My Father's Son - Chapter 55

“I’m a big boy,” Yuuto said stubbornly, before Katsuki could even open his mouth. “I’m brave.”

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“I’m a big boy,” Yuuto said stubbornly, before Katsuki could even open his mouth. “I’m brave.”

“I know you are,” Katsuki assured him, smiling fondly. “Come on, then.”

He held out a hand, and Yuuto accepted it, holding him tight as they walked up to the huge, glass front doors. He’d warned most of the staff that he was coming, courtesy of the group chat his admin team and sidekicks had all insisted they needed, but that he’d never actually posted in before; so when they stepped into the lobby, the only reactions they got were a few big smiles sent Yuuto’s way. The big Downfall logo on his t-shirt probably helped a lot with that.

“Who works in this room?” Yuuto asked, looking around with wide eyes. “It’s so big and empty.”

“This is like our waiting room,” Katsuki explained. “So if people have a meeting with someone, those chairs over there are where they hang out until we’re ready for them. The staff at the desk there are our reception people, so they make appointments and phone calls and send emails, all that stuff that we couldn’t operate a hero agency without.”

“Do they get to go home sometimes?”

“Of course,” Katsuki assured him, forcing back the laugh that wanted to bubble out of him. “We have lots of people who do the same job, so when one of them goes home for the night, someone else comes in to do the job.”

“Oh. That’s good.”

“Yeah, they’d get pretty tired otherwise. We also have a huge bathroom on this floor, with showers and lockers, so if people come back messy from a fight, they have somewhere to clean up and put new clothes on.”

“That’s good, then they won’t make a mess in the rest of the building.”

“Exactly.” Katsuki nodded, leading Yuuto to a bank of elevators. “Let’s go up and I’ll show you my office first.”

“Yeah!”

The elevator doors slid open immediately, and Katsuki lifted Yuuto up to hit the bright orange button right at the top of the collection. As the elevator moved, he pointed Yuuto to a list of floors that almost covered one entire wall.

“The first few floors have a lot of meeting rooms, to use for heroes who visit and that kind of thing. Then there’s a cafe where all the heroes can get their meals, with lots of windows to see what’s happening in the city. We can go eat dinner there before we go home, if you want. Then there’s a lot of offices for people who do paperwork, like the people who find jobs for us and plan our schedules, and help fill out reports describing what we did each day, so people know we’re being safe.”

“How many people are there?”

“Working here? Hundreds. Most of them aren’t heroes, they do stuff behind-the-scenes, but we have about thirty heroes too.”

“And fifty floors?” Yuuto asked, looking up at the bank of numbered buttons.

“Yep, it’s a big building,” Katsuki said. “fifty normal floors, plus my floor at the top, which is mostly just for me. We let tour groups come up and look around a couple of times a day, so if I’m around I come out and say hi to them, but there’s a big door that only I can go through, and that area is just for my stuff. Tourists like to see the door though, even if they can’t go through it.”

“Woah.”

The elevator came to a stop, and Yuuto’s face lit up when the doors slid open, racing over to where two massive statues stood against the windows. He hadn’t even wanted the thing, originally, but he’d been outvoted by all his friends and mentors – he was pretty sure they’d done it just to torment him.

“Look at you!” Yuuto gushed, holding his arms up and not even reaching statue-Katsuki’s knee. “You’re so big, Dad!”

“Yeah,” Katsuki laughed, running his fingertips lightly over the shining figure beside his, as he passed. “I have to pay a special person just to come in and clean them, so they don’t get damaged.”

“Woahhh.”

Katsuki could hear the receptionist behind them giggling at Yuuto’s amazement, but he pretended not to notice – most of his background staff tended to get nervous around him, and he didn’t need to make that even worse by perceiving them too much.

“This is kind of my museum,” Katsuki explained, when Yuuto moved on to look at a big glass case. “That’s why tour groups come up.”

“Is this your first costume ever?”

“Yeah,” Katsuki said, smiling softly as he glanced over at it. “U.A. got it made for me, in my very first year. My Dad helped me design it, he had the idea for the big X on the front, and the mask. I was just gonna have an all-black suit with the grenade gauntlets and belt, but he thought I should make it something flashier and more intimidating.”

“He did a good job,” Yuuto said, almost reverently. “It’s changed a lot, though.”

“Yeah. I use my winter one a lot more now, if I’m gonna be outdoors, and the gauntlets were super heavy, so I streamlined them a bit once I got older.”

“It looks grown up.”

“You think so? I’m glad. My first one was a little bit childish, right?”

“I think it’s cool,” Yuuto insisted. “But yeah.”

“I agree. It was great for a first costume, but my new one is better.”

“Uh-huh.”

Together they walked around the floor, looking at all the relics of old battles laid out carefully for people to admire. The collection had just continued to grow, over the years, and Katsuki was glad the floor chosen for it all had been so spacious, so ripe for the expansion of the collection.

“Your door!” Yuuto said excitedly, when they reached the huge, black-and-orange gate, the floor marked in big, no-nonsense letters with Downfall only. “Why’s it so big?”

“I ask myself that every day,” Katsuki said with a smile. “I guess being huge makes it look even stronger and more impenetrable? It’ll only open for me, not for anyone else, and it’s indestructible.”

“That’s so cool.”

“Yeah, it’s probably a little bit of overkill, but it does the job. You can come through with me, if you want. It’s a bit boring though, not as exciting as it looks.”

He walked up to the massive door, hearing the faint click of electronics whirring into action that he’d become so familiar with. There were at least a dozen different sensors at work, making sure he was who he claimed to be, but it only took half a second for them to confirm and slide open, letting him pass through with a dumbfounded Yuuto beside him.

“It’s big,” Yuuto said, when they walked into the private office. “Is that All Might?”

“Yeah,” Katsuki said, looking up at the huge portrait with its ornate gold frame. “So I could turn and look at it from my desk and remember who I had to beat.”

Yuuto giggled, poking Katsuki in the leg, and Katsuki smiled softly.

“And who I have to do it for,” he admitted. “I don’t ever want him to regret retiring.”

“He could never, Dad! Not with you saving the world for him!”

“I do my best.”

There was a much smaller All Might in the room too, sitting on Katsuki’s desk, one hand raised in his typical victory pose. That pose was associated with Katsuki – with Downfall – more than All Might, these days, but Katsuki still thought of him every time he put his fist in the air after a tough fight.

“Who sits at this desk?” Yuuto asked, trotting up to a much plainer desk, with shelves and shelves of books and files behind it. “You said it was just you.”

“It’s supposed to be for a sidekick I trust, but I don’t really have anyone for that right now.”

“Do you think you’ll ever pick one?”

“I don’t think so,” Katsuki said. “There are like ten people who work on my paperwork for me, to keep up. I think I’d need someone who could see the future, if they were gonna do it alone. Then they could start working on it before I even fought the villains.”

“That would be handy! Does Lemillion work here with you too?”

“No, he has an agency of his own. The rooms we do hero training in are from his building. He wanted something much smaller, to start out with. I didn’t have an agency of my own until I became number one, I worked with other agencies and then I was freelance for a while when I finally did it. When I became number one, everyone told me I needed to start an agency of my own, and here we are.”

When Yuuto had had his fill of exploring the office, they headed back to the elevators, and Katsuki pointed at the list of floors again.

“Where do you want to go next?” he asked. “There’s a bunch of offices for the people who do our paperwork, meeting rooms, that kind of stuff, which are pretty boring but there might be some heroes hanging around. Or we have a bunch of gyms, some of them are just exercise equipment but others are for specific stuff, like we have a sparring set-up, a dark room for night training, and a shooting range to practice your aim.”

“Gyms then heroes,” Yuuto said, surprisingly confidently. “How come we don’t use your gyms to practice?”

“Well, they’re a lot bigger,” Katsuki said, as he punched the button for the right floor. “I don’t have any smaller practice rooms where we can split up, like Mirio’s gym does. And he doesn’t mind if we use his.”

Yuuto marvelled as they walked through the gyms together, stopping to watch every hero and sidekick who was in to train. Most of them didn’t even notice, but a few of them shot him smiles or waves, and Yuuto waved back shyly.

“There he is!” a familiar voice announced, every eye turning his way as his footsteps pounded toward them. “Hey, Yuuto! How’s it going, my man?”

Yuuto smiled surprisingly brightly when Denki held out a hand, bumping their fists together, and Katsuki resolved to be a little nicer to Denki for a few days.

“Came to check out our gyms?” he asked, marching off ahead with Yuuto by his side. “They’re pretty cool, your dad is great about improving things if we ask. He has a little suggestion box that he never actually reads, honestly he might not even know it exists, but some of the staff check it every day and make lists of the things we ask for, and he implements as many as he can. It’s important to listen to your sidekicks, when you’re a top hero! Remember that, okay?”

“I will!” Yuuto promised. “Do you have an office? Dad is gonna show me them next.”

“I do! I share it with some other cool people, though. You wanna come see?”

“Yeah!”

“Come on, then.”

Denki led the way, and Katsuki rolled his eyes, but followed them all the same. They headed down a flight of stairs to where Denki, Mina, Hanta and Ochako shared a floor. It had been one of Denki’s requests, when he’d been among the first to join the agency – he’d had Katsuki’s back from the first moment, and Katsuki was a lot more grateful for that than he showed. He’d wanted an office floor for himself and any of the other former-1-A heroes who eventually joined them, spouting something about like old times. He’d even gotten a fancy wooden sign made up, hanging it in the entryway from the stairs and elevators, so it was the first thing you’d see when you entered the floor.

“Booms Alliance?” Yuuto sounded out. “What does that mean?”

“The dorm area at U.A. is called Heights Alliance,” Denki said, grinning. “And it’s Katsuki’s agency, so Booms seemed like a good alternative to Heights.”

“It’s all our old classmates,” Katsuki clarified. “And he’s an idiot.”

“Rude!” Denki protested, laughing all the same. “Come see my office, Yuuto!”

Katsuki stood back and watched, leaving Denki to run his little tour. He showed off his little private office first, with all the old posters and photos that made it look like a kid’s bedroom, though Katsuki supposed that was probably a good thing, when it came to Yuuto. When they were done in there, they moved across to Hanta’s room, then Mina’s – surprising, since Katsuki was pretty sure she was meant to be working that day – and finally to Ochako’s. Yuuto wrinkled his nose at how pink the latter two were, but he didn’t say anything out loud; Katsuki suspected Denki was a little disappointed about that, he’d probably rehearsed his ‘boys can like pink too’ speech all night.

“Have you met Mina and Ochako yet?” Denki asked, and Katsuki felt his brain click as everything came together. “I know they came to the barbecue, did you get to talk to them?”

Yuuto hesitated, but Denki just waited patiently for him to choose his words.

“Not really, I got nervous,” he confessed.

“Yeah, I’m like that too sometimes,” Denki said with a smile. “They’re due back here in a minute, you wanna say hi or should we go see some other cool stuff?”

“Mm... say hi,” Yuuto said, nodding firmly. “I’m a big boy, I go to school.”

“I know you are! That must be really cool!”

Sure enough, the elevator soon stopped at their floor, and Katsuki glanced back as the doors slid open. Mina spotted him first, shooting him a grin, but Ochako’s eyes immediately went to Denki and Yuuto.

“Hi!” she said brightly, hurrying over to join them. “I’m Ochako, or Uravity. I don’t think we got to meet properly last time!”

“I’m Yuuto.”

“It’s nice to meet you, Yuuto! Katsuki has been telling us all about you, he’s such a proud dad!”

Yuuto looked over, but Katsuki just shrugged, not bothering to deny it.

“Did you get a chance to see my office?” Ochako asked, gesturing toward her little area. “I tried to make it super cozy, so I can relax in it after a long day, as well as getting work done.”

“It’s very pink.”

“Yeah,” Ochako laughed. “I found this pink beanbag I liked, then I found the little fairy lights that matched, and I just ended up with a whole pink theme going!”

“And now we match!” Mina beamed at Yuuto, offering him a fist. “I’m Mina, or Pinky! My office had to match me and my hero name!”

“That makes sense,” Yuuto said sagely, as he bumped her fist gently. “I like the zebra stripes.”

“Thank you! They were actually my curtains in my old dorm room, would you believe it? They lasted me so long, and they were the perfect size in here!”

“Mina’s dorm was all stripes and polka dots,” Katsuki told him, pulling a face. “Nothing even matched.”

“They were all the same colours! They matched great!”

“Girls are weird,” Yuuto mused.

“Boys are allowed to like pink too!” Denki burst, his words all blurring together in his rush. “Colours don’t have a gender! And even if they did, it’d be okay!”

“I know,” Yuuto said. “I just don’t like it.”

“Why not?” Katsuki asked knowingly, trying to contain his smirk.

“Because it’s just a wimpy version of red. If you’re gonna use pink, you might as well use red, because it’s better and brighter and stronger.”

Denki blinked at him, unsure what to say, and Katsuki couldn’t help but laugh. He’d heard it before, of course, but it still amused him every time.

“What about orange?” Mina asked.

“Mm... orange is okay, dad’s costume is cool.”

“But isn’t orange a wimpy version of red too?”

“No, it’s a strong version of yellow!”

“You know what, I’ve got no argument for that,” Mina said.

“You can like pink if you want,” Yuuto assured her. “I don’t think you’re a wimp, I just don’t like it for me.”

“That’s very emotionally intelligent of you.”

Yuuto clearly didn’t know what that meant, but he did know it was a compliment, so he stood a little taller, trying his best to look big and strong.

“We were about to go grab food,” Ochako said. “Are you guys hungry? We could all eat together.”

“In the cafe?” Yuuto asked. “Dad said.”

“Yeah! We get our food extra cheap at the cafe, so I try to use it as much as I can.”

“I still vote we should get it free,” Denki said, elbowing Katsuki pointedly. “They’re in our building.”

“Then how would the employees get paid, dumbass? We don’t have enough extra budget to cover that much food.”

“What if Mister Number One Hero took a pay cut?”

“Then I’d be cranky and we’d still have to charge you.”

“Damn.”

The group squeezed into an elevator together, Katsuki’s broad frame making it a little difficult with three other fully-grown adults standing around him, and when they reached the cafe floor, he took Yuuto’s hand. It was always a lot busier, full of people and noise, and Katsuki didn’t really want Yuuto to get trampled on by some idiot who wasn’t looking down. As long as he was close enough for Katsuki to touch, people gave them a wide berth, preferring to hang back and whisper about him instead of getting close.

“Stick with me,” Katsuki said quietly. “I don’t want anyone to crash into you.”

Yuuto just nodded, looking around with eyes like saucers as they found themselves a table, watching all the heroes in costume who were taking their dinner breaks, and the office workers in suits who quizzed them for reports as they stood in line or shovelled down food. It was the most common way the workers managed to get report info out of them – by bombarding them between bites while they were sitting down, instead of dragging them away from their patrols and trainings.

Yuuto clambered into his chair when they’d found a spot near the windows, feet swinging contentedly where they didn’t quite reach the ground, and Katsuki handed him a menu to look over, sitting at his side to help him with the big words.

“I want the Downfall Curry,” Yuuto said firmly, as soon as he found it on the menu with its big, orange letters. “With the spicy rice.”

“You like spicy food too, huh?” Ochako asked fondly. “They named it that because it’s what your dad always orders, I’m pretty sure he’s the only one who can stomach it.”

“I like spicy!”

“I bet it’ll be delicious, then! Are you gonna have a Downfall Soda too?”

She pointed it out to him on the drinks menu, and Yuuto’s jaw dropped when he saw the picture.

“How does it go boom?!”

“You might have to try it and see!”

“I want one!” Yuuto said brightly, looking up at Katsuki. “Can I?!”

“Of course you can,” Katsuki said, ruffling his hair fondly. “Anything you want, today.”

One of the cafe workers hurried over to meet them, and the rest of the heroes shot her big smiles, trying their best to be welcoming. Katsuki would’ve thought the staff would be used to them all, by now, but some of the young ones still got weirdly anxious around them, so most of the heroes did their best to be nice and ease their pain a little.

“What would you like to eat today, young man?” she asked, looking at Yuuto first and earning a few brownie points from Katsuki. Usually they went straight to him. “Have you had a look at the menu?”

“A Downfall Curry please! With spicy rice like Dad gets. And a Downfall Soda too!”

“Absolutely,” she agreed, shooting Katsuki a quick glance and getting his nod before she wrote it down. “And for you, Mister Downfall?”

“The curry as well, thanks. And coffee, black.”

“Coming right up! Mrs Uravity?”

She continued around the table, taking all their orders, and Katsuki couldn’t help but pat Yuuto on the back fondly, a little surprised by his excitement. Usually Hiroki was the over-excited one, and Yuuto was much quieter and calmer – it was good to know he could get both the kids excited about things.

“Put it all on my account,” Katsuki said, when the waitress bowed and began to excuse herself. “Just for today.”

“Of course, Sir!”

She hurried off, and Katsuki rolled his eyes when the chorus of awws began, looking out the window at the street below to try to control his blush.

“He’s trying so hard to be impressive for his boy!” Denki teased. “What a good dad!”

“It’s because it’s a special occasion!” Mina countered. “The first time he brought his son to work!”

“You can cut it out or I’ll go tell them I changed my mind,” Katsuki huffed. “This is why I don’t do nice things for you, shitheads.”

“We love you too,” Ochako teased, giggling. “Thanks, Katsuki.”

Soon the waitress was returning with their drinks, and Yuuto sat up straighter when she set his down, the little fizzy candies dropped in at the last second to make it start bubbling up. He watched it with awe, only poking his straw in to take a sip once the bubbles began to subside, and Katsuki gave him a quick smile before he took a sip of his coffee.

“That’s so cool,” Yuuto said softly, taking another sip. “Thanks, Dad. You’re the best.”

“Damn right I am.”


–––


It was already dark by the time Katsuki pulled into the driveway, plucking a sleepy Yuuto from his carseat and carrying him up the stairs. They’d had a blast in the training gyms after dinner, trying out all the equipment and taking photos with every hero who passed through, while the floors were a little emptier for the evening. Mina and Ochako had ducked in and out a lot, running off to various incidents, but Denki had stayed with them for as long as he possibly could, determined to make sure Yuuto saw all the coolest parts of the agency they worked in.

Honestly, Katsuki probably owed him one.

“Bath time for you, after you tell Papa all about it,” Katsuki said, as he set Yuuto down in the living room. “Gotta start getting ready for bed, alright?”

“Okay,” Yuuto agreed, hugging him tightly. “Thanks for taking me, Dad.”

“Thanks for coming, buddy. I had a great time with you.”

Yuuto hurried off to join Izuku on the couch, allowing the little hug Izuku absorbed him into, but before he could start his shiny-eyed stories, Katsuki gave Izuku a wave.

“I’m gonna go say hey to Hiroki,” he said, when Izuku waved back. “He in his room?”

“He and Ryouji went up to your room, he said something about the roof.”

“Oh, cool. Don’t forget to show him the photos, Yuuto.”

Yuuto dug out his little cellphone, and Katsuki headed up the stairs with a smile, listening to the enthusiastic voice that started up behind him, the moment he left. Sure enough, Hiroki’s room was quiet, so Katsuki continued on upward, to his own cozy bedroom. Through the little windows, Katsuki saw a pair snuggled together under a blanket, looking up at the sky. Hiroki leaned into Ryouji’s side contentedly, and Ryouji held him there like it was nothing remotely new, his other hand pointing up at the sky.

“It’s easier to see in darker places, outside the city,” Ryouji was saying, when Katsuki cracked the door open to say hello. “But over there is where the meteor shower is gonna happen, in a couple of weeks. That’s where shooting stars come from.”

“The kind you make a wish on?”

“Yeah. Do you have a wish to make?”

“Mm... For all our dads to be safe at work. And for our siblings to be safe too. And for us to be together forever and ever and ever.”

“You don’t need to wish that one,” Ryouji snorted. “Of course we’re gonna.”

“I know! But it couldn’t hurt!”

Hiroki’s hands were wrapped around a mug of hot chocolate, and when he lifted it to take a sip quickly, Katsuki knew he was trying to hide the pink in his cheeks. Katsuki did the same thing, after all.

Smiling to himself, Katsuki silently closed the door again – he didn’t need to interrupt them right away.

“Everything okay?” Izuku asked, when Katsuki returned alone. “Did they fall asleep or something?”

“No, they’re just snuggled up together on the roof, drinking their hot chocolate. I didn’t want to disturb them.”

“Aww, they’re such a cute pair,” Izuku grinned, pinching Yuuto’s cheek lightly. “Don’t you go teasing your brother, you hear me?”

“I won’t,” Yuuto laughed, squirming away. “He doesn’t like it so I don’t.”

“You’re a good boy,” Katsuki praised. “You told Papa all your stories?”

“I think so!” Yuuto said, still grinning as he stood up. “I’m gonna go take my bath, then I’ll tell you any more that I forgot about!”

“Sounds good, bubs. Have a good bath.”

“Uh-huh!”

He ran off to his room, bouncing up the stairs happily, and Izuku gave Katsuki the softest smile he’d ever seen, once they were alone together.

“You made his life today,” Izuku said fondly. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen him so excited.”

“Yeah, me neither,” Katsuki agreed, glancing back at the stairs. “It was a lot of fun, showing him around. Hiro is used to all this stuff, he grew up surrounded by heroes, so I don’t get to look cool in front of him very often. I guess I never thought about how different it would be, for Yuuto.”

“He said he talked to a bunch of heroes.”

“He did. Actual conversations, I was really impressed. Denki was really good with him, too. I think he has a soft spot for the kid, since he saw that figurine.”

“Your friends are all great with the boys,” Izuku said wistfully.

“Hey.” Katsuki said firmly, his eyebrows dropping lower. “So are you.”

“I know, I know,” Izuku chuckled awkwardly, waving it off. “You know what I mean.”

“No. I mean it.” Katsuki frowned, taking a few steps closer. “They adore you, and you always know what to say and what they need and all that shit.”

“That’s nice of you to say.”

“I’m serious, Izuku. You’re a great dad to them, I hope you know I’ve always thought that.”

“Is that why you haven’t tried to cheat me out of them both yet?” Izuku teased, though Katsuki knew there was a hint of sincerity underneath it, too.

“I would never,” Katsuki assured him. “I couldn’t do it without you. Those boys need you in their lives, a lot more than they need me. All I can do is buy them stuff, you’re the one who... you know. Raises them.”

“You absolutely could,” Izuku protested. “You’re so good with them, you make them so happy! And you care so much about their education and well-being!”

“You’re the one who talks to them. How many times have I fucked up and not known something was upsetting them, just in the time you’ve been here? And you’re the one who teaches them social skills and shit, I sure as hell can’t do that. Not to mention how damn patient you are. So cut the shit-talk about yourself, they need you in their lives, you hear me?”

“They need you, too.”

“Then we’d both better fucking stick around, huh?”

“Yeah,” Izuku agreed, chuckling faintly. “I guess we’d better.”

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