The Gunslinger Hero: Flintlock

by Professor Donger

After 8 years in America Izumi Midoriya is asked to return home to Japan to teach at UA. She won't be coming back as some quirkless little girl though. She'll be returning as The Lone Star State's Number 2 Hero. The Gunslinger Hero: Flintlock! Fem!Izumi! Izumi Has a GUN! Cowritten by Damian02 on AO3

15. Chapter 15

AN: Professor Donger: Happy Anniversary! I can't believe it's been a year since Flintlock became a thing! I hope you enjoy this extra-long chapter!

Damian: Yes the chapter isn't exactly out on the day of the anniversary, but hopefully how big it is will make up for it. Now, the drugs we took to write this are rapidly wearing off, so I'm gonna go pass out.

Enjoy!

---

Izumi growled quietly in frustration as she worked on her computer in her room. She figured being down an eye would mess with her depth perception, but it was honestly kind of jarring just how much it fucked with her. She may get used to it with time, but it was still annoying. The only semi-good thing about missing her eye was that she had an excuse to wear a badass eyepatch since she had decided to just take out the damaged eye for now instead of letting it just sit in her socket.

Well, at least she was almost done with this thing.

"Aaannnd, boom. Easy as pie." She said, but not to herself. She had to turn her whole head to the right so she could look at the robotic cat chilling on her desk. "That wasn't so hard."

Cat gave Izumi an unimpressed look as it–no wait, "she", apparently Cat had a gender now, Izumi wasn't sure when that happened but she decided to roll with it–stared at Izumi.

"Okay, fine," Izumi rolled her eye, "it was kind of a bitch to do, but worth it! And definitely worth losing a bit of sleep over."

Cat may not speak for herself outside of when she explicitly had to when announcing something, like orders, but Izumi didn't need Cat to talk to know what the AI was thinking.

"Hey, I didn't need those two hours of sleep anyways, I've been feeling weird since yesterday. More… awake." Izumi hummed as she leaned back in her chair and tapped the armrest. "Maybe I'm just feeling well-rested after that healing treatment."

Izumi shrugged as she smiled, pointing at her monitor. "Regardless, losing sleep to do this was all for a very good reason."

A groan of annoyance from behind her had Izumi spin in her chair to turn around and look at her bed. The covers shifted as a head of blonde hair poked up from beneath them, slurring out a tired, "Too loud."

Izumi's smile grew a bit wider as her "very good reason" began to wake up.

"'Morning beautiful." She called out to Melissa.

Melissa didn't move, but still responded with, "You woke me before my alarm."

"You had, like, three minutes before it went off."

"Those three minutes are important, dammit!" Melissa lifted herself up slightly and glared at Izumi. "How would you feel if I woke you up before your alarm?"

Izumi smirked. "Well, my brain would have to take a second to wake up, and then I'd say something like, 'Oh? Somebody's impatient.~'"

Melissa, though she tried, could not stop herself from snorting at her girlfriend's suggestive response. "And it's you saying things like that which makes it hard to believe you were okay with just cuddling last night."

Izumi groaned. "I wasn't, but you said 'You don't get anything else until I get that helmet footage from the USJ, even if it kills me inside to not show you my love'."

"I did not say that."

"I'm paraphrasing."

"More like putting words in my mouth."

"Oh, I can put more than words in your mouth-"

"Izumi!"

"Right, sorry. Anyways, on a related, if slightly less horny note," She moved her chair over slightly so Melissa could get a clear view of what was on her desk, "put your glasses on that gorgeous face and take a looksy at what I've been doin'."

Melissa shook her head as she complied, reaching over to the nightstand and grabbing her glasses. Once placed upon her face she was able to see more clearly, and thus saw that at Izumi's desk sat the busted-up helmet of her hero uniform, and pulled up on her monitor what Melissa could only assume was the video footage from said helmet.

Melissa sighed fondly as she got out of bed and walked over. "You just couldn't wait, could you?"

Izumi shook her head with zero shame. "Nope. I woke up early to make sure I could get this done by the time you woke up. What can I say, I didn't want to wait."

Melissa hummed as she stood next to the desk, and leaned down so she could look at the footage properly, randomly clicking to jump to random parts of the video. "Well, it looks like everything's fine here."

"Mmm, fine indeed."

"Stop staring at my butt."

"But it's right there!"

Melissa laughed at Izumi's shenanigans, standing and facing the heroine as she leaned against the desk. "You know we could have worked on this together, spent some time with each other after being apart for months."

Izumi shrugged as she looked up at Melissa and said, "Yeah, but we wouldn't have much time left over after."

Melissa furrowed her brow. "Why not? It's the weekend, all classes are canceled, Nezu told you to take it easy. And besides," Melissa's look grew hungry and she stepped over to stand over Izumi, putting her hands on the armrests of the chair and looking down at her girlfriend, "since I now have that helmet footage, we're free to do whatever. We. Want.~"

Izumi shivered as Melissa's face got closer to hers. "How long has it been? At least half a year, right?"

"Mm-hm, so that's half a year of time to make up for." Melissa was mere inches away now.

"As long as we have enough time to get ready for the dinner tonight," Izumi said off-handedly with a half-lidded eye, her head tilted to the side ready for her girlfriend.

Melissa however immediately paused before pulling back a bit, confusing Izumi for a moment before she asked, "Dinner? What dinner?"

Izumi blinked a bit before realizing what she said, internally cursing herself for ruining the moment but managing to focus on answering Melissa. "Oh, uhm… I got a text a while ago. Turns out the only one to wake up as early as me is my Aunt Mitsuki when she goes on her morning jogs. She uh… she sent this."

Izumi pulled out her phone and opened her texts, before turning it to show Melissa the conversation. It was basically Mitsuki announcing that she wanted the Midoriyas and the Bakugous to get together for dinner and that she would not take no for an answer.

Izumi smiled sheepishly. "So yeah… I gotta make sure Kacchan's parents are allowed access to UA grounds before Aunt Mitsuki tries to barge in. I don't want to have to arrest her for trespassing, especially after the USJ." She paused in thought. "Though arresting her would be pretty funny…"

Melissa read the text over again and again, before taking in a shaky breath and standing up fully. "O-Okay… dinner… party… dinner party…" Her breathing grew more shallow by the second as her eyes glazed over.

Izumi frowned, already understanding and even having seen this coming. Melissa was not a party person, or too much of a social person either outside of when she's required to interact with people, but that's usually professional and business related. This would be a more personal get-together, and Izumi knew that wouldn't help Melissa or her anxiety.

"Hey," Izumi softly said as she got up and stood in front of Melissa, reaching out and gently touching her arms before beginning to rub them in a soothing manner, "it's gonna be fine. I'll be there with you. So will Himi and JinJin, you'll be okay. You'll do great." Izumi said in an attempt to ground the blonde, continuing to talk to her to get her to steady herself.

Melissa tried to steady her breathing, and as she did that Cat got up and moved over to her owner, meowing to let Melissa know she was there. The inventor reached over and picked up the robot-feline, holding it in her arms and running her hands along the fur.

It took a few minutes, but Melissa managed to calm down as she reigned herself in. She leaned forward and rested her forehead against Izumi's shoulder. "Tha… thank you… I'm sorry."

Izumi reached up with her natural hand to stroke Melissa's hair. "You don't gotta apologize, Mel, it's not your fault. You just don't like social gatherings, I get that." She took a moment to think over her next words, before saying, "Look, if it gets too much for you, then let me know. We'll head back up here away from the others, okay?" She leaned over and kissed Melissa's head. "Worst comes to worst I can give Jin some explosives and incendiary rounds and he can cause a distraction."

Melissa nodded into her shoulder with a watery laugh. "Okay… you're the best."

Izumi hummed. "Well, I've gotta be the best to deserve someone like you."

She counted it as a victory when she noticed Melissa's face went red. "That was… incredibly cheesy."

"But you still liked it."

"I want to hate that you're right, but I can't."

Izumi was about to respond when her phone buzzed. Frowning, she instinctively tried to blink to see the message using her cyber eye's HUD when she remembered she didn't have her eye… She shrugged and looked at Cat. "Can you let me know what that is, little buddy?"

Cat nodded and her eyes flashed green for a moment. "One new message: From, PawPaw. Simulating voice." her green eyes deepened to a more sage-like color before she spoke with Izumi's father's voice "'I heard what happened from your mother! I'm on my way! I'll burn them all if I have to!'" Cat's voice went back to normal as she then asked, "Would you like to reply?"

Izumi groaned while Melissa giggled, she had always liked Hisashi. With a sigh, Izumi nodded to Cat and once her eyes started blinking red to indicate that she was recording, Izumi spoke, "Pa, you don't need to burn anyone, I already took care of it. But my eye got scrapped so… I need a new one. Sorry."

Cat sent the message after that and Melissa looked curiously at Izumi. "I always end up forgetting to ask, why don't you have a spare eye? I made you spare arms…"

Izumi groaned and scratched the back of her head. "The tech in my eye 'is top secret and complex' according to Pa," she frowned. "He just doesn't want your dad stealing it so he tends to overwork himself jamming it full of anti-theft features and other nonsense."

"...He does know I could crack any code he has in like…a week?"

Izumi shrugged, "Yea but he likes you." She grinned. "He also doesn't know that you're here…"

Melissa's eyes widened. "You don't mean…" She asked, her eyes lighting up with hope.

Izumi waved her hand toward her workbench where her helmet was. "I maaay have stuck my old eye in the helmet for you to take hom –" She was cut off by Melissa launching herself onto her at full speed, smothering Izumi's face with kisses.

"Thank you thank you thank you!"

Izumi couldn't help but laugh as she fought off Melissa's show of weaponized affection. "Down girl! Heel!" After Melissa had calmed down and snuggled into the crook of her arm Izumi continued. "It's the least I can do with how much shit you put up with. And besides, you're my support tech, if something like this happens again I can't wait for Pa to come and bring me a replacement eye after a week of tinkering with shit like anti-piracy software for it." She whined. "Who the hell puts Denuvo in an eye? Who the hell still uses Denuvo?!"

This time Melissa's face scrunched up in disgust "Denuvo? Gross…" Izumi let out a laugh as she gave Melissa a squeeze. "Either way, it'll take me a bit to crack any defenses he has for the eye before I can start fabricating prototypes, so try not to break the new one your dad is bringing you."

Izumi frowned at her girlfriend. "Do you have that little faith in me?"

"Yes," Melissa deadpanned, "you broke the Mark 2 for the third time within the past year. And let's not talk about the amount of Mark 1's you've gone through."

"I think you're confusing 'broken beyond repair' with 'in need of maintenance'." Izumi made the gesture of moving her index and middle finger as if she were swapping the places of two things. "The phrases aren't synonymous."

Melissa smirked as she flicked Izumi on the nose, getting a squeak from the gunslinger. "Big words for you, where'd you learn 'em?"

Izumi smirked as well as she played along. "Learned them from this pretty sexy-looking thesaurus."

"Oh?" Melissa wrapped her arms around Izumi's neck. "Is that so?"

Izumi hummed as she pulled Melissa close. "Yep, got a pretty sharp tongue now. Want a demonstration?"

Izumi leaned in to finally claim her reward from Melissa when Cat made a pinging noise and they both groaned.

"What now…"

"Reply: from PawPaw." Cat intoned before flashing back to the sage green associated with Hisashi "Okay Firefly. Don't worry Daddy's on the way! I'll have everything sorted out when I get there! Tell the kids and Melissa I said hello! And that I'll see them soon!"

The two young women stared at Cat for a moment before turning to look at each other.

"I thought you said your dad didn't know I was here?" Melissa said with a frown.

Izumi only had to think for a second before realizing the problem. "He said that he had talked to Mom, she probably told him. Sorry."

Melissa shook her head. "It's fine. Now…" She grabbed the back of Izumi's head and began to pull her in, "where were we?"

"Izumi!" The voice of Jin was heard on the other side of the door, accompanied by rapid knocking. "You gotta go make sure Nezu gives the guests access to the campus! They're gonna go to jail! They're too young for prison!"

Izumi held back a growl of frustration. So close! "Can't it wait?!" She called back.

"Mama called and said to do it as soon as possible, so no! Wait until the last minute then pray!"

Izumi sighed as she let her head fall onto Melissa's shoulder. "Alright, Jin! I'll go!"

"Awesome! Also, breakfast is almost done, so get Mel up and come on down while it's hot! Breakfast is best eaten when it's cold, take your time!"

Izumi lifted her head and she and Melissa smiled at each other before they both called back, "Thanks, JinJin!"

After Jin went back downstairs, the two stood in the silence of the room until Izumi spoke up. "Breakfast?"

Melissa nodded. "Breakfast. You know I can't resist your brother's cooking."

"No one can. Alright, let's go eat. And then maybe after I get back from Nezu's office," Izumi reached out and caressed Melissa's cheek, "we can have dessert.~"

Melissa couldn't suppress the shiver that ran down her body, nor hold back the smile that was on her face. "Sounds delicious."

Izumi hummed, before stepping back and pulling Melissa with her towards the door. "C'mon, let's go before Chef Ramsay yells for us again."

---

Katsuki had just come back from his run. Recovery Girl had managed to give him a good treatment of healing the day before, so he was once again able to at least go on his runs but was advised to not stress his body too much. He knew better than to test a doctor's word, so he kept his jog light.

He had finished showering when his phone went off. He growled and glanced at it as he walked toward the kitchen to get breakfast…

He had changed out of his running clothes and was wearing a simple wife beater and shorts but his damn hair still wasn't dry! Maybe he should invest in a hair dryer… He looked at his phone as he ran a towel through his still-wet hair.

Old Hag:

Hey, brat! Inky told me that Izu was back in town and teaching at your school! Why didn't you tell me you little shit!?

Katsuki scowled at the text he got from his mother before typing a reply.

You:

I didn't tell you cus it was none of your fucking business!

Old Hag:

Like hell it ain't! That girl is basically family, you should have told me you brat!

I've wanted to see her since I heard she became a hero.

Katsuki groaned, before something his mom said clicked.

You:

Wait you knew Deku was a hero this whole fucking time?! WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME?!

Old Hag:

I didn't tell you cus it was none of your fucking business!

Katsuki stared down at his phone with a blank expression. She had just used his own response against him…

You:

Whatever. You know now. So what?

Old Hag:

So, you're gonna get your ass ready for tonight. Me and your father are coming over there, and us and Inko's family are gonna have dinner at Izumi's dorm building. Apparently, she has a whole unit to herself.

Katsuki's eye twitched as his fingers flew across his screen to type an immediate response.

You:

Fuck no! I don't do parties!

Old Hag:

Well, tonight you do. You're gonna be ready. You're gonna meet us by the gate. You're going to walk us over to Izumi's dorm, and we are gonna have a good time without you bitching and moaning!

Anyone who knew both the mother and son of the Bakugou family knew that the two could and would butt heads for hours before any sort of agreement or compromise was made. And it was almost the same case here, except Katsuki paused before he sent another profanity-filled text.

It was true that he didn't like parties, but then again this one wouldn't exactly be a party, more like a small get-together to talk and catch up. And that's exactly what he wanted. He wanted answers to questions that he had ever since that first day of heroics class when his mysterious teacher removed the mask to reveal a woman who was basically a sister to him, one he hadn't seen or heard from in years.

You:

Fine

Old Hag:

Wait, "Fine?" You're actually listening?

You:

I said I'll go! Don't make a big deal of it!

Old Hag:

Never thought I'd see the day when you'd actually listen to me without complaint...

You:

Just tell me what time

After getting the time from the Old Hag and telling her again that he'd show up, he pocketed his phone. He growled as he made his way downstairs the rest of the way.

There was already a good number of his classmates milling about the common and dining area.

Oh, and Twice was in the kitchen.

…Wait.

"Oi!" He turned and pointed at the masked man, "What the fuck are you doing here?!"

Twice froze in place in the kitchen and stared at Katsuki longer than the explosive blonde thought necessary before simply saying, "Making you guys breakfast?"

Katsuki growled. "I don't need you making me shit! I can make my own food!"

Twice gasped. "How dare you call my beautiful food… shit?!"

"Why the fuck are you even here?!" Katsuki demanded to know, subconsciously popping small sparks in his hands.

Before either of the two could say anything else, a groan was heard from the table. A quick glance over and Katsuki saw that Kyouka was covering her ears.

"Dude, too early to be yelling!" She glared. "Twice just showed up and said that the OG sent him here to cook. It's no big deal."

From the couches, Ejiro spoke up, "Yeah bro, cool your jets. I mean, there's no reason to say no to Twice, plus his cooking is super good."

Twice pointed over at the redhead. "Thank you, and your muscles are super manly! Your arms are twigs!"

Ejiro gave a confused thumbs up.

Meanwhile, Katsuki crossed his arms and stared Twice down. "Tch, I could have cooked."

Denki, who was sitting on the couch, scoffed as he turned to Mina. "That's a funny joke."

"Can it spark plug!"

"No no," Kyouka waved a finger, "there's actually an argument to be made there."

"...THERE IS?!" Multiple of the gathered students screamed, causing Kyouka to once again wince.

"Ow, overreact much? But yeah, Bakugou's curry yesterday was really damn good, I'm not gonna lie." She told them. She then started twirling one of her jacks absentmindedly. "...You know, when he's not using an ungodly amount of spice."

Mina whistled, "And that's coming from Jirou of all people."

"I guess there is only one way to settle this." Twice said ominously, his back to everyone. Then, suddenly, he turned and brandished a spatula toward Katsuki.

"Katsuki Bakugou! I challenge you to a cook-off!"

Katsuki was already wearing an apron. "You had me at 'challenge', fucker. Let's do this!"

"What is happening?" Hanta tiredly asked as he came down the stairs from the male side of the dorms.

"History, my friend." Denki walked over and placed a hand on his friend's shoulder, a small tear escaping his eye. "History."

"What is going on down here?!" The question came from Tenya as he also came down the stairs. "It is far too early for such a racket, what is the cause of it?"

Mina stood up and pumped a fist in the air. "We've got a cook-off, bitches! I gotta go get the other girls!" And with that, she took off to the female side of the dorms.

Surprisingly, Tenya didn't admonish anyone for inappropriate behavior, instead, he held his chin in thought. "Hmm, a cook-off… a way to both have fun and accomplish the goal of preparing breakfast. It is…" He looked up and nodded, "Acceptable."

Rapid footsteps caused everyone to turn toward the stairs and they all flinched when Ochako and Pony came barreling into the kitchen. "We want to be judges!" Ochako shouted out, a little bit of drool coming from her mouth at the idea of free food. Pony was right beside her, rapidly nodding her head far faster than should be considered safe for the neck.

Katsuki just grunted as he waited for Tenya to come up with the dish they were going to prepare. He hated the guy's tendency to take things too seriously, but he was at least a competent planner. While he did though he noticed Momo coming down the stairs, looking bleary-eyed, like she hadn't gotten any sleep, despite going to bed immediately after finishing his bomb ass curry.

He made that curry to put himself to sleep, and it never failed, it didn't just work on him either. It worked on everyone he had made it for since he was six. Including Deku. It had the perfect mix of spices and melatonin to knock someone out immediately.

Don't fucking ask why he put melatonin in his food.

He offered some to Momo last night to see if it'd helped her sleep. Evidently, it did not work. He probably knew why she wasn't sleeping, but he wasn't going to push her right now in front of everyone, instead, it just pushed his incentive to go to this stupid family party up a few more notches. He needed to talk to Deku about a few things.

"You will be making a Japanese-style omelet with rice and soup!" Tenya declared as he pulled out a stopwatch (Why on earth did he even have one of those on him this early in the morning?) and set the time. "You have twenty minutes!" With a click of the clock and a chop of his hand, he exclaimed, "Begin!"

The Twice clone and Katsuki looked at each other before nodding, Momo's problems and his issues could wait.

He had a contest to win.

---

"Visitors?" Nezu hummed as he looked at Izumi, who was sitting on the other side of his desk.

"Yes sir," Izumi nodded, "Close family friends wanted to come and visit, they're also the family of one of the heroics students, Katsuki Bakugou."

"Ah yes, the one you seem to have a pre-existing relationship with." Nezu nodded. "You understand that we are hesitant to allow entry into UA due to the USJ attack. I was willing to let your mother in due to you being injured, and Miss Shield due to her status as your support tech, but letting the Bakugous in without good reason would be stretching the line a little."

Izumi hummed as she played with her hands. "Well, we can see it as them checking up on their son who was also severely injured during the attack."

Nezu chuckled. "That is a valid argument. Very well!"

"Wow," Izumi blinked, "I thought I'd have to do more convincing and ass-kissing than that."

The principal shrugged. "I see no reason not to, you're quickly becoming one of my favorite humans so I'll allow it. But of course, your guests' access to the campus will be restricted to just your dorm building, and you will be responsible for them."

"I understand sir, thank you." Izumi started to stand up before Nezu held up his paw.

"One more moment, Midoriya?"

Izumi paused before sitting back down, "Is there something else, sir?"

"Indeed." Nezu pulled out his emergency meeting tea that he kept ready to go in his drawer. "It concerns one of the 1-A students. Specifically Shouto Todoroki."

Izumi frowned slightly, "Is there an issue?" She took the offered cup of tea and took a sip.

"Aizawa wants to expel him." Nezu bluntly stated.

Izumi nearly choked on her tea but managed to narrowly avoid doing that. "I'm sorry, what?"

Nezu went on to explain, "Aizawa said that due to Todoroki's behavior in class and at the USJ, specifically his refusal to use the full arsenal of his quirk, he has no business being a hero who only, and these are Aizawa's words, 'half-asses his efforts'." He ended his explanation by taking a sip of tea.

Izumi sighed as she leaned back in her chair. As much as she disliked it, Aizawa had a point. The hero business was one where one is required to bring everything they have to the table, and there is no room to do things halfway. Shouto Todoroki quite literally only did things halfway, refusing to use an aspect of his quirk. But even Izumi thought that immediate expulsion was a bit much.

"I understand Aizawa's stance on this, I really do," She began to say, "and Todoroki has come to me once before and explained a bit about his refusal to use his flames, which is why I think we shouldn't expel him… yet."

"Oh?" Nezu blinked at Izumi. He had honestly expected her to outright say no to the idea of expulsion, but he was surprised to see that she was saying to hold off on it. "Please, continue."

Izumi nodded before doing so. "It's clear to me that Todoroki thinks he has a good reason not to use his fire, something most likely relating to his home life. Now while I'm not going to discount his feelings, he does need to understand that if he can't find the strength to push past whatever roadblock is holding him back, then for his safety we will have to remove him from the hero course."

Nezu's eye twinkled. "You're saying we give Young Todoroki a final chance to prove that he's strong enough, not just physically but mentally to be in the hero course?"

"That's exactly what I'm saying." Izumi smiled. "Yes, his actions, or rather inactions at the USJ were costly and unprofessional, but he's just a kid, they're all kids." She emphasized sternly. "They weren't supposed to be in a situation like that yet, to begin with, and seeing as I'm still alive to forgive him, I'm going to do so, but I will still sign off on that expulsion for his safety if I have to."

Nezu took one final sip of his tea to empty out the cup before looking at Izumi with a nod. "I suppose you'd want to talk this over with Aizawa? Ultimately it is up to him whether or not a student is expelled from the Hero course, at least in his homeroom class, but you can try and convince him not to send young Todoroki away." He hummed in thought. "Very well, meet with him early Monday morning before classes, and I'll leave the rest up to the two of you."

"Thank you, sir."

"Of course! Now, I believe you have a dinner to get ready for, I'll notify you when your guests have arrived." Nezu joyfully waved to Izumi, and she waved back as she left the office.

---

"That contest was bullshit," Katsuki grumbled as he lay down on the couch.

Momo was in a chair nearby, reading a book (as best she could with how blurry her vision was from lack of sleep), when she looked over. "You're still going on about that? That was hours ago."

"And it was still bullshit." He repeated. "How the hell do you people decide it's a tie? My food was way fucking better than Boba Fett's."

"...Who?" Momo tilted her head.

Katsuki looked up and over at her. "One of these days I'm making you watch Star Wars."

"Oh, okay." She went back to reading. "I don't see the issue, I thought your food was excellent, just like it was last night."

"Your vote still only counts as one." He sighed. "I blame Deku, all of a sudden having a brother out of nowhere. I'm asking her about that shit later at the party."

Momo looked back over at him out of curiosity. "Party? There's a party?"

Katsuki waved his hand in the air. "Small one. Family shit. My folks are coming over, assuming they're allowed in. We're just going over there to have dinner at her building."

Momo nodded and glanced over at a digital clock that was nearby. "Uh-huh, and when was this party?"

Katsuki opened his mouth to respond as he glanced over at the same clock, but froze when he saw the time.

"Oh… I'm late… SHIT! I'M LATE!"

Momo was honestly startled by how fast he got up and sprinted to the stairs to go to his room. "Okay, I guess he's gone." She said to herself.

As Katsuki ran up the stairs, Denki came down. "Whoa, what's got Bakugou all panicked?' He asked Momo since she was kind of the only one in the common room who would know.

"He's late to a party." She told him with a small yawn, which earned a surprised look from Denki.

"A party? Why wasn't I invited?!" He asked.

Momo went back to reading her book. "It's a private event between families. Apparently, Bakugou's parents are coming to have dinner with Flintlock-Sensei's family."

"Damn, now I'm curious to know what the rest of Flintlock's family is like." Denki scratched the back of his head. "Wonder if that's why Bakugou is so panicked. Doesn't want to piss off a family of gunslingers or something."

"More like I don't want to deal with Deku getting on to me for being late." Katsuki came back looking more cleaned up. His clothing was still casual, but now it looked like he actually kind of cared about what he was wearing.

"That was quick," Momo commented.

"As I said, I'm on a timer." He went over to the door to put on his shoes.

"Don't suppose you can bring a plus one, could you?" Denki asked hopefully. "I bet Twice cooked the food. Would kill for some more of that."

"You know what, Dunce Face? Was considering it, but now my answer is a definite 'no'."

"Damnit!"

"Besides," Katsuki looked over at them, "You wouldn't be my plus one if I had to bring one."

Denki winced. "Ouch, you could have just said no and left it at that. Don't gotta twist the knife." He sighed. "So who would be your plus one?"

Katsuki growled, "None of your damn business. Anyways, I'm out."

He paused just before walking out the door, then turned back and looked at Momo. "Oi, Yaoyorozu, get some fucking sleep. I see those damn eye bags from here." And with that, he left.

"Huh?" Denki turned his gaze to Momo and finally noticed the dark circles under her eyes. "Whoa, hey are you okay?"

Momo abruptly shut her book and stood up. "I'm going to my room now." She said before stiffly walking away.

Denki just stood there in the common room, alone.

"...Why did I come down here again?"

---

"Okay, hold on a second," Himiko scratched her head as the cutscene played out on the TV, "so they're a private military that was hired to… kill the Prime Minister? Just to start a war?"

Izumi, who was sitting beside her on the couch, shrugged. The two sisters had decided to pass the time until the party by playing games, with Melissa watching as well from a nearby chair, Cat resting in her lap. Right now Izumi had decided to introduce Himiko to the game they were currently playing. "Yeah, pretty much."

Himiko shook her head as the enemy cyborg grabbed the Prime Minister and sent a giant robot to kill Himiko's character. "Politics are weird."

"Which is why I try to stay out of them." Izumi sipped her soda as Himiko started to fight in-game. "Oh, watch out for the-"

"Giant laser!" Himiko yelled as she narrowly dodged. "Because the ungodly amount of bullets and rockets this thing is firing wasn't enough! Is this the final boss or something?"

Izumi raised an eyebrow. "What makes you say that?"

Himiko gave a small shrug as she kept playing. "Well, the final boss is usually something big, and I'd say a giant murder robot shooting hundreds of bullets, rockets, and lasers at you seems final boss worthy."

Izumi hummed and nodded to Himiko's assessment. "And you'd be right, usually. Nah, little sis, this is the tutorial boss."

"If this is the tutorial boss, then what's the final boss?!"

"A senator." Melissa answered.

"..."

"From Texas." Izumi elaborated.

"...You know what, that makes sense." Himiko nodded.

"You should get her into Dark Souls." Melissa suggested as she absentmindedly scratched behind Cat's ears.

"I got her into Bloodborne. She loved it, I don't think I need to elaborate more." Izumi said with a shrug.

Himiko groaned. "Great, now I'm thirsty. Thanks, Sis." She reached over to the "juice" box she had on the coffee table but realized upon picking it up that it was empty. "Fantastic."

"I'll grab you another one." Izumi stood up and ruffled Himiko's hair. "Sit tight."

"Hurry," Melissa told her, "before Himi beats Ray."

"Shit, you're right," Izumi quickly started heading for the kitchen, "I don't want to miss that!"

"You guys know I could just pause it, right?"

"What the hell is a pause button?" Izumi joked as she walked off.

Entering the kitchen she found her mom and Jin hard at work preparing the food for the dinner party. Rushing to make sure everything was perfect. She started walking toward the fridge before she immediately dodged to the left and caught a ladle with her prosthetic, she looked at Jin who had thrown it with a raised eyebrow.

"Stay the hell out of my kitchen! The last time you cooked you gave us food poisoning!"

"It's not my fault you can't handle spicy food!" She frowned and looked at her mom. "Speaking of which, make sure you make a batch extra spicy. You know Uncle Han, Aunt Mitsuki, and Kacchan will literally throw a bitch fit if they don't have anything spicy to shove down their throats."

Inko chuckled "I don't understand how you or Han enjoy these spicy foods so much, but don't worry I've got Jin making some spicy foods he knows from America and Mexico. I know my baby brother and you will enjoy it and Mitsuki and little Katsuki are in for a treat!"

Izumi chuckled as she started digging through the fridge for the "juice" box, "Katsuki isn't so little anymore Ma, he's taller than you and he's as tall as I am!"

"Really?" Inko looked confused. "Huh, I suppose it has been a while since I've seen him."

Izumi frowned as she let out a sharp whistle, calling for Cat who immediately trotted into the kitchen and took the "juice" box from her. "You need to get out more Ma."

Inko sighed, "I would sweetie, but what would I even do? And who would I do it with?"

"Well, I could-"

"No, Izumi. You have enough on your plate with your teaching job and hero work. I don't want to make you juggle looking after your mother too." Inko shrugged. "It's alright, I enjoy sitting at home. It's peaceful, quiet… so quiet that all I have to keep me company are my thoughts about how my baby girl is constantly putting her life at risk on a daily basis and could potentially never come home."

"..." Izumi and Jin both stared at their mother with faces ranging somewhere between shocked and concerned.

Inko meanwhile was staring ahead of her, before she blinked and smiled at Izumi. "So yeah, I'm totally fine."

"Mom, I love you, but you need a distraction from…" Izumi paused in her sentence, before waving her hand vaguely towards her mother, "...this."

"From myself?"

"From worrying yourself to an early grave!" Izumi walked over and gave her mom a one-armed hug, causing her to squeak. Surprised but not unpleasantly so. She then pointed at Jin. "Jin!"

Jin didn't even look up from stirring his salsa as he made a clone, who saluted Izumi like a proper soldier.

"Me!"

"Do you still have Pa's credit card information?"

"Which one? Platinum, Discover, or Express?"

"Good answer!" She gave her brother a thumbs up, ignoring Inko's mortified shout of "IZUMI!" with a grin.

She let go of her mother and continued "Tomorrow, I want you to take Ma out on the town for something nice! Take Himi and Melissa with you."

"Your father is literally going to be here by tomorrow! Why do you even have his credit cards?!" Inko questioned with growing concern

Izumi never answered her question as she looked at Inko and then back at Jin with a frown. "Wait he is? Shit…" She and Jin put their hands to their chins in thought before Izumi snapped her fingers "Jin! Book them a love hotel!"

"Izumi!"

"What?! You need to de-stress!"

"This is not an appropriate conversation to be having with your mother!"

"You're not denying what I said!"

"Because you're right- wait, why did I admit that?!"

"Because I'm right! No look five!" Izumi and Secondary-Jin high-fived while Jin-Prime let out a whoop in victory from his position decorating the nachos. "No takebacks! Okay, I'm gonna go watch my sister suplex a giant robot byeeeee!" Izumi quickly said before running off.

"Izumi Midoriya you get back here this instant!"

"Can't hear you!~" Izumi yelled back before she yelled, "RULES OF NATURE!"

Soon after they heard Himiko yelling out in excitement, "WHAT THE HELL IS THIS GAME?!"

Inko put her head in her hands in exacerbation, Secondary-Jin patted her on the back in a comforting gesture before she started giggling, surprising both Jins. They both grew alarmed when she started to cry a little, though they quickly noticed that the tears were happy tears, tinged with a little sadness yes, but happy tears nonetheless.

"My little girl has grown up so much…"

Before Jin could even think of a response they heard the dorm's door chime sound, which signaled that the first guest had arrived.

"Howdy, Y'all!"They heard Han say from the front porch.

"Oh, Han is here!" Inko quickly wiped away her tears and was about to go greet her brother when she turned to the Jins. "Do you guys need me to help?"

Jin-Prime waved her away, already back to preparing food while Secondary-Jin gave her a thumbs up. "Go on Ma, we're in the zone! No stay, it's lonely."

Inko smiled, a smile so much like Izumi's that it physically hurt to look at, and quickly gave the two Jin's hugs. "You are the best son a mother could ask for." She said before running out of the kitchen and to the front door.

Upon opening it and spotting her target she tackled her brother to the ground. "HAN!"

Han grunted as his back hit the ground, but quickly recovered as he laughed and hugged his sister back. "Hey there, Inko. Why are you so excited, we just saw each other yesterday?"

"I'm just a mess of emotions right now," Inko said with a sniffle.

"Sounds like a normal Saturday then, from what Han tells me." Inko looked up when she heard the voice of a woman.

Standing above them, looking down with not-so-hidden amusement was her sister-in-law. Her hair, a mess of blue hair with pink highlights, was put up into a ponytail that was so long it reached the small of her back.

"Uncle Han! Aunty Kaina!" Izumi rushed in out of nowhere to tackle Kaina (since Inko had dibs on Han at the moment), but before she could provide similar treatment to her aunt, the older woman grabbed Izumi and threw her to the ground before pinning her with an arm-bar.

"Arm bars everywhere…" She looked at Han who was still busy patting Inko on the back "Did I do that right?" At her husband's thumbs up she nodded and looked back down at her niece with a deadpan expression. "I don't do hugs."

"That's a goddamn lie!" Izumi grunted. "You love hugs!

"You have no proof."

Inko meanwhile had finally decided to get off of Han and stand up. She walked over to Kaina, who noticed and let go of Izumi to stand as well.

"Hello Kaina, I hope you've been keeping Han in line," Inko said as she went in for a hug.

Kaina happily hugged her back.

"Hey how come she gets a hug and I don't?!" Izumi pouted from her spot on the floor where she was still laying.

"Big Sister privileges you wouldn't understand." Kaina deadpanned once more before turning her attention to Inko. "If you mean getting my guts rearranged every other day then yes, I have been." She bluntly stated.

"Kaina!" Han and Inko yelled in exacerbation.

Izumi exaggerated a gag.

"Oh please," Kaina looked down at her, "As if you wouldn't be doing the same with your girl if you could."

Izumi actually blushed. "Well, I mean…"

"Okay, that's enough! I'm stopping this conversation right now!" Inko sternly said. "My thirteen-year-old daughter is inside and doesn't need to hear this talk!"

"Don't mind mama she's just thirst –" Izumi flinched when Inko turned and glared at her. "...I'll be good."

Kaina let out a chuckle as she and Han walked inside the building. She walked over to Himiko who was still playing her game and gave her a quick hug from behind. "Hello Himiko, I hope you've been giving Izumi hell."

"What is it? 'Bully Izumi Day' today!?"

"Yes." Kaina then began to make her way to the kitchen. "Now if you'll excuse me, I'm gonna go give Jin a hug."

"Mom! I'm being bullied!" Izumi whined.

"Karma's a bitch, ain't it, Deku?" Izumi turned her head and saw the shit-eating grin of one Katsuki Bakugou as he walked up the pathway. "Also, why are you on the ground?"

"...I choose to be here," Izumi answered with a pout, crossing her arms.

"No, she didn't!" Kaina called out from inside. "I put her there!"

Katsuki laughed at her, his grin widening. "Serves you right."

Izumi rolled her eye. "Yeah, yeah, whatever."

Inko chose that moment to butt in. "Hello, Katsuki." She gave him a hug as he approached.

"Hey, Aunty."

Inko pulled back and frowned. "Where are your parents?"

"KATSUKI YOU BRAT! YOU THINK YOU CAN TAKE OFF WITHOUT US?!"

"Mitsuki calm down!"

Inko winced. "Oh, there they are."

Katsuki groaned, "You conjured them."

Power walking towards them was what could be considered the spitting image of Katsuki if only he were female. "When I told you to take us to Izumi's place, I didn't mean to give us a map and then piss off!" She yelled while waving said map in the air.

Katsuki growled back. "You should have specified, you hag!"

"Well," Izumi said from her spot on the floor, "nice to see their family dynamic hasn't changed one bit. Hi, Aunt Mitsuki!"

As if a switch had been flipped Mitsuki went from angry to sweet so fast, it was jarring. "Oh, Izumi! Holy shit look at how you've grown! And… why are you on the ground?"

Before she could open her mouth, Kaina's voice once more called out from inside. "She got put there by me! It was very easy to do!"

"I'm more wondering why she is still on the ground," Inko said.

Izumi answered her with a frown, "Because I have no reason to get up."

"Well, you do now!" Mitsuki opened her arms. "Get over here!"

Izumi flipped onto her feet and stood up before running into Mitsuki's arms. "Glad somebody wants to hug me!" She yelled loud and clear for a certain sniper to hear.

"Fuck you kid!" Kaina shouted from the kitchen.

"Oh, good, things didn't turn into a bloodbath." Everyone looked down the path and saw Masaru walking down as well. "I was worried for a moment."

"Uncle Masaru!" Izumi ran over and hugged him as well.

"Oh my!" He laughed as he hugged back. "Little Izumi isn't so little anymore."

"I know, right?! I mean," Mitsuki waved her hands towards Izumi's whole body, "Look at her! When did you get so gorgeous?"

Izumi raised an eyebrow at that. "Are you saying I wasn't before?"

"Oh, honey," Mitsuki shook her head, "you were fourteen last time I saw you. You were pretty, but now…"

"You've come into your beauty very well, Izumi." Masaru finished for his wife, though he raised an eyebrow when he noticed her prosthetic and the eyepatch. "But I see that you're missing a few things."

Mitsuki actually looked appalled at Masaru for his joke, while Inko just sighed through her nose.

Izumi however took it in stride. "I gotta hand it to you Uncle, you really have an eye for detail."

"Is Big Sis making bad puns again!" Himiko yelled from inside. "Tell her to stop!"

"But you love my puns! Admit it, I'm armed with some pretty sweet jokes!"

"Mom! Ground her!"

Inko yelled back in. "I can't, sweetie, she's an adult!"

"That's bull!"

Izumi however grinned. "Victory!"

Mitsuki looked confused. "Uhm, who was that?"

"My little sister, Himiko," Izumi answered.

Mitsuki stared at Izumi for a few seconds, not blinking. Then suddenly she was in front of Inko and holding her by the shoulders. "Since. Fucking. When? And why didn't you tell me?!"

Inko for her part looked startled. "I-It never came up! I'm sorry!"

"Inky, I thought we were basically sisters! Why wouldn't you tell me you adopted?!" Mitsuki was dramatically playing up how hurt she was.

"I didn't know I adopted either!" Inko yelled in panic. "It all just happened one day! It was Izumi's fault!"

"Oh come on!" Izumi threw her arms up in the air. "Why is everyone picking on me?!" She crossed her arms across her chest. "And how do you know it was me?! It could have been Dad!"

Meanwhile, Katsuki was laughing his ass off.

"Yes, your father saved Himiko and Jin from human traffickers when he was just nineteen." Inko deadpanned. "He then tried to sneak them into his house, past his own father and border patrol."

"...That's exactly what happened, yes." Izumi nodded along.

Inko was about to sass her daughter some more when she noticed that it got eerily quiet. Looking around, she saw the Bakugou family looking at them with shock and concern.

"What?" Inko asked.

"Oh," Mitsuki recovered slightly from her shock, "You just, you know, casually mentioned human trafficking like it was nothing."

"Yeah, shit got dark real quick." Katsuki chimed in.

"Speaking of dark," Masaru glanced up at the darkening sky, "We should probably go in."

"Good idea." Inko nodded. "We can, uhm, talk more inside."

As they walked inside, they saw Himiko and Melissa sitting on the couches still playing.

"Himiko, come say hi." Inko called.

"One second!" Himiko didn't stop playing. "Sam is kicking my ass!"

"Yeah, he does that." Izumi chuckled. "At least he does it to a kickass soundtrack."

"Oh shit, is that MGR?" Katsuki asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Damn skippy!"

Mitsuki waved happily at Han who waved back before going back to trying to help Himiko with the game she was playing. She looked around the room and quickly noticed the blonde-haired beauty absentmindedly petting a robot cat while watching the television. She couldn't help but ask. "Hey Inky, who's the blonde? Another stray Izumi brought home?"

The blonde in question immediately squeaked upon being addressed, her body tensing enough to cause the robot cat in her arms to scowl at her for squeezing it too hard.

Katsuki too seemed to notice. "Oh no, don't tell me Deku has another sister!"

Izumi snorted. "No, Kacchan, she's not another sibling… though," Izumi mumbled, "if she were into that kind of thing-"

"Izumi," Melissa immediately said, face red, "shut up!"

"What?"

"Ignore my daughter, she hit her head two days ago." Inko muttered, "This is Melissa Shield, Izu's friend." She emphasized the friend with a grin causing Izumi to scowl at her.

She was about to say something when Himiko muttered something loud enough to cause problems.

"Yeah, her girlfriend…"

Melissa again squeaked but stood (or, well, sat) firm while Izumi blushed up a storm. "HIMIKO!"

"You two agreed to keep it a secret amongst yourselves, I didn't! I have annoying little sister privileges!" Himiko stood up and began running. "You'll never catch me alive!"

"You don't just force your sister out of the closet!"

"You weren't in the closet! You were openly flirting with her! You sprinted full bore out of the closet!"

"Get back here and let me break your legs!"

"You can't do that! I have immunity!"

"Then I'll take away your butterfly knife!"

"No! Don't you dare take her away from me!"

"Wait, she has what?!" Inko interjected, causing the two sisters to stop and stare wide-eyed.

"Uhh." Both of them stared at her blankly for a moment before Mitsuki stepped in.

"Woah, woah back up!" She pointed at Izumi. "So you're gay?"

"...yes?"

"Into chicks?"

"Yes?"

"Okay cool." She turned to Masaru with a massive grin on her face. "I fucking told you! Pay up!"

Masaru sighed and handed his wife a card out of his wallet. "Why couldn't you have been bisexual Izu…" he moaned into his hands.

"What the hell are you two even doing?" Katsuki asked with a frown. He really didn't care who Deku was fucking, but his parents were being… extra weird about it.

"We made a bet when she was like thirteen about whether she'd be gay or bi."

"I could have been straight!" Izumi claimed as she crossed her arms.

Everyone in the room looked at her with a raised eyebrow and she looked away pouting.

"Anyway, whoever won the bet got a free 'I'll do anything you want me to for a day' card." Mitsuki waved her prize in the air with a grin. "We have a different bet going on for Katsuki."

"You fucking what!?"

"Oh don't worry this one's not about your sexuality, it's about how many girls you're gonna pick up in school. I said one, and your dad said somewhere in the range of two or three."

Masaru walked up to Katsuki and put his hands on his son's shoulders, his glasses glinting in the light, he looked more serious than Katsuki had ever remembered him being. "You know what you must do my boy, do not fail me as Izumi has!"

"Fuck you." Both Katsuki and Izumi said at the same time, though Izumi wasn't as aggressive about it.

It was then that Jin decided to pop out of the Kitchen. "Did somebody say arson?"

"Literally no one said that," Izumi told him.

"Oh…" Jin pouted though only Izumi and Himiko could really tell through the mask. "Well, soups on! Aunty Kaina's helping me set up the table so come on! There's plenty! If you don't hurry she'll eat it all."

Kaina came out of the kitchen with a tray in hand, she had an apron and chef hat on. She looked over and noticed Han's gaze lingering on her. "...I'm keeping these." She deadpanned to Jin, who gave her a thumbs up to say "Okay".

Everyone was about to go to the dining table to get ready to eat when the doorbell rang again, confusing everyone.

Izumi quickly looked around. Everyone who was supposed to be there was already present, so who…

"I'll get it," Inko said as she went over to the door. She figured it must be one of the other UA faculty members or something. She would open the door and kindly explain that they were having an important family gathering and ask them to come by for Izumi some other time.

"I'm sorry," she began as she started opening the door, "but we're currently…"

Her words died on her lips at who she saw standing outside.

She was greeted by a man with fluffy hair and freckles on his cheeks, just like her daughter had.

Or rather, their daughter.

"Hi… Hisashi?" Inko already felt tears threatening to fall from her eyes.

"Hey Inko," Hisashi Midoriya smiled at his wife. "I'm home."

"But you said…"

"Tomorrow, yeah." He sheepishly scratched the back of his head. "I may have rushed to be here soon-"

He was cut off by Inko jumping at him, and he barely reacted fast enough to catch her in his arms.

"I've missed you! Video calls aren't enough…"

"I know, honey." He held Inko close, already knowing that's exactly what she wanted from him. "I know."

Their intimate moment was interrupted by three individuals immediately tackling them to the ground and shouting "PA!"

Inko and Hisashi laughed as they were dog piled by their kids, and for the first time in years, the Midoriya family was whole.

---

"Mmm, Jin, once again you make a delicious meal." Hisashi sighed. "I honestly miss your cooking, son."

"It was nothing…" Jin shuffled nervously. "Yes, worship me."

As everyone laughed at Jin's antics, Izumi felt her hand get squeezed and looked over to notice that Melissa was trying (and failing) to not have a panic attack in front of literally everyone.

So like the good girlfriend Izumi was, she took the initiative. "Hey, Pa, did you bring that new eye you promised me?" She asked. Step one, get Melissa to focus on tech, she loved tech, tech was safe, and tech couldn't hurt you.

Hisashi brightened. "Oh, yea!" He started looking around his suit pockets. "Where did I – ah here we are!" He pulled out a small box and handed it to her, "Top of the line and fresh off production! I still couldn't fit the laser projector in it so you're still stuck with your primitive monkey rock-throwing machines."

"They're called guns." Melissa, Kaina, Izumi, and Han all deadpanned. Causing everyone to chuckle.

"That's what I said."

Izumi shook her head as she took the box. "Thanks, Pa." She then looked over at Melissa and nudged her shoulder. "Hey, would you mind helping me put this in? I don't think Recovery Girl would appreciate me messing myself up again so soon."

Himiko raised an eyebrow. "Since when do you need hel –" She yelped when Inko pinched her on the leg and shushed her with a look.

Melissa gave Izumi a relieved, if not a little weak, smile and nodded. "Okay, I need to run some diagnostics on it and sync it with everything anyway…" She shuffled nervously. "It controls the functions of your suit after all."

Izumi grinned. "Sweet! We'll be back in ten guys."

As the two women left toward Izumi's armory they expected Himiko or Jin to say something smart, they were surprised however when Katsuki spoke, and started asking Hisashi about the eye and what all he added to it.

Thus starting Hisashi on what would probably be a thirty-minute explanation of his latest invention.

"Okay, so Kacchan just bought us thirty minutes to an hour," Izumi commented as the two, plus Cat who had joined them, walked down the stairs.

"Wh – why would he do that?" Melissa asked shakily.

"Bro-code."

"You're a woman Izu…"

"The Bro-code cares not for your mortal concept of gender."

The two made it to the armory and Melissa immediately plopped down into the chair at Izumi's workbench with a sigh, which was a good sign honestly, it was a sign that she was at least finally coming down from her anxiety attack before it even truly began, which meant Izumi had run interference quickly enough.

Izumi handed Melissa the box and pulled up a chair, letting her girl get to work. She didn't say anything, she knew when Melissa got like this that saying anything would just drive her further into her own head. Mel was like Jin, like Hisashi, like Himiko, she did most of her talking while she worked.

Jin talked about his issues while he cooked or while he tinkered with the appliances around the house, and it would be one of the only times he wouldn't argue with himself like usual. Himiko hated confiding in people, she did it with Izumi because she was her big sister, but she usually preferred to do work on something while talking, it calmed her down and it was something she got from their father. Hisashi was self-explanatory, she remembered her mother explaining that if you ever wanted to get Hisashi to talk about his problems, you just needed to give him a coffee, a wrench, and something to fix and he'd spill his guts to you.

Melissa was the same, and so Izumi let her girl run every diagnostic she could think of. She watched as Melissa and Cat plugged the new eye into her console and got it set up with the armory, connected it to her currently offline suit, and finally connected it with the firmware in her arms. All the while Izumi knew Melissa was getting her thoughts together, grounding herself in her work, and Izumi just watched.

She loved watching Melissa work. She loved the small smile that was always on the blonde's face when she was in her element. She loved how relaxed Melissa looked when doing something that would have most other people stressed or frustrated.

"Why are you staring at me like that?" Melissa asked, but couldn't fight the smile that came to her face.

"Oh, I'm just thinking about how amazing you are," Izumi said truthfully.

Melissa blushed but continued her work. "...You're not so bad yourself, cowgirl."

"That's not fair." Izumi giggled. "You know I love it when you call me that."

"Why do you think I said it?" She motioned for Izumi to pull her chair up to her, which Izumi did without complaint. Melissa pulled the eyepatch off and lifted the new eye over her girl's empty socket. Immediately the machinery in the eye synched with the Neural Implant and socket implanted inside Izumi's brain and synaptic nerve, and a silvery wire shot out into the socket. Connecting to the dock in her socket with a click. It then slowly reeled in the eye before it was resting firmly inside the socket and looked like any other eye.

Izumi rapidly blinked, letting the eye adjust to everything before she grinned. She was about to make a smart assed remark when Melissa pulled her into a hug.

"Thank you." Melissa mumbled into Izumi's neck. She wasn't crying thankfully but it felt like she was close to.

Izumi softly hugged Melissa back and kissed her hair. "No problem babe. You looked like you needed a breather."

Melissa pulled back and nodded, wiping away a few tears from under her glasses. "I really don't care that much about Himiko… outing us, but it's just…" she shuddered, "There were a lot of people…"

Izumi flicked her prosthetic arm and an airsoft gun appeared in her hand. "I can kill her if you want?"

Melissa giggled at that and shook her head. "You aren't killing my apprentice."

Izumi pouted but dismissed the gun. "Not even a little?"

Melissa flicked Izumi on the nose. "No." She stood up from her chair and looked at her girlfriend for a moment. "Is everything okay with the eye? We know the armory is synced up but there's no visual tearing? No spots?"

Izumi grinned and gave Melissa a thumbs-up. "Nope, we're good to go." She stood with a stretch and frowned. "You know I'll listen if you need to talk? Right?"

Melissa just took Izumi's flesh and blood hand in her own and smiled. "Yea, I was just… spiraling a little, working helped." She turned and was about to start pulling Izumi upstairs before she paused and seemed to think about something.

Taking a deep breath, Melissa instead turned back around and quickly grabbed the back of Izumi's head and pulled her into a deep kiss.

Izumi's eyes widened in surprise for a moment, not having expected the bold action, before she relaxed and let herself get lost in the kiss, wrapping her arms around Melissa and pulling her closer in the process. They stayed like that for a long while before they pulled away from each other, breathing heavily.

"I love you, you know that?" Melissa said with a red face. Izumi was staring wide-eyed at her, and could only nod dumbly while saying "uh-huh", causing Melissa to laugh. "Good, let's get upstairs before your dad finishes his lecture, I want as many of this baby's secrets as I can get!" She tapped the side of Izumi's head next to her new eye with a grin.

Izumi nodded. "Alright. Are you sure you're good to go back up?" Izumi looked around the armory. "I mean, we could stay down here a little longer…"

"You just want to make out, don't you?" Melissa deadpanned.

"...no? Maybe? Yes."

Melissa hummed. "Maybe later, if you behave.~" She then glanced up. "And also probably shouldn't do that in front of Army-Chan."

"Thank you, moms, for being gross while inside me," Army-Chan spoke up in her apathetic tone before going silent.

Izumi nodded. "Yeah, good point. Don't want her dropping spare parts on us."

Melissa grabbed her hand and started pulling her back upstairs. "C'mon. We have to save your family from your father's ramblings. Himiko and I enjoy it cus we understand it, everyone else is probably bored to tears."

Izumi sighed. "Even at dinner, I'm saving people."

"A hero's work is never done, babe."

---

After the two had rejoined the group upstairs and saved the others from Hisashi's ranting, the conversation had shifted over to Izumi's hero work.

"So wait, let me make sure I'm following." Masaru paused Izumi's story. "A van full of drugs was getting away."

"Uh-huh." Izumi nodded.

"So you chased them on your motorcycle."

"Uh-huh."

"And during said chase you decided to… jump off of anything to be considered a 'good enough ramp'... why?"

"Well, you see, Uncle Masaru, there's a very very good reason why I did that," Izumi claimed.

Everyone waited for her to explain herself.

Katsuki got tired of waiting. "Well? What the fuck was the reason?!"

Izumi blinked. "Oh, I thought it was obvious." Izumi shrugged. "Free Bird Was playing on the radio."

"That was the reason you did such dangerous stunts?!" Inko screamed.

"Hey, I lived." Izumi tried to defend herself.

"Izumi Midoriya, a song is not a good reason to do dangerous stunts during a high-speed chase!"

"Actually, it is a pretty good reason." Surprisingly it was Katsuki who muttered that. "You can't not attempt to be a badass when you hear Free Bird. It's the law."

Himiko blinked. "The law of what?"

"The Jungle." Izumi and Katsuki said at once, sharing a high-five without looking.

Inko immediately put her head in her hands while Hisashi nodded his head in agreement, she noticed this and threw a fork at him.

Kaina frowned "Why didn't you just blow out the tires? You're a passable marksman."

"Passable?!" Izumi gasped in mock offense. "I'll have you know that I bullseye womprats at beggars canyon all the time and they're not any bigger than two meters!"

Katsuki once more gave Izumi a high five for the reference.

Himiko slammed her head into the table. "Why must you ruin Star Wars for me?!" Her yelling was muffled.

"Disney ruined Star Wars, sweetie," Inko said as she wiped her mouth with a napkin.

"And Izumi is pissing on its grave!" Himiko accused.

Izumi rolled her eyes and scoffed. "Oh come on, Gremlin. You're being overdramatic."

"And also, watch your language, young lady." Inko admonished her youngest daughter.

"I don't see what's wrong with a little bit of 'bad language'." Mitsuki air-quoted. "I mean, they're just words. I use them without a care in the fucking world and have suffered no long-term consequences."

"Really?" Inko raised an eyebrow at her closest friend before her gaze shifted over to Katsuki and Izumi.

The two noticed her gaze and looked up at her. "...What?" They both asked.

Himiko leaned over to Jin and whispered, "I swear those two share a brain cell."

"I know," Jin nodded, "it's weird. It's totally normal, don't worry about it."

Katsuki however heard them and decided to get one of his questions out of the way pretty much immediately. "So what's the story behind these two?" He waved a hand at them with a frown. "One minute you fucked off to America and the next you came back with two little shits calling you 'big sis', one of them being old enough to be your dad."

"Katsuki!" Mitsuki slammed a hand on the table causing Jin, Melissa, and Himiko to jump, startled. Everyone else was used to the two more explosive personalities and kept eating. "That's rude!"

"So's not texting or calling for eight years but you don't see me bitching about that!" Katsuki scowled. "I just want to actually get caught up dammit! None of this dancing around the subject bullshit!"

Mitsuki was about to yell some more before Izumi cut her off with a laugh. "It's fine, Aunty. He has a point. Well," Izumi looked over at Katsuki, "I could say 'it's a long story', but it kind of isn't. I was in my second year of Uni when I joined my hero mentor and his agency on a raid against some human traffickers. Simply put, we kicked their ass, and saved a bunch of people."

"We almost missed these two," she pointed over at Jin and Himiko, "but I looked through the place they were keeping them a bit more and found them locked up far in the back of the container ship." Izumi scratched the back of her head sheepishly. "I, uh, may have overreacted a bit with the whole taking them home with me thing. But in my defense, Himiko wouldn't let me go!"

Himiko blushed at that. "Wow, way to call Me out, Big Sis! I was eight!"

"Call it payback for earlier brat." Izumi threw a dinner roll at her causing her to squeak.

"And Jin?" Mitsuki asked, wondering why the man wanted to stay with Izumi.

Jin answered for himself. "She was nice to me. She was so mean. She showed me an ounce of kindness and I got attached."

"We later found out that the traffickers were quirk traffickers specifically. They wanted people for their quirks, which was why JinJin and Himiko were on the boat in the first place," Izumi poked at her food with her fork with a scowl. "Actually, Jin was on the boat because of his quirk. We later found out that Himiko stowed away. The boat was originally from Japan, which is where they picked Jin and Himiko up."

"Why were you stowing away on a ship?" Masaru asked Himiko who looked very nervous all of a sudden. "You don't have to answer if you don't want to, dear."

Hisashi drew attention to himself as he growled, a bit of smoke leaking past his clenched teeth, and a puff of fire coming from his mouth as he let out an angry huff. He was about to answer when Himiko started to speak.

"My… birth parents weren't nice people. They hated my quirk, they thought it was evil and treated me like it." She shifted nervously, taking a sip from one of her juice boxes. "My… My quirk needs blood, preferably human blood, to function. I don't need blood." She emphasized. "It's not a dietary need, but my quirk still mentally affects me to find it fascinating, and my body is basically built to consume it without getting me sick. In a perfect world, I'd only need a little bit of blood, my quirk kind of…" she paused thinking about the words.

After a moment she continued, not noticing the tears beginning to form in her eyes. "My quirk likes to analyze the blood I consume, so I guess I'm kind of wrong that it's not a dietary need but it's really not. I don't need it to live or anything, but I do need it to keep the urge to drink blood down. Normally that urge would be small, and maybe only needs something like a pricked thumb's worth or something to satisfy." She took in a shaky breath. "My birth parents wouldn't let me have any at all, they thought they could wean me off of it,"

Izumi reached over and rubbed Himiko on the back comfortingly while everyone who didn't know her background looked on in concern.

Himiko continued though. "L-Like I said, my quirk has a sort of… fascination with blood, it needs to spend time analyzing the blood and normally it would only need maybe an ounce." She growled. "But because of the neglect shown by my previous family, I need more. When I met Izumi I needed nearly a liter of blood before the urges stopped." She shook her juice box. "Now I need maybe one or two of these juice boxes every few hours at most."

Noticing how distraught the girl was getting Mitsuki was about to say something to comfort her when Kaina decided to jump in.

"Her quirk is pretty cool too."

"It's really not Aunty…" Himiko squirmed

"You can turn into anyone you slurp, that's pretty cool."

"Please don't call it slurping…" Himiko let out a giggle.

"You're like a slurp demon."

"Aunty!" This time Himiko let out a full laugh and everyone smiled, even Katsuki grinned a bit at the antics of the two.

"Maybe your Hero Name could be Big Gulp."

"What about you Jango?" Katsuki interjected after a moment, looking at Jin. "What's your issue?"

"Katsuki!" Mitsuki shouted once again banging the table.

Izumi this time smacked Katsuki on the back of the head causing him to scowl at her but he flinched at the look she was giving him. This time she actually looked pissed, and Katsuki realized he probably crossed a line he didn't know was there.

She was about to make him apologize when Jin began talking.

"Uh, well other than getting attached, I'm sure you all noticed I have a tendency to argue with myself. I'm perfectly fine, thank you very much!" He twitched for a moment before continuing. "It's a side effect from my quirk… malfunctioning and that's really all I want to say about it. Izu and the doctors have been helping me but we're pretty sure this is as recovered as I'm going to get mentally… I'm the perfect picture of health fuckers!"

"Oh, hun," Mitsuki frowned, "I'm so sorry to hear that. I've heard about some quirks that can have harsh mental side effects, but what happened to both of you…" She looked between Jin and Himiko before she chuckled and looked at Izumi. "Kid, I always knew you'd be a hero someday, seems like you became a pretty great one too if these two are any evidence."

Izumi actually blushed and rubbed her nose with a finger. "Thanks, Aunty."

Han however interjected "She ain't just some run-of-the-mill hero, she's Number Two in all of Texas! And Ten in the whole US!"

"Uncle!" Izumi squeaked while Masaru and Mitsuki looked at her with raised eyebrows, and Mitsuki let out a whistle of approval.

"Damn, that's impressive," Mitsuki smirked at Izumi. "How'd you pull that ranking off so quickly? What, did yourself to near death or something?"

Izumi didn't give a verbal answer, instead lifting her prosthetic arm and showing it clearly for all to see. Before reaching up with it and tapping the side of her face near her prosthetic eye.

No one noticed Inko's scowl.

Mitsuki's grin immediately fell off her face. "...Oh. Fuck, Izu, I'm sorry, I didn't…"

Izumi shrugged, "It's all good."

Now, the Bakugous weren't known for their social grace, for they all lacked tact in some way, shape, or form. Even mild-mannered Masaru had a tendency to speak his mind when he wanted to know something. It was honestly a miracle though that he waited for Jin to clear the table before he brought it up.

"So what happened to you?" He asked Izumi with concern, gesturing to her arm and eye. Thankfully, unlike Katsuki who would have just bluntly asked.

The Bakugous didn't notice Inko and Melissa freeze, or how Hisashi raised his eyebrow in concern.

Izumi just shrugged. "Workplace accident. No big deal. The important part is I lived, the bad guys were stopped and the day was saved."

As she went to take a sip from her drink, she noticed her mother looking at her in disapproval. "What?"

"Why do you do that?" Inko asked, Hisashi shifted away from his wife, already knowing what was about to happen, while Melissa just sighed through her nose.

Izumi lightly scoffed. "Do what?"

"Act like it's no big deal?" Inko slightly raised her voice. "You almost died, Izumi."

"But I didn't."

"But you almost did! And here you are acting like nothing happened, that it was just some other whacky adventure on Saturday morning TV!"

"I never said that about my job, Mom. I just don't think it's important to dwell on the past when I lived. I made it out of there and I am fine."

"BUT YOU'RE NOT FINE!" Everyone jumped when Inko slammed her hands on the table, standing up. "You haven't been fine since it happened!"

"AND HOW WOULD YOU KNOW?!" Izumi matched her mother by also standing. "HOW WOULD YOU KNOW IF I'M FINE OR NOT?!"

"Now hold on y'all. Let's just calm –" Han tried to inject but they ignored him.

"BECAUSE I AM YOUR MOTHER!"

"AND SOME MOTHER YOU WERE WHEN I WAS GETTING BEATEN AT SCHOOL AND BELITTLED FOR DARING TO WANT TO BE A HERO!"

Kaina looked at Izumi. "Kid, that's enough!" But she was also ignored.

Inko was crying by now. "I TOLD YOU I WAS DOING EVERYTHING I COULD!"

"AND IT TOOK ME BEATING SOME BITCH WITH A CHAIR BEFORE YOU HAD DECIDED TO FINALLY GET ME OUT OF THERE!" Izumi was shaking, tears falling from her good eye as she screamed. "SO YEAH, I'M A LITTLE FUCKED IN THE HEAD, AND I COPE BY DOWNPLAYING THE SHIT I GO THROUGH BECAUSE IT'S THE ONLY WAY I KNOW HOW! I'M SORRY, BUT DON'T YOU DARE ACCUSE ME OF JUST WALKING IT OFF BECAUSE I DON'T! I CAN'T!"

Hisashi stood up, fire leaking from his mouth as he shouted out, "THAT'S ENOUGH! BOTH OF YOU!" His shout effectively silenced the argument. He let out a sigh, smoke billowing out of his nose before pointing at Inko. "You, living room." He pointed at Izumi "You, upstairs, now. This is not how we behave in front of guests."

Izumi glared at him for a few moments before she turned on her heel and left without another word, shrugging off Melissa's attempt to grab her hand roughly as she stormed out of the dining room. But instead of going up the stairs, she b-lined it to the door that led down to the basement, opening it and then closing it with a slam.

Inko didn't move, she stood frozen in place, trembling, staring after Izumi. She flinched when she felt someone touch her shoulder and looked over to see it was Hisashi. "Come on, love." He said as he gently guided her away from the table. "Go sit down. I'll be right there."

With Inko heading off to the living room, Hisashi turned back to the table. Everyone was silent. The Bakugous didn't dare speak a word, Han and Kaina respectfully not trying to butt in. Jin and Himiko… weren't looking much better. Neither have ever seen Izumi or Inko get so angry, and it honestly scared them. Jin was harder to read under his mask, but his body was shaking. Himiko was trembling, taking in shaky breaths and just looking terrified.

Melissa got up and walked off without a word. No one tried to stop her when they saw the look of worried determination on her face.

It was pretty clear at that point that the dinner was over.

---

"I'm sorry, Han." Hisashi was talking to his brother-in-law at the front door, and Kaina was standing off to the side and waiting, not having much to say. The Bakugous were standing in the pathway, Katsuki eerily quiet as Mitsuki and Masaru talked, waiting for Han to escort them back to the entrance. "Tonight was not supposed to go like this."

Han sighed. "Hey, don't worry about us. I mean, yeah, all that was… sudden. Just… make sure Inko's okay, and hope Izumi doesn't hold a grudge." He let out a weak chuckle. "But seriously, make sure our little Firefly is okay too, that explosion seemed like it was a long time coming…"

"Of course," Hisashi nodded. "I'll take care of things from here. I'll have a word with Izumi about her attitude. She's a grown woman, but she's still our daughter and she will show respect."

"Hisashi," Kaina spoke up, drawing the two men's attention, "Go easy on the kid. What she said was out of line, but she's under a lot of pent-up stress. The work we do is stressful enough as it is, but I can only imagine what she's dealing with, with all the shit she's been through at such a young age." Kaina frowned. "She doesn't need you all ganging up on her about her behavior when she probably felt that it was somewhat justified."

"Exactly." Han nodded in agreement with his wife. "Clearly Izumi doesn't wear as much of her heart on her sleeve as we thought she did. Just make sure she's okay."

Hisashi sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose, but nodded. "Alright… hey, you all get home safe."

The two men reached out and shook each other's hands. Han said, "Unless there are bears in the woods on UA's campus, I think we'll be fine."

"I wouldn't put it past Nezu to do that. To put bears on the school grounds." Kaina shrugged. "But if there are any bears then I'll bullseye them before they even see us."

Hisashi huffed a laugh. "I don't doubt that."

He turned to the Bakugou's and was about to offer them an apology when Mitsuki spoke up.

"We're sorry about what happened…" She said wringing her hands nervously, she looked distraught and Hisashi couldn't really blame her. She adored Inko and Izumi and had never expected either of them to blow up at each other that way.

"It's not your fault Mitsuki. Like Han said this felt like something that was going to happen sooner or later…" Hisashi smiled at her and gave her a quick hug before turning to Masaru and patting him on the back. He turned back to Mitsuki and said, "I have to go make sure Inko and Izumi are okay, but maybe we can set up a girl's day for you and Inko? For old time's sake, get her out of that stuffy old house."

Mitsuki nodded with a sniffle. She and Masaru started following after Han without issue, while Katsuki lingered, hands in his pockets before he scoffed and made his way back to his dorm.

What a mess.

Hisashi watched as the group all headed out. With a sigh, he readied himself before heading back inside.

Walking over to the living room he saw Jin and Himiko sitting with Inko and trying to comfort her. When Himiko saw Hisashi she quickly got up and ran into him, hugging him.

"Hey, Sunflower." Hisashi ran his hand through Himiko's now green hair. He figured she must have dyed it. "You doing okay?"

Himiko answered by sharing her head. Her face was buried into his chest so that he couldn't see her face, but he felt his shirt getting a little wet from tears.

"Are you scared?"

A nod.

"Do you want to stay like this for a bit?"

Another nod as she squeezed him tighter. And so the two stayed like that for a while, until Hisashi noticed Jin getting up and walking over to him.

"Jin, how is she?" He asked.

Jin rubbed his arm. "She's not talking to me," Hisashi noted the lack of contradiction but didn't say anything.

Instead, he nodded, then looked down at Himiko. "Okay, Sunflower, I need to go talk to your mom now."

He gently tried to push her off before she tightened her grip and said a muffled, "No, don't go."

Hisashi sighed. "Himiko, please. I need to go make sure your mother is okay. I need you to be brave and let go."

Himiko didn't move for a moment, and Hisashi thought he'd have to say more before he felt her grip slowly loosen. As Himiko pulled back, Hisashi got to see her tear-covered face. He reached out and wiped a few away, but it would take more than that to clean her up.

"Jin," he looked to his masked son, "Take her and get her cleaned up, please."

"Yes, sir." Jin reached out and grabbed Himiko's hand, and led her over to the stairs to go up to their rooms, all the while Himiko looked back and stared at Hisashi.

When they eventually vanished upstairs, Hisashi sighed for what felt like the thousandth time that night, before he turned and walked over to the couch where his wife was sitting. He gently lowered himself to sit next to her, and just as gently placed his hand on her shoulder.

Inko was awfully quiet, but her face said everything. It was a face of pure regret and horror as if she were mortified by her own actions.

"Inko," Hisashi quietly said, "my love, talk to me." It took a few minutes to coax her into talking but when she finally did her voice broke his heart.

"...What have I done?" She croaked out. Hisashi opened his mouth but immediately closed it. He thought it better to let Inko say all of what she wanted to first. "I… I'm doing it again… I'm driving her away." She shuddered. "We were doing so well. She was smiling, she was happy… and then I ruined it."

Hisashi sighed, smoke once more coming out of his nose as he squeezed her hand. "Hon, I don't think Izumi has been truly happy for a while…" He paused before amending, "Happy is the wrong word… I don't think she's been okay for a while. Your brother told me it seemed like that blowup was a long time coming, and honestly, I believe him. She seemed like she was holding that in for a while." He frowned as he rubbed his thumb across Inko's knuckles. "I just wish I had seen it, been more insistent that she go to therapy…"

Inko hiccuped as she leaned into Hisashi for comfort and he wrapped his arms around her. "But why did I push her? Why did I start shouting first?"

Hisashi stayed quiet since he didn't know the answer to that himself, only his wife did. Luckily for him, she continued.

"I just… I just worry that she's not taking care of herself. That she doesn't care if she gets hurt. She talks about these things like they're nothing, but it all sounds so terrifying. I'm scared that one day she'll walk out that door and never come back. It almost happened once, I can't bear to see it happen again." She grabbed Hisashi's shirt and pulled herself closer to him. "I don't want to lose her, Hisashi. I don't want to lose our baby! I can't lose her!" She cried into his shirt.

Hisashi just held Inko, trying his hardest to ground her. "I know, my love. I can't lose her either, but we can't stop her from doing what she wants anymore. She's her own woman, she'll do what she wants with her life, and we can't control it for her. All we can do is help her see that it isn't worth throwing her life away, that there are people she still has to live for, still has to come back to."

"Izumi isn't suicidal if that's what you're worried about."

Both parents jumped and turned their heads to see that Jin was standing there with a tray of tea and snacks.

"Jin," Hisashi furrowed his brow, "I thought I told you to…"

"I am," Jin nodded, "I'm a clone… I think?" He quickly felt around his forehead for the bandana the original wears. "Yep! I'm a clone."

He handed his two adoptive parents cups of tea and put the tray of snacks down on the coffee table in front of them before continuing. "But yeah, she's not suicidal." He rubbed his cheek with a finger. "She just has a tendency to put the needs of others above her own. It's very unhealthy. It's cool!."

"But even I don't know why she's so self-sacrificing. Himiko definitely doesn't. Melissa might but I don't know if she'll be willing to talk tonight…" He shook his head. "Anyways, Izumi loves life, she wouldn't think for a second about ending it. But…" He sighed. "I know a lot of the time she looks okay, but I think she just wears a very convincing mask. If there's one thing Izumi hates, it's worrying the people she loves. That's why she always tries to smile, to tell us she's fine."

Inko shuddered as she buried her face in her hands. "How have I never noticed this? I'm her mother, I should know these things, and couldn't even see how hard my own daughter was struggling this whole time!"

Hisashi continued to rub Inko's back. "It's like Jin said, Izumi wears a convincing mask."

"And it's my fault!" Inko cried. "She learned to pretend to be fine because I didn't take her out of that awful school fast enough! She suffered in silence so much and for so long that it became normal to her! I'm a terrible mother!"

"You are not a terrible mother, Inko." Hisashi firmly told her. "Don't you dare think about yourself like that. You did what you thought best to keep our baby girl safe. It's not your fault she was treated the way she was. But… as terrible as it was, I think what she went through here in Japan is a big reason why she's the way she is."

"Self-sacrificing?" Inko asked.

"No," Hisashi shook his head. "Strong. She is so strong, it's amazing. When she came to America, she always tried to prove she could be strong, and when she ran into an obstacle she wasn't strong enough to get past, she became stronger. She wanted to show everyone, prove to those who called her weak wrong, that she could be strong despite being born with no powers. It was one of her driving motivations, and it still is. Along with wanting to save people. She combined the two and now… she's proving them all wrong. She's doing what she always wanted, she's saving people, she's being a hero."

Hisashi thought hard over what he wanted to say next. Maybe it was stupid to say, but it needed to be said. And so he said, "And you make her feel weak."

Inko snapped her head in her husband's direction with a look of shock and disbelief. "W-what?!"

Hisashi held his hand up to stop her before she said anything else. "You have every reason to worry about our baby girl, I worry about her all the time too. It's understandable and justified. But… when you openly do it to her like you did tonight, it probably made her think you saw her as nothing more than glass. That one wrong move could shatter her. And when Izumi has spent the last eight years trying to prove she's not fragile, it made her mad when her own mother acted like she was."

"I…" Inko shook her head, "No, that's not what I was trying… that's not what I was saying at all."

"Hey, you're not the only parent here to make that mistake." Hisashi chuckled. "Izumi and I butted heads a few times when she first started attending those heroic prep classes in high school. Came home with a few bruises and I got worried, she got mad, we fought a little, then apologized later that night and binged some TV."

Inko sniffed, taking a box of tissues that Jin had handed her. "I don't think watching TV will fix what happened tonight, Hisashi."

"Probably not, but that's not my point. My point is that Izumi hates feeling weak. It's why she doesn't like talking about… the incident." Hisashi looked down. "To her, that was her weakest moment, and to be reminded of that, on top of having her mother worry, it all got to her. Not to say the way she acted tonight was by any means okay. I will speak to her and make sure she knows that the attitude she had towards you will not be tolerated."

Inko nodded. "You're… you're not going now, are you?"

"No, not yet." Hisashi glanced over to the doorway that led down to the basement. "I'm gonna give her a little time to simmer down."

"Good," Inko reached out for Hisashi and once more pulled him into an embrace, burying her face in the crook of his neck, "Because I still need you."

Hisashi gave a sad smile as he hugged his wife back. "It's gonna be okay, my love."

"Everything is gonna be alright."

---

Izumi was not alright.

If the scowl on her face as she fired at targets wasn't proof enough of that, she wasn't sure what was.

Another target exploded, and then another, until she was out of ammo in her pistol.

She was angry, she was very angry.

Instead of reloading, she dismissed the pistol and called for another before she continued her decimation of the targets in front of her.

She had blown up like a child. Been sent away like a child, and was basically throwing a tantrum.

Like a child.

She didn't even bother dismissing the gun this time around, instead just throwing the empty firearm to the side before calling for another. An AR-15 appeared in her hands and she started pulling the trigger immediately upon shouldering it.

She knew she shouldn't be angry at her mother, she knew it in her heart and she knew it logically. Sadly anger wasn't a logical emotion.

She resisted the urge to scream as she missed a shot that she would normally have no trouble making, the bullet impacting the wall behind the target dummy with a dull thud.

She emptied the rifle and was about to throw it away when she felt a hand on her own. She turned, ready to give whoever dared interrupt her a piece of her mind when she saw Melissa looking at her, a pair of earmuffs on and concern in her eyes.

Izumi finally felt her adrenaline levels start to drop as her anger subsided a little bit, and she felt her face relax from the scowl it had been in. She took in a few gulps of air to try and calm herself down as she shakily shrugged out of Melissa's grip and turned back to the range, dismissing the rifle and calling for a new gun.

The two didn't speak for a while, and that was fine by Izumi, she wasn't going to be able to articulate any form of response or apology right now anyway, instead, she focused on her shooting, on trying to calm down while Melissa just watched, and made sure she didn't call for something that could blow down the dorm.

Part of Izumi was thankful for that.

She called for a grenade, but when one didn't appear in her hand she sent a withering look to Melissa, her hand on the range's control panel. She then had the audacity to raise an unimpressed eyebrow at Izumi and shake her head.

Part of Izumi found it very fucking grating.

She turned back around and called another rifle to her hands, unloaded it into the endless supply of targets, and repeated. She kept doing this for an uncertain amount of time, getting more lost in her head, before she felt a snap in her hands, also snapping her out of her thoughts.

She looked down and saw that she wasn't paying attention to what she was doing, and had broken the barrel of one of the guns with her prosthetic hand.

"God fucking dammit!" She yelled as she threw the broken pieces of the gun to the ground. She leaned forward and placed her hands on the table of the shooting stall, breathing heavily.

She flinched when she felt arms try to slowly wrap around her from behind, but slightly relaxed into the hold when she realized it was Melissa.

"Izumi," she said, "turn around. Please."

Izumi took in a deep, but shaky breath before she turned. She was met with blue eyes full of worry. The amount of concern she saw in Melissa's eyes almost made her crack, but she held together.

"Izumi," Melissa lifted one of her hands and held it to Izumi's cheek, "it's just me and you. You don't have to hold it in."

Oh… oh that wasn't fair. It wasn't fair for Melissa to say those words, because that was all Izumi needed to hear from her before she shattered.

It started with a few tears escaping before the floodgates opened and Izumi began to just cry. She felt Melissa pull her into a hug, and Izumi allowed her girlfriend to guide her head to rest on her shoulder as she continued to sob.

She felt so weak, she hated it. She wasn't supposed to be weak. She was a hero dammit!

"Army-Chan clean this all up, please? Put the broken gun on the workbench, I'll deal with it in the morning." Melissa quietly ordered.

"Okay, smart mom," Army-Chan said, though there was a bit of worry in her normally disinterested voice.

Panels in the ceiling opened, and multiple tentacle-like arms came out and started to clean up all the guns on the floor, placing the broken one on the workbench nearby.

Either woman would have found the sight really cool to watch if they weren't so focused on each other. Melissa quietly pet Izumi's hair, whispering words of encouragement to her while Izumi's emotions bled out.

They stayed like that for what mentally felt like hours before Izumi finally wore herself out and stopped crying, Melissa's shirt thoroughly soaked and covered in her girlfriend's snot and tears.

Trying to inject some levity into the situation Melissa chuckled and said, "How can a lady with just one tear duct generate this much water?"

Izumi didn't lift her head from Melissa's bosom when she spoke her muffled response, causing Melissa to laugh.

"What was that, hon?"

"It's ma quirk…" Izumi finally mumbled as she looked up at Melissa, human eye bloodshot and tired. "It's hereditary."

Melissa gave Izumi a soft smile, then leaned in to kiss her forehead. Neither said anything as they just held each other, Izumi sniffling every now and then before a robot-arm courtesy of Army-Chan handed them a box of tissues which they accepted with thanks. Melissa guided Izumi over to a chair and sat her down, and kneeled in front of her, looking up as Izumi tried to pull herself together.

"I'm sorry." Izumi eventually said. "I ruined dinner."

Melissa looked away and winced. "Yeah, that was… things kind of escalated quickly."

Izumi pouted with a sniffle. "You're supposed to say 'No sweetie, it wasn't your fault, you didn't ruin anything.' You're a bad girlfriend."

Melissa, though booped her on the nose. "I promised you when we first became friends to never lie to you and that carries over to us dating, dork."

Izumi gave her a flat look. "You lied about your sleep schedule."

"I promised not to lie about important things."

"Your sleep schedule is pretty important, babe."

"You shut your whore mouth."

"You love my whore mouth."

"Not the point!"

Melissa said before they git more off track. "You made an ass of yourself, so did your mom." She kissed Izumi's forehead again "But you know that, and I'm pretty sure your mom does too so hopefully you two can move past this."

Izumi sniffed as she shook her head. "I don't know, Mel. We couldn't even move past it after eight years." She let out a sigh and followed as Melissa moved them over to the workbench, Izumi resting her arms on it. "I always tell Jin and Himiko that Mom didn't come to the States because she didn't know enough English, or because she was afraid to fly… all of those things are true." She cuts off Melissa's interruption before it even happens.

"But she really stayed here because we had a fight, worse than the one that happened today, back when I was fifteen."

Melissa reached forward and held Izumi's hand, squeezing it to hopefully give comfort. "You know I'll listen if you need to talk, right?"

Izumi nodded. "...I never told you why I moved, did I?"

Melissa shook her head. "Well, I assumed because of the discrimination, but after what I heard upstairs I'm assuming there's more?"

"Yeah… there's more…"

"Do you want to talk about it?"

Izumi's first thought was to say no, but… She figured she could tell Melissa and that she would understand.

"It happened nine years ago…"

---

9 Years Ago.

Izumi tried to look on the bright side of life as much as she possibly could. She had never been a particularly sad or angry child, it just wasn't in her nature.

But the culture she was born to sure did love to try and put her down.

Ever since she was four she was treated in multiple different ways. On the less demeaning side of the spectrum, she was talked down to, treated like glass, and handled like an object on the verge of shattering.

On the more demeaning side of things she was made fun of, kicked into the mud, and told that she was worth less than her peers, all because she didn't have something that they did, a quirk.

She learned at a very early age the one simple truth of the world, or at least the world that she knew within the tiny island nation of Japan.

Not all men were created equal.

Luckily, she had her Mom, the Bakugou's, and Uncle Han, or she would probably have become another quirkless suicide statistic long ago…

So for the first few years of her life, it wasn't so bad. Sure her mom feared for her and treated her like she was a porcelain doll, but she at least cared. Uncle Han showed up whenever he wasn't working and taught her cool gun-slinging tricks, like how to draw a revolver and do cool flips and rotations with them.

Most important to Izumi though was Kacchan. Little Kacchan, who had her back through thick and thin. The two would train together, play together, and sleep in the same bed when they were tired, they were like peas in a pod.

Sadly that unity didn't matter once Izumi moved on to middle school at thirteen, and Katsuki was stuck in Elementary school. He was stuck in an entirely separate school from her, and at the time, the shy girl that was Izumi Midoriya had lost one of the key pillars of support in her life. When she really needed him most.

She still had him in her life, don't misunderstand, but he wasn't there to help her manage the kids at school like he had been two years prior.

So when girls started picking on Izumi, this time in much harsher ways than before, she didn't really have anyone to help her. Anyone to turn to.

Well that isn't true, she had one friend besides Kacchan to turn to but she was bullied almost as ferociously and was almost as shy as Izumi was…

And the only teacher that would help her was hamstrung by the school's administration and at risk of losing his job if he dared do more than offer her a safe space to come to and an ear to listen to.

She was getting off-topic…

The bullying before, in elementary school, was generally name calling, pulled hair, or stolen lunch.

Bullying in middle school turned into focused, targeted attacks. Locking her in the restroom to make her late for class, stealing her belongings, and pushing her down the stairs. Destroying her notebooks.

This went on for two years before mild-mannered and soft-spoken Izumi couldn't take it anymore.

It had all started like any normal day for her. Wake up, get ready, listen to Inko tell her to be careful (not like that advice made much of a difference, ever), and go to school.

She hardly bothered to keep her head down as she traversed the hallways of Aldera. She couldn't really blend in, her green hair stood out, after all. Despite what people said about her looking "basic" when compared to a lot of other people who looked unique due to quirks, anyone who knew Izumi could recognize her curly green hair in a crowd. And everyone knew the quirkless girl of Aldera, so…

She briefly thought about maybe dying her hair. Maybe blonde? Blonde girls were pretty, right?

Izumi shrugged and walked over to her shoe locker, getting ready to replace her well-worn red sneakers with her school slippers when her only friend popped up next to her. Long blond hair entered Izumi's peripheral vision.

She looked over and smiled "Hello, Yu! How's your day going so far?"

The other girl fiddled with her locker before looking at Izumi with a shy smile, her glasses glinting slightly in the light of the entryway locker room. "It's been surprisingly okay, Izumi. No one's made fun of me for my height… or my quirk today so I think it's going to be a good day."

Izumi grinned at her, opening her own locker and getting ready to swap out her shoes.

That was when she decided to show up.

"Hey, Weirdo." A girl with short raven hair appeared next to Izumi.

Ichika Sasaki, Izumi's primary tormentor. Her quirk was relatively impressive for hero work, even Izumi could admit that. She had the ability to infuse anything she touched with heat, and she had complete control of her output, which Izumi learned firsthand rather uncomfortably.

If she touched your shirt she could make it feel like it had just come out of the dryer, or she could make it feel like it was the blackest shirt sitting in the hottest summer sun imaginable.

She could grab your homework and cause it to spontaneously combust if she heated it enough, again, as Izumi had found out on more than one occasion.

Izumi didn't use the word hate enough, but if there was ever a person she actively attributed the word to, it was Sasaki.

"Watcha doing?" Sasaki asked in an overly friendly tone, but Izumi already knew better.

She had fallen for that tone too many times by now to be tricked. "Go away, Sasaki."

"Aw, is little Izu finally getting some teeth?"

"Don't call me that." Izumi deadpanned, slamming the door to her locker and turning to face her tormentor.

Before either of them could say anything more, the five-minute warning bell rang, causing the other girl to scoff.

"Watch yourself freak," With that, the girl shoved past the two and started walking towards homeroom.

"Dick," Izumi grumbled under her breath.

"Izu!" Yu yelled, looking around to make sure no teacher had heard. She didn't want either of them to get in trouble.

"What? She is!"

The day proceeded like normal after that, someone tripped Izumi in the hall on the way to class and proceeded to dump her book bag onto the floor right when the morning rush was at its worst. After the stampede of students had subsided she managed to pack her things with Yu's help and rush to their homeroom.

Only to find the door locked. They tried desperately to get inside but the door wouldn't budge, so instead, they were forced to wait for their homeroom teacher to arrive, embarrassed and angry as the mocking laughter of their classmates reached them through the thin walls of the classroom.

Luckily Mister Fuji was a nice man and absolutely adored Izumi. After opening the door and letting his two wayward students in, he gave the class a glare that only a man with an elephant head could. He then gave the class another stern lecture about quirkism and treating others with respect.

It didn't do much of anything to improve the situation sadly, it never did, but Izumi appreciated the gesture all the same.

Classes moved forward like usual until it was time for lunch. Yu and Izumi put their desks together and got ready to eat like they normally did. Izumi noticed that Mister Fuji had looked at his phone and stood up to leave the classroom, answering a call that must have been personal.

Lunch was normal, for the most part, Izumi glanced over to the group of girls gathered around Sasaki's desk as she seemed to be showing them something, which caused them all to laugh.

"Don't worry about them," Yu said as she got ready to dig into her food. "Just a little longer and then we can hopefully get away from them. Maybe I can finally apply for quirk training, and get myself to grow more than just a few inches!" She gasped, "Maybe taller than a building?" She suggested to Izumi with a grin, trying to get her friend's mind off the bullying and onto quirks.

"Yea…" Izumi muttered around her food before brightening up. "Did I show you the notebook Kacchan made for me this summer? We brainstormed some ideas for a hero outfit for me!"

"Ooh, that sounds so cool!" Yu grinned, happy to see her friend brighten up, "Show me?"

Izumi happily turned to her backpack to pull it out, but after a moment of searching, she frowned before she started to breathe heavily.

It wasn't in her bag.

"Izu?"

"W-where is it? It was right here!"

It was then that Sasaki came over yet again, this time waving something in her hand mockingly. "Looking for this? Freak."

Izumi and Yu turned and Izumi immediately paled.

She had Kacchan's notebook. The notebook he had worked hard on for months just for her, full of advice, training tips, and sketches that his little eight-year-old brain could think of just to try and make his big sister the best quirkless hero she could be.

"You're still thinking of being a hero? After all this time?" She scoffed and opened it up. "You even got some little kid to believe in your little dream? 'To Deku-Nee', Useless? Pfft." She lifted the book up and it started to glow.

Yu stood up immediately, "Give that back, Sasaki! It isn't yours!"

"No, I don't think I will." The book immediately started to smoke.

"Don't." Izumi looked at her with eyes that promised pain. "Don't. You. Dare."

Of course, Sasaki didn't take the threat seriously. "Or. What? Deku."

The notebook exploded into a cloud of ash not moments later.

"Oops, sorry~," Sasaki said as she held her hand out and dumped the ashes in her hand into Izumi's food. "Here, maybe if you eat all of that you'll magically get a quirk. Or better yet you'll choke on it and die, either way, the world benefits. Right? Deku?"

The classroom was dead silent. Surprisingly no one laughed as Izumi slowly stood up and muttered something.

"What was that? I can't hear you over how pitiful you sound." Sasaki leaned in and lifted a hand up to her ear mockingly. "Are you gonna cry?"

She immediately regretted taking her eyes off Izumi, because the moment she did she felt something hit her in the side of her body, hard, breaking her wrist in the process. She screamed as she was sent tumbling back onto the ground, clutching her wrist in pain.

A chair clattered to the ground, and she recovered enough to look up and see Izumi dragging another school chair behind her, eyes devoid of anything but pure, unbridled, hatred.

"Keep that name out of your fucking mouth," Izumi growled before lifting the chair above her head with both hands and bringing it down on the cowering form of Sasaki, repeatedly.

The class was too terrified to move as Izumi wailed on her tormentor of two years, but finally one of the few boys tried to step in, only to have Izumi turn and throw the chair at him, bowling him over and knocking the wind out of him.

She then turned back to her table where Yu was staring at her with wide, scared eyes, but she ignored that. Instead, she took a handful of her ruined food, ash and all, and walked over to the girl on the ground. She grabbed her by the hair and looked into her eyes, before bringing the food up to her face.

"Eat it, and I'll accept your apology."

Luckily for Sasaki, someone had run to get the teacher and Mister Fuji immediately rushed in to see the chaos that had unfolded. "Miss Sasaki! Miss Midoriya, what is the meaning of this!?"

Izumi slammed the food into the girls crying face and dropped her hair, before standing up and looking at the teacher. Her eyes didn't return to the semblance of life that they had before, but she attempted to smile up at him with the same sweet smile she always had but failed. She looked so broken.

"I'd like to go to the principal's office please."

---

Expelled.

She had been expelled.

No reports had been made to the police or anything, Aldera didn't want the authorities looking too deep into them and finding out something they'd buried. Sasaki's family and the boy Izumi had injured had accepted a Dogeza from Izumi and her mother (though Inko had to force Izumi) as well as monetary compensation for the injuries sustained…

That didn't stop Inko from having words with Izumi.

"What were you thinking?" Inko paced the living room, Izumi sitting motionless on the couch. "You broke that young nose, broke a girl's arm, beat her with a steel chair, and tried to make her eat ash."

"She told me to eat it first," Izumi grumbled.

"You got expelled, Izumi!" Inko stopped pacing and turned to her daughter. "Do you know what that means?!"

"Not much." Izumi glared at her. "Not like I lost any opportunities as a quirkless freak."

"You won't be able to find a job! Or finish your education!"

"It's not like it mattered! Who would hire me?! I don't contribute anything to society, everyone has made that perfectly fucking clear!"

Inko gasped as if struck and glared at her daughter. "Watch your language and your tone when speaking to me young lady!"

"Or what?!" Izumi stood up. "You'll send me back to that 'school'? That's your best bet to punish me because I doubt any punishment you have could be worse than going to that hell hole!" Izumi scoffed. "Maybe that's it. Maybe sending me there and keeping me there was my punishment this whole time for disappointing you for being a defect!"

Inko had had enough. "That's it! Go to your room! Not another word!"

Izumi glared at her for a long moment before turning on her heel and running to her room, opening and closing the door with a slam.

Inko stood there, hand still pointing to Izumi's room. She slowly caught up with what just happened as her eyes shifted from where Izumi had run off to and instead landed on her hand.

She was shaking, trembling. Her whole body was. Her legs felt weak as she stumbled over to the couch and collapsed on it. She stared down at her knees before burying her head in her hands and started to cry.

Shakely she pulled out her cell phone and dialed her husband's number to tell him what happened.

---

Present day

"I was shipped off to the US a few weeks later." Izumi finished, her mouth felt so dry. "Mom and I had never had a fight like that before or since… until tonight." She paused in thought before continuing. "Though we got pretty close after I got injured, I think she only held off because I was on the mend."

Izumi glanced over and did a double take when she saw Melissa had a neutral look on her face, but anger in her eyes the likes of which Izumi had never seen. Melissa turned around toward the work bench's computer."

"Cat," Melissa looked over to her robotic companion, "find the address of this Ichika Sasaki. I just want to… talk with her. And maybe show off the prototype Sleeper Stim to her."

"Woah! Woah! No! Cat! ¡Anular esa orden!" Izumi immediately ordered.

"I just wanted to talk to her!"

"I am not letting you test the limits of your diplomatic immunity for an incident that happened before we even met."

"Just call it a diplomatic solution."

"More like 'aggressive negotiation'."

"Eh, same thing. Cat, address."

"Melissa Shield," Izumi grabbed Melissa by the cheeks and forced her to look her in the eyes, "You are not gonna disintegrate anyone."

Melissa pouted but relented. Izumi stood up with a sigh and pinched her nose.

"Can we please just go to bed?"

"You might want to wait a moment on that." A voice said from the stairs, causing both of them to turn and look at who had come down. Luckily it was Jin, with a cup of tea for each of them.

"Pa wants to talk to you Izumi, and Mama would like…" He trailed off as he saw Izumi's glare return, "to talk but she said she can wait 'till morning when cooler heads prevail."

He placed the cups on the workbench.

"Thanks, JinJin." Izumi smiled at him. "Can me and Mel… be alone before Dad comes down? Like, buy us five minutes?"

"Sure thing." Jin nodded before he went upstairs.

Izumi took a shuddering breath, Melissa immediately focusing back on her. "Hey, it's gonna be okay. You guys will work through this."

Izumi nodded. "Okay… Okay, I believe you."

"And if you still need to talk," Melissacupped her face with both hands, "You have me."

Izumi smiled at that+ and leaned in to give Melissa a kiss on the lips. The two separated and pressed their foreheads together. "Thanks, Mel. I love you."

Melissa blushed. "I love you too."

They heard a ding from Army-Chan to tell them that someone was coming down the stairs. They didn't notice it earlier with Jin, but they did this time.

"He's coming." Izumi took a deep breath. "I'll see you upstairs."

Melissa nodded, gave Izumi one more quick kiss, and hesitantly left the armory, leaving Izumi alone.

Her loneliness didn't last long as she soon heard Hisashi enter the armory.

Izumi moved over to the workbench and leaned against it, looking down at the gun she had broken in her anger.

The Midoriya patriarch slowly walked up and stood a good distance behind his daughter, silently staring at her back before he spoke.

"You broke one?" He asked.

"...yeah."

He nodded as he looked around. He would never be unimpressed with the size of the arsenal his baby girl possessed. "You think you could repair it?"

"...it'll need a new barrel."

Hisashi once more nodded. "The new eye treating you well?"

Izumi didn't even give a verbal response, she just nodded.

Hisashi sighed, it was time to get to the issue at hand. "I know you're upset with your mother."

Izumi tensed up and breathed through her nose, but Hisashi was quick to speak before she could say anything.

"Let me finish before you say anything." He paused for a moment to make sure she would listen before continuing. "I know how you get about the incident, and your past issues here, but your attitude at dinner tonight was unacceptable. Your mother was worried about you, you should not have yelled at her like you did."

"She escalated first." Izumi tapped a finger on her prosthetic, feeling her anger rise.

"And you escalated it further." Hisashi shot back. "I know you were angry, and by all means, you're allowed to feel angry, but you do not get to direct that anger toward your family when they are only worried for your health."

Izumi growled as she resisted the urge to pick up the broken gun on her workbench and snap it like a twig again. "That's all she's ever fucking been! Is worried for my fucking health!"

"Watch your language and tone with me, young lady. We raised you better than that." Hisashi calmly, yet firmly, said.

"No, you are in my home, in my armory, I am going to say my piece and if you want to fight after it I'll gladly show you why I'm ranked number two in the fucking state!"

"We may be in your home, but I am your father-"

"THEN WHY WEREN'T YOU HERE WHEN I NEEDED YOU, DAD!?" Izumi punched the workbench, hard enough to shatter the glass display. "Mom was busy doting on me, worrying about whether or not I'd walk outside and crumble to fucking dust, but why couldn't you be there? Why did I have to defend myself at school by throwing a fucking chair at some bitch who went too far?!" Izumi let out a choked sob this time and Hisashi had to resist wrapping her in a hug.

"I needed you here." She gasped out. "I need both of you! And instead, I got a mother whose only form of emotional support was nothing but worry, and a father who only said 'I love you' on a video call!"

"That isn't fair to us…"

"Don't fucking talk to me about fair!"

"Izumi, listen to yourself." Not once did Hisashi raise his voice, yet his tone still was firm the whole time. "I am speaking to you calmly, I don't care if we are in your home, I raised you better and you will show the same level of respect I am showing you. I am speaking to you like you are a grown woman, you will speak to me calmly, I am your father." He calmly walked over to her with his hands raised, palms forward in a disarming manner. "I am not your enemy."

Izumi simply stood there, breathing heavily before her legs gave out and she just collapsed to the floor. She didn't cry she just stared at her hands shakily before she hugged herself.

Hisashi slowly approached, and when he was standing next to his daughter's kneeling form he too kneeled and brought her into a hug.

He simply held her for a moment before speaking. "Over twenty-three years ago, I was in the hospital with your mother when I first held you. You were… you were so small in my arms. You were so fragile. I just wanted to keep you safe forever. A part of me knew then, and a bigger part of me knows now, that I couldn't do that. I wouldn't be able to protect you forever, but that never stopped me from worrying about you. Even as I watched you grow into the incredible and amazingly strong woman you are today, I never stopped worrying. Not because I think you're weak, but because you were, always have been, and always will be my baby girl. And…"

Hisashi nearly choked on his words as he felt his own tears rising, threatening to spill out. "And a father will always worry about his baby girl, even if she were the strongest woman on the planet. I worry about you, but I know I can't protect you anymore. And I know I don't have to. Your mother though, she's scared, because she's had to watch as this world treated you like dirt for the longest time, and it killed her inside when she couldn't do anything to protect you even though she was right there."

He paused for a moment before continuing. "She'll see how strong you are, Izumi, but you have to give her time to realize her baby isn't fragile anymore, and that you know how to take care of yourself. It's hard for a parent to let their baby go."

Izumi sobbed her heart out as she leaned into Hisashi, chasing any bit of comfort she could find. The anger did subside some as her mind became less clouded and she realized what she did.

"I'm sorry." She cried. "I'm so sorry!"

Hisashi shushed her as he held her close and kissed the top of her head. "I know, Firefly. I know. It's okay."

She hated feeling weak, but at that moment she just wanted her dad to hold her. To comfort her and tell her it'll be okay.

"I think," He started after a moment, "after you've gotten a good night's sleep, you should sit down and talk with your mom, really talk with her." He emphasized. "Explain why you do what you do, why you want to be a hero, why you won't stop, and why you need her support. Do it calmly, and apologize for tonight. You know your mother," He grinned down at her, "She can't hold a grudge to save her life."

That got a teary giggle out of his daughter, and he took that as a victory. He continued. "After that, maybe take the time to set up some therapy?" He flicked her in the nose to stop her from interrupting. "You've been through a lot, and I should have forced you to start once your injuries were recovered."

"I already got a therapist…"

"And when was the last time you talked to them?"

"..."

"My point rests!" He gave her another kiss on the forehead. "Maybe give them a call before bed, or send them an email and maybe set up a phone appointment."

Izumi hesitantly nodded. "Okay… is she still up there?"

Hisashi knew Izumi was talking about Inko. "Yes. I'll walk her to her car to take her home, and text you when we've left if you want."

Izumi shook her head and pulled out her phone, quickly tapping out a message before waiting for a moment. After a second the phone buzzed and she checked the message before nodding. "Nezu said you guys can spend the night. There's plenty of room and all the bedrooms are furnished." Izumi sleepily rubbed her good eye and stood up.

Hisashi stood up as well. "Are you going to be okay?"

Izumi shrugged and looked like she was going to nod when she thought better of it "Maybe, I don't know, I just want to go to bed."

Hisashi nodded. "Okay. Give me and your mom a minute before coming up. I know you probably don't want to see her right now with emotions running high."

Izumi nodded and watched her father walk upstairs as she waited. A few minutes before she would go back up she looked down at her phone one more time and pulled it up.

She ignored the texts from Katsuki (How the fuck did he get her new number?), Jin, and Himiko. Before flicking over to her mother's contact info.

She quickly typed out a message and waited.

Me:

I love you Mom

A few minutes later the "read" message popped up, and then her mother started typing…

She started typing for a while before the chat bubble disappeared and then reappeared before a message was finally sent.

Mama:

I love you too sweetie, so much more than you'll ever know… Sleep well, we can talk in the morning.

Your father and I went to go get our sleepwear, we'll be back in a few hours.

Izumi let out a small sob once more, before heading back up to shower before bed.

She just wanted to be held by Melissa for the rest of the night. She didn't want to be alone.

---

Bet you didn't expect it to get this serious.