TW: Suicide Attempt Implications, please tread carefully. Starts right after the big paragraph of text.


Tsuna bolted out of bed, blindly grabbing for his phone. With automatic motion, he selected Inko's contact number over the several thousand contacts he had (some, sadly, unavailable due to time because...yeah) and waited.

Inko let the phone ring twice before answering. "Yes, honey?"

"Where is Izuku?" The question baffled Inko due to its suddenness, but didn't question her husband as she turned to stare at the clock.

"He should be coming back any second from school now dear, why?"

"I think something happened to him."

Those words chilled Inko into dropping her spoon.

"Inko, are you going anywhere today?"

The woman took a shaky breath before nodding. "I was supposed to get groceries-"

"I'll have someone else do it." Tsuna flicked a finger, making his assistant leap into action, firing a text off to whoever they could reach. "But darling, stay there, okay? I'll try to call Izu. Don't go anywhere."

Inko bit her lip. "O-okay. Stay safe."

"You too." Click.


[Boogie-woogie]

Izuku? Check in please. It's important.

Izu?

Answer

Son.

This isn't funny.

Izuku, I own over 5 helicopters, 10 tanks and a thousand and more guns to provide to a small army. Don't test me. Where are you?


All Might...can I become a hero, even without a Quirk?


[Izu]

dAD oh my GOD

no

do not, for the love of god, call anything resembling an army. im fine, for crying out loud.

[boogie-woogie]

Where were you? Do you know how worried your mother and I have been?

[Izu]

yeeeeeahh...about that...

i ran into a villain

he uh. nearly killed me?

[boogie woogie]

He what.

What did he look like.

Are you okay, do you need medical assistance?

You know what never mind I'm calling you stay right where you are.


Ring...

"H-HI, DAD!"

"Izuku. What happened."

"Well, um, you see, funny story really, remember that tunnel you told me to avoid? Yeah so I had to go through there because I didn't want to run into my classmates anymore and so I kind of went through but just my luck a huge sludge villain just shot out of the sewers and nabbed me and like don't get me wrong I would have used my flames since no one would have seen anyway but I was so surprised that I just wasn't able to but that's okay since All Might suddenly came and I got HIS AUTOGRAPH DAD HIS AUTOGRAPH but did you know All Might was a really skinny guy who got hurt like, months before like my theory was right when we were discussing that whole chainsaw thing and honestly the thing you said about a larger villain might have been right because the injury All Might has did not look at ALL like the Chainsaw as we suspected and All Might COMPLIMENTED ME DAD HE COMPLIMENTED ME I'M SO HAPPY except I'm really not he told me I couldn't be a hero because I was quirk- quirkless and I- I know you said I could be my own hero and that being a pro hero shouldn't be the only career job I'm thinking about but-but like dad being a hero was all I ever wanted and All Might just- he just told me I couldn't be one so where does that lead me does he not even think that quirkless people have a chance because you're quirkless dad but you still kickass but what about me can I be a hero without some super- without a superpower? Can I? I- I don't..."

"...Izuku, before I deconstruct...that whole thing, can you take a step away from that ledge?"

"..ho-how did you know?"

"Intuition, son. Are you good? Sitting down?"

"Y...yeah...I'm - I'm sorry dad that all came out so quickly-"

"It's alright. Give me five minutes, okay? Don't do anything."

Tsuna hung up on Izuku before the boy could reply.

Three minutes later, Izuku jolted as a cold moist object tapped the side of his face. He looked up and saw his dad, staring at him with a kind expression.

"Cola?" Izuku took the drink from his dad's hands and mumbled a thanks. He leaned against Tsuna's side as the man sat down beside him.

"I met All Might today." Izuku took a sip of his drink. The fizzy taste decorated his mouth, tickling his tongue and down his throat.

Beside him, Tsuna swirled his drink around. "Yeah?" A lot of questions popped up in his mind, but his intuition warned him against verbalizing them. He had to let Izuku speak up on his own first.

"I…I asked him if I could be a hero, even if I was quirkless," Izuku laughed, but it was a miserable sounding laugh if he was being honest. He felt pathetic, and he didn't know why.

Meanwhile, Tsuna was plotting murder. He already knew where this was heading, and he didn't know whether to shake hands with the number one hero or throttle All Might for breaking his son's heart like that.

"He said no?" Tsuna phrased it like a question, but they both knew it really wasn't.

Izuku merely nodded, running the wetness out of his eyes once it became a little bothersome.

"Do you believe him?"

"I…I don't know," Izuku honestly replied. He really didn't know. All Might was the most qualified person to tell him whether or not he could make the hero industry, right? "He's the number one hero," he conceded.

Suddenly, Tsuna figured out what angle his son was working from. "Hey, 'zuku." He nudged his son's shoulder, prompting the teen to look at him. Tsuna took a moment to look over his son. Inko's compassionate eyes, the freckles, Tsuna's own wild untamed hair and the stubborn glint in his eye.

Reminded of a past long gone, Tsuna smiled. "Why couldn't you imagine me as a mafia boss?"

Izuku's brain short-circuited. What? Why would his dad suddenly ask such a thing?

He must have seen the look on his face, because Tsuna suddenly chuckled and ruffled Izuku's hair. "At first glance, would you consider that I would become some feared criminal world-wide?" Izuku wanted to protest at the 'world-wide' part, but, well, his dad had a point. He WAS an internationally wanted criminal.

Even if Izuku could hardly believe it, these days.

"No…you're too open?" Izuku pondered, wondering where Tsuna was going with this. "Plus, you look really kind and friendly, and you actually look sincere about it too. You're a really warm person, dad."

"And yet," Tsuna smirked, shifting so that his leg was thrown over the other. His aura suddenly changed, right in front of Izuku, giving him a startled chill. It didn't matter that his dad was sitting on the ledge and was in the same precarious situation as Izuku was. Tsuna looked predatory, and the hand holding the canned drink suddenly looked foreboding.

Izuku gulped.

"Here I am, 'zuku." The crooning voice his dad used to call his name sent shivers down Izuku's spine. He didn't know Tsuna could do that with his tongue. What even? "Here I am, the most powerful mafia boss to have lived this long."

And then, abruptly, Tsuna went from being borderline terrifying to the sweet kind man Izuku had known to be his father. The change gave Izuku a whiplash.

"My point, kiddo," Tsuna said, wrapping an arm around his son and tossing the empty drink behind him. Izuku heard the clink of the can hitting the trash bin and, honestly, what the fuck. "Is that whether or not people believe you can become is not directly responsible for what you're going to accomplish."

Izuku had looked up at Tsuna, then. His father's eyes stared straight ahead, like there was something else that Tsuna saw.

"Be your own person. Chase your dreams the way you want to." Tsuna had ruffled Izuku's hair again, pressing a kiss to his forehead that made the teen blush and stammer.

"At the end of the day, you owe it to yourself to try."