder." She joked as she walked past him and to her room.

"Go to bed." Izuku said to her, opening the door to his own room.

"The tin man has a heart!" She sang out.

"Sleep!" He said and closed his door shut.

Ochako smirked before she did the same, drifting off into the realm of sleep mere moments after landing in her bed.

Hey everyone, not much to say here other than I hope that you all enjoyed the chapter. Now I gotta get back to crying over the Steven Universe finale. That's it for now, Peace.