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Inko flitted around the apartment, tidying things that really didn’t need tidying. It was Wednesday. He always came on Wednesday evenings. The first week it had surprised her, but after two years, she’d come to look forward to his visits with a growing giddiness that started on Sunday night and built until this last-minute frenzied fussing over details.
The ringing of her cell phone caused her to jump, almost dropping the vase she was moving from the bookshelf to the foyer table. “Get it together, Inko,” she muttered to herself as she shook her head and grabbed the phone. It was a number she didn’t recognize. “Midoriya,” she answered.
“Ah, it’s nice to see you haven’t forgotten that,” a cool voice purred on the other end of the line and her heart dropped.
Hisashi.
She hadn’t spoken to her husband in seventeen years. It wasn’t exactly that she’d forgotten him, not really. “Hisashi-san,” she said, trying to gather her wits about herself as she sank into the sofa. “To what do I owe this honor?”
“Tut tut, now,” Hisashi said followed by a soft chuckle. “No need to be so formal with your own husband, but I do have a bit of business to discuss with you.”
She twisted her hair. Her parents had passed away a few years ago, seven months apart. It wasn’t about their hospital care. Which meant… She bit her bottom lip.
“Perhaps it was a bit of… forgetfulness on your part,” he said, “but our agreement did state that you would inform me as soon as my son’s quirk manifested.”
She couldn’t breathe.
“I take it from your silence that you do remember that,” Hisashi said. There was a sort of amusement in his voice. “Don’t worry, dear . I’m not angry with you. In fact, I’m quite pleased. You’ve gotten him into UA, under the tutelage of All Might, no less. What father wouldn’t be happy?” He didn’t sound happy, though. His voice, as always, was pleasant, but there was something cloaked about it, like a fox grinning at a rabbit.
Now’s the time to demand a divorce! Inko’s mind screamed. Tell him he doesn’t have any claim on Izuku!
“It just so happens that I’m in town and I would love the opportunity to meet my son in person,” Hisashi continued seemingly oblivious to Inko’s inner turmoil.
“No,” Inko said just barely above a whisper.
“What was that?”
“No,” Inko said a bit louder, though her voice shook as she added, “no, you won’t be meeting Izuku. You’ve been out of our lives since before he was born. I won’t let you claim him now that you think he’s valuable.”
There was silence on the other end of the line, then laughter. It was like thundersnow, deep, rumbling, and cold. “My dear, I’m not sure what has brought about this change of heart, but I assure you, one way or another I will see my son, will offer him everything he is entitled to as my heir, and you? You are in no position to stop me.”
With that, the line went dead. Inko sat, trembling on the sofa, her eyes looking blindly ahead as a sense of dread pooled in her gut. It made no sense for her to be so afraid, she thought. Hisashi wasn’t warm, but he wasn’t cruel either. She’d heard rumors of quirk marriages that ended in ER visits and worse, death. She’d heard of women whose children had been stolen from them right after birth or who had been used as breed mares, having child after child until the desired result was obtained. Hisashi wasn’t like that.
But she could not shake the feeling of ill-ease.
There was a knock on the door and Inko jumped again. Her eyes darted to the clock on the wall. Six. Right on time. She took a few deep breaths, checking her reflection in the mirror before she caught herself. “You’re a married woman!” she hissed under her breath.
Toshi, of course, had seemed ever mindful of that fact. Even after he learned that she’d only been in a quirk marriage, even after he learned that Izu had never known his father, he didn’t take advantage of her loneliness. There was always that wall of decorum between them.
“Good evening,” he said with a bright smile that quickly faded. “Are you okay? You seem troubled.”
She drew a fast breath and chuckled, waving it off. “No, it’s nothing, it’s nothing. I just…” her mind weighed out her next few words for a moment, “Hisashi just called.”
“Ah, young Midoriya’s father! That’s good, no?” His smile didn’t reach his eyes as he lingered on the doorstep.
“Please, won’t you come in?” she asked, bowing slightly as she stepped back into the house.
For a moment Toshinori looked conflicted, but he nodded and walked into the apartment.
“It is good, in a way,” she said after he’d sat down and the table and she went for the tea set in the kitchen. “Izu used to be so curious about his father, but,” she poured Toshi a cup of tea, “I can’t help but feeling that Hisashi views Izu as a thing rather than a person. It’s why I didn’t tell him about the quirk Izu got from you.” The words came out before she thought of their meaning and she felt her face turn red. Quickly she turned and went back to the kitchen for something. Anything. She came back a moment later, still red, but slightly more composed with a box of homemade cookies.
“Do you have any reason to think your husband would hurt him?” Although he didn’t say it with any malice, Inko flinched at the word “husband.” Toshi would not let her forget that, would he?
“No, not really,” Inko said weakly as she sat down, her gaze on the teacup before her. “He’s not a violent man, just a…” She remembered their honeymoon, or what passed as it. She’d stayed in his luxurious home, but outside of the times he had decided to mate with her (because there was no other way to describe what had happened between them) he left her completely alone. Servants had attended to her every whim. She’d been allowed and even encouraged, to entertain herself with the gardens and the vast library, to go out and shop, or enjoy the fanciest of restaurants, but he’d never gone with her. She didn’t even know what his favorite color was.
“Just a, what?” Toshi prompted, and Inko chuckled sheepishly as she realized her mind had wandered.
“Just a bit cold,” she said. “I can’t explain it, really. He’s not… cruel, but he’s not kind either. Does that make sense?”
“Yes, but he is still young Midoriya’s father,” he said pointedly.
“Yes,” Inko breathed. No matter how much I wish he wasn’t, he is.
“Perhaps you should invite him to UA. There is a parent-teacher night coming up,” he offered. “It would give them both a chance to meet in a neutral setting.” There was a tension in his voice that Inko was desperately trying not to read into.
“That would probably be for the best,” she said, forcing a smile.
He returned it. “Yes,” he said with a slight nod.
She wasn’t sure what she’d expected. Something inside her had always known that Toshi wouldn’t stand between Izuku and his father, between herself and her husband. It would have gone against his nature to do so. Whatever fantasies she’d entertained were wholly one-sided, she realized as their talk turned to Izu’s upcoming tests. Toshi came every Wednesday to keep an old friend updated on the condition of her son, his pupil. It was nothing more.
She felt hollow inside, but she knew her own choices brought her to that point. Hisashi had a right to know his son, Izuku to know his father. Toshi was right. She was wrong. Promises should always be kept, after all.