#anywayy im gonna spend the next half a day distracting myself from noticing all my glaring mistakes and resisting the urge to post everythi

[blacknovelist]

A Place to Be - BNHA Fic (Ch. 2)

Yeah, so, I’m still here. But before anyone asks why I took so long, the reason is I decided I wanted to finish writing all the chapters before I updated. Which also means that yes, this fic is technically finished! Except for the epilogue, but let’s call that technicalities and move on. I’ll be posting once a day until it’s finished (I’d like to go over the two last chapters since I only just did ‘em), so it shouldn’t take longer than half a week at this rate. This chapter was hard tho since it’s like, the bridge between the first chapter and the stuff I actually wanted to write? Honestly, I’m still not sure how I feel about the way I wrote Hisashi, haha. In the end, the plot i went with was different from the original plot I mapped out (as fond as I was of it), so I had to make quite a few changes.

This is for all you guys going into the reviews and yelling at me to come back and finish this already. ;D 

Thank you @curiousbluepencil for helping me out with the first draft, and thanks @guardianlioness for being the wonderful enabler you always are with fics and Dad Might (and for reading over this chapter and the next one too, ahaha)

I did make some changes to the first chapter, mostly towards the end, so you should maybe read it first!! If you haven't already, that is.

[AO3] [ffnet]

[Ch. 1] [Ch. 2] [Ch. 3] [Ch. 4] [Epilogue]

Chapter 2: Event Horizon

A point of no return.

It all started with a knock on the door.

Memories of a surprise cleaning inspection from Aizawa sprang to mind, and everyone flew into panic as Toshinori went to answer it. Iida gathered all the dishes and passed them to Uraraka, who lightly hurled them into the sink where Shouji got to work; Sero yanked a stray rubber chicken off one of the light fixtures while Kaminari and Mineta swept up abandoned papers; Tokoyami and Dark Shadow quickly shoved stray chairs back into order at the table; the rest got out of the way and tried to act as natural as possible.

As a result, when the door swung open to reveal a rather unassuming and unfamiliar man rather than their homeroom teacher, the only thing approaching out of place in the dorm was the duo sitting upside-down on the couches playing video games.

“Why, good afternoon!” The stranger beamed. He bowed, almost too deep for his casual greeting. “I, ah, it’s nice to meet you. My name is Midoriya Hisashi. My son is a student here, and since I’m back in Japan for a bit I thought I should drop by, maybe take a look at the school while I’m at it. I was told he is living here right now?”

Toshinori did an admirable job of repressing his own shock and covering the way Class 1-A collectively froze by returning the bow and replying, in entirely too loud and exuberant a voice, “Hello, Midoriya-san!” Stepping towards his students to allow the man in, he eyed the jacket slung over Hisashi’s arm and the papers sticking out of the pocket. “My name is To- ahem, Yagi Toshinori. You likely knew me as All Might previously but please, call me Yagi. It’s nice to meet you as well.”

“Thank you, Yagi-san.” The smile on Hisashi’s face didn’t change as he came in, shed his shoes, and bowed again. “I apologize for my sudden appearance today, but I was hoping to be a surprise and to perhaps learn a little bit more about what my son’s life at UA is like. I hope that isn’t a problem.”

“Not at all!”

The class shared a look. Towards the back of the room, Kirishima and Iida barely managed to catch Izuku before his legs gave out completely.

Izuku wasn’t really sure how he was supposed to feel about all this.

Lgoically, he knew he should feel something. Anger, maybe, or sadness. Possibly even joy? But as the man claiming to be his father bustled towards him, all he could really muster was unease, confusion, and a deep instinctive wariness honed through a single year of hero training. The “why?"s and "what for?"s piled up, the cumulation of years spent wondering and wondering and wondering. He struggled to breathe normally past the thud of his heart in his throat, and his head felt like it was going to burst.

But there were no tears as Hisashi came to him, no heartfelt reunion hugs, no heavy explanations and promises to try better - there’s just two hands on his shoulders, a brief hug, a glance at his face and a strategic turn to his classmates.

"I’m only here for the afternoon, I’m afraid. It’s not much, but it should ample time to get to know about the school life,” he’d said earlier, a knowing smile on his face. “I’ll give you some time. Don’t worry, my son. Go.”

Izuku was all too ready to take the escape offered and stay out of the way for as long as he could. His friends and Toshinori ‘distracted’ Hisashi until he was ready to come out, and he made a note to treat them later as thanks.

Still, this was something he’d been waiting years for, and Izuku was nothing if not opportunistic when he wanted to be. So, the time not spent thinking was used watching as the man hovered over shoulders like it was his sworn duty, and slowly but surely Izuku’s mental notebook filled with details about his father that he hadn’t gotten from his mother before.

A handful of things Izuku matched up with his own, like the way Hisashi mumbled observations and ideas, fiddled with his hands, had the faintest collection of freckles over his nose, and liked holding his bottom lip whenever deep in thought. A few traits were entirely Hisashi’s own, like the fact that he seemed to have no filter but enough tact to either stop talking or apologize, liked jogging or biking in his free time, and was blindingly good at talking to people.

While interesting, it didn’t really help Izuku get to know his father as a person. Hisashi was a silver tongue - though he seemed to get along with most of the class, questions about his job or hobbies were answered vaguely (what was so special about “fiddle names”? They’d probably never know), and he refused to elaborate on his vanishing act past “business trips”. The deeper questions piled up in Izuku’s head were given the promise of “in private” and “I’ll explain later”, when Izuku finally got the chance to talk to him about it. If he didn’t know any better, he would’ve thought the man had only been gone a few months or a couple years.

“Maybe he isn’t sure how to deal with the fact that he’s here now, so he’s acting like nothing’s changed,” Kaminari suggested after overhearing Izuku’s thoughts. He’d made his escape from Hisashi’s endless curiosity when the man had been distracted by Sato. “I’m pretty sure it’s a psychology thing. He’ll talk to you properly and figure it out eventually.”

“I hope he figures it out soon, because the fact that he keeps talking to us instead of you is getting kind of awkward,” Jirou said, frowning. “ Kouda disappeared the moment your dad turned his way. Bakugou and Todoroki have this look on their faces. Everyone knows why Bakugou’s like that, but nobody wants to find out why Todoroki of all people looks like that too. I don’t know how much more we can take of this.”

The end result was that, by the time Toshinori ushered them towards the gym to meet with Aizawa again, all they knew about Midoriya Hisashi was that he liked ramen, jumped from subject to subject like a gold medalist, and a half dozen other arbitrary details no one knew what to do with. Izuku couldn’t help glancing back at him as they walked, mind still swirling with everything he hadn’t been able to ask earlier.

He wondered if he really wanted to know the answers anymore.

Three hours, six explanations and two-and-a-half battlefield shouting matches later, class 1-A finally dragged themselves back out into the world. Though Aizawa had left them under Toshinori’s supervision an hour ago to finish “important” paperwork, the constant questions and requests for demonstrations lobbed at them had kept them until the sun streaked the clouds and sky a myriad of dusty dark blues and rapidly fading orange-pinks.

“That was incredibly enlightening,” Hisashi said, appearing just as chipper as when he walked through the heights alliance doors earlier. His lips curled into a grin like he’d solved some incredible puzzle that had been plaguing him the whole week.

He lingered towards the back with Izuku as Toshinori pushed forwards to check on the others, waited as the teacher passed his son with a silent question and a bobbed head, and stepped closer.

“Izuku.” Hisashi watched as Izuku leapt a foot into the air, delirious training mumbles interrupted, and couldn’t hide his chuckles. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to startle you. But I was wondering if I could talk to you before we head back.”

Izuku hesitated, tried and failed to ignore the sweat seeping into his shirt, the dull burn of a long workout in his bones, the hesitation. “Not right now. It shouldn’t take long to go back and change,” he said in lieu of the no on his tongue. “Let me run back with everyone to drop my stuff off.”

“I won’t keep you forever. It’s already late, I need to get going soon.”

“Can you just tell me on the way instead? I’d rather not stay in these clothes any longer than I have to.”

“It’s important, yes, but it’s also private,” Hisashi said, a frown making itself known. When he took a step, Izuku matched it with two more. “Come on, my son. I promise it won’t take long at all.”

Neither noticed that they’d stopped walking, that the rest of them were waiting and watching.

“Well, I-”

“Midoriya-san,” Iida spoke up. “I personally assure you it won’t take long at all for us to return to the dorms and make ourselves more presentable, and none of us would dare think of invading your privacy by listening in on your conversation if you chose to speak to him on our way. If you have any concerns you need to share with your son, please don’t let us be in your way!”

Jirou coughed, and nodded.

Uraraka gave a light laugh. “Besides, I bet Deku’s feeling as dead on his feet as we are!”

Hisashi’s frown deepened. “It’s partially my fault for losing track of time, I suppose.” He nodded. “But I’m already pushing my schedule by still being here. I know what a workout feels like, thank you. I’m sure you want to rest and I’m sorry, but this is urgent.”

“Why not come back another day, even just for a bit?” Izuku’s brow furrowed. “If… if it’s that important you tell me this, I mean. I know you’re busy and that’s why you could only spare an afternoon, but I don’t even know if I can stay on my feet for much longer. Better to pay more attention if I need to hear it, right? Or you could call, while you’re still in Japan-”

“It really won’t take so long, and it’s too important for a phone call,” Hisashi bit out. They were all too tired for this back and forth arguing, really. “It can’t wait, so-”

“Hey, you and shitty Deku aren’t the only ones who need to be going somewhere, you know!” Bakugou snarled.

“Curfew will begin soon, and if we need to be out after that with reason, we’re required to stick together,” Todoroki said. A bold-faced lie. “At that point, we wouldn’t really have a choice about privacy. Either tell him on the way, or tell him at the dorms.”

“I don’t have time, and we’re already wasting more of it talking about this.” He stormed forward, and the class surged.

“You’re the one insisting on running off when we could have finished back home already-”

“If you could just reconsider-”

“Midoriya obviously doesn’t want to talk to you right now-”

“You might be his father, but he doesn’t have to go anywhere-”

“Take a hint, you-”

Sparks built up between his teeth, tickling his gums. “He’s my son,” Hisashi snapped. “And I can ask him to talk to me if I want him to, so back off!”

All but one froze at the flames that sprouted from his lips. It chased the dark and chill of night away for only a moment, leaving nothing but moonlight to illuminate the surprised faces of Hisashi Midoriya and Class 1-A.