Shouta returned to the park.

He returned to the park the next day, jittery with the phantom hugs of friends who knew more had happened than he was admitting and were struggling to let that be. He returned the day after and the one after that as well.

He didn't sit on the edges anymore.

Izuku and Tenko had taken their mother's approach as open season and the next time Shouta didn't even get five minutes of alone time before being besieged by a smiling green babble monster. It was adorable and also very frightening. The kid was smart, even so young, and the analysis that baby Izuku casually spouted was actually quite accurate. Shouta had blinked and then told baby Izuku exactly that because Shouta was pretty sure the kid didn't get enough positive encouragement.

This thought was confirmed by Izuku's blushing face and sudden stammering departure to go investigate something by the picnic tables.

Tenko huffed but tugged lightly with gloved fingers on Shouta's sleeve. "Thanks," Tenko muttered before chasing after his brother.

Shouta followed a couple minutes later because really, if they were going to be jumping off picnic tables as part of their game, then they should be using much better form.

Inko laughed at him the entire way, which was nothing compared to her laughter a week later when one Bakugou Katsuki was added to the group.

It actually wasn't that hard. Bakugou and Tenko had been having a screaming match (apparently a regular habit) by the bushes just out of easy earshot of their parents, Izuku fretting beside them. Shouta had shown Bakugou his hero license, blown Bakugou's mind when he said Shouta worked with many Heroes that fought quirkless, and then challenged all three kids to a modified game of capture the flag where baby Izuku and his clever little mind kicked their assess.

It wasn't enough, not really, but it was a foot in the door that Izuku and Tenko were happy to use to storm the castle of Bakugou's prejudice. Shouta made a second contribution a week later by

showing his UA teacher's ID and having a very honest conversation about what he looked for in students and how many kid's he'd expelled for any kind of bullying. And then defining bullying.

Bakugou was still an arrogant brat, but Shouta rather thought he wouldn't be a bully, this time around. Not with Tenko's sharp eyes and twitching fingers hovering over Izuku's shoulders as a constant challenge that someone could protect Izuku better and more respectfully than Bakugou. The complete and utter restructuring of their school and the appearance of new teachers that had been vetted by Nezu wouldn't hurt, either.

The next big change happened on a weekend about a month after Inko had sat next to him and refused to be moved from his life. His day was supposed to be simple: lunch with Hizashi and Nemuri followed by a pre-arranged park visit. Both Inko and Bakugou Mitsuki kept insisting on texting him to make said arrangements.

Bakugou Mitsuki had taken to befriending him with a fierceness that made sense for her personality but baffled Shouta in terms of the stranger with no kids hanging around a park. He supposed Inko probably intimated something about the 'lost his child thing,' or maybe the 'got your child to smarten up thing', or even the 'my family has forcibly adopted this sad man no explanations given thing.'

Shouta also hadn't given any explantations to Hizashi and Nemuri. They normally did lunch at least once a week but had missed out so far due to a couple of heavy cases (one more All for One base was dust and ash) on top of exam season. Shouta wasn't going to miss the meal, not with their touches still so grounding, not when he remembered a time when there had been no more meals at all.

He'd been checking his phone a lot, though. The two women had told their kids he was coming and Shouta wasn't about to disappoint them by being late. Nemuri's cool hand and apple-painted nails rested on his when he'd checked it for the third time in ten minutes after they'd finished eating.

"You can go, Shou."

Shouta looked up to see her smile, the soft one she only used on him, Zashi, and kids she met while heroing.

"You don't need to tell us, hon. Not yet. Wherever you've been going after school and on weekends has clearly been helping. You're settling like you haven't since before your mission with All Might."

Shouta winced because he really hadn't told them a lot about that mission, which they respected because they were professionals but hated because he kept waking up in their apartments with silent screams in his throat. Hizashi made a sound at the wince and laid his hand on theirs.

"Hey, none of that now. We get it, we do. Whatever you need, Shou. Time, secrecy, whatever you need. Just, just introduce us sometime, yeah?"

Shouta thought of Inko's kind smile and Tenko's challenging smirk. He thought of baby Bakugou and his blustering that stuttered when he was around actual heroes. He thought of baby Izuku and his complete awe and the faces he'd make at meeting Present Mic and Midnight.

"Yeah. Yeah, Zashi. I will."

He went to stand up but stopped to give Hizashi an hug because the man still looked a little a sad and Shouta didn't like it when Hizashi was sad. The angle ended up a little awkward since Shouta

was standing and Nemuri latched on immediately, but there were strong arms around Shouta and he could smell the spice and tea scents that had long been his home (there had been a time when his home was gone).

His might have even had a lingering smile when he made it to the park, though that fell when saw an agitated Inko talking on her phone. He placed a hand on her back and squashed the feeling that tried to rise up when she leaned into the motion. She ended her call and turned to him.

"I'm so sorry, but Mitsuki's assistant made a mistake and they're trying to fix it before a deadline so I said I'd take Katsuki, but that was the library on the phone. There's a flood, it's minor, but water and books and technology don't go together and, well, is it possible for you to watch the kids? Just for a few hours?"

Shouta stared. She wanted him to babysit?

"You want me to babysit?" Shouta asked, just to make sure he was following.

"If you have time. I don't mean to impose."

"I-it's fine. I don't patrol until eight tonight. I, if you trust me, I'd be happy to."

Inko's face softened from worry into fondness. "Of course we trust you. Thank you, Shouta."

She turned to three boys clustered around them. "Be good for Shouta now, alright?" After getting nods and dispersing head pats she gave final farewell and left to wrangle staff, books, and water.

Shouta looked down at the three hellions he was suddenly in charge of and their bright, sharp little eyes.

"What?"

Tenko shrugged and Izuku beamed.

Katsuki scowled. "What are we going to do, Old Man?"

Shouta sighed. This was what he got for modifying different training exercises into games. A regular trip to the park just wouldn't do anymore, apparently, at least when he actually in charge. Well, that was fine. Shouta has some plans he might as well start implementing.

"Who wants to go to a different park?"

Tenko and Katsuki were intrigued, their desire for adventure shining through their grumbling that it was still a park as Shouta shuffled them towards the train.

"Why?" Izuku asked, all sunshine to the other boy's scowls.

Shouta scooped the boy up, briefly burying his face in green curls as baby Izuku laughed in a way that Shouta's Izuku had long stopped.

"Because I know a few kids who could use a friend."

Izuku looked down at Shouta with ocean-filled eyes. "Most kids don't want to be my friend." "These ones do. These ones need a perfectly Izuku-shaped friend."

"Are you sure?" Izuku whispered, fragile hope the lattice that once held an entire society (Shouta's

entire world) together.

"Kid, I've never been so sure of anything in my life."

Shinso was the first target because he was easy. Shouta had already confirmed that Shinso was in his final foster home and pulled a few background strings to help his new parents into being able to keep him. It had taken an hour of sun in the park by said foster home, two Hero games, and Izuku's excited babbling about how cool Brainwashing was as a quirk to secure Shinso's friendship.

Tenko and Katsuki snorting at the purple haired kid and explaining that their quirks could cause way more damage, they'd make much better villains, don't be dumb, probably hadn't hurt. Shouta wasn't the slightest bit proud and no one could prove that. The ice cream he's bought them all wasn't related in the slightest.

Iida was also easy. Shouta just called Tensei and set up a play date the following week, though only after swearing the man to secrecy and allowing a photo of Shouta being buried in children who'd 'captured' the villain as future blackmail. Iida also brought with him Yaoyorozu because Yaoyorozu's mother had been talking to the Iidas at the last Hero Charity Event Thing about her worry about her daughter's socialization.

Iida and Yaoyorozu combined gave Shouta an entrance to the Todorokis, since they all ran in similar Daylight Hero circles. It took planning and coordination but Shouta had only needed one park playdate to get everything secured. Shouto had fucking imprinted on Izuku, which was hilarious even without Katsuki's flustered anger. Even better, Tenko and Toya had immediately dissolved into protective big-brother hovering and very loud arguments. Shouta was pretty sure that he'd never seen Tenko have so much fun.

Inko and Mitsuki had also latched on to Rei, befriending her with the aggressive softness that Shouta had expected. Between the two of them and his own contacts he was sure they could get the Todorokis the help they needed.

Tokoyami was added when a bully made the mistake of insulting him for his mutation quirk only to be immediately set upon by Shouta's small hellion army (Mitsuki's words that neither Inko nor Shouta had actually argued). Shoji joined a week later when Tokoyami shyly asked if they could go to yet another different park where he'd seen someone be mean to a different kid with a mutation quirk. Ashido and Kirishima were inducted through sheer force of friendliness and the excitement of hero games that Shouta designed very carefully.

Shouta was pretty sure Izuku had a map of all the parks in the area and was drafting a visitation schedule. Shouta wondered if he should show Izuku his own schedule of the different games and activities he'd created. His kids need to be able to protect themselves, regardless of whether or not they choose to be heroes this time around (and he thinks, sometimes, that he is a truly selfish man, because he would be okay if they didn't, if they never gave their lights and their blood to the world if that would keep them safe). So Shouta designed the games to match their current abilities, to push how they think and believe, to foster teamwork and trust, to have fun.

His kids deserved to have fun.

The others would come over time. Not everyone went to the park. Not everyone lived nearby

(Aoyma was in France). He'd help them, though. He'd save them.

He had time. He had blood in his teeth and ghosts in his bones and time.

Baby Izuku leaned into Shouta's side as they sat on a park bench, watching a very cut-throat game of tag that had Tenko and Toya working together to terrorize the younger children.

"You let yourself be tagged," Shouta said blandly as he sipped he coffee. The breeze was cool and soft through the trees.

Izuku hummed. "Yup." "What do you want?"

Izuku laughed before looking up at Shouta through curly hair. "You know, you're the only one who is always convinced I'm up to something."

"You have a very sneaky mind." Shouta poked Izuku in the forehead, the boy going cross-eyed trying to follow the finger. "It's good thing."

"Still. Even more than Mama. Even more than Tenko and he's usually planning with me."

Shouta snorted. The kid wasn't wrong. They went back to watching the game as Yaoyorozu dove to the ground in an excellent dodge. Shouta was patient; he well knew that Izuku would speak in his own time. Nothing ever came from pushing the kid.

"There's a lot of us now," Izuku said around his bit lip. "There are. Is that a good thing?" Shouta asked.

"It's amazing," the kid breathed. "And it's because of you." "I'm not the one making friends."

"But you're bring us together. Like, like glue. Or like a school, but better." Izuku tilted his head. "Shinso was talking about calling you Aizawa-sensei. The others really liked it, so don't freak out when they start."

Shouta flinched, which baby Izuku caught because he'd wrapped both arms around Shouta's forearm.

"Kid."

"Aizawa-sensei because you're teaching us to be Heroes."

Shouta flinched again. ""I am not. I'm teaching you to defend yourselves. You don't need to be Heroes."

"I know," Izuku said with more attitude than Shouta had ever heard from this baby Izuku. "You've given all of us that speech. But I want to be a Hero. It's all I've ever wanted, all most of us want, in one way or another. And I appreciate that you're trying to give us choices, I do, choices are something I haven't been given very often, but I'm going to be a Hero. I know you know that. You're the only one who really knows that."

Shouta dropped his head onto Izuku's. "You're going to be the greatest Hero I've ever met." He turned to watch Jirou and Ashido preform a flawless jail break. "You all are."

"Good. So don't be surprised when they call you Aizawa-sensei."

Shouta opened his mouth to respond, but paused, switching tracks as he noticed something. "They? Not you?"

Izuku tightened his grip on Shouta's arm. "We're different, Mama and Tenko and I. Shinso's your favourite-"

"I don't have favourites."

"-and Kacchan amuses you when he's not being a brat and you're worried about the Todorokis a lot, but we're different. I'm different." Izuku looked up with green-glass eyes, rivers of observation and fear and bravery. "Is it because I look like your son?"

Shouta sucked a breath into lungs filled with scars.

"Mama told us about him. That he was gone and you were sad but it's why you were so good with kids and we needed to be gentle and not try to fix your sadness except with hugs.

"But you stare at me sometimes," Izuku continued, relentless as he always was. "And you keep up with me. Handle me? Even Mama doesn't always understand where my brain goes. Tenko promised to follow but he doesn't always get where I'm going, get why. Kacchan doesn't either, or he wouldn't have been mean to me, before. I think. But you do. And you smile when I'm too much and too talkative and too energetic like it's a good thing. Like it makes you happy."

Izuku leaned away from Shouta's hand with scowl, not afraid but determined not to be interrupted.

"So I was thinking. If I look like your son and act like your son, then maybe we would have been family? Not brothers, because I have one of those and though you've been really good for Mama-"

"I'm not dating your mother." Those were not the words he wanted to say, but Shouta wasn't sure exactly what the words he wanted to say were.

Izuku looked at Shouta like he was stupid. It was a very good 'you're stupid' look. Possibly even better than the one Shouta levelled at that first year who set fire to their desk earlier in the week.

"Obviously. You're in love with Zashi." "Wha-you've never even met Hizashi!"

Izuku scoffed. Scoffed. "You talk about him a lot. And get a look on your face." He reached up and put a small hand under Shouta's eyes. "In your eyes. You get it when you look at me too. It's soft and sad and full of love."

Izuku's hand shook, lightly, where it pressed into Shouta's skin. Shouta removed it and held the hand between his own, as he'd used to when his Izuku was exhausted and broken and on the edge in the future that would never ever happen.

"A lot of people hate me," Izuku said quietly but factually. "They think I'm worthless or broken. I know the difference between that and love. I know you love me. And I love you. So. So, I want to call you Uncle. I want you to be my uncle because I'm like your son and that means we could have been cousins and you can be Mama's brother because having a brother is great and she deserves that. And you'd be family.

"I want you to be family," Izuku whispered.

Shouta let go and he saw Izuku flinch, saw him start to withdraw. He started crying when he realized Shouta only let go so he could bundle the boy onto his lap and mutter, "Okay. Okay, yes, sure. I love you, too. I do."

Shouta had never been good at denying any version of Izuku, not really, not for anything that didn't directly impact his health.

They sat like that until Izuku stopped crying, until the warmth from the small, safe, happy version of his son (his nephew) soaked into Shouta's muscles and reached that dark guilty spot inn his heart that still missed his Izuku. That loved this lovely little boy but missed the hurt yet still so kind man that he'd once become.

Inko watched them from across the park, garden-green eyes happy and somehow reminding him as she so often did that grief was okay. That things could be better even if better was different. That he might be trying to save them but they were trying to save him just as much.

Fuck, Shouta thought as Izuku eventually ran to tell his mother of his successful adoption of Shouta into the family, Hizashi was going to adore these people.

"Izuku thinks you're from the future," Tenko said from where he was leaning on the back of the bench, staring off into the trees behind Shouta. Shouta had known he was there because Tenko was always there when Izuku was crying.

"Izuku is a very bright boy," Shouta admitted, the words drawn out of him with bleeding edges. Surely he could be done with the emotional conversations and world-altering moments? Please?

"Did I hurt Izuku in the future?"

Shouta closed his eyes. "Very badly."

The words sat between them before Tenko snorted. "Not even going to try to soften the blow?"

"You don't like lies. And sure, that version of you was manipulated and very hurt yourself, but. That's not going to change how you feel, is it?"

Tenko paused again. The kid often thought about what he was going to say well before hand unless he got into an argument and his temper flared. Shouta wasn't sure if that was the therapist's influence, Inko's, or even Izuku's, but he didn't imagine this conversation would be any different.

"No," Tenko finally admitted. "It doesn't." "Don't do it this time."

Tenko finally turned to him with faint lines of incredulousness on his face. "That's it? That's your advice?"

Shouta closed his eyes. "Neither you or Izuku are ever going to be who you were. I've made damn sure of that."

Tenko for obvious reasons, but even Izuku deserved a chance to be someone completely different. Izuku deserved to live without chains wrapped around his bones, hurting and binding him at every attempt to grow. Shouta may have loved the Izuku who stood with him, back to back against the world, but he would give his beating heart to save this boy from those scars.

Tenko stared at him through long hair that Inko had let slip was left that way to match Shouta's.

"You have to take responsibility. You have to make me a good Hero."

Shouta almost wanted to snort. He would not be the first to jump on the boy if he hurt Izuku, not with the way Plan Friend was going. Shouta didn't though, because he understood the trust in the question.

"If you'll listen to me, then sure," Shouta replied. This version of Tenko had potential, after all. He had something he wanted to protect more than anythings.

Tenko turned around but let his should press into Shouta's back over the bench."Okay." He let out a deep breath, expelling fears so old they had cobwebs. "Okay, Uncle."

Shouta nodded. Things were okay. They were.

Things were not okay.

Izuku was so tired. He was tired of playing monster, tired of pretending he had energy, that he hadn't been burnt out years and futures ago.

Tired of lying to All Might.

He hadn't expected the Heros to jump on the information he managed to send so quickly, to be so ready and willing to take down a Villain so good at hiding that most didn't even know he was there. He hadn't expected All Might himself to respond to Izuku's coded communications.

Oh, there were others, but frequently it was All Might. Izuku recognized his once-mentor's quiet calm, unwavering support, brutal strength, and ruthless relentlessness. Izuku recognized the worry, the care, the kindness that crept in for the inside-man that All Might had never even met.

They were down another hideout, toppled with the finances Izuku had scavenged and testimonials underground heroes had gathered from a rather impressive trafficking takedown. Izuku almost wondered if Eraserhead was involved, even though he knew his Dadzawa would be at UA and had no reason to know about All Might just yet.

Izuku ached to research. To search and find and examine any piece of information on his dad, his mom, his friends. But he couldn't dare, not when even the slightest discovery would put a target on their backs.

He couldn't handle a target on their backs. Not when he could help them, save them.

Maybe when it was over. When All for One was gone. Maybe then he could stop telling All Might he was fine. Could even take All Might up on the surprisingly subtly offer of a job as an analyst in his agency or a new identity all together. Could check on his people. Could make help baby Izuku despite the fact that the kid would likely never get One for All.

Could ensure his Dadzawa was okay.

Izuku could do hold out for them. He could do this for them. He could.

Izuku returned to his office chair. He returned to his chair and his keyboard, jittery with the phantom hopes of friends who might never care about him but would now get a chance to be okay.