"You really are like your mother, you know. Just as adorable trying to keep secrets that are obvious. Your Mom figured out you two were dating after you told her you were going to go intern under her mama and spend a week together. And she told me, and here we are."
...
Once again Izuku felt like an idiot that his parents at least understood the implications of Mina wanting him to tag along with her and her mom when he'd completely missed it…
He was about to open his mouth to correct him about the finer details, as he'd not technically been together with her back then… Then thought better of it and closed it.
"All in all, it's not exactly hard to figure out."
Over at the couch, Venom, who had been watching some movie, turned his head to look.
"So… Mom knew?"
"Sure did. You shouldn't believe old folks aren't able to see what's going on, even if you decide to not tell them. We've lived far longer than you have kiddo… With all that comes with it."
"I… I wasn't going to keep it a secret, I just… Didn't find a good time to tell her."
Hisashi's smile did not falter, but his eyes narrowed slightly.
"Yes… That feeling's also part of growing up. Balancing your personal needs and secrets with your family bonds… And speaking of… Unless your gal's parents are imbeciles, they know it too by now. So… What kinda relationships do you have with them?"
Izuku was startled.
"T-that's the part you're curious about?"
"Of course. Your in-laws' reaction usually tends to be extreme. It's either great fondness… Or massive hate."
"That's… Kinda overselling it isn't it?"
"You think so, do you? Your grandparents hated my guts from the day they first saw me until they were cold in the grave."
"Wait, really?"
"Oh yes. They felt that Inko was far, far too good for the likes of me… They were completely right of course. There is not a man alive who is worthy of my Angel… But that was not their call to make. It was Inko's… And she chose me to make her happy. No someone else."
Looking at his dad speaking about his mother, and the expression that intimidating face showed as he did, the obvious affection, suddenly made Izuku realize that he and his dad wasn't quite as different as he had thought.
"Well… To answer your question… I… Get along fine with Mina's folks… At least her mom… I… Haven't talked to her dad since we hooked up."
"I see… Let's hope that continues. The only times in my life where I ever saw your grandparents smile at me, was when I held you in my arms. Trust me Izuku… Being hated by your in-laws gets boring really, really fast."
Izuku nodded and continued eating.
It wasn't before he was nearly done, that he realised he and his dad had just had a real, genuine conversation.
---
"So… We've been watching those Star Wars movies…"
"...Okay? I'm… Guessing you did so to prepare for the movie we're gonna see?"
The two of them were walking towards Mina's house, having left the train behind a while back.
"Yes… Which in turn leads to our question. Not a single point you two described for episode 8 happened in episode 8."
"You must have picked a bad retelling of Dark Force Rising then. There are a couple that butchers it trying to tell something "new and modern"..."
"Wait… Dark Force Rising? The movie was clearly called Last Jedi."
Izuku almost stopped walking but caught himself.
"Ah… Well, that's not the real episode 8. At all."
"Ah… So it was a hack's attempt to reboot it then. I was wondering how you two could speak so fondly of such a pile of garbage storytelling. Also explains why the previous movie didn't make sense."
"Well, that's… Not entirely untrue… It was made by hack… But not as a reboot. See before Star Wars ended up in the public domain, it was bought by the original Disney Corporation. And rather than adapt what was then it's beloved expanded universe, they decided to wipe the slate clean and try their own thing, discarding everything fans loved about the franchise.
"Ah… So it was made by someone who hated the original 6 movies then. Like Experiment X. That one was clearly made as be an antithesis to Sam Rami's Wolverine trilogy."
"That's… Actually, spot on yeah. The woman in charge of Star Wars hated Luke Skywalker and essentially set out to destroy him as a character and replace him with her own original character. It didn't work. The fanbase hated it, and Disney pretty much killed the franchise with flop after flop, to the point it was pretty much a dead series for a long time. It didn't resurge in worldwide popularity until the entire thing ended up in the public domain."
"Yes… That does explain a lot about The Last Jedi… We weren't really big fan of Skywalker, to be honest… we far preferred Han and Lando… One of which died in The Force Awakens, and the other didn't show up at all."
"I… Think Lando showed up in the third movie? The rise of… I don't remember, I haven't watched it."
"Why should we care, when we know there is something better out there? Do Lando and Han get to actually do something in the actual sequels?"
"Yeah, they have some really cool moments. Well… Both of their best moments in the Thrawn Trilogy are in the first two movies… Not the third one."
"The one we're about to watch… Great."
As they rounded one of the final corners before reaching Mina's house, Venom added.
"So we guess you actually do know something about pop culture that's not related to Superheroes after all."
"I mean… I'm Not THAT sheltered. What happened to Star Wars is pretty famous. It'd be like not knowing what Dragon Ball was, or- Wait… Is that Mana?"
It was.
As they turned the final corner, Mina's little sister was currently standing in front of the gate to her house, leaning against the wall, looking like she was waiting for someone.
She immediately noticed him approaching.
"Ah, there you are. I was wondering when you'd show up."
"How… How did you know I was coming about now?"
The girl grinned.
"I didn't. But I came out to wait about 5 minutes ago, so I knew you'd show up around this time. Now it's about 10 minutes before Mina told you to come pick her up."
The little girl put her hands on her hips as she looked him over with a grin, and eyes that looked far too… Knowledgeable than girls her age should be.
"So it actually went somewhere this time huh? That's nice. I was wondering if Mina would drag this out a month or two more before hitting another wall or something."
Izuku just gave her a puzzled look.
"...This time?"
Mana laughed, then she began opening the gate for them.
"Oh yeah, sis had this friend in her previous school she was absolutely heads over heels for. And she just couldn't manage to actually make it go anywhere, or spit it out. It was hysterical! She would bring him home, and they'd hang out and she just couldn't manage to confess! It was so awkward… And so funny to watch!"
"I… See."
As they walked towards Mina's house, the younger Hardy-Ashido gave another bark of laughter.
"Oh, but wait! You haven't heard the final punchline yet. So after half a year of dancing around it, she FINALLY confesses to him…"
"And she got turned down?"
"Yeah… Because he was actually gay. Meaning Mina wasted six months on a courtship that was never gonna actually go anywhere!"
If the girl was bothered by Venom, she sure didn't show it. Instead, she remained with that extremely cheerful grin.
"Still… That's good for you, right Midori? I mean if he hadn't been, you probably wouldn't be here, getting to smooch sis and all."
"I…"
He hadn't even thought about that.
"Huh… Well, she's not wrong. Not to mention the odds, in this case, would not favor you. Statistically speaking, Human males only have a 0.1-3% chance of being gay depending on which study you believe. The odds did not favor you here."
"Do… Do we have to talk about this?"