Captured by the reflective glint in Tokuda's thin framed spectacles, akin to that of a focused circular camera lens, are already printed but still glossy pictures. The photojournalist runs a hand through his black wavy hair, smoothing strands back so that they don't block his vision. Once again, his freelancer friend has come through with excellent quality shots of Spider-Man. As he sifts through them some more, he pauses on a particular picture and can't hide his small smile over what he sees. Undoubtedly, since he's done so himself many of times before, this photo must have accidentally gotten mixed in with the batch of Spider-Man shots.
"You must really like this girl to deem her front page material", Tokuda looks up at Midoriya as he teases the young boy. When all he sees is a scrunched up facial expression full of confusion, he turns over the picture that he's holding. It's to show the young girl with an ear jack quirk presented instead of Spider-Man. Midoriya's face flushes a bright red immediately, which makes Tokuda involuntarily let out a laugh. He manages to say, "I can see that I'm right!", but only in between wheezing fits.
Midoriya reaches across Tokuda's desk to snatch away the photo before he quickly hides it. "I- It's not like that!", and he's also quick to stammer out an apologetic excuse of some kind but Tokuda is still too busy being amused by it all to actually listen. Midoriya sweatdrops and sighs while sinking into his seat, accepting his defeat in a fate full of embarrassment & shame.
It takes Tokuda some time to settle down, and even then he still lets out a light chuckle or two. All the while, Midoriya sinks deeper and deeper in his seat, trying desperately to slide out of sight. After removing his glasses momentarily in order to wipe a stray tear from his right eye and then putting the spectacles back on, Tokuda finally finds it in him to get serious again. "So what is it like then?", he asks with a piqued eyebrow much like his piqued interest.
Midoriya shyly squirms in his seat. He avoids eye contact and shrinks in on himself like he's been called there to be fired or something along those lines. Nevertheless, he eventually manages to squeak out, "I'm.. I'm just admiring her from afar", which earns a look from Tokuda. Realizing he appears guilty, Midoriya bounces upright to defend himself, "I'm not a stalker or a creep! I swear!"
Tokuda holds up his hands to show the boy that he intends not to point any fingers with them. "I wouldn't think that you are", he also has a gentle & understanding smile while adding, "I myself with my quirk am no stranger to the art of admiration" Those same front facing palms produce camera lenses for emphasis as a reminder to what the man's quirk inherently by nature is.
Relieved and calmed down a bit by that, Midoriya falls back into his seat. "It's just that.. Sometimes the way I see her is something I wanna hold onto so it's not just a fleeting moment", the way he lounges makes him appear as though he's exhausted and has come to share his problem with a therapist instead of his boss.
Considering Tokuda was the one that prompted this technical therapy session to begin with, he carries on with it. He gets comfortable in his own seat, crossing one leg over the other. "Why don't you tell her that?", the photojournalist takes some personal interest in the young freelancer's story.
The corners of Midoriya's mouth downturn into some semblance of a frown. He looks away pensively. For someone so young to appear so contemplative, even if it is pertaining to a crush, is somewhat odd. Midoriya mumbles in response, "..I.. I can't.." Tokuda would have likely leaned forward anyways even if he didn't have to do so to hear the slight whisper.
"Why not?", both eyebrows raise when Tokuda considers the reasons for Midoriya's self imposed solitude. There's the boy's supposedly quirkless nature but he dares not bring that up for sake of it being a sore spot. He instead guesses at another quality that the kid so obviously has, "Shy?"
Midoriya shakes his skull absentmindedly. He's very obviously still in his own head. Tokuda's voice is probably blended in with whatever the boy's own internal monologue for a mind is saying to himself. "It's better that I keep my distance", what he says aloud is proof of that with what context Tokuda is lacking. "Besides.. If she got to know this part of me, I'm afraid she'd no longer like any of me.."
"Whatever that means..", Tokuda steeples his fingers as he bends forward to rest his forearms on his desk, "..You haven't given her a chance to decide that herself, Midoriya" His stare goes beyond the lens of his glasses and reaches the boy's emerald eyed orbs.
Midoriya shrugs, "I guess", and looks away to avoid continued eye contact, "But I just can't see things going any other way.."
Tokuda looks on with fondness, reminded of himself at a younger age. "You can't view life through a third person's camera", he takes it upon himself to teach the kid a much needed lesson that he wishes he had learned sooner. "Sometimes you need to look at things from a different perspective–", Tokuda removes his glasses and moves them to Midoriya's face, "-in order for you to see things more clearly."
The boy blinks while staring through the spectacles that somehow manage to have a perfectly snug fit on his face. When he looks back down, it's at the photo of Kyoka Jirou that he pulls back out. Tokuda's right. Even with his enhanced spider senses, it's like only now is he seeing clearly why he took that picture of her.
It's a rarity that Izuku Midoriya makes any appearance for classes these days. Often times, he's opted to have his work sent to him to do from home. But today, Midoriya makes an in-person attendance. Hitoshi Shinso, practically the elusive boy's only friend, is just as surprised as anyone else to see Midoriya show up. Surely, if they had known ahead of time, it might have even called for some sort of celebratory party. Especially considering how impressive it is that Midoriya actually manages to stay in his seat for the entire duration of class.
Though, that all being said and seen, it's to be expected that Midoriya bolts upright to go as soon as class lets out. Shinso has to have his bag pre-packed and ready so that he can catch up to his friend at the door. Once they round the corner and enter the hall, Midoriya slows his pace just enough to be accommodating. "Taking Final Exams seriously by showing up for once?", Shinso shoots his shot with guessing what may have earned this slight turn of events.
"Uhuh", Midoriya's absentminded response might make it seem like otherwise but Shinso chooses to believe he guessed correctly when Midoriya adds, "Something like that.." Midoriya glances left and right at every other classroom, like he's looking for something – or someone – but that's impossible considering Shinso is the only person he's bothered to socialize with if with anyone ever; Shinso stares suspiciously at his friend, not for the first time.
It's been a while since they last hung out together. "Ya know.. I could use some help studying..", Shinso decides to take the initiative in trying to maintain – or, at this point, slightly salvage – their friendship, "Do you wanna link up to go over the material together?" He awkwardly scratches behind the back of his bedhead; in the back of that same head are thoughts of how strange it is the way things changed, since it was Midoriya pushing their friendship when they had met and now it's up to him to try and make this work.
"Um.. Yeah, sure.. Some other time..", Midoriya's non-committable reply only reiterates Shinso's thoughts of how things have changed between the two of them. He's about to inquire as to why his friend is becoming so distant and acting distracted, but then he sees firsthand why and comes to his own conclusion. Midoriya stops outside the classroom that he was looking for; it's the door to 1-A of the Hero Course. The chatter inside sounds like the hero students are planning a study group and now it all makes sense when Midoriya heads on in without Shinso.
Shinso scoffs, "Yeah..", he has to shove his hands into his pants pockets to keep them from forming into fists involuntarily. After having been blown off, he recalls all the other times Midoriya ditched him – starting from literally day one when Midoriya pulled a vanishing act on the train – and he comes to the realization that maybe this whole friendship thing just isn't worth it afterall. He turns and begins walking away while muttering under his breath, "Why should I start relying on him now?"
None the wiser to Shinso's sudden absence behind him, Midoriya ventures into the classroom of 1-A. Yaoyorozu is in front of the chalkboard arranging plans with most of the Hero Course students to meet at her place for a study session. It sorta both benefits and backfires his intentions of bothering to pay the class a visit as Izuku Midoriya and not Spider-Man. Especially when he sees Kyoka Jirou is grouped together with Yaoyorozu's planned party.
He clears his throat while drawing nearer to Jirou, getting her attention. "Th- This works out well then", he tugs at the collar of his school uniform and realizes it's not as breathable as his vigilante suit nor does he have a mask to hide his anxiety, "I was on my way here to suggest something similar. Um, Spider-Man suggested you could use a tutor and sent m- me.. But that might not be necessary now.."
Jirou raises a singular eyebrow; her ear jacks sway as she tilts her head to one side. "Really? Spider-Man said that?", she sounds unconvinced before shrugging and smiling away the doubt, "I wouldn't have believed you if not for you being his photographer" This makes Midoriya sweat nervously even more. "I guess I do better one on one instead of in groups anyway so I just might take you up on that offer", but he's just as instantly relieved by her next statement.
"R- Really?!", Midoriya perks up a bit now that he sees there's some shred of hope in coming here afterall, "I mean – Cool – I- Is there a time you wanna meet tonight or.. ?"
"Sure, dude, I don't have much planned" Jirou produces and holds out her cellphone for Midoriya to take. "Just add me as a contact and text the deets", this is the second time he's just openly been given a girl's phone number and it's still an insane concept to grasp for him.
"Um", he actually has to use the spider stickiness granted by his quirk to keep the phone from slipping out of his hands due to how sweaty they are, "Yeah! Just gimme a minute here…" He's aware that Jirou can probably hear his heartbeat and so it rapidly picks up even more speed. Wanting to get the heck out of there before she says something about it, he finishes up and hands her the phone back, "See ya later!"
Jirou watches the boy bolt out of the room and raises the same eyebrow that she had raised previously. When she looks down at her phone, she sees his name has a spider emoji beside it and raises her other eyebrow.
"Whoooo~hoooooo~", Spider-Man soars over skyscrapers after letting loose on his highest arc yet while web swinging; he stretches out his arms as the open air takes hold of him, wind hugging his body both on the ascent and descent, "I've done it! I've got a date!"
The free fall that comes before firing his next web line feels more liberating and freeing than ever before, and it's crazy for that to be the case since he's experienced this type of swan dive more times than he can count on his two hands. "I got a daaaaate!", he whoops and hollers when coming down on his swing.
Whereas it's all good and fun to celebrate with some freestyle aerial movements, Spidey still needs to take some time to stop and process this all. He needs to actually plan the study date. He needs to… plan it. "Uh oh", he's suddenly struck by the revelation that he has no experience with this sort of thing and as such has no idea how to go about planning said date.
Spider-Man sticks his landing on a tower that overlooks Musutafu. It's tall enough that nobody would be able to identify his face by looking up. And so, he pulls off his mask to give his brain some oxygen. Wind whips his freckled cheeks and blows about his mop of messy green hair. It helps to cool him off a bit while he thinks.
Gloved knuckles rest under his exposed chin as he ponders things. The boy's first thought is to call his mother and ask her for advice. She'd probably know just what to do and say considering she's a woman herself. But he isn't ready to deal with the maelstrom of tears and questions that would undoubtedly come with telling her that he has a date arranged. He needs to turn to someone else who'll be able to talk to him more calmly about it all.
Sure, he recently turned MJ down because of his concerns of how this web slinging life style might affect that relationship. But that was before his talk with Tokuda. He wasn't prepared to give Jirou much of a chance either. Though, Tokuda has a point, that it's not fair for him to be the only one to make that decision. He owes it not only to himself but to them as well to TRY. He fishes out his phone and scrolls through his contacts. Since it's Tokuda that got him into this mess, he figures…
But before his thumb can press the call button, an incoming call displays a different contact. He accidentally answers before realizing who it is. He had given Detective Tsukauchi Naomasa his phone number as Spider-Man to keep in touch, in good faith that there'd be a shared trust there between the two of them; he just wasn't expecting to actually get a call from the detective. "Uh.. Hi?", he holds the phone close to his ear in an effort to tune out the high altitude ambience of the city.
"Spider-Man", Naomasa teresely responds. "Bad time?", the question is obviously rhetorical but the preoccupied teen considers actually answering before Naomasa continues with what the call is about, "I have a lead on Nezu that you might want to look into."
Spider-Man snaps to attention, pulling his mask back on as his eyes narrow into a more focused state of mind. "Oh? Do tell", he slides down the slide of the tower that he's been sticking to before clinging to an architectural groove next; there's something about the grappling that keeps him paying attention the way an ordinary person may pace around.
"There's an old outpost that has recently been bought and ordered for demolition", Naomasa's voice explains over the line but there comes a point that there no longer needs to be much more of an explanation, "Are you willing to guess by who?"
"Nezu", Spider-Man hops off the tower like the name that just came out of his mouth has taken up residence there and he no longer wants to share space with it. He fires a web line once coming into range of shorter buildings and swings to somewhere less noisy.
There's some rustling on the other end of the line, likely Naomasa sifting through papers. "It could be nothing but it could also be an attempt at covering something up", the detective finishes sharing the details of his lead with an address for Spider-Man to follow, "Nezu keeps tabs on just about everyone but I'm willing to bet your snooping would go more unnoticed than mine."
"I'll see what I can find", Spider-Man swings as a red and blue streak over the city once regaining momentum in his movements. If he hurries, he'll have enough time to dig up dirt on Nezu AND to make it to his study date with Jirou.
Remembering his dilemma regarding that date, Spider-Man's eyes exaggeratedly expand while expressing his epiphany over it. Naomasa is a reliable source for advice, he'd imagine. Plus there's the added benefit of anonymity that doesn't come with his mom or Tokuda prying into his private life. "Hey.. Detective.. You got an extra minute?", Spidey broaches the topic with a little hesitancy but braves broaching the topic nonetheless.
"I can make one", Naomasa stops shuffling papers and speaks a little more clearly into the phone as an adjustment to bring it closer might suggest, "What is it?"
"Um", Spider-Man is hesitant again. But there's no going back now. "So I've got this date with a girl later.. And I was wondering if you– if you could tell me what to do?", he cringes and regrets asking for help when waiting on Naomasa to respond.
It takes way too long for the boy's liking to get that response. But Naomasa eventually does give an answer, "Flowers", which for taking such a long time to give doesn't have a whole lot of answering.
"Flowers? That's it?", Spider-Man has to make sure that the audio didn't cut out or the signal didn't drop during his swing; he wants to check that he didn't miss anything in case there's more.
"That's it", but Naomasa confirms that 'flowers' is all he said, "Trust me. They never fail."
"Okay.. Flowers then", Spider-Man has a hard time believing it's that easy but isn't one to argue with adults who have seniority over him. At the very least, stopping simply only for flowers won't take that much more time on his way back.
"Oh.. And Spider-Man?" Naomasa's voice returns to say more. Spider-Man pays close attention. There's a smile in the man's tone as he encouragingly says, "Good luck to you."
Turns out Izuku needed that extra luck from Naomasa since the Midoriya Misfortune struck again. For starters, the address to Nezu's new property wound up being further than originally thought – plus it wasn't even worth going there since the place was already leveled by the time he got there (they must work quick with their coverups) – it was a colossal waste of time. As such, he had to pick up the pace when swinging back in an effort to make it to his study date. Doing so really tattered up the flowers he picked out and got him all sweaty.
Now, Izuku Midoriya pulls a wrinkled shirt over his spandex spidey suit and comes out looking more disheveled with his hair than previously thought possible. Sweat stains the boy from his face down to his toes and he's pretty sure that it's starting to make him smell bad. He sniffs under an arm to check. Yep, the confirmation could be argued that it wasn't needed but the confirmation is there. He looks at the wilted single stem that survived his hurried web swinging and sighs as the last remaining petal falls off from the flower. It's better that he just discards the plant and meets Jirou empty handed at this point.
She's waiting for him inside a boardgame cafe that they mutually decided made more sense than meeting at either of their houses. It also makes for a nice quiet date-like environment that they can possibly ease into instead of only studying. Or, that's Izuku's rationality anyhow. He hurries to the table that she claimed for them and bows to apologize for being slightly tardy.
When he does, he inadvertently shows her a closer look at his shoulder – where there's some stray residue that happened to land there during his haphazard swinging – she plucks a patch of gray from his shirt and holds it up between two pinched fingers. "What's this? A cobweb?", she studies it like it could instead be lint but already knows better.
"Uh", Izuku brainstorms an explanation and surprises himself with something that actually makes some semblance of sense, "Guess I need to clean my closet more often" He shudders from the chilling cold of the sweat rolling down his skin. That was a close one.
"Nuff said", Jirou tosses aside the dried web clot along with whatever judgment may have been there along with it. She gestures to her own attire as though to display a like-mindedness. But the wardrobe of a yellow tank top that reads 'Deep Dope' on it and ripped jeans is way more fashionable than what he's got on.
Izuku eventually realizes that he's been staring at her outfit for too long. "S- So.. !", he looks away and up towards the ceiling – the ceiling is looking mighty ceiling-y today – and then down at the floor which is looking mad floor-y by comparison, "Wh- What.. Uh.. What did you need help with?"
Jirou crosses her arms and stares at Izuku evenly, "Didn't Spider-Man tell you already?", her tone holds no actual curiosity to the question that she asks.
Izuku shudders again, but this time because he's afraid of being caught in a technical lie. "N- Not necessarily", he forces a laugh to try and ease things, "I was just told to tutor and so here I am! T- Tutoring.. You.. I want to tutor you.." He forces down the reflex to wince at how he screwed that one up.
Jirou uncrosses her arms and places her hands on her hips. She looks at him from an angle, her ear jacks dangling as she does. "You wanna tutor me?", again her question doesn't have much genuine curiosity in the tone of it.
Izuku blushes as he nods and answers, "So bad.." She looks taken aback and blushes too. They stare at one another for awhile, both embarrassed. When Izuku fully finishes processing and realizes what he said, he feigns a cough into his hand, "I mean yes! Yes.. I do."
Jirou sighs as she shakes her head to clear away her blush. "Stupid.. Fine! We're already here so may as well get on with it", her relenting comes with taking a seat at the table and forcibly gesturing that Izuku do the same before she changes her mind.
He gets into his seat and joins her. Rather than going for the boardgames available, he figures it's probably for the best to just dive into the textbooks. Which, turns out, Jirou does require a little bit of assistance with understanding. What started as an excuse to share time with her suddenly becomes a reality. He tutors her through all the material that he's aware will be covered during the written portions of the exams.
By the end of it, she even winds up asking him to tutor her again. "I think I'd feel more prepared for the tests if we practice like this every night until then", is how she puts it. She could have put it just about any other way and he'd still be uber thrilled about it, to be honest.
"Yeah! Same time and place tomorrow then", he grins a little goofily since he now has a second chance at giving her flowers per Naomasa's suggestion.
The flowers did not survive the second chance either. While Spider-Man can carefully transport them by swinging much more considerably of their well being, he cannot transport them safely when villains attack. There just so happened to be a car collision along the way that he thought would be worth looking into – cause, ya know, great power & great responsibility – and now he's paying the price for being nosey about it. A villain calling himself Ending is trying to get Endeavor's attention (he wishes Endeavor were dealing with this right now instead) but has gotten the ol' webhead's attention instead. The flowers were crushed beneath the vigilante when Spider-Man got laid flat on his back during his battle with Ending. Now he's fighting for the sake of blowing off some steam.
"You couldn't have chosen to do this in a garden or a park so I'd at least be able to pick out a replacement?!", Spider-Man complains out loud about his luck as he dodges the long lengths of binding 'tentacles' that Ending uses. The villain's quirk allows him to control lane lines on the road as additional appendages, a skillset that would be cool for quirk analysis & study to the quirk otaku if not for it delaying his date.
"What are you babbling about?!", the villain starts chucking cars at Spider-Man when the lane lines aren't enough to do anything – but Spidey is just as capable of dodging those, if not more capable of using them as surfaces to bounce from while remaining airborne – Ending growls and shouts some more, "The only one who gets to be picky about where I fight is Endeavor!"
"And you don't think even he likes the occasional stroll through the park?", Spider-Man quips. His knack for annoying his enemies gets Ending to leave a vulnerable area in an otherwise unopened defense zone. Spider-Man darts in to take full advantage of it.
Ending has a motif of horizontal lines going across his body. It makes him appear like a crosswalk. Well, Spider-Man is about to dog walk this fool.
"No! The only one who can defeat me is Endeavor! Not you!", Ending desperately tries to stop the incoming vigilante. But it's too late. Spider-Man reaches the villain and finishes the fight with a decisive blow.
"Is that so?", Spider-Man clenches and unclenches his hand after feeling the satisfaction of his knuckles brushing against the villain's jaw. He gives Ending a final look and adds just for the sake of being bitter about the loss of his flowers, "By the way! You don't look good in stripes. Which is gonna be rough for you considering where you're going next."
Izuku stumbles into the boardgame cafe out of breath. When finally making it to the table where Jirou sits, he kneels over to rest his hands on his knees. Again, he's super sweaty and disheveled from the rush to get there. And again, he's completely without any flowers to give her. His shoulders droop as he sulks.
Across the way from him, Jirou just looks on with a baffled expression. She recovers from watching his strange entrance and sits up straight while crossing her arms, "It's eight fifteen. Is this a thing for you, Izuku Midoriya?"
Izuku looks up at Jirou after finally managing to regain enough of his breath to speak. "What do you mean?", he asks.
Her stare sharpens somewhat but she clarifies for him instead of making him guess, "Being late."
Izuku sinks back down into his seat, deflating. "Uuuhh", he's without much of an excuse this time, "Traffic.. ?"
Jirou sighs as she stands up to go, "That's a yes."
"No! Wait! Gimme a do over!", Izuku stands up to stop her before she can completely leave. She pauses and looks back, giving him another chance to explain himself. He sucks in a big breath and then exhales before trying again, "I'm sorry for being late and it will never ever happen again!"
It happens again. Or, most of what happens is a relative repetition of what happened last time. He was swinging his way through the neighborhood to meet with Jirou when he spotted a crime in progress. He got involved and in doing so jeopardized the safety of the flowers that he was carrying. Now he's flowerless and late again.
No! That's unacceptable!
Izuku decides that even if he's going to be late, he'll at least this time have the flowers to show for it. The third time's GOT to be the charm! He doubles back to replace the bouquet that he lost. It's the last of his yen for this week but he tells himself that it will be worth it. The flowers can be some sort of grand apologetic gesture, like a peace offering.
Except, despite keeping this new set of flowers intact and showing up with them in hand, things don't exactly go that way. Jirou needs to actually be there to receive them, afterall. Izuku enters the boardgame cafe to find the table where they usually sit to study completely vacant aside from a letter. He reads it knowing that it was left by Jirou, grateful that she at least didn't stand him up, but still sulks when getting the gist of what it means.
To Midoriya:
Thank you for your help so far. You really did help. But I can't risk missing a day of studying when you're always late. I decided it would be best for me to join Yaoyorozu's study group instead.
Best wishes,
Kyoka Jirou
He looks at the bundle of flowers that won't be going to Jirou and instead sees that he forgot to detach the web shooter strapped around his wrist. That settles it. Romance just isn't in the cards for Spider-Man.
Izuku returns home through the front door. He owes that much to his mother. Apart of him is glad that he's got this bouquet of flowers still since he can give them to her now. But whereas flowers may help smooth things over with crushes & dates, they don't quite completely fix things with mothers. Nonetheless, he helps her out with them by filling a vase with water. And he takes the moment as a chance to finally have a much needed conversation with her.
"Mom..", he starts slowly while putting the vase on their dining table; his mother glances over her shoulder while still prepping the flowers to let him know that she's listening, "We need to talk.."
Inko joins him at the table to put the flowers in the vase. When they both sit down beside eachother, she places a hand on her son's shoulder. "There's no need", the often overbearing mother surprises her child when she meets him with a kind & understanding forgiveness for his recent behavior, "You're growing up. I need to learn to let you have your freedom."
Unlike when he's Spider-Man, Inko wears no mask to hide how tough her internal battle is. He can see that stress is starting to take its toll on her. Within the green of her hair that's been tied back into a bun, there are strands of gray. Her chubby cheeks have now gotten thinner and started wrinkling. They aren't as prominent as Shinso's or Aizawa's but she has also begun developing eyebags; undoubtedly these are a result of waiting up on him to return during later nights.
It's hard to look at knowing that most of this transformation is his fault, "Mom..", Izuku's eyes tear up until it literally becomes harder for him to look at her. He dries his face with the sleeve of an arm. The boy shakes his head while saying, "It's still my responsibility to be there for you. You deserve my respect and I've been disrespecting you by sneaking out."
The hand on Izuku's shoulder holds him a little tighter. "You're changing into the man that you're going to become for the rest of your life", Inko continues to gaze at her son fondly, "I was worried about who you were going to turn into. But now I see that there's no need to worry."
She feels her son's shoulders slump as he also hangs his head, "I'm not so sure myself sometimes.. How can you be so sure?"
Inko gives him a mild shake to jostle his shoulders straight, and more importantly, to get his head back up so that he looks at her. She shows him a smile when he does, "Because no matter how old you get.. I'll still always be your mother" Her smile broadens a bit when she adds, "And I can tell."
Izuku tries and fails to force down a laugh. "Mom, seriously.." He rolls his eyes at her.
She laughs along, but only because she's happy that she cheered him up, not because it was actually a joke. "I'm being serious!", her defensiveness only makes them laugh more. They laugh until she says, "It's because you're never late when it matters", because THAT resonates with Izuku deeply after the past few days he spent trying to make that the case. Seeing this reached him, Inko goes on to say more. "When you were little, I'd hide under the bedsheets and pretend that I needed saving. You'd come running to my rescue every time", the wise woman gestures around while asking her son, "How is bringing me flowers or coming to talk to me any different?"
Izuku thinks back to when he'd wear an All Might onesie around the house doing exactly as his mom described. Now he's busy wearing different kind of underoos while trying to save others. Somewhere along the way, he neglected giving her attention. "Because I've not been giving you the time that you deserve", he sadly says how he feels about the revelation.
Inko pulls him in close and wraps him in a hug. "I know it's hard .. but that's part of growing up", she sounds just as sad as he did while she whispers into his ear. When they separate, he sees that she has tears brimming around the edges of her eyes. "I talked to Aunt Mitsuki and she said it's the same with Katsuki", the aging adult shrugs her shoulders and huffs out something that resembles a humorless laugh. "You start developing your own lives – not secrets – but lives separate from your parents..", Inko looks into Izuku's eyes that water too, "You can always come and tell me about that life .. but you don't have to if you don't want to, Izuku."
It kills him not to tell her everything all at once as much as he's sure it would to actually share that secret life of his. Not for the first time, Izuku Midoriya swallows down the words 'I'm Spider-Man' and spares both himself & his mother. "Lord knows I want to, mom.." He chokes up a bit, "I just can't", but manages to say, "Not right now."
Inko hugs him again, this time not letting go as quickly. "Then I'll keep waiting for whenever you're ready", they both break down crying per their shared Midoriya waterworks of a trait.
That night, Spidey stays in. Izuku and his mom curl up on the couch to watch old All Might flicks & anime. She bakes him a cake and they play the boardgames that he and Jirou didn't get to play together. It makes him realize that Izuku Midoriya is loved afterall. For tonight, he's fine with her coddling him. He's okay with being a kid again for just one more night.
AUTHOR NOTES
Hoping to keep capturing that Spidey juxtaposition of one positive equals one negative and vice versa, but I'll also try spotlighting some of 1-A next chapter as the Final Exams kick off. Thanks again to my awesome readers who encourage me to make this worthwhile nevertheless!
~Courtesy of your friendly neighborhood author!