Chapter Text
Stepping back into their apartment again is weird in a way that Katsuki wasn’t expecting.
This is where he’s lived with Deku since they graduated from U.A. It’s the place they’ve called home for almost three years, it’s where they find each other after a grueling day of hero work and where they wake up together every morning. They’ve tended each other’s wounds here, comforted and supported each other, grown closer as their relationship has deepened.
Their entire adult lives have taken place here. And they’ve only been gone for a few hours, so it’s not like anything about the apartment has changed – but everything else has.
Katsuki is suddenly hyperaware of how small it is. It was pretty much the best they could afford when they’d first started out and they’d always meant for it to be a temporary living situation anyway, just something to get them through the first couple years of their careers until they had the means to pay for a nicer place. But it’s grown on both of them.
It’s close to their agency and a lot of their friends. There are plenty of restaurants in walking distance. There’s a subway stop just down the block. And it’s technically a two-bedroom, although Katsuki thinks calling the second room anything other than a walk-in closet is being extra fucking generous. Currently they’re pretending that “bedroom” is a shared office, but actually it’s just housing boxes of their combined hero memorabilia that they couldn’t fit anywhere else.
He guesses they should probably clear that out now.
The other option being–
“We’re gonna have to move.”
Deku blinks over at him where he’s still just standing in the entranceway, staring at the space around them with new eyes. “What? Why?”
“We can’t raise a kid here,” Katsuki says, and this time Deku frowns. He scans the living room in front of them as if he’s trying to understand where Katsuki’s coming from, which has Katsuki abruptly remembering that the two of them were raised in very different households.
Katsuki is maybe a bit spoiled. He can admit that.
This is about more than the size of the place, though.
“We can turn the office into a nursery,” Deku says slowly. “A crib will fit in there.”
Katsuki snorts. “With all our shit? Barely.”
“The desk can go, we’re not using it anyway.”
“We’re not using it because it’s covered in All Might junk.”
“Half of that All Might junk is yours, Kacchan.”
“And we do need the desk, actually, because whenever one of us has paperwork to do it ends up all over the coffee table because we don’t have a fucking REAL table. We eat all our meals on the damn couch and then I gotta hand in greasy-ass folders and shit at work because something always spills.”
Deku, the snarky little nerd, just rolls his eyes.
Katsuki scowls. “It’s not big enough, Izuku.”
“I lived in an apartment my entire life,” Deku says, a tad defensively. “And I turned out fine. We like this location! Where else would we even go?”
“Somewhere where there’s fucking trees, for one.” Katsuki throws a hand out, gesturing off into the distance. “And parks. You grew up in an apartment in the suburbs, remember? It’s different than this. We had a neighborhood, playgrounds… I want that for our kid. I don’t wanna raise them in the city.”
The small amount of tension Deku was holding in his shoulders bleeds away, his expression softening. “Ah. That’s…a good point.”
“Also, it was mostly just you and your mom at your place – we’ve got a whole extra third person.”
“It’s just so convenient here,” Deku says weakly.
“I told you there’d be changes,” Katsuki points out, and Deku sighs.
“I know. Can we even afford a house?”
“I’m not saying I need a fucking house, geez. I’m just saying we need to start getting used to the idea of commuting.” Katsuki pauses to do some quick math in his head anyway. “But…I mean, eventually, sure. Hell, how much space does a baby even need? We’d probably be fine here for another year or two.”
“Mm, but if we move back home then we can rope our parents into helping out with childcare.” Deku sucks in a breath suddenly, his eyes blowing wide as he reaches out to snag Katsuki’s wrist. “Oh my god, Kacchan. We have to tell our parents.”
Katsuki cringes.
Yeah. He knows.
But he’s not sure how he’s supposed to navigate that conversation at all.
Telling their friends is one thing. He’s warmed up to that idea a little, mostly because watching all their heads explode will probably be funny as shit.
And he assumes telling his boss is going to be mortifying, but he’ll suck it up because it’s gotta be done.
But dropping that bomb on his mother?
Sure to be a goddamn nightmare.
…For whatever bizarre reason, though, Katsuki finds himself filled with an inexplicable and deeply unfamiliar urge to talk to her.
Like, right now. This instant.
Which is a feeling he honestly doesn’t know what to do with.
Mitsuki is hardly the soft or gentle sort. She and Katsuki are more likely to snap and bark at each other than sit down and have a heart-to-heart. They’ve had that kind of abrasive relationship for Katsuki’s entire life, so why he suddenly wants to collapse into her arms, curl up against her and let her shield him from all the bullshit life has to offer, he has no fucking idea. She hasn’t held him like that since he was in diapers, probably. And a good chunk of the reason for that is because he wouldn’t fucking let her, so it’s fine, that’s just how they are and it’s not something that’s ever bothered him.
Because despite all their combined bitching at each other, she’s still his mom. He still loves her.
And he knows she loves him.
It doesn’t make him feel any less pathetic that this sudden dumb crybaby impulse is so overwhelming that it’s making his throat go tight. It’s stupid and kind of alarming and definitely annoying as all hell, but fuck, he just really, really wants to talk to her.
He wants his mom.
Katsuki handles this brand-new bullshit territory by shoving every wayward emotion he’s currently experiencing deep down inside of him and pulling free from Deku so that he can slouch off in the direction of the bedroom.
Goddamn pregnancy hormones. Yeah, he knows all about those now! He’s already not a fucking fan!!
“M’gonna take a nap,” Katsuki mutters, as he ambles down the hall.
Deku doesn’t say anything. He just watches him go, his brow creased in concern.
Once Katsuki’s in the safety of their bedroom, he lets out a shuddering exhale and scrubs the heels of his hands over his eyes.
Fuck this entire day, honestly.
He knows he’s ping-ponging all over the place. Blindsided one second, horrified the next. Reluctantly hopeful and very tentatively excited. But still terrified underneath it all. Still a little bitter, a little resentful.
Part of him is mad.
A bigger part is buzzing with anticipation and nerves.
There’s a thread of pure joy twisting around his heart.
It’s all so fucking much.
Katsuki starts to beeline toward their bed, fully intending to collapse face down onto it and not come up for air for at least three hours, but he pauses as he passes his closet, eyes drawn to the top shelf. Left side.
There’s a familiar shopping bag there, hidden beneath a pile of scarves.
He hesitates for a moment, then changes direction and moves toward the closet instead, unearthing the bag and yanking it open so he can peer inside at its contents.
Baby clothes.
A whole hoard of fucking baby clothes that he was stashing like a damn chipmunk gathering acorns for the winter.
Katsuki drops heavily onto the bed, still staring at his amassed collection. Onesies and baby shoes galore.
What the fuck.
How did he let this giant red flag go unchecked?
He’s never in his entire goddamn life felt any need to even look at, much less purchase, tiny little outfits for squalling infants. And here he walked out of the store with practically the entire freakin’ clothes rack and didn’t think he should probably be at least a LITTLE concerned about that?
Katsuki groans and flops backwards onto the bed, throwing an arm over his eyes, his free hand still clutching the shopping bag. Fuck, he remembers holding one of the onesies up against his stomach, trying to imagine Ears growing a human big enough to fit into it.
The thought has him lifting his arm a bit so he can squint down at the bag again. Then he’s moving in a flurry, scooting himself further up the bed so he can rest against the pillows and digging around in the bag until he’s pulling out one of the Deku onesies.
Shit, it’s big.
Or, well, it’s not. It’s still fucking small but now he’s trying to picture a baby this size somehow fitting in his body and it’s FUCKING BIG, okay?!
He scowls, searching for a tag or something, and there’s some relief when he realizes it’s meant for kids three to six months old. When he was snatching all these outfits up like an absolute lunatic, it hadn’t occurred to him to check for fucking sizes.
At least it’s still cute.
Katsuki rummages through the bag some more until he finds a onesie that’s meant for actual newborns. Zero to three months, it says, and unfortunately it’s the Shouto one but what-fucking-ever. It’s still alarmingly big while at the same time being so, so small, and the clashing thoughts are honestly making his head hurt.
He leans back into the pillows, stretching his torso out so he can drape the Shouto onesie over the slight bump in his belly.
Weird.
Weird, weird, weird.
But…not impossible. He’s just gonna be huge, that’s all.
There’s a noticeable squirm in his gut just then. A light, fluttery sort of feeling that isn’t exactly new because he has felt it before. A couple times over the past two weeks or so.
He hadn’t realized it was something worth noticing at the time, though. Now that he knows exactly what it is, he feels his eyes growing wide with awe all over again.
“You like this one, huh?” he mumbles, lifting the Shouto onesie up so he can examine it more closely. “Well, tough shit, kid. You’re not allowed to like Icy Hot best.”
It’s soft, though. There’s a little snowflake design on the bottom of one of the footies, and a flame on the bottom of the other. Kind of a nice touch, he thinks, feeling the corner of his mouth quirk upwards.
–God, okay, he’s talking to himself now. Talking to his kid and admiring baby clothes and he’s fucking pregnant and is any of this ever NOT going to feel jarring as shit???
Fuck.
Okay.
It’s been, like, five minutes since he found out. He’s allowed to still feel fucking insane about the whole thing.
There’s a light knock on the door and Katsuki jolts, scrambling to shove the shopping bag and all the clothes in it under one of the pillows as Deku enters the room with his laptop held in the crook of his arm.
“I wasn’t sure if you’d fallen asleep yet,” he says, while Katsuki tries to look like he didn’t just hide a whole pile of baby clothes in their bed. Baby clothes that he personally bought all by himself like a totally normal twenty-one-year-old man who’s pregnant but didn’t know it at the time.
“Not yet,” Katsuki says. He narrows his eyes at the laptop. “What’re you–?”
“It’s your mom,” Deku says, and then he quickly holds up a hand before Katsuki can immediately lose his shit and adds in a rush, “She’s muted! I didn’t tell her anything. You don’t have to tell her anything. I just thought you might want to talk to her.”
Katsuki blinks. He’s tense, posed like he’s about to launch himself off the bed and storm out of the room, and – he doesn’t know what to do.
How does Deku know him so fucking well?
“I don’t know how to tell her, Izuku,” he says, and his voice comes out hoarse. Choked. Maybe if he went through his dad first…?
But that’s a nightmare in its own way.
Mostly because it’s somehow embarrassing, he literally can’t imagine telling his dad that his very male and definitely gay son is magically knocked up with an accidental Quirk baby.
Surprise! You’re not even fifty and you’re going to be a grandfather. Bet you didn’t see that one coming.
Shit, and Katsuki is actually close with his dad. He’s normally the one person Katsuki willingly talks to.
“We don’t have to say anything right now if you don’t want to,” Deku says again. “That’s not why I called her. I just… It seemed like you might need her.” Katsuki scoffs purely out of habit, and Deku lets out this sound that’s so exasperated it almost makes him laugh. “Kacchan. Do you want to talk to her or not?”
“I do,” Katsuki blurts out, and then he promptly grimaces. Dammit. “Fine, give it here. She’ll fucking kill me if we tell anyone else before her anyway.”
Deku crawls onto the bed next to him, handing over the laptop, and Katsuki gets it balanced on his knees before taking a deep breath and fully opening the lid so he can see his mom’s image on the screen. Then he taps the unmute icon. “Hey.”
“What’s wrong, kid?” Mitsuki asks immediately, eyes narrowed in suspicion. “What’s going on, you okay?”
“Yes?” Katsuki says, giving her his usual irritated frown. “Why the hell would something be wrong?”
“Why else would Izuku call me?”
Katsuki rolls his eyes. “He calls you every week.”
“Not at…” Mitsuki glances at the corner of her screen. “Lunchtime on a Tuesday. Why aren’t you working?”
“We’re off today.”
“I missed our call last week,” Deku says, leaning into view with a too-bright smile. “I was on that mission, so. Just got back yesterday!”
“Oh, that’s right.” Mitsuki sits back a bit, seemingly accepting that this is just a normal call. Hah. “How’d that go?”
Deku launches into a story about some fancy restaurant Fat Gum took them to after they’d wrapped everything up, and Katsuki lets him talk, trying to keep a neutral expression on his face. He doesn’t want to give anything away before he’s ready, especially with his mom trying to pretend she’s some kind of shitty detective today.
For the next few minutes, Deku’s rambling fills the room, and every response from Mitsuki eases something in Katsuki’s chest. Just hearing her voice is somehow soothing, which is so ass-backwards from usual that it’s actually hilarious. Eventually, though, Deku trails off into silence, and Mitsuki’s gaze slides pointedly back over to him.
“What are you working on?” he asks, spotting some sketches on the desk in front of her.
Her lips purse for a moment before she exhales shortly through her nose. “It’s a bomber jacket. I think you’d like it, actually. Any chance I can get you to come to our next show?”
Katsuki snorts. “Yeah, right.”
“It’s right up your alley, ya brat! Look.” She holds up one of the design drawings, and Katsuki has to admit (to himself, silently) that it’s not half bad. “Not too chic, right? I wanted it more toned down.”
“High fashion that doesn’t look like it but still costs a fucking arm and a leg?” Katsuki drawls, and Mitsuki gives him a sharp grin.
“That’s very in right now, you know.”
“If it’s in, it’s because you decided it’s in.”
“I know what the consumer wants,” Mitsuki says loftily.
“Fashion is a scam,” Katsuki mutters to Deku, which makes him chuckle. He’s currently curled against Katsuki’s side, watching them talk. “Why don’t you ever make shit that’s actually useful?”
“And just what the hell do you think counts as useful, huh?”
“I dunno, like… Pregnancy clothes or something.” He can’t quite bring himself to say maternity. Beside him, Deku goes still. “Or crap for babies.”
Mitsuki pauses. “That’s not really our brand,” she says after a moment, a furrow forming between her brows. She reaches for a clean sheet of paper. “For your friends?”
“…Sure.” Whatever, he’ll go with it. “They’re not high ranking enough yet that they get merch made for them like that.”
“Chargebolt, right?”
“Yeah.”
“And – Jirou, she’s…?”
“Kyouka,” Katsuki corrects. “Earphone Jack is her hero name.”
“I could maybe do a one-off,” Mitsuki says, already sketching something out. “Something special for them, I mean. I couldn’t put it in stores, that’d require going through their agencies and dealing with a whole bunch of legal bullshit that I don’t have time for right now.”
“That’d be so cool,” Deku comments softly. “I bet they’d really love that.”
“Kyouka can buy maternity clothes anywhere, though.” Mitsuki looks up from her drawing, one eyebrow slightly arched. “You don’t need that from me, right?”
“No,” Katsuki says, voice sullen. “Guess not.”
Mitsuki squints at him. “Katsuki, what’s wrong?”
“For fuck’s sake!” Katsuki snaps. “Nothing’s wrong, goddamn. Lay off, would you?”
She ignores him. “You’re in a mood.”
“I’m not in a fucking mood.”
“And you look tired.”
“I’m gonna hang up on you.”
“Don’t you fucking dare,” Mitsuki says quickly, pointing her pencil at the camera. “I haven’t talked to you in weeks! How’d I raise such an ungrateful son?”
“It hasn’t been weeks,” Katsuki complains. “It’s been, like, two at most.”
“And you’re ignoring my texts.”
“I’m BUSY.”
“You’re never too busy to talk to your mother.”
“I swear to fucking god.” Katsuki scowls, jerking his eyes away. “Where’s dad?”
“Upstairs. You want me to get him?”
“No,” Katsuki says immediately, and that sure doesn’t help the situation any. Both of Mitsuki’s eyebrows shoot upwards this time, so Katsuki tries to correct himself with a hasty, “I’ll talk to him later.”
“You’re setting off every single one of my warning bells, kid.”
“Why are you being so paranoid?”
“Why are you being a shady little shit??”
“I’m not. I’m just–” Katsuki’s breath hitches and he clenches his teeth against it. Deku leans further into him, one hand coming up to rest on his forearm.
“Katsuki,” Mitsuki says, and there’s something bordering on desperate in her tone now. “Baby, tell me what’s going on.”
“It’s – I’m okay,” Katsuki forces out. “I just got hit with a stupid Quirk.”
Mitsuki looks frozen on the screen, red eyes pinned steadily to Katsuki’s, her skin pale. “And?”
“And it… Uh. Fuck.” Katsuki swallows. “It’s hard to explain. I’m gonna be fine, I’m just…”
“Katsuki.”
“Fuck, okay. Fuck. I kind of – I might be pregnant?”
There’s silence from the computer for a long moment. Katsuki’s pretty sure he’s not breathing, and Deku’s grip on his arm is so tight that he won’t be surprised if it bruises.
Then Mitsuki blinks. “Might?”
Katsuki exhales in a huff. “No, I…am. Pregnant.”
“Wha…” Shit, he’s never seen his mom so completely thrown off-kilter before. She looks like she’s not comprehending what he’s telling her, and it takes her a few attempts to get any real words out, mouth opening and closing soundlessly until finally her entire face scrunches up in confusion. “What? Katsuki, what the fuck are you saying to me right now?”
It’s easier to get out the second time around, at least. “That I’m pregnant,” he says dryly. “Just found out this morning.”
“How?” Mitsuki asks wildly, a hand coming up to palm at her cheek in a way that honestly looks more like a move Deku’s mom would pull. “You – are you sure?? How did… Oh my god.”
“Some bullshit Quirk.” Katsuki shrugs a little. “We don’t know a lot about it yet, the Quirk specialist at the hospital is working on looking into it.”
“You’re pregnant?”
“Yeah, mom,” Katsuki says, with a slight roll of his eyes. He glances at Deku and gives him a nudge. “Go get the pictures.”
Deku nods, disappearing off the bed in a flash.
“Oh, Katsuki.” Mitsuki has both hands covering her mouth now. She shifts like she wants to get up or move toward him somehow, but it’s not like there’s anywhere she can go since Katsuki’s on the other side of a computer screen. “Katsuki. What are you going to do?”
“I mean.” Katsuki shrugs again, fully aware that he’s trying to make it seem like his next words aren’t a big deal when in fact they’re the biggest bomb of all. “We’re keeping it. So.”
Deku’s back in the room again, envelope in hand, when Katsuki’s mom screeches, “You’re keeping it?!”
“Fucking hell,” Katsuki mutters. He makes a show of rubbing at one of his ears. “Can it with the banshee shit, would you?”
“Katsuki–”
“Yes, okay? We’re keeping it.” Deku climbs up next to Katsuki again, handing over the envelope with the ultrasound scans inside. “We’re having a damn baby or whatever. Congratulations, grandma.”
“Holy shit, I just lost thirty years off my life,” Mitsuki says, voice faint. She presses a palm against her chest, eyes closing for a moment before she opens them again and levels a steady look at the camera. “That is a big decision, kid.”
“We know,” Deku says, leaning into view. “Kacchan struggled with it, but… This is where we landed.”
Mitsuki gives the pair of them a mild frown. “You’re both so young. You’ve got your whole lives ahead of you. This – this ties you together forever. In one way or another. You realize that, right?”
“The fuck?” Katsuki straightens up at that, a scowl tugging at his mouth. “What the hell does that mean? It’s not like we were gonna split up anytime soon.”
“I know that,” Mitsuki says, in this annoying, placating tone that only manages to get Katsuki’s hackles up even more.
“Don’t say shit like that, then! We were already forever, it’s got nothing to do with having a baby.”
“Aww,” Deku says next to him, looking pleased in a surprised sort of way. Katsuki glowers at him, feeling heat rise in his cheeks. “No, that was sweet!”
“Shut up,” he grouses, and then turns his glare back to his mother. “Seriously, what the hell is wrong with you? You weren’t that much older than me when YOU got pregnant.”
“I’m just saying it’s a massive commitment you’re making. To each other, to your future–”
“No shit, you think we don’t know that?”
“Having a kid is a lot of fucking work,” Mitsuki continues, ignoring him. “And you’re both already so busy all the time, and your jobs are dangerous – I’m just worried. I’m worried, Katsuki. It’s my job to worry.”
“Well,” Katsuki says, gruffly and not a little awkwardly, his lower lip jutting out. “Fucking…stop.”
Mitsuki laughs somewhat helplessly at that. It’s a sound Katsuki doesn’t think he’s ever heard from her before. “Oh boy. You have no idea, Katsuki. None at all.”
“You’re acting like I’m doing this with some stranger,” Katsuki complains. He flings a hand in Deku’s direction. “It’s Izuku. We’re partners. He’s got my back, we’re gonna be fine.”
“That’s not what this is about.” Mitsuki’s gaze shifts, meeting Deku’s. “Izuku, you know I love you, honey. I’m not doubting you.”
“I know,” Deku says easily. He gives Katsuki a look out of the corner of his eye, brows arched a bit. “Kacchan is forgetting he had this same exact reaction when we found out about Kaminari and Kyouka. And they’re actually married.”
“I didn’t–!” Katsuki starts, but he has to cut himself off because oh.
…Well, shit.
That’s a nasty feeling. Ugh, dammit, now he retroactively feels bad all over again.
He huffs out a noisy breath. “Look… It is what it is, okay? It’s done, we made our decision. You could try being a little fucking supportive.”
“I’m still trying to wrap my head around the fact that my son is somehow pregnant.”
Katsuki snorts. “Join the fucking club.”
“Are they sure it’s viable?” Mitsuki asks, and Katsuki rolls his eyes so hard they twinge a bit.
“It’s alive and kicking,” he says. “Literally. I’m nineteen weeks in, mom. If you’re thinking I had a lot of other options or something, well. I didn’t.” Katsuki’s eyes lower for a moment. “Don’t get me wrong, I made the decision to keep it. I want to. But doing anything else would’ve been…really complicated.”
Mitsuki just stares at him. “Nineteen weeks. You’re nineteen weeks pregnant and didn’t find out until TODAY?”
“He didn’t connect the dots,” Deku says, poking Katsuki in the side.
“Fuck off, it’s not my fault!” He slaps at Deku’s hand, making him snicker. “Like I was gonna jump to the conclusion that I was knocked up with nerd spawn. Yeah, that’s totally a fuckin’ thing I definitely knew was possible.”
“I have so many questions,” Mitsuki says, her voice going faint again. “If my head ever stops spinning, maybe I’ll ask them. But…” She takes a deep breath. “Well, here we are. A baby, huh?”
“A baby,” Deku agrees with a grin. He’s so much more chipper than either Katsuki or his mom, and Katsuki catches the exact moment she notices that. Something in her face softens as she watches him.
“Your dad might cry,” she tells them. “He cried when he found out I was expecting, the giant sap. Can I get him now? Let me go get him, you have to give him the news.”
“Wait!” Katsuki says quickly. Mitsuki’s half out of her seat already, but she ducks back into view with an expectant look. For half a beat, Katsuki hesitates. Then he swallows his pride and forces the question out. “Can you just fucking tell him? Explain everything first, then bring him here?”
He sort of expects her to refuse, to tell him to man the fuck up and do it himself. But for once in her life, she goes easy on him and just nods. “Sure thing, kid. Be right back.”
Katsuki collapses back onto the pillows with a loud sigh. He still has the envelope of pictures in his hand and stares up at it blankly.
“Hanging in there?” Deku asks, giving him a gentle smile.
“Barely,” Katsuki mutters. “This is excruciating. Maybe I don’t want to tell the others.”
“That won’t be as difficult, I think.”
“All downhill from here?”
Deku lets out a low chuckle. “Something like that.”
They fall silent for a while. Katsuki can’t imagine how the conversation with his dad is going. He’s glad he doesn’t have to hear it.
It’s not long before they come back, though. Less than ten minutes and there’s the sound of footsteps approaching. Katsuki heaves himself back up into a sitting position just as his dad’s face fills the camera, his mom appearing behind him over Masaru’s shoulder.
“Kat,” he says, voice full of concern. “Are you okay?”
And, in a horrifying turn of events, Katsuki immediately feels his eyes go wet.
Goddammit.
“Yep,” he chokes out, bending forward to crush the heels of his hands against his eye sockets. “Fuckin’ peachy.”
“Oh, Kat.” Masaru sounds like he’s about to force his way right through the computer screen. The pure emotion in his voice is almost overwhelming. “Don’t, son, it’s okay. It’s okay. You’re gonna get through this, everything’s going to be fine!”
“Shit, that’s my fault,” Mitsuki says, squishing in closer beside Masaru. “I was weepy as fuck when I was pregnant.”
Deku’s hand comes up to rub in soothing circles along Katsuki’s spine. He hears his dad tell his mom, “You really were, weren’t you?”
“Yeah, it fucking sucked.”
Katsuki barks out a sobbing kind of laugh, face still buried against his hands. “Yeah? Any other bullshit you wanna warn me about?”
“So many things,” Mitsuki says in an oddly fond tone. “I love you, kid. I love you with every fiber of my being. I wanted you before we knew you existed. I wanted you when you were fucking refusing to leave my body for fourteen hours. Every temper tantrum and fight, every heart attack you’ve given me over the years – through every single goddamn second of it, I’ve never once regretted being your mom.” A beat passes. “But, Katsuki, I hated being pregnant.”
A shuddering sob wracks Katsuki’s shoulders as he’s hit with the sudden understanding that this is why he wanted to talk to her so badly.
Because as much as it sometimes pisses him off, he’s pretty sure there’s not a single other person on the planet who can relate to him quite as much as she can.
“You weren’t even born yet and you were already such a brat,” she continues, sounding almost cheerful about it now. “You just lived on my bladder. God, what a little asshole.”
Katsuki chuckles quietly again. The tension eases out of him, and he rubs at his eyes for another second before lifting his head to give his parents a wry grin. “Karma really is a bitch, I guess.” He meets his dad’s gaze. “Surprise, old man.”
“Little bit,” Masaru says, with his own soft, disbelieving laugh. His mom was right – Masaru’s eyes are red-rimmed beneath his glasses. “Can we come over?”
“What, now?” Katsuki cranes his head, glancing at Deku who just shrugs. He’s still got a hand on Katsuki’s back.
“For dinner,” Masaru clarifies. “We’ll bring food. And we can stop and pick up Inko on the way.”
Deku’s eyes go wide.
Katsuki curses under his breath.
Masaru just blinks at them. “…Unless you haven’t told her yet.”
“Midoriya Izuku,” Mitsuki says dangerously, Mom Voice in full effect as she shoves her face closer to the camera. “You haven’t told your mother?!”
Deku splutters. “We were busy telling YOU.”
“That’s not an excuse! You add her to this call right now!”
“Ah, okay! I’ll text her!” Deku scrambles for his phone, tapping away at it. “She’s probably at work but maybe she can get away for a minute…”
“Fuck’s sake, ma.” Katsuki gives Mitsuki an exasperated look. “We were gonna get to it.”
“This is better,” Mitsuki says, waving him off. “I can help you out.”
Katsuki arches an eyebrow. “Oh really? Ms. Why Are You Keeping My Future Grandchild, You Should’ve Just Chucked That Thing?”
“Mitsuki,” Masaru says, completely scandalized, and Katsuki shoots her a smug grin while she throws her hands up and tries to save face.
“That is not what I said, not even close.”
“You weren’t exactly thrilled,” Katsuki says.
“Were you?” Mitsuki fires back at him, and he harrumphs.
“I had to get used to the idea. I’m still getting used to it.”
“Well!” Mitsuki gestures broadly at nothing, using that answer to prove her point. “There you go.”
“She’s going to call us,” Deku says, coming back into view. “Wait, what am I supposed to say?”
“We should’ve gotten balloons,” Katsuki mutters. He holds the picture envelope out toward him. “You could show her one of these.”
Both Mitsuki and Masaru zero in on the envelope instantly, but a little box pops up on the computer screen telling them someone’s trying to join their call, and Deku is quick to reach out and click on it before either of them can say anything.
“Hi, mom!” he says, high-pitched and falsely bright. “Um, hey. Hi. How are you?”
“I’m great, honey, but I can’t stay on long. Is everything okay?” Inko blinks as she notices how many other people are on the line. “Oh, everyone’s here.”
“Inko! Did you read that book I told you about yet?” Mitsuki demands, foregoing any kind of actual greeting.
“I’m halfway through!” Inko says. “I should finish it by the weekend, I think.” She shifts her gaze to Katsuki, smiling at him. “Katsuki, sweetie, how are you?”
“Super pregnant, actually, thanks for asking,” he says, simple as that, and everyone who isn’t Deku’s mother squawks or groans or straight up punches him in the thigh.
Fine, there was probably a better way to do that. Some middle ground, surely, somewhere between beating around the bush and just blurting it out without any warning.
But Katsuki’s tired and he didn’t have it in him to try to be gentle about it anymore today.
“You’re – what?” Inko asks. “Sorry, I don’t think I heard correctly.”
“You did,” Deku says, giving Katsuki a dirty look before turning wide, innocent baby deer eyes to his mom. He’s fucking twenty-one years old and somehow can still do that shit. Effectively. “Kacchan, um. He got hit with some kind of Quirk, and…”
“He’s pregnant?” Inko’s eyes are as big as Deku’s are. “He’s pregnant?”
“Yeah.” Deku swallows. “I know it’s a lot, uh, sorry to just drop it on you.”
Inko seems to be taking it about as well as Mitsuki did. She’s just sitting there, stunned, the cogs in her head almost visibly turning as she tries to accept what she’s been told. “It’s – is it yours? Izuku?”
Deku’s jaw drops open. “What – OF COURSE it’s mine! Mom!”
“No, no,” Inko says hastily, waving one hand. She’s using her other hand to hold her phone in front of her face. “Honey, no, that’s not what I meant. You said it was a Quirk, I just – I wasn’t sure…”
“Oh.” Deku deflates out of his alpha macho man protective mode that Katsuki secretly finds really fucking hot. “We’re still figuring the Quirk out, or the hospital is, but it’s… We’re pretty sure it somehow gave his body the, um. Ability to…conceive? And then…yeah.”
“And then you got him pregnant.” There’s some kind of look on Inko’s face. Utter confusion mixed with baffled shock. “You got him pregnant,” she repeats, like she’s trying to understand.
“Uh. Yes?”
“Huh.” Her hand slides around to cover her mouth now, her eyes drifting off to the side. “Well, I didn’t see that one coming.”
Katsuki can’t help it.
He snorts, just as his own mom bursts out with, “Oh my god, Inko.”
Masaru lets out a deep sigh and rubs at his forehead, and it’s about then that it finally snaps into place for Deku and he lets out this strangled, offended sound that has to be the funniest thing Katsuki’s ever heard leave his mouth in the entire nineteen years they’ve known each other. “MOM.”
Inko squeaks, her entire face going bright red. “I didn’t mean–! Oh, that just slipped out, ignore me. Ignore me! Oh good lord.”
Katsuki gives Deku his biggest shit-eating grin. “Hah, your mom thinks you’re a twinky little bot–”
Deku slams sideways into him before he can finish speaking, toppling him onto the bedspread and knocking the laptop askew. “Stop talking right now, Kacchan, don’t you dare!”
Somewhere in the background, Mitsuki is cackling. (So is Katsuki.) The exasperated look on his dad’s face is just barely visible on the tipped over laptop screen.
“Kacchan,” Deku whines, still pathetically shoving at him. “Stop, it’s not funny!”
“It’s fuckin’ hysterical, actually,” Katsuki says, amused as shit as he briefly grapples with the other man. “Careful, you’re gonna bend the pictures.”
Deku backs off immediately but he’s still pouting. By the time Katsuki gets himself upright again and has the laptop straightened out, he’s mostly managed to stop laughing himself.
Inko seems to have vanished from her screen. Instead, they’re getting a nice view of the ceiling. If Katsuki had to guess, he would say that she’s probably busy burying her face in her hands.
“I don’t know why you’re so amused,” Deku mutters, settling into place next to him. “She can think whatever she wants but you’re the one who’s pregnant. So.”
“He’s got you there, kid,” Mitsuki says, smirking, and Katsuki rolls his eyes.
“I’m so fucking done talking about my sex life today. And why are any of you even thinking about it?!” he demands in the direction of the computer screen.
“I assure you, I am not,” Masaru says, voice heavy, but Mitsuki just shrugs and goes, “Eh.”
Inko must lift her phone up again because she comes halfway back into view, but one of her hands is covering her eyes and she’s still looking a little pink. “I’m so sorry, that…that threw me for a loop, I didn’t know what I was saying.”
“Uh-huh,” Katsuki intones. Deku smacks the back of his hand against Katsuki’s arm, which just makes him snicker all over again.
“Boys,” Masaru says tiredly.
“Wait.” Inko lowers her hand, green eyes going owl-wide as she stares at her phone. “Wait. Wait.”
“There she goes,” Mitsuki says, leaning forward to watch as Inko’s entire face lights up in realization. “Finally.”
“Are you – are you telling me you two are having a baby?”
Katsuki refrains from saying something dumb like yeah, that’s what being pregnant means. Instead, he lets Deku take over and watches as he nods, his whole expression going wobbly and teary.
They’re both just a gross, crying mess today, apparently.
“Yeah, mom,” Deku says softly, and Inko is quick to join the blubbering party. She spills over immediately, actual fucking rivers trailing down her cheeks, and Katsuki idly wonders if their kid is going to be doomed to a life of being a crybaby, too.
“Oh,” Inko sobs, pulling her phone in too close. “Oh, Izuku. Katsuki! I can’t believe this! You’re giving me a grandbaby??”
“Yeah,” Deku says again, laughing this time.
“How is this – Katsuki. Oh my goodness. Are you okay? I can’t believe this is even possible!”
“Quirks might’ve been a mistake,” Katsuki grumbles, but then he sighs. “Yeah, I’m fine. I’ll be fine. Just… It’s a lot.”
“I can imagine.” Inko wipes the back of her hand across her eyes, sniffling. “Oh, honey. I’m sure that was hard to find out.”
Katsuki swallows and rubs at the back of his neck. “Uh. Kind of, yeah.”
“You’re going to be great parents, both of you,” Inko says, in this wholeheartedly earnest way that makes Katsuki simultaneously want to puff his chest out with pride and also shrivel up in a corner somewhere.
Parental approval, ugh, why is that somehow always so satisfying? Even when he’s a grown-ass adult??
Inko is still leaking tears all over the place and trying to wipe them away at the same time, but there’s a beaming smile on her face. “I just can’t believe this. A baby!”
Katsuki and Deku glance at each other. “You wanna see it?” Katsuki asks, and all three of their parents crowd in close to their respective screens, shouting confirmations and demanding to see the damn kid already.
Deku picks up the envelope and finally reaches inside to sort through the various prints until he finds the best one and pulls it out, proudly turning it towards the laptop and showing it off with an elated, “Ta-da!”
It's the profile shot. The picture that shows the baby’s forehead curving down to a tiny little nose that Katsuki is rapidly becoming obsessed with.
Masaru’s eyes well up this time, and Mitsuki looks like she actually might not be that far behind him but is trying to hold it in.
Inko just starts wailing. “It’s so cuuute!” she cries.
“Look at that little nose,” Mitsuki says, almost reverently. “Oh my fucking god. That’s your nose, Katsuki, I swear it is.”
“Do you know if it’s a boy or a girl?” Masaru asks.
“The doctor wrote it down for us,” Deku starts to say, and then Katsuki quickly cuts in to add, “But we’re not looking at it yet.”
“Look how cute!” Inko continues, still bawling. “Oh, it’s so tiny!”
“It really is adorable,” Masaru agrees, almost in shock. “Wow. That takes me back.”
“Did you like being pregnant, Inko?” Mitsuki asks suddenly, and the other woman chokes off midway through a sob, blinking.
“Did I–? Oh, yes, absolutely.” She sniffs again and then clears her throat, trying to reel the waterworks in. “Goodness me. I did enjoy it! Mostly. Hisashi wasn’t around much even then, you know, so little Izuku kept me company. I used to talk to him all the time.” Her expression turns thoughtful for a moment. “I guess I didn’t like being a whale in the middle of July, though. That wasn’t very pleasant.” Inko turns her eyes back to Katsuki, curious and blissfully unaware. “When are you due, honey?”
Katsuki gives her a flat, unamused glower in response. “July.”
Mitsuki barks out a laugh and Inko jolts, looking flustered. “W-Well, I mean. As long as you have air conditioning…”
“Inko,” Masaru speaks up. “We’re planning on heading to the boys’ for dinner this evening. Care to join us? We’ll drive.”
“Oh! Sure, let me just – oh, I’m so late.” Inko glances back over her shoulder at something the rest of them can’t see. “I should really get back to work, but I’ll tell them I have to leave early. Someone just text me the time, I’ll make sure I’m ready.” She turns back to the screen, pressing her fingers to her mouth briefly and then blowing them a kiss. “I love you, boys! You’re having a baby!! Gosh, I can’t believe it. See you tonight!”
“Bye, mom,” Deku says, and then she’s gone.
“We’ll let you go, too,” Mitsuki says. “Take a nap, Katsuki. You look like you need it.”
Katsuki scowls. “Wow, thanks.”
“Have you been working this entire time?” Masaru asks, frowning.
“I didn’t know I was pregnant, did I?” Katsuki makes a flippant gesture with his hand, half-shrugging. “So, yeah.”
“For fuck’s sake,” Mitsuki mutters. She reaches forward on her end of the screen, getting ready to end the call. “Get some rest, kid. We’ll see you soon.”
They blink out next, and then finally it’s just Katsuki, Deku, and blessed, wonderful silence.
Katsuki closes the laptop, leaning over the side of the bed to rest it on the floor, and then he falls back against the mattress and inhales as deeply as he can before slowly releasing it. Deku carefully tucks the ultrasound picture away again and sets the envelope on the nightstand. Katsuki’s sure they’ll end up showing the rest of the scans to their parents later.
“Still good?” Deku asks, turning back to Katsuki and flopping against his side.
He nods, lifting his arm so Deku can snuggle in closer. “Survived the worst of it.”
Deku props his chin on Katsuki’s shoulder, peering at him. “Do you hate being pregnant?”
“I wasn’t thrilled with all the throwing up and shit,” Katsuki drawls. “But…” He stares thoughtfully up at the ceiling, a slight crease between his brows. “I guess I haven’t been aware that I’m pregnant for long enough to know if I hate it yet.” When he drops his gaze back down, he finds Deku looking at him with big, concerned eyes, and huffs. “Don’t worry about it, Izuku. The point is that the end result is worth it, even if getting there ends up sucking ass.”
“I don’t want you to be miserable…”
Katsuki shakes his head. “I’m not miserable. I mean, I’m mad I can’t work. And what I hate is that I might be off the hero scene for a whole fucking year. But I don’t hate that we’re having a kid and I don’t hate the baby.”
“And you don’t hate me,” Deku says, smiling a bit, and Katsuki snorts.
“I hate you a little, shitty nerd.” He tightens his arm around Deku’s shoulders. “You and your goddamn super sperm.”
Deku’s nose wrinkles up at that. “Ew.”
“Listen,” Katsuki says. He makes sure Deku’s eyes are caught on his before he continues, “I don’t know how the next few months are going to go. I’ll probably be awful. I might bitch and moan and complain like a whiny asshole, but I’ll never regret making this choice.” Katsuki searches Deku’s gaze, wanting to make sure he understands. That he gets it. “Okay?”
“Okay,” Deku whispers. He stretches up until he can reach Katsuki’s mouth, giving him a gentle kiss. “I love you, Kacchan.”
“I have something for you,” Katsuki blurts before he can stop himself, and then he has to bite back a groan at his own stupidity. Deku’s eyebrows arch and Katsuki sighs, rolling slightly away from him so that he can reach under the pillow he’s resting on and dig out the shopping bag he stashed there earlier. He unceremoniously shoves it at Deku. “Here.”
Deku must recognize the bag, because his eyes just crinkle in confusion as he takes it. “I thought we got these for Kyouka?”
Katsuki feels himself flush. “Just…look in it.”
He does. For a long moment, Deku just stares into the bag. “Kacchan…?” he says eventually, uncertainly, and then he reaches in to pull out one of the All Might onesies. “You – why did you–?”
“I don’t fucking know!” Katsuki bursts out, his face heating even more. “I don’t know what the fuck I was thinking but I snatched up those damn clothes like they were free samples at a merch convention. What the hell??!”
Deku snorts out a laugh and then just keeps on giggling, though he at least seems like he’s trying to keep it a bit stifled. He digs through the bag some more, looking utterly gleeful. “You got Todoroki’s outfit?”
“Shut up.”
“Oh my god.” The denim Best Jeanist baby shoes come out next. They’re still, Katsuki is absolutely mortified to note, completely hideous. “These were…a choice.”
“Ugggghhhh.”
“I thought you said baby shoes are pointless?”
“THEY ARE.” Katsuki throws his arms over his burning face, groaning some more. “They’re so pointless and those are so fucking ugly.”
“You’re such a mess,” Deku says, still laughing, and then he sets the bag aside and rolls on top of Katsuki, pushing his face into the curve of Katsuki’s neck. “But at least our baby’s hero style is going to be on point.”
“This is the stupidest day of my life,” Katsuki says loudly. Deku starts kissing down Katsuki’s collar into the dip of his shirt, but there’s something decidedly non-sexy about it. Katsuki peeks at him from beneath his arms, watching as Deku moves lower over his chest, pushing his shirt up until his stomach is exposed, and ah. That’s why.
“I just love you so much,” Deku says, but Katsuki honestly isn’t sure if he’s speaking to him or to his baby bump. He keeps planting soft kisses against his skin, trailing down over his navel, his hands oh-so-gently cupping the new curves of Katsuki’s body. Deku glances back up at him. “Thank you,” he says, completely serious, and Katsuki goes hot all over again.
“Don’t fucking thank me, holy shit,” he mutters. He reaches down, burying his hand in Deku’s thick, green curls. “You just gonna hang out down there?”
“Mmhmm.”
Katsuki huffs. “Alright, well I’m taking that damn nap finally.”
“Okay,” Deku murmurs.
“You’re the mess, by the way.”
“I know.”
“I love you.”
Deku looks at him again, grinning. “I know.”
Katsuki rolls his eyes, but he ends up falling asleep to the sound of Deku cooing nonsense at his belly.
It’s actually kind of soothing.
Later, when their parents arrive with mountains of food and a baby crib they’ll have to put together (how the fuck did they have time to buy that??) and a teddy bear that’s holding a pink and blue balloon that says CONGRATULATIONS in a cheerful font, the first thing Masaru does is sweep Katsuki up into a giant bear hug and refuse to let him go for a solid five minutes.
Katsuki’s weirdly okay with it. Even more so when his mom joins them and combs a hand through his hair like she used to do when he was little.
The first thing Inko does is start poking around the apartment, asking where the crib is going to go.
Their parents have been to their place before, of course, but they don’t come often. Aside from the week they first moved in, they’ve actually never all been there at the same time. And it’s been a while since Inko has visited at all, because normally Deku wants to save her the trip and instead makes the drive to see her back home.
So, she’s not super familiar with the layout they’ve got or how much extra space there is.
When Deku shows her their spare bedroom-slash-office-slash-All Might closet, Inko takes one look around, gives Deku an exasperated look – probably because even though she was already familiar with his massive collection from childhood, somehow there’s now even more shit – and immediately says, “You’re going to have to move.”