Nao Shimura didn't consider herself a suspicious woman by nature. Her policy was "don't rock the boat." She had a good husband, a man who had rescued her during a time in her life when both she and her parents had been broke and swamped with debt. She'd been drawn to him because they shared the same values of creating a happy family. She was very grateful. When Kotaro had to work late, Nao never minded because she knew he was working hard to provide for her and their daughter. She'd even been considering broaching the subject of a second child…but something stopped her.

Lately Kotaro had been staying out later and later. He often came home smelling like booze. That wasn't super suspicious. He probably had to wine and dine business contacts.

Kotaro had also been receiving a lot of expensive presents. The wine and chocolates, she'd also excused as thank you gifts from his clients. The children's toys had been a bit odd, but perhaps his clients didn't realize Hana was too old for most of them. Then the brand-new bright red car sitting in the driveway had sent her into a spiral of anxiety. Nao knew there was no way their family could afford the new Lamborghini. Kotaro said the car was a gift. Nao checked their finances (they shared a bank account and credit card, didn't that prove her husband had nothing to hide?) She could find no traces of such a large purchase. So Kotaro must be telling the truth. It was an unusually generous gift. But he'd made no attempt to hide any of the presents, didn't that prove he had nothing to feel guilty over?

It was a bit odd, though, how evasive he got when she asked who had given him the car. She'd only wanted to send a thank you note. He'd shot down her suggestion of inviting the generous person over to dinner. It was very odd, for her husband to have a friend close enough to give him a car but not close enough to come over for dinner.

Then Nao glimpsed a text from her husband to an unknown number, complaining about back pain. Nao could no longer deny the suspicions that had been lurking in the back of her mind for some time—that her husband might be having an affair.

Once she'd dared acknowledge the thought, it tormented her, keeping her up late at night. Kotaro noticed the bags under her eyes and brought her sleeping medicine and a new pillow. He'd always been such a sweet husband. She didn't know what to say to him. She wasn't certain about the affair—she had no solid proof. She didn't want to falsely accuse him and turn out to have damaged her marriage over a mistake. Snooping in his phone also seemed wrong. She'd tried hinting about wanting Kotaro home more, and he'd promised to do better, seemingly without understanding her real concern.

Nao went to her mother for advice. In no uncertain terms, her mother instructed her to drop the subject, pointing out that their entire family was dependent on Kotaro's salary.

Frankly, it had horrified Nao to have her vulnerability laid out in such stark terms. She'd never worried about relying on Kotaro before because she'd trusted him. Now she felt betrayed that even her own mother cared more about money than her daughter's marital happiness.

Nao made her resolve. She would look away and remain ignorant no longer. No matter what she decided to do about it, she had to know the truth. She followed her husband to his next late dinner.

Kotaro met with a very tall white-haired man. Surely the gender and age gap made an affair unlikely. Nao relaxed, thinking maybe she'd been too suspicious.

Then, after dinner, the strange man and Kotaro headed to a hotel. Suddenly Nao had to rethink her assumptions about her husband's sexuality.

Nao paced outside the hotel for half an hour, working herself into a frenzy of grief and betrayal. She had a few drinks at the hotel bar. With her veins burning with liquid courage, she stormed upstairs and kicked down the door to the room where her husband had gone.

"AH-HA!" Nao cried, followed by, "Huh?"

Kotaro sat tucked in bed with a Teddy bear. The man appeared to be reading him a bedtime story.

"Is this a sexual kink?" Nao asked in a very small voice.

Kotaro leapt up, his face crimson. "No! This is my father."

"But your father is dead," Nao whispered.

"My mother lied to me that my father had died. I only found him recently. We've, uh…been working through some of my childhood abandonment issues together." Kotaro turned even redder. "It's not that unusual, right?"

Smoothly the man said, "Lots of parents still read their children bedtime stories as adults." He stood up and offered his hand. "I'm Shigaraki. Nice to meet you, my daughter-in-law." His smile had a few too many teeth.

Nao didn't think this was normal, but she was too embarrassed about falsely accusing her husband of an affair to argue. "Oh, uh, nice to meet you! Kotaro should have told me sooner. I'd love to invite you over to dinner."

"And I'd love to meet my granddaughter," Shigaraki purred. "Tell me, have you considered a second child?"

"Err…" Nao had heard of baby-crazy grandparents but that was still ridiculously forward for a first meeting.

Kotaro leapt in. "Please excuse Dad, he's always wanted a big family. We have so much lost time to make up for. My horrible mother ran away from my father for absolutely no reason, then put me into foster care rather than let him look after me. Isn't she the worst?"

Shigaraki nodded. "Typical behavior for heroes. I would be delighted to move in with my son to make up for lost time."

Nao Shimura didn't consider herself a suspicious woman by nature, but that story was incredibly sus. Surely it wouldn't have been so easy for a public figure like Nana Shimura to flee with her child. The public eye would have made it easy to track her down for a custody hearing. Also why was Nao's father-in-law so invested in her reproductive choices? Why had he taken so long to reveal himself, and done it in such a strange way? She didn't think it would do her any good to point out the holes in the story, because her husband was clearly deep in his father's thrall. As she gazed into Shigaraki's red, hypnotic eyes, a fleeting and surprising thought occurred to her: Maybe it would have been better if her husband had been having an affair.

OMAKE TIME!

Torino: I can't tolerate this Nana slander. All for One pretended to be someone else to marry her, tried to steal One for All via sexual transmission, then tried to vault Nana and Kotaro. She had no choice except to flee.

Nao: At least All for One probably won't kill us in this AU?

All for One: I don't kill family. (That one time was totally Kudou's fault.) I just want a new baby to groom as my evil heir.

Torino: Nana's family lives but at what cost?

Tenko: Eh, I'm not interested in villainy, I'm going to become a video game script writer.

#

Nao: I met my husband when I was in trouble.

All for One: I, too, have a taste for helping people in trouble. For once my genes won over the love of spiky heads!

Yoichi: Psst, Hana and Tenko, want to date someone with spiky hair?

#

Kotaro: My daddy issues are so huge, I believe whatever my father says.

All for One: Finally, a relative with my favorite trait—gullibility.

Kotaro: I'm also very annoying.

All for One: No problem, I've got a vault if it gets excessive.

#

Nao: Explain the back pain text.

Kotaro: I was just complaining about my back aches from working late, but yeah, that was weird. Ask Horikoshi for an explanation.