Chapter Text
“Are you really sure about this Katsuki?”
“Yeah, I’m sure! We’ve already moved all my stuff! You wanna move it back again?!” Katsuki gave his mom a quick glare and her frown deepened before she threw her hands up, sighing.
“Stubborn brat.”
“Nosy hag.”
“Now, now, you two,” his dad mumbled, putting a hand on each of their shoulders.
“Katsuki I really don’t think-” his mom began to say but was interrupted by a loud thump.
Katsuki quickly turned around to see his son fallen over on the floor, apparently having failed in his quest to wander over to them.
Touwa’s lower lip shook but it was only when he saw Katsuki’s alarmed face that he sucked in as much air as he could before letting out a lout wail, his whole face becoming all wrinkly and red as he bawled his little heart out.
“You’re okay, Touwa,” Katsuki told him, quickly bending down to scoop up his overly dramatic son who cried as if he’d just fallen down a ravine or something.
“Tou… Touwa ouchie… Mommy! Mommy ouchie!” he yelled, wrapping his chubby, but strong, little arms around Katsuki’s neck.
“You had an ouchie, huh?” Katsuki mumbled, holding him tight and stroking his hair.
“Mommy… kiss kiss…” Touwa sniffed and Katsuki rolled his eyes but pressed a kiss against his son’s plump cheek.
“Hey, where did you leave Moo Moo? She’s all lonely down there,” Katsuki said which made Touwa blink his wet eyes.
“Moo Moo where?!” Touwa exclaimed, turning his head to search for the stuffed, cutesy cow he’d gotten as a present from his grandad. “There! Moo Moo!” he pointed while Katsuki wiped his puffy face.
When Katsuki set him down, he immediately crawled over to Moo Moo and grabbed her clumsily, his ouchie all forgotten. He did return to Katsuki though, demanding to be picked up again, together with Moo Moo.
When Katsuki straightened up again, holding his content son, he found his dad standing there with a goofy smile on his face and his phone in his hand, snapping as many pictures as he could.
“Stop it!” Katsuki grimaced at him.
“I can’t help it!” his dad sighed, looking through the photos he’d just taken. “Look how cute, Mitsuki!”
“You’re hopeless,” his mom rolled her eyes but did smile down at whatever horrid picture his dad was showing her.
“Whatever, are you gonna go or not?” Katsuki asked them.
His mom frowned again, but before she could say anything, he quickly continued.
“Look, I… I need this. It’s a flat, not a house in the middle of nowhere. I got a phone, so I can call if anything should… happen, or whatever. I just… I wanna make a start of it. I wanna have my own space.”
“I know,” his mom said, coming forward to ruffle his hair in that annoying way of hers. “I just want you to be safe, the both of you.” She bit her lip and took a deep breath. “You promise to call if there’s anything you need, right? Should he show up, you call the police first though, okay? Is that a deal?”
Katsuki nodded reluctantly.
“We’re welcome to visit, aren’t we?” his dad asked, coming forward as well.
“Sure, just… just call beforehand, okay?”
“We will, son, and you’ll come visit us as well, right? Grandpa wants to see Touwa as much as possible!” he smiled at Touwa who reached out and patted his granddad’s rough cheek.
“Oopsie!” Masaru laughed when Touwa got a hold of his glasses. “Grandpa needs those!”
“You can always change your mind,” his mom said with a serious look. “You’re always welcome to come back, Katsuki.”
“Yeah, yeah,” he grumbled before shuffling a bit closer and allowing her to give him a hug. “Thank you,” he mumbled.
“We’ll call later,” his dad said as he leaned down to give Katsuki a hug as well.
It took a bit longer before Katsuki had finally managed to get them out the door, his dad stood there like an idiot, waving to Touwa, who only stared at him before Katsuki closed the door and locked it firmly.
Taking a moment to just stand there in the small hall, Katsuki sighed before smiling down at his son.
“It’s just you and me now, kid.”
“Moo Moo!”
“And Moo Moo,” Katsuki admitted, walking into the small but cozy studio flat. There wasn’t a huge amount of space, and it was currently a bit cluttered with boxes he still needed to unpack, but it was bright and clean. Being on the fourth-floor kind of reminded him of his room at UA. He hadn’t wanted a flat at ground level where people could easily snoop through the windows. Though he hadn’t been thinking of just any people when making that decision.
Walking over to one of the windows, he looked down at the busy street below. He’d missed the inner city. He liked peace and quiet, but he also enjoyed getting to have all the conveniences there when he wanted them.
“This is our new view, Touwa,” Katsuki murmured to his son who was busy looking up at him instead of the street below. “It’s ours, just ours.”
“Mine! Mommy mine!” Touwa stated confidently.
“I suppose we should get started on getting this place in order though,” Katsuki muttered, gazing back at the boxes filled with stuff his parents had gotten him.
It was embarrassing, but they were the ones who were going to be paying his rent as well, at least to begin with. About seven months had passed since Katsuki had left that house in the suburbs. He’d spent a lot of that time just processing and trying to remember how to function without having to please someone else all the time. Some habits were hard to break. He’d reached a point though when he wanted to start making it on his own, even though he was doing it with his parents’ help. He accepted their help though, which was something he wished he’d asked for long ago. There was no use crying over spilled milk, however.
He finally had a place of his own, just for Touwa and him. He wouldn’t be dependent on his parents forever. They’d told him that he didn’t need to hurry finding a job though, which was something he was actually kind of grateful for. He wasn’t there yet. He couldn’t picture leaving Touwa with someone else, especially not when… when Deku was still out there.
The bastard was taking his sweet time finding a successor. It was the ultimatum Katsuki had given him, but he’d known that it would be a long road. He wasn’t stupid though. Katsuki had sent Deku a letter after the last time they had spoken. He hadn’t written anything much. He had just given Deku a deadline. A year. Katsuki had given him a year to find someone. If he hadn’t handed All Might’s quirk over within a year from when Katsuki had left him, escaped him, Katsuki would hand all the evidence over to the police regardless. To be honest, Katsuki wasn’t quite sure he’d be able to do that, but the deadline had been necessary, because otherwise, Deku would never do it. He was probably still trying to find some way to…
Katsuki’s collar may have been cut off him, but he hadn’t yet succeeded in getting Deku to sign the damned divorce papers. His mom had been on him constantly about going to the police and shit, but Katsuki had held firm. He’d meant it when he’d told Deku that it was for All might, not him. While he dreamt of the day when he’d be sure that Deku couldn’t reach him, for now it was what it was, and it was a whole lot better than how it had used to be.
There was still that hated part deep inside of Katsuki which missed and yearned for his alpha. He didn’t have as much energy as he used to. The pheromone replacements could only do so much, but Katsuki had been through worse. He’d keep making it, together with his son.
Setting Touwa down with Moo Moo, he began tackling the boxes. It was either new stuff, or things he’d gotten from his parents’ house. He hadn’t been back to that house he’d shared with Deku. He hadn’t seen Deku since the day he’d shown up at his parents. He’d shown up several more times after that, but Katsuki hadn’t gone out to see him again, and his mom had always chased Deku off, finally threatening to go to the police herself. That had made Deku stop and Katsuki hadn’t heard anything from him since then.
Katsuki’s phone number wasn’t listed anywhere though. His mom had made sure of that, and his new home address wasn’t listed publicly either. Only the people he chose to tell would know his address, and at the moment, that was only his parents.
“Mommy, up!” Touwa demanded, climbing up to his feet and tottering over to Katsuki, reaching up with both hands and jumping slightly up and down.
“I can’t hold you now, Touwa. I have to unpack these boxes,” Katsuki explained but saw the way Touwa’s chubby face turned into a giant frown. “You can help Mommy though,” Katsuki quickly said. “Mommy really needs Touwa’s help.”
That made Touwa light up and he nodded with a very concentrated look on his face, taking the task seriously.
It took a thousand times longer than it should have, unpacking everything with Touwa’s ‘help’, but it wasn’t as if they had a ton of stuff, so Katsuki managed to get it done eventually. He’d rather just get everything over with at once than drag it out.
He felt ready for a shower though once he’d emptied the last box and had put everything where it should be.
“You want a snack?” he asked Touwa who was looking a bit tired and was starting to get grumpy. “Thank you for helping me. Mommy’s really proud of you.” He enjoyed telling Touwa that.
“Mm! Up!” Touwa said and this time Katsuki did lift him up and walked over to the little kitchen nook with him, getting a banana which they shared.
After that it was time for a lovely shower. It was a shame there wasn’t a tub in the flat. Katsuki had grown quite fond of bathtime, but he’d rather be without a tub than having to go back to his old life. After washing both himself and Touwa, he sank down on the grey sofa, which had come with the flat, and let himself relax.
“Mommy, prrr,” Touwa mumbled, his eyes all droopy.
“A nap sounds nice, huh?” Katsuki sighed, lying down on the sofa with his pup, who snuggled up to him as Katsuki began purring for him.
The sofa was quite small, but Katsuki wasn’t large, so he fit well enough.
“Bib… Bib…” Touwa mumbled, and Katsuki reached over to the coffee table to grab the pacifier lying there.
Sucking and chewing on it a bit, Touwa sighed in deep satisfaction and began to nod off.
Katsuki knew that it was time to start weaning Touwa off of the pacifiers, but he didn’t want to do it right now when they’d just moved. It had taken Touwa quite a while to get used to being in his grandparents’ house and it would take some time becoming familiar with this new step in their life as well. He could keep the comfort of his pacifiers for a bit longer.
It didn’t take long for Katsuki’s eyelids to grow heavy as well, and he only realised that he’d fallen asleep when his phone buzzed on the coffee table.
Rubbing his eyes, he reached for it, causing Touwa to growl slightly. He’d gotten into the funny habit of growling every time Katsuki moved while they slept. After Katsuki had grabbed his phone and relaxed back into the sofa, the frown on Touwa’s sleeping face faded and he wriggled so that he was half-laying on Katsuki, grabbing onto his shirt with strong little hands.
With his vision still blurry, Katsuki peeked at his phone screen, seeing an unread text.
Hey!!! You mved in yet?!!! Whens the housewarmingh party?!!!!!
Katsuki scoffed to himself. Kirishima had no chill, and no clue how to use a damned spelling checker.
Lazily writing out a reply to see if the idiot could talk, he waited while staring up at the white ceiling of his new home. It wasn’t much, but it was his. You couldn’t get into the building without a tag or the code. His dad had installed a doorbell camera so Katsuki could see who it was if someone was at the door, and it was a fairly good area with not a lot of crime. It wasn’t where he would be living forever, but it was a start. It was a new start.
Only a minute or so had passed before his phone rang and he quickly answered while stroking Touwa’s back, feeling his puffs of warm breath against him.
“Hey, you off work then?”
“Hey! Yeah! I’m on my way home now!” Kirishima almost yelled into the phone. Katsuki could hear the sounds of the city in the background. “How’s the new place?! Today was the day you were gonna move, right?!”
“Yeah, I’ve gotten the most important things sorted. It’s fine,” Katsuki said, enjoying hearing his best friend’s voice. Kirishima was a frequent texter, but Katsuki liked it best when they could talk. For one, it spared him having to suffer Kirishima’s horrid spelling, but there was also something so incredibly freeing about just being able to talk to whomever he wanted whenever he wanted. Not having to sneak around was still kind of novel. “How was work? Anything exciting?” he asked.
“Oh! We were patrolling our usual area today when-”
Katsuki had always felt so envious hearing Deku talk about his work, but it was different now. He didn’t suffer the same type of envy listening to Kirishima go on about what he’d been up to at Fat Gum’s agency, because Katsuki would also be working one day. They’d be working together. It wasn’t just a faded dream anymore. They would be making it into reality.
When Kirishima had finished his tale, Katsuki was smiling slightly.
“You know, I could come by now!” Kirishima exclaimed, sounding proud of the idea. “I can buy some dinner for us! I know that moving is like really hard work!”
“Thanks,” Katsuki mumbled. “Some other day though. I just wanna settle in by myself first.”
“Oh…” Kirishima sounded disappointed.
“How about this weekend?” Katsuki asked, feeling guilty for all the other times he’d blown Kirishima off, back when he’d still been under Deku’s watchful eye.
“Yeah, that sounds great!” Kirishima exclaimed before lowering his loud voice. “But like, only if you’re up for it, you know?”
“I am. I don’t wanna forget what your ugly mug looks like, do I?” Katsuki snorted.
“Hey! My mom says I’m a most handsome man!” Kirishima laughed and Katsuki rolled his eyes. “How’s the little man doing though?” Kirishima asked.
“I’m about to wake him up from a nap,” Katsuki said, stroking his son’s hair. “Otherwise, I’ll never be able to get him to go to sleep later.”
“You tell him that he needs to sleep plenty if he wants to grow up big and strong like his uncle Eijirou!”
“Yeah sure…” Katsuki scoffed, still smiling.
“Oh, I’m at the store now!” Kirishima told him.
“Alright, I’ll talk to you later, and don’t just buy some shitty ramen or something!”
“I won’t! I won’t! Say hi to Little Man from me!”
Katsuki hung up and stretched a little, earning himself another growl from Touwa.
“Time to wake up, you little rascal,” Katsuki murmured.
It took some more convincing and prodding before Touwa opened his green eyes and made a grumpy face, crawling up Katsuki so that he was fully lying on top of him, as if wanting to stop him from getting up.
Glancing at the clock, Katsuki saw that it was a bit early for dinner, Deku wouldn’t be home until…
Biting his lip, he became angry at himself. It had been over half a year, and he still couldn’t fully shake the habits which had been ingrained in him over the last few years.
“You hungry?” he asked Touwa while struggling to sit up, despite Touwa’s protests. “We can eat whenever we want to now,” he told his grumpy son who rubbed his face against Katsuki, his pacifier still firmly in his mouth.
Holding Touwa in his arms, Katsuki stood up and walked over the little kitchen nook. His parents had taken him to a store earlier, helping to get him the basics of what he needed so that he didn’t need to rush out for groceries first thing he did.
Again, his mom had been a huge help. She’d managed to get him a new bank account, only for him, and his parents had put some money in it to help him now in the beginning. It still felt a bit humiliating having to accept that, but he had. He had accepted it.
The little bit of money he had had saved up before was still locked in his shared account with Deku, and since they were still technically married, there was no way for Katsuki to get his hands on it yet. Though to tell the truth, he was more than willing to give up on everything he’d left behind with Deku if it meant not having to see him again.
After whipping together something to eat and preparing something for Touwa as well, he sat down on the floor with his son in front of the small, low table they had. While Katsuki preferred more modern tables with chairs, he had to admit that it was at least convenient with a low table for Touwa, who always hated being stuck in a highchair, preferring to sit on Katsuki’s lap.
It was a bit of a chore, keeping Touwa from messing with everything he could get his grubby little hands on, but Katsuki enjoyed their first dinner in their new home, even though he was mostly focused on getting Touwa to eat instead of eating himself.
“Mm!” Touwa smacked his lips, dribbling some food down the bib he was wearing.
“It’s good, isn’t it?” Katsuki asked him, raising the spoon to feed his son some more.
“Mm, mam mam!” Touwa nodded, opening up his greedy mouth.
“Yeah, it’s good. It’s really good…” Katsuki agreed.
Life now wasn’t simple exactly, but it was good.
His phone rang again just after he’d finished cleaning up. It was his mom. He should’ve known.
“Yeah?” he answered, sitting down next to Touwa on the floor, handing him some toys.
“Have you gotten things in order? You need help with anything? Dad and I can come over if you need us for anything.”
Katsuki rolled his eyes. While he did appreciate his parents in a way he never had before, they could be a bit much, especially his mom. She hadn’t used to be that way. She’d been content with just leaving him alone for the most part, but since she’d… found out about a lot of the shit, she’d become a real worrywart.
“I’m fine. It was just a few boxes,” he told her.
“Have you remembered to lock the door?”
“Yeah, I’m not stupid.”
“Is Touwa doing okay? Dad says he wants some photos.” She suddenly lowered her voice. “Don’t tell him I told you, but he was almost crying when we got home. I don’t know how I’ll be able to deal with him, so do me a favour, yeah?”
“Alright,” Katsuki mumbled, watching as Touwa absentmindedly began chewing on Moo Moo’s ear.
“You sure you’ll be alright?” his mom asked and he sighed.
“Yeah, who the heck do you take me for?!”
“Katsuki…”
“I know, I know…” he muttered, feeling embarrassed. She’d seen who he’d become with Deku. He couldn’t pretend otherwise.
“It’s not that I don’t believe in you, Katsuki,” his mom said, her voice growing annoyingly soft. “I just… I don’t want to fail you again.”
He blinked at that. “What’re you talking about? You didn’t fail.”
“I did, Katsuki. I did. I should’ve been there for you. I don’t want to make that mistake again, so I’m sorry if I’m being a bit of a nag, but your dad and I will always back you up. Don’t forget that.”
“Okay…” He was feeling embarrassed again.
“Kiss the little brat for your dad now. I’ll call again tomorrow.”
“Bye,” he said, hanging up, feeling a bit drained all of a sudden.
He supposed that it couldn’t be easy for her, being an alpha and all with an omegan kid. She hadn’t let it show much when he’d been growing up, but he could see it now.
“Hey, Touwa, look here, kid,” he told his son, snapping a photo when Touwa looked at him, drooling all over Moo Moo.
Quickly sending the picture to his dad, he turned his attention back to his son, getting out the box with differently shaped openings, which Touwa liked to play with. He was a clever bugger. It hadn’t taken him long to figure out how to get the shaped blocks into the right spaces.
The third time Katsuki’s phone rang, he already knew who it was without looking.
“Hey,” he answered.
“Hello, it’s me, Shouto.”
Katsuki rolled his eyes. No matter what he did, he could never get Todoroki to stop introducing himself like a robot each time he called, which was once a day, always in the evening after dinner. It had become a new habit, though not an unpleasant one.
“I know it’s you,” he sighed.
“Have you moved into your flat?”
“Yeah.”
“Is it to your liking?”
“Yeah, it’s a good start,” Katsuki mumbled, staring at the small bowl which had once been broken, sitting on an honorary place atop the kitchen counter where Touwa couldn’t reach it.
“I’m glad to hear that. I have been thinking about you all day,” Todoroki told him candidly. Katsuki still found it a bit difficult to get used to the extremely frank way in which Todoroki spoke. It was quite refreshing, however, after dealing with Deku’s bullshit for so long. Katsuki found that he could always trust what Todoroki was saying.
“I’m apparently gonna have a housewarming party or whatever this weekend,” Katsuki mumbled, helping Touwa retrieve a block he’d thrown under the table. “You can come if you want to, though it’s not like you have to or anything. I just… I just thought I’d mention it or something.” He didn’t know why he was feeling a bit funny as he said it.
“I would love to come,” Todoroki answered quickly. “Should I bring anything?”
“Nah, you can just show up. It’s just gonna be you and Kirishima. I’m not gonna have like a real party or anything.” He shuddered at the very thought of the rest of his old class cramming themselves into his sacred space. He could deal with them on occasion, but he drew the line at inviting them into his home. Besides, he preferred not to have too many people knowing where he lived.
“What does your son think of your new home?” Todoroki asked. Both he and Kirishima always asked about Touwa which made Katsuki feel just a little bit warm.
“He’s doing good so far. I’ll have to see how it’ll be getting him to sleep later though.”
Glancing over at the bed, tucked away in an alcove, he realised that he still hadn’t built up his nest. He’d only unpacked all the blankets and pillows and stuff. He was at least glad that he’d been able to bring his new bed instead of having to use a futon. For the small space, it would probably have been easier to just have a futon which he could put away during the day, but his nest had always been a permanent fixture. He needed it in a way he couldn’t explain to anyone.
“How was work today?” he asked Todoroki as usual.
“I attended a traffic accident. There were fortunately no serious injuries, but I helped with moving a truck which was blocking the road. I then responded to a call for back-up from another team, but the issue had already been resolved by the time I got there. After that, I patrolled around one of the shopping districts before heading back to the agency where I did some paperwork, oh and my father broke another keyboard.”
Katsuki listened as Todoroki rattled off his doings during the day. It wasn’t the most thrilling retelling of events, but Katsuki still kind of liked hearing what Todoroki had been up to.
“I should find some work soon,” he sighed, taking the square block which Touwa handed him.
“Mommy, there!” Touwa pointed at the correct hole in the bucket, watching carefully to make sure Katsuki got it right.
“Do you want to start working now?” Todoroki asked.
“Yeah, or… I… I don’t know,” Katsuki murmured. “I want to, but I also don’t want to leave him yet. It’s pathetic, I know.”
“Why should that be pathetic? Omegas are afforded a lot of parental leave for a reason. If you truly want to work, then you can do so, but don’t push yourself. Your parents are helping you, aren’t they?”
“Yeah, but I don’t want to rely on them for everything. It feels like I’m a little pup or something,” Katsuki grumbled. He somehow found it easier to speak his mind to Todoroki, who could truly put his foot in his mouth sometimes, but was never anything but honest.
“Can’t you bring him with you to work?”
“Hah?! Who would allow that? I can’t do hero work with him!”
“No, I did not mean for you to do that. I meant… Hm, I’ll need to think on it some more,” Todoroki pondered aloud.
“Alright, you do that,” Katsuki rolled his eyes.
After talking with Todoroki some more, he eventually hung up and played with his son until it became time to assemble his nest, once again with Touwa’s ‘help’.
“Mommy, no go!” Touwa demanded as they finally made it into the finished nest, teeth brushed and pyjamas on.
“I’m not gonna go anywhere,” Katsuki told him, getting himself comfortable as Touwa used him as a pillow.
It took quite some time for Touwa to go to sleep. He was a bit whiny and clambered all over Katsuki until he finally started to relax a bit. It was all a bit new though, so it was understandable.
Katsuki smiled, however, as he lay there with his grumpy pup. He’d once thought that he’d be stuck in place forever, but now he was moving forward, and he would keep moving towards the future he wanted, along with his son.
When he had drawn the blinds earlier though, he had felt that strange cold sensation at the back of his neck again. He’d imagined hidden eyes watching from atop a roof on the opposite side of the street. It had just been his mind making shit up though. Some of the damage still hadn’t healed. There was nothing and no one there. It was over.
It was over…
It was really over…
Right…?