Izuku

"Let's go over this again to make sure that I'm not messing anything up," Izuku said, sending the blond beside him a worried look. "Your parents are fashion designers. Your dad has always been designing, and your mom used to model. She's since switched over to designing."

"Uh huh," Katsuki said in a bored tone.

"And you used to model for them when you were a kid," Izuku mused. "I wonder if there's any pictures? Should I ask them? I think that that would be a good thing to bond with them over. I'm sure you'd be really cute-"

"Absolutely fucking not."

"But Kacchan!" he said, taking hold of the blond's hand and intertwining their fingers together.

The pair had just stepped off of the train into the warm, afternoon sun. The summer breeze blew through their hair, messing with the styles that Kacchan had spent too long on that morning. It was an amicable walk through a small, cozy town, one that Izuku could honestly see himself living in in the future. But the end destination had his stomach in knots.

Nervous was the simple way to explain his current feelings. A twisted, convoluted web of anxiety and fear was the complex way. How was he supposed to feel when meeting his boyfriend's parents? They were the people who had raised him. The people who had shaped him into the person that he had become in his adult years. They were the people who, ultimately, would approve or disapprove of him. It didn't matter if Katsuki liked him. It mattered if he gave a good impression on them. He wouldn't be able to live with himself if he didn't.

"They're just my parents, Deku," Katsuki groused. But he didn't shake away Izuku's hand, which made the shorter of the two smile. "I don't know what you're getting worked up about. They're nothin' special."

"They're not 'just your parents'. They're important, and I have no idea how to impress them or even make them like me," he bemoaned. It only earned a sly smirk and a few chuckles from his boyfriend. "Why are you laughing at my pain and suffering, Kacchan?"

"Sorry not sorry, Freckles. It's fuckin' funny. The old man and the hag aren't anything to get this bent out of shape over," Katsuki said.

Izuku pouted slightly. It was something to get bent out of shape over. He'd been dating Katsuki since mid-May. It was now the end of June, and they had just decided to meet each other's parents. Seeing as his parents lived a heckuva lot farther away from the school than Katsuki's parents, they decided to visit Izuku's parents over his birthday weekend. It would kill multiple birds with one stone, visiting for his birthday and introducing his boyfriend, among other things. Of course, Kacchan had fought him on the date a little bit, but he'd eventually conceded. They'd decided to have dinner with the Bakugous first. That meeting was tonight. That meeting was about to be absolutely terrifying.

Izuku couldn't exactly assume it would go well based on the result of the phone conversation his boyfriend had had with his mother. He'd called just last week to try and get the plans in motion. From the sound of it, it didn't go well. There seemed to be a lot of yelling, and seeing as his hearing aids wouldn't pick up the small sounds coming from the blond's phone, he'd only heard the one half of the conversation. But. Katuski had yelled. A lot. At his mother. Many choice words had been said, and that didn't lead Izuku to believe that this would go just fine, as the other had insisted it would. He was nervous and worried and a boatload of other emotions despite Katsuki's assurances that absolutely nothing would go wrong.

Katsuki breathed out a sigh beside him, and his fingers tightened around Izuku's. "They're not going to hate you, Izuku," his boyfriend said. "I think they're really going to fuckin' like you, actually."

"Ugh. I just can't help but be worried," he mumbled. "I think it's just my nerves getting to me. It has to be the nerves."

"Well, you best get those damn fuckin' nerves in check soon, nerd, 'cause we're just around the corner."

Izuku's heart rate spiked. His nerves only managed to increase. They'd very clearly moved from the middle-class area of the town to the more affluent portion. The houses went from modest to large and elegant. Izuku could feel his hands sweating already, his heart rate picking up. He was a nervous wreck.

He glanced at the small bouquet of wildflowers he'd picked up at the market back in Musutafu and suddenly, they looked shrimpy in comparison.

"Kacchan, do you think the flowers are enough? Should I have brought them something else?" he asked, his voice small.

"No. They're fine. The old hag will love them," he said. "Stop worrying. It'll be fine."

"Are you sure?"

"No, but I'm not worried for your sake. I'm worried for my own."

"Why?"

Katsuki snorted. "You'll see when you meet them."

They walked up to a nice-looking house with stone fences and hedges surrounding it. The walls themselves were a light tan brick. It was large with curved, green roofs and big windows right out front. It wasn't anything too crazy, but Izuku still felt intimidated by it for some reason. This was his boyfriend's childhood home. This is where he'd grown up. It was far better the circumstances he and his mother had had when he was growing up.

"Don't overthink it, nerd," he said. "I'm sure the hag is gonna love you, but insist on making my life a living hell."

Katsuki led him up the path to the house. Izuku's grip tightened around the blonds, and in return, his boyfriend tightened his reassuringly. They were in this together. They could do this. This was going to be okay. Izuku held up the flower in front of his chest as Katsuki knocked on the wooden door roughly. If his parents weren't anywhere nearby, he was sure that they'd still hear it from across the house.

Sure enough, Izuku heard footsteps from behind. The door swung open to reveal two people. The first that caught his eye was a taller, stockier man with brown hair, glasses, and a thin mustache on his upper lip. He seemed very homely with a soft smile on his lips. He assumed this was Bakugou Masaru, Katsuki's father. The second person reminded him of the person whose fingers were interlaced with his own. She was shorter than her husband with shoulder-length, spiky blond hair just like her sons. That wasn't where the resemblance ended, either. Her eyes were the same shade of crimson as her sons and the same ambitious grin. This was Katsuki's mother, Bakugou Mitsuki.

"Ah, Katsuki. You're early," Masaru-san said, his tone of voice matching his soft appearance.

"It's about time he showed up to something on time," Bakugou Mitsuki-san said.

She had the same hints of sarcasm in her voice that were similar to her sons. She then turned to Izuku with a kind smile that Izuku found intense rather than relaxing. He had no idea how to act around her. Usually, he just gave back whatever sarcasm Kacchan dealt, but he couldn't do that with his mother.

"You must be Katsuki's boyfriend."

The greenette bowed to both elders in front of him. "Y-Yes, ma'am. My name is Midoriya Izuku," he said sincerely, hoping the shake in his voice wouldn't translate through. "It's a pleasure to meet you both."

"It's a pleasure to meet you as well, Izuku," Masaru-san said, taking on the use of his first name. It made things familiar, comfortable, relaxed. The older man must have sensed all of Izuku's bleeding apprehensions and worries, because he gave him an easy smile and gestured for both young adults to enter the house. "Well, let's not stand outside all afternoon. I've got tea on, and your mother made mochi."

"Tryin' to poison us, huh?" the younger blond grumbled.

The greenette shot his boyfriend a glare that said 'be nice'. "I'm sure she's not going to poison us, Kacchan. Don't be mean."

When Katsuki only snorted in response, a breath of relief rushed past Izuku's lips. He did not want any more confrontation so early on into the visit. They all went inside. Once their shoes were taken off and replaced with slippers, they all made their way to a spacious living room that was full of natural light from the windows.

"Oh, Bakugou-san," Izuku said, looking at Mitsuki-san. "I brought these for you."

He held out the flowers to the woman, a happy smile gracing his freckled features. She blinked at him one, twice, three times before her features morphed into a look of pleasant surprise. She took them from him and looked over them fondly.

"Thank you, Izuku. These are lovely." A pause, and then. "You know, you never give me flowers, Katsuki," she quipped. "Your boyfriend is a gentleman, unlike you, brat."

"Get bent, old hag!" Katsuki snapped.

His mother immediately cuffed him over the head for the remark. A challenging grin spread across her lips, and it all suddenly clicked in Izuku's head. So that's what he'd meant. From the look of it, Katsuki and his mother butted heads. Everything was a competition between the two, which would explain Katsuki's love for winning. Mitsuki-san would That much was apparent from the first four minutes of their meeting.

Rather than feed into the competition that was surely brewing between the mother and son duo, Izuku instead interrupted it.

"Is there anything I can help you with, Bakugou-san?" he asked, looking at Masaru.

The brunette offered him an exasperated smile in response to his family members and nodded. "I'm sure I could find something. Let's go into the kitchen."

"You're leaving me with her?" Katsuki roared, as he flopped down on the couch.

"You haven't visited us in how long, and now you don't even want to be around me?" Mitsuki-san said with a huff as she sat down on the couch opposite her son. "What gives?"

Before he could get any deeper involved, Izuku slipped out of the room with Masaru-san into the kitchen so they could prepare the afternoon tea.

Right off the bat, Izuku found that he liked Katsuki's father, Masaru-san. He was a quiet man, for the most part, but he was also witty. The little things that he said had Izuku smiling and giggling. They had a wholesome conversation about Katsuki's childhood while they were in the kitchen, preparing tea.

"So, did you know he'd always become a chef?" Izuku asked as he carefully moved the steaming teapot to the tray they were taking to the living room. It was already full of cups, sugar, and the mochi Mitsuki-san had made.

"Oh, yeah," Masaru-san said. There was a wistful smile on his features. "Care to hear a story?"

"Of course! Anything to find out more about Kacchan," Izuku said, a hint of red showing up behind his freckles. "He doesn't like to tell me anything remotely embarrassing, and his entire childhood apparently falls under that category."

"Sounds like him," the brunette said. "Where to begin..."

Masaru-san scratched his chin lightly as he leaned against the countertop. He was silent for a moment or two before a look of inspiration spread across his features, as if to say 'aha'.

"He used to set up all of his stuffed animals at the dining table," Masaru said fondly. "With his plastic playfood. He'd make these extravagant three-course meals for them, and tell them that if they didn't tell him he was, and I quote, 'the best god-damn chef that ever lived, he'd throttle them.'"

A full, boisterous laugh built itself up in Izuku's belly before it released itself into the kitchen. He could imagine a four-year-old Katsuki traipsing around the house, making orders of his stuffed animals. Pretending that he was amazing even then. Surely, he hadn't known he'd become just that. The most amazing person to walk into a room... Izuku thought the world of him.

"Well, obviously, they couldn't respond to him, so they usually ended up getting chuckled at our dining room walls or hanging from the chandelier," Masaru-san concluded, a small smile playing on his lips.

Izuku gasped in mock surprise. "Those poor stuffed animals!"

"We're proud of him, though," Masaru-san said. "He's done so much, anything he's put his mind to so far, and he's proven himself very capable. On top of that, he brought you home, and from what I can tell, you're pretty outstanding yourself."

The greenette's eyes grew wide from shock. Masaru-san was basically saying that he approved of him, and that left him astounded. He hadn't expected to earn any seals of approval or any forms of acknowledgement on his first visit, but Katsuki's father seemed willing to give it. He could already feel the irrationally emotional tears forming in the corners of his viridian eyes. He wiped at them quickly, before fixing Masaru-san with a fierce, confident smile.

"Thank you, sir," he said kindly. "I really appreciate it."

"I think that you'll make Katsuki happy," Masaru-san continued. "He needs a little bit of carefree happiness in his life, and you seem to be just that. Just don't let his attitude drive you away. He's sweet underneath all of those layers he's got, if you can get past them."

Izuku smiled to himself. He wanted to do everything in his power to make his boyfriend happy, and he wasn't going to go anywhere because he had a bit of a rough exterior, not when everything deep down was so golden.

"I'm not going anywhere, Bakugou-san," Izuku said confidently. "I'm here for the long haul, no matter what he throws at me. Literally."

Izuku returned to the living shortly after his heart to heart with Katsuki's father, carrying the try of tea. He set it down on the coffee table between the sofas and then sat down beside his boyfriend. The blond sighed heavily in what seemed to be relief.

"Save me from the crone, Deku," Katsuki grumbled.

The gremlin snatched up his hand and interlaced their fingers together as soon as Izuku was beside him. Seeing as they were so rare, the small display of affection from him made Izuku's heart soar to what he thought were unattainable heights.

"What the fuck, brat? You can't even call your own fucking boyfriend by his name? Hah? Where did you get that from? I didn't raise you that way!"

Considering the pair's affinity for nicknames, Izuku couldn't help but find the fallacy in her statement. Of course, he said nothing, opting to be the pacifist instead.

"Stuff it, old hag! Nobody asked you!"

"Kacchan, you really shouldn't call her an old hag! That's rude!" he admonished. "Besides, she's really pretty. She looks nothing like an old hag."

"Looks like an old hag to me."

"Well, if that's the case, then that solidifies my point that you're a gremlin, considering you two look alike," he said coyly.

Across from him, Mitsuki snorted out a laugh. Katsuki began grumbling irritated responses under his breath that Izuku couldn't quite make out.

"Where did you find him, brat? I like him already."

"Why don't you ask him?"

"He's my roommate," Izuku said happily, ignoring Katsuki's jab.

"Katsuki didn't tell us that," Masaru-san said amicably.

"He didn't tell us anything about you," Mitsuki-san said.

"Well, what the fuck is the point of meeting him if I tell you everything about him beforehand?" Katsuki grumbled.

"He's got a point, Mitsuki," Masaru-san said. "So why don't you tell us about yourself, Izuku. We need to get to know the man that our son is dating."

Izuku mulled over his words for a moment. He honestly had no idea where to begin. There was a lot to tell about himself, but he figured he'd stick with the basics, lest he start rambling and muttering. It was easy to get himself into that rabbit hole if he wasn't careful. Instead of responding right away, he busied himself with serving everyone tea. Once he'd managed to stall long enough to gather his thoughts, he took a sip of his tea for good measure.

"I'm majoring in art, specifically illustrations, and minoring in writing," he said. "I want to write children's books and illustrate them myself. At least that's the goal."

Masaru-san clapped his hands, pleased. "Well, the creativity is definitely appreciated in this household," he said. "My wife and I are fashion designers."

"Kacchan told me! I think that's amazing!" he exclaimed animatedly. "I'm sure that's where Kacchan gets his sense of fashion. I'm not the best with it. He usually has to help pick out what I wear for dates."

"We're actually looking for models for a few of our upcoming shoots," Mistuki-san said. "And you're actually the perfect candidate. So, if you're looking for a part-time job, our studio is always open to you. We'd pay you, of course. And, you can keep any of the things that you model."

Izuku nodded eagerly. "I'd love to! It would definitely help put my face out into the world for when I want to start publishing."

Beside him, his boyfriend mumbled something, and Izuku couldn't help but shoot him a look with an added eye-roll. "You know it's hard to hear you when you mumble, Kacchan."

"Fuckin' deaf ass," the blond groused. "I said 'that, and your sense of fashion needs all the help it can fuckin'-'"

"Katsuki, don't be rude."

"What do you mean, old man?"

Izuku furrowed his brows in question as he looked at Katsuki's father. Kacchan hadn't said anything that was out of the ordinary for his usual behavior, so he was surprised that his father was actually correcting him. From what he could tell, that was typically his mother's job. The older man twisted his hands together as he struggled to find the words he was looking for. Finally, he seemed to settle on the honest truth.

"Katsuki told us one thing about you," Masaru-san admitted. "He asked us not to mention it because..."

"Because I know that you don't like when people refer to you as the deaf guy rather than just as yourself," he said with a shrug. "You're not deaf before you're a person. You're Izuku, the guy who happens to be deaf. Not anything else."

Izuku blinked at him a few times before a watery smile formed on his lips. Tears collected in the corners of his eyes again. He joined his hand with his boyfriends once again, and gave it a tight squeeze as if to say 'thank you'.

"Which is why I'm curious about you calling him a 'deaf ass', considering everything you just said, that is," Mitsuki-san snapped. "You know better than to say something like that."

"Because I'm not gonna let him slide for not paying attention," he said. "Nerd has to learn to pay attention. He's got a big brain, he can use it."

"Speaking of things you both can use..." Mitsuki-san said just as Izuku took a sip of his tea. "Let's talk about condoms."

And suddenly, all of the tea he'd just been prepared to swallow down took a wrong turn and went straight for his lungs. Izuku set the cup down as he hacked out a lung into his elbow. He was not expecting that to come out of his boyfriend's mother's mouth. They hadn't told her anything about their sex life, so she couldn't possibly know. She had to be assuming things.

A watery-eyed glance over at Masaru-san showed that he hadn't been expecting the conversation, either. He was just as teary eyed and red-faced as Izuku was sure he was. Mitsuki-san had thrown them all for a loop.

As soon as both the greenette and the brunette had gotten over their coughing fits - with the painful aid of Katsuki's fist on his back - they were able to resume the... Awkward conversation.

"Are you sure we should be having this conversation with them, dear?" Masaru-san asked, almost pleading with his wife to simply change the conversation. "They are adults."

"Doesn't mean I can't tell my kid and his boyfriend to practice safe sex," Mitsuki-san said with a flippant shrug of her shoulders.

Izuku was mortified. Katsuki was pissed.

"Mom!" Katsuki roared. "We are not having this conversation."

"We might as well! I just want you to be safe," she said. "You already dorm together. You're bound to get to the birds and the bees, if you haven't already!"

"I do not need gay sex advice from my very heterosexual mother!"

"Hey, kid, I've been around-"

"Mom!"

Thankfully, the rest of the evening passed by without an issue. Dinner was a normal affair - well, as normal as one could get in the Bakugou household where spicy food reigned supreme and mother and son bickered across the table. He exchanged his number with both of Katsuki's parents so they could contact him with job opportunities down the line. They even said that they might be doing a clothing line for people with disabilities in the near future, if he was interested.

He helped Mitsuki-san clean up the post dinner dishes while Katsuki talked with his father. She washed, and he dried, all in a comfortable silence until...

"I promise, he's a good kid," Mitsuki-san said softly, the softest Izuku had heard her the entire evening. "He's rough around the edges, but that's because of what he's gone through to achieve his dreams."

Izuku smiled fondly to himself as he dried the plate in his hands. "I know. Honestly, I think anyone else would have been scared off by now, Bakugou-san," he said. "But he's just got this something that brings me closer, you know?"

She nodded beside him. "I know," she said. "I hope I'm not jumping the gun or anything, but... I never thought he'd actually do it."

"What do you mean? He's a great cook! Of course he can become a chef," the greenette said.

"No, not that, Izuku," she responded. "I never thought he'd bring someone home. You must be really special to him if he thought you were worth bringing home to meet us."

"Either that, or he wanted to scare me away," Izuku said with a lighthearted laugh.

"Did he?"

"No."

"I didn't think so. You seem to be a pretty sturdy kid," she said. "You know, I've never seen him look at someone the way he looks at you."

"How does he look at me?"

"Like you are his entire world, I suppose."

Izuku's breath hitched. Had that observation come from anyone else, the greenette wouldn't have thought twice of it. But having it come from Mitsuki-san, his boyfriend's mother, it meant more. She'd watched him grow up. She knew his personality deeper than anyone else he knew. She had that motherly insight that he lacked. A window to his soul that he'd been barred to before.

He tucked that information away in his mind, happy to keep it just between the pair of them. For now, at least.

"Oh, and Izuku?"

"Yes?"

"Call us okaasan and otoosan, okay?" she said.

Izuku nodded sheepishly. It was nice that they'd both taken to him so well. They were kind to him, and made him feel welcome. Especially since he and Katsuki were gay. Sure, it was a lot more common these days, but still. It wasn't uncommon. He'd dated a guy in high school whose parents were raging homophobes. He and Katsuki were so fortunate to be surrounded by such loving and accepting people.

"Thank you," he said, a grateful expression spreading on his freckled features. "I will."

It was after sunset by the time he and Katsuki started their walk back to the train station, hands linked together.

"I hope my fuckin' extra ass parents didn't scare you away," Katsuki grumbled. Even though it was dark, Izuku knew there was a wild blush of embarrassment smattered across his cheeks.

"No," Izuku hummed. "I like them."

"You do? How the fuck-?"

The greenette stopped on the sidewalk and turned to face Katsuki, a brilliant smile spreading across his features. He stood up on his tippy toes and gave the blond a light peck on the lips.

"They made you, didn't they, Kacchan?" he asked. "What's not to like?"