"Papa!"
Izuku let out an 'omph' as Eri collided with his stomach, "What's a matter kid?" He asked, lifting her up.
It was here he noticed how the light hit her hair, sending fluorescent beams all over the room. She looked kinda like a disco ball.
Was disco still going through a resurgence? It was when he was kidnapped.
"I got glitter in my hair," she sniffed. Oh, so that's why Eri looked like a flashlight. Did she just dump the container on herself or something, there practically wasn't any of her hair visible at all.
"Izuku, why's your kid a glitter bomb?" Setsuna asked, stifling her laughter.
Suddenly, an idea crept into Izuku's head. He had been meaning to do this for a while, but just never found a good time to do so.
"Setsuna, do you mind helping me wash this stuff out of her hair?" Izuku semi-pleaded.
"M-me? Are you sure?"
"Yeah, it's a bit difficult with this thing," Izuku answered, holding up his left arm.
"Um, sure, I'll help you out," Setsuna agreed, following Izuku as he went up to his personal bathroom.
Setsuna hummed as she scrubbed the glitter out of Eri's hair, occasionally running one of her fingers over the horn stump on her head.
"Some jerk took it as a sample. My best guess is they were trying to determine if it was the source of her power," Izuku scowled.
Setsuna also frowned, Eri was one of the sweetest little girl's on the planet, how much of a heartless monster do you have to be to do that?
"What happened to you?" Setsuna asked quietly after a beat of silence.
"...A lot," Izuku answered.
Setsuna went silent again, she was usually like a puppy, loud and energetic, but now it was as if she had lost most of her joy.
Izuku reached his hand over and took her hand into his, making her look into her pine green eyes.
"You know that I'm not gonna let them hurt us again, right? I'm not gonna let them take us away from you guys ever again."
Setsuna stayed quiet.
"Setsuna, I'm not gonna let them take me from you, ever again," Izuku said, hoping a little more detail would bring her back to him.
She sniffed as she laid her head against his, a few tears dropping from her eyes, "I know," she whispered.
Thankfully Eri didn't really hear their talk, she was too preoccupied with slowly revitalizing a disheveled rubber duck to really pay attention.
Soon Eri was deglittered and dried and free to go back to her drawings, and Setsuna was free to leave.
Before she could though, Izuku tapped her on the shoulder, she turned around and looked down at his other hand, which held a piece of paper that looked like it had been neatly torn from a book.
On the paper was an uncolored sketch of her, her head in one hand and another two balls, one being in her other hand and the other being in the air, it looked like she was juggling them.
Setsuna snorted. Izuku may be grizzled, scarred, and have a metal arm, but he was still a total dork at heart. She adored that about him.
In a bold move, not uncommon for her, she wrapped her arms around him and hugged him tightly, feeling she would die if she let him go again.
Her face exploded in a blush when she felt his lips press against his neck briefly.
Setsuna suddenly let go and yelled, "It's past curfew!" It wasn't, not even close, but she had a bad habit of coming undone whenever she got too embarrassed, both figuratively and literally, who knows what she would've said or done if she had stayed there any longer.
Izuku chuckled to himself as he watched her flee down the stairs, stopping only for a few seconds to pick up her hand that had fallen off, before he closed his door.
He then set about tucking the girls in one by one, they all quickly passed out, except for Eri, who was calling for Izuku.
"Papa."
"What do you need, sweetie?" He asked.
"Can Miss Setsuna come over again soon?"
"Sure, whenever you want," Izuku smiled.
Izuku's plan was coming together nicely, and Operation Mother should be proceeding smoothly.
"You sure you want to leave these two with me?" Kyouka asked, to be honest she didn't trust herself just as much as Chihaya and Sayori seemingly didn't.
"You'll be fine, just try to make them as comfortable as possible," Izuku said as he laid his hands on her shoulders encouragingly.
After he left, Kyouka gently ushered the girls into her room, the walls were colored purple and her floor was lined with a red and black checkered carpet, the same as her bed, the walls were also lined with guitars and other instruments.
Chihaya and Sayori seemed very interested in the instruments on her walls. Kyouka thought they'd be too high for them to reach but the former spread out a pair of blue wings and floated up to them, while the latter just stretched her hand up.
"You two interested in music?" Kyouka asked awkwardly, not really knowing how to approach them.
"We found some of your albums in our old home," Sayori replied.
"I didn't know I left any behind..." Kyouka smiled fondly on the memories of her feeling out over albums to Izuku as he did the same about heroes.
"Hey, you guys wanna do something fun?" Kyouka proposed as she pulled open her makeup drawer.
"Yeah, ok," Chihaya agreed reluctantly.
Kyouka motioned for the two of them to come closer and with her hands she began to apply mascara to Chihaya, and with one of her jacks she took out an eyeliner brush, as the other one extended and opened the closet.
Izuku stood outside of Kyouka's room, his hand suspended a foot from her door. He could hear something coming from the small crack between the door and the floor.
He opened up the door after another minute of standing, he then had to hold in his laughter at the sight that awaited him.
Chihaya and Sayori were wildly dancing, with no rhythm or skill but they seemed to be having fun, wearing punkish makeup and clothes, the latter of which were far too big on them.
He looked to the right and watched Kyouka play her electric guitar with precision and grace, but also with the intensity required for the rock song she was playing.
They all abruptly stopped when they saw Izuku was standing at the edge of the room.
"Father, look what Miss Kyouka did!" Sayori exclaimed.
"I see." Izuku chuckled.
"Do you think she could do it again sometime?" Chihaya begged.
"If it's alright with her, then of course."
"Yeah, anytime. And you can keep the clothes, I don't need them anymore," Kyouka shrugged.
"Well that's a rare sight. A smile from Kyouka, an actual smile, not a smirk," Izuku teased.
"Sh-shut it, goober," Kyouka pouted.
Izuku smiled softly, "It's cute."
Kyouka had to manually force her jacks to not make the shape of a heart.
"Oh, yeah, that reminds me," Izuku took a record from inside his hoodie and handed it over to him. The cover was black but the center of it held the image of a woman who was made of the cosmos, her eyes were pure white and her hair floated deftly across the cover.
"Is this—"
"It's that album I bought for your birthday, you forgot it at our hideout, so I figured I'd hand it over," Izuku shrugged.
Holy shit even without super hearing like her, she was pretty sure Izuku could hear her heart beating out of her chest.
"Well, I'm gonna, uh, go listen to this then. See you tomorrow," Kyouka was tripping over every word that came out of her mouth.
"Sure, see you tomorrow," Izuku smiled.
Then he fucking winked at her. This was just straight up cheating, it wasn't fair at all. You can't be ripped and super sweet and super hot, it's just not fair!
She looked up by sheer chance and saw her jacks forming a heart above her head. Goddamnit who knows how long they had been doing that!
Izuku wasn't too worried about Ochako and the twins, they were the most outgoing of all his daughters, they were the first ones to fully trust him.
This however wasn't what he was expecting.
Yuki and Yuka were buried deep into a pile of stuffed animals, which were covered up by a blanket fort, Ochako then popped up from a hole in the top, and in a fake regal voice yelled, "Trespasser, get him my knights!"
Several stuffed animals began to hit his chest, although he remained unfazed and the toys simply fell to the ground.
Ochako shot a mock scowl at Izuku, "We must resort to melee attacks, advance!"
Yuki and Yuka exited the fort, brandishing pool noodles, and hitting him across the chest. Izuku chuckled as he bent down and picked the two up in one arm, before moving over to Ochako and throwing her over his shoulder.
The three girls squealed and lightly kicked against him as he carried them over to the bed and slammed them down on the bed, Ochako lying to his left and the twins on his chest.
"So, you clearly got close to them," Izuku said.
"Oh, they're so much fun to babysit!" Ochako cooed.
"Daddy, can we stay with Ms. 'Chako for a bit longer," Yuki suddenly asked.
"Yeah, I want to stay in the blanket fort!" Yuka agreed, her brown eyes crippling the 'No' he was about to answer with.
"Please?" The three begged in unison, although he could tell Ochako was only doing it to get a laugh out of him.
This certainly wasn't expected, but it wasn't unwelcome, their bond was just moving a little bit ahead of schedule.
"Ok, but I'll be coming back to get you before curfew," Izuku got up off the bed and left the room, heading up to his.
Izuku was a foot from his door when he felt something off, like another presence behind him. The green-haired man quickly whirled around and grabbed whoever was following him by the throat, beginning to strangle Yūrei.
He quickly let the ghastly man fall from his grasp with a quick shout, letting him catch his breath as his hands went up to rub his neck.
"Jesus man I could've crushed your neck like a tin can!" Izuku scolded, "What the hell are you thinking!?"
"What thanks for making sure I'm ok," Yūrei grumbled. He was wearing a dark gray hoodie under a black trenchcoat.
"Why are you here?" Izuku asked.
"I came to give this to you," Yūrei coughed out, handing him a small red envelope.
Izuku looked down, "What the hell is—" he looked back up and Yūrei was gone.
"Suspicious motherfucker," Izuku whispered.
Izuku opened up the letter and stared at it, although it was difficult to read because whoever wrote it decided to write it in a light pink pen.
June 5th, be there or...well just be there alright.-Inmate 747.
Dokān wanted them sometime soon. That's either very good, or very problematic, really all he could do was pray that it was the former.
I really need to start making these chapters longer, I'm trying I promise. By the way, a while ago I got my own section on the LoM server, come stop by if you feel like it. Discord links:
Epsi's Hoard: https/discord.gg/enz3cHPFJ8
LoM: https/discord.gg/wtUrpj2
That's it for now, Peace.
