Chapter 20: Lost Moments

After Izuku had learned to walk, especially after the whole hide and seek fiasco that Nedzu saw on the cameras, he made sure to walk with his son down the halls for even more practice. And to keep him in his sights since Izuku had a knack for hiding very well. Nedzu could only grin at the stealthiness of the small child.

On the walks, Izuku would hold on tightly to his paw as his steps slightly bounced. Nedzu walked side by side with him as other teachers would pass by them from the faculty room to go to their classrooms.

They would pass by with a wave to Izuku which made him giggle and open and close his hands in the form of a wave.

"Come along, young mouse," Nedzu spoke up, making Izuku turn his head towards him. "I'll give you a little tour of the school."

"Baa ba," Izuku babbles were reduced into mumbles as he waddled with Nedzu. His voice screeched only like a child would, "Papa!"

"Yes, yes," Nedzu answered back to encourage more of his words. "I also ordered some new stories to read to you. Your choice between the adventure of a bug or the one about the frog prince taking over the country."

Izuku babbled back to him excitedly. Nedzu smiled back at him, "Ah, I'll read the frog prince first when they come in."

Just then, they walked past a classroom that seemed to be in the middle of a test. One student looked up just in time to see Nedzu walking by with Izuku. He blinked back at them while Izuku smiled and waved at his attention. The student waved back with one of his six hands before returning his attention back to the paper on his desk.

The little tour around the school became a routine for each day when Nedzu had nothing planned for half an hour. Sometimes he would end the walk by carrying Izuku back when the little one's feet got too tired.

Nedzu liked to take pristine care of his fur. He made sure to have a lot of combs to make sure his soft fur wasn't tangled up in knots. And he took great care of it so the keratin let his hair remain shiny. Nedzu made sure that each day his fur was maintained and polished.

He had no hairspray or gel because the feel of them makes his fur clump together or have a crunchy feel that he hates.

So that's why when Izuku had started to grow longer hair, he wanted to makes sure that his hair was taken care of. But the main difference between his fur and his son's hair was that his son had curly hair.

So when he tried to brush through it the first time, the brush got caught inside his curls. Izuku kept moving slightly while he watched the cartoons on television while Nedzu tried to get his hair under control for the day.

Somehow a comb and bobby-pins got lost inside his curls as Izuku just stared at the screen.

'Damn Midoriya Hisashi and his hair genetics,' Nedzu cursed towards Izuku's biological donor in his head while he tried to dislodge the comb inside his curls.

After a few times of failing to maintain his curls, Nedzu started to research on how to take care of curly hair types since his own experience would not cover it.

And now, Nedzu made sure that Izuku's hair was always in pristine curls.

"Papa, when will I get ears like yours?"

It was shortly before Izuku's fourth birthday when he started to question when he will start to look more like him than ever.

There were a few times like these when Izuku would be staring into the mirror with a concentrated face or patting his face like he was trying to find if fur was growing.

Nedzu found it somewhat adorable how much his son was looking forward to looking like him. His aunts and uncles thought his wish was cute because of how much Izuku excitedly talked about how he was going to look more like him.

And he knew how disappointed the child would be when his quirk would come in and not match with his at all.

But then he was declared quirkless.

After the crying and reassurance from his friends and family that everything would be okay, the constant questions about fur or ears never came up again.

There wasn't another time when Izuku would wake him up in the middle of the night in excitement at feeling the small hairs on his face that all humans had. There wasn't another moment where he caught him wishing upon a star in the middle of the night to make his wish come true.

But sometimes at night, he could hear the scuffling to the bathroom in the hall that both of their bedrooms shared. And he could feel his heart twist when his son started to cry since the walls didn't hide much sound. This resulted in many nights of him coming out of his bedroom to comfort his son no matter how long it took or if they both end up falling asleep on the couch instead of their beds.

And each time, Izuku smiled at one of his friends while playing with them. Nedzu could still see the amount of hesitancy or hurt in his eyes and body language when he saw the other two playing with quirks that came from their parents.

But as the weeks passed by, the hurt in his eyes started to fade away with a new determined light as he watched his friends play with their quirks. How his eyes darted between the two of them as they moved.

A light in his eyes so bright that only grew brighter when Nedzu had introduced quirk analysis to him when they started homeschooling.

Nedzu didn't mind the fact he was short.

Many people were short. But when he started to go out shopping with his son and him in disguise, it started to become a problem.

Nedzu was a recognizable figure in society, so he had to always disguise himself when going out into the normal world outside of school and such when he didn't need to be a principal. So when he shopped, he did it in disguise.

He often did it with Izuku in a holder of some kind when he was a baby. No one really commented on him except to audibly awe at the cute baby in the sling wrapped around him.

So when Izuku was big enough to walk with him, he started to bring him out to shop with him even more. But it quickly became a problem when other humans would pass by and remark 'it's lovely that two brothers are doing errands together!'

He can only think about what it will be like when Izuku grows taller than him. If they started to say that Izuku was the older brother, he would just start to have his groceries delivered instead. Or send off the grocery list with one of his aunts or uncles.

Nedzu supposed that the question would come eventually. He couldn't hide the world away from Izuku no matter how much of the hidden twisted ness he didn't want expose to him yet

He especially couldn't hide any holidays like Mother's Day from him.

Izuku had celebrated father's day with a drawn picture that Nedzu had framed on the wall after hanging it up on the fridge for a week.

"Do... Do I have a mom?" Izuku asked.

Nedzu hummed in response. He turned his head to face his son and decided to tell the truth honestly, "Yes, you did."

"Where is she?"

Nedzu paused, wondering how to phrase it to his young son. "Your mother has passed on. You were just a small baby when it happened."

"Oh. Okay," Izuku said in return. His expression fell just slightly down like he was disappointed. He paused, "Did you have a mom?"

Now that is a question he did not expect.

Nedzu thought back to the laboratory that held him and many other small animals to do experiments on. He could barely remember the white fur of his mother. He truly had to wonder if she had escaped when he did or suffered when the whole building came down from his own paws.

"Hmm. Well, yes," Nedzu answered to his son who was still looking up curiously at him. "I wouldn't be here if I didn't have one. But I don't remember much of her since I got separated from her early in my life. I don't know whether she has passed on or not."

Izuku walked closer to him and rested his head on Nedzu's chest. "Are you sad?"

"No. I wouldn't say that I am," Nedzu replied. He hadn't really thought about trivial things like his mother or what might have been his family. "I have you as my family, so I'm not sad at all."

"Me either," Izuku smiled at his father honestly, hugging him close. Nedzu's arms circled around him to hold him.

Nedzu didn't think that replying that he never had a birthday party would result in this.

Okay, he was lying. There was a possibility that this would happen since this is how Izuku is. He had to pretend that he didn't see his son whispering to his honorary extended family or his friends about what he was planning.

But it was very enjoyable to test how well his son was able to lie

"Why do you have streamers?"

"UM," Izuku's voice pitched up. "For a school project."

"I don't remember assigning you a project."

"Uh. Not my project. Ten-Chan."

"Ah, what kind of project do you need streamers for?"

"...paper mache."

He will need to teach him how to lie better while he grows up. Specifically on mastering his body language and his eye contact.

When it was finally time, it was quite obvious from how wide Izuku's smile was as he started to come up with excuses to get him out of his office. He followed after him as they entered an empty classroom only to be met with a sudden cheer of congratulations.

Inside the room was a small gathering of people which were just the people in Izuku's extended family. Aizawa, Yamada, Kayama, Iida, and the Fukuyama family with both of Izuku's friends.

And when he was given a small horde of gifts, he kept a smile on his face. His grin grew with Izuku cheerfully laughing in the air around him.

He didn't know what he would be like without his son, he could only imagine it would be empty and devoid of interactions like these. Either way, he was glad he got to experience these moments with his son.

(Bonus)

"Have you seen Izuku?" Hizashi asked, walking towards his friends with a concerned look written across his face with his sunglasses covering his eyes. "I checked the room, but he is gone."

"Are Iida and Shoto still there?" Aizawa asked.

"No," Hizashi hummed. "They might be with Izuku,"

Iida responded, "Well, let's try and find them before..."

"YAY!"

They all turned their heads to see three children on a piece of scrap plastic that they must have taken from the support class. Shoto was shooting ice in front of them while Iida was running behind the metal, pushing them all forward. The friends watched as the toddlers rushed towards them like they were in a racing tournament against no one else in the hallway.

Thank goodness, the hallway had sparse groups of students that weren't standing in the middle of their way. So all the students in the hallway watched in surprise as three kids raced past them.

"Weeee!" Izuku shouted as the small trio passed by them, sledding down the hallway.

Iida watched as his younger brother passed by him. He watched as his younger brother called out over his shoulder "Sorry, big brother!"

Iida chuckled as the three of them disappeared down the hall. They will run into a teacher eventually. Iida glanced over to his classmates, "How much do you want to bet that Nedzu will have printed photos of this in an hour?"

Kayama shook her head, "Any bet dealing with Nedzu or Izuku is already a loss."

"Ah, can't wait until they grow up into the next trouble-making trio," Hizashi commented with a happy sigh. "They'll cause so much chaos. And I'm going to be so proud."

Aizawa sighed, "I'll go catch up to them before they run into a wall."

Not even half a second later, they all heard a thump further down the long stretched hallway. Aizawa's eyes widened before taking off towards the sound while the other students around looked at each other like they were unsure on whether they could help or not.

"Oh, too late," Hizashi replied while Iida winced at the sound. They all took over jogging down the hall after Aizawa to get to the kids.

When they got the three back to Nedzu's office, the principal was there with the security footage on his computer being copied onto a flash drive.