Nedzu was experiencing parental excitement.
Izuku has been babbling more often lately; Nedzu thinks that soon Izuku will say his first words. He watched Izuku play on the floor of his office on a fluffy rug. Izuku was dressed in his favorite dinosaur-themed onesie. He was playing with a woven yarn octopus plush that was about the same size as him. They had matching smiles as Izuku rolled on the floor, holding onto three of the tentacles.
Izuku was getting older, and that both excited and terrified Nedzu. By his deductions, Izuku will say his first words soon! He was beyond happy! His face held a big smile when he walked into the building that morning. He supposed it was an unusual sight since his faculty looked terrified.
'Screw them, I'm happy!' Nedzu thought as he watched his little mouse crawl around with his octopus held in his hands.
He knows that Izuku's first words would be soon since a few days ago he had started to mumble and babble different sounds to him. He was about to wake Izuku up this morning only to be greeted with a "Bah!" from a wide-awake Izuku in his crib. Nedzu had laughed in joy, and his neighbors were fearing for their lives at the sound.
He checked the time on his clock. Oh! It was time for the school announcements. He grabbed the microphone for the intercom and pressed the button to turn it on.
"I still can't believe it was that difficult for you guys to figure out what Izuku liked when he began teething?" Tensei asked. "I mean, how?"
"I don't know dude! But Izuku is picky and Nedzu likes to watch us suffer." Nemuri said with her face against her desk.
Aizawa elbowed Hizashi to get his attention for the morning announcements.
"Good afternoon, hero students of Class 1-A and 1-B, you may now use Training Area Beta again since reconstruction is over. Now Class 1-C, General Education..."
The sound of shuffling paper and Nedzu's amused giggle came over the speaker, and the sound of Izuku's babbling spread through the school, "Bah! Pa! Ne!"
Everyone awed at the cuteness of the child's voice, even Yukimura, who was still quite traumatized over the punishment he'd received. The group of four smiled at the noises Izuku was making before Nedzu continued on.
"That is all for today," Nedzu finished. "Have a good afternoon." As he was turning it off, the whole school heard a cute babble of, "Beh!"
The group of friends looked back at each other. "Let me guess, you all want to go see Izuku during lunch break?" Aizawa sighed.
The rest of the group nodded in unison. Aizawa didn't want to admit he was excited, but he was. Seeing Izuku was always fun.
*
Nedzu had a feeling that Izuku would say his first words today. Izuku had been babbling a lot since he turned off the intercom while he was playing with his toys. Nedzu had a smile on his face while doing some paperwork.
Unfortunately, Nedzu has to go to a quick meeting with the faculty during lunch break. Apparently, a child during the meeting was 'distracting' and 'unprofessional'. Nedzu had to make a tough decision and exclude Izuku from the next meeting lest his child distract from the topics at hand.
Nedzu checked the cameras to see his four favourite babysitters making their way toward his office. Ooh, perfect timing!
The four teenagers hesitantly entered Nedzu's office. Izuku looked up at the door and smiled. He started to babble and reach out his hands at the four while Nedzu smiled.
"Hello, students. What a pleasant surprise!" Nedzu said as he hopped off his office chair to go greet them at the door. Aizawa already had a suspicion that they would be staying a little longer than anticipated. He narrowed his eyes as Nedzu approached Tensei.
"Nice to see you. Since you are here, you wouldn't mind watching Izuku during the lunch break while I go to a meeting, right? Great! See you!" Nedzu rambled before briskly walking out the door.
Aizawa sighed as he rubbed his temples, 'Great. I should've known this would happen.' Izuku seemed to giggle at Aizawa's annoyance with the whole situation.
'Wonderful. Now Izuku's laughing at my pain.'
Tensei seemed to be excited about the opportunity to care for Izuku since he missed out last time. "Hey, Izuku! How have you been, little guy?" Tensei asked, approaching slowly with a smile on his face. He crouched down to look at Izuku, who was smiling behind his octopus toy. "I see you got a new toy. It looks so colorful!"
The three shrugged at the other's brotherly behavior and joined him on the floor. They had about thirty minutes to have fun with little Izuku before Nedzu came back. They pulled out all the stops. Hizashi hummed songs while Nemuri made one of his dolls dance along, and Tensei made two toys race against each other with Aizawa as the begrudging judge of who won.
Eventually, it was time for the group to head back to class. "Alright, little man, Nedzu will be back soon to see you." Nemuri said, patting Izuku on the head.
"Papa!" Izuku replied with a bright smile looking back at the four from the picture he was staring at.
"Did he just-," Tensei started to ask.
"Say his first words without Nedzu present? Yes he did, and now our principal is going to kill us from jealousy." Aizawa said fearfully.
"Oh no. What are we going to do?" Nemuri worried.
"Nothing. Nothing. We do nothing." Aizawa replied.
"What?" Hizashi asked with a shocked expression.
"His first words were papa. So when he sees Nedzu, he will say papa again. Nedzu won't know unless he has a camera somewhere in here. But hey, maybe he will be too happy to notice." Aizawa explained.
"Okay. He is coming down the hall now. Let's say goodbye, and let Nedzu hear his child say his first words." Nemuri decided.
They all nodded before saying a quick goodbye to Izuku, which was rewarded with a small wave.
They exited the room at the same time Nedzu walked in. They said hello and goodbye to their principal before heading to their class.
Nedzu waved goodbye to the backs of his students before turning around and closing the door behind him. He walked to his desk while looking at Izuku. He was playing with his zebra plush. 'Ah, I remember when I got him that toy.' Nedzu thought, not paying attention to what was in front of him. His toe hit the desk leg hard.
"OW, SHIT!" Nedzu yelled out before clutching his foot paw.
"Shit!" Izuku repeated after his father.
...
'I'm a terrible father.' Nedzu thought to himself before robotically sitting down at his desk chair. He rested his head on the desk's surface while he listened to Izuku's laughing. Izuku's sound of laughter and clapping did nothing to drown out the feeling of shame that the principal was currently going through.
"So how do you think Nedzu reacted when Izuku called him papa?" Tensei wondered with excitement in his voice as they went to check on the principal and Izuku at the end of the school day.
"Oh, I'm sure he was happier than he has ever been," Hizashi replied with a smile on his face before opening the office door. "Hey, Principal Nedzu, just checking in-,"
The office was quiet except for Izuku's babbling sounds. They looked to their principal to see him sitting lifelessly at his desk.
"Um, Principal Nedzu? What's wrong?" Nemuri asked carefully.
"I'm a terrible father. I made Izuku's first word a curse word." Nedzu bemoaned.
"What? His first word was a curse word? But his first word was-?" Hizashi started before Aizawa slapped a hand over his mouth again.
"What."
...
A moment of silence followed.
"Well, Principal Nedzu, Izuku's actual first words were-," Aizawa explained to Nedzu's oddly calm smiling face.
"Papa!" Izuku called, smiling when he got his father's attention. Clapping, he repeated, "Papa! Papa!"
Nedzu smiled softly at the sight of his little child calling out to him.
"Oh, my precious little mouse," Nedzu whispered before taking Izuku up into his arms.
"Yeah. We didn't tell you because we figured that Izuku would say it as soon as you come back. But it appears it didn't happen like the way we thought it would. So we all apologize," Tensei responded before the four bowed in apology.
"Oh! Thank goodness! That means I have a video of it!" Nedzu replied happily before tickling Izuku on his tummy.
"What do you mean? Do you have cameras in your office?" Hizashi asked with a sweat bead rolling down his forehead.
"Oh please, I have cameras all over the school in every room, complete with different angles and full audio." Nedzu responded casually, all his attention on his son. "Except for more private areas such as the restrooms, of course."
'Man, that is unnerving,' the four thought to themselves.
'A happy family of two. Well, six if you counted the honorary aunts and uncles,' Nedzu thought.