Of Birthdays and Shipping
This afternoon sure was something. This was the weirdest birthday Izuku ever had and he still wasn’t quite sure what to think about it. Being held hostage and seeing All Might unable to do anything because of being in public and not wanting him to get hurt was awful. Watching that sadistic man ordering about a woman, Hallie, using both of them, was worse. Hallie defeating their captors easily was great. Reading the forms was confusing and concerning. Finding out that Hallie was the Hedwig that he’d read about was awesome. Finding out about a quirkless society of magic users was flabbergasting. Finding out that the HedMight ship has just sailed by accident was… Izuku wasn’t quite sure. Overwhelming maybe?
He'd barely managed to get his thoughts in order by the time they reached Hedwig’s house. He just had so many questions to ask.
What was the magic society like? How different were quirks from magic? What exactly was Hallie’s quirk? He’d always thought Hedwig’s quirk was some sort of agility or stealth-related quirk, but was Karma how she kept winning her battles? How did Karma work? Was it some sort of transference of the wounds inflicted on Hedwig right back on those who’d inflicted them? It would make sense with the name, but Izuku had never seen any evidence of it. What had Hallie thought of the shipping war going on centered on her and All Might? Izuku knew All Might had been slightly amused by it but mostly ignorant of what went down because he didn’t use social media much, for all that he was a limelight hero. What was Hallie’s opinion on All Might himself? How would she react to finding out she’d just married him? Back to her quirk, had she even used it? If not, why? And why was she being so secretive about it if the whole magic community knew about it already? Why did the magical community know about it anyway? What sort of things could magic do and why were the magic people still so obsessed with quirks if they could do other things?
So many questions…
He hadn’t expected the absolute bomb that was finding out she also had a transferable quirk just like All Might and knew at least of one other, though she’d refused to elaborate on it when he later asked her what it was. She only said something about her great uncle being something called a squib, which was someone born to a magic couple but without magic, and one of the few squibs that had a quirk right off the bat, which was also a rarity since it was usually the generation after the squib that got that honor. She said he’d been the one to receive the other transferable quirk and used the Potter Journals to keep a record just in case something bad happened and his magical relatives needed to intervene. (In what, Izuku didn’t know.)
Her quirk sounded amazing. It certainly was powerful. He just disliked that the drawbacks to it seemed to be so extensive. Then again, All Might’s exploded limbs if one wasn’t physically prepared for it. Izuku wondered if there was a way to prepare for Karma’s use mentally so that it didn’t make her dissociate…
Still… She fought quirkless. She had over fourteen years of heroing as a job and never once had she used her quirk to fight. It was…
Could a quirkless person be a hero after all? Even All Might, when he changed his mind, still ended up offering him a quirk but… she never once used hers?
Then again, she still had one anyway. And she had magic too. She’d even admitted that her support items had magic in them. (He so wanted to know what each of them did!) So, she wasn’t exactly quirkless. Not like he is right now.
Still… He wasn’t sure what to think.
The organ donation list on the part of All Might was another surprise. It shouldn’t have been. Izuku knew he was missing organs, after all. It made sense if he was on the organ donation list. It’s just that he’d assumed that All Might had already tried that, after so many years. His status was enough to jump the line, if nothing else. He’d said they had tried everything.
But then again, this was All Might they were talking about. Thinking on it, he was just the sort of guy to refuse to use his status as number one hero to jump the line and take someone else’s change at getting an organ, especially if they had been waiting for so long. And… He’d shown his ID to him to let him see for himself that Yagi really was his name. An identity he made sure was completely separate from his hero one (unlike what Izuku would have to do, since things were more heavily regulated now). He came listed as quirkless there… It’s not a stretch to think he would have other people being jumped in line over him for that fact alone.
Things are coming to a close with the conversation. Hallie is getting ready to say her goodbyes and to wait for her son to get home to extend his mom’s invitation for dinner. (He knows why she invited them. It was his birthday, after all. She would like to celebrate it with more people than just the two of them. She wants to celebrate her son. She wants to see him talking to people and be happy. She’d been wanting to invite his personal trainer over for a while now and what had happened today, with it being televised, was the best opening she could have gotten. So, All Might was invited (His name is Yagi! Izuku knew All Might’s civilian name!!! he still couldn’t get over that!!), the detective who was being so kind to him was as well, though he declined. And, of course, the woman who rescued him had to be invited as well and, if she had a kid of her own, even better.
Granted… His mom might have assumed the ‘kid’ was closer to Izuku’s age by the way Hallie talked.
Hallie would have to wait for her son to arrive before she could give confirmation, though. So, it would just be him and All Might going to his home for dinner. (No one had ever wanted to go eat at his place, especially not complete strangers. He doubted they would give a positive confirmation they would come. But that was ok, because Hallie was still going to teach him how to fight and that was awesome!).
That’s when the entrance door clicked open and an exasperated voice resounded from that direction.
“Mom, please tell it wasn’t you on the television today. Tell me it was just a clone or something! I cannot believe… The one day I’ll be away from you all day without a way to reach you is the one day you get attacked by some British prick who thinks he’s Merlin’s distant relative or something.” He said in English.
Hallie huffed in amusement.
“What can I say? Potter luck at its best. Granted, I’m pretty sure the exam being moved was very much premeditated, going by what he was saying.”
“I can’t believe the bloody prick had the gall to mess up with my licensing and then try to force my mom into-…” He cut himself off upon reaching the entrance to the living room, gaping at them. “…and you are not alone… And you just let me ramble like a moron. Mom!”
He had neon blue hair and golden eyes, was tall and with a well-defined physique indicating he was no slouch and an almost heart-shaped face with a hint of more chiseled features.
“Payback for what you are no doubt about to put me through in just a few minutes.” She stated cavalierly before turning back to them. “This is Teddy Lupin, my son. Apparently, he saw me on the news and is feeling very aggravated over it. Teddy, these are Detective Tsukauchi, who is in charge of my case, Izuku-kun, who was used as a hostage and Yagi-san, who had the misfortune of being married off to me without his consent.”
“That is a whole fucking lot to process… Anyway. Hi, call me Teddy or Ted, nice to meet you and all that. So, is the kid my new brother or something?”
Izuku and All Might spluttered at that.
“Is… is your new husband splurting out blood from his mouth!?! That can’t be healthy!” Teddy asked his mother in a nearly theater whisper sort of tone.
“Yeah, that’s normal for him. I’ve already asked him if he would allow me to ask around the magic community for help. Feel free to talk to him about it later.” Hallie stated calmly. “And no, he and the kid aren’t related. He is his mentor, I think.”
All Might harrumphed awkwardly and confirmed.
“Indeed, I’ve been training young Midoriya for the UA entrance exams. He’s done a lot of progress for the time he’s had to train so far.” He stated proudly making Izuku fluster.
“Training?” Teddy asked while looking All Might up and down which annoyed the teen.
Granted, Izuku could understand his disbelief. All Might was in his skinny form and looked like a small breeze might topple him over. But still… Looking at him like that was mean. All Might didn’t seem bothered by it, though it was hard to tell since he was smiling and that was basically the man’s poker face.
“Any specialization on the skills you’re teaching him?” Teddy asked. “I can’t tell from your body type.”
Oh, ok! So, he wasn’t disbelieving of All Might’s skills. He was just trying to figure him out. Granted, the usual cues were all in his combat form so it was understandable that he couldn’t.
“We’ve been doing a lot of strength training. Young Midoriya is going to need to bulk up some more if he wants to be ready for the Entrance Exams. Endurance training too. He was very unathletic when we began, so he’s come far since then.”
“I see…” Teddy commented, thoughtful, before giving his mother a significant look.
“I know, I know…” Hallie stated. “Teddy is concerned that the kid isn’t getting actual combat training, but we’ll talk about that later, like we’ve already agreed upon.” She emphasizes the last part while staring her son down like she’s arguing back against an unspoken accusation of carelessness.
It likely wasn’t that, and more of an accusation against All Might, but Teddy still winced at her look. Izuku’s suspicions were confirmed when he muttered in English a ‘I didn’t mean it like that…’ under his breath before continuing out loud.
“So, what’s the gameplan?”
“I’m going to teach the kid self-defense, which will also be useful for his exams, I’ll assess Yagi-san’s fighting skills, and take a crack at breaking the bond now that I have a glass to study. It’s the first intact one I’ve seen. The Mantises were too keen on utterly destroying every single one of them and left no way to come up with a more peaceful solution. This will be the very first chance to accomplish that in a really long time. It’ll be good for if two people get stuck in one of these things in the future. And, if he allows it, you can take charge over Yagi-san’s medical situation. You are the medi-wizard between the two of us, after all.”
“Are they going to live here now?” Teddy didn’t seem too keen on it either, much like Hallie and All Might had.
“No.”
“Ok…” A sigh of relief. “It’s nothing against you, but I don’t know you. I don’t like having people I don’t know in what is supposed to be our safe space. Even this much is already wreaking havoc on our ever-paranoid minds. When there really are people out to get you, paranoia can become your best friend.”
“Constant Vigilance.” Hallie nodded sagely with a nostalgic expression.
“I understand. I also wouldn’t like to have you in my house either, though not to the same extreme of paranoia.” All Might reassured them calmly.
There was a tense moment of silence before it was broken by Teddy once more.
“Godammit. Did you really have to be so agreeable to everything, man?” He commented in an exasperated tone that was too emphatic to be real.
“What?” All Might started to ask in confusion that was doubled down when, upon seeing her son’s expression, Hallie soundly facepalmed herself.
“No offence, but you’re so wholesome about your pride in your kid and so reasonable despite the situation you’re in that you have a good chance to get in the way of my favorite ship!” Teddy continued.
“Ship!?”
“I know you don’t usually bother with that sort of thing, Toshinori, but ‘ship’ is a term to refer to a relationship, often times of a romantic sort. People use the term while pairing people or characters up, not necessarily to characters they are or want to be with, in that sort of relationship.” Tsukauchi explained.
Looking back, it makes sense that All Might wouldn’t waste time thinking about that when there was hero-ing to be done. Izuku would go as far as to say that he didn’t even bother finding out the whole extent of the Hedwig thing either.
“I unfortunately know far too much about it.” Hallie groaned from where she was, which her face still buried in her hands.
Teddy was only getting started, of course, with an impish look on his face.
“Of course! It’s only just the best ship ever! Who hasn’t heard of the awesomeness that is the HedMight! Mom deserves nothing but the best, and who better than mister number 1 himself!”
Another groan from Hallie’s direction followed by a muffled ‘I don’t know the guy!’.
“Are you implying that Hallie-san has a relationship with All Might?” All Might asked after a moment of trying to interpret what was being said.
“Yup!” Was Teddy’s reply in unison with Hallie’s “NO!”, which only served to confuse All Might even more, if just for the fact that he knew very well he’d never met Hallie before today and not understanding why her son was making such claims.
Hallie took a look at All Might’s confused expression and then her son’s far-too-entertained-by-the-sheer-chaos’s expression and sighed in resignation and a muttered ‘I knew this was coming, I just knew it…’ in English.
“Let me explain because he’s not about to.” She said, using her thumb to indicate her smug son. “When he was around nine or ten, Teddy was told in school that everyone had a mom and a dad. While he knew that wasn’t necessarily true because one of his classmates had two moms, it was enough to get him to start wondering over why I was alone. And because he felt too awkward to ask me directly, he decided to ask his Aunt Ginny if I was AroAce or any of the sort, though he didn’t know the right term at the time, and she went on a whole tale over my many failed dating attempts and how the only person that I had seemed genuinely interested in was long dead, never given the chance to bloom into anything. So, of course, he asked her what sort of guy he was…”
She was hesitant to continue, but still did.
“I started getting to know Cedric when I was 13. He was captain of his house’s team (that was a thing, by the way, the students were separated into four houses) while I wasn’t a captain but had the same role in-game as him. We didn’t talk much unless it involved the game and it wasn’t until I was fourteen that I started crushing on him and only dated him for a month. But skipping over all of that, the important part of the information for Teddy was that Cedric used to be athletic, noble, kind, and always had a kind smile to give anyone that was feeling down. And since he was gone, Teddy started thinking over who best fit all those categories and somehow concluded that he was going to get All Might to meet me and that he would instantly fall in love with me at first sight because, in his ten-year-old’s words, ‘Mom’s the bestest woman ever so of course he will’.” She paused with a nostalgic mind. “What can I say, it was adorable! He kept making these plans to get me stationed in the same city as him and then on how to get us both in the same place so that his romantic scenario could play out. And he was so earnest about it that I couldn’t help but tease him over it.”
Teddy immediately took over the narrative.
“At first I thought she was encouraging me, but I eventually realized she was just indulging and teasing me and started to become embarrassed by it. Well, when I was already a teen she teased me a bit too much and I decided that the best revenge I could get on her was making the crack ship go viral. I had already created a forum about her hero persona as soon as I learned how to use a computer, so it was pretty easy to pose as one of the people she rescued and commenting on seeing her using stories from her past to calm a child down and also hearing her describe her first love. It was easy after that to imply how similar her first love’s personality was to All Might and the few but very loyal fans she had started spamming the All Might forums, asking if this was a possibility worth pursuing for a crack ship with mixed reactions. After that all I needed to do was watch the whole thing growing out of proportion and maybe fan the flames higher whenever I felt like it. Mom’s reactions were the best, once she found out.” Teddy chuckled.
Izuku remembered when he’d first come across the comments about the ship. He’d been pretty confused back then. He hadn’t known what shipping was and the idea of pairing up real life people, let alone his heroes, was strange and novel concept.
It had also lead him down the path of learning more about underground heroes, because that’s what Hedwig had been before the ship wars catapulted her far too much into the penumbra rather than the shadows she thrived in, though never actually all the way into the limelight (far too little was known about her for that to ever be the case).
Apparently, that had only been a novel concept for him, because existing shippers of other All Might pairings had reared their heads and gone to war.
Izuku wasn’t particularly interested in the relationship aspect of the thing, but it was all just so informative. They didn’t limit themselves to stating only who was the best ship. They gave a detailed analysis of why that was their opinion that included what was commonly know about each hero personality-wise, fighting styles and even quirks.
And while Izuku was uninterested in the romance aspect of the thing, all those details were great when he thought about battle team ups and how to meld the quirks in a fight as well as how fighting styles could complement each other.
That didn’t mean he was about to openly admit that he’d took a swan dive into the shipping world, even if it were for those reasons… Or to admit he’d looked into other, non-All Might related ships for that same reason… Or that he’d purposefully started shipping wars with an alter account for the sake of gathering data…
It was one of the reasons he managed to get so much information on Eraserhead, though he never expected the blow out that was the use of Vlad King (because of an offhand comment in a different, far more protected, forum on how they don’t seem to get along) had caused, especially on the part of the users «bulldogsAreBestDogs» and «thisaccountisn’tlogical», the biggest opposers to a downright personal level.
Izuku had to ditch that account and create another alter for starting ship wars when «thisaccountisn’tlogical» kept asking him seemingly innocent questions at first but seemed to get some sort of conclusion out of them before using more pointed and strangely specific questions. Izuku had been pretty close to admitting he was using the ship wars to gather information and the other user seemed suspicious that he might be a villain on the prowl over information on the heroes.
After that Izuku stayed away from starting shipping wars where either hero was included. They had far too protective fans. He did, however, rejoice in watching the flood gates of shipping open up for all the other users, though never to extent of the All Might ones. So much quirk speculation…
“I would have already gotten bored with this already if it weren’t for the fact that I’ve met some diehard All Might fan that is very fun to tease and I am this close to making them crack and give into the awesomeness that is HedMight.” Teddy continued, mischief entering his voice again, unaware of Izuku’s thoughts.
And boy did that comment give him a clue over who Teddy was on the internet.
Ship wars were never calm discussions. He’d experienced that with the whole EraserKing thing. And most of the All Might forum users were aggressive in their shipping but two accounts stood out: «KisekiPreyureIsUnderated», who was a fierce opposer of any shipping, claiming it was a petty and shallow practice that distracted everyone from all the good All Might was doing for society, and «marauderkidsFTW», who was a very avid HedMight shipper and the biggest supporter of that side of the ship war.
The comment battles between the two major opponents were epic to say the least and both made very good points and were suspiciously well informed, which was one of the reasons Izuku was still following that thread despite his lack of interest in shipping, even now that he could go directly to the source for all the All Might lore he could possibly be interested in.
Well… he was also interested in Hedwig information, so that was another reason why he still followed the thread. He’d always surmised both commenters had to have a closer connection to the respective heroes than they advertised. He’d never asked All Might, feeling a bit embarrassed to ask it, but this proved his theory right, at least as far as Hedwig was concerned.
“And now you’ve ruined my favorite crack ship!” Teddy finished dramatically faking a heartbroken expression while clutching at his ‘aching’ chest.
“Please ignore my overgrown toddler. He takes too much after my godfather’s side of the family rather than his father’s.” Hallie stated, deadpan.
“You say that as if it’s a bad thing. You forget that Uncle George told me you financed his practical joke shop because, in your opinion, this world needed more laughs.” Teddy laughed before turning back to them. “I’ve also seen all the things she did whenever someone ticked her off and she couldn’t afford to be rude to them. Pure Marauder genius right there!”
That made Hallie snort, thought she was quick to hide the expression.
“Anyway… Izuku-kun’s mother invited us over for dinner in thanks for having saved him.” She deflected, which meant it had to be true since she couldn’t be bothered to lie about anything. “You up for going?”
“Sure, it’ll be good to get to know my stepbrother better.” Teddy commented making both Izuku and All Might fluster and try to correct him.
After that, the goodbyes to Tsukauchi were exchanged who left ahead of them, all while he was keeping an impressive poker face (According to All Might, in a moment when they were alone together because Hallie and Teddy had gone to their rooms to get a change of clothes, the detective was close to bursting out laughing over the whole shipping thing and even the hero himself was feeling amused by it to an extent, though still a bit weirded out).
Hallie came out dressed in long sleeved dress in a thin opaque fabric, the skirt hem fluttering halfway down the calves, a leather belt at the waist to keep the silhouette just right and Laboo Leather sandals in a very familiar red and a fancier version of the tote bag she’d bee sporting all day. Teddy wasn’t wearing the weird looking labcoat-y sort of apparel he’d arrived home with, instead replaced with a pair of jeans, a simple white shirt with the sleeves rolled up at the elbows and sneakers.
Izuku’s mom will like to know the guests actually made an effort to clean up even while keeping it casual. Especially since they don't know yet that it’s his birthday.
Because they will find out.
If even his mom somehow forgot to bring out the cake while they were still there, the fact that Hallie and Teddy dressed up will be enough to for her to casually comment that they didn’t need to dress up just for his birthday.
Unfortunately, that act brought All Might to the realization that he was still in the clothes he’d been wearing while coaching him in his training and feel embarrassed by it, making Teddy snicker at him, which then brought Hallie’s attention to the issue as well.
“Well, you’re both already in the know about magic. Want me to transfigure your clothes into something less ‘sporty’ for the dinner?” Hallie asked kindly.
Blushing (Izuku had never seen All Might blush!) and rubbing the back of his neck with an embarrassed expression, he replied. “If you wouldn’t mind. I’d be really thankful if you did.”
Knowing magic existed and seeing it in action were two different things. He’d seen quirks that used fabric. Best Jeanist was one of them, after all. But not one of them was capable of changing the material that the clothes were made of. Her adjusting the clothing size to one that actually fit All Might’s current body type was less impressive. There were people who did that already. But changing not only the material as well as the clothes’ style and size all at the same time? That was new. It was like having multiple clothes-related quirks. Then she also added some sort of deodorant spell on top of that to take away the sweat smell.
Neither Hallie not Teddy owned a car and All might certainly hadn’t brought one with him either as they had been brought there in the detective’s car, so they had to make their way to his house on foot. Thankfully, she lived close enough that walking wasn’t too much of a chore.
His mom was very cheerful when she opened the door for them and, like Izuku had guessed, after the first greetings were done was quick to tell her captive guests that there was no need to dress up for his birthday, which seemed to cause a minor panicking expression to manifest in Hallie’s face before his mom sent him up to get himself clean and dressed in non-sweaty clothes.
He returned to Teddy chatting amiably to his mom and helping her out in the kitchen while All Might and Hallie awkwardly sat next to each other, likely having been relegated there as reward for having saved him and, therefore, not allowed to help her out. Izuku decided to sit next to them as well. He knew his mom wasn’t about to let him help either after she’d witnessed him being victim of some sort of villain attack on TV.
If anything, he could ease the awkwardness between the other two adults a bit, not that he had much room to talk when it came to socializing.
It turned out he was just as terrible as them when he sat down and stayed just as silent. In the end it was Hallie who talked first.
“So… not the best birthday you’ve had, I imagine?” She commented.
“No, I’ve had worse.” At least he wasn’t being forced to socialize with Katsuki because their moms were still friends and didn’t know the full extent of how much they weren’t friends anymore, which meant he wouldn’t try to take the forced friendliness out on him later, as if he needs any more reminders that they aren’t friends anymore. “Aside from the whole being taken hostage this is actually turning out great.”
And that was the truth. He spent a big part of the day training with All Might, his absolute favorite hero, who was helping him get ready for the UA entrance exam!!! And, sure he was attacked, but he met another hero, Hedwig, who had so little about her written down online and he had so much more information about her than before. And he actually knew what her quirk was now!
Even the magic thing was just so interesting and he couldn’t wait to convince either her or Teddy to answer more questions about it.
And it was the first time since he had a birthday dinner that was just so relaxed, without the hanging shadow that was Katsuki’s temper ruining the experience of celebrating it with more people than just his mom.
Hallie stared at him for a bit and he realized that, likely, for anyone else, this would be a strange intake on the day to have. But instead of calling him weird or something like that she gave him a soft close-mouthed smile.
“Understandable.” She stated confidently. “I would say that my favorite birthday would be my eleventh.”
“Really? that’s oddly specific.” All might commented.
“My blood relatives and I didn’t get along. And because of the date, it always fell on summer vacation so, even when I was attending Hogwarts I still spent most of them by myself. When I finally spent a birthday with my friends and the people I truly consider family, it was shaded over by Voldie’s shenanigans happening. And, then, after he was defeated, there was the whole thing about me being cornered into a marriage, which made organizing parties pretty difficult, what with all the people wanting to sneak in to try to get to me. And after that I had to live so far away from everyone… So my favorite was my eleventh, when I found out about Hogwarts and the truth about my parents and met Hagrid and he gave me Hedwig.”
“Wait, aren’t you Hedwig?” All Might asked confused.
“Not the original Hedwig, I assure you. There’s a reason my whole theme in costume is that of a snowy owl. I decided to take on my owl’s name after she passed on.” She explained. “So, it’s ok to have a weird favorite birthday, Izuku-kun. Mine sure is because, aside from all of those awesome things, my uncle had just taken us to the middle of nowhere in an attempt at running away from my admittance letters and we were staying the night in a shack in a small little island in the middle of a storm with little to no food and no wood for the fireplace, but it was still the best birthday I’ve had.”
Oh. She was… trying to reassure him. That’s why she was telling about her eleventh birthday.
That was so nice of her.
“Unfortunately, my favorite birthday is rather boring when compared to that.” All might admitted, sheepishly. “It had to have been a good eight years ago. Me and a friend of mine were still in talking terms and one of my friends from abroad had also come over with his daughter, which is rare since he almost never travels, and my mentor’s best friend was there too and didn’t do anything too… well. It was simple and nice. Nothing too grand. But it was good.”
“Oh! We talking about favorite birthdays?” Teddy sprung out of the blue from the kitchen with a wide smile. “My favorite had to be that one time we got ambushed by the Weasleys on my 17th birthday. My grammy Andy was still alive and they could never all get away for mom’s birthday because too many people knew of it and would try to follow them so they always made sure to try and sneak away for mine, but that was the only time when everyone at the same time came to see us. It was awesome! Uncle George gave me his and uncle Fred’s old prank journal that had all the medically related pranks for me to see and what sort of unorthodox mixes they made with ingredients and what they resulted in, just in case I could use them for healing. The neighbor almost blew a gasket over all the noise everyone was making”
“You laugh but I was the one who had to apologize to the man. The grump kept screaming that we bothered his budgies with the noise and they made a mess because of it. I couldn’t even get a word in to actually apologize to the man for at least 15 minutes.” Hallie commented with a wince.
“Mine was probably the one right before my Izuku became one year old. It was before my husband had to be dragged to work abroad. It was a simple party. We couldn’t go too crazy with it, not with Izu-chan around. But Mitsuki-chan and her husband had also come with their son. It was great.” Mom commented from the kitchen, having been made aware of the subject matter by Teddy’s loud voice.
The conversation drifted from there to favorite presents (Hallie’s was Hedwig, Teddy’s was the prank book because of the sentimental value, All Might’s was something his mentor had given him, his mother’s was her wedding ring because his father had proposed to her on her birthday, and Izuku wasn’t sure which he liked better because it was always All Might merc and his mom made sure to get all the best stuff (though if they’d gotten that far, Izuku was sure having All Might paying for some pastry at a café in celebration would have been a big, if short lived, contender. Too bad some guy decided today was the day Izuku had to play hostage).
They moved the conversation to the kitchen so that his mom and Teddy could continue cooking at some point. At some point Hallie left the kitchen, though Izuku didn’t pay it much attention. She returned in time to help set the table.
It was a nice dinner. Definitely the best birthday dinner Izuku ever had, even if there were two strangers added into the mix. Sometimes he couldn’t help but feel that it would have been even better if Katsuki was back to being his friend and there with him. It was inevitable that he would think so occasionally. He was his first and last friend. Quirklessness didn’t exactly create a healthy environment for cultivating friendships. It just made Katsuki’s former friendship with him more relevant even now and it sucked, especially the moments when the thought ambushed him in a day he should be feeling happy.
Still, when it came to the time to blow the candles, Katsuki was firmly outside his mind. He had better things to focus on and it wouldn’t have been the first birthday he hadn’t been there, but it was the first one where there were two pro-heroes in attendance singing to him.
It was then that Hallie pulled out a fancy paper bag from somewhere and presented it to him. It even had a sloppy ribbon glued to it, clearly indicating it was a present, albeit a clearly last minute one. Hesitatingly, Izuku reached out to take it in hand.
He hadn’t expected to receive anything other than the All Might set of gym clothes, one of them being the shorts he’d worn this very day. All Might’s offer to pay some food for him had already been generous enough, since the man didn’t owe him anything, not after he’d already done so much by training him, even if they never got to eat anything. Now this? this wasn’t a humble offer of food. This was, according to the weight, a full-blown present, not just a trinket expressing congratulations.
With care not to ruin the fancy bag (despite it being likely that it was just a normal paper bag magicked into becoming fancy), he pried the sticky tape away to open it. With care, he pulled out… a maroon utility belt with gold accents It was well worn and with some scuffs in the leather-like material.
“That was part of the initial version of my hero outfit. Now a days I have hidden pockets incorporated into the armored part of it, but back in the beginning I didn’t have access to Kevlar and other similar fabrics and my armature was more unwieldy, so I had to have a utility belt. I stocked it back up to give it to you. There’s portable first aid supplies in one of the pouches, the equivalent of overpowered smoke bombs in another, as well as some lures and some disguise supplies, among many other things. I wrote out instructions and put them there, so make sure you read through them when you can.”
Izuku looked up at her, mouth hanging open at her generosity, mind completely blank.
“Isn’t that too much?” His mom asked, likely concerned with how much all of that likely costed.
“Well… Not really. I funded my supplier when he and his brother were just starting out. Some are products they would sell regularly as part of their jokeshop, like the instant darkness powder. I just happen to have a handy discount. As for the first aid supplies, I had to learn to make a lot of those myself when I studied with my old school nurse and only the simpler things, like bandages and the sort, do I actually buy from pharmacies. It’s not as expensive and it might look. And he is training to be a hero, isn’t he? I would rather he gets a head start into keeping himself safe.”
That was enough to get his mom teary eyed at the thoughtfulness, especially since it was so in-line with her wanting him to be safe.
That, somehow, snapped him out of his trance and he began crying as well.
Genuine support equipment! He’d just received genuine support equipment! From Hedwig’s debut!!!
This was the best birthday ever!