Inko smiled as she carefully put together another bouquet and handed it over to a man with his golden hair up in a bun "One bouquet of sixteen lilies, is there anything else I can get you Jiro-San?" she asked.
"Nah, this should be more than enough. Besides I got to go pick my daughter up, her band practice is going to be over soon." Jiro-San told her with a chuckle "Oh I understand Jiro-San, your wife is a lucky woman to have such a thoughtful husband." Inko commented, moving over to the register.
She really did think that, even when things with her ex-husband were still good, she strongly doubted Hisashi would've gone out of his way to set up such a lovely night out for their anniversary as Jiro-San had for his wife.
Jiro-San laughed "I'm the lucky one Midoriya, I still don't know how Mika fell for me. Honestly, I can't imagine my life without either of my girls and I plan on thanking her for every day she's willing to put up with me." Jiro-San said underhandedly, throwing a jab at himself as she rang him up.
"Alright, that should come to ¥13,700 Jiro-San." Inko told him and the man swiped his card "There we go, see ya next week Midoriya." Jiro-San said waving before he left and Inko gave him one back then went to get started on misting the flowers that needed it.
Working part-time at this quaint little flower shop wasn't much but it kept her busy the days Izuku was traveling, quitting her job left her with more than a little free time even with the daily work Izuku sent her, she probably would have found herself a part-time job even if she didn't have the time.
She simply was a busybody and couldn't spend all her time just sitting around at home waiting for something to happen, and sure she didn't need to work since Izuku made more than enough money to support them both, and Inko knew he would be making even more soon since she was sure that Izuku would only be expanding his business ventures.
But working also gave her money to pay for the bills and groceries, even if she knew Izuku wouldn't mind her using his money Inko wouldn't dream of relying on the money her son was making, she had tried out at a few other places, but she had liked the flower shop the most since it gave her the hours she wanted.
The work was simple and while she didn't have a green thumb Inko knew how to take care of the plants with a little help from the other employees, the people working there were decent enough even if she didn't know them all that well.
She finished up for the day by reorganizing some of the displays before she clocked out "I'm going home for the day, see in a couple of days, Mia." Inko called over her shoulder and the woman just waved her off.
She also made sure to pop into the grocery store on her way home so she could make something special tomorrow, Izuku would be coming home, and she wanted to make him an older family recipe, the main ingredient was expensive, so Inko only made it once and a while.
Izuku adored the squid tempura, so Inko didn't mind splurging every so often, her son's room used to be a very expensive shrine to the number one hero for years after all.
Home again after a few minutes Inko put the groceries away and got to work cleaning up around the house, despite his work schedule Izuku still insisted on doing his share of the chores much to her dismay, Inko had only managed to talk Izuku down from the number of chores he did after she quit her job.
So, she'd do her best to keep the apartment in tip-top shape so Izuku didn't stress himself so much, truly If it wasn't for her son's lack of self-care Inko would suspect Izuku had a masochist side he was trying to hide from her.
*Then again maybe we are just too much alike.* Inko considered in her mind as she peeled off the gloves and the mask she wore for cleaning, Mitsuchan would always tell her the same thing for being such a busy bee.
Moving to the kitchen Inko grabbed herself her little tub of ice cream ready to sit down and see if she could find any good books online, it was about time to update the library on her phone, and she did have some spare pocket money to get one.
However, her scrolling was interrupted by an alert from her phone, one from the site Izuku used to study for his degrees.
The site was made with some modifications for children with intelligence quirks in mind and one of those things allowed their parents to get notifications of their children's programs, she hadn't had the notifications on before but with Izuku's newly found track record with mishandling his graduations, Inko felt the need to turn it on.
And that feeling seemed to be right judging by the notification that said Izuku was four-fifths done, Inko was certainly shocked to see that he was almost done with his course work considering he only started last month, just to be sure she opened the site to check on his assignments.
Looking through some of them answered why Izuku had done so much so fast, it was mostly research papers that had a lot of cross-over with what he had previously studied, Inko remembered clearly from Izuku talking about his time studying for his quirk theory degree Izuku always give these little tidbits of quirked human biology.
So, it would make sense that Izuku already had a working knowledge of the field if Inko thought about it that way, even if he wasn't Inko knew Izuku was a pro at digging up information from years of searching for scraps of information on underground heroes.
The rest of the coursework tests were just filling in the blanks for her son considering Izuku's comprehensive knowledge, the only things that Inko thought would give her son pause were the essays given how Izuku would need to avoid plagiarizing someone else.
Inko was proud her son was doing so well but doing an entire four years of work in just a month, perhaps she should be more worried about Izuku burning out over his college work instead of teaching in the districts.
Inko sighed, shaking her head and checked the time and saw that Izuku should be just finishing up doing his college work and she proceeded to call her son "Hi mom! Do you need something? Did yesterday's spreadsheet not come through?" Izuku asked, completely unbothered by her sudden call.
"No dear it's here, that's not why I'm calling Izuku." Inko answered, "Have you checked how far along you are with your degree?" She inquired practically seeing the baffled look on Izuku's face.
"Huh? No, but I can't be that far along I've only... " Izuku said, stopping mid-sentence as he presumably had checked the site through his laptop " Eh?" she overheard Izuku mutter "No, no. I've just... This can't be happening again." Izuku whined and Inko had to hold a hand over her mouth to keep from laughing too hard.
"I guess we should start planning another graduation, do you want me to invite your friends over?" Inko asked after letting Izuku sulk for a couple of minutes "I guess... Can we really invite Mezo-Kun and Ochaco-Chan over?" Izuku asked, still kind of moping.
"Of course, we just need to plan ahead, Izuku, so they can come over." Inko answered, already making plans for how to get both of his friends over for a bit and then home again on time for them to go to bed since the kids would have school the next day.
"That would be nice... Do you think we could make them Obaachan's tempura? Mezo-Kun likes squid, but he doesn't get to eat it much." Izuku requested, sounding slightly better than before.
"Sure Izuku, I was planning to make some but if you want, I can teach you to make them tomorrow." Inko offered "Yes, please! You're finally going to teach me Obaachan's recipe?" Izuku quickly agreed and Inko liked to imagine he was bouncing from his excitement, to be fair Izuku had begged her to tell him how to make it for years.
The recipe wasn't so different from what could be found online, her mother just taught her a slightly different way of preparing the squid and some spices that just combined well with the dish.
"I think you're old enough to learn now Izuku, you're traveling all over the country by yourself after all." Inko commented, unintentionally getting her son to laugh though he tried to cover it up, something that warmed her heart to hear "I can't wait mom," Izuku managed to say after a few seconds.
She would have liked to continue talking but something must have happened on Izuku's end "Oh, sorry mom, I have to go. I'm going to help the kids plant their garden today." Izuku apologized and Inko heard some shuffling on his end.
"It's fine Izuku, we can talk more about this later. I know you've been looking forward to this, especially after Aris-San has been getting more involved right?" She replied, moving to put away the rest of her ice cream before it melted.
"Yeah, he's been great with the kids, but I wish Aris-San wouldn't curse in front of them so much." Izuku lamented and Inko could understand his pain, it had taken her a lot of work to teach Izuku not to use all the colorful words he had learned from his Auntie, even if it gave her a good story of four-year-old Izuku's favorite words.
"I'm sure you'll have a lot of fun though Izuku." She told him and got a noncommittal grunt in return "I'll try mom, love you." Izuku replied, "Love you too Izuku." She said back before Izuku hung up on her, Inko smiled, setting aside her phone to begin preparing the squid she bought for tomorrow.
"I should probably call Mitsuchan, she would probably be over the moon about it... Masachan will likely make that custom suit he's been talking about since Izuku started college." Inko said to herself as she worked.
If Inko hadn't been there to rein them in the Bakugous would have equally spoiled Izuku as they saw it was their self-appointed duty as his godparents, Inko only allowed them to give him so many things because she knew it was how they expressed themselves best, still, she made sure to draw a firm line for them not to cross.
A soft knock at the door interrupted her thoughts and Inko left the kitchen to see just who it was, opening the door she smiled upon seeing Masachan there "Well hello stranger." She greeted making him chuckle "Hello Inko, do you have some chili pepper I can borrow? Mitsuki forgot to grab some when she went shopping." He requested.
Inko sighed finding herself oddly fond of her dear friend's occasional forgetfulness, it was the lesser evil of all Mitsuchan's unfortunate habits "Of course, feel free to come in and sit down Masachan." Inko told him moving to go to her spice rack "Thanks Inko I'd stay but I have to get started on supper, if I want it to be done by the time Katsuki gets home." Masachan replied, trailing after her to the kitchen threshold.
Inko gave an understanding hum back "Has Katsuki been making any more progress with his communication?" she asked shifting through the bottles.
She had her back to Masachan so she couldn't see his reaction other than hearing his heavy exhale "He's… trying, which is good, but Katsuki might take too much after Mitsuki in that regard and it's not that hard to see how it bothers him." Masachan explained, tugging on her heartstrings, Inko could easily relate given she had been the one who had to help Mitsuchan curb her temper when they first started being friends.
"The pottery helps though; he likes using that little oven we got him, and I think he's planning on making something special." Masachan added "Well, that's good. I'm glad he's found something he likes- Ah here it is." Inko responded, finally finding the pesky little bottle and happily offering it to Masachan "Thank you Inko, I know how hard it is to find this stuff. By the way, how's Izuku holding up?" Masachan asked as he took the bottle.
Inko smiled "Oh he's doing fine, a bit dismayed he's going to graduate so soon again." She told him and he blinked surprised, then Masachan huffed looking rather bemused "You don't think we'll have to hold an intervention for him collecting diplomas, do you?" Masachan teasingly asked, causing her to snort and Inko playfully smacked his arm.