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Shouta doesn't know why, but when he's watching Shinsou untangle himself from his own capture weapon, a frown on his face as he tries to undo the bindings around himself, something warm and fond curls in Shouta's chest.
It immediately makes him frown himself, because yeah, he sometimes likes the kids he teaches, but he doesn't care beyond the professional amount and he certainly doesn't get attached.
But it's unmistakable that he has gotten attached something bad to Shinsou, because instead of reprimanding him he goes over to help, even though he huffs out a soft laugh.
"Yeah, you laugh it up, sensei," Shinsou grumbles under his breath, though he gives him a thankful smile when Shouta comes to his rescue. "I bet you got yourself tangled up like this, too, when you were learning."
It's more disrespect than Shouta usually allows from the kids he teaches and yet—
"Worse even," he admits and watches Shinsou's eyes go wide. "I had to learn from scratch. There was no one to teach me, so I had a pretty rough time."
Shinsou freezes for a moment, clearly picturing Shouta in the same situation he just found himself in and then a smile practically lights up his face.
Shouta finds that he'd do a whole lot to keep that smile on there and it's a surprising enough thought that he shelves it away for later inspection.
He helps Shinsou out of the capture weapon and then musters him with a critical eye.
"I gave you a meal plan," he then says and immediately, the smile slides off Shinsou's face. Shouta ignores the pang of regret in his chest. "You're not sticking to it."
It's not a question, because Shinsou has barely filled out since they started their training and it's not right. Shouta made that meal plan to allow maximum muscle growth and that is clearly not happening.
"I'm sorry."
"Don't apologise. Explain your reasons to me," Shouta says, because he finds that much more important than an apology that could just be empty words.
He doesn't need Shinsou to be sorry; he just needs to understand his situation and maybe adjust for anything he hadn't thought of at first.
"You—know I'm in foster care, right?" Shinsou carefully starts, seemingly having the words dragged out of him and Shouta narrows his eyes at him.
He hadn't known that actually, but Shinsou seems to think that's a given, somehow.
"I didn't."
"But—it's in my file."
"I haven't looked at your file, kid. I don't care what previous schools or teachers have to say about you, or how your old grades were. I just needed to know if you have the drive to be a hero and if your grades here are good enough to not drop with a bit of extra training. I didn't pry into your personal life."
Maybe he should have, Shouta thinks when Shinsou shrinks in on himself and the way he had mentioned the foster care situation makes it seems as if it isn't all that great.
"I didn't know," Shinsou whispers out and he seems too caught off guard for something as small as this but Shouta doesn't have time to mull this over now, because he still doesn't actually know how his living situation relates to the meal plan, though a small suspicion is forming in his mind.
"The meal plan?" Shouta finally prompts Shinsou when he seems lost in thought and Shinsou jerks in surprise.
"Right, yeah, sorry, I didn't mean to space out," Shinsou rushes out and then goes on before Shouta can reassure him that he isn't mad or annoyed.
He's annoyed that Shinsou seems to think like that, but he's not annoyed with the kid.
"This family isn't—bad, I don't want you to get the wrong impression, but—" Shinsou hesitates, nervously tapping his finger against his leg. "I do get enough to eat, it's just—requests are not welcome?"
"You're not allowed to ask to have your meals adjusted to fit your training?" Shouta asks for clarification and Shinsou hunches his shoulders as if he's preparing for a hit and Shouta feels sick all of a sudden.
"Are they hurting you?" he asks, blunt like always and he has already half a mind going over there and putting the fear of god into those foster parents.
"No! No, like I said, this family isn't bad, it's just—"
"Not very welcoming," Shouta finishes for him and he doesn't comment on the implication that other foster families were, in fact, bad.
"Yeah," Shinsou agrees and gives Shouta a shaky smile. "So I couldn't stick to your meal plan. I'm sorry. I should have said. I'm trying as best as I can but—" he trails off with a shrug and Shouta has to fight the sudden image of Shinsou at his own kitchen table, sharing a meal that does follow the instructions of the meal plan, with Shouta and Hizashi joining him, warm laughter and easy conversation filling the room.
This could be a problem, Shouta realises and reaches out to pat Shinsou's head.
"It's alright. We'll go over what is possible for you and what not, but you need to tell me these things. If you don't speak up, I'll just assume it's good and then I can't change anything."
"I understand," Shinsou replies and for now Shouta is satisfied.
They got Shinsou out of the bindings, they will adjust his meal plan and he isn't being hurt at home.
It should all be good, but instead some unnamed feeling grows in Shouta's chest.
~*~*~
Shouta has prodded at the feeling in his chest for days, inspected it closely and mulled it over and there's only one terrifying conclusion: he wants to give Shinsou a home.
He wants to care for him, make sure he gets his food, has his wishes fulfilled, can come home to a warm and loving home, wants to see him bundled up on their couch, blanket wrapped around his shoulders and cat in his lap. Souta wants to see him laugh and joke around with Hizashi, he wants to have stupid fights over stuff only teenagers could care about and most of all he just wants to give Shinsou a family.
Something shifted inside of him when he met Shinsou, Shouta can see that now, and suddenly having a kid—and a surely teenaged one at that—seems like the most important thing in his life.
He only has to break those news to Hizashi.
“I want to adopt,” Shouta says, and frowns when Hizashi only mildly shakes his head.
“We’re not getting another cat, we have three and that’s enough,” Hizashi decisively says and okay, that’s Shouta’s mistake.
"I think we should get foster licenses," he rephrases and maybe, in hindsight, that wasn't the best way because now Hizashi's head flies around, eyes wide and a look of pure terror on his face.
"Who are you and what have you done with my husband?" Hizashi asks and Shouta supposes that's fair.
They were on the same page about kids, after all—namely, to never ever have any, ever—so this must be quite the shock to him.
"Hizashi," Shouta sighs out but Hizashi shakes his head in a way that makes his hair whip around behind him.
Shouta idly wonders if he could ever learn to use that as a weapon, too, but then the panic in Hizashi's voice makes him focus.
"No! Shouta, what the hell is going on? Have you hit your head? Are you under the influence of a quirk?" He waits just long enough for Shouta to shake his head before he goes on. "We agreed on this. No kids, ever. We agree on this anew every other year. What the fuck is going on?"
"Listen, I just think maybe we could give Shinsou a very loving home," Shouta says and watches how Hizashi blinks in confusion at him, panic momentarily forgotten.
"Shinsou. The kid you took on for extra lessons? The one from Gen Ed who made it into the third round of the sports festival?"
"Yeah."
Relief washes over Hizashi as he slumps back into the couch.
"Oh, gods, don't do this to me, Shouta, I thought you meant just any kid, like, get a toddler or something. But you're being stupid about a specific kid. He has parents, Shou."
"He doesn't actually," Shouta gives back and watches with something almost akin to amusement how Hizashi tenses again. "He's in foster care."
"Oh, fuck me," Hizashi mumbles under his breath before he glares at Shouta again. "We're not adopting a kid just because you're going soft."
"I'm not going soft," Shouta shoots back, because in all honesty, if he were going soft, there are like a handful of kids in his own class that probably need adopting. It's just— "I'm only going soft for Shinsou," he then admits, because the kid just does something to him.
"Why?"
And that's the ten million yen question, isn't it? Why is Shouta going soft on this particular kid? He doesn't have a definite answer to it, but he thinks if Hizashi would interact with him, then he'd understand.
"Have you been paying attention to him?"
It's not even a question if Hizashi knows him, because he's teaching all the kids English, so by default Shinsou is in one of his classes, but Hizashi shakes his head.
"No. I didn't think there was a reason to. You have his hero training handled and his English grades are perfect."
"Okay," Shouta nods as if that makes perfect sense.
"Not okay! What? You think I'll interact with the kid and suddenly I'm willing to adopt when we both agreed kids were never on the table?"
"Yes."
Shouta doesn't know how or why, but he's one hundred percent convinced that if Hizashi spends time with Shinsou, he'll want to adopt him, too.
"Did he brainwash you? Is this like a sleeper command thing he gave you and now you're compelled to want to adopt him?" Hizashi asks with narrowed eyes and Shouta blinks.
"I don't think he can do that, but I'll bring it up in training. It could be useful, if that were possible."
"Shou, focus!" Hizashi snaps out and Shouta sighs.
"He didn't brainwash me. He didn't even ask me to adopt him or anything like that. He mentioned being in foster care because it came up. He—doesn't seem happy, there."
"Todoroki doesn't seem happy with his father, either," Hizashi shoots back and yeah, that's exactly the problem.
It's just Shinsou, for Shouta.
"I know, but it's different. Hizashi, I can't explain it. I look at him and I just—I want to be there for him."
"You can be there for him as his teacher. There's no need for adoption."
Shouta knows that Hizashi is right, logically. But emotionally—
"It's not enough. It wouldn't be enough. I don't know why this is happening but it is."
"I'm not adopting a kid with you," Hizashi says with finality. "You knew kids were off the table. This is not happening."
Shouta sighs, because he should have expected his pig-headed husband to stand firm on this.
"I'm asking you for one week."
"One week of what?"
"Talking with Shinsou. Paying attention to him. You said his English grades are perfect. Get him to stay behind and offer advanced lessons or whatever. Do it under the pretence of wanting to talk to him about his quirk. It's voice activated, maybe you have some pointers for him. Just—one week. And then we'll talk again."
Hizashi studies him for a long moment before he lets out a long breath.
"Fine. One week. And until then I do not want to hear anything about adoption, or foster licenses, or Shinsou in this house at all."
"Fair," Shouta agrees and leans in for a kiss.
Hizashi stays stiff for only a moment, before he softens and leans into the kiss. Neither of them are people to hold a grudge and now that they have agreed on something, the entire topic is shelved and they are both clearly fine with that.
Shouta loves Hizashi a whole lot.
~*~*~
They don’t talk about it again. Shouta doesn’t ask and Hizashi doesn’t offer, but Shouta trusts that Hizashi is holding true to his words, that he’s spending time with Shinsou.
He suspects it when Shinsou shows up late to their training on Monday, haphazardly stuffing a book on advanced English into his bag but he doesn’t mention it and again, Shouta doesn’t ask. He doesn’t know why Shinsou doesn’t mention any further lessons with Hizashi; if he’s scared Shouta will be mad that he’s taking on even more work or if he thinks Eraserhead and Present Mic don’t get along well.
Shouta will ask, eventually, depending on Hizashi’s final verdict on this, but for now he lets it slide and pretends as if everything is normal. As if he doesn’t have to fight the urge to pull the kid into a sideway hug, or ruffle his head or buy him something to eat when Shinsou’s stomach audibly grumbles during training.
Well, he doesn’t fight the urge to feed Shinsou because that would be illogical and stupid and so he brings extra lunch starting Wednesday.
No matter what Hizashi’s final word on this will be, but this is something Shouta can do even without officially adopting the kid and he’s not going to stop even after the week is over.
It feels as if the days are dragging on, even though time of course passes like normal, but it’s way too long until Sunday and until Shouta and Hizashi sit down at their kitchen table to talk.
About whether or not they are going to adopt a fifteen-year-old teenager.
“You spent time with him,” Shouta starts with and Hizashi huffs at him.
“Of course I did. I told you I would, what do you even take me for?”
Shouta only smiles, because of course he knew Hizashi would, but the nerves in his gut make it hard to think.
He really wants this, and he thinks he’s going to need a day or three to mope if Hizashi says no.
“So? What do you say then?” Shouta asks and his eyes go big when Hizashi pulls out a stack of papers.
“These—” he slides one of the papers over to Shouta “—are all the courses we need to take in order to get a foster license. I talked to Yamamura from the CPS—you know, that one contact I have there—and he said he can’t fast track us on this, though he can make it so we get to cram for like days on end instead of a class every now and then. He promised to fast track the actual paper work, though, so if everything goes well, we could have a license in about a month.”
“This—” another paper gets pushed over the table “—are the dates we can take off at U.A. to take our courses, I already talked to Nezu about it and possibly started something, because he seemed to really be into the idea of his teachers having foster licenses, so I guess I’m going to have to apologise to everyone soon. I coordinated this with Yamamura and it works out fine, so this is not a problem.”
“Hizashi,” Shouta chokes out but Hizashi is on a roll and he doesn’t even let Shouta speak.
“Curiously enough Shinsou tends to be moved from one family to the next after five to six months, which begets the question what the fuck is going on there and Yamamura is on it, but that also means that he’s going to move again, soon, because he’s been with his current family for around four months now. It’s not a lot of time, but it’s enough to let us do everything we need to in order to prepare for him.”
He points at a scribbled note on one of the papers before Shouta can even wrap his head around the fact that Shinsou has never had a stable home. It might be for the best, too, because that only makes his heart hurt.
“This is the date for the home inspection, because again, we can’t skip this if we want this to be airtight and for Shinsou to be placed with us permanently. Now—” Hizashi seriously says and levels Shouta with a look as he splays out his hands over the remaining papers. “I know you love this apartment but we’re going to need a bigger one. I refuse to stash Shinsou into that cramped office we have. We’re going to look at apartments and you’re going to participate, do you understand me?”
“I do,” Shouta solemnly says, because what else is there to say.
“I contacted a real-estate agent and she gave me these four options so far. I already talked to Cementoss, too, any renovations you’d want to do inside are fine, he’s on board to help. So you’re going to look through them and you’re going to keep in mind that this is for our family, so you’re not going to be difficult about it.”
His phrasing makes Shouta laugh, even as love fills him up to the point where it feels as if he’s choking on it.
“So, the kid is kind of amazing, huh?” he asks as he makes grabby hands at the apartments Hizashi has ready for them and Hizashi slides them over easily enough.
“The kid is—” Hizashi cuts himself off, clearly struggling to find words and Shouta can relate to that. “Fuck, Shou, I just want to—I don’t know, make him happy. He’s working so hard and he’s so beaten down about everything.” Hizashi rubs a hand over his mouth and Shouta can easily read the distress off his face, though it’s mostly overshadowed by fondness for a kid he has only known for about a week.
“He’s like a mini-you, really,” Hizashi finally says with a small smile, “and he’s sharp! I think his brain is wired differently, to pick up languages more easily because of his quirk, and he’s so interested in things. He wants to continue his English lessons with me and he’s learning Sign as well and he asked if I could teach him any other languages. I guess it’s time for me to brush up on my Chinese and Italian.”
“I keep feeding him,” Shouta admits and Hizashi lets out a snort.
“He’s too thin,” he agrees. “He needs a home, Shou. A family, who adores him like he deserves.”
“We’re working on it,” Shouta softly says and reaches across the table to take Hizashi’s hand in his. “We’re going to make sure he gets everything he deserves.”
“Yeah. You think he’ll want to stay with us?” Hizashi asks and the question kicks off a new worry.
“He—might? He likes us well enough, doesn’t he?” Shouta worriedly asks but then decides that ultimately, it’s Shinsou’s decision anyway.
If he doesn’t want to live with them, then that’s that, but for now they are just going to assume that he could want this.
“Let’s not worry over this for now,” Shouta says because they have more important things to do. “Let’s rather worry about apartments.”
He pulls the stack closer but when he looks up he’s met with Hizashi’s loving smile.
“I didn’t know it could be like that, wanting to have kids.”
“A kid,” Shouta corrects. “A very specific kid. But yeah. Me neither.”
It’s a good feeling, though Shouta doubts he could have it for anyone but Shinsou at this point, but maybe that’s already enough. If they can just help the one kid, that’s already more than enough, right?
“He can never know, though,” Shouta then says and levels Hizashi with a look. “If he learns we did this just for him, he’s going to agree out of guilt. He can’t know.”
“And he won’t.”
(Shinsou does know, because Shouta feels as if they have been lying to him when they start to consider adoption. Shinsou had been receptive to come live with them and everything clicked together as if it was meant to be so when they present him with the adoption form—it has to be his choice, too—they come clean about their foster licenses and everything that came with it. Shinsou cries for a good hour after that and immediately signs the papers, because for all that Shouta feared it would make him feel guilty, it has the exact opposite effect. Shinsou finally feels as if someone really wants him, and that’s all he ever hoped for in his life. It works out for all of them.)