Shahryar - To be honest, war makes young people mature at an accelerated pace. There is nothing to be envious of.
Jpx0999 - Nah, they stick needles into each other but they are actually friends, just... spiky about it.
(***)
"Tsu, are you one hundred percent certain that you want to do this?" Izuku asks, the frog girl in front of him clearly trembling with anticipation. Or, maybe, anxiety? In this particular set of circumstances, Izuku can't be sure.
She is wearing a hoodie. They are at a quiet backstreet of Takoba. Once they are done with this little… endeavor of theirs, they are going to return to something very, very important. Namely, moving into their house.
Izuku still didn't get to see it. Uraraka is being very much herself. She says that it's awesome, and deflects all extra questions. Due to Uraraka somehow having the most 'normal life' skills out of them all, Izuku feels confident leaving it to her.
"Yes, ribbit." Tsuyu announces steadfastly. "It has to be done."
Awww. But also fear.
"You know that in the worst case scenario, it might go bad, you know that?" Izuku asks. Tsuyu nods. "Even, uhm, physically bad, yes? I mean, I'm not sure if that's a good idea, and a part of me wants to say no to this and…"
"You're my boyfriend, ribbit." Tsuyu announces. "Not my father."
Uraraka, who was busy observing the scene from the side, started laughing loudly. Thank you for your support, Mocchan. This won't be forgotten.
"Oh no." Izuku gasps loudly. "Tsu obtained the power of sass! Who has corrupted you so, Tsu?!"
"Ribbit." Tsuyu says, on her face a smug smile.
"All right then, keep your secrets." Izuku nods. Uraraka devolves into another quiet laughing fit in the background. "Well, if that's what you truly want, I can't stop you. Just so you know, we're going to be right here, so if something happens, we'll be with you in a matter of seconds."
"My hero, ribbit." Tsuyu says before rising on her toes and giving him a quick smooch on his cheek.
… Izuku has no idea what film or anime she was inspired by when doing this, but he has to say that it was adorable. Uraraka must have been thinking the same thing, judging from the loud 'awwwww' that he heard from her direction.
"Less adding sound effects…" Izuku glances at her. "... and more, dunno, anything else really."
"How about… no?" Uraraka replies with an impish smile on her face, before sticking a tongue at him.
Izuku groans loudly, while Uraraka hands Tsuyu a few banknotes.
The moment she walks past the corner, Uraraka and Izuku are pretty much glued to it, looking at the scene as it unfolds. Uraraka ends up crouching to let Izuku see everything as well.
Before them, Tsuyu is approaching a street ice cream parlor, the banknotes in her hand..
Thankfully, it's mostly empty right now, there are some people here and there but no one close enough. Still, Izuku can't help but worry.
Tsuyu wanted to, for as much as possible, rejoin society. Now that Reveal Day happened and the meta-abilities were probably the most popular subject of a talk worldwide, there was no real need for secrecy.
Well, for as long as no one finds out where you lived. Just in case.
The young woman operating the stall certainly didn't expect such a client. Izuku could see that from the look on her face when Tsuyu approached her. It was a pure expression of shock and disbelief.
They were too far to hear details, at least unless someone would really raise their voice. But Izuku could clearly see the woman chill down a little moments later.
That's a reasonable reaction to the 'monster' that freaked you out so much asking you for three ice creams, specifying the flavors, and putting the money on the counter.
Izuku, honestly, expected at least some shouting, but it appears that the operator decided to play it calm. With a small hint of shock when the first ice-cream was made, and Tsuyu took it into her hand, only to immediately grab it with her tongue.
Three ice-creams, two hands, yeah. Her tongue was basically a third arm, superior to the other two.
Even despite that, the woman was a professional. The ice-creams were made, although she kept glancing at Tsuyu, as if trying to make sure that it wasn't just some sort of hallucination. And, probably that she wasn't going to get attacked, or eaten or who knows what.
Izuku was severely worried, but in the end nothing happened. Tsuyu had her money perfectly counted, so when she got her ice creams, she bowed slightly (probably saying some version of 'thank you, ribbit, goodbye') and then she walked away from the stall.
The woman took the money, only to clearly stare at the leaving Tsuyu from behind the counter with a very complicated look on her face.
Izuku decided that she was probably going to call people she knew right after Tsuyu vanished, with some variant of 'you won't believe what I just saw' as an opening line. Or, probably, send facebook messages to everyone she knew.
Yeah, that felt very likely.
"Your ice-cream, ribbit." Tsuyu announces when she gets close, handing them their ice cream cones.
Someone was extraordinarily happy. It really warmed their hearts.
"Thank you!" Izuku replies. "Let's go then." Uraraka nods while picking her own treat.
He prefers to NOT stay around for too long. Eclipse should be ready to open her warpgate in an alleyway nearby.
"So, how was it?" He ends up asking a few seconds later. Because, yeah, his ice-cream is tasty but it's rather clear that Tsuyu is going to explode if she doesn't get to talk about her experience.
"Great, ribbit!" Tsuyu replies. She was really looking forward to this, wasn't she? She is extremely aware that many people ARE going to react to her appearance negatively, but… she is still being herself.
She is probably looking forward to the positive reaction, while largely ignoring the negatives. Her friends and love interest will be there for her, so there is no need to be scared. Izuku, honestly, would love to be able to borrow some of her infallible optimism.
Then again, he knew the source of that optimism. The true one. After her childhood, being hated by half of the people out there would still be an improvement. That… that was something that he certainly wasn't envious about.
"Very scared at the beginning, ribbit." Tsuyu adds after a moment of thinking. "Then curious and much less scared."
What does she… oh. Her empathy-level sense of smell that Izuku was at this point half-certain was a complimentary quirk. If she could trigger it on or off, he would be sure, but…
"Makes sense, yeah." Izuku nods. "And is in my opinion the best way of fighting discrimination in the long-term, shame it'll probably take us decades to get there."
"What do you mean, ribbit?" Tsuyu stopped munching on her ice-cream for the moment, giving him a questioning look. Even Uraraka looked at him with sudden interest.
How to vocalize it properly? It's going to be hard, especially for Tsu. Her knowledge of the world was… much better than a few months, but still not quite there.
"When you want to help a discriminated group, you tend to do things like investing money in them, making laws to protect them, and so on." Izuku replies. "Which is naturally a good idea because they need that help, but, well. However illogical it seems, some people will end up being kind of envious."
"Envious, ribbit?" Tsuyu asks. Yeah, her past is… certainly not something to be envious about, so her genuine surprise makes sense.
"Yeah, like, think about my old neighborhood." Izuku replies. "Most of the people there were relatively decent folks, just down on their luck. Government basically gave up on helping them, though, because of financial issues. How many of them are going to grow resentful of mutants and metahuman in general due to them receiving the help they were denied?"
Tsuyu clearly thinks it over.
"But mutants like me have it worse, ribbit?" She asks. Izuku sighs. She is certainly right, especially as the governmental funds are always limited and mutants - as a 'minority' - are much easier to help, except… things are a bit tricky there.
"I didn't say they don't." Izuku replies. "But people tend to focus on their own problems, and often over-embellish them. They also don't know any mutants to see how they are treated. If they hear that the government established a special fund to finance schooling for mutant children, only for their own kids to not make it to the school that they dreamed of because they couldn't afford the tuition, how do you think they are going to react?"
"I think…" Tsuyu replies after a few seconds of deep thinking. "... that I would be angry, ribbit."
Tsuyu's maternal instinct (that Izuku honestly expects to kick in after Mei gives birth) is going to be a fearsome force indeed.
"Ehh, I think it works on the other end of the scale, too." Uraraka decides to comment. They are getting close to the designated warp zone. "My parents used to be entrepreneurs, I hung out with local wealthy kids for some time. I can totally imagine them look down on a mutant that gets successful in life, if not because of how they looked then because of them being probably helped with some governmental anti-discrimination program." She sighs. "A lot of those kids weren't very nice people."
Izuku didn't think about it, but feels kind of logical.
"In short, people are stupid, and tend to do stupid things most of time." Izuku concludes it. "Judging some group on the basis of such minor things is completely illogical but also entirely in character, and I guess we have to kind of get used to it."
"Ribbit." Tsuyu seems to be in a vague disagreement. She is, as always, very optimistic about people. "You said that what I did helped. It's because that woman now knows a mutant, yes?"
Ah, she figured it out.
"Yeah, the moment some mutant villain does something nasty, and one of her friends will throw some version of 'those mutants are vile', she might disagree with them." Izuku replies. "Because first impressions matter a lot. And the first mutant she met was a very polite girl that bought ice cream from her for herself and her friends. I guess that this counts as education in the subject, in a way?"
"Ribbit." Tsuyu agrees with him. A moment later, they are warped to another location. And, then, from there - with Mei this time - head to see their new home.
(***)
It's… kind of big.
Not a mansion-level big, but it's a free standing house - two floors and what looks like an attic above it. There is less a fence around it and more a wall, and a lot of space within them to be able to throw a barbeque with your friends. Or have a garden.
There was also what looked like a garage right next to it.
"Deku-kun." Uraraka sighs loudly and Izuku realizes that he actually said 'It's… kind of big' aloud. His mumbling strikes back. "You know what, no. We'll play it out differently. Tsu-chan, how many children do you want to have with Izuku?"
"Lots, ribbit." Tsuyu announces, her face unmoved for a millisecond.
Uraraka then gives him a 'see?' look.
Izuku lets out a slightly choking sound at that information, while Mei wheezes loudly in the background. It confirms his suspicions, too. She really struck him as the type to want a big family.
"I see, yeah, that explains the size." Izuku then admits. To be honest, he is kinda overwhelmed by it. It's just so much bigger than the home he lived in for so long.
Uraraka then groans loudly and pulls him inside, Tsuyu and Mei following them.
(***)
The insides were mostly barebones, making the house livable for them to move in was one thing, furnishing it was another. She needed their input on that.
Mei immediately said that she has no idea how to do the furnishing. Tsuyu's opinion on furniture could be summed up to 'whatever's comfortable'. Izuku wasn't much help either, he was more like 'whatever we need to live and is not pink or something'.
Uraraka ended up mockingly headbutting the wall, complaining loudly about the complete lack of taste in her present company and how much it was driving her insane.
They were going to have Eclipse warp the furnishing from their rooms in the Metahuman Network's headquarters. Eventually those were going to be replaced with something else, something they actually bought, but it was going to take some time.
"So…" Izuku asks, drinking tea while sitting on the stairs. They are all sitting on the stairs, minus Uraraka who was leaning on the wall in front of them. "... how much did this all cost us?"
He is a thrifty one, blame his past.
"Not a single yen." Uraraka replies.
"... I thought that obtaining things through blackmail was illegal?" Mei decides to be herself. Izuku actually chuckles seeing a brief panic reaction from Uraraka.
"No blackmail, Mei!" She says, waving her hands around. "It's more of a present. From Principal Sasaki."
Izuku sighs.
"So it's the sort of thing that we're going to pay back for, just not in cash." He concludes. Uraraka scratches the side of her head nervously. "It's not a problem, Mocchan! The Principal is on our side, he probably got most of what he wanted by simply making sure that the Number One Hero is going to spend a lot of time in the vicinity of his school. Improved security, maybe some PR boosts if the heroics end up popular, and so on."
Izuku was almost certain that Mirai Sasaki was waiting to invest his money into the heroics business the moment it started rolling off properly. In for a penny, in for a pound - he was already connected to the Hero System enough that its downfall would probably be his own downfall as well.
Investing money meant bigger chances of his own survival AND significant monetary return.
Mirai Sasaki was a benevolent person, but in a very pragmatic way.
"Yeah, that sounds like him." Uraraka admits. She didn't get to meet Sasaki a lot, but she knows about him from hearing what Izuku and Mei had to say about that man. To be honest, she preferred to keep her distance. "So, to summarize, we have a kitchen, a bathroom, a dining room, a living room and a guest room on the surface floor. First floor has another bathroom, and eight rooms of varied size. I suspect each of us is taking one for ourselves, probably one that will end up being a study slash office for heroics oriented business if we end up having to do it off-work, and… what is it?"
"Well, I don't think that office is super necessary?" Izuku lowers his hand while speaking his mind. "Mei will be doing her things in her workshop, and I don't want to bring her work home or something might explode…"
"Hey!" Mei mockingly punches him in the shoulder. "I don't make things explode! Well, at least while pregnant. No endangerment of my bestest baby ever on my watch!"
"...right." Izuku sighs. "Look, I don't think that Tsuyu will be doing a lot of paperwork, and the two of us can probably do with computers in our rooms and some papers near them. I wouldn't say no to using one of the smaller rooms as a… library of sorts? I think I'd like to have a lot of books, and, err…"
"... superhero comic books." Uraraka finishes for him. Izuku coughs awkwardly, but then nods. "Wait, doesn't that make it pretty much your office, Deku-kun?"
Now Izuku coughs very awkwardly. Tsuyu ends up head patting him from behind, and it's very nice of her.
"My work is more than reading comic books about superheroes, Mocchan!" Izuku announces smugly. "I also watch movies about them!"
Uraraka chuckles.
"Yeah, my bad! So it's a single room for each of us plus the library, and the rest are probably going to stay untouched until we get children. Attic is mostly empty, but with some investments we should be able to put a few more rooms in if we run out of space"
… Tsuyu alone will probably work hard on making them run out of space, won't she? Izuku can't say he is against it, he…
He remembers how much happier their home was when Ayako was there. A few children… yeah, he has no idea if he'll manage to be a good father, but he'll do his absolute utmost.
"There is also a very small basement, which will probably be used as pantry, err, it's actually partially under the kitchen so I was thinking about making some small hatch, because with Deku-kun's quirk it would make carrying stuff to the kitchen a matter of seconds, but I'm not sure if it would work, you know, aesthetic wise." Uraraka continue. "... what is it, Deku-kun?"
"Look, I don't want to sound too, err, negative about it." Izuku says. "But don't you think that seeing the world we're living in, having someone build a proper panic room in the basement sounds wise? It won't stop a lot of quirks, Overhaul would just walk in, but, if we invest a significant sum, it should be able to deter a lot of, err, problems?"
Uraraka thinks it over for a few moments, then sighs loudly.
"I should have had you here from the start, instead of trying to make the whole building a surprise, I think." She sounds almost defeated. That won't stand.
"No, no, no, you don't have to worry about it!" Izuku waves his hands around. "I love this house! I just, you know, offer some input when applicable? The neighborhood seems nice too."
That makes her feel better, clearly enough. Relieved, even.
"Yeah, it's mostly large, free standing houses all around, wealthy people but most of them apparently stick to themselves." She replies. "This place is kind of a quiet retreat, I think. We're like a ten minutes car ride to Takoba train station, and also a ten minutes ride to the main highway going towards Tokyo. Apparently most of the neighbors are people that just want to be able to hide somewhere quiet to recharge their batteries."
… that sounds painfully relatable. Sasaki suggested the house, didn't he? Izuku wouldn't be surprised if he had a house somewhere nearby.
Also, wealthy people, so probably a safe area with little crime. That… was actually pretty good, all things considered.
"School is nearby, there is a supermarket not super far enough, so groceries aren't a problem." Uraraka continues. "The area behind our house basically opens to a forested mountain, which has a route or two going through it, so it's almost as if we had a park right next to our house. Also our most direct neighbor is quite friendly."
Their house is pretty much at the end of the street. They have one neighbor over the wall, and one on the other side of the street. Izuku thinks this is fine, he doesn't want to have many potentially inquisitive neighbors, especially with Tsuyu being there.
"Oh?" Izuku looks at her questioningly. "You met already?"
"He's literally living on the other side of the wall and he saw someone moving in." Uraraka sighs. "Of course he came to check us out. Quite talkative, a bit of a showman-style, but friendly. Told him the official backstory we've come up with, so you know, UA students, one of us is pretty wealthy, I even implied that we are all together and he was like 'well, I've seen stranger things in the capital, my dear', so looks like it's one person we won't have to pretend a lot in front of."
Cool, that would suck. Hopefully he won't spread any weird if completely true gossip. And, well, if he ever gets to see Tsuyu, that was going to be the big test.
"Who is he?" Izuku asks. They will probably meet sooner or later either way.
"Atsuhiro Sako." Uraraka replies. "Owns a circus in Tokyo, drops by to recharge batteries between performances. Wait, speaking of, I gotta show you something! It's super important!" What?
(***)
Said 'super important thing' was a car.
Uraraka decided that if they managed to NOT have to pay for the house, they could as well spend the money they had (Mei contributed greatly) and buy themselves a nice, big family car.
Uraraka had a driver's license.
She was also practically hugging the car in front of them.
"This…" She announces, looking to be experiencing a powerful form of bliss. Her eyes are closed and she is pressing her cheek into the car's windshield. "... is my beloved baby."
Mei gives her a thumbs-up gesture over the car's roof, acknowledging her best friend's newfound understanding of the natural superiority of mechanical babies to all babies that they didn't have with Izuku (probably). Tsuyu is standing next to her, her finger on her lips.
She is probably looking forward to the rides, just slightly confused about Uraraka's behavior. So is Izuku, actually.
"Uhm, are you al…" He tries to say, but is interrupted.
"I love it sooo much." Uraraka says. "It's our baby, Izuku! You wouldn't litter inside your baby, right?"
… errr?
"Uhm, no?" He replies, now starting to be slightly freaked out.
"Of course you wouldn't!" Uraraka replies, before actually looking at him over the car's roof. "You also wouldn't use it as a projectile against some villain, simply because he happened to go on a rampage while we were, say, driving to the UA, right?"
"Of course not." Izuku replies quickly. "I'm good enough to be able to end the fight without that, and…"
"Good." Uraraka nods. "Because if you injure my baby I'm going to destroy everything you love, Deku-kun." She somehow manages to say it with a serious look on her face. Wow. Of course, well.
Izuku isn't going to let it slide.
"Mocchan." Izuku says, crossing his arms in front of him. "Do you want me to tell counselor Inui that you threatened me with your suicide?"
Silence.
Then Tsuyu ribbits happily and Uraraka breaks into laughter at the very same time, Mei chuckling loudly a second later.
"Oh my god, that was sooo cheesy that I…" Uraraka tries to say something, but then devolves into even more laughter.
"Eye for an eye." Izuku replies dryly. "You threw the cheese first."
He is trying to stay serious, but then ends up joining the laughter. He is really loving the atmosphere. And, yeah.
He wishes his mom could see it.
(***)
Eclipse ended up dropping their furniture from the Network headquarters, Izuku using his telekinesis to efficiently place everything where Uraraka and the others told him to. Most of the building was still rather empty, but…
They just wanted to spend their night there. Moving more furniture would happen tomorrow or the day after, they would then throw a proper housewarming party for their friends. Things were going pretty nicely.
Until 3am, when Izuku was woken by a phone call.
Rabbit?
"Asa, what's happening?" He knows that Asa wouldn't wake him up if it wasn't something serious, but…
"C-call A-Aizawa." Rabbit replies. "I-it's h-happening. O-Overhaul's m-making his move r-right now."
War. What a wonderful thing to happen the second you moved into your new home with your family.
(***)
Sure things, friends. Sako Atsuhiro, a circus performer from Tokyo. Nothing to see here (this is going to be SO AWKWARD later on lol).
Also, final confrontation with Overhaul is almost upon us.