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Shouta remembers his last foster home vividly. How the floors creaked under his sleeping bag, the sound of the pipes in the walls. Closing his eyes, Shouta could even see the cracks on the ceiling.
No matter how hard he tries, those years never fully faded, and they never truly healed.
Coming out to his foster parents was the last straw. They saw his performance in the sports festival and demanded to know why he was called by a different name, why he was presented male. He remembers the ache on his jaw from the punch his foster father sent.
“If you’re going to pretend to be a man, I’ll treat you like one.”
He escapes that night, taking only a trash bag of clothes, his school bag, and the sleeping bag. He still held his breath, he still waited for something to go wrong. But he finds a spot no one looks at, and settles there.
Shouta still remembers being scared to return to school. The trip to the principal's office was nerve wracking, would his social worker be there? His fosters?
No, he was offered a place in the Hero Course.
Packing his supplies in the support classroom was a surreal feeling, one thing goes wrong only for the next to be his dream.
Fate seems to work mysteriously.
―
It goes well until his homeroom teacher begins to notice small things about his routine. Nezu was and always will be the most observant person Shouta has ever met. So he really shouldn’t have been surprised when Nezu showed up in the alley he called a ‘home’.
Shouta would never admit to anyone his fears and how he cried when Nezu reassured him that no, he will not return to his abusive situation. That wouldn’t be going back into the system at all. He was welcome as a ward of UA, and there would be a place for him until he graduates.
Shouta ends up in a warm room that night, but he still sleeps in the disgusting sleeping bag.
He’s not sure if he’ll ever stop feeling comfort being wrapped in one.
―
Nezu asked him to be a personal student, and Shouta is forever grateful that he agreed. He wouldn’t have been half the Hero today without him. He wasn’t expecting the dedication- the love that followed.
Nezu opened his home during holidays so Shouta was not alone, he took him to the doctor to get his first visit for transitioning, he made sure Shouta was taking care of himself. Nezu bought him a new sleeping bag, and taught him to cook. When Oboro died, Nezu comforted him, not leaving the dorms even after his mourning began to wane. Shoving him into therapy that he fought hard against, but in the end Shouta was grateful for.
Nezu became something stable, and comfortable for Shouta to rely on, and that was something he could never thank the chimera enough for.
Shouta had only said it aloud a handful of times, but Nezu was like a father to him, and he wouldn’t trade those years for anything.
―
When Nezu was promoted to principal, the school board told him that he could not show any favoritism. Since Shouta was in fact, not Nezu’s legal ward, they could no longer keep the arrangement as before. Shouta was a UA ward, and could not be shown more care than other students.
Shouta still remembers how angry Nezu was, how he fought and fought to make the arrangement legal, but no court would approve. The echo of ‘what do you know about human children?’ rang through his mind. Nezu seemed to come to a point of understanding, they would never give him that type of human right. So Nezu did as he did best, made a plan.
Nezu slips to the Yamada that Shouta needed a legal home, and they foster him until he graduates. Hizashi and Shouta were already close, and the Yamada’s seemed to adore him. He remembers when Hizashi found out he was a ward of UA, how the courts wouldn’t allow him to stay where he was happy, how Hizashi cried into his shoulder, citing it wasn't fair. It really wasn't. Shouta was upset at first, feeling he had been abandoned. But after time had passed, he knew it was for the best. That in some ways the courts were right.
The Yamada’s were human, and Nezu was not. There were things they could teach him, emotional growth he wasn't aware of. Regaining the trust in human adults, he never knew he lost. Nezu had apparently seen that as well, willing to give Shouta the chance to heal more than possible within UA’s dorm.
The Yamada’s were a gift, never pushed his boundaries, never forcing a relationship on him. They set ground rules, and clear expectations, how they would treat him like their own son, how he wouldn’t be treated like he was in foster care. How Nezu was allowed to visit whenever, that he was too, welcome in their home.
The first dinner all together warmed his heart, the people he cares for all together. His family.
He didn’t realize this was what he was missing.
―
Time passes quickly from there. Shouta remembers so much happening in the span of five years, it was hard to untangle the memories and find the beginning and end to the happiness.
Graduating led to Hizashi asking him on a date, and the Yamada’s and Nezu were supportive, overjoyed even. Then the dating led to an apartment and the apartment led them to their first steps as adults. Shouta’s first agency, his first mission. His first time undercover.
Shouta proposed to Hizashi, and the celebration that followed. Tearful talks on their future, about where they would go, how they would live. The confession of Shouta’s fear of raising children.
The wedding and the funeral that followed.
The Yamada’s left them iin a car accident a few months after the wedding, and Shouta still feels the emptiness in his chest where their warmth once filled. But the years still pass, and Hizashi and Shouta still live on, finding family among their friends, joining the UA staff and settling in new routines and careers.
Shouta felt a sense of purpose teaching future heroes. Helping them learn to survive the cruel industry, saving his students from themselves and their situations. Yet he still refused to believe in himself as a parent. Months pass by faster, the school years seemingly speeding up the flow of time.
Then they met Izuku.
Shouta felt all those worries choke him, and push back saying ‘you’ll just ruin him’. But Shouta felt in his heart, more than anything, Izuku would always be the exception.
All those years of suffering, then the years of living lead to this.
The chance to help his son heal as well.
Shouta might have not fully healed, and he may still struggle with fears. But he swears to himself that as long as he can help Izuku grow, it will have been worth it.
Izuku will always outweigh his own self-doubt, because he is worth every ounce of fear.